Book Review: The Bhagavad Gita

PREFACE

I was born a Christian, raised a Christian, and I'll die a Christian. Nevertheless, I enjoy learning about many different religions, and one of my favorite courses in college was “World Religions.” I read portions of many sacred texts, and have since wanted to read them more extensively - starting with the Bhagavad Gita.

I am not Hindu. I have never been to a Hindu place of worship, and I have had very few conversations with practicing Hindus about their religion. Hence my understanding of the Gita may be very flawed, and very inadequate. But I read it, and this is what I thought. If there are gross misunderstandings on my part, please don’t take offense. My intent is to learn, and to help others understand a small portion of a religion I am attempting to understand.

What is the Bhagavad Gita?

It is a portion of the Hindu scripture called the Mahabharata. As I understand, it is the most well known and widely read and quoted portion of the scripture. It takes place in the middle of a war. Arjuna is the commander of his army, and feels a moral dilemma about fighting his own cousins. Lord Krishna explains to him his duties, and then expounds the meaning of life, the cycles of reincarnation, and how one can finally escape this life and become one with God. He does this through the Vedantic philosophies, the different Yogis, the Gunas, and other examples and analogies on life.

The main lesson is to go through life doing good, but to avoid attachment. We should work hard, serve others, do our best, but never care about the outcome. Whether we are rewarded are punished, should not matter. The goal is to be one with God. We should act and feel the same toward our friends and foes, saints and sinners, family and strangers. We should be moderate in all things, disciplined in all actions. The level to which we do this determines the state of our reincarnation. Hopefully we will eventually attain perfect union with God, forsake all attachment, and escape the reincarnation cycle.

Quotes, and some of my thoughts about them.

“There was never a time when either I, or you, or these rulers of men did not exist. Nor will there ever be a future when all of us will cease to exist.”

The soul of man is eternal. Nothing can change that.

“The foolish do not respect me in this human form, failing to know My supremely excellent form, that of the highest Lord of all creation.”

It seems this is true of all prophets or Gods in all religions. I can compare it easily to Christ, who was scorned and hated by those of his own religion in his time, and was eventually killed by his own people. They would not recognize him for who he was.

“Even those who become devotees of other deities and, with faith, perform sacrifices to them, they too sacrifice to Me…though not in the manner prescribed.”

Lord Krishna appreciates all worship of all religions, saying that there is only one God (him), and all are worshiping him, though some in the wrong way. I believe the same thing, there is only one God, some are worshiping him the way he desires, but all who worship a supreme being are worshiping him.

“But you cannot view Me with these eyes of yours. I am bestowing supernatural sight upon you – behold My divine Yoga.”
“Were the radiance of a thousand suns to blaze forth at one go in the sky, it might approximate the magnificence of this exalted being.”
“I am the intelligence of the intelligent.”

These descriptions of the glory, brightness, and intelligence of the Supreme being ring very true, and the same descriptions are found in other sacred texts.

“Man is composed of his faith – as his faith is, so is he”

We are what we believe we are, or at least we become so.

“I shall consider whoever studies this conversation on dharma between us as having worshiped Me by performing a Sacrifice of Knowledge.”

Lord Krishna says that he will accept the reading of this scripture as worship of him. I appreciate the fact that even an attempt to understand is counted for good.

“Just as a man casts off worn-out clothes and puts on others which are new, likewise the embodied soul, casting off old bodies, is united with other, new ones.”

“There is nothing in this world as purifying as knowledge.”

“Both renunciation of action and its selfless performance lead to salvation, but of the two, the selfless performance of action is superior to its renunciation.”

“Since wisdom is veiled by ignorance, all creatures are confused.”

“A man should not raise himself, and should not demean himself.”

“For the mind, O Krsna, is unsteady, turbulent, powerful and obstinate. Controlling it, I think, is as difficult as enveloping the wind.”

“Out of thousands of men, hardly one attempts to reach perfection.”

“A man who contemplates the objects of sense develops an attachment to them; attachment gives rise to desire, and desire results in anger. Anger gives rise to confusion, confusion to loss of memory. Loss of memory destroys intelligence and, once a man’s intelligence is destroyed, he perishes.”

MUCH MORE

When I read the text, I highlighted about 160 passages. When I typed up those that interested me the most, I typed up 62. I have included here 16. If anyone would like to see the rest of the passages that I typed up, just ask me and I’ll post them.

7/21/2012 - Per request, here are all 62 with their citations.

Arjuna:

            1:35 - “These I would not wish to kill though they have risen to kill us.”

            1:37 - “Having killed out own folk, how can we be happy?”

            1:40 - “In the annihilation of a family, its time-honored rites are destroyed, and when these rites perish, lawlessness overpowers the entire family.”

            2:5 - “It is better to live by begging in this world rather than by killing one’s revered elders.”

Lord Krishna:

            2:12 - “There was never a time when either I, or you, or these rulers of men did not exist.  Nor will there ever be a future when all of us will cease to exist.”

            2:22 - “Just as a man casts off worn-out clothes and puts on others which are new, likewise the embodied soul, casting off old bodies, is united with other, new ones.”

            2:27 - “For one that is born death is certain, and to one that dies; birth is certain  This being unavoidable, you ought not to grieve.”

            2:38 - “Regarding as a like pleasure and pain, gain and loss, victory and defeat, prepare yourself for battle.  If you act thus, you shall not incur sin.”

            2:47,48 - “Do not perform action with an eye to its fruits…accepting alike success or failure.  Such equanimity is known as Yoga”

            2:62,63 - “A man who contemplates the objects of sense develops an attachment to them; attachment gives rise to desire, and desire results in anger.  Anger gives rise to confusion, confusion to loss of memory.  Loss of memory destroys intelligence and, once a man’s intelligence is destroyed, he perishes.”

            3:17 - “The wise man should not unsettle the faith of the ignorant one’s attachment to action, but should himself become a doer of deeds in the spirit of yoga, and enjoin others to do so willingly.”

            3:32“Those who fault My teaching and do not follow it, are foolish beyond redemption, thoughtless, and are utterly ruined.”

