Dharma Talk on the Buddha’s Enligtenment Day

Photo courtesy of Larry Martin

Dharma talk given on the Buddha’s Enlightenment Day, December 8, 1948, at Haein-sa monastery, Gaya chongnim

About the Author
Hyobong Hangnul (1888~1966)

Master Hyobong left his position as a judge in the Japanese colonial period after bestowing the death penalty on independence fighters and became a monk based on his own experience of the human suffering. Applying himself with lionhearted devotion, he earned the nickname of “stone mortar master.”


Ascending the dharma platform and taking his seat, Hyobong Sunim said, “Over the last 3,000 years, there have been many who criticized the Buddha but few who praised him; the only one in the past who did so was Master Yunmen (雲門). However, today, this ‘mountain monk’ is about to praise the Buddha.”

He recited a gatha:

What thought did he needlessly arouse about entering the Snowy Mountains?
Sitting quietly for six years, what did he accomplish?
It is said that he awakened to the Way at the sight of the morning star,
But what is the Way and what also is awakening?

”The Buddha is a crazy thief who has sullied the pure and clear dharma realm, as well as a sinner who has fallen into the sea of the suffering of birth and death. The reason I say this is because the dharma realm is originally pure, clear, and impartial; so why did he speak of the distinctions between the six destinies of rebirth? All sentient beings enter supreme nirvana [無 上涅槃], so why did he speak about the dharma of transmigrating through birth and death, which prompts sentient beings to arouse doubts in their own minds!”

He recited a gatha:

Taking seven steps in each direction was the beginning of the Buddha’s transgressions,
Displaying his Nirvana in the twin Sala grove was the end of his transgressions.
His transgressions have been irredeemable since the distant past,
Where will he be able to repent?

He paused for a while and then said, “Today, this mountain monk will repent on the Buddha’s behalf before this assembly. Will the assembly accept it and forgive him?”

He paused again for a moment and said, “The transgressive karmic fruit of the Buddha have now vanished.”

He continued, “Generally speaking, if practitioners who are cultivating the Way simply calm their restless minds moment (kşana) by moment, right away they will be connected to the buddhas and patriarchs. Does the assembly in fact know the buddhas and patriarchs? That which, right before your very eyes, hears the dharma is in fact the buddhas and patriarchs, but practitioners of the Way often resist believing it. Hence, if one seeks [the buddhas and patriarchs] outside oneself, he will not attain it in the end." The triple world is like a burning house where one cannot abide for long, The evil spirit of impermanence, moment after moment, never stops Without discriminating between noble and humble, young or old. “In order to avoid the invasion of this evil spirit, one more than anything one must first find the Buddha. Where is the Buddha? This assembly’s one thought of pure and clear radiance is exactly the dharma-body buddha (dharmakaya-buddha) in your own family’s dharma hall; one thought of this body being free from discrimination is exactly the reward-body of the buddha (sambhogakaya-buddha) in your own family’s dharma hall; one thought of acting with the wisdom that is free from contaminants is exactly the transformation-body buddha (nirmanakaya-buddha) in your own family’s dharma hall."

"Commentators consider these three buddhas to be the most precise standards, but this mountain monk’s view is different. In my view, they are like wanderers who have left their homes; the equanimous enlightenment and sublime enlightenment (of the buddhas) are like a person in bondage; ‘voice-hearers’ [sravakas] and ‘solitary realizers’ [pratyekabuddhas] are like turds in an outhouse; bodhi and nirvana are like a blind man’s mirror. Because ordinary practitioners do not awaken to the transparency of the three asamkhyeyakalpas [infinite eons], they are subject to such obstructions, but this is not the case with the true sages. At the moment a thought arises, there never is a thought present: They eat and put on their clothes as they may, come and go as they may, and sit or lie down as they may; at any time or place, they manifest themselves in only one way. Furthermore, they do not even have a thought of seeking the Buddha. Therefore, if you try to seek the Buddha, you only become entangled by the Buddha; if you try to seek the patriarchs, you become entangled by the patriarchs. Seeking is nothing but suffering, which is worse than if one had not sought anything at all.”

