Hi Everybody,
This is the last episode on this chapter devoted to the principle of the ten worlds, or ten life states, and it brings us right to the nub of the agument, the key implication of this principle in our daily lives. So it goes...
' Indeed the key implication is unmistakeable. It is that Buddhahood can only exist in the presence of the other nine life states, it can only find expression that is, in the lives and behaviour of ordinary people. Us. What that means is that all the lower worlds we've talked about, of Hell, Hunger, Anger and animality are also permanently part of our lives. We can't eliminate them or drive them out in some way. They are part of everyone's life. What we need to do on this journey of building a better life for ourselves and those around us is to the reality of their presence in our life, and set about transforming them through the increased self-awareness and the determination that the practice build up, to limit their negative impact upon our lives. And this is undoubtedly one of the most important aspects of Nichiren Buddhism, that it enables us to take any part of our life about which we feel unhappy or even guilty or ashamed and set about transmuting it, through the practice, into a source of value. Nothing has to be given up. Nothing that can exist in the context of our lives is too difficult to challenge.
The overwhelming message therefore is one of hope and optimism. This is part and parcel of what we mean when we talk about taking responsibility for our life. One interpretation of that word is precisely respond-ability. That is to say, we can learn how to respond to people and situations and events in a more value-creating way. That is why so many people describe the effect of their practice as enabling. They come to feel that it helps them to take more control of their lives, instead of feeling at a loss, or even overwhelmed.
In a sense it is a restatement of the analogy of the weightlifter. It is a fact of life that we can't develop stronger muscles by lifting lighter and lighter weights. From a Buddhist standpoint it is equally clear that we cannot grow our iner strength and resilience, those vital qualities, except by overcoming the biggest obstacles and challenges that life throws at us. The bigger the problem we overcome, the greater the resilience we develop. As Daisaku Ikeda has expressed it so clearly,
' True happiness is not the absence of suffering. you can't have day after day of clear skies....Happiness does not mean having a life free from all difficulties, but that whatever difficulties arise, without being shaken in the least, you can summon up the unflinching courage and conviction to fight and overcome them. '
Speaking personally, I find that I am often ' shaken ' by some challenges that arise, so I think we might make that phrase, ' without being shaken in the least,' an optional extra. The key thing is that we try to summon up the courage and the conviction to overcome them.
Ok that's all for today.
Thank you for reading this far.
Hope to see you next time.
Best wishes,
William
The Case for Buddhism is available on Amazon and as a download on Kindle.
Tuesday, 20 October 2015
Tuesday, 13 October 2015
my buddhist blog number 107
Hi Everybody,
We're coming to the end of the chapter on the ten worlds or the ten life states, and we've come in a sense to the genuine $64000 question, how does the Buddhist description of these life states match up against the reality of our lives. It doesn't take much self analysis I suggest, to recall or to recognise in our daily experience the life states they describe.We've all experienced at some time or another the pain and greyness of hell state. We've all experienced the frustrations of not getting what we want in hunger state, or the sense of deep personal fulfilment that comes when we've really been able to help someone else achieve something they seek, or through a personal difficulty. So I would argue, they certainly match up to our common experience, and there are some general points that are worth bearing in mind.
Thus we move from one life state to another with great rapidity and with complete freedom depending on what's going on in our heads and in our environment from moment to moment. Nichiren Buddhism chooses to describe that fluency of movement by saying that each life state contains the potential of all the others. We can immediately see the validity of that idea if we think of incidents in our daily lives, and the very purpose of the the concept of the ten worlds is to raise our general level of self awareness. Indeed it has been argues that if we weren't offered some such concept then we would have to invent one to explain the immensely changeable...and even contradictory...feelings we demonstrate or experience every single day of our lives. Of course we're not accustomed to calling these variable and fluctuating states of mind, life states or worlds, as Buddhism describes them. Indeed we take them so much for granted that we may not dignify them with any name at all. But do we experience them? Yes indeed. And we recognise them rapidly enough when we have them pointed out to us.
The nub of the argument.
If we are prepared to accept that argument, and we do need to give it some careful thought, then what follows from it is very important indeed in terms of our understanding of Nichiren Buddhism. Since it brings us to the central promise made by Nichiren, namely that it is possible for us to experience the life state of Buddhahood, in this lifetime, whatever situation our life happens to be in at any given moment. we have within us that is, the potential to move from the near despair of Hell say, to the compassion of Bodhisattva, or the hope and optimism and profound sense of capability and well-being of Buddhahood.
