The emphasis of official Christianity is always upon action: we must pray to the Lord our Savior to deliver us from evil, from the sins we’ve committed in the past and from committing new ones. A sin is a wrongful act committed by the sinner and we are all sinners. When we pray to be led not into temptation, we are speaking of the temptation to do evil or wrong. What appeals to me about Hinduism and Buddhism, on the other hand, is that they place the primary moral emphasis on thought, rather than action. It is our thoughts, after all, which lead us into committing acts that have negative consequences on our loved ones, friends, and in a ripple effect, on a wider and wider pool of humanity. Yet the Eastern religions go far beyond a prescription simply to avoid wrongful thought – they teach that all thought must be transcended. It is the very preponderance of our thoughts, in the ceaseless buzzing of our ego-driven brains, that result in human cruelty, misery and suffering. Not only do “evil” thoughts lead to evil acts, but the act of thinking itself leads to poorly judged action.
The antidote to thinking is to stop thinking altogether. This is the alarmingly simple prescription of Buddhist meditation and it can only be achieved by focusing on the tiny, short gaps between our thoughts, which are like brief patches of blue sky between fast-moving clouds. At the most basic level, the goal of meditation is to enlarge the patches of blue sky, while slowing down the moving clouds. Eventually, the sun beams through unchallenged in a cloudless blue sky. Thus the daily practice of meditation becomes central to achieving “dharma” or rightful action. The first step in meditating is to bat away one’s thoughts as if they were so many pesky mosquitos, buzzing and ready to bite at any moment.
Bird of Spirit 