Some people have been telling me they enjoy reading about Ruby, my daughter's D&D character. The thing is that I am way behind in relating the Ruby story as compared to where we are currently in the game. So I am going to try to write up some more of what has occured. This helps me keep track of the ongoing story. Most of this stuff is now written down on notepads in the form of extremely sketchy notes. So I am going to try to translate that into something more like a real story. But it does come off as kind of cheesy. Oh well, I'm not trying to be Tolstoy or even Tolkien here, in fact I am not even trying to be Robert E. Howard - the master of Sword & Sorcery tales and extremely cheesy over the top prose.
In the past I've made some comments on the story. I'm not going to do that in this installment as it is all action oriented and there was no real decisions to be made except whether to press on or not. I also want to make it clear that Ruby is not supposed to be Julie. Ruby is just Julie's character for the game - in the same way when Julie plays her Nintendo she operates a little onscreen character. I say that because I would certainly not want any of the things that happen to Ruby to happen to Julie, and when Julie has her character do things they are not necessarily always what she would do in real life. That is the "role-play" part of this - it's a game of pretend and game of trying out different actions and seeing what the consequences are in the safety of "let's pretend." The last thing I would want is for my daughter to ever have to go on what the military calls a "bug-hunt" or "seek and destroy" mission for terrorists or enemy combatants - even if we will be doing things like this in Afghanistan, Iraq, and perhaps Iran soon, for some time to come, maybe we will still be at war when Julie has grown up. For now, this is just a game and the orcs are not supposed to be the Al-Qaida and the caves are in an enchanted forest and not the mountains of Pakistan and Afghanistan. At any rate, Julie has told me that she doesn't like war movies and big battles - that it's too sad. Horror movies, she barely bats an eys (she said "I am Legend" was kinda scary but not much) but the battle scenes in Star Wars or Lord of the Rings sends her out of the room.
Hopefully this means that, unlike Ruby, she will not ever be joining the Marines or the National Guard. Of course, I personally think that as Americans we should be proud of those who do serve their country in that capacity by following the dharma of kshatriya or warrior (and should therefore take care of them and make sure that we don't send them into combat unecessarily for for unjust causes - which is a whole other issue) . I just don't want my only child and daughter to ever have to do it. So I am glad this is just a game and/or cheesy fantasy story about hunting terrorists in mountain caves.
Anyway, here is the story so far:
“Quick,” cried Ruby, “I saw some of them heading down this way.” With that, Ruby charged down a leftward passage of the caves after the fleeing orcs, the ranger Blain and the bestial wereboar Burgis right behind her. As they moved deeper into the mine, Ruby glanced up and saw that the enormous bat the orc adept had been riding earlier that morning was hanging from a stalactite apparently asleep. She decided it might be best to leave it alone for now. The cave twisted and turned and at one point they had to cautiously climb down a steeply dropping shaft, but eventually they cornered the three orcs in a dead-end. “I’m not wasting anymore magic or taking any more prisoners,” announced Ruby, as she and Blain dispatched two of them with their longbows. Burgis ran in and messily finished off the last one with his axe.
Just then, an elf from further back up the mine began shouting for Ruby. “Ruby, come quickly, Sergeant Nyra’s been hurt!”
Ruby and her companions raced back the way they came, to find Sergeant Nyra resting against the cave wall, a bloody orcish crossbow bolt at her side. It had been pushed all the way through her right shoulder in order to extract it, and Nyra was now imbibing one of the healing potions the elvish patrol had come equipped with.
“Ruby, I’m okay,” Nyra said, as her commander came running up. “I used a magical flare of light to blind them long enough so we could get back out of the lower caves safely, but the orcs are trapped down that passage. We can’t go in after them because they’ve got the passage covered by their crossbows. We can’t go down, and they can’t come up.”
