The Vajji Seven

Numbered Discourses 7.29 quote:

"These seven things don’t lead to the decline of a lay follower. What seven? They don’t miss out on seeing the mendicants. They don’t neglect listening to the true teaching. They train in higher ethical conduct. They’re very confident about mendicants, whether senior, junior, or middle. They don’t listen to the teaching with a hostile, fault-finding mind. They don’t seek outside of the Buddhist community for those worthy of religious donations. And they serve the Buddhist community first. These seven things don’t lead to the decline of a lay follower.” (Sujato)

First off, there is a lay/monk split in the world. Monks can go for it, and the lay just means you're not a monk and you can go for it, but it's less likely since you haven't renounced the world. Improving circumstances is supportive of the path. 

My question, if you have these deep meditative states that are fragile and depend on isolation and supportive conditions, do they evaporate when the supportive conditions aren't present? 

I think the point is to develop a level of insight that sustains a practice back in the world. 

A mendicant is a wandering teacher. That means they have given up the home life if they wander. They have gone for refuge. Can you get teachings from a lay follower? There are plenty of these. 

It's important to get teachings from good teachers, of course. 

Ethics is important. Start the spiritual life and neglect ethics, and you'll find you can't really go deeper, because everyone is criticizing you and it interferes with your mental state. But the biggest critic is yourself, and you people can justify anything. I saw Ghislaine Maxwell didn't seem to be remorseful, that contributed to her getting 20 years. I've been reading about the Manson Family. There's a kind of entitled I can do whatever I want attitude, based in the wild west of trauma reactions. Manson had a horrible childhood. When you get into the real adversity of childhood, you can see how people would have something missing. It's not clear why the followers had something missing, but I'm more interested in virtue than forensics. 

The rise in narcissism is a function of the capitalist system of neglect, where parents have to work all the time, and child care doesn't pay. If America really valued itself, children would be invested in. The right's response is family, not government. You don't have a stable family? I guess we're all shit out of luck. Parenting used to be easier, you fed them, clothed them, and gave them some prompts, but school and outside took care of the rest. Now children aren't alone outside, and you're supposed to be an expert of sensory integration, nutritionist, reading teacher, homework helper, media educator, and a million other things. Now it's an impossible project. In the age of information, parenting is often about how you fall short of some crowd sourced expectation. Despite it all children are raised well, despite the formidable new and old obstacles.

Every problem in my life can be attributed to a breach of ethics I didn't understand. Live and learn. Patience, humility, empathy and willingness to learn can go a long way.

Trusting the tradition enough to seek them out is another important aspect. In this day and age you have to evaluate the quality of the source of information. The guru system is about identifying leaders, and getting into a personal relationship with them, where they guide your learning and development. 

I don't set myself up as a teacher, but I do like to articulate my attempts at understanding.

Question: Does wanting a teacher signal dependence, and an unwillingness to trust your own experience and ability to navigate your own development?

I spent 10 years in the belly of the sangha and 10 years hermit solo, and I miss other's natural checks, but I don't miss other's trying to enforce their personality, in the mistaken idea that there is only one way to be. 

For every person who's excited by Alan Watts videos on YouTube, there are people who seek out the teachers who are really doing it, and aren't as dynamic communicators because they articulate a difficult path, and aren't about accumulation of attention for material gain. These unsexy humble teachers will be the best. 

The marketplace in America rewards popularity and saying things that get you popular. It's hard for their to be a really merit based system when the consumers are learning. This is why I like the system of not having to pay for the teachings. The teachings are free. A retreat perhaps covers the rent and supplies, fees can cover the room for sangha night, but I don't see money being needed. I've really benefited from the retreats at Aryaloka, but I don't have the money or time for retreats, and I really feel it. When things are scarce you savor memories. I have feasted on memories the past 10 years. The independence I have developed is my silver lining. Here is a quote from the Pali Canon:

Dhammapada 329: If for company you cannot find a wise and prudent friend who leads a good life, then, like a king who leaves behind a conquered kingdom, or like a lone elephant in the elephant forest, you should go your way alone.

We're more "connected" through the internet, but I feel like it's just helping us to realize how alone we are. 

Taking responsibility for my spiritual life, it behooves me to get the best support available. 

Lots of questions on Reddit are quibble questions. If there's no self, what is reborn? How can you become desireless? How do you know the Buddhists gods are the one true gods? 

The principle of charity means you imagine the other person is onto something and isn't just blowing smoke because you're not familiar with it. It's also from the other side called the benefit of the doubt. 

I redirect people to connect with sangha, and develop from there. If you're exploring Buddhism to prove your other path is the right one, then that's not really an exploration. 

It's weird, if life you come to conclusions and think about things and imagine you've settled them. I've decided I've not made up my mind on this crazy abortion debate going on in America. I don't want to take anything off the table. And I'm not impressed by people expressing certitude. There was a fascinating article in Tricycle, where a lay woman gives her views, and I found it to be interesting, and important because it was a woman expressing her opinion, instead of the men enforcing their narrow views where they feel entitled to take things off the table, declare it's settled. Followers often follow such sure people, but not me. 

Reddit seems to be split between people living in Buddhist countries who assume they don't have to modernize or update the teachings, and new age hippy dippy anything goes western liberals. These two don't mix well, and by bombing social media one side or the other can seem to win. Discussion isn't so much about winning and losing though, IMHO, and more about sharing of experience. 

