Buddhist Belief Blog

This time of year has always been difficult for me. In fact, I always thought of myself as someone who had the S.A.D. syndrome– Seasonal Affective Disorder. My mental attitude this year seems to be starting out in the same vein — you know — “Here we go again — another few weeks of hectic chaos and wild commercialism.”

Then my thoughts proceeded to the things I write about and I said, “No! Not this time. This is the season of peace!” I don’t have to buy into all the craziness. There’s no good reason why I can’t be a person of peace. Remember the wonderful song, “Let there be peace on Earth, and let it begin with me.” With that in mind, I decided for this posting I would offer a meditation which could, if practiced by enough of us, be a great way to let “Peace Begin With Us!”

Read on — You’ll see where I’m going with this …..

In keeping with so much of what we’ve been writing about these past several weeks relating to the basic teachings of Buddhist Belief. — and in keeping with the beginning of the holiday season here in the United States, I’d like to offer a meditation called, “Loving-Kindness Meditation — or the Metta Meditation. I’ll get back to the regular posts soon — I’m going to take a short break before we continue with the Eightfold Path.

Before we start, I have included this meditation as a podcast I recorded for those who would rather this be a Guided Meditation, where you can close your eyes and listen to it, rather than one you would read yourself. Just double-click the link to hear the podcast….

 

 Metta Loving Kindness Meditation: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

This is an ancient meditation taught by the Buddha himself, and is designed to bring unconditional love to your Self, your loved ones and even learn to send unconditional love to beings throughout the universe. It will help to bring peace to situations taking place in your life. It will also allow you to look at the world in a more positive light.

Here’s how it goes …..

You can begin by sitting down in a comfortable position and closing your eyes. Sit with your back erect, without being strained or over-arched. Just be comfortable. You can sit in a chair or on the floor, whichever works best for you.

Bring your attention to your breath. Take a few slow, deep breaths. In .. and out. In … and out. As you exhale, imagine you are breathing out all negative thoughts and emotions. Breathe in pure light, kindness, generosity and love — breathe out anger, breathe out any thoughts of harm to others or yourself or feelings of fear or failure. Relax your body. Feel your energy settle into your heart and into the moment, the present, the Now.

See if certain phrases emerge from your heart that express what you wish most deeply for yourself, not just for today, but in an enduring way. Phrases that are big enough and general enough so you can ultimately wish them for all of life, for all beings — everywhere.

The phrases of loving-kindness are things like,

“May I live in safety. May I be happy. May I be healthy. May I live with ease.”

You can gently repeat these phrases over and over again. You can have your mind rest in the phrases and whenever you find your attention has wandered, don’t worry about it. When you recognize you’ve lost touch with the moment, see if you can gently let go and begin again repeating the phrases.

“May I live in safety. May I be happy. May I be healthy. May I live with ease.”

Call to mind somebody that you care about — someone close to you — someone for whom you have positive feelings — perhaps a family member, a good friend, or someone who’s helped you in your life, or someone who inspires you. You can visualize them, say their name to yourself. Get a feeling for their presence, imagine them being with you now, here in the present, and then direct the phrases of loving-kindness to them.

“May you live in safety, May you be happy, May you be healthy, May you live with ease.”

Call to mind someone you know who’s having a difficult time right now. They’ve experienced a loss, or a painful feeling, or a difficult situation. It may be someone you know — or it may be someone who you’ve heard about. If somebody like that comes to mind, bring them here into the present with you.

Imagine them sitting in front of you. Say their name if you know it. Get a feeling for their presence and offer the phrases of loving-kindness to them.

“May you live in safety. May you be happy. May you be healthy. May you live with ease.”

Now, think of someone who plays some role in your life, someone you don’t know very well, perhaps someone for whom you have no particular feeling for, or against. Maybe the checkout person at the supermarket where you shop. It could be the gas-station attendant, somebody that you see periodically. If someone like that comes to mind, imagine them sitting in front of you, and offer these same phrases of loving-kindness to them. This could also apply to someone for whom you may be harboring negative feelings.

“May you live in safety. May you be happy. May you be healthy. May you live with ease.”

When we connect into these phrases, when we aim our hearts in this way, we’re opening ourselves to the possibility of including, rather than excluding — of connecting, rather than overlooking — of caring, rather than being indifferent. And ultimately, we open in this way to all beings everywhere, without distinction, without separation.

“May all beings live in safety. May all beings be happy. May all beings be healthy. May all beings live with ease.”

All people, all animals, all creatures, all those in existence, near and far, known to us and unknown to us. All beings on the earth, in the air, in the water. Those being born, those who are dying.

“May all beings everywhere live in safety. May all beings everywhere be happy. May all beings everywhere be healthy. May all beings everywhere live with ease.”

You feel the energy of this loving-kindness meditation extending infinitely in front of you, and to either side of you, behind you, above you and below you, surrounding you. As the heart extends in a boundless way, leaving no one out —

“May all beings everywhere live in safety. May all beings everywhere be happy. May all beings everywhere be healthy. May all beings everywhere live with ease.”

And when you feel ready, you can open your eyes and see if you can bring this wonderful, loving energy with you throughout the day, everyday.

Namaste — Be in Peace.

After a short break, we’ll get back to our articles about the Eightfold Path of Buddhist Belief.
====================================================

For those who wanted me to repeat the links for the books I’ve mentioned in the last few articles, here they are again — And, I have added another wonderful book by Sharon Salzberg. Here’s some information about it. I highly recommend all these books to you:

Sharon Salzberg — The Kindness Handbook

“It takes boldness, even audacity, to step out of our habitual patterns and experiment with a quality like kindness–to work with it and see just how it might shift and open up our lives. This book is an invitation to do just that.” - From The Kindness Handbook — “The Kindness Handbook

Eckhart Tolle’s amazing best seller, “A New Earth”

Dr. Jill Bolte Taylor’s wonderful book, “My Stroke of Insight” — “Nirvana is just a breath away!”

And this one by Sharon Salzberg and is entitled: “A Heart as Wide as the World: Living with Mindfulness, Wisdom and Compassion“.
=====================================================
Always remember this wonderful quote from Buddha ….

Shanti everyone, … (A sanscrit word meaning, “Let there be Peace. Peace, beautiful Peace. Peace within, Peace without. Peace in this world. Peace for all beings.”)

