Strawberry Moon Buddhist Observance

Strawberry Moon June 2023, a year with 13 full moons (The Old Farmer's Almanac)

This weekend's Strawberry Moon

(KTLA 5) June 3, 2023. June's full moon is ripe and ready for a star-filled harvest this weekend. Before it illuminates the sky, here's everything to know about the Strawberry Moon from L.A.'s very own KTLA Channel 5 News, keeping Southern Californians informed since 1947.

Now let's hear from the Buddha, keeping humans and shining ones (devas) informed for nearly 30 centuries:

This is the proper way to consider and think when observing Buddhism's Eight Precepts. [When is it observed? It is observed weekly at each of the four phases of the moon, but the full moon feels like a particularly significant for its observance.

SUTRA: "The Eight Factored Lunar Observance"

"The Lunar Observance with Eight Factors in Brief," Saṅkhittūposatha Sutta (AN 8.41)

Thus have I heard. At one time the Blessed One (the Buddha) was living in the City of Sāvatthī, in Jeta’s Grove, at the multi-millionaire Anāthapiṇḍika’s monastery. There the Blessed One addressed the meditators saying, “Meditators!”

“Venerable sir,” they replied. The Blessed One then said this:

“Meditators, the lunar observance (uposatha) with its eight factors is very beneficial, brilliant, and expansive. How should it be observed? 

1. “A noble [awakened] disciple thinks and considers, ‘As long as they live, the full enlightened (arahants) give up [abandon, avoid, abstain from] killing living beings, giving up the cudgel and sword. They are very kind and careful with their behavior and live full of compassion for all living beings. I, too, for this day and night shall give up killing [and causing others to kill] living beings, giving up the cudgel and sword. I shall be very kind and careful with my behavior and live full of compassion for all living beings. I shall keep the lunar observance by doing as the fully enlightened do in this way.’ This is the uposatha's first factor.

2. “A noble disciple thinks and considers, ‘As long as they live, the fully enlightened give up stealing. They take only what is given and expect only what is [freely] given. They keep themselves blameless by not stealing. I, too, for this day and night shall give up stealing. I shall take only what is given and expect only what is given. I shall keep myself blameless by not stealing. I shall keep the lunar observance by doing as the fully enlightened do in this way.’ This is its second factor.

3. “A noble disciple thinks and considers, ‘As long as they live, the fully enlightened give up noncelibacy. They are celibate, set apart, avoiding the low practice of sex. I, too, for this day and night shall give up noncelibacy. I shall be celibate, set apart, avoiding the low practice of sex. I shall keep the lunar observance by doing as the fully enlightened do in this way.’ This is its third factor.

4. “A noble disciple thinks and considers, ‘As long as they live, the fully enlightened give up lying [false speech, bearing false witness]. They speak the truth and keep to the truth. They are honest and trustworthy and do not trick the world with their words. I, too, for this day and night shall give up lying. I shall speak the truth and keep to the truth. I shall be honest and trustworthy and shall not trick the world with my words. I shall keep the lunar observance by doing as the fully enlightened do in this way.’ This is its fourth factor.

5. “A noble disciple thinks and considers, ‘As long as they live, the fully enlightened give up intoxicating drinks and drugs. I, too, for this day and night shall give up intoxicating drinks and drugs. I shall keep the lunar observance by doing as the fully enlightened do in this way.’ This is its fifth factor.

6. “A noble disciple thinks and considers, ‘As long as they live, the fully enlightened eat before noon, giving up eating at night and from eating food from midday until dawn the next day. I, too, for this day and night shall eat before noon, giving up eating at night and from midday until dawn the next day. I shall keep the lunar observance by doing as the fully enlightened do in this way.’ This is its sixth factor.

7. “A noble disciple thinks and considers, ‘As long as they live, the fully enlightened give up dancing, singing, music, seeing shows, beautifying and decorating themselves with flower garlands, perfumes, and makeup. I, too, for this day and night shall give up dancing, singing, music, seeing shows, beautifying and decorating myself with flower garlands, perfumes, and makeup. I shall keep the lunar observance by doing as the fully enlightened do in this way.’ This is its seventh factor.

8. “A noble disciple thinks and considers, ‘As long as they live, the fully enlightened give up luxurious and fancy seats and beds. They sleep in a low place, either a small bed or a straw mat. I, too, for this day and night shall give up luxurious and fancy seats and beds. I shall sleep in a low place, either a small bed or a straw mat. I shall keep the lunar observance by doing as the fully enlightened do in this way.’ This is its eighth factor.

“Indeed, the lunar observance with its eight limbs kept in this way is very fruitful and beneficial, brilliant and expansive.”

