Explaining Buddhism through Einstein

The Triple Gem and Einstein

Oh, Buddha and wife Mileva, what is the A?

What if I, Ven. Subhuti (americanmonk.org), were to explain the Three Jewels (Triple Gem) to Westerners who know very little about Buddhism but do it in an unconventional way?

What if I were to use an analogy to understand what the Buddha (Teacher), the Dhamma (Teaching), and the Sangha (Taught) really mean?

• That might work, Bhante ("venerable sir"). Let's give it a try.

Westerners respect Real Fly Science Guy Alby Einstein and the laws of physics. The Buddha — The Awakened One — discovered the Path to Awakening. If I were to talk about the Buddha, I would say he’s a great scientist, but not just any great scientist. He’s the Alby Einstein of scientists.

Einstein has a physicist wife who gets no credit

The Buddha discovered (rediscovered because others in ancient times also awakened and taught the liberating truth) the laws of the spiritual (metaphysical) universe, the Dhamma, just as Einstein discovered (rediscovered) some laws of physics. All of these laws existed before, during, and after these discoveries. Neither the Buddha nor Einstein created them, of course. They are always there to be found.

Of course, the comparison is imperfect. Einstein is talking about the world we see and touch, whereas the Buddha goes far beyond to the unseen and hard to grasp. If one is worldly, the other seeks to go beyond. Beyond? Beyond the beyond, as the Heart Sutra claims. What is the use of worldly science to get beyond the world?

Do people understand that the Buddha’s realization was about ultimate truth? It’s not just counterintuitive, it’s timeless, beyond time, reaching universal laws of nature.

The Dhamma — The Liberating Truth

Dependent Origination (Brahm)

The Dhamma is the Truth, the Law, the Norm, the Regularity of thing, like E = mc² — a universal truth that does not depend on faith, belief, or even understanding. If no one understood, it would be no less true. (If no one entered nirvana, nirvana would remain just the same; like the ocean, it is neither increased nor decreased as rivers pour into it).

The Dhamma exists. It precedes things, succeeds them. It was existing before the Buddha realized it and continued just the same after him. But what truth could be true, unchanged, before and after?

For one thing, there’s the truth of suffering. Disappointment exists. It arises dependent on conditions. Three other more hopeful things are also true. Suffering has a cause. It has an end. And there is a path leading to the end of all suffering. This overview is known as the Four Noble Truths and the Noble Eightfold Path.

India gave us great math.

These are not ideas, not mere hypotheses, but truths to be tested, each person for oneself. There is no need of acceptance or faith -- except the faith (saddha, confidence) to come and see, to investigate, to test the path for oneself.

Natural laws govern the mind, body, and life itself. When one understands these deeply, so deeply that they have been penetrated, one awakens. The Truth is that close. How to approach it for optimal results, that only a supremely awakened teacher can point out.

The Saṅgha — Those Who Understand

Who hears the Buddha? The Sangha.

How to explain the spiritual community of practitioners, the Saṅgha, whether taken as the entire community of practitioners of Buddhism, the accomplished Noble (Aryan) Community, or the elite researchers, the Monastic Community?

Anyone can study physics, but only a few reach the research level, where they truly see the laws at work. Likewise, anyone can hear the Buddha's Teaching, the Dhamma, and attempt to practice it.

However, only the Noble Community (Ariya Saṅgha) — those who have already directly realized it, penetrated it, and therefore entered the four stages of enlightenment — truly know-and-see it. Between the average practitioner and the accomplished practitioner, there are the avid practitioners, the monastics.

That’s why it is said that "going for guidance" (sarana) to the Triple Gem or Three Jewels is not just going to any community. It is approaching the Noble Saṅgha — the four pairs and eight individuals who have attained realization (bodhi) and directly glimpsed nirvana (nibbāna).

The Poster on the Wall

Oh, Alby, what is the right equation?

I once met a physicist who said he didn’t "believe" in religion. He said that many elite physicists do not believe either. Instead, they follow another religion of faith ("Scientism" or "White Labcoatism"). They think that when we die, that’s it, we’re dead and nothing happens.

