system of meditation

I took a meditation class, and we learned the Triratna 4 stage mindfulness of breathing and Buddhaghosa 5 stage metta, done for 20 minutes. I love it so much that I kept going when others dropped out, and was invited to the sangha. Meditating with others was important in the beginning. 

6 months later I did a brahmaviharas retreat that blew my mind. I felt so healthy. I read about the puja and stopped thinking it was a cult. Anyway, now I think strong feelings engaged in the spiritual life is really supportive to it, but it won't make sense to people outside the tradition, and thus calling things cultish. For instance I think AA has cultish elements, but heck you might need some powerful emotional pulls to break the spell of addiction. 

I asked to be a mitra and asked for ordination in Triratna. I learned the prostration practice, and the refuge tree. I learned lots of meditation, including the 6 element meditation. 

Of course I had to sabotage myself and hurt others, but coming out of some craziness, beginning recovery I have found meditation again and I'm absolutely in love with it. I meditate 60-64 minutes every morning and then later in the afternoon.

I do a full minute, 4 minutes per stage 16 stage anapanasati. It took me a while to understand what mental formations were and for all the stages to come alive for me, but I'd say I started really going into about 8 months ago.

I do a 60 minute brahmaviharas, 15 minutes each for metta, karuna, mudita and upekkha. I identify the feeling about me, then others, then gradually radiate until it's infinitely radiating. This is a recent development in terms of evolving what was just a metta practice. 

I do a 60 minute 6 element meditation. I'm adding that one in after I do brahmaviharas so I'm positive enough to weather the storm.

Tune in each morning to see which one is most needed. Meditating online has helped, with teachers and friends. 

I'm not preparing for a sadhana, I don't have a connection to a guru in a lineage.

I do use nimitta to visualize Tara or Avalokita or Padmasambhava or Manjushri, and others when I feel the need. I can't really see them in my head, but I imagine I can see the thousand arms, or the crown of Tara, or the mustache of Padma, or the sword of Manjushri. The void, and other elements.

I bought a little print of Tara which I gave away to someone, but I felt a really strong connection to it when it was on my shrine. I sometimes read the 21 praises of Tara. I've skimmed some sandhana books about various Bodhisattvas, but I do feel a guru 

Pure awareness, just sitting, shikanza or formless meditation is used when I'm adding in an unplanned meditation in the afternoon or in the evening. The suggestion is that you alternate formless meditation with formed meditation, but I bet I only do it a quarter of the time. 

I spontaneously do pure awareness in formed meditation sometimes, I get lost, so I just sit, and let that happen for a while, and then I pick up mudita, or impermanence or space when I remember. I'm not a ruthless taskmaster with myself. I try to curb dreaminess and fantasizing, but I also just watch it sometimes, with my observing mind. Look at what my mind is doing now...

I feel these 4 fleshed out practices, are quite amazing. There's a kind of dynamism, and synergy, and they really flow into having a relinquishing readiness.

In one of K's recent interviews, asking about where the system of meditation comes from, and of course it comes from Sangharakshita, but I feel like he discovered it, as other have. It was shakes out in an inclusive ecumenical movement that doesn't have a lineage. You're supposed to not bring no lineage up, or Sangharakshita's sexuality or a lot of mistakes made along the way. I don't feel it needs to keep things hidden or shielded, let's talk about everything. We can talk about Chogyam Trungpa's mistakes, about scandals and exploitation in the guise of spirituality. That's part of it too. We are human. I found the 80's movement in rural Oregon by Bhagwan Rajneesh fascinating. It's all fascinating to me. Humans have a desire to push past the conventional or the Christianity of their grandparents. 

Of course everyone's practice is different because we're all so different. And there are different traditions and emphasis. I was visiting the Zen Mountain Center, and I asked the women if they had a system of meditation, but honestly we didn't talk further, so I never heard hers. I don't really know. 

