Well, old timer, what's in the noodle?

This is the first time in a while that while watching something, I put my phone down so I could see every second of it.

In modern times writing is a decision tree. You can choose to read Wikipedia pages to get more information. I have linked to Wikipedia, IMDb, NY Times, Poetry Foundation.

It's common nowadays to announce that there are spoilers. I always think about how Shakespeare tells us at the beginning of Romeo and Juliet, "A pair of star-cross'd lovers take their life". A story can't be spoiled if it's written well. But I have a relative I respect who doesn't like spoilers so "attention, spoilers ahead."

The Power of the Dog is an amazing movie. George Burbank is played by Jesse Plemons. I him saw most recently in I'm Thinking Of Ending Things, which was an amazing movie. Jane Campion is a towering figure in film. I recently watched Bright Star about Keats, the lovely originator of the idea of negative capability. There's a lovely interview of her in the Times written by a swell writer too, Jordan Kisner. I'd like to join these amazing people by writing about them, but I'm afraid I just see them on the big screen and in text.

An amazing movie brings all the elements together: Scenery, visual beauty, costumes, acting, writing, music. Themes of tenderness and brutality. Lots of silences. This movie is a rest from those action engorged current flavors. Instead of choppy cuts, you get to circle the characters. 

Benedict Cumberbatch has such a funny name. Perfect for a British flavor. He of course is excellent as a western hero. Plemons has a great name, it's almost like lemons, but the P has almost a flower connotation to it. I love it that the most attractive and Hollywood fit people are not in this movie, though there's some great nudity of Cumberbatch, and the muscular lads. The female gaze evens out our history of male gazes dominance. 

There's a line in the TV show Community, where Shirley asks if Annie hasn't seen even Harvey Keitel's penis, because she claims to have not seen one. It's a reference to the movie The Piano (1993) by Campion.

Kirsten Dunst's portrayal of Rose's unease, is quite palpable. When I think of her as an actress, I think of Melancholia (2011). My son likes Spiderman, and she kisses spiderman upside down too, that's a moment for her. I love reading Wikipedia, I would have never known she had two children with Plemons. Good for them, I hope they have a happy family.

"She's got you halter trained, right George, that's the main thing." Says the governor played by Keith Carradine. Wonderful casting.

Campion moves the castrating scene to the middle of the movie, instead of where the book starts out. There's a novel that came out in 1967 this movie was based on. 

Kodi Smit-McPhee is the actor who plays the son of Rose, Peter. You can feel Phil Burbank (Cumberbatch) building to a confrontation to him. Some sort of enforced masculinity trial for him? Peter doesn't want to be a rancher, he wants to be a doctor.

"Where would a man be if he always did what his mother told him?" Phil asks Peter.

Who is BH? Phil jerks to a silk scarf with that initial. Later Peter finds nudie books of male bodies that says Bronco Henry on the top. There are female nudes too. Peter comes upon Phil taking a river bath after his jerk, and he chases him off, "get out of here." Peter walks through the camp and gets called names. But Phil starts being nice to him. 

"Don't let your ma make a sissy out of you."

The confrontation might be with Rose and Phil. She's drinking, and she gives away the Phil's hides. But Peter saves her by giving the ones he's saved. Another showdown in this western doesn't materialize, things are left ambiguous. Was Bronco Henry Phil's first lover, or did he just save him by applying his naked body heat to him when the weather turned cold? Was Peter seducing Phil with smokes of his cigarette or was Phil delirious with illness. The brilliance of a masterful filmmaker is that she doesn't resolve questions. There's a real sensuality, a kind of mindfulness to the movie, and no easy maneuvers, cheap hollywood gratifications. 

The movie ends reading Psalm 22:20 "Deliver me from the sword, my precious life from the power of the dogs." (NIV)

The dogs are the gathering of our foes against us. What are these foes? Illness, old age and death are the three sights that the Buddha sees before he sees the religious mendicant and decides to go on a spiritual journey. Maybe I'm forcing a Buddhist interpretation. Because Campion is so tender, I don't want to do any interpretive violence to her movie. I think I would really like her. 

The movie ends with Peter watching his stepfather hug his mother. Indeed the whole movie people are watching others, as we are watching the movie. Phil watching Rose. George watching Rose. Everyone watches Peter. In a way, people don't want the attention they attract at times. Negative attention. 

Mumonkan, The Gateless Gate

The Gateless Gate is a Chan classic I have not yet read, so thought I would circle around and connect with it, the Blue Cliff Record, and The Book of Equanimity. I was meditating and I remembered that there were the three classics that I hadn't read that I'd wanted to read. I used to think my memory was pretty bad. I think in a way the educational system taught me that attitude towards myself because I couldn't remember things for the test. I'm not sure in the age of information that children will be taught to fill their minds up with facts, but being conversant in the subject may include that. I remember what is important. Other people might have ideas about that.

Hakuin Ekaku (above) spoke the koans of Mumonkan around 1200. It Wumen Huikai, who compiled the koans and commented on them?

The translation and commentary and translation I'm reading is by Katsuki Sekida. Katsuki Sekida 'was by profession a high school teacher of English until his retirement in 1945. Zen, nevertheless, was his lifelong preoccupation. He began his Zen practice in 1915 and trained at Empuku-ji in Kyoto and Ryutaki-ji in Mishima, Shizuoka Prefecture. He taught at the Honolulu Zendo and Maui Zendo from 1963 to 1970 and at the London Zen Society from 1970 to 1972." (Shambhala)

Reading this has been fun so far. Do I have to confine myself to just the Buddhavacana? No, of course not. It's like reading interesting developments in Buddhism, I love all of Buddhism. And Chinese culture. Chan originated in China. 

The koan tradition is about transcending duality. And it's also about developing your own ideas and insight. It's a way of trying to bring insight into the moment. I could write my own commentary on the commentary. 

I was relieved, I was concerned about reading this without a teacher, but the preface laid that worry to rest. It's quite possible I'm going to get something out of it, though of course it was would be hard to predict. Transcending dualism is impossible, and you can't say much about the transcendental. 

There's violence, smacking people and chopping off fingers. The translator doesn't know if it's true or not. It's no surprise with this violent language, literal or not, that the Zen monks of Japan participated in supporting the military of Japan during WW2. The Samurai culture is a blending of warrior and Buddhism, which is really odd to me. Gautama was born into the warrior cast, but he did not wish to rule. It's a pretty macho meditation culture, challenging each other verbally to transcend duality. 

People are referred to, and they lead lineages. That kind of bolsters their standing. Sekida says one person never surpassed his teacher. How you can know that kind of stuff about people written about 900 years ago, almost a millennium ago is questionable.

