Religion and Repetition

A big deal in Buddhism is the repetition of certain mantras/chants. I believe it is a fairly common thing among normal Buddhists to repeat a particular mantra 1000 times per day. Repetition is also the idea behind the prayer wheels, which for every revolution that you induce sends up the prayer written on the wheel, and possibly more depending on how many prayers are written on paper stored within the wheel. At Boudha, for example, there are 108 prayer wheels encompassing the stupa and many people will spin each one on their go round. At maybe 10 revolutions per spin, that’s 1080 prayers or more. I think this is different than the 1000 I mentioned before though, which need to be vocalized.

As an aside, I find being in an alien culture a very rich time for reflection on common biblical ideas and texts because it sets them in a different light and lets me see them in relation to different things an illumines previously unrecognized significance.

Given all this repetition, I ask myself, what does the Bible say about repetition, especially in the context of devotional practices? Jesus said “Do not heap up empty phrases as the Gentiles do, for they think that they will be heard for their many words.” Many words doesn’t seem to necessarily be repetition, but it could be and either way I think it applies.

If one is thinking “I want to do more. I want to make sure I am justified and nothing I have done is held against me,” one has two options. One is to think of the best thing to do. That is, to maximize the quality of what you do. Say the best prayer, do the best activity, sacrifice the best thing, etc. This could be done maybe, but it is extremely open-ended. What is best? A more emotionally certain way of going to the devotional extreme is to look to quantity. I may not be sure what is best to do, but I can be certain that doing anything a 1000 times is better than doing it 999 times.

A potential objection a Buddhist might make is that repetition is commanded a lot in the Old Testament. Sacrifices are to be repeated. Once per year, once per week, etc.

But I respond that this is not repetition in the same sense. This “repetition” is like the repetition of the Lord’s Supper, which is for the purpose of reminder and remembrance, not multiplication of power of effectiveness (though Roman Catholics might disagree). The “repetition” commanded in the OT is to compensate for man’s forgetfulness, not because more accrues to man for every time a particular thing is done. It seems to me that the Buddhist way of thinking about repetition tends to shift meaning from the intention and will of the doer to the thing done. In other words, repetition within a very short time span, one right after the other, tends to place importance on the thing done as if it has power of itself. And if that is true, if the mantra uttered has power of itself, it is perfectly reasonable to think that that power can be increased through multiplication.

But this is the definition of superstition. Namely, to think that particular things or actions have spiritual power or significance of themselves. It is what mankind tends towards when they do not know of a Wise Heavenly Father that makes decisions adapted to our unique needs and states, and to whom we simply ask and submit to the answer He wills to give. Repetition attempts to place control and power in our own hands. This is the same reason Jesus gives for not needing to repeat prayers “And when you pray, do not heap up empty phrases as the Gentiles do, for they think that they will be heard for their many words. Do not be like them, for your Father knows what you need before you ask him.”

However, I think there is a danger in throwing the baby out with the bathwater with regard to repetition, because some good things can be mistaken as repetition in the empty sense. Is a marathon runner who trains every day engaging in “repetition”? Is a stone carver who is carving a border on a building with a repeating design engaging in “repetitive activity?” Yes and no, obviously. But these repetitive tasks (maybe the word “regular” is better?) are done with an aim outside of themselves. They are to complete something—a race of some decoration. So maybe it is possible that a Buddhist chant in the same way? Can someone repeat a single sentence thousands of times per day without disengaging their minds and degrading the practice into one where the words themselves are presumed to have power and effect? Could they be repeating the mantra with the hope of more deeply grasping its meaning and letting that meaning change their heart and life? Could a Christian repeat the sentence “God has saved me” thousands of times per day to good effect? It seems strictly speaking that the answer depends on the person. It maybe could be done with good effect, but this kind of repetitive activity very easily leads to mental disengagement and superstition of the sort represented by solar-powers prayer wheels.

Reflection on Entrepreneurship in Nepal

The basic idea behind my understanding of poverty alleviation is that in order for poverty to be gotten rid of in any sort of enduring way, wealth creation must begin. Wealth creation (eg, taking wood and making a chair, taking water from a river and distributing it to where people want it, fixing a leaking roof) is very different from “wealth dumping” one might call it where wealth created in one place is dumped in another (ie foreign aid). Wealth dumping has numerous problems, eg here.

