I just came across this wonderful tongue-in-cheek mini documentary about cults which I just had to share.


Its dark approach is especially appreciated ;-)

Gotama gives a description of a way the sense doors operate in John D. Irelands translation of the Samyutta Nikaya.

"Suppose, practitioners, a man catches six creatures of different domains and different livelihoods - a snake, a crocodile, a bird, a dog, a jackal and a monkey, tethering each with a strong harness. Having tethered each harness with a stout rope, he fastens the ropes together in the middle and lets go of them. Now these six animals of different domains and feeding habits would swing around and struggle, each trying to get to his natural domain. The snake would struggle, thinking: " I'll get to the ant-hill", the crocodile: "I'll get into the water", the bird: " I'll fly up in the air", the dog: "I'll make for the town", the jackal: "I'll make for some death carcass", the monkey: "I'll head for the forest."

found this letter by surprise, and was surprised into thinking again. it's by a Buddhist talking about the recent violence in Tibet and really shaking up my image of things. please read it and see what you think. so easy to have compassion for those we automatically think are right! so much harder to take a second look.

The Boston Globe has provided this handy-dandy guide to napping. I've long been a fan of the afternoon nap. Whether you're a "lark" or an "owl" (I seem to oscillate between each) this groovy guide shows you how and tells you why.

Jackie just sent me this poster for the upcoming showing of Meditate and Destroy that DIYDharma is sponsoring.

Wicked!

You can download the PDF for printing through the link below.

How do you survive?
How do you sustain your practice?
Who is your audience?
How do you define community?
What matters to you as an artist?
What are your criteria for successful work?

-These questions are the ones we can't get around. They are awkward and difficult and absolutely necessary questions.
.
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-These answers are, for now, present in my self

With Grace
With Care
Your listening heart
Reciprocal
Heart doing, feeling being
Time

I love it when I come across something that reveals a deeper truth about something that I've been familiar with for years. It happened to me this morning, inspired by this picture.

Another reprint from myspace.  I shared this one with the ever-wise Rev. Meiko from the Portland Buddhist Priory, who slyly sorta-kinda validated my overnight county jail kensho.

Four Alarm Turban

"Brief time have sons of men on earth to live.
Let the good man herein much trouble take.
Acting as were his turban all a-blaze.
There is no man to whom death cometh not."

This sutra is the one that is inspiring me most these days.  I received it in my daily email, and it has been haunting me koan-like for some time now.  You may notice that I have not included the citation.  Don't worry, I'll give it to you.  I would not want others to feel the frustration I've had trying to find the damned thing.  As part of my renaissance, so to speak, I've been trying to get back to my roots.  I've focused so much on the hardcore mystical philosophy of Zen, that I felt balance was missing.  One thing that cropped up for me was a... burning sensation.  All of these crazy insights had been coming to me, and I felt sure that the Buddha and his teaching were much more powerful and relevant than I had allowed them him to be.  This burning desire is called samvega and I'll come back to that.  What frustrated me was finding good... scripture, I suppose.  That good ol' rugged Dharma.  Typically, quotes are attributed to 'Buddha' or 'Buddhist', as opposed to the Bible where you almost always get chapter and verse, and most probably edition as well.  This particular quote was even worse, as its translation has not seen general release.  In searching I found a sutra with a similar turban fire, and that is what I will discuss today.

Samyutta Nikaya 56.34- quoted above, finds parallel in the Sancitta sutra, from the Anguttura Nikaya 10.51.  The latter, which references the extinguishment of the burning turban in context of the effort required, seems like a good message whose simile doesn't quite pack the punch of the former.  SN 56.34 seems to come at this from a different angle.  The fire in your turban (or on your head, or in your beard) is not a problem that must be dealt with, but a fact of life.  The only extinguishment of the flames is in death (I hear Sting singing "Though an ocean soothe my head, I burn for you..."). SO, since everyone is going to die and we don't know when, what are you going to do about it?  Are you going to lie down on the floor and let it burn?  Or are you going to say "Fuck this burning turban! I'm gonna live my life anyway, maybe get a job as a candle lighter.  And there may not be much time left..."

The desire here, the sense that something important is happening and that it must be grappled with immediately, is what I earlier identified as samvega.  It is the spiritual super-power that you didn't know you have, and check this out- it's the same thing that made Mr. Siddharta motherfuckin' Gautama kick this whole thing off after his famous chariot ride.  Didn't know that those -ahem- burning questions that keep you up at night actually made you an heir to the most incredible legacy in the world, did ya?

