Monday, July 18, 2011
Sunday, July 17, 2011
Monday, July 11, 2011
Saturday, July 09, 2011
Wednesday, June 08, 2011
meditation on death
"The disciple who devotes himself to this contemplation of death is always vigilant, takes no delight in any form of existence, gives up hankering after life, censures evil doing, is free from craving as regards the requisites of life, his perception of impermanence becomes established, he realizes the painful and soulless nature of existence and at the moment of death he is devoid of fear, and remains mindful and self-possessed. Finally, if in this present life he fails to attain to Nibbana, upon the dissolution of the body he is bound for a happy destiny."
Visuddhimagga
Visuddhimagga
Tuesday, June 07, 2011
Saturday, June 04, 2011
the cord of communion
"I sometimes have a queer feeling with regard to you - especially when you are near me, as now: it is as if I have a string somewhere under my left ribs, tightly and inextricably knotted to a similar string situated in the corresponding quarter of your little frame. And if that boisterous Channel, and two hundred miles or so of land come broad between us, I am afraid that the cord of communion will snapped; and then I've a nervous notion I should take to bleeding inwardly. As for you, you'd forget me."
Charlotte Bronte, Jane Eyre
Charlotte Bronte, Jane Eyre
Sunday, May 29, 2011
Kabir - whilst you live
O Friend, hope for him whilst you live, know whilst you live,
understand whilst you live; for in life deliverance abides.
If your bonds be not broken whilst living,
what hope of deliverance in death?
It is but an empty dream that the soul shall have union with Him
because it has passed from the body;
If He is found now, He is found then.
If not, we do but go to dwell in the City of Death.
Kabir
understand whilst you live; for in life deliverance abides.
If your bonds be not broken whilst living,
what hope of deliverance in death?
It is but an empty dream that the soul shall have union with Him
because it has passed from the body;
If He is found now, He is found then.
If not, we do but go to dwell in the City of Death.
Kabir
Saturday, April 23, 2011
Thursday, April 21, 2011
in that the world is monstrous
In that the world is monstrous. In that the world can lead a man to nothing but despair, and a despair so complete, so resolute, that nothing can open the door of this prison, which is hopelessness, A. peers through the bars of his cell and finds only one thought that brings him any consolation: the image of his son. And not just his son, but any son, any daughter, any child of any woman or man.
In that the world is monstrous. In that it seems to offer no hope of a future, A. looks at his son and realizes that he must not allow himself to despair. There is this responsibility for a young life, and in that he has brought this life into being, he must not despair. Minute by minute, hour by hour, as he remains in the presence of his son, attending to his needs, giving himself up to this young life, which is a continual injunction to remain in the present, he feels his despair evaporate. And even though he continues to despair, he does not allow himself to despair.
The thought of a child's suffering, therefore, is monstrous to him. It is even more monstrous than the monstrosity of the world itself. For it robs the world of its one consolation, and in that a world can be imagined without consolation, it is monstrous.
He can go no farther than this.
The invention of solitude - Paul Auster, Collected Prose
In that the world is monstrous. In that it seems to offer no hope of a future, A. looks at his son and realizes that he must not allow himself to despair. There is this responsibility for a young life, and in that he has brought this life into being, he must not despair. Minute by minute, hour by hour, as he remains in the presence of his son, attending to his needs, giving himself up to this young life, which is a continual injunction to remain in the present, he feels his despair evaporate. And even though he continues to despair, he does not allow himself to despair.
The thought of a child's suffering, therefore, is monstrous to him. It is even more monstrous than the monstrosity of the world itself. For it robs the world of its one consolation, and in that a world can be imagined without consolation, it is monstrous.
He can go no farther than this.
The invention of solitude - Paul Auster, Collected Prose
Monday, April 18, 2011
true overcoming
You dread the depths; it should horrify you, since the way of what is to come leads through it.
You must endure the temptation of fear and doubt, and at the same time acknowledge to the bone that your fear is justified and your doubt is reasonable. How otherwise could it be a true temptation and a true overcoming?
Carl Jung, The Red Book
You must endure the temptation of fear and doubt, and at the same time acknowledge to the bone that your fear is justified and your doubt is reasonable. How otherwise could it be a true temptation and a true overcoming?
Carl Jung, The Red Book
Sunday, April 17, 2011
call of solitude
Have you not had monasteries?
Have not countless thousands gone into the desert?
You should carry the monastery in yourself.
The desert is within you.
The desert calls you and draws you back,
and if you were fettered to the world of this time with iron,
the call of the desert would break all chains.
Truly, I prepare you for solitude.
Carl Jung, The Red Book
Have not countless thousands gone into the desert?
You should carry the monastery in yourself.
The desert is within you.
The desert calls you and draws you back,
and if you were fettered to the world of this time with iron,
the call of the desert would break all chains.
Truly, I prepare you for solitude.
Carl Jung, The Red Book
Wednesday, April 13, 2011
fifty days of solitude
In a letter sent to me from Hereford, England, the writer D. M. Thomas explained why he had left his academic appointment at American University in Washington, D.C., so precipitously:
"It was a dreadful thing to do - my flight - but I had a sense of peril, as a person and as a writer (the same thing).... I knew that if I spent three months being 'the successful author of The White Hotel' I would quite likely become that and that only. I have to be the unsuccessful writer of the blank page before me."
Taken from Fifty days of solitude by Doris Grumbach
"It was a dreadful thing to do - my flight - but I had a sense of peril, as a person and as a writer (the same thing).... I knew that if I spent three months being 'the successful author of The White Hotel' I would quite likely become that and that only. I have to be the unsuccessful writer of the blank page before me."
Taken from Fifty days of solitude by Doris Grumbach
Tuesday, April 12, 2011
and so it is with awakening
The Abbess once said,
"If a person is always surrounded by music, she may never imagine there is an alternative. But if, after many years, she comes to a place where there is no music, she may be surprised, may be even shocked, by the relief of not hearing any sound.
If her experience of silence makes a strong enough impression, then when she returns to the world of music, she will not only hear the music but also the silence which is always here with the music.
With awakening, you will know a peace which is always here."
Taken from Monastery Within - Gil Fronsdal
"If a person is always surrounded by music, she may never imagine there is an alternative. But if, after many years, she comes to a place where there is no music, she may be surprised, may be even shocked, by the relief of not hearing any sound.
If her experience of silence makes a strong enough impression, then when she returns to the world of music, she will not only hear the music but also the silence which is always here with the music.
With awakening, you will know a peace which is always here."
Taken from Monastery Within - Gil Fronsdal
Wednesday, April 06, 2011
Gil Fronsdal - a monastery within
A new book by Gil Fronsdal.
Inspired by his years of Buddhist monastic life, Gil Fronsdal has written these warm-hearted stories as part of the tradition of teaching through storytelling. These are tales of transformation and spiritual growth. They delight and challenge as they express different facets of the Buddhist path to liberation in familiar, yet fresh and engaging, ways. These stories can be reread often, each time supporting new reflections on the spiritual life and the possibility of each person awakening to the kindness, clarity and insight available to all of us. A Monastery Within points to how each person can build an inner home for the awakened life.
Taken from Insight Meditation Center
Inspired by his years of Buddhist monastic life, Gil Fronsdal has written these warm-hearted stories as part of the tradition of teaching through storytelling. These are tales of transformation and spiritual growth. They delight and challenge as they express different facets of the Buddhist path to liberation in familiar, yet fresh and engaging, ways. These stories can be reread often, each time supporting new reflections on the spiritual life and the possibility of each person awakening to the kindness, clarity and insight available to all of us. A Monastery Within points to how each person can build an inner home for the awakened life.
Taken from Insight Meditation Center
Monday, March 28, 2011
merton - only in the void
Only in the void
are all ways one;
Only in the darkness
are all the lost
found.
Thomas Merton
are all ways one;
Only in the darkness
are all the lost
found.
Thomas Merton
Sunday, March 27, 2011
Nietzsche - on those who are sublime
Let your kindness be your final self-conquest.
Nietzsche, Thus spoke Zarathustra
Nietzsche, Thus spoke Zarathustra
Saturday, March 19, 2011
a higher love
The best relationship is one in which
your love for each other exceeds
your need for each other.
HH 14th Dalai Lama
your love for each other exceeds
your need for each other.
HH 14th Dalai Lama
Monday, March 14, 2011
Sunday, March 13, 2011
not everything assumes a name - Solzhenitsyn
Not everything assumes a name. Some things lead beyond words. Art inflames even a frozen, darkened soul to a high spiritual experience. Through art we are sometimes visited - dimly, briefly - by revelations such as cannot be produced by rational thinking.
