"The Untold History of the U.S." (video)"

Pfc. Sandoval, Pat Macpherson, Wisdom Quarterly; Oliver Stone, Showtime, RT.com

(Episode 3: "The Bomb") "The Untold History of the United States"

Narrated by Oliver Stone, this series of one-hour episodes features human events that at the time went un- or under- reported, yet they crucially shaped the United States' unique and complex history of, what Dr. Martin Luther King was to call, "The greatest purveyor of violence in the world," namely the United States. In a recent poll more than 60% of people worldwide view the USA as the greatest source of terrorism and violence. Might the CIA be responsible for this reputation, or are the Obama, Bush-Cheney, and Nixon administrations largely responsible for it?

(RT/MOX News) "I've always regarded the CIA as a 

criminal organization" - Oliver Stone

• Pacifica Free Speech Radio: Oliver Stone Pack (book, DVD)
  
• VIDEO: I think it's embarrassing" - WikiLeaks' Julian Assange responds to Obama's big NSA Reforms speech

Who is the Future-Buddha Maitreya? (sutra)

Dhr. Seven, Amber Larson (eds.), Wisdom Quarterly based on Ven. Thanissaro, "The Wheel-Turning Ruler," Cakkavatti Sutta (DN 26); G.P. Malalasekera, Dictionary of Pali Names (PTS)

The Future Buddha Maitreya towering in Ladakh (Sahil Vohra/flickr.com)

 

Maitreya Buddha, Thikse Gompa, Ladakh

The following discourse consists of a narrative illustrating the power of wholesome karma (skillful action).

In the past, unskillful behavior was unknown among humans on this Earth. As a result, we lived for an immensely long time -- 80,000 years -- endowed with great beauty, wealth, pleasure, and strength.

It was the golden age portion of the aeon-cycle or kalpa. Over time, some began misbehaving. This caused the human lifespan to shorten, which very gradually trends down but is punctuated by highs and lows, until it now stands at 100 years, with a proportionate decrease in human beauty, wealth, pleasure, and strength.

In the future, as our virtue (sila) degenerates further, our lifespan will continue to shorten until it is 10 years, with people reaching sexual maturity at 5.

• Virtue: A Brief Code of Buddhist Ethics (DN 31)
• Classical Buddhist art in San Francisco

Among those human beings, the Ten Courses of Unwholesome Action (AN 10.176) will have entirely disappeared... The word "skillful' will not exist, so where will we find anyone doing what is skillful? Those who lack the noble qualities of motherhood, fatherhood, recluseship, and Brahminhood will be the ones who receive homage... Fierce hatred will arise, fierce malevolence, fierce rage, and murderous thoughts: mother toward child, child toward mother, father toward child, child toward father, brother toward sister, sister toward brother.

Indo-Greco Afghan Maitreya Buddha (Boonlieng/flickr)

Ultimately, conditions will deteriorate to the point of a "sword-interval," in which swords appear in the hands of human beings with which they hunt one another like game. A few, however, will take shelter in the wilderness to escape the carnage. And when the slaughter is over, they will come out of their shelters and resolve to take up a life of skillful and virtuous action (karma) again.

With the recovery of virtue, average human lifespan will gradually increase again until it reaches 80,000 years, with people attaining sexual maturity at 500. 

Only three diseases will be known at that time: desire (thirst, craving, passion), lack of food (hunger), and old age (deterioration). At that time, another Buddha -- Metteyya (Sanskrit "Maitreya") -- will gain enlightenment with the ability to teach the Path, his monastic community numbering in the thousands. The greatest ruler of the time, Sankha, will go forth into homelessness (monastic ordination) and attain full enlightenment under Maitreya's guidance.

 

The story, after chronicling the ups and downs of human lifespan and so on concludes with the following lesson on karma and skillful action:

..."Meditators, live with yourself as your island, yourself as your guide, with nothing else as your guide. Live with the Dharma [teachings, truth] as your island, the Dharma as your guide, with nothing else as your guide.
 

Gandhara-style Maitreya, SFO Museum (Boonlieng)

"And how does one live with oneself as island, oneself as guide, with nothing else as guide, with the Dharma as island, the Dharma as guide, with nothing else as guide?

