Hell's brewin' dark sun's on the rise
This storm'll blow through by and by
House is on fire, Viper's in the grass
A little revenge and this too shall pass
This too shall pass, I'm gonna pray
Right now all I got's this lonesome day
26 May 2009
19 May 2009
What piece of work is a man! How noble in reason! How infinite in faculty! In form and moving how express and admirable! In action how like an angel! In apprehension how like a god! The beauty of the world! The paragon of animals! And yet, to me, what is this quintessence of dust? Man delights not me: no...
The Grand Inquisitor from The Brothers Karamazov by Fyodor Dostoevsky
For those who have not read the Brothers Karamazov, a brief explanation will give the context. Ivan, the second oldest in trio of brothers, speaks to his younger sibling, Alyosha, about various things pertaining to religion and God. Alyosha, who has decided to join the clergy, believes himself pious and displays the arrogance of one so young who has devoted himself to the church out of "compassion for his fellow man". What begins as pity toward his older brother, develops into horror and finally a sense of understanding. If you enjoyed this, read the rest of the novel. It is filled with gems such as this.
The Grand Inquisitor from The Brothers Karamazov by Fyodor Dostoevsky
For those who have not read the Brothers Karamazov, a brief explanation will give the context. Ivan, the second oldest in trio of brothers, speaks to his younger sibling, Alyosha, about various things pertaining to religion and God. Alyosha, who has decided to join the clergy, believes himself pious and displays the arrogance of one so young who has devoted himself to the church out of "compassion for his fellow man". What begins as pity toward his older brother, develops into horror and finally a sense of understanding. If you enjoyed this, read the rest of the novel. It is filled with gems such as this.
13 May 2009
11 May 2009
04 May 2009
01 May 2009
Insight Meditation Instantly Online! Now All I Need is Your Credit Card Number
While conversing with a friend recently, I had my own exposure to the true face of American Buddhism. She told me a story of a woman who was very wealthy because of her husband’s success. This woman had recently built a very extravagant and obscenely expensive home, but was complaining of how, “It just didn’t feel right”. Luckily this woman knew just what to do. She phoned a group of Buddhist monks, who just so happened to be in the area, and procured their services to come and bless her new embodiment of ignorance. The monks obliged, for a price of course, and, being a gracious host, the woman offered to feed them while they were in her home. When asked what they wanted to eat for their dinner they said Kentucky Fried Chicken.
This story is a living example of the fogged glass that the West views Buddhism, and all Eastern religions and cultures for that fact, though. We look to these “mystical” cultures to provide us with some sort of answer to the emptiness and boredom that is so prevalent in our society. Our lack of identity leads us to emulate others in an attempt to bring some sort of peace to our lives. This ignorance and all of the traditions and world views it poisons would be the emphasis of my class. In some small way I would attempt to, at least, get the class to admit to this lack of understanding.
As Westerners, our culture loves to over romanticize everything, and Buddhism is one of the worst victims of this obsession. The typical pattern is to pick and choose which parts we like and follow them as we see fit. Westerners commit this atrocity with their own religions, but it seems to be more severe with Buddhism. An example of this would be the fascination with the practice of meditation. Westerners think of their yoga classes and believe that is all there is to the art of meditation. “Meditation is the familiarization of the mind with an object of concentration.” (Notes) The whole point of Buddhist meditation is to move along the Noble Eight Fold Path and achieve Enlightenment sooner. To meditate without this goal at heart, a devotion to the “four wishes”, and a lack of commitment to the teachings of the Buddha is to wallow in the pool of our ignorance. It achieves nothing except to stroke the ego and feed the vanity of the parties involved. “This sharp distinction in kind between the means and ends of the Buddhist religious life is probably a special case of the sort of casual relations seen in the ancient doctrines of karma, where the effect of an act is not another act but an experience of the consequences. We lie in the beds we make; we do not simply keep making beds.” (Bielefeldt 237) As a culture, we have developed factories to mass produce new beds so that we never have to face the consequences of our actions.
