"Call of Duty" making killing "cool" (game)

Wisdom Quarterly

"A lie is a lie." What no one realizes until he arrives in human "hell" is that you never get this view. Half blind behind a mask, gripped by fear, taking orders, killing anything to stay alive, then spitting at anyone stupid enough to call you a "hero" if you survive crippled having served not family or country but corporations and capitalism. VIDEO ANALYSIS

Today, of course, the worst thing about "duty" is that the term is distorted to convince youth that they have a call -- to serve in glorious, murderous campaigns for corporate-government.

"It is your duty, you maggot, grunt, pansy, punk @$$ b!tch."

"Duty" has an interesting and storied history in Indian (Vedic, Buddhist, Hindu, Jain, Sikh, Sufi) history. One's dharma is one's social obligation.

(callofdutygames.org)

Unfortunately, its original spiritual significance -- as one's path to spiritual freedom -- was hijacked. It became something promoting war and accepting slavery (bound to "duties" by birth, caste, race, gender, being drafted/tricked, or factors not under our direct control).

The explanation was that this birth was under our indirect control: We caused and conditioned it (by our karma, actions past and present). There is truth in this but it neglects the fact that we have almost unbounded potential right now. The Buddha did not accept caste as any barrier. Hinduism has taken ancient Vedic-Brahmanism and continued to promote division and discrimination by birth.

If war videogames wanted to be "realistic," they would stay trapped behind foggy goggles, unable to breathe, sweating, and wondering if camouflage is used so you can pee in your pants without showing how scared you were.

It is the folly of empire to ruin countries by ruining soldier's lives. We may accept defense, but we can never accept offense (even if you rename it "preemptive" defense). Invasions are not defensive. Heading off to foreign lands to burn, rape, and pillage is not defensive. Occupying other countries is not defensive. It is folly, and it is nothing new.

The threat to us comes from the government, which no long is of, for, and by the people. Occupy public spaces to decolonize minds. War is unjust, immoral, and very profitable for corporations who pay off representative politicians.

An Old Lie
The imperial Roman poet Horace fed a lie to Roman troops long ago: Dulce et decorum est pro patria mori, or "It is sweet and right to die for country." The US Dept. of War, Pentagon, and CIA still repeat this lie to recruits without enough life experience to have learned otherwise. Videogames do an even better job of seducing children, potheads, and chubby weekend warriors.

But war poet and soldier Wilfred Owen, the greatest British poet of World War I, said it much better:

DULCE ET DECORUM EST(1)
Bent double, like old beggars under sacks,
Knock-kneed, coughing like hags, we cursed through sludge,
Till on the haunting flares(2) we turned our backs
And towards our distant rest(3) began to trudge.

Men marched asleep. Many had lost their boots
But limped on, blood-shod. All went lame; all blind;
Drunk with fatigue; deaf even to the hoots(4)
Of tired, outstripped(5) Five-Nines(6) that dropped behind.

Gas!(7) Gas! Quick, boys! -- An ecstasy of fumbling,
Fitting the clumsy helmets(8) just in time;
But someone still was yelling out and stumbling,
And flound'ring like a man in fire or lime(9)...

Dim, through the misty panes(10) and thick green light,
As under a green sea, I saw him drowning.
In all my dreams, before my helpless sight,
He plunges at me, guttering,(11) choking, drowning.

If in some smothering dreams you too could pace
Behind the wagon that we flung him in,
And watch the white eyes writhing in his face,
His hanging face, like a devil's sick of sin;

If you could hear, at every jolt, the blood
Come gargling from the froth-corrupted lungs,
Obscene as cancer, bitter as the cud(12)
Of vile, incurable sores on innocent tongues,

My friend, you would not tell with such high zest(13)
To children ardent(14) for some desperate glory,
The old Lie: Dulce et Decorum est
Pro patria mori.(15)

(Notes)

Wilfred Owen died in war a few days later.

• WarFghterDiaries.org - social network designed for uniformed service members, short videos of actual war stories, real life experiences, building a resilient team. Learn from and share to find out what's really involved in fighting and dealing with the tremendous fallout

What is the "Dharma"?

The Buddha's Teaching in His Own Words: texts selected, arranged, and translated by Bhikkhu Ñanamoli (Wheel No. 428/430, Buddhist Publication Society, 1999, BPS Online Edition 2007)

(papercraftsbyk/flickr.com)

Voices

Narrator One. A commentator of the present time, who introduces the others and who represents a dispassionate onlooker with some general knowledge of the events.

Narrator Two. A commentator who supplies historical and traditional information contained only in the medieval Pali commentaries (mainly those of the 5th century by Ven. Buddhaghosa). His functions are to give the minimum of such material needed for historical clarity and, occasionally, to summarize portions of the Canon itself.

First Voice. The voice of the Elder Ananda, the disciple and personal attendant of the Buddha, who recited the Discourses (or sutras) at the First Council, held at Rajagaha three months after the Buddha's attainment of final nirvana.

Second Voice. The voice of the Elder Upali, disciple of the Buddha, who recited the Discipline (Vinaya) at the First Council.

