Faith

I’m sure growing up as Christians, Catholics, or Muslims, the word “faith” pops up a lot. “Have faith in God,” “Have faith in Jesus,” etc. Those religions rely on these outside sources to somehow fuel your “faith-o-meter” in something, whether you’re waiting on results for a test, a decision on a home mortgage loan, or maybe because things in your life just aren’t happening. People always seem to put their faith in someone (something) else’s hands.

Buddhist Glossary

Nine Levels of Meditation

This is a very practical and simplified outline of an ancient and essential teaching on the development of meditative concentration, also called Shamatha.

This teaching outlines nine basic states of consciousness which equate to nine qualities of concentrated attention. Anyone can learn how to improve their own meditation practice by comparing their own experience with the states described here.

Moving from one state to a superior one is achieved by overcoming the obstacles present at each stage.  This is precisely the value of this teaching: it allows us to immediately discover how our practice is developing and what we need to do to advance it.

Concentration practice (shamatha) is the basis from which we can retrieve information (insight). Therefore, concentration practice is the ground from which the flower of meditation emerges.  However, concentration practice itself is not meditation.  Meditation begins once concentration has been established. Actual meditation is defined as a state of consciousness within which we can retrieve information.

Keeping concentration during meditation

Even experienced meditators sometimes have a hard time keeping concentration during meditation sessions. To be able to tame and calm your mind is incredibly difficult. Our minds are never empty of thoughts or feelings; it’s always thinking about something or engaging with an emotion. So to be able to calm it for more than a few seconds takes immense amounts of practice and discipline.

Loving Yourself

Question: “Hello there! In order to find inner peace, to feel calm, I have been looking inside of myself. The problem is that when I do so I do not like what I find. I have come to dislike myself quite deeply. I wish to understand how I can come to love myself once more when I hate who I am.”

Ask yourself, “Who am I?” We usually describe ourselves by our name, gender, preferences, education, etc., that’s what we think makes us us. But that’s not true. Our true self is not of this body-mind phenomenon. Our body is simply a vessel, a hotel that we’re checked in at during this life. In many people’s lives there are horrors, regrets, pain, hate, anger, etc. In mine especially – you wouldn’t recognize me today compared to a few years ago; I was a horrible, mean, selfish person. I thought, said, and did things I can’t take back and has probably made a huge impact on my Karma.

So what do we do in order to love ourselves again? To help others, we must first help ourselves. To love others, we must first love ourselves. Know and understand that our past is simply that; history. You can’t go back, you can’t change it, you can’t do anything about it, so instead of lingering over it and hating yourself, just accept it and move on. What’s benefiting you by hating yourself? By hating your past? You’re doing a disservice to yourself and others. It’s important to meditate and reflect on the core issues of why you dislike yourself. Maybe it’s because you did or said bad things, but then go deeper and find out why you did or said those things, and why you would even have the thought to do or say them in the first place.

To find inner peace, you have to practice loving-kindness and loving-compassion on yourself. Peace comes when you’ve let go of attachments, desire, greed, and ignorance. You may have become attached to your past faults, so that’s blocking your path to peace, but you can break through that blockage by accepting those faults and penetrating them with love. In Buddhism we don’t have enemies, the only enemy is ourself, so without conquering and freeing ourselves, there’s no winning, no peace, no happiness, and no liberation. Don’t define who you are by your past, there’s nothing you can do about it. Define yourself by your awareness of the present moment, the ability of knowing you are the master of the moment and can change your future (and your future lives).

“You yourself, as much as anybody in the entire universe, deserve your love and affection.” – Buddha.

And when you truly love yourself, you won’t be able to hurt others. So meditate on yourself. Accept the past and let it go, don’t attach to it. Then, live in the present moment. By being aware and mindful of your thoughts, speech, and actions, you can stop every ill intention.

 

Smile and be well!

Reincarnation

Reincarnation, or Rebirth, is one of the central parts and beliefs in Buddhism, but it’s also one of the most misunderstood topics, often confused with ideas like transmigration. Reincarnation, in fact, generally is a fairly easy concept to understand and accept. Buddhism is one (other than Hinduism) of the only major religions that have a belief in an after life and being able to be reborn again.

