“So Much for Prayer”

Here is an intense video on the realities of the war in the middle east, the so called “Holy” Land.

Mother’s Day for Buddhists

Mother’s Day for Buddhists
Honoring one’s parents is an important part of Buddhist teaching. Mother’s Day would be a good time to call your parents’ attention to this fact
http://www.associatedcontent.comarticle/736897/mothers_day_for_buddhists.html

Christianity and Torture

More of the “Torture Documents” from the Bush Administration have been released to the public.

I am not sure which is more disturbing, the torture itself or the fact that it was authorized and applied under administration of a self proclaimed evangelical conservative Christian.

Christianity is, after all, a religion based on the teachings of Jesus who was brutally tortured and executed at the hands of the Roman Empire.

Jesus was:

- Flogged

- Beaten, Mocked, and Humiliated by his prison guards (Don’t forget that crown of thorns!)

- Physically Broken Down (Carrying that cross couldn’t have been easy.)

- Executed by means of Exposure, Suffocation, and Accumulated Bodily Harm (Crucifixion is the punishment for sedition.  It is meant to be slow. It is meant to send a message to the population at large.)

Additionally, many of the early followers of Jesus were likewise tortured and crucified.  

Did we as country, under Christian leadership, abandoned the message of Jesus and instead embrace the ethic of the Roman Empire?

Peace, Paul

The Buddhist “Verse”

The Buddhist “verse” is big.  I cannot use the word UNI-verse, because it consist of innumerable universes and realms – both physical and subtle.  These universes all exist within a time scale that is beyond human comprehension.  Existing within these universes are beings with almost unlimited power, gods, as well as beings consumed by incomprehensible suffering and torment, and also every type of being in between these extremes.

Every form of life within this “verse” is, from the Buddhist perspective, the fruit of past actions (karma).   Our actions shape not only our tomorrows, but also our future lifetimes.

For us in the west, it is no small feat to come to terms with the Buddhist “verse”.  It runs very much against our existential world view.

However, if we have the courage to embrace this much larger Buddhist “verse”, our lives can be transformed.  Suddenly we are able to understand our lives within a vast universal arc which ends in nothing less that Buddhahood.    The victories and defeats of today become less significant.   Our lives’ work, becomes the work of helping all sentient beings, and whether this work bears fruit tomorrow or in some future lifetime is of little importance.

Peace, Paul

Pancake Brunch

Sunday is pancake brunch day.  This tradition began in New Orleans where we would invite our neighbors over for homemade, from scratch, banana pancakes and long rambling discussions fueled by strong New Orleans coffee.  We continued the tradition at the Amida Hawaii temple in Kapa’au and 2 years later are still making and eating way too many pancakes on Sundays.

This past Sunday we were joined by Bo Lozoff, musician and founder of Human Kindness Foundation and the Prison Ashram Project.

Judy and I first met Bo in Tallahassee when he visited Lotus Lake Buddhist temple.  (He stayed in our house during his visit, as did so many other temple guests at that time.)  Anyway, a few years early, with a little help from Human Kindness Foundation and Bo’s example, I had begun my prison ministry at Wakulla C.I., just outside of Tallahasse.  It was a wonderful ministry which I maintained until leaving Tallahassee in 2006.  

Needless to say it was good to reconnect with Bo.  2009 is starting out strong, first a visit form our Dharma teachers, Dharmavidya and Prasada, in January and now this.  It is hard to imagine what March may hold in store.

Peace, Paul

Calm Abiding Meditation

What I am sharing with you is not the insight of some spiritual superstar, but rather the reflections of a dense and obtuse practitioner who has been practicing “in the world” for the last 24 or so years.  My practice has at times been very focused and at other times rather casual.  I have done a lot of different Buddhist practices, but I have always had Calm Abiding Meditation as part of my daily routine

Calm Abiding (Samatha) Meditation is one of the foundational contemplation practices of most schools of Buddhism.  It can be taught in many ways but usually involves awareness of the breath.

While the practice of Calm Abiding is often taught as a stand alone practice, I would suggest that it works better within a religious world view and in particular within the Buddhist Dharma.  The Buddhist Dharma places our lives within the context of a very large, spacious, and complex universe where change happens over vast periods of time and the goal is nothing less that the cessation of suffering for all beings.  (Buddhists are definitely not under achievers!) 

What is Calm Abiding Mediation?

First:   Calm Abiding Meditation is rejoicing in the fullness of the present moment.  It is both blissful and peaceful while also being very alert / aware.  Calm abiding is not the stupor state of escapism.

Second: Calm Abiding is possible even for people with full lives.

