The recent report of Dalai Lama apologizes for asking a young boy to suck his tongue reflect a long time under spin of public uneasiness about abuse of spiritual power by the teachers who are in the position of doing so. This is valid concerns. There is really a delicate dance in searching for spirituality and avoiding falling into trap of abbassy. For that very reason, the Buddha had taught us for the sake of protection the precepts as they are Protection for Buddhist Practitioners. I personally came from an area in China where Chan Buddhism (禅宗）is the dominant force, so I am not familiar with the Vajira Buddhism tradition.
Chan Buddhism is Chinese version of Buddhism popularized by the the 6th Patriarch of Chan Buddhism Master Huineng. He spent all his life in the south part of China, mainly taught from Nan Hua Temple (南華寺) in GuangDong Province of China. Master XuYun , (simplified Chinese: 虚云; traditional Chinese: 虛雲; pinyin: Xūyún; 5 September 1840? – 13 October 1959), a renowned Chinese Chan Buddhist master and an influential Buddhist teacher of the 19th and 20th centuries, was also came from south east part of China.
What I learned is, the function of Buddhist precepts is not to prohibit us from saying or doing certain things, but, rather, to remind us not to do things that may cause harm, both to ourselves and to others. In other words, the Buddhist precepts function to protect ourselves and others. Therefore, the Five Precepts and the Bodhisattva Precepts are protective shields that allow one to a) feel peaceful in the practice, b) cultivate an appropriate sense of shame, c) repent frequently, and d) regulate behavior at any given time, in order to continually uplift one’s character. These five precepts are:
1) I undertake the rule to abstain from killing.
2) I undertake the rule to abstain from taking what is not given.
3) I undertake the rule to abstain from sexual misconduct.
4) I undertake the rule to abstain from false speech.
5) I undertake the rule to abstain from taking intoxicants that cloud the mind.
There are no lacking of abuse of power in every religions. Catholic church had notorious coverup for the abuses of public trust. In 2019, the death of Sogyal Rimpoche, author of the best-selling Tibetan Book of Living and Dyin, unleashed a new torrent of victim revelations, accounting questions and legal rulings that further illuminate the trail of injury and insult he left behind. The imposter guru ended his days as a refugee in Thailand, beyond the reach of police and civil investigations in several countries. In 2018, at Longquan monastery in Beijing China, High-profile Chinese monk accused of sexually harassing nuns in China . An article of 1989 about Ösel Tendzin, the first American accepted lineage holder of Kagyu tradition of Vajrayana Buddhism. America’s largest Tibetan Buddhist group, has been thrown into turmoil by allegations that its leader knew he had AIDS and transmitted it to his sexual partners in a report: Buddhists in U.S. Agonize on AIDS Issue. Another report 2012 by Mary Finnagan about Young Kalu Rinpoche’s traumatic revelations highlight the dissonance between Tibetan tradition and 21st-century life. These confessional sending shockwaves through the Buddhist world.
Chris Chandler’s Expose of Shambhala as a Mind Control Cult Is Required Reading The Shambhala organization is in crisis, and Chris Chandler is perhaps the most fearless and best-informed of its critics. Shambhala’s spiritual leader, the “Sakyong Mipham,” has been outed as a sexual assaulter and heavy drinker with a bad habit of assaulting his female followers. Ms. Chandler shares her journey and reveals her understanding of the Tibetan Tantric belief system. As an insider, she was privy to much that is unavailable to newcomers and those who have not progressed sufficiently along the Tantric path. She reveals a hidden agenda, an upending of Western values and democratic governance by stealth. The Dalai Lama and the Sex-Slaver Cult of NXIVM.
These horrable instances show us the dark side of spirituality when fall into the trap, and demands us to seriously consider the implications, to raise important questions practitioners need to ask: such as, if gurus are not all perfect, what measures are you going to apply to determine if you should follow one or not? If other Tibetan Buddhist leaders are not willing to unequivocally and specifically denounce such a clear case of abuse, what does this say about the value of Buddhist practice?
The detail accounts in Sex and Violence in Tibetan Buddhism: The Rise and Fall of Sogyal Rinpoche by Mary Finnigan and Rob Hogendoorn is well worth a read by anyone involved in or interested in any spiritual movement to be aware of such issues. This is a work that everyone connected with Vajrayana should read. It serves as a grave warning to exactly how far people can delude themselves. It shows exactly why people should not trust what is popular or fashionable. When eight students wrote a letter accusing Sogyal Rinpoche of decades of physical, emotional and sexual abuse, Tahlia Newland set up an online support group for abuse victims and students of his Tibetan Buddhist community, Rigpa. Appalled by the lack of ethics, the group undertook a journey of discovery during which they uncovered the depth of the trauma suffered by victims, and the fundamentalism and cult behaviour at the heart of Rigpa. They learned about destructive cults, trauma and recovery, narcissistic abuse, co-dependency, institutional betrayal, and the methods of mind control used by Rigpa, who had covered up and enabled the abuse for decades.
Readers feedbak on this book was: The most serious omission in this book is the lack of depth in discussing the Dalai Lama’s motivations providing Sogyal validation and the Dalai Lama’s motivations for not specifically condemning Sogyal until after after the scandal blew wide open. The same could be asked of many other gurus. It is an important discussion, because it cuts right to the heart of the matter: Is it acceptable in Tibetan Buddhism for lamas to behave like Sogyal? If not, what are the barriers to critically discussing and identifying specific instances of abuse by gurus in TB?
The book includes an almost forensic – yet very readable – dissection of how a sexually voracious and ultimately abusive, untrained and unqualified opportunist, Sogyal Lakar, seized the opportunity offered by a constellation of factors: Westerners’ spiritual hunger and the gullibility that thrives in the needy; an unwillingness to probe; a simple inability to ask the right questions, because of our ignorance; a willingness to indulge the sexual and culinary gluttony of someone believed to be extraordinary; the patriarchal, even misogynistic culture of old Tibet, along with its class-ridden unwillingness to be seen to criticise; the only-too-understandable urge of the Tibetan community – a community that has been slaughtered and tortured out of its own land – to pull together and look after its own, trying to sweep the appalling behaviour of one of its best-known representatives under the sofa. These are some of the ingredients of this ghastly cocktail.
After having heard about and researched into the abuse of Sogyal Rinpoche, one question was left open. How could anyone who was part of this group and witnessed the abuse, just have let this happen? Why was this allowed to grow to these extents and all involved seemingly just swooning about the abuser? The book Fallout: Recovering from Abuse in Tibetan Buddhism Paperback – July 20, 2019 gives exactly the answer to this question. It’s an honest and personal account about the process involved for people to wake up from the delusion that supporting hellish behavior would bring them to enlightenment or would set them apart and above others as exceptional beings with special insight, wisdom or realization.
Enthralled: The Guru Cult of Tibetan Buddhism Paperback – June 17, 2017 The author Chandler spent nearly three decades in the center of the hierarchy of Tibetan Lamas’ inner circles by taking care of the son of notorious Lama, Chogyam Trungpa, whose Crazy Wisdom has destroyed a significant mass of three generations’ reasoning minds.
Trungpa paved the way for the Dalai Lama and other Tibetan Lamas to ‘colonize’ the United States and the West to spread out their Guru Occult Tantra to slowly undermine foundations of a liberal education and its Judea-Christian Western Civilization roots. Tantra is about chaos; i.e. creating chaos to turn social mores upside down. It changed a critical mass of three generation’s views about ‘right and wrong’; good and bad; and an ability to tell lies from the truth. Chandler has both and intimate and a bird’s eye view of how these Lamas work their western groups, together, and in collusion with the Progressive Left, the Green New Deal, and China. Once Chandler realized she had been made a pawn on a geopolitical chessboard to perpetuate a deeply misogynistic, totalitarian worldview for the future, she broke free, determined to warn others about what lies beneath the smile of the Dalai Lama and a guru-worshipping cult that goes by the name of Buddhism.
Buddha once said, “Develop a mind so filled with love that it resembles space, which cannot be painted, cannot be marred, cannot be ruined.” When we relax the divisions that we usually make, the mind becomes like space. This is not something that a fortunate few have the capacity to experience; it is the nature of the mind, which every one of us has the ability to know. In talking about practice, Tsoknyi Rinpoche, a Tibetan teacher, said we practice in order to learn to trust ourselves more, to get confidence in what we know, to have faith rather than doubt. Loving kindness and compassion are innate capacities that we all have. This capacity to care, to be at one with, to connect, is something that isn’t destroyed, no matter what we may go through. No matter what our life experience may have been, no matter how many scars we bear, that ability remains intact. And so we practice meditation in order to return to that spaciousness and to learn to trust our ability to love.
As the Buddha said, “All beings everywhere want to be happy.” It is only due to ignorance that we do the things that create suffering or sorrow for ourselves and for others. If we take the time to slow down and see all the different forces coming together in any action, we will see this desire for happiness even in the midst of some terrible harmful action. That is why we use our mindfulness practice to notice our feelings and to understand them. Through that we can see very clearly that if we are immersed in tremendous anger, it is great suffering, it is a state of burning, of contraction and isolation, of separation and fear. We don’t have to reject the anger or reject or condemn ourselves for it, but rather we can feel compassion for the pain of it. This quality of empathy is also the basis of modern psychological thought on the development of morality. We learn not to hurt others because we understand how it feels to be hurt.
Howard Washington Thurman (November 18, 1899 – April 10, 1981) was an American author, philosopher, theologian, mystic, educator, and civil right leader. As a prominent religious figure, he played a leading role in many social justice movements and organizations of the twentieth century. Joseph John Campbell(March 26, 1904 – October 30, 1987) was an American writer and professor of literature at Sarah Lawrence College who worked in comparative mythology and comparative religion. His work covers many aspects of the human experience.
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One of the social psychology is the desire to fit in, one of the most powerful, least understood forces in society. Author Todd Rose dwell into examples psychological distortions from toilet paper shortages to kidneys that get thrown away rather than used for transplants; from racial segregation to the perceived “electability” of women in politics; from bottled water to “cancel culture,” , we routinely copy others, lie about what we believe, cling to tribes, and silence people, author bring to light some new perspective about the root cause of collective wounds in Collective Illusions: Conformity, Complicity, and the Science of Why We Make Bad Decisions Hardcover – February 1, 2022 . Draw on cutting-edge neuroscience and social psychology research, this acclaimed author demonstrates how so much of our thinking is informed by false assumptions—making us dangerously mistrustful as a society and needlessly unhappy as individuals.
Path of Parenting, Path of Education, Path of Awakening
Our country’s postindustrial culture has left us to raise our children apart from a community of neighbors and elders. There aren’t many grandparents around – they all live someplace else or they’re off, like most fathers and many mothers, at the office or the factory. There aren’t many uncles or aunts around to take care of the kids when parents become overwhelmed, or to initiate the teenagers (so that they don’t have to seek initiation on the streets), to help them discover what it is to be a man or a woman and a productive member of the community. there isn’t a community of elders from whom we can hear stories and learn practices that will keep us connected with our human heritage, with our instincts and our hearts.
Instead of village elders, American parents have turned to various “experts” and whatever fad or theory they have come up with. In the 1920s an influential school of child psychology actually taught parents that it was bad to touch their children. Several decades later, parents all across America read books that insisted we bottle-feed (not breast-feed) an infant every four hours and that we should not pick up a crying baby but just let it “cry itself out.”
