12+Pieces+of+Buddhist+Wisdom+Workbook+Guide

12 Pieces of Buddhist Wisdom Workbook Guide

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12 Pieces of Buddhist Wisdom That Will Transform Your Life By Matt Valentine

When I was little, my grandma had this little green Buddha statue.

It wasn’t a statue of the original Buddha, but rather a statue of

what’s generally considered Maitreya, the “future” Buddha,

usually represented as a hefty man1 sitting with his robe partly

opened and often with beads around his neck. This particular

statue was a pretty common image, one where his belly protruded

out to reveal his belly button.

My grandma would always tell me, “Rub his tummy and you’ll have

good luck!” So naturally, as a kid, I rubbed his tummy every chance

I got. I was supposed to rub his bellybutton specifically, as I


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remember trying to lay my finger on his tiny belly button and rub in

a circle, despite the fact that the belly button was a fraction of a

millimeter in diameter.

I, like many others in the West, grew up with a pretty distorted

image of Buddhism. I thought the Buddha was a god, that it was

just a bunch of charms and superstition for people trying to amass

riches and other misguided pursuits, and I thought meditation was

only for people who were interested in learning human levitation or

something crazy like that.

But I also, like many others, had heard many a number of insightful

Buddha quotes and sayings growing up that seemed to “pull” me

in, and almost always ring a response like, “Exactly!” or, “That’s so

true!”

It’s because of this that despite all my negative misconceptions, I

continued to be interested in Buddhism growing up, until one day I

actually picked up a book, stopped learning from the collective

misconceptions of the Western consciousness, and began learning

from the real thing.

Buddhism holds within it a treasure trove of wisdom, not to

mention wisdom easily applicable in one’s everyday life and by all

people of various backgrounds, beliefs, and preferences.

Thich Nhat Hanh has said, “Buddhism is made up of all non-

Buddhist elements.” And this couldn’t be truer. When it comes


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down to it, Buddhism is really just a collection of methods and

ways of realizing the ultimate truths of this life, and the path to

discovering true peace and happiness.

Whether Buddhist, a collector of universal wisdom, or just

someone interested in finding practical ways to improve their life,

this list presents 12 powerful and potentially transformative pieces

of Buddhist wisdom which you can benefit from.


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12 Pieces of Buddhist Wisdom That Will Transform Your Life

1. Live with compassion Compassion is one of the most revered qualities in Buddhism and

great compassion is a sign of a highly realized human being.

Compassion doesn’t just help the world at large, and it isn’t just

about the fact that it’s the right thing to do. Compassion, and

seeking to understand those around you, can transform your life for

a number of reasons.

First, self-compassion is altogether critical towards finding peace

within yourself. By learning to forgive yourself and accepting that

you’re human you can heal deep wounds bring yourself back from

difficult challenges.

Next, we can often be tortured because of the fact that we don’t

completely understand why people do certain things.

Compassion is understanding the basic goodness in all people and

then seeking to discover that basic goodness in specific people.


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Because of this, it helps you from going through the often mental

torture we experience because we don’t understand the actions of

others.

But even more than that, expressing compassion is the very act of

connecting wholeheartedly with others, and simply connecting in

this way can be a great source of joy for us.

The reasons for practicing compassion are numerous and powerful.

Seek to live in a way that you treat everyone you meet as you

would yourself. Once you begin trying to do this, it will seem

altogether impossible. But keep at it, and you’ll realize the full

power of living with compassion.

Workbook Exercise:

Think of someone you don’t like. This could be someone you hate,

someone you generally dislike, or someone whom you’ve only

recently had an argument with.

Whoever they are, sit and meditate on this person. To do this, hold

the person in your mind. This of course isn’t possible, but you’re

holding as much of the person you know, your perception of the

person, within your mind.

Once you have this picture, do these three things:


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1. Realize that this very picture in your head, this perception, is

what you’re drawing judgment based off of. Not off of the real

person, but off of your interpretation of that person.

2. Now think of something which that person does or has done

which you disapprove of and think of what logical reasons

they might have done or be doing said thing. If the person said

something hurtful to you, start throwing possibilities out there:

maybe something is stressing them badly and they don’t

know how to deal with it, maybe they had a tragedy recently

or were hurt and don’t know how to deal with the anger and

sadness they’re feeling, or something else. Whatever it is, start

thinking of specific possibilities that could be making them act

this way. Think of as many as you can.