Once again I feel like we're at a place where people are trying enforce personality, and not really support other people's practice. Spot the polarization and pick a side. I'm learning to resist that temptation more and more. 

Beginner's mind is important when approaching study, teachers, and sangha relationships. The Bible really thumps on humility, but the Pali Canon doesn't as much, it's much more sprinkled with a variety of virtues. Still humility is important. As someone who rejects Christianity, it's tempting to go in the other direction, but that's reactive and not creative. 

Sometimes I want some spice. I recently got interested in Jiddu Krishnamurti. Sometimes it feel claustrophobic to only read the pali canon. There have been some developments since the Buddha 2500 years ago. Lots of ideas. The best teachers update and integrate the teachings, and yet somehow hold onto the tradition, if I can get away with having it both ways. I try to read at least a few sentences of pali canon every day, to keep in touch with the teachings. That's why I'm doing this sutra today. Being focused on the teachings of the Buddha is an important trait of a Buddhist. In a way I think it leads everyone to be a scholar and a monk. So be it.

Sometimes when I look in the mirror

 

 

 

Source 

Mary Oliver poem

 

Caring for Bliss

I've been thinking that when I listen for metta in metta meditation, I can also listen for bliss in mindfulness of breathing. 

Along comes a study about bliss:

"...caring for bliss enhanced the effect of high self-compassion on flourishing and compensated for the effect of low mindfulness on flourishing. Caring for bliss also buffered the effect of low mindfulness on depressive symptoms." (Source)

I'm not sure what they mean by "caring for bliss", except that you notice bliss.

Muñja grass

 Footnote 7: “Muñja grass was the ancient Indian equivalent of a white flag. A warrior expecting that he might have to surrender would take muñja grass into battle with him. If he did surrender, he would lie down with the muñja grass in his mouth. The Buddha, in asking this rhetorical question, is indicating that he is not the type of warrior who would carry muñja grass. If defeated, he would rather die than surrender.”  -Noble Warrior

“when I was still just an unawakened bodhisatta, the thought occurred to me: ‘Why don’t I keep dividing my thinking into two sorts?’ So I made thinking imbued with sensuality, thinking imbued with ill will, & thinking imbued with harmfulness one sort, and thinking imbued with renunciation, thinking imbued with non-ill will, & thinking imbued with harmlessness another sort.”

Fanshan doesn't raise above society's sexism.

 In poem 173 of Red Pine's translation (2000), Fanshan doesn't raise above the sexism of China. He talks about women as though they are a burden, as though they are to be belittled and tolerated. They are compared to donkeys.

 

I'm not canceling Hanshan because I haven't met someone deeply who I didn't find some things I didn't like. If I'm canceling anything it's the NRA and Abbott. The republican congress that allowed the assault rifle ban to lapse. People who accept the sacrifice of children on the altar of false freedoms. My position on gun control.

The prevalence of people who think uttering gender conformity or ranking on the other gender is high. Honestly I took a break with this book after reading that. I got back to the book eventually. I really like Thomas Pynchon's novel Inherent Vice, but there are not any strong or virtuous women in the movie. I think in a way the book calls for superficial sexpots, but that doesn't mean you can't have one women character who has some depth or something interesting besides their body's ability to excite a man. 

I know it's a modern sensibility that honestly not a lot of men seem to have, but Franzen talks about it some. "Read a book from 50 years ago by John Updike, Norman Mailer, Thomas Pynchon, Kurt Vonnegut and, even though I love him, Joseph Heller, and you see they weren’t thinking about women in the right way. Those are pretty sexist books… I wish people would be spontaneously sensitive, but if they can’t, then a little bit of enforcement doesn’t seem to me a bad thing.”

TAIMA TEMPLE MANDALA

 

Source

Listen to the Pure Land Sutras.

Rilke poem

 

Question

Is the story that the Buddha had a wife and child perhaps not historically accurate, and a kind of marketing idea to appeal to the masses? Is that why there is not mention of them in this passage?

MN 36

“So at a later time, when I was still young, black-haired, endowed with the blessings of youth in the first stage of life, having shaved off my hair & beard—though my parents wished otherwise and were grieving with tears on their faces—I put on the ochre robe and went forth from the home life into homelessness."

That his son and wife were not mentioned doesn't prove that they were not so, it's just a question that arises. What do we really know of a great sage from 2500 years ago. We have a lot of amazing texts that are available in translation. I'm grateful for the Pali Canon translations. They are amazing. 

What if the Buddha was spiritual from the time of his adulthood? What if he didn't enter into life with a wife and child? Would that really change his insights? In a way the biography of the Buddha is fantastical and miraculous, signaling that something special is there. As you read the formulas of the teachings over and over, there seems to be something more than just those words, though putting it all together and applying the words can support a strong practice. The tradition of a sangha can also support personal progress. Personal effort can support progress. Supportive conditions can support progress. Access to the teachings and support lead to progress. Various sects emphasize certain things. Charlotte Joko Beck preached the nothing special doctrine. Pema Chodron says start where you are. There is an ocean of teachings and updates. 

