The Buddha Times

Vol. 3. May 9, 2020

Well, here we are, cooped up in Corona Town. There is no sports, little entertainment, no contact with friends. What have we gotten ourselves into?

We’re boxed up in four walls, dreading our neighbors, fighting fake news, fearing for our lives.

Is that any kind of life?

We are … The Lonely.

There’s an old Twilight Zone episode where a prisoner is placed on an asteroid nine million miles from Earth. Desperately lonely, he yearns to be pardoned. He longs to return to human society. Astronauts visit him only once every four months with supplies.

On one visit, he is given a humanoid robot. Alisha talks to him, keeps him company and empathizes with his situation. He falls in love with “her.”

He finds happiness with her. He tastes a contentment and satisfaction unlike any he has ever known in his life. The long hours of solitude pass like minutes as he pours out his heart to his robotic wife. Bliss among the stars.

The astronauts return with good news. The man has been pardoned! But he has to return immediately, without the robot, or forever stay on the asteroid.

What would you do?

You have all you need in solitary confinement. You have love and robotic companionship.

Do you abandon the love of your life for human society?

Nirvana

We have been given a rare opportunity, unlike any other in modern American history. We’re separately together. Can we find happiness on our own private asteroid?

Zen Master Dogen (d. 1255) once said, “If you can’t find enlightenment right where you are, where else do you expect to find it?”

The beautiful Buddha world is spread upon the Earth, but we do not see it. Why? We let our little mind get in the way. Our anxieties, our fears, our frustrations.

Let it go. Meditate.

If you seek for nirvana, you lose it.

If you let go, nirvana finds you.

Even in Corona Town.

Vol. 2. April 13, 2020

Thoreau (d. 1862) once wrote: “Read not The Times. Read the Eternities.”

I live in the city. I’m a city mouse, not a country mouse. I prefer the hustle and bustle. But every once in a while, I like to cut out of the city and walk alone in the woods. I’ll sit beside a stream and ponder the eternal verities. Being alone in nature, the stress of society evaporates. It’s nice to breathe.

Today, however, during our societal shutdown, you don’t have to sit alone beside a pond pondering like Thoreau. Just walk out the front door, or drive down the street. Society is gone. Stores are open. Buses keep running. Society still functions, but there is no society.

It’s been quarantined.

In strange times like these, it’s natural to draw within. Meditate.

Why think out other people’s thoughts? Why study other people’s concepts? In neither case will you arrive at a true perception of your true nature.

Your true nature is Buddha-nature.

Buddha-nature embraces all things, from the most sublime god to the meanest belly-crawling creature.

As zen master Dogen once said, “When you look into the cheeks of a donkey or into the mouth of a horse, you’re looking at Buddha-nature.”

Buddha-nature

Buddha-nature is all around us. Buddha-nature is us. Buddha-nature makes us one. We are temporary. Buddha-nature is eternal.

As soon as you recognize your transcendental self, you are no longer your self. You’re greater than your self. You are Buddha-nature.

Only give up the error of intellectual thought processes, and your nature will reveal its pristine purity.

When we read the times, we create divisions and get caught up in newscasts, press briefings and health alerts. When we read the eternities, we create harmony and congratulate each other on the ever-glorious morning.

Wise advice from the Wizard of Walden: “Read not The Times. Read the Eternities.”

Vol 1. March 29, 2020

Jack Kerouac (d. 1969) once wrote, “I’ll found a Buddhist
University and put up this frieze in front:

“HERE LEARN THAT LEARNING IS IGNORANCE.”

I live across the street from a grade school. Most mornings schoolchildren line up and wait for the doors to open. Their bright faces chirp eagerly like songbirds. The crossing guard cheerfully greets late-coming cars. The busy street whizzes with traffic going to work. The American flag waves above the scene.

Today, however, during the corona pandemic, the scene is eerily silent. The kids are gone. The street is empty. The crossing guard has vanished. Only the America flag
waves forlornly above the tomb.

Seeing that flag waving, I’m reminded of Hui-neng. One day, Hui-neng, the sixth patriarch of the zen school, found two monks arguing outside a monastery.

The first monk said, “Hey look! The flag is moving.” The second monk said, “No, the wind is moving.” “No, it’s the flag.” “No, it’s the wind.”

Hui-neng said, “Gentlemen, the only thing that’s moving is your mind.”

Normally our minds are cluttered with thoughts. Our senses are polluted with sights and sounds. We convince ourselves the world is real. We argue with one another.

But when you meditate, the world becomes pure. You see the futility of your thoughts. Sights and sounds are illusions. You arrive at peace.

Emptiness

Outside my window, I see empty streets and an empty school. But the scene is empty not because of corona.

There never were any schoolchildren. There never were any flags waving. There never were any cars whizzing. The only thing that’s moving here is my mind.

When you’re a school kid, you’re eager to drink up at the fonts of knowledge.

But when you meditate, you realize knowledge is ignorance.

A Buddha is one who can look at the world and see emptiness.

If I ever found a Buddhist University, I’ll be like Jack Kerouac. I’ll put a sign out front:

HERE LEARN THAT LEARNING IS IGNORANCE.