(Buddha's Wisdom) Transgendering the deva (shining one, god) Avalokiteshvara "who hears the cries of the world" into the Chinese devi (goddess) of compassion Kwan Yin (Guanyin Bodhisattva)
Showing posts with label karuna. Show all posts
Showing posts with label karuna. Show all posts
Monday, April 13, 2026
Saturday, December 13, 2025
Will Dalai Lama be reborn in this world?
Dalai Lama reborn or not? The truth about his successor.
- Dalai Lama via ༄།ནང་ཆོས།།, Dec. 12, 2025; CC Liu, Crystal Quintero (eds.), Wisdom Quarterly
Friday, June 13, 2025
How to save a hummingbird (sutra)
SUTRA: The compassion of past buddhas (DN 1)
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| The wondrous kalaviṅka bird |
...“When he was reborn, [the being-bent-on-supreme-enlightenment] the Bodhisattva’s voice was clear, gentle, and harmonious like the voice of a kalaviṅka bird.”
The Buddha then spoke in verse:
“He was like the bird of the Himalayas
That drinks flower nectar and sings.
The most exalted of bipeds [the Buddha]
Had a voice that was just as clear.
“When he was reborn, the Bodhisattva’s vision could see clearly as far away as a yojana.”
The Buddha then spoke in verse:
“As a result of practicing pure deeds [good karma],
He got the marvelous glow of a god [deva].
The Bodhisattva’s eyes could see
At a range of a one yojana.
“When he was reborn, the Bodhisattva grew up to adulthood and was educated in the way [of governing] in the royal hall. His favor reached the common people, and his reputation for virtue was heard [about] far away.”
The Buddha then spoke in verse:
“In the royal hall, that young man
Educated the world with the way.
He made a variety of decisions,
So he was called Vipaśyin.
His pure knowledge was vast
And deep like the ocean.
He delighted the mass of beings
And improved their wisdom.
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| Gandhara=Scythia=Saka Land |
“The prince asked his aide, ‘What sort of man is that?’
“He answered, ‘This is an old man.’
“The prince also asked, ‘What is “old”?’
“He answered, ‘Old age happens as the end of one’s life approaches. When there aren’t many years left, it’s called being old.’
“The prince asked, ‘Will I be likewise? Will I not escape this hardship [inherent defect in rebirth]?’
“He answered, ‘Yes, anyone born is sure to become old. It doesn’t matter if they are rich or poor.’
“The prince was disturbed and unhappy at that point. He told his driver to turn the chariot around and go back to the palace. He silently thought to himself, ‘To think I’ll also have to suffer being old!’”
The Buddha then spoke in verse:
“Seeing an old man, his life about to end,
Walking weakly with a cane,
The Bodhisattva thought to himself,
‘I’ve yet to escape from this hardship!’...
The Great Legend
Long Discourses of the Buddha (DN 1) Introduction
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| The Buddha Sakyamuni was not the only one |
It was then that the monastics gathered in the Flowering Grove Hall after gathering alms. They engaged in a discussion with each other: “Venerables, the unsurpassed sage is so extraordinary! His miraculous powers are far-reaching, and his authority is tremendous. He has come to know the countless buddhas [supremely enlightened beings] of the past who have entered nirvāṇa, broken the bonds [of death], and eliminated idle speculation.”
“He also knows how many aeons [kalpas] ago those buddhas lived as well as their names, surnames, the clans to which they were reborn, the meals they had, the length of their lives, and what disappointment and happiness they experienced.”
“He also knows that those buddhas possessed such precepts, such principles, such wisdom, such liberation, and such abodes.”
“What do you think, friends? Does the Tathāgata [the Wayfarer, the Thus Come One, the Well Gone One, the Buddha] know this by discerning well the nature of things, or does he know these things because the gods (devas) come and tell him about them?”
The Bhagavān [the Blessed One, the Buddha] was in a quiet place at the time and clearly overheard the monastics having that discussion with his divine ear. He rose from his [meditation] seat, went to the Flowering Grove Hall, prepared a seat, and sat down.
He knew the answer, but the Bhagavān still asked them, “Monastics, what have you been discussing after gathering here?” The monastics then related to him what it had been.
The Bhagavān told them, “Good, good! With correct faith [saddha, confidence, conviction], you’ve left home to cultivate the path [to enlightenment and liberation], and you practice as you should. All of you have two types of conduct. The first is noble discussion of the Teaching, and the second is noble silence.
