"Buddha Nature"? Know Thyself!

Laura Murphy, Jordan Kramer (Against the Stream); Seven (Wisdom Quarterly)
What is our true nature or Siddhartha's for that matter? (Indiaaa.../Flickr.com).

Ever try to define your "true" nature? Can it differ in different contexts? If success is more lasting when it follows our natures, why do so many desert their talents?

I am? I am that I am? I'm basically good, naturally bad? These are the questions I ask.

Pema Chodron (Tibetan nun) on "Basic Goodness"

Then there is the issue of identity, I am...what? What is there to identify with? These passing mental states, this body, these feelings?

Descartes famously misspoke, "I think therefore I am." Surely, based on the evidence, all that could really be said as a foundational truth was "There's thinking so there's thinking."

Something's thinking, but it does not follow that it is some permanent, perfect, unchanging self. "Self" changes. It changes at every moment. It can identify with anything. What is it? The Buddha defined it as "materiality and mentality" or "form (body), feeling, perception, mental formations, and consciousness."

These are the Five Aggregates of Clinging. They cling to one another, and illusion clings to them. They are empty and impersonal in an ultimate sense.

In a conventional sense, here "I am" questioning what is "I," who is "self," what have I been, what will I be? The questions of fools who go on revolving in rebirth and suffering. Renewed becoming depends on this confusion. Rather than being mindful and fearlessly looking at the truth AND THEREBY BEING LIBERATED, we assume the answer and ponder in a hopeless circle.

Siddhartha sat in spite of all the inimical forces that it upset (WTPille/Flickr.com).

To be fully oneself, to embody one's potential, to utilize the talents brought over from countless past lives (or given as "gifts" at birth for no reason), to cultivate skills, to move beyond personal suffering and self-esteem issues... are a few angles to investigate.

To fathom the enigma of my "true" nature -- as Christian evil and fallen, or as essentially good with the potential to be a buddha -- is something any ancient Greek could agree on: KNOW THYSELF.

Watchers of Gilligan's Island already know, "To thine own self be true." That is important. But is that enough. What is the self "I am" being true to?

(ambergristoday.com)

The historical Buddha warned: Thinking won't get you there. If it did, he would have advocated philosophy and debating, voting for truthiness and creating consensus realities. There is a Truth beyond all that. And it is accessible. And the Buddha pointed the way. The pointer is not the way anymore than the reflection of the Moon is the Moon.

We talk about Truth. But Buddhism is a practice, not a dogma, not something to believe. "Come and see. Investigate," the Buddha bid others. You need not take anyone's word for it. "Relying on no one, depending on no other's truth, you will see." The Truth shall set us free.

Of course in our culture, this was hijacked. That famous Bible character became that Truth, that way, that beacon of light. Was that copied from the Buddha's title as the "Light of Asia"? The Buddha did not seek glory. The Truth cannot be hidden forever, whoever found it, rediscovered it, or pointed to it.

If only Western mystics had a way, a step by step way.

All thinking, none knowing
All speaking, none showing
All searching, none finding
Traveling roads that go on winding.
Seven (half remembered words scrawled on a philosophy class desk)

JORDAN: The Buddha never said the words, "Buddha Nature." Where did he say we are naturally or basically good? Before one again starts a sentence "I am...," it might be better to rephrase it: "For right now, it is this way..."

The mind is confused. The mind confuses. The mind, to keep itself a going concern, delights in illusion. It deceives itself. It drags us to suffering. And all the while that seems the thing it dreads. But there it is, standing in the way of Truth and freedom.

SEVEN: You know that saying, "If someone's in your way, and you kick him/her as hard as you can, your butt is going to hurt"? I identify with mind, which is changing at every moment, and stand in my own way. Maybe if I just was rather than imagining "I am this, I am that, I was this, I will be that," maybe if I followed the Buddha's advice and pondered four useful things, I could be free of all suffering.

LAURA: The solutions I come to are based on a thinking mind, which confuses me time and time again. Probably the best way to know is to go inward and experience the luminosity from within -- shining without, and actually see it and feel it, rather than thinking about it. I must pay close attention to this luminous expression, how it feels in my body, in all of my interactions with others, my actions and habits in day to day life. I think that's when -- well, there I go again!

I start to get a deeper understanding beyond mental discernment. It takes repetition -- catching the mind/myself/the Thinker is being mindful -- before this inner knowing starts to make sense, before it can be trusted, before I know that my very being is rooted in life and everyone and everything just as a tree is far larger when the roots are revealed.

It is so easy to become distracted, to forget, to lose direction, to fall off the wagon or get carried away. But I am learning to true my wheel, which can be as simple as coming back to my breath. That is the first and maybe only step in reevaluating my true nature.

I may be uprooted at times, which happens even to the healthiest of trees, so one aspect of my nature is impermanence. In the breath my true nature is revealed, and in feeling the unsatisfactory nature, in mind the impersonal nature... and in nirvana the boundless liberation free of all impermanence, suffering, and delusion.

(Dan Vetree/GR8quotes)

Confessions, Questions, Time for Change!

Culled from the beautiful archives of ShambhalaFreeRadio.org

Confessions of a Buddhist Atheist

Dan Montgomery, Buddhadharma, Comments
Stephen Batchelor wrote a particularly interesting book called Confessions of a Buddhist Atheist. In it he tells his own story of embracing, then rejecting, both Tibetan (Vajrayana) and (Zen) Buddhism.

