Learn Buddhism: Live Like The Buddha

How can you, as a lay Buddhist, "be like The Buddha" in your daily life? Here are my five observations about the Buddha and his life that we can incorporate into our lives! The Buddha practiced mindfulness, compassion, generosity, concentration, and the precepts.

Transcript

Welcome to another episode of Learn Buddhism.

I'm Alan Pito.

How can you live like the Buddha?

I think this is going to be a great episode because we often think about how do I be a Buddhist,

A lay Buddhist in the world?

And we can really just look back at the Buddha because he said that we all have this innate capability to become enlightened like he was.

That is key.

And as we see in Mahayana branch that we all have this innate capability to become Buddhas as well and that we're on the Bodhisattva path.

So in either branch or tradition or anything like that,

If we look internal,

We are in many ways no different than the Buddha insofar as the ability to become awakened to the truth and to realize our true natural state of nirvana.

So there is a Buddha,

If you will,

Inside of you already.

We're just preventing it from coming to fruition.

So when we talk about living like the Buddha or to live like the Buddha,

That is something we can do.

Now,

A big caveat to this is we're not enlightened individuals,

Right?

We're not Arhats,

Bodhisattvas,

Buddhas.

So we are very much deluded,

Ignorant of the truth,

Even if we're a Buddhist because,

Well,

We're not to that stage yet where we fully fundamentally understand it.

And we're going to make mistakes.

That's why in Buddhism,

We try to follow the five precepts as lay persons,

Sometimes take the eight precepts on special days.

This is why we have repentance,

As we have prayer,

We have practice,

We have all these different things to help us on this path,

Because we're not going to be perfect.

That's also why we put our faith,

Our devotion into the Triple Gem,

The Buddha,

The Dharma,

And the Sangha,

The monastic community,

Because that's what's going to help us get to that point as well.

So before I talk about how to live like the Buddha,

I thought it was very important to bring that up.

We're going to make mistakes.

You're not going to be a Buddha right out of the gate or even an Arhat or monastic,

Right?

So when we talk about living like the Buddha,

I think it's important to realize that even though the Buddha was this remarkable being,

So he started off Siddhartha Gautama,

And he eventually became the Buddha,

As we all know the story.

But he was a remarkable being,

Not just an ordinary human being.

This is important because we don't want to put undue pressure upon ourselves as lay Buddhists.

And we can definitely,

Fundamentally,

Change our mind.

We can change our behavior,

Our conduct,

Our wisdom,

Concentration,

All of that.

But we're not going to be perfect.

But that's why we practice.

We can make these changes that get us eventually to that goal.

Now when we look at the Buddha,

We sometimes think of,

Well,

As an awakened enlightened being,

That's it.

It's almost like I've said in many,

Many other episodes,

It's like that window that's completely dirty.

You're assuming what's outside there,

But kind of awakening enlightenment is like you've cleaned away all that dirt,

That grime,

And you can fully understand and see what's out there.

Maybe it's just a branch hitting the window and you thought it was something else.

So as awakened beings,

You are aware of the truth.

You fundamentally understand it.

It's very,

Very clear because you're awakened,

Enlightened.

That's why they also realize their true natural state of nirvana.

Because they are now aware of the truth,

They're not going to fall into the traps that keep them trapped in the cycle of rebirth.

And they are not going to create these karmic actions that keep them trapped.

They have these karma without outflows,

Which they're still having actions,

These intentional volitional actions,

But not the ones that keep them trapped in the cycle of rebirth.

So when we look at the Buddha,

Or even arhats,

His enlightened followers,

Or even bodhisattvas or other Buddhas,

They are enlightened,

But they are also doing what we're doing,

Practicing all the time.

And for maybe an awakened,

Enlightened individual,

Maybe that's going to come a little bit more easy because now they understand why they're doing it.

You know,

They understand the true nature of things in the world.

And so they're not going to fall into those traps,

But they still got to practice.

So the Buddha,

He didn't stop meditating.

