All Things Must Pass

On his deathbed, The Buddha spoke to his followers:

"Behold, O monks, this is my last advice to you. All component things in the world are changeable. They are not lasting. Work hard to gain your own salvation."

Then the Buddha lapsed into the jhana stages, or meditative absorptions. Going from level to level, one after the other, ever deeper and deeper. Then he came out of the meditative absorption for the last time and passed into nirvana, leaving nothing whatever behind that can cause rebirth again in this or any other world.

The Buddha passed away, entering the final nirvana, in 543 BC on a full-moon day in the month of May, known in the Indian calendar as Vesak. 

These final words of The Buddha are loosely summarized as "all things must pass"; they are also the title of a triple album by George Harrison .  The statement that "All Things Must Pass is one of the greatest truths of all, simple and straight forward.

All living things will die, all objects will change and be no more – from mountains to animals, from the rocks on a shoreline the stars in the galazy, to the galaxy and universe itself. All Things Must Pass.  However, it does not apply just to the material world but also to the phases of our lives. We pass from childhood to adult, from mid-life to death . We pass from a good period of life- moments of joy and fruifulness- to difficult times of challenge and pain. The winter of our lives is always followed by the renewal of spring  the warm summers of life are replaced by cold winters. As the words of the Bible and song by the 60's group, The Byrds, say "To every thing there is a season, and a time to every purpose under the heaven..." (Ecclesiastes 3:1).

Relationships are also transitory . Marriages end, children grow up and leave home; people lose jobs or retire. We all experience little deaths and rebirths throughout life. Eventually, we all get sick and must give up our bodies to death. All Things Must Pass.

Is anything permanent? Our non-physical Self which lives in the eternal now; the present is all that is permanent.

Sunrise doesn't last all morning

A cloudburst doesn't last all day

Seems my love is up

And has left you with no warning

But it's not always be this grey

All things must pass

All things must pass away

Sunset doesn't last all evening

A mind can blow those clouds away

After all this my love is up

And must be leaving

It's not always been this grey

All things must pass

All things must pass away

All things must pass

None of life's strings can last

So I must be on my way

And face another day

Darkness only stays at nighttime

In the morning it will fade away

Daylight is good at arriving

At the right time

It's not always

Going to be this grey

All things must pass

All things must pass away

All things must pass                                                                                              

All things must pass away.                                                                    

~ George Harrison

Presidential Dharma

With election season upon us, here's some articles to ponder that have a dharma connection....

From the Huffington Post:

Who to Vote For?

by Sharon Salzberg, Student of Buddhism, Meditation Leader

A few weeks before the presidential election in 2004, I was in Ohio attending a conference. One of the university staff who had helped organize it came to the closing on Sunday, apparently with some reluctance. She was crying, and said, "I couldn't decide whether to come or not, since it is Sunday and I usually go worship. At my church we're told that to be a good Christian and love the Lord we have to vote for George Bush." Weeping hard, she added "And I'm already suspect because I work at a university, which promotes free thinking."

I was stunned. As a spiritual leader, I knew I'd be busted if I told anyone who to vote for from the "pulpit," so to speak. And anyway, I don't think it's right to equate enlightenment, freedom or salvation with a particular candidate. That seems different to me than discussing values (like compassion) worldview (like interdependence) or ethics (like generosity) -- and any real discussion, from my point of view, involves free thinking. As in the quotation attributed to Albert Einstein, "The significant problems that we face cannot be solved by the same level of thinking that created them." I believe that collectively, we badly need some different ways of looking at life.

But we also need to vote. This is why I really admire the work of yogavotes.org andmindfulvotes.org. Voting is like alchemy -- taking an abstract value and breathing life into it. Voting is the expression of our commitment to ourselves, one another, this country and this world. And the imperative to vote is genuinely nonpartisan. When I did voter registration in Ohio in 2008, I didn't snatch the form back if someone indicated they were going to vote for the opposing party (I'm a registered Democrat, though I was an Independent for years). My ideal registration system would be an opt-out one, where every single person is registered once they turn 18. In Australia, I'm told, everyone is registered to vote and you pay a fine if you don't vote.

If every adult U.S. citizen would participate in the system, perhaps we would then also take the time to inform ourselves of the issues (not always easy in this day and age) and in addition, put ourselves in the shoes of others to try to understand where they are coming from (another thing that is not easy). We would all be better off for it.

For more by Sharon Salzberg, click here.

