Dhammapada Reflections - FULL MOON

The Buddha’s perfection is complete; 

there is no more work to be done. 

No measure is there for his wisdom; 

no limits are there to be found. 

In what way could he be distracted from truth? 

Dhammapada v.179 

What good fortune to have access to the teachings offered by the Buddha and the Awakened disciples. What a great blessing to find that we have faith in these teachings; a faith that encourages us to question, to enquire, and not to merely believe. When we merely believe, we abdicate responsibility for the consequences of our unawareness; and surely it is unawareness that is at the very core of all suffering – our own and that of the world. So let’s be careful that we are not becoming lost in feeling good just because we believe in the Buddha. Instead of asking, ‘Am I a good Buddhist?’, perhaps we ought to be asking, ‘Is my Buddhist practice helping me hear my heart’s deepest doubts and concerns?’ And, ‘Am I learning to rightly trust myself as I engage those true questions?’

The Wave and the Ocean

I was sent this video by one of our Sangha members, referencing the talk we heard at the Newport Zen group last Thursday which used the Buddha's simile of the Wave and the Ocean.

Wesak in the West Wight

As you will know we have been holding a Wesak celebration here at the West Wight Sangha every May for the last few years.

Wesak is the Buddhist festival that commemorates the Buddha's birth, awakening and final passing and is celebrated by millions of Buddhists around the world on the day of the first full Moon of May.

In 1999, the UN recognized internationally Vesak Day to acknowledge the contribution that Buddhism, one of the oldest religions in the world, has made for over 2500 years. This day is commemorated annually at the UN Headquarters and other UN offices and missions.

This year we will celebrate Wesak here at the West Wight Sangha on the actual day of the full moon which is Tuesday the 29th of May. This coincides with our usual Tuesday evening meeting and as such we will be adding an extra half hour to our customary session taking it from 7:00 to 9:30 p.m. In addition to our normal meditation practice, we will be having other activities and festive nibbles!

Come and wish the Buddha a happy birthday, celebrate his awakening and death (Buddhists celebrate the death of the Buddha because we believe that having attained Enlightenment he achieved freedom from physical existence and its sufferings).

Myanmar and the Rohingyas

On yesterday's edition of BBC radio 4's program Today Vishvapani (a member of the Triratna Buddhist group) offered his thoughts on the situation in Myanmar and the plight of the Rohingyas..........

"When I hear about the horrific repression that's being inflicted on the Muslim Rohingyas, I share many of the outraged feelings that others are expressing. But I feel something extra as well: shame that these things are being done by my fellow Buddhists for the sake of a Buddhist state and with the support of many Buddhist monks.

How did we get here? I don't want to over-simplify the situation in Rohingya, or generalise the responses of all Burmese Buddhists; but the question remains. The Buddha said that 'hatred is never overcome by hatred, but only by love'; so how has the faith he founded become associated with such brutality?"

Listen to the full talk here................



DOWNLOAD       (Right click and "Save link as....")

Anniversaries and Milestones

I had a note in my diary for tomorrow that it's the 10th anniversary of the founding of the Alliance for Bhikkhunis which is a nice coincidence as the West Wight Sangha is also ten years old this year.

While looking at their website I noticed that it was the 7th International Bhikkhuni Day on Wednesday, so a slightly belated congratulations on this auspicious event which marks the end of a significant year — the 2600th year of the Bhikkhuni Sangha.

Between the full moon of September 2016 and the full moon of September 2017 there were worldwide commemorations of the 2600th anniversary of the bhikkhuni sangha.

In the fifth year of his ministry, the Buddha was staying at Vesali when he heard that his father, King Suddhodana, was ill. He decided to visit him again at Kapilavatthu to teach him the Dharma, and made the long journey. After hearing the Dharma, the king immediately attained arahantship and passed away peacefully seven days later. It was in this year that the order of nuns was founded at the request of Maha Pajapati Gotami, the aunt and foster mother of the Buddha.

Three times she approached the Buddha and asked him to ordain her into the Sangha, but each time the Buddha refused, giving no reason at all. After the Buddha had stayed at Kapilavatthu a while, he journeyed back to Vesali.

