Reflections: The Lost Prince

Stefan Loristan, his young son Marco Loristan, and their faithful assistant Lazarus live in the most poverty-ridden part of London. They have a secret mission of their own - they hail from Samavia (a fictional European country), and are planning to bring about a revolution to overthrow the existing dictatorial regime in their country and bring in the rightful heir to the throne. A few decades back, the noble prince of Samavia had been usurped. There were mixed stories about how the prince survived the cruel mutiny. If that were true, the benevolent prince must surely have tried to get his Kingdom back, or at least would have passed on his burning desire to his sons. Marco is optimistic that the lost Prince’s bloodline can be traced, and he is passionate about restoring Samavia to its rightful heir. Along with his street friend, The Rat, Marco embarks on an adventure across Europe to pass on the sign to all the secret members of the confederation, to set out a revolution.

This book is packed with beautiful themes on patriotism, friendship, resilience and righteousness. Marco’s good upbringing makes him wise, while still retaining his precociousness and innocence. Burnett yet again shows the power of the human mind. In this book, she brings in Buddhist philosophies, such as embracing the universe and all its creatures as one, deep meditation to distill your mind and seek out what you want, the power of prayers, peace, etc. to demonstrate Marco’s strength and maturity. Such elusive philosophies are broken down and shown in simple contexts to inspire young boys.

The little adventure, and the suspense of finding the Lost Prince will keep children engaged. But it unfortunately wasn’t enough to maintain my attention. I found the pace of the book a little slow and repetitive, and I struggled to stay focused. Perhaps this is a good enough hint that I have sadly grown up and should stop my current stint of indulgence. However, this is one of the first children’s book that I’ve read that deals with patriotism, and the attributes of being a noble and courageous leader. These aspects have been beautifully conveyed.

This book as a whole has excellent morals to mold young minds.

Reflections: Meeting of Minds

This little book captures a dialogue between the 14th Dalai Lama and Chan Master Sheng-Yen on the topic of Tibetan and Chinese Buddhism. This is a recount of a seminar/lecture on Buddhism that took place in New York City, about a decade or so ago. How did I ever get my hands on this book? By some strange coincidence, the book and I met serendipitously this morning while I was going through an abandoned closet. It perhaps belonged to some ex-resident. I took it as a sign that I needed to read more on Buddhism ;).

Since the dialogues took place between two venerable Buddhist practitioners, there is promise for the book to hold some deep and authentic principles. The book starts with an introduction to Tibetan Buddhism, by Dalai Lama himself. He gives a brief outline of the history and propagation of Buddhism, and on the different versions of the tradition currently being practiced; chiefly Himayana and Mahayana. The crux of Buddhism rests on the Four Noble Truths - Knowing the nature of suffering, Giving up the causes for suffering, Attaining the cessation of suffering and Following the true path. The Philosophy of Middle Way preaches that the true causes for suffering stem from "Karma" or retribution and "delusion" or Ignorance. Through meditative practices that demand intense absorption and concentration of the mind, one is supposed to gain insight and clarity to rid themselves of delusion/ignorance, and develop the spirit of altruism to care for, help and love others, so that one may be detached from the needs of the self. From my understanding there are two kinds of meditative practices - one being gradual and the other being more instantaneous or "sudden". Both require discipline of the mind, but the "gradual" practice goes through a stage-wise incremental progression of disciplining the mind, with clearly demarcated stages of learning, finally leading to the state of "emptiness". In the instantaneous practice, a disciplined mind can get a leap of sudden insight and peace. However as the Dalai Lama says, the leap of insight might be instantaneous, but it is due to the accumulation of experiences, knowledge, thoughts, and above all discipline, playing in after years of training. The true state of emptiness is in realizing the absolute nature of everything around us, as opposed to realizing the relative (empirical) nature of things. The venerates also lay open the strong potential for a developed and trained consciousness to be able to attain a keen sense of intuition or pre-cognition. Rather than discuss this phenomenon in the light of clairvoyance, the Dalai Lama attributes this to a keen sense of memory and mindfulness. If the mind is cleared, burnished and focused, a person can perceive and understand things much better... similar to a person being able to see the road clearly due to proper visual acumen, as against a person whose vision is clouded with dust.

One particular aspect that appealed to me was Dalai Lama's definition of "religion".
"The perfection of Buddhist practice is achieved not merely through superficial changes, such as leading a monastic life, or reciting sacred texts. Whether these activities in themselves should even be called religious is open to question, for religion should be practiced in the mind. If one has the right mental attitude, all activities, bodily action and speech can be religious. But if one lacks the right attitude - that is, if one doesn't know how to think properly - one will achieve nothing, even if one's whole life is spent in monasteries and reading scriptures."

The focus laid on the need to think is impressive. He also goes on to clarify the misconception that the need for deep thinking implies that one has to be esoteric and intelligent. Both the Dalai Lama and Chan Master Sheng-Yen emphasize that bookish or "brainy" intelligence is of little use, unless one can assimilate knowledge to gain deep insights. In order to do this, one doesn't have to be esoteric or literate.

