Ok, so it is Halloween today and I would be totally remiss if I didn't recount how Julie/Ruby dealt with a ghost in the game.
When I left off, Ruby and Captain Seith, Gar the first mate, and Naj the ship's bard (a tale-spinner musician type) had managed to sneak into the tunnels beneath the Tipsy Pirate Tavern where the river pirates were storing their loot. In one room they found nothing except a letter written by a knight named Miles to his family, regretting that he had been captured by pirates on the way back from the crusades (to win back the Shield Lands from the Empire of the Demon Lord Iuz) and held for ransom but was now dying of pneumonia. Julie was very touched by this letter and the thought that his wife and son did not know what had happened to Miles. So she determined to take the letter to Miles home. I was very proud of her for that since it was not really her business and it would take her out of her way from her journey back to Ruby's homeland on the edge of the Burneal forest in the far north. What Julie/Ruby didn't know but would soon find out is that Mile's ghost was invisibly watching and was very pleased and now determined to help her.
Now this might sound like a heavy thing to lay on a nine year old girl. On the other hand I want this game to be about more than just killing stuff. Julie tells me that the boys in her school talk about playing D&D, but that there are no elves in their game, only monsters and killing. But why this particular thing? Well, first of all I was more or less randomly trying to pick monsters and other obstacles for the pirate's hidden base and a ghost came up. The thing about ghosts is that it means someone died. So I had to think about who this was and why they were a ghost. Ghosts mean unfinished business - on the part of the deceased and those who are bereaved. So I had to think - what would some good unfinished busines be? And instead of making the ghost an adversary, why not a potential ally? So I thought - what if the ghost needed Ruby to do something it could no longer do for itself so that it could then go on to heaven? This would provide Ruby with, not something to kill or destroy, but rather with a choice - do the right thing and help the ghost and his family, or selfishly ignore it all and just collect treasure and head home. Again, to her credit and without any prompting from me, Julie immediately chose to do the compassionate thing. In addition to being a kind of test or "what would you do if" situation, Miles also provided me with a way to deal with stuff that Julie occasionally asks about ever since her aunt died a couple of years ago when Julie was in Japan and then attended the funderal and cremation. Julie wants to know about heaven and such things - so in this story I was able to provide a kind of cathartic experience of enabling someone to go to heaven and for the ghosts family to come to terms with his passing. Oh, and why did Mile's die from pnuemonia. I decided that because the pirates I had created are not truly evil or vicious - they are just greedy and selfish. And I really didn't want them to have murdered Miles. Better for him to have caught pneumonia and died due to being shut up in the basement as a prisoner. That way the pirates are at fault but are not murderers. This will be important later on.
In the meantime, all was not to be heavy existential angst. At least in a fantasy story you can have a little fun with ghosts. So as Ruby and her compatriots searched the tunnels they came to a locked door. Just as Ruby was about to try to open the door a ghostly voice wailed (here I used my spooky voice and cupped hands) "Don't open the door!" Julie actually jumped at that because she was not expecting it. She still laughs about that and the way I said it. At that point Miles appeared to warn her that the door was booby trapped with poisoned needles. He then explained that because Ruby had volunteered to take the letter to his family he would help her get the treasure. Miles then caused the door to open on its own. They then entered the pirate captain's room and with Miles help found the inner secret treasure chamber, avoided more traps and looted the loot. With Miles help they found the secret exit from the tunnels that let them out in an abandoned hovel. Ruby and her friends then sneaked past the returning pirate captain and his crew - Ruby used a spell to create ghostly sounds to distract them while they made their way back to their boat hidden in the reeds on the riverbank. And so once again with the help of friends and some relatively low level spells, Ruby defeated the pirate captain and his crew yet again by getting their treasure away without killing any of them.
And so that is how Julie/Ruby ended up befriending the ghost named Miles, gained a lot of pirate gold, and prepared to set out on a mission of mercy to help a poor knight's ghost enter heaven which I will recount in my next installment.
Namu Myoho Renge Kyo,
Ryuei
Ok, so it's been awhile since I reported my daughter's continuing adventures and my reflections on them. Its been a few weeks since Julie and I were able to play because since then we've been deluged with her third grade homework and my own busy schedule this month.
