Thu, 31 Aug 2006
Quoting Karthar
I found a quote by my teacher, Khenpo Karthar Rinpoche, on the web that I hadn't seen before and I thought was worth sharing.
Patience is like a beautiful ornament. When you become a person with great patience, it brings a certain element of charm to your life. You are loved by others, and you give no problems to your friends. You bring an element of joy, happiness, and calmness to other people's lives - your friends, your family, and the community. You do not have to ask to be accepted; everyone longs for your presence.
I reminded me of another quote of Khenpo's from a talk on meditation that is one of my favorites.
Through meditation we learn how to relax, to have mental peacefulness, tranquility. Through having learned how to maintain this peacefulness of mind, we are better able to deal with the hectic life of the world. Meditation also helps because of the wisdom we develop through the practice, and of course, wisdom is necessary in every activity. So, by practicing the method and developing your bodhicitta, realized beings say that you then become "the darling of the world."
Let me repeat that. Having developed bodhicitta, here meaning peacefulness of mind and an altruistic attitude, you then become the darling of the whole world. Not of just one person, or two; when you are the darling of the whole world you are loved by everyone. And that is being very successful indeed.
There's an article on the web about Claude Thomas, who is a veteran and Zen monk and leads Zen retreats for veterans suffering from Post Traumatic Stress Disorder.
n an attempt to deal with the scars war has left on their lives, these veterans and more than a dozen others attended a retreat on Aug. 19 and 20 at the Zen Center of Los Angeles led by Claude AnShin Thomas, a Vietnam veteran who was awarded the Purple Heart and Distinguished Flying Cross yet found Zen Buddhist practices the only way to adjust to life after war. After leaving Vietnam in 1967, Thomas suffered from debilitating PTSD symptoms that caused him to abuse alcohol and drugs and eventually leave his wife and son. In the late 1980s, he pursued Zen teachings after attending a retreat with famed monk Thich Nhat Hanh, and in 1995 he became a Zen monk.
Wed, 30 Aug 2006
Ego Is Good
During the Spring Retreat at TMC Khenpo Tsultrim said that ego is good. He said that we need ego or else we wouldn't practice. The sense of his remarks was that wanting happiness and wanting to avoid suffering is what motivates our practice. Trangu Rinpoche once said the best way to approach practice is as if we are seek, the dharma is medicine, and the teacher the doctor. Getting well starts with admitting we're sick, and wanting to get well. The wanting is an essential part of the cure. If we pretend that we're well or that it's wrong to want to get well, there's no way to be cured. So, yes, I think that ego is important at the start of our practice.
But then at a certain point in our practice ego becomes a hindrance, There's a sense that we're fake or that our practice is false. This is the scab of ego beginning to come loose. There's several wrong turns we can take at this point. The first is to redouble our efforts and become very strict with ourselves. This is the fanatic's approach to practice and yields the results that fanaticism usually yields. The second is to turn our attention in a different direction and become an intellectual authority on Buddhism. The third is to give up and be satisfied with what we've got. I don't believe any of these approaches are correct. What we need to do is to sit with this sense of falsity, feel the frustration of it, chew it and savor it. The question is, where does our allegiance lie, with the truth or with being comfortable? So that's how we deal with ego as we progress on the path.
Tue, 29 Aug 2006
Buddhist Bloggers
It seems like David, a long time member of the Chicago KTC, has a weblog and even updates it regularly. The posts have some news about the KTC and also about his job hunt and daughter, who he clearly dotes on.
Lily came down with a little flu today. She is sleeping a lot more than usual. I have to confess I rather enjoy it when she is sick. She is more willing to crawl in my arms and fall asleep while I hold her. It is one of those grown-up pleasures you never learn about when you are young. I think alcoholics would give up their addiction if they knew the pleasure of their sick child sleeping in their arms. So for now, my life has a little more bliss.
I've only met David once, during Tai Situ Rinpoche's Mahamudra Seminar at KTD. He was a very likeable guy, and at the time was also doing web work. I guess that job was a casualty on the dot bomb implosion. It would be good to meet him again, but at least I can keep up with his weblog.
DhrmaStudent is student of Garchen Rinpoche who has a defunct weblog that is still worth reading. He's twenty years old, very serious about Buddhism and wants to be a monk. Here's his picture. His mother is not too thrilled about him becoming a monk and going off to meditate in a cave.
