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BN: Yes, the more I live here, the more I understand the problems unique to the people here. I connect more and I am more sympathetic. And I also learn. During the retreats we have the interview. I come to see that people have a wide variety of problems. Sometimes, I feel like a psychologist. I listen. I realize that people do not come here only to learn about Buddhism, but to address some problem. I notice that many people want to know what's behind their dissatisfaction with so many areas of life, with the government, the economy, family, inner turmoil.
BN: The word Buddha can mean knowing, knowing something. The five skandas may be the object of meditation (and we come to see their impermanent and dependent characteristics) and there is the awareness of them. Yet still the awareness is part of the characteristics of phenomena. I agree. I don't think that awareness can be truly separated from the characteristics of phenomena. Of course awareness is fundamental and essential to mindfulness.
The Clear Water Zen group is developing a strategy for greatly increasing the number of Zen groups in the area. A pamphlet entitled "How to start a Catholic Zen group" is being distributed to Catholic churches in the area. It includes quotes from such Catholic leaders as Father Robert Kennedy, among others, and provides practical advice on how to get a group started. Future pamphlets will be modified to address other faiths but the practical advice on how to start a Zen group will be common to all faiths.
Buddhism is based on the teachings of Siddharta Gautama, known as the Buddha. His basic teachings are The Four Noble Truths and The Noble Eightfold Path.
BN: Yes, but that awareness that is aware of objects shares the same qualities of its objects. It too is impermanent and without a self, subject to suffering. Some may consider that awareness, that luminescent presence, to be unconditional, but that is not the teaching of the Buddha, and that's not my experience.
theravada When we talk about worship in Buddhism, inevitably we have to talk about the Mahayana school. The Mahayana is a reform movement that emerged in India around the beginning of the A.D. era. It changes the style, the tone and the content of Buddhist practice in profound ways.
Why do they do that? What is the meaning of this worship? Well, the Buddha isn't a god. He isn't even present in this world anymore. After his Parinirvana, he passed from the cycle of death and rebirth. He doesn't exist anymore like us. He can't influence this world, at least directly. That is exactly what these worshipers believed.
