In Search of Mindfulness

From a distance

2009-06-09T14:10:00.000-07:00

For me, part of mindfulness is being able to step back and look at things. I found a book in the library yesterday that showed me a bit more of how FAR I need to step back.

In 2007 Riane Eisler published a book "The Real Wealth of Nations". Dr. Eisler is trained in sociology and law and has been described as a cultural historian and an evolutionary theorist. In this book she talks about the problems of neoclassical economics and their origins. She steps WAY back.

I have felt for a long time that the solution to the economics problems we have are not to be found in economics. Dr. Eisler agrees. I have felt that it is going to require gut level, individual, attitudinal change. Dr. Eisler agrees - I think. She proposes that it is going to take a profound cultural change to go from a cultural philosophy of Domination to a philosophy of Caring.

Her explanations are so clear and lucid. Her real life business/economics examples are concise and persuasive. All we have to do is change how we organize and relate to one another and nature and change it from a hierarchy of domination within the current domination system to a hierarchy of actualization working within a partnership system.

She has convinced me. Think if we get busy we can accomplish it before Thanksgiving?

Across traditions

2009-05-31T16:19:00.000-07:00

I was at the BALLE conference in Denver about 10 days ago and one of the speakers ended his presentation with this quote:

Rumi says:

Today, like every other day, we wake up empty
and frightened. Don’t open the door to the study
and begin reading. Take down a musical instrument.
Let the beauty we love be what we do.
There are hundreds of ways to kneel and kiss the ground.

Keeping things in our heads helps no one. Being requires action and yet action requires mindfulness, thinking through the implications of our actions.

These concepts belong to no individual tradition. Rumi was a 13th-century Persian poet, Islamic jurist, theologian, and mystic. And yet what he says is valuable to my Buddhist friends and me as a Christian. We need to be mindful in a broad way, in my humble opinion.

Mindfulness in the West.

2009-05-05T20:33:00.000-07:00

I have left Thailand for a while. I have returned to the US to finish my doctoral work.

The return has been memorable.

San Francisco is cold - the people are warm

The internet is capable of fostering incredible friendships - I have visited Holland, Haney and Thomas and what incredible people they are. I would go to the line for any of them anytime.

As I have talked with old colleagues (Haney and Thomas) and new (Fred Block and Mark McLeod) I have realized just how my different pasts come together into my present. If I could only foresee the future.

There is something different about America these days. I have not been home since 2006. There was a scary tangible fear then. It doesn't seem to be here now. Do I sense hope? Or is that just me?

America is still the seventh heaven of consumerism. How, oh how can that be changed?

Thomas has helped me step back and look at myself, for which I thank him immensely.

I have had 4 interviews here that are preliminary to my research and helping me get my head focused. Haney and Thomas helped me realize that the work I am doing probably really started the fateful day I found Omidyar.net more than 4 years ago. It is there that I started developing a deep interest in the organization of communities: communities that work together based on shared values. Dr. Block held up a light for me that was a light of hope for progressive economics where people matter and the light grew brighter in meeting Mr. McLeod of the Berkeley Sustainable Business Alliance and a part of the BALLE Network.

I have a few more days to "chill out" (literally) before I head off to Salt Lake City on Friday. On the way I am going to get to meet another long-time virtual friend who I feel like I already have spent years with.

In Salt Lake City I am anxious to investigate the Church of LDS Welfare Square and find out how they have developed mechanisms to assist the poor and unemployed in their midst. Social justice somehow feels like it has to be a huge and integral part of the solution to our current economic crisis. I will also be meeting with another BALLE Network there.

On the 24th I will arrive in Denver where I am going to get to spend a couple of weeks trying to pull together a number of different networks and start to make sense of what I will be studying over the next months.

