It is with great pleasure that I publish the collective works of many Buddhist Bloggers; our first eSanga Newsletter. I am both humbled and amazed at your content and the amount of responses. I have learnt a lot from many of you. I hope dear reader, you enjoy our newletter as much as I have putting it together.
This is a co-created newsletter, please submit an article for our next edition. The next edition will be hosted over at Renegade Buddha in a fortnight’s time. If you’d like to host the edition after that, drop me a comment.
Metta,
Wade, TMW.net
(Please update your articles linking back to the newsletter, allowing readers to easily find the whole newsletter.)
Conquering the self in practice is not just about rites and rituals. It’s seeing every moment of every day as an opportunity to continually define and refine. Entering The Path have a great post on this that really hits home. Some of this is quoted below.
In practice sometimes I think we fight against reality, we fight against what is taking place or try play it down. What I find is that when we come into line with actual reality, we then feel more at peace with the situation, as well as enabling the chance to change the situation.
Some people see Buddhism as a selfish practice. Buddhism, however, isn’t selfish at all, it’s the total opposite. Oxygen masks in airplanes, help to display this in Buddhism. The saying on planes, Put(ting) your oxygen mask on before assisting others, is a selfless teaching. The reason for putting your mask on first, is the Buddhist parallel; “You’ll be no good to anyone if you don’t remain conscious.”
Once you have your mask on things get really exciting on the path. You are then able to help others, by put their masks on for them. You can guide other to the path; you can become their oxygen line. You can begin to bring them peace. No longer are you seen as selfish, your true nature is seen as a selfless, giving person.
In Buddhism your practice will actually get stronger and grow more rapidly once your mask is on. Once you understand how things work inside you, you’ll naturally begin to see how they work in others the same way. You will discover how things work in other people, and see them as teachings about and for yourself.
To help others, you must help yourself first. If you try to help others initially, you will both remain unconscious and will not be able to guide them to the path. Sometimes what appears to the unskilled eye as a selfish gesture is really the most selfless gesture there is.
It takes great courage to help yourself before helping another. It goes against the nature of self. Be skill, however, put on your mask, help yourself, become conscious, and then you will really be helping others.
The person, who thinks all the time, has nothing to think about, except thoughts. And so he loses touch with reality and lives in a world of illusion…Time to wake up..You see we all know what reality is, but we can not describe it….To get in touch there is an art of meditation….
Below are 8 tips to help develop your meditation and Buddhist practices. This is part two in my series of meditation tips.
The word “water†cannot make you wet.(Alan Watts) Words are the concepts, or the pointers, they are not the actual. Go beyond the words and get wet. A Zen master who raised his hand to point at the moon overhead asked his students: Is this the moon, or the finger pointing at the moon?
Let your breath become natural, try not to manipulate it. Controlling your breathing is a form of attachment.
Keep on sitting and developing your Right Effort. Try to develop a sitting routine each day at a certain time. Join a sanga if you can find one. Continual practice is the key to results. Don’t be upset if you can’t make a sitting, but make no excuses.
No one can walk the path for you. You have to water and feed your own seed so it may blossom.
When meditating, if you get tired, or reach a point of discomfort, observer it how it is. Tiredness and pain are ego’s way of try keep your flower from blooming. Observe your experience how it how is, with the understanding that it will pass.
If noise or distractions arise, let them wash over and you. If you attach to distractions, you become stuck. Let them become part of your practice. Remain aware and equanimous to reality as it is, not how you want it to be.
Refrain from labeling or counting your breath. Breathe naturally without force. Labeling and counting is very easy to start, but hard to stop. Save yourself the problem of trying to stop later, but not starting at all.
When thoughts or emotion arise in your mind, watch them pass like a cloud through the sky. You are not the cloud, you are the sky. Like the sky, allow all clouds to pass without judgment or attachment. Through the passing of clouds in the sky, develops stillness.
Nirvana literally means extinction. Like the extinction of a candle flame, or the extinguishing of passions. Nirvana is also known as “freedom from desire, and therefore freedom from suffering.” We can investigate nirvana to a deeper understanding when we relate it to our breath. Continue reading ‘Nirvana? Extinction? What it’s All About’
