So Monday is metta, Tuesday is anapanasati, and today I decided Thursday is for Buddhanusatti. I'm not sure if I'll fully flesh out a weekly rhythm, but I'm working on it. I reserve the right to just do what seems best, but it takes a while to build up practice options.
I sometimes think enlightenment is a limit, you just keep getting closer and closer without actually getting there. But I think it's more like a venn diagram of qualities that you partake some in, and could expand that participation. You bring out your Buddha nature. There's a glimpses that give you hope.
The Buddha is the example of enlightenment, not a creator god or a cult of personality, in a way you could go to refuge to the Buddha-nature inside you.
I go to devotion first, mantra: Here's one example of the Shakyamuni mantra. Here are some more Triratna examples. There's a cute little dog bark in the Indian style one, longer than the first. Bodhipaksa
The image of the buddha is a bit confounding at times. The some of the earliest ones in Gandahar have a Greek influence. I think humanity evolved towards wishing a human was represented. I went to the Met and saw amazing relief of a stupa that didn't represent the Buddha. And then when they do, it's quite dramatic for me (see photo above). I've had some intense experiences in museums where I wanted to get down and prostrate to the Buddha, in Chicago and here in New York. (Photos, another)
I used to think the Buddha didn't want to be represented, but I saw where he just didn't want to be represented in his lifetime. (I can't find the scripture, but I have a clear and distinct memory of seeing it.) He wanted to be represented by a stupa.
Then things spread out. What the Buddha achieved, I can to. And that points to the Dharma and Sangha. A candle represents the Dharma, the sangha is incense. Flowers probably represent impermanence and beauty, which is the buddha. The Buddha might still exist in the Dharmakaya, haven't really gotten my mind around the 3 kaya teaching and uncreated, unconditioned existence.
A search for pujas found this one.
Literature of the biography and mythology of the Buddha. Off the top of my head I've reviewed a few, and then there's the first one, is the Buddhacharita, and then there's another early one called Lalitavistara Sūtra. There are many modern Pali compilations. In a way the whole of the Pali Canon is about the Buddha. I read sutta and there's all kinds of magical stuff like him licking his ears to prove he has the 32 marks. I remember Karen Armstong's biography and Vishvapani's biography.
Above I wrote it's not about the cult of personality, and here I go focusing on the person, he wanted you to see the teachings, the community. It's a practice to shift your focus around and see what pops up, are you covering everything. The koan of practice is, what should I do next? There are 5 main practices: meditation, study, ethics, devotion and fellowship.
In the sangha we got to refuge to the Buddha in our friends and acquaintances.
The 5 Jinas are representations of Buddhist qualities.
Buddha Day is May 15rd 2024 is the next Buddha Day. Every day is Buddha day.
I saw Brandi Carlile won a Emmy for her song Speak Your Mind (Spotify). I just listened to it. Its from We The People song about The First Amendment on Netflix (Wikipedia). I hadn't watched it, but I'm watching it now. It came out in 2021. Lots of different artists.
She suggests perhaps love over hate. People sometimes think rights are absolute or can justify bad things, but there are limits.
That got me thinking about the democracy of Blogger, blogging your experience. It's quite overwhelming when everyone has a voice, lots of people want you to toe the line, want everyone pulling on the oars of their choosing.
It's messy and annoying and often time quite disappointing and challenging, this cacophony of voice. It's in your best interest to mostly ignore social media. And yet, it's glorious.
I stumbled on a long article by a North Korean author, how they try to make everything one message there. That's a kind of opposite to the freedom of speech.
Sunday is kind of a sacred day even if you're not Christian. My secular Jewish stepfather would play classical music. I would watch football. I spent my summer with my religious grandparents. One grandfather was a Baptist minister. The other was Episcopalian. At the time I wasn't really into it, but I have fond memories now.
I cranked on a 48 minute anapanasati, doing all 16 stages. I've been doing shorter meditation, and more formless meditation the previous two days. I sometimes wonder if my life isn't supportive enough for more intense meditation, but I must not believe the question because I go for it sometimes, and work to intensify. I'm writing a bit about my thoughts on anapanasati, and I'm not sure if I'll share it, but I think it's good to develop my thoughts. I share my thoughts to close friends, and my journal. Don't want to be too confessional.
It's overcast, so I couldn't see the moon. It's a waning crescent (7%), new moon on the 12th. It's like the turtle that meditated with me, seeing the moon out my window is an auspicious sign. Then the clouds got pink, and then orange. It was quite beautiful.
In the gladdening stage I felt the contradiction of wanting beauty and the stabilizing stage of wanting wanting less input.
