Humble Acceptance and Authenticity (satire)

"To be beautiful
means to be yourself.
You don't need to be
accepted by others.
You need to accept yourself" — Thich Nhat Hanh

In striving for an authentic life, I realize that accepting myself as I am is the secret to humility. By being humble enough to be myself, I am empowered by unconditional love to accept myself.

By loving myself as I am, I realize that the key to self perfection is the ability to accept myself. No matter how imperfect I am, becoming perfect is a guide to a better life.

However, I do not seek to be perfect. Perhaps I am perfect by accepting myself, warts and all.

It is said that the pure mind is recovered after calming the mind until its pureness is revealed. After calming the mind through breath meditation (samatha), I am able to stay still, for there is no need to keep moving to prove that I am alive.

For I am beautiful enough to humbly accept myself as I walk on this journey called the authentic life.

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Reference:

The pure mind mentioned in this article is the amala consciousness, the ninth consciousness of Yogacara Buddhism.
For details on the nine consciousnesses, see: http://operationmeditation.com/discover/levels-of-consciousness-a-buddhist-perspective/

Truth helps me (poem)

When the facts be known,
all romantic and silly notions
fall away, to be forgotten
as the truth helps me see
the situation oh-so-clearly.

Yet I do not mourn the loss
of passion, for my heart has
risen above it all, only to
come to know true love
in its many-splendored guise.

Indeed, passion lost implies
freedom's reign over desire.
Through mindful control of passion,
the ego's hold on the mind
is released forevermore.

By letting go of clinging,
I let unconditional love
inspire me to see the truth
of egolessness in life.
For that I am so grateful.

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Originally posted March 15, 2005 at 9:48 PM

Meditation - Journal Entry: September 30, 2013 at 10:02 PM

Be excellent in all
That you do, and accept
Everyone as Buddha
Without question. O!
No one is as splendid
As the bodhisattvas.

Egoless due to daily meditation,
I hold no delusions about being a god.
For what is ego but a tool to wield for liberation?
He who wields Ego wisely uses it to benefit everyone.
What is evil but utter confusion?
What is good but true understanding?

Although all of what I write
Is metaphorical, it is
For the good of us all,
Even the white lies which hold
The Truth occulted by evil karma.

Truth arises from
The pure mind, cleansed of evil
Through daily practice
Of calm abiding and
Mindful reflection on Truth.

Achieve the pure mind
By letting go of desire
Through skillful means.
All it takes is to repeat
The Nembutsu sincerely.

For the Nembutsu
Is the tool of cleansing, and
Purifies the mind.
Wield it kindly when saying
The Nembutsu, the Name-that-calls.

He who utters the Name-that-calls
Is merely moved by the Buddha
Calling to all of humanity.
With each calling his mind is
Cleansed of anger arising from
Desire until the Pure Mind
Arises, shining bright like
The moon rising after sunset,
And the sun rising in the morn.

All things in the universe
Are impermanent,
And there is no soul at all.
Instead, there is but
The Eightfold Consciousnesses.

Reflection on My Lot in Life

I am of the working poor because I have trained not to exercise my ego in the unhealthy manner that Western society embraces.

In Buddhism, fame and fortune is what a Buddhist does not seek, because it will distract from peace of mind.

It really isn't important to become a celebrity as it is to seek the Buddha.

Modern society has a love-hate relationship with celebrity: it's ok if someone with talent seeks fame and fortune, but when that person falls, we are free to either offer emotional support or to criticize them.

The same goes for the rare person who follows the Buddha.

To me, mere riches are but an illusion designed to distract me from my path. I do not write this to boast about being poor. I write this out of acceptance of my lot in life.

The thought of becoming rich in the future causes me to fear such a destiny because it would complicate my life unnecessarily, and may even threaten my life with possible death due to home invasion and robbery.

Perhaps my choice of being of the working poor is a wise one. I do not know for sure; only time will tell.

Truth about Nirvana (poem)

Nirvana is when
we awaken from this dream
called Life, and
realize we were never
the caterpillar dreaming
we were the butterfly.
Nor are we God.
All we are is free
from rebirth in
the Realms of Desire.

The Buddha as Love: The Bodhisattva in Action

Free of the confines of ego, the love of the Buddha is due to the working of great compassion. Transcending the dualism of being and non-being, it rises from a heart of non-discrimination. It is purposeless, effortless, and ego-less.

