Violence and Disruption in Society (sutras)

Elizabeth J. Harris; Dhr. Seven, Amber Larson, Crystal Quintero (eds), Wisdom Quarterly

Police provoke peaceful protests to become violent as a pretext to violently clampdown.

Violence and Disruption in Society: A Study of the Early Buddhist Texts

U.S. state-sponsored violence over Japan

At 8:15 am Japanese time, on August 6th 1945, a U.S. plane purposely dropped a horrific bomb named "Little Boy" over the center of the city of Hiroshima with the intention of killing all the civilians living there.

The total number of human beings who were killed immediately and in the following months was probably close to 200,000. [The countless other earthlings harmed are not measured or recorded.]

Nagasaki Museum (latimes.com)

Propaganda was cultivated as a justification -- How could we do this and still come off looking like moral heroes and nonbarbarians? -- that this nuclear bomb and the one the U.S. military chose to drop on the city of Nagasaki ended the war quickly and saved American and Japanese lives. This is but a consequentialist theory to justify our horrific industrial-scale violence against innocent civilians.
 

Hirohsima-Nagasaki (kootation.com)

Others say the newly developed weapons had to be tested as a matter of necessity. Victims in Hiroshima and Nagasaki helped us usher in a new age. Our tendency toward conflict and violence can now wipe out the entire human habitat....

It is against the urgency of this background that the teachings of Buddhism about violence must be studied and interpreted. Excerpts such as the following have been extracted and used to sum up the Buddhist attitude to this issue:

All tremble at violence,
All fear death;
Comparing oneself with others
One should neither kill nor cause others to kill. (Dhp. v. 129)

Victory breeds hatred,
The defeated live in pain.
Happily the peaceful live,
Giving up victory and defeat.

(Dhp. v. 201)

These verses would seem to indicate a clearly defined Buddhist perspective. Yet such text extraction can lead to misrepresentation if not undergirded with a strong supporting framework. Furthermore, if Buddhism has a message for a violent world, it must do more than condemn violence. It must be able to interpret its nature, its roots, its hold on the world and the possibilities for its transformation. It must dialogue with other philosophies and ideologies such as utilitarianism [Note 1], scientific socialism, and the belief in a "just" or "holy" war.

For instance, utilitarianism still lives among those who believe that violence can be justified if more people will benefit than will be hurt, and the consequentialist theory is similar to this. Then there are those who hold that certain forms of injustice and exploitation can only be destroyed through violence and that history will justify its legitimacy.

The view that violent change is a historical inevitability is close to this. Buddhism must be able to comment on the stance which argues that if Hitler had been assassinated early in his career numerous deaths would have been avoided, or the claim that force is justified against a government which is using violence against its people under the pretext of law. If it cannot, it will stand accused of irrelevance.

"Violence" is that which harms, debases, dehumanizes, or brutalizes human beings, animals, or the natural world. The violent person is one who causes harm in speech or action, either directly or indirectly, or whose mind is filled with such thoughts [2].  These four questions provide the framework for this study:

(1) What different forms of violence do the Buddhist texts show knowledge of?
(2) Why do the texts condemn violence or call it into question?
(3) What do they see to be the roots of violence?
(4) Do the texts give any guidelines for the eradication of violence in the individual or in society?

1. Forms of Violence:

The Buddha's Awareness

Dhammikarama Burmese Buddhist Temple -- the first Buddhist temple to be built in Georgetown, Penang, Malaysia, 1803. It is filled with striking features and a rich past, a retreat for Buddhist devotees, serving as historical evidence of Burmese occupation (JMR).

.

The sutras of the Buddha, as they have been handed down, are replete with details about the contemporary realities of his time. They reveal much about the social context within which he moved and the faces of society with which he was familiar.

 

The Canki [pronounced "chunky"] Sutra shows a Brahmin overlord insisting that the Buddha is equal to him in birth, riches, and knowledge of the Vedas (the sacred knowledge books of India inherited from the more ancient Indus Valley Civilization). He continues:

Indeed, sirs, King Seniya Bimbisara of Magadha with his wife and children has gone to the recluse Gautama for [guidance] for life. Indeed, sirs, King Pasenadi of Kosala with his wife and children has gone to the [guidance] Gautama for refuge for life. Indeed, sirs, the Brahmin Pokkharasati with his wife and children has gone to the recluse Gautama for [guidance] for life [3].

Important here is the reference to kings. The texts show clearly that the Buddha -- himself a royal from the Shakya clan somewhere in the northwest frontier -- had an intimate knowledge of statecraft. Records of his conversations with King Pasenadi and King Bimbisara show him speaking in a language which those involved in government could understand.