Every wise culture in the world knows that when babies cry, they cry for a reason, and that you pick them up and feed them, or hold them and comfort them. You have to really fight against yourself not to pick up a sobbing infant. Among the less technologically developed cultures of Asia or Africa or Latin America, children are always being held, always in someone’s lap. Children are valued, are included in all family activities – in work, in ceremonies, in celebrations, there is always a place for them.
When children are valued in this way, the whole society benefits. In this spirit, there is a tribe in Africa that counts the birthday of a child from the day the child is a thought in its mother’s mind…. What a beautiful way for human beings to listen to and to comfort other human beings. This is the spirit of conscious parenting, to listen to the song of the child in front of you and to sing that child’s song to him or her. When a child is crying, we need to ask why this child is singing the crying song, what pain or frustration this child is feeling.
Yet the western culture seems to be telling people ignore their instincts, to distrust our intuition. The result is that many children growing up in our society are not bonded to an adult. One of the more painful statements about what we are collectively doing to our children came one year form a teacher named John Gattowho was voted New York City Teacher of the year. At the awards ceremony 1990 January 31, in front of the mayor and the school board and thousands of parents, he castigated his listeners for the “soul murder” of a million black and Latino children- Why School Don’t Education. He challenged the audience to consider the effects of American culture on our children: “Think of the things that are killing us as a nation: drugs and alcohol, brainless competition, recreational sex, the pornography of violence, gambling – and the worst pornography of all: lives devoted to buying things, accumulation as a philosophy, all addictions of dependent personalities, and that is what our brand of schooling will inevitably produce in the next generation.”
John Taylor Gatto (1935-2018): Remembering America’s Most Courageous Teacher. In a collection of essays and articles A Different Kind of Teacher: Solving the Crisis of American Schooling Paperback – January 1, 2002 John Gatto exposes a system designed to promote economic and business interests and advocates a greater emphasis on teaching critical thinking skills. Gatto leaves behind a legacy that inspired thousands of people to challenge the premise on which our education system was built. Gatto’s writing, teaching, and approach to not just education but human flourishing in general inspired us to think critically about our own life and education. He’s one of the most important thinkers in American history—that’s becoming more obvious every day. He’ll be missed dearly.
Lies My Teacher Told Me: Everything Your American History Textbook Got Wrong Paperback – July 17, 2018 Since its first publication in 1995, Lies My Teacher Told Me has become one of the most important―and successful―history books of our time. Having sold nearly two million copies, the book also won an American Book Award and the Oliver Cromwell Cox Award for Distinguished Anti-Racist Scholarship and was heralded on the front page of the New York Times. Every teacher, every student of history, every citizen should read this book. It is both a refreshing antidote to what has passed for history in our educational system and a one-volume education in itself.
The author of Teaching with the HEART in Mind: A Complete Educator’s Guide to Social Emotional Learning , Dr. Lorea Martínez Pérez is the award-winning Founder of HEART in Mind Consulting, a company dedicated to helping schools and organizations integrate social emotional learning in their practices, products, and learning communities. An educator who has worked with children and adults internationally, Dr. Martínez is a faculty member at Columbia University Teachers College, educating aspiring principals in Emotional Intelligence. Previously, she was a special education teacher and administrator. Learn more at loreamartinez.com Dr. Perez argues that creating better outcomes for your students sometimes means you have to challenge the odds. Academics and standardized assessments aren’t the solution. You need to educate both their hearts and minds. Strengthen your students’ resilience, spark their curiosity for learning, and encourage future success in college, career, and life. Be the best teacher you can be and infuse social-emotional skills into your teaching of any subject.
The average American child watches eighteen thousand murders and violent acts and half a million advertisements. Violence and materialism. We are feeding the next generation of children the very suffering we’re trying to undo in our spiritual practice. with the highest rate of infant mortality of any industrialized nation and millions of “latch key kids,” we have given up caring for our children. An increasing number are raised by day care and TV and smart phones. We end up with a new generation of Americans more connected to TV or video games (often violent ones) than to other people. We will have more Gulf-style wars and violent crimes than successful marriages. Because these children were not held enough when they were young, were not valued enough and respect enough, were not listened to or sung to, they grow up with a hole inside, with no real sense of what it means to love, with no rel capacity for intimacy.
When the Dalai Lama spoke with a group of Western psychologists, he couldn’t understand why there was so much talk about self-hatred and unworthiness. he didn’t understand, because in Tibetan culture children are loved and held. he was so astonished that he went around the room and asked everyone, “Do you feel unworthiness and self-hatred sometimes?’ “Yes.” “Do you feel it?” “Yes.” Everyone in the room nodded yes. He couldn’t believe that this was a culture where people primarily talk about their difficulty with their parents instead of honoring them. Contrast this with the healthy childhoods of the Buddha’s time. The Buddha himself was raised by his mother’s sister (after his mother died) and given all the nurturance, natural respect, care, and attention that every child needs. later, when he left home to practice as a yogi, he had the inner strength and integrity to undertake six years of intensely ascetic practice. The Buddha had this vision of well-being from his childhood to draw upon in his practice.
Parenting is a labor of love. it is a path of service and surrender, and link the practice of a Buddha or a bodhisattva, it demands patience and understanding and tremendous sacrifice. it is also a way to reconnect with the mystery of life and to reconnect with ourselves. Along withe practice of mindfulness there are four other principles of conscious parenting; attentive listening, respect, integrity, and lovingkindness.
The principle of attentive listening means listening to the Tao of the seasons, to our human intuition and our instincts, to our children. do we hear what our children are trying to tell us? it’s like listening to the Tao. How long should we nurse our babies? how late should we allow our teenagers to stay out on dates? To answer those questions, we have to listen and pay attention to the rhythms of life. Just as we learn to be aware of breathing in and breathing out, we can learn to sense how deeply children want to grow.
A measure of respect comes in the setting of boundaries and limits appropriate to our child. As parents, we can set limits in a respectful way, with a compassionate “no” and an explanation of why something is out of bounds. Children learn by example, by who we are and what we do. They watch us what we communicate y the way we drive, the way we talk about others, and how we treat people on the street.v We teach them by our being.
Just as we learn in meditation to let go and trust, we can learn to develop a trust in our children so they can trust themselves. And we shall respect our children’s need for both dependency and independence. Most often instead of listening to them, we impatiently hurry them along. Dependency, insecurity and weakness are natural states for a child. They’re the natural states of all of us at times, but for children, especially young ones, they are predominant conditions and they are outgrown. In an article on dependency in Mothering magazine, Peggy O’Mara wrote:
We have a cultural bias against dependency, against any emotion of behavior that indicates weakness. This is nowhere more tragically evident than in the way we push our children beyond their limits an d timetables. We establish outside standards as more important than inner experience when we wean our children rather than trusting that they will wean themselves, when we insist that our children sit at the table and finish their meals rather than trusting that they will eat well if healthful food is provided on a regular basis, and when we toilet-train them at an early age rather than trusting that they will learn to use the toilet when they are ready to do so.
In the similar vein, Dorothy Law Nolte has written a poem, “Children learn What They Live”:
If a child lives with criticism, he learns to condemn.
If a child lives with hostility, he learns to fight.
If a child lives with ridicule, he learns to be shy.
If a child lives with shame, he learns to feel guilty.
If a child lives with tolerance, he learns to be patient.
If a child lives with encouragement, he learns confidence.
If a child lives with praise, he learns to appreciate.
If a child lives with fairness, he learns justice.
If a child lives with security, he learns to have faith.
If a child lives with approval, he learns to like himself.
If a child lives with acceptance and friendship.
He learns to find love in the world.
Service – Expressing Our Practice
Many people tend to think practicing spirituality is about going to a house of worship, a meditation hall, or a quiet spot in nature, and engaging in prayer, meditation, solitude and self-reflection. These spiritual pursuits seem to foster a simpler, more peaceful life in which we might experience greater intimacy and self-worth. But with the many responsibilities of life in the world, we often have precious little time to devote to such practice. When time does permit them, our spiritual yearning is momentarily satisfied and we feel aligned with the needs of our hearts; but generally our spiritual practice remains secondary to our more pressing daily activities.
Is it possible that we are defining our spiritual practice in too narrow a way? Perhaps we have become too attached to a particular form of spirituality – to a specific practice or set of circumstances. If we return to the intention behind our practices rather than adhering strictly to a form that supports the intention, we may discover a new approach to spirituality, one that truly feeds our hearts. Service work is a form that seems to be common to all the sacred traditions of the world. It cuts through all artificial divisions between “spirituality” and “life”.
Elisabeth Kubeler-Ross once said that she never meditated and never wanted to – she found it too dry. but when working with the dying, being intimately present with that person, listening fully and learning constantly, she was as focused as any mediator sitting on the floor and attending to the breath. She was in fact meditating, but her meditation arose naturally from her concern for the dying, not through formal sitting practice. For her, meditation was an expression of her service to the dying.
Spiritual teach Rodney Smith spent eight years in Buddhist monastic settings, both at the Insight Meditation Society (IMS) in Massachusetts and several years as a Buddhist monk in Asia. He ordained with Mahasi Sayadaw in Burma then practiced for three years with Ajahn Buddhadassa in Thailand. He disrobed as a monk in 1983 and, after returning to the West, started working in hospice care and teaching vipassana meditation throughout the U.S. Smith’s many years as a monk in Asia, hospice worker, partnered householder and longtime vipassana teacher inform what he considers pivotal: that without Wise View, our pursuit of awakening will go nowhere. He openhandedly shares his own struggle in Stepping Out of Self-Deception: The Buddha’s Liberating Teaching of No-Self.
After spending several years on retreat, including a few years in Asia as a forest monk, Rodney Smith began feeling that his practice was becoming dry. Then he discovered that service has a way of transforming our daily life into a spiritual practice. And that discovery has led to serving others as a practice of the heart. Often the shift from helping to serving is only an attitude deep. Service can actually be an expression of prayer, an ongoing engaged meditation. If service work is defined as breaking through the artificial barriers that seem to isolate us form the rest of life, then washing the dishes, dressing, cooking, eating, and showering are not separate from our prayer or meditation. When our daily activities teach us about our relationship to all things, our life becomes an unceasing prayer of the heart.We become less dependent upon specific practices because we are more aware of the interrelationship between who we are and the activity we are involved in. We may participate in prayer or meditation, but we no longer find that these are the only ways to access a spiritual dimension. Your heart becomes as available through a variety of contacts and relationships as it does through sitting meditation. We start being fed from life itself.
Rodney Smith further talked about service in light of waking up and becoming alive. Aliveness is our birthright. To come alive, we must align ourselves with our heart’s desire. We just have to rediscover how to do that. This observation solves the problem of how to practice and fully participate in our lives at the same time. It says that service is not a burden; rather, it defines service asthat which feeds our aliveness. The word aliveness implies wakefulness, awareness, and a connected passion for life. We may notice that the essence of aliveness is a pure quality distinct from the actions that spring from it, such as following our desire or avoiding our fears. No matter where we start with our understanding of aliveness, however, through investigation we penetrate to new and deeper meanings of this word. We need to keep redefining the idea, allowing it to evolve beyond what we think it means. in this way, it will always be fresh and new, as our aliveness itself.
