A Fistful of Sand

Many of us have made poor decisions throughout our lives. I’m no exception. I made an unskillful decision just yesterday — probably everyday, at least once. This morning I thought about why I had done what I did. As the thoughts arose surrounding the action I realized it came up from my childhood. I was reacting to someone who died many years ago. Was it because I chose to make the choice? Possibly that choice was not so much a choice but an automatic response predetermined because I was conditioned in some predetermined way.   Neither free will nor predetermination explains how any of us make our decisions and choices. Free will cannot be the cause of of our choices because the term implies a truly self-existent and autonomous “me” that makes both skillful and unskillful decisions moment-to-moment independent of and unaffected by causes and conditions that create our environment. It also implies that even the decisions we make have an independent being all their own — like c...

Four Types of Buddhism By Venerable Master Chin Kung In our world today, there are at least four different types of Buddhism. The first type is the authentic Buddhism, the education of understanding the true face of life and the universe originally intended by Shakyamuni Buddha. Unfortunately, the authentic Buddha's education is rare nowadays, and difficult to encounter. The remaining types of Buddhism are more or less distortions of the original teachings. The second type of Buddhism is the religious Buddhism. Originally, Buddhism was not a religion, but now it has become one. We can no longer deny that there is a 'Buddhist religion' because everywhere we look, Buddhism is displayed as a religion. Unlike the monasteries in the past which held eight-hour classes per day and provided another eight hours for self-cultivation, today's Buddhist 'temples' no longer uphold such a perseverance of the Buddha's Teachings. Today we mainly see people...

Maybe it is the weird effect of climate change. People ask me how I am doing and my answer is pretty much always the same. “I’m cold like everyone else.” Not a particularly enlightened response, but an honest one; and isn;t that part of the practice? Being authentic, I mean.  Now there is n interesting idea, authenticity. Most people aren’t even when they believe they are. In Buddhism “authenticity” is a peculiar flavor of a concept. It ranks right up there with “compassion,” “integrity,” “emptiness,” and “ karma .” Some of the most misunderstood words in all of the Buddhist vocabulary.  Even the word “Buddhism” needs some explanation let alone the problem of “enlightenment” versus “awakening.” What does it even mean to be enlightened or awake? Ask 10 Buddhist teachers and you get 10 theoretically Buddhist answers that are only vaguely similar. If you point our that the Buddha had actually defined these terms an expression of shock comes to their face and the word “h...