Buddhism

Once, a certain nun asked,

“Even lay women practice and study the buddha-dharma. As for nuns, even though we have some faults, I feel there is no reason to say that we go against the buddha-dharma. What do you think?”

Dōgen admonished,

“That is not a correct view. Lay women might attain the Way as a result of practicing the buddha-dharma as they are. However, no monk or nun’ attains it unless he or she has the mind of one who has left home. This is not because the buddha-dharma discriminates between one person and another, but rather because the person doesn’t enter the dharma. There must be a difference in the attitude of lay people and those who have left home. A layman who has the mind of a monk or nun who has left home will be released from samsara. A monk or a nun who has the mind of a lay person has double faults. Their attitudes should be quite different. It is not that it is difficult to do, but to do it completely is difficult. The practice of being released from samsara and attaining the Way seems to be sought by everyone, but those who accomplish it are few. Life-and-death is the Great Matter; impermanence is swift?. Do not let your mind slacken. If you abandon the world, you should abandon it completely. I don’t think that the names provisionally used to distinguish monks and nuns from lay people are at all important.”

“The Buddha’s statement, “If you wish to grasp the meaning of ‘Buddha Nature,’” was His way of saying, “If you want to know the meaning of ‘Buddha Nature’ here and now.” His statement, “Just look at the conditions associated with the moment,” was His way of saying, “Just discern what the conditions at this moment are.” You need to realize that His saying “If you wish to know Buddha Nature” is synonymous with the conditions at the moment. And as to His saying “When the right moment arrives,” the moment has already arrived, so where is there room for doubt? Even if we should have doubts about whether it is the right moment, this is still Buddha Nature coming forth in us. You need to realize that the phrase “when the right moment arrives” means that we should not idle away any moment within a day. His saying “when it arrives” is as if He had said, “It has already come.” When we get all involved with ‘when the time comes’, Buddha Nature does not come before us. Hence, since the time has already come, this is “Buddha Nature manifesting before our very eyes.” In other words, the truth of It is self-evident. In sum, there has not yet been a time when the right moment has not come, nor is there a Buddha Nature which is not Buddha Nature manifesting before our very eyes right now.”

I wrote a post (here) a couple weeks ago that was removed for being nonsensical. The message was true, factual, canonical & directly quoted, and written in plain language. I think moderators have overstepped bounds in censoring it as nonsensical. Is there a way to dispute the action?

This morning, we got a package, ordered yesterday, that contained eight cans of garbanzo beans, amongst other things. Strange. I could have sworn I only ordered two. I check Amazon, and sure enough I only ordered two. This sort of thing just happens now,at a significant frequency; the magick of good karmic entanglement.

That is the word the Buddha used to describe our relationship with Karma: entangled. He also said trying to understand Karma would only bring vexation, with is both true and not. The Buddha spoke perfectly, with perfect timing in his pedagogy. To try to understand Karma while only knowing the shadows on the cave wall is a completely fruitless endeavor.

Therein, I remember hitting stream-entry; I was laying in my bed, just musing on this and that in quasimeditation (I have autism/ADHD+ and my mind is calmest when I have some simple repetitive motion in my body - one reason I learned to juggle), and in my mind's eye, I saw the weaving of möbiated/defiled/sinful monads across parallel universes, and I understood right then that I had achieved an accurate modelment of reality.

This accuracy guarantees enlightenment within seven lifetimes - of which we live many in each biological incarnation - for the same reason knowing and applying the algorithm to solve a Rubik's Cube will solve it in a maximum number of moves. I know how to interpret the symbology of the illusory experience of my self in order to set my intention right - using both intuition/Eve and logic/Adam - to navigate the topological matrix that we are not IN but rather ARE that defines the parameters that "existence" procedurally generates for us in our individual reality tunnel that does not have to match anyone else's.

Y'know, simply, if String A is entangled with String B but not String C, then AB=true and AC=false. Additionally, entanglements can möbiate to give nA, nB, nC. Further, you can think in terms of how a square is a rectangle but a rectangle is not a square, but both are quadrilaterals and polygons, in terms of categorical nesting. Finally, you also must acknowledge that there is emptiness, which is the equivalent of "return null," and there is implicit and explicit null.

While there is no self, the illusory self is made by the möbiation of entanglement, which gives us the perception of dualistic dichotomy. This means that Jesus "being without sin" does not mean he never sinned, but that he perceived n undid the karmic fetters that bind one to the existence-illusion complex. And the reason we never hear of the esoteria of Christianity is because in the occident (west), we engineered our culture to control those people who cannot think for themselves whilst simultaneously guiding those people waking up into the occult, which just means "hidden."

