End of times

I used the phrase, "End of times," casually, but been looking into it.

Supposedly Buddhism doesn't really use the phrase, but in the year 4300 Maitreya might be returning (Wikipedia), (Source) and (Digha Nikaya, 26).

The text then foretells the birth of Maitreya Buddha in the city of Ketumatī, in present-day Benares perhaps. Ketumati is associated with the city of Banaras in Uttar Pradesh, India. Looking, there are 20 temples in Benares on the Ganges River, often with national names like Tibet, Chinese, Sri Lankan, Bengal. Many are not nationally named, the 2 inside the city aren't, and one has a famous stupa. Varanasi is one of the world's oldest continually inhabited cities. India's oldest Sanskrit college, the Benares Sanskrit College, was founded during East India Company rule in 1791.

Dhamek Stupa is supposedly where the Buddha gave his first sermon and teachings to the 5 disciples Kaundinya, Assaji, Bhaddiya, Vappa and Mahanama. 

While visiting Sarnath in 640 CE, Xuanzang recorded that the colony had over 1,500 priests and the main stupa was nearly 300 feet (91 m) high (Wikipedia).

Wikipedia lists the mean high temperature over 100 for April, May and June in Benares. Looks like the coldest month January is the time to visit Varanasi or Benares, goes by 2 names.

"Note that no description of Maitreya occurs in any other sutta in the canon, casting doubt as to the authenticity of the scripture. In addition, sermons of the Buddha normally are in response to a question, or in a specific context, but this sutta has a beginning and an ending, and its content is quite different from the others. This has led some to conclude that the whole sutta is apocryphal, or tampered with." (Wikipedia)

The sutta that predicts 7 suns and holocaust: Aňguttara-Nikăya, VII 6.2 isn't easy to find, it's not included on online Pali Canon, probably rightly so. 

I looked in on the conditions of end of times in the Bible, and it seems like with war, earthquakes, duplicitous leaders, breakdown of order that we are indeed in the end of times. The article says end of times started around WW1. A Pew Research Center study found in 2022 that over 60 percent of evangelical Christians in the US believe we are living in the end times.

I haven't seen what the end of times means in Christianity, seems just like it's a motivation to get right with God. Difficult times call for increased spiritual effort perhaps. If you can really believe that belief and surrender to God makes you happy, then it's a self fulfilling prophecy, and if you can achieve that, more power to you. 

This subject is called Eschatology. The prediction of the end of the world. I feel like things are pretty chaotic with hurricanes, earthquakes, eclipses, social chaos and disorder, but I don't imagine my subjective feeling of the end of the world is the literal end of the world. It should more accurately be described as feeling uncertain and unsettled in chaos and change.

12 Nidanas

Rereading How Karma Works: The Twelve Links of Dependent Arising by Geshe Sonan Rinchen. The moon is symbol of the cessation of suffering the 3rd Noble Truth. I get excited when I see the moon when I sit down to meditate. 

Of course there is the great art that is the wheel of life:

Fundamental ignorance (Pali: avidya)
Formation (sankhara)
Consciousness (vinnana)
Name and form (namarupa)
Sense faculties (salayatana)
Contact (phassa)
Feeling or sensation (vedana)
Craving or thirst (tanha)
Clinging or grasping (upadana)
Becoming or worldly existence (bhava)
Birth or becoming (jati)
Old age and death (jaramarana)

Links:

24 Nidana meditation on Free Buddhist Audio. 

This contains the 12 positive nidanas. AN 11.2 is considered a source of the 12 positive nidanas. Jayarava Atwood has written about it.

Sangharakshita on the 24 Nidanas.

Sangharakshita: The Psychology of Spiritual Development

Nimitta

Buddhadasa talks about nimitta, a pleasing and calming image, in the context of calming the breath. 

In metta, one of my goto images is children sledding, because I loved sledding as a little kid. 

It's also an option to visualize a sadhana during the anapanasati if that is supportive. 

Green Tara is popping up my visualizations. My sadhana is Green Tara, and some of the items in the visualization is the crown of the colors of the 5 jinas. It starts out with a lotus moon mat, out of the void. Tara was born out of a lake of tears, seeing the world's cries. There are also parallels with the 5 elements. She holds a lotus that blooms next to her right ear (source). 

You can chant the Green Tara mantra: Om Tare Tuttare Ture Svaha.

Her right foot is extended to step off the mediation pad, to launch into action.

Sartre was a philosopher but he was also active during the resistance when Germany occupied France. I honestly don't know what he did besides join a writers resistance group. I'm reading Sarah Bakewell's fun book on existentialism.

Sartre also emphasized freedom, a theme in Buddhism.

Found a talk from Ajahn Brahm from 8/11/21 on Nimitta. He talks about meditating and all the animals coming out if you keep still. The animals are afraid of you, so if you are still, you can see animals playing.