He recited a gatha:

Whatever thoughts one may have,
Make it difficult to become a person of no-affairs.
If one suddenly forgets all things at once,
There will be no final eight days in the last month of the year.

He raised his staff, struck the platform once, and said: “Today, there are many in this dharma assembly who have been listening to the dharma, but only one person among them will gain benefit. I ask you, ‘Who is this person?’ KATZ!”

He then descended from the dharma platform.

Losing My Religion

Since the time this song was released way back in 1991, it has been a theme for me in my Zen Practice. The paradox of having and losing a religion, (of which I have always been averse to), has haunted me since I began. And at the same time it always felt like the authentic path of Zen was about religion not being a religion. So I have been drawn in and repulsed by the orthodoxy of all religions, and especially focused on that of Zen Buddhism. It is easy to be seduced by form and liturgy and our ancient teachers constantly told us that the practice wasn't about that. So it isn't about losing or gaining, it is about not picking or choosing. We come into this life empty handed and leave the same way, all that we accumulate along the way doesn't amount to anything. So I share this with a big question, 'What is this?'


Losing My Religion

Oh life, it's bigger
It's bigger than you
And you are not me
The lengths that I will go to
The distance in your eyes
Oh no, I've said too much
I set it up

That's me in the corner
That's me in the spotlight
Losing my religion
Trying to keep a view
And I don't know if I can do it
Oh no, I've said too much
I haven't said enough

I thought that I heard you laughing
I thought that I heard you sing
I think I thought I saw you try

Every whisper
Of every waking hour
I'm choosing my confessions
Trying to keep an eye on you
Like a hurt, lost and blinded fool, fool
Oh no, I've said too much
I set it up

Consider this
Consider this, the hint of the century
Consider this, the slip
That brought me to my knees, failed
What if all these fantasies come
Flailing aground
Now I've said too much

I thought that I heard you laughing
I thought that I heard you sing
I think I thought I saw you try

But that was just a dream
That was just a dream

That's me in the corner
That's me in the spotlight
Losing my religion
Trying to keep a view
And I don't know if I can do it
Oh no, I've said too much
I haven't said enough

I thought that I heard you laughing
I thought that I heard you sing
I think I thought I saw you try

But that was just a dream
Try, cry, why try
That was just a dream
Just a dream
Just a dream, dream

What Buddha said about eating meat

by Ajahn Brahmavamso

Since the very beginning of Buddhism over two thousand five hundred years ago, Buddhist monks and nuns have depended on almsfood. They were, and still are, prohibited from growing their own food, storing their own provisions or cooking their own meals. Instead, every morning they would make their day's meal out of whatever was freely given to them by lay supporters. Whether it was rich food or coarse food, delicious or awful tasting it was to be accepted with gratitude and eaten regarding it as medicine. The Buddha laid down several rules forbidding monks from asking for the food that they liked. As a result, they would receive just the sort of meals that ordinary people ate - and that was often meat.

Once, a rich and influential general by the name of Siha (meaning 'Lion') went to visit the Buddha. Siha had been a famous lay supporter of the Jain monks but he was so impressed and inspired by the Teachings he heard from the Buddha that he took refuge in the Triple Gem (i.e. he became a Buddhist). General Siha then invited the Buddha, together with the large number of monks accompanying Him, to a meal at his house in the city the following morning. In preparation for the meal, Siha told one of his servants to buy some meat from the market for the feast. When the Jain monks heard of their erstwhile patron's conversion to Buddhism and the meal that he was preparing for the Buddha and the monks, they were somewhat peeved:

"Now at the time many Niganthas (Jain monks), waving their arms, were moaning from carriage road to carriage road, from cross road to cross road in the city: "Today a fat beast, killed by Siha the general, is made into a meal for the recluse Gotama (the Buddha), the recluse Gotama makes use of this meat knowing that it was killed on purpose for him, that the deed was done for his sake" [1].

