A couple of weeks ago, I reviewed a CD by Chinmaya Dunster, which I said was a bit “whangy-twangy” due to the style and the instruments he used, which included the sitar. This one is similar in many respects, but this CD is almost exclusively sitar music.
From the cover: “Sitar Secrets is yet another mesmerizing album from ambient sound architect Al Gromer Khan. At once entrancing and meditative, yet seductive and passionate, the intense rhythms and sounds of Sitar Secrets will completely envelop and enthrall you. Excellent for chill-out and progressive ambience, wonderful for yoga and meditation, a unique melding of traditional Indian and modern ambient music.”
There are nine tracks on this CD, ranging between 2:36 up to 14:08 minutes long. The tracks, while all being sitar-heavy and therefore similar, do not all sound alike; some tracks are very distinctive and even have a slight tune to them. This would be yet another excellent addition to a “meditation music” library. If you like the sitar and are looking to add an ambient Indian mood to your meditations, this would be an excellent choice.
I have included links to download this CD in MP3 format directly from Amazon and/or iTunes right now. The physical CD will not be released until the middle of February.
Hello, I am a teenager who was raised a Catholic and now looks towards Buddhism. My question is, is there a specific day to go to temple? Much like the Christian Sunday masses? Also, can you please tell me what goes on at a temple? If I visit one, what goes on during a ceremony? Thank you for the podcasts and the daily emails- they’ve helped me understand a lot!
Answer:
Buddhist Sabbath Day:
From my own experience, most temples are open for services on Sunday. Here in the West, that’s probably just due to tradition; the majority of people are Christians and have always gone to church on Sunday, and that’s spilled over into Buddhism as well. I noticed the same thing while I was in Japan; most people went on Sunday morning. This may simply be because that’s when they have time off from work. There is no particular “Sabbath Day” in Buddhism.
What does a small Buddhist church/temple do?
I’ve been to some of the oldest temples in Japan, and things are quite different over there, but I assume you want to know about local American/Western temples and churches. So I’ll talk about the local Dayton area sangha:
Here in Dayton, Ohio, the only temple is a very small Tibetan place. On Saturday they offer beginning meditation lessons and on Sunday, they have regular services. They are closed the rest of the week unless they have something special planned.
On Sunday morning. people arrive and some do prostrations to the statues and pictures, while others just go sit on a cushion.
Then there is a short dharma discussion, led by a member of the sangha; there is no priest, monk, guru, or any kind of leader at this place. Although they regularly host guest teachers, they are mostly just a group of laypeople.
After the dharma talk, there is about 25 minutes of silent group meditation.
Then they read from a little booklet, The 37 Practices of Bodhisattvas and they read all 37 of them in unison which takes about ten minutes. Some people read from the little booklet, while others have memorized it.
After this, they do Green Tara, which is a form of chanting meditation. They recite in English and Tibetan. After several pages of simply reading the text, they come to a point where the Tibetan is ‚ÄúOm Tare Tutare Ture Svaha‚Äù which they repeatedly chant for nearly twenty minutes. I believe it’s 108 repetitions, once for every bead on a set of mala beads.
Then they pray for the Dalai Lama and the Rinpoche who originally set up the sangha years ago, and then they all go home.
And that’s pretty much it. They vary the Dharma talk every week, but it’s mostly something along those lines. That’s the local group here, although I suspect Tibetan groups do something pretty similar everywhere. Obviously, I have been to this temple, but I personally don’t embrace the Tibetan route. I prefer Zen, but that’s not really an option around here.
Perhaps others could describe what goes on in their local sanghas in the comment section.
I was rared in the Monotheistic traditions and my question is basic. It concerns iconography and the reason why Buddhist pray to idols.
Arguably, Buddha himself was suspicious of being venerated. And it would be nice to know how contemporary Buddhist rationalise the practice.
It is intriguing to see the Tibetans do their prostrations and in manner not unlike Orthodox Christians (whose influence on Islamic prayer worship has been remarked).
Answer:
I’m going to quote Pema Ch√∂dr√∂n for the rest of this post:
Pema Chodron
‘Not at all! A piece of clay or bronze or jade is not the object of our respect and worship. When we bow before Buddha images, we are recalling the qualities of the enlightened beings. It is their impartial love and compassion, generosity, morality, patience, joyous effort, concentration and wisdom that we are showing respect to. The statue or painting serves to remind us of the qualities of the Buddha, and it is the qualities, not the clay, that we are bowing to. We need not have a statue in front of us in order to bow to or respect the Buddhas and their qualities.
