Bidding For Good

Today is the opening of the Shambhala Sun's On-line Auction. Just in time for Christmas shopping! Is that a Buddhist oxymoron? Or does that make me a moron for suggesting that Buddhists should do Christmas shopping? Oh, help get me out of this tangle! At any rate there are some pretty fine treasures and retreats over at the auction site including a piece by moi! This is my second year participating and I love it. Last year a woman bought my piece for her husband's office and I shipped this little surprise directly to him. It was fun to know the story and to be part of the gift giving process.

But I am always honoured to be able to offer a little something to such worthy players. It was fun to watch the bidding on my piece at the recent SFT auction. This is such an easy, fulfilling way to be able to offer what seems uniquely "me" to the cause of supporting the Dharma. Am I getting into the hot water of ego (who is this me?) and desire (shopping?) Okay time for me to go back to the cave. There's a lot of cave talk these days, especially here. And of course it is the season for hibernation. Let me lumber off.....

Impatience Is A Shopper's Virtue

Yesterday I went down to the art supply store to pick up a couple of canvases.  On the way back to the car my partner and I wandered in to a local home decor store when some art in the window caught my eye.  As we were walked by a bedroom display he poked me and said, "You are virtuous."

"What?"  I looked around and he pointed to sign sitting on the night table.  It read (I kid you not):  "Impatience is a virtue." and went on to describe some credit plan that would allow you to purchase what you wanted right now.   I poked him back. His quip was meant as a joke and as in all jokes there is an element of truth!  Impatience would be one of those things I work with... I like my results and I like them right now!  Ah, I never run out of things to train with!

But the story for me was, that the store and  the copy writer who created this little ad thought it a fine way (and slightly funny too I'm guessing) to persuade people to buy what they might not be able to afford, to encourage them to buy on impulse...  To use desire and the instant need to fill it as a way of selling their wares.  And would there be shoppers who would respond to this reverse, perverse logic?  Might that help you justify buying something when reason and patience dictate that you think it over or leave it until another day?  You might actually go home and the clutches of desire for that new couch might fade or your credit card statement might appear in the mail and a cooler head prevail?

So if we are doing our practice and trying to lessen the grip of desire we are doing a difficult thing, going against the culturally condoned sentiments of our consumer culture.  There is a quote from Buddhist scripture that says something like "when we undertake training we are standing against the world."  And I think this is the pragmatic meaning of it.  "You're a freak if you don't want stuff, new stuff and want it now."  I have found it so interesting (and at first slightly disconcerting) that shopping no longer holds a lot of interest for me.  I come from a long line of shoppers and still have friends that find solace in a little retail therapy, but for me the charm has worn off for the most part.  Oh sure I still need stuff now and then and still buy stuff and enjoy it but shopping as an afternoon's outing no longer holds much interest.  When I first noticed this loss of  a form of entertainment and excitement  I felt a little lost, perhaps disappointed in a strange way.  A pleasure lost.  I had to adjust to my new mind that had somehow been quietly changing below the surface. 

Ultimately I think it is about coming to know the truth  .... the difference between pleasure (found in outside things) and happiness (a state generated from the inside).  First we hear about it and then after a while it becomes part of us.  Then we can know that a houseful of brand new furniture can't really make us happy.  And no one can convince us then that impatience is a virtue.  Unless you work on commission!

Do You Have "Poverty Mind?"

This painting from a series called "Zen Squared" bears the words "Open Your Eyes and Heart".  One of my favourite things is to combine words and images as I've done here.  This painting seems to go with the quote: "Until we deal with poverty mind, the redistribution of all the wealth in the world won't change the outer situation."  This quote is from Pema Chodron in her book "No Time To Lose" which is a commentary on Shantideva's "Way of the Boddhisatva.  

Even though this book was published in 2005 this quote seems to speak directly to the current  climate of economic doom and gloom that's on everyone's lips.  Are these economic problems really concrete issues best solved in the board rooms of the business world or are they a sign of something deeper?  Are the big boys really just smoothing a little cream on a rash when we should be doing a liver cleanse???  As a society have we simply lost our way, are we spiritually bereft?  And is that now simply being reflected in what's going on in the market place?  Do we need to look a lot deeper if we are ever going to begin to deal with the real problems?

Yesterday I was reading about a book called "The Gift: Imagination and the Erotic Life of Property."  It is apparently a longstanding cult classic with a multidisciplinary approach that's been getting a bit of press lately.  The book references  Native cultures where wealth was based on the gifts given rather than the possessions held.   These cultures were cultures of abundance and sharing (gift giving) while our society is based on scarcity and personal ownership.  When you think about our consumer society, it keeps on chugging along by constantly creating a sense of need or desire in us, the consumer (kind of the opposite of a Buddhist practice in a way, where we want to lessen the grips of our attachments.)  

Advertising is based on this idea that we  lack something.  We are needs waiting to be filled.  Advertising's sole aim is to stimulate desire in us, desire strong enough to motivate us to go out and buy something.  If we just had this diamond or that soap or this cereal we would be more beautiful, more satisfied, healthier.  How much of our culture revolves around advertising and selling and shopping?  I read a study that asked people where were they most likely to be found.  If I remember correctly, the second most popular answer was "the mall". 

 If we are good consumers we respond to this advertising, hoping to  find happiness in this face cream or that car, the relentless search..... the poverty mind, that Pema Chodron talks about.  So here's a radical idea, maybe we can become the solution to the economic crisis, maybe we can realign ourselves with abundance mind, maybe we can be happy with what we already have, with trading and sharing, swapping and gift giving.  Maybe we can contemplate what would really make us feel happy and abundant.  Maybe once we work on eliminating poverty mind in ourselves, this will start to spread and grow and we will reach some strange unimaginable tipping point where sanity  and abundance prevail in a quieter more satisfied world.