In Karma Meredith Fitzgerald clings to the Bhagavad Gita (the Hindu bible) as it is one of the only possessions she ends up with. She struggles to understand what has happened to her and examines the meaning of karma trying to decipher its true definition from the holy book. The over arching message of Karma is that sex slaves are not to blame and that society must stop condemning them and instead act righteously toward them with compassion and help.

I read this article about the new subway in New Delhi with great interest as I rode the trains for months all over India in 1968-69. Back then they were British made early 19th century steam locomotives. India was crowded and chaotic and poor back then, but my subsequent trips really drove home the message that India was going to crash and burn if something wasn’t done to at least move people around more efficiently.

The reason I like this article is because it talks about the Delhi Metro Rail Corporation’s managing director, 77-year old Elattuvalapil Sreedharan who handed out the Bhagavad Gita to his managing directors as a “management text.” In it, Lord Krishna, who is disguised as a chariot driver, convinces Arjuna, a brave but demoralized king that he “must do his duty against all odds, and fight even what seems to be an unwinnable war.”

Having seen the arguably unwinnable war of chaos in India and to read that they have a pristine subway now that runs at a profit, it seems that Mr. Sreedharan’s management style has won that unwinnable war.

In our own lives, we may not face something as heinous as my character Meredith does in Karma, but we have our own perceived unwinnable wars. And so the idea of approaching our lives with a management mentality—what can we do to do our duty (good/compassion/acceptance/perseverance) against all odds?

One thing we can do—and it’s free—is to have compassion toward those people in the world who are suffering at the hands of sex traffickers beginning with not condemning the street walkers in our own cities. Feeling compassion in your hearts is free, and it’s a great start in doing your duty toward your fellow human beings.

Om Shanti.

In the Boston Logan International Airport, where I travel through frequently, the short that plays on the monitor above security is live action. Here the actor who is demonstrating how to take your laptop out of your bag to put in a bin for individual screening is wearing a rumpled short sleeved shirt that is coming untucked from his huge slouchy gut.

Is that a realistic representation of Americans?

Increasingly overweight adults and children are being cast in roles for advertisements, TV shows and movies as Americans become more accepting and identified with being fat. And so apparently the authorities who design airport security felt that travelers would best relate to a fat, unkempt guy when they cast the role.

Foreigners are not likely to be surprised by the actor in the security short as Americans are generally thought of as rich and fat by the rest of the world. But what does it mean to be rich? That you can afford to buy anything you want?

When it comes to food there seems to be no line of demarcation between rich and poor. In Santa Barbara, which was my home for 18 years, it’s common to see illegal aliens who have come there to work as field laborers, gardeners, construction workers and housekeepers. These poor people can only afford to eat cheap factory products. Santa Barbara is also home to some of the wealthiest people in our country, multi millionaires with private jet aircraft and numerous homes, who can afford to drop several hundred dollars in a restaurant. But they also eat the same factory junk as the beleaguered laborers: pizza, diet drinks, chips, fast food and so on.

So really the choice to eat real food, which is organically produced meat, fish, poultry, dairy, vegetables, fruits, grains, legumes, seeds and nuts that could (in theory) be picked, gathered, milked, hunted or fished, is not entirely about money. And if people who can afford real food do not make the hard effort to shun factory food they will suffer exactly the same health consequences as poor people who do not have a choice.

In fact in the next twenty-five years, the span of an average generation, we are going to see a division of the classes that has less to do with money but more to do with the food choices people make. Because we are what we eat. What you see today in the mirror is an amalgamation of trillions of cells that are made up of what you have been putting in your mouth.

And so the overweight man in the security video could be a multimillionaire just as easy as he could be a blue-collar worker.

Some argue that factory food is cheap and assessable and that real food costs money and is hard to track down. Such is true, but all I can say is, “So what?”

Even if you are not rich, you can still avoid packages, bottles, jars and cans. You can put some effort into finding more affordable sources of organically grown produce and humanely raised animal products like fish, meat, poultry, eggs and dairy.

The division of the classes is occurring rapidly in the U.S. with rising rates of obesity and the degenerative diseases of aging afflicting both rich and poor. The division of the classes is not about money but about choice. Which character do you want to relate to when you go through the security line, the healthy fit traveler or the slouchy fat guy?

Playing the piano exercises my brain in a way that it doesn’t get exercised otherwise, it gives me pleasure, and provides a discipline that adds to the spectrum of my life. I wish that I had started many years ago. But better late than never. So if you have a dream, begin now. Why wait?