            3:41 - “Control your senses first.”

            4:8 - “I come into being from age to age to protect the good, destroy the wicked and establish righteousness.”

            4:34 - “The wise who have seen the truth will instruct you in knowledge if you show humility in reverence, inquiry and service.”

            4:38 -  “There is nothing in this world as purifying as knowledge.”

            5:2 - “Both renunciation of action and its selfless performance lead to salvation, but of the two, the selfless performance of action is superior to its renunciation.”

            5:15 - “Since wisdom is veiled by ignorance, all creatures are confused.”

            5:20 - “One should not be glad on getting what is desired nor sad should the undesired occur.”

            5:22 - “Those pleasures arising out of contacts with external objects are only the origin of unhappiness, for they have a beginning and an end.”

            6:5 - “A man should not raise himself, and should not demean himself.”

            6:9 - “He whose attitude is the same towards benefactors, friends, foes, towards the neutral, impartial, or hateful ones, relatives, saints and even sinners, is said to be of special merit.”

            6:17 - “He who is moderate in food and play, disciplined in his actions, and controlled in sleep or keeping awake achieves a yoga which destroys all pain.”

            6:32 - “The yogin who looks on everything in the same way as if it were his self, be it in pleasure or in pain, is held to be a perfect yogi.”

            6:34 - “For the mind, O Krsna, is unsteady, turbulent, powerful and obstinate.  Controlling it, I think, is as difficult as enveloping the wind.”

            7:3 - “Out of thousands of men, hardly one attempts to reach perfection.”

            7:10 - “I am the intelligence of the intelligent.”

            7:16-18 - “Of four kinds are the virtuous people who worship me…

1.                  Those in distress

2.                  Those who seek knowledge

3.                  Those who seek wealth

4.                  The men of knowledge

            All of them are good, but I regard the man of knowledge as equal to Me.  For having united his mind in Me he is fixed in Me, the highest goal.”

            7:21 - “Whatever form or deity a devotee with faith may wish to worship, I make his faith unswerving.”

            8:7 - “Remember me at all times”

            8:13 - “In the one syllable ‘Aum’, the form of Brahman, the one who thinks of Me as he leaves his body attains the highest state.

           

            8:15 - “Having attained Me, these noble souls are not subjected to the transitory abode of misery, rebirth, for they have attained the highest perfection.”

            9:11 - “The foolish do not respect me in this human form, failing to know My supremely excellent form, that of the highest Lord of all creation.”

            9:23 - “Even those who become devotees of other deities and, with faith, perform sacrifices to them, they too sacrifice to Me…though not in the manner prescribed.”

            9:27 - “Whatever you do, whatever you eat, whatever you offer in sacrifice, whatever your gift, whatever austerity you observe…offer all that to Me.”

            10:4,5 - “Reason, knowledge, freedom from confusion, mercy, truth, self restraint, tranquility, happiness, unhappiness, being and non-being, fear and fearlessness, non-violence, evenness of temper, contentment, austerity, charity, glory, ill-repute – the different characteristics of living creatures – are born of me.”

Arjuna:

            11:4 - “O Lord, if You hold that it is possible for me to behold it, then, O Lord of Yoga, show me Your imperishable form.”

Lord Krishna:

            11:8 - “But you cannot view Me with these eyes of yours.  I am bestowing supernatural sight upon you – behold My divine Yoga.”

Sanjaya:

            11:12 - “Were the radiance of a thousand suns to blaze forth at one go in the sky, it might approximate the magnificence of this exalted being.”

Arjuna:

            11:16 - “But I do not perceive Your end, or Your middle or beginning.”

Lord Krishna:

            11:51 - “Even were you not here, all the warriors, standing variously arrayed in the different armies, shall be no more…I myself have already killed these earlier.  Become merely the instrument.”

            12:2 - “Those who, focusing their thoughts on Me, always ardent, worship Me with the highest faiths are, in My opinion, the best among the yogins.”

            12:5 - “The Imperceptible is perceived with difficulty by those with physical bodies.”

            12:16,18,19 - “He who expects nothing, is pure and works well…he who is the same toward enemies or friends…gives equal weight to censure and praise…such a devotee is beloved of Me.”

THE THREE GUNAS

            14:5,6,7,8 - “Sattva, Rajas, and Tamas, the three gunas born of Prakrti, keep bound in the body the unchangeable being which resides in the body.”

                        Sattva holds creatures in bondage through attachment to happiness and to knowledge.

                        Rajas holds creatures in bondage through attachment to action.

                        Tamas arises out of ignorance, keeping them in the bondage of neglect of duty, sloth, and sleep.

Lord Krishna:

            16:1,2,3 - “Fearlessness, purity and sweetness in temperament, perseverance in the yoga of Self-knowledge, charity, endurance, sacrifice, study of the scriptures, austerity, honesty; nonviolence, truthfulness, absence of anger, renunciation, equanimity, abstinence from malicious talk, compassion for all creatures, freedom from greed, gentleness, modesty, absence of fickleness, splendor, forgiveness, fortitude, cleanliness, absence of malice, and absence of pride - these are some of the qualities of those endowed with divine virtues”

            16:8,9,10 - “They say that the entire world is unreal, without foundation, without a Supreme Lord, created without a causal link...  Adhering to this view, these soul-less people, with small intellect and cruel deeds, spring into existence only to destroy the world.  Taking refuge in insatiable sensual desire, imbued with hypocrisy, pride, and arrogance; deluded into the wrong conclusions; they act with impure intentions.”

           

            17:3 – “Man is composed of his faith – as his faith is, so is he formed”

            17:20“It is one’s duty to give”

            17:24 - “Uttering the word ‘Aum’…always begins all rites and sacrifice, charity and penance laid down in the scriptures.”

            18:5,6 - “Sacrifice, charity, penance and action should never be abandoned. They must be performed, for sacrifice, charity, penance, and action cleanse even the wise…even these acts should be performed, detachedly and abandoning the fruit.”

