What the world needs
Category: buddhism
This category is about everything Buddha and Buddhism, which teaches that:
1) everything is marked by impermanence, to believe in any permanence is to suffer, and the the ultimate cause of suffering is the rejection of the non-permanent self.
2) Enlightenment (contentment) can be found through the understanding of the true nature of existence (trilaksana) as stated here, and by living in accordance to such an understanding.
Bodhisattva
Taken at Senkoji, Onomichi, Hiroshima.
Interbeing
Interbeing is Thich Nanh Nhat’s term for no-self which is equated by him to emptiness. The act of naming is the act of separating, isolating the self from the other (as though this is possible). We are all connected, interconnected in a way that is profound. We are interbeing. That is all we need to know.
Ye Haiyan
Sometimes it is amazing to read about what people will do to help others. Chinese activist Ye Haiyan volunteered for two and a half days as a prosititute to highlight the plight of sex workers as well as to understand better their situation. She then went on to write about it on Weibo, China’s equivalent of Twitter.
In a sense she is a Bodhisattva. But whether this is the only recourse she had to help them is another story.
What is important is that there are people out there trying to make a difference, whether you hear about them or not. The media covers very few newsworthy stories and most are insignificant to making the world a better place.
Like Buddha one should see with their own eyes the truth.
Buddhism isn’t a philosophy
In this talk Thich Nhat Hanh said that Buddhism isn’t a philosophy but that it has philosophy in it. There is a minimum of knowledge of the world necessary in order to follow the Buddhist practice but after that we should get on with the practice and not dwell on philosophical speculation.
Thich Nhat Nanh talks about the much quoted Cula-Malunkyovada Sutta:
“Malunkyaputta, it’s not the case that when there is the view, ‘The cosmos is eternal,’ there is the living of the holy life. And it’s not the case that when there is the view, ‘The cosmos is not eternal,’ there is the living of the holy life. When there is the view, ‘The cosmos is eternal,’ and when there is the view, ‘The cosmos is not eternal,’ there is still the birth, there is the aging, there is the death, there is the sorrow, lamentation, pain, despair, & distress whose destruction I make known right in the here & now.”
“I am thinking now.”
What is it like to transform the world around you for the better? If you want to know listen to this inspiring talk by Patrick Awuah about his work to positively transform Ghana and the African continent.
Some thoughts on the Arhat and the Bodhisattva
I started out in Buddhism with Zen Buddhism. I think it has a lot to offer. But at the same time one should think about what it doesn’t offer. One should weigh the pros and cons.
One of the interesting developments in Mahayana Buddhism (of which Zen is a part of) is that of the Bodhisattva and its (it is both a he and she. And it is a non-existent person) ideal. A bodhisattva is said to strive to save all beings before its leaves this world into Nirvana, the final extinction.
In contrast the Theravada has the Arhat ideal. An Arhat is anyone who has vowed to become enlightened, the highest ideal that leads to contentment. Mahayana sees the Arhat ideal as selfish which is why they developed the Bodhisattva ideal. This was a later development after the Buddha’s time.
So if you ask me which is “correct” I will say both.
I doubt The Buddha meant for his teaching to be selfish (the supposed Arhat ideal interpretation) in any way. But neither did he mean for it to be an active and engaging teaching (the Bodhisattava interpretation) either.
Bodhisattva and reincarnation
The goal of Buddhism whether Theravada or Mahayana is to end suffering. By doing so one ends rebirth or reincarnation.
Yet in Mahayana Buddhism the ideals of a the Bodhisattva is to delay one’s entry into Nirvana and return or reborn to help save all others.
In this sense Mahayana Buddhism is active and Theravada is passive.
As a Buddhist this is an important question. It is a question which ultimately will determine how you approach the way you live.
Moderation in eating
At my annual medical checkup the doctor told me that I need to lose weight. Not much – 3-5 kilograms. I am borderline ‘metabolic’ as he put it. He said ‘reduce your food intake and do exercise’. Moderate exercise I do but reducing my food intake has been a tough one. I don’t eat that much already. To reduce anymore seems all the more difficult becasue of I will have nothing to eat.
It is said the sloth (the furry tree-dwelling animal) moves as slowly as it does in order to conserve precious energy. This means it doesn’t require as much food also. Your intake should reflect your expenditure, I guess.
Now what the doctor was saying is very Buddhism – we need moderation. Obviously I am taking in more calories than I need to otherwise my body would not need to store it up as fat. So let’s see how I go with my diet in the next year.
The rebirth of sustainability dharmablog
Change is inevitable. Change is natural.
It is believed in Zen that every moment is a death. We die and change without knowing it. It is the grand illusion of of life. Some will go as far to say without being enlightened we are living as though we are dead.
So too sustainability dharma must end and be reborn as sustainability dharmablog. If you have hung around this blog long enough you will know it used to be ‘sustainability dharma blog’ (with a space) before it became ‘sustainability dharma’. I had dropped the ‘blog’ bit. Now I am reinstating it but as one word, not a compound.
This blog will now focus on Buddhism exclusively. It is not that I am not concerned about sustainability but that I am not going to write about it anymore. That is all. Gassho.
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