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Buddhism – weekly blog post

January 17th, 2009
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Hello,

Marcelo and I have been very busy. Apologies for that. I try to keep this blog going in this transition period and would like to cover a post a week, mainly at the weekends.

If I say busy, what does that mean. Does not everyone have the same amount of time in a day? Yes, but some have more tasks than others and I for instance enjoy my work to the extend that it is mainly work I am doing. So no work-life balance because it becomes more of a work-work or life-life balance.

Karma, particular at the beginning of a year, pops up in so many discussions. Buddhism teaches us that it is not only our actions but also our intentions/thoughts that result in karma.

On a page about Taoism, I found the following information about Tai Chi.

In Taoism, Tao, roughly translated as path, is a force which flows through all life and is the first cause of everything. The goal of everyone is to become one with the Tao. Tai Chi, a technique of exercise using slow deliberate movements, is used to balance the flow of energy or “chi” within the body. People should develop virtue and seek compassion, moderation and humility. One should plan any action in advance and achieve it through minimal action.

That means by practising Tai Chi, my course starts in 2 weeks, I hope to be able to work my spiritual practise and my body in one way, to create a whole out of the both. I hope that makes sense.

Even years ago, long before I was introduced to Buddhism, I said that one is oneself if the body and spirit are a 100% match. If you are one. If the spirit is 100% inside you. Like Ying and Yang.

On another website I found a very interesting article on Tai Chi. It is meant to bring you self discovery, a part of self or personal development. It speaks about chakras and how your upright spine is helping you to let the energy flow and relax. Anger management comes naturally with that too :-) I am looking more and more forward to this course so that I can get a weekly “workout for spirit and body” at the same time.

One benefit is outlined nicely as “The most important is that it helps you watch your mind. When you can control your mind you will become more peaceful and less likely to get agitated. From this state of mind it will then be much easier to practice patience and compassion, which I believe are the true results for any spiritual practice.”

That is definitely something I am looking for. Patience, Compassion and a mind at ease. A less stressful life.

I guess this is enough reading for a weekend. Have a relaxing one. I leave you with Buddha’s thought:

Peace comes from within. Do not seek it without.

Love and Kindness,

Volker

karma, tai chi, work-life, ying and yang

I am better now…

December 14th, 2008
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…Marcelo,

Thank you for your post. I am better now, almost a weeks since I have been ill. But, there was not much time to stop, relax, think and get better. That is what people are missing out on these days.

I believe that illness slows us down and makes us reflect on the real meaning of life. That it is not all about money, career, and prestige but about love, happiness and self fulfilment.

Someone was asking me the other day that he has given so much for a friendship and not seen any return. He seemed really frustrated. I suggested that sometimes in friendships you are always on the giving end and that the friendship would not be sustained unless you get something back. However, the invested time, love and care in a friendship will come back one day, as the whole system works. Your karma will make it worthwhile.

That was difficult to understand for him but it made sense to me.

When you are ill you have to give: you need to give your body/yourself enough time to sort things out and you will get it back eventually. If not from this body, then a body in the future…

Marcelo, would that make sense at all?

Volker

Buddhism, giving, karma

Laughing on the doubts

October 21st, 2008
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Good Morning Volker… from the deepest of my respect to you, you have made me to laugh a lot on this post. Buddhists always laughing and enjoying their life, even when they have got a bad time.

As Geshe-la uses to play with us, he says: I want you to get crazy….

Ok, answering your questions.

First of all, you are still mixing concepts, Karma is not causes and conditions. To die in a aircrash you need to create the conditions, actually you and all other passangers have to gathered together the conditions for the airplane to have engines, electrical or any other problem and then having a crash!

If you have a good karma?, uhhhh… Look at yourself, at now, of course you have a wonderful karma. Your whole is fulfiled by enjoyments, you are a Human Being, you have got a good job, wife, money, friends, family and so on, and I believe good mental state and good minds. Maybe, you have create causes to change this karma in the future, but no one can predicte it, only Buddha knows everything. Because that, is very important to practice Dharma sincerely.

You wont know what will happen to us tomorrow, this afternoon, this lunch time…It is impossible, we are in samsara. But we can weak our negative karma practising virtuous actions all the time.

No, Buddhas wont take any actions to you, they will not establish anything to you. Everything is related to you karma. By your present actions you will create the causes and conditions to ripen a positive karma and not the negative one. The concept of God in Buddhism does not exist in same way as Catholics.

