lotusinthemud

We Know Nature Makes Us Happier. Now Science Says It Makes Us Kinder Too

From 'Yes' magazine:

Jill Suttie: I’ve been an avid hiker my whole life. From the time I first strapped on a backpack and headed into the Sierra Nevada Mountains, I was hooked on the experience, loving the way being in nature cleared my mind and helped me to feel more grounded and peaceful.

Nature has a profound impact on our brains and our behavior.

But, even though I’ve always believed that hiking in nature had many psychological benefits, I’ve never had much science to back me up … until now, that is. Scientists are beginning to find evidence that being in nature has a profound impact on our brains and our behavior, helping us to reduce anxiety, brooding, and stress, and to increase our attention capacity, creativity, and ability to connect with other people.

“People have been discussing their profound experiences in nature for the last several hundred years—from Thoreau to John Muir to many other writers,” says researcher David Strayer, of the University of Utah. “Now we are seeing changes in the brain and changes in the body that suggest we are physically and mentally more healthy when we are interacting with nature.”

While he and other scientists may believe nature benefits our well-being, we live in a society where people spend more and more time indoors and online—especially children. Findings on how nature improves our brains bring added legitimacy to the call for preserving natural spaces—both urban and wild—and for spending more time in nature in order to lead healthier, happier, and more creative lives.

Here are some of the ways that science is showing how being in nature affects our brains and bodies.

1. Being in nature decreases stress

It’s clear that hiking—and any physical activity—can reduce stress and anxiety. But, there’s something about being in nature that may augment those impacts.

In one recent experiment conducted in Japan, participants were assigned to walk either in a forest or in an urban center (taking walks of equal length and difficulty) while having their heart rate variability, heart rate, and blood pressure measured. The participants also filled out questionnaires about their moods, stress levels, and other psychological measures.

Garrison Keillor on Hillary Clinton

Garrison Keillor writes:

I saw Hillary once working a rope line for more than an hour, a Secret Service man holding her firmly by the hips as she leaned over the rope and reached into the mass of arms and hands reaching out to her. She had learned the art of encountering the crowd and making it look personal. It was not glamorous work, more like picking fruit, and it took the sort of discipline your mother instills in you: those people waited to see you so by gosh you can treat them right. 

So it’s no surprise she pushed herself to the point of collapse the other day. What’s odd is the perspective, expressed in several stories, that her determination to keep going reveals a “lack of transparency” ---- that she should’ve announced she had pneumonia and gone home and crawled into bed. 

I’ve never gone fishing with her, which is how you really get to know someone, but I did sit next to her at dinner once, one of those stiff dinners that is nobody’s idea of a wild good time, the conversation tends to be stilted, everybody’s beat, you worry about spilling soup down your shirtfront. She being First Lady led the way and she being a Wellesley girl, the way led upward. We talked about my infant daughter and schools and about Justice Blackmun, and I said how inspiring it was to sit and watch the Court in session, and she laughed and said, “I don’t think it’d be a good idea for me to show up in a courtroom where a member of my family might be a defendant.” A succinct and witty retort. And she turned and bestowed her attention on Speaker Dennis Hastert, who was sitting to her right. She focused on him and even made him chuckle a few times. I was impressed by her smarts, even more by her discipline. 

I don’t have that discipline. Most people don’t. Politics didn’t appeal to me back in my youth, the rhetoric (“Ask not what your country can do for you”) was so wooden compared to “so we beat on, boats against the current, borne back ceaselessly into the past,” so I walked dark rainy streets imagining the great novel I wouldn’t write and was still trying to be cool and indifferent well into my thirties, when other people were making a difference in the world. 

Hillary didn’t have a prolonged adolescence and fiction was not her ambition. She doesn’t do dreaminess. What some people see as a relentless quest for power strikes me as the good habits of a serious Methodist. Be steady. Don’t give up. It’s not about you. Work for the night is coming. 

