"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.
UPDATED: Dharmachari Seven, Mordicia Allen, Wisdom Quarterly; (edited by Ashley Wells) If not me, who? If not now, when?
Karma (action) is always in the present. The only time for us to act is NOW. And one experiences the results of karma (which are called phala and vipaka, fruit and mental-resultants) NOW. In this sense, there is only now. Our lives will only ever be now. We will not go to the future. The future will come to us and be experienced in the now.
Yet many of us misspend the now reflecting on the past or pondering what may come. We bring the past back into the now, or we pretend the future is in the now. Now is all there is. So the wise person lives now. BE HERE NOW. This is where the power is.
We have the power to shape the future that comes our way. It is not fixed and sure to come in some certain way. Nor should one think that "now" refers only to this instant, for it expands and contracts to be viewed however we view it. We are constantly remaking, revising, and reinterpreting the past. All of this is done now.
What we do/say/decide now conditions what comes up from the vast store of accumulated karma (past deeds). For this reason merit is a wonderful storehouse which helps everyone in ALL circumstances.
Good is good even for bad And this is a very curious thing. Even "evil" beings -- whose habits are unskillful, unprofitable, whether ruined by greed, anger, fear, or delusion -- would be overjoyed to have merit to draw from, if only they understood the source of happiness.
Merit makes a monster stronger; unwholesome karma does not. Merit makes a thief richer; the karmic results of stealing do not. Now, of course, it may seem to the casual onlooker that it is the stealing that has made the thief rich. But one is not seeing karma and its results.
That karma of stealing has not yet born fruit. And while there may be some immediate mental-resultants (worry, delight, fear, happiness, delusion, remorse, etc.), karma has not had a chance to ripen. Even if the thief is seen suffering -- for example, having been caught and now being subjected to some direct consequence -- that is NOT the full ripening of the deed.
Beings have the habit of repeating their tendencies, as the Jatakas (rebirth stories) illustrate again and again. So it is not known why the thief now suffers, fails, and falls into ignominy. To imagine it is due to the immediately preceding deeds is a grave error, one religion teaches us again and again, taking the general illustration of the principle as the fact.
Then as a consequence of this error, we become full of doubts about karma (or the personal, all-knowing, stand-in force who works in mysterious ways meting out rewards and punishments for all behavior) because we see people doing many bad things and apparently profiting from it, living well, being happy.
We do not realize that merit is the source of their happiness in spite of how they are spending their time now, accumulating karma to be experience when the future comes into the now. This understanding of karma is the insight of Pa Auk Sayadaw, a renowned scholar-monk who not only mastered meditation but who, in a rare combination, is also a prolific writer. (See The Working of Kamma for excruciatingly exacting details on karma).
If merit benefits beings with bad habits and unskillful, unprofitable tendencies, what can be said of others with skillful, profitable, unselfish, friendly, courageous, wise habits?
Likewise, bad is bad even for bad. A "demon" (maras, asuras, rakshasas, nagas) gains in appearance, strength, range of influence, and powers based on GOOD karma, not bad. If that being chooses to use such present strength, born of merit, to further accumulate unprofitable karma, that is just what will happen. The past good will be used in the service of what is unprofitable.
A "bad" being wishing to be bad advances by past good even as this person does more and more bad. It is to a person's credit, among the bad, to be even more cruel, more tyrannical, more draconian. One gains in strength, and the bad delight in the power of what bad can accomplish, but at some time, the tyrant weakens, becomes feeble (George Bush, Moammar Gaddafi, Than Shwe, etc.), loses influences and gets his comeuppance.
Then no one says, "Oh what a surprise, taken down!" No, they say just the opposite: "He was lucky to have lasted as long as he did, now he's going to get it, this is what inevitably happens to those who live by the sword...."
But why did he last so long, where did he get the strength for wrongdoing, what fueled his success as a tyrant? It was not past debt; it was past merit. And the "bad" done now for the sake of bad was bad for him. Good now (any mercy or giving or understanding) would have benefited him in the future as bad now was only exhausting merit.
