Hi Everybody,
Today I'm off to India to visit my daughter Jessica. One of the activities we do there each time we go is to visit an ancient Buddhist settlement that was active around about 1100 AD. It's a series of caves carved into the mountain, with figures of buddhas and boddhisattvas and flowers and animals carved into the rock and a sophisticated system of wells and ponds to provide them with water in such a remote place. And we sit in the caves, just the three of us, and chant nam myoho renge kyo very quietly and its as if the whole mountain vibrates. And other visitors to the place just sit and listen. It's magical.
Any way back to The case for Buddhism, and we're talking about Buddhism's view of happiness.
' Given that it plays such a key role in our universal motivation, let alone our Buddhist practice, my key point is that it's just as well that we all share a common understanding of what we mean when we it, this much over-used word, rather than just assuming that we have a common understanding.
And that would seem to be a genuine issue, both within and beyond Buddhism. Someone as supremely eminent in the field as Martin Seligman for example, is driven to exclaim in his latest book Flourish, that the word happiness,
'...is so overused that it has become almost meaningless. It is an unworkable term for science, or for any practical goals such as edication, therapy, public policy, or just changing your personal life.'
' Almost meaningless ' is a bit strong perhaps, but you can see the point can't you, that the word happiness in the modern idiom, or to the modern ear, is unquestionably a bit...well, a bit lightweight! To many people, and I would include myself, it can all to easily be taken to mean merriment and laughter and good cheer and smiley faces, and I don't think we can simply ignore those connotations as if they were unimportant. we would be doing ourselves and our discussion a grave disservice. Particularly since good cheer and smiley faces is certainly not what is meant by happiness, in both Buddhist teachings, and in the scientific research centred around positive psychology.
Perhaps the closest we come to an appropriate word, or phrase, in both those contexts, certainly one that I personally find much more meaningful, and one that has already been used a great deal in this text is well-being. Why? Because it clearly expresses a much broader and deeper and more solidly based emotion. On one recent occasion for example, when I was talking to an audience of businessmen about Buddhism, the phrase ' happiness in the work place ' got a noticeably cool and even a somewhat cynical reception. But as soon as I switched to talking about ' well-being in the work place,' there was an immediate understanding of what we were really talking about, a much more substantial, an altogether more stable and focused state of life, than laughter and good cheer.
And once again, that distinction, slight but crucial, finds support among the scientists. As Daniel Goleman explains in some detail in his book Working with Emotional Intelligence, when comparisons are made between the effectiveness or the productivity of people at work, the difference is found to lie not so much in the know-how or the purely technical skills of different people, but much more broadly in their overall sense of well-being, and therefore their greater capacity for handling realtionships or dealing in a calm and focused way with difficulties that arise.
But perhaps most important of all, this phrase, well-being, has so much greater depth and breadth and capacity, tha tit can even embrace the idea of mischance and misfortune. Buddhism for example, when it speaks of happiness, has in mind a solid, lasting, resilient sense of well-being, at the core of one's life, that can endure and be experienced, even in the midst of sadness and loss and crucial challenge. That again, finds multiple echoes in the work of modern sociologists. Professor Tal Ben-Shahar for example, who for many years taught in the positive psychology programme at Harvard, talks about the need to ' get real.' Optimism and happiness he argues cannot be about being eternally cheerful. That would be hopelessly unreal. It has to be he says, about getting up close to, getting to grips with and embracing the pains and the problems we encounter, so that we truly understand them, and learn how to work through them to a better place. And he talks of the immense value that we can generate in our lives by learnin gto look for the seeds of the positive in things that go wrong in our lives, rather than continually beingn eaten up by the sense of loss or damage.
And both Buddhism and social science would want to embrace several other dimensions that are difficult to see wrapped up in the simple word happiness, but that we would all freely recognise as central to a durable sens eof well-being. Dimensions such as
- rich and positive relationships with others,
- a sense of accomplishment in our endeavours,
- a sense of meaning or purpose in our activities. And let's not forget,
- a sense of compassion and altruism.
In the same book Martine Seligman recounts for us a brief but telling anecdote that goes as follows;
' My friend Stephen Post, Professor of Medical Humanities at Stony Brook tells a story about his mother. When he was a young boy and his mother saw that he was in a bad mood she would say, ' Stephen, why don't you go and help someone?' Empirically, Ma Posts's maxim has been put to rigorous test, and we scientists have found that doing a kindness produces the single most reliable momentary increase in well-being of any exercise we have tested.'
A powerful life lesson there in just half a dozen lines, and moreover, one that lies right at the heart of Buddhist teachings.
And a great place to stop!
So that's it until I get back from Mumbai. See you then.
Take care.
William Woollard
The Case for Buddhism is available from Amazon
Monday 17 February 2014
Saturday 15 February 2014
my buddhist blog number 19
Hi Everybody,
Started packing! Taking a pause to get this episode completed.
So last time we finished with two important quotes from renowned psychologists Martin Seligman and Daniel Goleman making it clear that optimism and hope and resilience aren't just qualities that we're lucky to have if we're born with them, unlucky if we're not, we can learn how to build them into our lives; ' Optimism is a leaned skill.' Martin Seligman tells us. Moreover...' Once learned it increases achievement at work and improves physical health.'
That is a huge learning isn't it? They are telling us that we have a clear choice. If it so happens that we have built the absence of hope into our lives up till now, or even pessimism and despair, once we become fully self-aware of that fact, we can learn how to replace those negative life states with optimism and hope. That is a pwerful confirmation of the proposition that Buddhism has always presented to us. A Buddhist practice is entirely about building a wholly capable individual who can do precisely what Daniel Goleman has written about, namely having the courage to meet those ' challenges as they come up ' rather than being knocked down or disabled by them
So Buddhism, with its essential humanism and its focus on the power of the human spirit sets out to define greater happiness, for oneself and others, as the fundamental objective of human life, in the here and now. As I write that, after many years of Buddhist practice, I am intensely aware of just how bold and uncompromising and value-creating that is as a vision of life. No if's and but's and maybe's. That is says, is what we are seeking. All the more remarkable in that it was set out all those centuries ago, when life was considerably rougher and tougher and certainly less forgiving than it is now.
And once again the extraordinary thing is just how closely that principle accords with the views of today's evolutionary biologists and positive psychologists, who argue, strictly on the basis of their research, tha tthe quest for happiness is the ultimate motivational force in life. What does ulitmate mean in this context? It means that it doesn't require any further definition. It speaks for itself. We may initially express it to ourselves in other terms; we want to be healthy for example, or have better relationships, or a better job, or achieve a qualification, and many other items of desire that we might list. But all those items are only important in the sense that they contribute to our happiness. They are stepping stones you might say, on the way to our ultimate goal. Moreover the scientists have clearly demonstrated to their own satisfaction, that it is a truly universal quality. It cuts across all the boundaries that you can think of; national and religious and ethnic and status. It is if you like, a fundamantal element in the human condition.
