A Buddhist smorgasbord

A little background. "Buddhism" is a western term. Here in the west we seem to love our "isms" and "ologies" that seek to define and set limits. Preferable to "Buddhism" is the "way of the Buddha", or just the "Dharma".

Just like all Faiths, the Dharma has had, and does have, multiple expressions.....Theravada, Mahayana etc etc. Even zen (the way outside of words) has various lineages, the main ones being Soto and Rinzai.

What holds the various ways together is the Mahayana understanding of [i]Upaya[/i] or "convenient means", which basically means guidance according to the unique individuality of each human being.

Core texts relating to this are as follows:-

[i]The Lord speaks with but one voice, but all beings, each according to their kind, gain understanding, each thinking that the Lord speaks their own language. This is a special quality of the Buddha. The Lord speaks with but one voice, but all beings, each according to their own ability, act upon it, and each derives the appropriate benefit. This is a special quality of the Buddha.


[/i]
(Vimalakirti Sutra)





[i]Just as the nature of the earth is one

While beings each live separately,

And the earth has no thought of oneness or difference,

So is the truth of all Buddhas.



Just as the ocean is one

With millions of different waves,

Yet the water is no different:

So is the truth of all Buddhas.



Just as the element earth, while one,

Can produce various sprouts,

Yet it's not that the earth is diverse:

So is the truth of all Buddhas.

[/i]

(Hua-Yen Sutra)



[i]I bring fullness and satisfaction to the world,

like rain that spreads its moisture everywhere.

Eminent and lowly, superior and inferior,

observers of precepts, violators of precepts,

those fully endowed with proper demeanor,

those not fully endowed,

those of correct views, of erroneous views,

of keen capacity, of dull capacity -

I cause the Dharma rain to rain on all equally,

never lax or neglectful.

When all the various living beings

hear my Law,

they receive it according to their power,

dwelling in their different environments.....

..The Law of the Buddhas

is constantly of a single flavour,

causing the many worlds

to attain full satisfaction everywhere;

by practicing gradually and stage by stage,

all beings can gain the fruits of the way.
[/i]


(The Lotus Sutra, Parable of the Dharma Rain)

Hopefully the point is made. As I see it, such understanding can be found in the writings of the great 13th century Christian mystic Meister Eckhart when he said:- "They do Him wrong who take God in just one particular way - they have the way rather than God."

Whatever is thought of that, the "heartwood of the Dharma" is spoken of here in a text of the Theravada canon of scripture:-

“[i]So this holy life does not have gain, honour, and renown for its benefit, or the attainment of virtue for its benefit, or the attainment of concentration for its benefit, or knowledge and vision for its benefit. But it is this unshakeable deliverance of mind that is the goal of this holy life, its heartwood, and its end. "[/i]

Thank you

Continuing. I really have no particular direction in mind for this thread. I'm back at Oxfam today in the Book & Music shop, a little paradise, my own Pure Land. People come and go, you get to know a few characters. One old guy came in once, slightly bent over, a bit arthritic, the kind of guy my often terribly judgemental mind thinks can have had no life. He rummaged through the vinyl singles and brought a few over to the till. Old rock n roll classics. "Some old ones here" I said, and he said, "Yes, I'll enjoy playing along to them at home". It turned out he had a couple of Stratocasters and a Les Paul, and could play them." Ever been in a band" I asked him and he said "no", never had the confidence to play in public. Sad in a way.

But moving on, I might at some point get to "8 Fold Paths" and Noble Truths", [i]anicca, anatta[/i] and [i]dukkha[/i] but not now. I was thinking, because of the posts here from Christian friends, of posting the Metta Sutta. Metta is Pali for "loving-kindness". This sutta is found in one of the very oldest Theravada texts, the Sutta Nipata. Anyone familiar with the great "Hymn to Love" in the New Testament is welcome to see correspondences.


[i]This is what should be done
By one who is skilled in goodness,
And who knows the path of peace:
Let them be able and upright,
Straightforward and gentle in speech,
Humble and not conceited,
Contented and easily satisfied,
Unburdened with duties and frugal in their ways.
Peaceful and calm and wise and skillful,
Not proud or demanding in nature.
Let them not do the slightest thing
That the wise would later reprove.
Wishing: In gladness and in safety,
May all beings be at ease.
Whatever living beings there may be;
Whether they are weak or strong, omitting none,
The great or the mighty, medium, short or small,
The seen and the unseen,
Those living near and far away,
Those born and to-be-born —
May all beings be at ease!