When we help someone, subliminally we pass on a message of inequality. In doing so, we diminish that person as a human being. We hold those we help in a fixed perspective and often refuse to allow them to grow. This is because if they grew out of their role, we would lose the contact we need to help. So the difference between serving and “helping” is the difference between being alive and being depleted. Helping is based on sacrifice, not strength. It is giving something to someone for a particular reason. Its intention is self-enhancement at the expense of someone whom we regard as underprivileged. The helper is rewarded by knowing that he or she is better off than the person being helped. We become as dependent upon them as they are on us. Our minds can force another into an unequal relationship, but not our hearts. Genuine warmth cannot exist unless there is equality. Within this profound connection, there is mutual appreciation. Our hearts naturally open in service work. A long time meditation teacher, Rodney Smith teaches program on “uprooting our false identity within our encased narrative and aligned ego structures.” His approach is built on the The Buddha’s Four Foundations of Mindfulness:
First Foundation: Contemplation of the Body. …
Second Foundation: Contemplation of Feeling. …
Third Foundation: Contemplation of Mind. …
Fourth Foundation: Contemplation of Dhammas.
Sometimes at crucial moments in our lives we are presented with new paths, opportunities to grow in ways we never expected. If we have courage to take these new directions, we expand, becoming more than we ever dreamed we might become, discovering ways to live and to die with dignity, with grace. That is the story of Rodney Smith’s life journey. In an interview, Rodney spoke of how Buddhist working with the dying.
Urgency, Contentment, and the Edges of Love
Drawing from many spiritual paths including the Muslim-Sufi and Christian mystical traditions as well as Buddhism, Veteran Meditation teacher Gavein Harrison about transformation through suffering. In a detail personal account of his uphill battle with HIV virus and searching for truth: “What truly is the meaning of death?” “Is there an end to suffering?” He described his commitment to facing and standing up for truth—even when confronting abuse, AIDs and death, in Beyond the Grip of Fear.
In learning Buddhism, people have been especially drawn to the various technique meditation. But at the core are two of these practices: Vipassana (insight meditation) – the observation of the mind/body process with clear and focused awareness, leading to a deepening of wisdom and equanimity; and Metta (loving kindness) – the systematic exploration of the ability to love, leading to a deepening of concentration and connection. These practices are to ground in the foundation of Buddhism tradition which is to expand an ever-deepening awareness of the triple refuges ( or Triple Gem). The tradition is kept alive through the commitment to insight, moral integrity and compassion of all who practice it. By honestly making that commitment and sincerely practice the path of insight, we can all free our minds of habitual clinging, anger, and confusion. This is a journey of continuously mindful cultivation and practices.
The Triple Gem of Buddhism is The Buddha, The Dharma & The Sangha. If we look closely, the Triple Gems are actually one. The other two gems always exist in each gem. The Buddha is vision, the Dharma is embodying that vision, and the Sangha is sharing or expressing that vision. The Buddha is wise view, the Dharma is meditation and Sangha is wise action. The Buddha is faith or motivation, the Dharma is practice, and the Sangha is intimacy. The Buddha is enlightenment, the Dharma is actualizing of enlightenment, and the Sangha is manifesting enlightenment. The Buddha is wisdom, the Dharma is the truth, and the Sangha is harmonious action. The Buddha is the vision of awakening out of the conditioning of the mind, the Dharma is refuge in the truth of things, and the Sangha is refuge in the recognition that we have company. Each refuge is powerful and essential in and of itself; at the same time they are all connected in a full and integrated path. The Triple Gems are common to any spiritual search, and are ultimately found within our own heart when we are open to looking.
When the Buddha’s first group of disciples reached enlightenment, he said to them, “Go forth, go out, for the good of the many, for the welfare of the many, out of compassion for the world, for the benefit, for the welfare, for the happiness of beings.” By saying this, the Buddha made it clear that freedom should be expressed and shared in the world – through the Sangha, the third of the Triple Gem. Taking refuge in the Sangha means embracing a seamless view of practice that integrates how we are meditating with how we are in the world and then expressing our understanding through wise action and speech. It is living our meditation, and allowing our lives to express the truth. Sangha reveals the gap between ideas and actuality.
In the Buddhist community one way to take refuge in the Sangha is to remember that we come out of an ancient tradition of awakening. The fact that for over two thousand five hundred years people just like us have been walking this path, can help to give us a sense of direction, protection, and confidence in our own capacity to awaken. It can be comforting to remember that everything that we think is so unique and personal to our own experience has been very well documented in the discourses (suttas) of the Buddha. when we read what was written down so very long ago and see that it is our own experience that is being written about, we may gain a sense of strength and unity.
There are many different ways to look at what Sangha as community means, however. Communities have many shapes and forms. Some communities may even seem formless and fluid. Taking refuge in community does not necessarily mean that we are taking refuge in a specific group of practitioners. One meaning of Sangha is the ordained community of monks and nuns. One meaning is the community of those who from beginningless time, have realized the truth. One meaning is the community of all who are dedicated to lives of truth and good-heartedness, who live with the benefit of all beings in their hearts and minds.
The Buddha’s teaching, as expressed in the lives of the Sangha, is never removed from a sense of humanity. The Buddha was a human being who talked abut what it ultimately means to be a human being and to be happy. When we explore Sangha, we explore what supports us, clears our vision, and inspires us, and what protects us in a life committed to wisdom and good-heartedness. To explore the meaning of community and the exhortation to go forth “for the good of the many,” is to explore a quality of compassion that isn’t lofty or abstract or removed from the concerns of people, but is very present and available.
When the Buddha was asked about he different experiences of life – about being a parent, a renunciate, a friend, being sick, being the one who gives, being the one who receives – he said, “Any life at all may be lived well or may be lived wrongly. If it is lived well, it will bring great results, but if it is lived wrongly, it will bring very poor results.” What ever the particular circumstance of our lives, our potential is great when we honor our own sense of purpose, when we bring wakefulness into the different aspects of our day, and when we remember a heartfelt commitment to the welfare of all beings.
In the time of the Buddha, practitioners had to work with the very same difficulties, hindrances, and obstacles that we meet in our minds today. There are descriptions in the suttas of yearning and longing and anger and agitation and restlessness and doubt and sleepiness and dullness and boredom. To remember this can be a place where we can nourish ourselves when we hit dry or difficult spots. Zen master Dogen said that if there is just one log on a fire, the fire will be weak, whereas many logs make a fire strong and powerful. People can help each other by combing their strengths as they practice. This is one reason why we get together in retreat centers. In terms of a lifetime of practice, most of us can benefits from the support of one another. We are dependent on ourselves to practice; no one can do it for us. But at the same time, most of us need support.
The practice of Vipassana (insight meditation) goes against the grain of the culture, we in the West especially need the strength that practicing together brings. The values of the culture in the world at large differ greatly from the values that we uncover and strengthen in our meditation practice. One examples is that in the culture we are generally encouraged to have strong opinions. having strong views is seen as making one more stable and productive, whereas if we don’t have firmly held dogmatic views, we are seen as wishy-washy. When we look deeply, however, we see that attachment to views and opinions narrows our world and limits creative possibilities. Opinions and views are very subjective and are not something to cling to too tightly.
In spiritual practice we begin to question what is defined as success. The dominant culture encourages us to be as busy and frantic as possible, telling us that if we are doing something, we are on the way to becoming someone. The more crowded one’s life is the more successful. The culture urges us to live for the future and values greed and accumulation. But our practice invites us to be aware and present, while letting go of our attachment to fantasy and preoccupation with external things. It is a radical act to do nothing and to sit in stillness. Doing nothing in a meditative sense means keeping the heart still and being completely present with whatever activity we are engaged in: it is an extremely vibrant creative activity. The art of doing nothing, however easy it may sound, requires a great deal of practice and training.
Although wholesome qualities of heart are developed through our own effort, we can get a clear sense of what they look like and how wonderful they are by seeing them embodies in others. Being contact with wise friends points to and strengthens our own latent wisdom, generosity, and compassion. When we are in contact with those who are wise or free, it touches that which we already know within ourselves but have forgotten. Some part of the heart remembers a little bit more through this contact. Our own Buddha-nature gets revealed. When we see that others have changed and have grown into deepening levels of freedom through practice, we see that this path of liberation is also available to us. When we begin to recognize and let go of our competitive conditioning, others can inspire us when they share themselves and the fruits of their practice.
The Buddha clearly valued the presence of wise friends on the path. In the suttras he taught that when a particular quality of hear such as generosity, patience, or concentration needs to be developed, one should try to have contact with others who have already developed that same wholesome quality. The Buddha emphasized the importance of “noble friendship and suitable conversation.” It makes sense. If we want to realize truth and freedom, it’s helpful to be in the presence of those who are manifesting and expressing truth and freedom. It is more than inspiration. On some level it is transmission: we are very much influenced by one another. Although wholesome qualities of heart are developed through our own effort, we can get a clear sense of what they look like and how wonderful they are by seeing them embodied in others.
The people that we choose to be with in intimate ways and as friends have strong influence on our lives. It is important to notice what we base our relationship choices on. Are we being drawn by blind desire or by wisdom? It is a true treasure in this life of attempting to awaken to find friends who will tell us the truth when we ask. It is very easy to find people who will talk behind our backs, but to receive the truth from friends in a kind way is a wonderful gift. We can take refuge in their discernment. We can check our our assumptions and conclusions. Discerning friend can help us examine ways that we habitually cause suffering from ourselves and others. The path of freedom is a difficult one, a path that requires great effort and earnestness. To be in the company of spiritual friends who can help us recognize and transform the inevitable obstacles that we encounter along the way is invaluable. It is hard to walk on this path of awareness without friend gently pointing out our blind spots.
Though wise friendship is an essential aspect of the spiritual path, this doesn’t mean to avoid or insulate ourselves from people who we think do not have the qualities that we aspire to. There is a great deal to be learned form interacting in situations that are not so protected or consciously supportive of our inner development. When we are being challenged in ways that are not necessarily of our own choosing or within our control, life can continue to teach us. We can develop patience and compassion in situations that provoke impatience and aversion, if we are willing to be mindful of our own reactivity and learn to take responsibility for our response. If we can bring these situations into our practice, then we do not have to relate to ourselves as victims, subjugated to the whims of others.
While being part of the Buddhist tradition that began with the enlightenment of the Buddha, we are also part of a much larger Sangha that includes not only Buddhists but also the greater community of those who are seeking freedom and truth. We are part of this greater community simply through our commitment to being awake and choosing not to engage in harmful actions toward ourselves and others.
We are immediately brought into this larger Sangha with our willingness to be openhearted and with our intention to grow in discernment. Taking refuge in the Sangha is not a matter of adhering to a particular belief system or of identifying oneself as a Buddhist. The Buddha didn’t want people to follow him blindly or to identify with what he taught; his teaching is an invitation to know freedom for ourselves.
When we come in contract with others, as we do everyday, we are bound to be hurt form time to time, and at certain times quite a bit. Our first reaction is to cling to our hurt feelings, to our sense of being separate from one another. instead we can bring mindfulness into our relationships with others rather than taking refuge in withdrawal or blame. Perhaps we can take refuge in risking something different from the old familiar unworkable and unsatisfying ways that we all know so well. We can be mindful in relationship and ask: Am I acting in a habitual or mechanical way?When we are up against that which seems unworkable,what does it mean to remain openhearted? To stay open may go against every bone in the body! So taking refuge in eh Sangha also means making a commitment to bringing mindfulness to this rich area of relationship in all its diverse forms.
