Loving Yourself

"You can search throughout the entire universe for someone who is more deserving of your love and affection than you are yourself, and that person is not to be found anywhere. You yourself, as much as anybody in the entire universe, deserve your love and affection." Buddha

The Italian Buddhist: Urban Buddhism #2: The Worth Of Our Words

"The worth of our words is measured by how much they improve the silence." Talking about "Right Speech" Bhodi Daishin brings up points from the Noble Eightfold Path....How do we use our words? Does what we say actually "improve" the silence afterwards?

Urban Buddhism #1: Compassion

This is an installment on compassion from a a feature I do called "Urban Buddhism." We need not wait until something tragic happens to generate compassion in our lives...Compassion and generosity are innate in all beings....it is a wellspring that has been present in us through lifetimes...This stream of kindness and love is just waiting to be drawn from...

Be Still

 I went running today...and, as I customarily do while running, I chanted...repeated a mantra to myself....Then it occurred to me..."Be still!" Even while running, just simply "be!" Lately I have been "having" to occupy my mind. Actually, it can get very tiring. Pain is a good motivator. I find that I if I make myself believe that I must do something other than be present, even in my Buddhist practice, then I can suffer needlessly. I know that I must do certain things other than mindfulness within my practice as a Tibetan  Buddhist but sometimes it's just good to "BE." So, I found a great article written by Leo Babauta. I have posted his work before and he really nails it...May you be peaceful and happy! Bhodi

Be Still.

Post written by Leo Babauta. Follow me on Twitter.

Be still.

Just for a moment.

Listen to the world around you. Feel your breath coming in and going out. Listen to your thoughts. See the details of your surroundings.

Be at peace with being still.

In this modern world, activity and movement are the default modes, if not with our bodies then at least with our minds, with our attention. We rush around all day, doing things, talking, emailing, sending and reading messages, clicking from browser tab to the next, one link to the next.

We are always on, always connected, always thinking, always talking. There is no time for stillness — and sitting in front of a frenetic computer all day, and then in front of the hyperactive television, doesn’t count as stillness.

This comes at a cost: we lose that time for contemplation, for observing and listening. We lose peace.

And worse yet: all the rushing around is often counterproductive. I know, in our society action is all-important — inaction is seen as lazy and passive and unproductive. However, sometimes too much action is worse than no action at all. You can run around crazily, all sound and fury, but get nothing done. Or you can get a lot done — but nothing important. Or you can hurt things with your actions, make things worse than if you’d stayed still.

And when we are forced to be still — because we’re in line for something, or waiting at a doctor’s appointment, or on a bus or train — we often get antsy, and need to find something to do. Some of us will have our mobile devices, others will have a notebook or folder with things to do or read, others will fidget. Being still isn’t something we’re used to.

Take a moment to think about how you spend your days — at work, after work, getting ready for work, evenings and weekends. Are you constantly rushing around? Are you constantly reading and answering messages, checking on the news and the latest stream of information? Are you always trying to Get Lots of Things Done, ticking off tasks from your list like a machine, rushing through your schedule?

Is this how you want to spend your life?

If so, peace be with you. If not, take a moment to be still. Don’t think about what you have to do, or what you’ve done already. Just be in the moment.

Then after a minute or two of doing that, contemplate your life, and how you’d like it to be. See your life with less movement, less doing, less rushing. See it with more stillness, more contemplation, more peace.

Then be that vision.

It’s pretty simple, actually: all you have to do is sit still for a little bit each day. Once you’ve gotten used to that, try doing less each day. Breathe when you feel yourself moving too fast. Slow down. Be present. Find happiness now, in this moment, instead of waiting for it.

Savor the stillness. It’s a treasure, and it’s available to us, always.
—
From the Tao Te Ching:

It is not wise to dash about.
Shortening the breath causes much stress.
Use too much energy, and
You will soon be exhausted.
That is not the Natural Way.
Whatever works against this Way
Will not last long.