As long as there is but one unsaved sentient being to enjoy single-minded bliss (Samadhi) to which she is entitled by her long spiritual discipline, the Tathagata's great love of all sentient beings is unending until everyone of them is happily led to Nirvana.

Empowered by boundless love and compassion, the Tathagata regards all sentient beings as if they were his only child. Were he to enter into Nirvana, no work will be done in the world where imaginative discrimination goes on and wonderful variety prevails. Because of this, he refuses to leave this world of birth-life-death. All his thoughts are directed towards the ignorant and suffering masses of sentient beings.

For them, he is willing to sacrifice his enjoyment of absolute reality and self-absorption.

Thus the Buddha as love is embodied in the Bodhisattva, who through her actions and desires in the realm of twofold egolessness works to save all sentient beings.

Sincerity Isn't Cheating but Non-attachment

I am sure after reading about the Buddhas, the Bodhisattvas, the devas and devis — the whole Buddhist pantheon, the gentle reader is confused.

When I wrote that "Buddhism is not a religion; it's a psychology", it stands to reason that Buddhism as a toolkit is a religion, a psychology, and a philosophy.

However, there may be people who still don't get it — they scratch their heads when I say "All Buddhas point to Sakyamuni Buddha."

For the purpose of the Buddhas is to focus on a Buddhist term like "compassion", not for followers to adore one of them like a god, even though Adi-Buddha isn't even a Buddhist god. He represents the whole Buddhadharma as ultimate reality.

Yet that revelation is beyond human comprehension for the average person. And so it should be.

For not everyone is capable of fully comprehending what Buddhism actually is.

It's like a bunch of blind men trying to discover what an elephant is.

As long as each of us has made up our minds what Buddhism is, our cognitive biases will kick in and filter out everything else.

This even happens to people who are of the opinion that the Pure Land way only serves to leave a few followers with attachment to the idea that Buddha Remembrance is a cheat because it offers the reward of an easy path to Enlightenment.

This is not so, because anyone with such an attachment is letting his ego guide the way to rebirth in the human realm and thus is only causing himself suffering.

This is because the practitioner who says the Nembutsu thinking that it is a free pass to the Pure Land is not saying it with sincerity.

Rather, when a Pure Land practitioner practices Buddha Remembrance with sincere intent to be reborn in the Pure Land, she has faith in the Primal Vow to be reborn in the Pure Land.

For the reason why Buddha Remembrance is called the Name-that-calls is that the practitioner sincerely believes that Amida Buddha is calling through him, for this is to clearly affirm the sincere intent to be reborn in the Pure Land.

I for one say the Nembutsu with this intent and in doing so, burn off karma so that I may be reborn in the Pure Land.

In burning off karma in this way, the Nembutsu practitioner is assured rebirth in the Pure Land.

Therefore it is actually not a cheat or attachment. For there is no expectation of reward. Both attachment and reward require a soul that lives after death.

According to the non-self principle of Buddhism, it is not my soul that is reborn in the Pure Land, it is the fruit of my actions ( the sincere practice of Buddha Remembrance).

It is not "I" who is reborn as a bodhisattva but karmic merit accumulated by chanting the Nembutsu transforms the seed of Buddha Nature planted when the faithful hears the Buddha's teaching is transformed into Self Nature.

For the karmic merit of chanting acts like fertilizer to help the seed of Buddha Nature transcend this life when this body dies, and be reborn in the Pure Land. Amida nurtures the resulting Self Nature as bodhisattva into its awakened form called Buddha.

This foolish one's sincere chanting of the Nembutsu is empty of attachment and thus is non-attachment.

As well, sincerity in the belief that one will be reborn in the Pure Land means the same as having faith that one will be reborn there, which is the same as non-attachment.

Thus Buddha Remembrance (the practice of the Nembutsu) is empty of attachment due to faith in Amida Buddha and belief in the Primal Vow.

Pure Land Buddhists do not see rebirth as reward for their faith, but as working of Other-power.

When the practitioner's faith in Amida and belief in the Primal Vow is sincere, Amida embraces this old fool on his deathbed. The 48 Vows assure him of this.

Therefore the Pure Land path is not a cheat and is but non-attachment due to sincere practice of the Nembutsu.

By such Buddha Remembrance, one realizes the concept of non-self. In realizing non-self, Amida nurtures the seed of Buddha Nature in the heartmind of this foolish one. As a result, one is truly assured of rebirth in the Pure Land at this deathbed. For that is what it says in the 48 Vows of Amida Buddha.

