Podcasts about Hinayana

This episode we continue to follow the monk Xuanzang on his path along the silk road.  From Gaochang, he traveled through the Tarim Basin, up over the Tianshan Mountains, to the heart of the Western Gokturk Qaghanate.  From there, he traveled south, through the region of Transoxania to Bactria and the land of Tukhara.  He pushed on into the Hindu Kush, witnessing the stone Buddha statues of Bamiyan, and eventually made his way to the land of Kapisa, near modern Kabul, Afghanistan.  From there he would prepare to enter the Indian subcontinent: the home of the historical Buddha. For more discussion and some photos of the areas along this journey, check out our podcast blog at https://sengokudaimyo.com/podcast/episode-121   Rough Transcript Welcome to Sengoku Daimyo's Chronicles of Japan.  My name is Joshua, and this is Episode 121: Journey to the West, Part 2   The cold winds blew through the travelers' doubled up clothing and thick furs.  Cold, wet ground meant that even two sets of boots were not necessarily enough after several days.  The frozen mist would often obscure everything except for the path immediately in front, hiding the peaks and making the sky a uniform white. In many places, the path would be blocked by rock, ice, or snow—the remnants of an avalanche, which could easily take an unsuspecting traveler.  And there was the elevation.  Hiking through the mountains, it was easy enough to reach heights of a mile or higher, and for those not accustomed to that elevation the thin air could take a surprising toll, especially if you were pushing yourself.  And the road was no less kind to the animals that would be hauling said travelers and their gear. And yet, this was the path that Xuanzang had agreed to.  He would continue to push through, despite the various deprivations that he would be subjected to.  No doubt he often wondered if it was worth it.  Then again, returning was just as dangerous a trip, so why not push on?   Last episode we introduced the monk Xuanzang, who traveled the Silk Road to India in the 7th century and returned to China.  He brought back numerous sutras to translate, and ended up founding a new school, known as the Faxian school—or the Hossou school in Japan.   As we mentioned last time, Xuanzang during his lifetime met with students from the archipelago when they visited the continent.  The records of his travels—including his biography and travelogue—are some of the best information we have on what life was like on the silk road around this time. In the last episode, we talked about Xuanzang: how he set out on his travels, his illegal departure from the Tang empire, and his perilous journey across the desert, ending up in Gaochang.  There, King Qu Wentai had tried to get him to stay, but he was determined to head out.  This episode we are going to cover his trip to Agni, Kucha, and Baluka—modern Aksu—and up to the Western Gokturk Qaghanate's capital of Suyab.  From there, we'll follow his footsteps through the Turkic controlled regions of Transoxania and into Tukhara, in modern Afghanistan.  Finally, we'll cover the last parts of his journey before he reached the start of his goal:  India. From Gaochang, Xuanzang continued on, through the towns he names as Wuban and Dujin, and into the country of Agni—known today as the area of Yanqi—which may also have been known as Wuqi.  The route was well-enough known, but it wasn't necessarily safe.  At one point, Xuanzang's caravan met with bandits, whom they were fortunately able to pay off.  The following night they encamped on a river bank with some merchants who also happened to be traveling the road.  The merchants, though, got up at midnight and headed out, hoping to get to the city early so that they could be the first ones to the market.  They only made it a few miles down the road, however, before they encountered more bandits, who slaughtered them and took their goods.  The following day, Xuanzang and his retinue came upon the merchants' remains lying in the road and saw the aftermath of the massacre. This was an unforgiving land, and the road was truly dangerous, even for those who traveled it regularly.  And yet Xuanzang was planning to travel its entire length until he reached India. So with little alternative, they carried on to the royal city of Agni. Agni, or Yanqi, sits on the southwestern edge of the basin, west of Bositeng lake, on the border between the Turfan basin and the larger Tarim Basin.  The name is thought to be a Tocharian—or Turfanian—name for the city, which is also known as Karashr. According to the biography by Huili, Xuanzang and his party didn't stay long in Agni.  Apparently Agni and Gaochang were not exactly on friendly terms, and even though the King of Agni and his ministers reportedly came out to greet Xuanzang and welcome him to their city, they refused to provide any horses.  They spent a single night and moved on. That said, Agni still made an impression on Xuanzang.  He noted how the capital was surrounded by hills on four sides, making it naturally defensible.  As for the people, he praises them as honest and straightforward.  They wore clothing of felt and hemp cloth, and cut their hair short, without hats or any kind of headwear.  Even the climate was pleasant, at least for the short time he was there.  He also notes that they used a script based on India—likely referring to the Brahmic script, which we find in the Tarim basin. However, as for the local lord, the King of Agni, he is a little less charitable.  Xuanzang claimed he was brave but “lacked resourcefulness” and he was a bit of a braggart.  Furthermore, the country had “no guiding principles or discipline and government orders are imperfect and not seriously implemented.”  He also mentioned the state of Buddhism in the country, noting that they were followers of Sarvastivada school, a Theravada sect popular along the Silk Road at the time.  Xuanzang was apparently not too pleased with the fact that they were not strict vegetarians, including the “three kinds of pure meat”.  From Agni, Xuanzang continued southwest, heading for the kingdom of Kucha.  He seems to have bypassed the nearby kingdom of Korla, south of Agni, and headed some 60 or 70 miles, climbing over a ridge and crossing two large rivers, and then proceeding another 200 miles or so to the land of Kucha. Kucha was a kingdom with over one hundred monasteries and five thousand monks following a form of Theravada Buddhism.  Here, Xuanzang was welcomed in by the king, Suvarnadeva, described as having red hair and blue eyes.  While Xuanzang was staying in Kucha, it is suspected that he probably visited the nearby Kizil grotto and the Buddhist caves, there, which include a painting of King Suvarnadeva's father, King Suvarnapuspa, and his three sons. You can still visit Kucha and the Kizil grottos today, although getting there is quite a trek, to be sure.  The ancient Kuchean capital is mostly ruins, but in the Kizil caves, protected from the outside elements, you can find vivid paintings ranging from roughly the 4th to the 8th century, when the site was abandoned.  Hundreds of caves were painted, and many still demonstrate vibrant colors.  The arid conditions protect them from mold and mildew, while the cave itself reduces the natural bleaching effect of sunlight.  The paintings are in numerous styles, and were commissioned by various individuals and groups over the years.  They also give us some inkling of how vibrant the city and similar structures must have been, back when the Kuchean kingdom was in its heyday. The people of Kucha are still something of a mystery.  We know that at least some of them spoke an Indo-European language, related to a language found in Agni, and both of these languages are often called Tocharian, which we discussed last episode.  Xuanzang himself noted that they used Indian writing, possibly referring to the Brahmi script, or perhaps the fact that they seem to have used Sanskrit for official purposes, such as the inscription on the cave painting at Kizil giving the name of King Suvarnapuspa.  The Kucheans also were clothed in ornamental garments of silk and embroidery.  They kept their hair cut, wearing a flowing covering over their heads—and we see some of that in the paintings. Xuanzang also notes that though we may think of this area as a desert, it was a place where rice and grains, as well as fruit like grapes, pomegranates, plums, pears, peaches, and almonds were grown.  Even today, modern Xinjiang grows some absolutely fantastic fruit, including grapes, which are often dried into raisins. Another point of interest for Xuanzang may have been that Kucha is known as the hometown of none other than Kumarajiva.  We first mentioned Kumarajiva back in episode 84.  Kumarajiva was one of the first people we know of who translated many of the sutras from India that were then more widely disseminated throughout the Yellow River and Yangzi river basins.  His father was from India and his mother was a Kuchean princess.  In the middle of the 4th century, when he was still quite young, he traveled to India and back with his mother on a Buddhist pilgrimage.  Later he would start a massive translation project in Chang'an.  His translations are credited with revolutionizing Chinese Buddhism. Xuanzang was initially welcomed by the king, his ministers, and the revered monk, Moksagupta.  They were accompanied by several thousand monks who set up tents outside the eastern gate, with portable Buddha images, which they worshipped, and then Xuanzang was taken to monastery after monastery until sunset.  At one of the monasteries, in the southeast of the city, there were several tens of monks who originally came from Gaochang, and since Xuanzang had come from there, they invited him to stay with them. The next day he met and feasted with the King, politely declining any meat, and then went to the monastery in the northwest to meet with the famous monk: Moksagupta.  Moksagupta himself had made the journey to India, and had spent 20 years there himself.  It seems like this would have been the perfect person for Xuanzang to talk to about his plans, but instead, the two butted heads.  Moksagupta seems to have seen Xuanzang's Mahayana faith as heretical.  He saw no reason for Xuanzang to travel all the way to India when he had all the sutras that anyone needed there in Kucha, along with Moksagupta himself.   Xuanzang's response seems to have been the Tang dynasty Buddhist version of “Okay, Boomer”, and then he went ahead and tore apart Moksagupta's understanding of his own sutras—or so Xuanzang relayed to his biographers.  We don't exactly have Moksagupta's side, and, let's face it, Xuanzang and his biographers are not necessarily reliable narrators.  After all, they followed Mahayana teachings, which they considered the “Greater Vehicle”, and they referred to the Theravada teachings as the “Hinayana” or “Lesser Vehicle”.  Meanwhile, Theravada Buddhists likely saw many of the Mahayana texts as extraneous, even heretical, not believing them to actually be the teachings of the Buddha. It must have been winter time, as the passes through the mountains on the road ahead were still closed, and so Xuanzang stayed in Kucha, spending his time sightseeing and meeting with various people.  He even went back to see Moksagupta, but the older monk shunned him, and would get up and exit the room rather than engaging with him, so they had no more conversations. Eventually, Xuanzang continued on his way west, following along the northern rim of the Tarim basin.  Two days out from Kucha, disaster struck.  Some two thousand or so Turkish bandits suddenly appeared—I doubt Xuanzang was counting, so it may have been more or less.  I imagine that memories of what had happened to the merchants near Agni must have gone through Xuanzang's mind.   Fortunately, for him, they were fighting over loot that they had pillaged from various travelers, and since they couldn't share it equally, they fell to fighting each other and eventually dispersed. He travelled for almost 200 miles after that, stopping only for a night at the Kingdom of Baluka, aka Gumo—the modern city of Aksu.  This was another Theravada Buddhist kingdom.  Xuanzang noted tens of Buddhist temples, and over 1000 Buddhist monks.  The country was not large—about 200 miles east to west and 100 miles north to south.  For reference that means it was probably comparable in size with Kyushu, in terms of overall area, or maybe the size of Denmark—excluding Greenland—or maybe the US state of Maryland.  Xuanzang described the country as similar to Kucha in just about every way, including the written language and law, but the spoken language was different, though we don't get many more details. From Baluka, he crossed northward through the Tianshan mountains, which are classified as an extension of the Pamirs known as the Ice Mountains.  Had he continued southwest, he would have hit Kashgar and crossed over between the Pamir and Tian Shan ranges into the Ferghana valley, but instead he turned north. We don't know exactly why he took this perilous option, but the route that may have been popular at the time as it was one of the most direct routes to the seat of the Western Gokturk Empire, which he was currently traveling through. The Tian Shan mountains were a dangerous journey.  Avalanches could block the road—or worse.  Xuanzang describes the permanent ice fields—indeed, it is the ice fields and glaciers of the Tian Shan that melt in the summer and provide the oasis towns of the Tarim Basin with water, even to this day.  In Xuanzang's day, those glaciers were likely even more prevalent than today, especially as they have been recorded as rapidly disappearing since 1961.  And where you weren't on snow and ice, the ground was probably wet and damp from the melt.  To keep warm, you would wear shoes over your shoes, along with heavy fur coats, all designed to reduce exposure. Xuanzang claims that 3 or 4 of every 10 people didn't survive the crossing—and that horses and oxen fared even worse.  Even if these numbers are an exaggeration, the message is clear:  This was a dangerous journey. After about seven days, Xuanzang came out of the mountains to the “Great Pure Lake”, the “Da Qing Hai”, also known as the Hot Sea or the Salt Sea, which likely refers to Issyk Kul.  The salt content, along with the great volume of water it possesses, means that the lake rarely freezes over, which is likely why it is seen as “hot” since it doesn't freeze when the fresh water nearby does.  This lake is the second largest mountain lake in the world, and the second deepest saltwater lake.  Traveling past the lake, he continued to Suyab, near modern Tokmok, in Kyrgyzstan, just west of the modern capital of Bishkek.  This was an old Sogdian settlement, and had since become the capital of the Western Gokturks.  Sogdians—like Xuanzang's guide, Vandak—were integral to the Gokturk kingdom. Their language was the lingua franca of the Silk Road, and at the time of the Gokturk Khaganate, it was also the official court language, and so when Xuanzang appeared at the court of the Great Khagan of the Western Gokturks, it was likely the language of diplomacy. When we think of Turkic people, many in the English speaking world think of Turkiye, and perhaps of the mighty Ottoman empire.  Some may think of Turkmenistan, Kazhakstan, Kyrgyzstan, or Uzbekistan, among others.  And of course, there are the Uyghur people in Xinjiang.  All of these people claim roots in the ancestral Turkic homeland in the Altai mountains, which sit largely in western Mongolia, north of China's Xinjiang region.  Much like the Xiongnu and the Mongols, they were pastoral nomads, moving their herds across the steppes, often covering great distances.  They would regularly move through different regions, perhaps returning each season, though sometimes not returning for years at a time.  They were often seen as barbarians by settled people living in cities, and yet their goods and horses were highly prized. Nomad and sedentary lifestyles would often collide.  Farmers would turn pastureland into fields, and when the nomadic people returned on their circuits, they would find walls and fences where there was once open land, and the people there would claim to “own” the land, a concept often foreign to people who were always on the move.  Nomadic people, such as the Gokturks, were not necessarily keeping vast libraries of records about themselves and their histories, and so much of what we get comes from external sources, which do not always have incredibly reliable narrators.  To many of the settled agriculturalists, groups like the Turks were marauders who raided their villages and farms.  They were a great bogeyman of the steppes, which required the firm hand of strong defenses to keep out—or so their opponents would want people to think. While they were known for their warfare, which incorporated their mobility, but they were keenly interested in trade, as well.  They understood the value of the trade routes and the various cities and states that they included in their empire.  Thus, the Sogdians and the Gokturks seem a natural fit: the Sogdians were more settled, but not entirely so, as demonstrated by their vast trade networks.  And the Sogdians also were part of the greater central Eurasian steppe culture, so the two cultures understood each other, to a degree.  They are even depicted similarly in art, with slight differences, such as long hair that was often associated with Turks over the Sogdians.  In some areas of the Gokturk empire, Sogdians would run the cities, while the Gokturks provided military aid and protection. Xuanzang's description of the people of Suyab, or the “City of Suye River”, doesn't pick out anyone in particular, and he even says that it was a place where traders of the Hu, or foreign, tribes from different countries mingle their abodes.  He mentions the people here as being called Suli, which is also the name given to the language—this may refer to “Sogdian” in general.  They write with an alphabet that is written vertically rather than horizontally—this may refer to a few scripts that were written this way, possibly based off Syriac or Aramaic alphabets that were adapted to Sogdian and other Iranian languages, but it isn't clear. We are told that the people dressed in felt and hemp clothing, with fur and “cotton” garments.  Their clothes fit tightly, and they kept their hair cut short, exposing the top of their heads—though sometimes they shaved it completely, tying a colored silk band around the forehead. He goes on to describe these people as greedy liars, possibly a reference to the mercantile nature of many of the people at the time. Something to note: The Turks of this time had not yet encountered Islam, which was just now starting to rise up in the Middle East.  The Prophet Muhammad is said to have been born around the end of the 6th century CE and was preaching in the early 7th century, though his teachings would begin to spread outward soon enough.  But that means that the Gokturks were not an Islamic empire.  Rather, their own traditions seem to have focused on the worship of Tengri, an Altaic personification of the universe, often simplified as a “sky god”.  Tengrism can be found amongst the Xiongnu, Mongols, and others, and it was the national religion of the Gokturks themselves, but there were many who also adopted other religions that they encountered, including Zoroastrianism, Christianity, Manichaeism, and Buddhism.  In fact, Xuanzang notes that the Turks he met in Suyab would not sleep or sit on beds made of wood because wood was thought to contain the spirit of fire, which he says they worshipped.  That sounds similar to Zoroastrian beliefs, where fire is associated with Ahura Mazda, who is also worshipped as a sky god.  These may have been beliefs inherited from their Eastern Iranian Sogdian partners. In Xuanzang's biography, we are given more details about his visit to Suyab.  Apparently, as he was headed to the city, he met a hunting party, which we are told was the retinue of Yehu Khan.  Hunting was an important part of life on the steppes, and it continued to be a favorite sport of the Gokturk nobility. Yehu Khan—possibly Yagbhu Khan, though that is up for some debate—is described as being dressed in a green silk robe, with his hair exposed, and wearing  a turban of white silk about ten feet long that wrapped his forehead and hung behind his back.  His “hunting” expedition wasn't just a couple of the guys.  It included about 200 officials, all with plaited hair and dressed in brocade robes—they weren't exactly out there roughing it.  He also had his soldiers, dressed in furs, felt, or fine woolen clothes, and there were so many cavalry that they stretched out of sight.  The Khan seemed pleased to meet Xuanzang, but his hunt was expected to last another couple of days, at least, so he sent an attendant named Dharmaja to take Xuanzang back to wait for the Khan to return. Three days later, Xuanzang was given an audience.  The khan was seated in a large yurt.  Xuanzang noted the seeming incongruity between the khan, sitting there in the tent, decorated with golden flowers, with the officials dressed in magnificent brocade garments sitting in two long rows in front of him and the armed guards behind him, compared to the simple felt walls of the tent. A ”yurt” is a common feature of nomadic life on the steppes.  It wasn't exactly a single person operation to haul them around, but they can be taken down and put up with relative ease.  And while yurts could be relatively simple, there are examples of much more elaborate structures.  There is little reason they couldn't be made larger, perhaps with some extra support.  In later centuries, there are examples of giant yurts that seem like real construction projects.  Use of tents, even in a city, where they had permanent palace buildings, was likely a means of retaining the nomadic steppe traditions, even while enjoying the benefits of city life. Whom exactly Xuanzang met with is a matter of debate.  His records seem to indicate that it was Tong Yabghu Qaghan of the Western Gokturk Khaganate, but other sources say that Tong Yabghu Qaghan died in 628, and the earliest Xuanzang could have been meeting with him was 630, two years later, so if that is the case, he must have met with Tong Yabghu's son, Si Yabghu Qaghan.  It is likely that Xuanzang, who was dictating his accounts years after, mentioned the Qaghan and then, when they looked up who it was, they simply made a mistake.  Remember, Xuanzang would have had everything translated through one or two languages.  He did know what he saw, however, and he recounted what he remembered. Tong Yabghu Qaghan oversaw the height of the Gokturk Qaghanate, and appears to have favored the Buddhist religion, though there were many different religions active in their territories at the time.  They oversaw an extremely cosmopolitan empire covering huge swaths of central Eurasia, including the lucrative silk road.  Xuanzang notes that at the court there were individuals from Gaochang and even a messenger from the Han—which is to say the Tang Empire.  One wonders if Xuanzang—or anyone at that time—realized just how tenuous the Khan'sposition was.  After Tong Yabghu's death, the Qaghanate would decline, and less than a decade later it would fall to the Tang dynasty, who took Suyab and made it their western outpost.  In fact, Suyab is thought to have been the birthplace, over a century later, of a young boy who would find a love of poetry.  That boy's name was Li Bai, or Ri Haku, in Japanese. He would become one of the most famous poets in Chinese history, and his poems were even known and studied in Japan.  And it was largely through Japanese study of Li Bai's poems that his works came to the English speaking world: first through Ernest Fenollosa, who had studied in Japan, and then by the celebrated Ezra Pound, who had used Ernest's notes to help with his own translations of the poems. This was, though, as I said, over a century after Xuanzang's journey.  At the time of our story, the Qaghan was throwing a feast, including Xuanzang and all of the foreign envoys.  Xuanzang comments on the food and drink—his hosts provided grape juice in lieu of wine, and cooked a special vegetarian feast just for him, while the other guests ate a feast of meat, such as veal, lamb, fish, and the like.  There was also the music of various regions along the Silk Road, which Xuanzang found to be catchy, but of course not as refined as the music he was used to, of course.  After dinner Xuanzang was asked to expound upon the Darma, largely about the basic principle that you should be kind to one another—I doubt he was getting into the deep mysteries of Buddhist philosophy. Xuanzang stuck around the court for three more days, during which time the Qaghan tried to get him to stay, but Xuanzang insisted that he had to make it to India.  And so the Qaghan relented.  He found men in his army who could translate for Xuanzang along his journey, and had letters of introduction written to at least as far as the state of Kapisa, in modern Afghanistan. And so, armed with the Qaghan's blessing and a fresh translator, Xuanzang struck out again.  They headed westward for over one hundred miles, eventually reaching Bingyul, aka the Thousand Springs.  This is the area where the Qaghan and his court would spend his summers, and the deer in the area were protected under his orders, so that they were not afraid of humans—which sounds similar to the situation with the deer in Nara.  Continuing on another fifty miles or so—the distances are approximate as Xuanzang's primary duty was not exactly to map all of this out—Xuanzang arrived at the city of Taras, in modern Kazakhstan, another place where the cultures of the Silk Road mixed and mingled.  Xuanzang didn't have much to say about Taraz, apparently, though it is one of the oldest cities in Transoxania, founded near the beginning of the Common Era.  A few miles south of there, Xuanzang reportedly found a village of re-settled ethnic Han that had been captured by the Gokturks and settled here.  They had adopted the dress and customs of the Turkic people, but continued to speak a version of Chinese. Southwest of that he reached the City of White Water, likely referring to Aksukent.  This is the same “Aksu” as the city in Xinjiang, both of which mean “White Water” in Turkic, but this one is in the south of Kazakhstan.  Xuanzang found the climate and products an improvement over what he had experienced in Taras.  Beyond that, he next arrived at the city of Gongyu, and then south again to Nujkend, and then traveling westward to the country of Chach, aka Tashkent.  Both Nujkend and Chach were large cities in nations of smaller, mostly autonomous city-states, which made up a lot of the political geography of Transoxania. I would note that Xuanzang's notes here are much more sparse than previously.  This may be because these were outside of the Tarim basin and therefore of less interest to individuals in the Tang empire.  Or perhaps he was just making his way more quickly and not stopping at every kingdom along the way. From Tashkent, he continued southeast to the Ferghana valley—the country of Feihan.  Oddly, this country doesn't appear in Xuanzang's biography, even though the Ferghana Valley seems to have been fairly well known back in the Tang Empire—it was known as the home of some of the best horses, which were one of its first major exports.  In fact, the Han dynasty even mounted a military expedition to travel to Ferghana just to obtain horses.  Xuanzang is oddly silent on this; however, he does talk about the fertile nature of the land.  He mentions that their language here is different from the lands he had been traveling through up to this point, and also points out that the people of the Ferghana valley were also visibly different from others in the area. From the Ferghana valley, Xuanzang headed west for about 300 miles or more to the land of Sutrushana—perhaps referring to the area of Ushrusana, with its capital of Bunjikat.  This country was also largely Sogdian, and described as similar to Tashkent.  From there, he traveled west through a great desert, passing skeletons, which were the only marker of the trail other than a view of the far off mountains.  Finally, they reached Samarkand, known as the country of “Kang” in Chinese, which was also the term used to mark Sogdians who claimed descent from the people of Samarkand. Samarkand is another of the ancient cities of Central Asia, and even today is the third largest city in modern Uzbekistan.  Human activity in the region goes back to the paleolithic era, and the city was probably founded between the 8th and 7th centuries BCE.  Samarkand was conquered by Alexander the Great, and during the Achaemenid Empire it was the capital of Sogdiana.  During Xuanzang's visit, Samarkand was described as an impenetrable fortress with a large population. For all of his travel, Samarkand was the first place Xuanzang notes as specifically not a Buddhist land.  In fact, there were two monasteries, suggesting that there had been Buddhists, but if any monks tried to stay there then the locals would chase them out with fire.  Instead, they worshipped fire—likely meaning Ahura Mazda and Zoroastrianism.  This leads to a story that I have to wonder about, given the reliability of our narrators. It is said that Xuanzang was met by the King with arrogance, but after staying the night Xuanzang was able to tell the King about Buddhism and its merits.  The king was intrigued, and asked to observe the Precepts, and treated Xuanzang with hospitality and respect.  So when two of Xuanzang's attendants went to the monasteries to worship, they were chased out with fire.  When the king heard about this, he had the people arrested and ordered their hands to be cut off.  Xuanzang could not bear to witness such suffering, however, and he intervened to have them spared.  So instead the king had them flogged and banished from the city.  Ever since then, all the people believed in Buddhism. Some parts of this strike true.  It was likely that the king would entertain this strange wanderer who had arrived with letters from the great Qaghan—that may have even explained why Xuanzang had been encouraged to make the dangerous journey to Suyab in the first place, so that he could obtain such permission.  And it would not be strange for the king to listen to his teachings.  If Xuanzang's attendants were attacked, that would have been a huge breach of hospitality, and however the King felt about it, he no doubt had to do something about it.  And so all of that sounds somewhat believable.  Does that mean everyone suddenly converted to Buddhism?  I don't know that I'm quite willing to go that far.  It is also likely that there were Buddhists there already, even if the majority religion was Zoroastrianism. From Samarkand, Xuanzang traveled farther southwest, to the country of Kasanna, which seems to have been the edge of what we might call Sogdiana.   According to his biographers, however, there was a little more to all of this.  Rather, he headed west to Kusanika.  Then he traveled to  Khargan, and further on to the country of Bukhara, and then to Vadi.  All of these were “An” in Chinese, which was the name element used for Sogdians from this region.  He then continued west to the country of Horismika, on the other side of the Amu Darya, aka the Oxus River of Transoxanian fame. From there he traveled further southwest, entering into the mountains.  The path here was often such that they had to travel single-file, and there was no food or water other than what you brought with you.  Eventually they came to a set of doors, known as the Iron Gate.  This was a Turkic fortress.  It was no doubt fortuitous that he had come from his meeting with the Qaghan, and likely had permission to pass through.  From there, they entered the country of Tukhara. As we noted in Episode 119, Tukhara was in the region of Bactria.  It was bordered by the Pamir range in the east, and the Persian empire in the west.  There were also the Great Snow Mountains in the south, likely referencing the Hindu Kush. Tukhara had been conquered by the Gokturks just within the past couple of decades, and Xuanzang notes that the country had been split into largely autonomous city-states as the local royalty had died without an heir many years before.  With the Gokturk conquest, it was now administered by Tardu Shad, the son of Tong Yabghu Qaghan.  “Shad” in this case was a local title. Here, Xuanzang's narrative gets a little dicey, especially between his biography and his records.  The records of the Western Regions denotes various countries in this area.  It is unclear if he traveled to all of them or is just recounting them from records he obtained.  He does give us at least an overview of the people and the region.  I would also note that this is one of the regions he visited, again, on his return trip, and so may have been more familiar with the region than those areas he had passed through from Suyab on down. For one thing, he notes that the language of the region was different from that of the “Suli”, which appears to refer to the Sogdians.  This was the old territory of the Kushan empire, and they largely spoke Bactrian.  Like Sogdian, it was another Eastern Iranian language, and they used an alphabet based largely on Greek, and written horizontally rather than vertically.  They also had their own coins. This region had plenty of Buddhist communities, and Xuanzang describes the cities and how many monasteries they had, though, again, it isn't clear if he actually visited all of them or not.  These are countries that Li Rongji translates as “Tirmidh”, “Sahaaniyan”, “Kharuun”, “Shuumaan”, etc. It does seem that Xuanzang made it to the capital city, the modern city Kunduz, Afghanistan. Xuanzang actually had something specific for the local Gokturk ruler, Tardu Shad.  Tardu Shad's wife was the younger sister of King Qu Wentai of Gaochang, whom we met last episode.  Qu Wentai had provided Xuanzang a letter for his younger sister and her husband.  Unfortunately, Xuanzang arrived to learn that the princess of Gaochang had passed away, and Tardu Shad's health was failing.  It does seem that Tardu Shad was aware of Xuanzang, however—a letter had already come from Qu Wentai to let them know that Xuanzang was on his way.  As I mentioned last episode, letters were an important part of how communities stayed tied together.  Of course, given the perils of the road, one assumes that multiple letters likely had to be sent just in case they didn't make it.  The US Postal Service this was not. Tardu Shad, though not feeling well, granted an interview with Xuanzang.  He suggested that Xuanzang should stick around.  Then, once the Shad had recovered from his illness, he would accompany Xuanzang personally on his trip to India.  Unfortunately, that was not to be.  While Xuanzang was staying there, he was witness to deadly drama.  Tardu Shad was recovering, which was attributed to the recitations by an Indian monk who was also there.  This outcome was not exactly what some in the court had wanted.  One of the Shad's own sons, known as the Tagin prince, plotted with the Shad's current wife, the young Khatun, and she poisoned her husband.  With the Shad dead, the throne might have gone to the son of the Gaochang princess, but he was still too young.  As such, the Tagin Prince was able to usurp the throne himself, and he married his stepmother, the young Khatun.  The funeral services for the late Tardu Shad meant that Xuanzang was obliged to stay at Ghor for over a month. During that time, Xuanzang had a seemingly pleasant interaction with an Indian monk.  And when he finally got ready to go, he asked the new Shad for a guide and horses.  He agreed, but also made the suggestion that Xuanzang should then head to Balkh.  This may have meant a bit of backtracking, but the Shad suggested that it would be worth it, as Balkh had a flourishing Buddhist community. Fortunately, there was a group of Buddhist monks from Balkh who happened to be in Kunduz to express their condolences at the passing of Tardu Shad, and they agreed to accompany Xuanzang back to their hometown, lest he end up getting lost and taking the long way there. The city of Balkh is also known as “Baktra”, as in “Bactria”, another name of this region.  A settlement has been there since at least 500 BCE , and it was already an important city when it was captured by Alexander the Great.  It sits at the confluence of several major trade routes, which no doubt were a big part of its success.  Xuanzang's biography notes that it was a massive city, though it was relatively sparsely populated—probably due to the relatively recent conquest by the Gokturks, which had occurred in the last couple of decades.  That said, there were still thousands of monks residing at a hundred monasteries in and around the city.  They are all characterized as monks of Theravada schools.  Southwest of the city was a monastery known as Navasamgharama, aka Nava Vihara, or “New Monastery”.  Despite its name, the monastery may have actually been much older, going back to the Kushan emperor Kaniska, in the 2nd century CE.  Ruins identified as this “New Monastery” are still visible south of Balkh, today. The monastery is described as being beautifully decorated, and it seems that it had a relic—one of the Buddha's teeth.  There are also various utensils that the Buddha is said to have used, as well.  The objects would be displayed on festival days.  North of the monastery there was a stupa more than 200 feet in height.  South of the monastery was a hermitage.  Each monk who studied there and passed away would have a stupa erected for them, as well.  Xuanzang notes that there were at around 700 memorial stupas, such that they had to be crammed together, base to base. It was here that Xuanzang met a young monk named Prajnaakara, who was already somewhat famous in India, and well-studied.  When questioned about certain aspects of Buddhism, Xuanzang was impressed by the monk's answers, and so stayed there a month studying with the young monk. Eventually, Xuanzang was ready to continue on his journey.  He departed Balkh towards the south, accompanying the teacher Prajnakara, and together they entered the Great Snow Mountains, aka the Hindu Kush.  This path was even more dangerous than the trip through the Tian Shan mountains to Suyab.   They eventually left the territory of Tukhara and arrived at Bamiyan.  Bamiyan was a kingdom in the Hindu Kush, themselves an extension of the Himalayan Mountain range.  It Is largely based around valley, home to the modern city of Bamyan, Afghanistan, which sits along the divide between Central Asia and the Indian subcontinent.  Today it is a major center for individuals of the Hazara ethnic group, one of the main ethnic groups in Afghanistan, which is a multi-ethnic state that includes, today, the Pashtun, Hazara, Tajik, and Uzbek people, along with a number of smaller ethnic groups.  Today they largely reside in the mountainous areas of the Hindu Kush. Bamiyan made an impact on our protagonist.   Their language was slightly different from that in Tukhara, but using the same—or similar enough—writing system.  Buddhism was thriving in the capital, and we are told of a rock statue of the standing Buddha, over a hundred feet in height, along with a copper statue of the standing Buddha nearby.    There was also another reclining Buddha a mile or two down the road.  There were multiple monasteries with thousands of monks, and the ruler of that kingdom received Xuanzang well. Xuanzang wasn't the first monk to travel to Bamiyan from the Middle Kingdom—in this he was, perhaps unwittingly, on the trail of the monk Faxian.  Faxian likely did not see these statues, though, as we believe they were built in the 6th and early 7th century—at least the stone Buddha statues.  They were a famous worship site until February 2001, when the Taliban gave an order to destroy all of the statues in Afghanistan.  Despite this, they were inscribed as UNESCO World Heritage Site in 2003. Fortunately, we have images from before their destruction.  These statues were a blend of Greco-Buddhist and Gandharan art styles—appropriate as it stands between the Hellenistic area of Tukhara and the ancient region of Gandhara—including the modern city of Kandahar and into the Indus Valley region of Pakistan. Continuing east through the mountains, Xuanzang eventually came out at the kingdom of Kapisa.  This may have had its capital around modern-day Bagram, north of modern Kabul, but the country seems to have been quite large.  Kapisa over saw some tens of other countries, and it is thought that at one time its influence extended from Bamyan and Kandahar to the area of modern Jalalabad.  Their language was even more different than that of Tukhara, but they were still using the same writing system.  The king of Kapisa is said to have been of Suli ethnicity—which would seem to indicate that he was Sogdian, or at least descended from people of the Transoxanian region.    Xuanzang notes that the ruler, as rough and fiery as he is described—as a true warlord or similar—he nonetheless made a silver image of the Buddha, eighteen feet in height, every year.  He also gave charity to the poor and needy in an assembly that was called every five years.  There were over one hundred monasteries and some 6000 monks, per Xuanzang's recollection, and notably, they were largely following Mahayana teachings. For the most part the monks that Xuanzang had encountered on this journey were Theravada—Xuanzang refers to them as “Hinayana”, referring to the “Lesser Vehicle” in contrast to Xuanzang's own “Mahayana”, or “Greater Vehicle”.  “Theravada” refers to the “way of the elders” and while Mahayana Buddhism largely accepts the sutras of Theravada Buddhism, there are many Mahayana texts that Theravada Buddhists do not believe are canonical.  We discussed this back in Episode 84. There was apparently a story of another individual from the Yellow River being sent as a hostage to Kapisa when it was part of the Kushan Empire, under Kanishka or similar.  Xuanzang recounts various places that the hostage, described as a prince, lived or visited while in the region.  Xuanzang's arrival likely stirred the imagination of people who likely knew that the Tang were out there, but it was such a seemingly impossible distance for most people.  And yet here was someone who had traveled across all of that distance.  One of the monasteries that claimed to have been founded because of that ancient Han prince invited Xuanzang to stay with them.  Although it was a Theravada monastery, Xuanzang took them up on the offer, both because of the connection to someone who may have been his countryman, but also because of his traveling companion, Prajnakara, who was also a Theravada monk, and may not be comfortable staying at a Mahayana monastery. Xuanzang spends a good deal of ink on the stories of how various monasteries and other sites were founded in Kapisa and the surrounding areas.  He must have spent some time there to accumulate all of this information.  It is also one of the places where he seems to have hit at least twice—once on the way to India, and once during his return journey. The King of Kapisa is said to have been a devotee of Mahayana Buddhism.  He invited Xuanzang and Prajnakara to come to a Mahayana monastery to hold a Dharma gathering.  There they met with several leading figures in the monastery, and they discussed different theories.  This gathering lasted five days, and at the end, the king offered Xuanzang and the other monks five bolts of pure brocade and various other gifts.  Soon thereafter, the monk Prajnakara was invited back to Tukhara, and so he and Xuanzang parted ways. And it was about time for Xuanzang to continue onwards as well.  From Kapisa, he would travel across the “Black Range” and into Lampaka.  This may refer to the area of Laghman or Jalalabad.  Today, this is in modern Afghanistan, but for Xuanzang, this would have been the northwestern edge of India.  He was almost there. And so are we, but we'll save his trip into India for next episode. Until then thank you for listening and for all of your support. If you like what we are doing, please tell your friends and feel free to rate us wherever you listen to podcasts.  If you feel the need to do more, and want to help us keep this going, we have information about how you can donate on Patreon or through our KoFi site, ko-fi.com/sengokudaimyo, or find the links over at our main website,  SengokuDaimyo.com/Podcast, where we will have some more discussion on topics from this episode. Also, feel free to reach out to our Sengoku Daimyo Facebook page.  You can also email us at the.sengoku.daimyo@gmail.com.  Thank you, also, to Ellen for their work editing the podcast. And that's all for now.  Thank you again, and I'll see you next episode on Sengoku Daimyo's Chronicles of Japan.