THE CASTES

18:42 - Peace, self-control, self-restraint, honesty, all-forgiveness, and also simplicity, wisdom, use of own knowledge, knowledge about the Divine — such is the duty of a Brahmin, arising from his nature.

18:43 - Valor, grandeur, firmness, agility, and also inability to flee from battle, generosity, the nature of a ruler — such is the duty of a Ksatriya, arising from his nature.

18:44 - Agriculture, cattle-rearing, trade are the duties of a Vaisya, born of his own nature;

The work of a servant is the duty of a Sudra, arising from his nature

            18:47 - “In performing ones naturally ordained duty, a man does not commit sin.”

Lord Krishna:     

            18:66 - “I shall release you from all sins, have no more fear.”

            18:70 - “I shall consider whoever studies this conversation on dharma between us as having worshipped Me by performing a Sacrifice of Knowledge.”

You Don't Know Jack

This film was VERY thought provoking. My first thought was…we are doing a terrible job as health care professionals if there were 130 people who sought Dr. Kevorkian’s assistance in killing themselves. We ought to be able to help people enjoy life. We ought to do a better job alleviating pain, so people can enjoy a quality of life. I have treated many patients who have tried to kill themselves, and I will treat many more. They change. I see them get better, I see attitudes change, and I see lives improve. I know that many of Dr. Kevorkian’s patients were terminal; we don’t need to prolong life just because we can. We need to preserve QUALITY of life. We need to make what life people naturally have, better. If their life is good, and we can prolong it, we should. If their life is miserable, we should not prolong it, but make the remainder as painless and worthwhile as possible.

I have not dealt with a family member who was suffering and had to make these kinds of decisions. I don’t know what it’s like first hand, so I can’t judge those who do.

Dr. Kevorkian went to trial and prison because he wanted to. He was assisting in suicide for many years, and decided it wasn‘t enough, he wanted to make a statement. On his last patient, he picked someone that was not terminally ill, and he didn’t want to let the patient administer the lethal injection, Dr, Kevorkian wanted to do it himself. He then went on 60 Minutes, on National Television, and showed the video tape of him killing his patient. He then taunted the prosecuting attorney and dared the state to prosecute him again. Well they did, and he was convicted of second degree murder.

He made his point. Now I am stuck trying to sort it all out. Suicide is wrong, and so is suffering. I will never condone artificially ending a patient’s life. But I will work forever to help my patients get to a point where life is worth living, and they don’t desire a hastened death. When their time comes, I hope they are ready, but I hope I can make their life good enough until then, that they want to live till their natural time comes.

Book Review: A Beautiful Mind

This book took me through the full range of emotions. I felt awe, disgust, pity, wonder, joy, confusion, resolution, etc... Most of all it made me introspective as to how I treat others, and how the entire field of Psychiatry treats patients.

First of all, I learned that the movie took MANY liberties with the facts. It is about 20% truth, and the rest is style and effects. For many years I have enjoyed the movie and recommended it to friends. So I felt disillusioned when I found out how false it was. But then I thought about the truth, John Nash’s life, and the goals of the film.

John Nash did not have visual hallucinations. He didn’t see people who weren’t there, and he never imagined a roommate, or a little girl. But how else do you portray in a movie the reality of his delusions? How do you show a movie audience the absolute belief he had, and how much it had to hurt to find out that much of your life…is imaginary. He often thought he was working for the FBI, or for the world government. He thought he was Royalty, an Arab refugee, Job, Castro, a mouse. He thought he was traveling to Cairo, Kabul, Thebes, Mongolia, or even purgatory, inferno, or some sort of polluted heaven. He lived in constant fear of annihilation, Armageddon, the Apocalypse, the Final day of Judgment, and of certain ominous dates such as May 29th.

So I give the film license for showing Schizophrenia in a false light because it portrays the feeling, and the pain and despair that go along with it very well.

Here are other interesting things I never knew from the film.

John Nash was a draft dodger. It didn’t just scare him…it mortified him. He worked diligently for years to avoid the draft, wrote letters, used University faculty and presidents, and employed every means imaginable to avoid the draft.

Alicia (Nash’s wife) was not his first girlfriend, nor the mother of his first child. Eleanor was. They had a son named John David. His last name was not Nash however, because Eleanor and Nash were never married. Though they remained together for some time, and he sometimes spoke of marriage, it never happened.

Alicia at first perturbed me. She thought Nash was cute, and pursued him with great vigor (even getting a job at his favorite hang-out, just to see him more often.) Eventually they started sleeping together, until Eleanor arrived at his place one night, and found her there. After much screaming and crying by Eleanor, Nash said “My perfect little world is ruined.”

Alicia had quite a different reaction. Eleanor called Alicia to complain, and met with her to discuss the fact that She and Nash were getting married and already had a son. Alicia was pleased. She took the meeting as a sign that “She was beginning to matter.” She continued their courtship until eventually Alicia and Nash were married and had their own son, John Charles.

My initial thought was –“Alicia is so ruthless and cold that she deserves what’s coming.” I later regretted that thought. She stuck with Nash through the worst of times. She followed him all over Europe trying to find a place where he was content and sane, but it never happened. He bankrupted her, and left her many, many times.

Nash had homosexual flings. While working for a think tank called RAND, he was arrested in a restroom police sting for “indecent exposure.” This was one of many recorded occurrences when he had intimate relationships with men.

Eventually Alicia divorced him, and she believed it was for his good. He no longer had the stress of a family or obligations…he could go where he wanted when he wanted with no thought for a family.

Years later he finally settled down at Princeton again, and became known as “The Phantom.” He walked the hallways and wrote cryptic messages or math problems on the chalk boards.

He became a legend at Princeton among the students. Anybody who was too much of a grind or who lacked social graces was warned that he or she was “going to end up like the phantom”. Yet if a new student complained that having him around made him feel uncomfortable, he was immediately warned: “He was a better mathematician then you’ll ever be.”

