Recently came across this in the Brahmajala Sutta:

38. "There are, bhikkhus, some recluses and brahmins who are eternalists in regard to some things and non-eternalists in regard to other things, and who on four grounds proclaim the self and the world to be partly eternal and partly non-eternal. And owing to what, with reference to what, do these honorable recluses and brahmins proclaim their views?

39. "There comes a time, bhikkhus, when after the lapse of a long period this world contracts (disintegrates). While the world is contracting, beings for the most part are reborn in the Ābhassara Brahma-world. There they dwell, mind-made, feeding on rapture, self-luminous, moving through the air, abiding in glory. And they continue thus for a long, long period of time.

40. "But sooner or later, bhikkhus, after the lapse of a long period, there comes a time when this world begins to expand once again. While the world is expanding, an empty palace of Brahmā appears. Then a certain being, due to the exhaustion of his life-span or the exhaustion of his merit, passes away from the Ābhassara plane and re-arises in the empty palace of Brahmā. There he dwells, mind made, feeding on rapture, self-luminous, moving through the air, abiding in glory. And he continues thus for a long, long period of time.

41. "Then, as a result of dwelling there all alone for so long a time, there arises in him dissatisfaction and agitation, (and he yearns): 'Oh, that other beings might come to this place!' Just at that moment, due to the exhaustion of their life-span or the exhaustion of their merit, certain other beings pass away from the Ābhassara plane and re-arise in the palace of Brahmā, in companionship with him. There they dwell, mind-made, feeding on rapture, self-luminous, moving through the air, abiding in glory. And they continue thus for a long, long period of time.

42. "Thereupon the being who re-arose there first thinks to himself: 'I am Brahmā, the Great Brahmā, the Vanquisher, the Unvanquished, the Universal Seer, the Wielder of Power, the Lord, the Maker and Creator, the Supreme Being, the Ordainer, the Almighty, the Father of all that are and are to be. And these beings have been created by me. What is the reason? Because first I made the wish: "Oh, that other beings might come to this place!" And after I made this resolution, now these beings have come.'

"And the beings who re-arose there after him also think: 'This must be Brahmā, the Great Brahmā, the Vanquisher, the Unvanquished, the Universal Seer, the Wielder of Power, the Lord, the Maker and Creator, the Supreme Being, the Ordainer, the Almighty, the Father of all that are and are to be. And we have been created by him. What is the reason? Because we see that he was here first, and we appeared here after him.'

Do you think this may also explain the Abrahamic God and their belief that they created the universe?

Please find a link to the Thai Forest Calendar for 2022 / 2565.

Today (25/1/22) is the half moon observance day. I will take the Eight Precepts.

https://forestsangha.org/system/resources/W1siZiIsIjIwMjEvMTAvMDIvNG9lcGo0MHhra19mc19jYWxlbmRhcl8yMDIyX0VOX3dhbGxfMjAyMV8wMV8wMy5wZGYiXV0/fs-calendar-2022-EN-wall-2021-01-03.pdf?sha=f6ba8a2191a0905c

https://forestdhamma.org/about/ajaan-maha-boowa/

It tells about his childhood, his initial wanting to get married, how a fortune teller came and how he came to be a monk. It tells about his early years with his teacher Ajahn Mun, and how that worthy interpreted his dreams and guided his path. It tells about the visions he had and his response to the visions. Later in life he founded a monastery and stayed there, and became a more public figure in Thailand.

His interpretation of the dhamma seems quite conventional, such as the vision in which he meets the Buddhas who then all turn into golden statues, which he bathes with water. His teaching at his home monastery seems to have been uncompromising but otherwise unremarkable.

I found it interesting, not everyone receives such clear and lengthy visions. But to what extent are visions really a sign of spiritual advancement? In Ajahn Chah’s writing I find a degree of understanding of being, which I haven’t yet found in Ajahn Maha Boowa. I will search on.

Are you in the mood?
Mistletoe … oops too dangerous … Parties and get togethers?

Just found sister and possibly partner will be coming for sprouts and stuffing. Getting a last grocery delivery today and about 11 items not available including mince pies. It is the end of the world. We will be on gruel shortly …

Stay safe everyone!

In what passes for my mind, everything has significance and meaning when so endowed. The authorities have been informed …

@federica once said:
Yeah, but pestles and mortars don't really have much spiritual significance, really. Diff' kettle o' fish....

https://newbuddhist.com/discussion/21927/direction

Perhaps.
Perhaps the yab-yum has no more significance than a fish in a steaming kettle
https://buddhaweekly.com/whats-consort-union-tantric-buddhism-no-not-sexual-fantasies-psychology-yab-yum-consorts-union-wisdom-compassion/

As we know meaning is given but what is significant?

“There are three hundred religions in the world. They are all different, but they all have one thing in common. That is the role of the priest as indispensable intermediary.”

He then goes on to talk about how the Catholic Church made it a sin to confess directly to God, and how the priest thus became more important than God himself in getting one’s sins forgiven. Which is a singular example.

Then it occurred to me that while Buddhism was the one religion in which one just focusses on waking up, the monks have been made into a kind of priesthood by their knowledge of the Pali canon and their path of practice. Often when one first comes to Buddhism one learns from a teacher who either is or has been a monk.

So are monks the indispensable intermediaries to Buddhist teaching?

Does imagination survive enlightenment? It seems to me the imagination feeds delusion and many other aspects of samsara, while insight and seeing things as they are are traits acquired on the path.

But Mara, on the lower levels, he can change the object of the mind by pushing it around. For example, inserting a pornographic image.

