My Aspiration for Retirement.

Right now, my wife and I are in the midst of a hectic and exhausting process of packing up and shipping our belongings so that we can stage and sell our house for a move from Hampton, Virginia all the way out to Salem, Oregon later this summer, where we plan to move into my stepdaughter's house, since she and her husband are planning to buy a larger house.

In addition, I just retired from a 30-odd year career as an English professor, and so am looking forward to a dramatically changed lifestyle, based on a rather slender pension (most of which will go for health insurance), along with ample free time.  So what, people ask, am I going to do with all this time on my hands and so little money to spend?

My short answer, as always, is to follow the Dharma Gaia mantra, as faithfully as possible, for all my remaining days:

1. Whenever I find myself distracted, depressed, distraught, desultory, or demoralized, I shall go back to my breath and breath, observe, and let go.

2. I will endeavor to shape my daily agenda each day around Garrison Keillor's magnificent sign-off:
Be well, do good work, keep in touch.

3. I will organize my time and activities around the following standing goals:
Learn, Teach, Heal, and Create.

Specifically, I wish to learn Permaculture design above all, but also, if possible, become fluent in Spanish, and learn to play the piano, as well as learning Web design skills.

I wish to teach a volunteer meditation course at Oregon State Penitentiary (if possible) and--if money gets short, teach one or more online English courses at Chemeketa Community College or elsewhere.

I wish to heal my aching back and aging body, to the extent possible. But also to get active healing our wounded planet and our corrupted democracy.

Finally, I wish to create a vehicle for integrating Buddhism and Permaculture, tentatively called a Dharma Gaia Circle.

My slightly longer answer is this:

I envision Dharma Gaia Circle as an ecologically focused Sangha, and as the first step in eventually (if possible) creating a Dharma Gaia Practice Center, whose mission will be to develop projects, events, workshops, and publications that integrate three essential practices for healing ourselves, our communities, and our dying planet:

1. Dharma Practice, including meditation, tonglen, and all other contemplative body-mind-spirit disciplines that enable people to let go of attachments, calm their minds, and generate wisdom and compassion.  This may include instruction in yoga, tai chi, meditation, and so forth. It might also include ongoing instruction and practice in the holistic healing arts, such as massage, reiki, acupuncture, and ayurveda.

2. Satyagraha, Gandhi's discipline of nonviolent social engagement, speaking truth to power, and when necessary, engaging in nonviolent noncooperation with evil, through the cultivation of the three goals of Satyagraha: Ahimsa (total renunciation of violence, in thought, word, or deed), Satya (the courage to speak truth to power), and Swaraj (individual economic self-reliance, leading to communal self-rule). These skills will then be applied to political activities aimed at resisting Trump's  and Glomart's all-out assault on the planet and its inhabitants in every way--local, state, national, and global--that we can.

3. Permaculture, the discipline of regenerative design, to reintegrate humans into their biological support system in an adaptive, regenerative way, thereby healing the wounds we have inflicted on ourselves, our communities, and our planet due to our collective ignorance, greed, hatred, and denial. My ideal goal for a Dharma Gaia Practice Center would be to acquire a Permaculture demonstration site as the location for our activities in learning, teaching, healing, and creating. This, of course, would entail collaboration--and fundraising.

All my goals will be predicated on the Gaian Categorical Imperative: In everything we do, we strive to promote the health, competence, and resilience of ourselves, our communities, and our living planet simulteneously. 

Pursuant to this grand plan, once I am resettled in Oregon, I shall begin by creating a social network--that is (1) joining an existing Sangha in the tradition of Thich Nhat Hanh; (2) joining the local Unitarian Church, and in particular, participating in their Permaculture Club; (3) Getting active with the Sierra Club out there ASAP; (4) creating within this network a focus group committed to such a project; (5) acquiring the necessary media skills (e.g. web design, video capture) to establish a website promoting Dharma Gaia Circle worldwide and providing a downloadable packet to enable local communities to start their own Dharma Gaia Circles.

We'll see how far I can get with this--even if I just plant the seed, and have others carry forth the work after I die, it will be worth the effort.

So be it.