King Pasenadi, for instance, comes through as a man torn between his duties as king, involving some degree of ruthlessness, and his concern for spiritual things. At one moment, he is seen preparing a Brahminical sacrifice in which many animals are to be slaughtered and menials beaten and, at another, speaking seriously with the Buddha about the dangers of wealth, power, and unskillful conduct [4].

What is significant is the level of knowledge shown by the Buddha about the pressures on a king such as Pasenadi. His use of similes and illustrations, for instance, appeals to Pasenadi's experience, including the central concern of all rulers at that time -- defense against aggression. At one point Pasenadi asks about the value of gifts and to whom a gift should be given for the gift to bear much fruit. The Buddha replies:

A gift bears much fruit if given to a virtuous person, not to a vicious person. As to that, sire, I also will ask you a question. Answer it as you think fit. What think you, sire? Suppose that you were at war, and that the contending armies were being mustered. And there were to arrive a noble youth, untrained, unskilled, unpracticed, undrilled, timid, trembling, affrighted, one who would run away -- would you keep that man? Would such a man be any good to you? [5]

The Buddha thus uses similes from Pasenadi's military world to indicate that virtue does not depend on birth but on qualities of character. In fact, in a number of texts, illustrations drawn from the context of the state, defense, and martial arts can be found. Not only does the Buddha make use of military metaphors, but the texts show that he [as a prince trained to one day assume throne as king of the Shakyas] had extensive knowledge of the strategies of war, punishment, and political patronage. 

The Mahadukkhakkhandha Sutra, for instance, uses graphic description to show that war and conflict spring from sensual desires:

And again, meditators, when sense pleasures are the cause... having taken sword and shield, having girded on bow and quiver, both sides mass for battle, and arrows are hurled, and knives are hurled, and swords are flashing. Those who wound with arrows and wound with knives and decapitate with their swords, these suffer dying then and pain like unto dying...

And again, meditators, when sense pleasures are the cause...having taken sword and shield, having girded on bow and quiver, they leap on to the newly daubed ramparts, and arrows are hurled, and knives are hurled, and swords are flashing. Those who wound with arrows and wound with knives and pour boiling cow-dung over them and crush them with the portcullis and decapitate them with their swords, these suffer dying then and pain like unto dying [6].

In the next part of the sutra, a variety of horrific punishments are described, and a keen awareness of their nature is revealed:

Kings, having arrested such a one, deal out various punishments: they lash him with whips, and they lash him with canes, and they lash him with rods, and they cut off his hand... his foot... his hand and foot... his ear... and they give him the "gruel-pot" punishment... the "shell-tonsure" punishment... "Rahu's mouth"... the "fire-garland"... the "flaming hand"... and so on [7].

In another sutra, two men are pointed out while the Buddha is talking to a headman, Pataliya. One of them is garlanded and well-groomed; the other is tightly bound, about to lose his head. We are told that the same deed has been committed by both. The difference is that the former has killed the foe of the king and has been rewarded for it, while the latter was the king's enemy [8] .

Hence it is stressed that the laws of the state are not impartial: they can mete out punishment or patronage according to the wish of the king and his cravings for revenge or security.

 

It cannot be argued that the Buddha was ignorant of the political realities of his day. He spurned frivolous talk about such things as affairs of state [9]. But he was neither indifferent to them nor uninformed.

On the contrary, his concern for the human predicament made him acutely aware of the potential for violence within the economic and political forces around him. The political milieu of rival republics and monarchies janapadas] in northern India forms a backdrop to his teaching, whether the rivalries between the kingdoms [of Kosala and Magadha or the struggles of the republics to maintain their traditions and their independence in the face of the rising monarchies [10].

However, the violence attached to politics and statecraft forms only one section of the picture which emerges from the texts. Violence is detected in the Brahmanical sacrificial system, in the austerities practiced by some wanderers, and in the climate of philosophical dispute among the many shramana groupings as well as in the area of social discrimination and the economic order.

Religion, to take this first, is seen as a cause of physical, verbal, and mental violence. The violence inflicted through sacrifices is described thus:

Now at that time a great sacrifice was arranged to be held for King Pasenadi, the Kosalan. Five hundred bulls, 500 bullocks, and as many heifers, goats, and rams were led to the pillar to be sacrificed. And they that were slaves and menials and craftsmen, hectored about by blows and by fear, made the preparations with tearful faces weeping [11].

In contrast, the shramana groupings within this period rejected sacrifice [to the gods]. Denying the authority of the Vedas and a realm of gods [brahmas, devas, nagas, asuras] to be manipulated, their emphasis was on renunciation, the gaining of insight, and philosophical debate.

 

Nevertheless, a form of violence was present. The austerities practiced by some of those who came to the Buddha were worse than any enemy might inflict as punishment. Prior to enlightenment Prince Siddhartha as a wandering ascetic practiced them. In the Maha-Saccaka [12] and the Maha-Sihanada [13] Sutras there is vivid description of the excesses undertaken. More

ENDNOTES

Abbreviations: DN...Digha Nikaya, MN...Majjhima Nikaya, SN...Samyutta Nikaya, AN...Anguttara Nikaya, Dhp...Dhammapada, Snp...Sutta Nipata.

