"I think pop music is going to be spiritual.... that's the direction I want to go." ~Brian Wilson

I was sittin' in a crummy movie
With my hands on my chin
all the violence that occurs
Seems like we never win

Love and mercy that's what you need tonight
Love and mercy to you and your friends tonight

I was lying in my room
And the news came on TV
A lotta people out there hurtin'
And it really scares me

Love and mercy that's what you need tonight
Love and mercy to you and your friends tonight

I was standing in a bar
And watching all the people there
Oh the loneliness in this world
Well it's just not fair

Love and mercy that's what we need tonight
Love and mercy to you and your friends tonight

The back cover of Pet Sounds features photos of the Beach Boys as Zen embracing samurai warriors.

"Really Zen, Right?"   -Brian Wilson 1967

"The eternal now, right?" ~Brian Wilson
Surfing Saints Cheetah Oct. '67


View Libera perform a moving rendition of this song for honoree, Brian
Wilson.



Brian's Label artwork featured this uniquely American symbol of enlightenment.

Scientists have deciphered the three-dimensional structure of the human genome, paving the way for new insights into genomic function and expanding our understanding of how cellular DNA folds at scales that dwarf the double helix.

Scientists have long disputed the genetic basis of altruism.  The concept of kin selection suggests altruistic behaviors favor the survival of close relatives of the affected individual, and thus survival of many of the same genes.  Thus familial altruism is actually genetic self interest.  In the 1930’s J.B.S. Haldane said that, “I would lay down my life for two brothers or eight cousins.” According to this logic, your life is worth one identical twin, two siblings, four nieces or nephews, or eight cousins in terms of genetic code (assuming siblings are on average 50% identical by descent, nephews 25%, and cousins 12.5%.)

But this is a severe miscalculation.   We are actually much more closely related.  Now

Brothers actually share on average approximately 50% of the DNA which varies between human beings plus the 99.9% shared by all human beings.

that the human genome has been decoded, it turns out that all human beings share 99.9% of the same DNA.  This fact makes true altruism less of a puzzle.  Acts of brotherhood make sense since all mankind are brothers.

All mankind are related since all men trace their ‘Y’ chromosome to a common male ancestor or genetic “Adam.”  Similarly all women trace their mitochondrial DNA to a single female ancestor or genetic “Eve.”

It is very powerful evidence of how alike we really are.  Perhaps this positive realization could be promoted to reinforce our already existing societal beliefs in equality and help overcome racism and prejudice.

"What I want to know is, Are you kind?" -Robert Hunter from the song, Uncle John's Band

“My religion is very simple.  My religion is kindness.” -Dalai Lama

“There is no need for temples, no need for complicated philosophies. My brain and my heart are my temples; my philosophy is kindness.”  -Dalai Lama

"Since death is inevitable, we believe that if we begin to prepare for it and an earlier point in time, on the day of our death it will be easier to accept it." H. H. Dalai Lama

According to the Dalai Lama, death is neither good nor bad, but an inevitable part of life. Therefore preparation is imperative. “The Readiness is all.” as Hamlet stoically reasoned.  The Dalai Lama explains the necessity of building a Ship of Death:

“Death will definitely come.  If you spend your life overly concerned with the temporary affairs of this lifetime and make no preparation for it, then  on the day when it comes you will be unable to think about anything except your own mental suffering and fear, and will have no opportunity to practice anything else.

When death is near it is essential to turn your thoughts to spiritual practice, since the mind at time of dying is a proximate cause of the continuation into the next lifetime.  No matter what happened in terms of good and bad within this particular lifetime, what happens at time of death is particularly powerful.  Therefore it is important to learn about the process of dying and prepare for it through meditation.  I do this myself.  Six or seven times a day, I go through the eight phases of dissolution that occur at death in my meditation practice.”   -H.H. Dalai Lama Dalai Lama’s Little Book of Inner Peace, 2009.

The Dalai Lama has indicated his reincarnation will occur outside of Tibet if he is unable to return there during his lifetime.  China, however, is attempting to control his reincarnation process.  China has issued regulations which prevent his followers in exile from choosing his reincarnation and require approval of his reincarnation by various levels of Chinese officials.

