Muñja grass

 Footnote 7: “Muñja grass was the ancient Indian equivalent of a white flag. A warrior expecting that he might have to surrender would take muñja grass into battle with him. If he did surrender, he would lie down with the muñja grass in his mouth. The Buddha, in asking this rhetorical question, is indicating that he is not the type of warrior who would carry muñja grass. If defeated, he would rather die than surrender.”  -Noble Warrior

“when I was still just an unawakened bodhisatta, the thought occurred to me: ‘Why don’t I keep dividing my thinking into two sorts?’ So I made thinking imbued with sensuality, thinking imbued with ill will, & thinking imbued with harmfulness one sort, and thinking imbued with renunciation, thinking imbued with non-ill will, & thinking imbued with harmlessness another sort.”

Fanshan doesn't raise above society's sexism.

 In poem 173 of Red Pine's translation (2000), Fanshan doesn't raise above the sexism of China. He talks about women as though they are a burden, as though they are to be belittled and tolerated. They are compared to donkeys.

 

I'm not canceling Hanshan because I haven't met someone deeply who I didn't find some things I didn't like. If I'm canceling anything it's the NRA and Abbott. The republican congress that allowed the assault rifle ban to lapse. People who accept the sacrifice of children on the altar of false freedoms. My position on gun control.

The prevalence of people who think uttering gender conformity or ranking on the other gender is high. Honestly I took a break with this book after reading that. I got back to the book eventually. I really like Thomas Pynchon's novel Inherent Vice, but there are not any strong or virtuous women in the movie. I think in a way the book calls for superficial sexpots, but that doesn't mean you can't have one women character who has some depth or something interesting besides their body's ability to excite a man. 

I know it's a modern sensibility that honestly not a lot of men seem to have, but Franzen talks about it some. "Read a book from 50 years ago by John Updike, Norman Mailer, Thomas Pynchon, Kurt Vonnegut and, even though I love him, Joseph Heller, and you see they weren’t thinking about women in the right way. Those are pretty sexist books… I wish people would be spontaneously sensitive, but if they can’t, then a little bit of enforcement doesn’t seem to me a bad thing.”

TAIMA TEMPLE MANDALA

 

Source

Listen to the Pure Land Sutras.

Rilke poem

 

Question

Is the story that the Buddha had a wife and child perhaps not historically accurate, and a kind of marketing idea to appeal to the masses? Is that why there is not mention of them in this passage?

MN 36

“So at a later time, when I was still young, black-haired, endowed with the blessings of youth in the first stage of life, having shaved off my hair & beard—though my parents wished otherwise and were grieving with tears on their faces—I put on the ochre robe and went forth from the home life into homelessness."

That his son and wife were not mentioned doesn't prove that they were not so, it's just a question that arises. What do we really know of a great sage from 2500 years ago. We have a lot of amazing texts that are available in translation. I'm grateful for the Pali Canon translations. They are amazing. 

What if the Buddha was spiritual from the time of his adulthood? What if he didn't enter into life with a wife and child? Would that really change his insights? In a way the biography of the Buddha is fantastical and miraculous, signaling that something special is there. As you read the formulas of the teachings over and over, there seems to be something more than just those words, though putting it all together and applying the words can support a strong practice. The tradition of a sangha can also support personal progress. Personal effort can support progress. Supportive conditions can support progress. Access to the teachings and support lead to progress. Various sects emphasize certain things. Charlotte Joko Beck preached the nothing special doctrine. Pema Chodron says start where you are. There is an ocean of teachings and updates. 

It's our modern times that we want to know the Buddha or Shakespeare for that matter. We want to know a person to locate the teaching in them, but there's something larger there, and like all good teachers, the teachings are larger than the people. Shakespeare's life might not be as interesting as the plays that he authored in collaboration with the troupe and other writers. 

Hope

Dahui Temple, built 1503

"... I do believe quantum revolutionary shifts can happen, though an upsurge of violence often precedes them before the old system gives way. For instance, a dominant narrative of post-apartheid South Africa is that it was a peaceful transition of power. However, as recorded in Gary Kynoch’s book, Township Violence and the End of Apartheid, this was not the case. What unfolded in the four years leading to the first democratic elections in April 1994 was the bloodiest period of the entire Apartheid era, with an estimated 14,000 deaths attributed to political violence." Thanissara in "A Dharma Heart for These Times" in Insight Journal.