I've always loved the phrase utmost wondrousness. The mind has to be stable enough to cope with whatever comes up.
I was kind of shocked that no self is also not true of Buddhism, there was a quote in Buddha Nature from What The Buddha Taught, from MN2.
"The view I have a self arises in him as true & established, or the view I have no self... or the view It is precisely by means of self that I perceive self... or the view It is precisely by means of self that I perceive not-self... or the view It is precisely by means of not-self that I perceive self arises in him as true & established, or else he has a view like this: This very self of mine — the knower that is sensitive here & there to the ripening of good & bad actions — is the self of mine that is constant, everlasting, eternal, not subject to change, and will stay just as it is for eternity. This is called a thicket of views, a wilderness of views, a contortion of views, a writhing of views, a fetter of views. Bound by a fetter of views, the uninstructed run-of-the-mill person is not freed from birth, aging, & death, from sorrow, lamentation, pain, distress, & despair. He is not freed, I tell you, from suffering & stress."
The Associated Press tells me it's Bodhi Day. The day we celebrate the Buddha's enlightenment.
I don't know much about enlightenment, I've said here how I know I'm not enlightened. Maybe I've had glimpses of the approach to enlightenment. The path is worth it to me just to move towards enlightenment. Maybe there's a bit of a faith element that it's worth it, or that something I don't really understand is the goal. I've heard people say that even though they don't know anything about it, they're OK with the path. It's an odd epistemological situation. Usually you hear more annoying questions on Reddit about what gets reincarnated, questions about karma with weird assumptions, and no self and no desire misunderstandings. You don't get a lot of questions about what enlightenment is, but there must be some. Reddit does have the question 3 years ago with some good answers.
I'm sure answers will include breaking the 10 fetters. Ending greed hatred and delusion. Nirvana over samsara. And of course the variety of sects in Buddhism won't agree on the exact answer. One of the great things about fellowship with other sanghas is that you learn about the amazing variety of ways of being a Buddhist.
I'd say the glimpses of health, mindfulness and serenity were quit shocking to me, and for me in anapanasati I deal with the fear of enlightenment in the 15th stage, the niroda stage. Anapanasati is a robust meditation that comes down to us from the Buddha. After 3 months of intense meditation, he felt that it was such a good retreat, that he would teach the meditation for an extra month. Other meditation mentioned in the Pali Canon more than Anapanasati include metta, which the Buddha didn't invent, that was in the culture already. Perhaps his twist on it, he tailored it to the insights of the Dharma he came to understand. Impermanence and no permanent self meditation were mentioned more. And a not beauty meditation, which I think could be about conquering lust is also mentioned more than anapanasati.
I'm not a lineage holder or a teacher of any sect of Buddhism, so I'm free to develop my own take on things, and I could be wrong.
Anyway, today is Bodhi Day, the day we celebrate the Buddha's enlightenment.
Jizo or Kṣitigarbha (Source)
The hardest stage for me in metta (self, near and dear, neutral, enemy, equalize and spread) is the neutral and equalizing. Hardest maybe isn't the word, I suppose I find myself frustrated I can't just flip a switch, and when that happens, I just know to listen with patience.
Then that extends to the last stage where you equalize. I have such sticky affection, I see the world through how everything benefits me, how things function to my benefit. Even the enemy I've got something to chew on, they rubbed me the wrong way, harmed me, so I'm trying to look past that, and in a way it's an equalizing maneuver.
I did mudita with K on Thursday and just radiating good was his take. A sort of arupa jhana. I think about all the qualities in terms of other people, and again, I'm viewing it through my own small interests. I get kind of irritated by statements like, I can't get past my ego, but here I am, I feel like saying that. The ego is a good thing, it protects us from going insane, and we need to be sensitive to the fact that narcissism keeps some people sane, all the defensive traits we might hate, are basically keeping people off life support or worse. You can't flip a switch on that stuff either. There are long term projects in Buddhism. To see things clearly, to be creative instead of reactive.
I have a picture of the grand canyon on my shrine. Aside from being a beautiful thing to see, I think about the erosion of years and years to get down deeper and deeper into the older and older rock. The same thing with meditation, we're getting deeper and deeper into the bedrock.
I also think about computer code. There are layers and layers, and the bottom layer is the machine code. Your childhood gives you the bottom layer of code, and it's really hard to change that code.
Mettam Sutta: The Brahma-viharas (excerpt) translated from the Pali by Maurice O'Connell Walshe
"And how, monks, does a monk cultivate the heart's release by loving-kindness?[1] What is its goal, its excellence, its fruit and its outcome?
