Alan Watts: The Buddhist Secret (audio)

Alan Watts (alanwatts.org) via What do you desire?; A. Larson, Dhr. Seven, Wisdom Quarterly

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The Buddhist Secret

Zen's circle or ensō (faena.com)

Over time as fewer people realized enlightenment, Mahayana (Maya-yana?) came up with newer and more creative ways to trick oneself into realization, with the paradoxes of Zen, and stories of not trying, skillful means (upayas) and methods (yanas). Alan Watts explains them in the context of what this latter day form of Buddhism, which takes itself back by patriarchs to 200 years after the passing of the now little regarded historical Buddha, Siddhartha Gautama, the "Sage of the Shakyas [Saka/Scythians]" Shakyamuni.

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What Mahayana set up in place of what the historical Buddha taught was falling back on Brahminical teaching based on the Vedas that today are generally referred to as Hinduism when in fact Buddhism, like Jainism, began as a revolutionary, anti-establishment wandering ascetic (shramana vs. brahmana) movement school. Buddhism in Japan, famous for Zen which it imported from China, came upon the conception of jah-riki vs. tah-riki: If self cannot become enlightened, then it must be done by other (likened to the Protestant Christian concept of "grace" over "works").

"We don't think our way into right action, but we can act our way into right thinking" is a good recovery-based summary of two of the factors of the Noble Eightfold Path. Support the WDYD channel to promote the great work of Alan Watts at patreon.com/whatdoyoudesire.

• Part 1: How Can You be Enlightened?
• Part 2: You are the Whole Cosmos
• Part 3: Why the World Depends on You
• Part 4: Be Comfortable Under Any Circumstances
• Part 5: The Buddhist Secret (this video)
• Part 6: Waking Up from the Illusion

Who is the "Goddess of Mercy" Kwan Yin?

Buddhanet.net; CC Liu, Dhr. Seven, Amber Larson, Seth Auberon (eds.), Wisdom Quarterly

Avalokiteshvara as Kwan Yin the Bodhisattva of Compassion (vaniaragageles/flickr.com)

Kwan Yin (nee Avalokiteshvara), the Buddhist Goddess of Compassion (Vinayakh/flickr.com)

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The Bodhisattva of Great Compassion

Buddhanet.net edited and expanded by Wisdom Quarterly

Kwan Yin overtakes the Buddha in popularity from time to time, like the cult of the Virgin Mary eclipsing Jesus. Wat Huai Pla Kung Temple, Thailand (Apisak Kanjanapusit/flickr.com).

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Avalokiteshvara, Deva of Compassion (Adrian Evans)

The Sanskrit word Avalokiteshvara means "the lord who looks down upon the world with compassion [to hear the cries of the world]." It originally referred to a deva or god inherited from pre-Buddhist sources.

Translated into Chinese, the name is "Kwan Shih Yin," "Guanyin Goddess of Mercy," or "Quan Yin," which breaks down to these three elements:

• Kwan: observe.
• Shih: the world/realm of sufferers.
• Yin: all the sounds of the world, in particular, the crying sounds of beings, verbal or mental, seeking help and succor.

The Goddess (devi) Kwan Yin Bodhisattva (a being who vows then strives to attain supreme enlightenment to help all other beings) is the evolution of the deva Avalokiteshvara, the embodiment of great compassion. She has vowed to free all sentient beings from suffering.

The 31 (not 6) Planes of Existence in 3 spheres

Kwan Yin/Avalokiteshvara Bodhisattva has great powers to help all sentient beings. With limitless skillful means (upaya) this goddess/deva can appear in any form on all six planes of the Sensual Sphere (Kama Loka) of existence to relieve the suffering of the sentient beings living here.

This sphere includes the lower sensual "heavens" (kama-deva-lokas) in space, the human world (manusya loka) on this and other planets, and the subhuman worlds of the Downward Path such as that of animals (tiracchana), avians (garudas), ogres (yakkhas) and titans (asuras) sometimes regarded as "demons," reptilians/dragons (nagas), woodland-fairies (bhumi-devas), ghosts (petas), gnomes (kumbandhas), and hellions (narakas) in various miserable hells/purgatories. (See Buddhist cosmology).

