my buddhist blog number 115

Hi Everybody,

115!! Thats a big number. I started this blog just about a year ago in the hope that it would create value. I've been totally surprised by the number of people who have got in touch to say how much they've enjoyed it, and in some cases, actually learned from it! That is really pleasing. It takes about a year to write a book and about another year to find some sort of audience, and then hopefully readers continue to find the book and hopefully get some value from it for several years afterwards. I have been immensely fortunate in that all the books seem to continue to find readers who value them for years afterwards, in English and Spanish, and in the case of The Reluctant Buddhist in Italian. I have acquired so many good friends in Italy. When I visited Trets this summer, on a beautiful hot September day, I was utterly surprised to be embraced and kissed even by a couple of Italian ladies who were complete strangers....apparently because they had read TRB or Il Budista Rilutante as it is in Italian. So you see, there are multiple benefits from writing books on obscure subjects!!!

But back to this key chapter on Approaching the Practice, and we're at quite a small sub paragraph labelled..not a morality. Small, but it makes a key point that we need to bear in mind.

We should not forget the point that we have touched upon previously, namely that Buddhism does not depend for its moral force on a prescribed set of behaviours. It relies rather on the power of this inner transformation, on people learning how to accept responsibility for their own lives and their own actions. This clearly has the potential for far reaching effects, not solely on the person at the centre, but on the community he or she inhabits.

The process begins of course with the individual. It all begins with the personal determination...not wish but determination... to live one's life, to the very best of one's ability that is, within the orbit of a buddhist set of values and principles. That's the starting point. But the effect of the changes we make in our thinking and in our behaviour inevitably extends way beyond our own life, in an ever-widening series of ripples, to change the environment within which we live our lives. The individual change that is, begins to affect the social environment that makes up our daily life. And as it does so, and we begin to see the benefits of that change in terms of value-creation and in terms of more productive relationships. So it strengthens the desire to maintain these values and principles. It sets up if you like a virtuous circle in our life; the stronger our practice, the greater the effect on our behaviour, and the greater the effect on our environment, the stronger our practice.

As I said earlier, a small but important point!

Thats all for now. Next tiem we get onto the meaning ogf nam myoho renge kyo.

Best wishes,
William
PS The Case for Buddhism is available on Amazon ( great xmas present!!!) and on Kindle.