Hun's Wanderings & Wonderings

Notable Signage Seen in Foreign Lands

2012-01-29T15:36:00.001-05:00

A sampling of some of the signage seen in my travels in the last few years. Some of these were taken by travel mates on the same trip.

Outside of a Chinese massage place

Seen in Taipei subway stations

Guangzhou Airport. Or was it Taipei?

In Lhasa

Lhasa, Barkhor area

Lhasa, Beijing-lam

Downtown Yilan, Taiwan

A honeybee educational center in Taiwan

Same honeybee place in Taiwan

At a B&B in Yilan, Taiwan

Lhasa, also on Beijing-lam

Sachets found in a hotel in Chengdu

Penang, Malaysia

In southern Tibet, on the way to Gyantse

In Leh, Ladakh

Outside a small shrine in Leh, Ladakh


Somewhere in Ladakh

In a room at an airport hotel in Shanghai, China

Same room, same hotel

At the Peace Stupa in Clementown, India

In a bathroom at a restaurant in Dehra Dun

At the McDonalds in Dehra Dun, India

Train station at Xining, China

"The Word"

2012-01-24T09:54:00.000-05:00

An apt piece from one of my favorite poets - Tony Hoagland.

“The Word” by Tony Hoagland

Down near the bottom
of the crossed-out list
of things you have to do today,

between “green thread”
and “broccoli,” you find
that you have penciled “sunlight.”

Resting on the page, the word
is beautiful. It touches you
as if you had a friend

and sunlight were a present
he had sent from someplace distant
as this morning—to cheer you up,

and to remind you that,
among your duties, pleasure
is a thing

that also needs accomplishing.
Do you remember?
that time and light are kinds

of love, and love
is no less practical
than a coffee grinder

or a safe spare tire?
Tomorrow you may be utterly
without a clue,

but today you get a telegram
from the heart in exile,
proclaiming that the kingdom

still exists,
the king and queen alive,
still speaking to their children,

—to any one among them
who can find the time
to sit out in the sun and listen.

Year of the Dragon

2012-01-22T20:11:00.007-05:00

US stamp for Year of Dragon

Korea stamp for Year of Dragon

Malaysia stamp for Year of Dragon

2012 is the Year of the Water Dragon. This year, Chinese, Vietnamese, Koreans all over the world celebrate the first day of the East Asian Lunar New Year on January 23. (Until the late 1800s, Japanese also celebrated the new year according to the lunar calendar.) Strictly speaking, the Year of the Water Dragon does not begin until what's known in the traditional calendar as "Start of Spring" (立春) - this is when the sun enters the 315th degree on the tropical zodiac. This year, "Start of Spring" in China's time zone will be on February 4th. Practically, what this means is, a child born any day before February 4th this year isn't really a Dragon but is instead a Rabbit. Also, the effects of the Year of the Water Dragon do not take effect until twelve days after January 23rd.

Canada stamp for Year of Dragon

China stamp for Year of Dragon

Experts and practitioners of Chinese astrology are of the general opinion that this Year of the Water Dragon will be a strong Dragon year as the Dragon is a symbol of water and the element is water as well and both are unpredictable and mysterious. What this translates to is that on the impersonal and universal level, there is potential for an unexpected turn of events, something transformative or perhaps shocking even. On a personal level, this year's fortune can be either strongly good or bad but it can change very suddenly as well since this Water Dragon is not only powerful but doubly unpredictable and uncertain. It will be a year where personal actions carry great weight. Thus especially for Dharma-practitioners - no matter what our personal astrology birth chart might be and how this might predispose us to experiencing a generally positive or negative year - it is a year to diligently apply the powerful methods we have been given to transform suffering. Ultimately, good/bad fortune does not fall from the sky - they are the results of our past karma ripening. But negative karma can be purified, and if we are not careful, good karma can be destroyed. So what the Water Dragon offers us is the opportunity to powerfully transform suffering. If we do not seize this opportunity to act, then calamities might gather and suffering and unhappiness spread.

Croatia stamp for Year of Dragon

Azerbaijan stamp for Year of Dragon

Of the Five Phases 五行 (metal, wood, water, fire and earth), the Dragon contains earth, water and wood. People whose lucky element are earth, water and wood will generally have a promising year while those whose lucky element is fire will need to be cautious.

Also, those born in the year of Dog are in direct conflict with the Grand Duke of Jupiter 太歲 while those born in the year of Dragon are offending the Grand Duke, and Ox and Sheep are in indirect conflict with the Grand Duke. The Grand Duke of Jupiter isn't actually one figure but rather a group of sixty heavenly generals 六十甲子神 and each year, one of them serves as the Grand Duke, presiding over the well-being of the world.

Peng Tai

In terms of the Chinese systems of heavenly stems and earthly branches, the Grand Duke is imagined as a "star" that moves directly opposite the planet Jupiter (Jupiter is considered a "star" in Chinese astrology - the chief of all the other stars). Each year, one of the sixty heavenly marshals takes up the position of the Grand Duke. In their benign form, they watch over the records all the good and bad deeds of beings and metes out rewards and punishments accordingly. However, offending the Duke exposes us to illness, misfortune, and all kinds of upheavals. Peng Tai Heavenly Marshall 彭泰大將軍 is this year's Grand Duke. Peng Tai holds with his both hands a vessel carrying a dragon. In Asia, those born in the years of Dog, Dragon, Ox and Sheep often request a simple Daoist ritual at the beginning of the year for the purpose of appeasing or pacifying the Grand Duke. A thanksgiving is further done at the end of the year. Lacking access to such rituals, making frequent lamp-offerings to the enlightened beings and regular recitation of the mantra of Marici can be very effective in averting the mass of forceful energy that is clashing with those born under those astrological signs.

Fengshui wise, it is said that Peng Tai dwells in the southeast sector of one's domicile - what this means is that that area should not be disturbed this year - no renovations, no major reorganization etc.

Taiwan stamp for Year of Dragon

Singapore stamp for Year of Dragon

Of course, for a strong Dharma-practitioner, the external world and it's movements and changes can have little to no effect. Furthermore, each culture has a particular pattern when it comes to the type of conceptual thoughts that arises that cloud over our innate wisdom. All these details regarding the astrological significances of the Year of the Water Dragon are also conceptual thoughts particular to a culture, a group of people. Other groups, other cultures have their particular types of conceptual thoughts. But as long as we are still under the power and hold of conceptual thoughts, knowing a little about them can help us prevent problems from surfacing if we know what to do. Ultimately, bodhicitta (altruistic mind) is the supreme remedy for all suffering. And it is that, that we should rely on if we consider ourselves as Dharma-practitioners.

Burundi stamp for Year of Dragon

Vietnam stamp for Year of Dragon

Estonia stamp for Year of Dragon

Finally, I'll end this blog with a story that His Holiness the Dalai Lama related at last summer's Kalacakra Empowerment in Washington DC. His Holiness related an incident in the life of the Great Fifth Dalai Lama. Accordingly, there was an occasion where the Great Fifth wrote about or spoke of all the supposed wonderful astrological significances of his birth date and time. After discussing a lengthy list of the auspicious and superlative signs of his birth date and time, the Great Fifth ended by saying, "and, on that same day and at the same time, many dogs were also born in Lhasa!" [Note: Dogs in that context have a lowly connotation.] So - whether this upcoming Year of Water Dragon will render you a lowly dog or Great Fifth Dalai Lama depends on your actions!

A Youtube on Momo

2012-01-19T21:03:00.000-05:00

Here's a good, short, documentary on momos - steamed meat dumplings popular in Tibetan and Nepali cuisines. Enjoy!

Winter Journey

2012-01-19T10:34:00.000-05:00

Nepal-Tibet border

How can you make it through winter
without knowing the fragrance of winter wind?

Dreams of that fragrance
are utterly unknown
to frogs, and snakes
underground.

Utterly unknown,
and that's the place you'll reach in the end.

Utterly, completely unknown!

- Ko Un

Photos from Urban Dharma

2012-01-19T10:31:00.000-05:00

It's been a LONG while since I updated this blog. BUT, I do intend to continue blogging here. Until something substantive turns up (hopefully soon), here are some pictures of Urban Dharma - a new venture up in Asheville, NC that I have been busy with, a nice addition to what I already do for my day-job. Enjoy!

Newly completed shrine at UD

The first UD Temple public event - Amitayus Longevity Blessing

Thanking the shrine-builder

Students from Warren Wilson College

More friends from Warren Wilson!

