Our personalities, it could be said, fall into six categories: Faithful, greedy, hateful, deluded, speculative and intelligent, and if we tend toward the speculative and intelligent, itÂ’s a good bet that our spiritual life will progress in fits and starts because we outsmart ourselves.
The bright side is that weÂ’re not easily fooled for long; we donÂ’t drink kool-aid with Jim Jones, and therefore we are somewhat insulated from many mistakes, wrong paths, etc. possibly made by other personalities.
Once we prove to ourselves that weÂ’ve hit upon the real deal, we hang with it, wringing it out until there is nothing left. This is what a speculative/intelligent personality does with everything, actually becoming more than just speculative, and becoming downright cynical! But when there is nothing more to wring out, and the speculative personality still canÂ’t get a handle on whatever it is that it is investigating, it becomes mesmerized with the possibility that it has finally discovered an avenue with no BS.
This itch that can’t be scratched and offers no real satisfaction is a unique experience for the intellectual/speculative personality. There is that “something” that you can’t quite put your finger on, but know it’s there, and you just can’t walk away from it either. Fortunate are the faithful and deluded personalities that can dwell in their complacency, as well as the hateful and greedy that can turn spirituality into a possession!
For the speculative and intelligent personality, it is good to practice a discipline or morality along with contemplative prayer or meditation, perhaps using one-pointed concentration simply to calm the mind to begin with. Once calm states or Samadhi are established, then that category of personality does well in integrating the insight developed into their lives by studying very deep, intellectual subjects; “slicing and dicing” to the point of exhausting the intellect. The insight developed from Samadhi will color the intellect, and previously impenetrable subjects will become mystically clear.
This combination of discipline, meditation, and an application of the resulting wisdom instills faith based on actual experience. This encourages the speculative, intelligent type. A belief based faith that the other personalities (bless them) can blissfully live with doesnÂ’t work with the speculative, intelligent type.
Discipline deepens meditation, and the increased awareness that develops from deepening meditation in turn alters the practitionerÂ’s actions so that the discipline will become more of a natural, effortless way of life rather than an externally imposed regimen. The speculative, intelligent personality is deeply interested in perfecting his or her human existence, and the practice mentioned can greatly enhance that aspiration.
Once this thing catches fire for them, a possibility of full enlightenment while living on earth is not out of reach.
E. Raymond Rock of Fort Myers, Florida is cofounder and principal teacher at the Southwest Florida Insight Center, http://www.SouthwestFloridaInsightCenter.com His twenty-eight years of meditation experience has taken him across four continents, including two stopovers in Thailand where he practiced in the remote northeast forests as an ordained Theravada Buddhist monk. His book, A Year to Enlightenment (Career Press/New Page Books) is now available at major bookstores and online retailers. Visit [http://www.AYearToEnlightenment.com]
New scripture on Buddhist discipline written under Mahinda Chinthanaya
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The Art of Taoist Tai Chi Tai Chi Chuan is an ancient art that has been practiced in China since the 11th century. Master Moy Lin-Shin, a Taoist monk, introduced the Taoist style of the Tai Chi to North America in 1970. Characterized by gentle yet thorough turning and stretching movements, Taoist Tai Chi is particularly effective as a means of health improvement for practitioners of all ages. Known as “moving meditation” T… |
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The End of Your World: Uncensored Straight Talk on the Nature of Enlightenment $15.42 More and more people today have had a glimpse of genuine spiritual awakening, only to see it slip away after a few hours or days. Adyashanti calls this the “I got it/I lost it” phenomenon, and it perplexes many of his students. For those caught between what he calls “non-abiding” awakening and the ultimate state of “abiding” enlightenment, Adyashanti offers The End of Your World–an in-depth look … |
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Dancing with Life: Buddhist Insights for Finding Meaning and Joy in the Face of Suffering $6.94 Why do we suffer? Is there a purpose to our pain? Noting that human beings have wrestled with such questions for thousands of years, Phillip Moffitt has found answers for his own life in Buddhist philosophy and meditation. Reflecting on his own journey from Esquire magazine editor-in-chief to Buddhist meditation teacher, Moffitt provides a fresh perspective on the Buddha’s ancient wisdom, showin… |
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Buddhism for Mothers: A Calm Approach to Caring for Yourself and Your Children $10.85 Addressing the often-overlooked spiritual needs of mothers, this book discusses Buddhist teachings as applied to the everyday challenges and stresses of raising children. Offered are ways for mothers to reconnect with their inner selves and become calmer and happier-with the recognition that a happier mother will be a better parent. This realistic look at motherhood acknowledges the sorrows as wel… |
