Samhain, Day of the Dead and Halloween

Samhain is a Gaelic festival marking the end of the harvest season and beginning of winter or "darker half" of the year. This is about halfway between the autumn equinox and winter solstice. It is one of the four Gaelic seasonal festivals, along with Imbolc, Beltaine and Lughnasa.

Day of the Dead: The multi-day holiday involves family and friends gathering to pray for and to remember friends and family members who have died. It is commonly portrayed as a day of celebration rather than mourning.

Halloween: One theory holds that many Halloween traditions may have been influenced by ancient Celtic harvest festivals, particularly the Gaelic festival Samhain, which may have had pagan roots; some scholars hold that Samhain may have been Christianized as All Hallow's Day, along with its eve, by the early Church. Other academics believe, however, that Halloween began solely as a Christian holiday, being the vigil of All Hallow's Day.

Ten precepts combined negative and positive.

1. Abstention from killing of living beings. With deeds of loving-kindness I purify my body.

2. Abstention from taking the non-given. With open-handed generosity I purify my body.

3. Abstention from sexual misconduct. With simplicity, stillness and contentment, I purify my body.

4. Abstention from false speech. With truthful communication I purify my speech.

5. Abstention from harsh speech. With words kindly and gracious I purify my speech

6. Abstention from frivolous speech. With utterances helpful, I purify my speech.

7. Abstention from slanderous speech. With utterances harmonious, I purify my speech.

8. Abstention from covetousness. Abandoning covetousness for tranquility I purify my mind.

9. Abstention from hatred. Changing hatred into compassion, I purify my mind.

10. Abstention from false views. Transforming ignorance into wisdom I purify my mind.

Wheel of Life

I have a similar poster of the Tibetan Wheel of Life (Bhavacakra). Sometimes I just stand and look at it for a while. I consider staring at this and my Avalokita tanka as a practice. Staring at great religious art. I realized when I searched my site for a post on this subject, I didn't get anything.

For me the most important part is the 12 nidanas. Inside that are the 6 realms. Inside that are the cock, the crow and the snake: ignorance, attachment and aversion.

Links:

Rice Seedling Sutra

12 Links (Wikipedia)

Skandhas and Nidanas

I've forgotten my desire to be mindful of the 5 skandhas. I was reading the Nidanasanyutta in the Samyutta Nikaya, and it occured to me that I could do a 12 Nidana meditation, and then it occured to me that I needed a good base of a 5 skandhas meditation. Combining wouldn't be good because there would be some overlap with vedena, sankara and vinnana, but the others were composed of other larger or smaller categories. Rupa (form) in the skandhas in added on name in "name and form. Contact could be perception but they are different pali words. Anyway, I'll do one, and then the other. 

Gandharan Buddhist Texts

"More than twenty years have passed since twenty-eight fragile birch bark scrolls, now known to be the oldest surviving Buddhist manuscripts in the world, came to light."

Read the article in Lion's Roar by Richard Salomon

"The discovery of previously unknown texts also offers a hint of how much of the Buddhist literature that once existed has not come down to us."

If you've got $50-$100 for the 6 books on Amazon in the USA, you must have made good merit. 

It looks like an academic area when you look at all the primitive stuff that includes grafiti. 

"On one hand, one can safely ignore the new material without missing anything essential to the theory or practice of Buddhism. On the other hand, Buddhists may wish to dip a toe—or even plunge headfirst—into these previously uncharted waters."

Links

Gandharan Buddhist Texts (Wikipedia)

Gandhara art (Britannica)

Trees

 

Grief

 

I lost a high school friend and I'm wanting to explore grief. Many people I know have grief of the early loss of a love one as a big stamp on their psyche. I have a lot of friends who have worked with grief through volunteering at a hospice, to leading grief groups.

The forward is encouraging, it talks about normalizing grief, not pretending there is some magical way of transcending it that you aren't trying hard enough to get. It accepts the diversity of grief reactions. 

This book is published during the Covid pandemic, and acknowledges the loss of the pandemic. They mention the river of woe.

The Day of the Dead is coming up, a hispanic tradition of remembering those who have passed. I suppose every day is a.day of the dead, as I think about people who are gone.

It's hard not to see my life as a series of loss. I remember when I lost this person who was important to me. 