Siha was making the ethical distinction between buying meat already prepared for sale and ordering a certain animal to be killed, a distinction which is not obvious to many westerners but which recurs throughout the Buddha's own teachings. Then, to clarify the position on meat eating to the monks, the Buddha said:

"Monks, I allow you fish and meat that are quite pure in three respects: if they are not seen, heard or suspected to have been killed on purpose for a monk. But, you should not knowingly make use of meat killed on purpose for you." [2]

There are many places in the Buddhist scriptures which tell of the Buddha and his monks being offered meat and eating it. One of the most interesting of these passages occurs in the introductory story to a totally unrelated rule (Nissaggiya Pacittiya) and the observation that the meat is purely incidental to the main theme of the story emphasizes the authenticity of the passage:

Uppalavanna (meaning 'she of the lotus-like complexion') was one of the two chief female disciples of the Buddha. She was ordained as a nun while still a young woman and soon became fully enlightened. As well as being an arahant (enlightened) she also possessed various psychic powers to the extent that the Buddha declared her to be foremost among all the women in this field. Once, while Uppalavanna was meditating alone in the afternoon in the 'Blind-Men's Grove', a secluded forest outside of the city of Savatthi, some thieves passed by. The thieves had just stolen a cow, butchered it and were escaping with the meat. Seeing the composed and serene nun, the chief of the thieves quickly put some of the meat in a leaf-bag and left it for her. Uppalavanna picked up the meat and resolved to give it to the Buddha. Early next morning, having had the meat prepared, she rose into the air and flew to where the Buddha was staying, in the Bamboo Grove outside of Rajagaha, over 200 kilometres as the crow (or nun?) flies! Though there is no specific mention of the Buddha actually consuming this meat, obviously a nun of such high attainments would certainly have known what the Buddha ate.

However there are some meats which are specifically prohibited for monks to eat: human meat, for obvious reasons; meat from elephants and horses as these were then considered royal animals; dog meat - as this was considered by ordinary people to be disgusting; and meat from snakes, lions, tigers, panthers, bears and hyenas - because one who had just eaten the flesh of such dangerous jungle animals was thought to give forth such a smell as to draw forth revenge from the same species!

Towards the end of the Buddha's life, his cousin Devadatta attempted to usurp the leadership of the Order of monks. In order to win support from other monks, Devadatta tried to be more strict than the Buddha and show Him up as indulgent. Devadatta proposed to the Buddha that all the monks should henceforth be vegetarians. The Buddha refused and repeated once again the regulation that he had established years before, that monks and nuns may eat fish or meat as long as it is not from an animal whose meat is specifically forbidden, and as long as they had no reason to believe that the animal was slaughtered specifically for them.

The Vinaya, then, is quite clear on this matter. Monks and nuns may eat meat. Even the Buddha ate meat. Unfortunately, meat eating is often seen by westerners as an indulgence on the part of the monks. Nothing could be further from the truth - I was a strict vegetarian for three years before I became a monk. In my first years as a monk in North-East Thailand, when I bravely faced many a meal of sticky rice and boiled frog (the whole body bones and all), or rubbery snails, red-ant curry or fried grasshoppers - I would have given ANYTHING to be a vegetarian again! On my first Christmas in N.E. Thailand an American came to visit the monastery a week or so before the twenty fifth. It seemed too good to be true, he had a turkey farm and yes, he quickly understood how we lived and promised us a turkey for Christmas. He said that he would choose a nice fat one especially for us .... and my heart sank. We cannot accept meat knowing it was killed especially for monks. We refused his offer. So I had to settle for part of the villager's meal - frogs again.

Monks may not exercise choice when it comes to food and that is much harder than being a vegetarian. Nonetheless, we mayencourage vegetarianism and if our lay supporters brought only vegetarian food and no meat, well...monks may not complain either! May you take the hint and be kind to animals.

Refs:
[1] Book of the Discipline, Vol. 4, p324
[2] ibid, p325

Ajahn Brahmavamso
(Newsletter, April-June 1990, Buddhist Society of Western Australia.)

Confession of a Buddhist Atheist

This video was recorded at Book Passage in Corte Madera, CA on 03.19.10 and is given by Stephen Batchelor where he talks about his new book "Confession of a Buddhist Atheist."

According to Batchelor, the outlook of the Buddha was far removed from the religiosity that has come to define much of Buddhism as we know it today. He argues that the Buddha was a man more focused on life in this world than the afterlife.

