Samsara: In a Bag!!

As a guy who breaks out in hives at the very thought of shopping, I don't have a problem equating samsara with handbags/purses and/or shopping!! However, I think the makers of Samsara handbags weren't thinking of torment and suffering when they set out to market their product. Sadly, their research department left them, "holding the bag" so to speak (Sorry, about the pun; I couldn't resist. If you're wondering what "holding the bag" means, just click here for an explanation). That's because according to the products website, "Matt and Nat" the phrase samsara is Sanskrit for "rebirth."

This, however, is only partially true. I'm not an expert on Sanskrit but what I believe the term Samsara means something along the lines of "perpetual flow." Meaning, the cycle of life, death, rebirth. Taken by itself, the idea of "renewal" after death can sound appealing but Buddhist teachings go deeper with the concept by showing that this cycle isn't something to desire. It's like a roller coaster that looks like a good time at an amusement park but once you get on it you find out that the coaster has no brakes!! The fun would disappear like a fart in the wind after about the 3rd, 4th or 10th time you vomited from the endless looping. And by the 1 millionth time it would become full-blown torture right out of the Medieval period.

That's, true samsara. Yes, rebirth is apart of it but rebirth isn't the ideal because it's only a brief respite. Once you are born again you're plopped right back into the same mess of greed, desire, delusion and suffering that was there in the last lifetime. So, rebirth is less of a goal than it is a "do-over" card. It's like the teacher saying you failed a course but the good news is that you get to retake it. It's nice that you get another chance, but do you really want to spend the rest of eternity retaking that same course? So, in Buddhism samsara is something to free ourselves from--not desire. We practice Buddhism to liberate ourselves from the consequences of our past karma that keeps us locked into the incessant cycle.

As with many fashion products, the makers of this handbag are looking to cash in on the latest fad in pop-culture; to incorporate anything Buddhist into marketing a product. I'm sure they mean well but the cynic in me has to chuckle a bit at the idea of using the phrase "samsara" to sell products that don't bring lasting happiness; and thus, keep us locked in samsara!!

At least they are donating some of the money to charity; and it is made from non-leather products. But, overall this handbag is a good reminder to how the desiring mind feeds off of marketing signals in our modern consumer culture. How many times have we bought something that just sounded essential to our wardrobe or lifestyle, yet realized a bit later that the product no longer satisfies us? The longer time passes we realize that we have too much stuff!! At that point the mind feels frustration on how to get rid of it!! Thus, the cycle of suffering from materialism continues. I'm certainly no saint when it comes to materialism. I try to be conscious in my purchases but I don't always resist that urge to splurge. Still, it's worth trying because over-consumption can lead to a nasty hangover.

P.S. - Yes, I do see the irony that in raising this topic I'm giving this company free advertising and thus propelling consumerism. However, the only people that can avoid total consumption are monks in monasteries. Yet, even then they still have to buy things for up-keep of the monastery. So, I think the key is to be conscious of what we buy and learn not to attach to those products; because clearly we can't live in this world and never buy anything.

PHOTO CREDIT: Matt and Nat

~Peace to all beings~

The Winds of Change.

changing winds swirl

clinging golden leaf shivers
smoke escapes cabin

By James R. Ure

Recently my wife and I did some cabin-sitting for our friends. Their A-frame structure is perched on a small hill deep in the Rocky Mountains of Colorado near where I live. It is miles from any sign of civilization, which is divine. They are nearly entirely, "off-the-grid" or self-sufficient thanks to solar panels and wind turbines that our friend manufactures with a buddy at his cabin a few miles away. It's a lovely home with a sea of green pine trees interspersed with small groves of quaking Aspens for a view from their front porch. We are often welcomed to come up and camp out on their property during the summer, so we were honored to give back to them by watching their homestead for a time.

Living "off-the-grid" means changing your focus on how you use energy and other resources. Knowing that the energy for the cabin was not unlimited nor on-demand like it seemingly is in the city made us much more conscious of its use. The irony is that we are already quite environmentally conscious. It underlined the truth that actually the energy we get in town isn't in-fact unlimited as we often think. It's easy to get complacent with energy use when we live in a city because it seems so permanent. Almost every time that we flip a switch, we are flooded with energy. This lulls us into thinking that this energy will always be there for us, which can never be true. Awareness of how energy is actually created; like seeing it work from wind gave me deep insight into how the way we live our lives is creating a deficit of suffering so to speak.

