Lucky Charms

Question: But some lucky charms do work, don't they?

Answer: I know a person who makes a good living selling lucky charms. He claims that his charms can give good luck, prosperity and he guarantees that you will be able to predict winning lottery numbers. But if what he says is true then why isn't he himself a millionaire? If his lucky charms really work, then why doesn't he win the lottery week after week? The only luck he has is that there are people silly enough to but his magic charms.

~S. Dhammika, in Good Question Good Answer

A Catechism

Question: How do people in Buddhism find comfort in their faith.

Answer: Buddhism is a Practice, not a faith. The Teachings are a tool box to help us in our everyday life; our moment-to-moment life.

If There Is No Self, What Is Reborn?

What is reborn is our habits. That is the essence of it. Whatever the mind holds onto is reborn: what we love, hate, fear, adore, and have opinions about. Our identification with these aspects of mind has a momentum behind it. Attachment is like a flywheel . . . . What is being reborn from life to life is that which identifies with objects blindly.

---Ajahn Amaro---

The Buddha

A question asked, "What is the Buddha?"

An answer offered, "Mind is the Buddha, and there's no other."

A Question About Progress

Question:

In order to make progress, we need to work hard, and fight for it. Buddhism seems to be too passive. Is the Buddha against progress?


Response:

First, you need to define 'progress'.

Is the destruction of the rain forest progress? You have to define what is and is not progress.

But to answer your question directly, Buddhism is not against progress. It's only against a kind of progress that enslaves others or oneself. It is against a progress that destroys instead of heals or builds or nurturers.

Progress is desirable when it is gained constructively. There is no progress if it enslaves or destroys. There is no progress is it is ruthless in the pursuit of its goals.

A Question From A Non-Buddhist

Question:

My religion forbids me to look into Buddhism or any other religion or philosophy. What should I do?


Response:

Don't look. You have to live with your conscience. I can't advise you to go against your conscience.

But, if your current religious tradition allows you to consider or to think, you should at least keep an open mind.

I prefer to live my life in freedom, not bending my beliefs to the whims of another. I have profound respect for each individual. I respect each person enough to support their choice of a religion or no religion.

If any of my students wish to seek or follow another religious tradition, they are very welcomed to make that decision. Why? I believe in freedom. There can be no true spiritual growth without freedom. And, if a student finds a better path, I hope they will share it with me.

That's why, I believe, children should never be forced down a religious path. Give them as much information as you are able, allow them to investigate, and let them choose for themselves.

Chan

Chan is a personal experience of reality without the addition and distraction of our opinions and ideas, our hopes and wishes.

Chan is an unfiltered experience.

Chan is the Chinese transliteration of the Sanskrit word Dhyana which means 'meditation'.
In Korea Chan is known as Seon.
In Vietnam Chan is known as Thien.
In Japan Chan is known as Zen.

Eating is Chan. Sleeping is Chan. Walking, standing, sitting, chopping firewood and carrying water are all Chan.

A Commentary

This gatha from the "Diamond Sutra"—All created things are like a dream, an illusion, a bubble, a shadow, like a dew, or like lightning. View all things like this—doesn't mean things don't exist or that reality has no substance. These words remind us all things are impermanent. Our dreams end when we awake. Illusion disappear quickly when known. Look at a bubble, it appears and then its gone. Dew evaporates in the warming of the morning sun. Lightning is large and powerful and brilliant, but suddenly gone. So with everything. The sun has a limited existence as does the Milky Way. Nothing lasts, even myself.

Q and A

Q

Are you, as a Buddhist, required to be a vegetarian?

A
There are no 'requirements' in Buddhism. Your choices are up to you. Simply remember and be aware, you are responsible for your actions. All actions have consequences.

In A Nutshell

Refrain from unwholesome action.
Do wholesome action.
Purify your own mind.

In a Nutshell

Books may point the may, but they are not the experience.

Buddhism is an experiential tradition.

In a Nutshell

The Teachings and the Practices of the Buddha-Dharma are guides to help one experience Reality free of the filter of opinion.

In a Nutshell

You now know that even in the Black Mountain Cave of Demons there is complete freedom.

---Master Dogen---

In a Nutshell

Buddhism is about cutting through delusion. 

Most of the delusion is our own.

A Question

Question: Does it matter if a Buddhist Practitioner is gay, straight, bi, or transgender?

Answer: No.

A Question

Question: Is Buddhism open to gay people?

Answer: Yes.

A Question

Question: Does Buddhism teach anything about same gender relationships?

Answer: No.

Nirvana

Early Chinese translators tried some forty Chinese words before finally giving up and simply transliterating this Sanskrit word, which means absence of breath. It's also defined as the only calm. Most people equate it with death, but to Buddhists nirvana means the absence of the dialectic that breath represents.

According to Nagarjuna, "That which is, when subject to karma, samsara, is, when no longer subject to karma, nirvana."

---Red Pine, in the notes of his translation of The Zen Teachings of Bodhidharma---

Part of My Answer to a Series of Questions Sent to Me by a High School Sophomore

In essence, the Teachings and the Practice of the Buddha-Dharma (Buddhism) is to guide one to an experiential understanding or knowledge of Reality. Reality as it truly is, not as it is hoped to be or desired or wished to be.

Meditation is a tool in that endeavor.

Through the practice of meditation one learns to focus on one thing and one thing alone. This may sound simplistic, but try it. Simply sit down and do nothing but place your awareness on your breath. That's all. Notice how long before a thought becomes part of your awareness.

Or try another point of centering. Observe a tree. Simply observe without commentary, without discursive description. Simply see.

Once again thoughts will become part of your awareness.

Meditation is a tool we use to help us practice awareness. We don't suppress thoughts - that would be involvement. We practice non-involvement.

Once we have (through practice) learned to observe without interference, and remember, most interference in the search for understanding comes from one's own opinions, we are able to investigate, discover, and experience Reality.

These are basic answers to your questions.

Generosity - A Strategy to Weaken Greed

Generosity (dana or caga) is a glad willingness to share what one has with others. In Buddhism, generosity is seen as a strategy to weaken greed, a way of helping other and a means of lessening the economic disparities in society.Since it is one of the cardinal Buddhist virtues, the Buddha has a great deal to say about giving and sharing. He said we can give to guests, to those setting out on a journey, to the sick, the hungry, the poor and the first fruits to monks, nuns or spiritual teachers. The Jataka says: 'From little give a little, from middling give middling and from much give much. There is no excuse for giving nothing.'

---A Guide to Buddhism A to Z, by S. Dhammika---