Inward Struggle for Inner Calm - Christian, Buddhist, Islamic, Jewish

Peraldus

“In all my activities may I search my own mind and, as soon as an afflictive emotion arises endangering myself and others, may I firmly face and avert it.”

— Kadampa Geshé Langritangpa’s Eight Verses of Mind Cultivation. 

Civilization means to be made to conform to your social world, it makes you feel more and more a part of your society the more you give in to its demands. Civilization makes the rules. Cultivation, an entirely different story, means working on yourself as a way of aspiring to something higher than your immediate surroundings, something transcendent and sublime. It may well be that society will neither approve nor help you with cultivation, while religions really ought to especially in cases when they don’t.

If you’ve never considered how ethics worthy of the name comes from inner cultivation and not from any outwardly imposed morality, explore some of these published resources. Start from the premise that we are all humans doing our best to be authentic and basically good. Then we might discuss whether there might be more and less effective ways to go about it. And even if generally effective, there are always, in every religious system, efforts that turn out unsuccessful for one reason or another. We might have to admit that, for the time being, alleviation and mitigation are sublime enough aims for us.

I’m not saying the battle metaphor is the ideal one let alone the only one, just that you do find it, and it’s intended as a metaphor when it’s used as one.* It makes clear and prominent appearances in Christianity, Buddhism, Islam and Judaism, and those are enough religions for us to think about for now. The use of it does tend to foster an approach to mental turmoil as something to directly confront and do away with (or perhaps retreat from it or block its stimulus). But it may prove more effective (as in the Great Vehicle) to counteract negative emotions with spiritually conducive ones, make use of antidotes, or what is a little different, to transform them. But then transformation is by no means all that straightforward, as it may itself involve more and less effective techniques. One problem is some of our emotional problems rest on the surface, while others are deeply entrenched or invisible to us. When approached from this direction, with klesha-solving objectives, the Vajra Vehicle with its specialized and seemingly counterintuitive techniques begins to make sense. The trouble is so many attempt to sneak through the back door to grab whatever bauble first catches their eye.** Their commitment is selective at best.

(*I have in mind those irritatingly self-promoting academics of our times who are so incognizant of distinctions between metaphors, similes, analogies, parables, fables, plot lines, irony, etc., that they lump them into that nearly meaningless [because overworked] word “trope,” a word they toss off with an insouciant yawn or a snarl of practiced tedium. We may not be all that sure what real intellect is, but we know this is not it. Their assumption they expect us to share in is that plainly literal expository prose is the only language that does anything for us. It’s as if the poetics discussion had never taken place and wouldn’t make sense to any of us if it did. **We could very well expect a ‘What’s in it for me’ attitude, but what is needed is more like ‘How can we go about this the right way?’ and ‘Has this procedure proven to have a good track record?’)

Dalai Lama Tells Muslims Jihad Is Meant to Combat Our Inner Destructive Emotions.

His Holiness in a Mosque
in Leh, Ladakh, 2022

For a useful H.H. Dalai Lama quote, look around a minute and a half into this video, “Do Not Reject Refugees Because They Are Muslims.” But seriously, take the time to listen to the whole seven minutes of the BBC interview. It takes awhile to warm up.

Moshe Idel, “Inner Peace through Inner Struggle in Abraham Abulafia's Ecstatic Kabbalah,” Journal for the Study of Sephardic and Mizrahi Jewry (March 2009), pp. 62-96.  If the link doesn’t work, you could also try here.

The Lubavitcher Rebbe Menachem Mendel Schneerson (1901-1994), “How to Fight the Evil Inclination” [excerpt from a talk for children]. In Yiddish with clear English subtitles, its main thesis is that rationality springs to the defense of our chief opponent, the negative impulses, or evil inclinations (yetser hara).  But trying to use rationality against them is basically a waste of our time. No sense engaging them in their arguments on their level (although I have to say, in this excerpt it isn’t especially clear what the Rebbe positively prescribes. He appears to say that, given that divine assistance lends us a definite edge, if you just fill your time with ordinary religious practice, thereby ignoring them, victory is assuredly on its way... [Is this a fair assessment?]).

Michael Evans, “An Illustrated Fragment of Peraldus’s Summa of Vice: Harleian MS 3244,” Journal of the Warburg and Courtauld Institutes, vol. 45 (1982), pp. 14-68.  If you are one of far too many who never heard of Peraldus (ca. 1200-1271), look at this Wiki page.

The British Library website has this nice page of manuscript illuminations from a Peraldus manuscript, with explanations.

I recommend to download at a higher density the illumination of the Christian knight with doves and demons from this page.  There are a lot of surviving manuscripts of Peraldus’s works, so many library and university websites have put up complete or partial scans that you can find if you look.

I don’t seriously expect anyone else to see things the way I do — oh well, I’ve been surprised before — but when I first set eye on the Christian knight of Peraldus,* I could see nothing other than the set of Mental States as described in Buddhist Abhidharma texts. To narrow in a bit and put a name to it: klesha therapeutics.**

(*This happened at an exhibit in the British Museum at the turn of the 3rd millennium. I was so intrigued by that page of Peraldus I had to purchase the heavy catalog and lug it home, where it can still be found: Frances Carey, ed., The Apocalypse and the Shape of Things to Come, British Museum Press [London 1999]. The Christian Knight may be seen in full color on p. 73. **Klesha therapeutics have featured several times in earlier Tibeto-logic blogs, for instance this one.)

