lotusinthemud

Some Points about Self Power and Other Power

Dharmavidya writes:

SELF POWER LEADS TO OTHER POWER

The objective of self power is to extinguish itself. Self power Buddhism is a kind of extinction Buddhism: by the power of the self to bring the self to a zero condition. When the self is zero, all that is not self (i.e. other) is infinite. Thus, in principle, success on the self power path would lead to other power and this is often the case in the lives of actual saints. Many of the great Pureland masters began on a self power path.

EASY AT THE BEGINNING

Self power practice is easy at the beginning, but becomes more and more difficult as one proceeds, tending to infinite difficulty as one approaches the goal. Thus self power ultimately leads to a crucially important experience of despair. On the other side of this despair one discovers other power.

Self power is relatively easy at the beginning because it is possible to train oneself and to give up unwholesome habits. Thus one sees some results. One also learns to bring some balance and stability to the mind and this is useful in a host of situations, keeping panic at bay. One learns some wisdom and it stands one in good stead. All of these gains and benefits are, however, essentially, worldly and still serve to support the self-ego. In a way the ego is polishing itself rather than diminishing itself. The practitioner is encouraged by seeing benefits but, if he or she has a sincere spiritual intention, feels an unease that they are perfecting self rather than getting beyond it. Others simply settle for a package of practices that benefit worldly life.

EGO STRIKES BACK

Furthermore, the ego strikes back in subtle ways, ways that we generally call spiritual materialism. One becomes attached to and proud of one’s practice - the practice that supposedly is about giving up attachment and pride. Issues and patterns of compulsiveness that one thinks one has dealt with reemerge in new guise. This may be experienced as a great struggle with temptation, or, more commonly, the practitioner starts to run on two tracks, taking time out from practice for indulgence.

When one is relying upon oneself to overcome oneself things get increasingly difficult as one proceeds. In order to get free of the self there has to be a fulcrum point outside the self. To break the domination of the self complex it is no good relying upon constructions derivative from it. One needs something other. This is why the great religions turn us to the spiritual world that is beyond.

IS ONE'S OTHER TRULY OTHER?

Whether one’s conception of other power is called God or Buddha or Tao does not matter very much. It has been there all along, will always be and does not mind what you call it.

The challenge here is whether or not one’s other power is truly other and truly pure. The ego will play its tricks on the other power path too, trying always to bring the other power under its control.

For the spiritual practitioner this can take the form of the belief that if one adopts this or that practice one can thereby force other power to give one what one wants. This is manipulation - the path of magic. On both self power and other power paths, the adage “Don’t manipulate” has widespread application.

To fully accept that other power is OTHER defeats the ego. This is a matter of entrustment or refuge. “I entrust myself to the Buddha; I entrust myself to the Dharma. May they do with me as they will.”

NATURALLY

In the far eastern understanding, this is all closely associated with the idea of naturalness, that the Taoists call wei wu wei, which we could translate as “acting without posing”: to respond to the miscellaneous occurrences of daily life in a manner that involves spontaneously acting but not putting on an act. In other words, we are back to not manipulating again.

The truth will set us free. This is true in a variety of ways. Self is illusion and distortion. To live without that distortion is simply to respond to the objective situation, which is to act naturally. To do so is to move within the infinite world of otherness whose parameters are beyond one’s comprehension: a life of awe.

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Shariputra Said ~ Dharmavidya

Dharmavidya writes:

Shariputra said: "Herein a monk lives spreading thoughts of goodwill in all directions. He lives spreading them everywhere, in every way, to the entire world, abundantly, boundlessly, unrestictedly, peaceably, benevolently. He lives spreading thoughts of compassion, sympathetic joy and equanimity in the same way. This is called limitless mental freedom. Thus a monk transcends the realm of infinite consciousness and reaches and experiences the realm of nothingness. This is called mental freedom that is nothingness…. This is void of self or anything that is of the nature of self. This is called mental freedom that is empty.” 

This passage helps us to understand

• the nature of the seemingly obscure terms ‘realm of infinite consciousness’ and ‘realm of nothingness'
• the nature of liberation or mental freedom 
• the relationship between the Brahma Viharas and the higher dhyanas.

Emptiness or voidness - shunyata - in the Buddhist sense is clearly not a kind of passive vacuity of mind, but rather the functioning of complete altruism that occurs when there is nothing of self functioning. This is objectivity, undistorted by greed, hate and delusion. Shariputra goes on to say that it is greed, hate and delusion that are the limitations upon freedom of mind. In Buddhism, greed, hate and delusion are the components of self. When self is absent the mind naturally radiates goodwill in all directions.

We can see from this that the higher dhyanas are not limited to what happens when one is sitting cross-legged on the floor. Spreading goodwill in all directions is a recipe for an engaged life just as much as for a contemplative one and both have their place.

We can also see that the teaching on the four Brahma Viharas - love, compassion, joy and equanimity - is not something separate from the cultivation of dhyanas. It is not the case that these are two serparate meditations with different methods and goals. The higher dhyanas are the Brahma Viharas and vice versa. 

Consciousness becomes infinite when there is goodwill toward all. This is unconditional positive regard. The realm of nothingness is the condition of being free of ego. This is congruent empathy. We can readily see how this teaching unites the ideals of the arahant (free from ego) and bodhisattva (full of altruism) making them two sides of the same coin. To be an arahant and to be a bodhisattva are like the steps in walking. Each follows the other endlessly.

It is good to contemplate these high ideals, even though one may admit that one does not, in reality, fulfil them. Still they open to us the nature of Buddha, the nature of Dharma and the nature of true Sangha and these are good things to carry in our hearts.

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Buddhist Action Month 2019: Climate Action – Personal Action

Buddhist Action Month 2019

Climate Action – Personal Action

:: link to download your own copy

BAM Handbook Ideas, Tips, Inspiration

Ver. 2

Contents

2019 Theme .....................................................................................................................................................

3 A Buddhist Approach .......................................................................................................................................

4 Some more about Buddhist Action Month.......................................................................................................

5 Who are the Network of Buddhist Organisations UK (NBO).............................................................................

6 What Can I Do? ................................................................................................................................................

7 Suggestions for BAM Activities ......................................................................................................................

15 Appendix 1: The Language of Climate Change ...............................................................................................

18Appendix 2: Letter to the Earth......................................................................................................................

21 Appendix 3 : Resources for our times ............................................................................................................

23 Appendix 4: Other Groups .............................................................................................................................

