“The thought of writing more—e.g., blogging—is just unbearable. I’d rather spend my precious spare time doing street drugs.” ~Ken Wilber in a Mar 8, 2006, email to coolmel of www.coolmel.com.
Animals, mothering, middle age, being a vegan, practicing Buddhism, the work of a six-year-old cartoonist, "facing your life," living in harmony with others, discord among philosophers, The One & the Many, hope for the blangha, the cosmic deal, 21 days, problems as challenges, the flu, Sam Harris and Martin Seligman are among the topics during yet another jaunty week in the Buddhoblogosphere.
The Stream, Part I
me of don’t drop that atomic bomb on me looks at the Zen of cats and dog. Concludes me, after observations of his/her household pets, “Even nonhuman animals can be deluded. Envy them not.”
Buddha Pest [aka, Tim Middleton] of Observe the Observer is becoming optimistic about the Middle Way in middle age. BP learns that journaling [blogging!] aids the immune system and that Dr. Seuss didn’t start writing his books till he was 53. And now Buddha Pest is reading Ken Wilber, and the material resonates with him.
Dharmasattva of the eponymous blog writes, “As new as I am to Buddhist practice, I am so happy with how it's changed my life that I find myself sharing Buddhist ideas with my non-Buddhist friends.”
To stop stumbling so much with her practice, Zenmom [of the same-name blog] has come up “with a list of conditions that make my sitting more likely...getting to bed on time, sunshine drawing me down the stairs, zenchild's items gathered and ready to go.” [Her post is mostly about other things, including the wonderful Bead Lady.]
In a terrific rambling post on being a vegan, musician Carlos Rull of carlosrull.com talks about being confronted and being cited as a good example because of his healthful, humane diet. Then, he segues into thoughts about the accomplishments of fellow vegans Natalie Portman and Einstein.
Rev. Mugo of Moving Mountains presents the teachings of a six-year-old cartoonist. [I love the smiling cat with the frowning mouse inside its stomach.]
Beesucker of Authentic Personality quotes Sogyal Rinpoche, “In Tibetan, the word for body is ‘lu,’ which means ‘something you leave behind’, like baggage. …” Funny. In Chinese, “lu” means teachings [eg, the Linji Lu], which I think of as baggage, left behind when we reach the other shore.
The girl of auspicious coincidence writes in code. Helpful girl that she is, she posts a post that deconstructs her previous post. The deconstructing post is, like, six-times longer than the post it deconstructs. Damn that Foucault!
Muan of Beneath the Clouds in a post titled "The mystery of Amida" tells us, “From the difficult which takes us to the very limit of our abilities we are lead to the simple that is the heart and foundation of our practice.”
James of The Buddhist Blog quotes Dainin Katagiri Roshi: “The important point of spiritual practice is not to try to escape your life, but to face it …”
Martin Seligman [qv, wikipedia] came up in a couple of Buddhist blogs this week. Justin of American Buddhist Perspective in an exaggerated rant against his education and career path toward earning and using a Ph.D wrote, “Perhaps some form of ‘Positive Philosophy’ could be conceived; much in the way Martin Seligman rightly criticized and revolutionized the discipline of psychology.” William Harryman in his Integral Options Café wrote, “[I] found an article on Positive Psychology, Martin Seligman's reaction against traditional talk therapies. While I would reclassify Positive Psychology as ‘the psychology of sanctioned repression,’ a couple of the exercises he uses seemed to be possibly interesting additions to my practice.”
In another post this week, Bill Harryman [of the IOC] quotes Wilber on the One manifesting as The Many and writes, “This wildly amazing Kosmos is all just Spirit growing back to itself with increased awareness. My goal for this limited life is to align myself as much as possible with that process.”
While in sesshin at his temple in Japan, Johnny Newt of The Invisible Cat offers these words: “‘Kori wo chiribame, midzu ni egaku’ which is to say.. ‘To inlay ice; to paint upon water’ Sometimes zazen seems as such, but as a blind man feels through the dark for his bowl, what else can be done.”
