We're all made of star stuff

The title is a quote from the great Carl Sagan, but what he says follows closely with the Buddhist view of the universe.  Take for example, a rainbow.  You see a rainbow, and are amazed at its existence, but then a few moments later, its gone.  Did the rainbow truly exist at all, did it die?  Where do things go when they seemingly cease to exist?

The truth is one one of the 4 Noble Truths, that all things are impermanent.  This impermanence leads to suffering, as the ignorance in our mind distinguishes one thing from another as separate and not inter-dependent on each other.  This Noble truth also states that all things are without substance, to say that everything isn't by itself something whole, but all made of parts.  These parts are known as 'Aggregates'.  The rainbow isn't a rainbow as itself, but a collection of aggregates:  Water, Air, Sunlight.  Given the right conditions, these 3 aggregates create a rainbow for all to enjoy.  The water vapor eventually moves out of alignment, and moves on to water the plant life below, the sunlight eventually fades with the night sky, and the air moves on to let creatures breathe below.  The rainbow is not gone, but merely transformed into something else as its aggregates move on, never ending.  Human life is much the same way, we are all made of 5 aggregates:

1.  Form
2.  Sensation
3.  Perception
4.  Mental Formation
5.  Consciousness

The first is the most obvious of the 5, Form.  It's the odds and ends that make up our physical body.  Specifically, 65% Oxygen, 18% Carbon, 10% Hydrogen, 3% Nitrogen, 1.5% Calcium, 1% Phosphorus, etc etc..., the organs, the bones, nerves, the brain and everything in between.  When we're born we start to grow to adult hood, and when we reach that, we start to grow old and eventually die.  The cycle of birth, death, and rebirth known as Samsara.  When someone dies, their physical body doesn't just disappear, it decays and gives back to the soil its buried in, becoming a part of the tree, the plants, etc.  Just as the rainbow didn't truly disappear, so does a person physically, it simply changes Form.  The body also includes how we experience the outside world, mainly the 5 sense organs of the eye, the nose, the ear, the tongue and touch sensations.  Now this being said, in Buddha's time, little was known about biology and the fact that taste is also mostly a function of the olfactory senses and not the tongue, the distinguishing element is irrelevant as taste is usually in the mind different than smelling something.  The form is required to bring in the 5 senses of sight, smell, sound, taste and touch sensation.

Then we move to the more difficult to understand aggregates, Sensation.  When you sense a sight, a smell, etc, you can have the possibility of 3 results.  A feeling of Pleasure, a feeling of dis-pleasure, or a feeling of indifference.  These feelings on their own don't hold any substance without the sense organs that created them,  or the next step where these senses are processed into conceptualization known as perception.

Perception is where you take this sensation and make a conceptual reasoning with the feeling you receive from your sensation, and delegate a purpose, or a concept of what it is.  This is where you would realize you see, for example, a soccer ball.  You smell a rose, or you feel the soft skin of a peach.  This stage is strictly conceptualization, merely putting the dots together to form a hypothesis of what exactly you are experiencing.

After perception is when you reach a conditioned response to the stimuli, where you begin to take past experience and associate it to this perception and create a Mental Formation.  An example of this step could be that when you feel the peach, you remember that you like or dislike peaches, based purely on your past memory of pleasurable or non-pleasurable experiences with peaches, but only on a subconscious level.  You don't quite understand WHY you like or dislike the peach, you just have an instant reaction to it, which requires no thought, just an automated response.  To make more clear, Sensation has a direct emotional dimension, Perception has a conceptual dimension, while Mental Formation has a moral dimension, requiring data from more than the current moment.

