Posts from — November 2008

By His Holiness, the Dalai Lama

I love this distinction:

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 meta-physical 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.

FROM MY FRIEND ROBERT B, EMBEDDED IN IRAQ, UNABLE FOR SOME REASON TO POST THIS COMMENT DIRECTLY. PLEASE READ.

Susan,

Here is my report from Baghdad, where I am an embedded aid worker deep inside our military’s headquarters.  I just wanted to share some perspective on how much has changed in the past six weeks.

When I arrived here two months ago, all of my military colleagues were vocally critical of Obama.  Fox News was always the main station on the big screen TVs here in the strategic operations center inside the secure area of the Palace.  My team-mates were sending links to websites about how Obama was a radical moslem socialist, and that is what they were learning from Fox News.  Some of my conservative friends in the intelligence world told me that they expect to quit their jobs if Obama is elected, since he’s going to tax all their income so why work.  Yes, this was the environment then.

What a difference one moose-hunting hockey-mom can make!  Now, Fox News isn’t even on one of the TVs; CNN and ESPN and Pentagon News are on, at the moment, here in strategic operations center.  (Along with the feeds from our Predator unmanned drone aircraft flying somewhere over Iraq!)

Everyone stopped talking about Obama being a Moslem socialist, since it became obvious that it’s an absurd claim.  Or maybe they just stopped saying it openly, since they weren’t able to defend themselves intelligently to my gentle and humorous sparring.  I started telling them that I would visit them in the labor camps once we purged all the capitalists, and one colleague even recalled the Onion headline from 2000 that said, presciently, “Our long national nightmare of peace and prosperity is finally over.”  I asked whether they felt the past eight years have gone well for our country or the world, and if we want to continue this; these words probably had stronger impact out here in Iraq since we are dealing with the mess that resulted largely from our many poor decisions.  Now my conservative friends know where I stand, we still have dinner together and enjoy each other’s company, but they have lost all of that earlier taste for fear-mongering.

That doesn’t mean they’re all going to vote for Obama, but it does feel like a quiet but perceptible shift: earlier denial and anger are giving way toward acceptance of an Obama presidency, even before tomorrow’s election.  And for at least the past six months, mid-level colleagues throughout the US Government seem to have been working very hard to set things right, abandoning the anti-rationalism and authoritative approach that characterized these years.  Earlier administration figures like Rumsfeld, Bremer, Tobias are now widely disrespected… as if we’ve already been working in a new era for some time.

Interestingly, at the ground level, we see many funny examples of Buddhism creeping into our life and work.  Yes, really, here in the military in Iraq!  Three weeks ago, the quote of the day for the evening battlespace update assessment for the generals included a quote from the Dalai Lama: “What is the meaning of life?  To be happy and useful.”  Today I read another quote, this time at the Palace gym: “We live very close together. So, our prime purpose in this life is to help others. And if you can’t help them, at least don’t hurt them.”

Here in Iraq, our approach has changed qualitatively over the past several months.  We are placing much greater emphasis on economic, rule of law, political, and diplomatic efforts… as the security function is transitioning to an Iraqi lead.  This is a great accomplishment, and should yield more success here than the earlier approach.  We could not have done this a few years ago under previous leadership, and I hope that the new administration has the wisdom to retain the (few) good things that have emerged in the current regime.

Fingers crossed that the world finally gets a leader in the US who can bring about the change and instill hope and unity that we so desperately need.

Best wishes,
Bob