 

Textual references have been taken from the Pali Text Society's editions of the Nikayas (Sutra Collections). Unless specified otherwise, English translations have been taken from the PTS versions, though some have been slightly altered.
 
1. Utilitarianism is a philosophy which claims that the ultimate end of action should be the creation of human happiness. Actions should be judged according to whether they promote the greatest happiness of the greatest number. The most important exponent of this philosophy was the nineteenth century British thinker John Stuart Mill. One of the weaknesses of utilitarianism is that it can be used to justify the violation of minority rights.
2. Reference may be made to many texts which stress that encouraging others to do harm is blameworthy. AN ii,215, for instance, speaks of the unworthy man and the more unworthy man, the latter being one who encourages others to do harmful actions such as killing living beings.
3. MN 95/ii,167.
4. The Kosala Samyutta (Samyutta Nikaya, Vol. 1) records the conversations which this king had with the Buddha. The examples mentioned have been taken from this section.
5. SN i,97.
6. MN 13/i,86-87.
7. MN 13/i,87.
8. SN iv,343.
9. In several sutras, the Buddha comes across groups of wanderers engaged in heated discussions about kings, robbers, armies, etc. (e.g., DN iii,37; MN ii,1). In contrast, the Buddha advised his disciples either to maintain noble silence or to speak about the Dharma.
10. See Romila Thapar, A History of India (Pelican Books UK, 1966), Chapter 3.
11. SN i,75.

Taming the Mind and Heart (Part 1)

Amber Larson, CC Liu, Wisdom Quarterly; Touristing (flickr); F.L. Woodward (trans.), PTS

Bathing the Buddha, backed by deva, at Saturday Station, Shwedagon Pagoda (Touristing)

 

The Book of the Ones

Numerical Discourses (Anguttara Nikaya)

Burmese bhikkhus on Shwedagon stupa

The Buddha made these declarations to meditative audiences of laypeople and monastics (monks and nuns). They were recorded by monks, who remembered them as being directed at them as bhikkhus. It is clear from the context as well as the meaning that they are addressed to all "hearers" (savakas), all Buddhists, and all people who would practice and strive for enlightenment no matter what other teachings they follow. So we translate the opening word, bhikkhave (lit. "O, bhikkhus!"), to reflect this.
 

Meditating sayadaw (Touristing)

31. "Meditators, I know not of any other single thing so intractable as the untamed mind [heart]. The untamed mind [heart] is indeed an untractable thing. 

 

32. "Meditators, I know not of any other thing so tractable as the tamed mind. The tamed mind is indeed a tractable thing.

 

33. "Meditators, I know not of any other single thing so conducive to great loss as the untamed mind. The untamed mind indeed conduces to great loss.

 

34. "Meditators, I know not of any other single thing so conducive to great profit as the tamed mind. The tamed mind indeed conduces to great profit.

 

39. "Meditators, I know not of any other single thing that brings such woe as the mind that is untamed, uncontrolled, unguarded, and unrestrained. Such a mind indeed brings great woe.

40. "Meditators, I know not of any other single thing that brings such bliss as the mind that is tamed, controlled, guarded, and restrained. Such a mind indeed brings great bliss."

— Gradual Sayings, "The Book of the Ones," Chp. IV translated by F. L. Woodward

Taming the Mind
PTS edited by BPS (further editing and Dhr. Seven), "Discourse to Ganaka-Moggallana" (MN 107)

The Enlightened One (Chngster/flickr.com)

Thus I have heard. At one time the [Buddha] was staying near Savatthi in the palace of Migara's mother in the Eastern Monastery.
 
Then the Brahmin Ganaka-Moggallana approached, exchanged greetings and, having conversed in a friendly and courteous way, sat down at a respectful distance.

Sitting there, the Brahmin Ganaka-Moggallana spoke thus to the venerable one: "Just as, good Gotama [Sanskrit Gautama], in this palace of Migara's mother there can be seen a gradual training, a gradual doing, a gradual practice, that is to say, as far as the last flight of stairs [in a seven-storied palace, explains the Commentary, which is not to be built in a day] so, too, good Gotama, for these Brahmins:

"There can be seen a gradual training, a gradual doing, a gradual practice, that is to say, in the study [of the three three Vedas, which cannot possibly be done in a day] so, too, good Gotama, for these archers there can be seen a gradual... practice, that is to say, in archery. 

"So, too, good Gotama, for us whose livelihood is calculation [ganana, which is this Brahmin's profession, giving him the name Ganaka-Moggallana, explains Editor of The Wheel], there can be seen a gradual training, a gradual practice, that is to say, in accountancy.