Publisher's Note

The present Wheel booklet contains Chapter 12 of Bhikkhu Ñanamoli's classic compilation, The Life of the Buddha according to the Pali Canon. The purpose of that book, now in print for 27 years, had been to construct a biography of the Buddha by piecing together all the relevant material scattered throughout the Monastic Disciplinary Code and the Collection of Discourses. Since the Buddha's life was in many respects inseparable from his teaching, Ven. Ñanamoli had included, in the middle of the book, an anthology of texts dealing with the teaching, which he entitled "The Doctrine." In his introduction he described his purpose:

In Chapter 12 the main elements of doctrine have been brought together roughly following an order suggested by the Discourses. No interpretation has been attempted… but rather the material has been put together in such a way as to help the reader make his own. A stereotyped [repetitive] interpretation risks slipping into one of the types of metaphysical wrong view, which the Buddha himself has described in great detail. If Chapter 12 is found rather forbidding, let the last words of Anathapindika be pleaded in justification for its inclusion.…

The last words of Anathapindika, the Buddha's chief patron, were: "Let such (profound) talks on the Dharma be given to the lay followers. There are some with little dust in their eyes who are wasting through not hearing such talks on the Dharma. Some of them will gain final knowledge [liberation] of the Dharma."

Several readers had suggested to the publisher that Chapter 12 of Life of the Buddha could well stand on its own as an excellent little handbook of the Buddha's teachings, useful for study, reflection, and meditation. With this aim it is being issued as a separate Wheel series booklet. The structure of the anthology is based on the formula of the Four Noble Truths and the factors of the Noble Eightfold Path, which the Buddha announced in his First Sermon at Benares [Varanasi, India] and returned to again and again throughout his ministry. Within this framework Ven. Ñanamoli has incorporated a wide variety of texts which throw new and illuminating spotlights on the subtle implications of these familiar formulas.

We hope this will fulfill the purpose for which it is being published.

What is the Dharma (Dhamma)?

Narrator One. What is the "Dharma" that was "well proclaimed" by the "Supreme Physician"? Is it an attempt to make a complete description of the world? Is it a metaphysical system?

First Voice. The Buddha was once living at Savatthi in Jeta's Grove. A deity called Rohitassa came to him late in the night, paid homage to him and asked: "Lord, the world's end where one neither is born nor ages nor dies nor passes away nor reappears: is it possible to know or see or reach that by traveling there?"

"Friend, that there is a world's end where one neither is born nor ages nor dies nor passes away nor reappears, which is to be known or seen or reached by travelling there—that I do not say. Yet I do not say that there is ending of suffering without reaching the world's end. Rather it is in this fathom-long carcase with its perceptions and its mind that I describe the world, the origin of the world, the cessation of the world, and the way leading to the cessation of the world.

SN 2:36; AN 4:46

"It is utterly impossible
To reach by walking the world's end;
But none escape from suffering
Unless the world's end has been reached.
It is a Sage, a knower of the world,
Who gets to the world's end, and it is he
By whom the holy life has been lived out;
In knowing the world's end he is at peace
And hopes for neither this world nor the next."

The Blessed One was once living at Kosambi in a wood of simsapa trees. He picked up a few leaves in his hand, and he asked the monastics: "How do you conceive this, monastics, which is more, the few leaves that I have picked up in my hand or those on the trees in the wood?"

"The leaves that the Blessed One has picked up in his hand are few, Lord; those in the wood are far more."

"So too, monastics, the things that I have known by direct knowledge are more: the things that I have told you are only a few. Why have I not told them? Because they bring no benefit, no advancement in the holy life, and because they do not lead to dispassion, to fading, to ceasing, to stilling, to direct knowledge, to enlightenment, to nirvana. That is why I have not told them. And what have I told you? 'This is suffering; this is the origin of suffering; this is the cessation of suffering; this is the way leading to the cessation of suffering.' That is what I have told you. Why have I told it? Because it brings benefit, and advancement in the holy life, and because it leads to dispassion, to fading, to ceasing, to stilling, to direct knowledge, to enlightenment, to nirvana. So, monastics, let your task be this: 'This is suffering, this is the origin of suffering, this the cessation of suffering, this is the way leading to the cessation of suffering.'"

SN 56:31

Narrator One. It is not, then, an attempt to make some complete description of the world, either internal or external. Is it a metaphysical system—a consistent logical construction—and if so, what premise is it based on?

First Voice. Once when the Blessed One had gone into Rajagaha for alms the naked ascetic Kassapa went up to him, and after greeting him, he said: "We would ask Master Gautama [a respectful way addressing the historical Buddha, whose name was Siddhartha Gautama] something, if Master Gautama would consent to give an answer." — "It is not the time for questions, Kassapa; we are among houses." He asked a second and a third time and received the same reply. Then he said: "It is not much we want to ask, Master Gotama." — "Ask, then, Kassapa, whatever you like."

"How is it, Master Gautama, is suffering of one's own making?" — "Do not put it like that, Kassapa." — "Then is suffering of another's making?" — "Do not put it like that, Kassapa." — "Then is suffering both of one's own and another's making?" — "Do not put it like that, Kassapa." — "Then is suffering neither of one's own nor another's making but fortuitous?" — "Do not put it like that, Kassapa." — "Then is there no suffering?" — "It is not a fact that there is no suffering: there is suffering, Kassapa." — "Then does Master Gautama neither know nor see suffering?" — "It is not a fact that I neither know nor see suffering: I both know and see suffering, Kassapa."

