Buddhist Belief Blog

In our last article about the basics of Buddhist Belief, we talked about Karma and thought about many of the questions we have about it. We talked about how our perceptions and biases define our reality. We left the discussion with a question … “Why do we perceive things the way we do?”

I don’t know if there’s a simple answer to that question. I guess you could say we are perceiving our lives exactly as we have decided it should be. We have, somehow, made it our habit to see things a certain way. We are creating our own reality. If you’ll recall from the last article, I wrote this … “The street outside my home is, to my perception, a quiet and beautiful street with lots of trees full of singing birds and homes where peaceful people are living. Others might see my street as sort of scary because there aren’t a lot of street lights or pedestrians.”

So, for me, I created a quiet, beautiful street with lots of trees full of singing birds. Someone else might have created a different street — one that made them uncomfortable. In reality it’s just a street. Well, actually, it’s not even that, is it? A street is just another idea. It’s a concept. Those birds singing in the trees I see in my perception may not see this “thing” as a street. I don’t know what their perception might be. It all depends on how we look at it. What’s interesting is this — if you think about the fact that if you can create a perception or reality, then we should be able to deconstruct it as well.

However we decide to live our lives depends on how we construct it. It is our own outlook on things and events that will determine how we create our reality. What’s equally interesting to me is how, wherever we go, we seem to recreate that reality, don’t we? Even though we may change where we live or who we form relationships with, we manage to somehow turn it all into the same thing we had previously. We keep bringing our reality with us, even though it’s no longer the same.

In terms of Karma, these habitual realities we’ve created are embedded in our subtle consciousness and we continuously transfer these concepts onto a variety of different things.

Yet, concepts are not reality. We need to understand this fact so we can learn to see the difference. Even though we choose to think of things a certain way, it’s not true reality.

(Hmmm, I can see by reading what I just wrote that an example is in order, right?) Let’s take the concept of being afraid to enter a dark room in a strange house. Our perception is a fear of not being able to see into the room, and in our conceived reality it’s not safe to venture in. The problem we face is there is some reason we absolutely have to enter this room. We have to break through the fear. So, we reach around the corner of the door and feel for the light switch and flick it on. Upon seeing into the room and seeing it is safe to enter, our reality instantly changes. Even though our concept of ourselves was initially a certain way — fearful –we discovered we can transcend that concept and completely change our reality — and it can happen instantaneously.

Therefore, since our reality is created through our perceptions, we can also venture through our initial perceptions and change our reality. We always have choices. Our reality is an open question — and we should always keep asking the question to see if there’s a different answer. Again, speaking of Karma, everything happens for a reason. There was some cause for whatever happened. It’s “as it should be”. It doesn’t mean that we’re always happy — or that everyone is getting exactly what they deserve — or that we’re not capable of feeling empathy and compassion for tragic situations.

There’s a lot of suffering in the world. There are terrible things happening every day. There are many innocent people who suffer at the hands of others. There are earthquakes, hurricanes, fires and floods. These are terrible things and they’re difficult to grapple with. We do what we can to help — we don’t just shrug it off as inevitable. The Buddhist teaching of Karma — not unlike the biblical teaching of sin and virtue — says that we can only experience what we have sown. Cause and effect. Do we bear some of the responsibility for awful things happening to people? Since we are all connected, I think we are a part of these things. Perhaps it’s a part of our minds. Who is without some blame?

Who’s going to control things if we, ourselves, are not in control of our own reality? I think we have to start with what we have. We can master and purify ourselves, act ethically and impeccably, we can choose to follow the Eightfold Path of Buddhist Belief, and we can strive to shed some of that light in the world. We can bring it out to the educational system, to the business world, to our families, wherever we live.

We can do that. Yes, We Can!

I’ll be back to write again in a few days with more thoughts about Buddhist Beliefs and how they may apply to our lives.

Until then,

Namaste — Be in Peace.