Because the average person, if aware that they could jump off a building and the angels would catch them, semi-metaphorically, to mean the world very much is magick, they wouldn't work as hard, and one of the key things that I have learned in my strange, difficult live, is that spiritual work is WORK, and it is intentful work that begets some of the most powerful entanglements within the Ālaya-vijñāna, or storehouse consciousness.

This is because the only thing we have control over is our intention, which is literally the act of setting an azimuth through the topological matrix to define the boundaries from which the subsystems of consciousness proliferate into reflective experiences in your personal reality tunnel.

I can't tell you the number of times I've given money to a homeless person and found some or gotten lucky the next day. My dad sent money one time, and I took it out to buy groceries, it was the only way we ate, and then I find I apparently never took the money out. Twenty dollars just spawned in my account one day. I was mean to my life partner and immediately afterward broke my shoelace riding my bike. I faked schizophrenia to get outta ROTC, and now I have to juggle and write awakening propaganda on the internet. These are obvious cause n effect relationships to me, and if they aren't to you, y'all need to get working on your "selves."

There is the heaven realm of the Brahmā worlds. In the "Kevaṭṭa Sutta", a monk goes through increasingly higher heaven realms until he meets Brahmā:

'I, monk, am Brahmā, the Great Brahmā, the Conqueror, the Unconquered, the All-Seeing, All-Powerful, the Sovereign Lord, the Maker, Creator, Chief, Appointer, and Ruler, Father of All That Have Been and Shall Be.’

Brahmā, however, didn't know how to answer the question the monk brought to him, and couldn't admit this in front of his followers, on the basis of upkeeping the view that he is "All-Seeing, All-powerful", & so forth. Instead, Brahmā recommended the monk return to the Buddha, who was able to answer the question.

Soon after the Buddha's full enlightenment, it was Brahmā Sahampati who urged the Buddha to lead others to enlightenment; the Buddha otherwise was going to remain silent about it (see "Brahmayācanakathā"). Brahmā Sahampati later even bows to the Buddha. The Buddha is presenting a more worthy & permanent release from suffering than Brahmā's heaven realm; beings born into this heaven realm generally are still subject to eventual death & rebirth into lower realms (see "Brahma-nimantanika Sutta"). There is also Māra, who is generally viewed as the main antagonist to the Buddha - e.g., with the epithet "Evil One". In the "Brahma-nimantanika Sutta", it's shown that Brahmā's heaven realm is under the control of Māra, who is able to possess Brahmā's followers. The Buddha said:

‘I know you, Evil One. Don’t assume, “He doesn’t know me.” You are Māra, Evil One. And Brahmā, and Brahmā’s assembly, and the attendants of Brahmā’s assembly have all come into your hands. They have all come under your sway.

Māra though is also a deity in the Paranimmitavasavattī heaven - a heaven of deities with power over others' creations. In the Vimalakīrti Sūtra, it is revealed that Māra is actually enlightened himself, leading other beings to enlightenment - a bodhisattva.

[T]he māras who play the devil in the innumerable universes of the ten directions are all bodhisattvas dwelling in the inconceivable liberation, who are playing the devil in order to develop living beings through their skill in liberative art.

I believe that Satan/Lucifer in Abrahamic religions is Māra, who is a higher power than God, though both are attempting to develop beings and spare them from suffering.

Note the Buddha also presents himself as omniscient & omnipotent. Though, this too is a fabrication that parallels Brahmā's. In the "Pañcavaggiyakathā" - again shortly after the Buddha's full enlightenment - the Buddha has an ignorance that a deity (the word 'deva' or 'devatā' is used in Buddhism) needs to correct him of:

Then the thought occurred to the Blessed One, “To whom should I teach the Dhamma first? Who will quickly understand this Dhamma?”

Then the thought occurred to him, “This Āḷāra Kālāma is wise, competent, intelligent. He has long had little dust in his eyes. What if I were to teach him the Dhamma first? He will quickly understand this Dhamma.”

Then an invisible devatā informed the Blessed One, “Lord, Āḷāra Kālāma died seven days ago.”

And knowledge & vision arose within him: “Āḷāra Kālāma died seven days ago.”

The thought occurred to him, “A great loss has Āḷāra Kālāma suffered. If he had heard this Dhamma, he would have quickly understood it.”

Then the thought occurred to the Blessed One, “To whom should I teach the Dhamma first? Who will quickly understand this Dhamma?”