You get these books like A Record of Awakening and Mastering The Core Teachings of the Buddha, but the system of meditation isn't talked about. I kind of feel like Sangharakshita has many amazing contributions to Buddhism, if it will be allowed as a lay movement in Buddhism, that is neither monastic nor lay. For me it's the system of meditation.

Add in the synergies and complementary practices of non-violent communication, focusing, feldenkrais, yoga, nature, poetry, arts, scholarship and activism and you've got quite a supportive package of development, to evolve. For the higher evolution. To be creative and not reactive. The community is really vibrant. I am grateful to have learned from them.

Quote

From Living Dharma, by Jack Kornfield, about Buddhadasa's teachings:

“As rapture is developed it has the power to induce tranquility. Normally the mind is quite unrestrained, continually falling slave to all sorts of thoughts and feelings associated with enticing things outside. It is normally restless, not calm. But as spiritual joy becomes established, calm and steadiness are bound to increase in proportion. When steadiness has been perfected, the result is full concentration. The mind becomes tranquil, steady, flexible, manageable, light, and at ease. It is now ready to be used for any desired purpose, especially for the elimination of defilements.”

Tevijja Sutta

First off, I wish I could find a map with where this occurred. When you google, there is nothing. Manasākaṭa is only mentioned this one time in the sutta, and you get this sutta as the one reference. 

The river Aciravatī is now called Rapti and flows into the Ganges river. The best approximation of where we are is Kosala. Malaria and mountains have prevented its development into these times, and they produce hashish from growing marijuana, according to Wikipedia. 

Some Brahmins are discussing their interpretation of the spiritual path. They go to the Buddha and somehow he convinces them they don't know what they're talking about because they haven't seen or know the Brahma. They have read what will become the Rig Vega. They don't known the sun or the moon either. If you want to marry the finest lady of the land, if you don't know her yet, what do you really know? If you build a ladder, but don't know where to put it, you're not really getting anywhere. The prayers and invocations to the gods of the Rig Veda are like try to cross a river, and then asking for the shore to come to them. 

The Buddha sees sensuality, the five senses, as preventing people from crossing the river. It is like a chain. The five hindrances prevent people from crossing the river: sensual desire, ill will, dullness and drowsiness, restlessness and remorse, and doubt.

Further being encumbered by possessions, ill will, enmity, corruption and power is another encumbering factor. Even as they seek to come together, they drift apart. 

You know the roads to where you live. The Buddha lives in enlightenment so he can show the way.

Follow ethics, defeat the hindrances, dwell in rapture in meditation. The body becomes tranquil. Blissfulness and concentration arise. Meditate with love (the Brahmaviharas), compassion, sympathetic joy, equanimity. Sujata has a note:

Basically the Buddha thinks you'll find what you're looking for spiritually by doing the Brahmaviharas instead of whatever the proto-Hindus, the followers of Brahmanism are doing. If you're full of possessions, ill will, enmity, corruption and power, then you won't be reborn with the Brahma. 

I can find a paper on this sutta. J. S. Kruger has some books that don't really make it to where I live. Buddhism from the Buddha to Ashoka seems like an interesting book, but there are no reviews. 

The author is from South Africa. "his main interest has been the development of a framework that would accommodate all religions, understood as the human being’s need for radical and comprehensive orientation within the universe" (Google Books).

Kruger seems to interested in keeping things open instead of closing them. He reads the sutta closely. "Thus 'Buddh-ism', the tag that would be attached to it by Westerners in modern times, is really a misnomer, suggesting final closure." To him the Dhamma is "the truth, which is one, but not exclusivistic, and not confined to any religion, since it lies beyond the reach of every system." It plays havoc among certainties, and also inspire confidence amid the uncertainties. He doubts present people can return to the cultural context of this sutta. He ends:

"In the religious pluralism of our day, it would not accept any dogma as unnegotiable basis for dialogue, matching it against others. Rather, it would shift the focus of attention radically from dogma and form to the quality of existence, inspired by liberating personal insight, as the heart of religion. It would interpret itself as the ferment of ultimate freedom, at least latently present in diverse religious and philosophical traditions in the East, the West and Africa -- however uniquely and exemplarily perfected in the life and teachings of its great discoverer."

