Saturday 6 October 2007

Pic of the day: "This extremely well-wishing atmosphere" is called Metta or blessing. I hope you are not allergic to that!

Blessings and curses

When I write my Lightwielder fiction, not all of it is taken from role playing games and such. A very important component is based on real life, or at least a life that is real to me and many other believers. I am not sure how many atheists it is real to, but it would be if they tried it. For instance many Buddhists (among them the Dalai Lama) teach this. It is open to everyone, not reserved for Christians. However, Christians are told flat out in the Bible that this is their job. I am talking about blessing.

To the believer, blessings are real. The science of this is still somewhat shaky. One study show that blessed plants grow faster than a control group. But on the other hand you should not tell patients with heart surgery that you are praying for them: Another study showed that this increased their chance to die. If you just pray for them without telling them, it has no measurable effect either way. Of course this is not an easy thing to study, since there are very few people (at least in the USA) who don't have someone praying for them.

What is quite measurable, however, is the effect of blessings on those who bless. The Bible claims that blessing and curses "soak into" those who freely use them, like water or oil. It is certain that those who bless others routinely seem to benefit from it. In the past, it was assumed that the longer lifespan of clerics came from abstaining from vices such as tobacco and drunkenness, and a moderate lifestyle overall. This is probably not a bad thing. But studies of Buddhist monks show that sincere rituals of spreading loving-kindness cause physiological changes within weeks: Lower blood pressure, better resistance to infection, less inflammation, and improved concentration during demanding tasks. Over years, there are significant changes to the brain, with the frontal lobes gaining dominance over the amygdala. Among other things, these people can function for years with Alzheimer's disease without suffering the usual symptoms of disorientation, forgetfulness and mood swings.

To see just how much this ritual of spreading loving-kindness is like a blessing, let me a simple variant of it that I have seen online.
May you be happy, may you be peaceful, may you be free from suffering.
You start with yourself (as a kind of tuning fork, I would guess, since you will anyway be blessed whether you want to or not), then extend the blessing to your loved ones. You are not supposed to run after them chanting or something, just extend this blessing in your heart when you have the time. Think of them with the same feeling in your heart that you wanted for yourself, and say: May you be happy… may you be peaceful… may you be free from suffering." Take your time, as always with blessings. After family and friends, widen the circle to people who you have neutral feelings for: Remote relatives, most coworkers probably, customers, neighbors. May you be happy, may you be peaceful, may you be free from suffering. And then the hard part, the people you dislike or that dislike you, the ones who grate on your nerves, the ones who just don't get it. May you be happy, may you be peaceful, may you be free from suffering. And then you extend this well-wishing atmosphere to all beings in the world, and in every world, opening wide in all directions to let the blessing flow: May all beings be happy, may all beings be peaceful, may all beings be free from suffering. Obviously that won't happen overnight, but someone has to start, right?

This type of blessing is called "Metta" and you can find many variations of it, with various more or less concrete blessings. The idea is of course to do this consciously until it becomes our underlying mode of thinking and feeling, influencing all our choices. In fact, it is supposed to become our nature. Obviously this will take some time for most of us!

In the New Testament there is another interesting "trick", namely thanksgiving. I don't mean the whole eating stuffed birds thing, but the literal act of giving thanks (to God, in our case) for others. It is strongly implied that whenever we thank God for people, they are being credited to their cosmic account. But this does not cost anything (more than the time) for the one who gives thanks. In fact, I strongly suspect that it will have much of the same positive effects as blessings and prayers, in that it soaks the people who immerse themselves in it. Becoming a wandering thanksgiving may not be such a horrible fate!

***

But by the same measure, cursing others would be a bad, bad idea. For natural reason, there is no line of test subjects offering scientists to scan their brains after decades of hard-core cursing. But if you have lived long enough to notice the people whose curses seem to sit loose in their sheath, you will also notice that they rarely progress toward ever greater happiness and tranquility. There is obviously a problem with telling cause from effect here, because people don't curse because they feel good. But it certainly doesn't seem to help either.

The Bible gives stern warning as to the clingy nature of curses: "Yes, he loved cursing, and it came to him; and he delighted not in blessing, and it was far from him. He clothed himself also with cursing as with his garment, and it came into his inward parts like water, and like oil into his bones. Let it be unto him as the raiment with which he covers himself, and for a belt with which he is girded continually." (Psalm 109:17-19.)

This makes perfect sense. We like to think we have free will, but it is not quite that easy. We don't have the freedom to immerse ourselves in curses and still selectively soak up blessings. Both curses and blessings are "liquids" that soak into us and gradually become part of us.

For this reason, the New Testament in particular warns us to not curse, but on the contrary bless, knowing that we were called to this, that we may inherit blessing. (1. Peter 3:9) That is to say, we should know that blessings are going to become a permanent part of us if we keep them coming. As the New Testament openly flaunts the promise that we may become children of God, it certainly makes sense that we would inherit blessing.

I mean, sure God has to do some less palatable things while running the universe, but we don't really need a crash course in that. If we intend to be at all similar to the Absolute source of all Truth, Beauty and Virtue, however, it can't hurt with a little blessing now and then. Or even a whole lot, but most of us probably have a lot of other important things to do, right?