The reincarnation of pre-eminent monks, including the Dalai Lama, would require the seal of approval of China’s ruling cabinet. Common sense, however, would dictate that reincarnation should only be determined by spiritual, not governmental authorities.  Officials at China’s State Administration for Religious Affairs declined comment.

Professor Davidson (standing) with His Holiness the Dalai Lama and Geshe Sopa

In 1992, instead of just wondering why science had long ignored the positive mental states promoted in Buddhism, the Dalai Lama invited University of Wisconsin-Madison neuroscientist Richard Davidson to his residence in exile in Dharamsala India.  His Holiness asked the scientist to participate in a study of the brain function and mental activity of accomplished Tibetan yogis.

His Holiness had one prescient question:  “Scientists often study depression, anxiety and fear, but why not devote your work to the causes of positive human qualities like happiness and compassion?”

To address that question, Davidson, one of Time Magazine’s most 100 influential people in 2006, began studying positive states of mind.  Last month, he opened the Center for Investigating Healthy Minds at the University of Wisconsin.  The center boasts the only meditation room in the world with an adjoining brain imaging laboratory.

At first, the massive gamma brainwaves of the monks in meditation had researchers checking their instruments in dismay. So far, Davidson’s research suggests meditation improves compassion, empathy, kindness, attention and overall mental health.  Davidson has remarked on the Dalai Lama’s extraordinary and unflinching commitment to science.

The two will appear at five different science events this year.  Their research is exploring and building on the connection between Buddhism and science in the new field of contemplative neuroscience. By promoting research into positive mental states and traditional Buddhist meditative practices, the Dalai Lama hopes to help scientists create a more ethical and peaceful world.

Humility is the quality of being modest, reverential, politely submissive, without arrogance.

Training the Mind: Verse 2: Whenever I interact with someone, May I view myself as the lowest amongst all, And, from the very depths of my heart, Respectfully hold others as superior.

Philippians 2:3-5:  Be humble, thinking of others as better than yourselves. Care about them as much as you care about yourselves and think the same way that Christ Jesus thought.

Matthew 23:12:  Blessed are the meek, for they shall inherit the earth.For whoever exalts himself will be humbled, and whoever humbles himself will be exalted.

Many Buddhists believe humility be the most important universal virtue.  Because pride is counterproductive to mental cultivation, humility is considered essential to spiritual development. Pride is an impediment to enlightenment because only a humble mind is open to the rigors of self discipline or able to fully appreciate others.

Humility is one of the ten sacred qualities attributed to the Buddha of Compassion apparently as a natural element of supreme spiritual attainment. Furthermore, real humility allows for the true appreciation of others.  It enables gratefulness.  Both are key elements of happiness.

Finally, Real Humility Is Genuineness.      Chögyam Trungpa, the Buddhist teacher, writes, “Humility, very simply, is the absence of arrogance. Where there is no arrogance, you relate with your world as an eye-level situation, without one-upmanship. Because of that, there can be a genuine interchange. Nobody is using their message to put anybody else down, and nobody has to come down or up to the other person’s level. Everything is eye-level. Humility in the Shambhala tradition also involves some kind of playfulness, which is a sense of humor….In most religious traditions, you feel humble because of a fear of punishment, pain, and sin. In the Shambhala world you feel full of it. You feel healthy and good. In fact, you feel proud. Therefore, you feel humility. That’s one of the Shambhala contradictions or, we could say, dichotomies. Real humility is genuineness.”

Buddhism teaches respect and tolerance for other religions and speaking ill of anyone for their philosophy or religion is a transgression of the Dharma.  Not only does the Dalai Lama respect other faiths, he doesn’t seek converts.  His Holiness states, “People from different traditions should keep their own, rather than change.”

To a man who asked to become a Buddhist, the Dalai Lama replied, “Please don’t. Stay in your own religion, and meditate.”  Further , he has stated, “It is better to stick with the wisdom traditions of one’s own land than to run from them pursuing in exotica what was under your nose all the time.”