The woman who does not conceal her own intelligence is a fine American tradition, going back to Anne Bradstreet and Harriet Beecher Stowe and my ancestor Prudence Crandall, but none has been subjected to the steady hectoring that Mrs. Clinton has. She is the first major-party nominee to be pictured in prison stripes by the opposition. She is the first cabinet officer ever to be held personally responsible for her own email server, something ordinarily delegated to anonymous nerds in I.T. The fact that terrorists attacked an American compound in Libya under cover of darkness when Secretary Clinton presumably got some sleep has been held against her, as if she personally was in command of the defense of the compound, a walkie-talkie in her hand, calling in air strikes. 

Extremism has poked its head into the mainstream, aided by the Internet. Back in the day, you occasionally saw cranks on a street corner handing out mimeographed handbills arguing that FDR was responsible for Pearl Harbor, but you saw their bad haircuts, the bitterness in their eyes, and you turned away. Now they’re in your computer, whispering that the economy is on the verge of collapse and for a few bucks they’ll tell you how to protect your savings. But lacking clear evidence, we proceed forward. We don’t operate on the basis of lurid conjecture. 

Someday historians will get this right and look back at the steady pitter-pat of scandals that turned out to be nothing, nada, zero and ixnay and will conclude that, almost a century after women’s suffrage, almost 50 years after Richard Nixon signed Title IX into law, a woman was required to run for office wearing concrete shoes. Check back fifty years from now and if I’m wrong, go ahead and dance on my grave.

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Awake August: 1st

morning ablutions

a chattering family

five sparrows splashing

at the edge of the pond

shaded by dancing iris leaves

 

 

 

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Finding the courage

“When looking at the big picture — the yin, the yang, of things — grief and loss are, more precisely, about finding the courage and the determination to come to a more complete understanding of life in its glorious yet, utterly baffling, entirety.”

~  Daisy A Hickman 

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Opening onto a Broad Vista ~ Dharmavidya

Many Modes of Spirituality
The contemporary world is such a confusing place. We have available to us a greater plethora of ideas than perhaps any previous age. The spiritual treasures of the whole world and much of history are spilled out at our feet and we do not know how to choose from amongst them. Actually any single jewel may be sufficient. It is surely not a matter of finding the right one any more than it is a matter of quantity. Sufi, Buddhist, Catholic, or even agnostic-yet-spiritual... there are many modes. A rose by any other name would smell as sweet, said Shakespaere, but if one wastes so much energy disputing the name that one never stops to savour the aroma, the point is missed. They are all modes of expression of our deepest longing, our prayer and it is important that that longing find expression one way or another.

Loving the Divine No Matter the Creed
There are a growing number of people whose spirituality transcends the boundaries of traditional religions. They might be those who, like myself, practise one specific creed and benefit hugely, yet still know that it is just one vehicle and that many other vehicles might have done passably well; or they might be people who have never really settled in any one confessional community yet still harbour a strong spiritual sense of life. Such people, and there are many, find themselves at home with others who have fallen in love with the Divine no matter what their creed, but are less at ease with those who claim that one single interpretation of ultimate truth and one single book and church are exclusively right, all others being wrong and blameworthy, even if the church in question is our own – what embarrassment – and even if the creed is called "science" and the book was written by Darwin.

an honourable life - dharmavidya

By Dharmavidya and originally published as a part of the book 'Not Everything is Impermanent'

So the question that then comes up is, what do we mean by a noble or honourable life? Here the conclusions that I have arrived at suggest that a number of qualities are crucially important. I would like to highlight honesty, selflessness, humility and gratitude. I would like to say a little about each of these.

First, however, I would like to say that the Buddha also has a list. Actually, he has many lists, but the best known one is love, compassion, sympathy and equanimity. Now in this I do not disagree with him at all. I think these two lists are simply two different ways of saying the same thing. At the core of all is love. Nobility is to have the courage of love. Love and compassion naturally go together, one being to wish others good things and the other being to wish them relief from bad things. These together constitute sympathy, but sympathy needs to be stabilised by equanimity which is the resilience to take the rough with the smooth. Although a noble person always strives for the best, he or she has to cope with the fact that the best cannot always be attained. Bad things still happen.