Taking refuge in our interconnection means that when we hurt another person, we recognize that we hurt ourselves as well. Similarly, when we hurt ourselves, we also hurt others. We may think that we can hurt ourselves and that no one else will be hared. But because we are interconnected, this is never true. Unless we learn to take care of ourselves,we won’t really know how to care for others. If we haven’t learned how to be kind with ourselves, being kind to others is often merely an ideal to strive for. Taking care of oneself also means being willing to acknowledge one’s suffering and then investigate its source. this means to silently observe our suffering without judging or reacting. This process takes a great deal of patience and courage, and we gradually discover an inner refuge through cultivating these qualities. buy training the heart to be steady and equanimous, our confidence grows as well as our capacity to help others. when we remember to bring our mindfulness practice to the complex world of relationship, the gap between spiritual ideals and actuality dissolves.
While we try to be openhearted to everyone around us, we can practice being openhearted to all the emotions, inner voices, and thoughts in our inner environment. Taking refuge in the Sangha means being openhearted with this inner Sangha as well. If we can embrace and accept negative emotions and unpleasant states of mind when they arise, without identifying with them or acting on them, we can begin to trust ourselves and live with greater ease. The practice of meditation teaches us to face whatever is occurring, and this strength of heart and mind becomes a lasting refuge. In the words of the Buddha, “By wise effort and earnestness, find for yourself an island that no flood can overwhelm.” As we find an inner refuge that no flood can overwhelm, we quite naturally become a refuge for others.
After attaining the great enlightenment, the Buddha expressed this verse in his heart (Dhammapada, verses 153-54):
"I wondered through the rounds of countless births,
Seeking but not finding the builder of this house.
Sorrowful indeed is birth again and again.
O house builder! you have now been seen.
You shall build the house no longer.
All Your rafters have been broken,
Your ridgepole shattered.
My mind has attained to unconditioned freedom.
Achieved is the end of craving."
All beings need a refuge, a place where they can find ease or peace. In our day-to-day existence, we are constantly trying to find relief form the torments of the heart – refuge from fear, loneliness, anger, boredom, etc. However, we tend to seek this refuge in outer things which ultimately prove unreliable. This yearning for relief takes many different forms. At times, we try to find refuge in accumulating possessions or through success in our career. Or we try to find refuge in memories or fantasies. Some of us try in alcohol, drugs, entertainment or in sleeping and eating. Without awareness, we blindly seek solace where it cannot be found. And over and over again, we find ourselves disappointed because we are trying to find happiness in that which is impermanent. Through the power of awareness, we begin to realize that a lasting source of ease and comfort can only be found within.
Dr. Gabor Maté, Canadian physician and author with background in family practice and a special interest in childhood development, trauma and potential lifelong impacts on physical and mental health, argues in Modern Culture Is Traumatizing and NOT Normal!, that trying to draw conclusion of human nature from how we live in this society is like to understand a wild animal inside a cage. What we consider to be normal culture that we have here, there is nothing normal in terms of human needs and human potential. In fact, it’s that gap between human needs and human potential and the conditions under which we live now that create so much illness of mind and body, not to mention so much tension, strain, hostility and division in society in general.
Historically, the Buddha’s teachings have been preserved by the monastic tradition, and the term sangha has referred to the community of monks and nuns. Sangha can, as well, be seen in a much more inclusive way to mean all like-minded spiritual seekers. The Buddha, when asked whether anyone who had not ordained as a monk had become fully awakened, replied, “there has not been just one persons. There have been many people who have awakened, who have lived a householder life.” In the original discourses of the Buddha, we see that there all kids of people who practiced and realized the deepest freedom – people with different levels of education, diverse socioeconomic classes, practitioners with big families, both men and women, and even some seven-year-olds. There is a whole group of children who were said to have been enlightened at the age of seven in the Buddha’s time!
The support and encouragement that we receive from the Sangha are invaluable, given the nature and depth of our inquiry. Cultural conditioning, with its obsession with the external, keeps us searching for happiness outside of ourselves. Thespiritual path has nothing to do with achievement or attainment or becoming someone special. Because we live in such a competitive culture, we need to be especially mindful of feelings of competition when we practice together. When we compete with one another, we reinforce the discontent that comes form feelings of separateness and in-completion.
Another more expansive way of looking at taking refuge in the Sangha is taking refuge in or interconnection with all beings – whether they are engaged in a spiritual practice or not. We can be aware of our deep sense of a common bond to one another, and can take refuge in being intimate with all beings, if we see through the apparent separation of self and other. The Indian sage Neem Karoli Baba said, “Don’t throw anyone out of your heart.” This means not only seeing our interconnection but living it. Not to throw anyone out means to continue to practice opening our hearts to all beings, even those beings that engage in harmful actions. This doesn’t mean that we approve or condone unskillful actions, or that we can’t say no and set protective boundaries. Boundaries are important if we want to be able to keep everyone in our hearts. There are times when we need to protect ourselves, Situations of oppression or abuse may require throwing someone our of your house to avoid throwing them out of your heart.
Relationship is essential on our path because it strips away our ideas about ourselves. We can be very loving while sitting alone and then become totally angry when we come into contact with someone else. We can have great ideas about being more generous, for example, but then, when we find ourselves in a position to give, we don’t. Thinking about giving can be a lot easier than the actuality, if it means that we have to extend ourselves beyond the range of what we have determined as comfortable. Practice in relationship requires us to examine ourselves with a commitment to honesty, recognizing our limitations and then gently stretching beyond them. it is important to remember that some conflict is a natural part of being in relationship with anyone. Trying to avoid conflict with others out of fear, ironically, prevents intimacy and ultimately leads to greater discontent. We need to learn how to take conflict that arises and work with it skillfully, using the conflict to be more aware of our reactivity and attachment to views and opinions. if our hearts and minds can regain balance in the midst of reactivity and conflict, faith in our practice grow is and we discover a more reliable refuge than avoidance or withdrawal.
In the Book Voices of Insight edited by Sharon Salzberg, cofounder and guiding teacher of the Insight Meditation Society and a cofounder of the Barre Center for Buddhist Studies, introduces to us many great resources to cope with the turbulence and anxiety of our time. The Insight Meditation Society (IMS) is a non-profit organization for study of Buddhism founded in Barre, MA in 1975, by Sharon Salzberg, Jack Kornfield, and Joseph Goldstein and is rooted in the Theravada tradition.
In the transition of the Buddhist teachings from Asia to the West, there is an understanding that doesn’t come easily into our culture – the importance of confidence on oneself. Traditional Asian teachings emphasize Right Effort, one of the elements of the Eight-fold Path as reflected in the very last thing the Buddha said to his disciples: “Strive on with diligence.” Meant to be empowering and personally liberating, that message is somehow not understood in the same way in the West. Effort seems burdensome, or even terrifying. We might disdain or dismiss the whole idea that the path demands effort. At the heart of many of these reactions is, I believe, a feeling of helplessness. We might subtly think, “I can’t do it. I don’t have what it takes to ‘strive with diligence; or to bring about a change in my actions.” Sharon Salzbert spoke of her transformation from self-deprecation to self-confidence. Sharon wrote extensively about her teacher Dipa Ma, a Vipassana Buddhist Master Teacher, whose amazing influence to her students on the Right Effort, was always coupled with mirroring to each of her students a powerful sense of their own ability.
Meditation is nothing new. But for many years in the West only monastics, mystics, poets, and Asian Americans practiced it. Now this path of observing life simply and directly has made its way into the mainstream. Partly because of the technological advance of internet make it possible to have wise and direct words of teachers heard, an American meditation tradition has taken root. Buddhism has brought its jewel, the practice of learning by looking within, to a society in need of wisdom to navigate the turmoil of modern world with globalization as background.
In the Buddhist literature, the word kalyannamitta is usually translated as a good, honest or spiritual friend. But is means more than just that. The words “sacred friendship” come closest to describing the depth of connection and commitment, the pure and unconditional relationship, that can exist between a student and a spiritual teacher, as well as between friends. within the wide embrace of sacred friendship, acceptance and forgiveness are what make real intimacy possible. Intimacy rests in the simplicity of being fully present, responsive to what is there in the moment, with no agenda or anticipation. By fully being in the moment we are there in just the right way. We rediscover the mystery of who we are through this interchange of opening and surrender. Such friendships create heaven on earth.
Anchored in the Theravadan Buddhist Burmese lineage of Mahasi Sayadaw since 1974, Steven Smith’s Dharma Talksanswer people’s question about how they can integrate the path of self-liberation with the path of paying attention to the welfare of others. His focus is guiding practitioners to do both. The dharmic brilliance is that liberation, the core teaching, creates a deep, transformative experience of who we are, which, in turn, transforms our care for the state of all beings everywhere. Steven Smith also had album MeditationOfTheHearton Spotify to share for free.
One the great spiritual teacher of our time, Jack Kornfield, spoke of tradition of Ajahn Chah – one of Theravada school of Buddhism. The teachings of Ajahn Chan described two levels of spiritual practice. On the first level, you use Dharma to become comfortable. You become virtuous and a little kinder. you sit and quiet your mind, and you help make a harmonious community. Then the second kind of Dharma, is to discover real freedom of mind, heart, and spirit. This level of practice has nothing whatsoever to do with comfort. here you take every circumstance of life and work with it to learn to be free. Ajahn Chan’s way of teaching combines the ultimate level of Dharma with the practical level. To help us find freedom, Ajahn Chan taught about selflessness, the essential realization of the Buddha’s liberation, in simple and remarkable ways.
Mirabai Bush, Cofounder of the Center for Contemplative Mind in Society in Massachusetts, discussed with contemporary thought leaders in Walking Each Other Home: Conversations on Loving and Dying Paperback – June 21, 2022, on social justice, radical self-love, devotional ecology, public and spiritual health and more — framed within the context of the work with Ram Dass. Another book coauthored by Mirabai Bush Contemplative Practices in Higher Education: Powerful Methods to Transform Teaching and Learning presents background information and ideas for the practical application of contemplative practices across the academic curriculum from the physical sciences to the humanities and arts. It is an inspiring report from the frontlines of academe by two quiet revolutionaries. A must-read for anyone who cares about the future of college teaching and who seeks a vision of what it could be. The other author Daniel p. Barbezat, is professor of economics at Amherst College and a former director of the Center for Contemplative Mind in Society.
In Bryn Mawr College classroom, students meditate before studying the Holocaust, slavery, and apartheid, according to their professor, it helps them “keep the encounter with shared human horror from becoming a kind of vicarious intellectual voyeurism.” Its Graduate School of Social Work and Social Research offers program to Learn mindful self-care strategies and discerning when meditative practices can be used as prevention vs intervention. Contemplative Arts at the White Lotus Center in Bryn Mawr PA, also teaches meditation and mindfulness-based stress management to individuals and groups, and support people living with cancer or other serious illnesses to integrate a variety of mind body methods into their healing journey.
These are deep and nurturing wellspring of Dharma teachings on sacred journey, sacred friendship, right effort, suffering and the end of suffering, unconditional acceptance, the power of silence and stillness. May they inspire many to deepens their wisdom and compassion and work to relieve the suffering of all being. These resources may very well be taken into consideration in governmental, institutional and school’ reform for detoxification.
There are times we are just dumbfounded and lost our ability to process information and deal with life effectively by the overwhelming pressures all seems to come at the same time – the non-stop wars, the severe Earthquake everywhere, the derailed train spill intoxicant over in Ohio causing human and nature disasters. etc…. It is shocking so many horrified events happened one after another, and many leaders in religious group and government passed away this past three years.
