Rational Nation USA

May all beings be happy. May they live in safety and joy.... As a mother watches over her child, willing to risk her own life to protect her only child, so with a boundless heart... cherish all living beings, suffusing the whole world with unobstructed loving kindness... During all your waking hours, may you remain mindful of this heart and this way of living that is the best in the world. -  Shakyamuni Buddha Paul H. Greene, PHD -  Buddhism and cognitive-behavioral therapy (CBT) are    very different ways of understanding people. They were developed thousands of years apart, in different hemispheres. Yet they don’t conflict as much as you would think. “In the words of the Buddha, … ’We are what we think. All that we are arises with our thoughts. With our thoughts we make the world.’ It’s an idea that’s in line with current thinking in psychology. In fact, this simple philosophy – that changing the way we think can change the way we feel – underp...

  May all beings be happy. May they live in safety and joy.... As a mother watches over her child, willing to risk her own life to protect her only child, so with a boundless heart... cherish all living beings, suffusing the whole world with unobstructed loving kindness... During all your waking hours, may you remain mindful of this heart and this way of living that is the best in the world. -  Shakyamuni Buddha A bit of science. Everything is impermeant, however some life forms have had a VERY long "shelf life"! OLDEST.ORG -  Cyanobacteria  are the oldest existing species in the world.   These bacteria are believed to be the Earth’s oldest known life form. Fossilized  stromatolites  — a type of layered rock made up of microbial mats of microorganisms — dating back to over 3.5 billion years ago contain evidence of cyanobacteria activity. However, this evidence is disputed and as of 2010, the  oldest undisputed evidence of cyan...

May all beings be happy. May they live in safety and joy.... As a mother watches over her child, willing to risk her own life to protect her only child, so with a boundless heart... cherish all living beings, suffusing the whole world with unobstructed loving kindness... During all your waking hours, may you remain mindful of this heart and this way of living that is the best in the world. -  Shakyamuni Buddha  

  May all beings be happy. May they live in safety and joy.... As a mother watches over her child, willing to risk her own life to protect her only child, so with a boundless heart... cherish all living beings, suffusing the whole world with unobstructed loving kindness... During all your waking hours, may you remain mindful of this heart and this way of living that is the best in the world. -  Shakyamuni Buddha Emptiness is not something to be afraid of, says Thich Nhat Hanh. The  Heart Sutra  teaches us that form may be empty of self but it’s full of everything else. Photo by  Ashim D’Silva   THICH NHAT HANH If you are a poet, you will see clearly that there is a cloud floating in this sheet of paper. Without a cloud, there will be no rain; without rain, the trees cannot grow; and without trees, we cannot make paper. The cloud is essential for the paper to exist. If the cloud is not here, the sheet of paper cannot be here either. We ca...

  May all beings be happy. May they live in safety and joy.... As a mother watches over her child, willing to risk her own life to protect her only child, so with a boundless heart... cherish all living beings, suffusing the whole world with unobstructed loving kindness... During all your waking hours, may you remain mindful of this heart and this way of living that is the best in the world. -  Shakyamuni Buddha

  May all beings be happy. May they live in safety and joy.... As a mother watches over her child, willing to risk her own life to protect her only child, so with a boundless heart... cherish all living beings, suffusing the whole world with unobstructed loving kindness... During all your waking hours, may you remain mindful of this heart and this way of living that is the best in the world. -  Shakyamuni Buddha

May all beings be happy. May they live in safety and joy.... As a mother watches over her child, willing to risk her own life to protect her only child, so with a boundless heart... cherish all living beings, suffusing the whole world with unobstructed loving kindness... During all your waking hours, may you remain mindful of this heart and this way of living that is the best in the world. -  Shakyamuni Buddha

  May all beings be happy. May they live in safety and joy.... As a mother watches over her child, willing to risk her own life to protect her only child, so with a boundless heart... cherish all living beings, suffusing the whole world with unobstructed loving kindness... During all your waking hours, may you remain mindful of this heart and this way of living that is the best in the world. -  Shakyamuni Buddha STUDY BUDDHISM -   The world we live in is increasingly complex, global and interdependent. The challenges that face the current and future generations are expansive and far-reaching in nature. Their solutions most certainly require a new way of thinking and problem-solving that is collaborative, interdisciplinary and global-oriented.  Compassion  alone isn’t enough for engagement with the world. We need to complement  compassion  with responsible decision-making based on an  understanding  of the wider systems wi...

