Sunday, July 31, 2016

How to make "merit" (karma)

Ven. Thanissaro (aka Geoffrey DeGraff), American abbot of Wat Metta, Merit: A Study Guide; edited by Ashley Wells, Dhr. Seven, Crystal Quintero, Wisdom Quarterly
Big golden Buddha, Bagan, Burma (RobertoCornacchia.com/bosforo65/flickr.com)
What are the habits of happy people? (viralnovelty.net) Having made merit in the past.
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Of all the concepts central to Buddhism, merit (Buddhist-merit or puñña) is one of the least known and least appreciated in the West.

This is perhaps because the pursuit of merit seems to be a lowly "selfish" practice, focused on getting and hoarding, whereas in higher Buddhist practice the focus is on letting go, particularly of any deluded sense of permanent or separate "self."
  • [All things, including our "selves," are dependently arisen. They are therefore not separate from their constituent elements, their building blocks. But liberating-insight requires that the undeluded mind realize that "self" is not those building blocks either. There is no breakthrough to the first stage of enlightenment, as the Heart Sutra explains, until not-self is directly realized.]
Because in the West we often feel pressed for time, we do not want to waste our time on lowly or preliminary practices. Instead, we want to get right to the point, unprepared, and go straight to the higher levels.

But the Buddha did not teach in such a way. The Dharma (path to liberation) and practice he gave was a "gradual teaching."

"Meditation" starts at absorption.
He repeatedly warns that the higher levels cannot be practiced in a stable manner unless they are developed on a strong foundation. Where is our foundation as we meditate for insight (vipassana)?
 
Nowhere to be found. We need virtue and serenity (sila and samadhi) first. These manifest as firm precepts and meditative absorptions (jhanas, concentration, stability, increasingly coherent states of mind).

The pursuit of merit provides that foundation. To paraphrase a modern Buddhist psychologist:

One cannot wisely let go of one's [deluded] sense of self
until one has developed a wise sense of self.
The pursuit of merit is the Buddhist way
to develop a wise sense of self.
 
Buddhas in a factory and curio shop, Cambodia (Peter Denton/flickr.com)
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The following translations/readings show how this is done. They begin with a section on basic wisdom, which shows how the questions that lead ultimately to the wisdom (liberating insight) of letting go first focus on the things to hold onto: skillful traits that, at the beginning or preliminary level, provide a secure place to stand while letting go of character traits that are obviously harmful.

Buddhist wisdom famously focuses in the characteristics of radical impermanence (not the obvious fact that something will end but the counterintuitive fact that everything is falling away right now), distress (disappointment, unhappiness, annoyance, boredom, lack of fulfillment, "suffering" of ALL kinds), and not-self (the impersonal nature of phenomena we consider as most closely belonging to us).

The application of that wisdom grows out of the pursuit of what is relatively constant and pleasant, and it requires a mature sense of self -- one that is able to plan for the future, to sacrifice short-term happiness (immediate gratification) for long-term happiness, to compassionately consider the needs of others, and to develop a strong sense of self-reliance in the pursuit of a happiness that is wise, pure, and compassionate.

PURSUIT OF HAPPINESS

 
The section on merit then sets out in general terms the types of meritorious activities that conduce to happiness, focusing primarily on three: giving (internally letting go), virtue (non-harming), and meditation (bringing into being).

Joy and Giving?
How can I make the most merit?
The next three sections focus on the ways in which each of these activities can be pursued so as to produce the most happiness.

For instance, the section on giving discusses how the happiness of generosity can be maximized by wisely choosing the superior motivation for giving gifts, superior gifts, and superior recipients for gifts.

Virtue?
The section on virtue shows how to learn from one's past mistakes without succumbing to debilitating feelings of guilt.

Meditation?
The section on meditation discusses not only how the development of good will -- the meditative practice most often cited in conjunction with merit -- can lead to happiness both here and now and anywhere in the future, but also how it can help minimize the bad karmic results of one's past unwise actions.
 
All three of these forms of merit conduce to the highest form of merit: the realization of stream-entry, the first glimpse of nirvana or deathlessness, the first stage of enlightenment (bodhi).

The penultimate section of this study guide focuses on the happiness and well being that derive from this supermundane attainment.

Merit (reservoir of good karma)
Peace Pagoda, Batersea Park (Andrea Grasso)
For all the rewards of meritorious action, however, the concluding section serves as a reminder that the pursuit of happiness ultimately leads beyond the pursuit of merit.

In fact, this study guide is planned as part of a two-part guide covering the Buddhist approach to the pursuit of happiness, with the second part discussing the teachings on the three characteristics as the next stage in this approach as they lead to the deathless happiness attained with full enlightenment.