He weaves in his interpretation of the life of the Buddha. He attempts to strip it of all the elements that Siddhartha would have received from his culture. In this way Batchelor shines a light on what may have been truly original about his realization in becoming a buddha.

I find Batchelor a bit too much of a rationalist for my taste, but his critical framework is interesting and useful as a starting point.

• Interview with Tami Simon

Batchelor examines the Pali Canon [Theravada, the oldest form of Buddhism, which survives in Southeast Asia, surrounding India] in detail to learn what we can most reliably say about the life of the Buddha, based on the earliest records that were written down.

What emerges is a very human portrait.

This Buddha rejected his own kingship. He lived in the forest. He rejected all credentials other than his own insight, and the wisdom of the Earth herself. After his enlightenment or great awakening, he dealt with the politics of the day but never assumed any kind of temporal power or wealth. The Buddha taught, gathered a community (Sangha), but purposely did not appoint a successor other than the Teaching (Dharma) itself.

When his time came to pass, his last words were very simple. There are a number of translations of the Mahaparanibbana Sutta ["Discourse on the Great Passing into Final Nirvana"] out there, but here is a well-researched favorite:

Now the Blessed One advised the monastics: Well now, practitioners, my counsel is this: Experience is disappointing, success comes through vigilance.

[Other translations usually run, "All phenomena is hurtling towards destruction; work out your liberation through diligence [constant mindfulness according to the four foundations]." Other translations place more emphasis on sosotharpa -- individual effort towards liberation -- such as translating the bit about vigilance as “work out your salvation with diligence,” emphasizing the need to, in the end, practice mindfulness and do it yourself.

Also, most other translations make the first statement more objective and philosophical, that is, “Decay is inherent in all component things.” But there’s something much more powerful in the more subjective and psychological statement…. “Experience is disappointing.”

Most of us reading this site likely feel that Buddhist view and practice has had a tremendous positive impact on our lives. At the same time, there is much concern about the relevance of some elements of the Tibetan cultural and political overlay that has developed around Buddhism over the past thousand years. Some of these elements are at best distracting, and at worst corrupting... More

Pönlop Rinpoche — Time for a Change

Commentary by Barbara Blouin (Buddhadharma, Comments)

I just read Dzogchen Pönlop Rinpoche’s new book, Rebel Buddha: On the Road to Freedom (Shambhala Publications). When I read this short passage from the final chapter, I thought it could prompt some interesting discussion here.

The pioneers of Western Buddhism had to overcome certain barriers in order to make sense of this “new” tradition and practice it. They were not only meeting a foreign culture, they were also meeting alien concepts like selflessness and emptiness that made little sense to the Western mind. But they said yes to meditation and working with ego.

Now, roughly fifty years later, it’s time for a change. We’re stuck at a certain level of our spiritual development. What at first woke us up now barely stirs us from our thoughts. What supported our inquiry into who we are now blocks our realization of that. Now we have to ask ourselves how to break through again. This time we’re challenged to break through our attachment to all that brought us to this point -- the spiritual cultures that we so respect and emulate that they’ve become another trap for us.

The Role of Questioning in a Spiritual Community
Anonymous (Radio Free Shambhala, edited by RFS staff)
Spiritual communities vary of course. But there is a history, with its corresponding literature, of how some of them have not only abused power but also undermined the confidence and goodness of their members.

Most of us enter a spiritual path with curiosity, openness, and a willingness and desire to be genuine. We may be searching for answers to deep, existential questions. It might be a transitional time in our lives or a time of crisis, or maybe we just want to make the world a better place.

The spiritual group may promise us hope for a happier life and answers to the world’s problems -- if we follow the program and spiritual advice of the leader and his close associates.

Our new spiritual family also provides an instant social network and feeling that we are part of something bigger, such as working towards world peace, saving the environment, or another good cause. More

Occupy Los Angeles (Oct. 1, 2011)

Wisdom Quarterly, Kloncke.com, OccupyLA.org

Let's our country back from bankers and police state officials by occupying it from coast to coast, from Wall Street and downtown Los Angeles. We are the 99% being destroyed by 1%.

[Kloncke] began gathering some friends into a group we call Bay Area Radical Sangha (BARS). BARS is a space for meditators with "radical" politics. How is that defined? Structural critiques of our racist, hetero-patriarchal, war-reliant, capitalist system.

• RUMOR Alert: RADIOHEAD to play Occupy Wall Street!
• Buddhist production, feminist effort, and the god of work
• Meditation Flash Mob: Noon, Saturday, October 8, 2011 at Pershing Square, downtown Los Angeles

Instead, we support one another in contemplative practice and development. Having met and talked with many of you, I know for a fact that everyone has something wonderful to contribute.

If you are established in some sort of contemplative practice (it does not have to be Buddhist, although this is the foundation of the group) and would like to join in building a committed, holistic center of radical struggle, you are warmly welcomed and appreciated. The first BARS meets in the San Francisco Bay Area. New groups are forming in New York at Occupy Wall Street and Los Angeles at this weekend's launch.

All are welcome to stand up in a peaceful demonstration (occupyla.org)

(TheOther99Percent) Consider donating $9.17 to a Media Fund to continue reports from the front line. OccupyWallStreet.org

Police State Brutality on Wall Street
(USLAWdotcom) This is a slow motion video analysis of the NYPD's mace/pepper spray deployment near Wall Street on Sept. 24, 2011. Alternate angle analyses indicate that this crime was retaliation for an immediately preceding interaction between an officer and some individuals on the sidewalk. More information and updates.