What about gays? Goenka in Berkeley (video)

Mr. and Mrs. S.N. Goenka via Dhamma Naturalmind; Ellie Askew, Wisdom Quarterly

Q&A: Goenka-jii (of free 10-day insight meditation vipassana retreats fame) addresses a few amusing questions from Californians in this Dhamma (Dharma) talk in Berkeley, California, USA on June 8, 2002. The original video was uploaded to vridhamma.org, a resource for more videos and information.

Enlightened Thai Master Ajahn Jumnien

Ajahn Jumnien, Joseph Kappel (trans.), Culture Exchange; Dhr. Seven (ed.), Wisdom Quarterly

Daylong Teachings | Dharma Talk

When one knows, one is happy.

Ajahn Jumnien (forestretreat.org, audiodharma.org) is a delightfully happy, fully wise, and playful Thai forest monk. He was previously a shaman from a long line of shamans, and he has some of the most advanced magical abilities. Trained in intensive Theravada Buddhist meditation with Ajahn Dhammadaro, he also traveled as a wandering ascetic (shraman) and mastered a diverse array of tranquility meditations (jhanas) for purifying concentration. No matter what the technique, he constantly urges us back into seeing our true nature, which is marked by Three Universal Characteristics.

• California: An extraordinary Thai teacher Ajahn Jumnien

This talk was given on 2003-06-07 at a length of 6:13:59 and made available via the YouTube channel brought to us by Culture Exchange Blog.

Partying at the "Little Buddha" Club

Amber Larson, CC Liu, Seven, Wisdom Quarterly; HuddsFilm1/flickr.com (photography)

Waiting around to enter the Little Buddha club (Huddsfilm1/flickr.com)

  

Bar's namesake is NOT the Buddha but Hotei

What is there to do in Europe? Not much. Oh, I know! Let's go to the Little Buddha club. Bands play there, suds flow, and we can stand around looking pretty. Dirty Green Vinyl is playing. Maybe I'll meet someone, too.

Who would name a bar, a place explicitly existing to be out of it, after the most sober person in history? Enlightenment is the opposite of delusion, wisdom the opposite of intoxication, right view the opposite of hallucinations. But, hey, why so heavy? It's just a name.

Why is this place called "Little Buddha"?

And anyway it does not refer to the historical Shakyamuni, "Sage of the Shakyas," the warrior prince who abandoned the palace and the good life for a higher calling, the real high life (brahmacarya) that leads out of this misery-fraught wandering on through worlds, lives, torments, and doldrums.

It's like nirvana! I think that's why.

Still, people might think it does. We should protest. We should circulate a petition on Facebook. We should march in front of this hole in the wall. It's bad enough when this kind of thing happens in Thailand.

 

Now it's made it to the Continent and its economic environs. We can't stand for that. *Yawn* Or maybe we can.

Who?

Who is the "Little Buddha" after which the club is named anyhow? There was once a Mahayana monk in China, a Siberian St. Nick/Santa Claus character who carried around a cloth sack filled with candy instead of mushrooms to be handed out to children. He is jolly, jovial, and really chubby. He isn't the Buddha at all, just the good luck Bodhisattva Hotei (Budai, Bố Đại, Pu-Tai, "Cloth Sack").

Yeah, I hear Nirvana played here. What?

He is arguably the "face of Buddhism," obese and golden, full of good fortune, found at the entrance of many good restaurants and Asian businesses. He is more a patron saint of worldly success than any kind of spiritual icon. Nevertheless, one finds him in Pure Land temples and Theravada altars with lots of Chinese or Japanese influence. Hotei is everywhere in Asia. Who doesn't need a belly to rub for luck?

That's not "the Buddha"!