Buddhism Reference – Hinayana. A term used to define early practices based on early teachings of Shakyamunibuddha, also known as incomplete or lesser vehicles. E-books - “Buddhism Reference – Now Available   Threefoldlotus.com/home/Ebooks.htm

Le bouddhisme, religion et philosophie initiée par Siddhartha Gautama (le Bouddha) il y a 2 500 ans en Inde, repose sur la compréhension et la libération de la souffrance. Selon le Bouddha, la souffrance découle du désir et de l'attachement, et sa cessation est possible à travers la pratique des Quatre Nobles Vérités : reconnaître la souffrance, en identifier la cause, comprendre qu'il est possible d'y mettre fin, et suivre le Noble Chemin Octuple. Ce chemin comprend la juste compréhension, intention, parole, action, mode de vie, effort, attention, et concentration.Diverses traditions bouddhistes se sont développées, incluant la méditation, l'étude des sutras, les rituels et l'adhésion à une éthique morale, avec la croyance en la réincarnation et le karma. Le but ultime est le nirvana, atteint par la méditation et l'adhésion aux enseignements bouddhistes.Le bouddhisme se divise principalement en trois branches : Theravada (pratiqué en Asie du Sud-Est, se concentrant sur l'éveil individuel à travers les textes anciens), Mahayana (dominant en Asie de l'Est, visant à l'éveil de tous les êtres avec un accent sur la compassion), et Vajrayana (pratiqué principalement au Tibet, utilisant des méthodes tantriques pour un éveil accéléré). Malgré leurs différences, ces branches partagent les principes fondamentaux du Bouddha, se distinguant par leurs pratiques et approches spirituelles.

Chapter 446 - "We All Shatter and Fall Sometimes" ...as read by Casey Hurd of HinayanaToday we welcome Casey Hurd from melodic death metal band Hinayana to the podcast! Hinayana released their new record, Shatter and Fall, back on November 10th via Napalm Records! Casey talks about how the desire to make music led to him start Hinayana as a solo project, how the pandemic disrupted signing with napalm and the release of Death of the Cosmic, writing death metal lyrics as poetry, the art direction of the band and more!https://hinayana.bandcamp.com/https://napalmrecordsamerica.com/hinayanahttps://asthestorygrows.substack.com/https://www.patreon.com/asthestorygrowsDiscordChapter 446 Music:Hinayana - "Reverse The Code"Hinayana - "Pitch Black Noise"Hinayana - "Order Divine"Hinayana - "Triptych Visions" Hinayana - "A Tide Unturning"Email: asthestorygrows@gmail.com

Alors qu'on revient avec le plein de zik et de bons moments dans la tronche avec le Metal Fest 09, cela ne nous empêche pas d'être sur le pont pour l'émission de la semaine ! Et on est tous ensemble pour le plan à 4, ça fait plaisir. En attendant les émissions L'ANTRE FEST EDITION (y'en à deux a venir, la spéciale JNF4 et celle du Metal Fest 09, stay tuned) on ne fait pas mieux que de balancer de la nouveauté avec quelques infos par-ci, par là. Alors dans cette émission vous pourrez retrouver MINISTRY, INFECTED RAIN, EXTINCTION A.D., ODDISM, GAMA BOMB, DUSK OF DELUSION, KPTN N3MO, UNCOMFORTABLE KNOWLEDGE, HROTHGAR, PØGØ, HELMET, DIMMU BORGIR, KORPIKLAANI, LION'S SHARE, MOONIC PRODUCTIONS, HINAYANA, EPICA, FORTRESS UNDER SIEGE et FEELS LIKE HOME en bonus !Allez go, écoutez ça ! Qu'est ce que vous faites encore là, goooo je vous dit !La playlist complète est là :  https://mega.nz/file/ndR0mZrB#42n8lpVLFDXLW028m7Sazr7FJabzH8yP_d3vmW64v78 Retrouvez l'AntreView & les émissions spéciales en vidéo sur notre chaine YouTube et abonnez-vous pour ne rien rater : https://www.youtube.com/@antremetal@Fatlab Studio @Skull strings @Asso We Rock @FURIOSFEST @Actu-METAL Toulouse @Radio Transparence @Metal Invasion Radio/Podcast @poulettessisters #lesurbexdepit--------------------------------------While we're back with our fill of music and good times at Metal Fest 09, that's not stopping us from being on deck for this week's show ! And we're all together for the 4-way, which is a real pleasure. While we're waiting for the L'ANTRE FEST EDITION shows (there are two coming up, the JNF4 special and the Metal Fest 09 show, so stay tuned), we're doing our best to keep things fresh with a little news here and there. In this issue, you'll find MINISTRY, INFECTED RAIN, EXTINCTION A.D., ODDISM, GAMA BOMB, DUSK OF DELUSION, KPTN N3MO, UNCOMFORTABLE KNOWLEDGE, HROTHGAR, PØGØ, HELMET, DIMMU BORGIR, KORPIKLAANI, LION'S SHARE, MOONIC PRODUCTIONS, HINAYANA, EPICA, FORTRESS UNDER SIEGE and FEELS LIKE HOME as bonuses !Go on, listen to this ! What are you still doing here, goooo I say !

Texas based melodic death/doom metal band Hinayana will be releasing their sophomore album, Shatter and Fall, through Napalm Records, on November 10th, just three days from the release of this episode.  Today, I am joined by Casey Hurd, founding member and vocalist/guitarist of Hinayana as we chat about the new album, musical direction, Casey's beginnings in metal, Buddhism, and spirituality.  Shout out to Jordan at Napalm Records for helping me set up this episode!

When Before The Dawn went on hiatus a little over a decade ago the chances of the band ever reuniting was slim to say the least.Plagued by line-up changes and label problems, the band were imploding at a rapid rate, losing the most important thing of all.Hope.Now, fast forward a decade, and Before The Dawn return triumphant with a new vocalist and revamped line-up as well as a blistering new album Stormbringers, which was released on June 30.Described as seeing Before The Dawn "back stronger than ever", Stormbringers is more than just another comeback album.It is sonic proof that music will always be the victor no matter how insurmountable the odds.Band founder Tuomas Saukkonen - in his first ever Australian interview - joined HEAVY to tell us more."It's been really good," he enthused of the early reception to the bands comeback album. "We were resting a little bit because... we did a few changes to the line-up. We changed the vocalist, who replaced actually two vocalists in the band - I used to be the frontman doing the growling vocals, but I started playing drums only. So there's big changes visually and also in the audio but it's been amazing so far."We press Tuomas on the musical components of Stormbringers."Well, if somebody is not familiar of our previous albums, I think the Finnish melancholy plays a huge part," he replied. "We are very sad people up here in the North (laughs). If you look at Finnish bands in general the melodies they make are quite gloomy, and Before The Dawn is no exception to that. But I think we are on the most positive side of Finnish metal. Our melodic death metal is quite stage friendly and more like rock and roll oriented, if that is allowed to be said about metal in general."In the full interview, Tuomas talks more about the album musically, their new vocalist and the unusual circumstances around which he came to be in the band, how the band has come back stronger, fears people may have forgotten about Before The Dawn during their hiatus, their upcoming tour with Wolfheart and Hinayana, Australian tour plans and more.

