Several weeks ago I decided that I wanted to change the way I live this life. I'm tired of the never-ending loop of thoughts dead-heading inside my little mind of horrors. I'm also tired of living in fear of those things that scare me like dying. I'm also tired of my heart being shredded every time I see the animal cruelty commercial, or pictures of Tsunami victims. I'm also tired of being angry for good reasons and not so good reasons. I guess you could say that I'm tired of being at the mercy of anything and everything. I feel like a hostage and I am my own captor.
I decided to choose peace of mind over chaos.
Over the years I've had an eclectic spiritual life. I'm the kind of person who likes to take a little bit of this religion and a little bit of that religion and a good chunk of that spiritual practice and mix it all up into something that resonates with me. A purist I am not. Yet despite taking all the best parts of many faiths and religions I still struggled with those insane fears whirling around in my head and my heart was always in a state of mourning.
Believe it or not it was Tiger Woods who nudged me towards the path that I am on now. During his first interview after the scandal he mentioned that he was a Buddhist and how his straying from certain Buddhist teachings was the cause his down fall. I am no stranger to Buddhism in that I've had the great good fortune to see the Dalai Lama on three occasions through the course of my life. Other than admiring and respecting the humanity of this man, I knew very little about Buddhism. Ironically, it was Tiger Woods who dared me to explore further.
The first time I saw The Dalai Lama (May, 2001) I knew absolutely nothing about him. A friend of mine from the Twin Cities invited me to stay with her for a week. She had tickets for two of his speaking engagements as well as tickets to see other speakers not at all associated with His Holiness. To be honest, I was more excited to see the other speakers than this gentleman. All that changed the first time I heard him speak. I quickly learned that the Dali Lama was a man of profound compassion and an incredible human being. I was more interested in his humanity than his Buddhism. That was ten years ago. Since then I've seen him one other time in Denver - again another profound experience.
So Tiger Woods and my increasing distain for humanity in general somehow pushed me to try and understand how this particular life philosophy made the Dali Lama the man that he is. So began my interest in learning about a way of life that tells me that it is possible to never experience suffering again and that it is possible to walk through this world truly happy.
Stored away in boxes for a good many years were two books that had come into my life accidentally. One is titled "Awakening The Buddha Within" by Lama Suryadas (a Jewish man who became a Buddhist) and the other book (my one and only written by his Holiness) “How to Practice The Way to a Meaningful Life". Both excellent first books for the novice.
The Four Noble Truths of Buddhism are:
1. That life is full of suffering. We all will experience pain, illness and ultimately death
2. Suffering comes from our aversions to things or our cravings for things
3. That through mindfulness we can overcome aversions and cravings
4. Practicing morality, concentrated meditation and wisdom banishes suffering
These two books have inspired me to:
-Be as compassionate as I can to all people.
-Make every effort not to judge others.
-Concentrate on living a moral life.
-Remember that every sentient being on this planet wants what I do - to be happy.
-Understand that everything is as it should be.
-Act and react with compassionate detachment.
-Realize that my motivation to help others comes from a sincere desire to do simply that.
-Let go of expectations and be content in how it all turns out.
It’s clear to me that by becoming "Buddha-like" I can quiet the constant flow of thoughts and fears that sometimes makes my life very sad and frightening. There's something liberating about not thinking about yesterday or tomorrow, but simply focusing on the moment and understanding the wisdom in that.