We put off a lot of natural suffering by our over-consumption of energy. We run our thermostat high, so we can wear shorts inside the house during the winter, and we plug in our cell phones while running the laptop and the television. This all makes for a very luxurious life to be sure, but each time we flip on the switch we are taking years off the livability of planet Earth. And, at the same time robbing our children and grandchildren from a healthy life. It's not unlike a country borrowing money to maintain a lifestyle that's unsustainable. It's a foolish game of borrowing against tomorrow to increase the enjoyment of today. And, like any form of karma this lifestyle will come back and reward us with exactly what we have invested into it.

But the hour is not too late. We can adjust our ways and live less greedily. It's easy to see greed by people who hoard money or take what isn't theirs but it's hard sometimes to see flipping on a switch as a form of greed. That's why I think if we invested in making everyone have a direct role in providing for the energy they use by hooking up all houses with wind turbines and solar panels that we could wake up in time. Awareness (as Buddha taught) is a powerful tool that can allow us to accomplish just about anything. If we don't know the full scope of what's actually going on around us, we really are living in denial and will be shocked back into reality. Isn't it better to see that reality now and adjust accordingly so that we are at one with that reality? That way, whatever is good for us will be the same thing that's good for nature because is it really a healthy life to have so much energy that we can go shopping for crap at 2 in the morning?

PHOTO: Cabin view from front porch by James R. Ure

~Peace to all beings~

Environmental Global Reset Button.

Recently Cambodian Buddhist monk Bun Saluth was honored by the United Nations for his environmental preservation work in preserving 18,000 acres of forest land in Cambodia. When asked about his monumental efforts he didn't hesitate to say that he was simply following Buddha's example (not just his words); When Buddha was still alive, he used trees and caves as lodging to obtain enlightenment. In this way, he has taught us to love the natural resources and wild animals.

Additionally, I would add that one of the most prominent reasons that Buddhists are often advocates for nature and animals is because of the core teachings upon interdependence. It's not so much protecting the trees out of a sense of moral superiority but rather a normal extension of being awake to the multi-layered essence of life on Earth. When we awaken to the reality that our very existence is dependent upon a healthy planet then it becomes obvious that protecting the trees (and the rest of nature) is an extension of being alive. It is also true that when we cultivate compassion for others we understand how balancing nature is integral in helping to reduce their suffering.

Thich Nhat Hanh says in his new book, "The World We Have" that, The situation the Earth is in today has been created by unmindful production and unmindful consumption. We consume to forget our worries and our anxieties. Tranquilising ourselves with over-consumption is not the way. Just like eating a bunch of sugar instead of a meal will give you a rush of artificially inflated energy followed quickly by a depressing physical crash; so to will trashing out planet lead to a crash of the "good times" followed by a deep and painful awakening to a very different world.

I've never been much of a doomsday alarmist but the over-consumption of just about everything by humanity is really starting to show and take its toll. Our greed has over-fished our oceans, poisoned our air, desecrated our forests and swollen our Earth with over-population. It is an unsustainable lifestyle and that centuries long, unskillful behavior is harvesting some sobering karma. I'm not the kind of person who stands on the corner of a busy street, ringing a bell and warning of the "end of the world" but I do see a radical change coming, and I believe awareness is the best tool to adapting.

I can see a time in the near future when our instant, electronic world will crash and fail like an old car in the Mohave desert. This will return us to a simpler way of life where the grocery store is a garden, where the animals are more valuable than cars and where being able to work with others in co-operation will mean the difference between survival and calamity. It won't destroy all of humanity but we'll have to relearn how to live a life similar to that before the industrial revolution, which will be a tough transition for some who lived the delusion that the party would go on forever. We lived through the ugly days of the "Dark Ages" when life was bleak and people died in droves and currently we're living a life of excess that is the exact opposite.

And interestingly, I think it might be a good thing for humanity to get this wake up call because it'll force us to hit the reset button on how we see the world and our resources. It will also mean that we don't have to live again in the "Dark Ages" but we also can't live the life of never-ending consumption either. We'll have to find that sweet spot, or the middle ground where life is the most sustainable. It'll be a shock at first but in the end I think we'll see that living the "hungry ghost" life of over-consumption was never really realistic in the first place.

~Peace to all beings~

Green Buddhism.

Our environment is the ultimate middle-path. In order for life to exist and thrive upon Earth the environmental conditions must be perfectly balanced for optimum benefit. It is because of the importance of this delicate balance that, as a Buddhist, I am also a committed environmentalist.

So, as you can imagine I've been watching with horror like everyone else the volcano of oil gushing night and day from the bottom of the Gulf of Mexico. Ultimately this BP disaster has come about from our collective greed for cheap fuel at the expense of our greater environment to power our excessive lifestyles.

