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  • Unknown's avatar

    hardie karges 2:17 am on October 5, 2025 Permalink | Reply
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    Buddhism 401: The Science of Silence… 

    No experience is truly bad if it teaches a valuable lesson. This is gospel in the Dalai Lama’s Vajrayana tradition of Buddhism, I think, and seems to mesh well with all of them, something of a quick lesson in karma, when initial results might not be encouraging. Because none of us are in this for cheap tricks and quick thrills but settled in for the long run of sublime moments and partial fulfillments which leave themselves open for further development.

    The important thing is not what we get but what we give. Life is not transactional. Life is about fulfillment, not about feeling full, but about feeling satisfied at the spiritual rewards of suffering and its many lessons available for the simple taking. This is available in complete silence without any further methods of extracting the good from the fruit other than simple meditation. Precious moments are often wasted in mindless banter and useless argument, when silence will usually suffice.

    In fact, Buddhism could almost be known as a faith of silence, in silence, in an age when engagement, by means of speech, is rewarded as currency in the physical medium of social media. ‘Silence is violence,’ some say with no proof, and it’s true that there is no place left to go to escape the howls from the house-holders and the homeless, but there is no reason to surrender the quiet life of contemplation, either. For millennia deep contemplation was the closest we could come to truth, and science will never change all that, but it can certainly change some. There is a science of silence, also.

     
    • Dylan Raines's avatar

      Dylan Raines 8:39 am on October 5, 2025 Permalink | Reply

      If no experience is truly bad, is no experience truly good? Is believing too much in our own subjective judgment of good and bad perhaps the problem?

      • hardie karges's avatar

        hardie karges 7:01 pm on October 11, 2025 Permalink | Reply

        I think you’re probably right, yes, a duality we could probably do well without. Thanks for your comment!

  • Unknown's avatar

    hardie karges 2:04 am on September 7, 2025 Permalink | Reply
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    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.

     
  • Unknown's avatar

    hardie karges 7:37 am on December 15, 2024 Permalink | Reply
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    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.

     
  • Unknown's avatar

    hardie karges 8:42 am on March 3, 2024 Permalink | Reply
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    Buddhism 301: Emptiness Is Also Silent, and Infinite…  

    Silence is normal. All noise should be treated as an alien force, approached with caution and handled with great care. But, we live in a world of mechanical waves, so we assume that the world should be full of it, percussion and repercussions. But that doesn’t necessarily mean that our worlds should be so full, since our worlds are plural, and everyone must make that choice individually. And this is another case of the glass half-full or half-empty, since it’s likely neither. But which is better?  

    Maybe there was a time in the history of the world when to merely ‘break the silence’ was somehow enlightening, revolutionary, and revealing, worth something in and of itself, but those days are likely long gone as the world rapidly fills up with stuff if not substance, and the resulting benefit is as illusory as it is elusive. What to do, then? Embrace the silence, for all it’s worth, as that should be plenty, for it is itself the raw material of meditation. 

    And, if simple awareness is the stuff of consciousness, then meditation may not be consciousness ‘on steroids,’ God forbid, but hopefully consciousness refined, purified, and made more intense in the process and more sacred in turn. For, what is more sacred than pure consciousness? This is a question that science cannot answer, and likely never will, but if there is something sacred in this life and in this world, then that must be it.  

    Buddhist ‘Emptiness,’ shunyata, based on the numerical concept of zero, is hard to define, and even harder to embody, but if that space is empty, then it must also be silent, and that makes a life more refined and much finer. But which came first, the concept or the number? It doesn’t really matter, now, does it? Embrace it, for to be empty, and silent, does not mean to be lacking. It means to be infinite, as only emptiness can. Stuff is limited. Find a place for it, then forget about it, if you can, for a while, at least.

