The Crux
So, this was going around “The Facebook” awhile back, and every time I saw the photo, it never quite sat right with me. It’s a grand idea I suppose: grow up with someone, fall madly in love, get married, have children (I am assuming have grandchildren, as it is not in the photo), then grow old and die together.
Every time I saw this picture, I could not figure out why it bothered me. Then I started thinking about it, and it all seemed so selfish to me. In this photo there’s this idea of a perfect love, and life. There seemed to be no room for others outside of the immediate family bubble. No serving of a greater purpose, no helping out their fellow man – just taking what they can in the way of small, temporary happiness until they die.
Then I questioned, Is this the dream a lot of us strive to, is this all we think we are capable of? I understand this is just a picture, and cannot sum up the entire human experience, but it is a highly idealized version of … Continue reading
I was fortunate enough to be invited to Monroe prison for their yearly prison sangha celebration called Buddhafest.
So what are we going to do? I see people all the time on Facebook and other social networks, posting about this political thing, or that political thing. It seems like everyone is putting out a call to arms for one thing or another. But what are we really doing?
On the last day of retreat with 
Right Action in the Eightfold Path is the second ethical principle. It pertains to the body as a means of expression, as it really involves the body’s actions. The idea of practicing the Five Precepts in our daily life comes back to Right View. If we have Right View, and can see the correctness of the Four Noble Truths in samsara; the Five Precepts will then come naturally. We will want to follow them, knowing that they will lessen suffering for ourselves and others we come in contact with.
I was recently asked how I have integrated my Buddhism with an idea of a higher power. The question was hard for me to answer. I have an idea of how this works in my life, a sort of abstract feeling of how it all goes together and it works well for me. However, I could not explain it.
If there were no anger what would you be feeling ? I had never thought about it like that before. That one statement hit me hard and in that instant I could see what the anger really was for me. What anger had been doing for me all these years .
I never truly knew how I felt about myself until I spent six days in silence with complete strangers. It’s the faces you see. They become mirrors of your own ill will towards yourself. You tend to project your inner self hatred onto them. Next thing you know the story in your mind is so fantastic it even comes complete with a lynch mob.
What if nothing is wrong ? This sticks with me. Resonates within me often when I meditate. What if nothing really is wrong? What if it just is? That is in fact the truth nothing is wrong until I judge it. Until I label it as such. Inherently things are not wrong or right they just are. It is not until my mind comes in and starts throwing labels and judgments around on everything it comes in contact with does it become anything other then what it is in that moment.
One of the things I find hardest to keep up at times is my desire to meditate. I know the joys of a daily meditation practice. I know the benefits as well. Ten years ago when I started this path it was out of a search for relief. I was newly sober my emotions where completely out of control. I had developed clinical anxiety from the amount of LSD and Alcohol I had consumed over the last twenty seven years. So the motivation to sit was strong meditation was the corner stone of my life.