Book: Natural Wakefulness: Discovering the Wisdom We Were Born With
By Gaylon Ferguson
Shambhala Publications, 204 pages, to be released April 14, 2009
Amazon Link: http://www.amazon.com/dp/1590306570/?tag=askdrarca-20
The beginning of this book explains that we are born “Awake” but quickly get mired down in the daily day-to-day work of living. This is just the way things work in the world. But, as Buddhists know, we can “Awaken” to reality and become Enlightened. In his book, Gaylon Ferguson focus on RE-awakening, or enhancing that natural wakefulness with which we all enter this world.
The book is clearly written with everyday English and a minimum of jargon, a feature of which I completely approve. He covers a large number of topics, and includes chapters on mindfulness of body meditation, mindfulness of feeling, awareness of the mind’s flow, seeing beyond hope and fear, and awakening from the nightmare of materialism and much more.
Gaylon Ferguson recieved training from the Tibetan Master, Chogyam Trungpa Rinpoche, and if you have read books by any of his other students, you will see much here that is familiar. The book is heavily focused on meditation and improving your meditation practice. There are quite a few meditation exercises and ideas that you can incorporate into your own practice.
There is a section at the end which explains the sources of many of the quotes used in the book. Not just the basic bibliography, but also some of the context, which was interesting. There is a short section of additional resources, most of which are tied in with Shambhala.
This is an excellent book to help you get more serious with your meditation practice. It’s probably not for the absolute novice at meditation, but if you’ve been sitting for maybe a couple of weeks (at least long enough to know how to start) and are running into problems, this might be a good next step. The author’s focus on learning to trust that we are already naturally awake is an interesting point of view with which to work, and he often emphasizes the importance and benefits of making the commitment to a regular meditation practice.
Isn’t trying to reach enlightenment a form of desire? Wouldn’t it therefore contradict the second Noble Truth, and trying to reach it bring suffering?
Answer:
Just to to refresh everyone’s memories, the second Noble Truth says that, “suffering is caused by attachment to desire.” It is also sometimes expanded to include irrational desire or grasping.
The problem isn’t exactly desire, it’s the attachment to desires. I want a new car, but I’m not going to get one anytime soon, and I accept that; no problem. The problem comes in if I get attached to that desire and become jealous of others who have a new car. Or go out and steal the car or steal the money to buy a car. Or cheat on my taxes in order to be able to buy that car. Those are all obvious problems due to my desire for the new car. But there is more to it that this; actually all those problems are more related to breaking precepts than anything else, the real problem is internal.
Greed. Jealousy. Lust.
Overly strong desires alone can cause damage. They steal time from your own concentration. It’s a distraction, it’s a mental nagging that wears down on you. It’s basic human nature to want things you cannot have. Ask any rich person, and they’ll tell you they still have desires. Desire is a bottomless pit than can never be filled. It doesn’t have to be a desire for things either, since you can desire people, situations, and actions as well. The bottom line is that too strong of a desire crosses a line.
But we all have desires, every one of us. We desire to sleep at night, we desire to eat when we’re hungry, we desire new clothes when the old ones wear out, and so forth. There is nothing wrong with wanting things and desiring things. The problem begins when those desires become irrational or overpowering. We become attached to desires and we grasp at them irrationally.
If you want to become enlightened, that’s fine. Buddha wanted it too; that’s why he spent so many years working towards that goal. But if you become infatuated with the idea of becoming enlightened to the point where you start ruining your life, turning away friends, not eating, losing your job, etc., then you are too strongly attached to the idea.
It’s movie day again. This time I have found an internal training film from the Chicago Police Department. Part of a series created to inform police officers on the various cultural groups living in Chicago, this 9 minute video explains Buddhism to those who might not otherwise be familiar with the group.
There may or may not be anything here that we haven’t covered in the past, but this is an excellent resource for showing to non-Buddhists.
One thing that stuck out for me in the video was that they specifically state that most of the traditions and actions of various Buddhist groups depends on their specific ethnic or cultural background.
A couple of weeks ago, I put up a guest post discussing Nichiren Buddhism from the point of view of a practitioner of that sect. This week is a similar to that, but this time, our guest will discuss Shin Buddhism.If you would like to write a short essay or article explaining “your” version of Buddhism, e-mail me what you want to do and we’ll work on it. I’d like to see several more denominations represented here, so topics are still very much wide open.
Jeff Wilson is the author of Buddhism of the Heart: Reflections on Shin Buddhism and Inner Togetherness (Wisdom Publications, June 2009). He is also a Contributing Editor for Tricycle: The Buddhist Review.
Shin Buddhism, by Jeff Wilson
Jeff Wilson
As a Shin Buddhist, my primary practice is not meditation, Sutra study, ritual, or precepts. All of these can be valuable of course, but in our school of Buddhism our main focus is the practice of gratitude.
About 800 years ago, a Japanese monk named Shinran founded a new Buddhist school with his wife, Eshinni. After twenty years spent at the center of Buddhist studies in Japan, Shinran’s insight was that meditation, precepts, and other rigorous practices have a tendency to subtly reinforce our egos. As we become better at sitting still for long periods of time, we may start thinking “man, I’m a great meditator, too bad all the other poor slobs out there don’t have my capacity.” A glimpse of emptiness leads us to believe we are more enlightened than normal people. And when we manage to adhere to strict precepts, we tend to slip into thinking “I’m a good person, and those people who don’t stick to the precepts are bad, they’re a bunch of weak-minded, self-indulgent losers.” Indeed, Shinran found these sorts of attitudes in himself, and in his fellow monks. I’m guilty of this too. Meanwhile, despite a lifetime of efforts, it seemed as if there were few if any monks that Shinran could look to who were reaching genuine levels of attainment akin to those described in the Sutras.
The solution that Shinran hit upon was to flunk out. If traditional Buddhist practice so often reinforced self-attachment and created divisions between people (even as practitioners believed that they were making spiritual progress), then the way out of the trap was to stop practicing. Or rather, to stop striving egoistically. Instead, Shinran turned away from self-power (since the self is a delusion anyway) to power-beyond-self, using a Buddhist theory with a long history in India, China, and Japan.
For Shinran, Amida Buddha (the name means Infinite) was the embodiment of power-beyond-self. Hundreds of Sutras attributed to Shakyamuni Buddha describe Amida and his Pure Land, as well as his helpers Avalokiteshvara and Mahastamaprapta. Pure Land motifs and practices are part of virtually all Mahayana schools of Buddhism, whether in Japan, China, Tibet, or elsewhere. Amida is described as infinite light and life, symbols for unlimited wisdom and compassion. Tibetan monks visualize Amida Buddha, Zen monks chant his name during funerals, and Foguangshan nuns seek to create the Pure Land here in this life.
Shinran taught that Amida is actually reality in its true, liberated nature, and the Pure Land is a poetic description for nirvana. Putting the insights of Mahayana Buddhism into narrative format, he talked about how Amida embraces all beings no matter how bad or good, and liberates them from their greed and delusion. In fact, this liberation is something that has been accomplished in the primal past (i.e. it is always naturally present), and so we should stop endlessly chasing after attainment. Instead, when we give up attachment to our ego-laden efforts to become enlightened, and relax back into the embrace of inconceivable wisdom and never-abandoning compassion, we are freed from our anxieties and pettiness. Our practice, then, stops being about getting Buddhahood for ourselves, and instead is refocused to be about expressing gratitude for all that we have received, spiritually and materially.
Shinran’s daughter founded a temple in his memory, and this helped keep his teachings alive. Over time, the Shin school grew to be the largest form of Buddhism in Japan. Much of its appeal came from the fact that anyone could be involved, even people who were traditionally excluded from advanced Buddhist practice, such as women, peasants, fishermen, hunters, soldiers, outcastes, prostitutes, and others who were not allowed in the monasteries. Shin Buddhism today is the school with by far the most adherents in Japan (the second largest is the Pure Land school of Honen, Shinran’s teacher), and it came to Hawaii and North America in the late 1800s. There are about a hundred temples, many of them over 100 years old, in the United States. They include people who are fifth- and even sixth-generation Buddhist Americans. During that long Western history they have often been at the forefront of developments in American Buddhism, from giving Gary Snyder and Jack Kerouac their first taste of living Buddhism, to founding the first Buddhist seminary in the West, to pioneering Buddhist prison ministry.
For me, Shin practice is about humility, gratitude, and service to others. And also good food and dancing, since Shin temples are true communities, with many activities for all ages and lots of yummy Japanese cooking. Our mid-summer Bon festivals give us an excuse to hold Buddhist parties, including traditional folk dancing that itself can be a vehicle for expressing our thankfulness through pure joyous motion. And happily, our festivals have participants from all sorts of Buddhism, as well as Christians, Jews, atheists, and others. We can all celebrate together and appreciate one another’s diversity.
