Dwelling apart -- free and liberated (sutra)

Amber Larson (ed.), Wisdom Quarterly; Maurice O'C. Walshe, (Migajalena Sutta, SN 35.63)

Forest meditation under an umbrella-mosquito net, a Thai crot (withfriendship.com)

 

The Buddha with avian fighting naga (Sharko333/flickr)

[In Savatthi, Ven. Migajāla asked the Buddha:] "'Dwelling apart,' it is said, venerable sir, 'dwelling apart': How far, venerable sir, does one dwell apart, and to what extent does one dwell with another?"
 
"There are, Migajala, objects cognizable by the [sensitive tissue in the] eye -- attractive, pleasing, endearing, agreeable, enticing, lust-inspiring.

"And if a meditator relishes them, welcomes them, persists in clinging to them -- then due to this relishing, welcoming, and persistent clinging, delight arises. And from delight infatuation arises.

"Infatuation brings bondage, and a meditator who is trapped in the bondage of delight is called 'one who dwells with another.'

"There are sounds cognizable by [the sensitive tissue in] the ear... fragrances cognizable by [the sensitive tissue in] the nose... tastes cognizable by the tongue... sensations cognizable by the body... phenomena cognizable by the heart/mind... and a meditator who is trapped in the bondage of delight is called 'one who dwells with another.'

 

Museum Buddha, Chauncey McCormick Gallery (Mark Kamermans/pomax/flickr.com)

  

"And a meditator so dwelling, Migajala, even though one may frequent jungle glades and remote forest-dwellings -- free from noise, [in sweet solitude] with little disturbance, far from the madding crowd, undisturbed by others, well fitted for seclusion [of mind and body] -- still one is termed 'one who dwells with another.'
 
"Why is this? Craving is the other one has not left behind, and therefore one is called 'one who dwells with another.'

"But, Migajala, there are objects cognizable by the eye...

• ear...
• nose...
• tongue...
• body...

mind -- attractive, pleasing, endearing, agreeable, enticing, lust-inspiring. And if a meditator does not relish them, does not welcome them, does not persist in clinging to them then -- due to not relishing them, not welcoming them, and not persisting in clinging to them, delight fades away, and without delight there is no infatuation.

"Without infatuation, no bondage is generated. And the meditator who is freed from the bondage of delight is called 'one who dwells apart [i.e., dwelling free of attachment, without craving].'
 

The madding crowd (triggerandfreewheel.com)

"And a meditator so dwelling, Migajala, even though one may live near a place crowded with monastics, lay-followers, rulers and royal ministers, and the followers of other spiritual teachers -- still one is termed 'one who dwells apart [free of attachment, without craving].'

"Why is this so? Craving is the other one has left behind. And therefore one is called one who dwells apart [free of attachment, without craving]."

SEX: lessons from the man with two PENISES

Ashley Wells, Pat Macpherson, Dhr. Seven, Wisdom Quarterly; Caroline Bankoff (NY Mag)

The way to approach any subject is with a modicum of grace, aplomb, and discretion.

 

Last night, Reddit rang in 2014 with an Ask Me Anything featuring a man with two fully functioning, almost evenly sized penises. 

 

The subject, who went by the screen name DoubleDickDude and posted a couple of obligatory (and deeply NSFW) photos [BRACE YOURSELF BEFORE CLICKING] as proof, sounds as confident as you'd expect a dude with two dicks to be (very).

We luv'd screwin y'all, but this ain't about us!

And because the mostly single-dick-having population of Reddit was exactly as curious about this guy's life as you'd expect them to be (very), the questions went on for hours.

 

First, the basics: DoubleDickDude's condition is "Diphallia, [and it is] not an absorbed twin. It's not genetic or inherited." 

(Needless to say, it is very rare.) He identifies as bisexual and is currently "in a committed relationship with a man and a woman" who, he later explained, were "a couple before they mutually started dating me." More

Woman living with two vaginas


Hazel Jones, 27, has a one-in-a-million medical condition which led to her being born with two fully-formed vaginas. She is so at ease with her body that she goes to sex clubs with her husband. She told ITV1's This Morning hosts Holly Willoughby and Phillip Schofield she was 18 when she was diagnosed with uterus didelphys.

