What’s Left?

From xkcd:

555!

From The Inquisitor::

Whirl, Germany (AHN) – A Buddhist bank robber’s plea to have his cat visit him in jail was turned down by a German court-even with the caveat that the cat is the reincarnation of his mother.

Peter Keonig, 46, doesn’t want to spend the five years he was sentenced for armed robberies without seeing his cat, Gisela, England’ The Daily Telegraph reported.

He told the court the cat should be allowed to visit him because he’s certain she’s the reincarnation of his deceased mother. Buddhists believe that people return to the Earth as animals after they die.

In turning down the kitty-plea, the court said they respected religious freedom, but that there’s no proof that cat is in fact Keonig’s mother reborn, the Telegraph reported.

The court did note he would be able to write the cat, but there’s no indication his mother retained her reading skills after transitioning to feline form.”

Food for Thought

Still a bit of writer’s block – I know, excuses, excuses. However, a recent written exchange reinforces how silence is MUCH better than unskillful writing when talking about Dhamma.

On the topic of skillful writing, this article came up in another blog (sorry, can’t remember which one in order to link back): “A critique of “Buddhism with out Beliefs” by Stephen Batchelor By Bhikkhu Punnadhammo”.

Quote for Today

Have had lots to say recently, but a serious case of writer’s block preventing me from doing so. Perhaps that’s not an entirely bad thing, though! Would like to share this verse from the Dhammapada (165)

By oneself is evil done and
by oneself is one defiled;
by oneself is evil not done and
by oneself is one purified.
Purity and impurity depend entirely on oneself;
No one can purify another.”

“Attanâ hi kataè pâpaè
attanâ samkilissati
attanâ akatam pâpaè
attanâva visujjhati
suddhi asuddhi paccattaè
nâñño aññaè visodhaye.”

Translation: Daw Mya Tin, M.A.

On the Road

I don’t ever recall reading it in the Vinaya, then again I am no Vinaya expert either, but I’ve been told that monks are supposed to travel 12 yojana (one yojana is around 7 miles) after the end of the Rains Retreat. Last year, a few of us went on a pilgrimage to India, a nice overkill for the distance requirement, and this year I will be headed to the US for an extended stay. At this rate, I have already covered a couple of lifetimes of end of Vassa travel!

In any case, the schedule looks something like this:

– 22 Oct – Lake Placid, NY
– mid-Nov – some island on the west coast of Florida (St Petersburg and Tampa are relatively nearby, so I hear)
– c. 20 Dec – perhaps Nashville, TN and Austin, TX
– 10 Jan – back to this island in the Gulf
– April – back to Thailand for a bit, then perhaps Malaysia and Singapore before “settling down”

There was also the generous invitation to visit Boseman, Montana (in the middle of winter!!!), so I might be in the Great White North too.

If you would like to put a face with a blog and chat Dhamma, drop me a line – ashin d0t sopaka [@] gma1l.com (think you can figure out the proper formatting )

Regret

From Stephen King’s “The Dark Tower V: The Wolves of Calla”:

“…he was done with that kind of thinking…”, it was “…good for nothing but creating a truly excellent array of self-inflicted wounds.”

A Rather Sad End for Vassa

Yesterday marked the end of Rains Retreat for Burmese monks. Last night, we had our “invitation ceremony” (pavârana), wherein monks, by seniority of Vassa, invite the other monks to criticise their faults and misbehaviours over the previous three months. Alas, no one ever does the critiquing (in my limited experience), usually just the three lines are chanted. Oddly, I am usually pretty moved at these monastic gigs mostly because of my awe of their antiquity and how seriously I personally take the words to heart, but yesterday was dampened by a rather unfortunate confrontation in a long line of confrontations over the same issue with another monk. I’m not going to get into the blow by blow, that would probably break a rule and is really not relevant to this new insight I would like to share. [NB: If you are a Theravâdin monk and feel that I am stepping out of bounds here, please feel free in the spirit of growth and encouragement on the Path to write to me directly - ashin d0t sopaka [@] gmail.com]

Most Western monks ordain as a result of saèvega, one of those notoriously difficult worlds to translate into English. It sorta means “spiritual urgency”, that after really truly intuitively seeing and experiencing dukkha, really feeling this “fear” and “panic” at the thought of continuing in this endless cycle, and being fed up with the fruitlessness of chasing one’s tail in search of happiness, one feels this almost overwhelming motivation to do something about it. Think “hair on fire”! As such, most of us take our newly chosen lives rather seriously and with great sincerity and energy, studying, meditating, and sometimes more strictly adhering to the Vinaya than our non-Western brothers. A whole scholarly paper could probably be written about this, especially the last point, but this is a blog, not an academic journal.