Former Pope John Paul II greets Mother Teresa of Calcutta, India as they meet in St. Peter's Basilica at the Vatican Corporation. She will be made a "saint" on Sept. 4, 2016. Current Pope Francis set the canonization date on March 15, 2016, paving the way for the nun who cared for the poorest of the poor in India to become the centerpiece of his yearlong focus on the Catholic Church's "merciful" PR image (L'Osservatore Romano/file/pool photo via AP).

 

Good Mother Mary, Divine Feminine (ZF)

Avalokiteshvara once vowed to rescue all who call on him when they are suffering as, for example, when caught in fire, shipwrecked, or facing attack. Kwan Yin does the same and in Mahayana Buddhism holds a place akin to the Virgin Mary, a merciful mother-figure, Goddess of Compassion.

• Mahayana Buddhism is a kind of "universalism" or catholicism in Asia. It takes much from popular-Hinduism because early Chinese Buddhists who wished to find out more about the Buddhism that arrived in China sent missionaries to India, which by then had been retaken over by Brahmanism and the old Vedic religion that preceded the Buddha. This is in spite of the fact that the Buddha rejected or corrected many Vedic beliefs and doctrines that later became the basis of Hinduism, which only came into existence much later when Sri Sankhara created it by systematizing disparate views and schools influenced by the Vedas and Buddhism. But Sri Sankhara ejected Buddhism as a foreign influence, who was not from India or South Asia but from the frontier dividing East and West, Scythia (Afghanistan) in Central Asia. Hindus then placed the Buddha in the Indian Pantheon ignoring more of what he taught.

Kwan Yin is much more comely and pleasing than beautiful Avalokiteshvara.

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The deva Avalokiteśvara (wiki)

In the apocryphal Mahayana "Lotus Sutra," the historical Shakyamuni Buddha is said to say that if a suffering being hears the name of Avalokiteshvara Bodhisattva and earnestly calls out to the bodhisattva, Avalokiteshvara will hear the call and relieve that being's suffering.

 

[This is not at all likely the kind of thing the historical Buddha would have ever said, but it is a message that uses the Buddha to support a popular universalist message rather than the one he actually taught.]
 

According to the "Huayen Sutra," Avalokiteshvara Bodhisattva transforms himself into a she or various forms to suit the nature of those to be helped. His manifestations or transformation bodies are limitless.
 

For example, if a boy or girl is about to gain some measure of enlightenment, Avalokiteshvara Bodhisattva transforms into a boy or girl to teach the child. This ability to shapeshift, that is, adopt a desired appearance, is a common ability of devas and humans who have developed the psychic powers (abhinnas).
 

Bigger than life devotion: Devi Kwan Yin/Guanyin/Avalokiteshvara/Virg Yin Mary, Mother Goddess, Bodhisattva ("Buddha-to-be") of Compassion (billcoo/flickr.com)

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Goddesses: Taras, Dharanis, Devis

 For example, if a monastic is about to attain some measure of enlightenment, Avalokiteshvara Bodhisattva transforms into a monk or nun to help.
 

In short, Kwan Yin/Avalokiteshvara can appear as a child, boy, girl, monastic, monk, nun, or ordinary person like you or me. The purpose of such transformations is to establish rapport and put people at ease to make them feel secure and willing to listen.
 

Whereas Japan sees him as male, in China, Avalokiteshvara Bodhisattva is represented as female, a beautiful form known as Kwan Yin or Guanyin.

Likely because of Kwan Yin's great compassion, a quality which is traditionally labelled feminine, most of the bodhisattva's statues in China since the Tang Dynasty (AD 618-907) have appeared as female figures. In India and elsewhere, however, the bodhisattva is generally represented as a male figure.

In her hands, Kwan Yin may hold a willow branch, a vase with water or, occasionally, a lotus flower.

Om mani padme hum (Tashi Mannox/tibetanlife)

The willow branch is used to heal people's illnesses, allay their pain (willow as analgesic and main ingredient of natural aspirin), or bring fulfillment to their requests.

