Thu, 30 Sep 2010
Perfectionist
I admit it, I'm a perfectionist when it comes to my programming. I had my new blogging software working when I couldn't sleep one night. (it happens a lot.) So I thought about my software. (That's what I do when I can't sleep. A visiting homeopath once said, "The homeopathic remedies are my pets. Well, my programs are my pets.) I came up with a better idea for my html templating code. And though you do not realize it, (because I haven't shown my software to the world,) it all depends crucially on the templating code. So now I am in the middle of rewriting it and then will have to get everything working again. But it will be much better and shinier for it, I promise.
Sat, 18 Sep 2010
The Mess at KTD
There's been a blowup at Karma Triyana Dharmachakra (KTD). A new list of authorized teachers has been drawn up and several teachers who were formerly on this list are no longer on it, most notably Bardor Tulku. Two years ago Byron Coulter, who was the administrator of KTD, was summarily dismissed by KTD's president Tenzin Chonyi. And in the aftermath some angry words were exchanged between Bardor Tulku and Tenzin Chonyi. Bardor Tulku then resigned from the board of KTD and devoted his time to building his own center on the other side of the Hudson River. So there's some suspicion that the decision to drop Bardor Tulku from the list of speakers is payback. The decision has provoked a lot of outrage. Long time staff members have resigned and I hear that donations are being withheld.
So much for the back story. The reason I'm throwing my two cents in is that I don't think people are drawing the correct conclusion from this problem. At least not clearly. Some are saying that the problem is that KTD is too traditional and autocratic, where the Tibetan lamas are the aristocracy and the Westerners the serfs. Others are saying that Tenzin Chonyi is incompetent and erratic and needs to be replaced. But I think the real problem is that there is a lack of consultation between KTD and its members, particularly in the satellite centers, the KTC's. If you are going to change the list of authorized teachers and especially if you are going to drop formerly authorized teachers, you had better consult with a wide circle of members before making that decision. And if you do not, the result will be the disaster that we see now. So it's not a matter of improving the central board at KTD by expanding it or replacing members. Which is the solution that HH Karmapa's office tried after Byron was fired. The solution is to have a better understanding of what decisions the central board can take without consulting its members before hand. It's not a question of what the bylaws say, it's a question of understanding how people are. "Give us your money and shut up and do as you are told," does not work as an organizational model. The way to fix this problem is not to fire Tenzin Chonyi. It's to apologize for revising the list of authorized speakers without consulting the members, to resort the old list in the interim, and to draw up a new list after consulting.
Of course, no one at KTD or in the Karmapa's Office has asked me for advice. But I feel like a steward on the Hindenburg telling a passenger not to use his cigarette lighter.
Fri, 17 Sep 2010
Therapeutic Meditation
I've been busy with my unpaid web work. You can see part of it over on Lama Phurbu Tashi's web site. It's his book, The Lamp of Reasoning and Scriptures, which argues that Buddhists should be vegetarians. It's not "official" yet, because Lama hasn't approved it yet. The other half isn't ready for public consumption yet, but it's close. It's my replacement for Blosxom, the software I'm using for this site. So I have some time to resume posting here.
I'm seeing more people who want to learn meditation in order to deal with psychological problems and I want to say what the limitations of that are. First, you need to understand the distinction between hygiene and therapy. Hygiene is what we do to keep ourselves healthy and therapy is what we do to to get healthy when we are sick. Meditation is hygiene, just like diet and exercise. So you should not expect meditation to cure illness, any more than changing your diet will. But it can help along side of medical treatment. See a doctor if you are sick, preferably noe who practices natural medicine.
The other side of the issue is that Jon Kabat Zinn has been teaching mindfulness meditation to sick people for about twenty years. So should meditation be taught in a purely secular fashion, apart from Buddhism? In my opinion, no. Meditation is not an end in itself, it was devised as one method to gain enlightenment. So while it can help people whose goal is different, I do not think it should be taught by people who have no experience or interest in enlightenment. To do that would be to lose sight of what meditation is for and I think maintaining that understanding is important.
Tue, 07 Sep 2010
Mind Your Dipthongs
There was a discussion on one of the skeptic websites on the alternative spelling of homeopathy as homoeopathy. As usual on such sites, the discussion was just another sharp stick to jab at homeopathy. The reason for the alternative spelling is pretty simple. When homeopathy was first developed, educated men (sorry, few educated women then) including doctors studied the classical languages, always Latin and sometimes Greek. They cored about how words were derived from their roots. And the transliteration of words from their classical roots was done so that this derivation was clear. Homoeo comes from the Greek word homoios, meaning same or similar. And the dipthong "oe" was then the standard transliteration of "oi." Now that no one studies the classics any more, this sort of precision seems overly fussy. And as the word seems strange when spelled as "homoeo," the first "o" was dropped. The same simplification of dipthongs happened in may medical terms.
It's similar to how many Sankrit words have been transliterated into English. The diacritical marks that distinguish different transliterated letters get dropped everywhere except in scholarly publications. The word meaning wisdom gets transliterated as prajna, without the macron indicating the final long "a," which makes it a feminine and not a masculine noun. (All Sanskrit words ending in long vowels are feminine.)
Fri, 03 Sep 2010
The Highest Stages of the Path
The remainder of Jigten Sumgo's prayer describes the highest stages of the bodhisattva, which I can only talk about from an abstract and philosophical perspective.
Although some abide in the perfect meaning, they don't understand the interdependence of cause and effect. They are ignorant of the meaning of objects of knowledge. Please protect them, Omniscient Deity Mother.