David Braden, a mindful philosopher looking to find a way to share his vision (Omidyar/)

Peter Hurst, a man who shared his vision and knowledge of deep communities with me in Thailand (Naropa/Buddhism)

Marpa Center for Business and Economics (Buddhism/Economics/Alternative Currencies)

Mickki Langston and Arthur Brock who are working with BALLE in their own distinct ways to build strong, vital mindful communities (Omidyar/ BALLE/Alternative currencies)

The 7th BALLE Conference where I hope to find a network and companies that will agree to be a case study for me to look at how they gather together as communities with values and how they organize themselves to do economic activity continuing to support the values

I think I should make this my mantra -

mindfulness ....

thinking about what you are doing
thinking about why you are doing it
thinking about what the effects of doing it are going to be

A question for Davos

2009-01-24T03:04:00.000-08:00

A friend of mine recently used a phrase that hit me strong: Economics - where real people are spending real money.

It really made somethings clear to me. Isn't a major part of the problem we are having now that economics is based on a model using man as a rational creature with perfect information making decisions driven purely by self-interest? That is about as far away from real people as I can imagine getting. And real money? Debt backed money may be equally far away from real money.

I realize we got to where we are with many tiny little steps but now we are at the abyss and need to take big and bold actions to save things. How do we turn around the whole distorted model of economics?

mindfulness ....

thinking about what you are doing
thinking about why you are doing it
thinking about what the effects of doing it are going to be

Mind Full

2009-01-24T02:30:00.000-08:00

It seems like just yesterday that I posted here. In other ways it seems like a lifetime ago.

Right after I posted here the last time, I took on a task that was too big to do in the allotted time. I edited a translation of part of a Thai book entitled "Buddhist Economics: Evolution, Theories and Its Application to Various Economic Subjects". It is done. The author is happy. I am not. We will get it right on the second printing.

That project consumed all - and I do mean ALL - of my time for just over three weeks. By the time it was over, I was already into the beginning of a new semester and teaching 2 classes that I had never taught before that used up 15 lecture hours a week.

During November and December I was incredibly fortunate to host a visiting faculty member from Ashcroft International Business School. She came here and taught Buddhism and sustainable business practices.

Partly she was coming here for the 2nd International Conference of the Buddhist Economic Research Platform: Theory and Practice which I have been the chief organizer of for over a year. Unfortunately, days before the conference we had to postpone due to the civil unrest here in Thailand that had closed down transportation. The conference has been rescheduled for April 9-11, 2009 and the plans are at least under control again.

Also during my absence from here there has been a huge faculty upheaval that has resulted in the dean of my faculty resigning and created problems that don't warrant discussion here.

All of this has resulted in many changes in my life.

The current semester will be over at the end of February - barely 5 weeks away. At that time I will be focusing on finalizing all of the plans for the conference in April and I will also be tying up loose ends here as after the conference I will be returning to the United States for a year to work on my PhD research before coming back to defend my thesis mid 2010.

The year home at this particular time is problematic. With the economic situation what it is, it's incredibly unlikely I will get a job. I have applied for a grant to cover my travel expenses for my research in the US but won't know the status on that for a couple of weeks yet. So, I continue to plan to go home with all of my savings from here and hope that it is enough for me to survive and do all of the traveling I need to do to interview all of the people I need to interview and visit all the communities of practice I want to visit even if I don't get the grant.

Mindfulness has to sustain me here. I know what I want to do. I know the problems. I know more than ever that we need to find a new way to lead our economic lives. I know that without that change we are doomed. I know that with it, there is hope.

mindfulness ....

thinking about what you are doing
thinking about why you are doing it
thinking about what the effects of doing it are going to be

The reality of Poverty

2008-10-15T05:09:00.000-07:00

Today is Blog Action Day. Blog Action day is trying to this one day, focus the attention of readers of blogs on the topic of poverty.

Poverty is not a condition that makes me happy or comfortable. I have more than enough to eat and always have had. I have money to buy clothes when I need them, provide a roof over my head and be able to see a doctor when I need to. Don't get me wrong. I am not rich. But God knows I am not in poverty.

I don't like to see poverty. I don't like to talk about poverty. I don't like to think about poverty. Poverty is a huge problem in this world and it shouldn't be. There is enough food in the world to feed every person. That is a distribution problem. If you look at the wealth in the world, I suspect that there is enough wealth in the world to eliminate poverty as well. It's a distribution problem.