26 Appendix 5: Verses for inspiration .................................................................................................................

27 Acknowledgments .........................................................................................................................................31

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2019 Theme

The Network of Buddhist Organisations has chosen the theme Climate Action – Personal Action for Buddhist Action Month 2019.

In the last 50 years the average global temperature has risen at the fastest rate in recorded history.1

This rising temperature has fuelled the extreme weather patterns and events that we are becoming more familiar with. Climate change has created droughts that lead to forest fires, and floods that wipe out homes and habitats and lives.

As the temperature in the oceans increases tropical storms gather more energy and create more destruction.2

“Climate change is devastating people's lives all over the world. With drought, storms,floods, crop damage and sea-level rise, millions are fleeing their homes. And it's the world’spoorest who are hardest hit.

The UN Refugee Agency says climate change adds to many of today’s conflicts — fromDarfur to Somalia to Iraq and Syria.”3

According to a recent study burning fossil fuels is now the “most significant threat tochildren’s health”4

The first teaching of the Buddha was the Four Noble Truths. How can we form a Noble response to climate change?

Supported by the teachings of the Buddha and our teachers through the ages we begin to inhabit the good qualities the Buddha described: generosity, ethics, wisdom, compassion and so on.

Supported by experts in climate change and environmental work, we can bring these qualities to actions that make a difference.

We can educate others, change our individual habits and take collective action.

1 https://climate.nasa.gov/evidence/ 21/02/2019
2 https://www.nrdc.org/stories/global-warming-101 21/02/2019
3 https://friendsoftheearth.uk/climate-change 21/02/2019
4 Perera F, Pollution from Fossil-Fuel Combustion is the Leading Environmental Threat to

Global Pediatric Health and Equity: Solutions Exist, Int J Environ Res Public Healthhttps://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/29295510

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A Buddhist Approach

What is a Buddhist approach to responding to the climate crisis?

In February 2019 members of different Buddhist groups came together at an NBO facilitated event in London. Shared values that emerged from conversations at that event include:

•   Compassion for self, others and planet, love of humanity

•   Having responsibility for our actions and their consequences

•   Truthfulness, non-greed and non-harmfulness

•   Responsivity not reactivity

•   Wanting to hold space for reflection rather than rushing in

•   Becoming aware of our underling motives to act

•   Aiming to avoid polarisation: the middle way

McMindfulness: Dharmavidya

Dharmavidya writes:

I have been reading Ron Purser’s new book, McMindfulness: How mindfulness became the new capitalist spirituality, published by Repeater, London, an imprint of Watkins Media and distributed in the USA by Random House, New York.

Mindfulness, in its modern guise, has been over sold and now comes the recoil. There are three main lines of criticism: firstly, that mindfulness as now branded, is not real mindfulness as originally put forward in Buddhist texts or even in traditional English character training; secondly, that it plays into the individualised, consumerist, capitalist ideology that is the bane of modern society, and, thirdly, especially in its training to inhibit emotional reactivity and its promotion of non-judgementalism, it can serve unethical purposes, most notably increasing the killing efficiency of soldiers and even of terrorists.

Purser’s book covers all three and gives most space to the second - he is, after all, a management teacher - arguing that mindfulness, especially corporate mindfulness programmes, are a form of humanised coercion. It also, however, attacks its philosophical basis, its marketing methods, its apparent alliance with conservative capitalist values, calls into question the dubious rationale of teaching mindfulness to school children, highlights the irrelevance of mindfulness to the real social and ecological problems facing humanity, and points out how mindfulness has become a lucrative industry in its own right by exploiting claims to scientific solutions for contemporary anxieties, claims that have only very weak support from genuine science.

He writes:
“Under the prevailing neoliberal consensus, economic policy serves the interests of capital. Individuals bear the brunt of the consequences, and are told to treat their wounds with the practice of mindfulness. The practice also teaches self-discipline, so they mindfully learn to compete for opportunities. This is presented as freedom” (p.227)
and
“the mindfulness movement’s reinforcement of Western individualism seems more like an entitled, self-centered, and myopic path to happiness. A stress-free life is ours for the taking, within a protective bubble that screens out the cries of the world. The products are marketed as providing more fulfilling and sensual experiences, not the development of virtue, ethical behavior, moral courage, and compassion.” (p.76)

Ron Pursers book is a trenchant critique of the current vogue for mindfulness as personal enhancement and as a means to coping with the stress of living in the presently dominant capitalist system. As a kind of capitalist pseudo-religion that individualises distress in such a way as to lead people to ignore its social causes, mindfulness is powerfully counter-revolutionary. As a technique stripped of all ethical foundation and categorically non-judgemental it not only leads to acceptance of the status quo, but also betrays its Buddhist roots. In Buddhism, mindfulness was an essential element in the rejection of the greed, hate and delusion system, whereas in the modern rendition it is a distraction that facilitates the participation of individuals in that system.

It is a highly readable, fast-moving book castigating the market-friendly palliative now called mindfulness and pointing out its relationship to the ubiquitous delusions of the current age where corporate greed, societal animosities and oppression, and capitalist and nationalist delusions can pass as normal and not be upsetting so long as one non-judgementally pay attention only to the present moment or eat a grape with full attention.

It asks the awkward questions: Why are conservative institutions, governments and even the military so interested? Does the sudden promotion of mindfulness have anything to do with the economic flat-lining of the last more than a decade? Is mindfulness rewiring us to serve the requirements of neoliberalism? Is it a program for destroying any collective consciousness that could impede pure market logic? Is it an anaesthetic that helps individuals sleep better while society goes from bad to worse? Is it, as Žižek says, part of the hegemonic ideology of global capitalism?

Actually, you do not need to be an anti-capitalist to see the disadvantages of the current form of mindfulness. It could just as well be used to lull individuals into apathy about international socialism, the gulag and operation of the secret police. The main point is that it leads the individual to see the source of all stress as within oneself and thus to ignore socio-political and economic factors. This is true even at an individual level - mindfulness will not pay your gas bill nor save you from eviction; just help you to accept it more meekly and, worse, do less to prevent it in the first place.

In all political systems there is the problem of how to render the population governable. Mindfulness is presented as personal liberation but, Purser suggests, is more accurately seen as part of the system of establishing in people a governable mentality, rendering them more biddable, less troublesome and easier to control. It enables the exploiters of the world to have a free hand while their victims blame themselves for their own lack of happiness.

