Is Self Immolation necessary?

by Aik Theng Chong, Singapore, The Buddhist Channel, July 11, 2010

]]> http://dharmacore.wordpress.com/2010/07/14/my-question-is-asking-whether-self-immolation-is-necessary-really-necessary/feed/ 0 aebaxter http://dharmacore.wordpress.com/2010/06/25/american-bhikkhuni-sangha-builds-a-yurt-for-vassa-supplies-and-donations-still-needed/ http://dharmacore.wordpress.com/2010/06/25/american-bhikkhuni-sangha-builds-a-yurt-for-vassa-supplies-and-donations-still-needed/#comments Fri, 25 Jun 2010 19:46:42 +0000 Al http://dharmacore.wordpress.com/2010/06/25/american-bhikkhuni-sangha-builds-a-yurt-for-vassa-supplies-and-donations-still-needed/ ]]>

Alliance for Bhikkhunis

For the first time in North America, this summer there will be a complete Bhikkhuni Sangha living together in community for Vassa, the three-month long rains retreat which begins on July 25, 2010. Including samaneris and sincere monastic life aspirants, there will be approximately ten women together for the entire retreat, with severa…l more sincere monastic life aspirants joining in for a substantial portion of Vassa. For those who would like to help and want to know what can be done to support this historic happening, please join in any and every way you can from near or far.

From afar:
- send meditative moral support and good wishes
- donate needed supplies (see details below) or funds

Labour needing to be done on site:
- finishing outhouses
- finishing trailer fix-up and painting
- working on solar system
- building the commons area patio
- sewing and painting the tee-pee cover
- trail building work
- building meditation/camping platforms

Coordination:
– rides coordinator and dana coordinator during Vassa

Needed supplies:
- stove for the kitchen trailer
- on-demand water heater and shower tent
- materials for building the commons area patio
- solar system supplies
- material and paint for tee-pee cover

Needed supplies for monastic retreatants:
- tents, sleeping bags and camping pads
- SOLAR rechargeable flashlights and lanterns
- natural insect repellent
- sunscreen
- Technu poison oak soap and poison oak medicine
- natural biodegradable dishwashing, body and laundry soaps

Any of these things would be extremely helpful and most gratefully accepted. If you can help out with any of the above, please contact Hermitage co-ordinator Sara Sacksteder at saraca (at) earthlink (dot) net or Jill Rayna at dharmacreeksangha (at) gmail (dot) com.
Thank you!See More

Aranya Bodhi Dhamma/Dana-Sala Yurt Raising

www.flickr.com

www.flickr.com<div class=”>dhammadharini’s Aranya Bodhi Dhamma/Dana-Sala Yurt Raising set

What these women are doing is amazing.

Posted via email from Dharmacore

As all things are buddha-dharma, there is delusion and realization, practice, and birth and death, and there are buddhas and sentient beings.

As the myriad things are without an abiding self, there is no delusion, no realization, no buddha, no sentient being, no birth and death.

The buddha way is, basically, leaping clear of the many and the one; thus there are birth and death, delusion and realization, sentient beings and buddhas.

Yet in attachment blossoms fall, and in aversion weeds spread.

°

To carry yourself forward and experience myriad things is delusion. That myriad things come forth and experience themselves is awakening.

Those who have great realization of delusion are buddhas; those who are greatly deluded about realization are sentient beings. Further, there are those who continue realizing beyond realization, who are in delusion throughout delusion.

°

When buddhas are truly buddhas they do not necessarily notice that they are buddhas. However, they are actualized buddhas, who go on actualizing buddhas.

When you see forms or hear sounds fully engaging body-and-mind, you grasp things directly. Unlike things and their reflections in the mirror, and unlike the moon and its reflection in the water, when one side is illumined the other side is dark.

°

To study the buddha way is to study the self. To study the self is to forget the self. To forget the self is to be actualized by myriad things. When actualized by myriad things, your body and mind as well as the bodies and minds of others drop away. No trace of realization remains, and this no-trace continues endlessly.

°

When you first seek dharma, you imagine you are far away from its environs. But dharma is already correctly transmitted; you are immediately your original self. When you ride in a boat and watch the shore, you might assume that the shore is moving. But when you keep your eyes closely on the boat, you can see that the boat moves. Similarly, if you examine myriad things with a confused body and mind you might suppose that your mind and nature are permanent. When you practice intimately and return to where you are, it will be clear that nothing at all has unchanging self.

°

Firewood becomes ash, and it does not become firewood again. Yet, do not suppose that the ash is future and the firewood past. You should understand that firewood abides in the phenomenal expression of firewood, which fully includes past and future and is independent of past and future. Ash abides in the phenomenal expression of ash, which fully includes future and past. Just as firewood does not become firewood again after it is ash, you do not return to birth after death.

This being so, it is an established way in buddha-dharma to deny that birth turns into death. Accordingly, birth is understood as no-birth. It is an unshakable teaching in Buddha’s discourse that death does not turn into birth. Accordingly, death is understood as no-death.

Birth is an expression complete this moment. Death is an expression complete this moment. They are like winter and spring. You do not call winter the beginning of spring, nor summer the end of spring.