“This discussion of yours is as it should be: ‘The Tathāgata’s miraculous powers [are far-reaching,] and his authority are tremendous. He fully knows the events of countless aeons in the past. He knows it because he understands well the nature of things and because the gods come and tell him.’”
The Buddha then spoke in verse:
“Monastics gathered in the Dharma Hall
And held a noble discussion;
In a quiet place, the Tathāgata
Heard it all with his divine ear.
The Buddha sun’s light shines everywhere
As he discerns the Dharma realm’s meaning.
He also knows the past events of
The Completely Awakened and their nirvāṇa.
Their names, surnames, and families,
The births they received, I know, too.
The places where they had lived,
I recall them with clear vision.
Those gods of great authority,
Quite dignified in appearance,
Also come and tell me about
The Completely Awakened and their nirvāṇa.
Recounting their rebirths, names, and surnames,
Their kalaviṅka bird voices fully knew them.
To the Unsurpassed Sage of Gods and Humans,
They describe the buddhas of the past.”
Avians (Suparnas, Garudas) are diverse
The Seven Buddhas
He again asked the monastics, “Would you like to hear about the circumstances of past buddhas that the Tathāgata knows with the knowledge of past lives? I’ll tell you about them.”
The monastics said: “Bhagavān, now would be a good time for it.” “We’d be glad to hear it.” “Excellent, Bhagavān!” “If there’s time for a discourse (sutra), we’ll approve of it.”
The Buddha told the monastics, “Listen closely! Listen closely, and consider it well. I’ll discern and explain.” The monastics then accepted the teaching and listened.
The Buddha told the monastics, “Ninety-one aeons ago, there was a buddha named Vipaśyin who was the Tathāgata, the Arhat [fully enlightened], who arose in the world. Furthermore, monastics, thirty-one aeons ago, there was a buddha named Śikhin who was the Tathāgata, the Arhat, who arose in the world. Furthermore, monastics, thirty-one aeons ago, there was another buddha named Viśvabhū who was the Tathāgata, the Arhat, who arose in the world. Furthermore, monastics, during this present fortunate aeon, there was a buddha named Krakucchanda, another who was named Kanakamuni, and another who was named Kāśyapa. [It is called a "fortunate aeon" for having four buddhas.] Now, I’ve also achieved the supreme and complete awakening during this present aeon of fortune.”
The Buddha then spoke in verse:
“Ninety-one aeons in the past,
There was the Buddha Vipaśyin.
Next, thirty-one aeons ago,
There was the Buddha Śikhin.
During that same aeon,
Tathāgata Viśvabhū arose.
During the present fortunate aeon,
There have been countless millions of years.
There were four great sages
Who arose because of their pity for beings:
Krakucchanda, Kanakamuni,
Kāśyapa, and Śākyamuni. More
- 大本—Charles Patton (trans), suttacentral.net, edited by Dhr. Seven, Wisdom Quarterly
Wednesday, May 14, 2025
AVA Summit, Los Angeles (May 15-18)
The AVA [Animal and Vegan Advocacy] Summit is an international conference series for advocates focusing on systemic change in how we eat. It is working on various strategies toward one shared vision: removing animals from the industrial food system and similar human uses.
The AVA Summit is being held in Los Angeles, California, from May 15 to 18, 2025. This summit is AVA's flagship event, bringing together over 800 advocates and activists for a dynamic, movement-building experience.
Join us in Los Angeles for expert-led sessions, hands-on workshops, and unparalleled networking designed to strengthen connections and advance the impact activists have to save farmed animals.
Standard registration is open now. Click "JOIN" to learn more and register. Exhibit Hall Registration is open now. Speaker applications closed on Feb. 15, 2025.