Still, it would be a mistake to view the two stages as radically separate: In the course of developing a wise sense of self in the pursuit of merit, one is already learning how to let go of unwise ways of "selfing" as one learns to overcome stinginess, apathy, and hard-heartedness through the development of giving, virtue, and good will.

The teachings on the three characteristics simply carry this same process of "un-selfing" for the sake of an even truer happiness to a higher vibration.
 
Basic Wisdom
The Buddha, wandering ascetic
"There are some cases in which a person overcome with pain, heart/mind exhausted, grieves, mourns, laments, beats breast, and becomes bewildered and perplexed.

"Or one overcome with pain, mind exhausted, comes to search outside, 'Who knows a way or two to stop this pain?' I tell you, meditators, that suffering (disappointment) results either in bewilderment or in search." — AN 6.63
  
"This is the way leading to wisdom: when visiting a temple priest/priestess or wandering ascetic, to ask:
  • 'What is skillful, venerable sir?
  • What is unskillful?
  • What is blameworthy?
  • What is blameless?
  • What should be cultivated?
  • What should not be cultivated?
'What, when I do it, will be for my long term harm or suffering? Or what, when I do it, will be for my long term welfare and happiness?'" — MN 135  More
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CONTENTS

Saturday, July 30, 2016

Hard Summer Music Festival (live stream)

Melissa, Amber Larson, Wisdom Quarterly; Ticketmaster.com; Hardfest.com/hardsummer

Hard Summer concert, Auto Club Speedway, Fontana, California. Or watch here ☛ STEREO.event-nations.com/Hard (☛ bit.ly/29SN8cG).
HARD Summer 2016 features Major Lazer on Sunday and Ice Cube on Saturday.

Price of admission? All the change you've saved this summer (ticket price does NOT include transportation, gas, parking, food, drinks, chemicals, lodging or anything. So bring money!)
Man, I wish we could go with Molly and all our other Facebook friends. Maybe next year.
    3 dead in Fontana. Killer, man, it was a killer show, literally (laweekly.com)
    3 Dead at Rave

    Friday, July 29, 2016

    Obon Festival: Japan's "Day of the Dead"

    Japanese-City.com; Jeff Albrizze, CC Liu, Seth Auberon, Wisdom Quarterly, Wiki edit


    Bon Festival (Obon)
    Obon as celebrated in the late Edo period
    Obon (お盆) or Bon () is a Japanese Buddhist custom to honor the spirits of one's ancestors -- an Asian "Day of the Dead" like the Aztec-Mexican Dia de los Muertos, Irish-Gaelic Samhain, or Europe's Walpurgis Night.

    This Buddhist-Confucian custom has evolved into a family reunion holiday during which people return to ancestral family places and visit and clean their ancestors' graves.

    Some Dead are Grateful (HippieShop)
    In turn, the spirits of ancestors -- or grateful dead -- are supposed to revisit household altars.

    The festival has been celebrated in Japan for more than 500 years and traditionally includes a dance, known as Bon-Odori.

    The festival of Obon lasts for three days; however, its starting date varies across different regions of Japan.

    When the lunar calendar was replaced by the imperial Western Gregorian calendar at the beginning of the Meiji era, the localities in Japan reacted differently. This resulted in three different times of Obon.
     
    Day of the Dead (Dia de los Muertos) altar
    Shichigatsu Bon ("Bon in July") is based on the solar calendar and is celebrated around July 15th in eastern Japan (Kantō region such as Tokyo, Yokohama, and Tohoku), coinciding with Chūgen. 

    Hachigatsu Bon ("Bon in August") is based on the lunar calendar and is celebrated around August 15th, which is the most commonly celebrated time.
     
    Kyu Bon ("Old Bon") is celebrated in areas like the northern part of the Kantō region on the 15th day of the seventh month of the 13-month lunar calendar, so it differs each year.... More
     
    A Thin Veil Between Us and Ghosts
    "Hungry ghost" (preta) during Kali Puja
    (WQ) The Theravada Buddhist tradition of Southeast Asia might use such a time to read from the sacred Buddhist text known as the Petavatthu or "Stories of the Departed [ancestral ghosts]" to remind ourselves of the results of unskillful karma. The Realm of Hungry Ghosts is where we might go unless we have the merit to be reborn in fortunate planes of existence. It is impossible, however, that we do not have some "relative" (seven generations out) who has not landed there. So what we do to remember them and transfer merit is very helpful for the sake of the grateful dead and ourselves. For surely the good we do first rains back on us then on others.
     