This is the basis for the fundamental argument that has already been touched upon more than once, namely the normality of Buddhahood. It's not in any way a superhuman life state, but a supremely human one. Shakyamuni and Nichiren were ordinary men who nevertheless attained this life state during their everyday lives on Earth. Thus the great promise at the heart of Mahayana and Nichiren Buddhism is that this Buddha Nature is not some remote and inaccessible goal, it is the immediate earthly purpose of our daily practice. However hard it is for us to accept that premise, and of course, it is hard.
Enough for one day.
Back next time to wrap up this key chapter.
Thank you for reading this far. I'm very grateful.
Hope to see you next time.
Best wishes,
William
PS The Case for Buddhism is available on Amazon and as a download on Kindle.
We're coming to the end of the chapter on the ten worlds or the ten life states, and we've come in a sense to the genuine $64000 question, how does the Buddhist description of these life states match up against the reality of our lives. It doesn't take much self analysis I suggest, to recall or to recognise in our daily experience the life states they describe.We've all experienced at some time or another the pain and greyness of hell state. We've all experienced the frustrations of not getting what we want in hunger state, or the sense of deep personal fulfilment that comes when we've really been able to help someone else achieve something they seek, or through a personal difficulty. So I would argue, they certainly match up to our common experience, and there are some general points that are worth bearing in mind.
Thus we move from one life state to another with great rapidity and with complete freedom depending on what's going on in our heads and in our environment from moment to moment. Nichiren Buddhism chooses to describe that fluency of movement by saying that each life state contains the potential of all the others. We can immediately see the validity of that idea if we think of incidents in our daily lives, and the very purpose of the the concept of the ten worlds is to raise our general level of self awareness. Indeed it has been argues that if we weren't offered some such concept then we would have to invent one to explain the immensely changeable...and even contradictory...feelings we demonstrate or experience every single day of our lives. Of course we're not accustomed to calling these variable and fluctuating states of mind, life states or worlds, as Buddhism describes them. Indeed we take them so much for granted that we may not dignify them with any name at all. But do we experience them? Yes indeed. And we recognise them rapidly enough when we have them pointed out to us.
The nub of the argument.
If we are prepared to accept that argument, and we do need to give it some careful thought, then what follows from it is very important indeed in terms of our understanding of Nichiren Buddhism. Since it brings us to the central promise made by Nichiren, namely that it is possible for us to experience the life state of Buddhahood, in this lifetime, whatever situation our life happens to be in at any given moment. we have within us that is, the potential to move from the near despair of Hell say, to the compassion of Bodhisattva, or the hope and optimism and profound sense of capability and well-being of Buddhahood.
This is the basis for the fundamental argument that has already been touched upon more than once, namely the normality of Buddhahood. It's not in any way a superhuman life state, but a supremely human one. Shakyamuni and Nichiren were ordinary men who nevertheless attained this life state during their everyday lives on Earth. Thus the great promise at the heart of Mahayana and Nichiren Buddhism is that this Buddha Nature is not some remote and inaccessible goal, it is the immediate earthly purpose of our daily practice. However hard it is for us to accept that premise, and of course, it is hard.
Enough for one day.
Back next time to wrap up this key chapter.
Thank you for reading this far. I'm very grateful.
Hope to see you next time.
Best wishes,
William
PS The Case for Buddhism is available on Amazon and as a download on Kindle.
Sunday, 4 October 2015
MY BUDDHIST BLOG NUMBER 106
Hi Everybody,
Hope all is well with you. We're having the most wonderful autumnal days here in Kew, blue skies, warm sunshine even though the sun is so much lower in the sky, leaves just beginning to darken and fall. Running in the park with my dog Gatsby in the mornings is just a joy. He seems to like it too!! Right moving on, were drawing to the end of this key chapter on the ten worlds or the ten states of life. Last time we talked about the powerfully value-creating life state that Buddhism calls bodhisattva. Today we move on to the life state of buddhahood. Don't worry about the names. Focus on what lies behind them. Just to round off the section on bodhisattva, which is essentially about caring for others, Buddhism in its wisdom warns us against the danger of being self-sacrificial, in the sense of neglecting one's own well-being. The care of others it teaches, is best delivered by someone who remains strongly aware of their own basic needs, and who takes care of their own welfare. In order to give to others most effectively it argues, we have to develop and make sure we maintain our own strong and resilient life state.
That brings us to waht Buddhism describes as the highest life state of which human beings are capable. It is, as we've already discussed, a name or a title that is overlaid in the West by a huge amoun tf misconception and misunderstanding, so that it is very difficult for us to believe that it is a life state that can be attained by ordinary people, like us, going about their ordinary daily lives, which might be called perhaps the What me? syndrome. But we shouldn't allow that little local difficulty tp put us off. The word Buddha by the way comes from a Sanskrit root that means among other things to awaken, or to see deeply, and is used in Buddhsim to describe soemone who is awakened to the ultimate truth of life.