That seems nice and all, but feels added on, by someone who's about uniting all religions.

For me, the Sutta is just more confirmation that doing the Brahmaviharas is a good practice, keep it up. I've evolved into a form of alternating days with anapanasati, and doing all 4 of them at once in an hour sit, 15 minutes each quality. I sometimes do individual meditations on metta, karuna, mudita, upekkha when I'm sitting in watching my daughter. Or by the lake. 

I reinforced that equanimity according to Sujata has a quality of being ready, standing ready, not disengaged.

References:

Krüger, J. S. “BUDDHIST HERMENEUTICS: THE CASE OF THE TEVIJJA SUTTA.” Journal for the Study of Religion, vol. 1, no. 1, 1988, pp. 55–62. JSTOR, http://www.jstor.org/stable/24764218. Accessed 26 June 2024.

Tevijja Sutta on Sutta Central translated by Sujato. I also read the Walsh translation.

Gandhara

Finishing up The Silk Road by Bill Porter (2016) written from his trip in 1992 along the silk road. I love this book because it's adventure, good storytelling, mythical storytelling of places that he's at, and there's a lot of Buddhist tourism, visiting archaeological sites.

I've never read about Sabashi temple: Other famous sites nearby are the Ah-ai Grotto, Kizilgaha caves, the Kumtura Caves, the Kizil Caves and the Simsim caves near Xinjiang, China.

Then he makes some difficult crossings to Islamabad, but before he flies home he goes to Taxila. 

He's in Gandhara and he's mentioned John Marshall. There's an exhibit of his photographs online about Taxila, which is in the south east corner of the Gandhara territory 

The Art of Gandhara by Kurt A. Behrendt, 2007, Metropolitan Museum of Art, see artwork below:

Ashoka was the governor of Taxia. He a a brutal murderous ruler, but saw the light, and spread Buddhism and did many interesting things. Some of his pillars still exist today. 

When Hsuan-tsang came to Gandhara in the 7th century there were thousands of monasteries. (See The Life Of Hiuen Tsiang by Beal, Samuel (1914).

Gandhara was a mixture of many cultures and you get Greek styled Buddhist art, mixed in with Persian and Indian.

Porter and his friend visited the Dharmarajika Stupa

I would love go to the Peshawar Museum in Peshawar Pakistan. 

There is so much here, it's overwhelming, I'm defintely skimming hoping to circle back, but my entry into it started with a travelogue by Bill Porter, and I'm grateful for his travel in China books. I've read 4 of the 6 of them, going to track down the last 2. I've been obsessed with this book, it feels a little empty to finish it. What am I going to do next?

Wikipedia: Gandhara Buddhist Art

Kamalashila

I don't really want to write about this, Kamalashila is an awesome person and I think it's his story to tell. I wish to express my gratitude.

Kamalashila has announced on his blog that he's entered the final stage of life by moving to palliative care for colon cancer.

He has been a meaningful teacher to me over the past year with his Tuesday 5 AM EST anapanasati meditation zoom meetings, and noon Brahma Viharas on Thursday. If you've been Triratna trained and practiced for 3 years you can join still. 

I met him over a decade ago. He didn't need a cushion to meditate on, we just did a short meditation with the NYC sangha. I asked him about equanimity, and he didn't say much I can remember. I'm sure it's not something easy to talk about. Today I would say it's a culmination practice, like the last stages of anapanasati, that is not easy to articulate. Radiating equanimity isn't like blasting love infinitely to the universe, but finding a thread of it, and trying to expand it, is a good culmination practice if you're going through the 4 Brahmaviharas. And going through them all and culminating is a worthwhile thing to do. I also use what I learned in anapanasati by focusing on relinquishment, cessation and disentangling.

