Thursday, 21 August 2014

The Buddha to his family: Money and Happiness

Dhr. Seven and Amber Larson (ed.), Wisdom Quarterly based on initial translation by Ven. Thanissaro (Geoffrey DeGraff), Sakka Sutra: "To the Shakyans" (AN 10.46); Wiki; Sirimunasiha
Golden face of Afghan Buddha excavated from 2,600-year-old Mes Aynak ("Copper Well") temple complex, one of the first and possibly the largest monastic complexes in the world.
Bamiyan, Afghanistan (ancient Sakka, Scythia), at the Himalayan foothills of the Hindu Kush, was a wealthy East-West crossroads on the Silk Route beyond India into Central Asia (wiki).
 
On one occasion the Blessed One [the Buddha] was staying near Kapilavatthu [Kapilavastu, likely in the region of modern Bamiyan and Kabul (Kapil?), Afghanistan, beyond the ancient northwest frontier of India] at the Banyan Park.
 
First anthropomorphic images of the Buddha
Then many Shakyan lay followers, on the lunar observance day (uposatha), went to see the Blessed One, bowed, and sat respectfully to one side. As they were sitting there, the Blessed One said to them, "Shakyans, do you observe the eightfold lunar observance?"
 
"Sometimes we do, venerable sir, and sometimes we do not." 
  • [The weekly lunar observance days (full moon, new moon, first and last quarter moons), call uposatha days, are a time of intensive effort and rededication to the Buddha's Dharma. Its eight factors or limbs (anga) are the Eight Precepts observed for that day and night.]
"It is no gain for you, Shakyans. It is ill-gotten, that in this life so threatened by grief, in this life so threatened by death, you only sometimes observe the eight-factored lunar observance and sometimes do not.
 
"What do you think, Shakyans. Suppose a person, by some profession or other, without encountering an unprofitable (akusalam, unskillful, wasted) day, were to earn half a gold coin.
  • [See Wisdom Quarterly discussion of the gold, silver, and copper kahapana below.]
The first Buddhas were Indo-Greco (Boonlieng/flickr)
"Would that person deserve to be called a capable person, full of initiative?"
 
"Yes, venerable sir."
 
"Suppose a person, by some profession or other, without encountering an unprofitable day, were to earn a whole coin... two coins... three... four... five... six... seven... eight... nine... ten... 20...30 ... 40... 50... 100 coins. Would that person deserve to be called a capable person, full of initiative?"
 
"Yes, venerable sir."
 
"Now what do you think: Earning 100 or 1,000 coins a day, and saving up one's gains, and living for 100 years, would a person arrive at a great mass of wealth?"
 
"Yes, venerable sir."
  
Massive Bamiyan Buddha, Kapilavastu (grand-bazaar)
"Now what do you think: Would that person, because of that wealth, on account of that wealth, with that wealth as the cause, live enjoying unalloyed bliss for a day, a night, half a day, or half a night?"
 
"No, venerable sir. And why is that? Sensual pleasures are inconstant (unstable, undependable, fickle, impermanent), hollow, false, deceptive by nature."

"Now, Shakyans, there is the case where a disciple of mine, spending ten years practicing as I have instructed, would live enjoying unalloyed bliss for 100 years, 100 centuries, 100 millennia.
  • [One reason for this is jhana (meditative absorption) and its astounding karmic aftereffects. It is on account of attaining to one of the eight jhanas, re-entering it frequently, or mastering it completely that one, going no further to cultivate liberating insight in this life, is reborn in superior planes of existence, heavens (worlds in space or other dimensions), with lifespans that last aeons. See Large Chart in 31 Planes of Existence.]
"And that person would be a once-returner, a non-returner, or at the very least a stream-winner.
  
Kapilavastu? Sakastan (SCMP.com)
"Let alone ten years, there is the case where a disciple of mine, spending nine years... eight years... seven... six... five... four... three... two years... one year practicing as I have instructed, would live enjoying unalloyed bliss for 100 years, 100 centuries, 100 millennia. And that person would be a once-returner, a non-returner, or at the very least a stream-winner.
  • [In a more famous sutra (MN 10), the Buddha uses this cascading description of time to emphasize that while it might take as many as seven years to reach enlightenment, it might actually only take as few as seven days of mindful application (on a foundation of powerful concentration). See the Greater Four Foundations of Mindfulness Discourse.]
Gandhara-style Buddha, Bactria (Boonlieng/flickr)
"Let alone one year, there is the case where a disciple of mine, spending ten months... nine months... eight months... seven... six... five... four... three... two months... one month... half a month practicing as I have instructed, would live enjoying unalloyed bliss for 100 years, 100 centuries, 100 millennia. And that person would be a once-returner, a non-returner, or at the very least a stream-winner.
 