This episode we look at the transmission of Buddhism through the 1st to 5th centuries from India, to the Kushan Empire, and across the Silk Road to the Han and succeeding dynasties, and even to Baekje, on the Korean peninsula. For more, especially photos, please check out https://sengokudaimyo.com/podcast/episode-84   Rough Transcript:   Welcome to Sengoku Daimyo's Chronicles of Japan.  My name is Joshua, and this is Episode 84: The Middle Way through the Middle Kingdom. First things first, thank you to Bodil, Gabe, and Lauren for donating to support the show on Ko-Fi and Patreon.  If you'd like to join them, will have information at the end of the episode. Also an apology—if my voice isn't in tip-top shape, well, it seems that COVID finally found us after 3 years or so, and I'm on the tail end of it.  So thank you for your understanding. Last episode we talked about Siddhartha Gautama, aka Shakyamuni, the Historical Buddha, and his teachings, and how they spread, at least through the Indian subcontinent, with the patronage of rulers like Ashoka the Great.  The original teachings, initially taught as an oral tradition, was eventually turned into a series of writings, called the Tripitaka. As for how those writings came about, it's worth talking about the languages involved. The native language of Shakyamuni was probably a language known as Maghadi, or something similar.  But the Indian subcontinent, including the modern countries of India, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Bhutan, Nepal, and Afghanistan, is over three times the size of western Europe.  There are at eight south Asian language families, with hundreds of different languages, depending on how you count them.  The modern state of India counts 22 official languages, not including English.  I mention this to point out that as the Buddha's disciples spread his teachings, they were, by necessity, translating it into different languages. There is a story that a student suggested to the Buddha that they make Sanskrit the official language of Buddhism.  Even then, Sanskrit was considered a language of learning and education, much as Greek or Latin was in medieval Europe, but the Buddha rejected this and insisted that his teachings be taught in people's own tongue.  This proved great for reaching people, but over time there was a fear that the oral teachings might be lost, and so they were written down. The oldest written Buddhist canon is generally agreed to be texts in Pali, commissioned in Sri Lanka.  These are sometimes called the southern Tripitaka—or Tipitaka in Pali—and it is the primary canon for Theravada Buddhists.  In the north, however, Sanskrit remained the prominent language of learning, and texts written down and transmitted in the north—particularly those that made it to China and on to Japan—were typically Sanskrit or translations of Sanskrit texts.  This is what some refer to as the Northern Tripitaka.  Both of these were transcriptions of the oral teachings that Buddhist monks were otherwise memorizing and presenting to the Buddhist community.  That oral tradition, in fact, never really went away, and these early texts were more like a reference so that monks could check their memory.  Chanting the sutras—and especially chanting from memory—remained a highly prized skill of Buddhist orators. Now, the split between northern and southern texts is convenient, but it isn't necessarily as simple as all that.  We have plenty of examples of texts, particularly in the northern traditions, that don't necessarily have an extant Sanskrit counterpart.  In fact, the oldest extant sutras of any tradition that we have today are known as the Gandharan sutras, and written in the Ghandari language using a Karosthi script.  Gandhara refers to a region centered north and west of the Indus river, in modern Pakistan, stretching to the Kabul river valley in modern Afghanistan and north to the Karakoram mountains, which is one of the interlocking ranges that form the boundary between modern Pakistan and India and modern China and the Tibetan plateau.  It is believed to be the namesake of the city of Kandahar, in modern Afghanistan. This area was important, and not just to Buddhism.  For thousands of years it has been a crossroads between the Indian subcontinent, the area known as the Middle East, and the inner trade routes of central Eurasia.  It was part of the conquest by Alexander the Great in the 4th century BCE, becoming part of his kingdom, but then it was lost in battle to the Mauryan empire, which Ashoka the Great ruled in the 3rd century BCE.  The area later fell to Indo-Greek rule from members of the Greco-Bactrian kingdom to the north.  The most famous ruler during this period was probably Menander I, who is also remembered as a patron of Buddhism, building more stupas and monasteries in the region. The Hellenic Greco-Bactrians were eventually displaced by tribes of the Yuezhi, who themselves were being displaced by the Xiongnu, in central Eurasia.  In this epic game of musical chairs, a branch of the Yuezhi eventually settled in the area, ruling a large territory, including Gandhara, under what is known as the Kushan empire.  They had first moved into the area of Bactria and Sogdiana probably around the 1st or 2nd century BCE, and by the 1st century CE they were exerting authority over Gandhara.   Around the time the Gandharan sutras were written down, in the 1st or 2nd centuries, Buddhism—especially Mahayana Buddhism—was flourishing in the region, and Kanishka the Great—don't you love how all of these rulers are known as “the Great”, by the way?—ruled the Kushan empire, and hence Gandhara, in the early 2nd century.  He is said to have been a great patron of Buddhism, although it was one of several religions, including Zoroastrianism, that flourished in the region at this time. The Kushan empire is believed to be the same Yuezhi that we mentioned in episode 79, when we talked about the Han diplomat Zhang Qian, who had trekked through hostile Xiongnu, or Hunna, territory across much of what is now western China in the 2nd century BCE, seeking allies against the Hunna.  At that point, the Yuezhi had had enough of war, however, and they declined to fight, preferring to settle where they were and eventually growing into the Kushan empire.  That connection with the Han dynasty, however, likely was maintained through trade routes that continued to operate across the vast expanse of central Eurasia.  The Han dynasty itself continued to send out diplomatic missions to the various states of central Eurasia, and of course there were trade routes. As the Kushan empire expanded into the Tarim basin, it met once again with the Han, who had defeated the Hunna, and then claimed routes across the oasis towns of the desert regions.  While the routes would have high and low periods, often depending on the state of various conflicts, in general it seems that Buddhist missionaries probably made it to the Han dynasty and the Yellow River region, and founded monasteries, as early as the first century CE and certainly by the second century.  And, by our best understanding, the folks in these monasteries were already doing a lot of copying and translation of texts – both as a meritorious act, and to spread the word.  Since this is around the time the Gandharan texts were written, they were likely a part of this larger tradition of copying and translating that was going on, although many of those early documents did not survive intact to the modern day. One of the earliest records of Buddhism in the Han dynasty is a record dated to 65 CE.  Liu Ying, Prince of Chu and son of Emperor Guangwu of Han, sponsored Buddhism—as well as a school of Daoism—in attempts to better understand longevity and immortality.  While he was eventually accused of treason, putting something of a damper on his patronage of the religion, it is the first mention we have in the histories of Buddhism, and in some ways it speaks to something else about the initial acceptance of Buddhism. While there were likely those well-versed in Buddhism, particularly in the community of foreigners from the Western Regions, evidence suggests that for many lay people it was just as likely about what people thought that the religion could do for them in this life as anything else.  After all, there are many stories of miraculous events, and there was the concept of reincarnation and karma—the idea that by building merit, one could improve their lot in the next life.  There was even a belief that by building merit, one could improve their lot in the current life—and apparently extend their life or even, possibly, gain immortality. Sure, there were the more intellectual and philosophical endeavors, but for many people Buddhism was just as much about what it could do for them in the here and now.  Stories of monks and other holy men fit in right alongside stories of Daoist immortals.  In Han tombs, where Buddhist imagery is found, it is often found with or in place of the Queen Mother of the West—the same image that is found on many of the bronze mirrors that traveled across to the Japanese archipelago around this time.  It was likely that many of the early stories that the laypeople heard were probably fragments as much as anything.  Even with the Tripitaka written down, much of the transmission was still done orally.  Furthermore, it was in translation—and probably a translation of a translation. The earliest stories of Buddhism's transmission—particularly the translation of texts into Sinitic characters, the lingua franca of East Asia—claim that first the Theravada canon, and then later Mahayana texts, were translated in the second century, with foreigners from Parthia and Kushan credited with the early translations.  Others would continue the work, and at first it was mostly people from the Western Regions doing the translating. One of the earliest stories of sutras making their way to the Han dynasty comes from the time of Liu Ying, when his brother, Emperor Ming, sat on the throne.  The stories claim that the emperor saw an image of a golden Buddha, and that he requested either a statue or temple be erected.  So he sent people off to Kushan, where they found two monks who would come back with them in 68 CE, bringing portraits and scripture—specifically the “Sutra of Forty-Two Chapters”, which the two monks helped translate into a Sinitic version at Baimasi, or White Horse Temple.  As such, this “Sutra of Forty-Two Chapters” has been accorded a status as the first such Buddhist work to be brought to the area that is, today, modern China, and the White Horse Temple, located in Luoyang, is counted as one of the earliest temples in the Yellow River region.  That said, there are a lot of questions as to the authenticity of this tale, though it does mirror others about the arrival of Buddhism in the East, even if we cannot verify the actual first temple or work. Although Buddhism arrived during the Han dynasty, it wouldn't really begin to fully develop until after the dynasty's fall in the 3rd century.  During the Southern and Northern Dynasties period, the metaphysical and doctrinal beliefs of Buddhism began to penetrate the elite circles in a more tangible way.  Much of the philosophical underpinnings blended well with the interest at the time in “Dark Studies” and the school of “Pure Conversation”, which we discussed back in episode 72.  While Buddhist temples, much like their Daoist brethren, found some sanctuary from the chaos that created this period in the mountains and hills—not to mention a bit of added spiritual cachet—it was really the opportunity to gain greater state patronage that also helped. Monks like Zhi Dun began to reconcile Buddhist thought and doctrine with local beliefs.  In some cases, local religious figures—including gods and other spirits—were incorporated into the Buddhist framework, often by their “conversion” to the Buddha's teachings.  This was one of the strengths of Buddhism—although it carried with it a framework of Indian religious teachings and thoughts, it was not exclusive in its cosmological outlook.  Buddhism was more focused on helping one escape the suffering of this world, which would take you beyond all such things.  As the doctrines were meant for all beings—not just humans, but for animals, spirits, gods, and even demons—there was nothing to necessarily exclude other beliefs.  This helped some of the ethnic Han dynasties to accept and even promote Buddhism.  Meanwhile, some of the non-ethnic Han dynasties patronized Buddhism for either its miraculous powers or just because it was a foreign religion, much like they were foreigners in the Yellow River Basin.  In many cases, state-sponsorship was a two way street.  Dynasts would set themselves up as holy men, claiming to be Boddhisatvas.  They would even appropriate the concept of the Cakravartin, a Buddhist “Golden-Wheel-Turning-King”, which had overtones of cosmic overlordship.  I can see how that would fit in quite well with local concepts that a sovereign might lay claim to ruling “all under heaven” and be carrying out a “Heavenly mandate”. Along the Yangzi River, Buddhist monks gained a certain amount of independence.  They were not expected to bow to the sovereign, for example; an acknowledgment of their holy nature.  In the northern Wei dynasty, however, it was a different story.  There, the ruler was said to be no less than an incarnation of the Buddha, and a Chief Monk was selected to oversee the Sangha and no doubt ensure that the various Buddhist communities were in line with official dogma. At the same time, the government provided captured men and women to work fields to help pay for Buddhist temples and their work.  Likewise, people would make merit by donating wealth and land to temples, in hopes of blessings either in this current life or in the next life.  For their part, the temples were expected to act as storehouses or granaries—the wealth that poured into them would be used to help alleviate suffering, especially in the case of droughts or floods.  It soon became clear, however, that more wealth was going into the temples than was necessarily coming out.  There were attempts to reign in this Buddhist establishment, often by limiting the number of temples or even the number of monks, as well as limiting what people could donate.  These same edicts were undercut by the elites of the country, however, and often proved less than effectual. Along with sutras and Buddhist teachings, Buddhist images and architecture spread widely.  In India and the Western Regions, a key aspect of many temples was the stupa.  This was a mound containing a relic of some sort.  Originally these relics were said to be remnants of the Buddha, after he had been cremated.  Later, it was said that the remnants of the Buddha turned hard, like crystal, and that the original remains were gathered up and distributed to even more stupas.  Later they may contain other relics, as well. The stupa was an important part of the Buddhist temple, but over time, its character changed.  Instead of a mound like we still see in Southeast Asia, we start to see a building—a tower—which became a ubiquitous symbol of Buddhist temples in East Asia.  This multi-level pagoda originally started off with simply three levels, often made of brick and stone, but over time it grew with five or seven levels.  These towers were inspired by a description in the Lotus Sutra, a Mahayana text, that described a bejeweled seven-storey tower. Speaking of the Lotus Sutra, this was one of the many teachings that made its way to East Asia, and a hugely influential one.  It purports to tell the story of a sermon by the Buddha outside of those mentioned in the Theravada texts.  The teachings expounded upon in the Lotus Sutra had a great impact on Mahayana Buddhism and how people viewed the teachings of the Buddha.  For one, it also proposed the idea that the Buddha did not actually cease to exist when he attained nirvana, but is simply no longer visible. He still remains in the world to help all life find salvation from suffering.  That goes along with the concept of the Bodhisattva, a being who attains a Buddha-like understanding but out of compassion remains in the world to assist others. The Lotus Sutra also made claims such as the idea that anyone could attain Buddhahood, if they followed the teachings—and not just one particular set of teachings.  It opened the idea that there were multiple vehicles—that is to say different practices—that would all get you to the truth, to Englightenment.  Even the term “Mahayana” means the “Great Vehicle”, while Mahayana sees Theravada as “Hinayana”, the “Lesser Vehicle”.  Both will get you where you need to be, but Mahayana offers an exapansion of teachings and texts that Theravada Buddhism does not necessarily accept as authentic.  Indeed in Mahayana belief we also see a focus on multiple Buddhas with different specialties – not only the historical Buddha, but Vairocana, aka Dainichi Nyorai, the Great Solar Buddha, Amitabha, aka Amida Nyorai or Amida Butsu, and so on. In comparison, the Theravada school tend to be more dogmatic on various points of practice and belief, claiming that they focus on the actual teachings of the Historical Buddha and not necessarily looking for extra texts and practices.  There may have been Buddhas in previous ages that attained nirvana and departed this existence, but the Buddha of the current age is the historical Buddha, Shakyamuni.  Another Buddha, Maitreya, is not expected for another five to ten thousand years—not until the teachings of the Buddha have been forgotten and are once again required.  Acquiring freedom from this existence through nirvana is not necessarily one and the same with obtaining Buddhahood—the enlightened understanding required to save all beings. There is another school, “Vajrayana”, the “Lightning” or “Diamond” vehicle.  It focuses on tantric, or esoteric teachings, which practitioners believe provide a more direct, and faster method to enlightenment.  Many secret teachings, or mikkyo in Japanese, can trace themselves in some way to these practices, though it likely didn't make it to East Asia until the Tang dynasty or so in the 8th century, so we'll come back to it when we get to things like Kuukai and Saichou, who brought Shingon and Tendai, respectively, to Japan in the early 9th century—about four centuries from our current chronological position.  Both the Mahayana and Vajrayana schools included the teachings from the Lotus Sutra, which would become one of the most important sutras, certainly by the Tang dynasty, as well as in the Korean Peninsula and the Japanese archipelago.  Its widespread dissemination is often attributed to the famous monk Kumarajiva.  Kumarajiva was a citizen of Kucha, one of the oasis towns along the northern edge of the Tarim Basin, and site of a bustling metropolis and capital of one of the largest oasis kingdoms in the Tarim basin.  Even today, you can see remnants of the ancient city in the desert, and the dry conditions have preserved a number of artifacts, including plenty of texts referencing Buddhist and other beliefs. Kumarajiva traveled from the peripheral city of Dunhuang, another site renowned for its Buddhist roots, especially the famous Mogao caves—a series of Buddhist grottoes built into a cliff face which, along with the dry conditions, have exquisitely preserved the early sculpture and painting, as well as, again, numerous documents.  He came to Chang'an around 401, and he helped translated numerous Buddhist scriptures into Sinitic characters, which could then be shared and read by people across East Asia—everywhere in the ancient Sinic sphere of influence. Besides the Lotus Sutra, another famous text told of the Buddha Amithabha, aka Amida Butsu in Japan.  Amithabha's teachings claimed that any who would call on the name of Amithabha, or just picture them in their mind with a sincere heart, would, on their death, find themselves reborn in a Western Paradise—a “Pure Land” where there were no distractions other than to meditate on the Buddha's teachings and eventually attain freedom from this existence.  Whereas many of the teachings and theological discussions of the various Buddhist schools could get quite complex—thus almost requiring any serious student to join a monastery if they wanted to truly study a particular flavor—the teachings of Amithabha were appealing to those without necessarily a lot of time or resources.  It boiled down to a few practices that just about anyone could do.  It didn't require that you donate huge sums of money or land, or that you spend all your day copying scriptures.  One could chant the name of Amithabha in the fields as you were working, or picture them in your mind as you prepared for bed. These kinds of practices—the chanting of particular mantras or other such things—became a kind of thing people could do to help protect themselves or ward off evil.  A particular example of this practice is preserved in a text from Dunhuang, which has a colophon explaining its purpose.  According to Patricia Ebrey's translation, the text, which was copied by someone named Sun Sizhong, was an incantation that, if said 7, 14, or 21 times a day, with various somatic and material components (willow twig to cleanse the mouth, scattering flowers and incense before the image of the Buddha, and kneeling and joining the palms of the hands) it would clear away the four grave sins, the five wicked acts, and other transgressions.  “The current body would not be afflicted by “untimely” calamities, and one will be reborn into the realm of immeasurably long life.  Plus, reincarnation in the female form would be escaped forever.” On that last piece—yeah, Buddhism came with a little bit of baggage.  In ordering all of life, men were seen as inherently higher on the ladder than women.  This discrimination has been walked back or even abolished in some modern interpretations, but it was definitely present in older beliefs. Besides the power of the incantation if said 7, 13, or 21 times a day, Sun Sizhong went on to explain that if someone recited it 100 times in the evening and then at noon and it will ensure rebirth in the “Western Regions”, while 200,000 recitations gets you perfect intelligence, and 300,000 recitations, one will see Amitabha Buddha face to face and be reborn in the Pure Land. As you can probably start to see, there were many different beliefs and teachings that fell under the Mahayana teachings, and many of the texts were translations.  Even those that had been translated into Sinitic, it was often done by foreigners for whom the local Sinic language was not their native tongue, so there was always a kind of awareness that important pieces might have been lost in translation along the way.  In the 5th century, this led some monks to make the particularly long and dangerous journey all the way to Kushan and on to India, to access the original primary sources for themselves.  One of these was a monk by the name of Faxian. At the age of 62, Faxian decided to go to India to try to get to the heart of what the Buddha really taught.  He set out in 399, traveled across the Tarim Basin and into the Kashmir region and the Indus Valley—Gandhara, in modern Pakistan.  From there he traveled to central India and arrived at Patna, where he stayed and studied for three years.  He traveled around, seeking out works in Sanskrit on Buddhsit ethics and teachings, studying the local languages as well.  In 410 he made his way to the mouth of the Ganges and down to Sri Lanka, where he stayed for almost two years before boarding a ship and traveling home—traveling through the straits of Malacca and around Southeast Asia to take the sea route back to his home. The journey was perilous, and at least twice the boat lost its way.  According to the stories, some of his fellow travelers, who followed more Brahmanic teachings rather than Buddhist, believed that Faxian and his quote-unquote “heretical” teachings were what were leading them astray.  Faxian was able to maintain order and he and his books eventually made it safely to the Shandong peninsula in or around 412. He made his way down to Jiankang, aka modern Nanjing on the Yangzi river.  There he spent the rest of his life translating the scriptures he had brought back.  Others would make similar journeys, all to try to find more authentic versions of the texts—which usually meant finding the Sanskrit version—and then creating translations from those. With the growth in popularity in Buddhism, it is probably little wonder that it eventually made its way over to the Korean peninsula.  It is hard to say exactly when Buddhism arrived, but the Baekje annals in the Samguk Sagi claim that it was brought there by a monk of Central Asia descent in about 384.  One year later, we are told the king of Baekje erected a temple and caused ten men to become monks. The timing of this generally accords with some of the information in the Nihon Shoki, which claims that Buddhism first came from the Western Regions to the Han dynasty, and then to Baekje 300 years later, and then to Yamato about 100 years after that.  While the dates aren't exact, this generally accords with what we know of the way that Buddhism traveled to East Asia and to Baekje, at least. Although we have textual evidence, there isn't much archaeological evidence for Buddhism on the Korean peninsula in this time outside of urban centers.   That is where we find temple rooftiles and other indications that Buddhism was practiced, but at the time it was probably something more common amongst elites than the common people, at least in the 4th and early 5th centuries.  With the invasions by Goguryeo  and the loss of northern territory in about 475, it did gain increased patronage.  Still, it wasn't until the 6th century that it really left the urban centers, which is roughly the time we are talking about with the Yamato sovereign Ame Kunioshi, aka Kimmei Tennou. Next episode we'll get into just how Buddhism came over to the islands—or at least what is recorded and what we have evidence for—in the sixth century.  We'll also talk about its reception and its patronage by the famous Soga clan.  Until then, thank you for listening and for all of your support.  If you like what we are doing, tell your friends and feel free to rate us wherever you listen to podcasts.  If you feel the need to do more, and want to help us keep this going, we have information about how you can donate on Patreon or through our KoFi site, ko-fi.com/sengokudaimyo, or find the links over at our main website, SengokuDaimyo.com/Podcast, where we will have some more discussion on topics from this episode. Also, feel free to Tweet at us at @SengokuPodcast, or reach out to our Sengoku Daimyo Facebook page.  You can also email us at the.sengoku.daimyo@gmail.com.  And that's all for now.  Thank you again, and I'll see you next episode on Sengoku Daimyo's Chronicles of Japan.

The instantiations of energies from Noumena to all Phenomena Form the momentum of Life/Time/Space. This process perceived in the mind as Buddha.

Just as a "map", can be separated into sections, from beginning to end, it is only the arrival at the destination that provides the value of the map.

From the texts of the words of Shakyamuni Buddha on the Lotus as sole Mahayana Teaching, to the difference between Hinayana and Mahayana.

