Jyotisha Practice

Puja versus Seva

Sacrifice Transforming Ignorance into Wisdom

Sample Seva recommendation

Saint Elizabeth of Hungary,

by Simone Martini, c. 1322-1326

Fresco cycle with scenes from the life of Saint Martin of Tours; Chapel in lower church of San Francesco in Assisi, Italy

Find the missing answer

Witness quality neutral attention to behavior of others

Scientific observation, compassionate assistance

Use the skills you already have

Role model to those coming up behind you

It works at a common-sense level for two reasons.

• First, it feels good to help other people. Noble actions raise the vitality.
• But second and more important at a pragmatic level of getting information that can change behavior, Seva when properly targeted is a scientific method of exposing a blind spot.

Seva is an eye-opener.

One targets a population that is suffering from one's own similar problem, yet in a slightly worse degree of suffering. In other words, these are people who are making the same mistake as oneself, but they are less advantaged in general - they have less intelligence, fewer resources, or just heavier karma overall.

For example,

let's say that a person is having financial problems. Expenses continually exceed income. Could be home finance or business finance. One begins to feel like a victim. Self-doubt overwhelms the native. Other emotions such as self-criticism, fear, and anger often emerge as the problem worsens. One feels beleaguered by apparently unanswerable "W-questions" [who-what-when-where-why-how]: What is happening? Why? Where is the money going? What negative path is the money following? Clearly there is a blind spot in one's management process.

So, for example,

Go teach a basic personal finance = "checkbook-management" class in a community center (including religious communities). Teach teenage parents how to handle money. A bigger task could be to help a well-intentioned but financially incompetent service group to rationalize its budget.

The Seva-giver will see it pretty quickly. People with chronic money problems hold some cherished negative beliefs about money. They often believe that if they don't buy it now, it won't be there tomorrow (unstable emotions, lack of trust in one's power to create).

They lack impulse control often. They are often invested in a negative expectation that there will never be enough: the religion of scarcity, inadequacy, insufficiency.

We're talking deeply held beliefs. Teaching, training, meeting with these folks will be an eye-opener. One will see oneself reflected in their mirror rather quickly. Chances are that one's own positive intelligence will see the match in the lower folk and eradicate it, realizing that like attracts like. Only Seva can expose the blind spot. Works like a charm to solve one's own problem and helps others in the process.

Autobiography of a Yogi,

Ch. 16, Outwitting the Stars:

"Superstitious awe of astrology makes one an automaton, slavishly dependent on mechanical guidance.

The wise man defeats his planets - which is to say, his past

• by transferring his allegiance from thecreation to the Creator.

The more he realizes his unity with spirit, the less he can be dominated by matter.

The soul is ever-free; it's deathless because birthless. It can't be regimented by stars.

Ritual Remedial Puja versus Charitable Service (Seva): which works better?

Q:

I know you disagree with Pooja as a technology for correcting bad karma. You would be disappointed to know that I got a KSY pooja done for myself recently.

A:

IMO doing a KSY puja is perfectly OK and won't hurt anything! Plus, it will help the pujari financially. That is a nice thing for the pujari : )

• I do not want to put every pujari out of work!

• But I do believe that ritual puja = much less remedially effective than direct charitable service offered to those suffering "immediately below" ones own social station.

The choice to serve = effective when one's sacrificial intelligence is directed toward those who have precisely one's own type of suffering, but in a recognizable form (near to one's own social setting) and in a worse, more debilitating version.

Major problem that blocks effectiveness: One is often quite psycho-emotionally disconnected from the puja.

The religious ritual has become a "commodity" to be paid for and consumed. Since the beginning of Kali Yuga, just about everything in life has a price -- and puja is no exception.

• the originally sacred sacrifice,which is the cornerstone of all religions, has now become, in most applications and in most religions, what Karl Marx called a "fetish".

• the core rituals which once evoked the deepest inner connections to the Divineare now (often) mere external fascinations, approach as superstition, apprehended as a power outside oneself.

Externalized, outer-material focused rituals are not really capable of creating change.