A variant of this same problem is how to keep people working and exerting themselves for enterprises in which they only receive a tiny proportion of the profit. This problem has become more acute since the economic downturn of 2008 since when ever-increasing incomes and living standards seem no longer guaranteed. If employees are losing heart, can mindfulness persuade them that this is their fault? Can it give them a supposed self-help distraction so that the spread of work alienation can be contained? Can the problem be medicalised?

Modern mindfulness promotion goes hand in hand with the invention of a range of new pseudo-pathologies. Far from making people happier, this makes them feel more anxious and guilty. Mind wandering, (i.e. free floating imagination), failing to live in the present moment (i.e. reminiscing, planning, ruminating, speculating), being preoccupied when something worrying is happening, letting one’s emotions get the better of one, and so on, are not pathological, even if they do not fit the contemporary strictures of mindful living; they are natural, useful functions provided by nature, like sleep and dreaming. Under the influence of the mindfulness movement, however, these are all starting to become illnesses - or, as they used to say in the old days, sins, - about which one should feel guilty because one has not been mindful enough to prevent them.

Above all, in modern society we see the pathologizing and medicalization of stress, which then requires a remedy and expert treatment. Stress, however, is the natural and proper response of the organism to external forces and should be used to identify and do something about those forces. Medicalising it simply leads to ignorance of its true function and inappropriate passivity.

Mindfulness is the latest twist in the positive thinking and self-help movement with all its serious dangers of cultivating self-delusion, social irresponsibility, and failure to see things in their true perspective. It has taken this movement to a higher level of popularity by building upon now widely propagated ideas about stress. The stressed person is seen as a victim: weak, vulnerable, and biologically ill-equipped for the daily pressures of modern life, yet not in a position to do anything about them. The modern person can readily feel him or herself to be a victim, but a disempowered one. Mindfulness appeals to this mentality, seeming to provide a survival method for people in such a plight.

The original mindfulness (Pali: sati, Sanskrit: smriti) as found in Buddhism refers to good heartedness informed by received wisdom. It is a function of well-cultivated memory and sound experience. It never was “the awareness that arises from paying attention, on purpose, in the present moment, and non-judgmentally.” Such awareness has a place in Buddhism, but it is a secondary one, only safe to use when real mindfulness is already established. Without good heartedness, such awareness could serve any number of evil purposes. Real mindfulness serves to prepare one for and protect one against what might befall in the present moment, and it provides a foundation for thought, feelings and actions that serve the common good. This is a long way distant from what has been made of it in the contemporary consumerist market place. The original was a foundation for a courageous rejection of the values of acquisitiveness, selfishness and domination, designed to release the person from any sense of victimhood and transform him or her into a spiritual warrior striving for a more noble set of values.

The conversion of the original Buddhist mindfulness into the so-called mindfulness of today is an adaptation to a world that feels out of control. Many will criticise capitalism and/or socialism, but none seem to have a solution to the problems of over population, eco-crisis, social and economic inequality and the increasing vulnerability of an overly interconnected world to whatever shock may arrive next. Mindfulness seems to say, “Since you cannot solve these problems, just live for today, concentrate on the present moment, forget and don’t look ahead.” It advocates dwelling in a “non-discursive state”, which really means “don’t think about it.” Is this not a recipe for lemmings?

Mindfulness in its modern guise began as an aid for patients suffering conditions for which there was no Westerner medical solution. Now it has escaped from its medical beginnings and spread like wildfire through society. However, what remains of the original Buddhist concept is now so heavily laden with Western cultural accretions (individualism consumerism, competitive advantage, me-ism, comercialisation, advertising hype, etc.) and baggage (pseudo-science, marketing, medicalisation, materialism, reductionism, co-option by corporate interests) as to be hardly recognisable. Will this non-religious religion really be what enables humanity to survive the next two centuries, or is it a fad that will soon be overtaken by the next supposed panacea? Time will tell.

Purser would like to see mindfulness reformed into a social consciousness - “bearing witness to shared vulnerabilities, actively acknowledging social suffering, collective trauma and other cultural experiences of oppression” - that recaptures some of its original meaning of remembrance and, in particular, remembering of the causes and origins of our discontents leading to collective action to do something about them.

The author clearly has a leftist political agenda in mind. Even this may well prove inadequate given the difficulties that the human race currently faces, but his critique of mindfulness as currently retailed certainly gives one pause and invites serious thought.

Summary

An attention grabbing and forceful critique of the over-blown claims of the mindfulness movement, especially in its corporately sponsored form.

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The Nembutsu Pure Land Chant Is a Buddhist Way to Foster Gratitude ~ Dharmavidya

Dharmavidya:

Pure Land practice is simple. It doesn’t require that the practitioner be learned in Buddhist thought or exceptional in moral virtue, meditation, or spiritual discipline. It is suitable for those with busy lives, and it is as suitable for those who are struggling with self-destructive habits or feelings of despondency, anger, sadness, or confusion as it is for those who are full of joy in living. It connects us with the beauty in the world, is full of art and poetry, fosters gratitude for all we receive, and restores basic faith.

The origins of Pure Land practice lie in Shakyamuni’s teachings to laypeople and the devotion that people felt toward him during and after his lifetime. The great popularizers of this approach—Shan Tao in 7th-century China and Honen Shonin in 12th-century Japan, and their teachers, disciples, and associates—were people who lived exemplary Buddhist lives and knew the whole range of Buddhist teachings, yet chose to emphasize an approach to practice that was accessible to the ordinary person, no matter what their circumstance, personal virtue, gender, status, or history was. These teachers lived in dark times and offered hope.

Honen Shonin saw his father killed in civil war. He worried about the fate of his mother, who was a Korean immigrant. He was shocked by what he saw of human brutality in the Hogen uprising (1156). He understood that many people were trapped in oppressive social conditions they could do little or nothing about. He instituted the nembutsu, the recitation of the Buddha’s name, as a practice of solidarity with and solace for the oppressed.

How can we put ourselves in relationship with unconditional love and live a life that is open, spontaneous, compassionate, and full of trust?

The questions at the heart of Pure Land Buddhism are perennial and universal: How can we put ourselves in relationship with unconditional love and live a life that is open, spontaneous, compassionate, and full of trust, given that we are only ordinary human beings living in a world that is, as Buddha said, on fire with greed, hate, and delusion? We ourselves are not immune: we are part of this world. How can we entrust ourselves to a way that goes beyond the worries and small-minded concerns that clutter ordinary existence and be part of something greater that contributes to the welfare of all sentient beings, when our capacity is so limited and we are already corrupted by beginningless karma?

