The Buddha Times

Volume 31. September 4, 2022

Monumental complainer Falstaff in Shakespeare’s Henry IV bellowed, “I were better to be eaten to death with a rust than to be scoured to nothing with perpetual motion!” 

In our fast-paced society, sometimes we all need a rest.  

Meditation provides serenity, peace, calm and tranquility.

But even during peaceful periods of meditation our minds seem to be “scoured to nothing with perpetual motion.” 

Thoughts, doubts, worries, anxieties, plans, schemes, agendas — there is no end to our demented deliberations and ruinous ruminations. Consciousness is a cacophony. 

Perhaps the most insidious parasite of peace is worry. 

As soothing summer shifts into agitated autumn, worry bugs nibble away at our repose. Preying on our mind, niggling away, bedeviling any balm, worry turn us into warts.

Spiritual giants have tackled this tough problem.

Jesus Christ advised, “Which of you by worrying can add a moment to your lifespan? Learn a lesson from the wild flowers. They neither spin nor sow, but I assure you that even Solomon in all his splendor was not arrayed like one of these.”

Rastafarian Bob Marley was more succinct. Bob sang, “Don’t worry about a thing. Oh, every little thing gonna be all right.” 

Jack Kerouac hit the nail on the head. “There’s nothing to worry about. And to worry about no-thing ain’t worry.”

Whatever we see, feel, hear, smell, taste, and think about resembles an illusion. We mistake a dream-like state for reality. We brood over this false reality.  Result: Continued suffering, anxiety, lost sleep, agony and unease … over nothing!

How can we get back to what is really real?

Meditate.

You don’t have to be a Buddhist monk or a zen master to be aware of your breath. 

Set aside dream-like thoughts of unreality. Banish the demons. 

Enjoy nirvana.

I asked my daughter if she is nervous about starting fourth grade. She fretted, “Yes. Last year some fourth grade boys went into the girls’ bathroom. It might happen again.”

Cute, but no-thing to lose sleep over. 

When we allow our minds to dwell on difficulty and troubles, we stew, brood and agonize. When we perceive that all things are empty, we return to peace.

Twenty-five centuries worth of Buddhist peace can’t be wrong. 

As Falstaff put it: 

“Hal, if I tell thee a lie, spit in my face, call me horse.”

Volume 30. August 2, 2022

The Lotus Sutra is one of the world’s great religious scriptures. Its influence on the history of Buddhism, like an ancient river, has been wide and deep.

The Lotus Sutra proclaims the transcendental nature of the Buddha (the Buddha is not only man, but a god) and the doctrine of universal liberation (we can all become Buddhas). 

It also spells out the bodhisattva path. 

A bodhisattva is literally one whose “being is enlightenment.”

The way to enlightenment comes from perfecting six virtues: generosity, patience, diligence, morality, meditation and wisdom. 

The Lotus Sutra is extensive, comprising twenty-eight chapters. One line from chapter five perhaps sums up the bodhisattva path, and distinguishes the character of a Buddha:

“Day and night he was at peace … meditating constantly.”

During the hottest, most uncomfortable dog days of summer, when the chirping grasshopper sits in the green grass and pours out his shrill song, when men are feeblest in the wearisome heat, 

“Day and night he was at peace … meditating constantly.”

During times of war when men, born to misery, see pink flesh separate from white bones, and woman in agony bring forth children to live as wretched things, 

“Day and night he was at peace … meditating constantly.”

During ceremonies condemning the treasonous, exposing the wicked for their greed, causing anger to rise in gentle hearts and eyes to burn with searing fire,

“Day and night he was at peace … meditating constantly.”

During treacherous storms, fatal floods, devastating droughts, furious fires scorching primordial trees, and terrible tornados tearing apart towns, while the innocent shed tears,  

“Day and night he was at peace … meditating constantly.”

A Prayer

Oh Bodhisattva, Guan Yin, the hearer and answerer of prayers, 

Oh Lord Buddha, the sweet Tathagata, 

Give us the grace to truly see that we are you, and you are we. 

Blessed be kindness. Blessed be love. 

Blessed be virtue. Blessed be children.

Blessed be ignorance. Blessed be wisdom.

Blessed be bodhi. Blessed be peace. 

Blessed be hearts overflowing with compassion. 