A Rumi book I read that suggested the great loss is also an indicator of what was great and important. 

I have lost a lot of Buddhist friends. The authors of this book are Buddhist meditators. 

I am grateful this little book came into my life.

Links to YouTube and author

How Long Does Grief Last: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dFVAJjVO-6s&t=1s

The Pandemic of Grief: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9kM_DyevHpE&t=73s

Disenfranchised or Invisible Grief of a Mentally Ill Child: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VlrqlBisaKA

Grieving the Loss of a Pet: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NA9-kDfbxjY

Mala practice

I was stuck in a waiting room and among the things I did to pass the time, I did 10 times around my mala. That's 1080 mantras. I was wondering what is the most auspicious number of times to go around my mala, and I found this article that thinks 3, multiples of 3, 13 are auspicious. Of course 108 is the number of beads on a mala so that's also auspicious. 

My mala is precious to me because my beloved Anandi gave it to me. She had it specially made. I was thinking that when I die, I want one of my children to have it. I've done so many "om mani padme hum" on it. 

Many times in modern existence, we are left standing there with nothing to do. So take your mala and do some mantras. "Om mani padme hum" means the "jewel in the lotus" which is about the Buddha. He is the jewel, among the three jewels. And lotus are a symbol of the Buddha and enlightenment. The flower grows up out of the mud. In the mud we find the challenges that help us to grow.

I like Avalokiteshvara, the Bodhisattva of compassion that has many manifestations in all the cultures. I love the way it travels through the world,  and comes out as Kanon in Japan. Because I am selfish, I strive to be compassionate to others. When I got bored, I worked to visualize her in white, with nine faces looking in all directions with Amitabha on the top, the red bodhisattva of love. She has many arms to do what is needed. Doing what is needed is quite a skill. My 4 year old daughter can be kind and thoughtful, but sometimes her kindness clangs with what is needed. I happens with everyone. Getting in tune, attuned, with people is not easy. There is some trial and error. And with all helping of others there is the question of idiot compassion, and fostering dependency instead of independence. So the striving is for smart compassion that really helps.

I love Avalokita because it's who wrote the Heart Sutra. I think of the balance between wisdom and compassion. Avalokita is naturally paired with Manjushri. Avalokita is white like Vairocana. 

My friend Srisara talked about using a mala while on the subway.

I need to read the Kāraṇḍavyūha Sūtra, which can be read here. There is also chapter 24 in the Lotus Sutra.

I have not been empowered to do the Avalokita sadhana, but I do it anyway a little with the mantra. I'm not sure if I can visualize in my brain, but I can think visually of sorts. I also like the real Buddha, the example here on earth. 

Spiritual Materialism

I wrote asking what the positive American Dharma will be, but there's also a negative version. Spiritual materialism. Maybe that's the demon we must pin to the wall

Unfortunately it was Chogyam Trungpa, the charismatic, abusive and alcoholic founder of Shambhala, who came up with that idea. 

The Buddhist star system, has people flocking this way and that to touch the robes of famous spiritual teachers. 

Buddhism has become big money in America. And where there's big money, there's people seeking power and not love. 

Thay

 

Approach to food and nutrition (SN 63:3)

And how should you regard solid food? Suppose a couple who were husband and wife set out to cross a desert, taking limited supplies. They had an only child, dear and beloved. As the couple were crossing the desert their limited quantity of supplies would run out, and they’d still have the rest of the desert to cross. Then it would occur to that couple: ‘Our limited quantity of supplies has run out, and we still have the rest of the desert to cross. Why don’t we kill our only child, so dear and beloved, and prepare dried and spiced meat? Then we can make it across the desert by eating our child’s flesh. Let not all three perish.’ Then that couple would kill their only child, so dear and beloved, and prepare dried and spiced meat. They’d make it across the desert by eating their child’s flesh. And as they’d eat their child’s flesh, they’d beat their breasts and cry: ‘Where are you, our only child? Where are you, our only child?’

What do you think, mendicants? Would they eat that food for fun, indulgence, adornment, or decoration?”

“No, sir.”

“Wouldn’t they eat that food just so they could make it across the desert?”

“Yes, sir.”