Both the Buddha & God aren't all-knowing & all-powerful. Though, I do recommend either to take refuge under. I prayed to the Buddha, the Medicine Buddha, God, & Māra for support in sharing this; am an anāgāmi & bodhisattva myself.

May all beings swiftly obtain perfect enlightenment.

“Mendicants, the dawn is the forerunner and precursor of the sunrise. In the same way right view is the forerunner and precursor of skillful qualities. Right view gives rise to right thought. Right thought gives rise to right speech. Right speech gives rise to right action. Right action gives rise to right livelihood. Right livelihood gives rise to right effort. Right effort gives rise to right mindfulness. Right mindfulness gives rise to right immersion. Right immersion gives rise to right knowledge. Right knowledge gives rise to right freedom.”

“Where do quarrels and disputes come from? And lamentation and sorrow, and stinginess? What of conceit and arrogance, and slander too— tell me please, where do they come from?”

“Quarrels and disputes come from what we hold dear, as do lamentation and sorrow, stinginess, conceit and arrogance. Quarrels and disputes are linked to stinginess, and when disputes have arisen there is slander.”

“So where do things held dear in the world spring from? And the lusts that are loose in the world? Where spring the hopes and aims a man has for the next life?”

“What we hold dear in the world spring from desire, as do the lusts that are loose in the world. From there spring the hopes and aims a man has for the next life.”

“So where does desire in the world spring from? And judgments, too, where do they come from? And anger, lies, and doubt, and other things spoken of by the Ascetic?”

“What they call pleasure and pain in the world— based on that, desire comes about. Seeing the appearance and disappearance of forms, a person forms judgments in the world.

Anger, lies, and doubt— these things are, too, when that pair is present. One who has doubts should train in the path of knowledge; it is from knowledge that the Ascetic speaks of these things.”

“Where do pleasure and pain spring from? When what is absent do these things not occur? And also, on the topic of appearance and disappearance— tell me where they spring from.”

“Pleasure and pain spring from contact; when contact is absent they do not occur. And on the topic of appearance and disappearance— I tell you they spring from there.”

“So where does contact in the world spring from? And possessions, too, where do they come from? When what is absent is there no possessiveness? When what disappears do contacts not strike?”

“Name and form cause contact; possessions spring from wishing; when wishing is absent there is no possessiveness; when form disappears, contacts don’t strike.”

“Form disappears for one proceeding how? And how do happiness and suffering disappear? Tell me how they disappear; I think we ought to know these things.”

“Without normal perception or distorted perception; not lacking perception, nor perceiving what has disappeared. Form disappears for one proceeding thus; for concepts of identity due to proliferation spring from perception.”

“Whatever I asked you have explained to me. I ask you once more, please tell me this: Do some astute folk here say that this is the highest extent of purification of the spirit? Or do they say it is something else?”

“Some astute folk do say that this is the highest extent of purification of the spirit. But some of them, claiming to be experts, speak of a time when nothing remains.

Knowing that these states are dependent, and knowing what they depend on, the inquiring sage, having understood, is freed, and enters no dispute. The wise do not proceed to life after life.”

来時は空手、去時は赤脚。一去一来、単重交折

Raiji wa karate kyoji wa sekkyaku ikkyoichirai tanjuu sekkou

I came into this world empty-handed, and I leave it barefoot. My arrival, my departure: simple events that have become intertwined.

If there were a cause, nirvana would be conditional and impermanent. This means that no amount of effort can produce nirvana, because it does not arise from causes.

If you are practicing with the idea that your effort will engender nirvana, notice that you are still treating it as a special goal to be achieved. In doing so, you are actually reinforcing the grasping that is the defining characteristic of samsara.

Haemin Sunim, Seon monk

I was pretty surprised but glad to see spiritual philosophy applied in AI research. And from Oxford researchers (among others) too.

Before we can taste the fruits of practice there must be a flowering, and before that the sowing and cultivation of seeds. This sustained care is driven by a mind intent on uncovering bodhi-mind, or bodhicitta. The germination of the bodhi-mind comes from an insight into the seed of buddhahood which is already present in our own nature. The intent to grow a bodhimind is the care with which we nourish this seed first into bloom and then into fruit....

...Many practitioners, particularly those who have been reading too many books, think only about getting enlightened. They may give little consideration to the problem of uprooting the weeds of vexation or helping other sentient beings, even small animals, in distress. Such a practitioner is hoping for the fruits without being willing to make an effort. Such a limited approach cannot fulfil the causes and conditions essential to realisation. Such a practitioner is merely dreaming. Enlightenment happens in its own time on the basis of right causes and conditions. It is not something to be anxious about.