Adoration to the big, blank mind of the Buddha, 

The Lotus for troubled times. 

Amen

American poet Emily Dickinson reveled in the bliss of summer when she wrote, 

Inebriate of air am I, 

And debauchee of dew

Reeling through endless summer days

From inns of molten blue. 

Drunk on the “Taste of a Liquor Never Brewed,” Miss Dickinson teaches us Buddhist wisdom. Enjoy the moment. Set aside conceptual thinking. Breathe. Focus on the here and now. 

Fresh air. Dewy grass. Idyllic summer skies, bright blue, cloudless, hinting at the infinite nature of heaven above. 

Oh, would it always be like this — always summer, always fruitful, always restful. No time of year offers greater richness, warmth and love of living. 

Lounging poolside, reading a good book, licking an ice cream cone, summer activities can hardly be called a waste of time.  

American philosopher Sam Keen characterized this time of year  best when he said, “Summer is when laziness finds respectability.” 

Summer is a seasonal license to relax, enjoy and live. 

Yet, alas, summer is fleeting. 

It’s here today and gone tomorrow.

We don’t want to let it go. 

Our greedy souls cry out, “Can’t we bottle up Miss Dickinson’s jugful of joy? Can’t we perpetuate summer? Can’t we continue our loafing life of leisure forever?” 

The good news is … we can! 

We can cheat Father Time and live in world where it is always July. We can enjoy the perfection of seasonal bliss every day of the year. 

How so? Meditate. 

Summer is external bliss. Mediation is internal bliss. 

Focus on the breath. Let go of thoughts. Return to the breath. Soon, all mental activity will come to rest. Relax in tranquility. 

Let worries go. Let troubles go. Let your “self” go. 

If you are wondering why you haven’t attained enlightenment yet, it’s because it’s the No Self that attains enlightenment. You already are a Buddha. But your “self” keeps hankering for it. 

Let it go. Be present to the moment. Be. Here. Now. 

The purpose of all the Buddhas is to emancipate “you” from the bondage of your thinking.

Meditation brings “you” back to your true origin: the No Self, Buddha-nature, the Inns of Molten Blue. 

Celebrate summertime everyday through the bliss of meditation. 

Summer is fleeting. The moment is eternal. 

Volume 28. June 6, 2022

Guitar god Keith Richards probably put it best when he sang:

“Here’s another goodbye to another good friend.”

The school year ended on a sad note in Uvalde, Texas. 

Blood splattered across blackboards. Traumatized survivors running for their lives. Frantic parents crying on the sidewalk. Screams of agony. Nineteen innocent children and two teachers robbed of life at Robb Elementary School.  

Another senseless spray of bullets. Another splattering of blood.

Another goodbye to another good friend.

How does a Buddha approach the horror of gun violence? 

With compassion, meditation and wisdom.  

For kids lamenting lost classmates, for parents aching for lost children, there is only one balm: compassion. Buddhas “suffer with” the disconsolate. 

Buddhas also meditate. 

The mighty Buddhist philosopher Ashvaghosa had this spiritual advice, “One’s mind should become like a mirror, reflecting things but not judging them or retaining them.”

When we meditate, we realize that nothing is right and nothing is wrong. Only thinking makes it so. 

Meditation and compassion are two legs upon which the liberating body of Buddhist wisdom stands. 

Wisdom is to look at the world and see emptiness. Return to the Holy Thusness. Stick with the Sweet Tathagata. One thing is sure: The Mind is pure. Nirvana can’t be separated from anything because everything is empty. 

Whatever the senses apprehend resembles an illusion. Entertain one thought or sensation and you abandon unity for duality. 

Suffering is the hallmark of the human condition. It’s what you signed up for when you chose to be reborn. 

Suffering exists only in duality. But there is a way out of suffering: Compassion, mediation and wisdom. 

Once upon a time, the Lord of Unity said, “Have compassion for this so-called world. It’s actually nothing.” 

Then he pronounced magic words, “Impermanence, Peace, Calm, Non-attachment, No-self.”

The magic words had a disconcerting effect on dictators, despots, shooters and self-centered people everywhere. But they had a salutary effect on everyone else. 

And the Lion lied down with the Lamb. 

Guitar Lion King Keith Richards sings at the end of his song:  

“I’m gonna find my way to heaven, ‘cause I did my time in hell.” 