Alexander Solzhenitysyn
Nobel Lecture in Literature 1970
Alexander Solzhenitysyn
Nobel Lecture in Literature 1970
Wednesday, March 09, 2011
eternal return
This slow spider dragging itself toward the light of the moon
and that same moonlight,
and you and I whispering at the gateway,
whispering of eternal things,
haven't we already coincided in the past?
And won't we happen again on the long road,
on this long tremulous road,
won't we recur eternally?
Nietzsche
and that same moonlight,
and you and I whispering at the gateway,
whispering of eternal things,
haven't we already coincided in the past?
And won't we happen again on the long road,
on this long tremulous road,
won't we recur eternally?
Nietzsche
Tuesday, March 08, 2011
Nietzsche and Buddhsim
Nietzsche and Buddhism by Benjamin A. Elman
Journal of the History of Ideas Vol 44 No 4 Oct-Dec 1983
Journal of the History of Ideas Vol 44 No 4 Oct-Dec 1983
Friday, March 04, 2011
James Nachtwey: "Struggle to Live - the fight against TB"
James Nachtwey has documented the resurgence of tuberculosis and its varying strains MDR and XDR in seven countries around the world. These countries include Cambodia, Lesotho, South Africa, Siberia, India, Swaziland, and Thailand. He has captured the lives of both patients and health care workers in the struggle against this ancient disease, which still remains very much a part of the present. Not only does TB remain a killer disease in its most recognizable form but it is mutating into even more deadly forms: multi-drug resistant (MDR) and extremely drug resistant (XDR) TB. While still a small subset of the TB cases, these new strains pose a grave global health threat. XDR-TB is a man-made catastrophe, resulting from too few resources being allocated for the proper diagnosis and treatment of TB patients in developing countries.
Despite the fact that tuberculosis afflicts a huge number of people its not on the radar screen in terms of public awareness. Normal tuberculosis, if diagnosed and treated diligently, is very inexpensive and doesnt take very long to cure. But if normal TB is not treated, it mutates and becomes 100 times more expensive, requires a two-year cure and a long stay in the hospital, which many of those infected cannot afford. The thought of XDR getting out of control is truly frightening, says James Nachtwey.
NOTE: THIS ESSAY CONTAINS EXPLICIT CONTENT.
(c) 2010 James Nachtwey, BURN Magazine. All Rights Reserved.
sutta-nipata: the worn-out skin
The Worn-out Skin - Reflections on the Uraga Sutta by
Nyanaponika Thera
Introduction
The Sutta Nipata, in its oldest and most characteristic parts, is a deeply stirring Song of Freedom. The verses of this ancient book are a challenging call to us to leave behind the narrow confines of our imprisoned existence with its ever-growing walls of accumulated habits of life and thought. They beckon us to free ourselves from the enslavement to our passions and to our thousand little whims and wishes. A call to freedom is always timely because in our lives we constantly bind ourselves to this and that, or let ourselves be bound in various ways by others and by circumstances. To some extent, normal life cannot entirely escape from such a situation. In fact, "binding" oneself to a worthy task and duty or to an ennobling human relationship is an indispensable antidote to the opposite tendency: the dissipation of our energies. The physical act of walking consists not only in the "freeing" action of lifting and stretching the foot, but also in the "binding" function of lowering it and placing it firmly on the ground. Analogously, in mental movement, there is the same need for support as well as for uplift and forward advancement.
But, having the comfort of a "secure footing" in life, we too easily forget to walk on. Instead, we prefer to "strengthen our position," to improve and embellish the little cage we build for ourselves out of habits, ideas and beliefs. Once we have settled down in our habitual ways of living and thinking, we feel less and less inclined to give them up for the sake of risky ventures into a freedom of life and thought full of dangers and uncertainties. True freedom places on us the uncomfortable burden of ever-fresh responsible decisions, which have to be guided by mindfulness, wisdom and human sympathy. Few are willing to accept the full weight of such a burden. Instead, they prefer to be led and bound by the rules given by others, and by habits mainly dominated by self-interest and social conventions. With the habituation to a life of inner and outer bondage, there grows what Erich Fromm calls a "fear of freedom." Such fear, if allowed to persist and take root, inevitably leads to a stagnation of our inner growth and creativeness as well as to a stagnant society and culture. In a state of stagnation, toxic elements will endanger mankind's healthy progress — physical and mental, social and spiritual. Then William Blake's words will prove true: "Expect poison from stagnant water."
Those too who say "Yes" to life and wish to protect mankind from decline by its self-produced toxins — biological and psychological — will also have to shed that "fear of freedom" and enter freedom's arduous way. It is an arduous way because it demands of us that we break the self-forged fetters of our lusts and hates, our prejudices and dogmas — fetters we foolishly cherish as ornaments. But once we see them for what they really are, obstacles to true freedom, the hard task of discarding them will become at the same time a joyous experience.
The Sutta Nipata, however, warns repeatedly of false ideas of freedom. He is not truly free who only follows his self-willed whims and desires (chandagu, v.913), who is carried along by them (chandanunito, v.731). Nor can true freedom be found by those who only seek to exchange one bondage for another.
Continue reading: Access to Insight
Other writings by Nyanaponka Thera: More articles at Access to Insight
Nyanaponika Thera
Introduction
The Sutta Nipata, in its oldest and most characteristic parts, is a deeply stirring Song of Freedom. The verses of this ancient book are a challenging call to us to leave behind the narrow confines of our imprisoned existence with its ever-growing walls of accumulated habits of life and thought. They beckon us to free ourselves from the enslavement to our passions and to our thousand little whims and wishes. A call to freedom is always timely because in our lives we constantly bind ourselves to this and that, or let ourselves be bound in various ways by others and by circumstances. To some extent, normal life cannot entirely escape from such a situation. In fact, "binding" oneself to a worthy task and duty or to an ennobling human relationship is an indispensable antidote to the opposite tendency: the dissipation of our energies. The physical act of walking consists not only in the "freeing" action of lifting and stretching the foot, but also in the "binding" function of lowering it and placing it firmly on the ground. Analogously, in mental movement, there is the same need for support as well as for uplift and forward advancement.
But, having the comfort of a "secure footing" in life, we too easily forget to walk on. Instead, we prefer to "strengthen our position," to improve and embellish the little cage we build for ourselves out of habits, ideas and beliefs. Once we have settled down in our habitual ways of living and thinking, we feel less and less inclined to give them up for the sake of risky ventures into a freedom of life and thought full of dangers and uncertainties. True freedom places on us the uncomfortable burden of ever-fresh responsible decisions, which have to be guided by mindfulness, wisdom and human sympathy. Few are willing to accept the full weight of such a burden. Instead, they prefer to be led and bound by the rules given by others, and by habits mainly dominated by self-interest and social conventions. With the habituation to a life of inner and outer bondage, there grows what Erich Fromm calls a "fear of freedom." Such fear, if allowed to persist and take root, inevitably leads to a stagnation of our inner growth and creativeness as well as to a stagnant society and culture. In a state of stagnation, toxic elements will endanger mankind's healthy progress — physical and mental, social and spiritual. Then William Blake's words will prove true: "Expect poison from stagnant water."
Those too who say "Yes" to life and wish to protect mankind from decline by its self-produced toxins — biological and psychological — will also have to shed that "fear of freedom" and enter freedom's arduous way. It is an arduous way because it demands of us that we break the self-forged fetters of our lusts and hates, our prejudices and dogmas — fetters we foolishly cherish as ornaments. But once we see them for what they really are, obstacles to true freedom, the hard task of discarding them will become at the same time a joyous experience.
The Sutta Nipata, however, warns repeatedly of false ideas of freedom. He is not truly free who only follows his self-willed whims and desires (chandagu, v.913), who is carried along by them (chandanunito, v.731). Nor can true freedom be found by those who only seek to exchange one bondage for another.
Continue reading: Access to Insight
Other writings by Nyanaponka Thera: More articles at Access to Insight
Wednesday, March 02, 2011
self-transformation
What distinguishes the Buddha's program for self-transformation from the multitude of other systems proposing a similar end is the contribution made by another principle with which it is invariably conjoined. This is the principle of self-transcendence, the endeavor to relinquish all attempts to establish a sense of solid personal identity. In the Buddhist training the aim of transforming the personality must be complemented by a parallel effort to overcome all identification with the elements that constitute our phenomenal being. The teaching of anatta or not-self is not so much a philosophical thesis calling for intellectual assent as a prescription for self-transcendence. It maintains that our ongoing attempt to establish a sense of identity by taking our personalities to be "I" and "mine" is in actuality a project born out of clinging, a project that at the same time lies at the root of our suffering. If, therefore, we seek to be free from suffering, we cannot stop with the transformation of the personality into some sublime and elevated mode as the final goal. What is needed, rather, is a transformation that brings about the removal of clinging, and with it, the removal of all tendencies to self-affirmation.
