The Buddha Times

Volume 45. November 22, 2023

This Thanksgiving we got a lot to be grateful for. Perhaps the most important thing might be our Buddha-nature.

It is always there. But we tend to ignore it. We experience our Buddha-nature when we relax, go with the flow and let things be.

The greatest obstacle to experiencing Buddha-nature is that pesky automaton chattering away in our cranium: the rational mind.

Rational thoughts help us navigate through the complex world. Our lifestyle would be impossible without education.

But rational knowledge is only one type of knowledge. Above and beyond rational knowledge is intuitive knowledge.

Intuition is the only method by which Buddha-nature can be known. The intellect is not enough. We have to experience it.

How do we experience our Buddha-nature? Easy. Meditation. Zen. Develop a mind that rests on nothing whatsoever.

Hui-neng was a peasant in 7th century China. His father died when he was young. His family was so poor he could not attend school. He never learned to read or write. He supported his mother by selling firewood.

One day in the marketplace, he heard a monk reciting a passage from the Diamond Sutra. “Let your mind flow freely, without dwelling on anything at all.”

Immediately, Hui-neng became enlightened. He was just a kid. Later, he went on to become the Sixth Patriarch of the Zen school.

The point: Book learning takes you only so far. If a poor, illiterate peasant can achieve Buddhahood, where does that leave us?

Develop a mind that rests on nothing whatsoever.

That’s how Buddhas act.

When we sit down at the Thanksgiving table, pondering whether we should pile potatoes on the plate or perhaps more stuffing, remember one thing.

Develop a mind that rests on nothing whatsoever.

That’s how Buddhas act.

When we ponder powerful Israelis pounding poor Palestinians to dust in the desolate rubble of Gaza, remember one thing.

Develop a mind that rests on nothing whatsoever.

That’s how Buddhas act.

When we face our thoughts in meditation, remember one thing.

Develop a mind that rests on nothing whatsoever.

That’s how Buddhas act.

Only when our mind ceases to dwell on anything whatsoever will we come to a true experience of Buddha-nature.

And that’s something to be grateful for.

Vol. 44. October 21, 2023

On October 7, Hamas, the Gaza-based militant group, invaded Israel. Innocent children, elderly and hundreds of young people at a music festival perished. Israeli Defense Forces retaliated, causing immense human suffering.

Israel is fighting a terrorist group. Conventional wisdom holds that there is no military solution to countering terrorism.

Spiritual wisdom holds that this entire situation is insane.

When will the madness end?

In this conflict, both sides have bloody hands. Neither side is blameless. Neither side has the moral high ground.

If one seeks upstanding moral action, one doesn’t look to animals.

Nothing is ethical in war except the instinct to survive.

Animals pursue violence. Buddhas pursue peace.

For upstanding moral action, one looks to the Blessed One.

One can almost hear the Buddha urging the warring parties to forgive one another.

Cast off the armor of war. Put on the helmet of right views.

Set down weapons. Pick up right mindfulness.

Stop fighting. Start right action.

Don’t declare war. Declare peace.

Fighting solves nothing.

Morality, meditation and wisdom solve everything.

The eightfold path is there for a reason: To end human suffering.

Buddhas see this conflict and realize people are afraid to die because they cling to an imaginary self that is going to die.

Desire for self causes suffering. We hang on tenaciously to what is ultimately unreal.

Human wisdom:

What are you? A Jew. A Palestinian.

What do you know? Self preservation.

What do you do? Fight to survive.

Buddhist wisdom:

What are you? Emptiness.

What do you know? Prajna.

What do you do? Compassionate action.

Buddhas are able to live in the world, act in the world, while still seeing the world as nirvana.

For people fighting in Israel and Gaza today, wisdom not war is necessary.

Let your actions abide in samsara, but your intentions abide in nirvana.

Peace be with you.

Vol. 43. September 20, 2023

As summer draws to a close, autumn is a time of return.

Children return to school. Songbirds return to warmer climates. TV stations return to their fall schedules. Return is natural.

Even in a galaxy far, far away, there was The Return of the Jedi.

Did the Jedi read the Tao Te Ching? It teaches the spiritual wisdom of return. Chapter 40 says, “Returning is the motion of the Tao. Yielding is the way of the Tao.”