Bố Đại: the fat, happy Laughing Buddha

Hotei (Japanese), Budai or Pu-Tai (Chinese, 布袋; Bùdài), Bố Đại in Vietnamese, is a Chinese folkloric deity also popular with Taoists. His name means "Cloth Sack," and comes from the bag that he is conventionally depicted as carrying. He is usually identified with (or as a pre-incarnation of) Maitreya the future Buddha -- so much so that the Hotei image is one of the main forms in which Maitreya is depicted in East Asia. He is almost always shown smiling or laughing, hence his nickname in Chinese, the Laughing Buddha (Chinese, 笑佛). Sadly, many Westerners confuse Budai with the historical Shakyamuni Buddha Gautama.

• Is there room for God in Jainism? (Huff Po) 
• Would You Quit Your Job To Teach Yoga?

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.

How much happiness makes up for sadness?

Eric Barker (BusinessInsider.com, Oct. 7, 2012); Wisdom Quarterly

Are Buddhist monastics the happiest of all? (Tricycle.com/Youaretrulyloved.com)

     

Smile! It's healthy (baconbabble.com).

Psychologist Barbara Frederickson is an expert on flourishing and has been an advocate of finding ways to bring more positive emotions into our lives. 

 

In her research she discovered a critical 3 to 1 ratio, indicating that we need to have three positive emotions for every negative one in order to thrive.

And Frederickson has found out that if we really want to prosper, we shouldn’t try to eliminate negative emotions. Rather, we should work on keeping the ratio at three positive for every one negative. 

  

Happiness is natural (dreamingdog.multiply.com)

Most of us, she has found, have two positive experiences for every negative. This gets us by, but it is effectively languishing. 

How many people are at 3 to 1? Around 20%.

  

Frederickson and Losada pinpointed such “flourishing” mental health in 45 people from a survey of 188 university students.

  

Forty-five out of 188 (23%) may seem very few, but several surveys have shown that only about 20% of Americans are flourishing in this sense.

  

Sound familiar?

Is that our spidey-sense tingling? It should be for regular readers: We’ve seen similar patterns with ratios and happiness before. While 3 to 1 keeps you happy, 5 to 1 keeps relationships smooth.

• Via The Ape in the Corner Office: How to Make Friends, Win Fights, and Work Smarter by Understanding Human Nature:

Sensuality is NOT the way to actual happiness.

It turned out that the 15 high-performance teams averaged 5.6 positive interactions for every negative one. The 19 low-performance teams racked up a positive/negative ratio of just 0.363. That is, they had about three negative interactions for every positive one…

 

What’s even scarier is that Losada’s 5:1 ratio also appears to be essential when you get home and try to muster the energy for a successful marriage... More

Heaven or Enlightenment?
Buddhist lore, Seven Dharmachari, Wisdom Quarterly

Meditation superhero (msnbc.msn.com)

There were once two Buddhist monks meditating, having vowed to reach enlightenment. They became stream enterers, the first stage along the path to awakening and the final end of all suffering -- arhatship. One joyfully proceeded, but the other stopped. The first asked, "Why have you stopped, friend?"
  
The second answered, "I have suffered greatly over many lives. And I wish, so as a way of making up for all that suffering, to first be reborn in heavenly realms. Then and only then will I seek to accomplish the goal."
 
The first shrank back, "Friend, do not speak in such way! The Blessed One, the noble ones, they never spoke in such a way."
  
"My mind is made up," the second stubbornly declared.

The first continued to meditate, and in no long time he reached the goal for which youths of good family leave home for the homeless life of a spiritual seeker. He did what was to be done, abandoning rebirth and suffering once and for all.
  
The second carried on for years and eventually died in old age. He was immediately reborn in India as the illegitimate child of a woman who, to conceal her infidelity had been concealing her pregnancy. When she gave birth, she immediately went out onto a dirt road along a path frequented by herds of cattle.
 

Predisposed (alibaba.com)

And just as a large herd was coming headed by a chief bull, she tossed the newborn onto the road. The powerful bull, mysteriously moved by the child's merit, stopped over him protecting him from harm as the cows went around.
   