From The Shambhala Sun Space

Smiles all around: Pema Chödrön meets President Barack Obama

On September 13th, Buddhist nun, teacher, and author Pema Chödrön had the opportunity to meet President Barack Obama. There were, as you can see, smiles all around. Below, Glenna Olmsted, Executive Assistant to Pema, tells us about the meeting and how it came to be. 

It all seemed so surreal to get the call that Ani Pema might get an audience with Barack Obama. Our colleague Pamela Krasney had been trying to make it happen for months — Pema had told Pamela that she had wished for a while now to meet the president. So for the second time in recent weeks, we set it all up to get her to Denver, not knowing if it would really happen this time. But Pema was ready and willing no matter what.

On the morning of the meeting, we headed to Golden, Colorado, being guided by “the girl in the box” — as I like to call my GPS. She was relentless in getting us there, interrupting Tsoknyi Rinpoche’s teaching on the nature of mind (which came on from my playlist at random as we started our journey). Auspicious, and we got a great chuckle over it all to boot!

Finally we met up with our host, Bob Morehouse, at a nearby restaurant so that we could get a place to park, close enough to walk to Pema’s checkpoint. All went without a glitch as we checked her in and made our plans to meet up after the rally. We waited until they whisked her away to a security area where she would wait for the President with thirty other lucky folks.

The line to get in to the rally was about five blocks long. Unbeknownst to me, mine was a “VIP” ticket, so I was herded in through the maze and ended up right in front of the President’s podium. After his speech, I got to shake his hand! Wow!

Before he came out to speak, Ani Pema was anxiously awaiting his arrival. When he showed up, he was introduced to each person one by one. When it was Pema’s turn and she told him that she was a Buddhist nun, he asked her how long she had been a Buddhist. The thing that most impressed Pema was that he was so present with each person, genuinely asking and kindly listening, and playfully interacting with the children who were there.

Pema was so charmed with him that she couldn’t remember the rest of their conversation. He gave her a hug and they had their picture taken together. Then she and her newfound friends there were ushered to another VIP section to watch his speech.

Needless to say, it was something we will never forget!

For more about Pema and her work, visit the Pema Chödrön Foundation. And to sample her contributions to the Shambhala Sun, visit our Pema Chödrön Spotlight page.

Note: To open a larger, vertically cropped version of the above photo, click here.

And, at Buddhadharma News: President Obama met today with Burma’s tireless democracy leader, Aung San Suu Kyi. (Link opens in new window.)

Buddhism and Politics

From The Shambhala Sun:

Noah Levine: 
Practice Is Politics

Buddhist practice is a political action. Training one’s mind, heart and actions in wisdom and compassion is the ultimate form of political rebellion. The spiritual path is an engaged act of going against ignorance and oppression. Perhaps this is why the Buddha referred to his path to awakening as having been “against the stream.”

From a Buddhist perspective we find ourselves incarnated in the human realm of samsara. This realm is characterized by what are sometimes called the three fires of greed, hatred and delusion. Through personal effort and training we begin to extinguish the three fires, only to look around and see that although we are no longer engulfed in flames, the whole world is caught in a blazing inferno of suffering.

Even the most superficial assessment of the political situation in this world makes the Buddhist view of samsara ring true. We can easily see the greed, hatred and delusion that pervade the views and actions of those in power.

Buddhist practice reveals that compassion is the only rational response to the confusion and affliction that infuse the human realm. When we see that our every action can either cause or alleviate suffering, then the choices of nonviolence and non-greed are clear. The natural expression of the process of liberation is to act in ways that extinguish rather than fuel the fires that cause suffering.

This poses a personal and political dilemma. We know that samsara is a place of confusion, yet we also know that it is possible to understand this confusion and find personal freedom within this very realm. We know that we must respond with love and compassion to the suffering caused by those who have no understanding of these universal truths. We must then consider the implications of empowering political leaders who are ignorant as to the nature of reality and the consequences of their actions.

We may never have the opportunity to empower an enlightened or even wise being in the political arena. We may always be stuck with choosing the less deluded of two deluded beings. It may be that all we can do is make wise choices as to who we think will bring about less suffering and confusion to the world. From the perspective of non-harming we can see that no choice is the right one, but to make no choice at all is perhaps even worse.

So this is where our Buddhist practice becomes an engaged form of inner and outer rebellion—freeing ourselves from greed, hatred and delusion and doing all we can to lessen the suffering in the world caused by fear, ignorance and oppression.


Noah Levine is the author of Dharma Punx and Against the Stream.

