The Four Sublime States

Aside

In Buddhism, there are Four Sublime States (brahmavihāras, sometimes called the immeasurables). According to the history, they were taught directly by the Buddha.

Lovingkindness (metta) – an unconditional desire for all living things to be happy
Compassion (karuna) – a desire to relieve suffering of others
Sympathetic Joy (mudita) – rejoicing in the good fortune and happiness of others
Equanimity (upekkha) – a detached acceptance of existence, good and bad

They are considered by Buddhists to be a strong tool to fight negative attitudes and feelings. I consider them to to be very strong tools to be more virtuous.

Anchor #4: Persistence

Posted on November 8, 2012 by Chris

In Buddhism, there is an Eight-Fold Path to enlightenment, recommended to break the chain of suffering (called “Dukkha”). The Eight-Fold Path as explained by most texts takes awhile to digest, and its components overlap in many ways. It is a product of Eastern thought, which for lack of a better term, requires some absorption. The path is a powerful concept to understand and put into practice in your pursuit of virtue. Today, I will reflect on two of the eight because they have a lot to do with our Fourth Anchor, Persistence: Right Effort and Right Concentration. Together these two Eastern concepts will help me convey the value of persistence.

If we were to have perfect patience and nothing else we would wait for things to happen…and nothing would happen. To complement patience, I would say we need to take actions to make ourselves and our surroundings better and to do so with persistence. Persistence implies hard work…persistence is hard work. We try and try over and over again, we fail, we get up. To maintain our sanity, we must have patience; but to keep going, we must persist!

Champion Powerlifters Must Have Persistence – Lots of Right Effort!
(www.liftingpictures.com)

But at what should we persist? Hitler was persistent, and so was Osama Bin Laden. How do I guide myself to persistent good? I have found the concept of Right Effort and Right Concentration to be very helpful guide to how we should persist.

It is at this point that I will explain Right Effort. Right Effort requires that we persistently make effort to become more virtuous. According to Zen this effort, to be right, should be focused on 4 endeavors:

Prevent arising unwholesome views and feelings
Abandon unwholesome views and feelings you already have
Create new wholesome views and feelings
Maintain the wholesome views and feelings that you have

This kind of effort requires persistence and lots of concentration. Which brings us to Right Concentration. To be persistent in our pursuit of the good, we must maintain our focus on it. The best way, I think, to do this is to concentrate on what is important. And the best way to concentrate on what is important is to reflect or meditate on what is important. Concentrating on what will make us more virtuous is what makes it “right.” With the Right Effort and Right Concentration, I can eventually get beyond “thinking about virtue” for 5 – 30 minutes a day, and create the motivation to live and act virtuously.

But of course, to be virtuous takes great persistence. The world around you won’t change very much at all, despite your efforts; however, with time your view and your impact on your immediate world will change for the better.

…as long as you are persistent.

Anchor #3: Patience

Posted on November 7, 2012 by Chris

“Think of this doctrine – That reasoning beings were created for one another’s sake; That to be patient is a branch of justice; and that we often sin without intending it.”–Marcus Aurelius

“My terrors should be quieted, my irritations soothed, my illusions shaken off, my indulgences checked, my greed rebuked. And which of these cures can be brought about in a hurry?”–Seneca

Where can I find Patience?

The value of patience is best measured when I find out what happens when I don’t have it. Things take time, and often they will not go my way. When I am impatient, I create a tension within myself without anyone else’s help. In another words, my impatience makes things worse. This creates anger and other negative emotions, which in turn, impedes my ability to see things clearly. …to think rationally …to be happy.

I can be impatient with many things. Here are a few of them:

Progress of my career
My child’s development (in sports, school, maturity, etc.)
My parents’ stories
The agent at the help desk
The [lack of] performance of my computer
My house’s state of clutter or cleanliness
Someone else’s listening skills
My own listening skills

Regardless of what I am impatient of, I can refill my patience reservoir in this way. Start by gently breathing in and out. When I breathe in, I think “breathing in,” when I breathe out, I think “breathing out.” Now, after a few moments of slowing down and being aware of the breath, I can now think “patience” with each breath. Really think about the meaning, maybe apply it to each of those situations above. At the beginning of the day, I say “I will have patience with…” At the end of the day, I can ask, “Did I have patience with…?” Once I am satisfied, that my patience reservoir is full, I can move on with my day.

This activity requires quite a bit of…

How is your patience doing today? Are there better ways to nurture patience?

Anchor #2 Part Deux: Understanding and Root Cause Analysis

Posted on November 5, 2012 by Chris

Every once in a while, my worlds collide with each other. In this case, my philosophical world has met my work world. In my previous entry on understanding I wrote about how asking questions leads to better understanding. If you read the post, you know how I really like “why” questions.

This got me thinking about why questions and a technique that is used in business process improvement (sometimes called Six Sigma or Lean) called the “5 whys.” This technique is part of what is called root cause analysis. In other words, it is to understand a problem in a business or production process. Ah yes, understanding.

