What IS Buddhism?...Teachings & Meditation Tips

A request for Buddhist insight... My brother Chris emailed me recently with what seemed like the simplest of requests. He wanted me to pass along some Buddhist insight: quotes, links, resources, whatever I could get my hands on to introduce him to the Buddhist faith. Turns out, it's not that easy. You can't Google search Buddhism, and get a one liner explanation for how to improve your life.

I've been stumped for days trying to figure out what I wanted to say and how to say it! Where would I even start? With the story of Buddha himself, or how about the cultural variations that have evolved across Asia? There are just so many arms and legs to the faith that web and tangle together: realms of heaven and hell, reincarnation, demons and angels, mythical creatures, ceremonies, rituals, karma and dharma, monk hood, meditation, precepts and scriptures in many, many dead languages...I myself am no expert (I'm still relatively new to the faith), but what I do know has taken me years to study and absorb.

So...I sat down, and really concentrated. You could say, I meditated on this blog entry. What would my family understand coming from the opposite side of the world, where we have learned a different set of values and religious traditions? I think they would understand suffering.

A Proverb...For me, the power of Buddhism lies in the simplicity of its message. There's a proverb a monk once told me:

He said that one day a king went into the forest in search of truth. He wanted to know what the most important Buddhist teaching was. He asked a hermit (a wise man) his question, to which he answered "Do no evil, do only good, and purify your heart." The king was surprised since he expected a more complex answer. He told the hermit "even a 5 year old knows that already!" and the hermit said "yes, but even an 80 year old man cannot do it."

Buddhism is not just a religion, it's a way to live your life. It's not just a code of conduct, with the end goal of peace on earth and heaven or hell. It's the idea that everything around us is part of an infinite cycle (including time), living things are all sentient and connected, and more importantly life as we know it is an illusion our individual senses have created. True happiness can only be achieved within us, and only after we shun away materials, wealth, greed, jealousy, and all forms of physical and emotional suffering. It's a guide, showing you the techniques for meditation, calmness of the mind and body which in turn will help us focus to end our suffering.

If I had to sum up Buddhism it would be this: suffering exists and it is felt by every living thing, but it can be overcome if you understand its source and how it manifests itself.

The 4 Noble Truths and the 8 Fold Path offer explanations to the world's injustices and inequalities, and together provide the core of Buddha's teachings. For a faith well over 2,500 years old, it's embraced by 300 million people worldwide because it still gives us answers to many of the problems we face in our modern material-driven societies.

4 Noble Truths:

1.) Life is suffering: life includes pain, ageing, disease and ultimately death. We also suffer emotionally: frustration, loneliness, jealousy, hatred, fear, embarrassment, anger, being apart from those we love and disappointment. Suffering touches every living thing.

Another proverb...

A woman once approached Buddha with the body of her dead child in her arms, begging him to bring her son back to life. The Buddha told her that if she could fetch mustard seeds he would bring life again, but the seeds had to come from a household that did not know death. She searched everywhere in her village, but could not find one home where loved ones were not lost. She returned to Buddha that evening and said "there is death in every family, everyone knows death. I understand your teaching." Buddha then replied "things are not always the way we want them to be, but we can learn to understand them. Like medicine, once you know the cause of your illness you can find the cure."

2.) Suffering is caused by cravings and desires: we suffer when other people don't meet OUR expectations, OUR needs. We suffer when people don't like us, or when they don't give us something we want. We only suffer, as long as we continue to want things. If we can stop the craving, stop the wants, all the disappointments and pain will no longer hurt us.

3.) Suffering can be overcome: true happiness can be achieved if we give up our useless cravings and learn to live one day at a time, not dwelling on the past or worrying about an imagined future. This is the first step to shedding your mind of negative thought and energy.

4.) The 8 Fold Path is the guide to end suffering: practice these 8 things every day, and you will find happiness. It takes a lot of energy and a lot of practice to constantly be mindful and aware of our thoughts and actions, but that's the point...nothing worth having is ever easy to acquire.

The 8 Fold Path:

1. Right view: try to see everything around you with compassion. Wrong views occur when we impose our expectations on our surroundings, we only see things for how they should be or how we fear them to be. We must abandon fear and hope to see things for what they really are.
2. Right thought: try to control your thoughts, and get rid of any negativity. We are what we think. So if we think clearly with kindness, that's exactly who we will become.
3. Right speech: after right thought, right speech can come naturally. Be kind and respectful when speaking to others...for this is how you gain respect and trust, and also limit suffering for others.
4. Right conduct: treat others as you would like to be treated yourself. Practice renunciation, get rid of the complications we cloud our relationships with.
5. Right livelihood: "Do not earn your living by harming others. Do not seek happiness by making others unhappy"- Buddha. Find happiness in even the smallest details of your work, for as long as you are not harming others you are doing good.
6. Right effort: sometimes we consider discipline on par with struggle, like training our bodies in rigorous workouts. This should not be the case with your spiritual discipline. Don't fight yourself, don't struggle unnecessarily. See things for what they are, and gently work with everything in your life.
7. Right mindfulness: always be aware of your thoughts, actions, words...be mindful of the tiniest detail in every experience whether it's performing your job duties, or loving your children.
8. Right concentration: this is meditation...Through meditation, we can see clearly if we are following all of the 7 points mentioned above...this is also your outlet, a space and gap in time, to find peace by completely ridding your mind of noise and traffic.