John Nash was a brilliant mathematician. He solved problems in ways no one else had ever imagined. He proved that “every Riemannian manifold can be isometrically embedded into some Euclidean space.”
(FYI – this book has a ton of Math that I did not understand but accepted that it was really hard and really complex)

During this period at Princeton, after many hospitalizations, insulin coma therapy, and many attempts to renounce his U.S. citizenship and become a “Citizen of the World”; Alicia eventually let him move back in with her, and get to know his second son. And years later, after he won the Nobel Prize, they did remarry. Even when they were divorced, she felt responsible for him. She suffered huge amounts, and it didn’t end with him. Their son, John Charles, also has Paranoid Schizophrenia. I may not have liked how she entered his life, but she certainly proved her worth, and was indespensible.

I’ll end this book report with an Interesting Fact I learned from the book.

The Nobel prize in Economics (which Nash won in 1994) is not technically a Nobel Prize. The prize was not one of the awards set out in the will of Alfred Nobel. He listed only physics, chemistry, physiology or medicine, and literature, which have been awarded since 1901. In 1968 an award was added for economics by the Central Bank of Sweden. And they provide the funding separately for the “Sveriges Riksbank Prize in Economic Sciences in Memory of Alfred Nobel”

P.S. This book changed the way I see Schizophrenia, and how I interact with Schizophrenic patients and their families. It has been a very worthwhile book for me. I hope others choose to enjoy it as well.

Book Review: The Nine

I found this book very intriguing. First, I learned the basic working of the court and how cases arrive, are argued, and the impact of their decisions. The more intrigeing part was about the justices themselves. How they were selected, what their beliefs were when chosen, how they changed, and how the court changed over time. The author makes some very good points. In the end he remarks that all justices chosen for the foreseeable future will all be very well qualified. It's not the qualifications of the justice that decide the case, it's the personal belief of the justice. They are just as prone to bias, personal views, morals, upbringing, life changing experience, error and correction, etc...as anyone else. Precedence is not the master, if new justices see cases a different way, they will overrule the previous supreme court decision. It has happened even when only a few members of the court have changed. A justice who was in the majority opinion ten years ago, can see the same type of case, and now be writing the minority dissent on the same topic.

Cases are decided by justices, justices are selected by presidents, and presidents are elected by us. If we want previous decisions overturned, or to ensure that others are never overturned, we need to look at our presidential candidates and evaluate their view points. Presidents choose justices who think like they do.
I have met people who said that a president doesn't really effect law because "he can only attempt to influence congress, he can't vote on legislation."
The President does much more. He/she nominates the justices that can overturn the decisions of congress.

I recommend this book to all who are interested in politics. I HIGHLY recommend it to those who couldn't care less, because this book shows how much it affects your life...whether you care or not.

Conservative ≠ Close Minded

Why is it that somehow conservative means closed-minded?

In my life I have met many liberals/democrats/"open minded" progressive thinkers who were completely intolerant and closed minded about me and my lifestyle.

They could not open their minds to think of marriage in a traditional manner, or that it meant something more than a tax status or simply loving someone. It is a long standing tradition and religious institute; and I feel like Tevya in Fiddler on the Roof, "trying to scratch out a pleasant, simple tune without breaking his neck."

These open minded friends are not open to my views of hard work and helping your neighbor because it's the right thing to do. They would rather dictate that I help others through higher taxes. I don't believe I should be mandated to help others, "he that is compelled in all things, the same is a slothful and not a wise servant."

For Example: I graduated from medical school 3 months ago and after residency I plan on working in a small town in Idaho. I plan on working a few days a month in free clinics, and helping those who can't afford care. So I feel this should be sufficient.
That's why I don't appreciate patients who feel entitled to care, any time, all the time because they have medicaid. Medicaid doesn't pay enough to cover the overhead costs. I'd have to hire a medicaid billing expert to submit and resubmit paperwork so I can finally get less than 50% of what I bill. (and won't arrive for 3 months)
A little gratitude would go a long way, instead of demands.

I hope for truly open minded friends who are open to the thought of me praying when I want. I don't ask them to pray with me, I just ask that they let me worship how, what, and where I want.

I have "open minded" friends who ridicule me for not doing certain activities on Sunday because I consider Sunday sacred. There are those who plan activities on Sundays and Monday nights on purpose, to prove that they will not bend their will to any religion, whether it hurts participation or not.

I'm sick of being told I'm closed-minded by people who take no time to open their minds and learn about why I do the things I do.

I'm sure I have been closed-minded in the past, I'm sure I still am in ways I don't even realize.

But please, before you try to get the mote out of my eye, check for a beam in your own (I will do the same)

Book Review: The Mastery of Love

Disclaimer – I doubt I ever would have chosen to read this book without a recommendation from someone else. It was lent to me by a co-worker, and I read it, in part, out of respect for her.

The author: Miguel Ruiz once went to medical school and became a surgeon. Later in life after a traumatic accident he forsook it all to learn the healer’s ways and become an “Eagle-Knight” in the Nagual tradition. He has since studied the “Toltec” people and written about their teachings. He has written a few books now, the most successful being “The Four Agreements.”

The book: I hated the first 3 chapters. The first chapter described the wisdom he had obtained from the Toltec people. He then goes on to tell a “Toltec story” that somehow I already heard in Sunday School as a kid. It made me think – this guy is a hack. He picked some obscure historical group that no one really knows a lot about, and he invented stories about them to sound like it was ancient and mystic…when really the stories were made up by him or taken from other sources. He then proceeds to tell us a real truth:

“To master a relationship is therefore about action. It is not about concepts or attaining knowledge. It is about action. Of course, to have action, we need to have some knowledge or at least a little more awareness of the way humans operate.”

He kind of summed up his book right there. It’s not about knowledge, it’s about action. So stop reading this book and get moving…but of course he wants us to actually keep reading and to buy his book or he wouldn’t make any money or convince anyone to come to his seminars, courses, etc…In cases you hadn’t guessed, at this point I was becoming quite the cynic.

He then discussed mental illness and described it thus:

“We call it schizophrenia, paranoia, psychosis, but these diseases are created when the reasoning mind is so frightened and the wounds so painful, that it becomes better to break contact with the outside world.”

