Whatever your area of study and learning—not just religion, but science, business, arts, etc.—there are those who you want to learn from and those who want to teach you. Sometimes individually, sometimes institutionally.
You may keep in mind two Buddhist principles that apply universally: skillful means and testing teachings.
Skillful or expedient means—known in Sanskrit as upaya—suggests that at any point in a life, under any particular circumstances, one method of learning may be appropriate for an individual, but at another point under different circumstances, another method may be more appropriate.
Buddha was also very specific about how an individual can choose methods and teachings. In a sutra attributed to Buddha, he recommended testing teachings, and not simply accepting teachings from any teacher—not even himself:
Don’t accept what you hear by report, and don’t accept mere tradition. Don’t jump to conclusions based on assumptions. Don’t accept a statement just because it is found in scriptures, or on the basis of general acceptance, or because it is what your teacher says. After examination, only believe and act upon what you yourself have tested and found reasonable. —Kalama Sutta
The year 2024 presented challenges. The new year will too.
Some of the challenges were and will be individual and personal, some shared and public.
In the past year, I thought more and more about compassion. For a while I bemoaned what I perceived to be a lack of compassion on the part of other people, lots of other people. But late in the year, I began to see that cultivating compassion could only begin with me. Fortunately, I discovered a thousand-year-old Buddhist practice known as lojong, aimed at doing just that.
One of the many points of the practice concerns how to deal with adversity, including enemies. Many are familiar with the suggestion of Jesus to “love your enemies.” This goes one stop further, with the suggestion “Be grateful to everyone.” Everyone, including those who do harm.
“Be grateful to everyone.”
This is a very profound statement. One of our primary tasks in this training is to get rid of anger and hatred. If we disperse these emotions, a great deal of suffering will vanish along with them. When we feel grateful, it breaks down anger and we cannot continue to feel hate. That is why this slogan is so effective. It is not difficult to be relaxed and forgiving when conditions are harmonious. However when things go wrong and we feel abused or under stress, we tend to be hostile. Dwelling on our hurt stirs up our aversion and the whole experience becomes totally negative. This can be avoided if we remember the positive potential in the situation.
The adversities that other people bring us are gifts, not betrayals. Disappointments try our patience and compassion. If our lives are completely sheltered and blessed, we have no friction to use as raw material in our practice. We will never conquer our ego if we are spared from every single upset and provocation. Atisha was known to travel with an attendant who was terribly bad-tempered. The man was irritable and very rude to everyone. People could not understand why a kind and wise teacher like Atisha permitted this nasty man to accompany him on his travels and they asked him how he put up with it. Atisha answered that the man was his “patience tester” and very precious to him.
Our efforts to generate compassion are always in connection with other people and our progress depends on these relationships. The people we live and work with and who share our lives are the sentient beings for whom we seek enlightenment. They are also the means of acquiring wisdom and patience on the way to enlightenment. Rather than feeling insulted or victimized by those who have been unkind to us, we bear the discomfort and feel thankful towards it.
Suffering so often comes from not being able to find the good in things and being critical. If we can be positive about whatever comes, we cling less to the world and are less wounded by bad experiences.
Aside from whatever personal situations arise, it is certain that in 2025 many people will be affected, frustrated, angry or outraged by developments in public life. It will be difficult to treat the people responsible for those policies with kindness or gratitude.
In the case of those who suffer because of those policies, we can do what we can to help relieve that suffering.
In the case of those who cause that suffering, being grateful to them is the last thing on our minds. But when we treat it as an opportunity to develop our wisdom and patience, that is something to be thankful for.
At this moment, the mountains, sun and clouds are related. Soon after, the sun rises higher and lightens the whole mountains, the clouds dissipate, and the mountains stand there.
Hanukkah, which begins on the evening of December 25, is known as the Festival of Lights. It might also be called the Festival of Light—more light.
Each night the light of the candles increases (but see note below). Just as each day after the winter solstice the sunlight increases.
