New York

“How do we take a city that is the center of the power of America and turn it into a city, when you enter it, everyone sees faith and sees God?” the mayor said during Thursday’s confab, held at Columbia University’s Teachers College. “Our challenge is not economics. Our challenge is not finance. Our challenge is faith. People have lost their faith.” (Daily News)

This is Christian, and Abrahamic religion exceptionalism. Not every religion believes in God. 

How do you celebrate diversity and then try to impose one type of religion and conveniently forget the freedom of religion? How do you forget America isn’t a theocracy? If you want to be a religious leader, maybe switch professions.

Adams is a democrat in name only, he switched parties to be mayor. He blathers to gather attention in a culture war like a Republican, while ignoring policy and good governance. He’s not bringing the city together. 

If he wants to be an ethical leader, how about tightening up his own administration, and stop appointing family members, that violate ethics. His playbook is Trump, false piety, lying, nepotism, always trying to break the rules, without a vision beyond trashing government and enriching himself and friends.

Sacred Tattoos of Thailand.

Watched documentary: The Sacred Tattoos of Thailand. Seems interesting, but when the guy says he broke the precept of not having a woman on top, I sort of scratched my head. What's the Dharma reasoning behind that idea? A minor point. Very interesting footage of tattoos and a ceremony where people are possessed. They mention it went down in popularity after WW2 but then Angelina Jolie got one and popularity began to raise. 

Revolution

(I'm kind of struck by the commitment to the Mandalorian tradition in this Star Wars story.)

The revolution of being a Buddhist has many aspects. The revolution is beautiful like a sunrise or a forest in a valley or a waterfall. A revolution is not violent, and this one is internal.

Prioritizing spiritual development over anything else, not buying stuff, not being unhappy to need stuff, profoundly puts a crimp in the capitalist plans, cuts consumption, leads to minimalist living.

As you begin to live beyond conditions, you become less easy to manipulate and exploit. Conspicuous consumption isn't the way, competing for status, being so needy and desperate isn't the way. 

Not filling your mind up with commercials and jingles, there is so much more space. I resist guarding the gates of your senses sometimes, but not when it comes to this.

By taking ownership of your mind, your journey, your experience, there is nothing and nobody who can take anything away. By undercutting capitalist narratives, you are not exploitable or easily manipulated. 

You don’t have to get a new phone every year or a new car every 2 years and you don’t need a big cavernous house to store all your stuff. You rejoice in decluttering and giving things away. Use libraries, you can be minimalist in a tiny house, or a digital nomad, or just a nomad.

Prioritizing spiritual friendship is revolutionary. To make time for others instead of grinding at the job, prioritizing career, is to unplug from the grind. To create the space where friendships flourish is revolutionary. It’s great grounds for working on compassion and generosity. 

Compassion is so threatening, for so many reasons. You have to cut off compassion to exploit people in a capitalist system. Compassion is radical. 

I feel sorry for the delivery people who feel their only option is to press buttons to enter into the apartment entry where I live. By shifting the frame I don’t dwell on my pet peeves.

People are so afraid to appear weak, afraid that being too empathetic, they will lose the firm stance they imagine is necessary. They fear it’s not standing up for themselves to empathize for others. Maybe, I’m speculating, who knows what blocks and obstructs compassion, except it’s opposite is selfishness, egoism and narrow self interests. Idiot compassion isn’t compassion. It’s a hard skill.

You could use the asceticism thing to work harder, ignore your needs, and give the money away in effective altruism. Make the world a better place. Mindfulness is necessary in the work place because people are forced to focus on things they’re not interested in, and it takes a lot of energy to focus on things you don’t want to focus on. For me, anyway, that’s the hardest thing about work. But it’s also useful to focus on something. There’s a movement called effective altruism to focus the positive effects of donations.

You could fight for social justice, even if people aren't going to be happy in samsara. You have to be for treating people well because they are a part of you, you have to be against all forms of oppression and harming others. The insights of intense meditation has many implications.