Let none deceive another,
Or despise any being in any state.
Let none through anger or ill-will
Wish harm upon another.
Even as a mother protects with her life
Her child, her only child,
So with a boundless heart
Should one cherish all living beings;
Radiating kindness over the entire world:
Spreading upwards to the skies,
And downwards to the depths;
Outwards and unbounded,
Freed from hatred and ill-will.
Whether standing or walking, seated or lying down
Free from drowsiness,
One should sustain this recollection.
This is said to be the sublime abiding.
By not holding to fixed views,
The pure-hearted one, having clarity of vision,
Being freed from all sense desires,
Is not born again into this world.
[/i]

That is all for now. I have Dylan's "Blood on the Tracks" playing at the moment (in fact the bootleg version, "More Blood, More Tracks")

Thank you

One of the foundational texts of Theravada Buddhism, Majjhima Nikaya Sutta 63.

It touches upon the rejection of "views" and of the heart of what the Buddha actually sought to teach:-

An except only.

A novice decides to approach the Buddha....

[i]These speculative views have been left undeclared by the Blessed One, set aside and rejected by him, namely: ‘the world is eternal’ and ‘the world is not eternal’; ‘the world is finite’ and ‘the world is infinite’; ‘the soul is the same as the body’ and ‘the soul is one thing and the body another’; and ‘after death a buddha exists’ and ‘after death a buddha does not exist’ and ‘after death a buddha both exists and does not exist’ and ‘after death a buddha neither exists nor does not exist.’ The Blessed One does not declare these to me, and I do not approve of and accept the fact that he does not declare these to me, so I shall go to the Blessed One and ask him the meaning of this. If he declares to me either ‘the world is eternal’ or ‘the world is not eternal’…or ‘after death a budha neither exists nor does not exist,’ then I will lead the holy life under him; if he does not declare these to me, then I will abandon the training and return to the low life.[/i]

The Buddha answers him after the questions have been put to him....

[i]Sir, if there is the view ‘the world is eternal,’ the holy life cannot be lived; and if there is the view ‘the world is not eternal,’ the holy life cannot be lived. Whether there is the view ‘the world is eternal’ or the view ‘the world is not eternal,’ there is birth, there is ageing, there is death, there are sorrow, lamentation, pain, grief, and despair, the destruction of which I prescribe here and now.[/i]

[i]Why have I left such things undeclared? Because it is unbeneficial, it does not belong to the fundamentals of the holy life, it does not lead to disenchantment, to dispassion, to cessation, to peace, to direct knowledge, to enlightenment, to Nirvana.. That is why I have left it undeclared.

“And what have I declared? ‘This is suffering’—I have declared. ‘This is the origin of suffering’—I have declared. ‘This is the cessation of suffering’—I have declared. ‘This is the way leading to the cessation of suffering’—I have declared.

“Why have I declared that? Because it is beneficial, it belongs to the fundamentals of the holy life, it leads to disenchantment, to dispassion, to cessation, to peace, to direct knowledge, to enlightenment, to Nirvana.. That is why I have declared it.

“Therefore remember what I have left undeclared as undeclared, and remember what I have declared as declared.”[/i]

One feature of the Dharma coming to the West are the various names adopted by those who would seek to spread the teaching. Way back I picked up "A Survey of Buddhism" by Sangarakshita. Reading it I was happy to think that this was the real McCoy, authentic stuff from the heart of Asia. Turned out that Sangarakshita was in fact Dennis Lingwood from Romford. Nothing against Romford of course but it was a bit of a bummer at the time....😀. Another great mentor, Nyanaponika Thera of the Theravada tradition, was Sigmund Feniger, a German born Jew. When Wei Wu Wei turned out to be Terrance Gray, an aristocratic English gentleman, my disillusion was complete. I had imagined him a wizened little chinese gentleman secluded in a Himalayan cave. Such is life.

One who bucks the trend is Stephen Batchelor who I think has never been anyone else. He is one of my favorite Dharma writers and actually comes into a lot of stick on various Buddhist Forums for being very "agnostic" in respect of treasured dogmatic teachings such as karma and rebirth.

Just as a taster, here he is speaking of this:-

[i]Dharma (Buddhist) practice requires the courage to confront what it means to be human. All the pictures we entertain of heaven and hell or cycles of rebirth serve to replace the unknown with an image of what is already known. To cling to the idea of rebirth can deaden questioning.

