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Monthly Archives: July 2008
Koan: Obedience
Koan: ObedienceThe master Bankei’s talks were attended not only by Zen students but by persons of all ranks and sects. He never quoted sutras nor indulged in scholastic dissertations. Instead, his words were spoken directly from his heart to the hearts of his listeners.His large audience angered a priest of the Nichiren sect because the adherents had left to hear about Zen. The self-centered Nichiren priest came to the temple, determined to have a debate with Bankei.”Hey, Zen teacher!” he called out. “Wait a minute. Whoever respects you will obey what you say, but a man like myself does not respect you. Can you make me obey you?””Come up beside me and I will show you,” said Bankei.Proudly the priest pushed his way through the crowd to the teacher.Bankei smiled. “Come over to my left side.”The priest obeyed.”No,” said Bankei, “we may talk better if you are on the right side. Step over here.”The priest proudly stepped over to the right.”You see,” observed Bankei, “you are obeying me and I think you are a very gentle person. Now sit down and listen.”
The OTHER Precepts
The Other Precepts
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A Reader recently wrote:
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As someone is relatively new to Buddhism, I have read about the sixth precept of not eating untimely meals. What does this mean to a western Buddhist?
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And my response:
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We only talked about FIVE precepts, but depending on your group, there may be more. In some cases, there are as many as several hundred (for new monks).
The sixth precept goes something like this:
In observing the sixth precept, the lay Buddhist eats one or two simple meals between dawn and noon and avoids taking food beyond that. This cuts down the time spent on meals and allows him more time to spend on mediation.
The sixth precept also follows the practice of bhikkhus and aims at cutting down the sloth which is experienced after a day’s work and a substantial evening meal, while it ensures that the body is light and fit for meditative practice. In the precept, the words “outside the time” mean after twelve noon until dawn the following day. During this time no food is eaten. However, some flexibility will be needed here with people going out to work. For them it would mean no food after their midday lunch until breakfast the next day. If one is troubled by tiredness after work on a day when these precepts are undertaken then tea or coffee are allowable as refreshing drinks. If hunger is the trouble then cocoa (or even plain chocolate) should cure it. None of these refreshments should contain milk, which is considered a food, though sugar, honey and butter are allowed (to bhikkhus, and therefore to lay people keeping the Eight Precepts), presumably because one can take only a little of these things. Fruit juices which have been strained (without fruit pulp) are other possible drinks.
And just to head it off before anyone asks, the next two precepts are:
7. I undertake the rule of training to refrain from dancing, singing, music, going to see entertainments, wearing garlands, smartening with perfumes and beautifying with cosmetics.
8. I undertake the rule of training to refrain from a high or large sleeping-place.
Yes, #8 tells us to sleep on a floormat, not on a raised bed. This has some historical meaning as not to try to rise above your station in life. Several times last week we discussed the way Buddhism changes over time concerning science. By the same logic, changing social rules have some impact on Buddhism as well: Do you really get arrogant by sleeping on a raised bed? Remember also, precept #6 was written long before electricity and the ability to stay up long past dark; in many cases, our days are far longer than they were in those days.
If you look back at Thich Nhat Hanh’s version of the 5 precepts, he pretty much covers most of the stuff contained in #7 in his discussion of intoxicants (bad TV, etc). His version also makes more sense. I think there’s a reason TNH went with only the first five precepts.
The question being how do these new precepts affect Westerners? I’d really like to say that they are primarily intended for monks, but they are specifically for laypeople. Instead, I’m going to go way out on a limb and say I don’t follow them, and I feel no guilt whatsoever about ignoring these.
Am I wrong?
Various Short Topics
Creation And Evolution in Buddhism
Creation and Evolution
Creation occurs repeatedly throughout time in cycles. In the beginning of each cycle, land forms, in darkness, on the surface of the water. Beings who populated the universe in the previous cycle are reborn; some of them become the “new” humans in the new universe. Suffering and misery reigns. That is where we stand today. Eventually, the universe breaks down; all living creatures return to the soul life, and the cycle repeats. This is essentially the same as the Big Bang/Big Crunch theory, only integrating the ideas of reincarnation and karma. This is once again a remnant of Buddhism’s basis in Hinduism. Although there are minor differences in details, most Buddhists believe these essential ideas or something close.
There is no Creator god. There is no “Creation” in the usual Christian-like way of looking at it. Some older Buddhist stories do indeed involve some kind of god or gods making the creation happen. Today, these are generally accepted as symbolic stories and allegories for the more scientific “Big Bang” theory mentioned above.
For the same reasons, most Buddhists also accept the theory of Evolution. Simple life forms evolved and changed until the creatures we know today existed.
As I mentioned in the review of the Dalai Lama’s book a few days ago, he, as well as most Buddhists, accepts scientific thought over Buddhist myths whenever there are conflicting ideas or theories. This is why Buddhism is usually considered the most logical and rational of belief systems.