This post was published at Satiama Jan. 31, 2010

These are hard times for a lot of people.  The economy is still on shaky ground. Credit card debt, bankruptcy, and foreclosures are skyrocketing.  In addition, it’s no secret that Americans are suffering health problems.  Type 2 diabetes, cancer, autoimmune conditions, and other diseases are epidemic.  Two-thirds of Americans are overweight or obese.  You may feel so hopeless that you believe that the dead battery in your car is a sign screaming,” It’s your karma!”

But wait a minute — how depressing, how deflating, how hopeless it would be to think that you’ve brought your tragedies on yourself!

Conventional wisdom tells us that karma is cause and effect.  Something you’ve done has caused all of your problems.  You do something bad and something bad happens to you.  However, that’s not the true meaning of karma; and this is a very healing revelation.

Karma isn’t isolated to you as an individual.  Think of the world as a karmic stew, with all the actions and reactions of every individual continually rebounding.  Bad things happen because life is harsh, but we can only control our own actions and reactions.  Let’s look at some examples.

Let’s say that a corporate CEO understands that his company’s factory is spewing toxic mercury into the atmosphere, but he does everything he can to shirk making environmental changes.  The result is that innumerable people are harmed.  Is the CEO going to suffer a horrible fate because of his greed?  Not necessarily, karma doesn’t work like that.  His bad actions only lent bad karma to the karmic world.

On the other hand, if the CEO cleaned up his factory, it would lend good karma to the karmic world.  It’s not necessarily going to mean that he will be rewarded and his good deeds aren’t going to prevent tragedy from happening in the world.  Why?  Because illness, aging, and death are inevitable.

On a more personal level, let’s say that someone hurts you.  You have a karmic choice to lash out in anger or to keep your cool, smile and react with kindness.  Not reacting with anger will diffuse whatever ill will the other person had in the first place.  Therefore, you’ve done your karmic duty.  You’ve put a little niceness into the karmic world.

That all sounds good on paper you’re thinking, but in real life, you’ve had more than your fair share of bad luck.  In addition, what’s really irksome is that others around you are flourishing. Maybe you find out that your unemployment is running out at the same time a friend calls to gush about her glamorous new job, great salary, and flexible hours.  Or, maybe you’re not sleeping well and another friend responds by telling you that she’s out the moment her head hits the pillow.  Maybe no matter what you do, the pounds keep creeping on.  Another friend eats whatever she wants and stays bone thin.  Why me?  It has to be my karma!

Again, no.  Other’s people’s good fortune is not an indication of your “bad karma,” but merely provides an opportunity for you to add a little more joy into the karmic world.  How is that possible?  With “sympathetic joy.”  When someone else enjoys good fortune, it’s your choice to be bitter and envious, or to share in the person’s bliss.  Call the person, or send an email offering your congratulations and don’t embellish it with your woes.  Be happy in their joy, and mean it.

What about those who are worse off than you are?  What about the homeless guy with the paper cup and cardboard sign?  The welfare mom with three kids?  The single mother whose son was just diagnosed with autism?  The family whose car was just repossessed?  You may not even know these people, but you see the desperation written on their faces.  What can you do, when you’ve got your own problems?  “Share the love.”  It doesn’t cost a thing to walk by a downtrodden person and think compassionate phrases, “May you be safe.  May you be happy.  May you be healthy.  May you be peaceful.” Sharing compassionate intent is just another way to lend joy to the karmic world.

Maybe you are that unfortunate person.  You could be suffering a truly terrible tragedy right now.  You’re exhausted with worry and stress.  This is not the time for self-blame (“It’s my karma.”)  Rather, this is the time to give yourself compassion, to share the love with yourself.

Find a quiet time every day to sit with your eyes closed repeating the compassionate phrases, “May I be safe.  May I be happy.  May I be healthy.  May I be peaceful.” If you don’t have time to sit, then you can repeat the phrases at a stoplight, in line at the grocery store, in a waiting room, or any other waiting time.

Here are some tips on how we can shed our misconceptions and embrace a new way of thinking about karma as something good, joyful, and powerful:

How to lend good karma to the world

* Choose to react in a positive way in the face of negativity, hardship, and adversity.
* Share sympathetic joy with those who are experiencing good fortune.
* Offer compassionate phrases to those who are more unfortunate than you are. (“May you be safe. May you be happy. May you be healthy. May you be peaceful.”)
* Offer the same compassionate phrases to yourself when you are in pain.  (“May I be safe. May I be happy. May I be healthy. May I be peaceful.”)

