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. Whenever people used to ask me my religion, I didn't know what to say. I mean, religion is a collection of beliefs and philosophies, and I've always had my own, I think we all do, it's just not particularly organized nor affiliated with any existing
school of thought. Through my own experiences, through trial and error, and learning from everyone around me, I had developed certain habits that one could presume or even associate with a religion: I don't drink, smoke, or eat meat, for example, I was celibate for more than a decade, refrained from ingesting any stimulants, spent a lot of time in nature or meditating, and I deeply believe we are here to learn to be completely selfless,
which sounds like a hybrid of a Mormon-Buddhist-Jew-monk in training on his 12-steps to recovery, but I didn't have a name for it, I just called it Timberism. The first time I ever heard the Dalai Lama speak, however, he was talking about self-control, determination, and freedom from anger. And that was a few years after I actually had those same words tattooed on my chest. "Kindness is my religion," he said, and I still believe that's as good a label as any.
I became mesmerized by Thich Nhat Hanh, Jack Kornfield, and Dan Millman, but whenever I spoke to my teachers and said something like "I just love Neil Donald Walsch "and Pema Chodron; aren't they amazing?" My teachers would just look at me with a gentle smile and say, "Be careful there." I knew what they meant: focus on the teachings, not the teacher.
A good friend of mine once met her favorite author, and she was so disappointed to discover he was a mere human, not the sage she had projected him to be. That's why it's important to focus on the message, not the messenger. And remember, they are not showing us their special powers, but exactly what we are capable of as well. Today, with Facebook being an amazing communication tool, we are all students, and we are all teachers. And there are so many messengers out there,
but the message is always the same: the message is love. Take Buddhist Boot Camp, for example, I'm not a teacher, I'm a sharer. All I do is tell you what I've been through and sometimes you get something out of it. These podcast episodes, just like the chapters in the book, are journal entries that I've decided to share with the world. When somebody else's story resonates with us, we realize we're not alone, and that we are actually more alike than we ever dare to admit.
That realization is an important step in breaking down our illusion of separateness and bringing us closer together. I mean, nothing makes us feel more lonely than our secrets, so it's best not to have them, and just be honest and transparent. The Buddha was not a god. He never claimed to be a god, the son of god, or even a messenger of god. He was a man who gained clear perspective of the world through nothing more than human effort. And if he was able to do it then,
we can do it now. Suzuki Roshi said, "There are no enlightened beings per se, "there are enlightened activities." The people we perceive as enlightened, be it Jesus, the Buddha, Dalai Lama, Mother Teresa, Martin Luther King Jr, or whoever inspires you, simply made enlightened activity a part of their daily lives. So I thought, Well, shoot, we can do that! Enlightened activities are actions that are
in line with our core values, whatever they may be. Therefore, enlightenment isn't something you "become," it's something you continually DO. The dictionary defines enlightenment as "Having or showing a rational, modern, "and well-informed outlook, which is exhibited by our behavior." So, the best way to truly honor our teachers, is to do as they did, and spread the love. 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. 🙏🏼