"There is a case where a meditator remains focused on the body in and of itself -- resolute, alert, and mindful -- putting aside greed and grief with regard to the world. One remains focused on sensations in and of themselves... mind [processes] in and of themselves... mental phenomena in and of themselves -- resolute, alert, and mindful -- putting aside greed and grief with regard to the world.

"This is how a meditator lives with oneself as island, oneself as guide, with nothing else as guide, with the Dharma as island, the Dharma as guide, with nothing else as guide.
 
"Wander, meditators, in your proper range, your ancestral territory. When you wander in your proper range, in your ancestral territory, you will grow in long life, beauty, pleasure, wealth, and strength." More

• The Buddha's "Second Coming"
• Buddhist art of the Himalayas (Norton Simon)

The Future Buddha (fifth in this aeon)
G.P. Malasekera, Metteyya (Buddhavamsa XXVII.21); Dhr. Seven (ed.), Wisdom Quarterly

Buddha Maitreya in the Buddhist Indian Himalayan state of Ladakh, India/flickr.com)

  

Sri Lanka's national nāga tree

According to the Cakkavatti Sīhanāda Sutta, the future buddha Maitreya (Pali Metteyya) will be born when human beings again live to an age of 80,000 years.

He will be born in the city of Ketumatī (present-day Benares, Varanasi, India), whose ruler will be the World Ruler Sankha. Sankha will live in the deva palace where King Mahāpanadā once dwelled. But later he will renounce and give the palace away to become a follower of Maitreya Buddha (D.iii.75ff). [The name derives from the Pali word metta, maitrī (मैत्री) in Sanskrit, which means loving-friendliness, amity, loving-kindness. "Noble friendship" (kalyana mittata) is a high Buddhist ideal because it is only by this noble friendship that one can find and observe the path to enlightenment. Our best friend, therefore, is a buddha.
 
The Anāgatavamsa (Journal of the Pali Text Society, 1886, pp. 42-46 ff., 52; DhSA [Atthasālinī].415 gives the names of his parents) gives further particulars. He will be reborn in a very eminent Brahmin family, and his personal name will be Ajita. Maitreya is evidently the name of his familial clan or tribe (gotta).

(W/WQ) In the Greco-Buddhist art of Gandhara, in the first centuries CE (common era) in northwestern India, Maitreya is represented as a Central Asian or northern Indian nobleman, holding a "water pot" (kumbha) in his left hand, sometimes a "wisdom urn" (bumpa). He is flanked by his two acolytes, the brothers Asanga and Vasubandhu. The Maitreya-samiti was an extensive Buddhist play in pre-Muslim Central Asia (gengo.l.u-tokyo.ac.jp). The Maitreyavyakarana (Sataka form) in Central Asia and Anagatavamsa in South India also mention him. More

 

For 8,000 years he will live the household life in four palaces: Sirivaddha, Vaddhamāna, Siddhattha, and Candaka. His chief wife will be Candamukhī and his son Brahmavaddhana. Having seen the four signs (old age, sickness, death, and the possibility of renunciation) while on his way to the park, he will become dissatisfied with householder life and will spend one week practicing austerities.

He will then leave home, traveling in his palace [platform, vimana?] and accompanied by a fourfold army, at the head of which will be 84, Brahmins [scholar priests] and 84,000 noble (khattiya, warrior caste) maidens.
 

A large naga tree in bloom (BDN)

Among his followers will be Isidatta and Pūrana, two brothers, as well as Jātimitta, Vijaya, Suddhika and Suddhanā, Sangha and Sanghā, Saddhara, Sudatta, Yasavatī and Visākhā, each with 84,000 companions. Together they will renounce the household life and arrive on the same day at the bodhi tree, the tree under which Maitreya gains enlightenment, which will not be a Ficus religiosa but a nāga tree (Mesua ferrea). After his great enlightenment the new Buddha Maitreya will preach in Nāgavana [grove of the nāga tree]. And King Sankha will eventually ordain, formally taking robes to become a monastic under him.

Maitreya's father will be the Brahmin Subrahmā, chaplain (court priest/minister) to King Sankha, and his mother will be Brahmavatī. His four chief disciples will be Asoka and Brahmadeva, among the male disciples, and Padumā and Sumanā among the female disciples.

Cobra's saffron, Indian rose chestnut

Sīha will be his personal attendant, and his chief patrons will be Sumana, Sangha, Sanghā, and Yasavatī. His enlightenment-tree will be the nāga tree. After the Buddha's final nirvana, his teachings (Dharma) will continue for 180,000 years.
 