Here in this world we all try to love, but love always runs into difficulties and sometimes we are defeated by them. It takes courage to love again and to go on loving in the face of defeat, rejection or betrayal. Nonetheless, that is what nobility requires.

So this takes me back to my own list of key qualities. Firstly honesty. It seems to me that it is exceedingly difficult for us to be deeply honest. We have such depths of complicated motivations that we do not know ourselves very well. When we look closely we find all kinds of contradictions in our make-up. Also, we feel under a continual social pressure. Nobody really wants us to be totally honest. They actually want us to be supportive, sensitive, and conformist, but not honest. So in order to live in society we do well to dissemble about all manner of things. While we become very skilled at playing the social game, our spiritual life asks us to nonetheless preserve some space where we can be as completely honest as we are capable of being. This is an area where we can help one another. We all need a confidante or confessor who will listen and not judge us. Such wise counsellors are few and far between, even among those who have been trained in counselling or psychotherapy or pastoral care. Creating safe spaces where deeper honesty is possible is one of the things that a spiritual community should always work on.

Secondly, selflessness. To be truly selfless is even more difficult than to be truly honest. Of course, there are innumerable social situations where we do put others before ourselves in practical ways and this is good. This is part of the development of civilisation. True selflessness, however, goes much deeper than good manners. The noble person does the right thing whether it serves their own personal interests or not. For the truly honourable person it does not really matter whether they are in heaven or in hell, they still act in the same spirit. In an important sense, we are always in heaven and always also in hell. There is, however, also a deeper understanding. The truly noble person actually never acts against his own interests because he sees deeply enough to know that "the right thing" is never at odd with his ultimate spiritual well-being. This is what living a spiritual life implies.

Then thirdly, humility. This is the saving grace of all graces. Humility begins, perhaps, with the realisation that we are not always completely honest and certainly not always selfless. We are human and humans are rather cunning, destructive animals. We can also be timid, ashamed, anxious, and querulous, not to mention our propensities toward greed, slander, envy and jealousy. One could go on and make a long list. Of course, the noble person does overcome some of these foibles, but desire does not lie down and die until we do and there is no likelihood that we shall eliminate all sin this side of the grave.

So if perfection is not attainable, what is the noble life that Buddha is talking about? I do not think that we should imagine that there is a state or status that we can reach in which greed, hate and delusion will never arise. Rather, I think the Buddha is talking about how to handle the situation when they do. When things go wrong, that is the time when enlightenment is possible. It is exactly when primitive feelings bubble up that we have at hand the energy to take a further step toward spiritual liberation. Each time we do so we over-turn a thousand years of bad karma at least.

How can we do so? Paradoxically, not really by our own power. What lifts us at such times is whatever inspires us. It comes like a voice out of the future. We shall only change our ways in order to create a better future for those or that which we love. We shall not do it for ourselves. Self-help books can reiterate that “You are worth it”, “Take care of yourself”, “Do it for yourself” and so on endlessly, but people do not generally make supreme efforts on their own behalf. They do it for others, or for something other, and they do it for the future. Ensuring the better future of others is what we mean by love.

Noble ones are those who live their love and, in the process, learn what they need to learn and overcome whatever it is in themselves that they have to overcome. In this they are certainly helped. When one looks at a noble person, one might think of them as self-reliant, but they themselves do not feel like that. They themselves are likely to be much more conscious of all the help they have received. Some of this help seems to be the work of providence, the experiences they have confronted in life, and some of it has come through encounters with, or the examples provided by, other people. Nobility starts with gratitude for all this. That is what supports a humble attitude which then erodes self-centredness. So the honourable life is one that is constantly evolving between the poles of gratitude and honesty.

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Some things to ponder about by Satya - do please share your thoughts on these questions or anything else that strikes you: 

- how do you do when it comes to honesty, selflessness, humility and gratitude? Which comes most naturally? Which is most difficult?

- What lifts and inspires you?

- When have you had an experience of making supreme effort on someone else's behalf?

• How are you left feeling after reading this piece?

