Category: buddha

A Zen Buddhist Taoist Christian

Some say I’m a Buddhist

Some say I’m a Christian

Some say I’m a Taoist

Some say I’m a Sufi 

You can label me all of these or none

No one religion or philosophy has a monopoly on the truth

Many streams lead to the ocean

Many paths lead up to the mountain top

All spirituality has a common ancestor

Unconditional love unites and purifies all religious teachings

Some teachings call it God, the divine, Dao, Buddha nature etc

We must not get attached to believing that our tradition has the ultimate truth while diminishing other spiritual paths

I plan to never get attached to one philosophy, religion or teacher

I only seek the ocean of unconditional love within my own soul

With aloha,

Johnny

The Awaken One Within

Beneath the hatred

Beneath the doubt

Beneath the fear

Beneath the greed

Beneath the addictions

Beneath the suffering

There is a gem

More precious than diamonds

Beneath the chaos is a deep source of unconditional love

A love so deep and healing

A love that can liberate us from fear

This is the mission of my life

To dive deeper into this source of unconditional love and let it transform me

We are all born with the capacity to awaken and become enlightened

With this source of love we can help the world heal from hatred, fear and violence

We can walk more and more like Jesus did on this earth

We are all Buddhas(awaken one) to be

Don’t doubt or limit yourself

With love,

Johnny

Question Everything

Question this blog post, leaders, religion, philosophy etc

Question everything and everyone

Question not with hatred

Question not to prove others wrong or you right

Question everything with a childlike curiosity

Is this true to you in our daily life?

Is it practical or possible?

Will this bring peace and love to ourselves and all living beings?

Let go of all bias and dogmas

Question everything with curiosity to find out the truth for yourself in your day to day lives

Most importantly, question yourself

Question your own beliefs and behaviors in the world and where they stem from

Are they serving you and others around you?

You might find out that most of your beliefs and opinions are from your parents, culture or government

They might be outdated or not helpful to you anymore

With love,

Johnny

The Religion of Unconditional Love

My religion is brother and sister hood of all  beings

Our philosophy is unconditional love

Our goal is to bring peace within and around us through our actions each moment

We do not convert or force our views

We just keep our eyes on unconditional love

This is the philosophy of Jesus or Buddha without religious dogma or complex beliefs

We seek to build bridges instead of barriers to enter the Kingdom of God (unconditional love)

Anyone can join

Your brother,

Johnny Hoffman

Follow Love

Every decision we can make in this world is based on love or fear

Choose love based decisions and you will wake up to a life that you truly love

Choose fear based decisions and you will wake up to a life you fear

It’s as simple as that

Through a mindfulness practice we can become aware of what true love is

Love is not controlling

Love is not manipulative

Love is not attached

Love is liberating

Love deeply heals the parts of us consumed with greed, hatred and fear

Your brother,

Johnny

Transforming Suffering into Joy

Some naively want to live in a world with no suffering

Only pure bliss

This is understandable but a dangerous idea

For without suffering there is no compassion

And with no compassion there is no true joy

Suffering and joy are two sides of the same coin

We don’t need to fear suffering

We can transform it into pure joy

When we embrace our suffering with pure compassion we can transform it into true joy

We must take Jesus’s message internally for this transformation to truly happen

Through mindfulness and compassion we can embrace the most hurt parts of ourselves with loving tenderness

We must accept that suffering is a natural part of life

But we don’t need to dwell in it and suffer unnecessarily

We can transform suffering into pure joy

By living like Jesus or the Buddha we can transform the darkness into light

Many look for miracles yet nothing is as profound as the healing nature of unconditional love

With love,

Johnny

You Are a Miracle

You are a miracle

Many stars had to die for you to exist

Millions of your ancestors had to meet for you to smile

Many minerals, plants and animals had to die for you to be alive

The miracle of life is all around and within us at every moment

To touch the miracle of life is to touch the divinity of everything at once

A single cell becomes a human being

A single mustard seed sprouts into a massive tree

Housing many birds and other life forms

The practice of mindfulness is to get in touch with the miracle of life

Too often fear, hatred and greed keep us from this nourishing energy of love

If we can feel this spiritually

There is no fear or anguish

Only pure love and joy

With Aloha,

Johnny

The Awakening of the Buddha

The awakening of the Buddha was that he saw Buddha nature in everything

In Buddhist philosophy, Buddha-nature is the potential for all sentient beings to become a Buddha or the fact that all beings already have a pure buddha-essence within.

So the Buddha awakened to the ultimate reality of the universe

That every being is born with and has Buddha nature

Even if they are deeply lost in fear, greed, and hatred

Even if someone is violent

Even criminals, beggars, and addicts

All have the essence of Buddha nature

All are holy and are in the image of God

With this awakening we can help heal this world of much suffering

We can see every being as holy and our brother or sister

We can vow to reduce their suffering and look at them through the lens of compassion

With aloha,

Johnny

Nirvana

We may celebrate our birthday as the day we were born but that’s not entirely true.

We came into this world at the creation of this universe

The matter in our body originated in that one eventful moment

Everything and everyone came from the same source

Whoever is reading this is my brother or sister

We even have non-human ancestors connecting us to other animals

So we truly are like stars dancing in the night sky

But through confusion, distracted and addiction we lose sight of our inner Buddha nature

To feel the oneness of everything emotionally is to feel Nirvana

It is our birthright to discover this ultimate reality

But we must learn to get our mind still through deep meditation

Anyone can become enlightened through their actions if they are dedicated to the middle path

With Aloha,

Johnny

Can we Look Deeply?


Can we look deeply?
Deeper than skin color, gender, religion or nationality.
If we look deep enough we will see the brother & sisterhood of all living beings.
With this inside we can see our commonality and not our differences.

May we have the courage within us to not to resort to greed, hatred and fear.
With this courage true peace is possible.

It is easy to hate and much more difficult to love.
If we look deeply into the eyes of our enemy, we will see their pain.

Those who harm others suffer deeply inside.
We must develop this type of compassion for those who harm others.
It’s the only way towards true peace.
With this simple philosophy of brother and sister hood we can heal the entire world.

True peace is only possible if we can see the other side as not our enemy but a brother or sister.

With aloha,

Johnny