A Chinese-style Amitabha Buddha graces our shrine

Shantavaani - the first musical performance at UD

Khenpo Choephel from Pittsburgh Three Rivers Dharma Center

Consecrating sacred images & shrine

Khenpo Choephel performing Chod

Consecrating the Shrine

Have some tea!

2011-09-14T22:56:00.000-04:00

Here are some pictures of tea since I don't have any text worth posting. (I know, I've been neglecting this blog....)

Anyway, tonight didn't feel like a pu'er tea night. Neither did it feel like a fresh oolong night. So I decided to brew some aged oolong that I got from Taiwan two summers ago. Two summers ago, Kevin and I visited Joe in Taiwan. We wandered up to Alishan (Mt. Ali) which is tea country in Taiwan and we arrived unannounced at the Sheng Lee tea farm and just invited ourselves in!

So here are some photos of the tea (from tonight),

and of the visit to the farm (two summers back).

Migrant Vietnamese tea-pickers.

The young family that now runs the family business started by the guy's parents.

Joe and Kevin.

Absence of new postings

2011-08-10T19:17:00.000-04:00

So... I've been occupied with other exciting things - and more pressing things - going on here in this corner in North Carolina and thus have not posted anything new to this blog. But this brief post is to say that I've been thinking of this blog and do intend to start posting again....

Meanwhile, this is what I have been busy/occupied with spearheading a new Buddhist center in Asheville, NC. If you're curious, check out the website. Click here. Urban Dharma NC is ambitious - it aspires to "change minds, transform cities." For now, a whole host of details need our attention. If you're in the Asheville area and would like to get involved, drop us a line at: info[at]UDharmaNC.com.

Tārā Article: Historical Survey of the Hindu Tārā (continuing)

2011-06-02T21:34:00.001-04:00

In still later texts, we get detailed iconographical descriptions of the Hindu Tārā. In the 14^th century Kālikā-purāna, Tārā is described as follows:

The wise seers here call her Ugratārā, for she always protects her devotees against danger, however terrible it may be…

[One should meditate on her as] having four arms, a black colour, as being adorned with a wreath of heads, holding in her two right hands a sword (above) and a blue lotus below;

and holding in her left a knife and a skull-bowl respectively; she herself wears one braid on her head, which scratches the sky;

she always wears a black cloth around her loins; she is provided with a tiger’s skin; her left foot she has put down on the heart of a corpse, and she has her right foot on the back of a lion; she herself frequently licks the corpse; she laughs shrilly, is utterly horrible and very frightening, being provided with a conflagration.

Ugratara should be continually meditated upon by devotees who long for happiness.

What immediately strikes us here is that the Tārā just described is very different from the typical Tārā imagined in Buddhist texts. Instead of a two-armed, peaceful (saumya), dark green or golden Tārā holding a beautiful utpala flower, here, in this Hindu context, she is described as a four-armed, wrathful (raudra), terrifying black goddess. The Hindu Tārā appears within the context of the daśamahāvidyā – the ten tantric goddesses. Although different sources provide slightly different names of the ten goddesses, Tārā almost always figures and is given as the second mahāvidyā goddess. As a mahāvidyā goddess, Tārā or Ugratārā (fierce Tārā) is described in the Mantra-mahodadhih thus:

I meditate upon the Divine Mother of the three worlds, who is sitting on a white lotus situated in the center of the waters enveloping the entire universe. In her left hands she holds a knife and a skull and, in her right hands, a sword and a blue lotus. Her complexion is blue, and she is bedecked with ornaments… She is decorated with three beautiful serpents and has three eyes… She is wearing a tiger skin around her waist, and her forehead is decorated with ornaments of white bone. Sage Akṣobhya, in the form of a serpent, is situated on her head. She is seated on the heart of a corpse, and her breasts are hard. Thus should one meditate on Bhagavatī Tārā, who is the mistress of all three worlds.

In the Tantrasāra – perhaps the most comprehensive and popular tantric digest known in Bengal – Tārā is described in the following manner:

Tārā should be conceived as emerging from a white lotus. She advances with her left foot forward, and she is dreadful in appearance. She is short in stature and had a protruding and long belly. She wears a garland of skulls and a tiger skin for a skirt. She is eternally young. Her forehead is decorated with a row of five skulls. She has a lolling tongue, she is very dreadful and has four arms which she carries a sword, a pair of scissors [karti], a cut head, and a lotus [utpala]. She has a smiling face. Her hair is in the form of a matted jatā (a braided knot) on which sits Akṣobhya in the form of a serpent. Her complexion is like that of the bright moon.

It should be noted that both the Mantra-mahodadhih by Mahīdhara (d.u.) and the Tantrasāra by Krsnānanda (d.u.) are fairly late texts; the Mantra-mahodadhih was composed in the 16^th century and the Tantrasāra in the 17^th century. During this late-medieval period, the Hindu tantric tradition flourished in such areas as Bengal, areas where Buddhism, and specifically Tantric Buddhism, used to dominate. Although Buddhism was no longer a living tradition in India by that time, it must have left behind influences that resurfaced among emerging tantric Hindu traditions and this is clearly evident in the case of the Hindu Tārā.

Although the mention of Akṣobhya appearing on the crown of the Hindu Tārā betrays the Buddhist origins of Tārā, the fifth chapter of the Sammoha-tantra (completed by the 11^th century), known as the Akṣobhyatārāsamvāda, explains the Hindu significance of Akṣobhya:

The Maheśvara said to Brahmā, “Hear from me about Mahānīlasarasvatī with attention. It is through her favour that you will narrate the four Vedas. There is a lake called Cola on the western side of the Meru. The mother goddess Nīlogratārā, herself was born there… the light issuing from my upper eye fell into the lake Cola and took a blue colour. There was a sage Akṣobhya, who was Śiva himself in the form of a muni, on the northern side of the Meru….”

Thus, Akṣobhya is here explained as a manifestation of the great god Śiva. A later text, the Todala-tantra narrates a different myth that similarly identifies Akṣobhya with Śiva,

At the time when the ocean was churned there arose a deadly poison, O Goddess! and all the gods and goddesses felt very much disturbed. But as Śiva drank the deadly poison without any tremor, therefore, O Goddess! he is called Akshobhya and with him Mahāmāya ‘the great Illusion’ Tārinī always enjoys herself.

The Tārā-tantra, which follows the account given in the Todala-tantra similarly refers to Akṣobhya as one of Śiva’s appellations,

O great goddess, without decaying, Śiva, the lord of sleep, drank the halāhala poison, hence he is known as the Never-decaying (Akṣobhya). The transcendental power of illusion, ever in lustful dalliance with him, is the Star, Tārā.

Thus we see here attempts to give a Hindu overlay to the largely Buddhist figure of Akṣobhya who curiously appears seated in the hair of the Hindu Tārā. The attempt to “hinducize” the Buddhist Akṣobhya becomes even more obvious when it is explained elsewhere that the corpse which the Hindu Tārā is often seen trampling on is not a mere corpse but that of Śiva himself. Why would Śiva appear both on the crown of Tārā as well as under her feet? Furthermore, the iconographic detail of having a miniature deity placed on the crown of another deity is something only observed in Buddhist images. This rather forced attempt by Hindus to transform Akṣobhya into Śiva instead of just removing him from the hair of the Hindu Tārā perhaps speaks to the power of iconography over doctrine. Instead of removing explicitly Buddhist elements from the iconography of Tārā, Hindus give a Hindu reading to the iconography of Tārā even if it seemed rather forced or contradictory.

From Tantrasāra we learn that the Hindu Tārā is also identified with other goddesses as Nīlasarasvatī, Ekajatā and Ugratārā. Satpathy mentions the existence of a Hindu tradition of the Eight Tārās (aṣṭa tārā) where Tārā appears in eight forms as Ugrā, Vajrā, Mahogrā, Kālī, Sarasvatī, Kāmeśvarī and Bhadrakālī. Based on what we have seen above, it is evident that the Hindu Tārā is, iconographically speaking, very close to the more well-known Hindu goddess Kālī. In fact, in the list of daśamahāvidyā goddesses Tārā figures as the second goddess; while Kālī is often given as the first. Among these ten goddesses, Tārā resembles Kālī the most. In fact, according to the Śaktisangama-tantra, Mahāśakti is called Kālī in Kerala, Tripurā in Kashmir and Tārā in Bengal. Kinsley comments on the iconic similarity between Kālī and the Hindu Tārā:

The similarities in appearance between Kālī and Tārā are striking and unmistakable, especially in the two most common images of each goddess, Daksinā-kālī and Ugra-tārā. They both stand upon a supine male figure, often discernible as Śiva but sometimes said to be an anonymous corpse. Sometimes the figure they stand upon is being consumed in the cremation fire. Both goddesses are black, dark blue, or blue-black. Both are naked or wear minimal clothing, sometimes a tiger skin. Both wear a necklace of severed heads or skulls and a girdle of severed arms. Both are usually shown in the cremation ground. Both have a lolling tongue, and blood oozes from their mouths.

