Friday, June 4, 2010

The Future of Buddhist Practice



As I was sitting in a staff meeting this morning, feeling like something had changed even though nothing had changed, I wondered how many times the things we were talking about had been discussed before. A few minutes ago, I stumbled upon Chong Go Sunim's current post, and a similar experience occurred. Take a look at this...

I spoke about this before, but you have to make up your mind, tie your belt tightly, and put your understanding into practice. If you do this, then without any lectures or advertising, Buddhism will naturally prosper and spread. As you know, everyone has Buddha-nature, thus it all depends upon making up your mind and making an effort. Anyone can become a follower of Buddhism. There’s no reason why Buddhism shouldn’t prosper. It is just that people are so busy these days that practice isn’t easy, and they often forget about it. However, if you can just remember (about spiritual practice), then it’s possible for you to apply and experience, wherever you are, whether you’re working, standing, or sitting.


No doubt, discussions about the future of various spiritual practices, including Buddhism, are familiar to you. In our hyper-speed, high tech, globalized world, it's easy to wonder if most of the ancient wisdom and traditions will be buried under layers of pop culture and excessive demands on our time.

The above comments seem so simple, don't you think? Just practice sincerely, and more people will join you. I think there's some validity to this, no matter how saturated our world gets with "non-essential distractions."

Here's the fascinating thing about this simple teaching: it was delivered by Korean Seon Master, Hanam Sunim, in 1935.

Life is constantly changing, and yet staying the same in so many ways.

No comments: