A friend once asked, “What would Buddha do?”- echoing the familiar “What would Jesus do?” I retorted, “What Would G Bu Do?” (G Bu short for Gotama Buddha), which eventually became the name for this site.

This site began as a small collection of personal notes on mindfulness, meditation, and Buddhism, intended to be portable and easily accessible. Over time, it has expanded through feedback, conversations, reading, contemplation, and ongoing practice. The original intent remains the same: to serve as a helpful guide for anyone exploring these ideas, whether from a spiritual, religious, or secular perspective.

Overview

This site has a few main areas with a variety of subtopics:

Click on any of the items above or any tab in the menu that may resonate with you or interest you to explore the site.

COMMENTARY

Some people hesitate to explore meditation or Buddhism because of religious concerns. But meditation is not inherently religious and one does not need to be a “Buddhist” to benefit from Buddhist ideas. Meditation has appeared across cultures and traditions for centuries (including Christianity), and you don’t need to adopt any religious belief system to benefit from mindfulness or meditation.

The concepts and practices here are intended to help observe and understand mind, develop mindfulness practices, cultivate peace and mental clarity, and, if possible, ease suffering.

A few simple but profound ideas are at the heart of these:

  • Life includes "suffering" (dukkha, often translated as suffering, but can be the subtlest of dissatisfaction, anxiety, uneasiness, etc.)

  • The mind becomes entangled in patterns of thought, habit, and conditioning which lead to dukkha

  • Awareness, through mindfulness and meditation, helps us see these patterns and potentially change them, creating the possibility of peace and freedom from dukkha

Conditioning

We are shaped by conditioning—family, culture, education, media, and personal experiences. Over time, the mind learns to generate and reinforce patterns of thought, often without our awareness. Through mindfulness and meditation, we can observe these patterns, understand how they contribute to suffering/ dukkha, rewire conditioned patterns and patterns of reactivity, cultivate inner peace, and experience freedom. With this practice, we can shift from being driven by the mind to understanding it.

The Nature of Self- A Deep Dive

One of the more challenging (and liberating) insights explored is that the “self” is not fixed or independent.

If we look closely, we are:

  • Constantly changing

  • Interconnected with everything around us

  • Interdependent on non-self

  • A dynamic process rather than a static identity

This concept shifts the "self" from a noun to a verb. Instead of being a solid "thing" that moves through time, we are continuous events—much like a flame or a whirlpool—that require the rest of the universe to keep "happening." This perspective can be approached philosophically, experientially, or through fields like Neuroscience and Physics.

Neuroscience: The Narrative "I"

Modern brain science suggests that the "self" is a clever biological fiction. The brain’s Default Mode Network weaves together memories and future projections to create a sense of a "main character." However, there is no single "control room" or "ego-center" in the brain. We are a collection of firing neurons and chemical shifts; when the circuits for processing these concepts stop, the "I" vanishes.

Physics: The Dissolving Boundary

At the atomic level, the idea of an independent self falls apart. We are constantly exchanging matter with our environment—breathing in atoms that were once part of a star or another living being. Through the lens of Quantum Field Theory, objects aren't isolated entities; they are localized "excitations" in a field. You are not in the environment; you are a specific expression of the environment.

Experiential Liberation

Philosophically and experientially, realizing the self is a "dynamic process" liberating: it reframes identity from a fixed thing into an ongoing unfolding of perception, thought, and relation, which reduces attachment, increases flexibility and compassion, and opens the possibility of intentional transformation.

  • If the self is static, you are trapped by your past, your labels, and your mistakes.

  • If the self is a process, you are perpetually "new," "born again."

By seeing through the illusion of the "fixed ego," the need to defend, polish, or protect a rigid identity evaporates. You move from being a "fragment" of the universe to being the entire process of the universe occurring at a specific point in space and time.

This realization is the bridge between the "mystic" Jesus and "non-dualistic" philosophies: the moment the drop of water realizes it doesn't just belong to the ocean—it is the ocean in motion.

A Practical Path

You don’t need to commit to any ideology.

You can simply:

  • Sit quietly and observe your breath

  • Notice thoughts as they arise and pass, like clouds in the sky or leaves floating down a river

  • Bring awareness into daily activities

  • Act with a bit more patience, clarity, and kindness

Over time, small shifts in awareness can lead to meaningful changes in how life is experienced.

Cautionary Notes and Expectations

Keeping a Balanced Perspective

We shouldn’t take mindfulness too seriously. Treating it as a solemn, all-encompassing solution often adds a new layer of self-pressure and judgment (“Am I doing it right? Why can’t I stay present?”), which defeats its core purpose of easing mental strain. It is a highly useful skill for noticing thoughts and reducing reactivity, but life also demands action, emotion, planning, and occasionally getting fully lost in experiences rather than perpetually observing them. Overdone, mindfulness risks passive detachment instead of engaged living.

Not A Cure-All

Mindfulness and meditation can be beneficial, but they are not a cure-all. Individuals with a history of anxiety, depression, trauma, addiction, or other conditions should speak with a qualified healthcare professional before beginning or deepening a practice. Please read the disclaimer page (click here).

Potential Expectations of Others

When we discover mindfulness and meditation and experience the positive effects, we can be eager to share it with others. However, we shouldn’t expect too much from people, including ourselves, when it comes to self-awareness or emotional regulation. Most people are quietly struggling with their own thoughts, emotions, stress, habits, and blind spots—just as we are.

Mindfulness, equanimity, and consistent kindness are cultivated skills, not default settings. Many have not practiced them deeply (or at all), and even those who have, including ourselves, will still falter under fatigue, pressure, or triggers.

Holding ourselves and others to a high standard of constant presence and compassion sets us up for frequent disappointment, judgment, and resentment. It is far more freeing—and realistic—to offer basic decency as our baseline expectation, appreciate genuine kindness when it appears, and focus primarily on modeling the values we want to see. This drastically reduces interpersonal friction and allows us to respond with more patience when people inevitably act like... people.

Closing Thoughts

Don’t accept any ideas, from any source, simply because they sound right, they are believed by others, or you are told they are “truth.” Explore them. Practice them. Question them. Let them go. See what happens.

And perhaps, in that process, the question changes from

“What would Buddha do?” or “What would Jesus do?” to something more immediate:

What is happening right now—and how will I respond to it?

This site is a work in progress. It will continue to evolve over time. If you notice errors, omissions, or outdated information, feel free to contact me.

a very large star in the middle of the night
a very large star in the middle of the night

Overview and Commentary