I've been having to work through some karma, namely with individuals in my family. Never in their wildest dreams would they think my interests in Buddhism would bring me to likely being an ordained monk next year, the aspiration to go on six years retreat meditating on the nature of mind. Their perception of me when I would grow up would be an olympic swimmer or engaged in travel and translating...not, a Buddhist monk.
But what a phenomenal, flattering offering of this experience. Apparently Rinpoche threw his head back laughing, "He's 19 years old?!" The best thing I can ask for is the support from one side, Our teachers would never tear down our aspirations for Enlightenment, they would just tear down the Ego.
I'm always happy to see young people take a serious interest in the dharma, because the future of Buddhism is in their hands. Maybe I'll meet the guy some day.
Mon, 28 Aug 2006
Homeopathy Web Sites
It's been a while since I've written on homeopathy, but two web sites are worth mentioning. David Little has had a site called the Little Library on the web for a while. As the name suggests, it contains many of his articles. The site has recently been redesigned and is looking very nice now. David is well known and respected on the homeopathy mailing list. Luise Kunkle is also on the mailing list and has been researching the case books of Hahnemann and Boenninghausen for years. She's recently put up a page with some of her articles. I've only started reading them, but I'm sure they're interesting.
Sun, 27 Aug 2006
Pluto Demoted
I shouldn't let Pluto's demotion from planetary status go unnoticed. According to the new definition, a planet must:
- Orbit a star, but not be a star
- Have sufficient mass to give it a spherical shape
- Clear its orbit of other bodies
The last element in the definition is new and is the reason why Pluto was demoted, because it intersects the orbit of Neptune. But it's not clear to me why Neptune doesn't also fail the new definition. I must be missing something. In any case the definition of a planet is arbitrary. Let me plug George Lakoff's book, Women, Fire and Dangerous Things, which argues that people categorize things according to their resemblance to an object in the category that is considered typical (an exemplar) and not according to some list of properties that all members of category possess. Of course, astronomers are not the only ones affected by the decision. Consider the poor astrologers. Western astrologers have been charting the position of many non-planetary bodies (e.g., the lunar nodes) for a long time, so they shouldn't be too upset. I don't know if Indian and Chinese astrologers have any opinion. This Tibetan astrologer argues that science is finally following Buddhism's lead.
"This decision is of no importance for us. We do not mind demoting Pluto down from the planethood. Indeed, Pluto has never been considered a planet in the Tibetan astrology", Sanjey-Lama said to Interfax on Friday.
He says the Buddhist astrological system has never given Pluto the importance it has attached to other planets; it has always considered it "rather a gasiform entity or a comet".
The representative of the Russian Buddhists stressed that it often happened in the history of the world science that scientists "make discoveries after we did them".
Sat, 26 Aug 2006
Happy Mice
I don't know whether to be gratified or horrified by this science news article on genetically modified mice.
A new breed of permanently 'cheerful' mouse is providing hope of a new treatment for clinical depression. TREK-1 is a gene that can affect transmission of serotonin in the brain. Serotonin is known to play an important role in mood, sleep and sexuality. By breeding mice with an absence of TREK-1, researchers were able create a depression-resistant strain.
"These 'knock-out' mice were then tested using separate behavioral, electrophysiological and biochemical measures known to gauge 'depression' in animals," says Dr. Debonnel. "The results really surprised us; our 'knock-out' mice acted as if they had been treated with antidepressants for at least three weeks."
My guess in their enthusiasm, the researchers are overstating their results. But there's at least a couple of good ideas for science fiction stories in this. The first, if you can't be sad, can you ever truly be happy? The second, can a person think they're sad but be mistaken about it and actually be happy? The third, social versus individual notions of happiness. What happens when everyone has to get vaccinated against depression? Will there be dissenters?
My personal opinion is that modern ideas of depression a rather superficial and aim at making the individual conform to our extroverted, sales oriented, rah-rah culture. As an antidote here's a page of quotations in praise of solitude, including one of my favorites by Gibbons.
Conversation enriches the understanding, but solitude is the school of genius.
Fri, 25 Aug 2006
Ordination
The Dalai Lama held an ordination ceremony today for Mongolian monks. Konchog Norbu writes about it and the Associated Press has an article . The AP calls it a "secret initiation ceremony." There's nothing secret about it, it's just closed to lay persons, as all monastic ceremonies are.
Not much time tonight, as I was debugging Lola. Here's a quote from Khenpo Karthar's talk called "The Heart of Mindfulness."
