—MATTHEW BORTOLIN, AUTHOR OF THE … · Showing how Buddhism boldly approaches life’s problems...

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“SHOOTS STRAIGHT AND DOESN’T BLINK. IT’S JOHN WAYNE MEETS ZEN, COMPLETE WITH ALL THE WISDOM AND TOUGH-GUY CHARM YOU’D EXPECT.”—MATTHEW BORTOLIN, AUTHOR OF THE DHARMA OF STAR WARS

IN BUDDHISM FOR DUDES , GERRY “STRIB” STRIBLING, FORMER MARINE and all-around good guy, takes a good look at who the Buddha was, meditation, karma, and more with good humor and without sentimen-tality. Showing how Buddhism boldly approaches life’s problems head on, unflinching and alert—like a soldier in a forward listening post in the dark of night—Strib emphasizes the Buddhist call to moral action for the good of oneself and others.

This is B U D D H I S T B A S I C T R A I N I N G for T H E A V E R A G E J O E .

G E R R Y S T R I B L I N G was born into a military family and served in the Marine Corps in the early 1970s. Since 1991 he has worked as a case manager for disabled, impoverished, homeless, and criminal populations. Stribling and his wife make their home in Louisville, Kentucky.

ISBN 978-1-61429-229-6 US $14.95 | CAN $17.95

BUDDHISM

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BUDDHISM FOR DUDES

Wisdom Publications, Inc. - Not for Distribution

Buddhism for DudesA JARHEAD’S FIELD GUIDE

TO MINDFULNESS

GERRY STRIBLING


Wisdom Publications199 Elm StreetSomerville, MA 02144 USAwisdompubs.org

© 2015 Gerald F. StriblingAll rights reserved.

No part of this book may be reproduced in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photography, recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system or technologies now known or later developed, without per-mission in writing from the publisher.

Library of Congress Cataloging- in- Publication Data Stribling, Gerry, author. Buddhism for dudes / Gerry Stribling. pages cm ISBN 1-61429-229-9 (pbk. : alk. paper) 1. Buddhism. 2. Buddhists—Religious life. I. Title. BQ4132.S76 2015 294.3—dc23 2014047476

ISBN 978- 1- 61429- 229- 6 eBook ISBN 978- 1- 61429- 244- 9

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For Nanda


Contents

Introduction 1 1. Buddhism, No Bullshit 7 2. Who Was the Buddha? 13 3. Is Buddhism a Religion or Not? 19 4. So, Like, What Is Truth? 27 5. The Middle Path 39 6. Karma and Rebirth 57 7. How It’s Done for Real 69 8. A Beautiful Mind 75 9. The Well- Trained Brain 83 10. Meditation: Can I Be “Sorta- Kinda” Buddhist? 89 11. OK, This Is Really Important 107 12. The Real Secret of Life 113 13. Roadside Attractions 119 Acknowledgments 125 About the Author 127


Introduction

When I traveled to Sri Lanka as a volunteer after the World Trade Center went down on September 11, 2001, I wanted to show all my scaredy- cat friends back home that the only thing they had to fear was… fear itself. My original destination was Pakistan. But given the climate in Pakistan at the time, I figured my chances of being beheaded that summer would be significantly less in Sri Lanka.

And so terrorism had a hand in creating this book, because my change of venue gave me the great good fortune, quite by accident, to study the wisdom of Buddhism with monks, forty of them, in fact, ranging in age from ten to eighty. Studying with them on their home turf was especially delightful—after dark, in the less sti-fling heat of night, the smell of incense and lamp


2 buddhism for dudes

oil and jasmine, and the occasional raucous cry of a peacock back in the jungle, sitting on low benches so that I was seated at cobra level, lower than the monks. I spent many months literally sitting at the feet of my mentors, some of them the most eminent Buddhist thinkers in South Asia, and even at the feet of the eleven- year-old novice who taught me how to chant.

