Football: A History of Cartoon Violence

Eds., Wisdom Quarterly; Savage Brick Sports; The Simpsons (The Itchy & Scratchy Show); Coyote & Road Runner; Rocky & Bullwinkle; Acharya Buddharakkhita (Dhammapada); Andrew Olendzki (sutra)
National Football League (NFL) Dirty plays and big knockouts (brutal violence as American sport)

Violence is funny (in cartoons)

Acharya Buddharakkhita (trans.) via accesstoinsight.org edited by Dhr. Seven, Pfc. Sandoval, Seth Auberon, Ashley Wells, Wisdom Quarterly (Dhammapada X, 129-145, Dandavagga: Section on Violence)

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129. All tremble at violence; all fear [being killed]. Putting oneself in the place of another, one should not kill nor cause another to kill.

130. All tremble at violence; life is dear to all. Putting oneself in the place of another, one should not kill nor cause another to kill.

131. One who, while himself seeking happiness, oppresses with violence other beings who also desire happiness, will not attain happiness hereafter.

132. One who, while himself seeking happiness, does not oppress with violence other beings who also desire happiness, will find happiness hereafter.

133. Speak not harshly to anyone, for those thus spoken to might retort. Indeed, angry speech hurts, and retaliation may overtake you.

134. If, like a broken gong, you silence yourself, you have approached nirvana, for vindictiveness is no longer in you.

135. Just as a cowherd drives the cattle to pasture with a staff, so do old age and death drive the life force of beings (from rebirth to rebirth).

136. When the fool commits harmful deeds, the fool does not realize (their harmful nature). The witless person is tormented by one's own deeds, like one burned by fire.

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137. One who inflicts violence on those who are unarmed, and offends those who are inoffensive, will soon come upon one of these ten states:

138-140 Sharp pain, or disaster, bodily injury, serious illness, or derangement of mind, trouble from the government, or grave charges, loss of relatives, or loss of wealth, or houses destroyed by ravaging fire; upon dissolution of the body that ignorant person is reborn in hell.

141. Neither going about naked, nor matted locks, nor filth, nor fasting, nor lying on the ground, nor smearing oneself with ashes and dust, nor sitting on the heels (as penance) can purify a mortal who has not overcome doubt.

142. Even though one is well-attired, yet if one is poised, calm, controlled, and established in the pure life, having set aside violence towards all beings — that person, truly, is a holy person, a renunciate, a monastic (wandering ascetic).

143. Only rarely is there a person in this world who, restrained by modesty, avoids reproach, as a thoroughbred horse avoids the whip.

144. Like a thoroughbred horse touched by the whip, be strenuous, be filled with spiritual yearning. By confidence and virtuous purity, by effort and meditation, by keen investigation of the truth, by being rich in knowledge and virtue, and by being mindful, destroy this unlimited suffering.

145. Irrigators regulate the waters, fletchers straighten arrow shafts, carpenters shape wood, and the good control themselves. More

SUTRA: "Arming Oneself"

Andrew Olendzki, Attadanda Sutra (Sn 4.15, excerpt) edited by Wisdom Quarterly

...Fear is born from arming oneself.

Just see how many people fight!

I will tell about a dreadful fear

that caused me to shake all over:

Seeing creatures flopping around,

Like fish in water too shallow,

So hostile to one another!

— Seeing this, I became afraid.

This world completely lacks essence;

It trembles in all directions.

I longed to find myself a place

Unscathed — but I could not see it.

Seeing people locked in conflict,

I became completely distraught.

But then I discerned here a thorn —

Hard to see — lodged deep in the heart.

It's only when pierced by this thorn

That one runs in all directions.

So if that thorn is taken out —

one does not run but settles down....

Who here has crossed over desires,

the world's bond, so hard to get past,

one does not grieve, one does not mourn.

One's stream is cut, one will be nirvanered.

What went before — let go of that!

All that's to come — have none of it!

Don't hold on to what's in between,

And you'll wander fully at peace.

For whom there is no "I-making"

All throughout the body and mind,

And who grieves not for what is not

Is undefeated in all the world.

For whom there is no "this is mine"

Nor anything like "that is theirs"

Not even finding "self-ness," one

Does not grieve at "I have nothing."...

