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BAUS Chuang Yen Monastery, Carmel, Upstate New York: streamed live (and recorded), Session 4: "Exploring Dependent Origination," Abhidharma Study and Meditation Retreat, Saturday, Aug. 31, 2019, 2:10 PM.
BAUS Chuang Yen Monastery, Carmel, Upstate New York: streamed live (and recorded), Session 3: "Exploring Dependent Origination," Abhidharma Study and Meditation Retreat, Saturday, Aug. 31, 2019, 10:20 AM.
Session 2: "Exploring Dependent Origination," Abhidharma Study and Meditation Retreat, Buddhist Association of the United States (BAUS), Chaung Yen Monastery, Upstate New York, Carmel NY, Saturday, Aug. 31, 2019 9:00 AM.
Each year since 2013 Ven. Bhikkhu Bodhi has been holding aLabor Day Weekend Retreat on the Abhidharma ("Ultimate Doctrine" or "Higher Teachings"), the Buddhist philosophical psychology [and physics].
At this year’s Abhidhamma retreat Ven. Bodhi will be exploring the Buddha’s teaching of dependent origination (paticca samuppada), the existential principle that all things (except for nirvana) arise dependent on conditions.
Dependent origination specifically traces the chain of conditions that leads to suffering and binds us to samsara, the cycle of repeated birth and death, thereby revealing what we must do to attain liberation.
At the retreat the venerable will be discussing dependent origination from two complementary points of view -- the perspective of the sutras and the more technical Abhidhamma perspective.
We will first examine a selection of sutras from the Nidana Samyutta, the “Connected Discourses on the Chain of Conditions.”
Thereafter, we will explore the 24 conditions that the Abhidhamma system applies to its analysis of dependent origination.
This part of the retreat, based on The Path of Purification (Visuddhimagga), Chapter 17, will give us a detailed understanding of this central Buddhist principle.
2020, Route 301, Carmel, NY 10512, (845) 225-1819, (845) 228-4283
A selection of relevant sutras will be sent out. Those who wish to explore the subject in detail should study Chapter 17 of The Path of Purification and the first part of Chapter 8 of the Manual of Abhidhamma.
But if they appear too difficult to study, despair not. Bhikkhu Bodhi ("Bhante") will be treating them in a clear and comprehensible manner.
The retreat begins on Friday evening, Aug. 30, 2019. It continues through 11:00 am on Tuesday, Sept. 3rd. It includes lectures and discussion periods, question-and-answer sessions, and five periods of meditation each day. Prior attendance at earlier retreats is not required to register for this retreat. The retreat schedule and syllabus are posted. More + Register
Thus have I heard. On one occasion the Blessed One (the Buddha) was staying near Sāvatthī at Jeta's Grove in Anāthapiṇḍika's monastery.
On that occasion the Blessed One was instructing, urging, rousing, and encouraging the meditators with Dharma-talk concerned with nirvana.
The meditators -- receptive, attentive, focusing their undivided attention, and lending ear -- listened to the Dharma.
Then, on realizing the significance of this, the Blessed One on that occasion exclaimed:
"There is, meditators, an unborn [Note 1], unbecome, unmade, unoriginated (unfabricated).*
"If there were not such an unborn, unbecome, unmade, unoriginated, there would be no escape from the born, the become, the made, the originated to be discerned.
"But it is precisely because there is an unborn, unbecome, unmade, unoriginated that escape from the born, the become, the made, the originated (the fabricated) is discerned [2].
NOTES
*VARIOUS TRANSLATIONS: (1) Bhikkhu Bodhi: "[Meditators], there is an unborn, an unoriginated, an uncreated, an unconditioned. If there were not this unborn, unoriginated, uncreated, unconditioned there would be no escape possible from the world of the born, the originated, the created, the conditioned. However, since there is an unborn, unoriginated, uncreated, unconditioned, therefore, escape is possible from the world of the born, the originated, the created, the conditioned."
(2) Ven. Nyanatiloka: "Verily, there is an Unborn, Unoriginated, Uncreated, Unformed. If there were not this Unborn, Unoriginated, Uncreated, Unformed, escape from the world of the born, the originated, the created, the formed, would not be possible" (Ud.VIII.3).
