Women, gun laws intersect in Santa Barbara

Sonali Kolhatkar (uprisingradio); Crystal Quintero, CC Liu, Pfc. Sandoval, Wisdom Quarterly

University students gather near Royce Hall at UCLA to pay tribute to the Isla Vista victims during a candlelight vigil Monday made front page of LA Times (Wally Skalij/latimes.com).

  
Misogyny and Gun Laws, Isla Vista

A mass killing in the Santa Barbara County town of Isla Vista on Friday resulted in seven people dead, including the suspected perpetrator, and 13 injured.

Twenty-two year old Elliot Rodger, a privileged young man of half-Anglo, half-Chinese descent, is alleged to have stabbed his three male roommates and then turned to a sorority on the UC Santa Barbara campus.

• For a "misogynist gun spree" there sure were a lot of male victims, stabbing deaths, and car injuries. But never mind that! We must focus on guns. Guns are the problem. This doesn't happen in China. In China mass murderers use knives. Is Rodger a new Candy Jones, another Monarch Butterfly?

Guns don't kill people. It's mostly the bullets.

There he killed another young man and two women. Rodger also struck several people with his car as he drove around Isla Vista shooting at people before ending his own life [the planned containment of all programmed shooters]. Shortly before his killing spree, Rodger posted a 137-page document detailing his life story and his motivation for the killings, as well a seven-minute YouTube video.

• AUDIO: Robyn Thomas and Katie McDonough
• AUDIO: entire program with host Sonali Kolhatkar

Rodger’s mother warned authorities about him after he began posting disturbing video earlier this year. But the young man managed to convince police that there was no reason to detain him.

Elliot Rodger has been linked with the so-called “Men’s Rights” movement. In his video and written “manifesto” he lamented being constantly sexually rejected by the white blonde women he was attracted to, and he resented men who enjoyed popularity with women. 

 

The killings have also prompted New York’s [opportunistic] Republican Congressman Peter King to call for enhanced background checks for gun sales. Richard Martinez, the grieving father of Christopher Michael-Martinez, who was among those murdered, made an impassioned plea at a press conference. More

GUESTS: Robyn Thomas, Executive Director of Law Center to Prevent Gun Violence, based in San Francisco, Katie McDonough, assistant editor for Salon, focusing on politics, culture, and feminism. She wrote the commentary, “Elliot Rodger’s fatal menace: How toxic male entitlement devalues women’s and men’s lives.”

Commentary

General editorial consensus, Wisdom Quarterly

You a woman? (damnhangover.com)

Wait. Is Wisdom Quarterly opposed to guns or not? Opposed. We are opposed to ALL guns. But we are NOT anti-gun advocates.

Why, if you oppose all guns, are you not anti-gun?

When we as Americans finally advocate that guns be taken out of the hands of militant killers (police) and government agents (soldiers), we will say "no more guns." The anti-gun lobby, however, is part of the police state -- unwittingly so -- because all it asks for or demands in the wake of these very predictable incidents is that they be mandated out of the hands of citizens. What should be put in their place? "Give them more psych meds" seems to be the implicit answer. Dr. Drew (LovelineShow.com, May 27, 2014) was advocating forced institutionalization and forced drugging of anyone a psychiatrist says needs it. Is that the world we want? Should we bring back personality-numbing electroshock-therapy now in the nicer chemical guise?

College students return to class after UC Santa Barbara rampage (David McNew/SCPR.org)

 

"I do not perform for gender" (TOI)

Citizens are not the main problem. Authorized-criminals in uniforms and undercover are the main problem. Let's do something about that instead of using every sensationalized and possibly set up situation as the pretext to launch social media campaigns ("I'm a radical, I'm on Facebook!"), "hashtag activism," and Democratic gun-control drives. Look at Canada: full of guns and no where near the problem of anyone getting shot. Why? It's not the guns.

Misogyny (hating women) is a problem. Let's address that, not as the violent aberration of a young mental health patient but as the everyday garden variety violence of mostly "well adjusted" men and lots of women. When someone says or does something as outrageous as Rodger, it is said people rush to say, "Not all men." And that's true. But you know what? Yes all women. The oppression that is part and parcel of our society affects ALL females all day long, even jerks gems like Sarah "Caribou Barbie" Palin and FOX News' Ann Coulter, who contribute to the problem and oppression rather than advocating any viable solution.

