Survival mind: How Buddhism will help

    Intro to Buddhism and a Survival Mindset

You may be asking yourself "how in the world could Buddhism help me survive an emergency?" Faith in any religion can help; however, Buddhism is a road map to not just surviving, but living a conscious happy life.


Buddhism is considered a religion and/or a philosophy.
Studying Buddhism has brought individuals that have embraced it into a new awakening. The Buddha does not preach teachings to herd individuals into one way of thinking. He asks us to open up to living a fully conscious life. 

Many religions have been used as the basis for self-healing and specialized counseling programs. Buddhism has also been incorporated into healing programs. It's philosophy is used in DBT therapy as a way of helping individuals understand the truth of what is happening in their life (reality-testing) with concepts of distress tolerance, acceptance and mindful-awareness.

Stress, anxiety, loss of reality, confusion, dissociation and emotional upheaval are all words that spring to mind when I think of large scale emergencies. Well there's an "app" for dealing with it and thriving. It's called Buddhism!

The Buddha roamed the lands seeking understanding and a release from suffering. The Four Noble Truths are a contingency plan for dealing with the suffering humanity faces -- suffering of a physical kind, or of a mental nature.

The Four Noble Truths
The Four Noble Truths comprise the essence of Buddha's teachings. They are described like a doctors prescription to cure what ails you.

The First Noble Truth: the ailment, suffering. Life has suffering. Even boredom is a form of suffering. We attempt to alleviate it by maybe watching TV, but it won't make you happy forever.
Eventually the TV will be turned off or you might even lose power.  The notion of suffering is not intended to convey a negative world view, but rather, a pragmatic perspective that deals with the world as it is, and attempts to rectify it. In the end, only aging, sickness, and death are certain and unavoidable.

The Second Noble Truth: The origins of suffering is attachment. Desire and ignorance lie at the root of suffering. By desire, Buddhists refer to craving pleasure, material goods, and immortality, all of which are wants that can never be satisfied. As a result, desiring them can only bring suffering.  Ignorance, in comparison, relates to not seeing the world as it actually is. Without the capacity for mental concentration and insight, Buddhism explains, one's mind is left undeveloped, unable to grasp the true nature of things. Expectation that a person or thing be a particular way will ultimately cause suffering when it does not vices, such as greed, envy, hatred and anger, derive from this ignorance. 

The Third Noble Truth: Do not live in fear because there is indeed a way to end the suffering!  

The Fourth Noble Truth charts the method for attaining the end of suffering, Eightfold Path. 

Noble Eightfold Path: The steps are Right Understanding, Right Thought, Right Speech, Right Action, Right Livelihood, Right Effort, Right Mindfulness and Right Concentration. Moreover, there are three themes into which the Path is divided: good moral conduct (Understanding, Thought, Speech); meditation and mental development (Action, Livelihood, Effort), and wisdom or insight (Mindfulness and Concentration).

There will be suffering in everyone's life at some point.  For example a lover will leave us, someone close to us will die, there will be disasters and emergencies, we will get bored. Will you be crushed or will you survive? Our attachment to one outcome over another will ultimately decide how we approach our suffering. I wish to live a long and happy life, though I know I may die at anytime. This knowledge does not make me depressed or partake in risky behavior that may bring my end closer. It enables me to embrace life and fully appreciate every day.

Those that have had a near death experience or severe loss may have felt, at some point, a sense of clarity about the world: An awakening to what is truly important, love for what IS and not what you wish could be or should be, non-attachment, and appreciation for what you have; be it only a blanket or a king size bed.

For instance:

 "OMG I can't charge my iphone!! Oh wait I am being silly, I am alive and I can pass a message through another person or walk a few blocks (or a few miles) to talk with my loved ones." 

or

"There's no power I can't cook! I have a grill that I can boil water and cook what ever I need. There is wood all around."

Electricity doesn't sustain happiness; your phone will not keep you happy for ever. An understanding of this helps free a person from the stress of loss during an emergency.

Don't cling to one outcome and miss the opportunity to invent, thrive and survive. 

More resources for you:

Brilliantly funny explanations of Buddhist teachings: Buddhism in America (Pod Cast). Titles include: "Buddha Strikes Back", "The Lord of  Pizzas" and my personal favorite, "There is no podcast", which explores Buddhist themes in popular movies such as The Matrix.  http://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/understanding-buddhism-in/id458189253

The Eightfold Path: http://www.thebigview.com/buddhism/eightfoldpath.html

Are you the Grasshopper or the Ant?

Are you the Grasshopper
or the Ant?

I loved this cartoon as a child. I figured the Grasshopper was a lazy goof-off and the ant was building a cool fort. Clearly that is not the whole story.


Aesop's fable, "The Grasshopper and the Ant" is a classic. Here is Walt Disney's "Silly Symphony" version.

The Grasshopper enjoyed the summer sun singing and dancing the day away. He laughed at the Ants working hard gathering food for the winter. The Queen Ant warns the Grasshopper that winter is coming and he will be sorry if he is not prepared. The Grasshopper brushes it off claiming winter is far away, nothing to worry about.

The Grasshopper says "Listen, the Good Book says, the Lord will provide. There's food on every tree. I see no reason to worry and worry."

Winter blows in and the Grasshopper struggles through the snow in search of food and shelter. He remembers where the ants lived and knocks on their door.