Special Medicine and Big Business

I was just reading my friend Brad Warner's Blog post on Mountain of Drugs and it reminded me of a story from Dropping Ashes on the Buddha. Zen Master Seung Sahn was often asked about the helpfulness of taking drugs and once a few of the students in Provide normally nce convinced him to drop acid (take LSD) with them. They said he seemed to act through the whole experience while they were swinging wildly through the cacauphany of their own experiences. The next day, when asked what he thought about the experience, he merely said, "Yes, this is very interesting, however taking more than one time is not necessary as you already know the experience."

From Dropping Ashes on the Buddha by Seung Sahn Grove Press 841 Broadway NY NY 10003 LC: 75-37236 ISBN: 0-8021-3052-6

One spring afternoon, three students were having tea in Seung Sahn Soen-sa's room at the Providence Zen Center. One student said to Soen-sa, "Many people have come to Zen as a result of their experience with psychedelics, or 'special medicine,' as you call it. Is taking psychedelics good or bad?"

Soen-sa said, "The question of good or bad is not important. It is neither good nor bad. What is important is why they take this medicine. Do you understand?"

Another student said, "What do you mean by good and bad?"

Soen-sa said, "Taking the medicine in order to understand is good. Taking the medicine because of the good feelings it gives you is not so good."

"Then it's possible to come to an understanding through special medicine?"

"It is possible. Many people are attached to name and form. They take this medicine and for five or ten hours it is the same as death. They have no hindrance from their body and their body's desires. It is like a dream. There is only the free action of their consciousness, the free play of the Karma I. So they understand that all life is empty. Life is death; death is life. They understand very clearly that fighting and differences among people are unnecessary, are just the result of wrong thinking. They no longer desire to be rich or successful. Rich or poor, success or failure--it is all the same. It comes to the same thing when you are dead."

The first student said, "You've just convinced me to take special medicine twice a day!"

Soen-sa said, "Taking it once or twice can be very helpful. But taking it more often is dangerous. It is very easy to become attached to special medicine. You are already a Zen student. So you already understand that life is empty; you understand what the true way is. When your body is sick, it is sometimes necessary to take a strong drug. But when you are healthy, you don't take drugs. So this special medicine cures some sickness, but it creates other sicknesses. After you take it, you have many attachments. You don't feel like working. You don't want money. You only want to relax or work in the garden or listen to music or enjoy art."

"Not make money? Heaven forbid!"

"This is an attachment to natural-style or hippie-style living. It is no good for a Zen

A new global interest in Korean Studies

From Korean JoongAng Daily
July 11, 2011
By Kang Hye-ran [enational@joongang.co.kr]

Six scholars of Korean studies speak on July 7 in Seoul. From left, USC Prof. David Kang, Georgetown University Prof. Victor Cha, UCLA Prof. Robert Buswell, University of Bologna Prof. Antonio Fiori, Jawaharlal Nehru University Prof. Vyjayanti Raghavan and Shandong University Dean of Korean studies Niu Linjie. Provided by the Korea Foundation

Scholars from around the world who teach and study Korean said that Korean studies have grown substantially in other countries. The scholars were attending the 2011 Korea Foundation Assembly in Seoul, which was held earlier this month.

The event was hosted by the Korea Foundation, which promotes Korean studies around the world and is marking its 20th anniversary. Six of the 96 scholars who attended the assembly held a press conference while in Seoul to share how they become associated with Korea.

“When I told my mother that I am going to Korea to study, she asked for me to show her a map and tell her where Korea is. And even though it was 1978, Korea still had a strong war image,” said Vyjayanti Raghavan, Korean department professor at Jawaharlal Nehru University, India. “Now, Nehru University has over 100 students who are majoring in Korean and four full-time professors, including myself.”

UCLA Professor Robert Buswell, who studied Buddhism and became interested in Korea, spent five years at Songgwang temple, North Jeolla, when he was 19. When he went back to the States, he continued his study. “Korea to me is like my home because I know a lot of monks in Korean Buddhist temples.”