None of us are deluded about our level of attainment-we are ordinary people, prone to foolishness. But everyone, Shin Buddhist or otherwise, exists within an inconceivable network of support from all things, an ever-changing matrix that provides us with nourishment, shelter, love, and, if we don’t let our egos get in the way, pushes us on toward final liberation. Awakening to this inner togetherness which we all share helps us to get a perspective on our karmic limitations, and this engenders humility, patience, and a sense of humor about our shortcomings and those of others. When we wake up to how power-beyond-self is always nurturing and supporting us, we often say the nembutsu in gratitude. Nembutsu is a phrase, Namu Amida Butsu, that expresses our happiness and thankfulness. It isn’t a mantra or a prayer-it doesn’t accomplish anything other than letting out that bottled-up gratitude in a joyful utterance.
People have all sorts of karma, so I don’t expect that everyone will find Shin Buddhism to their liking. Luckily, there are lots of options for people in the West these days. But for those who can’t seem to meditate, or have trouble following strict precepts, or who are looking for a Buddhist path that says “just as you are, you are affirmed and included,” Shin Buddhism can provide an ancient Buddhist tradition adapted to their situations. Regardless of what path you take, Shin Buddhists believe we will all be born together into Pure Land-liberation-and become bodhisattvas who work to care for any beings who suffer and need help. I’ll end this with a selection from Issa, the famous Japanese haiku poet and Shin Buddhist priest. It nicely illustrates the attitude of all-embracing trust and compassion that characterize Shin Buddhism:
tossed in cold autumn wind
trusting in Amida. . .
little butterfly
My question has to do with anger in the Buddhist practice. One of the main reasons why I turned to Buddhism is to get better control of myself. I have been genetically cursed with a hot temper. I have been attempting to learn to control it all my life and I thought perhaps Buddhism may help with this. I wondered if you could tell me about how anger fits into the Buddhist practice and perhaps point me in the direction of some practices or places of help to better control my anger. Thanks so much!
Answer:
Fear leads to anger, anger leads to hate, hate leads to suffering. — Jedi Master Yoda (All the great quotes can’t be by the Dalai Lama can they?)
Buddhism has something called the three poisons, Greed, Ignorance, and Anger. These poisons are the easiest way to never reach Enlightenment. They’ll mess you up worse than just about anything else on the Path. Greed is obviously bad, most of what is written is there to combat Ignorance, so let’s focus on anger today. Buddhists try to limit their anger. Note I said limit, not eliminate, as anger is a normal human emotion. We all get angry sometimes. The trick is not to get carried away with it and understand where it comes from.
One common phrase we have all heard is, “He made me so angry!” No, he didn’t make you angry, YOU made you angry. It is a choice, one that can be controlled and limited. The first thing you need to do the next time you get angry, preferably before you get angry, but if it’s too late, then immediately after you calm down, is to think on why you became angry.
Was there some kind of attack on your ego? Remember, Buddhists do not believe in a self, and therefore an ego is a very bad thing to feed. Was there, as Yoda suggests, some kind of fear involved? Nothing is permanent, things do change, fear of change is paralyzing, and getting angry when things do change is futile. Whatever the reason is for your anger, you need to think it through and recognize the root cause of the anger, and it’s not that other person; it never is.
Once you have figured out why you chose to become angry (notice how I worded that?) you’ll be able to calm down and deal with the cause of the anger. After you have done this a few times, you’ll amaze yourself with your new-found ability to spot anger coming on, analyze it, and defuse it before it gets the better of you. That sounds like a tall order, but it is actually possible, and many people do it everyday, not just the most enlightened folks.
Exploring the causes of your anger is simply a mental exercise you do when the situation arises. Doing some form of meditation and mindfulness training on a regular basis will also help with this. Nothing builds patience and calmness like lots and lots of meditation. With a clear, calm mind, you’ll have far better control of your emotions. I can say this all day and you may not believe me, but work at it and see whether or not I am right; it’s easy enough to prove.