The nature of space is free from elaboration. Nothing is different from that. Still practitioners and disciples don't realise this. Please protect them, Perfect Buddha Mother.
There is no higher truth than emptiness, nothing more to understand. So it would seem that the recognition of emptiness is the end of the path. But there is something further, one needs to integrate one's understanding of emptiness (ultimate truth) whith everyday experience (relative truth). With emptiness evertyhing is seen as a dream or illusion, but if one is going to help other people, one needs to function within this illusion and work with its rules, which means understanding cause and effect. One does not truly practice the six perfections until one understands emptiness. What makes them perfect is the understanding of emptiness. So one praactices generosity while seeing there is no giver, no gift, and no recipient. This understanding is called the threefold purity and all six perfections are made perfect because they are practiced with this attitude. This ability to integrate practical activity with an understanding of emptiness is called skillful means.
Beyond the integration of ultimate and relative truths is complete enlightenment, or buddhahood. This understanding is compared with space, which pervades everywhere and is unaffected by anything. This complete freedom of buddhahood is beyond any effort or elaboration and spontaneously perfect. This nature is in all beings from the beginning, yet they do not see it. Full enlightenment is copared to shattering a vase. The space inside the vase was always the same as the boundless space outside it. And there was never a differenc ebetween the two. Yest they seemed different until the vase was gone.
Thu, 02 Sep 2010
Non-Dual Mind
Continuing with my previous post, enlightenment isn't an all or nothing thing, like turning on a light switch, there are stages. And Jigten Sumgon's Prayer to Tara gives a good description of these stages. The next stanza talks abou the initial realization of emptiness:
Non-dual wisdom is the self-born mind. By the habits of grasping at duality, some are bound, no matter what they do. Please protect them, Deity of Non-Dual Wisdom.
It's important to distinguish between recognizing mind and realizing its emptiness. There is still a subtle dualism in recognizing mind and this dualism is a form of ignorance. As long as there is a sense of something experienced, something achieved, or something overcome there is dualism. Gradually one works through the dualism until it is eliminated. What this is like is way beyond my experience, so I can only quote Traga Rinpoche.
Ultimate truth is the original nature, which is the dharmadhatu, the suchness of phenomena. It is referred to as emptiness, mahamudra, or mahasandhi, the perfect nature. It is realized only by the noble ones. It is the self aware primordial wisdom. It is beyond the domain of thought, inexpressible, and incomprehensible. It cannot be expressed through speech, shown, pointed to, or demonstrated. The body cannot touch it, the speech express it, or mind think of it. It is known only by discerning the primordial wisdom. There is no duality of subject and object in it. It is inseparable appearance-emptiness. This emptiness is the dharmadhatu, the base of all phenomena. When it is realized, there are no concepts or kleshas. All impurities have been eliminated. But also there is no wisdom.
Milarepa was asked, "Is it true that in that state there is no wisdom?"
He replied, "I cannot say yes or no. You will have to see for yourself."
This primordial wisdom is beyond the duality of subject or object. It is free of all mental elaboration. It is seeing what cannot be seen. There is not so much as a single thing to be meditate on. But is not a nihilistic void. It is not straying from the natural state.
It's said that the recognition of mind comes and goes. It is unstable. But the realization of emptiness is stable and unchanging.
Here the description of Pagmodrupa's realization of emptiness, which is given its traditional scholastic name, "the path of seeing." Phagmodrupa had mistaken recognition of mind, which has qualities, with the realization of emptiness, which has none. So Gampopa set him straight.
One day, Gampopa said to the assembly, "I need to instruct the Khampa Geshe separately from the rest of you." When he went to see the lama he was asked, "What Dharma have you studied? What have you practiced?", and so he described the many pieces of advice he had received and how he had put them all into practice. To the question: "What experiences have you had?", he described the way nondiscursive wisdom, the path of seeing, had arisen. To: "Are you holding to that as the path of seeing?", he replied that he was, based on his understanding of The Vajra-Verses of Lamdre. To this, the lama said: "Really? You are holding to that as the path of seeing?" He replied that he was certain that he had realized it as it was introduced to him by Lord Sakyapa, who had used these words: "Uninterrupted continuity of the experience, the bliss, and the emptiness of the uncontrived nature of mind, the peak state of innate mind — this is the nondiscursive wisdom, the path of seeing, that which produces the fine distinctions of awareness." Gampopa then exclaimed, "How unfortunate! Are you holding to that from the bottom of your heart as the path of seeing?" He replied, "This is the path of seeing as realized by way of all sutra, tantra, quintessential instruction, and meditative experiences." To steer him away from this way of thinking, Gampopa squeezed his sen [barley dough] in his hand and replied, "I prefer this to your nice 'path of seeing'." Gampopa then said, "Take a walk to that hill over there in the east; later we will discuss all of the dharmas received from others to which you are attached."
Phagmodrupa went up the eastern hill and pondered all of this. A short time later, all of his former good experiences quickly disintegrated, falling away like chaff and husk, and he then genuinely realized the true face of authentic realization, that which is beyond rational mind, the mahamudra. At that moment, his mind became unobstructed, like space, and he gasped, "All those former lamas — what are they to me now?" He returned to Gampopa, who was aware of his realization and said to him: "I have nothing more than that to teach you."
So, I want emphasize the distinction between recognition of mind, which is what usually gets called "enlightenement" and realization of emptiness, which actually deserves the name enlightenment. And this is not the final stage! beond this lies the achievemnt of the omniscience of a buddha.
