Hi Everybody,
It's been a really productive week with the new book, which is called by the way A Personal Journey, because its very much about my own personal interests and my journey into a Buddhist practice. But back to today's blog with a little piece on Buddhism's modern relevance.
' These distinctive elements of Buddhism, its essential humanism, its dynamic humanism, as it's sometimes called because its purpose is to change and move our whole life towards the positive end of the spectrum, and its unbounded inclusiveness, are perhaps the key qualities that give Buddhism its universal relevance and its astounding everlasting modernity. It may have begun in the deer park in the little town of Sarnath in Northern India all those years ago when Shakyamuni first sat down to talk to a small group of people about his newly-won ideas, but in no sense is it ancient, in no sense is it stuck in time or backwards looking. It continues to be powerfully about the here and now of our daily lives.
Witness to this is the fact that over the past 40 or 50 years many tens of thousands of people in Europe and the Americas for example, and elsewhere, have chosen to place a Buddhist practice at the very centre of their lives. For the very first time in its history, during what might well be described as the most materialistic and possibly the least spiritual of all the ages of man, Buddhism is flowing strongly westwards out of Japan and Asia, and into the western-way-of-life parts of the world. Indeed never before in its history has Buddhism spread so rapidly or so widely in terms of its geographical area, and never before have so many people in the West turned to Buddhism to find answers to their questions about life, the universe and everything.'
That'll do for today. Off now to spen some time in a care hom,e form people with dementia to see if I can create some value.
With all my best wishes,
William. have a great weekend.
The Case for Buddhism is available as a paperback on Amazon and as a download on Kindle in English and Spanish
Saturday 30 July 2016
Saturday 23 July 2016
mybuddhistblog number 139
Hi Everybody,
I'm just continuing this process of flicking through The Case for Buddhism and picking up themes and issues that I wasn't able to cover on the first pass. At the moment we're talking about Buddhism and humanism.
There are of course many profound implications that arise from Buddhism's basic humanism. By no means least is that since it isn't about a God of gods, we have to be careful about how we use key words like 'faith ' for example and ' prayer.' They occur all the time in the writings of all religions, including Buddhism. But if there isn't a God to have faith in or to pray to, then clearly these words will mean something very different in Buddhism, from the way we commonly understand them on the basis of our Judaeo-Christian heritage. And it goes without saying doesn't it, that it's crucially important that we have some understanding of what that difference is.
Thus one key implication that is absolutely fundamental to anyone approaching Buddhism for the first time, is that the wisdom and the understanding that has been generated by this process of evolution down the centuries on the nature of human life and motivation and relationships is passed on to all men and women on the basis of equality. Complete equality. That is such an important point, but it's one that is extraordinarily difficult to grasp, even for those who have been practising for many years. Because we are so accustomed in the West, we might even say conditioned, to believing that there is this vast unbridgeable gulf that normally exists between the teacher, the bearer of the wisdom, the Jesus of Mohammed figure, and the rest of humanity, us ordinary human beings. That gulf simply does not exist in Buddhism.
Shakyamuni tells us repeatedly , so that there should be absolutely no doubt, that he is simply one of us. Indeed for him to be deified in any way by his followers would run counter to the central thrust of his teaching. It would deny if you like the central idea that the life state he achieved, filled with hope and optimism and courage and resilience, despite the toughness of his life, is available to all of us. We can learn that is how to achieve it in this lifetime. That learning is indeed what the practice is all about. '
Nuff said for today I think.
Hope it's clear.
See you next time around.
William
PS The Case for Buddhism is available on Amazon
I'm just continuing this process of flicking through The Case for Buddhism and picking up themes and issues that I wasn't able to cover on the first pass. At the moment we're talking about Buddhism and humanism.
There are of course many profound implications that arise from Buddhism's basic humanism. By no means least is that since it isn't about a God of gods, we have to be careful about how we use key words like 'faith ' for example and ' prayer.' They occur all the time in the writings of all religions, including Buddhism. But if there isn't a God to have faith in or to pray to, then clearly these words will mean something very different in Buddhism, from the way we commonly understand them on the basis of our Judaeo-Christian heritage. And it goes without saying doesn't it, that it's crucially important that we have some understanding of what that difference is.
Thus one key implication that is absolutely fundamental to anyone approaching Buddhism for the first time, is that the wisdom and the understanding that has been generated by this process of evolution down the centuries on the nature of human life and motivation and relationships is passed on to all men and women on the basis of equality. Complete equality. That is such an important point, but it's one that is extraordinarily difficult to grasp, even for those who have been practising for many years. Because we are so accustomed in the West, we might even say conditioned, to believing that there is this vast unbridgeable gulf that normally exists between the teacher, the bearer of the wisdom, the Jesus of Mohammed figure, and the rest of humanity, us ordinary human beings. That gulf simply does not exist in Buddhism.