The second monk had been reborn fully conscious, aware of his grave and dangerous mistake in the previous life, having chosen vain happiness as some sort of compensation for previous suffering -- both of which have their basis in illusion and misunderstanding.
 
He lamented not heeding the first monk's advice. And by a supernormal feat of concentration, he tossed the dirt that was caked to his body from contact of dust and afterbirth, crossed his legs, and levitated midair thanking the bull.
  
He developed the absorptions, emerged purified in heart/mind, and took up the insight practice of reviewing the 12 links of Dependent Origination. He penetrated the ultimate Truth and was thereby liberated from all suffering; he became one of the noble ones (fully enlightened individuals, arhats).

• The Importance of Stream-Entry (Vince Horn)
• Ven. Thanissaro's Stream-Entry Study Guide
• How common is Stream-Entry? 

Buddha at Work - "Why Are You Unhappy?"

Beliefnet.com
Oh, David Whyte, I am hooked. I've been listening to his latest CD collection, What to Remember When Waking, mesmerized by his mellifluous accent. For me, the best part of listening to Whyte is the anticipation I feel while waiting for him to drop the next poetic bomb. I've never studied poetry, so my poetic vocabulary is quite limited. Whyte is responsible for introducing me to Mary Oliver, to Marina Tsvetaeva, to Yeats, to Wordsworth, to Rilke and Machado, and even to Dickinson and Eliot. But I don't know if I'll ever forgive him for constantly kicking my bum through poetry. Yesterday I got to hear him talk about the English poet Wei Wu Wei (born Terence Gray) and his poem, Why Are You Unhappy?

Why are you unhappy?
Because 99.9 per cent
Of everything you think,
And of everything you do,
Is for yourself --
And there isn't one.

Well, that sounds pretty clear. There isn't one. If you're reading this blog, you've probably heard of non-self. Wei Wu Wei says in the same book:

We do not possess an "ego."
We are possessed by the idea of one.

Here's Whyte's explanation: More>>

The Happy Buddhist of Baton Rouge

Thich Dao Quang [Thay] is a busy, happy Buddhist.

.

He gets up at five o’clock every morning to start his day with sitting medita-tion — except on the days when his duties as the abbot of Tam Bao Buddhist Temple, classes [in clinical psychology] at Southeas-tern Louisiana University, homework, and a family counseling practicum prove too much for him, and he has to sleep in.

Until 5:30 a.m. “That’s very bad for a Buddhist monk,” he says with a smile.

Quang is, by all estimations, the first Buddhist monk in Baton Rouge. Ever. Baton Rouge’s Buddhist Temple has existed, in one location or another, since about 1985. It remained monk-less until 2003, when Quang visited to give a lecture and conduct services.

“And they say, ‘Stay for a few more weeks, and then a few more months.’ They were very serious, and they asked me to stay here. And I accepted their invitation.” Finally, last year, the members of the temple asked him to be their abbot.

Quang is a slight monk with frameless glasses. If he likes a question, he’ll reward it with a smile and a “Wow, good question,” in a soft Vietnamese accent. While he talks, his eyes drift out the window to the lawn of the temple where he lives and works. Many things, he says, contributed to his decision to become a monk.

For one, the lifestyle has always come naturally to him. “Even as a little boy, I did not look for a material life, clothing or whatever. Rather I [liked to] read the book, philosophy, literature.”

The hardship of living in a divided, post-war Vietnam also played a role. His father spent six years in a government run re-education camp for his ties to the United States. “So many things happen without an answer [that’s] reasonable, so many questions in my life.”

...Quang speaks authoritatively about the relationship between the Eastern philosophy of Buddhism and the very Western science of psychology:

“They go hand in hand,” he says. Both are about understanding patterns of behavior, why we do the things we do, and how we can improve our lives through this understand-ing. “The only thing different is in Western psychology, the emphasis is on medication...In Buddhism, we...focus on meditation...” More>>

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