3 Poisons of Buddhism

This week we had the honor of having John Daishin Buksbazen from the Zen Center of Los Angeles speak about the 3 poisons in Buddhism: greed, anger, and ignorance. We all suffer for one reason or another. In Buddhism, it is believed that suffering comes from these three poisons. Daishin elaborated on these three poisons and opened the discussion up to questions.

Greed can be seen as desire. "I want" the new iPhone 5, when it comes out. It can also be seen as clinging -- clinging to youth, for example. Anger is aversion. Daishin spoke about a pattern he noticed: people seem to get angry about the weather often. Sometimes it is too cold and sometimes it is too warm. Why is this? It was brought up in small-group discussions that perhaps all of this anger stems from the fact that we are not in control of everything. The last poison is ignorance, or ignore-ance. We choose to ignore feelings that make us unhappy. "I'm just not going to think about it" is a very common mantra when it comes to embarrassing moments or uncomfortable experiences.

In order to overcome these three poisons, Daishin spoke of the act of sitting (meditation). Just as a dirty glass of water becomes clear after settling, the human mind can reach purification after sitting. He proposed that in order to awaken ourselves to the truth and therefore be free of suffering and poisons, we need to look inside of ourselves via sitting.

Daishin also mentioned that the Buddha proposed an 8-fold-path to lead anyone who wants to out of these 3 poisons. To read more about the 8-fold-path, go to: http://www.urbandharma.org/udharma14/budcourse.html and click on the "Noble Eightfold Path".

You can read more about the Zen Center of Los Angeles at: www.zcla.org

Reading and Understanding Buddhist Sutras

The focus of this talk was on understanding the background and application of the different Buddhist sutras. A Buddhist sutra (sutta) is a text based on the teachings of the Buddha. Buddha did not write any text but, upon his death, his disciple Ven. Ananda took the task of organizing the preservation of Buddha's teachings. As narrated by John Gill, Ven. Ananda summoned 499 enlightened monks and together they transcribed what they have learned from the Buddha.

Because it wasn't Buddha who wrote down the sutras, these texts are subject to interpretation. Inconsistencies may also arise among sutras written in different languages. John recommends comparing them against other versions of the same text and trust those which are more consistent.

What sutras to read? Sutras are not sequential writings and thus may be hard to read. Access to Insight offers a great thematic index of the sutras (http://www.accesstoinsight.org/index-subject.html). John recommends pick a topic one is familiar with and read the corresponding sutra. This may help us getting accustomed to the writing style and facilitate the reading of texts we are not familiar with. Later, one can read any other topic of interest.