Been honest to you, I want to get you even craisier than now, it’s urgent to let our delusions, previous concepts go, let them go now! Get crazy and find our your own scape from samsara.

I am very glad that you are thinking to get back to Geshe-la. Yeah, take your own time, enjoy the Path, be constantly happy and make others even happier than you.

Enjoy your day.

L&K

Marcelo



causes and conditions, enjoying life, karma

doubts and questions

October 20th, 2008
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Marcelo,

I have been thinking. Thinking a lot about various things.

I cannot and I do not want to believe that I would not die in an airline crash (using that as an example), if I had good karma. Everytime I go on a longer trip, I donate something to my Buddha, asking for protection, asking to come back as I have not yet fnished what I started.

That is my humble opinion. Maybe I have fulfilled my purpose already and it is not up to me to decide. But, who decides? Buddha is not like a god that is above us all, is he? Is it the law of the universe?

So, given the circumstances, that – and I assume that – I have a good Karma. What would happen if I had been in a crash. Would I die or not?

I don’t even want to picture it, because it is almost like “I don’t mind having an accident, because I have a good Karma”. However, I understand that if we decide to kill ourselves (jump in front of a train) or drink and drive, we are changing our Karma, even if last minute, to die? Did I understand that correctly?

Marcelo, when do I know if I have good Karma. When do I know I have finished what I set out to do in this life? Will I ever know?

I need to go back. I need to revisit Gelshe’s books. I need to visit the centre and I need to find my path. And, I need to do that in my own time. I need to do that whilst I start meditating more regularly.

Thanks for your input.

How are things with you.

Love and Kindness – from a train to Leeds
Volker

Buddhism, causes and conditions, karma, offerings, personal development, self development, way of life

Buddhism teachings

October 20th, 2008
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Karma – The six realms of rebirth

The seeds that ripen when we die are very important because they determine what kind of rebirth we shall take. Which particular seed ripens at death depends upon the state of mind in which we die. If we die with a peaceful mind, this will stimulate a virtuous seed and we shall experience a fortunate rebirth; but if we die with a disturbed mind, in a state of anger, say, this will stimulate a non-virtuous seed and we shall experience an unfortunate rebirth. This is similar to the way in which nightmares are triggered by our being in an agitated state of mind just before falling asleep.

The analogy of falling asleep is not accidental, for, as explained in the chapter on reincarnation, the process od sleeping, dreaming, and walking closely resembles the process of death, intermediate state, and rebirth. Whil we are in the intermediate state, we experience different visions that arise from the karmic seeds that were activated immediately before death. If negative seeds were activated, these visions will be nightmarish, but if positive seeds were activated they will be predominantly pleasant. In either case, when the karmic seeds have matured sufficiently, they impel us to take rebirth in one or other of the six realms of samsara.

The six realms are actual places in which we can be reborn. They are brought into existence through the power of our actions, or karma. There are three types of actions: bodily actions, verbal actions, and mental actions. Since our bodily and verbal actions are always initiated by our mental actions, or intentions, ultimately the six realms are created by our mind. For example, a hell realm is a place that arises as a result of the worst actions, such as murder or extreme mental or physical cruelty, which depend upon the most deluded states of mind.

Have a thought and let us talk about it later…

L&K

Marcelo



buddhist realms, karma

Tranform your life

October 19th, 2008
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With the right Teacher we will become able to understand and transform all our life…
…Through the following example given in Buddhist scriptures, we can begin to understand how our experiences in this life arise from actions in previous lives,a s well as how the results of actions increase over time, just as a small seed can grow into a large tree. There was once a nun called Upala, who before her ordination experienced many horrible sufferings. Married three times, each time her husband and her children met a tragic end; and her parents also perished in a fire. Having experienced one terrible misery after another, Upala developed a very strong wish to find freedom from every kind of suffering existence, and so she sought Buddha and told him her story. Buddha explained that in a previous life she had been one of the wives of king, and that, being very jealous of the other wives, she had continually plotted to destroy their relationships. Her jealous actions alone were enough to cause the extravagant sufferings of her present life. Buddha then explained how she could purify her mind; and by sincerely practising these teachings she attained nirvana in that life.
By contemplating how the results of our actions are deinite and how they increase, we shall develop a strong determination to avoid even the slightest non virtue and to nurture even the smallest positive thoughts and constructive deeds. We then meditate on this determination to make it constant and stable. If we can keep our determination all the time and put it into practice, our actions of body, speech, and mind will become increasingly more pure, until there is no longer any basis for suffering.
If we do not perform an action, we cannot experience its effect. In a battle, some soldiers are killed while others survive. The survivors are not saved because they are braver than others, but because they did not create any action that would cause them to die at that time. We can find many other such examples in the daily newspapers. When a terrorist plants a bomb in a large building, some people are killed while others escape despite being at the centre of the blast. When there is an aeroplane crash or a volcanic eruption, some people are killed while others, as if by a miracle, escape. In many accidents the survivors themselves are astonished to be alive when others right next to them were killed.