I have to admit there may be some truth in his statement, but it is far too simplistic. He makes it sound as though we make a conscious decision when life is too painful to create our own reality. It’s like people’s minds decide to go crazy, and I’ve seen that it is not so.

He then explains all the things humans naturally understand. Things like right and wrong, fair and unfair, love and hate.

“Each of us creates a personal dream for our own self, but the humans before us created a big outside dream, the dream of the human society. The outside Dream, or the Dream of the Planet, is the collective Dream of billions of dreamers. The Big Dream includes all the rules of society, its laws, its religions, its different cultures and ways to be.”

At this point I realized that he is either an Atheist, or believes in an unformed God that is simply the spirit of life within each of us. He does not believe there is any right or wrong…it is all perception. To me it slapped our Founding Fathers in the face - “We hold these truths to be self evident.” Don Miguel Ruiz would argue that they are only self-evident because we are all in the same dream, they are self-evident because we have convinced ourselves they are true.

"There is no one to blame for this disease; it is not good or bad or right or wrong, it is simply the normal pathology of the disease. No one is guilty for being abusive."

He keeps expounding on this idea that nothing we ever do is bad or wrong, it’s part of humanities disease.

At this point I was about to abandon the book for good because he was just making me mad…then he made some good points.

He gave the parable of the Magical Kitchen. It basically says – Imagine you have a magic kitchen that makes anything and everything you want, whenever you want it. Someone comes to your door and offers you a pizza, but you have to work for him the rest of the day. Of course you would say no, you can have that pizza or better for free, so why get it from someone else who expects something in return? Then imagine you haven’t eaten for days. You have no money and no food, and someone makes you the same offer. You may accept. Each day you are offered pizza if you will do what he says for the rest of the day. Soon you become dependent on the Pizza, you have to keep working for it. You fear the Pizza giver might leave one day, or not return…then you’d starve to death. You become possessive, desperate, and willing to do anything to keep the Pizza giver coming.
This is how we are with Happiness and Love. When we love others completely and absolutely, we are completely full of happiness. No one can offer us more happiness or love…we already have all we need, and we can share with everyone else…forever! We will never run out. But when we feel like we have no love, no happiness, and someone offers us a sliver, we jump at it. We take whatever we can get, no matter the price. We enter into terrible relationships simply because we have no love for others, no love for ourselves, and we need someone else to give it to us. As he states:

“Happiness never comes from outside of us.”

“If happiness can only come from inside of you and is the result of your love; you are responsible for your happiness.”

“When we love, we don’t have expectations, we do it because we want to, and if other people do it or not, it’s because they want to or not and it’s nothing personal.”

“The only way to master love is to practice love. You don’t need to justify your love, you don’t need to explain your love; you just need to practice your love.”

This is when I started to like the book. He was writing truth, and it was truth people need.

The next quotes about relationships and finding “the right one” were quite poignant.

“I can tell you that the right woman for you is the one you love just the way she is, the woman you don’t have the need to change at all…you are lucky if you find the right woman for you, and at the same time you are the right man for her.”

“You know the kind of man or woman that you want? The one that makes your heart sing, the one is aligned with the way you are, the one who loves you just as you are. Why set yourself up for something else? Why not get what you want? Why pretend to make someone fit what she is not?”

“When you buy something you don’t need, it ends up in the garbage. It’s the same in a relationship.”

“If you cannot love your partner the way she is, someone else can love her just as she is. Don’t waste your time, and don’t waste your partner’s time. This is respect.”

“You take care of your half of the relationship. The other half is not your problem.”

Then he made a quote that made me perturbed again.

“We learn to pretend to be what we are not”

We often practice to become something we are not. We want to be an athlete, or a scholar, or religious, or a good dresser. I do see people being false when they are trying to go against their beliefs, who they really are. But I see nothing wrong with learning new things and becoming things we weren’t before. Guess what, I’m a lot of things I wasn’t when I was a child…because I practiced. For example. My sister told me once she needed to stop acting like she was Hispanic, because she’s not. She was dating a guy from Columbia at the time. Well now they are married, and she is working diligently to learn Spanish. She will never be “Hispanic” by blood, but she can learn their language and appreciate their culture, food, and customs. This is not pretending to be something you are not. It is learning, expanding your horizons. So he has a point, but it shouldn’t be portrayed as an entirely negative thing.

"There’s no problem with being gorgeous. If you walk through a crowd of people and they tell you “Oh, you are beautiful.” You can say “Thank you, I know,” and keep going. It doesn’t make any difference to you. But it will make a difference if you don’t believe that you are beautiful and someone tells you that. Then you are going to say “Am I really?” This opinion can impress you, and, of course, that makes you easy prey."

Beauty and perception are one and the same. It can control us, or be our greatest asset.

"You will forgive them not because they deserve to be forgiven, but because you don’t want to suffer and hurt yourself every time you remember what they did to you."

Forgiveness is not for the offender, it is for the offended.

"You have a limit to the amount of abuse you will accept, but no one in the whole world abuses you more than you abuse yourself. The limit of your self abuse is the limit you will tolerate from other people. If someone abuses you more than you abuse yourself, you will walk away, you run, you escape."

This one made me think for a very long time – is that how we determine what abuse we’ll take…how bad we think we are???

"Whatever is not true will not survive skepticism, but the truth will always survive skepticism."

Unfortunately this one was wrong. Like Harry S. Truman said: “You can accomplish anything in life, provided that you do not mind who gets the credit.”

Book Review: The Basic Works of Cicero

I read this book as a sort of homage to John Adams. John Adams loved Cicero, and almost always had one of his books with him. He read Cicero so much that his son also started reading his writings. Later in life John Quincy Adams said:

“To live without having a Cicero and a Tacitus at hand seems to me as if it was aprivation of one of my limbs.”

Cicero was a lawyer by training, a philosopher by theory, a statesman by profession, a republican by heart. He refused to take part in any system or portion of government that threatened the republic. At one point he discovered a plot to overthrow the republic (and assassinate him) by a man named Catiline. He proceeded to give four speeches which drove Catiline and his conspirators from the city. Cicero later had them all executed without trial. He spent many years in exile for executing men without a trial, and spent much of that time writing. Here are quotes I have gleaned from his writing, with my thoughts and impressions on a few.