So that close alignment of views does give us a very different perspective doesn't it? It means that this powerful and life-changing idea that Buddhism offers to us, an idea that many people find so unusual and hard to swallow, because it is so bold and uncompromising, is doing nothing more than recognising the essential character of our universal human nature. Doing no more than pointing out to us that this truly is the most powerful motivator in human life, and that it can be harnessed as an instrument of change...to enable us to lead fuller and richer lives.
That's it for today. I have to say I am very much enjoying covering this ground again. I wasn't at all sure about starting the blog on The case for Buddhism but now I believe firmly that it offers a wholly different way of getting these essential truths out there for discussion. I hope some of you, most of you, agree with that.
All my best wishes, and thanks for your reading thus far.
William Woollard
Started packing! Taking a pause to get this episode completed.
So last time we finished with two important quotes from renowned psychologists Martin Seligman and Daniel Goleman making it clear that optimism and hope and resilience aren't just qualities that we're lucky to have if we're born with them, unlucky if we're not, we can learn how to build them into our lives; ' Optimism is a leaned skill.' Martin Seligman tells us. Moreover...' Once learned it increases achievement at work and improves physical health.'
That is a huge learning isn't it? They are telling us that we have a clear choice. If it so happens that we have built the absence of hope into our lives up till now, or even pessimism and despair, once we become fully self-aware of that fact, we can learn how to replace those negative life states with optimism and hope. That is a pwerful confirmation of the proposition that Buddhism has always presented to us. A Buddhist practice is entirely about building a wholly capable individual who can do precisely what Daniel Goleman has written about, namely having the courage to meet those ' challenges as they come up ' rather than being knocked down or disabled by them
So Buddhism, with its essential humanism and its focus on the power of the human spirit sets out to define greater happiness, for oneself and others, as the fundamental objective of human life, in the here and now. As I write that, after many years of Buddhist practice, I am intensely aware of just how bold and uncompromising and value-creating that is as a vision of life. No if's and but's and maybe's. That is says, is what we are seeking. All the more remarkable in that it was set out all those centuries ago, when life was considerably rougher and tougher and certainly less forgiving than it is now.
And once again the extraordinary thing is just how closely that principle accords with the views of today's evolutionary biologists and positive psychologists, who argue, strictly on the basis of their research, tha tthe quest for happiness is the ultimate motivational force in life. What does ulitmate mean in this context? It means that it doesn't require any further definition. It speaks for itself. We may initially express it to ourselves in other terms; we want to be healthy for example, or have better relationships, or a better job, or achieve a qualification, and many other items of desire that we might list. But all those items are only important in the sense that they contribute to our happiness. They are stepping stones you might say, on the way to our ultimate goal. Moreover the scientists have clearly demonstrated to their own satisfaction, that it is a truly universal quality. It cuts across all the boundaries that you can think of; national and religious and ethnic and status. It is if you like, a fundamantal element in the human condition.
So that close alignment of views does give us a very different perspective doesn't it? It means that this powerful and life-changing idea that Buddhism offers to us, an idea that many people find so unusual and hard to swallow, because it is so bold and uncompromising, is doing nothing more than recognising the essential character of our universal human nature. Doing no more than pointing out to us that this truly is the most powerful motivator in human life, and that it can be harnessed as an instrument of change...to enable us to lead fuller and richer lives.
That's it for today. I have to say I am very much enjoying covering this ground again. I wasn't at all sure about starting the blog on The case for Buddhism but now I believe firmly that it offers a wholly different way of getting these essential truths out there for discussion. I hope some of you, most of you, agree with that.
All my best wishes, and thanks for your reading thus far.
William Woollard
Wednesday 12 February 2014
my buddhist blog number 18
Hi Everybody,
I'm off to India next week, to visit my beloved daughter Jessica, who works at the moment in Mumbai, with her family, and practices with an incredibly active and lively and colourful group of Indian ladies...and a few men!! As it happens many of them have read either The Reluctant Buddhist or Buddhism and the Science of Happiness so when we go there it is as if they know Sarah and myself already. Last year for example we held a really lively Introduction to Buddhism meeting that didn't want to come to an end. Anyway, since I'll be away for a couple of weeks I thought I might make up the lost time by writing two or three additional episodes before I go. So this is one of them!
So we've started Chapter Four, Buddhism and Happiness, and last time we ended with the comment that I really do think there is a virtue in our being a bit tougher on ourselve, so that we take the time and the trouble to think through more completely the ways in which we use, and perhaps misuse, this ubiquitous word.
' And there are I think, compelling reasons for this. Above all perhaps the fact that if you are even vaguely interested in Buddhism, let alone practice it, you simply can't escape the word. You can't have failed to notice for example the number of times the word happiness has cropped up in the text so far, which mirrors the fact that it occurs a great deal in Buddhist discussions. In fact Buddhists will often say that the fundamental reason for their practice is nothing less than greater happines for themselves and those around them. And if we give that a moment's thought, that too is somewhat surprising, inthe sense that if I were to ask you to go away and search for the word ' happiness' in other religious liturgies, you might never come backl! Why? Because the sinple fact is that we have to search very hard indeed to find the word happiness in those contexts; happiness in the here and now that is, in this life, rather than in some heavenly hereafter. That's a very important distinction. The fact is that most religions don't talk about happiness in this life as having anything to do with the purpose of their existence, or indeed talk about it at all.
Buddhism undoubtedly does, and I hasten to add, that observation I've just made is not in any way a value judgement. Not at all. It is simply, an observation. But it is one of the fundamental qualities that, we might argue, sets Buddhism so clearly apart from other major religions, because it presents itself, right from the start, as being about ordinary people attaining happiness in this life. Not happiness after death. Or in some idealised utopian life space in this world. Or some vision of a pleasant life we might hope to achieve when this or that qualification has been gained, or when this or that obstacle has been removed.
And that word ' when ' is important to. many of us can find ourselves mentally trapped in the prison of the ' when, ' as it has been called by the psychologists; this tendency to persuade ourselves that only when this or that change has taken place, only then we might perhaps achieve the happiness we seek. It becomes if you like a self-imposed barrier to moving to a better place in our lives.
The way Buddhism responds to that situation is to say that we need to recognise the immense power that resides in our freedom of choice. That whether we realise it or not, whether we believe it or not, we have within us all the resources we need to choose, and to establish a stable sense of well-being in our lives. Not when anything has been added or removed, but now. It argues strongly that we can learn, that we can train ourselves, to achieve that goal now. Not just in the good and the golden times, but any time. No matter how challenging and disturbing the vicissitudes and the circumstances of our life may be.
That is of course a huge and potentially life-changing idea, but it is so unusual, so counter-intuitive, tha tit is extremely difficult for most of us to come anywhere near accepting it...when we first encounter it. It just doesn't make sense we say to ourselves. There must be some sort of catch.
It took me personally a long time to learn that there isn't. That the catch is primarily our lack of self-belief, our lack of conviction in ourselves. And it was only later that I learned just how strongly this perception, that is utterly central to Buddhist belief, is echoed in the work of many of today's sociologists.
