Misogynistic apocrypha

 I just looked up the Blood Bowl Sutra. Wow. Women in hell drinking menstruation blood because they had dirty women's bodies. Yikes. Luckily it's apocrypha. They would be for me whether or not they were officially. But supposedly earlier versions condemned warriors, so maybe it wasn't that bad when it was first written. (Fascinating post on Reddit)

This led me to the Ojoyoshu, a Pure Land text, which looks interesting. This led me to the Amitayurdhyana Sutra, Longer Sukhāvatīvyūha Sūtra and Shorter Sukhāvatīvyūha Sūtra, which are at the heart of the Pure Land tradition. I think I've read these. They could stand a rereading, of course.

My response

Post on Reddit by u/Ignacio_CLP:

For Secular Buddhist. Why the need to call yourself "Buddhist" if you don't believe what the founder of Buddhism taught?

Question

I don't want to judge anyone beliefs here. You all can do whatever you want. I just don't understand all this secular Buddhist thing, Its like the christian atheism movement.

If you read the suttas, you will find that the Buddha taught about: karma, rebirth, devas, hell and heaven, hungry ghosts, magical powers, etc.

Not only that,these beliefs are a central foundation of the Buddhist teachings, beacause it gives virtue its purpose, and helps align yourself with right view.

People can meditate and practice virtue, but why do you call yourself Buddhist if you don't believe what he taught.

If you think that they are metaphors, then are you explicitly stating that you have the real dhamma and that 2500 years of monastic lineage got it all wrong?

My Response:

    What I don't like about Christianity, Islam and Judaism is the expectation to believe in a monotheistic god. A narrow doctrinal point in the whole scheme of things spiritually. If you don't believe the way expected it's heresy. Dogma is to be followed. Thinking for yourself is a blasphemy. And yet there are many versions of the concept of god in active use among humans. They are seen as mistaken and lost. My opinion is that it's better for people to develop their own spirituality than to just follow what others think they understand because you never know what they really understand.

    The transcendental movement in Concord USA, was a rebellion against the Puritan ways, and pushed the questions on to nature and trusting in your own instincts. Being self reliant.

    The gatekeeping of a Buddhist who defines Buddhism as their sect's vision, feels similar. To presume to know what is literal or not, essential or a cultural artifact is what is being debated, but it forecloses the debate to say "anything that diverges from my sect's dogma is not Buddhism."

    I happen to think rebirth is a cultural belief of Hindu India of the times, and maybe the Buddha believed it as a metaphor, and maybe it's not essential. I know that's not the standard view here, but despite being told over and over again how it's essential and pure and great, I'm still not seeing it. After 20 years. The fault might be mine, no doubt. But I'm not going to pretend I feel what I don't feel, that's more of a spiritual death to me. It's important to me to think for myself, come to my own understanding based on the syncretic views of the best of the times I live in.

    I have tried to keep an open mind, but after 20 years, I feel I'm allowed to speak up and proclaim I don't get it even after trying. I respect the tradition, and I'm not sure yet whether there will be a sect that lives that doesn't include it. I guess I'd rather not even talk about it.

    I love mythological thinking, devotional thinking and feeling, and poetry, but I don't experience is as literalism, and I'm willing to have a big tent. Someone on Reddit can tell me not to call myself a Buddhist, but frankly they seem like the Christians I avoid with their talk of heresy, dogma and blasphemy. They just call it right view and wrong view

    The history of Europe is a history of the utilization of theology to back up nationalistic and power claims. I don't see spirituality as part of that grid, I see it as avoiding that kind of nonsense. Personal, private, intimate, beyond others judgement, except those I allow it to be judged by, my sangha.

    It feels like someone is trying to import that way of thinking into Buddhism when they act like a gatekeeper. Whatever. You don't know my practice, you don't know my experience, you don't know my study, you don't know my practice, but to judge it based on some doctrine point, that's frankly what most westerners avoid by going to Buddhism. There's a nuanced, flexible, psychological understanding in Buddhism. There are many schools. What you do is more important than what you believe. I don't even see this theological point to be of much importance to my meditation practice, my ethical practice, or my study of the Dharma, or my fellowship with other Buddhists.

    I'm afraid this kind of fundamentalism and focus on doctrine is a fetter. I hope I'm wrong and I wish you well Ignacio_CLP.

    I was reading Udana 3:2, and they talk about the 33 deities. When you google it, they are Hindu deities. I'm pretty sure if the Buddha was in the Christian country he would talk about the Christian mythology as though it were real. Yes, maybe I'm taking grave liberties with the tradition. Maybe I've winnowed out what is essential and what is cultural. Time will tell.