Buddhas, we have done our time in hell. 

Let’s follow the path to nirvana, and hope others will too.

Volume 27. May 8, 2022

Mae West (1893-1980) was a stage and screen actress known for her breezy sexual independence and bawdy double entendres.

America’s first sex symbol once said in her mumbling, husky voice, “You only live once, but if you do it right, once is all you need.”

Surprisingly, the Buddha would agree.

Sex, life and death bring up a recent development in our land.

On May 3, 2022, the US Supreme Court leaked a draft opinion signaling the repeal of Roe v Wade. After 48 years, women may lose their right to a safe, legal abortion.

Setting aside the politics, the morality and the philosophical question (when does life begin?), now is a good time to examine the Buddhist perspective on life.

For a Buddhist, human life is precious.

The chance to be born a human being is an opportunity too valuable to waste.

In Buddhist understanding, there are six states of existence: gods, anti-gods, humans, restless ghosts, demons and animals.

Only human beings can gain enlightenment during their lifetime.

Despite a pain-free life of bliss, even the blessed gods can’t do it.

Thus, for a Buddhist, human life is too precious to be squandered.

It’s a rare opportunity for ultimate spiritual progress.

The Buddha teaches the way to enlightenment.

Follow the path of morality, meditation and wisdom.

Consider this story of Zen wisdom.

Once upon a time, there lived a Zen master. Every evening at low tide, he would walk along the seashore and fling back into the water any starfish that happened to wash up on the shore.

One evening, a novice approached and said, “What are you doing?”

The master replied, “Tossing starfish back into the sea.”

“Master, why are you doing that?”

“Well, if I don’t throw them back, they will die on the shore for lack of oxygen.”

The novice looked down the beach. His eyes goggled. There were hundreds of thousands of starfish littered across the sand.

He said, “Master, there must be a million starfish on this beach. You can’t get to them all. How can you possibly make a difference?”

The Master bent down, picked up a starfish and tossed it back into the sea.

Then he said, “Well, made a difference to that one.”

It doesn’t matter if you’re Mae West, a Zen master or a starfish. Don’t waste this precious opportunity called Life.

To the world you may be one person.

But to one person you may be the whole world.

Volume 26. April 11, 2022

One day after the slap heard round the world, on March 28, 2022, Will Smith apologized to Chris Rock. “My behavior at last night’s Academy Awards was unacceptable and inexcusable … I would like to apologize to you, Chris. I was out of line and I was wrong.”

Then why did you do it? 

At what should have been the pinnacle moment of his life, the zenith of his career, Will Smith soiled himself — in front of a live television audience totaling 16.6 million viewers. 

Unbelievable how the ego can sabotage one’s true self!

And yet, completely believable because that’s what the ego does. 

The ego exists for its own good. Not for the sake of other people. 

Buddhas come into the world to reorient the ego. Armed with shovels, searching for dung heaps, Buddhas shovel the filth of egotism out of our minds and proclaim the No Self. 

When one realizes that one’s innermost being is the No Self, then one’s actions become selfless, instead of selfish. 

Egocentric behavior becomes egoless behavior. 

Chris Rock had the proper response. Humility, forgiveness, turn the other cheek, don’t draw attention to the dark side of humanity, let it go, don’t press charges. Chris was Christ-like. 

He was not attached to his ego. 

Bodhisattvas are not attached to their egos. Bodhisattvas relieve the sufferings of the world. They lead people to enlightenment. 

We have all met a bodhisattva during our lifetime. Think of the kindest person you have ever known. Perhaps, a grandmother or a sainted aunt. That’s a bodhisattva.

The road to Buddhahood in Mahayana Buddhism is called the bodhisattva path. It consists of perfecting six virtues: generosity, patience, diligence, morality, meditation and wisdom. 

The bodhisattva path is the path of love.

The slap heard round the world was wrong on so many levels. It was not only a crime (battery), it was an affront to human dignity. Will Smith didn’t slap Chris Rock, he slapped us all. 

Multiply that slap by a billion-fold and you got a war in Ukraine. Violence, pride, ambition is not who we are. That’s our false self. Humility, anonymity, kindness, patience — that’s our true self.

Only one thing wins in the end — love. Remove the dam of the ego and the waters of love flow naturally. 

Love hides at the center of all things. At times like these, we need to let it shine. Then our times become Buddha times. 

