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    hardie karges 3:02 am on August 24, 2025 Permalink | Reply
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    Buddhist Middle Path: Hold Your Applause 

    All you need is kindness. Compassion is good, too. These are the Buddhist foundational concepts known in the Pali language as metta and karuna, often combined in modern standard Thai language as mettakaruna. I guess that’s similar to the Christian compound word ‘lovingkindness’, but without all the gratuitous emotion, please. That’s more Christian than Buddhism has ever aspired to, and largely by design.

    Christians need to hug and kiss, often, while Buddhists could usually care less. Christians are emotion junkies, while Buddhists are cool as cukes, usually, salad dressing optional. So, Christians deliberately took that word from the Hebrew Chesed and translated it to lovingkindness to make a point. Then, when Buddhism came to the West, many practitioners figure what’s good for the goose… you know. But, by then, Buddhism has changed its character, and not necessarily for the better.

    But that’s one way to fight the charge of pessimism and nihilism: slather the special sauce, and Bam! Thailand becomes like the Philippines, all of a sudden, fiery and passionate. I suppose there’s no real harm, but it’s really not what Buddhism is in its essence–just the opposite. Emotions go up and down as if by design, while the Buddhist path steers towards the middle always. That’s not a hard rigid path, but it’s not seeking peak emotion, either. That’s American Photography Course 101, always seeking ‘peak emotion’. Good luck with that. I’ll follow the Middle Path.

     
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    hardie karges 4:31 am on July 27, 2025 Permalink | Reply
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    Buddhism on the Installment Plan (with Quick Easy Payments) 

    If Science conquers Death, then Buddhism may be out of work, but I doubt it. Because, for all the rap about Buddhism being pessimistic, the truth is that it’s not; it’s realistic. Now, that may contrast sharply with the goo-goo eyed optimism of Sunday School Christianity (any denomination) and their doctrines of eternal life and passionate love, but it’s only being realistic—and rational. You’re going to die. Get over it. For an adult, that’s the starting point of any life equation. You’ve got x amount of years to produce y amount of children and z amount of money, so you better get started, because time’s wasting.

    Or not. Buddhism always allows for negation in any of its tetralemma style catuhskoti logic, so, if that’s negative, by definition, then so be it. Negation is often the only certainty, just as Emptiness is often the only Eternity. And that is why Buddhism is so often defined by its meditation, which is essentially doing nothing—creatively, watching thoughts come and go while breath counts the time and plays rhythm. But it’s only a partial renunciation, unlike the Jains’ total immersion, from which they seldom emerge. That’s the Middle Path, neither total leisure nor lack, buffet nor snack.

    Buddhism is so ‘right’ simply because it’s so simple. Avoid extremes and be nice; seek friends. Because that’s the heart of Buddhist ‘love’, metta, friendship. Ex-Christians try to soup it up by invoking ‘lovingkindness’, with Mary and babe at the breast, but really, it’s just friendship, non-possessive and cool, not hot, male or female, jewelry or not. Feel free to try it at home. It’s non-toxic. Or form a group. Some call it sangha. Others call it family. And don’t forget to wash your karma.

     
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    hardie karges 2:56 am on March 2, 2025 Permalink | Reply
    Tags: , , gratitude, , , , , , metta, , , Pangea, ,   

    Buddhism and the Middle Path Dialectic… 

    Gratitude is the companion to kindness and compassion in a perfect circle of Right Action and virtuous intent. Gratitude may be more of a Western thing than an Eastern thing, but that changes nothing. Gratitude is good. Lovingkindness was more of a Western thing than Eastern, also, until the Buddhists adopted it as their own as a suitable translation for the Sanskrit/Pali word metta, and the rest is history. The circle is complete, West meets East, Buddhism meets Christianity, and we are all better off for it.

    Because there is no fundamental distinction between the positions of West and East, not really, simply flip sides of the same coin, two pillars of a dialectic, in which antithesis counters the thesis in order to reach a higher synthesis. Now that’s not strict formal Buddhism (it’s Hegel), but I think it’s a nice approach to the Middle Path, illustrating clearly the fact that the Middle Path is not a cold hard set of prohibitions or dogmas, but is open and fluid and capable of change if and when the time is right for it.

    Notwithstanding the fact that India and the West have a common origin (see my upcoming book) genetically and geographically, if you go even farther back, the entire civilized world has common origins in Africa as homo sapiens and even farther back in Pangea as the large family mammalia, that split then from their reptilian ancestors. That’s who we are, consciousness and all, putting nouns and verbs together in sentences growing more complex every day, looking for a path with heart, despite all the suffering. Look inside; that’s the trick.