• This is the materialist, annihilationist wrong view the Buddha warned about, which is as much in error as the spiritualist, eternalist wrong view. He cautioned to avoid both extremes, following the Middle Way that explains all phenomena in terms of Dependent Origination, so that what does not make sense and seems to be a binary, a dichotomy, resolves into a very rational and impersonal explanation of things in line with ultimate truth.

Orthodox Theravādins might think of the Buddha in similar terms. While an average person is subject to old age, sickness, death, and [incessant] rebirth, a fully enlightened person (arahant) and a supremely enlightened Buddha has gone beyond all suffering and is no longer subject to this painful cycle known as samsara (the Wheel of Life and Death).

When one passes away, there is no more the arising of the rebirth-linking-consciousness in the very next mind-moment as there is with everyone else.

A physicist who is an atheist might have a large poster of Einstein on the wall. When stuck on a problem, that research physicist might look at it and may at times say, “Help me, Einstein!”

One doesn’t believe Einstein is listening — yet feels inspired by approaching, bring to mind Einstein, and directing attention towards him to renew confidence and inspiration. "Einstein" lives on through the laws he discovered and made known and through those who continue to explore and realize the truth of those laws of physics.

The Buddha's life as allegory: the heroic journey

That’s exactly how the Buddha “lives” on through the Dhamma, the Teaching, the things made known through his great awakening.

The Buddha himself said, “Whoever sees the dhamma [the truth of phenomena] sees the Buddha.” So when someone knows and practices the Teachings, the Dhamma, that Dhamma is alive in that person, and that person knows the Buddha in that way and to that extent — not as a being abiding somewhere else but as that wisdom itself.

As long as Einstein’s physics are made known and kept alive, we may also say that Einstein also lives on.

Going Beyond Mind and Matter

In the end, all that arises — the Five Aggregates clung to as self, the mind and body — pass away.

When one truly knows Dhamma, that knowing leads beyond mind and matter. That’s nirvana: the complete cessation of ignorance and suffering with no more new arising of mind and matter.

So may this reflection help those on the path to develop right view so as to see clearly into the true nature of reality and reach the peace of nirvana safely and quickly.

Summary poem

The Buddha saw the timeless law

Pure, unwritten, free of flaw

Like Einstein beholding light of form

Knowing the effects of atom torn

The Dhamma lives when Truth is known

The Saṅgha walks a path of wisdom grown

Not in realms unseen at which angels gnaw

The Buddha lives by Dhamma's awe

• Bhante, Ven. Subhuti (americanmonk.org), Oct. 8, 2025; edited by Dhr. Seven and Amber Larson, Wisdom Quarterly

Vassa: What is Buddhist Rains Retreat?

What is the Buddhist Rainy Season or Rains Retreat (Vassa)? What is the Rains Retreat or "Buddhist Lent"? Understanding the Vassa and Kaṭhina ceremonies

Each year, Theravāda Buddhist monastics all over the world make a determination to stay in a single monastery for a three-month period of the Rainy Season also known as the Vassa, the Rains Retreat. This year it begins July 10th.

One will hear the term “Vassa” often in this article, so please bear it in mind. Traditionally, it starts the day after the Full Moon Day in July or the day after the Āsāḷha full moon as it is known in the Pāḷi language.

If monks move around a lot and one needs to rely on a teacher, one can at least expect monks to stay at a single monastery for a full three months without moving around. Some make determinations to practice harder, while others who already follow a steady practice simply continue their daily routine as usual.

In this article, let's look at the origins of Vassa, the different types, the allowances to leave the Vassa on business or emergencies, if it affects the age of a monastic, and what happens at the end of the Vassa.

The Origins of Vassa

During the Buddha’s time, monastics (samanas or "wandering ascetics") wandered on foot between different monasteries (viharas), forests, groves, and villages. They would wander during all times of the year, even during the period or season of heavy rains. However, laypeople—especially farmers—began to complain:

“How can the Sakyan [Scythian, Saka, Shakyian] monastics go wandering in the winter, in the summer, and even during the rainy season? They’re trampling down the green grass shoots, oppressing one-sensed living being, and destroying many small creatures. Even the monastics of other doctrines (religions), with their flawed (imperfect) teachings, settle down for the rainy season. Even birds make a nest in the top of a tree and settle down for the rainy season. But not so the Sakyan monastics.”

