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.

An Exposition on "Right Mindfulness"

Ven. P.A. Payutto (translated from Thai by Wisdom Quarterly and Dhamma-Vijaya)

In the Noble Eightfold Path the practice leading to the complete cessation of unsatisfactoriness (dukkha, suffering) is "right mindfulness" (samma-sati).



It is counted as the second factor of the Concentration Section, the "Higher Mental Training." The usual definition of right mindfulness given in the sutras (discourses) is as follows:



"Monastics, what is right mindfulness? The following is called right mindfulness, namely, that a practitioner in this Doctrine and Discipline:



"1. One contemplates the body in the body with effort, clearly comprehending and mindfully, eradicating covetousness and distress with regard to the world;[1]



"2. One contemplates feeling in feelings with effort, clearly comprehending and mindfully, eradicating covetousness and distress with regard to the world;



"3. One contemplates the mind in the mind with effort, clearly comprehending and mindfully, eradicating covetousness and distress with regard to the world;

"4. One contemplates phenomena [2] in phenomena with effort, clearly comprehending and mindfully, eradicating covetousness and distress with regard to the world" (D.II.313).

• This gradual training is outlined in the discourse on the setting up of the Four Foundations of Mindfulness and explained in detail by teachers in a living oral tradition.
  
  

"'Mindfulness' might also be defined as 'knowing where your elbow is at all times.' " (Fr.toonpool.com; loosely translated from German by Wisdom Quarterly).



Another definition, which appears in the Abhidharma ("Higher Teachings") texts, runs as follows:

"What is right mindfulness? Mindfulness (sati) means to bear in mind or bring to mind. It is the state of recollecting, the state of remembering [keeping in mind], the state of non-fading, the state of non-forgetting. It means the mindfulness that is a Spiritual Faculty, the mindfulness that is a Spiritual Power, right mindfulness, the mindfulness that is an Factor of Enlightenment, that which is a Path Factor, and that which is related to the Path. This is what is called right mindfulness" (Vbh.105, 286).

• These are all references to the great importance of mindfulness in the "37 Requisites of Enlightenment" (bodhi-pakkaya-dhamma), where it occurs 14 times.

Right mindfulness, as defined in the discourses, is a synonym for the principles of Dharma known as the Four Foundations (sati-patthana). The four elements of this group have the abbreviated names of:

1. mindfulness (or "contemplation") of the body (kaya-anupassana);
2. mindfulness of feelings (vedana-anupassana);
3. mindfulness of mind (citta-anupassana);
4. mindfulness of mind-objects (dhammas or phenomena).

Before investigating the meaning of right mindfulness in terms of the Four Foundations, it is appropriate to point out a few things on the subject of sati to serve as a basic foundation for study. More

TRANSLATOR'S NOTES

[1] "Ananda, whatever is of a nature to dissolve (paloka), this is called 'the world' in the Discipline of the Nobles. What is of a nature to dissolve? The eye, Ananda...visible objects...visual consciousness... visual contact... the ear... sounds...mind contact, and whatever arises conditioned by mind contact, whether felt as pleasant or painful or neutral -- that is of a nature to 'dissolve'."

[2] Namely, all mental and physical phenomena (listed and explained in the discourse on the Four Foundations of Mindfulness (MN 10)

• Thailand photos (Southeast Asia)
  
  

Breasts, Tourism, Toplessness, and Love Hewitt

Wisdom Quarterly

Jen's "Ghost Whisperer" is based on James Van Praagh's life. But mainly she gives people a serious case of Bebe Stevens Syndrome.

Bigger Breasts equals More Tourists

Giant breasts are becoming the norm in Wellington, New Zealand. The breasts in New Zealand are growing dramatically. Throughout the country the sale of size D thru J have increased 53 per cent. Also embracing the bust increase is the struggling travel industry, which is seeing equivalent lift in their business. More

Wisdom Quarterly continue to reveal the popularity of our favorite agnostic ghost whisperer and yoga enthusiast., Ms. Love Hewitt. Nearly a million and a half views later, she is gaining popularity on what 2012 has in store for the planet. Jen leans toward Buddhism with selfless acts of loving-kindness. We may be under-counting, but official is official.

• Jennifer Love Hewitt bouncing back from breakup with yoga and ice cream
  
  

Buddhists Obsessing On Breasts?