What is the problem?Is there a real solution?We have a method.* * *Last episode we promised a closer look at what we mean by “the problem,” and suggested that you might take another look at what you would define as your particular case example. What did you come up with? While it is true that the fundamental problem of existence is a shape-shifter, it seems to cycle through permutations back to its original form. Its iterations turn out to be variations on a theme.One of the problems in writing is that we take the words we use for granted. A handy method for taking a look at them in greater depth is by referring to the universal definitive tool, the humble dictionary. This is not in itself a solution, of course. How each case is resolved depends upon the writer using the tool.“Problem” is a word we use so often and so broadly that it becomes almost meaningless, if unexamined. You may have heard the expression, “The unexamined life is not worth living.” If you are like me you do not know whence it came. Another ubiquitous tool we have available today, much like a massively expanded dictionary, or its bigger sibling the encyclopedia, is Google. The generic for any search engine, having taken first position in the category some time ago. Like Kleenex is for facial tissue. Or Xerox once was for copiers. Looking it up, or “googling” it (which has become so vernacular that the word processor does not underline it in red), it turns out to be the coinage of Socrates. The very first entry on the internet “page” (incidentally defined as “one side of a sheet of paper” irony not lost on me) states that “Socrates believed that living a life where you live under the rules of others, in a continuous routine without examining what you actually want out of it is not worth living.”It is worth noting that Socrates specifying “living under the rules of others… in a continuous routine” as aggravating conditions of the unexamined life, probably reflects his assessment of actual fellow citizens. These are the definitive characteristics of a state of slavery, which was widely practiced in ancient Greece. Googling further, we find that Socrates did indeed inveigh against the practice. Slavery as a societal problem has probably been with us since the dawn of so-called civilization, all the way back to prehistoric times. But that doesn't make it acceptable, even in its many current disguises.Getting back to the thread of this episode, a problem is generically defined as “a matter or situation regarded as unwelcome or harmful and needing to be dealt with and overcome; a thing that is difficult to achieve or accomplish.” Or, as a modifier: “denoting or relating to people whose behavior causes difficulties to themselves and others.” And, as specifically related to physics and mathematics: “an inquiry starting from given conditions to investigate or demonstrate a fact, result, or law.” And more specifically to geometry: “a proposition in which something has to be constructed.”A term's etymology often sheds an interesting light on its original meanings. “Problem” derives from late Middle English: “originally denoting a riddle or a question for academic discussion.” Even earlier from Old French, via Latin, from the Greek, meaning “put forth” or “to throw before.” Coming full circle back to Socrates.There's a lot to unpack here, amplified by connections to Zen and Design disciplines. The “matter or situation” of life itself, as a problem, cannot be considered “unwelcome” exactly, though its salient characteristics as defined by Buddha — aging, sickness, and death — may certainly be regarded as harmful or undesirable to the living. In early Buddhism the Hinayana view of self-salvation regarded human existence as a kind of test “needing to be dealt with and overcome,” as do most religions. In Zen, the test is not simply a pass-fail. And we do not imagine a more perfect world to be found after death.Design likewise regards certain aspects of human life as unwelcome and harmful, on both personal and social levels. As an application of artful, semi-scientific problem-solving, the definitions related to physics and mathematics may be more apropos. Design proceeds from “an inquiry starting from given conditions” as in science, but is intended “to… demonstrate a… result,” such as a new product or program, rather than to prove a fact or law.Applied Design usually entails something that “has to be constructed.” In Design, the old must often be demolished to make room for the new and improved. The construction phase in architectural design is often preceded by demolition or “creative destruction.” Likewise in Zen as well. We may justifiably regard zazen practice as a process of actively deconstructing our own mind, to rebuild on a sounder foundation.Buddhism certainly defines the problem of human existence as “relating to people whose behavior causes difficulties to themselves and to others,” as do most religious and philosophical systems. Zen, however, goes beyond the diagnosis of ignorance afflicting people, to the prognosis of meditation — as the most dependable approach to thoroughly defining the central problem. The natural process of contemplation, not overthinking, reveals potential solutions to life's problems, in general and in detail. What we learn directly through observation on the cushion can modify our attitude and approach off the cushion, if we allow it to. This amounts to the purposeful actualization of the bodhisattva vow. We are not likely to be able to help others, if we are not even able to help ourselves.Both Zen and Design encourage us to go beyond conventional definitions of the many problems of life, as well as the pat approaches and existing solutions on offer from others, notably in the “self-help” niche of modern publishing. This “going beyond” was a favorite expression of one of my formative teachers, when a student transcended the parameters of an assigned classroom problem. A most comprehensive example of going beyond is found in Hsinhsinming, Trust in Mind, by Master Sengcan, third patriarch in China. Toward the end he begins to summarize:Emptiness here emptiness there but the infinite universe stands always before your eyesInfinitely large infinitely small no difference because definitions have vanished and no boundaries are seenDefinitions we may hold for such terms as “emptiness” and “infinity” come into question. We must go beyond them. “No boundaries” is an expression that Matsuoka Roshi used to explain the aspirational aspect of my first dharma name, Great Cloud, in Japanese, Taiun. Like a cloud flying in the sky, “no barriers anywhere.” Of course, every time I turn around, I run into another barrier. So, I have something rather concrete to aspire to, if I am to live up to my Zen name. It is a recurring problem.The process of innovation in Design, as well as Zen, typically begins with self-study, evaluating our own personal needs and streamlining our efforts to meet them, before addressing similar problems as general conditions of society. This is broadly true of any process of invention. If we solve our personal problems of satisfying Maslow's hierarchy of physiological needs for food, water, clothing, sleep and shelter, we are in a better position to help others do the same. The airplane oxygen mask syndrome. Same for safety and security. The higher needs of love and belonging, self-esteem and, finally self-actualization, take a little longer, and may require not a little creativity. Maslow may have been a closet Zen master.It should be possible to aspire to satisfying higher needs while lacking the wherewithal on a subsistence level, you may argue. But this is the stuff of saints. It is not reasonable to expect this level of transcendence over circumstance from others, though you may demand it from yourself.The Middle English derivation of “problem” as: “denoting a riddle or a question for academic discussion” sounds a lot like the koan practice of Rinzai Zen. But Rinzai himself would push back against the idea that koan training is designed to foster “academic discussion.” The endpoint of koan study is the same as that of zazen in Soto circles: to penetrate beyond the problem as framed, to the mystery at the core of existence. In other words, redefining the core problem.Putting forth the proposition, or throwing the Great Matter before the assembly in dharma combat, however, is part and parcel of all Zen pedagogy. The question behind the questions put forth in Zen may be reduced to: What is the problem, exactly? And we are back, full circle, to problem definition.Interchanges between masters and students as recorded in the Buddhist lineage often comprise the content of classic koan collections. But rather than functioning as a simple Q&A, where one party knows the answer and the other keeps trying until finally getting it right, these dialogs may more usefully be regarded as collaborative exercises in defining and redefining the fundamental problem in Zen. The student's response to the probe posed by the master redefines the meaning of the exchange, furthering the dialog rather than bringing it to a conclusion. As Matsuoka Roshi would often say, “We teach each other Buddhism.” And what we are trying to grasp is “round and rolling, slippery and slick.” Ungraspable.We might say that the Zen Problem, capital P, and the internal processes leading to its Solution, capital S, are not fundamentally different, whether the approach is Rinzai or Soto. Both are pointing at the same insight, while recognizing that such insight will necessarily be different for each individual. The external methodology is where we find the most obvious differences. Like any subject of education, the end result may be equally accurate and useful, but different schools stress differing methods in getting from here to there. But as Master Tozan says in Hokyo Zammai, Precious Mirror Samadhi:Whether teachings and approaches are mastered or not, reality constantly flowsThis constantly flowing reality is captured in glowing terms by the ancestors of Zen in their poems of enlightenment, which we recite as liturgy. The implication is that the solution to the problem of existence in Zen comes not as an intellectual conclusion or mathematical formula, but as revelatory manifestation, an alteration in consciousness itself. Nothing actually changes, but everything is completely changed.In our next episode we will focus more specifically on the method leading to the solution, the approach Zen prescribes to foster this change in awareness and attitude, and some of the techniques and subroutines that we find helpful. As a pedagogy, zazen has been refined over centuries and redesigned by hundreds of skillful masters in the lineage. We are fortunate to be the heirs of this model of simplicity directed toward defining and solving the most complex problem of all.* * *Elliston Roshi is guiding teacher of the Atlanta Soto Zen Center and abbot of the Silent Thunder Order. He is also a gallery-represented fine artist expressing his Zen through visual poetry, or “music to the eyes.”UnMind is a production of the Atlanta Soto Zen Center in Atlanta, Georgia and the Silent Thunder Order. You can support these teachings by PayPal to donate@STorder.org. Gassho.Producer: Kyōsaku Jon Mitchell

El despertar o iluminación espiritual... es simplemente prender la luz de la Consciencia... El canal del Quinto Paso de Quetzalcóatl en Youtube es el siguiente: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCdTT5rtn32MwxKwp6msOsNw El del resplandor solar, luz ilimitada, mira hacia abajo, y escuchando el clamor y los lamentos del mundo, responde con infinita compasión y sabiduría, dando enseñanza adecuada a los tiempos, para liberar a la humanidad de la ignorancia y el sufrimiento. Entendiendo por ignorancia, el desconocimiento de nuestra esencia divina, y por sufrimiento, el resultado natural de este desconocimiento.

One must have the wisdom and method simultaneously developing. -Lama Yeshe Lama Yeshe gave a series of introductory talks in Los Angeles in 1975. In this excerpt from these talks Lama describes the difference between Hinayana and Mahayana motivation and impresses upon us the importance of developing our wisdom in order to generate bodhicitta without … Continue reading Compassion and Emptiness Together →

A compilation of varied studies in Early Mahayana concepts. I prefer to read the writings on which it is based; like the Perfection of Wisdom of Nagarjuna, and theSkandhas of Vasubandhu. There are passages of Yogacara and other Hinayana ideas as well, depending on the origins and translations.

Who said it was yours?What if they are all liars?Who you gonna call?* * *The Hsinhsinming, the longest of the three Ch'an chants in the Zen liturgy, occupies three pages in the layout of the service manual, while Sandokai fills only one page, and Hokyo Zammai requires two. This gives you a rough idea of the variability of these three ancestors' differing manners of expression, and their relative loquaciousness, in communicating The Great Matter to their contemporaries, over spans of almost exactly one century apiece. One suspects that someone suspected that their audience would also include future generations. Otherwise, why write it down? Although it is hard to imagine that they might have imagined folks like you and me studying them diligently, ensconced in our modern milieu.You may recall that we left off the prior podcast close to halfway through, in my formatting of the poem:If you do not discriminate between coarse and fine you will not be tempted to prejudice and opinion. To live in the Great Way is neither easy nor difficult. But those with limited views are fearful and irresolute; the faster they hurry the slower they go.Setting aside further commentary on discriminating, prejudice and opinion, and the likely progenitor of our contemporary trope, “the hurrier I go, the behinder I get” (shout out to Zen Master Lewis Carroll), note that where the first line assures us that the Great Way is not difficult for those who have no preferences, here the Master is revising that difficult enough idea, with the even less dualistic point that it is neither easy nor difficult. It depends upon whether or not you are fearful and irresolute. Well, punk, are you?Clinging cannot be limited; even to be attached to the idea of enlightenment is to go astray. Just let things be in their own way and there will be neither coming nor going. Obey the nature of things and you will walk freely and undisturbed.We see a lot of mindfulness acolytes these days preaching the gospel of not clinging, “just noticing,” et cetera. We might be forgiven for pointing out that some seem to be clinging to these fixed ideas, like the hapless survivors of the Titanic, clinging to furniture and other debris from the sinking vessel. If the very apostles of non-clinging cannot let go of their own clinging, what hope is there for the rest of us great unwashed? We are all noticing all kinds of things, all the time, for all the good it does.Letting things be in their own way seems absolutely un-American. If there is anything we are good at, it is messing with things, rearranging the deck chairs. Trying to perfect the innately imperfect, shaping the world and everything in it to our niggling, humanocentric ideal of conforming to human need, as the living and breathing, “chosen” representatives of the gods, or God, on earth. The notion that if we can finally relinquish this stubborn idea of ultimate control, we will “walk freely and undisturbed” begs credulity, smacking of the Taoist ideal. But that “there will be neither coming nor going,” as a result? “Coming and going” is usually a generic stand-in for being born and dying. Merely letting go of O-C behavior, means that we will be free of birth and death? This is the old Hinayana ideal, to escape the wheel, slip the surly bonds of earthly existence. For Mahayanists, it seems a moot issue. Who cares?When thought is in bondage the truth is hidden for everything is murky and unclear. The burdensome practice of judging brings annoyance and weariness. What benefit can be derived from distinctions and separations?The unspecified implication is, in bondage to what? One might presume, to any kind of clinging, to ideas as well as the sensory, and other attachments, that bedevil us. The murk, and lack of clarity, is in one sense built in, and therefore not our job to clean up. But allowing thought — and by extension consciousness itself — to be forever mired in it, is definitely our responsibility. Who you gonna call?The bit about judging bringing annoyance and weariness is, ironically, the favorite line of one of our senior teachers. Ironic, that is, in a paean to the relinquishment of all preferences. I insert the verb “making” in the last line — as in making distinctions and separations — which, again, seem built-in. But we tend to make way too much of them.If you wish to move in the One Waydo not dislike even the world of senses and ideas.Indeed to accept them fully is identicalwith true Enlightenment.The wise man strives to no goalsbut the foolish man fetters himself.Aha! So there it is. At long last, is our get-out-of-jail-free card. We do not have to turn our back on the sensory realm, and our cherished ideas, in order to be Zen-cool. The empirical method is saved, hallelujah! Seriously, this means that Zen is not, and never has been, anti-intellectual. It just puts the thinking tool at the disposal of the higher intellect. If we establish any lesser goals, they simply become foolish fetters, inhibiting the process of going after the gold ring. And missing the free ride.There is one Dharma not many; distinctions arise from the clinging needsof the ignorant.To seek Mind with discriminating mindis the greatest of all mistakes. Rest and unrest derive from illusion;with enlightenment there is no liking and disliking.The one Dharma, of course, has to be divided into many, in order to present it in words. Raising a finger or throwing a whisk to the ground may demonstrate it completely, for those who have the eyes to hear and the ears to see. But seeking it with the thinking mind is like a dog circling its tail around the room, looking for the ideal place to plop down. It can continue forever, or at least for as long as there is life in the dog. May as well settle down right here and now. If we cannot rest in our unrest, we are badgered by illusion. In our own enlightened self-interest, we can give a “like” even to our natural state of unrest.All dualities come from ignorant inference.They are like dreams of flowers in air:foolish to try to grasp them.Gain and loss, right and wrong,such thoughts must finally be abolished at once.Inference is a cut above mere interpretation. It implies that we have given this some thought. Which in itself is an interesting proposition. Is thought really something that can be given? Both interpretation and inference, even after much thought, can be based on ignorance. In fact, we cannot possibly know all there is to know about any given set of circumstances, so our mental machinations are always based on a preponderance of ignorance. Tip-of-the-iceberg stuff. Grasping at flowers in air is the stuff of dreams and romance. Foolish, but irresistible, when driven by hormones and other born-of-body-mouth-and-mind influences. There may be nothing to gain, and nothing to lose, but we have the right to be wrong. Abandoning such thoughts is perhaps more practicable than the idea of abolishing them.If the eye never sleeps all dreams will naturally cease. If the mind makes no discriminationsthe ten thousand thingsare, as they are, of single essence.To understand the mystery of this One-essenceis to be released from all entanglements.Even dreams of flowers in air will naturally cease, if only the eye never sleeps. Makes me want to take a nap. Which eye is in question, here? The mind's eye, in making no discriminations, takes in the unity underlying the appearance of the ten thousand things. We see what it means, so to say. Phenomena beget noumenon, and vice-versa. The last line may represent a questionable choice on the part of the translator, as surely the mystery of this “one-essence,” hyphenated, surpasseth all understanding. Being released from all entanglements suggests that it must be very lonely at the top.When all things are seen equally the timeless Self-essence is reached. No comparisons or analogies are possible in this causeless, relationless state. Consider motion in stillness and stillness in motion; both movement and stillness disappear.Does not say that all things are seen as equal. Seeing them equally is in the eye of the beholder, not an assertion of some sort of universal equality. If timelessness is reached, it must occur at this time, and it must have always been present. If so, spacelessness, which is not even a word, must also be reached at the same time. This comprises a sincere attempt to point to the singularity of Zen, that personal spacetime in which all the known laws of reality, all the marks and parameters of conscious awareness, collapse inward of their own mass, so to speak. The center cannot hold. That this has always been so means that it cannot be the effect of a cause, even of “first causes,” such as the Word. Nor is there in it any kind of relationship, such as that of the soul to God. The example of mokurai, “motion in stillness and stillness in motion,” may be the root source of Matsuoka Roshi's liberal use of this term. In the context of emptiness, change, or nonduality, they merge, in a binary dance of mutuality.When such dualities cease to exist Oneness itself cannot exist. To this ultimate finality no law or description applies. For the unified mind in accord with the Way, all self-centered striving ceases.Here, there is no break in the flow of the message. Taking us full circle, Master Sosan makes it clear that he is not merely asserting “oneness” as the ultimate reality. Would it were so simple. No oneness, no twoness. You cannot simply pay your money and take your choice. The ultimate finality is not final, not even determinate. It is in flux. “Seeing into the flux of arising, changing, abiding, and decaying,” as Master Nagarjuna, 14th in India, would have it. This is undefilable, not reducible to ordinary laws or descriptions. But — and it's a big but — somehow this does the trick. “Self-centered striving ceases.”Doubts and irresolutions vanish and life in true faith is possible. With a single stroke we are freed from bondage; nothing clings to us and we hold to nothing. All is empty, clear, self-illuminating, with no exertion of the mind's power.Here the flow is once again uninterrupted, and waxes effusive. As self-centered striving ceases with the ultimate finality of realizing no-self, just so any remaining doubts, and irresolutions. Which is also not a word in English. But we all know what it means. Vacillation. Pussy-footing this way and that, all around the problem, rather than facing it squarely. It turns out it is built into the way the mind works. True faith then becomes possible as the exercise of action, in the face of nagging self-doubt. Liberation in the midst of the bondage, and nothing to grasp, in the clinging. In the absence of exertion of the mind's terrible power to discriminate, all becomes empty, clear, and self-illuminating. No need for task lighting.Here thought feeling knowledge and imagination are of no value. In this world of Suchness, there is neither self nor other-than-self. To come directly into harmony with this reality just simply say when doubt arises “Not two.”“Here” — meaning at the nexus of spacetime, the singularity of the “eternal moment,” as Sensei called it — our usual tricks, trinkets and trash are of no avail. “Sitting without relying on anything,” as Master Dogen puts it, in the spare reductionism of Zazenshin. “Suchness” explained socially: neither self nor other-than-self. Thus no possibility of acting selfishly, or selflessly. But this does not mean “all is one,” in the vapid simplemindedness of New Age thinking. “Not-two” is the most we can say about it, just as zazen is the most we can do about it. Coming into harmony with it is, again, the Tao raising its winking head.In this “not two” nothing is separate, nothing is excluded. No matter when or where, enlightenment means entering this truth. And this truth is beyond extension or diminution in time or space; in it a single thought is ten thousand years.Again no break in the flow, but we must chew this over in digestible bytes, b-y-t-e-s. We like to say there is no difference between us, can't we all just get along? But Zen says we may not be truly separate, but vive la différence! Otherwise, how boring! Zen is all-inclusive in its social embrace, and mostly in its intellectual grasp, through we would beg to differ with certain belief systems afoot in the world. However, an enlightenment worthy of the name will include this inclusiveness. That it is beyond extension or diminution in time or space is another testament to the nobility of the Four Noble Truths. Like the noble gases, they are inert. They do not change with circumstances, causes and conditions, even when approaching the event horizon of your friendly local neighborhood black hole. A single thought encompassing ten thousand years is a bit more difficult to allow. Until you sit through a long retreat. Or consider Buddha's thought of enlightenment. How long did that take? How long did it last?Emptiness here, Emptiness there, but the infinite universe stands always before your eyes. Infinitely large and infinitely small; no difference for definitions have vanished, and no boundaries are seen. So too with Being and non-Being.Yeah, yeah, you can have your emptiness. What about this thing in front of your face? How far out does it go? How far in does it go? “So minute it enters where there is no gap. So vast it transcends dimension.” Oops, wrong poem. Spoiler alert. Down the rabbit hole, do we come out the other side? How big are you? How small? Here, have a bite — b-i-t-e — of this cookie, and find out. Not only no preferences at this remove, not even any differences, because not even any definitions, any more. Nor any boundaries, between the undefined. All made up, notes crumpled up and tossed in the cosmic wastebasket, the dustbin of futile ideas. But even Being and non-Being? Note the capitals. Denotes something big. The existential question, source of much existential angst. For Sosan it is a casual, throwaway line, like a Borsht-belt comic's outdated groaner.Waste no time in doubts and arguments that have nothing to do with this. One thing, all things, move among and intermingle without distinction. To live in this realization is to be without anxiety about nonperfection.Wait a minute — we just learned that we cannot actually waste time, let alone on such trivial concerns. But of course the old man means “meanwhile” (shout out to Master Colbert) — up until, and when, we finally get this. The “this” in question is not only the most important issue in life, it is the issue of life itself. Meanwhile, keep on moving on, disperse while intermingling, nothing to see here, all distractions are equally without distinction in this regard. Living large — livin' la vida loca — begins with jettisoning the very idea of nonperfection, with its excess baggage weighted down with anxiety. Travelin' light.To live in this faith is the road to nonduality, because the nondual is one with the trusting mind.Okay — so as we come to the end, we are stretching less and less to mean more and more, like the drawn out ending of a romcom movie. The characters predictably depart and say their goodbyes in reverse order of their billing and onscreen time — first, the bit players and character actors, and, finally, the romantic leads. The trusting mind is the star of this show. Its romantic partner is nonduality. Together they make a lovely couple, and live happily ever after. Finally, just before rolling the credits, the denouement, the climactic, closing scene, a dramatic, uplifting summation of all that has gone before:Words!The Way is beyond language, for in it there is no yesterday, no tomorrow, no today.The audience applauding, the curtain falling, slowly trudging out of the theater, exchanging smiles, wise and knowing looks, heads nodding in melancholy assent, all are mute, knowing that there are no words to describe, no concepts to capture, the wisdom of the Way. However, in doing so, they may be forgiven for imagining that what they have learned today will survive until tomorrow, and will not be relegated to yesterday. In other words, the tyranny of language has already begun to reassert itself. The popcorn was unusually good, though.* * *Elliston Roshi is guiding teacher of the Atlanta Soto Zen Center and abbot of the Silent Thunder Order. He is also a gallery-represented fine artist expressing his Zen through visual poetry, or “music to the eyes.”UnMind is a production of the Atlanta Soto Zen Center in Atlanta, Georgia and the Silent Thunder Order. You can support these teachings by PayPal to donate@STorder.org. Gassho.Producer: Kyōsaku Jon Mitchell

The strict Hinayana's narrative resources were limited. In this scarcity the artists built on the already established narrative techniques but this time to tell complex stories through art. Listen for more. Written by Ayushi Chaurasia. Image credits: Sahapedia

Queste riflessioni sono relative a come sviluppare il bodhicitta, la mente e il cuore dell'illuminazione, l'apertura che porta al risveglio, all'empatia alla compassione verso tutti gli esseri. Sebbene sia un termine principalmente usato nel buddhismo Mahāyāna, è facile vedere i punti di contatto con i quattro stati incommensurabili dei Brahmavihāra, le Quattro Dimore Divine di gentilezza amorevole (mettā), compassione (karuṇā), gioia compartecipe (muditā) ed equanimità (upekkhā). Le riflessioni sullo sviluppo della mente dell'illuminazione Seguono la Meditazione Satipatthana sulla mente. Durante le riflessioni si fa riferimento a un articolo di Richard Salomon relativo a dei ritrovamenti di testi buddhisti avvenuto nella zona del Gandhāra, un antico regno in quella che è oggi la regione del Pakistan settentrionale e dell'Afghanistan orientale. Tra i testi ritrovati, del primo secolo a.C., molti dei quali equivalenti a quelli del Canone Pāli, sono stati trovati anche dieci testi Mahāyāna, tra cui il Sutra della Perfezione della Saggezza. Salomon ne trae la conclusione che la differenza tra le due grandi tradizioni, quella Theravāda e quella Mahāyāna non sia sempre stata così forte: Si rimane con l'impressione che il buddhismo Mahayana nei primi secoli dell'era comune non era istituzionalmente, e forse neppure dottrinalmente, distinto da quello che successivamente si è denominato "Hinayana" o "Piccolo Veicolo". Tutte le indicazioni sembrano andare nella direzione che le pratiche più tradizionali o conservatrici coesistevano con le idee mahayana, anche all'interno delle stesse comunità monastiche.How the Gandharan Manuscripts Change Buddhist History, Richard SalomonI Questo è di grande beneficio, per trovare e rimarcare una volta di più che praticare il bodhicitta o praticare le Quattro Dimore Divine non sia null'altro che praticare quelli che sono gli insegnamenti fondamentali del Buddha, di avere una buona condotta morale e purificare il cuore e la mente! Referenze L'immagine del Buddha seduto è del primo secolo nella zona del Gandhāra e proviene dagli archivi del Metropolitan Museum of Art . Questo piccolo Buddha di bronzo è probabilmente una delle prime rappresentazioni iconiche di Shakyamuni di Gandhara. Si siede in una postura yogica tenendo la mano destra in Abhaya Mudra (un gesto di accessibilità); il suo alone insolito ha dentellature che indicano luce irradiante. La sua acconciatura, la forma delle sue vesti e il trattamento della figura riflettono i contatti stilistici con le tradizioni classiche dell'Occidente. Questo Buddha mostra affinità più strette con la scultura romana di qualsiasi altro bronzo gandharano sopravvissuto. Immagine di copertina di Photo by Jeff Ackley Riflessioni sullo sviluppo della mente dell'illuminazione registrate nel gruppo di meditazione di Terrapura il 30 luglio 2021.

How to understand the relative merit or effective practice of Buddhism when surveying the entire canon of Teachings.