3. Lastly, take a step back and review these many possibilities

which you’ve brainstormed. Realize that the reason for their

hurtful behavior is two things: 1) not originating from or

because of you, and 2) simply from something which they’re

experiencing which they don’t know how to deal with.

Once you’ve done this, you’ll see that there’s more to the person

than meets the eye. Conflict usually involves one or more people

using anger to cause hurt, if you can realize that the reason this

person acted out with anger and aggression wasn’t because of

you, but because of something deep within themselves that they’re

hurting from, you can learn to cultivate a great amount of


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compassion for that person as well as alleviate your own feelings

of anger.

This is a very healing exercise which can be done at any time of

day and in any situation.


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2. Connect with others and nurture those connections

In Buddhism, a community of practitioners is called a “sangha”. A

sangha is a community of monks, nuns, laymen, and laywomen

who practice together in peace towards the united “goal” of

realizing greater awakening, not only for themselves but for all

beings.

The sangha is a principle which much of the world can greatly

benefit from. People come together in groups all the time, but it’s

usually for the purpose of creating monetary riches or obtaining

substantial power and rarely towards the united goal o1f attaining

peace, happiness, and realizing greater wisdom.

The principle of the sangha can be expressed in your own life in

many ways. The sangha is ultimately just one way of looking at life,

through the lens of the individual “expressions” of the totality.

By living in a way that you’re fully aware of the power of

connecting with others, whether it’s one person or a group of 100,

and seeking to nurture those relationships in the


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appropriate way, you can transform your life in ways that will pay

dividends for years to come.

Workbook Exercise:

Have one mindful conversation every day for the next 7 days.

To do this, when you have a conversation with, say, your best

friend, be fully present for the conversation by putting down your

phone, turning to look them straight in their eye and turning off and

away from any additional potential distractions.

Be fully present for the words they’re speaking and the thoughts

arising in your mind as a result of their words. If you speak during

the conversation, speak carefully and compassionately, staying

mindful of where you stand or sit and the fact that you’re right here

in this moment having a conversation with your best friend.

One of the most powerful things we can do to improve our

relationships is simply to be fully present for the other person.

Attention and awareness are your primary tools in both connecting

with and nurturing others. Use them wisely.


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3. Wake up One of the most powerful points on this list, the power of simply

living in a way that you’re fully awake to every moment of your life

pretty much couldn’t be exaggerated even if I tried.

Mindfulness, greater awareness, paying attention, whatever you

want to call it- it changes every facet of your life and in every

way. It’s as simple as that.

Strive to live fully awake to each moment of your daily life and

overcome your greatest personal struggles, find a great sense of

peace and joy, and realize the greatest lessons life can teach you

as a result of living fully awake to the present moment.

Workbook Exercise:

Mindfulness is the primary tool used in realizing any level of

awakening. This was the foundation of the Buddha’s teaching.

Mindfulness can be practiced any time of day and in any situation.

In the beginning, mindfulness is a rather progressive practice.


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By that I mean you’ll begin with a basic mindful breathing exercise

or something like it and gradually expand to more and different

varied mindfulness practices such as mindful eating, driving,

walking, and conversing like the one I mentioned in the last

workbook exercise.

To practice mindful breathing, you don’t have to sit cross-legged or

do anything special. Simply stop what you’re doing and turn your

awareness to your breath. Don’t attempt to control your breath,

simply observe it.

You might be surprised to see how short and inconsistent your

breath is. This is normal, we often breathe this way and don’t even

notice it. This greatly affects how we feel and act, and so mindful

breathing in this can completely transform how we feel on a day-

to-day basis.

Count each in breath and out breath as one. So breathe in – one,

breathe out - two, breathe in – three, etc. Do this until you get to 10

or until you become distracted by a thought, feeling, or sensation.

Hint: you won’t get to 10.

In the beginning, it will be very difficult to count to 10 like this

without getting becoming interrupted. But these interruptions

aren’t a bad thing, so make sure not to label them as such.

