Pilgrimage

DN 16 the Mahaparinibbana Sutta suggests 4 holy places. Where the Buddha was born in Lumbini. Where he got enlightened: Bodh Gaya. Where he taught his first sermon that enlightened others, "turning the wheel of the Dharma": Deer Park (Sarnath). And where he reached parinirvana: Kusinara.

When you look at the Lumbini wikipedia page, you see that countries build temples: India, Japan, Thailand, Chinese, Germany, French, Sri Lanka, South Korea, Cambodia, Austria, Singapore, Canada, Vietnam, Tibet, Myanmar, and even Russia is building a temple. It's not lost on me that USA doesn't have one. These spiritual tourism cities have a logic of their own.

There are some good pillars of Ashoka there. In the mythology there were many Buddhas before our era Buddha and one of them is Konagamana, who was also born in Lumbini.

Only 3% of the people in Lumbini now are Buddhists, it's mostly Hindu now, and there are twice as many Muslims as Buddhas.

It's not the original tree at Bodh Gaya, it's the grandchild of the original tree. Someone must have taken a cutting and grown a tree, and someone took a cutting from that one, and grew a tree. 

Like all good tourist spots, it includes other notable sites. There is a temple that was built 200 years after the Buddha's death, which makes it quite old. It must have been refurbished a few times. There is a stupa and an Ashoka pillar dedicated to the girl who gave the Buddha some milk. There is a great statue:

(Sarcastic voice) Like all good spiritual places, there were bombings in 2013.

Sarnath has the Dhamek Stupa. The Dharmarajika Stupa is one of the few pre-Ashokan stupas remaining at Sarnath, although only the foundations remain. It has been the subject of extensive depredations and archaeological excavations, from the late 18th through the early 20th century (source). There's an 1833 drawing of it.

The Ashokan pillar erected here was broken during the invasions of the 12th century but many of the pieces remain at the original location.

There's a 5th century relief of the Buddha's first sermon that is notable. 

Perhaps the most impressive stupa is the Chaukhandi Stupa.

The Sarnath Museum looks cool too, where the above relief is. 

Mulagandha Kuty Vihara looks interesting too.

There is also another grandson of the Bodhi tree planted in Sarnath. 

Kushinagar is where the Buddha died. I've been reading the fantastical Mahaparinibbana Sutta. I don't really get the spiritual importance of the story where Ananda could have asked the Buddha to live 20 more years, but he missed it. Excoriating people for lack of mindfulness isn't what Buddhism is about, in my humble opinion. 

There are some dubious explanations of earthquakes, but the idea that enlightenment causes some is a cute idea. There's a big debate over whether the Buddha at boar by eating "Pig's Delight" but I think it would be truffles. 

Ramabhar Stupa is the thing to see. In a way it reminds me of the Native American mounds in North America. 

There's a Parinirvana Temple.

If you added in other sites, I would pick:

Vulture's Peak Rajgir Bahar India.

Rajgir is where Nalanda, a great center of Buddhism 427 CE until around 1400 CE., which hosted the scholars Dharmapala, Nagarjuna, Dharmakirti, Asanga, Vasubandhu, Chandrakirti, Xuanzang, Śīlabhadra and Atiśa..

Sravasti includes stupas and many sites, archaeological and reconstructed that are in the Pali Canon.

Sankissa has some sights, pillars, statues, monastery and stupa ruins.

Vaishali has archaeological sites too.

Mathura has the first image of the Buddha on record perhaps.

When I think of sites I would like to visit, I think Bodhidharma's cave and a walk around Shikoku to the 88 temples, for Kukai. India, Nepal, China and Japan. I'm sure I could find more places I'd like to go, but that's what comes to mind this morning.

DN 16 expresses a contradiction. Some of the monks are wailing and pulling their hair out, and some have attained something so that they don't see death as a surprise. Both contradictory reactions are possible. One is of great devotion but little insight, and one seems blase but actually contains the insights the Buddha has led you to. 

 

Poem

Shrine flowers

teaching impermanence

and joy

one flower 

still

opens up

a few days later

I want to learn

how to open up

with no nourishment

just water

unconditioned

Dharmakaya

with stillness, simplicity and contentment

This is a photo a few days before the miracle of opening up after being plucked many days ago. I guess there are stories of lamps that kept burning after the oil was gone and loaves of bread that just kept splitting and splitting to feed everyone.

When I was in Ecuador, I learned about epiphytes, plants that grow without soil.  

Joseph Goldstein

Joseph Goldstein has 33 talks on the Satipatthana Sutta. April 2004 on YouTube on AudioBuddha.

In the first one his some background to his journey. At one point he says, "I could happily just sit there and think and entertain myself." But that's not what meditation is about. Do you want to think or do you want to get enlightened. What choice are you making. Do you want to indulge this pattern or arouse the ardency, which is the energy factor. This path isn't a path of uninterrupted bliss. You need courage.

The goal is to clearly comprehend what is going on. Investigate and develop wisdom.

Here is the first one. 

In the second one he talks about pseudo enlightenment stage, when you develop lopsided in second one. There's a selflessness in faith. Faith keeps us open to things beyond our current level of understanding. I've never hear of faith described that way, and it's blown my mind. He reference Tracing Back the Radiance by Jinul (1158–1210). Mindfulness helps us not to proliferate into desire and confusions. 

