About Buddhism
Buddhism as we know it began around 550BC in Northern India, when the young prince Siddhartha Gautama had what he described as an "Awakening" sitting beneath a great tree as the morning star rose before him. He had left home years earlier, and lived as a rag-clothed monk to understand why life is so inescapably linked with suffering, and how he could bring happiness instead to all beings. Sitting beneath the tree that morning, in clear and bright meditation, he found what he'd been looking for. The next 40 years of his life were spent wandering through the forests and villages of India sharing his teaching with anyone who would listen- kings and priests, village women and outcastes. When people asked what he was, so radiant and inspiring - "are you a man or a heavenly being?" - he answered them "I am a Buddha, One who is Awake"
Over the next 2500 years Buddhism has spread around the world, influencing and influenced by local cultures, religions, the arts, social welfare, always with this message of Awakening at its core, or 'Enlightenment' as it's also translated into English. There are as many kinds of Buddhism as there are cultures and people practicing it, and we in The Great Heart Society are open and curious about Buddhism in all its forms, what it can teach us and how it can help others. At the same time, we offer people a connection to the Japanese Zen lineage through our close links with teachers from the Zen Peacemakers tradition, founded by Roshi Bernie Glassman after receiving the full blessings of his Japanese master, Taizan Maezumi Roshi.
The heart of Buddhism, as we express it in The Great Heart Society, is something called Bodhicitta, or the Awakened Heart/Mind. Bodhicitta is that stirring within all of us towards a deeper, richer, more compassionate life- the inexplicable movement within us that knows that some kind of awakening of our hearts and minds is possible, and longs for it. We find and connect to Bodhicitta especially in those moments where we are touched by the suffering or the joys of others, dissolving a little the hardened boundaries of our self and finding instead a deep love and wish for all beings to be free from pain. All the practices we do regularly in our meetings are aimed at helping us clarify that flame within our hearts, nurturing it so that it can turn into something capable of transforming the world.
In Buddhism, someone who has the Bodhicitta at the centre of their life is called a Bodhisattva- an Awakening Being. Many Buddhist scriptures describe the path of the Bodhisattva, the peaceful warrior, who puts the happiness of others ahead of him/herself. In The Great Heart Society we especially draw on the teachings of the Flower Garland Sutra, a vast and beautiful book that describes the interconnectedness of everything in the infinite universes, how the Buddha's Essence enters into everything everwhere, and how the vows of universal love carry all beings on the spiritual journey to complete and perfect Awakening.
The great Japanese Buddhist master Kobo Daishi, who lived around the time Vikings were invading Britain, said that "the depth of your enlightenment can be measured by how you serve others". It's our wish that by practicing together in The Great Heart Society we will be more able to help others throughout our lives, recognising our deep and intimate kinship with everyone and everything. The Zen Peacemakers have often put this into practice through social action and social business with the most marginalised and destitute members of society. Awakening is not only 'spiritual', but very practical and down to earth, applied right here and now.