Robert Colpitts

Dark
Black
Pavement

A
Green
Bench

Me

Quiet
Is
A
Moody
Color

On
Rainy
New York
Nights

This article originally appeared at www.theidproject.org.  Check out all my posts!

—–

You see it, or hear it, or feel it, or know it:  the suffering of others.  It is right there in front of you.  Do something about it!

It saddens me with I see the ethics of Buddhism deflate like someone surreptitiously letting the air out of a balloon.  We speak ethically, and try, as best as is convenient for us, to act ethically, but should we find ourselves, our jobs, or our actions un…wait, what was that word again?  I forget what we were talking about.

Happily for those of us that are already meditating, we have a perfect excuse to forget ethics:  we are simply accepting the present moment!  So, if we have a job that is oppressing others, then all we have to do is accept it, and everything is fine.  If we have a bad relationship with a family member, then it is what it is, and that is that, and it is fine.  And if someone in the room with us is suffering, then suffering is part of life, and we know their suffering is impermanent, so it is what it is, and they’ll be ok, and let’s leave it at that.

I meditate.  That makes me feel calmer than before.  If I feel calmer, that is better for everyone I meet.  I used to dislike my job.  Now I like it.  I get along with my coworkers. Don’t mind the fact that I did not like my job because I had to be cruel.  Now I am cruel, but I see the happiness in cruelty.  I am softer with my cruelty.  I don’t know why I disliked being cruel in the first place.  Really, being cruel is just as much a part of life as being kind.  Sometimes you have to be cruel. It is a strategy.  It is a movement.  It is beautiful.

Does that sound appealing to you?  Of course it does!  How romantic it sounds to make cruelty something worth discussing as if it were the same thing as being nice or polite.  What a nice Sunday afternoon intellectual snack!

Granted, acting ethically is much more complicated than just opening the door that says, “This way to the right choice.”  But, do not, for yourself, for your friends, for your family, and for your world make Buddhism and meditation your excuse to act unethically.

You gain something from all the reading and practice that you’ve been doing.  You are in a better position than most to relieve or reduce the suffering of others.  You can handle the likely disruptions and push back that you’ll feel if you change your life or resist oppression.

You see it, or hear it, or feel it, or know it:  the suffering of others.  It does not have to sit there and exist until it dies.  If you recognize suffering, act, intervene.  Do something about it!

Logic Builds
No Foundry
That Burns
More Brightly
Than
Who We
Are Calmly
Stacking
Stones

I couldn’t sleep wit worry
But no, dat is a lie
I t’was da pair of Earl Grey Teas
Dat caused dis terrible plight

Dey haunt me now and make me write
And force me to eat cook-ies

And yesterday
I ran around
And shivered some
And drank d’ose teas

And like a madman
Possess’d a spirits
I ran
Half a mile

New York
made me pretty
And d’hose teas kept me
Warm

But here I am
And d’ere dis is

Morning
Done
Not
Right

Oh Crap
I forgot what
Poem I was
Supposed to
Put here

Something
About
Winter forcing
Himself
Into my
Spine

I think

Is it
Her

That
Dances
With Me

Or this
Beautiful
Day

Or the
Work
I
Live
For

Or all of it

I bet all of it

What do you say
To a new day
When your
Feet hurt
Deep deep
Because
You were
Dancing
Yesterday
But
Somewhere
Inside
You
Are
Frightened?

Hello!

I could
Perhaps
Write something
Here

But it
Would
Just
Be
This

Staring
Thinking
Talking
Shaking
Crying
Repeating
Again
And
Again
Until

You
Are
Dead

Or
At
Least
Tired

And
Cannot
Do
It
Any–

Zzz

This article originally appeared at www.idproject.org.  Check out all my posts!

—–

Valentine’s Day makes me sick!  Is there something wrong with me?  I don’t suppose you, nice, peaceful, you, would judge me, right?  Well, I’d judge me.  Perhaps you’ll settle in for a bit of Buddhist reflection and I’ll tell you why?

