streaming consciousness…

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  hardie karges 2:04 am on September 7, 2025 Permalink | Reply
  Tags: Buddhism ( 429 ), consciousness ( 29 ), Hardie Karges ( 240 ), language ( 145 ), meditation ( 190 ), Right Action (karma), samma vaca ( 8 ), silence ( 13 )   

  Buddhism 301: Silence is Golden… 

  

  The best arguments have no winners or losers, and everybody walks away happy. Sounds simple, doesn’t it? But nothing is more difficult, not in this modern world of debate and combativeness, both words derived from the same Latin battuere, to beat, no surprise, since our best friend, language, is also our worst enemy, first dividing us into subjects and objects, then dividing us into winners and losers. Welcome to the world of duality.

  But our concern is not so much the duality of individual self and cosmic divinity as it is the duality of self with itself—and others. But Buddhism doesn’t like to get too lost in all that dogma and its ensuing karma. Karma is always best as samma kammanta, right actions, and whatever else comes down the way is usually appropriate. It’s the same for samma vaca, right speech. Say good things most of the time and your life will be better most of the time.

  Bottom line: mindful silence is better than mindless chatter almost any day, and probably twice on Sunday, if that is the day that most likely promotes it. Because there is nothing more sacred or holy than silence. Astronauts explore Outer Space, but Buddhanauts must explore Inner Space, the deep sea of consciousness, thalay, dalai, ทะเลใจ, a hidden world so close and independent of language. That’s the world that meditation provides access to, a form of consciousness that predates language, which is in many ways superior to the language-based form of consciousness, or at the very least a welcome respite.

   

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  hardie karges 5:15 am on July 16, 2023 Permalink | Reply
  Tags: Buddhism ( 429 ), control ( 6 ), freedom ( 13 ), Hardie Karges ( 240 ), language ( 145 ), meditation ( 190 ), Right Action (karma), Right Aspiration, Right Effort ( 2 ), Right Livelihood ( 2 ), Right Mindfulness ( 2 ), Right View ( 2 ), self-control ( 5 )   

  Buddhist Right Speech 

  

  Right speech (samma vaca) is easy, because you really don’t have to say anything. That’s the point. But if you do say something, then, say something nice. Most of Buddhism is that way. You don’t have to promote anything. you don’t have to do anything. But if you do something, then do something good. Say something good. Be something good. Because you don’t know until you try it. 

  I’m referring to the Buddhist Eightfold Path, of course, that final Nobel Truth after the previous three others which showed the suffering of the world, its main cause—craving, and its main treatment—release from craving. The rest are the Eightfold Path, something like the Eight Commandments, in which the sage advices are a bit sager, like Right View, Right Aspiration, Right Action (karma), Right Livelihood, Right Effort, Right Mindfulness, and Right Concentration (meditation).  

  Buddhism is not a controlling religion. If it were, then it would want to control the moments of the day, minute, and hour: prayer at such-and-such a time, meals at such-a-time, etc., as if these were the important thing of religion. But when a Buddhist says that he wants control, then he wants self-control, a measure of forbearance against predatory life and logic that are certain to happen if our flanks are left unguarded. More importantly, this is a freedom FROM, not a freedom TO, and that means all the difference in the world…