It's our modern times that we want to know the Buddha or Shakespeare for that matter. We want to know a person to locate the teaching in them, but there's something larger there, and like all good teachers, the teachings are larger than the people. Shakespeare's life might not be as interesting as the plays that he authored in collaboration with the troupe and other writers. 

Hope

Dahui Temple, built 1503

"... I do believe quantum revolutionary shifts can happen, though an upsurge of violence often precedes them before the old system gives way. For instance, a dominant narrative of post-apartheid South Africa is that it was a peaceful transition of power. However, as recorded in Gary Kynoch’s book, Township Violence and the End of Apartheid, this was not the case. What unfolded in the four years leading to the first democratic elections in April 1994 was the bloodiest period of the entire Apartheid era, with an estimated 14,000 deaths attributed to political violence." Thanissara in "A Dharma Heart for These Times" in Insight Journal.

Also "If democratic rights are lost, it will have devastating consequences for climate justice, not only here but around the world. What does a battle we can’t afford to lose mean for us?"

Also, "Ajahn Chah distinguished between the peace of meditative calm, or samadhi, which primarily depends on a tranquil environment, and the more profound peace that arises from wisdom."

And, "Even though hope for the future hangs by fraying threads, there is enormous potential in our ability to organize as Dharma practitioners and as citizens. Amid a world on fire, we have the skills to balance between hope and nihilism."

Plus, "As we face wars, flooding, fire, and the old ghosts of fascism, I want to advocate for a deeper inquiry that enables honest conversations about the monsters living beneath this “business-as-usual” and what we want to do about them."

Enough quoting, read the article. I like this engaged Buddhism by the author of Time To Stand Up.

Thanissara quotes the Surangama Sutra.

Lastly, "I feel the determination to break the doom scroll of inevitability by committing fully to a different world. This pledge means releasing social fear, including an internalized quietism that Buddhist culture usually elevates over speaking out, keeping us complicit."




I love dialectical and non dualistic thinking, so I offer this counter quote: "The Buddha taught: begin in hopelessness." She Who Became The Sun a novel by Shelly Parker-Chen set in Medieval China.

Maybe the animals who call themselves human will not transcend the barriers to responding to climate crisis. And we'll get all the kind of consequences that we deserve. Say half the population of the world dies. That leaves a lot of humans left. Humans won't die out. It would be a pretty horrible thing for 50% of the humans to die. Everything as we know it would be changed, from the ability to respond with science, and families would be devastated. The basic structure of society, the family, would be utterly devastated, and humans culture would take a huge toll.

At some point the sun will expand and engulf the earth and even though that's way in the future, and I expect humans will find purchase on other worlds, it's possible we won't get out of our solar system, and we get snuffed out or have a small population through our own misadventures. In the cosmic perspective we are a spec of a spec in a blink of a blink.

hahaha

"my favorite thing i’ve learned in college is that way back in ancient china there was this poet/philosopher guy who wrote this whole pretentious poem about how enlightened he was that was like “the eight winds cannot move me” blahblahblah and he was really proud of it so he sent it to his friend who lived across the lake and then his friend sends it back and just writes “FART” (or the ancient Chinese equivalent) on it and he was SO MAD he travels across the lake to chew his friend out and when he gets there his friend says “wow. the eight winds cannot move you, but one fart sends you across the lake”"

(source)

When is Vesak Day?

Google says May 6th, this Friday, but "dates may vary". I think that may be when Korean International Lotus Lantern Parade is, but I can't get any information.

May 16th when it's the full moon? "Nowadays, in Sri Lanka, Nepal, India, Bangladesh and Malaysia, Vesak/Buddha Purnima is celebrated on the day of the first full moon in May in the Gregorian calendar." (Wikipedia) But "In China, Korea, Vietnam and the Philippines, Buddha's Birthday is celebrated on the eighth day of the fourth month in the Chinese lunar calendar. In Japan, Buddha's Birthday is observed on the same date but in the Gregorian calendar, i.e. 8 April."

International Vesak day is May 16th.

As someone who celebrates all the traditions (and perhaps therefore none) I'll go with international Vesak Day. Triratna says May 16th, my root sangha.

Gathering with sangha is the first suggestion. 

If you're alone celebrating, the suggestion of activities is:

Cleaning home and body.

Burn incense if you have it.

Chant Sutras and do pujas.

Cook special meals. Consider a special tea to drink. No meat, consider plant based meals.

Lead a minimalist life, consider abstention from sex and internet.

Meditation. Consider Buddhananasati meditation where you invoke the Buddha.

Consider doing nice things for others. Create art, plan an activity.

Offerings to the shrine: light, flowers, and other offerings.

My one experience of gathering with the larger NYC sangha was at Shambhala many many years ago. Little Sri Lankan kids recited things. A Japanese monk did calligraphy. A Korean monk spoke. There was social mixing, where I asked a guy what color robe he had--he practiced in 2 traditions and made up his own robe. 

I'm not sure what the appropriate response in the USA would be in engaged Buddhism. I read about what happened in Vietnam when the Buddhist flag was banned: In 1963, the South Vietnamese President Ngo Dinh Diem, a Catholic and younger brother of Archbishop Ngo Dinh Thuc banned the flying of the Buddhist flag. This led to a demonstration and flag-waving in defiance of the ban. Diem's forces opened fire on the Buddhist crowd, killing nine, sparking the Buddhist crisis, a period of civil disobedience against religious discrimination.

