måndag 22 februari 2016

Bookreview: Buddhist bootcamp

Hi.
 
Just the name of the author says it all, Timber Hawkeye.
This book is an treasure-trove of oneliners packaged as one paged letters for the reader. They are smart, witty and above all piercing like the sight of an hawk.
According to the author it is based on letters sent to people over a period of time, which they might be, some of the writings have that lettery air over them,. The airiness makes it an great book to read out loud in Company of your spouse, or in the Comfort of your favourite chair...
The book is not about Buddhism per se, no lengthy discourse on its history or anything but more on one of the basic tenets of Buddhism, training the mind to see the truth. 
In the book we are given thoughtful texts, which can be read in any order, and practices, which we can use or let go of. All of this gives you a basic starting ground for our own practice, a Buddhist bootcamp if you like.
 
The downside of the book, to me, is that it is sometimes a bit simplistic, almost shallow, and a bit moralistic at other times.  
This book is more of an selfhelp/lifecoachbook than it is an book about Zen/Buddhism. Further, the author talks a lot of what he believes and what he does, and in a sense what you should do, which it should be given that it is excerpts of letters, but it might turn some people off.
Nevertheless the content rings true and i like it so much that I recommend it heartily to anyone who might find benefit in it. 

Thank you for your practice
Mtfbwy
Fugen

måndag 15 februari 2016

"I feel infinite"

Hi.

“ I feel infinite”

-Perks of being a wallflower

Sometimes you get the feeling of being infinite, to contain everything.
The sense that You are the universe, the universe is you, and you know it.
In Buddhism this is a sensation which, in some traditions, has beeen called an “enlightenment experience”, a “Kensho”. It is in a sense, an initial awakening to the true nature of things.
This is nothing special, a lot of people have them all the time and they can come in all manners of magnitude, from big to small, but Trust me when I say, you will know when you have a big one.
Not all realize what it is and miss it, but if you are open to them and realize them for what they are, they will shake the foundations of you. The thing is that not all realize what it is all about. It is a pointer to what the Buddhists call oneness, that you are the universe and the universe are you.
In a sense, that YOU are infinite.

One of the things that the Buddhist scriptures do say, if you look at them, is that we are infinite. Everyone of us.
All the time.
One of the effects of us being infinite all the time, is that there is no time and no infinity, as we are everything and everything is we. This is, maybe, most profoundly stated in the Prajnaparamita sutra, The heart sutra, which says, Emptiness is form, form is emptiness.

 
O/ Sha/ri/pu/tra/, form/ is/ no/ o/ther/ than/ emp/ti/ness/,
Emp/ti/ness/ no/ o/ther/ than/ form/;
Form/ is/ pre/cise/ly/ emp/ti/ness/, emp/ti/ness/ pre/cise/ly/ form/.
Sen/sa/tions/, per/cep/tions/, for/ma/tions/ and/ con/scious/ness/ are/ al/so/ like/ this/.
O/ Sha/ri/pu/tra/, all/ things/ are/ ex/pres/sions/ of/ emp/ti/ness/,


So, now, when you are it, what are you going to do about it?

May the force be with you
Fugen

Thank you for your practice.



Mtfbwy

Fugen