PACIFIC DAILY NEWS (do read it below)

[Kirk Tan]

Yes, professor peang-meth, it is true that doubt is like thorn that hinders one's perseverance and confidence. Yes,  "There is nothing more dreadful than the habit of doubt." I have for a number of years and more recent years involved in coaching my elder daughter to play tennis with high ambition that one day she turns to a tennis star like Serena Williams. In addition to teaching her personally, i have had her taken tennis lessons from the pro, which takes a great deal of my time as well as resources. Hence, she shows passion and talents in this sport and has become quite athletic. She is 9 years old.

 

From time to time, however, i am reminded of a saying that goes ... sleurk cheurh men dael srooh chgnaiy pee kool (leave never drops  too far away from its branch). DOUBT! It is a small tinny thought of doubt that involuntarily visits my brain, which yes, Dr. Peang-meth, dreadful and destructive. I want to not just tell but show my daughter that i believe in her dream, which she can be one day one of the best tennis players in the world, and i also want her to believe in herself, too, and once again, professor peang-meth, your writing has reminded of my occasional doubt.

 

If the doubt, which is destructive and dreadful, comes through our mind during the day or night, please take a notice of it and be mindful of it,  and replace it with

 perseverance and confidence. K

 

PACIFIC DAILY NEWS
Jun. 29, 2011

Doubt impairs Cambodia struggle

A. Gaffar Peang-Meth

Two thousand, five hundred years ago, Lord Gautama Buddha taught: "Doubt
separates people. It is a poison that disintegrates friendships and breaks up
pleasant relations. It is a thorn that irritates and hurts; it is a sword that
kills."

He said, "There is nothing more dreadful than the habit of doubt."

Indeed, it remains so, and it will continue to be a destructive emotion.

Doubt raises the question of trust, the fundamental foundation of human
relationships. Raise the level of doubt, increase the level of mistrust.
Respect is diminished. As the great Chinese teacher Confucius asserted,
"Without feelings of respect, what is there to distinguish men from  beasts?"

This brings to mind English philosopher Thomas Hobbes'  "poor, nasty, and
brutish" kind of world: A state of nature. French  philosopher Jean-Jacques
Rousseau thought that in such a state of nature, humans are mere wild beasts
driven by unbridled instinct.

Fourth-century  B.C. Indian brahman Chanakya Kautilya advised his emperor that
in order to protect his and India's interests, he must amass power, the
beginning of realpolitik. Later, Italian Renaissance thinker Niccolo
Machiavelli, known as the father of the science of politics, presented the
concept of power as a natural survival behavior.

But Confucius, who said, "It's easy to hate and difficult to love," preached:
"The more man meditates upon good thoughts, the better will be his world and
the world at large." He warned, "To see and listen to the  wicked is already the
beginning of wickedness."

The younger Buddha, who said, "Nothing is permanent," called on mankind to
"Fill your mind with compassion," and to accept and live up to what "agrees
with reason and is conducive to the good and benefit of one and all."

Buddha taught: "There has to be evil, so that good can prove its purity above
it."

Raising doubt. Today, some individuals make it a business to detract, defame,
disinform and misinform, dig dirt, engage in character assassination --  with
the purpose of diminishing human trust and undermining a person's credibility.
But Buddha assured: "Three things cannot be long hidden:  the sun, the moon, and
the truth."

The truth likely is that those who are most hateful in their characterizations
of others are those who have the most to hide from public scrutiny. They put
forth "straw men" to draw attention from their own corruption.

As responsible citizens, we have an obligation not to be swayed by hateful
rhetoric, but to inform ourselves and make our own decisions based on the most
objective information we can acquire.

Buddha's teaching of the "Four Reliances" that represent the foundational
elements of life includes: rely on the spirit and meaning of the teachings, not
on the words; rely on the teachings, not on the personality of the teacher;
rely on real wisdom, not superficial interpretation; rely on the essence of
your pure wisdom mind, not on judgmental perceptions.

I write often in this space about people who are entrenched in destructive
intolerance, characterized by a lack of civility. A couple of years ago I wrote
about psychology professor Jonathan Haidt's "The Happiness  Hypothesis: Finding
Modern Truth in Ancient Wisdom."

Haidt posited that we don't live in a world of rocks, trees, and physical
creations, but a world of our own creations -- "a world of insults,
opportunities, status symbols, betrayals" created by humans who "believe in
them." He  sees human beings in all cultures possessing an "excessive and
self-righteous tendency to see the world in terms of good versus evil,"  or
"moralism" that "blinds people" into believing "We're good, they are evil."

On his website,CivilPolitics.org, Haidt observes that over the past 20 years,
political leaders, political parties and mass media outlets have become "more
polarized, strident and moralistic."

He says: "When political opponents are demonized rather than debated,
compromise, and cooperation become moral failings and people begin to believe
that their righteous ends justify the use of any means."

And so, here we are coming full circle: believing in one's "excessive and
self-righteous" ends allows one to inject into relationships and into civil
debate what Buddha called "poison," "thorn" and "sword that kills" by sowing
doubt.

Haidt cited "The Perfect Way," a poem by eighth-century Chinese Zen master
Sen-ts'an, who brands an individual's  "judgmentalism" as "the mind's worst
disease (as) it leads to anger, torment, and conflict."

"The perfect way is only difficult for those who pick and choose" -- between
like and dislike, "for" and  "against." The Zen master taught
"nonjudgmentalism."

And Buddha taught mankind to meditate to calm down and not to be agitated by the
"petty provocations of life."

Some readers may be wondering how I will tie this column to the contemporary
political context in Cambodia, as I usually do. As Hun Sen and members  of his
ruling party assuage their greed, they suck into their orbit the "willing
executioners" who do their bidding, hoping for a small share of the ill-gotten
largesse. Meanwhile, those who assert their opposition to autocracy are riven
with doubt that is a byproduct of the rumors and accusations initiated by Hun
Sen and his followers or, worse, insinuated by political colleagues who
perpetuate the fractures in the opposition by adhering to a single charismatic
individual rather than to a set of  principles.

Said Buddha, "There is no fire like passion, there is no shark like hatred,
there is no snare like folly, there is no torrent  like greed." And, "Each
morning we are born again. What we do today is what matters most."

And he said: "One thought leads to heaven, one thought leads to hell."

A. Gaffar Peang-Meth, Ph.D., is retired from the University of Guam. Write him
at pean...@yahoo.com.

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