If you light the candles to celebrate the storied rededication of the Temple, you might also recognize the miracle of each of us bringing more light into the world—one candle at a time.
So this Hanukkah, you might add this to the blessings:
יותר אור הלילה yoter or halila More light tonight!
Happy Hanukkkah!
Notes:
1
The Talmud (Shabbat 21b:5) reports that there was disagreement among the rabinnic schools about whether to add or subtract candles each night:
“Beit Shammai and Beit Hillel disagree as to the nature of that adjustment. Beit Shammai say: On the first day one kindles eight lights and, from there on, gradually decreases the number of lights until, on the last day of Hanukkah, he kindles one light. And Beit Hillel say: On the first day one kindles one light, and from there on, gradually increases the number of lights until, on the last day, he kindles eight lights.”
Even though the School of Hillel won the argument, you should feel free to follow the School of Shammai. If anyone complains, just tell them you read it in the Talmud.
2
As for the freedom to reimagine Hanukkah, the following is from an essay on Hanukkah in the Apocrypha by Rabbi Aaron D. Panken, of blessed memory:
“The eight-day Jewish holiday of Hanukkah (“Dedication” or “Initiation”) is remarkable in a number of ways. According to the Jewish conception of scripture, it is decidedly postbiblical, the earliest significant holiday with no basis in the Tanakh. It is unambiguously political, commemorating both a staunch uprising against a Syrian-Greek tyrant and a spirited attack on those Jews sympathetic to the Greek way of life. It is unrelentingly religious, valorizing the struggles of priestly leaders who protect a particular interpretation of their faith at all costs under the grimmest of circumstances. It is also unceasingly interpreted, as scholars, communal leaders, and practicing Jews have applied many innovative new frames (including economic, territorial, military, consumerist, and Zionist) to the holiday, allowing it to evolve with the times while retaining its relevance and remaining one of the most widely observed Jewish celebrations.”
Today is the Winter Solstice in the Northern Hemisphere, when daylight starts growing. (Summer Solstice elsewhere, where daylight begins waning.)
Next week, Christmas and Hanukkah coincide, with the first candle of Hanukkah on Christmas night.
Whether your view is astronomical, with earth revolving round the sun, spiritual, with growing light, or religious, with a Messiah born or a temple retaken and rededicated, it is a special time.
Ecclesiastes (known as Kohelet in the Hebrew Bible) has grown into my favorite biblical book. Its view is consistent with all of those perspectives, whether a planet circling, darkness waning, children born, sacred spaces renewed.
We learn from Kohelet what we may not be taught during the holidays, but which the solstice demonstrates: All things pass.
This does not suggest that we restrain joy, our joy or especially the joy we bring to others. We can be the sun of the winter solstice, brighter day by day. We can be the candles, brighter every day, one to eight.
No book of the Bible has been more mysterious than Kohelet, the mystery being, with its somewhat existential view, why the compilers of the Hebrew Bible included it at all. The solstice tells us, as does the book itself, again and again.
All things pass, and in that passing, our role is to live. Seasons come and go, holidays come and go, we come and go.
Here, on Winter Solstice, with Christmas, Hanukkah and many other holidays for many people to come, we live.
In everything that happens below the sun. Go eat your bread and enjoy. Drink your wine Happily. God long ago approved your acts. Let your clothes always be freshly washed. Keep your hair scented with good oil. Enjoy life with the woman you love During all the shining days you are given Below the sun. Your unique purpose is To bellow a good life below the sun. Use all your powers while you are here. Ecclesiastes 9:4-10
Kylie Bax, Donald Trump, Bill Clinton, Melania Knauss
It is an overstatement to say that any one photo captures an era.
And yet, this photo of two models and two American presidents (or to-be) is bursting with meaning.
The least recognizable person is model Kylie Bax, a long-time friend of Donald Trump.
The other three are major American figures. Donald Trump and Bill Clinton need no introduction, and Melania Knauss (later Melania Trump) is also well-known.
