When we don't get what we expect

No! We don't want to ever suffer! - Calm down, crybabies. Here's the solution: NIRVANA.

(Buddhism Podcast) Live with what we can't change? No, there's much to do beyond that

Accept what we cannot change? No

Why do we fall into the trap of our expectations? The Truth is much better.

Cry, Homer. But it's okay. It'll all be alright.

(Buddhism Podcast) When life, which is full of disappointment (dukkha), is not what we expected.

There are Four Ennobling Truths, four realizations that lead to enlightenment here and now and awakening in this very life, with spiritual liberation and freedom for all time. What are they?

1. This is disappointing, incapable of ever fulfilling us.
2. This is how pain/disappointment/suffering originates.
3. This is the cessation of all suffering (nirvana).
4. This is the Path to the cessation of all suffering.

• Craving, grasping, lust, longing, "thirst": taṇhā
• The Three Marks (Characteristics) of Existence
• Things keep changing, hurtling towards destruction
• The Eight Worldly Conditions: praise and blame...

Wait, remind me. What is "suffering"?

Many people misunderstand Buddhism because the word "suffering" comes up so much that it seems that's all there is -- depressing talk about pain. This is very misleading. Buddhism is ALL about bringing about the END of all suffering.

I'm not like this. I'm just having a bad day, k?

That is nirvana, attainable here and now, no having to wait till death, which is actually a lot late to be starting to do anything about all the suffering that awaits us for remaining ignorant and asleep. So since we don't suffer, we dismiss anything they Buddha said, thinking it doesn't apply to us. But do we suffer? Well, that depends on, What is "suffering"? The Buddha defines what he is calling suffering (dukkha):

Various sutras sum up what unpleasant things and experiences in countless rebirths we undergo. It is not just the pain that touches us in this life; the process rolls on and on in the "continued wandering on" of saṃsāra.

Oh, the Buddha found the end to all pain?

This process itself (the Five Aggregates clung to as self) is suffering, is unsatisfactory, is disappointing, is liable to great pain, is utterly incapable of ever fulfilling us. Rebirth is suffering (unsatisfactory, disappointing, painful, unfulfilling) as are growth (maturation), aging (slowly breaking down), illness, death, loss, sorrow, crying (lamentation), physical pains, grief, and despair.

Contact with unpleasant (hateful, unloved, unwanted, repulsive) things suffering, as are being separated from the pleasant (wished for, loved, wanted, attractive). Not getting what we want, getting what we don't want, never being satisfied with anything we get, always longing and craving for more...all of it is unsatisfactory, disappointing, painful, suffering.

Things we can control

US killer survives torture with slave philosophy

Stoic philosopher/pilot James Bond Stockdale

And it all comes back to a more fundamental disappointment beneath it all -- the Five Aggregates clung to as self: body (form); feelings (sensations), perceptions, formations, and consciousness clung to as "self."

Emphasis in Buddhism is NOT on belief. That's nearly useless and only preliminary. The emphasis is gnostic like the ancient Gnostics, for whom direct personal experience of the Truth is everything. Part of that is cultivating insight (vipassana, lit. "clear seeing") into the nature of this "suffering" along with the other two marks of existence.

List: Seven Stages of Insight

The process of craving, grasping, and clinging starts with sense-contact, part of the Five Aggregates clung to as self, and how this corruption, this misapprehension, this forming of wrong view, this distorted seeing can be overcome by progressive training of the heart/mind, culminating in progressive insight, which can be remembered as the Seven Stages of Insight.

This begins by moral restraint (virtuous conduct, sila), which makes meditation (the absorptions, jhanas) possible, which makes mindfulness into the four foundations (body, feelings, mind, and mind-objects) possible.

This brings us back to the basics, the foundational summary, of what we need to penetrate -- not memorize, recite, "believe," argue about), the Teaching of the Four Ennobling Truths. What's "noble" about them or about suffering? They are not noble in the English sense of the word. The Buddhist sense of noble is arya or Aryan, which means "enlightened" or "enlightening."

The list is not a formula but a very general outline of the reflections that bring about what the historical Buddha called "enlightenment" (bodhi, "awakening"). We would rather stay asleep and perchance dream a pleasant fantasy full of pleasure and sensual experiences, delights, happiness in all its forms, of which there are many.

