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  hardie karges 7:37 am on December 15, 2024 Permalink | Reply
  Tags: Buddhism ( 490 ), Buddhist precepts, consumption ( 2 ), Hardie Karges ( 302 ), meditation, mindfulness ( 37 ), philosophy ( 117 ), possessions ( 2 ), silence ( 14 ), spirituality ( 27 ), Ten Commandments ( 6 )   

  Buddhism in the Balance: Giving is primary… 

  

  We own nothing but the experiences of a few hours days weeks months and years upon this planet. We can spend them in mindless consumption or quiet contemplation. The choice is yours. Because, bottom line: you don’t have to do anything, but keep your body alive. But, beyond maintaining the body in an active state, there is no specific call to action. In fact, it’s much more important what you don’t do than what you actually get around to doing in your precious time in this life on this earth.

  Don’t lie, don’t cheat, don’t kill, don’t steal; these are the commandments of Christianity and the precepts of Buddhism, as well, which seems obvious, until you imagine what must have come before. It wasn’t always pretty. I think that is what is obvious. Neither set of rules and regs says anything about doing this or doing that, though, until you get into the higher levels of commitment, and for Buddhism, that’s right thoughts, right words, right actions, etc., simple. That’s not rocket science. And the main blessed action is to give.

  Because giving serves two purposes, both of equal value. On the one hand, you are helping others. On the other hand, you are reminding yourself that your needs are few and possessions are often unnecessary. In fact, we often become possessed by our very possessions, which seems counter-intuitive, but accurate. Therefore, possessions are really no better than mindless consumption, short-term satisfaction or longer-term, but the result is often the same: we become addicted to the rush, whether the rush of sensation or the rush of satisfaction, for something which often offers no deep level of satisfaction at all. Quiet contemplation is often better.

   

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  hardie karges 4:32 am on December 8, 2024 Permalink | Reply
  Tags: Buddhism ( 490 ), compassion ( 15 ), dharma ( 37 ), karuna ( 9 ), kindness ( 17 ), meditation, metta ( 25 ), Middle Path ( 59 ), mindfulness ( 37 ), philosophy ( 117 ), religion ( 174 ), samsara ( 13 ), spirituality ( 27 )   

  Buddhism Basics: Metta and Karuna, Kindness and Compassion… 

  

  Kindness and compassion, metta and karuna, are not the path of weakness. They are the path of true strength, which may or may not coincide with the popular images of ‘big men’ and ‘strong men’ flexing muscles and making waves, but that is not the paradigm of the Buddhist monk in partial renunciation from the world. That is the paradigm of the world that the Buddhist must renounce, at least partially, the world of hatred, fear, and anger, often masquerading as bravado, strength, and victory.

  Ironically, many Buddhists may defer to such popular images of strength and victory while forgoing it themselves. Because they know that such phenomena are the manifestations of the world, samsara, over which they have little of no control. We can only control ourselves. But, if we can stay on the good side of those circumstantial strong men that the world spits out like so many celebrities for sale, then so much the better. That’s ‘skillful means.’ It doesn’t imply superior dharma or any kind of enlightenment on the part of the big man, just survival instincts on the part of the average bloke.

  But Buddhism is a path of kindness and compassion. That much is certain. The only question is how best to manifest that in our own private lives. As always, the Middle Path seems to offer the best clue. Don’t be too passive or too aggressive. There is a sweet spot right there in the middle somewhere, defined by an almost equal distance from the extremes that we must avoid. And if it seems like this is a path for losers and nondescript middlemen, then nothing could be farther from the truth. Living right is its own reward.
   
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  hardie karges 4:40 am on December 1, 2024 Permalink | Reply
  Tags: Boolean logic ( 4 ), Buddhism ( 490 ), consciousness ( 30 ), Four Noble Truths ( 19 ), Hardie Karges ( 302 ), language ( 194 ), meditation, mindfulness ( 37 ), neuron, philosophy ( 117 ), samadhi ( 14 ), sati ( 19 ), spirituality ( 27 ), thought ( 15 )   

  Buddhism 202: Thoughts and Thinkers 

  

  Samma sankappa, one of the Buddhist Four Noble Truths, is Right Thought = Good Thought, not No Thought. For no thought, maybe samma samadhi is better, Right (Good) Meditation. It’s very popular for New Age-y Buddhists to talk about ‘thoughts without thinkers and/or ‘thoughts that think themselves’, as if they were both particle and wave out there floating around looking for a pickup gig, but that implies that thoughts are bad, and the Buddha never said anything like that.

