"We're not so different, you and I..."

That quote has absolutely no religious or philosophical root. It's from the movie "Austin Powers" when Dr. Evil tells Austin that they are really quite the same (the joke in the film being that both roles are played by Mike Myers). But, this was the first quote to pop into my head when I started learning about the Buddhism as being Interfaith.

It's kind of like all religions began as a family - born from the same place. Then, your brothers and sisters go off and they become their own people, moving away, starting their lives, and having children who do the same. Each of them had their own way of doing things, traditions and customs, but they all came from the same place. And it's really quite true of religion. Which, I think, is why you can be a follower of Buddhist principles either on their own, or even as a supplement to your own religion, whatever that may be.

When I look in my bathroom, I don't have just medicines. I have some vitamins and supplements too. I don't have to have one or the other. I can have some Tylenol Cold and Flu AND some Vitamin C tablets. I can have Ibufrofen AND Fish Oil tablets. Mix it up - just like mixing up traditions from the various aspects of religions to what works for you.

Sure,t here's going to be people who are going to say that when you do that mixing you end up with a salad of sorts (i love that metaphor), but you know what? I love salad. So, nothing wrong with that from where I stand.

This is a great time for one of Buddha's most quoted sayings:

"Don't believe a teaching just because you've heard it from a man who's supposed to be holy, or because it's contained in a book supposed to be holy, or because all your friends and neighbors believe it. but whatever you've observed and analyzed for yourself and found to be reasonable and good, then accept that and put it into practice."

So much of what we argue about theologically all began the same way, just taking detours over the years that changed or altered it. But so many times we are too egocentric to see otherwise.

It's this ego, this sense of self ("It's all about me - I'm right!" mentality) that is getting in the way of seeing how we are all coming from the same place. Buddha said we all one with the universe, and religion itself is no exception. When I realized this, in all its simplicity, it nearly blew my mind. Here I was, having grown up Roman Catholic that my attraction and interest to Eastern beliefs meant a complete avoidance and dropping of any previous beliefs I had been taught.

Not true.

It's finding the commonality for what you, personally, feel to be right - be it from what you've known, or in my case, what I'm growing to know, and realizing it's all coming from the same place.

So, lose the sense of self. Lose the ego. Don't get caught up in the drama surrounding ourselves. Forget it. Move on and see the bigger picture.

You'll be happier for it.

Buddhism on the go!

Reading about where Buddhism spread to after Siddhartha's death.

It's gone to India, Sri Lanka, Thailand, and following the Silk and Spice Routes - Russia, and China, just to name a few. It would also go on to other areas, such as Japan, Vietnam, Korea, Tibet, and more.

Okay, but, what have I gotten out of Buddhism's adventures across the East - and of course, much later, the West?

*It adapted. Wherever Buddhism went, whatever culture it made its way into, it adapted to those different cultures, the teachings being made to suit the people and lives of that culture.

No matter where Buddhism makes its home, it works WITH that culture, but no matter what form it takes on, the basis of Buddhism is still there - freedom.


*It's often called "The Gentle Religion" for a reason. Just think of how many wars have been fought in the name of Buddhism? None.

This "gentle religion" as it is nicknamed teaches tolerance. How much better off would we be if we stopped letting ourselves get worked up at that person who annoys us every day at work? Or by letting someone get under our skin with their difference of opinion? Tolerance can mean the difference between fighting and peace. Next time someone's annoying you with something trivial, just take a breath and remember - the reason they're saying it or doing it is because it means something to them. Let them go, don't let it anger you, they continue on, and you, in your now not-stressed state because you have tolerated them even though you may not agree or see it - can feel free.

Lessons from the story of Buddha's life

Some lessons from the story of Buddha's life:

*In his early attempts at self-denial, Buddha tried an ascetic path - sitting on a bed of nails, reducing his diet to nothing but a grain of rice per day. This path was no road to self-denial, but more self-destruction. It was when he was almost unconscious in the woods and found by a girl who fed him that he came to the great realization that a healthy body is key to our happiness.

Buddha says eat!! Too many religions project the body as something evil. But you can't reach a goal of happiness and enlightenment if your body is too weak to keep going! Just like the connections of everything around us, there is a great connection between our mind and our body. When one is unhealthy, the other follows in tandem. One must be healthy if one is to find happiness.

*Forget about dualism. We spend too much of our lives on an extreme that is unnecessary. Examine both sides, and discover the median. Hear out both sides and find the road in between. This is what Buddha refers to as "The Middle Way"

Just think of how much stress, aggravation, and sometimes even hatred we put ourselves through because we are so pig-headed as to only see one side. We can find so much more peace - by simply finding the middle ground and leaving our extremes behind.