Out of compassion and to match the culture of the time, the Buddha responded with a new instruction: Anujānāmi, bhikkhave, vassaṁ upagantun'ti. “I allow you, monastics, to enter the rains residence.”*

This rule brought the monastics the Rains Retreat period of three months that met the expectations of the lay communities during the time of the Buddha. It now inspires the practice and striving of monastics, as it has for generations, all the way to the present. Moreover, it inspires laypeople in the present.

Two Kinds of Vassa

The Buddha allowed for two entry points into the Rains Residence: Dvemā, bhikkhave, vassūpanāyikā: purimikā ca pacchimikā ca: “There are two entries, the earlier and the later.” Purimikā (First Vassa) begins the day after the Āsāḷha full moon. Pacchimikā (Second Vassa) begins one month later.

Sometimes referred to as “Second Vassa.” This allowance for two Vassas shows the Buddha’s practical wisdom and compassion because not everything goes right the first time, as will be discussed later. It should be noted that the determination to stay in one monastery for three months is actually the day after the full moon day. This is when the new month starts.

Although most monasteries have the Vassa ceremony on the full moon day and it is a time for a large gathering, that is just for laypeople because they have that day off. Monastics really make the official determination the next day. Most of laypeople will probably never know it really happens on the next day.

Leaving during Vassa: seven-day business rule

Monastics are expected to remain in their Vassa location for the full three months. However, issues may come up where a monastic needs to leave. The Buddha allowed what is called, Sattāhakaraṇīya or “seven-day business.” Some of the many valid reasons include: More

• Bhante Subhuti (US student of Pa Auk Sayadaw), American Monk.org, July 10, 2025; Amber Larson, Dhr. Seven, Pat Macpherson (eds.), Wisdom Quarterly

Parrots: Avoid fools, associate with wise

I had to get out of that situation. I'd rather fly alone than keep company with a fool.

25 funniest comics about parrots, illustrated by keeper of the birds herself (boredcomics.com)

• In honor of World Parrot Day (Protecting Our Feathered Friends) WORLD PARROT DAY 2025 (National Today), we bring back this classic post.

Stay far away from fools, and instead associate with the wise

Avoiding fools and

Associating with the wise,

Giving respect to the deserving,

This is [among] life's highest blessings.

Sattigumba and Pupphaka

Asevanā ca bālānaṃ, paṇḍitānañca sevanā;

Pūjā ca pūjaneyyānaṃ

etaṃ maṅgalamuttamaṃ.

Maṅgala Sutra

That's a good bird! - Thank you, sir.

These lines verses from the "Blessings Sutra" uttered by the Buddha who was asked, “What is life's highest blessing?” He spoke of 38 blessings. However, this first verse is perhaps the most important. We are smart to distinguish the fools from the wise.

The Commentary to this verse explains: Fools commit unskillful karma (demeritorious deeds of body, speech, and mind).

The wise create skillful karma (meritorious deeds of body, speech, and mind). The wise develop virtue (sila, morality, ethical conduct).

Lay Buddhists keep Five Precepts, Eight Precepts on fasting (lunar observance) days, and Ten Precepts on retreat or during intensive practice). Monastics vow to adhere to 227 Precepts, including eight more for females who follow the garudhammas.

When a wise person hears about or recollects the Five Precepts, or a wise monastic hears about or calls to mind the 227 Precepts, that person becomes happy.

When one hears of the unskillful karma created by breaking precepts, one becomes happy because of not having broken those precepts and knowing that bad karmic results (resultants and fruits or vipaka and phala) will be avoided.

When one hears of skillful karma due to virtue, one becomes happy, knowing that welcome results will come. This is true for "wise" people, according to the Bālapaṇḍita Sutra (MN 129).