Shakyamuni tells us repeatedly , so that there should be absolutely no doubt, that he is simply one of us. Indeed for him to be deified in any way by his followers would run counter to the central thrust of his teaching. It would deny if you like the central idea that the life state he achieved, filled with hope and optimism and courage and resilience, despite the toughness of his life, is available to all of us. We can learn that is how to achieve it in this lifetime. That learning is indeed what the practice is all about. '
Nuff said for today I think.
Hope it's clear.
See you next time around.
William
PS The Case for Buddhism is available on Amazon
Thursday 14 July 2016
my buddhist blog number 138
Hi Everybody,
Had a great great time away in the sun. Just back. Picking up the blog trail with a little piece on Buddhism and belief.
' The essential starting point for anyone seeking to understand a little more about Buddhism is that it doesn't have a god at its centre. It is atheistic or humanistic. That is to say it doesn't have at its heart, or anywhere else for that matter, the all-seeing, all-powerful, creator-god figure that sits at the heart of all the other major world religions, particularly those with which we are most familiar in western societies, Christianity and Judaism, Islam and Hinduism.
That is very easy to say and very easy to comprehend on an intellectual level, but in my experience it is much more difficult to grasp on a sort of daily, practical, down-to-earth level, because the implications are so profound and far-reaching.
Thus ther eis no divine hierarchy in Buddhism. It is this characteristic above all that gives Buddhism its wholly distinctive character. Instead of there being a set of dogma and beliefs handed down to mankind in various ways by a divine presence or divine being, Buddhism is firmly rooted from first to last in ordinary humanity. Moreover, since it is not attached to any definition of divinity, Buddhism doesn't have any boundaries. It doesn't have for example the boundaries that have been the source of so much conflict down the centuries that divide the Islamic defintion of divinity from the Judaic, or the Judaic from the Christian or the Christian from the Hindu. It is wholly inclusive. No one and indeed no thing is excluded. It is wholly inclusive.
So it is a colossal humanist vision that reaches out to embrace every man's relationship with himself, man with his fellow human beings, and man with his universal environment. Buddhism in effect draws three concentric circles round our lies. Ourselves at the centre. Then othe rpeople, society as a whole, a truly global society. Then the outer ring of the universal environment. So Buddhism is immensely forward looking, immensely modern you might say, in that it has always argued that all three are intimately connected in every way, and for us to live a truly full and fulfilling life we need to learn how to be creatively connected to all three. '
That's it for today.
Pleased to be back.
Look forward to seeing you again next episode.
William
PS The Case for Buddhism is available in paperback from Amazon and as a download from Kindle.
Had a great great time away in the sun. Just back. Picking up the blog trail with a little piece on Buddhism and belief.
' The essential starting point for anyone seeking to understand a little more about Buddhism is that it doesn't have a god at its centre. It is atheistic or humanistic. That is to say it doesn't have at its heart, or anywhere else for that matter, the all-seeing, all-powerful, creator-god figure that sits at the heart of all the other major world religions, particularly those with which we are most familiar in western societies, Christianity and Judaism, Islam and Hinduism.
That is very easy to say and very easy to comprehend on an intellectual level, but in my experience it is much more difficult to grasp on a sort of daily, practical, down-to-earth level, because the implications are so profound and far-reaching.
Thus ther eis no divine hierarchy in Buddhism. It is this characteristic above all that gives Buddhism its wholly distinctive character. Instead of there being a set of dogma and beliefs handed down to mankind in various ways by a divine presence or divine being, Buddhism is firmly rooted from first to last in ordinary humanity. Moreover, since it is not attached to any definition of divinity, Buddhism doesn't have any boundaries. It doesn't have for example the boundaries that have been the source of so much conflict down the centuries that divide the Islamic defintion of divinity from the Judaic, or the Judaic from the Christian or the Christian from the Hindu. It is wholly inclusive. No one and indeed no thing is excluded. It is wholly inclusive.
So it is a colossal humanist vision that reaches out to embrace every man's relationship with himself, man with his fellow human beings, and man with his universal environment. Buddhism in effect draws three concentric circles round our lies. Ourselves at the centre. Then othe rpeople, society as a whole, a truly global society. Then the outer ring of the universal environment. So Buddhism is immensely forward looking, immensely modern you might say, in that it has always argued that all three are intimately connected in every way, and for us to live a truly full and fulfilling life we need to learn how to be creatively connected to all three. '
That's it for today.
Pleased to be back.
Look forward to seeing you again next episode.
William
PS The Case for Buddhism is available in paperback from Amazon and as a download from Kindle.
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