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Showing posts from September, 2017

Critical Mass: Will Authentic Buddhism Please Stand Up?

I'm fortunate to be part of a very tight-knit cycling community.  Once a month, we do something called a critical mass ride in which several hundred cyclists get to together and "take over" the streets.  It started off as a protest in the early 90's as a way to bring attention to the cyclists that were being killed by hit and run drivers, and advocate for more bike lanes and trails within city limits.   However, it's become mainstream in recent years, and the droves of hippies and punks cruising down the street on upcycled bikes have some surprising company riding with them.  There are grandmas that participate every month, and soccer mom's that carry a toddler on their bike racks.  There are "tall boy" riders who have custom-made bikes that stand 10 feet tall. And there are spandex-wearing account executives who only break out their bikes on the weekends; if it's not raining.   That being said, as different as all of these rid

Oneness: How We Can Achieve Community Harmony

This Saturday, I'm participating in a panel discussion with a group of faith leaders at the Heartfulness Meditation Center in Cleveland.  The theme of the event is "Achieving Community Harmony Amongst Various Traditions and Paths." It's a noble idea; getting everyone to live and work together in peace.  And I've spent the last two weeks agonizing over what I'll contribute to the discussion.  After lots of meditation, and a few sleepless nights this is what I came up with: Buddhism teaches us that everything exists simultaneously in two separate planes of existence.  There is the relative world that we are all very familiar with, and then there is the absolute world.  In the relative world, our mind creates distinctions between everything.  There is man and there is woman.  There is good and there is bad.  There is light and there is dark.  Essentially, the relative world is a world of opposites. On the other hand, everything is a part of Oneness

What Dogs Taught Me About Buddhist Practice

I have a confession to make. I'm not a dog person. It's not that I dislike dogs; quite the opposite.  I grew up with them, and I think the world would be a better place if people as whole were more dog-like.  But dogs require a lot of time and patience.  They need to be walked, and played with, and they take up more than their fair-share of the bed at night.  Dogs are wonderful. But they're also a very big commitment.  That being said, I am literally surrounded by canines.  All of my siblings have dogs, and the same goes for my parents.  Even my room mate has a dog.  As a result, I spend a lot of time dog-sitting for the people in my life.  I feed their fur babies when they go out of town, I walk their pets when they have to work late, and I share my home with four-legged friends when ever the situation requires. Currently, I'm watching my sister's dog.  He'll be with me for at least a month while she gets settled in graduate school.  Having him

Selfishness: The Key To Long-Term Happiness

Before he discovered the middle-way, Buddha searched for happiness in a variety of ways. In his early life, he was a hedonist. As the son of a wealthy warlord, Buddha was given access to the best of everything as a child. Women, wealth, and fine food were always at his finger tips. He excelled at sports, and he seemed destined to rule over a great kingdom once his father died.  But while this lifestyle gave him a great deal of short-term satisfaction, it didn't lend itself to a feeling of peace or fulfillment, so he left the palace in search of something else. Next, he practiced asceticism in his quest for spirituality.  Eventually he reached a point where he was eating only a single grain of rice a day, and he was so thin that he could poke his stomach and feel his spine.  He continued on this path until one day he passed out from the physical torment that he was experiencing.  Once again, Buddha realized that this path wasn't giving him the long-term happiness th

A Guaranteed Method for Entering the Buddhist Pureland

One thing that always struck me about Buddhist cosmology was how the gods are treated in various texts.  In some schools, the god realms are seen as literal places where people go based on the karma they accumulate before dying.  In other schools, they are seen more as archetypes that convey symbolic truths and act as teaching tools.  In any event, every school seems to think that we as humans should pity the gods. This seems strange on the surface.  Why would we pity beings with perfect teeth, perfect health, and perfect lives?  The Buddhist answer is that being a god is undesirable because gods don't suffer.  And without suffering, they have no opportunities to practice the dharma.  In fact, I've often heard it said that suffering is the mother of the Buddha.  And I believe this is both literally and figuratively true.  Buddha, Shinran, Dogen and a host of other Buddhist patriarchs all had some sort of tragedy in their past that drove them to the cushion.  Could they