What is Buddhism?

[bigfatfurrytexan]

"'Tis easier said than done." - TStreetE, denizen of Andrews

Obviously, I gots lots of unwindin' to do before enlightenment.

I will share my approach. Is it effective? For me, it is. But, remember....i am not seeking any Nirvana state or enlightenment. I am just trying to make myself more effective.

I lay on my back. I put some small amount of thought into things like "chi" by make sure that my palms are open and my legs are uncrossed.

Concentrate on relaxing your body, starting with the toes and working up. Don't move on until you find full relaxation first (at first, to fully relax will actually cause the muscles to either hurt or tickle. With practice you will get better at it, and the muscles will learn to respond to the release of stress by not aching).

For me, i visualize. I visualize the stress as being small creatures, and i push them up and out the top of my head. As i go through each body part, the "gremlins" scurry out and seek safe harbor by leaving my body and dispersing.

Once i am relaxed, i can begin guiding thought. This is where i "pray" for people. I don't believe that our Creator hears our prayers. I believe the "souls" on the "other side" do, and that is where the help comes from, if it doesn't cause deviation from our lifes planned path. Consequently, i don't believe that you can ask for things, but rather can ask for guidance, courage, strength, etc. (this whole concept has a basis in science, as there are studies that show human awareness and intent can effect the outcome on reality).

Once i have put others before myself by "praying" for them, i begin sorting through my own issues. I visualize to do this, too. Using visual "files" and "folders" to track what needs to be "done" and what is already completed (by "done", i mean putting my attention and awareness into a solution).

Once i have done this, i try to allow my mind to go completely blank. At this point, i normally also go to sleep.

My main issue is that i cannot achieve a "blank state" without falling asleep. Damned narcolepsy!

[wtxbuddha]

I am not looking to achieve that state of "Nirvana." I am not seeking enlightenment. I am just trying to make myself a more effective human.

One area where i part with several other Buddhists is there search for transcendance. I don't seek to transcend. I fully accept that i am here to live a human experience, and not living this experience to its fullest will only prolong future experiences.

"Getting rid of your ego is the biggest ego trip going." Alan Watts (paraphrasing)

It is pointless to try and become something other than a human being. The point behind meditation, for me at least, is to become a "better me." and understand my-self. Trying to purposely transcend or become enlightened is fools errand. It goes against every benefit meditation has to offer.

So lets say you do become enlightened, whatever that means, what then? Do you start floating? Become psychic?

No, you put your pants on one leg at a time just like everyone else. The only difference is you don't take yourself so seriously. You realize you are not separate from everyone and everything else. A scientific viewpoint would be Quantum Mechanics that says you can't separate an object and its viewer. You can't separate a back from a front. There is no separate "self". The illusions of the mind fall away and you can truly see reality for what it is. You know that YOU are IT.

[Spiral Ella]

I knew this place would end up being good for something!

Even though I think of myself as "curious enough about everything to be 'enlightened'", until your initial post in this thread I really did not understand Buddhism to be non-religious! Thank you for clearing that up for me.

My brother (who has left our childhood religion much to the dismay of our parents) has been interested in Buddhism for awhile now and that beyond anything else has upset my father most of all. Now I hope to be able to appease his mind a bit with this new knowledge. So again, thank you very much for this thread.

[drillingmonkey]

Oh, yes, I remember the devastation upon leaving oranized religion. Deny deny deny. You cannot fear what you do not believe. Meh, it workes for me. And, I like me!

[Spiral Ella]

Oh, yes, I remember the devastation upon leaving oranized religion. Deny deny deny. You cannot fear what you do not believe. Meh, it workes for me. And, I like me!

Good point. With our case, I don't think my folks would have cared so much if he had just switched to another Christian religion, but he has pretty much decided there is no God, let alone Jesus Christ. It's been hard for them to swallow. And then it was "now he's decided that God wasn't good enough but is worshipping Buddha or Mother Nature or Allah or whoever they worship???" -- thought both of my folks were going to have a heart attack. It hasn't helped that my brother has gotten uber arrogant since his great epiphany. He used to be a really cool joe.