The funny thing is that Julie is really into pirates for some reason. Maybe her friends at school are too because of the Pirates of the Carribbean movies. but anyway there it is. So she has been reading about pirates and pestering me for more pirate adventures. When last I wrote about this stuff she was sailing upriver back to her character Ruby's homeland when some pirates tried to waylay them. With the help of her giant eagle and some spells she managed to burn down three of the pirate ships so that her ship could slip past the others.
The next thing to happen is that I had the eagle spy out the pirates base - a small village with an inn. The pirates were spotted bringing all their loot into the inn. So I gave Julie a choice to leave the pirates alone and keep heading north, or to sneak into the pirate village and loot their loot. Julie opted for the latter. So her character Ruby, the captain of her ship the White Goose, the first mate, and another crewmen rowed up to the village under cover of night. Ruby then sneaked up to the inn to find all the pirates inside sleeping. She tiptoed past them (her elf-princess can be stealthy esp. due to her spiritual link to her cat familiar) and then unlocked the back door.
Actually unlocking the back door took some argument. Ruby/Julie found a trapdoor to the basement and wanted to check it out herself, but I reminded her that she had agreed to open the door for the captain. I knew if she went down there alone she would be killed by the various guards and traps, so I had the captain whispering through the door to convince Ruby/Julie that she would need help and that she needed to keep up her end of the bargain. It seems that my daughter needed a little lesson in cooperating with others and teamwork as opposed to hogging all the gold and glory for herself. So it seems like 13 year old boys aren't the only ones who act like this.
Anyway, they went down into the cellar and Ruby used a spell to seal the trapdoor behind them so no more pirates could come down. Then they were attacked by a pack of pitbulls. Now here is a funny thing - in going through the Monster Manual I discovered that some of the more threatening threats are from real life monsters. And as anyone who has lived in San Francisco for the last few years know - pitbulls are scary and deadly (esp. when raised to kill by unscrupulous lawyers who have secret deals with prison inmates). Anyway, once again Ruby knocked out just about the whole pack with her Color Spray except for one that the half-orc first mate had to put down with his cutlass. Then I had the captain and first mate cut all the dogs throats before they woke up again. This made Julie sad (to her credit) but it had to be done. I am running this game more or less realistically and there is no way you can leave a bunch of savage pitbulls loose. Then a pirate came down the corridor from further into the basement tunnels to see what all the noise was about. I had the captain sneak up behind him and stab him in the back.
Alright, here is where, looking back on this, I feel kind of bad. I realized later that I could have had the dogs hauled into the room they came from and locked up. The captain could just as easily have knocked out the pirate and also locked him in a room. Sure the dogs might have woken up and the pirate might have gotten loose - but am I needlessly making this game rutheless and bloody? Sure, they are pirates and pitbulls, but do I really want my daughter to learn that the best way to deal with dangerous people and animals is to just slaughter them? Of course by raising her this way she will not grow up to be some hippy pacifist who might vote Democrat and will oppose war, torture, and capital punishment. In fact, by raising her with the idea that you should kill things that are a threat I am introducing her to the American Way. But I really don't want her to be adjusted to our societies values like that. And I am a little disconcerted over how easily, in the game world, I think that way myself. In the game world it is ok to just kill anything that's a threat - or even to torture the bad guys for information. So I think in the future I am going to stop and think if there is a way to model a less rutheless means of dealing with threats. I am pleased that Julie/Ruby's spells are still mostly of a non-harming nature. Though as she gains in levels/firepower it will interest me to see how Julie picks her spells and uses them. Will she continue to opt for harmless solutions, or will she go for the quick kill?
Fortunately, Julie seems to have retained her sensitivity. She was telling me that a girl at school (who always seems to be doing something dishonest and/or mean according to Julie's reports) caught a butterfly and then squashed it. Julie told me that she said, "You shouldn't do that. Would you want someone to do that to you? You shouldn't hurt nature like that." I am proud of her for saying this. Maybe she will grow up to be more Buddhist than Navy Seal afterall. All gaming aside, I would much rather that Julie grow up to be a Park Ranger than an Army Ranger. Let someone else do all the rutheless killing and torturing that needs to be done to protect the American Way. I would prefer my daughter follow the Buddha Way.