 

SlutWalks across the USA and world

What are we doing in our daily lives? You don't have to be a Ukrainian FEMEN sextremist or Russian Pussy Rioter or Indian anti-rape bus striker (do you want a death penalty for rape out of revenge that replaces actually addressing the systemic problem?) or topped/topless American "SlutWalk" ("We know you aren't him") participant to do something. Male ally Hugo Schwyzer was no ally. There is a lot we can do, all women and all male allies. 

• SlutWalk protests against sexual violence go global (CNN, May 10, 2011... A statement by organizers of a forthcoming SlutWalk protest in London... According to the SlutWalk Toronto website, women have historically...
• SlutWalk marches sparked by Toronto remarks (BBC)

"What the Buddha Taught" (best book)

Dhr. Seven, Amber Larson, Wisdom Quarterly; Ven. Walpola Rahula, the first Buddhist monk to become a professor at a Western university, lectured at Swarthmore, UCLA

The golden Buddha with golden arhats listening to the Dharma (Thai-on/flickr.com)

  

What the Buddha Taught (W. Rahula)

Most people cannot bear to look at book titled What the Buddha Never Taught -- even though it is an account of real life practices
 a modern Buddhist monastery. They are drawn instead to tradition, to "truth," to What the Buddha Taught.

This text, which can be read free here, is rightly heralded as one of the greatest publications on Buddhism in the history of English. It ranks right up there was the great sutra translations in English of Bhikkhu Bodhi and Maurice O'Connell Walshe and the previous generation of the British Pali Text Society (PTS) like Rhys Davids, Caroline Rhys Davids, and Frank Lee Woodward.

A Sri Lankan scholar-monk, Ven. Walpola Rahula, somehow managed the impossible -- succinctly covering all of the important aspects of the Dharma in one relatively short and well written book. 

Buddha (Mesamong/flickr)

How he did this has been difficult for us to figure out. We must suppose that he avoided obvious formulas and stereotyped texts to present it.

But the Buddha himself formulated those "lists," the bane of Buddhist students who have not yet realized that the lists are only a device to remember to mention everything. They have no magic or purpose beyond that. The best list would be the Seven Factors of Enlightenment explained in terms of the Seven Requisites of Enlightenment, which are 37 factors, of which the Seven Factors of Enlightenment are just one group. The Greco-Buddhist monk Ven. Nagasena spelled out this ancient formulation centuries ago. See how easy it is to become boring and weighed down bywe presunumbers and lists and terms? How does Ven. Rahula avoid it? Years of study, insight, and teaching, we presume.

Only one book

Meditating deva in gold at Doi Suthep, Chiang Mai, Thailand (_cFu/flickr)

 

If there were only one book one was ever going to read about Buddhism, it would not be Herman Hesse's Siddhartha, which is not about Siddhartha Gautama but about another guy named "Siddhartha" in a fictional tale. The Buddha is far in the background. 

It's like Monty Python's Life of Brian, which is not about Jesus Christ but instead about a Jewish boy born in a manger, visited by three wise men on the day he is born, who grows up to be called "messiah" and "healer" as he fights Pagan Roman imperialism and temple hypocrisy. This perfectly describes Brian. The Christ is far in the background. But everyone assumes the movie is about Jesus, just as everyone assumes Siddhartha is about the Buddha's early life. 

Thailand (Laurence Hunt)

Nor would it be The Dhammapada, a collection of Buddhist aphorisms that hardly even make sense without the accompanying stories left out of most modern "pocket" versions treating the text like some kind of "Buddhist Bible." No, unless it's going to be a collection of sutras like Bhikkhu Bodhi's wonderful excellent anthology or his recorded series, "The Buddha's Teaching: As It Is" available free on CD from the Buddhist Association of the United States (BAUS/CYM) in upstate New York.