What is instruction?Who can tell you what to do?The Thus-Come One can!* * *In this section of the Surangama, “Instructions for Practice,” we will have to skim over the highlights, as the scope and detail that Shakyamuni goes into is overwhelming. It begins with Ananda confessing his lack of practice, his habit of listening without applying what he hears. This smacks of Dogen's Vow:We vow with all beings from this life on throughout countless lives to hear the true DharmaWith the caveat that:Although our past harmful karma has greatly accumulatedIndeed being the causes and conditions of obstacles in practicing the WayIn other words, we are already fighting an uphill battle, but not a hopeless one. Later in the poem:By revealing and disclosing our lack of faith and practice before the BuddhaWe melt away the root of transgression by the power of our repentanceThe youthful Ananda is assailed by hormones, which are inborn. On top of that, Buddha sets a first principle, renouncing the Lesser Vehicle, Hinayana, practicing in accord with the Bodhisattva way, is the path to “bodiless Nirvana.” It requires that we overcome our “age-old habit of dependence on the objects of the senses,” in a pre-scientific world in which things were seen as permanent and substantial.He goes on to frame the higher vehicle as not relying on the mind that “comes into being and ceases,” declaring that if we do so, we will not be able to “ride the Buddha's Vehicle to where there is nothing that comes into being or ceases to be.” We should shine the light of our understanding — of emptiness, or impermanence — directly on the material world: “Since all phenomena are subject to change and decay, how could any of them serve as a basis for the practice of Dharma?” This idea was not as obvious to the intuitive empirical method of sensory awareness as it is now, with modern science.So several ideas are emerging here that deserve, or demand, comment. The lesser vehicle of self-salvation is to be renounced in favor of saving all others first, the Bodhisattva Vow. That this leads to a “body-less” state of being, seems to imply the existence of a separate spirit, i.e. a “soul.” But this is decidedly denied, in the teaching of no-self, no-soul. This is Dogen's dropping off of body and mind.Buddha then launches into what he terms the Five Layers of Turbidity:In your own body, what appears as solid is composed of the primary element earth…moist/water… warmth/fire… movement/wind. Because… primary elements… [are] bound together, your pure, perfect, wondrous enlightened mind that understands is divided into the functions of seeing, listening, touching, and cognition. Turbidity, in five layers, comes about as a result.So it is important to note that Buddha is not merely talking about the world around us, but the world within, as well. The import of the teaching is, after all, what it means to our own life and understanding. He goes on, as is his wont, using familiar analogies to illuminate the strangeness of our reality:What is turbidity? Suppose that someone were to pick up some soil and throw it into clear water. The soil now loses its solidity, and the water loses its purity. Together they appear clouded or, we may say, turbid. The five layers of turbidity occur in the same way.But then he makes an exception for the fifth element, space, as a phenomenon that does not decay:You have never heard of space being broken into parts. Why? Space has no shape or form. Therefore, it can neither be divided nor put together again.As you look into space throughout all ten directions… no separation can be made between space and your visual awareness of it. If only space existed… there would be nothing to be aware of it. If only awareness existed… there would not be anything for it to be aware of… space and visual awareness become entangled… With… entanglement, based on delusion, the turbidity of time comes into being. This is the first layer of turbidity.What do I mean… by ‘beings and the world of time and space'? ‘Time' denotes flux and change; ‘space' denotes location and direction… the directions are north, south, east, west, northeast, southeast, northwest, southwest, above, and below, while time is divided into past, present, and future. Thus locations are tenfold and the flow of time is threefold, making ten directions and three periods of time. Because beings are entangled in illusion, they constantly move about in time and space, which become interconnected.This may be the first instance in recorded history of the interconnectedness of space and time — i.e. spacetime — hello, Einstein! Master Dogen's fascicle, Uji, “Being-” or “Existence-Time,” said to have anticipated the theory of relativity, makes the same point with regard to time itself. It has no meaning, or existence, outside of sentient being.That time is regarded as a “turbidity” is astounding. It recalls a statement by D. T. Suzuki, in his early introductions of Zen to the West, that measured time was a wonderful invention, making possible the systemization of agriculture, the industrial revolution, and all that followed. But at the same time, it became a spiritual tragedy, as people took it to be the way time is. The very fact that you are listening to this podcast, in the time available to you, demonstrates how measured time has come to dominate our daily lives. But as Hsinhsinming reminds us, “Words! The Way is beyond language for in it there is no yesterday, no tomorrow, no today.” In other words, no time. A closing comment on space:Although space can be defined as extending in ten directions and can be clearly understood as such, people in general only take account of north, south, east, and west. They do not consider above and below to be specific directions, and they see the four intermediate directions as merely relative to the others, while the four cardinal points are understood to be fixed. Therefore, we can say that space is fourfold and time threefold, and that the three times and four directions multiplied together make a total of twelve.This reflexive enumeration of all things was, I suppose, a way of lending a veneer of science to the phenomena being discussed, as well as a mnemonic, a way of remembering the extensive teachings.Buddha then goes into the other four layers. The second, perception, results from the faculties of awareness' entanglement with the four elements. The third, afflictions, from entanglement of six consciousnesses with their perceived objects. The fourth, that of individual beings, arises from entanglement of thoughts and karma. Even though “beings ceaselessly come into being and perish” they “always desire to continue to experience the world indefinitely through their faculties of perception” and their “karma leads them to continually move from one land to another.” He proceeds through relentless logic to the fifth and final layer of turbidity, closing this dissertation with a passage remarkable for its clarity and comprehensive summing up of the conditions of existence:The fundamental natures of your seeing, your hearing, and your other awarenesses do not differ from one another, but the six objects of perception separate them so that your awareness is forced to become differentiated. Although the six sense-consciousnesses share a single fundamental awareness, their functioning has become distinct. The consciousnesses and their objects are no longer in their correct relationship. They become entangled with each other, and with this entanglement, based on delusion, there is the fifth layer, the turbidity of lifespans.This brief paragraph also summarizes for us the direction that our meditation must take, in reversing this “turbid” nature of our consciousness. In zazen, we must return to the undifferentiated original nature of awareness, the unity of the six senses, and their correct relationship to their objects. In doing so, we can at least realize the meaning and purpose of this present lifetime, whether or not it relieves us of future lifespans. Buddha sums up this trans-sensory challenge in no uncertain terms:Ānanda, now you wish to transform your visual, aural, tactile, and mental awareness, together with the other kinds of awareness, into the permanence, bliss, true self, and purity of the Thus-Come One… The original enlightened understanding, which neither comes into being nor ceases to be, must be the basis of your practice.This neither coming into being nor ceasing to be, sometimes called the “unborn mind” or “uncreate,” is a most difficult principle to apply to one's own consciousness. But Buddha insists it is a major point. Then he frames one of his more famous analogies for stage-one meditation — stilling the mind — viewed as a precursor to stage-two — direct insight — referring back to the analogy of turbidity:The process may be compared to the settling of turbid water. If you keep it undisturbed in a container so that it is completely still and quiet, the sand and silt in it will settle naturally, and the water will become clear. This may be compared to the initial stage of subduing the afflictions that arise from transitory perceptions of objects.If you cannot leave it alone, but insist on picking it up and shaking it, the water will never become clear. This is the activity we call “monkey-mind,” the obsessive-compulsive behavior of the chattering, inner dialog, with its outflows into impulsive actions. Buddha then returns to the sense faculties, “Choosing One Faculty in Order to Liberate All Six”:The second principle is… you must courageously dedicate yourself to practice in accord with the Bodhisattva Vehicle… let go of everything that has conditioned attributes… examine the source of your afflictions… which… have created your karma and nurtured its growth.Buddha illustrates the source of our afflictions — which we usually blame on others or outside forces — with two striking exaples, “The Example of the Bell's Sound” and “The Analogy of the Six Knots.” He rings his bell, asking Ananda if he hears. Ananda does hear. After a while he asks Ananda again if he hears. Ananda says he does not. Buddha chastises him, asking how can he hold to such contradictory views? Hearing is independent of the object of hearing, the sound of the bell. Then he goes on:Ānanda, consider some worldly person who wishes to untie a knot. If he cannot see the knot, how will he know how to untie it?Of course, we can untie a knot in the dark, so Buddha must mean the kind of knot that we are not even aware of, as when we are all “tide up in knots.” Suddenly Buddha launches into poetry, restating the principles covered thus far.A knot must be untied according to a certain sequence,And when the six have been untied, the one will vanish too.Choose one perceiving faculty and realize your breakthrough.Enter the current. Realize the true enlightenment.This impulse to recap in a spontaneous outburst of poetry must have been a common talent in public speaking in those days, as we find it in many written records of the Indian transmission, and over a millennium later, in the Platform Sutra of Huineng, sixth ancestor in China.Through an exhaustive analysis of the limitations of each of the six senses, Buddha demonstrates the relative degrees of efficacy of each of the faculties of perception, he gives each a value: The eye-faculty 800, owing to its ability to see clearly in only one of the three directions; the ear-faculty 1200, owing to its ability “to hear in all ten directions without exception”; the nose-faculty 800, owing to not functioning between breaths; the tongue-faculty 1200, for its ability to proclaim wisely both worldly and world-transcending wisdom, as languages differ, but meaning knows no boundaries; the body-faculty 800, as it has two-fold awareness upon contact and lacks awareness once there is separation, which is singular. Finally the mind, or cognitive faculty, scores 1200 for its ability to silently include within its scope all worldly and world-transcending phenomena in all ten directions and all three periods of time… it knows no boundary.Whatever we may think of the logic of his argument, Buddha is engaging in a kind of reductio ad absurdum of our ordinary, unexamined appreciation of the senses. But he is not done yet. Using a precious scarf as a visual aid, Buddha ties six successive knots in it, continuing the dialog with Ananda:B. You are right. The six knots are not identical. Let us examine how they were made. They were all created out of the one scarf; still, it would not do to confuse their order. The same may be said of the six faculties of perception. Within what is ultimately one, differentiation eventually arises. Suppose you were displeased by the six knots in your scarf and would prefer it to be a single length of cloth. How would you go about untying the knots?Ā. As long as these knots are in the scarf, there will naturally be disagreement about which one of them is which. But if the Thus-Come One were now to untie them all and no further knots were tied, then there would be no question as to which was which, since there would be no first knot left, much less a sixth.B. When the six are untied, the one will vanish is the same idea.After assuring Ananda and the others that untying the knots will relieve the stresses of existence, Buddha demonstrates the method of untying, tugging on the scarf from one end, then the other. Ananda agrees that this is not the way to untie it, but you must pull on the scarf “from within each knot…then they will come undone.” This theme comprises the subject and title of one of Matsuoka Roshi's collected talks, “Unravelling Enlightenment.” Buddha follows with the next logical consequence:Therefore, Ānanda, carefully choose one faculty of perception from among the six. If you untie the knot of that faculty, its objects will disappear by themselves. All delusion will melt away. How can what remains not be what is real?And asks “…I now ask you: can we untie the six knots in this cotton scarf all at the same time?”No, World-Honored One. These knots were tied in sequence in the first place, so now they must be untied in sequence.The Buddha said, “The same may be said of freeing the knots of the six faculties. In the first stage of freeing a faculty, one understands that the self is empty. Once that emptiness is fully understood, one can become free of attachment to phenomena. Once one is free from attachment to phenomena, then both self and phenomena have been emptied and will no longer arise. This is the patience that the Bodhisattva develops by means of samādhi — the patience with the state in which no mental objects come into being.”I have long thought that what we are practicing in meditation is, primarily patience. Patience with the self, patience with the monkey mind, patience with our own impatience. When one enters into the state in which no mental objects come into being, who would've thought that it would test one's patience? It seems that having no objects in mind would not require any patience.Buddha closes this section asking “Twenty-Five Sages” to testify to their enlightenment, questioning which sense faculty initially unraveled for them? Several mention hearing, as in Avalokiteshvara, “The Bodhisattva Who Hears the Cries of the World,” the title of one of the last teachings in this section.Please listen up, gaze fixedly, and feel deeply, next time you are sitting in meditation. In other words, do thou likewise. Once one of the six knots unravels, the others cannot be far behind. Open up to what Master Dogen referred to as the “fine” or “subtle” mind of Nirvana.Next segment, we will examine some of Buddha's official warnings against misinterpreting the meaning of your experience at the far reaches of meditation.* * *Elliston Roshi is guiding teacher of the Atlanta Soto Zen Center and abbot of the Silent Thunder Order. He is also a gallery-represented fine artist expressing his Zen through visual poetry, or “music to the eyes.”UnMind is a production of the Atlanta Soto Zen Center in Atlanta, Georgia and the Silent Thunder Order. You can support these teachings by PayPal to donate@STorder.org. Gassho.Producer: Kyōsaku Jon Mitchell

For more episodes, guided meditations and videos, visit me at patreon.com/yogawithnishIn this lecture, we explore the dizzying heights of Buddhist philosophy and practice, tracking the development of ideas starting with the profound insights of one of India's greatest teachers, the Shakyamuni Buddha 2600 years ago all the way to their development into the Tantrik forms of Vajrayana/Mahayana/Dzogchen as well as their more austere forms, Hinayana and Zen.  To celebrate Buddha Purnima, we explore the story of a young prince, living a life of luxury, sheltered away from the realities of life. Eventually the young prince feels the superficiality of pleasure, as we do in the quiet lull of the party. He leaves his pleasure garden and encounters old age, sickness and death, realities we pretend will not happen to us. This inspires him to take up a genuine spiritual inquiry culminating in the most profound insights of Indian philosophy. You see, the story of the Buddha is the story of us. It is the story of our own Buddha-nature and our journey of relaxing into what is already here now for us.May you have a blessed Buddha Purnima, Sagittarius full moon and Lunar eclipse!May you be a lamp unto yourself.May you awaken to your Buddha-nature daily!

Dieses Dharmastudium hat ursprünglich am 9. März 2021 stattgefunden. Ein paar wichtige Hintergrundinfos über Avalokiteshvara und Shariputra, Hinayana und Mahayana, Arhat und Bodhisattva-Ideal. Support this podcast

In this episode, I am once again joined by Dhammarato – a lineage teacher in the Thai Buddhist tradition who is known for his unique, 1-1 teaching style conducted over Skype.  This interview was recorded in the lead up to a dialogue I will be hosting between Dhammarato and Daniel Ingram on the question ‘Is there magic in the dharma?’. In this episode, Dhammarato explores the Mahātanhāsankhaya Sutta, and draws out themes of magical thinking, continuation of consciousness, and dependent origination. Later Dhammarato gives his take on the Buddhist doctrines of rebirth and making merit, the Mahasi meditation method, the tulku system, and the Dalai Lama’s claims of reincarnation. We also discuss if the 8-fold path inevitably leads to individual renunciation and societal collapse, and what it means to ‘leave the fight’. … Video version at: https://www.guruviking.com/ep82-dhammarato-magical-thinking-in-buddhism/ Audio version of this podcast also available on iTunes and Spotify – search ‘Guru Viking Podcast’. ... 0:00 - Intro 0:54 - Dhammarato gives a summary of magical thinking and the Mahātanhāsankhaya Sutta 20:08 - The two levels of Dhammarato’s analysis 21:16 - How is it possible to read magical thinking into a sutta that refutes magical thinking? 25:51 - Placebo, causation, and useful ignorance 29:39 - Relationship of understanding of cause and effect to suffering 33:42 - Craving, perception, and the 4 Modes of Clinging 50:10 - Repetition and understanding how the mind works 53:46 - How to see through the Self 57:08 - Critique of the Mahasi Method and Thai vs Burmese meditation 1:00:44 - Who or what realises the No-Self? 1:05:58 - Reincarnation is irrelevent 1:07:21 - The problem with the doctrine of reincarnation 1:10:30 - Is the doctrine of making merit magical thinking? 1:19:36 - Uppaya and useful ignorance 1:20:21 - Society is built on magical thinking 1:23:01 - Renunciation is the inevitable outcome of the 8-fold noble path 1:25:57 - Is the Hinayana self-terminating? 1:26:38 - A historical example of Buddhism destroying a society 1:28:22 - Is Buddhism inviable on a societal level? 1:35:32 - The tension between individual liberation and societal collapse 1:36:43 - Dhammarato reflects on the Dalai Lama’s reincarnation claims 1:38:23 - Is the tulku system a scam? 1:41:45 - Magical beliefs prevent progress 1:45:23 - Ideal society: Benign dictatorship vs democracy 1:47:41 - Leaving the fight 1:49:41 - Dhammarato’s radical position of renunciation in the face of death 
 … 
Previous Episodes with Dhammarato: - https://www.guruviking.com/ep20-dhammarato/ - https://www.guruviking.com/ep29-dhammarato-guru-viking-podcast-pandemic-edition/ To find out more about Dhammarato, visit: - https://dhammaratoblog.wordpress.com/ - https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCjxg5GJFsRqnS-YLTzyrjLQ 
For more interviews, videos, and more visit: - www.guruviking.com Music ‘Deva Dasi’ by Steve James

(Chinese) During the time of Sakyamuni Buddha, there was a couple named Jin Tian and Jin Guangming who had followed the Buddha to become monk and nun and attained arahantship. They went through 91 life times even though they had met disciples of a living Buddha, only because they had one wrong conception in their previous life. Supreme Master Ching Hai reminds us with this story that we’d better not teach others about Hinayana to make them attached to worldly blessings; if we want to give people advice, we ...

ADZG 840 ADZG Monday Night Dharma Talk by Rev. Nyozan Eric Shutt

A conversation about coping with 2020, the soundtrack of their youths, their first shows, turning a project into a band, the evolution of the band, signing with Napalm Records, a dream tour, a Hinayana Brew & their hangover cure. Throughout this interview Casey was drinking New Belgium Brewing Co.'s "Voodoo Ranger Imperial IPA". This malty, bitter & hop forward brew clocked in at a wicked 9% ABV. Daniel was drinking a Lone Star Beer Mexican Style Lager. It was smooth, inoffensive & clean. It clocked in with a 4.65% ABV. & Matt was drinking Trailway Brewing Co.'s "Dunder". This hazy pale ale was hopped exclusively with Aussie hops. It was juicy, creamy & slightly tangy. It clocked in with a 4.8% ABV. Hinayana: https://www.facebook.com/hinayanamusic New Belgium Brewing Co.: https://www.newbelgium.com/ Lone Star Beer https://lonestarbeer.com/ Trailway Brewing Co.: http://www.trailwaybrewing.com/ Sound Talent Media: www.SoundTalentMedia.com Support the Vox&Hops Podcast: https://voxandhops.bigcartel.com/

This week new tracks from Crystal Lake, Possession, Lightship 57, Enquire Within, and Ozric Tentacles Crystal Lake – Watch Me Burn 0:00 Hinayana – Cold Conception 5:13 Soul Grinder – Flesh Defiler 10:15 Possession – Have No Fear Mad Crazed & Violent 17:00 Lightship 57 – Dark (Snakes & Rats) 22:12 Magg Dylan – You … Continue reading "Burn Currant"

In this edition of AFTERSHOCKS, we sit down with melodic deathcore band Hinayana vocalist and guitarist Casey Hurd. Hurd checked in to talk about the latest from the band, DEATH OF THE COSMIC, the merging of death metal and progressive metal, being from the United States but marketing for Europe, the pandemic and much more. A very spirited conversation. Website: https://www.aftershockspodcast.com Podcast Link: https://anchor.fm/aftershockspod1 Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/aftershocks-podcast/id1510634520 Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/1An7v0PYI2xPBjtvwEBvYm Google Podcasts: https://www.google.com/podcasts?feed=aHR0cHM6Ly9hbmNob3IuZm0vcy8xZTYxNzZkYy9wb2RjYXN0L3Jzcw== YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC-d40UR-th1Mk17xa3uS0Kw Overcast: https://overcast.fm/itunes1510634520/aftershocks-podcast Pocket Casts: https://pca.st/ylhcq412 Cast Box: https://castbox.fm/channel/Aftershocks-Podcast-id2827964 Radio Public: https://radiopublic.com/aftershocks-podcast-GMzyO1 Breaker: https://www.breaker.audio/aftershocks-podcast RSS: https://anchor.fm/s/1e6176dc/podcast/rss Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/aftershockspod1 Twitter: https://www.twitter.com/aftershockspod1 Instagram: https://www.twitter.com/aftershockspod1 --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/cmspn/message Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/cmspn/support

In this edition of AFTERSHOCKS, we sit down with melodic deathcore band Hinayana vocalist and guitarist Casey Hurd. Hurd checked in to talk about the latest from the band, DEATH OF THE COSMIC, the merging of death metal and progressive metal, being from the United States but marketing for Europe, the pandemic and much more. A very spirited conversation. Website: https://www.aftershockspodcast.com Podcast Link: https://anchor.fm/aftershockspod1 Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/aftershocks-podcast/id1510634520 Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/1An7v0PYI2xPBjtvwEBvYm Google Podcasts: https://www.google.com/podcasts?feed=aHR0cHM6Ly9hbmNob3IuZm0vcy8xZTYxNzZkYy9wb2RjYXN0L3Jzcw== YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC-d40UR-th1Mk17xa3uS0Kw Overcast: https://overcast.fm/itunes1510634520/aftershocks-podcast Pocket Casts: https://pca.st/ylhcq412 Cast Box: https://castbox.fm/channel/Aftershocks-Podcast-id2827964 Radio Public: https://radiopublic.com/aftershocks-podcast-GMzyO1 Breaker: https://www.breaker.audio/aftershocks-podcast RSS: https://anchor.fm/s/1e6176dc/podcast/rss Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/aftershockspod1 Twitter: https://www.twitter.com/aftershockspod1 Instagram: https://www.twitter.com/aftershockspod1 --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/cmspn/message Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/cmspn/support

In this edition of AFTERSHOCKS, we sit down with melodic deathcore band Hinayana vocalist and guitarist Casey Hurd. Hurd checked in to talk about the latest from the band, DEATH OF THE COSMIC, the merging of death metal and progressive metal, being from the United States but marketing for Europe, the pandemic and much more. A very spirited conversation. Website: https://www.aftershockspodcast.com Podcast Link: https://anchor.fm/aftershockspod1 Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/aftershocks-podcast/id1510634520 Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/1An7v0PYI2xPBjtvwEBvYm Google Podcasts: https://www.google.com/podcasts?feed=aHR0cHM6Ly9hbmNob3IuZm0vcy8xZTYxNzZkYy9wb2RjYXN0L3Jzcw== YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC-d40UR-th1Mk17xa3uS0Kw Overcast: https://overcast.fm/itunes1510634520/aftershocks-podcast Pocket Casts: https://pca.st/ylhcq412 Cast Box: https://castbox.fm/channel/Aftershocks-Podcast-id2827964 Radio Public: https://radiopublic.com/aftershocks-podcast-GMzyO1 Breaker: https://www.breaker.audio/aftershocks-podcast RSS: https://anchor.fm/s/1e6176dc/podcast/rss Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/aftershockspod1 Twitter: https://www.twitter.com/aftershockspod1 Instagram: https://www.twitter.com/aftershockspod1

Pipeman Interviews Quinn DeVeauxPipeman's Power of Music is a segment of The Adventures of Pipeman Radio Show (#pipemanradio) broadcast live on W4CY Radio (www.w4cy.com), W4VET Radio, and K4HD Radio - Hollywood Talk Radio (www.k4hd.com) part of Talk 4 Radio (www.talk4radio.com) on the Talk 4 Media Network (www.talk4media.com). This podcast is also available on Talk 4 Podcasting (www.talk4podcasting.com).