David Kaczynski: 
Why Democracy Needs Dharma

Engaging in political action today requires attention to suffering, but too often the attention of politicians is absorbed in their own power. Instead of mindfulness, politicians and their professional handlers use extreme care to avoid a campaign-destroying gaffe. There is a prevailing shamelessness as candidates for high office accept campaign contributions from powerful interests and seek to advance themselves by destroying their opponents’ reputations and careers. Voters’ perceptions are subject to constant manipulation by campaign advertising and the news media. The political game is fueled with money, and its players know that a vote cast in ignorance, fear or narrow self-interest counts just as much as a vote cast thoughtfully for others’ benefit. In this zero-sum game of money, influence and image, winning is left to the winners.

Is a “progressive” politics even possible in samsara?

Buddhist practice is a unique mixture of patience, pragmatism, idealism and openness. The life of a Buddhist includes practice and is itself practice as we aspire to reach enlightenment. Dedicating our practice for the benefit of all sentient beings acknowledges a profound connectedness—the karmic connectedness of beings through interdependent arising and the ultimate connectedness of beings through our shared buddhanature. In Buddhist study and practice we discover the limitations of concepts—not only our concepts about people and circumstances, but our concepts regarding how they ought or ought not to be.

Through practice, we place ourselves in open connectedness with others while avoiding the impatient overreaching of concepts toward some imagined outcome. When we work to benefit others, skillful means emerge from the insights of Buddhist practice and from a deep regard for others’ buddhanature. This is the kind of “liberation” Buddhists know about.

The ideal of democracy in the West, with its emphasis on process, inclusiveness and human dignity, is imbued with many of the qualities and insights of the dharma.

As Buddhists, we also understand that there is no truth or wisdom without compassion. Engaged Buddhism represents an antidote to the politics of fear, hate, violence and separation. We realize that on the path to enlightenment, no one is left behind. Practice and study help us avoid the traps of polarized thinking. We resist war, yet we honor the soldier’s pain and sacrifice. We oppose the death penalty, yet we open our hearts to murder victims’ family members. We know that truth and transformation can be realized through listening and paying attention, as well as through speaking and taking action. We are the ones who don’t turn our heads away, who abide without discouragement, and who avoid becoming a mirror image of the enemy, because in the end we have no enemies.

Can there be a truly democratic politics without dharma in the broad sense? Is there anything more needed in public life than the dharma?

David Kaczynski is executive director of New Yorkers Against the Death Penalty. He and his wife Linda Patrik received national attention in 1996 when it was revealed that David’s brother, Theodore, known as the Unabomber, had been turned in by his own family.

First Mahamudra Retreat in Ontario

Note: Madeline Conacher and Louis Allen are Shambhala Teachers who have led training in the levels at East Aurora.

Article From Shambhala Times Community News Magazine

September 12, 2012 

First Mahamudra Retreat in Ontario

Post a CommentSeptember 12, 2012 – 5:51 am | Permalink |

by Helmfried Muller

The swirling white smoke of a lhasang marked the beginning of a 7-day Mahamudra retreat for a group of tantrikas from the Toronto Shambhala Center. The location chosen was the Juniper Hill Retreat Center, located some 2 hours northeast of Toronto.

The retreat was led by Jay Lippman of Philadelphia. In the early nineties Khenpo Tsultrim Gyamtso, on invitation of the Sakyong, started a stream of Mahamudra teachings at Karme Choling and other land centers, which Jay was able to attend. Over the years he had become a keen student of mahamudra so much so that the Khenpo encouraged and authorized him to present these mahamudra teaching to Shambhala tantrikas.

Khenpo Tsultrim Gyamtso is one of the few remaining great Buddhist masters who received their training in the Tibet of old. Born into a nomad family in Eastern Tibet he spent many years undertaking retreats in caves and charnel grounds. He is renowned for possessing the intellect and knowledge of a scholar and the realization, humor and creativity of a yogi.

The Khenpo’s teachings on mahamudra are quite unique. Following closely the famous text of the ninth Karmapa called, The Ocean of Definitive Meaning, he leads his students slowly and step by step along the path through the various meditation practices. Throughout the shamatha section there are a wide number of meditations, object of meditations and approaches offered, which students can apply and accomplish. It is in the vipashyana section that the meditators can develop the insights to eventually gain a direct experience of the nature of mind. Long hours were spent with practicing the mahamudra investigations, looking at mind from every conceivable angle. The students were already familiar with the transcripts of the Khenpo expounding the view of mahamudra and the method of his style of teaching. In order to prepare for this retreat the participants had already attended four weekends with Jay, spread out over two years, studying and practicing these precious teachings.

