Expansion of Buddhism from India to SE Asia

Angkor Wat is the Buddhist-Hindu temple complex at heart of massive Cambodian jungle city

Borobudur, world's largest Buddhist temple

(Gunawan Kartapranata) The Indosphere or "Greater India" historically saw the expansion of Buddhism into Southeast Asia.  Hinduism also expanded through parts of Asia but not beyond, from its heartland on the Indian subcontinent. In particular, it never caught on in China or Central Asia (ancient Gandhara), where Buddhism became the dominant tradition. Hinduism did spread to Southeast Asia, particularly Cambodia's Angkor (massive Angkor Wat complex) and Indonesia (site of Borobudur, the world's largest excavated Buddhist temple), circa 1st century. It was marked by the establishment of early Buddhist-Hindu settlements and polities in Southeast Asia: Map.

Taoism is not Buddhism (Alan Watts)

Wu Wei: The Art of Effortless Living | Taoism

(Youniversal Wisdom, 2/7/21) In The Philosophy of the Tao, The Art of Effortless Action by Alan Watts, he speaks about Taoism and its origins. He explains the philosophy of Tao as the Tao is “the way of nature.” Hence, it is “the way” like Buddhism is the Path or Middle Way.

Even in China the Tao is not Buddhist.

The Tao Te Ching, which is the alternative spelling of the “Dao De Jing,” the Book of Tao, also refers to  the Tao as something that existed "before heaven and earth," or another interpretation of the Tao is “The Source,” or the void, nothingness, empty, zero, or the infinite.

It is nothing itself but also the source of everything.

"When a fool hears about Tao, he just laughs and laughs. If he didn't laugh, it wouldn't be Tao." - Tao Te Ching. Subscribe

There are tons of wisdom in his books. Here are a few recommended Alan Watts books: The Way of Zen, The Taboo Against Knowing Who You Are, ​Become What You Are, TAO: The Watercourse Way.​

• #Wisdom

Relax. Welcome Your Day. (Monroe Institute)

(The Monroe Institute) Relax/Welcome Your Day (binaural beats meditation visualizations)

The future: "Nomadland" (documentary)

Vintage VW hippie bus Hawaii from 1960s to live on love in your van (fineartsamerica.com).

The real world of Nomadland

(PBS NewsHour, April 23, 2021) Meet Bob Wells and the rest of the real life nomads who inspired Nomadland.

Chloe Zhao gets the limelight.

Driven out of their homes by the American economic crisis and the retirement crunch, thousands of older U.S. citizens have traded the suburbs for the open road.

Learn about this growing subculture and the realities they face finding work -- like our frenemy Stacey Pol and her daughter Maya subsisting in a vegan community in the desert out there -- staying connected and living a #VanLife​.

Yellow Hobbit Door photograph by Venetia Featherstone-Witty (fineartamerica.com)

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(Searchlight Pictures) See you down the road, America, in Nomadland.

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Comic Mike MacRae: Jeb on GW Bush (comedy)

Voice Comedian Mike MacRae, Jimmy Dore (jimmydorecomedy.com), Eds., Wisdom Quarterly

Mike MacRae live at Rudyard's Pub, Houston, Texas on May 8, 2021 (theriothtx.com)

YouTube CEO is pro-censorship: There's no room for "you" on YouTube.

• The Riot Comedy Show presents Mike MaCrae (Comedy Central, FrankTV, CBS) Sat, May 8, 2021 at 7:30 PM

The next Buddha will be Metteyya (Maitreya)

G.P. Malalasekera (Pali Proper Names); Amber Larson and Dhr. Seven (eds.), Wisdom Quarterly

Maitreya, the spiritual friend, is The Future Buddha, a kind of Buddhist messiah.

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The future supremely enlightened teaching buddha

The next buddha will be the fifth of this aeon or kalpa (Bu.xxvii.21).

According to the "Wheel-Turning Monarch Discourse" (Cakkavatti Sīhanāda Sutta, DN 26), he will be reborn far in the future when beings  in the human plane (which includes many worlds in many world systems far from earth, as Buddhist cosmology is better understood not as separate continents -- dipas or "islands" -- but  as separate planets) again live to an age of 80,000 years.

• DN 26 is a sutra preached in Mātulā that tells the story of humanity's decline from the most recent Golden Age with a prophecy of its eventual return (because time is cyclical).
• The name Metteyya comes from metta (Sanskrit Maitreya from maitri). It means "friend," because buddhas are the best friend (kalyana-mitta) anyone could possibly have.

He will be reborn in the city of Ketumatī (present-day Benares, a.k.a. Varanasi), whose king will be the World Monarch (cakka-vattī) Sankha.