Part of this lifestyle comes from a long human tradition of the ignorance that nature plays in our lives. Humanity has for centuries seen nature as an impediment to its happiness and material success. Because of its ease of exploitation nature was seen not as an equal but merely as a means to an end.

So, we sought to "tame" it to further our desires for material wealth and success. We ignorantly assumed that since we were the "smartest beings" on the planet that we didn't have to live within the limits of nature. We saw ourselves as not only independent from everything else but superior. Thus, nature was there to satisfy our insatiable greed. This was especially embraced by the monotheistic cultures who saw themselves as divine offspring and Earth their property to do with it whatever they pleased. Since in ignorance these cultures believed that they weren't interconnected with other beings, (which would have required them to live in greater harmony) and had been given dominion over all other living things then surely (they thought) pursuing such a individualistic destiny couldn't hurt us.

In Europe, they chopped down tree after tree. They couldn't tear the trees down fast enough to keep up with the insatiable fires of industry. The race to industrial wealth and easy living was so ferocious that soon Europe was nearly completely nude of trees. Yet no matter how much steel was turned into new machines to make our lives easier it wasn't enough for our greed, and so industry accelerated further and further. Once the trees were gone we began burning dirty, toxic materials such as coal and oil. Raw sewage and toxic byproducts from production were pumped mercilessly into pristine rivers, lakes and seas. The cities were dirty and the air hazy and acrid from pollution causing much sickness. Yet our lust for the easy life grew unabated.

Today we humans are waking up one by one from our egotistical binge to one nasty hangover. It is clear now that our actions aren't independent of everything else, and that our greed has sped up our own destruction. Yet still this greed has a strong hold over many people, and like an addict who knows the drug is poison, we continue to use deadly energy regardless of the consequences. Why? Because no one wants to give up living the easy life of cheap energy that enables us to spend that money on pleasure pursuits.

In order to make the right sacrifices to bring humanity more in-line with nature and the middle-path we have to realize that we are all interdependent upon one another. And none more so than Earth herself. Our past actions of environmental rape through excessive industry are already coming back to cause us suffering via climate change--in my belief, that's societal karma bearing fruit. And just like pain is the bodies way of warning us to stop what you're doing, so to is the suffering we experience now from environmental degradation an alert to change our behavior. As we know, karma has an energy of its own, which could be seen in the very real possibility of environmental destruction getting too far gone to reverse course. I fear that could happen soon if we don't take immediate action. This BP spill is one of those pains that should serve as a warning sign. Buddhism demands that we care for nature as much as we care for ourselves.

~Peace to all beings~

Burma Building Nukes.

A new investigation has revealed that Burma has begun a nuclear weapons program with the help of North Korea. A documentary made by the Norway-based group Democratic Voice of Burma says evidence has come from top-secret material smuggled out of the country over several years. The investigation found the south-east Asian country was a long way from producing a nuclear weapon, but had gone to great lengths to acquire the technology and expertise to do so. Read the full report: Click on this sentence.

The most important agreement that Burma must satisfy is its agreement with the IAEA. It signed an agreement with the IAEA in 1995 that it would not pursue nuclear weapons under a carefully defined standard international legal agreement. Burma has certified that it has no nuclear facilities, has minimal nuclear materials, and has no plans to change this situation. The information brought by Sai suggests that Burma is mining uranium, converting it to uranium compounds for reactors and bombs, and is trying to build a reactor and or an enrichment plant that could only be useful for a bomb. There is no chance that these activities are directed at a reactor to produce electricity in Burma.

James: As we say here in America, "Arms are for hugging, not killing." The Burmese are starving and impoverished, yet the dictatorship would rather spend money on trying to acquire nuclear weapons. Burma is a good reminder of why politics often falls short because by nature it is based on power, which is an extension of greed--one of the three poisons in Buddhism.

~Peace to all beings~

Gaze Upon the Buddha Statue and See Your True Self.

A common misconception that people have about Buddhists is that we worship the Buddha because we bow before his statue. Buddha wasn't a god but a human being just like the rest of us who found a way to transcend the suffering of this world. Initially he resisted sharing his path to others because he didn't think anyone would want to face their inner suffering as he had. However, having developed into an infinitely compassionate being he shared it with those who came to him and 2,500 years later we people are still coming to him. We are his heirs.

