Topic 5 of 42: Buddhism
Fri, Aug 30, 1996 (00:00) |
William (william)
In chaotic times which tend to be re-ordered by the human mind, for the sake of sanity, by means of some kind of faith or belief, generally either scientific or religious, it would seem worth investigating the subject of Buddhism -- a "religion" which does not believe in a subjective "creator" and which places full value in the modern scientific method, and whose principles are based primarily on nonviolence, compassion and love.
25 responses total.
Topic 5 of 42 [cultures]: Buddhism
Response 1 of 25: William (william) * Thu, Sep 5, 1996 (00:54) * 2 lines
If nonviolence, compassion and love are not the answer to the complex question submitted by our fucked up world, what is?
Topic 5 of 42 [cultures]: Buddhism
Response 2 of 25: Matthew McClure (mmc) * Mon, Sep 23, 1996 (13:29) * 10 lines
Well, some kind of action is probably required. Nonviolence, compassion,
and love are certainly excellent values to stimulate action, but as
critical as the situation appears, doing something that makes a difference
is imperative. Some Buddhists think that it's enough to sit and meditate
practice nonviolence, compassion, and love. While all that may be necessary,
I don't think it's sufficient.
I'd really like to see a multitude of Buddhists united in action to raise
the consciousness of the people on the planet so we can continue to have
people on the planet. But I don't know what to do to make that happen.
Topic 5 of 42 [cultures]: Buddhism
Response 3 of 25: Cliff Figallo (fig) * Mon, Sep 23, 1996 (20:04) * 4 lines
The SF Zen Center has a pretty activist posture. I mean, considering that there is a core philosophy of non-attachment to achieving set goals. The precept that says Do Not Kill is interpreted in a much broader way as to do no harm, and compassion is seen as doing acts that help to avoid harm and suffering, not just in front of you, but in the future. We know a lot more about the future now than they did back in the Buddha's day. The Headwaters situation was brought up in the dharma talk on a couple of
occasions. The former abbot and current head teacher, Reb Andersen, says in his bio that he is particularly concerned with how Buddhism relates with issues like the environment and activism. I don't think I'd be a regular attendee if they acted like meditation alone would cure the world's ills.
I wonder what other peoples' experiences are with their brands of Buddhism and their teachers. Is this a particularly San Francisco thing?
Topic 5 of 42 [cultures]: Buddhism
Response 4 of 25: William (william) * Wed, Sep 25, 1996 (00:45) * 11 lines
I don't think nonviolence, compassion and love are sufficient to saving the planet either. Not in its current critical state. Remember that in Mahayana Buddhism bodhisattvas are supposed to be heroes (or heroines, let us not forget) who come to the rescue. They're supposed to be so intent on the ultimate salvation of the world that there will be times when it will be appropriate for them to break any rule in the Buddhist ethical canon -- including killing for the sake of the greater preservation of life.
e/she just has to be absolutely he/she is really and truly cool. And, of course, one doesn't know how to know that until enlightenment has arrived.
I just spent a 3-day weekend at the Zen Mountain Monastery in Mt Tremper, New York (the Mountains & Rivers Order, led by Abbot John Daido Loori). A grand and beautiful retreat in a deep valley in the Catskills. I wondered at times about how their diligent and devoted routines, crackling with collective attentivenss, could have any effect on the ongoing downward spiral of consciousness in the cities and the suburbs of the world.
Someone told me later that they did volunteer work in the New York State prison system -- working at possibly pulling souls out of hell. That's in addition to keeping the old monastery together, clean and attractive to the 20 or 30 people who show up each weekend to see if a higher consciousness is something real and attinable. And then providing them with indisputable evidence that absolute love and devotion will put meaning and value into being human.
That's doing a lot. But a lot more, of course, is required.
Topic 5 of 42 [cultures]: Buddhism
Response 5 of 25: Matthew McClure (mmc) * Fri, Oct 25, 1996 (11:44) * 3 lines
I was just listening to Robert Thurman's tape on Basic Buddhism,
and was struck by his idea of delusion - thinking that we're not
full of bliss all the time is deluded. What a nice way to feel!
Topic 5 of 42 [cultures]: Buddhism
Response 6 of 25: Paul Terry Walhus (terry) * Wed, Oct 30, 1996 (07:28) * 1 lines
What books do folks recommend on Buddhism?
Topic 5 of 42 [cultures]: Buddhism
Response 7 of 25: Mika-Petri Lauronen (Mixu) * Thu, Nov 21, 1996 (05:55) * 9 lines
Well, I'd say that the best books on the subject are
Eugene Herrigel's Zen And the Art of Archery, and
Zen Flesh, Zen Bones, a collection of koans and Zen stories.