Pajapati Gotami was a determined lady, and would not be so easily discouraged. She had a plan to get her way. She cut her hair, put on yellow garments and, surrounded by a large number of Sakyan ladies, walked 150 miles from Kapilavatthu to Vesali. When she arrived at Vesali, her feet were swollen and her body was covered with dust. She stood outside the hall where the Buddha was staying with tears on her face, still hoping that the Buddha would ordain her as a nun.

Ananda was surprised to see her in this condition. "Gotami, why are you standing here like this?" he asked.

"Venerable Ananda, it is because the Blessed One does not give permission for women to become nuns," she replied.

"Wait here, Gotami, I'll ask the Blessed One about this," Ananda told her. When Ananda asked the Buddha to admit Maha Pajapati Gotami as a nun, the Buddha refused. Ananda asked three times and three times the Buddha refused.

So Ananda put the request in a different way. Respectfully he questioned the Buddha, "Lord, are women capable of realising the various stages of sainthood as nuns?"

"They are, Ananda," said the Buddha.

"If that is so, Lord, then it would be good if women could be ordained as nuns," said Ananda, encouraged by the Buddha's reply.

"If, Ananda, Maha Pajapati Gotami would accept the Eight Conditions* it would be regarded that she has been ordained already as a nun."

When Ananda mentioned the conditions to Maha Pajapati Gotami, she gladly agreed to abide by those conditions and automatically became a nun. Before long she attained arahantship. The other Sakyan ladies who were ordained with her also attained Arahantship.

based on Anguttara Nikaya 8.51

The establishment of an order of nuns with rules and regulations was an opportunity for women that the Buddha offered for the first time in the history of the world. No other spiritual leader had given such high religious status to women.

Buddha Statue Saved for Kabul Museum

I came across this amazing picture of a Statue of the Buddha which was found in a copper mine in Afghanistan. It is thought to be around 1,800 years old but you can still see the original colours.

Having withstood time, the elements, looters and war, this spectacular Buddha was restored and removed from one of Afghanistan's most dangerous regions to make its public debut in the country's national museum.

The exceptionally well-preserved piece, with its colours still vibrant, was found in 2012 at the Mes Aynak site about 40 kilometres southeast of Kabul, in the now Taliban controlled Logar province.

Its discovery was made possible after a Chinese consortium began digging a massive copper mine that uncovered an ancient monastery complex stretching out over an area of four square kilometres.

Walk the Wight & Wesak

Hi Everyone,

As you all know by now our Wesak celebrations here at the West Wight Sangha are currently scheduled for Sunday the 14th of May. Wesak, traditionally falls on the night of the first full moon of May which this year is on Wednesday the 10th. For convenience we hold our celebrations on the following Sunday (from 12:00 to about 3:00 p.m.) which this year coincides with the Walk the Wight festival, the unique sponsored walk in aid of the patient care at the Earl Mountbatten Hospice.

 

Needless to say a lot of you are taking part in this incredible event which raises so much money for the island’s favourite charity and as such wouldn’t be able to join us on the 14th.

So my question is would you be able to make it if we move our celebrations back a week to Sunday the 21st of May?

Please let me know as soon as possible so we can decide whether to change the date or not.

(As the date of Wesak follows a lunar calendar and different schools of Buddhism celebrate the Buddha’s birth, his enlightenment and death on different dates, I don’t feel guilty about moving it, it’s not like changing the date of Christmas!)

Be well, Steve

A Poem That I Like

When I visited the Newport Soto Zen Group the other week Val, one of the group's members, offered a reading from an English rendering of the Satapañcasatka otherwise known as Matrceta's Hymn to the Buddha. The translation is by Ven. S. Dhammika......

In Praise of Benefits Conferred

Just to hear you brings joy; 

just to look upon you calms the heart; 

your speech refreshes and your teaching frees. 

People rejoice at your birth, 

they celebrate as you grow, 

they benefit from your presence 

and sorrow in your absence. 

To praise you removes faults, 

to recollect you brings joy, 

to follow you gives understanding, 

to know you purifies the heart. 

To approach you brings good fortune, 

to serve you gives wisdom, 

to worship you dispels fear, 

to wait upon you bestows prosperity . 

You are a great lake of goodness, 

with waters purified by virtue, 

surface calmed by meditation 

and depths stilled by wisdom. 

Your form is a jewel to see, 

your speech is a jewel to hear, 

your teachings are a jewel to reflect upon. 

Truly, you are a mine bearing the jewels of goodness. 