Goldstein is an 80 year old American, grew up in Catskills, studied philosophy at Columbia. He went to Thailand in the peace corps. He came back and started teaching at Naropa. He helped establish Barre Center for Buddhist Studies. He uses the phrase "guru job" in his first talk, and I wonder about his guru jobs aside from author and retreat leader, retreat talker.

Links

First book: The Experience of Insight (pdf).

You can find all his books on his Wikipedia page.

Looking on Goodreads, most people have read his book on Mindfulness (2013). Then Insight Meditation: The Practice of Freedom (1993). Seeking the Heart of Wisdom: The Path of Insight Meditation (1987) with Jack Kornfield. With the first book The Experience of Insight: A Simple & Direct Guide to Buddhist Meditation, he has these 4 books top the list of books that come up. One Dharma: The Emerging Western Buddhism (2002) looks interesting too. Books are more concise, some people prefer audio learning. 

In The Experience of Insight (1976/2020) Ram Das talks about Goldstein and gives credit to Munindra for teaching him in Bodhgaya.

I love hearing about new Buddhists, I've never hear of Jinul (1158–1210). Jinul is also spelled Chinul. 

"The young monk's relationship with his preceptor does not seem to have been especially close, for his biographer states that he never had a permanent teacher. Chinul's intellect and his natural inclination toward solitude and retreat had been noticeable since his youth; with the fractious climate of the church in his days, he probably felt more comfortable learning to get along on his own considerable talents in seclusion. From early on in his vocation Chinul made up for the lack of personal instruction by drawing inspiration from the Buddhist scriptures. In the spirit of self-reliance that is central to Buddhism, he took responsibility for his own spiritual development and followed the path of practice outlined in the scriptures and confirmed through his own Sŏn meditation. Chinul's progress in Buddhist practice was, therefore, based on using scriptural instructions to perfect formal Sŏn practice." 

From The Korean Approach to Zen: The Collected Works of Chinul, Translated with an Introduction by Robert E. Buswell Jr., pages 20-21.

He founded the Jogye order. "In 1994, the Jogye order managed 1725 temples and 10,056 clerics and had 9,125,991 adherents." They attach to the Huineng lineage, famous for his Platform Sutra and winning poetry contests. 

His magnum opus is called: Excerpts from the Dharma Collection and Special Practice Record with Personal Notes.

One of his teachings is essence-function.

Ambapali

They derisively called her the mango woman, the courtesan who wanted to see the Buddha. She locked wheels with other vehicles trying to get to the Buddha. They offered her all the money in the world not to go, but she wanted to see the Buddha. He agreed to eat with her, and she served him and the sangha a meal. She was inspired to become a nun.

DN 16

Hindustan Times

The Verses of Ambapali: Read the poem from the Therigatha attributed to Ambapali. The Therigatha is perhaps the first book of women's spirituality on earth, that comes down to us, and is quite riveting, and sparkles with spiritual intensity. I once read it on retreat, and was really wowed by it. She has the refrain, "The truth of the Truth-speaker's words doesn't change."

Sujato translation

Ayya Soma

Thanissaro

Empty Cloud

Today is  Empty Cloud's (Xu-yun) birthday. He lived to be 119, and wrote a memoir about his life. I found the earlier parts best. He walked all around China, first to sacred mountains to honor his parents, and then to Tibet and over to Myanmar. At times he suffered quite a bit, but he was disciplined and led an interesting life, through a lot of interesting Chinese history. Later in life he traveled around a lot visiting monasteries to support them, and raise money for them. He was brutally beaten when the communist took over at the very end of his life, when he was over 100. He lived to be 119, which is a pretty amazing feat in itself. There's research that restricted calorie intake can extend your life, and I think he was partially starved in parts of his life in the early years.  

Ivory plaque with scenes of Buddha's life. China, Ming dynasty, 1368-1644.

19 September 2024 Met exhibit on Mandalas opens

"Mandalas: Mapping the Buddhist Art of Tibet, an exhibition that will showcase a wide range of Himalayan Buddhist devotional art. Scheduled to open on 19 September, the exhibition will feature more than 100 items, including paintings, sculptures, textiles, costumes, weapons, musical instruments, and various ritual objects, primarily dating from the 11th–15th centuries. The exhibition will also include a contemporary installation by Tibetan artist Tenzing Rigdol, commissioned by the museum specifically for this event and to be displayed in the atrium of the museum’s Robert Lehman Wing."

Buddhist Door Global

A mandala is a graphic representation.

Here's an example on their page about a talk on the 22nd.

Here's a review 10/9/24

The protectors

I do a puja and I confess to the protectors. One time I asked what protections are there in Buddhism, are on Reddit and I was sent to the Lotus Sutra, where there was a bit about mantras provide protection. 

I think the protectors come out of the primordial soup, they are ancient mythical figures. With my skeptical mind, I'm resistant to this, but when I think about opening that part of my mind up to these experiences, I'm excited, and I get benefit from them.

There are Four Heavenly Kings: Vaiśravaṇa, Virūḍhaka, Dhṛtarāṣṭra and Virupaksa.

There are also the Dharmapala, who are wrathful forms of deities that protect the Dharma.

The Eight Dharmapalas are Begtse, Tsangspa, Kuvera (Vaiśravaṇa), Lhamo, Yama (Lord of death), Yamantaka, Hayagriva, and Mahakala (HAR), of whom the last five are the best known. They come from the proto-Hindu past. 

Mahakala 1600 - 1699 Nyingma

People on r/Buddhism like to say there was no Hinduism when the Buddha happened, but when you look at the Hindu wikipedia entry, the Buddha was around the Vedic period into the second urbanization period, so um, not sure that's good history. They must mean something, thinking Hinduism doesn't begin until after the Classical Period which is 200 B.C.E.

Mahakala is claimed by Nyingma Buddhists as their special protector. I wonder who the protector of my unfocused and hazzy sectless Buddhism is? I often wonder where I should make a pilgrimage. I do go down to the lake to celebrate Tara, who is waterborne. Obviously I could go to the Buddha's sites in India and Nepal, or the many sacred places in Asia. I've read about Robert Thurman circumambulating around a sacred mountain in Tibet. I've read about the Macao Caves and great places along the silk road, and I discover new archaeological sites seemingly often, last one was Tapa Shotor. 

What's the sacred site that Buddhists claim in America? It is yet to emerge, Buddhism has only been here one tenth of the time it's been on earth. There is a great stupa in Colorado, and in Newmarket New Hampshire, and I'm sure there are many others. 

The coolest ceremony in America is Zozobra, the Friday before labor day where they burn their burdens and worries. It's a clearing of the deck for positivity. 

Links:

What Are Dharma Protectors by Dr. Alexander Berzin

Ancient expression of well wishing metta

The Sutra of Golden Light is estimated to have been accumulated around 2000 years ago, and contain an ancient well wishing and expression of metta (4.78-4.92):

May all the beings throughout every world

Become free of suffering and attain happiness.

May all those with incomplete faculties

Have their physical features made complete.

May beings with no protector, and bodies

Weakened by the suffering of their illness,

All have the suffering of their illness cease

And have improved faculties, color, and power.

May those to be executed for breaking the king’s law,

Who are tormented by many sufferings and in extreme misery,

Who are experiencing this unendurable suffering

Without having anyone to protect or save them‍—

And those who are struck by weapons and bound,

Whose bodies are tortured by various harmful instruments

And are experiencing countless thousands of miseries,

Their bodies in pain and without the slightest happiness‍—

May all of them become freed from their bonds,

From the beatings, suffering, and torments.

May the lives of those to be killed be saved

And all their many sufferings completely cease.

May beings who are pained by hunger and thirst

Obtain various kinds of the sublime, best flavors.

May the blind see forms, the deaf hear sounds,

The crippled walk, and the mute speak.

May poor beings obtain a treasure of jewels,

Have a treasury that increases and never diminishes,

And may all beings attain sublime, supreme happiness

And never experience suffering.

May they obtain a beautiful, sublime appearance

That all devas and humans will wish to see,

And may they directly experience limitless happiness

And possess pleasures, prosperity, and merit.

May there arise many kinds of perfect music

That are the exact music those beings wish to hear.

If they wish for water, may there appear perfectly cool pools

Upon which float flowers of gold.

May what those beings wish for‍—

Food, drink, clothes, thrones, and seats;

Gold, silver, and beryl jewels,

And every string of jewelry‍—perfectly appear.

May beings not hear anything unpleasant

And not see any disharmony between anyone.

May all their physical features be beautiful,

And may each being be kind and loving.

May they obtain, as soon as they think of them,

Every possession and requisite that brings happiness in the world.

May they find wealth and without ever being in need

Divide their possessions and give them to beings.

May incense and perfumes, powders and ointments,

Various flowers of every kind of color

Fall from the trees three times each day,

And may there be happiness from the enjoyments wished for.

May all beings make offerings to the jina lords

In the ten directions; to the three yānas,

The pure and sublime doors to the Dharma; and to the saṅgha of

Bodhisattvas, pratyekabuddhas, and śrāvakas.

May they never have a low rebirth

Or fall into the eight unfortunate states,

But gain a supreme human’s riches and freedoms

And attend on the buddhas in the ten directions.

The 8 unfortunate states are: (1) being born in a hell realm, (2) as an animal, (3) as a hungry ghost, (4) as a long-life god, (5) in a borderland or non-Buddhist country, (6) having wrong views, (7) as someone with impaired faculties who is unable to understand the teachings, or (8) in a time or place where no buddha has come.

I sometimes wonder when the path is all about entering the Dharmakaya, the unconditioned, non-dualistic realm, why well wishes are about conditions and conditionality. I think the emotion of wishing others well is crucial when you understand we're all connected, interbeing and all that. You are wishing people well as an act of insight and positive emotion development. 

A confession from the Sutra of the Golden Light

I confess today, single-mindedly, all of

The extremely heavy bad actions,

The sins that I have committed in the past.

I have constantly committed bad actions

By not believing in the buddhas,

Not revering gurus and kalyāṇamitras,

And I have not performed many good actions.

I have constantly committed bad actions

By being proud of my high status,

Of my family, and of my possessions,

And by being conceited about my youth.

I have constantly committed bad actions

Through constantly having wrong thoughts,

Giving voice to bad words,

And not seeing these as sinful

I have constantly committed bad actions

By constantly having a foolish mentality,

My mind obscured by the darkness of ignorance,

And by following wicked companions.

I have committed bad actions because of

My delighting in amusements,

Because of being in a state of misery,

Or being in the bondage of desire and hate.

I have committed bad actions because

I have relied upon friends who were not virtuous,

Because of being motivated by envy and greed,

And because of poverty and deception.

Though I did not aspire to commit many bad actions,

I have committed such actions

Through fear and terror,

Or because I was under the power of others.