What I get from him is a simplicity, he doesn't spin off intellectualizing. He seems to be quite a deep Buddhist, centered, clear minded. You can feel the years of dedicated practice. He loves talking about meditative experience and the Dharma. He's been quite generous sharing videos, the culmination of a Dharma life.

He has videos on Vimeo leading meditation on anapanasati and Brahmaviharas. 

He has a discussion with Dhammarati on anapanasati.

He has a video on Facebook that's a yoga teacher Daniel Simpson who I'm unfamiliar with, who's asking him questions and he sort of outlines his life and his journey. He tried hallucinogens, he tries TM, does yoga with Iyengar, he meets Sangharakshita, and he did Brahmacharya. 

Of course his book Meditation (2004) is where we can read about the near and far enemies of compassion, pity and horrified anxiety. He's supposedly coming out with his 3 last books, he thinks he can get those out. Something bittersweet to look forward to. 

I'm very sad to potentially lose him, anticipate losing him, I feel grateful to have gotten a great deal from meditating with him online, watching him meditate, and listening to his guided meditations, and even though I have a superficial connection to him, I've greatly appreciated his generosity in sharing his meditative experience. He's not gone yet, but we're in the gloaming. I'm afraid to hassle him with a gratitude email, so I'm writing a post. Here he is on zoom leading a meditation in 2024.

His partner’s blog.

Another interview, with Moksayogin (Facebook). An interesting review of some questions. 

An dialogue with Chandradassa (Spotify). The thing to do to support him, is to just get on with your Dharma practice. At the end it's got a lovely 18 minute meditation about the mindfulness of birth and death. 

Bodhikara on Anapanasati - 13 March 2024 video. He's in Estonia!

8/13/24. They think they misdiagnosed his cancer, and now think it's a rare lymphoma that is treatable. What a reversal. He's in the hospital getting treatment now. He has 61-70% chance of complete remission. He's not out of the woods yet. Facebook post.

10/5/24. Shucks, Kamalashila has died. I cried a lot in my meditation this morning though I didn't know yet. I shall really miss him. It's Saturday and I meditated with him on Thursday. We did equanimity, upeksha and he talked about how we can't change the past, even though it conditions the present.

West London Buddhist Center

Yashabodhia's blog

Long Walking Thai Monks in America

The Theravada monks are walking from Key West to Niagara Falls and they're in New York. Their goal is to promote world peace. The walk–which began on March 31. They walk about 30 miles a day. They will have walked about 1,483 miles on foot by the end of the journey. They expect to get to Niagara Falls June 29th. This is the second time they've done it. 

Links:

WKBW

Facebook group

WIVB

Chautauqua Today

WYRK

Albert von Le Coq

Adding to a past post of imperialistic looting of treasures along the Silk Road, that I learn about reading Bill Porter's The Silk Road (2016), is Albert von Le Coq (1860-1930). He's the one who found this little number in a cave buried in the sand outside Turfan in the Bezeklik Caves. Seems around 1905, publishing in 1913. Wikipedia lists the expeditions around 1902-1914.

It seems like different ethnic groups passing on Buddhist knowledge, maybe Tocharians or Sogdians.

Wikipedia: "In Buried Treasures ..., Le Coq defends these "borrowings" as a matter of necessity, citing the turbulent nature of Chinese Turkestan at the time of the expeditions. Chinese consider this seizure a "colonial rapacity" comparable to the taking of the Elgin Marbles or the Koh-i-Noor diamond."

You can go to Harvard, or the British Museum and now I've learned Berlin Germany, to see precious Silk Road treasures. Unfortunately during WW2 many precious items were lost due to bombing.

Le Coq also found great Nestorian and Manichean relics.

Minor reference

Maybe random scenes of Buddhism isn’t important, it’s anime. Still, I like to document:

The show is called Cyberpunk: Edgerunners. Came out in 2022, made in Japan and Poland, and has 10 episodes. There's a Ready Player One vibe to it, but it's different too. 