You are an island for those swept along by the flood, 

a shelter for the stricken, 

a refuge for those in fear of becoming, 

a resort for those who aspire to liberation. 

To, all living beings 

you are a useful vessel because of your virtue, 

a fertile field because of your perfect fruit, 

a true friend because of the benefits you confer. 

You are admired for your altruism, 

charming for your tenderness, 

beloved for your gentleness 

and honoured for your many virtues. 

You are cherished because of your flawlessness, 

delightful because of the goodness of your form and speech, 

opulent because you promote the good of all, 

and blessed because you are the abode of virtues.

Talking About Buddha Nature

Buddha nature, it really is all around us. Watch this amazing guy doing his bit........................

Want to Buy a Buddha?

If you are after a new Buddha statue for your shrine room and have piles of cash burning a hole in your pocket you might consider visiting Christie's King street auction house this Thursday for their sale of Chinese, Japanese and South-East Asian works of art.

For example this 17th century Gilt-Bronze figure of the Buddha from Thailand, AYUTTHAYA PERIOD, Cast, standing in samabhanga on a lotus base placed on a stepped circular pedestal, both hands in abhayamudra, wearing uttarasangha and samghati secured with a belt, his face with a serene expression and highly carved eyebrows, the eyes inlaid with mother-of-pearl, the curled hair rising to the ushnisha topped with a tall flame 53 ½ in. (136 cm.) high, mounted.

It is estimated at a mere six to ten thousand pounds........................

for a statue of a man who told his followers NOT to make any representations of him but to just earnestly follow his teachings.............

Buddha by Karen Armstrong

I receive a daily email from Delanceyplace.com which is a brief excerpt or quote that they view as interesting or noteworthy, offered with commentary to provide context. There is no theme, except that most excerpts will come from a non-fiction work, mainly works of history, are occasionally controversial, and hopefully have a more universal relevance than simply the subject of the book from which they came.

Today's piece is about the Buddha. (We already have the quoted book in our Sangha library and I can Thoroughly recommend it).

Today's selection -- from Buddha by Karen Armstrong. After practicing the asceticism of the holy men of his time and reflecting on a formative 'Nirvana' moment he had years before under a rose-apple tree, Siddhartha Gotama, the Buddha rejects pure asceticism for a middle way:

"Since he had left home six years before, Gotama had been fighting his human nature and crushing its every impulse. He had come to distrust any kind of pleasure. But, he now asked himself, why should he be afraid of the type of joy he had experienced on that long-ago afternoon? That pure delight had had nothing to do with greedy craving or sensual desire. Some joyful experiences could actually lead to an abandonment of egotism and to the achievement of an exalted yogic state. ...

Aesthetic Buddha

Buddha of the middle way

"He had, of course, already been behaving along these lines by observing the 'five prohibition's' which had forbidden such 'unhelpful' (akusala) activities as violence, lying, stealing, intoxication, and sex. But now, he realized, this was not enough. He must cultivate the positive attitudes that were the opposite of these five restraints. Later, he would say that a person seeking enlightenment must be 'energetic, resolute and persevering' in pursuing those 'helpful,' 'wholesome' or 'skillful' (kusala) states that would promote spiritual health. Ahimsa (harmlessness) could only take one part of the way; instead of simply avoiding violence, an aspirant must behave gently and kindly to everything and everyone; he must cultivate thoughts of loving-kindness to counter any incipient feelings of ill will. It was very important not to tell lies, but it was also crucial to engage in 'right talk' and make sure that whatever you said was worth saying: 'reasoned, accurate, clear and beneficial.' Besides refraining from stealing, a bhikkhu should positively rejoice in taking whatever alms he was given, expressing no personal preference, and should take delight in possessing the bare minimum. The yogins had always maintained that avoiding the five prohibitions would lead to 'infinite happiness,' but by deliberately cultivating these positive states of mind, such exstasis could surely be redoubled. Once this 'skillful' behavior became so habitual that it was second nature, the aspirant, Gotama believed, would 'feel within himself a pure joy,' similar to if not identical with the bliss that he had felt as a boy under the rose-apple tree. ...

"Gotama was developing what he called a 'Middle Way,' which shunned physical and emotional self-indulgence on the one hand, and extreme asceticism (which could be just as destructive) on the other."

A Picture that I Like

I came across this picture and just had to share it...................