If you do that in the cinema, for example, as was done in the old days…where they inserted a picture (only one frame) of Coca Cola, with water running down off it, then everybody coming out of the cinema wants the Coca Cola. And they go to the bar and buy a Coca Cola.

This hidden advertising is not allowed anymore but Mara doesn’t care about that.

He can still insert one frame of consciousness (one Dhamma state) in your mind, without you knowing it. And still, this is effective. For example, if this is a pornographic image, then you’ll feel an urge for sex. If it’s a food image, then you will feel an urge for food.

Without knowing, because it’s on the subconscious level, only one frame out of 50, you don’t see it. You don’t notice it. But still, it affects the mind. Because the mind reacts to it.

So, it’s a subconscious, but still, intentionally effective influence.

One example I can give from the text: the Buddha was in the middle of his career, wandering around to get alms food; barefooted with his bowl into a village.

And then Mara descended (his thought and influence and also descended with his physical body) and made all people in this village think that Buddha was a paedophile. That he had sex with children.

And therefore, when the Buddha went around from door to door, he didn’t get anything. He didn’t get anything.
And so, Mara, he was leaning on the gate at the other end of the village, where the Buddha will pass out, and he asked “Gotama, did you get anything?”

And then the Buddha he recognised (even though they (Mara) can take up any form that he likes, any colour he likes) – he just looked like a regular 18 / 19-year-old man, dressed in clothes from that particular village. But immediately he recognised Mara, “Ah, this is Mara.”

And he said, “No Mara, I didn’t get anything. And it was because of you. And you know that.”

And then Mara said, “But if you didn’t get anything, why don’t you go back and then try once more? Then maybe you’ll get some food.”

But then the Buddha said, “No. They will be even worse. They will hit me with sticks if I go back.”
And that was exactly right.

So, there you see, the Buddha was at a high level. He could read the intention of Mara. But Mara could not read the mind of Gotama Buddha and thereby see whether he would go back or not. So, he had to try to persuade him, to push him back into the village. To beg once more and then be beaten up with a stick.

So, he has this ability, like all other Parinirmitavasavarti Devas, they have power over the mental construction (what you think), the verbal construction (what you say – including what you say to yourself) and the physical construction (what you do with the body), over other beings.

They can intentionally change that and do that. And that’s their gaming experience…that’s the closest I can come to our level. We can have a gaming experience with a social computer game. Where you are directing an army to go there and go there. Or you’re directing a couple of people to build a city here and not there…and build this and that and so on and so on.
With your powers over this gaming form of reality, you can get all kinds of individuals to act in various kinds of ways.

It’s the same thing with them.

Because they are acting through the mind, through the consciousness and through intention, then it makes sense to say that they are also a Klesha Mara (see list of four Mara’s above). Because this is his influence; this is his mental defilements. Lust, aversion, he can make somebody else hate something…hate even a Buddha because he has inserted a lie that he’s a paedophile in their mind.

So, he can insert a mental construction then their aversion flames up.

So, he’s actually both. He is both.

He’s an individuality and he also identifies as the mental influence and the result hereof.

The mental defilement of human beings and other beings as well on a much higher level than humans.

If I should say some individuality, or personality, here on the human level that reminds me most of his personality, just in a much, much weaker state, then it is the evil guy in Batman. This guy who has the smile painted on his face. Batman’s opponent. The Joker!

He’s similar in personality. Very intelligent, very tricky, very fast. Twitching like nothing. But also, exceedingly psychopathic. Exceedingly evil. Unpredictable. A psychopath in the truest sense of that word. And frightening, frightening, frightening.
There’s only one way to break out of his influence and that’s to gain control over your own thoughts, because then you are cutting his control. That’s the only way.

Until that has happened, you are in your own will to some extent, and then you are a robot to someone else’s extent. Without knowing it. And that’s the tragic part.

^ As English is his second language, I have taken the liberty of changing a few words to make the text easier to read. Any errors are mine and mine only.

Question:

Is there an individual or person called Mara or is he the defiled thoughts of human minds?

Answer:

In a very neat and subtle way, both.

Because Mara is a real individuality. He lives with the Devas wielding power over others, that is, the Parinirmitavasavarti Devas.

They have this funny feature that they don’t get a kick if they perceive something. They can only perceive pleasure if somebody else is doing something. We are part of their computer game. We are part of their gaming experience. So, they only get a kick if, for example, regarding sex; they don’t have any pleasure if they have sex themself. They have to see others have sex or make others have sex. Then they tend to make some kind of kinky sex.

At that level, Mara is regarded as a rebel, as a terrorist at that level.

So, they can go into various peoples’ minds (both in an individual case or a whole society, for example, the whole planet Earth, or a whole village, or a whole country) and induce certain kinds of thoughts in them. And they do that all the time.
If you’re not aware of it, Mara can walk in and out of your mind without you noticing, like an open door.

He has one particular political idea that sense pleasure is the highest pleasure. And he wants to invoke that on the world. And whoever goes against that he feels as a threat to his authority; to his ability to push around these inhabitants that he thinks he’s wielding his power over…which he also is actually…to various degrees.

He doesn’t wield any power over those that can step out of it, that can control themself. But those that cannot control themself, if he induces any kind of thought in them, then they will act upon it as if it were their own thoughts.

The way to recognise whether one is under the influence of this Mara; this being who is frightening because he’s exceedingly intelligent. But at the same time, he is probably the largest psychopath in the universe.

If one comes into his presence, and one knows about it, then within two or three metres, it feels like your bone marrow has been dipped in fluid nitrogen…and it is frozen down instantly! It is truly a chilling experience. And you have to hold your horse so that you don’t pee your pants from fear. Even knowing who he is. So frightened are you.