Quotations from Cicero

The most criminal injustice is that of the hypocrite who hides an act of treachery under the cloak of virtue.

It is always bad when we find out someone has been treacherous; or done something evil and destructive. It is so much worse when they covered it up by making it seem like they did it to be virtuous.

If we harm one man in order to be liberal to another we are quite as unjust as if we were to appropriate our neighbor's goods. Many men, however, especially if they are ambitious of honor and glory, lavish on one the spoils of another, expecting to obtain credit as benefactors, if only they enrich their friends by fair means or by foul. Such conduct is absolutely opposed to duty.

This is basically how I view much of politics today. Those who govern don’t create or earn the wealth they distribute. They tax one group and give it to another, then claim “look how many people I’ve helped, or fed, or housed.” They did nothing. It wasn’t their money. They took from one and gave it to another. It’s worse when they give the money to their friends only, or give it to a group to keep their elected position, or to shore up support.

When good men of like character are joined in friendship, there we find the noblest and the strongest union.

I think this is why John Adams and Thomas Jefferson reformed their friendship after a decade of silence. They were good men of like character working toward something great. And that union could be hindered, but not broken.

Whatever we undertake, the most thorough preparation is necessary.

Like the Boy Scouts say “Be Prepared.” I have found that most great events, speeches, shows, concerts, presentations, meetings, reunions, lectures, interviews etc…Spent 95% of the time in planning and preparation, and 5% in the actual event.

There are actually men who through fear of unpopularity will not dare express their opinions, however excellent.

I think this is the effect of political pundits and minority groups. People are afraid to express their opinions. Whatever they say, someone won’t like it. Someone will be intolerant of it, feel slighted or threatened by it…and there will be a pundit to give them a national voice. The excellent opinion will be overrun be negative media, and the author of the idea will be left in ruin.

There is nothing more deplorable than the passion for popularity and the struggle for office.

Just watch an election cycle. I lived in Iowa during the 2008 election cycle….and all I can say is WOW. I have never seen so much excess and waste. I was especially impressed when a candidate was asked to speak for 1 hour about his health care plan…so he told us how much he hated the last president of the opposing party for 1½ hours.

It is above all in the height of our success that we should consult our friends and bow to their authority. At such a season too it is well to beware of the flatterer and close our ears to his seductive words. We are all so well pleased with ourselves that we accept praise as our due; hence the countless blunders of men who, puffed up with vanity, fall a prey to the greatest delusions and bring upon themselves contempt and ridicule.

There are plenty of people who will tell you what you want to hear once your rich and powerful…listen to the people whose opinion mattered back when you were poor and unknown.

It would be inconsistent to master fear but be mastered by desire, to conquer hardship but be conquered by pleasure.

The distinctive faculty of man is his eager desire to investigate truth. Thus, when free from pressing duties and cares, we are eager to see or hear, or learn something new, and we think our happiness incomplete unless we study the mysteries and the marvels of the universe.

What is true, simple and pure is most in harmony with human nature.

A well constituted character will bow to no authority but that of a master or a just and legitimate ruler who aims at the public good.

Honour I say, though praised by no one, is praiseworthy in itself.

It is chiefly for the purpose of satisfying some desire that men commit an injury; and the commonest motive is the love of money.

In neglecting the duty of defending others, men are influenced by various motives. They are reluctant to make enemies: they grudge the trouble and expense; they are deterred by indifference, indolence, and apathy ; or they are so fettered by their own pursuits and occupations as to abandon those whom it is their duty to protect.

We should carefully weigh the merits of those whom we intend to benefit. Let us look to the character of the recipient, his disposition toward us…

For men are most eager to serve one from whom they expect the greatest reward even though he needs no help.

Physicians, generals, and orators, however proficient in the rules of their art, achieve no great success unless they unite theory with practice.

Fortitude has two characteristics. The first is indifference to outward circumstances. It is founded on the conviction that nothing is worthy of the admiration, the desire, or the effort of man except what is honourable and decorous and that he must surrender neither to his fellow-men, to passion, nor to fortune. The second, the natural outcome of this moral temperament, is the ability to perform actions which are not only great and useful, but arduous, laborious, and fraught with danger to life and all that makes life worth living.

That moral dignity, which we find in a noble and lofty spirit, depends, it is true, on force of mind, not on bodily strength; yet we must so train and school the body that it may obey our judgment and reason.

The government of a country resembles the charge of a minor. It must be conducted for the advantage of the governed, not the governors.

Above all, when we inflict punishment, let us put away anger; he who approaches the task in an angry spirit will never observe the happy mean between excess and defect.

When fortune smiles and everything is going to our heart’s desire, it is our duty to abstain from pride, disdain and arrogance.

As bodily beauty attracts the eye by the symmetry of the limbs and charms us by the graceful harmony of all the parts, so the decorum which shines in our conduct engages the esteem of society by the order, consistency and restraint which it imposes on all our words and deeds.

The soul is swayed by two forces; the one is appetite, called by the Greeks Horme, which hurries us this way and that, the other Reason, which teaches us what to do and what to avoid. It follows that reason must command and appetite obey.

Even in a jest there should be some spark of virtue. Jests are of two kinds: some are low, wanton, wicked obscene; others elegant, polished, graceful.

PLATO - “Knowledge without justice is to be accounted cunning rather than wisdom, and even intrepidity, if prompted by personal ambition, and not by public spirit, does not deserve the name of fortitude : audacity is its name"

Book Review: The Scarlet Letter

By no means, am I a literary scholar…and reading this book reinforced that. I didn’t enjoy reading it. I found it to be boring. It goes on and on about useless details and unimportant narratives (this coming from a guy who loves long-winded Les Miserables)

With that said – there are valuable lessons and intriguing ideas within its pages, if you can take the time to find them. Once I stopped to think about the topics, I had some wonderful insights, and thought it was a pretty good story. But that’s only after I stopped reading it and took time to reflect.