[bigfatfurrytexan]

Oh, yes, I remember the devastation upon leaving oranized religion. Deny deny deny. You cannot fear what you do not believe. Meh, it workes for me. And, I like me!

i was lucky to have my mother raising me. She has always listened to my ignorant grunts and tried to control herself while she provided me the guidance you all know and love her for.

The value of a person isn't their affiliation, that is for sure.

[bigfatfurrytexan]

"Getting rid of your ego is the biggest ego trip going." Alan Watts (paraphrasing)

It is pointless to try and become something other than a human being. The point behind meditation, for me at least, is to become a "better me." and understand my-self. Trying to purposely transcend or become enlightened is fools errand. It goes against every benefit meditation has to offer.

So lets say you do become enlightened, whatever that means, what then? Do you start floating? Become psychic?

No, you put your pants on one leg at a time just like everyone else. The only difference is you don't take yourself so seriously. You realize you are not separate from everyone and everything else. A scientific viewpoint would be Quantum Mechanics that says you can't separate an object and its viewer. You can't separate a back from a front. There is no separate "self". The illusions of the mind fall away and you can truly see reality for what it is. You know that YOU are IT.

Outstanding. Took the words right out of my mouth. "YOU are IT"...i usually verbalize it as "AllisOne", referencing the "I Am" statement as a Christian point of reference.

What i was getting at is that i do not follow the precepts of an ascetic lifestyle. While i understand the value of such a lifestyle, i don't think y path leads in that direction.

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Something i would like to say about the "Buddhism is not a religion" idea....that is true. But the concepts of Buddhism are a "faith". And this faith can seriously alter or temper the beliefs you have as they relate to a religion.

Consider the concept of "The Middle Way" if it were to influence the current Islamic mindset?

As many of the MOFers know, Buddhist concepts have seriously colored my view of biblical passages.

[HoustonTX]

Honestly, I'd feel sorta stupid to sit down and formally meditate. I'm not saying it's stupid to meditate; I'm just talking about my own feelings.

I guess I'm too skeptical and sarcastic by nature. I'd be too busy ruminating over the thought of "What the hell am I doing?" or "Boy, do I look silly!" to get any meaningful meditation done (sort of cognitive dissonance, I suppose).

I went to a mediation thing a few times (long story). I couldn't meditate. I closed my eyes along with everyone else but my right eye kept peeking. When the person leading the thing told us to go to some happy place I couldn't do it. My brain kept thinking of how I was supposed to be meditating but couldn't meditate and what would I have for dinner and did I remember to charge my phone and finding a happy place sounds hokey and were people really meditating or just pretending to meditate and was I the only one not meditating at the meditation and I am way too wired and maybe it's the coffee, really should decrease the coffee and so on.

One of the times they had us sit in a circle and there was this Tibetan singing bowl thing and all I could think of was how I wished people hadn't taken off their shoes. My mind doesn't relax, it's a constant whirl of nonsense. Unless I'm asleep. I think I'm a hopeless case in the meditation dept. I wish it weren't so, calm would be good.

[Nobody]

HoustonTX sums up the majority of people, I think. But I'll tell you one thing, HTX, you're a step or two closer to fine than you think.
You are aware that you are not aware.
That's a lot better than not being aware of not being aware.

To be in present time, calm, cool, collected, void of random thought, it isn't easy. If it were, the world would be a much better place. Homeless people panhandeling on the street? They aren't there. They are a year, five years, twenty years in the past, still asking Daddy for allowance or friend for a hand, or some other such nonsense. Everyone has a degree of this, or slip in and out of that sort of thing.

To stop... meditate... calm the mind and think of nothing at all. Yes, that is a freedom so few get to know. But then again, so few bother to try. And why bother trying? It's "wierd" or "goofy" or "stupid looking" or just a plain waste of time, right?

Wrong.

If it is such a waste, why do people live their lives around the idea of learning more about it? Gotta be something there. That constant chatter that is hard to ignore? Once you put it out of your mind, you soon realize, if the billions of others in the world are all listening to that to, how the hell does anything around here ever get done?

That's when you realize, despite what others might think, it is worth a shot to try. Despite what anyone else might think or say or do, you what??? Gotta do it for yourself. You HAVE to do it for yourself. That You ... Are Doing It... for Yourself, that is what makes it worthwhile.