I'm concerned about the health of democracy in the USA and the further Talibaning and Christo-fascist elements. It looks like Roe v Wade might be overturned by SCOTUS. Go look at Gerri Santoro and tell me that banning abortion is the right thing to do.

I know Buddhism doesn't pick a party or politics in a way, but in another way the journey of trying to prevent harm to others is important. Climate and environmental activism doesn't have to be political, it's acting in our own best interest. And our children's interest. Future thinking is important I think.

Shelly Parker-Chan

She Who Became The Sun by Shelly Parker-Chan is a kind of Dickensian saga set in 1345 China. The following is a quote at the end of chapter 3. The heroine has escaped starvation and landed in a monastery. She takes on the identity of her brother who died of starvation and is in the male section of the monastery. 

"Denying desire only made yourself vulnerable to those who were smart enough to see what you couldn't even acknowledge to yourself." (p.61 Hardcover from the library)

There are quotes in the Pali Canon about being desireless, but I don't think it's the complete absence of desire. The Buddha continued to eat and sleep and preach after he became enlightened, so you know, something was driving him even if it was wholesome and purified and focused on the path. There is a lot of religious rhetoric and mythological speaking in the Pali Canon. I mean the Buddha came out of his mother without any fluids, and began walking and talking. I take that to point to a special being, but not literally true. How do you communicate things that are beyond words? One way is to speak mythologically. I've never been around anyone who really talked about Tusita heaven and the devas present in the early accounts, but I have an attitude towards them I have around the ancient Greek gods, the Celtic gods, the Norse gods. They are early human communications about existence. 

I have a modern western worldview, and because I've come across all kinds of mythology I find them interesting and a projection of psychology. Reincarnation might be part of this, a mythological way to talk about conditionality. I mean you can imagine other ways of being, hopefully you witness other ways of being, but you can also see personality and other aspects of what makes up a human and the vectors they pursue. 

What do all the miracles in the Pali Canon point to? The amazingness and awesomeness of the path. I don't think you need to hype it, and Buddhism does the least proselytizing of the major religions. Maybe that's why it's only 0.7% in the USA.

My friend asked me why it was so important to me. It's hard to really describe how a system and culture get absorbed into one's being through sangha, reading and study and meditation. My life hasn't been great since I found it, so one could even argue that my finding the Dharma, sangha and the Buddha hasn't been great for me. It has made me feel more healthy and whole, make the mistakes I need to make, the fortunate falls, so I could learn. We all hurt each other accidentally, but the hope of waking up is to minimize that, and points to a path of proving good into the world.

To me the point is to channel and consciously direct one's desires into positive outcomes. Act in your own best interest. I know I haven't always done that and I wish I would have done that more throughout my life. Self sabotage and not giving credence to my shadow has had disastrous consequences for me and the people I've hurt. My goal as a parent and as a human being is to not hurt others, but it happens. Insects are killed driving vegetables to the market, but it's still the least harmful thing you can do to be plant based.

I think a lot about how on The Good Place, they come to the conclusion that you can't be good any more, you're embedded in so many systems of torture and bad. Just look at your phone. And yet we like to think of ourselves as good, and the desire to be good is a healthy thing.

With the support of the sangha, through meditation, you connect to the bottom basement of information and information--your experience. Being connected to your experiences, you're harder to manipulate. The forces of capitalism are harder to force feed to you if you're attempting to wake up. The anti-woke people can't be conscious of their motives since they're against any introspection, insight or avoidance of hypocrisy. Human beings with all their messy complications can't be as easily fed into the capitalist grinder. Substance abuse helps to numb you down. The fear of communism is part and parcel of capitalist lovers, the way Putin's fears of NATO provoked NATO expansion. Against wokeness to the unintended and paradoxical consequences, prefer just to act righteously, boldly and confidently, like a man. The internalized systems of self oppression are hard to shake off.

Fire

 

Photos

 Where the Buddha may have been born and lived (Wikipedia)

source

Wynn Alan Bruce

Wynn Alan Bruce self immolated himself on April 22nd 2022 in front of the Supreme Court in Washington DC. It was earth day.

The place where he did it was because of recent court decisions: In West Virginia versus EPA, the court's decision on the case could limit or revoke the ability of the United States Environmental Protection Agency to regulate carbon dioxide emissions, and the conservative majority on the court has indicated that they may do so.

A Buddhist and a climate activist, he earned a living with a photography studio in Boulder Colorado.

The people who marginalize his message, call him mentally ill, or as Sujato writes, "It tells us only of the nihilistic despair into which he fell." (Source) have been jammed up in just the way his message is supposed jam people up. Those who don't concern themselves with the gravity of climate change will wander off to condemn his act and dishonor it. 

There is a long history of self immolation in Buddhism, and a long history of people trying to downplay the messages that are sent through self immolation. The message of Wynn Bruce is simple. The government needs to stop getting in it's own way, and act more in it's own self interest. 

Now right there the polarizers are going to counterclaim I'm polarizing the issue, which means we can't even have a discussion of climate change with their dada communication style.

