Dialogue With A Friend

I'm enjoying my journey so far. I have left so much behind and have embraced so much more freedom than I've ever had before. I've changed my ideology to more of a practical approach to life rather than a mystical one. So far, I'm gaining ground.

Just yesterday I had a conversation with a friend that made me want to blog about it. I'm not an expert by any means on Buddhist thought, but I've been studying it for a few months now and I want to share what I'm learning AND applying.

So I said to my friend, "You really need to study the Four Noble Truths. Like study, not just know what they are. Why? I think you would agree with the realistic approach Buddhists take to life. Not a pessimistic approach but a realistic one. Yeah, suffering is inevitable and that's just the reality of life because there's no permanent existence. Things are always changing, but there's a way out of that cycle and that's what I'm trying to understand...how they see it."

****Before I go further, I am not a Buddhist, a Christian, or any other religion, nor am I an atheist. The journey I'm on is a very personal and spiritual one filled with different experiences that join together and make me who I am. I don't think there is anything wrong with joining a specific community of believers, but for me, that's not my goal or desire. I believe I'm one with everyone and we all must work together to accomplish great things in life, no matter what you believe. I don't promote one particular walk of life over another one. I just encourage people to find out truth for themselves and live it out to the best of their ability, constantly learning and growing until they gain enlightenment.****

He said, "OK so how do you get out?" Out of the cycle of suffering, birth, death, and rebirth, that is. Well if you believe in that sort of thing.

I basically gave him the spill of the Noble Eightfold Path. This eightfold path is not stages or steps, but dimensions of behavior that operate together. Put simply, it's just a way of life. Cessation of suffering is the goal of Buddhism and the only way to get rid of desire/craving and ignorance (the causes of suffering) you have to practice these eight behaviors together daily. Don't practice them in a sense of rules or laws you have to follow in order to make it to heaven, but practice them to understand the existence of suffering, the causes of suffering, and the path to cessation of suffering in this life, your life now. Basically, practice them to know who you are, to understand the reality of what's going on around you, and find the way out of the sufferings of what your mind proclaims as truth when in fact it's illusion.

Think about this for a minute. You and I can overcome suffering and live in a constant state of peace in the midst of turmoil just like Christ did and just like Buddha figured out. Christ suffered straight from birth to death. We all know the story. His suffering was given a greater purpose to save people from their sins. Buddha was born rich but put himself through suffering (became an ascetic then changed and lived between the extremes of self-indulgence and self-denial) to understand the plight of others and to understand himself and what life was really about. His story reminds me so much of Ecclesiastes and how everything is vanity. For Siddhartha, this Noble Eightfold Path is what he found to work in his life for him to be free from the effects of suffering in his mind no matter what was going on around him.

As you read about this path, remember these are NOT things to be believed, but they are meant to be EXPLORED and PRACTICED through meditation and throughout your daily life. My former pastor used to tell me all the time that Joshua 1:8 was my life verse. A verse I should always remember. The amplified bible says: "This Book of the Law shall not depart out of your mouth, but you shall meditate on it day and night, that you may observe and do according to all that is written in it. For then you shall make your way prosperous, and then you shall deal wisely and have good success." Makes sense right?!

Having the right view is seeing and living life through the understanding of the Four Noble Truths and the three marks of existence. Once you understand these, you will finally see the world and yourself without delusion, greed, hatred, etc. I will write another blog breaking these down. In the mean time, look them up! The right thought/intention is understanding and being aware of your intentions with your personal actions and interactions with others. Make sure they stem from a pure place. Know what you intend and why you intend it.

To have right speech is to speak kind and helpful words that gain others' respect and trust. Don't lie, gossip, hurt others feelings intentionally, curse people, etc. You know when your words are intended to hurt others. Be mindful of that and instead help with your words. Right conduct/action is most obvious- simply be on good behavior! Treat others the way you want to be treated. Be mindful of how you act and behave in the world. Do good. Right livelihood is to work in a manner that doesn't hurt others. Don't make money off of people and hurt them, but make money and do good to those who work for you or those who you work for.

Right effort is to do your best at all times. Be motivated to practice whatever helps you develop ethics and compassion and let go of all negativity. Right mindfulness is to be aware of yourself- your thoughts, words, and deeds. Be present in the moment and make sure your thoughts, words, and deeds reflect those of a pure heart. Finally, right concentration is to focus on one idea, object, or thought at a time to attain peace of mind. It's "wholesome concentration, but only the intensified concentration that results from a deliberate attempt to raise the mind to a higher, more purified level of awareness." It's about remaining focused without distraction to obtain peace.