Martin Seligman for example, illustrious Professor of Psychology at Pennsylvania State University, and one of the founding fathers of the school of positive psychology, in his illuminating book, What you Can Change and What You Can't,
'Optimism ' he writes, 'is alearned skill. Once learned it increases achievement at work and improves physical health.'
That's a crucial point he is making isn't it? It's not just about having a nice warm feeling within. The happiness associated with optimism he is saying, is life-giving.' It serves to enhance and improve our lives at work and at play.
As we've already seen, Daniel Goleman, psychologist and brilliant science writer, says almost exactly the same thing.
' Otimism and hope...like helplessness and despair...can be learned. Underlying both is an outlook psychologists call self-efficacy, the belief that one has mastery over one's life and can meet challenges as they come up.'
So they are saying, as Buddhism has always said, we have a clear choice. If it so happens that we have built the absence of hoipe into our lives up till now, or even pessimism and despair, once we become fully self-aware of that fact, we can learn how to replace those negative life states with optimism and hope.'
As I write that I feel that if this is the one message that people take away from this book...then all the effort of writing it will have been more than worth while.
See you next time.
Keep smiling.
William Woollard
I'm off to India next week, to visit my beloved daughter Jessica, who works at the moment in Mumbai, with her family, and practices with an incredibly active and lively and colourful group of Indian ladies...and a few men!! As it happens many of them have read either The Reluctant Buddhist or Buddhism and the Science of Happiness so when we go there it is as if they know Sarah and myself already. Last year for example we held a really lively Introduction to Buddhism meeting that didn't want to come to an end. Anyway, since I'll be away for a couple of weeks I thought I might make up the lost time by writing two or three additional episodes before I go. So this is one of them!
So we've started Chapter Four, Buddhism and Happiness, and last time we ended with the comment that I really do think there is a virtue in our being a bit tougher on ourselve, so that we take the time and the trouble to think through more completely the ways in which we use, and perhaps misuse, this ubiquitous word.
' And there are I think, compelling reasons for this. Above all perhaps the fact that if you are even vaguely interested in Buddhism, let alone practice it, you simply can't escape the word. You can't have failed to notice for example the number of times the word happiness has cropped up in the text so far, which mirrors the fact that it occurs a great deal in Buddhist discussions. In fact Buddhists will often say that the fundamental reason for their practice is nothing less than greater happines for themselves and those around them. And if we give that a moment's thought, that too is somewhat surprising, inthe sense that if I were to ask you to go away and search for the word ' happiness' in other religious liturgies, you might never come backl! Why? Because the sinple fact is that we have to search very hard indeed to find the word happiness in those contexts; happiness in the here and now that is, in this life, rather than in some heavenly hereafter. That's a very important distinction. The fact is that most religions don't talk about happiness in this life as having anything to do with the purpose of their existence, or indeed talk about it at all.
Buddhism undoubtedly does, and I hasten to add, that observation I've just made is not in any way a value judgement. Not at all. It is simply, an observation. But it is one of the fundamental qualities that, we might argue, sets Buddhism so clearly apart from other major religions, because it presents itself, right from the start, as being about ordinary people attaining happiness in this life. Not happiness after death. Or in some idealised utopian life space in this world. Or some vision of a pleasant life we might hope to achieve when this or that qualification has been gained, or when this or that obstacle has been removed.
And that word ' when ' is important to. many of us can find ourselves mentally trapped in the prison of the ' when, ' as it has been called by the psychologists; this tendency to persuade ourselves that only when this or that change has taken place, only then we might perhaps achieve the happiness we seek. It becomes if you like a self-imposed barrier to moving to a better place in our lives.
The way Buddhism responds to that situation is to say that we need to recognise the immense power that resides in our freedom of choice. That whether we realise it or not, whether we believe it or not, we have within us all the resources we need to choose, and to establish a stable sense of well-being in our lives. Not when anything has been added or removed, but now. It argues strongly that we can learn, that we can train ourselves, to achieve that goal now. Not just in the good and the golden times, but any time. No matter how challenging and disturbing the vicissitudes and the circumstances of our life may be.
That is of course a huge and potentially life-changing idea, but it is so unusual, so counter-intuitive, tha tit is extremely difficult for most of us to come anywhere near accepting it...when we first encounter it. It just doesn't make sense we say to ourselves. There must be some sort of catch.
It took me personally a long time to learn that there isn't. That the catch is primarily our lack of self-belief, our lack of conviction in ourselves. And it was only later that I learned just how strongly this perception, that is utterly central to Buddhist belief, is echoed in the work of many of today's sociologists.
Martin Seligman for example, illustrious Professor of Psychology at Pennsylvania State University, and one of the founding fathers of the school of positive psychology, in his illuminating book, What you Can Change and What You Can't,
'Optimism ' he writes, 'is alearned skill. Once learned it increases achievement at work and improves physical health.'
That's a crucial point he is making isn't it? It's not just about having a nice warm feeling within. The happiness associated with optimism he is saying, is life-giving.' It serves to enhance and improve our lives at work and at play.
As we've already seen, Daniel Goleman, psychologist and brilliant science writer, says almost exactly the same thing.
' Otimism and hope...like helplessness and despair...can be learned. Underlying both is an outlook psychologists call self-efficacy, the belief that one has mastery over one's life and can meet challenges as they come up.'
So they are saying, as Buddhism has always said, we have a clear choice. If it so happens that we have built the absence of hoipe into our lives up till now, or even pessimism and despair, once we become fully self-aware of that fact, we can learn how to replace those negative life states with optimism and hope.'
As I write that I feel that if this is the one message that people take away from this book...then all the effort of writing it will have been more than worth while.
See you next time.
Keep smiling.
William Woollard
Monday 10 February 2014
my buddhist blog number 17
Hi Everybody
I've had two pieces of news recently that really, well lift the spirit. One is that the Spanish version of Buddhism and the Science of Happiness is about to be published. It has the extraordinary title in Spanish of El Budismo y la ciencia de la felicidad! It's a real squeeze do get it on the cover. And the other is that there ha sbeen a repeat order from the Dominican Republic for the Spanish version of The Reluctant Buddhist. The Dominican Republic. I would never have thought in my wildest dream as I was sitting in my study writing those books that they would eventually reach out to so many corners of the world. It's difficult to express just how much that means to me. It is immensely humbling.
I had intended to get on to Chapter Four today, which opens up the discussiuonm of what we really mean by happiness in Buddhism, but I think it's worthwhile rounding off Chapter Three because it does make a couple of important points. So here goes;
' There is no question, countless people in the western world today will attest to the fact that the combination of self-belief and the determination to achieve personal change that can be generated through the daily discipline of Nichiren's practice, can be a very powerful beneficial and life-changing force. And once again it is quite surprising, and very affirming to find similar views expressed in very similar terms in modern,secular, scientific literature; tha tis it very much a question of self-belief and of effort and determination. As one psychoogist among many has expressed it for example;
'...enjoying a real increase in your own happiness is in fact attainable, if you are prepared to do the work. If you make a decision to be happier in your life- and you understand that this is a weighty decision that will take effort, commitment, and a certain amount of discipline-know that you can make it happen.'