Although Jay Lippman had been teaching various programs throughout the wider sangha for some time, it is the mahamudra teachings, which are closest to his heart. He brings tremendous patience, intuition and a solid understanding of the material to the task. Having made it the cornerstone of his daily practice as well as having practiced it in retreats, he has personally achieved some of the insights that mahamudra is about. With this comes the ability to see where students are and to lead them further.

The retreat was conducted in silence; the first three days were devoted strictly to shamatha practice, followed by four days on vipashyana. The days started at 6:30 in the morning with lujong on the front lawn in order to limber-up the body for a long day of intensive practice. During the later afternoon some talks and further instructions were offered. Following the well- known adage: in shamatha the teacher talks and the student listens, in vipashyana the student talks and the teacher listens,” the students were periodically asked to describe their experiences. Individual interviews were also conducted. The days ended at 8:30 at night with the singing of a fewSongs of Realization from the Khenpo and other great masters.

At the end of the retreat, at a free exchange amongst the students it became clear to all that whatever their insights, achievements or experiences might have been, it only scratched the surface of these vast yet subtle teachings, and in order to move further it will need continuous practice and more retreats.

The Juniper Hill Retreat Center proved to be an ideal location for the retreat. Overlooking the rolling hills of the North Humberland County, surrounded by the lush green of the woods and spacious meadows, it naturally invites contemplation. Madeline Conacher and Louis Allen, long time members of Shambhala are running the center with tremendous heart and dedication. This report would not be complete without mentioning the exceptional good meals from Madeline’s kitchen; it would need the skills of a food writer to do any description justice.

The retreat ended with a Werma Feast and in summing up the many toast and comments one message became clear: this is something to be continued.

How Shantideva came to compose the Bodhicharyavatara

The story of how Shantideva composed this text is worthy of recounting. It happened at Nalanda, the great monastery and university distinguished at that time by a high standard of study and teaching. All of the resident monks were learned, and everyone there was expected to study assiduously. No one who lived there was ever distracted or indolent. One day a monk turned up whose robes were somewhat old and torn; he was tranquil in his bearing but ragged in his appearance. He took up residence at the monastery, and he would show up every day when the monks ate their only meal at midday. He would eat, and afterwards would disappear again. The other monks, who all studied day and night, found out what the ragged monk was doing when he was not at the midday meal. He was sleeping. He slept in front of the entrance to the principal temple, and that is all he did, all of the time. When the clacker rang to summon the monks to a meal, he would go and eat; then he would go back to sleep. 

Some of the monks, probably the officials in charge of enforcing discipline, got together and said to one another, “This new monk Shantideva is a disgrace. He’s a disgrace to the Buddha’s teachings in general, and in particular he poses a problem for this monastery. With his example, one monk after another is sure to become lazier and lazier. We simply have to expel him.”



According to the rules of the monastery, the monks could not decide to expel a monk without getting permission from the principal abbot, who at that time was called Ge Wa Lha, or “Virtuous Deity.” So they went to the abbot and explained the situation and what they wanted to do about it. Contrary to their expectations, the abbot did not give his permission to expel Shantideva. He said, “You don’t know whether he’s someone special, or just an ordinary lazy person. Since we really don’t know, and we can’t tell what’s going on inside of him, it’s better just to leave him alone. Don’t do anything.”

The disciplinarians were left without recourse, since they could not expel the sleeping monk. However, there was one custom at Nalanda that they felt at least gave them a chance to get him to leave. The professors at the university customarily took turns giving public lectures in the central courtyard. For some time before it was scheduled, the lecture would be announced, and on the day before it was to take place, the disciples of that particular professor would gather together, clean up the courtyard, and cast flower petals. On the day of the lecture, they would lay out all of their outer robes and pile them on top of each other, and these would serve as the throne of the lecturing professor. 

Knowing this custom, the Nalanda disciplinarians said, “Although Shantideva is not a member of the faculty, perhaps we can tell him that he has to lecture. Even though we can’t expel him, if we schedule a lecture, he’ll certainly flee. He’ll run away before that day comes, because obviously he doesn’t know anything.” They went to him and said, “Shantideva”—or whatever they called him at that time—”your turn to deliver the public lecture is coming up. You must do it.” Of course they expected him to act surprised, intimidated, scared—but he was unperturbed. He simply said, “Okay,” and went back to sleep.