Other good books (IMHO) are:
Shunryu Suzuki's Zen Mind, Beginners Mind, and
Myamoto Musashi's Book of Five Rings.
at least of those I've read...
Topic 5 of 42 [cultures]: Buddhism
Response 8 of 25: Paul Terry Walhus (terry) * Thu, Nov 21, 1996 (09:11) * 1 lines
I've read Zen Mind, Beginners Mind and this is an excellent book.
Topic 5 of 42 [cultures]: Buddhism
Response 9 of 25: billboy (billboy) * Tue, Dec 3, 1996 (14:27) * 4 lines
The Tibetan version of buddhism is somewhat different in it's trappings from the zen one but very rich also. Chogyam Trungpa Rinpoche wrote some of the most accessible material about buddhism that I've encountered. Cutting Through Spiritual Materialism was the first of his books to move me. The Vipassana tradition from Burma is also a wonderful approach. Jack Kornfield's A Path With Heart is a tremendous introduction to Buddhism and spirituality in general.Steven Levine's books are also great (some direct
y about buddhism and some more concerned with death and dying kinds of material).
Topic 5 of 42 [cultures]: Buddhism
Response 10 of 25: Dani (Dani) * Mon, Dec 9, 1996 (12:18) * 2 lines
Many, many years ago, when I was but a mere child of 18, I read several books written by a Tibetan monk by the name of Tuesday Lobsang Rampa. Tuesday was his first name because that was the day of the week he was born on, I remember that. Anyway, his first book was called The Third Eye. He wrote of Chinese occupation in Tibet, of the Dali Lama, how to astral project, etc. I was totally influenced by these books. I remember him writing how by the year 1990 or 2000 (can't remember which) the Golden Age w
uld be reached...that would be when there would be no more racial disparities because there would be no more different races. Everyone would be of the same race. I really liked that idea but of course, now I realize it won't come to fruition, at least not in the timeline he had submitted. If anyone runs across any books by him at a second hand book store, they ought to check him out. They're very interesting books.
Topic 5 of 42 [cultures]: Buddhism
Response 11 of 25: Mika-Petri Lauronen (Mixu) * Tue, Dec 10, 1996 (09:13) * 7 lines
Hmm. Sounds interesting, although there aren't different races anyway.
Just put people of different colour in line, beginning from
an albino and ending with someone living in Zaire.
Then try to divide them in races. It is impossible.
Or are there any methods of doing it? I'd sure like to know...
Topic 5 of 42 [cultures]: Buddhism
Response 12 of 25: Matthew McClure (mmc) * Mon, Jan 6, 1997 (16:38) * 1 lines
Topic 5 of 42 [cultures]: Buddhism
Response 13 of 25: Paul Terry Walhus (terry) * Mon, Sep 15, 1997 (00:00) * 19 lines
jaxers:
What differentiates a Buddhist tenet system from a non-Buddhist tenet
system, as our Buddhist ancestor philosophs would have it - are three
basic tenets:
- That everything - both concrete and abstract - is impermanent (anityam)
- That everything - both person, persona, and "thing" - is without a stable,
essential, enduring self-existence (anatman), and
- That everything in Samsara - the wheel of birth, becoming and death
that makes up the theatre for our deluded existences -
is unsatisfactory ("dukkha" - which is usually
rendered "suffering" - not the best translation, i'm afraid).
The corrollary to this would be - That Nirvana is peace.
This is the basic platform from which the manifold Buddhsims spring.
Topic 5 of 42 [cultures]: Buddhism
Response 14 of 25: Paul Terry Walhus (terry) * Fri, Oct 17, 1997 (10:11) * 19 lines
Should we talk about the million Tibetans killed so far by the
Chinese execution? Would that be an appropriate new topic for
this conference.
It might be appropos, specially at this moment, when the film
"Seven Years in Tibet" has just opened, there's a Richard Gere film
opening soon (does anyone know the title) and Kundun, about the early
life of the Dalai Lama, opens in late December.
The International Campaign for Tibet is distributing action kits at
movie theaters; there were vigils nationwide on October 8th.
There's going to be a candlelight vigil in the Chinese Embassy
on Tuesday, Oct 28 at 6:30 pm and a demonstration at the White
Hous Oct 29 from noon to 2. Busloads are coming in for this.
I'm trying to find out if there's anything going on in Austin and
I just heard about an event of major important next weekend in
NYC which I'll be posting about.
