Oh, How Wonderful!

My friend Jim (of the mighty Simjam combo that many of you know so well) passed on a teaching to me awhile back that I've been working with.

His teacher pointed out that the most mature response to any event is, "Oh! How Wonderful!".

For instance, today, it snowed, and BOY did it.  All of my meetings, plans and errands were postponed within my first hour of being awake this morning.

I went outside for a bit and had the cold wind on my neck, the shivers reverberating through my chilled body.

As I was complaining in my mind, Jim's advice popped through.... "Oh! How Wonderful!".

Now, the longest-term view of this logic somewhat requires a belief in reincarnation.  If you disbelieve in such things, you might stop and instead continue to your next wave of internet surfing.

The reasoning is that, when negative events occur, they're the ripening of karma.  That means that those effects of our past misdeeds are now purified!  This means that the worse the event is that occurs, the more of our negative karma is exhausted and thusly we won't have to endure those negative consequences when those karmic seeds ripen at a later date!  "Oh, how Wonderful!".

As it relates to the weather this morning, they say that this precious human birth that we encounter has a very unique property.... Our karma goes through a sort of catalyst process that means that very small annoyances, difficulties and problems as humans actually purify HUGE, VAST, ENORMOUS stores of negative karma.  Further, there are much more painful realms, like the hell realms, where this catalyst-effect is NOT in place.  I once heard a Buddhist nun say that for her to have a head-cold for a couple of days as a human prevented her from experiencing about 120,000 years of suffering in a hell realm.  To this, finding myself standing outside and feeling that sense of freezing cold, likely purified tens-of-thousands of years in a cold hell realm!

Now, this doesn't say to go be a martyr and seek out painful events as a mistaken attempt to purify your karmic storehouse.  What it *does* mean is to cultivate a light, playful attitude which allows for happiness and mental flexibility when unpleasant circumstances inevitably arise.  As an adjunct, my own teacher, Dzigar Kongtrul Rinpoche says, "don't blame others for your own negative karma!".  So, the "fault" never lies "out there" with "those people" or "that thing" when problems arise of any sort.  It's *your* karma!

While immediately terrifying, there is a longer-term very empowering quality that arises from this.  To paraphrase Shantideva, "it's easier to put on moccasins than to cover the world in leather".  To me, this means that it's easier to find happiness in my own contentment than it is to arrange the world in such a way as to give me all my wants and needs through every moment and to juggle all the balls in just the right manner so that I get to continue to get my way.

So, to the reincarnation-skeptics, you may have noticed a very practical current-life benefit to this line of thinking.  When bad things occur, it's very helpful to have a mind that is disciplined enough to NOT pile on frustration, anger and blame.  We all know people in our lives who bring disempowered, negative, self-concerned reactions to life's discomforts (and even tragedies).  The result frequently shows up in this very life, sometimes in months and years if not in moments and hours.  Negative people tend to be jerks that nobody wants to be around.  People that blame others for their own issues tend to repel others.

Instead, I see an example like HH Dalai Lama.  This is a man who's country and culture was torn out from under him.  He watched tens of thousands of his monasteries destroyed while they were under his care.  He watched hundreds of thousands of monks murdered for simply sharing his beliefs.  Yet, what is his demeanor?  He brings a child-like joy, an open-hearted acceptance, love and appreciation for everyone, *particularly* those who have brought harm to him and those he cares about!  He has said consistently that the greatest danger regarding the Chinese is that we see them as "other" and fail to have compassion for those Chinese!  This, to me is the ultimate view of emotional maturity.

Of course, going from being pissed off about bad weather to loving murderous tormentors is not a leap that many of us are capable of making in one feld-swoop.  The way that we can transform ourselves is by doing our best to stabilize the view that when bad things happen, we are purifying our own negativities and thusly we are lighter and more free.  We try to bring appreciation to *all* situations, ever doing our best to remember to say, "Oh! How Wonderful!".

Thank you Jim.

Love,

 - Greg