An operative assumption for this viewpoint is that God has placed resources (both natural and human) everywhere such that wealth can be created everywhere. This is not necessarily to say that every place on Earth can of itself produce all things necessary for a good life (though the case of Inuits in Alaska stretches one thinking on what places can by themselves sustain a culture), but that in harmony and interrelationship (ie trade) with surrounding areas, most every area can flourish economically.

Writers on development who combat the practice of foreign aid describe how pro foreign aid thinkers tend to view the poor whom they are supposedly helping. They think the aid people think that poor people are lazy, lack iniative, passive, and lack any wits to make improvements in their own or other’s lives. This is simply false as a matter of fact. Poor areas are “teeming with entrepreneurs.” Though a long-term practice can foreign aid can actually begin to induce a passivity and laziness that it styles itself as the remedy. What they lack is the access to and benefit of formal structures such as clearly defined private property, and legal and political stability. For example, if political rebels or corrupt politicians can come steal your factory at their whim, you probably will not build one. For another, if you build a shop on land with unknown ownership, you can’t leverage that shop as collateral for a loan to expand.

I have a book but have not read it yet called The Mystery of Capital (related video here, starts around 1 min) by a Peruvian economist named Hernando de Soto who makes this point with a lot of examples. He collected data about how long it takes to legitimately register a legal business in various countries. It ranged for 1 or 2 days in Japan and the US, to 18 years I believe in Cuba with umpteen billion forms, etc required for formal registration. I saw recently that the US has dropped below the top 10 countries in the world to start a business. Rwanda has risen to 8 (yes it is easier to start a business in Africa than the US now), due to a very unique new president who has made the promotion of entrepreneurship a main plank of his office. The drop of the US to below 10 is likely due to Obama’s penchant for thinking he knows how to run Americans’ lives better than they do, but anyway…

With this sort of background, my experience in Nepal this trip was very different than my time in India several years ago when I was not as aware of and alive to economic issues. Also, the fact that part of our purpose was business development of some sort led me to pay more attention to business and economics.

My main observation is that while the US is theoretically business friendly, and still is, it is such a mature economy that those looking to start businesses I think can be overwhelmed like a 4^th grade football player going to watch the high schoolers practice. Nepal is different because anyone, and I mean anyone, can start a business that is in real and legitimate competition with many, many other people. For example, you buy 3 cucumbers. You cut them the long way into halves, you go to an area known for traffic jams and sell the cucumber halves to people stuck in the jam. Instantly you are at the same level as several others who already had the same idea and are earning a livelihood doing so. To stick with the football analogy, the refreshing thing about Nepal is that there are a lot of fourth graders out running around and much of the economy is run by them. Of course there are much higher level businessmen too, but they are relatively very few. The barrier to entry into business is next to nothing. I saw many middle aged men sitting on bridges or corners with a small scrap of material in front of them upon which was placed several packs of gum, some packs of cigarettes (single cigarettes for sale individually), a pair of sandals, and a sring on which he had strung several beads. He was waiting for a lucky strike—someone who just happened to be thinking “I wish I had some gum” or “I wish I could buy a single cigarette” or “I just remembered that my daughter who wears size six sandals and likes purple and pink needs some new sandals” or “I want a very particular necklace” as they passed him by. Or like these five women, who are waiting for just the right person who wants to buy some of their cilantro or whatever.

I could do that too! It is like a whole country that relies heavily on kids running lemonade stands. Anyone can join the fun! This was refreshing.

Yes, when considered from a mature viewpoint, sitting around waiting for such lucky strikes is not the best use of a someone’s time. But it presents in a more simplified form than is typically visible in a mature economy, like in the US, what business fundamentally is: anticipating what someone might want, and making it available to them in hopes of exchanging with them something they prefer for something you prefer. Seeing this was fun, inspiring, and clarifies the fundamental simplicity of business and might just make someone say “I’ll give it a shot. Who wants a cucumber half?”

Juliann’s new thing

Juliann now enjoys crossing her arms when feeling leisurely, either sitting or eating something.

This perfectly timed nap while we needed to do something was pretty funny too.

Visit to a teacher’s house

 

Decision making (by Jill)

Early into our visit at the school, while we were chatting with the teachers I stepped out to go to our waiting taxi to change August, and Nanu Ram, one of the teachers, followed me to the car and said we would visit a while longer at the school and then we would go to his house and have some guavas. I asked if the other teachers would also come and he said no, which is when I realized why he had followed me to the taxi. I knew then that we would probably get other offers as well and that each of the teachers would expect me to choose them, making me be the offending party to choose one person’s house over another.

