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  hardie karges 2:39 am on May 25, 2025 Permalink | Reply
  Tags: Buddhism ( 429 ), change ( 5 ), Eightfold Path ( 17 ), Hardie Karges ( 240 ), impermanence ( 6 ), language ( 145 ), meditation ( 190 ), nature ( 17 )   

  Buddhism 599: Change (Impermanence) is Not so Bad, After All… 

  

  Nature is the greatest and wisest teacher, unfailing in her knowledge and unerring in her accuracy. In Thai the word for Nature is dharmajati, pronounced something like thammashart, so literally the ‘law of life’, unless you have a better definition of dharma¸ then feel free to use it. The point is, that for all its diversity and beauty and apparent randomness, Nature (with capital N now; see what I did there?) is not only a law, but it’s permanent. This is something that the Buddha warned against constantly, the impermanence of existence, so not something to take lightly.

  That’s because the laws of men are temporary and changing, but the laws of nature are immortal. Now, I probably wouldn’t go as far as the Buddha himself in claiming that change is a cause of suffering, maybe second only to craving and clinging, but still, permanence is a wonder to behold. And if change is only painful when you refuse to accept it, then it can be something truly special when you initiate it yourself. I’m not sure if the Buddha ever experienced that, but I think that it holds true, and I swear by it myself.

  So, if there’s any one thing that I would improve on with Buddhism, it would be the negative connotation of change (and the status of women). Change can be something good, if it follows the Eightfold Path, and so something to seek, not necessarily something to avoid. In the ancient world, I can certainly understand how that could have been an issue, but in our modern world, I think that the greater sin is to avoid change altogether. As always the trick is to follow the Eightfold Middle Path and pursue Right Change, not the bad stuff. Avoid that.

   

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  hardie karges 2:31 am on May 18, 2025 Permalink | Reply
  Tags: Buddhism ( 429 ), commandments, Hardie Karges ( 240 ), language ( 145 ), meditation ( 190 ), precepts ( 2 ), Vipassana ( 14 )   

  Buddhism 401: Language Falls Flat 

  

  Politics is rarely polite. Civilization is often uncivilized. And language is hardly equipped to explain why. So just be nice. Stricter commandments may be easy to come by and easy to plaster on walls and gates, but the cost of strict enforcement is rarely worth the time it takes. So, why make things complicated when a simple rule of thumb will do? After all, aren’t the Buddhist precepts and the Christian commandments similar enough that they hardly bear endless repeating?

  The main difference is literary, the contrasting roles of commandment and prohibition, and active voice versus passive voice, differences more of style than substance, the Western preference for direct action versus the Eastern predilection for unspecified involvement. After all, sometimes there is little action available except for jumping up and down, which rarely solves many problems and often creates new ones. In any case language is rarely equipped to help much.

  In fact, meditation is the crowning achievement of Buddhism, by almost any measure. Some ‘schools’ emphasize it more than others, true, but all respect and encourage it, and Theravada has largely redefined itself as Vipassana, one of the more ubiquitous and modern forms of meditation, though I personally make not so much difference between them, except in the case of silent versus ‘guided’ meditations. Either way, language rarely explains much, but if it can ‘guide’ or show the way, then that is the proper role for it.
   
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  hardie karges 4:25 am on May 11, 2025 Permalink | Reply
  Tags: Buddhism ( 429 ), Dalai Lama ( 12 ), emptiness ( 29 ), Hardie Karges ( 240 ), kindness ( 16 ), meditation ( 190 ), philosophy ( 102 ), precepts ( 2 ), shunyata ( 22 ), skillful means ( 3 )   

  Buddhism in a Time of Troubles 

  

  In times of chaos, we need calm minds. In times of crisis and cruelty we need strong hearts. Welcome to the USA, c. 2025. It is a time of peace. It is a time of war. There’s no real way to know what future historians will think about this era, but it probably won’t be good. Goodness is as goodness does, and cruelty just doesn’t count for much, unless you’re engaged in some frightfully fanciful fantasy. But Buddhism is just the opposite of that, and that comes after many a long involved historical dialectic, the likes of which continue to this day.