"For when we get a pupil, good Gotama, we first of all make him [it was only offered to males] calculate: 'One one, two twos, three threes, four fours, five fives, six sixes, seven sevens, eight eights, nine nines, ten tens,' and, good Gotama, we also make him calculate a hundred.

"Is it possible, good Gotama, to lay down a similar gradual training, gradual doing, gradual practice in respect of this Dharma and discipline?" Continued in Part 2: "The Gradual Training"

KARMA: The 10 Courses of Action

Seth Auberon, Ashley Wells, CC Liu (eds.), Wisdom Quarterly; Nyanatiloka (Anton Gueth)

Mental-karma is important as are deeds.

Karma: "Courses of Action" (kamma-patha) is a name for a group of ten kinds of either unwholesome or wholesome actions the Buddha taught. 

He was known in ancient India not as a "Buddhist" or a Brahmin but as a Karma-vadin ("Teacher of Karma"), one who teaches the efficacy of personal deeds. There are three kinds of unskillful deeds -- of body, speech, and mind -- and three kinds of skillful ones:

 

I. Ten Unwholesome Courses of Action

• three bodily actions: killing, stealing, sexual misconduct;
  
• four verbal actions: perjury, slandering, harsh speech, babble;
  
• three mental actions: covetousness, ill-will, wrong views.
  

Unwholesome mental courses of action comprise only extreme forms of defiled thought: The greedy (rapacious) wish to appropriate others' property, the hateful (antagonistic) thought of harming others, and the holding or clinging to pernicious wrong-views.

While milder forms of mental defilement are also unwholesome, they do not constitute "courses of action."

 

Good Karma

Karma is following us everywhere we go.

Bhikkhu Bodhi (Tape 5: Rebirth and Kamma, "The Buddha's Teaching: As It Is") explains that these ten are called "courses" of action rather than ordinary karma because they have the power, in and of themselves, to lead to rebirth -- a course or corridor leading to a particularly unfortunate or fortunate state. 

For example, even a relatively minor good intentional-action can lead, IF it serves as the death-proximate karma (the thought passing through the mind right at the moment of passing away from one life to yet another) -- has the power to get one into a heaven. There are many heavens, and not a single one of them is eternal, so rebirth in heaven is not the goal of Buddhism. But it is a fortunate destination for rebirth in samsara, the ongoing Wheel of Rebirth and disappointment.

II. Ten Wholesome Courses of Action

• three bodily actions: avoiding killing, stealing, sexual misconduct (or preserving life, protecting what belongs to others, avoiding harm);
  
• four verbal actions: avoiding perjury, slandering, harsh speech, foolish chit chat (or honest, reconciling, gentle, and wise speech);
  
• three mental actions: unselfishness, goodwill, right views.
  

Both lists repeatedly occur in the texts (e.g., in AN X.28, 176; MN 9), and they are explained in detail in MN 114 and in Commentary to MN 9 (R. Und., p. 14), Atthasālini Tr. I, 126ff.

Sivali

Ven. Sivali: shining example of good karma

An enlightened monastic from the time of the Buddha, Venerable Sivali, is remembered and venerated as having unbelievably good karma -- a store of "merit" (punya) for everyone to emulate.

 

There is no reason to "envy" him his good fortune because we ourselves can also accrue a similar store of merit by good works (mental, verbal, and physical),  deeds that benefit ourselves and others that follow us through this life and from life to life until we find enlightenment.

We are always generating karma and always being reborn, but a human birth is extraordinarily rare, a precious opportunity to make merit with redounding pleasing and welcome karmic-results and effects (vipaka and phala).

Buddhist Meditation and Psychology

Amber Larson, Wisdom Quarterly; Douglas Burns, Buddhism and Depth Psychology (BPS.lk)

In Buddhism, "mind" and "heart" use the same term, citta, and the "mind door" is in the area of the physical heart rather than the skull (Thimphu, Bhutan/SoulTravelers3.com)

  

(psychologyandtheother.com)

...If the cause of suffering (dukkha, "disappointment") is primarily psychological, then it must follow that the cure, also, is psychological. Therefore, we find in Buddhism a series of "mental exercises" or meditations designed to uncover and heal our psychic aberrations.

 

Mistakenly, Buddhist (insight-) meditation is frequently confused with yogic meditation, which includes physical contortions, autohypnosis, quests for occult powers, and an attempted union with GOD [Brahman]. None of these are concerns or practices of the Noble Eightfold Path. 