"In this case, monks, a monk cultivates the enlightenment-factor of mindfulness accompanied by loving-kindness and similarly the enlightenment-factors of investigation-of-states, energy, rapture, tranquillity, concentration, equanimity, accompanied by loving-kindness which is based on detachment, dispassion, leading to maturity of surrender. If he wishes to dwell perceiving the repulsive in what is not repulsive, he dwells thus perceiving the repulsive. If he wishes to dwell perceiving the unrepulsive in what is repulsive, he dwells thus perceiving the unrepulsive. If he wishes to dwell perceiving the repulsive both in what is repulsive and what is not repulsive, if he wishes to dwell perceiving the unrepulsive in both..., he dwells thus. If he wishes, avoiding both the repulsive and unrepulsive, to dwell equanimous,[2] mindful and clearly aware,[3] he dwells thus, equanimous, mindful and clearly aware, or, attaining the heart's release called 'beautiful'[4] he abides there. I declare that the heart's release by loving-kindness has the beautiful for its excellence. This is the attainment of a wise monk who penetrates to no higher release.[5]
"And how, monks, does a monk cultivate release by compassion? What is its goal, its excellence, its fruit and its outcome?
"In this, monks, a monk cultivates the enlightenment-factors of mindfulness... equanimity accompanied by compassion... [as above]... he dwells thus, equanimous, mindful, clearly aware or, by passing utterly beyond all perception of objects, by the going-down of perceptions of sensory reactions,[6] by disregarding perceptions of diversity, thinking 'space is infinite,' he attains and dwells in the sphere of infinite space.[7] I declare that the heart's release by compassion has the sphere of infinite space for its excellence. This is the attainment of a wise monk who penetrates to no higher release.
"And how, monks, does a monk cultivate the heart's release by sympathetic joy? What is its goal, its excellence, its fruit and its outcome?
"In this, monks, a monk cultivates the enlightenment-factors of mindfulness... equanimity accompanied by sympathetic joy... [as above]... he dwells thus, equanimous, mindful, clearly aware or, by passing utterly beyond the sphere of infinite space, thinking 'consciousness is infinite,' he attains and dwells in the sphere of infinite consciousness.[8] I declare that the heart's release by sympathetic joy has the sphere of infinite consciousness for its excellence. This is the attainment of a wise monk who penetrates to no higher release.
"And how, monks, does a monk cultivate the heart's release by equanimity? What is its goal, its excellence, its fruit and its outcome?
"In this case, monks, a monk cultivates the enlightenment-factors of mindfulness, investigation-of-states, energy, rapture, tranquillity, concentration, equanimity accompanied by equanimity[9] which is based on detachment, dispassion, leading to maturity of surrender. If he wishes to dwell... [as above]... he dwells thus, equanimous, mindful and clearly aware. Or by passing utterly beyond the sphere of infinite consciousness, thinking 'there is nothing,' he attains and dwells in the sphere of nothingness.[10] I declare that the heart's release by equanimity had the sphere of nothingness for its excellence. This is the attainment of a wise monk who penetrates to no higher release."
(Source: Access To Insight)
The Four Sublime States by Nyanaponika Thera
Quote from DN 13 (Sutta Central):
"It’s when a Realized One arises in the world, perfected, a fully awakened Buddha … That’s how a mendicant is accomplished in ethics. … Seeing that the hindrances have been given up in them, joy springs up. Being joyful, rapture springs up. When the mind is full of rapture, the body becomes tranquil. When the body is tranquil, they feel bliss. And when blissful, the mind becomes immersed.
They meditate spreading a heart full of love to one direction, and to the second, and to the third, and to the fourth. In the same way above, below, across, everywhere, all around, they spread a heart full of love to the whole world—abundant, expansive, limitless, free of enmity and ill will. Here the four brahmavihāras (“meditations of Brahmā”) stand in place of the four jhānas. Brahmavihāras are simply one of the means by which jhānas may be attained, chosen here to fit the stated goal of teaching the path to Brahmā. They were evidently pre-Buddhist, although they have not been traced as a group in pre-Buddhist texts. However, they are shared with later non-Buddhist texts such as Yogasūtra 1.33 and the Jain Tattvārthasūtra 7.11. | “Love” (mettā) is a universal positive regard and well-wishing free of personal desires or attachments.
Suppose there was a powerful horn blower. They’d easily make themselves heard in the four quarters. In the same way, when the heart’s release by love has been developed like this, any limited deeds they’ve done don’t remain or persist there. The mind in jhāna is so powerful that it effectively overrides any limited kamma, including ordinary good or bad deeds. Unless they have committed serious crimes with a fixed kammic result such as matricide, etc., the meditator will be reborn in a Brahmā realm.This is a path to company with Brahmā.