The late medieval and beginning of the modern period saw an increased interest in the goddess Tārā among Hindus. As we have seen above, several texts focusing on the worship of the Hindu Tārā were composed during this time. For example, Brahmānandagiri’s Tārārahasya was composed in the 16^th century and the Tārārahasya-Vrittikā was composed by Śankara Āgamācārya of Bengal in the beginning of the 17^th century. Morinis notes that the daily pūjās performed at Tārāpith is done according to the Tārā-bhakti-sudhārnava, another Tārā text of late composition. In relation to Tārāpith, the worship of Tārā there apparently became popular in the 20^th century mainly due to the fame of a mad saint (khepā) known as Vāmā (b. 1843). According to tradition, Vāmā devoted his life to the worship of Tārā. He is known both as the “son of Tārā” as well as the bhairava or consort of the Tārā at Tārāpith. According to pītha (Śakta Tantric ‘seats’ or ‘sites’) lore, each pītha is a localized sacred site associated with a śakti together with her bhairava (i.e. male consort). The Śivacarita lists the śakti of Tārāpith as Tārinī and her bhairava as “Unmatta” or “the mad one.” In accordance with this tradition, the 19^th century mad Vāmākhepa is identified by devotees at Tārāpith as a manifestation of Unmatta, the bhairava of Tārāpith.

Tārā Article: Historical Survey of the Hindu Tārā

2011-05-08T10:55:00.003-04:00

Historical Survey of the Hindu Tārā

Unlike the Buddhist Tārā, the Hindu Tārā assumes a much more limited role in the Hindu tradition. Her worship is restricted to a small group of devotees and is often tied to specific areas in Northern India. In fact, according to the Samayācāra-tantra, the Hindu Tārā belongs to the Uttaramnāya or the sacred textual traditions of the north. Hence, we do not find any worship of Tārā within the Hindu tradition in South India, whereas there are still a few Hindu temples in North India and Nepal that have Tārā as their main deity. E. Alan Morinis observes that there are “few temples to Tārā (in contemporary India), the one at Tārāpith being the only one of importance in the state (of Bengal).” According to A. K. Maitra, in his “Introduction to the Tārā-tantram,” the textual sources for Tārā worship in the Hindu tradition can be found in the Todala-tantra, Rudrayāmala, Brahmayāmala (which contains portions that are sometimes circulated as an independent text known as Mahācinācāra-krama), Nila-tantra, Mahānila-tantra, Tārā-rahasya-vrittikā, Tārārahasyam, Ekajatākalpa, Ekavirākalpa, and Tara-tantram. Tārā also has a significant presence in the Mantra-mahodadhih and Tantrasāra. It is evident then that although the worship of Tārā is presently a relatively isolated phenomenon within the Hindu tradition, there are a good number of texts that deal with the cult of the Hindu Tārā.

According to N. N. Bhattacharyya, the name Tārā, meaning “the savior” can be found in the Yajurveda. In this Veda, the name Tārā is apparently used as an appellation of the great god Śiva. In the Mahābhārata, we see the goddess Durgā referred to as “Tārā Tārinī” by the hero of the epic, Arjuna. As Tārā Tārinī, Durgā is praised as a goddess who protects her worshippers. It should be noted that etymologically the name Durgā refers to one who removes grave dangers. The Durgāstotra, in the Mahābārata describes Durgā as a goddess who delivers her devotees from the perils and dangers of robbers, drowning and captivity. This is significant since Buddhist prayers to the Buddhist Tārā often refer to her saving power from the very same type of dangers that Durgā is supposed to save her devotees from. The Sādhanamālā – a collection of Buddhist tantric meditations describing the different forms of Buddhist deities – contains forms of Buddhist Tārās known as Durgottārinī Tārā and Durgottārā. We see here possible evidence of a close connection between Durgā and Tārā, even though Durgā herself is absent from the Buddhist pantheon. The earliest Purānic text which contains the name Tārā (tārānama-mahaśakti) is in the Brahmanda Purāna – a text believed to have been composed towards the end of the fourth century C.E. In this Purāna, Tārā (also Tārāmba – “mother Tārā”) is presented as a mahāśakti (great goddess) who guards the gates to a certain lake of amṛṭa (nectar of immortality). She is also believed to have the powers of calming floodwaters and has attendant śaktis who are green (or dark) in complexion. This aspect of Tārā is more fully elaborated in the much later Nila-tantra (17^th century). Furthermore, the name Tārā also appears in a number of other purānas. For example, Tārā appears in the Agni-purāna as the name of a yoginī. Tārā is also the name of the wife of Brhaspati in the Bhāgavata-, Brahmānda-, Vayu- and Viṣṇu- purānas. In the Matsya-purāna, Tārā is the name of the goddess enshrined at Kiskindhāpārvata. She is one of the ten branches of “haritadevas” in the Vāyu-purāna, and in the Linga-purāna, Tārā appears as one of the sixteen goddesses worshipped in the second enclosure of the Nandavyūha. In short, the name Tārā appears as a common name for both human women and goddesses in many of the purānas.

Although the name Tārā appears in early Hindu traditions, the emergence of Tārā as a distinctive goddess of significance does not occur until the time of the rise of the Hindu Tantric tradition. Even though the names Tārā, Tārinī and Tārāmba were used in earlier Hindu texts such as the Mahābhārata and certain purānas as epithets of Devī or Durgā, it is only in the Hindu tantras that we begin to have a clearly articulated and iconographically represented Hindu goddess with the name Tārā. Tārā as a goddess appears in both the Rudrayāmala (10^th century C.E.) and Brahmayāmala (11^th century C.E.). In both these texts, we find slightly different versions of the myth of “Vaśistha and the Buddha” where the worship of Tārā is associated with the “cīnācāra” rite. This myth is significant because it suggests, at the very least, a perceived Buddhist origin for Tārā if not an actual Buddhist origin. Based on the narrative in these two texts, David Kinsley retells the story of “Vaśistha and the Buddha”:

Once upon a time he [Vaśistha] did austerities for ten thousand years, but got no results. He went to the god Brahmā and asked for a powerful mantra that might help him. Brahmā told him about the glory of Tārā. It is through the power of Tārā’s power, he said, that he creates the world, Viṣṇu protects it and Śiva destroys it. She is infinitely more glorious that the suns, she is the source of all light, and she reveals all Vedas. Brahmā then told Vaśistha to recite the Tārā mantra for success.

Having been instructed this way, Vaśistha thus begins reciting the Tārā mantra diligently. However, after a thousand years there was still no sign of success. Finally, out of frustration and anger, Vaśistha cursed Tārā and her mantra. At that moment, the goddess appeared before him and asked:

How now Vipra, why have you terribly cursed without cause? Thou dost not understand my Kulāgama not knowest how to worship. How by mere Yoga practice can either man or Deva get sight of My Lotus-Feet…, My Sādhana is pure and beyond even the Vedas (Vedānāmapyagocara). Go to Māhācīna and the country of the Bauddhas and always follow the Atharvaveda.

Thus, Vaśistha ventures off “to the land of China where Buddha is established (buddhapratisthita).” In Mahācīna, Vaśistha learns from the Buddha the cīnācāra method of propitiating Tārā. The cīnācāra (literally, the “Chinese-rite”) rite apparently made use of the five makāras – alcohol, meat, fish, parched-grain (believed to be a form of aphrodisiac) and sexual intercourse – in a ritual context to propitiate tantric deities. After returning from Mahācīna, Vaśistha practiced according to the method taught to him by the Buddha and was soon rewarded with siddhi (tantric accomplishments).

