Today I witnessed a group activity that renewed my faith in the human race.
The individuals in this group were, without a doubt, the most fully-awakened beings I have met in a long time. Each was clearly in touch with her true nature, her joy for life, and her reason for being there. The entire group related to one another (and to themselves) with total honesty, spontaneous emotion, and deep love.
No, these were not monks, lamas, leaders, or saints.
These were eight homeschooled girls between the ages of 3 and 9, at a “My Little Pony”- themed birthday party for Madison, age 6.
The group activity I refer to was a five-minute game of Pin The Tail on the Donkey. But it wasn’t your ordinary version of the game.
Theirs had no winner or losers. There was no competition. They used no blindfold.
Instead, they played the game with eyes wide open.
As each child came to the front of the line to take her turn, she was handed a tail to stick on the donkey. (Actually it was My Little Pony in this case.) Each child decided for herself HOW she wanted to play. Most wanted to do it with their eyes open. And yet, in spite of this seeming-contradiction, each approached the game with total concentration and serious determination. The lack of a blindfold did nothing to take away the fun.
Watching from the sidelines, I almost fainted in delight.
The game took on the spirit of a cooperative art project rather than a competitive sport. When one child did opt to close her eyes, no one cared at all. In fact, no one even seemed to notice where the others placed their tails. It simply didn’t matter. No one was comparing themselves with anyone else.
The goal wasn’t to be the best or outdo your friends. It wasn’t about poking fun at someone who completely missed the mark. (Although my kids always love it when grandpa “accidentally” puts the tail on grandma’s back at our parties.) There were no winners, losers, or prizes. It wasn’t about what you’d get at the end.
It was the simple pleasure of the moment that counted. It was about sharing an activity with friends. Period.
These girls knew that the most direct route to their goal was straight ahead with open eyes. To hell with “rules” that hold you back and pit you against your friends, fostering competition rather than encouraging joy and connection. It was a simple activity that lasted no more than five or ten minutes. But it truly took my breath away. (And I had to bite my tongue to keep from laughing.)
As the birthday girl blew out the candles on her cake, I made a silent wish that these kids will have the courage and wisdom to live their whole lives in the same spirit they had that day at Madison's 6th birthday party, playing together with their eyes, minds, and hearts wide open.
While we try to teach our children all about life,
our children teach us what life is all about.
-- Angela Schwindt
This blog entry is about three letters that Buddhists don’t usually talk about.
No, not S-G-I.
Today I’m talking about GOD.
Yep, G-O-D.
You can call it the mystic law if you prefer. Or the Source. Or the energy that makes it all happen. The little spark that animates us. The creative intelligence that keeps the wheels in motion. The creator, the higher power, the Wizard behind the screen.
Forgive me if I’m not sounding Buddhist. Lately I don’t know where “Buddhist” ends and everything else begins. And by the way, I’m encouraging this confusion in myself. I’m allowing the lines to blur. Permitting the divisions to fade. I’m surrendering and opening up to what feels right in my heart, rather than what works on paper or in theory.
So let’s talk about God.
When I was about three, I asked my dad what God was. He said, “God is anything you want God to be.” “Even a piece of toast?” I asked. “Yes, even a piece of toast,” he replied. I thought this was incredibly cool. (I still do.)
Baba Hari Dass writes, “A yogi searches for God in the world and says, “This is not God… this is not God… this is not God,” and he rejects everything. As soon as he finds God he says, “This is God… this is God.” He begins to see God in everything and accepts everything....”
God in everything. In a piece of toast. In the moon. In the wind, the flowers, the pavement, the dog pee on the patio. God is in me, in you, in every last bit of it. Now and forever.
I’m not talking about a man in the sky with a long white beard. (But you can have that version if that suits your fancy.) I’m talking about the energy within everything. The miracle of life. The fuel that makes the flowers bloom, puts the juice inside an orange, makes our hearts beat. Birth, life, death, everything in between – that’s what I mean by “God.”