°

Enlightenment is like the moon reflected on the water. The moon does not get wet, nor is the water broken. Although its light is wide and great, the moon is reflected even in a puddle an inch wide. The whole moon and the entire sky are reflected in dewdrops on the grass, or even in one drop of water.

Enlightenment does not divide you, just as the moon does not break the water. You cannot hinder enlightenment, just as a drop of water does not hinder the moon in the sky.

The depth of the drop is the height of the moon. Each reflection, however long or short its duration, manifests the vastness of the dewdrop, and realizes the limitlessness of the moonlight in the sky.

°

When dharma does not fill your whole body and mind, you think it is already sufficient. When dharma fills your body and mind, you understand that something is missing.

For example, when you sail out in a boat to the middle of an ocean where no land is in sight, and view the four directions, the ocean looks circular, and does not look any other way. But the ocean is neither round or square; its features are infinite in variety. It is like a palace. It is like a jewel. It only look circular as far as you can see at that time. All things are like this.

Though there are many features in the dusty world and the world beyond conditions, you see and understand only what your eye of practice can reach. In order to learn the nature of the myriad things, you must know that although they may look round or square, the other features of oceans and mountains are infinite in variety; whole worlds are there. It is so not only around you, but also directly beneath your feet, or in a drop of water.

°

A fish swims in the ocean, and no matter how far it swims there is no end to the water. A bird flies in the sky, and no matter how far it flies there is no end to the air. However, the fish and the bird have never left their elements. When their activity is large their field is large. When their need is small their field is small. Thus, each of them totally covers its full range, and each of them totally experiences its realm. If the bird leaves the air it will die at once. If the fish leaves the water it will die at once.

Know that water is life and air is life. The bird is life and the fish is life. Life must be the bird and life must be the fish.

It is possible to illustrate this with more analogies. Practice, enlightenment, and people are like this.

°

Now if a bird or a fish tries to reach the end of its element before moving in it, this bird or this fish will not find its way or its place. When you find your place where you are, practice occurs, actualizing the fundamental point. When you find you way at this moment, practice occurs, actualizing the fundamental point; for the place, the way, is neither large nor small, neither yours nor others’. The place, the way, has not carried over from the past and it is not merely arising now.

Accordingly, in the practice-enlightenment of the buddha way, meeting one thing is mastering it–doing one practice is practicing completely.

°

Here is the place; here the way unfolds. The boundary of realization is not distinct, for the realization comes forth simultaneously with the mastery of buddha-dharma.

Do not suppose that what you realize becomes your knowledge and is grasped by your consciousness. Although actualized immediately, the inconceivable may not be apparent. Its appearance is beyond your knowledge.

°

Zen master Baoche of Mt. Mayu was fanning himself. A monk approached and said, “Master, the nature of wind is permanent and there is no place it does not reach. When, then, do you fan yourself?”

“Although you understand that the nature of the wind is permanent,” Baoche replied, “you do not understand the meaning of its reaching everywhere.”

“What is the meaning of its reaching everywhere?” asked the monk again. The master just kept fanning himself. The monk bowed deeply.

The actualization of the buddha-dharma, the vital path of its correct transmission, is like this. If you say that you do not need to fan yourself because the nature of wind is permanent and you can have wind without fanning, you will understand neither permanence nor the nature of wind. The nature of wind is permanent; because of that, the wind of the buddha’s house brings for the gold of the earth and makes fragrant the cream of the long river.

How can we wake up if we are bound by the inescapable law of karma, of cause and efect? By owning it completely. There is no other realm we need to enter, no new mind we need to gain, no supernatural intervention that we must accept or hope for, no imminent apocalypse to usher in a new world order. There is no escape. Confession and repentance is a big part of Zen practice. The verse of confession recited at ordinations and other ceremonies goes like this: “All my ancient twisted karma, from beginningless greed, hate, and delusion; born from body, speech, and mind; I now fully avow.” When we sincerely take responsibility for the harmful karma that we have created through our confused actions, words, and thoughts, this harmful karma no longer has the same binding power over us. On the contrary, this karma is transmuted into the fuel of liberation.

Present publishes scholarly articles, essays, non-fiction, book reviews, news, and reviews about—and relevant to—bhikkhunis and the Theravada Fourfold Assembly. Present is an independent publication and does not represent any particular lineage, monastic, or teacher. The journal is produced for and supported by the Theravada Fourfold Assembly, and as such reflects the interests of that community.

Check out their wonderful publication (PDF link).

…can you truly accept a situation without some desire or outcome (e.g. greater peace) in mind, even if it is in the back of your mind?

…If you want to eliminate desire, isn’t that in itself a desire? And can anyone do anything without serving one desire or another? If you took this to a logical extreme, you’d stop desiring food and die. Are practicing Buddhists anywhere close to eliminating desire?

Wednesday, June 2, 2010

Information

Dear Mr. James Cohen,

You do not belong Dogen Sangha at all. Therefore you should not say anything about Dogen Sangha completely.

Gudo Wafu Nishijima

This is what I don’t understand about Dharma transmission. Is he taking it back?