Episode 172 - Releasing Negative Self Concepts
Buddhism for Everyone with JoAnn Fox
Release Date: 07/20/2023
Buddhism for Everyone with JoAnn Fox
Within Tibetan Buddhism, Buddhists are sometimes referred to as "inner beings." What this means is that we turn inward. We learn to cultivate happiness and solve problems by changing our thoughts and actions. Like a sculptor with clay, our mind shapes our experiences. By observing thoughts, feelings, and habits, we gain insight into the workings of the mind. With this awareness, we can transform mental mental states to alleviate suffering. Understanding that the source of a problem is inside a person doesn't imply blame but highlights our potential for growth and transformation....
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Learning how to listen to teachings and having respect for the teacher create the right conditions for your mind to change. In this episode, we explore Je Tsongkhapa’s instructions on “How to listen to the teachings by relying on the Six Ideas. Your mind opens when you feel the teaching is medicine that can cure your specific suffering or difficulty. Buddhist Teacher JoAnn Fox explains how to put these instructions into practice with some struggle you're currently experiencing. When you receive Buddhist teachings in a formal setting and see the teacher being prostrated before or...
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This episode explores the art of ethical living, guided by the practice of restraint. Restraint involves intentionally moderating and controlling one's actions, speech, and thoughts. We cultivate restraint to minimize the harm we cause and to build the foundation for spiritual development. A good guide for our practice of restraint is the Five Precepts. The Five Precepts were given to his lay (not ordained) followers as ethical guidelines that include the vow to abstain from killing, stealing, engaging in sexual misconduct, lying, and becoming intoxicated. How to practice the ethical...
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This episode explores the question “Where does anger come from?” Buddhist teacher, JoAnn Fox, also provides several practical ways to prevent anger from arising (when it typically would)! Anger doesn’t come from another person or a situation. Anger comes from our thoughts. Specifically, when we pay inappropriate attention to an unpleasant object and dwell on its faults, we work ourselves up until anger arises. That point at which anger is manifest is when the mind is unpeaceful and uncontrolled. A very sad aspect of anger is that this mental state has the wish to harm. The...
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The primary motivation behind wanting to become a Buddha for the sake of all living beings is boundless compassion. This unconditional love and concern for the well-being and liberation of all sentient beings, without exception, takes effort to cultivate. A bodhisattva is someone who, out of compassion, vows to attain enlightenment for the benefit of all beings. The wish itself is called "bodhicitta." What marks becoming a bodhisattva is that their intention to become a Buddha is unmovable (meaning they've developed bodhicitta). While the Bodhisattva Vow is central to the Mahayana...
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Metta meditation, also known as loving-kindness meditation, is a fundamental practice in Buddhism that cultivates feelings of love, compassion, and goodwill towards oneself and others. The word "Metta" is a Pali term that translates to "loving-kindness" or "benevolence." In this meditation, practitioners typically sit in a comfortable position and focus on generating feelings of love and kindness. The practice involves silently repeating phrases or affirmations that express well-wishes, such as "May you be happy, may you be healthy, may you be safe, may you live with ease." The...
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The Lojong slogan "Work with your greatest defilements first" emphasizes the importance of addressing the negative habit that is most deeply disturbing our inner peace and happiness. Lojong, which means "mind training" in Tibetan, is a set of teachings in Tibetan Buddhism aimed at developing compassion, wisdom, and the ability to transform adverse circumstances into opportunities for spiritual growth. Central to Lojong are short, pithy instructions called "slogans," like "Work with your greatest defilements first." By working with the habit that causes us the most problems first, we can make...
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In this episode we look at the practice of wisdom. In particular, this refers to wisdom realizing the true nature of reality. Little by little we touch reality as we gain wisdom. We come to understand why we suffer, where our problems truly come from, and how to solve our problems inwardly. Buddha's guidance remains as practical for his followers today as it was when he first shared it. This is a journey of finding peace and understanding, accessible to all who seek it. The Buddha taught the Four Noble Truths to provide a clear framework for understanding the nature of our suffering and...
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"The rain could turn to gold and still your thirst would not be slaked' the Buddha said. In this episode we explore the connection between the Buddhist teachings of emptiness and craving. Understanding this connection is fundamental to understanding the nature of suffering and the path to liberation. Emptiness (Shunyata) Emptiness refers to the fundamental nature of reality, which is devoid of inherent, fixed, or independent existence. The empty nature of all things is the opposite of how we normally perceive reality. If we see something as beautiful, we do not think our mind has anything to...
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The Buddha said that an earnest practitioner, even when just beginning the path to enlightenment, "lights up this world like the moon set free from a cloud." This episode explores how to relate to being this light in our world, specifically through the practice of metta, or loving-kindness. Metta practice involves cultivating a heartfelt attitude of unconditional love, benevolence, and goodwill towards oneself and all sentient beings. Metta meditation is a practical way to strengthen these qualities. It can be done in formal meditation or "off the cushion" with the simple recitation of a...
info_outlineIn Buddhism, the concept of "emptiness" (Sunyata) is a fundamental teaching that refers to the absence of inherent existence or independent selfhood. All things, including our self, are empty of inherent existence. The notion of a fixed, permanent, and independent self is an illusion.
The concept of emptiness is closely associated with the teaching of dependent origination (Pratityasamutpada), which explains that all phenomena arise and exist dependently on other factors. In other words, everything in existence is interdependent and lacks a separate, inherent essence.
When applied to the self, emptiness suggests that there is no autonomous, enduring self that exists apart from the ever-changing and interconnected nature of phenomena. Instead, the self is regarded as a fluid, composite entity, constantly influenced and shaped by various causes and conditions.
Belief in a substantial, inherently existing self leads to attachment, craving, and suffering. It is a form of ignorance (avidya) that obscures the true nature of reality. By understanding emptiness of the self, one can overcome attachment, cultivate wisdom, and ultimately attain liberation from the cycle of suffering (Samsara).
It is important to note that emptiness does not imply nihilism or the non-existence of the self. Rather, it emphasizes the lack of inherent, independent existence. The self does exist conventionally; it is a conventional designation. Understanding conventional truth, we see how labeling all the things in our world allow us to interact with each other and do things. The self we relate to is a product of interdependent causes—always changing—rather than an enduring, fixed entity.
Conventionally we do function in certain ways. Actions of body, speech and mind are generally beneficial, neutral, or harmful. Most actions are neutral: breathing, brushing our hair, driving unless we’re cutting someone off or something. If most of our actions are beneficial or neutral, that would cause people to label us as a good person. If a person does profoundly harmful things to others, with few good actions and many neutral actions, people would probably label them a bad person. Someone who frequently steals or physically abuses their partner, for example, might be labeled a bad actor who needs to be off the streets. But if that same bad actor turned his life around and started performing many good and beneficial actions while stopping their harmful actions, they would then be labeled a good person.
Labels like good and bad are not stuck to a person, they aren’t inherent, because the way a person functions changes. All the labels we’ve been called from “hardworking” to “angry” only exist for as long as we function in a way that supports that label. We can change. We aren’t inherently anything.
A blade can be used to kill someone in anger, then it’s a weapon, or it can be used as a tool to cook a nutritious meal. The blade could be a surgical instrument to remove a tumor. Whether we call it a weapon or a tool for good depends on how it is used. That is the same with our body and minds. Do we mainly use our speech as a tool for good or a weapon?
Because we are an empty self, we can change and function in any way we choose. By changing certain ways we function, we will be able to let go of painful labels and exist in more healthy ways. To look honestly at ways we are functioning that harm ourselves or others requires compassion for ourselves. Compassion is the wish that someone doesn’t suffer, and it is a warm, loving mind. Practicing this self compassion helps us to see that we are a Buddha in the making, currently caught in the thorns of anger, attachment, and ignorance. Rather than grasping at our deficiency, we try to develop the compassion that sees our limitations as temporary. In fact, we simply need to create the causes to experience the permanent peace and bliss of enlightenment. Buddha taught that for all beings, our destiny is enlightenment.
Anyone who doesn’t cherish as “mine” Anything of body-and-mind
And who doesn’t grieve for that which doesn’t exist,
Is indeed called a bhikkhu. (367)*
--Buddha, The Dhammapada
References and Links
Buddha.The Dhammapada. Translated by Gil Fronsdale. (Kindle). Shambala, Boston and London, 2011, pp. 78 (Link)
Buddha (1986).The Dhammapada: Verses and Stories. Translated by Daw Mya Tin, M.A. (Website). Edited by Editorial Committee, Burma Tipitaka Association Rangoon. Courtesy .of Nibbana.com. For free distribution only, as a gift of dhamma.
https://www.tipitaka.net/tipitaka/dhp/verseload.php?verse=367