Buddhist Belief Blog

When any of us are studying Buddhist Belief, we often choose to make the journey into living a Buddhist lifestyle a solitary adventure. I know for me, with very few exceptions, this has been the path I’ve chosen. However, as I mentioned in the last article, many do prefer to follow the three jewels by taking refuge in the Buddha, the Dharma, and the Sangha. Interestingly, one can still find refuge in the three jewels even if one is practicing their Buddhism in solitude.

Today, let’s take a look at the first of the three jewels, the Buddha.

The Buddha

A Buddha is an awakened person. It is someone who knows unshakable inner freedom, peace, and compassion. Also, there is The Buddha. In this sense, The Buddha, can represent not only the historical Siddhartha we all have learned about when we study Buddhist Belief, but may also include the great teachers throughout time who embody a depth of wisdom and compassion that changes the world around them.

Another way the words, The Buddha, can be used is as the symbol of the Third Noble Truth (cessation of suffering) — where we learn that it is truly possible to know the end of anguish and struggle — where we discover a heart that is liberated from confusion and pain.

The Buddha also points to the potential for awakening that lives in each of us. The Buddha encourages us to discover for ourselves the same freedom that Buddhas throughout time have found. The Buddha is a symbol of possibility — telling us not to despair — not to feel it’s too hard to do — but rather to dive deeply into our hearts — into the essence of who we truly are, to find the wisdom that can heal and liberate us.

How often when you think of the Buddha do you make an association with a statue seated on a lotus flower — or a figure living on your altar or in a museum? If you come by my house you’ll see I have a statue of a Buddha in my garden as well as one where I meditate. Even though we may be inspired by stories of the Buddha, we still don’t have a strong relationship with this historical figure, do we?

That’s where our practice comes into play. That’s where how we live our life comes into the picture. These are the ways we bring the Buddha out of abstraction and into reality. We breathe life into the Buddha within us. Many of us have glimpsed the Buddha in others and ourselves. It is our buddhanature that inspires us to reach out a hand to comfort and support a friend in need, to forgive someone who has harmed us, and to say no to injustice. It is our buddhanature that grieves at the pain in the world and rejoices at happiness and love. Our buddhanature brings us back to our meditation practice when we face difficulty and pain, trusting that we can find the understanding and steadfastness to meet our life.

When our eyes, our minds and our hearts are open, we tend to see buddhanature all around us. Think of the great people of this world who have dedicated themselves to justice, peace and compassion. Think of the people you know who are living with very difficult situations, yet are doing so with boundless patience and love. Think of the many acts of generosity being offered by strangers. Our practice of awareness opens our eyes to the many acts of peace, kindness, and compassion we encounter in our daily lives.

In addition to serving as an example of the buddhanature that lies within all of us, the Buddha was a teacher, a healer, and a guide showing the way to peace. He empowered students to discover the same liberation within themselves that he found. He wanted graduates. He showed the way to the end of suffering. As Westerners we are prone to be either in awe of or mistrustful of authority. The Buddha discouraged blind faith in teachers, but also honored their place in the journey of discovery and transformation. We have many teachers around us, thanks to books and the Internet, who will not only console us in times of difficulty but will also challenge our delusions. This is a great blessing. We sense their buddhanature in the fact that they want nothing from us. They want neither honor, flattery, nor allegiance. They only want us to find our own buddhanature.

Inviting the Buddha into our heart is, in the deepest sense, to also invite the dharma and the sangha into our life. It is a major step in our practice as we commit to taking the responsibility, and the willingness, to embody our buddhanature.

In the next article, we’ll delve into the dharma.

Metta ….May all beings be well and happy. May all beings live in safety. May all beings be healthy and strong. May all beings live with ease.

Namaste — Be in Peace.

Ron Rink
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Here’s another article to share with you. It’s a really nice story about love.
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Buddhist bond leads to love

Louise Rafkin, Special to The Chronicle

Giovanni Vassallo, an executive coordinator at UCSF, now 40, was just 10 years old when his father shipped him off to a monastery in Kathmandu, Nepal. There, he and his brother studied Tibetan Buddhism, taking vows as monks before returning to the Bay Area about a year later.

Though Sicilian American, Giovanni’s father had been one of the first to practice – and teach – the Tibetan religion stateside. When Giovanni, whom his father had renamed Norbu Dorji Chan, returned to the Bay Area, he lived in his father’s Forestville monastery, attending elementary school classes in traditional robes. But of course, when he hit his teen years, he rebelled. “My father,” he says, “was … strict.” He went back to being Giovanni.

For the next dozen years, he left all things monkish and lived in Louisiana and Texas, at first with his Cajun mother. At college he joined the ROTC, and later the Army, and served in the first Gulf War. But eventually he felt a void, a lack of solid ground, and was pulled back to California. “It took me a long time to reconcile the experiences of the Buddhism I had with my father,” he says. By 1995 his father had died, and the next year his attraction to the religion took him back to a Sebastopol center that some of his father’s followers had joined.

There, in 1997, he met Tsering Dolma, now 34, a Tibetan whose family had escaped from Tibet during the 1959 uprising against China and had resettled in India. In America as a tourist, Tsering met Giovanni after prayers one day. At first, the connection was about Giovanni helping Tsering with visa extensions, but love bloomed quickly. “Our hearts knew our fate before our brains,” Tsering says. In 1998, they married, and six months later were unexpectedly expecting. Tenzin, now 9, was named – as is tradition – by a Buddhist priest. Auspiciously, he was given his name by (and was named after) His Holiness the Dalai Lama.

Both work full time (Tsering as a personal caretaker), but evenings and weekends are spent working for Tibetan rights and independence. Giovanni is president of both the Bay Area Friends of Tibet and the Committee of 100 for Tibet.

“My Tibetan friends and family were shattered by the Olympic torch coming through the city,” Giovanni says. “I have compassion for what they felt; I once wore the same robes as the monks recently shot down by the Chinese government.”

The family’s sweet-faced dog, Joel, wanders the living room of their Fillmore condo while dinner is being prepared by Tsering’s mother. Pictures of monks flank an altar set with flowers and statues of the Buddha. “I was lost until I found Tsering,” Giovanni says with a big smile. “I totally lucked out.”

“Me, too,” says Tsering, grinning. “He’s a good man.”

On how religion affects their relationship:

Giovanni: “We believe that we live multiple lives – at one time we were each other’s mothers. So … we care for each other like … a mother cares for her child.”

Tsering: “With unconditional love.”

Giovanni (laughing): “At least we strive to!”

Louise Rafkin has contributed to the New York Times and NPR’s “All Things Considered.”

This article appeared on page K – 2 of the San Francisco Chronicle
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Just click the links that are sort of Grey in color to take you to where you can learn more about each book and how you can purchase a copy for your own library.

Anam Thubten — No Self – No Problem

No Self – No Problem
shows how to realize the ultimate meaning of life in each moment by dissolving all notions of ego-identity. It asks that spiritual seekers wake up to their true nature, which is already enlightened. Based on Buddhist wisdom traditions, this easy-to-read book discusses in simple, but profound and inspiring language, how we can live a life full of love, satisfaction, and happiness. No Self – No Problem

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