It is difficult, near impossible, not to interpret the photo based on everything we now know or assume. Worth way more than a thousand words.
More than a decade ago, I switched my book acquisition to almost entirely ebooks.
At that point, my library of paper books contained thousands of volumes. Moving and space limitations pushed for some slimming down.
That was challenging for a few reasons.
Some paper books, particularly those that include visual and graphic content, are simply better in paper.
Some paper books are not available in digital versions, and may never be.
My life and careers revolved around paper books, as a bookseller and as a publishing professional.
Nevertheless some of the paper books had to go.
On top of that, digital books have some advantages.
You can store and read thousands of books on a tablet. I do.
You can copy passages with a simple highlight and copy. I do.
My current situation is that I still have paper books that are, for different reasons, irreplaceable and special. Far fewer than I once did, but still filling a closet and bookshelves. And I have a library of digital books, approaching two thousand.
One more advantage of digital books I recently tried. I am able to generate a complete list of authors, titles and categories. I thought that maybe I could feature a list of those authors who have influenced, inspired and instructed me. I have generated that list and, when possible, I will offer some of that up.
Note: If you keep or want an ebook library, recommended is the outstanding Calibre software, free, open-source, cross-platform, used by millions like me.
There are many ways to point out the importance, primacy, essentiality of personal transformation.
That begs three questions: important for what, transformation to what, and how? Let me sidestep those monumental questions, saying only and simply: important to make you and others happy, in one of the many ways available.
A thing that prompts this is my observation of how many initiatives—religion, economics, politics being just a few—are devoted to engagement and practices aimed at “better” outcomes for yourself and others (going to heaven, joining a community, making money, donating money, getting a president elected), but leaving you the same as you were before. Not that all those outcomes aren’t worthy in themselves. But what about you? How would a different mind make a difference?
Above is my favorite expression of the imperative for personal transformation, equal to or better than the words of the wisest masters. It comes from the title of a 1970 Funkadelic album. The album cover is also a favorite.
Free your mind…and your ass will follow. True that.
In 1984, Bob Geldof organized an all-star recording to raise consciousness about famine in Ethiopia and raise money to help alleviate it. Now an ultimate mix has been released, combining the original recording with later anniversary versions created in 2004 and 2014. The Guardian reports:
For 40 years, Band Aid’s Do They Know It’s Christmas? has been praised by some as a triumph of charitable fundraising and festive songwriting – and condemned by others as the most high-profile example of white saviourhood in pop.
Now, to mark its latest anniversary, the song is coming back around for a fourth time, in the form of an all-star splicing of the three previous official versions.
Announcing the new version, Bob Geldof, who masterminded the 1984 original, says Do They Know It’s Christmas? “tells the story not just of unbelievably great generational British talent, but still stands as a rebuke to that period in which it was first heard. The 80s proclaimed that ‘greed is good’. This song says it isn’t. It says it’s stupid.” Proceeds will benefit the Band Aid Charitable Trust, which supports health and anti-poverty initiatives across Africa.
Criticism from artists and activists have increased over the years. They say: It is an example of paternalism. It is an example of otherness. It leaves the wrong impression about Africa. Artists also complain that it is not a very good piece of music.
My thoughts:
If it wasn’t for charities, or in this case a song, pleading with people to donate, there would not be broader recognition of how widespread food insecurity and starvation is, not just in Africa and other places of crisis, but right here in America.
Ideology has its place, though it often goes places it shouldn’t. If people are hungry or starving, feed them. Since it is Christmas time, I am bound to mention that the main figure of that holiday told us all, whatever our tradition, to do just that.
If a catchy recording featuring mega-stars brings attention to this, I would rather listen to it a thousand times rather than being reminded incessantly about how buying stuff and giving stuff is the reason for the season. It isn’t.
Final thought: To those who are younger, it may seem that all this fuss about Band Aid is “nostalgia” for a long-gone time, featuring some “really old” artists. Unfortunately, starvation never goes out of style, but fortunately neither does helping.
