What Does Your Spirituality Mean To You? A Buddhist Perspective
Introduction by Cole Goodwin
Welcome to the first installment of The Spiritual Roundtable, an interfaith roundtable featuring a diverse range of spiritual belief systems in the Gorge Community.
Each week, spiritual leaders and learners will share their take on some of humanity's biggest questions, starting with: What does your spirituality mean to you? And ramping up into discussions about the nature of existence, the soul, the divine, and of course…a question as old as time itself: why are we here?
Roundtable writings will be published each Saturday and Sunday morning of the month.
Now take a deep breath… Meditate for a moment…And when you’re ready…keep reading to explore one of the many diverse faiths, belief systems, and philosophies that exist in our communities.
This Month's Question: What does your spirituality mean to you?
Why this question was chosen: This question asks us to examine what purpose and function our (faith, practice, belief system, philosophy) can serve in our lives. As well as how spirituality can guide our actions and way of walking in the world.
About Scott See: Scott first became curious about Buddhism in 1983 in Ladakh, India where he met people living in primitive and challenging conditions whose smiles shone so bright that Scott wanted to learn more about this Buddhist culture. Fast forward to 2015, Scott approached Thay Kozen at the Mt. Adams Buddhist Temple with an offer to barter website services for Buddhist teachings. Scott was ordained as a student of the Lay Novice Buddhist Ministerial program at Mt. Adams Buddhist Temple in April of 2019 and was given the Dharma name, Minh Tự. (Pronounced: min-dun — with the final n very muffled.) Scott also maintains a personal blog that reflects on his journey on the Path.
A Buddhist Perspective
by Scott See
What Spirituality Is For A Buddhist
While attending a dharma talk, (the Buddhist equivalent to a sermon) I once asked, “What is spirituality from the Buddhist perspective?” The monk contemplated for a moment, “Emotional maturity,” he answered. Emotional maturity, “what a wonderful answer,” I thought to myself. Buddhist teachings emphasize the truth of suffering and the path to alleviate suffering. We’ve all experienced pain and suffering by letting our emotions get the better of us. Emotions can grab a hold of us and drag us down. So if spirituality means learning how to regulate our emotions to better help us be happy and at peace, then sign me up.
Listening To Our Intuitive Side
I’ve come to learn that spirituality is more than just regulating emotions. It’s also learning to tap into our intuitions. Before learning about Buddhism, I would tackle big life events with lists of pros vs cons. I would Google, “How does one decide about: [big life decision]?” Such cognitive decision making methods were successful—successful at making me miserable. After my introduction to Buddhist teachings, I learned that when confronted with big life decisions, setting aside the pro & con lists and quietly sitting with the question and observing what answer surfaces is much quicker and far less agonizing. The switch from a busy brain-centric approach to a silent heart-centric approach has proven helpful
Putting Down Our Judgements and Preconceptions
Spirituality involves having the mindfulness to see things as they really are, as opposed to seeing things through the haze of our judgements and preconceptions. Judgements are all the extra “stuff” we add to an observation. A car speeds down a street to which I think “what an irresponsible person!” The sight of a car driving over the speed limit is the observation; the accusation, label and assumption is the judgement. Judgments sometimes manifest as preferences and aversions. We all get caught up in our preferences and our aversions, both of which cause suffering. We might engage in passionate arguments about Ford vs. Chevy, delicious vs disgusting, right vs wrong. Such strong attachments to our opinions can lead to discord. Spirituality involves having the mindfulness to see everything, just as it is. This includes ourselves, to see ourselves as we really are in this moment. The teachings encourage us to look deeply into ourselves and if we do, we might find that any labels to which we have attached ourselves, American, male, Democrat, Buddhist, etc. simply vanish. Spirituality allows us to let go of these labels which cause divisions between ourselves and others.
Cessation Of Suffering
Siddhārtha Gautama, commonly known as the Buddha or “awakened one”, began his spiritual quest to understand suffering–the nature of it, the cause of it, and the path to cessation of suffering. This journey led to Siddhārtha Gautama embracing The Four Noble Truths:
1. The truth of suffering. We suffer. The first step to dealing with this is to see it for what it is.
2. The cause of suffering. Suffering does not exist independently. We cause our own suffering with our attachment and delusions.
3. The cessation of suffering is attainable.
4. The path to the cessation of suffering is the eightfold path.
The Noble Eightfold Path ⨁
Right View
Right Intention
Right Speech
Right Action
Right Livelihood
Right Effort
Right Mindfulness
Right Concentration
And how are we to know what is the, “right” view, intention, speech, and so on? That is the subject of much more in-depth study, but if you approach life’s decisions with a heart of kindness and a mind clearly seeing this as they are, without our filters and judgements, then you won’t stray from the path. As the Dalai Lama once said, “My religion is Kindness.” Or as my teacher, Venerable Thay Kozen, often says, “When in doubt, love more.”