Reacting to life’s challenges in a positive way takes presence of mind.  It may take practice to replace knee jerk reactions with mindful compassion, but you’ll be pleasantly surprised how happy sharing in good karma can make you feel — no matter what your circumstances.

About the Author:

Women’s rights advocate and investigative writer Nancy Deville drew from the experiences of her “unconventional life” to craft her powerful first novel, Karma. As a teenager, Nancy hitchhiked across India and traveled and worked in Spain and Switzerland. Returning to the U.S., she worked 15 years as a successful fashion designer and wrote and co-authored influential books on food and health. Karma is based on her two decades of research into the global sex trade that enslaves 2.5 million women and children. It is a story of courage, hope and spirituality that will enlighten readers on this global problem and inspire them with what Nancy calls the true meaning of karma. To learn more, visit her public Web site.

Shhh! Babies sleeping. Well, not human babies. But still. I think I can safely say that I’m not the only person in America who coddles my dogs.

Dogs and cats have cleverly evolved to be too cute in the eyes of humans to eat. How did they do that? They were smart enough, or clever enough to have figured out how to play humans to assure a place in a soft bed rather than roasting in a barbecue pit.

They must be really happy with themselves now that other animals lead hellishly tortured lives from birth until they are slaughtered in horrifying, painful ways.  If you’re a cat or dog, it’s a relief. If you’re human who eats animals then it’s a horribly squeamish subject.

A subject that I would like to address. I eat for physiology not for ideology.

If you want to understand human physiology read Death by Supermarket (which I spent four years researching and writing so I’m not going to rehash it here). Suffice it to say that meat is an historically eaten food, and just because we have the luxury of not killing our own food doesn’t change human physiology.

You can have a lot of idealistic goals and moral standards—like Buddhist principles (BTW, the Dalai Lama eats meat)—but the fact is that we are still the same creatures we were 10,000 years ago. We ate meat then. (This is all about insulin resistance and aging, and getting diseased and dying faster, which is too huge of a subject to go into here.)

In the 1992 film “The Last of the Mohicans,” Hawkeye is an Anglo-Saxon frontiersman who had been orphaned as a baby and adopted by the Mohican Chingachgook. The film opens with Chingachgook, his blood son Uncas and Hawkeye running silently through a heavily canopied forest, hunting an elk. When the elk is felled by the .59 caliber round of Hawkeye’s five foot rifle, the three men kneel at the beast. In Mohican, Chingachgook speaks to the elk, “We’re sorry to kill you, Brother. Forgive us. I do honor to your courage and speed, your strength. . . .”

This reverential attitude that some cultures historically held for the animals that provided them sustenance was repeated (copied) in James’ Cameron’s 2010 “Avatar” when the Na’vi Neytiri witnesses the humanoid Na’vi (called an Avatar) Jake Sully proving himself with a “clean kill” of a forest creature that ostensibly the Na’vi would eat.

All of this said, if you want to eat for physiology not for ideology (an historically diet including meat), you need to take a stand against the torture of animals. You need to buy only meat that you are sure has been organically raised and humanely slaughtered. That goes for milk products too. Are you buying supermarket brands? Because if you are that stuff is noxious (another reason to read DBS).

Taking a stand against the torture of animals includes taking into consideration what we feed to our animals.

Before WWII people fed their animals the same food they ate (i.e. table scraps). Then we industrialized dog food so that dogs were eating body parts that humans wouldn’t eat, body parts of tortured animals that is. There are organically raised dog food out there, but if you want to make your own, here is a recipe.

Bon Appetit Little Doggies Food

3 cups organic brown rice
5 cups water, or organic chicken broth
2 pounds pasture raised organic ground chicken, turkey, pork or beef, OR LEFTOVERS OF YOUR DINNERS, MINCED UP
3 ten-ounce bags of frozen organic mixed vegetables
(green beans, peas, carrots and corn)
6 to 8 pasture raised eggs
Grated cheese (whatever is going to go bad in the fridge)

Layer all ingredients, except eggs, into a rice cooker and turn on. It takes about 1 hour to cook. When the cooker turns off, transfer the cooked mixture into a large bowl. Working quickly while it is still very hot, crack eggs into the mixture and stir to “cook.” Stir in cheese.

