Happily Ever After into the afterlife (sutra)

American scholar-monk Bhikkhu Bodhi

Happily ever after, and even after that!

At Sunday Sangha last week (July 2018) we got into a discussion about the fact that of course we “cling” to our loved ones (spouses, children, parents, friends).

Then Brian mentioned that at a recent retreat, American Theravada monk Bhikkhu Bodhi pointed out that while many of the Buddha’s teachings were given to monastics, many [possibly most] of them were not. They were given to “regular people,” who were married and had children, and so on.

It’s important to know who the Buddha was talking to when we try to understand these teachings. This brought to mind a sutra wherein the Buddha tells Nakula-pita and his wife Nakula-mata how they could remain together and in love with each other as long as they lived and on into future lives as well!

“This discourse also shows that far from demanding that his lay disciples spurn the desires of the world, the Buddha was ready to show those still under the sway of worldly desire how to obtain the objects of their desire. The one requirement he laid down was that the fulfillment of desire be regulated by ethical principles” (Bhikkhu Bodhi’s In the Buddha’s Words). Here’s what it says in the text:

SUTRA: "To Nakula's Father"

In the Buddha’s Words

(AN 4:55) One morning the Blessed One (the Buddha) dressed, took his upper robe and bowl, and went to the household of Nakulapita. Having arrived, he sat down on the seat specially prepared for him.

Then the householders, husband and wife Nakulapita and Nakulamata, approached him and, after paying homage, sat respectfully to one side. So seated, the householder Nakulapita said to the Blessed One:

“Venerable sir, ever since the young housewife Nakulamata was brought home to me [for an arranged marriage], when I was young, I am unaware of having wronged her even in my thoughts, still less in my deeds. Our wish is to be in one another’s sight so long as this life lasts and in the future life as well.

“Then Nakulamata the housewife addressed the Blessed One: 'Venerable sir, ever since I was taken to the home of my young husband Nakulapita, when I was a young girl, I am unaware of having wronged him even in my thoughts, still less in my deeds.

Householder stream enterers are well on The Way

“Our wish is to be in one another’s sight so long as this life lasts and in the future as well.

“Then the Blessed One said: 'If, householders, both wife and husband wish to be in one another’s sights so long as this life lasts and in the future as well, they should have:

• the same faith (saddha, confidence) [in this case having toether entered the first stage of enlightenment],
• the same moral discipline (sila),
• the same generosity (dana),
• the same wisdom (panna).

“Then they will be in one another’s sight so long as this life lasts and in the future life as well” (AN 4:55).

How sweet is that? Happily Ever After, and Even After That!

• Jan Rosamond, Dharma Town Times (dharmatown.org, July 26, 2018); Ashley Wells, Dhr. Seven (eds.), Wisdom Quarterly

Why Joey hates yoga (video)

What if there were an ancient eightfold path to samadhi? Then another to enlightenment?

Why are they like this!?

American yoga is a cartoon, a facsimile, a joke.

(joeybtoonz) Sept. 1, 2024: Today let's explore people who pretend to be yoga instructors. [This is Kook Town, this is BS, this is, hold on, let me grab another pizza slice and brewsky so I can keep watching and criticizing this bogus bull.]

✭ PATREON ► joeybtoonz ✭ INSTAGRAM ► joeybtoonz ✭ X (TWITTER) ► joeybtoonz ✭ FACEBOOK ► joeybtoonz✭ FAN [NO HATE MAIL!] MAIL ADDRESS: ► 178 Columbus Ave. # 237190 New York, NY 10023 ✭ [HEAR MORE OF MY OPINIONS] 2nd YouTube Channel: Joey B vs. the World Clips: joeybvstheworldclips ✭ Joey B vs. the World Podcast Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/0Wfj8qb... Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast...

Why we love yoga

We love the togetherness, health, movement!

It's easy to imagine that "yoga" is a bunch of beautiful gals and lithe guys capable of doing ballet, undressing into tights and athletic shirts so they can sweat while they pose. There's that. It's the face of the brand. But the brand is much older, much deeper, much more useful than flexibility and fulsome breathing. There's a point. The whole of yoga (union) is aimed at meditation and reaching samadhi ("stillness").

Tibetan Vajrayana yoga Yab-Yum

Anything can use the word. It needn't be from India nor linked to the Vedas, because "yoga" just means whatever the American industry can make of it. And that's money. One of the more woo-woo forms of yoga was invented by Yogi Bhajan, a turban-wearing Sikh promoter, who came to the U.S. to think and grow rich.

I was trying to make money and get girls. Win!

Sure there were sex scandals and profiteering, but don't think about that. He invented the company Yogi Tea, which has great boxes and too many synthetic "natural flavorings" (a term that means the artificial synthesis of a naturally occurring flavor) to recommend. Flavorants are artificial neurotoxins used to sell product not promote health. So when it says "natural flavor," read "artificial chemical" simulation of something real.

A pose series is not yoga even if called Ashtanga

Yoga can get to seem that way when it's Yogi Bhajan's brand of Kundalini Yoga. That is a lot of what Joey is boohooing. It looks crazy. It's trying to give participants an experience, a head rush, a movement of kundalini (energy bundled at the base of the spine, which if opened too soon will make one cuckoo); shaktipat might be a better name for what Kundalini Yoga capitalists are trying to evoke so that people keep coming back. Anything goes.

If it was good enough for JC...