So it could be argued that the Buddhism of Nichiren Daishonin is offering you the opportunity to put the claims that it makes to the test in your own life. Make the decision it says, summon up from within this self-belief, this determination that you are prepared to tackle the things about your life that you wish to change,...' exert yourself in the two ways of practice and study...' as Nichiren puts it, and observe the results in your own life, to see whether or not it delivers it's promise.
And that ' whether or not' is crucially important of course. Both options are wholly valid. It's not a practice that one could continue on the basis of someone else's belief. But basically that's the process that I went through some 20 odd years ago, with no small measure of doubt and scepticism as I've mentioned! But there's nothing wrong of course with a dash of healthy scepticism, or even a heavy dose of it. Scepticism is a great asker of difficult questions that demand answers. In the event, I've travelled, as I'm sure many others have before me, and since, from a profound scepticism, to an equally profound commitment to a practice that has brought immense value and joy into my life. And, I have not the slightest doubt, into the lives of those around me. People frequently ask me, ' where do you get your constantly positive spirit from?' I have only one answer, from the daily practice, the daily living, of Buddhism. '
That's it for today. Next time we move onto Chapter Four Buddhism and Happiness. Do we really need a discussion about the nature of happiness you might ask? it's such a slippery and elusive emotion to define, and so intensely subjective, that we're in grave danger, aren't we, of just going around in pointless circles? and in any case, however difficult it may be to pin down in a definition does that really make any difference? Isn't it very much like the taste of the strawberry, we may not be able to describe it, but we all know it well enough when we actually experience it.
But those arguments clearly cut both ways don't they? It's precisely because it is so slippery and elusive a term, that we might get a great deal out of even a brief discussion of what we really mean when we talk about happiness in this world. And personally I think there's a great virtue in being a bit tougher on ourselves, so that we take the time and the trouble to think our thoughts through more completely and set them down more precisely . Not least because this particular word is, in my view, in danger of being so immensely overused, that it's meaning become sgravely diluted. And I'm by no means alone. The renowned Martin Seligman for example, Professor of Psychology, one of the founding fathers of the growing school of positive psychology, is driven to exclaim in his latest book, that the word happiness...' is so overused that it has become almost meaningless....!'
There we have it! The reason for our discussion that begins in the next episode.
Thanks so mucnfor reading up to here.
See you next time.
William Woollard
The Case for Buddhism is available from Amazon.
People frequently ask me, ' Wh
I've had two pieces of news recently that really, well lift the spirit. One is that the Spanish version of Buddhism and the Science of Happiness is about to be published. It has the extraordinary title in Spanish of El Budismo y la ciencia de la felicidad! It's a real squeeze do get it on the cover. And the other is that there ha sbeen a repeat order from the Dominican Republic for the Spanish version of The Reluctant Buddhist. The Dominican Republic. I would never have thought in my wildest dream as I was sitting in my study writing those books that they would eventually reach out to so many corners of the world. It's difficult to express just how much that means to me. It is immensely humbling.
I had intended to get on to Chapter Four today, which opens up the discussiuonm of what we really mean by happiness in Buddhism, but I think it's worthwhile rounding off Chapter Three because it does make a couple of important points. So here goes;
' There is no question, countless people in the western world today will attest to the fact that the combination of self-belief and the determination to achieve personal change that can be generated through the daily discipline of Nichiren's practice, can be a very powerful beneficial and life-changing force. And once again it is quite surprising, and very affirming to find similar views expressed in very similar terms in modern,secular, scientific literature; tha tis it very much a question of self-belief and of effort and determination. As one psychoogist among many has expressed it for example;
'...enjoying a real increase in your own happiness is in fact attainable, if you are prepared to do the work. If you make a decision to be happier in your life- and you understand that this is a weighty decision that will take effort, commitment, and a certain amount of discipline-know that you can make it happen.'
So it could be argued that the Buddhism of Nichiren Daishonin is offering you the opportunity to put the claims that it makes to the test in your own life. Make the decision it says, summon up from within this self-belief, this determination that you are prepared to tackle the things about your life that you wish to change,...' exert yourself in the two ways of practice and study...' as Nichiren puts it, and observe the results in your own life, to see whether or not it delivers it's promise.
And that ' whether or not' is crucially important of course. Both options are wholly valid. It's not a practice that one could continue on the basis of someone else's belief. But basically that's the process that I went through some 20 odd years ago, with no small measure of doubt and scepticism as I've mentioned! But there's nothing wrong of course with a dash of healthy scepticism, or even a heavy dose of it. Scepticism is a great asker of difficult questions that demand answers. In the event, I've travelled, as I'm sure many others have before me, and since, from a profound scepticism, to an equally profound commitment to a practice that has brought immense value and joy into my life. And, I have not the slightest doubt, into the lives of those around me. People frequently ask me, ' where do you get your constantly positive spirit from?' I have only one answer, from the daily practice, the daily living, of Buddhism. '
That's it for today. Next time we move onto Chapter Four Buddhism and Happiness. Do we really need a discussion about the nature of happiness you might ask? it's such a slippery and elusive emotion to define, and so intensely subjective, that we're in grave danger, aren't we, of just going around in pointless circles? and in any case, however difficult it may be to pin down in a definition does that really make any difference? Isn't it very much like the taste of the strawberry, we may not be able to describe it, but we all know it well enough when we actually experience it.
But those arguments clearly cut both ways don't they? It's precisely because it is so slippery and elusive a term, that we might get a great deal out of even a brief discussion of what we really mean when we talk about happiness in this world. And personally I think there's a great virtue in being a bit tougher on ourselves, so that we take the time and the trouble to think our thoughts through more completely and set them down more precisely . Not least because this particular word is, in my view, in danger of being so immensely overused, that it's meaning become sgravely diluted. And I'm by no means alone. The renowned Martin Seligman for example, Professor of Psychology, one of the founding fathers of the growing school of positive psychology, is driven to exclaim in his latest book, that the word happiness...' is so overused that it has become almost meaningless....!'
There we have it! The reason for our discussion that begins in the next episode.
Thanks so mucnfor reading up to here.
See you next time.
William Woollard
The Case for Buddhism is available from Amazon.
People frequently ask me, ' Wh
Saturday 8 February 2014
my buddhist blog number 16
Hi my friends,
Well I look out of my study window on this blogging morning and once again I have to say the sky is blue, paler than last week but still definitely blue, and what's more there's just the very first hint of flower buds on two cherry trees. Now whose to say that that isn't the first hint of spring. I live very close to Kew Gardens, and when I get talking to the gardeners there they have no doubt that spring is coming earlier, certainly to southern Britain anyway. They think as much as three weeks earlier. Their hands on, mud-on-the-wellies contribution to the great global warming debate if you like.
But back to The Case for Buddhism, and last week we reached the point of introducing this extraordinary man called Nichiren Daishonin, whose huge legacy in terms of an everyday Buddhist practice, is still having a huge influence, in the West now, as well as in the East.