I have committed bad actions because,

Though I did not aspire to many bad actions,

I did so through fear and terror

Or because I was under the power of others.

I have committed bad actions because

My thoughts were completely distracted,

Because I was angry or held a grievance,

And because I was tormented by hunger and thirst.

I have committed bad actions because of

Being burned by the fire of the kleśas

In craving for food and drink,

And for clothes and for women.

All the many bad actions I have done,

Such as not having veneration in my mind

For the Buddha, Dharma, and Saṅgha,

Today I individually confess them all.

“ ‘All the many bad actions I have done,

Such as not having veneration in my mind

For the pratyekabuddhas and bodhisattvas,

Today I individually confess them all.

“ ‘All the many bad actions I have done,

Such as ignorant criticism of the Dharma

And having no respect for my parents,

Today I individually confess them all.

All the many bad actions I have done,

Through the power of ignorance,

Of pride, of desire, and of anger,

Today I individually confess them all.

May the countless buddhas in the realms

Of the ten directions, to whom I make offerings,

Become guides for all beings

And free them from suffering and obstacles.

May every single being

Abide in the ten bhūmis.

Having perfected merit and wisdom,

May they guide beings as buddhas.

(adapted from source 84000)

Reading The Sutra of the Golden Light

In chapter 1, the question for me is, what would I want a sacred text to do to me? It makes all sort of extravagant promises about the impact of this sutra, hyping you up to read the text. We're clearly in hyperbolic mythical zones, but I wonder if being literal minded you would get more from really believing in the text's promises. The clang of worldly goods being given for this spiritual journey is meant to help you realize you can't even really describe what you're going to be getting, but if you really tried, what would you come up with? 

I don't recognize Ruciraketu, but he seems to be the one framing the second chapter. It seems like he might be a protector of the Dharma and accompanied many Buddhas throughout the cosmic history of Buddhism. His devotion leads to many riches, the Jinas appear, and golden light shines on him. His question is why does the Buddha of this era, Shakyamuni, only live 80 years? The divine light fixes people's broken senses. Are entering the Dharmakaya, the unconditioned, a transcendental zone, a pure land where all obstacles are removed from comprehending the Dharma. There is amazement, reverence. With all the mythical beings, with Shakyamuni, we would not see a drop of water as separate from the ocean. 

They seem to be saying to revere even a mustard seed of the Buddha's greatness in the borderlands, is enough to partake somehow in his greatness, and if you see beauty or partake in any joy, you are participating in the Buddha's greatness. If you partake in any comfort, you are partaking in the Buddha's comfort of the Dharma. In seeing something well made, you partake somehow in the well made Dharma. By having a little rapture in being drunk, you partake in Piti of meditation, any relic or artifact partakes in the greatness of the past, even if it is inconceivable, every glimpse is a hint of the possible emancipation to those open to it. The fantastical things are about stretching you, tortoise hair garments, rabbit horns, leech teeth used to make a ladder to climb into heaven. Animals dancing, owls and cows enjoy themselves in mutual harmony. All the Buddhas look the same here, so 80 years isn't relevant, because he partakes in the cosmic and mythical greatness. This answers Ruciraketu's question and he is more than pleased.

Chapter 3 will be an intense confession.

I read this a long time ago, and somehow I was drawn to pick it up again and I'm amazed by it. I'm aware of my qualms, quibbles, doubts and resistance, but I'm also aware that in being taken in, that I am leaving my secular and non-religious peers. I free stretched, inspired, and am getting devotional energy. Some people have trouble visualizing, some people have difficulty thinking mythically. Agog, I read and meditate throughout the morning.

It seems the 84000 translation is different than the Pali society text I have. 

Rebecca Solnit

I listen to stuff that's been said so long ago, so it's cool to watch something 15 hours ago.

There's a talk by Rebecca Solnit on Upaya Zen Center in Santa Fe and on YouTube. She reads from paper. She talks about Rachel Carson. Poisons killed everything, not just what it's targeted. Her famous book was called Silent Spring. She quotes MLK on interconnectivity. Revolutions are objections to separateness. Lynn Margulis developed symbiogenesis wasn't how Darwin saw things, he saw things splitting off instead of coming together, but live combines and develops cooperatively, relationality, interdependence. She talks about Suzanne Simard who saw how trees cooperate (NY Times article). She talks about politics, how she was afraid Kamala Harris was going to be torn down as a black woman, so pleased the opposite has been happening so far. The celebration of place too. Interesting, Madonna/Whore syndrome with the environment, we can't touch nature, or we strip mine it.

She does a podcast to promote her book on how it's not too late to try and do some things about climate change, and it's transcribed in Tricycle.

More links:

Profile on Wikipedia

Solnit's website

Budai

"Cloth Bag got his nickname because he wandered from town to town carrying a cloth bag full of treasures that he shared freely with children." The Conversation: "his round belly represents his generosity and abundance, and also symbolizes the positive qualities of wealth and fertility." Most of the representations are of Japanese versions, but he is also popular in China, Vietnam and Korea. He is said to have lived around the 10th century CE in the Wuyue kingdom (one of the Ten Kingdoms during the Five Dynasties and Ten Kingdoms period of Chinese history).

He is also sometimes considered a manifestation of Maitreya, a future Buddha. He made the claim in his death poem that he wrote just before he died: 

"Maitreya, the veritable Maitreya, divides his body into ten

thousand million parts. From time to time, (appearing among

men) he proclaims (the Truth) to the men of that era, but they

naturally do not recognize him."

