Showing results by publisher "Dharma Communications" in Politics & Social Sciences

Babe Ruth hit 704 home runs, but no one ever mentions that he struck out about 3,000 times. In our goal-oriented culture, we tend to forget that you can't hit home runs unless you strike out; we think that failure is something bad, and as a result we become afraid to take action.

Feeling superior to others is a common problem for most of us. We cut off other people and dismiss them based on how they look, their gender, or even their age. This arrogance is a barrier to progression in our spiritual life and indeed in all of our life.

The Heart Sutra is one of the most important teachings in all Buddhist schools, including Zen. In this challenging talk, Roshi discusses The Heart Sutra and explains the Buddhist concept of emptiness. Emptiness doesn't mean that the world is empty, nor does it mean that we are supposed to walk around like emotionless zombies. Realizing emptiness is essentially realizing that we are not separate from the world around us.

The world is teaching us all the time. Teachings come from rivers, rocks, and mountains, and teachings come from pollution, AIDS, and starvation. But how much of these teachings do we actually hear? Roshi says that we can't possibly experience the world around us if our senses are dulled. Zen practice shows us that it is possible to experience life in a new way, a way that allows us to hear with the whole body and mind.

Pick up a newspaper or turn on the television, and you're bound to see suffering. And it's not just on the news; we struggle with great and small issues all the time, as do our families and friends. How do we respond to the cries of the world? There's so much suffering that it often seems easier to retreat into distance and cold-heartedness, but each of us is born with the ability to give.

Every day we are faced with moral decisions, and it's often difficult to know how to act. If there's a snake in our garden, do we kill it? If our co-worker is stealing from the company, is it our obligation to speak up? What if we tell our children not to lie, then the phone rings and we ask them to say we're not home? In this compelling talk, Daido Roshi explores the role of morality and ethics in our lives.

Shakyamuni Gautama was a historical figure who lived in India from approximately 563 to 483 B.C. After his death, Buddhism spread over Asia, and almost 2,500 years later Buddhism has come to the West, where it is more relevant than ever. These four classic talks by John Daido Loori, abbot of Zen Mountain Monastery, offer a clear, comprehensive version of the Buddha's life and teachings, including Buddha's life as a householder, spiritual seeker, and ultimately a teacher.

Shopping and spending money is a major part of our culture, and few of us are immune to the seductions of consumerism. Big business knows this, and they count on the fact that we are all conditioned to crave what we do not have. It is possible, however, for us to stop living out of our conditioning and realize that nothing is really missing.

Everyone has experienced life's classic dilemmas: Should I do this, or should I do that? Should I buy this, or should I buy that? Should I be here, or should I be there? We tend to resolve these questions by analysis and rationality, but when we look carefully we see that our choices usually aren't rational; more often they are a decision of the heart.

How much of your daily life is taken up by fantasy? The reality is that most of us go through our entire day, indeed, our entire lives, caught up in make-believe stories. Although fantasy seems more compelling than everyday tasks like sewing, sweeping, or cooking, it's an incredibly wasteful activity that takes us away from the vivid world of the present moment.

Human beings spend most of their time talking to themselves. Constantly preoccupied with the past and the future, we live in a perpetual state of distraction and mental turmoil. But what happens when our internal chatter quiets down? Roshi discusses our minds' capability to experience profound stillness, and the heart of Zen practice is to find this still point within ourselves.

The 21st century is a critical time for our environment. Global warming, pollution, deforestation: the problems are large, and it's easy to feel helpless. Yet it's important not to get lost in despair; we can be serious about environmental problems and still be joyful. This ability is crucial not only for dealing with the environment, but also with spiritual practice.

Many of us are haunted by the past. We try to make painful memories go away by numbing ourselves with food, alcohol, and entertainment, but the past is still there and it's still eating away at us. Ironically, our obsessive thoughts about the past occur because we haven't fully processed it yet.

Sooner or later, we all confront situations with no easy way out. For human beings, sickness, old age, and death, either our own or someone else's, seem like insurmountable barriers. We all struggle to avoid these things, and the media encourages our pursuit, offering plastic surgery, exercise routines, and all manner of pills to achieve eternal youth. But sooner or later, we need to realize that old age and suffering are not going to magically dissolve.

In the modern world, we are encouraged to be special, to be different and stand out from everyone else. Zen Buddhism has a different approach, encouraging us instead to be "nothing special". Daido Roshi declares that our lives are fine exactly the way they are; Zen is not about adding anything to our lives, it's about seeing the inherent perfection we already possess.

Our ordinary point of view divides the world in two. Me and you, right and wrong, success and failure, life and death, practically all of our daily encounters are about divisions. We separate ourselves from the world around us, and this separation is the cause of our pain and suffering.

American Buddhism is a new phenomena, and teachers range from self-appointed gurus to highly qualified masters. With so many teachers and religious centers to choose from, how can you find someone you really trust? The real issue, according to Daido Roshi, is understanding the meaning of spiritual authority. Transmission from a teacher should be based on our own realization as well as the teacher's.

All societies have laws to prevent physical and verbal violence, but what about the violence we create with our thoughts? Daido Roshi states that our minds are incredibly powerful, and they create a force that shapes the reality around us. We can only bring peace and healing to ourselves and others if we first have peace in our minds. But we can't quiet the mind until we see how much time we spend talking to ourselves, and until we let go of our almost constant inner chatter.

When we think of spiritual powers, we usually imagine walking on water or performing some kind of miracle. However, Roshi points out that true mystical power resides within the simple actions of our everyday lives, whether we are cooking a meal, washing the dishes, or driving a car. These activities seem ordinary, but they have an extraordinary aspect as well.

We all want to maintain control over our lives: our relationships, our work, our health, even our moods. We want to know where we're going and what's going to happen when we get there. Letting going of knowing is hard because we think that if we don't know where we¿re going, we won't get there.