Have a peaceful day!! —

Ron Rink

http://www.theleaderinside.com
http://www.wecould2.com
http://www.buddhistbelief.com

Tags: Buddhist Belief, Buddha, Buddhism, Buddhist, First Noble Truth, Four Noble Truths, Second Noble Truth, Third Noble Truth, Nirvana, inner peace, peace, attachment, detachment, Fourth Noble Truth, Eightfold Path, karma, meditation, loving kindness, metta

Metta Loving Kindness Meditation

Technorati Tags: attachment, Buddha, Buddhism, Buddhist, Buddhist Belief, detachment, Eightfold Path, First Noble Truth, Four Noble Truths, Fourth Noble Truth, inner peace, karma, loving kindness, Meditation, metta, Nirvana, Peace, Second Noble Truth, Third Noble Truth

We’ve been going through the basic teachings of
Buddhist Belief. We began with the enlightenment experience of the Buddha and some information about how he came to reach this place in his own life. That enlightenment experience is the crucial experience that we could all have by choosing the Buddhist path. And from those basics we wrote about the first teachings given by the Buddha about the dissatisfactoriness of all conditioned things; the dukkha, the suffering. And the Second Truth, the cause of suffering: the clinging, the greed, the thirst for more and more. And the Third Truth: the end of suffering, Nirvana, the relinquishment of craving, attachment, and greed.

In the past few articles we’ve written about the Fourth Truth, which is the Eightfold Path. This is the eight-faceted way of enlightened living — the eight principles of living a life without suffering — living with Nirvana. It is the way to the relinquishment of attachment, of greed, of resistance, of partiality — the ultimate alleviation of insatiable thirst; not just temporarily alleviating thirst by drinking more and more salt water, (the salt water of our desires), which just makes us more thirsty, addictive, and dependent. Rather, it is the ultimate fulfillment of our thirst for freedom and peace and love; the end of suffering, the end of doubt and despair.

As we said in previous articles, The Eightfold Path of awakening is divided into three trainings: sila, samadhi, and prajna — morality or self-discipline, meditation or reflection, and wisdom or awareness. This path is explained further in eight principles, so we can see better how to apply these trainings in our own life.

The first two principles pertain to wisdom. We explain the principles of wisdom first because we often think we live our lives in order to develop wisdom, when we should realize we can live our lives according to wisdom.

* Right, or Perfect or Faultless View and Understanding: Seeing things as they are in the present moment, without coloration, without distortion, without self-deception, without projections; seeing karma at work, seeing that as we sow so shall we reap. Seeing that we are responsible for the kind of experiences we encounter in our lives. Virtue brings its own reward. Wholesomeness furthers itself, and negativity brings back negativity to us. By seeing this deeply, moment by moment, we become more and more at one with this understanding, rather than out-of-tune with it and unaligned.

* Right, or Perfect or Faultless attitude: Impeccable thought, free from aversion and desire and ignorance. To put this principle in more practical terms, we could say it’s about being more cheerful, friendly and positive. A term we hear often these days is loving-kindness, a term which means friendliness. It means to be positive. It means to be buoyant. It means being “up”. This principle even goes deeper. It’s not about making this some ideal we should strive to include in our lives, rather we should be cultivating this behavior as normal wherever we go in life. Why not? Think about it. What could be wrong about unleashing our spontaneity and having a more child-like nature? What could be wrong about wishing the best for one and all?

I think as children most of us probably wanted everybody to be happy. Did you? Of course, as children, our universe is much smaller — our “everybody” most likely didn’t go much beyond our families and our friends. As some of the readers of my blogs know, I lost my desire for happiness at an early age, not only for myself, but for many others as well. Because of a dysfunctional home life, I grew up living on the streets of Detroit, Michigan. I became a part-time “street kid” when I was eight years old — and graduated to full-time when I was eleven. In order to survive living “on the streets” there were certain lessons I had to learn, and learn well. The two main lessons were how to fight better than the “other guy” and how to con or frighten people into giving you money, food and jobs. When I was just a kid and throughout my teen years, these lessons did help me to avoid many disasters.

But where did my innate desire for happiness go? I didn’t know any other way to live, so I continued to apply these same lessons as a young adult. However, applying these to adult life began to bring the karma back around. Eventually, as the Buddha taught, sure enough, I was more than dissatisfied with my life. I realized everything was more complex. I was highly competitive and would do anything to better the “other guy”. Any notion of purity of heart seemed washed out of me. I didn’t like my life, but I also didn’t seem to have the wisdom to see how to make the changes needed.

Was there still some element of innate wisdom in me to reconnect with loving-kindness, happiness, friendliness and respect for others? Was there a way to discover the principles of faultless thought and attitude? Fortunately, the universe works in mysterious ways. It brought into my life circumstances which taught me the value of seeing things as they really are. (The “circumstances” mentioned are an entire story unto itself and beyond the scope of this blog.) With that wisdom working in me it became possible to develop an attitude towards life, and others, which was one-hundred-eighty degrees the opposite of how I had always lived. That wisdom began with an understanding of how violence always leads to more violence. This wisdom eventually worked its way into a new attitude about compassion and peace.

Today, when I think of compassion I think of this sense of empathy. Compassion has become a kind of buzzword today. When you feel what others feel, or if you put yourself in their shoes, then you can treat them like you would like to be treated — you become more helpful, compassionate, and kind, rather than abusive, exploitative, and aggressive.

The more we cultivate compassion, loving-kindness, well-wishing meditation and prayers, charity, service, and altruism, then we discover how our actions warm up the whole environment. It truly is a major force. Not just that we radiate light and compassion, but out of that comes a natural way of being, caring, and helping. It also resonates with others in a way that generates similar behavior in them.

As a part of the principles of faultless view and understanding, and perfect, faultless attitude, come the other group of ethics, self-discipline, character and virtue. Also faultless speech which we touched on previously, faultless action and faultless livelihood.

We’ll write more about these in coming articles about the Eightfold Path of Buddhist Belief.
====================================================

Here’s an article by Karen Armstrong a prominent author on religious history. Karen Armstrong’s books about different religions, including her highly acclaimed “A History of God,” have made her one of the most prominent authors on religious history. The London-based “On Faith” panelist also is the author of three television documentaries and took part in Bill Moyers’ television series “Genesis.”