There is obvious and accumulating evidence that humans are having an impact on climate change, and that the right, in their infinite wisdom of always opposing the liberal imagination, just denies. We can do some things to curb the worst effects. People who aren't climate scientists deny that. The amount of climate scientists who deny that is insignificantly miniscule. The ideological denial of common knowledge is what makes these times feel so gaslit. The right has resorted to psychological and informational warfare. 

What will happen will happen and time will tell. Outside of political ideologies, which never seem to get it all right. That confirmation bias is a thing and people see what they want to see, we can go around in circles. One person’s modus ponens is another person’s modus tollens.

The polarization is a mental virus of the right in recent years, dastardly tactics, that history won't judge them well. We are entering an information age, we're just at the very beginning. Information is increasing and flowing more democratically, sometimes. That is not all good, people with proclivity to believe nonsense and malarkey are flipping the script and using intelligent sounding reposts for their conversation destroying nonsense. "Woke" and "virtue signaling" and other right wing buzz phrases are trying to be owned by the common sense people, but there's a real battle between what I consider to be the death instinct, and acting in our own best interest. 

I wish Wynn Bruce was alive, just like I wish we had a more pro-life world in the sense that people didn't see having children as a catastrophe because it would cost money, ruin careers and educations. I wish we didn't have weapons of mass destruction. I wish there was no war. I wish children didn't die in the USA for the ease at which people can get guns and misuse them. 

A utilitarian is pro-life, death is a bad result. But in the right's death cult, it's OK to be for the freedom to spread Covid instead of the freedom from Covid. To imagine guns are a right. They're flipping the script and accuse the left of being bad actors when that's all they do. 

They seem to have a sparse parsimonious approach to the world, but it's filled with abstract ideas and contradictions. Let's take a hard cold look at what's going on, and act in our own best interest, and not the best interest of the conservative imagination that has panic attacks about certain things, but what is really going on. 

The deSantos law to forbid gender discussion means elementary schools can't have gender names on the bathroom. Does that make sense? It's all ishkabibble. Their feeble minds only draw the conclusions they want it to. It's not reasoning, it's retroactive nonsense. 

Reason is public discussion of action. A powerful dictator or autocrat doesn't want discourse, he's just gonna do what he's gonna do. Maybe he'll poop out a justification. 

Use reason to create democratic public discourse, to act in our own best interest. That's all Wynn Bruce was trying to say, specifically about climate change.

The majority on the supreme court is unqualified ideologues that the right cheated to get onto the court. The court is a joke now. I'm not sure why more people aren't self immolating themselves, except the survival instinct is strong, and you might do more by being alive than a dramatic self immolation. It's a pretty blunt instrument. Wynn Bruce didn't even leave note as to why he was doing what he was doing. We can only guess from his Facebook posts that he was deeply upset about climate change, and his location tells us that he did not like the drift of the court decisions to neuter the government in climate change fighting. 

The idea that self immolation is not Buddhist is kind of funny. The glorious Buddhist movie Spring, Summer, Winter, Fall...Spring! has a self immolation scene in it. The Buddhist monks who did it during the Vietnam War of American Aggression. 

The amount of malarkey spouting from people is quite disturbing. It's not Buddhist? He was just mentally ill? People, use the principle of charity to assume the best line of reasoning. The supreme court just ruled that the EPA can't act to curb climate change. That's a disgusting result that needs to be overturned. Please think about it. Wynn Bruce did, and he is dramatizing our need to be just a little more aware, to act in our own best interest. 

I know I'm converting this blank into my own message. I'm aware of that. Still doesn't diminish the message. And I think I'm following reason and Buddhism (and utilitarianism and ethics....).

Just like meditation isn't just Buddhist, self immolation isn't just Buddhism protest. (See below.)

"This guy was my friend. He meditated with our sangha. This act is not suicide. This is a deeply fearless act of compassion to bring attention to climate crisis. We are piecing together info but he had been planning it for at least one year. #wynnbruce I am so moved." (Twitter Profile, actual tweet)

"Bruce’s act of sitting down and setting himself on fire was reminiscent of the events of June 11, 1963, when Thich Quang Duc, a Vietnamese monk, seated cross-legged, burned himself to death at a busy Saigon intersection. He was protesting the persecution of Buddhists by the South Vietnamese government led by Ngo Dinh Diem, a staunch Catholic." (Denver Post)

Also from Denver Post, quoting TTH, “To burn oneself by fire is to prove what one is saying is of the utmost importance. There is nothing more painful than burning oneself. To say something while experiencing this kind of pain is to say it with utmost courage, frankness, determination and sincerity.”

"The International Campaign for Tibet says 131 men and 28 women — monks, nuns and laypeople among them — have self-immolated since 2009 to protest against Beijing’s strict controls over the region and their religion."

What can we do? Margaret Klein Salamon suggest climate activism. She created Climate Emergency Fund. Here is another introduction.

There is also PAEAN from Thanissara.

Here is a list of climate change organizations.

Links:

Wikipedia: Self-immolation of Wynn Bruce.

Facebook page

NY Times Climate Activist Dies After Setting Himself on Fire at Supreme Court

Independent article

The denial of Sujato of his act being Buddhist. (Discussion on Reddit)

Buddhist Journal of Ethics: Buddhism and Suicide: The Case of Channa by Damien Keown

One poor person is questioning Buddhism (Reddit)

Rocky Mountain Ecodharma Retreat Center

14 year old girl self immolates in India over a reported threat to withdraw a rape allegation.