I was once driving by LaGuardia, and there was a sign over a pedestrian overpass, "Maitreya is coming!" L. Ron Hubbard suggested he might be Maitreya. He is the founder of Scientology. Some Dalits in Indian wonder if Ambedkar was Maitreya. 

"Bernard Faure summarizes this merging of local legend and Chan tradition by explaining, "One strategy in Chan for domesticating the occult was to transform thaumaturges into tricksters by playing down their occult powers and stressing their this-world aspect..."" (Wikipedia:

In a Journal Article from 1933 Budai is called Pu-tai, Hotai,  Mi-lo Fo, or Ch'ang-t'ing-tz. Budai is one of the seven gods of good luck in Japan:

Ebisu, the patron saint of fishermen, 

Daikokuten, a Buddhist version of Shiva.

Bishamonten, another Hindu god, a god of warfare. 

Benzaiten, goddess of speech, the arts, and learning. She is also named in the Sutra Of Golden Light.

Jurōjin is the god of longevity. 

Fukurokuju another god of longevity. 

Mythology can turn and twist in many ways and Budai is sometimes seen as Hyottoko, who can transform into Otafuku, an ugly prostitute who throws black beans on the New Year to chase away bad luck. 

eight liberations

There are, Ananda, these eight liberations, What are they?

1) Possessing form, one sees forms. That is the first liberation.

(2) Not perceiving material forms in oneself, one sees them outside. That is the second liberation.

(3) Thinking: "It is beautiful", one becomes intent on it. That is the third.

(4) By completely transcending all perception of matter, by the vanishing of the perception of sense-reactions and by non-attention to the perception of variety, thinking: "Space is infinite", one enters and abides in the Sphere of Infinite Space. That is the fourth.

(5) By transcending the Sphere of Infinite Space, thinking: "Consciousness is infinite", one enters and abides in the Sphere of Infinite Consciousness. That is the fifth.

(6) By transcending the Sphere of Infinite Consciousness, thinking: "There is no thing", one enters and abides in the Sphere of No-Thingness. That is the sixth.

(7) By transcending the Sphere of No-Thingness, one reaches and abides in the Sphere of Neither-Perception-Nor-Non-Perception. That is the seventh.

(8) By transcending the Sphere of Neither-Perception-Nor-Non-Perception one enters and abides in the Cessation of Perception and Feeling. That is the eighth liberation.

From DN15:35

DN 15:29

'Pleasant feeling is impermanent, conditioned, dependently-arisen, bound to decay, to vanish, to fade away, to cease - and so too are painful feeling and neutral feeling. So anyone who, on experiencing a pleasant feeling, thinks: "This is my self", must, at the cessation of that pleasant feeling, think: "My self has gone!" and the same with painful and neutral feelings. Thus whoever thinks: "Feeling is my self" is contemplating something in this present life that is impermanent, a mixture of happiness and unhappiness, subject to arising and passing away. Therefore it is not fitting to maintain: "Feeling is my self."

four comrade dhammas

"The four comrade dhammas are sati [mindfulness], panna [wisdom], sampajanna [wisdom in action], and samadhi [concentration]. You will recall from the first lecture that while we live within this world the four comrade dhammas will enable us to subdue all threats. With them we can get rid of dukkha. Whether inside or outside the monastery, we must use these four comrades to live. First, we have sati (reflective awareness mindfulness). When a sense object makes contact, sati is there and brings panna (wisdom) to the experience. Once it arrives, panna transforms into sampajanna (wisdom-in-action), the specific application of wisdom required by the situation. Then, samadhi’s power and strength are added to sampajanna. With them we are able to conquer every kind of object that comes in through the eyes, ears, nose, tongue, body, and mind. The four comrade dhammas are unsurpassed guardians. They watch over and protect us just like God. If we practice Anapanasati we will acquire the four comrade dhammas."

Mindfulness with breathing by Buddhadasa

Japanese temple guardians

Vajracchedikā Prajñāpāramitā Sūtra

When Sangharakshita read the Diamond Sutra at 16 he realized he was a Buddhist. I didn't realize I was a Buddhist until I took a meditation class with Vajramati in 2002 in the Triratna tradition. I ended up going on a retreat that blew my mind. It was on the Brahma-viharas, and I never felt so healthy in my life.

Once on retreat, we read the sutra aloud, and since then every once in a while I read it. I've been reading the Heart Sutra too, to get back my ability to say it without reading, I had it memorized at some point. 

There's a teacher in Flushing, who his practice was reading it once a day. I have his book somewhere on my bookshelf. 

Elder Subhūti addresses the Buddha. Detail from the Dunhuang block print.

The Vajracchedikā Prajñāpāramitā Sūtra is the oldest printed book with a date (11 May 868) in it that is alive in civilization, and that's an amazing thing. It was found on the silk road in the Mogao Caves, 25 km from Dunhuang, Gansu Province, China. The presently resides in the British museum because Aurel Stein bought it from the Taoism monk who was tending the caves in 1907.

It is also the first known creative work with an explicit public domain dedication, as its colophon at the end states that it was created "for universal free distribution".

The Perfection of Wisdom Text that Cuts Like a Thunderbolt was probably composed between the 2nd and 4th centuries, the first mention of it is in the 4th century by Asanga and Vasubandhu. The first translation of it that we know of was by Kumārajīva in 401. 