I thought you might find it interesting since our article today is related.

Compassion is indeed central to every one of the major world religions — but sometimes you would never know it. Increasingly religion is associated with violence and intolerance; it seems preoccupied with dogma, belief, getting to heaven, or enforcing correct sexual behavior. There are magnificent exceptions, of course, but it is rare to hear religious leaders speaking of the primary importance of compassion.

People don’t even seem to know what it means. It is often assumed to mean “pity” or “feeling sorry” for somebody. But the root of this Greco-Latin word is “to experience with;” compassion compels us to dethrone the egotism, self-preoccupation and selfishness that hold us back from the divine and put ourselves in the place of another.

All the great religious sages insist that compassion is the chief religious duty. The first person to do so was Confucius, who, five hundred years before Christ, was the first to formulate the Golden Rule: “Do not do to others what you would not like them to do to you.” It was the central “thread” that ran through all his teaching and should be practiced “all day and every day.” Every single faith has evolved its own version of the Golden Rule, which requires us to look into our own hearts, discover what gives us pain and refuse, under any circumstance whatsoever to inflict that pain on anybody else.

“My religion is kindness,” said the Dalai Lama; you can have faith that moves mountains, says St Paul, but it is worthless without charity; Rabbi Hillel said that the Golden Rule was the essence of Torah: everything else was “only commentary.” Muslims begin every reading of the Qur’an by invoking the compassion of God. But the religions also insist that you cannot confine your compassion to your own kind; you have to have “concern for everybody,” love your enemies, and honor the stranger.

The major task of our generation is to build a global community where people of all persuasions can live together in mutual respect. If we do not achieve this, we will not have a viable world to hand on to our children. We must implement the Golden Rule globally, treating other peoples ~ whoever they may be ~ as we would wish to be treated ourselves. Any ideology ~ religious or secular ~ that breeds hatred or disdain will fail the test of our time.

The religions should be making a major contribution to this essential task ~ and that is why it is important to sign on to the Charter of Compassion, change the conversation, and make it cool to be compassionate.

We hope that hundreds of thousands of people ~ Jews, Christians, Muslims, Hindus, Buddhists, Sikhs, Confucians and atheists all over the world will contribute their insights on line on our multi-lingual website.

The world will help to write this Charter to return religion to the spirit of the Golden Rule. Can we make a difference? “Yes We Can!”

Please e-mail On Faith if you’d like to receive an email notification when On Faith sends out a new question.
======================================================
For those who wanted me to repeat the links for the books I’ve mentioned in the last few articles, here they are again:

Eckhart Tolle’s amazing best seller, “A New Earth”

Dr. Jill Bolte Taylor’s wonderful book, “My Stroke of Insight” — “Nirvana is just a breath away!”

And this one by Sharon Salzberg and is entitled: “A Heart as Wide as the World: Living with Mindfulness, Wisdom and Compassion“.

=====================================================

Always remember this wonderful quote from Buddha ….

Shanti everyone, … (A sanscrit word meaning, “Let there be Peace. Peace, beautiful Peace. Peace within, Peace without. Peace in this world. Peace for all beings.”)

Have a peaceful day!! —

Ron Rink

http://www.theleaderinside.com
http://www.wecould2.com
http://www.buddhistbelief.com

Technorati Tags: attachment, Buddha, Buddhism, Buddhist, Buddhist Belief, detachment, Eightfold Path, First Noble Truth, Four Noble Truths, Fourth Noble Truth, inner peace, karma, Nirvana, Peace, Second Noble Truth, Third Noble Truth

One of the aspects of the Eightfold Path of Buddhist Belief is the path of right, or faultless speech. In today’s article I’d like to start with that aspect and see where it leads us. As we delve into this, try to keep the above quote from Buddha in mind.

Several years ago, while I was still living in Vermont, USA, I attended a 3-day silent, intensive Buddhist retreat. At first, being completely silent was sort of weird. We’re so used to talking all the time. After I grew accustomed to being silent I made some interesting discoveries. The most profound discovery was the realization that you really don’t have to talk as much as you think you do. Of course a retreat situation is different than our normal, everyday work and home life. Yet, it was interesting to see how much my “mind-chatter” kept me occupied. It was also exciting to notice how much easier it was to just “be with” things — like “being with” a flower — or “being with” the sounds of nature all around us. Usually we miss this part of life because of all the noise we continuously keep around us. Rather than enjoy the wonderful peace of silence, we tend to look for someone to talk to or we turn on the radio or the TV to drown out the sounds of silence. Why don’t we like silence? Why does silence make us uncomfortable? Hmmm, interesting questions! Any thoughts out there?

I read in one of my many books about a person who went to one of these retreats and afterwards made a vow to cease talking about other people in a negative or gossipy way when returning to normal life. This person discovered there was very little to talk about once talking about other people was eliminated. Not talking about anybody else removed almost all topics of conversation. I haven’t tried to do this in my own life, but it would be interesting to discover just how much of our “talking time” is spent talking in a negative, or gossipy way about other people.

Could it be there are more fulfilling, enlightening pursuits, other than talking about other people, to give our energy to? Fascinating thought!

As I point out in all of these articles, we are all human beings and we get to make our own choices. There are no “have-to’s” here. These principles of enlightened living are nothing more than tools to a more peaceful, satisfying way of life. Remember, the three trainings of sila, samadhi, and prajna, will completely unfold into the Eightfold Path of right or faultless view, thought, speech, action, effort, vocation, meditation and mindfulness. All of which are a matter of choice.

I wish there were more teachings on how to look at these paths with western ways in mind. There are some, and we’ll talk about them later in this blog. There is plenty about the eight paths in the traditional writings. However, when studying them in a more modern sense, there are questions raised. For example, when I look at right or faultless livelihood, it could be interpreted to mean nothing more than successfully “bringing home the bacon”. However, I suspect it has more to do with finding our true vocation — our true inner purpose in life. All of these paths are designed to develop character and integrity and to give us an enlightened perspective about how to live our lives.

