What is Our Role in Global Warming?

This entry may be one of my most controversial, since it offers some counter-point material to the generally-accepted fact of global warming and the role of human activity in that process.  But the process itself is quite complex — many variables — and not entirely predictable.  The fact that I offer links to some dissenting views does not mean that I myself don’t believe that the world is warming or that we play a role in it.  But when I see a crowd stampeding in one direction, I tend to at least consider moving in the opposite or different direction. 

Mark Twain said, "Whenever you find yourself on the side of the majority, it’s time to pause and reflect."  And George Bernard Shaw advised, "It’s a healthy thing, now and then, to hang a question mark on the things you have long taken for granted."

In many fields of human knowledge, researchers continue to make new discoveries that contradict previous conclusions.  Sometimes what is concluded (or conjectured) is wrong. And sometimes a popular belief "cascades," becoming accepted truth as one scientist relies on the conclusions of others.

For example, take the idea of planetary crisis and Global Warming as popularized by Nobel prize-winner, Al Gore in An Inconvenient Truth.This view now embraced by nearly all scientists. 

It is likely (again, according to scientific consensus) true that our lifestyles, our lifestock, our driving habits and energy addictions are increasing CO2 levels and exacerbating what may be a natural cycle of global warming. Or perhaps global weather cycles are more mysterious and less predictable than we had supposed, due to complex variables and balancing mechanisms of the planet’s systems?

Whatever our views, it seems nonetheless wise to err on the side of caution and balance, and to consider more closely our own impact on the environment, so we can become part of the solution, not the problem.

Here’s a fascinating piece about "global engineering" that may provide some short term help and give humanity some breathing space:

http://www.economist.com/science/displaystory.cfm?story_id=12052171

And if you would like another illuminating view expressed so well by Thomas Friedman in a recent book — Hot, Flat and Crowded  — check the following link to a clear article in the Washington Post:

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/09/04/AR2008090402639.html?referrer=emailarticle

Whatever your views, we can probably agree on the wisdom in supporting alternative or green energy sources, and in wasting less and recycling more. But, as Kermit the Frog once said, "It’s not easy being green."

Are we to use paper or plastic bags — or bring our own bags? Shall we get rid of our incandescent light bulbs and switch to flourescent fixtures that last longer but cost more and become hazardous waste when we dispose of them? Who has a lower carbon footprint?  A hybrid vehicle owner who has a long daily commute, or an SUV owner who drives little?

In conclusion, it has been said that "a conclusion is what we reach when we get tired of thinking."  Let’s keep an open mind and, in the meantime, use  economy and discretion in our daily lives and cultivate a simple, economical, environmentally-kind  lifestyle.

To Those Asking for Help

I’m gratified by the many responses to my writings over the years. Along with many letters of gratitude, I receive various kinds of requests:

Some people ask for help or guidance about a specific problem or circumstance. Others write to solicit a donation for themselves or their favorite charity. Still others may seek assistance or collaboration on a business or creative project.

Despite my natural inclination to help, and to please people, it simply isn’t possible to accommodate most of these requests while maintaining focus on my writing, teaching and other projects.

Most letters requesting advice, guidance or counseling are from people who have read only one of my books. Because I have taken great care, over the years, to write a number of core teaching books that respond to most questions and needs, my assistant, Angela, will usually refer these people to my other books.

To some people, getting a "personal response from Dan" proves to them that I "walk my talk" and am a "genuine person."  Well I haven’t become less genuine — just a lot busier!

Through my books and talks, my new website video seminars and tele-seminars, I offer practical ways to live with a more peaceful heart and also a warrior spirit.  I am essentially an author and speaker —  not a guru, savior, professional psychologist or healer.  Which is why I recommend local professional help for those people in crisis.  

For those people under the impression that I am an "insider" who can connect them to the right agent or venture capitalist to make it happen for them, I offer this:  When I began my own career, I honed my craft in solitude, through lonely hours of doubt and occasional despair. So I’m never sure how to respond to people who contact me with the idea that the key to success is through me.  I can only encourage people to make the best effort they can, over time.  Because the quality of your work, more than any other factor, must speak for itself. You earn the attention of accomplished people by becoming accomplished yourself.

So not make success or "winning" your goal, because no one can control such outcomes. Strive only for excellence. Make quality of effort a habit in all that you do.  Make big mistakes and learn big lessons!  And then push on to achieve expertise through effort over time. That is your initiation; that is the price you pay for entry into the higher reaches of achievement.

I do not suffer fools lightly, for it does not serve their highest good.  Nor do I coddle idle dreamers or those who seek some magical or mysterious means of support.  I reach out to those who have paid their dues, who have earned the right to enter the ring. So to those feeling weak or lost, do not lay your dilemmas and confusion at my feet! I am not here for you to trust me; I am here to help you trust yourself. I speak to your strengths, not to your weaknesses.

Life is no small adventure. So as you seek a better relationship, better health or healing, a better career and a better life, rely on your own inner resources and get on with it!  As Thomas Edison wrote, "Most people miss opportunity because it is dressed in overalls and looks like work."

Only the light inside you can guide your way through those dark nights of the soul. So let your heart lead you onward. You may, or may not, reach the pinnacle of your hopes or dreams. But you will grow in the enterprise. 

 

 

Unreasonable Happiness

 

No teaching from Way of the Peaceful Warrior has been more controversial or misunderstood than Soc’s comments about "unreasonable happiness."   Bear in mind that between the time I first met Socrates, and the time I wrote my first book, about fourteen years passed. During that time, I traveled around the world, studied with other masters, and gained perspective from my own life experience. In fact, I first heard this phrase from one of my other mentors, about whom I will write in a future book.

In my newest book, Wisdom of the Peaceful Warrior — an essential companion to clarify the original teachings — I address this idea of unreasonable happiness and other elements from the first book.

Below you’ll find excerpts from Wisdom of the Peaceful Warrior on the subject of "unreasonable happiness," beginning with a conversation with Socrates from my first book:

Happiness as the Way

“You’ve shown me the futility of searching, Socrates. But isn’t the way of the peaceful warrior a path, a search?” . . .

“From the start, I have shown you the way of the peaceful warrior, not the way to the peaceful warrior. As long as you tread the way, you are a warrior. These past eight years you have abandoned your ‘warriorship’ so you could search for it. But the way is now; it always has been.”

“So what do I do now? Where do I go from here?”

“Who cares? . . . A fool is ‘happy’ when his cravings are satisfied. A warrior is happy without reason. That’s what makes happiness the ultimate discipline — above all else I have taught you. Happiness is not just something you feel. . . . Feelings change, Dan. Sometimes sorrow, sometimes joy. But beneath it all remember the innate perfection of your life unfolding. That is the secret of unreasonable happiness.”

This is one of Soc’s most important teachings. Because deep down, the motivating force behind most of our seeking in the material, psychological, and spiritual domains is our natural human quest to feel good more of the time, and feel bad less of the time. With this level of understanding, our minds automatically translate “being happy” as “feeling happy.”

If feeling happy was what Socrates had meant, he would have been suggesting the impossible. If we could feel happy by willing ourselves to be happy, we would simply do so in each moment and the game would be over. We’d just work ourselves into a feeling state of happiness and wander off into the sunset.

But as I’ve already noted, feelings change all the time, and they are not under the control of our wills. We may, in random moments, think about something pleasant and feel a little giddy, but the giddiness passes soon enough. And if we’re in a funk because we just got laid off work or went bankrupt or ended a relationship, willing ourselves to feel happy isn’t likely to succeed.

As you now understand, Socrates was recommending that we act happy, radiate a happy positive state in the posture of our body, in our voice, in our expression — because that is something we can control. We can will ourselves to smile; we can behave and move and breathe as if we’re happy. Whatever the shifting state of our actual emotions, we can let our feelings be, get on with life, radiate energy into the world, and expand into the moment. This practice can be extremely difficult at times, but it remains possible. That’s what Soc advised me to do, and that’s what I recommend — and what I live to the best of my ability, moment to moment.

But isn’t it mere pretense to act happy even if we’re not feeling that way? Yes, it is — the way a terrified young soldier pretends to be courageous as he picks up his friend and carries him back through the firefight, the way the shy young girl walks across the middle-school dance floor and pretends to be confident while she asks someone to dance.

I don’t care so much if someone happens to feel brave or energetic or confident or grateful or compassionate or kind or loving; I care whether they behave that way. This is why Socrates recommended unreasonable happiness. And so do I.
 

On Forgiveness

A journalist recently sent me questions about (the idea and act of) forgiveness. I haven’t written much about this term, because it has always seemed more important to ask forgiveness than to go around "forgiving" others for all those terrible wrongs they’ve done to us.  But hey, maybe that’s just me.

Still, I welcomed the chance to offer some perspectives about forgiveness, and share them here:

1) What is forgiveness?

DM: Forgiveness means different things to different people.  For some, it involves the act of saying the words, "I forgive you."  For others, whether or not the words are  spoken, forgiveness is a wave of compassion, a moment of understanding, a recognition of the difficulties and human limitations and frailties of another who as wronged or betrayed us in some way.

Frankly, I don’t much like this whole idea of "forgiving others."  There is an arrogance to this idea:  "I forgive you for having wronged me."  "I forgive my parents for having wounded me" etc.  If we observe ourselves very carefully and realistically, we may notice that our most important order of business is not in forgiving others, but in asking forgiveness.  This seems to me the more worthwhile goal to pursue.

In any case, forgiving self (or others) does not happen by trying to whip up good feelings; it is not an emotion we have to somehow generate or sustain.  Forgiveness is an action:  Writing a letter, speaking with a person and letting them know that what they did (to hurt or betray you) was a mistake, and that you have also made (different) mistakes, and that you offer your compassion for the suffering they experienced.  That you will not forget what happened, but that you acknowledge that humans are not perfect creatures; that we make mistakes and learn from them.

