Atlanta Buddhism Meetup Group for Beginners

Hello everyone.
Welcome to the gateway to Buddhism 101 for all. The Zoom passcode is 426646. We have a strong aspiration to reach out to those who need help. That's one reason we hold online events.
First of all, we'd like to ask the participants to follow these rules:

1. Please use the same name as your Meetup account when logging in to the Zoom meeting room.
2. Please remember the name of this group Phoenix Buddhism for Practice Meetup Group especially when you're not from Phoenix because we will ask you the name of the group when we don't find your RSVP.
3. Especially when you RSVP at the last minute, if you can drop a note to [email protected] and write the name of this group, then we can easily find your RSVP and as a result you can enter the meeting room quickly.

In regards to how we view life, it's beneficial to remind ourselves that our minds are like an iceberg. There's some of it poking through above the water level, and there's a vast amount of it below which is unseen. Let me give an example of how a young couple moves into an apartment building. Each Saturday the wife would shout to her husband, "Look at our neighbors laundry hanging over there. It looks so dirty! They must be using the wrong detergent!" This went on each week for quite some time. Then one Saturday, the wife woke up and said, "Today they look beautiful and clean." Then the husband said, "I woke up early this morning and cleaned the window."
We all have this "window" in our mind through which we look at the world. When it comes to examining ourselves in particular, it is impossible to take off the tinted glasses of partiality and self seeking. Egoism clouds our vision.
In general all of us have poor memories and are forgetful. If we are aware of this, we can write ourselves a note or become better organized and that way we can avoid spending an extra 150 hours a year just looking for lost items.
One of Buddha's disciples, Cudapanthaka once asked the Buddha why he was born so stupid. Buddha's answer to him was telling him to cheer up and know that being aware of his foolishness is next to being enlightened. After dusting and cleaning in the monastery for 20 years, he had become an arhat and attained a high stage of enlightenment.
It is not always easy to know one's own shortcomings or unknowingness. Many are suffering because of their own misunderstanding. If I always think I'm right, this mindset can damage my relationships. Holding resentments and being overly proud can do the same thing. Because of these 'dragons' some people can find it difficult to ask for help. Some can be merciless to others if we think they are in the wrong. This shows how our minds are complex like an iceberg and that we might not have access to all the information we need, or may be influenced by our own biases and may be unaware of their grip on our perceptions. Having these illusions of always being right and our pride in not asking for help or holding resentments towards others can cause many problems in the world. Maintaining a right view means to be aware of our misperceptions as much as possible. Overall, we only know the tip of the iceberg.
By listening to Buddhism, we can understand ourselves better. It's also beneficial to be able to apologize when we need to and not always try to maintain the upper hand. Having humility is just as important.
We can deepen our understanding of Dharma by belonging to a sangha and listening to Buddha's wisdom. These are the three gems to value in this world; the Buddha, the Dharma, and the Sangha. When we work on ourselves with each other we are better able to choose good conditions and practice wisdom. Also, the more we practice, the more we are able to act in ways that bring harmony and compassion into our lives and our world.
We're able to continue bringing these Dharma sessions for you thanks to the generosity of those of you who support us. Let me take a moment to express our gratitude now. If you too are able to support our cause, you can offer your donations on PayPal or Venmo to Bita Enayati at [email protected].
Thank you for your support and encouragement in helping us continue to bring quality teachings to you, day in, day out. It's not the amount that matters but your desire to be part of a cause greater than ourselves.
If you're interested in learning Buddhism but have a schedule conflict, please write to me for a one on one session. Thank you very much for reading this till the end.
Also please note that we're going to livestream this zoom session on YouTube for later access by our premium members. There will be an announcement from the Zoom app when it starts.
Bita and Yuichi Asakura

Hi our Dharma friends,

Due to popular request, we're starting a new class on Pure Land Buddhism teachings (explanations on the next paragraph); however, this class is advanced so to join us, you need to have completed our basic course and be a contributing sustaining member of our sangha. If you're new and very eager to join us, you can register to join us by emailing me at [email protected] and offering a donation of $10 to Bita Enayati on PayPal, Venmo, or Zelle. Thank you for your understanding.

There are many different routes to climb a high mountain, from the beginner’s level to the advanced-level. Climbers can choose whichever routes based on their ability. Likewise, there are many ways for us to achieve a high stage of spiritual awakening as the Buddha’s. We want to experience true happiness while we’re here on Earth. So we want to know which path is good for us.

Let’s listen to the guidance of great masters.
Seven hundred years after the historical Buddha passed away, the great Buddhist scholar Nagarjuna taught there is an easy path and a difficult path; he clarified it’s extremely difficult to achieve true happiness through the difficult path. He became the first advocate of the easy path after he had experienced the highest possible enlightenment for a human being to achieve.

Nagarjuna is one of the most outstanding Buddhist scholars throughout the whole history of Buddhism. There is no one who doesn’t acknowledge his scholarly achievement. Two hundred years after Nagarjuna’s death, Vasbandhu, who was also a great scholar and writer of Buddhism, followed his footsteps. More masters followed one after another until it reached Shinran in Japan.

To put it simply, the easy path is the Vow-ship of great compassion, which we're going to expound upon. This is going to be the main topic of this Thursday meeting from now on. We hope you enjoy it.
To our regular members: feel free to submit any questions you have on the Vow-ship of great compassion to Bita or Yuichi.