Because our lives are absorbed with delusions, prejudices, selfishness and ego thinking, it’s difficult to understand what Buddha is teaching. For example, we often interpret “faultless speech” to mean no more than “Thou shalt not lie”. But does it go further? What about criticizing others? Do we spend our inner and outer “talk” putting others down? What about gossip and slander? When we talk this way do we ever ask ourselves why we have to spend so much energy trying to put ourselves “up” while putting others “down”? Why are we so critical of others?

The place where criticism really shows itself is in our home where we both give and receive criticism. There are so many questions in our western minds when it comes to the Eightfold Path. One of the things Buddhist Belief has tried to teach is if we don’t identify with someone’s criticism of us, we won’t feel attacked. Have you tried to do that? There is no way you will be able to force someone else to see things exactly the same way you do. If you try, you just end up feeling more frustrated. Buddha once said, “When I was enlightened, everybody was”. Sounds a lot like saying, “In the eyes of God, everyone is God, but in the eyes of man, everyone is screwed up”. This gets sort of tough, don’t you think? Which side of the mirror do you want to hold?

Those who choose to follow the teachings of Buddha believe when we awaken it will all make sense — even to those of us in western cultures. I’m one who firmly believes the answers are in the basic teachings of Buddhism: give up what is harmful — adopt what is wholesome and helpful — and purify the heart and mind. And, don’t forget karma! Be positive — you get back positive. Be negative — you get back negative. It has everything to do with how we relate to the people and things around us.

One last bit before we wrap this article — Buddha was never a missionary. Buddhist teachers throughout the ages have followed the same path — teach only when asked — only go where invited — don’t proselytize — don’t force-feed these teachings — don’t work to convert others — don’t defend your beliefs.

This blog follows the same philosophy — you can stop reading this anytime you choose. In writing these articles, I’m not trying to convince you to become a Buddhist. The only purpose is to pass along these teachings as I understand them and to do so in as friendly and compassionate a way as I can. What you choose to accept is always your choice. I write these as a form of self-teaching and reinforcement of what I believe to be true. What you choose to do with them is entirely up to you.

In the next article, which I hope to write in the next few days, we’ll continue with more thoughts about the Eightfold Path - the Fourth Noble Truth of Buddhist Belief.
====================================================

One of the principal poets of the Japanese haiku tradition, Kobayashi Yataro, used as his haiku name, Issa, said to mean ‘cup-of-tea’. He imbued his work with Buddhist themes, yet presented his sharp perceptive wisdom and an unconstrained, joyful celebration of the ordinary, in lines full of humor laced with compassion.

One of his haiku that I go back to in times of confusion or in need of reassurance about our shared humanity is: “Where there are humans - You’ll find flies, And Buddhas”.

These days, in our country, it’s so much easier to see the swarms of flies in the hate and pain we inflict on one another; yet the knowledge of the Buddha-nature potential in each one of us has to sustain us.

A contemporary teacher of Buddhism, Sylvia Boorstein, has said: “… I think as a species, we are innately friendly.” Our natural bent, our natural inclination when we’re not threatened or frightened is to befriend and to console and to appreciate other people. She defines happiness as “ … feeling oneself in warm relationship in that way, in friendliness, in compassion, in appreciation, with other people, with one’s self, with people that we know, with people that we don’t know, with people that we hear about in different parts of the world in different situations and we feel that our heart goes out to them.”

Happenings of the last few years place before us the worst of human nature, and also the very best. But we read, view and hear more of the former than the latter. We need to share more stories of those who wouldn’t give in to misused power, those who offered compassion to others in the midst of personal horror, those who placed their humanity before their religious differences. We are hungry for these reports because at times when it’s so easy to forget, they remind us of what it means to be fully human.

Maybe we are making a mistake in striving to become good, become compassionate, become fair, just to become anything. Because all we need to do is to remember that the gift of humanity we are born with, our true human nature is that innately, we are good, we are compassionate, we are fair and just.

Only when we get past the forgetting of this and the numbing fear that allows hate-mongers to influence us, can we be what deep down we truly are from the start.
======================================================
For those who wanted me to repeat the links for the books I’ve mentioned in the last few articles, here they are again:

Eckhart Tolle’s amazing best seller, “A New Earth”

Dr. Jill Bolte Taylor’s wonderful book, “My Stroke of Insight” — “Nirvana is just a breath away!”

An this one by Sharon Salzberg and is entitled: “A Heart as Wide as the World: Living with Mindfulness, Wisdom and Compassion“.
=====================================================
Always remember this wonderful quote from Buddha ….

Shanti everyone, … (A sanscrit word meaning, “Let there be Peace. Peace, beautiful Peace. Peace within, Peace without. Peace in this world. Peace for all beings.”)

Have a peaceful day!! —

Ron Rink

http://www.theleaderinside.com
http://www.wecould2.com
http://www.buddhistbelief.com

Tags: Buddhist Belief, Buddha, Buddhism, Buddhist, First Noble Truth, Four Noble Truths, Second Noble Truth, Third Noble Truth, Nirvana, inner peace, peace, attachment, detachment, Fourth Noble Truth, Eightfold Path, karma

Technorati Tags: attachment, Buddha, Buddhism, Buddhist, Buddhist Belief, detachment, Eightfold Path, First Noble Truth, Four Noble Truths, Fourth Noble Truth, inner peace, karma, Nirvana, Peace, Second Noble Truth, Third Noble Truth

We’ve been writing about the three aspects of the Fourth Noble Truth of Buddhist Belief, virtue and ethics, contemplation, and wisdom. If you’re having any problems applying these in your own life, why not take a look and see where you are with it? Is there some underlying reason why your life may not be at ease? Are there too many complications in your life which may have come about because of ethical or virtuous missteps? Is your mind filled and confused due to a variety of “little white lies”, some of which you may not even be conscious of telling?

Those of us raised in western cultures often look for others to help us keep our lives in order. We’re accustomed to look to our ministers, our priests, our rabbis, our gurus, and other religious leaders to guide us through the maze of life. We may even look for answers through analysis. Sometimes we rely on friends or family members for shoulders to cry on. There’s nothing wrong with doing this. Counseling with our leaders or people close to us is never wrong. What we need to realize is no matter who we use to help us bare our souls — it always comes back to our decisions, the choices we make for ourselves. As Buddha said, “We must be lights unto ourselves”.