However, still one can hold their horse. And then it’s just like any other being, they can attack you and kill you and so on, but that also goes for other beings than Mara.

He makes all kinds of tricks. There are multiple reports of monks being afraid, for example, he made an artificial earthquake for a monk who sat meditating inside his hut. So, his hut started dancing on the ground and the monk became very frightened and ran out of his hut…and out of the forest, and back to the monastery and asked the Buddha what was happening, and the Buddha said, “Calm down, go back to your hut and meditate. It’s Mara pulling your leg. And if you don’t act on it then there will be no dancing of the hut.” And this (the) monk did.

There are also several other cases. He tries to seduce a nun, but she said, “there’s nothing here that you can seduce. There’s no person here. There’s no individuality here you can seduce.” So, he’s kind of puffed up (with annoyance).

There are also many recorded conversations between Mara; which in Christian terminology is called Satan – the Evil One; and also known as Namuchi – the One you cannot escape; nobody gets out of his grip except by following the Noble Eightfold Path. The Noble student can get out of his grip.

But the rest will follow sway because they cannot stop acting upon their own thoughts. Which are not actually only their own, but which is another individuality’s thought and his deliberate induction because of his power…his degrees of freedom.
Remember that conscious is non-local, and they are overlapping at any point in space…that means that he can affect directly other consciousnesses than his own conscious. And this he does.

In order to answer more specifically, Buddha was asked this…I can just say that we say that there’s several kinds of Mara.
Mara means Death; it means the Evil One; it means the Tempter.

There are four kinds of Mara:
1. Khanda Mara – made of all things that are put together.
2. Klesha Mara – the mental defilements.
3. Devaputta Mara – Buddha overcame the army of Devaputta Mara. A real personality at one of the 31 levels of existence.
4. Apisankhara Mara – means everything that is put together out in the world.

Devaputta Mara is at the highest level you can be and still be at Kammaloka. He’s not in the Brahmaloka; he’s still at the Kammaloka…but much higher than human.

Just to give you an idea, a monk once asked exactly this question and I will read out what the Buddha said:
“Venerable sir”, they said, “Mara, Mara, what is Mara the Evil One?”

And the Buddha said, “Radda (the monk who asked); form, feeling, perception, mental construction and consciousness is Mara. It’s a state of Mara. It’s impermanent. It’s of an impermanent nature. It’s suffering, it’s of a painful nature; it’s no self. It’s of an impersonal nature. It’s in a state of destruction. It’s in a state of vanishing. It’s in an unstable state. It’s always in a state of momentary ceasing; vanishing right there and then.”

“Radda you should therefore eliminate any desire, any lust and any attraction. You should leave behind all desire and lust for whatever is a state of Mara. For whatever is impermanent. For whatever is only impermanent in appearance. For whatever is suffering. For whatever is of a painful nature. For whatever is no self. For whatever is of an ownerless nature. For whatever is a state of destruction. For whatever is in a state of vanishing. For whatever is in a state of arising and for whatever is in a state of cessation.”

“And that Radda, is in a state of cessation. What is it? Form is in a state of cessation. Feeling…Perceptions…Mental Constructions and Consciousness is also in a state of continuous cessation…ending…vanishing.”
“Understanding this Radda, the well instructed noble disciple experiences disgust towards form…disgust towards feeling…disgust towards perception…disgust towards mental constructions and disgust towards consciousness itself.”

“Experiencing this disgust, he becomes disillusioned. Through this disillusion his mind is released. He’s detached. His clinging has stopped. When his mind is released, he instantly knows…this mind is liberated! And he understands that, eliminated is rebirth. This Noble Life is all completed. Done is what should be done. There’s no state of being beyond this one.”

So, there one can see that the Buddha identifies Mara, not only as an individuality…the Evil One (like the Devil), but he also identifies it correctly with the influence he has over this particular monk, Radda.

That he influences thinking in a sensual way to think that, either his body, or his feelings, or his mental constructions, or his consciousness, is his own. And can make him wander around in the world and experience pleasure forever. And he can keep it.

It’s this influence one has to pull out. And see things as they are. That they are impermanent, that there is no self. That they are a form of suffering, ultimately speaking.

And it is right there seeing this, and knowing this, that one stops being attached to this reality. This appearance and disappearance.

Because this reality is not static, it’s a process. It’s a dynamic thing. It comes and it goes. And any moment there is rebirth of ones’ own body and ones’ own mind. And similarly with the world.

So, it is very, very ephemeral. Very, very vanishing. Very, very unreal. Very, very blinking very, very fast.

So, nothing, nothing, nothing is the same from one moment to the next moment. Thereby nothing, nothing, nothing can ever be kept. Thereby is nothing, nothing, nothing ever attractive…in the real sense, because it cannot be a lasting source of happiness.

It cannot be…because of this impermanence.

So, when you ask, is Mara a real individuality…is it like a person…yes!

And truly frightening he is.

And he is probably in your mind right now.

One way of identifying is that if you recognise thoughts in your own mind, this "stinking thinking", that are particularly weird, that is particularly horny, that is particularly perverse, that is particularly tempting, that is particularly pushing you around, wants you to do something, and you are kind of like, “what’s that? What’s going on?” then you can say that “this is not my thoughts…this is somebody else’s thoughts.”

It’s somebody else who wants to push you out, over the edge. To do something because he wants to get pleasure from seeing you doing it.

There’s also plenty of beings at his level that don’t want to see beings do something evil.