After all, love and compassion are the basic elements of every religion. Yet, His Holiness writes in The Dalai Lama’s Little Book of Inner Peace, “For certain people, Buddhism may simply not be an answer.  Different religions meet different people’s needs.  I do not try to convert people to Buddhism.  What I try to explore is how we Buddhists can make a contribution to human society in accordance with our ideas and values.”

His Holiness divides Buddhism into three categories: Buddhist science, Buddhist philosophy and Buddhist religion. Buddhist religion, he says, is the business of Buddhists, but Buddhist philosophy and science have universal application and need to be made available to the world.

“In conclusion, those who like myself, consider themselves to be followers of Buddha, should practice as much as we can. To followers of other religious traditions, I would like to say, “Please practice your own religion seriously and sincerely.” And to non-believers, I request you to try to be warm-hearted. I ask this of you because these mental attitudes actually bring us happiness. As I have mentioned before, taking care of others actually benefits you.” writes the Dalai Lama in Generating the Mind for Enlightenment.

The Samyutta Nikaya states:

“According to the seed that’s sown,
So is the fruit you reap there from,
Doer of good will gather good,
Doer of evil, evil reaps,
Down is the seed and thou shalt taste
The fruit thereof.”

Further On Up the Road

Further on up the road, someone’s gonna hurt you like you
hurt me
Further on up the road, someone’s gonna hurt you like
you hurt me
Further on up the road, baby you just wait and see
You got to reap just what you sow, that old saying is
true
You got to reap just what you sow, that old saying is
true
Like you mistreat someone, someone’s gonna mistreat
you
Now you’re laughing pretty baby, someday you’re gonna
be crying
Now you’re laughing pretty baby, some, someday you’re
gonna be crying
Further on up the road, you’ll find out I wasn’t
lying
Yeah, baby, further on up the road, baby, hmmm, you’ll
find out I wasn’t lying
Further on up the road, when you’re all alone and
blue
Further on up the road, when you’re all alone and
blue
You’re gonna ask me to take you back baby, but I’ll
have somebody new
Hmmm, baby, further on up the road Hmmm, baby, further on up the road

Hmmm, you’ll get yours

“Be not deceived; God is not mocked: for whatsoever a man soweth, that shall he also reap.”    -Galations 6.7

“You gotta reap just what you sow; that old saying is true.  Just like you mistreat someone, someone’s gonna mistreat you.” -Bobby “Blue” Bland

A perspicacious Mr. Bland chides the listener into more circumspect behavior by extolling the aptness and inevitability of karma in “Further on up the Road.”  Listen HERE. This song was written by Joe Medwich Veasey and Don D. Robey.

Karma demands that every act, no matter how insignificant, will eventually return to the doer with equal impact. Good will be returned with good; evil with evil.  The idea of reaping what you sow expresses the principle action of karma.  Karma may also be loosely thought of as the ethical law of cause and effect, poetic justice, what goes around comes around, the law of causality, or the chickens coming home to roost.

Abandoning the taking of life, the ascetic Gautama dwells refraining from taking life, without stick or sword.

Put your sword back in place; for those who take the sword will perish by the sword.

“Put your sword back in place; for those who take the sword will perish by the sword.”    -Matthew 26.52

“Abandoning the taking of life, the ascetic Gautama dwells refraining from taking life, without stick or sword.”    -Digha Nikaya 1.1.8

“He that leadeth into captivity shall go into captivity: he that killeth with the sword must be killed with the sword.”    -Book of Revelation 13.10

“They will beat their swords into plowshares and their spears into pruning hooks. Nation will not take up sword against nation, nor will they train for war anymore.”    -Isaiah 2:4 & Micah 4:3

“I am a soldier of Christ. I cannot fight.”    -Martin of Tours, Roman Soldier 336 A.D.

“Love your enemies, bless them that curse you, do good to them that hate you, and pray for them which spitefully use you, and persecute you;”  Matthew 5:44

“Hatreds do not cease in this world by hating, but by love, overcoming evil by good.  Overcome the miser by giving, overcome the liar by truth.”    Dhammapada 1.5 & 17.3

“Do not return evil for evil.  Avenge not yourselves, but rather give way to wrath; for it is written, vengeance is mine; I will repay, says the Lord.  Therefore if your enemy is hungry, feed him; if he thirsts, give him drink: for in so doing you shall heap coals of fire on his head.  Be not overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good.”  -Romans 12:17-21

"Hatreds do not cease in this world by hating, but by love, overcoming evil by good. Overcome the miser by giving, overcome the liar by truth."