Although there are some minor differences between the narratives in the Rudrayāmala and the Brahmayāmala, an important point that they both agree on is that the cīnācāra rite taught by the Buddha is the best way to propitiate Tārā. Evidently then, the authors of these Hindu texts saw a close connection between the worship of Tārā and Buddhism. In an even later Hindu Tantric text known appropriately as Tārā-tantra, the Hindu Tārā is addressed as “Prajñapāramitā.” Prajñapāramitā is of course, an explicitly Buddhist term – the “perfection of wisdom” that bodhisattvas have to train in and attain to become buddhas. More importantly, Buddhists eventually divinized the prajñapāramitā as a supreme goddess who is sometimes identified with Tārā.

The Killing of bin Laden

2011-05-04T12:06:00.003-04:00

I had just returned from Asheville, having just completed the first of a new series of Urban Dharma weekend teaching-retreats up in Asheville, on this past Sunday night, when, I received a text message from a student asking if I have my t.v. on and if so, if I was either watching CNN or CBS. The text message read: "Osama, supposedly, dead." My t.v. was on in fact, and so I quickly switched channels and there it was - they are confirming that bin Laden had been killed and that President Obama will soon be addressing the nation live.

Like many, my response to the news was a mixed bag - some form of relief (I think), but also a lot of not knowing what to feel and yet knowing that all sorts of feelings and thoughts were percolating away. Then, more and more news started coming in. First reports, and then images of people "celebrating" in New York City and DC, of fans at some game in some stadium somewhere chanting "USA, USA, USA...." upon hearing the death of bin Laden. Many of these "celebrating" Americans were probably kids when 9/11 happened - probably traumatized by it and grew up with that experience always haunting them. And watching on t.v. the next morning of families who lost loved ones at the 9/11 attack being interviewed on several morning shows - their sense of relief on the one hand but very much mixed with the reliving of the moments when they first learned of their loss of loved ones almost ten years ago. I recognized all of what I saw and read - they were raw emotions, emotions that I have certainly felt before, in form if not in degree.

And on Facebook, links were posted on walls. Comments were scribbled. Thoughts were shared. Emotions were expressed. I posted two links myself - one from Al-Jazeera and another from CBS. I also, posted, without comment, the "Aspiration bodhicitta" prayer that we in the Drigung Kagyü do at every beginning of practice. It reads:

"All mother sentient beings boundless as the sky, especially those enemies who hate me, obstructers who harm me, and those who create obstacles on my path to liberation and omniscience: May they experience happiness and be separated from suffering. I will quickly establish them in the state of the most perfect and precious buddhahood."

Not surprisingly, most of the responses to my postings, were not surprising at all. They were very much like my own (I guess I'm very partial when it comes to choosing friends....). No one "celebrated" the killing of another human being, even if it was someone like bin Laden. At most, there were expressions of relief. Also not surprisingly, some Buddhist "voices of authority" also made it to the comments (not directly, but reported, quoted). The gist seems to be, because bin Laden was causing so much harm to others, and therefore, also to himself, it was "better" that his life was ended. The jataka-story (stories of the past-lives of the Buddha) of Captain Compassion came up. In case you are unfamiliar with the story, basically, in one of the past lifetimes of the most recent Buddha (i.e. historical Buddha), he was the captain of a boat that carried 500 merchants who were all bodhisattvas (beings who have developed genuine and stable altruism). Also on the boat was an "evil person" who was plotting to murder all 500 of his fellow passengers so that he would end up with the rich goods and jewels that they have amassed on the boat. Knowing this plot and apparently seeing no other way to prevent this mass murder except to murder the evil person, the captain - whose name was "Captain Compassion" - murdered the would-be murderer of 500 bodhisattvas, thus saving the lives of the bodhisattvas and the would-be murderer from the definitely negative karmic consequences of the heinous act of murdering 500 bodhisattvas.

Of course, this is not to say, there is anything to "celebrate" about the death of bin Laden. And this is not to say that other end scenarios might not be more desirable. Every time I have told the story of Captain Compassion, I have always been asked, why can't the captain apprehend the would-be murderer? If he couldn't do it himself, surely 501 people could have stopped 1? Of course, stories like that of Captain Compassion often play a didactic role - they were created/developed/embellished to make a point, or points. But still, one can't help wishing that - whatever the point of the story - perhaps the would-be murderer of 500 bodhisattvas could have locked up in a cabin instead of murdered. Wouldn't this be a LOT more "skillful?" I can appreciate the point that the compassion of the captain was great indeed. According to the story, he did what he did purely for the good of the 500 bodhisattvas and the would-be murderer. And that compassion eventually became fully expanded and perfected into the compassion of a buddha. And in my experience, most times when this story is told, this is what's emphasized - that the compassion of a bodhisattva can be so, so powerful that what you see if not what you get.

While I can dig that point, I always think that there is another side of the coin that the story is also telling and I am uneasy that this other side is not often emphasized as well - that there is such a thing as karma and that skillful-means have to be actually "skillful." Simply having compassion does not render an act "skillful" yet. So I have always wished that teachers who tell this story would also give as much time and emphasis to discussing "what about the murder?" What about the act of murdering? Does an act of murder motivated by genuine compassion cancel out the karmic (i.e. moral) result of murdering? In other words, can "religious violence" be sanctioned? Unfortunately, most of the time, traditional tellings and readings of this story tend not to tease out the subtle but vast implications of this tale. They tend to limit interpretations rather than open up dimensions and avenues that we have not considered before. But aren't tales told and retold so that we can think with the tales?

And I think this is why, once again, why I appreciate so much the teachings of Jikten Sumgön, founder of Drigung Kagyü who lived in the 12th/13th centuries. His most distinctive teachings is embodied in a text known as Gongchik (translated as "Single Intention" or "Unified Intent"). The Gongchik was a source of controversy when it first circulated as it offended the sensibilities of some of the great scholars of the time. Somehow, Jikten Sumgön's views as expressed in the Gongchik were a bit peculiar, odd. Here's not the place to go into the objections raised by those scholars and the counter-arguments offered by later Kagyü scholars in defense of Jikten Sumgön. What I do want to do is to offer two lines by Jikten Sumgön from Gongchik and parts of a a versified commentary on those two lines by Drigung Chödrak (17th century). So, the two lines read:

"Non-virtue does not exist in skillful behavior" (IV.7) and "The fruit of virtue and non-virtue appears distinctly" (IV.10).

"Skillful behavior" translates "upaya" - which is the means/ways/methods in which advanced bodhisattvas and perfect buddhas act or take in order to benefit all sentient beings.

And now the commentary by Drigung Chödrak on IV.7:

It is said: "If a skillful person had non-virtue, then its fruit will arise."
It is not possible that there is non-virtue
In the skillful behavior of a bodhisattva;
If there were, then [its] fruit would arise (regardless).
Concerning that, there are countless lines of reasoning and authentic scriptures,
As it is for example said in the Jatakas etc.,
The ripening of karman is inconceivable;
Even a person whose nature if compassion is born as an animal.

The commentary for IV.10:

It is said, "The fruit of virtue and of non-virtue definitely appears distinctly."
Who could opposed this tenet that sets up cause and effect as a witness?
The fruit of virtue is happiness, the fruit of non-virtue suffering.
These are the words of the Jina and this is [also] the innate disposition or abiding (of all phenomena).
Some teachers have false theories about cause and effect and say that
While there is virtue as impelling [cause], there is non-virtue as completing [effect];
And while there is non-virtue as impelling [cause], there is virtue ad completing [effect].
[Their view of] cause and effect is strange, as they for example [explain that]
Good karman ripens to bad [fruits], or that bad karman ripens to good [fruits].
The Jina said that the fruit of positivity alone is happiness
And the fruit of negativity alone is suffering;
The fruit of mixed karman is mixed.
This means that [for example] the fruit of a barley seed is barley as well;
And peas grow from peas.
Peas will not arise from a mixture of barley;
The fruit of a mixture of barkey and peas is also a mixture of both.
Captain Mahakaruna [for example] was exchanging himself and others,
As he intended to kill a person intriguing against him and others for the benefit of the other sailors.
The intention was virtuous, the act of killing the miscreant non-virtuous.
Furthermore, because he exchanged himself with others,
He gathered the accumulations of many kalpas,
[But] due to the negative act, he was pierced by an acacia thorn
...
In this way [karman] ripens distinctly.

This commentary goes on a few more lines but the main import of it are in these lines.