Buddhist translator Andrew Olendzki: Back to the Beginning (Sarah Schorr/tricycle.org)

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TRANSLATOR'S NOTE: There is something particularly moving about this poem, perhaps because it is composed by the Buddha in the first person and appears to reveal the process through he himself came to understanding. Perhaps it is because of the vulnerability expressed in the opening stanzas, where he admits his fear and sense of dread over the nature of the human condition. Or maybe it is just the utter simplicity of the:

• problem (people hurting each other)
• cause (basic human selfishness, driven by craving)
• solution (letting go of egotistical attachments).

How easy the Buddha can so often make it all sound! More

Buddhist SEX: Moderation, Tantra, Freedom!

Dhr. Seven, Amber Larson, Ashley Wells, CC Liu, Crystal Quintero (eds.), Wisdom Quarterly; Wiki; MBG; Maurice O'Connell Walshe (Wheel 225, BPS); Andrew Olendzki (accesstoinsight.org)

What secret ingredient is a must for my post-flow yoga refuel? Great sex? Thank you.

The future Buddha's beautiful mother, Maya Devi, was -- it is said -- a kind of "virgin" or "pure person" in one sense: She was free of sexual misconduct going back seven generations.

Our sexy-spiritual, Los Angeles yoga teacher Psalm Isadora (RIP) loved tantric sex.

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Chakras light up during intimacy with partner

This is an age in which sexual matters are discussed with great openness.
 
There are many who are puzzled to know what the Buddhist attitude towards sex is, and it is therefore to be hoped that the following guidelines may be found helpful towards an understanding.

It is, of course, true to say that Buddhism, in keeping with the principle of the Middle Way, would advocate neither extreme puritanism nor extreme permissiveness.

You are sacred. Act like it: Five Precepts

But this, as a general guiding principle without further explanation, is not sufficiently helpful for most.

In the first place, we have to distinguish between training rules adopted by different kinds of Buddhists:

• Monastics (monks and nuns)
• male- and female-novices
• "probationers" (anagarikas)
• lay meditators during times of intensive practice (with additional precepts)

Celibacy for deeper meditation

for their path toward enlightenment in this very life. If one does not reach enlightenment in this life, the practice will at least produce a very advantageous rebirth.

 

Guiding principles for lay Buddhist practitioners are easy and quite freeing: avoid violating the Five Precepts and enjoy sex with appropriate partners even if you're unmarried.

Or go celibate. Or be a serial-monogamist. Or secure consent and do whatever you want. As a Buddhist you're free. More

Speaking of Buddhist-Sex, what is tantra?

Ashley Wells, Dhr. Seven, Amber Larson, Crystal Quintero (eds.), Wisdom Quarterly Wiki edit

Do you think I'm sexy? Yes, well, don't stare too much. I died earlier this year. - P. Isadora

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Use birth control. I may not want to be born!

Tantra (Sanskrit तन्त्र, literally "loom, weave") denotes the esoteric traditions of Buddhism and Hinduism that co-developed most likely about the middle of first millennium CE.

• VIDEO: Tantrika talks about her childhood sexual abuse (below)

In Indian traditions the term tantra also means any systematic broadly applicable "text, theory, system, method, instrument, technique, or practice." This may be thought of as a stratagem or modus operandi to achieving some end.
 

In Buddhism, the Vajrayana tradition is known for its extensive tantra ideas and practices.

Various tantric symbols (Sarah Welch)

In Hinduism, the tantra tradition is most often associated with its goddess tradition called Shaktism (worship of the Goddess Shakti), followed by Shaivism (Lord Shiva) and Vaishnavism (Lord Vishnu).

Tantric Buddhist and Hindu traditions have influenced other religious traditions such as Jainism (a surviving wandering ascetic tradition like Buddhism), Sikhism, the Tibetan Bön (pre-Buddhist shamanic) tradition, Taoism, and the Japanese Shintō (pre-Buddhist animistic kami worship) tradition.

Tantra as genre of literature in Hinduism (upholding as best it can the far more Ancient Vedic tradition) have been influential to its arts, icons, and temple building practices.
 

Mas amor por favor ("More love, please") Sexual trauma and breast cancer link?

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Wait, sex can be empowering?

Hindu rituals (pujas), temples, and iconography are tantric in nature. The Hindu texts that describe these topics are called Tantras, Āgamas, or Samhitās. 

In Buddhism, its tantra-genre literature has influenced the artworks in Tibet, historic cave temples of India, and imagery in Theravadan Southeast Asia. More

Like a Lotus: Why Tantra?

