Just Add Buddha!: Quick Buddhist Solutions for Hellish Bosses, Traffic Jams, Stubborn Spouses, and Other Annoyances of Everyday Life

By Franz Metcalf

“A diverse and edifying collection of practices to use in annoying and difficult circumstances” from the author of What Would Buddha Do? (Spirituality & Practice).

Written for spiritual seekers who deal with unenlightened coworkers and inconsiderate bank tellers more often than Zen masters and Tibetan monks, this book demonstrates the practical side of Buddhism. Author Franz Metcalf shows how to weave simple vows, quick rethinks, instant relaxations, fast visualizations, and many other stripped-down Buddhist practices into every area of life. Individually, Metcalf’s techniques work as quick fixes for specific dilemmas, but woven together, they gradually strengthen one’s spiritual base when one day a habitual way of being has been quietly transformed. While not written to impress pure Buddhists, this book takes Buddhism seriously. Approachable sections on Buddhism’s rich tradition and a sprinkling of quotes from ancient scripture and contemporary teachers connect the book’s practices to the deeper wisdom underlying them. Always, Just Add Buddha! remains squarely focused on daily life, drawing out the most practical aspects of Buddhism.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Open Road Integrated Media
• Release date: Apr 13, 2004
• ISBN: 9781569757642

Book preview

1

Out in the World

004 WELCOME TO THE WORLD! Well, okay, it’s not always the nicest place, and you don’t always feel welcome here. Siddhartha Gautama felt just the same way. That’s why he went into the forest to meditate for five years: to try to get to the bottom of why he felt so ill at ease in the world, to try to find a cure for his pain. The cure Siddhartha found made him the Buddha, which literally means The Awakened. He returned to the world fully at ease with his role as a human being and as a teacher.

In the earliest Buddhist scriptures, the Buddha is called by many names, including Dispeller of Darkness, Teacher of Divine and Human Beings, Unsurpassed Doctor and Surgeon, Wielder of Power, and, one of my personal favorites, Bull among Men. Usually he’s called Blessed One or Lord, not because of any kind of divine nature, but because of what he achieved and shared with us. Among the many names the Buddha is called and calls himself is Expert on the World.

This is good. If the Buddha is an expert on the world—the ultimate self-help guru, combining the best of Deepak Chopra, Dr. Phil, and Jesus—then he can help us not only with the subtleties of meditation or the details of living the monastic life; he can help us with the world, at work, in our relationships, with our bodies and house paints and car payments and mothers-in-law. Now that’s what I call an Expert on the World! That’s a spiritual leader I can learn from right here, right now.

We usually think of the Buddha quite differently: as a contemplative ascetic meditating in solitude. But the Buddha spent only five years in the forest. For the first 25 years he was a prince, living in the center of power and intrigue in his kingdom. And after that five-year interlude, he spent the next 45 years or so traveling, often to big cities, and teaching, often to the heavy hitters of his time. The Buddha was a guy with real savvy. Not just good looks and a feel-good spiel, but a genuine appreciation of the way the world works and, especially, the way human minds work.

We can use clues from the Buddha to make our own worlds and our own minds better places to live in—real nuts-and-bolt stuff. This whole book is packed with things you can do; but let’s start off with a contrast, a palate-cleanser, something you can’t do.

When You Should Not Say the Nembutsu

I and the world know that you’re cheating and lying. I can tell you’re stealing HBO. I see you eating fruit in the supermarket. Little things add up. Next thing you know, you’re selling your company stock for enormous sums while you rip off billions of dollars and drive your corporation into the ground, destroying the lives of thousands of employees. You know this is bad. You feel guilty and want forgiveness from God or the Buddha or somebody.

Here’s the rule: do not—repeat, do not—make some lame offering to the Buddha, thinking it will make up for your faults and everything will be okay. These days, people in public life seem to think that as long as they apologize, they’ve balanced the scales and undone the harm. When you intentionally create harm, you have to change, not apologize. Apologizing is only the beginning. Even then, you shouldn’t be apologizing to the Buddha, you should apologize to the people who have been hurt by your actions.

