Showing posts with label Arya-Sangha. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Arya-Sangha. Show all posts

Monday, January 12, 2026

Who were the original "Aryans"?

The TRUE meaning of “Aryan” - Poseidon is also the "horse lord" to the ancients?


Sons of the Steppe | Part 4: India, Middle East, Anatolia from the Yamnaya to present day
When the Buddha spoke of the Aryans, he spoke of the "noble ones" (the enlightened).
Indo-European migrations - Tocharians into China (Wikipedia map)
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In this series, JK explores the full story of the Proto-Indo-European migrations — from the Yamnaya Steppe nomads of prehistory, through the ancient and medieval periods, all the way to the present day. The goal here is to create a simple, digestible overview that explains:
  1. How these migrations occurred
  2. Where the various archaeological, linguistic, and tribal names come from, and
  3. How they shaped the modern world we live in today
In Part 4, the series concludes by exploring the branches of the Proto-Indo-Europeans who migrated south into Anatolia, the Middle East, and India.

Part 1 covered Northern and Western Europe, following the chronicles of the Celtic and Germanic peoples. Part 2 explored the branches that gave rise to the Hellenic, Italic, Balkan, and Balto-Slavic peoples of the Mediterranean and Eastern Europe. Part 3 covered the branches that remained in the vast and ever-changing Eurasian Steppe.

SPANISH: (Historias Para Un Cafe) The white Tocharians of China?

TIMESTAMPS
  • 0:00 - Intro
  • 0:57 - Addressing Parts 1-3
  • 3:00 - The Meaning of "Aryan"
  • 6:20 - The first Yamnaya migrations
  • 8:18 - Bronze Age cultures
  • 15:25 - The fall of Troy and the Bronze Age collapse
  • 17:21 - The Iron Age and Vedic India
  • 22:44 - The Classical Age and the rise of Persia
  • 31:20 - The medieval Turkic and Arab expansion
  • 43:38 - The formation of modern nations
  • 49:17 - Outro
 Watch the first three parts:
  1. Part 1: Celtic and Ge...
  2. Part 2: Mediterranean...
  3. Part 3: The Nomads of...
Follow on social media where posts are posted daily: Instagram (jonaskilker), TikTok (jonaskilker). X (x.com/jonaskilker), Website: jonaskilker.com. Sons of the Steppe merch: constantinegraphicsco.com... Thanks to everyone who has supported this endeavor through the creation of this series through comments, shares, subscriptions, and even insights and bits of research. (A collaborative effort is truly enjoyable.)

THE SERIES
With this series completed, it is thrilling to have a solid framework to be able to reference as we move ahead and explore the virtually THOUSANDS of exciting and thought-provoking histories within all of these regions and cultures. Of course, this channel will also be exploring various topics in philosophy, mythology, and much more. This is only the beginning, the very, very beginning.
  • Jonas Kilker, Jan. 4, 2026; Pat Macpherson, Amber Larson, Dhr. Seven (eds.), Wisdom Quarterly

Monday, June 9, 2025

Doug's Dharma: What is 'solitude'?


Solitude: Its advantages and drawbacks in Buddhist practice
(Doug's Dharma) June 9, 2025: The Buddha praised solitude [well undertaken as temporary withdrawal, mental seclusion, peaceful isolation, private intensive meditation, accompanied by piti from samma-samadhi] as highly beneficial.
  • 00:00 Intro
  • 00:48 The benefits of solitude
  • 04:26 Dangers of solitude
  • 07:06 Finding the balance
  • 10:07 Cultivating solitude in lay life
  • 11:47 Buddha's wisdom on solitude
He also warned of its dangers [when not well undertaken, done without the jhanas, the meditative absorptions, "right concentration," the stabilizing inner-stillness of samadhi].

How can we best balance solitude and community in our practice? How can we cultivate solitude [mental seclusion, temporary withdrawal] even in our busy everyday lives?

🧡 Find this material useful? Check out the Patreon page and get fun benefits like exclusive videos, audio-only versions, and extensive show notes: dougsseculardharma.

Do God or gods exist?

🧡 It is also possible to make donations through: paypal.me/dougsdharma. 📙 Check out the book, A Handbook of Early Buddhist Wisdom, with a foreword by Ven. Bhikkhu Bodhi:  books2read.com/buddhisthandbook.

