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July 18th, 2009
ocha_no_hanashi
 | 05:30 pm - Have aliens replaced gods and ghosts?
It occurred to me the other day that aliens have largely replaced gods and ghosts.
You can propose that extraterrestrial life exists and still be considered a rational, sane and credible person, even though all you got is theory without actual physical evidence. Look at how much support SETI alone gets. Heck, NASA sends out probes with plaques and music records "just in case" it encounters intelligent life in the deep reaches of space.
However, if you propose the existence of deva and preta, a lot of people will call you a superstitious nutball and Richard Dawkins will make fun of you.
So, believing in aliens and supporting SETI is alright, but making offering to the naga so they stay away from you is generally considered weird and irrational by the majority of educated people.
At least it seems that way.
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July 17th, 2009
nakedmen
 | 03:26 pm - The Perfection of Joyous Perseverance
(3'') Developing the power of joy
[...]
The power of joy means that when you first engage in an activity, you do it joyfully, and once you have engaged, you have a sense of being insatiable in that you do not want to discontinue the activity. With respect to how you develop this sense of insatiability, Engaging in the Bodhisattva Deeds says:
Like those who want the pleasure that results from play,
Bodhisattvas are passionate
About any activity they have to do.
Insatiable, they take joy in their work.
So strive with an attitude like that of children who engage in play without being satiated. That is, you must be just as insatiable about what causes pleasurable results as you are about the results themselves. For, if ordinary persons strive even when they are uncertain whether they will obtain a pleasant result, what need is there to speak about the activities which are certain to bear pleasurable results? Engaging in the Bodhisattva Deeds states:
Even though they work for the sake of happiness,
It is uncertain whether happiness will come.
But as for those whose work itself is happiness,
How can they be happy unless they work?
This is also the reasons why being satiated is wrong. Engaging in the Bodhisattva Deeds says:
If I am never satiated by sensual desires,
Which are like honey on a razor's edge,
How could I be satiated with merit,
Whose fruition is happiness and peace?
- Tsongkhapa's Lamrim Chenmo
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fierce_femme21
 | 03:19 pm - The Buddhist Case for Vegetarianism
This website compiles many writings on the Buddhist argument for vegetarianism in one place.
Just as no pleasures can bring delight
To someone whose body is ablaze with fire,
Nor can the great compassionate ones be pleased
When harm is done to sentient beings. - Shantideva
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liveonearth
 | 08:25 am - Breathing Innervation Question
I've been told by meditation instructors and naturopathic doctors that inhalation is controlled by sympathetic innervation, and exhalation is parasympathetic. Based in this, we are taught to change our meditation breathing based on whether we desire to emphasize activation or calming. The idea is that by extending the inhale and shortening the exhale, you increase your sympathetic activity. More often the idea of extending the exhale to double or more the length of the inhale is used, to help us release the stresses of modern life.
My question is this: It seems reasonable to me and I do believe that the autonomic innervation of breathing is as they say. My issue comes with the fact that by intentionally altering our breathing pattern, we are no longer breathing autonomically, or automatically. We have shifted over to another pathway for governing breathing, that starts at the frontal cortex with our will, instead of in the medullary (brainstem) breathing center. Are these new pathways also sympa/parasympathetic? Or not?
Based on my own experience (I breathe a lot) I would say that exhalation is only parasympathetic when you release and let the body do it autonomically. When I intentionally extend my exhale it no longer feels as relaxing to me. Anybody have more knowledge or experience with this???
(x-posted)
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July 15th, 2009
cleverdevil
 | 03:21 pm - Noble 8
What lead to your current comprehesion of the Noble 8 fold path? When I ask this question, I think of my understanding of the 4 Noble Truths how it's changed over time. I believe I was first introduced to it via a "Everything You Ever Wanted To Know About Buddhism.." book, which didn't teach me anything wrong, although I might now describe my understanding as more intimate. Different, yet not different and that understanding continues to deepen with the aid of teachers like Thanissaro Bhikkhu. For me, my learning has yet to stop on any given topic after the point that I've...comprehended it, or grasped it, you know? My first FULL understanding is never wrong in retrospect, but it does expand as I expose myself to additional teachers or meditations or readings.
So, yes, I wanted to ask if everyone, or anyone, has a place that they've plateaued in regards to your understanding of the Noble 8 Fold Path. Perhaps it was a book you read, or a Dharma talk that you listened to. Perhaps the words of your own teacher.
