Proliferative Thinking

A few days ago, I was listening to a dharma talk on my iPod while riding the subway. I love downloading dharma talk via podcast, and Zencast has a ton of them. Anyway, this particular dharma talk addressed thinking.
I won't try to break down the entire podcast, as it was rather lengthy, but I want to single out one idea that Ajahn Amaro brought up, and that is the idea of "papancha."
Papancha, translated as mental proliferating, is what happens when your mind comes into contact with a sense object, via the portal of one of the senses. A smell, a taste, a glimpse of something; all of which leaves an impression on what is considered the sixth sense in Buddhist psychology, the mind.
As human beings, with minds trained to think symbolically, coming into contact with a sense object doesn't merely end with acknowledging that object. The mind starts to weave at first a simple tale, and then a complex one, until finally the mind has constructed the most elaborate tale it can tell itself, all from contact with the object in question.
Take, for example, a coffee mug. Let's say it's a pink ceramic mug that you happen to see in a window while walking along the street. It's a rather nice mug. In fact, it looks very much like the mug your girlfriend used to use. Well, ex-girlfriend. She used to have a mug like that. She always used to drink Folgers in it. I'm a bustelo man myself, you think. Could never stand Folgers. But, she always used to brew it. Then she would always have a second cup in the afternoon. I wonder whatever happened to her? She was kind of nice, although some of her habits drove me crazy. Leaving her dirty mug on the table was one of them. With the Folgers in it; ghastly stuff. You know, if not for that coffee, we might still be together now...
Just like that, the mind is off and running. And it happens all the time. We do it constantly. We never just simply come into contact with a sense object, and leave it at that. Now, maybe in some cases that's good, as I'm sure a lot of great literature has been inspired by papancha. Mark Twain once quipped, "My life has been full of terrible misfortunes, most of which never happened." In his case, it was definitely good that he could commiserate with such miseries, and then go on to write about them.
For most of us, we could make creative use of papancha also, and we do. Our minds spin whole tales about future events, based on an object important (or not so important) to us. This in itself is okay, so long as we realize that we're doing it, and make use of it. It's when papancha sweeps our minds along without our realizing it, or being in control of it, that it becomes a symptom of ego grasping, and a component of suffering. Twain, at least, had the sense to know that most of his misfortunes never happened, but many of us act as if the stories we tell ourselves are happening. Consequently, we suffer.
So what do we do? Close ourselves off to sense objects? Be boring and pedantic regarding the everyday? My personal take is that so long as we are aware of mental proliferating we need not fear it. It's just a function of the mind. Eido roshi has said that the function of the mind is to think, and this function has served human beings well over the span of our existence on Earth. Artificially arresting thoughts, therefore, isn't the answer. As Ajahn Amaro has said in the course of his talk, you can come to a state of no-thinking, yet still find that you're suffering. Not-thinking isn't necessarily Nirvana. The purpose of this entry isn't to explain what Nirvana is. I would like to say that papancha isn't something we need be on guard about. Not being aware of it, is something we must definitely be on guard about.

Kinestheitcs in Spirit

I'll be teaching taiji classes starting November 3rd at Kinespirit over at their East Side location. Of course, I'll be teaching Yang style taijiquan. Come one, come all, learn some taiji and have a ball!

Hofstra University

This last Wednesday, I was given the opportunity to speak at Hofstra University. It came about because one of the members of my zen sangha is chair of the Religious Studies department out there, and she's teaching a course entitled, "Religion and Medicine." Knowing I'm a practitioner of TCM, she asked me to come by and talk a little about the concepts of Chinese medicine.
Meeting and interacting with these young minds was a wonderful experience. There were some wallflowers in the class, but for the most part, they seemed like an engaging bunch. This got me to thinking about something one of my teachers from PCOM once noted; that the future of TCM is here in the United States, not in China.
Why here? Because this is fertile ground for ideas that are actually very old, but which are new to these youngsters. Plus, their minds are open to these ideas; ideas of holism vs. reductionism, ways of looking at patterns rather than causal relationships. Chinese medicine is a whole other way of looking at the world; it's not necessarily hostile or antagonistic to biomedicine, but can be complementary to it.
It seems to me that the big sin of many people who espoused Chinese medicine to the West are guilty of is a simple, innocent one: They tried to translate it. My mother, who made her living as a translator, used to say to me, "You can't translate literally, otherwise, it makes no sense." Yet, this is what many exponents of TCM have tried to do, in their efforts to win over people in the West. Perhaps no concept has been mangled more than the concept of "qi." So often, in the literature, people have tried to equate "qi" with electricity, bio-electricity, energy, spirit, etc. Yet, none of these are really correct, and do violence to the concept of "qi" as a whole to boot. As is often the case with Chinese characters and ideas, there is no one English word that can adequately capture the concept of "qi" in its entirety, and to try to do so is to lose the utility of the idea. "Qi" is the quality of and suchness of a thing that you cannot see with the naked eye (that last part is crucial), yet you know is there because of the effect that it has. Coming from a time where microscopes and other such tools were absent, "qi" is a unique work-around for people who needed an idea for their minds, and consequently their hands, to work with. "I know there's something in this that aids digestion. I can't see it directly, but it's there; that must be this herb's qi." Microscopes be damned!
Which brings me back to these young people; their minds haven't become entirely encrusted with cultural detritus yet, to the point where they can't conceive of another way of looking at the world. This, really, is the key to being able to grasp and to expound Chinese medicine; by elucidating that this is a way of looking at things, and not one-to-one bad translations of Western medical concepts.
When I was an undergraduate, I studied anthropology, so I understand that perspective and view are the keys to another cultures ideas. Perhaps with more exposure to ideas presented in this way, others will realize this also. Then we may really see a flourishing of Chinese medicine here in the States.