King Sankha will live in the fairy palace where King Mahāpanadā once dwelled, but later he will give the palace away and will himself become a follower of Metteyya (Maitreya) Buddha (D.iii.75ff).

The Anāgatavamsa (J.P.T.S.1886, pp.42, 46ff., 52; DhSA.415) gives the names of his parents and further particulars.

Himalayan Maitreya as a Central Asian king

The Buddha Metteyya will be reborn in a very eminent Brahmin family, and his personal name will be Ajita. Metteyya is evidently the name of his clan (gotta).

For 8,000 years he will live the household life in four palaces: Sirivaddha, Vaddhamāna, Siddhattha, and Candaka.

His chief wife will be Candamukhī and his son will be Brahmavaddhana. Having seen the four signs while on his way to the park, he will become dissatisfied with household life and will spend one week practicing severe austerities.

Then he will leave home, traveling in his palace and accompanied by a fourfold army, at the head of which will be 84,000 Brahmins and 84,000 khattiya (warrior princess) maidens.

Among his followers will be Isidatta and Pūrana, two brothers, Jātimitta, Vijaya, Suddhika and Suddhanā, Sangha and Sanghā, Saddhara, Sudatta, Yasavatī and Visākhā, each with a retinue of 84,000 companions.

Together they will leave the household life and arrive on the same day at the enlightenment (bodhi) tree. After the enlightenment Metteya, when he becomes a supremely awakened buddha, he will teach in Nāgavana.

King Sankha will later ordain himself under him. Metteyya's father will be Subrahmā, chaplain (Brahmin minister) to King Sankha, and his mother will be Brahmavatī.

His chief male disciples will be Asoka and Brahmadeva among his monks, and Padumā and Sumanā will be his chief female disciples among his nuns.

Sīha will become his personal attendant, and his chief patrons will be Sumana, Sangha, Yasavatī, and Sanghā.

His enlightenment tree will be the nāga tree. After the Buddha's passing into final nirvana, his Dharma or Teaching will persist for 180,000 years.

According to the Mahāvamsa (Mhv.xxxii.81f.; see Mil.159), Kākavannatissa and Vihāramahādevī, father and mother of Dutthagāmani, will be Metteyya's parents. Dutthagāmani himself will be his chief disciple, and Saddhātissa his second disciple, while Prince Sāli will be his son.

Maitreya in Tusita (palm-leaf manuscript)

At the present time the Future Buddha is living in the Tusita deva-world (Mhv.xxxii.73), as is the case of all buddhas-to-be awaiting rebirth in the human plane.

There is a tradition that Nātha is the name of the Future Buddha in the deva world.

The worship of the Bodhisatta Metteyya seems to have been popular in ancient Ceylon, and Dhātusena adorned an image of him with all the equipment of a king and ordained a guard for it within the radius of seven yojanas (Cv.xxxviii.68).

King Dappula I. made a statue in honor of the Future Buddha 15 cubits high (Cv.xlv.62). It is believed that Metteyya spends his time in the deva-world, teaching the Dharma to the assembled devas and, in emulation of his example, King Kassapa V. used to recite the Abhidhamma in the assemblies of the monks (Cv.lii.47).

King Parakkamabāhu I. had three statues built in honor of Metteyya (Cv.lxxix.75), while Kittisirirājasīha erected one in the monastery Rajata Vihāra and another in the cave above it (Cv.c.248,259).

It is the wish of many Buddhists that they meet Metteyya Buddha, listen to his Dharma, and thereby attain enlightenment and nirvana under him. (See, e.g., J.vi.594; MT. 687; DhSA.430). Source

Psychedelics + Meditation = Enlightenment?

PsychedelicSociety.org; Pat Macpherson, Dhr. Seven, Ashley Wells (eds.), Wisdom Quarterly

The mystic experience is far out, gone beyond.

Psychedelics can be a gateway to incredibly profound experiences, many matching what mystics have talked about (ncbi.nlm.nih.gov) throughout the ages:

• a deeply felt peace and joy
• interconnectedness between all things
• undifferentiated awareness
• the sense of transcending time and space.

While these experiences are often felt to be deeply "true" and "real," perceptions can appear paradoxical and impossible to express in words.

Ram Dass: Timothy Leary gets it, Man.

As science slowly turns its gaze toward psychedelics, similar peak experiences have been studied as religious epiphanies, meditative trances [absorptions or jhanas]. and "flow states" in sports and performing arts.

Recently, fascinating correlations between psychedelic and other peak experiences are being uncovered at institutions that include Johns Hopkins, Imperial College London, and Kings College London.

The Psychedelic Experience (Dr. Timothy Leary)

For some, these events can be life-changing catalysts, and strong hope is emerging that these substances will assist people in overcoming addictions and depression and other treatment-resistant disorders.

