The Buddha said to Yasodhara: You will perform the Bodhisattva
practice under hundreds of thousands of billions of Buddhas in the
future. You will become a great techer of the Dharma under those
Buddhas. You will walk the Way to Buddhahood step by step, and finally
become a Buddha in a good world. (Chapter 13, p. 205)
Comment: I used to read things like this with a bit of dejection. It
seemed to be saying that I have to go through billions of lives worth
of busywork being a teaching assistant for a bunch of other buddhas
before I can attain buddhahood myself. This is the step by step,
gradual, glacier paced path to buddhahood. And yet, in chapter 16
Shakyamuni Buddha reveals that in the countless ages before sitting
under the Bodhi Tree when he too was just a graduate assistant under
various buddhas all along he was the Eternal Buddha. In other words,
he was a buddha assisting other buddhas by taking on the guise of a
bodhisattva teaching assistant. So the step by step path is actually
based on a sudden awakening in the even remoter past.
There is something more here though - how does a buddha see the world?
In the Flower Garland Sutra, when awakening under the Bodhi Tree the
Buddha is reported to have seen that all beings were buddhas who did
not realize they were buddhas. Now if this is the case, and if what is
said in chapter 16 of the Lotus Sutra is the case, then all along
since the remote past the buddha was a buddha seeing and serving other
buddhas who may or may not have realized their own buddhahood. In
other words, being a buddha is not about having a title or a certain
station in life or a certain amount of spiritual prestige or
supernatural powers. Being a buddha is seeing that other beings are
buddhas and therefore treating them with great respect and doing what
one can to serve and assist them in realizing and actualizing
buddhahood. And this is the bliss and freedom of buddhahood unfolding
without birth, but in time unfolding through walking the Way to
Buddhahood step by step.
This is really hard. Really really hard. Today was all too typical. I
got on the bus and it was crowded because it was slightly sprinkling -
and also I got an earlier bus. This is the 2 line so almost everyone
on it are young up and coming professionals, students, and office
workers. These are clean, well-dressed, sane people with lives to
live. But they have no manners or consideration for others.
They might as well be gang-bangers for all the manners they have - in my view.
They cluster towards the front of the bus even though there is more
standing room in back and so they don't give in coming passengers
room. One has to push past them all. I made my way to the back as I
usually do so I won't be in other people's way. A man back there is
standing with this feet spread as widely as possible so as to give
himself more room I guess. Another man busy texting wouldn't even move
to let another passenger get by him off the steps of the bus. It's
unbelievable how inconsiderate and egotistical these self-satified
yuppies are. Sure, I look just like them now (except for my big black
hat and occasionally my long Australian duster) - but sometimes I want
to shave my hair into a mohawk, wear black leather and spikes and
slamdance my way past these ignorant pigs. As I am stewing about this -
I realize yet again how difficult it is to see other people as
buddhas or even potential buddhas. I am sure I have also inadvertently
discomfited other people on the bus - or perhaps my scowling and ill
himor just makes me seem like a grump or the middle-aged former punk
rocking curmudgeon that I am. So there is the challenge - how can we
cultivate or better yet reawaken the generosity, patience, and good-
humor of our original nature? How can we see each other and serve each
other as buddhas step by step? Even on a crowded bus on a rainy day
full of self-absorbed yuppies and grouchy middle-aged punks?
Namu Myoho Renge Kyo,
Ryuei
Read this for scary financial news by two financial experts:
Who is the Biggest Liar of the them All?
So I see that Barack Obama and Nancy Pelosi want Congress and President Bush to save the failing auto industry.
This is really wierd - I am usually deadset against corporate welfare - and yet I can understand their arguments - if the auto industry fails then unemployment will be up to something like 9.6% and the recession will become deeper and longer. But the Republicans are reluctant to do this - and their argument goes that once you start handing out money directly to industry where do you draw the line? When do the handouts end?
I feel like I have stepped through the looking glass - the Democrats want a big business money give away and the Republicans are fine with letting them sink. I know that is a gross simplification actually - the money to prop up GM would have a lot of strings attached - hopefully strings that would force them to retool in order to make more hybrids, ethanol powered cars and what not. I drive a Honday Civic Hybrid by the way.
But I am no expert in these things. So I wonder what any of the rest of you who might be reading this have to say?
Also I just finished Kenneth Davis' book Don't Know Much About History which is a survey of US history. One of my impressions was this: Democrats aren't just "tax and spend" they are "tax more fairly and spend on society's needs" whereas Republicans seem to be about "tax breaks for the wealthy and spend on the military until we go bankrupt."
