Buddhism As Education

We have to be aware of how people tend to imitate their teachers. They become copies, prints, castings and it is like the story of the king's horse trainer. The old trainer died, so the king hired a new trainer. Unfortunately, this man limped when he walked. New and beautiful horses were brought to him and he trained them exquisitely, to run, to canter, to pull carriages. But each of the new stallions developed a limp. Finally, the king summoned the trainer and seeing him limp as he entered the court, he understood everything and immediately hired a new trainer. As teachers, you must be aware of the force of the examples you set. And even more important, as students, you must not follow the image, the outer form, of your teacher. He is pointing you back to your own inner perfection. Take the inner wisdom as your model and do not imitate his limp. Know your own mind and body and you will know others' as well. One's facial expressions, speech, gestures, actions, all ...

The Buddha taught that those who wish to know must realise the truth for themselves. Then it makes no difference whether others criticise or praise you., whatever you say, you will be undisturbed. If a person has no trust in himself, when someone calls him bad, he will feel he is bad accordingly. What a waste of time! If people call you bad, you must examine yourself. If they are not correct, then just ignore them. Then, if they are correct, you will have to learn from them. In either case, why do you have to get angry over it? If you can see things this way, you will definitely be in peace. There will be nothing wrong, there will be only Dharma. If you really use the tools the Buddha had given to us, you will never envy others. Whereas, lazy people want to just listen and believe, you will be self-sufficient, able to earn your living by your own efforts. To practice using only the resources of your own is troublesome because they are your own. You once thought practice was diff...

Three basic points of practice to work with are sense, restraint, which means taking care not to indulge and attach to sensations; moderation in eating and wakefulness. Sense restraint: We can easily recognize physical irregularities such as blindness, deafness, deformed limbs but irregularities of mind are another matter. When you begin to meditate, you see thing differently. You can see the mental distortions that previously you did not see it before. This brings sense of restraint. You become sensitive, like one who enters a forest or jungle and become aware of danger from poisonous creatures, thorns and so on. One with a raw wound is likewise more aware of danger from flies and gnats. For one who meditates, the danger is from sense objects. Sense restraint is this necessary; in fact, it is the highest kind of virtue. Moderation in eating: It is easy to fast, more difficult to eat little or in moderation in a meditation. Instead of frequent fasting, learn to eat with mindfu...

There are two levels of practice. The first is the foundation, a development of precepts, virtue or morality in order to bring happiness, comfort and harmony among people. The second, more intensive and unconcern with comfort is the practice of Buddha Dharma directly solely towards awakening, towards the liberation of heart. This liberation is the source of wisdom and compassion and the true reason for the Buddha's teaching. Understanding these two levels are the basis of true practice. Virtue and morality are the mother and father of the Dharma growing within us, providing it with the proper nourishment and direction. Virtue is the basis for a harmonious world in which people can live truly as humans, not animals. Developing virtue is at the heart of our practice. It is very simple. Keep the training precepts. Do not kill, no stealing, do not lie nor committing sexual misdeeds or taking intoxicants that will make you heedless. Cultivate compassion and a reverence for all li...

The following attitudes are essential to success in practice. Most of them have been presented before, but we are bringing them together again here as a series of rules for application. 1. Do not expect anything. Just sit back and see what happens. Treat the whole thing as an experiment, take an active interest in the test itself. But do no get distracted by your expectations about the results for that matter, do not be anxious for any results whatsoever. Let the meditation move along at its own speed and in its own direction. Let the meditation teach you what it wants you to learn. Meditative awareness seeks to see reality exactly as it is. Whether that corresponds to our expectations or not, it requires a temporary suspension of all our preconceptions and ideas. We must store away our images, opinions and interpretations someplace out of the way for a duration. Otherwise, we will stumble over them. 2. Do not strain. Do not force anything or make grand exaggerated efforts. Me...

Within the last century, western science and physics have made a startling discovery. We are part of the world we view. The very process of our observation changes the things that we observe. For example, an electron is an extremely tiny item. It cannot be viewed without instrumentation and that apparatus dictates what the observer will see. If you look at an electron in one way, it appears to be a particle, a hard little ball that bounces around in nice straight paths. When you view it in another way, an electron appears to be a wave form, with nothing solid about it. It glows and wiggles all over the place around it. An electron is an event more than a thing. And the observer participates in that event by the very process of his or her observation. There's no way to avoid this interaction. Eastern science has recognized this basic principle for a very long time ago. The mind is a set of events and the observer participates in those events every time he or she looks inward....

"Our practice here is not to grasp anything", a chief monk told a young monk. "But isn't it necessary to hold onto things sometimes?", the younger monk protested. "With the hands, yes, but not with the heart", the chief monk replied. "When the heart grasp what is painful, it is like being bitten by a snake and when through desire, it grasp what is pleasant, it is just grasping the tail of the snake. It only takes a little while longer for the head of the snake to come around to bite you. "Make this non grasping and mindfulness the guardian of your heart, like a parent. Then your likes and dislikes will come calling like children. 'I don't like that, mummy. I want more of that, Daddy'. Just smile and say, 'Sure, kid'. 'But mummy, I really want an elephant'. 'Sure, kid'. 'I want candy, can we go for an airplane ride?' There is no problem if you can let them come and go without grasping". ...