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I am a forest monk living a very simple meditative life in the forest in Norway. This life very much deepens my relationship to nature. In Buddhism we develop our awareness through meditation and allow nature to teach us. Many Norwegians have said to me that their time in nature is almost a spiritual experience. I don’t know what they mean with ‘almost’ – through deep contact with nature we develop spiritual qualities in the mind. Ultimately, if it goes deep enough, this can lead us to spiritual enlightenment, where our mind enters into a very stable, natural state. For this reason Buddhism is full of practices to help us connect more with nature and develop these spiritual qualities to the full. In nature, as maybe we all know, the mind can become very calm, peaceful, humble and grateful for all that nature gives us. We can naturally develop love and respect and feel inspired to help nature. We become wise too, seeing our real place and role in the world. To me this is a spiritual way forward for mankind that also, naturally and without pressure, leads us to behave responsibly with respect to the environment.  Photo: Unknown Words by Ajahn Kalyāno Paintings by Helle Johannessen Hearing winter call Golden leaves fall Into a heaven of the heart  A heaven not apart But found Here on the ground Of love   Here In heaven and above  Here In an above beyond words Where sky is made of birds And birds are made of sky Here above a heaven Where the heart shall learn to fly  This creation is also available as a PDF. (for the advanced, happy Dhamma practitioner) Introduction – Buddhist body-mind philosophy Let us look for a calm space and try a few perceptual experiments around this situation with the virus to see if we can find something that can help us see it all in a skilful way. Given the gravity of the situation, at the outset it may seem a bit strange or even crazy to even consider thinking as a way of finding a refuge and protecting ourselves from the virus which is so real and so scary. It could seem like claiming we could think away a bus bearing down on us or a storm raging above. It could seem mad to think we can escape without taking any action. Surely it is all about washing our hands? Yes, it is certainly agreed that it would be mad not to do that. Buddhism does not advocate such passivity as ignoring those kind of things, but instead it encourages us to be acting in a wise way on every level – body and mind. In this article we will be assuming that we are already doing whatever can be done in terms of the body, and will be considering only the mind here. We will begin with an outline of Buddhist philosophy related to finding a mental and ultimately spiritual refuge within body and mind, then go on to apply this to the current situation with the coronavirus. Note that we are not looking for a refuge just in the mind but within a mind that is aware of the body, its realities and its needs. So all the way along this is a path that has both wisdom and compassion. It is also one that is aimed at the highest goal of the Buddha’s teaching, of liberation, of spiritual enlightenment. The Buddha teaches us to protect our minds by seeing, realising that we are not our bodies and letting go of our attachment, our identification with our bodies. The mind then realises a state of detachment from the body which it sees and experiences as not-self. This is not to deny that there is, of course, a connection between body and mind on the objective level (we will be underlining the importance of seeing this later in this article). The Buddha’s view is not a dualistic, Cartesian view. What the Buddha is pointing to is that within our subjective experience of ourselves, in the calm mind, the experiences of body and mind can be separated. We can hence find ourselves an inner refuge from the ups and downs of the body. This is achieved in one way by withdrawing the mind from the senses, entering samādhi, and then continuously letting go of the body within this state. In this way we discover a mind that remains aware of but detached from the body, without the need to withdraw. We find a true refuge, one within the world not separate from it and therefore a refuge in which we can still function. This is the path of meditation taken all the way and integrated into our lives. We can use wise reflection as well as meditation to calm the mind towards such samādhi. Through wise reflection we can gain a clear objective view of a situation, like a scientist or doctor, and the distance of seeing something in an impersonal way. And yet impersonal does not mean uncaring. This view pays off both in our efforts to survive and in our efforts to transcend. In the truly wise mind these two are not separate or opposed to each other – our ability to operate externally relying in turn on an inner surrender or acceptance. Such contemplation is an art. Depending how we reflect, the process can either be scary, we feel out of control; or we detach from the world, looking on from outside. So it is very important we look in the right way. Our objective view needs to be brought in to a clear, calm subjective experience or perception in the present in order to form a refuge. This is the purpose of a phenomenological philosophy such as the Buddha’s teaching, to grasp a complex system in a way that we can understand it without abstract thought, forming a picture or perception rather than a concept. In this way we can remain with our experience and not get lost in thought. We can empty the mind in the face of phenomena (not merely through withdrawal) and we find a refuge stable in all circumstances. We can remain calm and clear.  