You evolve towards a vegan diet, environmentalism, compassionate forms of government, truthful communication, avoidance of manipulation, avoidance of exploitation and abuse. Even a spiritual individualist can't help but think of others. Embracing your own freedom is a very difficult thing.

Maybe government needs to be reduced, you're also going to work to avoid polarizing and dualistic thinking regarding politics. Fighting for your own justice and interests might be something individuals and not the government do--I’m trying to not slant this towards one political personality. The Dharma revolution is not only for one side of the political spectrum, ideally it should be non-dualistic, not partisand, even though I feel one side very strongly.

Thinking about others and how everything is interconnected would prevent CEOs from polluting the environment for short term gain, for limited gains to stockholders. It undercuts the really negative side of Capitalism. People point to failed authoritarian regimes to say socialism won’t work but there are democratic examples of socialist success, collectivism success. There are strange paradoxes of libertarianism, and honestly I can’t fathom it.

The Dharma is free. It's been translated into English and sure, you need a computer or phone to access it on the internet or you pay hefty prices for hardback copies, but it's essentially free. You can go on high priced retreats with star teachers, but you really only make progress because of your own efforts to work the spiritual activities: friendship, study, ethics, meditation and devotion. 

The negative forces are reduced voluntarily. Substance abuse will be empathetically worked on, avoiding judgment, and being honest about what works, let the social scientists decide policy.

As civilization and humanity evolves, we're going to be less and less confused, bewildered and alienated. Thorny knots will untangle. Culture advances, and we learn even if it is frustratingly slow to really be implemented in places, and there are times when we take steps back. Citizens will participate in democracy, not easily duped.

Radical respect for others autonomy and journey, and indeed other spiritual traditions will reduce conflict by exemplifying models of maturity and respect. When everyone’s journey is respected, there isn’t any kind of shade given, there’s no saying this or that is wrong, and when you see someone who seems quite mistaken, you can talk about your experience, and discuss so that you can close out the distance you feel between someone.

There are wars and violence done by cultural Buddhists, but the idea of fighting violently to impose Buddhism just doesn’t seem in line with the ideals. Thailand may be a Buddhist country but the persecution of the Rhogayans is antithetical to buddhism. I tend to think a country isn’t Buddhist, it could be influenced by Buddhism, but the complexity and depth of Buddhism doesn’t make it open to a mass movement. I mean it might have swept over northern India 2,500 years ago, and people were pretty upset so many people were converting, families were decimated, but they just also made it a condition that a family approves that someone goes forth, you have to be in harmony with your family to go forth. 

I let go of the culture of insisting on my understanding of spirituality for others, and trying to rid others of heresy or apostasy. I celebrate diversity and difference, and am curious about other’s journey. 

Going forth is to walk away from the grids of power in the regular world. For me the hardest thing is to put aside my mating mind. To be freed from the mating mind would be amazing.

Everything in life is a self fulfilling prophecy. If you want to overcome trauma, the trauma will still be present in your experience, but you can be creative instead of reactive. If you want to move towards enlightenment, you can move towards enlightenment. You can’t know what it is or whether it’s worth it, but either you’re really disciplined or you get something from the journey even if you don’t completely transcend sense desire, or whatever other promises you wish for.

Devotional activity

So there's a post that gets to me, and then I open up to celebrating the devotional. I really think it's a personality difference with these guys. 

There's a subreddit called r/goldenswastica. It's for the traditionalists who don't like the secular bent, and don't like dilettantes. Some of the people can be heritage Buddhist who are born in Buddhist countries and grew up in Buddhist families. They like posts like Why Secular Buddhism is Baloney. 

They asked: What Buddhist practices, mindsets, disciplines, etc. do you have in your life (and your temple/congregation) that are not found in modernized/westernized Buddhist communities? (post by NyingmaGuy5)

It's actually a good exercise and I love devotional activity and learning about other sects activities. 