It was Nichiren, through his prolonged study of Buddhist writings and commentaries back through the centuries who brought Buddhism back down to earth so to speak. He made it clear that Shakyamuni was at all times an ordinary man, albeit a man of extraordinary wisdom and insight. Indeed the real significance of his life, Nichiren wrote, lay in his ' behaviour as a human being.' Not notice, as a divine or semi-divine figure, but as an ordinary human being.
Nichiren repeatedly makes clear in his writings that Shakyamuni's awakening to the truth of life was not in any way a superhuman state, in some way elevated above ordinary human life. Nor was it a transcendental state, some place of heavenly peace and tranquillity, cut off from the down-to-earth reality of daily life. This is the key understanding that Nichiren went to great lengths to bring to us, throughout his teaching life. Thus Buddhahood, or the Buddha nature as it is described in Mahayana Buddhism ( which embraces Nichiren Buddhism ) is not presented as an elevation of some kind, a higher plane or level of life onto which we might step, as if we were leaving behind our ordinary lives. It is rather a deeper and richer understanding of the mainstream of our life, as it already is. So that everything we are involved in, the ordinary things, the boring and mundane things, even the suffering and the struggling things, we can learn to experience as part of, our on-going well-being.
And of course, it's not a destination, somewhere we arrive, as if it were a sort of railway station. It is rather a path that we take up and continue to travel along, trying to understand and experience this deeper sense of the wholeness and richness of our lives. Indeed as one Buddhist text puts it, attributed to Shakyamuni himself,
' There is no path to happiness. Happiness is the path.'
Well that's plenty enough for one day I think.
Hope you find it interesting. Its quite difficult creating a synopsis on a subject such as Buddhahood which has been the subject of countless volumes.
Hope to see you next time.
Hope all is well with you. We're having the most wonderful autumnal days here in Kew, blue skies, warm sunshine even though the sun is so much lower in the sky, leaves just beginning to darken and fall. Running in the park with my dog Gatsby in the mornings is just a joy. He seems to like it too!! Right moving on, were drawing to the end of this key chapter on the ten worlds or the ten states of life. Last time we talked about the powerfully value-creating life state that Buddhism calls bodhisattva. Today we move on to the life state of buddhahood. Don't worry about the names. Focus on what lies behind them. Just to round off the section on bodhisattva, which is essentially about caring for others, Buddhism in its wisdom warns us against the danger of being self-sacrificial, in the sense of neglecting one's own well-being. The care of others it teaches, is best delivered by someone who remains strongly aware of their own basic needs, and who takes care of their own welfare. In order to give to others most effectively it argues, we have to develop and make sure we maintain our own strong and resilient life state.
That brings us to waht Buddhism describes as the highest life state of which human beings are capable. It is, as we've already discussed, a name or a title that is overlaid in the West by a huge amoun tf misconception and misunderstanding, so that it is very difficult for us to believe that it is a life state that can be attained by ordinary people, like us, going about their ordinary daily lives, which might be called perhaps the What me? syndrome. But we shouldn't allow that little local difficulty tp put us off. The word Buddha by the way comes from a Sanskrit root that means among other things to awaken, or to see deeply, and is used in Buddhsim to describe soemone who is awakened to the ultimate truth of life.
It was Nichiren, through his prolonged study of Buddhist writings and commentaries back through the centuries who brought Buddhism back down to earth so to speak. He made it clear that Shakyamuni was at all times an ordinary man, albeit a man of extraordinary wisdom and insight. Indeed the real significance of his life, Nichiren wrote, lay in his ' behaviour as a human being.' Not notice, as a divine or semi-divine figure, but as an ordinary human being.
Nichiren repeatedly makes clear in his writings that Shakyamuni's awakening to the truth of life was not in any way a superhuman state, in some way elevated above ordinary human life. Nor was it a transcendental state, some place of heavenly peace and tranquillity, cut off from the down-to-earth reality of daily life. This is the key understanding that Nichiren went to great lengths to bring to us, throughout his teaching life. Thus Buddhahood, or the Buddha nature as it is described in Mahayana Buddhism ( which embraces Nichiren Buddhism ) is not presented as an elevation of some kind, a higher plane or level of life onto which we might step, as if we were leaving behind our ordinary lives. It is rather a deeper and richer understanding of the mainstream of our life, as it already is. So that everything we are involved in, the ordinary things, the boring and mundane things, even the suffering and the struggling things, we can learn to experience as part of, our on-going well-being.
And of course, it's not a destination, somewhere we arrive, as if it were a sort of railway station. It is rather a path that we take up and continue to travel along, trying to understand and experience this deeper sense of the wholeness and richness of our lives. Indeed as one Buddhist text puts it, attributed to Shakyamuni himself,
' There is no path to happiness. Happiness is the path.'