Flames of Prayer TTH's poem

Alejandro Alvarez's tribute on Twitter 

Climate change on NASA

Favorite tweet

Chapter 10

The middle period, chapter 10, has rapid fire stories in The Life of the Buddha. I can't help but think of that number Love Thy Neighbor from Prom, when you get to the monk who is abandoned, because he is of no use to his fellow monks when he's sick. 

There is the ancient epistemology tract in the Kalama Sutta.

"It is hard to know a man by his appearance

Nor can you judge him at a passing glance."

That's the upshot from the section where a leper becomes a stream entrant.

There is the bit where the Buddha doesn't want his teachings put into the formal religious language of the times. 

There is the bit about tuning the lute strings just right.

So many teachings.

I just downloaded the version of this book by Ṭhānissaro Bhikkhu & Khematto Bhikkhu.

Bits and bobs

I watched all 4 Ip Man movies, and while the history of martial arts and Buddhism is mixed, what I like is that Ip Man is humble and doesn't want any special favors, doesn't want to shame anyone, and is patient. He believes in virtue and justice.

There was a discussion about Pema Chodron on Reddit.

I've completed my novella Robot Monk. I'm looking for readers for feedback.

One way to combat the wellbeing and perhaps inflated sense of self after meditation is to play a chess game. I always think I'm going to crush in a chess game and raise my rating, but I never do after meditation. It puts me in my place.

What to read

I began by reading the following books: Awakening The Buddha Within by Lama Surya Das, After the Ecstacy, the Laundry by Jack Kornfield, and Everyday Zen and Nothing Special by Charlotte Joko Beck. That gave me a Mahayana, a Theravada and a Zen perspective. Then I read the Dhammapada. 

After I started meditating, I read Sangharakshita, Thich Nhat Hanh, Ayya Khema, Jack Kornfield. Later I dug into the Middle Length Discourses, Long Discourses, Connected Discourses and the Numerical Discourses. Bodhicaryāvatāra is awesome. I read the Mahayana sutras and Ten Thousand Songs of Milarepa, Perfection of Wisdom texts. Lately I've been reading the Chinese hermit monks translated by Red Pine. The Eternal Legacy by Sangharakshita is an overview of Buddhist literature. If you're into Zen, I thought The Circle of The Way by O'Brian was interesting, helped me to realize some Zen writers I hadn't picked up yet. I love all the literature of Buddhism and it's quite a project to read it all.

I liked Living with the Devil by Stephen Batchelor. I like Great Faith, Great Wisdom by Ratnaguna. The fruitful darkness by Joan Halifax. I reread The Life of the Buddha by Nanamoli over and over. Zen Mind, Beginner's Mind is a classic. If you get into the Brahma Viharas I liked Boundless Heart (2017) by Christina Feldman. Breath by Breath by Goldstein is for anapanasati. Lokos has a good book on Patience. I had a great retreat once where I read the Therigatha. David Loy's Nonduality was intense. I got into Thai forest biographies for a while, really like Mae Chee Kaew and Ajahn Mun. I reread A Survey of Buddhism by Sangharakshita.

I personally don't read any Chogyam Trungpa, Reginald Ray or Pema Chodron any more because I see that line as producing problems in American Buddhism, what has come out from the consequences of Trungpa's crazy wisdom, though I read most of their books before finding out more. I don't read Alan Watts because he was a self described entertainer and didn't really take care of his 7 children, but many get excited by him.

Each sect would have a program of reading along with teaching, and I would learn from a sect for the first 10 years. I'd recommend Theravada sects to start out with to get a good foundation in the early teachings. What the Buddha Taught by Rahula tends to be their first recommendation. 

Ryokan

 

Ryokan Taigu was an unconventional monk in the Soto Zen sect. Born Eizō Yamamoto in Izumozaki in 1758. I've become much less enamoured with the chaos rule breakers but it's an interesting antidote to the asceticism and vastness of the amazingness of the Dharma.

Ryokan's poems

My Cracked Wooden Bowl

This treasure was discovered in a bamboo thicket --

I washed the bowl in a spring and then mended it.

After morning meditation, I take my gruel in it;

At night, it serves me soup or rice.

Cracked, worn, weather-beaten, and misshapen

But still of noble stock!

Children’s book

I got this book in the mail, not sure who it was from. But I like this folk tale.

This is a great story. Just when you think something bad happened, it turns out to be lucky.  It makes me think about how we often can't see the whole picture, and things that seem bad, might not be that bad. 

My daughter likes this book.

Happy birthday

 Every country celebrates the Buddha‘a birthday on different days. Today Japan celebrates.

Wikipedia 

Tiantishan Caves look like an amazing place

Happy Qing Ming

Qing Ming, a traditionally Chinese Buddhist holy day commemorates the dead by making offerings to those that have passed, are passing and will pass with tea and food (rice).  There are also sweets left as well as peanuts (far left, back).  This is also the day people will go to a cemetery and clean the tomb or tombstone of the departed.  This is also practiced throughout Asia and in the West for Buddhist practitioners.  While not strictly a 'Buddhist' practice in general, it is adopted as a very good mindfulness exercise of remembrance, compassion and respect.  May all beings be happy, may they be free from worry,  may they be free from affliction and violence, may they live happily. (Source)

Mara’s daughters

 

Longmen Caves, Luoyang, China

Travel is restricted right now, but the lowest flight from NYC is over $4K. 