“I say that this is how you should regard solid food. When solid food is completely understood, desire for the five kinds of sensual stimulation is completely understood. When desire for the five kinds of sensual stimulation is completely understood, a noble disciple is bound by no fetter that might return them again to this world. (SN 63:3)

SN 12.60 section

 

“It’s incredible, sir! It’s amazing, in that this dependent origination is deep and appears deep, yet to me it seems as plain as can be.”

“Not so, Ānanda! Not so, Ānanda! This dependent origination is deep and appears deep. It is because of not understanding and not penetrating this teaching that this population has become tangled like string, knotted like a ball of thread, and matted like rushes and reeds, and it doesn’t escape the places of loss, the bad places, the underworld, transmigration.

There are things that are prone to being grasped. When you concentrate on the gratification provided by these things, your craving grows. Craving is a condition for grasping. Grasping is a condition for continued existence. Continued existence is a condition for rebirth. Rebirth is a condition for old age and death, sorrow, lamentation, pain, sadness, and distress to come to be. That is how this entire mass of suffering originates.

Suppose there was a great tree. And its roots going downwards and across all draw the sap upwards. Fueled and sustained by that, the great tree would stand for a long time.

In the same way, there are things that are prone to being grasped. When you concentrate on the gratification provided by these things, your craving grows. Craving is a condition for grasping. Grasping is a condition for continued existence. … That is how this entire mass of suffering originates.

SN 12.60 Sujato translation

Quotes from article by Remski about Shambhala

Survivors of an International Buddhist Cult Share Their Stories by MATTHEW REMSKI 

This is an article about Shambhala and Chogyam Trungpa.

"Trungpa’s personal doctor would cite liver disease from alcohol abuse as the cause of death."

"Trungpa’s kingdom presents less like an “enlightened society” than it does a longitudinal study of intergenerational abuse and of how thin the line between religion and cult can be."

"In a series of 1983 sermons, he compared the attainment of spiritual wisdom to the act of rape."

"...according to Hays, her job as a “spiritual wife” (traditionally a consort for ritualized sexual meditations) involved offering Trungpa bumps of cocaine, which she remembers his lieutenants pretending was either a secret ritual substance or vitamin D."

"“What Trungpa did,” says Liz Craig, “was create an environment for emotional and sexual harm in which nobody was accountable for their actions.” Craig worked as a nanny in Trungpa’s household. “If he’d been publicly violent, it would have been easier to identify him as harmful and Shambhala as a cult.”"

"Michal Bandac, now living in Germany, says that, in the 1980s, Shambhala adults introduced him to cocaine use when he was twelve."

"There was statutory rape going on all over the place.”

"Thomas Rich, had been having unprotected sex with an unknown number of men and women while being HIV positive."

"The legal entities that held Shambhala’s assets were dissolved to avoid liability."

"Between 1999 and 2018, Mipham’s restructuring helped Shambhala’s global membership grow from under 7,000 to 14,000. Members participated in programs and training at outposts around the world, drawing an annual revenue of $18 million (US) in North America alone."

"Mipham also moved to shield what were reputed to be the most mystical elements of his father’s teaching content behind a pay-wall."

"Through the summer and fall of 2017, stories about similar abuse ripped into other spiritual communities. In July, eight former attendants of the late Sogyal Rinpoche, a celebrated Buddhist teacher and the author of the bestselling Tibetan Book of Living and Dying, published an open letter describing decades of physical, sexual, and financial abuse by the religious leader."

I've quoted so much, read the article to get the rest. The fallout, and the inevitable copying of behavior, and how the survivors gained confidence to speak their truths. The efforts by Shambhala to get out from under these legacies is scary too. It will be hard to survive for a lineage with such a history. I don't have any books by him, but if I did, I would get rid of them. I visited the center once for a Wesak celebration. I would never enter a center now. There exist enough centers without such a history.

You could compare the legacy of Sangharakshita and the TBC with Chogyam Trungpa and Shambhala. Sangharakshita did experiment with sex, and there were others who took his example and copied it, throwing off the Christian taboo of sexuality. I feel like this cultic strain was snuffed out, and the organization talked about the Guardian article quite robustly. 

There was no substance abuse by Sangharakshita that I'm aware of. Supposedly he quite drinking wine with meals when he saw how much land was devoted to wine on his travels. The children in the organization were not groomed for anything to my knowledge. I remember seeing an article shaming a minister in the government for being a member and calling it a cult. There is the FWBO files, FWBO being the old name of the TBC.