He didn't stop mindfulness.

He didn't stop.

And I think that's an important part.

He did stop his karmic actions that were keeping him trapped in the cycle of rebirth,

But he didn't stop the conditions that ensured that he would remain this enlightened individual that was able to teach others and not fall into those traps,

Those fetters,

We call them,

The chains that bind them to the cycle of rebirth.

So that's the first part I'm going to talk about with how you can be like the Buddha.

And that's practicing mindfulness.

And when we talk about practicing mindfulness,

We sometimes listen to the secular world and how mindfulness is kind of like everywhere nowadays.

But we're talking about Buddhist mindfulness here.

And Buddhist mindfulness is very fundamentally different than a secular,

Sometimes business world where you see people selling things about,

Oh,

Here's how to be mindful of everything and be happy.

That's not Buddhist mindfulness.

Buddhist mindfulness is to be aware of what's around you and how you're ingesting that and how that gets transformed.

So if you're not mindful of what's around you,

You're going to ingest it.

And that's going to come to fruition if you want your consciousness,

Which results in actions.

So we have the three fires,

Greed,

Anger,

And ignorance or delusion.

And those are really these causes that keep us trapped in a cycle of rebirth because they are creating these intentional volitional actions.

So if you are ignorant,

Delusional of the truth,

You are going to start craving,

Clinging,

Desiring things.

And when you,

Because we don't fundamentally understand things are impermanent,

You lose it,

Something happens,

We get hatred,

Anger,

And aversion.

And that's really this cycle,

You know,

To keep going around and around and around as far as the three fires.

In Buddhism,

There's a very famous sermon of the Buddha called the fire sermon.

And I think this one is great for anybody in any branch or tradition to really read and understand,

Because it is fundamentally going to what I'm talking about here.

This is where he told this group of fire worshipers who are not Buddhists,

But they're monastics for that particular belief.

He basically sums it up as like bhikkhus,

Which are monks,

All is burning.

Wow.

And what's he talking about?

He's talking about how we are seeing,

Feeling,

Touching,

Tasting all these different sense organs,

We're,

You know,

They're all around us,

And we're not guarding ourselves.

And so they're being ingested inside us.

And that's where in our consciousness,

It comes to fruition,

And we're going to create these karmic actions.

So we have six internal sense bases.

That's our eyes,

Ears,

Nose,

Tongue,

Body,

And mind.

And there's six external sense bases,

Which are visible forms,

Sounds,

Smells,

Tastes,

Touches,

And mental objects.

Then,

Of course,

We have our consciousness,

Which is dependent upon the sense bases.

So the consciousness needs these sense bases to make things arise.

And this is all important because we're not mindful of this.

So we're in contact with all these things.

Like he's saying,

All is burning bhikkhus,

Right?

He's basically saying that,

You know,

All around us are things that we're going to see,

Hear,

Taste,

All of that,

And we're going to ingest it.

And we're going to have the rise in our consciousness because we're not guarding ourselves.

And so he's not really talking about it really burning,

But we're saying burning in so far as the three fires of greed,

Anger,

And ignorance.

You're going to allow the fuel to burn because of that.

And that's karma.

We don't want that karma that's keeping us trapped.

So if you guard your sense bases,

That is the key as a Buddhist.

And this is what the Buddha did.

This is what his enlightened followers did.

This is what bodhisattvas and Buddhists do.

And we can try to emulate that as well.

And as we learn and practice Buddhism,

We are focused on one part,

On Buddhist mindfulness.

That's part of the concentration category of the Eightfold Path.

And we need that because we're trying to stop these fires that are all around us,

These sense bases,

That we're not going to ingest things that are detrimental to our progress on the path.

Now,

Will we?

Yes.

You know,

We are lay Buddhists.

We're everyday human beings.

We're going to do that.

We're not enlightened beings yet.

But we can make the determined effort to understand and practice and go forth.

But when we make mistakes,

That's where,

As I talked previously,

Repentance is so important because we're letting it out.