Of course, since Shantideva was not a professor on the faculty, he did not have any students, so there was no one to clean up the courtyard on the day before the lecture. Nevertheless, in the evening before the talk, a great wind came up and blew away all of the dirt and dust in the courtyard. Then a light rain fell, causing the remaining dust to settle. People were amazed at this, but they still wanted to humiliate Shantideva. They said, “Well, he doesn’t have any students to pile up their robes as his throne, so we’ll build him one, and a very high one. To make it humiliating, we’ll build it without stairs so he can’t get on it. He’ll have to stand there looking like a fool beside this very high throne which he’ll be unable to mount.” And that is what they did.

At the appointed time for the lecture, the clacker was rung, and all the monks gathered. They put on their ceremonial outer robes and, holding flowers in their hands, filed into the courtyard in an elaborate procession. Shantideva calmly walked in among them. When he reached the throne, he simply put his hand on it, and—all of a sudden—he was sitting on top of it. No one was quite sure how he got up there. As soon as he took his seat on the throne, he showed not only his accustomed tranquillity, but he also seemed majestic and somehow awe-inspiring. Then he turned to the monks and said, “Do you want me to repeat a teaching that is already well known in India, or do you want me to teach something new—something that’s never been heard before?”

When the monks heard that, they thought that this was their last possible chance to humiliate Shantideva, so they said, “Oh please, something new!” and asked for a previously unheard teaching, a teaching that was missing in India at that time. Although there were in India loads and loads of the Buddha’s teachings—all of the sutras and tantras, and loads and loads of shastras or commentaries—there was not a single book that comprised the quintessence of all of the teachings. Therefore what Shantideva spoke, entirely extemporaneously, was just that. It was the Bodhicharyavatara, or the Way of a Bodhisattva. 

The Bodhicharyavatara has ten chapters. As Shantideva uttered the first words of the ninth chapter, which is the chapter on discernment, he started to rise in the air. His body left the throne, and as he continued stanza after stanza, he floated in the air higher and higher until he not only floated above the assembly but also circumambulated it. As he floated, reciting the ninth chapter, he circled like an airplane trying to find a place to land. By the time he got to the tenth chapter—this one, the aspiration chapter—he was so high in the sky that the crowd could no longer see him, although somehow they could still hear his voice clearly. Then, eventually, he disappeared, and they did not hear him anymore.

What he did was to fly to southern India where his teacher, Nagarjuna, was living at the time. He remained in Nagarjuna’s presence, but his audience did not know that yet. Back at Nalanda, many who attended that assembly had the ability of what we would call “total recall,” and each of these persons had memorized what Shantideva said. When, however, they compared their memories, they found that they disagreed. Some of them had heard a Bodhicharyavatara of five chapters, some of thirteen chapters, and some of other variations. The reason for this discrepancy was that Shantideva’s teaching had the extraordinary quality of a buddha’s teaching—it was heard in a way appropriate to each listener. When they finally discovered that he had landed in southern India and was living with Nagarjuna, they went to him there and asked him to tell them the correct form of the text and how many chapters it really had. He told them it had ten chapters, and he also told them to find and study two other documents that he had written secretly while at Nalanda. One of these documents was called a “Compendium of the Training,” and the other a “Compendium of the Sutras.” He said that they were both hidden inside a pillar in the room assigned to him at the monastery.
~from the website: Karma Triyana Dharmachakra

We're Moving!

We are moving to a new website at Shambhala Meditation Group East Aurora

At Shambhala Group of East Aurora's new website you can see the many offerings and events of our group and view upcoming events on our calendar. There are links to the information, offerings and events at Shambhala International and other centers and groups around the globe.

Shantideva

Shantideva

Shantideva was a great master, scholar, and bodhisattva, who was the author of the Bodhicharyavatara. He also wrote the Shikshasamucchaya and the Sutrasamucchaya. Under the name of Bhusuku he is listed among the eighty-four mahasiddhas.

The following biography of Shantideva was given by Ringu Tulku Rinpoche in a teaching to Rigpa students; Ringu Tulku Rinpoche based his biography on Drops of Nectar, a commentary on the Bodhicharyavatara by Khenpo Kunpal.

As Khenpo Kunpal explains, Shantideva was born in the South of India, in a place called Saurastra. His father was King Kalyanavarnam, and his given name was Shantivarnam. When he was young, he naturally acted in the way of a bodhisattva. He had a great faith in the Mahayana teachings, great respect for his teachers, and he was diligent in his studies. He was always helpful to the king’s ministers and to all the subjects. He was very compassionate to the poor, the sick, and the lowly, giving them aid and protection. He also became very learned and skillful in all the arts and sciences.

