{"id":901,"date":"2009-11-04T16:30:00","date_gmt":"2009-11-04T16:30:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/onecity\/2009\/11\/buddhism-is-not-a-religion-part-5-why-i-sit.html"},"modified":"2009-11-04T16:30:00","modified_gmt":"2009-11-04T16:30:00","slug":"buddhism-is-not-a-religion-part-5-why-i-sit","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/onecity\/2009\/11\/buddhism-is-not-a-religion-part-5-why-i-sit.html","title":{"rendered":"Buddhism is Not a Religion Part 5: Why I Sit"},"content":{"rendered":"

by Jerry Kolber
\nJerry is a writer and producer of film and TV based in NYC. His site
\nabout how to cook cheap delicious organic meals is at www.ThreeDollarDinner.com<\/a>.
<\/i>
It’s hard to believe in Judaism and also believe in Christianity, but you can believe in the Bible, and also believe in evolution. Buddhism does not require you to disbelieve anything. You can be Christian and believe in what the Buddha taught. You can believe in the power of the mind to heal, and also believe in the power of surgery.  You can believe in ghosts, and still believe the earth rotates the sun every 24 hours.  You can be a Jew, and believe in what the Buddha taught.<\/p>\n

And once you start to understand the very simple, very basic ideas of what the Buddha taught, you begin to see very clearly that he was really onto something. And that what he was on to was a way to deal with the pervasive sense of dissatisfaction. If your present spiritual practice has you feeling satisfied, and you’re not praying or hoping for an end to your dissatisfaction – you’re truly satisfied, you’re never finding yourself succumbing to fantasy, or retreating into your past – then keep doing what you’re doing!  <\/p>\n


\nBut if your present practice to understand reality or deal with dissatisfaction  – religion, journaling,
\nrunning as mediation, gardening, nothing, psychotherapy – leaves you dependent on something outside yourself for relief
\nof your dissatisfaction, I suggest you give the Buddha’s way a try. 
\nIt’s not a cult. It’s not a religion. It’s not even a way of life. It’s
\njust a way of understanding how things really are.<\/p>\n

Because everything else is layers of concept. Perception is another
\nword for the veil through which we look at reality. And reality, this
\npresent moment, the touch, the sensation, the energy of movement, is
\npositively exquisite and needs no window dressing. This is the view
\nthat Buddhism offers.  Perception is the window through which we look at the world.  Buddhist
\npractice – meditation, study, community – makes you aware of the habit
\nof confusing the window with the view.<\/p>\n

And if you feel so compelled to sit for five minutes today, gently
\nnotice the sensation of the breath entering and leaving your nostril,
\nnotice when you’re drifting into thought or losing focus on the breath.
\nYou WILL fail at not drifting into thought or fantasy – and that’s the
\npoint.  That’s why it’s called practice. The cessation of thought is
\nnot the point of Buddhism. The point is the recognition of what thought
\nis and where it comes from and what control it should and shouldn’t
\nought to have over your life. <\/p>\n

The Buddha was simply offering an opportunity to use a set of tools to recognize, work with, and step out of the habit of not paying attention
\nto reality.<\/p>\n

Though I have had (and continue to have) many things in my life that might be called “spiritual” or even “religious”, none has been so
\ndeeply effective as my Buddhist meditation practice and study of the Buddha’s teachings at
\noffering me clarity, insight, and a deepening sense of compassion for
\nall things in this universe, especially the things I don’t like.<\/p>\n

So with our Meditation Marathon approaching this Friday night, I offer you this
\nreason for why I sit. Our world is filled with an ever increasing
\nnumber of ways to throw us off kilter, challenge our basic notions of
\ngoodness, and cause us to wonder “what’s it all about”.  There’s a lot
\nwe have to deal with every day, the thousand tiny slings and arrows of
\neveryday life.<\/p>\n

I consider a hallmark of my own evolving practice to be that I am often able to offer
\ncompassion in circumstances in which before I might have habitually
\noffered aggression. I also find myself able to be more authentically present more frequently – to stand for what I believe in without having to fight for it.<\/p>\n

<\/div>\n
So, why do I sit (in 140 characters or less)? I sit because the more I sit, the more I can stand.<\/div>\n
<\/div>\n
To learn more about the 24 Hour Meditation Marathon, check out the IDP Site<\/a>. <\/div>\n
<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

by Jerry Kolber Jerry is a writer and producer of film and TV based in NYC. His site about how to cook cheap delicious organic meals is at www.ThreeDollarDinner.com.It’s hard to believe in Judaism and also believe in Christianity, but you can believe in the Bible, and also believe in evolution. Buddhism does not require…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":191,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5,7],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-901","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-buddhism","category-meditation"],"yoast_head":"\nBuddhism is Not a Religion Part 5: Why I Sit - One City<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/onecity\/2009\/11\/buddhism-is-not-a-religion-part-5-why-i-sit.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Buddhism is Not a Religion Part 5: Why I Sit - One City\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"by Jerry Kolber Jerry is a writer and producer of film and TV based in NYC. 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