The strength of evil is extremely intense, except for those with an enlightened mind.  

When we get the ego out of the way, and let the No Self take over, then the Oscar goes to … humanity. 

Vol. 25. March 7, 2022

Buddhist monk and peace activist Thich Nhat Hanh once wrote, “Meditation is to be aware of what’s going on — in our bodies, in our feelings, in our minds, and in our world.” 

Right now, most people are painfully aware of what is going on in our world. Russian despot Vladimir Putin began a premeditated, unprovoked and unjustified war in Ukraine.

People are suffering. 

Women and children are emptying out of Ukraine by the hundreds of thousands. Tearful scenes rip hearts asunder at train stations.

They leave behind husbands, fathers and brothers, who stand courageously, ready to give their lives for freedom and shed their blood for peace in their homeland. 

How can we foster peace in war-torn Ukraine? 

Thich Nhat Hanh advises “be peace.”

He counsels, “If we are peaceful … everyone in our family, our entire society,  will benefit from our peace.” 

If we want peace, be peace. 

So how do we be peace? 

Meditate. 

Meditation does not remove us from society, but prepares us to engage society in the best possible way we can. With our true self. 

Our true self is calm, compassionate and nonjudgemental. It does not set up divisions. It sees all people as one. 

If we insist on duality, we will never get to a state of non-duality. Meditation cuts through dualism. Meditation provides a non-dual awareness of reality. That awareness is called enlightenment. 

Enlightenment is available to us right now. 

Let your perception be like that of a Buddha. 

A Buddha lives in the world, and acts in the world, while seeing the world as nirvana. 

What would it feel like to be a Buddha? To hear the Diamond Dharma Sound all the time? To see with Transcendental Sight? To know that everything is all right every moment of every day? 

Surprised? Quiet? Glad? Peaceful? 

Who knows? 

But one thing’s for sure. 

You wouldn’t want to invade a country and make people suffer. 

Be peace for yourself. 

Be peace for your family. 

Be peace for the people of Ukraine.

Be the Buddha that you truly are. 

Vol. 24. February 6, 2022

When the history of American Buddhism is written three hundred years from now, Thich Nhat Hahn will go down as one of the great Asian missionaries of Buddhism to the West. 

His literary output and impact on American society is matched only by perhaps D.T. Suzuki and the 14th Dalai Lama.

His obituary in The Washington Post quoted his weighty words: 

“I have never been born, and I have never died.”

Five days before his death, on January 17, 2022, my best friend from grade school, Jay Tanel, died. In the funeral program, Jay wrote, “I know for certain that I too am still alive.”

Jay was a Bible-thumping Baptist. Thich Nhat Hahn was a revered Buddhist monk. Religiously, they had nothing in common. Yet how can these two dead men make the same outrageous claim? 

One word: Identity.

They identified themselves not with this passing, temporary aggregate of matter called the ego. They identified themselves with something greater, something more sublime. 

Call it what you will — the Dharmakaya, Buddha-nature, God’s Mercy in Heaven. We are all conditioned aspects of one reality: The Undisturbed Oneness. 

When we stop thinking, we become that reality. 

In the West, time is linear. The Common Era started with Jesus and has ticked off 2022 solar years since then. We are born, we live, we die. All one straight linear shot. 

In the East, time is cyclical. What’s to come has already been. Every life has been lived before. When a Roman gladiator breathed his last in the sands of the arena, he gave life to an Aaron Rodgers going down in a NFL playoff defeat. 

To identify yourself with your ego, you stay stuck in linear time. 

To identify yourself with egolessness, you are at one with The One. 

The One has no beginning and no end, no birth and no death.  

The One is your ultimate destiny and current reality. 

Why wait until you are dead to make this identification?             

Guitar god Keith Richards once said, “The goal is not to live forever. The goal is to live with yourself forever.” 

Your true self, that is. 

Thich Nhat Hahn didn’t listen to The Rolling Stones, but growing up, my best friend Jay and I sure did.

When we pray and meditate, we stop listening to the tick of time and we start hearing the rhythm of eternity. 

When we hear eternity, we can say with Thich Nhat Hahn, 

“This body is not me. I am not limited by this body.
I am Life without boundaries.
I have never been born, and I have never died.” 

Vol. 23. January 5, 2022

Open your heart/mind and listen to the teaching of emptiness. 