Nor would it be Buddhaghosa's compendious Path of Purification (Visuddhimagga), which purports to be a meditation manual but is written so densely as to be impenetrable even for experts and scholars. One is better off tackling his earlier Path of Freedom (Vimuttimagga by Upatissa, aka Buddhaghosa). Both try to cover topics that need a living meditation master, for they are training manuals not ordinary books. They contain a great deal of commentarial literature, which many people today foolishly reject or disregard as not being sutras the Buddha uttered. What we fail to understand as Westerners is the long Indian tradition of spiritual teachers making statements their students and students' students explicate and comment on. This exegetical literature is not a comment but a detailed explanation of the practice.

The same is true in Judaism, as a living tradition of storytelling and endless interpretation to make things real in one's life. But as modern Christians, the idea makes little sense to us: We want it hard and fixed, absolute and fundamentalist. Teaching was never like this, except that writing made it so. The Buddha did not write, nor did the Vedic seers (rishis) before him or Jewish-Jesus of Nazareth after him. The mystical experience cannot be communicated that way, try as we might. The Pagan teachers of Europe and the shamans everywhere in the world. It used to be a round, a spin, a toss with storytelling to match.

Nor would it even be the Tibetan Book of the Dead, which is all well and good to listen to when dying but not such a hot read for a layperson in life.

Nor would it be Ven. Nyanatiloka's Buddhist Dictionary: A Manual of Doctrine and Terms, which is written as a series of essays rather than simple entries and serves as an excellent resource.

Nor would it be a catechism. If a person had only one Buddhist book to read, it would have to be:

What the Buddha Taught

HERE ARE THE CONTENTS:

CONTENTS: List of Illustrations, Foreword, Preface, The Buddha.

CHAPTER I: The Buddhist Attitude of Mind, Human is supreme—One is one's refuge—Responsibility—Doubt—Freedom of Thought—Tolerance—Is Buddhism Religion or Philosophy?—Truth has no label—No blind faith or belief, but seeing and understanding—No attachment even to Truth—Parable of the Raft—Imaginary speculations useless—Practical attitude—Parable of the wounded man, THE FOUR NOBLE TRUTHS.

CHAPTER II: The First Noble Truth: Dukkha, Buddhism neither pessimistic nor optimistic but realistic—Meaning of "Dukkha"—Three aspects of experience—Three aspects of "Dukkha"—What is a "being"?—Five Aggregates—No spirit opposed to matter—Flux—Thinker and Thought—Has life a beginning?

CHAPTER III: The Second Noble Truth: Samudaya: "The Arising of Dukkha"—Definition—Four Nutriments—Root cause of suffering and continuity—Nature of arising and cessation—Karma and Rebirth—What is death?—What is rebirth?

CHAPTER IV: The Third Noble Truth: Nirodha: "The Cessation of Dukkha'—What is Nirvana?—Language and Absolute Truth—Definitions of Nirvana—Nirvana not negative—Nirvana as Absolute Truth—What is Absolute Truth?—Truth is not negative—Nirvana and Samsara—Nirvana not a result—What is there after Nirvana?— Incorrect expressions—What happens to an Arahant after death?— If no Self, who realizes Nirvana?—Nirvana in this life.

CHAPTER V: The Fourth Noble Truth: Magga: "The Path," Middle Path or Noble Eightfold Path—Compassion and Wisdom—Ethical Conduct—Mental Discipline—Wisdom—Two sorts of Understanding—Four Functions regarding the Four Noble Truths.

CHAPTER VI: The Doctrine of No-Soul: Anatta, What is Soul or Self?—God and Soul: Self protection and Self-preservation—Teaching "Against the Current"—Analytic and Synthetic methods—Conditioned Genesis—Question of Freewill—Two kinds of Truths—Some erroneous views—The Buddha definitely denies "Atman"—The Buddha's silence—The idea of Self a vague impression—Correct attitude—If no Self, who gets the result of Karma?—Doctrine of Anatta not negative...

CHAPTER VII: "Meditation" or Mental Culture: Bhavana, Erroneous views—Meditation is no escape from life—Two forms of Meditation—The Setting up of Mindfulness—"Meditation" on breathing—Mindfulness of activities—Living in the present moment—"Meditation" on Sensations—on Mind—on Ethical, Spiritual, and Intellectual subjects.

