Buddhism explained as I see it
(with help from Thich Nhat Hanh)

1. Dukkha: Life is suffering.
2. Samudaya: Desire creates suffering
3. Nirodha: Eliminating desire strikes at the root cause of suffering
4. Marga: The eightfold path that leads us to refrain from doing the things that cause us to suffer

Right View: Shariputra (one of the two original disciples of the Buddha) described right view as the ability to distinguish wholesome roots from unwholesome roots. First in the eightfold path, right view is imperative to be able to follow the rest. Without right view, we are unable to identify the right and true path from that which is false. We all carry both of these roots within us. When we act in an unwholesome way, we water the roots of anger, craving and violence. Right view is to recognize which roots are wholesome and to encourage those roots to be watered.

Right Thinking: The next step along the eightfold path is right thinking. With right view as the foundation, our thinking becomes the speech of our minds, and makes our verbal speech clear and beneficial. Thich Nhat Hanh suggests that we write the words "are you sure?" on a large piece of paper and hang it where you will see it often. Ask yourself this question again and again. Wrong perceptions cause incorrect thinking and unnecessary suffering.

Right Speech: In considering what to say about right speech, I remembered an essay by Thich Nhat Hanh. He explained it much better than I could:

"Aware of the suffering caused by unmindful speech and the inability to listen to others, I am committed to cultivating loving speech and deep listening in order to bring joy and happiness to others and relieve others of their suffering. Knowing that words can create happiness or suffering, I am determined to speak truthfully, with words that inspire self confidence, joy and hope. I will not spread news that I do not know to be certain and will not criticize or condemn things of which I am not sure. I will refrain from uttering words that can cause division or discord, or that can cause the family or the community to break. I am determined to make all efforts to reconcile or resolve all conflicts, however small."
--Thich Nhat Hanh, the Heart of Buddha's Teaching pg 84

Right Action: When we act in accordance with our moral principals we act rightly. Do our actions prevent harm to others? Do our actions promote well being in ourselves, our families and communities? Do we take responsibility for our actions, learn from them and continue to act for the benefit of all? Our actions should reflect our commitment to our beliefs. We need to constantly monitor our behavior, and by our right actions contribute to the well being of society.

Right Livelihood: We all must earn our living. We need to be aware of the consequences of what we do to earn our daily bread. Does your occupation contribute to the greater good? We must be mindful of the effect we have on the world around us. In our thoughts as of late are the police, fire fighters and rescue workers injured and killed in the world trade center tragedy. A more positive example of right livelihood would be difficult to find. Of course, we can't all pursue those occupations, but we can focus our energy in making a living in a positive fashion.

Right Diligence: This is the effort we take to maintain ourselves. We concentrate on the positive aspects of our lives and nurture that effort. We identify the negatives, and discard them. By right diligence, even small tasks become a joy to us.
Right Mindfulness: “There are many beautiful aspects of our consciousness, like faith, humility, self respect, non-craving, non-anger, non-ignorance, diligence ease, care, equanimity and non-violence.

Unwholesome mental formations on the other hand, are like a tangled ball of string. when we try to untangle it, we only wind it around ourselves until we can not move. The basic unwholesome mental formations are greed, hatred, ignorance, pride, doubt and views. The secondary unwholesome mental formations, arising from the basic ones are anger, malice, hypocrisy, malevolence, jealousy, selfishness, deception, guile, unwholesome excitement, the wish to harm, immodesty, arrogance, dullness, agitation, lack of faith, indolence, carelessness, forgetfulness, distraction and lack of attention.”
--Thich Nhat Hanh (once again) from the Heart of Buddha's Teaching pg74

By practicing right mindfulness, we are able to identify and act upon our thoughts, nurturing the positive and discarding the negative.

Right Concentration: There are two types of concentration: active and selective. When we actively concentrate we are aware of all that is around us. When we selectively concentrate, we focus in on one thing.

Enjoying a walk in the park allows active concentration. We smell the flowers, enjoy the beauty of the trees, and the laughter of the happy children on the playground.