Now, what do you do with this?  Well, anything actually.  The Buddha would (and certainly does) encourage the whole-hearted study of the Dharma, but the Zen tradition would say that it isn't just scriptures and meditation, but whole-hearted practice of living. Whatever you do, just do it.  So for starters, don't lay in bed burning the shit out of your pillow.  Don't sit and watch TV, burning the shit out of your couch.  Most importantly- don't kneel down in church and burn the shit out of the pew in front of you. 

Get moving- you never know when your turban will go out.

PS- for anyone wanting to read what the big B actually had to say, Access To Insight has been invaluable.  Go there and just start reading, you won't regret it.

This is a blog from my myspact that I thought I would reprint to kick things off.  Enjoy!

Are you ready to rock? I am! "The Five Postmodern Precepts"
Category: Religion and Philosophy

Well, as promised, here's some more dharma for ya.  I'm no zenji, okay, but I've done a lot of thinking and meditating on this stuff.  For a long time I've wanted to do a full ceremony of 'Taking the Precepts,' which if you don't know are:

1. Thou shalt not kill.

2. Thou shalt not steal.

3. Thou shalt not lie.

4. Thou shalt not fuck around.

5. Thou shalt not drink liquor.

Good stuff, right?  Come on!  That's basic, and it doesn't really cover much more subtlety than, oh, I don't know... THE BIBLE?  We Buddhists, at least the iconoclastic Zen Buddhists I tend to align with, are nothing if we are not up for trying to get down to the meat of the issue.  Besides, for those of us who aren't monks, who want to sing songs by Loverboy at the local tavern's karaoke night and eat a hamburger, the precepts present a problem. 

We're (not just Buddhists, everybody) good people for the most part.  Bland platitudes or Draconian covenants just don't prepare you for real life.  What most people deserve is a chance to shine on their own, and failing that, a chance to fuck up royally and learn from it without some numbnuts in a robe telling you you're going to burn in penal fire and adamantine chains FOR FUCKING EVER. 

Whoops.

So what do I have to offer?  The five precepts for postmodern Buddhists.  They are a result of the challenges I have faced in my life both before and after my decision to walk the Middle Way.  Which is not easy street, by the way. 

These precepts are not intended as absolute rules.  They are guides to practice and understanding, and I have combined some of the later monastic precepts in to make a more thorough spread.  I must give credit where credit is due- Thich Nat Hanh reformulated the precepts brilliantly, and they are well worth a read.  A trifle New Agey for me, more suited to someone at a yoga class than the dude going out to see a High On Fire show or something.  So, I took the episkopos route and made my own.  I'd also like to the patriarch Bodhidarma (whoever you were!), who said that "Life and death are important.  Don't suffer them in vain."

So, without further ado, here they are.  I hope you take something from them for your practice and your life.

1.  Though I certainly may kick ass in a figurative sense, I will strive not to do so literally.  I will be mindful of the physical suffering of others, and strive to alleviate it when I can or gain insight from it when I can not.

2.  I will strive not to take anything that is not given to me freely, recognizing that the world is a complex place and the issue of property hard to fully fathom.  I will do my best to share with others when it will help them.

3.  I pledge to refrain from using lies and hurtful speech.  My relations with others will be respectful unless otherwise required.  I will strive my utmost to promote a foundation of 'kusala' in modern communication and understanding.

4.  I take the precept of not commiting sexual misconduct, and in so doing I will strive to understand the nature of interdependence.  I will strive to never harm someone sexually.  In relationships I will hold on when necessary and let go when it is time.

5.  The world of samsara is illusion, part and parcel- a beautiful trap.  Every glimmer in the bejewlled net can ensnare, just as anything in life can intoxicate- alcohol, drugs, food, sex, TV, music, sports, even activity or torpor itself.  As one who aspires to the Middle Way of the Buddhas, I swear to seek enlightenment, not through abstinence or indulgence, but through wisdom, equanimity, and compassion.  If some weekend I still choose to get buck wild, then I will strive to follow my choices, behavior, and their consequences with appropriate mindfulness.

So that's it, buoys and gulls.  They're not there to limit us, but to spur us on to further understanding.  Who knows, once we're not quite such basket cases, we can go out and help others?  What do you think?

Thanks for letting me yak at you.  Comments and suggestions are appreciated, as I hope these precepts will be dynamic rather than static.  Peace out!

