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Way Down in Mexico

January 15, 2023January 20, 2023 / Benn Bell / 3 Comments

Back in Ajijic Again

I have now made my third foray onto this enchanted isle of beautiful sunsets, gorgeous senioritas, and delicious margaritas. I am talking of course, of the magical town of Ajijic, Mexico located on the shores of Lake Chapala nestled in the shadows of the Sierra Madre mountains.

Ajijic is an Indian name meaning the place where the water flows. In 2021 Ajijic was appointed Pueblo Magicio (Magic Town) by the Secretary of Tourism of Mexico for the work of this town in protecting and preserving its cultural heritage. It is a sight to behold and welcoming place to visit. While we are here we will be looking at property and seriously considering joining the already large expat community that currently lives here.

We already have friends who live here and we are making more every day. Many of our friends and acquaintances make regular pilgrimage here. It is a wonderful place to visit and I hope to live.

Yesterday we went to a musical event at a local hang out called El Bar Co. They had a rooftop band called The Romeos and it was packed. Here included are a few snaps from the event.

Every picture tells a story. Should I ask her to join me in a hot tub or should I ask her out to dinner?

Buddha and I go back many years and I love him like a brother. But you know how I feel about my brother. And it’s because of this guy that I started coming down here in the first place.

Buddha brings a little chaos with him everywhere he goes. Like the other night. We went to a dive bar called El Chameleon. On the way there he was on a video call with a friend from Louisville and showing her the way. He was walking 20 paces ahead of me. I asked him where this place was and he said he knew how to find it. Is it past Colon, I asked. I don’t know, he answered. So he took a left on some street and we walked two blocks to a dead end. Oh! This is a dead end he says. Well, why did you turn down this street, I asked. Because I don’t know what I’m doing, he said. Then he took off again retracing his steps and gabbing to the woman in louisville the whole time while I am trailing along behind him and wondering why.

Finally we get to El Chameleon and I call him out on the video call and he tells the lady, I got to go. So we go in and have a couple of drinks and he settles down a bit and we have a nice conversation. Turns out he was in there the previous night with another friend of ours and he meets this beautiful Mexican Chick who tells him to ditch the blonde. That’s why I wanted to come back here tonight to see if she shows up again. The truth comes out.

The next day He tells me he has slowed down a lot and is not so much always in a hurry. Yes you are! I say, and I remind him of the events of the previous evening. He says, and I quote, “Fuck you! And for now on, The first thing I’m going to say to you when I see you is fuck you, just to save time.” Maureen is falling out her chair laughing. With that, Buddha gets up and walks over to a beautiful Mexican woman sitting at another table and whispers in her ear. She turns her head to look at him and smiles. Then Buddha exits the restaurant.

All par for the course way down in Mexico.

The Four Immeasurable Minds

July 18, 2021 / Benn Bell / Leave a comment

Buddhism by the Numbers

The Four Immeasurable Minds

Love, compassion, joy, equanimity
If you learn how to practice love, compassion, joy, and equanimity, you will know how to heal the illness, anger, sorrow, insecurity, sadness, hatred, loneliness and unhealthy attachments.
Whoever practices the Four Immeasurable Minds together with the Seven Factors of Awakening, the Four Noble Truths, and the Noble Eightfold Path will arrive at deep enlightenment.

The first aspect of true love in Buddhism is friendship.
The second aspect of true love is compassion.
The third aspect of true love is joy. True love always brings joy to us and the ones we love.
The fourth element of true love is equanimity: nonattachment, nondiscrimination, even mindedness, letting go. If your love has attachment, discrimination, prejudice, or clinging it is not true love. This is the wisdom of equality.

Based on the teachings of Thich Nhat Hahn

The Three Jewels

June 25, 2021 / Benn Bell / Leave a comment

Buddhism by the Numbers

The Three Jewels

I take refuge in the Buddha, Dharma, and the Sangha

Notes from the Buddha

May 23, 2021 / Benn Bell / 2 Comments

From the Dhammapada

You are what you think. All that you are arises from your thoughts. With your thoughts you make your world.

Galveston Day 6

March 21, 2021July 24, 2021 / Benn Bell / 4 Comments

The Continuing Saga of Ghost Dog and the Buddha

Greetings from Galveston! Each morning I rose just before dawn and headed for the beach to catch the stellar event unfolding on the horizon. I was not disappointed. Most mornings Buddha stayed in bed, but this glorious morning he accompanied me out to the beach.