     
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    hardie karges 4:45 am on February 9, 2025 Permalink | Reply
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    Buddhism 201: Beyond Metta and Karuna 

    If kindness and compassion are the primary virtues, then patience and restraint are the primary disciplines. Be willing to wait, all the time. Whenever someone baits you with fear and anger, just wait before responding, usually nothing else required. And isn’t that the hardest part? Of course. The heat of the moment is always the peak emotion, and if that is magic for some, it’s probably misery for others, because the present moment is a double-edged sword. On the one hand, it can be the most sublime pleasure. But, on the other hand, it can bring the worst pain.

    If you want to take the analogy one step further, then we could easily say that self-control is one of the best tools of Buddhism, but that is a tough sell to a free-thinking crowd in the Western world, where the word ‘control’ smacks of subversion and freedom is the cause for which we will die gladly. But, there’s a difference between self-control and control of others, just as there is a difference in the freedom TO and the more important freedom FROM, at least from a Buddhist standpoint. Just because we want to be free of certain defilements doesn’t mean that we can do whatever we want.

    Bottom line: what’s good on the battlefield isn’t necessarily so good on the Buddha fields. Because here we’ve got all the time in the world to do things right, and little time or tolerance for doing it wrong. We’re playing for keeps in this samsaric time out of mind and hedging our bets on another life after this one. But that issue is above my pay grade here as a humble scribe, so I’ll let the physics and philosophy professors and proficiency masters work out those equations and analyze that language. Me, I’ve got a tea kettle whistling, so that’s all for now. The Big Questions can wait until next time.   

     
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    hardie karges 4:46 am on January 26, 2025 Permalink | Reply
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    Buddhism 202: True Love Can Save the Planet 

    The truest love is metta, friendship, without the burden of possession. That’s a hard sell to a teenager with a bone he’s trying to drive home, but it’s true nevertheless, for long-term or short, which is the proof of its purity. Powerful passions may produce plentiful babies, but without lovingkindness, most of those efforts will be largely lost before the high school graduation exercises, and that’s what’s important. Because we’re no longer the young planet that we once were, raw and untamed and unpopulated.

    Now the danger is over-population and the possibility that we might become victims of our own successes, as Global Warming would seem to suggest. So, a different attitude than constant growth is recommended for long-term survival. This means a more thoughtful and less cavalier attitude to our relationship with others, gentler and kinder, less aggressive and careless. If that overlooks the reality that sometimes Buddhism can be too passive, then so be it. The alternative is worse—uncontrolled aggression.

    That’s the reason that I became a Buddhist, to save myself, then save the world. That’s my motto and mantra that also sums up the transition from early self-centered Theravada Buddhism to later society-centered Mahayana Buddhism, not that such a generality explains much about either of them. But the motto and mantra still work, for me, at least. Be kind, first and foremost, and the world will become a kinder place in return. That’s karma.

     
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    hardie karges 4:32 am on December 8, 2024 Permalink | Reply
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    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 4:29 am on March 24, 2024 Permalink | Reply
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    Buddhism in the Bardo: Survival of the Species…  

    Some people might laugh at a monk in meditation, wasting his life away, but I laugh at the silly fools who cause global warming. Because, after living a long time in Thailand, that’s the main reason that I was reluctant to get involved with Buddhism, the perception that it was too passive, and incapable of dealing with the issues that face the world. So, for me that was an early premonition of what I might now call something like ‘socio-spiritual bypassing,’ i.e. the avoidance of social obligations by invoking the spiritual primacy of renunciation. 

     But at some point, I realized that renunciation was probably a greater tool than all the political action in the world, and, at least on some ways, likely to produce the greater impact, also. Because, for all our sociopolitical posturing, little is accomplished along those lines, and much of the developed world may soon be crisscrossed with windmills, without any detectable difference in our addiction to rapid locomotion, despite the visible degradation of our relationship to Nature. With a population of more than eight billion souls, renunciation may soon be the only avenue of survival. 

    And, if that’s a bitter pill to swallow, then so be it. Because the writing has been on the wall for at least sixty to eighty years now, and we’ve only sunk deeper in our denial of the likely results, as Elon exhorts us to make more babies, so that he can rake in more gazillions. And that’s maybe the saddest part, that the only way that we can show our love for these people on this planet is to create more babies, who must then shoulder the burden of our conundrum.  

    So suddenly renunciation is not a bad option at all, and the disappearance of the y-chromosome only seconds that emotion. Because, whatever the numbers of our reproduction and its proliferation, or not, it’s impossible to live in a world without love. But we might need to change that meaning. And that’s where Buddhism comes in, because love comes in many forms and flavors. Metta, or lovingkindness, is the preferred Buddhist flavor, and the world community is the intended recipient. That’s Buddhism. 