While I'm here, I just want to add what a pleasure it's been to be a member of this community. The participation of this group warms me. Having said that, now this post will get no response LOL
No expectations.....
Current Location: Alberta, Canada
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jp5040
 | 07:19 am - right words
I will not say anything which is desired and pleasant but unhelpful.
I will carefully choose a time to say anything which is helpful but undesired and unwanted.
Part of a series of admonishments from Gautama Siddhartha
I think it is appropriate to say this here.
I have noticed a practice of some Buddhists to become so focused on perfectness that they forget there are many paths to elevated states of consciousness. There are many right paths. There are many reflections of the four noble truths of suffering and freedom from samsara and dhuka. The most important part of learning is earnest effort. And within that is remembering the basics at all times. The four truths. ~ Also to remember the steps to enact positivity: right thoughts (through clarity), right words (through mindful use of clarity), right actions (one must follow through with their words acting within the laws of karma), and eventually right emotions (bliss and joy are temporary expressions of comparative happiness to dhuka - suffering).
I am a lay practitioner. These basic thoughts are continuously at work. They have helped me to progress from being absorbed by others' suffering. I have used this basic teaching common to all paths of Buddhism to carry me out of a lot of samsara and cyclical sufferings. Now as I seek a basis and grounding for my personal journey I see there are many who believe they have achieved a great deal, but have forgotten the basics of right words. Something which is a skill most difficult to always employ, but that leads to karmic results. If one is ambivalent to the suffering of others and simply poses words for consumption, are they healing words? Are they helpful words? Compassion was the Buddha's reason for teaching his gift to us. I think we ought to consider "is it wanted, needed and helpful?"
I think as practioners and seekers of dharma we want need and are helped to take it back to basics at all times in order that we stay on track.
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July 14th, 2009
okmyturn
 | 03:41 pm
Since becoming liaison to our dharma center, I've been dealing with the students directly. Last weekend a new student came in and we had a brief interview. At first I thought he was one of those new age white kids who culturally misappropriated Native American culture, as he was wearing a wolf tee-shirt and wished to be called "Running Dragon Wind". But, after talking further, it seems to be much worse: he's a furry.
I don't know much about furries other than they all have sex in animal costumes and think themselves animal souls misplaced in human vessels. This is samsara that I'm not advanced enough to handle, so I'll leave him to Chichi Rinpoche. I'm thinking a few dharma talks on the suffering of the animal realms and the preciousness of human rebirth will snap him out of it. Otherwise, when he dies and passes into bardo, he's going to be sucked into conception by the first pair of "yiffing" foxes he comes across. These furry imprints are dangerous.
He also wants a Yamantaka initiation, and while that is a bit too advanced, I think he's making that decision solely on a thangka he likely mistook as furry porn.
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July 13th, 2009
elaine4queen
 | 10:42 am - bare knowledge and repeated mindfulness
Yesterday I went to a dharma day inspired by the Satipatthana Sutra at London Buddhist Centre. It was a really great day, rich inspiration for practice. The previous day i listened to this reading of the Sutra from this page (second one down - also with links to three alternative translations from different scholars) several times. It is really lovely to listen to, and I am listening to it again now. 'New technology' is hardly news, and technology for recording and listening to the human voice has been around for a while, but this access we have now to dharma and meditations is absolutely unparalleled, and I continue to be struck by the astounding implications - you can have world reknowned teachers talking to you in your own home, and if you want to hear the talk again, you can! This is a mutation on the contemplative life which simply could not have existed at all before the last very few years. Of course, this also means there is an active world wide sangha, again, at a previously unimaginable level. We live in very particular times.
All the better to apprehend the very simplicity of teachings. Here, in the Satipatthana Sutra we are assured that with 'bare knowledge and repeated mindfulness' we have enough material to take our practice all the way.
Digham va assasanto digham assasamiti pajanati digham va passasanto digham passasamiti pajanati: = "He, thinking, 'I breathe in long,' understands when he is breathing in long; or thinking, 'I breathe out long,' he understands when he is breathing out long.