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Buddhist Monastic Discipline $9.5 Buddhist Monastic Discipline |
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Discipline: The Canonical Buddhism Of The Vinayapitaka (buddhist Tradi $9.5 Discipline: The Canonical Buddhism Of The Vinayapitaka (buddhist Tradi |
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Buddhist Monastic Discipline: The Sanskrit Pr+atimokzsa S+utras Of The $17.98 Buddhist Monastic Discipline: The Sanskrit Pr+atimokzsa S+utras Of The |
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Buddhist Ethics $46.29 Ethics in Buddhism are traditionally based on what Buddhists view as the enlightened perspective of the Buddha, or other enlightened beings who followed him. Moral instructions are included in Buddhist scriptures or handed down through tradition. Most scholars of Buddhist ethics thus rely on the examination of Buddhist scriptures, and the use of anthropological evidence from traditional Buddhist societies, to justify claims about the nature of Buddhist ethics. For more on the academic discussion of Buddhist ethics, and its contested relationship to Western ethics, see alternative Wikipedia article on Buddhist Ethics (discipline). According to traditional Buddhism, the foundation of Buddhist ethics for laypeople is the Pancasila: no killing, stealing, lying, sexual misconduct, or intoxicants. In becoming a Buddhist, or affirming one’s commitment to Buddhism, a layperson is encouraged to vow to abstain from these negative actions. The precepts are not formulated as imperatives, but as training rules that laypeople undertake voluntarily to facilitate practice. |
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Buddhist Suttas $29.48 Originally published in 1881, this translation of Buddhist texts introduces readers to the most important messages from the Buddha, including those discussing the Eighth Fold Path and the Four Noble Truths. Spiritual seekers, new Buddhists, and anyone interested in the philosophy of Buddhism will find these suttas an essential read. German author FRIEDRICH MAX MULLER (1823-1900) combined the studies of language, culture, and religion to create the discipline of comparative mythology. Among his many works are India: What Can It Teach Us? and Wisdom of the Buddha: The Unabridged Dhammapada. |
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Buddhist Suttas $23.95 Originally published in 1881, this translation of Buddhist texts introduces readers to the most important messages from the Buddha, including those discussing the Eighth Fold Path and the Four Noble Truths. Spiritual seekers, new Buddhists, and anyone interested in the philosophy of Buddhism will find these suttas an essential read. German author FRIEDRICH MAX MULLER (1823-1900) combined the studies of language, culture, and religion to create the discipline of comparative mythology. Among his many works are India: What Can It Teach Us? and Wisdom of the Buddha: The Unabridged Dhammapada. |
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Buddhist Philosophy: Essential Readings $24.95 The Buddhist philosophical tradition is vast, internally diverse, and comprises texts written in a variety of canonical languages. It is hence often difficult for those with training in Western philosophy who wish to approach this tradition for the first time to know where to start, and difficult for those who wish to introduce and teach courses in Buddhist philosophy to find suitable textbooks that adequately represent the diversity of the tradition, expose students to important primary texts in reliable translations, that contextualize those texts, and that foreground specifically philosophical issues.brBuddhist Philosophy fills that lacuna. It collects important philosophical texts from each major Buddhist tradition. Each text is translated and introduced by a recognized authority in Buddhist studies. Each introduction sets the text in context and introduces the philosophical issues it addresses and arguments it presents, providing a useful and authoritative guide to reading and to teaching the text. The volume is organized into topical sections that reflect the way that Western philosophers think about the structure of the discipline, and each section is introduced by an essay explaining Buddhist approaches to that subject matter, and the place of the texts collected in that section in the enterprise.brThis volume is an ideal single text for an intermediate or advanced course in Buddhist philosophy, and makes this tradition immediately accessible to the philosopher or student versed in Western philosophy coming to Buddhism for the first time. It is also ideal for the scholar or student of Buddhist studies who is interested specifically in the philosophical dimensions of the Buddhist tradition. |
