Buddhist Practices in Daily Life 

Post # 1- Introduction

Buddhist Practices in Daily Life 

Dear Visitor,

You are another friend among the many, in the pursuit of Dhamma knowledge.

This is the Blog on - Buddhist Practices in Daily Life at thelaybuddhist.blogspot.com

You are here because, like me, you have the desire to enhance your knowledge and understanding of the Buddha Dhamma.

You also must be inspired by the profound nature of this teaching. As for me the inspiration is that the Buddha, the Teacher, had the insight into what modern day sciences refer to as atomic physics, psychology, anatomy, physiology, biology, cosmology, the lot, and his teaching provides me with answers to  phenomena observable in this universe.

What this Blog is all about:

There are many sites in the web, as well as a multitude of books and documents giving us the means of accessing the essence of the teaching. Many are the Dhamma talks given by learned monks and lay scholars providing detailed discourses and discussions to the interested learner.  We are therefore well endowed with opportunity to learn the pure Dhamma from these sources.

It is my experience that every time I avail myself of such an opportunity, I am more motivated and my trust in the Noble Triple Gem raises by several pegs. This is a very rewarding experience.  However what I find is that in most times this experience is limited to, consolidating the knowledge I already have or giving clarity to hitherto unclear aspects, and of course adding some new knowledge. Also most times the addition to the knowledge stays as knowledge itself and recedes to memory, but does not yield into a practice that I must observe, which is the essential part of the learning.  

I have therefore committed some effort to search for and accumulate from these teachings, the ways of translating this knowledge to a practice. There are so many of us who lead a very busy household life, and though we want to engage in some Dhamma practice, we have no clear understanding of what must be done and how, to gain optimum benefit from the limited time that we can set apart for it.

There are also a lot of people who are still not initiated in following Buddha Dhamma, but are curious as to know what this seemingly logical teaching has to say, without having to go through an extensive study and research on the subject.

This Blog is dedicated to these two groups. I hope my effort will prove useful to them.

  

Who am I?

I am not a scholar of the Dhamma. I do not have acquired qualifications nor am I a student of any accomplished scholar. I do not have a track record of following meditation retreats to claim to have any experiential knowledge of the Dhamma.

I therefore feel you should be comfortable staying with me in this Blog as we can be talking on the same wavelength and have the opportunity to share our own experiences with others who visit this Blog.

What I want to say more about myself is that, my civil engineering background and postgraduate training and professional practice of organizing seminars and workshops, have given me some ability to grasp and present essential aspects in a subject that is under consideration. This background also makes me ask - how, and why, or why not - about anything, before I am prepared to accept it. This background has also inspired me to ask how realistic this teaching is, which has remained unchanged for over 2600 years.

Our tendency to accept anything that can be established scientifically seemed flawed for me as I find that most scientific postulations change with advancement of knowledge and research. Science is still developing and is a long way from catching up with Buddha Dhamma, which describes and deals with the abiding laws and principles that govern the dynamics of the Cosmos. This is the reality which modern science is committing billions of dollars in research to find out.  

So stay with me for mutual benefit.  

How should you use the Blog?

The contents are organized into and presented through a series of Postings to make it convenient to follow. By this means it is also possible for the busy reader to visit and capture specific aspects of the practice that is of interest by accessing the relevant link, when they can spare some time for this from their busy schedule.

The material is however presented in some practical sequence. It is therefore best to go by the given order. There are also some repetitions of basic facts in the contents of different posts. The reader is requested to bear with this, as this is done purposely in order to make the contents of each Post more complete and the Post self contained. 

The material available is by no means complete and does not represent the entire practice. We know that eventual attainment is realized through some ardent application and dedicated practice of the teaching. This requires motivation and stamina for a dedicated practice and unwavering trust in the teaching. An ardent effort is needed to break the inherent habits and tendencies we have accumulated over our past lives that inhibit our clear thinking and seeing beyond concepts that have become part of our mundane life.

Therefore the focus in this Blog is to introduce the fundamentals of the practice and the way to get about it, so that it will be not too difficult to observe. You would then be able to do so with confidence that we are on the right track. The keen follower will then be in a position to continue on to more advanced levels by further learning and practice.

The first few Posts deal with some aspects, which are more in the knowledge regime, than in the practice regime. This was found to be necessary, to set up the background and the right foundation to assist you to try out the practice. In the Posts related to the practice part, there are references to Punya Karma (Meritorious Acts); Kusala Karma (Acts for enhancing right ethical skills); and the Path to Liberation. The last part is devoted to the Noble Eightfold Path and Four Foundations of Mindfulness, together with developing the Right View and the basic meditative practices required for them.

There is also a facility in the Blog for you to give your comments and observations and share your own experiences. You can be anonymous if you choose, but please be sensitive to the feelings of others who visit the site, by being responsible in what you say.

Many Thanks

Your ‘Friend’ in Pursuit of Dhamma Knowledge.

Await the Next Post on- Worldly Well Being