And it’s not only on the human level but also on the higher level, for example the two other levels that I just mentioned; Level 6 and Level 7: the Four Great Kings and the 32 Gods; they are also under Mara’s influence. Same as here. That’s why the Buddha called him the most powerful.

He cannot go amongst the Brahma’s, for example. He can go but they are not under the influence of his consciousness because their consciousness is in a permanent state from the first Jhana and above.

This means that you cannot change their object of the mind.

See Early Buddhism and role of Mara - Part 2 for remaining text...

_Asalha Puja (also known as Asadha Puja or Asanha Bucha in Thailand, Thai: อาสาฬหบูชา) is a Theravada Buddhist festival which typically takes place in July, on the full moon of the month of Āsādha. It is celebrated in Indonesia, Cambodia (ពិធីបុណ្យអាសាឡ្ហបូជា), Thailand, Sri Lanka, Laos, Myanmar and in countries with Theravada Buddhist populations. In Indonesia, the festival is centered at Mendut Temple and Borobudur Temple, Central Java.

Asalha Puja, also known as Dhamma Day, is one of Theravada Buddhism's most important festivals, celebrating as it does the Buddha's first sermon in which he set out to his five former associates the doctrine that had come to him following his enlightenment. This first pivotal sermon, often referred to as “setting into motion the wheel of dhamma,” is the teaching which is encapsulated for Buddhists in the four noble truths: there is suffering (dukkha); suffering is caused by craving (tanha); there is a state (nibbana) beyond suffering and craving; and finally, the way to nirvana is via the eightfold path. All the various schools and traditions of Buddhism revolve around the central doctrine of the four noble truths._

How as a Buddhist do I forgive this guy and see it’s just as karma influencer . Yes I know the result I took life and gave life in a past life basically equal them out the result a close call.

So I found this story about this 36-year old man, who started to feel ill, went to a doctor and sure enough, it turns out he has cancer. He gets told he has three months to live without treatment, maybe a year with treatment. Facing certain death, he gets depressed. But he doesn’t like the oncologist. So a naturopathic doctor friend takes him to see a friend of hers, also an oncologist. This doctor tells him, you have a fifty-fifty shot of surviving. So he says, fifty-fifty, that’s not so bad, I’ll take the fifty percent chance of living and run with it. He starts doing diet, regular exercise, avoiding cancer-causing substances and all that. Nine months later the cancer goes into complete remission. When he goes to see his oncologist, the doctor says, I must apologise to you, when I told you you had a fifty-fifty chance I was lying. You had at most a five-to-ten percent chance. No, says the patient, you told me exactly what I needed to hear.

It seems these things are very much about how you feel and how you react. I was thinking about maybe sending this story to my uncle, but I’m a little hesitant about giving him false hope. After all he is not 36 anymore, he is 69.

In the yogic path, very different to soft taoism mmm ..., we come across good and bad pain.
For example bad pain is sitting in fool lotus, in agony whilst thinking one is meditating on bliss ...
Phew serotonin rush when the pain stops is bad ... belongs to sado-masochistic practices ... You knew right?

However to relax into discomfort is a spiritual practice.

Here are some of my discomforting teachers that I learn to let go in:

• Yoga, not too tight, not too loose. Gently, gradually. Less is more.
• Food. If I buy junk, I eat it. Fruit and veg taste goodly.
• Because I enjoy meditation, I should do more? Nope. Do smarter.
• People, especially family too much? How to be kind ... especially if you are the black lobster sheep. Practice.

What dukkha needs your attention?

There are some great stories there, like how he and his daughter encountered ‘the Jackalope bunny’ in the gardens of Esalen in California, or how his brother and his brothers wife went walking while high on mushrooms and were rescued by their car’s headlights mysteriously coming on in the parking lot on the other side of the valley, or about Terences encounter with the ten-ton beast from above.

The thing is, I’ve encountered a few things myself that were rather mysterious, and have heard first-hand tales of others. I always dismissed these things in favour of a very scientific viewpoint but now I am starting to wonder whether I might not have been mistaken, and the world is at least a little bit magical.

Of course Tibetan Buddhists see the world as much more magical 🧙‍♂️ but I was wondering, how magical do you think the world is?

https://buddhaweekly.com/how-spirituality-and-buddhism-helps-seniors-through-difficult-times-research-demonstrates-link-to-longer-life/

Most studies reveal that spiritually-oriented adults live longer:

“People who attended religious services at least once a week were 46 percent less likely to die during the six-year study, says lead author Harold G. Koenig, M.D., of Duke University Medical Center in Durham, North Carolina. “When we controlled for such things as age, race, how sick they were and other health and social factors, there was still a 28 percent reduction in mortality,” he says.”

Increased survival can be attributed to a variety of established causes that alleviate tension and thereby lead to healthy health: connecting to a group or society, and feeling the value is in your existence.

Years ago, I composed a document that, I am sure, would be of interest (and possibly, helpful in some way) to students or practitioners of Buddhism (or whatever one may call a spiritual path). Recently, I updated it slightly, with the intention of submitting it as a posting, but this isn’t possible, because the size of a posting in New Buddhist is limited. So, the next best thing is to provide a link to it, for those that may like to read it.

I do hope that some readers will indeed find it helpful. However, I am also hoping that there will be enough feedback, from readers, to be helpful to me also. In the document (a pdf), a few problems are mentioned that I am hoping readers will be able to help with by commenting. What questions can be found in the document are merely implied — not explicitly asked.

Since my freedom to spend time at the computer is very limited (despite my being eighty-seven years of age), I don’t feel able to do much in the way of responding to comments, so I ask for your understanding. If any responses are called for after this is posted, I shall do what I can.