Topic 5 of 42 [cultures]: Buddhism
Response 15 of 25: Stacey Vura (stacey) * Mon, Oct 20, 1997 (09:35) * 2 lines
The Buddhaist temple in Denver is holding an open informational series on this
as well.
Topic 5 of 42 [cultures]: Buddhism
Response 16 of 25: Paul Terry Walhus (terry) * Mon, Oct 20, 1997 (17:48) * 6 lines
Since Tianman Square, the dissidents have all either fled the country to safety,
and the remaining ones have been jailed or executed, thus quieting things down.
The US govt. is rewarding this "quieting down" with all kinds of trade favors and
preferential treatment. But the problem hasn't gone away.
Topic 5 of 42 [cultures]: Buddhism
Response 17 of 25: Paul Terry Walhus (terry) * Thu, Oct 23, 1997 (20:32) * 39 lines
A quote from:
"When Things Fall Apart - Heart Advice
For Difficult times," by Pema Chodron, the American
Tibetan Buddhist.
As human beings, not only do we seek resolution
but we also feel that we deserve resolution. However,
not only do we not deserve resolution, we suffer from
resolution. We don't deserve resolution; we deserve
something better than that. We deserve our birthright,
which is the middle way, an open state of mind that can
relax with paradox and ambiguity. To the degree that
weUve been avoiding uncertainty, weUre naturally going
to have withdrawal symptoms -- withdrawal from
always thinking that thereUs a problem and that
someone, somewhere, needs to fix it.
The middle way is wide open, but it's tough going,
because it goes against the grain of an ancient neurotic
pattern that we all share. When we feel lonely, when we
feel hopeless, what we want to do is move to the right or
the left. We don't want to sit and feel what we feel. We
don't want to go though the detox. Yet the middle way
encourages us to do just that. It encourages us to awaken
the bravery that exists in everyone without exception,
including you and me.
Meditation provides a way for us to train in the
middle way -- in staying right on the spot. We are
encouraged not to judge whatever arises in our mind; in
fact, we are encouraged not to even grasp whatever
arises in our mind. What we usually call good or bad we
simply acknowledge as thinking, without all the usual
drama that goes along with right and wrong. We are
instructed to let the thoughts come and go as if touching
a bubble with a feather. This straightforward discipline
prepares us to stop struggling and discover a fresh,
unbiased state of being.
Topic 5 of 42 [cultures]: Buddhism
Response 18 of 25: Stacey Vura (stacey) * Fri, Oct 24, 1997 (11:26) * 1 lines
yes, it does.
Topic 5 of 42 [cultures]: Buddhism
Response 19 of 25: Megan A Bigelow (meganb) * Sun, Feb 8, 1998 (17:44) * 5 lines
I've started practicing Nichiren Daishonin's buddhism with SGI, this past year. This group stresses: faith, practice, study and ACTION. You can't just meditate and hope for everything to work out as you'd like it to. You need to meditate or chant as this group does and then based on the inner-wisdom you connect with while chanting/meditating, you take action to improve your life and to make the world/your community a better and more peaceful place.
There's a great book about this practice by a leader in the British SGI group. His name's Richard Causton....I can't remember the title of the book off the top of my head though.
MMC, check out SGI in your area (should be listed under Soka Gakkai International in your phone directory) if you want to find (per your response above) "a multitude of buddhists united in action working to raise the consciousness of the people" throughout the world.
Topic 5 of 42 [cultures]: Buddhism
Response 20 of 25: Paul Terry Walhus (terry) * Mon, Feb 9, 1998 (07:38) * 2 lines
Do they have a group in the Austin area?
Topic 5 of 42 [cultures]: Buddhism
Response 21 of 25: Megan A Bigelow (meganb) * Mon, Feb 9, 1998 (19:29) * 3 lines
terry, (i think this msg from you is in ref to my comment...so, I'm answering your question!),
SGI is all over the world. I have an address listing for the larger cultural centers in the US. Austin isn't listed but Dallas is, as follows: SGI-USA, 2733 Oak Lawn Ave, Dallas, TX, 75219. Phone is: 214-559-4115, Fax is: 214-559-2288. I'd suggest calling and asking for a contact person in your area who could give you some introductory info on the group. Let me know if you have any more questions (and, if you hook up w/the group in Austin)!
Topic 5 of 42 [cultures]: Buddhism
Response 22 of 25: (sprin5) * Wed, Jul 19, 2000 (12:29) * 1 lines
Thanks Megan.