Buddhist Spiritual Practices
Three elements form the core of our practice at Mt. Adams Buddhist Temple:
Meditation
Devotion
Metta (loving kindness)
Meditation can be done in the traditional seated style, or it can be done while walking, lying down, or even while conducting our day-to-day activities. Meditation allows us to calm and train our minds to observe without judgements that cloud our perceptions. Devotion involves acknowledging and showing gratitude to something outside ourselves. And it comes as no surprise that a crucial part of Buddhist practice is compassion. Our daily practice includes offering Metta (loving kindness) to ourselves, to those who are easy to love, to those we don’t know, to those difficult to love, and then once again, to ourselves.
Letting Go
Buddhist practice does involve studying the teachings of Siddhārtha Gautama as well as many of the teachers that followed him. And yet Buddhist practice is not about accumulating knowledge like a school student accumulates knowledge. Buddhist practice is about wholly experiencing liberation from suffering. We flourish when we experience the liberation of letting go. We all cling to labels–good/bad, right/wrong, American/foreigner, Christian/Jewish/etc., and so on. Labels are not all bad. After all, they keep us from driving against traffic. But attaching to labels can lead to untold suffering. How many wars have started because of people clinging to nationalist or religious pride? How many relationships have been broken by thoughts of, “I am right, and you are wrong?” Once we begin letting go of ideas once thought to be sacrosanct, we begin to realize that we all have far more in common than we have differences. As we work on letting go of our cherished labels we camouflage ourselves with, think of Bodhidharma, the founder of Zen Buddhism, when asked the question, “Who stands before me?” replied, “I don’t know.”
Self Or No-Self
A discussion of Buddhism and spirituality would not be complete without addressing the idea of no-self. In the words of Master Dogen…
To study the Way is to study the self. To study the self is to forget the self.
To forget the self is to be enlightened by all things of the universe. To be
enlightened by all things of the universe is to cast off the body and mind
of the self as well as those of others. Even the traces of enlightenment are
wiped out, and life with traceless enlightenment goes on forever and ever.
It’s not that we’re non-existent. Siddhārtha Gautama made it very clear that his teachings are not annihilism. We do exist. But as we become attached to labeling ourselves or categorizing ourselves, we stray further from knowing the self. We are ever changing and impermanent. We do not spontaneously and independently appear. We are interdependent on an infinite number of causes. And in the words of Thích Nhất Hạnh, we interbe with everything else.
A Spirituality Of Action
Buddhist practice involves meditation, yes, but it is at heart a spirituality of action. Siddhārtha Gautama tells us to remember, “My actions are my only true belongings. I cannot escape the consequences of my actions. My actions are the ground on which I stand.”
A Spirituality Of Refuge
One of the formal steps a Buddhist practitioner can take is, dedication to the Three Refuges:
Buddha - The Awakened One and founder of Buddhism
Dharma - The teachings of the Buddha
Sangha - Those with whom we share our practice
This is an acknowledgement of appreciation for the historical teacher, Siddhārtha Gautama
Buddhist Spirituality, In Summary
As the Dalai Lama said, “Be kind whenever possible. It is always possible.”
Learn More About Buddhist Spirituality
All are welcome to join us for our services which occur weekdays at 6:30 a.m. and 5:30 p.m. and also on Saturday at 8:30 a.m. The Zoom number is always on the homepage of https://www.mtadamsbuddhisttemple.com/ No experience is needed, and those of all faiths are welcome. And expect much laughter. As Venerable Thay Kozen says, “If you’re not laughing, you may be doing something wrong.”
Want to contribute to the Spiritual Roundtable? Read this first.
The Roundtable Mission and Vision
The goal of these roundtable writings is to:
Bring the spiritual community together.
Share ideas that elevate the human spirit.
Elevate the conversation around the spirit.
Embrace what is universal to all, while honoring what is special about each spirituality.
Center inclusivity and equity.
Promote our collective enlightenment.
Nurture civility and friendship between those with diverse belief systems in the Gorge.
Engage readers and spiritual seekers.
The Spiritual Roundtable IS NOT…
This is not a place for arguing about dogma.
This is not a place for ‘hating on’ or putting other belief systems down.
This is not a place for excluding, discriminating, or promoting fear or violence towards other people based on their race, color, ethnicity, beliefs, faith, gender, sexuality, ability.
This is not a place for hatred.
This is not a place for fear.
The Spiritual Roundtable IS..
This IS a place for hope.
This IS a place for joy.
This IS a place for comfort.
This IS a place for big questions.
This IS a place for learning.
This IS a place for sharing.
This IS a place for caring.
This IS a place for sharing what is special about your beliefs.
CCC News reserves the right to not publish any content that breaks with our mission, vision and values.
If you are interested in being included in the roundtable please email cole@columbiacommunityconnection.com