The latest one being Master Xing Yun who left us two weeks ago after the Chinese lunar new year. I still remember his new year greetings broadcasting just a few days earlier: ” ….Let us begin anew, and tomorrow will be better. Let us think this way,: the last year is already the past, if I have fallen short, this year I shall remedy my flaws. If in the past year, anything was left unfinished, this year is a good time for me to seize the opportunity. In Humanistic Buddhism of ours, we are promoting Humanistic Buddhism. A human world where everyone is happy, everyone is at peace, everyone is joyful and wealthy. Wealthy does not mean only money, our health is wealth, our peace is wealth, our joy is wealth, having good affinities with others can be considered as our wealth. We have wisdom, compassion, and the Dharma, all of which are our wealth. So every Spring Festival, people wish each other prosperity. In fact, wealth is within our own mind, making aspirations is wealth. …… Let us encourage each other with mutual blessings. ……”
Yes life must go on, no matter what. Even though individually our brain can get short-circuit, but join the forces together, we can form group-will and face the issue (reality) together, by tackling it one by one, one step at a time, for the benefits of all – all human and non-human, however slowly the progress may be. 三个臭皮匠，赛过一个诸葛亮！ And when we are in one with the universe, that is, when we are operating under the divine principle, we should prevail.
We come to this Earth realm to take lessons. There are only two options, voluntarily or involuntarily: our soul either evolve or devolve. And in the spirit of promoting Humanistic Buddhism, I want to talk out loud on issues in whatever capacity I have, however immature and inadequate. By sharing and discussion, I hope together we may be able to come up with better understanding, and better solutions.
The past three years witness the spread of covid-19 virus that completely change our life in many ways. While the tragedy took away millions of life, causing numerous restrictions, gave rise to many drawbacks, we can not totally deny the lessons the virus teaches us. And that is the message the book The Viral Underclass – the Human Toll When Inequality and Disease Collide trying to convey. Author Steven Thrasher isan American journalist and academic, the inaugural Daniel H. Renberg Chair of social justice in reporting at (NWU)Northwestern University’s Medill School of Journalism focusing on LGBTQ research. He is also a faculty member of NWU’s Institute for Sexual and Gender minority health and Wellbeing. The book combines broad and deep reporting and heartrending narrative storytelling, examines the ways HIV/AIDS and other viruses strike people and communities with deliberate intention. His book is essential reading for our understanding of epidemics. His analysis of the viral underclass ring the siren alarming us with transforming unequal access to health care in a world where a pandemic heightens the brutality of inequality. Author challenges us to abandon our fatal illusions of separateness in favor of an embrace of our place in a collective entanglement of bodies. The following is an excerpt from the Epilogue of the book:
…… “My body, my choice” is a bipartisan tenet in U.S. politics scripture considered by many to be as sacrosanct as the right to stand your ground and defend your property with a gun. In the 1970s, when liberals wanted to enshrine reproductive justice in U.S. law, they did not frame their arguments in terms of wanting free abortions as part of universal health care for the entire society. They rarely articulated it as a desire for abortion at all – nor have they named abortion access much in the decades since. Instead, they frame abortion in the context of privacy and choice, encouraging society to consider intimate health matters with the same neoliberal logic that was marketing so many areas of contemporary life.
If I own my body, such logic asserts, I should be able to do anything I want with it. With an ownership mentality, if one owns one’s body, one is also freed from all social obligations to and from others. So, if it’s “my body, my choice,” then anyone can think, Yes, I can have an abortion, which is a health necessity.
But this same logic can also lead to thinking,I don’t have to join a union; my destiny is mine, and mine alone. It can also lead one down the path of believing,I also don’t want to be taxed and forced to pay for schoolsfor someone else’s kids. Or towards feeling that If I am buying bottled water – or if I am brave and I choose to drink tap water knowing its risks – why do I need to be forced to pay for treating the water in Flint, Michigan? And it can mean, if I don’t want to wear a mask or get a vaccine, that is my right, and the repercussions of this on those around me don’t concern me.”
Across the political spectrum, “my body, my choice” can be used to conjure America’s sense of how individual ownership should supersede all else. But this notion of individuality, despite being a core element of American society. It is a myth that we are each the master of our own distinct destiny. It is a myth that the risks inherent in experiencing child-rearing, pandemics, and climate change should never be experienced collectively. And it is a belief that results in behavior with regard to one’s health, and its consequences, being seen as entirely the choice and burden (financial and otherwise) of the lone person experiencing it.
The logic of this myth works only if we pointedly ignore the hierarchies of power class, and American history. Pay no mind to the fact that the myth often comes from people who want to bust unions or who own bottled water companies. forget that an ownership mentality about individual bodies has been dangerous on the North American continent from before the birth of the United States. After all, if a body can be owned, ownership of that body can be transferred – by force of enslavement, for example.
But do consider how often we are encouraged to frame our internal thinking, in some form, along the lines of I should be able to do what I want, when I want, because its my body and my choice! Thinking I have a body is very different from thinkingI am a body. This schism can make it difficult for us not only to feel in alignment with our full selves, but also to understand just how deeply we are connected to other humans – how inextricably all our fates are bound together.
Viruses challenge the concept that any one of us “has” one body. As they move freely between the lungs, bloodstream, and genitals of one of us to another, they show how we is a more relevant concept than you or me. How can any of us “own” a part of this body we all share? We can’t. And yet, so much of our thinking is wedded to this concept of my body, as if it existed discreetly.
I believe people who are pregnant should be able to end pregnancies. I also believe that if someone has an abortion, they should not have to deal with it or pay for it alone. It should be free and supported, as part of universal health care. And I believe that if someone has a child, it is not up to them alone to provide everythingthat child will need for the next couple of decades.
Similarly, I believe every transgender person should get the health care they need, including gender-affirming surgery. But the burden should not be on them alone; they exist in relationship with others, and it is up to the cisgender people around them to offer them gender-affirming care.
Letting go of this ownership framing wouldn’t necessarily mean letting go of agency for anyone to get what they desired. Still, it could mean letting go of the burden that everything must be shouldered alone. It certainly would require relinquishing the illusion that we are all floating specks bobbing through the universe without tie to one another. Unlike so many economic and political forces in the United States that pressure us to see ourselves as siloed and alienated, viruses offer us a deeper understanding of how to think ethically in relation to one another – and a sense of how much more power that gives us.
For any person to enjoy the benefits of lower community viral loads, breathable air, and the kind of equitable vaccination that leads to herd immunity, communal thinking is required. But true communal thinking is not nationalist thinking. By the middle of 2021, more vaccines were freely available in the United States than there were people who readily wanted them; by the end of the year, many Americans could even get a third booster shot, if they wanted. Yet even as thousands were dying in countries where people desperate for vaccines couldn’t even get one shot, many proud U.S. citizens loudly bragged about refusing to take any that were available to them. By 2022, the United States was behind dozens of other countries in its vaccination rate.
Most of us in the United States are socialized to think as consumers, not as citizens of a society with collective health responsibilities – even me. For instance, before COVID-19, I could get on planes easily and fly anywhere I could afford in the world, with little thought to how that choice affected the asthmatic Black and brown children living near the airports I departed from and arrived at, whose lungs inhaled exhaust from the jets ferrying me around. Or how the carbon footprint of my travel would affect wildfires in California or Greece.
Why did I need to think of their bodies when I thought about flying? I was free to do whatever I chose with my body, as long as I could afford the price of the ticket ? ….. because…… we asked you to go on a journey focusing on the viral underclass, so that their stories could help you rethink your most deeply held assumptions – the most deeply held assumptions, that most fundamental, largely unexamined premise we have in the United States is the belief that I am me and you are you and that each of us is the master of our own hero’s journey.
What if viruses teach us that there is no “me” and no “you” at all and that we all share one collective body? And that such individualistic thinking creates not only an underclass, but alienation across lines of class?
Think back to how viruses literally take a part of one person’s code and transfer it to another, which transforms that person individually and forever alters their offspring. As the poet and medical doctor Seema Yasmin puts it, “Eight percent of your genome/ is viral – we are literal cousines of ancient pathogens /wretched offspring of pandemics.” What if we all share just one body – a body that stretches across not just our egos and political philosophies and national borders, but even species?
When I asked disability activist Alice Wong about protests against wearing simple face coverings, she told me (through the BiPAP mask she’s worn twenty-four hours a day for years) that she just had to “wrap my head around why people don’t realize it’s no just for you. It’s for others. it just gets back to this very individualist culture” in the United States.
…… If we humans are going to survive pandemics from any virus – let alone if we are going to survive the existential climate crisis – we cannot do so while behaving as if each of our destinies were disconnected. It is not a bad thing to say we’re interdependent,” Alice continued, raising a concept foreign to many Americans. It requires courage and an acceptance of vulnerability to admit how SARS-CoV-2 has shown , as Alice put it, that “we are in the same soup. Exactly in the same soup and open to the same things. ” Our connection is not merely biophysical but cultural: This is about the invisible conditions that are swirling around us. In our air. In our atmosphere. Through our words.“
So many Earthquake happen everywhere, first most serious one in New Zealand, then in XianJiang and Sichuan China, and in the recent days in two deadly quake that hit Turkey and Syria, 7.4 and 7.8 Magnitude. Thousands of homeless in the cold weather, and death toll reached 20000, I felt totally overwhelmed. So Much Upheavels， What Shall We Do？ What came to my mind first is recite Amituofo and pray.