The actions of living beings are never wasted, even though a long time may pass before their effects are experienced. Actions cannot simply vanish, and we cannot give them away to someone else and thus avoid our responsability. Although the momentary mental intentions that initiated our past actions have ceased, the potentialities they have created in our mind do not cease until their results have ripened. The only way to destroy negative potentialities before they ripen as suffering is to purify them.

L&K

Marcelo

karma

sundays around the world

October 19th, 2008
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Good morning Volker and others, I hope all of you are doing well.

Unfortunately we cannot stop this bolg for some reasons, first of all we have been developing some commitements overhere to other, at least I have got a commitment to you and vice-versa.

Secondly, life never ever stop, so how can we stop? But we can imput on it the speed we want to and also establishing our main priorities.

You have just got married, job, carrier, house, cats, friends, goals in life and now meditation. The meditation cannot be perceived as another commitment in your life but should be understanding as a method to help you to hold up all the others commitments you have in your life.

The meditation is a meaningful and special medicine for our problems, difficulties or just to provide to us a state of mind more peaceful and balanced to face our duties and commitments in life.

So, take you time, try to use your meditation to help you not to drepress you. I know sometimes when we start somethink new we want to get into it as deeper as we can. But, that is not the Buddhism message.

The Meditation is to make our happy and bring to us some peace and balaced. If these are not the fruits we are harvesting from it, that means are making mystakes in our practice.

Do you remember when I said: enjoy your Path. Yeah, we need to learn how to enjoy our lifes with all those responsabilities, commitments, pains, sufferings, hord works, happiness, excitations, anxieties, anxiounesses and all phenomena.

Get it easy and you will se the colourful life and way we have received from your karma. Mainly be Patience with yourself, but never stop!

L&K

Marcelo



karma, meditation, path of life, patience, way of life

Sunday thoughts

October 19th, 2008
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Marcelo,

First of all thank you for posting so much input. It is inspiring to see your energy and thoughts, help and advise on the Buddhism and Life. Thank you so much for it.
However, I hate to admit it, it comes at a time where it is almost too much for me to digest. I would love to put time on hold now and sit down, re-read all your entries, a couple of books and get into a routine of meditating before I continue with time. A time hole I need, if that makes sense.
I know that is not possible. What we need to do is take one step at a time. I need to revisit every entry, every book, every comment and meditate every day. 5 or 10 minutes, 7 or 12, but I need to do it.
Isn’t that the same with anything in life. If we take baby steps, it will continue to grow into a routine and we will eventually reach our goal. I have written about that a couple of times in my coaching section of my other blog. The worst thing I find is that if you know an answer but you either do not have the time to proceed or you don’t have the stamina to proceed. Or is it both?
I assume it comes back to Karma. Really liked your entry about it. Because, we can only harvest what we sow! Ergo sum. There is not, “we achieve half of what we sow” or “we achieve double of what we sow”. It is as it is. Amen. Your meditation entry is wonderful too, giving guidance. Reason me linking to them is to structure my thoughts of what you wrote.
Marcelo, you are right, we need to structure this blog a bit more. Maybe we need to move some of the entries, e.g. about meditation or about Karma as a summary on our website? Also some section about Buddhist text and teaching? We could write essays about it and publish them on publications, similar to what I do on my website?
I now need to set myself some goals. Finding time and persistence as well as stamina and routine for meditation. Secondly, I need to find a spiritual teacher.
I keep you posted on my progress.
Tust you are well, have a great Sunday.
Love and Kindness from London,
Volker

Buddhism, buddhism meditation method, happiness, inspiration, karma, love and kindness, meditation, self development

Teaching – Karma

October 16th, 2008
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The General Characteristics of Karma

Normally we cannot understand why we experience so many difficulties in life. Geshe-la trys to help us, given us these wonderful and kind explanation about the origem of our sufferings.