I'm not a fool. I'm drunk -- and loving it. 🤢🤮

Fools (bāla) are described in the same discourse:

Suppose a fool is sitting in a council hall, street, or crossroads, where people are discussing what is proper and suitable. And suppose that fool is someone who kills living creatures, steals, engages in sexual misconduct, lies (deceives), and uses intoxicants that occasion negligence.  That fool thinks:

"‘These people are discussing what is proper and fitting; those things are found in me, and I am seen in them!’

"This is the first kind of suffering and sadness a fool experiences in the present life.

"Those who fail to uphold the Five Precepts [which are useful for all humans of whatever religion or philosophy] for lay practitioners or 227 for monastics become fearful when they hear these precepts and the negative results from breaking them. They are called fools."

Actually, the ones who become afraid have some hints of wisdom, for they know they should change [so as to avoid future suffering].

I'm starting to think you might be a bad influence on me. - Shut the front door, Birdbrain.

.

It is the ones without fear who do not become afraid at all when hearing these things who are absolute fools. They are the most dangerous because they hold wrong views and act on them. They are dangerous because they believe the unskillful actions they do are actually skillful, and they spread these wrong views with others.

The Commentary to the Maṅgala Sutra, "The Discourse on Blessings," says that this is like a house on fire, burning: It easily spreads to neighboring houses.

Spiritual development starts with being morally wise. After morality is developed, one is capable of developing stillness of mind (samatha, samadhi).

Those who have developed stillness (samadhi, unification, concentration, coherence) have completed the second part of “being wise.”

The third part is to develop insight knowledge or vipassana. One must have the ability to focus, be calm, and remain still to develop insight knowledge. And one must have virtue (morality) to develop focus (non-distractedness).

That is why it is said that virtue, stillness, and wisdom (sīla, samādhi, and paññā), in this order and not in any other order, is the path to enlightenment.

The highest level of insight is the glimpsing or realization of nirvana (Pali nibbāna). And the highest level of attaining nirvana (while still alive) is full enlightenment or arahant knowledge.

• While a person yet lives, this is called enlightenment with remainder because one is still experiencing the results of previous karma, while no longer accruing any new karma. All intentional actions at this point are called kriyas or "simple (functional) actions." They do not bear fruit. When one enters final nirvana or parinibbana, this is enlightenment without remainder.

An arhat (arahant) is someone in whom passion (greed and clinging), aversion (hatred and fear), and delusion (ignorance and wrong views) are completely destroyed without remainder. These are the noble ones who have laid down the burden, who have made an end of suffering and rebirth here and now.

Where do I ordain?

Wanting to practice a direct path to enlightenment free of all worldly distractions, many people ask where to ordain. To find a proper abbey, look for spiritually wise monastics. While this is difficult to discern by merely looking, morally wise monastics are easier to detect.

One cannot be spiritually wise without being morally wise. Therefore, start at a place where both the monastic rules (vinaya) and meditation are regarded as important.

Rotten apple

[In the West, one bad apple rots the entire barrel.] In addition to a burning house spreading fire to another, the Maṅgala Sutra Commentary speaks of rotten fish spreading rot to nearby objects.

One who ties up putrid fish

with blades of kusa grass

makes the kusa grass smell foul:

so it is in the following fools

(It 68, 9-12, Ja IV 435, 28-29, JaVI 236 4-5).

Maṅgala Sutra Commentary: In contrast, the commentary explains that if one were to wrap tagara jasmine flowers with leaves, those leaves would become wonderfully fragrant.

One who ties up tagara

with leaves [fallen from a tree]

makes the leaves sweetly fragrant:

So it is in following the wise

(It 68, 13-16, Ja IV 436, 1-2, Ja VI 236, 6-7).

Maṅgala Sutra Commentary: This is literally used to explain that whatever is near to us can easily “rub off” on us. Perhaps the best example of this is our language or accent.

Not long ago, if someone were from New York City or Long Island, one could easily tell by the way that person talked.

My father is from the Bronx, and everyone who hears him speak knows it. This is becoming a thing of the past because of TV and internet videos that are homogenizing us.