Sri Bodhiraja Monastery, like the U.S. Marines, is a fairly regimented and gender- specific envi-ronment. It just so happens that my two periods of greatest personal growth were in times and places where everyone around me was male, and everybody wore the same outfits. What did I learn from them? The Marines teach self- sacrifice and monks teach—and live—the secret of life, which is to enjoy self-sacrifice. That’s why monks are happy guys. I learned how to step up for others from the Marines and how to be happy from my monk friends. Having lived in both of these worlds, my experience is that these two ways of life fold seamlessly into one another.


introduction 3

But don’t take my word for it. Out of all the people who ever wrote a book in an attempt to interpret Buddhist wisdom, I am probably the worst example of a Buddhist. I think I’m a pretty good Buddhist, but so many who came before me are, well, holy men. I’ve met a few holy men, and I’m not one of them. There isn’t a precept I haven’t broken or a spiritual goal that I have fully attained. So: do not take my word for anything.

Know who else said that? The Buddha.I merrily stumble my way down the Mid-

dle Path, as the teachings are sometimes called, because it makes me sane. When you start strip-ping away the nonsense stuck in your head, all the bad learning and misplaced priorities, and you poke your head out the door to take an hon-est look at the world, you can see just what a dis-mal place full of agony and suffering the world is.

But here’s the thing! Fortunately, seeing the truth has a way of setting you free. It can even vaccinate you against the horrors we face in life and show you how to be basically happy.



Personally, I love to be happy. Oh, sure, I get a case of the red- ass every now and then, but generally and genuinely happy I am, and happy I intend to stay. Buddhism has a lot to offer in terms of wis-dom that can get you through the hardest parts of life, and that can generally make you happy to be alive no matter what.

So here you have it, in an easy- to- carry format: Gerry the Jarhead’s take on Buddhist wisdom for the Average Joe, a take heavy on the info and light on the metaphysics. Here I share a secret mystery of life with guys who only read books during the off- season. You know: guys who head for the gambling boat when there’s a big welter-weight fight on so they can re invest the money they would have spent watching it at home on pay- per- view; guys with bumper stickers on the back of their pickups that say, “A bad day fishing is better than a good day working.”

Get it? This is not a book written with women in mind. I’m not trying to be sexist by not consid-ering women’s perspectives. If you’re a woman,


introduction 5

you are quite welcome to read this book. But I’m basically clueless about women; I know that I’m not qualified to write for women. I’ve been mar-ried to one for forty years, but that doesn’t mean that I actually know anything about women. I’m only a guy.

Know who else said “I’m only a guy”? The Buddha!


3Is Buddhism a Religion or Not?

Now, the notion that the Buddha was not divine confused the heck out of me when I first took up residence at a Buddhist temple in Asia. I hung out exclusively in the company of monks for months, during which time I saw a lot of what looked to me a heck of a lot like religious rituals. Several times a day monks would chant what seemed to be prayers, and they frequently behaved toward statues in a way that any Orthodox Rabbi would call “bowing down to false idols.”

Dozens of Buddha statues sat around the tem-ple’s campus, but the main one, the big guy in the shrine, was humongous—at least triple life- sized, and covered in gold. In many parts of Asia, you can’t turn around without seeing a Buddha



image—a little Buddha here, a big Buddha there, even Buddhas carved out of entire mountains. Every shop in Sri Lanka and Thailand has its own little shrine, and every home has one too. You’ll encounter roadside Buddha shrines wherever you go. The Buddha is everywhere.

One night at the temple I had the chance to ask some fairly hot- shot Buddhist theologians about what the monks were up to during their services. Revealing my confusion, I asked, “If the Buddha was just a dude and not a god, then why do peo-ple bow down and pray to his image? What does all that worship have to do with Buddhism?”

Buddhism, I was informed, is not a religion. It is a moral philosophy. Buddhist “worship” isn’t really worship, chanting isn’t the same as prayer, and Buddha images are ubiquitous because we need to be reminded that there is a code of con-duct to live by, and that this guy figured it out. When Buddhists sit before the Buddha’s image they are reminded of the inner peace that they should enjoy if they live meditative, compassion-


is buddhism a religion or not? 21

ate, and moral lives. The Buddha said that there was no reason to venerate him personally. His message is what’s important.