For I was not born a Buddhist for my own Nirvana but for the Nirvana of all sentient beings. Therefore I practice Buddha Remembrance by chanting the Nembutsu for all sentient beings.

Namu Amida Butsu

Attaining Nirvana

Some people are born again;
evil-doers go to hell;
righteous people go to heaven;
those who are free from
all worldly desires
attain Nirvana. — Dhammapada 126

Nirvana is freedom from suffering due to worldly desire.

Worldly desire is also called evil passions, which cause us to calculate how to profit at the expense of other people's right to happiness and self-determination.

In this context, evil refers to the negative selfish affect of passions i.e. egoistic desires.

Passions refers to lust, anger, pride, attachment to worldly things, etc.

In this context then, evil passions arise when all worldly desires distract us from our spiritual path in life.

Our spiritual path in life is to attain Nirvana.

To serve others and be helpful to friends, family and strangers is the means by which all Buddhists attain Nirvana.

Thus through selflessness one is able to attain Nirvana, and be free of desire.

Deep Reflection on Self and Others

I do not desire suffering;
yet fool I am,
I desire the cause of suffering! — Shantideva

What is the cause of suffering but self-will? For the ego, when kindled, blinds me to my ignorance so that I may err, and thus suffer needlessly.

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All those who are unhappy in the world
desire for their own happiness;
All those who are happy in the world
desire for the happiness of others. — Shantideva

So work for the happiness of others so that happiness is shared with all. In this way are the wise truly happy. And yet such happiness may be short-lived.

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Wisdom tells me I am nothing.
Love tells me I am everything.
Between the two my life flows. — Nisargadatta Maharaj

The spiritual life springs from the desire to share happiness and love. In contrast, worldliness springs from the desire for fame and gain. Few of us have managed to balance our lives between both on our own.

Even so, the well-balanced life arises from sharing one's life with beloved family and friends, not from asceticism but from a willingness to let go of self for the sake of others.

---

Student: Sir, if one gave up the I, nothing whatsoever would remain.

Ramakrishna: I am not asking you to give up all of the I. you should give up only the "unripe I." the "unripe I" makes one feel: "I am the doer. these are my wife and children. I am a teacher."

Renounce this "unripe I" and keep the "ripe I" which will make you feel that you are God's servant, His devotee, and that God is the doer and you are His instrument. — Sri Ramakrishna

The "unripe I" is the ego; the "ripe I" is the soul. While the former lives in this world, the latter lives for God. Moreso, merely knowing I am God's servant is not enough. Being devoted to Him allows me to see that as God's instrument I will try to be as harmless to others as I am able.

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All the violence, fear and suffering
that exists in this world
comes from grasping at "self".
What use is this great monster to you?
if you do not let go of the "self",
there will never be an end to your suffering.— Shantideva

Letting go of the "self", become human. Abandon grasping at "self", and be at peace with self and other.

---

Where are you hurrying to?
you will see
the same moon tonight
wherever you go! — Izumi Shikibu

My Spiritual Hierarchy of Jesus, God and the Buddha

Introduction

In this article I begin with the declaration that the ego is a social fabrication, introduce the patriarchal sexist myth of the male ego, and contrast the ego to its Christian counterpart, self-will.

Then the Buddhist view of the ego will be discussed, followed by a short discussion of the healthy ego with respect to individual needs and continuing on with the view of personal spirituality as self-actualization.

Next, I will illustrate how my spiritual hierarchy of God, Jesus and the Buddha cuts through the fallacy of false dilemma.

Following that thought is the discussion of how beliefs outside the spiritual life affect myself and others.

Finally in the conclusion, I will try to show how the spiritual life has a common ground in all faiths.

Ego as a Social Fabrication

Ego is a social fabrication; the proof of this is in the media. The term "ego" is used to describe the whole psychic apparatus defined in Freud's structural model of the psyche, which he divided into three parts as id, ego and super-ego.

Examples of the ego in action in popular culture occur regularly in the media regarding not just politicians, religious icons, scientists, and sports idols, but also local celebrities and famous pop icons.

Although it isn't commonly talked about, the Western social consensus is that the ego exists.

Because ego is a social fabrication, it requires daily exercise through self-expression. The ideal of a wholesome life implies that the healthy ego needs expression in the community in socially acceptable ways.