Sometimes a person may experience obstacles in meditation. Actually, they cannot strictly be called obstacles. Whether what happens is an obstacle or a stepping stone depends upon the meditator. There is not any event that under all circumstances is an obstacle. During yur life, a test situation may arise because of your meditation. If you lack understanding and meditative insight, this test could become an obstacle. However, if you have enough insight and understanding, the test could heighten your realization to a great extent. As an outcome of meditative experience, whatever appearances may arise can be transformed into the realization of the nature of all things as insubstantial, uncompounded, and only existing interdependently. If a person understands and relates in this way, then whatever drama appears in meditation could be tremendously uplifting.
Thu, 24 Aug 2006
Quotable
I had a nice, long rant planned and now I'm too tired to write it. So instead let me quote something Aitken Roshi wrote in the Fall issue of Buddhadharma.
Time after time, the student would come to me for consultation. I would ask, "What is mu? He would just stare back at me and say nothing. It might have seemed that he was not progressing, but I learned better from his girlfriend. "I am worried about him," she said, "He is always weeping." Heartened by the good news, I continued to wait. And wait, and wait.
Wed, 23 Aug 2006
No Passport
It seems that Karma Chagme Rinpoche is the latest "victim" in the war on terror. He was supposed to tour the United States this Fall, but the tour has been cancelled because he hasn't been able to get the visa and passport straightened out. That's a shame, becuase I was looking forward to his visit after seeing him last year. I have notes from Chagme Rinpoche's talk on the VKL web site.
Mon, 21 Aug 2006
Zombies
Every country hs the favorite monster or boogeyman. For the modern West it seems to be space aliens. For Tibetans it's zombies (rolang). I remember when Khenchen Konchog visited KTD with two of his students. One of them asked me to explain the Twenty One Praises to Tara, and I was hard put to explain why it says Tara subdues "demons, zombies, and ghosts." The Tibetan lore says zombies are corpses animated by malevolent spirits. This essay explains more about zombies (pdf file).
Once arisen, rolang have particular abilities and qualities, and there are various methods of prevention and destruction available to the rolang's potential victims. Rolang are said to move only in a straight forward direction and cannot bend at the knees. They can kill others and often make other people into rolangas well by touching them. Song Rinpoche (1979, p. 11) wrote that "... people die instantly when the rolangsays 'Ha!' If it cannot kill then it tries to damage. It hits people or breathes on them, and they may die." Tibetans speak of four types of rolang. Ruelang are "bone-rolang," draklang are "blood rolang," wuelang are "breath-rolang," and mewalang are "mole-rolang." A ruelang can be destroyed by breaking its leg bone; a draklang must be made to bleed; and the wuelang must be suffocated. The mewalang is the most difficult rolangto destroy as one must find a mole on its body and find a way to cut it out. However, in many stories the rolang is defeated by other more simple means, such as by chanting mantra (a mystical formula of invocation or incantation) while whipping or hitting the rolang, or by pushing its head back down before it fully arises. It has been said that " ... if you spit before a rolang can breathe on you, then it cannot harm you" (Song Rinpoche 1979, p. 13).
Sun, 20 Aug 2006
Been Busy
My apologies for not posting much lately. I've been working on two other projects. The first was getting the talks Lama Gursam gave last week online. They're now on his web site. Here's an excerpt from his talk on buddha nature.
The essence of enlightened mind is like space. Space has always been there. When we fly above the clouds, the blue space is always there, isn't it? But we do not always see it. The reason practice is required is like dispelling clouds. Clouds are only there temporarily, but they obscure the blue sky. Within ourselves is this buddha nature, the essence of the Buddha's enlightened mind. But we do not see it without practice. It is important to be introduced to it, so we see the true awakened mind. We always look outside ourselves. But our ability to see outside is limited.
Rather than looking outside, we should look inside ourselves and open another eye that sees much more than outside. You will see something amazing that you have never seen before. By resting naturally without accepting or rejecting, you will see your true nature. So this is the reason for practicing.
My other project is Lola, the code that will replace Blosxom in running this weblog. The advantage will be real metadata, not the Unix filesystem fakery that Blosxom employs, and comments. I've been busy testing and revising the code.
The Songsten Library got a mention in an online travelogue, Lost in the Himalayas.