"Let alone half a month, there is the case where a disciple of mine, spending ten days and nights... nine days and nights... eight... seven... six... five... four... three... two days and nights... one day and night [this expression "one day and night" suggests one uposatha day] practicing as I have instructed, would live enjoying unalloyed bliss for 100 years, 100 centuries, 100 millennia. And that person would be a once-returner, a non-returner, or at the very least a stream-winner.
 
Did the Shakyans listen and benefit?
"It is no gain for you, Shakyans. It is ill-gotten, that in this life so threatened by grief, in this life so threatened by death, you only sometimes observe the eightfold lunar observance and sometimes do not."
 
"Then from this day forward, venerable sir, we will observe the eightfold lunar observance!"
 
Gold kahapanas, ancient coins used in Central Asia (Afghanistan), India, Sri Lanka (Siri)
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Later kahapana with the Buddha
  • NOTES: India did not have anthropomorphic (human-like) representations of the Buddha or the "gods" (devas, brahmas) until Buddhists outside of India -- in Hellenized Afghanistan, Gandhara, and Central Asia (Bactria, Scythia, Sodgdia, etc.) -- made the first images.
  • Isn't it interesting that maps of the area in ancient times show a Sakastan right in the vicinity of modern Afghanistan? And isn't it more interesting that the main "god" (deva) of earthly relevance in Buddhism and of the Buddha's time -- the "King of the Gods/Devas" -- is called Sakka?
  • Greco-Buddhist art (Bimaran casket)
  • This discourse, "Sutra to the Shakyans" (Sakka Sutta) is not called the Sakya or Shakya Sutra but the Sakka Sutta, suggesting that they were called the Sakkas -- Scythians, one of any far wandering "tribes" (family clans) relying on horses (like Siddhartha's famed white pony Kanthaka), rich with gold from controlling commerce and land along the Silk Route of traveling merchants taking riches between East and West? See discussion in Pali Encyclopedia.
  • See also AN 3.70; AN 8.43; Ud 2.10; MN 10
Ancient Money (the kahapana)
Wisdom Quarterly English translation from German-Wiki
Modern minor excavation at Mes Aynak, Afghanistan shows gold and jewellery treasure. This hoard was dated from 500 AD to 700 AD (Kadir Salamviking)
 
Kahapana was the name of an ancient Indian coin. It was either copper, silver, or gold. Its shape was round or rectangular. In Sanskrit it was called purana, in English "elding." Kahapanas are mentioned in early Buddhist literature, where their role was as a means of payment on the Indian subcontinent of antiquity. It is also in evidence in excavations. More

Set of kalandas of corresponding weight -Type I -Chank over Vase or Pot (Sirimunasiha).

Ancient Buddhist money (kahapana)

Editors, Wisdom Quarterly edited English translation of German-Wiki "kahapana"
Examples of gold kahapanas minted in Sri Lanka as a revival of ancient Buddhist coins.
Modern minor excavation at Mes Aynak, Afghanistan shows gold and jewellery treasure. This hoard was dated from 500 AD to 700 AD (Kadir Salamviking)
 
Rectangular punch mark purana (CM)
Kahapana was the name of an ancient Indian coin. It was either gold, silver, or copper. Its shape was round or rectangular. In Sanskrit it was called a purana or "punch marked coin," in England a "crown."
 
Kahapanas are mentioned in early Buddhist literature, where their role was as a means of payment on the Indian subcontinent of antiquity. It is also in evidence in excavations.
 
WQ "Save Mes Aynak" demo, UCLA
In the story of the cat (Babbu Jataka) of the Pali canon, a rich mouse (the Bodhisatta) is so revered that the others daily bring him a kahapana with which he buys food. With this same food they then ransom from the claws of cats.
 
How much is one kahapana worth? In the Mahavamsa (a Pali language chronicle of the kings of Sri Lanka), King Dutugamunu is said to have ruled from 161 to 137 [BCE]. He had 800,000 gold hirannas paid as wages for the construction of a palace, which corresponds to 6,400,000 kahapanas.
 
The kahapanas found are made of hammered silver. Their weight varies. As an estimation, 3.73 grams is accepted. Kahapanas (presumably modern ones) are on display in the Mint Museum of the Central Bank of Sri Lanka. More (German) More details at Sirimunasiha about corresponding Sri Lankan money.

Set of kalandas of corresponding weight -Type I -Chank over Vase or Pot (Sirimunasiha).
 