To be an heir of the Buddha simply means that we have seen the futility of the greed, hatred and delusion of the world and seek to awaken ourselves from the cycle of suffering as he has. So, in this regard when we bow to a Buddha statue or one another we are acknowledging the Buddha nature of ourselves and others. Tibetan Buddhist Dzogchen teacher Lama Surya Das explains it this way:

As a longtime meditator and student of Buddhism, when I myself see a Buddha statue, I intuitively sense that I'm looking in a mirror at my highest, deepest, truest, and most authentic best self. It is not merely something to imitate -- in dress, shape, or hairstyle -- but something to emulate in terms of seeking what the Buddha himself sought and found, in order to find it in myself along with recognizing that in others, and then acting accordingly. The Buddha is actually an archetype representing enlightenment, an icon symbolizing inner wisdom, a pointer towards the possibility of a level of spiritual awakening embodying the fullest actualized potential of human beings.

So, we are bowing to the Buddha within us, which emphasizes that yes, we too can awaken to the same freedom that Buddha experienced. It is an act of hope that strengthens intention--intention to free ourselves once and for all from the thrashings of the mind. It reminds us of who we really are and after some time, just gazing upon his image has helped me remember that this identity I cling to isn't my true nature. So, when I'm feeling depressed and self-hatred arises I gaze upon him and contemplate that, "If I have the same potential of Buddha then I must be a good person." It doesn't always help but sometimes it's a nice swift kick to the head that jars loose the grip of my mind.

We also bow to show respect for the path he laid out for us to follow. Buddha's path is like bread crumbs left in a deep, dark, frightening forest to help find our way out and into an open field of awareness that shows us where the stumbling blocks lie. In the dark fog of delusion our mind makes up all sorts of things and we can't see where we are going and before we know it we're deep down in a hole of immense and crippling suffering. Haven't you suffered enough? Wake up and embrace your Buddha nature.

PHOTO CREDIT: From the Public Broad Casting documentary, "The Buddha."

~Peace to all beings~

Moving Mountains.

There may be people who could move mountains
with their heartfelt beliefs.
Zen wants the mountains to stay where they are.
It is not the task of Zen to rearrange the mountainside.

-Unknown author.

James: I take this as teaching us not to fight up stream nor to fight against nature. Like the temple pictured above we need to work with nature, not destroy it. They don't try and dominate nature they simply build their temple in compliment to it. I also think it is talking about avoiding arrogance when discussing Buddhism with non-Buddhists. No one wants to be preached to about how "Enlightened" you profess to be regardless of your progress along the path. That refers to the verse about "moving mountains." Perhaps we might think or say, "I feel so 'enlightened' that I could move mountains!!"

That's spiritual greed wrapping itself around our practice like a boa constrictor does. The ego-mind is a powerful thing and loves to keep us entertained with delusions of grandeur attempting to use greed as a way to maintain the feeling of "self" and self-importance. It's easy for the ego/mind/self/voice that's in the back of our thoughts to believe, "It's o.k. to be greedy about status as long as it's status as a Buddhist" or "I'm not being mean. They just don't understand how "enlightened" or practiced I am."

So with this ego-mind we sometimes try to convince everyone else to become Buddhist or to remind others that they're not doing such and such as exactly how the Buddha taught in the Tripitaka. It's not the business of Zen or our personal business to try and move people toward what we we personally might think (with a heartfelt belief as the verse above says) is how they should practice Buddhism. The mountains move only when they want to move just like people. It is not our task to proselytize door-to-door as missionaries for Buddhism. It is equally not our task to be the Dharma police.

Leave people be, leave the mountains where they are. As the saying goes, "When the student is ready, the teacher will appear." A person has to come to Buddhism of their own commitment for it to mean anything authentic and to see any meaningful progress. Rearranging the deck chairs on the titanic didn't keep it from sinking and constantly drilling someone in the ears with the Dharma over and over isn't going to keep them from falling away from Buddhism if their heart isn't in it. As I said, mountains only move when they want to move. In order for the Dharma to be sincere in our lives and in the lives of others it has to evolve for each person in their own time.

UPDATE: I wanted to add an addendum to expand a bit upon an aspect to this discussion that Lorem Ipsum brought up in the comment section about being open to sharing the Dharma but not until others are ready and approach us about it. It's a further explanation of what I wrote above. I thought it was an important thought that I had overlooked a bit in the post. I'd add my own twist to it by saying that I talk about Buddhism a bit with non-Buddhists but very sparingly and not in-depth unless questions are asked of me. If people want to know about it then I will gladly discuss it with them but as the verses say it's not our job to move mountains. I usually won't go into any great depth unless someone asks specific questions about Buddhism and what it means to be a Buddhist. I try and emphasize that I'm not an ordained teacher or Dharma scholar. So when my knowledge is exhausted I urge them to seek out a teacher and read books if they have further questions. Especially books from ordained, experienced masters like Thich Nhat Hanh, Ajahn Chah or the Dalai Lama.

