Introducing Buddha: A Graphic Guide (Graphic Guides)

by Borin Van Loon

The word Buddha literally means “awakened one”.

Mara and his daughters are familiar to anyone who practises meditation; the revelation of dark repressed fears, barely remembered fragments of memory, doubts, erotic fantasy and foremost, the desire to get back to familiar ground.

In the second watch of the night, he saw that people’s present experience was caused by their previous actions.

As human beings we all suffer from a fundamental anxiety that creeps into all our activities and makes lasting peace or joy impossible.

The peace and equanimity of the Buddha comes from an acceptance of the transitory nature of life.

Normally, we create goals towards which we are travelling. We hope to achieve ultimate everlasting security and this keeps us continually preoccupied. We are constantly swimming towards what we think is the shore, what we think will be the answer to the problem, whether it be a new love affair, the cure for an illness, a way to stay young or the reward of heaven.

That so-called permanent entity is known as “ego”. When we look for this sense of self, there is nothing concrete or real or solid that we can call “me”. This leads to constant insecurity. Not seeing the truth of impermanence and egolessness, we suffer because we do not know who we are. The more we cling to the belief in a self, the more pain and alienation we feel.

such moments can happen at any time. These glimpses of nowness are vivid and give a stark contrast to habitual mind and its struggles.

All of the Buddha’s teachings are a means to experiencing this for ourselves, not as a theoretical exercise but as direct experience.

Enlightenment is the total sense of freedom that comes from letting go of the concept of being an individual “self”.

The glimpses of enlightened mind provides the motivation to find a way out of confusion. The Buddha told of a path that ordinary people could travel on to find their own liberation.

The Buddha presented a path that leads to the cessation of struggle and the attainment of enlightenment.

Meditation is the foundation of Buddhist practice

In meditation practice, we learn to let go of the thoughts and fantasies that block the direct intuitive experience of who and what we really are. Our constant mental activity is what maintains the illusion of a separate self, and this effort makes us weary.

Most of us are always engaged in some activity, and if we are not active we are talking to ourselves.

We are preoccupied with the past, which has already happened, and we are pre-occupied about the future, which does not yet exist. We worry about what will happen and we think about various things that make us feel anxious, frustrated, passionate, angry, resentful, afraid. While we are so preoccupied, our awareness of the here-and-now slips by and we hardly notice its passing. We eat without tasting, we look without seeing and live without ever perceiving what is real.

Meditation practice is not concerned with perfecting concentration, or getting rid of thoughts, or trying to be peaceful. The practice merely provides a space in which we can relate simply with our body, our breath and the environment. Thoughts simply occur within a larger space. In that simple situation, we bring our attention back again and again from fantasy to the simple reality of being in the present moment.

Karma literally means “action” – it is the law of cause and effect. Karma is both the power latent within action and the results our actions bring. Each action, even the smallest, will have consequences. To a Buddhist, therefore, every action, thought or word is important and has consequences.

Our present circumstances depend on the result of actions in the past, and our future circumstances depend on actions in the present.

However, there was something so radiant about the Buddha that they sat at his feet to hear the first teachings, and were won over.

the only liberation possible was one in which the experience could be used to further the welfare of others.

The new ideal became the Bodhisattva whose outstanding quality was compassion and who would infinitely delay his or her own enlightenment until all beings were freed.

Paradoxically, if we accept our own suffering and fully relate it with the suffering of others, we transform that pain into a means of liberation.

Compassion and empathy for one’s fellow beings becomes more important than escape from one’s own suffering.

We have to make friends with ourselves and be kind to those aspects of ourselves we like least. Learning to be kind to ourselves brings the discovery that fundamentally we are quite soft. We become hard when we habitually deny our own woundedness and blame others for causing our pain. In admitting our own hurt, we become soft and vulnerable.

The discovery of Buddha nature leads to the development of compassion. Compassion is the natural expression of self-existing goodness.

Mahayana practice trains us to identify our true enemy as ego-clinging rather than locating enemies in the outside world.

The actions of a Bodhisattva must have vision, must have understanding which transcends that of centralized ego. The Bodhisattva is not trying to be good or kind, he does not mix good intention with confusion. His communication with the world is spontaneously compassionate.

The first printed book that the world had seen was a copy of the Diamond Sutra printed in the 5th century.

Pleasure is generally seen as the enemy of spirituality. Tantra’s approach is very different. Instead of seeing desire and pleasure as something to be avoided, tantra recognizes the powerful energy aroused by desire as an indispensable resource for the spiritual path. Tantra seeks to transform every experience no matter how “unreligious” it may appear to be.

Vajrayana (or tantra as it is also called) is secret teaching. Without a thorough training in meditation, and without a clear motive to help other people, practising tantra is dangerous and ultimately self-destructive.

Crazy wisdom without compassion is a deadly combination.

The teacher is only interested in the student’s naked awareness and not in the various masks that the student might wear.

Relating with death fearlessly one needs to have no attachment to ego. Our fear of death is the fear of ceasing to exist.