To put ourselves in harmony with the Great Tao, we need to return to a state of simplicity.

Uncomplicated. Unpretentious. Natural. Quiet. Pure. Innocent. Ordinary, like an uncarved block.

In Buddhism, we arrive at this state of simplicity when we meditate, clear our minds and return to Holy Thus-ness. Buddhism is a return to the Original Mind.

Perhaps a story may illustrate.

One day a student came to Hui-neng, the sixth patriarch of the Zen school. He said, “Please teach me the Dharma.”

Hui-neng said, “Relax. Sit down. Meditate. Do not give rise to a single thought. Then I will teach you.”

The student calmed down. He cleared his mind.

Then Huineng said, “When you are thinking of neither good nor evil, what at that moment is your original face?”

The student felt thunderstruck. The dark clouds of dualistic thinking were blown away by the winds of wisdom.

The moral: Nothing can separate us from the Original Mind, except our free will.

American Dharma bum Jack Kerouac put Zen truth to verse:

Return those shoes to the shoemaker.

Return this hand to my father.

This pillow to the pillow maker.

Those slippers to the shop.

That wainscot to the carpenter.

But my mind,

my tranquil and eternal mind,

Return it to whom?

My eyes look west. My eyes look north. My eyes look east.

But my tranquil and eternal mind,

Which way?

This autumn put yourself in harmony with the Great Tao.

Return again, again and again to the Original Mind.

Vol. 42. August 20, 2023

American singer Tony Bennett passed away last month at age 96. He is remembered as a masterful stylist of American musical standards. He should also be remembered for his pacifistic views.

As a soldier in World War II, he saw firsthand the horror of war. He fought. He dug graves. He buried corpses. The last assignment of his regiment was to liberate a concentration camp near Dachau. The whole experience soured his attitude toward war.

The legendary crooner later said, “Violence begets violence. War is the lowest form of human behavior.”

He never made it to Ukraine, where the lowest form of human behavior is on full display today. People are sick and tired of war. They need peace. Buddhism offers a path to peace.

In Buddhism, there is never any violence. There has never been a war waged in the name of Lord Buddha. Why? Because there is nothing to fight for.

In Buddhism, there is only nirvana, a fundamental state of unity. Nirvana is Blown-outness. Gone-ness. Nothing-Happens-Ness. The Snapped Link of the inexorable Chain of Causality.

Nirvana is the calm depths of the sea. Undisturbed Unity.

Our rational minds relentlessly disrupt this unity with ceaseless thoughts of self. Like ripples on the surface of the sea, our egotistical desires disturb the Undisturbed Unity.

If we entertain one thought, follow one sensation, surf on one ripple, we fall into a sea of suffering.

Buddhism says, “Identify with the depths, not the ripples.” How? Meditation. Dhyana automatically results in a state of tranquility. Peace. Unity. Blown-outness.

Peace is how we make it as a species. Peace is within our reach if we are humble enough to let go of our self-centered concerns.

There is no reason for killing, destruction or heartbreak.

The war in Ukraine is all due to satisfy one man’s mania.

Letter to Putin

Dear Vladimir,

Leave “you.” There is no “you.” Nothing exists except nirvana.

You are no more than a lonely skunk on Planet Buddha.

Skunk in the woods, running around rabidly in the forest of desire, rest beneath the bodhi tree and suffering will never happen again.

Make Buddhism your business, not war.

Violence begets violence. Peace begets peace.

Listen to the musical wisdom of Tony Bennett, but don’t leave your heart in San Francisco. Open up your heart. Show a little love. Leave your heart with every person you meet.

Together, we can make it work out better.

With peace and love,

Most of humanity

Vol 41. July 19, 2023

Summer is a lazy time. And there’s no one as lazy as my cat. She sleeps an enviable 16 hours a day. But every morning when I sit down to meditate, without fail, she is at my side.

She scratches the chair, yawns, then affectionately rubs her body against my hands and legs, purring like a kitten.

Chu Chu has an almost preternatural sense. She could be snoozing in a closet or under a bed. Yet when I sit down in the Buddha chair, she comes right to my side. My cat is tuned into Zen.