☸️ Free mini-course at the Online Dharma Institute: onlinedharma.org. 🎙Check out Doug Smith's podcast with Jon Aaron, "Diggin' the Dharma": digginthedharma.com.

✅ Videos mentioned:
❤️ Thanks to Patreon Patrons: Anonymous (3) Omar John Oborne Debbie Mattison Ron Peat Michael S. Kearns Anne Matthew Smith Shantha Wengappuli Karma_CAC Jorge Seguel Christopher Apostolof GailJM David Bell T Pham VCR Upayadhi Andi and Erik Michael Scherrer khobe schofield Alex Perdomo Benji Forsyth Sonny Flink Steve Marlor Joy L Lee Andrew Tom Anthony Tucker Karlee R Ethan M Billy in Singapore Olivia Otter Carl Lennartson xiao mao Jeff Harvey Andrew Ingrouille Kenneth Grandchamp Rene Gariepy Russell Needham Smoggyrob Mac Roja Clémence Ortega Douville Kwan Alex Scott Johnston Richard J Beninger Nathanael O. Arnquist SaturnianMandala Trin P Letesa Isler Dorien Izel Robert Paterson Jake Tobiason Louvenia Ortega Steve S. Richard Rappuhn Sarah Kress John Aaron Paul Niklewski Kong Ing Kai Dave Gorman rhys reed Osanda Wijeratne Scarlett Farrow BJ - RetreaTours™ Roland Harris karen Rob John Brady Schickinger Jenn A. Hieu Chi Tran Kenneth Sorensen Will Mosse Sharon E. Ken M Mattias Sjölin Marc Belanger Kyaw Thurein

Saturday, February 1, 2025

'Blue Eyes in Saffron Robes' (film)


Blue Eyes in Saffron Robes | full documentary | Theravada Buddhism
There are nuns and sisters, too! 
(Dhamma Source) Radharc stumbled upon a group of Americans and Europeans living as Theravada Buddhist monks deep in the rain forest near the borders between the Golden Triangle countries of Thailand, Laos, and Cambodia.

Country: Isan/Siam. Date: 4/10/79. Duration: 26.45 mins. Director: DUNN, Fr. Joe. Support this documentary at: radharc.ie/product/ref-no-0136-blue-eyes-in-saffron-robes. Dhamma Source is a free archive and directory of Buddhist media focused mainly on [Early] Theravada Buddhism [as recorded in the Pali language canon]. May all beings be at peace; may all beings be free from suffering.
The Buddha's Blue Eyes - Wisdom Eyes, Meaning, Buddhist Symbols, Images from Nepal
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The Blue-Eyed Buddha
All blue-eyed people come from a shared common ancestor
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(VERIFY) April 28, 2023: All blue-eyed people share a specific genetic trait (mutation) that leads scientists to believe that all blue-eyed people share an ancestor from 6,000 to 10,000 years ago. Read more: verifythis.com/article/ne...


How'd blond hair, blue eyes spread to Europe?
(Celtic History Decoded) Look at this map that shows the countries with the most people with blue eyes in the world. Now look at this map that shows the countries with the most people with naturally blond hair in the world. As we can see, there is a strong overlap in Scandinavia and the northeast of Europe.
CHAPTERS
  • 0:00 Intro
  • 0:36 True Origins of Blue Eyes
  • 2:46 Origins of Blond/Blonde Hair
  • 4:21 How Did Blond Hair & Blue Eyes Spread to Europe?
  • 5:30 What About the Indo-Europeans? Yamnaya
  • 6:56 Bell Beakers
  • 7:17 Corded Ware Culture
  • 8:18 Vote for Video Topics
  • 8:34 Attractiveness Theory
  • 9:09 Adaptive Advantage?
  • 9:34 Vikings
Burmese gilded marble Buddha
Countries like Sweden, Finland, Norway, Estonia, as well as Iceland (which was settled by Nordics known as the Norse), have the highest levels of people with blond hair and blue eyes in the world.

Why is this though, and when did this phenomenon of blond hair and blue eyes first develop, and how did it spread to Europe? Let’s start by looking at the origins of blue eyes and blond hair.