~Peace to all beings~

Interdependence in World Politics.

Recently American President Barack Obama traveled to Russia and with the help of his Russian counterpart negotiated a deal to reduce nuclear weapons between the two countries. For too long America has seen itself as the only important country in the world, which has bred the three poisons with alarming but predictable speed: Greed, hatred and delusion. Thankfully America now has a leader that better understands how interconnected the world is and just how destructive and counterproductive the "us vs. them" mentality can be. I thought this quote from Obama about interconnection in world affairs was refreshing talk for a political leader because politics is all too often used to exploit people, money and power:

There is sometimes a sense that old ways of thinking must prevail; a conception of power that is rooted in the past rather than in the future... In 2009, a great power does not show strength by dominating or demonizing other countries... As I said in Cairo, given our interdependence, any world order that tries to elevate one nation or one group of people over an other will inevitably fail. The pursuit of power is no longer a zero-sum game - progress must be shared.

James: A verse from the Tao Te Ching comes to mind:

If you want to govern the people you must place yourself below them If you want to lead the people you must learn how to follow them.

Tao Te Ching v.66, Paragraph 2.

Barack Obama isn't a perfect leader but it is refreshing to hear a leader speak of interconnection, interdependence and the oneness of all people and cultures.

~Peace to all beings~

The Oasis of Dharma.

The Self cannot be pierced by weapons or burned by fire; water cannot wet it, nor can the wind dry it. The Self cannot be pierced or burned, made wet or dry. It is everlasting and infinite, standing on the motionless foundations of eternity. The Self is unmanifested, beyond all thought, beyond all change. Knowing this, you should not grieve.

-Bhagavad Gita 2 23-25

James: This description of oneness is the kind of wisdom that initially attracted me to Eastern spirituality. As many of you know I was raised in a very strict, dogmatic Christian religion, which shaped my life in every way. Eventually as I matured into adulthood that carefully constructed, isolating world started showing cracks. I could no longer stay in the religion because I began to see it as incompatible with the world I was discovering as an adult.

It didn't fit with the new ideas, concepts and information that I had been sheltered from all those years and my world crashed down around me like a cascading crystal chandelier falling from above. For the first time in my life I felt truly alone, lost and didn't know what or whom to trust. And so like many in this world of chaos, selfishness and suffering I felt overwhelmed. Add modernity's way of diminishing peoples' value and I was living in constant fear and anguish.

I was going through my own process of seeing the true unsatisfactory nature of the real world as Buddha did. I drifted into nihilism and hated just about everything and everyone that I came into contact with and then I began reading books on Buddhism and other Eastern spiritual traditions. I began to see hope and sought out every book and teacher on the subjects that I could find. I was insatiable. It was like I had been wandering in a desert thirsting for relief and stumbling upon a cool, relaxing, refreshing oasis. Except that at this oasis there was a Buddhist master patiently sitting at the side of the clear, clean, crisp pool waiting for me to finish guzzling the water. The water was like the initial gratification of finding Buddhism before realizing that was just the tip of the iceberg. It was as if he smiled and said, "Water is nice but you must find the infinite oasis for lasting relief."

This master (Buddhism) began teaching me not only how to survive the suffering of thirst (greed, anger, delusion--suffering in general) but taught me how to survive traveling through the desert (samsara) in a way that wouldn't be so painful and discouraging. So that one day I would reach my destination (Nirvana--liberation from traveling from life to life in an infinite cycle of suffering) and no longer be lost wandering the disorienting desert (samsara). This of course was the Dharma. I had spent too long just looking for the next oasis (immediate gratification) instead of trying to actually find the way out of the damn desert altogether!! It took Buddhism to show me that life changing discovery.

I was no longer looking through the self-isolating eyes of individualist, materialism. I zoomed out and saw the bigger picture, which made me smaller and I found some much needed relief in that reality. Saying that feeling small made me feel relief might sound odd to those new to ideas of the Higher Self or Oneness. Or to those use to the materialism of the West. However, it helped me feel for the first time that I wasn't alone and that I didn't have to take on this overwhelming world alone.