Reflecting on the pandemic So let us take these principles and try to apply them to the case of a life-threatening virus entering in to our world, looking for perceptions of this situation that may help us. It is interesting, first of all in terms of the situation as a whole, that when we talk about people who are researching or dealing with the virus, we always use the word ‘they’ rather than ‘we’. This distances us from the whole situation. We are not taking responsibility and doing what we can but turning to the experts or the government. This is unhealthy. If we say or think ‘we are fighting the virus’ this has a completely different feel. We can even be doing our own research in our own way on how best to deal with the situation and share this with others. Then we are on board with the situation, grateful for others’ help and slow to be angry or demanding with ‘them’. It can also be valuable to always refer to the body as ‘the body’ rather than as ‘me’. To relate in impersonal language gives us already a healthy sense of distance. We can take the body for a walk, wash the body, feed the body to try to stay healthy. This can be just like we take the favourite pet dog for a walk, shampoo the dog, feed the dog. This is fun, which is very important to keep the mind light. Then we can reflect on how we see or think of this thing called ‘a virus’, noting that viruses are invisible to the naked eye or even the microscope. This is one reason a virus is so scary. (Or this is also reason why we can forget and/or ignore the situation.) Hence we will have to have the courage to imagine the virus instead. Another reason the virus is so scary is, of course, because it is making a lot of bodies go wrong very quickly at the same time. But as we cope with our own personal situation, we need to focus in on our own body and not make our own personal problem bigger just because it is part of a larger problem in the world. Entering in to this personal sphere we need to then not let this mean that we take the situation personally in an unhealthy way but look to see what is happening instead as part of the impersonal operation of nature. To consider that the virus is not a living thing can perhaps be our first step towards an impersonal view, a step which will make us less likely feel personally attacked or victimised. It is not that we have an aggressive living foe. The self-reproduction of the virus looks alive and can make us feel like it is a living being, but is the manufacture of body fluids, as a comparison, really life?  This opens for the philosophical question: What is life then? Perhaps growing something a little more lasting, like hair or bones? Where is the line here between the alive and inert parts of the body? When we start looking it’s not so clear. I would suggest information or meaning integrated into a physical system is really life, not merely growth or new material or information that cannot be integrated – that is destructive to the organism and that has no independent life of its own. So life, in my view (and I would say also in the Buddha’s view), is more to do with this aspect of mind, (lets try calling it the ‘biological mind’), than the body. Material can be consistent with the meaning, codes or blueprints of the organism, or inconsistent. To reproduce the virus is not what the body means to do. The virus is not part of the information of the body or mind, but code from outside. It is particularly hard for us, perhaps, to see how genetic coding can enter so far into a system, that we see subjectively as an integrated whole and so much as part of our identity – our genes. The virus is entering into the body’s chemistry, beyond the influence of our mind. It is taking control, not through a mere chemical reaction but a process involving a passage of information, something that we normally associate with the mind. We can also have underestimated the degree to which the proliferating mind is caught up with physical systems – this aspect of the ‘biological’ mind or computer is in fact like the servant of the body, as neuroscientists such as Antonio Damasio so clearly argue. The mix between chemistry and information is then very dangerous, it is like the ultimate mix between mind and matter bringing wild local code into a wider informational system. In this way we see a virus as so invasive into what we see ourselves as being part of; we have to step back a long way to escape it, seeing it as not-self. Yet this can be to our advantage in Dhamma. This can be a disturbing mix up of our two subjective worlds, mental and physical. This can be scary if we identify with the body or with the automatic, computer-like ‘biological mind’ – if we cannot also see the difference between the biological mind, the automatic mind and our subjective consciousness in the present moment. If we are a meditator this is exactly the difference we are training ourselves to see. As we chant ‘Buddho, Buddho’ inside, we can see the stream of our present moment thought, simply and clearly, as separate from the noise of the automatic proliferating mind. We considered earlier that body and mind are not separate in the objective, material world but only within our subjective experience. Again we do not, we need not, claim that our present moment consciousness is objectively somehow independent of the brain, or the biological mind dependent thereon. We need only be able to divide the mind that is influenced by the body from the aspect of the subjective mind that is potentially not influenced, stable while conscious. Finding a clear perception Thus we can regain our clarity in two ways. Firstly if we see that the virus is just a chemical getting into the manufacturing part of our body chemistry, and being reproduced by our body and spread around by our body. This is a very different perception from that of assuming that something alive aggressively takes us over for its own advantage. It is our body that is taking up this material without recognising it for what it is. It is our body that is having a problem handling this thing. Only the cells of the immune system can recognise that it is foreign. Only these