A Fistful of Sand

We are empirical and finite beings, we are confined to a bubble of sense perceptions and our existence is limited to time and space. Pursuit of truth starts with our encounter with a sense of the transcendent and the infinite, in meanings that are unique to each individual and experience. In Buddhism, the transcendent is seen in the light of personal and impersonal aspects, namely, Buddha, Dharma and the Sangha. The transcendent Buddha and Dharma constitute the content of enl ightenment (satori), the goal for all Buddhists. The Sangha provides us with a community of support and guidance. The enlightenment-truth is not a static principle but a dynamic force that unfolds spontaneously on both the plane of transcendent reality and that of empirical fact. Hongaku sees the infinite (amita or amata, deathlessness) as being represented by Amida (Amitabha), the Buddha of Infinite Light and Life. With transcendent wisdom, the experience of reality as it is, and all-emb...

The recent bombings and increased activities of religious extremists have provoked a myriad of responses, both rational and irrational. In the United States people of power tend to react instead of responding. The reaction is normally superficial and immature. They miss the point by creating their own, much like the main behind the curtain in the Wizard of Oz. The genuine issues are often ignored, hence the term “ignorance.” The Buddha made much of this word. With the recent bombings in Paris, at least 30 Governors, the vast majority conservative Republicans in the United Sates, who seem to hold humanity disdain anyway, found an excuse to apparently attempt an unlawful move to block the intake of Syrian Refugees. Well, the “American dream” idea never did mean all that much to them anyway. They make a weak claim that their decision would make America a safer place in which to live; but so would putting every man woman and child under house arrest, but this is not realistic, is it...

Did Sakyamuni Buddha practice kaihogyo? No! Did he burn goma? No! Did he say prayers? No! Did he recite mantra? No! Did he speak the lotus Sutra? No! Was he a vegetarian? No! What did he do? He practiced what he taught.

Buddhist thought in South China was distinctly philosophical in character in Zhiyi’s time. (See more about  Zhiyi ) Northern Chinese Buddhists were developing a religion of faith and discipline called Zhingtu (sometimes called Ch’ing-tu or Pure Land). Zhiyi was a product of the southern Chinese educated upper class. His teacher, Huisi (514-577), was a Northerner of the lower classes. Because of this, Zhiyi came to the judgment that the contemplative and philosophical approaches to religion were like the two wings of a bird. As a result the Chinese T’ien T’ai School, and its descendent, the Japanese Tendai School, is characterized by a strong philosophical content and emphasizes meditative practice at the same time. The most distinguishing trait of the T’ien T’ai worldview is that there is only “one” reality consisting of both the phenomenal world of samsāra, and ultimate reality of nirvana. Zhiyi undertook to explain the evident incongruity between this view and the “two-wor...

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...

I n the past I was able to teach the Buddha’s Dharma throughout the day without ever mentioning him or using a Pali or Sanskrit word. I’ve given up on that. Once the Buddha is taken out of the equation people are free to twist the teachings anyway they want to because the teaching has no context. I’ve seen psychoanalysts of all stripes damage a patient’s life by using Dharma teachings secularly avoiding what might be perceived as a religious connotation.   Whether or not “Buddhism” is a religion or not is a matter of interpretation. As a practitioner of the Dharma I find the Buddha is immensely important to me. It is after called Buddhadharma. If we can all agree that these teachings originated with the Siddhartha Gautama then the importance of the Buddha cannot be over estimated.   It is true that Dharma, as taught, is to be used in secular settings but I am just a tad skeptical of a secularized Dharma having great long lasting value. If one cannot ha...

I am often asked if Buddhists, any Buddhist, believe in a Supreme Being analogous to the Western God. My answer is always, “No, we don’t. If any sect proclaims an original anything then they are not Buddhist.” Clearly, belief in a first cause is an anti-Buddhist idea, according to the words of the Buddha himself. The question then arises, “Who do Buddhists pray to?” Having been originally trained as Theravada Buddhist monk the word and idea of “prayer” was not altogether alien to me, but I hadn’t formally prayed since I was 11 years old. I don’t remember praying after that. I had some hopes and aspirations and would say things like “I hope” such and such happens or doesn’t happen; but I am not sure if that qualifies as “prayer” in the Western sense. I was just throwing it out there to the universe — but was this a prayer, an aspiration or just a hope? Because we in the West are mainly new converts to Buddhism we avoid the term “prayer: as much as possible. It’ s a word too...

Life, personhood, pleasure and pain —     This is all that's bound together   In a single mental event —     A moment that quickly takes place. Even the spirits who endure For eighty-four thousand eons   —     Even these do not live the same For any two moments of mind.   What ceases for one who is dead, Or for one who's still standing here, Are all just the same aggregates   —     Gone, never to connect again.   The states which are vanishing now, And those which will vanish some day, Have characteristics no different Than those which have vanished before.   With no production there's no birth; With becoming present, one lives. When grasped with the highest meaning, The world is dead when the mind stops.   There's no hoarding what has vanished, No piling up for the future; Those who have been born are standing Like a seed upon a needle. ...