“At the point when I was appointed as a professor at [UC] Berkeley and at UCLA, there was no such thing as a Korean major,” Buswell said. “However, a Korean major became one of the important fields in Asian Study in the U.S.,” he added.

The growth of Korean studies also has occurred in China. “At my university, 150 students who are in the Korean major are admitted every year and there are 28 professors,” said Niu Linjie, a Korean study dean at Shandong University, China, who graduated from Kim Hyong Jik University in North Korea, and finished his master’s and doctorate program at Sungkyunkwan University in Seoul.

“I, having a father who defected from North Korea, got more interested in the tension on the Korean Peninsula,” said Professor David Kang of the University of Southern California, who has a Korean father and an American mother.Emphasizing that national security and economic growth in Korea are intriguing topics, Victor Cha, a second-generation Korean American who is a Georgetown University professor and chief of Asia research, attended a lecture by visiting Professor Han Seung-ju during his doctorate program at Colombia University and became interested in issues of East Asia and Korea. These professors agreed that the Korean Wave is having a great influence on Korean studies. “In the olden days, people studied Korea for jobs at Korean companies. However, one third of admitted students are now in the field because they like Korean popular culture,” said Professor Niu said.

According to the Korean Foundation, as of the end of 2010, the foundation has supported 987 fellows from 75 countries in field research in Korea as well as helping establish 100 Korean studies faculty positions at 69 universities in 12 countries. The assembly, which was held from July 6-9 and drew about 200 participants, centered on “new ways to approach Korean studies and understand Korea in a global context.” 

American Buddhism Keeps Asian Influence, Adapts to West

Mike O’Sullivan | Los Angeles

This week's visit of the Dalai Lama to the United States is focusing attention on American Buddhism, which is growing because of the influx of Asian immigrants and conversion of Westerners to the faith. American Buddhism retains its Asian flavor, but is adapting to Western ways.

Boys aged five to 14 have their heads shaved as they start a five-day retreat. A rite of passage in many parts of the Buddhist world, it gives them an introduction to Buddhist teaching and offers a brief taste of the life of a monk. Here at the Hsi Lai Temple in Los Angeles, the congregation is predominantly Chinese American, but these children get their instruction in English.

A class of 31 boys receives instruction at the Hsi Lai Temple in Los Angeles, California, with their heads temporarily shaved as monks, in a retreat to introduce them more deeply to Buddhist life before they return to their regular lives, July 2011.

The Hong Kong-born director of outreach, Miao Hsi, explains that American Buddhism is largely divided on ethnic lines.

"That is why there is Chinese Buddhism, there is Tibetan Buddhism, there is Japanese Buddhism, and so on," said Miao. "So I think that right now, we have some form of American Buddhism as well."

An American-born priest at the International Buddhist Meditation Center in Los Angeles, Kusala Bhikshu, said Buddhism has a history of more than 100 years in the United States.

"And it now has dug its roots into the soil of America, so there are people [like] myself being born in Iowa - people who were born in America - who are coming as a convert to Buddhism, some becoming ordained as Buddhist monks or nuns, and bringing those teachings to everyday Americans."

The Dalai Lama may be the world's best-known Buddhist, and he enjoys wide respect among Americans. He has drawn some notable followers, including actor Richard Gere. His message of compassion has attracted other Americans.

There are Tibetan Buddhist facilities around the United States. Kusala Bhikshu said his Los Angeles center brings together several Buddhist schools. He studied under a teacher from Sri Lanka and was ordained in the Vietnamese tradition. His center was founded by a monk from Vietnam, and is located in a Korean-American neighborhood.

He noted that Buddhism's rich body of teaching varies from one tradition to another. Here at the Hsi Lai Temple, they say that despite the diversity, the core of the teaching is the same: a respect for the tradition, a desire to adapt it to the American context, and a search for harmony among people of all faiths.

"Every being is connected. It is like we are connected to this world," said Miao. "So I think we should be working towards harmonizing with one another. Harmony and peace would be something that we should all work toward."

Buddhists say there is a bridge that links the many strains of American Buddhism. It is the American-born children, who share a Buddhist faith and American culture, regardless of where their parents were born.