Welcome to the Buddhist Boot Camp Podcast. Our intention is to awaken, enlighten, enrich, and inspire a simple and uncomplicated life. Discover the benefits of mindful living with your host, Timber Hawkeye. At the cornerstone of Buddhism are the Three Jewels: the Buddha, the Dharma, and the Sangha. If life was a sport, then the coach would be the Buddha, the game would be the Dharma, and the players would be the Sangha.
It makes sense that Buddhism is called a practice, and we are the practitioners. As such, we exercise mindful conduct, speech, resolve, livelihood, effort, and so on, the same way athletes exercise their skills between games. We are not perfect, but even professional basketball players don't make every shot. Discipline is the practice of repeatedly choosing what we want most over what we want on impulse. And much like a muscle, our discipline gets stronger the more often we exercise it.
As part of my personal mindful consumption discipline, I practice intermittent fasting, for example, and I haven't had any alcohol or cigarettes for more than 20 years. I say it takes discipline because what I really want sometimes isn't to fast, it's an entire bag of chips in the middle of the night. And believe me, when life gets extra challenging, I'm tempted to abandon my practice altogether. That's exactly what happened when Thich Nhat Hanh died in January.
An unexpected wave of anger came over me that I know was masking the hurt underneath. I suddenly had the urge to drink, smoke, and over-eat in order to escape the pain. I wanted to breathe fire!
I wanted to put a bullet between the eyes of every Panda that won't screw to save its species. That's how angry I was. And when I expressed this to my friends the same way I am telling it to you now, a few were confused and said, "But you're a Buddhist," as if that makes me immune. Let's be clear that neither Buddhism nor Catholicism, Veganism, or any other "-ism" makes us perfect, but our practice DOES make us disciplined. And it's thanks to our practice that I didn't drink, smoke, or over-eat.
I honestly don't know where I would be without you, my teammates. We lost our star player and we may be down a few points, but this is not the time to give up. The best way to honor him is to live as he did. The clock hasn't run out. We are still in this. In order for us to evolve, it's more important than ever that we practice, because if we don't, then we are just wasting the most precious gift we have ever been given: the gift of time.
We have not been left alone. We have each other. If Thich Nhat Hanh has taught us anything, it's that life's challenges make us stronger and more beautiful. Or, as he put it: "No Mud, No Lotus." I am grateful for his teachings and thank you for being Soldiers of Peace in this Army of Love. May he rest in peace... and may we live in peace. Namaste. Timber Hawkeye is the bestselling author of Faithfully Religionless and Buddhist Boot Camp.
For additional information, please visit BuddhistBootCamp.com, where you can order autographed books to support the Prison Library Project, watch Timber's inspiring TED Talk, and join our monthly mailing list. We hope you have enjoyed this episode, and invite you to subscribe for more thought-provoking discussions. Thank you for being a Soldier of Peace in the Army of Love. 🙏🏼