The concepts are so simple, but again so much energy is involved in keeping your focus. I'm an emotional person, I tend to react first then think. This is something I have to work on every day, controlling my impulsive reactions. So every evening, I try to take 20 minutes to sit in silence and meditate. First I meditate on my efforts for that day (am I following the 8 fold path?) then I try to think about nothing. I just empty my mind of all thoughts good or bad or worrisome and I practice sitting in silence...believe me, it's harder than it looks, but I do sleep better at night for it.

So what's the goal? The goal is to end suffering by realizing that we create our own suffering, and that the solutions to our problems are within ourselves, not outside. This is called nirvana, and the beautiful part about Buddhism is that anyone can become a Buddha. Buddha was not a god nor was he endowed with any special powers, he was a man...for Buddha simply translates to ' awakened one.'

Tips to help with meditation:

• sit in a comfy position with your back straight
• place hands in your lap with your left hand on the bottom
• keep eyes closed
• and concentrate on the tip of your nose...concentrate on your breaths since they are like a bridge between your body and your mind
• sit in the same place at the same time every day, and increase your sitting time little by little

If you would like to read more about Buddhism online I recommend using BuddhaNet as a great resource. I also recommend reading the Dalai Lama's Art of Happiness: through conversations with the Tibetan exiled Dalai Lama, the author explores Buddhist teachings in a modern world context.

Why do you think Buddhism has become so popular in Western culture in recent years?

You Can Save The World

Feeling Powerless To Save Our World?

I came across an interesting blogger today, a woman attempting to live her life entirely plastic-free. Beth at "Fake Plastic Fish" worries (rightly so) about plastics filling our oceans, environments being permanently destroyed by toxic chemicals and waste, as well as the personal health effects from our own daily use.

I read her "Plastic- Free Living Guide" and couldn't help but scoff the first time I saw her suggestions. Some of them are outrageous and seemingly impossible, especially where I am in Asia today. And then, I caught myself...I was being pessimistic, negative, accepting powerlessness and giving up before I even tried to give her ideas a chance.

Powerlessness is a tricky word. It often is confused with fatalism "what will be will be." But in fact, powerlessness is defined as a state of being in which we feel we lack personal control over certain situations or events that NEGATIVELY affect our lives, our lifestyles and our goals.

It is this feeling of powerlessness as individuals that limits our efforts and contributions towards creating a better world; sometimes we feel we don't have enough money, not enough time, or not enough of a voice to really make changes.

Problems in the world today are dire, never ending, that make us all feel helpless: war, world hunger, human trafficking, violence, poverty, animal abuse, discrimination, loss of environment and natural resources...we all know that we need to consume less, donate time and energy to others in need, but most of us lack 'the push' to action. This is feeling powerless as an individual.

Our apathy forces government and agencies to think for us and to provide solutions managed and distributed on a large scale; sometimes it works sometimes it doesn't. And yet, we forget that revolutions and memorable moments of change in human history are from stories of individuals, not always governments or mobs. Heroes were people, just like you and me, who one day decide to start a fight.

OK, I'm not saying Beth is a hero. I am saying, I've looked twice at her blog now and I feel inspired. She's just trying to start a revolution, to drastically resist the norms of today...she's fighting against Plastic, a fight that seems impossible to overcome and yet there she goes. I for one, admire it.

Powerlessness from a Buddhist perspective:

Last year, as a last ditch effort to protect the forests in Northern Thailand, I set out with a group of 15 volunteers to tie sacred Buddhist scarves around the trunks of Teak trees. The scarves were essentially a scare tactic: if you cut down a tree that's been blessed by a monk, you'll be unlucky in this life and the ones after.

This, the simplest of solutions obviously works since all throughout Thailand green forests reflect oranges, reds and deep browns from forest walking monks protecting nature where and when they can.

This got me thinking about Buddhism and conservation actually. In Buddhism, powerlessness doesn't really translate. The only kind of power that truly exists is power over ourselves. We can not control those around us, nor can we change the course of nature, we can only control the way we view ourselves within it.

Buddha said "All that we are is the result of what we have thought. The mind is everything. What we think we become." Our thoughts are the source of our happiness, pain, desires and eventually habits. Thoughts become words, words become actions, then actions become habits (for better or worse.) This is what I thought of when I caught myself being pessimistic. My own thoughts are the only things I can completely control, and I should better spend the energy to choose to think positively.

The point is, positive thinking. Control your thoughts and don't let pessimism and negativity force you into inaction. I alone act. I alone use less plastic. I alone use less water. I alone treat all sentient beings with love.

'I' can quickly become 'we', as individuals unknowingly become part of a community. Somewhere out there 'you' are using less water, 'you' use less plastic too. Even if we feel alone, acting as an individual, somewhere out there someone is trying to do exactly the same thing. Have faith that even if you act alone, you may not be.

While I may not be able to use a stainless steel ice cube tray, or make my own condiments, or seek out sanitary pads made from organic cotton in Asia, I will take some suggestions to heart and know that you will too. Individuals, be inspired, and you may find yourself unknowingly saving the world.

"Thousands of candles can be lit from a single candle, and the life of the candle will not be shortened. Happiness never decreases by being shared."- Buddha

--Thanks to my friend Madeleine for sharing this documentary with me: "No Impact Man" is about Colin Beavan, one man trying to live 1 year completely 'green' giving new meaning to the idea Practice What You Preach.

...Check out his blog here...