My Path to Freedom (sutra)

Michael Olds (translator) "A Little Spell of Emptiness"; edited by Wisdom Quarterly
(Don Gissel/Flickr)

I, Ananda, live
In the fullness of freedom
Free of empty habits
Not an empty Abiding

The Path to Freedom

I hear tell: Once upon a time, the Lucky Man [Tathagata, the Buddha], in Savatthi-town, East Park, in the House of Migara’s Mother came visiting.

At this time, Ananda, just emerging from his afternoon’s sit down practice, went to the Teacher, greeted him, and sat down to one side. There he said:

Sir, at one time, the Lucky Man was residing among the Sakyans [the Buddha's extended family clan] in the market town of Nagaraka. And I also was there. In that place I recall having heard, learned, studied, grasped, face-to-face with the Lucky Man, this statement made by him:

"At this time, Ananda, I reside in the fullness of emptiness." Did I hear this correctly?

Yes, Ananda, you heard, learned, studied, and grasped this correctly. Previously, as well as now, I reside in the fullness of freedom.

In the same way, Ananda, as this House of Migara’s Mother is free of the disturbances of the city: free of elephants, cows, horses, donkeys; free of dealings with gold and silver; free of groups of men and women, and there is only this that remains to disturb the peace, that is, the vibration emanating off the recluses here.

In the same way, a recluse, paying no attention to the disturbances of the city, paying no attention to human beings, pays attention only to the vibration emanating off the forest. One takes to paying attention only to perception of the forest. And one cleans out, tidies up, and liberates the mind.

One understands, "This way there is no disturbance emanating from perception of the city. This way there is no disturbance emanating from perception of human beings. This way there is only that disturbance which emanates off perception of the forest."

Thus, "This way is free of disturbance emanating from perception of the city. This way is free of disturbance emanating from perception of human beings. This way there is only this that disturbs the peace, that is, the vibration which emanates off perception of the forest."

In this way one regards that which is present as free of that which is not present. And with regard to what remains, one understands, "That being; this is."

Thus, Ananda, there is in this case a sitting-down-to-clear-out that results in surpassing purity.

And again, Ananda, deeper than that, paying no attention to human beings, paying no attention to the forest, one takes to paying attention only to perception of earth, and cleans out, tidies up, and liberates the mind.

In the same way as one would regard a bull’s hide, stretched out to cure, held down by a hundred pegs, its life gone, when one pays attention to Earth, one does not think about anything on Earth such as dry land or rivers or swamps or marshes with plants with branches and thorns or mountains or plains. One only pays attention to the vibration which emanates off perception of Earth.

One takes to paying attention only to perception of Earth. And one cleans out, tidies up, and liberates the mind....

In this way one regards that which is present as free of that which is not present. And with regard to what remains, one understands, "That being, this is."...

And again, Ananda, deeper than that, paying no attention to the forest, paying no attention to Earth, one takes to paying attention only to perception of the Sphere of Unlimited Space. And one cleans out, tidies up, and liberates the mind.

One understands, "This way there is no disturbance emanating from perception of the forest. This way there is no disturbance emanating from perception of Earth."

Thus, "This way is free of disturbance emanating from perception of the forest. This way is free of disturbance emanating from perception of Earth. This way there is only this that disturbs the peace, that is, the vibration which emanates off perception of the Sphere of Unlimited Space."

In this way one regards that which is present as free of that which is not present. And with regard to what remains, one understands, "That being, this is."

Thus, Ananda, there is in this case, a sitting-down-to-clear-out that results in surpassing purity.

And again, Ananda, deeper than that, paying no attention to Earth, paying no attention to the Sphere of Unlimited Space, takes to paying attention only to perception of the Sphere of Unlimited Consciousness. And one cleans out, tidies, up and liberates the mind.

One understands, "This way there is no disturbance emanating from perception of Earth. This way there is no disturbance emanating from perception of the Sphere of Unlimited Space."

Thus, "This way is free of disturbance emanating from perception of Earth. This way is free of disturbance emanating from perception of the Sphere of Unlimited Space. This way there is only this that disturbs the peace, that is, the vibration which emanates off perception of the Sphere of Unlimited Consciousness."

...[O]ne takes to paying attention only to perception of the Sphere Where No Thing is There. And one cleans out, tidies up, and liberates the mind....

And again, Ananda, deeper than that, paying no attention to the Sphere of Unlimited Consciousness, paying no attention to the Sphere Where No Thing is There, one takes to paying attention only to perception of the Sphere of Neither Perception Nor Non Perception. And one cleans out, tidies up, and liberates the mind....

