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Obstacles or Opportunities?
When we think about the Buddhist path, it’s easy to drift toward a
fantasy that one day nothing will be in our way, and we’ll just — BOOM! —
get it. Dharma literature is filled with stories of adepts who seem to
have achieved enlightenment in this way. But what’s a non-adept like me
to do? There’s plenty “in my way,” not least of all, me.
The answer, I think, is to make friends with the obstacles we face;
they’re right here, after all. Might as well make the most of them. May
the teachings you find here embolden you to do just that.
—Rod Meade Sperry, editor, Buddhadharma
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Ajahn Chah explains some of Buddhism’s most important principles,
including nirvana, samadhi, and why it’s important to “Be really
careful!”
The Buddha taught to see the body in the body. What does this mean? We
are all familiar with the parts of the body, such as hair, nails, teeth,
and skin. So how do we see the body in the body? If we recognize all
these things as being impermanent, unsatisfactory, and not-self, that’s
what is called seeing the body in the body. Then it isn’t necessary to
go into detail and meditate on the separate parts. It’s like having
fruit in a basket. If we have already counted the pieces of fruit, then
we know what’s there, and when we need to, we can pick up the basket and
take it away, and all the pieces come with it. We know the fruit is all
there, so we don’t have to count it again.
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Pema Chödrön offers her unique perspective on The Way of the
Bodhisattva, and addresses how we free ourselves from powerful emotional
spells.
Rousing the bodhi heart means connecting with our longing for
enlightenment, with the clear desire to alleviate the escalating
suffering we see in the world today. Most people do not give much
thought to enlightenment. But most of us do long for a better world
situation, and we long to be free of neurotic habits and mental anguish.
This is the ideal state of mind for awakening bodhicitta, the
aspiration to achieve enlightenment for the sake of all sentient beings.
We know we want to be part of making things better, and that we need to
get saner to do this effectively. It’s the perfect place to start.
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A forum on Kleshas and their role on the path to enlightenment, with an introduction by Barry Boyce.
Buddhism has plenty of words for what human beings do wrong—defilements,
neurotic behavior, obscurations, obstructions, evil deeds, kleshas, and
so on. The beauty of Buddhism, though, is that it doesn’t focus on
blame. The focus of Buddhism is samsara, which is not a sin but simply a
mistake, a mistake that starts out small and gets very, very big. When
you begin with the view that a mistake has been made, you can stop
trying to apprehend the wrongdoer and put your effort into finding out
how the mistake occurred in the first place. In the beginning, the real
nature of the mistake can elude us, and we may think that there is
“something wrong with us.” It takes the patience and diligence of
mindfulness to see our “defilements” for what they really are—and to see
how they differ from who we really are.
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