     
  • Unknown's avatar

    hardie karges 3:35 am on January 28, 2024 Permalink | Reply
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    Buddhism and the Power of Silence  

    Words once spoken cannot be taken back. Actions once committed cannot be retracted. Silence is better than violence. This is one of the hidden little gems of Buddhism, the value of silence. And other than the emphasis on meditation, it’s something that doesn’t often get mentioned—until now. Because here and now, in the modern age and the Western world, the noise is almost deafening, and the calls to engage are never-ending, no matter that much of that engagement is cruel and disheartening.  

    As a ‘digital creator’ on Facebook, I get it all the time, as if non-engagement were synonymous to incompetence. But nothing could be further from the truth. Silence is not violence, and BLM (Black Lives Matter) should know this. MLK (Martin Luther King) certainly knew it well, as did Mohandas K. (Mahatrma) Gandhi. Silence is one of the most powerful weapons in the world, in fact, but it is also much more than that. As the operating method of meditation, it can save souls (people) and so, it can also save nations.  

    If silence is the zero point for meditation, then meditation is the zero point for life. In this analogy, silence is like the zero (shunya) for which emptiness (shunyata) is named and can be thought of like the mathematical zero as the point between positive and negative (existence or non-existence?) numbers or the absolute zero temperature beneath which there is no lower, or even the zero-point energy of quantum physics as that point closest to absolute stillness. That’s the goal of meditation, insight optional, and that’s the goal of life, if only for a moment, now and again, always and forever. 

     
  • Unknown's avatar

    hardie karges 3:57 am on December 17, 2023 Permalink | Reply
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    Buddhism: Silence is Better than Language…  

    You can say ‘namaste’ all day and prove little. You can say nothing and prove much. Or you can sit in samadhi all day and prove everything, ‘samadhi’ being that meditative state of total absorption, in which the threads of language are locked out at the gates without credentials for entry. Because language is that element of mental activity tainted with the brush of corruption, duality at its most obvious, subjects verbing adjectivized objects so adverbially that prepositions threaten to revolt and assume post-positions, conjunctions just looking for somewhere to put an ‘and,’ ‘but’ only ‘if’ conditions can be avoided, so tenses only indicative, nothing subjunctive allowed. 

    All of which is to say that there’s more to life than language, OR logic, and often it’s even positively negative, if you care to find some meditative transcendence for even a moment in this increasingly noisy world or ours, crowded and clusterf*cked almost beyond recognition of the sublime Nature that it once was, notwithstanding the sporadic violence inherent to that same Nature.  

    Language is a double-edged sword. On one hand, it allowed homo sapiens to subdue, or outdo, all its competitors in the competition for the low-hanging fruit of life, those skills allowing multiple individuals to act as one for the purpose of being ‘firstest with the mostest,’ skills indispensable for survival when life is on the line and food is not yet on the table. This can be proven conclusively with the timelines of our competitors’ mutual demise in the face of sapiens’ overwhelming superiority. 

    On a more practical day-to-day basis, it’s simply an easy recipe for mindfulness, antidote for the common complaint of ‘monkey mind,’ during which our minds are so possessed of internal chatter that it’s virtually impossible to think properly, much less achieve some level of ‘calm abiding,’ i.e. samatha. So, ironically, the very thing that is our military strength is our existential downfall—unless we can control it. This is the unique sapiens challenge to zoological superiority and key to the future ascendance of our species—or not. Thus, Buddhist practice is more than an individual accomplishment; it’s truly intrinsic to our survival. 

     
  • Unknown's avatar

    hardie karges 4:17 am on October 15, 2023 Permalink | Reply
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    Buddhism 499: The Only App You Need Is Silence    

    If in doubt, then leave it out. Some of the cleverest words are never spoken, simply because they might hurt someone in the process…and that’s not good. But that’s one of the most difficult tasks for a Western convert to Buddhism, especially Americans, for whom argumentation is a way of life, even on a good day, even for the best of us, schooled in the liberal arts and dedicated to the proposition that all humans are created equal. 