Finally, we have Consciousness.  This is the aggregate of the mind that is most commonly understood by people, our conscious mind.  But even our conscious mind is merely a set of aggregates meshed together and 'appear' to be one single collection, but in fact its merely a set of aggregates within itself:

1. eye consciousness
2. ear consciousness
3. nose consciousness
4. tongue consciousness
5. body consciousness
6. mind consciousness

The first 5 are merely extensions of the aggregates of Sensation, Perception and Mental Formation of external objects, being anything we can perceive in the physical world.  You remember what you saw last year, you enjoy the sound of the music on the radio because you like the song.  You enjoy Mexican food because you have it all the time.  Rational conclusions that you are unaware are based in quite irrational mediums down the line of the sensory aggregates, perhaps effected by seeds you've planted in your mind this life, or countless lifetimes before.

The 6th consciousness, of the mind, is a bit more tricky to understand.  It is able to come up with concepts without external objects, these are known as thoughts or ideas.  Without the Mind Consciousness, the other 5 aggregate consciousness's could never interact with each other, as the mind consciousness is the coordinator of all 6.

The point of understanding all of these aggregates, is to realize that in the end, if you take away everything that can be deduced or proven as merely an aggregate of other parts, a person becomes nothing once everything is stripped away.  There is no soul that lives on, so to speak, when someone passes away.  They merely become of a form of something else, and with enough wisdom and insight, you can lift the ignorance from your mind and realize the truth of this.

Is this Karma?

Often when people experience good or bad things, the word Karma is thrown around.  Excluding other beliefs of a divine plan, or just plain luck, it must be their karma that is affecting their lives.  However, the reality of karma is more in your mind than supra natural events that happen to your person.

Deep in our mind, below our consciousness are seeds that we plant in us.  Every time we do something good, we plant a good seed.  Likewise, when we do something bad we plant a bad seed.  Now good and bad are merely terms to juxtapose each other.  There is no right or wrong karma's, merely opposing karma's.  The accumulation of karma's tend to determine your rebirth, be it good for a higher plane of existence with longer life and less troubles, or bad karma for a lower existence with more pain and anguish.  Karma doesn't merely effect the next life however, sometimes it can affect you immediately, or perhaps not for a thousand lifetimes.  However, karmic seeds never go away, and eventually they will grow and bear fruit.

Karma has grown to attach to itself some kind of super natural power to have bad things happen to you, like if you steal candy from a store, a meteor will hit you from space.  This isn't karma in the conventional sense, that's just part of the suffering of the world that you live in.  Karma thrives in the environment that you set your mind in.  If you live in an unwholesome, unproductive, negative environment, those bad seeds of that nature tend to rise more fluently than wholesome ones.  It's often why you think bad things always happen to you, and that's because they actually are.  The true test of character is to face a bad situation, and find the good in everything.  The illusion our minds create for ourselves when we're in a rut, is that it is too late to change things, to turn around and better ourselves.  This is a fallacy, because every moment is fleeting, and yet it holds      
the potential for incredible change in yourself and others around you.  ALL we have is this moment, nothing else.  The past doesn't exist, and the future hasn't happened.  Even in the most desperate and inconceivable moments of life, we ALWAYS have a choice, and that pivotal moment is what makes or breaks us.

As an example, I just finished working a show and made enough money for food for the week.  I get to the store, shop around to get as much food as I possibly can so we can eat for the week, and I get to the self check out and ring up all my items.  Exactly enough, woohoo!, so I go for my pocket to grab the money to pay....I find my keys, and my phone, but my cash is gone! I counted it as I came into the store, so I know its here, but it must of fell out of my pocket somehow.  The first thing I feel is panic.  If I can't find this money, it isn't likely I'm going to eat much of anything this week, as I only work 1 day a week atm while looking for more work.  My panic turns to anger, I bet someone just picked up my cash and walked away thinking it was their lucky day, not realizing that someones livelihood was in those few folded up bills.  Anger turns to depression as I think about how much work I did that night to get that money, and now it was all for nothing.  At this point, as I'm looking around the store, retracing my steps for my money, I begin to calm myself.  I realize at this point, that THIS is the exact kind of moment, an opportunity, to better myself and not suppress my emotions, but to accept them and note them in my mind, let them subside, and keep a positive outlook to this seemingly horrible moment.  It's not easy, I will admit, no one does this lightly but it is important to recognize these moments as gifts, not as misfortunes.  I couldn't make this up if I wanted to, but moments after I collected myself, started breathing calmly and began to walk out of the store, a cashier waved me down with money in her hand.  Another co worker had found the cash on the floor, and turned it into her just moments before, and I had a re-assuring moment that THIS was karma.  I cleared my mind, stayed positive and karma rewarded me with the honesty of another person in the store.