Travel Award Scholarship applications closed as on Jan. 15, 2025. More: AVA Summit | Animal Advocacy
- Spirituality for Animal Advocates & Vegans, Sunday, May 18, 2025, 1:00 PM | Meetup
- Vegan Social Brunch on the Patio, Sat, May 17, 2025, 11:00 AM | Meetup (vegansofla.com)
- Lisa Levinson (Spirituality for Animal Advocates & Vegans), Dhr. Seven (eds.), Wisdo Quarterly
Wednesday, January 1, 2025
Resolution 2025: Practice Meditation
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| I was once angry and full of ardor in India (Sharon on left), with Dipa, Dipa Ma, and Joseph G? |
Mindfulness is attention, bare attention, but it's not just attention, which we advert to at will. Mindfulness (sati) is a dispassionate looking on without expectations or resistance but rather full of allowing and acceptance. That kind of looking and listening. People all over this country misuse the word "mindfulness" everyday, never realizing that when the Buddha used it, and he used it a lot, like about 14 times in the 37 Requisites of Enlightenment, he meant something that people understood from other things he had said. There's no sense in thinking that we know if we don't, as that will only frustrate us. Wrong mindfulness is a danger. Could make a person feel anxious or unpleasant or distressed. Real allowing, like Tara Brach talks about, is the immediate antidote to those kinds of temporary states.
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| Just some words of uplift from Wisdom Quarterly |
By developing the practice of "mindfulness" (sati, satipatthana, "balanced effort," sthira-sukha, not too tight, not too lax, bare present moment awareness that is full of acceptance, gently abandoning resistance, internally letting go, nekkhkamma), it becomes effortless and habitual to stay in the present moment.
It is always the present moment, which is really all there is, as much as we miss the mark most of the time. We drag the past or future here to waste this moment with two infinite unrealities, going over the no-longer-existent or the not-yet-and-maybe-never-to-be-existent.
Rather than abandoning ourselves, let's be present with ourselves free of resistance. In this way we can open to our lives and realize our potential for the stages of enlightenment in this very life. Western lay practice is particularly suited to it; however, our mental habits of rushing, striving, objectifying, measuring, comparing, goal settling, muscling, striving, struggling, and forcing all get in the way. We have yang, okay.
The West has very much misunderstood one thing about the Path the Buddha pointed out. It does not need stronger and stronger determination, with the intensity to allow one's blood to dry up and bones become dust. This is sure to fail. This is exactly why the wandering ascetic Siddhartha kept failing to find what he was looking for. What he needed was balanced-effort which, therefore, meant balancing yang with yin, stiffness with softness, striving with allowing, contentment (santussita) over a sense of urgency (samvega). But ask around. It's as if no one has ever heard the oldest and most popular story in the world, the Allegory of the Buddha's Life or "Every Person's Quest"). It's not only about him and what he let go, overcame, saw for what it was, and awakened as a result, it is about us, too.
Let us now practice our powerful yin. Powerful? The Earth is very yin, wet and solid, sitting, observing without getting sucked in, sometimes immovable. It is not holding on with brute force or clinging as we might conclude. It is just allowing, and its nature is such.
We are not making up the Truth, memorizing it, but finding it and allowing it to reveal itself like a sitter at a still forest pool who need only sit still all ever so gentle breaths to come and go, and marveling at all the marvelous forest creatures who present themselves at the waterside to drink.
We are softly, vigilantly noticing, so much so that we may begin to notice what has been there to be found all along. It may reveal, it may not. Let it. Allow it either.
The Buddha did not create enlightenment (bodhi) or liberation (nirvana). They have always been, for they are unmade, unformed, unfabricated.
The path-of-practice to realize the liberating Truth, that he made known again finally allowing the jhanas and their purifying affects on his heart/mind then immediately undertaking systematic insight practices (fourfold sati-patthana). Mindfulness provides stability for the first by bringing back the wandering mind again and again, having noticed it is of a nature to wander off, then bringing laserlike attention on the Four Foundations of which one is mindful. (See the Maha Satipatthana Sutta for the details on this).
Now that it, the Truth, the Dhamma exists in the world and there are peaceful places to withdraw to and practice, now that we have peace, sufficient food, imperfect but sufficient health, and just the beginnings of clarity, let us determine to investigate. The Dhamma (Dharma) is inviting us to "come and see" for ourselves.
There is nothing to believe or accept ahead of time, just the willingness to persist to the culmination of serenity (samadhi, the jhanas) and insight (vipassana). The Kalama Sutta makes it all open and a great place to begin, not falling into misunderstanding by skimming but reading it to the end.
Sharon Salzberg is an amazing living teacher able to both explain and point from experience. - Wisdom Quarterly.
The place is? Mm, somewhere else? The time is? Ugh, some other time? If we never practice and make a persistent effort rather than waiting for a "perfect plan," we will wander aimlessly upcycling and downcycling without end.
