Tagged: Forest Temple Toggle Comment Threads | Keyboard Shortcuts

  • Unknown's avatar

    hardie karges 4:23 am on August 23, 2024 Permalink | Reply
    Tags: , , Forest Temple, , , , , , solitary confinement, , ,   

    Buddhism Loves a Sangha, but Loves Solitude, too… 

    Western psychology thinks solitary confinement is torture. Buddhism thinks it’s pretty nice—sometimes. Go figure. Because that’s exactly what meditation is, is it not? That and concentration, yes, exactly, at least in meditation’s original purest form, which is maintained to this day in Theravada Buddhism, so important there that it’s often called Vipassana by its association. And it’s true. I couldn’t believe it the first time I did a retreat in a Thai forest temple, laymen silent unflinching for hours, monks even longer.

    I haven’t witnessed that degree of meditative absorption in the Tibetan or Chinese temples where I have experience and knowledge, but it might certainly exist there. And Zen might be another level of attainment, since the name derives from dhyana, after all. All of which goes to make a distinction with the typical Western ‘guided’ meditation, which, whatever its benefits, I simply wouldn’t consider true meditation, maybe more like a ‘dharma talk’ if done well. But if it’s not a Buddhist meditation group, then it might not be a Buddhist talk. Hindus are still trying to reclaim Buddhism as their own.

    But the point is that, while solitude might be torture for some, it doesn’t have to be. And it’s more likely to be, I think, if you’re accustomed to living your life in crowds and constant confusion. For someone raised on a farm out in the countryside, what’s a little solitary confinement? Sounds like Sunday afternoon. Solitude can and should be something good, healthy, and productive. If they don’t teach meditation in prisons, then they certainly should. It just might save somebody’s life sometime.

     
  • Unknown's avatar

    hardie karges 6:59 am on December 5, 2021 Permalink | Reply
    Tags: , , , , , , Forest Temple, , , , , , , , ,   

    The Ways and (Skillful) Means of Buddhism… 

    ‘Skillful means’ is not about telling people what they want to hear. It’s telling them what they need to hear, in a way that’s acceptable to them. And if this sounds obvious, it can be more complicated than it seems. It can even contradict one of the main precepts in the Eightfold Path, in fact, if it fails to acknowledge the importance of Right Speech. One of the Buddha’s later commentators, in fact, even bragged about how the Buddha could preach about cosmic Self to the Brahmanists, while preaching non-self to the already-committed Buddhists. Fast-forward to the future and a prominent senior Buddhist monk today claims that Buddha, in fact, was never committed to a doctrine of non-self, but was undecided about it (so that we can now accept rebirth with no issue of what it is that gets reborn). But this is not ‘skillful means.’ And this is not Right Speech.

    As the New Testament of the Christian Bible is often paraphrased: “Let your yes be yes; and let your no be no.” Bingo. That Buddhism is an open doctrine is fine, and to be commended. That it sometimes gets twisted almost beyond recognition is not always so good. But that’s exactly what happened when Mahayana went in two almost opposite directions from its shunyata (emptiness) starting point, one leading to the Vajrayana of Tibet, the other leading to the Zen of Japan. And for a long time, that’s where Buddhism stood, and stalled, and those are the two extremes that made the biggest impact in the New World—until now. Because now there is a new dialectic to that interplay of magic and trance, and it should be no surprise that the only realistic synthesis would be a return to the primal roots of early Buddhism. So, Theravada now finds its best messaging in its simplest Forest Temples, and the debates in the background resume.

    Only this time it is not the background of Brahmanism and Jainism, but dozens of so-called ‘New Age’ ideas and the general air of conspiracy. But for me Secular Buddhism is the rightful heir to the debate with religiosity, something which original Buddhism had not the luxury, because Science as we know it did not exist. But Reason and rationality did, embedded in the nature of cause and effect, the words for which define ‘reason’ in more than one Asian language. And that’s how Buddhism won the original debate, for me, at least, because it was the rational option. And it still can be, if it can find its peace with Science, because that is the air we breathe in this day and age, logic and testing. We only need a belief system to make sense of it all. If not, then ‘belief’ becomes a bad word, synonymous with ‘faith,’ and we are left to our own devices to find succor and solace. I find no contradiction between my Buddhism and the best science we know. If forced to choose, then I will refuse, and let the chips fall where they may.

