Long Beach Meditation
Lead us from the unreal to the Real.
Lead us from darkness to the Light.
Lead us from the fear of death to the abode of Immortality.
—from the Brihadanayaka Upanishad
On-Line Book
The Bare Bones of the Buddha’s Teaching by Victor Byrd
This On-Line book offers an overview of the Buddha dharma. It gives the reader a way to navigate the oftentimes complex pathway through the Buddha's teachings, through a casual and understandable style.
Program Note: Victor is re-writing and updating his book, starting with The Introduction. He invites you to be part of this process. We will post each revised chapter so stay tuned. A paragraph from each chapter is excerpted here. Click the PDF or page title to read the entire chapter.
CHAPTER SIXTEEN - YOGA AND BUDDHISM
On its face, the Buddha’s Eightfold Path is not linear. It begins with a paradox, which presents a problem for anyone espousing the gradual path of Theravada Buddhism. Although the Buddha praised the gradual path, comparing it to the ocean floor’s gradual sloping, this can hardly mean that he was suggesting that there is only a gradual path. Indeed, one might suggest that in choosing to begin the Eightfold Path with Right Understanding, the Buddha presented an alternative. How does one begin with Right Understanding, when in fact it is the end of the journey?Uploaded: July 29, 2010
CHAPTER FIFTEEN - RIGHT EFFORT
Everything, including each of us, has its own unique language. When the essence is fully heard, it flowers and opens to the other. When we learn the language of the other it bows deeply and speaks to us in its own voice. Too often our desperate need to be listened to prevents us from listening. Our bottomless need to be seen prevents us from seeing. This is the universal tragedy of narcissism. We shout to be heard and seen, never stopping to look or listen. As we study the Eightfold Path, we must continually remember that our task is to learn a new language. To endure and learn the language perfectly describes the meaning of Right Effort.Uploaded: July 16, 2010
CHAPTER FOURTEEN—- RIGHT ACTION AND RIGHT LIVELIHOOD
The Buddha mentions three fundamental "bodily actions" that comprise the fourth step of Right Karma. All three are grounded in the ancient teaching of ahimsa, nonviolence. Do no harm. This is the foundation of Buddhist practice. Ahimsa is the touchstone against which we rub our questions about skillful behavior. It reveals the gold within. Uploaded: June 14, 2010
CHAPTER THIRTEEN—- RIGHT SPEECH
In a world so inundated by wrong speech, why practice Right Speech if it means that we must stand out like a sore thumb? Why go against the grain by cultivating speech that is a treasure? The question is best answered with another question. What are our options? If mindfulness is the sure path to self-realization, which is what the Buddha taught, then what is our alternative to Right Speech? What is the point of our hard work – of the all-day retreats we attend that lead to seven-day retreats, and for some of us one-month retreats – if we lapse into complete mindlessness the minute we open our mouths?
Uploaded: May 14, 2010CHAPTER TWELVE—- RIGHT THOUGHT
Right Thought is where the rubber hits the road. It is the true content of our character, the truth of who we are. The hard work of right thinking begins when we look at the forest pond and recognize the absolute beauty that lies underneath the surface muck. Right Understanding is that which sees the truth of our nature. Right Thought is that which pulls up its sleeves and starts cleaning. If Right Understanding is the awakening, Right Thought is the cultivation that must follow.Uploaded: April 15, 2010
Chapter Eleven—- The Last Three Nidanas
Fortunately for us, the reality of the twelve nidanas does not depend on opinion or belief; it is based on seeing how they function in our daily lives. The twelve nidanas happen, and they are real. Whether craving and clinging will cause rebirth in some future existence, or whether such an idea is nothing but magical thinking, there can be no doubt that craving and clinging will cause suffering in this life. Understanding the truth of dependent origination points the way to inner freedom as clearly today as it did two thousand years ago
Uploaded: November 7, 2009Chapter Ten—- Nidanas Eight and Nine
Something quite new arises with the emerging of the eighth and ninth
nidanas. While craving and clinging finalize the chain that leads to
suffering, they also bring to completion the psychological development
that makes us human. Paradoxically, the very existence of suffering can be
a wakeup call, opening our hearts to the possibility that we are more than
mechanical robots. Isn’t this precisely what happened to the Buddha? The
amazing truth is that the possibility of seeing Dharma is also part of our
DNA. So any moment of suffering can also be a moment of seeing truth.