Mahayana scholars explain where nagas (shape shifters, reptilians, dragons, snakes, or any strong being such as a human tyrant or bull elephant, but particularly creatures with supernormal abilities and irritable dispositions) get their magical powers, wealth, and long life spans.
They are classified, alternately, as living underground, undersea, or in celestial spheres. And it is the celestial dragons with the power of transformation that are interesting here: They live in space/sky wielding great power. But if they are cosmologically classified as inferior to humans, How do they have superior powers?
Mahayana developed scant information on nagas and explains that merit is the cause. Nagas are unskillful beings, but in the past (as humans or in whatever form) they gave, which is a very meritorious activity. But to this profitable karma they added unprofitable karma.
For having given, they soon regretted it: "Oh, I gave too much! I wish I hadn't given to that recluse, that teacher, that person..." This mental karma undercut their profitable deed and reshaped the result. Now they gain from past giving but are joyless and stingy in receiving the fruits of their deed.
The same can be said of Ebenezer Scrooge. It is no accident that he is rich, nor is it an accident that he is so miserable. And if he had continued in that way, stingy and callous, he would have been buried by his misdeeds made possible by his merit. We have what health and wealth we have by merit, but we experience what we have by how we act now (in addition to the mental-resultants of past deeds).
An example that may be easier to grasp from a Theravadan Buddhist perspective is the curious case of Mara Devaputra, "Cupid," the "Devil," the "Tempter" in Buddhism. He does not live in hell, nor does he want people to go to any of the hells. Instead, he wants them to remain forever in the Sensual Sphere (kama loka), the lowest of the three spheres. He opposes and obstructs meditators or anyone striving to break free of this sphere.
He fought Siddhartha -- using his three deadly-beautiful daughters, Craving, Indifference, and Passion -- to impede him because he foolishly feared that if the Buddha were to find and teach a means of escape from rebirth and suffering (samsara), many might break free of his influence.
Mara Devaputra imagines he is the lord of the sphere. But he is not an all-inclusive Satan-type being. He is more like a Lucifer, an archangel living at the top of the Sensual Sphere in a celestial space plane in luxury and comfort.
He tempts beings drawing them away from renunciation, unselfishness, and restraint. (There are other forms of mara, referring to more brutal adversaries and accusers on Earth, other obstacles, and yaksha armies).
Mara Devaputra has neither knowledge nor regard for what will happen to beings (celestial, human, subhuman) who go about conducting themselves driven by craving, lust, greed, and overwhelming avarice. He is principally interested in maintaining his position atop the only sphere he knows.
To him everyone else is out of reach, particularly anyone who escapes samsara. (Within samsara there are also Fine-Material and Immaterial Spheres, comprising the three divisions of the Thirty-One Planes of Existence. Nirvana is not a plane, for it transcends samsara altogether).
How does such a being (whom the Buddha called Namuci, the "non-releaser") -- for he is not the only one but one in a line of vile adversaries and accusers such as the ancient "Corrupter" Mara Dusi -- live in a heaven or have supernormal powers?
Contradiction? Monotheists go into contortions to explain how God cannot make a mistake, yet he does not want the Devil (whom he created) to do what the Devil cannot help but do. It is a needless misunderstanding.
The living being we call "God" is not the great uncreated creator of all. There is no such agent, even though there are great radiant beings anyone would point to saying, "That's 'God,' that must be who monotheistic bibles were talking about!"
Likewise, the monotheist's Devil cannot make one act. (Trick, tempt, sway, influence, scare into being evil, yes, but not force). We participate and co-create our actions, or they are not our "actions."
Karma (action) refers to intentional deeds, words, thought-habits. In the past Mara accrued merit and misuses it to bury himself in miserable acts of obstruction, overwhelmed as he is by greed, hate/fear, and delusion.