First up is blue eyes. I often see people on the internet quoting outdated information on the origin of blue eyes. This is because the initial research came from a team from the University of Copenhagen, Denmark, in 2008 who identified the genes involved in blue eye color developing in humans. #blueyes #blondehair #ancestry

SOURCES
  • Mathieson I et al. The genomic history of southeastern Europe. Nature. 2018 Mar 8;555(7695):197-203. doi: 10.1038/nature25778. Epub 2018 Feb 21. PMID: 29466330; PMCID: PMC6091220. The Genomic History of Southeastern Europe - PMC (nih.gov)
  • Iosif Lazaridis et al. A genetic probe into the ancient and medieval history of Southern Europe and West Asia.Science377,940-951(2022).DOI:10.1126/science.abq0755 Bronze Age Britain (warwick.ac.uk)
  • Malmström, H. et al. The genomic ancestry of the Scandinavian Battle Axe Culture people and their relation to the broader Corded Ware horizon - Proceedings of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences, Volume 286, Issue 1912 2019 doi.org/10.1098/rspb.2019.1528
  • Recent origin of the ‘blonde hair-blue eye phenotype’ combination: Corded Ware culture | by Andreas Weber | Medium
  • Blue-eyed humans have a single, common ancestor | ScienceDaily
  • The Genetics of Blond Hair | Science | AAAS
  • Eiberg, H., Troelsen, J., Nielsen, M. et al. Blue eye color in humans may be caused by a perfectly associated founder mutation in a regulatory element located within the HERC2 gene inhibiting OCA2 expression. Hum Genet 123, 177–187 (2008). doi.org/10.1007/s00439-007-04...
  • Ancestral contributions to contemporary European complex traits | bioRxiv
  • Skin colour and Vitamin D: An update - Hanel - 2020 - Experimental Dermatology - Wiley Online Library
  • Fu, Q., Posth, C., Hajdinjak, M. et al. The genetic history of Ice Age Europe. Nature 534, 200–205 (2016). https://doi.org/10.1038/nature17993 Günther T,. et al.
  • Population genomics of Mesolithic Scandinavia: Investigating early postglacial migration routes and high-latitude adaptation. PLoS Biol. 2018 Jan 9;16(1):e2003703. doi: 10.1371/journal.pbio.2003703. PMID: 29315301; PMCID: PMC5760011. Population genomics of Mesolithic Scandinavia: Investigating early postglacial migration routes and high-latitude adaptation - PMC (nih.gov)
  • Creative Commons Imagery:
  • Dark Tichondrias File: Light hair coloration map.png - Wikimedia Commons Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 Unported license. Deed - Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported - Creative Commons Peter Frost File: Eye color map Europe.png - Wikimedia Commons Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International license. Deed - Attribution 4.0 International - Creative Commons पाटलिपुत्र World map: DalGobboM - Phenotype map: Andrea Hanel, Carsten Carlberg File: Archaeogenetic analysis of human skin pigmentation in Europe (with Asia geographic extension).png - Wikimedia Commons Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 4.0 International license. Deed - Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International - Creative Commons
  • Jbuket पाटलिपुत्र File: Eastern Hunter Gatherer.jpg - Wikimedia Commons Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 Unported license.
  • Matteo De Stefano/MUSE File: Homo sapiens - Neolithic - reconstruction - MUSE.jpg - Wikimedia Commons Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 Unported license. Deed - Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported - Creative Commons
  • Wojciech Pędzich, Robert Molyneaux File:Yamnaya phenotype, Reconstruction, male, grave Novooleksiivka; Ukraine.png - Wikimedia Commons Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 4.0 International license. Deed - Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International - Creative Commons
  • Scandinavian hunter gatherers
Subscribe to Celtic History Decoded: @celtichistorydecoded. Vote for the video topics audience wants to see: historydecoded

Finland: 'My Brother, Buddhist Monk'

(THBy hitting the CC (close caption) icon, English subtitles become visible for non-Finnish speakers