Bodhisattva:
Selflessnes

During his youth, he met a wandering yogi who gave him the teachings on the Tikshna Manjushri Sadhana, and through this practice he established a strong connection with the bodhisattva Manjushri and attained a high level of realization.

When Shantideva’s father passed away, the ministers of the kingdom wanted to make Shantideva the next king, and they prepared a great throne for his enthronement ceremony. But the night before he was to be enthroned, Shantideva had a dream in which he saw Manjushri sitting on his throne, and Manjushri said, “My son, this is my seat, and I am your teacher. How can we two sit on the same seat?” Shantideva interpreted the dream as an indication from Manjushri that it is no use to become king. So he fled the kingdom, leaving everything behind.

He went to the monastic university of Nalanda, where he become a monk under Jayadeva, who was the head of the five-hundred panditas (scholar-practitioners) at Nalanda. It was at that time that he was given the name Shantideva.

At Nalanda, Shantideva studied all the teachings of the three pitakas and meditated on their meaning. But he studied and practised on his own, in private, and within himself, focusing on the meaning of the teachings and practice. He secretly composed two treatises that condensed the meaning of the pitakas: the Compendium of Trainings and the Compendium of Sutras.

Shakyamuni Bodhisattva

Although Shantideva had these great qualities of realization and renunciation, he remained in Nalanda without doing anything outwardly. To the other students, he seemed to be the laziest person there, so they called him bhusuku. Bhu comes from bhukta, which means eating. And su comes from susta, which means sleeping. And ku comes from kuchiwa, which means just walking. So bhusuku is one who just eats, sleeps, and goes out to the toilet.

The students at Nalanda thought that he was a disgrace to them, because everybody else was studying and debating and giving teachings—everybody was busy doing something, and Shantideva was doing nothing. He was just sleeping in his small room, eating their food, and strolling around. They wanted to expel him, but they couldn’t find an excuse to expel him because he had done nothing wrong—because if you don’t do anything, you can’t do anything wrong! So he didn’t break any rules or do anything that was against the law. Since they couldn’t just ask him to go away, they tried to find a way to drive him away.

Primal Purity

Then somebody had a great idea and said, “We should make a new system that all the students in the university have to give a teaching. When his turn comes, he won’t know how to teach, so he will run away!” They all agreed to this and they asked Shantideva to give a teaching. But Shantideva wouldn’t agree to teach. He just said, “Oh, please don’t ask me. I don’t know anything.” So they asked his teacher to order him to teach. So Shantideva’s teacher ordered him to teach, and then Shantideva agreed to teach.

By now the other students really wanted to embarrass him, so they built a huge throne and put it at the center of a big open field, and then they invited everybody from the whole community around the university to come and listen to Shantideva. They really wanted to make him run away!

Finally, when the time came for him to give the teaching, Shantideva just appeared on the throne. No one saw him arrive or climb onto the throne, and they couldn’t figure out how he got there. Then Shantideva said, "What kind of teaching should I give? Something that has been given before, or something which has never been given before?” Of course, everybody shouted, “Something that has never been given before!”

Impartial Wisdom

Shantideva replied, “I have these three teachings. Compendium of Trainings is too long, and Compendium of Sutras is too short, therefore I will give you the Bodhicharyavatara, which is of middle length.”

Shantideva then recited the Bodhicharyavatara from memory, and it is said that many people saw Manjushri in the sky above his head as he recited the text. Legend has it that when Shantideva reached the thirty–fourth verse of the ninth chapter, which is the most difficult part of the book, he and Manjushri levitated off the ground, and rose up higher and higher into the air until they disappeared. Shantideva's voice could still be heard until he finished the teaching.

Compassion

Afterwards, everyone was very impressed! A few panditas with extraordinary memory had written down notes, but when they tried to compare their notes, there were two different opinions on what was said. According to the panditas from Kashmir, the text had nine chapters and seven hundred stanzas. But a group of panditas from central India thought it had ten chapters and one thousand stanzas. In addition, they did not know what Shantideva meant by these two books, Compendium of Trainings and Compendium of Sutras, which were referred to in the teaching.