I also have to give credit to Julie's teachers who are the one's that taught her not to "hurt nature" because I am sure that phrase came from them. I fully intend to incorporate that attitude into the elven civilization that Julie/Ruby will eventually reach upriver. I am already planning on how to portray them: the way I see it the elves are a bunch of all but eternally youthful Celtic anarchist eco-guerilla medieval utopians (they are all Chaotic Good keepers of the forest according the D&D game). I am going to model their enemies, the evil emperor Iuz and his demonic minions after Rush Limbaugh and Anne Coulter.
Anyway, more on Julie's adventures later. That's enough ruminating for now.
Namu Myoho Renge Kyo,
Ryuei
Over the past couple of weeks both online and in offline conversations with Zen Buddhists and other advocates of silent sittiing I have had to discuss the role of meditation in the context of Nichiren Buddhism. Here is my current response:
In the Nichiren Shu, silent sitting can be used as a supportive practice. There are times when we sit silently to get calm, focused, and settled before chanting
Odaimoku, and then we sit silently after chanting Odaimoku to quietly abide in the power of our Odaimoku chanting. This is done for instance in Shodaigyo meditation. We would not, however, teach that silent meditation is in and of itself sufficient for attaining or expressing buddhahood. In fact, we would not even say it was necessary if one is chanting Odaimoku. But we certainly see it as a legitmate supporting practice.
Other Buddhists and "spiritual types" are extremely doubtful about the efficacy
of such a practice as chanting in Sino-Japanese. They feel that it is too culturally bound (and therefore a conditioned practice rather than a gate to the unconditioned), they feel it is still to much of a willful and therefore ego assertive practice, or that it is too conceptual or symbolic and thus demands clinging to something. They feel that it is too pious, or too goal oriented. They feel that nonconceptual awareness that neither clings to nor rejects anything is the only sensible way to enlightenment, in fact such a nonconceptual awareness is in and of itself expressive of enlightenment. This would be the case with shikan taza of Zen, or Mahamudra, or Dzogchen, or certain interpretations of vipassana practice. It would be the case with the teachings of Krishnamurti and probably Eckhart Tolle. If you
I think that Nichiren Buddhists need to find a coherent response to such a challenge from serious and sincere meditation practitioners. And of course such a response will be dismissed if the responder can not honestly say that they have not themselves tasted such a state of nonconceptual nondual awareness in quiet sitting. I have been doing my best to come up with such a response over the years - based on my own personal practice experience and my reading of the Buddhist canon.
To date my response is this:
1. Buddhism does teach that form is emptiness, but it also teaches that emptiness is also form. Therefore one should not be biased towards a practice that seems more empty. Emptiness can and in fact needs to be sought within the very forms that are empty.
2. Many meditation practitioners do in fact use mindfulness of the breath as a
focus in order to cut through obstructive mental states like greed, anger, restlessness, sleepiness, and debilitating self-doubts. But breath is only one of many possible ways of focusing and calming the mind - mindfulness of the Dharma (which is certainly an aspect of what Odaimoku is) is also a traditional method that long predates Nichiren. Now if Zen, Vipassana, and Tibetan practitioners can use the breath (an object of awareness) to attain to nonceptual awareness than certainly they, as Buddhists, should not look down
on or begrudge those who use mindfulness of the Dharma for this purpose.
3. The argument can still be made that even though a particular form can be used to realize the formless which is liberation, at a certain point the practitioners should be able to let go of any particular form and find the Middle Way in whatever phenomena is arising and ceasing in the moment - without willfully imposing a particular focus. My response to this is that after a certain point the Odaimoku is no longer something that we are consciously having to do - it is just there and we are in it. In other words, our ego and its grasping and rejecting and imposing stands aside even though the verbal expression of Odaimoku continues.