cells can interact in a communicative way with the viral cells. What this all comes to is that if we do not see information and communication as part of chemistry it will seem as though the virus is somehow alive and taking us over, rather than that this is just a molecule that messes up the chemistry and hence the biological functioning of the body. If we expand our view of chemistry then we have an impersonal view of the disease rather than a personal one. If we see our bodies as this kind of impersonal thing this is not an invasion. We will not lose our sense of control. We will realise that this was a process over which the mind never had any control. Practically speaking our way forward is also clear. What we need to do is to try to find a way into the chemistry, where we can find some control with a clear detached mind, in order to help the body. Hospitals and health care workers are doing a marvellous job in this virus crisis and we are truly grateful for that. Without detracting in any way from their competence or caring, in this thought exercise we can try thinking of our hospitals as a loving laboratory in which we are doing the work and investigation necessary for survival. If we get the perception ‘laboratory’ right then ultimately we can, at the same time, realise how uncertain life is and be also motivated to get out of the life’s great laboratory. This will not be scary if we see the body at that moment as ultimately just a bunch of chemistry and biology; if we are identifying with this body then we are under threat and will be afraid. Similarly our homes we can see more like a greenhouse where we control the environment for the body to thrive as best we can, yet these homes can become a prison. Instead of looking only to create or hold on to something stable, we can be motivated also on the other part of the search which is to be looking for that which is stable already – the peaceful, empty mind or ‘spirit’. If we can let go, these perceptions, ‘laboratory’ or ‘greenhouse’ can become not negative but liberating, freeing us from being tied to an uncertain world. The second way we can find clarity is by drawing a parallel between chemical viruses and viruses of the biological mind. The body itself we can see like its own laboratory. From the standpoint of the peaceful mind we can dread the moments where we by necessity get dragged back from the security of the spirit into the uncertainty of this laboratory, its chemistry or its computer system that is our biological, conditioned mind. The biological definition of a virus is, ‘an infective agent able to multiply only within the living cells of a host.’ The computer definition is ‘a piece of code which is capable of copying itself and corrupting the system’. This is the same as the biological definition, just that it is in informational terms. This is the fundamental way that the virus is operating, changing or hijacking chemistry, through information. We can begin to see even the facts of the proliferating mind as part of this same wider system – this biological mind and nature as a necessary unity, then the whole system is under threat of being exposed.  Towards the ultimate If we are at the stage of looking at the unstable nature of the system in order to let go and stay with the element that is stable already – the spirit – then we can even want to see viruses of different kinds on different levels of our existence. If we can see the extended or greater biological or natural Mind, perhaps to see the possibility of a virus getting in to the Great Universal Computer is helpful, it gives us the Mind’s-eye view of things as well as the body-eye view. The replication of a virus can also begin to look like the proliferating mind, that turns in on itself rather than opening to the whole. We can begin to see conscious, voluntary thought and communication as healthy, and likewise uncontrolled proliferation as like a disease. Passive entertainment we can see as merely fuel for our reflex proliferation. So, if, through the ultimate communication we call Dhamma, we can see this whole process and learn from it, we can begin to see its impersonal, uncertain nature on the highest level and let go of our identification with everything. So to summarise, there is essentially nothing different in this viral sickness to another where the body is going wrong in some way. And if we can see that it is just the body that is going wrong, and this upsets the part of the mind that is the servant of the body, then we can detach from both the body and this part of the mind. The last illusion is that samādhi without wisdom is already independent, a refuge. Even the emptiness of mind that holds itself apart is not safe precisely because it needs to hold itself. There is always and only a refuge there in the emptiness of the mind that arises within this body mind system – not apart from it. This is the natural result of true wisdom, of love of truth and of true love.  So I offer all this for your reflection. If the perception I am trying to create leads to your peace and happiness and motivates you in a good direction I hope you may remember it and find a refuge, if not please quickly forget the laboratory, the greenhouse and all the rest! Ajahn Kalyāno – http://www.openthesky.co.uk