CHAPTER VIII: What the Buddha Taught and the World Today, Erroneous views—Buddhism for all—In daily life—Family and social life—Lay life held in high esteem—How to become a Buddhist—Social and economic problems—Poverty: cause of crime—Material and spiritual progress—Four kinds of happiness for laypersons—On politics, war, and peace—Non-violence—The ten duties of a ruler—The Buddha's Message—Is it practical?—Asoka's Example-The Aim of Buddhism

SELECTED TEXTS: Setting in Motion the Wheel of Truth (Dhammacakkappavattana-sutta), The Fire Sermon (Adittapariyaya-sutta), Universal Love (Metta-sutta), Blessings (Mangala-sutta), Getting rid of All Cares and Troubles (Sabbasava-sutta), The Parable of the Piece of Cloth (Vatthupama-sutta), The Foundations of Mindfulness (Satipatthana-sutta), Advice to Sigala (Sigalovada-sutta), The Words of Truth (Dhammapada), The Last Words of the Buddha (from the Mahaparinibbanasutta). Abbreviations. Selected Bibliography. Glossary. Index. READ IT

India recognizes a "third gender" (pandaka)

Ashley Wells, Irma Quintero, Dhr. Seven, Wisdom Quarterly

People from the Puritan US to Putin's Russia may dislike gays, but the question is, Do they have rights? Do we not all as sentient beings, at least as human beings, have equal rights?

"Homophobia can kill you," says Discovery (news.discovery.com). So be pro-gay or neutral.

  

Hijras mourn in India (wiki)

The Supreme Court of India recognized a legal third gender for hijra and transgender individuals (Buddhist pandakas).

What are or were pandakas in the Buddha's day? "People of non-normative sexual natures, perhaps originally denoting a deficiency in male sexual capacity," according to Peter A. Jackson ("Non-normative Sex/Gender Categories in the Theravada Buddhist Scriptures," Australian Humanities Review, April 1996).

 

Buddhism, Sex, and Gender

The best account, and one of the very few, we have ever come across concerning Buddhism and homosexuality, which is the frame for discussions of pandakas, is an academic collection of essays edited by Jose Ignacio Cabezon: Buddhism, Sexuality and Gender. Of particular interest is the contribution of Prof. Donald S. Lopez.

Buddhaghosa, apparently, put together a clinical description of pandakas -- often offensively and misleadingly translated as "eunuchs" when they are in fact non-normative individuals. Ancient sketches of transgender and cross-dressing individuals had many disparate presumptions about their character, habits, and proclivities as well as the karmic source of their condition. It cannot be asked, "What was the traditional view of homosexuality in Buddhism, Jainism, and Brahmanism?" without reference to pandakas because they were not distinguished from "perverts" and third-gender-rebels.

• Is "swinging" sexual misconduct?

Ancient India with Afghanistan (Gandhara, Kamboja) and Pakistan at upper left, Burma and Thailand at lower right, Nepal and Tibet at the center top, and famous Buddhist sites on the plains of the Ganges river (wiki).

 

Sex in the Pali Canon

Gender of devas is fluid in Indian iconography

The Pali canon -- a ancient collection of sutras and other sacred Buddhist texts including the disciplinary code (Vinaya) and commentaries -- contains numerous references to homoerotic behavior and to individuals who today would [today] be variously identified as hermaphrodites, transvestites, transsexuals, and homosexuals.

However, none of the sex/gender categories named in the canon precisely matches any of these contemporary notions. But it combines instead elements of these diverse physiological, gender, and sexual conditions in distinctive formulations. 

Dharmic renunciates say no to pandakas.

Most Buddhist canonical accounts of non-normative gender and sexuality are found in the Vinaya, the monastic code of conduct, and they are listed among the many explicitly described forms of sexual activity proscribed and forbidden for monks and nuns (bhikkhus and bhikkhunis).

In analyzing Theravada Buddhist accounts of sex and gender, it is vital to keep in mind that the tradition began as a Monastic Sangha, an order of celibate male and female renunciates, and that the Vinaya is a monastic not a layperson's code of conduct. 

Scriptural accounts of non-normative sex and gender also need to be understood in the context of the tradition's general disdain of sexuality and its distrust of sensual indulgences.