I also just finished reading Barack Obama's Audacity of Hope, and I was immenesely impressed - he articulated many things that I have long felt true and does so as a very informed US Senator. Three things of many that I noted but are on my mind now:
1. He writes eloquently about going beyond the politics of victimization and resentment and equally eloquently about taking responsibility for ourselves but also for each other.
2. There is a brilliant passage in there in which Warren Buffet talks about the how the wealthy should feel obligated to give back to the society that allowed them to become so wealthy.
3. People have criticized Obama for making a big deal out of opposing the Iraq war when he wasn't even a US Senator and so was basically doing so from the sidelines where he presumably had nothing to lose. But if I read his book correctly, he was actually campaigning for the Senate at the time - and so had an election to lose by taking that stand. So it was in fact a courageous stant and one that showed great foresight and at the time was not the popular stand to make.
Namu Myoho Renge Kyo,
Ryuei
I didn't think Barack Obama had a chance in hell of winning the presidency - but he did.
I was 99% certain that the Republicans would win and that it would be business as usual for the next four years compounded by a high likelihood of a new war with Iran. Now I am not so sure. I really can't predict where things are going to go from here on in - but now I do have hope that they will be different and can only be better than otherwise.
I think the people who expect Barack Obama is going to turn over our national secrets to "terrorists" like William Ayers, and to "subversive organizations" like ACORN, and that he will bring in the "racist and whitey hating" Rev. Wright to the White House chaplain have been brain washed by right wing talk show hosts.
That the Republicans theocon regime has gotten us into a costly, unecessary, and immoral war in Iraq doesn't seem to bother them.
That the Republican party is wedded to the ideology of laisseze-faire economics (and yes, the Democrats have permitted it as well - but only because so far they have been weak and spineless) doesn't seem to bother them even after it has led to an economic crises and the destruction of many people's savings and the inability of many people to own or keep a home.
That our cities have become warzones, and open air mental asylums, and the infrastructure is quite obviously breaking down while all our money goes to trying to pacify a country we have no business being in doesn't bother them.
That our presence in Iraq hasn't helped catch Bin Laden but has instead even further alienated and radicalized Muslims (both Shiite and Sunni no less) against the US thus making us even less safe doesn't bother them. Do I even need to mention Abu Grahib or Guantanamo?
I could just go on and on - if anyone ever bothered to read about the founding fathers of this country they would know how deeply they would disapprove of so much that is going on.
But let me step away from the trends that I am critical of and say what I would like to see (and this will really piss some people off - but y'know I am tired of hiding my true feelings):
1. I want to see the Republican part get free of the theocrats who have hijacked it. I would love to see a party that really does mean to be fiscally conservative and to get big government out of our private lives. I wouldn't necessary agree with such a party, but I could respect it and would no longer fear it as a front for big business and fundamentalist religion.
2. I would like to see us extricate ourselves responsibly and honorably from Iraq. We need to leave a stable country behind - with the help of the UN, and not just pull out and leave a power vacuum.
3. Continuing to work with the UN and not as some unilateral above the law supercop, I want to see us catch Bin Laden, shut down Al-Qaida, and prevent the Taliban and groups like them from ever again seizing power. But the real answer here is not military - the real solution is to positively engage the Muslim world to help them help themselves to create an educated, democratic, and strong Middle Class.
4. I want to see the Brazilification of the United States stopped. The hows and whys of this are something I need to do more research on - but the extremes of Communism and laisseze-faire economics are both dangerous and debilitating in the long run (and sometimes even the short run). I think a more mixed economy would be saner and healthier - but this is a complex thing and I am willing to hear various voices on this.
5. A truly civilized society will find a way to have universal health care - even if it is necessary to make some sacrifices. Are we truly so venal and selfish that we believe we should sacrifice the well being of others for our own convenience. I certainly don't want to see the bureacratization of medicine - but there are many other ways to go about things - we just need to political will to make it happen.
6. I want to see people mature past their homophobia as they are beginning to mature past their racism (though obvious the irrational fears of some show that this part of the process is not complete yet). Homosexuality is part of a natural range of human (even mammalian) sexuality. People need to read more about Bonobos (a type of great ape). What adults do in the privacy of their own home without mutual consent that doesn't harm themselves or others should not be the business of the government. And if consenting adults with to establish a household together (even if sex isn't part of the equation) they should have that right - and their rights and responsibilities in forming a household should be legally protected. It is no more than blind prejudice, bigotry, irrational fear, and superstitious tribal taboos that make people think this is a moral issue.
7. I would like to see our deficicit reigned in - and ending unecessary, unjust, and immoral unilateral aggression on our part would go a long way to doing this. War is a waste of lives and money. And when the deficit is reigned in we need to rebuild and maintain our infrastructure (like levees for instance - or has everyone forgotten Katrina and New Orleans and how much work still needs to be done there and elsewhere).