Om Mani Padme Hum – UPDATE

I’d like to add to the explanation of the Om Mani Padme Hum mantra. It’s one of the most popular and important mantras in Buddhism. The mantra covers all the sutras, shastras (commentary of scriptures), and vinaya in Buddhism – basically covering all the literature of Buddhist teaching.

Here I just want to expand on Mani and Padme. Mani is the essence, the reality, the core of everything. It’s the Buddha Nature in yourself.

Padme is the functionality and merits – purification, pacification, understanding the mind through meditation, through chanting, repentance, through all the good deeds you’ve done, good behavior, your speech; you’re carrying out Padme.

Padme is in every aspect of life: what you’ve done, what you’re doing, what you’ve spoken, what you’re about to speak. It’s a method and approach to Enlightenment. It’s the three elements in everything: the essence, the form, and the function.

In some traditions, Om Mani Padme Hum covers and is equal to all other mantras because it would be equal the same kind of meaning and merit as those mantras. So if you want to pay homage to the Buddha, Dharma, to the Bodhisattvas, to repent, to say a daily prayer or chant – Om Mani Padme Hum is for all that and more. It should be a part of everyone’s daily practice or just a mantra to recite during practice, meditation, or anytime throughout the day. The more you can understand it and chant it, the more you can penetrate its meaning and gain insight and wisdom.

“If you want to know your past life, look at your present condition.

If you want to know your future life, look at your present actions.”

 

– Padmasambhava, 8th century CE.

I don’t mean to be condescending, but isn’t “aspiring” to be a bodhisattva contradictory? Wouldn’t that mean that you are desiring/craving enlightenment?

“Question: I don’t mean to be condescending, but isn’t “aspiring” to be a bodhisattva contradictory? Wouldn’t that mean that you are desiring/craving enlightenment?”

Aspire: as-pire, verb, direct one’s hopes or ambitions toward achieving something.

If I were to desire or crave to be a Bodhisattva then I would just call myself a Bodhisattva and eliminate the aspiring part, wouldn’t you think?

So then we could ask, “What’s the goal of every Buddhist?” To become a Buddha! That’s every Buddhist’s light at the end of the tunnel. That’s the goal of every Buddhist. So one way, the Mahayana way, to achieve Buddhahood is through the Bodhisattva’s way. To be a Bodhisattva doesn’t mean to be Enlightened. The Bodhisattva knows the way to Enlightenment, some take it and some don’t, but the job is to use that knowledge to help others achieve Enlightenment.

So we all “desire” to be a Buddha, but we don’t crave on the idea. The Buddha even said to not even attach to the Dharma. The Dharma is the tool, the way to liberation, but is not liberation itself. You can want and desire many things: good health, financial stability, a great marriage, etc., but we must not attach to them, that’s when it becomes problematic and suffering can arise.

All Buddhists are aspiring Buddhas. That’s the goal. That’s the desire. Does that make us selfish? Not at all! Once a Buddha, we’ll attain all the knowledge of all the Buddhas and be equal to all Buddhas, and we’ll be able to teach and liberate sentient beings from suffering and guide them to Nirvana.

Smile and be well!

Finding your path

“Question: As of late, I have felt myself being more and more drawn to Buddhism. I don’t know if it’s a desire to a Buddhist myself but I was just… In need of some sort of help, I guess. I have no religion and my relationship with any god is odd. I just, need some sort of guidance from someone.”

Buddhism is drawn to a lot of people because of its peaceful nature. There are many debates on whether or not Buddhism is a religion, philosophy, or way of life. In my opinion, it’s all those things and not at the same time. It’s kinda hard to really put a term on it, because it’s very scientific, but it’s also very philosophical. So it attracts a lot of different people for different reasons.

Samatha and Vipassana

If we had to break down meditation into parts, it would break into two: Samatha and Vipassana. I’ve wrote and talked about a method of Vipassana meditation before and gave a brief overview of it, so I won’t talk too much about Vipassana here to avoid too much repeating, so it’ll mostly me about Samatha and general meditation.