THREE CORE ELEMENTS

In Pure Land Buddhism, the great unconditional love that we intuit is embodied in Amida, the Buddha of Infinite Life and Light. In Mahayana Buddhism, of which Pure Land is a part, there is a strong sense that the being of Buddha is not something limited to a single place and time but is universally present and available, inspiring and benefitting us. This is known as the Buddha’s sambhoghakaya aspect. In Pure Land, enlightenment is not so much something to be achieved by personal attainment but rather something that constantly bathes us, a light for the world already given by the boundless presence of buddhas and their teachings.

Then, in contradistinction to this inspiring intuition, Pure Land practice also begins with a recognition that in oneself, one does not perfectly embody such wisdom and compassion; that as a matter of fact and daily evidence, we are deluded beings, emotionally vulnerable and prone to all kinds of errors. This is the state that ordinary people recognize when they say, “I’m only human.” In Japanese it is our bombu nature. In this sense we are literally “foolish beings,” and it is this humble self-recognition that is the second foundation of Pure Land practice.

Putting these two things together—recognition of universal love on the one hand and of our own limited nature on the other—we may suddenly experience a shift, or even a shock. Here we are, prone to greed, hate, and delusion in all their many forms, often acting selfishly and making mistakes, sometimes with dire consequences, yet from the perspective of universal compassion, loved and accepted just as we are. In the language of Pure Land Buddhism, we are accepted by the love of the buddhas, Amida Buddha in particular. In Pure Land practice we recite the Buddha’s name to express our feeling about this, especially our gratitude and wonderment.

These, then, are the three foundations of Pure Land practice. First, to recognize the universal presence. Second, to face our own limited nature. Third, to express wonderment through calling out the name of the Buddha. As we continue with such practice, the calling, as it were, turns around and turns us around. We start to experience it not so much as me calling to the Buddha, but more and more as Buddha calling me. Pure Land Buddhism is, therefore, a “calling” in both senses of the word. It is a practice of calling out, and it is also a sense of being called—a practice that shapes one’s life and provides a spiritual security that transcends even birth and death.

PRACTICING THE NEMBUTSU WAY

There are many ways to call the Buddha’s name, and throughout the Buddhist world devotees do so in one way or another. It may be “Namo Buddhaya,” “Namo Tassa,” or “Buddham saranam gacchami.” In China it may be “Omito Fo” and in Japan “Namo Amida Butsu.” In the West this last tends to be Anglicized as “Namo Amida Bu” in order to preserve the six-syllable form of many Japanese chants. This method of calling the Buddha’s name is known as nembutsu.

The term nembutsu means “mindfulness of Buddha.” Namo Amida Bu means “I call upon measureless Buddha.” However, in reality this practice is not an intellectual or cognitive assertion; it is an expression of sentiment and a way of opening one’s heart to receive. When one recites the nembutsu it is an expression of gratitude and wonderment but also an expression of whatever spiritual feeling is arising at that time. In this sense it is an offering of oneself and a reception of grace. Reciting nembutsu is a two-way street connecting you with Buddha. It is not a straitjacket, not an attempt to squeeze oneself into a prescribed form or arrive at a prespecified state of mind. Each time one says the nembutsu, something different may arise. Whatever one is, one offers, and one receives what one needs. The hallmark of Pure Land is great acceptance, and one of the most difficult things may be to accept that one is already accepted.

Nembutsu can be said, called, chanted, or expressed in any of a great many different ways, rhythms, forms, melodies, and formats, in groups, in big, beautiful formal ceremonies, or while out on one’s own having a walk. Something good happens, “Namo Amida Bu.” Something bad happens, “Namo Amida Bu.” Stuck at traffic lights, “Namo Amida Bu.” Meeting another practitioner, “Namo Amida Bu.” As one gets into it, other practices also start to become forms of nembutsu. Bowing is nembutsu with the body. Acts of generosity are nembutsu for others. Visiting a shrine is nembutsu, because it brings us into mindfulness of Buddha.

What we are talking about is not really a technique but more an approach or orientation. It involves a positive use of imagination and a mobilization of emotion. The whole person is accepted. Pure Land is expressive and poetic. It encompasses the fullness and the pathos of life. It is sometimes said that Pure Land is for those of us who have already failed at more disciplined, ascetic, or demanding approaches, who are perhaps too sensitive, or too artistic, or too ordinary for the more heroic paths. Just say the nembutsu, and keep on saying it, and see.

One thing that we may well see is that insofar as we do take on board the sense that we are accepted even as we are, we tend to become more accepting of others. After all, they are flawed and fallible human beings just as we are, and they are up against the same samsaric difficulties burdened with their own karma, just as we are. We become more sympathetic to the failings of others. We feel loved and more able to love others in return. This is the foundation of true compassion and fellow feeling, which is the universal flavor of the dharma. When we take up the Pure Land orientation, the failures and tragedies that occur confirm rather than shake our faith.

Time to fall
is time to float
for a lotus blossom
     –Zuigen Inagaki

In order to start the practice, you don’t need a clear idea of exactly what Amida is or how nembutsu works. Don’t inhibit your imagination, intuition, or emotion. This is not a creed or a dogma; it is a style. You can generate a sense of Amida as an unfolding wholesome energy, as the spirit that moved the Buddha to live a good life, or as unconditional love, but don’t worry about precision or accuracy. If you just have the sense that nembutsu might be a good thing and do it trusting that it will do its work, that is fine. In fact, it is more than fine, and for a special reason. Where many spiritual practices are about becoming more and more conscious, alert, and sharply aware and precise, Pure Land is more a matter of letting the spiritual sense sink down into one’s unconscious. It is not really that we do the practice so much as that the practice works on us, and it does so quietly, in the background, little by little transforming one’s life. Try it. If it works for you, keep going!

A good way to start practicing nembutsu may be to chant “Namo Amida Bu” for five minutes, once or twice a day. That’s it. You can either say the words or listen to a recording of the chant, which you can find online. Feel free to chant along with audio, or chant alone and vary the speed or pitch to suit your own voice. Some people feel self-conscious when they first start chanting, or worry about whether they’re getting it “right.” These feelings will likely fade after a few days [see “Getting Started” for more tips on beginning your practice].