My Brother, Buddhist Monk | short documentary

We have an ancient Scandinavian Helgo Buddha
(Dhamma Source) This cinematic short covers a 26-year-old Finnish man who is leaving his frigid Scandinavian home country to become a Theravada Buddhist monk in the southcentral Thailand, at a Thai Forest Tradition hermitage called Wat Map Jap (aka Wat Marp Jan). This documentary was filmed by his sister, who includes the narration as she videos his departure and arrival at the faraway Asian monastery and their family's reaction to his decision to lead a pure monastic life, striving for enlightenment in this very life.
  • Dhamma Source, Aug. 1, 2023; Amber Larson, Pat Macpherson, Dhr. Seven (eds.), Wisdom Quarterly

Tuesday, January 9, 2024

LUST, Lust, lust

Wisdom Quarterly (EXTENDED COMMENTARY) orig. pub. 12/12/10, 11:40 AM

Prince Nanda was young. He was the Buddha's brother [of the same father, King Suddhodana, but with different mothers, who were biological sisters, and Nanda's mother, Maha Pajapati Gotami (who later became the world's first Buddhist nun), adopted Siddhartha seven days after his birth, after his mother, her older sister, Maha Maya, passed away, which is when the younger sister took over her duties and raised Prince Siddhartha to be king of the Scythians/Shakyians].
 
One source says Nada was 16, which was the marriable age among the Scythians/Shakyians, who were later thought of as kshatriya warrior/noble caste members, the administrators at the time. Sixteen was the age Siddhartha, who at age 35 had a great enlightenment (maha-bodhi) to become the Buddha, "the Enlightened One," was married off to his 16-year-old cousin, Bimba Devi (Princess Yasodhara).
 
Brahmins (priestly caste members, who underwent a rigorous period of study as brahmacaryas under a guru to learn Sanskrit and the Vedas, the ancient "Knowledge Books" of the Indus Valley Civilization and proto-India) were expected to be celibate students, unlike modern Brahmins.

Don't think about, no, don't think about it. Don't name it. Breathing in, breathing out...
The best teen "sex" comedy ever made. It's The Scarlet Letter that shows us ourselves!

Because Nanda was young and not enjoined to be celibate, Scythia prudently prescribed marriage. He, as well as Prince Siddhartha, were not restricted to monogamy, however, not even our modern serial-monogamy.

The brothers and their royal cousins had "dancing girls" and female musicians and what seem to have been harems (ensuring palace pleasures for polygamist royals). Lust and warriorship were ways of life for Scythians/Shakyians and later Indian rulers.

This was Central Asia after all (not Nepal but ancient Gandhara, now Afghanistan, as Dr. Ranajit Pal realized), which continues these traditions. It's the same in the American "caste" system, not only the ubiquitous middle class.

Goodness knows. Perhaps Shakyian princesses had dancing boys (or girls) of their own. It is certain that all six of their senses were indulged with banquets (tastes), perfumes (smells), art (sights), music (sounds), baths and foot massages (tactile sensations), elaborate clothes and conquests (mind). Princes certainly had concubines when they ruled.

The point is, lust for sensual desires was the name of the game. So we say: Do it when you are doing it, and abandon it internally when you have given it up externally. To do otherwise is a sure way to misery.

Our Judeo-Christian mores, transplanted from the Near and Middle East, have been heavily influenced for millennia by contact with Buddhism. Ancient Jews were in Kashmir, India, and in places along the Silk Road from at least the time of the Buddha. So what happened in the Greater Indian Empire ("Maha Bharat") influenced what went on in Egypt, Jerusalem, Nazareth, and later Greece, Rome, Britain, Israel, and America, from East to West.

Chanda, what are these strange visions I'm seeing? - Real life, Prince.

But the message has been corrupted. We Americans are averse to discussing lust. We cringe. We blush. We're humiliated to talk about sex, sexuality, or even nudity.

We overcompensate in certain parts of the country, flaunting our pornography and "liberalized" attitudes toward free love, sex, and pleasure. But just under the surface, we exhibit as many hang ups as most of the rest of the world, which looks to the Great Western Empire (America) for how to act and think.

Wisdom Quarterly says, enjoy pleasures when indulging them, AND temporarily abandon lust if serenity and insight are a meditative aim.

What are those two up to? - I don't know, but it looks like they're having fun. Shall we? - Let's.
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Why only temporarily? Wisdom Quarterly is different from other Buddhist websites for one thing: We taught a young American the Dharma and saw it eventually result in literal enlightenment.