If each of us looks mindfully at how we distribute the money that we are stewards of.....could we then act to eliminate poverty?

mindfullness ....

thinking about what you are doing
thinking about why you are doing it
thinking about what the effects of doing it are going to be

My first post - a second time

2008-10-15T04:40:00.001-07:00

DISCLAIMER This is rambling. This is thinking. Call it (at this point) individual brainstorming. I have posted this here because I want to work with each of you and share these ideas to build an organized vision and maybe lead to an insight in a positive forward direction. I speak of Buddhism not being a Buddhist but admiring much of what I see. I am not an expert. I also posted this initially on ned.com my real home

I believe deep in my heart that every person on the globe wants to move their life forward toward something better.

The problem is figuring out the direction. We wander. We look around us to see what others are doing and kind of figure the direction most people is going is the right direction.

Some of us travel that path and find that it really isn't going anywhere that we want to go and screw up enough courage to try to swim upstream.

I guess I feel like I have always been swimming upstream. I mean I gave my first doom and gloom speech on the environment to a large church group in 1966. (About the same time I was protesting the war in Vietnam.)

I got into this mode of thinking by the constant comments when I speak about Sufficiency Economy here in Thailand (remember, this is a philosophy developed by the King of Thailand) that I must be crazy. How could I get into the Sufficiency Economy thing when I am an American?

People in Thailand and much of the rest of the world, believe that the west (most visibly and audibly America) has the answers to happiness and well being. They don't have a clue. But why should I be surprised that Thais and Africans don't understand that the western goal of mindless consumerism and endless accumulation is not the answer when those who are living in the middle of that and know that it is not really the answer keep chasing it?

When I came to first learn about Buddhist Economics, it grabbed me. Most simply stated it is economics where ethics matter. Where people are central. Where having a job is more than making money; it is honing a skill and having pride in your work and knowing that you are contributing to society with your work. It is an economics where the focus is not on the accumulation of wealth but rather a measure of how you distribute your wealth.

One of the biggest problems with it is that it is still, in many ways, a regional, cultural concept that is fully shrouded in Buddhism. That is not to say that there is anything wrong with that. It is to say that it is my belief that as long as it wears that outer layer, not many people will look at the beauty inside it. I have more than once joked with Aj. Apichai that I thought I was called to take the Buddhism out of Buddhist Economics. I am just not sure how to do that so that it can speak to millions of people in the west who I believe are searching for the answers it points to.

The hub in Buddhist Economics is the Buddhist concept of relieving suffering. Relieving suffering for oneself and for all those around us. The goals of the Buddhist Philosophy are to examine (in your own life) the causes of suffering. The central cause of suffering is identified as attachment. Attachment to things and people and ideas - attachment to anything - limits our satisfaction.

Buddhism seems to be focused on awareness: self awareness, awareness of others and awareness of our actions and their effects....looking for causes.

Mindfulness.

It is a term that was focused into my vision last year when I went to the conference in Budapest. There was another conference participant, Joel Magnuson who is from Portland. He is an economist who teaches at Portland State University and Portland Community College. He has written a great textbook "Mindful Economics".

mindfulness
thinking about what you are doing
thinking about why you are doing it
thinking about what the effects of doing it are going to be

Mindfulness.... It makes me think of all the times I would get in hot water with my mother and would land up saying "... but I didn't think it would matter" or "I didn't think you would care" and she would come back with "That is precisely the point: you didn't think." She used that phrase often. I hope she knows that now I at least try to think.

Your turn...

Common thread: Oxymoron - Bush Doctrine Wiki, Cheap Gas

2008-09-13T00:58:00.000-07:00

Digg 1TALK2ME: tax policy center, fannie mae and freddie mac
Digg 2Binta and the Great Idea

Today I found a common thread with oxymoron , bush doctrine wiki , and cheap gas. (I lost the link to cheap gas because of my slow internet connection here today).

The reason it was funny is that I taught my students the meaning of oxymoron this week. During the lecture someone asked a question and went to Google to show them how to find the answer. Some ridiculous thing showed up that was an oxymoron and I laughed and then had to explain why I laughed. I have to admit that I hoped that oxymoron made it onto the google trends list because all of my students went out and googled it....I doubt it :-)

Then as I looked at Google trends I saw things as oxymorons. Cheap gas....right! Then there is Bush Doctrine wiki. This one may be more subtle or it just may be personal belief.