And again, Ananda, deeper than that, paying no attention to the Sphere Where No Thing is There, paying no attention to the Sphere of Neither Perception Nor Non Perception, one takes to paying attention only to the mental High-Getting that is Sign-less. And one cleans out, tidies up, and liberates the mind....

This way is free of disturbance emanating from perception of the Sphere of Neither Perception Nor Non Perception. This way there is only this that disturbs the peace, that is, the six sense-realms bound to this body reacting to life."

In this way one regards that which is present as free of that which is not present. And with regard to what remains, one understands, "That being, this is."

One understands, "This Mental High-Getting that is Sign-less is something that has been constructed, thought out. Whatever has been constructed and thought out is subject to change and coming to an end."

Knowing and seeing this, one's heart is free from the grip of sense pleasures. One's heart is freed from the grip of illusory existence. One's mind is free from the grip of blindness. In Freedom comes the knowledge of Freedom, and one knows:

"Left behind is Rebirth, lived is the Best of Lives, done is Duty’s Doing, crossed over am I; there is no more of this [suffering in rebirth] for me!"

One understands, "This way there is no disturbance emanating from the grip of sense pleasures. This way there is no disturbance emanating from the grip of illusory existence. This way there is no disturbance emanating from the grip of blindness."

Thus, "This way is free of the disturbance emanating from the grip of sense pleasures. This way is free of the disturbance emanating from the grip of illusory existence. This way is free of the disturbance emanating from the grip of blindness. This way there is only this that disturbs the peace, that is, the six sense-realms bound to this body reacting to life."

In this way one regards that which is present as free of that which is not present. And with regard to what remains, one understands, "That being, this is."

Thus, Ananda, there is in this case, a sitting-down-to-clear-out that results in surpassing purity.

And, Ananda, all those shamans [shramana, Buddhist monastics, wandering ascetics] or brahmins [brahmana, temple-bound priests] of the long distant past who attained [are attained or will attain] the highest surpassing purity of freedom and made it an abode, all of them did so by attaining this same highest surpassing purity of freedom and making it an abode....

Wherefore, Ananda, train yourself this way: "I will attain the highest surpassing purity of freedom and make an abode of that."

What our Occupy Movement wants

What does the Occupy Movement want?
Wisdom Quarterly at Occupy LA, Berkeley, and Oakland

There are no "demands." But what do we the people, the 99%, want?

(1) An end to corporate rule and stricter regulation of banking greed.
(2) An end to war (American occupations and hegemony around the world, covert actions by CIA/NSA/NSC and other clandestine agencies, and the Pentagon being in charge of US foreign policy).
(3) Jobs.
(4) An end to US prison culture and torture in US jails and abroad by US agents -- and instead a right to an education without being drowned in debt.
(5) Equality: fair treatment of ALL the people in this country.
(6) Government by the people for the people (not by and for corporations).
(7) Participatory-representative democracy that actually represents 99% of we the people.

It might be enough to say that what Americans want is for this country to actually try to live up to the Constitution and Bill of Rights it claims: The right to life, liberty, and not-happiness but at least the right to pursue happiness the way each of us chooses without harming others.

Corporations (in the guise of corporate personhood) are pursuing their happiness at our expense. Corporate rule must end.

• OccupyWallStreet.com
• OccupyTheNation.com
• OccupyTogether.org
• Occupy Wall St. growing and moving fast
  
• Blaming Wall St. and D.C. as protests spread
  

When the nagas wanted to be on the original rebel flag

(OccupyLA.org)

(Wrestlingdivanewyork) Oct. 15, 2011 solidarity march of estimated 10,000+ people in LA.

Change is the only Constant (video)

Wisdom Quarterly

The phenomenal world -- consisting exclusively of composite "things" -- is in constant flux. This transiency is, paradoxically, its only steady characteristic.



There is a beyond, which is utterly different and incomprehensible to a mind that has only known and taken this flux to be real. This "beyond" goes even beyond beyond and is called nirvana. It is peaceful and blissful. The shore we are on is called the "continued wandering on" (samsara). It is restless, painful, and impersonal.



It used to be that western minds, given to philosophizing about ideas rather than direct mystical experience, called the distinction phenomenal and noumenal. But this carries many connotations and assumptions that do not apply.



Words will never suffice. The words themselves have no meaning. And although we understand today, it is not because of the words that mark it. Those same words mean nothing to the person who does not understand it. Understanding transcends words.



Kwan Yin beheld from on high and saw that all conditional things are empty (impersonal). By "things" she meant those things closest to us -- our bodies, feeling, perceptions, volitions, and consciousness. Seeing them as they really are -- passing, unpleasant, and impersonal -- her heart was utterly freed by non-clinging (am P H O T O/flickr).



