Via Daily Dharma: Unlimited Self

[That which] is deepest and most real about each of us cannot be limited by any transitory state, shape, or event.

—Noelle Oxenhandler, “Mind the Gap”

Via Tumbuddhist / Alan Watts on Pure Land Buddhism

Popularly, Amitabha is somebody else. He is some great compassionate being who looks after you. Esoterically, Amitabha is your own nature; Amitabha is your real self, the inmost boundless light that is the root and ground of your own consciousness. 

You don’t need to do anything to be that. You are that, and saying Nembutsu (NAMU-AMIDA-BUTSU) is simply a symbolical way of pointing out that you don’t have to become this, because you are it.

And Nembutsu, therefore, in its deeper side builds up a special kind of sage, which they called myoko-nin. Myoko-nin in Japanese means “a marvelous fine man,” but the myoko-nin is a special type of personality who corresponds in the West to the holy fool in Russian spirituality, or to something like the Franciscan in Catholic spirituality. I will tell you some myoko-nin stories because that is the best way to indicate their character. 

One day a myoko-nin was traveling and he stopped in a Buddhist temple overnight. He went up to the sanctuary where they have big cushions for the priests to sit on, and he arranged the cushions in a pile on the floor and went to sleep on them. In the morning the priest came in and saw the tramp sleeping and said, “What are you doing here desecrating the sanctuary by sleeping on the cushions and so on, right in front of the altar?” And the myoko-nin looked at him in astonishment and said, “Why, you must be a stranger here, you can’t belong to the family.”

In Japanese, when you want to say that a thing is just the way it is, you call it sonomama. There is a haiku poem that says, “Weeds in the rice field, cut them down, sonomama, fertilizer.” Cut the weeds, leave them exactly where they are, and they become fertilizer, or sonomama. And sonomama means “reality,” “just the way it is,” “just like that.“ 

Now, there is a parallel expression, konomama. Konomama means "I, just as I am.” just little me, like that, with no frills, no pretense, except that I naturally have some pretense. That is part of konomama. The myoko-nin is the man who realizes that “I, konomama-just as I am-am Buddha, delivered by Amitabha because Amitabha is my real nature." 

If you really know that, that makes you a myoko-nin, but be aware of the fact that you could entirely miss the point and become a monkey instead by saying, "I’m all right just as I am, and therefore I’m going to rub it in-I’m going to be going around parading my unregenerate nature, because this is Buddha, too.” The fellow who does that doesn’t really know that it’s okay. He’s doing too much, and he is coming on too strong. The other people, who are always beating themselves, are making the opposite error. 

 

The Middle Way, right down the center, is where you don’t have to do a thing to justify yourself, and you don’t have to justify not justifying yourself. So, there is something quite fascinating and tricky in this doctrine of the great bodhisattva Amitabha, who saves you just as you are, who delivers you from bondage just as you are. 

You only have to say “NAMU-AMIDA-BUTSU.“ 

https://terebess.hu/english/watts5.html

Esoterically, Amitabha is your own nature; Amitabha is your real self, the inmost boundless light that is the root and ground of your own consciousness.

You don’t need to do anything to be that. You are that, and saying Nembutsu (NAMU-AMIDA-BUTSU) is simply a symbolical way of pointing out that you don’t have to become this, because you are it…

Via Ram Dass / Words of Wisdom - May 13, 2018

Once we get a taste of the freedom that comes with letting go of our stuff – anger, righteousness, jealousy, our need to be in control, the judging mind, just to name a few – we start to look at those things in new ways. That is the teaching of being in the moment. For someone who understands that this precious birth is an opportunity to awaken, is an opportunity to know God, all of life becomes an instrument for getting there – marriage, family, job, play, travel, all of it. You just spiritualize your life. 

- Ram Dass -

Via Daily Dharma: Practice Giving Thanks

The Buddha encouraged us to think of the good things done for us by our parents, by our teachers, friends, whomever; and to do this intentionally, to cultivate it, rather than just letting it happen accidentally.

—Ajahn Sumedho, “The Gift of Gratitude”

Via Helpful Words

We Need Not be Defined by How we Feel

‘There’s an old koan about a monk who went to his master and said, “I’m a very angry person, and I want you to help me.” The master said, “Show me your anger.” The monk said, “Well, right now I’m not angry. I can’t show it to you.” And the master said, “Then obviously it’s not you, since sometimes it’s not even there.” Who we are has many faces, but these faces are not who we are.’

- Charlotte Joko beck, Everyday Zen.