But this dreaming is very prone to nightmares, for in pursuit of pleasure, we ill-conduct ourselves and those karmic deeds come to fruition and ripen in great suffering, unimaginable suffering. We already taste that now, when we would dream and be full of pleasure and happiness all the time or, at least, at will. But that doesn't happen. We can't make that happen. We think we can so, like a donkey after that carrot, which is just right there in front of us, we keep going, pulling a heavy load of a cart laden with more and more karma (all our actions).

Buddhist sutras, or discourses, show the broad meaning of "suffering," from the slightest agitation to the greatest agony, coming in three categories:

• dukkha-dukkha, aversion to physical pain – which includes physical and mental suffering, such as rebirth, aging, illness, dying, distress due to the undesirable.
• viparinama-dukkha, the frustration of disappearing happiness – which is the suffering of pleasurable, pleasant, and happy experiences changing to painful, unpleasant, and miserable ones when the causes and conditions that produced the pleasurable are exhausted or lost.
• sankhara-dukkha, the disappointment and unsatisfactoriness of transient, changing, impermanent "things" – the inability of [conditioned] things to give us constant, lasting pleasure and happiness.

So there is an END to all this suffering, now?

This includes a fundamental, inescapable unsatisfactoriness that pervades all things in and states of existence, all situations and future lives in any world (of which there are countless), any plane (of which there are 31), and any sphere (of which there are three), because all things all the time are incapable of fulfilling us and are always changing, hurtling towards destruction, and are ultimately impersonal, not ours, not under our absolute control.

At this level, the term dukkha, "suffering," indicates a lack of any lasting satisfaction, any ultimate fulfillment, any that things can ever measure up to our expectations. More

What is the point of all this talking about or even mentioning "suffering"? Yeah, yeah, we get it; we know we suffer, duh! Can't we just talk about nice things -- bliss, lights, expanded meditative states, magical powers, insights into all physical and mental phenomena, joy unending, nirvana-fication, quenching thirst, dousing the flames of greed, hatred, and smoldering delusion, stuff like that? Suffering is the problem that pleads for a final solution, a state and trait, a condition in need of a cure, an unbearable thing that we at some point have to deal with and bring to a final end.

Four truths to freedom

There's much to do to be free.

The first ennobling truth is the recognition that there is suffering, not because there is but because we don't even recognize it. We think we do. As soon as it pops up, we turn away, move on to something else, jump for distractions. We have next to no idea what it really is or what is causing it.

That is the second ennobling truth: What is causing it? The ROOT cause, the fundamental cause, the ultimate cause is? It is not craving (desire, wanting). It is ignorance (avijja), manifesting as wrong views (miccha-ditthi) and delusion (moha), confusion about reality.

The solution is? Awakening to the Truth, the ultimate truth (paramattha), enlightenment right now -- through realizing the causal links of Dependent Origination, the process by which this suffering is arising. Among those 12 links, of which ignorance is the ultimate cause, is one the Buddha singled as the one we can actually do something about right here and right now directly, and that is craving (tanha). Why do we crave? Ignorance, which is the same reason we have aversion and why we are deluded. The Buddha singles out craving to work on undoing the causes and conditions bringing about suffering. Why?

That is the third ennobling truth: What is not-suffering? Nirvana. Nirvana is the end of all suffering. How do we realize nirvana, directly perceive and experience it here and now?

That is the fourth ennobling truth: There is a Path to the end of suffering. What is it? It is outlined in general in the Ennobling Eightfold Path. However, to be more specific and less general, the Buddha spoke of 37 "things pertaining to enlightenment," the bodhipakkhiya-dhamma, for immediate development to know-and-see nirvana.