Reflections on Causality

The currently unfolding catastrophe—Donald Trump’s toxic rise to power and the consequent degeneration of our democratic republic into a paranoid, deeply divided corporate plutocracy, ruled by a malignant, narcissistic maniac and his enablers, who have alienated the rest of the world--has vast numbers of us wallowing in despair, wondering why and how this could have possibly happened in (what we once believed to be) the world’s most stable, dynamic, and civilized democracy. Why us?  we ask in despair. Why now?

I don’t know either, but whenever I feel despondent and perplexed, I take refuge in the Dharma—in Buddhist teachings. These are not “beliefs” but simply common sense, scrupulously applied. At the core of the Buddhist understanding of the world is the concept of Pratitya Samutpada, or codependent origination. The simplest formulation of this concept? This is because that is (and vice versa).

To put it more elaborately, everything that happens in the universe—every particle, system, feeling, or thought that arises within us or outside of us—is the direct and indirect consequence of everything else that happens. They all co-arise in dependence on one another. Hence, without everything in the universe, there would not be anything in the universe.

Understood thus, causality can be divided into three distinct levels of complexity, corresponding to the three concentric “spheres” of reality first named by Teilhard de Chardin: the Physiosphere, the Biosphere, and the Nöosphere.  Each of these spheres has its own type of causality, of which only two are recognized by Western science.

Physical Causality

The first, the Physiosphere, is by far the simplest.  It is the inorganic realm of things—of matter and energy, and of particles, atoms, molecules, and substances. The laws of causality in this realm were first laid out by Sir Isaac Newton in his Principia Mathematica, and they are the stuff of elementary physics and chemistry classes, rooted in the First and Second Law of Thermodynamics.  They are entirely reliable at the macro level of billiard balls, planets, stars, and galaxies, even if they have been complicated, at the micro level, by the bizarre discoveries of Quantum Mechanics.  Newton’s formulation of these rules gave rise, of course, to the Scientific and Industrial Revolution; they dramatically expanded our knowledge of, and power over, the physical world. Yet at their very core, in both the Quantum and Classical spheres, lies Pratitya Samutpada—this is because that is. (e.g. “Every action has an equal and opposite reaction.”)

Biological Causality

The second sphere—the Biosphere—is the realm of systems, ruled by the laws of cybernetics (this is because that is, and vice versa). The main difference between physical and systemic (or biological) causality is that the latter potentially emerges from the former whenever the loop is closed—that is, when an effect circles back and affects the cause. This is known as a “feedback loop” and it is to the systemic realm what forces and impacts are to the physical realm: the primary building block of causality.

This realm is exponentially more complex than the physical world, and hence, far less predictable. Gregory Bateson, a pioneering thinker in the field of biocybernetics, gave us a good illustration of the difference when he compared kicking a soccer ball to kicking a live dog. In the first instance, if we know the initial conditions—the force and vector of the kick and the constraints provided by gravitation, friction, and the boundaries of the space—we can make a highly accurate prediction of where the ball will land, and then the consequences of the initial action (the kick) will end.

But in the second instance—kicking a dog—predictability goes out the window, for the consequences depend entirely on a host of conditions, both before and after the kick, that are unknown or unknowable to the kicker. These prior conditions may include the breed of the dog, the personality of the individual dog, the prior relationship (or lack thereof) between the dog and the man, and so on. The consequences of the kick itself are equally uncertain: while it will have a predictable physical impact, sending the dog on a vector (like the soccer ball), the dog—unlike the ball—will immediately counteract that force by digging in his feet. From thereon, the possibilities are wide open, for even if the man and dog have hitherto had a good relationship—or conversely, if the dog is habituated to an abusive master and inclined to cringe and obey after such brutal punishment—this kick may be the proverbial “last straw,” causing the dog to counterattack—and the man to lose a foot.

In other words, the kick is not only a physical effect, but it conveys information about the relationship of one living (and information-processing) being to another. But the one who delivers the information (the kicker) has no control whatsoever over how the dog interprets that information—whether as punishment or an attack.