I am not aware of any cultic behaviors by the council that took over from Subhuti. I'm not aware of any accusations about Subhuti. Feel free to comment with information.

I do know a fair amount of members resigned from the TBC as a result of reflecting on some of the revelations. The majority remained. I see online that more and more people are being ordained. There is no evidence that the TBC and order have been hit financially.

I feel like Sangharakshita's experiments with sexuality as a founder of an order, were more like Lama Surya Das. He did them, later people expressed they were not all positive, and they regretted them, and with Das, he got married, and with Sangharakshita he went celibate.

Reading about other sanghas and their struggles to grapple with the legacy of their former charismatic founders makes me sad. It seems to be a stage many new sanghas need to go through in America. Charismatic people are flawed and people who are not see as traditionally charismatic can seem so when they are the head of an organization. I tend to feel that TBC can survive. I wish them well. I'll keep my books and go on retreats at their centers. I feel like they have grown up and survived their scandal. 

Recommended is Sex and the Spiritual Teacher by Scott Edelstein. You never have to do anything you don't want to do and "spiritual teacher" isn't a license to rape. "Spirituality" isn't a license to forget common sense. I would say that consensual sex with a teacher needs to be closely monitored.

If you want to be completely safe, I'd say a Theravadan sangha has monks that have a vow of chastity, and that while I'm sure I could find a Theravadan sangha that had a sex scandal, I would argue that they are the safest if you are concerned about being sexually exploited.

I used to scoff at the idea that traditional sanghas with lineages, because I think lineage is a fairy tale. And they have less sexual misconduct. I believe that now. I think that's proven by the data.

I have no idea about the IMS householder Theravadan movement. I bet you could find someone who felt exploited by a teacher somewhere along the line, and Against The Stream and Noah Levine has come under scrutiny. The Dharma Bums of NYC and Josh Korda doesn't seem to be effected by it, to my knowledge. Just know there is a difference between Theravadan and IMS, though IMS gets its inspiration from Theravadan. 

Reginald Ray is another American founder of a sangha, The Dharma Ocean, which came out of Shambhala, and has accusations of abuse.

I have read Shoes Outside The Door about Richard Baker, and The Buddha from Brooklyn about Jetsunma Ahkon Lhamo.

I write this out of love for Buddhism, not to gossip negatively, but for the long term support of Buddhism in America. This is a painful growing process. In the end, I don't think meditating all the time is very sexy, and a good sangha will be less sexually oriented, even if they are trying to shake off Christian conditioning.

I am not free from sexual misconduct throughout my more than half a century of life. I am deeply sorry and regretful. I think about my misconduct every day. I can only hope to move forward every day trying to live the opposite of misconduct, which is to live with simplicity, stillness and contentment. 

More links

The first response as of today on Reddit r/Buddhism about Shambhala has a positive experience report on CT

1979 issue of Boulder Monthly with article by Merwin about being stripped naked with his girlfriend by Trungpa. 

The Bodhisattva Johnny Appleseed

 

John Chapman wandered America planting apple seeds. He wore rags and was not interested in show. He never married because he felt people were untrue. 

I've been thinking that as Buddhism moves into America, we need to convert the local heroes into Bodhisattvas for the cause. 

Archetypal knowledge is contradictory, personalities are not logical. One of the reasons Chapman planted seeds is because hard apple cider was seriously consumed in America. There is a Dionysian element to this ascetic. The ecstatic joy of the spiritual life.

I would love an artist to draw the following bodhisattvas: Johnny Appleseed, Paul Bunyan, Black Hawk, Geronimo, Paul Revere "The Dharma is coming, the Dharma is coming!", Casey Jones who kept the brakes on and died but saved others, in baseball cooperation, teamwork and skill, Tinker to Evers to Chance. Pancho Villa, Our Lady of Guadalupe or Joaquin Murrieta. Spiderman.

Johnny Appleseed was so land wealthy that he didn't even record some of the land he supposedly owned, and left it all to his sister. 

And when he realized mosquitos were flying into a fire he built for warmth, he put it out, thinking his discomfort wasn't important enough to snuff out the lives of mosquitos.