The library aims to have a comprehensive collection of important books as well as rare manuscripts on Tibet and the Himalayas. Of particular interest is the collection of books on the Dunhuang documents, one of the earliest written sources on numerous subjects including history, literature, religion, law, astrology and medicine. The original manuscripts date from around the 6th to the 10th century and were discovered in the early part of the 20th century at various caves on and near the famed Silk Route in Central Asia. Another important collection will be the publications in various languages of the Buddhist Kagyur and Tengyur, the Bon Kagyur and commentaries of great scholars.
The library is presently working to make these texts as well as others available online as part of the library's development of an electronic library. The library would use advanced technology to provide visting scholars with access to see images of original manuscipts and images of Tibet online through a "digital image server" which is installed in the library itself Also, If you are interested in pursuing a short-term meditational retreat, Songtsen Library has various facilities to provide for you. There are suites with sitting room, bedroom and kitchens as well as simple single rooms -- all with private baths -- for you to choose from.
I rate it as the best place in Dehradun. Quite, serene with absoltely no honks, no pollution. There is a lush green valley to soothe your eyes and great books to captivate you in an idle afternoon. Doesn't that sound like your ideal summer retreat.
Fri, 18 Aug 2006
Nimitta
Here's an essay on an obscure point of Buddhism, the nimitta, which literally means sign. The nimitta is explained in the Path of Purification as a mental image that arises to someone practicing mindfulness of breath when they reach a level of concentration known as access concentration. The author of the essay argues that Buddhaghosa misunderstood a simile use in the sutras and mistook it as a literal vision. It's well known that Buddhaghosa was a scholar and not a meditator. It's ironic that the best known meditation manual in Theravadin Buddhism should be written by a non-meditator who misunderstood his sources.
The latest issue of Tricycle has an article about Rivers Cuomo, the front man for the group Weezer. It seems that he's quite dedicated to Insight Meditation in the tradition of Goenka. He's a second generation Buddhist. His parents were members of the Rochester Zen Center. He's also got a Myspace weblog with more info about his interest in Insight Meditation. He quotes a friend who wrote about him:
In the 7 years that I have been practicing Vipassana I have met very few people who are as dedicated to the practice as Rivers. For example, most people starting off take 10 day courses which are very demanding. If you practice 2 hours minimum a day for 2 years and refrain from using any intoxicants during that time, as well as meeta few other requirements, you can qualify to take a 20 day course. Very few people take these longer courses. Rivers just completed a 20 day course after a little less than 2 years of practicing! Imagine 20 days of total silence, meditating 10 to 12 hours a day! You can understand the kind of dedication that this would take. Rivers always seems down to meditate. The few times I visited him in LA thats what we did. He has clearly cultivated a lot of inner peace and clarity through his practice. Also sitting still and meditating for hours on end can be very uncomfortable. You tend to want to fidget. When Rivers sits to meditatite he resembles a stone statue of the Buddha. no movement. He is a person that exudes discipline. It's very inspirational.
Changes
Two months ago there was a shake up in the computer support group at the Space Telescope. The CIO left the Institute and several other people left with her. In the aftermath they decided to reorganize the computer support group. It has a new name, the IT Services Division. And some people, inclus=ding myself, were moved between the branches. I've now got a new manager, Steve, though my work won't change that much.
Thu, 17 Aug 2006
Nondual
Time is short tonight so I'll just repost what I wrote to e-sangha on the subject of non-dual traditions.
You can't say non-dual without qualification. The key point is what is seen as non-dual. There are many non-dualities. At an elementary level there is the non-duality of the mind and its witness. At a higher level there is the non-duality of perceiver and perception. And at the highest level there is the non-duality of conventional and ultimate truths. There are many levels of realization and depth beyond depth of truth. So simply because two people say they have seen the truth of non-duality, does not mean they are referring to the same thing.
Nor is it necessarily true that they are referring to different things. So to what extent is the experience of Advaita and Buddhist practitioners the same? The more elementary levels of realization are primarily shamatha. While they have an element of vipashyana, it is an experience that is only concordant with prajna and not genuine prajna itself. Genuine prajna is only seen at the level of the first bhumi. I believe that practitoners from all meditative traditions experience these elementary levels of realization and there is no real difference in their depth of understanding. Of course, it would take a person equally accomplished in different traditions to say for sure. But I find that there's little difference in the descriptions of these experiences that can't be explained as differences of terminology.
Though I call them elementary levels of realization, in our degenerate age they're really quite advanced. Any one having this level of understanding is by our standards a greatly enlightened being. We have little appreciation for how truly great the accomplished lamas are.
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