A Buddhist monk was walking barefoot down a dusty road, when he stepped on something sharp. It stuck in his heel, so after a few steps he stopped to pull it out. Low, and behold! It was a very beautifully carved and very valuable gemstone! The monk rinsed it off at a well he was passing, and tossed it in his satchel, along with the partial loaf of bread that was to be his one meal of the day.
A little further down the road, the monk happened upon a beggar. The beggar spied the partial loaf, leapt in front of the monk, bowed three times and said, "O Venerable Sir! I am but a poor starving beggar. Might I have a taste of your bread?" Whereupon the monk pulled the loaf from his satchel, and before handing it to the beggar, pulled the gem from the crust where it had become embedded. He then handed the entire loaf to the beggar. The beggar saw the gemstone, and pleaded, "O, Most Worthy One! I have taken your only meal of the day, and this is not right. I see you have a gemstone, which would relieve me of my situation. May I give you back your bread in exchange for the gem?" At this, the monk promptly gave the gemstone to the beggar, telling him also to keep the bread. The beggar was ecstatic, and galloped off down the road.
The monk, noticing it was time for meditation, sat down under a nearby tree. A few minutes later he became aware of the presence of someone, and opening his eyes saw the beggar, who thrust out his hand with the gem, saying, "O Venerable One! May I please return the gem to you? I don't want it!"
The monk asked, "What sir, do you want?" The beggar replied,
"I want what you have that allowed you to give away everything."
I thank Jackson Hawks, a meditation and Buddhist teacher from Sioux City, IA, who can be contacted at 712-281-3787, for sending me this Buddhist fable. Peace, Charlie (charlesday1@mchsi.com, 515-255-8398)
Click here to download and print this fable.
Thursday, October 30, 2008
Tuesday, October 28, 2008
"Attentiveness is the Natural Prayer of the Soul"
"Attentiveness is the natural prayer of the Soul," according to 15th Century French Philosopher and Theologian Nicolas Malebranche. The term "attentiveness" here refers to what is called "mindfulness" in Buddhism, defined as giving full attention to moment-to-moment sensory and cognitive experience, bare of judgment, decision making, commentary, and other conceptual reactivity. This quote calls attention to the critical importance given to mindfulness or attentiveness by different spiritual traditions throughout history. My thanks to Ken Murray, Chicago, IL, for sending it. Peace, Charlie
Friday, October 24, 2008
The Rendering Harmless Doctrine of Compassion
by Charles Day*
www.desmoinesmeditation.org
The Rendering Harmless Doctrine offers a way to honor and reconcile the duty to defend oneself, family, nation, and world with the religious and humanitarian principles of compassion, forgiveness, non-violence, and pacifism.
All responses to personal, community, and global aggression should be motivated by understanding and compassion—not anger, revenge, or retribution—with the intention of rendering aggressors harmless—not to harm or punish them. Motives, methods, and goals should be compatible with ending the suffering that causes and results from aggression and with restoring peace for all concerned, perpetrators as well as victims.
The Doctrine is based on three assumptions. First, individuals—not gangs, mobs, cells, or nations—are responsible for assault, mayhem, terrorism, atrocities, genocide, and war. Second, these individuals, acting alone or as members of groups or leaders of nations, can cause such horrific harm that reasonable persons are morally obligated to stop them, using peaceful means and legal authority whenever possible. And third, history demonstrates, religions teach, and social and psychological studies confirm that anger begets anger, aggression begets aggression, and war begets war. Responding with anger and aggression causes, aggravates, and perpetuates the cycle of anger and aggression.
If a local or national government fails to protect or aggresses against its own citizens, or attacks or supports aggression against another government, appropriate legal authorities should collectively decide whether, when, and how to intervene. Civil disobedience, economic sanctions, containment, regime change, occupation, and other measures should avoid harming the innocent, while rendering harmless those responsible for the aggression.
In the criminal justice system, capture, arrest, trial, sentencing, incarceration, and rehabilitation should be based on accepted principles of law, protecting the innocent, mitigating circumstances, restorative justice and restitution, and the psychological and criminal history of the individual. The risk of recidivism and the severity of its consequences should determine conditions of probation, imprisonment, and parole. Capital punishment should end.