If it helps, you can also simply incorporate nembutsu into daily life. The founders were aware that many ordinary Chinese or Japanese people would have to do their practice while planting rice seedlings or sailing a boat. In our case it might be mowing the lawn or driving the car.

 

One can’t say exactly how this wholesome energy will affect you—it will depend upon what you need.

Then again, as in any practice, it is good, if possible, to associate with other practitioners. In East Asia this is easy enough, but in the West one might have to reach out through the Internet. It is excellent when we can meet in person and chant together. Chanting is a practice that brings people closer, even if it is via a video link. A nembutsu meeting with some time for chanting and some time for personal sharing can be a great support to practice even when only two or three people are present, although this is even more helpful in a larger group.

In all of these ways we can express thanks for what we receive. A core element of the dharma is the teaching of dependent origination. Everything arises from causes and conditions, which means that everything that we are and everything we have depends upon other things to which we can express gratitude. Nembutsu is the way to do that—a way that not only gives thanks for the specific circumstance but also simultaneously, in a mere six syllables, invokes and connects all involved to the infinite wisdom and compassion of the buddhas. When you get your cup of coffee, “Namo Amida Bu.”

One can’t say exactly how this wholesome energy will affect you—it will depend upon what you need. Sometimes we don’t even know what’s best for ourselves, so we must trust that something good will begin to unfold. As the days go by, you may begin to feel more peaceful or gain more perspective on your problems. Some people notice that they are dealing with their emotions differently and having more patience with themselves and those around them. Most people feel more settled and more secure, less anxious and more natural.

Shinran, the most famous disciple of Honen Shonin, says in one of his songs that the Pure Land is jinen, which is sometimes translated as “naturalness,” or “things in their natural state.” Or as the Pure Land teacher Zuigen Inagaki writes:

Just as you are,
really,
just as you are!

I hope that you enjoy your explorations with nembutsu, and that it brings you the inspiration, peace, courage, and comfort that it has brought me.

Namo Amida Bu!

GETTING STARTED

• You may want to practice at the same time every day to help form a habit. If you’re a morning person, set your alarm ten minutes early. Some people chant during their lunch break or in the evening before they go to bed.
• Choose a quiet space to practice. If you enjoy being outside, try chanting in the garden or while walking.
• Some people like to light a candle or light an incense stick before they begin.
• Chant along with recordings (URLs below), chant alone, or find a friend who’s interested in joining you and chant together.
• If finding privacy for chanting is difficult, just move your lips without making a noise or say the words silently in your head.
• Sometimes you may want to chant for a longer period of time. Some days you won’t find the time, or you’ll forget. That’s OK—just say “Namo Amida Bu” and carry on the next day.

Accompanying Audio:

• amidashu.org/dailynembutsu/prostrations_5mins.mp3
• amidashu.org/dailynembutsu/namoamidabu_5mins.mp3

♦

This article is a part of the special section “Meditations Off the Beaten Path” in Tricycle’s Winter 2018 issue.

 

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Grief Doesn't Take a Holiday

From Widower's Grief - a grief traveler:

 

(Baking Soufflés Against the Daleks)

If you’re grieving, the holidays are the worst time of the year. You’re expected to be happy, and if you aren’t, you feel even worse. Even if your someone died a few years ago, going through the holidays can bring their absence and your sorrow right back. 

Then smiling people in green elf hats and reindeer sweaters try to cheer you up, saying it’s not so bad. Sigh. 

You’re not alone in what you’re feeling. In the neighborhood, other people are dealing with their own struggles, but because they don’t want to talk about it, we don’t know what’s going on and we can’t do anything to help them. 

All of us want to appear strong and self-reliant. So we say we’re fine when people ask and close the door but we shut people out. If you’re struggling this holiday season, and someone asks how you’re doing, tell them. While many will choose not to do anything more, some will, and they can make all the difference.

As snow covers the land in a blanket of white, and cold settles in for the duration, it can seem that everything we love about life, and everything that brings us comfort and joy, has either died or is dying. On the streets we see hurting and broken people walking beneath the holiday lights, and wish that life wasn’t so hard for so many.

 

AND YET …

 

This season strips us down to essentials and makes us realize that we value people more than things. This is why we try so hard to gather with family and friends. We want the reassurance that, even though the year has been rough, our bonds to each other are secure. Even though we are overwhelmed with grief, we still care about each other.

Even if I’m grieving, if I see you loaded down with packages, I will hold the door open. I will get something for you from the top shelf in the store. I will shovel your sidewalk as you endure another round of chemo. I will go into the field to pick up the remnants of your home after a tornado has ripped it apart.

It’s not love that impels me to help you. It’s what I’ve learned because of grief. The compassion of others is what kept me going when I felt broken, defeated, and alone.

Grief has unclenched my hands enough to share what I have with you. It has deepened my breath enough to laugh again, even though I know I’ll be sad later on, and that suffering, hatred, and violence will continue to erupt in the world. Grief has lightened my feet enough to dance today because music is playing and I need to dance if I am going to fend off death.

Death has freed me to care about you. Call the reason love if you want. I call it grief.        

The baking soufflé note at the top is a Doctor Who reference. Oswin (Clara) is trapped on a Dalek world and fighting them. The Daleks are violent, merciless cyborgs who demand total conformity to their will and are out to destroy everyone else. Oswin maintains her resolve and fends off her fears and loneliness by baking soufflés. 

Within us there is unimaginable strength to endure extreme situations. Bake soufflés.

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Surviving Christmas and the New Year ~ Kaspa

Kaspa writes:

We are moving through the longest nights. What happens at this time of year? In the run up to the longest night we put up our decorations and lights, go to parties and come together as happy families at Christmas time. Or we see others doing that and our own attempt to hold off the dark fails — the winter can be a difficult time of year. More likely we are somewhere in between, with good days and bad days: Holding off the dark with celebrations and light on some days, and other days our mood slipping into something gloomier.

What helps?

It helps to know that feelings come and go. The more deeply we examine our feelings the more obvious it becomes that they are always shifting and changing, even in small ways. When I used to fall into an awful mood one of the worst things was imagining that it would last forever – but when I really examined the evidence? What a revelation. Trusting that things will shift and change has been a comfort for me, personally, in darker times.

It helps to trust that it’s good to do good things, even if they don’t bring results straight away. Your good things will be different to my good things, but for me good things are getting outside, getting up and moving my body somehow, and making wise choices about what I eat, I read and watch. These may not lift you from the worst of moods straight away, but taking care of yourself and others is good to do regardless, and I trust that it helps lay down the conditions for better moods in the future.

