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Questions and Answers
Practice of the Five Mindfulness Trainings is the indispensable foundation for true freedom and happiness. The Fourteen Trainings build upon the Five and are intended for those committed to Sangha building—lay or monastic—as a form of Engaged Buddhism. They serve as a bridge between monastic and lay life, channeling monastic wisdom and practice to society. Receiving the Fourteen Trainings depends on the solidity of one’s practice of the Five; only when the Five are well embodied will the community deem one ready to go further.
Why—and how—do we manifest? Through the law of dependent co-arising, phenomena arise without a permanent “you” behind them. Questions like “Why was I born?” spring from the notion of a separate self; once that notion is removed, such questions dissolve. Low self-esteem, high self-esteem, and equality complexes all stem from self-notion. Practitioners look deeply—often through the kōan “Who invokes the Buddha’s name?”—to perceive no-self. Manifestation and non-manifestation inter-are, like rain hiding the cloud that continues to “rain,” and birth and death occur in every moment. Consequently, all concepts—including “impermanence,” “nirvana,” or “manifestation”—must be used and then released, like music that points beyond itself. Causation, too, is plural: there is no single or first cause, for every effect is simultaneously a cause in the vast web of co-arising.
Peace is not mere ceasefire but a living practice infused with nourishment, healing, contentment, and the courage to embrace conflict when it arises. True peace nourishes and heals, diminishing non-peace within us; when suffering or war-energy surfaces, we meet it with the strength of that prior nourishment. Pain may be inevitable, but suffering is optional. While peace on the phenomenal level brings relief, touching the ultimate—“when the wave realizes she is water”—yields total, unshakeable peace.
