A Fistful of Sand

Fourteen days ago I suffered a “massive heart attack”, whatever that might really mean. This was a cause to consider the often-mysterious workings of karma. During the past year I had been forced for many reasons to consider my karma and why events of my life had taken the turn they had. With the experience of near death came a perspective I had not considered. Life and death are real experiential events and not just philosophical considerations. Some would have us believe that in “emptiness” there is no life or death — a very cool sounding but ultimately useless expression — without emptiness death would not be a reality we must all one day face. We die because we live, we are alive because we were born. Oddly, birth is the cause of death and between the two we live out our lives as best we can. How we live and die and are reborn is a matter defined by our karma. Even within the Buddhist community, where the concepts of “karma” and “Dharma” are central to our practice, bot...

Being Overwhelmed The Buddha taught that I person willing to hate is willing to commit any atrocity. He called it an “evil mind”. It corrupts all of our motivations, even those that are quite honorable. Hatred creates in us the ultimate narcissist.   It broods the illusion in the mind of the angry hater that their views, opinions and beliefs are so important that everyone must listen and obey them and believe as they believe. “He who hates his brother is a murderer and a murder does not have eternal life.” The line is from 1 John 3:15 in the New Testament, the Christian Dharma. I used it in an interfaith teaching not long ago. I was admonished by a couple of ministers who were also presenting who told me that John, the spokesman for God in this case, meant this verse only to refer to hating Christian brothers and not persons outside that faith. So, is it okay to hate everyone else? It seems a legalist interpretation of a universal truth. Unfortunately, I have heard s...

Samsara by Paul de Luna We have a problem — you have and I have it.   I may have worked on it a little longer on it than you have, but maybe not. Here is the problem: we have very little motivation to give up our comforts for something that is greater than we are. There is nothing in our life that we are willing to sacrifice everything else for. I’m not talking about the belief that we would sacrifice our lives for our loved ones. We all claim that we would sacrifice our lives for the ones we love. I have always been skeptical of those kinds of statements, and I continue to agree with myself. When we have no cause, no purpose, to our life, then we have to ask ourselves, “What is it that we are living for.” Are we really living for tomorrow so we can visit with our friends and talk smack? Some people live for tomorrow so they can go to a party or maybe meet that someone special, a someone like a “soul mate” (whatever that might mean) that will finally make them fe...

Visit the  Hongaku Jodo Website Click here to subscribe to our newsletter. We observe reality from a point denied by our species (and cultural, and individual) makeup, our observations can only be made through representations, and representations always both add to and subtract from what they represent. —Derek Bickerton The idea of a skillful desire may sound a little off beat, but a mature mind intuitively pursues the desires it sees as skillful and drops those it perceives as not. As the Buddha explains when discussing Right Mindfulness and appropriate attention, a skillful desire is a way of fabricating a better delusion, one that is helpful to us on our journey towards the other shore. Fundamental to all living beings is the desire for happiness and avoid pain. Every other desire can be seen as a strategy for attaining that happiness. You want a new car, a better job, a sexual partner, or even have the desire for inner peace because you probably think it will...