• An externalized ritual gives the illusion of "doing something" efficacious, but without the moral and spiritual engagement of direct committed participation in the action,

• the ritual has no meaning to the native ,

• and it cannot provoke real change.

When the puja becomes a commercial commodity that is passively bought and sold, the transformative "intention" of sacrifice is completely lost.

During the past three millennia, religious reformers in all the great religions have noticed this degrading of authentic sacrifice in religious practice.

• They have tried to correct it by calling the people back to intimate prayer with the Divine and toward charitable service.

• They knew that "Intention", which is the dedicated purpose and personal engagement of the action, is where the transformative, healing power of human life is rooted.

• And they were aghast to see that sacrificial religion had become a business.

Think of Jesus Christ turning over the money tables in the Temple in Jerusalem. Think of Martin Luther tacking up 95 theses rejecting the selling of indulgences and annulments. Think of Mahatma Gandhi, redirecting attention to the intentional acts such as cotton spinning and rejecting archaic superstition at every level.

There are hundreds more saints like them who came to earth to reject superstition and materialism in favor of opening to Divine intelligence through humility and intentional devotional practice.

H.H. Dalai Lama: A Policy of Kindness: An Anthology of Writings By and About the Dalai LamaCompiled and edited by Sidney Piburn, foreword by Sen. Claiborne Pell

"Iam interested not in converting other people to Buddhism but in how we Buddhists can contribute to human society, according to our own ideas. I believe that other religious faiths also think in a similar way, seeking to contribute to the common aim ....

Just as Buddha showed an example of contentment, tolerance, and serving others without selfish motivation, so did Jesus ChriSaint

• Almost all of the great teachers lived a saintly life - not luxuriously like kings or emperors but as simple human beings.
• Their inner strength was tremendous, limitless , but the external appearance was of contentment with a simple way of life.

... the motivation of all religious practice is similar - love, sincerity, honesty. The way of life of practically all religious persons is contentment. The teachings of tolerance, love, and compassion are the same. A basic goal is the benefit of humankind - each type of system seeking in its own unique ways to improve human beings.

• If we put too much emphasis on our own philosophy, religion, or theory, are too attached to it, and try to impose it on other people, it makes trouble.

Basically All the great teachers , such as Gautama Buddha, Jesus Christ, or Mohammed, founded their new teachings with a motivation of helping their fellow humans. They did not mean to gain anything for themselves nor to create more trouble or unrest in the world.

Most important is that we respect each other And learn from each other those things that will enrich our own practice.

• Even if all the systems are separate, since they each have the same goal, the study of each other is helpful."

Sacrifice = sacri + fice, "making sacred". Sacrifice means changing something from a low level of energy to a higher level of energy. Sacrifice means transforming ignorance into wisdom.

• True puja can be very sincerely and deeply efficacious for a religious person who is intimately and prayerfully involvedin the sacrifice.

Unfortunately, in reality, most people "throw money at it" in a state of ego-dysfunctional anxiety. In the materialistic mentality, one feels that one cannot lose the productivity time or that one somehow does not have the "expertise" to conduct a proper sacrifice.

• As a result of the anxiety and fear perpetrated by a culture of materialistic superstition, one does not make the necessary effort to change oneself from the inside out (which is what true sacrifice is all about). Thus no sincere change occurs.

Without the intention to personally open to the divine, which paid puja does not provide,, there is no benefit.. (Except of course the benefit to the pocketbook of the priest!)

Seva requires Intention

Approaching negative karma or suffering with the tool of charitable service or "seva", on the other hand, can give excellent results. Seva requires intention, to be present and personally engaged.

• In seva, the energy valuebeing "sacrificed"is one's personal intelligent participation and productivity time.

Highest Values: Time and Intelligence

In the modern individualized world, the citizen's waking time and applied intelligenceare high-value, essential survival resources.

In mentalized material culture of the present era, time and intelligence are normally used strictly for purposes of generating money, prestige, physical sustenance or relaxation, or some other value of physical, social or material advancement.

• "Advancement" = essentially "accumulation"

• Accumulating skandha, which means rather literally getting to the "top of the heap".

