Mondays – An Apology

11 Jun 2012 Leave a comment

by Anupadin in Buddhism Tags: , , ,

Fly Like An EagleI think, if you take a look back over the last few weeks and months, I’ve been a bit dismissive of the value of the first working day of the week. Well I’ve had a hard look at myself in the last couple of weeks and I think I owe them an apology.

To start with, it’s not their fault that they follow the weekend. Their name means Moon Day in Old English and I’m sure they wouldn’t have chosen to start the week. But with my rediscovered self-awareness I can honestly say that I was being unfair and trying to lay the blame for my failings at their door.

So having had a particularly productive day, and also been back in team mode, I can see that Mondays are no different to any other day of the working week and I apologise to them, unreservedly. It’s easy to see the mistake in hindsight, and is actually a good measure of progress towards enlightenment, or lack of it.

If you, like I, were feeling that Monday had got it in for you, or that the weekend was taking an eternity to arrive, it’s time to take a long hard look at yourself. It’s easy to blame others for the challenges we face, it’s much more difficult to accept that the blame is our own. But having done so, you have the freedom to break free from the self imposed restrictions and fly like an eagle once again.

Be Careful What You Wish For

26 Apr 2012 Leave a comment

by Anupadin in Buddhism Tags: , , ,

Be Careful What You Wish ForSo many of us wish for things we would like, or wish to be things we aren’t. Short people wish they were taller, plump people wish they were thin, people with straight hair wish it was curly, people with curly hair wish it was straight.

Of course we are all ‘trained’ to want things from an early age, it’s a product of the consumerist society, and we are all urged to be dissatisfied with what we have, in favour of what the ad men can tempt us into buying.

But surely this way of going about things is a recipe for a certain degree of unhappiness. There are bound to be things we cannot have, maybe because it’s a physical impossibility, being taller when you are short, curly haired when your own is straight. So maybe there is a better way to look at things.

How about concentrating on the good aspects of our lives? You only have to take a few moments to think about it, and you will find that there are dozens, if not hundreds of things you are happy to have.

Maybe it’s your partner, family and friends. Maybe it’s good health, a decent job or even just having enough. So rather than thinking about the things you would like to have, take time to celebrate the things you already have, that are so precious to you, and things you would not like to live without.

And remember, you should always be careful about what you wish for. As a wise man once said, ‘Don’t wish for the stars, after all, where would to keep them all?’

Silver Linings

20 Apr 2012 Leave a comment

by Anupadin in Buddhism Tags: , , ,

Salisbury CathedralIt’s Friday evening and the weekend is here. The drive up to Bristol started rather slowly. The rain we have been waiting for has arrived at last, and it was really pouring down as I set off from the office. Something told me that the journey was going to be difficult.

Driving up the A36 was going well, the rain stopped and the traffic was light, maybe my fears would be unfounded. Then I came round a bend a couple of miles outside Salisbury and saw a queue to end all queues.

The progress was painfully slow, no sign of the cause, maybe just the Friday rush hour at it’s worst. But then, coming over the crest of a hill, I was treated to an amazing sight. The magnificent Salisbury cathedral, across the fields, so beautiful.

I’ve seen the view many, many times, but tonight I was sitting in stationary traffic, so I had time to take a photograph. And although I don’t agree with all aspects of the Christian religion, they have given us some of the most amazing architecture.

So as with all challenges in life, every cloud has a silver lining. The trick is to keep an eagle eye open for it, and make the most of it when it appears.

Ichinen – Making It Happen

03 Feb 2012 Leave a comment

by Anupadin in Buddhism Tags: , , , ,

DeterminationThe Japanese word Ichinen means, among other things, determination. Here is the definition from the SGI dictionary of Buddhism …

ichinen

[一念] (Jpn; Chin i-nien )


A single moment of life, one instant of thought, or the mind or life at a single moment. Also, life-moment, thought-moment, or simply a single moment or instant. Ichinen has various meanings in Buddhism: (1) A moment, or an extremely short period comparable to the Sanskrit term kshana. The Treatise on the Great Perfection of Wisdom defines one kshana or moment as a sixtieth of the time it takes to snap one’s fingers. (2) The functioning of the mind for one moment. The “Distinctions in Benefits” (seventeenth) chapter of the Lotus Sutra speaks of a single moment of belief and understanding. (3) To focus one’s mind on meditating on a Buddha; Shan-tao (613-681), a patriarch of the Chinese Pure Land school, defined ichinen (one instant of thought) as chanting Amida Buddha’s name once. (4) T’ient’ai (538-597) philosophically interprets ichinen in his doctrine of three thousand realms in a single moment of life ( Jpn ichinen–sanze Chin i-nien san-ch’ien ). In this doctrine, ichinen indicates the mind of an ordinary person, which at each moment is endowed with the potential of three thousand realms; its characteristics are: (a) it pervades the entire universe; (b) it includes both body and mind; (c) it includes both self and environment; (d) it gives rise to good and evil; and (e) it encom-passes cause and effect simultaneously. Nichiren (1222-1282) embodied this philosophical framework in the form of a mandala known as the Gohonzon. By this he aimed to establish a practical way for ordinary people to manifest Buddhahood from among the Ten Worlds of their own lives. SGI Dictionary Online

Being good or being a success at something isn’t just about talent, it’s about having the desire, the determination, deep in your heart, to settle for nothing less than victory.

If you have a strong ichinen, you are far more likely to reach your goal. You still have to put in the effort and in fact, the more talent you have, the more effort is needed, because your end result might be far more exacting than a less talented person.

If you think you will fail, you will. You must embrace your goals, your targets, with every fibre of your being. Strive with all your might, night and day towards that goal and you are far more likely to succeed. Remember, you only fail when you decide to stop trying.

Success takes focus, desire, effort, hard work, determination and perseverance.

Ichinen covers them all, and chanting for what you want to achieve, makes your ichinen stronger and stronger.

Watching The Watcher

12 Oct 2011 Leave a comment

by Anupadin in Buddhism Tags: , , ,

WatchingEach day brings us joys and challenges, each of which have the ability to alter our life-state in some manner. Joys tend to raise our life-state, challenges may lower it if we let them, and there lies the conundrum. We need to be vigilant, to observe our life-state from moment to moment, but in doing so, we affect that life-state.

Just as in quantum physics, the mere act of observation affects the phenomenon being observed, self observation of our life-state can, and most likely will affect it too. Imagine a situation where you become angry because something has not gone the way you would like. Initially you may be reacting instinctively, in an animalistic fashion. But as soon as you realise that you are reacting in such a manner, in other words, you observe your life-state, there is a large chance that you will change to that of a more calm and reflective mood, even into a state of tranquillity.

So we have this little test for ourselves. We must be, as far as possible, aware of our life-state. Ideally we want to be in one of the higher states, not grubbing around in the worlds of Hell, Hunger, Animality or Anger, but in Learning, Realisation, Bodhisattva or even Buddhahood. The act of testing can help us raise our life-state through awareness, which is a good thing. But be warned, when the results come back, and you find you are in one of the lower worlds, that can be a sobering moment, when you realise that you are not as far along the path to enlightenment as you would like to be.

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