They may even offer a renewed sense of meaning to those facing life-threatening illnesses (ncbi.nlm.nih.gov).

There is, however, another category that is far less studied. Indeed, it is often viewed with suspicion as to whether or not it even exists: That is the state of a continuous day-to-day experience sharing many of the features mentioned above.

The Science of Meditation

Such reports can range from a simple background feeling that everything is okay to a complete falling away of any sense of individual agency or boundaries.

Rather than being a temporary peak state, it is reported as the way a person experiences his or her everyday existence, whether deep in meditation or while making a sandwich. It can persist over the course of weeks, months, or an entire lifetime.

“Real peace is when your mind goes 24 hours a day with no fear, no anxiety”

- The 14th Dalai Lama, speaking to an MIT audience

Dharma Meditation (psychedelicsangha.org)

If such a way of experiencing life is indeed possible, it is a natural intuition among many psychonauts that psychedelics should assist in moving toward it.

If a substance lends itself to a temporary glimpse of an altered state, surely it should contribute to this becoming an altered trait as opposed to a mere temporary state. But as it turns out, the story is a little less straightforward. More

What about Sex? We need Sex Ed (video)

Sex Ed 101: Last Week Tonight w/ John Oliver

(Last Week Tonight, HBO, Aug. 9, 2015) Sex education varies widely between school districts across the country.

Kink comes from repression not education.

This leaves most American teens without comprehensive information about sex. LWT with John Oliver made a video that covers what some schools are too embarrassed to teach.

Connect online: YouTube for more almost news as it almost happens, or find on Facebook like your mom would, or on Twitter for news about jokes and jokes about news, or visit the official site for all that other stuff at once: HBO.com/lastweektonight

• Snctm: Sex club for Hollywood's elite is embroiled scandal
• Snctm: a private, members-only sex club for 75K per year
• Manifesto for Erotic Freedom [and exploitative capitalism]

Buddhist practice in the heart (Ajahn Chah)

Ajahn Chah (ajahchah.org) via Ven. Sujato, Ellie Askew, Dhr. Seven (ed.), Wisdom Quarterly

Meditating means "cultivating."

To practice Buddhism, it doesn't have to be sitting for it to be "meditation."

Meditation (bhavana) means "producing, bringing into being, making, creating, manifesting, causing to exist."

We bring virtue (sila), concentration (samadhi = mental unification), and wisdom (panya, insight, understanding) into being. That's "meditation" (beneficial cultivation).

Practice like a Zen circle: Enso.

Let's not think that we have to walk back and forth in order for it to be "walking meditation." Let's not think like that.

Meditation is simply a matter of practice. Whether we're giving a sutra talk (bhana), sitting here listening to the Dharma (the Buddha's Teaching), or going away from here to travel like a wandering ascetic.

Let's keep up the practice in our heart.  How? Be alert to what's proper and what's not.

Ajahn Mun Bhuridatta Thera

The Thai Forest Tradition Meditation Master Ajahn Mun once said that we have to make our practice the shape of a circle.

A circle never comes to an end. We keep it going continuously. Keep the practice going continually without ceasing. I listened to him then thought:

"When I've finished listening to this talk, what should I do?" The answer that came was, "Make alertness timeless (akaliko). Make sure the mind knows-and-sees what's proper and what's not at all times."

Pascal Auclair: Insight LA retreat (May 7-11)

Special Invitation: Join us for this upcoming InsightLA Community Retreat.

 

NEXT MONTH

The Heart Unconfined:
A 2-Night or 4-Night Retreat

2-day retreat starts Friday, May 7, 2021 and ends Sunday, May 9, 2021
4-day retreat ends Tuesday, May 11, 2021

Location: Online, Big Bear Retreat Center (limited availability)

There is a way to release the mind  — and heart ! — from confusion, afflictive emotions and wrong understanding about reality.

During this online home retreat we will put on the Dharma (Buddhist psychology) lens to explore our experience with curiosity and tenderness and see how freedom might be possible no matter what is going on.

There will be instructions given by Pascal Auclair, guided meditations, Q&A, teachings, periods of silent sitting and walking meditations as well as time for self-structured mindfulness practice.  

Beginners and experienced students are welcome to this quiet and friendly gathering.

We hope you will join us.

Reserve your spot now for the full week of events.

Register Now

 

 

About the Facilitators:

Pascal Auclair has been immersed in Buddhist practice and study since 1997, sitting retreats in Asia and America with revered monastics and lay teachers. He has been mentored by Joseph Goldstein and Jack Kornfield at the Insight Meditation Society (IMS) in Massachusetts and Spirit Rock Meditation Center in California, where he is now enjoying teaching retreats. Pascal teaches in North America and in Europe. He is a co-founder of True North Insight and one of TNI’s Guiding Teachers. 

