Striding Across the Bridge.

Empty-handedly I grasp the spade,

I walk but yet I am riding on an ox.

Though one strides across the bridge,
It's the bridge that flows and not the water.

-Shan-hui (善慧)

Thanks to Fred for sharing this!

Master Chin-Kung on Gratitude

Remember the

Kindness of others.

Repay the

Kindness with Gratitude.

-Master Chin-Kung


May all have a Blessed and Happy Thanksgiving.

Rantings of a "Conservative" Western Buddhist: Part II

...So just why is Pop-Dharma so popular? Why would something that's only the "tip of the iceberg" be so appealing? With just a bit more effort, one can seriously and deeply dive into a spiritual tradition that has, over the past 2500 years, lead countless people to peace, joy, and liberation. Granted, many of those in the Pop-Dharma crowd do indeed decide to make a serious commitment to some form of practice, be it zazen, vipassana, etc., but there are also many who seem unwilling/unable to move past anything more than a superficial interest.

Before continuing, I should make myself quite clear: I do not at all believe the Buddha's teachings are an all-or-nothing affair. The diverse life experiences that we have necessarily informs the way we approach our practice. How could it not? The forms of Buddhism are so varied precisely because of this fact. Chinese Buddhism is well, very Chinese. Tibetan Buddhism is Tibetan, Sri Lankan Buddhism, Sri Lankan, etc. Part of the reason the Dharma was able to spread far and wide had to do with the inherent flexibility that the teachings contain.

In the reverse direction, I think that there are many interesting insights that Buddhist teachings contain which can illuminate other traditions. Jewish Buddhists (JuBus) and Zen Christians are perhaps the most prominent examples of this kind of interaction.

The issue(s) I'm interested in don't deal with what I just mentioned but rather with how many people seem to be "stuck" in the Pop-Dharma realm. There are many out there who consciously choose to remain in (or walk away from) this spiritual dilemma but there also many others who may want/need to really "take the plunge" but are held back by something(s).

As I mentioned previously, Pop-Dharma can be useful because it allows exploration of the teachings in a casual environment but really delving into the teachings and practices requires one very important thing: commitment. The numerous jokes in pop culture (often at the expense of men) attest to the fear of "being held down" or "stripped of freedom" and while I'm sure there are many who are uncomfortable with commitment (of one form or another) I think there are other, more influential factors which keep people from committing.

There may be Third and even Fourth Generation Dharma teachers in the West but Buddhism is still not yet, by any stretch, part of the mainstream. Even though many teachers/Sanghas have made strides in adapting the teachings to a Western context, Buddhism in the West still retains a very Asian feel. The majority of Buddhists in the US for example, come from Asian backgrounds and the monastics who live and teach at these "ethnic temples" are often from the country in which that tradition belongs. When many "book Buddhists" or Pop-Dharma folks walk into a temple and see things like bowing, offerings of candles/incense, and an attitude of deference towards the monastics, alarm bells are likely to go off.

A sizable chunk of the people who wind up exploring the Buddha's teachings (myself included) are lost and wounded refugees fleeing negative experiences with Western monotheism. The experiences many of us have had automatically make us suspicious of that which resembles the things we have turned away from. For many, rituals and devotional practices are more reflective of the cultural baggage that Buddhism has accrued over the centuries and there is a popular notion that it needs to be stripped away in order to free of it its "cultural trappings". I will argue however, that the real "cultural baggage" many people need to deal with isn't so much Asian as it is Western.

It's true that Buddhism has picked up many cultural influences and the way people think about and practice Buddhism in many places is more reflective of local customs/culture than what the Sage of the Shakyas originally taught in ancient India. Now that the Dharma has arrived in the West, it will certainly have to adapt yet again but the knee-jerk iconoclasm that plagues much of Buddhism in the West is part of what Berchloz is speaking of when he talks about Western practitioners who think they're smarter than a 2500 year old tradition.

One of my favorite stories regarding iconoclasm involves the famous Ch'an master Huang Po. This particular story deals with Huang Po (a typical Zen iconoclast himself) and the young man who was then the emperor of China:

A demonstration of Huang Po’s fearlessness is given in one of P’ei Hsiu’s anecdotes. His master was attending an assembly at the Bureau of the Imperial Salt Commissioners in the presence of the Emperor. The Son of Heaven noticed Huang Po make three bows before a statue of the Buddha and asked him what he expected to gain from this. The Emperor must have been aware of his [Huang-Po's] general teaching that all rituals are a waste of time since all is the Buddha-mind. Huang Po replied that it was his custom to show respect in this way. But the Imperial grandee insisted on a doctrinal answer.

