The Mormon Buddhist

This week I started reading "Everyday Suchness" by Rev. Gyomay M. Kubose . Gyomay Kubose is the founder of Bright Dawn, the organization I'm taking my ministry course through. His goal was to help create a distinctly American Buddhism. He wanted Americans to hear Buddhism in a way that resonates with us. This goal is very much accomplished from what I've read so far. I know several classic Buddhist analogies, and can see how he's taken those concepts and modernized them. Its a breath of fresh air but still retains a classic Buddhist feel, which is something I feel Stephen Bachelor failed to do. The concept of happiness being highlighted by sadness is something I've loved for years. I first encountered it when reading the Book of Mormon. In 2nd Nephi 2:11 it says: For it must needs be, that there is an opposition in all things. If not so, my firstborn in the wilderness, righteousness could not be brought to pass, neither wickedness, neither holiness nor m...

This week's reading was incredibly short since we just read the "Buddhism: The Path of Enlightenment" booklet and the "Buddhist Symbols" pamphlet. I very much enjoyed the booklet. It put things in such simple terms and I loved them. I especially liked the part where it says Buddhism emphasizes: TRUTH rather than GOD MEDITATION rather than PRAYER ENLIGHTENMENT rather than SALVATION UNIVERSAL LIFE rather than INDIVIDUAL SOUL I also love the Lotus analogy, and it has a more personal meaning for my family. My wife was hospitalized 2 times last year for mental health. The hospital's job isn't to help teach you coping skills, its simply to get you stabilized so you can get those coping skills in therapy and medication. After the first time, she thought medication would take care of it all. When the euphoric stage of getting on medication was over, she still didn't have those skills, which resulted in her needing to go back into the hospital. The 2nd tim...

This week we read all of Gyomay Kubose's " American Buddhism: A New Direction ". It was touched on that it is essential for Buddhism to adapt to the culture that it is in. People have different perspectives, and instead of forcing them to change to their perspective, Buddhism morphs to fit theirs. Its almost like the jar and golf ball story . Buddhism fills in the empty spaces. Another thing that really struck me was the idea that Buddhism can help with mental health. Buddhism offers a way to learn how to deal with the harsh realities of life instead of ignore them. The 4 Noble Truths are commonly referred to a medical diagnosis. They looks at symptoms (there is suffering), find the causes (craving), proscribe a remedy, and give the medicine (8-Fold Path). This is something that has helped me enormously. I suffer from depression, and when I finally decided to start getting help, I felt like there were an infinite number of problems in my life, and I decided to list th...

The CTR shield is a symbol for most Mormons growing up. I definitely agree with it's message to "Choose The Right". The 8-fold Path suggests what we should choose the right in. Many Mormons jokingly take it in a more literal sense when they need to randomly choose something, and pick whichever one is at the most right. I thought it would be fun to change it up a bit and make a "CTM" shield, with CTM standing for "Choose The Middle". Buddha's life is a good example of avoiding extremes. he was born in a life of extreme luxury, and then lived a life of extreme asceticism. He eventually came to realize that enlightenment is found in the middle between these 2 great extremes. He would go on to often call his teachings "The Middle Way".

Stephen Batchelor's "Buddhism Without Beliefs" was like trying to take a drink from a fire hose for me. There were SO many concepts that were being given left and right in such eloquent ways I could barely keep up, let alone think of something to write. I wish we had spent more time reading this book so we could examine what we were learning more thoroughly. I'll try my best to explain what I've gleaned though! The concept of thinking of the 4 Noble Truths as a task list rather than a belief is something that has always come natural to me. I frequently refer to my flowchart that I made, and think about how it applies to my situation. How  am I suffering? What  am I craving? By simply asking these question I've already declawed the suffering I have. Its not a formless monster; it has boundaries and limitations and it is defined and recognized. By doing this, you start to let go of the problem. It almost certainly wasn't as big of a deal as you believed it...

In Buddhism there is a concept known as "buddhadhātu" in Sanskrit, which translates to "Buddha-Nature". This is the belief that all humans have the ability to recognize right from wrong. This is almost a universal believe among religions. The Muslims call it "Taqwa", the Chinese call it "Ren", the Quakers call it "Inner Light", the Freemasons represent it with the square and compass, Mormons call it "The Light of Christ", in everyday language we would simply call it "conscience". Some say that we were created by a god with this sense and some say we evolved it for better survival. Regardless of how we got it, we have it now, and that's what matters. Let's focus on this concept in the Buddhist context for now. Buddhists believe that we inherently have the ability to realize their enlightenment. There are many that believe we are naturally enlightened, and over time we lose sight of that. By following our Bud...