Bhikkhu Bodhi
Continue reading: Access to Insight
Bhikkhu Bodhi
Continue reading: Access to Insight
Tuesday, March 01, 2011
McBride Martina- In my daughter's eyes (With lyrics)
In my daughter's eyes I am a hero
I am strong and wise and I know no fear
But the truth is plain to see
She was sent to rescue me
I see who I wanna be
In my daughter's eyes
In my daughter's eyes everyone is equal
Darkness turns to light and the
world is at peace
This miracle God gave to me gives me
strength when I am weak
I find reason to believe
In my daughter's eyes
And when she wraps her hand
around my finger
Oh it puts a smile in my heart
Everything becomes a little clearer
I realize what life is all about
It's hangin' on when your heart
has had enough
It's giving more when you feel like giving up
I've seen the light
It's in my daughter's eyes
In my daughter's eyes I can see the future
A reflection of who I am and what will be
Though she'll grow and someday leave
Maybe raise a family
When I'm gone I hope you see how happy
she made me
For I'll be there
In my daughter's eyes
Monday, February 28, 2011
relevance in today's world
In line with this aim it is essential for us that the Dhamma be addressed not only to its original and primary task of indicating the timeless path to deliverance, but also to those vexing existential problems posed by the particular circumstances of our age. Prominent among these is the widespread moral and spiritual deterioration evident in so many spheres of human life. For increasing numbers of people both East and West, cynicism, skepticism and a narrow fixation on material goals have toppled traditional views and values without offering any satisfactory alternatives to replace them. Thus, while our sciences unlock the most obscure secrets of nature and yield its powers to our control, we find ourselves beset with a sense of inner poverty, destitute of those fundamental guiding principles which can give a deeper and richer meaning to our lives.
At the root of our current spiritual disorder lies a distorted conception of value which locates the ultimate end of human activity in the satisfaction of personal desire. Tacitly accepted and adhered to without reflective awareness, this thesis has become the dominant working basis for contemporary civilization. Mobilizing individuals, ethnic groups and nations alike, it draws them into an enervating chase after the achievement of power, wealth and pleasure, and pits them against one another in a struggle for supremacy marked either by cool suspicion or by vehement hate. Given a creed of self-fulfillment in an age of declining moral vigor, it is not astonishing that in the midst of plenty we witness all around us a frantic search for instant gratification and a rising tide of destructiveness unconstrained by even the least human sympathy.
To remedy this disturbing situation, moralistic preaching will not suffice, nor can much be expected from economic, social and political reforms isolated from more fundamental changes. For at its core our crisis is a crisis of consciousness. Its real origins go deeper than our institutions, deeper than our cultural norms, deeper than our avowed motives and goals. Its origins lie in the hidden strata of the mind, in the breeding place of those tumultuous emotional and volitional forces which the Buddha summed up in the three "roots of evil" — greed, hatred and delusion.
What is most crucial, therefore, if there is to be any change in the direction of the world, is a change in those who make up the world, that is, in ourselves. To achieve our own genuine welfare and effectively promote the welfare of others, we require the acumen to distinguish clearly what is truly in our interest and what may be immediately pleasurable but ultimately harmful; and we require too the stamina to undertake the work of liberating our minds from the bonds of greed, hatred and delusion. Admittedly, the number of those who will see the need for inward change and make the appropriate effort will always be small. However, the difficulty does not annul the necessity. For those of clear vision who are responsive to the call of the good there can be no choice but to take up the long hard task of self-transformation.
Bhikkhu Bodhi
Continue reading:
Access to Insight
At the root of our current spiritual disorder lies a distorted conception of value which locates the ultimate end of human activity in the satisfaction of personal desire. Tacitly accepted and adhered to without reflective awareness, this thesis has become the dominant working basis for contemporary civilization. Mobilizing individuals, ethnic groups and nations alike, it draws them into an enervating chase after the achievement of power, wealth and pleasure, and pits them against one another in a struggle for supremacy marked either by cool suspicion or by vehement hate. Given a creed of self-fulfillment in an age of declining moral vigor, it is not astonishing that in the midst of plenty we witness all around us a frantic search for instant gratification and a rising tide of destructiveness unconstrained by even the least human sympathy.
To remedy this disturbing situation, moralistic preaching will not suffice, nor can much be expected from economic, social and political reforms isolated from more fundamental changes. For at its core our crisis is a crisis of consciousness. Its real origins go deeper than our institutions, deeper than our cultural norms, deeper than our avowed motives and goals. Its origins lie in the hidden strata of the mind, in the breeding place of those tumultuous emotional and volitional forces which the Buddha summed up in the three "roots of evil" — greed, hatred and delusion.
What is most crucial, therefore, if there is to be any change in the direction of the world, is a change in those who make up the world, that is, in ourselves. To achieve our own genuine welfare and effectively promote the welfare of others, we require the acumen to distinguish clearly what is truly in our interest and what may be immediately pleasurable but ultimately harmful; and we require too the stamina to undertake the work of liberating our minds from the bonds of greed, hatred and delusion. Admittedly, the number of those who will see the need for inward change and make the appropriate effort will always be small. However, the difficulty does not annul the necessity. For those of clear vision who are responsive to the call of the good there can be no choice but to take up the long hard task of self-transformation.
Bhikkhu Bodhi
Continue reading:
Access to Insight
Saturday, February 12, 2011
happiest and saddest
“Are you happiest and saddest right now that you’ve ever been?” “Of course I am.” “Why?” “Because nothing makes me happier and nothing makes me sadder than you.”
The History of Love by Nicole Krauss
The History of Love by Nicole Krauss
Friday, February 11, 2011
only one you love the most
You may love many people in this world,
but there is only one you love the most.
Bones
but there is only one you love the most.
Bones
Thursday, February 10, 2011
Wednesday, February 09, 2011
Maha-mangala Sutta: highest protection
I have heard that at one time the Blessed One was staying in Savatthi at Jeta's Grove, Anathapindika's monastery. Then a certain deva, in the far extreme of the night, her extreme radiance lighting up the entirety of Jeta's Grove, approached the Blessed One. On approaching, having bowed down to the Blessed One, she stood to one side. As she stood to one side, she addressed him with a verse.
Many devas and human beings
give thought to protection,
desiring well-being.
Tell, then, the highest protection.
The Buddha:
Not consorting with fools,
consorting with the wise,
paying homage to those worthy of homage:
This is the highest protection.
Living in a civilized land,
having made merit in the past,
directing oneself rightly:
This is the highest protection.
Broad knowledge, skill,
well-mastered discipline,
well-spoken words:
This is the highest protection.
Support for one's parents,
assistance to one's wife and children,
consistency in one's work:
This is the highest protection.
Giving, living in rectitude,
assistance to one's relatives,
deeds that are blameless:
This is the highest protection.
Avoiding, abstaining from evil;
refraining from intoxicants,
being heedful of the qualities of the mind:
This is the highest protection.
Respect, humility,
contentment, gratitude,
hearing the Dhamma on timely occasions:
This is the highest protection.
Patience, compliance,
seeing contemplatives,
discussing the Dhamma on timely occasions:
This is the highest protection.
Austerity, celibacy,
seeing the Noble Truths,
realizing Unbinding:
This is the highest protection.
A mind that, when touched
by the ways of the world,
is unshaken, sorrowless, dustless, at rest:
This is the highest protection.
Everywhere undefeated
when acting in this way,
people go everywhere in well-being:
This is their highest protection.
Translated from Pali by Thanissaro Bhikkhu.
Access to Insight
Many devas and human beings
give thought to protection,
desiring well-being.
Tell, then, the highest protection.
The Buddha:
Not consorting with fools,
consorting with the wise,
paying homage to those worthy of homage:
This is the highest protection.
Living in a civilized land,
having made merit in the past,
directing oneself rightly:
This is the highest protection.
Broad knowledge, skill,
well-mastered discipline,
well-spoken words:
This is the highest protection.
Support for one's parents,
assistance to one's wife and children,
consistency in one's work:
This is the highest protection.
Giving, living in rectitude,
assistance to one's relatives,
deeds that are blameless:
This is the highest protection.
Avoiding, abstaining from evil;
refraining from intoxicants,
being heedful of the qualities of the mind:
This is the highest protection.
Respect, humility,
contentment, gratitude,
hearing the Dhamma on timely occasions:
This is the highest protection.
Patience, compliance,
seeing contemplatives,
discussing the Dhamma on timely occasions:
This is the highest protection.
Austerity, celibacy,
seeing the Noble Truths,
realizing Unbinding:
This is the highest protection.
A mind that, when touched
by the ways of the world,
is unshaken, sorrowless, dustless, at rest:
This is the highest protection.