Wisdom Quarterly

The problem has gotten so pointed, even new Buddha statues are affected (Woottamee)

Whether trying to meditate, do yoga, watch TV, or shop for groceries, distractions are everywhere. The Buddha once pointed out that the shape of a woman is a man's greatest obsession, and the shape of a man is a woman's. Why are we obsessed?

It seems to be a deep seated compulsion that goes beyond our cultural conditioning all the way down to the brainstem, the reptilian brain, and the limbic system.

But it is made far worse by the multibillion-dollar breast industry. That's not enhancement, bras, and bathing suits -- it's everything: music, TV shows, ads, sales persons, singers...nothing is free of it. It in no way stops there. And the obsession is not limited to leering men.

Men gawk, while women are more subtle. But it is women who disproportionately suffer from body dysmorphic disorder and an inferiority complexes trying to keep up with airbrushed images. The images are modeled on the figures of pubescent, meat-hormone fed American teens, push-up bra wearers, and post surgery party goers.

Male mammals have mammary glands, too, and they're real breasts.

Mindfulness cures obsession. Contemplation on the repulsive aspects of the body (in 32 parts), because the Buddha did not simply say that we are obsessed. He offered solutions. The body is beautiful. But in it there is a danger. Moreover, there is an escape from the danger.

We are sunk if we simply go through life dragged about by our impulses, being manipulated by the media, and being taken advantage of by those who profit from our wandering eyes and minds.

Envy or lust, what are women looking at?

All mammals, both male and female, have them by definition. Our attention is directed and manufactured by design. What is driving us? If we assume it is "nature," there's nothing to nurture and nothing we can do about it.

If we understand that there is an industry (selling sex, self-esteem, magazines, fashion, femininity, cancer, movies, unrelated product sales, etc.), we can begin to see through it and free ourselves.

• Legalized female toplessness: Overrated?
  
  
• Topless laws in the US discriminate against women
  
  
• Celebrate National Go Topless Day
• Jennifer Love Hewitt wins best breasts in Hollywood
• Body Dysmorphic Disorder (Self-Test)
• Compilation of Jennifer Love Hewitt's finest
• Bust Magazine: new breast exams dangerous

The Buddha's Sister: "Beautiful Joy"

Myanmarpedia (Burmese Buddhist records) edited by Wisdom Quarterly

Enthralled with her own beauty and popularity even as a nun, Sundari Nanda managed to break free and become enlightened (en.domotica.net)

Sundari Nanda
Nanda was the the stepsister of Prince Siddhattha (who years later became the Buddha), the daughter of his father King Suddhodana and his adoptive mother Queen Maha Pajapati Gotami (the sister of Siddhattha's biological mother).

Because she brought great pleasure and joy to her parents, she was named Nanda, which means joy and pleasure. Nanda grew up to be extremely graceful and beautiful and was often referred to as Sundari Nanda or "Nanda the Beautiful."

When her mother, Queen Maha Pajapati, and other Sakyan ladies gave up the household life to take up the spiritual life, Sundari Nanda decided to join them. However, she did not do so out of confidence in the Buddha or the Dhamma. She was ordained as a nun to conform to the wishes of her relatives, whom she loved greatly.

Lovely Nanda was very popular and respected by everyone. People were touched by the sight of a stunning royal daughter, the sister of the Buddha, wandering the streets for alms in the simple saffron robes of a nun.

Her mind, however, was not on her enlightenment and emancipation from rebirth and suffering (samsara). She was instead enthralled with her beauty and popularity.

She knew this was not in keeping with the high ideals of the Noble Order. Afraid that the Buddha would admonish her for her vanity and preoccupation with beauty and popularity, she avoided seeing him.

One day the Buddha called for all of the female monastics in residence near him to come one at a time for instruction. Sundari Nanda did not comply because she felt guilty and did not want to face him. The Buddha then called for her specifically. She came and he gave her spiritual instruction that emphasized all of her good qualities.

Even though this discourse made her feel joyful and uplifted, the Buddha realized that her mind/heart (citta or stream of consciousness) was not yet ready for a liberating discourse on the Four Noble Truths.

Seeing that she was still enthralled with her beauty, he created an exquisite vision of a beautiful youthful maiden whose beauty surpassed lovely Nanda’s own radiance. He then caused the image to suddenly age before her eyes.

Sundari Nanda's vision: Beauty fades quickly with time lapse magic.