Barbara H. Rosenwein, Emotional Communities in the Early Middle Ages, Cornell University Press (Ithaca 2006). This book makes me think differently, lending me a greater respect for some of the contemporary movements in emotion studies (I already had it for medievalism). All you have to do is see the lists of emotions by Cicero, Seneca, Jerome and many others that can be found in this book to notice that the Mental States ideas of Abhidharma texts (let’s see, we might just as well call it Buddhist emotion theory) can be fitted in well with them. Wherever you look, whether east or west, emotional possibilities are listed, analyzed and charted out as part of this or that program for bettering ourselves. Once a basic emotional commonality (beyond particular and after all mostly slight or language-governed differences) has been established we can go on to commiserate with out fellow humans, and maybe even experience first hand that curious and by all means emotional complex that makes up that compassion Buddhists regard so highly. It’s the pity, the fear and the joy that make us jump in the car and drive to the theater in the first place, isn’t it? Aristotle thought so and I guess he was right, just that he never learned to drive.

Raja Muhammad Mustansar Javaid, “The Merits of the Soul: Struggle Against The Self (Nafs).” There is a lot out there defining what the nafs is in the Quran and in Islamic spiritual psychology. I recommend this recently posted page for its broad compilation of sources that include videos.

On the “Beastie Boys”:  

More laughs were to come when Mike D. shared the story behind the band’s name. It’s an acronym for “Boys Entering Anarchistic States Towards Inner Excellence.” And yes, he admitted, “it was a stupid name.”

No it wasn’t. That said, am I required to like the music?

Johnny Cash, The Beast in Me.   

I was trying to think what direction to take here in terms of a conclusion or even just a parting shot. You tell me. If you’ve looked into and reflected about how to become the better version of your non-self, my work is overly done. And, well... If we can find out how not to be a puppet or slave to impulsive or habitual thought patterns, the struggle is nearly over. And to answer that other thought, No. It doesn’t make sense to talk about mental turmoil without putting some on display. Really, it doesn’t.

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PS: Over a decade ago there was a sharp and edgy blog I enjoyed reading called “Buddhist Jihad.” I thought it was lost forever, but you can still get access to it via the Way Back Machine. It isn’t for the irony-challenged. But that’s not you, not if you’re here.

PPS: Oh wait, the original is still up there. You can find it here. 

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PPPS (September 14, 2022):

For those who want to see the original Tibetan of the verse from Langritangpa (གླང་རི་ཐང་པ་རྡོ་རྗེ་སེང་གེ, 1054-1123 CE) at the head of this blog, here it is:

སྤྱོད་ལམ་ཀུན་ཏུ་རང་རྒྱུད་ལ། །རྟོག་ཅིང་ཉོན་མོངས་སྐྱེས་མ་ཐག །བདག་གཞན་མ་རུངས་བྱེད་པས་ན། །བཙན་ཐབས་གདོང་ནས་བཟློག་པར་ཤོག །

I’d like to underscore the use of the term btsan-thabs, a key word in this context, that might be literally translated forceful method[s], although in general practice it is most likely to be used for physiological or breath exercises of the yogic kinds. In this particular case, it is about dealing with negative emotional events as they arise within us, and have nothing to do with retaliation against external threats. If you need more convincing, just turn to any Stages of the Path (lam-rim) work, and turn to the section on the six Transcendent Perfections (Phar-phyin drug), then narrow in on the part about forbearance (bzod-pa). Then we can talk back all we want about Buddhists who clearly don’t live up to the ethical standards of aspiring bodhisattvas, and when we do, let’s go back to cultivating forbearance before it gets too late.

Pay attention to who is speaking the following words, a political power broker if there ever was one who accepts the label ‘extremism’ with pride:

“I do not respect the Dalai Lama. He’s a political power broker. The Dalai Lama is not honorable to me.”

— Ashin Wirathu

But quickly, before we allow this firebrand ultranationalist anti-Muslim (who has meanwhile been tried for sedition and released ahead of time) put us into a defensive or offensive mood or inspire our anger (or even, over the longer term, hatred), let’s go to the chapter I recommended on forbearance. Best would be the latest translation of Gampopa’s 12th-century Stages of the Path text, the one that has lately appeared under the title Ornament of Precious Liberation, but any of the 3 or 4 earlier published translations could be good enough, I think, for this purpose.

Near the beginning of Chapter 14: The Perfection of Forbearance:

... “Anger that has found a niche inside someone lacking forbearance is like the festering wound of a poisoned arrow. The mind thus afflicted knows no joy, no peace, and in the end the person cannot even find rest in sleep. Thus it is said:

 

 

“The anger dwelling within someone lacking forbearance will also show on the outside as a violent demeanor. Through this, friends, relatives, and employees all become fed up with the angry person...”

I hope that will be enough to get the idea, but really, go and soak up the whole chapter, I urge you. And pay attention to the fact that forbearance (Pâli khanti) is a much-emphasized virtue in Theravâda Buddhism as well. We shouldn’t let the poor Burmese monk off the hook for the wrong reason. 

And rest assured that the universally Buddhist term we translate (regardless of source language), as ‘forbearance’ includes within its definitional boundaries both toleration and patience. Some even render it as ‘long-suffering’ — this rather out-of-date English term is likely to be misinterpreted by our contemporaries. If it were not for that, it could serve just as well.

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PPPPS (September 16, 2022):

His Holiness the 14th Dalai Lama of Tibet has just returned from a tour of Ladakh and Zanskar where He addressed and dialogued with primarily Muslim audiences in Shey, Ladakh, and Padum, Zangskar. You can see and hear them by pressing on the links, I hope. The Shey is in English.