The water -- the dew of compassion -- has the quality of removing suffering, purifying the defilements from our hearts, mind, and bodies, our speech and thoughts, and lengthening life.

Kwan Yin, Theravada Buddhist Thailand, Wat Plai Laem, Ko Samui (sandrobisaro.com)

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Hindu deity or Kwan Yin?

In Buddhist art, Avalokiteshvara Bodhisattva is sometimes shown with 11 heads, 1000 hands with eyes on the palms of each hand (as is common in Hindu art for the Thousand-Armed Avalokiteshvara).
 
The 1,000 eyes allow the deva/bodhisattva to see the suffering of sentient beings, and the 1000 hands that allow her to reach out to help them.

Sacred Mt. Putuo, China

Sometimes represented with one head and four arms, the Four-Armed Avalokiteshvara is worshiped by Tibetans as Chenrezig, the "Holder of the White Lotus."
 
The male form holds two hands in the anjali mudra, or praying gesture, while the other two hands hold two symbols, the crystal rosary and the lotus flower (which symbolizes wisdom and insight).
 

There is a sacred place for the honoring of Kwan Yin in China: Mount Putuo. It is actually an island located near the city of Ningpo, in Zhejiang Province. There are many stories of Kwan Yin's miraculous appearances on Mt. Putuo.

The real Goddess of Mercy

Me, too? Could I be Kwan Yin?

Anyone can be like Kwan Yin -- a living being spreading compassion, mercy, and succor.
 
We may say that we lack 1,000 eyes or arms or skillful means. But it is our compassion (karuna) that can transforms us into an Avalokita, Avalokiteshvara, or Kwan Yin.

With our very own eyes and hands, which are much more precious than we usually imagine, we can help others. With our compassion, we have the power to bring peace and tranquility to this and other worlds. More

• AUDIO: Giants (biblical nephilim) in Afghanistan (Steve Quayle of Genesis6Giants.com on Coast to Coast)
  

ZEN: Roshi Joan Halifax (video)

Wisdom Quarterly; Krista Tippett (onbeing.org, 12-26-13), Roshi Joan Halifax (upaya.org)

"The craft of loving-kindness is the everyday face of wisdom and the ordinary hand of compassion. This wisdom face, this hand of mercy, is never realized alone but always with and through others." - Roshi Joan Halifax (upaya.org)

 

Joan Halifax on Compassion's Edge States and Caring Better

It's easy to feel overwhelmed by all the bad news and horrific pictures in the world. This is a form of empathy, Joan Halifax says, that works against us. The Zen abbess (Upaya.org) and medical anthropologist has bracing, nourishing thoughts on finding buoyancy rather than burnout -- or compassion fatigue -- in how we work, live, and care.

• Unedited interview: Joan Halifax
• Radio Show/Podcast (MP3, 51:06) 
• Learn More about the Show

(Library of Congress) Joan Halifax talks about empathy and compassion

on the part of caregivers who are tending to the ill and dying. 

Joan Halifax Roshi is a Buddhist teacher, Zen priestess, medical anthropologist, and author. She is founder, abbess, and head teacher of Upaya Zen Center, a Buddhist monastery in Santa Fe, New Mexico. She has worked in the area of death and dying for over 30 years and is director of the Project On Being with Dying. For the past 25 years, she has been active in environmental work.

• Free energy will transform and save the world
• Guardian angels (devas) or psychological aberration?
• Padmanadi vegan restaurant Edmonton, Alberta

Joan Halifax comes to Los Angeles (video)

Wisdom Quarterly; Against the Stream; Blog.TED.com

(TEDtalksDirector) Buddhist teacher Joan Halifax works with people at the last stage of life (in a hospice and on death row). She shares what she has learned about compassion in the face of death and dying and a deep insight into the nature of empathy (Blog.TED.com).

Against the Stream

Saturday: Matthew Brensilver, Intro to Meditation, Santa Monica, 1:00-4:00 pm

Saturday: An evening with Roshi Joan Halifax, Altars in the Street, Santa Monica (Los Angeles), 7:30-9:00 pm

Sunday: Daylong with Roshi Joan Halifax on Engaged Buddhism in Santa Monica, 9:30-4:00 pm

Monday: Feb. 20 marks the 4-year anniversary of Against the Stream! (To support: tax deductible donations).

