If it’s in your head, it’s in your life
One of the great challenges of living in a postmodern society comes when our established thinking comes into conflict with a new way of thinking. In every age, people have struggled and rallied against those who taught this New Thought, or Dharma of Compassion.
The Buddha Sakyamuni taught that what we are is the result of our thoughts, and that everything we experience is a manifestation of thought. Yet being asked to think about spiritual truths that we have never fully realised often disturbs us.
Yesterday, I posted a simple and loving comment on another lama’s Facebook wall, in which I made a recommendation to a young man whose pet would eat "inedible objects", thereby causing health problems for the little dog. I suggested that while he was lovingly holding the dog, making him feel safe and secure, and then gently whisper the Green Tara mantra, or (better yet), soothingly chanting the mantra. I told him to watch the transformation in his dog’s life.
Well, almost immediately, an angry, vitriolic and irrational man began launching an assault against what I wrote, illiterately trying to convey that this was heretical thinking, and contrary to the "true Dharma" and "true lineage of Buddha Guatama". And while I find that kind of mentality disgusting and hateful — the kind of bullshit that causes sectarian violence in every segment of spirituality — I was also deeply saddened to see someone so deeply steeped in ignorance as to not even understand the most simple premises of the Four Noble Truths.
Somehow this delusional fellow imagines that the dog was spared from the Four Noble Truths, and that his suffering could only be alleviated by a veterinarian. Now, understand this… I recognise that often, our pets and other animals do not have the tools to heal with thought, and as such, it is wise to bring them to a qualified medical practitioner at that point. But I will always recommend that at the first signs of dis-ease, if not immediately, while they are well, we chant mantras to them.
Let me share a story…
In 1993, I was living at the hermitage in Lake Worth, Florida, when we were asked to care for a bird with a defective claw, whose owner was beginning the process of actively dying. We took Garuda — a beautiful Amazon parrot — into our home, and began constructing a small enclosed gazebo in the yard, so that he could have some outside time, without harm. His inside home was in the temple. And so every day, three times each day, he heard the pujas, the aarti and the chanting of mantras and bhajans.
Soon, we came across a pair of Eclectus — a breathtakingly beautiful species of parrot, which pair for life. But the female was very protective of the male, and attacked a young child in the home of the "owners". And so we agreed to become surrogate caretakers. We would not view ourselves as "owners" of these sentient beings. They became part of the family. Within six months, to make a long story short, we had 38 birds in our bird sanctuary, and relocated the temple area to another adjacent area in the hermitage, so that the birds had year-round comfort and space. One of the residents was a blue and gold Macaw, named Jellybean, who sat with me every day during every puja and sadhana, and who would greet us with "Namaste" when we entered the sanctuary and "mumbled" along with us, as we chanted. I saw amazing changes in the lives of these birds when they were no longer captive and exposed to Dharma truth every day… not any different than the changes in our own lives from the same principles.
Rav Yeshua be Yusef (Rabbi Jesus) exposed his students to ideas that were new to the Jewish world… ideas that their legendary "G-D" was not a mean-spirited tyrant and jealous, violent Super-being, but instead that "god is love". Rave Yeshua declared that people must not only accept this new thinking, but they also must place their full trust in this new thought process. More than a simple clash of perspectives, Rav Yeshua’s radical Dharma was met with much hostility and opposition among the religious leaders, because these teachings required new ways to think and they refused to abandon their old ways. This is called "self-cherishing attitudes". It is the cause of much suffering.
Rav Yeshua, like Buddha Sakyamuni taught that a teacher’s influence should be based on the way he or she lives. They also taught people not to simply accept a teaching because it is claimed to be "pure", or because a certain teacher said so. They said not to accept things, simply because they are written in so-called "scriptures. What both of these spiritual masters taught was that we must examine the teaching, and discern what is truth by applying it to our inner wisdom, logic and scientific reasoning.
Earlier in the week, a casual student of mine insisted that expressing my anger over the lack of responsibility some of our monks and students are showing in certain areas was "wrong". This came from a student whose entire life is wrought with the pain of unresolved anger, fear and woundedness over a series of horrific experiences in her life, long ago. And because she represses her emotions, she lives in a delusional world in which she imagines expressing emotions is "bad". This kind of dualistic worldview is common, and even more so among those who suffer from what modern psychology recognises as Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD).
Expressing one’s anger is neither good nor bad. It’s simply human. Being attached to that emotion (like any emotion) is the cause of suffering. What’s more, it’s absurd to pretend that we don’t experience these emotions, because they always reflect something going on inside of us, and unless we are willing to get our hands dirty, we’ll never quite manage to dig in deeply enough to determine what that’s all about!
Of course, this woman suggested that if what we experience in the external world is a reflection of something going on inside of us, then no one else was wrong, and could not be held accountable for their irresponsible, uncompassionate and apathetic behaviours. This is likewise inaccurate. Each of us is responsible, and when we are in a student-teacher relationship, the teacher’s responsibility is to illuminate the areas in which we need to focus immediately for improvement. My teachers do this to the current day. And I will continue to do that for my students.
Finally, this woman’s delusional perspective was somewhat the opposite of the fundamentalist mentioned earlier, in the Facebook exchange… She suggested that it was wrong, for example, to offer opportunities for students and Sangha to financially support the work of the Order and the operation of the ladrang, even when we are facing possible eviction, due to someone’s unethical failure to make good on a cheque they sent us. In her perspective, we just need to adopt an airy-fairy approach, and not mention the financial difficulty and it will all magically go away. This approach is as irrational as imagining that if you hold a stone or piece of wood, you’re going to become enlightened and achieve a state of Zen. We use tools to accomplish things. They are useful only insofar as they are recognised as nothing more than tools. When financial difficulty arises, I have no problem expressing it, and offering the opportunity for others to do their parts. Simultaneously, I am doing the spiritual work and practical work, behind the scenes, often putting in as much as 18 hours a day of physical work to try to create the causes and conditions for such abundance to manifest.
