Buddhism

Buddha Shakyamuni 

The historical Buddha, Buddha Shakyamuni (translated as 'the Sage of the Shakya’s,') is the person we call the Buddha.  He was born in Lumbini around 685 BC near the foothill of the Himalayas in what is now Nepal into a royal family, attained enlightenment in Bodhgaya, turned the wheel of the  Dharma (first teaching - the  four noble truths) in Sarnath,  and passed away in Kushinagar.  He is said to have given 84,000 teachings or sutra’s and there are literally thousands of books about him and his teachings.

Kalama Sutra

“Do not believe in anything simply because you have heard it. Do not believe in traditions simply because they have been handed down for many generations. Do not believe in anything simply because it is spoken and rumoured by many. Do not believe in anything simply because it is found written in your religious books. Do not believe in anything merely on the authority of your teachers and elders. But when, after observation and analysis, you find anything that agrees with reason, and is conducive to the good and benefit of one and all, then accept it and live up to it.”. The Buddha

Getting Hooked

In Tibetan there is a word that points to the root cause of aggression, the root cause also of craving. It points to a familiar experience that is at the root of all conflict, all cruelty, oppression, and greed. This word is shenpa. The usual translation is “attachment,” but this doesn’t adequately express the full meaning. I think of shenpa as “getting hooked.” Another definition, used by Dzigar Kongtrul Rinpoche, is the “charge”—the charge behind our thoughts and words and actions, the charge behind “like” and “don’t like.” Here’s an everyday example: Someone criticizes you. She criticizes your work or your appearance or your child. In moments like that, what is it you feel? It has a familiar taste, a familiar smell. Once you begin to notice it, you feel like this experience has been happening forever. That sticky feeling is shenpa. And it comes along with a very seductive urge to do something. Somebody says a harsh word and immediately you can feel a shift. There’s a tightening that rapidly spirals into mentally blaming this person, or wanting revenge, or blaming yourself. Then you speak or act. The charge behind the tightening, behind the urge, behind the story line or action is shenpa. Pema Chödrön, "Don't Bite the Hook" (Summer 2009)

What is mind

The Tibetan word for mind is sem, I should say the word for the ordinary mind. The ordinary mind is the one used to discriminate with e.g. this is good and this bad, this person is good or this person is bad. It is sometimes called the gross mind and this mind changes all the time, a good example is when we sleep. We enter the dream state where everything changes and no two dreams are exactly the same even if they appear to be recurring. This clearly demonstrates the unreliable and illusory nature of our normal or gross mind. This normal or gross mind is transient and unreliable, it generates anger and frustration, unhappiness and judgemental-ism. It occasionally makes you feel happy but it doesn’t last and we go back to swaying from one emotion to another with no control. We are at the control, the whim of this mind as it reacts to every little change as it swings from being offended to flattered, hurt to happy. The normal or gross mind is just an obstruction to something much deeper and more profound, it is likened to a cloud obscuring the clear blue immensity of the unobstructed sky, the subtle mind. This subtle mind is summed up by the Tibetan word Rigpa. The word Rigpa means the innermost, essential nature of mind, it is a real mind, our original and unchanging mind. It has no beginning and no end and is limitless and passes from life to life but unlike a soul contains no essential self is blown where it will by our own karma. Karma is cause and effect and you do not have to be a Buddhist to see it in action. Every action has an outcome, if you hit your thumb with a hammer it hurts. Whilst this is simplistic it is also a different way of looking at the world because if we expand the idea of the hammer the metal has to be mined, extracted, shaped into a hammer and fitted with a handle. The wooden handle in turn is carved from wood, the tree has to be felled, cut shaped an fit to the hammer head. We can go further back and say that without the rain, soil, correct growing conditions and the seed from the previous tree none of this is possible. The rain depends upon evaporation, the soil depends upon the life and death of previous plants and animals. The iron for the hammer head depends upon a star (like our Sun) because, as physicists tells us) heavy elements like iron are created in such a furnace. There is no end to this sequence so as you can see there are lots of causes and effects which have come together so then you can bash yourself on the thumb, trivial yes, profound, that’s up to you but this is the way that things are, dependent upon everything else with no separation. We cannot survive or indeed exist in isolation, everything has connection and a dependency. Actions or causes lead to effects or outcomes and they are more profound than realised from everything you say and do, to the hammer you could bash yourself with.