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    hardie karges 2:48 am on July 19, 2026 Permalink | Reply
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    Buddhism in the Morning Paper and the Evening News…  

    The Buddha stressed Right Actions. But he never said to do nothing all the time. That’s why the long-distance Buddhist monk tudong walkers have accomplished something more than just a little bit special in the ranks of the Buddhist sangha. Because it’s always been a little bit of a joke amongst Thai expats that if you want a free ride in life, then become a monk, because they don’t really have to do much to stay fed. And it wasn’t easy to refute those snickering claims—until now.  

    Because now we’ve got simple country monks performing heroic feats of self-sacrifice and long-distance hiking all for the love of dharma and karmic merit. And they always smile and they never complain. They even perform the more intricate ‘tudong’ (dhutanga) rites among the highly disciplined of them, including upright sleeping and barefoot walking. How’s that for a country song? The effect is splendid, too, even if the accomplishments are largely symbolic. 

    But those symbols can go a long way, too, and they’ve only gotten started. Peace is no easy conquest, even if it’s just inner peace, no rush for the Strait stuff of heroic duels and the lingering whispers of duality. Those things take time. First, we start with baby steps and then we see what hill we can climb. I think metta and maitri are the next big steps, more brotherly love than mom’s lovingkindness, and that means continuing the quest in ‘foreign’ countries. Because that’s the only way we’ll ever truly become brothers, albeit with the same mothers. Think big. It’s time for Christianity and Buddhism to admit their common cause. Stay tuned. 

     
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    hardie karges 7:58 pm on July 14, 2026 Permalink | Reply
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    Buddhism, Life, and a World Defined by Challenges… 

     
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    hardie karges 6:51 am on July 12, 2026 Permalink | Reply
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    Buddhism and the Wisdom of Children…  

    We (adults) pride ourselves at teaching our young ones how to make it through life, growing and learning, getting and spending, and all the other things that count for adulthood. But is that truly a worthwhile effort, and are they indeed really learning anything important? Sometimes it seems that all we are really teaching is how to fear the powers that be, and then the ability to lie, cheat, steal, and murder is merely a by-product of that more basic capacity to fear. 

    But shouldn’t they be teaching us a thing or two at the same time, like maybe how to laugh and play and enjoy the day as if there were never indeed one before and may never be another one after? I mean, have you ever met a child incapable of smiling? No, not that I can remember, but I know many adults who never seem to be able to summon up the courage to let go of their fears in that way for even a moment. But, wait a minute, you’re thinking, isn’t a child’s smile likely to turn into a frown without the slightest notice, and for even less reason?  

    And there’s the rub. Yes, for many a child, an emotion is only a transient sensation, as ephemeral as a passing cloud and with even less reason, merely the chatter of butterflies without vocal chords, just the flapping of wings in a season without time, meter or rhyme, while adults do the hard work of civilization. So, the middle path is always the sweet spot of reconciliation, the wisdom of age and the sensation of youth, coexisting in a crucible of truth, forever beholden to the divine principles that contrive us. Buddhism is the wisdom of men, as learned from children—and women. But that’s another story… 

     
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    hardie karges 7:15 am on July 8, 2026 Permalink | Reply
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    Buddhism and Mindfulness, Language and Life… 

     
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    hardie karges 5:58 am on July 5, 2026 Permalink | Reply
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    Buddhism: Living and Dying in ¾ Time…  

    Fundamental principles stay the same, but situations always change. That’s why I’m here right now, and possibly you, too, if you’re like me and you want to know the truth, and you want it to set you free. That’s what the Christian Scientists used to say until blue in the face when I was a child, so I learned it by heart, whether I really wanted to or not. Because for them to ‘know the truth’ was an all-pervading mantra which supposedly had the power to heal and nothing else was really necessary.  

    They believed that reality was perfection, and that was our birthright, and all we needed to do was to manifest it. But that was then. And this is now—for me. That was fringe Christianity, this is Buddhism, and still I want to take ancient principles and test them against modern circumstances for veracity and efficacy. But there is a universe of differences between the circumstances of 500 BCE and 1880. Still, both protagonists thought that they had a vision of the truth worth pursuing and still do. 

