A Fistful of Sand

When the time came to release him, he didn’t run away in fear. He looked at me, chattered a sound that was not quite human and not quite animal — a sound that meant goodbye . I visited him through the seasons, bringing nuts for him and his companions. In winter he would dart from the branches, always waiting, as if to remind me that love doesn’t vanish when form changes. After ten months he disappeared into the wide green world. That too was a farewell, quiet and complete. It has been two years now. I still visit the squirrels. I still bring offerings. I still think of Matisse every day. He was my teacher, the Buddha of Greenleaf Street. Through him I learned Dharma without sutra, compassion without doctrine, and courage without ceremony. He taught me impermanence not as sorrow, but as participation — that to love anything truly is to let it go again and again, without closing the heart. Sometimes, when the wind stirs the leaves or a squirrel pauses to meet my gaze, I feel him near....

Image from Nembutsu Art In Buddhism, a being who has developed a spontaneous wish and a compassionate mind to attain Buddhahood for the benefit of all sentient beings. In Buddhism, a bodhisattva (Sanskrit) or bodhisatta (Pali) is a person who is on the path towards bodhi or Buddhahood. In the Early Buddhist schools, as well as modern Theravāda Buddhism, bodhisattva refers to someone who has made a resolution to become a Buddha and has also received a confirmation or prediction from a living Buddha that this will be so. The Bodhisattva Path is highly relevant in the modern world, perhaps more so than ever. The relevance comes in six categories of action that seem to be if not the source of what we would today call "existential leadership" at least the earliest expression of it.  Altruism and Compassion At its core, the Bodhisattva Path is about cultivating compassion and wisdom for the benefit of all beings. In today's interconnected, globalized society, where suffer...

"As I explore the wilderness of my own body, I see I Am made of blood and bones, sunlight and water, pesticide and redwood humus, the fear and dreams of generations of ancestors, particles of exploded stars” I don’t now who actually said this but the quote is found on Pinterest in a dozen or so places. It is a wonderful “mantra” to use when reminding ourselves that our body is not who we are. Not are we our mind.   According to the Buddha, self is not truth. He declared," Where self is, truth is not. Where truth is, self is not. Self is the fleeting error of samsara; it is individual separateness and that egotism which begets envy and hatred." He defined self as "that yearning which seeks pleasure and lusts after vanity where as Truth is the correct comprehension of things, which is the permanent and everlasting, the real in all existence and the bliss of righteousness." The very existence of self is an illusion,. It is the Self, which through...

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...