Ron Rink

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Buddhism is a middle way. This does not mean that it is a compromise. It means that it avoids extremes. Thus, on the one hand, it counsels us to avoid over indulgence, yet, at the same time, it would be quite unbuddhist to be puritanical. Moderation is a great virtue. Now, of course, if one’s life is already at some kind of extreme, then even a small move back toward balance may seem radical, but I’d like you to keep in mind the basic principle that the path that Buddha taught is one that is essentially natural and easy. When it does not come easily this is generally because before one tried it one had become dependent upon something unwholesome in a way that one now finds difficult to shrug off. In that situation, it is best to trust the process that Buddhism sets in motion and have some patience. In fact, we are all dependent on many things and while this is something that can get out of hand, as in the case of addictions, most people are compulsive to some degree about at least a few things.

Recognition of our dependency is an important first step in appreciating the usefulness of the Buddha’s teaching. While Buddhism asserts that we are each individuals, it also points out that we are all dependent. We each depend upon many things. Often these dependency relationships are, to all intents and purposes, one way. Thus, I need the sun to shine on this Earth for my life to continue, but the sun could get along quite nicely without me. I walk upon the ground and the ground supports me, but I did not make the ground and it will still be there when I am gone. Although my relations with other people are a little more two-way than this, there are still enormous numbers of people who benefit me that I never meet. Much of my food is imported from far away countries. I rely upon the farmers and the people who sail the ships and fly the airplanes. I never get the opportunity to thank them directly. There is much to be grateful for. A staggering amount, when one starts to think about it soberly. Also, and this can cause anguish, sometimes one’s very existence causes suffering to others. The Buddha’s mother died seven days after she had given birth to him. He grew up knowing that he had been a cause of her death, even though there was nothing he could do about it. Our lives depend upon the deaths of others. Even if we are vegetarian – and Buddhism advocates that we should eat as compassionately as we can – we cannot avoid the fact that many other creatures die in the harvesting and manufacture of our food. In all this, our life is mixed up with joy and sorrow. To live a full life is to feel both of these more deeply.

So we have already established three very important Buddhist principles: individuality, dependency and gratitude. Just appreciating these three ideas and allowing them to penetrate into us can make a huge difference to our lives. If we were to take a few minutes four or five times a day to think back over the previous two or three hours and consider the ways in which we have each been individual, try to list some of the benefits we have received and the conditions that we have depended upon during that time, and feel a little gratitude, then, over a period of time, we will notice a natural improvement in many aspects of our life. We will experience greater peace of mind, find our relationships improving, our physical health is likely to benefit, and it is probable that we shall become more productive and contribute more to the good of our friends, neighbors and society. All this will come about naturally.

Buddhism works like a seed. If one plants the seed and waters it, then it will grow. The resulting plant will differ a bit according to the soil and the aspect of the land and so on and in the same way the seed of Dharma will develop a little differently in each individual. Nonetheless, it will grow and eventually bear tasty fruit. The planting of the seed happens at one moment, but the growing of the plant occurs over a period of time. Realizing the basic points of Dharma is something that happens, as we say, like a penny dropping, but the resulting change then occurs over a much longer period of time. These changes may be imperceptible day to day, but over a longer period we see people becoming kinder, calmer, wiser and freer and this can be the same for each of us.
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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 — 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

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

Since we have now covered the basics of Buddhist Belief, let’s move on to another of Buddha’s teachings — one which I can frankly say that I don’t truly understand. It’s Karma. As the quote above by Buddha states, “No matter what one does, whether one’s deeds serve virtue or vice, nothing lacks importance. All actions bear a kind of fruit.”

Even though I don’t understand it, I do enjoy digging into it and studying it and continuing to meditate about it knowing the knowledge will creep in and be revealed one of these days.

(The photo, by photongo, I’ve included with this article, shows a Buddhist worshiper in Vietnam releasing caged birds to improve her Karma.)

Whenever I begin to think about Karma, I also think of this quote of Wayne Dyer’s, “How people treat you is their Karma;how you react is yours.”

According to the Buddha’s wisdom relating to the law of karma, which in turn, relates to how things are, everything happens for a reason. Sometimes if you look at something it appears to be random, but if you increase your frame of vision, you can often see that it’s connected in some way to something else. According to the law of karma, everything is said to have a cause. The often misunderstood belief about this is that there is always a “good” or “bad” reason for anything happening. I don’t believe such a belief is true. It isn’t about “good” or “bad” — it’s merely cause and effect. The physicists say there is no action without a reaction.