Can anyone deny how much more contented, relieved and at ease we would be if we lived our lives in a morally flawless way? There can be no question about how much more clarity we would have if our minds were clear and relaxed. There is so much wisdom in just being — just being alive with these three principles, sila (virtue), samadhi (contemplation), and prajna (wisdom). Buddha taught these by being the example. They became his way of life. He learned by living with these principles how to rid himself of dissatisfaction and reach enlightenment.

These articles will soon be shifting over to more detail about the Eightfold Path of the Fourth Noble Truth. So how do our three principles of virtue, contemplation and wisdom relate to this additional way of teaching about the last of the Noble Truths? These three principles become the Eightfold Path.

Sila, or ethical conduct, becomes (1) right action, (2) right speech, and (3) right livelihood. Samadhi, or mental discipline, contemplation and meditation, becomes (4) right effort, (5) right mindfulness, and (6) right concentration. Finally, prajna, or wisdom, becomes (7) right view and (8) right intention. This ties our entire being together — if we practice these principles with our body, our speech, and our mind, we will be on target for enlightenment. This is something we can do now. We don’t have to wait for this to happen in some future lifetime. It always comes down to the choices we make in how we live our lives today. Either we adopt this lifestyle — or we don’t. It’s always up to us.

People who read my blogs know how I always strive to get you to include daily meditation in your lives — at least a half-hour each day. As one who does this, and more, most every day, I can assure you — it works! But, it will only work if you make it an everyday practice. It won’t work if you do it today and then don’t do it again for a week or two. If you will practice for at least a half-hour every day, if you will make it a part of your daily routine, you will find and become familiar with the feelings of inner peace. You will also find out how you can carry these feelings into your life when you’re not meditating.

However, here’s a caution — the Fourth Noble Truth is not just about meditation. Look at the three principles and the eightfold path. There are more aspects besides meditation alone. Meditation is a part of it — and it’s a major part — and it is a great way to get started. One of the things we westerners are so tempted to do is to focus solely on the meditation aspect and wonder why we are still so dissatisfied with our lives. Everything is still a mess. Quieting your mind for a half-hour a day is wonderful and vital, but what happens for the rest of the day? There are some other actions needed in order to see real change. You need the entire Eightfold Path as your way of living. There is action and wisdom needed right along with your meditation. Not only do you need your meditation — your mindfulness — you also need to include being faultless in your speech, your thoughts, your efforts, your views and your actions. Add to this finding your true vocation, and you’ll see how living with the Fourth Noble Truth of Buddhist Belief is an engaged way of life.

Let’s pick up at this point in the next article.
=============================================
For those who wanted me to repeat the links for the books I’ve mentioned in the last few articles, here they are again:

Eckhart Tolle’s amazing best seller, “A New Earth”

Dr. Jill Bolte Taylor’s wonderful book, “My Stroke of Insight” — “Nirvana is just a breath away!”

An this one by Sharon Salzberg and is entitled: “A Heart as Wide as the World: Living with Mindfulness, Wisdom and Compassion“.
=====================================================
Always remember this wonderful quote from Buddha ….

Shanti everyone, … (A sanscrit word meaning, “Let there be Peace. Peace, beautiful Peace. Peace within, Peace without. Peace in this world. Peace for all beings.”)

Have a peaceful day!! —

Ron Rink

http://www.theleaderinside.com
http://www.wecould2.com
http://www.buddhistbelief.com

Tags: Buddhist Belief, Buddha, Buddhism, Buddhist, First Noble Truth, Four Noble Truths, Second Noble Truth, Third Noble Truth, Nirvana, inner peace, peace, attachment, detachment, Fourth Noble Truth, Eightfold Path. karma

Technorati Tags: attachment, Buddha, Buddhism, Buddhist, Buddhist Belief, detachment, Eightfold Path. karma, First Noble Truth, Four Noble Truths, Fourth Noble Truth, inner peace, Nirvana, Peace, Second Noble Truth, Third Noble Truth

In the last article, we talked about the three aspects of the Fourth Noble Truth which we may need to put some of our focus upon as we progress in our learning about the Noble Truths of Buddhist Belief. These are the sila (virtue or ethics), the samadhi (meditation or concentration) and the prajna (wisdom and awareness.).

We also made the point about how these three aspects are mutually supportive of each other. They belong together, rather than as individual steps to be taken along a path.

The concept of developing a strong sense of virtue, ethics and self-discipline is important when we bring the practice of meditation into our lives. We can eliminate the need for any paranoia if we learn to live more virtuous, ethical lives. If we’re not constantly telling a different set of lies to different people all the time, we won’t have to worry about who we told what to so we won’t get caught in our fibbing. As long as we’re being honest and straightforward with people our lives will be remarkably simpler. If we’re always deceiving others, who are we truly hurting? It’s ourselves catching the brunt of the suffering, especially when we get caught in our deceitfulness. It will be easier for us to be more relaxed and open when we meditate if we’re not fretting about some sort of ethical mishap in our lives.

In Buddhist Belief teachings, Buddha talks about karma, and how the wheel of karma grinds very fine. Our ethical mistakes have a way of catching up to us eventually. We can dump tons of toxic waste into our oceans and we may never see any consequence at all. But, what about our children and our grandchildren? Can you see how our unethical actions of today could be a serious, unpleasant surprise to them someday? As the saying goes, “What goes around, comes around.” It’s an inescapable truth.

Bringing true responsibility onto our lives should be high on every one of our priority lists. How often do we see people today shirking their responsibilities? Or, how often is it where we see people who do something that is less than moral — even reprehensible — refusing to accept the responsibility for their actions, even to the point of looking for someone or something else to blame?

Let’s face it. We’re only going to kid ourselves when we try to mislead others. We are the ones who should be the role models for the generations to follow us. If we won’t step up and take on this responsibility, who will? This has become true in a critical way over the past few years. It’s time to begin to turn this around and begin living morally unimpeachable lives. As we do this and as we enter into the development of our focus, our concentration, our meditation, our samadhi, we won’t be distracted by all the complications caused by unethical living. We’ll be able to live simply and be at ease, not only with ourselves, but with others as well. We’ll be able to tune in to the real truth within us.