Well that's plenty enough for one day I think.
Hope you find it interesting. Its quite difficult creating a synopsis on a subject such as Buddhahood which has been the subject of countless volumes.
Hope to see you next time.
Tuesday, 29 September 2015
MY BUDDHIST BLOG NUMBER 105
Hi Everybody,
Eight down, two to go! We're in the middle of an importany chapter, describing and analysing the Nichiren Buddhist concept of the ten worlds, or the ten states of life. What are they and how ' real' are they? Those are the questions we need answered aren't they? Up till now, if you happen to have been reading the last eight episodes, these life states have been given ordinary names like hunger and anger and learning and realisation. But the next two are defined by names that we would never use in any other context apart from a discussion of Buddhism. Bodhisattva and Buddhahood are not just relatively unfamilar, they are essentially technical terms comin gfrom Buddhist literature. The important thing I would suggest, is not to be put off by the unfamiliarity, but to get behind the names themselves and see how they relate to the real substance of our lives. The names might be unfamiliar, the life states are universal. So here we go with Bodhisattva.
The hallmark of the life state of Bodhisattva is caring for others, being concerned about their welfare or their safety or their general well-being. Spending time with an older person living on their own perhaps, supporting an anxious neighbour in a crisis, giving time to a charity, offering a colleague a sympathetic ear instead of rushing off to catch the train home. Giving oneself in all sorts of ways, big and small to support other people when they need it. It's not about being a do-gooder. Not at all. It's just about being immensely practical and alert to the fact that absolutely everybody has need for support at some time in their lives, and being ready to be there for them.
It is also mutually beneficial, although that is not the primary motivation. It is you may remember one of the primary qualities modern psychological research has marked out as being fundamental to our own sense of well-being, altruism, being prepared to put ourselves out to help others. Certainly Buddhism argues that one of the most immediate pathways out of those tough life states of hell and hunger and animality, is indeed to find some way, however small, to contribute to the lives of others. At its heart is the desire not simply to help others but to alleviate the cause of their pain or suffering, and replace it with a more stable sens eof well-being.
The prime example of this degree of compassion for others is perhpas the mother, or the parent, whose concern for the child is totally unconditional. Nothing is too much to give. other examples would be the nurse and the doctor and the social worker. Or the aid workers who are prepared to place themselves in difficult and often dangerous circumstances, in developing countries for example, constantly putting themselves at risk, and challenging their environment to ease the plight and improve the quality of life of people with whom they may have no connection except their shared humanity. It's noteworthy that those people in whom the bodhisattva life state is dominant, often receive very little public reward or recognition for their work. Clearly recognition and reward is not their motivation. They are driven by a powerful compassion to ease the suffering and raise the life state of others. That is the source of their greatest joy and fulfilment. In a sense in giving more of themselves, they become most themselves. That, in the end, might be the best description of the bodhisattva way.
That's it for today. Hope it helps to clarify things.
See you next time when we move onto Budhahood.
See you then,
William
PS Had a wonderful note the other day from a lady who lives in Montana, miles and miles she says from her nearest fellow practitioner, who thanked me profusely for writing The case for Buddhism ( no writer can have greater pleasure than being thanked for writing his book!!) because she says, it is a wonderful tool for giving others an awareness of the fundamentals of Buddhism. That is precisely why it was written. I was filled with gratitude that she took the trouble to write. And let me say thank you to her here again. Thank you so much.
Eight down, two to go! We're in the middle of an importany chapter, describing and analysing the Nichiren Buddhist concept of the ten worlds, or the ten states of life. What are they and how ' real' are they? Those are the questions we need answered aren't they? Up till now, if you happen to have been reading the last eight episodes, these life states have been given ordinary names like hunger and anger and learning and realisation. But the next two are defined by names that we would never use in any other context apart from a discussion of Buddhism. Bodhisattva and Buddhahood are not just relatively unfamilar, they are essentially technical terms comin gfrom Buddhist literature. The important thing I would suggest, is not to be put off by the unfamiliarity, but to get behind the names themselves and see how they relate to the real substance of our lives. The names might be unfamiliar, the life states are universal. So here we go with Bodhisattva.
The hallmark of the life state of Bodhisattva is caring for others, being concerned about their welfare or their safety or their general well-being. Spending time with an older person living on their own perhaps, supporting an anxious neighbour in a crisis, giving time to a charity, offering a colleague a sympathetic ear instead of rushing off to catch the train home. Giving oneself in all sorts of ways, big and small to support other people when they need it. It's not about being a do-gooder. Not at all. It's just about being immensely practical and alert to the fact that absolutely everybody has need for support at some time in their lives, and being ready to be there for them.