Everywhere undefeated
when acting in this way,
people go everywhere in well-being:
This is their highest protection.
Translated from Pali by Thanissaro Bhikkhu.
Access to Insight
Tuesday, February 08, 2011
taking stock of oneself - bhikkhu bodhi
Though in principle the Buddhist path leads straight and unerringly from bondage to freedom, when we apply it to ourselves it often seems to take a tortuous route as imposed by the twists and turns of our own contorted mental topography. Unless we have exceptionally mature wholesome roots, we cannot expect to approach the goal "as the crow flies," soaring unhindered through the quick and blissful skyways of the jhanas and higher insights. Instead we must be prepared to tread the path at ground level, moving slowly, steadily and cautiously through the winding mountain roads of our own minds. We begin at the inevitable point of departure — with the unique constellation of personal qualities, habits and potentials that we bring with us into the practice. Our ingrained defilements and obstinate delusions, as well as our hidden reserves of goodness, inner strength and wisdom — these are at once the material out of which the practice is forged, the terrain to be passed through, and the vehicle that takes us to our destination.
Confidence in the Buddhist path is a prerequisite for persisting on this journey. Yet it often happens that though we may be fully convinced of the liberating efficacy of the Dhamma, we stumble along perplexed as to how we can apply the Dhamma fruitfully to ourselves. One major step toward reaping the benefits of Dhamma practice consists in making an honest assessment of one's own character. If we are to utilize effectively the methods the Buddha has taught for overcoming the mind's defilements, we first must take stock of those particular defilements that are prevalent in our individual makeup. It will not suffice for us to sit back and console ourselves with the thought that the path leads infallibly to the end of greed, hate and delusion. For the path to be effective in our own practice, we have to become familiar with our own persistent greeds, hates and delusions as they crop up in the round of daily life. Without this honest confrontation with ourselves, all our other pursuits of Dhamma may be to no avail and can actually lead us astray. Though we may gain extensive knowledge of the Buddhist scriptures, clarify our view and sharpen our powers of thought, invest so many hours on the meditation cushion and walkway, if we do not attend to the blemishes in our characters, these other achievements, far from extricating the defilements, may instead only go to reinforce them.
Yet, though honest self-assessment is one of the most vital steps in Dhamma practice, it is also one of the most difficult. What makes it so difficult is the radically new perspective that must be adopted to undertake an investigation of oneself and the dense barriers that must be penetrated to arrive at truthful self-understanding. In attempting to assess ourselves we are no longer observing an external entity which we can treat as an adventitious object to be evaluated in terms of our subjective purposes. We are observing instead the seat of observation itself, that most elusive center from which we gaze out upon the world, and we are doing so in a mode which casts all its motives and projects in a critical light. To enter this domain of inquiry is to run smack up against our very sense of personal identity, and thus to have to pierce the thick screens of delusion and blind emotivity which keep that sense of identity intact.
Continue reading here at Access to Insight:
Taking stock of oneself by Bhikkhu Bodhi
Confidence in the Buddhist path is a prerequisite for persisting on this journey. Yet it often happens that though we may be fully convinced of the liberating efficacy of the Dhamma, we stumble along perplexed as to how we can apply the Dhamma fruitfully to ourselves. One major step toward reaping the benefits of Dhamma practice consists in making an honest assessment of one's own character. If we are to utilize effectively the methods the Buddha has taught for overcoming the mind's defilements, we first must take stock of those particular defilements that are prevalent in our individual makeup. It will not suffice for us to sit back and console ourselves with the thought that the path leads infallibly to the end of greed, hate and delusion. For the path to be effective in our own practice, we have to become familiar with our own persistent greeds, hates and delusions as they crop up in the round of daily life. Without this honest confrontation with ourselves, all our other pursuits of Dhamma may be to no avail and can actually lead us astray. Though we may gain extensive knowledge of the Buddhist scriptures, clarify our view and sharpen our powers of thought, invest so many hours on the meditation cushion and walkway, if we do not attend to the blemishes in our characters, these other achievements, far from extricating the defilements, may instead only go to reinforce them.
Yet, though honest self-assessment is one of the most vital steps in Dhamma practice, it is also one of the most difficult. What makes it so difficult is the radically new perspective that must be adopted to undertake an investigation of oneself and the dense barriers that must be penetrated to arrive at truthful self-understanding. In attempting to assess ourselves we are no longer observing an external entity which we can treat as an adventitious object to be evaluated in terms of our subjective purposes. We are observing instead the seat of observation itself, that most elusive center from which we gaze out upon the world, and we are doing so in a mode which casts all its motives and projects in a critical light. To enter this domain of inquiry is to run smack up against our very sense of personal identity, and thus to have to pierce the thick screens of delusion and blind emotivity which keep that sense of identity intact.
Continue reading here at Access to Insight:
Taking stock of oneself by Bhikkhu Bodhi
Monday, February 07, 2011
Wednesday, February 02, 2011
Angel
I wish you much love, joy, laughter, bliss,
none of which i could give you
yet
there is nothing i would not have given you.
aml
none of which i could give you
yet
there is nothing i would not have given you.
aml
Tuesday, February 01, 2011
In memory of Ajahn Maha Boowa 1913-2011
The Venerable Ajahn Maha Boowa, sometimes spelled Maha Bua, was the abbot of the Way Pa Bahn Tahd, a monastery in the forest of North-East Thailand. He passed away around 3.15 am (local time), on January 29, 2011. He was 98.
Article at Buddhist Channel
Article at Buddhist Channel
Monday, January 31, 2011
Sunday, January 30, 2011
a journey unto himself
Every person's life is a journey toward himself, the attempt at a journey, the intimation of a path. No person has ever been completely himself, but each one strives to become so, some gropingly, others more lucidly, according to his abilities. Each one carries with him to the end traces of his birth, the slime and eggshells of a primordial world. Many a one never becomes a human being, but remains a frog, lizard or ant. Many a one is a human being above and a fish below. But each one is a gamble of Nature, a hopeful attempt at forming a human being. We all have a common origin,the Mothers, we all come out of the same abyss; but each of us, a trial throw of the dice from the depths, strives toward his own goal. We can understand one another, but each of us can only interpret himself.
Demian, Hermmann Hesse
Demian, Hermmann Hesse
Thursday, January 27, 2011
Wednesday, January 26, 2011
Mind and Life XXII - Session Two
"Foundations for Scientific Understanding of Contemplative Practices", the second session of the Mind and Life XXII Conference: Contemplative Science, held in New Delhi, India from November 21st to 23rd, 2010. Presenters include His Holiness the Dalai Lama, Mattieu Ricard (comtemplative practitioner), and Richard Davidson (scientist). The moderator is Daniel Goldman and the interpreter is Thupten Jinpa. Discussants include Wolf Singer (scientist), John Dunne (contemplative scholar) and Rajesh Kasturirangan (scientist). (www.dalailama.com, www.mindandlife.org)
Other sessions found on youtube.
Monday, January 24, 2011
Thursday, January 20, 2011
Buddhist ethics
From the Buddhist standpoint the comprehension of spiritual truth is not a matter of mere intellectual cogitation but of existential actualization. That is, it is a matter of grasping with our whole being the truth towards which we aspire, and of inwardly appropriating that truth in a manner so total and complete that our being becomes transformed into a very reflex and effusion of the truth upon which we stand. The understanding of truth in the context of the spiritual life, in other words, is no affair of accumulating bits and pieces of information publicly accessible and subjectively indifferent; it is, rather, a process of uncovering the deepest truths about ourselves and about the world, and of working the understanding that emerges into the entire complex of the inner life. Hence the use of the words "actualization" and "realization," which bring into the open the ontological backdrop underlying the noetic process.
Bhikkhu Bodhi
Nourishing the Roots: Essays on Buddhist Ethics
Bhikkhu Bodhi
Nourishing the Roots: Essays on Buddhist Ethics
Wednesday, January 19, 2011
Tuesday, January 18, 2011
Sunday, January 16, 2011
Saturday, December 25, 2010
solitude in the sky
The grass seeks her crowd in the earth,
The tree seeks his solitude in the sky.
R. Tagore
The tree seeks his solitude in the sky.
R. Tagore
Thursday, December 23, 2010
eternal silence
What language is thine, O sea?
The language of eternal question.
What language is thy answer, O sky?
The language of eternal silence.
R. Tagore
The language of eternal question.
What language is thy answer, O sky?
The language of eternal silence.