One verse I love in the Bible is Isaiah 26:3 (AMP)- "You will guard him and keep him in perfect and constant peace whose mind [both its inclination and its character] is stayed on You, because he commits himself to You, leans on You, and hopes confidently in You." Notice how the amplified puts it. God will guard and keep a person in PERFECT and CONSTANT peace if their mind (BOTH its inclination and character) is stayed on Him! That's absolutely amazing to me :)

Just like Siddhartha (the Buddha) taught, if you have the right intentions AND actions, you will stay in peace. Nothing can take your peace from you if you focus on the right things and do the right things. If all you focus on is your suffering, that's all you're ever going to experience. If you instead, come to an understanding that in life you will suffer (just face the facts), that the cause of your suffering is you (your desires/cravings and ignorance), that there is a possibility of cessation of suffering, and that there is a path that will lead you to that cessation, then you come to a point where peace is all you have left.

I read a little story one time that said a guy walked up to a monk and said, "'I want happiness!' The monk said,'Take out the "I" and take out the "want" and now all you're left with is happiness.'" In other words, when you realize you're the reason you're not experiencing happiness and then you let go of the things that hold you back from experiencing it, then all you're left with is pure happiness. You can't blame anyone else for any suffering in your life no matter what has happened. The whole point is to let go of the illusion of yourself (everything you think you are, feel, etc. and everything people label you as) and live in the reality of yourself which is your spirit energy that is one with God and creation. The reality of yourself is the harmony you find yourself walking in when you let go of your individualistic mindset. Don't think about what's happening to you alone. Understand everyone suffers and everyone has the power to pull themselves out and to help the next person do the same.

Continuing with the conversation I was having with my friend, I went on to say walking the path to cessation of suffering is all personal. It's not something you do as a member of a religion. It's your own personal experience and your cessation of suffering will be a personal experience as well, not a corporate one. It's not like what Christians say concerning Christ-He died for all and through Him all can be saved. No, this path is for each individual to figure out on their own. It's not a path defined by someone else, where you substitute your life with theirs. You have to live it out for yourself.

Here's a simple quote: "You make your way to happiness not by fretting about it or making New Age affirmations, but simply by finding the cause of your suffering, and then attending to it, as any doctor of mind or body might do." Isn't that so true? Whining and even affirming doesn't necessarily help your situation. What you should try instead is find out where the suffering is coming from and then attend to it. If you can't change the actual situation, you can definitely change your mindset about it and be at peace and transcend it. Siddhartha didn't worry about metaphysical, mystical, supernatural interpretations of anything. He said he taught one thing and one thing only- suffering and the end of it.

My friend asked, "My question would be by what authority was he teaching? Think about this, if he taught suffering and how to end it, then what makes him any different than any of us, and how come it has not ended? Not trying to throw him down or anything but that makes no sense to me. How is he going to be a human person suffering just like me, teaching me how to escape it, with no higher authority of how to get out. It just doesn't make sense."

So let's address his first question. What authority was Siddhartha teaching from? Here's a quote from one of his teachings:

Do not go by revelation;
Do not go by tradition;
Do not go by hearsay;
Do not go on the authority of sacred texts;
Do not go on the grounds of pure logic;
Do not go by a view that seems rational;
Do not go by reflecting on mere appearances;..."

"...When you know for yourselves: These are wholesome; these things are not blameworthy; these things are praised by the wise; undertaken and observed, these things lead to benefit and happiness, having undertaken them, abide in them."

Look at what he says! Do you not see the beauty in this? What more authority do you need than your own experience? It's okay to listen to what someone else has learned and try to apply it to your life. I'm not against that at all. But that's exactly what you have to do. Not just listen or believe, but apply! When you apply the teachings you hear and they actually work, then what authority do you need? You know for yourself! The same for when you apply them and they don't work. Based on your own authority, you realized what you were listening to or believing was false, and now you must find what's actually true and applicable. Philippians 4:8 admonishes us to think on those things that are true, pure, just, worthy of praise, right, noble, lovely, honest, etc. When we think on these things and operate in them-simply put them to action, all authority we need is the proof that manifests in our own experience.

