Lama Surya Das sets the record straight on golden fishes, parasols, vases, and other auspicious signs.
Q: I am interested in religious symbols. I heard that the fish is an ancient Buddhist symbol, as well as a sign of Jesus. Is there some connection?
A: The fish is one of the Eight Auspicious Symbols in Buddhism. These ancient symbols predate both Christianity and Buddhism, originating in the very early spiritual traditions of India. I have read that in the face of Roman persecution, early Christians used a simple line drawing of a fish as a secret sign or password to stand in for the name...
Big questions sometimes come from little people.
Q. My four-year-old son has asked me "who made God?" How do I answer him?
A: Thanks for your son's excellent question which reminds me that 2,200 years ago the Chinese philosopher Mencius said: "The great man is he who does not lose his child-like heart."
The direct answer is to your child's question is: No one made God. However, I would not necessarily respond to my child that way. I might say--and I am just finger painting here, not working on the elaborate oil canvas that such a universal discussion really deserves--the same...
Lama Surya Das explains why Buddhist teachers have so many titles.
Q. I hear and read about a lot of Buddhist titles--rinpoche, roshi, sensai, etc. What do they mean?
First, it is helpful to recognize that various titles are in different languages and belong to particular traditions or schools of Buddhism. For example, lama is a title that refers to a priest, spiritual teacher, or master (male and female) in Tibetan Buddhism. The word’s literal meaning is "none above" or "weighty with qualities."
Ogden Nash once wrote a limerick, beginning: "A one-l lama, he’s a priest; a two-ll...
It may not look like much is going on, but spiritual practice can unleash a flood of creative activity.
Q: What is the relationship between creativity and spirituality? I sometimes think that trying to clear my mind and not think actually stifles my creative process.
A: Personally, I have found that meditation helps clear my mind and open my heart in a way that is very conducive to creative expression. Many of my spiritual friends also find this to be true. And conversely, many people have found that communing with the Muses is not unlike connecting with their God, Higher Power or inner...
The Enlightened One would advocate restraint, reason, compassion, and understanding.
This article originally appeared on Beliefnet in September 2001.
What would the Buddha do? No one can really say for sure, any more than anyone can say in truth why God sent death to 3,000 innocent people last week at the hands of a terrorist attack. (I personally consider it the handiwork of man, not God, and that we might do well to look amongst and within ourselves for the causes.)
However, I am sure that the Compassionate Buddha would stop for a prolonged moment of mindfulness and total attention—-silent,...
Holidays--Buddhist or otherwise--offer auspicious times for practice and reflection.
Q: What kinds of holidays does Buddhism have?
A: Buddhists around the world celebrate many different holidays, stemming from divergent cultural influences and the use of different calendars. The principal one, celebrated by Buddhists around the world regardless of tradition, is Vesak (pronounced way-sak), the commemoration of Buddha's birth, death, and enlightenment. Vesak occurs every year on the full moon in May.
But there is variation in the observance of the various milestones of the Buddha's life...
The lama sets the record straight on the ins and outs of a much misunderstood term.
Q. What is Tantra? I have heard it has something to do with spiritual sex.
A. Tantra is often associated with sacred sex. The ancient Sanskrit word tantra literally means "warp and woof" or "continuation" and refers to non-duality, interwovenness, or oneness through the union of opposites.
Tantra is an ancient, esoteric Indian spiritual tradition, common to both Hinduism and Buddhism, dating back to before the time of Christ--and even the Buddha, who lived in the sixth century B.C.E. Buddha is said to have...
In Buddhism, you really do reap what you sow.
Q. I keep hearing the word karma these days. Does it mean destiny?
A: "Karma" is an ancient Sanskrit word that means "causation, cause and effect, conditioning, or action and reaction." In Tibetan, the word for karma is leh, which literally means action. In ancient Pali, the language of the earliest Buddhist texts, the word for karma is kamma, which means "deeds." I define karma as reaction, or conditioning. The idea is that there are no accidents, that everything happens for a reason, even if that reason is not immediately perceptible. All major...
Even the Dalai Lama gets angry. The trick is what you do with it.
Q: What did the Buddha teach about anger, specifically righteous anger? Is any anger acceptable in Buddhism?
A: The Dalai Lama recently answered the question, "Is there a positive form of anger?" by saying that righteous anger is a "defilement" or "afflictive emotion"--a Buddhist term translated from the Sanskrit word klesha--that must be eliminated if one seeks to achieve nirvana. He added that although anger might have some positive effects in terms of survival or moral outrage, he did not accept anger of any kind as a virtuous...
Can one be self-accepting and motivated at the same time?
Q: I hear a lot about acceptance and self-acceptance, but how can acceptance actually help? It seems to me the more I have to strive to change things in my life, the more gets done and the better life goes, things go, while if I simply accept things as they are, then less gets accomplished.
A: A Thai master named Achaan Cha said:
"Try to do everything with a mind that lets go.
If you let go a little you will have a little peace.
If you let go a lot, you will have a lot of peace.
If you let go completely, you will know complete...