There’s been plenty written on the topic of anger management and Buddhism. In fact, most of what I have heard about anger management courses seem to teach exactly what I have said above. Check out the book, Anger: Wisdom for Cooling the Flames by Thich Nhat Hanh http://www.amazon.com/dp/1573229377/?tag=askdrarca-20
Oh all right, maybe the Yoda quote was a bit much. Here’s the Dalai Lama, who gets the final word this time:
When reason ends, then anger begins. Therefore, anger is a sign of weakness. — Dalai Lama
The first thing I would like to say is that I am not what I would call a Practicing Buddhist. It just so happens that Buddhism and my natural beliefs and attitudes are expressed in Buddhist. It has actually been through your website and podcast that I have come to realize how Buddhism can help me to a an easier and more rewarding journey on path than the the way I have been struggling along on my own, so thank you very much for that. I mention this because , as an amateur, I do not have the vocabulary to talk about the more advanced concepts in Buddhism and I hope my question makes sense.
My question concerns compassion. When I find myself meditating on compassion for all living beings, there often comes a point where my I become overwhelmed by what I would say is my love for everything and everyone to the point that I compassion becomes pity. As soon as pity creeps in, I feel tainted and self indulgent and I am not able to get myself back on track.
I was hoping that you had some advice about this, or maybe some specific meditations that you or anyone else think will help keep me in line.
Answer:
If you want others to be happy, practice compassion. If you want to be happy, practice compassion. –Dalai Lama
The first thing that sprung to mind when I read your question was, “What’s wrong with pity? Isn’t it just a strong form of compassion?” And then it hit me. No it’s not the same at all.
Compassion is genuinely caring about others, understanding their plight and taking action in your decision to actively help in some way. Pity is an outpouring of empathy so strong that you may be tempted to help more out of the need to ease your own sense of guilt or obligation than real compassion.
Have you ever seen the television commercials for charities with the sad-looking thin and sickly cats and dogs? With the lingering shots of their sad faces and the mournful music playing in the background? How about ones with the starving children in Africa with the emaciated bodies and flies everywhere? These commercials aren’t appealing to your sense of compassion, they’re striving to create pity. Give them money, and you will feel better for having done something. The central character in pity is YOU. YOU feel bad because of whatever the problem may be, and by helping you make yourself feel better. In the “big picture” some good is still being done by donating to those charities, but your personal karma works out differently because of the motives behind the giving.
Now on to your question. You are doing metta meditation (loving-kindness meditation which we have discussed elsewhere), and you are putting yourself in someone else’s extreme situation and losing yourself in pity for them. This is yet again another form of attachment. As a Buddhist grows his or her sense of non-attachment, they can look at things more objectively and feel compassion without too much painful emotion. Compassion is your genuine desire to help others, while pity is all about helping yourself.
Pity is far from the worst emotion you can experience, but true compassion is much better for everyone involved; you should work towards channeling one emotion into the other. I’m not sure that I have any special “meditation tricks” to solve this problem. You need to have a clear understanding of the difference between pity and compassion, and I hope I have been able to help with that. Keep that difference in mind as you meditate, and as you feel yourself sliding into pity, use the knowledge to pull yourself back.
I have a question and am hoping you may have some comments: What happens to Earth when all beings reach Nirvana? If all beings progress to enlightenment, then they won’t be coming back, right? If so, then the Earth dies… everything from us to krill would be gone, at least physically. I don’t see that this would be a good thing, since to me, the world is a magnificent phenomenon -irrespective of our human experience of living on it. I love this Earth and feel lucky to have experienced its natural beauty. I wonder about this. Would it be possible to be enlightened and live on Earth too? It is a real sticking point for me. Any comments would be GREATLY appreciated.
Answer:
If you take it that Nirvana means that you exit the cycle of samsara, then that happens after death. A Bodhisattva is an enlightened person who is willing to skip that and stick around on Earth to help others reach enlightenment. Theoretically, eventually, someday every being will reach enlightenment and it would indeed be time for all creatures to move on.
To us here, now, the Earth is a beautiful thing that must be protected for future generations, I believe. However, attachments are something that we will give up after attaining Enlightenment, and that includes being attached to the world. No matter how beautiful it may be, an enlightened person would be willing to let it go if that meant that all suffering would be ended.
You ask, “Would it be possible to live on Earth and be Enlightened too?” Technically, yes, if you return as a Bodhisattva, then you can stay behind, at least until that far-off future when everyone has reached Nirvana. However, it could also be that such a strong attachment to the Earth might keep you from getting there in the first place.
Attachments and irrational grasping/desire are what causes suffering. Attachments, even to things that are otherwise good and wonderful, are still attachments, and will cause suffering eventually.
