The Yellow River Odyssey

Porter has many travel in China books, that I have greatly enjoyed, and poetry translations of Stonehouse and Cold Mountain, and translations of sutras. 

Bill Porter's The Yellow River Odyssey, about his trip in 1991, published in 2014, he visits Bodhidharma's cave. You can still go to the cave where he stared at the wall for 9 years. (You could also just meditate, all Buddhas would probably prefer you to trod the path rather than worship other people who trod the path, but faith and veneration of those who came after us is quite important, it does boost the practice to think of all the heroes of Buddhism.) Bodhidharma is credited with bringing Buddhism to China, and a founder of Chan Buddhism. 

There's a cool statue at the top of the mountain of him.

Bodhidharma lived during the 5th and 6th century. I think it's really cool you could know something about someone from that long ago. You can read some of his translated writings.

Then Porter goes to Longmen Caves (Vairocana in the center):

Links:

Been writing about the non-Buddhist culture Porter aspects of his book (One, two, three). This book has more Taoism and Confucianism than his other books, which is not uninteresting to me. I'm fascinated by the interplay between Buddhism, Taoism and Confucianism in China. 

Araka was Heraclitus?!

Wrathful Green Tara

The timeline lines up, to the extent that we actually know the timelines, it's possible the Buddha was referring to Heraclitus when he discussed Araka teaching impermanence, but not no permanent soul or the unsatisfactoriness of conditioned existence. On page 94 of Mindfulness with breathing by Buddhadasa, he makes the assertion I'd never heard before.

What I remember of Heraclitus was that he posed a challenge, that Plato solved by creating the forms. Heraclitus said you can't step into the same river twice. It was always different. He was a kind of nominalist, there were just lots of unique things, always changing, a flux. Plato thought the world participated in forms that were permanent and unchanging. That's a bad summary, I'm sure my old professor would find problems with it, but I want to just say something and you can't always wait to be perfect, you can't study endlessly. I do remember being really taken by the presentation and thinking myself a Platonist in metaphysics in my early 20's. I'm not sure how you solve the problem today, I mostly lay aside conceptual problems these days.

Sure enough there's the sutta in AN 7.70 called Araka's Teaching:

"'Just as a dewdrop on the tip of a blade of grass quickly vanishes with the rising of the sun and does not stay long, in the same way, brahmans, the life of human beings is like a dewdrop — limited, trifling, of much stress & many despairs. One should touch this [truth] like a sage, do what is skillful, follow the holy life. For one who is born there is no freedom from death."

I've heard the dew drop life metaphor before.

The idea that the teachings from Greece could make it to India so long ago is amazing. Of course the Greek were all about rationality and thinking, and meditation would never have entered into their path of spiritual fulfilment. On the Buddhist path rationality isn't the only tool. There is meditation, fellowship, study, ethics and devotion. 

Vajrapani

He's one of the wrathful forms of Tibetan iconography, a protector of the Dharma. He can represent fierce energy. He is also called Chana Dorji and Chador.

Vajrapani has a bulging third eye in the center of his forehead. He has 5 skulls on his Bodhisattva crown. He could wield a thunderbolt.

In early Buddhist iconography he is standing next to the Buddha like a security guard, he is a protector. 

Vajrapani is part of the Akshobhya family. The five Jinas, the 5 Tathagatas organize all the deities. Akshobhya is about the wisdom on non-duality, wisdom of reflection, mirror knowledge. He is associated with the water element. He can be black or blue like water, or white, the sun glinting off water. He transmutes the energy of anger into skillful energy. 

Vajrapani "is one of the earliest-appearing bodhisattvas in Mahayana Buddhism. He is the protector and guide of Gautama Buddha and rose to symbolize the Buddha's power."

Shakti is another word for the consort, and I can't find a name for the Vajrapani consort or Shakti. They are standing in a pratyalidha posture. He has a tiger skin loin cloth. They sometimes trample someone. It represents the primordial union of wisdom and compassion, depicted as a male deity in union with his female consort through the similar ideas of interpenetration or "coalescence". The male figure represents compassion and skillful means, while the female partner represents insight. (Wikipedia)

In Gandahar art with Vajrapani, there's a connection to Heracles (Hercules). Below is Hercules holding up the world in front of Rockefeller Center off 5th Avenue. 

He's also connected to Indra and Zeus, wielder of a thunderbolt. Lightning is often seen as a flash of insight in Buddhism. In Buddhism the Vajra is the symbol of lightning.

Vajrapani is in the Pali Canon in the Ambattha Sutta. He is also a Yaksha elsewhere.

I've had a picture of Vajrapani on my door, for when I leave my house. I have been feeling fierce the past few days, and today Vajrapani appeared to me. 

