Seeing ClearlyPub Date : 2020-06-18DOI: 10.1093/oso/9780190887506.003.0009
Nicolas Bommarito
{"title":"Nothing Is Forever","authors":"Nicolas Bommarito","doi":"10.1093/oso/9780190887506.003.0009","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1093/oso/9780190887506.003.0009","url":null,"abstract":"This chapter describes how Buddhists often talk about impermanence, an idea that covers a range of meanings. They all, however, highlight aspects of reality that an individual must face in order to solve the problem at hand. The composite nature of things entails some harsh truths: Things that are put together eventually come apart. When something is made up of pieces, it is only a matter of time before those pieces go their own way. Part of understanding the composite nature of things means seeing their fragility, their temporary nature. A particularly stark reminder of impermanence is death. Contact with death often prompts revaluation; being reminded that one's time is limited can make one rethink how an individual is spending it. Indeed, impermanence means that death is inevitable. Thus, many Buddhist texts warn against thinking of this life, this body, and this world as a home. It is not just that things will end eventually, someday. Even when they seem to remain, they are in a constant state of flux. One way to understand this type of impermanence is to think about what it means for something to persist through time, to continue, to endure.","PeriodicalId":253372,"journal":{"name":"Seeing Clearly","volume":"34 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2020-06-18","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"116707047","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Seeing ClearlyPub Date : 2020-06-18DOI: 10.1093/oso/9780190887506.003.0015
Nicolas Bommarito
{"title":"Enlightenment","authors":"Nicolas Bommarito","doi":"10.1093/oso/9780190887506.003.0015","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1093/oso/9780190887506.003.0015","url":null,"abstract":"This chapter focuses on enlightenment. Many writers describe Buddhism as a path to happiness, but there are a few important ways in which enlightenment and happiness can be quite different. Happiness, for example, is often thought of as an entirely subjective state. The problem that Buddhists are trying to solve, however, is not merely a subjective state. The problem for Buddhists is not only about feeling bad but is a precarious and destructive way of being in the world, one that people often fail to recognize at all. In this sense, the Buddhist goal is more like being healthy than being happy. Enlightenment involves a radical reorientation of an individual’s outlook on the world. It is one that takes into account the ways in which an individual’s habits of seeing, feeling, thinking, and responding to things fool that individual into having a visceral sense that the world is one way when it is really very different.","PeriodicalId":253372,"journal":{"name":"Seeing Clearly","volume":"151 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2020-06-18","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"121967689","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Seeing ClearlyPub Date : 2020-06-18DOI: 10.1093/oso/9780190887506.003.0007
Nicolas Bommarito
{"title":"Emptiness","authors":"Nicolas Bommarito","doi":"10.1093/oso/9780190887506.003.0007","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1093/oso/9780190887506.003.0007","url":null,"abstract":"This chapter addresses Buddhism's view on emptiness. Some Buddhists say that everything is empty. To say that things are empty is not to say they do not exist at all. Rather, it is saying that they do not exist in the way that they seem to, as free-standing and independent entities. Moreover, saying that everything is empty is not like saying that everything is red or round. It is saying that everything lacks an independent self-nature. Such a nature just is not there. When we take seriously the idea that everything is empty, we will start to wonder if this also applies to emptiness itself. For some Buddhists, the answer is no; emptiness itself is the one and only thing that is what it is all the time, without relying on anything else. But for other Buddhists that accept emptiness, emptiness itself also lacks any independent self-essence. The truth that everything exists only relationally is itself only relational. Emptiness is itself empty.","PeriodicalId":253372,"journal":{"name":"Seeing Clearly","volume":"17 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2020-06-18","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"126185606","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Seeing ClearlyPub Date : 2020-06-18DOI: 10.1093/oso/9780190887506.003.0003
Nicolas Bommarito