It is also mutually beneficial, although that is not the primary motivation. It is you may remember one of the primary qualities modern psychological research has marked out as being fundamental to our own sense of well-being, altruism, being prepared to put ourselves out to help others. Certainly Buddhism argues that one of the most immediate pathways out of those tough life states of hell and hunger and animality, is indeed to find some way, however small, to contribute to the lives of others. At its heart is the desire not simply to help others but to alleviate the cause of their pain or suffering, and replace it with a more stable sens eof well-being.
The prime example of this degree of compassion for others is perhpas the mother, or the parent, whose concern for the child is totally unconditional. Nothing is too much to give. other examples would be the nurse and the doctor and the social worker. Or the aid workers who are prepared to place themselves in difficult and often dangerous circumstances, in developing countries for example, constantly putting themselves at risk, and challenging their environment to ease the plight and improve the quality of life of people with whom they may have no connection except their shared humanity. It's noteworthy that those people in whom the bodhisattva life state is dominant, often receive very little public reward or recognition for their work. Clearly recognition and reward is not their motivation. They are driven by a powerful compassion to ease the suffering and raise the life state of others. That is the source of their greatest joy and fulfilment. In a sense in giving more of themselves, they become most themselves. That, in the end, might be the best description of the bodhisattva way.
That's it for today. Hope it helps to clarify things.
See you next time when we move onto Budhahood.
See you then,
William
PS Had a wonderful note the other day from a lady who lives in Montana, miles and miles she says from her nearest fellow practitioner, who thanked me profusely for writing The case for Buddhism ( no writer can have greater pleasure than being thanked for writing his book!!) because she says, it is a wonderful tool for giving others an awareness of the fundamentals of Buddhism. That is precisely why it was written. I was filled with gratitude that she took the trouble to write. And let me say thank you to her here again. Thank you so much.
Monday, 21 September 2015
MY BUDDHIST BLOG NUMBER 104
Hi Everybody,
We're in the middle of the chapter that sets out to explain the Buddhist concept of the ten worlds, or the ten states of life. It's one of the fundamental teachings of Nichiren Buddhism and its aim of course is to take us towards a greater self awareness, a deeper understanding of our behaviour so that we can respond more sensitively and more creatively to situations in our life, rather than simply reacting to them. That's its whole purpose, to enable us to create greater value out of every circumstance we find ourselves in, good, bad and indifferent. So we've looked at six of these life states, which Buddhism argues, describes the reality of life for most of us. This is where we spend most of our time, and the key insight is that we experience them very much in response to what is going on in our external environment; now up now down, now left now right depending to a large extent on what is happening to us. The clear implication is that our life state, and in a sense therefore our identity, from moment to moment, how we think and feel and behave and look even, is to a considerable extent dependent on what comes at us from without.
The remaining four lives could be described as representing the great potential in human lives, not simply responding to events and changes in our environment in a somewaht reactionary or oportunistic way, but seeking to take greater control of our lives to make the very most of them, making and shaping our lives you might say. So they are all marked, these four lives, by the effort that is required to achieve them. Which takes us to Learning and Realisation.
These two life states are often taken together because they are so closely related. They represent in a sense the two sides of the same coin. Both are concerned with the strong desire for self-improvement, although via slightly different routes. So learning essentially describes the process of study, putting ourselves ina position where we can take on board the knowledge and understanding accumulated in particular fields. In the modern world of course we are likely to spend a considerable portion of our early lives in this arena. Acquiring new knowledge and skills, constantly deepening and widening our understanding of how the world worksm, has become more or less a life-time activity for many of us.
Realisation is slightly different in that it involves the inner process of reflection and consideration that enables us to relate this knowledge and understanding to our own lives and our own circumstances and so make the most creative and productive use of it, to enhance our own lives and the lives of those around us.
Buddhism does alert us to the potentially negative aspects of learning and realisation that can be manifested in a sense of superiority for example, over those who don't aspire to these life states. And we've all encountered unhappy examples of that; doctors for patients for example, professors for students, scientists for the relative ignorance of the general public. But in general these two life states, Learning and Realisation are seen very practically in Buddhism, as indeed they are presented by modern educationalists, as the veritable springboard to realising our individual potential, hence the use of the word, realisation.
That's it for today. Two more life states to go, Bodhisattva and Buddhahood. Deal with them later in the week.
See you then.
Best wishes,
William
PS The Case for Buddhism is available on Amazon or as a download on Kindle.
