Jay N. Forrest

The way to meditate is ti sit up straight, relax the body, and focus on the breath.  Meditation is an not about clearing the mind, or not thinking. What you’re wanting to do in meditation is to pay attention to what’s going on in your body, mind, and feelings. Meditation is about observation. You’re trying to learn about your own mind. You’re trying to understand how it works and doesn’t work. Where it goes off track and spins in delusions about the past or future. The bottom line is that you’re trying to know yourself, as the ancients advised.  You’re never going to know yourself if you don’t spend time with yourself, alone, and observant. Remember meditation is about observation, it is not about not thinking.  Become the observer rather than a participant of the thinking mind. Nonattachment is the key.

A belief is a claim that is accepted as true, which then becomes a rule of action.  A claim not acted on is not believed. Belief requires that the claim becomes a rule of action. Not becoming a rule of action is sufficient proof that the claim is not really believed.  It is amazing how many people get this wrong. Have you ever heard someone say that what you believe doesn’t matter? They could not be more wrong.  Beliefs govern all your intentional actions. All you do is based on what you believe, whether conscious of this belief or not.  Unconscious beliefs are called assumptions. But assumptions are still "accepted as true" and have become "a rule of action." They are still beliefs and they still matter, maybe even more so because they are unconscious beliefs;

It ain’t so much the things we don’t know that get us into trouble. It’s the things we know that just ain’t so. – Artemus Ward  It’s amazing how sure someone can be about what they think they know, but which they actually don’t know.   Knowing what ain’t so is a big problem. So many people are afflicted with this disease.   Are you?

Of course, eating meat is wrong, for me at least. Who am I to legislate the consciousness of other people. To my own self? I must be true. My only offense is in state my opinion publicly.  Shame on me.

Just because it's different doesn't mean that it's wrong. Different Buddhists view the path from different points of view. Just because they're different, doesn't mean they're not compatible.  There's more than one way to describe the same elephant. 

If it's worth doing, it is worth doing with full Mindfulness. Be fully with what you're doing. Mindful of the body, breath, feelings, thoughts, and experiences.  This is what it means to live a mindful life.

Zen has the advantage of teaching us that reality is not found in concepts but in experience.  Many of the sayings of Zen sound wrong or nonsensical. They contradict the ordinary way of seeing things in order to free us from bondage to concepts. We spend most of our lives living in our heads rather than living our life.  There are many lessons we can learn from Zen. First, we can learn that knowing the scriptures is not enough. Knowing the truth is not the same as practicing the truth. And the point is to practice the truth. Second, the most important lessons are not taught by words, but by experience. There is simply no substitute for seeing for yourself. A person with an experience is never at the mercy of a person with a concept. Third, Zen teaches us that the point of Buddhism is practice. Sit down and shut up. Don't talk it. Do it. Get the experience and you no longer need the concept. Fourth, knowing a concept is not the same as knowing the reality. Concepts can be both bridg

 I first went vegetarian in 2015, and since that time I have read a number of books. Some are still on my to-read list. But here are the best ones I can personally recommend to those who are Vegan or are thinking of going Vegan. The China Study by T. Colin Campbell, PhD Prevent and Reverse Heart Disease by Caldwell Esselstyn, MD The Starch Solution by John A. McDougall, MD Undo It! by Dean Ornish, MD The Vegan Starter Kit by Neal Barnard, MD How Not to Die by Michael Greger, MD The Plant-Based Solution by Joel K. Kahn, MD Proteinaholic by Garth Davis, MD Becoming Vegan (Comprehensive Edition) by Brenda Davis  and Vesanto Melina Living Vegan For Dummies by Alexandra Jamieson Animal Liberation by Peter Singer  This Is Vegan Propaganda by Ed Winters  Why We Love Dogs, Eat Pigs, and Wear Cows by Melanie Joy, PhD The Longest Struggle by Norm Phelps  World Peace Diet by Tuttle Will, PhD Buddhism and Veganism edited by Will Tuttle, PhD Straight Up Food by Cathy Fisher

The only truly healthy diet in the entire world is a whole food plant-based diet that does not have added salt, oil, and sugar (SOS). This is a scientifically verifiable claim. Just read Dr. Michael Greger's book How Not to Die .  But isn't olive oil healthy? Originally when they studies the Meditorian diet the researchers thought that it was olive oil that made it healthy. They were wrong. It was the increase in vegetables that made it healthy. It was an honest mistake, but it was a mistake nonetheless. Dr. Cardwell B. Esselstyn, Jr., an expert on heart health, has responded to the claim that "olive oil or canola oil" is healthy. He writes, "nothing could be further from the truth. They are not heart healthy" ( Prevent and Reverse Heart Disease ). Oil is the Vegan killer. For "one out of four patients with heart disease," writes Dr. Esselstyn, "the first symptom is sudden death." You need to really listen to what I am saying. I know it s