As the nights become shorter, and the days become longer and we move past Christmas and into the New Year we move away from parties and to new projects and new resolutions, and the adverts on our TVs and in our magazines change from selling rich sugary foods to selling diets. 

Sometimes we get a rush of new energy and plough that into the New Year, lifting ourselves up from where we were before. Sometimes we see all of those advertisements and articles about New Year’s resolutions and become disheartened as we quickly fall into old habits or discover that we don’t have any energy even to start to change.

What helps?

The same kind of things: knowing that feelings come and go, trusting that it’s good to do good things and — importantly — being realistic. There’s no point setting yourself a list of ten great things to do if you only manage a few and then become so disappointed it triggers apathy and feeling terrible. It’s much better to set a few goals that you can meet, and celebrate meeting them.

Sometimes it feels like change isn’t coming, or that the roots of disappointment run deeply. I encourage you to reach out get support. We can feel ashamed of asking for help — but the truth is no one does it on their own, and we all need to lean on other people, sometimes. Call a friend, book an appointment with a therapistor talk to a family member.

The winter can be a wonderful time of year. I’m writing this at the tail end of autumn, there are a few golden leaves left on the trees and the sun is shining brightly. Later on I’ll make a pot of soup, and I’m looking forward to seeing friends later in the week.

I trust that there will be good days, and less good days,and that it’s possible to move gracefully through them all.

If you’d like a little extra support – book a counselling session, or a mindfulness one-to-one with me, and we can explore how things are for you and how to move forward.

A version of this article appeared in All About Malvern

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Do not criticise, accept everything ~ Dharmavidya

Dharmavidya writes:

There is a wonderful text that records the saying of the Desert Fathers or Abba. The Abba were hermits who lived in the desert of North Africa in the early Christian period. The stories are of a similar genre to the Buddhist stories of enlightenment encounters that one reads in the records of the transmission of the Dharma.

Here is one of the Abba dialogues:

Abba Poemen: Tell me how to become a monk.
Abba Joseph: If you want to find peace here and hereafter, do not judge anybody and, always ask yourself, “Who am I?”

What is Poemen really asking? The term monk came to mean a person living by a religious rule in a monastery. However, the Abba were in a period before monasticism had fully developed. The great Christian monastic orders did not yet exist. So Poemen is surely asking something more fundamental than how to fulfil a religious role. What is the fundamental meaning of being a monk?

The word monk is closely related to the Greek monos meaning singular. It seems quite likely to me, therefore, that Poemen is asking about something rather close to the Buddhist notion of ekagata. It is quite possible that the abba were influenced by Buddhism and that their concerns were similar. In any case, whether there was influence or not, this is a fundamental question. How can one become alone, not merely in the sense of going into one’s cell and closing the door, but in a more all encompassing manner relevant to every situation in life. A Christian might say, how can I be alone with God? How can one be alone with one’s faith. In Buddhist terms, how can I take refuge completely and be liberated from all the other ties that pull at me, all the internalised voices that chatter on the periphery of the mind, endlessly trying to seduce one into less worthy avenues?

Joseph clearly grasps the nature of Poemen’s concern and agitation. The reference to "peace here and hereafter" tells us that the peace that is sought goes beyond mere happiness here and now. What is being sought is something more basic and enduring, something beyond transient conditions. This tells us something more about the nature of being a monk. The monk’s mind is quiet in a way that is not just an exercise. It has a deep assurance. We can say that the monk entrusts himself to his faith, but even this, perhaps, gives too active a colouring. Grace comes to him, fills him, encompasses him, if he will allow it. Amida descends. But how does one allow it?

So Joseph provides a very practical advice. He says, “Do not judge anybody.” This is the same as the Mahayana precept, “Do not be proud of oneself and devalue others.” It is the real meaning of what in Buddhism we talk about as love and compassion. We are here talking about complete acceptance. It is difficult to convey exactly what this means, because we are so used to living in a world where everything has a positive or negative valuation attached. To accept the bombu nature of another person just as it is is enormously challenging when one has spent one’s whole life assuming one knows what is good and what is bad. We tend to assume that compassion is a matter of discerning what is wrong and removing it in some way. If the other is anxious, we assume, without a moment’s thought, that the best thing would be to remove this anxiety. We take it that that is what would be compassionate. If the other person is dejected, likewise. Similarly if they are angry, jealous, envious or any number of other common human modes of being. This way of understanding compassion, however, is superficial. There is a deeper compassion that accepts the whole person, warts and all. The warts may not be socially approved, but they are what make the person spiritually interesting. All these expressions are saying something about the inner state. When we criticise and think that this or that aspect of a person should be abolished as soon as possible, we are missing a lot. Furthermore, it is not just the other person who experiences such states. We all experience them.

So how can one break the habit of a lifetime and let it go? By reflecting that one is no better oneself. This is the meaning of Joseph’s last remark, to always ask oneself “Who am I?”

Joseph is not here advocating long introspective searching for one’s supposedly true nature or anything so grand. He is just suggesting that if we are honest with ourselves, we soon realise that we are in no position to criticise others because we have all the same impulses within ourselves. They manifest from time to time according to conditions. When the balance of conditions changes, one’s state changes. If one were able to live within the conditions that bear on the other, one would understand.

These days I do a lot of writing. If somebody tells me how brilliant my writing is and how totally thrilled they are with it, I feel my body responding. I try to keep a moderately cool demeanour, but inside the child in me is already jumping up and down with glee. Or, on another occasion somebody remarks that my latest writing is boring, off the point and has completely missed what is important about the subject. Again I try to keep my cool, but inside something is shrinking. I wish it were not so, but there is nothing I can do about it. Well, there is something I can still do, and that is that I can learn from it that this is how it is for every human being. We are all inwardly equipped with a set of reflexes of this kind. We might train ourselves to overcome them to the extent of not acting them out in an embarrassing or destructive fashion, but they are still there.

At the time when one is inclined to criticise or blame somebody else, one has conveniently detached oneself from such self-knowledge. For a short time one implicitly entertains the delusive notion that one is completely immune oneself from the kind of folly that is being made such a show of by the other person. The truth is otherwise. Who am I to criticise?

In Christianity, this message is closely related to the story of the occasion when Jesus came across a group of people who were about to stone to death a woman who had been caught in adultery. Jesus said, “Let he who is without sin cast the first stone.” Nobody moved, and the woman’s life was saved.