Links

Wikipedia

Wildmind

Breaking Free

Met

Himalayan Art Resources

You can buy for 20k pounds at Sotheby's from the 16th century. You can get a reproduction for $20. You can even get a t-shirt of it.

Norton Simon Museum

Himalayan Buddhist Art

Global Nepal Museum

Did I leave something out? Please comment.

Mindfulness of Dharma

“Having well relinquished and extinguished desire and dejection in relation to body, feeling tones, and mind, at that time a noble disciple dwells contemplating dharmas as dharmas with mindfulness. Having in this way dwelled contemplating dharmas as dharmas with mindfulness, a noble disciple knows to be paying attention well [in this way] within.”

(Part of SĀ 813 at T II 209a15 to 209a19, from Analayo Mindfulness of breathing.)

Ethics

So never kill, that's step one in ethics. 

I'm not aware of the Buddha saying the Buddhist ethics is only for those on the path, but I kind of feel like it is. Of course there's a parallel between the 10 precepts and ethics, but you know, the ideals of an enlightened being are going to be not always applicable to those who aren't on the path. I've never really seen a good article on Buddhist ethics. They tend to be more written about by a certain personality with religious status. 

Take for instance you country is invaded by horrible brutal people, who just want to steal your land. Now you could quote Shantideva , give them the other cheek to strike too. That wild point making doesn't really seem practical or advised for regular people. 

So my question today is, is the Dharma allowed to be elaborated for ordinary people? Can we go from the Arupaloka to the Kamaloka or the Rupaloka? (Trailokya)

I'm asking this because of this article: Buddhist Pacifists at War. 

I used to go to talks by visiting speakers in the philosophy department at the University of Wisconsin. One guy said he wouldn't get into a Star Trek transporter because it wouldn't be the same person beamed down. Another argued for the concept of a just war. The example is that fighting Hitler was a just war. I was sort of shocked that, yea, maybe there was a just war, when the other side is unjust. 

The illusion that Buddhists don't war has already been shattered with the collection of essays in Buddhist Warfare, the Wikipedia entry Buddhism and Violence and Zen at War.

Todays post was inspired by this article (Buddhist Pacifists at War in JSTOR Daily). I didn't know about Marici. That post is inspired by an article by Ian Sinclair "War Magic and Just War in Indian Tantric Buddhism" in Social Analysis. 

It's weird, a country can't really be Buddhist, it's going to have a percentage of Buddhist people in the country with varying degrees of taking refuge in the three jewels. But there's an idea that Buddhist countries would not wage war if they were truly Buddhist. That absurdity shows that a country can't be Buddhist. Maybe the highest concentration of people who claim to be Buddhist. Cambodia claims to have 98% Buddhist population. Thailand 93% and Burma 90%.

USA supposedly has 1.2%, up from the 0.7% Pew figure I thought was the number. 

Anyway, that brings me back to ethics, striving towards enlightenment, and not being enlightened and practicing Buddhism. 

I kill insects. This might be a cultural belief and not Buddhist. I just don't think I have to suffer insects inside. Perhaps I haven't transcending my cultural conditioning, perhaps my metta meditation is inadequate. I know people who question your practice if you don't do what they ethically think you should. I'm not even sure the underlying idea that you should focus on yourself and not worry about others is true. More questions than answers when I look into it.

I choose to follow the 10 precepts to the best of my ability out of selfishness. It helps me to meditate, it simplifies life. I've read it leads to the gladdening, and I like the gladdening, selfishly, but also for the benefit of others. Friendly jovial people with joie de vivre are good advertisements for Buddhism, but authenticity is important too. I can't help but think of Troy in Community yelling, "I am not a mascot." He doesn't have to be perfect to represent African Americans, he can just be himself. He was saying that to Shirley who had high religiosity. 

I have witnessed some of the greatest acts of kindness in the sangha, but it's not exclusive to the sangha. I like focusing on virtue, like I like to focus on developing my Buddha nature. 

Is there value in pursuing unrealistic ideals that humans often fall short on? I think so. It's good to aim for things, you're more likely to get somewhere by trying, even if it doesn't go exactly to plan. 

I certainly can adopt a kind of righteous moral tone in essay. I think that can be useful in the body politic. 

I will admit to committing grave ethical mistakes that we'd have to know each other better to go into. I'm often raked through the coals of my harm to others, in my memories, and I have very deep regrets. The remorse for my mistakes has made me think a lot more about ethics. 

I confess ethically to myself in a journal, in the absence of closer spiritual friends. 

Cosmic perspective

The Drama of Cosmic Enlightenment is the title of one of Sangharakshita's book titles. It's about the Lotus Sutra. 

They have books of astronomy photos at retreat centers.