(from http://dictionary.die.net/doctrine)

doctrine
  n : a belief (or system of beliefs) accepted as authoritative by
      some group or school

Bush Doctrine? It is hard for me to think of "Bush" and "doctrine" in the same sentence. I can't believe that he has ever thought about anything long enough to have it as a belief. And it just scares me to think that someone trusts anything that he thinks as doctrine.

Wiki's are wonderful collaborative tools. Collaboration is another term I find hard to imagine in the same sentence with "Bush". It's not clear that he understands the meaning of the word.

bush doctrine wiki - definitely an oxymoron for me.

I WONDER: when in the course of human events; declaration of independence; magna carta

2008-09-06T01:08:00.000-07:00

Digg 1MY OWN WAY: caribou barbie, walter reed middle school, heart
Digg 2Buddhist Economics

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Looking at the google trends today, I was impressed by the number of reference to things I have been thinking about myself a lot lately. I was very lucky to be brought up understanding my history and roots. In Church I learned the . In school I learned the significance of the us constitution , the declaration of independence , the magna carta when in the course of human events , general cornwallis ,the war of 1812

and . I respected poor richards almanac, the US naval academy and a few good men. The reference to Power to the peaceful reminded me that I have settled on a life philosophy that understands where all of the violence fit in but believes that there is a better way. I like being a citizen of a country where people like the governor of New York are elected by the people and mostly work for the people. I cherish being a part of a culture that (at least used to) honors the rule of law. But things have happened in my country to change it. Stuff white people like often influence the world in an unbalanced way. It lands up leading to things like the crisis with fannie mae and freddie mac.

I wonder if other people value the things I hold so dear or am I living in my own fantasy land.

Talk2Me - This is intelligent politics?

2008-09-04T17:05:00.000-07:00

Digg 1ourwwworld how-to: BLOG YOUR WORDPLAY
Digg 2Ghandi Essay

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The above google trends for September 4 scare me. (Well all of the ones that I removed scared me to because they show me how much out of tune with America I have grown!)

All of these links are to American politics. It's not surprising that there would be a lot of political searches right now. I mean we are coming up on an important US presidential Election and the Republican National Convention is happening now. But where is the intelligence? This is all backstabbing, rumor mongering, petty garbage when we are facing incredible challenges in the world today and as the country with the largest economy, supporting millions and millions of people in countries all over the world, as the country with the largest consumption, the largest pollution, the largest military......we have some responsibilities....and people are concerned with personal name calling and rumor?

Talk2Me. Please tell me that it is not me who is totally out of touch with reality.

Common Thread: Woods

2008-09-02T15:40:00.000-07:00

Digg 1Our WWWorld Blog
Digg 2The Video of the Obama Acceptance

There are always a lot of names on the google trends list but since I have somethings in common with Tiger Woods, his name on the list this morning was interesting. (We both have the same knee injury. The thing that's not common is that he can afford to have it repaired!)

There was another Woods on the list today and that was Sam Woods. Who is Sam woods you are asking! I didn't know either, but now I do! It is Tiger Woods lovely baby daughter!

MY OWN WAY: ourwwworld pilot game sample play

2008-08-31T09:04:00.000-07:00

Your Post Title: MY OWN WAY: catch a piece of maine, mix with grains of paradise and nitroaniline

digg 1: COMMON THREAD: ourwwworld pilot game sample play

digg 2: Two African ‘Lost Tribes’ Discovered Deep in the Sahara

I'm going to play today's google trends MY OWN WAY

My way means that I am going to catch a piece of maine and mix it up with some grains of paradise and nitroaniline, and take it to the woodstock fair to put on display like the bristol palin pregnancy

Anything goes when I play MY OWN WAY, but my post may not contain the words I WONDER, COMMON THREAD, TALK2ME or I DIDN'T KNOW

about the ourwwworld game

2008-08-31T09:03:00.000-07:00

lindernswwworld is a player blog in a virtual poker-like wordgame that plays on the current google top 100 search trends. A small global group of good citizens are piloting the ourwwworld game to share the game's ad revenues with their favorite cause. For more detailed information about the ourwwworld pilot game, visit http://ned.com