Buddhist Thailand's third gender is the kathoey

Nevertheless, according to Jackson, what makes accounts of sex and gender in these ancient Indian texts especially fascinating is their contemporary relevance in Thailand, which together with Sri Lanka, Burma, Laos, and Cambodia forms part of the Asian cultural sphere in which Theravada Buddhism remains a vital cultural institution. More

Growing up in India, I never met openly gay...

PRI's The World (12-11-13)

Deepak Singh never met an openly gay person when he was growing up in India. That, of course, has changed in the years since, with people of many different sexual orientations coming into his life. But the news out of India's Supreme Court decision makes his heart grieve. [That was last year.]

Supreme Courts rights traditional wrong (NPR)

Singh should be happy today (4-16-14) because India's Supreme Court has just legally declared a third gender (hijra) that gives rights to its LGBTQ community (lesbian, gay, bi, trans, and questioning). The third gender is neither males who want to be females nor females eager to become males. Nor are they regarded as sufficiently "male" by each other or the larger community. There really is a third gender, and it is now enshrined in law...at least in India. In India, Supreme Court hands down landmark ruling recognizing transgender citizens.

 

Hancock just returned from seeing the wonders of India

Comedy: Monty Python to reunite! (video)

Wisdom Quarterly; Monty Python's Flying Circus ("Life of Brian"); Mox News (MOX News)

Brilliant satirical look at Western Judeo-Christian religio-cultural foundations ("Life of Brian")

The remaining members of the troupe announce a reunion on the GMT (BBC.co.uk), and the legend will continue for world-famous British comedians. Full (Telegraph.co.uk)

Brian is mistaken for a messiah, runs to hide with yogi hermit

 

"Loretta" skit, "Life of Brian" as feminist radicals in-fight

On the extreme edge of satire: Hitler and Nazis in England

The nun Khema, Foremost in Wisdom (sutra)

Dhr. Seven and Amber Larson, CC Liu, Wisdom Quarterly translation based on Ven. Thanissaro (aka Geoffrey DeGraff, Abbot of Wat Metta), Khema Sutta (SN 44.1)

Venerable Khema, the Buddha's chief female disciple (-William/flickr.com)

 

First Buddhist Women (Susan Murcott)

On one occasion the Blessed One was residing near the city of Savatthi at Jeta's Grove in the millionaire's monastery. At that time the nun Khema [the Buddha's chief female disciple, "foremost in wisdom"], wandering on tour among the Kosalan peopple, had taken up her residence between Savatthi and Saketa at Toranavatthu. 

Then King Pasenadi Kosala, while traveling from Saketa to Savatthi, took up a one-night residence between Savatthi and Saketa at Toranavatthu. He addressed a certain man, "Come, now, my good man. Find out if in Toranavatthu there is any Brahmin [priest] or wandering ascetic (shraman) I might visit today."

 

"As you wish, sire," the man replied. Having roamed all over Toranavatthu, he did not see any. However, he did see the nun Khema. And seeing her he went to King Pasenadi Kosala and reported: "Sire, in Toranavatthu there is no Brahmin or wandering ascetic of the sort your majesty might visit. But there is a [Buddhist] nun named Khema, a disciple of the Blessed One, worthy and rightly self-awakened.

Khema "foremost in wisdom"

"And of this lady this commendable report has spread: 'She is wise, competent, intelligent, learned, a fluent speaker, admirable in her ingenuity.' Let your majesty visit her."

 

King Pasenadi Kosala went to the nun Khema. When he arrived, he bowed and sat respectfully to one side. Sitting there he said: "Now then, lady, does the Tathagata [the "Wayfarer," the Buddha] exist after death?"

 

"This, great king, has not been declared by the Blessed One: 'The Tathagata exists after death.'"

 

"Well then, lady, does the Tathagata not exist after death?"

 

"Great king, this too has not been declared by the Blessed One: 'The Tathagata does not exist after death.'"

 

"Then does the Tathagata both exist and not exist after death?"

"This also has not been declared by the Blessed One: 'The Tathagata both exists and does not exist after death.'"

 

"Well then, does the Tathagata neither exist nor not exist after death?"

 

"This, too, has not been declared by the Blessed One: 'The Tathagata neither exists nor does not exist after death.'"

