"Right Listening" & Campaign 2008

Every so often -- and I honestly wish that it was more frequent than it is -- I get a bug up my bum to study a religion. This latest fixation has been on Buddhism. I've previously read books about Buddhism, but it's been from the tangential angle of Jews who have begun following Buddhism. This intersection often brings the strong cultural identity of a Jewish person to his or her following of the eightfold path, which adds its own twist to their "take" on Buddhism. While that was fascinating, on both religious and cultural levels, my current study is on Buddhism "proper."

I recently read a wonderful, bare-bones book titled Buddhism Plain & Simple: The Practice of Being Aware, Right Now, Every Day by Steve Hagen (ISBN 0-7679-0332-3). Its focus was not on the religious aspects of any Buddhist followings or sects. Rather, it is on the actual teachings of the Buddha, stripped of any ritual or ceremony that has since sprung up. While I intend to continue studying some of these more ritualistic forms of Buddhism, this straightforward approach to the eightfold path is most appealing to me.

Anywho, a passage from this book caught my eye as it might apply to the current political environment in the United States. (Of course, many would argue that it applies to all interactions everyday.) In summary, we hear talk and talk and talk about the candidates, but rarely do we do our own homework -- or apply our own reasoning -- to the race. Indeed, some of you may be reading this blog day-to-day and simply be taking my word for things. And, of course, I bring an agenda to my writing... one of which I may not always be aware myself. This is just as true for the folks that I quote or the writings that I read that form the foundation for many of these blog posts. The passage from Hagen's Buddhism Plain & Simple that I think speaks to all of this can be found on pages 79-80 and concerns the concept -- and practice -- of "right listening."

When you become a listener, the concern remains the same: to be awake. But how do you do this as a listener? Let's consider this statement from the Buddha about right speech again:

What they have heard here, they do not repeat there, so as to cause dissension there.... Thus they unite those that are divided, and those that are united they encourage. Concord gladdens them, they delight and rejoice in concord; and it is concord that they spread by their words.

Now imagine that you are the listener. Pat tells you something about Jolene. What do you just hear as a listener? What are you actually aware of, as opposed to what you think or believe or decide? What information have you actually received?

You've received information about Pat -- not about Jolene.

We tend not to notice this, however. We may walk away believing we have solid information about Jolene. But we don't. All we have are Pat's words about her.

On the other hand, we've received very direct information about Pat, because we've heard his words and intonations, we've seen his gestures, posture, and expressions.

We have to pay attention to our actual circumstance -- the situation we're actually in. And what we've actually been presented with is Pat.

A buddha recognizes that anything put into speech is never completely reliable. Whatever someone says to you about another person is skewed from the start. It comes through their filter, their likes and dislikes, their education, their ambition, and the leanings of their own mind.

Perhaps you haven't even met Jolene. If you're wise, you'll withhold judgements [sic] about her because, at best, all you really know about Jolene is what Pat thinks of her. If you're not wise, however, you'll accept Pat's words as reality and adopt his view, and his leanings of mind, as your own. Then, when you finally do meet Jolene, you'll bring to the encounter a prejudiced view -- one that isn't even your own.

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25 August 2008