When we are able to live in a wholesome way, we’ll be able to find our way to much deeper focus in our meditations. When we are in the place of inner peace — our focus will allow for us to see the wisdom within us where we’ll gain spiritual understanding, compassion and love. When those aspects are working together, we see how our personal self-control and power over our actions will increase. These things can’t happen if our character is weakened by ethical misdeeds.

Can you see the relationship of these three aspects of the Fourth Noble Truth? Sila, samadhi, and prajna – morality, meditation and wisdom? They develop from each other as they enhance each other. If you put all this into the concept of wisdom, then isn’t it wise to be good to others — not to bring harm to them? If you think of this in terms of karma, and you know no one wants to be harmed — then why would you intentionally harm anyone? Not very smart, is it? Remember, “What goes around, comes around!” Isn’t it wise to be focused and able to concentrate, rather than being scattered all the time? You don’t have to meditate for hours and hours every day, but bringing a regular, daily practice into your lifestyle, will teach you how to be focused in your every day life. That’s smart!

So often, there is a tendency to believe that living a healthy, spiritual life is complicated. I think this belief is one of the many distractions our egos like to bring about. Making spirituality a big mystery is one sure way to bring more foolishness into your life. Yes, it is about your lifestyle — and we all know how we resist change of any kind. However, here’s the truth — we always have a choice. We can either go along with Buddhist Belief — or not. We either do it — or we don’t.

It’s up to you.

Let’s pick up at this point in the next article.

See you in the next articles.
====================================================
I’ve been a member of the Spiritual Cinema Circle for several years. This membership has been a wonderful pleasure. Each month I get a DVD with a feature film and 3 shorter films. It’s mine to keep. I don’t have to send it back. So I can share it with friends or watch them again whenever the mood strikes.

This coming month the feature film is called, “After Life“. If you had to choose one memory in which you would spend eternity, could you? This is the premise of “After Life. This thought-provoking film is available to you if you become a member before November 14, 2008.

The real beauty here is you not only get this feature film — you also get three more shorter films — (I’ll tell you about them in a moment — plus I’ll show you a video preview of the films for this month! ) — you get all four of these films on a DVD you get to keep as part of our free trial offer for new members. All you have to pay for your first month of films is a nominal shipping and handling cost.

After Life is a Spiritual Cinema classic and this year’s carefully chosen “hidden gem.” It’s a film from the recent past that embodies the essence of spiritual cinema. After Life, which was released ten years ago on the U.S art house circuit (with very little publicity), disappeared too quickly. Spiritual Cinema Circle is thrilled to offer this unique film to its subscribers.

In After Life, a team of counselors meet each week with a new group of people who have recently died. They are there to help them choose a memory from their lives that they will live out for all of eternity. As film crews gather to re-create the chosen memories, the subjects have just three days to decide which memory is the one to take with them.

Spiritual Cinema Circle scours film festivals and seeks out cutting edge filmmakers to find the most soulful, heartfelt and uplifting films to offer its subscribers.

Also, we have: Against the Wind (Short Film): In this sweet short about life, an elderly man examines his past and his present, looking for that one thing that keeps him going.

And …Second Life of the Sugar Bowl (Short Film): A man wanders through Paris before dawn while the flea market vendors are just setting up their wares. He’s searching for something specific as he begins to collect an odd assortment of junk…junk that becomes treasure for someone he loves.

Plus … Speed of Life (Short Film): This short documentary introduces us to a courageous young woman who was making her mark in the competitive snow-boarding world when she was struck by a mysterious illness that changed her life forever. Amy has gone on to change the lives of many other athletes, showing us all that facing life’s challenges can be part of the fun of living!

Receive After Life and the 3 great short films free (plus nominal shipping fee), by visiting Spiritual Cinema Circle at this link:

Spiritual Cinema Circle Free Trial

– be sure to do this before November 10.

Here are some video clips so you can get a glimpse of what’s being offered:

Enjoy the films,

I know I sure do — they’re a bright spot in every month.

Start your Free Trial Today

Spiritual Cinema Circle Free Trial

=============================================
For those who wanted me to repeat the links for the books I’ve mentioned in the last few articles, here they are again — and I’ve added one more:

Eckhart Tolle’s amazing best seller, “A New Earth”

Dr. Jill Bolte Taylor’s wonderful book, “My Stroke of Insight” — “Nirvana is just a breath away!”

An this one by Sharon Salzberg and is entitled: “A Heart as Wide as the World: Living with Mindfulness, Wisdom and Compassion“.

=====================================================

Always remember this wonderful quote from Buddha ….

Shanti everyone, … (A sanscrit word meaning, “Let there be Peace. Peace, beautiful Peace. Peace within, Peace without. Peace in this world. Peace for all beings.”)

Have a peaceful day!! —

Ron Rink

http://www.theleaderinside.com
http://www.wecould2.com
http://www.buddhistbelief.com

Tags: Buddhist Belief, Buddha, Buddhism, Buddhist, First Noble Truth, Four Noble Truths, Second Noble Truth, Third Noble Truth, Nirvana, inner peace, peace, attachment, detachment, Fourth Noble Truth, Eightfold Path, karma

Technorati Tags: attachment, Buddha, Buddhism, Buddhist, Buddhist Belief, detachment, Eightfold Path, First Noble Truth, Four Noble Truths, Fourth Noble Truth, inner peace, karma, Nirvana, Peace, Second Noble Truth, Third Noble Truth

The last article we wrote offered a small experiment where we were to shower love and compassion on the next being we encountered in our life. Any comments on that? How did it work for you? The next being I encountered after writing that article was the checkout person at the local Kroger store. All I managed to do was to smile big and wish her a great evening. I also helped her bag my few items. I gave her a sincere “Thank You” and that was it. It felt good, but not out of the ordinary for me. She did smile back, and I’d like to think she saw me as a bit more “up” than many of her customers that day. I’d be interested to hear from any of you to see how it went for you.

Now, let’s get back to the basics of this study which is the Noble Truths of Buddhist Belief.

One of the important elements of the Eightfold Path is the regular practice of meditation. I know when I devote time every day to my practice, a lot of things have a way of falling into place. Meditation helps me to realize I don’t have to figure everything out — which I can’t do anyway. This realization doesn’t mean I should stop questioning, or seeking or studying. It doesn’t mean it’s necessary to become sort of anti-intellectual. What it does show me is how slowing down for a while has a way of clearing the brain-sludge. In some ways it reminds me of trying to get a knot out of a shoelace. You know how if you fight with it the more you can’t open it? Sometimes, if you just stop fighting with it — just stop for a moment and take a deep breath, somehow the knot miraculously opens on your next try.