At a time of crisis to be able to laugh at something we are afraid of – or just to laugh at a time when we are afraid – can be a great release. Being English this is, of course, very much part of my culture, it is also very common in North East Thailand, the great ‘Land of the Arahants’. My mother does well at this. She lost a breast to cancer a few years ago, blind and in her eighties. The day after the operation one of the other patients on the ward asked her how she was doing, she replied, “Well, I am half the woman I was.” My sense of humour has, however, been the most difficult aspect of writing these short articles – knowing when it could be alright to add a little humour and when not in such a grave situation. For also, of course, humour at the wrong moment or to someone who does not understand your sense of humour, or when you are joking, can be a disaster. The meditation group I teach in Oslo asked me in the beginning of the pandemic whether I could give a talk for them once a week on camera. I had to say I would rather do a video conference where I could see who I was talking to, and also chose to write these short articles as my response at this time of crisis. So often in life we learn how to relate to ourselves by relating to others. So often we will know how to respond to our own minds if we see what is happening as if from the outside. If we cannot really see where we are at or do not want to be honest about it to ourselves, we can joke ourselves along through a crisis and then lack compassion for ourselves at the crucial moment, creating a bit of an inner disaster. We can joke in a way that accepts a situation or in a way that does not. We have to be aware of our underlying intention, as always. The result we get will always depend on this. So often I am asked how to get rid of unpleasant emotions. If someone comes to see us experiencing an unpleasant emotion, if we try to get rid of them how do they respond? I also know how difficult it can be to listen and retain at such a time. In this respect we are often reliant on the perceptions, the wisdom we have or do not have, the calm we have or do not have, and have to ride with that; we can very rarely take in a lot of new information. Also, from my own perspective, this approach gives me a chance to take time and choose my words carefully. All this could be good advice for communicating with others at such a time. We have to realise that people may not be very ‘with it’ and could forget or misunderstand. These can be very emotional times. We can need to respond to these emotions both within ourselves and in others, to give them time. Whether we like them or not, whether we think we should have them or not, emotions are not wrong on the spiritual path.  It is so natural and pleasant to go out into nature, isn’t it. We can relax and lose ourselves in the scene, feeling at one with our surroundings. This can be especially so in the mountains where we feel so small… I remember many a time sitting meditating high in the mountains, following the breath and feeling like I was breathing in all the vast space around me. Following the breath and continuing to let go into such a scene, we can lose ourselves more and more and something lovely can happen. We can disappear completely and, with no sense of self or centre to our awareness, our field of vision becomes a field of awareness. This quiet, empty awareness opens up to more fully take in the scene. We can still focus on something when needed but if we are relaxed we are still open to whatever is occurring. We can keep an eye on a rocky path we are walking while still appreciating the countryside. This is our most natural state of awareness, beginning at the outside world with our body in the background as we pay attention to our feelings or posture or how we are moving. If we remain calm and open even as we are aware of the body we can still feel at one with the scene. We can find that our sense of self still does not arise. And if we can sustain this kind of awareness and keep letting go, relaxing into it, our mind can become very peaceful, quiet and clear. Then, if we direct such peaceful awareness in the present right back at the body we may, at least momentarily, see our body as part of the scene, part of nature. This can be a very profound experience, much more so even than we may realise at the time. In this way we begin to see our body in a completely new way as if it were also something outside of ourselves, just like somebody else’s body even. Again, if we remain calm this does not feel at all strange but also very clear. We can even realise how confusing it has been to see the body in the usual way. We can realise we have been seeing our bodies or other’s bodies just as a source of feelings, not really as a body or even as a human being very much. With our new view we find ourselves unable to see other’s bodies as different from our own and we have a more natural empathy and compassion. We find ourselves tuning in fully to the natural world and find a naturally loving, very spiritual space. Perhaps all this is why so many describe having had their first spiritual awakening way up on a mountain peak.  Photo by Erlend Neergaard In the absence of awakened teachers, what tends to happen is that we do not realise the potential of the practice to completely transform the mind. Then we go ahead and redefine Buddhism as a way of working with the ordinary mind rather than achieving this kind of transformation. Worst of all is when we go as far as redefining the ordinary mind as the enlightened mind or believe that we are all enlightened already. As a consequence we never even see the benefit of the practice or its real urgency. The first thing that we might need to admit is that in spiritual terms people are not all the same. In modern egalitarian society, already this can be difficult. But it is made more possible, perhaps, by adhering very strictly to the idea of equal rights on the conventional plane and by preventing any abuse of spiritual knowledge or position for unjust worldly gain or advantage, (this is an important reason for having a mendicant community at the centre of it all). In this way we make everyone the same on the conventional level and can then open to our differences on the spiritual level without risk. Still we need to be careful how we communicate on spiritual matters. We are best advised never to boast; and to talk about the practice in general rather than personal terms. This behaviour is what is natural to anyone with any real insight or depth of practice. They