Buddhism

First, I want to apologize for the light posting lately. I am still under the weather but getting better.

This week many Mahayana Buddhists will be commemorating the Buddha's death and entry into complete or final Nirvana.

How do you understand Nirvana? You may have heard that the Sanskrit word nirvana (nibbana in Pali) means "to extinguish," as in extinguishing a fire, but some sources also translate it as "to unbind." In the culture of the historical Buddha it was believed the element fire is always present, but it only burns when it attaches to fuel. Extinguishing the fire unbinds it from the fuel and sets it free.

The Rubin Museum in New York City is hosting an exhibit called Hero, Villain, Yeti: Tibet in Comics. The exhibit is "the most complete collection of comics related to Tibet ever assembled, with examples ranging from the 1940s to the present." It closes June 11.

One of the featured comics is The Green Lama, whose serialized adventures were published between 1940 and 1946. Green Lama stories also appeared in pulp detective magazines in the 1940s. CBS Radio hosted 22 episodes of a Green Lama broadcast drama in 1949.

"Green Lama" was the alter ego of millionaire/genius/playboy Jethro Dumont (seriously?) who spent ten years in Tibet studying to be a lama. He came home intending to teach Buddhism, but decided he would be more use as a crime fighter. By chanting om mani padme hum, Dumont transformed into the caped dharma crusader Green Lama, fighting crime with his trusty sidekick Tsarong.

I swear I'm not making this up. You can read more about Green Lama at Salon. And what's with "green" superheroes (e.g., Green Lantern, Green Arrow). I don't think they associated "green" with environmentalism in the 1940s.

I apologize for being scarce this week. I have the Mother of All Head Colds and am nearly incapacitated. For now I am going to leave a provocative quote from one of my favorite texts, Dogen's Mountains and Rivers Sutra (Sansui-kyo)

"All beings do not see mountains and waters in the same way. Some beings see water as a jeweled ornament, but they do not regard jeweled ornaments as water. What in the human realm corresponds to their water? We only see their jeweled ornaments as water. Some beings see water as wondrous blossoms, but they do not use blossoms as water. Hungry ghosts see water as raging fire or pus and blood. Dragons see water as a palace or a pavilion. Some beings see water as the seven treasures or a wish-granting jewel. Some beings see water as a forest or a wall. Some see it as the Dharma nature of pure liberation, the true human body, or as the form of body and essence of mind. Human beings see water as water. Water is seen as dead or alive depending on causes and conditions. Thus the views of all beings are not the same. You should question this matter now. Are there many ways to see one thing, or is it a mistake to see many forms as one thing? You should pursue this beyond the limit of pursuit."

You are welcome to discuss this or leave another quote that lights your dharma candle.

What is it about head colds that zap brain cells? I haven't taken any medication that would make me groggy, but all I've been able to do for the past half hour is stare at the monitor and wish I were taking a nap.

With the caveat that I'm not exactly on top of things today -- please do read the post "Authentic Practice" at Wild Fox Zen. Koun Franz writes that authentic practice has two components:

1. "Authentic practice is radically, emphatically impersonal."
2. "Authentic practice is expressed physically, moment by moment; that is, it is not purely internal or mental."

That first component might be surprising to some of you. If it is, let's discuss.

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Here's a question that came up in the comments to the last post:

One aspect of Zen meditation I could not yet understand is why there is no metta meditation. In the Triratna tradition - and I suppose in most other Tibetan meditation traditions also- amongst other things there is like mindfulness of the breath meditation also the metta bhavana; a practice I have done on some occassions and also found it helpful to develop compassion. Why does the meditation and chanting practice found in the Metta Sutra and Brahmaviharas not form part of the Zen liturgy or canon? It appears in the Vietnamese Zen (Thien) tradition the Metta Bhavana might be practiced?

In the two major schools of Zen, known in Japanese as Soto and Rinzai, there are two kinds of meditation. In the koan contemplation of Rinzai, students work on and resolve hundreds of koans. I would argue that some of those koans amount to something like metta meditation, although you can't tell that by reading them.

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I hope to focus on dhyana paramita, the perfection of meditation, a bit this week. But many of you already are experienced meditators, so I'm not sure what to say about meditation that would be helpful.

Here's one way you could help me. All of my experience in Buddhism has been in the Zen tradition, so I may be qualified to write about Zen meditation.  But I have no personal experience with the meditation practices of other traditions.

So, those of you who are not-Zen Buddhist meditators -- if there's a website or book you can recommend that does a good job explaining or describing your meditation practice, please let me know!  Also, if you have any meditation-related questions, let me know that, too, and I'll attempt to address them.

Following up on the last post on the role of debate in Buddhism -- this brings to mind one of my favorite women of Buddhist history -- Liu Tiemo (ca. 780-859), also called the "Iron Grindstone."

Liu Tiemo was born into a family of farm workers in north central China. It was a hard life. It's said that one day, while she was still an adolescent, she simply put her tools down and walked away. I imagine her taking to the road, alone, bristling with teenage attitude.

She took shelter in convents, and eventually she was ordained a nun. She learned to read, and then she learned to debate. Her reputation as a fierce debater spread, and monks came to challenger her. She earned the nickname "Iron Grindstone" because she relentlessly ground her debate opponents into bits.

She studied witha renowned male teacher, Guishan Lingyou (771-854), and became one of his dharma heirs. Liu Tiemo's name is still listed on many of the the lineage charts displayed in Zen monasteries today. The larger point here is that challenging the understanding of another student is a tradition that goes way back.

Lewis Richmond has an essay at Huffington Post about a couple of topics dear to my heart. One topic is the growing inclusion of women as equals in Buddhism, and the other is that "'right speech' is often wrongly interpreted to mean never saying anything critical or difficult."

If you're a regular here you've probably noticed I'm not exactly conflict averse where discussion of dharma is concerned. I dearly love a good argument, as long as it stays on topic and doesn't devolve into personal insults. Having to defend one's understanding can be a great learning tool.

Often a commenter will seem upset that people are disagreeing at all. Apparently some think that we're all supposed to just respect everyone else's opinions about teachings and avoid all conflict. But  vigorous debate is part of Buddhist tradition.

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One of the first posts I wrote here, as I remember, had to do with my discomfort with identifying as a Buddhist. I had no trouble with the Buddhism part; it was the identity part that bothered me. Just to say "I am a [insert object of your choice]" gives me a little twitch of discomfort these days.

But I don't think the "I am a ..." thing is a real problem, unless you are completely oblivious to why it might be a problem. And it's a problem because labeling ourselves as anything just reinforces the "I" illusion. It assumes there is an essence of "me" that can be labeled (see "Sunyata").

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Shyalpa Tenzin Rinpoche, a lineage holder in the Tibetan Dzogchen tradition, has a new book out called Living Fully: Finding Joy in Every Breath. This is not a book I would recommend to someone who just wants to learn something about Buddhism. However, I think some of you who already have some experience with practice would find this book inspirational and clarifying.

But first, a little bit about The Problem With Books. A book that speaks deeply to one person might seem trite and silly to someone else. Those who approach Buddhism as a mostly intellectual exercise would probably dismiss this book as so much silly fluff. Likewise, someone new to Buddhism looking for a book about The Quick Fix to Turning My Life Around So That It Doesn't Suck would probably find this book baffling.

On the other hand, sometimes the right book at the right time can speak to the reader at a very profound level. Living Fully speaks to a lot of "stuff" going on in my own life and practice at the moment. And while little in the book is new to me, I appreciate the reinforcement.

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