August 16th, 2010
Who doesn’t like a treat? But even better than a treat is a retreat; and that’s what I just came back from . . . a 10-day meditation retreat at Yosemite. I felt somewhat like Prince Siddhartha Gotama must have felt when he sat down under a tree 2500 years ago, experienced vipassana, and became the Buddha. I know I didn’t become a Buddha, but I do feel like I experienced some vipassana, some insight or enlightenment.
As said by S. N. Goenka, the re-discoverer of this ancient vipassana method of meditation, “The technique of vipassana is a simple, practical way to achieve real peace of mind and to lead a happy, useful life; vipassana means ‘to see things as they really are’, through self-observation.” A part of seeing things or better, feeling things as they really are (some things are so small they can’t be seen) includes becoming sensitive to the ever-changing, constantly dying and birthing of kalapas, those tiny microscopic particles that make up the basic units of matter and come into and out of existence many thousands of times per second. Feeling them leads to discovering and hopefully eliminating, or at least lessening, one’s own sangkaras, those nagging desires for things to satisfy one’s senses or to get rid of the things one doesn’t like or want. Sangkaras are what really cause all of our problems in this life: we don’t get all the things we want, we don’t want all the things we get, and we think life is all about satisfying those desires.
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Tags: vipassana
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June 8th, 2010
A few mornings ago, I had a reminder of how good it feels when we help others and share with them our love and other little things we have lying around. That morning, when I turned on the shower preparing for my daily water-cleansing ritual, I spied a little black, short-legged spider skidding along the bottom of the tub seemingly not knowing how she arrived at the predicament she was in. Because of the nature of her body and the slipperiness of the tub, she was unable to get out of it and her dilemma.
Being a Buddhist and committed to encouraging life not ending it, I view all life as precious, including creepy crawlers. So I immediately had compassion for her. But I found myself in a predicament, too: how to help the spider out of the tub and her situation and proceed with my shower with only me getting wet and not this tiny reflection of consciousness.
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April 25th, 2010
Does it seem like in recent months more and more people are asking you to share with them your possessions or your money? Does your mail box seem to be overloaded with requests from non-profits, charitable organization and political parties? Do you notice an increase in the number of people standing with their hand out in front of the super market and at stop signs? To give or not to give, that is the question.
A lot of people and organization these days are having a tough time making ends meet; churches, temples, mosques and gurdwaras, are no exceptions. I don’t know of any religion that doesn’t encourage the practice of giving. It’s one of Buddhism’s Five Precepts. Usually these are stated in the negative: no killing, no lying, no drugs or alcohol, no improper sex and no stealing, But stated in the positive they are: encouraging life, speaking the truth, consuming nourishing food and drink, treating everyone with respect, and giving generously. But who is really the giver and who is the getter?
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Tags: charity, generosity, getting, giving
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March 3rd, 2010
In a world that seemingly grows smaller as we grow older, it becomes easier to experience and understand our connectedness and dependence on others, many others. In Buddhist teachings, this realization translates into realistic and enlightened thinking about the nature of oneself and winds up in the conclusion that actually there is no oneself at all, there is only parts of the whole. In other words, we are not only interdependent and interconnected; we are one.
And not only is our conviction to our separateness a delusion, it is a harmful conclusion and leads us into acting upon this false belief. It leads us into taking the poisons that make us sick. Buddhism calls this sickness dukkha, which means suffering and that includes pain, frustration, anxiety and just plain unsatisfactoriness. How does thinking of ourselves as separate have the consequences of poisoning ourselves and making ourselves sick?
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Tags: enlightened thinking, interconnected, interdependent, oneness
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January 29th, 2010
Twenty Ten has begun and it’s beginning to look a lot like what we don’t want it to look like: devastating earthquakes, cruel terrorist attacks, senseless suffering from political wars, injustices from intolerance and frustration over Middle East challenges, world poverty, health care, water shortages, travel safety, global warming, etc., etc., etc.
But . . . look around. You can see bravery, compassion, love, and lots of caring, enlightened and hard-working individuals, organizations and societies striving to make things better . . . and being happy when seeing others happy, people they don’t even know. While we need to be aware of all the bad stuff going on in our world so we can try to deal with it skillfully, we need also to know about the good stuff so we can enjoy life. Therefore, let’s focus on that for a moment.
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October 29th, 2009
I met two new babes recently, one came here four months ago in a vehicle from South of the border in Mexico and the other in one from Asia, Burma, to be specific. And I have to tell you, although I’ve seen a few babes in my life, these two really got me excited. The one who arrived here just four months ago has big brown eyes, while the most recent arrival has beautiful almond-shaped ones. Both are so cute and have such great personalities it would be impossible to choose one for my own if I had to.
Coincidentally, one’s name is Emily and the other is Emiliano. I actually saw Emiliano, or rather a picture of him before he got out of his vehicle, when his father shared with me the ultra-sound photo taken when he was still in his mother womb. The shot reminded me of the film I just saw, Genesis, which so stunningly captures a growing fetus and its acrobatic life before “coming out.” Emily’s first baby picture just arrived on my computer via email. Ah, such miracles abound today!
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September 24th, 2009
I hope your summer was as memorable as mine and that dukkha didn’t play a large role in it. For me, summertime is when I usually just enjoy staying in Thousand Oaks, where its weather and ambience is so good one doesn’t want to leave it and join all those vacationers who choose summer for their travels. Mostly, I do my traveling in the winter in Asia or South of the Border, or the autumn in Europe or the East Coast of the United States. Last month, however, was an exception; so special I wanted to share it with all of you.
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June 23rd, 2009
What is it that enslaves us, which keeps us from acquiring the freedom we all search for? Is it our constant desire to live longer than is customary, is it the wanting of more stuff, more influence and/or more of whatever it is we think we need more of? Or is it our selfishness, along with our insecurity, our desire to want to be safe? Here’s what the Buddha had to say on the subject:
It is not life and wealth and power that enslave men, but the cleaving to life and wealth and power. -Buddha
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Tags: selfish, selfless
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May 24th, 2009
Truth is a very important character trait for a practicing Buddhist to reflect. It should be, I think, an important character trait for anyone not only to reflect, but to embrace, whether a Buddhist or not. But in Buddhism it is so important that it is one of the Five Precepts taken by all who have chosen enlightenment as a goal and have chosen to follow the teachings of the Buddha.
The way the precept on truthfulness usually is stated in the Five Precepts is that one will train to refrain from lying. The pledge also can be expressed this way: “I vow to abstain from speaking falsehood and I vow to encourage truthfulness.” So Buddhism’s precepts not only call for refraining, but for indulging; not just to stop doing something unskillful or which causes dukkha (suffering, frustration, unhappiness), but to start doing something skillful which causes sukha (peace of mind, happiness).
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Tags: precept, truth
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April 20th, 2009
Buddhists everywhere, not just in Asia countries but also in the West, including the United States, will be celebrating Vesak soon, usually during the month of May. It is Buddhism’s most sacred holiday. It is a time to meditate on and commemorate the wisdom and the teachings of one of the world’s most revered religious or enlightened figures - the Buddha.
Born a prince named Siddhartha Gotama more than 2,500 years ago and raised in Kapilavatu near Nepal in North India, he lived a life of royalty, married and had a son. Siddhartha was kept ignorant by his father of the vicissitudes of life outside the palace gates. When he finally stepped outside his protective environment, he became aware of pain and suffering, old age and death.
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Tags: buddha, vesak
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