(The translations are quoted from Gongchik: the Single Intent, translated by Markus Viehbeck. I have some minor modifications - words within parentheses () were added by me. Also, whereas Viehbeck uses "individually," I have used "distinctly.")

So, what has this to do with the recent killing of bin Laden and the responses? For me at least, I am grateful that Jikten Sumgön so clearly emphasized the importance of not confusing karmic cause and effect, of how karma works. Virtuous acts (whether mental, verbal or physical) only result in virtuous results. And non-virtuous acts only ripen as non-virtuous results. The opposite cannot be true. And even though an agricultural metaphor was used, there is, however, no hybridization in karma - a barley seed only produces a barley shoot and pea only produces pea. Also, putting a barley seed and a pea next to each other, no matter how close, and for how long, will not result in a hybrid - they each produce a distinctive and corresponding result. Likewise, even if the killing of bin Laden saved him from further harm and saved others from further becoming victims of his hate and harm and thus the act can be deemed "compassionate," we should be clear that killing will have negative karmic/moral results. Even if the killing of him was truly and genuinely based on compassion, then whoever did it (and whoever ordered it, approved it, rejoiced in it) will still experience the negative karmic/moral result of that killing. Thus the commentary on Verse IV.7 cautions us to keep in mind that even bodhisattvas - if they ever acted in a unskillful manner - would reap the corresponding negative results, even to the extent of being born in the lower realms. The commentary on Verse IV.10 makes it even clearer that we should not misunderstand how karma works, using the story of Captain Compassion to illustrate the point: yes, Captain Compassion acted out of genuine compassion and for that, he accumulated a great store of merit for his compassion that disregarded his own welfare (i.e. he murdered the would-be murderer of 500 bodhisattvas, he "exchanged self with others."). But, as the commentary goes on to say, "The intention was virtuous, the act of killing the miscreant non-virtuous." So, according to this commentary, Captain Compassion's compassion - no matter how genuine and altruistic - should not lead us to the conclusion that therefore his act of murdering the would-be murderer was "virtuous." Maybe one could say that it was "necessary." Or that it was "just." Or that it was "the best that could have been done given the circumstances." But this still cannot turn killing from being a non-virtue to being a virtue. Even when Captain Compassion later perfected both his wisdom and compassion and completely purified all the obscurations and became Sakyamuni Buddha, he still had to experience the ripening of that karma of killing - "he was pierced by an acacia thorn." And this was the residual-effect of that negative karma of killing the would-be murderer of 500 bodhisattvas. Some commentaries said that the main-effect of the karma of killing the evil person was experienced by Captain Compassion when he was born into the hell-realm after that life. These commentaries further argue that if Captain Compassion had fully developed not only just compassion but also perfect skillful-means when faced with the predicament, then he would have had the power to not have to commit a murder in order to prevent the bigger carnage.

It's very easy for us to marshal Dharma to justify the three poisons. Hence Gampopa warned that if one did not know how to practice Dharma, practicing Dharma can lead to the lower realms. Sometimes, it might be necessary to experience the lower realms (One could argue that if Captain Compassion did not kill the would-be murderer of 500 bodhisattvas and willingly took the karma of murdering, we would not today have Sakyamuni Buddha), but we should not think that "the end justifies the means." Instead, we should always act knowing that for each means, there is a very specific, distinctive and corresponding end. One positive deed does not cancel out the effects of another negative deed. The fruit of the positive deed will in due time produce a positive fruition. Likewise, the negative that was done will in due time produce negative results.

Was the killing of bin Laden "skillful" in the specific context of Dharma, in the context of karma? No. Was it done out of compassion for him and for other beings? I don't know. But the evidence so far does not point in that direction. I doubt if the operation was driven by the force of compassion but rather, it was based on a very different set of values and concerns. Don't get me wrong, I am not judging whether President Obama did the right thing or not - such decisions are highly complex and there are so many elements and angles of consideration that he and his team had to consider. But what I am concerned about is how we Buddhists listen to our treasured stories and how we choose to tell them and live them in the face of our realities.

"Tārā - A Study of Buddhist-Hindu Cross Fertilizations," (pt. 3)

2011-04-29T00:04:00.002-04:00

Historical Survey of the Buddhist Tārā

Ajanta

As mentioned earlier, the emergence of Tārā in India as a distinct Buddhist deity probably dates back to around the close of the sixth century C.E. This assertion is based on archaeological finds of the images of Tārā that can be safely dated back to the sixth century C.E. According to Pushpendra Kumar in Tārā: The Supreme Goddess, some sculptural representations of the Buddhist Tārā dating from the sixth century C.E. can be found in the Ellora caves. There is in fact at least one image in the Ajanta caves (of the fifth century C.E.) that might be an earlier representation of Tārā. Its identity cannot be confirmed as the female figure depicted in this cave holds a red lotus in her left hand instead of the usual utpala associated with the Tārā. Kumar speculates that this image might be a representation of Tārā at a stage when artists of western Indian were still working out the iconographical details of Tārā. However, K. K. Dasgupta offers that there is one representation of Tārā found in the Kanheri cave that can be assigned to the fifth century C.E. although the dating “is not beyond doubt.” In any case, what appears clear to us is that by the sixth century C.E. the Buddhist cult of Tārā has become strong enough that by that time there were already numerous iconic representations of her in different Buddhist cave shrines in India. If we accept the dating of the Tārā images in Ajanta and Kanheri, then we can surmise that by the fifth century C.E., the Buddhist Tārā has already begun to gather a small but significant following of devotees.

Apart from archaeological evidences, textual evidence of the rise of the Buddhist Tārā seems to date back to the period between the fifth and sixth century C.E. One of the earliest clear references to the Buddhist Tārā can be seen in a poem dedicated to the Buddhist Tārā by the celebrated Buddhist grammarian and philosopher, Candragomin. Although historians have not been able to definitively decide on the dates for Candragomin, it is generally accepted that he lived in the Gupta age during the fifth and sixth century C.E.

Although the Buddhist Tārā is identified as a Mahāyāna Buddhist deity, she is not mentioned in any of the earliest Mahāyāna texts such as the Saddharmapundarīka or the Kārandavyūha. Her absence in these two important early Mahāyāna texts is significant since both these texts reserve a special place for the male bodhisattva Avalokiteśvara who in Tārā mythology is often associated with her as her consort. However, Tārā presence began to surface by the time of the rise of ritual texts and traditions that eventually became known as Vajrayāna Buddhism. For instance, in the Mahāvairocana sūtra, Tārā appears as an emanation of Avalokiteśvara. It should be noted that in this text we see Tārā associated for the first time with Avalokiteśvara. This association proves to be a lasting one as all later appearances of Tārā link her with Avalokiteśvara. Furthermore, according to N. N. Bhattacharyya, a fragment of the Mahāpratyangirā-dhāranī found in Central Asia even raises Tārā to the level of “the highest deity.” In this text, she is represented as a white-colored goddess of noble origins and is described as wielding a vajra and has an image of Buddha Vairocana on her crown. N. Dutt points out that the tantric teacher Amoghavajra made this text available in China in the eighth century C.E. It is also clear that by the eighth century, Indian texts on Tārā have been made available not only in China but into Tibet as well. According to Stephan Beyer, the titles of three Tārā texts appear in an eighth century C.E. catalogue placed in the Tengyur section of the Tibetan Buddhist canon.

Continuing on this survey of the earliest texts featuring or mentioning Tārā, by the second half of the ninth century, another Buddhist Tantric text containing references to Tārā was translated into Chinese. This text, the Mañjuśrīmūlakalpa (ca. 8^th century), again associates the goddess Tārā with Avalokiteśvara. While Tārā is only briefly mentioned in the Mahāvairocana-sūtra as one of the goddesses appearing in the entourage of Avalokiteśvara, in the Mañjuśrīmūlakalpa the details are elaborated. In second chapter of this text, Tārā is mentioned as one of the six goddesses in the company of Avalokiteśvara who is in turn part of the Buddha Śakyamuni’s mandala. Tārā appears again later in the text in the section where detailed instructions are given for the painting of a cloth maṇḍala which serves as the object of ritual worship. Here, Tārā’s physical characteristics and several stanzas in praise of her are given. The following description of Tārā in the Mañjuśrīmūlakalpa is extracted from In Praise of Tārā, Song to the Saviouress, by Martin Willson:

Draw resting on this (mountain painted to the right of Avalokiteśvara) the Goddess Who is the Compassion of Ārya Avalokiteśvara, Ārya-Tārā, adorned with all the ornaments, in an upper garment of precious silken cloth and a lower garment of multicolored silken cloth, Her whole body adorned with a woman’s ornaments. In Her left hand is placed a blue utpala. She is golden in colour and slender of waist, [though] not too thin, and neither too young or too old. Her mind in dhyāna, She is listening to the teaching. With Her right hand She is granting boons. Her body is slightly bent, She is seated in paryanka, Her gaze turned a little towards Ārya Avalokiteśvara. She is encompassed on all sides by a garland of flames.