Only after all diplomatic and peaceful efforts fail, might harm regrettably be risked in apprehending dangerous individuals, criminals, terrorists, and tyrants and turning them over to the appropriate authority for justice. Non-lethal weapons and tactics should be used. Military and police operations should protect civilians, apprehend responsible leaders and combatants, avoid infrastructure and collateral damage, and prevent war.
The Rendering Harmless Doctrine appreciates that victims suffer and may desire revenge and retribution. But it holds that only when these negative emotions are governed by understanding and compassion, with the intention of rendering aggressors harmless without hurting them or others, will the cycle of anger and violence end and peace prevail.
(*Charlie welcomes promotion of this doctrine, so please free to use all or any part of it and to share it with others.)
Click here to download and print this essay.
www.desmoinesmeditation.org
The Rendering Harmless Doctrine offers a way to honor and reconcile the duty to defend oneself, family, nation, and world with the religious and humanitarian principles of compassion, forgiveness, non-violence, and pacifism.
All responses to personal, community, and global aggression should be motivated by understanding and compassion—not anger, revenge, or retribution—with the intention of rendering aggressors harmless—not to harm or punish them. Motives, methods, and goals should be compatible with ending the suffering that causes and results from aggression and with restoring peace for all concerned, perpetrators as well as victims.
The Doctrine is based on three assumptions. First, individuals—not gangs, mobs, cells, or nations—are responsible for assault, mayhem, terrorism, atrocities, genocide, and war. Second, these individuals, acting alone or as members of groups or leaders of nations, can cause such horrific harm that reasonable persons are morally obligated to stop them, using peaceful means and legal authority whenever possible. And third, history demonstrates, religions teach, and social and psychological studies confirm that anger begets anger, aggression begets aggression, and war begets war. Responding with anger and aggression causes, aggravates, and perpetuates the cycle of anger and aggression.
If a local or national government fails to protect or aggresses against its own citizens, or attacks or supports aggression against another government, appropriate legal authorities should collectively decide whether, when, and how to intervene. Civil disobedience, economic sanctions, containment, regime change, occupation, and other measures should avoid harming the innocent, while rendering harmless those responsible for the aggression.
In the criminal justice system, capture, arrest, trial, sentencing, incarceration, and rehabilitation should be based on accepted principles of law, protecting the innocent, mitigating circumstances, restorative justice and restitution, and the psychological and criminal history of the individual. The risk of recidivism and the severity of its consequences should determine conditions of probation, imprisonment, and parole. Capital punishment should end.
Only after all diplomatic and peaceful efforts fail, might harm regrettably be risked in apprehending dangerous individuals, criminals, terrorists, and tyrants and turning them over to the appropriate authority for justice. Non-lethal weapons and tactics should be used. Military and police operations should protect civilians, apprehend responsible leaders and combatants, avoid infrastructure and collateral damage, and prevent war.
The Rendering Harmless Doctrine appreciates that victims suffer and may desire revenge and retribution. But it holds that only when these negative emotions are governed by understanding and compassion, with the intention of rendering aggressors harmless without hurting them or others, will the cycle of anger and violence end and peace prevail.
(*Charlie welcomes promotion of this doctrine, so please free to use all or any part of it and to share it with others.)
Click here to download and print this essay.
Wednesday, October 22, 2008
The Role of Prayer in Buddhism
by Charles Day
www.desmoinesmeditation.org
(This dharma talk is an expansion of a talk originally presented at the “Prayer in American Workshop,” October 18, 2007, in Des Moines, sponsored by Iowa Public Television.)
Let me preface my remarks by emphasizing that Buddha, who lived in India from 563 to 483 BC, six centuries before Christ, considered himself a fully awakened human being, not a god. He taught that all human beings are capable of realizing their already enlightened nature. His teachings are considered guidelines, not commandments, and difficulty in following them is due to ignorance and misunderstanding, not sin. Buddha studied and meditated intensively for six years with the specific purpose of determining what caused human suffering and how to alleviate and end it, and this is what he taught for the 45 years following his enlightenment at age 35.
