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 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)
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)
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.
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.
"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)
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
Posts
All Comments