In contrast, the unwholesome life leads to social isolation and its impact on the ego. Without self-expression in socially acceptable ways, the individual is susceptible to depression and anxiety. As a result, the ego may become the focus of one's life. Thus he becomes ego-centered, and much of his misery in life is due to his egocentricity.

The Patriarchal Sexist Myth of the Male Ego

In the minds of many people, a patriarchal sexist myth about the ego may be commonplace. In this myth, the male ego is the only thing that exists.

This does not mean that the female ego is non-existent; it just is not talked about.

This is not the true picture of the ego at all but a false view of it, which is defined by how the male ego is vilified whilst pretending women do not have one.

Yet this myth about the ego arises in the male-dominated patriarchal society for many reasons which are political and social.

While the male ego is sometimes associated with God, the female ego kept hidden, to be discussed behind closed doors between women.

However, this sexist myth about the ego is counterproductive to inner change.

Ego and Its Christian Counterpart, Self-Will

In reality, the ego exists from birth to death for everyone, young and old, male and female.

It is also known in Western religious circles as self-will, which consists of resolute adherence to your own ideas or desires and the trait of resolutely controlling your own behavior.

Self-will has the negative qualities of stubbornness, bullheadedness, obstinacy, obstinance, and pigheadedness, and the positive qualities of self-control, self-possession, possession, willpower, will power, and self-command.

Buddhist View of Ego

According to Buddhism, all people have an ego which arises from the moment of birth. The Buddhist concept of dependent arising explains in detail how the ego arises from birth until death. Indeed, the ego arises after ignorance as one of the many fabrications of the mind.

In the Four Noble Truths,

1. human suffering is first identified in fine detail as misery, pain and unhappiness.
   
2. The origin of suffering is revealed to be unwholesome desire or craving.
   
3. Relief from suffering consists of ending suffering by allowing craving to fade away and stop, by giving up and letting go of the unwholesome desire, being free of sensual pleasures, and not relying on such existence. In this way is the ego appeased.
   
4. Finally, the means to appease the ego by promoting equanimity is given as the Noble Eightfold Path:
   
   1. right view,
      
   2. right intention,
      
   3. right speech,
      
   4. right action,
      
   5. right livelihood,
      
   6. right effort,
      
   7. right mindfulness, and
      
   8. right concentration

Divided into three parts, the Eightfold Path consists of:

• wisdom (right view, right intention),
  
• ethical conduct (right speech, right action, right livelihood), and
  
• mental discipline, concentration and meditation (right effort, right mindfulness, and right concentration).

As a result of following the Eightfold Path, specifically breath and insight meditation, the Buddhist practitioner acquires right knowledge (seeing things as they really are) which results in right liberation.

Ego with Respect to the Individual Needs

For the average person, the healthy ego requires the basic needs consisting of Maslow's hierarchy of needs:

• the physiological needs (breathing, food, sex, water, sleep, metabolic equilibrium, and excretion),
  
• safety needs (personal security, financial security, health and well-being, and a safety net against accidents and illness, and their adverse impacts),
  
• love and belonging(social needs which involve feelings of belongingness, and especially emotionally based relationships such as friendship, intimacy and family),
  
• esteem need (which consist of two parts:
  
  • 1) respect for others, the need for status, recognition, fame, prestige, and attention, and
    
  • 2) self-respect, the need for strength, competence, mastery, self-confidence, independence and freedom),
  and
• self-actualization (self-mastery).

Personal Spirituality as Self-Actualization

Once these needs are satisfied, self-actualization also consists of meeting my spiritual needs, which is satisfied by maintaining a spiritual life. Within the context of spirituality, the ego refers to a "sense of doership" or sense of individual existence. The ego-centered life is the life where the illusion of such existence prevails. As a result of that illusion, I may believe myself to be a human being and that I must fight for my rights to make it in this world. Yet, throughout it all, I remain unaware and unconscious of my true nature until a series of spiritual experiences show me that the God-centered life is essential to my spiritual well-being Within context of a God-centered life, it is a fallacy to believe that the social conventions of pronouns (I, me, my, mine) reflect the ego-centered life. Rather, by focusing on God from the start of every day to its very end, the use of pronouns just make the God-centered life more personal.