Pipeman Interviews HinayanaPipeman in the Pit is a segment of The Adventures of Pipeman Radio Show (#pipemanradio) broadcast live on W4CY Radio (www.w4cy.com), W4VET Radio, and K4HD Radio - Hollywood Talk Radio (www.k4hd.com) part of Talk 4 Radio (www.talk4radio.com) on the Talk 4 Media Network (www.talk4media.com). This podcast is also available on Talk 4 Podcasting (www.talk4podcasting.com).

Pipeman Interviews HinayanaThe Adventures of Pipeman Radio Show is broadcast live every day 10am ET- Noon ET on W4CY Radio (www.w4cy.com), W4VET Radio, and K4HD Radio (www.k4hd.com) part of Talk 4 Radio (www.talk4radio.com) on the Talk 4 Media Network (www.talk4media.com). This podcast is also available on Talk 4 Podcasting (www.talk4podcasting.com).

BODS Mayhem Hour welcomes Casey Hurd vocalist of Hinayana. I talk to Casey about the release of Hinayana's new EP Death Of The Cosmic via Napalm Records and working with vocalists Nature Ganganbaigal & Toni Toivonen plus much more !!!!!   #Hinayana #BODSMayhemHour Learn More About #Hinayana at  Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/hinayanamusic/  Site: https://hinayana.bandcamp.com/  Twitter:  Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/hinayanaband/ ________________________________ If you're new, Please Subscribe!: BODS Mayhem Hour YouTube Channel  https://www.youtube.com/c/BODSMayhemHour247  Follow BODS Mayhem Hour: Website: http://bodsmayhemhour.com  Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/BODSMayhemHour/  YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/c/BODSMayhemHour247  Twitter: https://twitter.com/Bod24  Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/bods.mayhem.hour  Twitch: https://www.twitch.tv/bodman247  Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/5dpB4oBaxifyzIj4bF6gSP  Apple Podcast: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/bods-mayhem-hour/id1495876975  Podbean Podcast Site: https://bodsmayhemhour.podbean.com/  Iheart Radio Podcast: https://www.iheart.com/podcast/269-bods-mayhem-hour-56955566/    ( Intro & Outro Music By Downtrend )     Photo Credit FRED L TAULBEE JR 

~C A C O P H O N Y~ Christchurch's very own HEAVY METAL radio show on... RDU98.5FM Tuesday's 10pm-12pm Radio Addington 107.5FM, Friday & Monday at 10pm. Listen or Download CACOPHONY at www.cacophonynz.podomatic.com We're on Facebook! [Who isn't?] www.facebook.com/cacophonynz www.metalradio.co.nz to hear the best Metal Radio NZ has to offer... This week the Lost Messiah features Lamb of God's new self titled album and Turkeys Desecrate and thier new album Kingdom. Loads of Metalcore and Death Metal from Abramelin, Exhumed, Aversions Crown, Hinayana, Living Gate, Our Mirage & Irist. NZ Metal too, plus the CACOPHONY Gig Guide and some dull voice breaks from yours truly. Lamb Of God [USA] [Metalcore] - Lamb Of God [2020] www.lamb-of-god.com www.myspace.com/lambofgod www.facebook.com/lambofgod www.nuclearblast.de/en Colossal Hate Playlist Irist - Order Of The Mind Antagonist A.D. [NZ] - Violence Deadthrone - Feel The Rising Tide [NZ] - Nightmare * Lamb Of God - Gears * Lamb Of God - Poison Dream * Lamb Of God - Bloodshot Eyes * Lamb Of God - New Colossal Hate Seas Of Conflict [NZ] - Eventide Aviana - Altitude Sickness Mutangent [NZ] - Taking You With Me Our Mirage - Distant & Obscure Jinjer - Judgement & Punishment Bor'Tas [NZ] - Humanities Cost Desecrate [Turkey] [Death] - Kingdom [2020] www.desecrateofficial.com www.desecrateofficial.bandcamp.com www.myspace.com/desecratetur www.facebook.com/desecratetur www.napalmrecords.com Desecrate Playlist Living Gate - Deathlust Malevolence [NZ] - One God Further & Flies Around Shit [Request] * Desecrate - Narcissus * Desecrate - Chaos * Desecrate - Warchant * Desecrate - Cold Of Death Decimated King [NZ] - Disease Hinayana - Cold Conception Aversions Crown - Hell Will Come For Us All Blacktooth [NZ] - Severed Ties Bowel Rupture [NZ] - Black Line Exhumed - Rot Your Brain Abramelin - Never Enough Stuff Crypt Incursion [NZ] - Voices Beyond [Belial Cover] GIGS - send your Gig Listing to gigs(at)cacophony.co.nz Sat 8th Aug @ CLUB TAVERN [Christchurch] - Mixed Metal Madness feat. Place Of Skulls, Revile, Mount Unzen, Temperamental, Meat Hub & Stepped Out. 8pm R18 $10 Door Sat 15th Aug @ CLUB TAVERN [Christchurch] - Blindfolded And Led To The Woods 10th Anniversary Tour feat. Organectomy, Tuscoma, Vixen Execution, Order Of Diptera & Unyielding Desolation. 6pm $15 - after 9pm $20. R18 Sat 15th Aug @ WHAMMY [Auckland] - Sat 22nd Aug @ ISAAC THEATRE [Christchurch] - Beastwars Winter Tour feat. Enfire & Snailrider. Sat 29th Aug @ SAN FRAN [Wellington] - www.utr.co.nz Thur 27th Aug @ CLUB TAVERN [Christchurch] - Bulletbelt Warlords Tour Fri 28th Aug @ THE FACTORY [Timaru] - Sat 29th Aug @ THE CROWN HOTEL [Dunedin] - www.utr.co.nz Sat 12th Sep @ DARKROOM [Christchurch] - Dark Divinity [Wellington] Messianic Tour feat. Plague Of the Fallen & Stepped Out. 8pm R18 $15 www.utr.co.nz Tue 22nd Sep @ POWERSTATION [Auckland] - Machine Head [USA] Burn My Eyes 25th Anniversary Tour. 8pm R18 www.utr.co.nz Tue 10th Nov @ VALHALLA [Wellington] - Stoned Jesus [Doom, Ukraine] and Somali Yacht Club Wed 11th Nov @ WHAMMY [Auckland] - www.utr.co.nz Sat 14th Nov @ ISAAC THEATRE [Christchurch] - Violent Femmes [Punk, USA] Mon 16th Nov @ OPERA HOUSE [Wellington] - Tue 17th Nov @ LOGAN CAMPBELL CENTRE [Auckland] - www.ticketek.co.nz Mon 16th Nov @ STUDIO [Auckland] - Helmet [Alt Metal, USA] - 30th Anniversary Tour Tue 17th Nov @ MEOW [Wellington] - Thur 19th Nov @ CASSELS BLUE SMOKE [Christchurch] - www.utr.co.nz Sun 14th Feb 2021 @ POWERSATION [Auckland] - Steel Panther [Rock/Metal, USA] - Heavy Metal Rules Tour www.mjrpresents.com Mon 22nd Feb 2021 @ HORNCASTLE ARENA [Christchurch] - Faith No More [USA] with RVG [Oz] Wed 24th Feb 2020 @ SPARK ARENA [Auckland] - www.frontiertouring.com/faithnomore Fri 4th Jun 2021 @ SAN FRAN [Wellington] - Chelsea Wolfe [Gothic Doom, USA] Birth Of Violence Tour Sat 5th Jun 2021 @ GALATOS [Auckland] - www.utr.co.nz *Contact CACOPHONY* www.cacophony.co.nz www.cacophonynz.podomatic.com www.facebook.com/cacophonynz www.twitter.com/cacophonyradio eMail requests2020(at)cacophony.co.nz sMail CACOPHONY, POBox33044, Barrington, Christchurch 8244, New Zealand.

~C A C O P H O N Y~ Christchurch's very own HEAVY METAL radio show on... RDU98.5FM Tuesday's 10pm-12pm Radio Addington 107.5FM, Friday & Monday at 10pm. Listen or Download CACOPHONY at www.cacophonynz.podomatic.com We're on Facebook! [Who isn't?] www.facebook.com/cacophonynz www.metalradio.co.nz to hear the best Metal Radio NZ has to offer... This week the Lost Messiah features Lamb of God's new self titled album and Turkeys Desecrate and thier new album Kingdom. Loads of Metalcore and Death Metal from Abramelin, Exhumed, Aversions Crown, Hinayana, Living Gate, Our Mirage & Irist. NZ Metal too, plus the CACOPHONY Gig Guide and some dull voice breaks from yours truly. Lamb Of God [USA] [Metalcore] - Lamb Of God [2020] www.lamb-of-god.com www.myspace.com/lambofgod www.facebook.com/lambofgod www.nuclearblast.de/en Colossal Hate Playlist Irist - Order Of The Mind Antagonist A.D. [NZ] - Violence Deadthrone - Feel The Rising Tide [NZ] - Nightmare * Lamb Of God - Gears * Lamb Of God - Poison Dream * Lamb Of God - Bloodshot Eyes * Lamb Of God - New Colossal Hate Seas Of Conflict [NZ] - Eventide Aviana - Altitude Sickness Mutangent [NZ] - Taking You With Me Our Mirage - Distant & Obscure Jinjer - Judgement & Punishment Bor'Tas [NZ] - Humanities Cost Desecrate [Turkey] [Death] - Kingdom [2020] www.desecrateofficial.com www.desecrateofficial.bandcamp.com www.myspace.com/desecratetur www.facebook.com/desecratetur www.napalmrecords.com Desecrate Playlist Living Gate - Deathlust Malevolence [NZ] - One God Further & Flies Around Shit [Request] * Desecrate - Narcissus * Desecrate - Chaos * Desecrate - Warchant * Desecrate - Cold Of Death Decimated King [NZ] - Disease Hinayana - Cold Conception Aversions Crown - Hell Will Come For Us All Blacktooth [NZ] - Severed Ties Bowel Rupture [NZ] - Black Line Exhumed - Rot Your Brain Abramelin - Never Enough Stuff Crypt Incursion [NZ] - Voices Beyond [Belial Cover] GIGS - send your Gig Listing to gigs(at)cacophony.co.nz Sat 8th Aug @ CLUB TAVERN [Christchurch] - Mixed Metal Madness feat. Place Of Skulls, Revile, Mount Unzen, Temperamental, Meat Hub & Stepped Out. 8pm R18 $10 Door Sat 15th Aug @ CLUB TAVERN [Christchurch] - Blindfolded And Led To The Woods 10th Anniversary Tour feat. Organectomy, Tuscoma, Vixen Execution, Order Of Diptera & Unyielding Desolation. 6pm $15 - after 9pm $20. R18 Sat 15th Aug @ WHAMMY [Auckland] - Sat 22nd Aug @ ISAAC THEATRE [Christchurch] - Beastwars Winter Tour feat. Enfire & Snailrider. Sat 29th Aug @ SAN FRAN [Wellington] - www.utr.co.nz Thur 27th Aug @ CLUB TAVERN [Christchurch] - Bulletbelt Warlords Tour Fri 28th Aug @ THE FACTORY [Timaru] - Sat 29th Aug @ THE CROWN HOTEL [Dunedin] - www.utr.co.nz Sat 12th Sep @ DARKROOM [Christchurch] - Dark Divinity [Wellington] Messianic Tour feat. Plague Of the Fallen & Stepped Out. 8pm R18 $15 www.utr.co.nz Tue 22nd Sep @ POWERSTATION [Auckland] - Machine Head [USA] Burn My Eyes 25th Anniversary Tour. 8pm R18 www.utr.co.nz Tue 10th Nov @ VALHALLA [Wellington] - Stoned Jesus [Doom, Ukraine] and Somali Yacht Club Wed 11th Nov @ WHAMMY [Auckland] - www.utr.co.nz Sat 14th Nov @ ISAAC THEATRE [Christchurch] - Violent Femmes [Punk, USA] Mon 16th Nov @ OPERA HOUSE [Wellington] - Tue 17th Nov @ LOGAN CAMPBELL CENTRE [Auckland] - www.ticketek.co.nz Mon 16th Nov @ STUDIO [Auckland] - Helmet [Alt Metal, USA] - 30th Anniversary Tour Tue 17th Nov @ MEOW [Wellington] - Thur 19th Nov @ CASSELS BLUE SMOKE [Christchurch] - www.utr.co.nz Sun 14th Feb 2021 @ POWERSATION [Auckland] - Steel Panther [Rock/Metal, USA] - Heavy Metal Rules Tour www.mjrpresents.com Mon 22nd Feb 2021 @ HORNCASTLE ARENA [Christchurch] - Faith No More [USA] with RVG [Oz] Wed 24th Feb 2020 @ SPARK ARENA [Auckland] - www.frontiertouring.com/faithnomore Fri 4th Jun 2021 @ SAN FRAN [Wellington] - Chelsea Wolfe [Gothic Doom, USA] Birth Of Violence Tour Sat 5th Jun 2021 @ GALATOS [Auckland] - www.utr.co.nz *Contact CACOPHONY* www.cacophony.co.nz www.cacophonynz.podomatic.com www.facebook.com/cacophonynz www.twitter.com/cacophonyradio eMail requests2020(at)cacophony.co.nz sMail CACOPHONY, POBox33044, Barrington, Christchurch 8244, New Zealand.

Não! Mas sempre foi fácil de confundir... por que isso? Vídeo ligado a esse podcast https://tzal.org/o-theravada-e-o-hinayana/ Várias formas de classificar o budismo https://tzal.org/varias-formas-de-classificar-o-budismo/ Mais sobre os três yanas https://tzal.org/mais-sobre-os-tres-yanas/ Por que há tantas tradições budistas https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UbHGsN6zqwg A invenção do budismo mais antigo https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dYOvUMbu4Mk Em busca do budismo original http://www.budavirtual.com.br/em-busca-do-budismo-original-padma-dorje/ Canal do Chagdud Gonpa Dordje Ling https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCj1CGaDURter2MfcdKPFbEA (Por favor assine e faça a prática de Buda da Medicina com o Lama Rigdzin, toda terça feira). Para receber informações sobre a produção de Padma Dorje: https://tzal.org/boletim-informativo/ Por favor ajude esse canal: https://tzal.org/patronagem/ Lista completa de conteúdos no canal tendrel, com descrição: https://tzal.org/tendrel-lista-completa-de-videos/ Contribuições e perguntas podem ser feitas por email (padma.dorje@gmail.com)

This week Lama Kathy will cover the third level of the Buddha’s teachings, the Vajrayana. Also called “The Indestructible Path,” the Vajrayana builds on the foundation of the Hinayana’s ethics...

In this episode, the Venerable addressed the following questions from the audience, Are there any other days for meditation, if I would like to come more often? Should we follow the Hinayana approach? Do you advocate for Hinayana Buddhism? You've mentioned the idea of Conceptualization and how it relates to how our minds work. Could you talk more about it? In the Eight Realizations Spoken By the Buddha, it's said that the five aggregates aren't the ego, but aren't they all ego-based?

In this episode, the Venerable addressed the following questions from the audience, Are there any other days for meditation, if I would like to come more often? Should we follow the Hinayana approach? Do you advocate for Hinayana Buddhism? You've mentioned the idea of Conceptualization and how it relates to how our minds work. Could you talk more about it? In the Eight Realizations Spoken By the Buddha, it's said that the five aggregates aren't the ego, but aren't they all ego-based?

We talked about some older music we've been listening to and a few new ones including Edge of Sanity, Wintersun, Demolition Hammer, Hinayana, and Allegaeon, discussed Mastodon's Crack the Skye since it turned 10 this year, and answered a Patreon listener's question - Pick a band to cover any album from another band. Plus we have an interview with Gina Gleason of Baroness. Find more bonus content over at our Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/intothecombine  Music Played on this Episode: Knocked Loose "Mistakes like Fractures"HinayanaAllegaeon "The Secular Age" Demolition Hammer "Skull Fracturing Nightmare" & ".44 Caliber Brain Surgery"Edge of Sanity "Unorthodox" Wintersun "Mastodon "Oblivion", "Divinations", "Crack the Skye", and "The Last Baron"Baroness "Seasons" & "I'd Do Anything" Listen here, at the below links or on your favorite podcast app: iTunes Google Play Spotify Stitcher

In this teaching on the path of Dharma, Reggie encourages us to trust inspiration, stay with discomfort, and leap to the unknown. Each stage of the path—Hinayana, Mahayana, and Vajrayana—involves ever deeper levels of these themes. This talk was given at the 2004 Winter Dathün retreat held in the Rocky Mountains of Colorado.

配图视频：http://v.qq.com/x/page/e0633v5zxon.html 这一期我们将聊一聊卡尔玛的转世设定在现实中的原型，以及 Karma 一词在印度宗教中的内涵。而卡尔玛有关另一条路的台词则引出了佛教中无记的概念。什么是善，什么是恶，人为什么不施善举，种善因是否得善果？“杀人放火金腰带，修桥补路无尸骸”。善恶之外还有第三条路，在这条路上，善恶无从分辨。其它关键词： 活佛转世、金瓶掣签、支格、法报化三身、卡尔玛、羯磨、业报、善恶无记、六道、无间、般若、大乘、小乘、革囊众秽、般若波罗蜜多、佛陀杀人、达尔哈……正如你所看到的，这一期可能会有点晦涩。关键词：Karma 卡尔玛Lissandra 丽桑卓avatar 化身Living Buddha 活佛Tibet 西藏Avyakta 无记Six Realms of Existence 六道Mahayana 大乘Hinayana 小乘Nagakabouros 娜迦卡波洛丝Buddhism 佛教Hinduism 印度教Hindu 印度教信徒Dharma 法the Enlightened One 天启者Lath Rian Oune Vi. Weave the threads of…Gaen Na Kyri Vi. Reap the winds of…Sae Eleisa Tera Vi. Discover the meaning of…Phyla TranquilitySaera MagicJia PainWeaver 织母Worldbreaker 灭世魔神Traditional 传统服饰相关作品：降世神通 动画，Nickelodeon枪，偶尔有音乐 小说，乔纳森•勒瑟姆废墟（Ruiner） 游戏，Reikon Games无间道 系列电影，刘伟强、麦兆辉陋室 电影，斯图尔特•哈泽尔丁少数派报告 电影，斯蒂芬•斯皮尔伯格

配图视频：http://v.qq.com/x/page/e0633v5zxon.html 这一期我们将聊一聊卡尔玛的转世设定在现实中的原型，以及 Karma 一词在印度宗教中的内涵。而卡尔玛有关另一条路的台词则引出了佛教中无记的概念。什么是善，什么是恶，人为什么不施善举，种善因是否得善果？“杀人放火金腰带，修桥补路无尸骸”。善恶之外还有第三条路，在这条路上，善恶无从分辨。其它关键词： 活佛转世、金瓶掣签、支格、法报化三身、卡尔玛、羯磨、业报、善恶无记、六道、无间、般若、大乘、小乘、革囊众秽、般若波罗蜜多、佛陀杀人、达尔哈……正如你所看到的，这一期可能会有点晦涩。关键词：Karma 卡尔玛Lissandra 丽桑卓avatar 化身Living Buddha 活佛Tibet 西藏Avyakta 无记Six Realms of Existence 六道Mahayana 大乘Hinayana 小乘Nagakabouros 娜迦卡波洛丝Buddhism 佛教Hinduism 印度教Hindu 印度教信徒Dharma 法the Enlightened One 天启者Lath Rian Oune Vi. Weave the threads of…Gaen Na Kyri Vi. Reap the winds of…Sae Eleisa Tera Vi. Discover the meaning of…Phyla TranquilitySaera MagicJia PainWeaver 织母Worldbreaker 灭世魔神Traditional 传统服饰相关作品：降世神通 动画，Nickelodeon枪，偶尔有音乐 小说，乔纳森•勒瑟姆废墟（Ruiner） 游戏，Reikon Games无间道 系列电影，刘伟强、麦兆辉陋室 电影，斯图尔特•哈泽尔丁少数派报告 电影，斯蒂芬•斯皮尔伯格

This talk includes Ajahn Anan speaking on the practice of giving as the foundation for the path to awakening, the Hinayana vs Mahayana traditions, and advice for young monks.

Our FBA Dharmabyte today is called The Buddha as Transcendental Guest from the talk The Symbolism of Offerings and Self-Sacrifice by Sangharakshita. In this lecture we are shown how the symbolism of ritual offerings originated in the Hinayana and Mahayana, and later flowered with the Tantric offerings, particularly the offering of the Mandala. From the talk The Symbolism of Offerings and Self-Sacrifice part of the series Creative Symbols of the Tantric Path to Enlightenment 1971.

Our quote for today is from Buddha. He said, "There are only two mistakes one can make along the road to truth; not going all the way, and not starting." In this podcast, we are making our way through Garry R. Morgan's book, "Understanding World Religions in 15 Minutes a Day." Our Understanding World Religions topic for today is, "Mahayana Buddhism"  Early in Buddhism's development, disputes about the correct meaning of Gautama's teaching divided his followers into various schools of thought. Within ten years of his death, there were sixteen different factions. Several councils, one convened by Emperor Asoka, attempted to bring unity but failed. Over the next several centuries, these groups organized themselves, elaborated on their doctrinal views, and deepened what became permanent divisions.  The Hinayana ("exclusive way") groups were more conservative; today Theravada is the only remaining Hinayana branch. The Mahayana ("expansive way") schools, largely because of their flexibility in accommodating other religions, were more successful in their missionary efforts and now are Buddhism's largest branch. Various types of Mahayana Buddhism are found in China, Korea, Japan, and other parts of Asia.  Central to the Mahayana system is the belief that in addition to what he taught publicly, the Buddha gave a number of secret or hidden teachings to a select and qualified few. This idea gave authority to additions and changes as the movement spread and developed. One of the first was that Gautama was more than a man. This deification of Buddha as an eternal being who came to help humankind led to Buddhism's decline in India, even while helping it spread elsewhere. Hindus simply adopted Gautama as one of Vishnu's ten avatars, and by encouraging his worship, drew devotees back into Hinduism.  ...