  I think that the confusion comes with the role of language in thought, and its somewhat checkered past. Because no one would dare say anything bad about sati, i.e. consciousness, mindfulness, or awareness. That’s sacrosanct in Buddhism. And it’s a form of thought, also, but without language. Dogs do it; cats do it. All animals do, to a greater or lesser degree. But: like Boolean logic, we invented language, and now that we have it, it’s hard to go back, at least not full time. And there’s no real reason to.

  Because thought can be a good thing, and the linguistic variety is likely the most powerful type, BUT: it can also be destructive, both to society and to the personality, aka ‘self’. On the metaphysical plane, not only is it not ‘non-dual’, with its definitive subjects and objects, but it’s also argumentative and unsettling, arguably war’s greatest weapon. And while I don’t advocate a return to the ‘non-dual’ lives of bonobos and chimps, I do strongly advocate daily meditation. Because, no matter how powerful linguistic thought can be, its non-linguistic cousin meditation can be much more peaceful. That’s samadhi.

  But this can be a contentious subject for debate, because, on the one hand, thoughts DO just pop up sometimes unannounced and often unwanted. And we DON’T always have total recall, much less immediate recall. But that doesn’t mean that we are passive listeners and watchers of thoughts as they pass in and out of our brains or minds, for lack of better words to portray a very abstract subject. Remember the old saying: ‘Practice makes perfect’? Well, neuroscientists have one, also: ‘Neurons that fire together, wire together.’ That means that we establish neural pathways that can be considered our own, in that they are distinct from that of others. So, yes, to a certain extent, thoughts have thinkers, and thinkers have thoughts. We’re the living proof.

   
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  hardie karges 4:40 am on November 24, 2024 Permalink | Reply
  Tags: ashrama, Buddhism ( 490 ), dana ( 8 ), Hardie Karges ( 302 ), Hindu ( 9 ), homeless ( 2 ), India ( 15 ), meditation, mindfulness ( 37 ), religion ( 174 ), rishi ( 7 ), sannyasin, spirituality ( 27 ), Thailand ( 79 ), Theravada ( 55 )   

  Buddhism 399: Homelessness and the Joy of Giving… 

  

  Give more than you take. That will be more than enough, and the world will be a better place. That is the essence of almost all religions, Buddhism included, regardless of whether you consider Buddhism first and foremost a philosophy, as I tend to think. But philosophies don’t usually include a call to action, whereas religions usually do. Buddhism doesn’t do that, though, not specifically, but it is implicit in the practice, the original practice. That’s why you’ll see orange or yellow-robed shaved-head monks walking through the markets at daybreak in almost every Theravada country in SE Asia, requesting alms for subsistence, usually food. This giving is usually known as dana.

  This harkens back to an even earlier practice in India wherein long-haired rishis and sannyasins wearing similar saffron clothing but usually without a group of like-minds, would make similar rounds, a practice which continues to this day. The difference is not only that the former are Buddhist and the latter Hindu, but the former have rules and regular routes, and are often registered for this activity, whereas the latter are more likely free and on their own, often in the last phases of life according to the four Hindu ashramas of student, householder, forest dweller, and renunciant—nice.

  But the important thing is the giving. So, instead of seeing a renunciant as a societal parasite reduced to begging, we should see them as symbols of purity, offering laypersons the opportunity to experience the same bliss of renunciation that they not only symbolize but incarnate. It’s only ironic that they themselves often consider themselves—and call themselves—homeless, no pun intended. Because that is the little joke they play on all of us, that the poorest people of the West are linguistically identified with the holiest of the East. I only wish that Western practitioners would follow the same precepts. The food is usually pretty good, at least in Thailand.

