Buddhism in daily life - Mindfulness in every day tasks

Buddhism in connection with friends and family ... ...or: No human being is an island. We live with countless other people in our daily lives. Friends and family come very close to us. As Buddhists (or people interested in Buddhism), we are often faced with the question of how we should treat our loved ones in our daily lives. Should we be lenient, or assertive? How do we bring our beliefs into ou...

Buddhism - The Message The message of Buddhism, which is also to bring enlightenment here, is characterized by wisdom and knowledge. The wisdom of the right way. I would like to try, as briefly and understandably as possible, to reproduce here at least a part of the essential contents of Buddha's teaching, the Dharma. Everybody, or most of us, have heard a lot about Buddhist concepts, and some of...

Don't worry, be happy - or: how do I become free! We all know the song, but do we know the message? Already when we hear the song we feel good. Our body starts to move, everyone I know this song puts a smile on their face. And the words of Buddha have the same effect on us. Without thinking, our mood changes, we become positive. What felt bad suddenly feels good. The facts and our counterpart have...

The 108 Temples Tour or the Journey of the Chan Knights 108 TT or the journey of the Chan Knights "Sometimes I am a master, sometimes a disciple, it depends with whom I exchange my energy," said the wise monk. The 108 Temples Tour is to visit the 108 sacred Buddhist sites in Nepal, India, China, Tibet, Korea, Bhutan, Taiwan, Vietnam, Japan, and will end at Shaolin Temple China. It traces the journ...

Diamond Sutra - Chapter III "The Venerable Buddha spoke." Buddha asked: "WHAT DO YOU THINK, DISCIPLE, IS THERE ANY DHARMA (LAW OR TEACHING, OR EVEN BASIC PART OF THE WORLD, E.G., NIRVANA) THAT I TEACH?" THE DISCIPLE REPLIED, "THE BUDDHA HAS NOTHING TO TEACH, FROM-THE-WORLD-WORSHIPPER." WHY DID THE HISTORICAL BUDDHA ASK HIS DISCIPLE THIS QUESTION? BECAUSE EMPTY IS FORM, AND FORM IS EMPTY. WHEN A DH...

Diamond Sutra Chapter II Chapter II THE VENERABLE BUDDHA SAID, "FROM-THE-WORLD-WORSHIPPER, WILL THERE BE PEOPLE IN THE FUTURE WHO WILL HAVE REAL FAITH IN YOUR TEACHINGS JUST BECAUSE THEY HEAR ABOUT THEM?" VENERABLE BUDDHA SAID, "HUNDREDS OF YEARS FROM NOW, PEOPLE WILL STILL ENJOY MY WORDS, AND SOME WILL ALSO FIND ENLIGHTENMENT. TO PUT TRUST ONLY IN WORDS SEEMS DIFFICULT AT FIRST, BUT FAITH AND TRU...

Diamond Sutra "The venerable Buddha spoke" newly interpreted by Shaolin-Rainer The Diamond Sutra records dialogues of question and answer between the historical Buddha and one of his disciples (the Subhūti). This sutra can be compared to the Bible or the Koran in terms of its importance. Buddhist core sentences are formative in this work. "Form is emptiness - emptiness is form" is the central stat...

Bodhidharma Who was Bodhidharma? Bodhidharma was a Buddhist monk and the founder of the Shaolin Temple; for this reason, he will be told about it here. As with all historical figures, stories continue to be "embellished" and "made more vivid" from generation to generation. Bodhidharma (short: Damo) lived approximately from 444 to 529 AD; he was born in India or Persia and is said to have had blue...

Play the game It's all right, it's often right and proper to "play the game", necessary to adapt, tell us what you know, please! An explosion of the senses, solemnly swear to protect and defend being. Aren't we all heroes? But now is not the time for games. The situation can make you feel sick quickly, nothing is as it seems. Maybe we should run, do we really think so? Should we take a step back,...

You are what you are We are just the way we are, simple but robust, human existence is an obsession, ego a permanent attachment. What are we? WHY do we like to suppress our true personality and take on a role instead, because we think that we cannot show our true self, that we should not live as and what we are. Who we really are, we probably do not know, few people think about it, most are superf...

Life consists of suffering Life consists of suffering, but what is important is how we deal with suffering. This way of dealing with difficulties and hard times makes the person we are and want to be. Who do you want to be, who are you? I know who I am, I know the role I play in this world, from this I can conclude what changes in my habits I need to strive for in order to become better, to pursue...