 

There are in [original*] Buddhism no drugs or stimulants, no secret teachings, and no mystical formulae. Buddhist (insight) meditation deals exclusively with the everyday phenomena of human consciousness. In the words of Ven. Nyanaponika Thera, a renowned Western Buddhist scholar-monk:

In its spirit of self-reliance, Satipatthana [the setting up of the Four Foundations of Mindfulness] does not require any elaborate technique or external devices. The daily life is its working material. It has nothing to do with any exotic cults or rites nor does it confer "initiations" or "esoteric knowledge" in any way other than by self-enlightenment. Using just the conditions of life it finds, Satipatthana does not require complete seclusion or monastic life, though in some who undertake the practice, the desire and need for these may grow (The Heart of Buddhist Meditation, Nyanaponika Thera, London: Rider & Co. 1962, p. 82).

Unless the reader suspects that some peculiarity of the "Western mind" precludes Westerners from the successful practice of meditation, note also the words of Rear Admiral E.H. Shattock, a British naval officer, who once spent three weeks of diligent meditation practice in a Theravada monastery near Rangoon, Burma:

Meditation, therefore, is a really practical occupation: it is in no sense necessarily a religious one, though it is usually thought of as such. It is itself basically academic, practical, and profitable. It is, I think, necessary to emphasize this point, because so many only associate meditation with holy or saintly people, and regard it as an advanced form of the pious life... This is not the tale of a conversion, but of an attempt to test the reaction of a well-tried Eastern system on a typical Western mind (An Experiment in Mindfulness, E.H. Shattock, New York: E.P. Dutton & Co., Inc., 1960, pp. 17-19).

The Buddha in the Golden Triangle (Ursula in Aus/Ursula_bkk/flickr.com)

  

Reading about meditation is like reading about swimming; only by getting into the water does the aspiring swimmer begin to progress. So it is with meditation and Buddhism in general. The Dharma must be lived, not merely thought. Study and contemplation are valuable tools, but life itself is the training ground.

 

Using words

The following passages are attempts to put into words what must be experienced within oneself. Or in the words of the Dhammapada: "Buddhas only point the way. Each one must work out one's own salvation with diligence."

Meditation is a personal experience, a subjective experience, and consequently each of us must tread our own path towards the summit of enlightenment. By words we can instruct and encourage, but words are only symbols for reality. More

*"Original" Buddhism?

Dhr. Seven, Wisdom Quarterly (COMMENTARY)

(meditationgold.com)

After the original dispensation (sasana) was set up by the historical Buddha, the Dharma he set rolling began to be conflated with the indigenous Brahmanism of his day. It eventually swallowed Buddhism, calling the Buddha an incarnation (avatar) of the god Vishnu, and making the Buddha's contrary message part of orthodox Hinduism. Adi Shankara is responsible for throwing Buddhism out of India with the idea of promoting the "eternal teachings" (Sanatan Dharma) free of foreign influence. The Buddha was a foreigner from the northwest frontier. Although the Buddha rejected the authority of the sacred Brahminical Vedas, modern Vedantic-Hindus and Mahayana-Buddhists ignore the differences and blend the two traditions. While this departs from the original message of the Buddha, teaching the same thing with new names gives Buddhism a longer history, elevates Sanskrit above Pali, Prakrit, and Magadhi, and loses sight of what the Buddha felt was indispensable for actual enlightenment (bodhi) and final-liberation (moksha), which he called "nirvana" to distinguish this Path's goal from the goal of the ancient Brahmins. For them "the end of rebirth and suffering" is "rebirth in Brahma's eternal heaven." The Buddha rejected this, pointing out that it was not permanent but changing just like all planes of rebirth. The key difference between Brahmanism (Hinduism) and Buddhism regards the soul or self (atta, atman). Until one penetrates anatta, the impersonal or not-self nature of all things, one will not enter the first stage of Buddhist enlightenment called stream entry. Therefore, there will be no actual liberation but only continued wandering on in samsara, the Wheel of Life and Death, through heavens, hells, and other realms.

• VIDEO: Toronto Mayor Rob Ford smokes crack and kills

ZEN: emotions, Don Quixote, intuition (video)

Amber Larson and Dhr. Seven, Wisdom Quarterly; Dr. Elizabeth Ashby, "Three Mental Faculties" (Buddhist Publication Society, Bodhi Leaves No. 44)
(RD) With Thurston Howell III as "Mr. Magoo" as Don Quixote de la Mancha as a US cartoon

 

Toyokan Museum (Stuart Rankin)

The Zen School in particular stresses the importance of intuition. A great feature of Zen is to accept life as it comes and to make the appropriate response. Note, it is the appropriate or right response. This does not mean acting on the first impulse that comes into one’s head.

Most human impulses arise from greed, hate/fear (aversion), or delusion [the three roots of all unprofitable karma], and it is only the trained disciple who can act both spontaneously and rightly every time. Impulsive action frequently ends in disaster, as in the case of Don Quixote.