{"title":"The Buddha","authors":"Nicolas Bommarito","doi":"10.1093/oso/9780190887506.003.0003","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1093/oso/9780190887506.003.0003","url":null,"abstract":"This chapter provides a background of the Buddha. Buddha is not someone's name. This particular title refers to someone who has solved the problem and successfully changed their orientation to the world on a fundamental level. It literally means someone who is awake. There have been many Buddhas. When one talks about the Buddha, they are referring to the historical Buddha, the one who started Buddhism. His name was Siddhartha Gautama and, being from the Shakya clan, he is often known as Shakyamuni Buddha. It is worth learning about the life of the historical Buddha for a few reasons. It is, of course, an important part of Buddhism and known by Buddhists all over the world. However, it also serves as an example, a vision not only of someone who has solved the problem, but what the process of solving it looks like.","PeriodicalId":253372,"journal":{"name":"Seeing Clearly","volume":"30 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2020-06-18","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"132623351","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Seeing ClearlyPub Date : 2020-06-18DOI: 10.1093/oso/9780190887506.003.0023
Nicolas Bommarito
{"title":"Mindfulness of Death","authors":"Nicolas Bommarito","doi":"10.1093/oso/9780190887506.003.0023","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1093/oso/9780190887506.003.0023","url":null,"abstract":"This chapter studies Buddhist practices around death. Buddhist practice includes a wide range of reflections on death. Impermanence can be easy to accept as an abstract, intellectual idea, but death makes it personal and tangible. As such, these reflections can seem pretty grim. That is why it is important to remember their role in the larger contexts of Buddhist practice. They help an individual to get used to harsh truths about how the world is and change habitual responses to accommodate those truths. The idea is to reflect on the reality of death from a certain frame of mind—a diagnostic one intended to shed light on difficult aspects of reality and how one's intuitive responses deny or distort them. In a Buddhist context, the individual reflects on difficult things like death in order to better deal with it, to be able to forge a life in full view of such difficult facts.","PeriodicalId":253372,"journal":{"name":"Seeing Clearly","volume":"53 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2020-06-18","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"133042772","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Seeing ClearlyPub Date : 2020-06-18DOI: 10.1093/oso/9780190887506.003.0004
Nicolas Bommarito
{"title":"Buddhism and Reason","authors":"Nicolas Bommarito","doi":"10.1093/oso/9780190887506.003.0004","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1093/oso/9780190887506.003.0004","url":null,"abstract":"This chapter looks at how many people think of Buddhism, seeing it as at odds with reflective, rational, or abstract thinking. Indeed, Buddhism in the West is often placed on the emotion side of the divide between reason and emotion, but there are lots of reasons to question this. For one thing, there is good reason to question the divide itself. When one engages in reasoning, one often relies on subtle emotional cues. Thinking and feeling are not separable domains and are often intertwined in complicated ways. The chapter then considers another dispute that Western Buddhists in particular are fond of having: Is Buddhism a religion? Often, people who like Buddhism but do not like religion insist that Buddhism is not a religion. Certainly, many people in many places around the world relate to Buddhism in ways that are religion-like. This is one aspect of what is sometimes called “traditional” Buddhism. Others de-emphasize these aspects and attempt to fit Buddhist ideas into a scientific worldview, sometimes called “modern” or “secularized” Buddhism.","PeriodicalId":253372,"journal":{"name":"Seeing Clearly","volume":"10 3 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2020-06-18","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"133844758","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Seeing ClearlyPub Date : 2020-06-18DOI: 10.1093/oso/9780190887506.003.0008
Nicolas Bommarito
{"title":"Who Do You Think You Are?","authors":"Nicolas Bommarito","doi":"10.1093/oso/9780190887506.003.0008","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1093/oso/9780190887506.003.0008","url":null,"abstract":"This chapter explores self-knowledge, which is critical for solving the practical problems involved in getting through life. An awareness of your own quirks, character, and preferences is important for figuring out what works for you. However, self-knowledge is also tricky because it is especially elusive. People commonly learn about themselves only indirectly; often it is only by reading the reactions of others that people can see how harsh, kind, or annoying they are. It is also because when trying to know the self, the thing the individual is trying to see is the very thing that does the looking. Buddhism offers many evocative images to illustrate this special challenge: Just as a knife cannot cut itself, the mind cannot be directed toward itself. This makes knowing the self, especially in a deep way, an especially difficult task. Knowing the self thus requires special kinds of tools and methods. The chapter then considers the concept of Buddha Nature.","PeriodicalId":253372,"journal":{"name":"Seeing Clearly","volume":"47 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2020-06-18","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"125058631","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Seeing ClearlyPub Date : 2020-06-18DOI: 10.1093/oso/9780190887506.003.0030