(3) John D. Ireland: "There is, [monastics], a not-born, a not-brought-to-being, a not-made, a not-conditioned. If, [monastics], there were no not-born, not-brought-to-being, not-made, not-conditioned, no escape would be discerned from what is born, brought-to-being, made, conditioned."
Note 1. Some scholars have argued that the term "unborn" (ajātaṃ) cannot be used to distinguish nirvana [("unbinding") the separation of a phenomenon, such as fire, from its supports, such as fuel] from samsara (endless rebirth), as there are discourses (such as SN 15.3) stating that samsara (the "continued wandering on" through the Wheel of Life and Death) itself has no beginning point, implying that it, too, is unborn.
Thus they argue that in this passage the term ajātaṃ ("unborn"), although a past participle, should be translated as, "without birth."
However, this argument is based on two questionable premises. First, it assumes that nirvana is here being contrasted with samsara, even though the passage simply contrasts it with the dependently-originated (fabricated).
Secondly, even assuming that the phrase "the born, the become" and so on is a reference to samsara/rebirth, the scholars' argument is based on a misreading of SN 15.3.
There, samsara (like a circle) is said to have an "inconceivable" or "undiscoverable" beginning point. This is very different from saying that it is unborn.
If rebirth/samsara were unborn, it would be unoriginated (see AN 3.47), which is obviously not the case. Thus, in translating this term to describe nirvana, Ven. Thanissaro has maintained the straight grammatical reading "unborn."
Note 2.Iti 43 gives this exclamation as the synopsis of a Dharma talk followed by this verse:
The relics are now displayed twice a year for Chinese New Year's and Labor Day.
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Unveiling new acquisition: the Buddha’s Eye Relics
Free event to be held at the new Wei Mountain Temple on Saturday, Aug. 31-Monday, Sept. 2, 2019. Meditation hours: 9:00-10:00 am and 7:00-8:00 pm. Meditation instruction available on request.
7732 Emerson Place, Rosemead, Los Angeles, CA 91770
(626) 766-1009
The 10,000 Buddha Relics Collection includes sacred bones of Shakyamuni Buddha as well as tens of thousands of brightly colored [silica] crystals found in his ashes after cremation [and appearing spontaneously and multiplying after that]. These relics, also known as shariras, will be on display, as well as those of his enlightened family members and his closest disciples. Many people experience powerful energy when meditating in the presence of the Buddha’s relics. Leader YongHua makes the claim: "Those who are sincere will receive what they wish."More
What’s buried under the Sahara? Hidden lost ancient civilizations!
The Sahara, the world’s largest hot desert (non-polar), hides countless lost ruins and unknown civilizations. Mysterious peoples and their territories have long since been forgotten, having been consumed and covered over by the sands thousands of years ago. When it is said “thousands of years ago,” things start to get very strange. Egypt is far older than modern archeologists are willing to admit. Forbidden archeology shows the evidence -- such as water erosion marks on the Sphinx and pyramids -- proving the antiquity of the monuments that were not built by earthlings alone.
Help support Jimmy (Bright Insight)'s effort to share interesting and otherwise unknown information by contributing to his Patreon (patreon.com/BrightInsight), Instagram, Twitter
Anthony Hazard (TED-Ed, 12/22/14); Univ. of Central Florida Professor Rosalyn Howard via oclsvideos, 2/13/13; Xochitl, Ashley Wells, Seth Auberon, Wisdom Quarterly
The Atlantic slave trade: What too few textbooks tell us
(TED-Ed) European Christians have enslaved each other and others for centuries. Slavery itself has occurred in many forms throughout the world for a long time. But the Atlantic slave trade -- which is thought to have forcibly brought more than 10 million Africans to the Americas [though other theories say that the blacks enslaved in the America were from the Americas, taken into chattel slavery (made property) and killed along with other Native Americans] -- stands out for both its global scale and its lasting legacy. Anthony Hazard discusses the historical, economic, and personal impact of this massive historical injustice. Animation by NEIGHBOR.
Dr. Rosalyn Howard, associate professor of anthropology at the University of Central Florida, traces the journey to freedom of a group of 19th century former slaves from their home in the black Seminole town of Angola to a haven in Red Bays, Bahamas, where their ancestors still live.
A cashless society seems like an inevitable progression into an easier, faster, and more convenient future. But this course of action comes at a huge cost of losing privacy and anonymity...