The kahavanuva as well as the kalanda of gold may perhaps have been struck first as a deliberate revival of the kahapana of the  Buddhist scriptures (sutras). It is supposed by the commentators of the 5th century and their successors to have been a coin of gold. But the name was also applied to silver and copper coins.

Later punch mark coins or puranas of ancient India (chennaimuseum.org)
 
The greatest Buddhist commentator, Ven. Buddhaghosa, weighed in on this matter. His statement that the kahapana was "either of gold or of silver or the common [copper] one" is amplified in the Khuddasikkha Commentary:
 
"Kahapana is either of gold or of silver or the kahapana now common." And the copper coins of Parakrama Bahu I were also known by this name (Mhv LXXXVI, 104). The following table of the gold coins can now be given with their denominations and weights. More

Police are good except... (cartoons)

"Don't worry, folks!" Police can do whatever they are allowed to get away with (McMillan)
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(VIDEO) California Highway Patrol Officer Beating Woman in the Head on Side of Road
Obey me, obey me, obey me...or else!
The case, which has attracted national attention, sparked angry outrage from civil rights activists who called it a clear case of excessive use of force

Ex-L.A. sheriff's deputy arrested for child pornography
Robert J. Lopez (latimes.com, Aug. 21, 2014)
Former deputy Lorne Reed [who allegedly committed sexual crimes against children while working as an L.A. sheriff's deputy] was arrested. He is accused of using the Internet to distribute child pornography.
 
Maybe he was just shopping at Amer App?
A former sheriff's deputy was arrested on suspicion of circulating child pornography, authorities said Wednesday night.

Lorne Reed, 32, was taken into custody after authorities with a multiagency task force served a search warrant Wednesday at his Santa Fe Springs home, according to the LAPD. Reed's two children were home at the time [Daddy, why are your co-workers taking you away in handcuffs?] and were turned over to the county's Department of Children and Family Services. [Daddy, why are the bad men taking us away, too?!]

Hi, Officer Friendly! - Hey, kids, wanna be in movies?
LAPD officials said an investigation was launched in April after Reed was suspected of using the Internet to share child pornography. The task force includes local police and federal agents who investigate allegations against people who use the Internet to contact children or share child porn.
 
Officer Reed [was likely asked and agreed to resign] from the Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department in February 2013, an agency spokeswoman said. But she had no additional details [or at least none that she wanted to disclose] regarding the resignation. Reed was being held in lieu of $20,000 at the LAPD's Metro Jail Division. More

Riots in Ferguson as distrust of police grows
André Coleman (Breaking Points, Pasadena Weekly, 8/21/14); edited by Wisdom Quarterly
Breaking Points

As "rioting" continued for a second week in Ferguson, Missouri, and a recent ACLU report released two weeks ago is making the militarization of police a national concern, the mother of an unarmed black teenager who was murdered by Pasadena police criticized the arms buildup. And she is calling for an end to the targeting of blacks and Latinos by law enforcement agencies.

In Ferguson, located about 12 miles northwest of St. Louis, demonstrations broke out on Aug. 10 after six-year veteran police Officer Darren Wilson shot unarmed Michael Brown, 18. According to a witness, Brown had his hands in the air when he was [executed] by Wilson.

Strange Fruit in Ferguson, Missouri (thenation.com)
(telesurtv.net/english) - For many politicians, Ferguson isn't happening (thenation.com)
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According to famed forensic pathologist Michael Baden, who was working for Brown family to try to get an objective autopsy [untainted by a police cover up, which he was kept from completing because he was DENIED clothing to analyze and tissue samples for independent forensic tests], the teenager was shot six times -- twice in the head and four times in the arm [possibly in a surrendering or self-defensive posture], with one of those shots entering the top his skull. The Justice Department is planning to conduct a third autopsy on the youth. More
 

(SCPR/AP) Police said Tuesday that two teenage students, one 17 and one 16, “confirmed very cold-heartedly in the investigation” that they were planning a shooting at the school.
Soren "Wildfire Weenies." Only someone else can prevent forest fires (JenSorensen.com)
A Voice From Within
Carl Kozlowski (Arts, Pasadena Weekly, 8/21/14)
(jimmydorecomedy.com)
Comedian, Pacifica Radio host, [our friend], and Pasadena-based author Jimmy Dore uses humor to inspire people to activism. (He came to tell jokes at Occupy L.A. and for U.S. soldiers abroad).
 
There are lots of things about this country that annoy comedian Jimmy Dore.

One is how fat cats always get richer and pay fewer taxes while leaving regular folks holding the bag. Another is how the government pleads poverty when the time comes to repair America’s infrastructure, yet can bail out Wall Street bankers to the tune of $2 billion a week.

