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This blog is about the idea there is no-self or in Sanskrit anâtman . What goes into forming such an idea? Why should anyone uphold such an idea and fight for it?  What in my character or disposition requires that I invest in such an idea?  These, and other questions arise when we begin to look at the idea there is no-self. It is remarkable that many Western Buddhists, before they decide to become Buddhists, are very much open to the idea that there is no-self or soul—so much so that they are willing to champion this idea; further believing the self or the ego , as they prefer to call it, is the main cause of suffering.  And then they find Buddhism! When Westerners become Buddhists, whatever the Buddha said in his discourses, that he asked his followers to abandon what is not the soul instead of the soul (P., attâ ), has no impact when it should.  It's dismissed.  The idea is deeply stuck in their minds that there can be no such thing as a soul and even if there is, of what

Buddhaghosa decribes the "far enemies" of equanimous love like this: "Greed and resentment … are its far enemies … for it is not possible to look on with equanimity and be inflamed with greed or be resentful simultaneously." He also says, "[Equanimity's] function is to see equality in beings. It is manifested as the quieting of resentment and approval." Equanimity destroys greed (or approval) and resentment, and greed (or approval) and resentment destroy equanimity, and so they're direct opposites or, as the tradition calls them, "far enemies." Equanimity is a state of neither approval nor disapproval, aversion nor craving. It's a state of balance, calm, and peace. When it's applied in relation to our own experience, it means being with our painful experiences without resisting them in any way, and being with our pleasant experiences without clinging to them or longing for their continuation. We just act as skillfully as w

"Anyone can practice some nonviolence, even soldiers. Some army generals, for example, conduct their operations in ways that avoid killing innocent people; this is a kind of nonviolence. To help soldiers move in the nonviolent direction, we have to be in touch with them. If we divide reality into two camps - the violent and the nonviolent - and stand in one camp while attacking the other, the world will never have peace. We will always blame and condemn those we feel are responsible for wars and social injustice, without recognizing the degree of violence in ourselves. We must work on ourselves and also with those we condemn if we want to have a real impact. It never helps to draw a line and dismiss some people as enemies, even those who act violently. We have to approach them with love in our hearts and do our best to help them move in a direction of nonviolence. If we work for peace out of anger, we will never succeed. Peace is not an end. It can never

Or, How I Made Room for Life By Leo Babauta For the next 12 months, I'll be conducting a personal experiment that I'm calling A Year of Living Without . It's my way of finding out what's truly necessary, of simplifying my life, of making room for other things. I'm testing the boundaries of my needs. It's good to test your personal boundaries now and then (or, if you're me, all the time). So what's the Year of Living Without? Each month, I'll go the whole month without one thing I do every day. Something that I tend to not want to give up, for various reasons. I'll give up something for a month, then evaluate whether it was something I enjoyed giving up, whether it's worth leaving it out of my life, or if I want to put it back in after the month's over. The next month, I'll try giving up something else (see the list below). The 12 Things I'll Live Without Each month, I'll try a different experiment: July: Coffee .

In the 12-step tradition of Alcoholics Anonymous it clearly states in the third step that we need to make a decision ' to turn our will and our lives over to the care of a God as we understood him', if we are to maintain sobriety and abstinence. Buddhists whether in recovery or not, or have an addiction or not, turn their lives over to the Buddha, Dharma the Sangha. When we surrender to this action, we are placing positive refuges at the center of our lives. We are placing the ideal of liberation and freedom, the teachings of the Buddha and the spiritual community at the center of our lives. What this means is that we surrender to the potential of waking up to reality and begin to see things clearly, without the story, judgments or interpretation. This is what helps to take care of our lives. 'In reference to the seen, there will be only the seen. In reference to the heard, only the heard. In reference to the sensed, only the sensed. In reference to the cognized, only t

This may be a sensitive subject for many readers of my blog, and for that I do apologize beforehand if it either bothers or offends you. I have only hinted at, in the past, my relationship to drugs and I have never really come out and spoken fully about my past and trust me I will only hint at it here. It is not something I am proud of, yet it is still a part of who I am today. Those who are close to me have heard many of my stories yet I have been hesitant to come out and talk openly about this interesting path that led me into becoming a Meditation Monk. The song in the video by Lou Reed is about Heroin, which was one of my favorite pastimes back then, he takes you on a journey through the 'rush' and the 'calm' that follows, and most of you won't understand, nor should you. Lately though, I have noticed that Lou Reed's lyrics keep going back to "and I guess I just don't know, and I guess I just don't know." I will discuss this later. During