  But cruelty was never the kicker. Kindness is. The Dalai Lama said it, and I’d second it in a second. In Buddhism you don’t really have to do much of anything, as long as you’re nice about it. In fact, Buddhism is defined more or less by what you’re NOT to do, e.g. the precepts, not to be confused with the commandments, more like the prohibitions. Then there’s Emptiness, ‘shunyata‘, which veritably defines Buddhism by its lack of requirements, meditation being the prime example.

  So, the trick is not to be consumed by the swirl of politics and policies, even when the angst is almost overwhelming. After all, sometimes the worst situations eventually yield the best results. The important thing is to hold fast to certain principles, no matter how difficult that can sometimes be. Then there are ‘skillful means.’ That means that sometimes difficult goals can be accomplished in unfamiliar and unexpected ways. Be creative. The world is waiting patiently.

   
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  hardie karges 4:38 am on May 4, 2025 Permalink | Reply
  Tags: advaita, dialectic ( 13 ), dualism ( 5 ), ethics ( 2 ), Hardie Karges ( 240 ), language ( 145 ), logic ( 14 ), meditation ( 190 ), non-duality ( 2 ), Science ( 25 )   

  Buddhism on the Installment Plan: Samma Advaita? Coming Soon… 

  

  There should be no quarrel between science and religion, or philosophy and physics, because truth is an evolving body of knowledge. But there is, and it can occupy a lot of space in that wide hopefully open field called consciousness. And if ‘dualism’ is looking for some extra work on tricky subjects, then the opposites of mind and body, or matter, is not a bad place to start. Because that is the core dichotomy which underlies them all, usually, to the point that a convenient synthesis is really not possible.

  If there were an easy synthesis to override the apparent duality, then it would be a simple dialectic. That’s easy with adjectives, but not so easy with nouns. So, the better alternative is often to define the space, so that each can exist in its own sphere of influence. Physics by definition deals with a material conception of reality, and so philosophy should respect that field of knowledge, since nothing can be proven beyond a shadow of a doubt.

  Thus, there is no true metaphysical certainty, because it presupposes an inquiry which is logically misplaced. Philosophy is better off with ethics and logic and anything ese for which certainties are possible. Likewise with science and religion. Science is a method of proof. Religion is not, and more often than not is defined by acts of devotion. That’s not Science, so it’s best to ask questions pertinent to each of the two disciplines. Right non-duality to go with right views and right action? We’re working on it…

   
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  hardie karges 4:33 am on April 27, 2025 Permalink | Reply
  Tags: Buddhism ( 429 ), Hardie Karges ( 240 ), meditation ( 190 ), Thailand ( 75 ), Theravada ( 51 ), Vajrayana ( 22 ), Vipassana ( 14 ), Zen ( 31 )   

  Buddhism Meditation and Emptiness 

  

   Meditation is the art of open heart and open mind, closed mouth, eyes optional. To me it’s almost amazing how many Theravada Buddhists don’t meditate at all, but I suppose that speaks to the time and the place as much as anything, as well as the ultimate goals and prime motives. Because a Thai citizen or resident doesn’t really need a motive to be Buddhist, except to be good and be social and contribute to the overall well being of the populace. If you’re already Buddhist, then you don’t really need a reason to be Buddhist.

  But a Westerner needs a reason to be Buddhist, and so for many of us that’s long been a choice of Zen or Vajrayana (Tibetan), two of the more exotic versions of the field, and so an attraction to those for whom an attraction is helpful. The only problem is that the Buddha himself might not recognize either of them as representative of his teachings. For us street-corner philosophers, that’s plenty of motivation by itself, the simplicity and veracity of the original message. So, now that Theravada is re-branding itself as Vipassana, pure and simple, that accomplishes a necessary goal, to get Buddhism back to its root without worrying about word games and past lives.

  Because Theravada Buddhists were always the best meditators, even if many never did it. And meditation can accomplish with practice what precepts and concepts can only suggest with words. You can talk about shunyata—emptiness—all day and not know much more than what you started with. Or you can sit silent unflinching for an hour while concentrating on breath and know quite a great deal, without uttering a word. It’s an acquired taste.