I am not a buddist by title, but by philosophy. I subscribe to no religion and to many. I believe in God because I know God. I want to believe in Christ, but man has corrupted the story of Christ with religion, and perverted and diluted the message. I belive in the christian core and what Jesus Christ came to teach, just don't subbscribe to one organization over another. Zen has much to teach us. Jewish faith has much to teach us, as does their history. Many other things I believe would hijack this thread, and I do not intend that.

What I am impressed with, however, is the forming of this forum and starting of this thread. Well done.

And good luck to all on the path, and even those just looking at the path.

[TStreetE]

HoustonTX sums up the majority of people, I think. But I'll tell you one thing, HTX, you're a step or two closer to fine than you think.
You are aware that you are not aware.
That's a lot better than not being aware of not being aware.

To be in present time, calm, cool, collected, void of random thought, it isn't easy. If it were, the world would be a much better place. Homeless people panhandeling on the street? They aren't there. They are a year, five years, twenty years in the past, still asking Daddy for allowance or friend for a hand, or some other such nonsense. Everyone has a degree of this, or slip in and out of that sort of thing.

To stop... meditate... calm the mind and think of nothing at all. Yes, that is a freedom so few get to know. But then again, so few bother to try. And why bother trying? It's "wierd" or "goofy" or "stupid looking" or just a plain waste of time, right?

Wrong.

If it is such a waste, why do people live their lives around the idea of learning more about it? Gotta be something there. That constant chatter that is hard to ignore? Once you put it out of your mind, you soon realize, if the billions of others in the world are all listening to that to, how the hell does anything around here ever get done?

That's when you realize, despite what others might think, it is worth a shot to try. Despite what anyone else might think or say or do, you what??? Gotta do it for yourself. You HAVE to do it for yourself. That You ... Are Doing It... for Yourself, that is what makes it worthwhile.

I am not a buddist by title, but by philosophy. I subscribe to no religion and to many. I believe in God because I know God. I want to believe in Christ, but man has corrupted the story of Christ with religion, and perverted and diluted the message. I belive in the christian core and what Jesus Christ came to teach, just don't subbscribe to one organization over another. Zen has much to teach us. Jewish faith has much to teach us, as does their history. Many other things I believe would hijack this thread, and I do not intend that.

What I am impressed with, however, is the forming of this forum and starting of this thread. Well done.

And good luck to all on the path, and even those just looking at the path.

Mmmmm... This is Nobody's 666th post. Is there a connection?

[Nobody]

HA! That is freakin' hysterical!

LOLOLOLOLOLOL!!! MAO!

[JaniceVickery]

... Buddhism at its core is not a religion. It is a philosophy of non-attachment and seeing things as they truly are and not as the mind thinks they should be. It is a path of self-realization....

... until your initial post in this thread I really did not understand Buddhism to be non-religious! Thank you for clearing that up for me.

Same here. Thanks - and welcome to MoF - wtxbuddha!

[JaniceVickery]

(Houston, I am soooo with you on the meditation bit. But these days, I'm pretty sure my snoring would disturb the others... )

[snooks]

My mother practiced Buddhism when I was a small small girl, not yet in school. I even had my own set of orange prayer beads,mom still has them somewhere, I would weave them thru my fingers and rub them together while chanting over and over...namu jo and ga cho....well something like that, I dont know how to spell it plus that was 40 yrs ago and so Im going on memory..lol I remember thinking how cool it was that I got to go with mom while my little sisters had to say behind.

[Spiral Ella]

You know I have never been able to quote unquote Meditate either. I've tried several different ways over the years.

I have, however, finally found a way to "de-stress" when my mind was racing or I had a snippet of song stuck in it that was driving me crazy.

One night when the kids were all sick and I was just up all night, I decided to write all of our names down backwards and try to enunciate them. After awhile I settled on some pronunciations of them and they kinda turned into two "words": "Ee-ma-naarb, Terrag-rollie-at" is as good as I can explain it. Anyway, when I need to clear my head, I say those two "words" over and over again in kind of a chanting rhythm and try to do deep breathing. And I feel better. And calmer. It's really cool, and my kids have no idea what I'm saying and I won't tell them. Drives them nuts (and I do love annoying my children! They're all teens. They owe me!!!)

Is that anything close to meditating?