Interviewing Myself: My Relationship With Buddhism
I have a desire to write again. Not knowing where to begin to write for a public audience, I have chosen to interview myself regarding my relationship with Buddhism. I wrote a series of questions designed to introduce a new reader to my relationship with Buddhism, and then I answered those questions by using a form of freewriting where I allow myself to look up references and information as I write. The words flow smoothly as I type them, and when they stop flowing I stop writing.
Here are the first two questions:
Why Do I Consider Myself A Buddhist?
What Is The Key Factor of My Devotion to The Buddha?
Why do I consider myself a Buddhist?
At one point in my life, organized religion had become an impediment to my spiritual development, so I abandoned it. To date, organized religion has not yet shown back up into my life in a way that would allow me to mend my relationship with it.
The first thing to understand when I express myself as a Buddhist is that I do not recognize Buddhism as an organized religion. I do recognize that there are many Western Buddhists that have the same relationship with Buddhism that they might have with an organized religion; but I am not one of these.
I consider myself a Buddhist because a key factor in my spiritual path at this time includes: 1)Buddhist meditations/practices and 2)the teachings of The Buddha.
For me, Buddhist meditations/practices have been extremely beneficial to my inner peace and my understanding of life/Self.
I consider myself a Mahayana Buddhist, or a practicing bodhisatta, because I have chosen to walk my spiritual path for the benefit of all sentient beings, or for the benefit of all Life, or for the benefit of the entire universe.
I consider myself a Zen Buddhist because the mental training I do comes from a variation of the practice of zazen, which primarily involves developing the mind's capacity to observe its surroundings in real-time. I have heard this capacity called observing ego by a number of psychologists. Zen Buddhism has its roots in Mahayana Buddhism. As such, there is no contradiction in saying, 'I am a Mahayana Buddhist,' or 'I am a Zen Buddhist.' Though in plain English, it might be said: "I am a Mahayana Buddhist that practices Zen." Or it might be said, "I am a Zen Bodhisattva Warrior." So long as one understands the implications of the information being expressed, there are many available ways to express my relationship with Buddhism.
What is the key factor in your devotion to The Buddha?
Up until February 2006, my devotion to Buddha might be expressed as, "That other Christ from whom all these wonderful meditations has come into my life." The Buddha was like that really amazing uncle I hadn't ever met before, but keep hearing so many amazing things about.
In February 2006, I seem to have experienced an awakening that added a new dimension to my capacity to observe phenomenon as they are experienced. The same day this awakening occurred, I was inspired to take out a laminated card I bought from a mystic bookseller for one dollar that contained a summary of the key aspects of Buddhism, including The Four Noble Truths and The Noble Eightfold Path. Upon reading these summaries, I instantly recognized how they applied to this new dimension I was experiencing.
I wanted to know more about The Four Noble Truths, so I chose to begin a blogging exploration into The Four Noble Truths. (See livejournal entry here: The Four Noble Truths - I'm going to explore them in my blog.)
One interesting series of essays I wrote during this exploration, while I was still writing for public consumption on a regular basis, was: Exploring Karma - Oct 2006. If you look at the top of the page, you'll see a link to the previous essays of this series are back-linked to each other, leading back to my first essay on the first Noble Truth.
So from February 2006 up to now, I have become more and more familiar with The Buddha, not just as an individual teacher, but literally 'The Awakening experienced through an individual teacher.'
The key factor of my devotion to The Buddha, therefore, is the benefit his teachings have had on my journey back to Self, or on my path back Home.
The teaching style of The Buddha is tedious to the point of being a nuissance, really. Bhikkhu Bodhi makes ample use of the elipsis (...) throughout his anthology of The Buddha's teachings (In The Buddha's Words), and even still it is extremely challenging to follow the teachings. One reason The Dhammapada is so popular is due to its concise style, obviously!
Yet as I read his teachings... over time I can see how the patterns of my mind's activity are gradually evolving toward a more-beneficial perspective in relation to self/world. This is because The Buddha teaches in terms of one's actual observation and experience of suffering. The Buddha does not teach in theoretics, nor in anything conceptual.
While there are patterns and themes to his teachings, they are so inter-related that to properly understand any one of them, you really must understand them all. You can't really understand The Buddha's teaching on something as fundamental as kamma (karma) without properly understanding his teachings on The Five Aggregates, The Six Sense Bases, Dependent Origination, The Four Noble Truths, and The Eightfold Noble Path, The Unwholesome and Wholesome Roots, etc.
Thus, there is nothing simple for the mind to grasp onto. Even key concepts like Nibbana (Nirvana, the purpose of dhamma) are phrased in negating terms; Nibbana literally means 'to be extinguished.' The Buddha defined enlightenment as, "The cessation of all suffering." What is extinguished remains nameless, though it is clearly described in painstaking detail in his teachings.
So the process of becoming familiar with the teachings of The Buddha has had enormous benefit to my meditative practice. At present, my practice has primarily become the practice of 1)noticing my mind's past-conditioning in the form of reactions to the events of my life; 2)then observing how this past-conditioning influences my experience of life in the present moment of Now; 3)then surrendering (letting go) of those influences that are harmful to myself and others.
This cycle has been repeating itself for quite some time in my spiritual practice. My devotion to The Buddha is rooted in how beneficial his teachings are to this spiritual practice, along with my faith that the man called Sidhartha Gotama experienced an Awakening that has the potential to liberate all sentient beings from the experience called suffering. My faith in the man is rooted in the benefit my exploration into his teachings has had on my experience of life and a conviction that the Awakening he experienced is available for me to experience, as well.