When the nun Chiyono studied Zen under Bukko of Engaku she was unable to attain the fruits of meditation for a long time.
At last one moonlit night she was carrying water in an old pail bound with bamboo. The bamboo broke and the bottom fell out of the pail, and at that moment Chiyono was set free!
In commemoration, she wrote a poem:
In this way and that I tried to save the old pail
Since the bamboo strip was weakening and about to break
Until at last the bottom fell out.
No more water in the pail!
No more moon in the water!
Keichu, the great Zen teacher of the Meiji era, was the head of Tofuku, a cathedral in Kyoto. One day the governor of Kyoto called upon him for the first time.
His attendant presented the card of the governor, which read: Kitagaki, Governor of Kyoto.
“I have no business with such a fellow,” said Keichu to his attendant. “Tell him to get out of here.”
The attendant carried the card back with apologies. “That was my error,” said the governor, and with a pencil he scratched out the words Governor of Kyoto. “Ask your teacher again.”
“Oh, is that Kitagaki?” exclaimed the teacher when he saw the card. “I want to see that fellow.”
I was interested in learning the relationship between Hinduism and Buddhism. Buddha (Siddhartha Gautama) was originally a Hinduist so it’s only natural for some of that to have bled into his teachings. Some Buddhist teachings actually talk about Hindu gods. There are also the primary concepts of karma and samsara in Buddhism which are directly taken from Hinduism. The problem is that having Hinduism bleed into Buddhism makes Buddhism much less of a philosophy and more of a religion. I can believe in the philosophy of Buddhism, but not necessary the religion.
So my question is: Is Buddhism rooted in Hinduism in the same way that Christianity is rooted in Judaism where to be a Christian you need to basically accept all or most of Judaism too, or is no there no real relationship other than the some of the same shared concepts?
Krishna, another Hindu god
Answer:
As you say, most everyone in that region during Buddha’s day was a Hindu, and yes, most of the religious trappings of Buddhism can be traced back to this in some way. Don’t think, however, that it was Buddha’s plan to “invent” a whole new religion. In his mind, he was a good Hindu, much in the same was as Jesus considered himself a good Jew. The expansion of things into a full-blown “religion” took many years after his death. Historically, the growth of Buddhism and Christianity are similar, just one of many parallels between the two. However, Buddhism is much more flexible and open-ended in what “beliefs” are required, which is one reason the various sects of Buddhism are so different from each other.
Hinduism had existed in that part of the world for… pretty much forever. Hinduism is the oldest of the major religions, going back way before recorded history. There’s no way anyone or any idea in that part of the world could avoid being influenced by this, and those beliefs are still very much a part of Eastern Buddhism today.
The Buddhist creation stories and a great majority of the original gods & deities (although there were also many “regional” additions) are straight from Hinduism. Even the core ideas of the cycle of samsara and karma comes from Hinduism, although it’s a little different there. Reincarnation/Rebirth is also from Hinduism, but again, has changed a bit over the years. These things are not necessarily so much a part of “religion” in the East as they are just the way things work; it’s an ingrained part of the culture.
However, the further Buddhism spreads away from Asia, the less relevant that Hindu influence gets, and in America, the Hindu influence probably works against Buddhism as much as anything else. Buddhism adapts to culture, not the other way around.
Once again, I’ll say it; let’s get back to the basics: Four Noble Truths & Eightfold Path. There’s nothing inherently religious in those, and no one is going to argue against their centrality to Buddhism. All the rest is at least somewhat optional. Certain denominations require certain additional things, and some are very religious in nature, but as we discussed a few weeks ago, you are a Buddhist if you follow the Path. That’s the only requirement.
In my own opinion, if you want to strip all the religion out and use Buddhism as a practice and/or a philosophy, that’s fine. Some people enjoy the rituals and religious aspects, and it helps them stay mindful and respectful, and that’s fine; but it’s not a take-it-or-leave-it proposition as many Western religions are.
Question:
Was there some kind of attack on your ego? Remember, Buddhists do not believe in a self, and therefore an ego is a very bad thing to feed. Was there, as Yoda suggests, some kind of fear involved? Nothing is permanent, things do change, fear of change is paralyzing, and getting angry when things do change is futile. Whatever the reason is for your anger, you need to think it through and recognize the root cause of the anger, and it’s not that other person; it never is.