People wake up, get enlightened, like in the Pali Canon. Someone says something and that unlocks something and most likely is built upon a quit solid foundation of intense meditation. Does it cheapen it by having it happen all the time without mentioning all the groundwork?

I don't like the Zen style of cryptic answering sometimes, but in the controlled format of a book it's palatable. There's a kind of reverence to these teachers that I find somehow inspiring. 

I liked this little poem:

Not falling, not ignoring:
Two faces of one die.
Not ignoring, not falling:
A thousand errors, a million mistakes.

I'm a mistake making machine.

Here are some links:

All 48 Koans With Commentaries

Known English commentaries to Wu-Men Kuan koans

Jiang Wu interviews Red Pine (Bill Porter) Bill Porter traveled in China to the sources of Chan Buddhism.

Encountering the Gateless Gate "...all your mental effort inevitably proves fruitless before this enigmatic and impenetrable barrier."

Case 39 Roshi Geoffrey Shugen Arnold

Favorite books

The first books I read on Buddhism were helpful, but the first book I read while meditating and joining a sangha was the Dhammapada. It has an intensity that hits me today, and inspires me. I reread it all the time. Harder is to put the practices into place. Therefore the book has depth. 

Another book that I greatly enjoy is The Life of the Buddha by Bhikkhu Ñāṇamoli Thera. It sketches the life of the Buddha through the Pali Canon sources. I never stop reading this book either. You can even follow it on instagram.

As my reading style has changed, I read for shorter periods, working to be mindful of the text for shorter periods of time, instead of gorging and ingesting as much as possible. I have as good as an overview as I'm going to get, so I don't have to rush any more. I've read quite a lot, but the literature is vast, sometimes compared to an ocean of Dharma. Choose your own style, closer readings, or fast and vast, or a mixture of both, as the situation calls for. 

I also am not as superficially intoxicated by the teachings as I used to be. The Dharma isn't that exciting because it's hard to practice, and that's what it's all about. Being a good mindful kind person is more important than knowing the teachings. I'm not. sure if I'm going to be able to become a straight up Madhyamika person. I used to think I was interested in philosophy. What I have learned wasn't anything concrete, the content in the history of philosophy. I'm also interested in psychology, but that interest too has waned. 

Another book I never stop reading is 100,000 Songs of Milarepa. I identify with overcoming past mistakes, and his crazy wisdom, but he was a dedicated practitioner, intense and articulate. He practiced in the mountains of Tibet, and the various forms of Tibetan Buddhism are quite attractive to me. 

Rapacious China gobbled Tibet up in 1959, and there are people alive who still remember a free Tibet. I don't want to overly romanticize that Tibet, but I don't think the Chinese have improved it. Who knows, I've only been there in books. Going from a theocracy to a authoritarian communist form of government might be an evolution of sorts, but I don't think China practices communism the right way. Their squashing of dissent and the press is particularly repugnant to me. I think China should withdraw and let the Tibetans run their own country. What they are doing in Hong Kong now is terrible. I think Biden should boycott the Olympics, though it would devastate some athletes. The games are not meant to be political but it's impossible not to be. 

Then I have my root guru Sangharakshita. His modern updating of Buddhism is unparalleled, and he was a victorian almost. His Survey of Buddhism came out in 1947! The year my mother was born. I would recommend The Essential Sangharakshita for beginners.

I did not know until I read Reddit, but some people think Sangharakshita's modernization of Buddhism isn't as great as I think it is. I'm not sure what to do with that. I have lost touch with the sangha, too, so there is a curious estrangement going on around that. But I will forever be grateful to the Triratna Sangha and hope to go on a retreat at Aryaloka soon. 

When I think of the last great book I read, it was The Circle of the Way: A Concise History of Zen from the Buddha to the Modern World by Barbara O'Brien. I realized that there are some great classics in that tradition that I have not read yet. I was thinking this morning I should approach some of them.

The next person I think of is Ratnaguna. I really liked his book on the Pure Land sutras called Great Faith, Great Wisdom. You can listen to readings of the Pure Land sutras online. They are so beautiful. 

Another of Ratnaguna books is On Reflection. Thinking about Buddhism is a practice. Who figured. Supposedly the monks would get together every full moon and discuss the Dharma, confess, chant, and generally hang out. The Sutra of Golden Light discusses confession. I love that idea. You can also reflect when you're alone. Since I'm listing Mahayana texts, The Vimalakirti Nirdesa is good too.

Sangharakshita read the Diamond Sutra when he was 16 and realized he was a Buddhist. This is also something I read. Indeed, I reread the Pali Canon too. Indeed you can read The Eternal Legacy or similar works that summarize the literature of Buddhism if you want something better than a blog post.

I like all the best selling authors. I'm not going to list them. Honestly, I read everything with a Dharma eye now. I try to study in depth and recently I read every book on the Brahma Viharas I could get my hands on. Boundless Heart (2017) by Christina Feldman was the best among those. Here is a quote from that book:

"The Buddha said it is not the right time to undertake samatha practice if you have a lot of things in the world demanding your attention. If you’re heavily in debt, or have family or relationship obligations that require attention, or if your body is ill and you are hav­ing to care for it. If there are multiple unresolved issues in your life that are going to be continu­ally demanding your attention, then the condi­tions for samatha practice are not ripe. It is said that in order to begin the deep dimension of samatha practice, it is important that the mind must be fairly happy, it should be easy to collect itself, that it’s not kind of stirred with things that are causing a lot of anxiety or concern."

Also: "A world of distress is born of the ongoing argument we have with the unarguable."

David Loy's Nonduality was an important work. I like him in general.

I was on retreat once, and really loved the Therigatha. Now that is one straight up amazing book coming through the mist of time with women's voices. They were very inspiring. 

There are a lot of great political books. There are a lot of political issues, and I think it's OK for a Buddhist to be "political". For instance the Dalit movement in India, rekindling Buddhism amongst the "untouchables" is quite amazing. The book on putting people of Japanese heritage inland in like concentration camps during WW2 has a great book about it, American Sutra.

I've enjoyed Stephen Batchelor's books. Living With The Devil is my favorite. Traditional Buddhist's don't like Buddhism Without Belief. Certain books were there for me at a certain time. Charlotte "Joko" Beck's books helped me to really commit to meditating. Lama Surya Das' book helped me just before I started, and I liked his book about the 7 paramitas. Jack Kornfield's books are still read by me. Ayya Khema is another female author. The Making of Buddhist Modernism by David L. McMahan points to a fascinating change in Buddhism as it encounters the western skeptical mind.