Nor can you make up for harmful actions with gifts or prayers. One way people have traditionally tried to make amends is by saying the nembutsu—the phrase "Namu Amida Butsu (Praise Amida Buddha").

Followers of Pure Land Buddhism, perhaps the most popular form of Buddhism in the world, believe that long ago a bodhisattva, or awakened being, made a vow to save all sentient beings by bringing them to the Pure Land, a place where everybody will have the strength and leisure to reach nirvana. That bodhisattva vowed not to become a full Buddha until this had happened. But because he has become the great celestial Buddha called Amida, Pure Land Buddhists believe his vow must have been fulfilled and Amida is surely able to help us suffering beings reach the Pure Land after this life—or maybe even during it. In fact, if Amida is a Buddha, then Amida has already helped them reach the Pure Land. So, repeating the name Amida Buddha in hope and gratitude has become the central practice of the hundreds of millions of Pure Land Buddhists around the world.

Saying the nembutsu is a great practice, and there are definitely times to say it when you’ve caused harm unintentionally. But if you’ve done intentional harm, don’t call on Amida to help you out of the mess you’ve caused. You are going to have to deal with it yourself.

005 Now that I’ve told you what not to do, here’s something you can do. Instead of Namu Amida Buddha, say I can change. You may remain pretty weak, but you’ll be stronger than before. As you get stronger, you’ll change. And as you change, you will make things right again.

So much for what not to do. I’m saying that words do not make up for actions. I’m also saying we need to look forward, not back. We need to accept our situations and respond to them actively. When we do this, our situations, even annoying ones, can become opportunities.

Telling ourselves we can change is our first positive response. It’s true; we can change, and coming to believe that is vital to making great progress in life. Yet before we can believe that, we need to hear it. So telling ourselves we can change comes before the deeper changes occur. Telling leads to believing, and believing leads to doing.

006

Good. Now for a simple and frustratingly common scene where we can starting doing.

Traffic Grinds to a Total Halt

You are on the way to work, school, an appointment, or anyplace else where you need to arrive on time. You’ve allowed a full 13 minutes for your 17 minute ride. Oops. Then there’s parking to contend with. You know you’ll have to make up for lost time once you’re there, even though you already have umpteen things on your plate for the rest of the day. As you’re worrying about all this, the traffic loses its passionate intensity and, seeming to lack all conviction, stops.

007 Being trapped in traffic is a remarkable situation. If you’re like me, you are almost certainly ready to get pissed off as soon as traffic stops. But consider the actual situation. You’re comfortable, quiet, and alone. Although you’re surrounded by other people, they’re minding their own business and are not going to bother you unless you let them. You have full control over your internal world. You are a monk in your own little meditation cell. You know how you always wish you had just a few minutes to calm down and think about things?

These are your minutes. Use them!

Plan your presentation strategy. Do a breathing exercise. Think of a few things you want to say in a letter to an old friend—or just call him. There are plenty of things you can do with this precious time. Start with a simple breath exercise. Breath in, feel the expansion in your lungs. Breath out, feel the relaxing of your muscles. Turn the vexation into a blessing.

You may not feel that a traffic jam is the ideal time and place for it, but you’ve been given the gift of a solo retreat. A colleague of mine, Rachel Harris, has even written a whole book called 20-Minute Retreats. That’s the extraordinary thing about the spiritual dimension of our lives: it’s always available, right now, whatever we’re doing. We just have to wake up to it.

008

With the opening provided by the simplest breath meditation—nothing scary, really just a relaxation—we can turn our trapped selves in trapped cars into free beings with free time. Remember dharma gates are endlessly opening. This is a perfect example. The traffic jam is a dharma gate. When you enter it, where does it take you? You’re free to go there. When you string enough of them together for a long enough time, openings such as this look a whole lot like what the Buddha

Reviews for Just Add Buddha!

[bexaplex · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

I can't lie, I picked up this book because of the cover. A happy ceramic Buddha is jumping into a bowl of soup with both arms raised. How could I not read it :)And now every time something annoys me I find myself saying "that traffic jam was my greatest teacher." I think that ceramic Buddha tricked me.