I am coming to find that sometimes that’s what “classic literature” means. There are some great things to be learned, but you have to have the tenacity to get through the boring parts in order to find them. Only those with determination will be granted the reward. Well, in this case, I don’t yet know if the reward was worth the effort, but here are some thoughts.

I do appreciate the fact that the book points out the seriousness of adultery. Our culture today is so flippant and non-chalant about morals, that it is refreshing to see a story which treats it with gravity.

Here are a few quotes and I my insights concerning them:

“There are few things,—whether in the outward world, or, to a certain depth, in the invisible sphere of thought,—few things hidden from the man, who devotes himself earnestly and unreservedly to the solution of a mystery.”

I find this to be very true. When someone dedicates themselves to discovering the answer to a mystery, it is nearly impossible to stop its discovery. In this case, it was to the destruction and ruin of the husband, who could never forgive or forget.

“The spot never grew callous; it seemed, on the contrary, to grow more sensitive with daily torture.”

Time does not erase sin. Sometimes we can stop thinking about it as often, or justify it, but time alone does not heal the wound. There needs to be something more.

“Trusting no man as his friend, he could not recognize his enemy when the latter actually appeared.”

If we don’t have friends, how will we know our enemies? We must know good to recognize evil. It’s like knowing something is counterfeit. The way to know something is a counterfeit is not to study it, but to study the original. If we study the truth, the lies stand out. If we make true friendships, we recognize the false ones.

“They shrink from displaying themselves black and filthy in the view of men; because, thenceforward, no good can be achieved by them; no evil of the past be redeemed by better service. So, to their own unutterable torment, they go about among their fellow-creatures, looking pure as new-fallen snow; while their hearts are all speckled and spotted with iniquity of which they cannot rid themselves.”

Are any of our leaders perfect? Are any of them as good as we hope them to be? I would guess there are very few. Everyone has made mistakes. Everyone is ashamed. Does it mean they can never do good again? I don’t think so. I don’t think errors should be made public knowledge, but neither to I think its fine to hide them away like they didn’t happen. They should be dealt with - apologies made, restitution made, forgiveness granted, and second chances afforded.

“I your pastor, whom you so reverence and trust, am utterly a pollution and a lie!”

The better we get, the worse we realize we were, and the worse we feel for our prior sins and errors.

“She had not known the weight until she felt the freedom.”

Sometimes we don’t know how much the sin has changed us and weighed us down, until we are free of it. Only once we are free do we see the degree of our captivity.

“No man for any considerable period can wear one face to himself and another to the multitude, without finally getting bewildered as to which may be the true.”

“In our nature, however, there is a provision, alike marvelous and merciful, that the sufferer should never know the intensity of what he endures by its present torture, but chiefly by the pang that rankles after it.”

"A bodily disease, which we look upon as whole and entire within itself, may, after all, be but a symptom of some ailment in the spiritual part."

“To say the truth, there was much need of professional assistance, not merely for Hester herself, but still more urgently for the child; who, drawing its sustenance from the maternal bosom, seemed to have drank in with it all the turmoil, the anguish, and despair, which pervaded the mother's system. It now writhed in convulsions of pain, and was a forcible type, in its little frame, of the moral agony which Hester Prynne had borne throughout the day.”

Happy Independence Day

I only wish our congress today could be this bold, this straight forward, and that in unanimous vote they could also pledge to each other "our lives, our fortunes, and our sacred honor." It seems we are all too busy trying to get ahead, blame the other side, and shore up our position; rather than figure out what's wrong, and in unity correct it.

IN CONGRESS, JULY 4, 1776
The unanimous Declaration of the thirteen united States of America

When in the Course of human events it becomes necessary for one people to dissolve the political bands which have connected them with another and to assume among the powers of the earth, the separate and equal station to which the Laws of Nature and of Nature’s God entitle them, a decent respect to the opinions of mankind requires that they should declare the causes which impel them to the separation.

We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness. — That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed, — That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness. Prudence, indeed, will dictate that Governments long established should not be changed for light and transient causes; and accordingly all experience hath shewn that mankind are more disposed to suffer, while evils are sufferable than to right themselves by abolishing the forms to which they are accustomed. But when a long train of abuses and usurpations, pursuing invariably the same Object evinces a design to reduce them under absolute Despotism, it is their right, it is their duty, to throw off such Government, and to provide new Guards for their future security. — Such has been the patient sufferance of these Colonies; and such is now the necessity which constrains them to alter their former Systems of Government. The history of the present King of Great Britain is a history of repeated injuries and usurpations, all having in direct object the establishment of an absolute Tyranny over these States. To prove this, let Facts be submitted to a candid world.

He has refused his Assent to Laws, the most wholesome and necessary for the public good.

He has forbidden his Governors to pass Laws of immediate and pressing importance, unless suspended in their operation till his Assent should be obtained; and when so suspended, he has utterly neglected to attend to them.

He has refused to pass other Laws for the accommodation of large districts of people, unless those people would relinquish the right of Representation in the Legislature, a right inestimable to them and formidable to tyrants only.

He has called together legislative bodies at places unusual, uncomfortable, and distant from the depository of their Public Records, for the sole purpose of fatiguing them into compliance with his measures.

He has dissolved Representative Houses repeatedly, for opposing with manly firmness his invasions on the rights of the people.

He has refused for a long time, after such dissolutions, to cause others to be elected, whereby the Legislative Powers, incapable of Annihilation, have returned to the People at large for their exercise; the State remaining in the mean time exposed to all the dangers of invasion from without, and convulsions within.

He has endeavoured to prevent the population of these States; for that purpose obstructing the Laws for Naturalization of Foreigners; refusing to pass others to encourage their migrations hither, and raising the conditions of new Appropriations of Lands.

He has obstructed the Administration of Justice by refusing his Assent to Laws for establishing Judiciary Powers.

He has made Judges dependent on his Will alone for the tenure of their offices, and the amount and payment of their salaries.

He has erected a multitude of New Offices, and sent hither swarms of Officers to harass our people and eat out their substance.

He has kept among us, in times of peace, Standing Armies without the Consent of our legislatures.

