Limits to Logic & Unconditional Love

"The entire career of a Bodhisattva is governed by two major characteristics: Wisdom and Compassion.

Buddhahood is accomplished by Wisdom, but the act of becoming a Buddha is accomplished by Compassion.

A Bodhisattva's own liberation is achieved through Wisdom, but his goal of liberating others is achieved through Compassion.

With Wisdom he recognizes others' suffering and with Compassion eliminates it.

Due to his Wisdom he becomes disentangled from Samsara, but due to his Compassion he remains in it.

Owing to his Wisdom, the Bodhisattva remains unattached to the world, but with his Compassion he embraces the world.

Because of Wisdom he does not become conceited, because of Compassion he does not become discouraged.

Wisdom brings self-advancement, and Compassion brings others' advancement.

More than all else, Wisdom brings him Lordship of the Dharma, and Compassion brings him Lordship of the World.”

The Venerable 3rd Bardor Tulku Rinpoche
Tibetan Spiritual Leader
(1949 -

We exist in a world of self-created extremes:

One Pole: Logic/Reason.
One Pole: Emotion/Love.

Indulging our predilection for logic, we examine, judge, weigh and evaluate everything – subjecting every aspect of our lives to withering analysis; probing all the cavities, pondering the yawning disparities between good, better and best, finding all the flaws and usually concluding that everything somehow comes up short. Under the daily pressure of life our refined sense of judgment turns to mere criticality. Thus the unsettling feeling of standing naked before the Father, being found unsatisfactory.

But then comes redemption, in the form of unconditional maternal acceptance. "It's all right Dear, your father has a high (maybe ridiculous) standard in his pointy head. But in the end, he'll listen to his heart...You bring Richard home to dinner, and everything will be all right... What we always want for you is happiness." So, Mother, once again acquaints us with the saving graces of our all too human nature: acceptance, love, happiness, warmth, affection. Enough with logic already. Yet, without father hovering in the background, Mom might have attempted to feed all the poor folks in town and adopt all the children. Sometimes compassion requires a buffer.

At 3:05 am, "BEST" is not attainable, but proximity to a warm, affectionate, perhaps sleepy person who loves you is as GOOD as it gets. Sometimes we strive, sometimes we settle. We're forced to draw a line at the end of each day, and accept the distance we've covered. Life is not lived entirely on the edge, but mostly on the journey through the vast middle.

Interestingly, it is our capacity to discern the distinctions between good, better and best which is the seed of our greatness, and great undertakings. Yet it is that same capacity, when taken to compulsive extremes which turns us into unforgiving critics – devoid of warmth and sadly lacking in compassion.

It is our devotion to what is right and good that prompts us to set lofty standards, and devote lifetimes to meeting them. We create institutions devoted to raising levels of education, public health and universal understanding, then watch as these very institutions become the instruments of extortion, obstruction and exclusion. As we devote ourselves to perfection, we sometimes find ourselves being perfectly critical and empty of love.

The perennial lesson: We are born not of one parent; but of two. Not of logic only, but of love as well. Not creatures of "either" are we; but of "AND."

The highest standard of expectation: judge your subject not solely against the cold steel of logic, but also against a loving heart.

Applications:

Personally: When you're ready to hang it up and slide over the bridge railing, pause and ask yourself: "Am I being too hard on myself? Given a little more time – could I move things in a positive direction?" Why not give yourself another day or two to achieve complete enlightenment?

At Home: Should we pack the kids and the spouse into a crate and airfreight them to Nepal? Or should we consider a family vacation to Nepal instead? The temples there are a once in a lifetime experience... Maybe you'll meet a Buddha in Katmandu.

At Work: The train felt like Hell this morning and the demons followed you up the elevator. Purgatory. Then you get a smile as a colleague rises over one partition and a few steps later you notice a colleague in a moment of career desperation – this is your chance to be the Buddha of compassion.

Now it all makes sense. Though we live in a world of extremes, our saving grace is our ability to keep them in proximity to one another.

Logic got us here AND Love makes it worth staying.

The Blues, Pattern Recognition and "Ready, Set, Go!®"

"You can get anything you want, at Alice's Restaurant. You can get anything you want, at Alice's Restaurant. Walk right in, it's around the back. Just a half mile from the railroad tracks. You can get anything you want, at Alice's Restaurant."

