h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

One of the best things about Buddism is that you don't have to be a religious type of person to get into it.

You don't have to worry about ancient histories of people getting nailed to trees, circumcision's or holy war's. If you don't happen to have faith in much that sounds that outworldly, becoming an agnostic buddist could be for you.

One of the main lessons of Buddism is the awakening, which broadly covers the 'look-you-don't-know-a-damn-thing-in-the-world-so-get-over-it'. Once you get past this realisation that we really don't know anything, then that's a good place to start.

Term's like 'embracing and becoming one with the nothingness' tend to be rather misunderstood when it comes to translations. It broadly means that in being all we can be, and becoming 'nothing' doesn't mean that we all give up and disappear.
Think of it as an athelete, that does a move over and over again. For example a football player passing a ball. He does it time and time again, until he reaches the zenith of perfection. The move he does is innate and he can do it without even thinking. This unconscious perfect move is the example of 'becoming one with the nothingness'.

Buddism didn't make much of a lasting impression in India, where people obviously thought that gods with lots of arms and long names were a much better alternative. It did however, take off in Asia, most notably China.

Plus you still get to eat both meat and pork. What a sweet deal.

Isn't it spelt "Buddhism"?
"Buddism" sounds like the worship of weak American beer.

Hmm. Yes.

My journey through Buddhism has taught me to remove all earthly conditioning as fear based, fear being a motivating factor in denial of the self and promoter of ego. Nothingness is not emptiness, but is whole or all in the moment. How's this for going out on a limb...we are ONE.

I've read the above posting three times and I still don't understand it. What sort of "earthly conditioning" do you mean? What's the difference between "self" and "ego"?
And finally - if we're all ONE, can you send me some money? After all, it wouldn't make any difference because it would still belong to the same ONE!

Congratulations on an excellent article. I "dipped" briefly into Buddhism/Buddism briefly when I was studying to teach Yoga and found it to be most interesting and much of it was how I already felt about "life, the universe and everything" although I do find it difficult to apply to my own life. (I'm an atheist by trade but as Buddhism isn't actually a religion, I can relate to it.)

As for answering a previous question...the closest I can get to the idea that we are all one is that we are all made out of the stuff of the universe and that is what we go back to although one day, according to some theories even that will end.

I'm probably barking up the wrong tree.....

bark me up baby!
i see mandelbrot sets as illustrating pretty well the whole 'all are one' theory

"agnostic buddist"? i was under the impression that buddhism did not acknowledge a god.....but perhaps that just tibeten

I'm still not fully enlightened enough to present this as clearly as I would like, but here it is as it stands for me...There isn't much of a difference between 'ego' and 'self' because they are both possessive in nature and the true art of the Buddhist path is to be void of physical and mental possession. To truly empty your mind and remove the self can be daunting to say the least, you would probably become fearful of the nothingness and worry of your own existence, ergo the ego. The purpose of Yoga discipline is to eliminate the impurities caused by the process of conditioning so that the Light of Pure Unconditioned Awareness may shine. There are several ways to practice Yoga to achieve this awareness...This is Yoga Sutra 29 by Patanjali:'The eight instruments of Yoga are abstinences, observances, posture, breath-control, abstraction, awareness, attention and communion or absorption.' Yoga is a state of mind completely free from all reactive tendencies. The mind in this context has to be considered not merely as an instrument of a thought-process but as a field where thought and emotion function together. By its thought-emotive activities it builds up certain tendencies. These tendencies are the grooves of the mind into which thought-emotion current inevitably flows. These tendencies are called habits of the mind. Habits are the centres of reaction formed in the mind. By the formation of these habits the mind and its activities show forth characteristics of reactive impulses. When we say that we are thinking, all that we are doing is engaging in a process of reaction. There is built within the mind a chain of reactions. These reactive tendencies become our habits. Today this will be as close as I can get to an explanation of earthly conditioning or acquired nature.

This is all getting a bit too deep and meaningful more me ..... I'm off to do some Yoga!

This boggles my brain as well on a daily basis...I'll just keep breathing, that seems to work for me.

Breathing, yes - I remember that! I used to do a lot of "yogic" breathing as part of meditation and it worked wonders but children seem to have made concentration on anything apart from avoiding toys on the floor impossible!

Ahh yes, I can relate to toy debris...Try to view it as cosmic dust constantly shifting to other places other than where they ought to be. Although that analogy never worked for me, it might for you! I personally think parents need a room they can call their own...and the bathroom doesn't count, even if you ARE using more than usual.

Cosmic dust is what I call the general household dust collecting everywhere because I'm not doing the housework as I'm at this here computer all the time! Still, someone once told me that after six months, it doesn't get any worse... Got to go - les enfants are demanding I feed them! (The little ....... darlings! Yes, that's it - darlings.... mumble, mumble)

I love 'em to bits really!

It's true, it doesn't get worse after six months! We are sharing shoes...You walk in the kitchen and suddenly the wee ones think of food, as if you are soley associated with the cooker and the cooler. It all starts at birth...2 hour feeds and sleepless nights, just so they can grow louder and stronger and more determined to explore this wonderous Universe! It's the toughest job I've ever had! So hats off to you and just in case it's one of those days...Thank-You, you ARE appreciated...these kudos don't always have to come from the inner circle!

Thank you. That makes me feel much better and somehow all the grey hairs worth while! I've got one pre-pubescent 12 year old girl who mooches about the house and the other is a boy of nine who is autistic and demands attention instantly although he's the best thing since sliced bread and I could actually eat him...

The old Yoga is practiced rather sparcely these days!

Your hands and heart are full. I have 3 girls, ages 8,7 and 6 on Saturday! I have no idea as to how we will all survive the teen years...one day at a time I suppose!

I keep remembering how I felt when I was a teenager and it scares me to think Mair may have to go through what I did although my parents were very "Victorian" and I TRY to be open and "liberal" with Mair. How we're going to cope with an autistic lad going through his teens is going to be "interesting". There must be other parents of autistic children who have experienced this, so I must try to find out how they coped.

I know so little about Autism but I'm familiar with challenged people in the family. My brother had Menengitis when he was 1 year old. Since that fateful day he suffers from seizures and has a mental capacity of a 2 year old. Teen years for him were rife with angst, just as mine were. It's been one big lesson in compassion and understanding of anothers plight, if only for a moment.

I'm so sorry to hear about your brother. How old is he now? Does he still live at home with your family?

He's 39,I'm 1 year younger than him...you do the math! He hasn't lived at home since he was 6 years old...a synopsis;my mother and father were not a happy couple,he left, mom at home with 5 children 1 who gets up in the night to go outside and roam(not good),she was becoming emotionally drained,this was the 'sixties' and things were not favouring women and the needs of a fatherless family, she had to work,thus Michael became a ward of the province,we visited every other weekend, not a nice place,mom & dad back together,brother still away,mom/dad years later finally divorce(thank goodness),institutions deemed inhumane and unfeasible,he is now in a group home with 4 other boys and loving careworkers a block from mom's place...together again! Sorry for the choppy explanation, I'm going to bed now...we'll talk soon.