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Buddhism in America

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Buddhism in America has struck a responsive cord and has also become a product of pop culture and the politics of repressed Tibet that have produced a Tibet Chic. Buddhism is also the antithesis of our consumer-oriented society since it stresses simplicity, austerity and directness. Chanting and spiritual seeking are rampant in a modern age were we can no longer define ourselves by our occupations or our status.  Indeed, we no longer have lions to kill so that we are initiated into manhood, and just cooking and having babies used to define our womanhood.  Still, the monk who said just sixty years ago that, introducing Buddhism into America would be like holding a lotus against a rock and waiting for it to take root has proved incredibly wrong.

Satoru

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philosophy of life

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Because Buddhism poses no creator or god and sees all other central religious figures as teachers, Buddhism can be practiced without leaving a person’s faith of birth and at the same time allow the individual the attractiveness of universal interconnectedness.  Buddhism, the world’s fifth largest religion, unlike other religions, encourages you to question and challenge authority in your search for truth and the “right” way. Buddhism’s concerns are so removed from most organized religions that Buddhism to many is thought of as a philosophy of life since Buddha is regarded as a great sage but not a deity.

Satoru
www.samuraizen.com

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The Eightfold Path of Enlightenment

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The eightfold path is a moral compass and guide to your behavior that can lead to the right path and thoughts.

The Eightfold Path of Enlightenment;

Proper views

Resolve

Speech

Action

Livelihood

Effort

Mindfulness

Concentration

Satoru
www.samuraizen.com

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Don’t die this year. I need all the live friends I can get.

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Don’t chew the diamonds.

It is my habit that before I retire at night I brush my teeth. I put the toothpaste on my Braun whirling toothbrush, put the device in my mouth and turn it on, then I walk through my apartment and out onto my terrace. There I look over the city and around the terrace until the two-minute signal from the device goes off. Depending on the evening I usually brush longer then walk back to the bathroom still brushing. Then I load my portable water pick with warm water twice and use it on my teeth and gums.

So I was really surprised when I woke up this morning and had a small piece of something in my mouth. At first I thought I had somehow chipped a tooth in the night. Upon closer inspection it turned out to be a square chip of glass. How did the glass get into my mouth? How come it did not wash out with all the brushing and cleaning? How come I did not swallow it sleeping on my back through out the night? And what damage could it have done if I swallowed it? A lot more questions then answers. This was a mystery that I could not solve. Had I swallowed the glass and it caused a blockage in my heart who would have known the cause of my death and even if they found out what did they think?

As I move through life, enjoying every minute above ground, enduring the slow death of a thousand cuts, explanations for events and actions become tiny movements of actions toward oblivion. My eventual demise becomes acceptable and just another minuscule tick in the universe. Acceptance cancels out fear and writing about death, a topic that was so hushed and not discussed as I journeyed through life, is liberating and informative to those who have trouble facing the inevitable.

I think about the people that I have known all my life that have died. Some had so few possessions that there entire life fit into a few cartons while other had such a complex existence that it took years to settle their affairs and possessions. Still, in just three generations all of us will not be remembered except for a few photos or records of our brief survival.

Satoru
www.samuraizen.com

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Four Noble Truths

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Just as there are many forms of Christianity, with Jesus as the common denominator, so are there many forms of Buddhism with the four noble truths uniting all Buddhists.
This contemplative way of spiritually being and perceptive seeing is personified in the Four Noble Truths.
They are that; life is full of suffering, that most of the suffering, including the fear of death, can be traced to “desire,” and the mind’s habit of seeing everything through the prism of the self. If you continually base your life on desires, you’re longing for wealth, fame, status, children, power, and immortality, then life is unceasingly painful. That this craving engendered by separate selfhood can be transformed and free you from attachment to desires, leading to peace and enlightenment through the transcendence of self to the exalted state called Nirvana or Satori (awakening) and that the means to do it lies in The Eightfold Path to Enlightenment.

Satoru
www.samuraizen.com