The Melchizedek Teachings in the Orient (1027.1) 94:0.1 THE early teachers of the Salem religion penetrated to the remotest tribes of Africa and Eurasia, ever preaching Machiventa’s gospel of man’s faith and trust in the one universal God as the only price of obtaining divine favor. Melchizedek’s covenant with Abraham was the pattern for all the early propaganda that went out from Salem and other centers. Urantia has never had more enthusiastic and aggressive missionaries of any religion than these noble men and women who carried the teachings of Melchizedek over the entire Eastern Hemisphere. These missionaries were recruited from many peoples and races, and they largely spread their teachings through the medium of native converts. They established training centers in different parts of the world where they taught the natives the Salem religion and then commissioned these pupils to function as teachers among their own people. 1. The Salem Teachings in Vedic India (1027.2) 94:1.1 In the days of Melchizedek, India was a cosmopolitan country which had recently come under the political and religious dominance of the Aryan-Andite invaders from the north and west. At this time only the northern and western portions of the peninsula had been extensively permeated by the Aryans. These Vedic newcomers had brought along with them their many tribal deities. Their religious forms of worship followed closely the ceremonial practices of their earlier Andite forebears in that the father still functioned as a priest and the mother as a priestess, and the family hearth was still utilized as an altar. (1027.3) 94:1.2 The Vedic cult was then in process of growth and metamorphosis under the direction of the Brahman caste of teacher-priests, who were gradually assuming control over the expanding ritual of worship. The amalgamation of the onetime thirty-three Aryan deities was well under way when the Salem missionaries penetrated the north of India. (1027.4) 94:1.3 The polytheism of these Aryans represented a degeneration of their earlier monotheism occasioned by their separation into tribal units, each tribe having its venerated god. This devolution of the original monotheism and trinitarianism of Andite Mesopotamia was in process of resynthesis in the early centuries of the second millennium before Christ. The many gods were organized into a pantheon under the triune leadership of Dyaus pitar, the lord of heaven; Indra, the tempestuous lord of the atmosphere; and Agni, the three-headed fire god, lord of the earth and the vestigial symbol of an earlier Trinity concept. (1027.5) 94:1.4 Definite henotheistic developments were paving the way for an evolved monotheism. Agni, the most ancient deity, was often exalted as the father-head of the entire pantheon. The deity-father principle, sometimes called Prajapati, sometimes termed Brahma, was submerged in the theologic battle which the Brahman priests later fought with the Salem teachers. The Brahman was conceived as the energy-divinity principle activating the entire Vedic pantheon. (1028.1) 94:1.5 The Salem missionaries preached the one God of Melchizedek, the Most High of heaven. This portrayal was not altogether disharmonious with the emerging concept of the Father-Brahma as the source of all gods, but the Salem doctrine was nonritualistic and hence ran directly counter to the dogmas, traditions, and teachings of the Brahman priesthood. Never would the Brahman priests accept the Salem teaching of salvation through faith, favor with God apart from ritualistic observances and sacrificial ceremonials. (1028.2) 94:1.6 The rejection of the Melchizedek gospel of trust in God and salvation through faith marked a vital turning point for India. The Salem missionaries had contributed much to the loss of faith in all the ancient Vedic gods, but the leaders, the priests of Vedism, refused to accept the Melchizedek teaching of one God and one simple faith. (1028.3) 94:1.7 The Brahmans culled the sacred writings of their day in an effort to combat the Salem teachers, and this compilation, as later revised, has come on down to modern times as the Rig-Veda, one of the most ancient of sacred books. The second, third, and fourth Vedas followed as the Brahmans sought to crystallize, formalize, and fix their rituals of worship and sacrifice upon the peoples of those days. Taken at their best, these writings are the equal of any other body of similar character in beauty of concept and truth of discernment. But as this superior religion became contaminated with the thousands upon thousands of superstitions, cults, and rituals of southern India, it progressively metamorphosed into the most variegated system of theology ever developed by mortal man. An examination of the Vedas will disclose some of the highest and some of the most debased concepts of Deity ever to be conceived. 2. Brahmanism (1028.4) 94:2.1 As the Salem missionaries penetrated southward into the Dravidian Deccan, they encountered an increasing caste system, the scheme of the Aryans to prevent loss of racial identity in the face of a rising tide of the secondary Sangik peoples. Since the Brahman priest caste was the very essence of this system, this social order greatly retarded the progress of the Salem teachers. This caste system failed to save the Aryan race, but it did succeed in perpetuating the Brahmans, who, in turn, have maintained their religious hegemony in India to the present time. (1028.5) 94:2.2 And now, with the weakening of Vedism through the rejection of higher truth, the cult of the Aryans became subject to increasing inroads from the Deccan. In a desperate effort to stem the tide of racial extinction and religious obliteration, the Brahman caste sought to exalt themselves above all else. They taught that the sacrifice to deity in itself was all-efficacious, that it was all-compelling in its potency. They proclaimed that, of the two essential divine principles of the universe, one was Brahman the deity, and the other was the Brahman priesthood. Among no other Urantia peoples did the priests presume to exalt themselves above even their gods, to relegate to themselves the honors due their gods. But they went so absurdly far with these presumptuous claims that the whole precarious system collapsed before the debasing cults which poured in from the surrounding and less advanced civilizations. The vast Vedic priesthood itself floundered and sank beneath the black flood of inertia and pessimism which their own selfish and unwise presumption had brought upon all India. (1029.1) 94:2.3 The undue concentration on self led certainly to a fear of the nonevolutionary perpetuation of self in an endless round of successive incarnations as man, beast, or weeds. And of all the contaminating beliefs which could have become fastened upon what may have been an emerging monotheism, none was so stultifying as this belief in transmigration — the doctrine of the reincarnation of souls — which came from the Dravidian Deccan. This belief in the weary and monotonous round of repeated transmigrations robbed struggling mortals of their long-cherished hope of finding that deliverance and spiritual advancement in death which had been a part of the earlier Vedic faith. (1029.2) 94:2.4 This philosophically debilitating teaching was soon followed by the invention of the doctrine of the eternal escape from self by submergence in the universal rest and peace of absolute union with Brahman, the oversoul of all creation. Mortal desire and human ambition were effectually ravished and virtually destroyed. For more than two thousand years the better minds of India have sought to escape from all desire, and thus was opened wide the door for the entrance of those later cults and teachings which have virtually shackled the souls of many Hindu peoples in the chains of spiritual hopelessness. Of all civilizations, the Vedic-Aryan paid the most terrible price for its rejection of the Salem gospel. (1029.3) 94:2.5 Caste alone could not perpetuate the Aryan religio-cultural system, and as the inferior religions of the Deccan permeated the north, there developed an age of despair and hopelessness. It was during these dark days that the cult of taking no life arose, and it has ever since persisted. Many of the new cults were frankly atheistic, claiming that such salvation as was attainable could come only by man’s own unaided efforts. But throughout a great deal of all this unfortunate philosophy, distorted remnants of the Melchizedek and even the Adamic teachings can be traced. (1029.4) 94:2.6 These were the times of the compilation of the later scriptures of the Hindu faith, the Brahmanas and the Upanishads. Having rejected the teachings of personal religion through the personal faith experience with the one God, and having become contaminated with the flood of debasing and debilitating cults and creeds from the Deccan, with their anthropomorphisms and reincarnations, the Brahmanic priesthood experienced a violent reaction against these vitiating beliefs; there was a definite effort to seek and to find true reality. The Brahmans set out to deanthropomorphize the Indian concept of deity, but in so doing they stumbled into the grievous error of depersonalizing the concept of God, and they emerged, not with a lofty and spiritual ideal of the Paradise Father, but with a distant and metaphysical idea of an all-encompassing Absolute. (1029.5) 94:2.7 In their efforts at self-preservation the Brahmans had rejected the one God of Melchizedek, and now they found themselves with the hypothesis of Brahman, that indefinite and illusive philosophic self, that impersonal and impotent it which has left the spiritual life of India helpless and prostrate from that unfortunate day to the twentieth century. (1029.6) 94:2.8 It was during the times of the writing of the Upanishads that Buddhism arose in India. But despite its successes of a thousand years, it could not compete with later Hinduism; despite a higher morality, its early portrayal of God was even less well-defined than was that of Hinduism, which provided for lesser and personal deities. Buddhism finally gave way in northern India before the onslaught of a militant Islam with its clear-cut concept of Allah as the supreme God of the universe. 3. Brahmanic Philosophy (1030.1) 94:3.1 While the highest phase of Brahmanism was hardly a religion, it was truly one of the most noble reaches of the mortal mind into the domains of philosophy and metaphysics. Having started out to discover final reality, the Indian mind did not stop until it had speculated about almost every phase of theology excepting the essential dual concept of religion: the existence of the Universal Father of all universe creatures and the fact of the ascending experience in the universe of these very creatures as they seek to attain the eternal Father, who has commanded them to be perfect, even as he is perfect. (1030.2) 94:3.2 In the concept of Brahman the minds of those days truly grasped at the idea of some all-pervading Absolute, for this postulate was at one and the same time identified as creative energy and cosmic reaction. Brahman was conceived to be beyond all definition, capable of being comprehended only by the successive negation of all finite qualities. It was definitely a belief in an absolute, even an infinite, being, but this concept was largely devoid of personality attributes and was therefore not experiencible by individual religionists. (1030.3) 94:3.3 Brahman-Narayana was conceived as the Absolute, the infinite IT IS, the primordial creative potency of the potential cosmos, the Universal Self existing static and potential throughout all eternity. Had the philosophers of those days been able to make the next advance in deity conception, had they been able to conceive of the Brahman as associative and creative, as a personality approachable by created and evolving beings, then might such a teaching have become the most advanced portraiture of Deity on Urantia since it would have encompassed the first five levels of total deity function and might possibly have envisioned the remaining two. (1030.4) 94:3.4 In certain phases the concept of the One Universal Oversoul as the totality of the summation of all creature existence led the Indian philosophers very close to the truth of the Supreme Being, but this truth availed them naught because they failed to evolve any reasonable or rational personal approach to the attainment of their theoretic monotheistic goal of Brahman-Narayana. (1030.5) 94:3.5 The karma principle of causality continuity is, again, very close to the truth of the repercussional synthesis of all time-space actions in the Deity presence of the Supreme; but this postulate never provided for the co-ordinate personal attainment of Deity by the individual religionist, only for the ultimate engulfment of all personality by the Universal Oversoul. (1030.6) 94:3.6 The philosophy of Brahmanism also came very near to the realization of the indwelling of the Thought Adjusters, only to become perverted through the misconception of truth. The teaching that the soul is the indwelling of the Brahman would have paved the way for an advanced religion had not this concept been completely vitiated by the belief that there is no human individuality apart from this indwelling of the Universal One. (1030.7) 94:3.7 In the doctrine of the merging of the self-soul with the Oversoul, the theologians of India failed to provide for the survival of something human, something new and unique, something born of the union of the will of man and the will of God. The teaching of the soul’s return to the Brahman is closely parallel to the truth of the Adjuster’s return to the bosom of the Universal Father, but there is something distinct from the Adjuster which also survives, the morontial counterpart of mortal personality. And this vital concept was fatally absent from Brahmanic philosophy. (1031.1) 94:3.8 Brahmanic philosophy has approximated many of the facts of the universe and has approached numerous cosmic truths, but it has all too often fallen victim to the error of failing to differentiate between the several levels of reality, such as absolute, transcendental, and finite. It has failed to take into account that what may be finite-illusory on the absolute level may be absolutely real on the finite level. And it has also taken no cognizance of the essential personality of the Universal Father, who is personally contactable on all levels from the evolutionary creature’s limited experience with God on up to the limitless experience of the Eternal Son with the Paradise Father. 4. The Hindu Religion (1031.2) 94:4.1 With the passing of the centuries in India, the populace returned in measure to the ancient rituals of the Vedas as they had been modified by the teachings of the Melchizedek missionaries and crystallized by the later Brahman priesthood. This, the oldest and most cosmopolitan of the world’s religions, has undergone further changes in response to Buddhism and Jainism and to the later appearing influences of Mohammedanism and Christianity. But by the time the teachings of Jesus arrived, they had already become so Occidentalized as to be a “white man’s religion,” hence strange and foreign to the Hindu mind. (1031.3) 94:4.2 Hindu theology, at present, depicts four descending levels of deity and divinity: (1031.4) 94:4.3 1. The Brahman, the Absolute, the Infinite One, the IT IS. (1031.5) 94:4.4 2. The Trimurti, the supreme trinity of Hinduism. In this association Brahma, the first member, is conceived as being self-created out of the Brahman — infinity. Were it not for close identification with the pantheistic Infinite One, Brahma could constitute the foundation for a concept of the Universal Father. Brahma is also identified with fate. (1031.6) 94:4.5 The worship of the second and third members, Siva and Vishnu, arose in the first millennium after Christ. Siva is lord of life and death, god of fertility, and master of destruction. Vishnu is extremely popular due to the belief that he periodically incarnates in human form. In this way, Vishnu becomes real and living in the imaginations of the Indians. Siva and Vishnu are each regarded by some as supreme over all. (1031.7) 94:4.6 3. Vedic and post-Vedic deities. Many of the ancient gods of the Aryans, such as Agni, Indra, Soma, have persisted as secondary to the three members of the Trimurti. Numerous additional gods have arisen since the early days of Vedic India, and these have also been incorporated into the Hindu pantheon. (1031.8) 94:4.7 4. The demigods: supermen, semigods, heroes, demons, ghosts, evil spirits, sprites, monsters, goblins, and saints of the later-day cults. (1031.9) 94:4.8 While Hinduism has long failed to vivify the Indian people, at the same time it has usually been a tolerant religion. Its great strength lies in the fact that it has proved to be the most adaptive, amorphic religion to appear on Urantia. It is capable of almost unlimited change and possesses an unusual range of flexible adjustment from the high and semimonotheistic speculations of the intellectual Brahman to the arrant fetishism and primitive cult practices of the debased and depressed classes of ignorant believers. (1032.1) 94:4.9 Hinduism has survived because it is essentially an integral part of the basic social fabric of India. It has no great hierarchy which can be disturbed or destroyed; it is interwoven into the life pattern of the people. It has an adaptability to changing conditions that excels all other cults, and it displays a tolerant attitude of adoption toward many other religions, Gautama Buddha and even Christ himself being claimed as incarnations of Vishnu. (1032.2) 94:4.10 Today, in India, the great need is for the portrayal of the Jesusonian gospel — the Fatherhood of God and the sonship and consequent brotherhood of all men, which is personally realized in loving ministry and social service. In India the philosophical framework is existent, the cult structure is present; all that is needed is the vitalizing spark of the dynamic love portrayed in the original gospel of the Son of Man, divested of the Occidental dogmas and doctrines which have tended to make Michael’s life bestowal a white man’s religion. 5. The Struggle for Truth in China (1032.3) 94:5.1 As the Salem missionaries passed through Asia, spreading the doctrine of the Most High God and salvation through faith, they absorbed much of the philosophy and religious thought of the various countries traversed. But the teachers commissioned by Melchizedek and his successors did not default in their trust; they did penetrate to all peoples of the Eurasian continent, and it was in the middle of the second millennium before Christ that they arrived in China. At See Fuch, for more than one hundred years, the Salemites maintained their headquarters, there training Chinese teachers who taught throughout all the domains of the yellow race. (1032.4) 94:5.2 It was in direct consequence of this teaching that the earliest form of Taoism arose in China, a vastly different religion than the one which bears that name today. Early or proto-Taoism was a compound of the following factors: (1032.5) 94:5.3 1. The lingering teachings of Singlangton, which persisted in the concept of Shang-ti, the God of Heaven. In the times of Singlangton the Chinese people became virtually monotheistic; they concentrated their worship on the One Truth, later known as the Spirit of Heaven, the universe ruler. And the yellow race never fully lost this early concept of Deity, although in subsequent centuries many subordinate gods and spirits insidiously crept into their religion. (1032.6) 94:5.4 2. The Salem religion of a Most High Creator Deity who would bestow his favor upon mankind in response to man’s faith. But it is all too true that, by the time the Melchizedek missionaries had penetrated to the lands of the yellow race, their original message had become considerably changed from the simple doctrines of Salem in the days of Machiventa. (1032.7) 94:5.5 3. The Brahman-Absolute concept of the Indian philosophers, coupled with the desire to escape all evil. Perhaps the greatest extraneous influence in the eastward spread of the Salem religion was exerted by the Indian teachers of the Vedic faith, who injected their conception of the Brahman — the Absolute — into the salvationistic thought of the Salemites. (1033.1) 94:5.6 This composite belief spread through the lands of the yellow and brown races as an underlying influence in religio-philosophic thought. In Japan this proto-Taoism was known as Shinto, and in this country, far-distant from Salem of Palestine, the peoples learned of the incarnation of Machiventa Melchizedek, who dwelt upon earth that the name of God might not be forgotten by mankind.* (1033.2) 94:5.7 In China all of these beliefs were later confused and compounded with the ever-growing cult of ancestor worship. But never since the time of Singlangton have the Chinese fallen into helpless slavery to priestcraft. The yellow race was the first to emerge from barbaric bondage into orderly civilization because it was the first to achieve some measure of freedom from the abject fear of the gods, not even fearing the ghosts of the dead as other races feared them. China met her defeat because she failed to progress beyond her early emancipation from priests; she fell into an almost equally calamitous error, the worship of ancestors. (1033.3) 94:5.8 But the Salemites did not labor in vain. It was upon the foundations of their gospel that the great philosophers of sixth-century China built their teachings. The moral atmosphere and the spiritual sentiments of the times of Lao-tse and Confucius grew up out of the teachings of the Salem missionaries of an earlier age. 6. Lao-Tse and Confucius (1033.4) 94:6.1 About six hundred years before the arrival of Michael, it seemed to Melchizedek, long since departed from the flesh, that the purity of his teaching on earth was being unduly jeopardized by general absorption into the older Urantia beliefs. It appeared for a time that his mission as a forerunner of Michael might be in danger of failing. And in the sixth century before Christ, through an unusual co-ordination of spiritual agencies, not all of which are understood even by the planetary supervisors, Urantia witnessed a most unusual presentation of manifold religious truth. Through the agency of several human teachers the Salem gospel was restated and revitalized, and as it was then presented, much has persisted to the times of this writing. (1033.5) 94:6.2 This unique century of spiritual progress was characterized by great religious, moral, and philosophic teachers all over the civilized world. In China, the two outstanding teachers were Lao-tse and Confucius. (1033.6) 94:6.3 Lao-tse built directly upon the concepts of the Salem traditions when he declared Tao to be the One First Cause of all creation. Lao was a man of great spiritual vision. He taught that man’s eternal destiny was “everlasting union with Tao, Supreme God and Universal King.” His comprehension of ultimate causation was most discerning, for he wrote: “Unity arises out of the Absolute Tao, and from Unity there appears cosmic Duality, and from such Duality, Trinity springs forth into existence, and Trinity is the primal source of all reality.” “All reality is ever in balance between the potentials and the actuals of the cosmos, and these are eternally harmonized by the spirit of divinity.”* (1033.7) 94:6.4 Lao-tse also made one of the earliest presentations of the doctrine of returning good for evil: “Goodness begets goodness, but to the one who is truly good, evil also begets goodness.” (1033.8) 94:6.5 He taught the return of the creature to the Creator and pictured life as the emergence of a personality from the cosmic potentials, while death was like the returning home of this creature personality. His concept of true faith was unusual, and he too likened it to the “attitude of a little child.” (1034.1) 94:6.6 His understanding of the eternal purpose of God was clear, for he said: “The Absolute Deity does not strive but is always victorious; he does not coerce mankind but always stands ready to respond to their true desires; the will of God is eternal in patience and eternal in the inevitability of its expression.” And of the true religionist he said, in expressing the truth that it is more blessed to give than to receive: “The good man seeks not to retain truth for himself but rather attempts to bestow these riches upon his fellows, for that is the realization of truth. The will of the Absolute God always benefits, never destroys; the purpose of the true believer is always to act but never to coerce.” (1034.2) 94:6.7 Lao’s teaching of nonresistance and the distinction which he made between action and coercion became later perverted into the beliefs of “seeing, doing, and thinking nothing.” But Lao never taught such error, albeit his presentation of nonresistance has been a factor in the further development of the pacific predilections of the Chinese peoples. (1034.3) 94:6.8 But the popular Taoism of twentieth-century Urantia has very little in common with the lofty sentiments and the cosmic concepts of the old philosopher who taught the truth as he perceived it, which was: That faith in the Absolute God is the source of that divine energy which will remake the world, and by which man ascends to spiritual union with Tao, the Eternal Deity and Creator Absolute of the universes. (1034.4) 94:6.9 Confucius (Kung Fu-tze) was a younger contemporary of Lao in sixth-century China. Confucius based his doctrines upon the better moral traditions of the long history of the yellow race, and he was also somewhat influenced by the lingering traditions of the Salem missionaries. His chief work consisted in the compilation of the wise sayings of ancient philosophers. He was a rejected teacher during his lifetime, but his writings and teachings have ever since exerted a great influence in China and Japan. Confucius set a new pace for the shamans in that he put morality in the place of magic. But he built too well; he made a new fetish out of order and established a respect for ancestral conduct that is still venerated by the Chinese at the time of this writing. (1034.5) 94:6.10 The Confucian preachment of morality was predicated on the theory that the earthly way is the distorted shadow of the heavenly way; that the true pattern of temporal civilization is the mirror reflection of the eternal order of heaven. The potential God concept in Confucianism was almost completely subordinated to the emphasis placed upon the Way of Heaven, the pattern of the cosmos. (1034.6) 94:6.11 The teachings of Lao have been lost to all but a few in the Orient, but the writings of Confucius have ever since constituted the basis of the moral fabric of the culture of almost a third of Urantians. These Confucian precepts, while perpetuating the best of the past, were somewhat inimical to the very Chinese spirit of investigation that had produced those achievements which were so venerated. The influence of these doctrines was unsuccessfully combated both by the imperial efforts of Ch’in Shih Huang Ti and by the teachings of Mo Ti, who proclaimed a brotherhood founded not on ethical duty but on the love of God. He sought to rekindle the ancient quest for new truth, but his teachings failed before the vigorous opposition of the disciples of Confucius. (1034.7) 94:6.12 Like many other spiritual and moral teachers, both Confucius and Lao-tse were eventually deified by their followers in those spiritually dark ages of China which intervened between the decline and perversion of the Taoist faith and the coming of the Buddhist missionaries from India. During these spiritually decadent centuries the religion of the yellow race degenerated into a pitiful theology wherein swarmed devils, dragons, and evil spirits, all betokening the returning fears of the unenlightened mortal mind. And China, once at the head of human society because of an advanced religion, then fell behind because of temporary failure to progress in the true path of the development of that God-consciousness which is indispensable to the true progress, not only of the individual mortal, but also of the intricate and complex civilizations which characterize the advance of culture and society on an evolutionary planet of time and space. 7. Gautama Siddhartha (1035.1) 94:7.1 Contemporary with Lao-tse and Confucius in China, another great teacher of truth arose in India. Gautama Siddhartha was born in the sixth century before Christ in the north Indian province of Nepal. His followers later made it appear that he was the son of a fabulously wealthy ruler, but, in truth, he was the heir apparent to the throne of a petty chieftain who ruled by sufferance over a small and secluded mountain valley in the southern Himalayas. (1035.2) 94:7.2 Gautama formulated those theories which grew into the philosophy of Buddhism after six years of the futile practice of Yoga. Siddhartha made a determined but unavailing fight against the growing caste system. There was a lofty sincerity and a unique unselfishness about this young prophet prince that greatly appealed to the men of those days. He detracted from the practice of seeking individual salvation through physical affliction and personal pain. And he exhorted his followers to carry his gospel to all the world. (1035.3) 94:7.3 Amid the confusion and extreme cult practices of India, the saner and more moderate teachings of Gautama came as a refreshing relief. He denounced gods, priests, and their sacrifices, but he too failed to perceive the personality of the One Universal. Not believing in the existence of individual human souls, Gautama, of course, made a valiant fight against the time-honored belief in transmigration of the soul. He made a noble effort to deliver men from fear, to make them feel at ease and at home in the great universe, but he failed to show them the pathway to that real and supernal home of ascending mortals — Paradise — and to the expanding service of eternal existence. (1035.4) 94:7.4 Gautama was a real prophet, and had he heeded the instruction of the hermit Godad, he might have aroused all India by the inspiration of the revival of the Salem gospel of salvation by faith. Godad was descended through a family that had never lost the traditions of the Melchizedek missionaries. (1035.5) 94:7.5 At Benares Gautama founded his school, and it was during its second year that a pupil, Bautan, imparted to his teacher the traditions of the Salem missionaries about the Melchizedek covenant with Abraham; and while Siddhartha did not have a very clear concept of the Universal Father, he took an advanced stand on salvation through faith — simple belief. He so declared himself before his followers and began sending his students out in groups of sixty to proclaim to the people of India “the glad tidings of free salvation; that all men, high and low, can attain bliss by faith in righteousness and justice.” (1035.6) 94:7.6 Gautama’s wife believed her husband’s gospel and was the founder of an order of nuns. His son became his successor and greatly extended the cult; he grasped the new idea of salvation through faith but in his later years wavered regarding the Salem gospel of divine favor through faith alone, and in his old age his dying words were, “Work out your own salvation.” (1036.1) 94:7.7 When proclaimed at its best, Gautama’s gospel of universal salvation, free from sacrifice, torture, ritual, and priests, was a revolutionary and amazing doctrine for its time. And it came surprisingly near to being a revival of the Salem gospel. It brought succor to millions of despairing souls, and notwithstanding its grotesque perversion during later centuries, it still persists as the hope of millions of human beings. (1036.2) 94:7.8 Siddhartha taught far more truth than has survived in the modern cults bearing his name. Modern Buddhism is no more the teachings of Gautama Siddhartha than is Christianity the teachings of Jesus of Nazareth. 8. The Buddhist Faith (1036.3) 94:8.1 To become a Buddhist, one merely made public profession of the faith by reciting the Refuge: “I take my refuge in the Buddha; I take my refuge in the Doctrine; I take my refuge in the Brotherhood.” (1036.4) 94:8.2 Buddhism took origin in a historic person, not in a myth. Gautama’s followers called him Sasta, meaning master or teacher. While he made no superhuman claims for either himself or his teachings, his disciples early began to call him the enlightened one, the Buddha; later on, Sakyamuni Buddha. (1036.5) 94:8.3 The original gospel of Gautama was based on the four noble truths: (1036.6) 94:8.4 1. The noble truths of suffering. (1036.7) 94:8.5 2. The origins of suffering. (1036.8) 94:8.6 3. The destruction of suffering. (1036.9) 94:8.7 4. The way to the destruction of suffering. (1036.10) 94:8.8 Closely linked to the doctrine of suffering and the escape therefrom was the philosophy of the Eightfold Path: right views, aspirations, speech, conduct, livelihood, effort, mindfulness, and contemplation. It was not Gautama’s intention to attempt to destroy all effort, desire, and affection in the escape from suffering; rather was his teaching designed to picture to mortal man the futility of pinning all hope and aspirations entirely on temporal goals and material objectives. It was not so much that love of one’s fellows should be shunned as that the true believer should also look beyond the associations of this material world to the realities of the eternal future. (1036.11) 94:8.9 The moral commandments of Gautama’s preachment were five in number: (1036.12) 94:8.10 1. You shall not kill. (1036.13) 94:8.11 2. You shall not steal. (1036.14) 94:8.12 3. You shall not be unchaste. (1036.15) 94:8.13 4. You shall not lie. (1036.16) 94:8.14 5. You shall not drink intoxicating liquors. (1036.17) 94:8.15 There were several additional or secondary commandments, whose observance was optional with believers. (1036.18) 94:8.16 Siddhartha hardly believed in the immortality of the human personality; his philosophy only provided for a sort of functional continuity. He never clearly defined what he meant to include in the doctrine of Nirvana. The fact that it could theoretically be experienced during mortal existence would indicate that it was not viewed as a state of complete annihilation. It implied a condition of supreme enlightenment and supernal bliss wherein all fetters binding man to the material world had been broken; there was freedom from the desires of mortal life and deliverance from all danger of ever again experiencing incarnation. (1037.1) 94:8.17 According to the original teachings of Gautama, salvation is achieved by human effort, apart from divine help; there is no place for saving faith or prayers to superhuman powers. Gautama, in his attempt to minimize the superstitions of India, endeavored to turn men away from the blatant claims of magical salvation. And in making this effort, he left the door wide open for his successors to misinterpret his teaching and to proclaim that all human striving for attainment is distasteful and painful. His followers overlooked the fact that the highest happiness is linked with the intelligent and enthusiastic pursuit of worthy goals, and that such achievements constitute true progress in cosmic self-realization. (1037.2) 94:8.18 The great truth of Siddhartha’s teaching was his proclamation of a universe of absolute justice. He taught the best godless philosophy ever invented by mortal man; it was the ideal humanism and most effectively removed all grounds for superstition, magical rituals, and fear of ghosts or demons. (1037.3) 94:8.19 The great weakness in the original gospel of Buddhism was that it did not produce a religion of unselfish social service. The Buddhistic brotherhood was, for a long time, not a fraternity of believers but rather a community of student teachers. Gautama forbade their receiving money and thereby sought to prevent the growth of hierarchal tendencies. Gautama himself was highly social; indeed, his life was much greater than his preachment. 9. The Spread of Buddhism (1037.4) 94:9.1 Buddhism prospered because it offered salvation through belief in the Buddha, the enlightened one. It was more representative of the Melchizedek truths than any other religious system to be found throughout eastern Asia. But Buddhism did not become widespread as a religion until it was espoused in self-protection by the low-caste monarch Asoka, who, next to Ikhnaton in Egypt, was one of the most remarkable civil rulers between Melchizedek and Michael. Asoka built a great Indian empire through the propaganda of his Buddhist missionaries. During a period of twenty-five years he trained and sent forth more than seventeen thousand missionaries to the farthest frontiers of all the known world. In one generation he made Buddhism the dominant religion of one half the world. It soon became established in Tibet, Kashmir, Ceylon, Burma, Java, Siam, Korea, China, and Japan. And generally speaking, it was a religion vastly superior to those which it supplanted or upstepped. (1037.5) 94:9.2 The spread of Buddhism from its homeland in India to all of Asia is one of the thrilling stories of the spiritual devotion and missionary persistence of sincere religionists. The teachers of Gautama’s gospel not only braved the perils of the overland caravan routes but faced the dangers of the China Seas as they pursued their mission over the Asiatic continent, bringing to all peoples the message of their faith. But this Buddhism was no longer the simple doctrine of Gautama; it was the miraculized gospel which made him a god. And the farther Buddhism spread from its highland home in India, the more unlike the teachings of Gautama it became, and the more like the religions it supplanted, it grew to be. (1038.1) 94:9.3 Buddhism, later on, was much affected by Taoism in China, Shinto in Japan, and Christianity in Tibet. After a thousand years, in India Buddhism simply withered and expired. It became Brahmanized and later abjectly surrendered to Islam, while throughout much of the rest of the Orient it degenerated into a ritual which Gautama Siddhartha would never have recognized. (1038.2) 94:9.4 In the south the fundamentalist stereotype of the teachings of Siddhartha persisted in Ceylon, Burma, and the Indo-China peninsula. This is the Hinayana division of Buddhism which clings to the early or asocial doctrine. (1038.3) 94:9.5 But even before the collapse in India, the Chinese and north Indian groups of Gautama’s followers had begun the development of the Mahayana teaching of the “Great Road” to salvation in contrast with the purists of the south who held to the Hinayana, or “Lesser Road.” And these Mahayanists cast loose from the social limitations inherent in the Buddhist doctrine, and ever since has this northern division of Buddhism continued to evolve in China and Japan. (1038.4) 94:9.6 Buddhism is a living, growing religion today because it succeeds in conserving many of the highest moral values of its adherents. It promotes calmness and self-control, augments serenity and happiness, and does much to prevent sorrow and mourning. Those who believe this philosophy live better lives than many who do not. 10. Religion in Tibet (1038.5) 94:10.1 In Tibet may be found the strangest association of the Melchizedek teachings combined with Buddhism, Hinduism, Taoism, and Christianity. When the Buddhist missionaries entered Tibet, they encountered a state of primitive savagery very similar to that which the early Christian missionaries found among the northern tribes of Europe. (1038.6) 94:10.2 These simple-minded Tibetans would not wholly give up their ancient magic and charms. Examination of the religious ceremonials of present-day Tibetan rituals reveals an overgrown brotherhood of priests with shaven heads who practice an elaborate ritual embracing bells, chants, incense, processionals, rosaries, images, charms, pictures, holy water, gorgeous vestments, and elaborate choirs. They have rigid dogmas and crystallized creeds, mystic rites and special fasts. Their hierarchy embraces monks, nuns, abbots, and the Grand Lama. They pray to angels, saints, a Holy Mother, and the gods. They practice confessions and believe in purgatory. Their monasteries are extensive and their cathedrals magnificent. They keep up an endless repetition of sacred rituals and believe that such ceremonials bestow salvation. Prayers are fastened to a wheel, and with its turning they believe the petitions become efficacious. Among no other people of modern times can be found the observance of so much from so many religions; and it is inevitable that such a cumulative liturgy would become inordinately cumbersome and intolerably burdensome. (1038.7) 94:10.3 The Tibetans have something of all the leading world religions except the simple teachings of the Jesusonian gospel: sonship with God, brotherhood with man, and ever-ascending citizenship in the eternal universe. 11. Buddhist Philosophy (1038.8) 94:11.1 Buddhism entered China in the first millennium after Christ, and it fitted well into the religious customs of the yellow race. In ancestor worship they had long prayed to the dead; now they could also pray for them. Buddhism soon amalgamated with the lingering ritualistic practices of disintegrating Taoism. This new synthetic religion with its temples of worship and definite religious ceremonial soon became the generally accepted cult of the peoples of China, Korea, and Japan. (1039.1) 94:11.2 While in some respects it is unfortunate that Buddhism was not carried to the world until after Gautama’s followers had so perverted the traditions and teachings of the cult as to make of him a divine being, nonetheless this myth of his human life, embellished as it was with a multitude of miracles, proved very appealing to the auditors of the northern or Mahayana gospel of Buddhism. (1039.2) 94:11.3 Some of his later followers taught that Sakyamuni Buddha’s spirit returned periodically to earth as a living Buddha, thus opening the way for an indefinite perpetuation of Buddha images, temples, rituals, and impostor “living Buddhas.” Thus did the religion of the great Indian protestant eventually find itself shackled with those very ceremonial practices and ritualistic incantations against which he had so fearlessly fought, and which he had so valiantly denounced. (1039.3) 94:11.4 The great advance made in Buddhist philosophy consisted in its comprehension of the relativity of all truth. Through the mechanism of this hypothesis Buddhists have been able to reconcile and correlate the divergencies within their own religious scriptures as well as the differences between their own and many others. It was taught that the small truth was for little minds, the large truth for great minds. (1039.4) 94:11.5 This philosophy also held that the Buddha (divine) nature resided in all men; that man, through his own endeavors, could attain to the realization of this inner divinity. And this teaching is one of the clearest presentations of the truth of the indwelling Adjusters ever to be made by a Urantian religion. (1039.5) 94:11.6 But a great limitation in the original gospel of Siddhartha, as it was interpreted by his followers, was that it attempted the complete liberation of the human self from all the limitations of the mortal nature by the technique of isolating the self from objective reality. True cosmic self-realization results from identification with cosmic reality and with the finite cosmos of energy, mind, and spirit, bounded by space and conditioned by time. (1039.6) 94:11.7 But though the ceremonies and outward observances of Buddhism became grossly contaminated with those of the lands to which it traveled, this degeneration was not altogether the case in the philosophical life of the great thinkers who, from time to time, embraced this system of thought and belief. Through more than two thousand years, many of the best minds of Asia have concentrated upon the problem of ascertaining absolute truth and the truth of the Absolute. (1039.7) 94:11.8 The evolution of a high concept of the Absolute was achieved through many channels of thought and by devious paths of reasoning. The upward ascent of this doctrine of infinity was not so clearly defined as was the evolution of the God concept in Hebrew theology. Nevertheless, there were certain broad levels which the minds of the Buddhists reached, tarried upon, and passed through on their way to the envisioning of the Primal Source of universes: (1039.8) 94:11.9 1. The Gautama legend. At the base of the concept was the historic fact of the life and teachings of Siddhartha, the prophet prince of India. This legend grew in myth as it traveled through the centuries and across the broad lands of Asia until it surpassed the status of the idea of Gautama as the enlightened one and began to take on additional attributes. (1040.1) 94:11.10 2. The many Buddhas. It was reasoned that, if Gautama had come to the peoples of India, then, in the remote past and in the remote future, the races of mankind must have been, and undoubtedly would be, blessed with other teachers of truth. This gave rise to the teaching that there were many Buddhas, an unlimited and infinite number, even that anyone could aspire to become one — to attain the divinity of a Buddha. (1040.2) 94:11.11 3. The Absolute Buddha. By the time the number of Buddhas was approaching infinity, it became necessary for the minds of those days to reunify this unwieldy concept. Accordingly it began to be taught that all Buddhas were but the manifestation of some higher essence, some Eternal One of infinite and unqualified existence, some Absolute Source of all reality. From here on, the Deity concept of Buddhism, in its highest form, becomes divorced from the human person of Gautama Siddhartha and casts off from the anthropomorphic limitations which have held it in leash. This final conception of the Buddha Eternal can well be identified as the Absolute, sometimes even as the infinite I AM. (1040.3) 94:11.12 While this idea of Absolute Deity never found great popular favor with the peoples of Asia, it did enable the intellectuals of these lands to unify their philosophy and to harmonize their cosmology. The concept of the Buddha Absolute is at times quasi-personal, at times wholly impersonal — even an infinite creative force. Such concepts, though helpful to philosophy, are not vital to religious development. Even an anthropomorphic Yahweh is of greater religious value than an infinitely remote Absolute of Buddhism or Brahmanism. (1040.4) 94:11.13 At times the Absolute was even thought of as contained within the infinite I AM. But these speculations were chill comfort to the hungry multitudes who craved to hear words of promise, to hear the simple gospel of Salem, that faith in God would assure divine favor and eternal survival. 12. The God Concept of Buddhism (1040.5) 94:12.1 The great weakness in the cosmology of Buddhism was twofold: its contamination with many of the superstitions of India and China and its sublimation of Gautama, first as the enlightened one, and then as the Eternal Buddha. Just as Christianity has suffered from the absorption of much erroneous human philosophy, so does Buddhism bear its human birthmark. But the teachings of Gautama have continued to evolve during the past two and one-half millenniums. The concept of Buddha, to an enlightened Buddhist, is no more the human personality of Gautama than the concept of Jehovah is identical with the spirit demon of Horeb to an enlightened Christian. Paucity of terminology, together with the sentimental retention of olden nomenclature, is often provocative of the failure to understand the true significance of the evolution of religious concepts. (1040.6) 94:12.2 Gradually the concept of God, as contrasted with the Absolute, began to appear in Buddhism. Its sources are back in the early days of this differentiation of the followers of the Lesser Road and the Greater Road. It was among the latter division of Buddhism that the dual conception of God and the Absolute finally matured. Step by step, century by century, the God concept has evolved until, with the teachings of Ryonin, Honen Shonin, and Shinran in Japan, this concept finally came to fruit in the belief in Amida Buddha. (1041.1) 94:12.3 Among these believers it is taught that the soul, upon experiencing death, may elect to enjoy a sojourn in Paradise prior to entering Nirvana, the ultimate of existence. It is proclaimed that this new salvation is attained by faith in the divine mercies and loving care of Amida, God of the Paradise in the west. In their philosophy, the Amidists hold to an Infinite Reality which is beyond all finite mortal comprehension; in their religion, they cling to faith in the all-merciful Amida, who so loves the world that he will not suffer one mortal who calls on his name in true faith and with a pure heart to fail in the attainment of the supernal happiness of Paradise. (1041.2) 94:12.4 The great strength of Buddhism is that its adherents are free to choose truth from all religions; such freedom of choice has seldom characterized a Urantian faith. In this respect the Shin sect of Japan has become one of the most progressive religious groups in the world; it has revived the ancient missionary spirit of Gautama’s followers and has begun to send teachers to other peoples. This willingness to appropriate truth from any and all sources is indeed a commendable tendency to appear among religious believers during the first half of the twentieth century after Christ. (1041.3) 94:12.5 Buddhism itself is undergoing a twentieth-century renaissance. Through contact with Christianity the social aspects of Buddhism have been greatly enhanced. The desire to learn has been rekindled in the hearts of the monk priests of the brotherhood, and the spread of education throughout this faith will be certainly provocative of new advances in religious evolution. (1041.4) 94:12.6 At the time of this writing, much of Asia rests its hope in Buddhism. Will this noble faith, that has so valiantly carried on through the dark ages of the past, once again receive the truth of expanded cosmic realities even as the disciples of the great teacher in India once listened to his proclamation of new truth? Will this ancient faith respond once more to the invigorating stimulus of the presentation of new concepts of God and the Absolute for which it has so long searched? (1041.5) 94:12.7 All Urantia is waiting for the proclamation of the ennobling message of Michael, unencumbered by the accumulated doctrines and dogmas of nineteen centuries of contact with the religions of evolutionary origin. The hour is striking for presenting to Buddhism, to Christianity, to Hinduism, even to the peoples of all faiths, not the gospel about Jesus, but the living, spiritual reality of the gospel of Jesus. (1041.6) 94:12.8 [Presented by a Melchizedek of Nebadon.]

