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Podcast Episode 60: Buddhism Once Again
Welcome back, this is Daily Buddhism audio show number Sixty. My name is Brian Schell, and I am the your host for the show. You can find the text as well as all links mentioned in this program and all past episodes on the website at www.dailybuddhism.com.
Announcements:
Do we have anything to talk about in this episode? How about my nearly three-month absence from the world of podcasting? I’m sure I mentioned back in April or May that I had gotten a new job teaching, and it seriously takes up most of my time now. That being said, it’s been six months since I started doing that, and I can’t let it take over every minute of my time, no matter how much I enjoy it. I need to get back into doing some of the things I used to do for fun, so here I am. I’m not going to promise to do this every single week, but I am going to put out an episode every chance I get.
As always, the Daily Buddhism Email Newsletter goes out with one topic at a time, and I save them up to do the podcast. Since it’s been ages since I did the last podcast, I have a lot of newsletter material set back to podcast. The questions and articles that you are about to hear are from early July’s newsletters, and the next few podcasts we’ll be playing catch-up. That’s OK, most of this stuff isn’t going to go obsolete in our lifetime.
If you aren’t signed up for the email newsletter, just go to www.dailybuddhism.com and fix that oversight right now. It’s free and easier than ever to sign up.
And now let’s get on with this week’s show!
Koan: The Thief Who Became a Disciple
http://www.dailybuddhism.com/archives/1377
Koan: Zen in a Beggar’s Life
http://www.dailybuddhism.com/archives/1375
Buddhist Tattoos and Books
http://www.dailybuddhism.com/archives/1372
Book Article: http://www.dailybuddhism.com/archives/1186
Learning Non-Materialism
http://www.dailybuddhism.com/archives/1371
Don’t Fear the Karma
http://www.dailybuddhism.com/archives/1367
Koan: The Dead Man’s Answer
http://www.dailybuddhism.com/archives/1365
Free Newsletter: http://www.dailybuddhism.com/sign
Email: Dailybuddhism@gmail.com
Donate: http://www.dailybuddhism.com/donate
welcome back… I wondered where you went!
Welcome back!
Very interesting. Thanks.
Just so you know, I appreciate your efforts and podcast’s. Keeps me in tune to what others experience in one’s growth, and serves me new ideas and areas of thought.
Again Thanks
I’ve just started listening to the podcast, and reading on Daily Buddhism. I enjoyed listening very much, it really helps, thanks!
I’ve only been listening to the podcasts for a short time but I’ve really enjoyed them. Although it’s probably not the best time to practice, listening during my morning commute sets the right tone for the day.
Thank you so much for the energy you put in!
Thank you I am new to this, too. Your podcasts are wonderful and all the comments too! I learn so much from all of it and keep my mind open to everyone’s opinion. It seems to me like Buddhism is a take what you like and leave the rest kind of thing. I love the way it is non-judgemental and varies with each individual it is a lot more comforting to me than Christianity. This old way of thinking is new to me and I enjoy it so much. I started looking into it because I was angry and depressed and didn’t feel like myself any more and now I enjoy each moment as it comes. I no longer explode and jump down everyones throat. I am actually working my way backwards through your podcasts. Hopefully by the time I get to number one you will be back up and running on a daily basis. Thanks for your time and effort. It is greatly appreciated, and thanks to everyone else for all the feedback, it really adds a lot!
What ever happened to this podcast? It was so good!
Brian we miss you
Siddhārtha Gautama Buddha was passing through a village where the people of that village were against him, against his “philosophy”, so they gathered around him to insult him. They used ugly words, vulgar words. Siddhārtha Gautama Buddha listened. Siddhārtha Gautama Buddha’s disciple Ananda, who was with him, got very angry, but he couldn’t say anything because Siddhārtha Gautama Buddha was listening so silently, so patiently, rather as if he was enjoying the whole thing.