R. Tagore
Wednesday, December 22, 2010
Sunday, December 19, 2010
Saturday, December 04, 2010
I
I have come to the frightening conclusion that I am the decisive element. It is my personal approach that creates the climate. It is my daily mood that makes the weather. I possess tremendous power to make life miserable or joyous. I can be a tool of torture or an instrument of inspiration, I can humiliate or humor, hurt or heal. In all situations, it is my response that decides whether a crisis is escalated or de-escalated, and a person is humanized or de-humanized. If we treat people as they are, we make them worse. If we treat people as they ought to be, we help them become what they are capable of becoming. - Goethe
Friday, December 03, 2010
Sunday, November 28, 2010
Friday, November 26, 2010
carl jung - modern man and his afflictions
Jung treated modern man with compassion, realizing that "he" was overstrained from his boundless activities. According to Jung, he suffers from the disease of knowing everything; there is nothing he cannot pigeonhole. He is "extraverted as hell" and shows a "remarkable lack of introspection". He thinks that the gods and demons have disappeared from Nature and does not notice that they keep him on the run; hence, his restlessness and need for alcohol and tranquilizers. Modern man believes that he can do as he pleases and is perturbed that inexplicable anxieties plague him. True to his rationalistic bias, he has tried all the usual remedies - diets, exercise programs, studying inspirational literature - and only reluctantly admits that he can't seem to find a way to live a meaningful life.
Extract from:
C G Jung on Nature, Technology & Modern Life at Amazon
Extract from:
C G Jung on Nature, Technology & Modern Life at Amazon
Thursday, November 25, 2010
Wednesday, November 24, 2010
Sunday, November 21, 2010
disenchantment - nibbida
"The knowledge and vision of things as they really are is the supporting condition for disenchantment": As the yogin contemplates the rise and fall of the five aggregates, his attention becomes riveted to the final phase of the process, their dissolution and passing away. This insight into the instability of the aggregates at the same time reveals their basic unreliability. Far from being the ground of satisfaction we unreflectively take them to be, conditioned things are seen to be fraught with peril when adhered to with craving and wrong views. The growing realization of this fundamental insecurity brings a marked transformation in the mind's orientation towards conditioned existence. Whereas previously the mind was drawn to the world by the lure of promised gratification, now, with the exposure of the underlying danger, it draws away in the direction of a disengagement. This inward turning away from the procession of formations is called nibbida. Though some times translated "disgust" or "aversion," the term suggests, not emotional repugnance, but a conscious act of detachment resulting from a profound noetic discovery. Nibbida signifies in short, the serene, dignified withdrawal from phenomena which supervenes when the illusion of their permanence, pleasure, and selfhood has been shattered by the light of correct knowledge and vision of things as they are. The commentaries explain nibbida as powerful insight (balava vipassana), an explanation consonant with the word's literal meaning of "finding out." It indicates the sequel to the discoveries unveiled by that contemplative process, the mind's appropriate response to the realizations thrust upon it by the growing experiences of insight. Buddhaghosa compares it to the revulsion a man would feel who, having grabbed bold of a snake in the belief it was a fish, would look at it closely and suddenly realize he was holding a snake.
As our rendering implies, disenchantment marks the dissipation of an "enchantment" or fascination with the kaleidoscopic pleasures of conditioned existence, whether in the form of sense enjoyments, emotions, or ideas. This fascination, resting upon the distorted apprehension of things as permanent, pleasurable, and self, is maintained at a deep unverbalized level by the hope of finding self identity in the conditioned. As the enchanted mind presses forward seeking explicit confirmation of the innate sense of selfhood, everything encountered is evaluated in terms of the notions "mine," "I," and "my self," the principal appropriative and identificatory devices with which the inherent sense of personal selfhood works. These three notions, imputed to phenomena on account of ignorance, are in actuality conceptual fabrications woven by craving, conceit, and speculation, respectively. The insight into impermanence, unsatisfactoriness, and selflessness cuts the ground out from underneath this threefold fabrication, reversing the mode in which phenomena can be viewed. Whereas before the development of insight the aggregates were regarded as being "mine," "I," and "self," now, when illuminated with the light of insight knowledge, they are seen in the opposite way as "not-mine," "not I," and "not self." Since the fascination with phenomenal existence is sustained by the assumption of underlying selfhood, the dispelling of this illusion through the penetration of the three marks brings about a de-identification with the aggregates and an end to their spell of enchantment. In place of the fascination and attraction a profound experience of estrangement sets in, engendered by the perception of selfessness in all conditioned being. The suttas present this sequence thus:
Material form, monks, is impermanent, suffering, and non-self. Feeling, perception, mental formations, and consciousness are impermanent, suffering, and not-self. What is impermanent, suffering and non-self, that should be seen with correct wisdom as it really is: "This is not mine, this am I not, this is not my self." So seeing, the instructed noble disciple becomes disenchanted with material form, disenchanted with feeling, disenchanted with perception, disenchanted with mental formations, and disenchanted with consciousness.
— SN 22.15-17
Bhikkhu Bodhi
www.accesstoinsight.org
As our rendering implies, disenchantment marks the dissipation of an "enchantment" or fascination with the kaleidoscopic pleasures of conditioned existence, whether in the form of sense enjoyments, emotions, or ideas. This fascination, resting upon the distorted apprehension of things as permanent, pleasurable, and self, is maintained at a deep unverbalized level by the hope of finding self identity in the conditioned. As the enchanted mind presses forward seeking explicit confirmation of the innate sense of selfhood, everything encountered is evaluated in terms of the notions "mine," "I," and "my self," the principal appropriative and identificatory devices with which the inherent sense of personal selfhood works. These three notions, imputed to phenomena on account of ignorance, are in actuality conceptual fabrications woven by craving, conceit, and speculation, respectively. The insight into impermanence, unsatisfactoriness, and selflessness cuts the ground out from underneath this threefold fabrication, reversing the mode in which phenomena can be viewed. Whereas before the development of insight the aggregates were regarded as being "mine," "I," and "self," now, when illuminated with the light of insight knowledge, they are seen in the opposite way as "not-mine," "not I," and "not self." Since the fascination with phenomenal existence is sustained by the assumption of underlying selfhood, the dispelling of this illusion through the penetration of the three marks brings about a de-identification with the aggregates and an end to their spell of enchantment. In place of the fascination and attraction a profound experience of estrangement sets in, engendered by the perception of selfessness in all conditioned being. The suttas present this sequence thus:
Material form, monks, is impermanent, suffering, and non-self. Feeling, perception, mental formations, and consciousness are impermanent, suffering, and not-self. What is impermanent, suffering and non-self, that should be seen with correct wisdom as it really is: "This is not mine, this am I not, this is not my self." So seeing, the instructed noble disciple becomes disenchanted with material form, disenchanted with feeling, disenchanted with perception, disenchanted with mental formations, and disenchanted with consciousness.
— SN 22.15-17
Bhikkhu Bodhi
www.accesstoinsight.org
Thursday, November 18, 2010
The taste of freedom
Bhikkhu Bodhi
The solution to this seeming paradox lies in the distinction between two kinds of freedom — between freedom as license and freedom as spiritual autonomy. Contemporary man, for the most part, identifies freedom with license. For him, freedom means the license to pursue undisturbed his impulses, passions and whims. To be free, he believes, he must be at liberty to do whatever he wants, to say whatever he wants and to think whatever he wants. Every restriction laid upon this license he sees as an encroachment upon his freedom; hence a practical regimen calling for restraint of deed, word, and thought, for discipline and self-control, strikes him as a form of bondage. But the freedom spoken of in the Buddha's Teaching is not the same as license. The freedom to which the Buddha points is spiritual freedom — an inward autonomy of the mind which follows upon the destruction of the defilements, manifests itself in an emancipation from the mold of impulsive and compulsive patterns of behavior, and culminates in final deliverance from samsara, the round of repeated birth and death.
In contrast to license, spiritual freedom cannot be acquired by external means. It can only be attained inwardly, through a course of training requiring the renunciation of passion and impulse in the interest of a higher end. The spiritual autonomy that emerges from this struggle is the ultimate triumph over all confinement and self-limitation; but the victory can never be achieved without conforming to the requirements of the contest — requirements that include restraint, control, discipline and, as the final price, the surrender of self-assertive desire.
Spiritual freedom, as the opposite of this condition of bondage, must therefore mean freedom from lust, hatred, and delusion. When lust, hatred, and delusion are abandoned in a man, cut off at the root so that they no longer remain even in latent form, then a man finds for himself a seat of autonomy from which he can never be dethroned, a position of mastery from which he can never be shaken. Even though he be a mendicant gathering his alms from house to house, he is still a king; even though he be locked behind bars of steel, he is inwardly free. He is now sovereign over his own mind, and as such over the whole universe; for nothing in the universe can take from him that deliverance of heart which is his inalienable possession. He dwells in the world among the things of the world, yet stands in perfect poise above the world's ebb and flow. If pleasant objects come within range of his perception he does not yearn for them, if painful objects come into range he does not recoil from them. He looks upon both with equanimity and notes their rise and fall. Toward the pairs of opposites which keep the world in rotation he is without concern, the cycle of attraction and repulsion he has broken at its base. A lump of gold and a lump of clay are to his eyes the same; praise and scorn are to his ears empty sounds. He abides in the freedom he has won through long and disciplined effort. He is free from suffering, for with the defilements uprooted no more can sorrow or grief fall upon his heart; there remains only that perfect bliss unsullied by any trace of craving.
