I’ve gone back and forth in mind as to whether or not I should write a review of the book The Buddha Said . . . by OSHO. This is one of my favorite Buddhist books and I learned a lot from it. It’s entertaining, full of wisdom and fun anecdotes. The reason I’ve hesitated is that while OSHO seems to have had a great grasp on Buddha’s teachings (as well as the teaching of most other religions), he does bring into it the Indian belief of reincarnation. He also tends to be repetitive and wordy, and the book runs long. That said, his grasp of religions, philosophers, and even science is to be appreciated.

Most of all, there are some stellar explanations of Buddha’s teachings, and Osho’s wording has made this one of my favorite Buddhist books. So, instead of writing a review, I’m going to share some of my favorite snippets from the book. If you share any of these please attribute them to Osho:

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Buddha is a rationalist. He’s not like Jesus and he is not like Krishna — he’s absolutely a rationalist. Einstein, Newton or Edison would not find any flaw in his reasoning. Any scientist will be immediately convinced of his truth. His approach is purely logical, he convinces the mind. You cannot find a loophole in him. Continue reading “The Buddha Said . . .” »

Orthoceras Fossil

I like rocks, or rather, I am endlessly fascinated by rocks. While many people simply walk over rocks, kick them out of the way, skip them over calm waters, I spend a lot of time looking at, reading about, and studying rocks.

In fact, I often carry them in my pockets, so they eventually end up getting bathed in my washing machine accidentally. But that’s ok, because one thing that strikes me over and over is that rocks don’t suffer. No dukkha of any kind for rocks!

Rocks go through amazing physical changes through heat, pressure, erosion, mixing with other rocks, having their atoms rearranged, being ground down by wind and rain, washed to sea, compacted back into new rock, sucked down into the earth, reheated, liquified, then changed again numerous times over in the course of a few billion years. Through all that, the rocks don’t care. Continue reading “Rocks Don’t Suffer . . . Animals with Consciousness Do” »

I’m very excited to launch a site and community I’ve been working on with Ted Meissner (The Secular Buddhist). This site is one piece of community building for Secular Buddhists, and this site is providing a lot toward that end.

The need for such a site came up over and over again in conversations on Facebook, in Second Life, and in person. Secular Buddhism is gaining popularity, but people have been floundering for good expert information via articles, videos, and interviews, and people have asked for a community (sangha).

As Community Manager and computer geek by profession, I have been eager to work on this project for some time. The planning stages were difficult for me, and an excellent lesson in patience, the virtue of forward thinking, and right timing. Maybe Right Timing should be added to the Eightfold Path:-)

This morning Ted and I did a podcast about the site and community, which will be published next weekend. The site and community, however, are open and ready to serve the Secular Buddhist Community. It’s an exciting time, and I am more than pleased to be one of the facilitators of the new wave of Buddhism in the US.

Please visit the site, enjoy the content, and interact with others in the discussion forums and comments on content pages!

Visit The Secular Buddhist Association.

Practicing Buddhism should help one out of the mire of religion, not get one into yet another religion called Buddhism. It’s a shame that the Buddhist myth has been taken so literally and then turned on its head and twisted into the various traditions that it has. Buddhist teachings ask us to take a critical look at ourselves and the world around us, and that includes this thing we call Buddhism. Continue reading “Making the Most of the Buddha Myth” »

One of the first things I was taught when I ventured into Buddhist practice was to be mindful of mind. This is no easy task. One quickly discovers that  thoughts are enticing, alluring, and in no time at all drag you off into a whole scenario, when the intent was simply to let the thoughts drift by like clouds. Continue reading “Mindful Modes of Thinking” »

Meditation by waterfalls

I’ve noticed a common thread in talking to many new meditators and Buddhist practitioners. People want to know how meditation is going to make them happy. How long do you have to meditate to transcend to the next plane? How long do you have to meditate before getting high.  How does all this meditation get rid of my suffering?!!!! Continue reading “Meditation Magic” »

One of the resounding themes in the Buddhist studies and practices I’ve taken on over the last years has focused a lot on labels, concepts, and views. The foundation of everything being emptiness, impermanence, and unsatisfactoriness.  In the beginning, emptiness was confusing and cryptic, but as I explored the titles and labels I wore, I realized I had to stop calling myself a Buddhist. Continue reading “Calling Yourself Buddhist Isn’t Buddhist” »

Ban Offshore Drilling

Buddhism has a reputation for being passive, and there are good reasons for this. All that meditation  and mindfulness we do appears passive.  And in the beginning many of us do have to mindfully hold back reactions, and refrain from falling into old active patterns that used to get us into trouble. But there is a time for apparent passiveness, and a time to act, a time to be engaged. Continue reading “Engaged Buddhism Needed” »

I studied a lot about Buddhism, in various traditions, and one of the resounding and inarguable themes addresses the big A, attachment. There is resounding agreement that attachment is at the base of craving and causes suffering. The indisputable agreement on this topic stems from the fact that personal exploration proves that attachment causes craving and suffering, and the idea is repeated throughout most Buddhist’s text. Continue reading “Attached to Buddhism?” »

I’m reading Stephan Batchelor’s new book Confessions of an Atheist Buddhist, and I must say it resonates deeply with me, not because I’m an atheist, but because I went on a similar curvy path of confusion through Buddhism. Fortunately, I didn’t spend years and years on that twisty road like Batchelor did. I saw through the religious BS of Buddhist traditions over a 6 year span instead of decades. Continue reading “Bringing Buddha’s Ideas Back to Buddhism” »