Grasping for Wind No matter what we humans do, nothing will really change anything, because all being in this world is finite, transient, subject to decay. Today still young and full of strength, tomorrow already withered and frail, the philosophy of Buddha is designed to avoid human suffering, because deep inside we suffer, because we know our fate very well. Every action can only change somethin...

Quality of life What do you think, how can we recognize quality of life, and if we have recognized it, can we change it, improve it? To judge the respective quality of life is possible only for each person himself. It seems impossible to make a judgment from the outside. Each person knows very well how this quality is in his own life, can say exactly what is the matter. But hardly anyone has even...

Near-death experience A near-death experience is an experience "close to" death, that is, almost dead, so to speak. One could also express it in such a way that life itself is a continuous near-death experience, whereby the almost dead person just got away again. The possibility to die now, in this moment, that is absolutely real, just as the chances stand for a survival, at least at the end one d...

Time 2 The (partial) move to DengFeng brought me back into contact with civilization somewhat; a long time had passed in which I lived only according to the events in the temple, getting up, washing, devotion, breakfast, training, noon, training, washing, eating, sleeping. Suddenly all the fancy things that seemed already forgotten came back to me; alcohol and parties, women and travel, money and...

Time Time passed in the monastery, and everyday life became a sequence of habits. My master reminded me that it was my habits that would define my outward appearance, which of course would provide insight into my "true" person. Getting up, getting dressed, spirituality, washing, eating, exercising, eating, washing, spirituality, undressing, sleeping. Get up, get dressed, spirituality, washing, eat...

Habits and Attachments Somehow habits and attachments are connected, they also occur together. Habits are very useful to us humans because the things we do out of habit are no longer a "burden" on the brain. Habits we have developed over years and decades, we have set up certain behavioral patterns, which we repeat in suitable moments, so we can direct our "thoughts" to other issues, keeping the c...

What is Chan? Part 6 You are searching, otherwise you would not read my texts here, you might read about soccer, or about fashion, but not at all about Chan (Zen) Buddhism. The problem with spirituality in Europe is that religions have done so much incredible damage, which is why "faith" moves people less and less. A worldview today even seems to contradict the Enlightenment, science has already e...

What is Chan? Part 5 In the last few days we have been exploring the question of what Chan-(Zen) actually is. A generally valid answer could not be found. The question remains, what is Chan at all? A spiritual worldview, a philosophy, a practice, a teaching, or a concept? And no matter what it is, can it be described, divided into the various categories that people have come up with? Already a def...

Tomorrow Tomorrow is another day, no matter how "bad" the fate seems, even the misfortune is not permanent, it will pass, just as everything will pass. So why worry so much, why fret, it's not worth it. Everything is subject to change, what appears to be a strong building today can collapse in a few years. Have you ever seen the buildings in an abandoned city, maybe in pictures? Nature reclaims ev...

What is Chan? Part 4 So what is Chan (Zen) Buddhism? Is there no simple answer? NO, there is not, Chan is as versatile as a Swiss Army Knife, has in its peculiarity many meanings, woundings, explanations. One of them is that Chan is a clever trick, a method to free people from their illusions, thus enabling them to live a balanced life without feeling more the sufferings weighing heavily on the so...

Quality of life What do you think, how can we recognize quality of life, and if we have recognized it, can we change it, improve it? To judge the respective quality of life is possible only for each person himself. It seems impossible to judge it from the outside. Each person knows very well how this quality is in his own life, can say exactly what is the matter. But hardly anyone has even a rudim...

Habits Part 2 You want to take care of your needs more, maybe tidy up more often, or clean out the closet, tidy up the garage, but due to "lazy" habits you haven't found the right tackle yet? We do most things out of habit, we need to get our system (slowly) used to the new components of our daily routine. This is where it's helpful to reinforce the goals you're aiming for. Again, I'll give an exa...

Habits Who thinks to have life "under control" is mistaken, we are primarily controlled by our habits. Everything is subjected to habits, from getting up to going to bed, all actions are subjected to constant repetition, freely according to the motto: "We have always done it this way"! If you want to improve your self (and from a Buddhist point of view there is nothing against it, Buddha admonishe...

What is Chan? Part 3 The sufferings from which we suffer have not only been poured out on us by karma, no, we have inflicted many pains on ourselves. For example, because in our insatiable thirst for satisfaction we are always thinking up new desires, then are disappointed when none of them come to pass. Or because we are constantly stuck in the past, reliving over and over again the moments when...