Sundari Nanda saw the beautiful maiden shrivel, her skin growing wrinkled and discolored, her hair turning grey and falling out. She saw the exquisite form collapse with in frailty and finally die, bloat, and disintegrate into a mass of foul liquid, and bones, and dust.

As the body decomposed becoming an unspeakably ugly sight, bloated with worms and giving a stench, lovely Nanda realized the nature of this body with which she had been so preoccupied. Disillusioned and finally freed of the fetter of a long held attachment, her mind was ready to see clearly the profound teaching of the Buddha's Dhamma (Dharma).

The Buddha then explained to her the liberating Doctrine of impermanence and the hidden repulsive aspects of her very beautiful body. He gave her the loathsomeness of the body (in 32 parts) as her special subject of meditation.

Because of her strong attraction to her beauty -- even in light of the vision that had temporarily freed her of it -- it was necessary for her to contemplate the loathsomeness of the body to penetrate the Truth.

In no long time, Sundari Nanda attained full enlightenment (became an arahant) and expressed her struggle for this supreme attainment and the bliss of nibbana (nirvana) as follows:

“Nanda, behold this body,
Ailing, impure, and putrid,
Develop the meditation on the foul,
Make the mind unified, well composed.
As is this so was that,
As is that so this will be [cause and effect],
Putrid, exhaling a foul odor,
A thing in which fools delight.
Inspecting it as it is,
Unwearying by day and night,
With my own wisdom I pierced right through,
And so saw for myself.
As I dwelled ever heedful,
Dissecting it with methodical attention
[parsing the body into its contituent parts with the mind],
I saw this body as it really is,
Both inside and outside, internal and external.
Then I became disenchanted with this body,
My inward attachment faded away.
Being diligent and detached at heart,
I live in peace, fully quenched.”

– (Therigatha 82-86)

(Gnostic Nunnery)

The Buddha's Sister: Sundari Nanda

Wisdom Quarterly

The mysterious pull of beauty is revealed and undone when we see it clearly according to its true nature as composite with an illusory stability.

Sundari Nanda, Suddhodana and Maha Pajapati's daughter, the Buddha's half-sister

Soon after his birth, Prince Siddhartha's mother (Maha Maya Devi) passed away. He was adopted by her younger sister, King Suddhodana's other wife, Maha Prajapati. She was later to become history's first Buddhist nun.

When she was born, Princess Nanda was lovingly welcomed by her parents: Her father was King Suddhodana, the father of the Buddha; her mother was Mahaprajapati. Nanda's name means "joy, contentment, and pleasure." She was so named because her parents were especially joyous about the newborn's arrival.

Nanda was known in her childhood for being extremely beautiful, well-bred, and graceful. To distinguish her from other Sakyans -- the Buddha's extended family -- with the same name, like her brother, she came to be known as Rupa Nanda ("one of delightful form") and Sundari Nanda ("beautiful Nanda").

Over time, many members of her family, the Sakyans of Kapilavastu [likely located in the vicinity of Bamiyan, Afghanistan -- sakya literally meaning "grey earth" according to Wonderlane -- formerly the mountainous desert northwest of India, or less likely but as is traditionally held, southern Nepal] left the worldly life. They renounced it for the ascetic life, inspired by the enlightenment of Prince Siddhartha, who came to be called the "Sage of the Sakyas" (Shakyamuni).

Among them was her and the Buddha's brother, Nanda, and their cousins Ananda and Anurudha, who were two of the Buddha’s leading disciples. When their mother became the first nun, many other royal Shakyan ladies, including Siddhartha's former wife, Princess Yasodharā, became Buddhist monastics.


So Sundari Nanda also renounced the burdensome household life. But unlike many of the others, who sought the best guidance, she did not do it out of

• confidence in the Buddha's enlightenment
• confidence in the efficacy of the Dharma to bring one to enlightenment
• confidence in the success of that Noble Sangha who followed the Path (the Buddha-Dharma) laid out for quickly reaching enlightenment.

She did it out of love for and attachment to her relatives and a feeling that she belonged with them.

Renunciation

It soon became obvious that Sundari Nanda was not focused on her life as an ascetic nun. Her thoughts were mainly centered on her beauty and popularity with the people, characteristics she enjoyed due to the ripening of meritorious actions performed in past lives. This welcome karmic inheritance became an impediment to Sundari Nanda. She neglected to reinforce it with new merit (profitable karma or weighty good actions).