We're talking to our teacher.

We're even talking to ourselves,

Right?

So that we don't try to recreate those issues where we've ingested something.

So mindfulness is very different in Buddhism compared to the secular mindfulness you see in courses and books and all that stuff that's around there.

Our goal is to stop these fires that are around us from going inside us,

Giving rise to the three fires of greed,

Anger,

And ignorance,

Which is trapping us in a cycle of rebirth.

That's why we're doing it,

Because the cycle of rebirth in these conditioned existences is unsatisfactory.

That's what the Buddha is helping us end.

The other part is going to be practicing generosity.

So this is part of the Buddha's Eightfold Path.

When we talk about the morality conduct portion,

I think generosity is a great one.

You see the Buddha,

No matter what he was doing,

He was always generous.

And it doesn't mean he was giving things,

Like material things,

But maybe he was giving the teachings.

He was giving his time and attention to people.

He was generous to try to prevent wars and conflicts,

And what he could do.

And I think when we talk about generosity,

We sometimes think,

Oh,

I have to give money,

Or I have to give a gift,

Or something like that.

There's many ways to give generosity.

And with the Buddha,

He was being the most generous of all.

He's giving us the Buddhist religion,

Which we have right now in his teachings.

And that is key.

If you look back to when he was on this earth,

He was generous with people by giving them something they may have had to wait for centuries,

Or thousands,

And thousands,

Or tens of thousands of years later on if he did not exist.

So this was key.

And that generosity still extends to us today.

So as lay Buddhists,

We can emulate that in the most basic of ways by supporting the monastic community.

Even if you don't have a temple or monastic community near you,

You can,

Of course,

Do this online.

Or even if you can't do that,

Then there's other ways to be generous,

Which may be giving to the people who need it the most.

There's many different non-profit organizations.

So there's different ways you can do this.

But we must also consider that being generous with others can be from your time,

Words,

And deeds.

So we don't have to just always give materials.

We can,

But we can also be very generous with our time,

Words,

And deeds,

Which sounds simple,

But we often don't do it.

And as we're practicing generosity,

Of course,

This is helping others,

But it's also helping us as well.

We're developing a morality conduct portion of the Eightfold Path,

And we're also shaping that inside us.

We need,

The Buddhists said,

We need to have that morality conduct portion of the Eightfold Path.

And often as lay Buddhists,

We focus so much on the meditative concentration portion,

Especially sitting meditation.

But most lay Buddhists don't do that.

They actually practice generosity.

And that's often with supporting their temple and their monastics.

And that's a very virtuous way to do it and very well known throughout the Buddhist world,

Just not so much in the West.

So I think that's one thing to develop as well,

If you can.

Now,

The next part is practicing the precepts.

And this is something that,

Yeah,

We may recite during a daily practice,

But not really focus on too much.

The precepts are like guardrails.

They're keeping you on the path and trying to prevent you and help you in that way by veering off,

You know,

Going into those fires that are all around us,

Right?

If we practice the precepts,

And as lay persons,

We only got five precepts.

And maybe if we are in an observance day,

We take on additional three.

So we have the eight precepts,

We're trying to practice five precepts.

And that sounds super simple.

But for most people,

Just even following one can be very challenging.

And that's okay,

You're going to start with where you're at.

And if you can fully devote yourself to one,

Perfect,

And then devote yourself to trying to enhance another one.

And you want to,

Of course,

Get up to the five precepts.

Now as a awakened enlightened being,

Five precepts,

Yes,

You are practicing that.

And it should be noted that,

Well,

If you're an enlightened being,

You're let's say a Buddha or a bodhisattva or an arhat,

You're on that monastic side,

If you will,

Of things.

And if that's the case,

You are obviously following a lot more precepts.

So as a monastic,

Before it even become enlightened,

They're following hundreds of precepts.

And the Buddha didn't go,

You know what,

Let me just create a bunch of precepts,

These rules,

These regulations,

Just for the heck of it.