4. There is also this - Nichiren certainly lauded the merits of Odaimoku over and above even the first five of the six perfections that includes meditation. The Lotus Sutra itself extolls the merits of Odaimoku in this way. However, Nichiren also spoke of living and reciting the Lotus Sutra during all the hours of the day. He spoke of reading the Lotus Sutra with his body. So even Nichiren recognized that the deepest practice of Odaimoku involves living in the spirit of Odaimoku even when one is not verbally reciting it. It is this constant living awareness of Namu Myoho Renge Kyo that I believe is the unadulterated uncondtioned direct expression of the perfection of wisdom. It is also the consummation of faith in the Lotus Sutra. It is the consummation of the first five perfections. And it is only found in the way we live our lives and that includes when we do our formal daily practice wherein one consciously orients oneself to this way of living.
That may not be as rational and coherent as some would like. But I keep working on it. And of course the main way to work on it is to endeavor to go deeper and deeper into actual practice.
Namu Myoho Renge Kyo,
Ryuei
The Endon Sho is a passage from the Introduction by Kuan-ting to the Great Concentration and Insight (Mo Ho Chih Kuan, Maka Shikan) of the Great Master T'ien-t'ai (aka Chih-i). It is still recited by some within Nichiren Shu. In the context of Nichiren Buddhism this could be a description of the practice of chanting and more importantly living the true spirit of Namu Myoho Renge Kyo (a life of devotion to the Wonderful Dharma of the Lotus Flower Teaching). Here is the translation by Donner and Stevenson:
Perfect and Sudden Calming-and-Contemplation
The perfect and sudden calming and contemplation from the very beginning takes ultimate reality as its object. No matter what the object of contemplation might be, it is seen to be identical to the middle. There is nothing that is not true reality. When one fixes the mind on the dharmadhatu as object and unifies one's mindfulness with the dharmadhatu as it is, then there is not a single sight nor smell that is not the middle way. The same goes for the realm of self, the realm of Buddha, and the realm of living beings. Since all aggregates and sense-accesses of body and mind are thusness, there is no suffering to be cast away. Since nescience and the afflictions are themselves identical with enlightenment, there is no origiina of suffering to be eradicated. Since the two extreme views are the middle way and false views are the right way, there is no path to be cultivated. Since samsara is identical with nirvana, there is no cessation to be achieved. Because of the intrinsic inextistence of suffering and its origin, the mundane does not exist; because of the inexistence of of the path and its cessation, the supramundane does not exist. A single, unalloyed reality is all there is - no entities whatever exists outside of it. That all entities are by nature quiescent is called "calming"; that, though quiescent, this nature is ever luminous, is called "contemplation". Though a verbal distinction is made between earlier and later stages of practice, there is no ultimate duality, no distinction between them. This is what is called "the perfect and sudden calming and contemplation." (pp. 112-114)
Here are some notes to understand that:
1. "dharmadhatu" means something like "phenomenal realm." In particular, "dharmas" are phenomena as defined by the concepts we have in our mind that help us distinguish and identify particular objects.
2. "nescience" is a fancy word for ignorance or fundamental darkness.
Here is the version chanted in Nichiren Shu as found in the Nichiren Shu Service
Book Companion available from the LA Temple:
T'ien-t'ai's En Don Sho
En don sha, sho en jis' so, zo kyo soku chu, mu hu shin jitsu, ke en ho kai,
ichi nen ho kai, is' shiki ik' ko, mu hi chu do, ko kai gyu buk' kai, shu jo kai yaku nen, on nyu kai nyo, mu ku ka sha, mu myo jin ro, soku ze bo dai, mu shu ka dan, hen ja kai chu sho, mu do ka shu, sho ji soku ne han, mu metsu ka sho, mu ku mu shu, ko mu se ken, mu do mu metsu, ko mu shus' se ken, jun itsu' jis' so, jis' so ge kyo, mu bep' po, hos' sho jaku nen, myo shi, jaku ni, jo sho myo kan, sui gon sho go, mu ni mu betsu, ze myo en don shi kan.
There is a special rhythm for chanting this that I learned in Shingyo Dojo. I
would be happy to teach others, but unfortunately you would have to see me face to face for that, or at least talk to me on the phone. In any case, it is not a standard thing that is recited.