John D. Ireland (trans.), Nirvana Sutra 2 (Nibbana Sutta, "Collection of Inspired Utterances" or Udana 8.2); Dhr. Seven, Ellie Askew (eds.), Wisdom Quarterly; see Part 1
Thus have I heard. At one time the [Buddha] was staying near Savatthi in the Jeta Wood at Anathapindika's monastery.
On that occasion the [Buddha] was instructing, rousing, inspiring, and gladdening meditators with a Dharma talk connected with nirvana. And those meditators, being receptive and attentive and concentrating the whole mind, were intent on listening to this Dharma.
Then, on realizing the significance of this, the [Buddha] on that occasion uttered this inspired verse:
The uninclined* is hard to see,
The Truth is not easy to see;
Craving is understood by one who knows,
And for one who sees there is nothing.
This is about independence. We’re free to choose our paths. It's influenced by 20th century corruption and the changes it brought about. There is the power of individual choice. Here two friends choose different life paths -- a simple citizen who rebels to save the world and someone (a president) who can end the world if he wished.
LYRICS: "Handlebars" (Flobots)
I can ride my bike with no handlebars
No handlebars, no handlebars
I can ride my bike with no handlebars
No handlebars, no handlebars
Look at me, look at me
Hands in the air like it's good to be
Alive, and I'm a famous rapper
Even when the paths are all crooked-y
I can show you how to do-si-do
I can show you how to scratch a record
I can take apart the remote control
And I can almost put it back together
I can tie a knot in a cherry stem
I can tell you about Leif Ericson
I know all the words to "De Colores"
And I'm proud to be an American
Me and my friends saw a platypus
Me and my friend made a comic book
And guess how long it took?
I can do anything that I want, cause look
I can keep rhythm with no metronome
No metronome, no metronome
And I can see your face on the telephone
On the telephone, on the telephone
Look at me, look at me
Just called to say that it's good to be
Alive in such a small world
I'm all curled up with a book to read
I can make money, open up a thrift store
I can make a living off a magazine
I can design an engine 64 miles to a gallon of gasoline
I can make new antibiotics
I can make computers survive aquatic conditions
I know how to run the business
And I can make YOU wanna buy a product
Movers, shakers, and producers
Me and my friends understand the future
I see the strings that control the systems
I can do anything with no assistance, cause
I can lead a nation with a microphone
With a microphone, with a microphone
And I can split the atoms of a molecule
Of a molecule, of a molecule
Look at me, look at me, driving and I won't stop
And it feels so good to be alive and on top
My reach is global, my tower secure
My cause is noble, my power is pure
I can hand out a million vaccinations
Or let 'em all die in exasperation
Have 'em all healed from their lacerations
Or have 'em all killed by assassinations
I can make anybody go to prison
Just because I don't like 'em
And I can do anything with no permission
I have it all under my command because
I can guide a missile by satellite
By satellite, by satellite
And I can hit a target through a telescope
Through a telescope, through a telescope
And I can end the planet in a holocaust
In a holocaust, in a holocaust
In a holocaust, in a holocaust, in a holocaust
I can ride my bike with no handlebars
No handlebars, no handlebars
I can ride my bike with no handlebars
No handlebars, no handlebars
Music and video by Flobots performing Handlebars. YouTube view counts pre-VEVO: 18,313,639. (C) 2008 Universal Republic Records, a division of UMG Recordings, Inc.
WARNING: Extreme homosexuality, violence! Coercion, extortion, threats, deception, predatory behavior, trafficking! Graphic language, adult situations! Vulgar, horrible, institutional collusion! Not suitable for sensitive viewers or those in denial about rampant gay behavior in U.S. prisons and jails.
No Escape: Prison Rape in America: The Rodney Hulin Story
Sculpture commemorating the U.S. slave trade greets visitors at the entrance National Memorial for Peace and Justice in Montgomery, Alabama. The memorial is dedicated to the legacy of enslaved blacks [not the more numerous Native Americans] and those terrorized by lynching and Jim Crow segregation in the USA. Conceived by the Equal Justice Initiative, it is intended to foster reflection on our history of racism (Bob Miller/Getty Images).
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As the New York Times noted recently in a blockbuster issue of its magazine, African slavery started in America in 1619. That’s true, but only if you ignore a significant chapter of American history: the Spanish-Afro-American historical experience in Florida.