SN 12:17

Once too the wanderer Uttiya went to the Blessed One, and after greeting him, he sat down at one side. Then he asked: "How is it, Master Gautama, the world is eternal: is only that the truth and everything else wrong?" — "That is not answered by me, Uttiya." — "Then the world is not eternal: is only that the truth and everything else wrong?" — "That too is not answered by me, Uttiya." — "The world is finite: is only that the truth and everything else wrong?" — "That too is not answered by me, Uttiya." — "Then the world is infinite: is only that the truth and everything else wrong?" — "That too is not answered by me, Uttiya." — "The soul is the same as the body: is only that the truth and everything else wrong?" — "That too is not answered by me, Uttiya." — "Then the soul is one and the body another: is only that the truth and everything else wrong?" — "That too is not answered by me, Uttiya." — "After death a Perfect One is: is only that the truth and everything else wrong?" — "That too is not answered by me, Uttiya." — "Then after death a Perfect One is not: is only that the truth and everything else wrong?" — "That too is not answered by me, Uttiya." — "Then after death a Perfect One both is and is not: is only that the truth and everything else wrong?" — "That too is not answered by me, Uttiya." — "Then after death a Perfect One neither is nor is not: is only that the truth and everything else wrong?" — "That too is not answered by me, Uttiya."

"But why does Master Gautama decline to answer when I ask him these questions? What then is answered by Master Gautama?"

"I teach the Dharma to disciples from direct knowledge, Uttiya, for the purification of beings, for surmounting sorrow and lamentation, for ending pain and grief, for attainment of the true goal, for realizing nirvana." More

Abbreviations

AN DN Iti Khp Mn

Anguttara Nikaya Digha Nikaya Itivuttaka Khuddaka-patha Majjhima Nikaya

Sn SN Ud Vin

Sutta Nipata Samyutta Nikaya Udana Vinaya

Further Chapters

Voices Publishers Note The Buddha's Teaching What Is the Dharma? There is No First Beginning The Four Noble Truths I The Truth of Suffering		II The Truth of the Origin of Suffering III The Truth of the Cessation of Suffering IV The Truth of the Way The Noble Eightfold Path in Practice The Means The End

Relationship Dharma

Relationships are great. They give our lives meaning. And there is probably nothing that leads more people to spirituality in general and Buddhism in specific than the suffering that comes from them. We do not have to wait to the break up to sometimes feel empty, jilted, cheated on, or dissatisfied. All we have in life are relationships -- most of them not romantic. So why is the romance so tough? Maybe it's the roles we play. Kloncke has a great take on it.

A couple who meditates in bed together... usually ends up doing something else. Sit in the living room.

Relationship Dhamma
Katie (Kloncke.com), tweaked with love by Wisdom Quarterly
Concluding this spontaneous miniseries on companionship (spontaneous yes, but maybe not concluding), we arrive at Ryan. Who? You know, my partner, the guy from Kale vs. Flowers and Bad Good Romance.

The other day, I read a passage from James Agee’s Southern novel A Death in the Family that reminded me of our household dynamic. Specifically, it reminded me of the ways we negotiate gendered roles, try to both anticipate and discuss each others’ needs, and occasionally discover “dhamma,” or insights about the nature of things, right in the (dis)comfort of our own home.

In this scene from the book, Jay is jolted awake in the dead of night thanks to a call... Jay has decided to take the train up to his parents’ town, and he and his wife Mary, also awakened by the phone call, are getting him ready to leave.

Ryan tells this funny joke sometimes about one method -- half-conscious at best -- by which person X tries to evade domestic work and pile it on a partner:

• “But you’re so good at [cooking, doing laundry, calming a fretful child]. If I do it, I’ll just [bleep] it up.”
  

This is a passive-aggressive compliment-trap, which leaves the other person feeling obligated to do the thing s/he is so much better at doing.

Obviously, this is one of the big problems with the naturalization of gender roles in hetero-normative family systems. Men are raised to believe that they don’t have to learn how to cook/clean/mend/mind children because women are so naturally good at it. More

Feedback

• This s*cks, what about the sex? Dharma-sharma, Zen pita sandwich. If we encouraged gutsier behavior from American Buddhist guys, or tamped down women telling people to have boundaries all over the place, I for one would be a happier camper. Let free love be free. Chemistry first, then worry about the details? - Lovedoll
  
• Oh, Katie. My heart feels good reading this, I’ve been thinking about things like this, and I love when I get to hear where you’re thinking and the spaces you make for it. A blessing! - Leorasf
  
• I've been practicing and studying the Buddha Way since 1993 and exploring the question "What is engaged Buddhism?" since the late 90s. As former executive director of the Buddhist Peace Fellowship and editor of its journal, Turning Wheel, I was privileged to meet many practitioners of engaged Dharma including Robert Aitken Roshi, who told me that THERE IS NO BUDDHISM THAT IS NOT ENGAGED. Now I direct the Upaya Buddhist Chaplaincy Program along with Roshi Joan Halifax, where we forge new pathways of everyday engagement and servant leadership. - Maia Duerr

Mrs. and Mr. Goenka practice the Art of Living as married householders (dhamma.org)

Going for Guidance to the Three Gems

Wisdom Quarterly edit of "Three Jewels" (en.wikipedia.org)

Buddhist nuns, monks, and lay followers all go for guidance to the Three Jewels.

