We live in this world today with many distractions. The personal computer, television, and many other electronic conveniences, not to mention highly complicated equipped cars and houses to benefit our lifestyle. What is our lifestyle? It consists of everything fast and convenient. Everybody wants everything now and if they cannot have everything now they do not want it at all. Technology is our god and we worship constantly. Damned is the person who comes between our gadgets and us. We as a western society are very materialistic. We think that the newest, best and most expensive is what will bring us happiness. But do we ever find ourselves truely happy?
Our minds and lives are extremely preoccupied with getting as much money as possible. This is apparent because this country is the model of capitalism for the world. People are out to get everybody else, in the world of business. It is "every man for himself" in this "dog eat dog world." We do not care about anyone else but ourselves. In our quest for riches, many of our families and friends get either pushed aside or left behind. Buddha said, "like a mother who protects her child, her only child, with her own life, one should cultivate a heart of unlimited love and compassion towards all living beings." Martin Buber would call the selfish, loveless western relationship that we have with the world an I-it relationship. People who live in an I-it world treat everything, including other people, as objects. There is no sense of caring, love or warmth. The lack of love can lead to violence, substance abuse, and eventually to our own demise. All they show is a cold, hard look at life.
This objectifying look on life stems from our embrace of the scientific world. The scientific world puts life under a microscope, pulls it apart and analyzes it. They look at things individually and not at how things work together. The scientific world pulls apart life and gives it a cold, sterile feel. And this is the world that we have adopted-the cold, sterile world of mind numbing science. There is always some goal to achieve, some battle to be won and everything in our world reflects that, even our language. Buber realizes this and says that this is not the way it should be, "the life of a human being does not exist merely in the sphere of goal-directed verbs. It does not consist merely of activities that have something for their object." There is another way and it lies within.
Part I
Fundamentals of Buddhism
Buddhism is more than just dressing in a robe and sitting under a tree meditating. Buddhism is about finding yourself within. "…Man has the power to liberate himself from all bondage through his own personal effort and intelligence." Buddhism is about freeing yourself from desire and the trap where it holds you captive. "…Man's emancipation depends on his own realization of Truth, and not on the benevolent grace of a god or any external power as a reward for his obedient good behaviour." You depend on yourself to be happy not an object or another person. Finding happiness means that you must first have tolerance, understanding and peace within yourself.
There is no blind faith, like there is in Judeo-Christian religions. Buddhists do not believe in a god that is external from themselves. God, for them, is inside themselves. In order to connect with the god within, they meditate to the state of Nirvana. Nirvana literally means blowing out or extinction, but for our purposes, it is the absolute Truth or reality. Nothing else is important except the Truth and whatever leads you there.
Leading you to the state of Nirvana or to the Truth, are the Four Noble Truths. The first is Dukkha; the second is Samudaya; the third is Nirodha, and the fourth is Magga.
The first Noble Truth, dukkha, is also called the noble truth of suffering. Dukkha in the ordinary use of the word, means suffering, pain, sorrow, or misery. But we use the deeper meanings-imperfection, impermanence, emptiness, and insubstantiality-for this noble truth. We must take account of the pleasures of life as well as of its pains and sorrows and also of freedom from them in order to understand life completely and objectively. And once we do, only then is true liberation possible.
The second Noble Truth, samudaya, is better known as the arising of dukkha. The arising of dukkha is defined as a thirst or craving. "'It is this thirst which produces re-existence and re-becoming, and which is bound up with passionate greed, and which finds fresh delight now here and now there, namely, thirst for sense-pleasures, thirst for existence and becoming, thirst for non-existence.'" "It is this thirst, desire, greed, craving, manifesting itself in various ways, that gives rise to all forms of suffering and the continuity of beings." A simpler way to explain thirst is a selfish desire that holds us prisoners, like the song of the sirens. Usually, it is a thirst for happiness but we look for it in the wrong places-material items and the like-and because we do not open our eyes, or close our ears, we are drawn to it. Then, not being satisfied with what we "found" we move on to "find" something else. It is a never-ending cycle of disappointment and unhappiness.
Breaking this cycle is what the third Noble Truth, nirodha-the cessation of dukkha is about. This truth is the emancipation, liberation, freedom from suffering, from the continuity of dukkha or thirst; this truth is Nirvana-the extinction of thirst. Nirvana is the state of mind where you no longer have selfish desires because in Nirvana there is no self. How can there be no self? Once you see that inside yourself you are just like the world around you, self, as you know it, no longer exists. You are liberated from yourself, the seven deadly sins, and the siren's song.
After Nirvana, the fourth Noble Truth is magga or the path. Sometimes it is referred as the Way leading to the cessation of dukkha. This is known as the Middle Path because it avoids the two extremes:
one extreme being the search for happiness through the pleasures of the senses, which is low, common, unprofitable and the way of the ordinary people; the other being the search for happiness through self-mortification in different forms of asceticism, which is painful, worthy and unprofitable.
This path is called the Eightfold Path, which consists of eight categories that you follow so that you do not stray from the path of Nirvana. These eight categories are: (1) right understanding, (2) right thought, (3) right speech, (4) right action, (5) right livelihood, (6) right effort, (7) right mindfulness, and (8) right concentration. In a way these are like the Ten Commandments-ways to help you live a better life.