She felt guilty that she was not living up to the lofty expectations of others. She was far from the goal so many members of the Shakyan royal family had left the home life for. And she felt certain the Buddha would censure her. So for a long time, she avoided him.

Enlightenment

One day the Buddha requested all the nuns come to him individually to hear the teaching. Sundari Nanda disregarded the request. The Buddha asked for her to be called explicitly. She presented herself but her demeanor was abashed and anxious. The Buddha wisely appealed to her positive qualities, so she became willing to listen and delighted in his words.

When the Buddha knew the conversation had raised her spirits and made her joyful and ready to accept the Dharma, he began to teach her. Since Sundari Nanda was preoccupied with her physical beauty, he used his psychic powers to produce a vision of a stunningly beautiful woman, one more gorgeous than Sundari Nanda.

The woman then began to age rapidly and forcefully right in front of her. As a result, Sundari Nanda could see in explicit detail what humans otherwise only notice after decades or an entire lifespan: Youth recedes, health and beauty fade, decay and signs aging appear -- wrinkles, hair greying and loss, decline in faculties.

The vision deeply affected Sundari Nanda; she was shaken to the core. Having seen the image, the Buddha could explain the universal mark of radical impermanence [which is not about eventual aging, but moment-to-moment rising and falling of the Five Aggregates] to her in such a manner that she penetrated the truth entirely and thereby attained the first stage of enlightenment, certainty of future liberation, stream-entry.

As a meditation subject, the Buddha advised her to contemplate the impermanent and unpleasant aspects of the body -- to see it as it truly is and thereby be liberated by that truth. This is a systematic contemplation -- the first of the Four Foundations of Mindfulness -- not simply an epiphany (satori) based on a vision of the future loss of beauty. Sundari Nanda persevered for extended periods of practice "diligent and courageous day and night." She described it as recorded in the "Verses of Enlightened Nuns" (Therigatha 82-86):

Ill, impure, and offensive as well,
Nanda, see this jumbled mass [the body].
Toward the unlovely, develop mind
Well-composed to singleness.

As is this, so was that
As that, so will this likewise be.
Exhaling foulness, evil odors,
A thing delighted in by fools.

Diligently inspecting it, just as it is,
By day and night thus seeing it,
With my own wisdom having seen,
I turned away, dispassionate.

With diligence, carefully
I examined the body
And saw this as it really is --
Both within and without.

No longer lusting but quenched
Within this body then was I:
By diligence from fetters freed,
Peaceful was I and quite cool.

As Sundari Nanda had once been infatuated with her physical appearance, it was necessary for her to apply the meditation on bodily unattractiveness to counterbalance that powerful tendency and bias and find equanimity (impartiality).

Later the Buddha recognized his half-sister as being the foremost amongst female monastics who practiced meditative absorption (jhana) -- like the chief female disciple Uppalavanna and chief male disciple Mahamoggallana. This meant that she not only followed the analytical way of insight, but was expert in the foundational stages of serenity.

Enjoying this pure supersensual well-being, she no longer needed any sensual distractions. She enjoyed inner peace at will, in spite of having become a member of the Sangha out of attachment to her loved ones.

I admit it, I'm a doting parent. I want an enlightened child. I show this to her, but she only laughs. She's not getting any younger you know.

Doomsday dud! So now what? (Commentary)

Wisdom Quarterly (COMMENTARY)


Filmmaker Zeke Piestrup has been documenting Harold Camping; see below (SFGate.com).

Doomsday was a dud. It's no surprise. But we have to admit we're a little disappointed. We came in on the weekend, hugged Christian pets, went to a party, learned the Dougie -- and all for what?! When does the Bible show begin already?

• How Harold Camping marketed the Rapture
• Like End Times: Terrifying video from US tornado

Kate Upton teaches a weary world the Dougie

Armageddon is the name of a Jewish war. And apparently it can not begin until a few other things line up. Imagine a religion, fundamentalist Christianity, put in a position to long for war, to be wary of anybody labelled "the peacemaker" (usually American presidents who try to resolve Middle East tensions), and who sees End Time signs in every social eventuality:

Kindness? So what. Compassion? Who cares. Environmental stewardship? Never heard of it. But homosexuality? Aha! Crime? Yes! Earthquakes? Praise the lord! Everything bad is good if it signals the end of the world (and the beginning of assumption into heaven).