But most of Dore’s contempt is for the media. While he is best known as a nationally headlining club comedian with two acclaimed Comedy Central specials, Dore has earned the right to criticize the media because he is now part of it.

As the host of “The Jimmy Dore Show” each week on KPFK 90.7 FM and Pacifica radio stations nationwide, and as a member of the highly popular Web-based political commentary series “The Young Turks,” Dore has shown that he has a freewheeling political instinct that owes loyalty to nothing but the truth.

He’s now collected his views into a bitingly funny book called Your Country Is Just Not That Into You, which the Pasadena resident will discuss and sign at 7:00 pm next Thursday at Vroman’s Bookstore in Pasadena. 

“The media used to be the watchdogs, but they’ve been bought by the people they’re supposed to be investigating,” says Dore.

“NBC didn’t give you the facts about Iraq because they’re owned by defense contractors. You’ll never get the truth, just false equivalency, saying there are two sides to every story like global warming [or Israel's oppression of the remaining civilian ghettos of "Palestine" painted as a fight between two roughly equal professional militaries]. I say there are not two sides to the truth. Don’t give us talking points. Give us the truth.” More

Happy B-Day, Krishna! (UFOs from Heaven)

Pat Macpherson, Dhr. Seven, Ashley Wells,  Seth Auberon, CC Liu, Wisdom Quarterly; BBC
The dark lord, blue Krishna: krsna means black or dark (Reuters/BBC.com)

What will a public UFO landing display look like? There was that War Over LA. Albert Hall during the Ultimate Fighting Championship, London, 2002 (Mike Hewitt/Getty Images).
Robert Bingham (center) guides Los Angelenos to daylight UFO summonings and sightings.
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And this one's for patriarchy, Asherah!
Hindus believe that both the Buddha and Lord Krishna were earthly incarnations or avatars of the celestial god Vishnu.
 
India's great celestial goddess and god, Radha and Krishna, are the beloved ultimate couple.

Just as Yahweh (Jehovah, YHVH, one of the Old Testament gods of the Bible and, apparently, the only One that mattered) was once married to Asherah in Judeo-Christian tradition, Radha and Krishna are the immortals, space (akasha)-devas, who came to Earth to frolic.

Ancient Asherah bas-relief
Wait, wait, wait, and hold hold your horses! God had a wife? There is more than one God in the Jewish and Christian Bible? Yes, and yes. The whole sacred book tells of their, the plural gods' exploits on Earth, which scholars construe and misrepresent as a monotheistic -- "one god" -- text about only a single God speaking of Himself in the royal "We." But many kinds of celestial gods and space lords are referred to by name. Scholars who know better gloss this by saying, it's all names for one God. He likes lots of names and classes of names and to refer to himself always in the plural.

Birth then carried across the water in a basket reminiscent of Moses... In pictures: Hindus around the world celebrate Krishna's birthday, one of the most popular Hindu gods (BBC).
The Bible is much closer to the ancient myths (true and attested to accounts) of the Vedic Pantheon, Ancient Roman Gods, Ancient Greek Gods, and post-Vedic Buddhist cosmology. Buddhists do not worship these gods -- devas, gandharvas, apsaras, brahmas, asuras, nagas, garudas -- but they are well aware of them. And the Buddha taught that if one so wished and, moreover, undertook the appropriate courses of conduct (merit, profitable karma), one could be reborn among the devas. The devas are recollected (devatānussati) rather than worshipped for this reason.

Goddess Radha devi, the favorite consort of the lord: kids play dress up (AP/BBC.com)
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Radha the milkmaid (gopi) was already on Earth in a scene reminiscent of Western religious tradition, as the gods -- including the Cowherd avatar or Shepherd Krishna -- found the "daughters of men" attractive and came in unto them and bore with them hybrid-offspring, heroes of old, men of renown.
 