Andrew Olendzki, (Thag 15.2) "Udayin Thera: The Blooming Lotus" (excerpt) edited by Dhr. Seven, Amber Larson, Wisdom Quarterly

Tantric Buddhists of Californian, Bhutanese, Nepalese, Mongolian, Tibetan Vajrayana were drawn to the contrast in the imagery of the lotus flower.

The contrast is between the ordinary, defiling mud rooting the plant in the water and the sublime beauty of the blossom rising above it.

Relentless in their non-attachment to dichotomies (polemics, polarities, extremes) and their demolition of opposites, the tantric approach is to be capable of embracing both sides or opposites without clinging to either.

Although the emphasis changes, we can see that the essential teaching of non-clinging or non-attachment (nopalippati="is not stained") -- to objects of sensual-perception, to a particular mode of teaching, or to conventional dualities -- remains carried through the ages by this simple image of a white lotus growing out of muddy water:

As the flower of a lotus,

Arisen in water, blossoms,

Pure-scented, pleasing the mind,

Yet is not drenched by the soiled water,

In the same way, born in the world,

The Buddha abides in the world,

Yet like the lotus by water, is not

Drenched by the sullied world.

• 34th Lotus Festival, Los Angeles (sutra)

Buddhist Sexual Yoga: Yab-Yum

Don't have sex yet. Wait till you're home. Even then...are you a long-time practitioner?

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Padmasambhava in Yab-Yum

See also tantra techniques. According to some Tibetan authorities, the physical practice of sexual yoga is necessary at the highest level for the attainment of buddhahood (Routelege Encyclopedia of Buddhism, p.781).
 

The use of sexual yoga is highly regulated. It is only permitted after years of training (An Introduction to Buddhist Ethics: Foundations, Values and Issues by Peter Harvey).
 

4 types of sugar addicts: Which are you?

The physical practice of sexual yoga is and has historically been extremely rare (The Story of Tibet: Conversations with the Dalai Lama by Thomas Laird).
 

A great majority of Tibetan Buddhists believe that the only proper practice of tantric texts is metaphorically, not physically, in rituals and during meditative visualizations (Routelege, p.781).

 

Why we all need sexual healing

Jason Wachob, mbg founder and CEO in memory of Psalm Isadora (edited by Wisdom Quarterly)

We all lost a great member and friend of the mbg community (mindbodygreen.com), Psalm Isadora. According to her Facebook page, she passed away.

Psalm became a contributor for mindbodygreen.com and made an immediate impression. That was the thing about her: she always made an impression. To those who knew her, she was an unapologetic force of nature!

Whenever she walked into a room, she wanted you to know it. She oozed confidence, rarely compromised, and always said exactly what was on her mind. She was fierce. She was a warrior princess. And she was also a mother to a son.

Canadian pop star Shania Twain

She survived what many people cannot -- extreme sexual trauma in a sinful, hypocritical Christian cult that lasted much of her childhood. She channeled those horrific experiences into a message of female empowerment through sexuality and tantric principles.

She shared this message of empowerment with the world through her articles, classes, and workshops.

She even shared her deeply personal and emotional story about overcoming sexual trauma in a powerful talk at our last Revitalize event, which received a standing ovation. Watch the talk

• Kazuo Ishiguro wins Nobel Prize in Literature!
• Buddhism and Sexuality: An Exploration Among Buddhists there is a wide diversity of opinion about homosexuality. Buddhism teaches that sensual pleasure and craving in general, sexual obsession in particular, are hindrances to enlightenment, far inferior to the kinds of metaphysical "spiritual pleasure" (pīti, bliss, joy, "rapture") integral to the practice of meditative absorptions or jhānas. The Five Precepts avoids "sexual misconduct" -- 10 persons to avoid having sex with, which is often also interpreted according to local social norms. Still, some Asian Buddhists hold prejudices against gay, lesbian, and transgender persons.

The Equality of the Sexes (sutra)

Wisdom Quarterly; Andrew Olendzki (trans.), Soma Sutra, "Mara Meets His Match" (SN 5.2)

Visions of enlightenment are best leading to the highest bliss (allwomenstalk.com).

  

Mara and nun Uppalavanna

The nun Soma has entered Andhavana (Blind Man's Grove) near [the ancient city of] Savatthi to practice meditation.