Today, I just heard that Venerable Hsing Yun, the founding patriarch of Fo Kung Shan (Buddha’s Light Mountain), passed away Sunday afternoon February 5th at the age of 97. Years ago, I had learned the story of Venerable Hsing Yun visiting prison cells for decades using Buddhist teaching to help transform the prisoners. And I also know Venerable Hsing Yun through many publications from Fo Guang Shan International Translation Society. But I did not know what make him so success. 生于忧患，长于困难，喜悦一生， 星云大师终生为佛教贡献。 他出家修行80 余年， 一生执持不愿成为佛教负担的“佛教靠我”弘法大愿，做一个能够给人、为世间增添美好、肯牺牲奉献的报恩人。他弘法足迹遍布五大洲，著述3000万字影响亿万人。在他的努力下，除了佛法的弘扬取得了举世瞩目的成就，佛光山在医疗、教育等方面也帮助了数不尽的民众。他的影响力也远远超出了佛教界，受到了无数非佛教信众的爱戴和尊敬。
Master Hsing Yun summarize the secret of his success is forbearance. He said forbearance is ultimately his only method and his only strength. I am dumbfounded to hear that。 Maybe intellectually I kind of understand it, I understand cognitively the six paramitas, but psychologically I still have not cultivated in my character the qualities Master Hsing Yun talked about. I have so much repentance need to do. 让我觉得很震撼的是，星云大师总结他一生能够有这样的成就的原因，教导我们说这一切是靠“忍“而得以成就。有弟子对他说：「师父！你只叫我们忍耐，难道除了忍耐，就没有其余的办法了吗？」星云大师说，”确实，我一生唯一的办法、唯一的力量，就是忍耐。” 他说，“所谓「忍」，忍寒忍热，这是很容易的，甚至忍饥忍渴，也算不难，忍苦忍恼，还能勉力通过，然而忍受冤屈，忍一口气，就大为不易。但是，无论如何，想到自己既已学佛，深知相互缘起的真理，明白「忍」是一生的修行，为什么不能依教奉行呢？“
Comparing the harsh environment Venerable Hsing Yun had gone through in his life, my circumstances is a luxury, my complains are actually whining. I had been blinded by ignorance and anger. 大师从小生长在乱世里，先是军阀割据，外强环伺；继之中日抗战，后来国共对立，家乡的经济本来就很落后，加上这些人为的祸患，生计更是困难重重。条件的艰难养成他能忍的习惯。一九四九年，刚来到台湾时，他四处飘泊，无人收容，真正遇到难以度日的苦楚。不过，忍是一种力量，他开始与生活搏斗，与命运挑战。后来法师辗转来到宜兰，生活才逐渐安定下来，当时正信佛教不发达，为了接引更多的人学习佛法，他不惜将些微稿费、嚫钱拿来购买佛教书籍，送给来寺的青年；他甚至经常忍饥耐饿，徒步行走一、两个钟点以上的路程，到各处讲经说法，将饭钱、车费节省下来，添置布教所需的用具。佛教第一次传教用幻灯机、录音机、扩音器，就是那时购买的。随着弘化区域的逐渐拓展，闻法信徒的日益增多，星云大师发现到人生的问题无穷无尽，心中益发体会佛陀示教利喜的悲心宏愿，因而更加激励自己以弘法利生为己志，所以凡有人前来请法，无论路途远近，他都欣然答应；凡信徒有所请求，不管事情难易，他也尽量化解其忧。
What I did not know is Master Hsing Yun has been fighting Diabetes for more than 50 years. He said every single one of us shall learn to be our own doctor. Learn self-reliance and overcome the obstacles of each of our circumstances. The crisis is also an opportunity for cultivation and practice for improvement. 多年以来，星云大师在自身与疾病的和平相处中寻找到了养生之道的真谛，那就是“慢”。星云大师说，人生不能一味地求速成，所谓“饭未煮熟，不能妄自一开；蛋未孵成，不能妄自一啄”，人间万事都有其平衡之道。“面对各种疾病，大家要有一个态度，就是自己要做自己的医生。所谓‘兵来将挡，水来土掩’，身体有病，最重要的是自我治疗，自己做自己的医师。自己心理健全，就可以克服困难；自己的毅力坚定，就可以克服一切的病苦。”
Today is the 14th year since Master Sheng Yen left us. I got to know Master Sheng Yen first through his book 《活在当下》and later through youtube programs and many other books I could get hold of. I am really thankful to his guidance. I was very slow to know about Master Sheng Yen, but he had been invited to make speech at the meeting for the World Council of Religious Leaders at the UN headquarters in NY in 2003, and also traveled to Israel and Palestine with representative leaders from WCRL for religious peace movement. The organization of Sheng Yen Educational Trust had presented a more official full movie: 《本來面目 Master Sheng Yen》聖嚴法師紀實電影 to introduce to the public the extraordinary life of a great master. You can also download some free booklets from Chan Meditation Center.
During his long career as a monk, teacher of Buddadharma, and founder of monasteries, meditation centers, and educational institutions, Master Sheng Yen (1930-2009) was also a very prolific lecturer, scholar, and author. Over the years, his works of more than one hundred volumes had published in many languages, and benefited students and seekers of the Dharma all over the world. These works covered three broad areas: (1) scholarly works, consisting of commentaries on major Mahayana and earlier scriptures, vinaya (monastic discipline), and seminal writings by Chinese Buddhist thinkers and Chan masters; (2) writings on the practice of Chan meditation for people at beginner and advanced levels; and (3) discourses on the practice of Chan in daily life with emphasis on a humanistic perspective. Dharma Drum Mountain, an international organization founded by Master Sheng Yen with the aim to uplift the character of humanity and create a pure land on Earth, had committed to a long term goal of translating selected volumes of the complete Works of Master Sheng Yen from Chinese into English to further benefit seekers of the English world. Below is the preface from his book A Journey of Learning and Insight, in which Master Sheng Yen gave personal account of his path following the Dharma.
I am an ordinary Buddhist monk born in 1930 at a village in Jiangsu Province, Nantong County. The second year after my birth, there was a great flooding of the Yangzi River, which washed away our home and everything we owned. We were impoverished. My family then moved to the south bank of the Yangzi River. I was always weak in physique and prone to illness since childhood. I entered school at the age of nine, and left school when I was thirteen. I became a monk when I was fourteen (thirteen according to the Western way of recording age). The basic education I received was equivalent to that of a fourth grade primary school student. While the other teenagers were studying at high school and university, I was busy working as a young monk and performing ritual services. Later, I served in the military for the country. Nevertheless, since I was young, I realized the importance of knowledge and education. I would take hold of any opportunity for self-study, and read many books. Meeting the educational requirements along with my published work, I was enrolled in Rissho University in Tokyo. Within six years time, I completed both a master’s and a doctoral degree in Buddhist Literature.
From the time I realized that the sutras are used to provide knowledge and methods to purify society and the human mind, I felt lament. I thought, “The Dharma is so god, yet so few people know about it, and so many people misunderstand it.” Ordinary people treat Buddhadharma as something secular or mystical; at best they treat it as an academic study. Actually, Buddhism is a religion that applies wisdom and compassion to purify the human world.
Thus, I vowed to use contemporary ideas and language to introduce to others the true meaning of the Dharma that was forgotten, and to revive the spirit of Shakyamuni Buddha. As a result, I read a variety of books, especially Buddhist texts, which I studied and later wrote about assiduously. Since my early years, I started submitting articles for publication, the materials ranging from literature and art to theoretical, from religious to theological, from articles on secular knowledge to academic theses on specific subjects. I have written for over 50 years …….. Buddhism is a religion that emphasizes practice. Through the cultivation of one’s mental stability and calmness, one can achieve balance of the body and mind, improve one’s character, lessen self-centeredness, care for others, and purify society. As a result, the objective of my personal reading and writing was to clarify and to give guidance on the theoretical concepts and practice methods. Primarily, my works follow the guidelines of placing emphasis on upholding moral precepts, teaching Chan practice, and clarifying concepts. I am personally compelled to follow the path of placing equal weight on the three Buddhist disciplines of precepts, meditational and wisdom. Thus, I would not be limited to the scope of what ordinary people would call Precepts Master, Chan Master or Dharma Master. For myself, I would always assume the status of Dharma Master because it is best to take its meaning of “taking the Dharma as one’s master.”
Due to the depth and extensiveness of Buddhadharma, one discovers through academic research that it is truly a great treasure in the history of world culture. To enhance the educational level and academic status of Buddhists, I have undertaken endeavors in Buddhist education and Buddhist research. I have been a professor at the Institute of Buddhist Studies of Chinese Culture University and Soochow University. I was invited to teach thesis writing to students in the doctorate program at the graduate school of National Chengchi University. I have also established the Chung-Hwa International Conference on Buddhism, hosting it again every two to three years, with Buddhist Traditions and Modern Society as the permanent topic. We gather leading Buddhist scholars worldwide to do research and hold discussions in various professional fields, for the purpose of practical application in today’s society.
It is through the opportunity of holding International Conferences on Buddhism that I became associated with the famous Professor Fu Weixun at Temple University. He and his friend Pro. Sandra A. Wawrytko attended our International Conference twice, and gave us many suggestions. After the two conferences, they assisted in compiling both the Chinese and English versions of all the papers. They also helped promote the publishing of our conference papers through Dongda Publishing Corp, and the Greenwood Press, thus allowing the papers to receive attention from academic circles worldwide.
Currently, Prof. FuWeixun was invited by Zhong Huimin, the chief editor of Cheng Chung Books , to compile the books series, the Study and Thought of Contemporary Academics (Dangdai xueren xuesi licheng). I am honored that Prof. Fu selected my writings for submissions to represent the Buddhist community and for the religious community to gain identity within academic circles. It is a true honor in my life. When I submitted my manuscript, I left out the preface due to my busy schedule. Now before publishing, in light of the editor’s request, I have completed this preface after my trip to Mainland China, passing through Hong Kong, and on my way to America.
Namo Amituofo ! Merry Christmas to you all! May the holiday season brings you peace and enlightenment! Christmas reminds people of blessings and happiness, we may be confronted with economic down turn, can we still lead a happy life despite of inflation and economic depression? What is the relationship of exterior wealth and inner wealth? Let’s dwell into some details.
Merry Christmas to You All !
David Guy Myers is a professor of psychology and the author of 17 books. His book The American Paradox: Spiritual Hunger in an Age of Plentyexplore the social development since 1960, while material affluence and human rights have surged, national civic health was falling. David’s overarching aim is to contribute to a new environmental movement—a social environmental movement—one seeking a social ecology that respects human rights while nurturing healthier individuals, families, and communities. With this end in mind he notes the social consequences of American materialism and individualism and points the way toward more positive values, economic policies, media influences, educational priorities, and faith communities. According to the on-going research since 1972 by University of Chicago on Americans’ outlook and emotional health trends in public opinion data from the General Social Survey (GSS), an ongoing project which NORC , American happiness is at a five-decade low. Despite modern technology has increased material wealth, emotional happiness is not something technology can help.
In Happiness: Lessons from a New Science, British economist Richard Layard asks: If we really wanted to be happier, what would we do differently? First we’d have to see clearly what conditions generate happiness and then bend all our efforts toward producing them. He went on to say that psychological problems and mental illness are amongst the biggest causes of misery. At a time when political action only seems to happen when we can attach a dollar cost and potential savings, he added that human suffering imposes severe burdens on the economy. At the same time we already have good evidence that the tools for dealing with all this psychological distress already exist. In his report he went on to propose that the United Kingdom needs 10,000 new cognitive behavioral therapists to make a major dent in all this suffering. What was different was that he went on to show that this expenditure made good economic sense.
Today, human beings tend to think of happiness as a natural right. But they haven’t always felt this way. For the ancient Greeks, happiness meant virtue. For the Romans, it implied prosperity and divine favor. For Christians, happiness was synonymous with God. Throughout history, happiness has been equated regularly with the highest human calling, the most perfect human state. Yet it’s only within the past two hundred years that human beings have begun to think of happiness as not just an earthly possibility but also as an earthly entitlement, even an obligation. In his book Happiness: A History, historian Darrin M. McMahon draws on a multitude of sources, including art and architecture, poetry and scripture, music and theology, and literature and myth, and argues that our modern belief in happiness is the product of a dramatic revolution in human expectations carried out since the eighteenth century.
An important concept in Buddhism and yogic philosophy teaches us that life in essence is Dukha, a Sanskrit and Pali word that can be translated to mean “suffering.” Included in Dukkha is all manner of unsatisfactoriness, from mild disappointment to the most extreme physical and emotional distress. Dukkha is something you must overcome in a lifetime to reach a higher stage in the next lifetime. The ultimate stage is called Nibbana (Nibbana (Pali), nirvana (Sanskrit)). Nibbana /Nirvana is ultimate peace and the goal of every Buddhist.
Below in a long series of seminars Professor Zeng Shiqiang illuminated to us the spiritual dimension of Wealth and how human can integrate it into their path of cultivation – Tao.
Chinese Wealth Culture
曾仕强—财神文化（一）身心之外还有道; 一般人说到财神就认为是宗教或迷信；人禽之分，天地造人就是要人能够作用帮助天地去运行； 天的颜色跟人有关系，天气跟人有关系，天地人三合感应；天有天理（空性，无为，西方文化只相信看得见的东西， 不相信看不见的，所以他们的文明现在走不下去了），地有地理（风水），人有人理（良心， 现代的人忙到不知道有良心） 西方的理（法理，A rolling stone gathers no moss ；）是固定的，中国人的理（情理）是灵活的； 用心就是凭良心； 现代人有一点空闲都慌张，因为害怕面对自己； 现代人谁都不怕，就怕自己，所以只好埋头划手机； 现代的专家如果凭良心，后面的财团不答应； 近百年来，中华文化发生了断层，很多人盲目学习西方；
In pursuit of happiness requires we to address issues self-denial such as drug abusing, alcoholism, gambling addictions etc bad habits which block us with in touch with our authentic true self. Full of excellent practical advice, insight, and some very useful exercises, Kevin Griffin’s One Breath at a Time – Buddhism and the Twelve Steps show us a good way to heal from the addictions. Unlike many of our best and most revered Buddhist teachers, Mr. Griffin hasn’t spent years living in Asia. He’s slogged through life in Western society, and has had to find his peace and insights while simultaneously dealing with the same day-to-day problems of career, love, marriage, parenthood, etc. as the rest of us. In a wise and honest way, Griffin presented the Buddhist instructions for meditation practice spoken in the idiom of Twelve Steps Recovery Program and empower the people with the hand-on possibility of freedom from addiction.