   
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  hardie karges 3:59 am on November 17, 2024 Permalink | Reply
  Tags: Buddha ( 49 ), Buddhism ( 490 ), Hardie Karges ( 302 ), language ( 194 ), meditation, philosophy ( 117 ), religion ( 174 )   

  Buddhism on the Half Shell: Dharma without Dogma 

  

  Beware stir-fried spirituality, vague ideas tossed in a pan and stirred ‘til piping hot. Buddhism is an open doctrine, true, but it needs a compass. And the Eightfold Path is that compass, of course, the prime phenomena of our lives listed and pointed in the direction of ‘rightness’, i.e. the correct and appropriate versions of the main foundations of our lives: thought, intent, speech, action, livelihood, effort, mindfulness, and concentration. If non-duality can fit into that simple list, then fine; it is welcome. If not, then reshuffle your deck to find your place in lives where things actually exist and thoughts actually occur.

  For better or worse, Buddhism must live with the titles of its popular books, regardless of whether those actually describe the philosophy accurately or not. So, we must spend time explaining why ‘Buddhism is True’, and why there are a ‘Buddha and the Badass’ and how we can have a ‘Universe in a Single Atom’, whether any of that has anything to do with Buddhism or not. For the most part, those titles are just the consumeristic fantasies of book publishers, and the ideas inside their covers have little or nothing in common with them.

  But that’s a compromise we make. The real problem occurs when the ideas themselves get breaded and fried in almost total opposition to the original concept. So New Age Buddhists remind you to love yourself without bothering to explain, or even acknowledge, that we have no intrinsic Self, or even selves. Then they’ll tell you that our thoughts are not our own, while giving no clue as to where they actually come from, apparently just floating around, soul-like looking for a body to inhabit. But these are only minor inconveniences. The dharma can easily transcend most of that. I persevere.

   
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  hardie karges 4:36 am on October 27, 2024 Permalink | Reply
  Tags: anatta ( 23 ), asceticism, atman ( 5 ), Brahman ( 3 ), Brahmanism ( 9 ), Buddhism ( 490 ), dharma ( 37 ), Hardie Karges ( 302 ), Hinduism ( 31 ), India ( 15 ), Indra ( 2 ), Jainism ( 13 ), language ( 194 ), meditation, Padmasambhava, philosophy ( 117 ), religion ( 174 ), spirituality ( 27 ), Upanishads ( 2 ), Vajrayana ( 23 ), Vedas ( 3 )   

  Buddhism is the Middle Path between Jainism and Brahmanism… 

  

  Brahmanism is what we now call ‘Hinduism’, but that term didn’t really exist way back when, only recently applied by the Brits to the plethora of sects and devotions which now constitute Hinduism. But it was in the midst of the Upanishad era at the time of the Buddha, which would redefine the previously Indra-based fire rituals which had reigned during the Vedic times. And with the advent of the new Upanishadic orientation, the resulting resemblance to Buddhism was profound—but still distinct.

  And so was Jainism distinct from both of them, at the same time that it shares much with them. But remember, that the ‘Hinduism’ that the Jain reacted to in the 6^th century BCE is not the same as modern Hinduism, either, and that is partly because of this same three-way dialogue. Jainism was largely a reaction against the Brahmanists’ fire sacrifices, they being extreme nonviolent vegetarians. But many modern Hindus are also vegetarians, with Buddhists characteristically somewhere ‘in between.’

  That’s the Middle Path, specifically between the extreme asceticism of the Jains and the lavish rituals of the ‘Hindus’, but also between the many gods of Hinduism and the total lack of them in Jainism. Technically Buddhists don’t really have them, either, but, you know… Later versions of Buddhism were not so strict about that, such as the Tibetan version of Vajrayana, which came direct from India sometime after the 5^th century and attested by Padmasambhava in the 8^th century.

  But both Jains and Hindus were crazy about souls, Jains finding them everywhere and Hindus finding them cosmic, Atman, preferably in union with the cosmic dharma principle Brahman. But Buddhism found little of value in any of that, and so chose non-self anatta. So, they all evolved into different sects with different orientations, and we generally all get along nicely. The main difference is that Hinduism tilted toward a nationalism which international Buddhism could never assimilate. And Jains, ‘winners’ in Sanskrit, were ultimately the losers.