"What purpose does it serve?" he persisted, whereupon Huang Po slapped him. "You are uncouth!",� cried the Emperor.

"What?!" rejoined the master, "You are making a distinction between uncouth and refined?",� and another slap landed on the Imperial visage. It is reported that the Emperor withdrew in the face of this onslaught and Huang Po went on his way unmolested, a remarkable fact, indeed for the times.

The Buddha taught that mindlessly clinging to rites and rituals (Pali: sīlabbataparāmāsa) is one of the Ten Fetters (samyojana) which keeps us trapped in the cycle of suffering. For those with a deeply rooted suspicion of "organized religion", this teaching is exactly what the doctor ordered. There is, however, a very interesting follow up to this concept. In addition to teaching about the danger of clinging to rites and rituals, the Buddha also taught that nagging skeptical doubt (vicikicchā) with regard to the Dharma is one of the Five Hindrances (pañca nīvaraṇāni) that impede our ability to practice and free ourselves from suffering.

There is certainly no shortage of quacks, charlatans, pseudo-gurus, and holy-roller scam artists out running around and we would do well to always use our critical faculties to protect ourselves from spiritual exploitation. The Buddha himself recommended this practice with the well known phrase "ehi passiko" - come and see. Similarly, in the well known Kalama Sutta, he advises a group of spiritual seekers to only accept teachings (including his own!) after a rigorous examination. But what happens after the "trial period" when we've put the teachings into practice and had a taste of their benefits?

Skeptical doubt was just mentioned as one of the Hindrances to spiritual practice. The traditional antidote to skeptical doubt is another word that tends to make many cringe: faith. The concept of faith (Pali: saddha, Sanskrit: shraddha, श्रद्धा) in the Buddhist context is quite different from what we find in Western monotheism. Far from belief without proof, faith in the Dharma revolves around establishing confidence based on what we've experienced and verified to be true. This, in turn, allows us to have faith in other aspects of the teachings which we may or may not be able to personally verify. In other words, the more we practice, the more we develop the mindset that allows us to open our hearts/minds to deep and meaningful positive changes. Having faith in the Dharma also means that we can be open and receptive of practices that may be vastly different from our own. Despite the various traditions and emphases, all followers of the Buddha have the same goal: end suffering. Throughout the sutras, one can find glowing and uplifting praises of the virtue of faith. The Avatamsaka Sutra (Ch. 12), for example says:

Faith is the basis of the Path, the mother of virtues,
Nourishing and growing all good ways,
Cutting away the net of doubt, freeing from the torrent of passion,
Revealing the unsurpassed road of the ultimate peace.

The Great Master Nagarjuna, in his work, Precious Garland, says:

Due to having faith one relies on the practices,
Due to having wisdom one truly knows.
Of these two wisdom is the chief.
Faith is the prerequisite.

I think a big reason why folks are stuck in the Pop-Dharma realm has a lot to do with the iconoclasm I mentioned earlier. Pop-Dharma requires little to no faith which can sometimes be an excellent starting point. After all, monastics aren't in the habit of knocking on people's doors and trying to convert them to the "One True Path". The problem for Buddhism in the West however, is that mistaking Pop-Dharma for the the Real Deal effectively turns the Dharma into an ersatz spiritual, New Age, flower-power phenomenon: just another product on in the marketplace of things that make you feel good for a little while. This view deprives people from being able to make meaningful changes in their lives and at the same time, limits the power of the Buddha's teachings to change people for the better.

The Buddhadharma is often called the Middle Way because it avoids the extremes which lead us to suffering. On one had, we must avoid letting ourselves become close minded and intolerant. We must also (perhaps more relevantly) not allow our cynical, aversively skeptical tendencies shoot ourselves in the spiritual foot.

The Sutra of the Perfection of Wisdom's Diamond That Cuts Through Illusion, aka the Diamond Sutra has a useful passage to remember regarding faith and the willingness to delve into the Buddhadharma. Here (Chapter 6), the Buddha and his disciple Subhuti are discussing whether or not people in the future will have any faith in the Buddha's teachings. After affirming that there will indeed be people who not only have faith but also practice and become liberated, the Buddha talks to Subhuti about the nature of attaching to ideas and concepts. After telling Subhuti that bodhisattvas don't attach to perceptions or no-perceptions, the Buddha says:

And why not? Because, Subhuti, if these fearless bodhisattvas created the perception of a dharma, they would be attached to a self, a being, a life, and a soul. Likewise, if they created the perception of no dharma, they would be attached to a self, a being, a life, and a soul.