• CALENDAR
  

How to understand Buddhism (animation)

Alan Watts; Something's Happening (KPFK.org); Wisdom Quarterly; Khmer animation

"The Journey from India, Part II" (Alan Watts audio)

The teaching of Buddhism is a dialogue, according to Alan Watts. It is a dialectic, an expert pedagogy (upaya, a "skillful means" of teaching).

So what we understand as the "teachings of Buddhism" are not the teachings. They are merely the opening gambit of a dialogue between individuals.

What the Buddha says to someone depends on what he knows that person's capacity to understand is. As we listen in we may be confused.

The Buddha is not speaking in absolutes so much as he is administering exactly the medicine this person needs to be cured of delusion and the suffering that comes with it.

"Buddhism," rather than teaching dogma, is a path of practice to directly realize the liberating-truth the Buddha himself had found. What he knew, we can know. Less useful is belief or faith when insight-knowledge and wisdom are what set us free.

The Buddha's message is consistent, but that only emerges over time. He taught for 45 years. In any specific instance, what he is teaching may sound like a paradox or, worse, a tautology (some self-evident piece of circular logic).

However, when we recognize the dialectic pattern, it suddenly makes sense. It is perfect just as it is -- so long as it is grasped properly.

Buddhism has developed and become something different, the growth of a seed the Buddha planted. Some later schools may have gone too far afield, but they tend to return. Nagarjuna's "Middle Way" (Madyamika) philosophy brought this method of dialogue to an extreme in an attempt to counter clinging to views.

Theravada, the earliest existing Buddhist school, has a threefold division of the Dharma. Beginning as a living oral tradition, it was eventually written down. Then commentaries also had to be written down to explain what was missing in the absence of a living dialectic.

Many sutras may seem unbearably monotonous. This is because what was written down was for chanting to be listened to, not read the way we read books. The written parts were lists, formulas, rote memorization and mnemonic devices for oral teaching.

The real reason the Buddha singles out desire (tanha, craving) is not merely dialectical, as Watts suggests. Desire is NOT the ultimate cause of suffering, ignorance is. And enlightenment is the ultimate solution. Craving is one of the proximate causes. But it is the weak link in the chain of Dependent Origination. The Buddha saw it. He recognized it as an escape from suffering, because wisdom can uproot craving when what we crave is seen as it truly is. We can see it and uproot it with insight (vipassana). Willpower, rationalizing, and psychological suppression do not work. Serenity and insight do work.

The unbroken oral tradition remains, but it is rare and usually available only in monastic and meditative settings, which are open to non-monastic and temporarily ordained practitioners. The instructions are not secret, but they are also not printed all over books, which would place them out of context.

However, most monastics or "professional clergy" as Alan Watts refers to them, seem to be involved in chanting and formalities. They do not seem to be involved in the living teaching or practice for the goal the Buddha set out and created monasticism to support. They see their function as preserving the Dharma, sadly, without reaching the goal or being able to effectively guide others to that knowledge-and-vision of nirvana.

The Buddha's words were organized into chants and written in so formal a way that no person would have ever spoken. What was said was converted to this form. And if we cling to the form, we will miss the meaning.

But when we understand, we will be grateful for the form that serves as an excellent device to both learn and skillfully teach what the Buddha taught.

• Closest thing to a Buddhist Bible: What the Buddha Taught
• Alan Watts Seminars.com
  
• British scientists find lost Charles Darwin fossils
  
• PHOTOS: Balloons over ancient Pagan, Burma
  
• Seeds of hope in Cambodia (grain production)
• Marianne Williamson on race in US and MLK, Jr.

Joan Halifax at Against the Stream (Feb. 18)

Roshi Joan Halifax will visit for a special benefit weekend celebrating Against the Stream's fourth anniversary.

ALTARS IN THE STREETS: Occupy the Heart
Saturday – Feb. 18, 7:30-9:00 pm
This talk will explore spirituality taken from the monastery into the world. Through work in the prison system and with dying people, social and political activism, and a commitment to environmental responsibility, she looks at three aspects of spirituality:

1. spirituality of social action addressing structural violence
2. spirituality of service addressing direct and indirect suffering
3. spirituality of conscience and conscientiousness.