   
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  hardie karges 3:40 am on October 13, 2024 Permalink | Reply
  Tags: Buddhism ( 490 ), causes ( 2 ), conditions ( 2 ), First Noble Truth ( 5 ), Hardie Karges ( 302 ), meditation, mindfulness ( 37 ), philosophy ( 117 ), spirituality ( 27 ), suffering ( 31 )   

  Buddhism 101: Pain is Our Birthright… 

  

  Pain is our connection to the realm of sentient being. We are all equal in this regard. But we have a path, thankfully. This refers to the First Noble Truth, of course, something like ‘There is suffering.’ Period. Full stop. That’s the foundational thesis of Buddhism, which all further dissertations struggle to assimilate, what with its apparent pessimism, which only gets worse (before it gets better). ‘Birth is suffering, aging is suffering, sickness is suffering, dissociation from the loved is suffering, not to get what one wants is suffering.’ Yeow. Yes, life’s a real sh*t-show at times. What to do?

  Oh, sure, the PhD’s try to explain it all away by saying that ‘suffering’ can mean ‘dissatisfaction’, ‘stress’, or maybe even ‘bummer’, but the result is the same: it’s not a good look, not when everybody else is bragging about their seven flavors of bliss and their multiple stairways to heaven. But that’s what the Buddha said, and that’s what he meant. But I think that he also meant that’s our connection to the world and each other. Otherwise, how would we even really know that we’re really alive? Pleasure is fleeting.

  But pain is real. And a large part of it is caused by the simple fact of our oh-so-human cravings. Bingo. There’s a path for that, and it will keep us humble in its universality. Because isn’t the underlying cause of all craving, desire, lust, and greed, our selfish assertion that we are something special and deserving of whatever we can get? Haha. Gotcha. Because we are but a bundle of causes and conditions that predictably lead to the defilements which define us: hatred, greed, anger, and those oh-so-pesky cravings. The path outta there is as simple as the decade-old Franz Ferdinand song which seconded that emotion: “Right Thoughts, Right Words, Right Action.” Simple, no? It works. Try it.

  hardie karges and jmoran66 are discussing. Toggle Comments

   
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    jmoran66 4:25 am on October 13, 2024 Permalink | Reply

    I think you, as they say, nailed it here. There’s nothing to add.

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    hardie karges 4:59 pm on October 13, 2024 Permalink | Reply

    Thank you for your comments.

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  hardie karges 4:25 am on October 6, 2024 Permalink | Reply
  Tags: Buddhism ( 490 ), Hardie Karges ( 302 ), meditation, mindfulness ( 37 ), Peace ( 7 ), philosophy ( 117 ), religion ( 174 ), solitude ( 2 ), spirituality ( 27 ), theft   

  Buddhism in the Bardo Realms: You Are Never Alone 

  

  The existential conundrum of our lives is that we are never alone, nor can we be, nor would we likely ever want to be, even if we could. Think of it this way: Suppose you want to enjoy yourself by yourself or just take a little swim. So, you walk down to the beach, find a nice little spot, and proceed to disrobe and jump right in. There’s only one problem: when you come back, you don’t know if your stuff will still be there or not—bummer. This is what many a happy tourist deals with every day.

  Oh, sure, there are ways to mitigate the circumstances. You can go with a friend, but that friend really can’t jump right in, now, either, can they? No, they can’t, because then any potential plunderer has just doubled his payoff. Even if you have a designated watcher for a larger group, that designee still doesn’t get to have his fun (and you still must trust him not to run). So, maybe hire a professional designee? Ditto. Or you could lock it in a box, if it’s a public space with such amenities, but that would probably preclude a dip in the buff, boo hoo. And even then, would you just wrap the key around your little finger?

  Or, you could just leave the key in your pocketed swim suit, but then, why not just leave your stuff in your room, and saunter to the beach semi-nude and flip-flop friendly, because, after all, nobody will steal a pair of flip-flops, or a towel, now, will they? Or would you even care if they did? And your room is safe, right? But what about the maid? Or you could just drive, and lock everything in the trunk, if you’re American, or the boot, if you’re a Brit, but by this time you’re making quite a big show of it, so maybe just call the whole thing off?