Buddhist Symbology
Koan: Is That So?
The Zen master Hakuin was praised by his neighbours as one living a pure life. A beautiful Japanese girl whose parents owned a food store lived near him. Suddenly, without any warning, her parents discovered she was with child. This made her parents angry. She would not confess who the man was, but after much harassment at last named Hakuin. In great anger the parent went to the master. “Is that so?” was all he would say. After the child was born it was brought to Hakuin. By this time he had lost his reputation, which did not trouble him, but he took very good care of the child. He obtained milk from his neighbours and everything else he needed. A year later the girl-mother could stand it no longer. She told her parents the truth – the real father of the child was a young man who worked in the fishmarket. The mother and father of the girl at once went to Hakuin to ask forgiveness, to apologize at length, and to get the child back. Hakuin was willing. In yielding the child, all he said was: “Is that so?”
Bodhisattvas
Bodhisattvas
We all know Buddha achieved his enlightenment and reached Nirvana. But many others have done it as well. Then what? Well, no one knows and we can only speculate on what really happens when a being reaches Nirvana and leaves the cycle of rebirth. However, what happens if a person achieves Enlightenment and chooses NOT to exit the rebirth cycle? This is what the Bodhisattvas have done.
Simply put, a Bodhisattva is a person who has achieved perfect enlightenment, but rather than leave the cycle of rebirth, has chosen to remain behind and help others reach that goal; in a way it’s the ultimate form of self-sacrifice. They have given up their great reward to help others.
Some groups also expand the definition of Bodhisattva to include people who are still seeking enlightenment, but make great efforts to help others. Obviously, this second expanded definition includes many more people. People who choose to can take the Bodhisattva vows. These vows are different for each sect of Buddhism, but the vows for the Zen sect go like this:
I vow to liberate all beings, without number.
I vow to uproot endless blind passions.
I vow to penetrate dharma gates beyond measure.
I vow to attain the way of the Buddha.
“Without number”, “endless”, “beyond measure” … These sound like hyperbole, but they mean it. Remember, by giving up on leaving the cycle of rebirth, they have unlimited lifetimes to accomplish their goal. The goal? To help every living thing in the world achieve enlightenment and to eliminate suffering.
Book: The Universe in a Single Atom, by the Dalai Lama
Book Review:The Universe in a Single Atom
by the Dalai Lama
Several blog posters and readers had mentioned this book a while back, and that served as a reminder to me that I’d never actually read this one. I know I’ve read excerpts, but never gone through the whole thing. So it was time to get with it and read the book.
For this one, I chose to go with the audiobook version, read by Richard Gere. I’ve seen interviews with the Dalai Lama talking with scientists in the past, and he always seemed pretty well informed. This book showed me that he’s really on top of modern scientific thought.
The introduction and first chapter were basically biographical, as the Dalai Lama explains his early scientific education (or lack thereof) and his growing realization that science was a necessity for future survival. He explains that when modern science contradicts something that traditional Buddhism has stated, he is not afraid to adjust his old ways of thinking to accept the scientific viewpoint.
There is a lot of discussion, especially in the early chapters, about quantum physics. There’s a lot of technical explanation here, and this section is a little hard to follow at times, but suffice it to say, the Dalai Lama ties quantum physics in with Buddhist teachings; we are all one, and there is no single self. It’s complicated stuff, but it all makes sense metaphysically.
In the chapter on the Big Bang and Evolution, he quickly comes to the conclusion that Buddhist (and other religions) need to revise their thinking when it comes to creation myths.
I do have to admit that the book does drag in some places and gets a little technical in others. If your complete knowledge of Buddhism is from The Daily Buddhism, then I suspect this book may be confusing in places; he discussed dozens of ancient Buddhist teachers with crazy-long names and concepts that we haven’t covered here yet. On the other hand if you want to stretch a little or have more advanced knowledge, this book doesn’t contain anything too painful.
I think the book is useful primarily to show how well Buddhism meshes with modern scientific thought, and perhaps more importantly, shows how Buddhism is willing to bend when things don’t mesh so well.
Buy From Amazon:Regular BookAudio Book:
Yama & Naraka
Yama & Naraka: Death and Hell
Yama is the personification of death, or, in the more religious versions of Buddhism, as a the god of the dead. He’s usually depicted with green or red skin, and reigns over Naraka, the Buddhist version of Hell.
Naraka is “hell” for Buddhists. People go to Naraka due to bad karma as a result of their actions. Although they can stay there a long time, their time in “hell” is not permanent. In a way, Naraka may be more comparable to ideas of purgatory than hell, but there are elements of both ideas here. There are also both hot and cold hells involved, so if you are reading about Naraka, you may see references to either hot or cold places.