Rubbing her tummy one morning, I realized — almost creepily — Chu Chu has reached enlightenment.

Meditation helps us reach the state beyond thought. As Japanese Zen master Dogen once said, “When you meditate, you are the Buddha.” When you meditate, you’re enlightened.

My cat is already there. She’s in that state way before me. What’s more, she never leaves it. Why? We need to look at epistemology.

Aristotle’s theory of knowledge is called the process of abstraction. He wondered how we go from seeing a flower to having a concept of a flower? How do we go from a material object to an immaterial concept of that object?

He explained the process this way.

Human beings receive sense data from our senses. We see a flower in a garden. Immediately our active intellect kicks in and abstracts a “phantasm” out of that sense data. The presence of a phantasm in our mind activates our passive intellect to create a concept.

This process is automatic. Like a vacuum cleaner, our intellect is busy all the time abstracting or sucking phantasms out of material objects and creating immaterial concepts.

“That’s a chair. That’s a desk. That’s a computer.”

This process separates men from beasts. We can’t stop the process, except through meditation.

Meditation puts the process of creating concepts on hold. Meditation calms our concept-forming mind.

Cats cannot form concepts. Cats take in sense data and stop right there. Meditators are like cats. We halt the process of abstraction. And when we do, we achieve enlightenment.

Chu Chu is already there, relaxing in the bliss of the beautiful Buddha world. Unbothered by ideas. Content with tummy rubs. At one with herself and the world.

Enlightened individuals relax too. They are not attached to forms. Forms are empty. There’s no need to think about them. And there’s no need to reject them.

When we give up our concepts, we gain a world of peace.

Achieve the sainthood of a kitten … yawn and purr.

After all, what else do you have to do?

Summer is a lazy time. Yawn and purr.

Vol 40. Summer Travel Issue. June 20, 2023

American animator, film producer and entrepreneur, Walt Disney instilled hope in the human heart. He once said, “All our dreams can come true, if we have the courage to pursue them.”

Disney was both an idealist and a realist. He made his dreams come true. His philosophy: “If you can dream it, you can do it.”

Today, Disney World is a dream come true for fans worldwide. Beloved by children of all ages, visited by 58 million people every year, it’s one of America’s top tourist destinations.

“It’s kind of fun to do the impossible,” Walt Disney said.

Why do so many people love Disney World? Why do so many people return again and again to the “Happiest Place on Earth?” What’s the magic behind the Magic Kingdom?

One word: Kindness. Disney employees extend loving-kindness to everyone they meet. Visitors get “high” off that unexpected, positive treatment. Many return annually for more goodness.

Oddly enough, loving-kindness is also the prevailing ethic of Buddhism. The technical term in the Pali language is metta.

Theravada Buddhist monks recite the Sutra on Loving-kindness (Metta-Sutta) every day. An excerpt:

This is what should be done by the wise,
the one who seeks the good and knows the meaning of peace.

Do nothing that is mean.
Do not deceive another, or despise anyone in any state. Do not, through anger or ill-will, wish anyone any harm.

Even as a mother watches over her child,
so with a boundless mind, cherish all living beings.
Radiate friendliness over the entire world, without limit. During all waking hours, establish this mindfulness of good will. It is called the highest state.

May all beings be happy and at their ease. May they be joyous and live in safety.

Mothers teach this sutra when they teach children to say the magic words. “Please” and “thank you” unlock the castle of kindness.

Growing up, we stop being polite. We get busy with self-centered agendas, and we end up living in the woods with the wolves. Buddhism says, “Come back to the Magic Kingdom.”

Walt Disney advises, “The greatest moments in life are not concerned with selfish achievements, but rather with the things we do for the people we love.”

Your family, your household, your place of work, your country — any place you visit — can be the Happiest Place on Earth as long as your prevailing ethic is kindness.

Human beings act kindly. Animals act selfishly.

In the game of Man versus Mouse, be a human being. Don’t reincarnate as a rodent, except for a rodent like Mickey Mouse.

Then, perhaps, all our dreams will come true.

Vol 39. May 21, 2023

On May 11, 2023, the US government declared the public health emergency ended. The Scourge of 2020 — the Invisible Terror — that had disrupted lives, decimated dinner tables and stopped the ever-rotating Earth dead in her tracks is officially over. 

