A Fistful of Sand

I received this question through an email. It seemed like a reasonable question and points that there are teachings in Buddhism that are not terribly Buddhist at all. These distortions of what the Buddha taught are so common that we often take them for granted without question. This emailer question the standard distorted teaching.  How does a Bodhisattva save sentient beings when there are no beings to save. From a practical position this seems like quite a tricky paradox. I mean in your studies you at some point realise that you don't actually exist from the perspective of being interdependent from other things, yet of course you do....paradoxes abound eh! One question that might need to be answered is where do these vows come from. That may help us understand their meaning. Then I will discuss some of the more obvious problems with the vow as it is presented today and offer a solution to the apparent paradox. Origins of the Vow Current wisdom has it that the Bodh...

We live in a society that demands we be fair, honest and sensitive to the “needs” of others. There is the claim that we want every voice to be heard. We sometimes, albeit rarely, make the distinction between “hearing” and “listening.” An executive was once told by her Personnel Department, “People just want to be heard. You don’t have to do anything or say anything.” If this is true, then what was the point of the “conversation”? In catering to someone’s personal agendas, individual schemes and idiosyncratic motivations as if they represented the common or greater good is harmful to both the individual and the greater community. It is just plain dishonest and dishonorable. Sometimes the speaker does have something valid to say, at other times it is just a matter of someone trying to get what they want. We have to listen mindfully if we are going to understand which it is. In Buddhist practice we all take the first five precepts or guidelines, pañca-sila (in Pali). Essentiall...