This took place in this decade. (Many people say there's no chance for enlightenment nowadays. Yet, we have seen it and have come to know of at least 21 other people to attain one or more stages of enlightenment). The person we personally helped was nice, neither angry nor dumb, yet lusty. Shockingly, this person continued to have and enjoy lust AFTER attaining.

That's not the popular conception of what the tradition teaches, but it is in the texts. In the Buddha's time, most of the people who attained were ordinary householders. Monastics were intensive practitioners and some of them became teachers if they were able. Whenever the Buddha taught, which was just about daily for 45 years, someone in the audience would come to realization. Most of them were invisible devas (the majority of the audience).

Monastics had a better chance than ordinary humans, but since ordinary humans outnumbered monastics, more ordinary humans reached one or more of the stages of awakening. This, of course, led many of them to seek ordination but not all of them. Many more stayed householders, with homes, spouses, chidren, and ordinary responsibilities.


We are not surprised, at least we shouldn't be (but still are sometimes), because there are a lot of examples of this in the ancient texts. Lust is set aside to attain, but it comes back unless one advances to the point of outgrowing the Sense Sphere (kama loka).

The many kinds of stream enterers (enumerated and explained in the Path of Freedom or Vimuttimagga and the once returners can carry on as before; only the nonreturners and arhats have internally changed so much as to not be able to carry on like ordinary Sense Sphere inhabitants. That is why nonreturners do not return to this world of the ordinary senses in the human world or lower Sense Sphere heavens. They are reborn in the Pure Abodes, Fine-Material, or Immaterial Sphere planes.

Not everyone who gains liberating knowledge-and-vision becomes a monastic. This leads to the paradoxical situation wherein worldly monastics have abandoned lust, but not noble (enlightened) lay practitioners.

It was this way at the time of the Buddha. Most people did not become monastics even after attaining one of the stages of enlightenment.

Even the deva-ruler Sakka (King of the Devas), is a stream enterer. He is the leader of two worlds in space, the World of the Thirty-Three and the Realm of the Four Great Kings (Tavatimsa and Catumaharajika deva lokaliteral extraterrestrial worlds we do a disservice to if we dismiss them as "heavenly fantasies" in Buddhist cosmology).

Sakka has not completely given up lust. He is concerned and involved in human and non-human affairs on Earth and the longevity and success of the Buddha's dispensation.

Maha Moggallana, the Buddha's second chief male disciple, had to shake Sakka and the partying devas (always finding diversion up there the way the rich seem to do down here) in their aerial spacecraft/heavenly mansions (vimanas).

Lust is that way; it is not fully abandoned until the the third stage of enlightenment.  

Wisdom Quarterly's own earthly friend, advisor, and newest teacher attained not the first but the second of the four stages of enlightenment.
  • The idea of only four stages is, however, a simplification; there are in fact finer distinctions that can be made: The Path of Freedom (pp. 308-309) explains that there are TEN STAGES: three kinds of stream enterers, the once-returner, five kinds of non-returners, and the arhat.
Lust will not yet be permanently abandoned until the stage of nonreturning (anagami). But to get to that stage, with a limit now placed on future suffering, there had to be a temporary letting go of lust.

Without setting aside lust (as well as ill-will and delusion) during meditation, there is no chance of staying serene (accessing the meditative absorptions or jhanas), developing the Four Foundations of Mindfulness (practicing "right mindfulness"), and gaining liberating-insight. Our friend accomplished this in just four intensive months on retreat.

Is there any better, more permanent happiness than sensual lust?
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This meant temporarily leaving behind the home life and its all-consuming concerns. It was the same in the past: Many if not most of the people who attained a stage lower than full enlightenment at the time of the Buddha were living and continued to live at home.

The need to set aside lust and other distractions is emphasized in the Buddha's teaching on the Five Hindrances to meditation, which cloud the mind and obstruct any possibility of insight.

Jhana ("right concentration," samma samadhi, defined as the first four absorptions, in the Noble Eightfold Path) is the way to suppress the Five Hindrances, the first of which is lust, and other more subtle mental defilements (asavas and samyojanas). But vipassana ("liberating insight," wisdom, direct knowledge) is the way to uproot them.