“Hatred will not cease by hatred, but by love alone. This is the ancient law.”   -Buddha

“All fear violence, all are afraid of death. Seeing the similarity to oneself, one should not use violence or have it used.”   -Buddha

“I think the first reason that we should love our enemies… is this: that hate for hate only intensifies the existence of hate and evil in the universe. If I hit you and you hit me and I hit you back and you hit me back and go on, you see, that goes on ad infinitum.  It just never ends. Somewhere somebody must have a little sense, and that’s the strong person. The strong person is the person who can cut off the chain of hate, the chain of evil. And that is the tragedy of hate, that it doesn’t cut it off. It only intensifies the existence of hate and evil in the universe. Somebody must have religion enough and morality enough to cut it off and inject within the very structure of the universe that strong and powerful element of love.”

“There’s another reason why you should love your enemies, and that is because hate distorts the personality of the hater. We usually think of what hate does for the individual hated or the individuals hated or the groups hated. But it is even more tragic, it is even more ruinous and injurious to the individual who hates. You just begin hating somebody, and you will begin to do irrational things. You can’t see straight when you hate. You can’t walk straight when you hate. You can’t stand upright. Your vision is distorted. There is nothing more tragic than to see an individual whose heart is filled with hate. He comes to the point that he becomes a pathological case. For the person who hates, you can stand up and see a person and that person can be beautiful, and you will call them ugly. For the person who hates, the beautiful becomes ugly and the ugly becomes beautiful. For the person who hates, the good becomes bad and the bad becomes good. For the person who hates, the true becomes false and the false becomes true. That’s what hate does. You can’t see right. The symbol of objectivity is lost. Hate destroys the very structure of the personality of the hater.”

“To be integrated with yourself is be sure that you meet every situation of life with an abounding love. Never hate, because it ends up in tragic, neurotic responses. Psychologists and psychiatrists are telling us today that the more we hate, the more we develop guilt feelings and we begin to subconsciously repress or consciously suppress certain emotions, and they all stack up in our subconscious selves and make for tragic, neurotic responses. And may this not be the neuroses of many individuals as they confront life that that is an element of hate there. And modern psychology is calling on us now to love. But long before modern psychology came into being, the world’s greatest psychologist who walked around the hills of Galilee told us to love. He looked at men and said: “Love your enemies; don’t hate anybody.” Because when you start hating anybody, it destroys the very center of your creative response to life and the universe; so love everybody. Hate at any point is a cancer that gnaws away at the very vital center of your life and your existence. It is like eroding acid that eats away the best and the objective center of your life. So … love, because hate destroys the hater as well as the hated.”

“Now there is a final reason… It is this: that love has within it a redemptive power. And there is a power there that eventually transforms individuals. That’s why Jesus says, “Love your enemies.” Because if you hate your enemies, you have no way to redeem and to transform your enemies. But if you love your enemies, you will discover that at the very root of love is the power of redemption. You just keep loving people and keep loving them, even though they’re mistreating you. Here’s the person who is a neighbor, and this person is doing something wrong to you and all of that. Just keep being friendly to that person. Keep loving them. Don’t do anything to embarrass them. Just keep loving them, and they can’t stand it too long. Oh, they react in many ways in the beginning. They react with bitterness because they’re mad because you love them like that. They react with guilt feelings, and sometimes they’ll hate you a little more at that transition period, but just keep loving them. And by the power of your love they will break down under the load. That’s love, you see. It is redemptive… There’s something about love that builds up and is creative. There is something about hate that tears down and is destructive. So love your enemies.” -Excerpts From Speech, “Loving Your Enemies,” Martin Luther King, Jr.

“It is easy enough to be friendly to one’s friends. But to befriend the one who regards himself as your enemy is the quintessence of true religion. The other is mere business.” -Mahatma Gandhi