The Dharma, sutras, and commentarial interpretations of interest to American Buddhists of all traditions with news that not only informs but transforms. Emphasis on meditation, enlightenment, karma, social evolution, and nonharming.
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He is on the board of advisors for the Center for Cognitive Liberty and Ethics and is the Chair of Wisdom University's Sacred Art Department.
He and his wife Allyson Grey are the co-founders of The Chapel of Sacred Mirrors (CoSM), a non-profit organization in Wappingers Falls, New York [2]. More
Vajrayāna (Sanskrit वज्रयान, lit. "vajra vehicle"), is also known as Mantrayāna ("mantra vehicle"), Guhyamantrayāna ("secret mantra vehicle"), Tantrayāna ("tantra vehicle"), Tantric Buddhism, and Esoteric Buddhism.
It is a Mahāyāna ("great vehicle") Buddhist tradition that emphasizes esoteric practices and rituals aimed at rapid spiritual awakening [or some deluded facsimile, replacing what the historical Buddha considered liberation for what previous Vedic, Hindu, esoteric teachers called moksha].
Vajrayana artist Alex Grey, 2013
Emerging between the 5th and 7th centuries CE in medieval India [1], Vajrayāna incorporates a range of techniques, including the use of
mantras (sacred sounds),
dhāraṇīs (mnemonic codes),
mudrās (symbolic hand gestures),
mandalas (spiritual diagrams), and
the visualization of deities and [cosmic] buddhas.
These practices are designed to transform ordinary experiences into paths toward enlightenment, often by engaging with aspects of desire and aversion in a ritualized context.
A distinctive feature of Vajrayāna is its emphasis on esoteric transmission, where teachings are passed directly from teacher (guru "master" or vajrācārya"teacher of vajra") to student (chela) through initiation ceremonies [2].
Tradition asserts that these teachings have been passed down through an unbroken lineage going back to the historical Buddha (circa 5th century BCE)... More
Vanessa Marsot and Annie Vitality launch their new book, Dreams of a Dragonfly, and sign copies of this vegan fantasy story on Saturday, July 12th, poolside in Bel Air, Los Angeles, California. Enjoy mindfulness meditation, Native American land acknowledgement, yoga, vegan food, swimming and splashing, socializing, fun and games, a literary launch, and a summer night under the full moon.
Chef Rawsheed is preparing a special vegan meal, including fresh juice, appetizers, salad, raw and cooked pizzas and desserts (menu subject to change).
🎟️ TICKETS include:
Chef Rawsheed’s enchanted vegan meal (magical dinner) 🦜
Sign: "Do not be deceived. You are headed for Hell! [for wearing skimpy swimwear, heathens]"
What is there to eat on this green planet?
No ticket purchase is necessary to attend! However, for magical dinner, individual tickets are only $20. Please note in your RSVP "No Ticket" if planning to opt out of dinner. That way we have an accurate count for supplies.
Time to play in the pool under the Cali sun
FOOD ABUNDANCE: Guests are welcome to bring fruit and vegan snacks and drinks to share.
Guests are encouraged to bring a swimsuit, towel, lawn chairs, and outdoor or pool games.
Prepare to dance, sing karaoke, swim and play.
Dreams of a Dragonfly
O, Buddha, do dragonflies dream and, if they do, what about?
SYNOPSIS: What happens when a girl dreams of becoming a fairy so hard that she gets her wish and enters the magical world of animals and learns some of their secrets?
Join her on this fantastical adventure and you, too, could learn their secrets and how to advocate for them. More
§ 75. "It is just as if there were a pool of water in a mountain glen — clear, limpid, and unsullied — where a person with good eyesight standing on the bank could see shells, gravel, and pebbles as well as shoals of fish swimming about and resting.
"It might occur to that person, 'This pool of water is clear, limpid, and unsullied. Here are these shells, gravel, and pebbles as well as shoals of fish swimming about and resting.'
"In the same way — with mind stilled [calmed and concentrated], purified, and bright, unblemished, free of defects, pliant, malleable, steady, and attained to imperturbability — the meditator directs and inclines it to the knowledge of the ending of the mental defilements (asavas).
There is much to know and see with clarity
"One discerns as it is, 'This is suffering (dukkha)... This is the origination of suffering... This is the cessation of suffering... This is the way leading to the cessation of suffering...
"These are mental defilements... This is the origination of the defilements... This is the cessation of the defilements... This is the way leading to the cessation of the defilements.'
"One's heart, thus knowing and seeing, is released from the defilement of sensuality, the defilement of becoming, the defilement of ignorance. With liberation, there is the knowledge, 'Liberated.' One discerns that, 'Rebirth is ended, the high life has been fulfilled, the task is done. There is nothing further for this world'" (DN 2).
What is there to know and see?
Enlightenment=awakening (bodhi)
§ 76. "Vision arose, clear-seeing arose, wisdom arose, knowledge arose, illumination (enlightenment) arose within me with regard to things never heard before:
"'This is the noble [enlightened] truth of suffering [understanding what is and is not disappointment]... This noble truth of suffering is to be comprehended... This noble truth of suffering has been comprehended...
"This is the noble truth of the origination of suffering... This noble truth of the origination of suffering is to be abandoned... This noble truth of the origination of suffering has been abandoned...
"This is the noble truth of the cessation of suffering... This noble truth of the cessation of suffering is to be realized... This noble truth of the cessation of suffering has been realized...
"This is the noble truth of the path of practice leading to the cessation of suffering... This noble truth of the path of practice leading to the cessation of suffering is to be developed... This noble truth of the path of practice leading to the cessation of suffering has been developed.'