Essentially, this process starts out with the obvious problem and you keep asking why until you reach the root cause. For example:

Problem: My car won’t start

Why? – The battery is dead.
Why? – The alternator is not functioning.
Why? – The alternator belt has broken.
Why? – The alternator belt was well beyond its useful service life and not replaced.
Why? – My alternator belt was not replaced according to schedule.
Why? – I can’t order replacement parts because the car is too old.

Oops! Notice, there is a 6th Why! That’s right, there is no guarantee you’ll get to a root cause just because you use 5 whys. You might even get to a root cause sooner than 5. “5 Whys” is only a guide.

So now that I know the root cause, I can set about fixing it. Maybe I should get a new car, or maybe I can get someone to fabricate the proper belt, or maybe a different belt might work. Another benefit of finding a root cause, is that it keeps me from misunderstanding the problem, or blaming something else. For example, my car is not dead because my son left the headlights on.

So what about understanding in the philosophical sense. Well, how about this example?

Problem: My brother never calls me

Why? – He is very busy
Why? – He has been working 2 jobs and going to school
Why? – He’s trying to send his kids to private school
Why? – He wants them to get into good colleges so they can get good jobs
Why? – He wants them to make lots of money

OK, so did I get to a root cause? Maybe. Maybe I should call him to see how things are. Maybe he’s chasing after the wrong kind of happy. Part of getting the right answers in asking why, is asking the right questions. I suppose I could keep asking a sixth question: Why? – He thinks that will make his children happy. Hmmm, my brother is making lots of money. Is it making him happy? Well, it certainly is helping me understand why he doesn’t call. It certainly is making me less concerned about me and more concerned about my brother. Whether I got to a root cause or not, it certainly did help me understand. This process of asking why, I think it led me to being more virtuous. Don’t you think?

Why do they never call me?

Now, if your philosophy is not practical in your daily life, then why have it as a philosophy? I figured I’d throw a little practical application in.

Was it useful?

(Feature photo source: http://www.shutterstock.com/g/belovodchenko)

Anchor #2: Understanding

Posted on November 3, 2012 by Chris

Always ask yourself questions…this is the key to understanding. “Why questions” seem to work the best. Why am I feeling so blue today? Why doesn’t my mate find me attractive any more? Why is that lady such a pain in the butt all the time?

As humans, we often make snap judgments about what is right and wrong, acceptable and not. Moreover, we assume many stereotypes and take shortcuts to conclusions about the things we see.

In the morning we assume the sun will “rise.” Some ancients thought they lived on a flat surface and that the sun was moving through the sky because that is the way it appeared to them. Eventually, it occurred to someone that we might be inhabiting a round planet and that the Earth’s spinning was the real reason the sun appeared to move in the sky. To start on the road to understanding, someone had to start asking “why” does the sun rise in the East and set in the West, or “why” do ships’ masts remain visible as they sail away while the hulls disappear? Through why questions like these, eventually people began to understand the reason for the sun’s apparent movement.

What about this one? Let’s say you are treated rudely by someone in public or maybe even a friend. You think, “This guy is a real jerk, I ought to punch his face!” Before you act on this impulse maybe you should ask, “Why is this guy being such a jerk?” The answer, should you have some magical way to attain one, might surprise you. What you might not be taking time to understand is that this “guy” was just dumped by the love of his life and his mother is dying of bone cancer. On top of all of that, he is working for a struggling company that is looking to reduce its workforce. Since he is one of the newest employees there, he is worried about losing his job. With all of this going on, does that give him the right to be such an ass (see definition) to you? Well, have you ever let your issues affect your attitude with others? It certainly would be nice if he could keep his personal problems from making him so difficult with you, but then again, he is only human. Are you understanding now? Do you have some understanding of why he is being such an ass?

Picture of an ass

“Why” questions seem to help us get to the root of things, but who, what, where, when, and how questions are useful also. Especially when it comes to the results of certain actions we may take.

For example, let’s deal with your urge to punch someone in the face.

Who will you be hurting if you commit such an act?–the guy, his family, yourself (after you get charged with assault or he hits you back), your family, etc.
What will such an act accomplish (or not accomplish)?–make him angry, make you look like the “jerk,” not help you in your relations with him, not likely to change his attitude, etc.
When will you cross paths with him again?–maybe never. tomorrow when he is in a better mood or willing to share some of the reasons for his bad behavior
Where will you be tomorrow?–going about your business if you walk away, defending yourself in court/a lawsuit if you act on your urge to “punch.”
How will this act make you feel?–Eventually, like a “jerk.”

So, maybe by taking the time to ask questions of yourself you might have an understanding of what punching someone in the face actually accomplishes. What is the success rate of a punch in the face accomplishing its intended goal? What is your goal in committing such an act in the first place? Is it merely to punish, to make yourself feel better, to correct someone’s behavior? What are the long term implications?

The key to understanding is to always ask questions. Always dig further. Those ancients would not have unlocked the secrets of the universe if someone hadn’t of asked, “why?”