About.com Buddhism

Happy Birthday Bodhidharma

Tue, 09 Feb 2010 10:18:56 +0000

According to my desk calendar, today is Bodhidharma's birthday.� I don't know how anyone decided it was Bodhidharma's birthday, but I guess one day is as good as the next.

Bodhidharma is, of course, the fabled first patriarch of Zen. He came to China from India early in the 6th century. According to legend he insulted the Emperor, sat in meditation without ceasing for 9 years, ripped off his eyelids (which sprouted into the first tea plants) so that he wouldn't fall asleep, and meditated so much that his arms and legs atrophied and fell off, but was able to invent kung fu anyway. After his death and burial he was spotted walking back to India wearing one sandal; his grave was found to be empty except for one sandal.

Happy Birthday Bodhidharma originally appeared on About.com Buddhism on Tuesday, February 9th, 2010 at 10:18:56.

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The Kula Sutta

Mon, 08 Feb 2010 14:01:32 +0000

I just discovered the Kala Kula Sutta, which is very brief. According to this Pali sutra, there are four reasons why a wealthy family cannot hold onto its wealth --

They don't look for things that are lost.
They don't repair things that are old.
They are immoderate in consuming food and drink.
An un-virtuous person is placed in charge.

Since I'm nominally the only one in charge of my household (Miss Lucy, the household cat, is really in charge, but she doesn't handle money), I can't really speak to #4. As for #3 -- I'm working on it. As a culture, probably few of us are good at #2, getting things repaired. Small things especially are far more likely to be replaced than repaired. However, I frequently look for things that are lost, mostly because I tend to lose things.

The Kula Sutta originally appeared on About.com Buddhism on Monday, February 8th, 2010 at 14:01:32.

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Snow Day

Sat, 06 Feb 2010 17:52:10 +0000

I understand much of the eastern U.S. is buried until a ton of snow. It missed me (nyah nyah nyah), but some of you readers must be snowed in right now. Stay safe and stay home, if you can.

So who's in the mood for winter haiku? Review the rules at "Spring Haiku Challenge"� and "Zen and the Art of Haiku," then give it a shot. I'm drawing a blank, possibly because there's little snow where I am, but here's Bassho --

Winter solitude--
in a world of one color
the sound of wind.

Maybe we can update that --

After the snowstorm --
in a world of one color,
spinning tires.

Snow Day originally appeared on About.com Buddhism on Saturday, February 6th, 2010 at 17:52:10.

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Zen at War and the Opposite of Equanimity

Thu, 04 Feb 2010 11:32:02 +0000

Buddhism recently came to the attention of American political partisans via the Great Brit Hume Flap. And since then some right-wing writers have felt compelled to sully the reputation of Buddhism. One of these, Marvin Olansky, strongly implies that Buddhism is responsible for the infamous Nanjing massacre of 1937.

After some graphic descriptions of atrocities in Nanjing, for which he implies that Buddhism is to blame, Olansky goes on to cite Brian Daizen Victoria's Zen at War and Zen War Stories, which forthrightly documents Zen institutional support for Japanese militarism in the 1930s. Does Olansky actually have a case? I don't think so, but let's look more closely.

Zen at War and the Opposite of Equanimity originally appeared on About.com Buddhism on Thursday, February 4th, 2010 at 11:32:02.

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On Buddhism, Beethoven, Babies, and Bathwater

Tue, 02 Feb 2010 15:14:59 +0000

The perennial debate over the "westernization" of Buddhism often breaks down into an argument over innovation versus tradition. And it seems to me western Buddhists are divided into two camps.

One camp thinks cultural adaptation of Buddhist forms and rituals will happen gradually, as they always have, and that western Buddhism will find its own distinctive style at its own pace without anything having to be decided by committees. Rushing this process before we fully appreciate the traditional forms could cause us to throw the baby out with the bathwater, so to speak.

The other camp argues that many of the traditional forms and practices are more of a barrier than a help for western Buddhists. What's important is the dharma, not which bell to strike when. Further, clinging to specific sutras or rituals denies the truth of impermanence -- everything is always changing.

On Buddhism, Beethoven, Babies, and Bathwater originally appeared on About.com Buddhism on Tuesday, February 2nd, 2010 at 15:14:59.