The familiar phrase in Buddhism: "All things are not the self" ( sabbe dhammâ anattâ ), which is found in verse 279 of Dhammapada , logically says, "All things are Mara the Evil One"! Here is why.  When you consider that "All things are not the self" and the Five Aggregates are always said by the Buddha to be 'not the self' or anattâ, and that these same Five Aggregates are also Mara, which is confirmed by the following passage from the Samyuttta-Nikaya : "When there is form, Radha, there might be Mara, or the killer, or the one who is killed.  Therefore, Radha, see form as Mara, see it as the killer, see it as the one who is killed.  See it as a disease, as a tumor, as a dart, as misery, as really misery.  Those who see it thus see rightly.  When there if feeling ... When there is perception ... When there are volitional formations ... When there is consciousness, Radha, there might be Mara, or the killer, or the one who is killed&q

OK, admitted: my previous post about a Speculative Non-Buddhism essay was pretty damn intellectually intense for summer reading.  I thought of writing about something lighter today, but decided to make another attempt at conveying what I like about what little I know about what those guys at Speculative Non-Buddhism seem to be up to. (Hope that last sentence conveys my uncertainty about what their goal is; these are the most articulate, deep, philosophically-sophisticated Buddhists-who-aren't-really- Buddhists I've ever come across; hard to fathom them after just a little reading.) First, a note about my own split personality toward Buddhism. Part of me loves it; part of me hates it. Sometimes I think Buddhism is the best non-religious religion there is. Other times, it strikes me as just as supernaturally deluded as other religions are. I've put up numerous posts here concerning how unlikely it is that something like "pure awareness" exists. The brain i

So you're here to learn something about meditation. From me, a person who enjoys sharing his experience. Perhaps you're grateful that I do that. I'm grateful you're here. I learned meditation from many people, the first of whom was a man called Susiddhi, another Scot, who was teaching at the Glasgow Buddhist Centre in Scotland. And now that I think about it, I am very grateful for what he taught me, and I'm grateful to the many other teachers I learned from, who often taught each other. This process of teachings being passed on isn't a linear process of teacher to student. Teachers are also students of each other. Often students teach their teachers. So I'm going to say "thank you" to all these teachers, including the teachers who have been my students. Most of those people who I learned meditation from learned to meditate, originally at least, from Sangharakshita, an Englishman who went to India to become a Buddhist monk. Now I'm very grate

An interesting perspective from George Carlin that I have always loved. It echo's Buddha's urging to question everything. "Once a week, Father Russell would come in for "Heavy Mystery" time. And we would save all our weird questions for Father Russell. In fact, we would make up strange questions. The class would take a whole week thinking up trick questions for Father Russell. 'Hey, hey, hey Father! Hey, uh, if God is all-powerful, can he make a rock so big that he himself can't lift it? Ha, ha, heeeeey! We got him now! Ah, ha, ha!' Or else you'd take a very simple sin and surround it with the most bizarre circumstances you could imagine...to try to, you know, relieve the guilt in the sin. We would usually end up with the, uh, statement, 'Would that then be a sin then, Father?'" So, here is an example. There was one sin which was not receiving communion during Easter time. You had to perform your 'Easter duty'. As good Cath

If I had to give advice to Buddhist oriented Hollywood actors and directors like Jeff Bridges and Oliver Stone about Buddhism, specifically, what Buddhism is really about and what to expect, personally, I wouldn't find it difficult.  Trying to be honest and true to the Dharma, I would simply say that Buddhism strictly involves finding the transcendent within yourself which is undying, luminous—and most real.  On the personal side, one has to spiritually penetrate through the rind of their psychophysical body in order to reach this undying, luminous substance. Now, if I were a popular Western Buddhist teacher, I would not be interested in giving such honest advice because, frankly, in my heart of hearts, I don't care about what the Buddha taught—not when it comes to the transcendent which is almost a taboo subject like UFOs, 9/11, and reincarnation.  I only care about my own materialistic ideas about life using Buddhism as a cover.  In the presence of Mr. Bridges or Mr.