When we were done visiting at school, we went to have ‘khaja’ (snack) at the shop we always went to for lunch when I taught there. At the end of the snack we knew it was time to go when one teacher said ‘Now we will stand’ which basically means ‘lets go’ and I waited for the awkward moment I knew was coming of deciding whose house we would go to. As we walked up to the street the head sir (principal) and another teacher come and said in quiet, low voices that we would spend the afternoon at each of their homes in turn. Peter and I said that would be fine but we needed to return to Kathmandu that evening. They didn’t say anything and all six teachers were kind of milling around us silently.

Peter asked me what was happening and I quietly explained that we had been invited to two teachers’ houses in addition to Nanu Ram’s house and I knew they would fight with each other to see who ‘got us’ for the afternoon. Nanu Ram Sir then came down the hill from where he had been standing and said decisively that we would go to his house and I said ‘will we also go to the other teachers’ houses?’ to which he replied firmly ‘No, there will be no time. We will go to my house.’ Then my head sir said, ‘Well, whose house will you go to?’ I tried to joke a bit by saying ‘how can we got to everyone’s house? how should I decide?’ hoping they would work it out between the two of them. More silence among the milling group.

Finally Nanu Ram said “Let’s go” so we got in the taxi and left but not before the other teacher said ‘Ok, come to my house on the way back to Kathmandu’ to which I said ‘we’ll see.’ By then the third teacher who had invited us to his house had left without saying goodbye, probably offended that we did not come to his house!

 

Rice hulling.

 

Typical house. Animals and kitchen are on the bottom floor. Bed rooms are on top.

Nanu Ram’s house is the one in the middle of the pic and his wife is on the porch. The other two houses are various brothers or other relations houses.

Front area of the home. They chill on the little porch carpet.

 

Nanu Ram’s wife.

 

Sister in law. She kept telling people “This is my baby, isn’t he nice?”

She and Juliann returned with popcorn.

The crowd.

Nanu Ram showed me around his land. They grow everything they eat except for salt, sugar, and tea.I took these shots from a video so they might be blurry. They grow around 2000 kg of rice, half of which they eat and half they sell.

We don’t have this fruit in the US. It has a rubbery skin and gooey inside.

Guava.

Soy beans.

Ginger and chili.

Horrible 4 inch spider in front of coffee tree.

Little bridge over water channels.

Cow and squash vine.

Kitchen. They have a biogas system and make all their cooking gas from the manure of their two cows.

House shrine/gods.

Going upstairs.

The whole crew including taxi driver.

Back to School

Arrival at the school. This is the school where Jill taught English while she lived in Nepal.

Teachers and students await. Almost all the teachers met at the school to see Jill and when she thanked them for coming to the school to meet up despite it being their vacation time, they said since we came halfway around the world, hey could certainly come to the school to meet.

The office for all the teachers.

Juliann roaming.

No supervision, no coordination by adults, this group of variously aged kids got together to practice different dances and songs they will perform for the Tihar festival to neighborhood homes–a kind of mix between Halloween and caroling. If you put a similar mix of kids from the US together, without cellphones and other texting things, I wonder what would happen.

Heading for a snack.

Juliann fed a goat, and when trying to do it a second time so I could get a pic the goat ignored her so I tried to get it to notice the corn in Juliann’s hand, which led for some reason to the other goat head-butting the goat into Juliann knocking her over and making her cry and everyone else laugh.

Shop. Jill misplaced a comment about Juliann and sugar which led to them not offering us any tea. Dang!

Note the regular patron on the bottom right.

Former student met on the road.

Juliann admirers and gawkers.

Rice. This was on the way to one of Jill’s teachers homes, pics next post…

Chitwan part 2

A bunch of elephants with the cabs on top.

This was ours. We had to share with two women from … chitwan. We come halfway across the world and the locals took the front seats. If we came again we would buy all four “seats” so ease the ride a bit. It would have been fine without kids, though still not as nice being in back, but with kids it was very tight. The women’s shade umbrella poking us in the back of the head didn’t help either.

Going up and down steep slopes was the best part.

 

Looks like some normal grassland?

Think again, it was over 15 feet tall. Elephant grass, aptly named.

My foot is on an elephant.

