The Art of Zen Living

“Happiness arises from the timely company of friends.
Happiness arises from having few needs.
Happiness arises from accumulated virtue at life’s end.
Happiness arises from seeing beyond suffering.”
- Dhammapada verse 331

I have been both fortunate and challenged as I’ve started trying to learn about Buddhism.

Fortunate, because about a week into it, I came across the Urban Dharma website, and found a series of wonderful podcasts from Ven. Kusala Bhikshu.

Kusala does a great job of putting the concepts of Buddhism into a language I can easily understand. I’m intelligent enough to be able to understand what I read in other places, but there is a certain joy that comes with the almost effortless way understanding flows when I’m listening to one of his presentations, or reading an article he’s written or recommended. If you want to know more about Buddhism, I’d recommend you start with him and his Dharma Talks Podcast. I downloaded them all into iTunes, and started with the “A Guide to Basic Buddhism” talks from back in 2005.

Challenged, because it seems the only meditation center in my area is associated with the “New Kadampa Tradition”.  I went once, and something just didn’t feel right.  After doing a bit of research, it turned out that it just wasn’t something I wanted to get involved with.  One of the things I had reservations about was their literature.  The dharma teacher there told me they study 21 books, all written by the one person that founded this sect of Buddhism. With over 2500 years of teachings to draw on, I can’t see limiting myself to just these 21 books written by a single person from a single point of view. To me, it felt like trying to start a Christian church by saying “We’ve re-written the bible, and you shouldn’t read any version of it except ours.  Oh, and by the way, we’ve eliminated that whole immaculate conception part.”.  I wish them well, but what they do there is not what I am seeking.

I’ve found a couple of other groups that I want to go check out, and I’m going to start a Meetup group since there are already a number people in my area signed up to be notified if a group is started.  First thing will be to find a place to meetup!

I’m just starting out, and I’m no expert by any means, but I could probably handle basic questions (either in comments or use the “contact” button in the nav bar).  If I don’t know the answer, I can either find it or find you someone that would know.