Mantra

A mantra is a focal chant which is used similarly to meditation in practice. Ancient practitioners found that using a rhythmic, repeated phrase to free the mind allowed for a form of self-hypnosis, which then facilitated planting subconscious positive suggestions or images (causes) which could lead to actualizing desired behaviors or results(effects). This relates to the concept of causality, which is found in many Buddhist teachings. I am convinced that your mantra can be something as simple as "PEA-nut-BUT-ter", repeated while focusing on a mandala, or focal object, like a poster of the Buddha, or any other pleasing image. Basically, chanting is a form of conscious and intentional brain manipulation. Nichiren Buddhists use the mantra, "Nam myoho renge kyo," for example, a reference to dedication to the Lotus Sutra. Tibetans use the mantra, "Om mai ne pad me hung". I am convinced from my own practice that the specific sounds of the mantra carry less magic than the practice of chanting them with a mandala in a peaceful and relaxed atmosphere. The ancients tended to assign the mantra's magic to the creator of the mantra or to the mandala to which the mantra is chanted. But the ancients were unfamiliar with hypnosis and brain science. The means is less important than the end in this case. The end being the inducement of the brain to accept and foster the concepts of creating personal happiness and practicing peace and compassion.

Sport

Sport for some is meditative exercise. The player who focuses on the ball and its goal with absolute concentration is voluntarily coordinating human conscioussness with his animal brain-body coordination. This is indeed a form of meditation and integration of mind-body. And this is beneficial and transforming when it becomes a practice for self improvement. However, spectator sports do absolutely nothing for the spectators other than distract them from self improvement. It is the capitalization of sport which is dysfunctional. It is the mob violence aspect of sport that comes from this capitalization, whipped up by those who profit from it, similarly to the way that others whip up aggression to profit from war. Sport is generally a rough form of ativistic community building. It is quite frankly a crude method, which tends to attract those who are prone to violence and narcissistic demonstrations of superiority and dominance. Incorporating physical exercise into a daily practice is important. However, the practice of individual human evolution requires solitude, meditation and inactivity as well as social exertion and activity.

Love

To love humanity is both a great challenge and a great gift when practiced moment to moment in an overpopulated and industrialized world. Overwhelmed by the vastness of our species' numbers, we squirrel away our love and compassion for those 'special' human beings, whom we deem to be so. To open to all humanity from moment to moment is like jumping from a plane after learning to be defended by upbringing and by the traumas of growing up. To reject labeling and categorizing from moment to moment is extremely hard for me. However, when I achieve success in a given moment, I feel whole, liberated, at one with the Universe. Practice is the constant exercise or quest to achieve that love of humanity and all beings.

Balance

Balance is the key to keeping to the path. Balance is achieved by mastering each moment. Mastering each moment requires being in each moment with mind and body as one. Making mind and body one requires practice in each moment.

Life

I am a gardener of very modest talents, though many of my ancestors were serfs and farmers. My garden is 100 square feet, a small patch behind a picket fence. Very New England. In that tiny patch, life is teeming. There are probably close to 100 different species of plants, many planted by me, but most native to the ground here. I am not a compulsive weeder. I find great joy in watching strange green things rise from the earth. Sometimes they are winners; sometimes they are a pain in the ass, like the morning glory vines which try to choke just about anything they can get their tendrils wrapped around. There are about 10 different kinds of bees who pass through regularly. Fat ones, wasps, little ones, all on urgent missions of their own. I saw a particularly cute tiny green grasshopper today next to the boxwood. The grasshopper really showed up all those big black ants who insist on visiting me indoors. Last year I even had a beautiful garter snake, who slept in the morning sun by the garden gate for a week in May. The snails are fun to watch, or rather observe, from day to day, since they are really too slow to watch. There is so much life in my garden that I often lose scores of minutes just staring at it. The neighbors, I am sure, think me insane, or simple or just a garden nerd, I suppose. It never occurs to me what they think when I am absorbed in all that buzzing and growing life out there. And, if I do notice a neighbor passing by, I notice they are most often smiling as they look at my flowers. To be happily absorbed with life, as it simply is, is a great healing blessing. Part of my daily practice has been my garden and its joys.

Rituals

"Loyalty to petrified opinion never yet broke a chain or freed a human soul."...Mark Twain

Robes, incense, crosses, domes, choirs, prayer carpets, sacred scrolls, chalices. All these trappings of ritual and religion are intended to keep the common people in awe, distracted, and compliant. This applies to any religion anywhere. The value of ritual for the novice is its provision of a focus and a language for learning and thinking about the Universe and human existence. However, once the novice is in a position to read and think and investigate other forms of study, meditation and growth, it is time for ritual to be put aside in favor of commitment to human evolution toward peace and active compassion in one's own environment. This is the meaning of one's path. Those who blindly remain bound to religion strike no path. They simply waddle in a pre-worn rut. This does not lead to evolution; this maintains blind stagnation. My practice is a creative activity of discovery through experience and study. Being religious is not practice. Practice is what you do with your religious experiences. Your path is where you venture when you leave ritual behind.

Faith

The concept of faith has been stolen and twisted by religious zealots and hucksters. Faith now implies subscription to magical thinking about a justifying deity. Faith, as the religious define it, is the refuge of the ignorant, lazy and beaten. "Faith-based" institutions are largely tax shelters, money-makers for scoundrels in clerical disguise, and excuses for governments to avoid taking responsibility for taxpayer services for the people. In my practice, I have faith in the obvious tendency in humankind to adhere to a social conscience and to strive for a shared evolution to improve the quality of existence. These human traits are to be fostered and encouraged above all else. Religion and other forms of subjugation of the human spirit may be a step to human evolution for some, but must be rejected ultimately to achieve human evolution.

Anger

Anger is a drug. It stimulates the body's hormonal responses when allowed to escalate into a raging tantrum. It provides a high. It also brings the temporary secondary gain of inducing fear in the object of that anger. This is all basic animal behavior. Getting hooked on anger is easier for some than for others. Those who do become addicted to their anger tend to become isolated and depressed over time, unless they have the misfortune of pairing with another anger addict or a masochist. Taking control of anger is perhaps the most powerful tool on the way to mindful human evolution. When recognized and harnessed, the natural anger response is a generator of tremendous energy for change. This is the basis of martial arts, for example. My practice includes learning to harness my anger and to deflect the anger of others.

KISS

I used the services of a lawyer, who has helped me buy and sell property. He is a very likable, highly energetic man, who spends his life immersed in the avalanches of clauses and disputes which come with possession of things. In the midst of a stressful transaction, in which I was overly invested financially and emotionally, this married, conservative lawyer turned to me and said, "Paul, I'm going to give you a KISS." I was surprised, uninterested in kissing at the moment, and shocked into acute attention. He continued with a wide grin, "Keep It Simple, Stupid!" I was immediately deflated by these words to a state of calm and surrender to his skill. All went well subsequently with considerably less wasted anxiety on my part. I saw the Buddha nature of my lawyer friend for the first time.

The Buddha nature is everywhere. In simplicity, we are more likely to live in accord with the Buddha nature. Live, and let live. Mind your own business. Focus on the Middle Path. People in glass houses should not throw stones. Treat others as you would be treated. Most importantly, know what you do not know. All these old and tried sayings are aides to attaining simplicity in a distracting world. Spend less time in front of the computer and more time improving your own life.