Here are the first two questions:
Why Do I Consider Myself A Buddhist?
What Is The Key Factor of My Devotion to The Buddha?
Why do I consider myself a Buddhist?
At one point in my life, organized religion had become an impediment to my spiritual development, so I abandoned it. To date, organized religion has not yet shown back up into my life in a way that would allow me to mend my relationship with it.
The first thing to understand when I express myself as a Buddhist is that I do not recognize Buddhism as an organized religion. I do recognize that there are many Western Buddhists that have the same relationship with Buddhism that they might have with an organized religion; but I am not one of these.
I consider myself a Buddhist because a key factor in my spiritual path at this time includes: 1)Buddhist meditations/practices and 2)the teachings of The Buddha.
For me, Buddhist meditations/practices have been extremely beneficial to my inner peace and my understanding of life/Self.
I consider myself a Mahayana Buddhist, or a practicing bodhisatta, because I have chosen to walk my spiritual path for the benefit of all sentient beings, or for the benefit of all Life, or for the benefit of the entire universe.
I consider myself a Zen Buddhist because the mental training I do comes from a variation of the practice of zazen, which primarily involves developing the mind's capacity to observe its surroundings in real-time. I have heard this capacity called observing ego by a number of psychologists. Zen Buddhism has its roots in Mahayana Buddhism. As such, there is no contradiction in saying, 'I am a Mahayana Buddhist,' or 'I am a Zen Buddhist.' Though in plain English, it might be said: "I am a Mahayana Buddhist that practices Zen." Or it might be said, "I am a Zen Bodhisattva Warrior." So long as one understands the implications of the information being expressed, there are many available ways to express my relationship with Buddhism.
What is the key factor in your devotion to The Buddha?
Up until February 2006, my devotion to Buddha might be expressed as, "That other Christ from whom all these wonderful meditations has come into my life." The Buddha was like that really amazing uncle I hadn't ever met before, but keep hearing so many amazing things about.
In February 2006, I seem to have experienced an awakening that added a new dimension to my capacity to observe phenomenon as they are experienced. The same day this awakening occurred, I was inspired to take out a laminated card I bought from a mystic bookseller for one dollar that contained a summary of the key aspects of Buddhism, including The Four Noble Truths and The Noble Eightfold Path. Upon reading these summaries, I instantly recognized how they applied to this new dimension I was experiencing.
I wanted to know more about The Four Noble Truths, so I chose to begin a blogging exploration into The Four Noble Truths. (See livejournal entry here: The Four Noble Truths - I'm going to explore them in my blog.)
One interesting series of essays I wrote during this exploration, while I was still writing for public consumption on a regular basis, was: Exploring Karma - Oct 2006. If you look at the top of the page, you'll see a link to the previous essays of this series are back-linked to each other, leading back to my first essay on the first Noble Truth.
So from February 2006 up to now, I have become more and more familiar with The Buddha, not just as an individual teacher, but literally 'The Awakening experienced through an individual teacher.'
The key factor of my devotion to The Buddha, therefore, is the benefit his teachings have had on my journey back to Self, or on my path back Home.
The teaching style of The Buddha is tedious to the point of being a nuissance, really. Bhikkhu Bodhi makes ample use of the elipsis (...) throughout his anthology of The Buddha's teachings (In The Buddha's Words), and even still it is extremely challenging to follow the teachings. One reason The Dhammapada is so popular is due to its concise style, obviously!
Yet as I read his teachings... over time I can see how the patterns of my mind's activity are gradually evolving toward a more-beneficial perspective in relation to self/world. This is because The Buddha teaches in terms of one's actual observation and experience of suffering. The Buddha does not teach in theoretics, nor in anything conceptual.
While there are patterns and themes to his teachings, they are so inter-related that to properly understand any one of them, you really must understand them all. You can't really understand The Buddha's teaching on something as fundamental as kamma (karma) without properly understanding his teachings on The Five Aggregates, The Six Sense Bases, Dependent Origination, The Four Noble Truths, and The Eightfold Noble Path, The Unwholesome and Wholesome Roots, etc.
Thus, there is nothing simple for the mind to grasp onto. Even key concepts like Nibbana (Nirvana, the purpose of dhamma) are phrased in negating terms; Nibbana literally means 'to be extinguished.' The Buddha defined enlightenment as, "The cessation of all suffering." What is extinguished remains nameless, though it is clearly described in painstaking detail in his teachings.
So the process of becoming familiar with the teachings of The Buddha has had enormous benefit to my meditative practice. At present, my practice has primarily become the practice of 1)noticing my mind's past-conditioning in the form of reactions to the events of my life; 2)then observing how this past-conditioning influences my experience of life in the present moment of Now; 3)then surrendering (letting go) of those influences that are harmful to myself and others.
This cycle has been repeating itself for quite some time in my spiritual practice. My devotion to The Buddha is rooted in how beneficial his teachings are to this spiritual practice, along with my faith that the man called Sidhartha Gotama experienced an Awakening that has the potential to liberate all sentient beings from the experience called suffering. My faith in the man is rooted in the benefit my exploration into his teachings has had on my experience of life and a conviction that the Awakening he experienced is available for me to experience, as well.