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Sulak Sivaraksa

Tue, 02 Feb 2010 08:44:36 +0000

There's a lovely profile of Sulak Sivaraksa, founder of the International Network of Engaged Buddhists, at the Washington Post's On Faith website. This very engaged Buddhist was mentioned here recently in a post on environmental activism among Buddhist monks in Thailand. The Washington Post profile, titled "The Activist Buddhist," describes Sulak Sivaraksa as a man committed to social activism as Buddhist practice. Check it out.

Sulak Sivaraksa originally appeared on About.com Buddhism on Tuesday, February 2nd, 2010 at 08:44:36.

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Sogyal Rinpoche on Prayer in Buddhism

Mon, 01 Feb 2010 10:50:23 +0000

The SMART Buddhist has a video of the Tibetan Buddhist teacher Sogyal Rinpoche explaining the role of prayer in Buddhism. Questions about prayer come up sometime. Some schools of Buddhism seem to pray, and others seem not to, and since we don't have a God to pray to, "prayer" doesn't mean quite the same thing in Buddhism than it does in other religions.

I have to put an asterisk on the Rinpoche's explanation, which is that some of what he says is very much at odds with what you might hear in other schools. Speaking to invisible transcendent Buddhas is discouraged in Zen, for example. But then, zennies don't pray, although we've been known to invoke.

Sogyal Rinpoche on Prayer in Buddhism originally appeared on About.com Buddhism on Monday, February 1st, 2010 at 10:50:23.

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A Possible Shift in China's Policy Toward the Dalai Lama

Sun, 31 Jan 2010 14:34:03 +0000

At Newsweek, Sudip Mazumdar writes that the government of China appears to be re-evaluating its policy toward Tibet, and also its policy toward His Holiness the Dalai Lama.

China, slowly and reluctantly, has come to two painful conclusions, Mazumdar says. First, the stability and development of Tibet are essential to China's future. Second, China has been mishandling Tibet all along.

It is true that China has invested many billions of dollars in Tibet. For this, they expected the Tibetans' loyalty and gratitude. But China also has treated Tibet as a colony run by and for ethnic Han Chinese, with Tibetans locked out of most positions of authority and the better-paying jobs. And, of course, the repression of Tibetan Buddhism and exile of the Dalai Lama remain causes of discontent.

A Possible Shift in China's Policy Toward the Dalai Lama originally appeared on About.com Buddhism on Sunday, January 31st, 2010 at 14:34:03.

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No Silence

Sat, 30 Jan 2010 14:12:21 +0000

I've been researching what the Buddha and Buddhist teachers have said about mindfulness. The Buddha taught that we should cultivate mindfulness of our bodies and the sensations in our bodies as well as of our mental processes and the phenomena in front of us.

I'm a bit hung up on the sensation part. I have tinnitus, which is a fancy word for "ringing in the ears." Except I don't hear ringing; I hear crickets. And of course they are not real crickets. It's just a sound being made in my head somehow that sounds like a field of crickets on a summer night.

I've learned to function with the noises in my head mostly by ignoring them, but this is not mindfulness, is it? Even during silent meditation, there is chirping. If I focus on it, it gets louder and louder and soon overwhelms all my other faculties. But most of the time, during normal daily activities, I don't notice it.

No Silence originally appeared on About.com Buddhism on Saturday, January 30th, 2010 at 14:12:21.

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Just Don't Stick

Tue, 26 Jan 2010 12:01:31 +0000

We Buddhists get lots of warnings to not stick, cling, or otherwise attach to anything. But what does that mean, exactly?

One of my Zen teachers used to emphasize that you can only "attach" to something if you think you are separate from it. Attachment is separation; non-attachment is no separation. That's pretty much the opposite of how most of us understand the word "attachment," and it has caused a lot of misunderstanding about Buddhism. I hear over and over again that Buddhism teaches detachment, a fallacy that is item #11 on the "things people most misunderstand about Buddhism" list.

We might think that the way not to cling to something is to avoid it, but avoiding can be another form of clinging. If you avoid something because you don't like it or are afraid of it, you're still creating a separation based on self-reference -- I am me and it is not me and I will stay away from it.

Just Don't Stick originally appeared on About.com Buddhism on Tuesday, January 26th, 2010 at 12:01:31.

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