Non duality

So they searched for Shantideva all over India, and after quite some time they found him at the stupa of Shridakshina, in the south. The Nalanda scholars went there and invited Shantideva to come back to Nalanda and teach. He would not go with them, but he settled their disagreement about the text, and said that it has ten chapters and one thousand stanzas. Then he told them where to find the two other books that he had written: Shantideva had written the texts on palm leaves and hidden them under the thatched straw roof in his room. He also gave them the reading transmission and explanations of these texts.

Transformation

Longevity

The three books written by Shantideva are Compendium of Trainings, which is quite long, Compendium of Sutras, which is very short, and Bodhicharyavatara, which is of medium length. The Bodhicharyavatara was written for all beings generally, but especially for these five hundred panditas of Nalanda University, to show them the genuine path of a bodhisattva. It is said that there were one hundred and eight commentaries written on the Bodhicharyavatara in India.

~ from Rigpa Shedra

Stupas, Symbol of Enlightenment

From The Stupa Information Page

“For the Himalayan Buddhist, the stupa represents a living embodiment of dharmakaya, the ‘body of the doctrine’. Rather than seeing the stupa as a mere memorial or a symbolic vehicle, the Himalayan believer invests the stupa with the capacity to spur the observer towards nirvana simply by seeing or contemplating it.”

- Dilgo Khyentse Rinpoche

   What is a stupa?

A stupa is the most sacred monument found in all of the ancient Buddhist countries. Unique amongst all forms of sacred architecture, it is the quintessential symbol of enlightenment. Stupas are filled with sacred images, mantras and the relics of holy beings. The foundation, symmetry, orientation and contents of the stupa create incredible power to those who even look upon it. It has the potential to transcend the limitations of language to activate enlightened knowledge. 

“A stupa is a place where all the Buddhas are abiding. Those beings who don’t have the karma actually to see Buddha need the holy objects of body, speech and mind - statues, scriptures, stupas - as a field for accumulating merit.” - Guhyasamaja Root Text 

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The Symbolic Meaning of Stupas

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The various components of a stupa represent the following:

1. The basic platform that “holds the earth” symbolizes the ten virtues of:

Body: 
*  Protecting life 
*  Practicing generosity 
*  Keeping pure morality

Speech: 
*  Telling the truth 
*  Reconciling others 
*  Speaking in a quiet and gentle way 
*  Speaking sensibly and meaningfully

Mind: 
*  Practicing contentment 
*  Being altruistic 
*  Having faith in right views (which are the correct foundation for liberation)  

2. The three steps above symbolize the three refuges one holds on to: 
*  Buddha 
*  Dharma 
*  Sangha

3. The lion throne symbolizes superiority over the whole universe and, in particular, the four fearlessnesses, which are a result of the four knowledges: 
*  Knowledge that all factors of existence are understood 
*  Knowledge that the obstacles are correctly known and the way to stop them can be taught to others 
*  Knowledge that the path of renunciation, through which all the virtuous qualities are obtained, has in fact been accomplished 
*  Knowledge that all corruption has been brought to an end

4. The treasure vase symbolizes the eight precious royal objects (eight noble riches)

5.  The small and the big lotuses symbolize the six transcendental virtues (six perfections): 
*  Generosity 
*  Morality (ethics) 
*  Patience 
*  Energy (enthusiastic perseverance) 
*  Meditation 
*  Wisdom  

6. The four corners of the basic throne symbolize the four immeasurables: 
*  Immeasurable love 
*  Immeasurable compassion 
*  Immeasurable joy 
*  Immeasurable equanimity  

7. The first step symbolizes the four mindfulnesses: 
*  Mindfulness of the body 
*  Mindfulness of feelings 
*  Mindfulness of the non-substantiality of thoughts 
*  Mindfulness of the condition of existence (dharmas)  

8. The second step symbolizes the four perfect efforts (sammapadhana): 
*  Striving to preserve existing favourable conditions 
*  Striving to produce such conditions not yet existing 
*  Striving to ward off existing unfavorable conditions 
*  Striving to make it impossible for such conditions to arise  

9. The third step symbolizes the four miraculous feats (riddhipada): 
*  Intention 
*  Thought 
*  Perseverance 
*  Anaysis  

10. The fourth step symbolizes the five powers (indriya): 
*  The faculty of faith 
*  The faculty of energy 
*  The faculty of attention 
*  The faculty of concentration 
*  The faculty of knowledge  

11. The unchanging base that supports the vase symbolizes the five forces (bala): 
*  The force of faith 
*  The force of energy 
*  The force of attention 
*  The force of concentration 
*  The force of knowledge  