    But sometimes the advanced degrees only get in the way of politeness and forbearance, which is often seen as old-fashioned or too folksy in an age where a clenched fist stands for political correctness and a loud mouth stands for factual correctness. Good luck with that. But I forgive the BLM (no, not the Bureau of Land Management) for the naïve assumption that ‘Silence is Violence,’ since I know where they’re coming from and largely agree with their goals if not tactics. If history has taught me anything, it’s taught me that there are usually better tactics than violence, or even confrontation. Just ask C.C. Boycott.

    As Buddhists, though, peace of mind is one of the main goals of our path, and that’s non-negotiable, just like human rights and freedom of expression. But patience is a virtue, and most arguments are non-essential. I once had a policy with a previous partner that whenever an argument lasted too long, we should stop, sleep on it, then come back to it again the next day. Guess what? Not once could we even remember what the argument was about, much less care to revisit it the next day, not once. 

    That’s typical of lower-level mind-stuff. We argue the most minute details to the last breath, and still people die of unnecessary wars at a rate that never seems to abate, though that point is arguable, too, haha. Meditation is the best response (non-response?) to too much mind-stuff, of course, and I won’t insult the ape community by calling it ‘monkey-mind.’ That’s us. The only difference is that they don’t meditate, not yet. Silence is our birthright. Be kind and don’t intrude on that of others.  

     
  • Unknown's avatar

    hardie karges 3:08 am on August 12, 2023 Permalink | Reply
    Tags: , , , , , , silence, spiritual bypass   

    Buddhism or Psychotherapy? Mix and Match…  

    Psychotherapy heals with talk. Buddhism heals with silence, i.e. meditation. Which is better? That’s your choice, or it could be a combination of the two, in which a sweet spot is found, somewhere near the center, in something of a perfect and creative combination of the two. Because psychotherapy runs the risk of never really solving the problem, since there are always more words to toss on the fire, while Buddhism runs the risk of never really solving the problem, because they ‘bypass’ it and merely leave it there dangling helpless. 

    Both criticisms may be right to some extent, but it may be helpful to ask why. Because it seems as if psychotherapy does its share of ‘bypassing,’ also, but in an attempt to get at the root of the problem, not some superficial solution. The problem is that it never ends. Psychotherapists don’t expect their clients to articulate their problem for themselves, but only offer enough clues that the psychotherapist might have some insight into the underlying causes that manifest in ways that can be crippling to the victim. Buddhist meditation is often accused of making an end-run straight to the problem’s superficial solution, without really dealing with the issues. 

    One interesting aspect of psychotherapy is that it tends to be a Western ‘problem,’ by world measures, i.e. the people seeking such help tend to be European or European-descended by birth. Psychotherapists scarcely exist in many Asian countries (this is changing), and when they do, are often there for Western ex-patriates and their English language. So, does the entire Asian continent ‘bypass’ its supposed need to confront its deepest darkest demons by linguistic means, or does the West maybe have a problem of loving the ‘dualism’ of language, i.e. usually Indo-European language, something which never seems to let us go, unless we let it go. 

    Thus the ‘problem’ seems to be a slippery one. The more we examine it, the harder it is to find. By this point in my life, I may indeed have a predilection for the silence over the noise, but I’m almost always willing to split the difference, as long as that allows a meandering path and a hopefully creative solution. This isn’t Math 101, after all. So, let’s say that the full thesis can be forsaken forthwith, in favor of a soft solution, in which the linguistic and existential hurdles are acknowledged, including sexual slights and psychic manipulation, as long as there is no expectation of ever any total reconciliation. Silence is more honest than that. It allows unlimited freedom of movement, after all, with no retribution necessary. Deal. 