American teachers want to patent something like convicted criminal Choudhry Bikram of Bikram Yoga infamy. Now it's Hot Yoga, keeping the overheated rooms and changing nearly everything else. But there are plenty of diehard Bikram fans still out there because it was anti-spiritual and all about the workout and kickstarting the endorphins, which is what city folk want. Cities have doshas (body types), too. It isn't just bodies. LA and NYC are very pitta (fiery). one can imagine a lot of kapha in Minnesota and vata in Hawaii.

We're just looking on our search

All places and bodies have all three but usually suffer a predominance of one over the others, an imbalance. Kundalini Yoga is very vata (airy fairy), which will seem odd, silly, fake, and phony to New Yorkers like Joey.

Yoga is very ancient, pre-Patanjali

Most of us imagine "spiritual" to mean "too airy" because air is the unseen force that moves leaves and whole trees and can be experienced indirectly by all its impacts. Hatha Yoga joins sun and moon, yang and yin energies, though some say that's nonsense, arguing it has another meaning. With so many kinds of yoga, like all the martial arts there are now, what is Royal (Raja) Yoga, the ruler of all other types? It is this very eightfold path of yoga called Ashtanga:

• Rāja Yoga's COMPARISON WITH BUDDHISM

Isn't Yoga the same as Buddhism? They are different with a very different goal.

Rapist? Bikram Yoga's founder a fugitive (video)

Nightline ABC 7 News; CNN; Ashley Wells, Dhr. Seven, CC Liu, (eds.), Wisdom Quarterly

The "Trump of Yoga" Bikram Choudhury -- the founder of the phony Bikram "McYoga" system taught to Pres. Nixon (which exacerbates and leads to an imbalance in the pitta dosha or "fiery element" of a person's constitution) -- is now an international fugitive from justice -- too cheap and too proud to pay out after lawsuit.

(CNN, Apr 2, 2015) Bikram yoga founder denies [rape and] sex assault allegations. In part two of this CNN exclusive, Bikram Yoga creator Bikram Choudhury denies allegations of rape and sexual assault by six of his former students.

Stressed out Western capitals love harshness calling it "yoga" when it's not.

• DUMPED BY WIFE: Bikram's wife gets to keep LA and Beverly Hills homes, Ferrari, and Bentley cars in divorce
• VIDEO: Bikram Yoga founder is a hopeless PERVERT
• Bikram asked me to massage his private parts: Yoga instructor Mandeep Sandhu
• New RAPE charges slapped on yoga guru Bikram

(March 15, 2017) Rajashree Choudhury, ex-wife of Bikram, talks on radio

Bikram Yoga founder ordered to pay over $7 million in sexual assault lawsuit

(ABC News, Jan. 27, 2016) Scam businessman, egomaniac, megalomaniac, deluded romantic "guru" Bikram Choudhury is accused of rape. His former legal advisor brought a successful lawsuit against him, but the yoga icon has faced other more shocking allegations in the past.
 

(Nightline)  Sarah Baughn and Larissa Anderson claim Bikram Yoga founder Bikram Choudhury sexually assaulted [or raped] them at his home.

Maniac sells ego in name of "yoga"
Why is Bikram in the USA? Blame it on Republican President Dick Nixon.

"Angry Birds," "The Angry Buddhist" (audio)

Madeleine Brand, Seth Greenland, KPCC.org (SCPR.org); Wisdom Quarterly

"Angry Birds may be the closest to Buddhism that many of us ever get" (tobeydeys.com)

What does a "Buddhist" have to be angry about? Politics? Lesbian affairs? "Hello Kitty" tattoos? Murder? The declining habit of pleasure reading and corresponding drop in book sales?

This year's election season is already proving to be full of drama and fireworks. But it doesn't measure up to the political drama in Seth Greenland's forthcoming novel, The Angry Buddhist.

The book takes place in the days leading up to a November election, where the incumbent under fire -- a slimy congressman -- is in a battle against a sexy, Sarah Palin-esque challenger. There's in-fighting, sexual affairs, and even a murder.

But, interestingly, the author is actually quite knowledgeable about Buddhism. It is not merely a gimmick to draw in readers. Set in trendy Palm Springs, near Coachella, in Southern California.

• Greenland, author of The Bones and Shining City, was also a writer/producer on HBO's "Big Love."
• LISTEN (9:07 mins); discussion of Buddhist practice starts at Minute 5:57.

Ayurveda

AYURVEDA is the ancient healing practice of India. It was founded in Southern India and the Himalayas more than 5,000 years ago by seers, sages, and gurus.

They created a system that uses the inherent principles of nature to help maintain health in a person by keeping the individual’s body, mind, and spirit [breath] in harmony and balance with nature.

More simply put, Ayur-Veda (Sanskrit for “Knowledge of Life”) can be defined as a system of healing that teaches the harmony of five elements. They are known as Earth, Water, Fire, Air, and Space (ether). They are found in all humans and constantly strive for balance as three energy systems or doshas: Vata, Pitta, and Kapha.

Indian filmmaker Pan Nalin’s film travels 15,000 km from India to Greece and the USA. Nalin provides a fascinating account of the ancient practices of Ayurveda, which is experiencing a burgeoning interest.

Over the last three years, over 500 books on Ayurveda have been published in 60 languages in 50 countries.

French composer Cyril Morin has a deep interest in Indian musical traditions and philosophy. For him the musical soundtrack is a way of balancing music, meditation, and healing.

Cyril Morin says “Music has given me the opportunity of meeting extraordinary people. Each of them has shown me a different perspective, a different angle with which I have been able to broaden my own horizons, leading me a step further into yet another unexplored territory.”