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How to Live Compassionately: Forgive Yourself Forgive Others

From Toni Bernhard:

Source: stocksnap.io

According to the dictionary, to forgive is to stop feeling angry or resentful toward yourself or others for some perceived offense, flaw, or mistake. Keeping that definition in mind, forgiveness becomes a form of compassion. This is because compassion is the act of reaching out to yourself and others to help alleviate suffering. Forgiving yourself and forgiving others has just that effect.

To inspire you to work on cultivating forgiveness for yourselves and others, I’ve provided commentary on ten carefully gathered quotations. I hope some of them will resonate strongly enough with you that you’ll jot them down on a piece of paper as a reminder you can refer to now and then.

Forgiveness is not always easy. At times, it feels more painful than the wound we suffered, to forgive the one that inflicted it. And yet, there is no peace without forgiveness. —Marianne Williamson

 

In my own life, I’ve found this to be true: peace comes when I’m feeling good-will toward others and not contending with them. Both of these require that I forgive those who may not have acted as I’d hoped they would. This can be a challenge.

Many of us find it hard to forgive. We’ve been conditioned from childhood to think of forgiving as a sign of weakness. But we can change our habits. That’s one of the most wondrous characteristics of the mind: it’s malleable. Each time we forgive ourselves or others, it becomes easier to do so the next time. This means that we are gradually changing a habit in a way that will bring us peace of mind.

It's one of the greatest gifts you can give yourself, to forgive. Forgive everybody. —Maya Angelou

This is a tall order—not only to forgive ourselves and some people, but to forgive everybody. The best way for me to get a handle on this is to remember that we can “forgive but not forget.” And so, if someone has treated me badly, I can work on generating compassion for how much they must have been suffering to have behaved the way they did. That can lead to forgiveness. But forgiveness doesn’t mean I should forget, meaning that I may need to take steps to protect myself in the future from this person. Our minds should be forgiving…but they also should be wise!

Continue reading here: https://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/turning-straw-gold/201601/how-live-compassionately-forgive-yourself-forgive-others

CONTRITION: Gateway to the Awakening of Faith

Dharmavidya writes:

Innumerable are sentient beings: I have harmed them all;
Uncountable are the holy precepts: I have broken them all;
Unfathomable are the Dharma teachings: I have offended them all;
Immeasurable are deluded passions: I have indulged them all;
Unconditioned is the heart of Buddha: I am accepted completely.

In the western redaction of Buddhism one does not much encounter the term contrition, nor the sentiments that are associated with it, and yet in the eastern reception of the Dharma it is precisely this dimension of life that constitutes the golden gateway to emancipation, awakening, faith and salvation.

My mission, in the attempt to fulfil in my own limited manner, the charge given to me by my teachers, both Zen and Pureland, has been to try to evolve a presentation of the Dharma that is suitable for the West, yet is true to the spirit of the East.

This means a Dharma that is suitable for the ordinary person who is willing to be honest about the ordinary state, about human nature as it is, rather than being intent upon pretense to a perfection that is unrealistic, unattainable, self-aggrandising and deceptive.

When i read the descriptions of many of the presentations of Buddhism to the west, they say such things as: “This is the form of Buddhism for the highest class of practitioner,” or “This is the most direct path to enlightenment,” or something of the kind. Well, how many of us are numbered in the highest class of practitioners? If we were then we would have been reborn 2500 years ago when Shakyamuni was on the Earth, would have heard his teaching and been immediately enlightened and not been reborn here again. Therefore, the answer is none of us.

We are faulty, vulnerable, prone to error, full of wayward passions, attached to unwholesome objects, invested in unwholesome ways of life, complicit in the ecological destruction of the planet, materialist consumers. No amount of high sounding discussion of intrinsic Buddha nature, inner wisdom, or original virtue will erase this fact. 

We live in a kind of paradise that is also a place of incessant predation. We are winged animals, but our angelic wings are mostly folded away neatly out of sight. We commonly think - wrongly - that emphasising our well-polished good aspect will itself be sufficient for our spiritual emancipation. Do we think the gods are so easily deceived?