 

"Now, lady, when asked if the Tathagata exists after death, you [answer no to each of the four exhaustive options]. Now, what is the cause, what is the reason, why that has not been declared by the Blessed One?"

 

Khema, Buddha, and Uppalavanna? (BreenJones)

"Very well, then, great king, I will question you in return about this very same matter. Answer as you see fit. What do you think, great king: Do you have an accountant or actuary or mathematician who can count the grains of sand in the river Ganges as 'so many grains of sand,' or 'so many hundreds of grains of sand,' or 'so many thousands of grains of sand,' or 'so many hundreds of thousands of grains of sand'?"

 

"No, lady."

 

"Then do you have an accountant or calculator or mathematician who can count the water in the great ocean as 'so many buckets of water,' or 'so many hundreds of buckets of water,' or 'so many thousands of buckets of water,' or 'so many hundreds of thousands of buckets of water'?"

 

"No, lady. But why is that? The great ocean is deep, boundless, hard to fathom!"

 

"Even so, great king, any physical form by which one describing the Tathagata would describe him -- that the Tathagata has abandoned, its root destroyed, made like a palmyra stump, deprived of the conditions of development, not destined for future rearising. Freed from the classification of form, great king, the Tathagata is deep, boundless, hard to fathom, like the ocean. 

Modern Theravada "ten precept nun" dressed in white in Burma (As1974/flickr.com)

 

"'The Tathagata exists after death' does not apply. 'The Tathagata does not exist after death does not apply. 'The Tathagata both exists and does not exist after death' does not apply. 'The Tathagata neither exists nor does not exist after death' does not apply.

 

"Any feeling... Any perception... Any mental formation...

"Any consciousness [form, feeling, perception, formation, and consciousness are the Five Aggregates of Clinging unenlightened beings cling to and regard as self] by which one describing the Tathagata would describe him -- that the Tathagata has abandoned, its root destroyed, made like a palmyra stump, deprived of the conditions of development, not destined for future rearising. 

"Freed from the classification of consciousness, great king, the Tathagata is deep, boundless, hard to fathom, like the ocean. 'The Tathagata exists after death' does not apply. 'The Tathagata does not exist after death' does not apply. 'The Tathagata both exists and does not exist after death' does not apply. 'The Tathagata neither exists nor does not exist after death' does not apply."

• The Commentary and Sub-commentary try to go further than this discourse and to describe the Liberated One's indescribability. To paraphrase: He is freed from the classification of form [and the other aggregates] because for him there will be no rearising [rebirth] of form and so on in the future, after passing into final nirvana. In addition, he is deep in terms of the depth of his character and the depth of his qualities. As for any description in terms of "a being" which might be used in relation to someone with such deep qualities, when one sees the inapplicability of the description "being," owing to the (future) non-rearising of the Five Aggregates of Clinging, one sees that none of the four statements with regard to the Tathagata are invalid after passing into final nirvana. [Wayfarer is an early English translation of the term Tathagata, which means "welcome one" and "well gone one," sometimes translated in Mahayana Buddhism as "Thus Come One." He is gone-and-going, after having arisen and arrived. He is a welcome teacher of freedom destined for complete freedom.] This explanation, which borrows from Sister Vajira's verse in SN 5.10, misses an important point raised in SN 22.36 and SN 23.2. In SN 22.36 the Buddha states that one is measured and classified by what one is obsessed with or clinging to. If one is not obsessed with anything and no longer clinging even unconsciously, then one is not measured or classified by it in the here and now. In SN 23.2 the Buddha points out that the term "being" or "becoming" (bhava) applies only where there is craving and passion [rooted in ignorance/unenlightenment and therefore leading to the future rearising of a rebirth-linking consciousness, which entails rebirth in samsara yet again for the umpteenth time]. The Tathagata, freed from craving and passion, is indescribable in the present, even though he obviously still functions in the present. SN 22.86 elaborates on this point in great detail. Another problem raised by the Commentary's explanation for this brief discourse is how it would define the Tathagata's qualities and character, for what are they composed of aside from the aggregates.

Then King Pasenadi Kosala, delighting in and approving of the nun Khema's words, got up from his seat, bowed, and -- respectfully keeping her to his right -- departed.

 

Asking the Buddha

A great Indian king (maha raja) meets the Buddha.