"Meditators, as long as my knowing and seeing (knowledge and vision) — with its three rounds and 12 permutations concerning these Four Noble Truths as they actually are — was not pure, I did not claim to have directly awakened (become enlightened) to the unexcelled right awakening...
"But as soon as my knowing and seeing — with its three rounds and 12 permutations concerning these Four Noble Truths as they actually are — was truly pure, only then did I claim to have directly awakened to the unexcelled right awakening...
"Knowing and seeing arose in me: 'Unshakable is my liberation. This is my last rebirth. There is now no more further becoming'"
(SN 56.11).
What does one see when awakening?
§ 77. "What a Wayfarer [Tathagata, successful practitioner, arahant] sees is this: 'Such is form, such its origin, such its disappearance; such is feeling, such its origin, such its disappearance; such is perception...such are mental formations (fabrications)...such is consciousness, such its origin, such its disappearance.' [These are the Five Aggregates clung to as self.]
"Because of this, I say, a Wayfarer — with the ending, fading out, cessation, letting go, and relinquishment of all speculation and thinking, all I-making and mine-making and obsessions with conceit [the habit of seeing everything in terms of an I or self or soul] — is, through lack of clinging (that sustains it), liberated."
"But, Master Gotama [the Buddha Siddhartha Gautama], the meditator whose mind/heart is thus liberated, where does that person reappear [where is that being reborn]?"
"'The designation 'reappear,' Vaccha, does not apply."
"In that case, Master Gotama, that person does not reappear."
"The designation 'does not reappear,' Vaccha, does not apply."
"In that case, Master Gotama, that person both does and does not reappear."
"Vaccha... [that designation] does not apply."
"In that case, Master Gotama, that person 'neither does nor does not reappear."
"Vaccha... [that designation] does not apply."
"How is it, Master Gotama, when Master Gotama is asked if the meditator reappears [is reborn]... does not reappear... both does and does not reappear... neither does nor does not reappear [which exhausts the four logical possibilities], he says, 'that designation does not apply' in each case?
"At this point, Master Gotama, I am befuddled. At this point, I am confused. The small amount of clarity coming to me from your earlier conversation is now obscured."
"Of course you are befuddled, Vaccha, of course you are confused. Deep, Vaccha, is this dhamma [reality, teaching, ultimate truth], hard to see, hard to realize, tranquil, refined, beyond the scope of conjecture, subtle, to-be-experienced by the wise.
"For those holding other views [other doctrines or dhammas], other practices, other goals that would satisfy them, other aims, other teachers, it is difficult to know [and see]. That being the case, I will now put some questions to you. Answer as you see fit.
"What do you think, Vaccha, if a fire were burning in front of you, would you know, 'This fire is burning in front of me'?"
"Yes..."
"And, Vaccha, suppose someone were to ask you, 'This fire burning in front of you, dependent on what is it burning?' Thus asked, how would you reply?"
"...I would reply, 'This fire burning in front of me is burning dependent on grass and timber as its fuel (sustenance).'"
"If the fire burning in front of you were to go out, would you know, 'This fire burning in front of me has gone out'?"
"Yes..."
"And, Vaccha, suppose someone were to ask you, 'This fire that has gone out in front of you, in which direction has it gone? East? West? North? South?' Thus asked, how would you reply?"
"That does not apply, Master Gotama. Any fire burning dependent on fuel fed by grass and timber, being unnourished — from having consumed that fuel and not being offered any other — is classified simply as 'out' [extinguished, unbound, no longer clinging to fuel]."
"Just so, Vaccha, any physical form by which one describing the Wayfarer would describe him, that the Wayfarer has abandoned, its root destroyed, made like a palmyra stump [that does not grow back once it is cut down], deprived of the conditions of development, not destined for future rearising.
"Freed from the classification of form, Vaccha, the Wayfarer is deep, boundless (unbound), hard to fathom, like the sea. 'Reappears [is reborn]' does not apply. 'Does not reappear' does not apply. 'Both does and does not reappear' does not apply. 'Neither reappears nor does not reappear' does not apply.
"Any feeling... Any perception... Any mental formation (fabrication)...
"Any consciousness by which one describing the Wayfarer would describe him, that the Wayfarer has abandoned, its root destroyed, made like a palmyra stump, deprived of the conditions of development, not destined for future rearising.
"Freed from the classification of consciousness, Vaccha, the Tathagata is deep, boundless, hard to fathom, like the sea [of space]"
(MN 72).
Ven. Thanissaro (American Geoffrey DeGraff) Noble Conversation: A Study Guide altered (restored to customary rather than idiosyncratic translation of terms where possible) and edited by Wisdom Quarterly
I won $10,000,000 and have never been happier. Oh, wait, I would have burned it if I'd known
Life is short. What’s the purpose of living? | Buddhist Wisdom
(Buddhism Podcast) Buddhism Explained. Life is short — but what is it really for? This video looks into the quiet question many of us carry: Why are we here, and what gives life meaning? Using simple Buddhist wisdom, it shows how our constant chasing and avoiding can lead to deep restlessness. Instead of trying to fix life, we can learn to be fully present with it [to see it for what it really is and, seeing it, letting go and thereby being liberated from it]. The answer may not be something we find, but something we live.
00:00 - The question beneath all questions — Why ask at all?
04:03 - The Endless Cycle — chasing happiness, fleeing from sorrow
08:07 - The ripple of our actions — Why death isn’t an escape
14:40 - The Middle Path — walking through life, not around it
18:14 - The point is presence — Living the answer in this moment
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