' Nichiren was born in 1222 into an ordinary family living in a fishing village on the south eastern coast of Japan. He went into a monastery at the age of 12, essentially because a monastery was about the only place where a boy could receive an edication. He became a priest at the age of 16, and clearly he had very unusual qualities of commitment and perseverance, in that he devoted the next phase of his life, virtually his entire youth, to a personal quest to unravel the confusion in thinking and the conflict between the various Buddhist schools that prevailed at that time in Japan. He spent 15 long years travelling round the leading monasteries in the country, to study the collections of ancient Buddhist texts that they held. Painstakingly he traced the central thread of Shakyamuni's teachings back through Japanese and Chinese and Indian commentaries, to the heart of the Lotus Sutra itself. So we could say that Nichiren's teachings and writings, which are still extant, and now widely translated into many other languages, put us directly in touch with Shakyamuni's original words and his intent.
That personal quest led to Nichiren becoming, very much like Shakyamuni before him, the most outspoken and persitetn religious reformer of his day. And he was utterly fearless. He was living in a rigidly fuedal society ruled over by a powerful and ruthless military dictatorship, within which various sectarian priesthoods had immense power and influence over the detail of the lives of ordinary people. Women and those in the bottom layers of society had virtually no rights. Yet here was Nichiren, actively preaching a Buddhism that spoke of absolute equality in the rights of man, men and women alike, respect for the individual regardless of his or her status in society, and the potential for all men and women to create a better and more fulfilling life for themselves, no matter where they sat in the social hierarchy. It was genuinely revolutionary stuff, and inevitably he became a marked man. In the event he was pursued and persecuted in various ways by the military authorities and the religious establishment virtually throughout his life.
Despite these severe and constant challenges to this mission that he'd taken on, to communicate these revolutionary truths far and wide, Nichiren spent his entire life, living among ordinary people, peasants and farmers and craftsmen, clarifying the essence of Shakyamuni's teachings, encouraging these people to see their Buddhism as a wholly practical approach to living, not a thing apart, but part of the daily detail of their lives. That was always his central message. He wrote to them constantly and as I've said, these letters, or gosho as they're called in Japanese, still exist to be read today, supporting and encouraging and guiding ordinary people through countless ordinary everyday problems. Everyday then and just a s everyday now; anxiety over a sick child, grief at the death of a husband, conflict with an employer, uncertainty about how to handle a really challenging circumstance.
Always his message is realistic and down-to-earth, always the positive one of hope and optimism. But always seeking to deepen their grasp of the paradox that lies at the very heart of Buddhism; the understanding that although we instinctively reject and shy away from the troubles of life, the plain fact is that it is only by facing up to them, embracing them, challenging them as they occur, that we can build the courage, and the strength of spirit, and the enduring self-confidence, that we all seek. We can only learn that we are immensely capable of overcoming problems...by overcoming them. There is no other way.
So he taught that when we feel ourselves to be low in spirits, or when we lack the self-belief and the courage we've just been talking about, almost any problem can seem huge and overwhelming. Whereas when we've built up our courage and our confidence by challenging and overcoming problems, even the most difficult situations no no longer seem so daunting or insuperable. The essential issue on which we should focusn our minds therefore, is not how to eliminate problems from our lives, which is a manifest delusion, a sheer impossibility, there is no such life. What we should be seeking he argued, is that inner strength of spirit, that inner confidence that we can overcome them, which is eminently acchievable.
That in essence, is the very faith that Buddhism asks us to have belief in.
Nichiren's legacy
When he died at the age of 60 Nichiren left an extraordinary legacy, in the sense that his personal quest to re-establish the primacy of the message wrapped up in the Lotus Sutra provided the essential basis for the modern spread of Mahayana Buddhism out from Asia into the western world. Although it lay locked up inside Japan, until the widespread liberalisation and opening up of Japanese society that occurred immediately after the Second World War.
But it could be argued that Nichiren went further than any other Buddhist teacher in that from the depths of his own enlightenment, and his profound understanding of human nature gained from all those years living and working among ordinary working people, he created an immensely practical, down-to-earth method,to enable ordinary people to establish an effective Buddhist practice, as part of their ordinary daily lives. No matter how busy they might be. No matter what demands were pressing in upon them from other areas of their lives. That was his great, in many ways, incomparable contribution, creatign a model of Buddhist practice that is wholly accessible to ordinary people today for example, living busy, active, time-slicing lives in a modern society. That is why he is sometimes known as The Buddha for the Modern Age.'
That's enough for today I think. It's always a difficult judgment when to stop, and I'm never sure whether or not I've got it right! It has to be long enough to make a coherent argument I feel, but not so long as to bore the reader. Writing has always presented that problem of course, but blogs I feel, just bring it into sharper focus.
Anyway, hope you managed to get to the end of this episode. Next time we pick up the theme of chapter 4, Buddhism and happiness. See you then.
Best wishes,
William
Well I look out of my study window on this blogging morning and once again I have to say the sky is blue, paler than last week but still definitely blue, and what's more there's just the very first hint of flower buds on two cherry trees. Now whose to say that that isn't the first hint of spring. I live very close to Kew Gardens, and when I get talking to the gardeners there they have no doubt that spring is coming earlier, certainly to southern Britain anyway. They think as much as three weeks earlier. Their hands on, mud-on-the-wellies contribution to the great global warming debate if you like.
But back to The Case for Buddhism, and last week we reached the point of introducing this extraordinary man called Nichiren Daishonin, whose huge legacy in terms of an everyday Buddhist practice, is still having a huge influence, in the West now, as well as in the East.
' Nichiren was born in 1222 into an ordinary family living in a fishing village on the south eastern coast of Japan. He went into a monastery at the age of 12, essentially because a monastery was about the only place where a boy could receive an edication. He became a priest at the age of 16, and clearly he had very unusual qualities of commitment and perseverance, in that he devoted the next phase of his life, virtually his entire youth, to a personal quest to unravel the confusion in thinking and the conflict between the various Buddhist schools that prevailed at that time in Japan. He spent 15 long years travelling round the leading monasteries in the country, to study the collections of ancient Buddhist texts that they held. Painstakingly he traced the central thread of Shakyamuni's teachings back through Japanese and Chinese and Indian commentaries, to the heart of the Lotus Sutra itself. So we could say that Nichiren's teachings and writings, which are still extant, and now widely translated into many other languages, put us directly in touch with Shakyamuni's original words and his intent.
That personal quest led to Nichiren becoming, very much like Shakyamuni before him, the most outspoken and persitetn religious reformer of his day. And he was utterly fearless. He was living in a rigidly fuedal society ruled over by a powerful and ruthless military dictatorship, within which various sectarian priesthoods had immense power and influence over the detail of the lives of ordinary people. Women and those in the bottom layers of society had virtually no rights. Yet here was Nichiren, actively preaching a Buddhism that spoke of absolute equality in the rights of man, men and women alike, respect for the individual regardless of his or her status in society, and the potential for all men and women to create a better and more fulfilling life for themselves, no matter where they sat in the social hierarchy. It was genuinely revolutionary stuff, and inevitably he became a marked man. In the event he was pursued and persecuted in various ways by the military authorities and the religious establishment virtually throughout his life.