Encouragement from the Buddha
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| Hey, where'd you come from, li'l guy? |
"O, Great Aryan Guru-jii, those who practice your Path, will they all attain the goal, or half of them, or none of them, or how is it?" You'll never guess what the Buddha replied. Go on. Guess.
(Did he by any chance say 144,000? Because that would be quite a coincidence!) No, he didn't say that.
He remained silent. His attentive attendant monastic Ananda, one of the most beloved figures in all of Buddhism, became distressed. The Brahmin repeated his question a second and third time. Those times, too, the Buddha only replied passively with noble silence. The debater, insulted that his plan to engage the Buddha in some verbal wrangling and a debate he felt sure he was going to win, got up and left.
Fortunately for us, Ananda asked the Buddha why he had remained silent. He had tremendous psychic and intuitive powers beyond the scope of our understanding (an imponderable amount) and could discern the best answer to whatever was asked of him. Why not this innocent-enough question?
The Buddha explained that if he had said either all, some, or none, each answer would give rise to inaction, inactivity, not striving, not exerting, not letting go, and never mind that the Brahmin was more interested in eel-wriggling philosophical debater than real firsthand experience and understanding.
- (Hey, Ananda, why? Well, if we're all going to eventually make it, why bother? It'll happen anyway. If some of us are never going to make it no matter if we strive and strive, why bother. We're not going to make it. If, yeah, well, some of us who endeavor are yet others who endeavor are not, what's the fairness in that, Ziggy? Why bother? There is not right answer as all lead to inaction and not setting off and persisting on the Path. (Ah, I get it. That Buddha was wise.)
- Hey, but, psst, on the side, just between you and me, what is the correct answer? You know, just for historical purposes in case it ever comes up in real life. Yeah, right, the Buddha explains:
Then he answered humble Ananda to remove all his perplexity, and his answer was profound directly for us.
The Buddha answered by giving a simile of a marvelous and impenetrable fortress so well built that not even a very flexible cat could squeeze through its walls and ramparts to gain entrance. But there are four guarded and well-marked gates by which to freely enter.
Then he said: Ananda, just as a ruler, owner, or guard at the gate on duty is not interested in counting how many are inside now, or how many remain outside, or how many will eventually pass him coming in -- all of that he sets aside. But the one thing he does know with certainty is that if someone is inside, that person gained entrance by one of the four gates, alluding to the teachings he made known like, say, the Four Foundations of Mindfulness (AN 10.95).
Ananda was startled and in awe, at peace and rejoiced at the Buddha's words. So why do we do this to ourselves, piling up points of contention, fearfully "needing" to know everything in advance -- What will it take? How long will it take? If I fail, do I get all of my suffering back in full? -- a tangle of views and disputes, more clever questions than could possibly have ever been asked by any ancient before us. You know, they weren't as smart as us, those old seekers on their spiritual quest in millennia and aeons past?
Practice and see. It is of immediate benefit. If one is burdened by clinging, how long after letting go will I feel relief?
Immediate. Simultaneous. Just as soon as. It isn't the common, "Be good now, and be rewarded with a slice of heaven later" religious deal. It isn't, "Well, if I don't become a monastic and go all in, what's the point, Droopy Dog?"
- You know what the man should have asked, and thank goodness someone else did? "What does it take to conduct this path-of-practice? Who can succeed? Who is it for that you have taught for 45 human years what you taught?" That question, remarkably, he did answer. It's for the average person or deva (light being, lit. "shining one" of which there are many kinds but presumably those closer to human plane of existence, of average intelligence, the manyfolk. He didn't attain in a deva world and come down from on high to tell people what's up and give commands and threats. He in fact said the human plane is the easiest place to attain enlightenment. Why? It is because there are worse worlds, like the animals, ghosts, and those suffering worse than we suffer. And there are much better worlds, the many planes of the various kinds of devas, where they party and celebrate, cavort and conduct entertainments so much and so pleasing, who's got time to strive or just sit there? I need a cool dress for the cotillion! A corsage, a suit, a cape to really make an entrance, and so on and so forth. But the human plane, which is not just this Earth, is like the seashore beach where the waves are tumbling and being tossed about in torments and tempests. We get swept away, sure, but we can usually swim back to the sort of safety of the beach. Inland, where the parties endlessly roar, as well as celestial wars and more troubles than one would think the long-lived devas (deus, Olympic gods, asuras, gandhabbas) would have to endure given their good but far from perfect previous karmic merit. Here we experience enough pain to remember why we need and want to practice for freedom and complete liberation; yet, here, too, we experience enough pleasures that it's kind of nice and devic sometimes. That's why it's best to practice here and not delude ourselves, imagining, "Oh, yeah, later, when I'm in the mood."