This analogy is much the same as a regular meditation. You’ll get those wonderful moments of awareness. Some of the answers to the questions in our mind seem to fall into place. We don’t have to continue batting our head against the wall. Suddenly we find the open window or the open door right next to the wall we’ve been hammering against when we were not open to awareness. Meditation is the door to the path. It’s our opening to the journey toward enlightenment. You don’t have to believe it. You don’t have to wait for someone to give you this opening. It’s something you live and apply yourself. It’s your path. It’s right there under your feet. All you have to do is step onto it.This is the “How-To” path. It’s the great highway to awakening. It’s where we’ll learn how to relinquish — how to let go — how to end the craving, clinging, conditioning, karma, and so on.

There a couple of ways to look at the Eightfold Path, and we’ll discuss both of them in these articles. First, I’d like to talk about the way this was originally taught, as the three trainings, the three facets of enlightened living. These are the sila (virtue or ethics), the samadhi (meditation or concentration) and the prajna (wisdom and awareness.). Many students feel they have to accomplish one of these aspects before they can move on to the next. For example, some students feel they have to get control of their ethical behavior (sila), they have to develop more self-discipline, they have to cool down their basic nature — before they can embark on the meditation and contemplation step (samadhi). Once they get “good enough” then they can start to develop their skills at meditation so they’ll be able to develop some wisdom (prajna).

It doesn’t work that way, folks.

These three aspects are mutually supportive. The idea is to put some attention to all of them. Isn’t it smart (wise) to be ethical in our dealings with others? It’s not as though our morality has to come before we focus on getting some wisdom in our lives. It doesn’t do a lot of good to have a regular, daily meditation practice and then go out and be ruthless to others. These three are all intertwined. We would do best to see what we are able to add to our lives right now, coupling those thoughts with where we feel we’re most out of balance. I always say we should have meditation in our daily lives, even if it doesn’t come easy at first. Learning to be present, to see things just as they are, moment by moment, does take practice. Sure, enlightened living, being more ethical and virtuous, is very important — and helpful. It’s also sensible. It will be almost impossible to pursue wisdom and truth if we’re not being ethical with others. How can we quiet our minds in peaceful meditation if we’re stewing about the problems we’ve created by not being wise and ethical?

Around and around. Can you see how these three aspects belong together?

Let’s pick up at this point in the next article about Buddhist Belief.

See you in the next articles.
====================================================

I’ve been a member of the Spiritual Cinema Circle for several years. This membership has been a wonderful pleasure. Each month I get a DVD with a feature film and 3 shorter films. It’s mine to keep. I don’t have to send it back. So I can share it with friends or watch them again whenever the mood strikes.

This coming month the feature film is called, “After Life“. If you had to choose one memory in which you would spend eternity, could you? This is the premise of “After Life. This thought-provoking film is available to you if you become a member before November 14, 2008.

The real beauty here is you not only get this feature film — you also get three more shorter films — (I’ll tell you about them in a moment — plus I’ll show you a video preview of the films for this month! ) — you get all four of these films on a DVD you get to keep as part of our free trial offer for new members. All you have to pay for your first month of films is a nominal shipping and handling cost.

After Life is a Spiritual Cinema classic and this year’s carefully chosen “hidden gem.” It’s a film from the recent past that embodies the essence of spiritual cinema. After Life, which was released ten years ago on the U.S art house circuit (with very little publicity), disappeared too quickly. Spiritual Cinema Circle is thrilled to offer this unique film to its subscribers.

In After Life, a team of counselors meet each week with a new group of people who have recently died. They are there to help them choose a memory from their lives that they will live out for all of eternity. As film crews gather to re-create the chosen memories, the subjects have just three days to decide which memory is the one to take with them.

Spiritual Cinema Circle scours film festivals and seeks out cutting edge filmmakers to find the most soulful, heartfelt and uplifting films to offer its subscribers.

Also, we have: Against the Wind (Short Film): In this sweet short about life, an elderly man examines his past and his present, looking for that one thing that keeps him going.

And …Second Life of the Sugar Bowl (Short Film): A man wanders through Paris before dawn while the flea market vendors are just setting up their wares. He’s searching for something specific as he begins to collect an odd assortment of junk…junk that becomes treasure for someone he loves.

Plus … Speed of Life (Short Film): This short documentary introduces us to a courageous young woman who was making her mark in the competitive snow-boarding world when she was struck by a mysterious illness that changed her life forever. Amy has gone on to change the lives of many other athletes, showing us all that facing life’s challenges can be part of the fun of living!

Receive After Life and the 3 great short films free (plus nominal shipping fee), by visiting Spiritual Cinema Circle at this link:

Spiritual Cinema Circle Free Trial

– be sure to do this before November 10.

Here are some video clips so you can get a glimpse of what’s being offered:

Enjoy the films,

I know I sure do — they’re a bright spot in every month.

Start your Free Trial Today

Spiritual Cinema Circle Free Trial
=============================================
For those who wanted me to repeat the links for the books I’ve mentioned in the last few articles, here they are again — and I’ve added one more:

Eckhart Tolle’s amazing best seller, “A New Earth”

Dr. Jill Bolte Taylor’s wonderful book, “My Stroke of Insight” — “Nirvana is just a breath away!”

An this one by Sharon Salzberg and is entitled: “A Heart as Wide as the World: Living with Mindfulness, Wisdom and Compassion“.

=====================================================

Always remember this wonderful quote from Buddha ….

Shanti everyone, … (A sanscrit word meaning, “Let there be Peace. Peace, beautiful Peace. Peace within, Peace without. Peace in this world. Peace for all beings.”)