It's a unique books that I'd refer you to the videos below if you want to learn more about it. 

In our current age, you can just listen to the teachings online. So today I picked the Venerable Guan Cheng is the abbot of the International Buddhist Temple in Richmond, British Columbia, Canada. The land was donated by Hong Kong businessmen, not sure if Guan Cheng is from Hong Kong. There's not a lot of info on him except he started in Richmond at 1999. 

Here is his article in Lion's Roar.

I'm watching his 38 videos on the Diamond Sutra.

In side notes, there's a good list of Kukai Books.

Vedena

“The feelings are the second item. If you are unaware of the feelings, you might think they are unimportant. In reality, they are of the greatest importance to human beings in that they spin us around at their will. Furthermore, they also spin the whole world around. Whatever feelings we desire-and everyone craves them-incite us to all kinds of behavior. Everyone chases after pleasant feelings and runs away from unpleasant feelings. This is how the vedana keep the whole world spinning. The feelings in people are the causes of all the new, strange inventions and creations that humanity constantly pro-duces. Art, culture, and technology were discovered and produced for the sake of the feelings, which have such great power to force us to follow them. Vedana causes desire. Want is born out of feeling and follows feeling. Consequently, we act according to our desires, causing all manner of occurrences to happen. Even our search for money is a response to vedana, whether because of sensuality and sex or merely because of the ordinary feeling of wishing to be at ease.”

Mindfulness with breathing by Bhikkhu Buddhadasa, p. 100.

Yulin Caves and Yellow River Odyssey tidbits

This is listed as having been done around 1038 to 1227 in the Yulin Caves which Bill Porter doesn't write much about because he was sick when he visited. It's more amazing cave art along the Silk Road. I like the wispy blowing in the wind nature of I guessing is a Guanyin maybe before traces of Green Tara were gone. Who knows, I'm no specialist, just enjoying Buddhist art and archaeology as a novice. 

Porter quote from Yellow River Odyssey p.179:

"Wutangchao was on the other side of the Yinshan Mountains, but we We were there in less than ninety min-utes. Wutangchao was once one of the major centers for Tantric Buddhism in China. As with Tantric temples elsewhere, its architecture was distinctly Tibetan, betraying the origin of that sect of Buddhism: thick walls, small windows painted larger than they were, multistoried construction and flat roofs. Inside, the walls were covered with murals dating back to the temple's original construction 300 years earlier. It was a good thing I didn't forget my flashlight and my binoculars. The artwork was exquisite, but the shrine halls were so dark, I wouldn't have been able to see much if I hadn't brought my own light. The halls themselves were supported by dozens of pillars that had been wrapped in thick red carpets to improve the acoustics and also to provide a little more warmth in winter. I expected to see more monks than I did and thought maybe they were meditating or doing something else. But in the patriarch's hall, one of the lamas told me that the government restricted the number of monks who could live there and most of the older lamas had moved away. He also said that their sect had been without a spiritual leader since the Liberation of Tibet in 1951. After the last rimpoche died, the government refused to let them seek his incarnation for fear that he might be found outside China."

I find it weird China tries to control Buddhist rebirths. I have a fantasy that the Tibetan have a secret world of legitimate tulkus who were not state appointed. 

He visits a few more temples in the area too, likes some carvings and finds interesting spaces, but he doesn't talk to a Buddhist there. Empty "tourist attractions" mostly it seems, like above. He's traveling 30 years ago, so maybe things have changed. Maybe there aren't as many restricted areas that tourists can't go for some reason or another. And foreigner officers who make sure they don't go where they're not supposed to go. One becomes his guide for his trips, it's a fishy setup. Feels like an Orwell novel somehow. 

I'm reading about the temple in Zhongwei, which Porter spells differently (p. 207), and I look it up online and find it spelled differently too, and there's a blog post about how the temple combines Buddhism, Confucianism, Taoism and Christianity. Porter calls the temple Kaomiao, the blog calls it Gao Miao. Check out the photos on the blog, there's a tour of a bomb shelter that has eerie music and torture displays. It might be that these displays have been installed since Porter's trip, or that somehow his way of talking with people didn't open up this aspect. Sometimes he seems uninterested in things he didn't read about before hand.  

Bingling Caves: Mural in cave 169:

Labrang Monastery is a Tibetan monastery in the heart of current China. There has been some tussling with Chinese officials over the years, a Muslim general persecuted the people in the early 20th century, and as recently as 2008 there was some action by the government to control the Tibetan population. Add a new book to my book list:

Unbound: A True Story of War, Love, and Survival by Dean King (2010)

The Great Discourse on Lineage

Digha Nikaya 14 (Sujato translation). I'm reading the Maurice Walshe translation hard copy I have.

So everyone is sitting around and they get to talking about past lives, as you do. 

I don't have any memories of past lives. When I look at someone I can imagine their life, and I could imagine that if I had their body and their circumstances, I would probably make similar choices. The more I think about a human life, the more I understand the vector they took.

Why have we (in present time America) lost our knowledge of past lives? Maybe because it was a supposition of a culture I'm not ensconced in right now, and you know when other cultures don't pick up on things, maybe it's part of that culture's mythology.

I have met people who talked about past lives, but to my shame I've been dismissive in my past. I'm a fairly skeptical person, I killed my grandparents dreams of me believing in Santa Clause early. I can remember the disappointment on my grandmother's face when I guessed Grandpa put the presents under the tree, not Santa Clause. I honestly was guessing, so it was also a surprise to me that I was right. 