According to the Mahāvamsa (Mhv.xxxii.81f.; see Mil.159), Kākavannatissa and Vihāramahādevī, the father and mother of Dutthagāmani, will be Maitreya's parents. Dutthagāmani himself will be his chief disciple and Saddhātissa his second disciple, while Prince Sāli will be his son.
 
At the present time the Future-Buddha is living in the Tusita deva-world (Mhv.xxxii.73). There is a tradition that Nātha is the name of the future Buddha in the deva world.
 
The Bodhisattva

Tibetan Buddhists are so eager to invite the next buddha to Earth from Tushita that they are erecting the largest Buddha statue in the world in the ancient village the historical Buddha chose for his final nirvana, Kusinara, India. To do so, the Relic Tour is traveling.

  

Maitreya at Thiksey, Ladakh (IP)

The veneration of the Bodhisattva Maitreya seems to have been popular in ancient Theravada Buddhist Sri Lanka; King Dhātusena adorned an image of him with all the equipment of a ruler and ordained a guard extending for the radius of seven yojanas [leagues, ~49 miles] (Cv.xxxviii.68).
 
Dappula I made a statue in honor of the Future Buddha 15 cubits high (Cv.xlv.62). It is believed that Maitreya currently spends his time in the deva-world, preaching the Dharma to the assembled (spirits, light beings, fairies, gods, godlings). And in emulation of his example, King Kassapa V used to recite the Higher Teachings (Abhidharma) in the monastic assemblies (Cv.lii.47).

Parakkamabāhu I had three statues built in honor of Maitreya (Cv.lxxix.75), while Kittisirirājasīha erected one in the Rajata Temple Complex (vihāra) and another in the meditation cave above it (Cv.c.248,259).

It is the wish of most Buddhists that they be fortunate enough to meet Maitreya Buddha and hear directly from him the Dharma that leads to their sudden awakening to attain final liberation from all suffering (nirvana, nibbāna) under him. See, for example, Jat.vi.594; MT. 687; DhSA.430.

See upcoming tour dates in the USA and worldwide (MaitreyaRelicTour.com)

The METTA of Martin Luther King Jr. (video)

Jason Espada; Ashley Wells, CC Liu, Pat Macpherson (eds.), Wisdom Quarterly: MLK DAY!

The Reverend Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., Christian minister, with his friend, fellow peace activist, and anti Vietnam War agitator, the Buddhist monk Venerable Thich Nhat Hanh

Remembering Rev. King and the March on Washington, D.C. (history.com)

 

There are parallels between Dr. King’s ideas and the Buddha's teachings on metta (universal loving kindness).

 

Both figures show us love as a method of personal and social transformation. There are a few places where they overlap and in some ways potentially complement one another.

Metta is the traditional step-by-step method of Buddhist loving-kindness practice. It begins with oneself, moves on to those who are closest to us [usually our spiritual teacher(s)], and aims to reach a magnitude that includes everyone. It is a universal or illimitable state, one of the "Divine Abidings" (Brahma Viharas), because eventually it includes all living beings in all directions without bias.

Trayvon Martin teaches us that it is not over.

By contrast, Dr. King drew on Christian sources to speak of love. The first parallel is his teaching on the different types of love. "There are three words for 'love' in the Greek version of the New Testament; one is the word 'eros,' a sort of esthetic, romantic love. Plato used to talk about it a great deal in his dialogues, the yearning of the soul for the realm of the divine. And there is and can always be something beautiful about eros, even in its expressions of romance. Some of the most beautiful love in all of the world has been expressed this way."

It is interesting that Rev. King, a Baptist minister, starts here. It is an expression of love we can all relate to, not one too high up in the clouds. Metta practice also begins with the feelings we have for those closest to us. But the Buddha points out, as does King, that there is more to love.

Dr. King in living color in D.C. (easternct.edu)

Metta teachings from the outset have us distinguishing between attachment and a purer (more altruistic) love between people. Basically, if we crave for something in return, if we are motivated by possessiveness, or if it is liable to turn into something else -- such as anger or hatred if it is unrequited -- then it is done with attachment (clinging, upadana) not with metta. 