My Spiritual Hierarchy Cuts Through Fallacy of False Dilemma

To a person who sees the world through the fallacy of either as God-centered or Buddha-centered, the following statements would seem complicated and unwieldy. Such a false dilemma overlooks the fact that both God and Buddha are manifestations of the Higher Power, which is God as each of us knows Him to be. Does the God-centered life conflict with my belief in Buddhism? No, since both God and the Buddha are different aspect of the Higher Power, and since God, being Creator, made the historical Buddha to realize His mysterious works, I do not see any conflict between my faith in God and my belief in the Buddha. For God is at the core of my hierarchy of the spiritual life, with my belief that Jesus died on the cross for us as coming second, and then the Buddhist principles defined by the Eightfold Path. Outside of these three core beliefs are the multitude of beliefs we hold about life and ourselves.

Beliefs and Its Relationship to Self and Other

These other beliefs which lie outside the spiritual life are still a vital part of it, because they subtly influence how I view my hierarchy of core beliefs about God, Jesus and the Buddha. Yet how I view God, Jesus and the Buddha reflect my spiritual views, which influence how I see life and its effect in my daily existence, and how other people see me. With my heart focused on God as the center of my spiritual life, my faith in Him is validated by my belief that Jesus died for our sins, and is tempered by the underlying Buddhist principles of dependent arising, the Four Noble Truths and the Eightfold Path. By making God the core of my spiritual beliefs, the ego becomes healthy because my growing reliance on God depends on fellowship with like-minded people. By relying on God, I develop a need for Him which deflates my ego, leading me to practice humility. With prayer and meditation, it is possible for me to moderate my life, encouraged by the fact that salvation is the free gift of God, the belief that Jesus died for our sins, and a growing faith in God inculcated by reading the Bible.

Conclusion: The Spiritual Life as Common Ground Between All Faiths

Thus I see the common ground between Buddhism and Christianity since each faith help to enrich a person's spiritual life. Indeed, both faiths continue to enrich my life through my willingness to practice a form of spiritual plurality. Rather than water down Buddhism and Christianity, spiritual plurality helps me to maintain a balanced view of both faiths. Using what I know of Buddhist meditation to moderate my behavior (thought, speech and action), I am able to apply its use to seek God through careful prayer and meditation. As well, the spiritual insights gained by reading the Bible can also help me see Buddhism in a refreshing new light. As an example of such insight, both Christianity and Buddhism emphasize loving-kindness but use it differently. In Christianity, a loving God sacrificed His Son, Jesus Christ, so that all Christians are saved by faith in Him, with salvation freely given by God's grace. Salvation in Buddhism starts with a mytho-poetic Buddha named Amida of a Buddhist "heaven" (the Pure Land of Bliss) who is reborn from an angelic Bodhisattva (Dharmakāra) who was once the king of a mythical land. Inspired by a Buddha of a previous age, this former king made a series of vows of which the most important vow allows all Buddhists who revere that Buddha to be reborn in that Pure Land as "angels" so that they may listen to the Buddha preach before being reborn in the earthly realm to help other people come to know the Buddha. In this way Buddhism enriches my spiritual life as much as Christianity does, and my faith in God is complemented by my belief that Jesus died for my sins and my belief in what the Buddha taught! For the spiritual life is the common ground that all faiths share.

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Reference:

Id, ego and super-ego: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Id,_ego,_and_super-ego
Ego as doer: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ego_%28spirituality%29
Higher Power: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Higher_Power
Maslow's hierarchy of needs: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maslow's_hierarchy_of_needs
Buddhism and Christianity: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Buddhism_and_Christianity

The Social Fabrication of the Ego

In Buddhism, human suffering is explained by the Buddhist concept of dependent arising, which consists of twelve parts which work together in an orderly manner. First and foremost, ignorance is the first of those twelve parts. Next comes fabrications.

Indeed, Buddhist thought confirms that the ego is a social fabrication. Likewise does social psychology.

According to Greenwald, Ego, or self-will, is an organization of knowledge, characterized by cognitive biases strikingly analogous to totalitarian information-control strategies.

These totalitarian-ego biases function to preserve organization in cognitive structures.

Ego's cognitive biases are egocentricity (self as the focus of knowledge), "benevolence" (perception of responsibility for desired, but not undesired, outcomes), and cognitive conservatism (resistance to cognitive change).

In addition to being pervasively evident in recent studies of normal human cognition, these three biases are found in actively functioning, higher level organizations of knowledge, perhaps best exemplified by theoretical paradigms in science.