A Western writer has said that Don Quixote is “Zen incarnate.” This is a sad travesty of the facts as recorded in that glorious [Spanish] fiction. The author Cervantes has drawn the picture of a very courageous and idealistic gentleman (Hidalgo, a man of good family), whose intellect had been vitiated by a prolonged course of sensational fiction.

He believed the romances of chivalry to be true histories, and he thought it was his destiny to sally forth as a knight-errant, in order to right wrongs and relieve the oppressed.

No one doubts his high motives, but as he was completely lacking in judgment he committed innumerable follies, whereby he not only suffered himself, but also brought trouble on other people.

He believed that in the practice of his calling a knight-errant was above good and evil. Hence he bilked an innkeeper and, in order to obtain the supposed “helmet of Mambrino,” committed a bare-faced highway robbery.

On another occasion he imagined that a flock of sheep was a hostile army, and dashing into the middle of it, he killed seven of the creatures before the shepherd could beat him away. He was then severely cudgelled, and Sancho Panza, the loyal peasant who served him as squire, was also badly mauled. 

This unbalanced behaviour was typical of the poor deluded man; when he scented adventure he never waited to ascertain the facts but at once issued an arrogant challenge to the supposed aggressor, with the result that he was at once attacked and beaten up.

The pitiful thing was that the knight really had a very good intellect. Judged by the standards of his time, he was a man of considerable culture; he could read and speak Italian, and also knew some Arabic. He could converse sensibly and even eloquently upon most subjects; it was only when chivalry was mentioned that he “slid off into madness.”

Part 2/2 of silly Mr. Magoo's Don Quixote for kids of all ages

His monomania was such that he never attributed his misfortune to his own stupidity, but believed they were the work of a malign enchanter who had a grudge against all knights errant. If anybody questioned the validity of his opinions he fell into a fury, drew his sword, and at once became the centre of an unseemly brawl. This may be “living by Zen” (which is open to doubt); it is certainly shockingly bad Buddhism.
 
If, as postulated, Don Quixote were “Zen incarnate,” why doesn't the story end with some kind of apotheosis equivalent to satori [epiphany in Zen parlance]? Instead the knight -- we call him so though even his knighthood was spurious, having been conferred upon him for a joke by a village innkeeper -- is overthrown by a bogus knight-errant, a young man from his own village, a graduate of Salamanca, newly down from the university, who with the connivance of Don Quixote’s good friends, the priest and the barber, had gone out to bring the wanderer home.

The knight creeps back to die of a broken heart, first making a pathetic recantation of his follies.

It is begging the question to say that Cervantes did not know his business. His object was to ridicule the books of chivalry, because they were silly in content and usually bad as literature.

WARNING: Nudity! (New Atlantis) Don Quijote of the Jungle (Sydney

Possuelo, Dept. of Tribes Unknown), preserving Brazil's Amazonians

 
He did this supremely well, and incidentally produced one of the most tragic stories ever penned -- the ruin of a noble mind.

This long digression is not an attack upon Zen. Zen is so great and so venerable that its position is unassailable. But Don Quixote is a warning against the assumption that spontaneous action is necessarily right action. It is frequently just the reverse.

 
That practical conclusions can be drawn? First we should remember that the Noble Eightfold Path is a discipline. The second “step” is a combination of right intention and right thought. To achieve this, mental culture is needed. This is the function of the intellect guided by intelligence.

 

Smile  with clarity (smiledesigners.co.in)

“Mental clarity” is one of the phenomena (dhammas) listed as occurring in good (kusala) consciousness. It is essential for the practice of the Four Right Efforts, that is, to (1) recognize unskilled mental states, and not only to (2) “send them to their ceasing,” but also to (3) discourage them from arising in the future; then to (4) encourage the arising of healthy mental states and to strengthen them when they have arisen.

It is a commonplace that intellect can be strengthened by use. Some of its dangers have already been pointed out; another danger is that it enjoys diversity. It is always playing with ideas and forming concepts. It therefore encourages dualism and is obsessed with “the ten thousand things,” so that it never sees them in their “such-ness” [just as they are]. It is the function of intuitive wisdom to actually experience “suchness.”

 
According to the Western scholar-monk Ven. Nyanaponika Thera (The Power of Mindfulness, BPS.lk, Wheel No. 121-122), intuition can also be cultivated.” A careful and frequent study of this will benefit us all.

