Yesterday I received a Shambhala Publications catalogue of Buddhists books and audio in the mail. It’s an interesting collection of books. However, I didn’t find anything in it I would call ‘transcendental’ where the adept goes beyond the psychophysical body of the Five Aggregates becoming awakened to their true unborn nature. There are books on mindfulness, conflict resolution, Dakini power, awareness (I don’t quite know what the difference is between mindfulness and awareness). There is one book on Buddhist yogi exercise.
There are not a few books by Pema Chordron helping people to deal with fear, uncertainty and change, including her classic book, When Things Fall Apart. One book that was next to her books, caught my attention, Three Steps to Awakening (I guess a person could become a Buddha without too much difficulty—certainly no need to find a Bodhi-tree). There were lots of books on meditation strategies. The books on Zen include Suzuki’s Zen Mind, Beginner’s Mind. There are not a few books by Thich Nhat Hanh such as You Are Here (glad to know that), and True Love. There are lots of Tibetan books and a beginner’s favorite section. The catalogue sort of ends with some books on dying which are always interesting if you are my age.
What most all such books don’t mention is what the heck is Buddhism really about? It would sure help to know, that way a person could decide, that is, decide whether or not to take up a serious practice of Buddhism—that includes Zen Buddhism, by the way. I am still looking at the catalogue for something on nirvana or liberation. I haven’t found anything yet but I will keep looking. I am beginning to think that what modern Buddhism is all about boils down to learning various ways of coping with life’s ups and downs. Nobody cares about liberation from samsara it seems. Temporal life is still fun.
So what is Buddhism really about? It is about clearly distinguishing between what is absolute and undying in you and what is dying, ever-changing, and suffering in you, so you won’t keep attaching to the latter in the crazy belief it’s the former. This way you avoid rebirth. Now if you ask, “Hey Zennist, I thought the Buddha denied the self—you seem to be implying there is a self?” Bingo—I am. We are most, primordially, the âtman which is absolute and undying, but we are fast asleep as to what it is. Hence, we are unawakened suffering from a bad case of avidya (nescience) attaching ourselves to the wrong things. The Buddha only taught us how to avoid attaching or clinging to what is not our âtman. From the beginning, the problem was never the âtman but, instead, false âtmans . My body is a false âtman including the senses and their objects. Each day we look in the mirror believing we are real, real like the âtman. Surprise! We are not the face in the mirror. Don’t glom onto it.
Nirvana or liberation only comes when we behold, directly, our âtman. One could even say that nirvana and the âtman are synonymous.
Thanks for telling it as it is. I am no longer able to read self-help disguised as Buddhism.
Posted by: Susan | March 30, 2014 at 12:06 PM