Buddha emphasized that to discover our own divinity - our Christ-consciousness. Buddha-nature, or enlightened nature – we must look within and not to some external source. Jesus, I submit, came to the same conclusion, as reflected in his teachings that “The kingdom of heaven is within,” “My Father and I are one,” and “Love your neighbor as yourself.”
There are many traditions and sects within Buddhism, just as there are many divisions and denominations within Christianity. Different Buddhist traditions differ in their rites, rituals, and practices, but they all share the same basic teachings of the Buddha, summarized in his lecture on the Four Noble Truths and the Eightfold Path, which I will not be discussing in this talk. My purpose here is to discuss the role of prayer in Buddhism.
In doing so, I’d like to share several quotes from different Buddhist traditions and teachers, and then present some of my own observations. Keep in mind that the word “meditation” is used far more frequently than the word “prayer” in Buddhism. But both words are intended to describe similar personal spiritual practices, although they differ somewhat in purpose and structure, which I’ll explain later.
The first quote is by Tibetan Buddhist Yongey Mingyur Rinpoche from his book "The Joy of Living." “No matter how long you meditate, or what technique you use, every technique of Buddhism meditation ultimately generates compassion, whether we’re aware of it or not. Whenever you look at your mind, you can’t help but recognize your similarity to those around you. When you see your own desire to be happy, you can’t avoid seeing the same desire in others, and when you look clearly at your own fear, anger, or aversion, you can’t help but see that everyone around you feels the same fear, anger, and aversion. When you look at your mind, all the imaginary differences between yourself and others automatically dissolve and the ancient prayer of the Four Immeasurables becomes as natural and persistent as your own heartbeat:
“May all beings have happiness and its causes.
May all beings be free from suffering and its causes.
May all beings constantly dwell in joy, transcending sorrow.
May all beings remain in great peace, free from attachment and
aversion.”
This next quote is from "Prayer in Buddhism" by G.R. Lewis, a Shin Buddhist. (buddhistfaith.tripod.com/pureland_sangha/id41.html):
“Buddhist prayer is a practice to awaken our inherent inner capacities of strength, compassion, and wisdom, rather than to petition external forces based on fear, idolizing, and worldly and/or heavenly gain. Buddhist prayer is a form of meditation; it is a practice of inner reconditioning. Buddhist prayer replaces the negative with the virtuous, and points us to the blessings of life."
....(continued)
Click here to read this complete essay and to download and print it.
www.desmoinesmeditation.org
(This dharma talk is an expansion of a talk originally presented at the “Prayer in American Workshop,” October 18, 2007, in Des Moines, sponsored by Iowa Public Television.)
Let me preface my remarks by emphasizing that Buddha, who lived in India from 563 to 483 BC, six centuries before Christ, considered himself a fully awakened human being, not a god. He taught that all human beings are capable of realizing their already enlightened nature. His teachings are considered guidelines, not commandments, and difficulty in following them is due to ignorance and misunderstanding, not sin. Buddha studied and meditated intensively for six years with the specific purpose of determining what caused human suffering and how to alleviate and end it, and this is what he taught for the 45 years following his enlightenment at age 35.
Buddha emphasized that to discover our own divinity - our Christ-consciousness. Buddha-nature, or enlightened nature – we must look within and not to some external source. Jesus, I submit, came to the same conclusion, as reflected in his teachings that “The kingdom of heaven is within,” “My Father and I are one,” and “Love your neighbor as yourself.”
There are many traditions and sects within Buddhism, just as there are many divisions and denominations within Christianity. Different Buddhist traditions differ in their rites, rituals, and practices, but they all share the same basic teachings of the Buddha, summarized in his lecture on the Four Noble Truths and the Eightfold Path, which I will not be discussing in this talk. My purpose here is to discuss the role of prayer in Buddhism.
In doing so, I’d like to share several quotes from different Buddhist traditions and teachers, and then present some of my own observations. Keep in mind that the word “meditation” is used far more frequently than the word “prayer” in Buddhism. But both words are intended to describe similar personal spiritual practices, although they differ somewhat in purpose and structure, which I’ll explain later.