The first sutra that was mentioned in this week's reading was the Prajna Paramita, Hannya, or as we English speakers call it: the Heart Sutra. I have done some research and I found that Tich Nhat Hanh has created a translation of sorts this sutra. It is entitled The Heart of Understanding: Commentaries on the Prajnaparamita Heart Sutra . The way Tich Nhat Hanh phrases everything just resonates very well with me. After this week's chapter I read a bit of it, and was very impressed by it. He gave 2 analogies that explainemptiness in a great way. The first being a piece of paper, and the second being a cup. These are in the first 2 chapters, which are known as "interbeing" and "Empty of What?". They're relatively short, and I was particularly impressed with how these chapters relate to each other, so I'd like to repeat them in their entirety: Interbeing If you are a poet, you will see clearly that there is a cloud floating in this sheet of paper....

Koans are something I haven't looked too much into until I read about them in thi week's chapter. I decided to to a bit of reading about what they are. In short, koans are public and non-mystic stories, questions, or statements that make someone contemplative. The purpose of a koan is to meditate on them and come up with an answer to the question. It is meant to make you think about things, even if its in a way you wouldn't have thought to. You break down previous concepts and see things in new lights. They are not to be seen as rational, logical, and complex. They're meant to be seen as experiential, practical, and simple while often being symbolic. Koans are often used to test your progress in the Zen tradition. However, its not a right/wrong test because there's no one set meaning for a koan. There are hundreds of contradictory commentaries for each Koan (of which there are thousands). They were invented in China and then moved to Japan where many more were a...

EDIT:  After I posted this to my Bright Dawn peers and after our weekly call, I was given some feedback I wanted to include in this post. The original version of the post has been archived here  if you want to read it. Being a bodhisattva is a puzzling thing to me. There are 2 main concerns I have about the concept: The goal The vows/perfections I was raised LDS. From the time that we are able to read we are taught that "every member is a missionary". You were to preach to anyone and everyone who would listen to you in hopes of saving them and leading them towards Godhood. Because of this social pressure, I put myself in some very uncomfortable positions over the years. I almost certainly unknowingly strained friendships, and sometimes I knowingly did so. I could give dozens of examples, but I distinctly remember me telling a friend about how the Book of Mormon is far superior to the Bible because the Book of Mormon was supposed to have gone through less translatio...

There are special sunglasses that allows some colorblind people  the ability to see color . They get to understand something that to them was previously ineffable (extremely hard to express and definitively define). People describe it as breathtaking and life-changing. One video even  featured an artist  reading a book for toddlers that showed all the colors that he had never seen, and him crying from overwhelming happiness. However, for some colorblind people,  the glasses don't work  and colors will continue to be ineffable to them. In the same way, enlightenment is ineffable. Some people are able to come to understand it and its breathtaking and life-changing, and others simply aren't. There is a lot of attachment to the words "enlightenment" and "nirvana/nibbana". These are just words used to convey something that is ineffable, and not something that is ethereal or unobtainable. The two concepts are very often confused, even among Buddhists. In additio...

Imagine you were walking through a barn and you see something coiled and its right near your foot. Your first instinct is that it is a snake, and that you should run. However, when you stop and look at it more closely, you find out that its just some rope. From this scenario, we learn there are 2 types of truths: relative and absolute. Once I discover that the snake was actually a rope, I had a choice: I could cling to my wrong understanding and keep beleiving it was a snake, or I could face the music and admit I was wrong and that it was a rope. This, I think leads right into "suchness" very easily. By no longer clinging to my wrong view, I am able to enjoy things as they are. However, letting things be as they are can be difficult. You may see a flower, but you start to see everything that makes the flower, like water, fertilizer, sunshine, and proper cultivation. You start to see that everything has a reason why its there. In this way, nothing has a definitive self, a...

Do we have free will? Is there a God? Is there an afterlife? Is there a Heaven or Hell in this afterlife? How do I go to Heaven instead of Hell? Do I have to please the God(s)? These are just some of the ultimately unanswerable questions that many religions try to answer. My answer to all of these questions is a simple one: who cares? One of my favorite quotes is often attribute to the Roman emperor Marcus Aurelius, which reads as this: Life a good life. If there are gods and they are just, then they will not care how devout you have been, but will welcome you based on the virtues you have lived by. If there are gods, but unjust, then you should not want to worship them. If there are no gods, then you will be gone, but will have lived a noble life that will live on in the memories of your loved ones. This life is the life you are living right now. Instead of wasting your time and potential life experiences worrying about all these unanswerable questions, you should focus o...

I have always had a difficult time falling asleep, especially when I was younger. My mind races and its hard to shut it off. As I'm writing this its 4:30 AM, and I still might be up for a while! When I was about 8 and fed up with laying in bed for hours, just waiting for exhaust to overcome me and allow me to sleep, I developed a simple technique to help me fall asleep easier. I would breathe slowly and focus on my heart rate. It would often be difficult to focus on my heart rate without feeling an artery, or I'd get fed up with not falling asleep yet. However, if I laid still and was intent on focusing on my heart rate, it would always eventually slow, and eventually I would drift off into sleep. Over a decade later I realized I had, at a very young age, taught myself how to meditate. I still use the technique on nights where sleep is difficult, but I learned how to improve it. Noah Rasheta of SecularBuddhism.com , who has been a key influence in my Buddhist practice, ...

