Laity Conflict With Dalai Lama Isn't Buddhist but Political

Those of us who have heard of the members of a subsect of Vajrayana in which its followers respond with aggression toward the Dalai Lama would wonder why they are not behaving like bodhisattvas. It is because they do not believe themselves to be bodhisattvas. This is why the Dalai Lama condemned their leader. In order not to cause controversy I will not mention the name of the subsect or their guru because I view as an internal matter and because just mentioning this is like showing disrespect for the Buddha.

However, this type of behavior is not new, nor is it limited to Mahayana. Certain Theravada schools have had monks abuse their position of power as well. However, it does not make a monk or a layperson an evil person. Rather, it shows that all sentient beings, including you and I, from non-Buddhists to Buddhists and their leaders are subject to six root delusions and twenty lesser delusions, afflictions and other spiritual maladies consistent with self grasping.

Such maladies do not go away only their own due to the six spiritual poisons (attachment (raga), anger (pratigha), ignorance (avidya), pride/conceit (māna), doubt (vicikitsa) and wrong view/false view/opinionatedness) arising from ego delusion (reification of the self i.e. as a permanent entity that is unchanging). Reification is when an object is worshiped or esteemed so highly that the object is given cult status.

Likely they arise by reification of spiritual leaders as justification for acting out of character as bodhisattvas, thus leading me to suspect that they consider themselves ordinary lay people included in the Mahayana Buddhist dedication to all sentient beings.

If this is true, then it is regretful that disciples with the humility of a layperson act in such a way. Were they to act with the humility of bodhisattvas, there would not be sectarian conflict within Buddhism.

Yet no one is immune to such behavior as all sentient beings include human beings. Although I find justification to rationalize conflict, it is beneath us to argue and fight with the Dalai Lama since that breaks the precept of respect for Buddha.

Though I am a lay person, ordinary and unable to follow one precept, let alone the Five Precepts, it saddens me to see even the Buddhadharma (Buddha's Teaching) being place secondary to what is the worldly endeavor of politics.

A wise person should do good... (study guide)

A man buries a treasure in a deep pit, thinking: 'It will be useful in time of need, or if the king is displeased with me, or if I am robbed or fall into debt, or if food is scarce, or bad luck befalls me.'

But all this treasure may not profit the owner at all, for he may forget where he has hidden it, or goblins may steal it, or his enemies or even his kinsmen may take it when he is careless.

But by charity, goodness, restraint, and self-control man and woman alike can store up a well-hidden treasure -- a treasure which cannot be given to others and which robbers cannot steal. A wise person should do good -- that is the treasure which will not leave one. — --adapted from the Khuddhaka Patha, translated by A. L. Basham

When I first came upon the above quote attributed to the American Zen Buddhist Jack Kornfield, I could understand it and state that the treasure is spiritual in nature.

Intrigued by this adapted quote from the Khuddhaka Patha, I decided to find the original, which turned out to be Chapter 8 Nidhi Kanda Sutta.

According to wikipedia, Khuddhaka Patha (Khuddaka Patha) is a collection f instructional sutras for novice monks known as a patha, which is in Pali, the liturgical language of Theravada Buddhism i.e. it is use in their sutras for their monks.

On finding the original, it was apparent that the text has all the necessary information for the Buddhist: the spiritual treasures and their result.

So here are the treasures of virtue which the Buddhist novice monk practices:

"giving, virtue, restraint, & self-control, with regard to a shrine, the Sangha, a fine individual, guests, mother, father, or elder sibling." &mdash: Khaddakapatha: 8 Nidhi Kanda / The Reserve Fund

Next comes the divine treasures which are gained by the Buddhist novice monk:

"Whatever devas aspire to, all that is gained by this. A fine complexion, fine voice, a body well-built, well-formed, lordship, a following: all that is gained by this. Earthly kingship, supremacy, the bliss of an emperor, kingship over devas in the heavens: all that is gained by this. The attainment of the human state, any delight in heaven, the attainment of Unbinding: all that is gained by this. Excellent friends, appropriate application, [1] mastery of clear knowing & release: [2] all that is gained by this. Acumen, [3] emancipations, [4] the perfection of disciplehood: all that is gained by this. Private Awakening, [5] Buddhahood: all that is gained by this." — ibid.