And information, which Bateson succinctly defines as “a difference that makes a difference” is at the core of biological causality. It is at the heart of the difference between physical phenomena and biological organisms, for the very simplest organism—say a bacterium—differs from the most complex inorganic molecule, in that it is constantly processing information and making choices (however simple) based on that information. Moreover, in biological organisms, that information is always processed with only one intention—toward its own survival and perpetuation of its kind. This is the “difference that makes a difference” between the most complex inorganic systems—such as hurricanes, whirlpools, or even human-designed artifacts like computers—and living beings. Unlike living beings, hurricanes, whirlpools, and computers literally don’t care whether they live or die. The simplest virus or bacterium, conversely, strives to perpetuate and multiply itself by whatever means possible.

That goes, of course, for us as well, as for all human institutions, from families to organizations to cultures to nations—all are information processing systems of bewildering complexity, but all, above all, seek to survive—seek to keep on keepin’ on. Naturally, we all die in the long run, returning to the Physiosphere, but that is why we seek to perpetuate our kind.

Nöospheric (Karmic) Causality

               The Nöosphere, then, refers to the realm of information that emerged from the Biosphere with the rise of humanity and specifically with the evolution of language and symbolism. It is therefore unique to humans; it is the world of information we share through linguistic and symbolic processing, and that we process in our own distinctly human consciousness.  And it is at this advanced, bewildering level of complexity that a third kind of causality arises, which the Hindus and Buddhists call the law of Karma.

               For most western scientists, Karma is seen as nothing more than a quaint oriental mythology, as is the doctrine of reincarnation. But the law of Karma need not be dependent on any belief in reincarnation (about which I choose to remain agnostic); rather, it can be seen as the law of Pratitya Samutpada (codependent origination) as applied to the realm, not simply of action and reaction (as in physics) nor to the realm of information processed chemically, genetically, or behaviorally (as in the biological world) but rather to the realm of intention or conscious purpose—a realm unique to human consciousness (as far as we know). But—like the laws of physics and cybernetics alike—the law of Karma has both individual and collective consequences for all of us.

               Like the laws of cybernetics—the laws governing physical, biological, or mechanical systems with feedback loops, the Karmic laws are likewise based on feedback, but that feedback is not only physical or informational, but also internal as well. Moreover, just as biological causality transcends individual lives, passed on genetically and behaviorally through the generations, Karmic causality likewise transcends individual life and death, for actions based on our intentions ripple through both the Nöosphere and the Biosphere on which it depends. (The Physiosphere is, of course, immortal, subject to constant transmutation, and hence ultimately unaffected by epiphenomena in either the biological or mental realms.)

               One key purpose, therefore, of meditation—the essential practice of Eastern wisdom traditions, whether Hindu, Buddhist, or Taoist—is to develop the capacity to look deeply and objectively at our own intentions—where they come from, how they are rooted in pre-existent causes and conditions in ourselves and in our world, and then, whether or not we choose to act upon them, or simply observe and let them go.  If the intention is rooted in wisdom and compassion—awareness, that is, of the pattern that connects all of us into what Martin Luther King called the “inescapable network of mutuality”—then we can choose to act on it.  If not, not.  We discover, then, that in the mental realm, hence in the social and cultural realms we inhabit on this planet, and in the Biosphere itself, what goes around always comes around.

               So how does this relate to Trump? While the laws of karma are always hard to fathom, owing to the immense complexity of causes and consequences at the mental, social, and cultural level, one could reasonably hypothesize that Trump reflects the fruition, or ripening, of the long-suppressed karmic consequences of the American experience. According to Joseph Ellis, in his excellent book American Creation, the founders—such brilliant and capable men as Washington, Adams, Franklin, Jefferson, and Madison—for all their amazing success at forging a new, ethically grounded democratic republic out of discrete British colonies with very different histories, interests, and loyalties, nevertheless were tragic failures in two areas: they failed in their initial efforts to forge equitable diplomatic relations with the Native American nations, thus enabling the horrific genocide that followed as colonizers spread west, and they failed to end racially coded slavery. These two critical moral failures of our founders, I would suggest, paved the way, first to the Civil War—which Lincoln finally recognized, in his Second Inaugural, to be karmic retribution for the shared complicity of North and South in the perpetuation of slavery—and then, through many permutations of blacks striving for equality and white backlash, to the malignant rise of Trump as the revenge of the deplorables—those working-class white people who had been deliberately and strategically brainwashed by Fox News into seeing the rise of blacks, Latinos, and other minorities as a threat to their own sense of entitlement.