I was apart of a much bigger essence that could never be diminished, tarnished or taken away regardless of what this sometimes mean and nasty world could present as an obstacle. It gave me a feeling of belonging, true belonging that could never be taken away because how do you take away everything that is? How do you take away Oneness? How can you separate the molecules that make up your body from the molecules that make up the air that surrounds your entire body? How do you then separate the air molecules from those that make up the radiation from the sun that keeps all things on Earth alive? And how do you separate those radiation molecules from dark matter and gravity? So if we are both this body AND air, earth, water, fire, space dust, dark matter and who knows what else--how can you feel alone and lost after knowing all of that? As the quote says,"Knowing this, you should not grieve." It's easy to diminish an individual but impossible to diminish the totality of the all that exists.

I soon realized, however, that it isn't as easy as just making that discovery--it takes a lot more than discovering a mine to find enough to gold to free you from poverty. It's not easy following the path of Dharma but I have seen enough to know that it sure is worth it and better than the alternative. It's easy to forget to look at the compass (not practice the Dharma) while traveling toward the end of the desert (samara) so I keep meditating and breathing my way toward liberation. The funny thing is that in reality there is no desert!!

~Peace to all beings~

The Tank Man. Has Anything Changed Since?

Part IIPart IIIPart IVPart VPart VIPart VIIPart VIII

Let us remember the Tiananmen Massacre and honor the memory of the victims. Freedom, peace and redemption will triumph one day for China. I remember the '89 revolution very well and especially tank man. It has me thinking on this 20th anniversary of my own inner tank man, which is my Buddha nature that stands up to the oppressive power of greed, hatred and delusion. May we all reconnect with our inner tank man.

If tank man can stand up to the overwhelming power of the Chinese authoritarian regime then it gives me hope that I can overcome the things that prevent me from realizing less suffering. First and foremost of course he stands for personal freedoms for China but the lasting power of his example is that the message is universal. It tells me that we are much stronger than we realize and is a powerfully motivating reminder that yes, indeed I will realize liberation because the potential is there and I need that reminder to keep me motivated.

~Peace to all beings~

Dana for Robert Aitken Roshi.

Robert Aitken Roshi is in very poor health and in need of our dana. I first heard about this from Al on his great blog Open Buddha. I can't say it any better than Al so I'm just going to re-post his great write up. I hope Al won't mind and please know that these words are his and not mine--thanks Al for bringing this to our attention (bowing):

Robert Aitken Roshi is one of the earliest Western teachers of Zen still alive today. He was exposed to Zen while in a Japanese internment camp in Kobe, Japan after being captured as a worker in Guam. Following the war, he went on to study in America and then in Japan before returning to the States. He has been teaching here in the West continually for 50 years now. I’ve read a number of his books and have learned a lot from them.

Aitken Roshi has been sick for a number of years now, suffering a stroke a few years ago. While he isn’t destitute, he does require round the clock care. I read today that he’s been diagnosed with Parkinson’s recently but has been active in his sangha in spit [sic] of his illness. Because of his care requirements, there has been a general call to the Buddhist community for support and financial help for Aitken Roshi, a man who has given his life to the Dharma. He is not going to be able to afford the care on his own for very long and there is no retirement plan for Zen masters.

I’ve donated to help and I would encourage others to consider doing the same as well. You can find out more information, as well as give donatations, at http://www.aitkenroshi.org.

James: Master Aitken has done so much for Zen and Buddhism here in America and around the world. Let us all come together and help make his suffering a bit less through a donation. He looks so old and frail in that picture yet noble and beautiful as ever--he shows us that growing old and getting sick need not be as miserable as our mind would want to make it.

Dana is a Buddhist principle of donating or giving something we value to others that helps alieviate the suffering of others and purify our minds of one of the three poisons--greed. Dana need not be money--in fact one of the things that is most valuable is our time. Spending time just being with other people and sharing a moment is sharing the precious gift of mindfulness and suchness. And it need not include a lot of talking--some of the most wonderful moments that I've shared with others has been just sharing silence together and enjoying the sounds of nature around us.

~Peace to all beings~

Diamond in the Ruff.

Meditation is many things to me. It is the ultimate medication--like garlic it's helps just about everything.

Today's meditation was like sitting under a water fall after a long day of marching through a steamy, exhausting jungle. As I sat there each breath washed away grime of delusions built up in my mind to once again reveal the Buddha nature within all things.

In keeping with the three jewels imagery I see Buddha-nature as a perfectly cut and brilliant diamond buried in the mud of the delusions, greed, anger within the hologram of the self. It gives me perspective to see the self as a suit coat that one wears to work. It can be put on but also taken off and that it only has form when I wrap myself in it.