Cool and store in an airtight container in the refrigerator or freezer.

(Note: Do not stir cod liver oil into hot food as polyunsaturated oils become rancid easily with exposure to heat, air and light. And be careful with the cod liver oil as it is cathartic and you may end up taking your dog out in the middle of the night.)

Like humans, all dogs are different. Our dogs get a lot of exercise so may need more food than a dog that doesn’t exercise much or that is much smaller. This a very nutrient dense recipe so experiment to see what amount is best for your dog.

The Buddha provided us with a doable, and easy solution for envy. It’s part of the “Four Immeasurables”: Love, Compassion, Joy, and Equanimity (composure). I guess that means that there is simply no measure of worth that you can ascribe to these four emotions. Here they are (out of order so I can talk about sympathetic joy last).

Love is defined in Buddhism as wanting other people to be happy. Love is unconditional. The enemy of love is conditional love—you want something back. The opposite of love is wanting others to suffer and be unhappy. That is anger and hatred, emotions all humans struggle with.

The definition of compassion is wanting others to be free from suffering. You want to help. The enemy of compassion is pity, which puts others down as lower or less than yourself, and dulls the impulse to help the other person.

Equanimity refers to having an even temper even if something or someone totally annoys you. You don’t distinguish between a friend, an enemy, or a stranger. Your state of mind is tranquil regardless of what is happening around you. Your head is not full of agitation. The enemy of equanimity is indifference. You don’t give a damn about anyone or anything, maybe even yourself. Indifference is a form or egotism. The opposite of equanimity is anxiety, stress, worry, and paranoia.

Sympathetic joy is being happy with someone else’s good fortune or happiness. The enemy of sympathetic joy is hypocrisy and affectation. And the opposite of sympathetic joy is jealousy and envy. I think that sympathetic joy is a really good place to start to get a grasp on the Four Immeasurables because it’s an emotion you can apply in a conscious manner. When you do, you recognize immediately the different impact of sympathetic joy and envy.

I’ll give you two examples of employing sympathetic joy in my own experience. I was practicing yoga with a woman who just started out (and I have been practicing for 12 years). There were many poses that she could do much better than I could—or probably ever can. It was really starting to annoy me. But then I thought of sympathetic joy for her. I told her, “You have real aptitude for yoga and your form is really beautiful.” I immediately felt better and actually felt joy for her.

Recently there have been two authors who have ripped up the bestseller charts with their books. They both had two books out, the first ones major bestsellers and then follow ups intended to capitalize on their tidal wave success. The first author’s first book I thought was one of the most enjoyable reads I’d experienced in years. I found her follow up book to be a dud, but it was selling briskly and getting rave reviews. The second author’s first book I found to be self-indulgent and self-congratulatory. I wouldn’t even buy her second book, and it galled me to see it reviewed by all the major players and to see her face plastered everywhere.

The envy didn’t feel good. So I started thinking about these authors as real people with dreams. They had worked hard and deserved to bask in their success. Both are worthy writers who will go on to contribute to the literary world. I started thinking positive thoughts about them, and the ugly envy dissipated. That is the power of sympathetic joy. And we all need to employ it daily even if just to creates a little joy in our own world.

First, high-resolution magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) has shown that meditation reduces the size of the amygdala, which is part of the “primitive” limbic system of the brain where emotional responses (i.e. fear!) are processed. So if you have been in a state of anxiety and fear most of your life, your amygdala is going to rule your life by knee-jerk reacting to everything that happens to you with an over-reactive response.

OMG!!! + Overreaction = CONSTANT FREAK OUT.

Meditation immediately calms the amygdala, and within eight weeks reduces the size of this organ.

At the same time, high-resolution magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) has also shown that meditation increases the size of the hippocampus and areas of the orbito-frontal cortex, the thalamus, and the inferior temporal gyrus, which are the regions of the brain that regulate emotion.

The decreased size of the area of the brain that causes me to freak out along with the increased size of the areas of my brain that help me to stay calm are reasons enough to keep me motivated to meditate.

I have chosen Metta meditation although there are many forms of mediation. Metta, or lovingkindness meditation is a way of bathing your brain with self-compassion. The theory is that by being compassionate with yourself creates an overflow to others. I’ve written another blog on this subject in which I talk about Christopher K. Germer’s book, THE MINDFUL PATH TO SELF COMPASSION: FREEING YOURSELF FROM DESTRUCTIVE THOUGHTS AND EMOTION. I’ve read a lot of books on Buddhist meditation but I found Chris’s book to be the most assessable, especially if you are in need of a guide to the actual practice of meditation.