When we do our taxes, we selectively concentrate, focusing in on the math and the confusing forms. We close ourselves off from the distractions of life to surmount the problem before us.

Through active and selective concentration, we live fully in each moment, and live in the joy of that which is around us. Sometimes joy can be the selective concentration of the beauty of one flower.

Last night there was a tornado touchdown at a Boy Scout camp 40 miles north of here. Four of my brothers lost their lives in this incident. I had never met these four boys, but they are my brothers none the less.

My father passed away when I was a year and a half old. I was the youngest child of a widowed mother, and grew up in a house with her and three older sisters. When I was eight years old, a man from the neighborhood named Ray came to our house one night. He told my Mom that his son had told him that there was a boy without a father in the house. He told my Mom that I needed to come to his Cub Scout meeting and that he would be happy to stop and pick me up the next evening. I went to the meeting.

Over the next ten years, a group of men, committed to the Scouting program, taught me many things. Often, what was being taught on the surface was much deeper than I realized at the time. I learned many skills that have served me well over the years. Along with the skills, I learned how to cooperate with a group, how to be a leader, a follower and what it meant to part of a greater whole. I learned how to plan and carry out my plan. I learned to be prepared. For a fatherless boy from a very poor neighborhood, the Scouting Program was essentially my Father.

As an adult, I spent the next twenty five years working as a volunteer leader. Often, I worked with Ray, the man who came and picked me up for my first meeting. I spent time at the Troop level as an assistant Scoutmaster, then Scoutmaster and a Troop committee member. I moved onto the District staff, and worked at the organizational level. I finally ended up at the Council level as a member of the training staff. I stepped aside about ten years ago to allow a new generation of men to take their turn.

It is very hard to explain what this experience is like, and the effect it has had on my life, to some one on the outside.

Last night, a young man of eighteen was the first to see the tornado approach. He made sure the camp siren was sounded, got a group of younger kids to shelter. Too late to get to the shelter himself, he took a couple of young men into a ravine just in time to avoid the storm as it passed through. When the tornado has passed, a pick up truck had been picked up and blown into a building, knocking over the stone fireplace. This young man, along with others, immediately started to dig the younger boys out of the rubble. When He was interviewed later he was bare chested because he had taken off his shirt and laid it over one of the boys who had died. Thomas White is his name.

Other boys set up a first aid station and were taking care of the injured. A couple boys took an ATV out of a utility shed and went to get the Ranger and his family out of the wreckage of the Ranger’s cabin. When the rescue forces arrived, the young men were taking care of one another, and doing the best they could to get the injured to safety.

I am very proud to say that these are my Brothers…..

So, It is a lovely day here. The sun is shining, there is a nice breeze and I am sitting on the patio with an nice cold beer and my trusty MacBook, just enjoying the day.

I hope that, wherever you are, it is also a pleasant day.

This is the ring I purchased at the estate sale. The center stone is slightly less than half a carat, and the 12 rubies that surround it are about an eighth of a carat each. The setting is 18k gold. The guy who ran the estate sale insisted that it was a zircon with lab created rubies. As it turns out, I was right and he was wrong.

The operation was a success, and now my right eye works much better than it did despite the fact that it is a white hot ball of pain when the Tylonol wears off. The prescription antibiotic eye drops sting, and I hope the International Olympic Committee never finds out about the steroid eye drops, which also sting. The inner portion of my eyelid is a delightful shade of red that complements the bloodshot motif of the rest of the eye.

I really shouldn't complain. thirty years ago, I would be blind. Ray Charles went blind at a young age as a result of lack of treatment for glaucoma. I am not sure when the current method of cataract removal and lens insertion was started, but I am sure it was more recent than that. So, either the glaucoma or the cataracts would have left me blind.

I am grateful, but still pretty uncomfortable

Wednesday I will go very early to the outpatient clinic and have the cataract removed from my right eye, A year and a half ago, I had the same thing done to my left eye. I expect it will be a routine procedure, but if it is not, I will be the hit on Pirate Day.

In about half an hour, it will be nine years since I quit smoking.