Saturday, June 15, 2013

What to practise as a Buddhist?

Recently, I had a conversation, the person asked "what else to do as a Buddhist, other than being vegetarian and offer incense on the 1st and the 15th of every month in Lunar Calender"

In my mind, the first answer I have is, there is nothing to do, but I answered, "there is many things to be done as a Buddhist." Sure, the main practise to purify the "heart" is either chanting or meditation, but if I were to go into details, there is the precepts, the virtuous act, the 6 paramitas (perfections) and so on. Lately, I find cleaning the toilet and removing tough stain to be calming. The practise is endless, from the obvious and grand, to subtle actions and intentions.

When I first start my practise, I encountered endless difficulty. I never embrace any religion as an adult, and I have trust issues even today. There are certain practise of Buddhism requires faith and there are teachings that talks about the spirit/unseen. They are topic that were very alien to me at that time. I find the teachings very comprehensive, and one of my questions is to apply in life. To achieve this, I made a vow, if Buddhism does not work in a practical manner, I would stop the practise for good. In a Buddhist term, I offered my speech, will and body to the practise of Buddhism. I gave up everything, include my ego and habit so I can proceed. Of course I was not a mindless zombie, there were something that stays and it took a lot of effort to overcome.

People are looking at form, shape, style and even structure to understanding something, but those are within dualism. The essence of Buddhist is beyond dualism, non dual. There is a precept on speech. I do not swear normally, but there are exceptions I did this for specific purpose. One of it is to build rapport, there are times, I have company that feels awkward for swearing and I would swear in that occasion. The other occasion is to relieve anger. If I have someone that was harmed or bully, I might say "who the fuck did that to you, I'm going to look for him". When I say that, I may say it in a wrathful and angry voice, but I do not carry resentment to any party, and often, my friend will feel better. This is also part of emotional redirection.

There are endless practise in Buddhism, even in eating, sleeping, sex and cleaning the floor. The question to ask is, do you serve the ego or are you cultivating your heart?

2 comments:

  1. I need your position. It is really finer quality than see anyone explain in words from the basis in addition to legibility for this issue needed place are generally handily found. non dual youtube videos

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    1. Hello Aslay, sorry for the late reply, I forgot about this blog. I don't study that course so I cant comment on that. Ask me Buddhism related instead of something foreign to me.

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