Vegan Native Toyon Blueberry Muffins

Ananda (DBM), Seven, Xochitl, Crystal Q., Imogen VEGAN TEST KITCHEN, Wisdom Quarterly

Turning any baked item vegan is easy; gluten-free take more ingenuity (foodnetwork.com)

We forage plants for tasty health!

Today in the Vegan Test Kitchen, we whipped up some Native American fare, foraging like the local Tongva people with a modern twist -- superfoods but no Old World ingredients.

In a pot, simmer locally collected toyon (astringent California holly) berries with stems pulled off, fresh or dried. Add mesquite powder, maca powder, yams or sweet potatoes (mashed), cooked brown rice.

These are toyon berries, a Native American treasure. They grow everywhere in Tongvaland.

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Add a gluten-free flour (acorn, available in the Asian section of most markets), sorghum, millet, amaranth, quinoa, tapioca, farro, teff, corn, rice of all kinds, buckwheat, or a gluten-free all-purpose mix of starches, making sure to avoid wheat, barley, rye, kamut, spelt, and oats*). In-season nuts are an optional addition, such as shelled walnuts or pecans or almond butter. Adding cooked pumpkin or apple sauce is also an option.

Soon we'll all be invited to the White House to celebrate Native Sec'y of the Interior Haaland

I have to learn to unlearn Eurocentrism.

• *NOTE: Oats can never be gluten-free no matter what the manufacturer or package says because oat is mostly gluten, but its gluten is called gliadin and that's how they get away with the misleading claim to be "gluten-free" when its form of gluten is more harmful than wheat's, according to Dr. Joel Wallach.

Decolonize Your Diet (Calvo & Esquibel)

Combine mixture and stir into a doughy consistency. Bake in preheated oven at 350 degrees for 20 minutes or until brown. Allow to cool and serve topped with toyon/cranberry jelly.

Toyon/cranberry jelly is very easy to make. Simply heat water in a pot and add raw toyon berries, which grow all over in the fall and winter and so were a staple of the Tongva, fresh cranberries, blackberries, and blueberries. Squeeze a fresh orange into it or cut an organic orange into slices rind and all. Simmer until thick. Add agave to sweeten to taste.

FREE: Vegan Thanksgiving Potluck Picnic (11/24)

First we must decolonize our diets then decolonize our minds. Let's end colonial imperialism

The 15 Best Places with Gluten-Free Food in Santa Barbara (foursquare.com)

Cooking in the wild: Native American foods

Xochitl, Ashley Wells, CC Liu, Wisdom Quarterly; Wild Chef (urbanoutdoorskills.com)

The Living Wild Project is one good source of wild food recipes (livingwild.org).

Obvious Asian influences (textiles, patterns, fan) on a Native American Mestizo (mix of Amerindian and European) de Sangley (Bibliotheque Nationale de France/galica.bnf.fr)

What can that little Injun gal teach US about cooking? (erosdita.ne10.uol.com.br)

 

Cooking with Toyon Berries
UrbanOutdoorSkills.com

Sobochesh berries delight Los Angeles' native Tongva tribe (livingwild.org).

 

Chief sings for F. Densmore, 1916

It's the time of the season to collect toyon berries.
 

Within the greater Los Angeles metropolitan area, one can find toyon berries pretty much everywhere. It's been used as a decoration (and gave Hollywood its name) during the holidays. They're edible.
 

The berries must be ripe when harvested or they are not quite edible. They are quite bitter raw, but once boiled or dried, they take on an interesting cherry-like flavor. A little online research reveals all kinds of recipes using toyon berries.
 

One option is to dehydrate a bunch and use them as a flour substitute. Adding them to acorn flour makes a "Native Bread."
 

Simple "Survival" Dish with Mallow

We have a lot of mallow growing right now -- in barren lots, fields, and trails.
  

Mallow can be found all around (Nyerges)

Culinary explorations with mallow are easy, and one can make a decent dish with just a few simple ingredients.
 

Cook mallow leaves and stems with garlic and onions. It is quite good. My girlfriend, Mia, suggests adding a little soy sauce and a touch of sesame seed oil for a great deal of flavor.
 

Try it. Stir fry one cup of young mallow, one small onion, two garlic cloves, two tablespoons of soy sauce, and a dash of sesame seed oil. It is a simple and satisfying dish. Add sea salt to taste.

Manzanita ("little apple") berries are also abundant at higher elevations (livingwild.org).

 

How to Survive Anywhere

Thanks to the rain, there are lots of edible plants such as chickweed, stinging nettles, curly dock, sow thistle, and many more. What to do? Gather as much as possible, and find ways to save the harvest to enjoy it later in the year.
 
In Southern California, as soon as summer comes, most of these plants will be hard to find. We live in a semi-arid region but now deprived of its natural water and wetland marshes.