I've talked about the 4-noble truths at length in the past. I am a firm believer that everything in Buddhism stems from those 4 truths. Because of how central it is to Buddhism, I feel we've talked about it fairly in-depth already. I thought about just re-posting my chart again and call this week's writing done. However, I felt that doing so wouldn't be purring in the proper effort into the course, and I want to put the proper effort into this. I decided I wanted do something a little different this week and share a story of how I used the 4 noble truths in my life this week. (When reading along, having my freshly updated chart open might be a good idea ;) ) I recently had to make a payment on some debt I have. I haven't been great at making payments on this debt because my wife and I thought we would need to be finding a new apartment soon and were saving for a deposit and first month's rent. However, our housing situation stabilized and we have no need f...

I am a big fan of saying things as simply and directly as possible. Because of this, I am on a mission to convey the core concepts of the intricate, complex, and 2,500 year old ideology of Buddhism effectively in  one  graphic. This graphic will include the 4 Noble Truths, the 8-Fold Path, The Law of Dependent Origin, my favorite meditation techniques, and eventually all the terms you might want to know. More stuff will be added as I feel they are necessary. This post will be updated every time I update the graphic, and you will no longer need to cross reference posts to get a more complete understanding. Direct link (large image file) Direct link (small image file) Updated 2/9/18

Its no secret that I am a fan of Noah Rasheta's podcast " Secular Buddhism ", but the details of why are for a different time. In Noah's 32nd episode, " How to Meditate ", he gives a wonderful technique for meditating he calls "3-Fold Mindfulness Meditation". Noah talks about it in depth in his podcast episode, and I highly recommend watching it. However, if you're like me and have heard it before, you might just want a cliff notes version of how this technique works. I have made this graphic for that exact reason. I hope you enjoy it! HD imgur link

The sentence that really stuck out to me this week during my studies was this: "The goal of Buddhism is not the attainment of a ficticous paradise but the conversion of the actual world into an ideal realm". This really resonated with me and is what I'd like to talk about this week. We have the power to make this life and this world a great one, but do we? How often do we want someone else to do it for us or just hope it'll get better? The 4th part of the 8-fold path is action. If we want the world to be a better place, we have to roll up our sleeves and be the ones to act. We have to be the change we want to see in the world. We have to help those in need and strive to not cause harm, and sometimes that means doing nothing causes harm. To invoke the chorus from a song from my Mormon heritage: "Put your shoulder to the wheel; push along, Do your duty with a heart full of song, We all have work; let no one shirk. Put your shoulder to the wheel." ...

I have to admit, this was the most challenging chapter so far for me to feel like I turly grasp the concepts. I spent a lot of time re-reading my notes, re-reading the chapter, cross referencing on Wikipedia, and then looking up meanings of words to better explain stuff. It has been an exhaustive but rewarding process. I feel I am better able to understand the Law of Dependent origin in action in daily life. I decided that instead of trying to long-windedly explain everything and having you get lost along the way, a short explanation along with a graphic would explain the concept best. I didn't focus on just the 6 Sixes or the 12 Linked Chain of Causation, instead I took a part of both of them and made this. I'm not sure what to call it, but I feel it really exemplifies the messages that both were trying to convey; cause and effect in your own life. If we can be mindful of what effects can cause, we can avoid causes and eliminate suffering. It has helped me understand why I...

One of my fellow students at Bright Dawn made a great observation today. She said that skepticism is more often than not frowned upon. Whether it be in religion, conversations, relationships, politics, or anything else, skepticism gets a bad rap. I think it gets a bad rap because it is essentially a challenge. You are challenging a person's belief on some level, and that makes them feel threatened. However, from your end, you are just following the first part of the 8-Fold Path: Understanding. You need to ask questions in order to learn, grow, and have a better understanding. In this way, skepticism isn't only healthy, it's essential to becoming the best you that you can be.

There were 3 things that stood out to me in my reading this week. I read this chapter in 2 sittings, and in both sittings these stood out to me: The foundations of Buddhism are the Seals of the Law, Law of Dependent Origin, and the 4 Noble Truths. For something that made such a bold claim as to the foundations of Buddhism, it deserved to be examined. The Seals of the Law Also known as the 4 Dharma Seals, they are said to reflect true Buddhism. Any teaching that has these can be considered part of Buddhism. The 4 seals are as follows: All things are impermanent All existence is suffering All phenomena are empty Enlightenment is peace The first seal, all things are impermanent, is fairly self-explanatory. Anything that is assembled will, sooner or later, come apart. Whether it be a sand castle, a cloud, a person, a planet, or a star, everything will come to an end. The second seal is something that many people have a difficult time understanding. I know I did. However, it is ...