We must be clear about this. King goes on to speak of another kind: "Then the Greek language talks about 'philia,' which is another word for love, and philia is a kind of intimate love between personal friends. This is the kind of love you have for those people [whom] you get along with well, and those whom you like on this level you love because you are loved."

  

MLK (meditationandspiritualgrowth.com)

This is also something we have all known in our lives. I recently came across a beautiful teaching on the most noble qualities of friendship in Fr. Wayne Teasdale's book, A Monk in the World. In it, he mentions the tradition of Latin Christianity, which "places the emphasis on friendship’s spiritual character, calling a friend in the monastic context acustos animi, or a guardian of one’s soul." 

Teasdale adds, "All friendship requires other centeredness," and this is "really knowing our friends’ hearts.

No more racism, sexism! (FEMEN)

It includes committed friendship’s usual intense affective power, but it also serves our friends’ ultimate well being." That metta practice moves from oneself, or those closest to us, to our friends, is intended to touch this vital quality of caring in us, to awaken and enhance it so we can share it with more and more people. There is refinement of our love, an elevating quality that we develop.

King concludes the passage: "Then the Greek language has another word for love, and that is the word 'agape.' Agape is more than romantic love, it is more than friendship. Agape is understanding, creative, redemptive good will toward all [humans]. Agape is an overflowing love which seeks nothing in return."

MLK, John F. Kennedy, and other prominent civil rights activists in black history

  

In the same way, metta aims to become mature love. In contrast to Christian methods, which have many wonderful features, the strength of the Buddhist tradition of metta is that it sets out a path of practice that shows us what step we can take next. This brings us to a second parallel teaching, one King called The Three Dimensions of a Complete Life.

The peace activist diet (PETA)

"There are three dimensions...length, breadth, and height. Now the length of life as we shall use it here is the inward concern for one’s own welfare. In other words, it is that inward concern that causes one to push forward, to achieve [one's] own goals and ambitions.

The breadth of life as we shall use it here is the outward concern for the welfare of others. And the height of life is the upward reach for God. Now you [have] got to have all three of these to have a complete life.

"Now let’s turn for the moment to the length of life. I said that this is the dimension of life where we are concerned with developing our inner powers. In a sense this is the selfish dimension of life. There is such a thing as rational and healthy self-interest. Before you can love other selves adequately, you’ve got to love your own self properly.

MLK, Thay, Dr. Browne (digitalunion.osu.edu)

"And you know what loving yourself also means? It means that you’ve got to accept yourself."

 

It is great King started here. A lot of us have problems being kind to ourselves. And even if it is not essential as the very first step towards loving others, from a Buddhist point of view, it is still something we all need to learn to do if we are going to make progress in our metta practice.

 

United We Stand - with love/metta

One of the skillful means in metta is that we should start with whomever we find easiest and progress from there. After cultivating thoughts wishing others well, beginning with those most dear, for days or weeks or months, we have some metta to work with.

We then start to see how we, too, are worthy of respect and the kindness of others.

For some people this is a long process, but it is something we can all do. This is very encouraging. 

MLK made our collective dream a reality!

"Now the other thing about the length of life: after accepting ourselves and our tools, we must discover what we are called to do. And once we discover it we should set out to do it with all of the strength and all of the power that we have in our systems.

"Be the best of whatever you are. And when you do this, when you do this, you’ve mastered the length of life.

"Now don’t stop here, though. You know, a lot of people get no further in life than the length. They develop their inner powers; they do their jobs well. But do you know, they try to live as if nobody else lives in the world but themselves.

 

10 Things About MLK (history.com)

A lot of people never get beyond the first dimension of life. So I move on and say that it is necessary to add breadth to length. Now the breadth of life is the outward concern for the welfare of others, as I said. And a [one] has not begun to live until [one] can rise above the narrow confines of...individual concerns to the broader concerns of all humanity."

 

Let's laugh and end racism (sodahead.com)

Metta is just this -- starting with what is nearest to us and extending outwards, becoming more and more inclusive until it reaches what are called the Divine Abodes: universal love, compassion (the active side of love), appreciative joy (happiness in others' success and happiness), and equanimity (non-bias) -- all born of the strength of our dedication. (Let us return to equanimity or upekkha, further on as it is a quality so impressively demonstrated by King and others in the Civil Rights movement). More

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.

Halloween: Is there a "devil' or a "God"?