He has affected to render the Military independent of and superior to the Civil Power.

He has combined with others to subject us to a jurisdiction foreign to our constitution, and unacknowledged by our laws; giving his Assent to their Acts of pretended Legislation:

For quartering large bodies of armed troops among us:

For protecting them, by a mock Trial from punishment for any Murders which they should commit on the Inhabitants of these States:

For cutting off our Trade with all parts of the world:

For imposing Taxes on us without our Consent:

For depriving us in many cases, of the benefit of Trial by Jury:

For transporting us beyond Seas to be tried for pretended offences:

For abolishing the free System of English Laws in a neighbouring Province, establishing therein an Arbitrary government, and enlarging its Boundaries so as to render it at once an example and fit instrument for introducing the same absolute rule into these Colonies

For taking away our Charters, abolishing our most valuable Laws and altering fundamentally the Forms of our Governments:

For suspending our own Legislatures, and declaring themselves invested with power to legislate for us in all cases whatsoever.

He has abdicated Government here, by declaring us out of his Protection and waging War against us.

He has plundered our seas, ravaged our coasts, burnt our towns, and destroyed the lives of our people.

He is at this time transporting large Armies of foreign Mercenaries to complete the works of death, desolation, and tyranny, already begun with circumstances of Cruelty & Perfidy scarcely paralleled in the most barbarous ages, and totally unworthy the Head of a civilized nation.

He has constrained our fellow Citizens taken Captive on the high Seas to bear Arms against their Country, to become the executioners of their friends and Brethren, or to fall themselves by their Hands.

He has excited domestic insurrections amongst us, and has endeavoured to bring on the inhabitants of our frontiers, the merciless Indian Savages whose known rule of warfare, is an undistinguished destruction of all ages, sexes and conditions.

In every stage of these Oppressions We have Petitioned for Redress in the most humble terms: Our repeated Petitions have been answered only by repeated injury. A Prince, whose character is thus marked by every act which may define a Tyrant, is unfit to be the ruler of a free people.

Nor have We been wanting in attentions to our British brethren. We have warned them from time to time of attempts by their legislature to extend an unwarrantable jurisdiction over us. We have reminded them of the circumstances of our emigration and settlement here. We have appealed to their native justice and magnanimity, and we have conjured them by the ties of our common kindred to disavow these usurpations, which would inevitably interrupt our connections and correspondence. They too have been deaf to the voice of justice and of consanguinity. We must, therefore, acquiesce in the necessity, which denounces our Separation, and hold them, as we hold the rest of mankind, Enemies in War, in Peace Friends.

We, therefore, the Representatives of the united States of America, in General Congress, Assembled, appealing to the Supreme Judge of the world for the rectitude of our intentions, do, in the Name, and by Authority of the good People of these Colonies, solemnly publish and declare, That these united Colonies are, and of Right ought to be Free and Independent States, that they are Absolved from all Allegiance to the British Crown, and that all political connection between them and the State of Great Britain, is and ought to be totally dissolved; and that as Free and Independent States, they have full Power to levy War, conclude Peace, contract Alliances, establish Commerce, and to do all other Acts and Things which Independent States may of right do. — And for the support of this Declaration, with a firm reliance on the protection of Divine Providence, we mutually pledge to each other our Lives, our Fortunes, and our sacred Honor.

Book Review: Jekyll and Hyde

This was an intriguing book for many reasons. First of all, it is a literary classic. The story has been told and retold in books, movies, comics, plays, musicals, poems, songs, etc…

It begs the question we as humans ask about man’s nature; which Dr. Jekyll answered thus –

“That man is not truly one, but truly two.”

The original story by Stevenson does not have a romantic moment in the entire text. There is no love interest; Jekyll does not have one woman and Hyde another. It is also interesting to note that Hyde is not a large or beastly man. He is smaller than Jekyll, so much smaller that he can’t wear Jekyll’s clothing, and has to have his own wardrobe.

“The evil side of my nature, to which I had now transferred the stamping efficacy, was less robust and less developed than the good which I had just deposed. Again, in the course of my life, which had been, after all, nine tenths a life of effort, virtue and control, it had been much less exercised and much less exhausted. And hence, as I think, it came about that Edward Hyde was so much smaller, slighter and younger than Henry Jekyll.”

Jekyll, like all men, was not perfect, but he tried to be. There was a part of him that was evil, or gave in to evil tendencies, and desires. He lived a generally good and upright life, until he decided that he had to find a way to give into these desires. But he didn’t want to feel the shame, the guilt that goes with living a duplicitous life. So he had to dissociate the two.

"If each, I told myself, could but be housed in separate identities, life would be relieved of all that was unbearable; the unjust might go his way, delivered from the aspirations and remorse of his more upright twin; and the just could walk steadfastly and securely on his upward path, doing the good things in which he found his pleasure, and no longer exposed to disgrace and penitence by the hands of this extraneous evil"

Jekyll thought he had found the perfect out. He could do all his evil deeds and give in to all his desires, and feel no regret because it was Edward Hyde that had done them, and Henry Jekyll could continue as an upstanding member of society.

Too late did he learn that you can’t give yourself over to evil without being changed, and without the evil growing. When he describes his feelings when he transformed and committed murder he states:

“But I had voluntarily stripped myself of all those balancing instincts by which even the worst of us continues to walk with some degree of steadiness among temptations; and in my case, to be tempted, however slightly, was to fall.
Instantly the spirit of hell awoke in me and raged. With a transport of glee, I mauled the unresisting body, tasting delight from every blow.”

The first time Dr. Jekyll was transformed there was immense pain and anguish, but now:

“The pangs of transformation grew daily less marked”

And I think that is the moral of the story – at least it’s what I got out of it. Yes, there is evil in everyone. But it is a small and a weak thing. It is younger and weaker than our good upstanding selves. The guilt we feel for giving in is a good thing, when the guilt is gone is when we REALLY have to worry. The more often we give in, the less it hurts, and the less control we have to be our good selves. Eventually, if we give in enough, we will lose all control, and all that was good in us will be overthrown; because we let it happen…little by little…day by day.