Buddhism in daily life - Mindfulness in every day tasks

A healthy self-confidence part 2 The most important question (at least for people who want to get more self-confidence) is whether you know yourself, because if you know yourself, you can listen to criticism without any problems, you know how things really are. Here my usual question (Who am I?) arises again, because here first an answer must be found. If this important question remains in the roo...

A healthy self-confidence You are not self-confident at all - what could be the reason for that? We build up self-confidence as children. If you don't make your experiences in time and put them into practice, you will fall short as an adult. Self-confidence can be reduced to a very simple formula: How do we perceive ourselves? How do we think other people see us, how do they "find" us, what do the...

Gong An (Koan) In many Buddhist monasteries the theological Gong An concept (Koan) is taught, because people often have great difficulties not to think in categories like "good" or "bad", not to classify things (and people). We humans are like that, if we don't think good, we think bad, our thought palace needs "stuff" to keep the ego going, which is why wise teachers have designed the teaching of...

Rebirth Part 2 The readers of my blog "know" that there is neither time nor space, thus also no birth, no age, no illness and no death. But then what about all the people who have already "lived" and those who will still "live"? Is all life connected, are we part of a great whole? Or asked differently: Is there an infinite matrix of the now, the here and the being, which holds a connection over th...

Who wants to be alone? We humans are and feel lonely, we do not want to be alone. Many people are downright afraid of loneliness, they can't be alone at all, as a consequence they then make concessions of every kind just to not feel "lonely". I have many friends who wake up in the morning and immediately turn on the TV (or the radio), some even fall asleep, the background noise then replaces famil...

Rebirth Rebirth is a subject that fascinates outsiders and Buddhists about Buddhism. Reincarnation was also a fixture in Christianity until this doctrine was banned as "unacceptable" in the Council of Constantinople in 553. However, Christian doctrine says that Jesus Christ was resurrected from the dead. First of all something very important at the beginning: Not all Buddhists believe in rebirth!...

The daily training part 2 The foreign world had me under its spell, I had become a part of the Shaolin Temple, up to here the fixed idea had driven me, I also felt well, the life in the monastery had something calming, the temperatures slowly became more pleasant, the inconveniences receded further and further. For weeks I trained with my master, always three days of training, one day off, four ho...

Doing the right thing Buddhists in particular often want to do the right thing, are righteous people, do not want to harm any living being. But what is 'the right thing', isn't this classification subjective for every human being, dependent on personal filters? Even in the time of Jesus Christ, this seemed to be a problem, as it is written in the Bible (Luke 18:9-14) that some trusted in being rig...

Buddhism in Asia and Europe Growing up with a worldview (or religion), experiencing it constantly in one's environment, that is something completely different than 'accepting' it, this of course also applies to Buddhism. Whether one was born into a worldview, or consciously converted as an adult (or at least adolescent), that has a completely different dynamic, different energies. Often both group...

The daily training The days followed each other, getting up every morning at five o'clock, first we went to the morning service, the monks meditated, sang the O mi to Fo, prayed, went into themselves, I was more a silent observer, absorbed the impressions. At that time of day it was bitterly cold, the bones and joints ached from sitting. The meditation cushion was more like an anthill, sitting sti...

Wisdom in the breeze The following story was reported from a Buddhist temple: An aged master saw a group of tourists walking up the mountain, the temple was high in the mountains, the view was magical, it was a beautiful spring day. The monk watched the colorful hustle and bustle, whole families puffed higher and higher, made a rest, some held picnics in the sun, the monk listened to them, he want...

Start part 5 The monk woke me up early, it was still dark, of course I had not yet gotten used to the place, but Shi Yan Zi was very lenient with me, he saw that I was not yet "with me". His day began at 5 a.m. for morning prayer, which I did not yet participate in that day, I had to wake up my limbs first, sleeping in such cold was most unusual (today I sleep with the window open even in winter,...

Sport does not only make muscles Through sport, people suffer less from depression, feel less anxiety, they can sleep much better, and an active person is much less likely to suffer from mental illness. Buddha's philosophy revolves around suffering, or rather, the avoidance of suffering. During his lifetime, people will have moved much more than is the case today, there was hardly any talk of spor...