By chanting we repeat the Buddha’s message in order to remind ourselves of what we already know. Bowing and holding one’s hands together in a prayerful way are Asian traditions. You see people make these gestures all the time over much of Asia, as well as any yoga class you might care to attend. To greet someone with a bow and your hands together is almost like shaking hands in the West, only there is an added ele-ment of reverence and respect. Showing respect is not worshipping. It’s also more sanitary than shaking hands.

Most of us need ritual and tradition, even some form of “worship,” if you want to call it that, whether we get it from religion or not. When it comes to ritual and tradition, NASCAR and the NFL and a standing tee time with your foursome might meet that need. But for those of you who do especially derive comfort from participating



in religious rituals, the good news is that some Buddhist traditions meet the “old-time religion” requirement that many people seem to need in order to feel like they’re a part of something bigger. In the Buddhist world you can “go to church” every day if you like, and on the full moon of every month there is a religious holiday to celebrate.

If you really want to worship something, my mentors suggested worshipping trees. Trees are living beings, and they are our brothers and sis-ters who do so much good for us. In some real sense, the Buddha worshipped the tree under which he gained enlightenment. “If you want to worship your creator,” they added, “then wor-ship your parents.”

“Good answer,” I thought.If you’re a Judeo-Christian kind of guy, you

might think that embracing the Buddha’s wis-dom constitutes a negation of your present beliefs. Does studying the Dharma and follow-ing the Buddhist path actually make you a trai-tor to your religion? Well, the Buddha never took



a stand on whether there’s a central intelligence in command of the universe—a God, so to speak, with a capital G—because, he said, he wasn’t concerned about that. But you have to look at that statement in context. As a dude and not a god, he couldn’t claim to know anything more about metaphysical stuff than anybody else. The Buddha also said that everything should be ques-tioned, including what he himself said. That’s because, to quote an old country- and- western song, “You’ve got to walk that lonesome valley / You’ve got to walk it by yourself / Oh, nobody else can walk it for you...”

Nowhere in the Buddhist world did people impose the Buddha’s philosophy on other peo-ple, and those who spread the Dharma through-out Asia tended to respect the deities and beliefs of those to whom they preached. Buddha’s take on religion is that if the religion teaches peace and compassion, then by all means follow it. If it teaches hatred, then (as they say in Jersey) “Fuhgeddaboudit.”



You’re responsible for your own life. You have to make good choices and obtain wisdom on your own. And you can only gain real wisdom through personal experience. If you put your faith in what others say instead of what you have learned for yourself, then you’re a patsy.

So here’s my take on the whole can- a- Christian- be- a- Buddhist issue. There is nothing about Bud-dhism in its most essential form that contradicts anything espoused by any other religion. The idea that Buddhism is an “atheistic religion” doesn’t stem from some “There is no God” core belief. Buddhism just doesn’t go there. Studying the Dharma is about gaining wisdom about how to get the most out of your life, about Being All That You Can Be. You can be Christian or Jewish and Buddhist at the same time. Lots of people are. Just bear in mind that Buddhism recommends skepticism about anything that other people tell you is true. If God has touched your life in some way, that’s proof enough of His existence because it comes from your personal experience.



I have even heard Jesus referred to by Bud-dhists. Some monks I’ve met believe that during his missing years between his Bar Mitzvah and the beginning of his ministry, the juvenile Jesus traveled to northern India and the Himalayas and studied with Buddhist monks. When you think about it, Jesus’s words and Gautama’s rec-ommendations bear some very strong similari-ties. Whether it’s true that Jesus was influenced by Buddhism or not, the two traditions share a good deal in common when it comes to the value of kindness and compassion for our fellow man.

Wherever the Dharma spread, proselytizers didn’t encourage the local population to get rid of whatever deities they already worshipped. In many Sri Lankan homes today, for example, peo-ple will bracket their Buddha image with those of Hindu “household” gods. Some people even hang hideous masks in the parlor to scare away demons, even though Buddhism doesn’t offi-cially swing that way at all.

Buddha discouraged superstition.


