Read in the Management book “The E-Myth Revisited” by Michael E. Gerber

Most people today are not getting what they want. Not from their jobs, not from their families, not from their religion, not from their government, and, most important, not from themselves.

Something is missing in most of our lives.

Part of what’s missing is purpose. Values. Worthwhile standards against which our lives can be measured. Part of what’s missing is a Game Worth Playing. What’s also missing is a sense of relationship. People suffer in isolation from one another.

In a world without purpose, without meaningful values, what have we to share but our emptiness, the needy fragments of our superficial selves ?

As a result, most of us scramble about hungrily seeking distraction, in music, in television, in people, in drugs.

And most of all we seek things. Things to wear and things to do. Things to fill the emptiness. Things to shore up our eroding sense of self. Things to which we can attach meaning, significance, life. We’ve fast become a world of things. And most people are being buried in the profusion.

Business and buddhism are obviously two completely different things, but that doesn’t mean that people in all layers of society can’t all see the same problems we’re facing. It’s not the analysis of our being where they differ, it’s the way they try to offer a solution. Difficult to see which solution works best for you.

From Stefan Sagmeister, an inspiring designer. View a video on designs that made him happy, and him explaining some of his life lessons.

Whether you like it or not, there will come a time in your life when you and someone else will be deadlocked glazing at the last remaining piece of delicious apple pie. A true altruistic being would value the desire of the other person higher than his own and therefore would never order up that ultimate slice. And in comes the sneaky bastard with its sneaky-bastardy-ism (I need to put in a serious effort to make this a common term) ways.

Read the full article in our philosophy-psychology section…

This weekend I was amazed by the amount of posts having to do with fear and anxiety. From intense criticism on society (see the Scream above) to seemingly ridiculous but nevertheless important personal fears (”I don’t travel because I’m afraid my ass won’t fit in the seats.”) people seem to be very afraid. Afraid that life isn’t interesting, afraid of making a fool of themselves, afraid of disappointing others, …

It is very natural to feel afraid of the unknown. People often tend to avoid situations in which they have no experience. Is this merely a heritage of our biology where the unknown equals danger, or is it our culture that puts pressure on us to behave, to fit in ? Although very natural, fear should not be that important anymore. Rather than getting killed by a lion waiting around the unknown corner, all we can embark is a slight hit in our self-confidence and self-image as we might feel like we’re making a fool of ourselves.

The truth is: nobody cares. We’re all just people who often don’t know what we should do. Don’t feel embarassed about yourself. Just remember we’re all people and we will all “enjoy” these kinds of situations. Never be afraid to make a fool of yourself. We’re all fools, some of us just try hiding it.

The idea behind this one seems pretty beautiful: don’t ever take your loved ones for granted and always know what they mean for you. But there’s a darker side to this as well. Some people are so insecure about themselves that they feel like they’re not worthy of such a beautiful relationship. This insecurity can lead to utter jealousy but also to a great dependency, a clinging on to the one thing that matters most (or so they think). And then the insecure person will do everything to keep their partner happy which unfortunately is unsustainable and will keep the insecure person restless all the while. Maybe a good illustration of why clinging onto things isn’t a viable solution.

Love yourself first before you love someone else.

From David Evans at the Monkey See, Monkey Do-blog:

“The essential points of Buddhism are beyond culture and beyond traditions.”

but the unspoken side to this statement is that the non-essential points of buddhism are specific to tradition and culture. as buddhism comes to the west, what is the tradition and cultural aspects that are included here? or do we cut to the essence and attempt to omit the rest? is that even possible?

i wonder, and this could be a large topic, is this view of buddhism as a philosophy and psychology just our cultural trappings that we’re incorporating? or are those really closer to the essence of buddhism? is the compatibility with science (or lack thereof) something that we inject into the conversation or is that really close to the essence of buddhism?

Blogpost: essential buddhism vs cultural buddhism

and from Joe at the And Now For Something Completely Different blog

Paraphrasing Slavoj Zizek: “Western Buddhism” as it is used today represents a set of techniques and methods that are designed basically to make your crappy office job more meaningful and less stressful. This is why he calls it the ideal supplement to or “hegemonic ideology par excellance of global capitalism” (that’s in On Belief).