Emotional Blackmail Emotional blackmail is well known to all of us, probably every one of us has tried it. No matter if children or governments, again and again other people try to manipulate us strategically through emotions. The goal of emotional blackmail is to make the victim feel anxious, guilty, or even have a guilty conscience, and of course to be willing to do what the blackmailer(s) want...

The only place The only place we can be is here, right here, where we are right now, because it is our fate, our karma, our destiny. Only here, and nowhere else, in this very special spot, in a place that is "our" place right now, but that can be "empty" again in the very next moment, or could be the place of another person. Or might cease to exist as a place, break apart, perhaps recompose itself...

Legumes as a substitute for meat Legumes are healthy and they make you full, lentils, beans and peas are real superfoods that can replace meat and provide enough iron. Buddhists in particular are accustomed to meat-free food, but are always looking for new ideas to add variety to their cooking as well. Whether in a delicious curry, or as a burger without meat, legumes are incredibly versatile, als...

Start part 4 So first of all I unpacked my backpack, I would still be able to think about the connections later. Nevertheless, a queasy feeling remained, what had driven me here to the Shaolin Temple China? Wasn't that much too ambitious for a recreational athlete? On the way here I passed countless martial arts schools, saw surely tens of thousands (if not more) of students, lined up for training...

Endure our Self We all end up just trying to bear ourselves somehow. We are all vulnerable, very needy, full of anger and rage, but also filled with shame. Until today, we do not feel sufficiently loved, we all suffer from the same things that the great teacher has shown us to be useless. There is no justice in this world, certainly not in this universe, and there is no truth either, only the coun...

The Inner Critic Part 2 We could also equate the so-called inner critic with thinking itself, because we think that the voice in our head is our voice, our ego. But we don't realize that there is also an ego that is doing its mischief here, that makes us believe in all kinds of horror scenarios, 99 percent of which don't happen, of course. This ego (and its constant, usually aggravating voice) is...

Beginning part 3 With due respect (and shaking knees) I waited for a reaction from the monk Shi Yan Zi regarding my question whether I could learn martial arts here (in the Shaolin Temple), the time just wouldn't pass. Then his hand reached for my arm, he felt the muscles, then the shoulders, then the upper body, finally the leg muscles. The procedure was quite "rough", but I could tell that he kn...

Immersion in Buddha Nature Those who have left the deep valley of desires, opinions, evaluations and resolutions come closer and closer to their Buddha-nature. No more: "I am the .......", or: "I am the ........", nor: "I am that .......", no, but only: "I am", completely without putting a description after it, or a profession, or a gender, simply without any explanation! Because it simply doesn't...

Beginning part 2 Read part 1 of "Beginning" here click As I walked through the temple door, I passed the temple guards and the Mile Fo, the happy, fat Buddha. After that, everything seemed so familiar, the first courtyard lay before me, buildings to the left and right, a staircase in the middle, trees and stelae all around, some older, some newer, the faint smell of garlic over everything. An endl...

Saying goodbye In a very popular monastery, the moment came for one of the masters when life would soon come to an end. When he felt the foreboding he went into his hermitage, bathed, shaved and cut his hair one last time. Then he put on his most beautiful robe, went into the banquet hall, called the younger monks together. When all the inhabitants of the temple were gathered, the wise master rais...

Buddhism and the Flag Part 2 In a temple once lived a learned master, he had many interesting and extraordinary disciples. One day, when a group of monks came to visit, the master invited the foreign monks to dinner. The conversation was animated, the wandering monks told of the events on their journey. The next day, the wise monk taught the travellers, explaining his view of things, followed by a...

Contemplate every breath Buddha taught his disciples to regard breathing as the centre of meditative contemplation. If you really want to arrive in the now, in the here and now, you can't avoid the fact that you also have to occupy yourself with your breathing, to look at every breath, to evaluate it and to consider why it might be different from the last one. If you breathe mindfully, you will qu...