Surrender Steps:
First, a surrender to the truth of our disease and our inability to control it; then surrendering to a Higher Power, seeing that we will have to depend on something besides our own will and knowledge to stay sober and develop spiritually. As we enter the process, we often find that surrender is the battle itself – with drugs and alcohol, with the world, with ourselves – that has cripple us in many ways. in this case, surrender becomes preferable to going on fighting. Surrender is a traditional element of every spiritual journey. Before we can begin to realize our potential, we must break out of limiting concepts of who and what we are and what we think is possible. This may mean giving up long-held beliefs and comfortable behavior patterns. Cynicism， our fantasy, fear or control, anger or grief – many of us cling to these patterns and others. When we begin to surrender, we see that we will have to let go of these destructive habits of mind before we can move toward freedom. While many people tend to think of spirituality as looking up, toward the heights of perfection or saintliness, the Steps remind us that we must first look down, into the darkness of our souls, and see and accept our shadow before we attain an honest and authentic spiritual life.
Step One: admit we were powerless, but not helpless, over alcohol that our lives had become unmanageable;
Step Two: Come to believe that a power greater than ourselves could restore us to sanity; the self is an illusion made up of thoughts, emotions, memories that have no center, no abiding core. To rely on this illusory amalgam is to live in delusion, to mistake the movie of our minds for Truth. Have trust and confidence in the 3rd Noble Truth, reorient us toward a less self-centered life and open to new possibilities.
Step Three: Made a decision to turn our will and our lives over to the care of God as we understood Him (If we make certain choices, we get certain results). Commit to sobriety itself; then commit to the program and the Steps; commit more deeply to Buddhist practice. Take Refuge in the Buddha! Learn the middle-way to balance between faith(openheartness) and wisdom (discrimination).
How It honestly Works Steps:
These steps are linked to the meditative processes of examining the mind, of letting go of these blocks to clarity, and of healing ourselves and others. As we investigate and take responsibility for our past actions and our continuing habits of mind, the light of truth shine on the shadowed recesses of our lives, and a new freedom imbues us with confidence and joy, as shame is banished and we are no longer dogged by secrets and guilt.
Step Four: Made a searching and fearless moral inventory of ourselves. This is most difficult step – willingness to admit our failing and can be wrenching, awkward, agonizing. As the self-hatred that results in alcoholism can make this process difficult. Master Thick Nhat Hanh encourage us to also make an inventory of our positive qualities and actions, we must find joy in our lives here and now. Appreciate our positive strength and take pleasure in putting time and energy to adhere to 8-fold path in life.
Step Five: Admit to God, to ourselves, and to another human being the exact nature of our wrongs.
Step Six: Get ready to have God remove all defects of character, letting go of many attachments: attachment to material things and sense pleasure; attachment to views and opinions; attachment to relationships; attachment to your body, your thoughts, your sense of identity.
Step Seven: once we build a strong foundation for sobriety, asking God to take away our defects of character so that we can be more useful in the world and do “God’s will.” It is a process, get vigilant to pitfalls of Perfectionism, Procrastination and Paralysis.
Step Eight: At a deeper level of honesty to consider and made a list of all persons we had harmed and became willing to make amends to them all. Do not confuse living alone and limiting human contact to do solitude for meditation practice as the most spiritual behavior. The willingness to face pain – internally and externally – awakens love and compassion.
Step Nine: Make direct amends to such people whenever possible, except when to do so would injure them or others. Cleaning up our lives in this way is critical to the Buddhist path. Forgiving others, being forgiven, and forgiving ourselves.
Steps cultimnating of the spiritual path:
Here we try to thoroughly integrate the work we’ve done into our lives. We learn to maintain the honesty and responsibility we developed in the earlier Steps, to deepen our spiritual connection, and to serve others. Buddhism teaches that the real value of the spiritual life isn’t found in moments of great bliss but in the daily application of mindfulness and loving kindness. it’s our ongoing effort that is most important to our spiritual development. We can’t rest on yesterday’s clam and insight, we must renew our commitment and energy each day. These Steps are the cornerstones of maintenance. They are also the bridge to a life that is “happy, joyous and free.” Our spiritual awakening brings liberation, as we enter a new life, one free from the encumbrances of addition, and one guided by the principles of wisdom and compassion.
Step Ten: Continue to take personal inventory and when we are wrong promptly admit it. Recognize the opportunities for spiritual development that are in our lives right now, and acknowledging as well those qualities that aren’t growing at this time.
Step Eleven: Sought through prayer and meditation to improve our conscious contact with God as we understood him, praying only for knowledge of His will for us and the power to carry that out. Buddhism is an orthopraxy: it adheres to a set of practices, through which you can come to your own understanding, not one imposed from the outside. Make conscious and explicit our highest aspirations.
Step Twelve: having had a spiritual awakening as the result of these Steps, we try to carry this message to other alcoholics, and to practice these principles in all our affairs. Retreat is NOT the only meaningful form of practice. Don’t just do these stuff at special times, do it all the time.
Namo Amituofo! Merry Christmas! To our happiness and enlightenment !
In a country that value freedom of speech, Americans argue heatly about government/big tech/media censorship. But when I came to think about it, isn’t that everything we think, we say, we act have all reflected in the totality of universal consciousness that permeates everywhere? And each of us is a miniature of the cosmo and the cosmo is the Source/Origin of our mind. In the ultimate reality, censorship holds no power. 人是小宇宙，宇宙大身心， 人体与宇宙是一一对应的，宇宙中有什么，人体也相对应着有什么，人体相当于一个缩小版的微宇宙。 “All is sentient being. Grass, trees, land, sun, moon, and stars are all mind.” ~ Dogon, founder of Soto Zen Buddhism.
Such is the mystics! Science, physics, and spirituality are at last meeting each other through the search for universal consciousness. Scientists want to know why flocks of birds behave as if guided by a collective consciousness. Physicists are learning that non-local consciousness influences quantum particles, regardless of distance in time and space. Yogis, mystics, and meditators seek to enter into a state of wholeness with the divine or the universal mind, called Chaitanya, the cosmic consciousness. 人的意念能量有多強大？
The ideas of impermanence, interdependence and emptiness are central to Buddhist teaching – and to the whole Buddhist worldview view, there can be no true freedom or independence when we are trapped in the six lower worlds. Interdependence is not the same thing as being codependent. A codependent person tends to rely heavily on others for their sense of self and well-being。The Lotus Sutra teaches that all people equally possess the ten worlds. That is, we all possess the ten kinds of life conditions — from the highest state of Buddhahood to the lowest state of hell. These are the life conditions of the four noble worlds and the six paths. The life condition of Buddhahood moves one to improve the world. Such a person will love and cherish others, have a strong sense of justice, value peace, build a character with a deep sense of compassion, gain the trust of many people, and make others feel pleasant. On the contrary, one who is fascinated by devilish functions will become contentious and steeped in evil influences. Such an individual has a self-centered nature and takes pleasure in disruptive behavior. A person like this, with egocentric and biased views, will bring conflict and spread anger into society.
And that is why Confucius teaches us absolute ethics standard, (not ethical relativism). The Eightfold path is so important because that is what we contribute to the universal consciousness – be it greed or generosity, hatred or loving kindness,, ignorance or wisdom, arrogance or humility, all the dynamics will reflect in the totality of the universal mind. That is how each of us contribute to the quality of the collective karma.
With that in mind, let us pay homage to Amitufa – Buddha of Infinite Light & Infinite Life, Buddha of infinite blessing and protection! Nomo Amituofo! Let wish the peace and salvation of humanity to expand our conscious and grow in wisdom. 唸一句“阿彌陀佛”有多少好處？佛已說了10種！ 世間最安穩的“護身符”，其實就是一句“南無阿彌陀佛”！ 南无阿弥陀佛！南无阿弥陀佛！南无阿弥陀佛！
We have all experience many corruption and conspiracy in every areas of the government, the relentless pollution and exploitation of the Earth, the lost of common sense and fundamental ethics in social conducts the last several decades with the material abundance. Thom Hartmann had wrote a whole series to record many of the issues that block out progress and the toxics that need to purified before we can be refreshed to new beginnings. But to just have intellectual understanding is a good beginning, we need to put into our thought, speech and action to clear those bad habits, garbages from our mind by meditation and prayer. I am really impressed with his analyse about Neolibralism is a DISASTER, the sick mentality of the rich had no consideration of their fellow citizens for basic safety net (the homeless, the single mothers, the collapsing of education system, the border crisis of thousands, if not millions of under age kids, the human trafficking ). How REAGAN REPUBLICANS Flushed America Down The Toilet.
Piercing through the frog of neoliberalism, Hartman spoke of the insanity of Milton Friedman and the like-minds. The rise of economic and financial terrorism, the upheaval of economic instability in American and the world can traced back to Reagan Administration and Friedman’s shock therapy economics, which was acclaimed by the media as the super star nobel prize level innovation. Public have no idea the policies and devastating consequences Milton Friedman and the likes produced. His theory seems out of touch with lived reality or normal people’s economic experience, and 100% based on ideology & things he read in textbooks from other people in an ivory tower. Or if not, then plain Psychopathy. He said all licenses and certificates (including license for doctors) should be dropped as well as labor unions and laws against racial discrimination. Milton said there is no need for government to make sure drugs are safe. It is thought provoking to watch Young Michael Moore discuss the value of human life with Milton who had been evading the question of principle.
This has been a road of harden capitalism rather than a road of “good” intentions; Monopolies was all about saving the upper class from the “unwashed.” Period. We observed the collapse of Chilean economy in 1970s, Russia in the 1990s are the application of Milton Friedman theory. Despite all the talks of free market, the truth of USA is not a FREE MARKET. Professor Michael Hudson have a lot to share with you. Through these schemes, the elites had looted the majority public $50 Trillion dollars in the last few decades.REPUBLICANS Legalized STOCK FRAUD in America.