The punishing pandemic pummeled populations, killing 7 million worldwide and 1.1 million in the United States alone. Despite the fact that covid still kills hundreds of people per day in America, after 39 months, the Modern Day Plague is officially kaput. 

The long-awaited announcement went largely unnoticed. 

People kept going about their daily lives as if nothing had changed. There was no dancing in the streets. 

This blasé attitude brings up an interesting question: Do official declarations matter? Do designations change anything? In a wider sense, do words really signify reality? Do random phonemes, silly syllables and sophisticated human speech mean anything?

Buddhism thinks not. 

On the morning of his enlightenment, right after he attained unexcelled awakening, when he was finally able to put his insight into words, the Buddha proclaimed, “This cannot be taught.” 

It’s too subtle. It’s too profound. It cannot be put into words.    The tongue cannot go there. “This cannot be taught.” 

Immediately the devas, the gods and goddesses in heaven, rushed down. With palms pressed together, they implored, “World Honored One, for the sake of humanity, to relieve human suffering, we beseech thee, please, teach!” 

The Buddha, seeing their point, relented. He said, “Fine. For the sake of humanity, I will teach. But what I teach is not Buddhism. What I teach is the path to Buddhism. I am just a finger pointing at the moon.” 

In meditation, one realizes that words are unnecessary. 

There is only the common, original bliss-stuff. 

If there were only a better name for it … The Dharmakaya … Thatagata … BLAH!  … The What-all … BlooBleeBlop … 

As the Tao Te Ching says, “The name that can be named is not the eternal name.” 

If you can talk about it, you’re not there yet.

A Prayer

Oh Lord Buddha, you have enlightened us. You have untangled the tangle. You have disenchanted us of “reality” to reveal Reality.  

It’s not that we don’t know, but that we cease knowing. 

Adoration to your big, blank mind.

Samadhi is ecstasy.

Not words, but the compassionate Buddha.                         

Not pandemics, but the compassionate Buddha.            

Not jubilation, but the compassionate Buddha.                 

Amen

Volume 38. April 24, 2023

Like a wolf at the door, tax season bit us. No one was happy, not even the accountants. Most tax-filers ground their teeth, stifled resentments and ponied up the dough. Great minds throughout history put in their two cents worth.

Benjamin Franklin was resigned: “In this world nothing is certain but death and taxes.”

Albert Einstein was confused: “The hardest thing in the world to understand is the income tax.”

George Harrison was irritated: “Let me tell you how it will be. There’s one for you, nineteen for me. ’Cause I’m the taxman. Yeah, I’m the taxman.”

Perhaps only Oliver Wendell Holmes had an enlightened attitude: “I like to pay taxes. With them, I buy civilization.”

Buddhism agrees. There’s no reason to attach to money because we are billionaires — billionaires in nirvana.

Without doing anything, right where we sit, with empty wallets, we are rich and self-sufficient. The poor people of this world are the Elon Musks, the Jeff Bezoses and the Vladimir Putins.

Attached to material things, rabid dogs ignore to their peril the first Noble Truth of the Buddha: Attachment causes suffering. True wealth consists of being kind to others, meditating and realizing that all things are impermanent, even one’s ego.

We live in one vast appearance of emptiness, an endless illusion. Everywhere is One Great Flower, One Grand Light, perfect without end. One Great Secret Smile lies behind it all.

Everlasting bliss is always here. We cannot escape it. The Great Order of the Buddha’s Body — the Dharmakaya — is all around and infinite. We close ourselves off to it through attachment.

Yet, when we meditate, we let go of attachment to people, to places, to things, to thoughts, to money, to egos. We see things in their pristine purity. We behold the Oneness behind creation.

Enlightenment is not something we attain. We already have it.

We simply open ourselves up to it through detachment.

Meditation is internal work. Meditation values deceleration.

Meditators are students of inactivity. They slow down.

There’s no reason to rush through meditation, and every reason in the world to slow down.

Be as dead to the world as a tree stump.

The world despises meditation.

But what is the world, except a world of sorrow?

Internal work is not really work at all. It’s play.

It’s time to go to the playground and play.

Don’t worry another minute.

After all, tax season is over, and you are a billionaire.