The Dalai Lama also defines Dharma as being applicable to people who lead non-monastic lives. For ordinary people, ruling out immoral acts and acting on anything that is useful and productive in promoting the happiness of others is in consonance with the spirit of Dharma. Of course, it leads to questions on what really is moral and immoral and what are the right ways of promoting happiness in others.

I do realize that these deep questions can't be answered within a morning's worth of perusal on the principles. But this is a start and I am glad I found this book.

Reflections: The Spirit of Buddhism

Having read random essays and snippets of books and quotes on Buddhism, this book marks my first formal entry into understanding Buddhism. The main reason for my being drawn to it is the emphasis it lays on the power of the human mind, in delving into its depths and conquering it, and in tapping the energy it holds to arrive at a state of clear discernment. The second reason is its philosophy in propagating compassion and all-embracing love towards everything within and outside of us, while continuing to stay detached from emotional entanglements. Sogyal Rinpoche's book is a collection of some of his essays and talks on the fundamentals of Buddhism and the qualms he has on its future adoption by the Western World.

Sogyal Rinpoche's concerns regarding the dilution of Buddhism to suit the practicality of the modern world are quite well-balanced. Both him and the Dalai Lama, admit that there are aspects to Buddhism that are tightly tied to the cultural parameters of the erstwhile era, and may not translate with much relevance to the current era. In Dalai Lama's words, "A new way of thinking has become the necessary condition for responsible living and acting. If we maintain obsolete values and beliefs, a fragmented consciousness and a self-centred spirit, we will continue to hold to outdated goals and behaviors". It always impresses me when spiritual leaders of a certain faith are open-minded to critique their own faith and admit that there are certain aspects of the tradition that need to be revised, whilst retaining the essence. I wholeheartedly agree that in this quest for revision it is easy to forgo the essence of the traditions by morphing it carelessly to suit our needs... the entire spiritual path gets lost in doing so. From my understanding, the true essence of Buddhism (or for that matter any religious/spiritual path) is in disciplining the mind to gather a fundamental grasp on the teachings and their implications, and to routinely implement and act on them in our everyday lives. It is said that the twin qualities required are deep appreciation and thorough integration of all principles, so that one may gather a holistic understanding. Most often people selectively apply principles without gaining any integrated insight on the overall philosophy, and this is one of the greatest dangers of diluting a tradition. Such people may be very pious and devoted to the tradition, but only in a superficial way that extends merely to certain rigid practises performed without any knowledge on their significance. Sogyal Rinpoche reinstates in almost every page that such superficial applications need to be reformed.

Sogyal Rinpoche also touches upon the kinds of physical and mental healing afforded by Buddhism. In Buddha's words,
We are what we think.
All that we are,
Arises with our thoughts.
With our thoughts we make the world
Speak or act with a pure mind-
And happiness will follow you.

The notion that physical and health-related impairments are mostly caused and influenced by the mind, is now widely acknowledged. Objective scientific research on biochemistry has validated these hypotheses. Negative energies on craving and desire, pride and closed-mindedness are linked to the deterioration of the body. Ignorance and Ego are chided as the primary causes for our suffering, physical and mental hurt and the impediment towards everlasting peace. Buddhism insists on meditation to calm the mind, gradually transcending to a state of healing of the body and mind. The exploration of positive energies and positive thoughts being linked to peace, is again the basic philosophy of Eastern Spirituality. And there are many (including me) to attest the power of meditation.

In line with holistic understanding, Buddhism also warns us against holding onto a wrong view and deepening our convictions by fabricating evidences to support our view, and thus being completely blind to the truth. I appreciate Sogyal Rinpoche's incorporation of meaningful psychological explanations to elucidate why and how people form wrong opinions, and continue to misconstrue the truth by sticking to their false beliefs. Our thoughts can create our own version of reality within our heads, leading to terrible Ignorance and a bloated Ego preventing any reformation or learning. But there is a subtle meaning that arises in this context - on the one hand, the author claims that constant doubts and questions are dangerous as they form a protective shield of defense, impenetrable to help or truth, but on the other hand, he insists that one must always be open to questioning and doubting their beliefs and views, for being closed-minded about a faith jeopardizes our consciousness and peace. In my understanding, one has to strike a balance especially when one enters a spiritual tradition, s/he needs to enter it with some basic implicit faith... constant skepticism will surely go against any learning. But it is pertinent that one is always open-minded to revise thoughts and views. I am reminded of Descartes' popular statement, "The only thing I am certainly sure of, is that I am thinking and doubting everything. Cogito Ergo Sum". Since last year I have firmly held onto it, but I don't know if I've passed onto the other extreme of skepticism, devoid of any faith. In the travails of a spiritual journey, perseverance and underlying faith are important to carry forward.

There are quite a few redundancies throughout the book, but perhaps this is just the author's way of reinstating the principles, or is a consequence of patching up different essays together. And needless to mention, many principles and underlying philosophies of Buddhism are in congruence with the essence of Hinduism. This book is a mere introduction, helping readers to merely dip their toes into the deep waters of Buddhism.