A Fistful of Sand

Hongaku Jodo Website Click here to subscribe to our newsletter. Fish don't know they're in water. If you tried to explain it, they'd say, "Water? What's water?" They're so surrounded by it, that it's impossible to see. They can't see it until they get outside of it. This is how I feel about culture. We're so surrounded by people who think like us, that it's impossible to see that what we think are universal truths are just our local culture. We can't see it until we get outside of it. Management and the board are often, if not always, blind to their own culture - fish can't see water - and may not realize derailing cultural dynamics, in time leading to under-performance or, in the worst case, financial disaster. The message of this book is simple: national culture, through its influence on corporate culture, has a powerful but often invisible impact on the success or lack of success of any organization or compani...

Reality is a marvelous idea. Yet, most of us don’t know how it works. Everything we think we know is wrong. Why do we tend to believe in fantasies? It is because we were conditioned to do so. This is partly a function of education at times when the information available to educators was erroneous or incomplete. It is also a function of a kind of “spiritual fanaticism” that runs amuck in the Western world. In this case there seems to be an active avoidance of reality, science, and even common sense. The United States provides ample examples of this, I’m sure other nations do as well, and just as proudly. For example, in the US there is a movement afoot to ban evolution from school books and replace it with something called “intelligent design” based on upon a minority religious view. The measure has gained traction in several states, most notably, Texas. I’m sure there is a joke in there somewhere: what would the Texas legislature know about “intelligent” anything? (That’s one that...

Most beer today is like most music. It's all watered down and without flavor. Life's to short to drink bad beer and listen to bad music. If you want the good stuff you have to shop around a little. Western Buddhism is a little like that - watered down. We call it "Fairy Dust Dharma," Alexander Berzin, the German scholar of Tibetan Buddhism calls it " Dharma Lite ." Both terms are equally appropriate. There are some groups, writers and blogs that try to come across as very intense. They'll use terms like "hardcore" and put the name of a Buddhist school after it. When the material is examined we find that is usually some autobiographical piece and usually ends with the author becoming enlightened. They might write something about Buddhism, attach a catchy title to it but it is still autobiographical, as if there is not enough in the Scriptures to talk about, and they become awakened at the end. The you find out these enlightened beings e...

You should never… 1. Hide from the truth. Most people, at the first sign of distress, would rather deny the hard truth than face it. The truth does not cease to exist when it is ignored. When you try to ignore it, you will find yourself living a lie every day as the truth haunts your thoughts. It's always better to be hurt by the truth than comforted by a lie. Because the truth hurts only once and then gradually fades, but a lie hurts just as bad every time you remember you're living it. What is the problem with this? This kind of avoidance falls under the Buddha's definition of "ignorance." Avijja, the Pali word for ignorance, is the opposite of vijja, which means not only "knowledge" but also "skill" - as in the skills of a doctor or animal-trainer. So when the Buddha focuses on the ignorance that causes stress and suffering, saying that people suffer from not knowing the four noble truths, he's not simply saying that ...

“You are not a living being — you are a living becoming.” This is a catchy New Agey kind of a thing to say.  When people hear this saying they usually smile and get all excited. They are unaware that this active and continual becoming is a problem.This becoming is the process known as “rebirth” in the Scripture.  Kamma is the culprit. If there were no kamma then there would be no rebirth of anger, happiness, sadness, joy, desire and the myriad experiences we find on our emotional roller coaster. Kamma is sort of like a flood. Mind, as personality, is like a leaf caught at the very front of the flood. It has no choice but to go where the water takes it. The route of the flood is determined by the landscape that has been created by eons of causes and conditions that have affected the geography of the terrain. When the water goes forward only to turn right that is where leaf goes. Then the flood goes straight again by angling left. There is the rebirth of “straight.” If th...

The Buddha on Herding Oxen From the Dhammapada Stories Commentary This instruction was given by the Teacher while he was in residence at Alavi with reference to a certain lay disciple. For one day, as the Teacher seated in the Perfumed Chamber at Jetavana surveyed the world at dawn, he beheld a certain poor man at Alavi. Perceiving that he possessed the faculties requisite for attaining the fruit of stream-entry, he surrounded himself with a company of five hundred monks and went to Alavi. The inhabitants of Alavi straightaway invited the Teacher to be their guest. That poor man also heard that the Teacher had arrived and made up his mind to go and hear the Teacher teach the Dhamma. But that very day an ox of his strayed off. So he considered within himself, "Shall I seek that ox, or shall I go and hear the Dhamma?" And he came to the following conclusion, "I will first seek that ox and then go and hear the Dhamma." Accordingly, early i...