 

 

 

Register today to join Pascal.

How we Hide our U.S. Empire (video)

NWU Prof. Daniel Immerwahr (CHF); Pfc. Sandoval, Ashley Wells (eds.), Wisdom Quarterly

Uncle Sam lectures the Philippines, Hawaii, Puerto Rico, Cuba (Louis Dalrymple cartoon).

How to Hide an [American] Empire

(Chicago Humanities Festival, 11/25/19) Ask Americans to draw a connection between the words “America” and “colonies,” and most will conjure up revolutionary images of 1776.

American Empire: 10,000 miles wide

But the USA’s imperial-colonial history extends much further back than the 18th century.

It involves a different power dynamic, one in which America was the colonizer exploiting others not the colonized victim of England or other white European powers like Spain, France, Portugal, Germany, Austria, and the Netherlands.

(Jimmy Dore, Aaron Mate, Ron Placone) Jeopardy reveals US hypocrisy.

Uncle Sam (USA) imperialism: 1940 comic propaganda

For example, in 1945 the USA claimed jurisdiction over more human beings living outside the States than inside them.

In How to Hide an Empire, Northwestern University Professor Daniel Immerwahr traces the crucial and oft-obscured role that US overseas territories have played in the development of the nation empire.

From island-colonies to military bases, Prof. Immerwahr illuminates America’s evolving influence  and hegemony abroad (particularly in the Philippines), giving crucial context for contemporary American foreign policy.

• We are the victims of United States propaganda

This CHF program is presented in partnership with the Alice Kaplan Institute for the Humanities. Recorded on Oct. 27, 2019 (chicagohumanities.org). Support: supportchf.org.

The Mexican Buddha Bowl recipe (video)

Rene (ThisSavoryVegan.com); Crystal Quintero, Ashley Wells (eds.), Wisdom Quarterly

I am beyond excited to share the vegan recipe for this Mexican Buddha Bowl today! It is one of my favorite meals, like, literally. I eat it at least once a week (or more), and I still love it – so you know it must be good. This vegan meal is a healthy and delicious combo of seasoned potatoes, rice, beans, and greens. It's gluten free, too. The gist of a “Buddha Bowl” is grains, beans, greens, savory veggies, and sauce. Simple enough, right? More

• Food tastes better when hurt: Mexican Buddhist is hurt

US military pollutes more than 140 countries

Jimmy Dore; Columbia U. Prof. Jeff Sachs, BBC News; Pfc. Sandoval, CC Liu, Wisdom Quarterly

The US War Machines is killing everyone.

The USA must be the world's worst polluter, even worse than China, India, and the industrialized corrupters of the world in Europe and England. Why? The US Military or Armed Forces alone pollutes more than 140 other countries combined. And that does not include the corporations operating here and abroad as multi-nationals or the consumer items industry sells citizens to pollute the world. Who wants to save the world? It begins by calling out and reining in the military.

• LA Police Dept. seeks new technology, training in $66 million plan following citizens' protests
• Killer cops keep killing: Police eager to use their guns on Blacks kill innocent man, calling him suspect in two fatal shootings, after chasing him from LA to Fullerton

DC statehood and Green New Deal? (comedy)

Republicans freak out about DC statehood and the Green New Deal: A Closer Look

(Late Night with Seth Meyers, April 22, 2021) Seth Meyers takes a closer look at House Democrats.

I used to inspire hope, but I sold out.

They're voting to admit the Ring of the City territory Washington D.C. (District of Columbia) as the 51st state, granting it statehood and actual democratic representation in the republic, while Republicans freak out about everything from voting rights to pretty-face-empty-briefcase phony sell-out Democratic Representative (Fraud Squad member) Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez/AOC's watered down Green New Deal.

Pres. Joe Biden calls in: First 100 days (video)

Mike MacRae (jimmydorecomedy.com); Pfc. Sandoval, Seth Auberon (eds.), Wisdom Quarterly

Biden's 100-days bet: Big Government

I wanted to leave. I don't care. I'll be back. FU.

(Time on MSN.com) Pres. Joe "Business as Usual" Biden's first 100 days are a big bet: Can big government [can show up impeached criminal Pres. Trump's shenanigans in the White House? Just don't burn the place down, and it should be a cinch. But Joe is a remote control bot. Where is the bumbling oaf of the last four decades? And why does Kamala H. keep smiling like she's laughing under her breath?]

• Joe Biden’s first 100 days in numbers (Yahoo! News) Biden refashions himself as a "transformational" leader [reverting US back to pre-Trump military-industrial complex].