For example, if we go to a place far away from our family, we think about them and feel much love. But we also like to have a photo of them with us to remember them better. When we look at the photo and feel love for our family, we are not loving the paper and ink of the photo! The photo merely strengthens our memory. It is similar with a statue or painting of the Buddha.
By showing respect to the Buddhas and their qualities, we are inspired to develop these extraordinary qualities on our own mind streams. We become like the people we respect. When we take the love-kindness and wisdom of the Buddhas as our example, we strive to become like them’.
So what do you think? Does this seem like a reasonable explanation to you, or do you think this is still justification for worshipping idols?
As a young soul interested in entering the path of Buddhism, what is a good way to start? I find it almost overwhelming to just start, I meditate, I practice key points of the dharma and live accordingly. I am told I am thinking too much, but if you could give me a sort of step by step start up guide, it would be a great help for the transition process.
Thanks again for all that you are…and all that you continue to teach us.
Answer:
Excellent question, and one that I am asked increasingly often. We’ve moved past the really beginner stuff here on the DB site and newsletter, but new folks keep joining us. For the rest of this week, I am going to present a series on “Getting Started in Buddhism.” Old-timers and long-term readers probably already know all this already, but reviewing the basics once a year isn’t going to hurt.
What is Buddhism?
By Brian Schell
Buddhism is a path of real-world practices and internal spiritual development which lead to insight into the true nature of life. Practices such as meditation are means of changing oneself in order to develop and perfect the qualities of awareness, kindness, and wisdom. The methods developed within the Buddhist tradition over thousands of years have created an incredible array of resources for all those who wish to follow the path which ultimately culminates in Enlightenment or Buddhahood. The foundation of Buddhism is the Fourfold Noble Truth:
1. The world is full of suffering and stress.
2. The cause of this suffering and stress is desire and irrational grasping.
3. If this desire can be removed, then suffering and stress will be ended.
4. Desire can be removed by following the Noble Eightfold Path:
1) Right Views
2) Right Thoughts
3) Right Speech
4) Right Conduct
5) Right Livelihood
6) Right Effort
7) Right Mindfulness
8) Right Concentration
Because Buddhism does not include the idea of worshipping a God, some people do not consider it as a religion, but more of a philosophy. The basic teachings of Buddhism are straightforward and practical: nothing is permanent; actions have consequences; but change is possible. Thus Buddhism addresses itself to all people irrespective of race, nationality, or gender. It also teaches practical methods such as meditation which enable people to make use of its teachings in order to transform their lives, to be fully responsible for those lives and to develop the desirable qualities of Wisdom and Compassion.
Buddhism began about 523 B.C.E., and the historical Buddha, Shakyamuni Buddha by name, was a Hindu from northern India. His birthplace, Lumpini, is now part of Nepal. The “bible” of Buddhism is the “Tripitaka,” or Three Baskets, is formed of the Sutta (Sutras of the Buddha), Vinaya (precepts for the Sangha), and the Abhidhamma (higher teachings, or analytical writings about the higher states). The oldest extant manuscripts date to the first century B.C.E. There are various sects of Buddhism, and they all place more or less emphasis and value on written scriptures.
There are approximately 362 million buddhists in the world. There are many different forms of Buddhism, which developed and grew as it spread from India and Nepal throughout Asia. The three main vehicles are Theravada (sometimes known as Hinayana), Mahayana and Tantrayana (also known as Vajrayana). Theravada is the oldest tradition and is practiced predominently in Sri Lanka, Thailand, Burma, Cambodia, and Laos. Theravada practice has the goal of reaching the state of nirvana, becoming an arhat, and achieving liberation from the cycle of rebirth. Mahayana predominates in Northern India, China, Japan, and Vietnam. Tantrayana predominates in Tibet, Nepal, and Mongolia. Both Mahayana and Tantrayana practice is primarily to help all sentient beings reach enlightenment and in doing so achieve both nirvana and buddhahood. In Tantrayana additional tantric practices are used in order to achieve Buddhahood more quickly.
Yesterday we briefly mentioned the Buddhist tendency to be peaceful and nonviolent. This idea has come up many times in the past, but we’ve never really looked into it too deeply. The Sanskrit term for this idea is ahimsa, which literally translates to “the avoidance of violence,” but generally is stated in English as “Do no harm.” The idea and the word pre-date Buddhism going way back in Hinduism.
