Freedom

Was speaking with a supporter of the monastery about opera today when I mentioned this one being my favorite choral pieces. To see Tibetan and Cambodian children singing in Italian, especially about this dream of a free home, is really moving. For the lyrics and more info about this this piece, see Và Pensiero.

It goes without saying that my posting here has been scant of late, so if you are still visiting, thank you very much!

[re] Visiting the Kālāma Sutta

Bodhipaksa has a running series on his site entitled “Fake Buddha Quotes”. The category link is dead, so you’ll have to do a bit of searching to find the individual posts. He’s not addressed this one yet, but it happens to be one of the ones that concerns me quite a bit:

“Believe nothing, no matter where you read it, or who said it, no matter if I have said it, unless it agrees with your own reason and your own commonsense”.

As usual, Jayarava does an excellent analysis of the Kālāma Sutta in Negative Criteria for Moral Decision Making in the Kālāma Sutta and Positive Criteria for Moral Decision Making in the Kālāma Sutta. The following paragraph from the latter essay stands out for me:

Many readers and commentators seem to have taken this sutta as suggesting that it’s up to each of us to decide for ourselves how to think or behave. They take it as a confirmation that the Buddha preached something like the Romantic view of natural virtue spontaneously emerging in the individual free of social constraints. [3] In fact the Buddha’s view was not like this at all. For the Buddha the way of virtue was one of restraint (saṃvara) and vigilance (appamāda); where remorse (hiri) and shame (ottappa) were uppermost in the mind; and one restricted sensory input by guarding the senses (indriyesu guttadvāra) and carefully avoiding contact with disturbing influences (yoniso manasikāra). Buddhist morality, as we find it in these early sources, is in fact about carefully and strictly conforming to a set of norms which provides the mental clarity and calm that enable effective meditation.

I would also like to recommend Bhikkhu Bodhi’s essay A Look at the Kālāma Sutta and Buddhadasa Bhikkhu’s Help! The Kalama Sutta, Help!.

My Dad 20 Sep 1941 – 2 Feb 2011

For a life well lived. Safe journeys ahead

“Aniccā vata saṅkhārā
Uppādavayadhammino
Uppajjitvā nirujjhanti
Tesaṁ vūpasamo sukho.

“Dukkhā vata saṅkhārā
Uppādavayadhammino
Uppajjitvā nirujjhanti
Tesaṁ vūpasamo sukho.

“Anattā vata saṅkhārā
Uppādavayadhammino
Uppajjitvā nirujjhanti
Tesaṁ vūpasamo sukho.”

Rethinking the Term “Rebirth”

From Dharmadasa Bhikkhu:

Recently I was trying to explain the difference between re-becoming and re-birth, as I understand the terms. The latter term, in my opinion, is from a misunderstanding of the Buddha’s teaching, but it has become generally accepted, without reflection. The Pali term in question is “punabbhava”. You will not find the Buddha talking about “puna-jaati” at all in the Pali Canon. Puna-jaati would be the Pali translation of “re-brith”. Punabbhava on the other hand, could be translated and I think would be best translated “re-becoming”.

Due to all conditioned things being impermanent, it is impossible that something could experience the same birth again. No, each birth is different, or the being born each time, is different. Therefore a being could not have a “re-birth”. Of course one could be born as a human, god, devil etc many times, but one would be (the birth would be) different each time.

But if we understand becoming as a process which leads to birth, each time a different birth, we could see that the process of becoming could be the same each time. Therefore we can undergo the process many times, again and again, thus “re-becoming” or “again-becoming” leading to a different birth each time.

This can be likened to the process of cooking a cake. The process has to be repeated each time one wants to cook a cake. The ingredients may change a little depending on the type of cake one wanted, but even if we wanted to cook a banana cake every time, the resulting cake would never be the same as the one before. Though of course there would be basic similarities, otherwise we couldn’t say a “banana” cake etc.

Thus we would have “re-becoming” leading to a different birth each time and many births [and deaths] in the cycling within Samsaara.

Please see also Mechanics of Kamma and Rebirth and Kamma as a Sack of Seeds

Service for Others

“Go your ways, oh monks, for the benefit and happiness of many, out of compassion for the world, for the good, benefit, and happiness of gods and men. Let no two go in the same direction. Teach, oh monks, the Dhamma, which is beneficial in the beginning, in the middle, and at the end— both the spirit and the letter of it. Make known the Noble Life, which is fully complete (requiring no addition) and pure (requiring no subtraction). There are beings with only a little dust in their eyes who will be lost unless they hear the Dhamma. Such persons will understand the truth.”

“Caratha bhikkhave cārikaṃ bahujana-hitāya bahujana-sukhāya, lokānukampāya, atthāya hitāya sukhāya devamanussānaṃ. Mā ekena dve āgamittha. Desetha bhikkhave Dhammaṃ ādikalyāṇaṃ, majjhekalyāṇaṃ, pariyosānakalyāṇaṃ sātthaṃ sabyañjanaṃ. Kevalaparipuṇṇaṃ parisuddhaṃ brahmacariyaṃ pakāsetha. Santi sattā apparajakkhajātikā asavanatā Dhammassa parihāyanti. Bhavissanti Dhammassa aññātāro.”

Dutiyā Mārapāsa Sutta, Saṃyutta Nikāya, IV (I).5

Mandala Publications – “Distorted Visions…”

From Mandala Publications:

“As Buddhism has encountered modernity, it runs against widespread prejudices, both religious and anti-religious, and it is common for all those with such biases to misrepresent Buddhism, either intentionally or unintentionally.

click here to read the rest

An Interesting Observation

Zoe Pollock, on Andrew Sullivan’s The Daily Dish, quotes Mark Vernon’s “… lovely rumination on the philosophy of Emily Dickinson’s poetry:

What she realizes is that the truth which is beyond us, which is discerned only indirectly, is the only truth that is truly worth seeking. That which we can readily grasp and manipulate is too easy for us. It’s humdrum. It leaves life too small for us, the creature with an eye for the transcendent. But look further, and what you are offered is what she calls truth’s ‘superb surprise’. That’s why success lies in circuit. Our humanity is spoken to, from a direction – a source – that we had not expected. And our humanity expands as a result.

There is something very profound there, something very Dhammic, but I can’t put my finger on it. If you have the words, please share them in the comments.

Live!

Henry David Thoreau

“How vain it is to sit down to write when you have not stood up to live.”

– Henry David Thoreau

Vayama Bhante

观禅者最烦闷的，就是在修行时那颗不能驯服，野性蹦腾的心，不断生起不善的思维，干扰着情绪，让行者不能专注于目标的生灭，对初学者或 part-time 的行者，只须观照它而心也需默念，知到知道。。。乱想乱想。。。计划计划。。。心跑心跑。。等等，然后再回到禅修的主要目标就可。
对于密集禅修者，或已进入禅修第二阶段清净道观智者，当不善心的生起时，一定要细心专注观照它，如何生起、为何生起、从何生起等，必需看清和了解其真相，就知道怎样去灭除它，排除它，才能快速培养起正念和正定，智慧才能快速成长矣！Sadhu!

– Vayama Bhante, 馬來西亞檳城 (Penang, Malaysia) – quoted from Facebook

[Update]To my English readers, I’m really sorry there is no English translation here; this is a REAL weakness of mine. If someone out there would like to take a stab at it, I will insert it in this post.

Population Graphic

Pretty cool graphic on the our planet’s population:click to enlarge