This weekend, a universal shift occurred, placing us at the leading edge of a Time of Great Awakening. During this incredible period of our human history, we will share with all sentient beings, the truth of the infinite possibility that all minds have the potential to recognise the joy, the compassion, the happiness and the healing that is our natural inheritance.
We will continue to move forward in our mission and vision for a non-sectarian Sangha, a spiritual centre that encompasses the globe, and the rebuilding of our Dharma centre and monastery in South Florida and Costa Rica.
Some will surely continue to express their resistance and anger at these new ideas. And that is alright. They will all us "heretics", "demons" and spout their superstitious and ignorant ramblings about "pure lineage" and "orthodoxy", ad nauseum. It is self-revealing that these same people are always the very same ones who have done NOTHING to stop the violence against the Shugdenpa, over inane intolerance to diverse spiritual traditions… they are the same ones who do NOTHING about the violence in Darfur, Afghanistan, Israel and Iraq. They do NOTHING to end the suffering in Haiti, Indonesia, the Philippines and other areas struck by natural disasters. In fact, quite often, they do NOTHING about the homeless, hungry, marginalised or dis-eased in their own backyards!
They play the victim with vigour and style, and put on Academy Award-worthy performances, illustrating the depth of their ignorance and the impact of their apathy. They shirk off responsibility, by saying they "don’t get involved in politics" (a cowardly approach) or that "they bow to the wisdom of the Dalai Lama" and therefore cannot show compassion to those whose spiritual traditions are different from ours.
And so the members of the Living Dharma Community and the Contemplative Order of Compassion will continue to blaze a trail, where the old Way has been obscured. And we will do so with mindfulness, compassion, gentleness and patience… recognising that in our own frailty of practice, we have to daily come back to the breath, and get back on course… By staying in the moment, we will find our way.
That’s what’s in my head… and that’s what’s in my life!
Namasté
khenpo gurudas sunyatananda
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“Chenrezig, Treasure of Objectless Compassion;
Manjushri, Lord of Stainless Wisdom;
Vajrapani, Destroyer of all adversarial forces;
O Je Tsong Khapa – Losang Drakpa —
Crown Jewel of the Sages of the Land of Snows,
Humbly at Your Lotus Feet I ask your blessing.”
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Drawing on the essential teachings of the great spiritual teachers, philosophers and freethinkers throughout time, Khenpo Gurudas Śunyatananda (retired Archbishop Francis-Maria Salvato, O.C.) has been regarded as a provocative, revolutionary “voice of reason” within the field of religion and spirituality, since 1983. Having the distinction of being one of the few openly non-theistic, openly-gay and post-denominational thinkers ever to serve as Bishop-Exarch and spiritual leader of the autocephalic Eastern Catholic Franciscans in North America, Gurudas is the author of more than 600 articles, eight books and currently serves as the spiritual advisor for a non-theistic, intentional spiritual community, The Spiritus Project. He can be reached at: http://dharmadudeunplugged.com
Copyright ©2010, Khenpo Gurudas Sunyatananda (The Most Reverend Dr. F. Francis-Maria G. Salvato, M.Sc., O.C.). All rights reserved. This material may be reproduced, blogged, quoted or distributed, provided the entire copyright including contact information remain intact. It may NOT be altered in any way, without express written permission.
When there is little substance behind one’s claims of grandeur… when one is posing as someone they are not… they are easily threatened by those who legitimately come to do the work they have failed to do.
My lineage is derived from as diverse a tapestry of beloved teachers as the tradition itself. My lineage includes transmission of the Advaita Vedanta and Buddha Dharma from Swami Abishiktananda (Father Henri LeSaux, OSB) of Santivinam (Saccidananda Ashram) in Tamil Nadu (Madras), India. The transmission of Japanese Zen in the Omoto-kyo lineage was given by Robert Danza Sensei, who received transmission directly from Morehei Ueshiba-san and his Master Onisaburu Deguchi-san. While I have been fortunate to receive Kalachakra empowerment from 
Well, the fact is that for the past thirty years, we felt no need to consider ourselves as anything other than monks. Some would call themselves Buddhist-Catholic monks, others would say Catholic-Buddhist monks. 
Perhaps it can be called syncretism, for all spirituality has been influenced by various degrees of syncretism throughout human history. 
Our purpose as an intentional spiritual community is to provide a safe space in which like-minded people can come together to work toward eliminating suffering for all sentient beings. We have no recruitment agendas. Therefore, we don’t go trying to make converts, because we fundamentally have no use for religion itself. Therefore, there is nothing to convert to!
On January 18th, 2004, I was consecrated as the bishop-protector of the Franciscan Community (Servitores Franciscan Immacolatae), and became the exarchos (highest ranking patriarch) of the autocephalic Eastern Catholic Congregational Church, then operating throughout the United States, Canada, Mexico and the European Union. 
From 1983, when I began my contemplative life as a vowed monastic, until 2006, I was fortunate to be able to financially provide for the vast majority of the Order’s needs, and many of the expenses of the church itself. Until 2001, I personally covered the rent or mortgage on six convents/monastic houses, and our only fundraising outreach was to cover the growing costs of feeding the poor on the streets of the cities in which we were present.