And some of them we may raise our eyebrows at,

But they're all there for a purpose.

They're to help monastics,

Our religious side of the Buddhist religion,

Go on the path.

They're all in,

Right?

So they need more of these precepts,

Not just for their religious role,

But for their goal.

You know,

They're all into becoming enlightened.

And the precepts help.

And even for them,

Trying to follow all of that can be very,

Very challenging.

So as lay Buddhists,

These five precepts,

Which are fundamental to all Buddhists,

Essentially,

That can be very challenging.

But we do see the enlightened beings like the Buddha are following the precepts.

They're just more natural to them because they understand at a very deep fundamental level why they're doing it.

Whereas we may be trying to intellectually understand something.

This is something I think is really important for Buddhists,

Is practicing the precepts.

But again,

This is something where we're probably going to break these into different degrees.

While I'm not going to go into depth about repentance in Buddhism,

This is why Buddhists repent.

It's not really to go,

Dear Buddha,

Please forgive me.

They are,

Of course,

Doing that to a degree,

But they're also trying to make themselves at a deeper fundamental level,

The Buddha inside them,

The Buddha nature inside them,

Aware of that transgression so that they don't repeat the transgression.

They want to reinforce the five precepts.

And if you don't let that out,

If you just try to internalize it,

That's not good.

If you just try to tell yourself that's not good,

You're not really going to get far.

So it's very helpful for Buddhists to do this to a Buddha or a Bodhisattva,

Or even maybe talk to a monastic about it if they need some guidance.

This is something that I think a lot of Western Buddhists can really embrace,

Is the practice of the precepts.

And practicing the precepts,

There can be a lot of interpretation.

It is important to get the direction and guidance from monastics on this,

And not just your personal beliefs about what parts of the precepts and how you feel it should go.

Listen to the Buddhist monastics on this.

I think that's key,

Because we may go,

Oh,

Maybe the first precept,

Or the second precept,

Or whatever,

And we have our views about what that means,

But we're going to be okay with this other thing.

Let's hear what the Buddhist monastics' interpretation of that,

And these Buddhist masters that are very well-versed in the precepts and the teachings can help us understand how to apply this to our lives.

But of course,

As I mentioned before,

As lay Buddhists,

We're going to make mistakes because we are not enlightened,

We're not awake,

And we still have a dirty window.

And we're not really sure about everything we're doing.

So are we ingesting these,

From the sense basis,

We're ingesting these fires that are all around us?

Yeah,

We are.

And sometimes we're not even aware we're doing it.

But when we practice the precepts,

If we can,

And to whatever degree you can,

That's good.

So as we're on this path,

This road,

Where we veer off now and then,

Yeah,

We will.

Sometimes we don't even realize it.

But the more we can practice precepts in accordance with the Buddhist teachings,

The better for us.

The next one is practicing compassion.

And yeah,

We can kind of combine this with generosity,

But compassion is so important because we want to do all this from our state of mind.

Our compassion for all sentient beings,

As we do in Mahayana,

But you see this,

Of course,

Across the Buddhist world,

Including Theravada,

This compassion for sentient beings is key.

This really shapes the behavior of not just a Buddha and enlightened beings,

But also lay Buddhists.

As I mentioned before,

Lay Buddhists are very focused on the morality conduct portion of the Eightfold Path,

Because in a lot of ways,

It's very fundamental.

You can,

You know,

Just have this extreme wisdom,

You know,

In Buddhist teachings,

Or maybe the perfect meditative concentration,

Like where's I get you without the base of morality of conduct?

Would you look at the Buddha as somebody who's like,

Oh,

He's very,

His wisdom's there and his meditative concentration,

But his morality conduct,

And we'll just forget about that.

No,

We look at the Buddha,

And we see his morality conduct was very much perfect in what we talk about in Buddhism.

And then we see that compassion that is part of that.

So the compassion for other beings,

This is this natural result where we,

You know,

When we give,

You know,

The generosity,

It's out of compassion,

Right?