  This is the existential conundrum: that our fates are so intertwined, that it doesn’t leave a lot of time, or space, for accidents or circumstance. So, what is the solution? In a more peaceful time, in a more peaceful world, I have it on good authority that people left their houses unlocked with no ill repercussions, and that is the way that it should be. But that was in a world less crowded than today. And many people take it as their supreme inalienable right to reproduce without limit. So, now we live in a world of eight billion with no end in sight. And there’s no place to hide. So, we must learn to live in peace. And Buddhism is nothing, if not a religion of peace.

   
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  hardie karges 2:56 pm on September 22, 2024 Permalink | Reply
  Tags: Abrahamic ( 2 ), binary ( 3 ), Buddhism ( 490 ), ego ( 33 ), Hardie Karges ( 302 ), Marx ( 4 ), meditation, Middle Path ( 59 ), religion ( 174 ), renunciation ( 15 ), Science ( 26 ), spirituality ( 27 ), Taoism ( 3 )   

  Buddhism 101: There are no Winners or Losers…  

  

  There are no winners or losers. There are only players and non-players. Either one is fine, but if you play, then play well. The concept of winning and losing is obviously a binary circumstance, as are players vs. non-players or even East vs. West. But sometimes binary terms are effective in conveying a message, even if they are often ineffective in organizing your life. Because, we Buddhists have long been of the opinion that the Middle Path is the best guide to living your life with or without any scientific proof. 

  But the concept of winning vs losing is especially offensive, as it suggests that some people are simply better than others, regardless of any merit displayed or accrued in the process of playing the game, which suggests racism, if not just arrogance or hubris. None of that has ever been proven, of course, and my gut hunch is exactly the opposite: the more mixed the race the more superior, but again that’s hard to prove or disprove. 

  The issue of players vs non-players is more well-defined, though, in that participation is an act of will and not an accident of birth. So, when comparing the aggressive Abrahamic traditions vs the renunciative dharma traditions, it is possible to draw some conclusions, even if they are still subject to interpretations and circumstances. Because, while India and China long ago embraced renunciative dharma and taoist traditions, their cultures are anything but. And while the abrahamic West is known for its aggressive colonialism, some of the world’s finest most peaceful cities and cultures are to be found there today. 

  So, it’s a mixed bag at best, and I myself qualify as a proponent of renunciation only in the sense that too much wrong action has already been done, and so its opposite is now often preferable. But I don’t think that humans should be passive and that’s not how I live my life. So, my conception of Buddhism is somewhat like Marx’s communism, something appropriate after the previous partial phases have occurred, i.e. its time has come. At an earlier time, something else was possibly more appropriate, but not now. So, when someone insults you or feeds bait your ego, do nothing–quickly.

   
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  hardie karges 4:56 am on September 15, 2024 Permalink | Reply
  Tags: Buddhism ( 490 ), equanimity ( 3 ), Forbearance ( 2 ), Hardie Karges ( 302 ), justice ( 4 ), meditation   

  Buddhism in the Bardo Realms: Equanimity is Key…  

  

  Revenge is not sweet. Justice should be blind. Equanimity should prevail. This is a common mental trap, that somehow, we must ‘get even’, even when such is difficult or impossible to accomplish. Still, it’s a psychological juggernaut, somehow engrained in consciousness, that there is a balance beam of tit-for-tat justice, that somehow must be fulfilled or even expanded upon, as if something could be made ‘more right’ by applying penalties to deter future misbehavior, ‘punitive damages’ the operative concept.  

  And this is the basis of civil justice systems, of course, and that’s all well and good, but need not apply to your personal life. Because what’s good for Caesar is not necessarily best for you. The problem is that it’s a never-ending cycle which will never be at peace, just like old-time feuds between the Hatfields and McCoys. When the world was sparsely populated, it was easy just to leave and go elsewhere, but it’s crowded everywhere now. The Muslims made a positive step in limiting ‘punitive damages,’ so that ‘eye for an eye’ means just an eye for an eye, and no more. 

  But I think we Buddhists can go a step farther, so that not only is punishment not necessary, but neither is ‘getting even,’ even on a personal level. The only ‘evenness’ that we should be concerned with is evenness of mind, all the time, and that’s equanimity. There’s never any reason to get all excited, much less vengeful. If punishment is necessary to deter future crime in society, then maybe simple forbearance is the key to bring peace to the self and family. To just ‘let it go’ often works wonders.