will be very humble in themselves, realising that wisdom and samādhi only came about when they went beyond themselves. It can also help others not to feel intimidated or jealous if they know that to arrive at such a transformation it takes an enormous, indeed heroic, amount of effort. Also the result may not be so apparent to the worldly eye. It is only after long association with someone that we may realise that their minds are profoundly different from the ordinary. What can we really know? What we really can know is our own minds and the sense impressions (mind objects) that we gather from the world. Those two are all we can really know. We can arrive at this conclusion philosophically (fairly easily) and through meditation (through a lot of hard work) but if we arrive at it through meditation our experience of life is transformed. In meditation we can strengthen mindfulness, the knowingness of the mind, until the sense of knowing, really knowing, is completely tangible to us. Then the world will appear to us as mind objects within a bright field of knowing and we will never be the same again.  During the autumn of 2020, Ajahn Kalyano was so kind as to offer qigong lessons to the community living at Lokuttara Vihara in Norway. During this period of lessons and occasional discussions we gathered some of the information and the following paper and instructional video is the result. As qigong is also reported to have potentially positive effects on the immune system and increasing the lung capacity, it is our hope that by creating this paper that we can introduce more people to this interesting practice so that they may increase their resilience in these times of crisis. Pdf documentAccompanying videoPlease read the pdf document before attempting the movements. This video is intended as a supplement to the paper, and does not contain sufficient instructions to take up the practice. I want to be solid and shiny, don’t you? I want to be solid and shiny I want to be solid and shiny I want to be solid and shiny, don’t you? As solid and shiny as steel Or maybe even more Like the light that reflects Like the shining heart Shining for ever more Shining From the silence Softly, subtly, lovingly showing us the way for so often we are blind blind to our own light of truth and of love yet opening the blinds to our heart window we glimpse a light within a love of truth and a truth of love and we will look for the light Breathing in Passed his fear A bundle of lies As thick as thieves Breathing into the dark body-house Descending the stair of the watery air As quiet as a mouse Toward the light the light inside ever bright Video Versionhe was in a playful mood although the garden hose was not the most exciting thing in the world the composition of the scene looked right with the shadow and with the mark on the floor appearing in a sense as though it were the clothing of the humble hose he took a picture for fun dwelling a little longer on the scene his mind went surprisingly quiet the sense of order in the scene seemed to be gently stilling his mind he also began to see a similar sense of order elsewhere in the scene when the angle was right he could not explain what it was that was right and the fact that he could not explain seemed to be part of the reason for his silent mind somewhere he remembered somebody telling him that computers don’t understand such things as artistic composition perhaps the computer part of his mind could also not understand ‘maybe this is the way out of the never-ending computer mind, ‘but I had better not touch anything,’ he thought ‘otherwise I will be trying to order the whole world and I couldn’t do that, maybe just in my own room,’ he thought he paused and sat down something rather monumental was arising in his mind he was realising that he had been trying to put the world in order all his life ‘so is the answer to do nothing? no, that is not right the world needs to have some order for us to be safe,’ ‘putting things in order is part of looking after them, isn’t it’ ‘but I can’t put everything in order so what must I do to find peace’ ‘I can do what I can, changing what I can change and have to accept what I cannot’ he sat a while longer ‘and if I can see a deeper sense of order than the colours and the shapes even deeper than a moral sense if I can see that everywhere then I will be at peace, such is the peace of true Dhamma where we see everything as natural,’ ‘but seeing Dhamma is like finding order through peace rather than finding peace through order,’ he thought Video versionNever give up There is always hope There is always hope Even in the darkest night There is always hope Even if we lose the fight There is always hope Even when we can’t cope There is even hope When there is no hope There is always hope As free as the birds There is always hope Behind all the words There is always hope Like the blue sky There is always hope Without asking ‘why’ We just don’t find hope by holding on But by letting go And coming back to the heart That patiently goes with the flow For in the heart of true love There is always hope Hope as if from up above And we realise that there is always hope And there will always be hope Where there is true love There is hope, of course, in the love When it is ‘warts and all’ It shall not fall And yet the greatest hope lies In love’s greatest truth That truly flies That raises a roof High up above Over that love For then we will have found our real home No longer to roam A home that fits like a glove And where is this truth to be found? On the solid ground Right there In silent prayer For silence holds the truth Now and forever more The truth of suffering Knocking on the door The truth of suffering In itself free of suffering The truth of suffering accepted That makes us let go The truth of suffering That, deep down, we all know Video version |
Open The Sky - Reflective and creative work by Ajahn Kalyano
