Though I’m not as certain about past life karma philosophy as is the writer, I do see karmic connections between decisions I’ve made earlier in my present life and how my life has played out today. Any personal suffering I feel because of my personal past history is softened by realizing it’s not an injustice or that someone has done something to me. Rather, I made decisions earlier which continue to impact me later in life. My understanding of karma is simply this – it’s a life lesson gained through direct experience. Those lessons can be positive or negative.
Tibetan teacher Orgyen Thukchok Dorje observes: “In Vajrayana, we accept that the pain and difficulty one undergoes are a direct result of the actions and karmas of one’s past lives. We do not think that we suffer from injustice committed by someone against us, or that someone has wronged us. We place the blame on our own karma and not on others. That really changes the dynamic of how one deals with suffering and how one attains freedom from it.”
Though I’m not as certain about past life karma philosophy as is the writer, I do see karmic connections between decisions I’ve made earlier in my present life and how my life has played out today. Any personal suffering I feel because of my personal past history is softened by realizing it’s not an injustice or that someone has done something to me. Rather, I made decisions earlier which continue to impact me later in life. My understanding of karma is simply this – it’s a life lesson gained through direct experience. Those lessons can be positive or negative. Buddhism concerns itself with winning. When we battle a powerful enemy, either we will triumph or we will be defeated – there’s no middle ground. Battling against life’s negative functions is an indivisible part of Buddhism. It is by being victorious in this struggle that we become Buddhas. We have to win. Moreover, Buddhism ensures that we can definitely do so. - Daisaku Ikeda
A man relates an incident which took place during a ceremony when he was transitioning from a novice Zen monk to senior student. It was considered an auspicious event and he prepared carefully for the ceremony and ritual. He entered the meditation hall with his zen bowing mat and placed it on the floor but noticed there was a small wrinkle in the mat. Using his toe, he gently tugged at the mat so it was perfectly flat. When the ritual and ceremony ended, the vice-abbott approached the new senior monk, offered his congratulations and took him aside for a private conversation. “Do you recall the beginning of the ceremony and that wrinkle in your mat?” he asked. “Yes. I had to straighten it only a little,” was his reply. Looking directly into his eyes, the vice-abbott said: “Never straighten a bowing mat with your foot. Take the time to kneel and use your hand. Attend wholeheartedly to even the tiniest detail. That ripple in your mat deserved your complete attention.” From then on, whenever his mat had a wrinkle, he would carefully and mindfully kneel using his hands to gently flatten it. The vice-abbott offered him was an important, lifelong lesson in mindfulness. For a moment, become your own vice-abbott. Where was your mindfulness absent? For example, when you open and close a door, is it done with intention and quietly? When you pick up and put down an object, are you aware and are you doing that action mindfully, gently. From time to time, take a few moments to study your mindfulness and take it to a higher level. Nowadays being busy is seen as a mark of success, a badge of honor. We live in a culture of doing rather than being. Keeping busy is somehow glamorous; it defines us. - Gelong Thubten
Everything that the Buddha had ever taught serves the purpose of discovering happiness and peace in this world. - Hsing Yun
In my experience, just establishing the meditation habit is not enough. To transform our lives, we have to practice solidly and regularly. - A. Jesse Jiryu Davis
Religion was spread by the sword and by conquest. Compared to this, Buddhism was the one religion that commissioned no lethal force nor crusading armies for its propagation. - Nanadeva Wijesekera
There’s no problem with being where you are right now. Even if you feel loving-kindness and compassion for only one sentient being, that is a good place to start. Simply acknowledging, respecting, and appreciating the warmth is a way to encourage its growth. - Pema Chodron
Over the years I’ve come to a conclusion: Human beings are basically incompatible. Think about it. We live in different bodies, we’ve had different childhoods, and at any given moment our thoughts and feelings are likely to differ from anybody else’s, even those of our nearest and dearest. Given the disparities in our genetic makeup, conditioning, and life circumstances, it’s a miracle we get along at all. - Christopher Germer
On his web site, Dr. John Douillard reports about the promising benefit of spiritual practices upon brain health noting that: "Meditation and religious and spiritual practices, or your spiritual fitness, could mitigate the effects of chronic stress on cognition, reverse memory loss, potentially reduce other factors that contribute to the risk of Alzheimer’s disease, according to a new study published in the Journal of Alzheimer’s Disease."
He notes that this information comes at a "critical time" for two reasons. First, "age related cognitive decline cost the U.S. a whopping $305 billion dollars in 2020. Researchers tell us that if something isn’t done to solve this problem, these numbers could triple by the year 2050." Secondly, "the new study, from researchers at the Alzheimer’s Research and Prevention Foundation, comes at a time when masses of people are leaving their churches, synagogues, and temples and becoming nones, or those that don’t affiliate with any religion. A 2016 National Geographic News article reported that nones in the U.S. have overtaken Catholics, mainline Protestants, and all followers of non-Christian faiths. According to Pew Research Center, 23% of Americans have no religious affiliation and 35% of adult millennials are religiously unaffiliated." The study from the Alzheimer’s Research and Prevention Foundation reported that those who engaged in a meditation practice which involved breath work combined with chanting for a mere 12 minutes a day had better sleep, improved cognition, better mood, slowed memory loss, increased well being and increased blood flow to areas of the brain related to cognitive function and emotional regulation, as well as increasing the volume of grey matter or cortex of the brain. Here are two conclusions which can be made based on that study (and others). First, someone who has been diagnosed in the early stages of Alzheimer's may be able to significantly slow down the progression of the disease by engaging in serious spiritual practice. Secondly, and ideally, the time to do meditation is right now, long before any issues of memory decline appear. source: https://lifespa.com/ayurvedic-lifestyle/dinacharya-ritual/spiritual-bootcamp/ |
Victor M. Parachin ...is aVedic educator, yoga instructor, Buddhist meditation teacher and author of a dozen books. Buy his books at amazon or your local bookstore. Archives
May 2024
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