The art of being

I am right now reading Stephen Batchelors book "Alone With Others", and in it he stresses the difference between Having and Being. The Western world is obsessed with Having, ownership of things or even our own lives. The Eastern worlds philosophy though, is about being. 

I know a friend of mine use to say that according to the Frankfurt school (whatever that means, I am not sure), the Western world is more about becoming than being. What that means, is that we never focus on being in the now, but focus on what we are to become later. 

So according to these two different observations of our Western culture, we are all about owning and eventually become something. To me, these are very accurate descriptions of what my life has been about for a very long time. That is about to change though. 

When I went to University, I studied Literature and Religion. First I studied these subjects, cause I was really interested in them. Eventually I started to realize that I was actually studying to sort of collect information and store it, to become something, and own that information. Not to live it. To be honest, when you are getting an education, let´s say to become an engineer, probably half of the stuff you learn will you never use again after you finish your degree. 

My intention was to get a Ph D, and eventually become a professor in either literature or religious studies. I was all about becoming. All about having a title or a specific position. 

I gave that up, and became a bar manager instead. Some people say I was the best bartender the little town had ever had. I appreciate those comments, however they are wrong. I was probably the worst bartender the little town ever had, cause bartending is about making good coctails and stuff for people, which I am terrible at. But I was a very good peoples person, and I still am. To me, my role was never about mixing drinks. It was about pouring a good beer and keep people chatting. And so I did, quite well even.  That was the first time I wasn´t eager to become a bartender.  I wasn´t eager to own that title. 

Bars are all about late nights and drunk people though. My main interest has always been about coffee. And coffee is about mornings and sober people. So I wanted to pursue a career where I could be in the coffeebusiness, and constantly learn about coffee. My boss just returned from a course in Vermont, US. To me, his knowledge is very wide. His greatest discovery at this course was that he has so much more to learn. That is a great discovery! It´s like knowing what you are going to do, each and every day, but still be able to progress. A great ride, indeed! 

I have also noticed how I have developed a fascination for three other great joys that are about being; photography, capoeira and yoga. They all hold the same qualities as the coffee business. The same ride, but different vehicles. 

These activities all create something scientists call flow. It is a feeling of being completely one with an activity, something that demands full attention from you and at the same time give that sense of challenge that is so important for us to stay focused and wanting to have more of that emotion. 

Flow is definitely about being. It happens now, it´s not something you can become, it´s not something you can own, cause it might be gone as soon as you realize you are in it, as soon as you start to self reflect on it. 

Where do you find flow in you every day life?

Left Hand Path?

The Spiritual Path is a journey. A constant one. Sometimes it fascinates me how people can travel the world without themselves changing the least bit. How they can not change focus in their lives? Even so, traveling within the mind must change you, I think, even if the mind travel is lending its canvas from a book. 

A lot of people I know and see around me travel extensively. They have even done so for years and years. Have they changed? I can tell you, they themselves think they have, but have they? Some yes, but most of them, no. But what do I ask from these people? Too much? 

For instance, there is a man I know who has seen a lot of the world. For him it is almost an obsession going to a poor far away country, just to be able to say: "I have witnessed the injustice with my own eyes, I want to make a change". And then he goes off studying something to make a change. Yet still, it seems his focus is always on that feeling in his gut, how horrible he felt for those beggars and kids without shoes. So the focal point in the sentence above is really "I have witnessed" and not on "injustice". 

I overheard a woman in Bombay complaining about her Taxi driver staring at her chest instead of the road. Well, if you wear a Hollywood cleavage in Bombay, you are asking for it. Never assume the world is you. You are part of the world. And this was a well travelled woman. What use to travel if not learning about the diversity of the world? And accept the differences. 

For my self, I have quite recently moved to another part of the world, far away from my home country in the north. It is still the western world, mind you, but it is hard to accept that peoples minds are different in so many ways. Yet still, I realize how hard it is for me to change. My culture have given me the advantage of being humble, aware of injustice and wrong doings at working places, the obvious fact that the employer is stronger than his employee and therefore has the moral obligation to act benevolent. Not here. Here is a dog eat dog world. Strong capitalism creates quite different ethics. Less compassion, more "What´s in it for me?".  This is not saying that people from my country are less selfish, they are not, beneath the surface (since we all are egoists, which is why capitalism has such a strong echo within us). However, we act less selfish as a society. We have the union for instance, that looks after our interests quite a bit. 

To be continued

Current affairs

A couple of days ago, I saw a debate from New York on the topic "The American Dream". There was gathered a group of young Americans, all with different backgrounds and stories. 

The American Dream is a way of life all over the world. Today, all of us Westerners are, in a sense, Americans, since our culture is heavily influenced by the American Way. 

Sad enough, most of the participants focused on the American Dream being something egoistic and materialistic. One young girl said her American Dream was a mansion and 7 cars. Another person was making real estate business, and saw each transaction as a strategic move towards what he considered to be the American Dream - to be able to do what ever he wanted without no one telling him what to do. He was asked if that dream had a price tag on it, and he answered between 50-100 million dollars. 

How hollow is that? When you have that kind of money laying around, you are going to be so afraid to lose them that you´ll get all sorts of advisors, telling you what to and not to do with it. The only freedom in that matter would be taking those money and give it all away to charity. Only then would he truly be able to do what he wanted without no one telling him what to do. 

What is it with matter, that puts a spell on all of us? A lot of spiritual persons I know are gadget people. They need gadgets, are fascinated by them. So am I. I got a new iPhone the other week. Not that it was my American Dream to own one, but I felt that if I am going to get a new phone, why not get something that I really want. And now I got it. Do I feel content? Nah... I am looking at other things I really need. Like a new pair of Ray Bans. 

A book on beer I read recently, called some beer drinkers "label drinkers". They are used to drink a beer cause it´s a label they recognize and a lifestyle that comes with that label. You know the ones - Carlsberg, probably the best lager in the world. Heineken, etc. A friend of mine is more or less obsessed with the idea of becoming The Marlboro Man. Not that he smokes, but the clothes and the lifestyle the commercial for those clothes offers. A man of the wild. 

He can afford that though. 

Another show on TV, 60 Minutes, approached the debt of the young in Australia. One girl had a debt of 70 000 dollars. She had bought a car (which I reckon was the biggest post), but also she had purchased no less than two (2) flat screen TV´s. Why two? Probably that was the idea of a lifestyle she had in mind. Another girl just kept spending money on her credit card on non sense, such as clothes. Stuff you can´t even try to sell to get some of the money back. 

This society has made it extremely difficult for us to see, that the chains that binds us grows stronger. It is so entwined with our lives, we no longer see the difference between wanting and needing. At least for most people. Like children. 

Introduction

Here I intend to present some thoughts on spirituality. I write another blog about Coffee (in Swedish though), hence the name Buddha Bar (ista), which is a play on word with all those Buddha Bar records you so easily find at any café in any city of the world. 

Like the Buddha Bar records themselves, my aim is to present spirituality in a very broad and easily understood sense. I will not exclusively focus on Buddhism, but on all spiritual traditions that has anything to say about modern life and how to live it in accordance to a chosen spiritual path. 

These humble thoughts will of course not be revolutionary to man. It is mere a reminder that these thoughts still exist, and can play part in your every day life.