In Pureland, we talk about bombu nature. It is the same message. When we say, “Namo,” we are referring to our own guchi nature. Guchi is a Japanese word with several meanings. The relevant one here is that it refers to a foolish person, especially the kind who is likely to grumble about everything. When we say “Namo Amida Bu” there are a thousand meanings, but one of them is that we offer up this internal grumbler to the Buddha. The Buddha is always completely full of warm acceptance and blesses our grumbler just like an innocent child. In this way, the nembutsu brings the grace of Amida to our side, reassuring us that all shall be well and there is no need to worry.

So even if we are not going to go away and live in a monastery nor adopt a religious rule of life, we can all aspire to be monks in this sense of following the path of ekagata. Aware of our own human nature, we can let the grace of Amida provide a little comfort for our internal grumbler, the critical mind that disturbs our peace. We can know that the real peace is not just a matter of the present situation, but is something that transcends all particular conditions, here and hereafter. When we know this we can relax. Circumstances no longer seem so irritating and faith grows.

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Bodhi Day - a message from Dharmavidya

Dharmavidya: 

On December 8 we celebrate the anniversary of the enlightenment of Shakyamuni Buddha. Let us reflect a little upon this.

Siddhartha Gotama was somebody who threw himself into things. In his early life he evidently was a sensitive lad given to reflection and it must have been a deep trouble to him that his birth had occasioned the death of his mother. Encouraged by his family, he did his best to put that inner pain aside by giving himself over to every kind of self-indulgence. Eventually he reached the limit and a sense of revulsion set in. He stole away from home and turned, with similar dedication, to a completely opposite course, that of self-mortification, penance and asceticism. The flesh had to be punished. Again, he pursued this until revulsion and disgust again set in.

When he was at the limit of his powers, down and out, lying in the gutter, his mother descended from heaven and appeared to him. This could, perhaps, have been the end. However, just at this moment, there arrived Sujata, a woman on the way to make an offering to the forest gods. She gave the offering to the poor man and this act of unconditional generosity must have awakened something in his tortured spirit. Over the next few days he passed through a series of life changing experiences and it is this transformation that we celebrate on this day.

It was a great turning around in his life. It gave new meaning and direction. After his awakening, the Buddha was not idle. He spent his life walking the length and breadth of India preaching love, compassion and wisdom and awakening others. He established an order of followers who would spread the light. The way he was was itself the most powerful inspiration. He walked his talk and his most powerful talk was the example that was manifest in his life. He had, it is said, 84,000 encounters and in each case gave an appropriate teaching. Although there are universal principles in the Dharma, the application to each life is unique and his acceptance of people just as they are, even, in one instance, in the case of a mass murderer, was so profound that in each encounter an appropriate blessing naturally emerged.

We are beneficiaries of the great spirit of love that he released into the world. It continues to be transmitted. In order to transmit the Dharma one does not need to have reached some extraordinary level of spiritual accomplishment; one simply needs to set one’s conceit aside and have faith in the grace that he brought into the world and that is always shining. We are all part of the great work, often unconsciously. In simply living our lives in an honest and faithful way, we are as if mirrors for that great light that is so much more than we could shine out of our little stock of personal wisdom.

Siddhartha had tried to avoid his personal pain and then had tried to pay it off. Neither strategy worked. He does not ask us to imitate his way of arriving at the truth, he asks us to be faithful to and grateful for what he has given us. On this day, let us allow ourselves to receive the light and love that have come down through eighty generations from the past and that beckon to us from innumerable generations in the future.

Reflecting upon our own lives, we might feel helpless to tackle the great problems of life and the world and it is true that each individual is often only a tiny influence, but even the smallest dewdrop can reflect the light of the whole moon and the moon in the dewdrop is no less than the whole moon. It is not by the dewdrop trying to be the moon that enlightenment spreads in the world, it is by each of us playing our own part and doing so with a happy heart.

Namo Amida Bu.

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What to do with Dukkha ~ Dharmavidya

Dharmavidya writes:

In this piece I would like to briefly restate my understanding of the Four Truths. This is already set out in my books The Feeling Buddha and Not Everything is Impermanent and will be familiar to those of my students who follow my work closely. It will however be new to those who follow conventional ideas about Buddhism. The former group may also find it useful to have a succinct statement.

Basics

The Four Truths are dukkha, samudaya, nirodha and marga. They are often referred to as the Four Noble Truths, but a better translation is Four Truths for Noble Ones.

The commentaries generally take the four to be following the model of a medical prescription or a problem solving formula. On this basis the four represent, respectively, the problem, the cause, the goal and the method. If you follow the method you will defeat the cause, overcome the problem and arrive at the goal. I disagree with this interpretation. I will say why later.

In my understanding, there is a better way to understand this, namely that the four represent, respectively, the stimulus, the response, the alternative and the outcome. Dukkha is inevitable. It spurs us to respond. The response could be better. When it is better we get a better outcome.

Dukkha is the Existential Situation

Let’s clarify that:
Dukkha: Dukkha is our existential situation. This is the starting point. You cannot eliminate dukkha without eliminating sentient life. Dukkha is not something you can get rid off in this life, it is this life.
Samudaya: When we are aroused or disturbed there is energy. We respond. Commonly we deploy that energy to try to get rid of the disturbance. We seek distraction. If that does not work, we seek personal security. If that too is frustrated we become destructive, either to ourselves or others or both. All this tends only to make more dukkha. These three options are included in the original text. The way humans respond to trouble tends to make matters worse.
Nirodha: There is an alternative. When the samudaya energy arises it can be turned to more sublime purpose. This means not letting the energy run wild and not being obsessed with the original dukkha. These details are also mentioned in the text.
Marga: The outcome of nirodha is that one is on a noble path. This is the so-called eightfold path. It is the outcome of using the energy stimulated by our existential situation in a constructive rather than a self-serving manner. That is Buddhism in a nutshell. Humankind, in its scramble to eliminate dukkha is destroying itself and its world. There is an alternative, but few are ready.

An Example

Let me give a strong example. Two babies die. The parents experience dukkha. The dukkha is that we live in such a world where babies sometimes do die. The parent of the first baby goes into a depression from which they never really recover. They seek to distract themselves, but it is never enough. They seek personal security by becoming a workaholic or having materialistic obsessions, but it does not succeed. Often they just long for oblivion. Such a person can be a suicide risk.