The thesis that egocentricity, benevolence, and conservatism act to preserve knowledge organizations leads to the proposal of an intra-psychic analog of genetic evolution, which in turn provides an alternative to prevalent motivational and informational interpretations of cognitive biases.
See Anthony G. Greenwald's article "The Totalitarian Ego Fabrication and Revision of Personal History" (1980).

Commentary:
"Benevolence" is my interpretation of Greenwald's term "beneffectance" (beneficence and effectance), which is a term he coined to describe the perception of oneself as responsible for desired outcomes but not responsible for undesired ones. This involves forgetting failures more easily than successes, and remembering one's contribution to a group effort to have been better than average due to superiority bias.

Beneficence is defined as doing good and feeling beneficent, and specifically describes the quality of being kind, helpful or generous.

"Effectance" itself is not defined in any dictionary, but is probably related to effectiveness and its synonyms, power and especially powerfulness, which means possession of controlling influence.

Cognitive conservatism, being defined as resistance to cognitive change — changing what one knows based on current experience — suggests an unwillingness to adapt to present circumstances.

Adaptability is a useful psycho-social trait in which the individual adapts readily to the current environment, especially during times of political change and upheaval. It is also useful within the context of social rehabilitation related to addiction, mental health and associated issues.

Thus cognitive conservatism as defined by Greenwald does not imply adaptability at all.

Overall, egocentricity, beneffectance, and cognitive conservatism are not effective means of dealing with human suffering. The reason that they are not is that the ego tends to blame others for human suffering, so as to reduce its ultimate role in one's own suffering.

Indeed, the ego will come up with seemingly good excuses to avoid or deny responsibility. Yet a healthy view of personal responsibility allows for each of us to share responsibility for relief of the suffering of others.

Therefore, Greenwald's article suggests that totalitarianism might be the externalization of egocentricity taken to political extremes.

Egocentricity taken to extreme on the individual might also explain addiction and other dysfunctional behavior, especially within the context of beneffectance and cognitive conservatism.

Indeed, beneffectance in itself could be used to deny and excuse responsibility for undesirable outcome, while cognitive conservatism, the inability to change.

Overall, Greenwald's analogy that the cognitive biases of the ego are similar to totalitarian information-control strategies confirms the ego only exists as a social fabrication.

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References:

Social psychology notes on Greenwald's article: http://faculty.babson.edu/krollag/org_site/soc_psych/greenwald_tot_ego.html

Totalitarian ego: http://biasandbelief.pbworks.com/w/page/6537228/Totalitarian-Ego

Greenwald's references on beneffectance: http://biasandbelief.pbworks.com/Beneffectance

Mistakes were made but not by me: http://biasandbelief.pbworks.com/w/page/6537204/Mistakes-Were-Made-but-not-by-me

Kweli Ukombozi / True Liberation (poem)

Maisha yangu karibu na Mungu
ni ya bure ya ego na upendo wa kujitegemea.
Kweli hii ni kweli ukombozi.

My life close to God
is free of ego and self love.
This really is true liberation.

The Healthy Ego Revolves Around a Higher Power

Ideally, a truly healthy ego revolves around a Higher Power. For some of us, this is God as we know Him; others rely on the Buddha or Allah or even their most trusted friends.

Egocentricity however operates under the delusion that the world revolves around me. It tries ot get us to believe that we don't need help to recover from addiction.

Yet, where is this "me" when the chips are down? When self-will (ego) tells us we can do fine on our own, relapse might occur.

Out of ignorance, we create fabrications rather than simply face the simple truth that the biggest social fabrication is the ego.

For the ego does not exist, except in the mind.

Of the mind, let us be mindful of the folly of egocentricity. For what is "I", "me", and "mine" but social conventions?

Let go and let God...

Ego as Social Fabrication

The ego is not part of the true nature of human beings, but is a social fabrication, inculcated from birth.

Ignorance about our true nature results in us believing the ego is real until we find ourselves alone and socially isolated due to excess caused by our desires and passions.

Within the context of Buddhism, passions are considered a necessary evil. They are evil because when the ego holds sway over a person, the passions would eat us out of house and home.

Merely satisfying our material needs for clothing, food and shelter is not enough.

Without strong adherence to a moral code and the resultant ethical response of right and wrong, we could eat until we become obese, have more clothes than we could possibly wear, and never leave our homes.