 

 

The “drivers’ all were rewarded with juice boxes when we returned, and the straw for our guy fell on the ground as his box was tossed up to him. No problem if you are sitting on an elephant (3 pics).

The road was dirt at some points, and the dust covered all the plants on the side of the road. We thought the leaves might just be different kinds at first, but it was dust. The dust even coated plants on the other side of the river.

 

 

When lack of money excludes the building of a footbridge, they make these cable car things for sending stuff back and forth across the river. This sort of thing probably saves the people on the other side hours of walking time. I don’t know if it was powered by pulling yourself or machine.

Chitwan part 1

Starting off with a bang. A 3 hour near stand still traffic jam in super hot weather. This road is the only road out to the west side of Nepal and it is two-lanes. When they do construction, they have to funnel both directions of traffic through a single lane.

More adornment—metal work and painting. The style and poetic sensibilities of the semi-truck drivers here puts American semi-drivers to shame. These trucks are owned by the drivers so they are in charge of all the art.

Close-up.

This picture is the car ride. The driver would quietly turn off the AC about 30 seconds after every time we asked for it.

Business.

Rice.

“Sunset view.”

“Cultural program.” It was pretty fun watching dancing, but a group of tourists of a not-to-be-named ethnicity stood the entire time taking pictures so we could barely see.

Next morning, dugout canoe ride.

Dugout canoe trip with ignorant guide and the back of the canoe filled with more tourists of a not-to-be-named ethnicity giggling, nattering, and rocking the boat. The guide would occasionally admonish them “Not to be making a loudly sound.”

Supposedly a Rhino print but I wouldn’t be surprised if it was planted. It was right at the beginning, next to the trail, and all by itself.

Little deer.

Pond “where the Rhinos usually come.” But there were more prints there, so it’s probably true.

Elephant breeding center. The baby came to the fence to play.

Juliann touched it.

A walk for Juliann, rare since being here.

Water buffaloes aka buff aka wata buckabows.

Relaxing by the river.

This kind of thing is funny at first but I am at the stage now where I just think “Get your act together, stupid country.” Long term people probably balance out somewhere in between.

Our elephant. To be continued…

Fun Morning at Home

Laughing baby and decked out toddler. That is my Topi aka old man hat.

Flawless reasoning: If riding one tricycle is a lot of fun, riding two tricycles will be twice a lot of fun.

Hodge-podge

We were intrigued by the item on the menu labeled “Hashbrounds” so we thought Juliann could give it a try. Pretty good.

This 12 year old metal worker is producing Tibetan religious art. What is YOUR nearest 12 year old doing?

Himalayan and Indian salts. Not sure which color is which. They say the additional minerals are good for you. I am curious to look into it more.

Some of the cops here carry sticks.

Painting the stupa.

Inside Buddhist temple:

Lamps available at Target for $15.99.

Buddhist iconography. I did a bit of reading and there is a rhyme and reason to it all.

Sponsored by Mitsubishi?

Pashupatinath, one of the three main religious areas of Kathmandu (Besides Swayambhu, and Boudha). This is where all the cremations happen, and it had a very different feel than the other two. We didn’t go into it, but took this picture from the gate. I believe each of the fires are cremating a human body. Bodies are cremated within 24 hours of death, and the ashes are put into the river. Smelling and breathing in smoke from dead human bodies is deep food for thought. I wonder what effect living within sight of this area has on those who live on the other side of the river.

Passageway.

Overhead as you walk into a temple.

Inside a museum at Patan.

Patan Main Square.

Jill with her language teacher friend Prava.

Dinner with Sunita and her husband.

Tibetan Art

Various metal and leatherwork.

Tea cup.

The pouch things on the bottom left are antique fire starter kits.

Painted chests.

Helmet.

Traditional Tibetan dress. I think they wear the aprons once they are married.

Personal prayer wheel. We are somewhat debating if it would be legitimate to purchase as a toy for Juliann. Is it irreverant or disrespectful? Is it toying with a object that shouldn’t be toyed with because of potential spiritual power? Either way, she would enjoy it and would develop some good spinning skills. I might just make a spinning toy sometime. Also, the squares hanging on the bottom right are dried yak cheese. They are about as hard as ceramic, and take about a day t0 suck and gnaw through a single, small cube. Needless to say, we bought a bag (for a buck and a half!). I don’t think Juliann has the patience to eat it otherwise it could replace the Lembas on the return trip.