Why Buddhism is awesome
This blog post is work in progress and is unedited.
In this blog post, I want to build an argument—that Buddhism is a great religion.
For me, Buddhism is a standard operating procedure, a set of instructions, the goal of which is a transformed state of mind that is made of a material that does not attach itself to phenomena. Ajahn Brahm calls it a Teflon mind.
For example, someone calls you a bitch or a buffoon. A person with a transformed mind would just let it pass by treating it as a mere sound (I'll tell you how this happens). A person with an untrained mind will ruminate over it for days, weeks, and months and suffer. Teflon is a material coated on non-stick pans.
How this happens
Close your eyes for 5 seconds and experience what is going around. You will hear people moving things around, birds chirping; feel your breathing on your chest and nose and the cushion against your buttocks; or see various mental images from the past, future or a dreamy la-la land that does not exist, or see all black because your eyelids are shut. Say you heard a sound of a bird? Usually, you'd be tempted to ask yourself: What kind of a bird is that? Is it a male or a female? Is it a migrant bird? Replace the sound of the bird with whatever your mind is attracted to.
In meditation, we train our minds not to ruminate. If you lose yourself ruminating about one bird chirp, you will miss the next chirp. You don't want that. Now, this bird analogy applies to me very much because I'm a novice ornithologist.
Why train your mind this way?
Maximize happiness
You can apply this to eating and ice cream. If you take a spoon full and going to think about the ice creams you had before, you are not going to enjoy what's in your mouth. Buddhism is very pro-happiness. If you train your mind, you can maximize happiness.
Let go of petty annoyances
Someone called you a dog. A meditated mind considers this another object in their practice. "Someone calling you a dog" is not much different from a sound of a bird or person coughing—you let that be. You don't ruminate and ruin your day.
Dentist kid example (to be written)
Adventures, right from your meditation cushion
Everything that happens to at the beginning of your meditation is inputs from your 6 senses:
- eye and visible objects
- ear and sound
- nose and odor
- tongue and taste
- body and touch
- mind and mental objects
When you don't interact with your senses, they go to sleep. They sort of vanish. As you progress in your meditation, you stop hearing, and feeling, as if you no longer have a body. This feeling is extremely pleasurable. You will not experience even if you get the services of the best masseuse in town. I'm not even going to compare that experience with the experience of smoking or alcohol because you will realize that the effects of smoking/alcohol are actually quite bothersome. A person who only knows these kinds of "pleasures" (they are really pains) will disagree and continue to indulge.
Go deeper and experience the Jhana
As you do not engage yourself with the inputs of the senses, they shutdown. You will stop hearing, and you will stop feeling. Thought will be minimal. Your body disappears. This is scary for some people but what awaits is the door to your inner mind.
As you go deeper, more wonderful things happen. You will see things. This is pure adventure and joy. You won't find this kind of adventure in Disneyland or even in an expensive African safari. Jealous of that friend who's always traveling? What a waste of money when you can travel right now, at this moment.
Seeing your past lives
Do you remember what you had for your last meal? I guess you remembered without much effort. How about what you had for lunch two days ago? Can you remember? Some of you may find it easy, others not so much. The ability to remember strengthens when you meditate. Some people develop this to an extent where they remember what they were as a baby, and even time before their birth in this life. This is proof of rebirth. See it for yourself. The first-hand experience is evidence that is unshakeable and irrefutable. I know of people who have done this 5 days into their meditation practice.
It is difficult/easy
For some people, the ability to meditate comes
Impressively inclusive
I'm not a fan of ultimate and absolutes. But I can say for sure that Buddhism is the most inclusive religion of all.
Most religions have unfortunately been evolved for the benefit of man only. Some religious scripture does not even mention women. If mentioned, they are in a bad light. Even today, organized religion place restriction on women. Buddhism has been inclusive since the beginning. Whatever the attainment and bliss realized by Buddha, can be achieved by men women alike. Women did that 3000 years ago in an extremely male-centric, chauvinistic Hindu society. Women are doing it today.
Remember the bird example? You don't care about bird's gender, right? Similarly, we don't care about a person's gender when we interact with them. Such petty cosmetic differences are irrelevant.
I will not pass away until I have bhikkhu disciples (monks), bhikkhuni disciples (nuns), layman disciples, and laywoman disciples who are accomplished, disciplined, skilled, learned, expert in the Dhamma.
Gautama Buddha ~ Mahaparinibbana Sutta
Disclaimer: I'm not an advanced Buddhis and this is purely theoretical. I'd love to be proven wrong. Please leave a comment.
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