And why not? Because surely, Subhuti, fearless bodhisattvas do not cling to a dharma, much less no dharma. This is the meaning behind the Tathagatha's saying, "A dharma teaching is like a raft. If you should let go of dharmas, how much more so no-dharmas'?

Between Two Breathes

Observe your life, between two breaths.

Breath is a wind, both coming and going.

On this wind, you have built your life-

but how will a castle rest on a cloud?

-Ibn Sīnā Balkhi (Avicenna)

Rantings of a "Conservative" Western Buddhist: Part I

The Winter 2008 Issue of Buddhadharma magazine had a short article that I found really striking. It's taken from an interview between Thar Lam magazine and Samuel Berchloz, the founder of Shambhala Publications. The article is called "Buddhist Roadkill":

I think the most pressing issue facing Buddhism in the West is twofold. One part is that there are many Western Buddhist authors who somehow-because of their experience, or being students of Buddhism, or teachers of Buddhism for the last twenty or thirty years-are calling for a change in the way that Buddhism is taught. Their thinking is quite odd in that, based on their little bit of twenty or thirty years, or even if its forty years of being Buddhists, they think they're smarter than the 2,500-year-old tradition that has proven so worthwhile. They were turned on to this tradition when they were young, and now that they're old, because they're dissatisfied for one reason or another, they want to change it and edit it and take out the parts of it they don't like. Yes, sometimes they make intelligent observations, but I think it's extremely premature to make changes in the way Buddhism has been taught just because it's come to the West. It's extremely premature because what's been presented so far is just the tip of the iceberg of the teachings; it's not possible for the full transmission of Buddhism to take place in such a short time.

Another thing that I think is problematic in the West is this idea that Buddhism is an incomplete teaching because it doesn't deal with psychological issues. There are many avowed Buddhists who feel that without psychology, Buddhism doesn't work. That's a ridiculous thing to say, but it's said; there are dozens of books on it. The idea that the post-Freudian era has produced some great achievement is, to my way of looking at things, a joke compared to what Buddhism has done. Yes, there are people who have psychological issues. And no, meditation won't necessarily help their psychological issues. But there are other aspects of Buddhism, including a relationship with a good teacher, that in fact do deal with people's psychological issues. Many modern authors are saying that it's absolutely necessary to go to an analyst or psychoanalyst and have certain things cleared out of your system before you can really practice Buddhism. That's preposterous.

I think those issues are being pressed upon Buddhism for the most part by a generation that at this point may be frustrated. It won't last because this generation, which is my generation, is going into old age. There are new generations, and the only thing that would be really horrible is if the whiners and complainers become the ones that people listen to. There are many fine Buddhist teachers in the West who aren't whiners and complainers. Those are the ones to pay attention to, not the Buddhist roadkill-the ones who feel that Buddhism didn't deliver for them so they want to change it.

I think Berchloz's assessment is dead on, particularly the part about people who have been practicing a few decades thinking they're smarter than a 2,500-year-old tradition. It's a fact that the Buddhadharma will change now that it's reached the West. How it will morph into a new guise is unclear but we can already see some developments that are still in the embryonic phase. I'll name a few:

Engaged Buddhism: Buddhism with a decidedly "save the universe", social activist bent. Bringing back the pscyhodrama of yesteryear in a saffron colored package.
Mish-Mashing: - Dabbling/practicing various Buddhist traditions simultaneously and in some cases, even trying to mix Buddhism with other religions; Judaism and Christianity in particular.
Dharma-Lite: Watered down Buddhist teachings aimed at the general public. Tends to focus on vague/flowery ideas of feeling good.

Despite my smart-ass assessments of the above categories, I'm not entirely critical of these above movements. They all have their merits (I'm certainly "guilty" of them to varying extents) but I'd like to focus in particular on what's come to be known as "Dharma Lite". Because this phrase has taken on slightly negative connotations and because I'd like to make a fair exploration of this phenomenon, I'll use the term "Pop-Dharma" from now on.

When I first began to seriously study and practice the Buddhadharma, I had a VERY negative opinion of the Pop-Dharma crowd. To me they were flowery, indecisive, New-Agey, and suffering from a serious case of "Me-ism". They picked and choose like shoppers in the spiritual bazaar looking for the next good bargin instead of good quality "merchandise". Gradually however, my view of Pop-Dharma changed quite a bit. Maybe after looking deeply into myself (and the some of the "Dharma-Popper" in myself) and also having my heart softened by my practice, I came to see that the existence of Pop-Dharma is not only useful, but actually a necessity, at least at this point in time.