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Via Acharya Buddhadasa / 30 Second Explanation of Buddhism

Let me explain Buddhism in this way:

The universe is God, the divine - called the Dharmakaya in Philosophical Buddhism and personified as Amida Buddha in the Pure Land Tradition.

Everything is part of the universe and so part of God.

Everything is Divine, including ourselves.

Everything has a divine nature, Buddhists call this the Buddha-nature.

This Divine is our true nature and real identity.

We are Buddha, the ego/self is just a character we are role-playing as the Divine Universe expresses itself.

Mindfulness of the Buddha, through the chanting of mantras, is simply Mindfulness of the Divine and our own divine nature, and thus liberation from the illusion of Self.

Namo Amitabhaya 🙏🏻

buddhist buddha buddhism amida pure land amitabha zen zazen theravada tantra taoism tao meditation mindfulmeditation vipasanna advaita pantheism enlightenment esoteric insight paganism pagan wiccan wicca witchcraft witch druid illumination

Via Acharya Buddhadasa

Buddhist Practice

Sila: keep the precepts

Samadhi: practice meditation

Prajna: study the teachings

Via Daily Dharma: Unlikely Teachers

Both our pain and our suffering are truly our path, our teacher. While this understanding doesn’t necessarily entail liking our pain or our suffering, it does liberate us from regarding them as enemies we have to conquer.

—Ezra Bayda, “When It Happens to Us”

Via Daily Dharma: Experience Emotions with Equanimity

We can be angry, jealous, or scared without having to act on those emotions or let them take over our lives. We can experience joy or love without becoming attached to the object that we think is the cause of our joy.

—Tsoknyi Rinpoche, “Allow for Space”

Via spiritualwarrior

“Breath is the bridge which connects life to consciousness, which unites your body to your thoughts. Whenever your mind becomes scattered, use your breath as the means to take hold of your mind again.”

— Thich Nhat Hanh

Via thecalminside

Throw away holiness and wisdom, and people will be a hundred times happier. Throw away morality and justice,and people will do the right thing. Throw away industry and profit, and there won’t be any thieves. If these three aren’t enough, just stay at the center of the circle and let all things take their course.

- Lao Tzu

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Via thecalminside

“Express yourself completely, then keep quiet. Be like the forces of nature: when it blows, there is only wind; when it rains, there is only rain; when the clouds pass, the sun shines through.”

- Lao Tzu

Via Daily Dharma: Spring Cleaning for Your Mind

If I view [everyday chores] as tasks to rush through on the way to something more important, they become a crushing waste of time. But from the perspective of Buddhist teachings, each of these activities is a golden moment, an opportunity for full awakening.

—Anne Cushman, “Clearing Clutter”

Via Calm in Side

“If you want to become whole, let yourself be partial.
If you want to become straight, let yourself be crooked.
If you want to become full, let yourself be empty.
If you want to be reborn, let yourself die.
If you want to be given everything, give everything up.”

Lao Tzu

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Via Daily Dharma: Agree to Disagree

It is inevitable that there will be a wide range of beliefs, opinions, practices, and behaviors in this large and diverse world. It is not inevitable that people must hate one another on account of this.

—Andrew Olendzki, “Advice for Conflict”

Via Ram Dass / Words of Wisdom - May 9, 2018

Within the spiritual journey you understand that suffering becomes something that has been given to you to show you where your mind is still stuck. It’s a vehicle to help you go to work. That’s why it’s called grace.

- Ram Dass -

Via / Daily Dharma: Focus on Giving, Not Getting

On the spiritual path, there’s nothing to get, and everything to get rid of. Obviously, the first thing to let go of is trying to “get” love, and instead to give it. That’s the secret of the spiritual path. One has to give oneself wholeheartedly.

—Ayya Khema, “What Love Is”

Via Tricycle / Unpacking Bodicitta

The sudden lightning glares and all is clearly shown,
Likewise rarely, through the Buddhas’ power,
Virtuous thoughts rise, brief and transient, in the world.

Virtue, thus, is weak; and always
Evil is of great and overwhelming strength.
Except for perfect bodhichitta,
What other virtue is there that can lay it low?

 

—The Way of the Bodhisattva

Via Daily Dharma: The Path of Understanding

Bodhicitta is the path of understanding who you are in the fathomless nature of infinite contingency, and then developing the skills to navigate this reality—your life—in a way that is awakening for both yourself and for others.

—Elizabeth Mattis Namgyel, “Nurturing the Intelligent Heart”