One of the founding principles of Buddhism, tied into the fabric of every thought and action, is the art of compassion. While most would take this term at its face value, the Buddhist concept of compassion is so much more that it takes eons for masters to achieve true comprehension of what the Buddha taught. Defined, loosely, as the release from suffering, compassion to the Buddha is not always what the West’s “compassionate” reaction is. Through the use of upāya, or skillful means, the Buddha sees into the heart of the suffering being and chooses what is best for that soul and the souls of all. This can include death of the being, as we see in the story of the Buddha on the raft.
The Buddha recognizes a man who, in his heart, desires to kill all those on the raft as they are crossing a river. The Buddha slays the man, saving all aboard and the man himself, for the murder of those people would have affected his karma negatively and caused a rebirth in one of the hell realms. The Buddha spends only an instant in hell for this because of his immense compassion for the man and the passengers of the raft. (Notes) In the Skillful Means of Vimalakīrti Sutra, we see a Bodhisattva whose very act of living in a particular place is an act of compassion for all suffering beings. Through his upāya he directs many lay people and even some of his fellow Bodhisattvas down the true path to enlightenment.
“And thus with innumerable skillful means, the elder Vimalakīrti brought benefit to living creatures, and using his skillful means he made his body appear to be sick. And the kings and ministers, the elders and the householders, the priests and princes heard of his illness, and thousands upon thousands of people cam to inquire after his health. And Vimalakīrti made use of his illness to receive them and to preach to them the Law.” (Strong 182)
In the West, the current obsession and fear based practice is the attempt to save everything from destruction, be it natural or man made. People scream for all the humans of this planet to stamp out violence and rid the world of conflict. Westerners look to Buddhism as an example of peaceful, non-violent monks who live in harmony with everyone and everything. Most see Buddhists, not even making a distinction between the laity and the Sangha, as pacifists who debate rather than resort to any kind of physical violence. As demonstrated in the teachings of the Buddha, the true compassionate act would seem eccentric and sometimes barbaric to the Western world.
However, no matter what action the awakened one chooses for the suffering being, it is always in the best interest of all beings trapped in samsara. To submit to this sort of authority is something that American Buddhists rebel against because of their distrust of those with any sort of power. “All this suggests something else that is fundamental to the orientation of Buddhist thought and practice: the wish to relieve suffering can in the end only be rooted in a feeling of sympathy (anukampā) or compassion for the suffering of both oneself and of others. This feeling of sympathy for the suffering of beings is what motivates not only the Buddha to teach but ultimately everyone who tries to put his teaching into practice.” (Gethin 64)
The transmission of Buddhism from country to country is an important factor in how we view Buddhism today. Each nation, beginning with India and the Shakymuni Buddha, received Buddhism differently because of various reasons. Competition with local religions and spirits, leaders choosing what versions they agreed with, and translations of only certain texts created unique variations of the Buddhist tradition in Asian countries such as Laos, Cambodia, China, Japan, and Tibet. In China, Confucianism and Taoism where strongly rooted in the cultural lives of the people and the state controlled what Buddhist texts were allowed to be translated. This is common among other Asian countries, and, in some cases, completely choked off the Buddhist religion all together.
Where some resisted though, others flourished. While Japan refrained at first, its inhabitants found Buddhism to be incredibly compatible with the native religion of Shinto. The two fused together and created a syncretic system that thrived and produced many different schools with Zen Buddhism emerging as the dominant school. Zen quickly became the “ideal” form of Buddhism to the Western nations, many thinking that all there was to Buddhism was the Zen tradition, and it was not long before it was distorted and twisted into what the West thought was the quintessential Buddhist. Zen was adopted, mutated, and spat back at the Eastern nations in an attempt to identify themselves with all of the “peace loving monks”.
“In India itself Buddhist monasteries were gradually deserted and all that remained were crumbling monuments to the past.” (Gethin 276) The closing point of my lecture, and certainly the most important because of its relevance, would be Buddhism in America. Buddhism here suffers from the same sickness that infects all of the endeavors taken on by the American populous today. It is a sickness that rots any intentions that one may have in these undertakings. That sickness is naivety. “Another characteristic of white Buddhism is, or certainly has been, its naivety.” (Fields 204) This country is one that, by comparison to all of the other Buddhist nations, is still very young, and that youth seems to deem with it a sense not only undeserved entitlement but also impertinence. The traditions and wisdom found in a true teacher are thrown aside because this young American read a Wikipedia article, because most of them do not even read books anymore, on Zen Buddhism. Our society is one that is based in instant gratification and the long dedication required by Buddhism does not mesh with this polluted “American Dream”.