Aurel Stein, Paul Pelliot and Langdon Warner

Aurel Stein ransacked the library cave in the Mocoa Caves in 1905, and that's why the oldest known dated book, the Diamond Sutra is in the British Museum in London England. Aurel Stein paid 130 pounds to Wang Yuan-lu to cart away these treasures in 1905. This is the oldest known book with a date on it, and the date is May 11, 868.

There's a video on YouTube. The manuscripts were in a hidden cave behind a secret door, plastered over. The document is coming apart with age, and early treatments.

Paul Pelliot came behind him. Here is a picture of Pelliot looking at the manuscripts in 1908:

Langdon Warner bought some items in 1924 that are at Harvard. The Chinese government looks dimly on these early transactions, but Warner says, "If we are ever criticized for buying those chips, the love and labor and the dollars we spent on assembling them should silence all criticism. That in itself is a service to the cause of China bigger than anyone else in this country has ever made."

You can search the Harvard Art Museum and see items Langdon Warner bought (for example, below).

Today China would claim the artifacts, and not sell them so cheap. We know where they are, and the imperialistic country which valued it, preserved it to share information about other countries, and while it seems like stealing by today's standards, the part of human evolution, where we didn't think much about it, and that gives us things to study from far away lands. I'm not saying it's right, but I'm also not saying it's a horrible wrong. Maybe more of a soft wrong based on our current perspective, and the story is not over, the items could be returned.

You do see every day articles where museums are returning artifacts to countries where they are considered to be stolen. I think that's a wonderful direction that things are going in. We can make up for past wrongs. Many times we can't, and of course the time lost could arguably said to be preserving things while that country came to value them. 

I find the whole thing fascinating. As we up our ethics along our human evolution, we try to make up for past actions which are now considered wrongs. 

Human lives are quite short when you look at a book that was printed in 868, it's disintegrating and breaking, the artifacts are quite worn down and not in very good condition.

I love it that there are around 750 Shakespeare first folios spread around the world, would love to go to the Folger Library which is opening up again after remodeling. 

The reverence of our past and our cultural history is for all of humanity. Everyone owns Shakespeare and everyone owns the history of Buddhism. I think the free flow of information is important, and sharing human cultural legacy is a wonderful thing.

One could ask why a Taoist was the guardian of such a Buddhist treasure, and Wang Yuan-lu used the money to take care of the place, preserving it to the best of his ability. They took a few things. Today it's controlled and owned by the state, and you pay for entrance, and you can pay for a guide, and you can pay for a flash light if you didn't bring one along. It's a different world now, probably different from the one Bill Porter describes in The Silk Road (2016) from a trip he took in the late 1990's. He sees the spot where the above statue used to be. 

In diplomacy, when America suggests to China to return Tibet to the Tibetan people, they could ask for the above statue back. The tit for tat demands might not yield anything, but then again maybe open negotiations could include what important for one, for what's important for another. 

I'll end with my favorite artwork from the Mogao Caves. The Buddha fighting Mara:

Today is Juneteenth, one of the days we celebrate the freeing of the slaves in the USA. Buddhism is about liberation, and I wish everyone liberation. 

Tomorrow is summer solstice, an important day for nature lovers who follow the rhythms of the earth. 

Below are some of articles about returned art:

6/21/24: A Rubens Returns to a German Castle, 80 Years After It Was Stolen (NY Times).

6/27/24: Amsterdam Museum to Return a Matisse Work Sold Under Duress in World War II (NY Times).

6/28/24: Ancient artistic loot will finally make its way back to Cambodia (Economist).

7/4/24: Cambodia welcomes the Metropolitan Museum's repatriation of statues looted over decades of turmoil (AOL)

Silk Road

“EVER SINCE WE HUMANS FIRST BEGAN to walk, we have worn paths to our neighbor's house and to the next village and beyond. And ever since we discovered the wheel and learned to tame four-footed beasts, some of our trails have become roads. Among the more monumental examples are the hewn rock ramparts of ancient Rome's Appian Way and the poured concrete cloverleafs of the LA freeways. A much older, much longer, and at the same time less tangible example of our peripatetic nature is the Silk Road.”