               So it is conceivable that now, with this deranged thug and his fanatical, gun-worshipping followers in power, we may be reaping the whirlwind of our own, long-repressed denial and arrogance, as a “sweet land of liberty” that has tolerated slavery and racism, as the “guardian of freedom” which has wrought havoc and undermined democracy throughout the Middle East and the rest of the world, and as the champion of “progress” which has raped the planet, poisoning land, air, and water, and sealing our own and everyone else’s doom with our addiction to fossil fuels and denial of reality. What goes around comes around—with a vengeance.

               So what can we do? The cynic will say “nothing.”  The die-hard activist will say “organize and fight back.”  But I prefer to adhere to a memorable passage from the Wilhelm-Baines translation and commentary on the I-Ching, Hexagram 43 (Breakthrough):

BREAK–THROUGH.  One must resolutely make the matter known
At the court of the king.
It must be announced truthfully.  Danger.
It is necessary to notify one’s own city.
It does not further to resort to arms.
It furthers one to undertake something.

Here is the commentary that follows:

Even if only one inferior man is occupying a ruling position in a city, he is able to oppress superior men.  Even a single passion still lurking in the heart has power to obscure reason.  Passion and reason cannot exist side by side—therefore fight without quarter is necessary if the good is to prevail.

 Note how, even here, the macrocosm of the state and the microcosm of the individual psyche are seen to reflect one another. When an inferior man (Trump) occupies a ruling position, and oppresses superior men, it is the macrocosmic equivalent of a passionate rage obscuring our own rational faculties.  The comment goes on as follows:

In a resolute struggle of the good against evil, there are, however, definite rules that must not be disregarded, if it is to succeed.  First, resolution must be based on a union of strength and friendliness.  Second, a compromise with evil is not possible; evil must under all circumstances be openly discredited.  Nor must our own passions and shortcomings be glossed over.  Third, the struggle must not be carried on directly by force.  If evil is branded, it thinks of weapons, and if we do it the favor of fighting against it blow for blow, we lose in the end because thus we ourselves get entangled in hatred and passion.  Therefore it is important to begin at home, to be on guard in our own persons against the faults we have branded.  In this way, finding no opponent, the sharp edges of the weapons of evil becomes dulled.  For the same reasons we should not combat our own faults directly.  As long as we wrestle with them, they continue victorious.  Finally, the best way to fight evil is to make energetic progress in the good.

There is much wisdom in this passage. It is, in fact, a short primer in what Gandhi and King were later to develop into Satyagraha—nonviolent noncooperation with evil that is mindful, strategic, and relentless. I particularly liked the last phrase, “energetic progress in the good,” as the best way to fight evil.  Trump may well bring about the demise and collapse of the American experiment into a dysfunctional, militaristic fascist plutocracy. So we have no alternative but to resist. Our collective task is first “to make the matter known”—to speak truth to power. To be aware of the “danger” that this entails. However, “it does not further to resort to arms,” but “to undertake something.”  In my own case, I resolve to undertake Permaculture, which is the “energetic progress in the good” we need to subvert and displace the monstrous evil engulfing the world, of which Trump is the embodiment.

Hungry Ghosts

"Hungry Ghost" is a concept from Buddhist mythology and iconography, referring to the denizens of one of the three lower realms of Samsaric being, into which we may be reborn if our karma lands us there: Animals, Demons (or "Hell-beings") and Hungry Ghosts. In the iconography, hungry ghosts are generally depicted as having large, distended bellies and tiny necks, signifying that they are insatiably hungry and destitute (as in the Japanese scroll above). More generally, they are a good metaphor for alienated, lonely, hollow-eyed, and insatiable people who are a prey to their addictions, yet who frighten and alienate others as well, and thus make compassion difficult--e.g. panhandlers on the streets of every city these days.