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Buddhist Philosophy: Essential Readings $72.3 The Buddhist philosophical tradition is vast, internally diverse, and comprises texts written in a variety of canonical languages. It is hence often difficult for those with training in Western philosophy who wish to approach this tradition for the first time to know where to start, and difficult for those who wish to introduce and teach courses in Buddhist philosophy to find suitable textbooks that adequately represent the diversity of the tradition, expose students to important primary texts in reliable translations, that contextualize those texts, and that foreground specifically philosophical issues.brBuddhist Philosophy fills that lacuna. It collects important philosophical texts from each major Buddhist tradition. Each text is translated and introduced by a recognized authority in Buddhist studies. Each introduction sets the text in context and introduces the philosophical issues it addresses and arguments it presents, providing a useful and authoritative guide to reading and to teaching the text. The volume is organized into topical sections that reflect the way that Western philosophers think about the structure of the discipline, and each section is introduced by an essay explaining Buddhist approaches to that subject matter, and the place of the texts collected in that section in the enterprise.brThis volume is an ideal single text for an intermediate or advanced course in Buddhist philosophy, and makes this tradition immediately accessible to the philosopher or student versed in Western philosophy coming to Buddhism for the first time. It is also ideal for the scholar or student of Buddhist studies who is interested specifically in the philosophical dimensions of the Buddhist tradition. |
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Buddhist Animal Wisdom Stories $13.01 Around the beginning of the common era, Indian Buddhists began to collect fables illuminating various human virtues and foibles–from kindness, cooperation, loyalty and self-discipline on the one hand to greed, pride, foolishness, and treachery on the other. Instead of populating these stories with people, they cast the animals of their immediate environment in the leading roles–which may have given the tales a universal appeal that helped them travel around the world, surfacing in the Middle East as Aesop’s fables and in various other guises throughout East and Southeast Asia, Africa, Russia, and Europe. Author and painter Mark McGinnis has collected over forty of these hallowed popular tales and retold them in vividly poetic yet accessible language, their original Buddhist messages firmly intact. Each story is accompanied with a beautifully rendered full-color painting, making this an equally attractive book for children and adults, whether Buddhist or not, who love fine stories about their fellow wise (and foolish) creatures. |
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Buddhist Animal Wisdom Stories $19.95 Around the beginning of the common era, Indian Buddhists began to collect fables, or jataka tales, illuminating various human virtues and foibles–from kindness, cooperation, loyalty and self-discipline on the one hand to greed, pride, foolishness, and treachery on the other. Instead of populating these stories with people, they cast the animals of their immediate environment in the leading roles–which may have given the tales a universal appeal that helped them travel around the world, surfacing in the Middle East as Aesop’s fables and in various other guises throughout East and Southeast Asia, Africa, Russia, and Europe.brAuthor and painter Mark McGinnis has collected over forty of these hallowed popular tales and retold them in vividly poetic yet accessible language, their original Buddhist messages firmly intact. Each story is accompanied with a beautifully rendered full-color painting, making this an equally attractive book for children and adults, whether Buddhist or not, who love fine stories about their fellow wise (and foolish) creatures. |
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The Heritage of the Bhikkhu: The Buddhist Tradition of Service $6.46 DIVWalpola Rahula’s What the Buddha Taught is a perennial backlist best-seller and has proven to be an indispensable guide to beginning Buddhism. It is renowned for its authoritative, clear, logical, and comprehensive approach. The Heritage of the Bhikkhu is a vivid account of the Buddhist monk’s role as a servant to people’s needs as a follower and teacher of the basic Buddhist principles. In this fascinating and informative volume, the author — a noted Buddhist monk and scholar who received monastic training and education in Sri Lanka — emphasizes Buddhism as a practical doctrine for daily living and spiritual perfection, not simply a monastic discipline. The Heritage of the Bhikkhu is a pioneering work that deserves to stand with the author’s earlier masterpiece./div |
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Buddhist Animal Wisdom Stories $15.98 Around the beginning of the common era, Indian Buddhists began to collect fables, or jataka tales, illuminating various human virtues and foibles—from kindness, cooperation, loyalty and self-discipline on the one hand to greed, pride, foolishness, and treachery on the other. Instead of populating these stories with people, they cast the animals of their immediate environment in the leading roles—which may have given the tales a universal appeal that helped them travel around the world, surfacing in the Middle East as Aesop’s fables and in various other guises throughout East and Southeast Asia, Africa, Russia, and Europe. Author and painter Mark McGinnis has collected over forty of these hallowed popular tales and retold them in vividly poetic yet accessible language, their original Buddhist messages firmly intact. Each story is accompanied with a beautifully rendered full-color painting, making this an equally attractive book for children and adults, whether Buddhist or not, who love fine stories about their fellow wise (and foolish) creatures. |