The Three Jewels, also the Triple Gem, is the center of one of the major practices of mindfulness, recollection, contemplation, and reflection in Buddhism. The qualities of the three are frequently repeated in the ancient texts, where they are called the "Mirror of the Dhamma" (Dhamma Adassa).

• Buddhists do not go for "refuge"; sarana is guidance.
  

I go for guidance to the Buddha, the Greatest in the world, the Guru of devas and human beings, who gained enlightenment to teach freedom from suffering to beings. The Cambodian (Khmer) formulation, in Theravada Buddhist tradition, runs as follows.

ចង្អុលឲ្យដើរផ្លូវកណ្តាល មាគ៌ាត្រកាលអាចកំចាត់​ ទុក្ខភ័យចង្រៃអោយខ្ចាយបាត់ អាចកាត់សង្សារទុក្ខបាន។​
Guiding the right Middle Path, the way that can eliminate all suffering.
២.សាសនាព្រះអង្គនៅសព្វថ្ងៃ សត្វមាននិស្ស័យពីបុរាណ​ ប្រឹងរៀនប្រឹងស្តាប់ចេះចាំបាន កាន់តាមលំអានបានក្តីសុខ។
Such teachings now beings have through karmic-destiny accrued in the past by trying to listen, learn, and practice for happiness.
ឥតមានសុខណាស្មើក្តីស្ងប់ បញ្ចប់ត្រឹមសុខឃ្លាតចាកទុក្ខ​ តាំងពីលោកនេះតទៅមុខ ក្តីសុខនឹងមានព្រោះធម៌ស្ងប់។​
There is no happiness as genuine as one free of all suffering from this world and beyond, where happiness prevails because of Dharma.
៣.ខ្ញុំសូមបង្គំឆ្ពោះព្រះធម៌ ព្រះសង្ឃបវរទាំងសព្វគ្រប់ រួមជាត្រៃរ័ត្នគួរគោរព ជាម្លប់ត្រជាក់នៃលោកា
I go for guidance to the Dharma and the Sangha, all combined as the Three Jewels, the cool shade of the world.
ព្រះរូបព្រះធាតុនៃព្រះពុទ្ធ វិសុទ្ធតាងអង្គព្រះសាស្តា​ សូមគុណត្រៃរត័្នជួយខេមរា ឲ្យបានសុខាតរៀងទៅ ៕
May the Triple Gem guide [this country and its people] to happiness forever.

The Mirror of the Dharma
This contemplative practice (anussati) -- often replacing formal sitting meditation -- refers to reflecting on the true qualities of the teacher, teaching, and the taught -- the Buddha, Dharma and Sangha.

These qualities are called the "Mirror of the Dharma" in the Discourse on the Buddha's Last Days. They help practitioners attain a "mind like a mirror" -- a possible reference to the "mind-door" (mind-door cognitive processes) near the physical heart that reflect the contents of consciousness.

In the commentary on the Crossing the Wilderness Rebirth-Tale, the Buddha declares:

Disciples, nowhere between the lowest of the hells below or the highest heavens above, nowhere in all the countless worlds that stretch to the right and left is there the equal, much less one superior, to a buddha. Incalculable is the excellence that springs from keeping the precepts and from other virtuous conduct.

By taking refuge in the Triple Gem, one escapes from rebirth in unfortunate states of suffering. By forsaking such guidance as this, one hase certainly erred. In the past, too, humans who foolishly mistook what was no guide for a true guide met with disaster.

Amaravati Three Gems (triratna) symbols

The Buddha

"The Blessed One is an arhat, perfectly enlightened, accomplished in true knowledge and conduct, fortunate, knower of the world, unsurpassed leader of persons to be tamed, teacher of devas and humans, the Enlightened One, the Blessed One."

In early traditions the Buddha as a worthy guide is taken to refer to the historical Buddha. Later traditions expanded this to include buddhahood or "the full development of mind." In other words, the full development of one's highest potential came to mean our intrinsic buddha nature or ability to reach buddhahood, full enlightenment.

This later interpretation recognizes the possibility of completion, perfection, full development of one's own inherent qualities. Mind in Buddhism does not mean the head; it means the heart. They are one and the same, both involved in consciousness. So the metaphorical head/heart allows for the full development of wisdom and compassion in equal measure.

The Dharma

"The Dharma is well expounded by the Blessed One, directly visible, immediate [timeless], inviting one to come and see, applicable, to be personally experienced by the wise."

Going for guidance to the Dharma, in the Vajrayana tradition, includes reference not only to the words of the Buddha, but to the living experience of realization and the teachings of fully realized practitioners.

In Tibetan Buddhism, it includes both the Kangyur (the teaching of the Buddha) and the Tengyur (the commentaries written by realized practitioners). In an intangible way, it may also include the living "transmission" of those masters, which can be very inspiring.

The Sangha

"The Sangha of the Blessed One's disciples is practicing the good way, practicing the straight way, practicing the true way, practicing the proper way; that is, the four pairs of persons, the eight types of individuals: This Sangha of the Blessed One's disciples is worthy of gifts [a statement which makes it certain that we are not talking about just anyone with a shaved head wearing a saffron robe but instead those ], worthy of hospitality, worthy of offerings, worthy of reverential salutation, the unsurpassed field of merit for the world." (Bhikkhu Bodhi, 2000, The Collected Discourses of the Buddha: A New Translation of the Samyutta Nikaya, Somerville: Wisdom Publications, p. 319–321).

