Steve Harris

What attracts me to Buddhism is the clear path to become “awake” to kindness, compassion and our connection to the life around us. To free myself from cultural and psychological bondage. I have come to realize that my young adult years were caught up in my own drama: anger, judgment, fear, resentments, protecting my fragile ego; satisfying my own narcissistic desires. Buddhism is a way to see life differently.

Siddhartha, the Indian prince, left his comfortable way of life to search for what was true and what were merely the illusions that our mind creates.  He discovered what came to be called “The Four Noble Truths”; that life for all of us has pain and suffering, and we all search for happiness. He created a way out of the pain and suffering that came to be called “The Eight Fold Path”. The dharma or teachings of Siddhartha and other enlightened beings are focused on this path.

The path includes: vision, intent, speech, action, labor, effort, mindfulness, and meditation. For me mindfulness and mediation are the most helpful. Mindfulness is simply the practice of bringing ourselves fully into the present and continuing to bring us back whenever we have drifted away. So we have two things in play here; one is our awareness of being in the present moment, and the other is aware when we are leaving. For me mindfulness during the day is looking at what I’m thinking about: is this a kind caring thought about myself or others or is this a angry, fearful, upset, hurt ego thought?”

Practicing meditation can bring about a synchronization of our mind and body that can bring about a peaceful, steady wakefulness to our mind’s agitated confused states. There are a variety of ways to meditate; calm abiding, resting, and sitting meditation. During meditation all kinds of thoughts will arise; instead of jumping up and taking care of what comes up I say to myself, “I’m looking at this thought and I now go back to breathing in and out”. So all thoughts are treated equally. I approach meditation as a chance to look at my mind. Most of us hardly ever “look” at what we’re thinking about. It’s a chance to discover ourselves. Mediation can be done on a walk or before we get up in the morning. There is no one right way to do it.

Another powerful concept is dependent origination; every thing comes from something else. All life originated from life. We are originally part of the universe.  For me this also means that our thoughts become what we say and do. And what we say and do is who we are.