Despite these severe and constant challenges to this mission that he'd taken on, to communicate these revolutionary truths far and wide, Nichiren spent his entire life, living among ordinary people, peasants and farmers and craftsmen, clarifying the essence of Shakyamuni's teachings, encouraging these people to see their Buddhism as a wholly practical approach to living, not a thing apart, but part of the daily detail of their lives. That was always his central message. He wrote to them constantly and as I've said, these letters, or gosho as they're called in Japanese, still exist to be read today, supporting and encouraging and guiding ordinary people through countless ordinary everyday problems. Everyday then and just a s everyday now; anxiety over a sick child, grief at the death of a husband, conflict with an employer, uncertainty about how to handle a really challenging circumstance.
Always his message is realistic and down-to-earth, always the positive one of hope and optimism. But always seeking to deepen their grasp of the paradox that lies at the very heart of Buddhism; the understanding that although we instinctively reject and shy away from the troubles of life, the plain fact is that it is only by facing up to them, embracing them, challenging them as they occur, that we can build the courage, and the strength of spirit, and the enduring self-confidence, that we all seek. We can only learn that we are immensely capable of overcoming problems...by overcoming them. There is no other way.
So he taught that when we feel ourselves to be low in spirits, or when we lack the self-belief and the courage we've just been talking about, almost any problem can seem huge and overwhelming. Whereas when we've built up our courage and our confidence by challenging and overcoming problems, even the most difficult situations no no longer seem so daunting or insuperable. The essential issue on which we should focusn our minds therefore, is not how to eliminate problems from our lives, which is a manifest delusion, a sheer impossibility, there is no such life. What we should be seeking he argued, is that inner strength of spirit, that inner confidence that we can overcome them, which is eminently acchievable.
That in essence, is the very faith that Buddhism asks us to have belief in.
Nichiren's legacy
When he died at the age of 60 Nichiren left an extraordinary legacy, in the sense that his personal quest to re-establish the primacy of the message wrapped up in the Lotus Sutra provided the essential basis for the modern spread of Mahayana Buddhism out from Asia into the western world. Although it lay locked up inside Japan, until the widespread liberalisation and opening up of Japanese society that occurred immediately after the Second World War.
But it could be argued that Nichiren went further than any other Buddhist teacher in that from the depths of his own enlightenment, and his profound understanding of human nature gained from all those years living and working among ordinary working people, he created an immensely practical, down-to-earth method,to enable ordinary people to establish an effective Buddhist practice, as part of their ordinary daily lives. No matter how busy they might be. No matter what demands were pressing in upon them from other areas of their lives. That was his great, in many ways, incomparable contribution, creatign a model of Buddhist practice that is wholly accessible to ordinary people today for example, living busy, active, time-slicing lives in a modern society. That is why he is sometimes known as The Buddha for the Modern Age.'
That's enough for today I think. It's always a difficult judgment when to stop, and I'm never sure whether or not I've got it right! It has to be long enough to make a coherent argument I feel, but not so long as to bore the reader. Writing has always presented that problem of course, but blogs I feel, just bring it into sharper focus.
Anyway, hope you managed to get to the end of this episode. Next time we pick up the theme of chapter 4, Buddhism and happiness. See you then.
Best wishes,
William
Tuesday 4 February 2014
my buddhist blog number 15
Hi Everybody,
We finished the last episode with the question, ' So what have we learned about faith in Buddhism.'
That's where we pick up the story today.
' You might say that in some ways it is the most important question of all, because faith is a chameleon of a word, and in trying to pin down what it signifies for Buddhists, we are clearly concerned to establish both what it does mean...and what it doesn't. So that we end up with a much clearer, much stronger understanding of the territory. There's really no point in our constantly being advised to ' have faith,' is there, if we don't fully understand what that means.
So in all the major religions with which we are most familiar, in Christianity for example and Judaism and Islam, we know that the word faith is used to bind together all those elements of the teaching that are beyond the reach of proof, or beyond the reach of human experience. And inevitably in religions that deal with the nature of divinity itself, and the mystery of how it works in the world, and the unknowable after life, those unprovable, unknowable elements are very substantial indeed. So faith of this sort has a truly immense role to play. The believer is asked to make what we have come to call a leap of faith, to accept those elements of the teaching or doctrine.
And the word leap in this context describes very accurately what we are being asked to do, namely to leave the solid ground of our experience, of what we absolutely know to be the case, and put our trust and belief in something that is way outside our normal experience, and what's more, will always be outside our normal human experience. That is not of course suggesting that such a leap of faith is immensely difficult. Clearly it isn't, given the sustained and hugely sustaining power of Christianity and Islam for countless millions of people over the past two thousand years. And of course I should make it absolutely clear tha tin no way should these comments be interpreted as a value judgement. Not in any way. I am simply trying to explore differences in the way in which we use this key word faith. I have been to many Christian and Islamic funerals for example, and there can be not the slightest doubt about the immense consolation and support provided by the deep faith of the people there.
It is clear therefore that in all these major religions, faith has much to do with the firm belief in the powers of God and Allah, and the decisive role that power plays in the daily lives of men. That is to say, this kind of faith, which is deeply embedded in our western culture, has very much to do with entities, powers, that are outside of oneself. That's the key. In fact I would go so far as to suggest that this idea of taking a leap of faith is now so deeply embedded, that it has become the essential meaning of the word itself. Whenever we use the word faith in the West we are normally talking about faith in something out there, something very much outside of ourselves,and I think it helps to be totally aware of that.
Whic brings us back to that earlier question, that since there is no all-powerful creator-god ' out there' in Buddhism, the word must carry a very different meaning. And right from the start we learn that the fundamental difference in Nichiren Buddhism is that faith is not in any way to be equated with belief in something external, something outside of oneself. The word only has meaning in relation to a quality or strength that we are seeking within. As Nichiren Daishonin expreses it on so many occasions,
' ...perceive the true nature of your life...If you seek enlightenment outside yourself, then your performing even ten thousand practices and ten thousand good deeds will be in vain. It is like the case of the poor man who spends night and day counting his neighbour's wealth, but gains not even half a coin.'( WND Vol 1 p 3 )
So what must faith mean then in this context...if we are to understand...the true nature of our lives?
The somewhat surprising answer is that faith in Buddhism is essentially about belief in oneself, self-belief. And it is related directly to the strength of the desire, or the determination, that we can summon up, within our own life, to act or to live in accord with Buddhist values and principles. It means going into battle if you like, against our own inner weaknesses or lack of self-confidence or self-belief, so that we can create for ourselves a life that is overwhelmingly resilient and positive and optimistic and compassionate, and always concerned with creating value out of whatever circumstances we might encounter.
Faith in Buddhist terms then, is not all that different from the sheer determination or the self-belief we work hard to summon up, to pursue any major goal or objective in our life. We do find that we have to dig deep within ourselves to achieve success in a chosen career, or to turn a crisis situation around, or to overcome a life-threatening illness, or create a lasting and fulfilling relationship. The fundamental difference, and of course it is fundamental, is that in this case the self-belief is anchored firmly in the powerful humanistic philosophy introduced into the world by Shakyamuni, and developed and amplified by a series of remarkable thinkers and teachers over the past two and a half thousand years.