“In that case, Bāhiya, you should train like this: ‘In the seen will be merely the seen; in the heard will be merely the heard; in the thought will be merely the thought; in the known will be merely the known.’ That’s how you should train. When you have trained in this way, you won’t be ‘by that’. When you’re not ‘by that’, you won’t be ‘in that’. When you’re not ‘in that’, you won’t be in this world or the world beyond or between the two. Just this is the end of suffering.”

“There is an extremely easy way to become Buddha. Refraining from all evil, not clinging to birth and death, working in deep compassion for all sentient beings, respecting those over you and having pity for those below you, without any detesting or desiring, worrying or lamentation—this is what is called Buddha. Do not search beyond it. “

“We may believe them to be the most important elements of this life, but in reality we are all just a tiny part of the universe. Each of us is a combination of causes and conditions, a product of the evolution of life and the earth. I, for example, am made up of things that are not 'me'. The food I eat, the air I breathe and the water I drink are not 'me', yet I cannot live without all these things. In fact, all the things that keep us alive, and even life itself, are gifts we receive from the universe. If we reflect on human life, it is easy to realise that even the basic elements of our existence are given to us. For example, at birth, human beings are not at all self-sufficient, and in order to survive, children must be cared for over a long period of time. Before the age of one, infants cannot even stand up and are totally helpless, and later, children, unable to earn a living, must be fed and cared for at least until adolescence. To become truly independent members of society, human beings must study for perhaps twenty years or more. Until we are able to think for ourselves, we are essentially supported and cared for by society. Even language, the essential tool of thought, is a gift from society, and the education that society gives us teaches us to think and behave well. Since I was born and raised in Japan, I think in Japanese and act mostly in accordance with Japanese values. The Japanese language and value system derive from the culture created by all the people who have lived in Japan throughout history, so my way of speaking, thinking, and behaving is the result of all their lives. Each of us is connected to all beings past, present and future in the entire universe. This is not some mysterious truth that can only be understood through special spiritual insight, trance or some other extraordinary mental state. It is a very simple, obvious reality that we can understand rationally, yet we lose sight of it because we cling to words and concepts, separating ourselves from it with discriminating thoughts.”

Joshu once asked Nansen “What is Tao?”

Nansen answered “Ordinary Mind is Tao.”

“Then should we seek it or not?” asked Joshu.

"If you try to move toward it, you move away from it” answered Nansen.

Joshu continued “ If we do not direct ourselves toward it, how can we know it is the Tao?”

Nansen replied. “The Tao does not belong to knowing or to not-knowing, Knowing is illusion, And not knowing is blankness. If you really aim to attain the Tao of no doubt, it is like the great void so vast and boundless. How then can there be right and wrong in the Tao?”

At these words Joshu was suddenly enlightened!

Short, alas, is this life; you die before a hundred years. Even if you live a little longer, you still die of old age.

People grieve over belongings, yet there is no such thing as permanent possessions. Separation is a fact of life; when you see this, you wouldn’t stay living at home.

Whatever a person thinks of as belonging to them, that too is given up when they die. Knowing this, an astute follower of mine would not be bent on ownership.

Just as, upon awakening, a person does not see what they encountered in a dream; so too you do not see your loved ones when they are dead and gone.

You used to see and hear those folk, and call them by their name. Yet the name is all that’s left to tell of a person when they’re gone.

Those who are greedy for belongings don’t give up sorrow, lamentation, and stinginess. That’s why the sages, seers of sanctuary, left possessions behind and wandered.

For a mendicant who lives withdrawn, frequenting a secluded seat, they say it’s fitting to not show themselves in a home.

The sage is independent everywhere, they don’t form likes or dislikes. Lamentation and stinginess slip off them like water from a leaf.

Like a droplet slips from a lotus-leaf, like water from a lotus flower; the sage doesn’t cling to that which is seen or heard or thought.

For the one who is cleansed does not conceive in terms of things seen, heard, or thought. They do not wish to be purified by another; they are neither passionate nor growing dispassioned.