So begins Bill Porter’s The Silk Road (2016).

I've much admired Porter's travel books from China, and his translations under the name Red Pine.

Today I'm thinking about Kukai, it's his birthday, and his great travels into China to bring back Vajrayana to Japan, and his heroic journeys. 

Kukai (774-835) traveled to the city where the silk road began to find a teacher in Xi'an.

Xi'an was also home to the famous Buddhist traveler Hsuan-tang (602-664) (Wikipedia). "His travelogue is a mix of the implausible, the hearsay and a firsthand account."

P. 20: "As for Huo's own grave mound, its most noteworthy feature was the series of fourteen stone carvings at the base. They were ancient, but they looked almost modern in design. Among the most famous was one of a horse trampling a bearded foreigner, which made us feel a bit uneasy. Finn and I weren't Huns, but we do get a little rowdy from time to time. Fortunately we have so far survived our Hunnish lapses."

P. 24 Famen Temple. Supposedly there's a Buddha finger there. Ashoka supposedly sent it in the 3rd century, but it took till the 6th century for the Buddhists of China to realize what they had. “ For a nominal fee, Finn and I even got a certificate proving that we did, indeed, pay our respects to the same finger that pointed to the Middle Path 2,500 years ago.”

Artist

 

I haven't seen this Buddha and Mara mash up yet, I thought it was amazing. The artist lives Mushhad Iran, the second biggest city in Iran. Here's his instagram, follow him please. He has 56 followers today, lets see if we can get him over 100. 

Hey, I'm quite the influencer, he's got 3 more followers now! Two weeks later. 

Buddhadasa quote

"If the mind has correct samadhi, we will observe in the mind three distinct qualities. The quality of mind that is firm, steady, undistracted, and focused on a single object is called samahitatà (stability, collectedness). That mind is clear and pure, not disturbed by anything, unobscured by defilement. A mind empty of defilement is called parisuddhi (purity). Such a citta is fit and supremely prepared to perform the duties of the mind. This is called kammaniyatà (active-ness, readiness). It might be wise to memorize these three words: samabitatà (stability), parisuddhi (purity), and kammaniyata (activeness). For correct concentration all three of these qualities must be present. This kind of concentration can be used not only in formal meditation practice but in any of the necessary activities of life."

p. 85 Mindfulness of Breathing.

Yung-Chia's Song of Enlightenment translated by Red Pine

The above drawing is included in the chapbook (2018) and I put it on my shrine this morning.

Red Pine's book calls him Yung-Chia, in the text he calls him Hsung-chueh, and Wikipedia calls him Yongjia Xuanjue (665 - 713). His Dharma name is Mingdao, meaning bright path. He lived to be 48. He supposedly died while meditating. Emperor Xuanzong gave him the posthumous name Wuxiang (無象), meaning 'without phenomena'. 

He is also called maybe "The Overnight Guest" and "One Night Chueh" because he stayed with Huineng one night. The story goes:

"Yongjia met a monk named Xuance. Xuance was a disciple of Huineng and was sufficiently impressed with Yongjia that he convinced him to accompany him back to Caoxi to meet Huineng. Upon arriving, Yongjia walked around Huineng three times, then stood in front of him holding his staff. Huineng said, “A monk is capable of three thousand modes of deportment and eighty thousand ways of behavior. Where, sir, did you get such arrogance?”

Yongjia said, “Birth and death are important, but impermanence is also impermanent.”

Huineng said, “Have you not yet understood what is not born or comprehended what is not impermanent?”

Yongjia said, “Understanding is, in fact, what is not born, and comprehension is essentially what is not impermanent.”

Huineng said, “Indeed, so they are. So they are.”

Yongjia then made a full prostration and said he was leaving.

Huineng said, “You are leaving too soon.”

Yongjia said, “I can’t really move. How could I do so too soon?”

Huineng said, “Who is it who knows he doesn’t move?”

Yongjia said, “You, sir, are creating distinctions.”