So faith in Buddhism is also very much about method, about how we can develop such a life, such an enduring self-belief. And to bring this story bang up to date we need now to look briefly at one of the greatest and most controversial of these teachers, who has already been mentioned on several occasions, and who has had a huge role to play in the evolution and transmission of Buddhist teachings into the modern world. His name...Nichiren Daishonin'
And that's where we go next. To look at Nichiren and the huge heritage that he has handed down to us.
See you on Saturday.
William
We finished the last episode with the question, ' So what have we learned about faith in Buddhism.'
That's where we pick up the story today.
' You might say that in some ways it is the most important question of all, because faith is a chameleon of a word, and in trying to pin down what it signifies for Buddhists, we are clearly concerned to establish both what it does mean...and what it doesn't. So that we end up with a much clearer, much stronger understanding of the territory. There's really no point in our constantly being advised to ' have faith,' is there, if we don't fully understand what that means.
So in all the major religions with which we are most familiar, in Christianity for example and Judaism and Islam, we know that the word faith is used to bind together all those elements of the teaching that are beyond the reach of proof, or beyond the reach of human experience. And inevitably in religions that deal with the nature of divinity itself, and the mystery of how it works in the world, and the unknowable after life, those unprovable, unknowable elements are very substantial indeed. So faith of this sort has a truly immense role to play. The believer is asked to make what we have come to call a leap of faith, to accept those elements of the teaching or doctrine.
And the word leap in this context describes very accurately what we are being asked to do, namely to leave the solid ground of our experience, of what we absolutely know to be the case, and put our trust and belief in something that is way outside our normal experience, and what's more, will always be outside our normal human experience. That is not of course suggesting that such a leap of faith is immensely difficult. Clearly it isn't, given the sustained and hugely sustaining power of Christianity and Islam for countless millions of people over the past two thousand years. And of course I should make it absolutely clear tha tin no way should these comments be interpreted as a value judgement. Not in any way. I am simply trying to explore differences in the way in which we use this key word faith. I have been to many Christian and Islamic funerals for example, and there can be not the slightest doubt about the immense consolation and support provided by the deep faith of the people there.
It is clear therefore that in all these major religions, faith has much to do with the firm belief in the powers of God and Allah, and the decisive role that power plays in the daily lives of men. That is to say, this kind of faith, which is deeply embedded in our western culture, has very much to do with entities, powers, that are outside of oneself. That's the key. In fact I would go so far as to suggest that this idea of taking a leap of faith is now so deeply embedded, that it has become the essential meaning of the word itself. Whenever we use the word faith in the West we are normally talking about faith in something out there, something very much outside of ourselves,and I think it helps to be totally aware of that.
Whic brings us back to that earlier question, that since there is no all-powerful creator-god ' out there' in Buddhism, the word must carry a very different meaning. And right from the start we learn that the fundamental difference in Nichiren Buddhism is that faith is not in any way to be equated with belief in something external, something outside of oneself. The word only has meaning in relation to a quality or strength that we are seeking within. As Nichiren Daishonin expreses it on so many occasions,
' ...perceive the true nature of your life...If you seek enlightenment outside yourself, then your performing even ten thousand practices and ten thousand good deeds will be in vain. It is like the case of the poor man who spends night and day counting his neighbour's wealth, but gains not even half a coin.'( WND Vol 1 p 3 )
So what must faith mean then in this context...if we are to understand...the true nature of our lives?
The somewhat surprising answer is that faith in Buddhism is essentially about belief in oneself, self-belief. And it is related directly to the strength of the desire, or the determination, that we can summon up, within our own life, to act or to live in accord with Buddhist values and principles. It means going into battle if you like, against our own inner weaknesses or lack of self-confidence or self-belief, so that we can create for ourselves a life that is overwhelmingly resilient and positive and optimistic and compassionate, and always concerned with creating value out of whatever circumstances we might encounter.
Faith in Buddhist terms then, is not all that different from the sheer determination or the self-belief we work hard to summon up, to pursue any major goal or objective in our life. We do find that we have to dig deep within ourselves to achieve success in a chosen career, or to turn a crisis situation around, or to overcome a life-threatening illness, or create a lasting and fulfilling relationship. The fundamental difference, and of course it is fundamental, is that in this case the self-belief is anchored firmly in the powerful humanistic philosophy introduced into the world by Shakyamuni, and developed and amplified by a series of remarkable thinkers and teachers over the past two and a half thousand years.
So faith in Buddhism is also very much about method, about how we can develop such a life, such an enduring self-belief. And to bring this story bang up to date we need now to look briefly at one of the greatest and most controversial of these teachers, who has already been mentioned on several occasions, and who has had a huge role to play in the evolution and transmission of Buddhist teachings into the modern world. His name...Nichiren Daishonin'
And that's where we go next. To look at Nichiren and the huge heritage that he has handed down to us.
See you on Saturday.
William
Saturday 1 February 2014
my buddhist blog number 14
Hi Everybody,
Another brilliantly blue-sky day here this morning. The walk in the park with Sarah and Gatsby was positively spring-like. And I have to say it brought to mind a passage in the book that deals with the sociological research on the effects of gratitude on our lives. Let me just quote a brief paragraph from it. It goes as follows;
' Just going out of our way for example, to express our gratitude to someone has been shown to have a positive effect on our sense of well-being for days after the event itself. But it's important the researchers point out, to recognise that gratitude goes well beyond simply expressing our thanks to someone for help or support. They talk about it as a much broader, whole life attitude to the way we take each day, about having for example a keen and lively sense of appreciation for all the ordinary things of life ( a walk in the park on a blue-sky day!), not taking things for granted, recognising all that we have, as opposed to focusing onn what we don't happen to have. Gratitude if you like as an essential element in the way we experience everything that happens to us. And it's in this sense I would argue that it chimes most closely with the Buddhist description of gratitude, as being absolutely fundamental to a positive life state. A sense of gratitude if you like, literally drives out negative thoughts. You can't be grateful and negative at the same time.'
It just seemed appropriate to mention it today. But today's episode is really concerned with wrapping up the thoughts we started last time on the role and meaning of the Lotus Sutra in Nichiren Buddhism.
' The lotus of the title is seen to be a powerful and many-layered metaphor for many things, but undoubtedly one of the most important, the very heart of the message that it seeks to transmit, is that the lotus is a plant that grows in a muddy swampy environment, and yet produces flowers of extraordinary beauty. It is thus symbolic of the immense potential that can be revealed, created, brought out of, the ordinary, muddled, mundane circumstances of our daily lives, no matter how difficult and challenging the intitial circumstances of that life may be.