“No need to worry. You did a good job sergeant. We can handle this. Their crossbows are no match for my magic, and unless they have silver-tipped arrows none of them can harm Burgis here,” said Ruby indicating the wereboar impatiently waiting behind her. “You and your troops follow us down when we’ve cleared the way.”
Ruby then charged down the passageway casting magical protection over herself, Burgis and Blain again at her heels. Crossbow bolts bounced away harmlessly off her magical wards and as she burst into a larger cavern she gestured towards the orcs and a spray of rainbow colors flashed forth. This time, however, the orcs were prepared and all but one, who quickly passed out cold, looked away and were not blinded or knocked out. Ruby quickly brought forth her longbow as Blain jumped for cover behind a rock and Burgis charged past her with his axe held overhead and tusked maw roaring a fierce battlecry. Orcish crossbow bolts and arrows filled the air, but Ruby stood her ground as they either shot past her or bounced away harmlessly and returned fire with her own longbow. Blain also returned fire, and Ruby could see that Burgis had lost his axe and was now biting and goring a huge orc berserker wielding a greataxe, an axe that was not helping as much as he might wish against the tough bristly hide of the wereboar, who could only be permanently harmed by silver anyway.
Ruby could feel her magical protection beginning to weaken, so she joined Blain behind the cover of nearby stalagmites. At one end of the cavern an underground stream flowed under a rickety wooden bridge, and on the other side more orcs showered crossbows bolts on them. The orcs on their side fled, except for the one being torn into pieces by Burgis, and one enormous orc in blackened plate armor with a powerful longbow that only one of his enormous strength could possibly fire, obviously one of the orc commanders. Even with a dozen of Ruby and Blain's arrows sticking in his armor the orc chieftain continued to return fire until his orcs had crossed the bridge and then he too turned and ran across the bridge into the darkness on the other side. Then the orcs on the other side of the dark stream fled with their commander deeper into the caverns.
“Burgis, are you okay,” Ruby asked.
Burgis, though not mortally wounded, still looeds more than a little worse for wear after the fight with the orc berserker. “I’ve been better,” Burgis grunted.
“Well, you’d better take a healing potion all the same,” says Ruby, “we’re not finished yet.”
“Fair enough, but at least now I have this beauty,” Burgis replied, hefting the greataxe of his fallen foe, and slapping the head of the axe against his palm.
Just then, the only live orc remaining, the one knocked out by Rubys Color Spray spell, began to come to. “What should we do with him?” Blain asked Ruby.
“Have one of the troops bring him outside, and send him on his way,” Ruby replied.
Like the others before him, the orc’s weapons are taken away and broken and he is chased away by the other elves of Ruby’s patrol. The elves shoot arrows after him (though not into him) to speed him on his way home to the Empire of Iuz.
With that another section of the abandoned mine is cleared of orcs and the other members of the patrol come down to join Ruby. “Come on, they went this way,” Ruby says and leads her companions and troops deeper into the mine to route out the other orcs. They soon come to a split in the tunnels.
“Sgt. Alion you and five of your troops come with me. Blain and Burgis, you take the other five and head down that way,” instructed Ruby.
Ruby and her elves pressed on, and came into another cavern split by the underground river where once more they came under fire from orcs with crossbows hiding behind the rocks and stalagmites. The bolts once again bounced harmlessly away from Ruby, but Sgt. Alion is wounded, even as the elves returned fire. In the end another orc is killed and two others jumped into the underground stream to avoid capture and are swiftly swept away. Just then, Rubv hears shouts from another part of the caverns, sounding as though the others had run into an ambush, and then an eerie unearthly howling fills the caverns, sending a shockwave of dread into all who heart it.
“Quick, we have to get back to the others!” Ruby cried, leading her troops onward into the torch lit darkness and towards the awful sounds of combat and supernatural menace.
Ha! Cliffhanger. I'll post a new installment hopefully sooner than later because afterall this action Ruby leaves the military and meets up with a circus of crime, a medusa, zombie infestations, and Count Strahd the Vampire Lord of Barovia!