The link is pasted below (it may work simply by clicking it, or it may need to be pasted into your browser). It should be possible for others to download it (click the download arrow at the top right of the window).

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1RixSqghxxeTs_RXV0odirR0YFjXyCbfB/view?usp=sharing

Mind and Heart are available in most styles of practice.
There is more. There is always more.
https://thezenuniverse.org/chakras-and-buddhism-the-zen-universe/

In some traditions these practices are considered esoteric and taught privately. For example I practiced five element/chakra meditation from Shingon.

Here is an early discussion
https://newbuddhist.com/discussion/12735/why-did-no-one-tell-me-about-chakras-what-else-am-i-missing/p1

What say you essence a sense of moon stone?

Is Buddha Almighty COD? ... or is that too fishy for Darwinism Dharmaism?

Here are some of my favourite Buddha Gawd forms:

• Amitabha - primal Buddha with her own Pureland. Used in Pureland and Zen 💗
• Buddha as metaphor 4 The Ultimate human-god interfacing 😇
• No thing is not Nihilism. It is All. 🏴
• Many gods, one teacher ... yep Buddha Supreme 😁
• Emptiness is God Form and the Form is unfilled ... 👤

What say you? 😎

In my teens I didn't really have any interest in spirituality, I started to journey along a spiritual path in my early 20s...At the time I was not satisfied with the way things were flowing... Reggae music & ganja led me to Rastafarianism, it filled the void for a while ...Then Buddhism came along and the void took on a whole new meaning....Form is Emptiness-Emptiness is Form....

So were you looking specifically/deliberately for a spiritual path?

Or did you stumble upon one by accident?

For me it was the teachings around the Three Poisons — desire, aversion and ignorance — and how to deal with them during insight meditation. When you turn within you can find in yourself places where you are not relaxed, are not at ease but are instead tense and stressed. Some traditions call these ‘knots’. If you can feel what negative emotion causes that within you, and can bring awareness and insight to that situation, you can dissolve those knots, and return your inner self to a feeling of peace and relaxation.

I’ve been working with this form of insight meditation for a few years now and it has lightened my load, increasing my happiness and inner peace. Sometimes I start from the memories of negative feelings, and I see to what event it leads me, and whether there is still tension and stress there. Then I start examining the roots of the feelings, what aspect of the Poisons or other negative mind states led me there.

So I was wondering, do you have a specific Buddhist teaching or practice that has greatly helped you?

The book can be downloaded here: The Truth Is

Perhaps other people can explain it more fully, but I believe it basically said “you are Truth-Consciousness-Bliss” and this is something you can realise in a short time. As opposed to Buddhism’s long path of multiple lifetimes of accumulating merit, doing daily meditations and practices and so on, it’s quite a different perspective.

Perhaps an interesting departure point for a discussion.

I don't know much about this group except that I often used to see them protesting in the centre of Melbourne against persecution by the Chinese Government.

There's two sides to every story I guess.....

https://www.abc.net.au/news/2020-07-21/inside-falun-gong-master-li-hongzhi-the-mountain-dragon-springs/12442518?nw=0

It starts with a description of the Middle Way, presumably because he was addressing a group of people who thought he had abandoned the spiritual path and returned to worldly pleasures. He told them, both running after sensual pleasures and engaging in self-mortification are of no benefit to anyone.

Then the bulk of the sutta focuses on the Four Noble Truths. I read from Thich Nhat Hanh that the Chinese translated these as the "Four Wonderful Truths" or "Four Holy Truths". I thought I'd lay them out here, so I could reflect on them a bit and also ask some questions.

1. Many inherent elements of our lives can be sources of stress and unhappiness. This should be understood.

2. The origin of stress and unhappiness is clinging to things, running after things: grasping for pleasures, clinging to life, and interestingly "craving for extinction". Perhaps someone could help me understand this last part. Was the Buddha talking about suicidal thinking? Or did he mean extinction in the more spiritual sense? Was he saying that even craving for awakening was a source of suffering? This Noble Truth should be abandoned. Does that mean we should abandon clinging? Or does it mean we should abandon the truth of clinging? The wording is confusing to me.

3. If we allow craving and clinging to "fade away", if we let go of it, we'll be free from the suffering it causes. This should be realized.

4. The way that leads to letting go of clinging, and therefore ending suffering, is the Noble Eightfold Path, which the Buddha lists here but without going into detail. This Eightfold Path should be developed.

I like that progression: from understanding, to abandoning, to realizing, to developing. I know the 4NT aren't necessarily meant as a progression, but I see something like that here. And the last stage is developing, which suggests an ongoing, never-really-ending process.

It occurred to me this morning that mindfulness is really an amazing way of observing these Truths in action. I sit down and do some preliminary exercises—body scanning and so on—and then I just sit with my thoughts. Lo and behold, the thought pops up that I'm bored or in pain and I want to get up. There's stress and the origin of stress: wanting things to be different from what they are. And mindfulness is the tool that allows me to sit and watch these thoughts go by and "fade away". Neat.

So Happy Dhamma Day, everyone. It would be really nice to hear what the 4NT mean to you. How do you see them in action? How do you work with them?

During this lockdown period, I have been on quite the spiritual odyssey, having participated in ; Zen (of a very traditional style, Zafus, black robes, etc.,), Theravada, Nichiren, Plum Village, Christian meditation (John Main - effectively, mantra meditation), Ignatian prayer and spirituality, Triratna, Amida Shu Pureland and Quakerism. I have attended multiple Zoom meetings for all of these.

I’ve ended up back where I started, interestingly.

