News from American Buddha

QUESTIONS AND ANSWERS　

HOW DO WE BECOME NON-VIOLENT?

I believe that the manner in which our brains presently experience our world has an enormous impact on the way we treatour fellow human beings. If we experience others as separate from ourselves, as we presently do, we will naturally tend to protect our personal self, from any other "self" that is not ourselves. Our localized sense of self, the "I" sense, now causes us to be extremely territorial about what　we perceive as "ours". Our "I" sense causes us to be selfish, insensitive, defensive and destructive towards the "not-I". But if there was a shift in the experience mechanism of the brain so that our "I" sense　became vastly expanded and was no longer limited by the boundaries imposed by the personal self, then　our relationship to everyone everywhere would be very different. We would begin to regard the "other", the "non-I" as INSEPARABLE from our own self. And　that experience of inseparability, of Oneness, would make it utterly impossible for us to treat a fellow　human beings in a violent manner. There would be only compassion.

WHAT IS THE NATURE OF LIFE?　

It is challenging to understand the nature of life. Life passes us by so quickly. In a moment, we are old and it is gone. What is gone? Experiences and impressions are gone. They are imbedded in the brain somewhere.　 Living and life is always changing. This is true. But it is all essentially the same. The process is the same. We look around but we see only the inside of our heads. We are miles away from true experience and it all seems to blend into one long dream sequence. Then a shocking event happens in our life and we momentarily awaken. We are thrust into the now and we are terrified. We are thrust into a non-linear, non-logical, notion-less reality where our thinking mechanism has become disabled. We are vulnerable as newborns. This is the moment of Transcendence. This is the moment where Grace can infuse and bring us to a new and shifted reality. What is required is innocence, faith and surrender. The poorly educated indigenous people of the world seem to have a lock on this. Tell them to jump and they jump. That's it. On the other hand, we "educated" westerners think. We doubt. We analyze and we compare. What is up with us? A thing is just a thing. It requires no embellishment to be itself. It is, right from the start. But we don't allow existence to exist without our special stamp of approval. We simply take what is and we put our subjective distortion on it. What we end up with is a life of symbols. It is safe but it is also stifling. It is a life devoid of living. It is just a warmed over feeling-less existence. Our cultures reinforce this. We end up passing it to our children. Just stand on a busy street corner sometime and simply look at the faces passing by. No one is there. Everyone is somewhere else in their heads. That somewhere else is not real. Only the experience of the street corner is real. There is no other truth at that moment but the street corner. Live it. What else is there?

HOW DO I OVERCOME DARKNESS AND GET TO JOY?

The joy and the darkness that you are experiencing are exactly the same thing. They are both just an experience. The value of the joy or the darkness has to do with their intensity. In order to evolve, the intensity of all experiences must grow. You have to end up being able to handle the most extreme intensity of every experience. What is the experience of God? The experience of God is infinite intensity 24/7. The nervous system must be carefully cultured to deal with this much energy.

IS ENLIGHTENMENT REAL?

Am I real to you? I will give you an answer. No! What is real is only what you are experiencing in this moment where you are right now. What you see, feel, touch, taste, and smell right now is your only reality. Past and future are inventions that make us feel safe. The truth is that we invented everything in our lives and now we are trapped in our own unreality. We have made the unreal our only reality. Let me share with you the greatest truth. What is not experienced in this fine little sliver of a moment that we are presently in, simply cannot exist at all... anywhere. What's more, it's a trap. Believing in anything other than what is your present moment experience is the root cause of all suffering. Enlightenment does not exist. This now only exists. Does it contain enlightenment? Of course it doesn't. Enlightenment is just another notion we invented to make us suffer. We suffer because we long for it in some future. There is no future. This is it now! This now will be here always. It is obvious. This is real.