The Buddha's Remedy
Neptune Landing was never meant to be a string of complaints about my precious life in one of the world's most dynamic cities but I can't help but notice that my writing has drifted towards the depressive side much like the inactive human mind often does. So in the last four days I've taken some action. Every six or seven years, I pull myself back into Buddhist practice. For the uninitiated, I loosely refer to Buddhist practice as activities centered around the Noble 8 fold path. Namely,
To start, I picked up several books about the Buddha's life as well as a copy of the Lotus Sutra, one of the premier texts of the Mahayana tradition. Mahayana is the more generous, ambitious school that seeks enlightenment for everyone in this lifetime versus the Theravada school which embraces the more lone, monastic, austere path towards enlightenment. My problem in the past has been of the American variety: a restlessness where I don't see results fast enough. Buddhism has also been criticized for not having glossed their religious heroes with personality like the Christians have done with Jesus and the Muslims have done with Mohammed. And Americans like nothing better than a character-driven story.
The Buddha often looms larger than human which is ironic since he became the religious founder who most adamantly insisted he was just a human being who discovered the ancient wisdom of the Middle Way.
San Francisco seems a natural home for Buddhist inquiry. Let us count the ways. The most obvious is that 21.4% of the SF population is of Chinese origin. Secondly, the Bay Area sheltered the Beat Poets who were the first real practitioners of Buddhism and helped popularize the concepts to the (white, middle-class) masses. Lastly, Buddha himself has always been tremendously tolerant of other religions and insists that it is a really a set of actions that can complement anyone in his journey and his faith. Nobody has to convert to anything in order to practice these principles which is why "the religion" has grown without shedding an ounce of blood. You can imagine how charming this philosophy is with gentle doves.
There are at least three publicized Buddhist spaces that open their doors to those interested in meditation and those suffering from addictions or mental disorders: the San Francisco Zen Center, the Hartford Street Zen Center and a place in the Mission. One type of meditation is to have loving-kindness for all creatures on planet Earth. The benefits are enormous. Now if we can only extend that sense of compassion to systems like the MUNI ...
1. Right View
To start, I picked up several books about the Buddha's life as well as a copy of the Lotus Sutra, one of the premier texts of the Mahayana tradition. Mahayana is the more generous, ambitious school that seeks enlightenment for everyone in this lifetime versus the Theravada school which embraces the more lone, monastic, austere path towards enlightenment. My problem in the past has been of the American variety: a restlessness where I don't see results fast enough. Buddhism has also been criticized for not having glossed their religious heroes with personality like the Christians have done with Jesus and the Muslims have done with Mohammed. And Americans like nothing better than a character-driven story.
The Buddha often looms larger than human which is ironic since he became the religious founder who most adamantly insisted he was just a human being who discovered the ancient wisdom of the Middle Way.
San Francisco seems a natural home for Buddhist inquiry. Let us count the ways. The most obvious is that 21.4% of the SF population is of Chinese origin. Secondly, the Bay Area sheltered the Beat Poets who were the first real practitioners of Buddhism and helped popularize the concepts to the (white, middle-class) masses. Lastly, Buddha himself has always been tremendously tolerant of other religions and insists that it is a really a set of actions that can complement anyone in his journey and his faith. Nobody has to convert to anything in order to practice these principles which is why "the religion" has grown without shedding an ounce of blood. You can imagine how charming this philosophy is with gentle doves.
There are at least three publicized Buddhist spaces that open their doors to those interested in meditation and those suffering from addictions or mental disorders: the San Francisco Zen Center, the Hartford Street Zen Center and a place in the Mission. One type of meditation is to have loving-kindness for all creatures on planet Earth. The benefits are enormous. Now if we can only extend that sense of compassion to systems like the MUNI ...
I would like to add to this:
ReplyDeleteGenerate a kind heart toward yourself. Reflecting over just one day's activities can be painful, but you may end up respecting yourself more, because you see that a lot happened; you weren't just one way. As Carl Jung said at the end of his life, "I am astonished, disappointed, pleased with myself. I am distressed, depressed, rapturous. I am all these things at once and cannot add up the sum."
(I wish I could say these are my own words, but they were actually written down by the wise Pema Chodron.)
Katharina, this is great. I was just explaining to Mauricio who Walt Whitman was: one of the first openly gay American poets who had the Buddha in him by identifying with EVERYTHING. "I contain multitudes." I'll have to pick up Pema's work. See you later today.
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