In its fullness, the freedom to which the Buddha points as the goal of His Teaching can only be enjoyed by him who has made the realization of the goal a matter of his own living experience. But just as salt lends its taste to whatever food it is used to season, so does the taste of freedom pervade the entire range of the Doctrine and Discipline proclaimed by the Buddha, its beginning, its middle, and its end. Whatever our degree of progress may be in the practice of the Dhamma, to that extent may the taste of freedom be enjoyed. It must always be borne in mind, however, that true freedom — the inward autonomy of the mind — does not descend as a gift of grace. It can only be won by the practice of the path to freedom, the Noble Eightfold Path.
Extract from Bhikkhu Bodhi's "The Taste of Freedom"
Full article at Access to Insight
The solution to this seeming paradox lies in the distinction between two kinds of freedom — between freedom as license and freedom as spiritual autonomy. Contemporary man, for the most part, identifies freedom with license. For him, freedom means the license to pursue undisturbed his impulses, passions and whims. To be free, he believes, he must be at liberty to do whatever he wants, to say whatever he wants and to think whatever he wants. Every restriction laid upon this license he sees as an encroachment upon his freedom; hence a practical regimen calling for restraint of deed, word, and thought, for discipline and self-control, strikes him as a form of bondage. But the freedom spoken of in the Buddha's Teaching is not the same as license. The freedom to which the Buddha points is spiritual freedom — an inward autonomy of the mind which follows upon the destruction of the defilements, manifests itself in an emancipation from the mold of impulsive and compulsive patterns of behavior, and culminates in final deliverance from samsara, the round of repeated birth and death.
In contrast to license, spiritual freedom cannot be acquired by external means. It can only be attained inwardly, through a course of training requiring the renunciation of passion and impulse in the interest of a higher end. The spiritual autonomy that emerges from this struggle is the ultimate triumph over all confinement and self-limitation; but the victory can never be achieved without conforming to the requirements of the contest — requirements that include restraint, control, discipline and, as the final price, the surrender of self-assertive desire.
Spiritual freedom, as the opposite of this condition of bondage, must therefore mean freedom from lust, hatred, and delusion. When lust, hatred, and delusion are abandoned in a man, cut off at the root so that they no longer remain even in latent form, then a man finds for himself a seat of autonomy from which he can never be dethroned, a position of mastery from which he can never be shaken. Even though he be a mendicant gathering his alms from house to house, he is still a king; even though he be locked behind bars of steel, he is inwardly free. He is now sovereign over his own mind, and as such over the whole universe; for nothing in the universe can take from him that deliverance of heart which is his inalienable possession. He dwells in the world among the things of the world, yet stands in perfect poise above the world's ebb and flow. If pleasant objects come within range of his perception he does not yearn for them, if painful objects come into range he does not recoil from them. He looks upon both with equanimity and notes their rise and fall. Toward the pairs of opposites which keep the world in rotation he is without concern, the cycle of attraction and repulsion he has broken at its base. A lump of gold and a lump of clay are to his eyes the same; praise and scorn are to his ears empty sounds. He abides in the freedom he has won through long and disciplined effort. He is free from suffering, for with the defilements uprooted no more can sorrow or grief fall upon his heart; there remains only that perfect bliss unsullied by any trace of craving.
In its fullness, the freedom to which the Buddha points as the goal of His Teaching can only be enjoyed by him who has made the realization of the goal a matter of his own living experience. But just as salt lends its taste to whatever food it is used to season, so does the taste of freedom pervade the entire range of the Doctrine and Discipline proclaimed by the Buddha, its beginning, its middle, and its end. Whatever our degree of progress may be in the practice of the Dhamma, to that extent may the taste of freedom be enjoyed. It must always be borne in mind, however, that true freedom — the inward autonomy of the mind — does not descend as a gift of grace. It can only be won by the practice of the path to freedom, the Noble Eightfold Path.
Extract from Bhikkhu Bodhi's "The Taste of Freedom"
Full article at Access to Insight
Sunday, November 14, 2010
new studies on mindfulness
A 2007 study called "Mindfulness meditation reveals distinct neural modes of self-reference" by Norman Farb at the University of Toronto, along with six other scientists, broke new ground in our understanding of mindfulness from a neuroscience perspective.
Farb and his colleagues worked out a way to study how human beings experience their own moment-to-moment experience. They discovered that people have two distinct ways of interacting with the world, using two different sets of networks. One network for experiencing your experience involves what is called the "default network", which includes regions of the medial prefrontal cortex, along with memory regions such as the hippocampus. This network is called default because it becomes active when not much else is happening, and you think about yourself. If you are sitting on the edge of a jetty in summer, a nice breeze blowing in your hair and a cold beer in your hand, instead of taking in the beautiful day you might find yourself thinking about what to cook for dinner tonight, and whether you will make a mess of the meal to the amusement of your partner. This is your default network in action. It's the network involved in planning, daydreaming and ruminating.
This default network also become active when you think about yourself or other people, it holds together a "narrative". A narrative is a story line with characters interacting with each other over time. The brain holds vast stores of information about your own and other people's history. When the default network is active, you are thinking about your history and future and all the people you know, including yourself, and how this giant tapestry of information weaves together. In this way, in the Farb study they like to call the default network the ‘narrative' circuitry. (I like the ‘narrative circuit' term for every-day usage as it's easier to remember and a bit more elegant than ‘default' when talking about mindfulness.)
Continue reading at Psychology Today
Farb and his colleagues worked out a way to study how human beings experience their own moment-to-moment experience. They discovered that people have two distinct ways of interacting with the world, using two different sets of networks. One network for experiencing your experience involves what is called the "default network", which includes regions of the medial prefrontal cortex, along with memory regions such as the hippocampus. This network is called default because it becomes active when not much else is happening, and you think about yourself. If you are sitting on the edge of a jetty in summer, a nice breeze blowing in your hair and a cold beer in your hand, instead of taking in the beautiful day you might find yourself thinking about what to cook for dinner tonight, and whether you will make a mess of the meal to the amusement of your partner. This is your default network in action. It's the network involved in planning, daydreaming and ruminating.
This default network also become active when you think about yourself or other people, it holds together a "narrative". A narrative is a story line with characters interacting with each other over time. The brain holds vast stores of information about your own and other people's history. When the default network is active, you are thinking about your history and future and all the people you know, including yourself, and how this giant tapestry of information weaves together. In this way, in the Farb study they like to call the default network the ‘narrative' circuitry. (I like the ‘narrative circuit' term for every-day usage as it's easier to remember and a bit more elegant than ‘default' when talking about mindfulness.)
Continue reading at Psychology Today
caigentan
In adverse situations,
even though you are surrounded by needles and medicines that will help you through the trials,
you are unaware of them.
In favourable circumstances,
all around you are swords and halberds which will whittle away your flesh and bones,
you do not know about them.
Those who grow up in a setting of riches and splendour are driven by greed like a raging fire.
Their power and influence blaze furiously everywhere.
If they cannot cultivate feelings that are a little cooler,
they might not burn others, but surely they will end up incinerating themselves.
Caigentan by Hong Zicheng
Translated by Robert Aitken with Daniel Kwok
even though you are surrounded by needles and medicines that will help you through the trials,
you are unaware of them.
In favourable circumstances,
all around you are swords and halberds which will whittle away your flesh and bones,
you do not know about them.
Those who grow up in a setting of riches and splendour are driven by greed like a raging fire.
Their power and influence blaze furiously everywhere.
If they cannot cultivate feelings that are a little cooler,
they might not burn others, but surely they will end up incinerating themselves.
Caigentan by Hong Zicheng
Translated by Robert Aitken with Daniel Kwok
Saturday, November 13, 2010
Wednesday, November 10, 2010
Tibetan Buddhist nuns take a page from Catholics
By Don Cayo, Vancouver Sun November 6, 2010
Vancouver, Canada -- If there's a silver lining to the 50-year exile of Buddhists who've fled Tibet to escape Chinese rule, it may be the greater role and much improved quality of life that is evolving for women who devote their lives to their faith.
Even in the free Tibet, life for nuns was difficult, said Rinchen Khando Choegal, the sister-in-law of the Dalai Lama who served for 10 years as education minister in the Tibetan exile government and now devotes herself to an educational initiative for nuns. Most had little or no education before they took their vows, she said, and few, if any, formal learning opportunities once they joined.