As far as what makes Buddha different from us, NOTHING does. Except for maybe the fact he reached enlightenment and went to teach others about it. He was a regular man, Christ was a regular man, I'm a regular woman. My friend asks from a Christian perspective where Christ was sent by the Father and that was His authority. Not everyone around the world adheres to such a hierarchy so that cannot be universally applied. The principles the Buddha taught can be practiced by an atheist and Christian alike. That's what makes his teachings so effective in transcending suffering. An atheist suffers just as much as a Christian or Muslim or Jew or Hindu or agnostic. We are all the same when it comes to that. The severity of suffering may differ, but the reality is all the same. You will at some point in your life suffer.

What gives Buddha the authority to teach since he's just a man like us? He found a path that led to cessation of suffering in his life that he walked out to the fullest and then he lived the rest of his life sharing it with others. Yeah, any and everybody can rise up and try to teach different paths, but the test comes in when someone goes to apply the teachings versus just blindly believing them and then they don't work. Buddha's teachings worked in his own life and in others he taught and is still teaching through what his fellow monks diligently preserved.

How come suffering hasn't ended? Awesome question. Here's the problem. Your suffering and the suffering of the world isn't going to end unless everybody applies the path Siddhartha discovered or a path you discover for your ownself. As long as people remain ignorant and craving things that will never satisfy them, suffering will continue. Realizing that you are the cause, and then removing the cause, leaves you with nothing but peace. He found peace in the midst of suffering. Nothing affected his peace, even though I'm sure bad things still occurred in his life. I mean let's be real, he died- some say from old age, others say from food poisoning. It's not that the world is going to be free from all types of suffering, it's just you will have peace that causes you to transcend the suffering around you. You fly above and live above the everyday suffering of life.

And this peace isn't just you saying you are at peace. You are actually in a state of constant, never-ending peace and it's quite evident. It's not you going through the motions or affirming peace, you're actually enjoying your life and seriously having peace even though your world may be falling apart. You can't stop people from doing things to you, but you can change how you react to them. Even Christ said, forget eye for an eye and tooth for a tooth. "Do not resist the evil man [who injures you]; but if anyone strikes you on the right jaw or cheek, turn to him the other one too." When you can do that, then you will know you have reached a state of enlightenment, peace, non-attachment, cessation of suffering. You only get this way by determined and disciplined practice. We want it to be easy, an immediate transition if we just believe in something, but no it doesn't work that way. You have to LIVE this thing. We're just the ones who end up thinking all we have to do is believe or attract good things with our mind and then all will be well. It does not work like that beloved.

How can this not make sense? How can this path taught by a man who lived it and not just taught it, not make sense? What "higher authority" do you honestly need to walk out a path YOU discover that works in YOUR life? Especially if we believe that God is principle/natural law, and not a man upstairs on a throne, and we believe that everyone possesses His image. We all have authority when you look at it that way. Christ lived out what He taught as well and His authority came from the Father who we knew He was one with. He prayed that we would be one just like Him and the Father. We have the same Father on the inside of us that manifests Himself as divine principles that work if we would only put them into practice. That's all the Buddha taught, mindful practice.

My friend said in response, "If Buddha's position is life is full of suffering and I am to face it because it's a reality of life and that I need to change my mindset to experience peace in the midst of it, how is that really doing anything for the person he teaches? Honestly, I think most people can arrive at that conclusion with no teacher. I am sorry but I don't buy it one bit."

This is when he started sharing his beliefs: "I believe that suffering does exists and that it exists because of our ignorance of the I AM center within ourselves. This I AM is the center from which all levels of consciousness manifest. This is why we have to be careful of what we connect to the I AM that sits on the throne of our consciousness. Flesh is a level of consciousness just as being born of the spirit is a level of consciousness. We are born into a world of flesh consciousness because of past experiences. The I AM transcends all consciousness. Through the I AM we pull ourselves out of the flesh mind and know ourselves. Knowing ourselves means that you know the ground of your being, that you are an image of God. Once you understand this you are born of the spirit. That's my take on it."

In addressing his first comment on what Buddha's position is, that's a short way of putting it but that doesn't do his core teaching any justice. It's not just simply changing your mindset, it's living in a manner that transcends all suffering. You have to live a lifestyle that causes suffering to cease in your life. You understand that suffering exists, you know what causes suffering, you know that suffering can cease, and you know how to cease it. It starts with your mind, but it results or manifests in your daily actions. Discipline and mindfulness is key. How is this doing anything for anybody? It gives them a practical way to cease suffering in their personal life. There's nothing miraculous about it. You just change the direction of your life, by first understanding truth and then carrying it out. This is putting the power in the individual's hand and allowing him the opportunity to free himself from the cycle if he so chooses. God gives us the tools. It's up to us to use them. We can wallow in sorrow or we can acknowledge the sorrow and live above it by changing our perspective and living based on this new perspective.