In many parts of the United States -- including Florida, Texas, and New Mexico -- Spanish [speaking European enslavers] arrived first.
That matters not just for historical accuracy. It also helps reframe the current rhetorical and political upheaval that surrounds immigration from Spanish-speaking nations to the United States, by reminding us how Spanish-speaking black slaves helped build the nation [the USA] we now have.
There is a tendency of many people who write the history of America to have a view of the world centered on Jamestown and the Anglo-American experience. When history fixates on the 13 original American [actually imperial British] colonies, the rest of the map, including Florida, seems to fall away.
But it's worth expanding that picture to include Spanish-occupied territory [in the Americas] in what is now the United States of America.
When we consider those lands, we see that slavery actually dates a full century before 1619.
Slavery in Florida reveals how a multinational slave trade built on personal [and imperial] greed and white supremacy [because the Spanish are as white as any Europeans] forced [Spanish-] Africans [Moors] and African Americans to build North American wealth in which they would not be able to share.
Then, adding insult to injury, these early black slaves [possibly Moors brought from Europe in addition to captured Africans] were erased from the standard narrative of American history.
In 1511 Spain's King Ferdinand instructed his subjects in the New World to "get gold, humanely, if you can, but at all hazards, [to] get gold."
Fountain of Youth, 1546 (Lucas Cranach)
Spanish explorers heeded their king's call. Florida was named by Juan Ponce de León, who claimed it for Spain in 1513 when he was searching in vain for the Fountain of Youth and gold.
Spanish empire-building in the era was driven in part by desire for greater territory. Conquests in [Imperial Spain's] Mexico by Hernan Cortés in 1521 and in Peru by Francisco Pizarro between 1531 and 1534 had also produced an insatiable lust for gold that fueled the treasure hunt in the New World.
Ponce de León, however, had to settle for merely claiming the land of Florida for Spain, since there was neither gold nor mythical [mineral, alchemical, biblical "troubled water"] fountains to be found.
On the heels of Ponce de León's claiming Florida, the Spanish empire tried to create settlements in its new territory.
For example, in 1526 another Spanish explorer, Lucas Vázquez de Ayllón, tried to establish a Spanish settlement at "San Miguel de Gualdape" in what was then La Florida (the current Georgia or South Carolina coast).
The Ayllón group included both Spaniards and African slaves who were brought as mining and agricultural laborers. But the settlement collapsed.
First, some of the Spaniards mutinied against Ayllón. Then the African slaves burned down the mutineers' housing and went to live with Native Americans in the area.More
The 1619 Project: How Slavery Has Defined America Today
The New York Times takes a look back as we mark 400 years since the arrival of the first enslaved blacks, allegedly brought from Africa but said to be Native American blacks. Most of the people killed and taken into slavery were Native Americans. Afro-Caribbeans, Aboriginals, ancient arrivals from other parts of the world, they were here. A trans-Atlantic slave trade was not the main form of arrival, but that is a radical view of what happened. It is clear that many blacks are still enslaved in a sense. For instance, more blacks are in prison and under the authority of the probation department now than were ever enslaved. Award-winning journalist Nikole Hannah-Jones joins MSNBC's David Gura.
The 1619 Project details the legacy of slavery in America
(PBS NewsHour, Aug. 18, 2019) Four hundred years ago this month, the first enslaved people from Africa arrived in the Virginia colony. To observe the anniversary of American slavery, The New York Times Magazine launched The 1619 Project to reframe America’s history through the lens of slavery. The project lead, reporter Nikole Hannah-Jones, joins Hari Sreenivasan to discuss.
The authors of The Rules series; Philip Delves Broughton reporting from New York (Telegraph.co.uk, 3/26/01); Ashley Wells, CC Liu, Seth Auberon (eds.), Wisdom Quarterly
All the Rules: Time-tested Secrets for Capturing the Heart of Mr. Right:The search for Mr. Right (not his jerk cousin "Mr. Right Now") starts here, ladies!
This simple set of dating dos and don'ts -- combining two bestselling rule books -- will teach you how to find (and keep!) a real man who treats you like a real woman, that is, with the respect and dignity you deserve.
The author of The Rules returns with her female co-author with advice for women who want to promote long, happy, satisfying, fulfilling marriages by selling axioms ranging from "Don't ask single friends for marital advice" to "Say what you mean, but don't say it mean."