Furthermore, a mendicant meditates spreading a heart full of compassion … “Compassion” (karuṇā) is the quality of empathy with the suffering of another or oneself and the wish to remove it.
They meditate spreading a heart full of rejoicing … “Rejoicing” (muditā) is joyful celebration in the success of others or oneself, free of jealousy or cynicism.
They meditate spreading a heart full of equanimity to one direction, and to the second, and to the third, and to the fourth. In the same way above, below, across, everywhere, all around, they spread a heart full of equanimity to the whole world—abundant, expansive, limitless, free of enmity and ill will. Equanimity (upekkhā) is literally “close watching”, not interfering but standing ready when needed. It is not indifference, which is why it emerges only at the end, after the positive emotions are developed.
Suppose there was a powerful horn blower. They’d easily make themselves heard in the four quarters. In the same way, when the heart’s release by equanimity has been developed and cultivated like this, any limited deeds they’ve done don’t remain or persist there. This too is a path to company with Brahmā."
"According to British scholar of Buddhism Peter Harvey, the Buddhist scriptures acknowledge that the four brahmavihārā meditation practices "did not originate within the Buddhist tradition".[12] The Buddha never claimed that the "four immeasurables" were his unique ideas, in a manner similar to "cessation, quieting, nirvana"." (Wikipedia)
Saṁyutta Nikāya 46.54. Accompanied by Lovingkindness:
"Avoiding both the unrepulsive and the repulsive, may I dwell equanimously, mindful and clearly comprehending"
"by completely transcending the base of the infinity of consciousness, aware that ‘there is nothing,’ he enters and dwells in the base of nothingness. Bhikkhus, the liberation of mind by equanimity has the base of nothingness as its culmination, I say, for a wise bhikkhu here who has not penetrated to a superior liberation.”"
Found this with my commentary in parentheses:
Here's the number of occurences of most mentioned practice names in the Sutta Pitaka:"One night, when I was just about to sit down on the cushion, suddenly my body, mind, and world dropped away. At the same time, everything was present and clear. The filter of “me, I, mine” was gone. This extended into my daily life and interactions with people and events for over a month. Everything was ordinary, clear, and at peace, as if nothing was happening, yet everything was wondrous, connected, clear. Things moved but they were still; there was coming and going, but it was as if nothing had come or gone. Tasks were busily being done, but it was as if nothing was accomplished. There was no witnessing, no things, no tasks. Motion and stillness, coming and going, presence and absence were irrelevant. Responses to circumstances and things were distinct but without a reference point. Mind functioned freely when tasks required thinking, but ideas flowed without a thinker or self-consciousness. Mundane things like peeing made wonderous connections between the pee and the toilet, yet nothing had transpired. As for the Chan gong’ans (Jp. Zen koans), they became silly children’s books. There were no obstructions anywhere—obstruction and nonobstruction were irrelevant, too."
From Glimpses of Buddhanature in Lion's Roar, in the section by Guo Gu.
Sounds nice, I shouldn't be skeptical.
In another section of the article, I found this quote by Kokyo Henkel:
"I have come to see more and more how trusting in buddhanature can relieve discouragement in my own practice. By trusting that buddhanature is always present, even if seemingly obscured, it is always possible to practice and verify it. Our usual dualistic thought is like clouds seeming to obscure the vast clear sky of buddhanature, but occasionally there’s a little hole in the clouds, a glimpse of a small spot of clear sky. From that glimpse we can infer that there’s a huge unobstructed clear sky behind the clouds—and from the point of view of the sky, the clouds don’t even obscure it in any way. The sky has no problem with clouds floating through it, since the clouds are actually made of sky."
Another quote:
This peace so profound—this unpolluted, uncreated clear light—this nectar-like dharma I have found: to whomever I may teach it, it would remain enigmatic. So I will stay silent, keeping to the forest. (Lalitavistara, Sutra of the Panoramic Play)
Read the phrase "unconditioned Thusness" and I thought about Plato's forms. If Hericlutus can't step into the same river twice, Plato created unchanging forms. Unchanging forms aren't created or die, they have to be unconditioned. I found an article on Buddhism and Platonism.
Thought about a Deep Space 9 episode where a planet comes into phase, and goes out of phase, and the people exist as pure beings when it's out of phase. I also remember episodes of giant pure beings that accidentally harm a starship.
Thought about how monks feed Kukai every day on a shrine because he's in the Dharmakaya, even though he's been dead since the 8th century.
“The dharmakaya is not nonexistent because it is known in experiential fruit.” Sallie King Buddha Nature p.66.
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