The first question is what is a Vegan diet? A Vegan Diet means not eating any "food or other products derived from animals" ( Oxford English Dictionary ). That means no beef, pork, lamb, chicken, turkey, fish, shellfish, insects, dairy, eggs, or honey. The second question is whether or not such a diet is healthy. It is. But don't take my word for it. Read the books by T. Colin Campbell, Cardwell B Esselstyn, Jr., Micheal Greger, Dean Ornish, John A. McDougall, Joel Fuhrman, and many others. Don't believe the doctors? How about the Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics (formerly the American Dietetic Association)? This is the largest organization of food and nutrition professionals in the world. It is the position of the Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics: that appropriately planned vegetarian diets, including total vegetarian or vegan diets, are healthful, nutritionally adequate, and may provide health benefits in the prevention and treatment of certain diseases. Well-pl

The Buddha said:  Bhikkhus, one possessing four qualities is deposited in hell as if brought there. What for? He himself destroys life; he encourages others to destroy life; he approves of the destruction of life; and he speaks in praise of the destruction of life. One possessing these four qualities is deposited in hell as if brought there (AN 4. 264 Bodhi). It is clearly bad karma to "encourage others to destroy life." Another translation renders it "they encourage others to kill living creatures" (AN 4. 264 Sujato). The word translated as "encourage" is  samādapeti in the Pali language. It means "to cause to take, to incite, rouse" ( PTS Pali English Dictionary ).  Clearly paying someone to kill and butcher an animal for you is encouraging them "to kill living creatures." I can't think of a more powerful encouragement or incentive to get the butcher to kill an animal than money. As they say, "Money makes the world go round.

 Many people don't read. Luckily there are really good vegan documentaries on Netflix. Here are the ones I have personally watched and recommend. The Game Changers What The Health Cowspiracy Earthlings Forks Over Knives

 Have you ever heard of the blue zone? They are places in the world where people live longer than average, many over 100 years of age. They tend also tend to be much healthier than other people living in other parts of the world. The five blue zones that have been identified are Okinawa, Japan; Sardinia, Italy; Nicoya, Costa Rica; Icaria, Greece; and Loma Linda, California, United States. Although there are a number of keys to their success, three deal with diet. First, if they drink alcohol they do so in moderation. Second, they eat until they're about 80% full. And thirdly, they eat a largely plant-based diet. As Buddhists, we can bring in mindful eating, stress reduction through mindfulness, and Buddhism gives us purpose in life. These are also markers for health and longness of life. But it is not just length of life that we want, we want quality of life. This can only be found when you are growing mentally and spiritually. Part of that growth is learning to walk the path of ri

There are two main meanings of the word diet. The first refers to "the kinds of food that a person, animal, or community habitually eats." The second use of the word diet refers to "a special course of food to which one restricts oneself, either to lose weight or for medical reasons" (OED). The whole food plant-based diet refers to how humans were designed by nature to "habitually eat." Unfortunately, the Standard American Diet (SAD) is so far from this design that it is making us sick. What we "habitually eat" now is extremely unhealthy.  A whole food plant-based diet is an eating habit that eats food that are as close to the way you find them in nature as possible. In other words, it avoids most foods that have a label. And it is plant-based, meaning no meat, fish, eggs, or dairy milk. The whole food plant-based diet, when you eliminate added salt, oil, and sugar, is the healthiest diet on the planet. It can reverse heart disease, high blood pr

 Dharma is a Buddhist term that has two primary meanings. Both of these are important. And both are interconnected. Dharma means both truth and experience. As truth, Dharma is the truth about experience. As experience, dharma is the experience of the truth. So Dharma has two sides, the conceptual and the practical. Dharma is sometimes defined as the Buddha's teaching. This is not wrong, but the connotation is not right. The Buddha taught the "truth," not just a "teaching." In order words, what the Buddha taught corresponded to the way things are. The teaching matches the experience. Dharmas, in the plural, usually is referring to experience. The fourth approach to mindfulness, is mindfulness of dhammas (the Pali word). It is about being mindfulness of experience as it relates to the Five Hindrances, the attachments of the five aggregates, the six senses, the Seven Factors of Awakening, and the Four Noble Truths (MN 10). I can't take credit for translating dh