Now I'm not saying good things will always happen to you if you stay positive, but it certainly increases your odds if you stay positive.  Either way, staying positive and living a productive wholesome life where you try to put others before yourself, you win either way.  That is Karma.

Now before I end this post, I should mention that good karma is not the end of Buddhism.  In fact, the ultimate goal of a Buddhist is to rid yourself of Karma all together, as karma is what keeps you attached to what is called "Samsara", the cycle of death and rebirth.  Bad karma AND Good Karma alike, both keep you attached to this world like a chain.  Through the shattering of ignorance, you realize the world as it really is, cast your bonds of karma, and escape from Samsara for Nirvana.  This being said, it is easier to attain this if you have accumulated good karma over bad karma, so in the end, even one beyond the cravings of this world will often be of wholesome nature, as you gain an unconditional love of all beings, each one craving an end to suffering, as they themselves once did.

So what's the goal of a Buddhist anyways?

Knowing the 4 Noble Truths, the Eight Fold path and the refuge of the 3 Jewels is all fine and dandy, but why be  a Buddhist in the first place?  The ultimate goal of a Buddhist, is to reach true actualization.  To destroy the shroud of ignorance from your mind and see the universe for what it really is.  This ultimate truth is known as Nirvana.

Now Nirvana isn't an easy thing to define, in fact its literally impossible to describe with words, because language requires a matter of definition, and Nirvana is exactly the opposite of a definition.  Nirvana is void of definition or substance.  It is nothing and everything at the same time.  The best way to describe Nirvana is a happiness without definition or conditions.  It is to see the universe as it really is, which is formless and without the preconceptions of our mind.

With this in mind, Buddha often explained that the universe is vast and mostly unknown, even to him.  However, all the knowledge of the universe is irrelevant when the only goal you have is to eliminate suffering.  Buddha once explained,


"Whether the world is finite or infinite, limited or unlimited, the problem of your liberation remains the same." Another time he said, "Suppose a man is struck by a poisoned arrow and the doctor wishes to take out the arrow immediately. Suppose the man does not want the arrow removed until he knows who shot it, his age, his parents, and why he shot it. What would happen? If he were to wait until all these questions have been answered, the man might die first." Life is so short. It must not be spent in endless metaphysical speculation that does not bring us any closer to the truth."


One of the first truths you realize, is that life goes on, regardless of your perception of birth and death.  You have countless lifetimes to get this right, but it's important that you make an effort to better yourself each time, so that one day countless lifetimes down the road, you can achieve your enlightenment.  Though I would be willing to bet, Buddha would tell you that what takes lifetimes of personal reflection to find out, that it doesn't lifetimes to learn.

In the end, personal goals or not, you quickly learn that living the Eight Fold path has its own rewards beyond your eventual transcendence of your ignorance.  Karma often pays itself out in your own lifetime, if you are open to new experiences and ideals.  I myself am still fairly new to all of these teachings and ideals, but I know them to be true because I know they are something I've somehow already known all my life.  To finish this thought, I quote one of my favorite authors, Frank Herbert.

"All men must see that the teaching of religion by rules and rote is largely a hoax. The proper teaching is recognized with ease. You can know it without fail because it awakens within you that sensation which tells you this is something you've always known."

What is the middle way for 400 Alex?

The goal of Buddhism is to basically rid yourself of the drape of ignorance fogging your view of the reality of existence, and to achieve a concept called Nirvana, which I'll divulge more into later on.  The path to this realization is known as the Middle Way, or also known as the Dharma.