Think about it. Television and internet media affect us in deeply rooted and subconscious ways. They affect the way we speak without us realizing it. If they can affect the way we sound to others, why would they not impact our attitudes, beliefs, and morals without us realizing it?

As internet algorithms choose more and more polarizing and extreme material to present to us, those things will become a part of us. They become the new normal. They already have.

We are encouraged to associate or live with the wise, with those who are higher than us in terms of morality and wisdom. This is very important because it will be easy for this to rub off on us, such as the fragrance of flowers.

The twin parrots Buddhist birth story

The Sattigumba Jātaka is listed in the Commentaries quoted above to explain this point.

It is the tale of two parrots born as twins. A storm comes, and they are separated shortly after birth.

One bird is raised by a gang of thieves, the other by hermit wandering ascetics. The king comes across both parrots at different times. The first encounter is the bad parrot who speaks of stealing and killing, while the other speaks of sharing and kindness. The king is moved by the difference between the two.

This story may seem hard to believe, but we can find examples of parrots on YouTube that point this out. Believe it or not, many parrots are in need of shelter. Enter “parrot + a location” into a search engine and see the many organizations looking for new nests for their avian orphans. 

• The video above is about a rescued bird who lived with bad people and witnessed a terrible crime.

This parrot witnessed the murder of its owner. It became a key witness at the trial in the human world. Likewise, there are numerous channels with loving parrots who obviously had loving owners, such as this one:

Hey, give me a kiss. - Sure, 'bout time you asked. Hey, WTH? Why you you little love-blocker!

Hello? What the H do you want? - Les, is that U?

This post by Bhante, now edited by Wisdom Quarterly, is dedicated to Bhante’s cousin, Les Brodie, who died. He had a well-trained talking bird and told me about what a joy it was to have it. It had its own bike, and the bird would often pick up the house phone with its claw on the first ring and imitate his voice, “Hello? Uh huh...ummm...yes...uh huh…”

Apparently, sometimes his friends would have whole conversations with the bird without Les knowing it. He was a very special bird, and his person was not so bad either.

If we are parents, our children are our parrots. They are watching and listening whether we like it or not, and they will mimic and model themselves after us.

Moreover, WE are all talking birds, parroting whomever we follow and associate with. Those with whom we associate rub off on us like wrapping around stinky fish or fragrant flowers. So it is wise to be wise in choosing our associates.

Avoiding fools and

Associating with the wise,

Giving respect to those worthy of it,

This is life’s highest blessing.

• Pa Auk Sayadaw student Bhante Subhuti (americanmonk.org), 4/22/22; Amber Larson and Dhr. Seven (eds.), Wisdom Quarterly orig. published June 3, 2024

Secret Teachings of Theravada Buddhism

The Secret Doctrine

If there were a book that had all of the secret teachings of Theravāda Buddhism, the Path of Purification (Visuddhimagga) would be it.

This compendium explains all of the good stuff, like:

• how to attain samādhi (super consciousness, coherent stillness, purified concentration);
• how to attain psychic powers, including knowing and seeing past lives.
• it includes the stages of insight and wisdom that one needs to reach nirvana.

Knowing and Seeing

Books do not get more complete than this. One can read a FREE and condensed version of this path in a book called Knowing and Seeing by Ven. Pa-Auk Sayadaw (amazon.com), who teaches the exact method based on the Path of Purification. Find the free PDF link here.

If one wishes to know more about mindfulness-of-breathing (ana-pana-sati), Ven. Nyanamoli wrote a small book that contains information from both the Path of Purification and what some say is its predecessor the Path to Freedom (Vimuttimagga). It can be found free at urbandharma.org or in book form at this amazon.com link.

Basically, there are no secrets in Early Theravāda Buddhism because the historical Buddha proclaimed that he was not teaching a "secret" doctrine but one who offered his Dharma (his Doctrine and Discipline) openly to those wise enough to hear it.

There are, however, texts that are not well known (until now). We should never have to pay for such teachings because they are priceless and if people paid the price of it, no one would be able to afford it. Be wary if anyone asks for payment for these sacred Teachings.