Also "If democratic rights are lost, it will have devastating consequences for climate justice, not only here but around the world. What does a battle we can’t afford to lose mean for us?"

Also, "Ajahn Chah distinguished between the peace of meditative calm, or samadhi, which primarily depends on a tranquil environment, and the more profound peace that arises from wisdom."

And, "Even though hope for the future hangs by fraying threads, there is enormous potential in our ability to organize as Dharma practitioners and as citizens. Amid a world on fire, we have the skills to balance between hope and nihilism."

Plus, "As we face wars, flooding, fire, and the old ghosts of fascism, I want to advocate for a deeper inquiry that enables honest conversations about the monsters living beneath this “business-as-usual” and what we want to do about them."

Enough quoting, read the article. I like this engaged Buddhism by the author of Time To Stand Up.

Thanissara quotes the Surangama Sutra.

Lastly, "I feel the determination to break the doom scroll of inevitability by committing fully to a different world. This pledge means releasing social fear, including an internalized quietism that Buddhist culture usually elevates over speaking out, keeping us complicit."




I love dialectical and non dualistic thinking, so I offer this counter quote: "The Buddha taught: begin in hopelessness." She Who Became The Sun a novel by Shelly Parker-Chen set in Medieval China.

Maybe the animals who call themselves human will not transcend the barriers to responding to climate crisis. And we'll get all the kind of consequences that we deserve. Say half the population of the world dies. That leaves a lot of humans left. Humans won't die out. It would be a pretty horrible thing for 50% of the humans to die. Everything as we know it would be changed, from the ability to respond with science, and families would be devastated. The basic structure of society, the family, would be utterly devastated, and humans culture would take a huge toll.

At some point the sun will expand and engulf the earth and even though that's way in the future, and I expect humans will find purchase on other worlds, it's possible we won't get out of our solar system, and we get snuffed out or have a small population through our own misadventures. In the cosmic perspective we are a spec of a spec in a blink of a blink.

hahaha

"my favorite thing i’ve learned in college is that way back in ancient china there was this poet/philosopher guy who wrote this whole pretentious poem about how enlightened he was that was like “the eight winds cannot move me” blahblahblah and he was really proud of it so he sent it to his friend who lived across the lake and then his friend sends it back and just writes “FART” (or the ancient Chinese equivalent) on it and he was SO MAD he travels across the lake to chew his friend out and when he gets there his friend says “wow. the eight winds cannot move you, but one fart sends you across the lake”"

(source)

When is Vesak Day?

Google says May 6th, this Friday, but "dates may vary". I think that may be when Korean International Lotus Lantern Parade is, but I can't get any information.

May 16th when it's the full moon? "Nowadays, in Sri Lanka, Nepal, India, Bangladesh and Malaysia, Vesak/Buddha Purnima is celebrated on the day of the first full moon in May in the Gregorian calendar." (Wikipedia) But "In China, Korea, Vietnam and the Philippines, Buddha's Birthday is celebrated on the eighth day of the fourth month in the Chinese lunar calendar. In Japan, Buddha's Birthday is observed on the same date but in the Gregorian calendar, i.e. 8 April."

International Vesak day is May 16th.

As someone who celebrates all the traditions (and perhaps therefore none) I'll go with international Vesak Day. Triratna says May 16th, my root sangha.

Gathering with sangha is the first suggestion. 

If you're alone celebrating, the suggestion of activities is:

Cleaning home and body.

Burn incense if you have it.

Chant Sutras and do pujas.

Cook special meals. Consider a special tea to drink. No meat, consider plant based meals.

Lead a minimalist life, consider abstention from sex and internet.

Meditation. Consider Buddhananasati meditation where you invoke the Buddha.

Consider doing nice things for others. Create art, plan an activity.

Offerings to the shrine: light, flowers, and other offerings.

My one experience of gathering with the larger NYC sangha was at Shambhala many many years ago. Little Sri Lankan kids recited things. A Japanese monk did calligraphy. A Korean monk spoke. There was social mixing, where I asked a guy what color robe he had--he practiced in 2 traditions and made up his own robe. 