Failure to summon forth the courage to risk a nondogmatic and nonevasive stance on such crucial existential matters can also blur our ethical vision. If our actions in the world are to stem from an encounter with what is central in life, they must be unclouded by either dogma or prevarication. Agnosticism is no excuse for indecision. If anything, it is a catalyst for action; for in shifting concern away from a future life back to the present, it demands an ethics of empathy rather than a metaphysics of hope and fear.[/i]

I love that last phrase, an ethics of empathy rather than a metaphysics of hope and fear. It has stayed with me in my own travels through the Dharma.

Well, enough for now. Drinking an extra hot cappuccino in Costa's, free of grandchildren (bless them) and taking a break before getting a bit of shopping.

Just a snap of plain old Stephen Batchelor....


Just doesn't cut the mustard does he? Can't he call himself Lotusblossom or some such?

Moving on, the exhortation to share the Dharma is given in the Theravada texts:-

[i]Go forth......to bless the many, to bring happiness to the many, out of compassion for the world; go forth for the welfare, the blessing, the happiness of all beings.........Go forth and spread the teaching that is beautiful in the beginning, beautiful in the middle and beautiful in the end.[/i]


Yet as other lovers of the Dharma have testified, the "truth" is not entirely "ours"....

[i]The dharma, can be discovered through the Buddhist tradition, but Buddhism is by no means the only source of dharma. I would define dharma as anything that awakens the enlightened mind and brings on the direct experience of selflessness. The teachings of Christ are prefumed with dharma. There is dharma in jazz, in beautiful gardens, in literature, in Sufi dance, in Quaker silence, in shaman healing, in projects to care for the homeless and clean up the inner cities, in Catholic ritual, in meaningful and competent work. There is dharma in anything that causes us to respect the innate softness and intelligence of ourselves and others. When the Buddhist system is applied properly, it does not turn us inward toward our own organizations, practices, and ideas. The system has succeeded when the Buddhist can recognize the true dharma at the core of all other religions and disciplines that are based on respect for the human image, and has no need to reject them.[/i]

(Steve Butterfield, from "The Double Mirror")

"In protecting ourselves we protect others
In protecting others we protect ourselves"

(Theravada Text)

Moving on, I have absorbed a few posts here and there of others. I am myself a non-theist but would say this, that when the words of the great Christian mystics are heard, of their [i]experience[/i] of God, non-theism and theism tend to blend seamlessly.

Here is Meister Eckhart:-"Nothing that knowledge can grasp or desire can want is God. Where knowledge and desire end, there is darkness, and there God shines"

Eckhart is actually seen by many within the Buddhist Faith as a "Dharma Brother".

Leaving that I simply have to say that in reading the testimony of others, speaking from their own understanding of Christianity, they describe what to my eyes is a barter system of tit for tat, I scratch your back and you scratch mine. The God of Christ, who makes His light to shine on all equally, seems far from such barter.

My own understanding is, using the same terms, is that God is always scratching our backs irrespective.

[i]My eyes being hindered by blind passions,

I cannot perceive the light that grasps me;

Yet the great compassion, without tiring,

Illumines me always[/i]

(Shinran, from "Hymns of the Pure Land Masters")


And for my Christian friends, from Julian of Norwich on the same theme......

[i]If there be anywhere on earth a lover of God who is always kept safe, I know nothing of it, for it was not shown to me. But this was shown: that in falling and rising again we are always kept in that same precious love.[/i]

Such to me is the way of it, all far from "tit for tat". Even faith itself in the Pure Land is a gift.....

[i]Faith does not arise

Within oneself.

The Entrusting Heart is itself

Given by the Other Power[/i] (Rennyo)

My coffee is getting cold......

While I'm not a believer, I thoroughly encourage you to speak out.

It is a bit "[b]unbalanced[/b]" on this site! 😔

So experience is the goal? Why is experience important?

It has been a long day. Grandad duties and much else. Waiting now for my daughter to arrive home from her latest shift,then a taxi home.

The zen buddhist Thich Nhat Hanh died recently, aged 95. A good man. A quick google can tell you about his life if you are at all interested.

Here he is reciting his poem "Please Call Me By My True Names":-

[youtube=https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=JADWkoUpXbQ]

[youtube=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4-079YIasck]

[image deleted]