I quit this blog some time ago, thinking I was not really qualified to extemporate on the Buddha's Teaching. I have decided, however to take it up again as a way of making visible to myself and readers any mistakes and misunderstandings I am guilty of. From what I see in America, very few professing to be Buddhists have any idea what the Buddha taught or what the reason was. This includes the ordained, academics and laity.
It is truly difficult for me to say where the ignorance is rooted. It may just be laziness. However, having seen the truth and the benefit of the Buddha's Teaching as far as I have, I want to share what I know and what I have experienced. Aside from some worldly desires, the Buddha's Teaching is the one thing I truly care about. I want to uphold it as well as I can.
Now is a good time to practice, as for now the Pali Suttas and Chinese Agamas (the early scriptures) are largely available in the original and several translations to anyone on the internet. If there is a temple or monastery near you, good, as you can make offerings to the bhikkhus who stand in for the Arya Sangha. However, don't expect high-level teaching, even from foreign monks. Make the suttas your standard. It is a popular misconception that the Buddha's discourses are incomprehensible without commentary. This is false. The Buddha's Teaching is accessible from the bottom level and will carry you all the way to the top if you can take the advice in the suttas. The Buddha's instructions are as clear as day, but so straightforward and unadorned that it hardly registers as an instruction. At first it looks like a list or bare description. But anyone who claims they don't understand the Buddha's Teaching after reading a sutta is blinding himself. Willful ignorance, because it is easier to say "I don't understand" than "I can't do it".
For anyone pursuing Buddhism for the sake of meditation alone, give up. Meditation is a poor word for a tool which is useful in the practice, but your meditation practice will be no more than dead sitting if you do not first practice giving (the practice for giving things up) and ethical culture. Without generosity, ethics and self-control, the practice of meditation will only lead to further delusion.