Everything has a cause. It doesn’t mean that you alone created the cause. There could be billions of interacting causes. But, according to the understanding of what Buddha taught about how things are, everything happens for some karmic reason. When you begin to “push” your thought process a bit, and ask, “Suppose someone trips and falls down the stairs” — is that a random happening? Does that happen more to some people than it does to others? Does the fact that some people trip and fall have some connection to the way they live their lives? Is there something going on here other than pure randomness in these “accidents”?

Fascinating stuff to think about, isn’t it? Dig into this thinking a bit further and ask, “How can I work with the concept of karma? Is there an operating manual somewhere? How can I learn to navigate a little better in this life? Is there a better way to sail these waters of life? Perhaps we’re not at the mercy of the wind and the waves. After all, the waves are on the surface and we might be able to surf on them or dive under them, right?

Think for a moment about how you perceive things. It’s not rocket science to understand how our life experience is defined by how we perceive things. How we relate to things generates our experience.

For example, if an Eskimo were to be sitting here with me in my office in Ohio, USA, he or she would probably think I should open a window or turn on the air conditioning. That poor Eskimo would be roasting even without all the fur clothing. However, another person from Ecuador sitting here with me in my office would be freezing to death.

You see, our perception defines our reality. It isn’t absolutely, objectively cold or hot here in my office. It’s just relative to what we’re used to — to how we perceive things. This office where I’m writing this is, to me, quite comfortable and functional. However, if someone who was accustomed to more luxury — bigger computer desk, larger room, better lighting, carpets, etc., they might see it as anything but comfortable and functional. Their perception would be different from mine. The street outside my home is, to my perception, a quiet and beautiful street with lots of trees full of singing birds and homes where peaceful people are living. Others might see it as sort of scary because there aren’t a lot of street lights or pedestrians.

Can you see how our biases and perceptions define our reality?

Since this article is about karma — the question we are asking now is, “Why do we perceive things this way?

Great question! Glad you asked!

And, we’ll dig into the answer in the next article here on Buddhist Belief.

I’ll be back to write more, and see what sort of answers we can come up with to our question about karma and perception in a few days.

Until then,

Namaste — Be in Peace.

Ron Rink
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Noting that no religion, be it Christianity, Islam, Buddhism or Hinduism, teaches hatred, President Barack Obama said he will reach out to world leaders to foster a more productive and peaceful dialogue on faith. ”No matter what we choose to believe, let us remember that there is no religion whose central tenet is hate,” he said during a speech at the National Prayer Breakfast.

“There is no God who condones taking the life of an innocent human being. This much we know.”

“We know too that whatever our differences, there is one law that binds all great religions together.

Jesus told us to ‘love thy neighbour as thyself’.

The Torah commands, “That which is hateful to you, do not do to your fellow.”

“In Islam, there is a hadith that reads ‘None of you truly believes until he wishes for his brother what he wishes for himself’.

“And the same is true for Buddhists and Hindus; for followers of Confucius and for humanists,” Obama said.

“It is, of course, the Golden Rule – the call to love one another; to understand one another; to treat with dignity and respect those with whom we share a brief moment on this earth.”

Obama said Washington “will also reach out to leaders and scholars around the world to foster a more productive and peaceful dialogue on faith. I don’t expect divisions to disappear overnight, nor do I believe that long-held views and conflicts will suddenly vanish.”

“But I do believe that if we can talk to one another openly and honestly, then perhaps old rifts will start to mend and new partnerships will begin to emerge.”

“In a world that grows smaller by the day, perhaps we can begin to crowd out the destructive forces of zealotry and make room for the healing power of understanding,” he said.

Besides Obama and First Lady Michelle Obama, the National Prayer Breakfast in Washington, a tradition started by President Dwight Eisenhower, was attended by national and foreign dignitaries, including former British prime minister Tony Blair.

Later, Obama was expected to sign an executive order aimed at ensuring religious groups receiving government money don’t discriminate in hiring.

Critics of the White House Office of Faith-Based and Neighbourhood Partnerships say the Bush administration allowed groups to consider an applicant’s religion when hiring.