Here is a simple introduction to Buddhism, explained in simple and clear terms. This is the result of over a decade of intense study and practice. I hope it helps you better understand Buddhism. Karma means that our intentional actions condition our future actions and that all intentional actions have consequences. It is because of karma that we are reborn again and again. There is no known beginning to this cycle of rebirth.  This endless cycle of rebirth is not good, rather it is filled with endless suffering and misfortune. We are born, we get sick, lose the ones we love, grow old and decrepit, and then we die. Sometimes, depending on our karma, we are born in a good destination, but often times we are reborn in hell. The cause of this endless cycle of rebirth is the wanting mind, which is conditioned by our intentional choices manifested in our thoughts, words, and deeds. This wanting mind is seen in our attachments, aversions, and delusions. It is the wanting mind that wants to li

It seems that changing your mind is a great crime. People value consistency more than accuracy. Change your mind and you can no longer be trusted. But the opposite may in fact be true. Changing your mind means that you are open to learning, open to being wrong, and more likely to actually discover the truth. True rational consistency does not consist in stereotyping our beliefs and views, and in refusing to make any improvements lest we be guilty of change. As if consistency were somehow a virtue. A foolish consistency is a sign of simple-mindedness and close-mindedness and is not the sign of one in pursuit of truth. True rational consistency means holding our minds open to receive the rays of truth from every source, and it means changing our beliefs as often and as fast as we obtain further information. This way of life alone accords with the claim of being rational. No one should be afraid to change their beliefs in conformity with increasing knowledge. Such a fear would keep the wo

The Buddha was the first minimalist. He said: Those who mistake the unessential to be essential and the essential to be unessential, dwelling in wrong thoughts, never arrive at the essential. Those who know the essential to be essential and the unessential to be unessential, dwelling in right thoughts, do arrive at the essential (Dhp 11-12 Buddharakkhita). You will find this thought echoed in many modern definitions of minimalism. Let's look at a few of these. Joshua Becker defines minimalism as: the intentional promotion of things we most value and the removal of anything that distracts us from them.  Joshua Fields Millburn and Ryan Nicodemus define write: Minimalism is a tool to eliminate life's excess, focus on the essentials, and find happiness, fulfillment, and freedom. Fumio Sasaki writes: Minimalism is a lifestyle in which you reduce your possessions to the absolute minimum you need. Dominique Loreau uses simplicity and minimalism interchangeably. He writes: Simplicity m

 The Buddha said: Having thus gone forth he lives restrained in body, speech, and mind, content with the simplest food and shelter, delighting in solitude (DN 2 Thanissaro). Until recently, minimalism was called simplicity or simple living. It was practiced by the Buddha, his monastic followers, and those serious about their spiritual practice. A cluttered room has a negative effect on the mind. The fruit of the meditative life is one of peace, simplicity, and contentment. A "balanced life" is one that is "neither extravagant nor miserly" (AN 8.54 Narada). It has just the things needed to accomplish one's mission in life, and nothing more.  The Buddha taught "less is more" before minimalism was a thing. His wisdom on living a simple life is clear and straightforward. Concentrate your energy on living out the Noble Eightfold Path of right view, right resolve, right speech, right action, right livelihood, right effort, right mindfulness, and right medita

 The Buddha said: Bhikkhus, I abstain from eating at night. By so doing, I am free from illness and affliction, and I enjoy lightness, strength, and a comfortable abiding. Come, bhikkhus, abstain from eating at night. By so doing, you too will be free from illness and affliction, and you will enjoy lightness, strength, and a comfortable abiding (MN 70 Bodhi). The Buddha practiced intermittent fasting 2,500 years ago. Way before we had science to demonstrate its health benefits. The very health benefits that the Buddha mentioned. In fact, the Buddha made it a rule for ordained monastics to follow this simple rule, no food is to be eaten after the noon hour until sunrise the next day. That is about an 18-hour fast. For those that work nights, you could switch this to no food from midnight until 6 pm. That is an 18-hour fast as well. I find that midnight until 4 pm works better for my schedule, which is still a 16-hour fast. The benefits of fasting as "you too will be free from illne

The Buddha said: Take a mendicant who reflects properly on the food that they eat: ‘Not for fun, indulgence, adornment, or decoration, but only to sustain this body, to avoid harm, and to support spiritual practice (AN 4.159 Sujato). The Buddha was the first to eat that we should eat to live, not live to eat. Eating serves only three purposes, "to sustain this body, to avoid harm, and to support spiritual practice." There is nothing here about eating for pleasure. Yet that is what most people do. But this is not the way of the Awakened One. The Buddha said that the wise person "is not attached to food" (Dhp 93 Buddharakkhita). How do you do that? "Mendicants, when the perception of repulsiveness of food is developed and cultivated it’s very fruitful and beneficial" (SN 46.69 Sujato). It also helps to eat plain food, without salt, oil, and sugar. If you don't like it so much you might eat less. In fact, the Buddha recommended "moderation in f