Dhr. Seven, Maya, Pat Macpherson, Amber Larson Wisdom Quarterly HALLOWEEN SERIES

Is the Devil "Death" (Mara) personified? (Patrick Woodroffe/skeptically.org)

Why do we carve pumpkin jack o' lanterns for Halloween? (merinews.com)

  

Does Wisdom Quarterly believe in the Christian "devil"? 

Sakka (St. Michael) conquers the titan Vepacitti

No, not as such. Just as we do not believe in a "God" as Christians say. But there is something, and we think that would surprise most readers.

 

There is little reason to believe in an "all evil" entity motivating unwholesome karma. This would take away the agency of individuals, of ordinary beings to engage in unskillful conduct on their own. By ourselves is "good" and "evil" done or left undone. We often cite the quote, "No one saves us but ourselves; no one can and no one may; we ourselves must walk the path; buddhas only point the way." 

 

The devil "made" me do it

"Simpsons Bloody Simpsons" with evil Moe Sizlak, Homer, and famous bar patron

 

There are supernatural agencies. There is the famous case of Maha Moggallana recounting a discussion with Mara Namuci ("the Evil One," the onerous tempter figure who tried to dissuade Siddhartha from liberation during his time under the Bodhi tree and constantly harassed him to stop teaching).

In that sutra (MN 50), a previous mara, Mara Dusi (or Mara "the Corrupter"), incites Brahmins to unduly rebuke enlightened Buddhist monastics then later incites other Brahmins to unduly praise them, each time in the hopes of revealing a defilement Mara Dusi might exploit, each time unsuccessful, but each time leading to heavy karmic results for the Brahmins involved: The first are mostly reborn in miserable destinations, the second are mostly reborn in desirable destinations. How could this be if it were Mara Dusi's karma, not the Brahmin's intentional deeds?
 

Happy what? - Grumpy Cat (Huffington Post)

 The Commentary goes to great lengths to explain how; it was, in fact, both Mara Dusi's and the Brahmin's doings: Mara Dusi did not "make" them do what they did. He merely filled their heads with blameworthy or praiseworthy visions of the monastics through his supernatural power to influence their minds.
 
They reacted in a predictable manner as he hoped they would. Seeing visions of hypocrisy, for example, they reviled and cursed the arhat monastics. Mara Dusi met with his karmic results, a dreadful rebirth in Avici, the "waveless" or "unrelenting" infernal waste, a hell of the most horrific torments. The Brahmins went on to meet with their just deserts, which may not sound "fair" to us, but that is mainly because we do not normally realize that the magnitude of our karma does not merely depend on the doer and intention; it also has a great deal to do with the virtue of the recipient. What we do toward enlightened beings -- whether they be stream enterers, once returners, non-returners, arhats -- bears the greatest results.
 

We got power!

Wonder Women and Super Men

We can be affected by others, both seen and unseen beings. The "devil" can sort of make one do something, sort of. Even we have that power: we can discourage or encourage, lead or mislead, help or ruin others. How difficult is it? But to say that we "make" anyone do anything is not quite correct. We inspire or incite. We can do it for good or ill. 
 

God, the judge of all deeds? Or is it karma?

That is not to say that these monolithic polar opposite figures, the devil and God, can take all the credit. We are involved. We are co-creators. We are "GOD" (Brahman, the ALL, not to be confused with a personal Brahma), just as Jesus (both the mythical Christ and the historical Jewish radical from Nazareth who bears the mantle of so many Church legends and popular misconceptions) is reputed to have said. We have the potential for "divinity" -- to be reborn as devas ("shining ones," light beings, celestial citizens in superior albeit impermanent space worlds, and even in rarefied immaterial planes of existence, all of which are referred to as "heavens" (sagga). 

  

"Teacher of gods and humans," the Buddha, Himalayas (Michael Foley/blog.dwbuk.org)

 

Buddhist jack o lantern (Tracy Lee/flickr)

As humans we can even reach much higher than that -- to the end of all rebirth and suffering. This goes beyond Maha Brahma, other brahmas, as well as sensual-sphere devas, rupa-devas (fine-material-sphere light beings), and arupa-devas (immaterial-sphere beings). We are capable of enlightenment, be it final knowledge in this very life, or stream entry, which ensures that we are reborn here or elsewhere no more than a maximum of seven times. We would never again be susceptible to falling into births in worlds of deprivation lower than the human plane. One might live for millions of years, even for aeons, in superior worlds before final knowledge and complete liberation. That is more than any ordinary deva or brahma, any angel or god, can claim. It is a "change of lineage" (gotrabhu) from mundane to noble.
 