Nicolas Bommarito
{"title":"Gifts and Offerings","authors":"Nicolas Bommarito","doi":"10.1093/oso/9780190887506.003.0030","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1093/oso/9780190887506.003.0030","url":null,"abstract":"This chapter describes the wide range of Buddhist practices that center on offerings and gifts. For Buddhists, generosity is fundamentally about not being attached to things. These things might be material wealth but can also be more abstract things like time, knowledge, or even recognition. A generous individual sees clearly that there is no persisting self through time, so rather than holding on to these things lets them go easily. Meanwhile, selfless giving is strongly emphasized in a practice associated with Japanese Buddhism where the individual helps others secretly, without anyone knowing. This is a way of making sure that the giving is totally free from any hint of desire for praise or recognition. This kind of generosity is not done to get thanks nor is it done to make others see how virtuous the individual is. It is done solely to benefit others.","PeriodicalId":253372,"journal":{"name":"Seeing Clearly","volume":"67 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2020-06-18","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"116931018","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Seeing ClearlyPub Date : 2020-06-18DOI: 10.1093/oso/9780190887506.003.0013
Nicolas Bommarito
{"title":"The Two Truths","authors":"Nicolas Bommarito","doi":"10.1093/oso/9780190887506.003.0013","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1093/oso/9780190887506.003.0013","url":null,"abstract":"This chapter analyzes the two truths. Buddhists care deeply about getting at the truth and as a result have thought a lot about what truth is. One of the most important philosophical ideas to emerge from Buddhism is that of the two truths. Though it is more commonly known as the two truths, it could also be called the Two Realities. What is really true, not just within a set of conventions, is called ultimate truth. This does not entail that conventional truth is always bad or to be abandoned. Conventional truth can be useful as long as it does not blind one to what is really happening. This idea plays two different roles in Buddhism: One is as a philosophical idea about the nature of reality; the other is as an interpretive strategy to make sense of a variety of Buddhist texts.","PeriodicalId":253372,"journal":{"name":"Seeing Clearly","volume":"208 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2020-06-18","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"116466849","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Seeing ClearlyPub Date : 2020-06-18DOI: 10.1093/oso/9780190887506.003.0018
Nicolas Bommarito
{"title":"A Few Grains of Salt","authors":"Nicolas Bommarito","doi":"10.1093/oso/9780190887506.003.0018","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1093/oso/9780190887506.003.0018","url":null,"abstract":"This chapter assesses some common cultural associations people have with Buddhism and where these associations came from. In the case of Europe and America, early in the 1800s, two groups—the Romantics and the Transcendentalists—started to take an interest in ideas from Asia in general and from Buddhism in particular. Another early source of Western interest in Buddhism is a religious movement called Theosophy. It is through these channels that many in the West first came into contact with Buddhism. It arrived filtered through people with very particular agendas and interests. People who had little, if any, command of Buddhist texts or the languages they were written in. Though they popularized ideas and texts from Asia, they did so with a very specific spin, one that still can be felt today. Ultimately, it is important to keep in mind that there is more to Buddhism than one's own idealized version of it because there is a real danger in projecting what one wants onto Buddhism and ignoring the rest.","PeriodicalId":253372,"journal":{"name":"Seeing Clearly","volume":"9 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2020-06-18","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"121907389","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
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