   
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  hardie karges 4:35 am on April 20, 2025 Permalink | Reply
  Tags: Buddhism ( 429 ), Hardie Karges ( 240 ), language ( 145 ), meditation ( 190 ), mindfulness ( 34 ), Pali ( 20 ), philosophy ( 102 ), religion ( 158 ), samsara ( 12 ), sati ( 17 ), Thailand ( 75 )   

  Buddhism and Mindfulness, Language and Life… 

  

  ‘Mindfulness’ is a tricky term, full of modern marketing. I prefer ‘consciousness,’ the original meaning to the same word in Pali, sati. Now that may seem like a minor quibble, but I prefer to keep superstitions and general ‘woowoo’ and ‘joojoo’ to a minimum for easier acceptance. Because I don’t want Buddhism to be something magical and mystical, even if that brings in some fervent fanatics full of vim and vigor. But it rules out science and that is the problem for me. Religion and science should be perfectly compatible, and that is best accomplished by staying off each other’s turf.

  Maybe it’s an impossible task, I suppose, but it’s still worth trying, I think. Because already a certain stratum of words has been ‘Buddhafied’ and elevated to a meaning that doesn’t conform to that of the ordinary world and its ordinary usage of the word. I’m not worried about the extra work of cataloging two meanings in my mind, but I’m concerned that we’re losing something by avoiding that original meaning. So, when samsara comes to mean ‘endless cycle of rebirths’, rather than its original meaning as simply ‘the world’ (e.g. in modern Nepali), well, something has changed, and not always for the better. You can check to see if that original meaning still works in every case, and it does AFAIK, but with a difference—authenticity.

  Only rarely does a word totally change meaning within the historical period, like the English word ‘passion’, for instance, once suffering, now a kind of special love, for us silly westerners, of course. In modern standard Thai, the word that now means ‘mindfulness’ is sati, from the Pali, but there it simply means consciousness. When I was lying on the side of the road after a motorcycle accident near Wiang Papao, no one was asking if I was mindful. They were asking if I was conscious. There’s a difference. Original early Buddhism was very down to earth. Transcendence came later. For me mindfulness is the opposite of mindlessness, pure if not simple.

   
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  hardie karges 4:06 am on April 13, 2025 Permalink | Reply
  Tags: Buddhism ( 429 ), dana ( 7 ), Hardie Karges ( 240 ), karma ( 50 ), meditation ( 190 ), samma kammanta ( 3 ), superstition   

  Buddhism 101: You shouldn’t take more than you give… 

  

  Give more than you take, and the world will become a better place. It’s almost hard to believe that something so hard could really be so easy, but I tend to think that it’s true, and that’s how I try to live my life. Because, for one thing, it places high value on the concept of giving, regardless of the amount, and I think that’s important. But how much to give? That’s often a tricky question. So, it’s very easy just to simplify the equation. Just give more than you take.

  So, not only is that a net positive increase for the world, but it speaks to karma, also, and that’s one of the toughest concepts to tackle. But it shouldn’t be. Do good things. Karma means action, and samma kammanta means right actions. Nothing is more right and good than giving. That’s called dana. But how much is enough? Give more than you take. That’s plenty. And that’s good karma, so you will be rewarded, somehow some way, somewhere. That’s as far as my superstitions go.

   
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  hardie karges 2:47 am on April 6, 2025 Permalink | Reply
  Tags: Buddhism ( 429 ), CHRISTIANITY ( 160 ), Hardie Karges ( 240 ), language ( 145 ), Mars ( 2 ), meditation ( 190 ), passivity ( 5 ), SPECIES ( 7 ), suffering ( 28 ), Virtual Reality ( 9 )   

  Buddhism, Life, and a World Defined by Challenges 

  

  Good things take time. Anger solves nothing. Life is defined by its challenges. So, I think that’s my philosophy of life, in a nutshell, based heavily on the Buddhist acceptance of suffering, but without succumbing to that fact and any sordid fate that may await that cruel date. Because it doesn’t have to be seen as pessimistic. And that’s the rap that Buddhism has to fight hardest, in order to make Western converts, the idea that it’s too negative, not full of abundance, eternity, infinity, and all the other fantasies that Christianity has bequeathed us, in its two short millennia of existence.