Then even the crowd became a little frustrated because Siddhārtha Gautama Buddha was not getting irritated and it seemed he was enjoying. Siddhārtha Gautama Buddha said, ”Now, if you are finished, I should move – because I have to reach the other village soon. They must be waiting just as you were waiting for me. If you have not told me all the things that you thought to tell me, I will be coming back within a few days, then you can finish it.”
Someone from the crowd said,
“But we have been insulting you, we have insulted you. Won’t you react? Won’t you say something?”
Siddhārtha Gautama Buddha said,
“That is difficult. If you want reaction from me, then you are too late. You should have come at least 10 years ago, because then I used to react. But I am now no longer so foolish. I see that you are angry, that’s why you are insulting me. I see your anger, the fire burning in your mind. I feel compassion for you. This is my response – I feel compassion for you. Unnecessarily you are troubled.Even if I am wrong, why should you get so irritated? That is not your business. If I am wrong I am going to hell, you will not go with me. If I am wrong I will suffer for it, you will not suffer for it. But it seems you love me so much and you think about me and consider me so much that you are so angry, irritated. You have left your work in the fields and you have come just to say a few things to me. I am thankful.”
Just when Siddhārtha Gautama Buddha was leaving he said,
“One thing more I would like to say to you. In the other village I left behind, a great crowd just like you had come there and they had brought many sweets just as a present for me, a gift from the village. But I told them that I don’t take sweets. They took the sweets back. I ask you, what will they do with those sweets?”
So somebody from the crowd said,
“What will they do? It is easy, there is no need to answer. They will distribute them in the village and they will enjoy.”
So Siddhārtha Gautama Buddha said,
“Now what will you do? You have brought only insults and I say I don’t take them. What will you do? I feel so sorry for you. You can insult me, that is up to you. But I don’t take it, that is up to me – whether I take it or not. I don’t take unnecessary things, useless things. I don’t get unnecessarily burdened. I feel compassion for you.”
This is response. If a person is angry and we are present there, not with our past, we will feel always compassion. Reaction becomes anger, response always is compassion. We will see through the person. It will become transparent that the person is angry, suffering, in misery, and ill. When someone is in fever we don’t start beating him and asking, ”Why are you having a fever? Why is your body hot? Why have you got a temperature?” We serve the person, we help the person to come out of it.
And when somebody is angry the person also is having a temperature, the person is in a fever, the person is feverish. Why get so angry about it? The person is in a mental disease which is more dangerous than any bodily disease, more fatal. So if the spouse is angry the other spouse will feel compassion, will try in every way to help the angry spouse to be out of it. This is just mad – that the spouse is angry and the other spouse also gets angry. This is just mad, insane. We will look at the person, we will feel the misery the person is in , and we will help.
But if the past comes in then everything goes wrong. And it can happen only if we go deep in meditation, otherwise it cannot happen. Just intellectual understanding won’t help. If we go deep in meditation our wounds will be thrown, a catharsis will happen. We become more and more clear inside, clarity is attained, we become like a mirror. We don’t have any wounds really, so no one can hit them. Then we can look at the person, then we can respond.
Reactions are unconscious, there’s little or no real thinking involved. I used to assume that if something didn’t make any sense, then it must be the other person’s fault. Would I ever make a mistake?
A reaction is often emotional, which may demonstrate that we have a belief. Beliefs are just adopted from someone else, without any critical thinking to see if they make sense. If we can defend something rationally, we usually do. If we can’t, then we react emotionally instead.
A response shows thoughtfulness, we can change our life by using our intelligence to consider how best to respond. One secret of success is to think before we speak or write. Respond has the same root as responsibility. Without taking responsibility for our actions, we will battle to achieve any goal or intended result. Our thoughts, our words and our actions create results. And if we want a certain outcome, then we need to focus our thoughts, and our words and our actions on its achievement.
Response is always very good but reaction is always very bad. Response is always very beautiful but reaction is always very ugly. Avoid reactions and allow responses. Reaction is from the past, response is here and now. Our lives are not lost by dying; Our lives are lost minute by minute, day by dragging day, in all the thousand small uncaring ways.