Thus, the prudent and wise of us have learned to develop their spiritual yearning to the point where they have incorporated it into their lives, whether it is religious worship or a wholesome hobby.

For me, my hobbies consist of computers and writing: I use my computer to write in my journal, to create electronic music, and to learn about the world and myself.

As for religious worship, I try to spend at least every other day meditating, and reading Buddhist sutras to gain an understanding of the human mind and its essential nature.

Additionally I also read the Bible with an open mind, so as to round out my thirst for the living water of spiritually inspired works.

The Four Noble Truths and a God-centred Life

The Four Noble Truths have to do with curing human suffering.

Within context of a God-centred life, then the Four Noble Truths may be interpreted as:

1. Human suffering is inevitable.
   
2. Human suffering is caused by ignorance of God as we know Him, the ego-centred life
   
3. Relieving such suffering is possible by living a God-centred life through careful prayer and meditation
   
4. Apply the Eightfold Noble Path to address meditation

Of course, the above re-interpretation of the Four Noble Truths includes prayer, which is God-centred.

Living a God-centred life is the ideal for a person in recovery from the suffering of addictions, of which the unhealthy ego is its primary cause.

A God-centred life, thus, deflates the ego with the help of God as I know Him.

How do one come to know Him? By meditating on what I have learned about Him, just for today.

How does one cure suffering? By sharing with others the way to relieve suffering: through careful prayer and meditation.

Letting Go (of Ego) and Letting God

To ask the question "Would a God-centred life actually resolve my spiritual challenges?", brings up the false dilemma that either resolves those challenges or does not resolve it.

A God-centred life will always be challenged by a human being whose life revolves around his egocentricity. Thus, I would still need the Buddhist meditative practice and meditation to cut through the delusion of ego that I alone can decide when to rely on a Higher Power.

In order to reconcile Buddhist practice with a God-centred life, without compromising the middle way of Buddhism, I consider such a life as the ideal by which God guides me.

For the ideal is this too: God is the Creator of His Creation; He is in all Creation yet is a part of Creation.

Given that God is in all creation yet a part of creation, the very thought that I decide when to rely on Him is utterly foolish! For I am not God, only a human being with a soul worth saving.

When I let go of ego, and let God be the centre of all life, it makes sense to rely on Him all the time.

How simple it is to just rely on Him!

Buddha Nature and Enlightenment

In Mahayana Buddhism, the true nature in each person is Buddha Nature, which represents the potential in each and every one of us to reach full enlightenment. This is an intrinsic and immortal potential which exists in the mind of every sentient being. Such a potential is actualized through meditation.

First, through breath meditation, one clears the mind of defilements so that it becomes the pure mind that is essential to experience and show compassion for other sentient beings. Second, insightful meditation requires the clear mind to validate the Four Noble Truths and dependent arising in one's life through mindful practice.

"Sentient" is derived from the word "sentience" which means "the ability to feel and/or perceive". Thus "every sentient being" means "all living beings which are able to feel and/or perceive". Furthermore, Eastern thought views sentience as "the metaphysical quality of all things that require care and respect." Even nonhuman lifeforms are sentient.

In Buddhism, sentient beings made of pure consciousness are possible. Hence, the Buddhas, Bodhisattvas and other gods exist in their respective Buddha-fields.

Each one of these Buddhas, Bodhisattvas and Buddhist deities represent various states of minds i.e. Amida represents wisdom and compassion, Sakyamuni Buddha represents enlightenment and/or spiritual awakening, Kuan Yin represents compassion, the devas represent aspects of enlightenment, and so on.

Indeed, the Buddhas, Bodhisattvas, and Buddhist deities also also have a spiritual existence where they exist within the heart-mind of each and every sentient being.

Buddhists who practice meditation will then realize these internalized sentient beings as various aspects of their mind.

For each Buddha, Bodhisattva and Buddhist deity represents the pure form of each mental and emotional quality of the mind, the qualities of enlightenment such as overt and latent power ( the deities Agyo and Ugyo), latent might (Naraen / Ugyo), day and night (the Bodhisattvas known as White Tara and Blue Tara), the pure mind and body (Kuan Yin), and the power aspect of complete enlightenment (Vajrapani / Mahasthamaprapta).

Thus, the sentient beings made of pure consciousness are reflections of that intrinsic potential to reach enlightenment known as Buddha Nature .

