Religion Series, Introduction

I have come to understand a piece of the purpose of this confusing year of my life. First, why is it confusing? I have been having difficulty with the calmness – with the 9-5:30, the perfectly allotted time slots of morning, work, evening activity, sleep, and how to use it. Used to a busy, stuffed day full of a wide variety of activities, I am now relegated to a simplicity that has been frustrating. I am aware, however, of the importance of this imposed calm in my life, knowing that this year is fundamentally important.

But the why of this important has eluded me. Today I realized a few things about it. My job is boring so that I have the mental energy to improve myself in fundamental ways that I lacked in college, or that I will lack in future studies and life changes. My time is allotted to ensure that I spend it on specificity. I am discovering the slow importance of movement, the fundamentals of cooking, and the power of growing things. I am searching out the tenets of my beliefs that I believed I would discover at St. John’s, but instead learned the foundation to the beginnings of these thoughts.

I have started several posts that, through further thought, seem to be related on their margins. One giant post would be nonsensical, so I will group them as a series, with the feeling that you can turn the page from one and read the next one as related, but a separate thought. The first will be about cleaning, the second about faith and religious belief, and the third on belief systems. Yes, they are related.

On another note, I read on someone’s blog a chart of Buddhist beliefs that I will reprint here because it is so simple and beautiful. In all of the self-improvement and efficiency blogs and papers that I read, they all hold the same thing as a fundamental part of the productivity: Intention. Buddhism, as seen in the Eightfold Path, does as well. Intention, applied to every aspect of our internal selves as relating to everything else, is utterly the most productive, and perhaps the most spiritual. Perhaps the only place I can discover intention is in this calm of my life, the only place to spark the storm of learning in the tranquility of less.

Buddhism – Four Noble Truths
1. Suffering exists
2. Suffering arises from attachment to desires
3. Suffering ceases when attachment to desire ceases
4. Freedom from suffering is possible by practicing the Eightfold Path
Noble Eightfold Path
Three Qualities Eightfold Path
Wisdom (panna) Right View
Right Thought
Morality (sila) Right Speech
Right Action
Right Livelihood
Meditation (samadhi) Right Effort
Right Mindfulness
Right Contemplation
Three Characteristics of Existence
1. Transiency (anicca)
2. Sorrow (dukkha)
3. Selflessness (anatta)
Hindrances
1. Sensuous lust
2. Aversion and ill will
3. Sloth and torpor
4. Restlessness and worry
5. Sceptical doubt
Factors of Enlightenment
1. Mindfulness
2. Investigation
3. Energy
4. Rapture
5. Tranquillity
6. Concentration
7. Equanimity

How beautiful and simple this is!