So yes,

This can be very much aligned with the generosity portion,

But he had compassion for other sentient beings.

And if we go right back to when he became enlightened,

This was a key thing,

Because he achieved what he set out to achieve,

To realize the Dharma and to become enlightened,

But didn't mean he had to become the Buddha or the Buddha of our era.

That was a choice.

And the choice was made because he had compassion for other sentient beings.

And that maybe sometimes gets lost,

Unfortunately,

By some Western Buddhists,

But that was key.

He had compassion.

Otherwise,

What's the point?

He was enlightened,

He realized his top level of what he set out to achieve,

And he had a choice where he could live in his peaceful,

Natural state of nirvana,

Or that compassion could be so overwhelming,

So deep inside him,

That he became the Buddha.

And he did,

Because that required him as a Buddha to,

You know,

Spread the Dharma,

The fundamental truth to teach a liberating path inside Buddhism,

And to teach others.

And that's no easy feat.

So yes,

He decided to do that out of compassion.

So we can build up our compassion in many different ways.

A lot of Buddhists do mantras,

Or prayers.

And I think a very popular one that you can do,

Regardless of your Buddhist tradition,

You know,

It's inside the Buddhist teachings.

So it's going to be the Loving Kindness Sutra or Sutta.

And inside there,

You can very much take a prayer stance from that.

And a lot of Buddhists do from that particular sutra.

And of course,

You'll find that on my website as well,

Where I talk about a little shortened version I've done of that.

So I think that's a great one to kind of get your mindset as you be like the Buddha when you go out.

We want to have that compassionate mind.

And that finally brings us to the last one,

Practicing concentration.

So you heard me say quite a few times that,

You know,

Laypersons,

We are focused on the morality conduct portion.

Doesn't mean we are disregarding the wisdom portion,

Or the meditative concentration portion.

But we're focusing on that because we have to build that base.

The Buddha really said that was really,

Really key.

And you can really go far with the morality conduct portion,

You don't really have to be just book smart,

You know,

And that's not what the wisdom category is,

But you know,

Book smart,

Or I'm a perfect meditator,

That morality conduct portion,

That is,

That is really takes a lot of effort.

So we don't negate the practicing of concentration or meditative concentration.

And the concentration portion of the Eightfold Path takes many,

Many different ways.

But you see this in a lot of different Buddhist traditions,

Maybe they're not following the Eightfold Path in so far as the strict Eightfold Path,

But all of that,

Regardless of their practices,

Their traditions,

And beliefs,

Is fundamentally rooted in that.

So the practice of concentration is really key because you're trying to tame this wild,

Uncontrolled mind.

And as we've kind of learned,

Like,

Well,

I can just keep ingesting all these fires around us,

Right?

I'm not gonna be mindful,

Right?

Well,

That mindfulness takes concentration as well,

We need to build up,

Just like if you're going to the gym,

You're not going to get instant results day one,

Or maybe even year one,

We got to make these consistent gains,

The right nutrition,

The right techniques,

So we don't hurt ourselves.

We don't want to overdo it,

You know,

We have to understand how our bodies work,

We have to understand what nutrition to take,

What are our limits of our body is maybe by age or physical condition,

And we have to have the right trainers and right equipment,

All these things to maybe build muscle and be healthier,

And be more physically fit.

That's required for the gym.

Now for Buddhism,

We need all that as well.

That's why the Buddha had this all figured out.

This is why he taught us all these different parts of the path,

And all the teachings,

And this is where we see in modern day,

All the Buddhist traditions are stemming from that,

And teaching us and showing us how to progress based upon that.

So the concentration portion,

We are very focused on a meditative concentration,

Like the sitting meditation,

But it's everything.

It could be walking meditation,

It could be where you're chanting,

Reciting a Buddha's name,

Or a Bodhisattva's name.

We may also have the mindfulness of breathing meditation or focus,

Or pure land chanting and visualization.