*Step back and see the larger picture. A woman, whose in-laws were growing cold to her because she couldn't give their son an heir, finally had a child, but it died during birth. She took the child to Buddha and asked him to resurrect the child. (She did not seem to understand he never claimed such abilities). Buddha told her that before he could do anything, she had to go into the village and get him some mustard seeds from a home. But, the seeds had to come from a home that had not been touched by death. The first home she went to, sure enough, they'd give her seeds, but the family noted they had just lost a father. She went to the next house, the next, and the next, all with the same result. She returned to Buddha understanding, and buried her child.

It becomes so easy for us to take a look at our need, what it is that we are looking for. We all have goals, and can often times be blinded by those goals. The woman came to Buddha because she wanted her child brought back to life. But as she went from house to house, she quickly realized that death was not picking on her - it is universal - and none of us are free from it. He never told her "forget about it" or "move on" or "it'll get better someday." He gave her a way to see that her loss is part of something bigger.

*Those who try to ask why the universe is created is like a man who's been shot by a gun. Before going to see a doctor, he wants to know exactly who shot him, from where, with what type of gun, what type of bullet, and how the bullet was made.

We can spend eons debating the wheres and the whys, wasting our lives away instead of enjoying what is now. These theoretical questions take away from what it is Buddha is trying to teach us, which is the nature of suffering and the freedom from it.

Buddha's Life

Just finished the story of Buddha's life. It is important to know this before trying to understand his teachings. Buddha, by the way just means "awakened one" in sanskrit (Budh) and is not a real name.

I will do my best to be succinct.

Buddha was born "Siddhartha" - a prince to a wealthy, affluent family whose father shielded him from the realities of life. Even when he took trips, the people were practically staged like a movie set to show only the good.

When Siddhartha started seeing the holes in this (a man who had gotten old, a funeral service, someone who was ill) in his travels, he couldn't believe what he was seeing and how he had not been exposed to these things for so long.

His father continued to throw money, jewels, luxuries, women, etc, at Siddhartha to shield him from these things, but it did no good. One day, as the most sensual of women danced around for Siddhartha (who was married to a beautiful woman and had a kid of his own), he became tired and fell asleep. The girls, seeing no point in performing, decided to nap as well. When Siddhartha awoke, he saw the women who just a little while ago seemed nothing but sensuality and beauty, now sprawled out in awkward positions, sweaty, and asleep.

Siddhartha then took this moment to leave everything behind him and get the answers he sought. He went into the woods and studied with numerous teachers, whom he soon surpassed. He tried almost starving himself, which would not work, and only after realizing that he had to eat and be healthy to have a mind capable of happiness and enligthenment, did he go out and sit under a fig tree where he came to the realization that everything is interconnected.

He saw that our mortality automatically brings with it cravings that will not be fulfilled, thus starting us off on the wrong foot, and denying us happiness if we so choose to let it. We lock ourselves into these prisons and traps of the mind, and saw that true happiness comes from deconstructing that prison, which can lead us to true freedom.

Buddha met his end after eating some bad alms. And while his followers all worried that they could not carry on without him, he re-assured them that he was not necessary - that his teachings could be practiced without him.

Life is a gift and Buddha knew this. He told his followers that every meeting implies a departure. We are all born with the capacity to live a good life - one with love, joy, energy, harmony, etc. All you have to do is be it to enjoy it.

A lot to be learned, even from this.

So it begins...

My name is Dave, and I am looking for enlightenment.

While recently out of work on an extended leave for some surgery, I found myself with lots of time spent in books and in front of the television. As I lay their in bed trying to keep my mind occupied, I read the book "A Gathering of Selves" by Alvin Schwartz. I had read his first book "An Unlikely Prophet" a few years ago. The recent read into the multiple identities and realities we all live every second in time had rekindled an interest for me in Eastern Religions (Religions, Philosophies, Educations, whatever you choose to call it.)

Born into a Roman Catholic family and a regular church goer as a youth, I, like so many others, began questioning my faith during adolescence, and it wasn't until a college course in Eastern Religions that I started to find something that actually seemed to make a little more sense to me.

With this newly rediscovered interest, I have set out to re-familiarize myself with Buddhism. In doing so, I will charter what pieces and bits I have learned as I learn them and details my attempts to assimilate them into my everyday life as best I can.