Namu Myoho Renge Kyo,
Ryuei
Hi everyone,
When I grew up I know that I watched Mr. Rogers. I don't know how much, but I think quite a bit before I was my daughter's age. I all but forgot about him until one day listening to the radio when Howard Stern sent one of his stooges (Stuttering John I think) to harass Mr. Rogers as he does to so many stuffed shirts and other celebrities. But Mr. Rogers was no stuffed shirt and was not even fazed. Stuttering John yelled out, "Mr. Rogers, wouldn't you like to gun down O.J. Simpson with a machine gun?" Mr. Rogers, without missing a beat and in a voice that was so calm and gentle, just turned the question back and said, "Would you?" Neither Stuttering John nor Stern nor anyone else could reply to that - their mean-spirited silliness had been deftly turned back on them. Howard Stern used to have that reply "Would you?" replayed every so often - but I don't recall him ever making fun of it. And the tone of it was amazing - it was the tone of a man who was not offended, nor was he even being condescending, nor was he being taken in. He was simply turning the question back. To me it sounded as if he were asking, "Even as a joke, is this something you should want to be doing?" It wasn't a dodge - it had become a contemplation of character. So simple and kind. No other celebrity even came close to respondinig in such a manner to Stern's silly pranks - most just got in a huff or laughed it off (at best). It was on that day that I realized that Mr. Rogers was really and truly what he presented himself to be - and something finer than most of us ever even aspire to.
When Mr. Rogers passed away I read the obituaries and tributes to him and was even more amazed at all he had done and accomplished. By all accounts he was truly a sincere, caring, calm and contemplative individual. A real bodhisattva, as we Buddhists would say. In other words, he was everything we would say a bodhisattva should be - except that he didn't explicitly teach the Dharma. In fact, he was a Presbyterian minister (I hadn't known that).
Now just yesterday I came across a little remaindered book that collected many things Mr. Rogers had said or written. I read through it in less than an hour and was just astounded. The book is called Life's Journeys According to Mister Rogers: Things to Remember Along the Way. I'd like to share some excerpts from it because they sound to me like how someone today would express the key teachings of Buddhism without at all referncing any Buddhist jargon or myths. Just plain universal language for all humanity.
So for instance the last verses of chapter 16 that Nichiren Buddhists recite for their daily practice has the Eternal Buddha (i.e. the True Nature of Reality speaking as the person Shakyamuni Buddha):
"I am always thinking:
How shall I cause all living beings
to enter into the unsurpassed way
and quickly become Buddhas?"
Now here is what Mr. Rogers says:
"I believe that at the center of the universe there dwells a loving spirit who longs for all that's best in all of creation, a spirit who knows the great potential of each planet as well as each person, and little by little will love us into being more than we ever dreamed possible. That loving spirit would rather die than give up on any one of us."
Another example, in chapter 20 of the Lotus Sutra there is a story of a Bodhisattva named Never Despise whose only practice is to bow to everyone he meets and say to them:
"I deeply respect you. I would never be disrespectful or arrogant towards you. Why? Because all of you are practicing the bodhisattva way and surely will become buddhas."
Now, Mr. Rogers:
"For a long time, I've wondered why I felt like bowing when people showed their appreciation for the work that I've been privileged to do. It's been a kind of natural response to a feeling of great gratitude. What I've come to understand is that we who bow are probably - whether we know it or not - acknowledging the presence of the sacred. We're bowing to the sacred in our neighbor.
"You see, I believe that appreciation is a holy thing - that when we look for what's best in a person we happen to be with at the moment, we're doing what God does all the time. So in loving and appreciating our neighbor, we're participating in something sacred.
"As I bow, I always feel like saying, 'Thank you, thank you, thank you.'"