Jones, of High Wycombe, Bucks, did not realize she was different until her periods started at 14. She said: "I told friends. They looked even more confused than me." She went to hospital four years later to learn the truth. She added: "I thought it was amazing."
 

Yin to yang: yonis, lingams are curious things

Jones told The Sun she and hubby Riki visited fetish clubs, explaining: "It shows how relaxed I am. My quirky condition does not make me shy or hold me back. In fact, it's something I celebrate."

"I have two holes, one to the left and one to the right," she explains. "They look like a little yin-yang symbol! The extra piece of flesh between them becomes more visible depending on how I position my body, and how turned on I am. Sometimes it's hidden by my labia. At other times, it stands proud by about a centimeter."

Her wombs "take turns" to have a period each month, and tampons didn't always work because sometimes she was inserting them into the wrong bleedin' vagina!"

The Internet Hates Women

Michel Martin (Tell Me More, NPR.org)

Porn and pop gossip aren't doing us any favors.

Anyone who posts something online runs the risk of getting negative feedback [from trolls]. But for some female writers, things are taken to an extreme level. Host Michel Martin talks with Amanda Hess about her article, "Why Women Aren't Welcome on the Internet." Writers Bridget Johnson and Mikki Kendall also discuss how they've handled the harassment and threats -- on and off line.

Amanda Hess (bio website Sex With Amanda Hess) in Pacific Standard magazine says: Women are subjected to a level of abuse that is, in fact, more pervasive and more vicious than that directed at men.

She says, in short, "We have been thinking about Internet harassment all wrong." And Amanda Hess is with us now from Southern California Public Radio (SCPR.org) in Pasadena. LISTEN (17:41)

Buddhism and Sex
Maurice O'Connell Walshe (Buddhist Publication Society)

The Buddha with knowledge and vision (Amrit Vismay/Oshodhara/flickr.com/WQ)

 
This is an age in which sexual matters are discussed with great openness. There are many who are puzzled to know what the Buddhist attitude towards sex is. And it is therefore to be hoped that the following guidelines may be found helpful towards an understanding.
 
It is, of course, true to say that Buddhism, in keeping with the principle of the Middle Way, would advocate neither extreme puritanism nor extreme permissiveness. But this, as a guiding principle without further specification, may not seem sufficiently helpful for most people.

• [NOTE: The "middle" in Middle Way is not a compromise, but seeing the deficiency in both extremes and avoiding them. This is clear when the Buddha declared that he found enlightenment after avoiding indulging in sensual extremes, which he had engaged in as a spoiled prince, and after avoiding indulging in severe austerities, which had had engaged in as a wandering ascetic searching for freedom from disappointment. See the Buddha's first sutra where he sets in motion the wheel of the Dharma by making this distinction.]

In the first place, we must distinguish between the rules undertaken by Buddhist monastics for their own conduct, and any guiding principles for ordinary lay Buddhists. More

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Five Bonds of Desire: Monkey Mind (sutra)

Amber Larson, Dhr. Seven, CC Liu, Wisdom Quarterly translation based on Makkata Sutta by Andrew Olendzki, "The Foolish Monkey" (SN 47.7)

"Monkey mind" is mental frenzy brought on by the Five Hindrances (patheos.com)

A monkey with a foolish and greedy nature will soon be ensnared (childhoodrelived.com).

 

On Himavat, king of mountains (the personification of the Himalayas), there is rugged and uneven land where neither monkeys nor humans wander.
 
And on Himavat there is rugged and uneven land where monkeys indeed wander, whereas humans do not.
 
And on Himavat there is a level stretch of land, quite pleasing, where both monkeys and humans wander.

There a hunter set a sticky trap on trails used by monkeys in order to ensnare them. Some monkeys there were foolish by nature, but not greedy. Seeing the trap, they stayed away.