It is much healthier to be realistic and to be willing to look at the whole human being. This does not mean indulging in self-pity or self-castigation - they are also forms of pride. It means having a matter-of-factness about humanity, a humility about the part we play, and contrition in respect to the impact that our very existence has upon the world that supports us.

We do not do this because we fear some awful divine judgement. We do it simply out of honesty. The Buddha’s will love us anyway. When we deeply realise that that is so, something in us will melt and we shall lose some of the impulse to put on airs. When that happens we shall find we are among friends in a world where the Light is always shining.

This, anyway, is my understanding. Namo Amitabhaya.

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Whispers from the Bamboo Grove #34: 'Just As You Are: Buddhism for Foolish Beings'

'Just As You Are:
Buddhism for Foolish Beings'

"Just As You Are: Buddhism for Foolish Beings' is for anyone who wants to live a good life but is tired of endlessly trying to perfect themselves. 

Pureland Buddhism takes a realistic view of our foolish natures as human beings, and offers us an alternative to the ‘do it yourself’ self-help movement. With anecdotes of temple life and instructions for simple Pureland practices, the authors introduce us to this ancient and unique tradition of Buddhism and show us how it can make a powerful difference to our everyday lives. 

Covering topics such as trust, overcoming suffering, grace, being kind and self-care, the book also contains the voices of different Pureland Buddhists speaking of their own diverse experiences. This book shows us how we are all loveable just as we are, and that understanding this is the key to deep and lasting change. 

"This book will not give you a do-it-by-numbers self-help, pull-yourself-up-by-your-own-effort ladder to climb. Here two good people have written a lovely book about faith and practice, which explains their own journey and many aspects of Pureland Buddhism in terms that are easy to understand. It will remind you of the love that is already there and the refuge that is already at hand. It will invite you to celebrate it and to do so in company with others similarly inspired. In doing so, it will welcome you home to a place of peace where all is completely assured. A wonderful contribution to the growth of the Buddhist community." 

~ Dharmavidya David Brazier 

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To buy

Kindle and Paperback UK:
http://bit.ly/justasyouareuk

Kindle US http://bit.ly/justasyouareus
Paperback US http://bit.ly/justasyouarepbkus

http://bit.ly/justasyouareca in Canada (or your own local Amazon...)

:: Facebook page for the book

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Reviews

"What the authors have done in this book is show the way toward attentive compassion - compassion towards others but also, and maybe more importantly, towards oneself. I laughed out loud at the idea of the validation of our foolish, bombu nature. 

The introduction to daily practice is succinct and blessedly clear. The book uses the upaya of personal experience to draw one in to the value and meaning of spiritual experience, and then lays out the actual day-to-day practice itself so that a reader will know exactly what they are getting into and why. This is so useful. 

I have a statue of the seated Buddha on my altar. In his left hand he holds the fire of the Dharma, as though to say atta dipa, you are the light itself. His right hand is raised, palm out, in the universal gesture of peace, saying don’t be afraid. The authors also hold up their hands, palms out, saying to readers, don’t be afraid. It’s okay. There is no distance between us." 

~ Terrance Keenan, Zen Monk, Artist and Writer

"This is a lovely, gentle introduction to a lesser known (in the west) Buddhist tradition. It gives a user friendly outline of what Pureland Buddhism is and a realistic insight into the lifestyle of devotional religion. The authors use their experience to carry a message of compassion and a deep insight into Human nature as foundational aspects of a revolutionary way of life. An essential read for the Buddhist who wants to look beyond the dogma to the heart of the teaching. Namo Amida Bu!"
~ Adam Dunsby

"An enjoyable and understandable read. Very open, honest, and realistic. Covering day to day temple life and daily experiences, and shared moments of real insight.
Both writers and contributors capture the essence of what is unique in Pureland Buddhism and explain simply the various methods of practice.
A very positive and helpful book with a feeling of real gratitude running throughout." 
~ Stan

"This is a very accessible introduction to Pureland Buddhism and an open account of life in a temple. Factual information is clear and never dry, and this alternates with personal experiences which are always honest. The overall impression is of warmth and acceptance - a must read for Buddhists, non Buddhists and the spiritually curious."
~ Amazon customer

"Great introduction to the lesser known Pureland Buddhist tradition. Warm words for the longing soul. If you are a seeker and curious about the different and rich approaches Buddhism offer, this one is for you. "
~ Amazon customer
 

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Reverend Kaspalita and Reverend Satyavani
are ordained Priests with the Amida-Shu and they run a Pureland temple in Malvern in the UK.