Back in the ‘70s, Ram Dass (a Hindu) taught a class at the Buddhist Naropa Center. He alternated evenings with Trungpa Rinpoche (A Buddhist.) Ram Dass says, “Trungpa was teaching about meditation and emptiness, and I was teaching about devotion and the guru. The students felt like they were at a tennis match!”
I don’t think it’s a conflict to add a sense of devotion and surrender and wonder to the practice of Buddhism. For me, it’s a matter of putting gratitude for the miracle of existence or "God" at the head of everything in my practice. Acknowledging this power (or energy or source) makes me feel softer. More open. More connected to others. When we say “Namaste” at the end of my yoga class, I feel my inner light acknowledging the light within each person in the room. It’s the God in me recognizing and appreciating the God in them.
If that’s not Buddhist, oh well.
When my own child was three, out of the blue she told me, “God lives in our hearts and we live in God’s heart.”
I think I’ll hold that thought.
Buddhist practice doesn’t end on the cushion or in front of a mandala. It may begin there, or be revitalized and remembered there. But the point of any formalized, routine spiritual activity – whether it be meditation, chanting, mindful walking, tantric sex, conscious breathing or whatever -- is to positively impact the entirely of one’s life. Not just the 20 minutes or so we spend in front of the altar or in prayer.
How does your Buddhist practice enhance your whole life?
That’s what I want to know.
I don’t care which tradition you embrace, how you practice, whether you chant Nam Myoho Renge Kyo or Om Mani Padme Om or Oobla Dee Oobla Dah. I don’t care if you try to empty your mind and “just sit,” or focus on a dynamic inner visualization.
What I care about is how it all moves forward with you out into your life.
Does it make you a happier person? Does it calm you down? Make you more courageous? Does it keep you sober? Does it make you less angry? Keep you sane when the in-laws come to town? Does it help you be a better parent or partner or dental patient? Does it clear up your skin or lower your blood pressure? Does it ease your fear of wrinkles or cancer or death?
Bottomline. What does it do for you and why do you keep at it?
That’s what I want to know.
My practice enables me to live the best possible life. It keeps me centered in the present moment, with the past and the future (and that fear of death) where they belong. It slows me down, chills me out, and makes me a better listener. It reminds me that not only am I fully responsible for my own life, but also for the well-being of entire world. And that everything matters. But that everything also changes. So do your best and care deeply, but don’t take it all too seriously. It makes me happier, which in turn makes me more silly (much to my kids' chagrin).
A friend who used to follow the Maharishi of TM-fame told me about a mom who came to the guru and said, “I am troubled because I don’t have much time to practice because of my young children.” He replied, “For now, your children are your practice.”
Yes, indeed. My children and my husband and my dog and my work and my garden and my love and my anger and my chronic neck pain – they are all my practice. As much as meditation and chanting and reading the Dhammapada or the Lotus Sutra or any other Buddhist writings.
I try to use it all to wake up, to appreciate my life, to be here now. However it happens – that’s my practice for that moment.
Whatever yours is… however you practice Buddhism… what does it do for you?
That’s what I want to know.
In the introduction to his amazing book “Modern Buddhist Healing,” Charles Atkins, our own Fraught With Peril blogger (“Phantom City”) writes:
“In order for chanting and visualization to work, you do not need to understand Buddhism or alternative medicine any more than you need to understand the complexities of engine design in order to drive a car. Prayer and meditation are elegantly simple in nature, and are absolutely free. Prayer is our direct communication link to the absolute reality of life and the universe. The essence of Buddhist healing is simple enough for a child to master in a few moment and profound enough to humble a skilled physician….To extend my own life, I tapped into that utterly impervious aspect of consciousness free from the agonies of fear, pain, or death. All may enter with a prayer; no one is denied access.”
“All may enter with a prayer.”
Is that beautiful, or what?
Charles is talking about the method he used to heal himself from cancer and that he now generously and compassionate shares with others through his writing. But I believe his approach is right-on for ANYTHING – not just healing from disease or pain. Chanting and prayer can work without us even understanding how. Without us even knowing what Nichiren intended. Without an SGI meeting, without a Gohonzon, without a single grain of Buddhist wisdom.