I have this deeply ingrained habit of thinking that if I feel bad, I must be doing something wrong.  For example, as I write this, I feel generally awful as I contemplate love.  That is accompanied by a series of thoughts and emotions that redefine me as a ‘bad person’ and a ‘failure.’  Love should feel good.  Love sucks and that means I’ve failed at it.  Connecting the two things–sour feelings and blaming myself for them–feels like
crossing a chasm 10000 miles wide, but it feels like the right connection to make.

Yet, even as I write this, I am trapped in a whirlpool of strange confusion.  I don’t understand the connection between the two things.  Why is this self-destructive process so immediately present in my life when suffering is present?

If I have a headache, I’ve done something wrong.  If I am depressed, I’ve done something wrong.  If I don’t want to meditate, I’m doing something wrong.  If I’m not in love, I’m doing something wrong.  If I write this down and it makes me feel guilty, frightened, angry, or nervous, I’ve done something wrong.

You might think this has to do with me having self-confidence issues, but it doesn’t.  It is much simpler than that.  It is not self blame that causes my confusion, it is the rejection of bad feelings that causes it.  Before I blame myself for feeling bad about love, I reject the experience of feeling bad in general.  If I feel bad, that should not be, I should feel good.  I reject bad feelings on the grounds that I don’t like them and they should not exist in my life…now who to blame for them?

So, yes, right now I feel like ick about love.  And it is there.  And it is my experience.  It might happen that I feel like hell about meditation as I sit on my cushion.  Not a problem.  It is there.  It is my experience.  I feel like crap about my body.  It is there.  It is my experience.  There is absolutely no reason to reject feeling bad.  It is part of life.  It is there when it is there.

Whatever you feel, about whatever there is, it is there, and it is your experience.  Don’t reject any of it.  Observe it.  Just observe it.  It is there.  Nothing more.

—-

For another contemplation on love, check out Single & Buddhist: Learning the Path of Love.

—

Follow Robert Colpitts on Facebook or Twitter or check out his website at www.robertcolpitts.com.

when the sun
scans my face

it is just
there

93 million
miles away

the clouds are
closer

i still love
the sun

The fine line between
The morning
The moment
And the dead space
Between the line
And the fine
Thing it should be

The day of
Concupiscence

Equilibrium

What?

We sit on a blanket in the middle of a forest.  A sunny day.  I am playing solitaire; she is coaxing a squirrel with her hand.  It is not every day that Faith and I share a relaxing afternoon in nature.  I pull a peanut butter sandwich out of the picnic grocery bag we brought.  I ask Faith if she would like one.  She shushes me. 

If I were a squirrel, I would not hesitate to go to Faith if she were calling me.  I would walk right up and crawl into her hand.  I won’t say that out-loud to her, because incidents occur when I say things like that, but I think it nonetheless.  That, I suppose, is the way she and I go.  Me thinking and not speaking; she acting and being the magnificent woman she is.  The squirrel wanders off in search of something less frightening. 

“Do you think you can put down that sandwich for a moment while I ask you something serious?” Faith asks me.  How unfair of her to ask a probing question about a serious question without first evoking a lighthearted moment.  So rude.  “Certainly dear Faith, you may ask me anything you like.”

“What in the world do you think you’ll get from that?” she asks solemnly with a touch of sarcasm.

“From my peanut butter and jelly sandwich?  A quenched appetite.”

I know that is not what she was asking.  I’ve recently taken a lover, and she is attempting to criticize me for it.

“And if you are referring to the lover I’ve taken,” I studiously add, “you have no business criticizing me for it.”

Faith looks at me quizzically.  She looks to the sandwich which is now dripping jelly onto the blanket.  “I was talking about the sandwich.”

I hate that she dislikes my peanut butter and jelly sandwiches.  I love them so much.

I fire back:  “Well, so was I.  So there.”

She rests
So
Quietly

A dewdrop
Crawling down
A leaf

Each
New
Breath

Revealing
An unknowable
Immeasurable

Universe

A bit of
Chaos

For good measure

Yes, that is right.  DJ Baghead has arrived.  The silent bad-ass can be hired for all kinds of events, but don’t expect him to do anything but dance or DJ.