I have really enjoyed reading Ajahn Chan and listening to the biographies about Ajahn Mun Bhuridatta and Mae Chee Kaew by Bhikkhu Dick Silaratano.

There are other books. Zen Mind, Beginner Mind. The best writing of a year also are good collections. I'm going to be updating this post, so this isn't the final draft.

Silence

Someone asked, "did you take a vow of silence?" and this is what I wrote:

The first retreat I went on blew my mind, it was 9 days on the Brahma Viharas and I actually got into puja. It was silent after a few days, inside the retreat house, but you could go for a walk if you needed to talk. A woman asked me to go for a walk with her, and I accepted. I didn't particularly need to talk myself, but I was eager to listen. So I made it my practice to listen to this woman while I was delving deeper and deeper into metta, and it was great, but I really did cherish the silence, and wondered if I made a mistake. I felt like that was the perfect metta conflict. She really needed to talk. I now know I have maneuvers to block going deeper because I'm not ready yet and I'm OK with that.

I've been on other retreats, where everyone knew the retreat house password, and instead of walking meditation in between meditation, they would all go check their phones. It was pretty hard to unplug. When I saw that I did it once too, and then decided it felt wrong.

When I was successfully in silence for long periods of time, and the night was ended by a puja, I would always have trouble falling asleep, it would get me so hyped. I had to skip it so I could get some sleep.

I did a week solitary, and of course no speaking to anyone. I wrote a lot, and read, so in a way I was allowed to intake and ventilate. True silence to me means no writing and no reading. That is really hard for me. It's not easy to do true silence for long periods of time, and that's really interesting to me.

After my solitary retreat, I went on a retreat, where everyone really liked my listening and talking to me. I'd been cooped up alone and I was open to people in a new way. I really appreciated that I could be there for others, but it didn't last. I also remember someone saying something to me, and I watched my mind for 3 days as I argued, interrogated, and pondered the challenging comment.

Am I a fraud?

I like to entertain thought experiments. What if Spartacus had a Piper Cub? is a SNL comedy skit lambasting that way of thinking. 

My mind is unruly and like a leaky roof in the rains. I learned thought experiments in philosophy. A famous one is the trolly problem. It can evoke instinctual answers you wouldn't know you had because you've never been through a situation. 

What if I'm a fraud? I was reading the Dhammapada and I read "Even as rain leaks into a poorly roof house, so passions will penetrate an uncultivated mind." My leaky roof hasn't really changed much over the past 20 years.

When I first started going to Aryaloka in 2002, the roofs leaked quite a lot, that was before the great remodeling.

Sometimes speculation isn't good. Once I wondered aloud what would happen if the director of the school I worked at retired. A few days later, someone came to me with the rumor that the director was retiring. It shames me to remember that moment I couldn't put the feathers back into the feather pillow. But speculating with my own mind is OK. I'm sure I can misinterpret myself too, but I'm a little more confident things won't get out of hand.

I couldn't stop crying in my meditation this morning asking myself that question. To be honest since I found Buddhism, my life got better, but then it got worse, and I've been struggling for the past 10 years because of something bad I did. It's not Buddhism's fault I did something bad. Perhaps I turned to the Sith side. I exposed some of my antisocial shadow. (I think about Joseph Conrad's short story "The Secret Sharer".)

I thought about the Jets quarterbacks. Zach Wilson (37.0) is the top pick, expected to save the franchise. Mike White (52.6) is the backup who never really got a chance, and exploded onto the scene when he got his chance, but was exposed in a game and performed poorly. Josh Johnson (67.1) is a journeyman at the end of his career who's been elevated from the practice squad and came in and performed well, in a prevent defense that was designed to limit the comeback of a the team, but allow some things. 

If you look at the quarterback rating, an objective measure of quarterback success the backup to the backup is the best quarterback. Then the backup. Then the star, top pick, savior. 

Life is confusing. What is success? I've gotten better at self sabotage and exposing my flaws--is that better? It's more honest to be sure, but it's not really playing on a level field where everyone hides.

There's a study that "spiritual people" are more narcissistic. Does going spiritual reinforce narcissism.

In my readings about personality disorder, the language was normalized and destigmatized. Nobody is perfect. The judgement laden language isn't helpful. I'm not as devastated by "narcissism" and "avoidant" as I used to be. The mind does what it has to do to survive. Without our unconscious defenses, we would murder and suicide. 

In what way is it true that I'm a fraud?

In a way, it's like the more you know, the less certain you are. By tuning in you see how fraudulent and unmindful and unethical and uninsightful you are, you can see it and that can make you feel more like it is you. Luickly Buddhism isn't about fixed identity. You can change, wake up. That is the good news.

I can play the highlight reel of my mistakes and cringe cringe cringe. That's not productive. I want to see my limitations so I can work to improve them, not beat myself up. I'm a little late to that insight, but better late than never. 

I was reading a reddit post where someone was complaining that disclosing that he was interested in Buddhism, a person told him that he shouldn't joke about going out and getting wasted. It was true, but I'm no sure if this person was meant to be his spiritual guide. My ex pointed things out and I used the fact that she wasn't part of my tradition to neutralize her feedback, but it was true now that I look at it from a distance. 

My "spiritual guide" said at one point that I needed a lobotomy. Is there some way I could cut out my unhelpful ways to streamline my journey? I needed to make the mistakes I made to learn from them the way I have learned from them. Am I too broken to progress? I don't think so. Turns out spiritual friends can be just as fickle as regular people. "Spiritual" doesn't make it so. A true friend sticks by you through thick and thin. The Dhammapada says, "The disciple who travels along cannot find a companion better or equal, let him firmly pursue his solitary career. There is no companionship with the foolish." Perhaps that refers to me in this faux friendship. The Bodhisattva doesn't just associate with equals and superiors. The good samaritan aspect of the Bodhisattva ideal confirms me forever as a Mahayanist, and curbs my spiritual selfishness and individualism. The Buddha chastised monks for abandoning a sick monk as not being helpful to their spiritual progress. The spiritual guide's frustration remains with him, I do not accept the gift.

I don't think I'm a fraud, but I have partaken in fraudulence by accidental, unconscious, unmindfulness, and hopefully seen it and learned from it. That's the most helpful outlook I can come up with.

 

Om Ah Guru Hasa Vajra Hung

In the summer of 2002 I took a meditation class, and I continued with that class for quite a long time. I ended up going on a retreat over Xmas and New Years on the Brahma Viharas and it blew my mind. It was so wonderful. I'm so grateful that happened to me. This summer (we're entering winter now that the leaves have mostly fallen off the trees around where I live) will be 20 years of meditation, Dharma study, sangha. 