CBS News Video as posted on SF Gate's May 21, 2011: rapture or party time?

Camping to Answer on Film Today

Wisdom Quarterly
Fortunately, Zeke Piestrup has been following doomsayer Harold Camping for weeks, running tape for as much as 19 hours a day in the run up to The End. But Camping went into black out mode on the 21st. He will emerge on tape to explain why his prediction failed.

And Camping will have an explanation today because he holds the world's record on answering Bible questions (50 years) on an unscripted open forum radio show. He is unflappable, charismatic, and absolutely certain of his interpretations. He has survived at least one failed prediction (but that one left him the out that May 21 was the only other option). More than surviving, he comes out stronger, in accordance with psychologist Festinger's 1950's findings on doomsday cults.

Former KROQ DJ Piestrup was on KROQ radio in Los Angeles Monday morning (May 23) discussing his documentary film on Harold Camping and the Family Radio ministry.

Camping "flabbergasted" Judgment Day did not come

SFGate.com
The man who said the world was going to end appeared at his front door in Alameda (Northern California) a day later, very much alive but not so well.

"It has been a really tough weekend," said Harold Camping, the 89-year-old fundamentalist radio preacher [and twice failed prophet] who convinced hundreds of his followers that the rapture would occur on Saturday at 6:00 pm.

Massive earthquakes would strike, he said. Believers would ascend to heaven and the rest would be left to wander a godforsaken planet until Oct. 21, when Camping promised a fiery end to the world. More

• Will Graham [Televangelist Billy Graham's son] preaches on end times after camping's wrong prediction [because there's a lot of money to be made from doomsaying]
  
• Harold Camping Should Publicly Apologize for Wrong Doomsday Prediction, Says Christian
• Critical Facts About Harold Camping
• Harold Camping's Rapture prediction doing anything good?
• Harold Camping, We're Still Here After 6:01 P.M., What Now?
• Harold Camping doomsday prediction record: 0-2
• Jane Seymour: Schwarzenegger has more out-of-wedlock kids
  

Doomsday dud explained!

LiveScience.com

Harold Camping has some serious explaining to do. Or does he? He may be an embarrassment to Christians, laughing stock to atheists, and a "nut" to everyone else, but what motivated his charismatic confidence? (Image: Karl Tate, TechMediaNetwork)

If readers are reading this, Harold Camping and FamilyRadio.com's predictions that the end of the world would start Saturday (May 21, 6:00 pm) failed to pan out.

That's good news for most of us. But Camping and his Christian followers were looking forward to the end. After all, they believed that they were likely to be among the 200 million souls sent to live in [space] paradise forever.

[That is the total number to get to heaven, past and present, because the worldwide earthquake was going to toss up the dead, according to Camping.]

Piestrup documenting Camping in the run up to the end (Michael Macor/The Chronicle).

• Harold Camping "flabbergasted"; Rapture a no-show

So how do believers cope when their doomsday predictions fail? It depends, said Lorenzo DiTommaso, a professor of religion at Concordia University in Montreal who studies the history of doomsday predictions.

Doomsdays without Doom

The classic study of "doomsdays gone bad" took place in 1954. A Chicago woman named Dorothy Martin predicted a cataclysmic flood from which a few true believers would be saved by aliens. Martin and her cult, The Seekers, gathered the night before the expected flood to await the flying saucer.

Unbeknown to them, however, their group had been infiltrated by psychologist Leon Festinger, who hoped to find out what happens when the rug of people's beliefs is pulled out from under them. Festinger's study, which became the basis of the book When Prophecy Fails (Harper-Torchbooks 1956), revealed... More

• When Doomsday isn't, believers struggle to cope
• What do believers do when the world fails to end?
• Pondering death can alter behavior [Maranussati]
  
• The Dish: Helper brain cells grown in lab
• No Rapture, No Judgment, NO DUH

Countdown to extinction: the last seven days with 89 year old Christian prophet Harold Camping. "It's the gays and drug addicts!"

• Will Graham preaches on end times after camping's wrong prediction
  
• LAPD hold suspect in Dodger Stadium assault on SF Giants' fan
• AP Exclusive: Former Palin aide pens tell-all

Introduction: How to Meditate (video)

Why Meditate?