I'm agnostic about past lives. I don't have any information. Because it's part of the culture of the Buddha, I work hard to be open to it. It's a delicate balancing act to both honor your current skepticism and be open to new information and stories. 

The Buddha gives a sermon on past lives. He talks about past Buddhas in distant eons. There were 3 previous Buddhas in this eon, and the present one talking. The Buddha is an honorific title, the name he was given at birth was Siddhartha Gautama. Most Buddhas were born in Brahmin families in the Indian caste system, but Gautama was born in the Khattiya cast, the warrior cast. 

Caste is a big thing, and I have sad sinking feeling when I think about caste, like if you're born in the a caste, you might out of confusion confine your life to that caste's possibilities. I have read a book by a woman who was born untouchable, who converted to Buddhism in Ambedkar's conversion to Buddhism. This great man had to sit outside the classroom and look through the window into the class. He went to the USA and got a PhD in law, and then went to England and got a PhD in law. Then he came back to India and helped write the first constitution and served as the first minster of justice. He looked around and saw that there were other world religions to convert to, where he wouldn't be considered untouchable. He studied Christianity. He studied Islam. I don't know how far he went, did he study other religions? I'd love a good biography of him. 

Ambedkar decided to convert to Buddhism. The unfortunate thing is that when he converted to Buddhism, and there was a mass conversion of untouchables, he died 6 weeks later. His followers needed a leader, and he was gone. 

The Dalit Buddhist movement has suffered under the lack of leadership ever since then. Gandhi called the untouchables Dalits, and it's a slightly condescending term, "god's children", but it stuck as a nicer term for the untouchables caste. Lokamitra, a disciple of Sangharakshita, went to India and there are many in the Triratna order. 

They do lots of amazing work amongst the Dalit community. Lokamitra is married to a Dalit, and Triratna is considered a lay movement by the outside Buddhist world, even though Sangharakshita considered it neither monastic nor lay, because they have no lineage. Sangharakshita looked back through time and realized that not all 5 people at an ordination would all be keeping the Vinaya, so lineage would ever be literal, you couldn't know all the monks were actually keeping the discipline as stated in the rules. Maybe someone had some food after solar noon, the ways you would break the vinaya are endless, it's hard to imagine every single ordination going back had perfect compliance. He also admired some monks who had secret wives on the side, they were deep and vigorous, where as there were monks who kept the vinaya and he wasn't impressed by them. It wasn't really the mark of spiritual depth to him. That is how the story came down to me. 

Whenever I meet people of Indian heritage in America, I ask if they know Ambedkar. Most of the people in my neighborhood are from Gujarati, and no, they haven't. Ambedkar converted in Nagpur, Maharashtra. Everyone in America says they are Brahmin because we don't know, in Indian they would know by their name. 

Many of the women from Gujarati don't speak English or don't want to talk to an American, but one did, and we talked while our children played. She talked about how she would eat mulberries in a tree while her father would farm. I would climb mulberry trees in Wisconsin, and I felt like she was a kindred spirit when I heard that story. She has a delightful son, who plays with my daughter. 

Back to the Sutta. The other Buddhas of this eon lived thousands of years. This Buddha was short lived in comparison. He lived to 80, becoming enlightened at 35, after a 6 year quest and he spread the message for 45 years. 

He names the kinds of trees past Buddhas were enlightened under. The tree our Buddha was enlightened under was named after him, Ficus religiosa, a kind of mulberry tree! You can visit the grandchild of the original tree in India today. That there is a connection to the Buddha via a tree is amazing to me. 

The way the Buddha has Sariputta and Moggallana, the past Buddhas had two chief disciples. There are pages of names. His attendant is Ananda, they list past attendants. If you're ever looking for a baby name, you could pick among these.

There is another talk by the Buddha, following on in this topic.  When a woman gets pregnant with a Buddha all kinds of amazing things happen to her. That would be a good passage to read to your wife if she's pregnant. Just don't read the part about dying 7 days after childbirth. One amazing thing about modern childbirth is that women don't have to die as frequently. This is a great thing. 

The Buddha baby comes forth and walks 7 steps. We know human babies can't do that, so that part has to be mythical. Indeed we've been in mythical stories for quite a while now.

I could take a moment to tell you how I look at mythology. I used to be fairly skeptical, and see mythology as a nice story. Then I read more about cults, and of course they scared me, but there is also a sense where cultic is deep devotion, and deep devotion isn't bad if it's targeted and not manipulated. You can use devotion to support your individual practice. So if I take it literally true, then it puts a little zip into my practice. I love the mythology. 

There's a danger if you don't realize when taking the mythology literally isn't the right thing to carry out into public life, and I'm very invested in respect for other religions and people. The rise of Christian nationalism in America is quite frightening. The speaker of the House of Representatives Mike Johnson hopes to inject Christianity into the secular public spaces. I believe public life should be secular in that we live in a multicultural world, country, state, city, and you can't assume everyone is of the same sect of evangelical Christianity you are. 