I’ve found that Plum Village and Samatha / Theravada combo gives me what I need. I’ve also thrown some Triratna into the mix. I never thought I would go near them, but I’ve found a few Sangha’s locally, who have all been supremely welcoming and they’re all connected, so you see same people at different groups. They also stay connected via WhatsApp Dharma groups between meetings, so I’m finding myself eating some of my earlier views re this strand. I’m also finding their Dharma study very strong, taking in a span of traditions, much more thoughtful and in depth than anything else I’ve come across within 50 miles of home.

I‘m sort of exhausted, but I knew I’d never get a better chance to really dig into my spirituality and explore. The lockdown has oddly allowed it to be a bit easier due to Zoom, so you can cover ground quite quickly without physically attending all of these, but one clearly doesn’t get the in depth experience. It also does cloud the mind a bit, as you find yourself in all sorts of dilemmas about direction. Sometimes, one instinctively knows something doesn’t sit right and walks away.

Sometimes, you have to go to those places to get to this one.

I know some people will think I’m crazy, or whatever. But I wanted to say what I’d been doing somewhere, and here it is.

Hmmmm....I just discovered that there’s a local Kagyu group I missed, may have to scope them out.....🤔😂

1. Sincerely wishing, intending, praying and hoping for that noble Dhamma reunion.

2. Fulfilling the 5 precepts every day and the 8 precepts on Observance Day (full moon and new moon).

3. Doing worship to all Buddha statues, senior lay Buddhists and all noble monastics.

4. Daily contemplation of the three jewels**.

5. Doing beneficial work, service and contribution to the noble Sangha community.

**
Worthy, honourable and perfectly self enlightened was the blessed Buddha.
Consumated in knowledge and behaviour,
totally transcended,
expert in all dimensions,
knower of all worlds,
unsurpassable trainer of those who can be tamed,
both teacher and guide of gods as well as of humans.
Blessed, exalted, awakened and perfectly self enlightened was the blessed Buddha.

Perfectly formulated is this Buddhadhamma.
Visible right here and now,
immediately effective,
timeless,
inviting each and everyone to come and see for themself,
inspect, examine and verify.
Leading each and everyone through progress towards perfection.
Directly observable, experiencable and realisable by each intelligence.

Perfectly training is this noble Sangha community of the Buddha's noble disciples.
Training the right way, the true way, the good way, the direct way.
Therefore do these 8 kind of individuals, these 4 noble pairs,
deserve both gifts, self sacrifice, offerings, hospitality and reverential salutation with joined palms.
Since the noble Sangha community of the Buddha's noble disciples is indeed an unsurpassable,
and forever unsurpassed,
field of merit in this world,
for this world,
to honour, support, uphold, respect and protect.

Sadhu, Sadhu, Sadhu...

"I hesitate a bit when I give lessons on Buddhism in Denmark and the West, because you have Christian traditions. It is better for you to keep your Christian traditions than change them and convert to Buddhism" -he allegedly said on a seminar about meditation.

This was in 2009, but I'm very surprised, actually. I'm not a follower of his tradition, but being such an important figurehead for Buddhism everywhere, I can't help but feel a little let down, and maybe even betrayed.

Link to article (in Danish)

Essentially all religions are the same. It is all mind and a directing of our thoughts to the qualities we wish to emulate in our lives. Hell or Hell Realms are where we go, mentally when we are not focusing on those qualities that a Buddhist would consider skillfull or ones that take one towards Nirvana and away from Samsara.

Putting ones faith in "god" is just another method of letting go of the ego. Giving all glory for the things we accomplish to god and not ourselves. I don't think theistic methods are as effective as others as they take ownership for ones situation away from the person and place it upon god. Unless a theistic follower was aware that their "god" was "mind" and knew that ultimately all their actions and consequenses were of their own making then it's a lesser path. But better a lesser path than no path.

What do others think?

Huayan has a level of "Faith" that for my earlier years I was totally in opposition to, being an atheist, and drawn to buddhism in part for it's not "needing" me to have "faith" to follow it. I am at a point where I feel I want to add a level of faith and reverence into my practice and actually practice, more than just the daily mindfullness espoused by Thich Naht Hanh.

The first ritual I plan to incorporate into my practice is Nembutsu; reciting Amitabha Buddha. Advice on properly performing Nembutsu would be appreciated. What should the meter/cant be? Amitabha on the in breath... Buddha on the out breath... ? What do you focus on while practicing? The words? The Buddha's qualities? I could look for youtube clips or online articles for answers and later I probably will but I take refuge in the Sangha and those who post here are my Sangha, so I will ask you first.

Is it best for me to practice Anapanasati first for a while to gain the right focus?

At some point after practicing Nembutsu I plan to add the Hua tou "Who is repeating the Buddha's name?".

I also plan to add daily prostrations to the triple gem before and after meditation.

Ultimately I will also be incorporating Mozhao (Silent Illumination Meditation) as well but I have much work to gain the right concentration for that.

Any advice for adding ritual, how its aided your own practice, methods to consider, I am open to all at this point.

But things like absorbing a sutra or an hours meditation on the cushion seem to make me very restful, which I think is a property that a lot of Buddhists have in common. So I was wondering about how others experience this, do you find that your impulsiveness is reduced and that your spontaneity is quietened?

The entire Law contained in the Pentateuch of Moses was not ordained by one legislator - I mean, not by God alone, some commandments are Moses', and some were given by other men. The words of the Savior teach us this triple division. The first part must be attributed to God alone, and his legislation; the second to Moses - not in the sense that God legislates through him, but in the sense that Moses gave some legislation under the influence of his own ideas; and the third to the elders of the people, who seem to have ordained some commandments of their own at the beginning. You will now learn how the truth of this theory is proved by the words of the Savior.