When Noah was in town I spoke to someone who said DIY was interested in teaching meditation in prisons.  I work with prisoners and the prisons and I know people who could facilitate gaining access to the prisoners.

How many people are able and interested in doing this?

GIEC

I guess the point of this blog is to keep a notebook of my studies in engaged buddhism. My name is Tim Roust, I am writing from New Orleans. I've been living here for over a year now....I was drawn here out of some strange faith that this is where I would find the peace movement that I've been searching for my whole life. Thich Naht Hahn often writes about flowers growing out of compost. That is what drew me to New Orleans. Somehow it felt like New Orleans was a place where the deepest scars of this country were suddenly ripped wide open, leaving the deepest wounds of this country exposed for all to see. These wounds have been with our country from the very beginning. The healing of New Orleans is connected inextricably with the healing of the United States. And somehow it feels like my own personal healing is now wrapped up with the healing of this city as well.

I first learned about the engaged buddhist movement while living in Berkeley California in 2001. I learned about Thich Nat Hahn in September of that year, shortly after the events of 9/11. On September 25th, Thich Nhat Hahn gave a speech at the Riverside Church in New York called "Embracing Anger", which was broadcast the next day on Democracy Now, which I heard broacast on KPFA radio in Berkeley.

Transcript - www.dharmagates.com/embracing_anger.htm
Audio, part 1 - www.democracynow.org/2001/9/26/thousands_gather_to_hear_vietnamese_monk
Audio, part 2 - www.democracynow.org/2001/9/27/thich_nat_hanh_part_2

Shortly after, there was a panel discussion held on the campus of UC Berkeley about a spiritual response to the events of 911. Michael Lerner spoke of engaged judaism, and Joanna Macy spoke of engaged Buddhism. I was struck by her serenity, and her gentleness and her sad and loving smile, and her overwhelming sense of hope and faith. She talked repeatedly about the need to build "rough weather networks", and I intuitvley understood what she was talking about. And that is what I've been searching for and trying to build in my life ever since. She talked about the idea of "interdependent coarising". "This is like this, because that is like that" she said repeatedly.

I was immediatley drawn to both Joanna Macy and Thich Naht Hahn for their clarity, their sanity, and their overwhelming compassion, but it would take many years before their teachings really took hold in me. And now, years later, I find that a hunger has awoken in me. I am being drawn more and more towards engaged buddhism, and am activly seeking out other radical peace activists who are also being drawn to those teachings.
That is why I was so excited to stumble across this site.

Today I took the ferry across the Mississippi and biked along the levee to the Barnes and Noble bookstore, and spent a while browsing through the Buddhist section, hoping to find a Thich Naht Hahn book that I haven't read yet. But instead, I picked up a book called "One Dharma - The Emerging Western Buddhism" by Joseph Goldstein, and "The Buddhist path to Simplicity" by Christina Feldman. I do not have a community of practice in New Orleans, and so I carry these books with me so that I don't feel so alone. And tonite I decided to start this blog, as another place where I could turn where I felt lost and alone....as a sort of virtual "rough wheather network". And so I am happy to be here, and I am inspired by the community that you have formed in Vancouver, and I feel that it won't be long before something similar begins to take hold in New Orleans. "This is this because that is that". So thank you all. This site strengthens my hope and my faith and my will to persevere.

- Tim Roust
peaceportal.ning.com/profile/TimRoust
songbook.ning.com/profile/TimRoust

I just read this book and I feel like my perceptual experience is changed on some fundamental level. It deepened my awe of the Buddha's enlightenment. Anicca, arising and passing away, formlessness are all explained from a cosmological viewpoint that is easily absorbable and directly relatable to our meditation process. Very cool, ja.

The Moon's a waning and 'tis in Scorpio, perhaps a good time to transplant some Dharma.
These words of the Buddha are found in the Anguttra Nikaya by Nyanaponika Thera.

23 The Roots to All Things

"...In what way are all things rooted? Whereby do they come to actually exist? Where do they arise? Where do they converge? What is the foremost in all thing? What is there master? What is the highest of all things? What is the essence of all things? Where do all things merge? Where do they end?..."

"...All things are rooted in the will.
All things come to actually existence through attention.
All things arise through contact.
All things converge on feelings.
Of all things the foremost is concentration.
All things are mastered by mindfulness.
Of all things the highest is wisdom...(Note here that there is no identity higher than wisdom)
...In all things  the essence is liberation.
All things merge in the Deathless.
Nibbana (nirvana) is the end of all things...(no contacts whatsoever)

Today in the Jerusalem post office I bought:

2 stamps for Europe
1 stamp for North America
1 stamp for Israel
1 stamp for Ramallah
…

“Ramallah…where is this?” Asked the teller.