All of the content inside Knowing and Seeing can be learned at Pa-Auk Meditation Centers. There is no charge at these centers, not for food, teachings, or lodging.

Best of luck, and please let me know how things go!

Bhikkhu Subhuti

• 

  Buddhaghosa compiling the texts in Sri Lanka

  Wikipedia (edited by WQ): Visuddhimagga (The Path of Purification), is the "great treatise" on Theravada Buddhist doctrine compiled by Ven. Buddhaghosa in approximately the 5th century in Sri Lanka. It is a comprehensive manual condensing and systematizing the theoretical and practical teachings (vada) of Gautama Buddha as they were understood by the "elders" (theras) of the Great Monastery in Anuradhapura, in ancient Sri Lanka. It is described as “the hub of a complete and coherent method of exegesis (explanation) of the Three Baskets (Tipitaka), using the Abhidhamma method as it is called. It sets out detailed practical instructions for the purification of mind. It is considered the most important [commentarial] Theravada text outside of the threefold canon of the scriptures. Its structure is based on the Rathavinita Sutta (the “Relay Chariots Discourse,” MN 24), which describes the progression from the purity of discipline to the final destination of nirvana in seven steps. Its contents strongly resemble the material found in brief in an earlier treatise called the Path to Freedom (Vimuttimagga). [This is because both are thought to be written by the same author, one as a draft or outline and the other with all of the details added.]

• Ven. Subhuti, americanmonk.org, The Secret Teachings of Theravada, 9/22/18 edited by Dhr. Seven, Wisdom Quarterly

Planting Karma Seeds: a Meditation Journey

Planting Wisdom: Karma Reflections and a Meditation Journey

Man, it would be so cool to learn meditation.

Here's a story about reconnecting with my first meditation teacher after nearly two decades.

The focus is on the seeds we plant continuously through our karma (deeds). What kind of seeds are we planting right now?

• VIDEO: The Seeds from Long Ago (YouTube)

Beat poet Jack Kerouac

I remember when I first learned how to meditate [by being mindful of] my breath some time in 1990, during my university years.

Back then, meditation was not as well known. The Beat Generation’s Zen trend in the 1960s had died out with disco in the 1970s.

Barnes and Noble had maybe only a few shelves in a single bookcase labeled with “Eastern Philosophy” that covered all Eastern religions, including Buddhism.

Ram Das’s cryptic book Be Here Now was the only book I had read prior to reading my World Religions book, which included a chapter on Buddhism for a class I took.

Be Here Now (Ram Dass for Neem Karoli Baba)

It was different in the early 1990s. There wasn’t a World Wide Web, Google, or even a digital Yahoo. We didn’t have Idiot or Dummy books back then. While there were books out there, you really had to explore a subculture, and you had to know someone in order to know what the subcultures were and where to find them.

Luckily, I had a friend who was into Zen, and he was considering becoming a Catholic priest at the time. He recently transferred from UC Berkeley, not far from San Francisco, which might be called the subculture mecca of the United States, certainly for the "weird" things like meditation. I asked him to teach me. I thought it would be good for me to learn from him.

He agreed and came over to my apartment one night to teach me a lesson I would never forget. I remember we were sitting on the floor of the living room during the lesson. I was thinking about TV’s depiction of meditation and what should be happening. Then I said, “Should I light a candle?” He said, “If you want to, you can.”

“Should I light an incense stick?”

Mindfulness of Breathing, Four Elements Meditation

“If you want to, you can. You can have representations of the Four Elements.”

He explained it to me, but I did not really know what he meant, so I lit a candle and an incense stick to fit my world view of what "meditation" should be like. Before we started, he gave me a little bit of a lesson on the story of the Buddha and how he became enlightened.

He then told me some things about the sitting posture and to press my tongue against the roof of my mouth and to swallow a lot in a natural way. “They say it is good for you,” he said.

Then he taught me how to count my breaths “Zen style.” I would silently and inwardly count the exhales of my breaths one by one until I got up to ten. Then I would count backwards back down to zero. Then up to ten again, and then back to zero. I would repeat these cycles until it was time to stop. If I lost my count, I would just start all over again from “one.”