Ahimsa is primarily a term from Hinduism, and is better known to Buddhists as the First Precept: “I undertake the training rule to abstain from taking life.”
Some groups do go to great lengths to avoid killing anything, even insects. Followers of Jainism (not a sect of Buddhism, but a whole other religion if you haven’t heard of it), go out of their way so as not to hurt even small insects and other minuscule animals and make considerable efforts not to injure plants in everyday life as far as possible. For Buddhists, the ideas of ahimsa preclude going to war or murder, and although hotly debated, are the center of the argument for vegetarianism. Are there limits? Practically yes. In our modern lives, it’s hard to avoid killing insects. Vegetarianism is not required for most Buddhists. Sometimes war is forced upon us.
Do you apply the first precept consciously in your life? I suspect few of us have ever killed a person, but do you actually use this precept consciously in your day-to-day life? How? I’d like yo hear your experiences!
Jiun, a Shingon master, was a well-known Sanskrit scholar of the Tokugawa era. When he was young he used to deliver lectures to his brother students.
His mother heard about this and wrote him a letter:
“Son, I do not think you became a devotee of the Buddha because you desired to turn into a walking dictionary for others. There is no end to information and commentation, glory and honor. I wish you would stop this lecture business. Shut yourself up in a little temple in a remote part of the mountain. Devote your time to meditation and in this way attain true realization.”
So what do you think? Was she right or wrong?
Comment below!
Guest post time again! I don’t have anyone lined up for next week, so if you’re in the mood to do some writing, send me an email.
This week, we have Philip Miller, who first discovered Buddhism fifty years ago but only recently came grasp it. He’s a member of the Heart of the Lotus Sangha, Princeton NJ. Today, he writes about a chance meeting he had three years ago. It was an incident so powerful that he tried to record the gentleman’s words from memory as he rode home on the bus:
Phil Miller
The Man on the Subway by Philip Miller
Last night I had one of those rare “New York Moments” that intersected with the spiritual plane.
I had boarded my customary E Train at West Fourth Street and proceeding uptown to 42nd Street and the Port Authority Bus Terminal for my ride home to New Jersey. The train was packed, as usual, and most of my fellow passengers who were seated were either immersed in their newspapers or books or were dosing, and those who were standing were holding on for dear life in that packed train.
At the next stop, 14th Street, an African American gentleman got on. He stood about 6’4, built like a linebacker, and was nattily dressed in a modish suit, the kind that one might expect to see worn to church on Sunday. Even before the doors closed he began to harangue the passengers like a Bible-belt preacher in a mellifluous and stentorian voice.
The passengers, typical New Yorkers, seemded unruffled by this distraction on their commute home., and I admit, I too wanted to tune him out.
But his voice boomed over the noise of the train and I found myself straining to catch what he was saying. Before we reached 42nd Street I heard him say:
“You are probably wondering when I am going to pass the hat. Well, I am not. I only want you to do one thing for me. Please look at the person sitting or standing next to you and recognize the image of God in that person’s face. Each face carries the beauty of God. We are all kind to our family and friends. But think about the beauty of God in that stranger next to you, and realize whatever kindness or selfless act you perform for ANY stranger only increases God’s beauty in you. I am not asking for money. Only for you to see God everywhere and in everyone around you.”
At 42nd Street he bounded off the train and walked with such enormous strides that I was completely unable to keep up with him, let alone reach to thank him for allowing me that moment of Grace.
No, he did not preach in the name of Buddha, but his words were clearly “Dharma.”
Wikipedia defines Dharma [upper case] as “a … spiritual and religious term that means one’s righteous duty, or any virtuous path in the common sense of the term…” Further on, it says that it “contextually implies one’s religion…, ” and is presented as a central concept that is used in order to explain the ‘higher truth’ or ultimate reality of the universe.
It was once explained to me that dharma [lower case] at its root had nothing to do with religion and simply means “experience; event; happening.” As such, anything and everything that happens to us is “dharma,” and our Karma determines our “dharma.”
The wise person learns from every experience, event, or happening, for even something that externally may appear to be negative has a positive side.
The “dharma = experience” of hearing this gentleman at that time and place, as well as the message he brought was clearly “Dharma.”