Additionally, the notes for the instructional sutra are very useful for understanding what is actually meant by the original word or phrase in a sutra. Often the original word or phrase was chosen to fit the accent in a metrical foot of verse.

appropriate application == proper practice of the Dhamma (Dharma)

mastery of clear knowing & release == Clear knowing = knowledge of previous lives, knowledge of the passing away and arising (rebirth) of beings, knowledge of the ending of the mental fermentations: sensual passion, becoming, views, ignorance. Release = release from the cycle of rebirth.

Acumen == acumen with regard to the Dhamma, to its meaning, to language, & to quick-wittedness. These four talents are found in some, but not all, arahants.

Emancipations == "Eight Emancipations" in Maha-Nidana Sutta (Sutra)

Private Awakening: Awakening as a Private Buddha, one who can gain Awakening without relying on the teachings of others, but who cannot formulate the Dhamma in the way a Full Buddha can.


Reference:

Originally posted October 30, 2005 at 2321H
Edited: February 10, 2013 at 2150H


Kornfield quote from: http://www.sinc.sunysb.edu/Clubs/buddhism/newsletter/news175.html

Khaddakapatha: 8 Nidhi Kanda Sutta / The Reserve Fund: http://www.accesstoinsight.org/tipitaka/kn/khp/khp.1-9.than.html#khp-8

Pali: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pali

"Eight Emancipations" in Maha-Nidana Sutta (Sutra): http://www.accesstoinsight.org/tipitaka/dn/dn.15.0.than.html

Khaddakapatha: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Khuddakapatha

Theravada Buddhism in Sri Lanka and Burma and Its Influence on Nationalism

Considering the Theravada stream of Buddhism in countries such as Sri Lanka and Burma, the Buddhist monks wield a lot of power.

Due to their influence in Sri Lanka, the government instituted a Sinhala-only policy which led Sinhala nationalists to attack Tamils and Sinhala people who protected Tamils. This led to civil war and only ended when Sri Lankan army killed the leader of the Tamil Tigers. The Sinhala-only policy was the result of early oppression of Buddhists by Christian and Hindu peoples during the colonial era.

Today, the civil war has ended. The last leader Pathmanathan of the Tamil Tigers was captured in 2009, and collaborated with the Sri Lankan government, exposing the Tamil crime network. Afterwards, Pathmanathan created an NGO to rehabilitate his people.



This year on the Bangladesh-Myanmar border, Myanmar Buddhists of Rakhine State are in conflict with Rohingya Muslims. After a Rakhine woman was raped in June, a Rakhine mob killed 10 Rohingya men. Since then, the violence has escalated to the point where both Rohingya and Rakhine leaders have condemned it. Buddhist organizations in Myanmar which supported democracy are blocking humanitarian aid to the Rohingya Muslims. In October, another riot occurred. Myanmar classified the Rohingyas as immigrants and thus not eligible for citizenship

Ironically, Bangladesh claims they are too poor to open up refugee camps for the Rohingya. If this is true, then most likely it is because international bankers have ruined Bangladeshi economy.

In both cases though, British colonialism appears to have been the facilitator of oppression against Buddhists which led to later strife in Sri Lanka.

In the case of Myanmar, British colonialism led to Burma being taken over by Indians, mostly Muslim. By the time British authorities realized the danger of ethnic rivalry between Rohingya and Rakhine peoples Japan had invaded Burma.

After WW2, much of the seeds for strife was sown when mujahids were formed for holy war, first to separate Mayu frontier from Arakan province in Burma and annex it with East Pakistan. When that was suppressed, mujahideens then rose up during Bangladesh independence in 1971. In recent years, the mujahideens wish for an independent or autonomous Mayu.


Sadly though, because the British Empire became no more after WW2, its subsequent decolonization and decline means that the UK no longer is obliged to undo what it has done to Sri Lanka and Burma prior to WW2 i.e. allowing free migration of Indians. Nationalism has helped alleviate resentment in both Sri Lanka and Burma, as most Indians returned to the newly formed India.