At another time he went to the Blessed One. When he arrived, he bowed, and sat respectfully to one side. Sitting there [he asked the Buddha the same four questions asked of the nun Khema, and he received precisely the same responses and analogies. Then he exclaimed:]

 

"Amazing, venerable sir! It is astounding how the meaning and phrasing of the teacher and disciple agree, coincide, and do not diverge from one another with regard to the supreme teaching! 

 

Recently, venerable sir, I visited the nun Khema. And when I arrived I asked her regarding this matter, and she answered me with the same words, the very same phrasing as the Blessed One. Amazing, venerable sir! It is astounding how the meaning and phrasing of the teacher and disciple agree, coincide, and do not diverge from one another with regard to the supreme teaching!

 

"Now, venerable sir, we must go. Our duties are many, and many are our responsibilities."

 

"Then do as you see fit, great king."

 

So King Pasenadi Kosala, delighting in and approving of the Blessed One's words, got up from his seat, bowed, -- respectfully keeping the Blessed One to his right -- departed.

Unravelling the Mysteries of Mind and Body

Wisdom Quarterly, new Dharma book by Sayalay Susila edited by Dhr. Seven

The Sayadaw, Sayalay, and Seven set out the Buddha's "Higher Teaching"

  

(Aidan McRae Thomson)

Wisdom Quarterly is overjoyed to announce that Unravelling the Mysteries of Mind & Body Through Abhidhamma, the much awaited new book by the accomplished Buddhist monastic Sayalay Susila and Wisdom Quarterly editor Yogi Seven, is now available on Amazon.

We are pleased to see our efforts come to fruition and have the opportunity to share this work of Dharma, the culmination of Ven. Pa Auk Sayadaw's accessible teachings on this delicate and complex topic.

 

All proceeds from the book go to support the establishment of Appamada Vihari, Sayalay Susila's new meditation center, offering an opportunity for all to accumulate supportive merit to advance on the Buddhist path toward enlightenment in this very life.

Why would anyone go on a meditation retreat?

 
ABOUT

Ven. Sayalay Susila, Grand Canyon

Unravelling the Mysteries of Mind & Body Through Abhidhamma was originally derived from a series of PowerPoint presentations and talks on the Abhidharma (Buddhism's "Higher" or "Ultimate Teachings"). 

It is based directly on instructions by famed Burmese Buddhist Meditation Master Pa Auk Sayadaw -- presented by the Chinese-Malaysian nun Ven. Sayalay Susila on her trips around the U.S. and Canada in 2002.

How much longer will the liberating Dharma survive in the world? (Mikecogh/flickr.com)

 
Repeatedly told how helpful these were, Sayalay developed them into a startlingly clear visual presentation and eventually a book, now in its second completely re-edited edition.
 
At first glance the Abhidharma can appear so complicated as to be impenetrable. It may, therefore, seem dull and irrelevant, a mere commentary to the sutras rather than a systematic treatment of what is needed to attain enlightenment -- the details, the explanations, the factors explained in extreme detail.
 

The Buddha among devas explaining the Abhidharma leading to final liberation

 
That it has been largely overlooked outside of Burma comes as no surprise. But the Sayadaw, Sayalay, and Seven have made Abhidharma accessible by employing direct and concrete language, clear analogies, and simple anecdotes primarily based on the experiences of real meditators in Asia, America, and Europe over many years. 

The essence of Abhidharma is drawn out from its vast and complex matrix. Doing so makes it utterly practical, relating to everyday life in a way practitioners find meaningful for ordinary living. The way to realization is through concentration-and-insight meditation instruction to tie together theory and practice.

First edition (holybooks.com)

In this way analytical knowledge is made available for direct personal realization in meditation (bhavana, cultivation and development of various kinds). By providing clarity, this book helps practitioners come to a knowing-and-seeing, or knowledge and vision, of Abhidharma as a path revealed by the historical Buddha. It shows that its application, not its theoretical grasping, leads to happiness, mundane and supramundane. 
 

May all beings -- humans, devas, and others -- share in the blessings of this offering of liberating wisdom.

Who sees the Dharma (Dependent Origination) sees the Buddha (MN 28; Mikecogh)