Reflective living

By Mary Sharp/Correspondent

CEDAR RAPIDS - Ed Bastian has gone from the one of the most aggressive of pastimes - playing Big Ten basketball - to the most peaceful, that of a Buddhist scholar and meditator, a move, one could say, from deflection to reflection.

The former Cedar Rapidian, who lives on a sailboat in Santa Barbara, Calif., is putting together programs for political leaders and staffers where they can pause, meditate, discuss and reflect on difficult issues.

One of those programs, which feature contemplative leaders from a number of religions, is being planned for Des Moines this fall.

“There isn't anybody who isn't sick of politics as it is now,” Bastian said. “And everybody wishes there was a more decent, thoughtful, wise way for people to come together to solve critical issues. Everybody wants that, whether you're in the midst of it as a politician or you're a part of the electorate.”

It goes beyond a wish for civility into a hope for wisdom and compassion, he said.

“We need new forums to come together as a community around these essential questions of life,” he said. “I don't have a political agenda. I'm trying to create a process.”

What better time and place for that discussion, he suggests, than in Iowa in the year leading up to a presidential election.

Bastian was in Cedar Rapids last week visiting his sister, Marianne Bastian, and longtime friend, attorney Bob Rush, a well-known Democrat and former congressional candidate. While here, Bastian visited with board members of the Interreligious Council of Linn County and led a meditation at the home of Rush and his wife, Judith Whetstine, The Gazette's community advocate.

Rush, 66, said he finds it exciting to think about starting a political dialogue from a spiritual basis.

“We've tried a lot of other approaches to civility in the political arena, and I'd say things are worse now than in many years,” Rush said. “This has the potential of getting people to the table to find a common denominator. The beauty of this concept has validity on many levels where people are trying to resolve issues.”

Bastian, now 67, seems as well-positioned as anyone to lead that meditation and discussions of issues. In brief, his career's meandering path has included:

• Being named an All-American center on the Cedar Rapids Washington High School basketball team in 1962 and then playing basketball at the University of Iowa.

• Working as a freelance photographer in Vietnam, where he went voluntarily when he wasn't drafted because, at 6-foot-6-1/2 inches, he was a half-inch taller that the military's maximum and he “felt a little guilty” about avoiding service.

• Hitchhiking around the world.

• Working for former Iowa Gov. Bob Ray and helping run national presidential campaigns in 1968 for George Romney and Nelson Rockefeller.

• Working for NBC News and shooting documentaries for PBS and BBC in Africa, Nepal and other countries.

• Working for the Smithsonian Institution in Washington, D.C., from 1984 to 1989, where he developed programs and documentaries on biodiversity and the intellectual history of the 20th century.

• Starting and then selling a multimedia company in the 1990s in Aspen that created one of the first community websites in aspen.com

• Starting the non-profit Spiritual Paths Foundation, which he still heads and which presents programs throughout North America. The programs find the connections in meditation and contemplative thought in the world's major religions.

Bastian's interest in meditation and Buddhism goes back to 1968 when he was an organizer of political campaigns and rubbing shoulders with national political leaders in Washington. That up-close experience, plus his experiences in Vietnam, led him to want something more out of life.

“I realized they had no wisdom,” he said of those leaders. “Even if they got to a place of power, they didn't know what to do with it. They had no deep purpose. I thought, I don't want to become like that. ... felt like if I were ever to re-engage in politics, I needed to do it from a deeper perspective and some spiritual foundation.”

Enter famed newsman Lowell Thomas, who took Bastian - who already was interested in Buddhism - to Nepal to work on a documentary about the Dalai Lama. Bastian met privately with the spiritual leader and knew he'd found his niche.

“I was looking for a role model, someone spiritual, wise, with compassion,” Bastian said. “He became my hero. He was so remarkable. I just wanted to know what he knows.”

A doctorate in Buddhist studies followed at the University of Wisconsin at Madison, where he translated Sanskrit works into English. He married, had two children, worked in Washington and then settled in Aspen, where he pursued his interest in meditation.

During the years in Aspen, he lived next door to Hunter S. Thompson and ran the “gonzo” journalist's campaign for sheriff. After two near-death experiences - including one where Thompson gave him CPR - Bastian wrote “Living Fully Dying Well.” He followed that with “InterSpiritual Meditation” and “Meditations for InterSpiritual Wisdom.”

Bastian said scientific research is proving the effectiveness of meditation in “lowering stress, creating calm focus, connecting the right and left hemispheres of the brain and leading to compassionate ways of being.”

Meditation, he said, is now used in medicine, business, sports and education “to improve performance, build successful relationships, improve the quality of life and provide life meaning and purpose. It is uniquely suited to help us solve the practical challenges of our times.”

Bastian, the son of the late Ken and Ann Bastian, was raised in the Presbyterian Church and believes “there had to have been something about growing up in Cedar Rapids that brought out” his interest in meditation and Buddhism.

“I've found that even though what I've been doing has seemed ‘odd' to the people I grew up with, they've always been interested and accepting,” he said. “There's an openness here, a straightforwardness, an acceptance. Non-pretension. People here can sense if it's genuine. They have a large B.S. meter.”