Buddhism has barely been in the West for a century and the fact that it comes to us from cultures very different from our own (Western) one means that Pop-Dharma can act as a useful springboard into serious study and practice. My guess is that this kind of "practice gradient" is how many people may have first gotten involved with the Buddha's teachings. Pop-Dharma can also serve as a venue for people to casually explore the teachings without fear of being caught up the well known malevolenent specter of "organized religion". People should be able to embrace the teachings of their own free will and because they've had a taste of the transformative power of the Dharma. Pop-Dharma makes this possible in an open, casual, and nonthreatening manner. That being said, the fact that Pop-Dharma relies on what many might easily call watered down, Cliffs-Notes, kiddie versions of more serious teachings represents a HUGE problem for establishing genuine Buddhist traditions in the West...

The Neural Buddhists

This is article was penned by NY Times columnist David Brooks back in May. He raises some very interesting ideas about the rise (and wane) of militant atheists, revolutions in neuroscience, and the beginnings of what he muses to be "neural Buddhism":

...Over the past several years, the momentum has shifted away from hard-core materialism. The brain seems less like a cold machine. It does not operate like a computer. Instead, meaning, belief and consciousness seem to emerge mysteriously from idiosyncratic networks of neural firings. Those squishy things called emotions play a gigantic role in all forms of thinking. Love is vital to brain development.

Researchers now spend a lot of time trying to understand universal moral intuitions. Genes are not merely selfish, it appears. Instead, people seem to have deep instincts for fairness, empathy and attachment.

Scientists have more respect for elevated spiritual states. Andrew Newberg of the University of Pennsylvania has shown that transcendent experiences can actually be identified and measured in the brain (people experience a decrease in activity in the parietal lobe, which orients us in space). The mind seems to have the ability to transcend itself and merge with a larger presence that feels more real.
This new wave of research will not seep into the public realm in the form of militant atheism. Instead it will lead to what you might call neural Buddhism...

Learn Pali...from Bhikkhu Bodhi!

A complete online Pali course, taught by Bhikkhu Bodhi, is available online at the Bodhi Monastery website.

The description from the website is as follows:

Pali is the language used to preserve the Buddhist canon of the Theravada Buddhist tradition, which is regarded as the oldest complete collection of Buddhist texts surviving in an Indian language. Pali is closely related to Sanskrit, but its grammar and structure are simpler. Traditional Theravadins regard Pali as the language spoken by the Buddha himself, but in the opinion of leading linguistic scholars, Pali was probably a synthetic language created from several vernaculars to make the Buddhist texts comprehensible to Buddhist monks living in different parts of northern India. It is rooted in the Prakrits, the vernacular languages, used in northern India during the Middle period of Indian linguistic evolution. As Theravada Buddhism spread to other parts of southern Asia, the use of Pali as the language of the texts spread along with it, and thus Pali became a sacred language in Sri Lanka, Myanmar, Thailand, Laos, Cambodia and Vietnam. Pali has been used almost exclusively for Buddhist teachings, although many religious and literary works related to Buddhism were written in Pali at a time when it was already forgotten in India.

This course is designed to help you to learn the basics of Pali grammar and vocabulary through direct study of selections from the Buddha’s discourses. It thus aims to enable you to read the Buddha’s discourses in the original as quickly as possible. The textbook for the course is A New Course in Reading Pali: Entering the Word of the Buddha by James Gair and W.S. Karunatilleke (1998, Motilal Banarsidass Publishers, Delhi, India. ISBN 81-208-1440-1). The Pali grammatical tables were designed by Bhikkhu Nyanatusita.

The course proceeds sequentially through the chapters, or "Lessons," in the textbook, each of which has three parts:

1. An initial set of readings and an accompanying glossary
2. Grammatical notes on the forms in the lesson
3. A set of further readings and a glossary

The lectures will be much more meaningful if the listener obtains a copy of the textbook and studies each lesson before listening to the associated set of lectures. Also, the textbook and lectures assume that the listener has a fundamental understanding of grammar. For those whose who feel that their knowledge of grammar needs refreshing, we recommend Pali Grammar for Students by Steven Collins (2006, Silkworm Books, ISBN 978-974-9511-13-8).

Observing Reality

"If men would steadily observe realities only, and not allow themselves to be deluded, life, to compare it with such things as we know, would be like a fairy tale and the Arabian Nights' Entertainments. If we respected only what is inevitable and has a right to be, music and poetry would resound along the streets. When we are unhurried and wise, we perceive that only great and worthy things have any permanent and absolute existence, that petty fears and petty pleasures are but the shadow of the reality. This is always exhilarating and sublime. By closing the eyes and slumbering, and consenting to be deceived by shows, men establish and confirm their daily life of routine and habit everywhere, which still is built on purely illusory foundations. Children, who play life, discern its true law and relations more clearly than men, who fail to live it worthily, but who think that they are wiser by experience, that is, by failure".