We're in the middle of the chapter that sets out to explain the Buddhist concept of the ten worlds, or the ten states of life. It's one of the fundamental teachings of Nichiren Buddhism and its aim of course is to take us towards a greater self awareness, a deeper understanding of our behaviour so that we can respond more sensitively and more creatively to situations in our life, rather than simply reacting to them. That's its whole purpose, to enable us to create greater value out of every circumstance we find ourselves in, good, bad and indifferent. So we've looked at six of these life states, which Buddhism argues, describes the reality of life for most of us. This is where we spend most of our time, and the key insight is that we experience them very much in response to what is going on in our external environment; now up now down, now left now right depending to a large extent on what is happening to us. The clear implication is that our life state, and in a sense therefore our identity, from moment to moment, how we think and feel and behave and look even, is to a considerable extent dependent on what comes at us from without.
The remaining four lives could be described as representing the great potential in human lives, not simply responding to events and changes in our environment in a somewaht reactionary or oportunistic way, but seeking to take greater control of our lives to make the very most of them, making and shaping our lives you might say. So they are all marked, these four lives, by the effort that is required to achieve them. Which takes us to Learning and Realisation.
These two life states are often taken together because they are so closely related. They represent in a sense the two sides of the same coin. Both are concerned with the strong desire for self-improvement, although via slightly different routes. So learning essentially describes the process of study, putting ourselves ina position where we can take on board the knowledge and understanding accumulated in particular fields. In the modern world of course we are likely to spend a considerable portion of our early lives in this arena. Acquiring new knowledge and skills, constantly deepening and widening our understanding of how the world worksm, has become more or less a life-time activity for many of us.
Realisation is slightly different in that it involves the inner process of reflection and consideration that enables us to relate this knowledge and understanding to our own lives and our own circumstances and so make the most creative and productive use of it, to enhance our own lives and the lives of those around us.
Buddhism does alert us to the potentially negative aspects of learning and realisation that can be manifested in a sense of superiority for example, over those who don't aspire to these life states. And we've all encountered unhappy examples of that; doctors for patients for example, professors for students, scientists for the relative ignorance of the general public. But in general these two life states, Learning and Realisation are seen very practically in Buddhism, as indeed they are presented by modern educationalists, as the veritable springboard to realising our individual potential, hence the use of the word, realisation.
That's it for today. Two more life states to go, Bodhisattva and Buddhahood. Deal with them later in the week.
See you then.
Best wishes,
William
PS The Case for Buddhism is available on Amazon or as a download on Kindle.
Thursday, 17 September 2015
MY BUDDHIST BLOG NUMBER 103
Hi Everybody,
Hope all is well with you wherever you are. Beautiful late summer day here in Kew with warm sunshine and long shadows from the lower sun, and a sense of summer edging away. Always a slightly nostalgic time I feel. Anyway since I had such a long gap while I was away soaking up the sun in antibes I thought I would have an enthusiastic week with 3 episodes. And here's number two. We're in the middle of the chapter on the ten worlds. We've looked at the lower four worlds, the unpleasant ones that can wreck people's lives, hell, hunger, animality and anger. We've looked at the life state of tranquility or humanity as its often called and now we're onto rapture.
Rapture represents what is described in Buddhism as relative happiness, that is to say it is very much a transient rather than a deep-seated or long-lived sense of well-being. As its name suggests it is the wonderful up-welling of joy and exhilaration that we all experience when we achieve something that we've really set our heart on. So it brings with it the sense of personal fulfilment and the outburst of energy that comes with passing the difficult set of exams for example, getting that difficult promotion, winning a big prize or just setting off on a long-awaited holiday perhaps. Or falling in love. Indeed the modern ideal of romantic love is perhaps the most accurate metaphor for what we mean by rapture. But however wonderful and exhilarating it may be however much it enriches our life, the reality is that by its very nature rapture is short-lived, a sudden spike of joy in the normal curve of our lives.
Although many people today are inclined to equate this essentially transient state with the highest possible state of life, our maximum happiness as it were, and yearn for some way of making it permanent in their lives, Buddhism, and indeed our own common sense, tell us that the idea of permanent rapture is simply unreal. It only takes the passage of time, or a slight change in circumstances, for that peak of exhilaration and joy to pass, to be replaced by anothe rlife state. it is, by definition, a passing moment. The yearning for it to stay and be there forever, a permanent part of, our lives, is a delusion that can only lead to suffering.
Buddhism tells us that the six life states that we've been outlining briefly describe the reality of life for most of us. These are the worlds we spend a lot of time in, and one of the key insights that Buddhism offers is that we experience them very much as our response to what is going on in our external environment. They are very closely interlinked, and we can slip very easily from one to another as the day passes. And the argument is that as we fluctuate between these states we are pretty much at the mercy of our environment, now up now down, now left now right, depending on what is happening to us. The clear implication is that our life state, and in a sense therefore our identity, from moment to moment, how we think and feel and behave and look even, is, to a considerable extent, dependent on what comes to us from without. Happy when things seem to be going well. Unhappy when they don't. It leaves us pretty much like a rudderless boat, blown this way and that by whatever winds that blow. Bounced up and down by whatever waves that strike us. That is obviously a great simplification of the situation. I'm sure we all see our lives as being very much more complicated than that, but then overall message is clear enough, we can all too easily spend a lot of our lives simply responding to what happens to us, good and bad, rather than making and shaping our lives.