Mara, the embodiment of delusion [the great obstacle to enlightenment], the great, sees her there and desires to make her waver and abandon her concentration. He addresses her with a verse:

 

That which can be attained by seers --

The place so hard to arrive at --

Women are not able to reach,

Since they lack sufficient wisdom.

Burmese ten-precept Buddhist nun studies text next to monks (as1974/flickr.com).

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[Soma replies:]

What difference does being a woman make

When the mind [heart] is well-composed,

When knowledge is proceeding on,

When one rightly sees into Dharma?

 

Indeed, for whom the question arises:

"Am I a man or a woman?"

Or "Am I even something at all?"

To them alone is Mara fit to talk!

• For Bhikkhu Bodhi translation of this sutra, see below.
  
• Andrew Olendzki (Tricycle Magazine)
• AUDIO: Dr. Olendzki's Dharma talks

TRANSLATOR'S NOTE

Andrew Olendzki on Ganges, India

This, in my view, is the definitive statement in the Buddhist tradition regarding the equality of the sexes.

Whatever other words have crept into the literature -- from ancient times to the present -- whatever [sexist or patriarchal] attitudes may have been expressed by theras [elders], lamas, roshis, or teachers over the ages, this position of thoroughgoing equality in light of the Dharma is plainly stated by Soma, one of the Buddha's contemporary nuns [herself an enlightened elder or theri].

 

Soma was the daughter of the chief priest of King Bimbisara of Magadha and was an early [adopter of] the Buddha's teaching. She spent many years as a lay supporter before eventually becoming a nun [bhikkhuni], and achieved awakening -- like so many of her sisters [fellow nuns] -- not long after joining the [monastic] order.

 

A practicing nun lives joyously.

In this exchange Mara is clearly trying to provoke and discourage Soma, but [he] only reveals his delusion. The expression he uses literally means "two fingers' [worth]" of wisdom. It may originally have been a reference to the domestic task of checking if rice is cooked by examining it between the fingers, but here it is obviously used pejoratively to impugn that women are less capable of liberation.

Soma not only refrains from getting offended (perhaps remembering Buddha's teaching to always "forebear the fool[ish]"), but calmly points out how ludicrous the statement is when viewed in light of the Buddha's higher teaching about the nature of personhood. [The liberated heart/mind is a wondrous thing.]

The Enlightened Buddhist Nun Soma
Bhikkhu Bodhi translation (Soma Sutta,  SN 5.2) edited by Wisdom Quarterly

The Buddha teaching the nuns (CW)

 

Buddha Girl, the American nun, 2012 (WQ)

This event took place in Savatthi. Then in the morning the Buddhist nun Soma dressed and, taking her bowl and robe, entered Savatthi for alms.

When she had walked for alms in Savatthi and had returned from her alms round, after her meal, she went to the Blind Men's Grove for the day's abiding (meditation).

Having plunged into the Blind Men's Grove, she sat down at the foot of a tree to meditate.
 
Then Mara the Tempter, desiring to arouse fear, trepidation, and terror in the nun Soma, desiring to make her fall away from concentration (samma-samadhi), approached her and addressed her in verse:
 

That state so hard to achieve

Which is to be attained by the seers,

Can't be attained by a woman

With her two-fingered wisdom. 

 

Then it occurred to the nun Soma: "Now who is this who recited the verse -- a human being or a non-human being?" Then it occurred to her: "This is Mara the Tempter who has recited the verse desiring to arouse fear, trepidation, and terror in me, desiring to make me fall away from concentration."
 
Then the nun Soma, having understood, "This is Mara the Tempter," replied to him in the following verses:
 

What does womanhood matter at all

When the mind is concentrated well,

When knowledge flows on steadily

As one sees correctly into Dharma?

 

One to whom it might occur,

'I'm a woman' or 'I'm a man'

Or 'I'm anything at all' --

Is fit for Mara to address.

 

Then Mara the Tempter -- realizing, "The nun Soma knows me" -- sad and disappointed, disappeared right then and there.

The lotuses return to Los Angeles

Amber Dorrian, Dhr. Seven, Wisdom Quarterly; Carlos Lozano (latimes.com, June 15, 2013)

Lotus flower, symbol of rising above the fray and blossoming (tvladusi/flickr.com)

   

Lilies (Golan Jesus Roncero)

After a two-year, $45-million makeover, Echo Park Lake will reopen [today] to the public Saturday morning with a ceremony that will include [our Mexican Jewish everyman] Mayor-elect Eric Garcetti.