Our day was a mixture of talks and practices, I won't attempt to document it all, but there were two things beyond the Sutra itself (yes, still listening to it!) that are particularly in my mind to write about. Ratnachuda led us in an unusual version of Metta Bhavana. In the FWBO we learn and practice Metta Bhavana alternately with mindfulness of breathing from the beginning, it is not seen as either an optional or an advanced meditation, but one to be engaged in from day one (or day two!) Usually we are reminded that we chould choose for our difficult person someone we have a minor irritation with. Being foolish, I had taken a bit of a detour for the past year or so and had chosen to use someone very difficult for me, and had reached a point where it really wasn't Metta i was practicing, but a kind of harmful masochistic clinging. One day recently I simply couldn't engage with it at all. I had reached an impasse. I thought of 'only' doing myself, and then I thought of just taking the instruction to use an easier person more seriously. I am not sure why I had dismissed the idea of working just with myself so quickly, and I am indebted to Ratnacuda for leading the meditation in this way otherwise I might never have experienced it. He suggested thinking of the part of yourself that you find easiest as your easy person, and working through to a part of yourself that you are less happy with as your difficult person. I found it really productive and healing, and I would certainly use it again. What was I doing using someone I find so harmful in my meditation? What does it say about the Metta I have been offering myself?
The whole day went in to the evening, with Mitra ceremonies and a Puja, but I was never going to last that long, and I was really tired (I have fibromyalgia and get very tired) and I was just thinking of going home when Dhammarati arrived. Because of my illness there are lots of order members who I don't know because I rarely go to LBC in the evenings. So, even though I spend a lot of time there, there are still plenty of people I don't know. I have to admit now, that I do not remember the name of the order member I was talking to when he arrived, but they knew each other and she introduced us, and he shook my hand. His presence was of an order that I thought, ok, let me just stay for this one last talk. And I am very glad I did. He talked very plainly about the Sutra, and about practice. Very insightfully. And he brought the day together in it's conceptual simplicity; everything you need to know to practice, you probably already know. You just need to do it deeper.
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July 12th, 2009
ocha_no_hanashi
 | 11:12 pm - Are Bodhisattvas egotistical?
Robert Thurman defines the Individual Vehicle of Buddhism as that which seeks transcendence from the imprisonment of cyclic life. To begin this path, he describes how one must realize their own precious human embodiment.
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jp5040
| 06:48 pm - Right Concentration
Further to my meditative practice...
It is important to consider why we meditate and what the meditation forms into. Buddhist thoughts on the subject are quite definite on what mediation's goals are. The practice of meditation alone is simply a tool, but the use of it is a purposeful growth and expansion of the mind. One can't simply vacate thoughts and then suddenly become enlightened! Blissful oblivion might be attractive, but it is a mind construct. A natural physical high. Transcendental mediation can lead to joyful bliss, but that is not the right goal. (according to the Pali Canon)
Meditation leads up in stages to the ultimate goal of being able to achieve right concentration
the first meditative absorption:
detachment from unwholesome thoughts, accompanied by sustained thoughts, applied thought, joy and blissful awareness.
the second meditative state:
using sustained thoughts and concentration on the world at hand and present, finds inner tranquility, the consciousness of the world around replaces the need to focus on the specific applied thoughts. This state is content, joyful and blissful.
the third state:
detached from joy - finding equanimity (the state of neither joy or stress) This state is blissful, equanimity and mindfulness of the world at hand.
the fourth state:
in order to give up suffering truly we must also abandon it's opposite. We let go of bliss. Sustained mindfulness of the world and ourselves. Pure equanimity.
Right concentration.
These words are derived from Pali Canon readings. 65-68 and wikipedia entries on the subject of right mindfulness.
Give me equanimity or give me bliss and suffering.
This should show that the feeling of joyful abandon is not at all the highest state of mediation. While pleasurable it is "samsara" still. The state of being a slave to worldly needs and desires - the desire for pleasure, not pain. While bliss is definitely preferable to suffering it is not equanimity yet. it is as unbalanced as suffering. It is the other side of the same door. It is useless to push on the door - eventually bliss will fade and suffering will return.
Knowing that all things pass, good and bad, positive and negative, we seek balance and equanimity in order to solve our problems. Not seeking bliss. Seeking answers. Seeking right thoughts from right concentration on the issues at ahand. Attained through careful practice to vacate the ego - to vacate the bliss and the suffering from the issues. To then, ask our most balanced and rational person inside, "What shall I say, think, and do?"
One must not allow a whirlwind of unapplied thoughts to sway back and forth inside their mind. One must step into meditation with purpose. Mindful action. Doing nothing is as much an action as doing something. Especially when it done with purpose. Take the states of meditation through to conclusion and small enlightenments will surely arrive. I have experienced clarity of intention and action through carrying out right concentration as described this way.
I hope this path makes some sense. Not theoretical, but practical and useful ways to use meditation to achieve clarity.
J
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turil
 | 04:01 pm - negative emotions = step back
Negative emotions mean step back.
Positive emotions mean step forward.
Do you have the patience to wait
till your mud settles and the water is clear?
Can you remain unmoving
till the right action arises by itself?
Tao Te Ching
The book Honest Signals by MIT professor Sandy Pentland is a very brief introduction to the language of our unconscious, emotional mind with it's "body language" and voice tone/speed/volume, as contrasted with the language of the conscious, rational mind of specific words. The research is fascinating (though the book itself is pretty dull) and helps clarify how decisions are made, in groups of humans and in groups of brain cells. It turns out that the conscious mind is really crappy at making complex decisions, because it filters out too many of the details needed for a full analysis. So, sort of surprisingly, that means that nearly all of our most important decisions are made with the unconscious mind, which stores ALL of the data that we need:
So then how does all this evidence help us make better decisions? What the evidence and model suggest is that for complex problems, the best decision-making strategy is to focus on information discovery and then let your unconscious mind "recognize" the best alternative.
[*snip* stuff about talking to people to collect enough opinions/facts]
And, finally, let the problems roll around in your mind without conscious deliberation. Don't look for a logical explanations of every factor but instead seek that "aha" movement where you recognize a real fit between your current problem and previous experience. An informed unconscious, especially one supported by the experiences of a network of interested individuals, is the most powerful decision making tool you have.
In other words, when you have some conflict in your self about what to do because of sadness, anger, fear, stress, etc., take some time to step back, open your mind and let all the emotions and thoughts and facts wander around inside your self as compassionately as possible, and wait peacefully for the negative stuff to leave, and the positive emotions and thoughts and intentions to appear.
In my own experience, those positive things will be accompanied by a sudden joyful energy that propels one to get started right away on that right action and right speech and right livelihood. Of course, I'm not always completely successful at carrying out my ideas, but usually I can manage at least something that improves someone's life, somewhere. :-)
In more Buddhist terms:
Meditate on negative thoughts.
Act on positive ones.
Compassion begins with respecting your own honest signals about when it's time to slow down, take a break, and give yourself time to process it all. Peace begins within, then spreads outwards!
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wildwose
 | 08:46 am - Buddha's at Lowes Home Imporvement stores...
Well, actually there are lots of them there. I saw one wearing a blue vest and walking the aisles, offering sage advice on benevolent paints and proper fastening systems. However these are not the ones I was referring to.
I was meaning the garden statue varieties. Such as these:
Garden Buddha Statues
We have been looking for an affordable Garden Buddha, and these resin ones were very good. I may repaint mine, but I wanted to install and outside shrine area.
Here is the one we found, sitting there amidst the plastic frogs and gnomes, (who also have Buddha Nature)
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okmyturn
 | 06:59 am
Is it proper to meditate naked? This has been bothering me quite a bit this morning. It just seems really immodest and indecent.
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July 11th, 2009
July 10th, 2009
nakedmen
| 07:18 pm - Is anger justified against a person with harmful intentions?
(a')) On analysis of whether the object has self-control, anger is unjustified
Analyze, thinking, "What would be reasonable grounds for anger towards harmdoers?" Whereupon, you might think, "They first had the thought of wanting to harm me, prepared the method, and then either prevented my happiness or inflicted unpleasant physical or mental suffering, so my anger is justified."
Are you angry because they inflicted harm while they had the self-control not to harm you, or are you angry because they were utterly without any self-control and hurt you while helplessly impelled by something else?
In the former case your anger is unjustified because those who inflict harm do not have control over themselves, for, when the conditions and causes -- seeds left by afflictions to which they were previously habituated, a nearby object, and erroneous conceptions -- come together, they give rise to the thought to harm, even though the harmdoers do not think, "I will feel malice"; whereas if those causes and conditions are not complete, they will never produce the thought to harm, even if the harmdoers think, "I will feel malice." These causes and conditions produce the desire to harm; this in turn produces the work of harming; and this produces suffering for someone else, so those harmdoers do not have even the slightest self-control. Moreover, they have become like servants of their afflictions, because they are under the control of others, i.e., their afflictions.