10Meditation: Can I Be

a “Sorta- Kinda” Buddhist?

When you “get the point” and realize that devel-oping your mind involves tasks and processes and skill development, you might think that you’re faced with what appears to be sitting alone somewhere contemplating your navel. Nothing could be further from the truth. As still as you may be during a meditation session, you aren’t supposed to zone out; you’re supposed to be aware. Meditation is a discipline, and dis-cipline takes effort. There are really two kinds of meditation: calming meditation and insight meditation, shamatha and vipassana. I’ve prac-ticed calming meditation since the 1970s when I learned it from Transcendental Meditation, and



I gained a thorough understanding of it when I studied for four years with a Vietnamese Zen master, after I learned vipassana (“insight medi-tation”) with the monks in Sri Lanka.

In order to penetrate into and investigate our minds and see things clearly, we’ve got to first quiet down our minds. Calming meditation helps us to focus our minds and weed out intru-sive thoughts, and once we can concentrate we use analytical meditation to take a cold, hard look at things to see them for what they are.

When new practitioners try to meditate, even after proper instruction, they often become frus-trated. The second your brain has “nothing” to do, we find out how difficult it really is to shut off the streaming jumble of thoughts that zing around inside our heads. Our “monkey mind,” as it’s affectionately called, distracts us, nags us, and irritates the crap out of us when we’re trying to get some sleep. I’ve had serious monkey mind all my life. Staff Sergeant Dad frequently used to tell me to get my head out of my ass, which I took


can i be a “sorta- kinda” buddhist? 91

to mean, “Focus on what matters.” He knew what he was talking about. An unfocused soldier soon becomes a dead soldier.

Thing is, focus takes work. Think of “medita-tion” like piano practice. The more you do it, the better you get at it. The better you get at it, the more your mind- monkeys start to quiet down. Eventually they even go away from time to time, and evicting them opens up space in your cranium. You attain a smidgen of wisdom from Dharma awareness and learn to see stuff a little more clearly, including yourself. Meditating will get easier and easier. Sitting there on that cush-ion you experience a sweet buzz. You can return to it every time you have a few minutes to spare, and life gets mellow indeed. You become the kind of guy who keeps his head when everyone else is losing theirs, and there’s nothing cooler than that.

For those of you who just can’t sit still, literally or figuratively, sitting cross- legged on a cushion with your eyes closed is not your only option.



Some traditional forms of meditation involve deliberate movement, usually walking. (Just don’t try it at a busy intersection!) There are also ways to turn more or less rigorous activities into meditative endeavors. After a few easy lessons, you can run, hike, wash dishes, or rake leaves meditatively. If endurance isn’t your thing, there are five- minute meditations. If it is, you can sign up for a two- week- long marathon session.

The most helpful kind of meditation is tradi-tional sitting meditation. When you sit, the real magic happens. But there is nothing to be lost by turning a mundane activity, even one you might actually dread, into an exercise in which you learn to control your mind. Think of something like, say, taking a crap. Even the Buddha said that pooping can be meditative. My day always begins with ten minutes of sitting meditation with my jammy bottoms down around my ankles.

I am not a morning person, and as I age, the task of getting up out of bed is usually moti-vated by the pain I begin to feel after I’ve been



lying down for a while. My “wakeup” meditation involves mindfulness of my physical self during the act of defecation. As I have practiced this meditation over the years, my pooping behav-iors have changed. I am not in a hurry. I relax fully before I commence, unless of course there is some urgency to be expedient, and old copies of American Angler magazine do not distract me.

Once into the proper pooping frame of mind, I engage in “enlightened” pooping, which only involves just enough active participation (i.e., squeezing things out) to initiate peristalsis. Once you’ve very delicately induced launch sequence, then you totally relax again and meditate upon the sensation of your natural, unassisted evacuation. No straining or groaning. Your gut knows what it’s supposed to do. You become a casual observer of your own crapping. Instead of thinking, “Geez, I wish I hadn’t eaten all those jalapeños,” you eventually train yourself to expe-rience pooping as a sublime event. After that you’re totally tuned in and ready to start the day.