“…For every action we perform, we experience a similar result. If a gardener sows a seed of a medicinal plant, a medicinal plant and not a poisonous one will grow; and if he or she does not sow any seeds, then nothing will grow. In a similar way, if we perform positive actions we shall experience happy results and unhappiness, if we perform negative actions we shall experience only unhappy results, and if we perform neutral actions we shall experience neutral results.

For example, if we now experience any mental disturbance it is because at some time in the past we disturbed the minds of others. If we experience a painful physical illness it is because in the past we caused pain to others, such as by beating or shooting them, intentionally administering wrong medicines, or serving them poisonous food. If we have not created the karmic cause to become ill it is impossible for us to experience the suffering of physical illness, even if we find ourself in the midst of an epidemic where everyone else around us is dying. Those who have attained nirvana, for example, never experience any physical or mental pain, because they have stopped engaging in harmful actions and purified all the non-virtuous potentialities that are the main causes of pain.

The main cause of the sufferings of poverty is an action of stealing. The main causes of being oppressed are looking down on, beating, or demanding work from people of inferior position, or despising others instead of showing them loving kindness. The main causes of the sufferings of being separated from friends and family are actions such as seducing other people’s partners or purposefully alienating their friends and the people who work for them.

Usually we assume that bad experiences arise only in dependence upon the conditions of this present life. Since we cannot account for many of them in these terms, we often feel that they are inexplicable and undeserved, and that there is no justice in the world. In reality, however, most of our experiences in this life are caused by actions we committed in past lives.”

Geshe Kelsang Gyatso, Transform your Life.

I hope these words could help everyone to transform their actual problems into the Path to the Enlightenment becoming free from all sufferings.

L&K

Marcelo



buddhism teachings, karma

Karma

October 15th, 2008
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My dearest friend Volker…as you have been very busy at the moment I am allowing myself to offer to you some beautiful words from Geshe-la.

Geshe Kelsang Gyatso in his wonderful book “Transform your Life” teachs us about some Buddhism knowledges and I found this words about Karma so clear and helpful. He is very precisely to explain Karma…that is the difference between a very qualified Spriritual Teacher and someone who is his training and studies (Tha’s me!).

“…The law of karma is a special instance of the law of cause and effect, according to which all our actions of body, speech, and mind are causes and all our experiences are their effects. The law of karma explains why each individual has an unique mental disposition, an unique physical appearance, and unique experiences. These are the various effects of the countless actions that each individual has performed in the past. We cannot find any two people who have created exactly the same history of actions throughout their past lives, and so we cannot find two people with identical appearances. Each person has a different individual karma. Some people enjoy good health while others are constantly ill. Some people are very beautiful while others are very ugly. Some people have a happy disposition that is easily pleased while others have a sour disposition and are rarely delighted by anything. Some people easily understand the meaning of spiritual teachings while others find them difficult and obscure.

Karma means ‘action’, and refers to the actions of our body, speech and mind. Every action we perform leaves an imprint, or potentiality, on our very subtle mind, and each imprint eventually gives rise to its own effect. Our mind is like a field, and performing actions is like sowing seeds in that field. Virtuous actions sow seeds of future happiness, and non-virtuous actions sow seeds of future suffering. The seeds we have sown in the past remain dormant until the conditions necessary for their germination come together. In some cases this can be many lifetimes after the original action was performed.

It is because of our karma or actions that we are born in this impure, contaminated world and experiences so many difficulties and problems. Our actions are impure because our mind is contaminated by the inner poison of self-grasping. This is the fundamental reason why we experience suffering. Suffering is created by our own actions or karma – it is not given to us as a punishment. We suffer because we have accumulated many non-virtuos actions in our previous lives. The source of these non-virtuos actions are our own delusions such as anger, attachment, and self-grasping ignorance.

Once we have purified our mind of self-grasping and all other delusions, all our actions will naturally be pure. As a result of our pure actions of pure karma, everything we experience will be pure. We shall abide in a pure world, with a pure body, enjoying pure enjoyments and surrounded by pure beings. There will no longer be the slightest trace of suffering, impurity, or problems. This is how to find true happiness from within our mind.”

L&K

Marcelo



karma