Hello my, dear.✨
Many of today's self-help literature and pretty much everything we read about mindfulness has its roots in Buddhism.
Buddhism is a 2,000+-year-old ancient philosophy. The Buddha had incredible observations about the human mind and gave us profound insight into what causes suffering and how we can become happier and better people.
I call Buddhism a philosophy on purpose, as opposed to religions it doesn't believe in God, a soul, miracles, worship, or an afterlife. Quite the opposite: Its teachings revolve around the power of the present moment while he showed a path to unmatched serenity (nirvana) technically everyone can achieve.
While no one I know achieved nirvana, following the teachings of Buddhism is tremendously helpful to cultivate mindfulness, self-acceptance, and self-responsibility.
My inner world transformed gradually but radically in the past three years, as I dove deep into Buddhist philosophy. Serendipity introduced me to it as a tool to deal with pain.
Since then, I read about what the Buddha taught and follow contemporary teachers who interpret and help us apply his texts.
I meditate daily and even designed my solo custom 2-day meditation retreat at home.
Rest assured I’m still far from being a model Buddhist. Nor do I have to be. Rather, I learned life isn’t supposed to be easy or about me. I realized there’s a way to live with difficult emotions without drowning all in unhealthy distractions.
Buddhism can be nebulous for beginners. It doesn’t come with ten clear commandments, only a few no-nos, and do-dos here and there.
Therefore, I wrote a piece with 50 applicable life rules to help you dive into it:
50 Very Short Rules for a Good Life From Buddhist Philosophy
Here are the top 5 readers highlighted most so far:
1. The present moment is the perfect teacher and it's always with you.
6. On the primary level, what guides us through our day are thoughts and feelings that helped our ancestors procreate. Keep this in mind before you allow them to run you around in circles.
7. Consequentially, understand that evolution designed feelings to convince you to follow them. By definition, they feel true and discourage you from viewing them objectively.
32. We underestimate the role of the situation and overestimate the role of disposition. We apply the former to us and our friends (ie. the situation drove them to act this way) and the latter to our rivals and enemies (ie. they act this way because they’re evil). Keep this in mind before you judge others.
48. “Approach what you find repulsive, help those you cannot help, and go to places that scare you.” — Machig Labdrön
You can read the whole article here: 50 Very Short Rules for a Good Life From Buddhist Philosophy
Yet, the most important rule to all these rules is this:
Don’t try to use these Buddhist teachings to be a better Buddhist. Use them to become a better you.
You can have endless debates about what the Buddha meant when he said this or that 2,000+ years ago. The confusion is real and there’s no universal agreement about concepts like reincarnation, karma, and no-self.
It doesn’t matter, as we know this: Buddhism is a philosophy of peace, compassion, tolerance, universal love, and understanding towards all beings. Violence in any form, under any pretext, stands sharply against its teachings.
In the end, the inflated ego is the root of all violence. A lack of self-awareness and self-compassion causes us to harm others and ourselves. By cultivating mindfulness we also help create a better, more compassionate world.
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