The Vinaya, the code of conduct for monastics, expounds the 227 rules for monks (300+ for bhikkhunis), as well as the origin stories and exceptions for said rules. Additionally, there are commentarial works which add another layer of interpretation, and of course, each Nikaya (school) has its own interpretative works, mostly interpretations for the application of the rules to more modern situations. The rules govern everything from the very serious, like not killing or having sexual intercourse, to the mundane, like how to eat and defecate. So, the nitty gritty details of the way I follow Vinaya in the Shwe Jin Nikaya of Myanmar differs from another Western monk who was ordained in the Thai Mahânikaya. Throw in the teachings of the Buddha found in the Sutta and Abhidhamma piíakâ, and one would think the result of following this humongous corpus would be The Great Equaliser, that is, that it wouldn’t really matter where one was from, what one’s financial and social backgrounds were, etc., that we would all be, in a manner of facetiously speaking, Stepford Monks.

The sad fact of the matter is that this is not the case, as I have learned the hard way. In this particular situation, I “followed the book” (not as dry and mechanical as that sounds!) and am still somehow coming out the villain in this whole mishegas. I really truly believe it is neither because of the way I handled it, nor whether I am right or wrong about the issue itself, but primarily because I didn’t handle it in a correctly Burmese fashion. I have attempted over the past couple of months to remove the poison in our relationship – I am REALLY big on harmony in the Sangha – but seem to only be stirring the waters. In reading the travails of other Western monks in their respective countries of ordinations, my take, in hindsight, is that the disconnect in these situations is not with the Vinaya or with the Dhamma, but with the culture. To be honest, I don’t think our non-Western brothers even realise it at this level. A vast majority have never lived in other cultures, so they probably sincerely believe that their culture is an expression of Dhamma. For us Westerners though, living in this environment is kinda tough: while peeling the layers of the dukkha onions we brought with us into this life, the basket is being replenished with dukkha potatoes, a seemingly completely unnecessary addition creating much more work. If I were a betting monk, I would venture that this is a contributing reason to disillusionment with Buddhism and ultimately disrobing. The sad bit is that there probably is no real reconciliation, other than a stronger monastic tradition in our respective Western countries.*

As uncomfortable and somewhat disappointing this end of Rains was, the excellent news is that this is another opportunity to observe the arising and passing away of mental phenomenon, to see that they are impermanent (anicca), subject to dukkha, and ultimately, not self (anatta)

* There are some amazingly wonderful monks in the West, to be sure, but I don’t imagine they have the facilities or resources to accommodate a huge growth in monastics.

And Now For Something Completely Different…

As of this writing, there are no posts on this blog, but the backstory is quite the appetizer! Check this out: Bitterroot Badger

5 Minute Dhamma – Dependent Origination/Arising

We often hear the phrase “When this is, that comes to be; with the arising of this, that also arises” and other variations. Oddly, I’ve seen it applied by some people to other teachings of the Buddha, but really it’s just a succinct statement describing conditionality, or more specifically Dependent Origination/Arising (paíiccasamuppâda). The second of the Four Noble Truths states that the cause of dukkha is craving/desire. DO/A answers the question of how this craving/desire arises. Although the formula begins with ignorance, this does not mean this is the first cause, the beginning of everything, as it were. It does suggest, however, that because we are ignorant (note that this means “lack of knowledge”, not stupid), all the rest springs from this ignorance. Once the ignorance is eradicated, or for that matter any other link in the chain is broken, we have successfully stopped this terrible cycle. We achieve this wisdom through meditation, to “see things as they really are”.

While the list is linear, we have to be careful not to get into the trap of believing that there is necessarily only one condition that gives rise to the subsequent link in the chain; it may be the dominant condition, but not necessarily the only one. For example, while feeling is a condition for craving, ignorance and formations are also conditions for the arising of craving. So it would not be wrong to also say, “ignorance conditions craving” or “formations condition craving”, although they are not the predominant conditions. The only metaphor I could come up with is a sports one. Take the passing of a ball, for example. While “passing the ball” is a condition for “catching the ball”, so is “running to the spot” and “dodging the interceptors” and “blocking the defenders”, in addition to all the other activity on the field/court.