:: Amida Mandala

They both work as psychotherapists and are interested in building local community and in teaching Buddhism that improves the lives of ordinary people like you and me.

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Vicky Chesterton

We have heard the sad news that Vicky has died. She was living with her son in Vienna. She stayed alongside the Amida community when they were based at The Buddhist House in Narborough. Loving memories from all who knew her.

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NAMO AMIDA BU

 

Previous Whispers from the Bamboo Grove newsletters are here

 

 

Hatred is not appeased by hatred ~ Dharmavidya

Dharmavidya writes:

We Need Restraint Not More Bombs

We are all dismayed by the events in Paris. Yet, have we been equally dismayed by the daily events in the Middle East where our own governments are dropping bombs? I am deeply sympathetic to the French people affected by the recent violence. I am deeply sympathetic to the people in Syria, in Iraq, in Afghanistan and in the whole Middle East Region. I understand why there is hatred. I understand why people want to kill. However, killing more and more will not bring the killing to an end. Only restraint, understanding, wisdom and compassion will do that.

We are caught up in a tit-for-tat world and each retaliation only provokes more of the same. Every bomb we drop generates a new group of people who hate us. Every atrocity increases the likelihood of more. It is like fire spreading. Let us all pray for restraint and ask wisdom of our leaders.

A Little Political Analysis

Who are Islamic State? They are basically the Sunni Muslims who were driven out of power by the invasion of Iraq. Since we invaded their country, do we expect them to be our friends? They have been more successful than was expected in establishing a new proto-state by becoming the most effective element in the opposition to the Assad government in Syria, but were not our own governments also supportive of that opposition? In effect, there is a civil war going on in the Middle East, mostly between Sunni and Shia Moslems. The West has changed sides several times in its interference in this regional conflict. Sometimes it is anti-Iran and therefore anti-Shia, then it is establishing a Shia government in Iraq and so being anti-Sunni, then it is opposing Assad and being anti-Shia again, then it is dropping bombs on the most effective anti-Assad faction and becoming anti-Sunni again. It is difficult to escape the impression that the basic logic of Western policy is to keep changing sides frequently so as to generate the maximum amount of chaos and ensure that nobody in the Middle East ever become powerful enough to establish peace and order and become a rival to Western interests. If we carry on like this, what can we expect? Do we think that exporting chaos, destruction and death to a whole region is never going to come home? And now that some of it is coming home, do we think that we can re-stabilise the situation by escalating the strategy that is responsible for the trouble in the first place?

What Will Happen?

If we go on like this we can only expect the situation to worsen, both in the Middle East and in Europe. No analyst I have read thinks that Islamic State can be destroyed by bombing alone, even if this were desirable, and no Western country seems likely to commit ground troops, so why are we fighting a war we cannot win? Apart from the horror of the killing involved, it makes little or no political sense. The only power that is at all likely ever to commit ground troops to the defeat of Islamic State is Turkey and the expansion of Turkey in the region would probably only lead to sudden, startled Western suspicion of Turkish intentions and a new arena of conflict. Perhaps the whole region will be carved up by Turkey and Iran. It has happened before.

Alternatively, there will be ever increasing fragmentation, chaos and killing. In the short run we need restraint, but I am pessimistic. The tit-for-tat may continue to escalate. If it does we shall lose civil rights, become paranoid, elect extremist governments and much that has been achieved in Europe in the past generation will be lost. I hope this pessimism is unfounded. All spiritual people should now be urging restraint. Many are doing so. Let us pray that wise voices prevail.

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