Socialization in Buddhism

I was just thinking of why it is that monks and serious practitioners avoid socialization. It has been stated that Buddhism is not about become more social but about become more reclusive.  At least for theravada Buddhism.  I think it has to do with ones inability to mindfully help others if they have not developed that mindfullness themselves.  It is difficult to develop any sense of deep mindfullness when you are busy helping and worrying about those you are helping.  This agitates the mind and makes it difficult to be mindful of what you're doing, unless you have previously developed some degree of mindfullness.  Therefore, before you can be very helpful to others you must first help yourself.

Thoughts on Faith

Listening to several dhamma talks over the past few days I have come to the realization that there are two main aspects of faith in Buddhism.  First, one must believe, or have faith, that the Buddha and his disciples along with countless monks and nuns since the time of the Buddha have achieved some higher mental state and have attained some level of enlightenment.  They have seen some higher truth about existence.  Second, you must have faith or simply assume that they are telling the truth about what they have experienced.  I have heard that even if you have trouble believing all of it, as long as you can suspend your doubt and admit that you don't know everything (i.e. open your mind to the possibility), then it is still possible to start following the Buddhist path. 

Of course, it is probably best to start with some of the more.obvious, concrete and practical aspects of Buddhism.  That is to simply start making yourself stop for awhile each day to meditate.

Modern Media Obscures Truth of Impermanence

It's a little after-the-fact, but I had a brief realization on New Year's Eve.  For some reason New Year's Eve makes me sad.  I think it's just the loss of the old year and the uncertainty of a new year.  It's a very poignant, yet completely arbitrary, sign of impermanence in the world.  2010 is gone forever and now we get to see what 2011 is like for the next 365 days.

I have to admit that I am a science fiction fan, so I was one of the folks watching the Dr. Who marathon on BBC America.  I did the same thing on Christmas, but that's another story.  The combination of the new year and watching one of my new favorite shows led to an interesting thought/realization.  Modern media, with all its fidelity and lack of generation loss upon copying, tends to obscure the truth of impermanence.  Of course, physical media (i.e. DVD, CDs, etc.) still wear out like their older counterparts, but somewhere there is now a digital copy of just about everything preserved somewhere in such a way that it will not degrade in image or sound quality.

I'm not saying that these media defy the law of impermanence (see Anicca), because eventually the computers will crash, data will be corrupted, or the media will simply be forgotten.  What occurred to me is that we can now watch the same thing over and over.  If you have a favorite movie that you watch on a regular basis (holiday movies are a good example), you may be very surprised when you see a current image of one of the actors or hear that one of the actors has died.  Due to repeated exposure to the same images we have a certain vision of what that person looked like and that they are alive.  Thus, the person and actions captured on film tend to obscure our sense that time has passed...

...or, I may just be the only one.  I do tend to watch a lot of the same things repeatedly.   

First Post - Testing the Blog

I've spent quite a few years playing around with websites of my own, but in an effort to simplify my life I've decided to give the Google Blogs a try.

I'll start by introducing myself as a 30 something ex-atheist westerner from Huntington, WV, USA who has been reading and listening to dhamma for the past 3 years or so.  For those of you who don't know, the dhamma is the Buddha's teaching.  A large collection of English translations from the original Pali language is available online at Access to Insight. I do consider myself a lay Buddhist at this point, which from my understanding simply means that one puts their faith in the Buddha, the Sangha (order of monks, especially those who have attained some level of enlightenment), and the Dhamma.  Also, to me the phrase "puts their faith in" simply means that I believe that the Buddha discovered something very profound, then proceeded to teach these methods of discovery to other seekers of enlightenment, who then also discovered the same profound state that the Buddha discovered.  What is that "profound" state?  In Pali it's called Nibbana, but westerners know it more commonly by the Sanskrit Nirvana.

Now, with this brief introduction I should definitely note that I am just starting my journey.  I only know bits and pieces of dhamma that I've read or heard.  All of the talks I've heard have been posted to either the Bhavana Society website or BuddhaNet.  The main purpose of this blog is for me to work out my understanding of what I've read and heard, hopefully through some type of dialog with others who are interested in the Buddha's teachings.  As I make posts, I'll try to reference whatever I've been reading or listening to so others will be able to find the same material and make appropriate comments.  That said, I'll try to make posts as regularly as possible, but there may be large breaks in those posts.