The "Gods" people and books glorify also got where they got by merit (profitable karma). And they are still caught up in samsara, the wheel of life and death experiencing the results of karma.
It is thought that they are not -- because they are so much longer lived, so much more powerful, knowledgeable, radiant, and so on -- but they are. What motivates them? Greed (jealousy), anger (righteous indignation), fear (of not being all s/he/it imagines or claims to be), delusion (self-aggrandizement and pride).
Who needs merit? The gods need merit. Maha Brahma ("Great Supremo" or the Creator, who may create but who did not create everything in the universe) needs merit. Mara needs merit. Devas (archangels) need merit. Nagas (draconians) need merit. Asuras (titans) need merit. Gandharvas (fairies, messenger angels) need merit.
HUMANS (on this planet and elsewhere) need merit. Animals (of staggering variety) need merit. Pretas (ghosts, spirits) needs merit. Even narakas (hellions) need merit, or how will they ever get out of the bowels of the most miserable planes of existence? All beings benefit from merit.
Bad karma expends one's store of merit. By willing, performing, and accumulating unskillful karma, one stores up much demerit. Like debt, it is to be met with before long. It may already weigh on us as soon as we accrue it.
It takes a lot of effort to look like you don't care how you look. Looking "ugly" (pretty by a different aesthetic) takes merit.
The example of Goths Another example of how merit helps even those who imagine themselves to be damned, ghoulish, "evil," possessed, delighting in the dark is the case of "Goths."
Some humans act like demons, zombies, ghosts, goblins, vampires, or inhuman monsters. This may be their authentic wish or view, or it may be pure affectation.
Nevertheless even among Goths -- who aspire to look gruesome, dreadful, dead, and decomposing -- it is necessary to be beautiful.
Dark beauty, vampiric looks, pasty/alabaster complexion, acne-free skin, straight strong teeth particularly incisors, silky hair, a lusty eat-your-heart-out figure, good eyes, pretty lips, a strong constitution, supernatural abilities... are all the result of merit.
Imagine trying to be a Goth with acne, spotty or wrinkled skin, acne, asymmetrical features, big pores, excess weight, crossed eyes, glasses, yellow teeth, coarse hair, short stature, misshapen boobs, a bony butt, and so on.
When one is trying to look "bad" and dangerous, "evil" and repugnant, cool and disinterested, effortlessly charming and uber-sexual (seductive) -- merit is necessary to accomplish it.
This anti-beauty style has strict parameters about what is attractive, which one needs a great deal of merit to live up to. After all, what it finds most attractive is not the declining demon but the "fallen angel," the Lucifer not the Satan, which people typically confound as one and the same.
Goths are NOT Satanists, but practicing the Dark Arts with charisma (animal magnetism), or being a hedonist, atheist, Pagan, Wiccan, or feared are much admired -- and the road to these is not debt but misused merit. Falling angels are as beautiful as angels, maybe more so, the fallen ones not so much.
A paradox? No, even among animals the same is true. It is on account of merit that an animal, even one with a terrible disposition, has outward beauty and attractive markings, is favored, and has an easier life. Not only animals but anyone reborn among ghosts, hellions, demons, or monsters has standards against which one will be judged and deemed either well favored or ill favored.
It is not only among humans and superhumans (rulers, devas, brahmas) alone that beauty, bravery, brains, loyalty, and trustworthiness are valued. They are more valued among killers, thieves, robbers... Then subhumans demand loyalty and honor.
In fact, the worse the realm, the more valuable these things are because they are in short supply and necessary for survival and advantage.
No one appreciates being violated, particularly those in the habit of violating others. Thieves do not want to be stolen from.
Demons do not want to be tormented, disrespected, or controlled (possessed). The worse one gets, the less one wants in any way to be told what to do.