The first quote is by Tibetan Buddhist Yongey Mingyur Rinpoche from his book "The Joy of Living." “No matter how long you meditate, or what technique you use, every technique of Buddhism meditation ultimately generates compassion, whether we’re aware of it or not. Whenever you look at your mind, you can’t help but recognize your similarity to those around you. When you see your own desire to be happy, you can’t avoid seeing the same desire in others, and when you look clearly at your own fear, anger, or aversion, you can’t help but see that everyone around you feels the same fear, anger, and aversion. When you look at your mind, all the imaginary differences between yourself and others automatically dissolve and the ancient prayer of the Four Immeasurables becomes as natural and persistent as your own heartbeat:
“May all beings have happiness and its causes.
May all beings be free from suffering and its causes.
May all beings constantly dwell in joy, transcending sorrow.
May all beings remain in great peace, free from attachment and
aversion.”
This next quote is from "Prayer in Buddhism" by G.R. Lewis, a Shin Buddhist. (buddhistfaith.tripod.com/pureland_sangha/id41.html):
“Buddhist prayer is a practice to awaken our inherent inner capacities of strength, compassion, and wisdom, rather than to petition external forces based on fear, idolizing, and worldly and/or heavenly gain. Buddhist prayer is a form of meditation; it is a practice of inner reconditioning. Buddhist prayer replaces the negative with the virtuous, and points us to the blessings of life."
....(continued)
Click here to read this complete essay and to download and print it.
Wednesday, October 15, 2008
Mindfulness of Nature
by Verlyn Klinkenborg
(Though not labeled as such, the following article presents an excellent example of mindfulness - full attention bare of judgment, commentary, and decision making - in observing the simple wonder and beauty of nature, of seeing clearly what is without an intrusive overlay of cognitive and conceptual activity. My thanks to meditator David Drake, Des Moines, IA, for emailing it to me. Peace, Charlie Day)
New York Times Editorial - October 8, 2008
The Rural Life: This Human Season
By Verlyn Klinkenborg
On a still day — rain threatening — a tall stem moves in the garden. A goldfinch has landed just below the flower head and is eating the seeds while the stem sways like a pendulum. The rain begins, and above its steady rhythm there is a clatter and a pop on the woodshed roof as a hickory-nut falls. Soon, the clouds tear apart and the sun spills through. Maple leaves are coming down in ones and twos, and the ones and twos are beginning to add up in drifts along the pasture edges. Click here to read and print this article.
(Though not labeled as such, the following article presents an excellent example of mindfulness - full attention bare of judgment, commentary, and decision making - in observing the simple wonder and beauty of nature, of seeing clearly what is without an intrusive overlay of cognitive and conceptual activity. My thanks to meditator David Drake, Des Moines, IA, for emailing it to me. Peace, Charlie Day)
New York Times Editorial - October 8, 2008
The Rural Life: This Human Season
By Verlyn Klinkenborg
On a still day — rain threatening — a tall stem moves in the garden. A goldfinch has landed just below the flower head and is eating the seeds while the stem sways like a pendulum. The rain begins, and above its steady rhythm there is a clatter and a pop on the woodshed roof as a hickory-nut falls. Soon, the clouds tear apart and the sun spills through. Maple leaves are coming down in ones and twos, and the ones and twos are beginning to add up in drifts along the pasture edges.
Most of the time, nature is simply there — when I do chores, when I walk down to the mailbox, when I look up from writing. I don’t expect solace from it, nor do I theologize it with my own desires. It simply persists in sublime indifference. And yet from time to time I find myself surprised by it, and I know that what I am really noticing is the volatility of the human world.
I have been struck before by the gap between the new news of my city life and the old news of nature. I have that feeling now. Nothing in the natural world upbraids me. It offers no commentary. It has nothing to say about financial meltdowns and dirty politics or, for that matter, personal grief. But the other lives on this farm do remind me of how captive I have become, like all of us, to the tensions of this incredible human season.