In both nations, the Theravada Buddhists are biased against non-Buddhists. When Buddhism is combined with nationalism, it sometimes results in sectarian violence against a minority of a different religion (Tamil Hindus in Sri Lanka and Rohingya Muslims in Burma.


References:

Sri Lanka Civil War: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sri_Lankan_civil_war

2012 Rakhine State riots: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2012_Rakhine_State_riots

Rohingya history:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rohingya#History

If the Left Thinks Buddhism is Authoritarian, They Need to Think Again!

I have never understood how the New Left can mistake Buddhism as only a religion when it, like the Tao, is also a philosophy and a psychology. Their criticism of Buddhism appears to be almost the same as it is for Christianity

Here is how their logic works: Buddhism is a religion. All religions are authoritarian. Therefore, Buddhism is authoritarian.

Confounding this logic is another one involving both Christianity and Buddhism: Buddhism is a religion. Christianity is a religion. Therefore Buddhism is like Christianity.

It is this second logical premise which is a false one, because it is a broad generalization that is invalid.

If Buddhism was like Christianity or even Judaism, then all those Western Christian and Jewish converts should have searched for the esotoeric in Christianity and Judaism such as Gnosticism and early Hasidism.

However, the New Left is notorious for using invalid logical premises to justify its activism, especially the violence-prone Black Bloc and especially in light of the Left's willingness to let agents provacateurs of the State lead and train other activists in what is essentially criminal acts of vandalism.

Returning to Buddhism, I will state that some forms of Buddhism may be considered authoritarian. Theravada Buddhism is a good example of this in Sri Lanka since a needless civil war by the Hindu Tamils was started by the Sinhala-dominated government insisting on Theravada Buddhism being the State religion.

Elsewhere, Theravada Buddhism is so enshrined in Thailand that there is a law that says any disrespect for Buddhism is disrespect for the King of Thailand, and subjects anyone who publicly expresses disrespect to a jail term.

Given the state of the prison system in Thailand, a Buddhist zealot among the guards could easily make your life a living hell just for being vocal about your non-belief in Buddhism. For dissing the Buddha in Thailand is diss the King!!

Also, within the Theravada sangha, women are there to serve the priests. While they are able to become nuns, they are not allowed to become a part of the hierarchy. According to their sutras, women are excluded from becoming a Buddha unless they are reborn as men.

I challenge this sexist notion because women after menopause have been known to grow beards! Therefore post-menopausal nuns should be allowed to become venerable Buddhist priests too..

Returning to the Left and their generalization about Buddhism as authoritarian, my examples do not prove that Buddhism is inherently authoritarian. Instead, they prove that Theravada Buddhism is authoritarian and sexist in some cases.

It is invalid logic to apply this specific example of authoritarianism to all of Buddhism as a generalization because in America, there are Zen masters who are female.

However, I feel that because of lack of a comprehensive education about Buddhism, the New Left movement may have a few members mistake it for a form of authoritarianism.

As well, I call for any New Left activist to fully explore Buddhism before generalizing about what it is, in addition to Googling it on the Internet. For you cannot confront the truth about Buddhism merely by relying on incomplete sources of knowledge. Rather, all the many schools of Buddhism need to be studied throughly before assessing it as something it isn't.

For it is invalid logic to state that since Theravada Buddhism is sometimes authoritarian and sexist, that Mahayana Buddhism is likewise the same. For there are many flavors of Buddhism and I assure you that Mahayana has more different flavors.

Buddhism Isn't About A King in Heaven

Buddhism is documented to have a founder who went to a Buddhist Heaven through a process called parinirvana, and vehemently denied he will reincarnate. In fact, there is no affirmed reincarnation of the Buddha because that would be sacrilege.

Instead you can pick and choose of several Buddhas to acquire wisdom, conquer illness, live a long life of boundless compassion and/or acquire boundless wisdom, etc. knowing full well that they actually represent various aspects or qualities of the mind.

All the devas, daemons and other mythological creatures have had the Buddhadharma preached to them, thus making them protectors of the Dharma.

And even they too represent qualities of the mind.

Are you following me now?