“Ramallah. You know, Palestine? Occupied Territories? West Bank…?”

She looked at me.
She looked at the computer.

“No – it’s not in the computer” she said.

She called one of her co-workers. He also shrugged, and when she went to ask the manager what to do, he looked me in the eyes and said sincerely “We just want peace for all. Really…even if we can’t send this. Really – peace for all is all we want. Really…” he repeated himself so very earnestly.

When she came back she said, “Can I ask you a question?” I said “Of course”. She asked, “Do you think Palestine is part of Israel?” I said, “No, do you?” She said “No – of course not”. She asked what it is I want to do – I explained that I want to send a thank you note to someone who helped me find a story through his book ‘Speak Bird Speak Again’. She said, “It is not possible”.

She looked me in the eyes and said angrily “They are our enemy”.

I want to send a post card to Dr. Sharif Kanaana in Ramallah. This postcard has an image of a green mosaic bird on the front. I want to say thank you for the story ‘The Chief of the Birds’ which I told last Wednesday as part of the ‘Two Sisters’ storytelling evening in Jerusalem. I want to tell him that the evening went well. That it was a full house. That people had shining, smiling eyes and were full of questions. That I told six stories and that his story was a bit of a bumpy ride but I did my best and hope that the bird was able to speak through me.

I want to tell Sharif and Pat Kanaana that after 1.5 hours of storytelling, I finally arrived in a place where, at long last, I felt my heart open and I could speak out the enormous gratitude I had for every individual’s presence.

I want to tell them that I am sorry I cannot visit, and I am sorry that I cannot share stories in Pat’s classes at Birzeit University. “People are simply too angry right now” Pat told me. I want to tell them that more than being sorry, I am frustrated (does ‘frustrated’ capture the enormous stifling quality of helpless sorrow I feel?) by humanity’s heaviness and propensity to violence and ignorance. I admit I am grateful for the incredible privilege into which I have been born; the privilege that allows me such freedom of movement – both in my body and spirit. I get to choose to say goodbye to this place. I get to choose my battles. I get to dictate the conditions of my labor.

I know this privilege is not something I can take for granted. I know that all systems are fragile (on the verge of collapse), and that we humans are so delicately balanced between our innate capacity for destructive greed and apathy and our capacity for creative beauty and delight…

While I am glad to be leaving this place, my heart is also broken because I have fallen in love. I have fallen even more deeply in love with Amal and Mariam Abu Regayak and their family- this tribe of strong women who gather every evening around the fire, and who go everyday to their permaculture farm to work (despite the scorn of their father, and the disbelief of the community at large).

Last year I struck a deal with Mariam Abu Regayak. She told me many beautiful Bedouin stories, which I knew would be woven into the core of the storytelling event I would develop, so I said, “listen…I want to give you 18% of all the money I make during these upcoming storytelling events -18 is the Jewish number symbolizing life”. We shook hands on the deal, and I took the business seriously; my word is my honor, our stories are all we have – our words which weave reality are our greatest tool as we tell ourselves back to sanity and regain perspective on our life. (‘If people break their word, why should the stars above keep their promises not to fall?’- Ramayana). So this year, back on the farm, I presented Mariam with an envelope containing some Canadian, Swiss and American bills. She looked at me and said, “You’re joking”. I said “No”. She said, “No really, you’re joking”. I said, “No, I follow through on what I say I will do”. She said, “This is the first time anything like this has ever happened to me”.

The following week I was back at the farm – weeding, moving garbage, clearing space, reading Bedouin warrior poetry, telling stories, laughing with Mariam about how really, secretly we would much rather be treated like queens… brought food, be massaged, be softly loved, be held in the arms of delight…

Mariam and her sister Amal are so beautiful and strong and inspiring to me. Together we help ourselves remember. Together we know that the dream is alive - She, the Spirit, is doing well in our Presence, and we will keep telling her to life.

When I left the farm, my heart hurt. Will I see these people again? Last night we were joking that the only reason the Israeli government could possibly be inspecting each of its citizen’s gas masks is cuz there is some big war move about to occur…we laughed. It’s no joke.

…

I write peace
I be peace
Breathing peace

Postage stamp or no, Peace is sent around the world with every breath.
…