Cold Mountain

 

World/Spirituality

There's an article about a sect of Buddhist monks in Thailand that is a grift. Reddit is going bonkers over it, so many people imagined Theravada was the holiest of the holies. 

The Dhammakaya tradition: It's a yogavacara tradition founded by Luang Pu Sodh Candasaro. You can watch a 10 minute video about him.

There's a page of articles in the Bangkok Post about the current leader Phra Dhammajayo "Luang Por Dhammajayo's approach to Buddhism seeks to combine the ascetic and meditative life with modern personal ethics and social prosperity." I guess you can go too far blending in with modern times.

Such a wide variety of reactions from "that's not Buddhism" to "yea, that shit happens all the time."

This always brought up the question: Is it not Buddhism if it's worldly? Do the crimes people commit as Buddhists stick to their non-Buddhist parts? That goes along with the idea that Buddhist's can't engage in war. If you were in Ukraine would it be right to fight tyranny over democracy? Or should you retreat further into the woods to meditate?

The boy Buddha rising up from a lotus. Crimson and gilded wood, Trần-Hồ dynasty, Vietnam, 14th-15th century.

I've seen one too many plea to buy a Buddhism course

The majority of Buddhism on the internet is a plea to buy a course of the teachings, and/or trying to establish a brand for a book or a course or a retreat, or all three. I don't really think you need to buy anything, but if you do, buy a hard copy of the word of the Buddha to carry with you, though more than likely you already have a smartphone with a free app that accesses the Pali Canon, for free.

Next maybe spend the minimum to go on retreat.

Of course transport to sangha night costs.

I get it that people try to make a profession out of something they love. Best wishes to you. I don't think you have to be chronically poor either. I have no problem supporting teachers for your sangha, not saying don't do that.

Buy whatever you want. Not trying to control you. Expressing my feeling of distaste for social media in Buddhism to be all about selling. Perhaps I'm wrong to look at social media for teachings, true. Need to get off social media. 

Friday sundown to Saturday sundown is a media cleanse for me. I end up reading a lot more.

Bonus Link: Upali's Becoming a Monk (YouTube)

 

 

Sukavati

 

Reddit quote from u/huianxin 

I studied a bit of East Asian and Buddhist art history in college as an undergrad.

The picture from OP is a copy of  Ding Guanpeng's (丁観鵬) 1758 painting, Supreme Bliss World. Ding Guanpeng was one of the Qianlong Emperor's favorite court artists. As one of the Imperial academic artists, Ding Guanpeng was known for his landscape paintings, as well as paintings of Buddhist subjects.

This one specifically appears to be a copy of the original painting. Digging around some academic papers, I found a 2018 Masters thesis discussing this painting and its copies, and this specific one appears to be credited as

Anonymous, Weaving a Brocade Scroll of the Supreme Bliss World on an Azurite-colored Ground (Shiqing di jile shijie zhichengjin tuzhou 石青地极 乐世界织成锦圖軸). Song brocade tapestry. 448 x 196 cm. In the collection of the Palace Museum, Beijing.

The Masters thesis is quite excellent and contains very detailed analysis of the work, so I won't say too much here. Here are some main points. Ding Guanpeng was commissioned by the Qianlong Emperor, who was a devotee of Tibetan Buddhism, to create a painting of the Western Paradise modeled after Guanxiu 貫休 (832-912)’s painting. Guanxiu's painting of the Western Paradise unfortunately does not exist today. As others have identified, the central figure is Amitābha, the figure to the left is Avalokiteśvara, and the figure to the right is Mahāsthāmaprāpta. On the flanks of Amitābha are two groups of five arhats, below them, two groups of eleven arhats. Between Amitābha and Avalokiteśvara and Amitābha and Mahāsthāmaprāpta are groups of several bodhisattvas. Behind Avalokiteśvara is a group of eighteen individuals that appear as officials, one appears taller than the others, likely the male patron of the piece. Behind Mahāsthāmaprāpta is a similar group, with a central female patron. At the bottom in the lotus pond are figures standing on lotus flowers, likely devout practioners reaching the Pure Land.

This painting was copied a couple times and reflected the Qianlong Emperor's interest and devotion to the Western Pure Land. The painting by Ding Guanpeng used historical pieces as reference, but added unique elements for its imperial and Manchu patrons.

Reference: Shiyu Zheng, Emperor Qianlong’s Pictorial and Physical Sites for Western Paradises, University of Washington 2018 (may be downloaded for free)

Enfeoffed

 Enfeoffed means to get land, to be given land in exchanged for a pledge of service.

NIMBY

This is part 2 of another essay I wrote.

Not In My BackYard is the idea where you don't want things in your neighborhood because you want it pristine and pure. No group homes for disabled people. No foster homes for troubled youths. No sober houses. No sex offenders. 

Those people should go elsewhere. I deserve a pristine untroubled place. It's a natural instinct to protect you home, and by extension neighborhood, and to keep things the way they are.