The Buddha had the 32 marks of a great man. My mind immediately goes to the idea that this is about the iconography of the Buddha. I try to be credulous:

“(1) He has feet with level tread. (2) On the soles of his feet are wheels with a thousand spokes. (3) He has projecting heels. (4) He has long fingers and toes. (5) He has soft and tender hands and feet. (6) His hands and feet are net-like. (7) He has high-raised ankles. (8) His legs are like an antelope's. (9) Standing and without bending, he can touch and rub his knees with either hand. (10) His male organs are enclosed in a sheath. (11) His complexion is bright, the color of gold. (12) his skin is delicate and so smooth that no [18) dust adheres to it. (13) His body-hairs are separate, one to each pore. (14) They grow upwards, bluish-black like collyrium, growing in rings to the right. (15) His body is divinely straight. (16) He has the seven. convex surfaces. (17) The front part of his body is like a lion's. (18) There is no hollow between his shoulders. (19) He is proportioned like a banyan-tree: his height is as the span of his arms. (20) His bust is evenly rounded. (21) He has a perfect sense of taste. (22) He has jaws like a lion's. (23) He has forty teeth. (24) His teeth are even. (25) There are no spaces between his teeth. (26) His canine teeth are very bright. (27) His tongue is very long. (28) He has a Brahma-like voice, like that of the karavika-bird. (29) His eyes are deep blue. (30) He has eyelashes like a cow's. (31) The hair between his eyebrows is white, and soft like cotton-down. (32) His head is like a royal turban."

Collyrium is eyeshadow. 

Banyan-tree has roots that spread out and prop up the tree, not sure what they're getting at there.

Humans have 32 teeth, so 40 teeth, that's special. 

Kalavi-bird is a mythical bird (see below). Seems like a human torso with wings below. Wikipedia says it sounds like a cuckoo. The word is "karavikabhāṇī". Anyway, a new lovely mythical creature

When you read the wikipedia page on Turbin, it didn't catch on in Buddhism. A head like a turbin could just be a big head.

I you google pictures of cow eyebrows, it's pretty interesting, not sure I really had an image of them before I googled images. I imagine they're prominent. 

So it's an interesting list, and I suppose it's before the big ears and top knot iconography. 

Then the sutta goes on about Vipassi from Bandhumati, a mythical ancient town, he is one of the previous Buddhas a long time ago, there are parallels with the Buddha's narrative. Prince Vipassi goes through the 4 sights over hundreds of thousands of years. But this prince likes being pampered, and does not go forth right away, but after seeing a mendicant, he decides to go forth with 84K people. They all shave off their hair and don the robes. He realized having 84K people around him wasn't the way to quest for enlightenment and went off on his own. He goes through some teachings and the 12 nidanas and the 5 aggregates. 

Just like the Buddha, Brahma asks him to teach and share the teachings. Vipassi teleports himself around to teach the people he thinks he can teach, then they come to him. Kandha and Tissa come to him and he builds up to the 4 noble truths, and they gain enlightenment. They eventually leave and the 84K who went forth hear about this and they want in on the action. So Vipassi teaches them and they all become enlightened, "freed from the corruptions without remainder". Soon enough there were 6 million monks on top of the 84K. He told them to spread out and wander, spread the teachings. Just come back in 6 years and recite the monk's code. 

It was a while (91 eons) since the Buddha Vipassi, so the gods decided Siddhartha Gautama must be born, even though people tend not to live as long. The end.

I wish I had greater comprehension but I'm reading this for the first time, so I'll be content with summarizing it. Quite a rollicking adventure. 

To it implies the cosmic journey of the Buddha discovers the path, doesn't create it, it sort of magnifies.

Why don't Buddhists worship Vipassi over Shakyamuni? I think at a certain point you're worshiping the essence of all the Buddhas and Buddha-nature inside everyone in the Dharmakaya. 

I've always wondered why...

“[Some] Buddhist monks are prohibited from eating the ‘five hots’ or five pungent roots: garlic, shallots, chives, onion and leeks, because they are known to heat the blood and cause anger and lust.”

Footnote, p 95 Charles Luk in Empty Cloud

I’ve never had it explained why some Chinese monks don’t take certain foods. I saw "Buddhist friendly" on a product and I wondered what they meant.

My thought was spicy vegan food was one thing you could enjoy. Kiss the joys as they pass. Just don't reinforce clinging, notice how the mind sort of reactively clings to positive experience, wants more.

Avoiding anger and lust was about feeding those feelings and thoughts, or not. Feels like a superstition. This unique cultural belief that wasn’t obvious in my part of the world, but what do I know, maybe there is wisdom in the ascetic practices. I also believe in the placebo effect, perhaps thinking something partly makes it true as a self fulfilling prophecy. I'm not going to be angry or lustful because I've avoided shallots and leeks. 

I’m a little kinder and gentle with anger and lust these days when it arises, panic doesn’t make it go away, and really wanting unwanted thoughts to not be present doesn't work either. For me the warmth of compassion is my best approach to unwanted and intrusive thoughts. Sort of see more the radical accepting whatever comes up in meditation as a gift. Just notice when things are unwanted, that's another thought. 

There are times when I don't have money so I don't buy onions or garlic, and just make vegetables and beans without, and it's not that bad.

I heard a story from the comedian Maria Bamford. She felt really crazy because she had this unwanted intrusive thought of a fantasy of chopping everyone up and having sex with the parts. The fact that she had this thought made her so worried about being crazy, that was keeping her up at night and putting her on edge. She went to a therapist and he said put it on a tape and listen to it over and over until you get bored with it. And that actually cured her, she reports, it went away. I have to say I think it's really courageous to express these kinds of fantasies in public. When I hear it, I think that's kind of scary, but I'm relieved she found a way to deal with it.