Angels may gladly obey good celestial King Sakka, but demons prefer to betray and challenge the Devil -- just as mafiaosos, wanting to be mob bosses, constantly scheme against the Godfather looking for any sign of weakness. "There is no rest for the wicked," and no demon (underworld warden), hellion, hungry ghost, or animal can rest due to the insecurity of unwholesome associates. CONTINUED
People who give in to racism and prejudice may simply be dumb, according to a new study that is bound to stir public controversy.
The research finds that children with low intelligence (IQ) are more likely to hold prejudiced attitudes as adults. These findings point to a vicious cycle, according to lead researcher Gordon Hodson, a psychologist at Brock University in Ontario.
GOP debate (businessinsider.com)
Low-intelligence adults tend to gravitate toward socially conservative ideologies, the study found.Those ideologies, in turn, stress hierarchy and resistance to change, attitudes that can contribute to prejudice, Hodson wrote in an email to LiveScience.
"Prejudice is extremely complex and multifaceted, making it critical that any factors contributing to bias are uncovered and understood," he said.
Controversy ahead
The findings combine three hot-button topics. "They've pulled off the trifecta of controversial topics," said Brian Nosek, a social and cognitive psychologist at the University of Virginia... More
“I would like to get rid of the homophobes, sexists, and racists in our audience. I know they're out there...” - Nirvana's Kurt Cobain
Prof. Ron Epstein's collection of definitions of Mahayana Buddhist terms, released in book form by B.T.T.S., are now also available free online. Send corrections, including broken links, and suggestions for improvements to Prof. Epstein.*
While many words may sound familiar, having begun the adoption process into English, they are often the subject of some misunderstanding or Judeo-Christian assumptions.
Dharma, Sangha, Arhat, karma, Bodhisattva... are all technical Buddhist terms. While they may seem vaguely familiar to Western readers, what do they really mean in Buddhism?
What are the Four Noble Truths, the Five Aggregates (Skandhas), the Six Perfections (Paramitas), and the Eight Winds? Buddhism A-Z has the answers. This volume contains full definitions of hundreds of terms, names, lists, and concepts most frequently met with in the post-Pali Canon sutras, which Mahayana says represents the original to-be-inferred teachings (as best explained by Alan Watts in How to Understand Buddhism).
*EDITOR'S NOTE: I have made the following unfinished work available despite some misgivings. I have done so for two main reasons. (1) I think that much of the material may be of value, particularly to students and to others who are not familiar with basic [Mahayana] Buddhist teachings, and (2) it has been many years since I have had time to work on this project, so perhaps by making it known, others can consider helping to bring it to completion....
Sanskrit diacritical marks are still missing, as are many of the Chinese characters. For the characters that are present, a Chinese Internet viewer program is needed. (Otherwise the characters appear as unintelligible symbols.) - Ron Epstein
IISIS.net (Institute for the Integration of Science, Intuition, and Spirit); Wisdom Quarterly
Q: How many days did little Anne Frank spend in NAZI Germany? Answer: Zero. Her family left the year the NAZIs took over, living out her diary nightmare near Amsterdam.
Dr. Walter Semkiw is on a mission. He is following four decades of pioneering work by Dr. Ian Stevenson, MD* at the University of Virginia.
Multiple independently researched reincarnation cases have emerged. They show that from one human rebirth to another, people maintain the same facial features, personality traits, and talents.
These cases also demonstrate that religion, nationality, and ethnic affiliation can CHANGE from one incarnation to another, as seen in the case of Anne Frank/Barbro Karlen.
The knowledge that one can be reborn NAZI in one lifetime and Jewish in another might have prevented the Holocaust. Similarly, if Israelis knew they could be reborn as Palestinians, or Christians as Muslims, conflicts based on these cultural differences would diminish.
IISIS is dedicated to the positive social change that evidence of reincarnation can bring. Help make the world a better place by sharing new favorite reincarnation cases with friends and loved ones: Use links found on IISIS web pages to e-mail the scientific evidence for reincarnation to others.