Topic 5 of 42 [cultures]: Buddhism
Response 23 of 25: Maggie (sociolingo) * Tue, Jul 3, 2001 (12:48) * 16 lines
The following article comes from a site that has a good range of articles about Buddhism. Follow the link to find out more ...
http://www.amtb.org.tw/e-bud/e-bud.htm
Hwa Dzan Pure Land Learning Center
amtb@amtb.org.tw
THE FOUR KINDS OF BUDDHISM TODAY
In our world today, there are at least four different types of Buddhism. The first type is the authentic Buddhism, the education of understanding the true face of life and the universe originally intended by Shakyamuni Buddha. Unfortunately, the authentic Buddha's education is rare nowadays, and difficult to encounter. The remaining types of Buddhism are more or less distortions of the original teachings.
The second type of Buddhism is the religious Buddhism. Originally, Buddhism was not a religion, but now it has become one. We can no longer deny that there is a 'Buddhist religion' because everywhere we look, Buddhism is displayed as a religion. Unlike the monasteries in the past which held eight-hour classes per day and provided another eight hours for self-cultivation, today's Buddhist 'temples' no longer uphold such a perseverance of the Buddha's Teachings. Today we mainly see people offering to the Buddha statues and praying for blessings and fortune. In this way, Buddhism has been wrongly changed into a religion.
The third type of Buddhism is the philosophical study of the Buddha's teachings. Many universities today open courses on the study of Buddhist Sutras, considering the teachings as a philosophy. The content of the Buddha's education is actually a complete university of knowledge and wisdom. Philosophy is only one of its courses. Just as it is wrong to recognize an university as a single course, it is also inappropriate to think of and limit the Buddha's education as only a philosophy. The Buddha's education can help us resolve our problems - from family difficulties to the great issue of life and death. The Buddha's teachings are deep and vast, and teach us the truths of life and the universe. It should not be mistaken as only a philosophy.
The fourth type of Buddhism we see in our world today is the deviant and externalist Buddhism. This is an extremely unfortunate affair which only came to be in the past 30-40 years. We must know that the religious Buddhism persuades people to be decent, and the philosophical Buddhism pursues truth, neither cause much harm to the society. If Buddhism is changed into a deviant and externalist path, using the weakness of the human nature to cheat and harm living beings; disturbing the peace and safety of the society, then this conversion of Buddhism has gone too far. The speech and actions of these deviant and externalist paths can be very attractive and enticing. One should be very careful as not to be mislead by these deviant ways, or regretting it would be too late.
These four types of Buddhism exist in our society today, we should recognize them as they are and think carefully as to which way is most beneficial to us, and the one we will ultimately follow.
Topic 5 of 42 [cultures]: Buddhism
Response 24 of 25: Maggie (sociolingo) * Tue, Jul 3, 2001 (12:49) * 1 lines
Topic 5 of 42 [cultures]: Buddhism
Response 25 of 25: Culcha (terry) * Tue, Jul 2, 2002 (09:19) * 168 lines
Philip Whalen died a couple of weeks ago. I just found out. Thanks for Asking is a great book by Steve Silberman (digaman@well.com) which is his journal of his days in the company of Whalen, "poet's poet and original 'dharma bum' in Kerouac's book of that name. He's an original beatnik.
He lived at the Hartford Zen Center.
He died June 26th. Poets read him poetry during his last 24 hours.
For Allen, on His 60th Birthday
Having been mellow & wonderful so many years
What's left but doting & rage?
Yet the balance of birthing & dying
Keeps a level sight: Emptiness, not
Vacancy, has room for all departure &
Arrival; I don't even know what
Day it is.
-- Philip Whalen
"What we see of the world is the mind's
Invention and the mind
Though stained by it, becoming
Rivers, sun, mule-dung, flies -
Can shift instantly
A dirty bird in a square of time
Gone
Gone
Really gone
O MAMA
Like they say: "Four times up,
Three times down." I'm still on the mountain.
from 'Sourdough Mountain Lookout,' 28; VII:56
Philip Whalen
Steve Silberman:
"A quiet, bespectacled booboo, smiling over books"
-- Jack Kerouac on P.W., "The Dharma Bums"
I went down to the hospice diagonally across from the San Francisco
Zen Center of Page Street today to say goodbye to Philip Whalen. A
staffer at the hospice told me Philip's body was in the room at the
top of the stairs. His name was on a sheet of paper on the door, in
what looked like his distinctive calligraphic handwriting. I took off
my shoes before I went in. A hospice worker and three Zen students
were there, sitting zazen quietly as I entered.
