Posted inBuddhism Death/Rebirth

Overcoming the fear of non-existence

So far I've written 1,228 posts for this blog. Like a proud parent, I'm tempted to say that I don't have a favorite, that I love all of my writings equally. But that wouldn't be true. Some posts resonate with me more than others, because they spring from a deeper meaning-place. Notably, "Death and the primal fear of non-existence." The day I wrote it, back in 2006, I didn't have much time for blogging. For me, that post was unusually short and to the point. Which was how it had to be. There isn't anything complex or subtle about the…
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Posted inBuddhism Spiritual practice/meditation

Thinking and meditation go hand in hand

For a long time I thought that I shouldn't think during my meditation time. I'd been taught to either (1) repeat a mantra, thereby keeping thoughts away, or (2) rest in a thoughtless state where the meditator gazes into inner darkness and listens to inner silence, waiting for divine light/sound to appear. Now, though, I've expanded my meditative horizons, questioning assumptions that I used to accept, well, unquestioningly. Such as, whether it's really desirable to stop thinking while meditating. Here's my pithy current answer: no. But it's up to the meditator. That's my answer, nobody else's. I think (there I…
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Posted inBooks Buddhism

Live as a river — fluid, dynamic, interconnected

I was pretty sure that I was going to like Bodhipaksa's book as soon as I saw the title: "Living as a River." The subtitle was appealing also, Finding Fearlessness in the Face of Change. Having grown up in Three Rivers, California (which lives up to its name, being at the confluence of three forks of the Kaweah River), I spent a lot of time in my boyhood years swimming, inner-tubing, and otherwise frolicking in the cold snowmelt from the high Sierras. Me and my friends learned that an untamed mountain river is both a lot of fun and a…
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Posted inBuddhism

Zen says the door is wide open (while we cling to bars)

As noted before, I keep re-reading Hubert Benoit's brilliant book about Zen, "The Supreme Doctrine." No matter how many times I ponder a page, a fresh understanding (or productive non-understanding) almost always pops into my psyche upon another perusal. This morning I re-read Benoit's chapter on The Immediate Presence of Satori. In the first few paragraphs he accurately captures the psychology of both spiritual seekers and humanity at large. My primordial demand to be a distinct being conditions all my desires and, by my desires, my hopes and my beliefs. Bearing this claim, I am the bearer of an aspiration,…
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Posted inBuddhism Spiritual practice/meditation

“Selfless Insight” — intriguing, yet disappointing, Zen book

I didn't enjoy neurologist James Austin's book about Zen and neuroscience as much as I thought I would. My reading of "Selfless Insight: Zen and the Meditative Transformations of Consciousness" may show, of course, that I'm neither selfless nor imbued with enlightened (or kensho'ened) insight -- both of which I plead guilty to. Regardless, I expected that Austin would provide a clearer and simpler analysis of how Zen meditation and brain science relate. He's written two other books on this subject, this being the most recent, so perhaps "Selfless Insight" is more complicated than his earlier works. I was left…
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Posted inBuddhism

Did Buddha have a stroke?

Maybe Buddha's enlightenment was caused by a lack of oxygen in his brain -- a stroke. It's a hypothesis that makes some sense. (Thanks, Mike, for sending me a link to this article.)
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Posted inBuddhism

Take a look at Best of Raptitude 2010

As noted before, I enjoy the Raptitude blog. Blogger David has listed his top 10 posts of last year, so that makes it easy to hit the 2010 Raptitude highlights. "Die on Purpose" is intriguing. Excerpt: I think it’s really helpful to forget you exist, and often. It sounds impossible, but it can be done. Here’s an exercise I do sometimes to achieve that perspective:Wherever I am, whatever location I am in, I picture the situation exactly as it would be if I wasn’t there. I just watch it like it’s a movie, and the people still in the scene…
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Posted inBuddhism

Life lesson from a Zen flute master

I gave myself John Daido Loori's "The Zen of Creativity" for Christmas (also bought an extra copy to give to some friends who are artistic types). This morning I came across a story in the book about a Zen flute master that appealed to me. Here's how Loori tells it: When Watazumi Doso came to visit Zen Mountain Monastery, I gave him a tour of the grounds. We came across a plumber who was working on our new bathhouse. Cast-iron piping lay outside the building. Doso playfully picked up a three-foot-long piece and began to play it as though it…
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Posted inBuddhism Spiritual practice/meditation

Be a centaur, not a horseman and horse

"The Supreme Doctrine" by Hubert Benoit is a book that I keep re-reading, because every time I pick it up, fresh insights pop out of the pages. I've highlighted so much of it, in several different colors, that now the words mostly are shaded in yellow and green. This morning I re-perused The Horseman and the Horse chapter. The basic notion is that we usually consider that "I" am a horseman (thoughts, will, mind, soul, spirit) who needs to keep control of my horse (body, desires, actions, lower self, emotions). The belief in this biparite composition expresses itself in all…
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Posted inBuddhism Spiritual practice/meditation

Mindfulness is better than “spiritual” meditation

I used to believe that through meditation, I could realize ultimate reality/God. Now, having lowered my unrealistic expectations, I'd be happy if I could go through the rest of my life without losing another glove. A much-beloved glove, insofar as apparel can be loved. LIghtweight, waterproof, comfortable, thin. I'd been wearing it on rainy day dog walks here in Oregon (so I wore them a lot). Headed to the recycling center on a cold, wet, windy afternoon, I decided to take the gloves along. I walked to the car, tossed them on the front seat, and drove into town with…
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Posted inBooks Buddhism

Stuff happens — meaning of life in two words

I'm not sure what I'd make of me if that wasn't who I am: me. But isn't that true of everyone, you included? (Who is the "me" to yourself, whereas I'm your "you.") By which I mean, if I saw myself from the outside rather than the inside, I'd likely think, "Wow, that dude is weird." That indeed is how I often look upon people, both dudes and dudettes. Yet to them, they're normal and it's other folks such as me who are strange. Today I sent off an email to a neighbor. I added some lines that had little…
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Posted inBuddhism Spiritual practice/meditation

Focus… focus… focus… Happy!