     
  • Unknown's avatar

    hardie karges 4:47 pm on January 1, 2017 Permalink | Reply
    Tags: , Forest Temple,   

    Thai Buddhism Outback Up North, part 4: Three Questions, Two Uncertainties, a Wish and a Promise… 

    Continued from here…

    Kwan Yin Fest near Chiang Dao, Thailand

    Kwan Yin Fest near Chiang Dao, Thailand

    So again I’m having doubts about my direction, after I’d convinced myself that the past lives and karmic retribution of Tibetan Buddhism, which I can’t support, are not an issue in the Theravada system. I guess I should get all Zen-like and mock Kung Fu-ish right about now with something wise and philosophical from my imaginary guru, like maybe: “Cricket, don’t worry about the details, or you’ll never be a good monk anyway. You have a path now, and the path will lead you where you are to go…”

    Yeah, that sounds about right. There is no turning back from this path, this Buddhist path, however the details play out. My increasingly healthy meditation practice will be the proof and the foundation for that. So what if I occasionally flash back on the Playboy Playmate from December 1969? She was cute, it was cold, and I was young. I’ve still got a Suzi Quatro song stuck in there from 1978, too…

    And so what if I look like a pile of lumber spilled from the Home Depot truck until I get ‘warmed up’ meditating? So what if it takes a backhoe to unlock and untangle me once I do? At least that backhoe won’t be necessary to back-fill the logic necessary to convince myself I’m happy when I’m really not, gorging myself with ‘stuff’ in an American society of consumeristic orgy (orgiastic consumerism?)… (More …)

     
    • kc's avatar

      kc 10:37 pm on January 1, 2017 Permalink | Reply

      join the clubs, forming in the hundreds of like minded people. Millsaps is offering a course to re-guide one to one’s what, emptiness? Also have on-line far away friends wanting to skype and study. remember that teaching is indeed a most noble profession, and certainly learning never ends. looking for folk art, found $ in my account that i did not expect and not wanting to try and teach r more tech. that he will not get. so art, yes. send art, $ cd not hurt, you can always give it away, i surely do. much love.

    • Dave Kingsbury's avatar

      davekingsbury 1:28 pm on January 2, 2017 Permalink | Reply

      Reminds me in part of the Keats bio by Andrew Motion I’m reading – 600 pages for such a short life! – and it’s fascinating to follow his discovery that pain and pleasure/sadness and happiness are really one and the same or at least 2 sides of the same coin, no one without the other. I’m trying to feel the same about life/death but not there yet!

  • Unknown's avatar

    hardie karges 7:12 am on August 7, 2016 Permalink | Reply
    Tags: , Forest Temple, Mae Chan,   

    Thai Forest Temples: Books Not Required; Internet? Pending… 

    IMG_0738Thai Buddhist ‘Forest Temples’ are not the saffron gilded air-conditioned temples of the cities and towns, but rustic temples of the woods, the outback and the heart, a tradition dating from a time when Thailand actually HAD forests and itinerant monks walking through them. This tradition dates back little more than one hundred years, but in that period of time has gained many adherents, both local and international, mostly due to the efforts of the late Ajahn Chah, who taught many foreign disciples, and set them loose upon the world…

    ‘Tam boon’ is the usual Thai term for Buddhist ‘merit-making’ and could just as easily be translated ‘doing good’, though that probably doesn’t convey the urgency with which most Thais accept the need for a showcase to display their gratitude, not simply submit silent offerings. The best deeds tend to be spectator sports to which all are invited, and many a belly is filled, spectacles and feasting more than introspection and fasting, which is a better goal for religion IMHO… (More …)

     
    • kc's avatar

      kc 7:18 pm on August 7, 2016 Permalink | Reply

      interesting, recently a COMMUNITY HELP GROUP, all men btw, came and helped me get the front yard/garden set to city specs. they do it for the glory of god, any and all gods, they do not discriminate against the gods nor the people requesting help. i wrote a letter to the editor, that they published, much to my surprise as it mentioned Islam. so, yeah, we’re learning, slowly but surely, to embrace all. for now, i am attempting to reteach r things he has long known, in this instance it has been 2 hours so far, how to turn on the electronic contol oven, by googling the manual and following instructions. this gives him an enormous amount of angst. I really believe that he is somewhat sexist his own self, by demonstrating that he is showing his inability to learn form me, or is it ageist. he has completed rejected the notion that he has any memory issues, and although 3 docs said no driving, he continues to drive, and continues to have car crashes. he may soon learn, but that time may come when it is too late. As the Animals sang in that fab Vietnam War protest song WE GOTTA GET OUT OF THIS PLACE, i must get out of here, to save what is left of my mind and spirit. wish me luck, adventure awaits me. fuck an electronic control oven, give me sticks and a way to start a fire, and i’m good.Glad that you are well, except for gout. i am fine, except for pain.

c
Compose new post
j
Next post/Next comment
k
Previous post/Previous comment
r
Reply
e
Edit
o
Show/Hide comments
t
Go to top
l
Go to login
h
Show/Hide help
shift + esc
Cancel