Contemplating the middle way….

Buck Hales 12/23/2005

I have yet to visit the 49th state though my uncle lived there from after world war II until he died in the mid 1970s. I just read Drop City by TC Boyle and it gives a great view on several things. In many ways being a vegetarian depends on your economic as well as geographic situation. Living in the frozen north over the winter, it seems that having a big supply of meat stored up is nearly essential for survival-- especially in the context of the book where a bunch of hippies move their happy sunny commune from northern California to Boyton, Alaska. It is a marvelous book and made me think about the "luxury" of being a vegetarian. I have fallen from the vegetarian way, and have for about 5 years now consumed the flesh of fish and birds. I do not eat mammals, I lost my taste for meat, especially beef, and any hint of blood nauseates me. Yet eating fish and chicken is so not vegetarian and I harbor guilt and shame for turning away from the way. It was when Karen was having such a tough time with getting pregnant and thought protein might help. Of course we can get protein from plants, I eat a Boca burger every day for lunch (boring me), but variety, decreasing phytoestrogens etc, lead her to chicken, and after 6 months or so of having parallel diets I just sort of gave in, gradually, and now enjoy this source of protein. I am none to fond of turkey or other birds, but chicken it is. And of course, salmon too. The social stigma of vegetarianism is something I hadn't expected, and still react to. We get a lot of incidental meals at conferences and such and I always opt for the veg entree, and this challenges my meat eating brethren. I enjoy that it does. But when we visit our neighbors, mister grill master has prepared sausages and burgers and steaks and hot dogs and lamb kebob and oh, yeah, a bit of chicken too. And corn on the cob. No hint of greens. I think it is clear why obesity if such a huge epidemic in America. Fast Food. yuck. Perhaps me eating chicken then is taking the middle way?

Plagued by insomnia as are many of us, secretly, I read many books on how to sleep and each and everyone had in common the advise-- meditate. I picked up a book by Rob Nairn called "how to meditate" and it was a primmer on Buddhism. This lead me to my own path of discovery and I seek the Dharma path in my daily life. Yet all of this did not cure me of insomnia, just gave me some more tools. Buddhism to me is not a religion but a process. It is the way. One of the discoveries I made was a CD of the Dalai Lama's Path to Enlightenment, read by Robert Thurman, Laurie Anderson and one other. This is a true gem. The Damon reflection is recapitulated in prose by one of the readers. The corollary is not to envy or resent your "enemies" successes either, but instead celebrate their joy with them.

A Buddhist parable I use on my students, and to remind myself, is the story of the master who is outside on his hands and knees searching for something in the grass. Soon he is joined by one of his students who he tells he is looking for a needle. One after another the students join him on their hands and knees searching for the needle. A student then asks the master where he lost the needle, to help them narrow down the search. The master points to a distant spot and says "over there". the student asks why, then is he looking for the needle here? To which he replies "the light is so much better here."

I think we should all be hippies and take over the world. Then we wouldn't be hippies anymore, would we?

Moment to moment awareness....