Third: I don’t know about anybody else, but personally, I was so busy trying to meditate that it took me forever to recognize that Calm Abiding is about Abiding in the present moment.  Sounds, sensations, sights, thoughts, etc are all occurring in the present moment.  There is a lot going on in the present moment and we really need to pull back and just appreciate and wonder beauty of each moment.

Fourth: Thinking is stressful. (That’s dukkha to you Buddhists.) Take a break from thinking and analyzing and judging everything. (Trust me, your thoughts will wait around for you.)  Give yourself some time each day to sense fully the present moment.  Listen to the ocean, or the wind, or the bird,s or the traffic, or whatever, with your full being.  Don’t think about it, just perceive.

Fifth: You are not your thoughts.  In fact, your thoughts are just a small part of your experience.  Unfortunately, we tend to obsessively focus on our thoughts.  We confuse our thoughts about who we are, with what we truly are.

Sixth: Calm Abiding is joyful.  Really!

Seventh:  Calm Abiding Meditation takes commitment.  You need to make time in your daily life to just be.  You really do need that 30 minutes, or more, each day with nothing to do but sit, breath, and be aware.  (It is only boring because we have become accustomed to having our minds stimulated non-stop.)

Eight:  As you grow your practice will grow and change.   Calm Abiding is only one part of the Buddhist Path.  Buddhism is a way of life which involves: faith, study, ethics, ritual, community, meditation, self reflection and transformation.

If you want to change your life, you need to be willing to change.  The Dharma can help you make that change.

Peace, Paul

Problems with Prisons for Profit

Friends,

In my book, making money by imprisoning people is, at best, morally questionable. Yet this is exactly what privatizing prisons means. Prison corporations profit by incarcerating the most people, for the longest amount of time, while spending the least amount of money.

It is in the prison corporation’s best interest to have an ever increasing incarceration rate and a high recidivism rate. Reforming prisoners into well adjusted members of society is not good for the bottom line.

Obviously, having prisons that are for profit businesses leads to all the normal corruption and greed that we encounter in the corporate world. Here is an article about one recent case of corruption that has affected the lives of hundreds of youths:  Pa. Judges Accused of Jailing Kids for Cash.

Peace, Paul

How Hawaii is Different

It seems that we are having a bit of an outbreak of “Rat Lung” disease here on the Big Island.  (Yes, humans can get this meningitis like disease.) Unfortunately the local paper doesn’t seem to think it is important enough to report on. Here is the article from an Oahu paper.

This disease has been affecting people in the area of the big island known as Puna. Now if we were on the mainland, and this disease had put 8 people in the hospital, some in a coma, then you can be sure there would be a national stink.
In Hawaii, we are left to rely on gossip and prudent action.

For our part, we aren’t eating any raw greens for the time being.

Peace, Paul

Buddhism and Vegetarianism

I confess that I have often been disheartened by the refusal of Buddhist practitioners to embrace vegetarianism as part of the Buddhist tradition.

However today I cam across some statements from H.H. the Karmapa on Vegetarianism and the Kagyu lineage. HH the Karmpa

These are bold statements, and gives me hope that the Buddha Dharma does indeed hold the key to liberating us from the environmental and violent morass that we have created for ourselves on this earth.

Peace, Paul

New Year

The New Year has come and gone.  We survived relatively unscathed, staying indoors out of the craziness of fireworks, gunfire, and drunkenness.  The rain has continued, which I am sure put a bit of a damper on the various neighborhood pyrotechnic festivities.

The beginning of the New Year is a time for resolutions and new beginnings.   Which all sounds wonderful until you actually try to make changes in your life.  Then the rubber hits the road and we see how entrenched we are in our comfortable and familiar habits.  We may not like our habits and behaviors, but they are what we know.

This is, of course, why practicing the Buddha Dharma is so hard!  The Dharma runs contrary to what is familiar.  In the Buddhist way of thinking, it is our habitual patterns that create and perpetuate much of the suffering in our lives and the world.  

To begin “anew” we must be willing to see these habitual patterns and recognize that they are the root of much suffering.  This is why the Buddha’s first teaching, after his awakening, is about Dukkha (suffering) and the causes of suffering.  It is a concise teaching.  Yet it is the foundation for the vast and innumerable teachings known as the Buddha Dharma.

“Now this, monks, is the Noble Truth of Dukkha: birth is dukkha, aging is dukkha, illness is dukkha; death is dukkha; sorrow, lamentation, pain, grief, & despair are dukkha; association with what is displeasing is dukkha; separation what is pleasing is dukkha; not getting what is wanted is dukkha. In short, the five clinging-aggregates are dukkha.”

Peace, Paul