In fact, maybe chanting works even better without us analyzing and dissecting and getting bogged down in 101 mind-numbing dharmic details. I have a feeling it would for me.
When I first started chanting with the SGI, I was just happy to be chanting. I didn’t have my Gohonzon right away, so I usually chanted while in the bathtub, focusing on the silver faucet. My life began to fall into place in a way I’d never known before. I felt like I was “in the flow,” tapped into the rhythm of my life and the universe in a wonderful new way. (Maybe it had something to do with the bathtub?)
Maybe I should have left it at that. Just chanting in the bathroom. Or while out walking. Or even later on, in front of the Gohonzon, blissfully practicing with an open “Beginner’s Mind” that didn’t know enough to create doubts and mental barriers.
But noooooo. Us Jews, even us Bu-Jus, are notorius questioners. We even answer questions with a question. And so I had to start digging. “What about this Buddhism?” “Does this jive with what I’ve learned in the past?” “How come they don’t mention the Four Nobel Truths?” “Is it really kosher to use a practice based on non-attachment to score a deal on a pair of purple Ugg boots?”
Maybe all the questions would have been okay but one thing got lost in the process:
I stopped chanting. Or at least greatly reduced its frequency. Not that my life stopped working. Not that the flow dried up. I believe there are other ways to keep the faucet open. But there’s something about daimoku that works faster for me.
Maybe “faster” isn’t the best description. But when I chant, even just a few times on a walk, things seem to click into place. Mainly things having to do with people and relationships. Especially people who are also chanting daimoku. “Nam Myoho Renge Kyo” is like a magnet that pulls us together. “Nam Myoho Renge Kyo” is like a shot of caffeine out into the universe. Gets the energy going like nothing else.
And so, I am now going to try it again with that “Beginner’s Mind.” Before chanting, I will thank my brain for her concern, and then kindly request that she take a little vacation. I will turn off the judgements, the chatter, the mental blabber. And just go for it.
If it works, it works. Does it matter why? Does it matter how? (Oh oh, there I go with the questions again.)
I plan to send a copy of "Modern Buddhist Healing" to everyone I know who is facing a physical challenge, even those who are not Buddhist and who would not read or be interested in anything having to do with Buddhism. That’s the beauty of this book, and that’s the magic of daimoku too. Whether we’re Buddhists or Jews or Catholics or Christians or Muslims or agnostics or atheists or anything else, we all have that safe, precious, point of light within us, and we can use the technique Charles teaches to reach it.
As Charles says, “All may enter with a prayer.” What could be more universal and cost effective than that?
Thank you, Charles, for writing your books and connecting... Thank you to everyone on this website for being here and giving me the best education I've ever received on things that really matter... thank you to everyone who reads and comments (or reads and doesn't comment). All this dharmic energy and support is deeply appreciated and has opened up my life in ways I never imagined. Hope it's doing the same for you!
I took down my SGI Gohonzon today.
(No lightening bolts so far….)
I rolled it up and put in the box it came in and put it in a drawer where I keep special things.
(No thunder storms or knocks at the door yet…)
I replaced it with a representation of the Buddha, beautifully embroidered in cloth on a small purse, thoughtfully given to me by my beautiful sister for my birthday this year.
(No earthquakes or even heart palpitations.)
I have had my Gohonzon for awhile now. I gave it my best shot. I like chanting, I enjoy the practice as taught to me by the SGI. This wasn’t an anti-SGI move.
It was me being true to myself. Try as I might, the Gohonzon doesn’t do anything for me. I don’t do anything for it. We just sit there awkwardly staring at one another, the Gohonzon and I, like two mismatched singles on a terrible blind date.
In writing about how to set up a “puja table” which is similar to an altar, Ram Dass says, “In developing an inner Center, a meditative stance, or connecting with your heart cave, it is most useful to create an external quiet space where you can hook up for refueling. When setting up the puja table, choose a quiet place, a place that can be a refuge. You come home feeling speedy, you’re angry at someone – or whatever – sit down in front of the puja table and Remember.Typically, pictures of holy beings, statues, flowers, fruit, beautiful stones or shells, or things which you associate with the highest place in yourself, are put on a puja table….”