Moving along, this is only a 5 Minute Dhamma after all, the formula is:

Ignorance conditions formations,
Formations condition consciousness,
Consciousness conditions mind and matter,
Mind and matter condition the six sense bases,
Six sense bases condition contact,
Contact conditions feeling,
Feeling conditions craving,
Craving conditions clinging,
Clinging conditions becoming,
Becoming conditions birth,
Birth conditions aging, death, physical and mental suffering, grief and lamentation” (and back to ignorance)

Avijjâ paccayâ saàkhârâ,
Saàkhâra paccayâ viññâúaè,
Viññâúa paccayâ nâmarûpaè,
Nâmarû papaccayâ saéâyatanaè,
Saéâyatana paccayâ phasso,
Phassa paccayâ vedanâ,
Vedanâ paccayâ taúhâ,
Taúhâ paccayâ upâdânaè,
Upâdâna paccayâ bhavo,
Bhava paccayâ jâti,
Jâti paccayâ jarâmaraúaè sokaparidevadukkhadomanassupâyâsâ”

1. Ignorance (avijja) – this is the lack of knowledge of the Four Noble Truths: 1. dukkha; 2. cause of dukkha is craving (taúhâ); 3. cessation of dukkha; and 4. the Noble Eightfold Path.

2. Formations (saàkhâra) – in this case, this Pâéi word is a synonym for kamma, intentional action, bodily, verbal and mental, unwholesome and wholesome. This is our previous kamma.

3. Consciousness (viññâna) – in the lifetime to lifetime model of DO, this represents the very first consciousness that arises called the rebirth linking consciousness (paíisandhicitta) and co-arises with materiality at the time of conception (this is called co-nascence condition, or sahajâta paccayo, but getting a bit Abhidhammic here).

4. Mind and Matter (nâmarûpa) – matter here refers to our bodies. Mind refers to mental factors (cetasika), like feeling, perception, volition, contact, one pointedness, life faculty, and attention that accompany every mind moment (citta), as well as others – more Abhidhamma.

5. Six Sense Bases (saéâyatana) – these are the sense organs of eye, ear, nose, tongue, body and mind.

6. Contact (phassa) – this link is the description of the moment the six sense bases make contact with the object, be it a visible object for eye, audible for ear, olfactory for nose, sapible for tongue, tangible for body and ideational for mind.

7. Feeling (vedana) – this is the immediate sensation that arises resulting from the contact, either pleasant, unpleasant or neutral. This is not to be confused with feeling as emotion, like happiness or sadness, etc.

8. Craving (taúhâ) – ah, the cause of dukkha, the second Noble Truth. When contact is made with a pleasant object, we desire more; when the object is unpleasant, we desire its opposite; when the object is neutral, because of delusion we say “oh, this isn’t unpleasant, so it must be pleasant”, and desire more of it.

9. Clinging (upâdâna) – clinging, or attachment, is one of these close-but-no-cigar type of translations, like “suffering” for dukkha. This link is actually an intensified form of craving and is akin to throwing logs onto the fire, as opposed to tightly holding something in hand. So when people say “we shouldn’t attach”, they are correct in as much as we don’t want the fire to burn harder and longer, but it doesn’t extinguish the fire altogether. In order to do that, we need to eradicate craving altogether, and that happens by severing the link between feeling and craving. If there is no fire to feed (craving), there will be no clinging, or an adding of fuel to a non-existent fire.

10 Becoming (bhava) – our current kamma, intentional action, bodily, verbal and mental, unwholesome and wholesome. The moment this action is complete, it becomes the previously mentioned formations (saàkhâra).

11. Birth (jâti) – self-explanatory.

12. Aging and death, physical and mental suffering, grief and lamentation (jarâmaraúaè sokaparidevadukkhadomanassupâyâsâ) – again, self-explanatory.

Oooo, so doom and gloom. Yeah, because that’s how it is, to believe so otherwise is the beginning of the chain. However, as mentioned above in #9, when we cut the link between feeling and craving, craving doesn’t arise, we don’t add fuel to that raging fire, we no longer act unwholesomely, and so on. The chain is broken, we enjoy happiness in the here and now and have stopped the seemingly endless cycle of rebirth.