• Buddhism Podcast (videos); Dhr. Seven (text), Ashley Wells (ed.), Ananda (Dharma Buddhist Meditation), Wisdom Quarterly Wiki edit

Trump's Kick-@$$ Kabinet of Kissups

Trump adds Noem, Rubio, Stefanik to Cabinet, and Elon "DOGE" Musk | The Daily Show

(The Daily Show) Nov. 12, 2024: Jordan Klepper assesses Trump's growing cabinet of longtime ass-kissers: Kristi Noem, Lee Zeldin, and Elise Stefanik. Plus, Michael Kosta teaches Klepper how to buy male friends, just like Elon did with the president-elect. #DailyShow #Trump #ElonMusk

• No, Trump did not win in a landslide, nor did he secure a mandate

Trump’s insane cabinet taking shape, Jimmy interviews Marco Rubio, and the bigliest election moments

(Jimmy Kimmel Live) Nov. 12, 2024: Pres. Genocide Joe and The Donald are having lunch at the White House tomorrow, Melania said no (no thanks or no f'ing way?) to meeting with Dr. Jill Biden, we’re starting to get an idea of what Season 2 of what “The Celebrity Appresident” would look like, the GOP is expected to win the House, Elon Musk is throwing his weight around, DJ is expected to name South Dakota Gov. Kristi "Dog Killer" Noem as secretary of homeland security, former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee as ambassador to Israel, Fox & Friend Pete Hegseth for secretary of defense, and Jimmy gets an exclusive interview with Secretary of State nominee and former Trump critic Marco Rubio, Don Jr. has been taking a big victory lap and regaled a fellow big thinker named Charlie Kirk yesterday, and after what was the most dramatic campaign in modern American history we take a trip down Presidential Memory Lane. #Kimmel

Cartoon sex gets too real (Family Guy)

Why is Brian the [horn-] dog hitting on his best friend Peter's wife Lois? But she sees what he's up to.

What nerve Brian has! Poor Lois is accosted while convalescing in her own bedroom. What if he were to see what he's been after as it really is, foul (asubha) and repugnant?

Reflections on repulsiveness

Help! I feel imprisoned by lust, always craving what I don't have but can't stop thinking about.

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Venerable, what is the cure for obsessive lust?

Paṭikkūla-manasikāra [1] is a Buddhist Pāli language term that is generally translated as "reflections on repulsiveness."

It refers to a traditional Buddhist meditation. In it, 31 parts of the body are contemplated in a variety of ways. In addition to developing mindfulness (sati) and stillness (samādhi), this form of meditation is considered conducive to overcoming lust and craving.

Along with cemetery contemplations such as the contemplation of the nine stages of decay, this type of meditation is one of the two meditations on "the foul" or "unattractive" (asubha) [2].

Translation

Did you see it, Bri? - Stewie, I smelled it!

Paṭikkūla literally means "against" (paṭi) "the slope" or "embankment" (kūla) and has been translated adjectivally as "averse, objectionable, contrary, disagreeable" and, in its nounal form, as "loathsomeness, impurity" [3].

Manasikāra, derived from manasi (locative of mana thus, loosely, "in mind" or "in thought") and karoti ("to make" or "to bring into") and has been translated as "attention" or "pondering" or "fixed thought" [4].

What are you looking at? Why are you staring?

In contemporary translations, the compound term paṭikkūla-manasikāra is generally translated as "reflections on repulsiveness" or, adding contextual clarity at the expense of literal accuracy, "reflections on repulsiveness of the body" [5].

Alternate translations include "attention directed to repulsiveness" [6] and "realization of the impurity of the body" [7].

For Emmy consideration, Family Guy tries to get fancy to woo Hollywood and get an award already.

Try not to laugh clips

Is it a laughing matter? Vulgar cartoon obscenity once canceled in America

Benefits of this strange practice

I remember how warm and sexy she was. Grrr!

This type of meditation is traditionally mentioned as an "antidote" to sensual lust, passion, and obsession [8].

This is also one of the "four protective meditations" along with anussati ("recollection") of the Buddha, mettā (universal loving-kindness, benevolence, agape) practice, and the recollection or mindfulness of death [9].

I love my owner's wife

In individual sutras, this type of contemplation is identified as a contributor to a variety of mundane and transcendental goals. For instance, in the Girimananda Sutta (AN 10.60), Ananda's recitation of this and other contemplations immediately cures an ailing monk [10].

