Bob Andresen, Stockton, California
“I had experienced Buddhism while I was in the Navy. I had a girlfriend in Japan and went to some temples there. It always stayed in the back of my mind. When I was a youth, there was no religion in my house, and when I got married, my wife was Catholic, so I became Catholic, but I had real doubts about some of their teachings.”
“A long time ago, I used to go deer hunting. When I realized the kind of suffering I caused, I vowed to myself that I will never kill anything again. And now, even if a mosquito lands on my arm, I just brush it away. I don’t kill anything.”
“The happiest moment in my life was when my children were born, and when I got my motorcycle. There is a book called Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance. The fellow who wrote the book is a Zen Buddhist. He explains in the book that when you get on that motorcycle, you forget about all of your problems. You feel the wind in your face. To me, it’s kind of like riding a horse, just going down the road, you are not worrying about anything, just enjoying the scenery, the air, and the scent of the eucalyptus trees.”
“I think kindness is an important practice. I like being kind to people. The other day a homeless person outside a restaurant where I ate asked me, if he could have the few French Fries I had left on my plate. I told him ‘no you can’t have that’. Instead, I ordered a fresh lunch for him at the counter and told them to give it to the gentleman sitting there when it’s done. To do something for someone else makes you feel good, especially when you don’t know them.”
“Buddha has laid out a way on how to live, but there is nobody standing there with a club making you do it. You do the best you can, and if you trip and fall one day, you just get up and start over.”
“I have something like a bucket list, the last thing I want to do is parachute out of an airplane. I think it will be interesting to die. To lay there and see what happens.”
“Life is great. You can experience so many things. The beauty of the earth, the mountains, the ocean. Looking back on life, I don’t have any regrets.”
“Work at it. Meditate and work at it. Try to live by the 5 precepts, be kind and compassionate.”