Happiness, it seems, lies on the other side of a wandering mind. To enjoy life it doesn't matter so much what we do, as how focused we are on whatever we're doing. This is one of the conclusions of research I blogged about yesterday in a HinesSight post, "When mind wanders, happiness departs." A New York Times story said: Whatever people were doing, whether it was having sex or reading or shopping, they tended to be happier if they focused on the activity instead of thinking about something else. In fact, whether and where their minds wandered was a better…
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Posted inBuddhism Spiritual practice/meditation

Is it possible to meditate and “go inside”?

For about thirty-five years I belonged to a spiritual group whose core teachings included the importance of "going inside." Not a house, or any other building, but one's self. When I was trying to do this by meditating several hours a day, I never gave much thought to what "going inside" really meant, or if it was possible. I simply accepted the notion on faith. Which entailed the belief that another realm of consciousness exists in addition to what we're already aware of. Supposedly a person could focus his or her attention solely on internal processes of the psyche and…
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Posted inBuddhism

Killing the false Buddha, Gotama lives truly

As my churchlessness has evolved, I find myself interested in a steadily smaller portion of the spiritual landscape. I used to devour writings by (and about) Rumi, Meister Eckhart, St. John of the Cross, and various Hindu/Vedanta mystics. Now, I mostly nibble at Buddhist and Taoist teachings when I feel the need for some "what's life all about?" philosophizing that isn't annoyingly religious. Only problem is, even with these offerings I have to be careful what I put on my reading plate. In the Buddhism category of this blog I've written about what I like and don't like about Buddhist…
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Posted inBooks Buddhism Science

Reality is the only guru we need

After many years of searching for spiritual truth, about forty, most of which were spent following the teachings of a supposedly God-realized guru,  I finally feel like I know what this truth is. Reality. Which isn't spiritual at all. Nor otherworldly. Or supernatural, mystical, mysterious, secret, hidden from the unitiated. In other words, the big "spiritual truth" is that there isn't any. Everything we need to understand how we relate to the cosmos is right before our eyes: everyday life. Whatever you did today, and whatever you're doing right now, contains the wisdom of the ages. We just need to…
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Posted inBuddhism Science

Susan Blackmore’s Zen’ish theory of consciousness

Combine a Zen master and a psychologist interested in neuroscience. Bingo! You've created Susan Blackmore, or someone very much like her. I've finished reading her Consciousness: A Very Short Introduction. I'm fascinated by consciousness, because it's what I am. All I am, really, since whatever I'm not conscious of doesn't exist for me. So whatever consciousness is, or isn't, seemingly would tell me a lot about who I am, or aren't. I used to believe in supernatural notions of consciousness, but now I'm much more interested in scientific theories. After all, I'm a body with a brain. Or a brain…
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Posted inBuddhism Spiritual practice/meditation

Raptitude is an inspiring Buddhist’ish blog

When I scanned through the Twitter tweets put up by the people I follow, a few days ago I saw a link to "9 Mind-Bending Epiphanies That Turned My World Upside-Down." Great title. I had to see what that piece said. Reading it on the Raptitude site, I was introduced to some excellent writing by David Cain. Here he describes how Raptitude came to be. I am a regular guy who has beat up his biggest demon. To make a long story short, I used to find life very difficult and now I don’t. For a while I was having…
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Posted inBuddhism Science Wu Project

We all may be living selflessly

Usually we consider that being "selfless" means acting altruistically. This casts the word in a moral sense, which is how most religions see it. We're supposed to put God and others before ourselves. But there's a scientific side to selflessness that I'm finding increasingly intriguing: the notion that nobody has a self, so we're all selfless -- including the greediest, most egotistical, and me-centered among us. Recently I wrote about a book where noted thinkers talk about what they believe, but cannot prove. I quoted psychologist Susan Blackmore: It is possible to live happily and morally without believing in free…
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Posted inBooks Buddhism

Buddhism’s consensual core isn’t supernatural

What is the essence of a religion? That is, how can we tell whether someone is a "real" Christian, Hindu, Muslim, Jew, Buddhist, or whatever? What degree of supposed heresy is beyond the bounds of a belief system? These are tough questions to answer, in part because they are religion-specific. Hinduism seems to be a lot more accomodating of alternative viewpoints than Christianity is. Yet Mormons usually are considered to be Christian, even though they stretch the gospel truth (so to speak) in some far-out directions. I got to thinking about this after having a comment interchange with Todd on…
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Posted inBuddhism

Buddhist atheism irks B. Alan Wallace

Wow, I thought serious Buddhists were supposed to be full of compassion, empathy, and oneness with all sentient beings. Guess not. Because I just quickly read through a scathing critique of Stephen Bachelor's "Confessions of a Buddhist Atheist," which B. Alan Wallace hates. (Thanks to Ira for an email that turned me on to this essay in Mandala, a Buddhist magazine.) Wallace is a leading Buddhist thinker who tries to meld science and spirituality. According to Wikipedia: His life's work focuses on a deep engagement between Buddhist philosophical and contemplative inquiry and modern science and philosophy, with a special emphasis…
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