AFTERWORD
About two weeks after this happened, I was on the E Train going uptown at about the same time. As I alighted at 42nd Street I found myself in the passageway next to this same gentleman. He had obviously been on a different car of the same train.
This time I stopped him and thanks him for his message. Squeezing my hand in his, he replied, “How can you thank me for something you already own?”
With than, he leaned forward, kissed me on the cheek, released my hand, and bounded away.
Phil doesn’t have a website, but if you post comments below, he’ll be sure to see them.
I (along with what seemed like about everyone else on Earth) was watching the US Presidential inauguration on Tuesday and Twittering about it at the same time. I was being a bit negative, or perhaps overly realistic, when I asked something along the lines of, “Are we expecting too much? Can he actually DO all this? Can ANYONE?” during the new President’s inaugural speech. As always on Twitter, someone called me on that statement, asking “What does Buddha say about expectations?” Touche.
All right then, what is the Buddhist perspective on expectations?
We’ve looked at being “in the present” a few times here already. Buddhists are supposed to live in the present moment, but it would be unrealistic not to have expectations and plans about the future. The real problem, as you can probably guess, comes from being overly involved with those expectations. Think about the greatest disappointments or the greatest sadness you have ever personally had to face in your life. I think, at least in my own experience, that broken expectations and disappointment in things that I had built-up in my own mind have been the worst.
If it comes right down to it, you can exchange the word “expectation” to “attachment” in most cases. If you do this, you can already see where I’m heading. As Buddhists, we already know that being overly attached to anything is bad, and being attached to expectations may be the worst of all. Being Buddhists, we need to try to look at things as they really are by stripping away the illusions imposed by our minds. Take things as they come, good or bad. Prepare for the future, but make every effort not to be too attached to the outcome.
Recently I’ve cut down drastically on my use of harsh language in an offensive manner, but I’m wondering on something. Me and my friends will ridicule each other and call each other unbelievably horrid things, just to joke around. We all know it, and in case any of them ever take me seriously I quickly make sure that they know I’m joking, and it’s all in the spirit of fun. Which they then understand and we continue. What do you think about this?
Answer:
I think this may be more of a question for a psychologist than a Buddhist, but I’ll give it a shot. There are two ways of looking at this:
1) You and your friends all know you’re only kidding, and as long as no one gets carried away or angry, it’s all in good fun. No harm done. I have friends that I “snipe” with as well. It’s really a matter of intention and how close you are. Still, it can very easily lead to problems.
2) It’s easy to go too far and cause hurt. You never know when it’s going to happen, but it can happen, and when it does, it’ll be too late to correct. Everyone knows not to call children “stupid” and other things; we all know their self-esteem will be damaged. Adults have thicker skins, but over time, it will wear through.
3) Another thing to consider is that words, even in jest, have power. Constant repetition of certain words used as an insult do lead to real social problems. As an example, there is a certain derogatory word associated with homosexuals (the “other” F-word) that I hear used constantly among teenagers, and this has to amplify any teens’ fears or homophobia. If it’s that insulting to be called one, then it must be really terrible to actually be one, right?
It’s very easy for words to cause suffering in subtle and not-so-subtle ways. Although verbal humorous sniping is usually socially acceptable in limited amounts, as a Buddhist, you need to think through the whole picture and decide where the fun stops and the suffering begins.
Soyen Shaku, the first Zen teacher to come to America, said: “My heart burns like fire but my eyes are as cold as dead ashes.” He made the following rules which he practiced every day of his life.
In the morning before dressing, light incense and meditate.
Retire at a regular hour. Partake of food at regular intervals. Eat with moderation and never to the point of satisfaction.
Receive a guest with the same attitude you have when alone. When alone, maintain the same attitude you have in receiving guests.
Watch what you say, and whatever you say, practice it.
When an opportunity comes do not let it pass by, yet always think twice before acting.
Do not regret the past. Look to the future.
Have the fearless attitude of a hero and the loving heart of a child.
Upon retiring, sleep as if you had entered your last sleep. Upon awakening, leave your bed behind you instantly as if you had cast away a pair of old shoes.
A couple of weeks ago, I reviewed a CD by Chinmaya Dunster, which I said was a bit “whangy-twangy” due to the style and the instruments he used, which included the sitar. This one is similar in many respects, but this CD is almost exclusively sitar music.
I was rared in the Monotheistic traditions and my question is basic. It concerns iconography and the reason why Buddhist pray to idols.