  But Buddhism is not pessimistic, just realistic. You’re going to die, so get over that, and let’s get some things done while we’re here—or not. There’s no shame in renunciation. That’s not passivity. That’s acceptance of reality. Buddhism is only guilty of a mistake if it promotes passivity. Passivity is residing homeless on the streets of LA, not as an ordained monk in Asia. That’s creative, collective, and cooperative. Society could survive like that, even if the pay’s the same as the godforsaken streets of LA.

  Survival is the current concern, also, species survival as much and as well as individual, since we are living in a world of species identity, even if we sometimes transcend those limitations. But we don’t have to go to Mars to do that, though the moon would be nice, especially during the rainy season, haha. Or we could possibly accomplish as much or more in Virtual Reality, if and when the time is right, and the speed and memory are sufficiently available. It’d probably cost less than Mars, too, to create a perfect world as a digital twin of this world. We already have a neural twin. It’s called life, defined by challenges.

   
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  hardie karges 3:05 am on March 30, 2025 Permalink | Reply
  Tags: Buddhism ( 429 ), Eightfold Path ( 17 ), Hardie Karges ( 240 ), meditation ( 190 ), Middle Way ( 4 ), samma vaca ( 8 ), Vajrayana ( 22 ), Zen ( 31 )   

  Buddhism and the Pursuit of Truth(s) 

  

  Absolute truth is a difficult subject. But right speech is easy: honesty and politeness, no trash talk, samma vaca. Most truths are relative at best, anyway, and that includes science, but it goes double for superstition. Because science acknowledges its limitations up front, and that’s the best that you can do. Buddhism is pretty good about that, also, at least in its earliest purest phase, when control of the self (not-self) was primary and gods were kept in their place—somewhere else.

  Buddhist truths are limited to only a very few ‘truisms,’ which is probably more accurate than the notion of absolute truth. Those pretty much consist of the presence of suffering, the main cause of suffering which is the bad habit of craving, and the way out of that condition, which is the Middle Way, between luxury and lack, and strict adherence to the Eightfold Path. One key element of that is samma vaca, right speech. Then there’s right actions, right intentions, right views, right livelihood, and so forth.

  Add to that the acknowledgement of change, or impermanence, and the deleterious effect that has on us, and you’ve got the basics of original early Buddhism, before the verbal antics of Zen or the elaborate trappings of Vajrayana. It’s pretty simple, really, just do good things and watch your tongue, say good things or you could just say nothing at all. That works, too. Don’t worry about absolute truths. Buddhist Noble Truths are more than enough of a guide for living this life.

   
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  hardie karges 4:36 am on March 23, 2025 Permalink | Reply
  Tags: Buddhism ( 429 ), Hardie Karges ( 240 ), homelessness ( 2 ), language ( 145 ), Mars ( 2 ), meditation ( 190 ), mindfulness ( 34 ), philosophy ( 102 ), sati ( 17 )   

  Buddhist Sati: Enjoy the Mindfulness… 

  

  Sometimes the best thing to do is nothing, absolutely nothing. Just do it mindfully, with intent and purpose. But this is the hardest thing for a Westerner, European or American, to comprehend, that sometimes we don’t need to be jumping up and down, racing around, and blowing things up, that indeed sometimes it’s preferable to chill, baby, chill, and let things proceed one step at the time with clear and simple awareness, rather than obsess about populating Mars instead of making our own planet earth more livable.

  So, the Mars freaks blow things up in midair, invent self-driving cars, accelerate them zero to sixty in four seconds, bore tunnels under cities, insert chips in your brains, and what have they accomplished? Not nearly enough, and far too much, all at the same time. Have the sick been healed? Have the homeless been given housing? Has anyone even tried? True, the poor may always be with us, but that’s no excuse for not trying to help. Jesus knew that, and the Buddha did, also.

  I’d like to go to Mars, too, truth be told, but only when the time is right, and the opportunities exist for anyone to share in that dream, if they are so inclined. But I made a conscious decision that renunciation would be preferable than for the world to continue on its path of mindless consumption. Enter mindfulness, the opposite of mindlessness. Do things consciously, one thing at a time, without fear nor favor. If something isn’t broken, then don’t pretend to fix it, just to satisfy transient desires. Live like there is no tomorrow, calm and steady, because there may not be…