The Biggest Buddha Statue in Europe

Following a recent €1m facelift the Grande Pagode by the Lac Daumesnil in the Bois de Vincennes has re-opened. The building, hidden in a wood on the outskirts of Paris is an African pavilion-turned-pagoda and houses the largest Buddha in Europe.

Originally built in 1931 as the Cameroon pavilion for the international colonial exhibition it was constructed to resemble a traditional African home – but three times the size. The site was then acquired by France’s International Buddhist Institute and transformed into the Grande Pagode, home to the 10-metre-high (33ft) golden buddha statue, which was created in six parts in Spanish artist Joan Miró’s atelier and reassembled in situ.

Buddha Day in South Korea

When I posted recently that we had been celebrating the Buddha's birthday as part of our Wesak event here in the West Wight I also mentioned that it was not the only date that the Buddha's birth was celebrated.

Today South Korea commemorates Buddha Day preceded earlier in the month by the Lotus Lantern Festival to celebrate Buddha’s coming into the world.

Je Suis Charlie - a Buddhist Perspective

Hatred never ends through hatred.
By non-hate alone does it end.
This is an ancient truth.

The Buddha – Dhammapada 5

The peaceful vigil Wednesday night in the Place de la Republique in central Paris.

First thing to say is that what follows is my personal take on the events in Paris and how the Buddha's teachings relate to them...............

A central theme of the Buddha's teaching is to recognise and avoid reactive, unskillful behaviour. Skillful actions, and words, are those that promote the peace, safety and wellbeing of others, unskillful words and actions are those that harm other beings.

Judgemental views and opinions are particularly unskillful. It is therefore helpful to look at everything in terms of being somewhere on a spectrum rather than being an opposite of something else; right - wrong, good - bad, righteous - evil, US - THEM. It's all the same spectrum and all of us place our words and actions at different positions along it.

On that basis the cold blooded killing of ten journalists and two police officers (one of them a muslim) because of some cartoons which upset some other people is way over on the unskillful side of the spectrum. But what about the cartoons themselves?

You could argue that causing offence to others is harming them and thus "unskillful", however what causes the harm is that person's reactive response to the perceived slight and affront to their belief in what they consider the "truth" and that leads us on to the whole mire of conflicting religious world views. This is not to say that it's all down to the other person and you can say and do what you like and it will be "skillful", the clue is in the description - skillful. 

What is needed is an openness for all of us to honestly and critically examine our beliefs and opinions and to acknowledge that they are just sets of ideas that we, as individuals, have i.e. they are uniquely ours anyway. If a provocative cartoon or written article promotes that assessment and enquiry I feel that, however "painful" the process might appear to be, ultimately it is beneficial.

There was an  impressive and commendable show of solidarity from all mainstream religious leaders in France. In the West there are often interfaith exercises in dialogue and togetherness but how many of the participants actually believe that the other's faith is right, as "good" as or better than their own. None, or they would surely convert to that belief system.

Moving to the further end of that "belief" spectrum the ideas that an individual has chosen to adopt in terms of their interpretation of reality are more likely to become entrenched, extreme and ever more intolerant and thus judgemental and unskillful in relation to the beliefs of others and lead ultimately to such outcomes as the recent events in France.

I was going to say that for a humane and sane comment on the attack on Charlie Hebdo listen here to Thursday's "Thought for the Day" from Mona Siddiqui, who is Professor of Islamic and Interreligious Studies at the University of Edinburgh.

For some "strange" reason the BBC still hasn't posted either the recording or the text of Prof. Siddiqui's talk................ 

I will post them as soon as they become available.

Buddha, The Unwanted Visitor

While I was trawling the net for a suitable picture to use in the previous post I came across this one by chance...........................

Visiting the hosting page, a photo blog by Marwan Tahtah, I found the story of how six years ago film director Silvio Tabet had imported the statue of the Buddha and had erected it on his own private land, high up in Baskinta in the mountains of the Metn, northeast of Beirut.

As you can see this does not seem to have gone down well with the locals in this Lebanese Christian area. The statue is about 100 meters away from the historic Mar Youssef Church and the world’s tallest lit cross which attracts believers and tourists from around the world.

Happy Hanamatsuri

Hana-Matsuri refers to the memorial service performed at temples throughout Japan to celebrate the birth of Buddha on April 8th. It is formally called Kanbutsue. On this day, small buildings decorated with flowers are made at temples and a tanjobustu (baby Buddha figurine) is placed inside. This figurine is sprinkled by worshippers using a ladle with ama-cha, which is a beverage made by soaking tealeaves in hot water Some people take this ama-cha home and drink it as holy water.