Janmashtami is Hindu Xmas in India, Lord Krishna's birthday commemoration. Krishna has risen in popular importance above all other incarnations and manifestations of the One God of the Brahmins Brahma (called "Great Brahma" or Maha Brahma in Buddhism).
  • [There is something higher but it is not a personality, and it is Brahman, the Ultimate Reality behind the Illusion of Maya, Godhood, Godhead, GOD, realization and union. So we always distinguish: "gods" (devas, deities) from "Gods" (brahmas, divinities) from "GOD" in nontheistic Buddhism. Nontheism does not mean atheism, but rather denotes the fact that whether or not there are gods is not pertinent to enlightenment. Enlightenment transcends that discussion And whether or not their are creators (DNA splicers, cosmic magicians, manipulators of energy, mind/heart readers, powerful aggressors, peaceful enjoyers of the Brahma Viharas or "Divine Abidings"), there is no ultimate uncreated Creator God creator of all...unless one thinks of the impersonal GOD as that creator, but that is more a syncretic Hindu-Mahayana concept than anything the historical Buddha ever taught.]
How the Sumerians depicted the flying visitors from space on compact cylinders
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The Dogon of Mali, Africa
Whether it is Buddhism, Brahmanism (the pre-Buddhist Vedic teachings of the Brahmin-caste priests, later Hinduism, Mahayana Buddhism (a kind of Buddhism steeped in Hindu concepts), Jainism, Sumerianism (of Sumer, Mesopotamia, Iraq), Zoroastrianism, Judaism (Bedouins, Hebrews), Islam, early Christianity, or later Catholicism there are "gods" who came down from on high in space. At least that's where these beings said they were from They may have come from the hollow Earth, nearby Moon, the visible planets, or from the next solar system over, but they came. Even the Dogon know they came.

In Buddhism these "shining ones" (beings of light of varying radiance) are generally referred to as akasha-devas from the akasha-deva-loka or "space light beings world" to distinguish them from the earthling-devas (bhumattha-devas).

Playground of the devas

Recollect the Devas' Merit: Mediterranean Greece as the playground of the "gods" (D&G)

What UFO abductees can teach us
David M. Jacobs with George Boory (coasttocoast.com, Aug. 19, 2014)

Documented research
Prof. David M. Jacobs (ICAR, "International Center for Abduction Research," ufoabduction.com) has conducted decades-long research into the alien abduction phenomenon. He was on last night trying to explain his conclusions to a kind, half-witted host. Jacobs outlined his early interest in UFO sightings, how he focused on alien abductions after he met Budd Hopkins, and expressed his disappointment at how academic and scientific communities generally dismiss the subject of UFOs. There is, he feels, a preponderance of evidence to demonstrate their existence.
 
ET Semjase devi (theyfly.com)
From the beginning of human civilization ,aliens have shown an interest in human reproduction, he notes. UFO abduction incidents reveal this interest. The reason for this are their programs to create hybrids, he explains, describing an early case that Hopkins shared with him in which a woman was shown a baby that looked half-human, half-alien, and was asked by the aliens to hold and nurse the baby.

"They are making hybrids so that they can come down and be here," possibly to takeover this planet, he conjectured. Jacobs also mentioned the telepathic abilities of aliens: They can transfer and access data into and out of someone's mind.
 
He theorizes that hybrids are being created with a tremendous amount of information dumped into them by some insect-like ETs (praying mantis type), who seem to direct the hybrid program, not so much the reptilians (nagas) or Nordics (devas) or titans (asuras).


The show was rounded out by aerospace and defense systems developer Sir Charles Shults talking about his work on the technology of education, as well as various advancements and innovations in the fields of space exploration and AI (artificial intelligence). More

Zen monks risk death on extraordinary journey

The Monks Risking Death On An Extraordinary Journey (Produced by ABC Australia. Ref - 2471)
The lionized Bodhidharma
The "Journeyman PicturesMarathon Monks" of Japan undertake a perilous journey to "enlightenment" (satori, which is not enlightenment in Zen or kenshō but only an "epiphany") -- choosing suicide if they fail to complete the journey, and often dying en route. 

The world's greatest athletes may well live on top of a sacred mountain in Japan. As part of their spiritual training, the monks run 84 km every day for over three months.
 
"First Day of Zen Garden School" (Dan Piraro/bizarrocomics.com)
 
Genshin Fujinami runs through the forest for 17 hours every day. His straw sandals offer him little protection from the venomous snakes and jagged rocks. His feet are blistered and bruised.

But if he stops, he would be obliged to immediately kill himself (in a foolish act of hari kari or honor killing to save face).

What endogenous drugs are created by asceticism?
"You must think positively," he explains. "I cannot allow myself to think, 'What if?'" The grueling Kaihygo is the conclusion of seven years of training. He must also go nine days without food, water, or sleep. If he completes the quest, he will become a living "saint."

But only 46 monks have completed it in the last four centuries, and fewer and fewer people are attempting it.

[These are the ascetic extremes the Buddha warned about, self-mortification, the clinging to rites and rituals as if they could ever lead to actual enlightenment. The way to enlightenment is calm-and-insight (systematic contemplation founded on profound concentration), nothing more, nothing less.]

"Japanese culture is gradually dying away," Fujinami laments. The monks may have a wonderful history, but their future is one of uncertainty.
  
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