Now in the original version the Queen Ant tells the Grasshopper "we worked hard all summer long while you laughed at us. You should have thought of winter then! There's no food or shelter for you here." She shuts the door in his face. The Disney version has the worker Ants taking the Grasshopper in, warming him up and giving him food. The Queen marches over and tells him "just those who work may stay. So take your fiddle and play".

This little fable is chock full of Prepper themes; such as, stocking up, preparing for future events, operational security and what to do when people come knocking on your door looking for assistance.

For now, lets talk about the main theme of preparation.

I know many "Grasshopper" types. They move day to day worrying about a million things, but when you mention having more than just a flashlight on hand for an emergency they tilt their head like a confused puppy dog. There are tons of reasons why an individual will choose to not think about future emergencies, small or large. Buddha teaches us to live in the present moment. Don't dwell on the passed or fantasize about the future. You miss the present when you drift away in hypothetical land.

So how do you prepare without getting lost in thought or even fear of the future?

BALANCE! There's that word again :)

What are the emergencies most likely to affect your area? Flooding, landslide, snow/ice storm, tornado, power outages.... make a list. There are lots of sites dedicated to helping you prepare a list of possible scenarios, what to stock and how much. I feel, when fear starts driving your preparations, you are dwelling too much in the future. When you feel you can never have enough to survive, you are getting off balance. The balancing act stems from within. In the end emergencies large and small will come and go, your survival will largely depend on your mental capacity to let go of material things, luxuries and expectations of what should be, and embracing what is.

Stick to a budget. Don't go thinking "well the world might end in December so I will use a bunch of credit cards to stock up. No worries about creating debt right?" Wrong! Creating an expectation invites appointment's and trouble.  Preparing should be a responsible act to care for you and your family's needs.

The Grasshopper points out that "the Lord will provide", claiming that there is no need to stock up. I say to that Grasshopper, the Lord also had Noah building an arch. He prepared!

We prepare spiritually for a future by leading a good life. For me, that is continuing to learn and practice the ways of Buddha, meditation, living in awareness and gratitude for the world around me. We prepare mentally by releasing worry, learning new skills (like how to start a fire without matches) and creating positive perspective. Physical preparation for the future is just as important. We eat food to nourish our bodies and exercise so that we may live another day (hopefully many many more). Emergency preparation is an extension of all of this.

Do not let thoughts of the future consume you. Today is here! To recenter or balance yourself spend as much time ( or more) enjoying what is...right now. Enjoy family, hanging with friends, a walk in the park, dancing in the rain. We could spend our lives preparing only to have our lives snuffed away in the flash of a second. All those preparations did nothing. So remember to balance it. Prepare and  Live.

The first leap

Like that saying goes, "life is like a box of chocolates".  In my sampling of that box I have learned many things.  Try as we might, we really can never be sure what we are going to get.    This blog is about my belief in the importance of emergency preparation balanced with walking the path of a Buddhist. 

Lots of people have heard countless quotes of "words to live by".  When I ask individuals to give me one life defining word, I often hear "compassion", "respect", "love", "integrity", or "ambition".  There are many more to be sure and are all fantastic words to live by.   For me there is one word that I feel is often overlooked, and that word is BALANCE. 

Balance is a word that has passed in through one ear and out the other for much of my life. As a child, references to a balanced diet really never struck a cord with me. I was a firm believer that you could never have too much spaghetti or Halloween candy.  Okay, yes I got a tummy ache and soon figured out that too much of a good thing could be bad.   But wait, that only applies to things like candy and chips or snow and rain, right?  For a long time that's what I thought.  In my early 30's I started digging deeper into life and the philosophies of Buddhism.  Through my sweetheart, I learned more about Native American culture and spiritual beliefs.  At Native American gatherings it would not be unusual to hear the phrase uttered, "walk in balance" as words given by well wishers for a safe journey; a journey that is not just from your house to the grocery store, but a journey through life.

This got my wheels turning....

Balance is a situation in which different things exist in equal and mutually beneficial amounts.

Living in balance isn't just about making sure you get the right proportion of vegetables with your carbs and protein.  Too much of a really good thing can be devastatingly bad.  Water is so important to sustaining life, yet drinking too much water can actually kill you (water intoxication).  Even love to the extreme can lead someone into a warped perspective that is unhealthy and potentially deadly. 

My mother would say that you could never have too much faith; however, we see examples around the world everyday where, in the name of religion/faith, an individual will commit horrible crimes. The Islamic faith is not, at it's core, any more violent or dangerous than the Catholic faith. Extremists in both of these religions have killed in the name of their God. 

Being unprepared for life's little emergencies can be inconvenient.  Living life with rose-colored glasses and thinking that a larger scale emergency would never touch your life can have deadly consequences.  Be sure that living completely consumed with a fear that the world will end can be just as deadly. (more to follow in the next post)

                                                      **   BALANCE  **

The Buddha specifically recommended maintaining a balance between faith and wisdom

Blind faith is a dangerous thing; blind faith in religion, blind faith in the belief that the world will end... heck, even blind faith that nothing devastating will ever happen.  Life in the extreme is a delusion.

This blog is a window to view my journey in balancing faith and wisdom, preparation for possible emergency situations and living in the present, as well as all that pops up in between.


Now don't take my word for it!

The Buddha said "Don't blindly believe what I say.  Don't believe me because others convince you of my words.  Don't believe anything you see, read, or hear from others, whether of authority, religious teachers or texts.  Don't rely on logic alone, nor speculation.  Don't infer or be deceived by appearances."

Beware of buzz words like: "We did all the research for you so you don't have to!!". This is a glaring red flag to propaganda and information with potently harmful consequences.