It is my opinion that all of us, no matter what our faith might be, could benefit from a central teaching of Buddhism called mindfulness.

 

Dr. Stephen T. Asma, a professor of philosophy and humanities at Columbia College in Chicago, has written an interesting book about mindfulness and other Oriental teachings called Why I Am a Buddhist.”

 

Asma explains that it is our nature to try to hold on to what he calls our ego craving tendencies” and also our inborn inclination to live either in the past or in the future.

 

In response to this second human tendency, he quotes the Buddha himself who said that people who are truly mindful, do not repent the past, nor do they brood over the future. They live in the present. Therefore they are radiant. By brooding over the future and repenting the past, fools dry up like green reeds cut down in the sun.”

 

Aaccording to the Buddha, we must get a reality check about our transient joys. We should, of course enjoy the pleasures in life, but we should not “obsessively chase after them in a state of denial about their fleeing nature.

 

We would, of course, like our bodies to last forever, remaining youthful and beautiful, but that is simply hoping for the impossible.

 

Mindfulness teaches us what is impermanent and what is eternal, and we need to strive to know the difference.

 

According to the Buddha, our Atman, or our “essential self” is eternal. Christianity also, of course, teaches us the permanence of our souls, though there is a distinct difference, for whereas some other faiths believe in reincarnation back into this world, most of us here in the west do not accept this concept.

 

Another important difference between Christianity and Buddhism is that whereas Christianity emphasizes our need to submit ourselves to God and to his son, Jesus, Buddhism emphasizes discipline. According to the Buddha, we need to use our own psyche to untangle the messes in our lives and to raise ourselves above transient desires, rather than praying to a god to take care of us.

 

The Buddha's concept of mindfulness is also practical, and is similar to concepts in psychology in this country to help people with mental and physical conditions, such as obsessive-compulsive disorder, anxiety, depression and drug addiction.

 

Dr. Jack Kornfield, who has a doctorate in psychology, is another American Buddhist scholar who has tried to make those eastern concepts accessible for us in the west.

 

In his book After the Ecstasy, the Laundry, he writes that amid all the Western masters and teachers, there are “times of great wisdom, deep compassion, and a real knowing of freedom (which) alternate with periods of fear, confusion, neurosis, and struggle.”

 

In the end, he says, “Just three things matter: ‘How well we have loved, how well we have lived, and how well we have learned to let go.’”

 

He also says, we must surrender our illusions of control.

 

“We can love and care for others, but we cannot possess our children, lovers, family or friends. We can assist them, pray for them and wish they well, yet in the end, their happiness and suffering depend on their thoughts and actions, not on our wishes.

 

Your columnist has not converted to Buddhism, but these powerful concepts about mindfulness have had a positive effect upon her life, and she hopes they will have a similar influence upon yours.END=NAM MO SAKYAMUNI BUDDHA.( 3 TIMES ).WORLD VIETNAMESE BUDDHIST ORDER=VIETNAMESE BUDDHIST NUN=GOLDEN LOTUS MONASTERY=AUSTRALIA,SYDNEY.28/10/2013.THICH CHAN TANH.THE MIND OF ENLIGHTMENT.