Outside let go of all involvement, inside be immovable, when your mind is like a wall, then you are on the path. Letting go of the outside means, to not get involved in praise or blame, in win or loss. Don’t be involved in how the outside situation is. Inside joy, sorrow, thought of what I should be doing next don’t tie yourself down with your emotions. When your mind is quiet like a wall, then you are on the path to enlightenment. Building monasteries, supporting monks and nuns, translating sutras and making Buddhist statues counting all the things one has done we have to let go of this outside involvement. To think one’s name might remain after life if we think like this, we will never understand Zen or even live an honest life. That is why Bodhidharuma said: No virtue. When doing something for others, to right away forget about these deeds, that is important. To keep talking about it is like having taken a good step and one more step backwards into confusion and attachment. That is no true virtue. By letting go of these attachments, we can arrive at the other shore of the awakened mind.

“People who sit for zazen trying to become something, not letting go of the things they are holding on to but trying to obtain or attain a certain state of mind, move further and further away from what this clarifying of mind, this repentance, can do. When we try to find some sate of mind that we have experienced before, or we have an idea about what our state of mind should be and strive to attain that goal, our sitting becomes more and more cumbersome; when we cannot the state of mind we think we should be attaining, the weight of the ego becomes heavier and heavier. This process I am describing

of clarifying our behavior

is a way of emptying rather than of putting on. I try always to bring this into my teaching because people are often unaware of this way of practicing. I feel that much of the behavior that creates problems in the monastery comes from the lack of this type of practice, from people doing their practice without ever reviewing their behavior or looking carefully at how the behavior is reflecting their zazen. We have a great gift from society to be able to spend so much time doing zazen, but zazen also allows us the opportunity to look at our behavior and clearly see how we are manifesting our practice. If we do not use it for that, we are wasting an excellent chance and will be endlessly doing a form of dead-end, closed-circuit zazen that exists only as an idea of something we think we are tying to pursue.”

There are many ways of entering into enlightenment, but all of them may effectively be subsumed under two categories: the "entrance of principle" and the "entrance of practice".

The entrance of principle is to become enlightened to the Truth on the basis of the teaching. One must have a profound faith in the fact that one and the same True Nature is possessed of all sentient beings, both ordinary and enlightened, and that this True Nature is only covered up and made imperceptible by false sense impressions.

If one discards the false and takes refuge in the True, one resides frozen in "wall contemplation", in which self and other, ordinary person and sage, are one and the same; one resides fixedly without wavering, never again to be swayed by written teachings. To be thus mysteriously identified with the True Principle, to be without discrimination, serene and inactive: This is called the entrance of principle.

The entrance of practice refers to the "four practices" which encompass all other practices. They are the "practice of retribution of enmity," the "practice of acceptance of circumstances," the "practice of the absence of craving," and the "practice of accordance with the Dharma."

What is the practice of the retribution of enmity? When the practitioner of Buddhist spiritual training experiences suffering, he should think to himself:

"For innumerable eons I have wandered through the various states of existence, forsaking the fundamental for the derivative, generating a great deal of enmity and distaste and bringing an unlimited amount of injury and discord upon others. My present suffering constitutes the fruition of my past crimes and karma, rather than anything bequeathed to me from any heavenly or human being. I shall accept it patiently and contentedly, without complaint."

When you react to events in this fashion, you can be in accord with Principle, therefore this is called practice of the retribution of enmity.

The second is the practice of the acceptance of circumstances. Sentient beings have no unchanging self and are entirely subject to the impact of their circumstances. Whether one experiences suffering or pleasure, both are generated from one’s circumstances. If one experiences fame, fortune, and other forms of superior karmic retribution, this is the result of past causes.

Although one may experience good fortune now, when the circumstances responsible for its present manifestation are exhausted, it will disappear. How could one take joy in good fortune? Since success and failure depend on circumstances, the mind should remain unchanged. It should be unmoved even by the winds of good fortune, but mysteriously in accordance with the Tao. Therefore, this is called the practice of acceptance of circumstances.

The third is the practice of the absence of craving. The various kinds of covetousness and attachment that people experience in their never-ending ignorance are referred to as craving. The wise person is enlightened to the Truth, the essential principle which is contrary to human convention. He pacifies his mind in inactivity and accepts whatever happens to him. Understanding that all existence is nonsubstantial, he is without desire. The sutra says: "To have craving entails suffering; to be without craving means joy." Understand clearly that to be without craving is equivalent to the true practice of the Path.

The fourth is the practice of accordance with the Dharma. The absolute principle of essential purity is called Dharma. According to this principle, all characteristics are nonsubstantial and there is no defilement and no attachment, no "this" and "that." Since this Dharma is without parsimony, one should practice the perfection of dana (selfless giving), giving of one’s body, life, and possessions without any regret. In this way one benefits self as well as others ornamenting the path of enlightenment.