    2016 Summer Festival + Obon Dance Schedule

    Japanese Summer Festival & Bon Odori Schedule 
    1) 2016 Higashi Hongwanji Annual Summer Obon Festival & Bon Odori (2 Days) - (Sunday: HappyFunSmile Performing Live 6pm) (Saturday, 30 July, 2016)
    Higashi Honganji Buddhist Temple - Japanese Obon - There will be a variety of Japanese foods for sale... [Details]

    (Saturday, 30 July, 2016)
    West Los Angeles Buddhist Temple Obon & Bon Odori Dance Festival / WEST LA OBON - Obon or 'Festival of... [Details]

    (Sunday, 31 July, 2016)
    The Obon Festival an annual Buddhist event held to commemorate one's ancestors. It is believed that each year... [Details]

    (Sunday, 31 July, 2016)
    Higashi Honganji Buddhist Temple - Japanese Obon - There will be a variety of Japanese foods for sale... [Details] 

    (Sunday, 31 July, 2016)
    The Salinas Buddhist Temple is planning to hold their Obon festival this sunday. The festival features... [Details] 

    (Sunday, 31 July, 2016)
    West Los Angeles Buddhist Temple Obon & Bon Odori Dance Festival / WEST LA OBON - Obon or 'Festival of... [Details]

    (Tuesday, 02 August, 2016)
    Gardena Buddhist Church Bon Odori practice starts in June, starting at 7:00 pm in the evening. Please come to... [Details] 

    (Thursday, 04 August, 2016)
    Gardena Buddhist Church Bon Odori practice starts in June, starting at 7:00 pm in the evening. Please come to... [Details]

    (Friday, 05 August, 2016)
    Lahaina Hongwanji Mission Annual Obon Festival, Service and Dance at the Lahaina Hongwanji Mission. This... [Details]

    10) 2016 - Las Vegas Buddhist Sanga 28th Annual Obon Festival & Bon Odori - Clark High School (Saturday Only) [Confirmed] (Saturday, 06 August, 2016)
    Las Vegas Buddhist Sanga Bon Odori - Fabulous Raffle Prizes!  Come and help us celebrate our Annual OBON... [Details]

    (Saturday, 06 August, 2016)Newly Listed
    The community is invited to enjoy the 2016 San Diego Bon Odori, a traditional Japanese Nenbutsu folk dance,... [Details]

    12) 2016 Buddhist Temple of San Diego Obon Festival & Odori (Saturday Only) (Saturday, 06 August, 2016)
    Buddhist Temple of San Diego Obon Festival outdoor festivities begin with music, cultural displays, food... [Details]

    13) 2016 Lahaina Hongwanji Mission Obon Festival, Maui Hawaii (Friday & Saturday) Games for Kids, Food, Crafts & Bon Odori.. (Saturday, 06 August, 2016)
    Lahaina Hongwanji Mission Annual Obon Festival, Service and Dance at the Lahaina Hongwanji Mission. This... [Details]
     
    14) 2016 Palo Alto Buddhist Temple Bazaar & Obon Odori (PABT) (2 Days - Different times) Japanese Food, Bookstore, Arts and Crafts, Baked Goods.. (Saturday, 06 August, 2016)
    Palo Alto Obon Festival features Bon Odori (folk dancing), live music and taiko, flowers, carnival games,... [Details]


    15) 2016 San Luis Obispo Buddhist Church Obon Festival - St. Patrick's School (Saturday Only) Live Taiko, Japanese Food, Crafts, Bon Odori Dancing.. (Saturday, 06 August, 2016)
    Music, Japanese Food, Crafts, Bonsai, Martial Arts, Taiko, and items for sale from various vendors. At 6:30... [Details]

    (Saturday, 06 August, 2016)
    The Buddhist Church of Stockton will be holding its annual Japanese Food Festival and Bon Odori on the... [Details]

    (Saturday, 06 August, 2016)
    Obon is an annual Japanese festival commemorating one's ancestors. Traditionally it was believed that each... [Details]

    (Sunday, 07 August, 2016)Newly Listed
    The community is invited to enjoy the 2016 San Diego Bon Odori, a traditional Japanese Nenbutsu folk dance,... [Details]

    (Sunday, 07 August, 2016)
    Palo Alto Obon Festival features Bon Odori (folk dancing), live music and taiko, flowers, carnival games,... [Details]

    (Sunday, 07 August, 2016)
    The Buddhist Church of Stockton will be holding its annual Japanese Food Festival and Bon Odori on the... [Details] More

    We REJECT RepubloCrats (comedy)

    Pat Macpherson, Seth Auberon, Ashley Wells, CC Liu, Wisdom Quarterly; Laura Kightlinger, Stef Zamorano, Mike MacRae (Jimmy Dore); This Modern World; Jen Sorensen; Sane Progressive
    Stealing elections, - it's all silly! So smile with big fat happy Budai the bodhisattva
    "Hillary Clinton" (Laura Kightlinger) talks to Stef Zamorano (Jimmy Dore Show/KPFK.org).
    Comedian in Chief: "The Cycle of Trump" (Tom Tomorrow/'thismodernworld.com)
    You can't hit someone with glasses.
    It's a false two-party narrative, a duopoly. The whole of the media -- right-wing and nominal-left -- is the establishment jumping on the "Hillary or Else" bandwagon. We say, "Hill no!"

