Buddhism As Education

When we observe all the worries, pain, bitterness, anger, good fortune, misfortune, good, evil, conflicts, confrontations and natural disasters around worldwide, we see that they are due to wrong understanding of the truth about life and the universe. From this misunderstanding, we erroneously generate emotional attachments, differentiate between others and ourselves, expand the conflicts and confrontations within ourselves to all beings, affairs, objects and the natural environment outside ourselves. This is why we are making disasters worsening everywhere. In reality, natural disasters are caused by human minds. The Buddha said, "greed is the cause of flood, anger is the cause of fire, ignorance is the cause of wind, arrogance and inequality are the cause of earthquakes". Once we understand the fundamental principles, we will understand that everything in this world and beyond arises from the mind and changes according to our perceptions. If we seek to become Buddh...

The parami are then inclinations and potentials that we develop into clear intentions. Their development comes in three stages, the initiating, the gathering and the completion. Initially, one brings the subject to mind. Even this much is useful; it means that parami get built-in as a frame of reference, when other values such as fun, convenience, style, worldly performance and success can be taking over the mind. The "gathering" stage is when you apply the perfection in the face of opposition. Something in you does not want to bother, other people do not see the point, it is not convenient, etc, etc and etc. The third stage of completion, is when you know your fullness in that perfection will bring you through any obstacles, you can give up your life for it. You realise: "Why not? Life is going to end anyway, why not establish a mind in a position of strength while there is time?" So, when we establish our minds on one of these parami, we can put aside incli...

Buddhism discusses what are known as the two truths - the truths of conventional and ultimate reality. The concept of two levels of reality is not unique to Buddhism. It is a common epistemological approach in many of the ancient Indian schools. Followers of non-Buddhist Samkhya school, for example, explain reality in terms of twenty five categories of phenomena. The self [Sanskrit: purusha; Tibetan: kye-bu] and the primal substance [Sanskrit: prakriti; Tibetan: rang-zhin] are said to be ultimate truths, while the remaining twenty three categories of phenomena are said to be manifestations or expressions of this underlying reality. However, what is unique in Mahayana particularly in the Madhyamaka or Middle Way School is that conventional and ultimate truths are not seen as two unrelated, independent entities but as different perspectives of one and the same world. According to the Middle Way School of Buddhism, the ultimate truth or the ultimate nature of reality is the emptine...

How do we know that it is possible to transform our mind? There are two basis for this. One is the fundamental law of impermanence; that all things and events are subject to transformation and change. If we examine this deeper, we will realize that at every instant, everything that exist is going through process of change. Even though, for instance, we speak of yesterday's person as existing unchanged today, we are all aware at a gross experimental level of the laws of impermanence; that for example, even the earth on which we live will one day come to an end. If things and events did not have the nature of changing from moment to moment, we would not be able to explain how transformation takes place over the time. When we reduce vast passage of time down to very brief ones, we can realize that things are actually changing from moment to moment. Modern technology helps us to see some of these changes; the development of a biological organism, for example, can be observed throu...

Many people, particularly the educated, professional people are moving out of the big cities and metropolitans in order to seek a quiet live and simpler livelihood in the small town and rural areas. This is natural. If you grab a handful of mud and squeeze it, it will ooze through your fingers. People under pressure likewise seek a way out. Many people ask about the problems of our world, about a coming apocalypse. What does it mean to be worldly? What is the world? You do not know? This is very unknowingly, this very darkness, this very place of ignorance, is what is meant by worldly. Caught in the six sense, our knowledge develops as a part of this darkness. To come to an answer to the problems of the world, we must know its nature completely and realize the wisdom that shines above the darkness of the world. These days, it seems that our culture is deteriorating, lost in greed, hatred and delusion. But the culture of the Buddha never changes, never diminishes. It says, ...

Nature is our mother. Because we live cut off from her, we get sick. Some of us live in boxes called apartments, very high above the ground. Around us are only cement, metal and hard things like that. Our fingers do not have a chance to touch the soil; we do not grow lettuce any more. Because we are so distant from our mother earth, we become sick. That is why we need to go out from time to time and be in nature. It is very important, we and our children should be in touch again with mother earth. IN many cities, we cannot see trees, the colour green is entirely absent from our view. We could imagine, one day, a city where there was only one tree left. The tree was still beautiful but very much alone, surrounded by buildings, in the centre of the city. Many people were getting sick and most doctors did not know how to deal with the illness. But one very good doctor knew the causes of the sickness and gave this prescription to each patient: "Every day, take the bus and go ...

When you plant lettuce, if it does not grow well, you do not blame the lettuce. You look into reasons it is not doing well. It may need fertilizer or more water or even less sun. You never blame the lettuce. Yet if we have problems with our friends or our family, we blame the other person. But if we know how to take care of them, they will grow well, like the lettuce. Blaming has no positive effect at all, nor does trying to persuade using reason and arguments. That is the experience. No blame, no reasoning, just understanding. If you understand and you show that you understand, you can love and the situation will definitely change. Understanding Understanding and love are not two things, but just one. Suppose your son wakes up in the morning and sees that it is already quite late, he decides to wake up his younger sister in order to give her enough time to take her breakfast before going to school. It happens that she is grouchy and instead of saying "thank you for w...

Does the mind have a form or is it formless? Can it be identified with the chemical mechanism of the brain or is there something more to it than that? What are its causes? Is it hereditary? These are some of the questions that we are going to probe in the course of our investigation here. In Buddhist writings, the mind is defined as a phenomenon which is formless and possesses the dual nature of clarity and knowing. The first characteristic (clarity) speaks of its quality of being luminous and clear; clear in the sense that its fundamental nature could never be defiled or polluted by negative influence. Emotions, such as desire, hatred and anger contaminate the mind and hold constant sway over it as our own personal experiences testify; the pollution is, however, only at a superficial level, for they do not penetrate into the core of the mind. In other words, these negative emotions are not part of the intrinsic nature of the mind. Irrespective of how forceful one's experi...

The same story is repeated in the field of medicine, art, in industry, science and in the higher and more subtle spheres which effect our well being, ie spiritual, moral social, political and economic. The very core of our being has also vastly changed. A man may yet be selfish and cruel in many ways, yet in most ways he is different from the primitive man in whom he has his beginnings. Previously one whim of a blood-thirsty tyrant send thousands of men to their doom. Armies at his sole command and on his personal orders laid waste large tracts of thickly populated lands. Now it is no more the whim and caprice of a despot, though occasionally, one such does still rise amongst us and is able to sway us but in a greater measure, it is now the unbridled greed of armed nations who have not fully appreciate the beauties and happiness of a peaceful way of existence that causes war. The fight for peace The fight for peace, however goes on. Every challenge to the growing stability of humanity ...

We are living in a world in which cosmic changes on a vast scale also take place. The cosmic forces that are at work are powerful and still incomprehensible. Our progress therefore sometimes appears to be illusory, momentary and insignificant, when we see a lifetime's good work coming to naught, when disasters overtake us, when achievements of many generations get destroyed, sometimes in seconds, we get lost, we lose our balance and feel dismayed, we lose heart and give up the battle as lost. We have to, however, persevere, we need to have stout heart, maintain composure and continue our good work. Vast changes wrought by man Humanity would not have made any progress if it had not tried to create conditions of comparative safety, stability, peace and plenty of over-changing world which is always in a state of flux. We were subject to the vagaries of weather, but gradually we provided ourselves with better and better shelters which have given us protection from scorching heat of the...