After our session was over, he left and that was more or less “The Lesson.” After that, I do not know why, but I continued with this practice and other forms of meditation almost every day, more or less for the rest of my life (with some exceptions of course).

Twenty years later, in 2010, I visited Ulpathkanda, Hantanna (Spring Hill Monastery) near Kandy, Sri Lanka, where I was able to use the Internet for the first time in a very long time. I sometimes joked about how I was doing an “Internet retreat” from my full-time life as a forest monk in Na-uyana.

Nevertheless, I was still at a high mountainous jungle forest monastery. I looked up my old friend, my meditation instructor, on the Internet. When we were in college together, he had changed his major from philosophy to whatever one needs to become a Spanish teacher.

It looked as though he had really lived the Spanish lifestyle and moved all over the globe to Spanish- and Portuguese-speaking countries. The Internet kept track of all the different countries he lived in. It is true that “Big Brother is watching,” just like George Orwell warned, so I could now watch with an Internet connection.

After all of that globetrotting, he settled down in a Connecticut town not too far from where he originally taught me how to meditate. I picked up the monastery phone, dialed the phone card codes, then I dialed his number. The phone rang, and a woman’s voice answered the phone. “Hello?”

“Hello, my name is Bhikkhu Subhūti, and I was wondering if a Brett [J.] lives here?”

“Yes, he does.”

“May I speak with him please?”

“Uh, okay,” she said in a cautious voice to the stranger on the phone. Perhaps I was a telemarketer to her. They did not know what to expect. There were muffled voices coming through the phone’s speaker, then eventually the phone was passed to Brett.

“Hello, this is Brett.”

I instantly recognized his voice, which had stayed the same all these years.

Hello, this is Bhikkhu Subhuti (Jeremy Glick)

“Hello, this is Bhikkhu Subhūti. You once knew me as Jeremy Glick from Central. Do you remember me?” (Central is a shorthand name for Central Connecticut State University).

“Yes, I remember you, Jeremy.”

I continued, “A long time ago, you came over my place and taught me how to meditate and how to count my breaths. With a few exceptions, I practiced nearly every day, and my practice grew and grew, and eventually I decided to become a Buddhist monk in 2001. Now my name is ‘Bhikkhu Subhūti.’ I looked you up on the Internet so I could call you and say, ‘Thank you.’”

But, hey, um, hello! I'm Jiminy Glick (Martin Short)

There was a long pause. It was five or six seconds of delay before he spoke, so it seemed long. He finally broke the silence and said, “You know, we never know what will happen to the seeds we have planted long ago.”

I did not expect him to still be a teacher of mine, but those were words of wisdom. We caught up on some old times. He was indeed a Spanish teacher and married a woman from Spain. His brother, who was an electrical engineer, quit the industry and now counts caribou in Alaska for a living.

I told him that I never went into teaching, which was expected at college, so I became a computer programmer instead for about six years before leaving all that behind me.

Times have changed and so did the both of us. I told him that I had my brother make me a Facebook account (with two friends), and although as a schoolteacher he was against Facebook, he thought I might be able use it to do something worthwhile for other people. I did not do much with social networks until last year, but I kept his thoughts in mind.

We talked some more and then we parted. If you ever have a chance to thank someone who has affected your life, I highly recommend it. Often, we do not think we make a difference, but we do, positively and, unfortunately, negatively. We always plant seeds in ourselves and others. Some germinate, while others do not.

Sometimes we believe they are trivial sprouts, but some can grow into towering redwoods. It can change a whole person’s destiny. So always plant happy seeds because, “We never know what will happen to the seeds we have planted long ago.”

• Ven. Subhuti (americanmonk.org, Feb. 11, 2024, originally 2014, reposted | American Monk: Life with Buddha, Dhamma and Saṅgha); Dhr. Seven (ed.), Wisdom Quarterly

Rejoice: Flower Garlands of Merit (Subhuti)

Ven. Subhuti (Jeremy Glick), americanmonk.org, 3/10/24; Dhr. Seven (ed.), Wisdom Quarterly

Making Garlands of Merit

Let's make merit with this bud. - Not smoke it?