    At this week's convention it was, "Hell no, DNC, we won't vote for Hillary." Not now, not ever. Now it may be that the AP, Google Corporation, MSNBC, the Republican Party, NBC, and the mainstream media and military-industrial complex talking heads want us and demand that we hold our noses and support Clinton. H-ll no.

    Bring it! I will destroy you.
    We would sooner support the other evil that stands like a a strawman in the race. The fact is, while he is more overtly laughable, Donald J. Trump is the lesser of two evils. Yes, lesser. But we won't vote for evil. There are many other choices. (Learn about and vote progressive with good Green Party candidate Jill Stein).

    Vote "or Else"
    Kevin Uhrich (pasadenaweekly.com, 7/28/2016)

    A Trump-Clinton presidential race leaves much to be desired.

    Get this comic free (Greg Palast)
    It’s been a stressful past couple of weeks for anyone interested in preserving what’s left of our fragile democracy.

    First it was last week’s GOP national convention in Cleveland, with Republicans demonstrating just how low a national party struggling to remain relevant can actually go by handing over the nomination for president to New York developer Donald J. Trump....

    This week, the cameras pulled away from Trump in Cleveland and focused on Clinton in Philadelphia...for the Democratic National Convention. There Clinton, who made a mess of our foreign policy as Secretary of State and ultimately lied to Congress about her penchant for using her own server to send and receive tens of thousands of emails -- many of them classified -- garnered that party’s nomination.

    [It would not have been the first time she was criminally indicted, but the current Democratic administration put the fix in and made sure the FBI recommended against felony charges.]

    Only that did not occur before it was revealed by WikiLeaks that DNC Chairwoman Congresswoman Debbie Wasserman Schultz [pictured with flag below] of Florida, taking a page from the book of a Richard Nixon dirty trickster, was herself writing emails on how to force renegade Bernie Sanders out of the race. The revelation resulted in corrupt Schultz resigning... More

    "Trumping Our Safety" (JenSorensen.com)
    "RNC 2016" (Tom Tomorrow/thismodernworld.com)
    .
    DNC Disaster
    I fight Bernie, help Trump, work for Hillary.
    Disaster for the DNC
    Carl Kozlowski (pasadenaweekly.com, 7/28/2016)
    Please vote for my daddy. I can do this job.
    The Democratic convention gets off to a rocky start with the resignation of corrupt Committee Chair Debbie Wasserman Schultz.
     
    Although the national press and pundits predicted heated protests that never materialized during last week’s Republican National Convention, even bigger drama occurred in Philadelphia during this week’s Democratic National Convention.

    Please vote for my mommy...or else.
    The chairwoman of the DNC, Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz, resigned on Sunday, announcing that she would oversee the convention including her speaking duties on the opening and closing days, but would otherwise step down immediately in the wake of embarrassing revelations found in DNC emails and publicly released through WikiLeaks.
     
    Among the revelations made in the 20,000 emails released by the hacktivist organization were... More

    Talking to Bernie about selling us out
    Sane Progressive


    (Debbie the Sane Progressive) Starts at Min. 2:15
     
    Sane Progressive asks Bernie why he did not address Clinton's ELECTION FRAUD. She was ignored by the kowtowed politician.

    "Radical Cleric vs. Trump" comparing Islamist and the Donald (JenSorensen.com)
    .
    COMEDY AUDIO: Jimmy Dore Show (6/10/16)
    5-27-16More stuff happened and we make fun of it: Google skewed search results for Hillary Clinton and got CAUGHT. "George Clooney" calls in to talk sexism and reaching a new [sexual] milestone in his personal life. “Mourning Remembrance” with Jim Earl. Pres Obama and his press secretary show Hillary supporters how to woo voters. 

    Rediscover Yourself
    (Patti Carmalt-Vener/pasadenaweekly.com)
    Rediscovering Yourself
    What if there were a three-step exercise to help you learn who you are and where you came from? There is and here it is spelled out to be your own therapist.
    Shoplifting symptom of deeper problem



    Sane Progressive
    Equality Rally at DNC: Sane Progressive, Election Fraud, Tim Black Explains what's wrong with Bernie Sanders now. We support the message, but he let us down, fearing to cross the "powers that be." He was silent about the illegal activities of Hillary and the DNC. We've had no democracy since Bush/Cheney stole their elections. Hillary means FRAUD.

    Jill NOT Hill!
    Jill Stein (Green), third party candidate, to end sexism and corruption!