The mountain peak, of lapis lazuli and jewels, is also clothed in punnāga trees, studded with flowers on every branch, abounding with open flowers, sheltering the Lady Tārā. Their bending boughs are very variegated, covered with young shoots and sprouts and ablaze with a multitude of colours, and look as if turned towards the Goddess Tārā.

Apart from the color of Tārā, most other descriptions of the Buddhist Tārā follow closely this description from the Mañjuśrīmūlakalpa. Although there are forms of Tārā that are gold in color, the most famous form of the Buddhist Tārā is usually dark green (śyāma). It is interesting to note that in the stanzas in praise of Tārā following the quotation above, she is referred to as “the mother of Prince Mañjughosa” (miao jixiang tongzi zi mu妙吉祥童子之母). That Tārā is being praised as “the mother of Prince Mañjughosa” is indicative of the high regard the Mañjuśrīmūlakalpa has for Tārā despite her apparently minor role in the actual maṇḍala described in this text.

Hello, Mr. President!

2011-04-27T21:53:00.000-04:00

Or so I like to believe. But someone from his office wandered over to this blog sometime mid-day today. Probably a speech writer looking for material.

"Tārā - A Study of Buddhist-Hindu Cross Fertilizations," (pt. 2)

2011-04-27T10:20:00.002-04:00

The female figure from Harappa

Continuing from the last posting...

It has been frequently pointed out that the phenomena of goddess worship on the Indian sub-continent pre-dates the arrival of the Aryans and the eventual rise of the Vedas as the defining religious authority in India. Archaeological finds from the Indus valley have been interpreted as evidence of the central importance of goddess worship in pre-Aryan Indian religion. Goddess worship in ancient India – as it seem to be too in other ancient cultures – was intimately linked with ideas of growth, fertility, life, and even death as ultimately a step in the rejuvenation of life. A seal unearthed at Harappa shows the image of “a nude female figure, her head downwards and legs stretched upwards, with a plant issuing out of womb.” This image of a plant issuing from the nude female’s womb suggests the pre-Aryan Indus Valley civilization’s sedentary, agriculture-based society. Thus, the worship of goddesses to ensure fertility and growth naturally became a central focus of pre-Aryan Indian religious life. In fact, even after the cultures of Mohenjodaro-Harappa had declined and were replaced by Aryan culture, the worship of goddesses continued. In a nutshell:

…the pre-Aryans, being concerned mainly with agriculture, worshipped female (and to a lesser extent male) earth deities who represented fertility, regeneration, and the processes of life and death. The Aryans, on the other hand, being nomadic cattle herders and warriors, worshipped primarily male sky deities. When the Aryans settled in India, …they took up agriculture and gradually assimilated the indigenous culture(s); thus, the various philosophical movements and cults that came to be called Hinduism are a synthesis of Aryan and non-Aryan elements.

It is obvious from all available evidence that the worship of goddesses was so firmly established in the lives of the inhabitants of the Indian sub-continent that the Aryans naturally assimilated the cult of the goddesses often by transforming them into consorts or counterparts of the predominantly male Aryan deities. However, the worship of goddesses was not fully integrated into the Sanskritic tradition until a much later period. In general, the Vedas contained mostly male deities and male imageries. Although the Epic period saw a rise in the role of goddesses, it was not until the period of the appearance of the purānas that goddess worship became fully accepted into the Aryan, Sanskritic religious world. Goddesses who were once independent and autonomous were partly domesticated as they turned into consorts of the great gods of the Sanskrit tradition. Others have been transformed into either the vidyādevīs or attendant yakṣīs of the Jain tīrthankaras or female bodhisattva-disciples of the buddhas. However, these goddesses were never completely domesticated and coupled. An independent strain continued where goddesses retain their autonomy. Thus, in Devī-Māhātmya: the Crystallization of the Goddess Tradition, Thomas Coburn argues that the Devī Māhātmya (composed between 300 to 700 C.E.) marks the first time in the history of Indian religions where a well-integrated theology and mythology of the goddess as the supreme deity is presented in the Sanskritic tradition. The Devī Māhātmya can in part be seen as an attempt by the Sanskritic elite to assimilate all the local goddess cults in different parts of India into a single, all-powerful goddess operating within the boundaries of a Sanskrit and Brahmanic universe. However, as we shall see, these moves to “tame” and domesticate pre-existing, non-Aryan, local goddesses was only partially successful. While these many of these goddesses did become consorts of the great gods of the Vedas (and in their later incarnations in the purānās and the Jain and Buddhist traditions), these very same goddesses were never completely “tamed” and coupled. Instead, many maintained seemingly schizophrenic but fruitful “double-lives” in the religious world of the Indian sub-continent. Hence, goddesses worshipped in Hinduism are both dependent and independent, Sanskritized and non-Sanskritized, tamed and wild, vegetarian and blood-thirsty. It is within this extremely fluid and messy context that the Hindu Tārā exists and functions. It is also within this context that we have to situate our discussion of the connections and dis-connections between the Hindu and Buddhist Tārās.

The dasamahāvidyās

In the next part of this discussion, I will mainly focus on the historical development of both the Buddhist and Hindu Tārās. I will first survey the historical development of the Buddhist Tārā since she figures more prominently in the Buddhist tradition than the Hindu Tārā does in Hinduism, both historically and in the present. Following that, I will survey the development of the Hindu Tārā. Of the limited material that we have today relating to the Hindu Tārā, she is often discussed in the context of the dasamahāvidyās – a Hindu Tantric tradition that centers on the goddess Kālī and her manifestations as mahāvidyās. The Hindu Tārā is thus often associated with the great god Śiva. While not denying that much of the Hindu Tārā is linked with Śaiva and Śakta-śaiva traditions, the final section of this paper will suggest a previously unnoticed link. I will try to demonstrate that by exploring this largely forgotten link, we will be able to understand both the connections and dis-connections between the Hindu and Buddhist Tārās better.

The Jain goddess, Padmāvati

"Tārā - A Study of Buddhist-Hindu Cross Fertilizations"

2011-04-26T00:41:00.000-04:00

It's yet another birthday for me! Good to be alive, good to be able to continue reading and writing, thinking and contemplating. Since I said earlier in one of my postings that I have been mostly reading, translating and writing everyday, I thought I'd post some of what I've been writing here. Besides, they say it’s good to start another year (yeah, yet another birthday!) with an auspicious act. Anyhow, even though I’ve been working on finishing a book on a Chinese Buddhist ritual dedicated to the relieving of the otherwise insatiable hunger and thirst of a type of ghost known as "hungry ghosts" (Skt. preta, Chi. egui 餓鬼, Tib. yi dwags) this post is not going to be on that subject. Instead, in between working on the book, I’ve been "distracting" myself by also revising a paper on the Mahāyāna goddess Tārā that I wrote many years back and so I'll post parts of this paper here from time to time.

Tārā at Alchi, India

[What follows is the first installment. And if you want to read more of it, leave me some comments! I've removed all the footnotes - have to save something for later, old-fashioned, print publication.]

[Tentative title]

"Tārā - A Study of Buddhist-Hindu Cross Fertilizations"

Introduction

Ming-period Guanyin at Musée Guimet

Growing up in a Chinese family in Malaysia, I was well acquainted with the Buddhist deity Guanyin – the Guanyin whom my family and neighbors affectionately referred to as niang niang 娘娘 or a niang 亞娘, i.e. “the Lady.” In English, Guanyin was dubbed as “Goddess of Mercy,” and often considered the Buddhist parallel to the Catholic Virgin Mary. We always thought of Guanyin as female – as “the Lady,” or “mother” (especially in the form of Guanyin known as “child-giver Guanyin” [songzi guanyin 送子觀音) – that was until my own Buddhist education and knowledge led me to a basic reconsideration of Guanyin. The Guanyin of my childhood gradually underwent a gender reassignment in my imagination as I learned that Guanyin was “in fact” the Chinese development of an originally masculine Indian Buddhist deity known as Avalokiteśvara. Thus by my late teen years the female Guanyin whom my family worshipped as our personal family protectress could no longer be female, Guanyin then was at best, sexually ambiguous if not just outright male.