 

By dehydrating a lot of it, we can continue to uses it in the coming months for yummy soups and dishes once summer and winter arrive. This should also allow for some interesting culinary experiments throughout the year.

Simple Nettle Soup Recipe

This recipe is very easy. All one needs (see photo on right) is 3 cups of packed nettles, one onion, a couple of medium potatoes, and garlic cloves.

  

Slice and cook the onions. Add 2 cups of water. Add potatoes and cloves of garlic. Chop the nettles (with mature nettles, use only the leaves; the stem will be too fibrous). Add them to boiling water. Allow soup to simmer. Add water to adjust consistency.
 

Add salt and pepper to taste. I add Italian or French spices. Let the soup simmer for about an hour and add maybe 3 crushed cloves of garlic 5 minutes before the soup is done. And voila! It is simple and great tasting. And it's actually better the next day. More
 

Our friend and teacher Christopher Nyerges leads a native plant workshop in Pasadena.

• How to survive in the wild (Christopher Nyerges)
• Save Hahamongna (Native American L.A.)
• The Arroyo Seco Foundation, Pasadena
• "The Arroyo Sage" cooks up local foods
• Native Plant Nursery, Hahamongna Watershed

Buddhism arrived in America in 458 AD

How the Swans (Rick Fields)

Stephanie Silva (Amazon.com review) [How the Swans Came to the Lake is] a uniquely priceless 400-page history of Buddhism in America, not to mention what is likely the best 12-page summary of Siddhartha Buddha's life and legacy. Erudite American Buddhist author and hippie Rick Fields (1942-1999) wrote an enthusiastic history that brings to life every key player -- starting even before the unforgettable English rogue scholar Sir William Jones (1736-1794) singlehandedly sent the first translations from the East to England and the American Transcendentalists. Chinese Buddhist monks in Mexico in A.D. 458, the real kindly Quetzalcoatl? If you think the history of Buddhism in America started at the World Parliament of Religions in 1893 with D. T. Suzuki, Jack Kerouac, Alan Watts, Shunryu Suzuki, Tarthang Tulku, and Chogyam Trungpa -- think again! Here is everything you ever wanted to know and more about how and why Buddhism came to America, up to and beyond the Roshi Baker scandals (that mercifully ended the "silent denial of lies and abuse" and pointed the way to practice increasingly integrated with psychotherapy). The author's note and acknowledgments are priceless. Very highly recommended!

Asia shivering under unusually cold weather
Grant Peck, AP.org, Jan. 26, 2016 via USA Today

Snow in usually sweltering Theravada Buddhist Thailand, S.E. Asia? (Kin Cheung/AP)

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NJ beach eroded by storm (AP/CNN)

BANGKOK, Thailand - After sweating through unseasonably high temperatures last week, residents of semi-tropical Thailand have had to scavenge through their closets for sweaters and scarves to keep the chill off their bones.

 

Much of the rest of Asia was also shivering. In Hong Kong, the mercury dipped to its lowest in six decades. The rest of southern China also recorded unusually cold weather, with record-breaking low temperatures in many places.

 

In Vietnam’s capital, Hanoi, the temperature dropped to 42 degrees, the lowest since 1977. Meteorologists said mountaintop snowfalls across a dozen northern provinces were unprecedented.

 

Temperatures in Bangkok, Thailand’s capital, hit an unseasonably high of 93 degrees on Saturday only to plunge to a low of 61 degrees on Monday. The weather was still cool on Tuesday, and Bangkok residents could be seen wearing jackets and wool caps. More

When life gives you raspberries, make pie

Bela Larson, Seven, Dev, Imogen, CC Liu, Maya, Wisdom Quarterly TEST KITCHEN

Raw vegan blackberry pie, California style (nicoglagalloway.com)

 

Tart, sweet red berries work best.

We cannot always control our situation. But we can control how we respond to it.

Challenging situations can be opportunities in disguise -- if we choose to see them that way. Otherwise, we can thoughtlessly assume, accept without question, and run like Chicken Little at the falling sky.

When life offers us berries -- we can make raw berry pie. But how?

Allow to cool in fridge for four hours+

Filling: Put raspberries, blueberries, blackberries, or strawberries in a blender with a can of rich coconut cream (from the Asian market, preferably a product from Thailand). Add agar-agar as per instructions. A tiny amount of dry soy lecithin will also help.

Crust: Soak and drain raw walnuts, pecans, almonds, or cashews. Place in food processor. Add lemon juice, cinnamon, sea salt, dates or agave nectar, and vanilla extract. Take out and press into glass pie pan. Pour in filling. Place in refrigerator until it sets up. Garnish with raw berries. Use toothpick to test before slicing.

Eat Your Berries

Weight-loss berry dispute
An acai-berry dieting supplement sold online is triggering consumer complaints.

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