A more liberal definition of "Sangha" may include all practitioners actively following the Buddha's teachings to benefit themselves and others. But it is more strictly defined as the "Realized Sangha" (Arya-Sangha). In other words, it really means those practitioners and historical students of the Buddha who realized the true nature of mind.

The ordinary Sangha means practitioners and students of the Buddha who are using the same methods and working towards the goal of enlightenment and benefiting others by making the Dharma known that brings about the end of suffering (here and now and in the ultimate sense of their own attainment).

Tibetan Buddhism

In Tibetan Buddhism there are three guidance formulations: the Outer, Inner, and Secret forms of the Three Jewels.

The outer form is the "Triple Gem" (Sanskrit, Triratna). The inner is the Three Roots. And the secret form is the "Three Bodies" (trikaya of a buddha). These alternative guide formulations are employed by those undertaking Deity Yoga and other tantric practices in the Vajrayana tradition as a means of recognizing Buddha Nature.

History

The Three Gems are so called because of their treasured value to Buddhists, as well as their indestructible and unchanging nature.

The Three Gems when used in the process of going for guidance become the Three Guides. In this form, metaphors occur very frequently in ancient Pali texts (of Theravada Buddhism). Sangha always really means those persons (ordained or not) who have reached at least the first stage of enlightenment, which is very hard to know about others. So for practical purposes most use the term to refer to the Sangha of Buddhist monks and Buddhist nuns.

I go to the Buddha for guidance and to the Dharma and to the Sangha.

Harvard Zen

Wisdom Quarterly visits Harvard University and the Cambridge Zen Center

The way to Harvard's Mahindra Humanities Center is as colorful as it offerings.

We went to see the scene at the Cambridge Zen Center, where Harvard elites can gather in silence. Until the questions start and life advice is sought.

Cambridge is the penultimate college town. And Harvard Square is its epicenter. MIT geniuses walk by remembering to chew, step, chew, step -- caught up in daydreams of ultimate reality and material sciences.

Garden Buddha at the Cambridge Zen Center (cambridgezen.com)

Modica Way in on the path to Cambridge Zen (Kwan Um school). And its array of heady graffiti is good preparation for the blank wall one will soon be staring at in zazen: Daydreams are as vivid as the imaginations of street artists.

The subway underground, art, Harvard Square, nascent nerd overlords... Mass. is an amazing place. But the jewel in the center of the lotus is surely the Mahindra Humanities Center. Its offering are potent and academic, rivaling UCLA's Mindfulness Awareness Research Center and Berkeley's Buddhist Institute, Dept. of Buddhist Studies, and Buddhist monastery.

Ah, to be bicoastal! Flying east and west, merging cultures, and watching Woody Allen movies in between would be the best of both worlds. The Midwest is the great divide, as most of Wisdom Quarterly's American readers hail from east of the Mississippi as our editors sit staring at the Pacific from under the Hollywood sign.

• The Harvard Buddhist Studies Forum provides an opportunity for faculty, students, and participants to discuss approaches to Buddhist studies that are as diverse as philology, intellectual history, anthropology, art history, literary studies, and religious studies. In addition to being interdisciplinary, lectures discuss Buddhism within a variety of geographic contexts, including South, Southeast, Central, and East Asia. More
  

Why we argue (Parable of the Blind Men)

John D. Ireland (translator), Wisdom Quarterly edit, Inspired Utterances (Ud. 6.4)

Buddhist novice meditating above the tangled canopy (Mattravel/Flickr.com)

Thus have I heard. At one time the Buddha was staying near Savatthi in the Jeta Wood at the multi-millionaire's monastery.

At that time there were a number of recluses and brahmins, wanderers of various sects, living around Savatthi. They were of various views, of various beliefs, of various opinions. And they relied for their support [by reasoning] based on their various views.

• There were some recluses and brahmins who asserted and held this view: "The world is eternal; only this is true, any other (view) is false."
• There were some recluses and brahmins who asserted: "The world is not eternal; only this is true, any other (view) is false."
• There were some who asserted: "The world is finite...
• The world is infinite...
• The life-principle and the body are the same...
• The life-principle and the body are different...
• The Tathagata [person who has attained liberation from samsara, such as the Buddha] exists beyond death [of the body]...
• The Tathagata does not exist beyond death...
• The Tathagata both exists and does not exist beyond death...
• The Tathagata neither exists nor does not exist beyond death; only this is true, any other (view) is false."

And they lived quarrelsome, disputing, and wrangling, wounding one another with verbal darts, saying:

• "Dharma [liberating truth] is like this
• Dharma is not like that!
• Dharma is not like this
• Dharma is like that!"

Then a number of Buddhist monastics, having put on their robes in the forenoon and taken their bowls and outer cloaks, entered Savatthi for almsfood. Having walked in Savatthi for almsfood and returned after the meal, they approached the Buddha, prostrated themselves, sat down to one side, and said:

"At present, venerable sir, there are a number of recluses and brahmins, wanderers of various sects, living around Savatthi. They are of various views... saying: 'Dharma is like this!... Dharma is like that!'"

[The Buddha replied:] "The wanderers of other sects, disciples, are blind, not seeing. They do not know what is [karmically] beneficial [in terms of practice now and future results from profitable and unprofitable actions willed, performed, and accumulated]; they do not know what is harmful. They do not know what is Dharma; they do not know what is non-Dharma.