Later, I also learned that the Lady Guanyin whom my family and our friends, neighbors and everybody else, was closer in her image and characteristics to an Indian Buddhist goddess than to the male bodhisattva of compassion Avalokiteśvara, the Mahāyāna Buddhist divinity said to be the original inspiration for the Chinese Guanyin. This Indian Buddhist goddess was Tārā, the Savioress. Furthermore, since my college days in the United States, I have become increasingly immersed in the Tibetan Buddhist milieu. In a way, one could say that the Lady Guanyin of my childhood has re-entered my life in the form of Tārā even as Guanyin has become resolutely male in my mind. One relevant consequence of my involvement with Tibetan Buddhism has been an on-going relationship with the goddess Tārā since she is one of the most popular divinities among Buddhists of the Himalayan region. After receiving several tantric empowerments and sādhana practices of the goddess Tārā over the past two decades, she has now become a familiar figure in my religious imagination and praxis.

9th c. Avalokiteśvara at New Delhi Musuem

Although most Indian Buddhist deities share a common source of origins with deities of the Hindu and Jain traditions, it nevertheless came as a mild surprise to me that Tārā figures in the Hindu context as well and in fact, present-day Hindus have within their pantheon a goddess whom they address as Tārā. I first became aware of the existence and worship of a Tārā in the Hindu tradition when researching the topic of pilgrimage. This particular reference led me to a chapter in an anthropological study that dealt with a popular pilgrimage site in Western Bengal known as “Tārāpith” (i.e. “seat of Tārā”). This chanced encounter with the Hindu Tārā eventually led to this present study.

Tārā is undoubtedly one of the most ubiquitous deities in the history of Buddhism and could arguably be said to be the most well known female divinity in the Buddhist pantheon. While the worship of Tārā as an independent and distinct deity in Buddhism is today mostly associated with the Buddhist traditions of the Himalayan region, Tārā worship in Buddhism can be confidently traced back to at least the end of the sixth century C.E., if not earlier. By the seventh century C.E., the Buddhist Tārā has clearly emerged as a widely venerated deity among Indian Buddhists. Her devotees came from all backgrounds – ordinary folk, royalty, philosophers and missionaries. Among the most famous are, the grammarian Candragomin (5^th/6^th century), the author of the famous Bodhisattvacaryāvatāra Śāntideva (8^th century), and his contemporary from the famous Buddhist university Nālandā, Sarvajñamitra and yet later, the Bengali master and missionary Atiśa (982-1054). From the seventh century C.E. on, the figure of Tārā began a steady increase in prominence. Her worship was introduced into China, Tibet, South-east Asia (present-day Indonesia, Cambodia, etc.) and Śrī Lanka, together with the introduction of Buddhism, and particularly through the introduction of Mahāyāna Buddhism to these foreign lands.

The question of whether Tārā was “originally” a Buddhist or Hindu deity is one that has vexed many previous scholars who have dealt with the subject of Tārā. While scholars such as Hirananda Sastri and B. Bhattacharya proposed a Buddhist origin for Tārā,others such as K. K. Dasgupta and Pushpendra Kumar have argued that Tārā ultimately originated in the Hindu tradition. However, in trying to answer the question of the origins of Tārā by locating her genesis exclusively within one religious tradition to the exclusion of all others, these scholars have reduced the polyvalent nature of deities in Indian religions and solidified a context which was extremely fluid and flexible. Furthermore, they have mostly ignored the significance of non-textual, non-Sanskritic local traditions that were so often related to the cult of goddesses in the Indian sub-continent. Thus, instead of attempting to locate definitively the genesis of Tārā in a particular religious tradition, this paper will focus on the multivalent nature of Tārā in the history of Indian religious expression. This paper will thus explore the different pathways that Tārā took. Some of these trajectories actually intersect and meet while others part into markedly different directions.

Then the Glorious Holder of the Vajra...

2011-04-21T15:45:00.000-04:00

This was first posted on this blog on 12/8/08 as part of a very short series of blogposts I was doing here on the Ārya Mañjuśrī Nāmasaṃgiti which at that point I was reciting daily. Anyway, both the daily recitations and the blogposts on this text has stopped. Perhaps inspired by a Buddhist program that's upcoming at some friends' Buddhist center in Florida, I'm thinking maybe this might be of interest to some. If you look for the "Vajrapani" tag on the left column of this blog and click on it, it should pull up a couple of other postings that also discuss Vajrapani.

Verse 1
Then the glorious Holder of the Vajra, The most superb tamer of those difficult to tame, The hero, triumphant over the world's three planes, The powerful Lord of the Vajra, ruler of the esoteric.

復次吉祥持金剛　　難調伏中勝調伏
勇猛超出三界內　　自在金剛密中勝

That the Ārya Mañjuśrī Nāmasaṃgiti begins with "Then..." (復次) instead of the usual "Thus I have heard" that opens most sutras and tantras indicates that it was originally part of a larger text; in this case the Māyājāla-māhātantra that no longer exists (some scholars doubt if this tantra has ever existed - at least in the conventional sense). The Māyājāla-māhātantra is said to consist of 16,000 verses while the Ārya Mañjuśrī Nāmasaṃgiti has 160 verses (plus some mantras). In quite a literal sense, this is a distillation of the larger tantra.

So the opening of this tantra identifies another tenth bhūmi bodhisattva, Vajrapani as the interlocutor. Vajrapani is one of the three great bodhisattvas - alongside Avalokiteśvara and Mañjuśrī and is the embodiment of the power of all buddhas. He is depicted with a dark blue complexion, holding a vajra in his right hand, and often wrathful in appearance (although not exclusively). He is the interlocutor in many tantras as he is said to be the main holder of the tantric teachings of the buddhas. Tantric sources claim that when the arhat-monks gathered together at the First Council to collect and codify the sutra/exoteric teachings of the Buddha, Vajrapani did the same for the tantra/esoteric teachings of the Buddha. Thus, one of his epithets is "Lord of the Esoteric."

Vajrapani is introduced as Vajradhara (translated here as "Holder of the Vajra") but not to be confused with the primordial buddha, Vajradhara. Here, "to hold the vajra" is to be inseparable from the indestructible, the wisdom of emptiness. "The glorious" translates the Sanskrit śrīmat - "possessed of śrī." Śrī generally connotes good fortune, success, glory and virtuous. It's also the name of a goddess recognized in both Hinduism and Buddhism as a goddess of wealth and prosperity. In this context, "possessed of śrī" refers to Vajrapani as possessing the source of all excellent virtues.

Vajrapani is praised as "the most superb tamer" because externally he tames the hordes of mara-demons and internally he tames the turbulent oceans of afflictive-emotions. "...those difficult to tame" have to be tamed by wrathful, powerful means and Vajrapani manifests that aspect to tame these difficult beings.

He is a vīra, a hero because of the heroic-mind, bodhicitta - the altruistic-mind that establishes all beings in the state of buddhahood. Although it is sometimes said that the difference between arhats and bodhisattvas is that while arhats are focussed only on themselves and their own welfare (and thus leading some to conclude that arhats are "selfish" or "self-centered"), bodhisattvas are focussed on the welfare of others. Of course, this is not quite the case since authentic arhats cannot possibly be selfish or self-centered! How can those who are defined as having "slain the enemies (of afflictive-emotions)" (i.e. ari + han) possibly still grasp at non-existing selves? Instead, the main difference between arhats and bodhisattvas is the absence and presence of this heroic-mind, this great courage to "do the impossible" - the great vow to liberate all sentient beings even if sentient beings are infinite and thus the task is literally unending. This heroic-mind, this bodhicitta, makes him "triumphant over the world's three planes" (trilokyavijaya) - the plane beneath, upon and above. According to Vimalamitra's commentary, Vajrapani is triumphant over Mahadeva/Siva who is lord of the underworld, over Visnu who is lord on the surface and over Brahma who is lord above. These three symbolize ordinary - and thus, afflicted - body, speech and mind. By being victorious over these three, the afflicted world, samsara is destroyed and the primordially pure state of buddhahood is revealed. And how is samsara destroyed? Only with bodhicitta, the altruistic-mind that frees all beings from suffering.