In chapter 2 of the Lotus Sutra, the Buddha states that there is one great cause for which the Buddhas appear in the world:
"The buddhas, the world honored ones, appear in the world because they want living beings to develop their buddha knowledge and insight and thus gain a kind of purity. They appear in the world because they want to demonstrate the buddha's knowledge and insight to living beings. They appear in the world because they want livinig beings to apprehend with the buddha's knowledge and insight. They appear in the world because they want living beings to enter into the way of the Buddha knowledge and insight. This alone is the one great cause, Shariputra, for which the buddhas appear in the world." (taken from Gene Reeve's translation)
Now, Mr. Rogers:
"Are you able to believe in a loving presence who desires the best for you and the whole universe?
"With all the sadness and destruction, negativity and rage expressed throughout the world, it's tough not to wonder where the living presence is. Well, we don't have to look very far. Deep within each of us is a spark of the divine just waiting to be used to light up a dark place. The only thing is - we have the free choice of using it or not. That's part of the mysterious truth of who we human beings are."
And of course Buddhism, and many passages in the Lotus Sutra, praise the bodhisattvas for taking time out for solitude and meditation. Some people mistakenly think Buddhism can be reduced to meditation. It cannot, but it is nevertheless an integral part of Buddhism - the ability to just be present without trying to add or take anything away from. Much of what Mr. Rogers says addresses this ability to be present in this way, but one passage addressed meditation itself:
"Here's a gift you may not have expected. It's a gift to give yourself. Sometime in your day today, try to turn off all the noises you can around you, and give yourself some 'quiet time.' In the silence, let yourself think about something. Or if possible...think about nothing.
"Most of us have so few moments like that in our lives. There's noise everywhere. There are some places we can't even escape it. Television and radio are problably the worst culprits. They are very seductive. It's so tempting for some people to turn on the television set or the radio when they first walk into a room or get in the car...to fill any space with noise. I wonder what some people are afraid might happen in the silence. Some of us must have forgotten how nourishing silence can be.
"This kind of solitude goes by many names. It may be called 'meditation' or 'deep relaxation', 'quiet time', or 'downtime.' In some circles, it may even be criticized as 'daydreaming.' Whatever it's called, it's a time away from outside stimulation, during which inner turbulence can settle, and we have a chance of becoming more familiar to ourselves.
"How many times have you noticed it's the little quiet moments in the midst of life that seem to give the rest extra-special meaning?"
Frankly, I'd like to cite the whole book. He talks about letting go, compassionately understanding others, accepting ourselves, the redeemability of even our worst qualities, and most of all about being loving and kind to ourselves and our neighbors. There is even one passage where he talks about something the Dalai Lama said that he really took to heart.
The point is that in reading these passages I realize anew what real spiritual maturity looks like and that it is possible to convey the key meanings of the Lotus Sutra and Buddhism in simple direct language without the need for jargon or esoteric allusions. Mr. Rogers is, I think, one of the 20th centuries most direct, deeply ecumenical, simple, unaffected, and supremely authentic of awakened teachers. In some ways I think he taught Buddha Dharma much more effectively precisely because he was not a Buddhist and did it so gently and inconspicuously.
I can only wonder how much of what I must have learned from his show rested in my heart and provided me with such a sense of recognition when I did encounter Buddha Dharma in high school and college?
I am also sure, that many kids may have had a similar recognition in encountering the best of other traditions as well when they grew up - including Christianity, the tradition Mr. Rogers was a minister in. Probably the Christianity they learned and practice looks very different from what most people think or expect or act out. It probably looks a lot like what the Lotus Sutra describes:
"With great compassion as their room,
Gentleness and patience as their robe,
And the emptiness of all things as their seat.
Doing this, they should teach the Dharma."
Namu Myoho Renge Kyo,
Ryuei
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Hi everyone,
I thought I would share how pleased I am by actual Buddhism on the ground, by which I mean offline.