Our global corporate consumer culture (for which I have coined the term "Glomart") could be thought of as a "hungry ghost generator." The focus of 24/7 advertising and endless distractions is to keep us all alienated, demoralized, and full of insatiable addictive cravings for more stuff and more distractions. Even if we are not (yet) homeless and destitute, many of us feel that way, especially when we are caught up in addictive distractions, whether on television or on the internet, or even "grazing" the pantry and refrigerator for cookies, nuts, or chips. But our alienation is a source of endless, growing profits for Glomart, which wants us to alleviate and exacerbate this hunger by going shopping or watching TV ads and infotainment. Here are some possible antidotes to the hungry ghost syndrome:

1. Glomart seeks to transform active citizens into passive consumers. So let's become active citizens again.
2. Glomart seeks to transform communities into "markets"--so let's restore a sense of community, starting in our own gardens, neighborhoods, and peer groups, caring and sharing, rather than simply getting and spending.
3. Glomart seeks to transform our magnificent living planet into nothing but "resources" with no value at all until they are turned into commodities--sliced and diced, dug up or chopped down, and sold on the global market. So let us honor and restore living systems whenever and wherever we can--practicing Permaculture in our own backyards and communities, and pushing back against the ecocidal predators who would log, frack, mine, and poison everything.

In short, whatever Glomart wants us to be and do, let us be and do the exact opposite.

Trump's War on Nature, Culture, and the Future

I just fired this letter off to the Richmond Times-Dispatch,  But since it is an apt summary of what I find so loathsome about the Trump regime, I am sharing it here, for all to see...

Editor, the Richmond Times-Dispatch:

With the release of his recent draconian budget, Donald Trump has declared war on nature, culture, and the future.

His war on nature takes the form of eliminating funds to protect Appalachian rivers and streams from coal ash, our atmosphere from emissions, our public lands from logging and drilling, and the Chesapeake Bay from pollution. He is also slashing funds for research from the EPA, and reversing Obama’s decisions on highly risky and destructive pipeline projects like the Dakota Access Pipeline and the Keystone XL pipeline.

His war on culture takes the form of eliminating much-needed funding for the National Endowment for the Arts, the National Endowment for the Humanities, and the Corporation for Public Broadcasting.  All these nonpartisan programs ensure high quality, noncommercial education programs like Sesame Street for our children, the promotion of scientific literacy through programs like NOVA and Nature, and the transmission of our cultural heritage through magnificent, commercial-free programming like the American Experience, Masterpiece Theatre, and Great Performances, all of which are available only from PBS. Trump’s slashing of these cultural enrichment programs will quickly reduce our population to clueless, commercial-saturated morons, easily manipulated by truthless demagogues like himself.

Finally, his war on the future is most visible in his slashing all funding for research into climate change, his abandonment of the historic Paris agreement, and his ignorant pooh-poohing of the international consensus on the threat of climate destabilization through excess CO2 emissions. These actions effectively doom our children to a horrific future of sea-level rise and worldwide ecological collapse—but obviously, Trump does not care.

We cannot hope to educate him, so we all must resist, making our representatives’ tenure in office entirely dependent on their total rejection of Trump’s budget.

Thomas I. Ellis,

Hampton, VA

Permaculture and/or the Deluge

I just viewed a very recent (2016) and sobering address by Geoff Lawton, the charismatic, internationally known teacher and proponent of Permaculture, who has traveled the world over the last 25 years, teaching and demonstrating Permaculture design principles and techniques with astounding successes in every imaginable climate and bioregion--even in the parched deserts of Jordan. (See Greening the Desert)

His address was given at this year's International Permaculture Conference in London, and in stark contrast to his usual ebullient enthusiasm, his tone in this latest address is quite melancholy--a clear and sad assessment of the desperate and disintegrative state of our global ecosystems---but it is not hopeless. He clearly sees, as I now do, that Permaculture design has the potential for being our last, best hope for propagating the spontaneous remission of the Cancer of the Earth--the next phase of human evolution, into a symbiotic, rather than parasitic, relationship to the Biosphere. He points out, however, that less than .01% of humanity has ever heard of Permaculture.

Should we therefore be discouraged, and simply give up? Never!  In times of encroaching darkness, such as now, with the global corporate oligarchy on the verge of taking over completely and destroying the last vestiges of real democracy under a neofascist Trump regime, I often contemplate this poem by the pious 17th Century Anglican divine, George Herbert:

Vertue.