Om!

Last summer when my friend Natalie asked me if I would be interested in attending a Wilderness First Responder course we were on the beach in Martha’s Vineyard and the air was warm and balmy and it was all just academic.

Three months later I found myself in Jackson Hole, Wyoming layered up in piles of wool and down, suffering from altitude insomnia while practicing rescues in zero- to- minus 18º weather. Then it became real.

Over the course of ten days there were many incredibly fun, frigid, stressful, anxious, exhausting, fascinating, educational, funny, and zany moments—in the classroom and out. Like fact that our class was split into three teams: Ho Ho’s, Zingers, and Ding Dongs. The irony . . . . Like the night we pulled one of our fellow students out of a frozen creek while practicing a mock helicopter crash rescue. And the night we hiked an hour in the snow to the top of a peak to practice a rescue, and I said, “There is not a place in the world I would rather be right now.” I meant it.

Later that night I followed through with my “secret” instructions to be the “surprise” patient and had a pretend grand mal seizure in the snow (which I was told was an Academy Award winning performance). With my team hovering over me it seemed real to me—I guess that’s what method acting is like. They went through the steps of the APVU scale, which is a system first responders measure and record a patient’s level of consciousness. After 45 minutes I was A&O x 4. (Alert and Oriented to who I was, where I was, what time it was, and what happened.) It was fascinating to me to listen to them go through the process.

And the night before our practical exam when I suggested we use a stuffed snowman I found in the cabin closet to practice on. (We abandoned that idea after peeing in our pants laughing.)

The medical material, which could have been dry and boring was brought to life by two animated, highly experienced, hysterically funny instructors, Shari Leach and Ryland Gardener who were superb at both distilling the information and interjecting humor.

Even though the course was unrelenting, there was never a dull moment. There were homemade sticky buns, a lot of splinting, bandaging, taking blood pressures, fake blood and bruises, learning how to “log roll” a patient, and studying. (You haven’t lived until you’ve had someone much bigger and stronger practice CPR on you, accidentally using real chest compressions.)

It was all good. I loved learning what I learned and was inspired to continue studying to learn even more.

Some of the things the course covered were the Patient Assessment System, CPR, vital signs, shock, chest, lung, head, musculoskeletal injuries, Focused Spine Assessment, dislocations, burns, hypothermia, heat and attitude sicknesses, cardiac, asthma, neurological, poisoning, diabetes, and much more all in the context of wilderness medicine.

There were fascinating people taking the course with me, like my friend Natalie Orfalea, whose Orfalea Family Foundation supports a number of initiatives to help children and underprivileged families. Natalie’s Montana ranch is one place where her kids go for summer experiences and Natalie wanted to have wilderness first responder training for that and other of her many philanthropic endeavors. Among the other students was a former neonatal nurse, several students who had Ph.D.’s, including a patent attorney, the manager of a dude ranch, an avalanche instructor, a four-month pregnant anthropology doctoral student, high school and college students, the owner of an organic restaurant, a former international fish distributor (who attended the course on crutches after a rock climbing accident), ski bums, several people who are instructors and wilderness guides for adults and children, and a mountain girl who butchers and eats road-kill, then skins and tans the hides. Everyone had different reasons and goals for taking the course.
Exam day was yesterday and we were all elated to have passed the practical and written exam.  And Natalie and I were ecstatic to go out and celebrate.

I’m in Los Angeles now to resume preparation for the launch of Karma. I hope that someday I can put what I’ve learned in the first responder course to good use. Whatever comes of my training it was one piece of my life mission completed . . . a zillion other pieces to go.

I’m not wild about being cold (it’s 8 below this morning), the days are really long, and the material is pretty dense. Everyone is tired at the end of the day. But it’s really cool to be here, to be meeting a lot of people dedicated to the outdoors who are living their passions and following their dreams.

One of the instructors Ryland Gardener begins every morning with a quotation. This morning it was from a Buddhist text:

The master in the art of living makes little distinction his work and his play, his labor and his leisure, his mind and his body, his education and his recreation, his love and his religion. He hardly knows which is which. He simply pursues his vision of excellence in whatever he does, leaving others to decide whether he is working or playing. To him he is always doing both.

Think about that when you decide on your life mission.