A Fistful of Sand

Being Overwhelmed The Buddha taught that I person willing to hate is willing to commit any atrocity. He called it an “evil mind”. It corrupts all of our motivations, even those that are quite honorable. Hatred creates in us the ultimate narcissist.   It broods the illusion in the mind of the angry hater that their views, opinions and beliefs are so important that everyone must listen and obey them and believe as they believe. “He who hates his brother is a murderer and a murder does not have eternal life.” The line is from 1 John 3:15 in the New Testament, the Christian Dharma. I used it in an interfaith teaching not long ago. I was admonished by a couple of ministers who were also presenting who told me that John, the spokesman for God in this case, meant this verse only to refer to hating Christian brothers and not persons outside that faith. So, is it okay to hate everyone else? It seems a legalist interpretation of a universal truth. Unfortunately, I have heard s...

In a conversation with an aged Brahmin, the Buddha once explained concisely what a Buddha, an enlightened one, means: What has to be known, that I have known (the five aggregates); What has to be abandoned, that I have abandoned; (the defilements) What has to be developed, that I have developed (concentrations & wisdom); Therefore, O Brahmin, I am a Buddha. These are not only three characteristics of a Buddha; they are also the three objectives we aim at in following the Buddha’s teaching. We follow the Dharma to fully know what should be known; to abandon what should be abandoned; and to develop what should be developed. These are the goals of the Buddhist path and the three accomplishments that mark the attainment of enlightenment. For most of us we can change the Buddha’s statement slightly and we will be adequately described. What has to be known, that I have learning; What has to be abandoned, that I am abandoning; What has to be developed, that I am ...