Right understanding is seeing things as they truly are without delusions or distortions because all things change, and developing wisdom by knowing how things work and by knowing yourself and others. Right thought is a wholehearted resolution and dedication to overcoming the dislocation of self-centered craving through the development of loving kindness, empathy and compassion. Right speech means to abstain from lies and deceptions, backbiting, idle babble, and abusive speech. You should be honest and truthful and practice speech that is kind and benevolent. Let your words reflect your desire to help, not harm others. When you practice right action, you practice self-less conduct that reflects the highest statement of the life you want to live. You express a conduct that is peaceful, honest and pure, showing compassion for all beings. Right livelihood means to avoid work that causes suffering to others or that makes a decent, virtuous life impossible. You should not engage in any occupation that opposes or distracts you from the path. Your work should love and serve our world. Right effort seeks to make the balance between the exertion of following the spiritual path and a moderate life that is not over-zealous. You should be working to develop more wholesome mind states, while gently striving to go deeper and live more fully. To be in right mindfulness, you need to be aware of your thoughts, emotions, body and world as they exist in the present moment because your thoughts create your reality. Through constant vigilance in thought, speech and action seek to rid the mind of self-centered thoughts that separate and replace them with those that bind all beings together. Right concentration seeks to extinguish the last flame of grasping consciousness through the application of meditation and mental discipline, and develops an emptiness that has room to embrace and love all things.
This is not as confusing as you think. Once you understand dukkha, you will understand the arising of dukkha, the cessation of dukkha, and the path leading to the cessation of dukkha. This is something that all of a sudden you will see and then you will understand how it all fits together.
The Fundamentals of Taoism
Taoism can be confusing, but you do not need to read the Tao Te Ching to understand its basic principals. First, tao literally means the way. The way to what? It is the way to live life. "…The tao is also the way followed by the inanimate universe as well as by man." According to Chinese tradition, the way was here before the world, the heavens, or the universe. The way is the blueprints for how everything in the universe works.
This way of life, is so simple, it is complicated. They have basic rules that you follow to stay on the path of the way. Taoists are a very selfless people. They believe in doing for others in order to bring happiness to themselves. "A man can achieve his own happiness only by pursuing the happiness of others, because it is only by forgetting about his own happiness that he can become happy." They have a very strong tie to their community. If you do for your neighbor, you will benefit the community and therefore benefit your family, which in turn benefits the community. It is very cyclical. And because of this cyclical nature, they live in balance with the universe.
The delicate balance between opposing forces is what keeps the universe in order. How do you get such a balance in your own life? Simple, make sure you have the necessities for life but do not overindulge. It is neither good to have nothing nor is it good to have a lot of something. If this follows you throughout all aspects of life, then you will be following the way. But can you really apply this to real life in today's society?
Part II
Practical Applications
How can you live in the delicate balance of the tao and still be modern? Easy, but it takes a little work. First, you have to do a little spring cleaning and reorganizing. Work on the physical stuff first, after you have that down the mental balance will follow. Get rid of all the stuff you no longer use, because if you do not use it you do not need it. That stuff becomes overwhelming, you cannot organize it and therefore you cannot lead a balanced life. After you get rid all the extra stuff, begin to organize the stuff that you have. You will feel calmer and more balanced.
Second, work with your diet. You do not need to completely change your diet, just balance it. Make sure that you eat both meats (proteins) and vegetables (vitamins, minerals) along with grains (starches) and other food groups. As long as you get a good balance of all them you will be following the way. How will you know if you are getting a good balance? Your body has a way of telling you when you are out of balance. If you have a balanced diet, you will feel energized, calmer in stressful situations, and be healthier.
You do not need to give up your stereo or your television. You are not giving up the things that you like to do either. This is about managing your time. You need to have time to spend with your family, your friends, and yourself. When you do spend time with either others or yourself, do not do the same thing all the time. Go out one week and the next week stay in. Too much of doing one thing is not good for your body; it throws you off balance.
So much in life can throw you balance and so little is necessary to maintain that balance once you achieve it. You have managed to be a Taoist in the modern world, how do you be a Buddhist today without joining a monastery?
Buddhism is easier to incorporate into modern life after you incorporate Taoism. Taoism helps you to find your way to the Truth. It helps you liberate yourself from constraints of desire. To get to the Truth, you should meditate. You can meditate everyday, once a week, every month, or somewhere in-between. How can you meditate by yourself without the help of an instructor? It is very easy to do.
Part III
Meditation
First, find a place where you can be comfortable and not have to worry about being disturbed or interrupted. Second, sit in a comfortable position. Then, take a few deep breaths until you are fully aware of your every breath. You may close your eyes if it helps. Starting at the top of your head, imagine your muscles relaxing, your face, neck, shoulders, and so on down to your toes. After you have relaxed, see a beam of light coming out of the sky or the top of the room and shine on you as you sit. Feel its warmth. Still aware of your breathing, breathe in the warm light. As you inhale and exhale, light is flowing through you.
While the light flows in and out of your body, begin to be aware of how your body feels both inside and out. Pay attention to your senses. What do you smell, taste, and hear? What is your body doing?
Once you have mastered paying attention to your surroundings during meditation, you will begin to notice that you will start knowing things-if you are open to them. These things will come without reason, or logic. Eventually with practice, you will start to know the Truth. You will find that the Truth is very difficult to explain to another human being, but you will know it none-the-less.
Conclusion
Following this guide you will be a lot happier, not immediately but once you are able to live in the Truth everyday. There is nothing like the feeling of knowing the Truth; it is indescribable. But, people will notice the difference in you. You will seem to be smiling at all times. You will be calmer while driving in traffic and in other stressful areas of life. This is the ultimate stress management. One thing to remember: you do not need to convert to any church or temple to be a Taoist Buddhist, for it is a way to live your life-simpler.
This paper was presented to Dr. Glenn Whitehouse, Assistent Professor of Philosphy/Religion at Florida Gulf Coast University, April, 1999. This page is not affilated with FGCU in any way. I am just an alumnae.
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