Fat Figure NOT the Buddha

While watching the BBC program about Stephen Gough, "The Naked Rambler", his mother mentioned that his older brother was a Buddhist.

When I tried Googling to verify this I kept coming up with hits about the statues of two naked fat "Buddhas" climbing a building in Jinan, Shandong province, China.

Report after report kept refering to the figures as Buddhas.................................

The so called fat Buddha is NOT Siddhārtha Gautama, the historical Buddha. Instead The Fat Buddha is thought to be based on another historical figure, a Chinese Zen Buddhist monk named Qieci who lived over 1,000 years ago during the later Liang Dynasty. In China he became known as Budai, meaning cloth bag, named after the sack full of sweets for children that he always carried. In Japanese this is translated as Hotei. He was a benevolent man who dedicated his life to helping others, and is portrayed as a fat, bald man in monks clothing, with a large exposed belly, and either wearing or holding a necklace of beads. This necklace is a Mala, a Buddhist string of prayer beads.

He is usually identified with (or as an incarnation of) Maitreya, the future Buddha to come, so much
so that the Budai image is one of the main forms in which Maitreya is depicted in East Asia.

Fat Buddha statues are popular as a symbol of health, happiness, prosperity and good fortune.

These statues take a number of forms, and can convey different meanings depending on the symbolic meaning of the various objects he is holding.

A Happy 2014, 2556, 2557, 1435, etc. etc. etc.

A safe, happy and peaceful new year to all our readers. Believe it or not not everyone counts the years from when Jesus of Nazareth was thought to have been born. It always used to be that in western countries the date was suffixed with A.D. or Anno Domini meaning "in the year of our Lord". Obviously in these politically correct times that had to be changed to something apparently more inclusive, so now we have C.E. or "common era". In a world connected by the needs of modern commerce a "common" standard is useful and with the legacy of European, and thus Christian, colonisation of much of that world that standard is the Christian calendar.

There are a lot of alternative calendars around, for Muslims the current Islamic Year is 1435 A.H. anno Hegirae (in the year of the Hijra) and started on the 3rd of November 2013 (in the evening).

For Buddhists there are a number of different calendars but the most common gives the year as 2556 B.E. or Buddhist Era dated from the Buddha's death which according to various traditions was either the first full moon of May, April or June. Also the year is different according to the school of Buddhism being alternately 2140, 2556, 2557 or 2070.

According to the Jewish calendar it's 5774! The Bahá'í calendar makes it 170 but they also call it B.E. and it ends on the 20th 0f March. The Year consists of 19 Months of 19 days so goes out of sync quite quickly.

Buddha's Birth Earlier than Previously Thought

When was the Buddha born? Until recently opinion dated his death to between 486 and 483 BCE or, according to some, between 411 and 400 BCE, at a symposium on this question held in 1988, the majority of those who presented definite opinions gave dates within 20 years either side of 400 BCE for the Buddha's death.

However, the discovery of a 2,600-year-old simple wooden shrine surrounding the ancient tree in Nepal to which the Buddha's mother clung as she gave birth looks set to revolutionise the understanding of the origins of one of the world's major religions.

Archaeologists digging beneath the sacred Maya Devi Temple at Lumbini have uncovered the first physical evidence to enable them to accurately date the nativity of Prince Siddhartha Gautama whose teachings are now followed by half a billion believers.

The extraordinary find suggests that the very earliest devotees -some 600 years before Christ - were vegetarian and eschewed material wealth in favour of spirituality as laid down by the prince who abandoned his high rank to seek out the path to Enlightenment.

A vast brick temple, which also predates the earliest known Buddhist structures, found at the same place suggests that the emerging religion enjoyed a wealthy benefactor before its adoption by the Emperor Asoka whose empire spread across most of the Indian sub-continent.

Professor Robin Coningham of Durham University, who co-led the international investigation with Kosh Prasad Acharya of the Pashupati Area Development Trust in Nepal, said: "This find completely resets what we are dealing with in terms of early Buddhist practice."

The failure to discover any physical evidence prior to a sandstone pillar laid by Asoka in 249BC marking the birth spot during- his visit, has long sown doubt over the chronology.