I'm not as interesting in gobbling up the history of Buddhism or straight up gangster Dharma. I read Milarepa today and it was quite pleasurable. I quite like him. He did some bad things, and then turned his life around and really cranked on meditation.

I searched my blog and found this quote:

"The Ultimate Practice is not to consider

Distractions and drowsiness as faults.

Doing so to stave them off is like

kindling a lamp in bright daylight."

And this one:

"I attain all my knowledge through studying my mind within, thus all my thoughts become the teachings of Dharma. So long as I do not become separated from my own mind, I am always accompanied by sutras. I have realized that all manifestations are Mind, and the mind itself is the illumination. These are my Gurus."

Somehow I feel to reading Milarepa and am getting inspiration from him today. I'm listening to his mantra today.

His last teaching was to pull up his robe and expose his callused butt, essentially saying, meditate a lot. 

I'd like to go to one of his caves (Nyalam, Gandaki) or see his tower.

 

 

Influence

When I learned about the concept of syncretism, I loved it. Instead of keeping ideological purity, the idea of syncretism is to meld good ideas together. Buddhism has always transformed as it entered into each country. In Tibet it melded with the ruggedness needed to stay there, and the magic. In China it melded with Confucianism and Taoism. If there's a melding of America, it's an antipathy towards spiritual materialism. It's a kind of religious freedom, that rejects calls to unite the USA under one religion, no matter what Michael Flynn thinks.

Hinduism perhaps worms it's way into Buddhism through Buddha Nature ideas. Maybe the guru relationship in Tibetan Buddhism is a Hindu import. Nevermind, now it's Buddhism. To understand the history of Buddhism you have to accept that these ideas were taken in and made Buddhist.

As Buddhism interacts more with Christianity, the appreciation for Amitabha, the Bodhisattva of love, is connected to Buddhism. You can be reborn in a pure land. Pure Land Buddhism is a kind of Christian import. Nevermind, now it's a Buddhism hybrid.

The cult of love is just a kind of emotional flavor of altruism, of the Bodhisattva ideal. I'm not sure if the historical Jesus really talked about love, I think it might have been a palatable assertion along the way. Never mind. Syncretism is good in my book. Nothing would survive without the white hot gravity that pulled in ideas. No human wants to exist on one system. Godel's theorem says one system will never be complete. We need a bag of ideas to draw from. Part of my journey studying philosophy in college was to understand some of the ideas at our disposal. To me psychology says we're never going to be completely integrated, but trying to evolve integrity is a good practice. There's a certain kind of clarity in meditating a lot and understanding your mind, that lends to increased integrity.

The melding of Buddhism to self help and modern psychology is also a something that guardians of purity can talk about. Lots of people come onto r/Buddhism and ask how to cope with things. Maybe the larger perspective of Buddhism can help with meaning and coping. But it's a pretty radical idea.

I'm surprised Buddhism caught on at all, that it's still alive. It's a pretty intense solution. You meditate a lot, once you have built a foundation to support intensive meditation, and seek to attain a level of objectivity of mind and mindfulness and kindness. There's a all kinds of flowery metaphysical talk but from an enlightened perspective, it can seem like it's a certain level of mindfulness and insight.

The project of pushing on and on and on is never done. "I'll quit when I die," says Jerry on Rick and Morty. People go onto r/Buddhism and think "how can I do an end round of all these complications," and, "tell me the direct efficient path." That's not a bad instinct, but the world doesn't answer itself on Reddit, it's just a place to talk about things. The revolution won't be televised, it also won't be written about on Reddit. 

We live in extraordinary times. With rapid changes, there are lots of experiments in how to be. Humans are fairly conservative. Love, kindness and metta never go out of style. We can get intoxicated by technology. I can, I know that, and I think it's universal. I've seen the Amish in Mcdonalds watching the TV. I'd rather have a syncretic inclusive bag of ideas to guide me through complex times.

 

 Another joke from Airplane (1980)

 

Couldn’t agree less

 Flynn is the poster child of religious intolerance: https://thehill.com/homenews/media/581443-michael-flynn-says-of-the-us-we-have-to-have-one-religion

Huffpo

 Avalokita

Thailand 

More art

6, 7 and 8

 I usually deal in the 5 precepts and the 10 precepts. 

Today I want to look at the extra 3 in the 8 precepts:

I undertake [to observe] the rule of abstinence from taking food at the wrong time

I undertake [to observe] the rule of abstinence from dancing, music, visiting shows, flowers, make-up, the wearing of ornaments and decorations

I undertake [to observe] the rule of abstinence from a tall, high sleeping place.

Background: In Theravadan countries people will temporarily ordain. Uposatha was developed so the lay could be monks for a day. Reading the Wikipedia article it looks like the it's a weekly thing, with the new moon, half moon, full moon and half moon. Not only Theravadan countries (Sri Lanka, Thailand, Cambodia, Myanmar, Laos).

I really like being connected to the moon cycle. Even in the city I can see the moon and I think the moon is amazing.

Putting your Buddhism on a calendar is good, and hopefully that's one of the connections with a spiritual community. Helps dispel the lay/monk douality. 

Discussion: OK so what's wrong with taking food at the wrong time. Monks don't take food after solar noon. I get all ishkabibble with daylight savings time, but there are times when solar noon is near to 1pm, than it is 12 noon. So that gives you a little time. You can eat two meals and survive. There's nothing inherently holy about not eating half the day, but some asceticism is needed, it helps free one up. I knew a guy who would fast on solitary retreats, so he could focus on not eating. He said you could make big sandwiches all day on solitary retreat. I thought was a cute phrase, "big sandwiches". Anyway, the point is to have a gesture towards asceticism and the middle way doesn't mean you can be a glutton. You can survive easily on 2 meals a day. I could stand to lose some weight.

"dancing, music, visiting shows, flowers, make-up, the wearing of ornaments and decorations" My grandfather was a Baptist minister, and there was a kind of constriction around the house. I never knew what exactly it was, but they were trying to be good people, and supposedly dancing was taboo. I have ecstatic dance parties with my daughter, but she always wants me to dance more. I'm not as into it is she is, but I go along with it for her. Movement is essential to me, and dancing is good exercise. Footloose is a movie about breaking out of the restriction against dancing. I'm pretty weak on resisting this one. But I'm sure I could give it up 4 times a month. 