Yesterday, I was truly pleased with the experience of Sangha I had both at the San Jose temple and at Faithful Fools, and it made me realize that evey now and then it is good to count one's blessings (or "benefits"?) and not take them for granted.
At San Jose we had our monthly meditation meeting and Buddhist breakfast. An old friend showed up whom I had not seen in a long time, so that was nice. For our meditation Rev. Matsuda (the son of my sensei who is now the head minister of the San Jose Temple) led us in some stretching excercises and then 20 minutes of silent sitting. We always begin and end the silent sitting with the chanting of Odaimoku, and afterwords there is a dedication of merit. Then we did some walking meditation in order to restore the circulation and stretch out a bit. Rev. Matsuda then gave us a Dharma talk on how to bring patience and understanding into difficult situations (such as dealing with surly salespeople).
The monthly Buddhist breakfast we have at San Jose after the medtitation session consists of rice porridge (with salt and sesame seeds if you want it), miso soup (often with potatoes), and different varieties of Japanese pickels (with soy sause if wanted). Sometimes people will bring fruit or doughnuts. We also have green tea. This is a nice time to socialize, catch up with people, get to know other temple members and guests, and to have a more informal discussion about the Dharma.
At Faithful Fools there are two regular people who regularly come to practice with me, and a few other people that I see from time to time. I noticed recently that the new meditation schedule that Faithful Fools posts on their door now includes my Sunday group with (Nichiren Shu) in parenthesis. The other meditation sessions during the weekday mornings are done in the Soto Zen style.
Because people come to the meditation hall expecting to meditate, I offer 40 minutes of silent sitting from 3 pm to 3:40 pm, though we always begin and end with the chanting of Odaimoku. After brief break we have a Dharma discussion from 3:45 until 4:30. From 4:30 until 5 pm we have a Nichiren Shu service just like at the temple.
I'd like to note that most everyone who comes to the Sunday meeting at Faithful Fools stay for the whole thing. However, I see the program as modular. Some people are not interested in silent sitting. They can come at 3:45 if they wish - for the Dharma discussion and chanting practice (the service). Some people do not like chanting or are initially put off by it. They can come for the sitting and discussion and then leave. It's even okay to come in late for the sitting, though they will have to know how to take a seat in the correct posture on their own and should not make too much noise when doing so. I never shut the door, so people can come in anytime. The only thing it would not be so good to come in late for is the chanting practice/service in the last half hour because we cannot stop in the middle in order to hand out a chanting book and show where we are.
Currently, for the discussion portion we are reading through, bit by bit, the gosho called "Conversation Between A Sage and an Unenlightened Man." This is a writing attributed to Nichiren that I find to be a great survey of Nichiren's teaching. I think that if Nichiren did not write it (and if so it seems like it is actually from the Minbou period), then I think it likely it was a pastiche based on things Nichiren did write put together by a Nichiren monk after Nichiren's passing to be a kind of catechism for new lay followers. I have always enjoyed this particular writing - it covers a lot of Buddhist basics, puts them into an overall perspective, and is very lyrical and even funny at times. I am really enjoying this opportunity to read through and talk about it with other dedicated Buddhist practitioners, because it is rare to get a chance to do that with the gosho offline with others.
During the rest of the week, my Buddhist practice consists of chanting Odaimoku before the Gohonzon each morning before I go to work, and I try to do a full service most mornings. During the day I chant Odaimoku as I am walking around the city during lunch or if I can find a quiet place where I can get away and just sit still without being interrupted. After work I try to find time to work on my articles on the Pali Canon teachings (in other words - basic foundational Buddhism) and to do some of the readings for the Sutra Salon (we are currently reading Red Pine's translation of the Diamond Sutra). My only other interactions with other Buddhists during the week is online.
So that is briefly what Buddhism is like for me on the ground at this time in my life - at least the externals of practice and interaction with others.
Time to go - work to do!
Namu Myoho Renge Kyo,
Ryuei