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Buddhist Mahyna Texts $21.95 The Buddhist Mahyna is a series of poems written in the first century AD that tell the legendary history of the life of the Buddha. The last four books of this version of the text were written by a Nepalese author in the 1830s in an attempt to reconstruct lost books. Buddhists and anyone interested in religious studies and comparative mythology will be delight in this hagiographic account of the life of the foundational figure of one of the world’s great religions. English scholar EDWARD BYLES COWELL (1826-1903), who lived in Calcutta from 1856 to 1867, is most famous for his translations of the poetry of Hafez. German author FRIEDRICH MAX MULLER (1823-1900) combined the studies of language, culture, and religion to create the discipline of comparative mythology. Among his many works are The Sacred Books of the East, India: What Can It Teach Us?, and Wisdom of the Buddha: The Unabridged Dhammapada. |
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Buddhist Mahyna Texts $23.74 The Buddhist Mahyna is a series of poems written in the first century AD that tell the legendary history of the life of the Buddha. The last four books of this version of the text were written by a Nepalese author in the 1830s in an attempt to reconstruct lost books. Buddhists and anyone interested in religious studies and comparative mythology will be delight in this hagiographic account of the life of the foundational figure of one of the world’s great religions. English scholar EDWARD BYLES COWELL (1826-1903), who lived in Calcutta from 1856 to 1867, is most famous for his translations of the poetry of Hafez. German author FRIEDRICH MAX MULLER (1823-1900) combined the studies of language, culture, and religion to create the discipline of comparative mythology. Among his many works are The Sacred Books of the East, India: What Can It Teach Us?, and Wisdom of the Buddha: The Unabridged Dhammapada. |
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Dignity and Discipline (Paperback) $13.14 Assesses the evolving role of women in Buddhism and the parallel contributions of Tibetan medicine in history and the modern world, in a collection of essays that explores the ways in which progressive Buddhist women groups are participating in global movements that may promote an acceptance of full ordination status. Original. |
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Buddhist Animal Wisdom Stories $16.46 Around the beginning of the common era, Indian Buddhists began to collect fables illuminating various human virtues and foibles–from kindness, cooperation, loyalty and self-discipline on the one … |
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Discipline $3.48 Discipline : The Glad Surrender by Elisabeth Elliot Reprint Published in 1985 by Revell |
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School Discipline and Self-discipline $33.95 School Discipline and Self-discipline |
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Discipline That Develops Self-Discipline $27.5 Discipline That Develops Self-Discipline |
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Discipline (Discipline Series) $20.56 Discipline (Discipline Series) |
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Discipline $8.95 Brazelton, a pediatrician and author of the popular TOUCHPOINTS books, and Sparrow, a child psychologist, provide parents with advice on how to properly discipline children from infancy through age 6. Working from the concept that discipline means teachin |
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Buddhist Sword $344 Buddhist Sword |
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The Buddhist Unconscious $174.6 The Buddhist Unconscious |
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Buddhist Art $18.75 Buddhist Art |
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Buddhist Wisdom $11.7 Buddhist Wisdom |
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Buddhist Relaxation $13.29 Buddhist Relaxation |
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Buddhist Philosophy $21.34 Buddhist Philosophy |
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Buddhist Wisdom $6.71 Buddhist Wisdom |
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The 12-Step Buddhist $12.8 The 12-Step Buddhist |
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Buddhist Scriptures $13.5 Buddhist Scriptures |
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A Buddhist in the Classroom $46.07 A Buddhist in the Classroom |
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Buddhist Meditation $97 Buddhist Meditation |
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A Buddhist in the Classroom $15.47 A Buddhist in the Classroom |
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The Buddhist Handbook $15.25 The Buddhist Handbook |
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Buddhist Psychology $13.45 Buddhist Psychology |
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Buddhist Ethics $8.96 Buddhist Ethics |
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The Buddhist Dead $64.99 The Buddhist Dead |
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Buddhist Art $52.5 Buddhist Art |
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The Accidental Buddhist $12.55 The Accidental Buddhist |
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Buddhist Stories $18.92 Buddhist Stories |
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Buddhist Inspirations $11.91 Buddhist Inspirations |
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Buddhist Scriptures $13.6 Buddhist Scriptures |
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Buddhist Cosmology $11.65 Buddhist Cosmology |