I honestly think I'd have a hard time giving up music, but I don't listen to it as much as I used to. Life doesn't really yield to sitting around and listening to Beethoven's 9th. But I honestly think I need more good music in my life. But I can not listen to music if I have to. I could do that for a day 4 times a month.

Haven't been to a show in ages. Wish I had more money for that. I really want to see Dune. I haven't seen a movie in years. Let alone a Broadway show, or a concert.

Flowers on the shrine are wonderful. I guess you could not have flowers on the shrine.

I'm not a big fan of makeup. I don't think women need to try so hard. Bless them though. 

I don't really wear ornaments or decorations but I do have a Mets cap. I have a blank hat with nothing on it, so sometimes I wear that and I feel virtuous. I wear a hat because I don't have sunglasses, and I want to protect my eyes. A blank hat does that.

My bed doesn't have a mattress or a frame, so I struggle to get up off the ground every morning half asleep with my rickety legs. I think it would be better for me to have a raised bed, but I wonder if I'm more virtuous for not having a higher bed. Doesn't seem real, but who knows. 

I think specifics like dancing and high beds are still ideas of a principle. The principles are sound.

So anyway, as usual nothing profound, but just thinking about the extra 3 Uposatha precepts today on my never ending quest to be a better person for the benefit of mankind. 

Had this post removed from r/Buddhism

I don't think I have the right to post whatever I want. Any reddit can be moderated however the moderators want them to be moderated. I don't have to go on Reddit, and one need not confuse the terms of use, with any freedom of speech (like certain Republican politicians think). I am free to post my views on my blog, though Google could take down a post. I think they took down a post once, but then put it back up. I can't even remember what it was about or how they almost thought it was controversial. Nobody is owed social media. The internet people want content on the internet so they can monetize and exploit your attention for advertisements. Eyeballs equal dollars. 

Anyway, here's my controversial thoughts of the day:

[Title] I'm reading about reincarnation and as a practitioner of 20 years, I have the following thoughts.

So if we are enlightened and don't cling to existence, we, with a state of our mind, stop rebirth.

In many ways, the monk acts like a Buddha, even if they haven't attained or transcended. A kind of fake it till you make it. Why can't we do that with reincarnation if that is not part of our present culture?

Reincarnation could be a cultural artifact of the times the Buddha was in, it was part of the ideology, world view and outlook. If the Buddha had been an American now he might talk about Cowboys football games, and the dynamics between Rachel and Ross. The culture he was embedded in took reincarnation as a fact, and he wasn't going to be that revolutionary, to reject everything. What he did was revolutionary enough. And he was not reincarnated. The Dalai Lama is talking about not reincarnating so the Chinese can't exploit his role. There is controversy about the Panchen Lama.

It is possible that reincarnation is a metaphor for understanding conditioned experience, the ability to imagine ourselves into various ways of being, a profoundly empathetic act. I am not wishing to do away with the empathy and ideas of imagining one's way into other lives.

You can be a gatekeeper and say people are not Buddhist if they don't believe in reincarnation, say they don't know the teachings, don't grasp the profound truths. What if you witness someone whom you respect, and find ethical and is a good friend, and seems to be genuinely progressing on the path. Then you find out they don't have any experience in reincarnation, and see it as a conditional aspect of the Buddha's teaching, would you then just reject them? Pity them for their confusion?

I get it that reincarnation is even more embedded in Tibetan culture, the Tulku system are an integral part of the way they work. They choose people to concentrate resources of teaching into. In a way it seems quite sweet. Nobody is trying to take that away from them over there. Can we exist over here without that?

[end]

So I'm reading The Truth of Rebirth by Ṭhānissaro Bhikkhu. That is what provoked my thoughts. He points out that there was no uniform belief of reincarnation and karma, and that there were annihilationists, a grim fellow who tortured thieves to see if he could see their soul or if bodies weighed less after being killed. I mean who wants to be an annihilationist if that is what you do?

OK, so what if the Buddha had a kind of moral retribution idea for karma and rebirth, some divine metaphysical punishment, to hopefully scare people into acting kindly. My feeling is that I'm not feeling it, and it's important to me to develop my thoughts. I know experts probably know better, and I do have respect for experts, that's why I'm reading this book. I'm still not feeling based on disabusing me of a common belief in reincarnation of the times.

Link: Story about how Dalai Lama said if science proved reincarnation wasn't true, then it would be disproved. Not that the Dalai Lama is my guru. 

I continue to write posts about reincarnation, here is another one:

I don't have any experience of rebirth either. I was told to keep an open mind out of respect for the tradition, which I have more than done, but after 20 years, I've done my due diligence, read books, talked to people. Sorry, I'm not going to believe in the 33 Hindu gods the Buddha supposedly wooshed a discipline to, to help him keep his chastity. I'm going to interpret that as metaphorical, or whatever kinds of way, that make it not literal. The 33 Hindu gods may exist in the minds of Hindus, and I love and respect other cultures.

If the energy has to go somewhere from the molecules is orthodox enough, I can get that, but I don't think that's orthodox.

Science isn't that great. Look up the science of Phrenology, read some history of science. I wouldn't say it inspires confidence.

My problems is that I'm skeptical. Show me. That's a personality type that has pluses and minuses. I have felt profound devotion, and caught the bug of Buddhism despite myself.

All religions are assumptions. Blind faith, you assume a paradigm of spirituality is true, and if it works for you then good. Buddhism assumes the Buddha attained enlightenment and that that is something worthy.

Honestly, outside of this possibly anonymous medium, I don't talk about reincarnation. I talk about what works for me, and essential Buddhism works for me. Some people can call me not a Buddhist, but I suspect those people have more issues than being the guardian of Buddhism. I hope not, though, because I wish everyone well. How the world works is not up to me, I can only try to comprehend it to the best of my ability. To the extent I fall short, that is my limitation. I hate anti-vaccination people because I wish to have the freedom from spreaders of Covid, but I have made many stupid decisions in my life that hurt others. I hope to forgive myself and move forward in a positive way. I don't think anyone is immune to mistakes. I'm going to work on myself to the best of my ability, for the benefit of others.

Eckhart Tolle

I've stayed away from the Power of Now because it wasn't a pure Buddhist teaching, but I was on family trip to Florida,  NYC to Florida and I listened to the book on tape. It's a curious blend of Christianity and Buddhism. I think there are some Buddhists who are into it, though thinking about it now, I wonder who I really know. I think I've heard hints of a Theravadan monk who really is all in on now.