Today I wanted to ride around Galveston to look at some of the buildings. Galveston is home to some interesting old historic buildings and to some newer more modern ones.

American National Insurance Building, One Moody Plaza

This building is being converted into condos.

The Rosenberg Library is the oldest continuously operating library in Texas. I visited this beautiful library with the hopes of finding a clean well lighted place to study in. But, alas, it wasn’t meant to be. Due to covid the study rooms were closed. I was free to roam the stacks but not to study. I did come away with a book however, so all was not lost.

The Strand Historic District, also known as the Strand District, in downtown Galveston, Texas, is a National Historic Landmark District of mainly Victorian era buildings that now house restaurants, antique stores, and curio shops.

Later in the day we headed back to the motel for a dip in the pool. We were staying at Gaido’s Seaside Inn, which according to their own testimony boasts of having the best pool on the island. Who am I to argue?

We ended the evening at a Mexican Restaurant. Buddha’s friends hadn’t heard from him in a while so I posted this picure to prove he was still alive.

Stay tuned for day 7 of the exciting adventures of Ghost Dog and the Buddha.

The Three Doors of Liberation

March 6, 2021March 6, 2021 / Benn Bell / 1 Comment

Buddhism by the Numbers

The Three Doors of Liberation:

Emptiness/shunyata
Signlessness/animitta
Aimlessness/apranihita

Emptiness or shunyata:

Emptiness always means empty of something. A cup is empty of water. A bowl is empty of soup. We are empty of a separate, independent self.

Emptiness does not mean nonexistence. It means interdependent co-arising, impermanence, and non-self. Emptiness is the middle way between existence and nonexistence.

Everyone we cherish will someday, get sick and die. If we do not practice the mediation on emptiness, when it happens, we will be overwhelmed.

Signlessness or animitta:

The second door of liberation is signlessness. “Sign” means an appearance or the object of our perception.

Signs are instruments for our use, but they are not absolute truth, and they can mislead us. Wherever there is a sign, there is deception, illusion. Appearances can deceive.

If you see the signlessness of signs, you see the Tathagata. Tathagata means the wonderous nature of reality.

Everything manifests by means of signs.

Life span is the period of time between our birth and our death. We think we are alive for a specific period of time that has a beginning and an end. But when we look deeply, we see that we have never been born and we will never die. And our fear dissolves. With mindfulness, concentration, and the Three Dharma Seals, we can unlock the door of Liberation called signlessness and obtain the greatest relief.

Aimlessness or apranihita:

The Third Door of Liberation is aimlessness. There is nothing to do, nothing to realize. The purpose of a rose is to be a rose. Your purpose is to be yourself.

Be yourself. Life is precious as it is. Just being in the moment in this place is the deepest practice of meditation.

According to the Heart Sutra there is “nothing to attain.”

Aimlessness and Nirvana are one.

Present Moment, Wonderful Moment

Waking up this morning, I smile

Twenty-four brand new hours are before me.

I vow to live freely in each moment

and to look at all beings with the eyes of love.

-Thich Nhat Hanh

These twenty-four hours are a precious gift, a gift we can only realize when we have opened the Third Door of Liberation.

The practice of aimlessness, is the practice of freedom.

Based on the teachings of Thich Nhat Hanh

Photo by Benn Bell

The Three Dharma Seals

December 6, 2020March 4, 2021 / Benn Bell / Leave a comment

Buddhism by the Numbers

The Three Dharma Seals

Impermanence, Non-self, Nirvana

From the point of view of time we say “impermanence” and from the point of view of space we say “non-self.”
It is not impermanence that makes us suffer. What makes us suffer is wanting things to be permanent.
Nothing is ever lost. Nothing is ever gained.
The second dharma seal is non-self. Nothing has a separate existence or separate self. Everything has to inter-be with everything else.
When we see that everyone and everything belongs to the same stream of life, our suffering will vanish.
Non-self means that you are made of elements which are not you.
Nirvana is the third dharma seal. It is the ground of being.
“The dharma I offer you is only a raft to help you cross over to the other shore,” said the Buddha.
Nirvana is the extinction of all notions.
Happy Continuation
Eight concepts: birth, death, permanence, dissolution, coming, going, one, many.
The practice to end attachment of these eight ideas is called the eight no’s or the middle way.
Experience always goes before ideas.
Any teaching that does not bear the mark of the Three Dharma Seals, the Four Holy Truths, and the Eightfold Path is not authentically Buddhist.
Two Relevancies
1. Relevance to essence – The three dharma seals: impermanence, non-self, Nirvana.
2. Relevance must fit the circumstances.
Four Standards of Truth
1. The worldly
2. The person
3. Healing
4. The absolute – No self
The Four Reliances
1. Teaching
2. Discourses
3. Meaning
4. Insight

