January 24, 2007
Video Meditation/Inner Light Therapy
On Guided Meditation
Metta-Karuna Cultivation
Brahma Vihara
Here is a nice popular version of the Maha Karuna Dharani {Short Sanskrit Version}:
http://file.buda.idv.tw/music/DBZ11.mp3
The melody is familiar, but I can not place it. I think the artists are from Hong
Kong. They adapted the short sanskrit version.
The Mantra of Great Compassion is an invocation of the Ava-loki-tesvara -- the Arya or Archetypal Bodhisattva of Great Compassion. Practicing it as Zange opens the Great Compassion in our own hearts. There are many versions of this mantra. The words are mostly various names of Avalokitesvara.
Avalokitesvara appears in Chapter 25 of the Lotus Sutra.
I find that the following can be useful to cultivate kindness, compassion, shared joy, and equanimity.
"The root meaning of karuna is said to be the anguished cry of deep sorrow and understanding that can only come from an unblemished sense of oneness with others." -- from Kuan Yin, The Compassionate Rebel
This one is for Charles and his late pet Heidi:
See: My Brown Dog at Charles Atkins' Phantom City
My Sylvia is 10 now. {Now 11} Charles met her when she was less than a year old.
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Originally Posted by rbeck at December 9, 2005 12:58 AM
Posted by rbeck at January 26, 2007 12:58 AM
We had a power outage last night {Jan 22}. After it was restored, I rebooted the 'puter. The ethernet cable from my router was loose. I had to stand to reach across the desk. I noticed an odd odor, like burning nylon. Suddenly flames were shooting from my midsection.
I had forgetten to snuff a small candle and it had ignited my 30 year old highly flammable nylon smoking jacket. Before my wife knew what happened, I'd removed three layers of shirts, manually snuffed the fire, and was standing in front of the kitchen sink, running cold water on my flaming hands. I then filled a bowl with ice water to soak my hands. Less than half a minute had passed,
The smoking jacket and my cotton turtle neck had gaping holes. My t-shirt was scorched. Some hot, melting nylon caused severe 2nd degree burns to a thumb, a pinky, and an index finger. Also, some 1st degree and lesser 2nd degree burns on my other fingers. Otherwise, I was fine. No burns on my abdomemn, chest or palms -- I even got the cable reconnected.
I had the mindfulness to remain calm amd move quickly in a dangerous emergency, but did not have the good sense to snuff a candle as soon as the lights came on. Must be the old NSA TCD-Soka training.
Gassho
robin
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I shall be adding more here after my hands heal. We had a black out here and I was attacked by a malevolent candle. This was a blessing. It could have neen serious. My light jacket & pullover were total losses. I had some nasty burns on my hands -- these are almost healed.
BTW, we had 4" of snow recently {most of it fell on my car}. It has brightened things up here a bit. Another 6" yesterday {Feb 05}
January 15, 2007
Is Anyone Else SAD?
During the last decade or so, I have begun to feel "funky" as the days in NE Illinois get shorter and shorter. It is dark well before 5 PM; and the sun does not rise until nearly 7:30 AM. To compound matters, the daylight hours are frequently gloomy and overcast.
As I get older, my episodes of winter blues have become more poignant, possibly to the point of mild depression. I have also noticed that the funkier I feel, the more prone I become to chronic "colds & flu."
From familydoctor.org
As many as half a million people in the United
States may have winter depression. Another 10%
to 20% may experience mild SAD. SAD is more
common in women than in men. Although some
children and teenagers get SAD, it usually doesn't
start in people younger than 20 years of age.
For adults, the risk of SAD decreases as they get older.
SAD is more common in northern geographic regions.
Symptoms:
* A change in appetite, especially a
craving for sweet or starchyfoods
* Weight gain
* A heavy feeling in the arms or legs
* A drop in energy level
* Fatigue
* A tendency to oversleep
* Difficulty concentrating
* Irritability
* Increased sensitivity to social rejection
* Avoidance of social situations
Winter depression is probably caused by the
body's reaction to a lack of sunlight. Light therapy
is one option for treating winter depression.
Emptiness
"Sometime I wonder What I'm gonna do There ain't no cure For the winter {sic}{time blues" -- Eddie Cochran
Before I even knew what SAD was, I had developed strategies for dealing with "The Winter Blues." For example, my taste in music gravitated toward the classic blues, artists like BB King, Albert King or Robert Johnson. As Dyan one wrote, {paraphrasing} real blues is about addressing and defeating sadness; not whining about, or wallowing in, the muck of existence .
My own past efforts focused on contemplating Emptiness; or the Three Marks of Existence {ti-lakkhana, in Pali; or tri-laksana, in Sanskrit.}, and finding an ironic or sardonic joy in:
*Dukkha (Skt duhkha): "I can't get no satisfaction." -- (M. Jagger/K. Richards)
*Anicca (Skt anitya): All conditioned things are impermanent.
"They call it stormy monday But tuesdays just as bad. Lord, and wednesdays worse And thursdays all so sad. The eagle flies on friday, Saturday I go out to play. Sunday I go to church, Gonna kneel down and pray. " -- T-bone Walker
*Anatta (Skt anatman): Impersonality or non-Self.
I looked forward to the deep, sub-zero cold snaps. I would chant, then go for late night walks, silently singing ad libbed sardonic versions of Christmas Carols to myself. The stars on those nights were intensely bright. I recall a few lines of one; it started something like: "O Holy S*it; Those stars are intensely shining ... "
At any rate, those nights really felt divine, in a way.