One would be considered a literal "saint" in most religions by simply suppressing the defilements in this way, even gaining the psychic powers (abhinna, iddhi) that "prove" one's saintliness by doing so.


But uprooting these defilements, which often does not involve the development of psychic powers, is what makes one a Buddhist "saint" (an arya, a "noble one"). By achieving even the first stage of Buddhist enlightenment, one finally puts a limit on suffering (to no more than seven more lives). One has known-and-seen nirvana directly. One is destined to become fully enlightened and liberated from rebirth and every form of suffering within at most seven more rebirths.

(That may amount to a much longer period of time than it first appears: If one is reborn in any of the many celestial deva-worlds, where lifespans are measured in aeons (kalpas), the number of years to enjoy the senses is difficult to calculate in human years. Even the lowest celestial world has more and better pleasure to inspire lust and clinging, with access that lasts much longer).

What stands in the way of that? Lust. To be successful one needs to set aside a pleasurable thing for a much more pleasurable thing, which may sound like a paradox. This is generally only possible to do in the human world and the lower deva planes (sensual heavens), because otherwise the superior heavenly pleasures are too great in those worlds and the danger in them too hard to see.

How can we set lust aside even for a moment? Force, willpower, guilt, shame, submitting to someone else's control? No, these won't hold. The only way to set aside, abandon, let go, and detach from our innate lust (and the other hindrances that obstruct serenity and insight) is contemplating the disadvantages of lust or contemplating the many advantages of letting go.

If we "contemplate" (anussati, prolonged and well-rounded mindfulness, sati -- recollection, consideration, reflection), the heart/mind effortlessly lets go of what we cannot let go of using mere willpower.


Temporarily abandon lust. (Normally, we do not even dream of doing this even temporarily because it's the only happiness we know). Any kind of "permanent" abandoning will come by itself. There is no need to do it permanently. Do this:
  • Just for this moment, consider the repugnant aspects of sensuality: Lust shrivels up.
  • Just for right now, love (forgive and accept) someone who's done something to offend, hurt, or harm you: Anger wilts.
  • Right in this present moment, be mindful (bare, unembroidered awareness) of whatever is given attention (with no discursive thinking, evaluating, or judging): Delusion is dispelled.
The Dharma is immediate, unaffected by time. The relief happens right away. It invites one to come and see, to test, to experiment with and experience. The Kalama Sutta is the most popular original Buddhist discourse in America (according to Wisdom Quarterly). But it is often misunderstood to mean, "Do whatever, use common sense." It's not "common" sense. It's something one can see without blind faith, belief, or trust in a foreign authority, yet that's just the beginning: There is still truth to discover and preserve.


The Buddha's son, Ven. Rahula, also suffered from intense lust at 16 (according to Ven. Dhammadipa, 2008 BAUS lectures), which is when his father had him apply himself to meditation to break through by temporarily laying that burden down. (It's there to pick up again later if one wishes).

Rahula saw that he, his father, and Ananda all had the "marks of great men" (lakkhana) and were therefore destined to be world-monarchs over the entire subcontinent or this world (this cakkavala as cakkravartin kings) or to become buddhas, depending on whether or not they renounced the world.

His son Rahula had renounced it (at age 7), under his father's prompting (his father being the Buddha, returning after seven years absence to become enlightened himself), but his brother Nanda had not. Both gained the unsurpassable bliss and safety of personal enlightenment. Both did it by sidestepping the lust that was arising as humans in the Sense Sphere.

Maha Pajapati (the Buddha's adoptive mother) and Janapada Kalyani (his half-brother's fiance) also contemplated. And their minds became calm, dispassionate, detached from craving, grasping, and clinging. This temporary freedom allowed them to win enduring freedom.

Even the Buddha's father, King Suddhodana, became fully enlightened -- in spite of the fact that he had lived sunk in sensual pleasures and administrative responsibilities, overseeing and defending Shakyian land holdings other clans wanted to overtake.