Thus in the Lotus Sutra, Shakyamuni essentially turned the religious world on its head. At a time when people saw themselves as being limited and hemmed in by powerful controlling concepts such as destiny and the will of the gods, Shakyamuni taught them that was not the case, that was not an accurate representation of the reality of human life. Everyone, he argued, could come to understand that man carried his own destiny in his own hands. That our lives are our own, to shape and to make. That we have the resources within us, and the freedom, to make our own choices, to take control of our lives and move them in the direction we wish to go. Provided only that we accept full responsibility for the choices that we personally make, and their implications for others around us. That concern for others is the very basis of Buddhist morality, which we look at in greater detail later on.
It was unquestionably a revolutionary teaching then, which is why it spread like a bushfire across south East Asia. But what is also unquestioned, I would suggest, if you give it am oments thought, is that it remains pretty revolutionary today. This accumulated wisdom about learning how to create for oneself a better and a happier life, no matter what our circumstances, no matter what problems or challenges we all encounter every day of our lives, continues to be about the present, and not about the past. It continues to demonstrate its direct immediacy and relevance, despite the vast changes mankind has lived through in every area of lives; immense, immeasurable changes.
But those of course are external changes, whereas our inner humanity remains unchanged. We still find ourselves for example, limited by all kinds of disabling doubts and fears. Fears of so many things, fear of inadequac, fear of rejection, fear of loss, of failure, and much else. We still find ourselves knocked down and disabled by problems and difficulties that sometimes seem so overwhelming that we don't know where to turn. We still find it difficult to acknowledge, let alone to draw on, our inner resources of courage and hope and optimism, to make the very most of our lives. Indeed some of Buddhism's central teachings about how to recognise and draw upon our inner resources, and so overcome many of the negative impulses and responses that we experience, have been taken up and are used on a regular basis by some of today's leading psychologists, in helping people with severe and persistent depression or unhappiness. ( that's a reference to a book called The Mindful Way through Depression by psychologists Mark Williams, John Teasdale, Zindel Segal, and Jon Kabat-Zinn )
So my key point is that Buddhism continues to touch and change people's inner lives, inn the West now as well as in the East, in increasing numbers, If we ask the question why that is, there are of course many threads to the answer. But undoubtedly one of them will be that there is something immensely powerful, immensely empowering, about this central idea that comes directly from Shakyamuni and Nichiren Daishonin, of taking hold of our lives in a rational and positive way, and moving them in the direction we wish to travel. We all want to know how to do that, and that really bring sus back to this question of faith, which is where we started out in this chapter. So what have we learned on the way about faith in Buddhism.'
That's it for today. Not exactly a cliff-hanger, but a crucial question that we take up and answer, hopefully completely, next time around. My gratitude beyond measure for your reading this far.
Best wishes.,
William Woollard.
The Case for Buddhism is available on Amazon
Another brilliantly blue-sky day here this morning. The walk in the park with Sarah and Gatsby was positively spring-like. And I have to say it brought to mind a passage in the book that deals with the sociological research on the effects of gratitude on our lives. Let me just quote a brief paragraph from it. It goes as follows;
' Just going out of our way for example, to express our gratitude to someone has been shown to have a positive effect on our sense of well-being for days after the event itself. But it's important the researchers point out, to recognise that gratitude goes well beyond simply expressing our thanks to someone for help or support. They talk about it as a much broader, whole life attitude to the way we take each day, about having for example a keen and lively sense of appreciation for all the ordinary things of life ( a walk in the park on a blue-sky day!), not taking things for granted, recognising all that we have, as opposed to focusing onn what we don't happen to have. Gratitude if you like as an essential element in the way we experience everything that happens to us. And it's in this sense I would argue that it chimes most closely with the Buddhist description of gratitude, as being absolutely fundamental to a positive life state. A sense of gratitude if you like, literally drives out negative thoughts. You can't be grateful and negative at the same time.'
It just seemed appropriate to mention it today. But today's episode is really concerned with wrapping up the thoughts we started last time on the role and meaning of the Lotus Sutra in Nichiren Buddhism.
' The lotus of the title is seen to be a powerful and many-layered metaphor for many things, but undoubtedly one of the most important, the very heart of the message that it seeks to transmit, is that the lotus is a plant that grows in a muddy swampy environment, and yet produces flowers of extraordinary beauty. It is thus symbolic of the immense potential that can be revealed, created, brought out of, the ordinary, muddled, mundane circumstances of our daily lives, no matter how difficult and challenging the intitial circumstances of that life may be.
Thus in the Lotus Sutra, Shakyamuni essentially turned the religious world on its head. At a time when people saw themselves as being limited and hemmed in by powerful controlling concepts such as destiny and the will of the gods, Shakyamuni taught them that was not the case, that was not an accurate representation of the reality of human life. Everyone, he argued, could come to understand that man carried his own destiny in his own hands. That our lives are our own, to shape and to make. That we have the resources within us, and the freedom, to make our own choices, to take control of our lives and move them in the direction we wish to go. Provided only that we accept full responsibility for the choices that we personally make, and their implications for others around us. That concern for others is the very basis of Buddhist morality, which we look at in greater detail later on.
It was unquestionably a revolutionary teaching then, which is why it spread like a bushfire across south East Asia. But what is also unquestioned, I would suggest, if you give it am oments thought, is that it remains pretty revolutionary today. This accumulated wisdom about learning how to create for oneself a better and a happier life, no matter what our circumstances, no matter what problems or challenges we all encounter every day of our lives, continues to be about the present, and not about the past. It continues to demonstrate its direct immediacy and relevance, despite the vast changes mankind has lived through in every area of lives; immense, immeasurable changes.
But those of course are external changes, whereas our inner humanity remains unchanged. We still find ourselves for example, limited by all kinds of disabling doubts and fears. Fears of so many things, fear of inadequac, fear of rejection, fear of loss, of failure, and much else. We still find ourselves knocked down and disabled by problems and difficulties that sometimes seem so overwhelming that we don't know where to turn. We still find it difficult to acknowledge, let alone to draw on, our inner resources of courage and hope and optimism, to make the very most of our lives. Indeed some of Buddhism's central teachings about how to recognise and draw upon our inner resources, and so overcome many of the negative impulses and responses that we experience, have been taken up and are used on a regular basis by some of today's leading psychologists, in helping people with severe and persistent depression or unhappiness. ( that's a reference to a book called The Mindful Way through Depression by psychologists Mark Williams, John Teasdale, Zindel Segal, and Jon Kabat-Zinn )
So my key point is that Buddhism continues to touch and change people's inner lives, inn the West now as well as in the East, in increasing numbers, If we ask the question why that is, there are of course many threads to the answer. But undoubtedly one of them will be that there is something immensely powerful, immensely empowering, about this central idea that comes directly from Shakyamuni and Nichiren Daishonin, of taking hold of our lives in a rational and positive way, and moving them in the direction we wish to travel. We all want to know how to do that, and that really bring sus back to this question of faith, which is where we started out in this chapter. So what have we learned on the way about faith in Buddhism.'
That's it for today. Not exactly a cliff-hanger, but a crucial question that we take up and answer, hopefully completely, next time around. My gratitude beyond measure for your reading this far.
Best wishes.,
William Woollard.
The Case for Buddhism is available on Amazon
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