     
  • Unknown's avatar

    hardie karges 7:46 am on February 27, 2022 Permalink | Reply
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    Advanced Buddhism: Silence is not Violence 

    Buddhism in Bhutan

    Words once spoken cannot be taken back. Actions once committed cannot be retracted. Silence is better than violence. But this contradicts one of the slogans of the Black Lives Matter movement, of course, that ‘Silence is Violence,’ which, no matter how much I sympathize with that movement, is simply mistaken, as a matter of fact, and definition, not opinion nor political orientation. Of course the BLM people were not thinking of meditative silence, so we’re discussing apples and oranges, really, no matter that silence is strictly still silence, no matter the circumstance. Emptiness is another matter. When the Russian figure skater said she felt ‘empty,’ she wasn’t talking about shunyata, I don’t think.

    It’s almost hard to believe now, but not so long ago, to ‘break the silence’ was a symbol of progress, the buzz of saws and the whir of wheels almost synonymous with the concept of progress, in fact. This was largely due to the influence of the Industrial Revolution, of course, the effects of which are still being calculated each and every day, though now perhaps in a more negative sense, given its almost single-handed cause of what we call Global Warming. Global Warmongering began long before and was probably far more brutal than anything that we can even imagine today, whole villages and towns raided and leveled for the lack of ability to hold ground against the superior technology—horses.     

    So, silence is the way of Buddhism, in more ways than one. Not only is it the foundation of meditation, bit it is the right hand to shunyata, the Emptiness that underlies all existence, the vessel that contains the stuff that we associate with reality, but which isn’t, not really. The vessel is more real than all the stuff inside, whether we call it that or call it light and gravity, or another quark for Mister Mark. The point is that there are things more fundamental to reality than all the stuff we see every day. And silence is more fundamental than all the noise we create. On a more personal level, you don’t need to be aggressive to show displeasure. I recommend the silent treatment. It’s better than the violent treatment.

     
  • Unknown's avatar

    hardie karges 12:50 pm on November 8, 2020 Permalink | Reply
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    Silence is the Perfect Companion to Budddhist Emptiness.,, 

    Emptiness, shunyata, is one of the prime tenets of the Mahayana school of Buddhism, of course, and arguably the defining one, the one without which it would not exist. But it has always been of slippery definition itself, it born of the zero-principle, shunya, and conceived at that very same epoch of history, such that the two developments are impossible to separate…

    And the brief definition of emptiness is that it is an extension of the Buddhist concept of non-self, anatta, so that now we are postulating that not only is the self empty of substance, but so is everything empty of substance. That is not to say that it is not real, necessarily, but that it is not real in any enduring permanent way. So in that sense, nothing is real…

    And this fits in well with the modern physics conception of reality as composed of sub-microscopic particles that are better defined mathematically than physically, even chemically. So that’s the back-story and the sales pitch, but how does that make anyone’s life any better? But in fact, there is much more to it than the sublime metaphysics or the arcane math and physics…

    In fact, I propose, there are lessons for life in there. For one thing, aren’t our lives too often defined by our possessions? A philosophy of emptiness discourages that. Secondly, referring back to the title, emptiness does encourage silence, and meditation, which I not only encourage everyone to practice, but which has been proven many times over to be a safe and salient benefit to health, especially mental health…

    (And despite the fact that ‘guided meditation’ has many fans, especially in the West, who just can’t stand the silence, I suppose, I still maintain that silent meditation is the best, and in fact the only practice that I would consider true meditation. ‘Guided meditation’ should be called something else)…

    Most importantly, though, emptiness facilitates a view of self and the universe that is non-dualistic (while I readily acknowledge that any dichotomy of self and universe is itself dualistic). And this may very well be the origin of modern consciousness, i.e. linguistic consciousness. Before that there was only a non-linguistic kind, which, for all the benefits of language, may have been better in many ways…

    At the very least, it is worth returning to, on a regular basis, and hence the value of meditation. Philosophy leads everywhere at one and the same time. Do you prefer the conundrum of the One versus the Many? Or do you prefer the vastness of Infinity? Duality is an illusion. The One is Many. But only Emptiness is Infinite…

     

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