This is how I believe an altar should function, too. So today I replaced my Gohonzon with a depiction of the Buddha that touches my heart. I may later replace it with something else. Maybe a small painting of White Tara. Maybe a photograph of a flower, taken by my daughter. Maybe I’ll even put the Gohonzon back at some point. I like to change things around. Shake up my mind. Wake myself up.
But what wakes me up up may not be what wakes you up at all. (My teenager said if she had an altar, it would have a photograph of Chad Michael Murray, a celebrity hottie.) What centers me, focuses me, reminds me of the truth of existence (or at least of my faith in such), is something only I can decide. And since my ultimate challenge and purpose is to trust myself and have faith in my own path, creating a meaningful altar is a really big deal.
Then again, it’s no big deal at all.
I’m blogging on a blog, here… Namely “Tears of the Refugee” by Charles who writes here under “Phantom City.” The interesting comments in his wonderful blog entry raise an issue that has confused me from my very first contact with the SGI… (Hope you don’t mind me quoting you, Charles…)
Charles wrote: “As you notice, there has been subtle effort to de-emphasize the historical Buddha and insert Nichiren as the "true Buddha." Discussion of the life, times, and various teachings and sutras of Shakyamuni is not encouraged... I have long thought that in the SGI, the study should be completely revised. It seems to me that the basics of Shakyamuni's Buddhism should be taught like the Four Noble Truths and the Eightfold path. Ask 10 SGI leaders what are the Four Noble Truths and Eightfold Path, and I assure you that they will not get it right - some won't know any of it.”
Once again, a blog on this site has helped solidify a cloudy question that’s been floating around in my mind… “Where’s the “Buddhism” in Nichiren Buddhism as presented by the SGI?”
I’m not asking this with a critical tone, but rather with genuine curiousity and an inquiring mind. I am hoping all of you out there, who probably know far more than I about Nichiren Buddhism, can help me decipher what’s really shakin’ in the world of those who follow the Daishonin. I am hoping that some of you who are involved in the SGI, or who used to be involved, can shed some light on this for me here. I’m hoping that those of you who practice Nichiren Buddhism outside the SGI can enlighten me, too.
The fact is, the original Buddha is rarely mentioned at an SGI meeting, except in passing during the “Explanation of the Practice.” Nichiren is quoted. President Ikeda is quoted. Sometimes senior SGI leaders are quoted. But our Main Man, the former Gautama Siddhartha, rarely makes the cut. Maybe I’m wrong, but it seems that if we’re practicing BUDDHISM, the teachings of Buddha should be the main emphasis. They clearly were for Nichiren Daishonon, or he would have called himself something other than a “Buddhist” and he would have promoted something other than the Buddha’s “Lotus Sutra.”
In my first blog on this site, I wrote that in all my exposure to Nichiren Buddhism, “Nowhere can I find anything mentioned about the Four Nobel Truths, or the Eightfold Path, or meditation. (I was even told "Nichiren Buddhists don't display statues of Shakamuni because he was "the wrong Buddha.") Nowhere can I find anything about non-attachment or meditation or any of the basics, all aspects of Buddhism I continue to work with on my own. Has the baby been thrown out with the bathwater?”
Now I’ll admit that most of my knowledge of Nichiren Buddhism has come through the SGI. And I’ll confess that I actually do like the practice they taught me. I like chanting. I like how it puts me in rhythm with something deep within myself and something vast outside myself. I like the way it really works. But maybe it should be called something other than “Buddhism.” Other traditions and other Buddhist teachers translate and re-package and update the teachings of the Buddha, but they all remain true to their original source. The Dalai Lama doesn’t ask us to have faith in the Dalai Lama. He asks us to practice Buddha dharma.
I guess the bottomline question for me is: Is “Buddhism” as taught by the SGI really “Buddhism?” And if so, how?
Just when you were exhausted from wondering what a jaywalking chicken has to do with Buddhism, I arrive with a blog that delivers the answer!