Why would we ever want to leave this pleasurable transient, unsatisfactory, impersonal world? There's pleasure here. It's true. There is. There's a greater peace, a greater bliss there, but we would have to renounce the lower for the higher, and few of us are will to lose a bird in the hand for more in the bush.



We want them both. It's the nature of experience here, marred as it is with greediness for what we like, aversion to what we do not, and confusion about neutral things we see neither value nor harm in.



Wise reflection on this impermanent aspect of the illusion here is liberating. But it may be unpleasant if we take it personally. If we view it mindfully, there is no pain and nothing personal about it. Viewing it in this way is liberating. "Not having been, they [things] come into being. But once having been, they cease." Why would we ever become attached if we directly knew that?



Passing, passing, passing. Nothing to grasp. Falling away, falling away, falling away, their dissolution is bliss because their coming together is unsatisfactory. We want it to be one way over an other. Far better it is to escape to reality.

Punk Rock made me a Buddhist (video)

P. MacPherson, D. Seven, A. Wells, CC Liu (Wisdom Quarterly)

A Japanese punk scene across the sea later created cyberpunk masterpieces that focused on punks and freaks of all kinds (cinemastrikesback.com).

LOS ANGELES - Punk rock made me a Buddhist. A few hot spots in America (Boston, NYC, SF) gave rise to the American version of "punk," now devolved into pop-punk and bubblegum rock.

But it was once a rebellious act -- something that would get you arrested, beaten in Hollywood by riot police (LAPD/OCPD Gone Wild with a license to assault, jail, beat, and even shoot).

OC police now engage in brutality as bad as that of their brothers in blue next door -- killing for sport. RIP Kelly Thomas of Fullerton (abclocal.go.com).

I always thought police hated punk rock. But it seems what they hate are kids, freedom, rebellion, youthful exuberance.

Police/paramilitary troops (many back from active duty in the military killing freely in Afghanistan and Iraq) stand stiffly wielding sticks, covering their badges, deploying all sorts of "toys" -- Tasers, concussion grenades, choke holds, mace, tear gas, non-metal projectiles (that cause serious injury and death while claiming to be nonlethal, but lethality completely depends on how they are used), horses, military assault rifles, shotguns, revolvers, mace, and secret stuff (using microwaves and infiltrating provocateurs).

What's it to do with Buddhism? Like the liberating Dharma itself, punk goes against the stream. I didn't join Noah Levine in his movement. I didn't wait for Keanu Reeves to make a movie about it. And I was no Brad Warner fan, nor even a student of "Zen," except as articulated by Alan Watts on KPFK, the city's only free speech radio outlet. Their were genius front men like Jello Biafra, the person with the most integrity, to be inspired by. There were the Buddha's own words to go by, particularly the Kalama Sutra.

Steven Blush has documented what the music was really like at the time:

American Hardcore: Steven Blush Interview

Siran Babayan (Feb. 3, 2011, Live in L.A.)

"Hardcore is a Complete, Legitimate California-born Music Form"
In his 2001 compendium, American Hardcore: A Tribal History, New York writer and former promoter Steven Blush all but dispensed with your dad's glamorized spit-scabs-and-safety-pin punk, instead focusing on hundreds of DIY, anarchic hardcore bands from the scene's peak between 1980 and 1986, proving that this was one genre of rock that wasn't fun and games, especially when the crowd is trying to light the singer on fire.

While Blush interviewed the music's usual suspects, including the Dead Kennedys, Misfits and Bad Brains, a substantial amount the book is not surprisingly dedicated to SoCal, from Hollywood to Orange County to the South Bay of Black Flag and SST.

Or, as Blush rightly identified, where "American hardcore was born..." (Bad Brains singer H.R.'s interview in the accompanying 2006 Sony Pictures Classics documentary took place at Griffith Park with a quinceanera in the background).

For the book's second edition, which includes more interviews, flyers, and a new chapter, Blush hosts a readings/discussion at Book Soup today, with Keith Morris (Black Flag, Circle Jerks), Tony Cadena (Adolescents), Lisa Fancher (Frontier Records), and photographer Edward Colver. Before he left the frigid cold for sunshine, we caught up with the author and talked local pride:

• How did the book come about?
  

I started in the mid-'90s when the punk revival had happened with Green Day, Offspring, and Rancid. Everybody was talking about hardcore, but it had never really been documented. There was never any written lore other than fanzines, and some great ones, like Flipside in the L.A. area and Maximumrocknroll in San Francisco, notably. More