And it was much worse for the 2,000 or so religious women who in recent decades have fled Tibet to work and study at the Dalai Lama's new home in Dharamsala, India, or the handful of other South Asian communities where about 140,000 exiled Tibetans congregate.
"Many had been imprisoned, and tortured in prison," Choegal said. "Their health was very poor. They were living in fear."
So her Nun's Project, started 23 years ago but becoming a full-time endeavour for her only for the last five, began with health and security. It then progressed, with considerable success, into education.
Her Nun's Project today involves about 700 women, roughly a third of the Tibetan nuns in exile. Those who've joined recently must be at least 17 years old and they come with basic education, which is provided to almost all Tibetan exile children by the government in exile. But her initial participants were as young as 13, and most had no education at all.
Continue reading at Buddhist Channel
Vancouver, Canada -- If there's a silver lining to the 50-year exile of Buddhists who've fled Tibet to escape Chinese rule, it may be the greater role and much improved quality of life that is evolving for women who devote their lives to their faith.
Even in the free Tibet, life for nuns was difficult, said Rinchen Khando Choegal, the sister-in-law of the Dalai Lama who served for 10 years as education minister in the Tibetan exile government and now devotes herself to an educational initiative for nuns. Most had little or no education before they took their vows, she said, and few, if any, formal learning opportunities once they joined.
And it was much worse for the 2,000 or so religious women who in recent decades have fled Tibet to work and study at the Dalai Lama's new home in Dharamsala, India, or the handful of other South Asian communities where about 140,000 exiled Tibetans congregate.
"Many had been imprisoned, and tortured in prison," Choegal said. "Their health was very poor. They were living in fear."
So her Nun's Project, started 23 years ago but becoming a full-time endeavour for her only for the last five, began with health and security. It then progressed, with considerable success, into education.
Her Nun's Project today involves about 700 women, roughly a third of the Tibetan nuns in exile. Those who've joined recently must be at least 17 years old and they come with basic education, which is provided to almost all Tibetan exile children by the government in exile. But her initial participants were as young as 13, and most had no education at all.
Continue reading at Buddhist Channel
Monday, November 08, 2010
Yogis of Tibet
A reader of this blog sent me this video link of which i am most pleased to share.
Since the invasion of Tibet over 50 years ago, China has systematically destroyed the Tibetan culture. One of the most profound losses is the tradition of the great master yogis. The entire system which supported these fascinating mind masters has been inexorably eliminated. In order to record these mystical practitioners for posterity, the filmmakers were given permission to film heretofore secret demonstrations and to conduct interviews on subject matter rarely discussed. This profound historical, spiritual and educational film will someday be the last remnant of these amazing practitioners.
Tuesday, November 02, 2010
Friday, October 29, 2010
Monday, October 25, 2010
Buddhist reflections on death and rebirth
By Rajah Kuruppu, Sunday Times, October 22, 2010
Colombo, Sri Lanka -- From the earliest of times, men have speculated on the question why we are born and why we die. In ancient times, phenomena such as rain and fire were attributed to gods associated with them.
There was a creator god responsible for birth and another for destruction. With the passage of time, there developed the concept of one God, all powerful and omnipotent, who is responsible for our birth and who would judge our life at death and reward or punish us for our good and harmful actions, respectively.
The answer in Buddhism for our birth is that we are caught in a cycle of births and deaths called Samsara, whose beginning is inconceivable. The Buddha declared that it is because of our delusion of the true nature of things, that we have the desire for life at the moment of death where ordinary people grasp for life. Consequently, we are re-born and continue our journey in Samsara with all its unsatisfactory features characterized by Anicca, Dukkha and Anatta — impermanance, unsatisfactoriness and absence of a permanent, unchanging, eternal, self or soul.
Continue reading at Buddhist Channel
Rebirth as doctrine and experience by Francis Story
Read here
Colombo, Sri Lanka -- From the earliest of times, men have speculated on the question why we are born and why we die. In ancient times, phenomena such as rain and fire were attributed to gods associated with them.
There was a creator god responsible for birth and another for destruction. With the passage of time, there developed the concept of one God, all powerful and omnipotent, who is responsible for our birth and who would judge our life at death and reward or punish us for our good and harmful actions, respectively.
The answer in Buddhism for our birth is that we are caught in a cycle of births and deaths called Samsara, whose beginning is inconceivable. The Buddha declared that it is because of our delusion of the true nature of things, that we have the desire for life at the moment of death where ordinary people grasp for life. Consequently, we are re-born and continue our journey in Samsara with all its unsatisfactory features characterized by Anicca, Dukkha and Anatta — impermanance, unsatisfactoriness and absence of a permanent, unchanging, eternal, self or soul.
Continue reading at Buddhist Channel
Rebirth as doctrine and experience by Francis Story
Read here
Thursday, October 21, 2010
David Bohm
The notion of something with an inexhaustibly specifiable and unvarying mode of being can only be an approximation and abstraction from the infinite complexity of the changes taking place in the real process of becoming.
David Bohm
David Bohm
Wednesday, October 06, 2010
Tuesday, October 05, 2010
Heart Sutra mantra
"Gate, Gate, Paragate, Parasamgate, Bodhi Svaha."
=================================================
Gate, gate means gone, gone; paragate means gone over;
parasamgate means gone beyond (to the other shore of
suffering or the bondage of samsara); bodhi means the
Awakened Mind; svaha is the Sanskrit word for homage or
proclaimation. So, the mantra means "Homage to the Awakened
Mind which has gone over to the other shore (of suffering)."
Mu Soeng
=================================================
Gate, gate means gone, gone; paragate means gone over;
parasamgate means gone beyond (to the other shore of
suffering or the bondage of samsara); bodhi means the
Awakened Mind; svaha is the Sanskrit word for homage or
proclaimation. So, the mantra means "Homage to the Awakened
Mind which has gone over to the other shore (of suffering)."
Mu Soeng
Monday, October 04, 2010
Heart Sutra Commentary by Mu Soeng
Heart Sutra - Ancient Buddhist Wisdom in the Light of Quantum Reality
Commentary by Mu Soeng Sunim
Read here
Commentary by Mu Soeng Sunim
Read here
Saturday, October 02, 2010
Buddha's final sermon
It is not appropriate to grieve in an hour of joy.. You all weep, but is there any real cause for grief? We should look upon a sage as a person escaped from a burning mansion... it does not matter whether I am here or not; salvation does not depend upon me but upon practising the Dharma, just as a cure depends not upon the doctor but upon taking the medicine... My time has come, my work is done... Everything eventually comes to an end, even if it should last for an aeon. The time of parting is bound to come one day. I have done what I could for myself and others, and to remain longer would be without purpose. I have trained all whom I could train. My teachings shall last for many generations, so do not be disturbed. Recognize that all that lives is subject to the laws of impermanence, and strive for eternal wisdom. When the light of knowledge dispels ignorance, when the world is seen as without substance, the end of life is seen as peace and as a cure to a disease. Everything that exists is bound to perish. Be therefore mindful of your salvation. The time of my passing has come.
Buddha's final sermon
Buddha's final sermon
Fearless Mountain
Fearless Mountain is a documentary exploring the world of the forest-dwelling monks of Abhayagiri Buddhist Monastery in Redwood Valley, California.
Part 1 of 6 parts. The rest can be found by double-clicking on the video. You will then be re-directed to youtube website.
Friday, October 01, 2010
living in the face of death
At the time of death, it does not matter where one is a monk or lay person, rich or poor. What really counts is the state of one's mind. If at the time of one's death, one has managed to generate a state of mind possessed of clarity, control, love and wisdom, our life has been well spent. Should confusion, attachment, helplessness, fear, aversion and dark instincts predominate in our mindstream, this is a sign that our life was spent meaninglessly. Those who die in a state of spiritual backwardness and ignorance will fall into the lower realms of being, regardless of their social standing during their lifetime. When the mind has been dragged down with the weight of negative deeds and evil tendencies, one is swept helplessly away.
Glenn H Mullin
Glenn H Mullin
Thursday, September 30, 2010
kadampa
When sitting alone,
watch your mind.
When speaking in public,
watch your speech.
- An old Kadampa saying
watch your mind.
When speaking in public,
watch your speech.
- An old Kadampa saying
Tuesday, September 21, 2010
metta sutta
In the Metta Sutta, the Blessed One said:
This is how one who is skilled in goodness and wish to attain the state of peacefulness should act:
One should be able, upright, straight forward, free from pride, gentle in speech, mild, contented, easily satisfied, not caught up in too much bustle, frugal in one’s ways, with controlled senses, wise and skilful, not impudent, and with families is not demanding. One should also abstain from the ways that wise ones would blame.