Each individual receives a certain allocation of these fundamental modern resources. One perceives a trajectory of "success" through material advancement which can be achieved by the skillful utilization of intelligence and time. (Presuming health, time of peace, economic freedom, etc.)

When the advancement is blocked, when one can't mentally "figure out" the next step forward of the material-success trajectory, a modern educated person feels deep frustration leading to suffering.

• One is blocked in getting married, getting money, finding a job, getting a house, making a financial deal, landing a movie contract, etc.

• These mental blockages which would not have seemed very important to denizens of earlier non-mentalized ages.

• Nor do they seem so weighty to those surviving in garbage heaps or being tortured in prisons or fighting infectious disease or dying in war.

Nevertheless the modern agony is realistic; for those caught in its clutches modern suffering is very real.

Heaping Compulsions: Survival and Guilt

The heap-building, acquisitive, ego-justification process that is driven by the mental engine and fueled by the guilty inner voice of "should" is urgently survival-compulsive.

• Although spiritual authorities uniformly recommend pulling back from the hysterical quest for more more more material acquisition, the reality is that most people cannot get off the Acquisitions addiction.

At root, hoardingis a basic survival instinct programmed into our old carnivore brains. The brain signals that if one is going to have enough life force to produce offspring, one needs to go consume the life force of another animal. The life force moves from container to container, in tantric dance: eat and be eaten, says the oldest part of the human brain.

It's very hard for an individual to separate from the cultural expectations long enough to get a clear perspective on the compulsion.

• Acquisitive behavior -- "getting" married, "getting" a job, "getting" respect -- is deeply programmed into the survival brain, and widely praised by collective brain of modern culture.

• Acquisitive and competitive "heaping" behaviormakes us feel socially valued and physically safe.

On a psycho-mental level, very real - to the point where serious blockage on the progress-trajectory causes the native to try removing the blockage via suicide or divorce amongst other catastrophic "solutions".

Indeed, the best spiritual advice is to completely abandon the heaping process. Compulsive goods-and-status acquisition is well known to bea colossal waste of Earth Life time.

• Yet, so few people can hear the truth that our Earth incarnations are rare and precious, and should be used for the highest purposes of merging the human consciousness with the Divine.

Compassionis the desire for another to have freedom from suffering.

Reality of the Common Person

The higher message is a lot of blah-blah to a person driven by hungry-mind and desperate for social approval. They think, if I don't please my parents and make a good marriage I am going to "die". That is reptile-brain speaking. If I lose my house through bank foreclosure I am going to "die". The inner snake, again.

Periodically the USA news outlets will report married homeowners committing joint suicide because their house payments are too late.They will be forced by finances into what seems to the snake-brain like fatal loss of public dignity leading to certain death. In reality, they must move from a house into a rental apartment.

Looking at this situation from the rational outside view, of course the decision to take one's life for such a superficial reason of local reputation is outrageous and an insult to God. Again, the snakey brain does this work.

The traditional father who believes he must murder his daughter because she will not marry according to his wishes. He too is driven by the terrible urge to control for survival. Accumulate, control, command the material forces: this is the dangerous and pervasive voice of the reptile brain.

Compassionate Advice, Then

The compassionate approach to solving the blockage problem thus needs to take a step down and presume that the acquisitions addiction will keep barreling forward.

What common folk need is the most effective psychic technology for removing the blockage and re-starting the flow of acquisitions.

Nothing else make sense.

Search for Effective Remedies

When blocked in desire-driven accumulations, the progress-oriented person seeks a familiar solution in the habitual field of material activity. The material mind is stuck in the modern habit of using the energy of consciousness to generate self-focused physical-mental-social value.

Naturally, one looks for a commodity or technologyto open the way toward resumption of heaping.

One makes a thoughtless donation of money or an animal; perhaps a gem of so many rattis; or one purchases a ritual puja.

Whether you choose puja or seva, the conscious intention is to express appreciation for one's advantage in life.

Puja is a precious opportunity not to complain about how serious one's own problems are but more to emphasize how much one values the privilege of communicating with the Divine.

by HH Dalai Lama, trans. Thupten Jinpa, p.35

"Offerings should not be influenced by fluctuations of motivation and they should not be procured by devious means--offerings procured through wrong means are not good offerings.