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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 — 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.comhttp://www.wecould2.comhttp://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, loving kindness, Meditation, metta, Nirvana, Peace, Second Noble Truth, Third Noble Truth

It has been over a month since I last posted here. Frankly, I’m just as surprised about the length of time as I’m sure you are. After my surgery, there certainly was a period of time where I wasn’t feeling good and needed to put my mindfulness onto the process of healing. However, after about three weeks, I did feel well enough to get back to writing but found myself procrastinating — and becoming rather skilled at doing so. There was no difficulty in finding excuses to avoid writing — not only here in Buddhist Belief, but in my other blogs as well.

Then, this morning I read a post by a great friend of mine from the United Kingdom where she talked of her own discoveries about why she wasn’t doing much writing either. You can read it here: Murmurz.com — We’re both writers by nature, so this was all making a direct hit on the guilt-factor for me. Her blog post showed me how “just writing” can often cause a break-through. She just sat down and wrote. These words I’m writing at this moment are my own attempt to follow her lead.

When I last wrote here, we wound up our discussion of the Eightfold Path of Buddhist Belief, or, as I like to refer to them, the eight principles of enlightened living.

If you would take the time to go back through these past discussions about these eight principles, you’ll see that the whole Dharma teaching is explained. This isn’t like studying, or having to follow, the Eight Commandments — you know what I’m saying — “if you do all these things you’ll get to heaven later”. This is different. This is simply about sanity.

Think about it — isn’t it more sane to be helpful to others rather than to be harmful?

Isn’t it more sane to be present, rather than to always be distracted and absentminded?

Isn’t it more sane to be working at your true vocation rather than making compromises for how you spend your life?

These principles are the best guide I’ve ever found for living with some degree of sanity and enlightened living. I’m not saying it’s easy to follow these principles of enlightened living, but I do feel they pretty much sum up the Dharma. It’s really eight facets of one jewel. If you look at that jewel, of course it can have infinite facets, but I think these eight pretty well sum up everything.

I do believe there is one facet missing — I feel we should also include “Right Exercise” and call it the Ninth step on the Ninefold Path. (Please don’t write me nasty comments, folks, it’s just me thinking out loud and being a little facetious!) If the Buddha were teaching today, I’ll bet he might include exercise. I’m not thinking just physical exercise, either. I’m also thinking about mental and emotional exercise as well. It might be yoga — it might be Tai Chi — it might be some sort of martial art. It’s about developing our mental and physical faculties for health, mental alertness and relaxation. It’s healthy to exercise our freedom to inquire or debate about things. We should exercise our speech that way. Not just swallow the Dharma whole.

We have now covered the Four Noble Truths — the four facts of life — and the Eightfold Path — the principles of enlightened living.

I hope you will take the opportunity to put some thought into these writings we’ve shared over the past several months and see how you might apply them to your own life. You should find going through the process to be helpful. The process of applying these principles to your own life is where the rubber hits the road, so to speak. Doing so will help you to lead an enlightened, sane and more righteous life. Despite what many people say, you don’t have to wait until you die to reach Nirvana. You don’t have to wait for anything. There is nothing missing. Everything is available to you right now, in this moment. All you have to do is tap into it — “it” being the Dharma — the truth — the Buddhist Belief we’ve written about in this blog.

This is the joy of the jewel of the Dharma. Dharma means the truth — the truth of things as they are — right now — in this moment — in the present. Accept things as they are — right now — in this moment — in the present — and you will find inner peace.

I’ll be back to write more about Buddhist Belief in future posts. We’ll be writing in more general terms and discussing more interesting ways to look at life from a Buddhist point of view.

Until then,

Namaste — Be in Peace.

Ron Rink
====================================================

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

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

Since I haven’t posted anything here since the middle of last month, I guess you could say the holidays absorbed more of my time than I thought they would. Although there is some truth there, I’ve also been dealing with some nasty health issues which have kept my energy levels lower than I’m used to. So, my apologies for not keeping up here.

There will be another delay before I post again after today. I will be having some surgery done next week and I can’t make a good educated guess as to when I’ll be here at the computer writing to you again. My hope would be for only a week or so to get back on my feet— but it could be a little longer. I’ll be sure to Tweet loud and clear the next time I post. Of course, if you would subscribe via the RSS link, you’ll be sure not to miss anything.