Mechanics of Kamma and Rebirth

The Buddha used beaucoup analogies and similes to graphically illustrate any given teaching, and people kinda got it right away. In the Mahâsatipaííâna Sutta, for example, the Buddha uses the Simile of the Butcher to make a very specific point in meditation, and probably not to advocate wrong livelihood (butchery) or vivisection. In today’s world, we tend to over-analyse this type imagery, in the process extending and distorting it beyond its original intention – the highlighting of one specific point – causing the analogy to collapse. So, suspend disbelief and enjoy the view. This is the very big picture, and can stand a lot of filling in (happy to do, just ask ).

Imagine a person standing in the middle of a green, grassy field. This person is swinging a sack of seeds from right to left. When the sack reaches the furthest left it can go, this person disappears and another person sprouts in the same instant. The new person then catches the sack and in turn swings it to the left. At the leftest most point of the swing, he disappears and another person sprouts to catch the sack. She then swings the sack leftward, and yet another new person sprouts just as she disappears. This goes on and on until the edge of the green, grassy field. Immediately adjacent, the terrain changes dramatically to a sandy beach. The sack swinging, however, continues, with each person swinging the sack to the left, disappearing at the sprouting of the new person.

Upon closer inspection, you see that as the new person catches the sack, s/he adds a seed and interestingly, drops a seed. Each time the sack is passed along, another seed is added, one abandoned. You also note a determined look in the person’s eyes in trying to decide which seed to sack and which to drop. Even closer, you can see that as the sack is being swung leftwards, one seed pops out and lands in the exact spot where the new person sprouts. You also notice that even though each of these people are different, all the ones that appear on any given terrain tend to be somewhat similar, like an infinite variety of brothers and sisters. Thus the folks on the green grass were all tall, healthy, in good physical condition; the ones on the sandy beach tended to be skinner, a little more frail, and not as robust; on yet another field, darker complexions, while on the field immediately adjacent, lighter complexions. Ah yes, as you reflect on this scene, you see occasional efforts to shift the direction of the sack o’ seeds, changing the otherwise linear direction of the flow. Sometimes this change seems to happen for no reason at all, other times they appear to be targeting or to be avoiding something immediately in the path. You see quite a full sack with countless numbers of seeds, and since only one seed is added at a time and one seed falls out, you try to imagine a time when the sack never had any seeds in it and when it will be empty again, only to blow your mind, like imaging the edge of the universe. As if that exercise isn’t taxing enough, and in a real fit of curiosity (craziness?!), you try match the springing seeds to the person who originally placed it in the sack.*

There you have a simplistic description of the process of kamma and rebirth. To be clearer, though, let’s label the elements. The different fields each represent one physical lifetime. The people represent the five aggregates (matter, feeling, perception, formation, consciousness – eye, ear, nose, tongue, body, mind). The two seeds, one dropped and one added to the sack, are unwholesome and wholesome kamma, be it bodily, verbal, or mental intentional action. The determined look in the eyes is volition (cetana). The sack o’ seeds represents an accumulation of those previous actions. The seed that pops out and sprouts the new person is a result of kamma (kammavipâka), and the inertia from the swing is a kind of kammic energy (kammasatti) that provides momentum for the passing of the sack. The sprouting and disappearing of the people represents arising and passing away (yes, matter also arises and passes away on a moment to moment basis. Amazing that the Buddha saw this 2,500 years before the discovery of quarks, leptons and gauge bosons!) and shows moment to moment rebirth, while the transition from terrain to terrain is lifetime to lifetime rebirth. The name we erroneously give to this entire process of catching, choosing, wanting, dropping, adding, swinging, popping, sprouting, transitioning, and disappearing with all its material components, is “Me”.

Of course, there are lots of questions, like what did the Buddha mean when he said that “all beings are the owners of their kamma“, when clearly there is no single entity that runs through this whole process? Well, it’s the process itself that owns the kamma. What is the difference between reincarnation and rebirth? The former suggests some single entity that goes from corporeal form to corporeal form, which as can be seen in the above illustration, is not the case. One could argue that rebirth is the same thing, that some entity is born again and again. But here we have another concept not properly captured in English from the Pâéi, like “suffering” for dukkha. A more accurate rendering would be something like a “process of numerous births”. Think of a maternity ward – the same baby is not born over and over again, many babies are born in the same ward. But I digress….

One could say that the cessation of the process, the goal of a Buddhist, is nibbâna, but here is where the analogy would fall apart. While technically nibbâna is indeed the cessation, or extinguishing, of this process, using the above illustration would give the impression of annihilationism, something that is clearly a wrong view. The above is merely to help kinda get a grip on the complex process of becoming from moment to moment and from lifetime to lifetime.

* c.f. Acintita Sutta