Based on the teachings of Thich Nhat Hanh

Photo credit: Benn Bell

The Two Truths

October 24, 2020 / Benn Bell / 2 Comments

Buddhism by the Numbers

The Two Truths

According to Buddhism there are two kinds of truth: Relative Truth and Absolute Truth. We recognize the presence of happiness and the presence of suffering. One day we realize that suffering and happiness are “not two.”

Where ever there is joy there is suffering.
Suffering and joy are not two.
Our life is the path
We enter the path of practice through the door of knowledge
All conditioned things are impermanent. They are phenomena, subject to birth and death.

In the Discourse on the Turning of the Wheel of Dharma the Buddha taught the Four Noble Truths of suffering, the cause of suffering, the cessation of suffering, and the path. In the Heart Sutra, Bodhisattva Avalokiteshvara tell us there is no suffering, no cause of suffering, no cessation of suffering, and no path. Is this a contradiction? No. The Buddha is speaking in terms of relative truth and Avlakiteshvara is teaching in terms of absolute truth.

The Buddha recommends that we recite the Five Remembrances every day:

I am of the nature to grow old. There is no way to escape growing old.
I am of the nature to have ill-health. There is no way to escape having ill-health.
All things dear to me and everyone I love are of the nature to change. There is no way to escape being separated from them.
My actions are my only true belongings. I cannot escape the consequences of my actions. My actions are the ground on which I stand.

Waves

When we look at the ocean, we see that each wave has a beginning and an end.
If we look deeply, we can see a wave is made of water.
While living the life of a wave, it also lives the life of water. When a wave touches her true nature, which is water, all her complexes will cease, and she will transcend birth and death.
Liberation is the ability to go from the world of signs to the world of true nature.
What is essential is to be our best while we are here.
All formations are impermanent.

Based on the teachings of Thich Nhat Hanh

Photo credit: Benn Bell

Right Diligence

August 19, 2020 / Benn Bell / Leave a comment

Buddhism by the Numbers

Right Diligence

Right diligence or right effort is the kind of energy that helps us realize the Noble Eightfold Path. Four practices usually associated with right diligence:

Preventing unwholesome seeds in our store consciousness from arising
Helping unwholesome seeds that have arisen return to our store consciousness
Finding ways to water wholesome seeds in our store consciousness that have not yet arisen
Nourishing the wholesome seeds that have already arisen.

Unwholesome means not conducive to the path. The wholesome seeds of happiness, love, loyalty, and reconciliation need watering every day.

According to Buddhist psychology, our consciousness is divided into eight parts, including mind consciousness and store consciousness. Store consciousness is described as a field in which every kind of seed can be planted. Seeds of suffering, sorrow, fear, and anger, and seeds of happiness and hope. When these seeds sprout, they manifest in our mind consciousness and when they do, they become stronger.

We need to know our physical and psychological limits. We shouldn’t force ourselves to do ascetic practices or lose ourselves in sensual pleasures. Right Diligence lies in the Middle Way between the extremes of austerity and sensual indulgence. Joy and ease are two factors that are at the heart of Right Diligence.

The following gatha can give us energy to live the day well:

Waking up this morning I smile

24 brand new hours are before me

I vow to live fully in each moment

and look to all beings with eyes of compassion.

The practice of mindful living should be joyful and pleasant. If you breathe in and out and feel joy and peace, that is right diligence.

Based on the teachings of Thich Nhat Hanh.

Photo credit: Benn Bell

RIGHT THINKING

June 27, 2020 / Benn Bell / 3 Comments

Buddhism by the Numbers

Right Thinking

Thinking is the speech of the mind.
Right thinking leads to Right Action.
When we concentrate on our breathing, we bring body and mind back together and become whole.
Mindful breathing helps us stop being preoccupied by sorrows of the past and anxieties of the future. It helps us to be in touch with life in the present moment.

Four Practices Related to Right Thinking

Are you sure?
What am I doing?
Hello habit energy.
Bodhichitta – Mind of love.

Based on the teachings of Thich Nhat Hahn