Cosmic perspective is congenial to the spiritual perspective, it's enlarging to a contracted human, it helps in the human higher evolution. I'm not a scientist or a mathematician, but I appreciate the poetry.

"They produce ionizing photons that transform neutral hydrogen into ionized plasma during cosmic reionization. It highlights the importance of understanding low-mass galaxies in shaping the Universe's history." (Science Alert)

Look at a supernova (gift link to Times)

Black holes (NASA)

Amazing photos (NPR)

APOD

Amazing images

The Sun!

The beginning

A History of Uyghur Buddhism by Johan Elverskog:

Text not in a photo:

Today most Uyghurs are Muslims. Yet this was not always so. For centuries they were Buddhists. In their homeland along the Silk Road in what is now northwestern China, the Uyghurs stood at the center of Buddhist Eurasia and thus drew upon all the surrounding cultures to forge their own distinctive form of the Dharma. In doing so they used their wealth and power to produce stunning Buddhist monuments not only in their own kingdom but also across Asia, from Beijing to Baghdad. In fact, the glories of Uyghur Buddhism were so renowned in the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries that the Tibetans even came to postulate that their kingdom was the mythical land of Shambhala.

Rant

The feedback from one of my spiritual friends is to not pay attention to political content.

I'm just going to dump what has been bothering me. How the news media can question Biden, and not question Trump, is beyond irresponsible, and displays the oligarchy dupes leading the sheeple to subvert their own interests. Do something about it. 

I talk to people in the park. One immigrant Ukranian woman was obsessed with lazy immigrants who don't work. One woman made fun of me for voting, she said she sarcastically voted. I asked 10 people who they were going to vote for 5 ranked choice in the mayoral primaries, and one of them could name 3 candidates for mayor. Apathetic and uninterested, I think the eastern europeans, Chinese, south american, and middle eastern immigrants in my neighborhood came to America to escape political dysfunction so they could ignore it, don't really have the culture of democracy. The woman from Ivory Coast told me a story of how she lied about her eyesight to get glasses, and then the she told me Portland's protests were worse than the insurrection of January 6th. An Irish-American woman who converted to Judaism, found a guy in Idaho, and moved there where you need an adult to go to the library. The woman who didn't think vaccines work because people still get sick moved to Texas. A really friendly guy who fed the cat that was run over the other day told me the trials of Trump were political persecution, made up. I was pounced on before an AA meeting by 5 Trump lovers, and fled the meeting, infuriated because AA isn't supposed to be political, that's what it tried to change from the Oxford Group. I stopped going to that meeting after running it once a week. A neighbor said that Obama was getting rich just the way Donald Trump was. I have a friend who is also a libertarian, like the Obama's enrichment is the same as Trump's, and doesn't favor federal intervention. He was in the military and seeing the inefficiency and snafu of the military is against government. 

People imagine NYC as a den of liberalism, but not in the suburbs where I live, it's indifference and right wing Jewish people who vote against having to pay for public education and taxes because they send their children to private religious schools. There's one lady I can talk left wing politics, an Albanian woman. 

I have tried to read George Will's articulation of the conservative instinct. But I'm done trying to empathize, it's the banality of evil. You're OK with 35 children dying from gun violence, you're OK with the hundreds of thousands who died from Covid due to presidential inaction, and you're OK with the threats to health care, social security, even democracy. It's Freud's death instinct in plain daylight. It's driving me nuts.

So I have step back from cataloguing the crimes of one candidate, step back from the articulate rejoinders of John Oliver, Stephen Colbert and Bernie Sanders. The right just wants to divide us and not realize how unified we really are. America is so fragile. Libya can keep the hostages until Reagan is elected to influence the presidential election. The Axis against coming together easily disrupts us.

Let me just say, I don't want a dictatorship, I want democratic socialism. My right wing friend always accused me of wanting a dictatorship. I pointed out Spain's Franco was a right wing dictatorship, not all dictatorships are left wing. He's obsessed with communism, and yet now votes for possibly a Russian plant. His idol Ronald Reagan would be turning over in his grave. Maybe the right embraces lack of integration better, maybe it's impossible, maybe we're meant to be so greedy and grubby. My point is that I understand my political perspective colors my view, and I wish to collaborate with others, that I don't imagine my political perspective is the be all and end all. To the extent it's possible, I dialogue with the right. I don't fantasize about a left wing dictatorship, I believe in democracy. It's flawed, but it seems to be the least flawed system, and we need to democratize more. This insight lessens the fervor of my powerful trains of thought. 

To gladden the mind, to relax the emotional response, focus on my breath and insight. What are the positive things I'm doing, to unhijack my brain form this righteous narrative.