Create Time To Change Your Life

This is a great article written by Leo Babauta author and creator of the great Zen blog, Zenhabits (www.zenhabits.net). He speaks very simply on a variety of ways that you can make time, simplify and make a positive change in your life. I very much liked the article especially the first step: Make a Commitment....Enjoy the post...tell me what you think...

Namaste,

Bhodi

Create Time To Change Your Life

When I decided to change my life a little over 5 years ago, I had a very common problem: I didn’t have the time.

I wanted to exercise and find time for my family and eat healthier (instead of the fast-food junk I’d been eating) and read more and write and be more productive and increase my income.

Unfortunately there are only 24 hours in a day, and we sleep for about 8 of them. Subtract the hours we spend eating (3), showering and dressing and fixing up (1), cleaning and running errands (1), driving (2), working (8) … and you’re left with an hour or two at most. Often less.

Eventually I figured out how to do all the things I wanted to do. I’ve achieved all of that and more, and in fact I have more leisure time now than ever. But first I had to figure out the fundamental problem: how could I find the time to change my life?

I know many of you face the same problem — you’ve told me as much. So I thought I’d share some of what I did in the beginning, in hopes that it’ll help.

The First Step

You must make a commitment. You have to decide that you really want to make a change, and that it’s more important than almost anything else.

For me, only my family was more important — and in fact I was making these change for my family as well as for myself. So these changes I was making were really my top priority in life.

It has to be that urgent for you. Think of this not as “improving your life” but saving it. The changes I made saved my life — I am so much healthier, my marriage is better, my relationships with my kids have improved, I am happier rather than depressed.

If you don’t feel you’re saving your life then you won’t make the tough changes needed.

Next Steps

Once I made the mental commitment, I took small steps to give myself a little wiggle room to breathe and move:

• Cut out TV. I watched less TV than ever before (eventually I watched none, though now I watch a few shows a week over the Internet). For many people this one change will free up a couple hours or more.
• Read less junk. I used to read a lot of things on the Internet that were just entertainment. Same with magazines. I cut that stuff out early so I could focus on what was more important.
• Go out less. I used to go to a lot of movies and to dinner and drinking. I cut that out (mostly) for awhile, to make time.
• Wake earlier. Not everyone is going to do this but it was a good step for me. I found that I had more time exercising and working in the morning before anyone woke up — the world was quiet and at peace and without interruptions. (Read more.)

In general, find the things that eat up your time that are less important than the changes you want to make. That’s almost everything except the things you need to live — work and eating and stuff like that. Cut back on them where you can.

Simplify Commitments

I had a lot of commitments in my life — I coached soccer, was on the PTA board, served on a lot of committees at work, had social commitments as well, worked on a number of projects.

Slowly I cut them out. They seemed important but in truth none of them were as important as the life I wanted to create, the changes I wanted to make. Lots of things are important — but which are the absolute most important? Make a decision.

If you are having trouble making a decision, try an experiment. Cut out a commitment just for a little while. See whether you suffer from cutting it out, or whether you like the extra time.

If you’re worried about offending people, don’t. Send an email or make a phone call and explain that you’d love to keep doing the commitment but you just don’t have the time and don’t want to half-ass it. The person might try to talk you into staying but be firm — respect yourself and your time and the changes you’re trying to make.

Here’s a secret: the people and organizations you’ve been helping or working with will live. They will go on doing what they were doing without you, and (omg!) they will survive without you. Your departure will not cause the world to collapse. Let go of the guilt.

Streamline Your Life

Eventually I made many other changes, including:

• Making bills and savings and debt payments automatic. I set everything up online so that I wouldn’t have to run errands or spend time making payments. This put my debt reduction on automatic, and I got out of debt. (Read more.)
• Streamlining errands. I tried to cut as many errands out of my life as possible. Often that meant changing my life in some way but I adjusted and things became simpler. I cleaned as I went so I didn’t have a lot of cleaning to do on weekends. I did the few errands I had all at once to save running around.
• Work less. I would set limits to how much I could work, forcing myself to pick the important tasks and to get those tasks done on time. I learned which tasks needed to be done and which could be dropped. I became much more effective and worked less.
• Say no. When people asked me to do stuff that was important to them but not to me, I learned to politely decline. Instead I focused on what was important to me.