When you notice a distraction arise, be it a thought, feeling, or

sensation- and they will be plentiful- simply acknowledge it


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without thinking anything about it (accept it openly as you would a

loved one coming into your arms) and then gently direct you

awareness back to your breath.

For a full-fledged, thorough, and yet simple and straightforward

guide to creating a daily practice of mindfulness and meditation I’d

suggest my book, Zen for Everyday Life.


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4. Live deeply To live deeply, in a way that you become keenly aware of the

precious nature of life, is to begin down the path of true peace and

happiness.

Why? Because to live in this way is to gradually become aware of

the true nature of the world. This will happen essentially in

“sections” of the whole, such as realizing your interconnectedness

(you begin to see how everything is connected to everything else)

and impermanence (you begin to see how everything is ever-

changing, constantly dying only to be reborn in another form).

These realizations are the bread and butter of Buddhism and all

spiritual practice. These “sections of the whole” are fragments of

the ultimate realization, ways for us to understand that which can’t

be fully understood in the traditional sense.

By living in a way that you seek to realize these various “qualities of

the ultimate” you find greater and greater peace in realizing the

natural way of things. This cultivates in us the ability to savor every

moment of life, to find peace in even the most mundane activities,

as well as the ability to transform your typically “negative”

experiences into something altogether nourishing and healing.


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Workbook Exercise:

Pick an object, any object. Preferably an object you have near you

and can sit down and look at.

Think about that object deeply, imagining the huge amount of total

work- of manpower, machine power, technology, knowledge, and

time- that it took to bring that object in front of you as it is in that

moment.

Continue further and imagine what that object was before it was

the object. If it’s a machine imagine all the various pieces which had

to be created, manufactured, and pieced together in order to

create the object in front of you.

Now imagine what allowed that object to come to be, realize that

the object was a very part of the world around you before it took

the form of the machine in front of you. Take this meditation as far

as it will go, eventually arriving at the realization that this object

was once in the soil, in the sky, and in the ocean in a very real and

tangible way.

You can meditate on any object in this way, so go wild! This

meditation can be the source of significant insights which lead to a

great sense of peace, joy, and a reverence for life.


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5. Change yourself, change the world

Buddhists understand that you can hardly help another before you

help yourself. But this isn’t referring to you gaining power or riches

before you can help others, or living in a way that you ignore

others.

This is mostly referring to the fact that because we’re all

interconnected, by you helping yourself you create an

exponentially positive effect on the rest of the world.

If you want to make an impact on the world, don’t falsely convince

yourself that it’s “you or them”1. You don’t need to drag yourself

through the mud to help those around you. If you do this, you’ll

greatly hamper your ability to create a positive impact.

At the deepest level of understanding, by making it about you

you’re also making it about them because you know there’s no

separating “you” and “them”.

Take care of yourself and seek to be more than just a help, but an

example of how to live for others to follow and you’ll create waves

of exponential possibility that inspires others to do the same.


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Workbook Exercise:

This entire workbook is about working on yourself, which in turn

helps others in the ways described above. So take a moment to

meditate on exactly how by changing each of these things you

change the world around you.

By living with compassion, how do you help others?

By connecting with others and nurturing your relationships, how do

you help others?

By waking up and realizing your true nature, how do you help

others?

By living deeply, seeing the interconnected nature of all things and

how what you do affects all things and how what all things do

affects you, how do you help others?

You get the idea, continue to do this for the remaining points in

order to fully realize just how changing your own life will change

the world.


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6. Embrace death Death is an often taboo topic in Western society. We do everything

we can to not only avoid the subject, but pretend that it doesn’t

even exist.

The reality is, this is really unfortunate and in no way helps us lead

better lives. Becoming keenly aware of your own impermanence

and deeply understanding the nature of death with regards to our

interconnectedness are both things which can help us find great

peace.

In Buddhism, students in many sects at one point or another

“meditate on the corpse” as it were (a practice which is said to have

originated at least as far back as the Buddha’s lifetime).

This is literally what it sounds like. They meditate on the image of a

corpse slowing decomposing and imagine that process through to

its end, eventually resulting in a deep and profound realization on

the true nature of death.

That might sound a little intense to you, but the truth is, if you live

you’re entire life acting as if you’re never going to die or ignoring

your own impermanence then you won’t ever be able to find true

peace within yourself.