How did the Buddha's brother, sister, son, wife, adoptive mother, biological mother, father, and cousins become enlightened whether they had joined the Sangha or not? They did it the way everyone does, by settling and unifying the mind (with the first four jhanas or levels of Zen) then contemplating the Four Foundations of Mindfulness with that concentrated mind. It all starts with temporarily setting aside the craving called lust.
Nathaniel Hawthorne would be proud his Puritan American message was understood.

Wednesday, April 3, 2019

Buddhists go for GUIDANCE not "refuge"

Col. Henry Steel Olcott, Wijesinha Mudaliyar; Dhr. Seven, Ashley Wells, Wisdom Quarterly


Going for "Refuge"?
QUESTION: What are the "Three Guides" a Buddhist goes to?

ANSWER: They are disclosed in a formula called Ti-saraṇa* (the "Three Guides"), which is, in fact, "Buddhism" (the Buddha's Dharma):
  1. I follow the Buddha as my Guide (Buddham saranam gacchami).
  2. I follow the Dharma as my Guide (Dhammam saranam gacchami).
  3. I follow the Sangha as my Guide (Sangham saranam gacchami).
Guidance not "refuge"
Sâranam: Mr. Wijesinha Mudaliyar writes Col. Olcott: This word [sarana] has hitherto been very inappropriately and erroneously rendered "refuge" by European Pali language scholars, and thoughtlessly so accepted by native Asian Pali scholars.

Neither Pali etymology nor Buddhistic philosophy justifies this translation. 'Refuge,' in the sense of a fleeing back or a place of shelter, is quite foreign to true [original] Buddhism, which insists on all people working out their own emancipation.

The root sṛ in Sanskrit (sara in Pali) means to move, to go, so that saranam would denote a moving, or one or that which goes, before or with another — a Guide or Helper.

I construe the passage thus:
  • Gacchāmi: I go
  • Buddham: to the Buddha
  • Sâranam: as my guide.
The Awakened One (Buddha), the Path to Awakening (Dharma), the Awakened (Sangha)
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The translation of the Ti-saraṇa as the "Three Refuges" has given rise to much misapprehension, and has been made by anti-Buddhists a fertile pretext for taunting Buddhists with the absurdity of taking "refuge" in non-entities and believing in un-realities.

The term refuge is more applicable to nirvaṇa, of which sâranam is a synonym.
 
Ven. Sumangala [a senior Buddhist monk of long standing] also calls my attention to the fact that the Pali root sara has the secondary meaning of killing, or that which destroys. 

Buddham sâranam gacchâmi might thus be rendered:
 
"I go to the Buddha, the Dharma, and the Sangha, as the destroyers [allayers] of my fears —
  1. the first by his teaching
  2. the second by its universal truth
  3. the third [the monastic order and, more importantly the noble community of enlightened individuals, many of whom are not monastics] by their various examples and precepts."

Q: What does [a Buddhist] mean when repeating this formula?

A: Buddhists mean that they regard the Buddha as an all-wise teacher, spiritual friend, and exemplar.

The Dharma, or "Doctrine," is the Teaching that contains the essential and immutable principles of justice and truth and the Path that leads to the realization of perfect peace of mind in this very life.

The Sangha, or Community, are living examples and teachers of the excellent Dharma taught by Buddha.

Q: But are not some of the members of this "Monastic Order" intellectually and morally inferior men?

A: Yes. But we are taught by the Buddha that only those who diligently attend to the precepts, discipline their hearts/minds, and strive to attain or have attained one of the eight stages of enlightenment and perfection constitute the Buddhist "community."
  • [The Four Stages of Enlightenment are divided into four paths and four fruits. This is explained in The Path of Purification commentarial system as only a thought-moment apart from one another. Alternatively, there is sutra evidence that the eight stages refer to those on the path (to stream-entry, once-returning, non-returning, and arhatship) and those who have consummated each of these paths.]
It is expressly stated that the Order [Sangha] referred to in the "Tisaraṇa" refers to the "Attha Ariya Puggala" — the Eight Noble Ones who have attained one of the eight stages of enlightenment.

The mere wearing of yellow robes, or even monastic ordination, does not of itself make a person pure, wise, or entitled to reverence.
 

Q: Then it is not such unworthy [Buddhist monastics, ascetics, recluses] as they, whom the true Buddhist, would take as their guides?
 
A: Certainly not.