I focus on the my body, feelings, mind and the Dharma. I can control the input, control what I can control. I don't need more information to vote in the next presidential election. I don't need to stay caught up with what is going on in the world when it's too distracting.

Greed is thinking I can influence the world more even though I'm puny. It's good to be politically aware and try to share with others, but there are limits. I haven't figured out how to persuade people yet. It's good to know what is going on with the world, but if what my mind is being attracted to is unhealthy, it's my job to refocus. 

My hatred for the cheeto is really coming from self hatred at my own imperfections and misconduct. I hate my own evil. Use that to purify, or whatever, and keep it moving. There exists evil in the world, have compassion. Take care of my own mind.

The delusion of the body politic isn't my responsibility, I can do some trying to shift things, but I'm limited. I know that because we're all interconnected that I will influence the world, but you really have to have your stuff together to be a leader, so focus on getting my stuff together. My delusion are what I can work on. Keep trying to wake up. 

Take charge of what is going with me. Getting torqued up by politics isn't good for me. The hedge that it's good to connected to what is going on with the world doesn't mean that trumps my equilibrium. I'm working to increase my tolerance of apprehension of suffering. Accept my limits, accept that I am not enlightened yet, and keep positive. It's great I've delved into politics, I've learned quite a lot over the past few years. I'm an informed voted. I vote and participate. Keep up the good work. Take care of myself too, have self compassion. It's my job to find positive meaningful focuses. 

Joan Halifax: Advice from Upayans re upcoming election: Keep clearing the mind of psychosocial debris through practice, love, art, the wilds & keep aligned with the values of integrity & care, letting wisdom and courage be the guide, not the psychological manipulations of ill-meaning players.

Purity

“The quality of mind that is firm, steady, undis-tracted, 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 kammaniyata (activeness, readiness). It might be wise to memorize these three words: samabitatà (stability), parisuddhi (purity), and kammaniyata (active-ness). 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 Buddhadasa, 1996. 

I don’t like the idea of purity because it reminds me of Puritans and I think it’s an unrealistic standard that leads to a lot of mistakes in American history, and a lot of good horror movies. I like focus over purity

The voice: But can’t you see that the change from purity to focus causes you to leave behind the idea that you try to avoid greed, hatred, and delusion and unconsciously you can have a focusing agenda on one of those three poisons.

OK then it's focused not on greed, hatred and delusion. I've been monitoring my thoughts more around those 3 poisons, and it's not an unfamiliar scan of my thoughts for me. 

Reading about ill gotten museum items

When I learned a little bit about the artifacts taken from China in the early 1900s (one, two), I also assumed that with the human evolution, people would begin to give them back because they were stolen. One thing I've noticed about justice is that it's slow, but it is a kind of relentless force. I find it an odd thing when I postulate a genera of articles and information, that it actually exists, and I'm proud to discover it.

I've collected a short list of articles about returned artifacts:

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).

7/4/24: Looted Artifacts Returned to Cambodian Soil (Kiripost).

10/15/24 NY Times: These Twin Marvels of Art Conservation Are Now Seen as Looted Works

11/19/24 Stolen Buddhist painting to return home from US after 35 years (Korea Times).

1/24/25 Goryeo-era Buddha statue, looted by Japan, returns home temporarily after 647 years (Korea Times)

183

Today is the 183rd day of the year, and in Thubten Chodron's daily Awaken Every Day (2019), this is the following quote:

“One way to express compassion is to be as clear as possible in our communication. Sometimes this is difficult because we aren’t clear ourselves about what we think or want to express, even though we think we may be. Only later do we realize our own confusion.

When we aren’t clear in our own minds, it’s best to say that directly and tell the other person and let them know we need more time to clarify our ideas.

When I’m tangled up, I’ve found it helpful to stop, let go of all the thoughts and ideas, and simply ask myself, What am I trying to say? That helps me get to the heart of the matter, the one sentence that is the essence of what I want to communicate.”

People who think the USA should be a Christian nation

 

(source)

27% average, yikes, one in four. Personally I think the refugees from Europe who came here and wanted religious freedom, are like people who were bullied, and then they turn into the bully, as an evolution from overcoming being bullied, instead of reflecting and saying, "I don't want what was done to me, done to others," they think, "I'm going to just gain power and do what others did to me."

There's a block there in the bible belt, but I'm surprised NC, SC and GA don't have the dark, or Texas and OK. Places where poverty is worst are where they put up the ten commandments in school, like that's going to do something. The politicians who say, "it can't hurt," are cynical and playing to their base. It's the nonsense of American politics and the banality of evil. 

I'm proud to be from a state that is white. I see religious freedom, freedom from religion and the separation of church and state as quite important for the USA. 

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.