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Showing posts from March, 2017

Peaceful Suffering: How Buddhism Helps Me Cope With Anxiety

Having anxiety means that my brain always jumps to the worst-case scenario in any situation.  If I lose my keys, I'm convinced that a sociopath is going to find them, come into the house, and kill me in my sleep.  If I text someone and they don't reply back right away, I wonder if I've offended them, and start thinking of ways to make amends.  These types of thoughts run through my head from the moment I wake up in the morning until the moment I go to sleep at night, and they're exhausting. Thankfully, Zen Buddhism has provided me with a series of teachings which help me cope with this emotional angst.  They are as follows: 1.  Seated meditation is important-  When I first started practicing, sitting for just 5 minutes without squirming or checking the time was a struggle.  However, I now sit for 20-30 minutes every day.  I've found that doing this has created a greater space between my thoughts and my emotional responses.  The more I meditate, the be

Donald Trump Is A Great Buddhist Teacher

     My jaw clenches as I read the headline, "White House Says Cutting Meals On Wheels Is Compassionate" A fire burns in my chest as I continue reading, and soon it feels like I can barely breathe.  "So we can spend 14 billion on a wall, but we can't feed old people!" I scream at my laptop.  My breathing becomes rapid and adrenaline pulses through my muscles.  I want to punch something.  I want to burn things down.  Angrily, I standup and begin pacing around the room.  Cursing under my breath, I imagine elderly people sitting alone in their houses; their stomachs growling as the food they've depended on for years never comes.  My anger hits a fever-pitch.  And right when I think I can't take it anymore... I stub my toe on a chair.        The pain tears through my body like a bullet and wipes my mind clean.  In that moment, I look around the room and come to a realization.  I'm alone in the house.  No one is impressed by my temper tantrum. 

Enlightenment Is Simple. But I Want It To Be Hard

Enlightenment is one of the great mysteries of spiritual practice. Do we attain enlightenment or do we realize it? Is it a higher plane of existence or a deeper understanding of our ordinary existence?  More importantly, how do you know if a teacher is truly enlightened?! These are all questions that I’ve wrestled with throughout my time as a meditation practitioner.  Different traditions answer these questions in different ways, so I doubt a final consensus will ever be found. As a result, I’ve come to think of enlightenment as just another concept that we scared, frail humans use to try and make sense of world that seems cold and unappealing at times. For my part, I’ve practiced in Zen centers where even mentioning the world enlightenment was forbidden. In contrast, I've also been told that realizing enlightenment is as easy as going to the movies.  I’ve even read a book by one teacher who was insistent that there is no such thing as enlightenment, and Zen is a was