"Not knowing what is beneficial and what is harmful, not knowing what is Dharma and what is non-Dharma, they are quarrelsome... saying: 'Dharma is like this!... Dharma is like that!'

"Formerly, disciples, there was a certain king in this very city of Savatthi. And that king addressed a man: 'Come now, my good man, bring together all those persons in Savatthi who have been blind from birth.'

"'Yes, your majesty,' that man replied, and after detaining all the blind people in Savatthi, he approached the king and said, 'All the blind people in Savatthi have been brought together, your majesty.'

"'Now, my good man, show the blind people an elephant.'

"'Very well, your majesty,' the man replied to the king, and he presented an elephant to the blind people, saying, 'This, blind people, is an elephant.'

The blind men examine an elephant (jainworld.com)

"To some of the blind people he presented the head of the elephant, saying, 'This is an elephant.' To some he presented an ear of the elephant, saying, 'This is an elephant.' To some he presented a tusk... the trunk... the body... the foot... the hindquarters... the tail... the tuft at the end of the tail, saying, 'This is an elephant.'

"Then, disciples, the man, having shown the elephant to the blind people, went to the king and said, 'The blind people have been shown the elephant, your majesty. Now do as you see fit.' Then the king approached those blind people and said, 'Have you been shown the elephant?'

"'Yes, your majesty, we have been shown the elephant.'

"'Tell me, blind people, what is an elephant like?'

"Those blind people who had been shown the head of the elephant replied, 'An elephant, your majesty, is just like a water jar.'

"Those blind people who had been shown the ear of the elephant replied. 'An elephant, your majesty, is just like a winnowing basket.'

"Those blind people who had been shown the tusk of the elephant replied, 'An elephant, your majesty, is just like a ploughshare.'

"Those blind people who had been shown the trunk replied, 'An elephant, your majesty, is just like a plough pole.'

"Those blind people who had been shown the body replied, 'An elephant, your majesty, is just like a storeroom.'

"Those blind people who had been shown the foot replied, 'An elephant, your majesty, is just like a post.'

"Those blind people who had been shown the hindquarters replied, 'An elephant, your majesty, is just like a mortar.'

"Those blind people who had been shown the tail replied, 'An elephant, your majesty, is just like a pestle.'

"Those blind people who had been shown the tuft at the end of the tail replied, 'An elephant, your majesty, is just like a broom.'

"Saying 'An elephant is like this, an elephant is not like that! An elephant is not like this, an elephant is like that!' they fought each other with their fists. And the king was delighted (with the spectacle).

"Even so, disciples, are those wanderers of various sects blind, not seeing... saying, "Dharma is like this!... Dharma is like that!'"

Then, on realizing the significance, the Buddha made this inspired utterance on this occasion:

Some recluses and brahmins, so called,
Are deeply attached to their own views;
People who only see one side of things
Engage in quarrels and disputes.

Source: ATI - For free distribution only, as a gift of Dharma (dhamma-dana).

The Seven Treasures of the Noble

Soma Thera (Buddhist Publication Society), edited for clarity by Wisdom Quarterly

(theinteriorgallery.com)

The treasures (Pali, dhana) of the noble [accomplished, enlightened] disciples of the Buddha are not precious stones and pearls, silver and gold, or fields and houses.

Nor are the noble treasures connected with the power and glory of earthly sovereignty. These are the seven treasures of the noble:

Confidence*, virtue, a sense of circumspection-and-dread

[over wrongdoing],

Learning, generosity, and right understanding.

Not poor is the person endowed with these,

Not empty is a life of worthy things.

Therefore should one who is in understanding fixed

[one who has entered into the first stage of enlightenment]

Be diligent working to gain [more] confidence,

Virtue, clarity, and vision of the truth,

Mindful of the Dharma of the Enlightened One who understood.

(Buddha-eyefetch-com)

On a certain occasion Ugga, the chief minister of the King of Kosala, came to the Buddha, saluted him, sat respectfully to one side, and said: Wonderful, venerable sir, marvellous, venerable sir, is the amount of riches, wealth, and possessions of Migara Rohaneyya.

What is the extent of his vast treasures, his vast wealth, Ugga?

Of gold alone he has 100,000. What should one say of silver?

Ugga, I do not deny that there is treasure of that kind. But, Ugga, such treasure is the common victim of fire, water, kings, robbers, and greedy heirs. But there are seven kinds of treasure that are not the common victim of fire, water, kings, robbers, and greedy heirs. What are the seven?

The treasure of confidence, virtue, circumspection-and-dread

[about wrongdoing], learning, generosity,

and of right understanding,

These are the seven treasures the noble have.

Confidence, virtue, the sense of shame and fear,

Learning, bounty, and understanding right.

Not poor is the woman or man with this great wealth,

Unlosable in the world of gods and men.

Therefore should he who is in understanding fixed,

Be diligent working to gain confidence,

Virtue, clarity, and vision of the truth,

Mindful of the law of him who understood.

In order to gain these treasures of the noble a person would be devoted to the Dharma (doctrine) of the Buddha. Therefore men of old said this:

“Except the doctrine of the Perfectly Enlightened One,

There is no father and no mother here.