And that's where the next four worlds take us.
That's it for today.
thanks for reading this far.
See you next time,
William
PS The Case for Buddhism is available from Amazon as a paperback or it can be downloaded from Kindle. Lots of people have said very encouraging things about it, for which I'm immensely grateful
Hope all is well with you wherever you are. Beautiful late summer day here in Kew with warm sunshine and long shadows from the lower sun, and a sense of summer edging away. Always a slightly nostalgic time I feel. Anyway since I had such a long gap while I was away soaking up the sun in antibes I thought I would have an enthusiastic week with 3 episodes. And here's number two. We're in the middle of the chapter on the ten worlds. We've looked at the lower four worlds, the unpleasant ones that can wreck people's lives, hell, hunger, animality and anger. We've looked at the life state of tranquility or humanity as its often called and now we're onto rapture.
Rapture represents what is described in Buddhism as relative happiness, that is to say it is very much a transient rather than a deep-seated or long-lived sense of well-being. As its name suggests it is the wonderful up-welling of joy and exhilaration that we all experience when we achieve something that we've really set our heart on. So it brings with it the sense of personal fulfilment and the outburst of energy that comes with passing the difficult set of exams for example, getting that difficult promotion, winning a big prize or just setting off on a long-awaited holiday perhaps. Or falling in love. Indeed the modern ideal of romantic love is perhaps the most accurate metaphor for what we mean by rapture. But however wonderful and exhilarating it may be however much it enriches our life, the reality is that by its very nature rapture is short-lived, a sudden spike of joy in the normal curve of our lives.
Although many people today are inclined to equate this essentially transient state with the highest possible state of life, our maximum happiness as it were, and yearn for some way of making it permanent in their lives, Buddhism, and indeed our own common sense, tell us that the idea of permanent rapture is simply unreal. It only takes the passage of time, or a slight change in circumstances, for that peak of exhilaration and joy to pass, to be replaced by anothe rlife state. it is, by definition, a passing moment. The yearning for it to stay and be there forever, a permanent part of, our lives, is a delusion that can only lead to suffering.
Buddhism tells us that the six life states that we've been outlining briefly describe the reality of life for most of us. These are the worlds we spend a lot of time in, and one of the key insights that Buddhism offers is that we experience them very much as our response to what is going on in our external environment. They are very closely interlinked, and we can slip very easily from one to another as the day passes. And the argument is that as we fluctuate between these states we are pretty much at the mercy of our environment, now up now down, now left now right, depending on what is happening to us. The clear implication is that our life state, and in a sense therefore our identity, from moment to moment, how we think and feel and behave and look even, is, to a considerable extent, dependent on what comes to us from without. Happy when things seem to be going well. Unhappy when they don't. It leaves us pretty much like a rudderless boat, blown this way and that by whatever winds that blow. Bounced up and down by whatever waves that strike us. That is obviously a great simplification of the situation. I'm sure we all see our lives as being very much more complicated than that, but then overall message is clear enough, we can all too easily spend a lot of our lives simply responding to what happens to us, good and bad, rather than making and shaping our lives.
And that's where the next four worlds take us.
That's it for today.
thanks for reading this far.
See you next time,
William
PS The Case for Buddhism is available from Amazon as a paperback or it can be downloaded from Kindle. Lots of people have said very encouraging things about it, for which I'm immensely grateful
Tuesday, 15 September 2015
my buddhist blog number 102
Hi Everybody,
Just back from holiday in Antibes in the South of France, a beautiful little old town between Nice and Cannes, not posh or smart, just very ordinary. Ordinary except that was originally founded by the Greeks, and then taken over by the Romans and the old centre of the town dates back to the 18th century with narrow winding streets only a couple of metres wide, and old fortifications overlooking the sea, and there's a huge blue bay with the Cap D'Antibes at one end and the blue shadows of the Alpes Maritimes marching down to the sea at the other. So very ordinary, but kind of breathtaking. And I've been going there for about 30 odd years and my children learned to fish off the rocks there and grew up spending their long summer holidays at the house I owned there. When we go there now we practice with some local members and this time we went off with them to the European Centre at Trets, further down the coast close to Marseille. It turned out that we had the place to ourselves, so there we were chanting to our hearts content in the grand hall, and in came two ladies visiting from Italy. So we did gongyo together, and it was just a beautiful moment, and as we were talking afterwards it turned out that they had read Il Budista Rilutante ( the Italian version of The Reluctant Buddhist) and when they recognised me as the author they both threw their arms around me enthusiastically and kissed me. So thats how I went to Trets and got kissed by two strange Italian ladies!!