Jayarava in The Jayarava Rave writes about self-preoccupation, in particular when in with a group. He quotes the Culagosinga Sutta which shows the ideal situation, when group members live “in concord, … viewing each other with kindly eyes.” And he tells us of the group he’s in where there can be times of dis-ease or upset. Writes Jayarava, “I once asked one of my mentors about the problem that we all face of the gap between our aspirations and how we actually behave. He told me that the way to bring them closer is through reflection. Well, I'm still reflecting, but I do find myself letting go of some of the small things and being happier as a result.”
Jack of Jack/Zen tells us “Many cultures promote a normative resistance to happiness, no matter how much lip service they pay to happiness as good. The resistance is rooted in a body of deeply held beliefs.... if suffering opens our heart and mind ... [we] need to maintain enough suffering for ourselves. To the extent that joy opens our heart and mind, we really need to practice and invite joy.” [Thanks to Sujatin of lotusinthemud for the link to Jack's post.]
Sam Harris
Sam Harris is noteworthy for being quoted in the December issue of Atlantic, defending one religion while others were a direct target of Paul Bloom's "Is God an Accident?" Harris's quoted words were [Buddhism is] "the most complete methodology we have for discovering the intrinsic freedom of consciousness, unencumbered by any dogma." Pretty cool, eh? Nacho of WoodMoor Village had brought the article to the attention of the blangha last January -- as an explanation of resistance to evolution, not because of the Harris quote.
But Harris's attitude toward Buddhism is not friendly. William Harryman of Integral Options Cafe has been waging his "own private war against Sam Harris and his reductionist version of reality" for some time -- most recently in a Feb 25 post, citing Harris's article in the March 2006 Shambhala Sun, "Killing the Buddha." Zenmar in his blog The Buddhist also takes on Harris's article which presents an "astonishing theory." Zenmar's post is titled, "Why kill the Buddha?"
Harris's theory is that Buddhism should be turned over to science, fully -- lock, stock, robe and bowl. He writes [quoting the quote in the IOC], "The spirit of empiricism animates Buddhism to a unique degree. For this reason, the methodology of Buddhism, if shorn of its religious encumbrances, could be one of our greatest resources as we struggle to develop our scientific understanding of human subjectivity."
William responds, "Harris is so enraptured with his scientism [qv, wikipedia] that he cannot fathom any other possible worldviews. .... For Harris, anything pre-rational or post-rational is simply irrational, and therefore worthless."
Zenmar says of one section of the Harris article that it tells "Buddhists to essentially dump their religion because they are complicit in the world's violence which is largely due to religion." Z then writes, "If anything, the attention Harris gives to religion as being the cause of modern man's woes is a convenient way to hide the bodies of the Enlightenment which are a direct result of its failure to find an adequate reason for moral behavior--something only religion can furnish."
The Stream, Part II
John of My Zen Life failed in his effort to sit zazen for 21 straight days. But John has picked himself up; sat himself down; and will start all over, again. Till the end of March, John!
Poor Mumon of Notes in Samsara wrote a post called “Flu Practice.” Here’s the text, en toto:
I have it. My wife and son have it.Ah. Good words from Quoting Buddha:
It's not fun.
But not much can be done at this point.
View all problems as challenges. Look upon negativities that arise as opportunities to learn and to grow. Don't run from them, condemn yourself, or bury your burden in saintly silence. You have a problem? Great. More grist for the mill. Rejoice, dive in, and investigate.Seems wise. A quote pulled from the tasty, tawny, babbling waters of whiskey river this week:
- Bhante Henepola Gunaratana, Mindfulness in Plain English
The Road to WisdomJeb tells us in Wondering on the Way, “the cosmic deal is this. If you want to be free, you can be free - BUT - only if you let go of everything.”
The road to wisdom?
Well, it’s plain and simple
to express:
Err
and err
and err again
but less
and less
and less.
- Piet Hein
In a post titled “Taking Refuge in the Blangha,” Nacho of WoodMoor Village is hopeful and optimistic. He writes:
I’ve always understood taking refuge in rather broad terms. So for me the answer to the question of whether we can find refuge in the blangha is yes. This is a qualified yes. Online communities are fairly different than others, and those differences have to be taken into account. And yet, I believe we can’t but extend our own Sanghas outward in ever widening circles. Our little corner of the blogosphere could then be described as another “community of practice.”