About reaching this conclusion without a teacher? That my friend is the point! You don't need a teacher to tell you what you can clearly see for yourself. Teachers have their place as guides, but that's it. It's up to you to open your eyes and see your life for what it really is and for you to put what you learn in action. There's nothing deep about it. We want mystical revelations and super spiritual knowledge and we want it to come from "something higher than us," when in reality the truth is so clear, just look around! God put His image, His truth in us. We don't need a higher power to explain anything to us because we are that power, or simply that power rests in us. We just have to open our eyes and mind.

My friend's beliefs are honestly no different than mine and I would argue not much different from Siddhartha's. He just uses different terms or spiritual jargon to say the exact same thing.

1.He believes that suffering exists and that it exists because of our ignorance of the I AM center within ourselves. ---> same thing the Buddha taught. Suffering exists and it exists because of our desires that war against the truth and ignorance of the truth. The truth in general being the Four Noble Truths. Because you're ignorant of who you are and how your desires conflict and bring you suffering, you will continue to suffer. He says that the I AM is the center from which all levels of consciousness manifest. That's just another way of saying your mind will either operate in truth or in error or somewhere in between, but you have the power to direct it the correct way. That's why he said we have to be careful what we connect our I AM to. In other words, we have to be careful what we are mindful of, what we let in our minds, what we meditate on.

2. He believes that flesh and being born of the spirit represent different levels of consciousness. The flesh level would be equivalent to desires and ignorance in Buddhism. The spirit level would be equivalent to enlightenment. We are born into a world of flesh consciousness because of past experiences. That's equivalent to the Buddhist idea of birth, death, and rebirth. The I AM transcends all consciousness. This is very similar to the idea of nirvana where you reach the ultimate level of emptiness, cessation of suffering, non-attachment, peace, etc. You transcend all suffering. You're free from your desires and you're no longer ignorant.

3. Finally he believes, through the I AM we pull ourselves out of the flesh mind and know ourselves. Knowing ourselves means that we know the ground of our being which is God. When we understand this we are born of the spirit. ----> How is this any different from living out the eightfold path (disciplining ourselves to rise above the flesh consciousness) to finally reach a state of enlightenment and ultimately nirvana? To know yourself in Buddhism is summed up in this quote:

"If you develop the path of virtue, concentration, and discernment to a state of calm well-being and use that calm state to look at experience in terms of the Noble Truths, the questions that occur to the mind are not "Is there a self? What is my self?" but rather "Am I suffering stress because I'm holding onto this particular phenomenon? Is it really me, myself, or mine? If it's stressful but not really me or mine, why hold on?" These last questions merit straightforward answers, as they then help you to comprehend stress and to chip away at the attachment and clinging — the residual sense of self-identification — that cause it, until ultimately all traces of self-identification are gone and all that's left is limitless freedom."

The ground of our being is God from my friend's point of view and the ground of our being in Buddhist thought consists of this limitless freedom from all aspects of self that cause suffering. Being one with God or knowing God is representative of this state of nirvana. Remember John said eternal life was to know God and Christ who He sent. Eternal life can be experienced in this life as enlightenment leading to nirvana. You are born of the spirit when you reach this state of enlightenment. When you enter a state of being which greed, hatred, and delusion are overcome, abandoned, and absent from your mind, you have reached and fully understood the ground of your being which is God or freedom from all attachment.

It's all pretty simple. The hard part is doing it. There's nothing mystical about it. Live right! Live in a manner worthy of gaining freedom from attachment or becoming one with God. As you can see, there's multiple ways of analyzing life, but it all leads to the same conclusion. You have to do something about the suffering in your life. Whether you learn about the I AM center within yourself or you follow the eightfold path and adhere to the four noble truths, you end up at the same crossroads- are you going to change the way you live as much as possible and change your perception of situations that occur in your life? Or are you going to continue to suffer and wallow in it and do absolutely nothing about it?

I anticipate more conversations like this with all of you who read this. I know it was a lot but go back through it and take notes and ask the right questions with the right intentions.

As always, eat, pray, love!

Brittany