I last saw Philip eight years ago, when I finished my five-month term
as his personal assistant, reading to him, keeping him company, and
walking him to lunch several days a week. I felt guilty about not
visiting him in his long years of illness, but our time together had
been so complete, and had ended in such a perfect way, that I never
felt like I needed to see him again. We had done our business. He
used to make jokes about his "mountaine belly," a phrase from
Boswell's life of Johnson, one of his favorite books. When I saw his
corpse, I was shocked at how small he seemed. He looked little, lying
under his brown robes on the narrow bed, his right hand clutching a
Buddhist mala. His face was inclined slightly to the left, and eyes
were half-shut, as if he were meditating; under the lids, I could see
little wedges of pale blue. He was smiling slightly. Someone had
placed three bright orange flowers at his left shoulder.
One of the women sitting in the room invited me to offer incense.
There was a profound stillness, and the funny thought came to me that
when you are in a room with a corpse, the most important thing in the
room is always the corpse. I sat and meditated, drifting in and out of
counting my breath and thinking about Philip, and wanting to look at
him. Sickness, old age, and death had somehow distilled and refined
his features, but he also looked like he was also starting to blur
into his surroundings, as if he was evaporating or might start to melt
into the bed. He looked very dead, like a wax model of a human being.
His face was yellow. The blood was pooling in the back of his skull,
turning his huge ears and the back of his neck a dark reddish-purple.
The tips of the fingers of his left hand were slightly green.
Sitting with him was not like sitting in the room with a statue of
Buddha, but with a Buddha. It was so obvious, looking at him, that we
are empty, and that what we are, while we are alive, is what was lying
on the bed, but with some vital, inexplicable, and temporary fire
inside us.
A hand-written broadside of Philip's "Tara" poem was on the wall.
The sound of buzzsaws and hammering from construction in the
neighborhood came in the windows. It occurred to me that the noise
would have annoyed him, but he was funny about such ever-present daily
annoyances: he expected them as part of the goofy universe he found
himself in.
At one point, two of the women in the room got up to chat in the
hall, and I joined them, which broke the ice. When the three of us were alone
with Philip in the room a few minutes later, the meditative silence
yielded to stories. Mostly they were stories about food. How Philip was always disobeying his doctors' dietary regulations. How he had hamburgers
smuggled in when he was in the hospital. How just a week ago, he got
someone to fry him up a steak. How he loved eating cheap, greasy
Chinese food drenched in hot chili oil. The hospice worker said she
had once gone to a Chinese restaurant with him and enumerated the most
disgusting sounding things on the menu, like tripe, because Philip was
likely to order them. He did. How he loved to drink Scotch, which he
called his "nerve-tonic." How he loved papayas and melons... the
conversation seemed in danger of extending itself into an infinite
rhapsody of delicious food names, Whitman in the kitchen. A young
woman meditating on the other side of the bed was suppressing giggles.
Before he died, Philip told some Zen students that he wanted to be
laid out on frozen raspberries.
I brought my face very close to his face, and looked into the face of
the Death-Buddha. When I was his assistant eight years ago, I always
used to want to kiss him, and when I rubbed his shaven head, he would
purr contentedly. So I put my right hand on the top of his skull and
brought my lips to his forehead. Though my mind knew his body was
going to be cold, my hand and my lips were still surprised by it. He
was colder than the air around him. He was colder than a stone.
Then the hospice worker told me to place my hand over his heart,
because there was still some warmth there. I was skeptical, and moved
my hand up and down over his body, but there definitely seemed to be a
little pool of warmth over the middle of his chest. "Big heart," she
said. "He's almost gone. It's like a turkey-tester. The heart
chakra is a good place to leave your body from." What is leaving?
Who knows?
Then a Zen student and physician, Rick Levine, came in the room to
sit. He recognized me from when we were at Zen Center together 20
years ago. "You're that writer guy, right?" I told him I was. "You
wrote a little self-published book called 'The Last Beatnik,' right?"
I wasn't, but I appreciated his effort to recover the thread between
us. Suddenly, talking about things I had or had not written seemed
ridiculous, like gossiping in front of a mountain. I looked up at the
mountain,bowed, and walked downstairs.
6.27.02
http://www.bayarea.com/mld/bayarea/3557978.htm Whalen's obit on
BayAre.com (San Jose Mercury & its associated papers.)
FURTHER NOTICE
I can't live in this world
And I refuse to kill myself
Or let you kill me
The dill plant lives, the airplane,
My alarm clock, this ink
I won't go away
I shall be myself--
Free, a genius, an embarrassment
Like the Indian, the buffalo
Like Yellowstone National Park.
--Philip Whalen
unofficial: Philip's memorial service will be at Green Gulch on Sept
1, with Baker Roshi officiating, in the afternoon.
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