All these types of things are meditative concentration,

And in fact are aligned,

Or even the same in many ways as sitting meditation.

Now depending upon your Buddhist tradition,

You're probably doing one or maybe a few of these,

And it's all based upon that tradition,

And their beliefs,

And their practice.

But the focusing,

The concentration is important because it's like this workout for your brain,

For your consciousness,

For your Buddha nature inside you.

We need to practice concentration,

And so the Buddha,

We're like,

Oh well he's enlightened,

Perfect.

He still meditated,

As I mentioned earlier,

He was still mindful.

So the fact that he still meditated,

I think is really key.

Two things,

He was of course showing others in his monastic community how to do this by setting the example.

He's very much a leader of course,

But also he realized,

I still have to keep my muscles going.

Just like if you're going to the gym,

I've got to take the right nutrition,

I've got to keep focusing.

Otherwise,

You know muscles will shrink,

And you're not going to be as healthy.

So he was also working out,

Quote-upon-quote,

As a Buddha.

He had to practice concentration,

And I think that's a great aspiration for us.

We see that the Buddha didn't stop either.

He kept practicing,

And I think that's a great theme about the life of the Buddha,

And how you can live like the Buddha.

He was always practicing.

What was he practicing?

He was always practicing mindfulness.

He was always practicing generosity.

He was always practicing the precepts.

He was always practicing compassion,

And of course,

He was also always practicing concentration.

I think the one thing that I don't have in here that the Buddha didn't do,

That we should do,

Is going to be the wisdom category.

As the Buddha,

He was of course teaching everyone,

So he was spreading the wisdom.

Now we are the unenlightened beings trying to become enlightened to follow the path,

So we also have to build up that wisdom category.

How do we do that?

Well,

We're going to listen to others,

Specifically the monastics.

The monastics are helping us understand the Buddhist teachings that we can apply in our life.

As lay Buddhists,

We're obviously not Buddhists right now.

We may have this Buddha nature inside us,

But we have to be determined to be on this path.

We have to put forth the effort.

The Buddha can't just magically make us enlightened.

We have to put inside that effort.

So as you embark on a day,

Start off with a morning Buddhist practice if you can.

It can be very simple.

You want to get your mindset in the right place where I'm going to be like the Buddha.

That means,

Of course,

I'm not an enlightened being right now,

But I want to emulate the Buddha as best I can.

I want to follow that path,

And that's what we do as Buddhists.

That means I'm going to be mindful.

I have compassion and generosity.

I'm going to do these things where I'm going to follow in the Buddha's footsteps.

When I'm interacting with others,

I'm going to use the five precepts as my guardrails on this path.

I'm going to,

At the end of the day,

Have my hopefully a night or evening Buddhist practice where also I'm reflecting on my day.

Do I need to do repentance for any of the precepts I've broken or transgressed on?

I'm trying to make myself aware of that so I don't do that again in the future.

If we do this,

We are interacting.

We're communing,

If you will,

With the Buddha,

A Buddha,

Or Bodhisattva to help us on this path.

We're not in it alone.

We have this Buddha nature inside us.

We are talking.

We are praying.

We are prostrating.

We're repenting to this Buddha inside us,

But we're also doing it in a much more grand,

Bigger way to Buddhas and Bodhisattvas,

Including Shakyamuni Buddha,

Gautama Buddha.

This we need.

We just can't do it by ourselves.

It is part of our own effort and determination inside Buddhism,

But we are not alone.

This is why we have the Triple Gem,

The Buddha as our teacher,

The Dharma as the liberating path,

The teachings,

And the Sangha,

The monastic community,

The helpers of the Buddha that are helping us as well,

And for us in turn to help them.

It's all very meritorious.

So I hope you enjoyed this episode about how to live like the Buddha.

We want to get to that stage,

And there's many minor things we can do that are fundamental in our everyday world.

If you have any questions,

I'd love to hear back from you.

You can respond to me on this podcast or via my website alanpeto.

Com.

I'll talk with you in our next episode.

Thank you.