8. I would like the US to work with the UN and the international community to keep Iran's theocracy contained and to prevent them from engaging in nuclear terror. Theocrats are a danger to world peace - and I think we should not be blind to the depths of evil that the Iranian regime has perpetrated on its own people - they would certainly not hesitate to terrorize and oppress others. But this needs done with a minimum of force and not unilaterally. Once there is a need for force - you have already lost.
9. From a Buddhist point of view abortion is the killing of a human life. There are no ifs, ands, or buts about this. The Vinaya is very clear on this point. But what it is not clear about is whether that means women's right to choose what is best should be taken away from them. This is a moral issue for sure from the Buddhist point of view, but is it more immoral to force a woman to give birth if it will kill her or otherwise destroy her physical or mental health? What about cases of incest and/or rape? What if we know there are genetic problems? At what point is terminating a pregnancy tantamount to infanticide? At the moment of conception? At eight months? I feel profoundly ambivalent about the legal issues here - but what I do know is that from a Buddhist point of view this is a bad cause to make - but is it always the worst cause?
10. Something needs to be done about the homeless situation. From what I see - many of these are people who have mental problems of various sorts - which is then compounded by substance abuse. These people need to be given care and not just abandoned to live and die on the streets destroying their lives and bringing down the quality of life for everyone around them. I really believe that as a society we are responsible for them and have to take responsibility for them - but at what cost, and how do we preserve the rights of these people while at the same time making sure they don't infringe upon the rights of the rest of us to live our lives without constant harassment, and without having to deal with people urinating and defecating and throwing up and shooting up drugs in our streets? From what I see, as a society we have abdicated all responsibility and as a society we are suffering the consequences - this is something that I never saw in Japan or Denmark.
There are probably some other things but I'll stop here for now.
Namu Myoho Renge Kyo,
Ryuei
Last night I cast my vote for Barack Obama (and also my No vote to proposition 8 in California (which would ban gay marriage - though that outcome remains to be seen).
Despite my exepectations that this country was not mature (in regard to racism and its enthrallment with laisseze faire economics, welfare for the wealthy, and war without end) enough to elect Barack Obama president - he has indeed become the president-elect.
For the first time in years I feel that I no longer need to make excuses for my country - I can be unabashedly proud and hopeful about where it may be going.
But I realize the hard work hasn't even begun yet. Now President Elect Obama will have to deliver. But at least it will not be business as usual.
The rest of the world seems to be feeling the same hope that I do.
Just two days ago my daughter came home and told me she had a homework assignment to write about what life will be like 50 years from now. I asked her what she thought and she really took me aback. She said that she thinks that in America things will get dirtier and dirtier and there will be more hobos (for some inexplicable reason the kids at her school call homeless people hobos). She then said that Japan on the other hand will get cleaner and better. Part of this is because the day before that as we were heading back into our driveway we saw a man allowing his dog to poop right in front of the entrance to our apartment building. When we checked we saw that whoever it was hadn't even picked up after the dog. This of course would never happen in Japan (it really wouldn't). I kept trying to explain to Julie that it was illegal to do that in San Francisco as well as Japan and that people who do this can be fined here too, but in America (or at least San Francisco) unlike Japan, people have no pride and don't care about others and will do whatever they can get away with. Julie sees this in the matter of crossing streetlights too - in Japan people never walk against the signal or jaywalk, in San Francisco people do it all the time (and get hit all the time too). So really I am not surprised that Julie sees American heading downhill whereas Japan seems to be getting better and better. I have seen it too for that matter - the transportation system in Tokyo is amazingly efficient and easier to navigate than San Francisco, and I always feel like Tokyo is 10 years in the future technologically.
But now, I feel like things may be progressing and that our country can again be a beacon of hope for the world.
A few months ago a survey was done that found that the happiest population in the world was in Denmark. On the news last night a commentator remarked that someone from Denmark was crying for joy as it became clear that Obama would become president. How about that? The results of this election are even making people in the happiest country on earth even happier!
Again, I know the hard-work hasn't even begun, and the hole we have dug ourselves in the last 8 years or more is pretty deep, and there is always bound to be disillusionment and disappointment and frustration (what we Buddhists call dukkha - the ill-at-easeness of all conditioned phenomena). But I do think that this country as a whole made a good cause last night.
As for Prop 8, I hope that when all the votes are tallied it loses, but even if it wins, I am hoping that a counterprop will defeat it in the next elections. As Obama's victory last night proves - my generation and those after it are no longer interested in discriminating against people.
Namu Myoho Renge Kyo,
Ryuei