*Dr. Ian Stevenson served as chairman of the Dept. of Psychiatry at the University of Virginia School of Medicine and was honored as the UV Carlson Professor of Psychiatry. He investigated almost 3,000 children who remembered past lives, reasoning that they were unlikely to fabricate factual memories. In 700 of these cases, memories were detailed enough to be validated as fact.More
The third, inner, or "divine eye" (dibba cakkhu) is the pineal gland. MORE
Alex Jones (infowars.com) exposes the DMT connection (communicating with the Clockwork Elves), which stretches the mind to the point of awe. What is the secret government (the ruling elite) doing and why? Rick Strassman's book DMT: The Spirit Molecule documents extensive research on Globalists injecting DMT. Almost all of his patients came back say they came into contact with other conscious entities in alternate dimensions or in far off space. Many described praying mantis type beings who would conduct experiments on them and communicate telepathically.
Are these negative entities completely real and guiding an elite Illuminati's agenda. This evidence ties in with Steve Quayle's concept of the "return of the nephilim" (those who came from above) and the reason the powers that be promote such maverick and expensive research as the Large Hadron Collider. Is the idea to open up this physical plane to negative ("demonic") entities? The rabbit hole is much deeper than most of us can begin to comprehend.
Yet most of us have never heard a word of it. Here is a fast introduction to the Bilderberg Group, Pentagon at the University of Texas, Phillip K. Dick, Terrence McKenna, Joe Rogan, Satanism, interdimensional alien contact like Tesla talked about receiving, asuras, nagas, screens, world government, New World Order, demons, space aliens, channels, mescaline elf, LSD, PCP, psychedelic mind expanding, the subconscious, David Icke, and more.
Avant garde Icelandic bhumi-deviBjork, 46, is getting ready to teach high school science at the New York Hall of Science. Her course will mix interactive exhibits and music workshops as they relate to her latest release "Biophilia" (love of biotic life), which now has a number of associated Apple iPad apps everyone can access.
They say she's a crazy cat lover, but she's really a scientist.
Mount Everest basecamp, Nepal, amid melting snow and tons of rubbish
In May 2003 ABC reported, "With the debris of more than 50 years of climbing -- oxygen canisters, tents, backpacks, and even some bodies -- Mount Everest has been called the world's highest garbage dump." Fast forward seven years and Buddhist Sherpas are still trying to clean up.
(BBC) The Extreme Everest team says the mountain has been polluted [by corpses of failed climbers and tons of trash expeditions dump on the mountain]. An effort by 20 Nepalese Sherpas to clear rubbish and remove the bodies of climbers from the top of Mount Everest has been hampered by 100km/h winds. The Sherpa-led Extreme Everest expedition is performing a "deep clean" of the world's highest mountain.
Frozen, forgotten body (lewistown.k12.mt.us)
So far it has recovered several bodies, including that of a Russian climber, Sergei Duganov, which has now been helicoptered off the mountain. The Sherpas hope to remove at least two tons of rubbish from Everest. The clean-up team now aims to reach the summit on Saturday when the weather should have improved. A spokesman for the expedition said that three bodies -- two of which had not been identified...
The BBC's Joanna Jolly in Kathmandu says that the expedition is controversial because many relatives of climbers who died on Everest want their bodies to remain there. However, the Sherpas say the bodies are polluting the 29,035 feet (8,850 m)-high mountain and need to be removed. More
Politics makes strange bedfellows. "Kinky Sex Makes the World Go Around" (Dead Kennedys) explains how economics and war go hand in hand.
The MIC (military-industrial complex) is safe. Co-opting the language of the Occupy Movement without ever once mentioning the word "occupy," Wall Street's own B.S. (Barry Soetoro) Obama puts the final touches on the Bush family's New World Order.
"We're not trying to push financial reform because we begrudge success that's fairly earned. I mean, I do think at a certain point you've made enough money. But, you know, part of the American way is, you know, you can just keep on making it..." — on Wall Street reform, Quincy, Illinois, April 29, 2010. More
Naomi Klein explains how "shock" and awe of entire populations produces the same results as torturing a detainee. "Disaster Capitalism" provides the economic shock.
But first to fake a popular election. How to get people to vote for more of the same? Vow "No more bailouts!" The damage is done. We won't be getting public money back from the massive bailouts industry already got:
Welfare fattened corporations and put the rest of us on the verge of homelessness and joblessness (facing foreclosure, underemployed, or very job-insecure). And let's give more money than Dick Cheney and W gave to the military.
The debt widens. Fear spreads. And if we feel insecure, we can rest assured that the name has already been changed from the Department of "War" to the Department of "Defense."
Pick a candidate, any candidate. All three are beholden to Wall Street, the Pentagon, Israel lobbyists, and clandestine services (CIA, TSA, NSA, NSC, FBI, police, Facebook...)
Back by popular demand, Against the Stream Hollywood hosts a Friday night "mindful music" event.The evening involves formal meditation accompanied by live music with amazing musicians, many of them meditators.
WHY: Mindful live music helps a meditation practice.
WHO: Bruce Teter on pipes, Italian Zampogna, French musette. Jazzy call-and-response kirtanwallah with Rick Chant and Michael Wachs. Matt Corey one upright bass playing Bach. Andy Sykora on shimmering gong.
The evening consists of instruction in music meditation, followed by four half-hour set/sits. The night closes with food and merry-making. No registration is necessary, and this is a donation (dana) based event.
Tran Anh Hung's adaptation of the bestselling novel that made Haruki Murakami famous is about a young Tokyo couple's sexual awakening amidst the tumult of the 1960s. "Norwegian Wood" has arrived in Los Angeles. The film opened in the UK in 2011 and in the US on January 6, 2012. The soundtrack, out now on Nonesuch Records, features an instrumental score by Jonny Greenwood performed by the BBC Concert Orchestra and the Emperor Quartet as well as three tracks written and performed by CAN. norwegianwoodmovie.com
DoesMalcolm Xdeserve a federal holiday? Toure, a New York Times best-selling author, thinks so. He penned a Time Magazine column arguing that the civil rights legend is as deserving of a federal holiday as Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.
What would we celebrate on “Malcolm X Day?” Toure give us some of the principles we’d celebrate:
"Malcolm’s not a static intellectual figure -- his mind journeyed throughout his life, he held firm to his principles but was also strong enough to re-evaluate his beliefs and change when he deemed change is right...." More
First they [the Nazis] came for the communists, and I didn't speak out because I wasn't a communist.
Then they came for the trade unionists, and I didn't speak out because I wasn't a trade unionist.
Then they came for the Jews, and I didn't speak out because I wasn't a Jew.
Then they came for the Catholics, and I didn't speak out because I was Protestant.
Then they came for me, and there was no one left to speak out for me.
Outcasts in a "free" America Gandhi, Thich Nhat Hanh, Martin Luther King, Jr. are remarkable symbols of peace. So is the Jewish-Buddhist revolutionary St. Issa, spoken of highly in Islam, who became the central figure of his own religion after returning to Jerusalem from India.
They were all following examples of peace and justice, not one or the other. Malcolm X is labelled a "violent radical."
One quote, promoted by newspapers and a very racist FBI ("By any means necessary"), defines him for most Americans. But he should be remembered for having said:
"If you're not careful, the newspapers will have you hating the people who are being oppressed and loving the people doing the oppressing."
The fact is, each of these figure in his own time was called a "violent radical" by the powers that be. Each had his words twisted and his message diluted. Each challenged the status quo of oppression. Our own American racism makes it amazing that any state allows MLK Jr. Day celebrations.