In the Sampasadaniya Sutta (DN 28), Ven. Sariputta declares that meditating on these 31 body parts leads to "the attainment of vision, in four ways" and briefly outlines how this method can be used as a springboard by which one "comes to know the unbroken stream of human consciousness that is neither established in this world nor in the next" [11].

With a debased mind/heart, where will someone be reborn? What future is to come?

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In addition, in the Iddhipāda Samyutta's Vibhanga Sutta (SN 51.20), this meditation subject is used to develop the four Bases of Power (iddhipādas) by which one is able to achieve liberation from all suffering [12].

Tara Brach, with lust behind her, is at peace.

While the Pali canon invariably includes this form of contemplation in its various lists of mindfulness meditation techniques [13], the compendious 5th-century Path of Purification (Visuddhimagga) identifies this type of contemplation (along with mindfulness of in-and-out-breathing or anapanasati) as one of the few body-directed meditations particularly suited to the development of samādhi (Vism. VIII, 43) [14]. More

• AI (simulated Family Guy LIVE action movie trailer); Seth MacFarlane, Family Guy (cartoon); Amber Larson and Dhr. Seven (eds.), Wisdom Quarterly Wiki edit

Science: Cats want to play fetch. Cat Sutra

"Zig, hey!" says ginger white kitty, while extending its paw in the air (zaLysonArts/Getty).

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A surprising number of cats want us to play fetch with them

What good results from the deed of meditation?

Many people have seen dogs fetch, but cats like to get into the game, too. Despite their very different hunting and play styles, fetching appears to combine elements of predatory [hunting, stalking, killing] and social behavior for both species.

Although their domestication histories and natural behaviors are very different, cats and dogs share many similarities.

Both species are predators, live closely with humans and are capable of enjoying rich social experiences with us.

Is this fake Buddha quote true? Kind of, partly

In our newly published study, we found that more than 40% of cats described in our survey data played fetch, compared with almost 80% of dogs.

We also outlined several possible reasons for fetching, including play, selection during domestication, and learning effects. More

The Creeping [Cat] Sutra (AN 10.216)

Karmic-result? Deal with it.

“Meditators, I teach an exposition of the Dharma on creeping. Listen, attend closely, and I will speak.”

“Yes, venerable sir,” they replied. The Buddha then said: “What, meditators, is the exposition of the Dharma on creeping?

“Meditators, beings are the owners of their karma (deeds), heirs of their karma; they have karma as their origin, karma as their relative, karma as their resort; whatever karma they do, good or bad, they are its heirs.

I'm a stalker. I'm a predator. I'm a killer.

(1) “Here, someone destroys life, is murderous, bloodyhanded, given to beatings and violence, is merciless to living beings.

“One creeps along by body, speech, and mind: One's bodily karma is crooked, one's verbal karma is crooked, one's mental karma is crooked.

“[Therefore,] one's destination is crooked, one's rebirth is crooked. And for one with a crooked destination and rebirth, I say, there is one of two destinations -- either the exclusively painful hells or [rebirth/reappearance as] a species of creeping animal.

“What are the species of creeping animals? The CAT, the snake, the scorpion, the centipede, the mongoose, the mouse, and the owl, or any other animals that creep away when they see people.

I was after Maus. I guess karmic-results are just

“Thus, a being is reborn from a being; one is reborn through one’s deeds. When one has been reborn, contacts [impressions] affect one. It is in this way, I say, that beings are the heirs of their karma.

(2) “Someone takes what is not given… (3)…engages in sexual misconduct… (4)…speaks falsehood… (5)…speaks divisively… (6)…speaks harshly… (7)…indulges in idle chit chat… (8)…is full of longing… (9) …has a mind of ill will and intentions of hate… (10)…  More

• [EDITOR: KARMA (deeds, intentional actions, courses of action) refers to doing. Having been willed, carried out, and stored up, there are two kinds of outcomes -- the "resultants" (vipaka) and the "fruit" (phala) that ripens. [One might distinguish between immediate mental resultants and longer-term fruits or future circumstances that result from deeds.]
• Mikel Delgado, Judith Stella, The Conversation, Nature via ScienceAlert.com, 9/5/24; Dhr. Seven (ed.) "Creeping" (AN 10.216) based on Bhikkhu Bodhi translation (suttacentral.net, AN 10.216), CC Liu, Ashley Wells (eds.), Wisdom Quarterly

Ohtani Day, Nisei Week, LA part of Japan?