Even if for only one moment, the unconscious chain of nidanas can be
temporarily disrupted.
Uploaded: October 17, 2009Chapter Nine—The Four Middle Nidanas
Nama-rupa means “mind-body,” or “mentality-physicality.” In the twelve nidanas, when the first three nidanas link up with nama-rupa, potentiality becomes reality; a living, sentient being begins to form within the mother. The tiny creature has a physical shape and a nervous system, however rudimentary or complex, that will eventually allow it to feel. Two separate processes unite at the fourth nidana: samsaric DNA, an otherworldly inheritance received from the first three nidanas, and the physical DNA inherited from the entity’s biological parents.Uploaded: August 22, 2009
Chapter Eight—The First Three Nidanas
The story of ten blind men describing an elephant is a perfect simile for our study of the nidanas. At least the blind men had a huge animal to touch. We are trying to understand an invisible process that occurred before we were born. There is a much more daunting problem facing us. Since we cannot see or touch the nidanas, the only instrument we can use to understand them is the mind itself. The problem is, if avijja is a kind of drug or anesthesia that intoxicates the mind, how on earth can the mind see its own deluded nature? How can delusion understand delusion? How can a pilot chart a course and land a large airplane if his instrument panel is damaged? Uploaded: August 2, 2009
Chapter Seven—The Twelve Nidanas, An Overview
In the dawn of his illumination, the Buddha saw something about our human existence that was utterly shattering but at the same time incredibly hopeful. He saw that we live in a world governed by mechanical, impersonal processes, where everything is dependent on everything else; our thoughts, feelings and actions are not independent actions but predictable dependent reactions. One thing leads to another. It is a deeply disturbing vision of humanity proceeding through life like robots, trapped within the matrix of brain washed minds. The joke, if something so horrible can be called a joke, is that we consider ourselves relatively free and independent. We regard our interesting thoughts, feelings and theories as the original creations of our interesting minds. We dream that we are awake, and are constantly shocked by the inhumanity, war and misery of the world around us.
The matrix in our minds is the twelve nidanas. They are, in every sense of the word, a computer program that constantly functions beneath the surface of our awareness. We go to sleep each night, hopefully to recover some of the enormous energy that we blew throughout the day. Then we wake up and start the same restless cycle again. Uploaded: July 19, 2009Chapter Six—The Eightfold Path: Right Understanding
Zen Master Shoushan held up a bamboo stick and said, “If you call it a bamboo stick, you are clinging. If you do not call it a bamboo stick, you are ignoring.” This is the typical Zen conundrum. If our heads are stuck in discriminating consciousness - the Zen guys call it having our heads stuck in a bowl of glue - we are unable to see with our hearts. We see with the intellect. We name a thing, drop it into the memory bank, and dismiss it. The teacher says, “What is this?” and if the student says, “It’s a bamboo stick,” he may get a whack on his head from that same stick. But if the student is silent, he may also get a whack on the head. Uploaded: July 19, 2009
Chapter Five—The Fourth Noble Truth
Translated into English the Pali words describe the Fourth Noble Truth as a path (magga) of eight aspects, folds or steps…There is something mystical, even magical, about the word “path.” One might think of Robert Frost’s lovely poem The Road Not Taken. From the yellow brick road to the Tao, our hearts are lifted when we hear of a path that can lead us out of the dark forest. Even if we are not able to see it, it gives us hope when we hear that somewhere in this thicket we call “life” exists a path that will lead us to safety.Uploaded: July 19, 2009
Chapter Four—The Third Noble Truth - The End of Suffering
The Buddha said:
Hence, the purpose of the Holy Life does not consist in acquiring alms, honor, or fame, nor in gaining morality, concentration, or the eye of knowledge. That unshakable deliverance of the heart: that, verily, is the object of the Holy Life, that is the essence, that is the goal.