I would add that a superficial understanding of this passage can be quite dangerous and lead some to antinomian conclusion. "Antinomianism" is the heretical idea that morality is totally irrelevant to spiritual salvation/awakening because supposedly good and evil are either transcended or pre-empted. Some might conclude this because it seems to negate the four noble truths (suffering, its origin, its cessation, and the path to its cessation) and to equate afflictions with enlightenment (bonno soku bodai) and samsara with nirvana (shoji soku nehan). This passage in fact uses the same terminology that was popularized later by medieval Japanese Tendai Original Enlightenment Thought. However, here it is not being used to justify raping, looting, pillaging, and temple burning as acts of innate enlightenment. Rather, it is a teaching for advanced practitioners who have already freed themselves of more gross or obvious forms of attachment, aversion, and ignorance and now must free themselves of spiritual materialism as well. Also, such practitioners must come to understand the immediacy of enlightenment and its direct application in each moment, rather than clinging to a dualistic idea of stages and progress which involves dualistic comparisons, and self-conscious at attainments. Here, even such spiritual ambition and self-consciousness drops away to reveal awakened compassionate activity functioning freely and spontaneously in accord with conditions, conditions that are truly empty but wondrously present. This immediate awakening without grasping or fear is what the Odaimoku expresses, and what we too can realize and express if our practice goes beyond lip service to heart, mind, and gut service.
Namu Myoho Renge Kyo,
Ryuei
Hi everyone,
Just a quick note: the Faithful Fools Meditation Program on Sunday afternoons will be on hiatus until November 5. The reason being that on October 22 the San Jose Nichiren Buddhist Temple will be celebrating Oeshiki in the afternoon, and then on October 29th I will be in Seattle for the 90th anniversary of the Seattle Nichiren Buddhist Temple.
So please remember that there will be no Faithful Fools meetings until November 5th whereupon they will resume at the regular time 3-5 pm and the regular place 230 Hyde Street. See you then.
Namu Myoho Renge Kyo,
Ryuei
Hi everyone,
I am back in San Francisco and will be holding the Faithful Fools Sunday Meditation Program again this Sunday the 15, and also on Sunday the 22. Sunday the 29th I will again be out of town for the 90th anniversary of the Seattle Nichiren Buddhist Temple. Then I will again resume the regular Sunday schedule in November.
For those who don't know - I hold meditation/discussion meetings every Sunday (except when I am elsewhere) from 3 pm to 5 pm at 230 Hyde Street (between Turk and Eddy) in San Francisco at the Faithful Fools Meditation Hall. And it is a really nice meditation hall - complete with zafus and zabutons, a bell, nice blank white walls to stare at, a new polished wooden floor, and a very austere but nice little altar over which I hang a very nice gold lettered Omandala. It is as professional a little zendo (meditation hall) as one could wish for outside of an actual temple or practice center.
Anyway, we do silent sitting for the first 40 minutes (though we begin and end with 3 Odaimoku). Then we have a fairly informal discussion about the Dharma and daily life for the next 50 minutes or so. The last 30 minutes we do a Nichiren Shu style service, that of course centers on reciting the Lotus Sutra and Odaimoku.
Namu Myoho Renge Kyo,
Ryuei
Hi everyone,
If anyone in the Bay Area is reading my blog I need to let you all know that there will be no Faithful Fools Sunday Meditation Program this Sunday October 8, 2006 because I will be away in Atlanta. The Faithful Fools program will resume October 15.
Instead I will be in Atlanta, Georgia as the guest teacher for the Atlanta Soto Zen Center's October sessin. Here is the link to the info on the sesshin on their website:
http://www.aszc.org/sesshin/1006sesshin.html
And the sesshin schedule:
http://www.aszc.org/sesshin/1006schedule.html
I have been told that it is ok to come to part of the retreat even if you can't some to the whole thing. The Sunday morning program and talk is especially intended for the public.
Also, after the sesshin I will be holding a Nichiren Shu service and discussion nearby. Here is the info for that:
Ansley Terrace meeting room (Midtown Atlanta)
175 15th Street
Atlanta, GA 30309
e-mail atlantasangha@aol.com
Sunday, October 8th 3:00PM
I hope that if anyone in the Atlanta area is interested in Nichiren Buddhism they will come to this service and perhaps also to the talks I will be giving at the Zen Center.
Namu Myoho Renge Kyo,
Ryuei