This is all compounded by the lack of national identity found in the United States today. This is one element about America that is disturbingly unique. We are not a Buddhist nation, nor will we ever be. We do not have a national language and any attempt to attain one is met with calls of racism and exclusion. We are a melting pot of every culture and idea that immigrates to our country and therefore we can not unite under a common standard. We are so caught up in a vain attempt to not offend anyone that we lose sight of what we are. This leaves citizens with an absence of identity. They do not know what it means to be an American, except for what is fed to them by the television. So, the Volvo Buddhist and the evangelical Buddhist all go looking for something to tell them who they are, and with American Buddhism bearing the weight of these laity acting as monks, it dilutes the teachings of the Buddha. To these people, there is no merit, there is no enlightenment. There is only having a man in a funny outfit bless their monument to attachment so that they can feel better about it. “All of these American factors run counter to the Asian Norms.” (Notes)
This story is a living example of the fogged glass that the West views Buddhism, and all Eastern religions and cultures for that fact, though. We look to these “mystical” cultures to provide us with some sort of answer to the emptiness and boredom that is so prevalent in our society. Our lack of identity leads us to emulate others in an attempt to bring some sort of peace to our lives. This ignorance and all of the traditions and world views it poisons would be the emphasis of my class. In some small way I would attempt to, at least, get the class to admit to this lack of understanding.
As Westerners, our culture loves to over romanticize everything, and Buddhism is one of the worst victims of this obsession. The typical pattern is to pick and choose which parts we like and follow them as we see fit. Westerners commit this atrocity with their own religions, but it seems to be more severe with Buddhism. An example of this would be the fascination with the practice of meditation. Westerners think of their yoga classes and believe that is all there is to the art of meditation. “Meditation is the familiarization of the mind with an object of concentration.” (Notes) The whole point of Buddhist meditation is to move along the Noble Eight Fold Path and achieve Enlightenment sooner. To meditate without this goal at heart, a devotion to the “four wishes”, and a lack of commitment to the teachings of the Buddha is to wallow in the pool of our ignorance. It achieves nothing except to stroke the ego and feed the vanity of the parties involved. “This sharp distinction in kind between the means and ends of the Buddhist religious life is probably a special case of the sort of casual relations seen in the ancient doctrines of karma, where the effect of an act is not another act but an experience of the consequences. We lie in the beds we make; we do not simply keep making beds.” (Bielefeldt 237) As a culture, we have developed factories to mass produce new beds so that we never have to face the consequences of our actions.
One of the founding principles of Buddhism, tied into the fabric of every thought and action, is the art of compassion. While most would take this term at its face value, the Buddhist concept of compassion is so much more that it takes eons for masters to achieve true comprehension of what the Buddha taught. Defined, loosely, as the release from suffering, compassion to the Buddha is not always what the West’s “compassionate” reaction is. Through the use of upāya, or skillful means, the Buddha sees into the heart of the suffering being and chooses what is best for that soul and the souls of all. This can include death of the being, as we see in the story of the Buddha on the raft.
The Buddha recognizes a man who, in his heart, desires to kill all those on the raft as they are crossing a river. The Buddha slays the man, saving all aboard and the man himself, for the murder of those people would have affected his karma negatively and caused a rebirth in one of the hell realms. The Buddha spends only an instant in hell for this because of his immense compassion for the man and the passengers of the raft. (Notes) In the Skillful Means of Vimalakīrti Sutra, we see a Bodhisattva whose very act of living in a particular place is an act of compassion for all suffering beings. Through his upāya he directs many lay people and even some of his fellow Bodhisattvas down the true path to enlightenment.