The devil in me

What motivates unskillful behavior? Asavas

We are often agents of good, but WE are the Ahriman, the antithesis, members of "Mara's Army" (subject to asavas or "defilements" of the heart/mind, the taints, the fetters), who could be called the Devil. There are demons, asuras (titans), yakkhas (ogres), narakas (denizens of hell), nagas (reptilians), pretas (spirits, ghosts, general shapeshifting troublemakers).
 

God: angry, sexist, and racist

God (Maha Brahma, YHWH, Allah, the Alpha and the Omega) is not really the "God" adherents think -- an all-good, omniscient, omnipotent, omnipresent  creator or uncaused first cause of everything in the universe. Those beings (yes, there are many gods of all kinds) may claim or believe themselves to be all that, but they are not. It is hyperbole and overestimation, a deceptive and deluded reputation. They can be so grand and glorious that it seems like they are -- dazzling, long lived, judgmental, humble, vengeful, exalted, arrogant, angry, loving, compassionate, beneficent, equanimous...

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Sexism, racism, slavery, war, genocide by and for God? (See the Bible's Book of Judges for murder, mayhem, and human suffering ordered by the angry jealous tribal Jewish God. Who follows a character like this? The world much prefers the peaceful son and the Marys.)

 

The many visitors from space who manipulated human DNA to make these physical forms as they are did not thereby create the "being" (gandhabba, atman) reborn in this form on this planet. Various theologies attribute this kind of "creation" to the God of their conception of reality. It is as if something (an eternal soul) came out of nothing (dust and breath, materiality and prana). But "we" have gone on and on -- as have all living beings -- in this cycling samsara (the "continued wandering on") or Wheel of Rebirth and Death.
 

Devils are real

There are "devils," inimical spirits, of all kinds as in China (Greal-Wall-Hikers/flickr)

 

If, then, there is no devil as Christians say, Is there a being like him? Yes, we think so. This belief of ours comes from a shaman mentioned in the anthropological research of Michael J. Harner (The Sound of Rushing Water, 1968):
 

"Many times the Christian missionary had told [the shaman medicine man] Mashu of the devil feared by white men. But since he had never seen the spirit, Mashu remained skeptical. Some time later, after drinking natema [the local variety of ayahuasca], Mashu was confronted by this figure of the "white man's devil." Since that time, Mashu has remained convinced of this spirit's reality."
 

There are many divine goddesses or devis

So we think something exists, some quite scary beings -- devils (maras), serpents/dragons/seamonsters (nagas), demons (yakkhas, asuras), shapeshifters (petas, politicians), avians (garudas), and so on. But one all-inclusive "devil" who is the epitome of evil, the source of everything bad, the defiler of all humankind, who ruined the first Adam and the first Eve? No, these are all oversimplifications based on things that may have actually happened. Early genetic synthetic experiments, a kind of "creationism," led to the Adama, a race of humans, "modern humans" millions of years ago. (See Michael Cremo for the real age of Homo sapien sapiens, modern humans, who are in fact very ancient). This did not happen once, but happens again and again, for samsara is cyclical in staggering stretches of time (kalpas) too big to conceive of. The truth is much stranger than myth and fiction.

"When the dust has settled, and you're born again, maybe as a [Martian], maybe then you'll see that your reality was squashed into banality, was squashed into banality!" - Nick Blinko

"The God-idea"
Ven. Nyanaponika (BPS, BuddhaNet.net, ATI)

Buddhism has sometimes been called an atheistic teaching, either in an approving sense by freethinkers and rationalists or in a derogatory sense by people of theistic persuasion. Only in one way can Buddhism be described as atheistic, namely, in so far as it denies the existence of an eternal, omnipotent God or godhead who is the creator and ordainer of the world.
 
The word "atheism" -- however, like the word "godless" -- frequently carries a number of disparaging overtones or implications, which in no way apply to the Buddha's teaching. Those who use the word "atheism" often associate it with a materialistic doctrine that knows nothing higher than this world of the senses and the slight happiness it can bestow. Buddhism is nothing of that sort. In this respect it agrees with the teachings of other religions... More