My understanding of it, is that one way to cut down on depressive and anxious thoughts is to focus on the here and now. The past and the future are de-emphasized. There is a kind of freedom in the moment, an opportunity to be mindful. Thoughts about the past and future are in a crucial way a distraction from the moment. There are many ways in which we spin out of being present. 

It's not clear how much reflection or meditation are needed to what later are quite interesting elaborations of this insight. It's not clear which teachings are important. There are a lot of interesting linguistic comments about open and closed concepts. There is a lot of talk about the emotional pain body, and living in the here and now could perhaps be congenial with Feldenkrist and Focusing (Tricycle review). I also thought a lot about Radical Acceptance by Tara Brach. I think that would be a complimentary book. I haven't read Be Here Now, because it's Hindu guru, and I read Buddhism, but I have a feeling this book would also be an unacknowledged source. 

There's a lot in the book, and there were times when I fell asleep listening to it, but I was trying to stay awake to drive, so I listened to the book in a way I haven't listened to it.

I thought the parable of a beggar begging on a box that contained money, was similar to the Lotus Sutra parables about already having what you need, the person who had money in their clothes, and the person who goes and wins over his own father with his hard work and reasonableness, without knowing he would be inheriting the family kingdom. 

In a way, he hides a lot of his spiritual journey. One day he's having a panic attack and all upset, and the next he's wandering around like a child in a candy shop, living in the now. It's not quite explicit the steps or the background to this big dramatic awakening.

It's OK that I don't know a lot of details and background, it's a fun coherent line of thinking that he presents, and I'd say it's an interesting important book, though I'm not sure how much it's going to influence me. It's influenced me because I've listened closely to parts of it. Anyway, I'm curious to learn more now that I've gotten some time listening to the text while I'm awake. 

Buddhist fiction

I don't know what Buddhist fiction is, but fiction that dwells in Buddhism somehow or some way.

The Godfather of Kathmandu by John Burdett was on a list of great Buddhist fiction, so I'm reading it. It starts in Thailand and then goes to Nepal. The layers of culture, from The Godfather, Poe, to Thai Buddhism to Tibetan Buddhism, to police procedural and murder.

There are fun places to look up: Boudhanath and Swayambhunath.

Links

New Yorker review from 2010: "Burdett’s fever-dream mysteries, set in Bangkok, recast the police procedural as psychedelic peep show. Here, as in previous installments, his hero—a half-Thai, half-farang cop and Buddhist monk manqué—investigates an outlandish crime and frets over his karma. Enlightenment, and freedom from being reborn into “this catastrophe called life,” beckons when he’s sent to Nepal to broker a drug deal and meets a shadowy Tibetan mystic who’s plotting an invasion of China. A mood of manic farce buoys this convoluted tale, which includes a deft social analysis of a Thai women’s prison, Tantric sex, and hot chocolate laced with high-tech pharmaceuticals. It’s all wildly implausible, but written with such louche authority that, by the end, one cheers the seemingly infinite multiplicity of Burdett’s universe."

 I know it's a stretch to think of the Jedi order as somehow connected to Buddhism, but I think it's kind of interesting anyway. 

Myanmar

There's a podcast with Bhikkhu Bodhi on the Crisis in Myanmar.

After the Dalai Lama, Bhikkhu Bodhi is perhaps one of the most respected spiritual leaders of Buddhism. He was born in Brooklyn and he's not some nationalist guy but he's raised in Brooklyn by Jewish parents, and he's a prominent American Buddhist, maybe the most prominent American Buddhist. He is the English translator to many volumes of the Pali Canon, which are the foundation of Buddhism. One of the things I like about the Theravadan monastics is that they make their teachings free. They are deeply rooted in the earliest writings about what the Buddha really said and taught. In addition the sangha, the monks community is a strong link back to the Buddha. I've downloaded his book of essays, I hope to follow through and read them.

Myanmar had a military junta overthrow a democratically elected government. 

BB talks in the podcast about the tradition of not getting to involved in worldly affairs. The other hand is that perhaps there can be good done by applying a Dharmic position to worldly affairs for the good of all beings.

The podcaster suggests that maybe there is a middle way between political apathy and full engagements in the political life.

The threats to the world in terms of climate change, and other obvious harms seem at least something that can be commented on. BB is reluctant to say specific things, but encourages peace and democracy. 

If there was no sympathetic joy

"Travel and tell no one" by Khalil Gibran

Travel and tell no one,

live a true love story

and tell no one,

live happily

and tell no one,

people ruin

beautiful things.

A focus besides meditation

There is a kind of person who comes onto r/Buddhism and complains about weird results in meditation. I go right to the Meghiya Sutta:

Spiritual friendship--you have to build a base of connections to others on the path to report into regularly, who monitor and support you. That is community power. You can't do it without other power, community power and self power. To go onto Reddit for spiritual advice, you're not building a solid foundation. Being willing and open to it, taking concrete steps by visiting a sangha regularly, meditating with others.

Ethical conduct: Follow the Vinaya. There are highly enlightened people who have not followed the rules, so people think they can just skip the rules like them.

Dharma talks, study. Most westerners like to read, but reading with others is quite important too. Listening to talks is great. There's an ocean of Dharma on the internet.

Avoiding unethical conduct, revulsion for it, making it impossible. Cultivating disgust for substance abuse is what AA is all about for me.

reflection on the path--Rantaguna wrote a really lovely book on the importance of the practice of reflection on the spiritual life. Doing the legwork about personal barriers in friendships and in grasping the dharma, being honest and real, not just posturing and show. 

I would add: puja. Chanting is a excellent way for the ideas to burrow into your non-permanent soul. It's a great activity. Ideally you do it mindfully, but doing it unmindfully isn't bad either. Of course rites and rituals as ends in themselves is to be avoided. You get less points if it's unmindful. 

Confession to a spiritual friend is good for ethical development. Really making it challenging and making it hurt. 

Getting right with the people around you is important. AA has people making amends, and the upshot of that is that you can't really make amends and undo the past, but being willing to be more ethical is the point, and not just in theory but taking it to people you have harmed. My experience with amends is that you really shouldn't approach some people, and others will forgive you too easily or minimize what you did. It's really weird hard work. How much of it really was alcoholism or substance abuse? Much of my ethical breaches feel like they were done sober, though surrounded by substance abuse. What do I do with that? I read that being ethical is the one thing you can learn. You can't become a great athlete, or math genius, those are sort of things you figure out in your teens and early twenties. But you can become an ethical person, kind and thoughtful, through the course of your life. Just being there, recognizing what people are going through is quite an amazing thing. This is yet another reason why friendship is so important. And yet trying to make a new friend in this day and age isn't easy. 