In the latter case -- you are angry because the harmdoers are utterly without any self-control and, being helplessly impelled by something else, they hurt you -- then your anger is totally unjustified.
[...]
Accordingly, Aryadeva's Four Hundred Stanzas says:
Just as a doctor does not fight but helps
Patients who are possessed by spirits, though they get angry,
So the Sage sees that the afflictions are at fault,
Not the persons who have the afflictions.
The master Candrakirti also states:
"This is not living beings' fault,
Rather it is the fault of the afflictions."
So the learned analyze
And do not fight with others.
- Tsongkhapa's Lamrim Chenmo
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caelidh
 | 01:14 pm - Long term Buddhist Communities
For a while now,
I have been thinking I would like to join a Buddhist community center.. somewhere to live a full life of contemplation and work for the center.
I live in Southern Ohio .
I am wanting to get more immersed into a contemplative lifestyle where I can live simply... and serve others ...
I have never considered myself an "official" Buddhist, however... although I have studied it.
I am wanting to push through and sell my posessions and my home and just give up the rat race.
Is the West, however, the only place really to do that?
I know what I am asking may be extreme.. but I have thought about it and feel I need to do this...
The world right now does not jive with my inner values....
Thanks
Caelidh
Current Mood: ![[mood icon]](http://l-stat.livejournal.com/img/mood/punquinheads/blue/thoughtful.gif) contemplative
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July 9th, 2009
ocha_no_hanashi
| 09:18 pm - Learning Abhidharma
How would you go about learning Abhidharma? I mean more than just reading the texts, but actually learning a whole system and being able to reproduce all the details off the top of your head.
I was thinking I could approach it like I would if I was going to study something like the periodic table or anything with a lot of systematic details like physiology or anatomy. I've had good results in the past making flashcards for learning Chinese characters and vocabulary in Japanese and Chinese. I had a whole shopping bag of 1" X 2" flashcards just for Japanese vocabulary at one point and I think I assimilated most of it just sitting on the train and memorizing it all.
Now, if I was going to apply the same method to learning Abhidharma, I imagine it would be efficacious, though I'm wondering how others might have gone about learning it, or if in monasteries they approach it in a different manner.
See, I'm going through Asanga's Abhidharmasamuccaya and the systematic nature of it lends me to think simple flashcards would do the trick. I was thinking on one side I could put the dharma or item and on the other side the definition and where it fits (like "X being a characteristic of impermanence"). For learning the lexical items in Sanskrit and Chinese (Xuanzang's translation) I could maybe put the English on the left and the Sanskrit and Chinese on the right, so I could just cover up one side and recall what the term is in the other language.
What do you think? Anyone else have interesting methods for learning Abhidharma?
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singingyogi
 | 02:41 pm - Cyberbullying?
In this day and age we can now converse with complete strangers without actually meeting them, we can form new positive connections across the globe, we have the freedom to pass on hurtful negative comments or we can spread positivity.
Here is a video that creatively demonstrates how 'Cyber Bullying' can potentially make an individual feel.
As Buddhists should we;
Try to control 'Cyber Bullying'?
Observe the nature of it's cause, it's impact?
Relieve the suffering of Cyber Bully victims and Cyber Bullys alike?
Avoid the internet entirely and have admin assistants deal with online stuff like Jack Cornfield?
Is the internet a true mirror of the human mind? Passive and aggressive attributes.
What's your take?
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cleverdevil
| 10:25 am - A few words on things I dislike
I really don't like how certain Buddhist teachers or speakers insist on speaking with this ultra relaxed, heavy lidded sounding voice. I know you're at ease, and I appreciate you teaching me, and others everything that you know, but I would encourage you to speak with intent. Add strength and timbre to your voice. I'm looking at you, Gil Fronsdal.
It also troubles me that so much of what Deepak Chopra teaches is inherantly Buddhist, yet he markets it with this "unlock the hidden secrets" mystic bullshit. Really, I've paid to hear him speak and he's wonderful. And in person, I feel like he tries to reach a wider audience by asserting the fact that he is an M.D. As if to highlight the science that mingles with so much of the Buddha's teachings. I mean, good on him! But then, to put out these books that make it sound like...like this veiled gypsy shit. That's not a statement about actual gypsies, but this characture that for a big price, you can step behind this delapitated wagon and have your palm read. There's no hidden secret here. Meh.
That is all.
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