Hobbies can be, and frequently are, medita-tions. I’m not saying that they have the same kind of sanity- inducing, soul- cleansing impact of traditional sitting meditation, but engaging in the right kinds of hobbies can be wonderful ways to meditate. We’re talking about concen-trative hobbies. My personal favorite is tying fishing flies. Bear in mind that it is impossible to think about two different things at the same time. Buddhism does not encourage multitask-ing. Knitting is only a meditation when you do it with the TV turned off. Reading and writing are not forms of meditation because the mind is too active while you’re doing them. The jury’s still out on listening to music. Some of it seems med-itative, but most of it isn’t. Mozart’s good. I love music of all kinds, but I can’t listen to music and do anything else at the same time but listen to the music, especially since I became a Buddhist.

For those of you who are inclined to pray to God, praying is meditation, especially when you shut up and let God do the talking. Singing



or chanting can also be meditative. When you utter “The Lord is my Shepherd, I shall not want” or Buddham sharanam gacchami (“I take refuge in the Buddha,” part of the traditional Buddhist prayer of refuge), you can aim beyond simply reciting what you’ve been taught.

You can take meditation lessons if you want to, but it’s not really necessary. If you travel to Kandy, Sri Lanka, you can take an intensive course in vipassana meditation for free. TM (Transcendental Meditation) cost $200 when I took it in 1975, so that means it’s probably two grand now. Personally I resent the significant part of the spiritual world that soaks seekers for every dollar they can get. I learned from the mas-ters, and they didn’t ask me for a single rupee the whole time I imposed on them. I’m not say-ing that there shouldn’t be a fair exchange. I’ve done a lot of work for free for my gurus. But they weren’t interested in selling Buddhism to me as a “therapeutic” thing. They were invested in my well- being for the sake of it. It’s what they do.



My closest friend is a Sri Lankan monk named Nanda. We met at Sri Bodhiraja Temple in 2003, and in 2008 I brought him to America. I am twenty-five years older than he, but many times over the years I’ve gone to him for wisdom like he was my father. Other times, he’s been my buddy. I take him to visit museums, and he gets me free food at a Thai restaurant whose own-ers feed him once a week. Nanda filled in the gaps for me when I left teaching sessions with the chief priest at Bodhiraja Temple with more questions than answers. He is both my “virtuous friend”—as Buddhists call our companions on walking the Middle Way—and my guru. When he lived in my house for a year I saw more of him than I did my wife.

He is not my only virtuous friend. When I met Greg he was a lieutenant on the Louisville police force. He is a veteran and a Buddhist just like me. Frequently our conversations and email exchanges center on Buddhist thought, but we’re dudes, so our exchanges are usually only



one or two paragraphs long. We’re also known to meet up at the Knob Creek rifle range to shoot each other’s collectible military rifles.

The world of dudes is peppered with Bud-dhists, but these guys don’t exactly advertise their beliefs. Not like me: I have the Buddha tattooed on my left forearm. True story: I was at a gun shop once and my tattoo instigated a Dharma exchange between me, the shop owner, and the other customer in the store. We were all military veterans, and we were all serious Dharma students. Like Lance, a former tank commander who has been living in Japan for decades: he may be the toughest dude I’ve ever known. We go waaaaay back. These are to me more meaningful and valuable relationships because we share the bond of Buddhism. Put two or three Buddhist tough guys together in one room, and the conversation always turns to Dharma. It’s a brotherhood of guys who don’t run into each other very often.

You don’t need to pay $900 and give up good



vacation time and hang out with nimrods in Birkenstocks to learn how to meditate. Most community Buddhist centers offer meditation classes for free or for a donation, and often, inex-pensive courses in meditation are offered in adult and continuing education opportunities through colleges and public school systems. You should be suspicious of the places that make meditation out to be some otherworldly secret that only a select few can ever really gain access to (often because it’s so expensive to learn!). Med-itation is as simple as breathing. I can even lay the basics out for you in the next few pages. First I’ll describe the physical act of “classic” calming meditation, and then I’ll tell you about the stuff in your head.