The Dharma is the Buddha in essence, his teachings and the middle way that will deliver you to Nirvana. However he didn't create the Dharma, he merely found it, because the truth can't be written or created, it just is. To understand the Dharma is to first understand 'The Four Noble Truths" about the universe.

1.  The world is filled with suffering.

2.  All suffering has a cause

3.  To eliminate the cause eliminates the suffering

4.  The Eight fold path is the way to eliminate suffering.

Now when I say suffering, you have to keep your definition of the word open to multiple interpretations.  The Indians of 2500 years ago have a word for this unique description that literally doesn't have an equal word in English, called "Dukkha".  It can literally mean what suffering infers to in today's English, be it physical or emotional torment or pain.  However it also can mean a dis-quietness, or a more passive longing for the unattainable.  A discomfort that roots down to your very core, that you sometimes can't rid with anything worldly.

All suffering has a cause, and at the base of every moment of suffering is ignorance.  The whole world is aflame with the ignorance of the universe, of others, and even ourselves.  To see things as they truly are is the only freedom from ignorance.  Nirvana literally means "to extinguish, or to put out", which is to imply that Nirvana is the 'putting out the flame of ignorance'.

Eliminating suffering at the source isn't unlike pulling weeds.  Throughout our lives, we merely deal with the visible aspects of our emotional and mental 'weeds' by trimming off what we can see, and not giving it a second thought.  We have a bad day, we go out to drink the pain away.  We have an argument with a loved one and we bury our resentment inside ourselves instead of dealing with our frustrations.  What Buddhism teaches us is through introspection, we can identify the source of our suffering, and pull it out by the root.

The pulling of the roots, so to speak, is attained through the Eight Fold Path.

1.  Right View

2.  Right Intention

3.  Right Speech

4.  Right Action

5.  Right Livelihood

6.  Right Effort

7.  Right Mindfulness

8.  Right Concentration

Often, the Eight Fold Path is depicted by a wheel...

This is because there is no first step or last step, but a continuation of the cycle of the Eight Fold path, for every moment there is an opportunity to go through these steps.

I'll get into the eight fold path into more detail later on, but a basic description of each step is warranted to understand the flow of the path.

1.  Right View - The best I can describe this as plainly as I can, is your attitude towards everything that happens in life.  To understand how the universe really is, and that everyone is a living being that wants to be free from their suffering at their core, and to show everything and everyone the compassion you would hope would be afforded to you.  Right View is important for approaching the other 7 steps with vigor and determination, and the other 7 steps in turn reinforce your Right view.

2.  Right Intention - Coinciding with Right View, right intention is a willful act of enforcing a positive right view in all your actions, and even your thoughts.  If you do good deeds with the hope of receiving good in return is still a self interested attitude on your part, but to do good deeds because merely because you can see the benefit in others through your deeds, you begin to understand the true purpose of Right Intention.

3.  Right Speech - What you say, and how you say it is relevant in everyday interactions with other people.  You have to ask to yourself, regardless of ifs the truth or not, will your speech bring people together, or bring people apart.  Avoiding Idle Chatter, Slanderous, False, or Harsh speech is obviously part of the idea.  Everything you say should be true, meaningful, and caring.

4.  Right Action -  Probably the most obvious of the 8 in my opinion.  You wouldn't want harm to come to you, so don't do harm to others physically, or through your actions in some other way.  Don't be dishonest by stealing or being destructive to others well being, and to not cause harm through sexual misconduct.

5.  Right Livelihood  -  It's not to say that if you do, you can't be Buddhist, but for the sake of argument, being in a job where you take the life of animals, deal out intoxicants or weapons that can harm or kill people can make your path to enlightenment more difficult.  Buddha understood people have jobs, and you gotta do what you gotta do at times, but someone who is serious about attaining a higher level of enlightenment will likely steer clear of these kind of professions.