It is not permanently strapped to me though at times I get so used to it and I forget that I'm wearing it and those are times of delusion thinking that the suit coat gives me comfort but it is a false sense of comfort. It might bring slight warmth (pay raise) for a time but sooner or later it will become constrictive (attachment to money and power) and cause great discomfort (suffering) and must be shed. The trick is for me to be mindful enough to realize that I don't need the suit (self) to realize retirement (Buddhahood) from the work place (samsara).

But let's get back to the diamond--even when all those layers of mud, dirt and silt cover that diamond of Buddha-nature its essence never dulls or changes. Buddha-nature is indestructible and never loses its luster and pure essence regardless of what covers or conceals it. A diamond can wait for eons locked inside a dark, dirty and hard chunk of rock but it's pure nature never changes. It waits locked inside our karma to be unveiled to bask in the vast openness and freedom of Buddhahood to reflect the glorious light of Nirvana.

PHOTO CREDIT: Click here.

~Peace to all beings~

Black Friday Earns Its Name.

(PHOTO: Crowds push through doorway on Black Friday to buy products on sale)

As man of you know yesterday was Thanksgiving Day in America, which is a day when friends and family come together to celebrate all the things that they are thankful for during the past year. It has also become an orgy of eating as much food as can possibly eaten. I myself find it odd to be thankful for having food to eat and then engorge yourself on more food than necessary when a good portion of that food could have been donated to homeless shelters.

Well given America's great lust for buying and owning "things" the day after Thanksgiving (today) has turned into what people call "Black Friday." Black is the term used to describe when a company/business makes a profit, (red being losing money) and Friday being the day after Thanksgiving, which is the busiest shopping day of the year. There are often great deals on this day with retailers offering many products at much lower prices. This often creates long lines of people who are looking to buy up these discounted products and people often wait over-night for the stores to open. It's considered the official start of the Christmas/Chanukkah shopping season.

Black is also a traditional color of mourning the death of friends and family.

This year there was one store where the crowd was so large and built up pressing on the doors that the store clerk was trampled and killed by the stampeding crowd racing to snatch up the discounted items!! AND a pregnant woman was injured so bad that she miscarried her child!!

(UPDATE: Two people were killed by gunshots at a Toys R Us toy store in California. Two teen-age girls were seen fighting over something in the electronics area of the store when a third person who accompanied one of the girls fired a gun).

There is no better example of the kind of suffering that is created through greed then these tragic story. So much of the stuff we buy ends up tossed in the trash bin after a few months of enjoyment of these products before moving on to the next gadget. We have literally become a throw away society, which now apparently includes life. We are willing to put the lives of others in danger for just the possibility of "happiness" through money and gadgets.

But it's not about denying myself of all gadgets and "things" but rather finding that glorious middle-way, which allows enjoying some of what the world has to offer yet with moderation. I, nor anyone else I know needs something so bad that I will line up at 3a.m. with a rowdy, pushy, selfish crowd of people willing to jostle, shove and apparently trample others to buy up the store. It is extremely sad that the Christmas gift giving tradition once being a way to remember and learn to give to others as those who gave gifts to Jesus upon his supposed birth did has turned into this animalistic tradition of mayhem and greed.

I try my best to be happy with what I have and to be responsible in what I buy and how I buy it. I find it sickeningly ironic to push someone out of the way and fight over products and position in line to bring some happiness to your child, friend or brother. It's making someone else suffer so that you can bring just the possibility of a little happiness to someone else. Is it really worth it? Not to me. I prefer people wanting to buy me something to donate to a charity in my name.

~Peace to all beings~

Gold Scratched Off Historic Golden Buddhas in Burma.

by Aye Nai, Democratic Voice of Burma, Oct. 14, 2008

Magwe, Myanmar -- A pagoda treasurer and local village authorities have scratched off gold coating worth five billion kyat from historical Buddha statues in a village in Magwe division's Yaynanchaung township, according to villagers. "NLD member U Nan Win from Pin Phayagon village saw the pagoda's treasurer Mya Moe, the village Peace and Development Council chairman Kyi Nyunt and six other people in the village scratching off the gold from the Buddha statues," Tint Lwin said.

James: It's a horrible shame whenever a sacred site/object is desecrated, however, in the end even the most sacred Buddha is just an object. A sacred site is impermanent like anything else and placing too much importance to it only wraps the ropes of attachment that much tighter around us. The gold coating attracts this kind of greed and waters the already hearty seeds of desire and is one of the reasons that I think golden Buddha statues are excessive.

PHOTO: Not the pagoda mentioned in the story.