  May all beings be happy. May they live in safety and joy.... As a mother watches over her child, willing to risk her own life to protect her only child, so with a boundless heart... cherish all living beings, suffusing the whole world with unobstructed loving kindness... During all your waking hours, may you remain mindful of this heart and this way of living that is the best in the world. -  Shakyamuni Buddha In Mahayana Buddhism, the bodhisattva practices the six  paramitas , or transcendent perfections. These are a path to enlightenment, the fruition of the bodhisattva way, and a means to benefit sentient beings. They are transcendent because the subject, object, and practice of the perfections are all free of self, which is known as the threefold purity. 1. Generosity ( dana ) You give without expecting anything in return, the essence of nonattachment. 2. Discipline ( sila ) You joyfully practice the dharma in everything you do. 3. Patience ( ksa...

May all beings be happy. May they live in safety and joy.... As a mother watches over her child, willing to risk her own life to protect her only child, so with a boundless heart... cherish all living beings, suffusing the whole world with unobstructed loving kindness... During all your waking hours, may you remain mindful of this heart and this way of living that is the best in the world. -  Shakyamuni Buddha Gazing into the still body of water a reflection of myself I did see. Realizing the reflection was absent of substance, I contemplated emptiness and began to understand. The ego created self is but an illusion, the constricted vessel containing the conditioned self. The many years of grasping to hold on to attachments, the pushing away of that which I've been averse to, and all the delusions of my ego can now be seen for what they are. Creations constructed in my mind to support a non-existent self.  LC

May all beings be happy. May they live in safety and joy.... As a mother watches over her child, willing to risk her own life to protect her only child, so with a boundless heart... cherish all living beings, suffusing the whole world with unobstructed loving kindness... During all your waking hours, may you remain mindful of this heart and this way of living that is the best in the world. - Shakyamuni Buddha Lion's Roar - From the time Siddhartha Gautama was a young child, he burned with the essential questions: What is the meaning of life? Who am I? What is everything about? As he grew up, his contemplation of these matters became all-consuming. As we know, in adulthood he renounced the life of ease and power he’d been born into and devoted himself to seeking wisdom. He received instruction in an array of spiritual traditions, from some of the most illustrious philosophers and meditation teachers of the time. A profoundly gifted student, he swiftly completed these...

            

         More thoughts on the causes of conflict and violence in this world. To understand the ego and recognize reality at the same time is to understand how to end violence and conflict in this world. Which begs the question, are religions as much a cause of conflict and violence in the world  as they are a force against conflict and violence?     

    Bringing the content of the prior post to the individual personal level. We all have ego's and while not nearly as problematic for the world as the extremes of Putin or Trump etc. (think insurrection and bullying with Trump) we all should strive to realize the very negative potential our own ego can represent and work to bring it under control.     

       The human capacity to commit violence against their brothers and sisters is indicative of the ignorance and blind self interest of the ego.  Humans seeking to gain great wealth and or power over others rely on the delusional thoughts of their own ego. The ego leads folks to believe they are different, and of course better than other folks. Ego looks to find differences between people and then to justify the attempt to change the circumstances. Because the delusional ego is concerned only with self interest it often leads people to believe they are right in their actions. Even when such actions are horrifically inhumane and unjustified. Hence the Russian attack on Ukraine and the genocidal war Putin the megalomaniac has unleashed on another sovereign nation. History is replete with examples of this kind of man's inhumanity to man. Blame ignorance, greed, and the ego .

   

 

 

   

Life is but the illusion our mind creates for us, the product of  years of conditioning. Self interest and ego obscures truth, leaving one to wander samara's maze  until awakened. We pay our karmic dues from past unskillful karma, when karma's debt is met the cycle of suffering ends. LC

 

Eastern vs Western Philosophy Have you ever wondered about the differences between Eastern and Western philosophies?  Apart from geographical locations, these two parts of the world have differences in their way of life and the approach to life in general.  These ways of living are not only brought about by topography and physical circumstances that play crucial factors in living, but also the school of thought that governs the major societies in the Eastern and Western part of the globe. Let us take a look first at what “philosophy” is in general and how it affects and makes differences on Western and Eastern society.  Generally, “philosophy” is universally defined as “the study of the wisdom or knowledge about the general problems, facts, and situations connected with human existence, values, reasons, and general reality.”  It seeks reasons, answers, and general explanations to life and its factors.  Thus, if we talk about philosophy, we talk about a school of...