I don't claim to fully understand Tom Pepper's "The Radical Potential of Shin Yoga." But then, I don't claim to fully understand anything .  The vestiges of other-worldly mysticism remaining in my mind have found Pure Land Yoga both utterly unbelievable and also strangely compelling. After all, what's not to like about reciting Namu Amida Butsu and earning a ticket to Nirvana Land? Sure beats other forms of Yoga that require you to engage in all sorts of arduous practices, including back-breaking, mind-numbing meditation for ever and ever (almost).  But Pepper presents a view of Shin/Shinran Yoga that tosses out its unbelievable aspects and leaves a philosophical system that makes pretty good sense. That said, his essay is sufficiently intellectually dense that I found it difficult to understand much of it on a first reading. Here, though, are excerpts that will give you the gist of Pepper's activist-friendly take on what Shin Yoga can be all ab

"Smile, breathe and go slowly."   ~Thich Nhat Hanh Technorati Tags: Buddha Buddhist Buddhism Meditation Dharma Read More @ Source

Upekkha, or even-minded love, is the fourth of the series of meditations we're looking at in our 100 Days of Lovingkindness series. As I discussed in the first post on upekkha, this word has several different meanings, although they're all related. There's: Even-mindedness where we are able to accept ups and downs (specifically, pleasant, unpleasant, and neutral feelings) without being thrown off-balance. Even-mindedness in the deep states of meditative absorption called jhana, where the mind is very stable and focused. Even-mindedness as one of the four immeasurables (brahmaviharas), where we have even-minded love. Even-mindedness as a synonym for the awakened state, or enlightenment, where greed, hatred, and delusion have been unrooted, and so the mind is not thrown off-balance by them. Now I don't think these are entirely separate. I pointed out that upekkha as a synonym for the awakened experience (type 4) could be the same thing as the brahmavihara (type

"There is never any need to get worked up or to trouble your soul about things you can't control," wrote Emperor and Stoic philosopher, Marcus Aurelius, in his Meditations . "These things are not asking to be judged by you. Leave them alone." I've described even-minded love (upekkha) as being love with insight. One thing that allows our love to be even-minded, or equanimous, is insight into impermanence. Even-mindedness is a quality that accompanies all of the other brahmaviharas, which are the four qualities of lovingkindness (metta), compassion (karuna), joyful appreciation (mudita), and even-minded love (upekkha) itself. We need to have even-mindedness accompanying these other states because loving-kindness, compassion, and joyful appreciation each involve desires. Metta is a desire that beings be happy; compassion that they escape suffering; and mudita that they continue to experience the joy and peace that comes from the good qualities they embody.

"We have negative mental habits that come up over and over again. One of the most significant negative habits we should be aware of is that of constantly allowing our mind to run off into the future. Perhaps we got this from our parents. Carried away by our worries, we're unable to live fully and happily in the present. Deep down, we believe we can't really be happy just yet-that we still have a few more boxes to be checked off before we can really enjoy life. We speculate, dream, strategize, and plan for these "conditions of happiness" we want to have in the future; and we continually chase after that future, even while we sleep. We may have fears about the future because we don't know how it's going to turn out, and these worries and anxieties keep us from enjoying being here now." ~Thich Nhat Hanh Technorati Tags: Buddha Buddhist Buddhism Meditation Dharma Read More @ Source

It's easy to forget that upekkha, or equanimity, is love. The word "equanimity" doesn't sound very loving. It's coldly Latinate, lofty, and remote, and doesn't roll off the tongue easily. Few of us are likely to use the word in everyday conversation. The adjective, equanimous, is even worse! Even the Anglo-Saxon equivalents, "even-minded" and "even-mindedness," don't convey any sense of love, or kindness, either. But upekkha is a form of love. Perhaps we should render upekkha as something more like "equanimous love" or "even-minded love." Upatissa, the author of the first century meditation manual I've been sharing with you as we explore the "immeasurable" meditations of loving-kindness, compassion, joyful appreciation, and now even-minded love, describes upekkha like this: As parents are neither too attentive nor yet inattentive towards any one of their children, but regard them equally and ma