6.  Right Effort - When unwanted feelings arise, its important to not get caught up in the moment.  To relax and realize where it is coming from, and eliminate the source of the discomfort, be it mentally or physically.  To be clear, this is not to suppress emotions, that's just as counter productive as taking out your emotions on others.  It's to observe these emotions as they rise, acknowledge them until they fade on their own, then continue on with your day.

7.  Right Mindfulness - Meditation is an important part of Buddhism, its key for introspection into your own mind.  You don't have to be in a robe on a mountaintop like I'm sure you're thinking right now, but just a few mins a day can really cause wonders for you.  Mindfulness is the process of living in the moment.  Life is an infinite chain of moments, which in themselves hold all of eternity, if only to stop and witness them.  Rarely does anyone stop and really focus on the present in their lives, specially with the abundance of distractions we throw at ourselves, be it TV, Movies, Radio, etc.  We constantly entertain ourselves with outside sources and, to coin the term, "Stop to smell the Roses".

8.  Right Concentration - The act of meditation requires that you clear your mind of thoughts by focusing on a single point.  Usually people focus on a mantra, or their breathing, or a flame, etc.  Whatever it is, is irrelevant.  Only that it clears your mind of the everyday clutter of random thoughts so that you are free to look into yourself with the concentration rarely afforded with today's attention span.

Who the heck is Buddha?

To understand Buddhism, one logically has to go to the man that started it all, Siddhattha Gotama.
Historians can't accurately pinpoint the exact year, but its commonly accepted that he was born between 563-483 BCE, approx 2500'ish years ago.  Born in what is now known as Modern Day Nepal, he was the son of a wealthy King who was foretold by far seers that his son would either be a great ruler or a wise sage.  However, in order for him to attain this ascended state, he was to be raised in the comfort of luxury, to never need for anything or be without pleasure.  


For the first 29 years of his life, he was sheltered from the realities of the outside world, protected in his palace, married to a beautiful and kind wife, and a son of their own.  Then one day, he ventured outside the Palace and was affronted with 3 things.  He first saw a diseased man, laying on the ground in pain.  Secondly, he saw a dead corpse on the side of the road, and thirdly he witnessed an Ascetic man meditating and starving himself.  This harsh reality made him realize that life was limited, suffering, and by essence filled with what Buddhists call 'Dukkha', meaning suffering, or an "uneasy discontentment".


Deciding to investigate further in this condition, he decides to exile himself from paradise, leaving his wife and child to search for wisdom, engaging with India's greatest guru's and sages, mastering all of their meditation techniques.  However, no matter who he met, he found all of their practices somehow lacking in what he was searching for, and left their teachings.  In an attempt for wisdom, he began extreme asceticism, often eating only a grain of rice and practicing painful rituals to cleanse his body through self mortification.  This however, was also found to lack what he needed in his goals of finding true wisdom.


Through these extremes, Buddha came to the realization that perhaps a more moderate approach to this self search would be beneficial, so he began to meditate under a giant tree, now known as the Bodhi tree, and began to penetrate his mind for the truth, and after several days, he found it.  Once he realized what is now known as the "Middle Way", he taught it to his former Ascetic brotherhood counterparts, and began what's known as the 'Sangha' which literally means association or community.


Buddha is a term for the first person to discover the path to self enlightenment, bestowed onto Siddhattha.  Anyone who discovers this on their own in following is known as an Arhat.  He began with his Sangha and taught the Middle Way to anyone who would hear for the remainder of his 45 years of life, eventually dying approx 411-400 BCE.  His teachings would be brought down from generation to generation of monks known as Bhikku's for centuries.


As with many beliefs, separate interpretations of the Tripitaka(Literally means 3 Baskets, the collection of the Buddha's teachings and interpretations) are abound, creating separate factions of Buddhism, be it Xen, Theravada,  Mahayana, Tibetan, etc, all are in general agreement about the basic teachings of the Middle Way, which consists of the 4 Noble Truths, the Eight fold Path and the 3 Jewels(The Buddha, The Sangha, and the Dharma).