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Clarke Scott is a fully ordained Buddhist monk trained in the Tibetan tradition. A student of His Holiness the 14th Dalai Lama, Clarke has received personal instructions—direct one-to-one instructions—on Madhyamaka philosophy and meditation from His Holiness. Recently Clarke moved to Tasmania to pursue a Ph.D in Buddhist philosophy from the University of Tasmania.
Change our minds not our location
By Loden Jinpa – September 9, 2007 · General
I just came across a blog by http://www.tysonwilliams.com/2007/09/your-natural-pure-presence.html
Where he eludes to the real purpose of dharma, and that is to change our minds not our location.
When I became a monk a friend of mine who currently works for Microsoft in the UK, said “Sometimes I wish I could go off and hide in a cave.”
I didn’t say anything at the time, but this is so far away from where the tradition of Buddhism I follow is. That is to say that although there is the notion of doing retreat and spending hours meditating. This in no way excludes living in the world! In fact the real purpose of retreat from a Mahayana Buddhist point of view is to help others. You meditate in order to develop more compassion, more wisdom and then your love and wisdom to be of benefit to others. Buddhism is a humanist endeavor…or I should say…a living being-ist endeavour.
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2 Responses to “Change our minds not our location”
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Hi I have a quick question that hopefuly someone there can answer for me.
What is the effect in our mind and body eating onions, garlic and others similar and why is not permitted in Buddhism the eating of this type of food?
Thank you for any help on this matter.
Luis Moreno
Hi Luis,
Thank you for your question.
The so-called “black foods” can be the cause of subtle disturbances in our nervous system resulting in blockages to the practice of meditation.
However, Buddhism has many different schools and at least to my knowledge none of them fully reject the eating of these foods at together. I eat them!
But there are times when it can be useful to not eat them, such as when on retreat. But again I do.
I hope that helps?
If there is anything else I can do for you please let me know.