A Fistful of Sand

Hongaku Jodo The Hongaku Jodo Compassionate Lotus  (HJCL)  is an international, independent and progressive Buddhist community headquartered in the Chicago, Illinois, area. We are associated with the Hongaku Institute for Buddhist Studies, and accredited Institute for higher education.  We offer an open, caring, and nurturing environment for all who seek the Buddhist experience. We see ourselves as spiritual explorers, expanding the boundaries of the Buddha Dhamma and helping to create a Buddhism focused on the core teaching of the Buddha. The mission, inspiration, journey, practices of our independent network of  Buddhist congregations is explained below. Our Mission:  We are a Buddhist community for spiritual seekers of all ages. Our mission is to awaken to the heart of Great Compassion, to live by its calling, to gracefully experience the unfolding of life, to practice loving kindness, and to share the blessings of this spiritual ex...

This word wisdom , like m o st words in the English language has a not very precise meaning. Ask 50 people what the word means and you’ll get 50 different answers. Some will be similar and others very different. In the Buddhist Scriptures the word wisdom is used to describe something subtle, deep and vast depending upon the person that is bringing it to use. When we use wisdom to investigate our mind to drive out our defilements, that’s called “using wisdom correctly — pañña . The Buddha did not use the term “Right Wisdom” — samma pañña — because wisdom is just what it is. It grows out of the Eightfold Path. One does not have to be an expert on the Scriptures to know how to divorce himself or herself from the defilements. In many cases where the mind is so nit-picky or stuck on words, it might be a good thing not to investigate the Scriptures. Such a person would just get hung up on this definition or that word and never get to the point. The Dhamma is described in the Scrip...

The “Christmas” holiday season is to commemorate the birth of a mythical man-god. Over a billion people believe in the literal existence of a man for which there is no historical evidence. There is an irony in that. A billion + people depend on this man for their salvation, for the forgiveness of their sins and a life in paradise after death. For a humanist this is a little like trusting Santa Claus or the Easter Bunny for eternal life. But that’s why we call it faith. To add irony to this, the religion denies reincarnation but teaches it instead. What would you call dying and being reborn in a paradise or a hell? Of course, we do exactly the same thing in Buddhism. Jesus may or may not have lived but the Cosmic Buddhas definitely fall under the heading of faith-based religion. For those who practice what is called “Original Buddhism” or “Primitive Buddhism” — whatever those terms might mean to you — it doesn’t really matter whether the Buddha is historical or not. Buddhism do...

In a study that will appear in the January 30 issue of Psychiatry Research: Neuroimaging, a team led by Massachusetts General Hospital (MGH) researchers reported the results of their 2011 study. It is the first to document that meditation practitioners definitely experience changes in the brain over time. Persons who participate even for as short a period as an 8-week mindfulness meditation program appear to develop measurable changes in the brain areas doctors associate with memory, sense of self, empathy and stress. The brain seems to respond to meditation as the body responds to physical exercise. Sara Lazar, PhDof the MGH Psychiatric Neuroimaging Research Program, the study's senior author and editor, outs it like this, "Although the practice of meditation is associated with a sense of peacefulness and physical relaxation, practitioners have long claimed that meditation also provides cognitive and psychological benefits that persist throughout the day… This study...

Need to do some serious multitasking? New research from the University of Washington shows that some training in meditation beforehand could make the work smoother and less stressful. Work done in 2012 by UW Information School professors David Levy and Jacob Wobbrock suggests that meditation training can help people working with information stay on tasks longer with fewer distractions and improves memory and reduces stress. (Sounds like a prescription drug doesn’t it?) Their paper was published in the May 2012 edition of Proceedings of Graphics Interface. Wobbrock, a researcher in human-computer interaction, and Levy, a computer scientist, conducted the study together with Marilyn Ostergren, a Information School doctoral candidate, and Alfred Kaszniak, a neuropsychologist at the University of Arizona. Levy said this about the study, "To our knowledge, this is the first study to explore how meditation might affect multitasking in a realistic work setting." ...

What indicates that one has understood something about the nature of mind?  Just as smoke indicates the presence of fire, so does one's attitude indicate the presence of true understanding. With deeper understanding one's attention and attachment to the eight worldly dharmas diminishes . Obsessive attachment or aversion to these false dharmas disappears. Gain - to be attached to having things go your way Loss - to be disturbed by unpleasant things or things not going your wy Pleasure - to be attached to receiving pleasure Pain - to be upset at having pain Praise - to be attached to having good words said about you or your actions Blame - to be displeased when you are blamed or slandered Fame - to be attached to having fame Obscurity - to be displeased about being not well known Without understanding these features of life one cannot practice compassion. Life is filled with cycles of gain and loss, pleasure and pain, praise and bl...

Buddha Nature is today taught as being interchangeable with Tathagatagarbha . They mean different things but this is not taught today. Buddha-nature, Buddha-dhatu or Buddha Principle, is taught differently in various Mahayana Buddhism traditions. Broadly speaking Buddha-nature is concerned with ascertaining what allows sentient beings to become Buddhas. The term is from the Mahayana Parinirvana Sutra where it is defined as the “true sacred nature” of the individual., in other words, a soul. Technically speaking, this universal definition is anti-Buddhist. No verses have caused so much controversy than the two that reference the “luminous mind.” They are found near the beginning of the Anguttara Sutta. They have been used to justify the idea of a soul theory inherent in the Buddhadhamma as well as the foundation of the teachings found in the Buddha-nature and Tathagatagarbha teachings. These enigmatic versus have no explanation in the Pali suttas and imaginations have run wil...

Those who know me tend to think of me as a hard core “Original Buddhism” kind of a guy. That much is true. The Pali Canon is my first love, but I have a warm spot in my heart for the intent and practice of Pure Land Buddhism. Why would this be? Pure Land actually begins with the Pali Canon and for the most part remains there. The poetry of the Three Pure Land Sutras is beautiful but says little about the Dhamma/Dharma. They are more like ornaments than teaching. Where there is divergence it appears in the “folk” part of the tradition where the symbols and metaphors become taken literally. It is this overtly devotional religiosity that causes many to scratch their heads and wonder what it is that is going on in these little groups of devotees. The Japanese form of Pure Land looks like a Christian Protestant service, is formatted like a Christian Protestant service and even has sermons but not many Dharma talks. For a Westerner, the Chinese Pure Land services don’t really have much ...