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New to buddhism
Sadly, the closest center that teaches buddhism to me is a 3-hour drive. I've learned a great deal on the basics of Buddhism; however, I would like to further understand and follow a good beginners guide relating to the eight-fold path. A step by step introduction to each of the eight paths with practical exercises. Can anyone recommend to me a good book etc that might help me on the path?
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Mind you, I'm not Buddhist (and am not looking to become - or 'convert' to Buddhism).
I think I'm more of a pluralist. (Heavy leanings towards Buddhism/Taoism... maybe even gnosticism, depending how one defines it).
Guess my post isn't really helpful, is it?
Thich Nhat Hahn has a great book called "The Heart of the Buddha's Teachings" that does a good job explaining the basics, and he puts a lot of exercises in his books as well. He writes some very good meditation and mindfulness books with exercises in them, too. With "The Heart of the Buddha's Teachings" I ended up reading some, and then putting it down for a while. When I tried to read all the way through, later in the book it became too much information for me. I needed to grasp the earlier parts of the book before I could move on and understand.
what i have read about Buddha's teachings till now in the last 1.5 years is - 4 noble truths, 3 characteristics of anicca(impermanence), dukkha(unsatisfactoriness) and anatta(not-self or not-mine), 8-fold path, 5 aggregates, dependent origination.
after getting a basic understanding about the above teachings, the important thing is not to read about these things , but rather to practice it. To practice, just sit mindfully in meditation and when not doing meditation, try to be mindful enough to notice how the mind proliferates upon sense-contacts. Buddha's teachings say - craving and clinging leads to suffering, ending of craving leads to ending of suffering. Samsara is the projection of mind. So everything comes down to mind, which is inside our body, which needs to be trained to get it rid of defilements of greed, hatred and delusion. So we need not to go anywhere, rather wherever we are and be it any time, we can start to train our minds to start walking on the 8-fold path by developing sila(virtue), which will lead to samadhi(stillness), which will lead to panna(wisdom). Patience and non-attachment are needed to keep on walking on the 8-fold path, till it reaches its peak, where the unconditioned can be experienced.
Within the general chaos that is our daily lives, there is a perspective where everything falls into place and finally makes sense. H.E. Tsem Rinpoche brings this perspective through explaining the mechanism of life based on the fundamental principles of Buddhism. In his characteristically logical and down-to-earth manner, Rinpoche introduces the vast topics of reincarnation and karma in a way that anyone can understand. He also provides easily applicable guidelines on how we can immediately unlock the liberating powers within us to lead a happy and harmonious life, simply by finding the living Buddha within each and every one of us.
You are a book.
You can learn to read yourself by doing an online meditation course such as:
http://aromeditation.org/
you can get past the first gate
http://www.liberationunleashed.com/
You can read
http://blpusa.com/category/buddhism-in-every-step/page/5
You can write a journal. You are now booked in.
:wave: