On Trying To Be Buddhist

Gifts

Another easy post - two gifts to begin the new year. 

To start, here is something called  "The Eyes of Boudha."  It's a piece written by Amy Chavez, a young accupuncturist who visited Nepal  as a volunteer working with Mindful Medicine Worldwide.  Amy writes about her brief time in Bodhnath, or Boudha, working in a clinic there, and exploring this center of Tibetan culture in exile.   There are two gifts in this brief travel essay.  First, Boudha itself, as the reader is dropped right in the middle of its noise, activity, smells, and sights.  And second, a hint of another way of being, immersed in kindness and compassion.

And next - for the delight of it, the baskets of Brian Jewett. 

On New Year's Eve

Tonight a little break. 

It's New Year's Eve and I wish everyone a wonderful new year.   The very best wishes I can think of are expressed by Longchenpa:

Longchenpa’s Prayer of Compassion
 

May the lives of ailing sentient beings be extended and made meaningful.
May those who are suffering from hunger or thirst obtain sustenance,
Those who are afflicted by external fears become fearless,
And everything that beings desire be granted exactly as they wish.
 
May all sentient beings do good and swiftly attain enlightenment.
May those in power rule with justice,
Governments be of service and ministers be endowed with wholesome qualities,
And the public remain in peace at all times.
 
May all sentient beings be free from all possible forms of suffering.
May they attain liberation,
Their minds free of unwholesome states,
And their time devoted to realizing their true nature.

May there be bountiful harvests in all the lands.
May there be no sickness or any threat to life,
No conflict between self and others,
And peace and prosperity everywhere.

 May limitless sentient beings in the ten directions be free from suffering.
May whatever they put their mind to bear fruit,
And may they attain bliss
As a result of the merit accumulated from this prayer.

From Longchenpa’s autocommentary to his root text Kindly Bent To Ease Us.
English translation by Traleg Kyabgon, in: Mind At Ease, p. 89-90.

 

Renunciation - Part 3

Yesterday I ended with two questions:  does the goal of liberation require this thoroughgoing abnegation; and  is monasticism the best or only way to achieve it?

That first question really has to be considered first - it involves asking what liberation is.  Rather than get into a long discussion of this, I'd like to give a few quotes from a teaching by Khenpo Migmar Tsering, who was a highly accomplished and revered Sakya lama.  In a teaching on the philosophy of liberation, he first discusses the basic meaning of liberation: release from suffering.  He goes on to describe the different Buddhist schools of thought that developed and eventually he comes to the distinction between the relative, or conventional, and ultimate views of reality. 

...whatever appears to the worldly mind is true only to that mind and so it is only conventional and not ultimate. In this case, what appears to be true to the beholder is not so in the real sense, because the object in question does not exist by its own and the mind of the beholder is tainted with delusions.  By this reasoning all types of worldly mind are considered as false and whatever appears to them is not real...

The ultimate truth is the object of a perfect knowledge. For the sake of explanation it is divided into two kinds, the nominal ultimate truth and the actual ultimate truth. That which is the object of analysing mind is nominal truth. In fact this is the mental image of the ultimate truth, which is projected in the conceptual mind of the meditator. It is through image of the ultimate truth that one is trained in the study and meditation of the ultimate truth. The actual ultimate truth is said to be beyond thought and expression. It is the actual mode of being of every phenomena.

Liberation means becoming freed from the perspective of ordinary, conventional reality, which is in fact unreal, into this "actual mode of being of every phenomenon."   Note that it's the very unreality of conventional 'reality' that produces its unsatisfactoriness and is the root of suffering. 

What is involoved in this shift?  Does it require some form of asceticism?

Renunciation - Part 2

What is renounced and why?  As soon as I began looking for material on the Internet, I came across a blog post that was very helpful.  The author begins the main section:

In Buddhist circles, renunciation is spoken of most often in reference to an individual’s choice to take up the robes of a monastic, to shave one’s head and ‘renounce’ the life of a layperson in order to practice Buddhism in a dedicated manner.

A nice description from the Buddhist perspective, which is where I want to start. 

To put it another way, what is renounced is the rich, pleasant, and varied material life of a layperson (at least of the fortunate ones) to enable a more dedicated spiritual practice, and presumably speed one toward the goal of that practice, liberation. 