(March 10, 2024) Recently, American Theravada Buddhist monk Venerable Subhuti has been making more videos rather than written posts. This enables him to put more into each presentation.

Here he shares personal stories along with the Dhamma, the Buddha's precious Teachings.

What can be done with flowers other than giving?

While most may be more interested in hearing about what the monastic life is like over learning the Dhamma, we will still hear about both.

Readers love personal information. This Dhamma talk explores Verse 53 of the Dhammapada and the different aspects of making merit (profitable karma) he thinks most will like.

Why would this make anyone smile? What human thing in us is moved?

Rejoice (anumodana)

Wisdom Library (wisdomlib.org) edited by Dhr. Seven, Wisdom Quarterly

Dana is sharing, letting go, giving, charity, caring, developing generosity, benefitting others.

It is very good karma (meritorious deeds known as punya) made even better by sharing word of it so that others may rejoice (anumodana) and make the rare good karma of rejoicing in good deeds others have done.

We are misguided in the West, always "hiding our light under a bushel," which is good advice as far as it goes. But it goes too far. We as a culture are not taught to be happy for others, to derive happiness from them being happy. Instead, we're taught to be competitive and selfish and actually to take delight in their lack of success, loss, ruin, and misery.

It's called schadenfreude. a German term imported into English, not because we're all genetically German but because our American culture is. We're very much painted by Germanic and Ashkenazi influences on our religions and ways to interpret and practice them.

In the East, we rejoice! Asians customarily help neighbors do good things. They delight that good things are being done for the whole community, even joining in to grow the good and partake of the merit. Such people spread word of others' good deeds, praising and rejoicing, rejoicing and praising.

DEFINITION

Anumodana (अनुमोदन) means “joy in the joy of others, in sympathy with others' joys.” It represents one of the “seven types of devotional practice” (pūjā), according to Buddhist teachings followed by the Buddhist Newah people in the Kathmandu Valley of Nepal, whose roots can be traced to the Licchavi period, 300-879 CE.

The connection that Vajrayāna (Himalayan Buddhism of Nepal, Tibet, Bhutan, and parts of Kalmykia, Siberia, Mongolia, and Russia) has to the larger Mahāyāna ("Greater Vehicle") is expressed through the saptavidhānottara-pūjā, "the sevenfold supreme offering," a seven-step procedure for setting the intention to become a Buddha (samma-sam-buddha, pacceka-buddha, or personal-buddha called an arhat).

Anumodana (happiness derived from others' giving or other good deeds) refers to cultivating joy because others are joyful or, by having done good, in store for wished for and pleasant results. Big causes of joy are reflecting on the virtues of the buddhas (awakened ones), bodhisattvas (those intent on becoming buddhas), and arhats (fully enlightened ones).

An example of “anumodanā”

Feeding others is giving health and strength.

Someone is practicing to develop good qualities (generosity, virtue, skillfulness in meditation). A spectator rejoices in seeing those acts and congratulates that person, saying: “Good, good, good! Sadhu, sadhu, sadhu! In this impermanent world enveloped with shadows of ignorance, you are strengthening great mind [of bodhi or enlightenment] and are planting merit (puṇya)!’’

Imagine a devoted donor (dāyaka) and a beneficiary (pratigrāhaka) and a third person standing beside them. The third person is joyful at the sight of the good action. One rejoices with them. The other two lose nothing. Such is the characteristic of experiencing joy in others' joy (anumodanā).

Thus, just by having a mind of such joy, happy just because others are happy or doing deeds that will come to fruit as more happiness in the future, a Bodhisattva or practitioner surpasses the ordinary practitioners of the two Vehicles (Mahayana and Theravada).

How much more could be said if one actually practices the qualities over which one is rejoicing? Now there is not just happiness that they are doing good and that future good is coming to them. Now I am happy at the goodness I see and practicing for future happiness that is coming my way, which if I'm lucky others will be happy for. and we will all make more good for being happy.

It's a positive feedback loop by way of which one stores up a great deal of merit. More