Slowly I learned to simplify. I simplified my daily routines, my work, my social life, my possessions, my chores, my wardrobe. It took time but it has been more than worth the effort: life is so much better now that I’ve created the time to do what I want to do.

The fullness of the Dharma

I found this article to be so amazingly poignant and beautiful. The author, Raj Arumugam has put together what it is to be a Buddhist in very simple terms. If you are interested in following a wonderful path then read on!

Bhodi

The fullness of the Dharma

Raj Arumugam (Director, TTS – www.ttsworld.com.au)




Many Buddhist terms and ideas and the teachings of the Buddha, and these teachings as elucidated by contemporary teachers of Buddhism, have become quite widespread and common in popular culture.
So we hear often of compassion.
So we hear often of Buddhist meditation.
Or the Brahma viharas.
Or karuna.. Metta bhavanna.
And of so many other ideas and practices.
But Buddhism is not merely a collection of practices and ideas. For instance, Buddhism is not merely the ideas of karma and love.
These ideas are important but one must pursue each of these ideas to their full perfection. To hold each simply as an idea is merely an intellectual or academic exercise.
And pursuing each teaching to its fullness, one reaches the fullness of Buddhism.
And what is the fullness of Buddhism?





That is the question that one must ask in one’s exploration and pursuit of Buddhism.
One must endeavor to gain an understanding for oneself of what the fullness of Buddhism is. It is not an understanding someone passes on to us but an understanding each must develop and be willing to modify as one continues with one’s exploration of the dharma.
And one must do the same with each idea, through meditation, insight, study and enquiry. For each idea or teaching one must gain an understanding of its fullness.
Without that line of inquiry, without a constant asking of oneself of these questions – What is the fullness of Buddhism? What is the fullness of this teaching or dharma (say compassion or karma) that I am exploring?– one merely has an abstract idea, a teaching that makes no sense. One merely has another toy one plays with in the mind. A toy that satisfies one’s yearning for a while – but is never fully satisfactory.
Let us take the idea of karma, for example.
What is the fullness of the teaching of karma? Like all teachings in Buddhism, one gets to know what karma is over many explorations of the idea, not within a day. Sometimes it may take years, and dare I say, many births.
So again, what is the fullness of the teaching of karma?
Just to see karma as a law is not to see its fullness. Just to see it as cause and effect is not to see its fullness.
So again, what is the fullness of the teaching of karma?
Truly this question is best answered by the individual – but just to illustrate, I might say that the fullness of karma is to see that it relates to interdependence, to the origin of dhukka,and to see pure love and oneness – which in turn brings us to the fullness of Buddhism.


In this manner, if one contemplates on any teaching, fully and deeply, one will come to realize that the fullness of any teaching is the fullness of Buddhism.
So deep insight into karma in this instance is to see the fullness of Buddhism.
And again what is the fullness of Buddhism?
The fullness of Buddhism is completeness, of that stage when all things are done. There is nothing more to be done. The fullness of completeness is perfect knowledge. What is the fullness of perfect knowledge? It is fullness itself. It is completeness itself. This is nirvana. This is perfection. This is nirvana and, as the Buddha taught, there is no more striving beyond nirvana. There is no more beyond nirvana, for there is nothing beyond perfection.




So one can see the fullness of Buddhism through seeing the fullness of each idea and teaching.
To merely see each idea as an idea or as a technique or as a law is to merely see an abstraction that has no transformational power. It is merely a word that interests the mind. Like a new invention or a new form of entertainment that might interest one. To see the fullness of each teaching, however, is to see the fullness of Buddhism itself – which in itself is fullness and perfection.
There is nothing beyond fullness. One has arrived.
One must thus be constantly mindful of seeing the fullness, and this insight into the fullness of the teaching must come from within oneself. To have it pointed out to one and to merely read about it or to listen about it is simply exploring ideas. The teaching remains an uninspiring idea as when a student might learn in a classroom merely for an examination. And, to realize it for oneself, and to understand it oneself is to uphold the teaching of the Buddha. To merely repeat the words of the teacher or to merely accept the teaching of another is simply to follow without understanding. Following without understanding is not what the Buddha encouraged. The Buddha taught one to see the fullness of the dharma – which, in contemporary terms, is to see the fullness of Buddhism, to see perfection itself.