They should be arranged with proper motivation. As explained in the precepts of refuge, you should make offerings of the first portion of your food or drink of the day, whether it be food, milk or tea.

Offerings should be made of what is edible; it is not helpful to arrange a torma that could not be eaten and then to say OM AH HUM, OM AH HUM. If you can in reality transform something into delicious food just by reciting OM AH HUMthree times, then it is alright!

On the other hand, if your offerings remain as mere tsampa (roasted barley flour) after having repeated OM AH HUM a thousand times, it will not help much.

The offerings should be the best you can afford. At least you can offer the first portion of your daily food, as no one can live without food! Our offerings should be something which is edible.... [Even] if you make water offerings in a proper manner, you can generate great merit."

Authentic sacrifice cannot be performed on one's behalf, absent one's present-time full-focus engagement, by another person.

• The exception is when the native is deeply spiritually engaged in austerities and self-reflection, while the priest is simultaneously linking to one's psychic intention.

• The intention has a clear shape on the astral plane, and if it is consciously harnessed to the puja, this can be indeed efficacious for re-directing the downstream from the astral plane to the material plane - and changing the course of material events.

However this level of spiritual attunement between the practitioner and the priest is exceedingly rare.

Why do you always recommend Seva as a one-size-fits-all solution - especially when the problems are serious, like mine are?

• A:

  Seva is very straightforward and effective. It works at a common-sense level for two reasons. First, it feels good to help other people. Noble actions raise the vitality. But second and more important at a pragmatic level of getting information that can change behavior, Seva when properly targeted is a scientific method of exposing a blind spot.
  
  Seva is an eye-opener. One targets a population that is suffering from one's own similar problem, yet in a slightly worse degree of suffering. In other words, these are people who are making the same mistake as oneself, but they are less advantaged in general - they have less intelligence, fewer resources, or just heavier karma overall.
  
  For example, say that one is having financial problems. Expenses continually exceed income. Could be home or business. One begins to feel like a victim. What is happening, where is the money going, what negative path is the money following?

• Clearly there is a blind spot in one's management process. So, for example, go teach a basic checkbook-management class in a community center, or teach teenage parents how to handle money.
  
  The Seva-giver will see their blind spot pretty quickly in the mirror of the served ones.

People with chronic money problems hold some cherished negative beliefs about money. They often believe that if they don't buy it now, it won't be there tomorrow (unstable emotions, lack of trust in one's power to create). They lack impulse control often. They are often invested in a negative expectation that there will never be enough: the religion of scarcity, inadequacy, insufficiency.

We're talking deeply held beliefs. Teaching, training, meeting with these folks will be an eye-opener. One will see oneself reflected in their mirror rather quickly. Chances are that one's own positive intelligence will see the match in the lower folk and eradicate it, realizing that like attracts like. Only Seva can expose the blind spot. Works like a charm to solve one's own problem and helps others in the process.

H.H. Dalai Lama: Religion = Optional

"I believe there is an important distinction to be made between religion and spirituality.

• Religion I take to be concerned with belief in the claims to salvation of one faith tradition or another--an aspect of which is acceptance of some form of metaphysical or philosophical reality, including perhaps an idea of heaven or hell. Connected with this are religious teachings or dogma, ritual, prayers and so on.

• Spirituality I take to be concerned with those qualities of the human spirit--such as love and compassion, patience, tolerance, forgiveness, contentment, a sense of responsibility, a sense of harmony, which bring happiness to both self and others.

While ritual and prayer, along with questions of nirvana and salvation are directly connected with religious faith, these inner qualities need not be, however.

• There is thus no reason why the individual should not develop them, even to a high degree, without recourse to any religious or metaphysical belief system.

This is why I sometimes say religion is something we can perhaps do without .

What we cannot do without are these basic spiritual qualities. "

--from Shantideva's Bodhicharyavatara

Until the essence of enlightenment is reached

I go for refuge to the Buddhas.

Also I take refuge in the Dharma

And in all the host of Bodhisattvas.

file update: 27-Apr-2013

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