"I'm Afraid" - Gov't spreading DEBT fears

Buddha hands in Penang, Malaysia -- the right [viewer's left] held in "fearlessness gesture" (abhaya mudra, also "renunciation"), the left in "warding off evil gesture" (tarjani mudra) (jc ynion/flickr.com).

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"I'm Afraid"
Danny Elfman
Afraid of the dark
Afraid of the light
Don't walk in the park
Afraid of the night
Afraid to get stabbed
Or hit by a car
Afraid of the streets
Afraid to go far
Afraid of the sky
Don't like to be high
I don't want to fall
Afraid I might die
Afraid of my friends
Don't like to be seen
Afraid to be nice
Afraid to be mean
Afraid that the wind
Will knock over trees
Afraid of my dog
Afraid of his fleas

Peace of mind
Hard to keep
Hard to find
Look ahead
Look behind
Looking for
Peace of mind
Can't relax
Can't unwind
Deep inside
Secret mind
OH NO!

Afraid to be caught
Afraid to be free
Afraid to make love
Afraid of VD
Afraid of the rain
Don't like to get wet
Afraid to take drugs
They make me forget
Afraid that the air
Will make me get sick
Afraid that a girl
Will cut off my....OH!

Someone tell me how it happened
Why my head is so confused
Can it be my circuits finally blew a fuse
Can a human being really change into a humanoid
Or is my imagination paranoid
All I need is peace and quiet, maybe just a little time
Turn the channel, turn the channel, piece of mind

[repeat chorus]

Afraid of success
Afraid to grow old
Afraid that my brain
Is covered with mold
Afraid that I might
Be put on a shelf
But that's not the least, oh, OH!
Afraid of MYSELF

Some Buddhist advice on lust

Key passages from Buddhist texts translated by Wisdom Quarterly
(Wonderlane/Flickr.com)

What household-Buddhists do is one thing. What Sangha-members (Buddhist monastics) do is another. The Buddha advised renunciates (monks, nuns, novices, and those training intensively) to be extremely careful to avoid the snare of lust.

Of great advantage is restraint in body, of great advantage is restraint in speech. Of great advantage is restraint in mind, of great advantage is restraint everywhere. The renunciate restrained in everything is freed from all sorrow.

It would be far better to bore out your eyes with red-hot irons than encourage yourselves in sensual thoughts or look upon a man or woman's form with lustful desire.

The renunciate who has retired to a quiet of place [seclusion of heart/mind but not necessarily of body, unless that is needed], who has calmed mind/heart, who clearly perceives the Dharma experiences a joy transcending that of humans.

O renunciates, if you must speak with a [member of the other sex], let it be with pure heart, and think to yourself, “As a renunciate I will live in this corrupting world as the spotless leaf of the lotus, unsoiled by the mud it grows out of.”

If the [person] be old, regard that person as your [parent]; if young, as your [sibling]; if very young as your child.

O renunciates, cover your heads with the helmet of right intention, and abandon with fixed resolve the five [strands of sense] desire.

Lust clouds one's heart when it is confused with [form's] beauty and the mind is dazed.

One who is controlled in hand, foot, speech, and in the highest [head], one who delights in meditation and is composed, one who is solitary and contented -- that person is called a renunciate.

One who holds neither “I” nor “me” at all towards mind and body [a stream enterer or other noble disciple], who grieves not for that which one does not have -- that person, indeed, is called a renunciate.

As the jasmine creeper sheds withered flowers, even so, O renunciates, totally shed lust and hatred. More

(discovermagazine.com)

Gratification, Danger, and Escape – 1
Based on Bhikkhu Bodhi's translation in Anthology of Discourses
Before my enlightenment, O disciples, when I was still a bodhisatta (being striving for supreme enlightenment), this thought occurred to me:

“What is the gratification in the world, what is the danger in the world, and what is the escape from the world?”87

Then I thought:

• “Whatever joy and happiness there is in the world [and there is plenty], that is the gratification in the world;
• That the world is impermanent, pervaded by disappointment, and subject to change, that is the danger in the world;
• The removal and abandoning of [sensual] desire and lust for the world, that is the escape from the world.”

So long, disciples, as I did not fully understand as they really are the world’s gratification as gratification, its danger as danger, and the escape from the world as escape, for so long I did not claim that I had awakened to the unsurpassed perfect enlightenment in this world with its devas, māras, and brahmās [light beings, adversaries, and divinities], in this generation [a biological not chronological reference] with its ascetics and brahmins, its [earthbound-] devas and humans.

But when I had fully understood all this, then I claimed that I had awakened to the unsurpassed perfect enlightenment in this world with…its devas and humans. The knowledge and vision arose in me:

“Unshakable is the liberation of my mind; this is my last birth; there is now no further re-becoming [rebirth].”

• 86. Ajjhupekkhati. This refers to the third itemupekkhā (equanimity, impartiality, unbiased observation], which literally means “onlooking,” that is, detached observation or examination.
• 87. These three terms, which often appear together in the texts, are in Pāli: assāda, ādīnava, nissaraṇa. The commentaries relate them to the Four Noble Truths in this way: “Danger” indicates the truth of suffering [dukkha or disappointment]; “gratification,” the truth of the origin (for pleasure is the stimulus for craving, the true origin of suffering); and “escape,” the truth of the cessation of suffering, or Nibbāna (Sanskrit, nirvana). Although the fourth truth, the truth of the path, is not explicitly mentioned in this triad, it is implied as the means or way of escape.

Wonderlane's amazing Buddhist journey

Wonderlane.com

Statue of the Buddha in the Earth touching mudra (Bhumisparsha), the most beautiful in the world (Wonderlane/Flickr.com)

The Buddhist photographer Wonderlane (wonderlane@gmail.com) plans to attend a third Kalachakra in Washington D.C. in July of 2011 with a plan to honor a commitment to practice.

Brief History of Sakya Monastery
Alexander Berzin (berzinarchives.com)

In the Manjushri Root Tantra, the Buddha is said to have prophesied that a Sakya Monastery would cause his teachings to flourish in the Land of Snows [Tibetan plateau]. It is said the site of this monastery was also prophesied by Guru Rinpoche Padmasambhava. Several stupas [burial mounds for the relics of enlightened individuals and revered teachers] had already been built at the monastery’s future location, when Atisha (982-1053) stopped there in 1040.

He saw on the mountainside a syllable "Hrih," seven "Dhih," and one "Hung" and prophesied that an incarnation of Avalokiteshvara, seven of Manjushri, and one of Vajrapani would grace this site. In 1073, Konchog-gyelpo (1034-1102) of the Kon (‘Khon) family established the Pelden Sakya Monastery (gompa) in Tsang province in central Tibet. The monastery, and subsequently the tradition he founded, derived its name from the color of the soil of its location. "Sakya" means literally "gray earth." More

Buddha, Sakya Monastery of Tibetan Buddhism, mandala offering, throne, shrine, traditional decorations, books, Seattle, Washington, USA (Wonderlane/Flickr)

Thank you so much for your valuable prayers and donations!

-Wonderlane (Photographer Libre, Sherab Wongmo)

If we cling to this life then we are not Dharma practitioners;

If we cling to the Wheel of Rebirth then we do not possess renunciation (nekkhamma);

If we look only to our own interests then we do not possess enlightenment-mind (bodhicitta);

If clinging ensues then we do not possess right view.

-Sachen Kunga Nyingpo

Sakya Pandita

Sakya Pandita's Elegant Sayings