 Raj Arumugam (Director–TTS www.ttsworld.com.au)
(picture from BurningWell.org)

Our True Nature

Recently I watched a documentary on the oneness of mankind. Dozens of people from many different faiths (or absence of), walks of life, colors and viewpoints, came together to share their views on some of life's deepest questions...What is the meaning of life? What does God look like? What do you wish for the world? While listening to various responses I was struck with a startling realization. It was all about my true nature....our true nature.

You see, I realized that I have spent much of my life in denial. Denial of who I truly am. What my nature is. Then it occurred to me that man is the only animal that does this. It is quite remarkable. Think of any other living thing...a deer, a dog, a butterfly, a fish or a snake... Any living thing. Does a deer try to be something it is not? Does a dolphin say to itself "Gosh, I wish I could be more like a shark!" The answer is clearly "NO."

Animals simply be. Other living things do not deny what they are. They are perfect in their acceptance of their true nature. They don't even question it.

So why do we, with all our intellect and spiritual growth, wisdom and enlightenment do this? Is it fear? Is it blindness caused by what we were told as children? Is it striving for something that we perceive to be a better existence?

In my limited thinking I have come to the realization that I believed I was doing the right thing. Seeking growth, knowledge...having goals and aspirations. Now don't get me wrong. I do not believe broadening the mind or aspiring to achieve is denying my true nature. What I do believe is that somewhere along life's journey we get caught up in what we THINK these goals SHOULD be. We get confused by the very aspirations we thought were great and worthy of all our efforts.

The result of all of this is often anxiety, confusion, a sense of failure or a cloudy view of our actual self...our true nature. To define our true nature one need only look at what we are not. We are not what we do, that is, we are not our jobs. We are not our goals. We are not our fears. We are not our pain or our joy or our suffering. We are not what we possess and we certainly are not defined by our actions or even what we believe or have faith in.

My true nature is simply the basic understanding that I am one with all life. I possess truth, love, Spirit and all answers and always have. I have told myself and have been told my entire life that I am not perfect. I am not whole. I am not "there yet." I must kick, fight, climb and suffer, if need be, to achieve these things.

The truth is I am perfect. I am whole. Being unified with God, the Divine or Eternal Mind is not something I acquire or learn. I have always had Divine nature. I have always had love as my core. If I can find ways to still my mind and be present I will have clarity and understanding of the Ultimate Mind that I am one with. I can rest in the vast, infinite space that possesses all knowledge, peace and truth. My Spirit is the Spirit of the Divine. We are One. Father Richard Keating, the leading figure in Christian contemplative thinking, states that if one truly comes to an understanding of a Higher Power or God or Other (with a capital O) he will realize that the Other does not exist alone. The Other exists in unison with each and every one of us. The Other, God, is my Eternal Living Existence. All I need do is learn to take the blinders off. Believe and accept the fact that I already have Buddha Nature. We all have Heaven within us.

Is it easy to take the blinders off? To come to this understanding and convince the ego or our self that we are not limited, that our nature is infinite and in perfect oneness with the Divine? Well...yes. Meditate. Pause. Find the Still Point. Allow yourself to rest in the breath, the clarity of thought. Do not struggle or work the mind. Simply be. You will find that you have always possessed the answers...the true nature of the Spirit of the Universe.

We can learn so much from animals. A fish isn't confused by the current that carries it along a stream. It naturally accepts the flow of the precious life force it is part of. They are one. No one taught the fish how to swim or told them there is a better way to get around in the water.

We all share Nirvana.

I bow to the Divine in all of you.