In some discussion with those who dispute with the Savior about divorce, which was permitted in the Law, he said Because of your hard-heartedness Moses permitted a man to divorce his wife; from the beginning it was not so; for God made this marriage, and what the Lord joined together, man must not seperate. [Matt 19:8] In this way he shows there is a Law of God, which prohibits the divorce of a wife from a husband, and another law, that of Moses, which permits the breaking of this yoke because of hard-heartedness. In fact, Moses lays down legislation contrary to that of God; for joining is contrary to not joining.

But if we examine the intention of Moses in giving this legislation, it will be seen that he did not give it arbitrarily or of his own accord, but by the necessity because of the weakness of those for whom the legislation was given. Since they were unable to keep the intention of God, according to which it was not lawful for them to reject their wives, with whom some of them disliked to live, and therefore were in the danger of turning to greater injustice and thence to destruction, Moses wanted to remove the cause of dislike, which was placing them in jeopardy of destruction. Therefore because of the critical circumstances, choosing a lesser evil in place of a greater, he ordained, on his own accord, a second law, that of divorce, so that if they could not observe the first, they might keep this and not turn to unjust and evil actions, through which complete destruction would be the result for them. This was his intention when he gave legislation contrary to that of God. Therefore it is indisputeable that here the law of Moses is different from the Law of God, even if we have demonstrated the fact from only one example.

The Savior also makes plain the fact that there are some traditions of the elders interwoven in the Law. For God, he says, said, Honour your father and your mother, that it may be well with you, But you, he says addressing the elders, have declared as a gift to God, that by which you have nullified the Law of God through the tradition of your elders. Isaiah also proclaimed this, saying, This people honours me with their lips, but their hearts are far from me, teaching precepts which are the commandments of men. [Matt 15:4-9].

Therefore it is obvious that the whole Law is divided into three parts; we find in it the legislation of Moses, of the elders, and of God himself. This division of the entire Law, as made by us, has brought to light what is true in it.

(Ptolemy, Letter to Flora, ~100 A.D.)

I would suggest there is a similar threefold division of truth in Buddhavacana: that given by truth, that given by the 500 arhantaḥ (the saints), and that given by the myriad sthāvirāḥ (the elders of the community throughout the ages).

Buddhism is a human institution IMO. The fact that it has human vices, discriminations, hatreds, aversions, to me illustrates this. It was made mostly by people, in my view, not by any one particular person.

My own opinion is that people largely created "the Buddha" from the shared memory of a great spiritual teacher none of them personally remembered. I don't believe the story of the 500 arhantaḥ who solidified the canon. The precise number 500 strikes me as a sacred but unhistorical numerology.

Hence why so many details of the Buddha’s life are stock episodes. Much like the miracles of Jesus which draws on the cultural milieu of general Near Eastern miracle workers. I think they remember many of the teachings of the Buddha accurately. But I don’t think they remember the Buddha himself accurately. And I think many things were hopelessly garbled.

This was how Buddhism became so worldly, in my view, as to be obsessed with genitals, gender, physical beauty, and dwarfism. Because people are obsessed with those things, not the Buddha.

I do not believe the Buddha established those rules in the dhammavinaya that discriminate upon people of the world on such arbitrary criteria as whether or not they have in-tact genitals, for instance. Why? Because they are bizarre and arbitrary and reflect more the worldly concerns of an institution trying to seem “proper” to a worldly society than the unworldly concerns of a unworldly master teaching an unworldly path. A master for whom, if seeming “proper” by society’s worldly standards were important, would have never left his riches, his wife, who would have continued to have more children and perhaps entered into politics as a king, had he cared more for worldly reputation.

There are all sorts of bizarre justifications given in Buddhist literature for bans on the ordination, teaching, and sometimes even association, with what we now call sex and gender minorities. In Venerable Buddhaghoṣa's Visuddhimagga, for instance, is said that the homosexuals lust is too disordered the (s)he cannot calm their mind, that the gender-changer is too ambiguous and prone to changeability to sustain samādhi. Venerable Vasubandhu has only similar statements on the matter.

Furthermore, Ven Buddhaghosa’s point on the hindrance of the changeability of the gender-changer is anticipated in the post-canonical Milindapañha and Nāgasenabhikṣusūtra. Are these Buddhavacana? They are very early literatures.

I think, if Buddha is the perfect human being who stays in the world to teach his dharma, we have to measure him largely by our own standards and definitions of what that perfection is. For some people, unfortunately, it seems they believe a perfect human being would believe absurd lies about sex and gender minorities. We ourselves, speaking of human beings in general, are flawed, thats why we create flawed religions and flawed gods and oftentimes that is why we create an idealized Buddha who is in some way flawed invariably on account of our own flaws.

My search for perfection lead me to Mahāyāna Buddhism (which for the record is just as problematic and worldly as any other kind of Buddhism), and I am sure that many people would identify that as a flaw of mine that led me to create a flawed personal Buddha in the mind as to be persuaded by Vaipulya Buddhadharma.

We all just have to try to do our best and have a minimum standard of upholding other people’s dignity in society while we do so.

What do we take from the Buddhas' dharma? What do we reject? Your thoughts, if it please you.

​We used a five-point scale for responses - complete trust, lots of trust, some trust, little trust and no trust at all. We converted ordinal data (e.g. first, second, etc) into cardinal data (one, two, etc) by assuming equal intervals between categories to give a mean trust score.

We found that the most trusted religious group in New Zealand is a small non-Christian group: Buddhists.