Failed L.A. radio host and amoral atheist and unattractive Tom Leykis drops some deadly "truth bombs" on a female caller as she hesitantly but eventually accepts the reality of the nature of human men.
Leykis has something to say about the nature of human women as well, which she also accepts. It's sad, but that's not to say it's untrue. It's true, and it's sad. Rather than killing the messenger, who's a jerk and vulgar, maybe we should begin to behave differently. All of us.
Remember The Rules(a guide to how to get a guy to marry you)? Were women offended by that? Leykis is teaching men how to get unmarried sex. So anyone who argues from one position without considering the other person's position is speaking at cross-purposes, a frequent theme of the radio show.
Men are not proud of this, at least not all men. But if it is advice that works for dating (dating = making love), that's why listeners are listening. Send complaint letters to our resident love expert at "Attention Editor Ashley Wells."
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FAIR-USE COPYRIGHT DISCLAIMER
*Copyright disclaimer, under Section 107 of the Copyright Act of 1976, states that allowance is made for "fair use" for purposes such as criticism, commenting, news reporting, teaching, scholarship, and research. Fair use is a use permitted by copyright statute that might otherwise be infringing. Non-profit, educational, or personal use tips the balance in favor of fair use. 1) This video has no negative impact on the original works. 2) This video is also for teaching and inspirational purposes. 3) It is not transformative in nature.
Brazilian president blames environmentalists for Amazon fires
On Wednesday, Brazil’s far-right President Jair Bolsonaro said, without evidence, that nongovernmental organizations (NGOs) were to blame.
President Jair Bolsonaro: “Regarding the fires in the Amazon, I’m under the impression that it could have been set by the NGOs, because they had asked for money. What was their intention? To bring about problems for Brazil.”
Bolsonaro has worked to deregulate and open up [privatize] the Amazon for agribusiness, [vegetation clearing] logging, and [strip-] mining since he came into office in January.
His attempt to blame environmentalists for the fires drew widespread ridicule and outrage. It came as indigenous people used social media to document how illegal loggers are setting fire to their territories.
This is a woman named Célia, a member of the [Native American] Pataxó indigenous community, speaking in a video that went viral across Brazil this week.
Célia: “Look what they’ve done to our reservation. For two years we’ve been fighting to preserve this land, and now those troublemakers come here and set fire to our village. As if it were not enough, the Vale mining company kills our river, our people, our source of life, and now they’ve come and set fire to our reservation. We won’t stay quiet! Tomorrow we will close the road, and we want the media to defend us!”More
In light of the recent insult rapist Harvey Weinstein's favorite director Quentin Tarantino delivered to the memory of Bruce Lee, we thought we should show who the great martial artist really was.
What was he like in the dōjō?* Lee was a paragon of self-restraint, meditative calm, and disciplined determination. He was also an all-around nice guy in Hollywood.
That's not the way first-time father Tarantino misrepresents Lee in Once Upon a Time in Hollywood. It's like when Tarantino revised history to curry favor by pretending that Nazis lost WW II when they actually won.
Nazis are still in power, albeit under different names: Project Paperclip brought many SS and Nazi Party members to the U.S. to become unprosecuted citizens, scientists, and influential government operatives.
They set up our very own "Gestapo" (eventually known as the CIA), our nuclear program, our surveillance state, our secret police, our empire-building alphabet agencies, and more. German NaziWernher von Braun came to work for the military-industrial complex and on secret projects like the American Oppenheimer.
Bruce Lee is presented as a bully who beats up Brad Pitts' character. This would never happen, nor is there any such report of it or anything like it happening. But Tarantino cares about plots, not realities. Fortunately, the current movie is his penultimate. With Harvey Weinstein headed for a Jeffrey Epstein fate, who would inspire and bankroll him now?
The dōjō is a space for immersive learning and meditation, traditionally in the martial arts and Buddhism. The Japanese term literally means "place (dō) of the Way (jō)." Bruce Lee was master of the mats, self-defense and Eastern philosophy, which included zazen or sitting meditation.
Failed L.A. radio host and amoral atheist and unattractive Tom Leykis drops some deadly "truth bombs" on a female caller as she hesitantly but eventually accepts the reality of the nature of human men.