Reversal of Fortune

I still keep my hat in the harm reduction arena, even though I've left St. Ann's Corner of Harm Reduction. These days, I work at the Washington Heights Corner Project. We had a bit of excitement there this last Tuesday when one of the participants overdosed. Fortunately, staff there were on hand, and well-trained. Narcan was administered, and the overdose reversed. I did get a chance to throw in some well known acupoints for revival, like Heart 9 and Du 26, but clearly, without the Narcan, that wouldn't have helped too much. During the time Narcan was being administered, another staffer called 911. Medics came, the participant revived, and he was taken to the hospital to be checked out.
I relate this not because I want to report the sordid details of an almost drug overdose, but because of the state of mind of the person after. Perhaps an hour later, the participant returned to the Corner Project to thank staff for saving his life. However, as we talked, he remarked that his life, "...was fucked anyway..." and that the only reason he was staying alive was for, "...my mom, and my schizophrenic twin." He wondered aloud why he ought stay alive, as he has three felony trials coming up, and that he's probably "going away" (i.e. upstate prison) anyway.
So, there's the crux of it. Some people out there get hooked on heroin (or other drugs) perhaps to party, but there's a large percentage of the population that's looking to run away from their lives; whose lives are marked by real suffering, and a percentage of the population that's looking for any kind of surcease from their suffering, even to the point of not being careful about how many bags of dope they're shooting.
Which brings us to a very pertinent question: Does a war on drugs that emphasizes punishment really do anything positive? Not as far as I can see. These people are already punished far, far more than any judicial system can mete out. Really, there has to be a better way.
And, in Europe, perhaps there is. In 2000, tiny Portugal took the radical step of decriminalizing ALL drugs; dope, blow, weed, smack, speed. You name it, they decriminalized it. Drugs are still illegal, but users are not punished with jail time. To quote an article in Time, "The argument was that the fear of prison drives addicts underground, and that incarceration is more expensive than treatment - so why not give drug addicts health services instead?"
Ten years on and the addiction rate in Portugal has been halved. New HIV infections fell by 17%, and, with the money saved from punishment, more treatment has been offered.
Compare with the United States, which has long championed a no-tolerance enforcement oriented policy. $74 billion dollars will be spent this year on drug enforcement, yet we lead the world in drug consumption. Part of why there's such ungodly violence in Mexico just to the south is because of America's voracious drug appetite.
This may be changing. In various municipalities and jurisdictions in the U.S., treatment, rather than jail time is starting to be offered, with much the same results as in Portugal.
During the age of exploration, Portugal led the way, sailing into then uncharted waters. Now, in the 21st century, Portugal has again set sail where few others were willing to. They may again show the world the way to a more prosperous future.

Fat of the Land

Dr. Mercola nails it. Pretty sobering stuff.

Gateway to Heroin

People who know me know that I'm a big fan of Vanguard, Current T.V.'s awesome investigative journalism program. In 2009, correspondent Mariana van Zeller filed a report from Florida, called "The OxyContin Express." This report detailed everything that can possibly go wrong when big pharma is allowed to run amok, with no regulation. The long and the short of it is this: Oxycodone, which is chemically indistinct from heroin, is flooding the U.S. and getting people hooked. Since there is no prescription drug-tracking in Florida, people "doctor shop," or go to "pain-clinics" where these opioid pain killers are liberally dispensed. The result? Prescription drug abuse now eclipses the abuse of cocaine, meth, and ecstasy combined. On average, eleven people per day in Florida die from oxy overdose. But, on paper, it's all perfectly legal.
That's bad enough, but the problem has spread beyond Florida's borders. Ms. van Zeller has just filed a follow-up report, "Gateway to Heroin," which shows how the illegal trade in pills is hitting the state of Massachusetts hard. Although MA is the state profiled, the problem is also in other states. People flock to Florida to get pills, mule them to MA or another state, and then sell them on the street where one pill can go for as much as $80.
Sadly, it's children who are mostly getting hooked on these big pharma painkillers. Teens turn to pills first because they're easy to get. They may even have them prescribed for them to treat an injury. The result is almost always the same: addiction to the pain killers, and then the realization that they can get heroin from the street, which is cheaper, and provides a better high.
There is no question that these drugs do vastly more harm than good, which begs the question, why aren't they scheduled the same as heroin or marijuana, both Schedule 1 drugs. The answer probably is that with this much demand, Oxycodone is far, far too much of a money maker for its manufacturer to ever be pull it from the market. Since pharma companies have big lobbies, they can advocate for themselves, and their drugs, in congress to keep them on the market. That's not going to change anytime soon.
Acupuncture is an effective way to combat pain without the use of opioid pain killers. I did it all the time at St. Ann's Corner of Harm Reduction, and I do it for patients at the no-fault clinic where I am employed, treating car accident patients. Alternatives like acupuncture are going to be very, very needed in future to help combat the rising tide of opiate addiction, by treating people effectively so that they never need such drugs, and by treating people who are hooked and want to get off of them. Many clients at St. Ann's were recovering, but experiencing pain, and were deathly, and rightfully, afraid of prescription pain killers.
Analgesics have their place in medicine, but with a rising personal toll happening across the country, it's time that we start looking for alternative therapies for treating pain, before we're all hooked.