I'm afraid the post proves the opposite of what they imagine they're proving. I worry that if I'm too afraid to provide this feedback, how are they going to get the feedback about what they are doing? They're trying to prove that they have the right distinct practices while simultaneous saying those are just examples from sects. Just that in general a secular western Buddhist isn't really a Buddhism, and suffer from the lack of their privileged expertise. We should venerate them more. So what are these practices?

Bathing the Buddha. OK, I don't do that. My main statue is a wooden rupa, I don't want to warp it. My metal and stone ones are small. I guess I could bathe them, but they are so small. But that gives me the idea to put a Hotai in the shower and another by the kitchen sink. Not a bad idea. Hotai isn't my favorite Bodhisattva but it is stone. 

Nuns give out literature? I've loaned and given people literature. They talk about nun culture, and to be honest there aren't a lot of nuns in the USA, but I have met nuns at a Taiwanese temple. They said Triratna has no lineage, and we have 2 lineages. I wrote a post about that. I wrote that in 2010 and I stand by that essay. I have read books about nuns, and one of my favorite parts of the Pali Canon is the Therigatha. I had a transcendent experience reading that book on retreat at Aryaloka. There are women order members in all the sanghas I participate in. I'm not sure if the traditionalist cultures are the most friendly and respectful to women, I've seen some fishy stuff from those cultures. 

Displaying mantras in print form. I do that. 

Praying to gods of wealth and health. I have a medicine Buddha icon, but yea, I don't pray for worldly gain to the gods of favor. That is true.

"Washing dishes, seeing how the food scraps drops and flows down the drainage, then thinks and wishes for the benefits of small animal sentient beings that would eat those scraps somewhere." I'm going to pass on by with that one. I do wish all well, at various times a day, but no, I don't imagine the food scraps will nourish other. I could think of that, I do like that. That is kind of sweet. I really wish I could compost, and I love composting on retreat, I always take out the compost when I'm on retreat. I do think along those lines, though.

"Use of effigies at the temple." I mean your temple is my temple, but forget that. I don't use effigies in my house. I have Buddha statues and images all over my house. But my sangha doesn't have a building, or even a dedicated room with effigies. They rotate people's houses and work spaces. The retreat center does have effigies. 

"Going to the sea, making offerings to the nagas." I haven't done that. That might be Hinduism, but whatever. I do have awe at the ocean, and I love the mythology of Buddhism. I think a million thoughts at the ocean, Hamlet taking arms against a sea of trouble, Moby Dick, and my fears about not seeing what's under the water, remembering peak experiences snorkeling. 

"Doing life release. Buying animals meant for slaughter. Rescuing them or releasing them back to their natural habitat." Got 2 rescue cats, which saved their lives. But not as a ceremony. 

"Collecting, using, or having some material, artifacts, ritual objects that are believed to be sacred and beneficial both for practice and mundane needs." Not true. 

These were all examples and not specific things to be scrutinized, but I'm sorry I look at them all.

Someone post "prostration". I've done a lot of prostrations in the style of Triratna and as explained in the book Teachers of Enlightenment by Kulananda, and as taught to me by order members. 

I don't collect amulets, but I do have one. 

I don't take merit literally but I do strive in my own way.

It also seems like my not coming from Thailand, I don't have all the holidays they celebrate, and yet I yearn for them. That's actually something I really struggle with. I wish I was embedded in a tradition. I am trying to build that in America. 

I make offerings. I have done confession. I do believe in devotional activity. I celebrate their activity. 

I don't have various sect practices like the Feeding of the Hungry Ghosts ceremony. I'm so curious about them, but I'm not sure if I should be a tourist in a sect to learn things. I do sometimes think about visiting pure land temples near my house, though I don't think they speak in English. "Feeding of pretas" Yea, I don't do that. I do give money to homeless people. I worked in a prison and worked to be compassionate. 