Check out this video about Johnny Appleseed.

A tiny North Indian statue of Buddha found in a Swedish Viking's grave (c. 600AD)

 

Moving away from the partisan pretzel logic to explore spirituality

 In "How Faith Shapes My Politics" in the NY Times 9/24/2020, David Brooks writes:

"These realizations transformed my spiritual life: awareness of God’s love, participation in grace, awareness that each person is made in God’s image. Faith offered an image of a way of being, an ultimate allegiance."

He also writes:

"What finally did the trick was glimpses of infinite goodness. Secular religions are really good at identifying some evils, like oppression, and building a moral system against them. Divine religions are primarily oriented to an image of pure goodness, pure loving kindness, holiness. In periodic glimpses of radical goodness — in other people, in sensations of the transcendent — I felt, as Wendell Berry put it, “knowledge crawl over my skin.” The biblical stories from Genesis all the way through Luke and John became living presences in my life."

I think it's cool he uses the phrase "loving kindness"

For me the conversion to Buddhism helped me see, what I imagine in my limited spirituality, that god is the transcendental, what is beyond conditions, and unspeakable, unquantifiable, and a kind of feeling I get when I can see deeper after lots of meditation. That's probably not what spirituality is, maybe it's more the striving for the largest appropriate perspective. Who knows.

The article is about how absurd it is for a candidate for the Supreme Court to say that "faith" will not color their decisions. It colors everything you do. 

But in partisan America, there are two kinds of faith. One is a wise kindness based one. And the other is for fortitude when you're not being kind, to stand on your convictions about the limited use of the federal government, that thinks it's alright to do whatever to achieve your means, and that it's quite alright to be a selfish power hungry nihilist without a shred of insight or integrity. I may be speaking in a partisan way.

I'm trying to move away from the above duality, and pretzel logic. I'm trying to focus on pushing myself to the greatest depth, hight or whatever up or into metaphors you wish. I'm trying to accept the imperfections of the world as working grounds to challenge me. I continue to be firmly appreciative of everyone's freedom to choose their own spirituality, and to tolerate different personalities, cultures, genders, sex, race and class.

It takes a while but I'm finding some songs to capture the moment. 

Also

Quote: AN2: iv, 6, abridged

 

Some Reddit answers to why Buddhism is no longer in India.

 

I found these interesting.

• Buddhism originated in India but today, most of India is either Hindu or Muslim. Conversely, Buddhism is very common in East Asian countries such as Japan. What were some of the key factors that lead to the decline of Buddhism in India and its rise in East Asia?

• /u/troymcclurehere answers Why did Buddhism slowly decline in India and Hinduism flourish?

• /u/iitii answers The Indian subcontinent was the birthplace of Buddhism. The teaching of Buddha found lots of success in foreign lands such as China, Myanmar, and Indochina. Yet in its homeland, it is currently a very small minority. How could this be?

• /u/JimeDorje answers What exactly happened to Buddhism in India? How did it go from being an effective State Religion for nearly a millennium to an also-ran by the time of India's Muslim Invasions in the early 1100s?

• /u/SudarshanIyer answers What exactly happened to Buddhism in India? How did it go from being an effective State Religion for nearly a millennium to an also-ran by the time of India's Muslim Invasions in the early 1100s?

They were a response to this article that asserts it was SHANKARACHARYA's fault. The response to this article is found on Reddit.

 

New Yorker article on Harari

I read Sapiens and found it interesting, provocative. Then I listened to an article about Harari from the New Yorker from February. It takes 68 minutes to listen to, and is quite a profile of Harari. Turns out he's into Insight meditation. And he convinced the president of Israel to have a vegetarian day in whatever their equivalent to a White House is, which most people find amazing. While he claims there is no scientific evidence for liberal humanism, Steven Pinker thinks he is one. Saying there is no scientific evidence might be a way of saying it is a value. He plays the non-political, but he's clearly of our ilk. He goes off on a retreat every year. He doesn't think it's practical to imagine everyone is going to meditate because he knows how hard it is. He supposedly meditates for an hour every day. He's got a sweet deal as a professor, he doesn't have to do anything but teach 3 classes one semester. He's learned to create the minimum of expectations in his life. Seems pretty cool.