Sweet day, so cool, so calm, so bright, The bridall of the earth and skie: The dew shall weep thy fall to night; For thou must die. Sweet rose, whose hue angrie and brave Bids the rash gazer wipe his eye: Thy root is ever in its grave And thou must die. Sweet spring, full of sweet dayes and roses, A box where sweets compacted lie; My musick shows ye have your closes,1 And all must die. Onely a sweet and vertuous soul, Like season’d timber, never gives; But though the whole world turn to coal, Then chiefly lives.

  Herbert was, of course, a devout Christian, whose hope in the face of impermanence lay vested in the Afterlife, beyond even Judgment Day when the "whole world" would "turn to coal"  But the poem has resonance for me nevertheless, even as, in another sense, the world is "turning to coal" due to Trump's renewed and enthusiastic embrace of fossil fuels, climate be damned.

The resonance derives from the image of a "sweet and vertuous soul" as being resilient, like "seasoned timber."  And that, I think, is the key. If all hell breaks loose, whether from accelerating climate catastrophes, tyrannical crackdowns on dissent, global nuclear conflict, economic collapse, swarms of refugees, religious fanaticism, and roving bands of brutal and predatory marauders, those who have quietly mastered the arts of permaculture--growing regenerative gardens, restoring damaged ecosystems, exchanging skills, designing for the long term, and building community--will still be better off than everyone else, still be able to share their abundance with those in need and propagate their skills. Even if we are only .01 per cent of the population, if a handful of seeds survives a forest fire, they can still regenerate the forest.

The Diamond in our Minds

After the Catastrophe—that is the election of Donald Trump on November 8—as I joined most of the rest of the (sane) world in paroxysms of dread and despair, I found myself again and again singing a refrain from a song by Tom Waits:

Always keep a Diamond in your mind;

Always keep a Diamond in your mind;

Wherever you may wander, wherever you may roam,

You’ve got to Always keep a Diamond in your mind…

Somehow, I find this refrain very healing, a kind of mantra, whenever the next horrid headline afflicts me with waves of dread about the future. But what is this “Diamond in your mind”?

In Buddhism, the Diamond Sutra is one of the essential Prajnaparamita sutras of the Pali Canon. In his translation and commentary on this sutra, Thich Nhat Hanh refers to it as “the Diamond that cuts through illusion.” It is difficult, perhaps impossible, to explain what this is “Diamond” is, for it is inherently paradoxical; it refers to the ultimate insight that “this is because that is,” from which we may logically deduce that neither “this” nor “that” has any intrinsic existence. But this paradoxical way of thinking is likely to be too abstruse to be of much comfort to most of us.

Another way of thinking about the Diamond in our minds is to consider the physical characteristics of diamonds themselves.  They are the hardest known substance; they can cut through anything else. This is why this ultimate insight in the Sutra is compared to a diamond (Vajra). In this sense, it is cutting through all the illusions that keep us bound to Samsara, bound to the wheel of suffering that we create when we assume (1) that things have separate existence from each other, and (2) that we ourselves have a separate identity from others.

The first delusion is relatively easy to penetrate intellectually; we can readily understand, for example, that without topsoil, oxygenated air, solar energy, fresh water, and inherited genetic information, we would not have any flowers, trees, insects, or even people. But the second—the delusion of a separate self—is deeply ingrained in both our biology and our consciousness, and hence we are emotionally attached to it as well.

It is a lot harder, therefore, for us to be able to look at Donald Trump and see ourselves in him, and him in us—to see that there is, in reality, no separation between ourselves and everyone else. Yet we affirm this connection every time we take a breath, exchanging CO2 for oxygen, as trees inhale CO2 and yield oxygen again, and that oxygen in turn is breathed by everyone else—even Donald Trump—becoming incorporated into his metabolism in the same way it was in ours. 

And this delusion of separateness that I share with Trump (though not, I hope, to that extreme!) and everyone else is the source of all the suffering on the planet: our shared ignorance gives rise to greed, which gives rise to hatred, denial, and despair.

But again, because it is so hard emotionally to let go of this delusion of separate self, there are other, more palatable ways of conceptualizing the Diamond that could be shared with those, like my students, who know nothing of arcane Buddhist doctrine, and may inhabit a mindset informed by Christianity, Islam, or Judaism, or indeed no religious affiliation at all.