Chastity isn't something Buddhist start with, I think Buddhism would die if it was sold that way, and I feel a bit like an up tight fuddy duddy by suggesting it, but the chase for connections takes up quite a lot of energy and resources. Having longer periods of being alone between relationships is a prime suggestion. 

Spiritual bypassism is often discussed, and doing the work with a psychotherapist, and trying out all the technologies of change are recommended: Hiking in nature, yoga, making art, artistic appreciation, tai chi, public speaking, recovery programs, journaling, volunteering, feldenchrist, coaching and on and on and on. If it helps the world, and it helps you get out of yourself in a positive way, then it's going to be good. Life is short, some say it's a race for maturity before senility. Try to expand who you are and be honest about what works and doesn't work.

Work on your communication skills ala Non-violent communication. 

Can you think of anything to add here?

Then when you're ready:

develop good will (Brahma Viharas). The development of good will and equanimity is an important foundation.

mindfulness through anapanasati. Mindfulness will guide the insights in a positive way, and help you cope with the slings and arrows, but more importantly help you find joy. It is on this base that insight can develop. You can feel in your body the interconnections, not just agree intellectually. In community with others. Anapanasati can help integrate one's mind with the body, and the mindfulness of the body is very important. You want the insight to radiate throughout your body. Alienated awareness can't happen if you're connecting your awareness to the body. The body is where the trauma is stored, and the body is where some insights can come from. Tune into your body ala Focusing and tap into a new form of your wisdom.

Elsa, Anna, Buddha

 

Collaboration

The thing on the right “helps the Buddha to relax.” Collaboration Kamuka 54, Theradithi 5.
 

A shrine

 (Source)

Cool article about intimacy

“True love makes us happy. If love doesn’t make us happy, it’s not love; it’s something else.“ TNH

Misogynistic apocrypha

 I just looked up the Blood Bowl Sutra. Wow. Women in hell drinking menstruation blood because they had dirty women's bodies. Yikes. Luckily it's apocrypha. They would be for me whether or not they were officially. But supposedly earlier versions condemned warriors, so maybe it wasn't that bad when it was first written. (Fascinating post on Reddit)

This led me to the Ojoyoshu, a Pure Land text, which looks interesting. This led me to the Amitayurdhyana Sutra, Longer Sukhāvatīvyūha Sūtra and Shorter Sukhāvatīvyūha Sūtra, which are at the heart of the Pure Land tradition. I think I've read these. They could stand a rereading, of course.

My response

Post on Reddit by u/Ignacio_CLP:

For Secular Buddhist. Why the need to call yourself "Buddhist" if you don't believe what the founder of Buddhism taught?

Question

I don't want to judge anyone beliefs here. You all can do whatever you want. I just don't understand all this secular Buddhist thing, Its like the christian atheism movement.

If you read the suttas, you will find that the Buddha taught about: karma, rebirth, devas, hell and heaven, hungry ghosts, magical powers, etc.

Not only that,these beliefs are a central foundation of the Buddhist teachings, beacause it gives virtue its purpose, and helps align yourself with right view.

People can meditate and practice virtue, but why do you call yourself Buddhist if you don't believe what he taught.

If you think that they are metaphors, then are you explicitly stating that you have the real dhamma and that 2500 years of monastic lineage got it all wrong?

My Response:

    What I don't like about Christianity, Islam and Judaism is the expectation to believe in a monotheistic god. A narrow doctrinal point in the whole scheme of things spiritually. If you don't believe the way expected it's heresy. Dogma is to be followed. Thinking for yourself is a blasphemy. And yet there are many versions of the concept of god in active use among humans. They are seen as mistaken and lost. My opinion is that it's better for people to develop their own spirituality than to just follow what others think they understand because you never know what they really understand.

    The transcendental movement in Concord USA, was a rebellion against the Puritan ways, and pushed the questions on to nature and trusting in your own instincts. Being self reliant.

    The gatekeeping of a Buddhist who defines Buddhism as their sect's vision, feels similar. To presume to know what is literal or not, essential or a cultural artifact is what is being debated, but it forecloses the debate to say "anything that diverges from my sect's dogma is not Buddhism."

    I happen to think rebirth is a cultural belief of Hindu India of the times, and maybe the Buddha believed it as a metaphor, and maybe it's not essential. I know that's not the standard view here, but despite being told over and over again how it's essential and pure and great, I'm still not seeing it. After 20 years. The fault might be mine, no doubt. But I'm not going to pretend I feel what I don't feel, that's more of a spiritual death to me. It's important to me to think for myself, come to my own understanding based on the syncretic views of the best of the times I live in.

    I have tried to keep an open mind, but after 20 years, I feel I'm allowed to speak up and proclaim I don't get it even after trying. I respect the tradition, and I'm not sure yet whether there will be a sect that lives that doesn't include it. I guess I'd rather not even talk about it.

    I love mythological thinking, devotional thinking and feeling, and poetry, but I don't experience is as literalism, and I'm willing to have a big tent. Someone on Reddit can tell me not to call myself a Buddhist, but frankly they seem like the Christians I avoid with their talk of heresy, dogma and blasphemy. They just call it right view and wrong view

    The history of Europe is a history of the utilization of theology to back up nationalistic and power claims. I don't see spirituality as part of that grid, I see it as avoiding that kind of nonsense. Personal, private, intimate, beyond others judgement, except those I allow it to be judged by, my sangha.

    It feels like someone is trying to import that way of thinking into Buddhism when they act like a gatekeeper. Whatever. You don't know my practice, you don't know my experience, you don't know my study, you don't know my practice, but to judge it based on some doctrine point, that's frankly what most westerners avoid by going to Buddhism. There's a nuanced, flexible, psychological understanding in Buddhism. There are many schools. What you do is more important than what you believe. I don't even see this theological point to be of much importance to my meditation practice, my ethical practice, or my study of the Dharma, or my fellowship with other Buddhists.

    I'm afraid this kind of fundamentalism and focus on doctrine is a fetter. I hope I'm wrong and I wish you well Ignacio_CLP.

    I was reading Udana 3:2, and they talk about the 33 deities. When you google it, they are Hindu deities. I'm pretty sure if the Buddha was in the Christian country he would talk about the Christian mythology as though it were real. Yes, maybe I'm taking grave liberties with the tradition. Maybe I've winnowed out what is essential and what is cultural. Time will tell.