Taoism believes that all evils came from energy imbalance within any entity. Take the example of human health, we get sick because of immunity system deteriorated, as a result, our body/defense system energy level is lower than the average of the environment. Nature law is then automatically kick in to fill out the void. So the forces from outside(in the form of humid, heat, dryness etc. ) will invade and cause malady, in some case even total collapse. With each person regardless of gender, we have both masculine and feminine qualities that need to get in balance for us to thrive. Either too much masculine or too much feminine is off the middle way. 过犹不及。這世界上 是無形在决定有形， 並不是 有形在決定無形 。
We should not complain about others make our body unhealthy, right? we should take our own responsibility for it. Recital Buddhism sutras, such like recitaling Sutra of Ksitigarbha Fundamental Vow can help release those karmic debt. Prayer and sticking to eight-fold path will get our benign energy to counter balance the karmic deficit. Namo Amituofo! 南无阿彌陀佛！
This dynamics when apply to the social behavior, reflect when an entity is not mature enough to have self control, not taking consideration of the bigger world and over emphasize its own entitlement/freedom out of desire of greed, aversion and ignorance, (for example taking precepts as in Buddhism), eventually when situation get very bad, forces from outside( in the form of other people, karmic creditor, ghost from other realm, our unconsciousness etc.) be attracted by nature law to help the entity to take control so as to maintain the balance, most likely not in the form not so desirable for entity. Therefore, the Chinese early education emphasize character training from very start, by forming good habits and knowing what is right thing to do and what is not to do. Chinese parents do not give too much praise, but pay more attention to help the kids improve all kind of personality traits that would lead to long term psychological/spiritual development of the higher good. Confucius famously said, if a kid do not have good character, the fault is caused by the father not playing his role. 子不教，父之过也。
When you look into the son, you see the father, the mother, you see the ancestors. A son cannot exist by himself alone, a son or a daughter can only inter-be with parents, ancestors, and so on. That is not difficult to see. As a biologist, you can look into the body of a person, and you see that person is the continuation of his parents. All the cells and all genes have been transmitted by many generations of ancestors.
If a son got so angry at his parents. They are something wrong in it. There are young men who are so mad at their father, that they declare this: “I don’t want to have anything to do with him: But it is nonsense. Your father is in every cell of your body. You cannot remove your father out of you. the fact is you are the continuation of your father, and you are your father. You can not take him out of you. You have no private, separate existence. That self, the self (atma) does not exist. A separate existence, some permanent, non-changing entity sometimes we call it ‘soul’, is not there.
To the extend that western mind OVER-FOCUS on the Yang type of energy, the ego etc, and under-develop its Yin energy, the instinct/potential of the mind, and thus causing major imbalance and delusions in relate to ultimate reality, oriental mind emphasize the the development of overall balance, thus achieving higher wisdom that align more closely to the truth of reality. Shadow(Yin) in the Taoism symbol does NOT mean it is bad/negative, it just means it is not obvious, it is hidden. The Yin Yang symbol is a representation of holistic non-duality dynamics. It speaks of the interaction of spirit and material within the wholeness. Perfection in Confucianism means the gold mean middle way (中庸）. Daisaku Ikeda, Japanese Buddhist philosopher, educator, author, and nuclear disarmament advocate, writes that the Middle Way is a process of “living and making one’s mark on society while constantly interrogating one’s own actions to ensure that they accord with the path of humanity.”
In the same token, Jeffrey Sachs: A Negotiated End to Fighting in Ukraine Is the Only Real Way to End the Bloodshed. With the war in Ukraine now in its 10th month, Russian President Vladimir Putin and U.S. President Joe Biden have both expressed openness to peace talks to end the fighting, as have leaders in France, Germany and elsewhere. This comes as millions of Ukrainians brace for a winter without heat or electricity due to Russian strikes on Ukrainian civilian infrastructure. “This war needs to end because it’s a disaster for everybody, a threat to the whole world,” says economist and foreign policy scholar Jeffrey Sachs, director of the Center for Sustainable Development at Columbia University. He says four major issues need to be addressed to end the war: Ukraine’s sovereignty and security, NATO enlargement, the fate of Crimea and the future of the Donbas region.
U.S. House passes Respect for Marriage Act is anti-Divine Principle, anti-humanity. It had no respect for our future generation, no respect for the family, no respect for the country. The House officers put their own ego above the principle of divine’s intention. Repent and correct the wrong doing is of upmost importance. 如何懺悔才能消業障？普賢菩薩教你4個方法. 懺悔罪業是非常重要的修行。懺是發露過去所作的舊惡，悔是知錯以後不會再作。懺悔就是向我們的冤親債主道歉，請求他們原諒。我們的身口意無時無刻不在造作著各種罪業，如果能夠依善知識引導，努力懺盡罪業，就能徹底扭轉墮落惡趣的命運。
Psychologically, we meet ourselves time and again in a thousand disguises on the path of life.” ― CarlJung speaks of the “shadow” and regards it as an area of the unconscious that is very hard to access, our motivations, repressed complexes and guilt feelings are to be found in it, although usually we are unaware of them and cannot even visualize them, let alone admit them. He compares human consciousness to the tip of an iceberg sticking out of the water – the unconscious he symbolizes as the submerged mass of ice, containing both the collective unconscious and the individual unconscious, the so-called shadow personality. The latter is the shadow side of our being, in which everything we have been and experienced is stored. It contains our secret desires, and resolved and unresolved psychic problems from the past (incarnations). They emerge in our dreams, yet, they do exercise an influence on our lives, although, in the main, we do not connect them wit ourselves but project them on the environment, where they manifest and return to us as fate.
The Hindu-Buddhism term avidya, ignorance – the basic unconsciousness as a result of which it appears that the universe is a collection of separate things and events. A Buddha or “awakened one” is precisely the man who has overcome this unconsciousness and is no more bewitched by sakaya-drishti, the “vision of separateness.” In other words, he sees each “part” of nature without ignoring its relation to the whole, without being deceived by the illusions of maya which, as we also saw, is based on the idea of “measurement”, the dividing of the world into classes, into countable things and events. So divided, the world appears to be dual (dvaita), but to the unobstructed vision of the sage it is in truth undivided or non-dual (advaita) and in this state identical with Brahman, the immeasurable and infinite reality.
Considered as a collection of separate things, the world is thus a creation of thought. Maya, or measuring and classifying, is an operation of the mind, and as such is the “mother” (mata) of a strictly abstracted conception of nature, illusory in the sense that nature is so divided only one’s mind. Maya is illusory in an evil sense only when the vision of the world as divided is not subordinate to the vision of the world as undivided, when in other words, the cleverness of the measuring mind does not become too much of a good thing and is “unable to see the forest for the trees.”
Buddhism many case study recorded by highly respectable Buddhist practitioners thought out the history about incarnation, back and forth of human, animals born into different realms. 轮回为人的狗, (previous dog incarnated into human), 闻鲁直（黄庭坚）前世为妇人，诵《法华经》，以诵经功德故，今世聪明，有官职。戒禅师后身苏东坡. 国际知名的刑侦鉴识专家，李昌钰 在2006年4月2日北大演讲的一番话。他前世是和尚。此随业缘来者也。若生西方，岂如是而已哉！ 印光大师修订的《清凉山志》讲述真实的轮回故事，薄荷猪原来是为了度化众生，乘大悲愿力，倒驾慈航的“潜伏”菩萨。菩萨们“应以猪身得度者，即现猪身而为说法”，以启发众生心中的如意宝珠藏。《印祖文钞》: 一位清朝探花的前世今生. 蕅益大师见闻的投胎转世事件。 还有一个前世欠债，今生做驴也要还 的。 Those true records told us a lesson that we better return our karmic debt this life, otherwise the debt will accumulate with interest and get more heavier in future life. We do not know if we can return to become human form the next life.
So whenever we cannot bear the idiosyncrasies, habits, or characteristics of others, but are sorely tried and irritated by them, we may be sure that part of our own shadow is involved. This means that we have repressed these peculiarities within ourselves. Many an external situation to which we are unavoidably exposed is no more than a reflection of what is within us. We cannot deal with it as long as we regard it as exterior and nothing to do with us. Whatever is not being lived will continue to be projected on others for as long as it is not being deal with. Consciously dealing with it, which helps to integrate the shadow, can be made considerably easier. Acceptance of the fact that external events mirror internal events produces great changes. If one recognizes oneself as the instigating “I,” one will realize one’s creative potential, and one’s inner ability to improve one’s life and fate. Then one will no longer wait for assistance from outside, but will rely on self-help and will unremittingly pursue further development though creative consciousness. 净空法师: 为什么要积阴德 标清. 曾仕强：你的小孩将来是不是个有福气的人，从小就要在这些方面开始教育让他们惜福。 孩子不知什么叫习惯，所以大人要做给他看。 西方人是个没有福气的民族。 美国人是全世界最浪费的国家。 Westerns do not understand what manifested as material abundance was the work of many previous incarnations of merits. When we waste, we lost our hard earned credits accumulated over many life times. It is a terrible thing to waste!
Usually the consequences of these shadow functions are beyond our control. In a measure, they represent deterministic tendencies, things that are done automatically, or psychic compulsion mechanisms, and are at their mercy. If we regard the shadow as evil, we can hardly love it, but will treat it as infernal and blame it all over again, possibly it is hard to accept that we ought to learn to love our shadow. We love only what appeals to us as worth loving. what helps us on our way, what does us good. But let us remember how much always depends on our awareness. As the saying goes: “What You Shout Into The Woods Echoes Back”. We ourselves are called upon to rescue our shadow by giving it its true significance. Released from guilt, we can accept the forces, the experiences, and the essences of the shadow as an integral part of ourselves. but before we reach this stage, we must be capable of thinking through the consequences of our actions, and must also be prepared to bear the total responsibility for whatever we do. It is for this reason, the Eastern philosophy also emphasize on self reflection, learn from the time-tested teaching of the sages, hold precepts, and work on self cultivation to transform those bad habits, unwholesome personalities. 戒定慧；吾日当三省吾身。 Hence the golden rule of Confucius: “Do unto others what you would want to be done to you.” and “to do what is right, not what is easy.”
The Yin Yang dynamics also apply to thing we can not see/hear. Such as abortion. We are actually killing a life, even though we did not hear the baby crying, nor seeing its suffering, and thus does not have the awareness and empathy. But we have own the life karmic debt that will need to repay in the future time together plus with interest. That was the reason Buddhism advice against abortion. We have to honor the fetus. When abortion, not only the mother commit crime, also the father and the doctors, hospital, medical facilities that perform such act all had karmic debt need to pay in the future. 堕胎的罪业很严重 怎样做才能帮到堕胎的孩子 .
Tucker Carlson Show is bold enough to point out many horrible things that are being done to our Nation’s children. The fact that this is not a crime to Surgically alter or remove the reproductive glands of children is almost as disturbing as the act itself. And the fact that anyone would be OK with this. Tells me how deranged our society is becoming. These judges, lawyers, media, advertisements all need to be held accountable. One audience testified, “I know PERSONALLY what happens to the entire life of a child who is violated ~ it screws you up on so many levels it’s horrifying! It’s still effects my DAILY life, and I’m now 50 years old! Unbelievable! UNBELIEVABLE!” It’s sad that we have lawless people in offices that are supposed to protect us from lawless people. Another said, “If you have ever seen the destruction of a perfectly healthy young child up close as I have with a neighbour’s daughter who has been through this outrageous medical intervention. It is a crime, to see this lovely young person with obvious mental issues being allowed by their freaks of parents to be ruined instead of helped is beyond belief. Yes it is a crime and a very serious one.”
Mattel is becoming a gender cult. The toy company is promoting transgenderism and hormone blockers to little kids, and instructing on ways to keep the information from parents.
US News Express美國時事通 报道美国的变态的酷儿教育：戀童癖, 變性人, 亂性, 種族衝突, 等等. 這些在西方世界的墮落, 在1920年代的德國上演過一模一樣的事情, 如同翻版. 家长一定要多施行在家教育，或是找看當地有沒有Classical Christian School, 現在正在美國各地興起。這種教育方式就是當年美國立國先賢所受的教育。融合古希臘與基督教傳統，培育thinker, not worker. 老中們，別再迷戀名校，全部淪陷為左派的馬克斯主義製造工廠。請參看Battle for the American Mind by Pete Hegseth.