Huineng said, “You have truly penetrated the meaning of what is not born.”

Yongjia said, “How could what is not born have any meaning.”

Huineng said, “Who is it who is distinguishing no meaning?”

Yongjia said, “Distinguishing has no meaning.”

Huineng said, “Wonderful! But at least stay the night.”

And so, Yongjia became known as One-night Jue, Jue

being part of Yongjia’s ordination name, Xuanjue.

The date of this exchange was 705." (Early Pine)

Hsung-chueh saw himself as getting the teachings from reading, he didn't really identify with Huineng who certified him as enlightened (recorded in the Transmission of the Lamp). He was also friends with Xuanlang the 5th patriarch of Tientai. He supposedly got enlightened while reading the Nirvana Sutra and the Vimalakirti Sutra (Pine p. 6).

The second monastic name is where he's from, he was from Xuanjue, in southeast China, now called Wenzhou, directly north of Taiwan, south of Shanghai, a bit in from the coast, and at the mouth of the Oujiang river. They speak Wu Chinese there. Supposedly this is a main dialect in Flushing and Brooklyn Chinatowns.

"Prior to 1949 there were 2,000 registered places of worship and 4,500 priests, pastors and monks in the city. But, the state officially designated Wenzhou as an experimental site for an "atheistic zone" (无宗教区) in 1958 and during the Cultural Revolution (1966–1976), religious buildings were either closed or converted for other uses."

The Song of Enlightenment is an 8th century poem. There are pictures of the text in the chapbook by Pine. 

Hsung-chueh suggests in the poem that liars will spend many eons having their tongue pulled out. Later he says, "an army of demons can't destroy the truth." (stanza 62). It's like a praying mantis blocking the way (of a human).

"22. I moved to a mountain and found a quiet place

steep and secluded beneath tall pines

an outsider monk I enjoy sitting still

settled at last I’m truly at peace"

There are 63 stanzas of these 4 lines, 2 lines in Chinese (7 have 3 lines). Read the wonderful thing for yourself. 

I have some funny thoughts, like that Sunaksatra, supposedly one the Buddha's sons who attained deep understanding, but feel in with someone evil, and I'm guessing became something of a Darth Vader. This is from the Nirvana Sutra.

Hsung-chueh is against traveling from teacher to teacher. He's more in favor of the sudden teaching.

Another Angulimala and Milarepa, supposedly Yung-shih committed adultery and murder before coming enlightened. I can't find any reference to him or her online. They say he's one of the 35 omnipresent buddhas, I'm not sure which, not sure if that's related to the 35 confession Bodhisattvas. I'm getting lost in the weeds. He does seem to think the buddha would drop the minor rules, and seem to think monstatic quibbling about the vinaya was unskillful. 

A very interesting little poem.

Links:

PDF of unnamed translation Song of Enlightenment. I think it's Red Pine's but the introduction is different and similar. I will call this Early Pine.

Another translation.

Other poems by Hsung-chueh

Book recommendations

Most people think What The Buddha Taught by Walpola Rahula Thero is the best place to start, and I don't think that's bad, but it's an intense book. People want to read directly, so then the recommendation is The Dhammapada. Vision and Transformation by Sangharakshita is a nice little book about the 8 fold path. 

The preliminaries:

Nonviolent Communication by Marshall Rosenberg

Radical Acceptance by Tara Brach

Self Compassion by Kristin Nell

The Dark Side of the Light Chasers by Debbie Ford

All About Love by bell hooks

Learned Optimism by Martin Seligman

Pali Cannon (Sutta Pitaka plus):

(These can be hard to read without more background and because they're so ancient. The Nikayas are longer books with many sutras in them. You can access them online too.)

Dhamapada (Some people recommend your start here.)

