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Anyone who has known me for a while knows that I am interested in religion and spirituality and how different cultures practice their faiths. I just find it fascinating. In fact, should I ever actually get myself to college, I will make an effort to take a course in comparative religion.
I am by now means a theological scholar, but if there is one thing that seems to be true about the majority of the world's major religions is that they all speak of love and peace. And each have wonderful teachings and essential messages contained therein. But the one religion that has piqued my interest above all has been Buddhism.
Actually, I don't even consider Buddhism a religion. There is no God to pray to and, for those that aren't monks at least, there are no strict guidelines to abide by or sacred texts to memorize. To me, Buddhism is more a philosophy - a way of thinking and living life.
Now, I said there is no God to pray to in Buddhism, and this normally surprises people. "What about Buddha?" they ask. Buddha actually wasn't a God, nor did he ever claim to be. He was a human being named Siddhartha Gautama who believed he had found the key to inner happiness and shared it with people for the rest of his life. And, contrary to popular belief, he wasn't fat either. The fat Buddha statues are typically Chinese in origin and depict a monk named Hotei. A man who, in retrospect, was very much like our modern day Santa Claus. He was fat, jolly, and he carried around a sack of toys and candy that he would give out to children along his journeys. But this is all beside the point.
What attracted me to Buddhism was its very simple and direct way of teaching the ending of suffering. In Tibetan culture, suffering is known as "dukkha." Dukkha is really just about anything that makes us feel down. It is much more expansive than simple sadness or melancholy. It encapsulates envy, boredom, etc. along with depression and frustration. Dukkha. It's a cool word.
The Buddha said you can put an end to suffering. He laid it out in his first teaching, entitled "The Four Noble Truths." The first truth, he said, is that Life is Dukkha. Suffering is simply a part of life. So, the first thing you must do is accept that. Do not try to run from it. The second truth was that suffering is caused by attachment to desires. Attachment, again, is a word in Buddhist culture that means much more than the western world perceives it as. Attachment can mean an acute fondness for a pair of pants, a piece of jewelry, etc. But it also means, in the simplest terms I can gather right now, to associate your well-being with something else. For instance, let's go back to the pair of pants, just to use something simple. They try on a pair of jeans. They think they look good in them. They star to say to themselves they want the jeans. They have to have them. If I don't get them, I will be upset. This is attachment. Much more than a pair of pants, though, it can be reflected in possessions of all kinds, even things like feelings and people.
The third noble truth was that there was a specific path to follow to end this attachment and suffering. The fourth noble truth, then, was the path itself: The Eight-fold path. Also known sometimes as the Middle Way.
The Buddha learned in his earlier life the dangers caused through excessive self-gratification and self-renunciation. Young Siddhartha was a prince. Heir to the throne of the Shakyamuni Tribe. But after years of sheltering, like most young men and women, thought there must be more to life than this before me. After sneaking out of the palace with a friend, and seeing the death, disease, and suffering outside the gates, he decided to leave home and find truth; find enlightenment.
He first fell in with a pack of ascetics. Ascetics practice a strict form of self deprivation, sometimes even self-torture, in order to get closer to God. Siddhartha punished himself with a lack of food (usually a single grain of rice per day) to find truth. Well, he soon found that there was nothing particularly enlightening about starving oneself. The ascetics ridiculed him and eventually he wandered off, finally finding himself at the base of a large tree called the Bodhi tree. He decided he would sit under it and rest and vowed to not leave until he figured out the secret to this enlightenment and truth business. He took some rice and milk from a passing goat herder and sat in meditation. The answer hit him. That answer was, in essence, the eightfold path.
Right Speech, Right Action, Right Livelihood are the first three steps. Basically, do not harm yourself or others with words, do not harm yourself or others with needless actions, and choose a means to make a living that does no harm to others. In other words, do the right thing.
Right effort, Right mindfulness, Right meditation are the next three steps and are focused more on the training of your mind. Right effort is about putting your energy into things that are uplifting and make you happy. But not at the expense of others, of course. Right effort means not having selfish desires or indulging in old bad habits. Right mindfulness means to be aware of your feelings and being honest with yourself about them without a need to pretend. Right meditation, then, is about sitting quietly with yourself and letting those thoughts drift away so that you can be entirely present in this very moment, away from the clinging to the past or obsessions about the future because, in this moment, they don't exist. For many people, this is the toughest aspect of the path. Control of one's own mind is often the most difficult thing to master.
Right view and Right intention are the last two steps on the Eightfold Path and each play a role in the wisdom aspect of the journey. Right view is seeing through the illusion of separate self, your ego, or other illusionary doctrines your mind can create. It is about accepting the here and now for what it is and responding appropriately. Right intention means following the path in an effort to increase your wisdom and compassion. Doing this is what being enlightened is all about. There is no magic or mystery to it when it's broken down. Sit silently with yourself with good intentions and have compassion and you ARE a Buddha.
What is funny about the Eightfold Path is that it is not even necessary to memorize the steps. One of the most revered Buddhis scholars, a man named D.T. Suzuki (responsible for instroducing many in the west to Zen practice) often forgot them while giving his Dharma talks. The students would laugh, I'm sure. Here is this Buddhist monk and he can't even recite the Eightfold Path? Suzuki would say "Ah, don't worry. It's not important." And he's right. It is not important to remember Right view from Right Mindfulness. The path is everything, yes, but you don't need to know what you are following and when you're following it. The goal is to be so in tune with it that each step is happening all at once. What good in the memorization if you don't follow it?
So that is why I am interested in Buddhism. It teaches exactly how to help yourself to lead a better, more fulfilling life free from delusion and suffering.
Another thing I like about it is that it does not require your undying loyalty or for you to accept anything as it is stated. The Buddha was actually a great skeptic himself. And he told his students to try his teachings and, if they didn't work for them, to cast them aside. Instead of leaving them, however, they flocked to him to hear more. The freedom to practice with other faiths, even in conjunction with Buddhism, can feel very liberating.
Anyway, this was just a small sample of the many, many teachings that incorporate Buddhism. But, before I post this, I must say I am not a Buddhist. I am greatly interested in it and I have applied a good deal of what I have learned to my own life. But seeing the commitments others before me have made, to not only the Buddha, but to his teachings and the community it created, I would pale in comparison. Until I can make that kind of commitment to further study and immersion, I am just Jason.
Thank you for your time and interest in reading this. If you have any questions, or any comments you would like to add about Buddhism or perhaps your own studies with it, feel free. Or perhaps you want to start a thread to talk about your spiritual interests? Go for it! But for now, I must post this message and get off the computer. I have something very spiritual to do - I have to mop the kitchen floor.
Goodnight!
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