 

The festivities are scheduled from 10 a.m. until noon. The park is located in the 1700 block of Park Avenue.

 
The lake was completely drained and cleaned before being refilled and restocked with plants. A clay liner was installed to reduce water leakage through the lake bottom.
 

Rehabilitation plan (facebook.com)

The 29-acre lake was originally built in the 1860s as a reservoir for drinking water. But over the years the lake became polluted and was identified by the state in 2006 as an impaired body of water.
 
Today, the lake and surrounding park have been fully rehabilitated, with lake, landscaping, and wetland improvements. The lake serves primarily as a detention basin for the city’s storm drain system, while also providing recreational benefits and wildlife habitat. More

• Lotus Festival (facebook)
• The Mahyana "Lotus Sutra"

An oasis in an asphalt desert with skyscrapers in the distance (Lotus Festival/tumblr.com)

   
The Blooming Lotus
Andrew Olendzki, translator (Udayin Thera, Thag 15.2)

Lotus-blooming buddhahood (buzzle.com)

This poem by the Elder (Thera) Udayin evokes one of the most famous of Buddhist images and is laced with meaning on many levels. In one sense -- emerging from the psychological ethos of early Buddhist teaching -- it can be taken to describe the ability of the awakened person to thrive in the world of sensory experience without clinging [to it] or [being overwhelmed by] attachment. Though the human condition is rooted in the desires that give rise to all life and [the delusion of] selfhood, one can learn to live in this world without being bound by the impulse to crave pleasure and avoid pain. One gets "drenched by the world" when one succumbs to to the range of grasping behaviors which inevitably bring about suffering -- the mind clings to an object like water that permeates something and drenches it. Here we see a Buddha who does not transcend the world, but lives in it for forty-five years with a mind free of all attachments. More

As the flower of a lotus,

Arisen in water, blossoms,

Pure-scented and pleasing the mind,

Yet is not drenched by the water,

 

In the same way, born in the world,

The Buddha abides in the world;

And like the lotus by water,

He does not get drenched by the world.

Nam Myoho Renge Kyo - The Lotus Sutra is Buddha's most referred to teaching on

"emptiness" and "not-self" (shunyata and anatta), the central concept necessary for

enlightenment. It is an experience and not something that can be fully taught. More

"Distortions of the Mind" (sutra)

Dhr. Seven, Wisdom Quarterly; Andrew Olendzki (Vipallasa Sutta translation, AN 4.49)

...O monastics, these four are distortions of perception, distortions of thought, distortions of view...
 

Sensing no change in the changing [ignoring impermanence],

Sensing pleasure in suffering [misconstruing the unpleasant as pleasant],

Assuming "self" where there is no self [failing to see the impersonal as impersonal],

Sensing the un-lovely [foul] as lovely --

 

Gone astray with wrong views, beings 

Mis-perceive with distorted minds. 

Bound in the bondage of Mara [defilements of the heart],

Those people are far from safety. 

 

They are beings who go on flowing:

Going again from death to birth.

But when in the world of darkness

Buddhas arise to make things bright,

 

They present this profound teaching 

Which brings [disappointment] to an end. 

When those with wisdom have heard this, 

They recuperate their right mind: 

 

They see change in what is changing [impermanent],

Suffering where there's suffering [unsatisfactoriness], 

"Non-self" in what is without self [impersonal],

They see the un-lovely as such. 

 

By this acceptance of right view, 

They overcome all suffering.

 

Translator's notes

These verses from The Numerical Discourses of the Buddha give the traditional list of the distortions (vipallasas). 

 

This Pali-Buddhist word is sometimes translated as "perversions" of the mind; I find this language too strong and prefer the expression "distortions" of the mind.

 

The term is composed of a prefix (vi-), which carries the sense of division, separation, or removal, another prefix (pari-) meaning around or complete (as in our related word peri-meter), and a verb (-as), which can be taken as meaning "to throw." Putting all this together, we have the image of the mind or heart taking something up, turning it around, and throwing it back down -- a perversion or distortion of reality by the perceptual and cognitive apparatus of the brain [or wherever the seat of consciousness may be located, more likely the whole body or physical heart]. More