I only know two people who can do the “lotus” position, my 100- pound Vietnamese Zen Master buddy and a hyperactive fifth- grader who seems like he’s made out of rubber. Unless you work for Cirque du Soleil, forget the lotus position. Many an American knee has been ruined trying. If



you’re old, fat, and/or arthritic (like me), there’s nothing wrong with meditating in a straight- backed chair (La- Z- Boys don’t count), or on a park bench, or on a convenient stump. Most younger and more limber meditators sit Indian- style on a nice fat cushion of some sort, something just high enough to elevate the butt, prevent knee strain, and keep their legs from falling asleep too quickly. If you do sit Indian-style, though, try to have your ankles uncrossed, one in front of the other. Old, fat, arthritic guys who still want to sit cross- legged need something a bit higher and a whole lot more stable. My personal favor-ite meditation seat is made for and marketed to turkey hunters. It’s a black aluminum frame that folds out to about five inches tall, topped with a square, three- inch- thick waterproof cushion rendered in Mossy Oak® camouflage. It even has a shoulder strap for easy transport.

Once you’ve got your butt settled, there is the matter of what to do with the rest of your body. You need to sit up as straight as you can with


The second your brain has “nothing” to do, we find out how difficult it really is to shut off

the streaming jumble of thoughts that zing around inside our heads.



your chest out, just like they teach you in band camp. Even sitting straight, you should have a slight forward curve in your lower back, the top of the pelvis tilted a little forward. Shoulders relaxed (people overlook this, but it’s important to relieve the tension in your shoulders), with your arms hanging naturally and your hands resting on your thighs. Keep your head straight and your eyes 30 percent open. If you close your eyes all the way, you’ll fall asleep. I cheat on this rule all the time, but apart from the time I started snoring at the Vipassana Society, I haven’t really embarrassed myself in public. Some instructors suggest thinking of yourself as a puppet hang-ing from a single string attached to the top of your head with a little eyebolt. (OK. Hardware embellishments are my own. This is a book for guys who watch Caddy shack at least once a year.)

Now comes the hard part. Breathe.Breathe naturally. Don’t speed up, slow down,

or make yourself breathe deeper or shallower. Just breathe. Pay attention to what you are



doing, namely breathing. Observe your breath closely. If you relax your belly a bit, you can feel the rise and fall of your abdomen. Notice the air from your breath in your mustache. Feel your inhalation at the bottom of your nostrils, and the exhalation at the tops. Hear the sound of your breath going in and out of your bronchial tubes. Concentrate!

Life is like breath. All things come and go, rise and fall. Everything about life is impermanent. You’re a different person than you were before you read this chapter. You are a different person from the one you were last year, yesterday, before lunch. But don’t think about that now! Breathe.

It is nearly impossible not to think, especially for beginning meditators. Meditation teachers call this “monkey mind,” because your thoughts jump all over the place. When you catch your-self thinking, just blow it off and return to your breath.

The most advanced meditator I know is a Zen master Vietnamese monk who tells beginning



meditators to count their breaths in their head, starting with one and counting to ten and then counting back down to one again. For people who are only beginning to meditate, this simple men-tal act is infuriatingly difficult to accomplish. But you’re not sitting on this pillow to piss yourself off, so blow it off and start counting again from one. Trust me, it’ll come. Don’t make more out of your initial frustration than it’s worth. Every-body goes through this.

Blow it off and try again.Oh, shit! I’m thinking again!Blow it off.These are the basics of calming meditation.

In general, this “classic” type of meditation is all about concentration and focus, and it makes up the basis on which more in- depth meditations are developed.

Now comes the cool part. When you ground your meditation practice with a little wisdom (see everything above), you begin the process of another type of meditation known as “insight”



meditation. Thoughts, like everything else, are ephemeral. They rise and fall like your breaths. And after all, they’re only thoughts. They count less than a healthy fart. Initially, you’ll be plagued by thoughts of things that seem very impor-tant to you. Where the hell am I going to find the money to buy my squeeze the Christmas present she deserves? Christ, this pain is never going to go away. I lost a leg in Anbar Province. What if Mom doesn’t survive the operation?