I'm not sure what the appropriate response in the USA would be in engaged Buddhism. I read about what happened in Vietnam when the Buddhist flag was banned: In 1963, the South Vietnamese President Ngo Dinh Diem, a Catholic and younger brother of Archbishop Ngo Dinh Thuc banned the flying of the Buddhist flag. This led to a demonstration and flag-waving in defiance of the ban. Diem's forces opened fire on the Buddhist crowd, killing nine, sparking the Buddhist crisis, a period of civil disobedience against religious discrimination.

I'm concerned about the health of democracy in the USA and the further Talibaning and Christo-fascist elements. It looks like Roe v Wade might be overturned by SCOTUS. Go look at Gerri Santoro and tell me that banning abortion is the right thing to do.

I know Buddhism doesn't pick a party or politics in a way, but in another way the journey of trying to prevent harm to others is important. Climate and environmental activism doesn't have to be political, it's acting in our own best interest. And our children's interest. Future thinking is important I think.

Shelly Parker-Chan

She Who Became The Sun by Shelly Parker-Chan is a kind of Dickensian saga set in 1345 China. The following is a quote at the end of chapter 3. The heroine has escaped starvation and landed in a monastery. She takes on the identity of her brother who died of starvation and is in the male section of the monastery. 

"Denying desire only made yourself vulnerable to those who were smart enough to see what you couldn't even acknowledge to yourself." (p.61 Hardcover from the library)

There are quotes in the Pali Canon about being desireless, but I don't think it's the complete absence of desire. The Buddha continued to eat and sleep and preach after he became enlightened, so you know, something was driving him even if it was wholesome and purified and focused on the path. There is a lot of religious rhetoric and mythological speaking in the Pali Canon. I mean the Buddha came out of his mother without any fluids, and began walking and talking. I take that to point to a special being, but not literally true. How do you communicate things that are beyond words? One way is to speak mythologically. I've never been around anyone who really talked about Tusita heaven and the devas present in the early accounts, but I have an attitude towards them I have around the ancient Greek gods, the Celtic gods, the Norse gods. They are early human communications about existence. 

I have a modern western worldview, and because I've come across all kinds of mythology I find them interesting and a projection of psychology. Reincarnation might be part of this, a mythological way to talk about conditionality. I mean you can imagine other ways of being, hopefully you witness other ways of being, but you can also see personality and other aspects of what makes up a human and the vectors they pursue. 

What do all the miracles in the Pali Canon point to? The amazingness and awesomeness of the path. I don't think you need to hype it, and Buddhism does the least proselytizing of the major religions. Maybe that's why it's only 0.7% in the USA.

My friend asked me why it was so important to me. It's hard to really describe how a system and culture get absorbed into one's being through sangha, reading and study and meditation. My life hasn't been great since I found it, so one could even argue that my finding the Dharma, sangha and the Buddha hasn't been great for me. It has made me feel more healthy and whole, make the mistakes I need to make, the fortunate falls, so I could learn. We all hurt each other accidentally, but the hope of waking up is to minimize that, and points to a path of proving good into the world.

To me the point is to channel and consciously direct one's desires into positive outcomes. Act in your own best interest. I know I haven't always done that and I wish I would have done that more throughout my life. Self sabotage and not giving credence to my shadow has had disastrous consequences for me and the people I've hurt. My goal as a parent and as a human being is to not hurt others, but it happens. Insects are killed driving vegetables to the market, but it's still the least harmful thing you can do to be plant based.

I think a lot about how on The Good Place, they come to the conclusion that you can't be good any more, you're embedded in so many systems of torture and bad. Just look at your phone. And yet we like to think of ourselves as good, and the desire to be good is a healthy thing.

With the support of the sangha, through meditation, you connect to the bottom basement of information and information--your experience. Being connected to your experiences, you're harder to manipulate. The forces of capitalism are harder to force feed to you if you're attempting to wake up. The anti-woke people can't be conscious of their motives since they're against any introspection, insight or avoidance of hypocrisy. Human beings with all their messy complications can't be as easily fed into the capitalist grinder. Substance abuse helps to numb you down. The fear of communism is part and parcel of capitalist lovers, the way Putin's fears of NATO provoked NATO expansion. Against wokeness to the unintended and paradoxical consequences, prefer just to act righteously, boldly and confidently, like a man. The internalized systems of self oppression are hard to shake off.