That is the trick in nature. There is no escaping to it. It throws you back upon yourself again and again. The geese shriek when they see me coming and then drop into their bassoon tones. The chipmunks freeze on the stone wall, waiting to see what direction I will go. Remedy makes the sound that is usually called nickering but is really a slow, deep equine purring. I am carrying the grain bucket, which is why I also am lost in my thoughts. And when I slip out of them, walking beside the horses up the hill to their grain buckets, I can feel for a moment how insubstantial those thoughts really are, before they engulf me again. VERLYN KLINKENBORG
Tuesday, October 7, 2008
The Illusion of Self and Free Will
by Charles Day
www.desmoinesmeditation.org
A meditator emailed me: "A Buddhist meditation teacher said there is no free will but we are still responsible for our actions. This sounds like a contradiction to me. It doesn't make sense, but what the heck, many things don't. I don't believe in 100% free will but I DO believe in about 17% free will mixed with a lot of random action. " I emailed back the following response.
It's precisely this issue of free will that hangs up most everyone, because giving up free will means giving up the illusion of an independent, autonomous, controlling self or ego that depends upon its existence.
Buddha said everything is interrelated, and everything is dependent upon causes and conditions. Each of us definitely does feel a sense of will, intention, accountability, and responsibility, but these are not "free" or random because the extent to which we experience them depends upon the causes and conditions to which each of us has been uniquely subjected. Some individuals experience a strong sense of free will and personal responsibility, while others feel like they're the victims of the circumstances and people around them.
These perceived differences result from different causes and conditions for different individuals, differing genetics, parenting, conditioning, and learning experiences. Both perceptions, whether as master of one’s ship or as a victim, are real. They are produced by different causes and conditions that lead to the general sense of having either a lot of or very little free will or control over one's destiny.
Because causes and conditions produce thoughts, feelings, words, and actions that have definite consequences and in turn produce other causes and conditions with consequences, it is a good idea to learn to take responsibility for them. Others will definitely hold us accountable for our actions. Taking responsibility for oneself - remembering that the degree to which this is experienced depends upon an individual’s unique past learning - acknowledges that one is and should remain fully aware that thoughts, words, and actions have very real consequences for which we will be held accountable..
Buddha stressed the importance of intention, will, and responsibility because these determine our karma or the consequences of our actions. Choosing to practice meditation and the Eightfold Path helps us better understand this concept of karma. Again, however, the so-called "choice" or "will" to practice or not practice is not "free" but is determined by an individual’s unique past causes and conditions.
For practical purposes it's good and even advisable in living in a world governed by conventional thinking to act "as if" free will exists, even while realizing that it doesn't. Ironically, transcending the experience of having free will and realizing that our sense of self or ego is simply a continuously changing composite of body, feelings, perceptions, thoughts, and consciousness, leads to spontaneously and un"self"ishly becoming more compassionately responsible for ourselves, others, and the universe.
This spontaneously increased compassion results, not from the conventional socialization that leads to greater maturity, but from transcending the ego. Transcending the ego is characterized by the dissolution of the subject-object or I-other dualistic relationship and the resulting realization that "I am That" or "I am You", that there is only an interrelated and interdependent unity or oneness without an opposite. Out of this realization of unity, compassion naturally and spontaneously arises. Or perhaps better stated, this realization is compassion.
All our experiences, including the separation of self and other, result from categorizing, creating boundaries, and dividing the unified whole or oneness into the multiple dualistic appearances that constitute what we perceive as our individual physical and mental reality. Our physiological and neurological limitations prevent us from perceiving and experiencing the subatomic molecular interconnections and interactions between our body, the air, and the objects around us. We mistakenly take as real the illusion or appearances that we created in order to function practically in an apparent dualistic universe. The Hindu Vedic scriptures are referring to this misperception when they state that “What is real is unreal, and what is unreal is real.” Our perceived reality of independent and separate objects is unreal, while the interdependent, unified whole that we fail to perceive is what is real.
Eckhart Tolle in his book, The Power of Now, calls the ego a useful conceptual myth or “operating principle” that enables us to deal with the perceived duality that constitutes our everyday experiences.
Buddha's major contribution to history, philosophy, religion, and metaphysics is that our sense of a separate, independent, enduring self is an illusion, and that our attachment to it is the cause of all our suffering. Penetrating this illusion and realizing our interconnectedness with all physical and mental phenomena, he taught, leads to liberation and the end of suffering, to enlightenment, to nirvana, and to the peace that surpasses understanding that we are all seeking.
