12 Pieces of Buddhist Wisdom Workbook Guide

12 Pieces of Buddhist Wisdom Workbook Guide
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 wasnt a statue of the original Buddha, but rather a statue of whats
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 youll 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 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, Thats so true!
Its 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 ones 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 couldnt be truer. When it comes 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.
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 doesnt just help the world at large, and it isnt
just about the fact that its 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
youre human you can heal deep wounds bring yourself back from
difficult challenges.

Next, we can often be tortured because of the fact that we dont
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.
Because of this, it helps you from going through the often mental
torture we experience because we dont 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 youll realize the full power of living
with compassion.
Workbook Exercise:
Think of someone you dont like. This could be someone you hate,
someone you generally dislike, or someone whom youve 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 isnt possible, but youre 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:
1. Realize that this very picture in your head, this perception, is
what youre 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 dont know
how to deal with it, maybe they had a tragedy recently or were
hurt and dont know how to deal with the anger and sadness
theyre 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 youve 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 theyre experiencing
which they dont know how to deal with.

Once youve done this, youll see that theres 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 wasnt because of you, but because of
something deep within themselves that theyre hurting from, you can
learn to cultivate a great amount of 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.
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 its 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 youre fully aware of the power of connecting
with others, whether its one person or a group of 100, and seeking to
nurture those relationships in the 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 theyre 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 youre 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 youre fully awake to every moment of your life pretty
much couldnt 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. Its 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 Buddhas teaching.
Mindfulness can be practiced any time of day and in any situation. In
the beginning, mindfulness is a rather progressive practice.
By that I mean youll begin with a basic mindful breathing exercise or
something like it and gradually expand to more and different varied
11

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 dont have to sit cross-legged or do
anything special. Simply stop what youre doing and turn your
awareness to your breath. Dont 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 dont 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 wont get to 10.
In the beginning, it will be very difficult to count to 10 like this without
getting becoming interrupted. But these interruptions arent 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 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.
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For a full-fledged, thorough, and yet simple and straightforward guide
to creating a daily practice of mindfulness and meditation Id suggest
my book, Zen for Everyday Life.
13
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 cant 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 its 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 isnt 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 were 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, dont falsely
convince yourself that its you or them1. You dont need to
drag yourself through the mud to help those around you. If you do
this, youll greatly hamper your ability to create a positive impact.
At the deepest level of understanding, by making it about you youre
also making it about them because you know theres 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 youll create waves of
exponential possibility that inspires others to do the same.
16
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.
17
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 doesnt 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 Buddhas 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
youre entire life acting as if youre never going to die or
ignoring your own impermanence then you wont ever be
able to find true peace within yourself.
You dont necessarily have to meditate on the image of a corpse, but
simply opening up to yourself about death so that youre no longer
18

shielding it from your mind (which youre likely doing unconsciously,
as thats 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:
Im not going to ask you to meditate on the image of a corpse, so dont
worry. But I will ask that you meditate on the idea of death itself.
Imagine youre 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 waking
up. When it comes down to it, thats really what were afraid of when
we think of death.
19

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. Theres 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, Im
always here to talk to. You can email me here and I can work you
through what youre feeling and attempt to help you move beyond any
barriers you may have arrived at.
20
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.
21
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 theyre easier to visualize. You can
pick whatever youd like though.
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 its very beneficial to do regularly.
22
8. Understand the
nature of giving
Giving is more than the act of giving Christmas and Birthday gifts, its
also about those gifts which we give each and every day which we dont
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 doesnt 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
23

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.
24
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, its all the same), is
because its very function is to pull you away from the
ground of your being by convincing you that youre this
separate self.
The process of unraveling the ego can take time, as its something
which has been with us, intertwined with us, for years. But its
infinitely rewarding and altogether necessary if we want to realize our
best life.
Workbook Exercise:
25

Theres 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 its 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 cant 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 doesnt 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 moment
26

itself. Experience everything in mindfulness and draw no judgment
either way.
27
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. Its perfectly
normal to be affected by each of these poisons throughout your life, so
dont knock yourself for falling for them.
Instead, simply accept that theyre something youre
experiencing and begin working to remove them from your
life. This can take time, but its a key aspect on the path towards
realizing true peace and happiness.
Workbook Exercise:
28

Your mindfulness practice will allow you to notice when youre
succumbing to the three poisons. Keep in mind these three poisons
cover a wide range of topics.
Greed isnt 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 youve
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
dont 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.
29
11. Right livelihood

We should all strive to work and make our living in a way thats 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.
Theres ultimately two aspects to this: making a living by doing
something which doesnt inhibit your own ability to realize peace and
making a living doing something which doesnt 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 isnt 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.
30

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. Dont jump to
leaving your job or closing your business though, understand that
whats really important here is understanding deeply how what you do
and what your company does affects all living and non-living beings.
You cant always do something about your position, but you can
become more aware and compassionate and seek to do things to offset
the imbalance.
31
12. Realize nonattachment

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 doesnt
mean to abandon your friends and family and live alone for
the rest of your life, never truly living again just so that you
dont 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 youve become aware of
and accepted the impermanence of all things in this life and live in a
way that youre ever-aware of this fact.
Its 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 theyve 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. From this
32

point on, they can truly live life to the fullest, while not clinging to
any of these things.
Keep in mind, this doesnt 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 dont 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.
33

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 Id suggest reading The
Beginners Guide to Letting Go and Becoming Enlightened
Through Non-Attachment.
34
More from Matt Valentine

and Buddhaimonia
35
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,
youll 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
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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
36
Living Zen SpiritComing

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, its
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
Ive ever written.
If youd like to be notified when
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well as get some cool exclusive book
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