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You don’t necessarily have to meditate on the image of a corpse,

but simply opening up to yourself about death so that you’re no

longer shielding it from your mind (which you’re likely doing

unconsciously, as that’s how most of us were brought up in the

West) can begin to be a great source of peace and help you

appreciate the many joys in your everyday life.

A true appreciation for life can never be fully realized until you

come face-to-face with your own impermanence. But once you do

this, the world opens up in a new and profound way.

Workbook Exercise:

I’m not going to ask you to meditate on the image of a corpse, so

don’t worry. But I will ask that you meditate on the idea of death

itself.

Imagine you’re viewing the events leading up to your own death

and beyond from a third-person perspective, looking down upon

the various events.

Imagine you getting sick, going through treatment, getting worse,

finally passing, your funeral, and then take this as far as it will go. By

that I mean meditate on the idea of being dead itself. Specifically, I

want you to meditate on the idea of going to sleep and never


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waking up. When it comes down to it, that’s really what we’re afraid

of when we think of death.

Meditate on this for as long as you feel is necessary, until you crack

through your old beliefs about death and begin realizing the truth

about death itself. There’s no telling how long this will take, but

meditations such as this should be taken as far as they can go in

order to fully realize the insights which can come from them.

If this gets a little intense and you find it difficult to move forward,

I’m always here to talk to. You can email me here and I can work

you through what you’re feeling and attempt to help you move

beyond any barriers you may have arrived at.


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7. Your food is (very) special

Meditative practice offers the ability to transform every experience

in your everyday life, which I discuss in my forthcoming book Zen

for Everyday Life, and food is one of those everyday experiences

which is greatly transformed and often in very interesting and

rewarding ways.

Buddhist meditative practice, particularly mindfulness and

contemplation, helps you realize the precious nature of the food in

front of you. Indeed, with how integral a part food plays in our

lives, to transform our relationship with food is to transform a key

aspect of our entire lives, both now and in the future.

By contemplating on the food in front of us, for example, we can

come to realize the vast system of interconnectedness that is our

life, and how our food coming to be on our dinner plate as it is

depended on numerous elements coming to be.

This helps us to deepen our relationship with food, cultivate a deep

sense of gratitude before each meal, and learn to respect the

delicate but ever-pressing balance that is life.


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Workbook Exercise:

For this exercise, you can do very much the same as we did in #4,

but in this case meditating on a piece of food. I tend to pick whole

foods like fruits and vegetables because they’re easier to visualize.

You can pick whatever you’d like though. J

When it comes to food, imagine where the food came from and

what the food was before it sprouted into the fruit, vegetable, or

what it is. Think about where it came from before then and what

made it what it is.

This can be a rather involved exercise, so you might not want to do

it before every meal, but it’s very beneficial to do regularly.


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8. Understand the nature of giving

Giving is more than the act of giving Christmas and Birthday gifts,

it’s also about those gifts which we give each and every day which

we don’t typically see as gifts at all.

Buddhists hold a very deep understanding of the nature of giving,

particularly in that life is a constant play between the act of giving

and receiving. This doesn’t just help us find peace in understanding

the way of the world around us, but helps us realize the amazing

gifts we all have within us that we can give others in every

moment, such as our love, compassion, and presence.

Workbook Exercise:

Think about what you do on an everyday basis and how that is a

form of giving:

• Work

• Home life

• Interacting in various ways with friends, family, and strangers

• Just being you


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By taking a moment to really think of your life from the perspective

that everything we do is a constant relationship between gift, giver,

and receiver we can transform our everyday lives from that of “just

another day” to one of infinite fascination, gratitude, and joy.


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9. Work to disarm the ego

The easiest way to sum up all “spiritual” practice is this: spirituality is

the act of coming in touch with the ultimate reality or the ground of

being, and as a result spiritual practice is the act of overcoming

those obstacles which keep us from realizing that.

The primary obstacle in our way? The ego.

To put it short and sweet, the reason the ego is the major obstacle

in spiritual practice, or simply the practice of finding true peace and

happiness (whatever you choose to call it, it’s all the same), is

because it’s very function is to pull you away from the ground of

your being by convincing you that you’re this separate self.