Henry David Thoreau in "Walden or, Life in the Woods"

Sitting Through History

On November 4th, 2008, Barack Hussein Obama was elected the 44th President of the United States of America. It's the kind of thing that will make people ask "where were you when it happened?" As it turns out, I spent most of the evening at the Berkeley Buddhist Monastery...of course.

The first Tuesday of November, aside from being the traditional election day in the US, is also part of the "First Tuesday" monthly lecture series given by the monks at Abhayagiri Monastery. It's always a great opportunity to see the monks and there's normally a packed house although this time there were, unsurprisingly, fewer people in the Buddha hall.

After the opening meditation period, Ajahn Amaro (himself a recently naturalized U.S. citizen!) made some jokes about the attendence with his characteristic wry, British style. "Hmm, I wonder where everyone could be. Is there something going on that I don't know about?"

He then eased into a Dhamma talk on a topic most appropriate for the evening: uncertainty. The main theme of his talk was that we must recognize the precarious situation we put ourselves in when we attempt to tie our happiness (or sadness) to external conditions that are always changing. It was very inspiring and I walked out of there with a feeling that even if the sky falls down, everything will be OK. That being said, I completely and wholeheartedly failed to put this teaching into practice that evening.


Shortly after leaving the monastery, received a call from my mother informing me of the news regarding Barack's blowout victory. I was absolutely ecstatic and it seemed everyone, and I mean EVERYONE seemed to be as well. Random crowds of well wishers and cars beeping their horns to the "Yes We Can!" tune could be heard everywhere. The night, however, was still quite young.

One of the guys who lives in my building and is friends with my roommate had called him up and told him about a "crazy ass victory rally" occurring on the south side of campus. Not wanting to miss any of the actions, my roommate and I went to check it out. Arriving first at Sproul Plaza (site of the Free Speech Movement many years ago) we came across a big crowd cheering and being happy. Walking further down though, we encountered a mass of revelers jamming up the intersection of Telegraph and Durant Avenues. There were hundreds, if not thousands of people singing, cheering, screaming, and celebrating a sweet fruition of the American Dream. Fortunately, I had a camera to record this epic moment and the pictures can be viewed here.

If Bill Clinton was the "first black president" then the the cool, contemplative demeanor of "No Drama Obama" most certainly makes Barack the "first Buddhist president".

Yes We Did.

A Lotus Grows in Chi-Town

The Chicago Tribune recently ran a story about Judy Franklin (now Venerable Vimala) and her fascinating path to ordaining as a nun in the Theravada tradition.

The Times They Are A-Changin'

Come gather 'round people
Wherever you roam
And admit that the waters
Around you have grown
And accept it that soon
You'll be drenched to the bone.
If your time to you
Is worth savin'
Then you better start swimmin'
Or you'll sink like a stone
For the times they are a-changin'.

Come writers and critics
Who prophesize with your pen
And keep your eyes wide
The chance won't come again
And don't speak too soon
For the wheel's still in spin
And there's no tellin' who
That it's namin'.
For the loser now
Will be later to win
For the times they are a-changin'.

Come senators, congressmen
Please heed the call
Don't stand in the doorway
Don't block up the hall
For he that gets hurt
Will be he who has stalled
There's a battle outside
And it is ragin'.
It'll soon shake your windows
And rattle your walls
For the times they are a-changin'.

Come mothers and fathers
Throughout the land
And don't criticize
What you can't understand
Your sons and your daughters
Are beyond your command
Your old road is
Rapidly agin'.
Please get out of the new one
If you can't lend your hand
For the times they are a-changin'.

The line it is drawn
The curse it is cast
The slow one now
Will later be fast
As the present now
Will later be past
The order is
Rapidly fadin'.
And the first one now
Will later be last
For the times they are a-changin'.

-Bob Dylan

The Rainy Day

The day is cold, and dark, and dreary
It rains, and the wind is never weary;
The vine still clings to the mouldering wall,
But at every gust the dead leaves fall,
And the day is dark and dreary.

My life is cold, and dark, and dreary;
It rains, and the wind is never weary;
My thoughts still cling to the mouldering Past,
But the hopes of youth fall thick in the blast,
And the days are dark and dreary.

Be still, sad heart! and cease repining;
Behind the clouds is the sun still shining;
Thy fate is the common fate of all,
Into each life some rain must fall,
Some days must be dark and dreary.

-Henry Wadsworth Longfellow