Have a peaceful day!! —

Ron Rink

http://www.theleaderinside.com
http://www.wecould2.com
http://www.buddhistbelief.com

Tags: Buddhist Belief, Buddha, Buddhism, Buddhist, First Noble Truth, Four Noble Truths, Second Noble Truth, Third Noble Truth, Nirvana, inner peace, peace, attachment, detachment, Fourth Noble Truth, Eightfold Path

Technorati Tags: attachment, Buddha, Buddhism, Buddhist, Buddhist Belief, detachment, Eightfold Path, First Noble Truth, Four Noble Truths, Fourth Noble Truth, inner peace, Nirvana, Peace, Second Noble Truth, Third Noble Truth

The last article was a bit more difficult to understand as we began our study of the Eightfold Path and the aspects of the discipline and the doctrine. I hope you will keep in mind the fact of the basics of this study which is the Noble Truths of Buddhist Belief.

(The picture in today’s article is a replica of Kwan Yin, The Goddess of Compassion)

Perhaps a small experiment will help us to gain a more clear understanding of where these teachings will take us as we go more deeply into the Eightfold Path. Can we try this?

When you finish with your daily routine today, or when you are about to leave your house or place of business and step out into the public where you’ll encounter others, see if you can do the following with the first being you meet. It doesn’t have to be a human being, just whatever sort of being crosses your path. It might be a human or it might be a pussycat, it doesn’t matter. See if you can radiate awakening light rays, love, equanimity, and deep caring for that being, whatever it is. Take notice of how you are during this encounter. What happens to your self-image? How do you see yourself when you do this? Are you open and loving, or do you find yourself reacting or making judgments about the being?

Think about what we discussed last time. Think about how wisdom and compassion are interrelated. Think about the reality of how we are all one — how we are all interrelated — see if you can realize the inseparability of yourself and the other being you’ve encountered. See if you can do this for at least this one encounter. Don’t worry about doing this for more than the first being you meet today. It would be wonderful to carry it out through the rest of the evening or day. For now, though, do this for this one being only. Try to notice any difference between how you usually hold yourself with others, and how you are when doing this experiment. This could be quite illuminating. Beam some love to the first being you meet and notice if you are different in some way and whether you could see yourself being this way in your everyday life.

Why this experiment, you ask? As we delve into the Eightfold Path, (the eight principles of enlightened living) we’re going to learn some ways of living which might be different from what we’re used to. Will it be possible for us to live a life of compassion and love? Or will we learn these principles and still go about our lives in a contradictory fashion? It’s to show how we can blossom even out of our normal existence. It’s a sort of metaphor for our own spiritual (lotus-like) blossoming right out of the mud of our normal nature. As one Buddhist teacher, Trungpa Rinpoche used to say with a certain humor, “Even shit can be used as the manure to help flowers grow”. The “manure” of our own experience can help us to grow. Sounds awful, doesn’t it? Even a little gross. The interesting thing is — it’s metaphorically true.

Hmmm, I seem to be straying away from following the planned path for this blog — or am I? This blog is about Buddhism from the ground up studied from the point of view of a person from America. My readers from Europe and other countries will see this is a western point of view as opposed to just an American one. It’s about the original enlightenment of Buddha — the Four Noble Truths and the Eightfold Path.

You’ll see as we progress — we’re on track. We’ve looked into the First Noble Truth, dukkha, the all-pervading, constant gnawing of dissatisfaction inside us driving us to seek something beyond this. We looked at the Second Noble Truth, which is the cause of our dissatisfaction — our craving, clinging and attachments. And then, the Third Noble Truth, the end of suffering, the relinquishment of craving, clinging and attachment. The end of our addictive habits — the realization of Nirvana.

This experiment is an important next step to understanding the Fourth Noble Truth, the Eightfold Path. We’re going to be learning how to relinquish, how to let go, how to break our addictive patterns, how to give up on our old habits which cause us to suffer. We’re going to be learning how to experience the deathless peace and fulfillment of Nirvana. This experiment is the beginning of our “How-To” manual — our operating manual for enlightened living. It’s a manual with super-clear instructions that anybody can do.

Even you and me.

See you in the next articles.
====================================================
Can Buddhism Save You From a Financial Crisis? Here’s one opinion.
Buddhism and Crisis!

=============================================
For those who wanted me to repeat the links for the books I’ve mentioned in the last few articles, here they are again:

Eckhart Tolle’s amazing best seller, “A New Earth”

Dr. Jill Bolte Taylor’s wonderful book, “My Stroke of Insight” — “Nirvana is just a breath away!”

An this one by Sharon Salzberg and is entitled: “A Heart as Wide as the World: Living with Mindfulness, Wisdom and Compassion“.
=====================================================

Buddhist from Britain Spreads the Word

His name is Lokamitra, but the person who answers to that name is not the traditional Indian hermit. He is a blue-eyed, fair-skinned foreigner.

Like most youngsters in the 1960s, Jeremy Goody, then a 23-year-old history teacher in Britain, was desperate to know how he could channel his unruly emotions. He decided to take up Buddhist meditation after meeting Sangharakshita, an English Buddhist who had spent 20 years in India teaching Buddha Dharma.

Lokamitra, the name given to Goody by his teacher, literally translates to “friend of the people”. And nearly three decades later, Goody has truly lived up to his name. He has spent 34 years in an unknown land, and traveled to remote villages to spread the message of Buddhism.

His extensive work with the Buddhists of Pune and Nagpur has also been recognized at the international level. He was awarded the prestigious Manhae Grand Prize for Peace this year.

However, despite the country’s progress, Lokamitra, feels that casteism is still prevalent in modern day India. “I was in Gujarat after the Bhuj earthquake. The dalits there were denied relief if they didn’t chant ‘Ram Ram’ and beg.”

He added that he had also seen minorities being fooled in the name of Buddhism by greedy politicians who look at them as sheer vote banks.

========================================================
Always remember this wonderful quote from Buddha ….

Shanti everyone, … (A sanscrit word meaning, “Let there be Peace. Peace, beautiful Peace. Peace within, Peace without. Peace in this world. Peace for all beings.”)

Have a peaceful day!! —

Ron Rink

http://www.theleaderinside.com
http://www.wecould2.com
http://www.buddhistbelief.com

Tags: Buddhist Belief, Buddha, Buddhism, Buddhist, First Noble Truth, Four Noble Truths, Second Noble Truth, Third Noble Truth, Nirvana, inner peace, peace, attachment, detachment, Fourth Noble Truth, Eightfold Path

Technorati Tags: attachment, Buddha, Buddhism, Buddhist, Buddhist Belief, detachment, Eightfold Path, First Noble Truth,