The message of the Third Noble Truth is a promise that the Buddha made to each of us at the dawning of his illumination. It is the same promise uttered by thousands of seekers who found their way home to Truth since the beginning of recorded history. Those who have opened their eyes to reality – dharma – tell us one thing over and over: Illumination is what you already are; it is your true nature. No one, not the most enlightened teacher on earth, not some great guru capable of astonishing feats, thrilling thousands of listeners and, perhaps most difficult for us to accept, not even a Divine being can give you what you already possess. Waking up is an inside job. A mother hen may try to help break through the shell from the outside, but it is indeed the little chick that has to do most of the work of breaking out. This is a dividing line between Buddhism and most of the world religions, and it can be, initially, a hard message to swallow:
No one saves us, but ourselves.
No one can and no one may.
We ourselves must walk the path,
Buddhas merely teach the way.
(Paul Carus) Uploaded: July 19, 2009Chapter Three — The Monk and the Psychologist
Theravada Buddhism elegantly lays out the progressive stages of Insight that each meditator must experience on her journey from the unreal to the Real. It is a fascinating blueprint of mental development, leading to a pivotal moment in the process of transformation: The mind begins to see. What an anticlimactic sentence! The mind begins to see Truth – things as they really are. It sees what it has relentlessly denied for so long: Every experience is impermanent; every experience occurs without a “me” in it; and every experience is ultimately unsatisfactory.Uploaded: July 19, 2009
Chapter Two - The Second Noble Truth
The Buddha’s first insight was his complete opening to the reality of suffering. He saw with the clear vision-eye of Dharma that suffering is not caused by some aberration of birth or circumstances. It is not caused by bad karma, nor is it something from which we can escape if we just play our cards carefully. Dukkha is hard-wired into our brains. The Buddha’s followers called this the First Noble Truth. After this first insight, he looked into the cause of suffering. We suffer because we desire - pure and simple. This became known as the Buddha’s Second Noble Truth.Uploaded: June 20, 2009
Chapter One - The First Noble Truth
We are going to study what is perhaps the most complete blueprint for building a spiritual laboratory ever recorded in human history. It is called the Eightfold Path, and it is a major theme of the extraordinary dharma symphony heard by the Buddha that sacred night of his illumination. The blueprint of the Eightfold Path is so comprehensive that it does not require you to be a Buddhist: It allows you to be a Jew, a Christian, or an atheist. It speaks not only to the progeny of those people in India who sat near the Buddha, basking in the light of his truth; it also speaks across the ages to a Western culture that has developed in a profoundly different psychological direction.
The Buddha’s first insight is what he called the Noble Truth of Dukkha, or the Noble Truth of Suffering. Dukkha is also translated as “dissatisfaction” by many teachers, “pain” by others, and some translate this Pali word as “anxiety.”
The truth of the Buddha-dharma begins with a shattering insight: Suffering is as familiar to us as our heart beat. The Buddha places this truth of dukkha in front of us like an enormous boulder, and not for a moment does he try to couch his message in soft lights. This affair is a matter of life and death.Uploaded: June 19, 2009We sit on the cushion and aspire to improve, which is to say that we want to gain more peace and insight into ourselves, but we don’t really believe that we have within our own minds the capacity for complete and radical change. How many of us sit to end all delusion, to find the ultimate goal that the Buddha literally guaranteed to each of us as our birthright: the unshakable deliverance of the heart?
Uploaded: June 19, 2009