Now, let’s get back to our study of the Eightfold Path of Buddhist Belief.

We’ve looked at Right or Perfect View, Right or Perfect Understanding, and Right or Perfect Attitude. Last time we wrote about the second group in the Eightfold Path — self-discipline, character, and virtue, which are Right or Impeccable Speech — Right or Impeccable Action and Right or Impeccable Livelihood.

Moving on, we come to the last triad of meditation: impeccable effort, impeccable concentration, and impeccable mindfulness or awareness.

Right, Perfect or Impeccable Effort.There are different kinds of effort. There are the kinds of effort that get you started or get you launched onto some new aspect of your life. Then there’s the sort of effort which will sustain you over the long haul. It’s the effort of persevering — the effort of patience — the effort which will keep you focused on your goal and keep you moving forward.

So often we find ourselves great at starting things — we can jump into things but we tend to lose momentum after the honeymoon wears off. One example I can think of is getting started with meditation. There are so many people who jump into meditation, but later they begin to feel bored with it and find themselves joining in with the madness and chaos of their own mind. They sort of jumped on the mediation bandwagon but slowly fell off the wagon into their “old ways” of living and their meditation practice faded away.

Right, Perfect or Impeccable Effort is balanced effort, not compulsive effort. It implies continuous, joyous effort. It implies being delighted in what we find meaningful to do. There needs to be inner motivation — the same kind of motivation you would see if you were following your own true calling. We are passionately in love with what we are doing — our interest runs high — we don’t have to force or strain ourselves. We are naturally motivated, so it’s an effortless effort. It isn’t just a grim chore, something we want to get done with as soon as possible. It’s a step we’re passionate about taking since it leads to Nirvana.

Right, Perfect or Impeccable Concentration — you can also describe this as focus or contemplation. Right Concentration is about having balanced attention; being attentive to the moment and yet open. It means to be focused while still being free and lucid. It’s being one with what we are doing at the moment — not scattered and doing fifteen other things in our mind at the same time. It’s about being centered rather than distracted.

It’s really doing what we are doing, 100%. If you’re washing dishes, just wash the dishes. If you’re doing the laundry, just do the laundry. If you’re eating dinner, just be with the meal. Whatever you are doing be focused and attentive to what you are doing. Take your time — don’t rush so you can get onto the next thing. Use the time you spend on these tasks as quality meditation time. This is the way. This is enlightened living. We’re doing it anyway, we might as well really be doing it. Why wish we were elsewhere? Unless we practice Right Concentration, we find we’re always wishing we were doing something else or wishing we were somewhere else. Yet, if we were somewhere else, or doing something else, without Right Concentration we’d only be wishing we were still some other place or doing some other thing.

Right, Perfect or Impeccable Mindful Awareness is the last part of the concentration triad. It means to simply be aware with total presence of mind, rather than being absent-minded. It means being totally mindful, rather than mindless. There’s nothing mysterious about this. It is utterly mysterious, of course, but we don’t have to mystify it and make it into something we cannot understand, like some theological concepts or some kind of acey-spacey mumbo-jumbo. We must endeavor to be conscious, rather than unconscious; totally in the present, in the moment, in the Now, rather than absent or in the past or in the future.

There is a big debate going on now in some Buddhist circles about whether a Buddhist meditator should be more and more absent, or more and more present.

The more we empty ourselves of our preoccupations, our dwellings in the past, our desires and our selfishness, the more present we might become. I know — I’m starting to use language which sounds too Buddhist — but mysteriously enough, the more we empty our minds of all the extraneous stuff we can’t do anything about, the more likely it is that Truth will show up to fill the void. Those who lose themselves will find themselves, as the good book says.

There’s a little mysticism everywhere if you look. Regarding this Right, Perfect or Impeccable Awareness or Mindfulness, the Buddha had some things to say in the original teachings, “In hearing there is just hearing. No one hearing and nothing heard.” There is just that indescribable moment — nothing else — just the moment.