Swinging from the rafters, hanging like a piñata, we finally found her after a week of searching and called the coroner. What was it that made her lose hope? Why did she kick away the chair? All gone now, white sheet covering her face, heading for the graveyard, the bone hole. Was she really an individual embedded in matter? Was she being or non-being? She was an illusion, a fleeting dream, an idea composed of mind-stuff. We’ll never hear from her again. She was nothing but a phantom after all. Goodbye, 2021. 

The Insurrection, the Inauguration, the 800,000 Pandemic Dead, the Myanmar Coup, the Tokyo Olympics, the Fall of Kabul, the Touchdown on Mars, the NBA Championship — all a dream. 

This year is no different from last year because all years are different forms of the same year. 

All years are Buddha-nature. 

Buddha-nature is the true, immutable, eternal nature of all things. 

It’s unchangeable reality. For Zen, it’s what’s really real. 

Zen master Dogen (1200-53), founder of the Japanese Soto school, held that all beings are Buddha-nature.  

Buddha-nature did not create the world. 

Rather, Buddha-nature is the world. 

All things don’t come to be through it. 

Rather, all things are it. 

As Dogen put it in his own folksy way, “When you look at the cheeks of a donkey or the mouth of a horse, you are looking at Buddha-nature.”

Buddha-nature is everything, including time itself. 

One day, a Zen student wanted to get to the bottom of this issue. He asked the master, “Does a dog have Buddha-nature?” 

The master answered, “Mu.” Nothingness. 

The Absence of anything fixed or permanent. 

The task of a Zen student, while meditating, is to come to an immediate experience of this profound answer.

Past, future, samsara, nirvana, anything you can think of or apprehend by your senses is a different form of the same thing: Buddha-nature. 

We stand at the precipice of a new calendar year. What 2022 has in store is unknown, yet already known. 

During meditation, we experience the “world of mu” at ever deeper levels, until we can look at the world and see emptiness. 

Does 2022 have Buddha-nature?

The answer is obvious. 

You’ll find it swinging from the rafters a year from now.

Vol. 22. December 12, 2021

The comedian Chris Farley put life into perspective. He mocked the ambitions of people who want to go out and change the world. As motivational speaker Matt Foley, Chris joked, 

“You kids are probably saying to yourself, ‘Hey, I’m going to go out and get the world by the tail, wrap it around, pull it down and put it in my pocket.’ Well, I’m here to tell you that you’re probably going to find out, as you go out there, that you’re not going to amount to jack squat! You’re going to end up eating a steady diet of government cheese and living in a van down by the river.” 

The seed of ambition begins in childhood, ripens in adolescence, then becomes a driving force in young adulthood. Most people climb the ladders of life with one goal: I want to change the world. 

On our deathbed can we exclaim, “I did it! I changed the world!” ?

Yes, of course we can.

In Buddhism, especially in the philosophy of the Yogacara school, we can change the world because the world is our mind. 

Our mind creates the world. This amazing wonder worker — the human brain — casts a net of thoughts over the material world. 

Our mind creates reality.  That’s a dog, that’s a cat, that’s a parking lot. (No, they aren’t. In reality they are neutral globs of matter.) Our mind imposes reality on matter. 

But if we change our thoughts, we change the world.

Think, for example, of the most annoying creature in your life, someone who aggravates you to no end. 

 In your thought-blanket world, that person is a monster.        

Thought change: That person is a child of god deserving of love. 

Suddenly, compassion fills your heart. You see the world through the eyes of Avalokiteshvara, Jesus and St Francis. Then, wonder of wonders, you begin acting compassionately toward the monster. 

Then, if you are lucky, the monster begins to change and acts more kindly toward you. 

You prefer this changed reality of kindness. Thus, you keep thinking: “child of god deserving of love, child of god deserving of love, child of god deserving of love.” And act that way. 

Congratulations! You have changed the world! 

Life is impartial. If you want a good life, think good thoughts. Radiate thoughts of compassion to every corner of the Earth. 

Changing Planet Earth into Planet Venus is a Herculean task. Changing your part of Earth into a better, kinder, more loving place is pretty simple. 

Christmas is a time for peace on earth and goodwill toward men. 

And this Christmas, when we change the world for the better, we may want to celebrate with a holiday cheese plate down by the river.