And in this the thought and wishes that one should always hold: May all beings be happy and safe, may their hearts rejoice within themselves.
Whatever living beings there may be, whether they are strong or weak, without exception, be they of stature small or medium, firm or frail, short or long, living in hiding or open view, dwelling nearby or far away, already born or still future wombs; may all these beings rejoice within themselves.
Let no one bring about another’s ruin, nor despise any being in any way or place, let no one through anger or enmity wish harm on one another. Just as a mother at the risk of her life would love and protect her child, her only child; just so should one cultivate this boundless love, radiating loving-kindness to all that live in the whole universe, with a mind that is free from any bound, extending upward, downward and across the world, untroubled, free from hatred and enmity. Whether standing or walking, seated or lying down and still free from drowsiness, one should exercise this mindfulness. This is Divine Abiding here they say.
Not falling into wrong views, by following the precepts and with knowledge, one overcomes the craving after lust from all sense desires, and surely one will no more descend to any womb.
Continue reading here at: Buddhist Channel
This is how one who is skilled in goodness and wish to attain the state of peacefulness should act:
One should be able, upright, straight forward, free from pride, gentle in speech, mild, contented, easily satisfied, not caught up in too much bustle, frugal in one’s ways, with controlled senses, wise and skilful, not impudent, and with families is not demanding. One should also abstain from the ways that wise ones would blame.
And in this the thought and wishes that one should always hold: May all beings be happy and safe, may their hearts rejoice within themselves.
Whatever living beings there may be, whether they are strong or weak, without exception, be they of stature small or medium, firm or frail, short or long, living in hiding or open view, dwelling nearby or far away, already born or still future wombs; may all these beings rejoice within themselves.
Let no one bring about another’s ruin, nor despise any being in any way or place, let no one through anger or enmity wish harm on one another. Just as a mother at the risk of her life would love and protect her child, her only child; just so should one cultivate this boundless love, radiating loving-kindness to all that live in the whole universe, with a mind that is free from any bound, extending upward, downward and across the world, untroubled, free from hatred and enmity. Whether standing or walking, seated or lying down and still free from drowsiness, one should exercise this mindfulness. This is Divine Abiding here they say.
Not falling into wrong views, by following the precepts and with knowledge, one overcomes the craving after lust from all sense desires, and surely one will no more descend to any womb.
Continue reading here at: Buddhist Channel
Thursday, September 16, 2010
Tuesday, September 14, 2010
Monday, September 13, 2010
the mind like fire unbound
One of my favourites by Thanissaro Bhikkhu, now in a 2010 revised edition:
The mind like fire unbound
The mind like fire unbound
Sunday, September 12, 2010
Thich Nhat Hanh
Talks from the Singapore Retreat, the 8th to the 12th of September, 2010.
Video stream of Thay's talk given on 10 September 2010 on the third day of the Singapore retreat "The Art of Living Happily in the Here and Now"
Made possible by the Plum Village International Online Monastery team
and the Kong Meng San Phor Kark See Monastery.
Video stream of Thay's talk given on 10 September 2010 on the third day of the Singapore retreat "The Art of Living Happily in the Here and Now"
Made possible by the Plum Village International Online Monastery team
and the Kong Meng San Phor Kark See Monastery.
Thursday, September 09, 2010
Mindfulness: Beyond the science
Guardian
by Ed Halliwell
Each month, a digest of the latest research on mindfulness meditation lands in my inbox. The volume of studies has mushroomed in recent years – the most recent round-up (pdf) alone cites 35 new papers detailing effects on people with conditions such as heart disease and borderline personality disorder, the results of an innovative new mindfulness curriculum for schools, and the impact of mindfulness-based stress reduction courses on the structure of the brain (it seems to reduce density in the amygdala).
If practising mindfulness can help people – and it appears to – then all this evidence can only be a good thing. Whereas for years meditation's public image was stuck in the 1960s, tainted with hippie self-indulgence or new-age flakiness, now it's being taken seriously by everyone from top academics to US congressman and government departments.
Continue reading here at Guardian
by Ed Halliwell
Each month, a digest of the latest research on mindfulness meditation lands in my inbox. The volume of studies has mushroomed in recent years – the most recent round-up (pdf) alone cites 35 new papers detailing effects on people with conditions such as heart disease and borderline personality disorder, the results of an innovative new mindfulness curriculum for schools, and the impact of mindfulness-based stress reduction courses on the structure of the brain (it seems to reduce density in the amygdala).
If practising mindfulness can help people – and it appears to – then all this evidence can only be a good thing. Whereas for years meditation's public image was stuck in the 1960s, tainted with hippie self-indulgence or new-age flakiness, now it's being taken seriously by everyone from top academics to US congressman and government departments.
Continue reading here at Guardian
Friday, September 03, 2010
Bernard Buffet L'Enfer de Dante
Buffet : "... there's no need for education or explanation in order to approach, to appreciate, and to love paintings. You just need to look - and everyone will find what they're looking for, depending on their sensibility, curiosity and imagination. For me, these damned souls project a tragic solitude, a distress, a painful lucidity that strangely resembles the sterile confusion of life today. They reflect the same dread as The Horror of War, though more powerful, more clairvoyant: a vision of the icy world inevitably produced by egotism, greed and cowardice."
Tuesday, August 31, 2010
everything to lose
Dido
I used to be so fearless so limitless and free
Happy on my own and nothing really bothered me.
I had desires to see the world, jump out of planes and fly
And I love to be alive but I was not afraid to die
I used to be so sure of things and self-contained
I could carry on with no need to explain
It didn't matter if I ever made it home
Could go too fast, and drink all night and dance alone
I love to be alive but I was not afraid to die
I love to be alive but I was not afraid to die
I used to be so thoughtless, so easy and free
Could walk away, not think ahead, and had no plans to keep.
No hand to told, no one to bring down with me.
I wouldn't see the worst and it only hurts me.
I love to be alive but I was not afraid to die
I've got everything to lose
Since I've met you
I've got everything to lose
I've got everything to lose
Picture: All Rights Reserved ® aml.2010
I used to be so fearless so limitless and free
Happy on my own and nothing really bothered me.
I had desires to see the world, jump out of planes and fly
And I love to be alive but I was not afraid to die
I used to be so sure of things and self-contained
I could carry on with no need to explain
It didn't matter if I ever made it home
Could go too fast, and drink all night and dance alone
I love to be alive but I was not afraid to die
I love to be alive but I was not afraid to die
I used to be so thoughtless, so easy and free
Could walk away, not think ahead, and had no plans to keep.
No hand to told, no one to bring down with me.
I wouldn't see the worst and it only hurts me.
I love to be alive but I was not afraid to die
I've got everything to lose
Since I've met you
I've got everything to lose
I've got everything to lose
Picture: All Rights Reserved ® aml.2010
Saturday, August 28, 2010
Arahants, Bodhisattvas and Buddhas
Arahants Bodhisatvvas and Buddhas Essay by Bhikkhu Bodhi at Access to Insight
Thursday, August 26, 2010
Monday, August 23, 2010
looking in
English, which can express the thoughts of Hamlet and the tragedy of Lear, has no words for the shiver and the headache... Let a sufferer try to describe a pain in his head to the doctor and language at once runs dry.
Virginia Woolf
Virginia Woolf
Saturday, August 21, 2010
Friday, August 20, 2010
Wednesday, August 18, 2010
Monday, August 16, 2010
Dogen
To study Buddhism is to study yourself.
To study yourself is to forget yourself.
To forget yourself is to perceive your non-duality with all things.
To realize this is to cast off the mind and body of self and others.
Dogen
To study yourself is to forget yourself.
To forget yourself is to perceive your non-duality with all things.
To realize this is to cast off the mind and body of self and others.
Dogen
Saturday, August 14, 2010
Mind and Life XVIII
Mind and Life XVIII - Attention, Memory and Mind. Day 1 morning covers multitasking, meditation and contemplative practice.
The discussions during Mind and Life XVIII primarily focus on the subjective phenomenology, information-processing operations, and neural mechanisms of attention, memory and conscious awareness from both scientific and Buddhist perspectives. The conference was held at His Holiness's residence in Dharamsala, India in 2009 and organized by the Mind and Life Institute. (more info at www.dalailama.com, www.mindandlife.org)
Day 1 pm - An excellent presentation by Alan Wallace on shamatha
Day 2 am
Day 2 pm
Day 3 am
Day 3 pm
Day 4 am
Day 5 am
Day 5 pm
Thursday, August 12, 2010
Thanissaro Bhikkhu
Thanisarro Bhikkhu's June 2010 Saskatchewan Retreat on "The Ten Perfections"
All audio recordings and suggested readings are found here:
Saskatoon Retreat
All audio recordings and suggested readings are found here:
Saskatoon Retreat
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