If it were not so, we would not bother to say all of this. As peace grows, the heart gains confidence (saddha) which gently impels us forward.
Which way will you turn tomorrow on the way to the whatchamacallit thingy? Yeah, that's the way you usually go, but what if that path is blocked by the remains of a bonfire or crowds in the crosswalk or heavy bumper-to-bumper traffic? Since you don't know for sure, you shouldn't leave the house. Too risky. Play it extra-safe. Stay in bed. Sleep in. Bliss (piti) can wait. It's always been waiting. 💖
Hear about Wisdom Quarterly's Blogisattva Award chances?
- See Accomplished Theravada Buddhist meditation teacher Sharon Salzberg
- For more detailed advice as the stages begin, see also British teacher Beth Upton
- Other remarkable resources are Czech polymath and dual-ordained monk Ven. Dhammadipa (Ven. Xing-Kong), Tina Rasmussen, powerful Sayalay Dipankara, Stephen Snyder, Sayalay Susila, Jack Kornfield, Trudy Goodman, Melissa McKay, Pema Chodron...and many others
- Text by Teacher Seven for Wisdom Quarterly; animated video by Sharon Salzberg (sharonsalzberg.com, podcast, videos, all that jazz someone else has to manages), Ananda (Dharma Buddhist Meditation)
Thursday, November 14, 2024
What did the Buddha eat? “Pig’s Delight”
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| A new disciple of the Buddha offers a meal to the Teacher (Buddhism/jendhamuni.com) |
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“Pig’s Delight”?
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| Out of the mouths of Babe(s) |
These are patently specious claims. A Pali canon (Theravada Buddhist) discourse called the Jivaka Sutta is the source of the infamous “three purities” argument. It states:
“I proclaim that there are three circumstances when meat should not be eaten:
- when it is seen,
- heard, or
- suspected [as being present?]
“I proclaim that meat should not be eaten under those three circumstances.”
- Jīvaka questions the Buddha about meat eating, and he says: “Anyone who slays an animal for the use of a monastic and gives it to that monastic commits a terrible evil.” Jīvaka is pleased with this answer and declares himself a follower of the Buddha (M.i.368f.)
- Note, if a monastic were to eat meat, he or she would not necessarily be guilty of killing or even encouraging anyone to kill IF he or she neither saw, heard, nor suspected that an animal was killed [for one's sake or for any misguided reason]. Of course, we don't blame recipients of someone else's giving/dana). For example, if we give to a homeless person, is that good or bad? Does it depend on what that person chooses to do with the money if we did not know when we offered it? If he buys a knife and stabs someone, are we guilty of murder? We acted, and he acted.
- Further questioned by Jīvaka, the Buddha explains that a follower (upāsaka) is one who has "gone for guidance" to the Three Gem (Buddha, Dhamma, and [Noble] Sangha, what the Buddhist Teacher Seven translates as "the Teacher, Teaching, and [successfully] Taught") and undertaken the Five Precepts or lay training rules, and that such a person, by reason of these qualities, works for the benefit of oneself and others (A.iv.222f.)
- One's virtue (sila) is "pure" if one follows the Five Precepts, which means abstaining from doing harm by killing or causing to kill, stealing or causing to steal, engaging in sexual misconduct or causing another to do so, engaging in false speech [which is the biggest one because this actually has four factors*] or causing another to do so, consuming intoxicants that occasion heedlessness (negligence, moral carelessness) or causing another to do so.
- *"False speech" means bearing false witness or speaking divisive, idle, or harsh speech, all of which gets translated as "lying" when it is so much more.
- Finally, a Buddhist or disciple avoids "wrong livelihood": business in arms, business in living beings (animals, people, insects), business in meat, business in alcohol, or business in poisons (A.V.177).
- In this way one avoids the Ten Courses of Unwholesome Action or "bad karma."