Moral Tribes (forum)

Why can't we come together on global warming? Should the rich pay higher taxes? Or should they help desperate strangers on the other side of the world? Does everyone have the right to marry? Does someone with an unwanted pregnancy have a right to choose? Is it right to kill and eat animals because we want to? On Thursday, Nov. 14, 2013, explore how we make decisions about such questions as KPCC's science reporter Sanden Totten speaks with guest Dr. Joshua Greene, director of Harvard University's Moral Cognition Lab and author of Moral Tribes: Emotion, Reason, and the Gap Between Us and Them. Through a "Me vs. Us" and "Us vs. Them" lens, Dr. Greene takes a penetrating and unique look at the ways in which neuroscience and evolution guide our moral decision-making process. In the tradition of Daniel Kahneman's Thinking, Fast and Slow... More

The Buddhist Layperson (sutra)

Dhr. Seven, Pfc. Sandoval, Amber Larson, Wisdom Quarterly; The Buddhist Lay[person], essays by R. Bogoda, Susan Elbaum Jootla, Maurice O'C. Walshe (BPS.lk/AccesstoInsight.org)

Temporary novice touches Indonesian image of the Buddha (Massulan/flickr)

The Lotus-like Lay-follower

Wisdom Quarterly (AN 5.175) 

Novice and layperson (deepblue66/flickr)

The Buddha said: A lay-follower (upasaka) with five qualities is a jewel of a lay-follower, is a lily, is a lotus.
 
What are the five qualities?

1. One has confidence (faith).

2. One is virtuous.

3. One is levelheaded (rather than superstitious).

4. One believes in the efficacy of action(karma) rather than luck or omen.

5. One looks to and attends first to the spiritual-community (Sangha) for those worthy of support.

Meditation hall as Tulku Dakpa Rinpoche gives teaching on seven-point mind-training at Danakosha Dharma Center (Mitjoruohoniemi/flickr)

 

Ten Qualities of the Lay-follower

Wisdom Quarterly (Questions of King Milinda (Milindapañha, Chp. IV)

King Milinda (Menander I) coin

These ten, great king, are the qualities of the [Buddhist] lay-follower: 

1. One shares the joys and sorrows of the spiritual-community (the lay, monks', and nuns' Sangha collectively).

2. One places the Dharma (truth) first [that is, before self and worldly considerations, referring to the three dominant influences (adhipateyya), Dharma being the third, after atta (self) and loka (plane of existence); see AN 3.40].

3. One enjoys giving according to one's ability.

4. If one sees a decline in the Dispensation of the Teaching of the Buddha, one strives for its strong growth.

Meditation is not mandatory but joyful, helpful.

5. One cultivates right views, disregarding belief in superstitions and omens, and will not accept a replacement teacher to supplant the Buddha/Dharma, not even for the sake of life. (That is not to say that one has no other teachers. Even at the time of the Buddha, Buddhists had additional teachers like the Buddha's four chief disciples, Sariputra, Khema, Maha Moggallana, and Uppalavanna. They also had preceptors and noble helpers (kalyana mittas) given that "noble friendship" is the whole of path to enlightenment (SN 45.2).
 
It is characteristic of a stream enterer and other noble disciples, once having seen for oneself that the Buddha was correct and the only one pointing to nirvana, it is not possible to doubt. There is no need for any teaching to gain enlightenment other than one in line with the Dharma he taught and that other noble ones in the Sangha espouse).

Come on, I want to hear the Dharma in this beautiful gompa! (Daniel O'Donnell/flickr.com)

 

6. One guards one's deeds and words.

 

7. One loves and cherishes peace and concord.

8. One is not envious or jealous.

9. One does not live a Buddhist life by way of deception or hypocrisy.

10. One has gone for guidance (sarana) to the Buddha, Dharma, and Sangha.
 
Four Essays for Lay Buddhists

1. Principles of Lay Buddhism (R. Bogoda)
2. Right Livelihood: The Noble Eightfold Path in the Working Life (Susan Elbaum Jootla)
3. Having Taken the First Step (Maurice O'Connell Walshe)
4. Detachment (M.O'C. Walshe)
   

Study when practicing (Bhikkhu Bodhi)

American monk Bhikkhu Bodhi (bodhimonastery.org), making "The Case for Study" (Buddhist Publication Society) edited for Wisdom Quarterly (Access to Insight) by Dhr. Seven

The Buddha, Gandhara, ancient Indo-Greco Afghanistan (Boonlieng Wongchaowart/flickr)

 

Wisdom: leaf from the Bodhi tree

The recent upsurge of interest in Buddhism, both East and West, has been marked by a vigorous practical orientation. There is a drive to discover the peace and freedom to which the practice of Dharma (Pali, Dhamma) leads.

 

This zeal for practice, however, has often been accompanied by another trait -- the tendency to neglect or even belittle the methodical study of the historical Buddha's teachings. This is not likely to be fruitful.

Arguments are offered in defense of this anti-study attitude; they have already become familiar currency among us, for example:

• Study is concerned with "words and concepts," not with realities.
• It leads only to learning, not to wisdom.
• It can change our ideas but fails to touch us at deeper levels. 

To clinch the case, the testimony of the Buddha himself is sometimes enlisted. The Kalama Sutra is misunderstood and misquoted. His famous remarks that to learn much without practicing much is like counting the cows of others or like carrying a raft on one's head instead of using it to cross over to the further shore (nirvana).