Buddhism is all about the mind, and protecting it from suffering through meditation, firs to calm your mind until it can clearly realize peace of mind as path to happiness.

Even the different worlds in Buddhist cosmology from hell to hungry ghost to human to devas to Tusita Heaven are merely qualities of the human mind!

Indeed, the old Zen saying, "If you see the Buddha, kill hiom!", actually means "If you have a vision of the Buddha, awaken from your dream since it is not the Buddha but your desire to become a buddha."

Thus, Buddhism is actually an Asian psychology which will drive the mad even crazier and render the truly devoted, devoted, gentle, and peaceful.

However, the Lesser Vehicle of the Way of the Monks is known to turn said monks into mighty warriors both in Sri Lanka and in Southeast Asia.

Sadly though, they happen to be sexist and old-fashioned.

Such is the way of South East Asia.

As for Buddhism, there isn't a king in heaven. There are five Wisdom Buddhas which are reflections of the wisdom of the primordial Buddha, the Adi-Buddha, who actually isn't a living being.

One can say Adi-Buddha was present before everything else in the universe existed but not in the sense of an actual living being.

Imagine though that the Adi-Buddha is in the centre of 108 peaceful and wrathful deities who are reflections of it. Imagine further that all famous sages and Bodhiattvas are too reflections of the Adi-Buddha. Imagine even further than you and I are also reflection of Adi-Buddha, for we are all potential buddhas.

Yet Adi-Buddha is first and foremost the Original Beginning, the Unending One, and the ultimate reality all in one, and then some!

Adi-Buddha does not create; for he is the originator of what became this universe.

It is he who pours out the stuff of which this reality is made of.

All phenomena is symbolically represented by the primordial nature of Adi-Buddha; for all phenomena have in Adi-Buddha their collective source,

Being in a continuous, eternal co-relation with the deity, Adi-Buddha also represents the non-duality of the individual's mind and the cosmos, which are interrelated.

For your mind creates the cosmos, just as the cosmos creates the atoms of which your body consists and the air that your breath.

Who needs a king in heaven when you have Adi-Buddha being the source of reality itself?

Who needs a creator god when Adi-Buddha is the origin of the universe itself?

Five Wisdom Buddhas: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Five_Wisdom_Buddhas
Adi-Buddha: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Adi-Buddha
Dharmakaya: click on the label "Dharmakaya"

A reflection on Buddhism: More than Religion

Just one man awoke while his society slept, leaving a life of splendor for the simple life: the Middle Path which all seek.

Centuries pass, and the Middle Path develops a priestly path of sages.

With six revisions of what the Buddha said, written for the record, comes a layperson's reaction to the sages' path. In essence, this is how the Mahayana path evolves, transforming kingdoms in Central Asia and in time, blooming far and wide, around the world.

Yet, to call Buddhism religion is to completely miss the point. It is not just a religion. For while most religions relieve our doubts about heaven and hell, the Buddha never discussed such things.

For it was He who set out to discover the Four Noble Truths to relieve the suffering in the continuous cycle of birth, life, and death - the wheel of life called samsara.

Links in text:

http://acc6.its.brooklyn.cuny.edu/~phalsall/texts/bud-ser1.html

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Theravada

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Buddhist_Council

http://www.zip.com.au/~lyallg/RiseMahyan.htm

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mahayana

http://biblia.com/theology/buddhism6.htm

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dharma_wheel

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Samsara

Where's the Horse?

Q: I can observe anger and work with greed, but how does one observe delusion?

A: You're riding a horse and asking "Where's the horse?" Pay attention.

-Ajahn Chah

In this quote by the Buddhist monk Ajahn Chah, the horse refers to the fettered mind, full of delusion.

For the purpose of meditation is to relieve the mind of spiritual delusion, leaving it unfettered.

Thus, the question - "How does one observe delusion?" - shows inattention.

Like a rider on a horse,
I ride in control of my mind.
I rise above anger, greed, and delusion
with attentive concentration.

Like a rider on a horse,
I ride in control of my mind.
Free of fetters, the mind cares
for the body to become as one.

Like a rider on a horse,
I ride in control of my mind.
In taking care of the body,
the mind discovers unconditional love.