“And thus with innumerable skillful means, the elder Vimalakīrti brought benefit to living creatures, and using his skillful means he made his body appear to be sick. And the kings and ministers, the elders and the householders, the priests and princes heard of his illness, and thousands upon thousands of people cam to inquire after his health. And Vimalakīrti made use of his illness to receive them and to preach to them the Law.” (Strong 182)
In the West, the current obsession and fear based practice is the attempt to save everything from destruction, be it natural or man made. People scream for all the humans of this planet to stamp out violence and rid the world of conflict. Westerners look to Buddhism as an example of peaceful, non-violent monks who live in harmony with everyone and everything. Most see Buddhists, not even making a distinction between the laity and the Sangha, as pacifists who debate rather than resort to any kind of physical violence. As demonstrated in the teachings of the Buddha, the true compassionate act would seem eccentric and sometimes barbaric to the Western world.
However, no matter what action the awakened one chooses for the suffering being, it is always in the best interest of all beings trapped in samsara. To submit to this sort of authority is something that American Buddhists rebel against because of their distrust of those with any sort of power. “All this suggests something else that is fundamental to the orientation of Buddhist thought and practice: the wish to relieve suffering can in the end only be rooted in a feeling of sympathy (anukampā) or compassion for the suffering of both oneself and of others. This feeling of sympathy for the suffering of beings is what motivates not only the Buddha to teach but ultimately everyone who tries to put his teaching into practice.” (Gethin 64)
The transmission of Buddhism from country to country is an important factor in how we view Buddhism today. Each nation, beginning with India and the Shakymuni Buddha, received Buddhism differently because of various reasons. Competition with local religions and spirits, leaders choosing what versions they agreed with, and translations of only certain texts created unique variations of the Buddhist tradition in Asian countries such as Laos, Cambodia, China, Japan, and Tibet. In China, Confucianism and Taoism where strongly rooted in the cultural lives of the people and the state controlled what Buddhist texts were allowed to be translated. This is common among other Asian countries, and, in some cases, completely choked off the Buddhist religion all together.
Where some resisted though, others flourished. While Japan refrained at first, its inhabitants found Buddhism to be incredibly compatible with the native religion of Shinto. The two fused together and created a syncretic system that thrived and produced many different schools with Zen Buddhism emerging as the dominant school. Zen quickly became the “ideal” form of Buddhism to the Western nations, many thinking that all there was to Buddhism was the Zen tradition, and it was not long before it was distorted and twisted into what the West thought was the quintessential Buddhist. Zen was adopted, mutated, and spat back at the Eastern nations in an attempt to identify themselves with all of the “peace loving monks”.
“In India itself Buddhist monasteries were gradually deserted and all that remained were crumbling monuments to the past.” (Gethin 276) The closing point of my lecture, and certainly the most important because of its relevance, would be Buddhism in America. Buddhism here suffers from the same sickness that infects all of the endeavors taken on by the American populous today. It is a sickness that rots any intentions that one may have in these undertakings. That sickness is naivety. “Another characteristic of white Buddhism is, or certainly has been, its naivety.” (Fields 204) This country is one that, by comparison to all of the other Buddhist nations, is still very young, and that youth seems to deem with it a sense not only undeserved entitlement but also impertinence. The traditions and wisdom found in a true teacher are thrown aside because this young American read a Wikipedia article, because most of them do not even read books anymore, on Zen Buddhism. Our society is one that is based in instant gratification and the long dedication required by Buddhism does not mesh with this polluted “American Dream”.
This is all compounded by the lack of national identity found in the United States today. This is one element about America that is disturbingly unique. We are not a Buddhist nation, nor will we ever be. We do not have a national language and any attempt to attain one is met with calls of racism and exclusion. We are a melting pot of every culture and idea that immigrates to our country and therefore we can not unite under a common standard. We are so caught up in a vain attempt to not offend anyone that we lose sight of what we are. This leaves citizens with an absence of identity. They do not know what it means to be an American, except for what is fed to them by the television. So, the Volvo Buddhist and the evangelical Buddhist all go looking for something to tell them who they are, and with American Buddhism bearing the weight of these laity acting as monks, it dilutes the teachings of the Buddha. To these people, there is no merit, there is no enlightenment. There is only having a man in a funny outfit bless their monument to attachment so that they can feel better about it. “All of these American factors run counter to the Asian Norms.” (Notes)
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