Clearly, the Buddha is stipulating that if a monastic disciple (bhikkhu, bhikkhuni, samanera, samaneri, or maechi and sometimes anagārikas -- monk, nun, male novice, female novice, white clad ten precept nuns or special probationers) inadvertently consumes meat that has been placed in one's alms bowl, one is not at fault.
Guidelines are more lax in all things for lay Buddhists, who simply maintain the Five Precepts; however, those precepts include "not killing nor causing anyone else to kill." What is one doing when paying a butcher shop or supermarket for slaughtered flesh but hiring someone to slaughter, cut up, and sell the dead or their organs? That would be causing (asking, inducing, enticing, ordering, paying) someone else to kill for us. How can we be so deluded as to think that we did not order, cause, or contribute to that killing? The Godfather doesn't get his hands dirty but pays Guido to do his killing for him. Guido doesn't know the victims and is just doing the job he was paid to do. Is the Godfather guilty of murder for the people Guido's hands kill?
All mothers are alike in raising kids
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| You're not going to slaughter me? - No! I'm going to pay my butcher to. - WHAT!?! - He's the killer. |
One's action (intention, karma, deed) remains pure. However, if one sees, hears, or so much as suspects that there is meat in one's bowl, one must not eat it.
Later commentators gratuitously inserted the phrase [“that the living being has been slaughtered for oneself”] after each iteration of the word “suspected.”
That phrase does NOT appear in the original Pali text. It is a spurious addition, making it seem as if the Buddha allowed monastic disciples under his training to eat meat so long as an animal was not expressly killed to feed them, or at least when they did not see, hear, or suspect that such a killing (slaughtering, butchering) took place.
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| I live by Mafia rules, keep my hands clean |
The Buddha gives extensive arguments against meat (flesh, animal) eating in the Angulimaliya Sutra, Nirvana Sutra, Karma Sutra, Shurangama Sutra, Mahamegha Sutra, Lankavatara Sutra, Maha Parinirvana Sutra, and others.
In the “Net of All-Embracing Views Discourse” (Brahmajala Sutta), Shakyamuni (the historical Buddha Gautama) exhorts his disciples to adopt veganism:
“Monastics, should you willingly and knowingly eat flesh, you defile yourselves. Pray, let us not consume any flesh or whatsoever comes from sentient beings.”
Perhaps the most infamous of all revisionist interpretations is the one claiming that the Buddha passed away from eating contaminated pork (trichinosis, dysentery, cholera) offered by Cunda the Silversmith.
The term used in the Pali language “Great Final-Nirvana Discourse” (Mahaparinibbana Sutta) to describe the dish that Cunda served the Buddha at his last meal is sukara-maddava, which literally means “pig’s delight” — a clear reference to truffles, a type of mushroom (underground fungal fruiting body) that pigs delight in sniffing out, digging up, and eating as much of as possible.
The Pali term for “fatty pig meat, slaughtered swine flesh, or sliced stomach” is sukara-mamsa.
- COMMENTS
- (I. Rony) I think "pig's delight" means bloody pig, lard bacon, or hog's hair and eyes [aka hotdog or salami] because, think about it, when you order "Buddha's Delight" at a Chinese restaurant, it's Buddha flesh from that Fat Happy Guy at the door, isn't it? It has to be because it's right in the name.
- (Capt. Obvious) Hey, General Tso's Chicken contains canned General Tso...cannibals who like MSG order it all the time...so Pig's Delight is probbly 'Delightful Pig' in blood sauce with soy with entrails or offal guts
- “Boar, hog [pig, peccary, swine, suina, suines]” = Sukara, Śūkara, Sūkara, Su-kara, Shukara: 30 definitions (wisdomlib.org)
The famous Buddhist scholar Carolyn Rhys-Davies Caroline A.F. Rhys Davids -- wife and colleague of T.W. Rhys-Davids, founder of England's Pali Text Society), who served as its president from 1923 to 1942 -- clearly noted the discrepancy more than seven decades ago.
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| Hollywood's Babe, a talking farm pig (film) |
But proponents of human carnivory still trot out this fallacy today. Unless one is ignorant of the Pali language, or is willfully misleading oneself or others, it is impossible to assert that “pigs delight” means “delicious pork,” as if the Buddha had ordered a greasy dish in some Chinese restaurant.
In the Dhammapada, the Buddha says:
“All beings tremble before danger; all fear death.
When we consider this, we do not kill nor cause to kill.