The doctrine is your guide and support

And in the doctrine is your shelter true,

So hear the doctrine, on the doctrine reflect

And spurning other things live up to it.”

*I. Confidence (Saddhā)

A noble disciple is confident: trusts in the enlightenment of the "Perfect One" (Tathāgata): Thus indeed is the Blessed One: He is an arhat, fully enlightened, endowed with wisdom and perfect conduct, sublime, knower of the worlds, a guide for those wishing to be taught, a teacher of devas and human beings, liberated and blessed.’

Confidence, according to a great Buddhist writer, is the entrance to the ocean of the Buddha’s Dharma, and insight-knowledge is the ship in which a person travels in that ocean.

Says the Buddha, "In these places, Ānanda, should you establish, fix, and make firm your friends, companions, and kith and kin, who think they ought to hear the Dharma. In what three places? In wise confidence concerning the Buddha, the Dharma, and the Sangha should you establish them, fix them, and make them firm.

"There may be change, Ānanda, in the four great elements [characteristics of materiality called] earth, water, fire, and air. But the noble disciple who is endowed with wise confidence concerning the Buddha, the Dharma, and the Sangha cannot change.

"That is to say, it is impossible for one [who has reached the first stage of enlightenment] to be reborn in hell, or as an animal, or where unhappy spirits dwell." More

The Devas' Deathbed Advice to Citta (sutra)

Maurice O'Connell Walshe, translator, Gilanadassanam Sutra (SN 41.10)

Fairies (devas, "shining ones," both seen and unseen, exist.

At that time Citta the householder was a sick man, suffering from a serious illness. Then a number of devas [elemental spirits, fairies, woodland sprites] who dwell in gardens, forests, and trees, the devas of healing herbs and of great trees in the forest, gathered together and said to Citta the householder [Note 1]:

"Make a resolve, householder: 'In some future time may I be a king, a world-ruler!'" [2]

To this Citta replied... "That is something impermanent, something to be rejected and passed over."

Now Citta's friends, colleagues, and blood-relatives heard him say this, and they said to him: "Sir! [3] Set up mindfulness. Don't ramble!"

"What have I said that makes you tell me to set up mindfulness and not to ramble?"

"Why, sir, you just said: 'That is something impermanent, something to be rejected and passed over.'"

"Yes, but I said that to the devas who dwell in gardens... who bade me make a resolve that in some future time I might be a king, a world-ruler."

"Sir, what purpose did those devas have in mind in urging you to make such a resolve?"

"This is what those devas thought: 'This householder Citta is a virtuous man, of noble disposition. If he makes a resolve that in some future time he may be a king, a world-ruler, this will be profitable to that virtuous man, having made such a resolve with a pure heart, and will bring the just man a just and great reward...' So then I replied, 'That is something impermanent, something to be rejected and passed over.'"

[Citta then instructs them to practice generosity and have perfectly verifiable-faith in the Buddha, the Dharma, and the Sangha and passes away as follows:] "Thus should you train yourselves: We will be endowed with verifiable confidence in the Buddha:

• Indeed, the Blessed One is worthy and fully awakened, perfect knowledge and conduct, well-gone and welcome, an expert with regard to the world, the unexcelled trainer of those fit to be tamed, the teacher of devas and human beings, awakened, blessed.
• We will be endowed with verifiable confidence in the Dharma: This Path/Practice is well-expounded by the Blessed One, verifiable here and now, timeless, inviting verification, pertinent, to be realized by the wise for themselves.
• We will be possessed of verified confidence in the Sangha: The Sangha of the Blessed One's disciples who have practiced well... who have practiced rightly... who have practiced methodically... who have practiced masterfully -- in other words, the four pairs, the eight types of noble individuals -- the community of the Blessed One's instructed disciples: worthy of gifts, worthy of hospitality, worthy of offerings, worthy of respect, an incomparable field of merit for the world.
• Whatever there may be in our family that can be given away, all that will be shared unstintingly with these virtuous ones who are of admirable character. Thus should you train yourselves."

NOTES
1. A whole Samyutta (SN 41) is devoted to this householder (see also Vol. II, No. 23), who is held up as a model layperson in SN 17.23 (not translated here). His name is not the same as citta "mind," but means "bright, shining" [which is interesting because the mind is said to be luminous in its original, undefiled nature].
2. Cakkavatti or Chakravartin (literally, "a wheel-turning monarch," the Indian term for a universal ruler. This was what Siddhartha Gautama could have become if he had not become a buddha. The devas are aware of Citta's great virtues (though they possibly exaggerate in thinking he could become a world-ruler), but are not wise enough to think of his spiritual progress (cf. SN 1.20, n. 4).
3. Ayyaputta = Ariyaputta, literally "son of the Ariyans," not a racial epithet but rather the follower (instructed disciple) of the Noble Ones (cf. SN 22.7, n. 1).

Meeting the Devas

Wisdom Quarterly (TRAVEL JOURNAL)

Two of us, two WoQies, went deep into forbidden Asia in search of an enlightened Buddhist teacher. Two Americans wandering in Orwellian dystopia searching for satori.

I was looking for the answer, the key, that would unlock enlightenment (as if I only needed that one ineffable "answer"); she was following her bliss, trusting that I was onto something, not wanting to be left behind in spiritual vacuum of Southern California. We were in Burma under the current regime, slowly on our way to India to sit where the Buddha sat.