The Tuskegee Airmen, black American heroes in "Red Tails" by "Star Wars" creator George Lucas, revere a black Jesus. See more at blackjesus.com
But Reverend King only became who he was because Malcolm was struggling alongside him. It held his feet to the fire the way Dr. Cornell West and Tavis Smiley constantly try to hold Obama's feet to the fire to rise to the greatness he is obviously capable of. In America we still ignore other outcast figures, many of them simply because they are black or women or otherwise disenfranchised. We do it to our own detriment. "Buddha the African"? Could he have emerged from pre-Islamic, pre-Persian, Arabian lands such as Egypt (or somewhere in the geopolitical Middle East) far to the west of India? One writer thinks so (essaysbyekowa.com). Was the Buddha "black"? It would be nice if he were because then the world might be less racist.
The Light of Asia, the Prince of Peace, the "Awakened One" (Buddha) is described as being Central Asian in appearance: He had blue eyes, black curly hair, and "golden" skin.
In context, descriptions of his complexion suggest he was relatively "fair," yellow (tan), or pure like gold. He was certainly out in the sun a great deal. Cambodian (ancient Khmer Empire) depictions that look for all the world like Mesoamerican stone figures certainly appear black or African American. But they do not look like historical descriptions in the texts or earlier depictions in art found farther west in and around India. Moreover, not all of these figures even represent the historical Buddha.
He could have been reddish brown and from Nepal (north Indian) with Tibetan (Mongoloid) features. But there is more evidence that he was from the northwest, in the vicinity of Afghanistan (ancient Gandhara) with a mother possibly from as far west as modern Iran or Persia (Seistan Baluchistan according to maverick anthropologist Dr. Ranajit Pal).
However, these places did not have the same connotations as now: There was no Islam or Zoroastrianism. Arabs were not prevalent. Even today, Arabs only represent a small percentage of Muslims. It is more likely that Krishna, whose name means "black" or "dark," was actually extraterrestrial blue, not blue-black.
So had the Buddha been black, there would have been no problem depicting him as such. Krishna was already a much beloved hero. Many ETs are blue and shown as such. One of the Buddha's two chief male disciples, Maha Moggallana, who was foremost in psychic powers, was black. He was a very dark skinned brahmin.
The Buddha was not a brahmin, the high caste elitists (priests, intellectuals) often depicted as being racist and arrogant due to their obsession with "purity." Siddhartha was a warrior caste noble (kshastriya) from a family concerned enough with their royal bloodline to pair him with his cousin, Yasodhara.
All four castes (which also include merchants and servants) might be dark or fair, but darker skinned individuals seem to have been discriminated against just as they are now, perhaps because darker skin is a socioeconomic marker suggesting outdoor manual labor rather than indoor leisure. The ancient Aryans (devas and asuras, unearthly visitors who seem to have embedded themselves in cultures around the world where they formed empires) made complexion an issue by being obsessed with conquest and breeding with earthlings.
Was Jesus "black"? Was Jesus (Yshua, Joshua) black and from Egypt, which is in Africa? The Bible describes him that way in the only racial descriptions given of him (Rev 1:14). He had nappy hair like "lamb's wool" and "bronze" skin. Of course, this was in a revelatory vision. Other descriptions seem to have been edited out of the Bible. See debate.
He was dark, not a tall blond, blue-eyed Nordic giant. The Church used to depict him as dark until it suddenly changed him to make him more European. But what we mean by race is not what was meant in previous centuries. We seem more racist than those in the past. Jesus had dark bronze skin and curly hair (Jesus and Buddha) St. Issa said, “If your leaders say to you, ‘Look, the kingdom is in the sky,’ then the birds of the sky will precede you. If they say to you, ‘It is in the sea,’ then the fish will precede you. Rather, the kingdom is within you, and it is outside you. When you know yourselves, then you will be known, and you will understand that you are children of the living Father. But if you do not know yourselves, then you live in poverty, and you are the poverty.” - Gospel of Thomas 1:3
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The teaching of Buddhism is a dialogue, according to Alan Watts. It is a dialectic, an expert pedagogy (upaya, a "skillful means" of teaching).