They want to build an 8 story building near me. It's been approved for 2 floors, which they've already built. There's a town hall meeting to discuss. This is the second one. I can't make it, so it's a moot point whether I go.

My daughter had the ethical clarity to say, "why not, people need places to live." She doesn't think about crowding, parking issues, crowding at the park. She can't anticipate problems. Mo people mo problems. 

My nature loving relatives built houses where there were none, and decreased the amount of wild land. I think living in the city is the best thing, after going vegan and not flying a lot, for the environment. But living in the city you are alienated to some extent from more wild settings in nature. Those are important too.

Gated communities are the fantasy of NIMBY. Controlling who can even walk down the street. 

As the climate changes, if income inequality increases, these problems are just going to be exacerbated. 

In a way going to a monastery is about choosing conditions for your spiritual growth. It's not at the expense of others, hopefully. They seem so infrequent and benign. They were repositories of learning and culture in a crazy wild world. One of my favorite movies is The Secret of Kells.  

Yesterday was Kwan Yin's birthday. She who hears the cries of the world. Needless to say Nimby isn't a kind stance, but to an extent an understandable one and not bad in certain circumstances like a monastery. 

Happy Birthday Kwan Yin!

Links:

Photo on Reddit

Dates of holiday in upcoming years.

Wikipedia

Cold Mountain

 

Draug Srin Mo

(Milarepa: source)

It's cool Tiban culture, to some extent, hasn't embraced the internet in English. 

I'm reading chapter 4 of Hundred Thousand Songs of Milarepa by Tsangnyön Heruka, and it's about the demon Draug Srin Mo who pestered Milarepa, but he won her over with his songs. 

When I think of Milarepa, I think of this fierce meditator who lived in caves in rural Tibet, and would go into town and talk to people and sing these songs to them. People always wanted him to live outside their village.

(I have the old translation by Garma C.C. Chang. Chang studied with the 9th Gangkar Rinpoche Karma Chokyi Senge at Gangkar Monastery for 8 years. He has an interesting biography as well but you can't get a lot of information about him. I was thinking I should get another translation, and then I wondered if I read it enough to justify. You can see updated translations online.)

There's one scholarly article in English on Draug Srin Mo by Carla Gianotti, an Italian scholar. While you can have Google translate her webpage, there are no books for sale in English by her. 

The book lists an alternate name of Padmasambhava, Bedma Tutrin, and there's no entry found on google. It got me looking at alternative search engines to see if I could find anything. Alternative search engines seem to be obsessed with privacy, the environment but seem to offer little else. Even the Rigpa Shedra wiki doesn't have an entry for Draug Srin Mo. Maybe there's another spelling just like there's another spelling of Padmasambhava.

Reminds me of the Brothers Karamazov, when everyone had all these kind of weird nicknames. I'll never understand how Richard transforms into Dick.

This also reminds me of the importance of language. I was listening to Sangharakshita talk about Dardo Rimpoche and how he give him sadhana practices in Tibetan and to some extent he was struggling to understand.

 

 

Interesting post on rebirth

"The world is full of traps. Things that want to stick to you. You can identify them as something that makes you feel good for attaining. Knowledge is one.

knowledge is additive. You collect it and add it to “you.” In buddhism teaches you to build a chisel, a tool to help you carve things away. Koans are knowledge used to make you realize you can never know for example.

You will never understand rebirth. And if you do, you are very likely wrong. So why bother? No one here knows. We can quote you things from subjectively wise people, but again, it’s all additive. I assume you know this but havent incorporated it fully. Either take the idea of rebirth to such an extreme that you get frustrated and realize conscious overthinking is useless (Take it “into your heart”) or just plain let it go."

(Source)

Cold Mountain

 

The Story of Some Bhikkhus

While residing at the Jetavana monastery, the Buddha uttered Verses (271) and (272) of this book, with reference to some bhikkhus.

Once, there were some bhikkhus who were endowed with virtue; some of them had strictly observed the austere practices (dhutanga), some had wide knowledge of' the Dhamma, some had achieved mental absorption (jhana), some had achieved Anagami Phala, etc. All of them thought that since they had achieved that much, it would be quite easy for them to attain Arahatta Phala. With this thought they went to the Buddha.

The Buddha asked them, "Bhikkhus, have you attained Arahatta Phala?" Then they replied that they were in such a condition that it would not be difficult for them to attain Arahatta Phala at any time. To them the Buddha said, "Bhikkhus! Just because you are endowed with morality (sila), just because you have attained Anagami Phala, you should not be complacent and think that there is just a little more to be done; unless you have eradicated all moral intoxicants (asavas), you must not think that you have realized perfect bliss of Arahatta Fruition."

Then the Buddha spoke in verse as follows:

Verses 271 & 272: Not only by mere moral practice, nor by much learning, nor by acquiring concentration, nor by dwelling in seclusion, nor by assuring oneself, "I enjoy the bliss of Anagami Fruition that is not enjoyed by common worldlings (puthujjanas)," should the bhikkhu, rest content without attaining the extinction of moral intoxicants (asavas) [i.e., without attaining arahatship].

At the end of the discourse all those bhikkhus attained arahatship.

End of Chapter Nineteen: The Just or the Righteous

by Karma Phuntsok

This beautiful magazine showed up today

Check out this new Buddhist art magazine

Wabi Sabi

 

 

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