12. The vase in its particularities symbolizes the seven branches of awakening (bodhyanga): 
*  Total memory (or past lives) 
*  Perfect knowledge of all dharmas 
*  Diligence 
*  Ecstasy 
*  Perfect mastery of all disciplines 
*  Concentration 
*  Equanimity  

13. The “tre” (“Harmika” above the vase) and its reverse symbolize the noble eightfold path: 
*  Perfect view 
*  Perfect understanding 
*  Perfect speech 
*  Perfect action 
*  Perfect living 
*  Perfect effort 
*  Perfect attention 
*  Perfect concentration  

14. The tree of life (sog shing) symbolizes the ten knowledges of phenomena: 
*  Mind (the thoughts of others) 
*  Interdependent links 
*  Empirical knowledge 
*  Suffering 
*  The origin of suffering 
*  The cessation of suffering 
*  The path leading to the cessation of suffering 
*  Things that lead to despair 
*  The non-production of things  

15. The thirteen rings symbolize: 
*  The ten powers (or alternatively, the ten bodhisattva bhumis) 
*  The three essential remembrances  

What is an American Buddhist?

Source: Washington Post 
       American Buddhism’s numbers are booming. Published just over three years ago, an American Religious Identification Survey survey showed that from the years 1990 to 2000, Buddhism grew 170 percent in North America. By all indications that remarkable rate of growth continues unabated. Why is a faith founded under a Bodhi tree in India 2,500 years ago enjoying a newfound popularity in America today?

There is no such thing as a historic North American Buddhist tradition, a fact that is crucial to understanding and facilitating Buddhism’s blossoming. This growth is all the more remarkable given that Buddhism was arguably the most recent import of a major religion to North America from the East. It’s important to note that Western practitioners meditating in Massachusetts or applying the Eight-fold Path in Portland often reach back to the established Buddhist traditions of Sri Lanka or Thailand, Tibet, or Vietnam, Myanmar or Korea, China, or Japan. But that’s not the only way to be Buddhist. Some North American authors have suggested that North Americans might consider foregoing any such wholesale adoptions of Eastern traditions in deference to gradually developing their own. While not necessarily endorsing this view, even the Tibetan teacher Shamar Rinpoche posited that “Tibetans can benefit from being less sectarian, and certainly non-Tibetans [in context principally Europeans and North Americans] have no need for such distinctions.” The development of such a new North American sacred tradition is more possible with Buddhism than most other world religions owing to the relative simplicity and universal applicability of the dharma’s core principles and the Buddha’s teachings. That is partly because the dharma does not rely on faith in any deific being as conditions to one’s beliefs, as do other religions.
Still, some wonder: Does a practitioner born and raised in North America more easily adopt Buddhism if he takes it wholesale from the East?
One way to look at this question is through the example of practice. When done correctly, what Buddhist meditators refer to as “sitting”–whether following the vipassana or zazen (or other) approaches to sitting meditation–does not rely on ceremonial chanting and recitations and actions that typically surround collective meditation sessions. This is not to say such ceremonial activities normally performed in an ancient or modern Eastern language are not useful or helpful. This is only to say they are not a necessity for the gradual expansion of consciousness that is the result of regular meditation. If one accepts this basic premise, which can be supported by the sutras attributed to the Buddha, then the conclusion that North Americans could conceivably develop their own Buddhist tradition some day is perfectly rational, if not probable.
After all, none of the cultural accessories of Buddhist practices in the East came into being overnight; they themselves developed over time.
In Buddhism, that which does not differ from culture to culture or era to era is the state of a meditator’s mind and presence when that person is sitting in true mediation.
In association with other core teachings of the Buddha, such as compassion, non-violence, and loving-kindness all found within the Eight-fold Path, the attainment of the expanded states of consciousness almost always occurs only through regular and constant and diligent meditation practice, or sitting. This fact supersedes every associated ceremonial activity, whether Eastern in origin or some new (as yet unrealized) North American form. While such culture-based ceremony can be useful and helpful as a docent to meditation, if it becomes the practitioner’s focus, it becomes a distraction.
North American Buddhists are likely to create their own traditions and schools of thought, but they should do so with the awareness that they are forging a new Buddhist culture, not the ‘true’ Buddhist culture.
If they don’t recognize this fact, the same problem of adaptation would also apply, hypothetically, to any developed North American Buddhist tradition 900 years in the future either by its devout ecclesiastical adherents or when first introduced to the population of some other culture that had never
been exposed to the teachings of the Buddha.
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William Wilson Quinn is a scholar of Buddhism and brother of On Faith’s Sally Quinn.