These three aspects are viewed from a Buddhist perspective where mutuality or interdependence is the base of our relationship with the world.

ENGAGED BUDDHISM: A Daylong Practice
Sunday – Feb. 19, 9:00 am-4:00 pm
The Dalai Lama said, "Compassion is not a luxury; it is a necessity for the humanity to survive." This daylong explores fierce compassion, radical wisdom, and fearlessness in today’s world. It includes teachings, practices, and research on the mental qualities that make it possible for us encounter the world bravely.

• Joan Halifax Feb. 18-19, Against the Stream, Santa Monica
  
• PHOTOS: Pagoda Phat Hue, Germany

Spiritual Makeover: Christine, Buddhist Nun

Thomas (ContemporaryNomad.com)
Raised in Alberta, Canada and a Buddhist for many years, she wanted to become a Tibetan nun, renouncing the household life, a life-altering decision made with confidence.

[Ani] Christine is only the second Western Buddhist nun I have ever met. The first nun, whom we met a couple of weeks ago at Dargye Gompa (monastery), was an ascetic, standoffish German woman who had no interest in talking to us.

Ani Christine is different. She would always have a smile on her face and say hi when we passed each other in the hostel. This was my chance to talk to her and satisfy my curiosity about who she was, so I approached her to find out.

I think she was surprised that I came up to her because many people, as she told me later, shied away from talking to her maybe out of fear of asking the wrong questions. I wasn’t afraid and asked all the wrong questions anyway:

• “What color is your underwear?”
• “Didn’t it feel weird to cut your hair off?”
• “Why did you choose THIS new career?”

She patiently answered my questions with a great deal of humor and did not seem to be insulted at all.

Ani Christine became a nun only two weeks ago. Her excitement about becoming a nun is so contagious that we can’t help but feel completely happy for her. While talking about her past, she eagerly showed us some “before pictures” of herself with long hair and Western clothes taken only a few weeks ago and admitted that she had never had short hair.

She looks totally cute, though, with her buzz cut and her red [Tibetan] nun outfit, which she recently bought in a clothes store catering to nuns and monks. More

• Western Buddhist nun's monastic life

  • Is your underwear undermining your values?

Beginner's Mind: Skillful Meditation Project

SkillfulMeditation.org

Beginner's mind is vast and open. We spend the rest of our lives learning to unlearn (mumzine)

One's experience of meditation defines meditation
The Skillful Meditation Project offers an approach to Buddhist meditation based on what people actually experience when they meditate.

This approach is called Recollective Awareness Meditation, as it involves recollecting what happens in one’s meditation sittings.

One can meditate in any manner one chooses in this approach or use the basic instructions suggested for beginning meditation students. A website is available for exploration, with a Meditation page that is particularly useful.

The site has articles and short audio clips on an unstructured approach to meditation, ways of recollecting one's sitting, and background on this approach and how it was developed.

• Unlearning Meditation: When instructions get in the way

Available from Shambhala Publications (or from Amazon at a 33% discount off the list price) is a book that explains in detail. And there is more about the book at unlearningmeditation.com and blog.unlearningmeditation.com.

Jason Siff's 2011 Retreat Schedule

• June 24-July 3, Spokane, Washington
• July 29-August 3, Cloud Mountain Retreat Center, Washington
• August 18-21, Barre Center for Buddhist Studies, Massachusetts
• August 27-28, Toronto, Ontario, Canada
• October 19-30, Mandala Center, New Mexico

"Be Here Wow!" Wes Nisker at ATS

Against The Stream: Buddhist Meditation Society

Mindfulness Meditation and Modern Science:

A Path of Liberation and Amazement

&

Half-Day Retreat with Wes Nisker

• Saturday May 28, 2011
• 9:30 am - 1:00 pm
• 4300 Melrose Ave., Hollywood, CA 90029

"Oh wondrous creatures,

by what strange miracle

do you so often

not smile?"

