BUDDHISM PLAIN AND SIMPLE (THE PRACTICE OF BEING AWARE, RIGHT NOW, EVERY DAY)
Author: Steve Hagen, Re-write: Arnold Suwignyo
INTRODUCTION
Twenty-five hundred years ago in India a man named Gautama experienced this liberation. He devoted the remainder of his life to teaching others how to experience the same freedom of mind. After he awakened from crippling ignorance that kept him from knowing what was actually going on, he became known as the Buddha (the awakened one). When the Buddha was asked to sum up his teaching in a single word, he said "awareness"-being awake, alert, in touch with what is actually happening.
THE JOURNEY INTO NOW
The man known to us as Buddha lived in northern India (present day Nepal) in the sixth century B.C.E. Originally named Gautama, he was the only son of wealthy king who ruled a small country. As a boy and adolescent, Gautama lived a pampered and sheltered life in his father's palace. his father made sure that Gautama received the best of everything: the finest clothes, the best education, and plenty of servants to do his bidding. Suddenly, for the first time, he was confronted with the reality that human life inevitably entrails illness, old age, and death. He was unable to deny or put aside this newfound knowledge, which soon beganto trouble him more and more. What was the point of human life, he asked himself, if it was so transient, so uncertain, and so filled with suffering?
While seated under a tree, Gautama experienced enlightenment. At last he thoroughly understood the human problem, its origin, its ramifications, and its solution. From then on he was known as the Buddha, which means "the awakened one". His teaching of liberation from human suffering and despair is universal, and to this day it remains open to anyone who examines it, understands it, and puts it to the test.
Buddha is not someone you pray to, or try to get something from. Nor is a Buddha someone you bow down to. A buddha is simply a person who is awake-nothing more or less. Buddhism is not a belief system. It's not about accepting certain tenets of believing a set of claims or principles. Buddhism is about seeing. It's about knowing rather than believing or hoping or wishing. It's also about not being afraid to examine anything and everything, including our own personal agendas.
Of course we must examine the Buddha's teaching itself. The Buddha himself invited people on all occasions to test him. "Don't believe me because you see me as your teacher," he said. "Don't believe me because others do. And don't believe anything because you've read it in a book, either. Don't put your faith in reports, or tradition, or hearsay, or the authority of religious leaders or texts. Don't rely on mere logic, or inference, or appearances, or speculation." Know for yourselves that certain things are unwholesome and wrong. And when you do, then give them up. And when you know for yourselves that certain things are wholesome and good, then accept them and follow them."
The point of Buddhism is to just see. That's all
Real Buddhism is not really an "ism". I will usually use the term "buddha-dharma" rather than "Buddhism". His teachings can point to Truth, but they cannot be Truth. Buddhas-people who are awake-can only point the way. We cannot hold Truth with words. We can only see it, experience it, for ourselves.
Buddhism is sometimes called a non historical religion.
The Buddha said that the human condition is like that of a person shot with an arrow. It is both painful and urgent. But instead of getting immediate help for our affliction, we ask for details about the bow from which the arrow was shot. We ask who made the arrow. We want to know about the appearance and background of the person who strung the bow. We ask about many things-inconsequential things-while overlooking our immediate problem. We must first learn how to journey into now.
THE HUMAN SITUATION
According to the buddha-dharma, this sad state of affairs, this profound and ongoing dissatisfaction, is the first truth of existence. All the pain we bring to ourselves and others-the hatred, the warring, the groveling, the manipulation-is our own doing. It comes out of our own hearts and minds, out of our own confusion. Furthermore, if we don't see exactly what the problem is, we're going to perpetuate it. We're going to teach our children our confusion, and we'll go on, generation after generation, doing more of the same to ourselves and to each other.
The buddha-dharma does not promise to make out lives problem-free. Rather, it urges us to examine the nature of our problems, what they are and where they come from. The buddha-dharma is grounded in Reality. It is not pie in the sky, or wishful thinking, or a denial of what human life is. The second truth of the buddha-dharma, then, is that this dissatisfaction arises within us. The third truth of the buddha-dharma is that we can realize the origin of our dissatisfaction, and can thus put an end to its most profound and existential forms. The fourth truth, which I will take up shortly, offers us a means to experience just such a realization. This realization is sometimes called nirvana or enlightenment. Be freedom of mind.
To be fully alive, we must be fully present. How do we do it? In order to experience the answer to this question for yourself, you must come to three realizations. First, you must truly realize that life is fleeting. Next, you must understand that you are already complete, worthy, whole. Finally, you must see that you are your own refuge, your own sanctuary, your own salvation.
"You are the final authority, not me.
Not the Buddha. Not the Bible.
Not the government. Not the president.
Not mom or dad.
No community of philosophers, scientists, priests, academicians, politicians, or generals
No school, legislature, parliament, or court
can bear responsibility for your life, or your words, or your actions.
That authority is yours and yours alone.
You can neither get rid of it nor escape from it" -- Steve Hagen (Zen priest)
A WHEEL OUT OF KILTER
Duhkha is often translated as "suffering". But this only gets a part of what the word means, because pleasure is also a form of duhkha. In Sanskrit, duhkha stands in opposition to another word, sukha, which means "satisfaction". Thus, duhkha is translated as "dissatisfaction". But this doesn't quite hit the mark, either. Duhkha actually comes from a Sanskrit word that refers to a wheel of kilter.
Truth comes to us through seeing. To see is to Know. Just seeing is enough. The simplest way to experience the form of duhkha is just to sit quietly and reflect on the fact that you do not know the answers to some very basic questions. How did you get here? What are you? Where did you come from? Where are you going? You may have beliefs and ideas about questions, but you do not know the answers to any of them through your own direct experience. What is human life for? Why does any of this exist at all? Why is there something rather than nothing? And there is an unanswered question "What will happen to me after I die?".
Seeker: "Teach me the way to liberation."
Zen master: "Who binds you?"
Seeker: "No one binds me."
Zenmaster: "Then why seek liberation?"