Buddha Nature itself also is empty of defining characteristics related to sunyata and nondualism. Insightful meditation helps in understanding sunyata and nondualism.

Sunyata is known as suchness, nothingness, emptiness, and voidness, and refers to the impermanent nature of reality within context of egolessness, the concept of non-self that all things perceived by the senses including the mind are not really "I" or "mine".

Buddhist nondualism is reflected in that concept of non-self, which is the nonduality of subject and object. Thus is self and other an illusion. Nondualism is also reflected in the concept of two truths, the ultimate reality that there is no self in contrast to the conventional reality where each person speaks of himself. As well, the view of nonduality is known as wisdom while the experience of duality is known as compassion.

In this way is our ordinary dualistic experience, full of all living beings, nurtured with care always experienced as "now". Thus the Mahayana path tempers wisdom with compassion to cut through the confusions of duality.

Therefore, wisdom helps one to transform one's growing understanding of nonduality into compassion for all sentient beings in the present moment.

My own personal understanding of nonduality is that egolessness is the ultimate reality of the pure mind, which is a reflection of Buddha Nature. With the pure mind attained through meditation, I experience compassion for other people by listening to them. This is known as mindful practice.

Thus, breath meditation helps clear the mind and realize the pure mind. With the pure mind, one is able to use insightful meditation to validate the Four Noble Truths and dependent arising by experiencing one's life fully. Through insights derived from meditation, one is inspired to experience compassion for other living beings. By experiencing compassion for others, one develops mindful practice.

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Reference:
Buddha Nature: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Buddha_Nature
Japanese Buddhist Photo Dictionary: http://www.onmarkproductions.com
Sunyata: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sunyata
Nondualism: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nondualism

Meditation on Self Justification

He who always justifies his actions lacks inner conviction. In lacking inner conviction, egoistic desire may motivate him to justify himself in order to regain control over his life.

Instead, stop justifying your actions. Be silent and listen with your heart-mind to the wise counsel of a good friend.

Always the battle is not with a thousand enemies, but with our greatest enemy: the ego-self. Each of us has no enemy stronger, for each of us has had doubts about the self. Indeed, there are no enemies, only potential friends.

In context of this meditation, "ego-self" refers to belief that the ego exists as an independent self as a permanent thing. With respect to that definition, "healthy ego" refers to the self that is aware of interdependence on others yet is self reliant.

"Interdependence" refers to the true nature of relationships. Even though there may be a causal relationship between myself and another person A, it also affects that person's causal relationship with yet another person B. Even though I do not know person B, and person B does not know me, my relationship with person A cannot help but affect person B indirectly.

Thus it makes sense to be of harm to no one.

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Originally posted on May 26, 2005 9:25 PM
Edited August 24, 2010 at 11:54 PM
Edited January 29, 2013 at 19:35 PM

Lose Yourself and Abandon Ego (meditation)

Lose yourself and abandon ego.

Instead, be embraced by truth, by reality, as-is without discrimination between either-or, but well-versed in the power of the otherness that encompasses all, just as it is.

All thought of "I am" is rooted in the either-or paradigm which deludes all sentient beings corrupted by this impermanent floating world of samsara - few understand this vital truth of life.

Indeed, few of us find true freedom and liberation as described by the Thus-come One, the Buddha Siddhartha Gotama. Instead we find only suffering and sorrow, yet mistake it for happiness and peace.

No-thought is preferable to calculated thinking, always devising ways of survival that are contrary to the truth as-is, which result in a false reality.

So lose your attachment to the self; abandon all endless craving.

Yet be mindful of the mind, cultivating mindfulness through daily practice and meditation to be free of all delusions of the spirit.

Head Up High (Poem)

I saw the chair that the Buddha sat in.
I hear the words that the Buddha had spoken.
I felt the rain, looked up in the sky, and
Held my head up high, despite the pain.

Childhood is sorrow, the ancients did say.
Wait until tomorrow, and do as you may.
When one man conquers himself, he gains
much more than wealth and power.
He redeems his whole life forever more.

No "I am" is that there is at all.
Raise up Ego and see yourself fall.
In a mirror darkly is seen the face
of the one who blows dust off it.

The ancients said true consciousness exists,
but this world is ephemeral and fleeting.
Thoughts come and go, but the serenity of mind stays.
Feeling arise and fall, but pure mind remains.
Hold up your head high and go forward!