For example, a Christian may wish to conceptualize the Diamond in his or her mind as the Holy Spirit or Grace—the indwelling of the Divine or Christ Within, a Jew will conceptualize it as JHVH, the One True G-d, while a Muslim will naturally conceive it as Allah.  Whatever religious language they wish to use, the important thing is that the Diamond is, as Stephen Gaskin used to say, “the highest and holiest part of ourselves,” however we label it.

                The important thing about the Diamond metaphor, again, is that diamonds are indestructible. If like me you are a Gaian—that is, if you adhere to both science and the insight of William Blake that “Everything that lives is holy,” you also might consider the fact that diamonds are pure carbon—an opaque, pure black element that is the very basis of organic life, which, when concentrated and reorganized into a tight molecular lattice, turns clear and brilliant, capturing and refracting light. That is an apt metaphor as well—that a Diamond is the stuff of life itself, concentrated into its purest form.

So for practical purposes, we may contemplate the Diamond in our minds as the very essence of who we are, the essence we share with all other living things, and with the entire Cosmos. And in times of political oppression and social disintegration, as we are likely to see in the coming years under this egomaniacal despot, it is very healthy to keep in touch with the Diamond in our minds, however we conceive it.  

 If we practice the Buddhist discipline of Tonglen—giving and taking—we can visualize the Diamond in our minds as that which, 

• on the inbreath, takes in all the darkness--our suffering due to Ignorance, Greed, Hatred, Denial, and Despair--which we feel in ourselves and see all around us, and 
• on the outbreath. transforms it into the radiant, healing energy of Benevolence, Compassion, Shared Joy, and Equanimity, sent out freely to our suffering selves, our loved ones, our acquaintances, those we don't know, our enemies, all people, all of life...

A message to my students

Since this is my last year of teaching at TCC before my retirement in May, this seems like a good time to leave a farewell message to all my students, past and present.

Dear Students,

As you all know, our collective future prospects have recently taken a wrenching turn for the worst, with the election to the Presidency of a clownish, boorish, cruel, pathologically narcissistic demagogue--a man whose elevation to this position of unimaginable power and prestige has traumatized the entire world community. This means, of course, that the brighter future for which you are all preparing through your education may never come to pass; instead, we appear headed into a long dark night of neofascist bigotry and violence, especially toward minorities; corporate domination of all branches of government; and the vindictive use of unprecedented surveillance to seek out and punish or brutalize all who resist or speak out against his agenda. The horrific possibilities boggle the imagination, as his daily capricious actions and tweets--and his appointments of thuggish yes-men and corporate cronies to positions of power--bring us wave after wave of dread...

So how will we cope? I first wish to refer you to a superb, though sobering, article by Bill McKibben: "How the Active Many can Overcome the Ruthless Few."

McKibben pulls no punches in laying out the terrifying details of accelerating climate change, and he stresses that our window of opportunity is steadily closing for redirecting our collective course away from global catastrophe.

And yet, in the final paragraphs, he gives us some hope, by paying tribute to the grand 20th Century tradition of Satyagraha, Mahatma Gandhi's brilliant principles and techniques for collective nonviolent resistance to evil and oppression.  He then cites many of the Bodhisattvas who have followed in Gandhi's footsteps, including Martin Luther King, Jr., Nelson Mandela, Thich Nhat Hanh, Wangari Maathai,  Aung San Soo Kyi, and Vandana Shiva. His point is that such massive nonviolent resistance techniques are the only sure way to curb the abuses of corporate and state power. They do this, above all, by changing the terms of the debate.

For example, even though the Occupy protesters were crushed by massive police power in the service of corporate interests, they changed the conversation by introducing the concepts of the 1% and 99% into public discourse, and thus brought to light the criminality of the banksters and the obscene gap between the billionaire class and all the rest of us; this widespread awareness of systemic corruption and injustice in turn enabled Bernie Sanders to mobilize massive support, while at the same time, it enabled Trump to exploit the same reservoir of widespread resentment and discontent for his own pseudo-populist agenda, by directing it against scapegoats (i.e. minorities and immigrants) rather than against the super-rich (like himself and his cronies).