My spiritual journey

 

fusatsu

In the Zen tradition, at regular intervals during the year we practice fusatsu, a renewal of vows centered on the Buddhist precepts. During that ceremony, the sangha chants:

Being one with the Buddha with all sentient beings, raise the bodhi mind, let the Supreme Way be realized;

Being one with the dharma with all sentient beings, penetrate all sutras, let wisdom be like the ocean;

Being one with the sangha with all sentient beings, lead the people, let harmony pervade everywhere.

(GEOFFREY SHUGEN ARNOLD in Lion's Roar)

 

 

Right View

Perfect understanding or integral view or you can mismatch the translations of the first two words for the 8 fold path, part of the 4 noble truths: Pali: samyak-dṛṣṭi, Sanskrit: sammā-diṭṭhi. The Buddhist view is the opening frame of it all. How can you move towards the unconditioned when you can't talk about it? These and more questions raise up when I listen to Sangharakshita's 1968 talk about Right View.

There's an article in Lion's Roar with the byline: It’s possible that most Western Buddhists are “unaffiliated.” That is, they practice alone or in small informal groups not listed in the phone book or on the web. There is therefore no record, no official trace, of their activity. They practice off the books.

I've always thought that America would somehow produce an interesting form of Buddhism. In a discussion on r/secularbuddhism, it was pointed out that IMS is perhaps a secular Buddhist organization, but what I always find interesting about them is that they're a lay tradition of the Theravada ilk. Leave it to Americans to not fall in line on tradition. It is both our strength and our weakness, and I would also say that that was true of myself as well.

I have stepped away from Triratna. Honestly it was my negative actions and mistakes that pushed me away. Maybe that was what I needed. I'm surprised to see on r/Buddhism that my root sect isn't looked upon as even Buddhism sometimes. I get regularly downvoted, I'm not hard line enough. For better or worse Sangharakshita has formed my initial view of Buddhism, and I don't think that is bad. I have had amazing retreat experiences at Aryaloka that I will never forget. There is one point in the talk when Sangharakshita talks about having a flash of insight and forgetting it. I'm trying not to forget but I have to with pain admit that I haven't always acted on my insights, I got lost. I had trouble sustaining the right view.

In AA and recovery psychology, I can feel a kind of fight for right view. The need to find a higher power of your understanding is the quest for the right view. I like it that it is less insistent that you find the right doctrine. You must come to your understanding. Something needs to be beyond the nihilism of just drinking when your disease tells you to. 

I don't think Buddhism is a philosophy, I think it's a psychology of meditation. That may be controversial. What I like about psychology is that it's not insistent on dogma, everyone comes to their own understanding based on their psychology, personality, history, talents.

I'm not saying anything goes, and sometimes I am wary of diluted new age pablum. I forced myself to listen to The Power of Now. It's not bad, but I listen to a Theravada monk to balance it out. 

Wat Chedi Liam, Thailand

 

Wat Chedi Liam. Built in 1287 and remained in use during the early Lan Na period after the new city of Chiang Mai had been established by King Mangrai the Great.

Yikes

Monks, this cycle of rebirth  is endless. The beginning of this extremely long journey cannot be discovered. These beings, hindered by lack of knowledge of the true nature of life and bound by craving, roam and wander on in this endless journey. What do you think, monks, which is more: the stream of blood you have shed when you were beheaded as you roamed and wandered on in this journey—this or the water in the  four great oceans?”

Source (alt)

Brahma Viharas

The canon of present day books on the Brahma Viharas is pretty hard to track down, it's taken me some 20 years to collect books about this Buddhist topic.

I read Boundless Heart  (2017) by Christina Feldman.

Tara Brach's Radical Self-Acceptance is perhaps quite supportive.

Compassion and Emptiness in Early Buddhist Meditation by Analayo.

Heart by Vessantara.

Lovingkindness by Sharon Salzberg is another book.

Just found Love and Sympathy in Theravada Buddhism by Harvey Aronson (1980). Going to be trying that one out.

I also need to get through the Visuddhimagga.

Kamalashila book on meditation has a section on the meditation which was where I learned it. It talks about the near and far enemies to metta, karuna, mudita and upeksa. A friend in social work school like the idea of horrified anxiety that you get when you look at others suffering. The near enemy to karuna is pity.

Anyone else want to add books to the list about Brahma Viharas?

Someone added:

A Guide to Tranquil Wisdom Insight Meditation by Bhante Vimalaraṁsi

Awakening Loving Kindness by Pema Chodron

The Sublime Attitudes: A Study Guide on the Brahmaviharas, by Ṭhānissaro Bhikkhu (here)

Audio meditations:

Bhikkhu Anālayo on Barre Center for Buddhist Studies.