This is one of the guided meditations that I led recently in a Google+ Hangout. This particular one is a guide to developing the quality of equanimity (upekkha), or evenmindedness. There's an introductory talk in which I outline four different uses of the term equanimity, and then I guided the class through an approach to meditation in which we lose our sense of separateness, so that there's an element of anatta (not-self) brought into the practice before we begin to cultivate lovingkindness. The practice also brings together mental stillness and non-reactivity, and metta, or lovingkindness. It's important to remember that "even-mindedness" (or equanimity) is actually "even-minded love" or "equanimous love" and isn't a state of uncaring. PS. You can see all of our 100 Days of Lovingkindness posts here. Read More @ Source

There it was… that one question that people ask you so many times during job interviews: where do you see yourself in 10 years? I was fresh out of school and had never thought about it that much. Strange, right? You grow up, choose a direction in school and you seem to also be determined at the age of 14 what your life will be like. So there I was, with a mouth full of silence. What should I say to the interviewer? Needless to say, the answer didn't come then. It still intrigued me and I started thinking. Read more » Read More @ Source

This is from a poem that I love. It's called, "Fire" by Judy Brown. What makes a fire burn is the space between the logs, a breathing space. Too much of a good thing, too many logs packed in too tight can douse the flames almost as surely as a pail of water would. So building fires requires attention to the spaces in between, as much as to the wood…. This feels like beautiful advice. It's an invitation to pause and to find the spaces in our life that allow spirit to shine through. So, what stops us? What makes it so difficult? When we're in a rush and feeling stressed, the hardest thing in the world is to stop. You probably know what it's like. If you try to stop, everything in your body and your mind is still charging forward. There's a huge, anxious, restless drive to check things off the list and tie up all loose ends. It's really physically uncomfortable to pause! We each have an existential hum of fear that is in the back

"If we do not know how to take care of ourselves and to love ourselves, we cannot take care of the people we love. Loving oneself is the foundation for loving another person." ~Thich Nhat Hanh Technorati Tags: Buddha Buddhist Buddhism Meditation Dharma Read More @ Source

Emily Drabble, The Guardian: All teachers want their students to be calm, focused, alert, aware and creative, which is essentially what mindfulness is all about, so it's no wonder the term has become a bit of a buzzword, even in mainstream education. The Guardian Teacher Network has resources to help introduce mindfulness to young people at school (and at home) and to help them develop some essential life skills. The most delicious way to start has to be Mindfulness and the art of chocolate eating. Taking just three minutes, this is a practical and instantly likeable introduction to bringing mindfulness to the classroom… Read the original article » Read More @ Source

Right meditation begins with our ordinary mind singularizing itself ( ekakara ) thus reaching a point at which the essence or substance of mind, i.e., pure Mind is vividly and directly apperceived   This incidentally, is where the notion of 'no-mind' comes from which is discussed in Zen literature.  No-mind pertains to the absolute cessation of mental fluctuations in which mind returns to its natural state, that is, pure Mind.  In such a state, in the midst of the empty, constructed world, one is continually able to pierce through the phenomenal veil and commune with pure Mind. Mind returning to pure Mind which is increate, is something that can only be described as an earth shaking experience because it has never been previously accomplished owing to the power of ignorance ( avidya ).  It might be argued that this experience is subjective.  But for the practitioner who has penetrated into the heart of pure Mind by meditation, Mind is a real object—an object that the goes

Here's a mildly edited email message that I received recently from someone whose connection with Master Charan Singh, Radha Soami Satsang Beas (RSSB), and Sant Mat started about the same time mine did. I added some links and bracketed explanations of terms. His thoughts brought back memories, and stimulated some new ideas. He gave me the OK to share his message in a blog post. It's an interesting rendition of how someone can be converted to a faith, and then deconverted. Dear Brian: Reading your blog evokes recollections that have long been dormant. What a compendium of experience I long since left on the processing heap to decompose on its own! What a saga of my youthful ignorance which commenced in Los Angeles in 1968 (I was 22) with my initiation by Charan Singh's stuffed shirt proxy and ended with a thud in 1975 in the living room in my Greenwich Village, Manhattan, apartment when, in merely a moment -- what could be called a mystical moment -- I experience