The parent of the other child is just as distressed, but turns this energy toward some positive purpose. Perhaps they start a service to help parents who were similarly bereaved or a campaign to find a cure for the disease that killed the baby. Perhaps they enter the religious life or in some other way devote themselves to the service of others. Such a person experiences dukkha just like the other one, but it has a very different outcome. In this second case the outcome is a life with a good vision, good thoughts, good words, good deeds, a right livelihood that involves constructive effort, that keeps good things in mind and that is well-focussed. In other words, they are on Buddha’s eightfold path.

Reasons for the Better Interpretation

1. Formal Reason: I think the better interpretation is more likely and better for a number of reasons. First among these is that we can see that Buddha’s teachings are often given in list form and always the order of the list is important. It says what leads to what. One leads to two leads to three leads to four. The commentarial interpretation does not conform to this pattern. It has two leading to one and four leading to three, In my interpretation, one comes first. Two follows. Three is then a possibility and if it is followed, four results. One two three four is the Buddha’s usual way of talking.

2. Buddha's Own Case: The second reason is that it fits Buddha’s own case. He encountered dukkha. Firstly his mother died giving birth to him. Secondly he saw the “four sights”. That was his starting point. He then tried distraction through the luxuries of palace life, followed by a quest to make himself into a spiritual master who would be immune to suffering, followed by realisation that he was getting nowhere, whereupon he broke his relationships with teachers and fellows and went away and tortured himself. Then he had a turn around and realised an alternative. Thereafter he lived a sublime life. Buddha himself did not become enlightened by following the eightfold path, he found the eightfold path by becoming enlightened.

3. Etymology: A third reason for the better interpretation is that it follows the meanings of the words closely. To begin with the tight translation “truths for noble ones” implies that noble ones do not get rid of dukkha nor samudaya but they do have nirodha and marga too. Samudaya implies “what comes up”. Marge does not mean path in the sense of a road that leads somewhere so much as track in the sense of the trace left by someone who has gone somewhere. The eightfold path is not a prescription, it is a list of the characteristics by which you can identify the animal that left the track. If a person leaves a track with those characteristics then they are enlightened. Only an enlightened person is on the eightfold path. Unenlightened people cannot follow the eightfold path - they are incapable.

4. Common Sense: A fourth reason for the better interpretation is that it makes better sense. As a matter of fact, dukkha does not go away. The commentarial solution only works in the sense, drawn from Indian popular spirituality, that if you totally overcome desire and become extinct you will not be reborn and so will not suffer dukkha any more. Modern Western people want to overcome dukkha, but they don’t want to be extinct. The commentarial goal occurs when you die, not in the midst of life. Only in that sense does it make sense. The modern hijacking of Buddhism as a path to happiness by overcoming desire is misplaced. No matter how much you meditate you will not thereby stop babies dying and parents grieving, nor should you. Buddhism is about living a noble life, not a supine one. Buddha was interested in the “end of dukkha” in the sense of “what is it for?” not in the sense of “how do we get rid of it?” “End” has both meanings in Sanskrit just as it does in English and one can readily be mistaken. All the great religions have to face the question of the meaning of suffering. Buddhism’s answer is that one can make it meaningful by deploying the energy that it gives rise to in positive ways. Then the suffering is not in vain.

5. How Buddha taught: A fifth reason for the better interpretation is that it is in line with Buddha’s other teachings, and especially his method. When Buddha met Kisagotami whose baby had died, he did not tell here how to feel better. He told her to go and listen to the stories of many other bereaved people. No doubt she suffered hearing those stories. She suffered more, but it redirected her energy. She had been trying to get dukkha taken away but now she recognised it fully and this enabled her to turn her life in a new direction. Buddha does not tell people how to escape from suffering, he turns them to face it fully, but then to find a way onward. The same is true when he meets Angulimala the killer or Patacara the mad woman. It is also notable that in none of these three seminal cases did he tell the person to go and meditate, nor to follow the programme of asceticism that he himself had engaged in. None of them were meditators. They did ot get awakened by applying a methodology, but by facing existential reality while inspired by a wise and compassionate helper.

How the Alternative is Possible

When we consider all this we might still ask, how is it possible for a person to come to adopt the alternative rather than just do what most people do? When we look at the three seminal cases we see that they all became inspired. A new spirit came into them. They found faith where previously they had had bitterness or despair. This is the basic character of the spiritual life. It may be framed in a diversity of names and concepts, but truly spiritual people are full of faith and inspiration. It is also notable that they got it through an encounter with Buddha. Throughout the history of Buddhism, when we look at the famous stories, people rarely get enlightened by meditating or doing some formulaic practice; they mostly get enlightened when, after seriously struggling with an existential problem, they have a significant encounter with an enlightened person. Enlightenment is transmitted and encounter is a very important part of this. It is not awarded like an exam result to those who worked hard at a syllabus. It is transmitted when a person in deep existential dilemma finds the light, usually through another person, but certainly through something that comes from beyond themselves. It takes some other power. The idea that everything comes from within is mistaken. Nobody gets enlightened by cutting themselves off except those who, like Buddha, after doing so, realise the mistake they have made.

When Buddha realised his mistake he saw that dukkha is inescapable but that the reaction he had to it did not have to be a disaster, there was an alternative and by taking it he was able to turn his life around. This turning around - paravritti - is the real prescription of Buddhism.

Collective Application

This last point is a rider to the above, but an important one. Thinking on these things one may well see that they apply to humanity as a whole as well as to individuals. Human culture seems desperate in its attempts to eliminate dukkha, be comfortable and find happiness, yet mostly these attempts just make matters worse. Humans are now less well adapted to life on Planet Earth than they were ten thousand years ago. Even then they were already causing a good deal of trouble, disturbing the natural balance. If we cannot turn around, there is a real danger that the remaining species of life that we have not already exterminated will also be lost and we shall painfully go with them. We want comfort so we accumulate things. To get things we want money. To get money we need economic activity. To have more economic activity we make things to  decay quicker so they have to be endlessly replaced. Thus we become  frantic for more, more, more, while squandering what we already have. As we get more glitter we become more shoddy, as we subdue nature we are sawing off the branch we are sitting on. Buddhism is rarely properly understood. When it is there are "some few with but little dust whose lives are turned around. Yet this is not enough to save humanity. There is a hole in the boat and our efforts to avoid getting wet are only tending to make the hole bigger. Will we wake up in time?

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