Or I would recite my favorite Xmas poem
by Lawrence Ferlinghetti
Christ climbed down
from His bare Tree
this year
and ran away to where
there were no rootless Christmas trees
hung with candycanes and breakable stars
Christ climbed down
from His bare Tree
this year
and ran away to where
there were no gilded Christmas trees
and no tinsel Christmas trees
and no tinfoil Christmas trees
and no pink plastic Christmas trees
and no gold Christmas trees
and no black Christmas trees
and no powderblue Christmas trees
hung with electric candles
and encircled by tin electric trains
and clever cornball relatives
Christ climbed down
from His bare Tree
this year
and ran away to where
no intrepid Bible salesmen
covered the territory
in two-tone cadillacs
and where no Sears Roebuck creches
complete with plastic babe in manger
arrived by parcel post
the babe by special delivery
and where no televised Wise Men
praised the Lord Calvert Whiskey
Christ climbed down
from His bare Tree
this year
and ran away to where
no fat handshaking stranger
in a red flannel suit
and a fake white beard
went around passing himself off
as some sort of North Pole saint
crossing the desert to Bethlehem
Pennsylvania
in a Volkswagen sled
drawn by rollicking Adirondack reindeer
and German names
and bearing sacks of Humble Gifts
from Saks Fifth Avenue
for everybody's imagined Christ child
Christ climbed down
from His bare Tree
this year
and ran away to where
no Bing Crosby carollers
groaned of a tight Christmas
and where no Radio City angels
iceskated wingless
thru a winter wonderland
into a jinglebell heaven
daily at 8:30
with Midnight Mass matinees
Christ climbed down
from His bare Tree
this year
and softly stole away into
some anonymous Mary's womb again
where in the darkest night
of everybody's anonymous soul
He awaits again
an unimaginable
and impossibly
Immaculate Reconception
the very craziest of
Second Comings
There were times when these things helped, at others my despair would only intensify.
"But all my words come back to me in shades of mediocrity Like emptiness in harmony I need someone to comfort me." -- Paul Simon
If Jesus had been killed 20 years ago, Catholic school children would be wearing little Electric Chairs around their necks instead of crosses. -- Lenny Bruce
Coming Next:
Inner Light Therapy
January 02, 2007
Dialogue with Reverend Tsuchiya
From:
KEMPON HOKKE INTERNATIONAL Click on BBS.
Reverend Tsuchiya: "Honmon-no-Honzon, the only real Buddha, is most important thing of Nichiren's doctrine. Therefore, SGI has not justice to criticize Nchiren-shu at all because they deny Buddha Shakamuni is an eternal Buddha against Nichiren's true teachings."
Robin: I agree on this. Many in SGI disagree with the "Three Taisekiji Innovations." We can read the Gosho [and Lotus Sutra] and figure that out.
Reverend Tsuchiya: "I have been relieved that you can read Lotus Sutra and Nichiren's works. It is not a problem of SGI's members. It is a problem of SGI which continue to educate people by wrong doctrine of Taisekiji's. SGI has expanded their power strongly by using Taisekiji's doctrine for 60 years.
"Nichiren shonin criticized other sects which slandered the eternal Buddha Shakamuni and worshiped other Buddha. He said it is like slandering Lord and respecting vassal. SGI is doing the same thing."
Robin: Once again, I agree. I have been pondering the reasons why Taisekiji’s three innovations had such broad appeal in:
1. Post World War II Japan.
2. Vietnam Era United States.
I think there were very different reasons. I shall skip Japan for now, but offer some brief ideas on “2.” Views of Buddhism in the US 30-40 years ago were mostly negative. The Soka Gakkai accidentally addressed some of the issues many Americans had about Buddhism. No statue worship was a big one;
pragmatism was another. Also, they distanced themselves from misinformed negativity about Shakyamuni, by making Nichiren the Buddha.
Many Americans once thought Shakyamuni was the same as Hotei. Others thought Buddhists set themselves on fire. Meditation was associated with skinny Yogins who wore diapers and twisted their bodies like pretzels. Buddhism was viewed as impractical, nihilistic, mystical, and anti-world.
Nichiren as the True Buddha was presented as a Christ like figure; a charismatic reformer who was persecuted by the authorities. In the Taisekeji scheme, his ‘new testament’ teaching superceded the ‘old testament’ of Shakyamuni. Nichiren's battle with evil was "Armageddonesque." All this, and the apparent ban on idolatry, appealed to defeated and disillusioned Christians; who were looking for a religion that "worked," but still had familiar messianic elements.
There is more to it, but that is the gist. Anyway, times have changed. Americans today mostly have more positive and accurate views of Shakyamuni, Buddhism, and meditation. Buddhism is viewed as intrinsically practical. Americans these days are interested in mindfulness and insight meditation. Cultivation of the Brahma-Vihara has appeal. These offer real relief from the stresses and anxieties of modern daily life. More sectarian strife does not.
Nichiren as the True Buddha, who eclipses Shakyamuni in the Last Days, no longer has the same messianic appeal. It also looks too much like covert Japanese Nationalism at work. Attachment to Taisekiji’s three innovations has caused SGI-USA's growth to stagnate. Sadly, many Americans now think Nichiren and Nikko really taught those things. It is important that other Nichiren schools get their message aired.