Then we lose our awareness of the perfect moment and make it into something else: “Oh, it’s a beautiful bird.” Or “Ugh, look at all this traffic.” The next thing you know we’re onto our next, or our twentieth discursive chain of thought.

In the first fresh instant of any moment, there’s just hearing, just seeing, just thought. Nothing else, just seeing and just hearing, just thought. In thinking, there is just thinking, yet there is nothing thought. (There I go again — more of the Buddhist talk and I promised plain English, didn’t I?) I’m actually quoting Buddha with these words. Let’s see if I can clear this up for you.

The moment our thoughts go to “Me and Mine”, all we have is a concept. Plus, we’ve taken the fresh thought of the first instant and developed it into a lot of thoughts. Now, our original thought is a bunch of thoughts. And when you have a lot of thoughts together, it becomes a whole ball of wax. It becomes quite heavy. But it just begins with that original thought. If we can just stay with that first moment, just the thought; try to be present before we get into asking, “Who’s thinking?” or “Why am I always thinking?” or “Damn thoughts, when are they going to stop so I can meditate?” Before those discursive concepts get started, before we create the heavy ball of wax, there’s just a flashing, an incandescent, indescribable moment. That’s the dawn of creation, in every moment. Nothing has happened yet. It’s just you — the essence of you — and you are there before anything happens! How great is that?

As I said last time, this Eightfold Path sets out a way of life which seems to be contrary to the way we like to live — at least in some respects. It is the way for us to free ourselves from our attachments and delusions and it will lead us to understand the truth about all things. It is a way for us to end suffering in the Buddhist sense. I don’t know about you, but Nirvana sounds pretty good to me.

I’ll be back to write more about Buddhist Belief. as soon as I am able. I do know there will be some recuperation time with this surgery, but as my doctor said, “At your age, Ron, it’s hard to say how soon you’ll be back to normal.” (I tried to get him to tell me what “normal” was, but I struck out.)

Until then,

Namaste — Be in Peace.

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

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

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

Last time we took a break from the teachings about the Eightfold Path for some meditation. We gave you both the transcript of one of the versions of the Metta/Loving-Kindness Meditation as well as my reading of it via a podcast. With this article, we’ll continue with more of the Eightfold Path as taught by Buddha and the basic teachings of
Buddhist Belief.

One of the reasons why I decided to do the Loving-Kindness Meditation was to help us to cultivate compassion. The more we cultivate the many aspects of compassion such as loving-kindness, well-wishing prayers, charity, service and altruism, the more we take an active role in warming the entire environment. We may not be aware of it, but showing compassion is a major force in the universe. Not only are we radiating light when we’re being compassionate, but out of that naturally comes the actions of caring and helping others. Plus, when we’re putting those good vibes out there, people will emulate us.

We’ve looked at Right or Perfect View, Right or Perfect Understanding, and Right or Perfect Attitude. This leads us to the second group in the Eightfold Path — self-discipline, character, and virtue, which are Right or Impeccable Speech — Right or Impeccable Action and Right or Impeccable Livelihood.

Right, Perfect or Impeccable Speech: There’s a whole laundry list of things pertaining to how we speak which come under this element of the Path. Things like lying, manipulating, gossiping, cursing, saying harsh or nasty words, putting other people down, and so on.

Right Speech also refers to being honest in our self-talk about ourselves, either inwardly or to others. Impeccable Speech means to say what is wholesome, helpful, appropriate and necessary. When we misuse the way we speak by squandering our energy in producing endless static for no good reason, we’re only defusing our energy rather than focusing it on something positive.

The self-discipline of Right Speech is very helpful for meditation as well. It deepens our spiritual experience into wisdom by focusing our energy, rather than just dispersing it, frittering it away and distracting ourselves with harmful talk.

Right, Perfect, or Impeccable Action: This can also be translated as “right conduct”. As such, we should train ourselves to be morally upright in our activities, not acting in ways that would be corrupt or bring harm to ourself or to others. It means to not be harmful, but rather helpful, wholesome, and sane. This means refraining from the taking of life. It means being merciful and compassionate to all living beings.