So we pick up today where we left off on episode 101, in the midle of the Chapter on the ten worlds. A concept that is central to Nichiren Buddhism, and we's looking at the mini portraits of the ten states of mind that Buddhism paints for us. Weve looked at Hell, Hunger, animality and Anger, so we're now onto the state that is labelled Humanity. And once again it describes a life state that we all immediately recognise, in the sense that it describes those periods, those moments, long or short, when we are quiet and calm and completely at peace with our lot. We like the life we have. So it is fundamentally a neutral state. Nothing has excited us, or upset us, or aroused a passionate or anxious response. It is sometimes called a state of rest because it is at least in part about recharging our batteries. So it is marked by all sorts of positive qualities such as reasonablenes and sound judgement and consideration for others. When you are in this life state it means that you might be actively seeking to achieve compromise rather than conflict, or you are putting the best positive gloss on circumstances rather than being critical, or you are prepared to be very supportive of other people's proposals. It's a very relaxed and positive place to be.
Is there a negative side to this life state? Well it is sometimes suggested that it might lead to a certain amount of apathy, revealed perhaps in the long-term acceptance of a basically unsatisfactory situation, or an unwillingness to make the effort to change it. The ten worlds of course are all about self awareness, knowing where are, recognising how we are behaving or responding in a particular situation, and once again Buddhism argues that it is the awareness of the nature of this life state that enables us to benefit from its positive qualities of compromise and sound judgment, and to avoid its dangers of accepting an unacceptable status quo.
That's it. Brief and to the point. Next time we move onto the life state that Buddhism calls rapture.
Hope to see you then.
Best wishes,
William
PS The Case for Buddhism is available from Amazon or a download on Kindle.
Just back from holiday in Antibes in the South of France, a beautiful little old town between Nice and Cannes, not posh or smart, just very ordinary. Ordinary except that was originally founded by the Greeks, and then taken over by the Romans and the old centre of the town dates back to the 18th century with narrow winding streets only a couple of metres wide, and old fortifications overlooking the sea, and there's a huge blue bay with the Cap D'Antibes at one end and the blue shadows of the Alpes Maritimes marching down to the sea at the other. So very ordinary, but kind of breathtaking. And I've been going there for about 30 odd years and my children learned to fish off the rocks there and grew up spending their long summer holidays at the house I owned there. When we go there now we practice with some local members and this time we went off with them to the European Centre at Trets, further down the coast close to Marseille. It turned out that we had the place to ourselves, so there we were chanting to our hearts content in the grand hall, and in came two ladies visiting from Italy. So we did gongyo together, and it was just a beautiful moment, and as we were talking afterwards it turned out that they had read Il Budista Rilutante ( the Italian version of The Reluctant Buddhist) and when they recognised me as the author they both threw their arms around me enthusiastically and kissed me. So thats how I went to Trets and got kissed by two strange Italian ladies!!
So we pick up today where we left off on episode 101, in the midle of the Chapter on the ten worlds. A concept that is central to Nichiren Buddhism, and we's looking at the mini portraits of the ten states of mind that Buddhism paints for us. Weve looked at Hell, Hunger, animality and Anger, so we're now onto the state that is labelled Humanity. And once again it describes a life state that we all immediately recognise, in the sense that it describes those periods, those moments, long or short, when we are quiet and calm and completely at peace with our lot. We like the life we have. So it is fundamentally a neutral state. Nothing has excited us, or upset us, or aroused a passionate or anxious response. It is sometimes called a state of rest because it is at least in part about recharging our batteries. So it is marked by all sorts of positive qualities such as reasonablenes and sound judgement and consideration for others. When you are in this life state it means that you might be actively seeking to achieve compromise rather than conflict, or you are putting the best positive gloss on circumstances rather than being critical, or you are prepared to be very supportive of other people's proposals. It's a very relaxed and positive place to be.
Is there a negative side to this life state? Well it is sometimes suggested that it might lead to a certain amount of apathy, revealed perhaps in the long-term acceptance of a basically unsatisfactory situation, or an unwillingness to make the effort to change it. The ten worlds of course are all about self awareness, knowing where are, recognising how we are behaving or responding in a particular situation, and once again Buddhism argues that it is the awareness of the nature of this life state that enables us to benefit from its positive qualities of compromise and sound judgment, and to avoid its dangers of accepting an unacceptable status quo.
That's it. Brief and to the point. Next time we move onto the life state that Buddhism calls rapture.
Hope to see you then.
Best wishes,
William
PS The Case for Buddhism is available from Amazon or a download on Kindle.
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