Hmm I wonder if the results would be the same in other Western countries if a similar research survey was conducted...

Lobsters guide to Easter

• Good Frigsday/Friday - this is when Almighty Baby Jesus, fully grown arrived in town on a miracle uber-donkey. The donkey could not talk, like in Shrek. Everyone shouted Havannah and gave him leaves as money was uncool in olden days.
• Easter Sunnyday - Thanos the god killer, nails Magic Jesus to wood (don't worry he escapes in the End Game)
• Moonday morning - Thor/JC is risen like dough/duh. It's a conjuring miracle!

To celebrate the Christian Pagan East-err we eat chocolate bunnies, vegan eggs made of consumer grade chocolate and offer the following prayer:

Go in Peace. See you at Christmas.

Do you engage in this consumer sponsored minor holiday?

Buddha is everywhere, lobby.

I knew it! Is it worse than ceiling cat?
Or like one of my siblings delusions that aliens are watching us and sucking on our brain juice?

Or ...
Perhaps it is is the realization that Tara is everywhere. Pureland is corrupt. Samsara is Nirvana. Emptiness is form and Nothing is what it seems ...

[lobster has a sit down for brain juice extraction]

"Native American Ten Commandments"
....Sacred Instructions Given By The Creator To Native People
At The Time Of Creation....

-Treat the Earth and all that dwell thereon with respect.
-Remain close to the Great Spirit.
-Show great respect for your fellow beings.
-Work together for the benefit of all Mankind.
-Give assistance and kindness wherever needed.
-Do what you know to be right.
-Look after the well being of mind and body.
-Dedicate a share of your efforts to the greater good.
-Be truthful and honest at all times.
-Take full responsibility for your actions.

From the Lakotah: - "akita mani yo" - (see all things as you walk) -

I'm wondering what the view is on humans who can talk to the deceased? By deseased, I mean humans who have passed away on earth who have not been reborn into the Hungry Ghost realm. I have known genuine mediums (of whom are not Buddhist) who have contacted loved ones for people; and they do not do this for the money or to rip people off, they do it to let the living know that they're loved ones are happy and at peace. I'm sorry if this sounds very out of place, since the Hungry Ghost realm is a result of a bad karmic life, I cannot believe a medium contacts the deceased from this realm when a lot of love is given by yhe spirits of humans that come through to communicate. In terms of mediumship, I'm referring to the spiritualist movement (spiritualist churches and demonstrations of mediumship).

In the last 6 months, I went with a friend to see a medium (They were happy for me to sit in). My friend had not visited this medium before or had any prior connections with them. The only communication they had was a single phone call to book a suitable time to meet. my friend has no social media accounts; so no prior snooping could have been done on the medium's part. When we arrived and sat down, the medium 'tuned in' as all genuine mediums do, and without them even saying a word the medium had accurately got the name of her father who passed away 18 years ago, their grandad and aunts and uncles. Described them perfectly and told of some of my friends past events to boot. The medium told us both not to 'feed' him as he wanted no sort of information from us; yet he managed to do what he did sincerely.

I have not described this incident to poke holes or to cause any doubt in regards to Buddhist thought; but I have a genuine belief that humans can have an ability (Whether it is a type of attachment or unhealthy practice) to contact the deceased.
What I'm trying to do is to place this practice of mediumship into Buddhist thought, cosmology and/or philosophy; as I have no reason to disbelieve Mediumship and I have no reason to doubt my Biddhist school of thought (Theravada) so I'm trying to find a middle ground here between the two which I'm confident that it exists, I just have not found it yet. Even if it's to the suggestion that the hungry ghost rralm isn't just full of greedy, tortured souls; and there are different levels - to an extent where humans become ghosts/spirits and suffer just as much as we do (possibly a bit more due to it being a lower world) but still have the power to practice and feel loving-kindness.

Any helpful thoughts and suggetions are deeply appreciated!

Lobster Family viewing (Adams family types only):

• Bad Times at the El Royale

More gentle viewing, suitable for nuns

• Ladies in Black
• It’s a Wonderful Life
• Incredibles 1 & 2

A few months ago in therapy I said I felt ready to do a lot of things, but something invisible was holding me back. She said it was my subconscious. After a lot of reflection I know this can only be true. I see my subconscious pain lined up before me.

With a past of mental illness I would like something more grounding than scripture or meditation. I have always been attracted to the devotional practice of pure land. Today was my day off. I watched several YouTube videos on pure land sutras and ideas. I felt very calm and at peace, especially when I listed to someone describe their experience of nembutsu.

I feel like I am ready to take another step in my life. Every few years is benchmarked with another crisis; this time I want to start with a good foundation. I believe a focus on Amida Buddha would help me love and accept everything, like an instrument of sorts. Plus I am relieved at the idea of a practice made specifically for times of "dharmic decline"

I have never much looked into Zen or any other sect (too lazy ) but I would like to hear your thoughts on a devotional practice. As far as I am aware many here are Zen or Non Affiliated Buddhists

https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2018/12/natalie-portman-slams-israel-racist-nation-state-law-181213080811163.html

Dear Friends, fellow muggles, drones, trolls, heretics and Hinayanists, ??

Happy Halloween. ???

Today is when the nagas, garudus and bodhis that go burp in the night are floating about (allegedly).

Do you celebrate by sacrificing a carrot or in some other way? ???
http://wisdomquarterly.blogspot.com/2009/10/buddhist-halloween.html

An interesting article on the main differences between the Soto and Rinzai schools of Zen.
Of course there are a lot more things they have have in common than they differ on.
Gassho.
Hozan.

Your thoughts on this are very welcome...