Obviously, this would also include not stealing — not taking anything which hasn’t been freely given to you. Whatever belongs to someone else is not to be taken from them. Right Action also refers to refraining from misconduct in our intimate relations. It means avoiding addictive, obsessive and exploitive behavior. Finally, it also includes not harming our own bodies through negative actions and/or allowing for addictions of any kind.

Right, Perfect, or Impeccable Livelihood or Vocation: This means that we should not engage in trades or occupations which, either directly or indirectly, result in harm for other living beings. Such occupations as:

1. Business in weapons: trading in all kinds of weapons and instruments for killing.
2. Business in human beings: slave trading, prostitution, or the buying and selling of children or adults.
3. Business in meat: “meat” refers to the bodies of beings after they are killed. This includes breeding animals for slaughter.
4. Business in intoxicants: manufacturing or selling intoxicating drinks or addictive drugs.
5. Business in poison: producing or trading in any kind of toxic product designed to kill.

Right Livelihood can also be extended to include following our own calling. Living positively and helpfully. If at all possible, it’s best to do something we love so we can put ourselves fully into our vocation. This would also include being environmentally conscious and not doing things which will destroy our Earth.

Look also at your investments. Have you invested in the stock market into companies which might be engaged in products harmful to people, animals or the environment? We have to look at which side we are on of those ethical issues. Right or Impeccable Vocation is very helpful in living the enlightened life and achieving clarity in our dealings with the world.

The Eightfold Path is a tough set of rules for those of us who are so used to doing whatever feels good at the moment. However, if we keep in mind why we would want to adopt this as our way of living — which is to end our suffering and dissatisfaction — we can see that it is a practical guideline. This is how we can train our minds and our bodies to achieve greater ethical and mental development. It’s the way for us to free ourselves from attachments and delusions; and it finally leads to understanding the truth about all things.

Isn’t it worth it? The payoff is to attain a higher level of existence and finally reach Nirvana. The quote at the beginning of this article says it all.

Next time we’ll continue our journey through the Eightfold Path of Buddhist Belief with Right, Perfect or Impeccable Effort, Concentration and Awareness.

Namaste – Be in Peace.

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

Have you ever taken a step back and just observed life, while thinking “Why am I here?”

It’s in that stupefying moment you realize that you’re the architect of life, but there’s no blueprint. We have this mysterious internal compass, but beyond that we’re on our own. We have to fend for ourselves and make things up as we go along.

We have to take control and steer through life the best we can. We have to take the wheel and avoid living accidentally. We’re in charge. We need to avoid losing control and relinquishing control of our minds.

The Beautification of Your Mind

There is a lot of credit (and merit) given to creating a beautiful space. We spend inordinate amounts of time and money decorating our homes, buying new clothes and products in the effort to make our lives more desirable.

But not much credit is given to the beautification of our minds.

We adorn our bodies, homes and spaces with expensive things. We often associate the value of our lives with the value of our possessions. Once we buy or obtain the object of our desire, within a few days or hours we begin thinking about our next purchase.

The illness of materialism has a stranglehold on us; we are always in need of our next fix.

The reality is that this search for the beautification of our bodies and our spaces will never satisfy us. We have more luxury and more convenience than a lot of Royalty had a few hundred years ago. In fact, royal servants now have more luxury than the same Kings they served a few hundred years ago. Obviously something is seriously wrong. Our value system is distorted.

I keep talking about the fact that internal wealth is the greatest asset you can have. Why is it so overlooked? You know why? It’s because you can’t see a luxurious mind. You can’t brag to your friends about it. You can’t say “Hey Lucy, look at the shiny mind I’ve got.”

So, if we can shine up our external bodies and spaces, why can’t we put a spit-shine on our minds?

I think we can. Creating a beautiful mind is about placing permanent fixtures of beautiful thoughts and ideas in all the corners of your mind. It’s about cleaning away the cobwebs of self-limiting beliefs. It’s about creating the auto-response to be right, perfect and impeccable with your word, and to not ever use your mind against yourself or others. It’s about coming to terms with your practical mind, and creating a relationship between your head and your heart. It’s about taking ownership of your mind, and realizing that that is the most powerful and precious gift that you have. Use it with wisdom and compassion.
=============================================

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

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

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 Meditation

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.
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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.
======================================================
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.
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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

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.
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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

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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 — 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