     
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    hardie karges 4:26 am on February 25, 2024 Permalink | Reply
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    Kindness and Compassion are the Heart and Soul of Buddhism  

    Buddhism in Bhutan

    Compassion has no expiration date. It’s never too late to make new friends with old enemies. This is one of the secrets to a good life: no grudges, no scorched earth, no retribution, and, most importantly, no regrets. It should be simple, since you don’t really have to do anything, but in fact it’s one of the hardest things ever, so attached as we are to our egos and our ‘face’ that we spend so much time and effort saving, lest someone steal it right off of our heads, haha. 

    The Dalai Lama once said that his religion was simple, and that’s kindness, which is compassion, in a word, same thing, same time, and that’s Buddhism, too, in a word. All the elaborate lists and literary expositions that comprise the Buddhist Abhidharma are unnecessary to describe the heart of Buddhism, so why waste so much time and effort when you can put it all in a word, or two? Because yes, there is another word that needs to be included, and if karuna is the first word, then metta is the second, often translated as ‘lovingkindness’ or simple ‘friendliness.’ 

    Put the two words together, and you’ve captured the heart and soul of Buddhism. In fact, modern standard Thai language does indeed often combine the two words for extra effect, so mettakaruna is a word or phrase that you will hear often there. Suffering is famously the back-story to Buddhism, that and its cessation, and that’s pretty much all you need to know. The cosmology of self and rebirth are important but debatable, IMHO, and thus of secondary importance, ditto nirvana. The analogy to Christian forgiveness might be worth mentioning but it isn’t necessary. Be good; don’t be bad. It’s that simple. 

     
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    hardie karges 4:46 am on September 24, 2023 Permalink | Reply
    Tags: brotherly love, , , , , , , metta   

    Love, Buddhist Style…  

    No, Buddhist love is not like falling in love, sorry, more like friendship or brotherly love, no more tears. So, this is one of the main differences between Buddhism and Christianity, and therefore one of the main obstacles for someone hoping to straddle the line between the two and ultimately blend them into a workable hybrid, something of which I approve, BTW, and perceive as being somehow inevitable, such is the status and well-defined dialectical positions of these two pillars of modern religion.  

    This may be controversial with some fierce religionists, but not me. I see it as the highest phase in the history of religion, that in which the family of man becomes inclusive, and everyone reaps the same benefits of being a member of the club. After all, religions have always been successful for their own individual members. The problem is one of how to deal with the non-members, who are all too often perceived as ‘others.’ If this is most obvious with Islam, it is still an issue with many, if not most, of the others. 

    Every religion preaches love, of course, but the devil is in the details. Christianity wants a love that is passionate, as that is the modus operandi of the religion, to FEEL something, first and foremost, whereas wisdom is paramount in Buddhism, that and the action of carrying out the fine and enlightened activities in question, mostly compassion and kindness, nothing more nor less. So, Buddhist metta is probably best translated to the West as ‘brotherly love,’ the same kind that once made Philadelphia famous. It may take more than that to reproduce the species, true, but not much, nod nod wink wink. 

     
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    hardie karges 4:09 am on June 24, 2023 Permalink | Reply
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    Buddhism, Love, and the Middle Path to Survival  

    Europeans and Americans live to fall in love, and many other countries and languages aren’t much better. Live to fall, wow! In the Thai language the equivalent expression would be to get ‘lost in love,’ not much different. But Buddhist metta is better than that, all the best parts of love and none of the bad, friendship mostly. You can be kind and still be balanced. But this is a hard lesson to teach, because we’re hooked on passion like junkies on the hard stuff, and there’s not too much that we can do about it, even if we wanted to. Or can we? Of course, we can. And it’s no accident that the original meaning of the word ‘passion’ is ‘suffering,’ just like that for which Buddhism is so famous. 

    It’s just that at some point we started to like all that excess emotion, just like we began to ‘love our lives,’ while Eastern ascetics continued to renounce the pleasures of flesh and fish, just as they continue to do to this very day. I suppose that the Western attitude is that if we try hard enough, we just might create that eternal life that Jesus promised us all along. Does Virtual Reality count? It might have to, if we’re serious about that as our goal…or, maybe we could just train our minds and tame our desires to a more acceptable level that allows for plenty of free time and a healthy dose of creativity, also. 

    Bingo, the Middle Path is always the solution, not passivity nor stress tests, just good honest old-fashioned hard work, complete with rationality, such that extremes of thought and opinion are rejected in favor of more conciliatory positions. In other words, you might gain less than the wildest stock option, but in return, you are also likely to lose less if your risks fall short of the mark. But that’s more than a conservative business portfolio decision. That’s a principle of life: make steady gains going forward, with always the option to change direction with any new information that accompanies the passage of time. That’s the Buddhist Middle Path. We’re playing for keeps here. 

     

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