It was a cheap hotel, a converted tenement flat, in the city center -- our old copy of Lonely Planet recommended it as a cheap stay for shoestring backpackers. Across the street sits a golden stupa complex that seems to mark the exact center of Rangoon, at that time the capital (now it's the secret city of Naypyidaw), not far from a five-star hotel full of older European adventure travelers dashing through this blacklisted country. They'd wear their passport stamps like badges so their dinner party guests might gasp, "You took a truncheon to the head to take some photos?"

There were roaches, rats, and worst of all mosquitoes. Only the fans kept them at bay. But the periodic brown outs meant those fans went off more than half the time. The Burmese are lovely and kind, walking like shadows compared to their neighbors that over-the-top kindness of northern Thailand.

She became sick, bed ridden. With mosquitoes attacking, all we could do was light 20 incense sticks at at time or retreat to the office, where somehow an air conditioner, TV, and one angry clerk counted stacks of kyat (Burmese dollars). We were preparing to make our way to Mandalay then onto our goal in the south, what I called the "Malabar Front" from Nineteen Eighty-Four. The British author George Orwell lived here, and he was in fact describing the British/Burmese government when he coined the term "Big Brother."

There is no computer access, except in secret, very irregularly, constantly skirting censors and government blocks. We were lucky to get MSN or Hotmail to work.

Her mystery illness worsened: she wouldn't drink but sweat constantly, she was sleepy all the time, but never rested, she was not hungry, but whether she ate or not, she would never go to the restroom. What to do? She would surely die, and of course I would be to blame. I brought her, but I told her not to come, to stay back in Thailand until I returned from the this Quest, and we moved on to India.

There are no hospitals in Burma (a police state now called Myanmar) and no doctors, just little pharmacies with long lines. She's very intuitive. So I asked her what she wanted to do. She was only sure that she wanted to stay when I was recommending the inevitable -- by evacuated like a Vietnam soldier all the way back to California to recover in a nice clean PPO corporation-run hospital. It would mean failure, going to the embassy and explaining what we were doing here, paying $50,000 for the arrangements, and somehow explaining to everyone back home what had happened.

As I worried and found no easy answer weighing everything, asking her what was wrong with her, it happened. In a darkened room with no windows, with incense wafting thickly in the air, with more water bottles being chugged and a pile of plastic building up in the corner of the room, bhumma devas (Earth or elemental fairies) came.

She said they looked beautiful. I swallowed hard, "So you're dying and they're welcoming you to the other side?" She ignored the implication and smiled broadly talking to them. She was no more delirious than she had been in the past three days, which meant not at all. She was better than normal. Serene, accepting, as if she was eager to go. "This is how it ends? At 21, in a foreign land? You want your body shipped back to the States because I might as well stay in Asia.

She said they were saying it was all going to be okay. She said they said to trust me because I was good or at least good for her. Neither of those seemed the case, and I'm sure the embassy would argue that I was the worst travel partner ever for coming to one of the most dangerous countries in the world with a tall blond in tow.

And I asked, because I'm a stupid Westerner and this is how we think after college: "You say you see them, so what do they look like?" Her mouth contorted,"Hmmm," stymied, then explained that she didn't "see" them, as such. Her eyes were open and she was lucid and speaking perfectly clearly: She sensed them, knew them to be there, could feel them, could know them, could hear them... saw them in that sense. That is, the mind's eye must fill in what is perfectly clear to the other senses. I tried to ask about them, but my intellectualizing was harming matters. They were there, they were communicating, they were bringing good news. And I had bad news to break.

It had come to me, an inspiration. If I could get to a Black Market Internet connection, put in the symptoms, which was no easy doing because the system was down throughout the city. When I found a way, there it was -- deadly cholera. The cure? Ciprofloxin (ah, Cipro, what didn't it cure before overuse made germs resistant?) The answer? It turns out those "pharmacies" are their hospitals with no red tape. I bought cheap Indian (Roxy brand) Cipro, which as inexpensive as it was came with a free session with a doctor to discuss it. I told him about her symptoms, and how I thought it was cholera, he agreed, and sent me running with instructions before it was too late. I had been doing things correctly. There was nowhere to bring her to and no other way to go other than to leave the country, an option we had that they didn't.

I explained it to her, and asked her if she wanted to try the "medicine" (we don't believe in Western chemicals), but antibiotics are a little different. Even our herbs serve the same function some times. She smiled and said she trusted me. I asked why, and said it was because the devas said so and were sure. (I thought both her and those devas a little loopy for trusting me because, again, it seemed all my fault for getting her into this mess of an adventure).

She recovered fully. And later on a plane, I asked if she remembered the devas. She looked at me strangely as if I had asked the most foolish question ever, and after a long pause holding me in a fixed gaze, she answered: "Of course." Me, too. I don't know why I ever doubted that devas are real and right here particularly in natural settings. It's perfectly clear they are. It was then.

REBIRTH - What might not be clear is that the reason they came to receive, comfort, and advise her then was that not long ago, she had been one of them. She could recognize it in other people. It's just like our own Western mythology tells children, and I've asked many children for confirmation. They see them, they know what the traits are and can see that in some people, but they soon are taught to forget and deny what they know. The rest are branded "witches and weirdoes" so they stay quiet. But it's well known so long as we don't say it to anyone bent on not believing.