Wisdom Quarterly
How does one meditate? It is the easiest thing to learn yet one of the hardest to practice. Ven. Yuttadhammo explains how in the first video in his series. But why meditate?

There are profound benefits, but that meditation eventually becomes extraordinarily pleasurable and self-healing is reason enough. "There is no way to happiness because happiness is the way!" Even enlightenment is attainable in no long time. But before freedom, there is calm and natural happiness emerging from within.

It's easy to learn, so the question is, Why should it be so hard to do? The answer is easy: It's simply because it goes against the grain of our mental habits.

Physically, we do not want to sit still without sleeping. Mentally, we are restless or lustful, angry or fearful, bored and confused. So a practice that brings clarity, energizes us, and somehow brings relaxation and serenity? The mind will say, "Impossible! I can do it better" as it thinks us into a tizzy or a dead end.

The breath is the way to the present moment, and it also allows us to peer into the mind emotional states. (How we are breathing directly mirrors our state of mind/heart).

Mindfulness frees us from discursive thinking, worry, and confusion: "Be here now!" And if the mind slips away, that's perfectly okay as long as it is brought back. Bare attention (dispassionate observation) -- detached from states of greed/craving, hate/resentment, and delusion/inattentiveness -- frees the heart/mind.

Learning Buddhist Meditation

(Yuttadhammo) This video discusses a simple technique of sitting meditation. Second (of six) in a series of videos on how to practice meditation free of religious dogma and spiritual mumbo-jumbo.

The Tree of Contemplative Practices

Tree of Contemplative (meditative and physical) Practices (Martin Beck Matustik, contemplativemind.org)

Under the Bodhi Tree
Wisdom Quarterly

It is one of the most embellished and famous stories in the world -- the Buddha under the Bodhi tree. Before attaining buddhahood, Siddhartha struggled for six years. Most of that time may not have been spent sitting. Sitting was the culmination of the practice.

We tend to focus, or are directed to concentrate, on exactly the things the Buddha overcame: struggling, severe austerities, fighting, battling with inner demons (maras), rejecting the angelic care of devas, dieting (eating only certain foods then fasting altogether), and discursive thinking.

None of these led to illumination, although from time to time Siddhartha had epiphanies about what might work and what certainly would not. He had already learned the absorptions (jhanas) but seems to have only skipped through them without developing or indulging in them for fear of attachment to the bliss they produce.

Now, under the tree, he reasoned that he should not fear pleasure far removed from sensuality. There is an elevated, more reliable source of pleasure and happiness. The meditative absorptions purify the mind/heart. They become a platform for successfully practicing mindfulness.

And it is mindfulness of the body, sensations, mind, and mind objects (all detailed in the The Discourse on the Fourfold Setting Up of Mindfulness) that yields liberating insight. One begins with the breath (under the category of "body"), and the practice culminates in meditating on the causal links of Dependent Origination.

It seems like a lot to remember, except that we forget that the purified mind is easily able to remember what needs attending to under the care of a teacher who has practiced Buddhist meditation. Unfortunately, there are very few such teachers. But hidden deep in Asia and only rarely visiting the US, there are some. (We have met them, we have named them on Wisdom Quarterly, and increasingly there are Westerners trained by these lights. The future of American Buddhism is not likely to be monastic but oriented towards lay-meditative practices).

So we find a tree. And if is old enough and big enough, it is likely to be inhabited by dryads (woodland sprites) and rooted deep into Mother Earth (Gaia). Nagas may help or harm, maras and yakkhas tempt and distract and attempt to terrify one from one's Quest. But ultimately it is a matter of perseverance over effort, balance over striving, letting go over insisting.

Siddhartha entered the successive meditative absorptions, emerged from them with a purified mind (because these states suppress the defilements that are obstacles to serenity and insight), then practiced mindfulness of Dependent Origination until he broke through to liberation.

The Mindful Lawyer

Judges, lawyers, mediators, law professors, law students, and other legal professionals gathered at the UC Berkeley School of Law for the first ever national conference exploring the integration of meditation and contemplative practices with legal education and practice. The Mindful Lawyer: Practices & Prospects for Law School, Bench, and Bar offered a blend of academic presentations, discussion, and contemplative practice. Video and audio recordings are available on the conference website, along with guided meditations, syllabi from related law courses, and relevant books and articles.