Los Angeles is up on the right, way up

Nisei Week Japanese Festival just wrapped up in Los Angeles. Then the Nippon-mania began. Formosa (Taiwan) must be jealous. Player Shohei Ohtani came to the USA to teach Americans how baseball is played. The Dodgers bought him (price tag ~$700 million) to come make millions for Los Angeles. And, boy, is he ever paying off! He high fives his dog, Decoy, hits homers for the massive viewing audience across the sound in Tokyo, Waikiki, and up the way in San Francisco.

LA, like Japan, is in the ring of fire quake zone

Is there still a remnant population of railroad builders and Zen practitioners (Shinto worshippers) in that Central California concentration camp (Manzanar) from The "Good" War (WWII) when Japanese Americans were rounded up, interned, and deprived of earnings and property, dignity and freedom, due process and reparations. Forty thousand fans tried their best, stood in line for a workday, traffic jammed up DTLA to get to Chavez Ravine, and had a bumper party at this devotional tribute to the god/kami that is Ohtani.

• Buddhism in the United States of America

Nisei Week, during Japan Month, Los Angeles

Made in Japan: Not So Ape (shop now)

Nisei Week (二世週祭, Nisei-shū Matsuri) is an annual festival celebrating Japanese American (JA) culture and history in Little Tokyo, near Chinatown Los Angeles (DTLA).

Nisei means "second generation" in Japanese, describing the first American-born Japanese, a group the seven-day festival was originally meant to attract.

Though named for the Nisei generation, Nisei Week is no longer targeted at Niseis, nor is the festival still contained within a week.

It's time to be cool and go Everyday Zen.

Nisei Week Foundation President (2006) Michelle Suzuki described the festival as "the opportunity for people of all backgrounds to celebrate Japanese heritage and culture" [1].

Festivities are held over one month, though the main attractions are held during the primary two weekends of the festival in the summer heat of mid-August.

Nisei Week draws tens of thousands of participants each year from the Japanese community and Southern California area, mostly to its Grand Parade and specialized festivals. More

Shohei Ohtani homers on Shohei Ohtani/Decoy Bobblehead Night! | 大谷翔平ハイライト 

(MLB) Aug. 28, 2024: Japanese baseball great Shohei Ohtani does it for his dog Decoy! Come on down to Dodger Stadium to stand in line for eight hours to get a collectible bobblehead doll of this handsome man with a bad lookalike translator to sell in on eBay for, say, $5,000 bucks ($10,000 for a gold colored one) or now only $199 from a $40 ticket to the game (mlb).

• 🔥🐶 Shohei-Decoy Bobblehead LA Dodgers 🇯🇵🔥 | eBay

Long lines seen at Dodger Stadium for special edition Shohei Ohtani bobblehead

(KTLA 5) Aug. 28, 2024: Long lines of excited fans waited outside Dodger Stadium on Wednesday for a chance to snag a special edition Shohei Ohtani Bobblehead. The sought-after bobblehead features Ohtani smiling in his Dodgers uniform while holding his beloved dog named Decoy. Loyal fans of the baseball star lined up at the stadium hours before the gates opened, hoping to snag the coveted figurine before supplies ran out. KTLA's Kimberly Cheng reports on Aug. 28, 2024. KTLA 5 News, keeping Southern Californians informed since 1947.

• Details: ktla.com/news/local-news/long...
• Dodgers' Double Play: Yamamoto to join Ohtani (laist.com)
• Trying to find Ohtani's house with a Hollywood tourist map: 11 incredible homes hidden in Mother Nature
• MLB, 8/28/24; KTLA 5, 8/28/24; CC Liu, Seth Auberon, Crystal Q. (eds.), Wisdom Quarterly Wiki edit Nisei Week

Exposition on Karma (American Monk)

Ven. Subhuti (Jeremy Glick), Pa Auk Monastery, Burma; Dhr. Seven (ed.), Wisdom Quarterly

This begets more of this, as we sow so we reap, what comes around goes around, do unto others

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What is the Pa Auk training?