My spiritual journey

 

fusatsu

In the Zen tradition, at regular intervals during the year we practice fusatsu, a renewal of vows centered on the Buddhist precepts. During that ceremony, the sangha chants:

Being one with the Buddha with all sentient beings, raise the bodhi mind, let the Supreme Way be realized;

Being one with the dharma with all sentient beings, penetrate all sutras, let wisdom be like the ocean;

Being one with the sangha with all sentient beings, lead the people, let harmony pervade everywhere.

(GEOFFREY SHUGEN ARNOLD in Lion's Roar)

 

 

Right View

Perfect understanding or integral view or you can mismatch the translations of the first two words for the 8 fold path, part of the 4 noble truths: Pali: samyak-dṛṣṭi, Sanskrit: sammā-diṭṭhi. The Buddhist view is the opening frame of it all. How can you move towards the unconditioned when you can't talk about it? These and more questions raise up when I listen to Sangharakshita's 1968 talk about Right View.

There's an article in Lion's Roar with the byline: It’s possible that most Western Buddhists are “unaffiliated.” That is, they practice alone or in small informal groups not listed in the phone book or on the web. There is therefore no record, no official trace, of their activity. They practice off the books.

I've always thought that America would somehow produce an interesting form of Buddhism. In a discussion on r/secularbuddhism, it was pointed out that IMS is perhaps a secular Buddhist organization, but what I always find interesting about them is that they're a lay tradition of the Theravada ilk. Leave it to Americans to not fall in line on tradition. It is both our strength and our weakness, and I would also say that that was true of myself as well.

I have stepped away from Triratna. Honestly it was my negative actions and mistakes that pushed me away. Maybe that was what I needed. I'm surprised to see on r/Buddhism that my root sect isn't looked upon as even Buddhism sometimes. I get regularly downvoted, I'm not hard line enough. For better or worse Sangharakshita has formed my initial view of Buddhism, and I don't think that is bad. I have had amazing retreat experiences at Aryaloka that I will never forget. There is one point in the talk when Sangharakshita talks about having a flash of insight and forgetting it. I'm trying not to forget but I have to with pain admit that I haven't always acted on my insights, I got lost. I had trouble sustaining the right view.

In AA and recovery psychology, I can feel a kind of fight for right view. The need to find a higher power of your understanding is the quest for the right view. I like it that it is less insistent that you find the right doctrine. You must come to your understanding. Something needs to be beyond the nihilism of just drinking when your disease tells you to. 

I don't think Buddhism is a philosophy, I think it's a psychology of meditation. That may be controversial. What I like about psychology is that it's not insistent on dogma, everyone comes to their own understanding based on their psychology, personality, history, talents.

I'm not saying anything goes, and sometimes I am wary of diluted new age pablum. I forced myself to listen to The Power of Now. It's not bad, but I listen to a Theravada monk to balance it out. 

Wat Chedi Liam, Thailand

 

Wat Chedi Liam. Built in 1287 and remained in use during the early Lan Na period after the new city of Chiang Mai had been established by King Mangrai the Great.

Yikes

Monks, this cycle of rebirth  is endless. The beginning of this extremely long journey cannot be discovered. These beings, hindered by lack of knowledge of the true nature of life and bound by craving, roam and wander on in this endless journey. What do you think, monks, which is more: the stream of blood you have shed when you were beheaded as you roamed and wandered on in this journey—this or the water in the  four great oceans?”

Source (alt)

Brahma Viharas

The canon of present day books on the Brahma Viharas is pretty hard to track down, it's taken me some 20 years to collect books about this Buddhist topic.

I read Boundless Heart  (2017) by Christina Feldman.

Tara Brach's Radical Self-Acceptance is perhaps quite supportive.

Compassion and Emptiness in Early Buddhist Meditation by Analayo.

Heart by Vessantara.

Lovingkindness by Sharon Salzberg is another book.

Just found Love and Sympathy in Theravada Buddhism by Harvey Aronson (1980). Going to be trying that one out.

I also need to get through the Visuddhimagga.

Kamalashila book on meditation has a section on the meditation which was where I learned it. It talks about the near and far enemies to metta, karuna, mudita and upeksa. A friend in social work school like the idea of horrified anxiety that you get when you look at others suffering. The near enemy to karuna is pity.

Anyone else want to add books to the list about Brahma Viharas?

Someone added:

A Guide to Tranquil Wisdom Insight Meditation by Bhante Vimalaraṁsi

Awakening Loving Kindness by Pema Chodron

The Sublime Attitudes: A Study Guide on the Brahmaviharas, by Ṭhānissaro Bhikkhu (here)

Audio meditations:

Bhikkhu Anālayo on Barre Center for Buddhist Studies.

Images

 

Devotion

I think some personality types benefit from devotion and supplication. Maybe all. It's seen as important in substance abuse recovery. It might be part of a complete psychological makeup trying to be whole and integrated. 

Sports is a distraction and a diversion. It feels important to me in my relationship to one of my sons. NYCFC started some time after my son got into soccer, and we bonded over going to games. 

One of the players is Maxime Chanot. He was born in France, but he plays internationally for Luxembourg. He's played in England, France and Belgium, before he came to NYC. He's played for NYCFC for 5 years, only missing the first year of their existence. No other player from the 2016 roster is still on the team.

Maxime has a devotional routine you see him do. He touches his head, belly, and two shoulders, holds his hands up, looks upward, how bows down twice I think. He prays in the laundry room in Yankee Stadium. There is a caplin who comes midweek, and pregame. 

Fascinating video

 

Tenzin Palmo photo of text Reflections on a Mountain Lake

 

Urgency

 

Practice like everything is on fire.

Posted this and then saw this

 

Mara and Buddha in dialogue

 

Korean temple I drive by

 

Uruvela Kassapa in the Vinaya Mahāvagga

Reading about Uruvela Kassapa in the Mahavagga. This kassapa keeps saying, "But he is not an arhat like me." In a way it's a doubter of the Buddha, but proving him wrong by miracles is the wrong way to go to my modern sentiments. The Buddha confronts him and he just snaps out of it. I'd like more information. Just like I'd like more information about the gradual teachings that converts Yasa, his father, mother, and his father's ex-wife (nice detail there). In a way what comes down to us is pretty sketchy. It can fill up a bookshelf, but it's so ancient, it's hard to get through to it. I'm trying though. Someone asked on Reddit if as a Buddhist you really had to read the Pali Canon. I'd say you don't have to, the only have to is uttering the refuges and precepts, but as others pointed out, couldn't hurt.

Stuck

 P. 28 The Life of the Buddha:

"...seeking the unborn, unageing, unailing, deathless, sorrowless, undefiled, supreme surcease of bondage, Nibbana."

PS, I read about the 5 dreams and thought about posting and then remembered a past post.