Bigger Waistlines Through Modern Living

Okay, I couldn't just let this go without some comment. The New York Times recently published an article linking obesity rates in the U.S. to modern sedentary jobs. Apparently, the less you move, the more you're likely to store excess calories as fat.
Well, duh! Of course the more you're sedentary, the more likely you're going to sport a muffin top! I could have told you that. So, I'm sure, could thousands of other people around the world. It's not exactly rocket science.
Here's an anecdotal story: From 1988 until about 2006 or so, I worked as a bicycle messenger. I had always been a chubby (read: fat) child growing up, and was a bit paunchy in high school. When I became a messenger, the fat magically disappeared. I dropped to 155 lbs., the lightest I have ever been. My wife was able to wrap her arms about my middle and nearly have them come back around.
And I was always hungry. Constantly. I'd eat breakfast and already be thinking about lunch. I'd eat lunch and already be looking forward to dinner. My wife commented that it was like living with a vulture: She'd be finished with her plate when we went out to eat, and then I'd swoop in (she has a small appetite, and serving sizes are, well, enormous).
Now, bicycle messenger is about as un-sedentary a job as you can think of. I was in the saddle for eight, sometimes more, hours a day, covering perhaps on average 20 miles per day. My wife and I calculated that I was burning about 5000 calories per day (exercise plus my basal metabolic rate together). Naturally, however, this isn't feasible for most Americans.
While there are still physical jobs in the U.S., for the most part they are seen as undesirable, and low-paying. As a result, not a lot of people are going to look at a job like bicycle messenger as the ideal position. Office work is the rule of the day, and that means less calories burned.
Or does it? According to the International Health, Racquet, and Sports Club Association (IHRSA), in April of 2010 there were 45.3 million gym memberships around the country. Many more Americans exercise in non-gym settings. Clearly, one does not have to have a physical job in order to get moving. So what else is going on here?
One thing that has been getting some play in the media but also a lot of obfuscation is high-fructose corn syrup. One can argue the dangers of using this sweetener as opposed to sugar, but one thing about it that cannot be argued is its ubiquitousness. The damn stuff is everywhere. Look on almost any food label, and you'll see HFCS. People are ingesting it in every increasing amounts, and with ever more alarming results.
On my last visit to Puerto Rico, I saw something I had never quite seen before. People in the supermarkets buying entire cases of 64 ounce bottles of soft drinks. The brand is irrelevant; what is important is the fact that that is a ton of HFCS being consumed (if it had been sugar, it would have been just as alarming). I also saw something else that is relevant, in my last trip to P.R. A lot of fast food joints that I never saw when I was a small boy visiting La Isla.
This tide of cheap, fast food is having an effect that is incredibly far-reaching, on both our health and our environment. The old adage of "you get what you pay for" seems to apply here in spades. Sure, the Popeye's meal was cheap, but what did you get for it? Not much apparently, except, perhaps, an expanding waistline. Devoid of actual nutrients, the empty calories serve to satisfy in the short run, but it's not long before your body, feeling gipped at not having gotten the nutrients it needs, starts feeling hungry again. So, you eat again, maybe ice cream, or something, and the vicious cycle continues.
Diabetes has been called, "starvation in the midst of plenty." Modern food practices seem to have taken that model of ill health and turned it into a way of life. We have something peculiar to the modern world; people who are obese yet at the same time they're starving.
In essence, what we have is the perfect storm of unhealthy vectors all colliding at the same time. More sedentary lifestyles; plentiful, cheap, yet unhealthy food; and advertising that encourages less work for more payoff, in the form of diet pills, and energy boost drinks. Like karma, the bill for that kind of laziness will come due in the long run. Nobody is going to want to pay it.