The questions here lead off in two different directions, both alluring.  First - does the goal of liberation require this thoroughgoing abnegation; and second, is monasticism the best or only way to achieve it?
Questions for tomorrow.

 

Renunciation - Part 1

I'm becoming more and more convinced that a radical form of renunciation is inevitable for serious Buddhist practioners.  It's quite different though, from the type one starts with.

A simple definition from Merriam - Webster's:
Renunciation:  the act or practice of renouncing : repudiation; specifically : ascetic self-denial...

Asceticism is encouraged in most religions for some members at least.  In Buddhism, especially in the earlier forms, renunciation meant the monastic life. 

This practice of renunciation raises so many questions - what is renounced?  Why - what is it in aid of?  In discussions of modern, especially western, Buddhism, there is sometimes the implication that much of the asceticism of early Buddhism is not essential and can be dispensed with.  Is this so?

What is renounced and why - that's where I'll pick up tomorrow.

Challenge

I've been writing very little lately.  So - to end the year on at least a slightly higher note, here's a challenge - one blog entry each day for the coming week.  Just for the hell of it.  And the topic will be renunciation - since I've been thinking about that a lot lately. 

Now - this entry is my commitment - and does not itself count toward my one-per-day.

The Dalai Lama on Reincarnation

On September 24th, His Holiness, the 14th Dalai Lama published a statement "on the issue of his reincarnation."  It's an essay, really, on the nature of reincarnation in general; about those who return - often referred to as tulkus - and the system surrounding them; and a discussion of the political implications in his own case.  In my opinion, this is a powerful document, illuminated by His Holiness's wisdom, compassion, and personal experience.  It merits wide distribution and attention. 

Heaven's Door

A song has been going through my mind for the past week or so - Bob Dylan's Knockin' at Heaven's Door.   It's slow and simple - almost a lullaby - except that it's about death.  What pushed the song into my consciousness, because I've never as far as I can remember listened to it deliberately before, was a sense of what goes on in meditation; the sense of a shell about to shatter, or a door about to open.  So the part of my unconscious, under mind, that likes to create soundtracks for all these thoughts and stories, began to play the refrain: "knock, knock, knockin' on heaven's door..." over and over. Just that part -

During this same period, news began to appear about Mingyur Rinpoche leaving for three-year retreat.  There had been a good bit of talk about his intentions for awhile - but now the retreat has started.  It's far from a usual retreat, though.  Not at all the expected well planned program at a settled retreat center.  Rather, in early June Rinpoche left his monastery in India.  He departed in the middle of the night without telling anyone, taking no money or belongings other than the clothes he was wearing.  He left a letter in which he said, in part,

With genuine conviction in the lineage and instructions I have received, along with a motivation to be of benefit to others, various causes and conditions have prompted me to make the decision to wander alone, without fixed location, in remote mountain ranges. Though I do not claim to be like the great masters of times past, I am now embarking on this journey as a mere reflection of these teachers, as a faithful imitation of the example they set. For a number of years, my training will consist of simply leaving behind my connections...." 

Knocking on heaven's door indeed.  I think this is where all Dharma leads - beyond precise and intricate organization to the simplicity of leaving behind one's connections and passing into something undefined.  To people like me, who are not prepared for this, it is daunting and fearsome.  So it is comforting that Rinpoche continues,

There is no need to worry about me. After a few years, we will meet again and, as before, gather together as teacher and student to enjoy a feast of the Dharma."

 

Eyes and Seeing

Just an odd observation.  There are at least three states of being with one's eyes closed - first, sound asleep; second, eyes closed preparing to sleep - not seeing anything; three, eyes closed but looking and seeing anyhow.  That is, there are times when I close my eyes but stay awake and aware - I am looking, in essense, at the back of my eyelids, as people sometimes say.  I don't see much, but it's not the old blackout curtain effect of shutting my eyes in order to sleep.  There's an almost luminous quality - something to experiment with.......

Two Quotes

For years I've loved Annie Dillard's writing.  An American Childhood is one of the most wonderful books I've ever read. But here are two quotes that hit me hard as a meditator (or someone who hopes to become one.)  First,

A schedule defends from chaos and whim. It is a net for catching days. It is a scaffolding on which a worker can stand and labor with both hands at sections of time.

And second - downright piercing -

How we spend our days is, of course, how we spend our lives.

Of course - I forget this over and over, as I think all sorts of grandiose stuff, while actually doing almost nothing.  Something to take to heart.