A billionaire in nirvana.

Vol. 37. March 18, 2023

March Madness. St Patrick’s Day. Daylight Savings Time. Robins Returning. The Vernal Equinox. There’s no denying it. Spring has sprung. It’s a compelling time for poets.

Alfred, Lord Tennyson warns us from Locksley Hall, “In the Spring, a young man’s fancy turns to thoughts of love.”

Jimi Hendrix sings exuberantly:

People talkin’ but they just don’t know,

What’s in my heart, and why I love you so.

I love you, baby, like a miner loves gold.

Come on, sugar, let the good times roll!

Japanese haiku master Basho is a bit more tame:

“Sitting quietly, doing nothing, Spring comes and the grass grows by itself.”

How can we turn these happy, green times into Buddha times?

Easy. Meditate.

Spring reminds us of the futility of fretting, the agony of anxiety.

Why be a worry wart when the world is so beautiful?

Meditation brings us to the beauty of the moment.

God made time, but Man made haste.

Zen master Hakuin (1686-1769) would advise us to slow down and listen to the sound of one hand clapping.

When we step outside the relentless pounding of our thoughts, then we hear the sound of One Hand.

Without hearing this wondrous, unborn, deathless sound, life is still worth living, but it never rings true.

We use words to be free of words, until we arrive at the Wordless.

We use thoughts to be free of thoughts, until we arrive at No-Thought.

We use the self to be free of the self, until we arrive at No-Self.

If we don’t understand in this manner, and go on sleepwalking, we make matters worse for ourselves. Moreover, we slander the Buddha. This is not practice.

To not abide in conceptual reasoning, to let the world be, as it is, this is true practice.

Enlightenment is not something separate from meditation. It is meditation!

Simply put, to meditate is to be a Buddha.

This spring, to hear the sound of One Hand, listen to the happy chuckle of a robin.

And when we hear it, then we too can let the good times — the Buddha times — roll.

Vol. 36. February 18, 2023

In the Book of Genesis, God cursed the Snake saying, “On your belly you shall crawl all the days of your life.”

To the Woman he said, “In pain you shall bring forth children.”

To the Man he said, “By the sweat of your brow you shall eat your bread. Thou art dust and unto dust thou shalt return.”

They were cast out of the Garden to a land east of Eden.

And no one lived happily ever after.

The Fall of Man in a dramatic story. It vividly depicts how human beings left a state of unity and entered a state of duality. This rich story can be interpreted on many levels.

In Taoist terms, humans abandon the mystery of the eternal Tao for its manifestations. In psychological terms, humans leave a state of infantile dependence on a father god to forge a heroic destiny on their own. In Buddhist terms, we leave the bliss of nirvana for the sorrows of samsara.

According to the Madhyamaka school of Buddhist philosophy, when we are cast out of the Garden of Eden, we ignore absolute truth and embrace conventional truth.

Conventional truth holds you are you, and I am I. We live our lives separately, distinctly, according to our self-centered desires.

Absolute truth proclaims all things are empty.

You and I, at a fundamental level, are nothing. Our true self is an absence of self.

The Buddha taught, “All things are impermanent. All things are without a self.”

Most people don’t want to accept absolute truth. We prefer the sorrows of samsara. We chose to live life on a conventional level.

Once in a while, however, we like to be reminded of fundamental truth. We see this reluctant acceptance of absolute truth very powerfully on display every Ash Wednesday.

On Ash Wednesday people wait in long lines to receive ashes on their foreheads. They listen to the minister repeat the words: “Remember: Thou art dust and unto dust thou shalt return.”

Ash Wednesday is the single largest attended church service of the entire Christian liturgical year. Churches are bursting with people, even more than on Christmas and Easter. Why?

We know the truth of emptiness in our hearts. But we need that stark fact affirmed in the comfortable setting of other people.

We don’t want to accept we’re empty. We identify with our egos. I am Joe Schmo of 372 Evergreen Terrance. I have these degrees, these kids, and this big fat bank account. That’s me!

But is that really you?

Our true self is an absence of self.

The Buddha woke up to this truth, and we can too, any day of the week.

Egoless-ness is the Redemption of Man.

And a cheap ticket back to the Garden.