All beings tremble before danger; life is dear to all.
When we consider this, we do not kill nor cause to kill.”
All beings means all beings, not just humans and devas.
- Meal of delicious truffles: dhammikaweb.com
- Buddhist veganism/vegetarianism
- The linchpin to restraint is shame (trepidation, scruples) and dread (considering the karmic consequences)
- Did Buddha [eat] pork before dying? | Vipin Tyagi
- Based on outline by Tashi Nyima, Great Middle Way, Jan. 10, 2013; edited, clarified, and expanded by Dhr. Seven, Amber Larson, Ananda (Dharma Buddhist Meditation), CC Liu, Wisdom Quarterly 2024
Tuesday, November 5, 2024
Find Calm on Election Day: cute animals
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| Meditation + confidence = calm. |
Calm.com and the San Diego Zoo are providing a peaceful diversion on Election Day with cute animal videos.
Why it matters: It's important to find ways to de-stress and stay calm during election season, which won't be over on Nov. 5th.
Driving the news: Calm is hosting a live stream from the San Diego Zoo on Instagram so we can take a break from political doomscrolling to watch capybaras, meerkats, penguins, and other beautiful wildlife.
It starts at noon PT until polls close across the country.
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| Those humans are so full of fleas, ticks, and bugs because they won't clean each other. |
🐅 The intrigue: While he won't be featured on the livestream, a new tiger cub is out to play at the San Diego Zoo Safari Park.
Baby Barong, which means "king of spirits," stepped out of his den for the first time last week.
Watch him here or visit him in person at the park this weekend. More
Thursday, September 26, 2024
Just help ONE to save the world (9/28)
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| KARMA: It's everywhere you're going to be. |
Beautiful Los Angeles -- with its Hollywood Land, Santa Monica, UCLA, USC, Caltech, beaches, mountains, woods, canyons, and rivers -- is the jewel of Southern California. It's big enough, with over ten million people in the county with about 4.8 million in the City of LA. One would never imagine how much homelessness and poverty exist here. It's a Tale of Two Cities.
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| Wait, I can help by rappelling down a building? |
- URM's Over the Edge/JustHelp1.LA Event
- LA challenge is September 27 and 28, 2024
Could it be true, could karma be so strange?
Go Over the Edge
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| Jump? No, we're going to rappel down |
What if everyone in Los Angeles could just help one struggling neighbor?
As (Saint) Mother Teresa famously stated,
“If you can’t feed a hundred people, then just feed one.”
Although the homeless numbers in LA feel insurmountable when we consider the total, if we break the problem down to one individual helping one other individual, one family helping one other family, things change — exponentially.
Union Rescue Mission knows the power of ONE:
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| A store of good karma helps. |
- one friend to make sure one less child suffers from food insecurity
- one family to ensure that another family doesn’t have to spend one more night in their car
- one church to make sure one woman can find shelter in a safe community.
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| I never want to stop helping others and myself. |
Registration is FREE! Just raise $1,000 or more by 6:00 am on the day of your rappel, and you will qualify for this thrilling way to bring
new hope to the City of Angels.
YOU CAN Just Help 1 — and possibly many more — find their way home.
- F.A.Q.s
- Fundraising Tips
- What to Wear at the Event
- URM has raised $1.4 million
- Goal is $2,000,000 (two million)
- Help continue the fight against homelessness!
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ABOUT: Union Rescue Mission (URM) has for over 133 years provided safe shelter, meals, long-term rehabilitation programs, education, counseling, medical services, and spiritual encouragement to assist those wanting to escape the cycle of homelessness forever. Unfortunately, URM's work is far from over.  |
| Spiritual gets physical, intention becomes deed. |
As the world is changing, so has the state of homelessness in the city. People need more than just four walls, a meal, and a bed. They need what
URM is uniquely equipped for:
HOPE that lasting change and a transformed life are possible.
But URM can't do it alone. URM needs partners like YOU to join the Just Help 1 challenge -- a fresh approach to this on-going crisis.
This is your opportunity to turn your compassion into action and take a leap with URM in the fight against homelessness.
Click here for more information about Union Rescue Mission.
URM SPONSORS... More
- Union Rescue Mission (justhelpone.org, Summer 2024); Dhr. Seven, Ananda (Dharma Buddhist Meditation), Jen Bradshaw (eds.), Wisdom Quarterly
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