Why I Decided to be Buddhist
Over years, we have become so accustomed to our inner monologue creating unhelpful assessments and making rash decisions about how we should feel. Combatting this requires thoughtful and emphatic dedication and practice. I believe that Buddhist philosophies and principles has the real transformative power to calm ourselves, feel better and re-take control of our minds.
Living a Better Life
In the digitally connected, fast paced, always on-the-go world we live in today, when do we get the time to just sit and observe. To not drown our worries and thoughts by finding literally anything to do in order to keep us busy, constantly resisting the truth from reaching us, but instead to examine them.
It seems being present and 'feeling the vibe' are upmost ideals to strive for. We all appreciate that life is going by at lightening speeds. We understand on a conceptual level that we need to let go of yesterday and not live for tomorrow. And yet, we find ourselves replaying scenarios in our mind and envisioning us ticking off random items on our to-do lists. Being present seems like a mystical, unrealistic fantasy that we can't seem to put our hands, or minds on.
We all long to be able to have the dedicated patience to just sit with our minds and thoughts for hours on end. Meditation has become a buzz word, reeled off as the single most important habit that has changed someone's life. Highly successful people rave and recommend it as daily practice. It seems we can't escape the meditation buzz.
There are other ideas that we all know would make us better people but have trouble in living out these ideas. They seem to go against the grain in our society. We all know we shouldn’t judge. That we can often become self deluded by our intentions and have an overreaction to our emotions. That projecting an identity onto material possessions or fixed outcomes will lead us to feeling insecure. But this understanding doesn't make it any easier for our brains to follow.
These are old age problems that have long existed, but have been exaggerated in the hyper connected new world we live in. Thankfully, we can look back to old age solutions through philosophies and principles instead of creating a new complicated set of ideals to live by.
The Young Prince
Once upon a time, twenty-five hundred years ago, a King had the grand idea to make his childs life perfect. He wanted his child to never face a moment of suffering. The King built high walls around an exuberant palace that prevented the young Prince from stepping foot into the outside world. He was spoiled, and had all his desires met.
But despite the luxury and perfection, soon the Prince felt empty and valueless. No matter what his father gave him, it would never be enough.
In the middle of the night, the Prince escaped the Palace but was horrified at what he saw in one of the local villages. He saw human suffering for the first time. People in pain, old people, sick people and people dying.
The Prince blamed his father for everything he had given him, as the Prince believed that the riches were making him miserable. So he ran away - giving up his possessions, royalty and opulent life. He starved, living on the streets, begging for food. The Prince experienced suffering - through disease, poverty, loneliness, hunger and pain. He soon realised that suffering was maybe not what he was after, it hadn't brought him the insights he desired.
Confused with his experiences, he decided that he should do something else instead. Legend says, that the confused Prince sat under a tree for forty-nine days. And he came to a profound realisation - we all suffer. The rich from their riches, the poor from their poverty. No matter who we are or what we do there will be some inevitable suffering.
The young Prince would then build a philosophy surrounding his discoveries. The foremost idea being that pain and loss are inevitable and we should let go of trying to resist them. The Prince would soon be known as Buddha.
What Buddhism is About
I find this story captivating, and I think the lesson the young Prince discovered is so important, but often lost in todays world where we believe if we throw enough money at a problem, we can solve anything. If suffering is an unavoidable component of life, surely it makes sense to develop a better relationship with it. To understand and process the inevitable instead of naively moving past it or pretending it is non-existent. This is what the principles of Buddhism attempt to assist with.
Feelings are designed by natural selection to represent judgements about things and evaluations of them. Natural selection wants you to experience things as either good or bad. The Buddha believed that the less you judge things - including the contents of your mind - the more clearly you'll see them and the less deluded you will be.
We have in principle the power to establish a different relationship with our feelings and thoughts and impulses and perceptions - the power to disengage with some of them, to disown them. To define the bounds of yourself in a way that excludes them. Some degree of liberation is possible. This is what Buddhism is about.
My Take
"Don't try and use what you learn from Buddhism to be a better Buddhist; use it to be a better whatever-you-already-are" - Dalai Lama
Buddhism is one of the oldest, most time-tested spiritual philosophies regarding the internal state of each of us. It is hard to ignore the teachings of Buddhism in our lives when they are such well-established, long lasting ideas. Through better understanding the internal work Buddhism embraces, it can help make us happier, better off, more present and in control of our emotions—ultimately being a better human being.
I think we could all take something from the Buddhist way of living. To make our lives simpler, to be more aware of our feelings and become less attached to them, to examine our thoughts, to not judge, to not avoid inevitable pain at all costs.
21st century humans always tend to be somewhere else. Lost in our thoughts, and not really in our physical body experiencing things as they are. We judge and attempt to control outcomes which are not possible too. Our internal monologue, programmed by society and the environment, has overtaken our heads and we have lost our own sense of awareness.
Buddhism, for me, is about taking back control of our minds. Trying hard to be aware of the actualities around us instead of faint, inaccurate beliefs. To appreciate that our brains, through the process of evolution, are trying to play tricks on how we should react. We can resist the evolutionary urge and temptation of our lightening fast unconscious responses. There are no imminent threats around most of us - we are unlikely to get eaten by a wild animal whilst walking about town - so we can afford to tone down our instinctive survival tactics.
We have all been shown that the world is going to throw us hurdles and obstacles. That what we think will happen, will change. We can cultivate the ability to sit in the scary thought of 'not knowing' and learn to become comfortable there. Because, in reality it is often the desire for certainty that causes us to suffer more than the uncertainty itself.
This will help us cultivate a zen state of mind. Where we can react and adapt sensibly and calmly helping us to be more effective and to experience significantly reduced anxiety. Where if we stay level-headed, and not become so emotionally attached, we can let go of the things we can't control and feel better about life.
Adding Buddhism Into My Life
These are the key points, that have attracted me to follow Buddhist principles and philosophies, and the main actions I am working towards.
Regular meditation - examining my thoughts with more objectivity.
Trying to abstain from judging my emotions and instead reacting measuredly.
Not judging experiences based off expectations, letting go of the elements of my life I can’t control.
Withstanding the desire for more and the craving of material goods.
Cultivating a zen state of mind, making calmer decisions and better stabilising to a centred mind more quickly.
Setting clearer, more focused intentions based off how I want to feel, not what I want to get done. With the aim of having a settled mind going through daily activities.
Final Thoughts
I really believe that by following Buddhist principles, my life will be better. However, it is harder than it may sound. Over years, we have become so accustomed to our inner monologue making unhelpful assessments and making rash decisions about how we should feel. Combatting this requires thoughtful and emphatic dedication and practice. To really calm the mind and take in the world how it was meant to be taken in. Admiring the beauty that is there instead of imprinting our own version of how we think it should be.
I am on a journey of putting these principles in my life. I am by no means an expert and have a long way to go, but I have seen the real transformative powers that Buddhism as a philosophy provides.