 
This contention, to be sure, has its aspect of truth. But it also suffers from a one-sided emphasis that may actually thwart rather than aid our progress on the Buddhist path.

It is certainly true that learning without practice is fruitless. But the other side of the issue should also be considered. Should a person gather cows if s/he knows nothing about how to take care of them? Should one try to cross a rough and dangerous body of water without knowing how to operate a raft?
 

Past buddhas revealed by the Budda, Theravada art, ancient Thailand (Trianons/flickr.com)

 
The Buddha insisted that followers learn and transmit the Dharma -- both in the letter and the spirit.
 
Rather than appealing to traditional formulations and facile quotes, let us inquire ourselves into the value and function of Dharma-study.
 
The point at issue, it must be stressed, is not study as an academic discipline or the accumulation of a wealth of learning. It is, instead, about the acquisition of a sound and solid working knowledge of basic Buddhist doctrines.
 
To see why this is essential, we must recall that the entire practice of the proper Buddhist path develops out of the act through which we enter the path -- the going for [guidance] to the Triple Gem [Budddha, Dharma, and Sangha].

If we have taken this step honestly, with correct motivation, it implies that we have acknowledged our need for spiritual guidance and have entrusted ourselves to the Buddha as our guide and to this teaching as our vehicle of guidance [and to those who have successfully completed the path, the Noble Sangha or "Community of Enlightened" individuals, both lay and monastic].

By taking [guidance from] the Dharma, we accept not merely a technique of meditation that we can use at liberty for our own self-appointed purposes, but a profound and comprehensive teaching on the true nature of the human condition. This is a teaching designed to awaken in us a direct perception of  Truth as the means for reaching the full and final end of suffering (nirvana).
 

In the Buddha's Words

The liberation offered by the Dharma comes, not from simply practicing meditation in the context of our own preconceptions and desires, but from practicing upon the groundwork of the right understanding and optimal intentions communicated to us by the Buddha.
 
This cognitive character of the Buddhist path elevates doctrinal study and intellectual inquiry to a position of great importance.
 
Though the knowledge that frees the mind/heart from bondage emerges only from intuitive insight and not from a collection of doctrinal facts, genuine insight always develops on the basis of a preliminary conceptual grasp of the basic principles essential to right understanding. In the absence of it, growth will inevitably be obstructed.

The study (suta) and systematic reflection (anussati) through which we arrive at this preliminary and preparatory right view necessarily involve concepts and ideas.
 
Before we hasten to dismiss Dharma-study as being, therefore, only a worthless tangle of words, let us consider that concepts and ideas are our indispensable tools of understanding and communication.
 
Concepts can be valid or invalid tools of understanding; ideas can be fruitful or useless, capable of bringing immense benefit or of entailing enormous harm. (Few things are worse than grasping Buddhism correctly, which is likened to taking hold of a snake by the tail rather than the neck. Grabbing it by the tail is easy, but then it reaches back to bite and destroy one; taking it by the neck is difficult but safe. Then something useful, like the basis of an antidote to snakebites, can be extracted).

The object of studying the Dharma as part of our spiritual quest is to learn to comprehend our experience correctly, so that we become able to distinguish:

• the valid from the invalid,
• the true from the misleading,
• the wholesome from the unwholesome.

It is only by making a thorough and careful investigation that we will be in a position to reject what is detrimental to our growth and to apply ourselves with confidence (verifiable-faith) to cultivating what is beneficial.

Without this preliminary conceptual clarification, without having succeeded in rectifying our views, there can indeed be an earnest attempt to practice Buddhist meditation techniques. But there will not be the practice of meditation pertaining to the integral Noble Eightfold Path (which begins and ends with "right view," the first being preliminary and conceptual, the second being ultimate and the result of direct experience).

And while such free-based meditation may bring its practitioners mundane benefits like greater calm, heightened awareness, and pleasant equanimity, lacking the guidance of right view and the driving power of right motivation, it is questionable whether practice can ever lead to the penetrative realization of the Dharma, to its final goal, the end of ignorance about the Four Noble Truths and therefore the complete cessation of suffering (nirvana).
 

Bhikkhu Bodhi (dannyfischer.org)

It is difficult to give a single word of counsel on the subject of study applicable to ALL followers of the Dharma. Needs and interests vary so greatly from one person to another that each will have to strike a personal balance between study and practice that suits one's own disposition.
 
But without hesitation it can be said that ALL who earnestly endeavor to live by the Buddha's teaching will find their practice strengthened by methodically studying the Dharma!

Such an undertaking, of course, will not be easy. However, it is just through facing and surmounting the challenges we meet in life that our understanding will ripen and mature in liberating wisdom.