-Hafiz, Sufi poet

Many of us are amazed when we read the latest scientific discovery about the size of the cosmos or the workings of biological evolution. But few of us know how to bring that sense of wonder and delight into our lives. In this workshop we will make creative use of classic Buddhist meditation techniques to help us embody the amazement of being alive and human.

During the day we will explore:

• the evolutionary origin of our body and emotions
• practice traditional Buddhist reflections on death and dying
• examine our nature "as" nature
• explore the tricky delusions of mind and the mystery of consciousness itself.

In the process we will find relief from our personal dramas and gain a new sense of meaning in our lives. The talks and discussions will present both traditional Buddhist views of self and reality, as well as some of the latest information from evolutionary biology and psychology to support and guide the meditations. The workshop will include plenty of poetry and a little crazy wisdom as well.

• Cost: $30 plus chance to offer dana to the teacher. Scholarships are available; no one is ever turned away for lack of funds. Call or write for more info.

CLICK TO REGISTER

Wes "Scoop" Nisker is a Buddhist meditation teacher, author, radio commentator, and performer. His books include the bestselling classic Essential Crazy Wisdom; The Big Bang, The Buddha, and the Baby Boom; Buddha’s Nature; and his latest, Crazy Wisdom Saves the World Again!

Wes is also the founder and co-editor of the international Buddhist journal Inquiring Mind. He is an affiliate teacher at the Spirit Rock Meditation Center in Woodacre, California, and does regular workshops at Esalen Institute and other venues. For the past several years Wes has been performing a comic monologue entitled "Crazy Wisdom Saves the World Again!" which was recently staged at the esteemed Berkeley Rep theater.

Wes’s famous tag line is: “If you don’t like the news, go out and make some of your own.” wesnisker.com or scoopnisker.com

Touching a Woman

Joan Halifax and the Dalai Lama (Tenzin Gyatso)

Two monks, one old one young, were happily walking along when they came to a river. They saw a beautiful young woman standing at the edge of the bank. She told the monks that she was afraid to cross the river because she might slip and be carried off downstream. She asked for help in crossing over.

The monks were celibate, having taken vows never to so much as touch a woman. The old monk, however, sensing the extreme anxiety of the young woman, lifted her across his back and carried her to the other side. The young monk was shocked and scandalized. She thanked him and went on her way.

The monks continued their journey. But the younger monk was disturbed at having witnessed his older and presumably wiser companion break their vow so thoughtlessly. After three hours of walking and pondering, he could finally take it no more. Unable to contain himself he burst out, "Tell me, venerable sir, what did it feel like to break your vow which you'd held for so many years? What did it feel like to allow sensuality to tempt you from the path? And what did it feel like to have that woman's smooth warm thighs wrapped around your waist, her breasts pressed against your back, her arms dangling around your neck, and her soft cheek almost brushing against your own? Tell me, venerable sir, exactly what is it like to carry such a beautiful young woman?"

The older monk remained silent for several steps then calmly replied, "Friend, it is you who should tell me what it's like to carry a beautiful woman. You have more experience. You see, I put her down three hours ago at the riverbank. You, on the other hand, are still carrying her."

• Photo gallery

Joan Halifax (born 1942) is a Zen Buddhist priest who received inka from Tetsugen Bernard Glassman, and was given the Lamp Transmission as a Dharmacharya (Dharma teacher) by Thich Nhat Hanh. She has been practicing Zen Buddhism since 1965. She was ordained by the Korean Zen Master Seung Sahn and became a teacher in the Kwan Um Zen School. Joan is head abbess and founder of the Upaya Zen Center in Santa Fe, NM. The Upaya Zen Center is non-sectarian and has guest speakers from many traditions. She helped to found the Zen Peacemaker Order, and has held various teaching positions in institutions as prestigious as Harvard University.

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Tenzin Gyatso (born 1935) is the 14th and current Dalai Lama. He is often referred to simply as "the Dalai Lama." He is a practicing member of the Gelug School of Tibetan Buddhism (Vajrayana) and is influential as a Nobel Peace Prize laureate, as the world's most famous Buddhist monk, and as the leader of the exiled Tibetan government in Dharamsala, India.

• More Zen parables
• Brief traditional tales