Haiku for You
The white water rushes
through the throng of rocks
only to settle in the pool below.
White Water
photo of the day
How to Fix It
Poem
How to fix it
Leave a legacy of love
Shovel shit against the tide until you reach the end of the line
Everyone has a story
And nearly everyone undergoes a startling metamorphosis
By morning
All is emptiness under the moon
The umbrella academy offers scant protection.
The Five Powers
Buddhism by the Numbers
The Five Powers
- Faith
- Diligence
- Mindfulness
- Concentration
- Insight
Mindfulness leads to concentration, and concentration leads to insight and to faith.
According to the Lotus Sutra, all sentient beings have the Buddha nature.
“Buddha” comes from the root verb “budh”, which means wake up.
Every moment is the opportunity to water the seeds of happiness in yourself.
Based on the teachings of Thich Nhat Hanh
The Five Aggregates
Buddhism by the Numbers
The Five Aggregates
A human being is composed of Five aggregates (skandas): form, feelings, perception, mental formations, and consciousness.
- Form – Means our body including the five sense organs and our nervous system.
- Feelings – There is a river of feelings inside of us. Our feelings are formations, impermanent and without substance.
- Perceptions – Noticing, naming, conceptualizing, perceiver and perceived. All suffering is born from wrong perceptions. Understanding, the fruit of meditation, can dissolve our wrong perceptions and liberate us. “Where there is perception, there is deception.” -Diamond Sutra.
- Mental Formations – There are 51 mental formations present in our store consciousness in the form of seeds. Every time a seed is touched it manifests on the upper level of our consciousness as a mental formation. With daily practice we are able to nourish and develop wholesome mental formations and transform unhealthy ones. Freedom, non-fear, and peace are the result of this practice.
- Consciousness – Consciousness in this context means store consciousness, which is the basis of everything that we are, the ground of all our mental formations. Consciousness contains all other aggregates and is the basis of their existence. Consciousness is simultaneously both collective and individual.
The five aggregates are interconnected or as Thich Nhat Hahn says, “Inter-are.”
The Four Immeasurable Minds
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
Buddhism by the Numbers
The Three Jewels
I take refuge in the Buddha, Dharma, and the Sangha
Notes from the Buddha
From the Dhammapada
You are what you think. All that you are arises from your thoughts. With your thoughts you make your world.
The Three Bodies of Buddha
Buddhisim by the Numbers
The Buddha came to be represented as having “three bodies”:
- Dharmakaya – the source of enlightenment and happiness.
- Sambhogakaya – the body of bliss or enlightenment.
- Nirmanakaya – the historical embodiment of the Buddha.
When he was about to pass away, the Buddha told his disciples, “Dear friends, my physical body will not be here tomorrow, but my teaching body (Dharmakaya) will always be with you. Consider it to be the teacher who never leaves you. Be islands unto yourselves, take refuge in the Dharma. Use the Dharma as your lamp, your island.”
The original meaning of Dharmakaya, the way to realize understanding and love.
Based on the teachings of Thich Nhat Hahn
Photo by Benn Bell
True at First Light
Photo of the Day
“In Africa a thing is true at first light and a lie by noon…”
-Ernest Hemingway
Photo: Benn Bell
Rainstorm
There is something to be learned from a rainstorm. When meeting with a sudden shower, you try not to get wet and run quickly along the road. But doing such things as passing under the eaves of houses, you still get wet. When you are resolved from the beginning, you will not be perplexed, though you will still get the same soaking. This understanding extends to everything.”
― Tsunetomo Yamamoto, The Hagakure: A code to the way of samurai
Photo: Benn Bell
Ghost Dog 