I think Zizek’s onto something here.

If your motivation for practice is “stress relief,” I humbly suggest a reconsideration of your motivation for practice is in order.

This doesn’t address the broader speculative question, however, of what an authentic Buddhism that is integrated in an intelligent way with Euro-American culture might look like. Really, it’ll have to take some generations of rigorous practice for that to come around.

blogpost: Backhanded praise for Zizek’s Western Buddhism

It is clearly something more people are wrestling with. Is our Western version of Buddhism just an adapted, skinned version (because of practicalities AND the distinction between philosophy of life and religion) of what it should be or are we moving towards the essence of Buddhism ? Only time will tell.

I recently came across this blog about a trip report from two Christian Americans, Justin and Amy Perry, who are bound to find out more about other religions. And Buddhism is ofcourse one of them. You can always visit their blog From Texas To Thailand.

At first, it was very intimidating to share the gospel with Buddhist. I kept waiting for a time when they would get angry or argumentitive with us, but that was never the case. The people were very open. I realized right away how hopeless the people feel in Buddhism. They do not have a relationship with God like we do, and they long for that. They also are amazed that someone loved them enough to give their life for them.

We’ve come to the end of Buddhism (the title was a bit deceiving :))

I always appreciate it when people go through the effort of trying to get to know other people and cultures, even if their belief systems are completely different. It just shows good hearts can be found everywhere. It was the term “hopeless” that made my inners suddenly protest since it is usually perceived as a rather negative word. But in the eyes of Christians, Buddhists perhaps may be deemed as hopeless as they do not have something or some third person to cling on to in rough days (unless for the fact that all bad things come to an end). I must admit Christianity (and many other major religions) do a much better job at this as they are offering people easier support. And that probably is of major importance in a world that continues to see more and more ugly and hurtful things. I also can believe that some students are longing for a little bit more clarity, a little bit more support, a little bit more structure and that they would love the idea that some God is always behind them. But to me personally, as I don’t believe in a God, I could never really long for that support other people can enjoy. I feel like it would be fooling myself.

The name of this file was Imnotthatcruel. It’s sad and beautiful at the same time if you imagine how somebody decided against his/her relationship because he/she realised that it doesn’t work the other way round. Unfortunately more and more relationships today are just a way to feel temporarily better about yourself and your life whilst not solving the real problems below. A way of hiding in another persons (safe & strong) arms.

I love this postcard as I strongly believe the person behind it will be happy with herself (Yes, I stopped doing him/herself as I’m convinced that it was a woman who wrote this ;)) in the end.

James Ure from thebuddhistblog writes this:

Speaking to the quote I am reminded of the period in my life when I came to the sobering realization that I had a mental illness. I felt panic at first that I would totally go insane but not too long after I felt relief that finally I had a definition to my struggles. I was forced to come to terms that I had a disease and just knowing that information helped me adjust my focus and stop trying to fight it and embrace it.

And so it is with a mental condition that you have to remain ever mindful of your mental formations/suffering so that you know when to make a course correction in either medication, behavior and/or a general lifestyle change. I think that is part of what led me to Buddhism as in many ways Buddhism is very much a psychological path with it’s emphasis on the mind and being mindful so that we are aware of delusions and suffering that appear in our lives. And in that regard meditation is quite like a medication because it often brings the similar relief to our minds that prescription drugs do.

We are All Crazy

This strongly complements my views on the brain illnesses many of us may encounter. It is Buddhism (and mindfulness) which helps us recognize and understand the behaviour and the reasons behind that behaviour. It helps us to look as objective as possible at ourselves. Thus, if we take this one step further, buddhism might help us to control this behaviour as well.

The main issue I continue to have with mental illnesses is that I know what it might do to us but I am still unsure as to where it originates. Do you get these diseases by chance (=randomness) or are they consequences of our past when we could not deal with everything we embark ? This question, which may as well have some solutions in its answer, might be puzzling me for a while to come. Time to dig up some scientific papers.

Welcome to Zenunbound.com. On this blog you will find a mixture of my own writings, which you can always see on the main site as well, and a summary and short commentary on the most interesting blog posts on Buddhism around the web.