I am not saying, of course, that we should all hit the streets, wave protest signs, or get tear-gassed, tasered, or arrested for trespassing. Public protest and voluntary suffering are tools, but to be effective, they must be strategically planned for greatest effect. And as protests increase in frequency, the corporate media pay less and less attention to them (unless they turn violent--only then do they see it as newsworthy). There are many other, subtler ways to practice Satyagraha. In fact, Gandhi divided Satyagraha practices into three categories:

• Ahimsa (righteous nonviolence--refusing to stoop to the level of our aggressors);
• Satya (speaking truth to power)
• Swaraj (cultivating self-rule and self-reliance).

While Ahimsa requires the kind of moral courage and discipline shown by those on the front line, such as the Civil Rights marchers at the Edmund Pettus Bridge or today's Native Americans at Standing Rock, most of us lack the inner fortitude to stand our ground in the face of brutality without either running away or lashing out violently in turn. For such people--the majority for the most part--the latter two strategies remain open.

Satya means speaking truth to power, and doing so mindfully, strategically, and relentlessly. This can be done by writing Op Eds or letters to the editor, or by speaking out at city council meetings or public hearings. You have considerably more clout from writing a well-crafted letter to the editor than from being a face in a crowd at a mass demonstration that is likely to be ignored by the media and contained or brutalized by riot police. So this is an acceptable and very effective choice for the great majority of us who have no stomach for martyrdom.

Finally, Swaraj is for everyone, even if you are neither brave nor articulate. Its root meaning in Sanskrit is "self-rule," and it originally referred to the colonized Indians' quest for self-government and freedom from British colonial rule. But Gandhi extended the definition to include both "self-control" and "self-reliance." Its symbol was the Spinning Wheel, so chosen both because it is a symbol for the eightfold Wheel of Dharma (referring, of course, to self-mastery), but also because it was a literal means by which Indian peasants could declare economic independence from the British Empire, simply by spinning cotton cloth to make their own clothing.  In our time, Swaraj can be divided into three broad categories:

• Good Buy: assuming responsibility for the social and ecological effects of the money you spend. This means, before buying anything, to ask three kinds of questions: (1) Where is the money for this going? (2) What am I getting in return for it? Is it useful or addictive? (3) Does this product constitute a responsible use of the Earth's resources? 
• Good Work: assuming responsibility for the social and ecological effects of your choice of livelihood. To what extent is it Work (doing what you know best for the best interests of yourself, your community, and your planet--learning, teaching, healing, or creating) or Slavery (serving the interests of your own or others' greed, ignorance, or denial; working for "the man" in return for nothing more than a paycheck).
• Good Will:  Taking care of everyone and everything, and abandoning no one and nothing. Making this an asymptotic goal in all of your relations with others and with your world. Cultivating benevolence, compassion, selfless joy, and equanimity.

It is in this way that Satyagraha connects to the other two essential disciplines: Tonglen and Permaculture. Let's consider these briefly:

• Tonglen: in order to achieve Ahimsa, to become truly nonviolent, to root out hatred (which is the enemy within, along with denial and despair), one must learn to cultivate compassion for everyone, perpetrators and victims alike. This is difficult, but the Tibetan practice of Tonglen meditation is a powerful training technique for cultivating Ahimsa. It consists of engaging your imagination on the breath:  breathing in suffering, both the outer suffering for the victims and the inner suffering that gives rise to the violence of the perpetrators, and breathing out healing, relief, and inner peace, both to the victims and the perpetrators--along with a prayer that the latter see the light and abandon their violence (as many sheriffs and other police have already, resigning rather than brutalizing the Native Americans at Standing Rock). It takes practice, of course, but as it becomes habitual, you can use it on yourself (when something fills you with rage and despair, just breath it in to the Diamond in your mind, and breathe out inner peace, firm resolution, and equanimity)--but also do "Tonglen on the spot" with anyone else you see or anyone whose suffering enters into your consciousness. For an excellent discussion of Tonglen,  see this article by Pema Chodron
• Permaculture: In the same way that Tonglen practice enables us to practice Ahimsa--to confront and resist evil without violence or hatred--so Permaculture is the fruition of Swaraj; it involves creating a whole new, ecologically harmonious culture from the ground up, according to tried and true principles. If you are interested in learning more about Permaculture, there is an excellent short online course at Oregon State University, available on Youtube at this address.