Maybe we'll never agree about the ontological status of miracle stories. Magic is used as a metaphor, and if you think it's more than that I celebrate your credulity and wish you well with that. 

They say, "Dharma talks can sometimes touch on concepts in Eastern medicine and geomancy, like yin and yang energy channels, the three dantians, the meridians, etc." I've actually heard those things, but I don't experience non-Dharma as Dharma. I experience culture as culture and hopefully and celebrate it. I really do like Taoism and other ideas from all over the world. 

They say, "even though Yantra tattoos are not a traditional Buddhist practice per se, there is a lot of intersection between them (and the work of the Ajarns) and the Buddhist Theravada religion." OK, okay, I don't have a Buddhist tattoo but you also seem to be saying it's not traditional. 

Being against superficiality is one thing, but to relish in name calling. NyingmaGuy5 likes "Pumpkin Spice Prajna". He's also someone who probably rails against Karens, woke culture and virtue signaling. What is the right way to make fun of superficiality? I think there is no right way. Don't do it. Point it out gently if you have a relationship with that person. 

Kathas are Thai sacred prayers. I have sacred prayers. I'm not Thai. 

"I approach: Phra Phrom (Lord Brahma), Phra In (Lord Indra) and Phra Pikanet (Lord Ganyapati)." I hope that practice is good for you. Buddhism does spring from a pre-Hindu culture. 

Being vegetarian means Buddhism is controversial, but I'm 99% vegan, so again not really talking about me. I guess this whole post, if it don't apply, let it fly. 

General statements feel untrue: "Convert communities don't have kitchens....?" (source) "That's Buddhist AF. Mad respect for nuns-dominated communities." is NyingmaGuy5's response. Later he says, "I got to get a Buddha's tooth for my altar". I wish him well. 

I think the worst practice he engages in is ill conceived posts like this one, setting up strawman, not being accurate. Why not just celebrate devotion, culture and mythology?

Pointing out others hubris maybe isn't polite or Buddhist or humble myself. But come on, someone says dana is something they don't practice and the bogey man superficial secular buddhist doesn't practice generosity?! Lots of othering going on. 

My pointing out how superficial calling out superficiality might be superficiality. Bottom line, I don't think this post helps my practice, so I'll look in other directions. But as a part of Buddhist culture I want highlight it as something that exists, and give my own personality take on it. I'm not sure how much I want to police other Buddhists, but then again I do have these types judgements, and I give them in this post so I don't really rise above it. Not sure mine are any better. I don't think I contain all the truths. I don't think any sangha contains all the truths. I don't think any religion contains all the truths. I have loyalty to my teachers, and gratitude.

Another thought is that if I do most of the devotional activity, and I feel a secular bent. I don't have to literally believe mythology. What do they do with that? Why am I so afraid to post this to the subreddit? My experience with Christianity in America makes me not want to be confrontational in the spiritual world with virtual strangers. Maybe if I met him face to face. 

I don't want to stir up dischord in the sangha. I don't feel like they are my sangha. They don't want to be part of my sangha. I don't want to be a part of their sangha. And yet I celebrate their devotion to the Buddha, so we are part of that sangha. And I take away reflection on devotional activity. 

Udana quotes

 “There is that dimension, monks, where there is neither earth, nor water, nor fire, nor wind; neither dimension of the infinitude of space, nor dimension of the infinitude of consciousness, nor dimension of nothingness, nor dimension of neither perception nor non-perception; neither this world, nor the next world, nor sun, nor moon. And there, I say, there is neither coming, nor going, nor staying; neither passing away nor arising: unestablished, unevolving, without support [mental object]. This, just this, is the end of stress.” — Ud 8:1

“There is, monks, an unborn—unbecome—unmade—unfabricated. If there were not that unborn—unbecome—unmade—unfabricated, there would not be the case that escape from the born—become—made—fabricated would be discerned. But precisely because there is an unborn—unbecome—unmade—unfabricated, escape from the born—become—made—fabricated is discerned.” — Ud 8:3