Dude, they’re only thoughts, and you don’t need to entertain them at the same time you’re supposed to be counting your breaths. One… two… MAN, MY BOSS IS A PAIN IN THE ASS!

When you see the truth and learn to be a lit-tle more forgiving of yourself and more objective about life in general, you’ll be able to blow off even the most dire of ruminant thoughts, seeing them for what they are—just thoughts! Think later. Right now you’re supposed to be counting your breaths.

Anything can be blown off. My dad survived



the Chosin Reservoir and the Tet Offensive and never lost a step. Now that he’s eighty- five, he’s starting to talk about the things he never talked about before. Every new story I hear makes it more and more incredible to me that he is such a sweet, generous, helpful, and gentle man. Dad is a very self- disciplined man, and he’s worked hard to discipline his thoughts. I don’t want to disparage or think lightly of the suffering of any-one. But given a little time, you find that some thoughts are not demons, they’re monkeys. They only turn into rabid Wizard of Oz monkeys if you let them.

As we deal with the thoughts that pop up during meditation, we gain the insight that we can be real drama queens in our heads. I remem-ber having random thoughts that jolted me phys-ically and even caused rushes of adrenaline, and violent rages I quelled with three or four seconds of closed- eye time and a nice deep breath. When you realize that a thought is only a thought, you can see it for what it is, look at it, and dispense



with it. And as we learn to do that in meditation, we begin to see that our minds are doing that even when we aren’t meditating. It is this way of seeing things that is called “insight.” And it is insight that strengthens and deepens our wis-dom and helps us keep our cool even when the shit hits the fan.

Start with five minutes of sitting meditation and gradually increase the time, within reason, as you begin to feel the benefits of what you’re doing. Over time, you’ll probably start to find you’re able to do this more and more without getting distracted by random thoughts or itchy balls.


Learn more about Buddhism for Dudes at wisdompubs.org/books/buddhism-dudes

http://wisdompubs.org/book/buddhism-dudes

About the Author

Gerry Stribling was born in 1951 at Fort Reilly, Kansas, to parents who were both in the military. He enlisted

in the U.S. Marine Corps in 1970 and has had careers in teaching and human services. Today he volunteers for Hosparus of Louisville where, in his words, he is witnessing the final chapter of World War II.

Stribling studied Buddhism in Sri Lanka with the Venerable D. W. Pemarathana, the Vener-able Omalpe Sobhita Thero, and the Hon. W. J. M. Lokubandara. In August 2003, Gerry was given the title of Dhammadutta, lay teacher of Dharma. Stribing occasionally leads small discus-sion groups and teaches the Buddhadharma one-on-one for free to anyone who wants to learn.


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“Entertaining, bold, and refreshingly direct, this book is likely to change the way one experiences other books about Zen—and maybe even the way one experiences reality.”—Publishers Weekly starred review

The Dharma of Star Wars

“A Buddhist interpretation of the Jedi Way. This enter-taining and insightful primer provides a useful service to film buffs who want to better understand the real- life religion behind this fictional world.”—Tricycle

Money, Sex, War, KarmaNotes for a Buddhist Revolution

“Revolutionary! The clear and concise explanations of Buddhist perspectives on rarely approached topics are an


inspiration. If you are interested in personal or societal change, this is a book you need to read.”—Noah Levine, author of Against the Stream and Dharma Punx

Walking the Way81 Zen Encounters with the Tao Te Ching

“Rosenbaum manages to restore some of the bite to the Tao Te Ching. His humor, wisdom, personal failings, and genuine aspirations combine to make it new.”—Barry Magid, author of Ending the Pursuit of Happiness

Bad Dog!A Memoir of Love, Beauty, and Redemption in Dark Places

“It reads like something Steinbeck might have written had he been a Buddhist, and I can pay an author no higher compliment.”—Christopher Moore, author of A Dirty Job


—MATTHEW BORTOLIN, AUTHOR OF THE … · Showing how Buddhism boldly approaches life’s problems...

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