The process of unraveling the ego can take time, as it’s something

which has been with us, intertwined with us, for years. But it’s

infinitely rewarding and altogether necessary if we want to realize

our best life.

Workbook Exercise:


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There’s about as many ways to begin disarming or dissipating the

ego as there is colors in the color spectrum, so it will largely be up

to you as to how you go about doing this.

The most basic way to begin disarming the ego is by simply asking

the question, “Who is [your name]?” So if your name is Janice you

can ask yourself, “Who is Janice?” It might seem a little funny to ask

yourself a question like that, but it’s effective in getting you to turn

inward and begin really questioning who the “you” is that you

consider and visualize yourself to be.

Really, who are you? Are you just a body, a system of veins,

arteries, intestines, organs, nerves, and a brain that happen to

constitute the thinking and feeling you that goes to work every day,

loves your family, and has dreams and desires?

Or are you more than just that? Is your body you? Is it not you? Is it

finite, or does it really expand outward beyond what you can see?

Are all 5 of your senses all that can be sensed? Is there more (think

heat vision) which we can’t typically see with just our eyes and

other senses?

Start asking yourself as many of these seemingly odd questions as

you can, and really delve deeply here.

Question everything, and draw no conclusions. It doesn’t matter

what you think about what insights you come to, what matters is

what happens right in front of your eyes and within the present


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moment itself. Experience everything in mindfulness and draw no

judgment either way.


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10. Remove the 3 poisons

Life is filled with vices, things which attempt to bind us to

unwholesome ways of living and therefore do the very opposite of

cultivate peace, joy, and greater realization in our lives. Among

these, the 3 poisons are some of the most powerful. The 3 poisons

are:

1. Greed

2. Hatred

3. Delusion

Together, these 3 poisons are responsible for the majority of the

pain and suffering we experience as a collective species. It’s

perfectly normal to be affected by each of these poisons

throughout your life, so don’t knock yourself for falling for them.

Instead, simply accept that they’re something you’re experiencing

and begin working to remove them from your life. This can take

time, but it’s a key aspect on the path towards realizing true peace

and happiness.


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Workbook Exercise:

Your mindfulness practice will allow you to notice when you’re

succumbing to the three poisons. Keep in mind these three poisons

cover a wide range of topics.

Greed isn’t just monetary greed but the general feverish desiring of

things which we so often fall into. Ultimately this means attaching

ourselves to the idea that we need to acquire more in order to cure

ourselves, when in reality this cure is a poison that just continues to

make us suffer. Be mindful of when you desire something,

anything, and simply observe that desire without yet interjecting.

Once you’ve done so you can see with clarity how that desire is

effecting your thoughts and actions and be able to make a change.

Hatred covers anger, aggression, envy, and the like. Be mindful of

any moment in which you feel dislike for another or get angry and

ask yourself why these feelings have arisen. As always, go deep

here and don’t just readily accept to first answer that arises.

Delusion refers to wrong perceptions and is about identifying those

things which keep us from seeing with clarity. Here, you should

begin to become mindful of your opinions about things, particularly

your strong opinions, and simply observe your feelings with

mindfulness. What does how you feel about the topic tell you? This

sense of conflict is a good identifier that you should look more

closely at whatever it is.


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11. Right livelihood We should all strive to work and make our living in a way that’s

more “conscious” or aware. This generally means not selling

harmful items such as guns, drugs, and services that harm other

people, but it goes deeper than that.

There’s ultimately two aspects to this: making a living by doing

something which doesn’t inhibit your own ability to realize peace

and making a living doing something which doesn’t inhibit others

ability to realize peace.

Facing this can lead to some interesting situations for some people,

and as Thich Nhat Hanh has mentioned this is a collective effort as

opposed to a solely personal one (the butcher isn’t a butcher only

because he decided to be, but because there is a demand from

people for meat to be neatly packaged and made available for

them to be purchased from supermarkets), but you should strive to

do your best.

Following the teaching on right livelihood can help you realize the

harmful effect that your own work is having on you and therefore

coming up with a solution can result in a largely positive shift in

your life as a whole. Only you can decide if a change needs to

happen though.


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Whatever the case, seek to make a living doing something that

promotes the peace and happiness of yourself and those around

you as much as possible.

Workbook Exercise:

Become mindful of how you feel while at work and begin

contemplating how you feel about your work in general and how

your work affects the world around you.

