Buddhist Belief Blog

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.
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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.
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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“.

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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.
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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.
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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.
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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