Alan starts the session with a brief introduction of the meaning of the aspiration of immeasurable equanimity and its etymology. Further, Alan elaborates on the differences of equanimity among the different vehicles. In the context of the sravakayana, which is focused on the selflessness of persons (the emptiness of an autonomous, independent and permanent self), they realize the emptiness of self but not the emptiness of the skandhas, as they consider they are truly existent. Therefore, the practice of equanimity is for the sake of one’s own liberation, to purify their minds and attain nirvana in order to get rid of samsara. It is interesting to see that according to Buddhaghosa, the catalyst for equanimity is taking responsibility for one’s own actions. It is based on recognizing how karma works. Virtue brings happiness and non-virtue brings suffering. In the mahayana context, in which wisdom and compassion work together as the two wings of a bird to fly, not only the self is empty of inherent existence but also the five skandhas. Because everything is mutually interdependent, there is no self without others and no others without self. Therefore, there is no difference between self and others. In this way, the realization of emptiness deepens the sense of equality between self and others and vice versa. Equanimity is an aspiration based in bodhicitta. From dzogchen perspective and having an insight into rigpa, one apprehends what is close as pristine awareness. And one apprehends what is far as samsara, especially when viewing others’ behavior and mental afflictions. Then, one generates the aspiration to release the preference for nirvana, which is what one has already tasted, and abide in equanimity without preference for samsara or nirvana, for adversity or felicity. In dzogchen, equanimity is the equality of samsara and nirvana. All displays of samsara and nirvana are equally pure, samsara being a display of rigpa. Meditation starts at 40:17

Alan starts the session with a brief introduction of the meaning of the aspiration of immeasurable equanimity and its etymology. Further, Alan elaborates on the differences of equanimity among the different vehicles. In the context of the sravakayana, which is focused on the selflessness of persons (the emptiness of an autonomous, independent and permanent self), they realize the emptiness of self but not the emptiness of the skandhas, as they consider they are truly existent. Therefore, the practice of equanimity is for the sake of one’s own liberation, to purify their minds and attain nirvana in order to get rid of samsara. It is interesting to see that according to Buddhaghosa, the catalyst for equanimity is taking responsibility for one’s own actions. It is based on recognizing how karma works. Virtue brings happiness and non-virtue brings suffering. In the mahayana context, in which wisdom and compassion work together as the two wings of a bird to fly, not only the self is empty of inherent existence but also the five skandhas. Because everything is mutually interdependent, there is no self without others and no others without self. Therefore, there is no difference between self and others. In this way, the realization of emptiness deepens the sense of equality between self and others and vice versa. Equanimity is an aspiration based in bodhicitta. From dzogchen perspective and having an insight into rigpa, one apprehends what is close as pristine awareness. And one apprehends what is far as samsara, especially when viewing others’ behavior and mental afflictions. Then, one generates the aspiration to release the preference for nirvana, which is what one has already tasted, and abide in equanimity without preference for samsara or nirvana, for adversity or felicity. In dzogchen, equanimity is the equality of samsara and nirvana. All displays of samsara and nirvana are equally pure, samsara being a display of rigpa. Meditation starts at 40:17

In todayand#8217;s FBA Dharmabyte, and#8220;The Three Yanas in Tibetan Buddhism,and#8221; Sangharakshita explores how in Tibetan Buddhism we can learn about all three yanas and#8211; the Hinayana, the Mahayana and the Vajrayana. From the talk and#8220;The Future of Tibetan Buddhismand#8221; given in 1968.

(Note: the following teaching was given as an introduction to the film The Buddha) Excerpt: “As soon as you start talking about Buddhism, you’re no longer talking about Buddhism because, technically and precisely, Buddha’s great insight is that there are no words to describe the Real. . . . So there’s no way of talking about what we’re here to talk about. One can only realize—and the act of realizing it, in an instantaneous—in fact not even instantaneous, but timeless moment of clear intuition of Ultimate Reality . . . called ‘pragya.’ . . . There isn’t a Buddhism; there are many Buddhisms. . . . Some do it as the different turnings of the wheel of the dharma. But you can also divide it into the Hinayana and the Mahayana and the Vajrayana, etc. You can also say there’s the Theravada Buddhism of Sri Lanka which is very different than the Tibetan Buddhism, different than the Ch’an, different than the Japanese Zen, which is different than the other Japanese schools like the Jodo Shinshu, the ‘Pure Land Buddhism’ of the chanting variety. Very different philosophies. Very different practices. Very different spiritual paths that all call themselves Buddhism. . . . In fact, I would say that Buddhism is the world’s first de-ligion; it’s not a religion, it’s a de-ligion. If you know the world religion, it means to re-link. Buddha said ‘there’s no link with anything. That’s all illusion. All you must do is de-link from the illusion and you’re free. But don’t think you’re linking to anybody. You don’t exist! There’s no self.’” Recorded on the evening of Tuesday, May 31, 2011.

This morning Alan used the Russian-dolls imagery (the dolls that stuck within each other) as his mold. First, he applied it to our mindfulness of breathing practice. Settling the body, speech, and mind are all contained within one another. The mind is at rest when the inner voice is quiet. The inner voice is quiet when the respiration is flowing unobstructed, not forced and unconstricted within a properly aligned body, which is relaxed, still, and yet in a posture of vigilance. We then use our introspection to check on the body, respiration and the mind to see if all them are in their natural states.Alan then applied the Russian-dolls metaphor to Buddhism in general. Just as a larger doll cannot fit into a smaller one, so the various philosophies of Buddhism gradually build up on one another. Hinayana is encompassed within Mahayana. Mahayana is included within Vajrayana and Vajrayana (and all others) are contained within Dzogchen – The Great Encompassment. Oh, yes…and his favorite – Science makes sense within the context of the Buddhist tradition. However, reverse the gradation and we end up with a whole lot of conflicts and nonsense.Before we entered the meditation Alan expressed his disgruntledness with people who might pick any school of Buddhism, chop off what doesn’t fit into their worldview and call themselves “secular Buddhists”.