It came to me quite by accident, as I was reading the Burton Watson version of The Lotus Sutra in the bathtub tonight. I turned to a chapter where Buddha is telling Manjushri the four rules that a bodhisattvas should abide by if he or she wishes to preach the sutra in the evil age hereafter. It's Chapter 14, page 197...
“They should not closely associate with hazardous amusements, boxing or wrestling, or with actors or others engaged in various kinds of illusionary entertainment, or with chandalas, persons engaged in training pigs, sheep, chickens or dogs.”
So although I'm sure you have compassion for the plight of the Moore's (the owners of the naughty fowl mentioned in my previous blog), you are hereby advised to steer clear if you know what's good for you. (That is, unless they can prove they didn't train that poultry to jaywalk.)
The following story made AOL news headlines today. Seriously, folks.
Now, what does it have to do with Buddhism? Not a damn thing. But I just thought everyone should know, as soon as possible, that "the chicken thing has nothing to do with the motorcycle thing."
RIDGECREST, Calif. (May 9) - Linc and Helena Moore may have finally learned the answer to that age-old question: Why did the chicken cross the road? Because the chicken doesn't know jaywalking is illegal.
Kern County Sheriff's Deputy J. Nicholson does know, however. The deputy issued a ticket on March 26 to one of the couple's chickens for impeding traffic on a road in Johannesburg, a rural mining community southeast of Ridgecrest.
The Moores arrived in Superior Court on Friday to plead not guilty to their chicken's alleged transgression. A trial was scheduled for May 16.
Nicholson has declined to discuss the matter, but sheriff's Sgt. Francis Moore said chickens on the roadway have been a problem in the community of 50 residents. Officials didn't believe it could be resolved by simply issuing the couple a warning.
''Sometimes you have to let people talk to the judge,'' Moore said.
The chicken's owners say they believe they were cited because they were among several people who complained that sheriff's deputies haven't done enough to control off-road vehicle riders who damage roads and create dust and noise in their neighborhood.
Sheriff's officials say that isn't so, adding they are doing what they can to keep off-roaders away from the area's homes.
''The chicken thing has nothing to do with the motorcycle thing,'' Moore said.
05-09-05 12:44 EDT
Copyright 2005 The Associated Press. The information contained in the AP news report may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or otherwise distributed without the prior written authority of The Associated Press. All active hyperlinks have been inserted by AOL.
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In his latest book, “Pathways to God,” Ram Dass talks about gurus and teachers. He mentions upagurus* and how rather than being “gurus,” they are considered in India as teachings. He writes, “They are there like the marker stones along with road that say, 'Go this way. Go that way.' I think, in fact, it is much more productive to look at those beings that way – as teachings rather than as teachers. This way, we can take a teaching here and a teaching there and then go on, instead of getting hung up in deciding “Is this really my teacher?” The whole teacher-trip leads us into making The Big Commitment, and then we sit around judging and comparing and worrying whether we’ve made the right choice.”
Now I know R.D. is referring to the Hindu path, that he has a guru, that he’s made a huge commitment to his practice. But his explanation made me think that in terms of my own Buddhist practice, it would be oh-so-very-nice if Nichiren’s message could be presented as Buddhist teachings, rather than as The Gospel Truth from The Only Valid Teacher.
I don’t want to be a “member” of anything. I don’t want to sign up or, as Ram Dass calls it, make “The Big Commitment” to anything but being true to my own spiritual practice and path. I want to be able to go to a Buddhist meeting to learn about Nichiren Buddhism, not to help a district grow or be the “right” kind of Buddhist or earn brownie points for fitting into an organizational agenda. I want to be able to make it part of my own eclectic practice, just as I do when I take a class in mindfulness meditation or meet with a visiting monk. I don't want to be considered someone's "Shakabuku" and be expected to practice in a certain way in order to be doing it "right."
Do people have to practice and study Nichiren on their own if they want to approach Nichiren Buddhism this way? Are there any independent Nichiren Buddhist authors sharing their experiences and translating the teachings of Nichiren? Are there any groups of Independent Nichiren Buddhists that meet in person and share their practices with no strings attached?
*Not to be confused with Oompaloompas.