    And sure enough, the Zen Buddhism of 500 CE is very different from the Early Buddhism of 500 BCE and looks much more like the fringe Christianity of 1880, with its six perfections and transcendental wisdom. So, Buddhism and Christianity both went through phases of practical application before proceeding to a more ‘transcendental’ phase of perfections and exalted statuses, then a ‘magical’ phase of Vajrayana and New Age mysticism. Neither may be totally right, but the pattern is clear. Once we’ve done the hard work of creating something from nothing, we retrofit the short-cut to prove that’s not what happened at all. It simply manifested. It seems to be a religious, but not philosophical, paradigm. Religions don’t have to make sense. They have to make new converts. 

     
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    hardie karges 4:35 am on July 2, 2026 Permalink | Reply
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    Buddhism: Meditation and Emptiness… 

     
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    hardie karges 4:46 am on June 30, 2026 Permalink | Reply
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    Buddhism: Samma Advaita Coming Soon… 

     
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    hardie karges 12:10 am on June 28, 2026 Permalink | Reply
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    Buddhism and the Nine-fold Path: Right Freedom…  

    Too much freedom can sometimes work against us. And that’s the conundrum, of course, because we’re led to believe that freedom is something of the be-all and end-all of life in this world. But it’s not, not really. It’s most important in opposition to its opposite, i.e. prison, of the heart and of the mind. That’s the importance of freedom, the escape from prison. Too much freedom is not good, though. It’s chaos, with a total lack of control. As always, the truth lies somewhere in the middle. 

    That’s the Middle Path, of course, that nickel-and-dime philosophy that’s almost always right, without having to even think much about it. That’s the beauty of such simple math. Avoid extremes, and you’ll usually be right. If that means that you’re drinking lukewarm coffee, instead of the really hot stuff or the really cold, then so be it. Lukewarm coffee ain’t bad, not bad at all. If that means that you won’t burn your little fingers, then count your blessings. Ditto on the brain freeze. Do you really like that feeling so much, anyway?  

    But this is one of the most important parts of Buddhism, even if it’s not as sexy as the basic mindfulness of breathing in and breathing out. We have work to do, too, as adults we do, many of us householders and addicted to the haze and daze of life on this planet. We can’t all be monks. Some of us have to do the work so that the monks will have something to eat. That’s you and me, brother and sister, and we need some help. That’s where the Middle Path comes in, as helpful as Hegel’s dialectic as it is the Buddha’s spiritual path between luxury and lack.  

    That means that there is always a synthesis, a path forward, between the opposite poles of a dialectic, i.e. a dialog, a discussion, or a decision. And it never stops, like the evolution of species or consciousness. If I don’t know whether to plant early, for maximum growing season, or later, to avoid the heaviest rains, then I’ll split the difference, and keep a watchful eye on the skies. It’s almost like breath. The skies are getting cloudier now, and I know that is information that I can use. And I know that it usually occurs when the days and night are most equal. The sun tells me that when it sets upon the same hill at the same time every year. That’s science. That’s mindfulness. That’s Buddhism.  

     
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    hardie karges 3:25 pm on June 22, 2026 Permalink | Reply
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    Buddhism in a Time of Troubles 

     
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    hardie karges 2:12 am on June 21, 2026 Permalink | Reply
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    Buddhism, Morality, and Free Will…  

    Morality based on fear is not morality; it’s prison. Because without free will, there is no morality, by definition, and fear is, if not the opposite of free will, then at least a severe inhibitor of it. But free will is nothing like pure freedom, of course, of which possibly none truly exists. Because true freedom would be chaos incarnate, respecting neither boundaries nor seasoned suggestion; but a freedom tempered by wisdom and perspicacity is a warrior’s finest weapon, steel sharpened with diamonds and polished by words. 

    Because words are the wickedest weapon ever invented, and that is easy enough to prove by archeology or history, that several longstanding species disappeared quickly after the ‘wise men’ of the neighborhood perfected language to a point where they couldn’t be stopped. But they can be among the finest tools ever invented, also, capable of precise planning and incorrigible logic, in the face of life’s murky details and total lack of coordination.  

    Language defines us now, for better or worse, and that is simply a fact that we must face. Many people can’t imagine that there was ever a day when consciousness was something besides a form of language. But there was. Consciousness came first. Language came later. Ask any non-human animal. That’s why meditation is so important. It’s a return to that pre-linguistic consciousness that I call proto consciousness. That’s important. We may feel like victims. We’re not. We’re older, but wiser… 

     

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