~Peace to all beings~

Animals Farmed For Meat Are The No. 1 Source Of Food Poisoning Bug, Study Shows.

ScienceDaily (Sep. 26, 2008) — A study by researchers from Lancashire, England, and Chicago, IL, found that 97 percent of campylobacteriosis cases sampled in Lancashire were caused by bacteria typically found in chicken and livestock. The work is based on DNA-sequence comparison of thousands of bacteria collected from human patients and animal carriers. Campylobacter jejuni causes more cases of gastroenteritis in the developed world than any other bacterial pathogen, including E. coli, Salmonella, Clostridium and Listeria combined. Wild and domestic animals act as natural reservoirs for the disease, which can also survive in water and soil.

James: This is part of the reason that I became a vegetarian to avoid this kind of stuff but it must also be said that vegetables can become tainted too. We "veggies" can get a little self-righteous sometimes so here's a good dose of reality for us because it must be said that even vegetarians are taking lives too so to some degree we can not avoid taking lives.

Few of us are in a position to judge meat eaters or anyone else for "killing by proxy." Being part of the world economy entails "killing by proxy" in every act of consumption. The electricity that runs our computers comes from facilities that harm the environment. Books of Buddhist scriptures are printed on paper produced by an industry that destroys wildlife habitat. Worms, insects, rodents and other animals are routinely killed en masse in the course of producing the staples of a vegetarian diet. Welcome to samsara. It is impossible for most of us to free ourselves from this web; we can only strive to be mindful of entanglement in it. One way to do so is to reflect on how the suffering and death of sentient beings contributes to our comfort. This may help us to be less inclined to consume out of mere greed.

James: One of the main reasons that I practice vegetarianism is to increase loving-kindness and compassion. I know that I can't completely avoid taking lives even being a vegetarian but I can limit the number of lives that I take. As an omnivore I was taking lives of insects in the course of producing the staples of a vegetarian diets as mentioned above but I was also taking the lives of animals. So I wanted to live so that I was taking the least amount of lives possible--causing the least suffering and harm.

While I don't agree with the taking of animal life for food I try not to judge people who do eat meat as terrible people. It is a personal choice either way. I have many, many family and friends who eat meat and I still love them and respect them as much as I did before I became a vegetarian. I just tot along my faux meat products and veggies to BBQ's and dinners where most will be eating meat.

~Peace to all beings~

The True Battle of Chernobyl Uncensored.

1986 was a difficult year for the world. In January the United States saw the explosion of the space shuttle, Challenger during lift off. Then in April a man made disaster of epic proportions was triggered that rocked the then Soviet Union in Russia which affected the world as a result of the explosion of nuclear reactor #4 at the Chernobyl nuclear plant in Ukraine.

I remember this accident vividly even though I was only 10 years old. The true reality of the extent of the damage wasn't fully known for some time due to the censorship of the Communist Party of the USSR but now 22 years later the true story is finally being told.

And just yesterday I discovered a stellar, brilliant documentary (viewable at the bottom of this post) that compiles all the information known up to the present regarding the Chernobyl nightmare. It is beyond sobering but a must view due to the current push to build more nuclear reactors in the face of global warming and the current oil crisis.

It is true that it emits the least amount of greenhouse gases of any currently known energy options. However the problem is that the energy is highly unstable, dangerous and is difficult to control. It only takes one slight error to cause long lasting, world wide disaster. In addition, there is still the problem of how to safely "store" the highly, dangerous, radioactive waste.

As a Buddhist I can't condone something with such a high risk for death and suffering. The probability of major accidents is small but another Chernobyl will eventually occur given the imperfect nature of human beings. I can not advocate for an energy where an accident can kill as many people if not more than a war. I am very committed to the precept of not killing or causing suffering and nuclear energy is like playing with a loaded gun, sooner or later it will cause an accident, kill someone and/or cause tremendous suffering. The difference, however, is that the nuclear loaded gun has the potential to kill all life on Earth.

Pushing nuclear energy is a short-sighted and a less skillful view being that it places greed and desire for instant gratification over long-term considerations of safety and other consequences. It is extreme selfishness to push for taking such stupid risks rather than live more modestly, conserve and invest in safer, more natural energy. It is gambling with the life and happiness of our children and grand-children.

It runs at an hour and 30 minutes and is one of the best documentaries that I have ever seen. I strongly urge you to watch it. It is truly a powerful and important documentary. The true story of Chernobyl must be known and seen to remind ourselves of the irreversible disasters that can easily occur when using nuclear power:

~Peace to all beings~