The burnt nose she-monkey (motifake.com)

But there was one monkey who was both foolish and greedy by nature. He went up to the trap and grabbed it with his hand. His hand got stuck there. "I'll free my hand!" he thought. And he grabbed it with his other hand. It got stuck there.

Thinking "I'll free both hands!" he grabbed it with his foot. It got stuck there. "I'll free both hands and a foot!" he thought. So he grabbed it with his other foot. It got stuck there.

"I'll free both hands," he thought, "and both feet!" He grabbed it with his snout. It got stuck there.
 
Now that monkey, ensnared in five ways, lays down and howls. He has fallen into trouble, fallen into ruin, for now the hunter can do with him as he pleases. Not releasing the monkey, the hunter skewers him then picks him up and goes off with him. This is what happens to those who wander beyond their range, in the sphere of others.

Therefore, meditators, wander not beyond your range, in the sphere of others. Wandering there, Mara (the killer, the corrupter, obstacle to enlightenment and liberation, the personification of death) will gain access, will gain a foothold.

Whoa, you're skating on thin ice, boss! - What? I'm just monkeying around, worker.

  
Beyond one's range
And what, for a meditator, is beyond one's range, the sphere of others? The five strands of sense desire are. What are the five?

1. forms discerned with the eye -- appealing, pleasurable, yearned for, and lusted after
2. sounds discerned with the ear...
3. fragrances discerned with the nose...
4. flavors discerned with the tongue...
5. touches discerned with the body -- appealing, pleasurable, yearned for, and lusted after. 

These, for a meditator, are beyond the range, in the sphere of others. Wander within your proper range, in your natural sphere. Then Mara will not gain access, will not gain a foothold.
 

The range of meditators

What, for a meditator, is within range, in one's natural sphere? The Four Foundations of Mindfulness are. What are the four? Here [in this Dharma and Discipline], meditators:

1. One abides observing body as body -- ardent, mindful, clearly aware, leading away from unhappiness and worldly concerns.
2. One abides observing sensations as sensations...
3. One abides observing mind as mind...
4. One abides observing mental phenomena as mental phenomena -- ardent, mindful, clearly aware, leading away from unhappiness and worldly concerns. 

These, for a meditator, are within range, in one's natural sphere.
 

Commentary
Andrew Olendzki (edited by Wisdom Quarterly)

Andrew Olendzki (dowling.edu)

This cautionary tale does not end well for the monkey. Fables like the adventures of Curious George deal with foolish monkeys.

The story is taken from the collection of discourses which discuss the Foundations of Mindfulness (Satipatthana Samyutta), the root teachings of the insight (vipassana) meditation tradition. The message has to do with applying "wise attention" (yoniso manasikara), changing one's frame of reference through which we  receive and process sense experience.
 
If we give our attention to the appeal of the pleasure that accompanies sensory experience (the sticky tar trap), we are necessarily caught by the object of perception. There can be no freedom of mind/heart, because we are subtly and usually unconsciously yearning for more gratification. Instead of satisfying our desires, such experience merely stirs up more desire. We take it as normal, so we seek satisfaction of sense desires by pursuing pleasure in the realms of the senses.
 
The intensive-meditative and monastic ideal that shaped early Buddhism involves a different way of relating to experience. The idea is not that monastics avoided or ignored sense data -- which is hardly possible when all of our sensory experience passes through these gateways. Rather, the instruction is about not getting ensnared by our craving for sense pleasures. Sense data itself is not harmful, but the sweetness of pleasure wrapping each sense ensnares us when we are overtaken by our "foolish and greedy nature."
 
The different strategy is that an intensive-meditator wander in a more fruitful range, within the Four Foundations of Mindfulness, in the presence of equanimity. Insight meditation trains us to attend more dispassionately to alluring and annoying experience. When we simply observe with mindfulness and clear comprehension, we undermine what the hunter has set for us (i.e., Mara's trap). We are then able to overcome death and attain "deathlessness" (nirvana).

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