Doing so is the foundation of discovering whether you need to

make a change or not. If something makes you feel uncomfortable,

explore the feelings further.

If you discover that your livelihood is less-than preferable, and that

you can and should make a change, do so carefully. Don’t jump to

leaving your job or closing your business though, understand that

what’s really important here is understanding deeply how what you

do and what your company does affects all living and non-living

beings.

You can’t always do something about your position, but you can

become more aware and compassionate and seek to do things to

offset the imbalance.


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12. Realize non-attachment

This is a difficult point to put into so few words, but a profound one

I felt would be greatly beneficial to mention nonetheless.

To realize non-attachment in a Buddhist sense doesn’t mean to

abandon your friends and family and live alone for the rest of your

life, never truly living again just so that you don’t become attached

to these desires.

Non-attachment refers to living in a way that you exist in the

natural flow of life and generally living a typical modern life,

building a family, working, etc., while simultaneously not being

attached to any of these things. It simply means to live in a way that

you’ve become aware of and accepted the impermanence of all

things in this life and live in a way that you’re ever-aware of this

fact.

It’s perfectly normal for a Zen student in Japan, once having

completed his training, to actually de-robe and go “back into the

world” so to speak. This is because, once they’ve reached this level

of realization, they see the beauty in all things and are compelled

to live fully absorbed in all the beauty and wonders of this life.


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From this point on, they can truly “live life to the fullest”, while not

clinging to any of these things.

Keep in mind, this doesn’t mean that you stop feeling emotions. On

the contrary, these emotions are welcomed and expected, and

fully experienced with mindfulness in the moment of their impact.

But this is simply the natural course of things.

Once these emotions subside though, and when we have no

mental formations or obstructions to block our path, a natural

healing process takes place that heals the wound and allows us to

continue on living in peace and joy instead of dragging us down

into darkness.

Strive to live free, fully aware of the wonders of life and in the very

midst of all of those wonders, while not clinging to any of it. To do

this is to realize the greatest joy life has to offer.

Workbook Exercise: For this exercise, I want you to ask yourself one simple

question: “What can I not live without?” And I don’t mean what do you need in order to live, the

basic necessities, I mean what are those things you love or like too much that you could never see being able to give them up or be without. This is a simple exercise which can help shed light on some of the attachments you hold.


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Keep in mind though that attachment, and the process of letting go, could be an entire book in itself. This will be a process, and includes everything from material vices to intellectual ideas. For more information on the subject I’d suggest reading The Beginner’s Guide to Letting Go and Becoming Enlightened Through Non-Attachment.


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More from Matt Valentine and Buddhaimonia…


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Zen for Everyday Life

Zen for Everyday Life: How to Find Peace and Happiness in the Chaos of Everyday Life is my complete guide to living moment to moment with mindfulness and presence. In Zen for Everyday Life, you’ll learn how to mindfully:

• Sit • Walk • Stop • Eat • Drive • Arrive • Rest • Love • Communicate • …and much more.

Zen for Everyday Life will

also give you the tools you need to really make the practice a way of life, or a habit, and it will give you the tools you need to continue to maintain and nurture your daily mindfulness practice moving forward, guide you through the various myths and misconceptions that keep us from happiness, and show you step-by-step how to truly deepen your moment-to-moment experience of daily life. You can learn more about Zen for Everyday Life by clicking the link below:

Click Here to Learn More About Zen for Everyday Life


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Living Zen Spirit…Coming in January

My next book is officially titled,

“Living Zen Spirit” and it will be out this coming January of 2016. Living Zen Spirit is about living with the spirit of Zen, true Zen practice at its very essence stripped of rituals and formalities, within modern daily life. More than Zen Buddhist practice, it’s about the universal qualities that make up the broader sense of Zen, something applicable to anyone and everyone no matter your spiritual tradition (or lack-there-of). This is without a doubt the most complete and extensive guide to daily living that I’ve ever written.

If you’d like to be notified when the book is available for pre-order, as well as get some cool exclusive book bonuses from here until release, click below (or on the book image), fill in your email on the notification page, and you’ll be good to go:

Click here to be notified when Living Zen Spirit is released + Get

exclusive book bonuses

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