Planting Wisdom: Reflections on the "Lesser Exposition on Karma Discourse" or "Shorter Analysis of Deeds Sutras" (Cula-kamma-vibhanga Sutta, MN 135) is the name of today's talk by Western Buddhist monastic Bhante Subhuti (AmericanMonk.org).

Ven. Subhuti is a long-time American Theravada Buddhist monk and student of the famous enlightened Burmese Meditation Master Pa Auk Sayadaw. Here he gives a cursory review of a significant sutra with the astounding tale from the Commentary on the rebirth story of Todeyya and Subha, a rich stingy man reborn as a pet dog in his former house, who becomes a close companion of his son.

Todeyya: I was a millionaire, but I was stingy.

The Buddha informs Subha that the dog in a former rebirth was his father, which comes as a massive insult. To prove it, the Buddha asks if his stingy father didn't by any chance leave inheritance money ungiven. He did. He died suddenly without revealing where he kept his treasure, which caused hardship to the family. The Buddha advises him to feed Todeyya the dog a rich meal until he's drowsy and then ask him to go to the treasure. The dog, still stingy, goes to take a nap over the spot her buried the money. This convinces Subha that the Buddha knows what he's talking about and that karma and rebirth are real phenomena. So he becomes a student and practices the Dhamma (Sanskrit Dharma, the Buddha's Teachings on Awakening).

• Meditation - Pa-Auk Tawya (paaukforestmonastery.org)
• Pa-Auk Meditation Centre, Singapore (pamc.org.sg)

Can I meditate in the forest, too?

PaAukForestMonastery.org, edited by Dhr. Seven, Wisdom Quarterly

He is named after the monastery

The system of Buddhist meditation taught at Pa-Auk Tawya (Pa Auk Forest Monastery) is based on the instructions by the historical Buddha as found in the Pāli language canon and its commentaries.

The system taught is called the Threefold Training:

1. strict observance of precepts (sīla),
2. developing stillness (samādhi), and
3. as a basis for attaining wisdom (paññā).

It is further subdivided into the Seven Stages of Purification, which provide a step-by-step formula for systematically purifying one’s karma (deeds) of body (physical actions), speech (verbal actions), and mind (mental actions) of defilements in order to realize nirvana in this very lifetime.

Use the breath or Four Elements

In brief, the main practice is to begin with samatha (stilling, tranquilizing, making the mind content and joyous) meditation, which is to develop the meditative absorption called jhānas.

A yogi (Buddhist meditator) is free to choose any of the 40 serenity-meditation subjects as taught by the Buddha. At Pa-Auk Tawya, most yogis develop the absorptions or jhānas using mindfulness-of-breathing (ānāpānassati).

Having developed stillness (samma-samadhi or samatha), a yogi may proceed to practice insight (vipassanā) meditation.

There's also Pa Auk in Georgia

As an alternative, a yogi may omit the development of the absorptions, which a subtle and difficult for many who are not naturally inclined (from past life practice of the jhānas).

One will be taught instead to develop the less powerful "access concentration" with the serenity-meditation subject of Four Elements Meditation, prior to the practice of insight meditation.

In either case, the stillness/concentration attained by a yogi produces the "light of wisdom" or "sign" (nimitta) of progress in practice. More

• Like cures like is the homeopathic saying. Is it true for our actions and their results? Giving little begets getting little. Having chosen an action in response to a situation, I can expect that kind of result from the world for a long time. Just one act of stealing, because it occurred over so many mind-moments (which are laid down like seeds in consciousness), will result in exponentially more of that. A good choice -- giving, being friendly, being possessed of right view -- will result in reaping exponentially more happiness than we've sown. It may seem unfair, but it's "lawful," that is, working out in some rule-bound way, according to universal law, in accordance with the nature of the world. Or else all that we did would come to nothing, mean nothing, and be merely random events happening to us with no rhyme or reason, nothing to learn, nothing to improve, no aha moments when it all makes sense and everything is just as it is supposed to be (given what we chose and did previously). The hope is that we can NOW do something different and begin, eventually, to get pleasant, welcome, wished-for results.

Short Attention Span Theater (viral)