Arlo Guthrie
American Songwriter and Singer

Click on image to see Tracy Chapman sing the blues.

The market digs the Blues!
The "Blues" as a "musical idiom" or format (C chord/4bars. G chord/4 bars. D chord/4 bars. Repeat.) is the most popular song structure on the planet. Muddy Waters, the Beatles and the Stones. Robert Johnson, Eric Clapton, Tracy Chapman, Billy Joel and of course, Arlo are all playing the Blues. (As a college guitarist, I took to it because one could begin performing immediately after acquiring the minimum of three chords...) One guitar + three chords = Musician! Hey! Simplicity Rocks!

We think there may be more to it. The chord structure is simple.
The verse-chorus-verse structure is simple.
The poetry and rhyme structure is simple as well.
Three chords, three verses and a chorus combine to create a musical playground for creativity. All in intertwined, repeating patterns of threes and fours...
Complexity founded on simplicity! Wow!



Pattern Recognition
Part of the beauty of the blues is that you don't have to know anything about music to recognize the underlying patterns inherent in the style. You get the pattern because it's simple circular/triangular symmetry is embedded in the culture. ("Is that a blues motif I'm hearing? No man, that's the Stones!") Listening to music unconsciously in the car, you don't have to be a sophisticate to feel the circle of completion as the 3rd verse concludes and the final chorus "comes around on the guitar" one last time before the closing riff.



"Ready, Set, Go!®,"
As audience members, we are sophisticates -- educated for years by television, music and the greater media. We know you're going to be either a talker or a communicator -- we can recognize your patterns before we discern the content. If you simply get into it, we know you're a talker. Whereas, if you open with a quote, and then reveal your thinking in a subject statement, we know you're a communicator -- we recognize the pattern. Next you'll lay out an agenda... Because that's the pattern sophisticated speakers use. It puts our minds at rest. We know where you're taking us. The material is new, but the path is familiar -- and we're happy to go there with you. If a presentation doesn't follow a familiar and accepted pattern, the listeners have a somewhat more tense time -- either staying on edge as they listen -- attempting to discern the talker's obscure intentions as he goes along -- or disconnecting in favor of the PDA. Pattern recognition is the subconscious intelligence embedded in our culture that helps us decide where and how long to focus. Familiar patterns makes focusing easier.

"Ready, Set, Go!®" is simple, but not simplistic.
The approach began with Aristotle. A Beginning, a Middle, and an End.
Today, each of those three seniors has three juniors of it's own.
The Introduction has an Opening, a Subject and an Agenda.
The Body has three Topics, each with three junior sections.
The Conclusion has a Summary, a Main Idea and a Next Step.

With multiple layers of simplicity, it's a sophisticated tool which capitalizes on the pattern based intelligence already resident in our culture. It makes listeners both comfortable with the speaker and confident in the process. It sets the audience up to be there at the conclusion with you, having absorbed the reasoning that got you there. If they can recall -- even repeat -- the argument; the conclusion has a better chance of acceptance on its merits.



The best speakers (and the best musicians...) are not great because they ignore the pattern of their styles, but because they observe them -- then bend them a little in unique and special ways. (What we call a "Blue Note" in music.) Greatness is embodied in working the structure, but making it work for you. (Is that a "Ready, Set, Go!" Presentation I'm listening to? No man, that's Bill Clinton!)

Applications:

As an individual: Recognize that "nailing the structure" is where presentation greatness begins. Not where it ends! A good guitar, a mastery of structure, a great lyric and ten thousand hours of practice is what comprises a solid musician. (In speaking, the same formula applies.)


At home: On hobbies, writing, painting, yard work, mechanics... recognize that you've got to get it right before you make it great. When the basics are done, there's room for the personal touch.


At work: Don't strive for uniqueness. Strive instead for mastering the content and the structure. Leave extra time after the hard preparation for the "blue notes" to appear as you improvise, smile and interact. The basics require all your energy. The unique touches appear unbidden - as if by magic - once the basics are in hand.



Structure, the basics, practice... You've heard it all before.
Hey, you can't always get (anything) you want, but if you try sometimes...