May you be well, happy, peaceful, and harmonious.
Click here to download this essay.
www.desmoinesmeditation.org
A meditator emailed me: "A Buddhist meditation teacher said there is no free will but we are still responsible for our actions. This sounds like a contradiction to me. It doesn't make sense, but what the heck, many things don't. I don't believe in 100% free will but I DO believe in about 17% free will mixed with a lot of random action. " I emailed back the following response.
It's precisely this issue of free will that hangs up most everyone, because giving up free will means giving up the illusion of an independent, autonomous, controlling self or ego that depends upon its existence.
Buddha said everything is interrelated, and everything is dependent upon causes and conditions. Each of us definitely does feel a sense of will, intention, accountability, and responsibility, but these are not "free" or random because the extent to which we experience them depends upon the causes and conditions to which each of us has been uniquely subjected. Some individuals experience a strong sense of free will and personal responsibility, while others feel like they're the victims of the circumstances and people around them.
These perceived differences result from different causes and conditions for different individuals, differing genetics, parenting, conditioning, and learning experiences. Both perceptions, whether as master of one’s ship or as a victim, are real. They are produced by different causes and conditions that lead to the general sense of having either a lot of or very little free will or control over one's destiny.
Because causes and conditions produce thoughts, feelings, words, and actions that have definite consequences and in turn produce other causes and conditions with consequences, it is a good idea to learn to take responsibility for them. Others will definitely hold us accountable for our actions. Taking responsibility for oneself - remembering that the degree to which this is experienced depends upon an individual’s unique past learning - acknowledges that one is and should remain fully aware that thoughts, words, and actions have very real consequences for which we will be held accountable..
Buddha stressed the importance of intention, will, and responsibility because these determine our karma or the consequences of our actions. Choosing to practice meditation and the Eightfold Path helps us better understand this concept of karma. Again, however, the so-called "choice" or "will" to practice or not practice is not "free" but is determined by an individual’s unique past causes and conditions.
For practical purposes it's good and even advisable in living in a world governed by conventional thinking to act "as if" free will exists, even while realizing that it doesn't. Ironically, transcending the experience of having free will and realizing that our sense of self or ego is simply a continuously changing composite of body, feelings, perceptions, thoughts, and consciousness, leads to spontaneously and un"self"ishly becoming more compassionately responsible for ourselves, others, and the universe.
This spontaneously increased compassion results, not from the conventional socialization that leads to greater maturity, but from transcending the ego. Transcending the ego is characterized by the dissolution of the subject-object or I-other dualistic relationship and the resulting realization that "I am That" or "I am You", that there is only an interrelated and interdependent unity or oneness without an opposite. Out of this realization of unity, compassion naturally and spontaneously arises. Or perhaps better stated, this realization is compassion.
All our experiences, including the separation of self and other, result from categorizing, creating boundaries, and dividing the unified whole or oneness into the multiple dualistic appearances that constitute what we perceive as our individual physical and mental reality. Our physiological and neurological limitations prevent us from perceiving and experiencing the subatomic molecular interconnections and interactions between our body, the air, and the objects around us. We mistakenly take as real the illusion or appearances that we created in order to function practically in an apparent dualistic universe. The Hindu Vedic scriptures are referring to this misperception when they state that “What is real is unreal, and what is unreal is real.” Our perceived reality of independent and separate objects is unreal, while the interdependent, unified whole that we fail to perceive is what is real.
Eckhart Tolle in his book, The Power of Now, calls the ego a useful conceptual myth or “operating principle” that enables us to deal with the perceived duality that constitutes our everyday experiences.
Buddha's major contribution to history, philosophy, religion, and metaphysics is that our sense of a separate, independent, enduring self is an illusion, and that our attachment to it is the cause of all our suffering. Penetrating this illusion and realizing our interconnectedness with all physical and mental phenomena, he taught, leads to liberation and the end of suffering, to enlightenment, to nirvana, and to the peace that surpasses understanding that we are all seeking.
May you be well, happy, peaceful, and harmonious.
Click here to download this essay.
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