2) Why should I forgive & what are the benefits of forgiving?

DM:  Someone once said that "resenting someone is like letting them live rent-free in our head."  I also like the words of Jimmy Buffet:  "Breathe in, breathe out, move on."   Life’s too short.  The fact is that people mess up.  You do.  I do.  Part of being human. 

3) When I forgive, am I condoning certain actions?

DM: Forgiveness has nothing to do with playing the role of victim.  It is simply the recognition that something or someone hurt us, but leaves open the possibility for healing that relationship nonetheless but acknowledging their role (and ours) in what happened.  Forgiveness can never be a one-way street.  Unless that person can acknowledge and regret (or repent) their action, forgiveness may not be workable (or even appropriate). 

I find the 12-step program a good model to apply in this  area of forgiveness.  When we wrong someone, we need to take specific steps of acknowledging what we did, taking full responsibility for our action (or inaction), and then making amends — doing what we can to correct or compensate for that.  This completes the healing that involves forgiving self and others.

4) Must I forgive if a person continues to hurt me?

DM:  If someone wrongs me once, it’s their responsibility.  If they wrong me in the same way a second time, it’s my responsibility.  It takes two to tango.  So by all means, turn the other cheek.  Once.

5) What if I don’t want to forgive?

DM:  Then don’t. But recognize that if we choose to resent and to "punish" others by "staying angry,"  we also punish ourselves in the process. 

6) What if I forgive and not forget?

DM:  I like the idea of "forgive but don’t forget."  Forgiving is learning and rising above — not ignoring what happened.  The idea is to learn from what happened — grow wiser and more compassionate and to avoid something like that happening again.

7) How do I forgive others?

DM:  As that little green guy, Yoda, might say, "There is no try.  Just do, or do not."  There is no how.  We forgive others, we learn and let it go, or we do not.  Either way, there are consequences to ourselves and others. 

I already mentioned the efficacy of the 12-steps (as used by addicts but which apply to anyone as a spiritual path).  In addition, I believe that  Byron Katie’s work has much to offer for anyone carrying resentments and who might benefit from a larger perspective.

How do I forgive myself?

DM: Carl Jung, the noted psychoanalyst, once wrote, "That I feed the poor, forgive an insult, and love my enemy — these are great virtues. But what if I should discover that the poorest of the beggars and most impudent of offenders are all within me, and that I stand in need of the alms of my own kindness — that I, myself, am the enemy who must be loved. What then?"

Once we find compassion for ourselves, it is easier to find compassion for others.  Anne Truitt wrote, "It takes kindness to forgive oneself for one’s life."  Forgiving oneself equires the same compassion, understanding and insight we might apply to forgiving others.  We come to recognize that we are perfect but not yet perfected — that we make mistakes and continue to learn as we stumble towards the light.
 

Just Enough

If you have a perfect body without any sign of pain, blemish, imbalance or symptoms  — and a mind clear and bright without a sign of quirk, eccentricity or cloud  — then please raise your hand. Then take that hand and give yourself a pat on the back.  Enjoy the moment.

Some of us, having suffered the slings and arrows of outrageous fortune, may now possess a trick knee or painful back or weak ankle or sore shoulder or clicking jaw — or perhaps we have paid for a genuine psychological diagnosis like bi-polar, traumatic stress syndrome, ADD or ADHD, or dyslexia or one of many neuroses or traces of paranoia, or multiple-personalities (or not much personality at all). There’s a diagnosis for nearly everything, nowadays.

Once there were no fancy names, categories or diagnoses. There were only pains, troubles or symptoms. But in modern times government by insurance companies, it became helpful, if not essential, to have a label, category, box to fit people into — both for insurance coverage, and to determine proper (and sometimes improper) treatments.

But consider: What about all of us who lack a diagnosis, a label? What about those of us who are easily distractable, but who haven’t crossed that line into ADD territory, or who have trust issues but not yet officially paranoid? How about those elders who are forgetful and sometimes confused, but who don’t quite qualify for senility or dementia?

In real life, with its variety of personalities, it may be best to let go of the labels and just be who we are.  In fact, I wish you:

Just enough paranoia to stay alert to frauds and tricksters.

Just enough schizophrenia to have a rich and creative imagination and associations.

Just enough dyslexia to see the world a little differently from others.

Just enough ADD (and hyperactivity) to be vibrant and a wellspring of different interests.

Just enough bi-polar qualities to experience life’s ups and downs fully, with passion.

My heart goes out to those people who have serious physical or mental pain and disability. Mental and physical illness are no laughing matter. But as the saying goes, "In each of us lives all of us."  Let’s recognize that we each have seeds of every sort of malady, but we cope and learn and adjust in daily life, functioning as best we can.

You and I are not either sick or well, ignorant or enlightened — we are all these things in different moments.  We live in that world of in-between, sometimes this and sometimes that. We are not labels, categories or diagnoses. We are interesting people in quite an interesting world.