Udana

Majjhima Nikaya

Digha Nikāya

Saṁyutta Nikāya

Anguttara Nikāya

Meditation general:

Change Your Mind by Paramananda

Meditation by Kamalashila

Anapanasati: 

Breath by Breath by Larry Rosenberg

Mindfulness of Breathing by Buddhadasa (see photo below)

Brahma Viharas:

True Love by Thich Nhat Hanh (see photo below)

Boundless Heart by Christina Feldman

Living With Kindness by Sangharakshita

Theravada Buddhism writers (Wikipedia):

I've read Jack Kornfield, Ajahn Chah, Henepola Gunaratana, Analayo, Ayya Khema

What The Buddha Taught by Walpola Rahula Thero is often seen as the best first book.

Loved these two books:

Venerable Acariya Mun Bhuridatta Thera, A Spiritual Biography by Acariya Maha Boowa Nanasampanno

(Can be found here, various formats for free)

Mae Chee Kaew by Bhikkhu Silaratano. You can listen to her biography here. 

Living Dharma by Jack Kornfield is his first book, that goes to living teachers and summarizes their teachings.

History of Buddhism:

The Heart of Buddha's Teachings by Thich Nhat Hanh

A Concise History of Buddhism by Andrew Skilton

Mahayana Buddhism by Paul Williams

A Survey of Buddhism by Sangharakshita (photo below)

Mahayana Sutras:

Lotus Sutra

Bodhicaryavatara 

Sutra of Golden Light

Lankavatara Sutra

The Vimalakirti Nirdesa

Perfection of Wisdom Sutras:

Heart Sutra

Diamond Sutra

Zen Buddhism:

The Three Pillars of Zen by Philip Kapleau Roshi 

Zen Mind, Beginner's Mind by Shunryū Suzuki

Zen Flesh, Zen Bones by Paul Reps

The Circle of the Way by Barbara O'Brien

Pure Land Sutras

Shorter Sukhāvatīvyūha Sūtra

(You can listen to 3 sutras in English here)

Great books on Specific topics:

How Karma Works: The Twelve Links of Dependent Arising by Geshe Sonan Rinchen

Kukai: Major Works by Kūkai, translation by Yoshito Hakeda 

Buddha Nature by Sallie B. King

The Life of the Buddha: According to the Pali Canon by Bhikkhu Ñanamoli. That's probably the best biography of the Buddha. I could write a long post about this genera of devotional writing. I like Vishvapani's biography, or not a Buddhist Karen Armstrong.

Meeting The Buddhas: A Guide to Buddhas, Bodhisattvas, and Tantric Deities by Vessantara

Foundations of Tibetan Mysticism by Lama Govinda. 

The Art of Reflection by Ratnaguna

Great Faith, Great Wisdom by Ratnaguna

The Yogi's Joy by Sangharakshita. About Milarepa.

The Eternal Legacy by Sangharakshita. About Buddhist literature.

Nondualism by David Loy (photo below)

Poetry:

The Mountain Poems of Stonehouse translated and commentary by Red Pine

The Collected Songs of Cold Mountain by Red Pine

Ten Thousand Songs of Milarepa

My journey: I read Zen in college, couldn't understand it. I read Awakening the Buddha Within: Eight Steps to Enlightenment by Lama Surya Das, and Charlotte Joko Beck's two books before a friend signed me up for a meditation class with Triratna. Then I read Vision and Transformation about the 8 fold path, and the Dhammapada. Then I just soaked up a million books, good and bad. The above is the list of good. I did mitra study, The Bodhisattva Ideal and I ended up reading most of Sangharakshita and his disciples. I read beyond them, read Ajahn Chah complete works, and I'm still reading and rereading through the Pali Canon. 

My reading has slowed down because I read really slowly now and contemplate more than I read. And I focus more on meditation. I spent 10 good years going to retreats, and seeking out teachings, developing friendships within the sangha. I'm trying to be more self reliant, and a certain point you know enough and can go off and just do the work. I blog as a way of sharing what I've learned a giving back. I'm not a lineage holder for any sect, not a teacher, just sharing my journey, answering questions I see a lot online. 

Please comment if you feel there's a book you really appreciated and want to share!