“Peace comes from within. Do not seek it without.” -Buddha

I think the "western mind" bears issue with the pure simplicity of the Buddha's statement (which is a paraphrase, since there is no written record of his specific words).  We reject it because our world is filled with distractions and we are rarely taught as children or as adults to consider what is going on in our own minds. But when someone understands the nature of reality in the way the Buddha understood, the seeming dominance of the outer experience becomes moot because, like any duality there is a primary interaction between our outer environment and our inner selves.

While it seems that we can only modify our outward environment, the impetus and direction for change really begins and proceeds from our inner state. Think about these solutions to a mind in turmoil: meditation, simplicity, silence and encountering nature are seemingly cosmetic solutions; but they work because they require our attention to our environment. Within that attention is the desire for implementation of our wisdom and subsequently a desire for peace and balance, which is not caused by outer influences but by our own personal suffering.

The Buddha was very careful not to demonize desire, although you will find many stories where he wrestled with temptation before achieving enlightenment. Instead he recognized a recursive truth, that within desire was an equal reality of suffering. Understanding that within your own mind is the solution, allows you to recognize the remedy to suffering as being quite simple in itself: bring your attention to your inner state, breath, simplify, relax and enjoy the beauty of the world around you... and do that every day.

Hesse on Humor

I was struck a while ago when on The Daily Show, John Stewart spontaneously began quoting a pivotal discourse from Herman Hesse's "Steppenwolf". Naturally it focused on the power of humor and was a brilliant bit of theatrical intellectualism. John Stewart clearly knows his audience. But I was so moved by what he quoted that I realized it was time for me to investigate Hesse's writings further.

Years ago I'd read "Siddhartha" because it was a retelling of the life of the Buddha and because at the time it was the only piece of literature I could get my hands on without going to the library. I was impressed that the story was worth reading and compelling enough to keep my attention throughout. It also became a sinker in my mind for all the trivial bits and disconnected impressions I had of Buddhism: the figurines my father had collected and displayed at home through my youth, the knowledge that a great uncle had been a devotee, the tidbits of zen I learned from my mother that she'd picked up while my family was living in Japan and learning about that culture, four years before I was born.

Hesse seems a controversial figure for some people. Laurie Anderson tells a story about visiting his grave and being put off by his wife's gravestone which was outside the family plot and carried her maiden name, Auslander. There are those who praise his writing and many who cannot be bothered. So I was quite surprised to find on reading "Steppenwolf" for myself that he placed within its pages many notions and ideas I could personally relate to. I have yet to finish the book as I am a slow reader and often need to contemplate what I've read before I can focus again on the title, but it seems to me that Hesse was inspired by the modern Germanic philosophers, going back to Goethe.

Anyway, as promised here is the quote:

"Humor alone, that magnificent discovery of those who are cut short in their calling to highest endeavor, those who falling short of tragedy are yet as rich in gifts as in affliction, humor alone (perhaps the most inborn and brilliant achievement of the spirit) attains to the impossible and brings every aspect of human existence within the rays of its prism. To live in the world as though it were not the world, to respect the law and yet stand above it, to have possessions as though "one possessed nothing," to renounce as though it were no renunciation, all these favorite and often formulated propositions of an exalted worldly wisdom, it is in the power of humor alone to make efficacious."

--Herman Hesse, "Steppenwolf"

Selfish vs. Selflessness

I find myself coming back to the zen statement, "before enlightenment: chop wood, carry water; after enlightenment: chop wood, carry water". Mindfulness does not change that you have identity (certainly communicating on these networks requires it); mindfulness allows one to perceive how identity or self-cherishing is suffering. What one does with it afterward may not change either, but you may find it easier to allow suffering to simply be and choose to act with compassion.

Avoiding suffering is as much an illusion as enjoying attachment; which is also suffering, but experienced differently and with less obvious consequences in the short term. When compared to the whole of life a passing enjoyment reveals itself as elusive and relative. I understand the point of meditation and mindfulness is perceiving reality as it is and releasing self, identity, attachment, suffering or any other illusion we hold, so our daily actions do not ripen as continual suffering and we may be enriched by living within compassion. By practicing meditation, one learns to observe the duality in all experience, which also allows one to act compassionately with mindfulness and with less prejudice or fear of retribution for our actions.

So, we view emotions that produce unpleasant experiences as negative, but the same emotions experienced with mindfulness can result in pleasant experiences if we act on them in a different way than we learned while growing up. Anger can be effective for positive change if we observe what triggers it within and learn to couple it with love as compassion before we act. Without contemplation we remain stuck between the emotion and the consequences of our actions; which leads to more challenging emotions like shame and embarrassment.  These compounded emotions seem to confirm the illusion that the original emotion is negative; when observed without judgment it is not.

Even actions remain relative and illusory, so when it comes to identity and self there is no single or correct way to be.  Judging is impossible because there is no measure or standard to judge against; there is only infinite variation. One might as well say you enjoy the variation of all human expression, as much as say you enjoy attachment, which observed with wisdom is suffering. Without action and as ideas in the mind, they are simply dual and opposing observations of the same notion of identity.