Vajrapani is "the powerful Lord of Vajra" (rdo rje dbang phyug) because he is the true lord, the true sovereign thoroughly free from the control of any and all afflictive-emotions. As such, he has power over all phenomena. On the other hand, because we are still deluded, we are not "lords" - we lack autonomy and authority as we are under the power of afflictive-emotions. But, as a tenth bhūmi bodhisattva, Vajrapani is a true lord (iśvara). The Chinese translation for iśvara is interesting as the compound "zizai" 自在 consists of "self" and "be" or "exist." To be a true lord is to "be self-so," truly self-sufficient. Zizai connotes a naturalness, a regal contentment. So rdo rje dbang phyug, 自在金剛 is the "indestructible lord," indestructible due to the possession of the unchanging perfect knowledge of the buddhas. He is "ruler of the esoteric" because he has access to the exclusive (thus secret, esoteric) knowledge available only to buddhas.

Did I mention...

2011-04-20T10:50:00.002-04:00

... that I was "god-fathered" several weeks back when Joe and Fiona's son was born in Taiwan? I've been "bragging" about the kid on Facebook but here's a picture of William Rinzen N. on this blog.

"BABY" - by Ko Un

Before you were born
before your dad
before your mom

your burbling
was there.

Status update 4.14.2011

2011-04-14T16:25:00.001-04:00

pages accumulating
life depleting
everything's just as they should be

Another "mystery" solved

2011-04-09T11:05:00.001-04:00

I have been wondering, on and off, why the heck does the New Yorker use umlauts so generously... finally tracked down the reason. First thing I learned is that in fact, they are not umlauts but diaeresis instead. So, from Wikipedia:

Diaeresis
The diaeresis indicates that two adjoining letters that would normally form a digraph and be pronounced as one are instead to be read as separate, either as a diphthong or as two distinct vowels in two syllables. The diaeresis indicates that a vowel should be pronounced apart from the letter which precedes it. For example, in the spelling coöperate, the diaeresis reminds the reader that the word has four syllables co-op-er-ate, not three, *coop-er-ate. This usage is uncommon in English, and is always optional except for certain words and names of non-English origin that include a diaeresis; The New Yorker's regular use of the diaeresis is now considered idiosyncratic[by whom?]. Languages such as Dutch, French and Spanish, however, make regular use of the diaeresis. By extension, the diaeresis is used to denote similar distinctions, such as marking the schwa ë in Albanian.

Umlaut
"Um"+"laut" is German for "around/changed"+"sound". It refers to a historical sound shift in that language. In German, the umlaut diacritic is found as ä, ö and ü. The name is used in some other languages that share these symbols with German or where the Latin spelling was introduced in the 19th century, replacing marks that had been used previously. The phonological phenomenon of umlaut occurred historically in English as well (man ~ men; full ~ fill; goose ~ geese) in a way cognately parallel with German, but English orthography does not write the sound shift using the umlaut diacritic. Instead, a different letter is used.

My daily schedule for the next few months - I hope!

2011-03-29T00:35:00.003-04:00

Kagyu College, Dehradun, India

I'm probably going to jinx this by declaring it to the world... but I think this might be an easier way to let friends know what I'm up to for the rest of my sabbatical. If you didn't know already, I'm on a semester-long sabbatical. While some probably think of academic sabbaticals are "holidays" or "breaks," they are not quite so... Mine started with 7 weeks in Malaysia (with a ten day visit to India slotted in) where I continued research that started last summer on Buddhism in Malaysia - specifically Chinese Buddhist communities in Malaysia. The immediate intended result of this research is a paper that I will be presenting at the XVIth Congress of the International Association of Buddhist Studies at Dharma Drum Buddhist College, Taiwan this June. In India, I met with the khenpos and teachers at Kagyu College in Dehradun to plan an East-West pedagogy conference/workshop for January 2012 and also gave a lecture to the khenpos and teachers on pedagogy and the US university-system.

I got back to Davidson on the evening of Thursday, March 17th. Took a few days to get over jet-lag and to get house back in order, cleaned, stocked with food etc. Then on Monday, March 21st I started a schedule that I hope I can sustain more or less until I leave again for Asia in June. Here's how a typical day looks:

7:00-7:30 Crawling out of bed.
7:30-9:00 Quick scan of NYTimes online, morning practice, breakfast.
9:00-12:30 Work on book on Fang yankou ("Releasing the Flaming-mouth Pretas") - translating & writing.
12:30-2:00 Lunch
2:00-6:00 Work on book
6:00-8:00 Evening protector-offering, dinner
8:00-midnight Read, drink tea, catch up on emails etc.

(So if I don't answer the phone between 7 am-8 pm, you know what I'm up to!)

There a bit of flexibility on Saturdays and Sundays but I still try to get a few hours of writing/translating done on weekends.

One nice encouragement to finishing book - a couple of articles that I wrote on the Fang yankou are now published in a 1216-paged volume Esoteric Buddhism and the Tantras in East Asia ("only" $354 plus shipping!). I guess I do like seeing my name in print - so pride and vanity is now put in good use to motivate me to get the book done... it's EIGHT years already since I completed my doctoral dissertation!!

By the way, the book is chock-full of goodies and when you're done reading all 1100 pages or so (assuming you're not planning to read the bibliography line by line, page after page), it can serve as a strong door-stop and when necessary, as protection (both as potent talisman against evil-spirits and as actual weapon to throw at human threats - guaranteed to intimidate any sound-minded human attackers!).

Chanced Upon: Abhidharma-kośa Study Blog

2011-03-21T12:45:00.001-04:00

While working on my monograph on the Fang yankou ritual (放焰口, an important Chinese Buddhist tantric-ritual for benefiting hungry-ghosts and all beings) this morning, I chanced upon this blog on the Abhidharma-kośa. Although it has not been updated since last September, it nonetheless has some great resources on it. So for all you Buddhist geeks out there, enjoy! (but please don't get carried away). Click here.

Vasubandhu as imagined by Chinese Buddhists

For those of you who are unfamiliar with this text, the Abhidharma-kośa is an important Sanskirt text composed in the 4th century by Vasubandhu, summarizing Vaibhāṣika-Sarvāstivādin tenets in eight chapters with a total of around 600 verses. Having completed this text, he also wrote an auto-commentary to it - the Abhidharmakośa-bhāsya where he actually critiqued the Vaibhāṣika-Sarvāstivādin tenets of the Abhidharma-kośa from the standpoint of the Sautrāntrika tradition! Finally, it is believed that he converted to the Mahāyāna under the influence of his half-brother Asanga (c. 300-370 CE) who is recognized as an important master of the Yogācāra tradition of the Mahāyāna system.

Chotrul Düchen - Festival of Miracles

2011-03-19T12:44:00.000-04:00

Mindrolling Monastery, Tibet

Today (March 19, 2011) is especially auspicious as it is one of the four holy days in the Tibetan Buddhist calendar. Today is Chotrul Düchen - "The Festival of Miracles." As explained on the RigpaWiki site:

"Chotrul Düchen (Wyl. cho 'phrul dus chen), the 'Festival of Miracles' — one of the four major Buddhist holidays. It occurs on the full moon (the fifteenth day) of the first Tibetan month, which is called Bumgyur Dawa. The first fifteen days of the year celebrate the fifteen days on which, in order to increase the merit and the devotion of future disciples, Buddha displayed a different miracle.

As Jikmé Lingpa said:

Through the magical power of your miracles in Shravasti,
You rendered speechless the tirthika teachers who,
With all their analysis and research, drunk on the wine of
indulgence, had become oppressive in the extreme.
In the final contest they were humbled, their prestige all drained away,
As you triumphed through ‘the four bases of miraculous powers’."

On this day, the Buddha - once a sentient being just like you and I - demonstrated the final of a series of miracles to overcome the wrong views of the "six heterodox schools" then prevalent in India. According to the Buddha's biography, for fifteen days, the leaders of the various non-buddhist schools challenged the Buddha both through debate and logic and through displays of supernatural powers. On the fifteenth day, the Buddha finally defeated all wrong-views (such as eternalism, nihilism, hedonism, determinism, etc.). Wrong-views, ultimately grounded in ignorance (Skt. avidya, Tib. marikpa), lead to suffering since wrong-views result in wrong mental, verbal and physical actions. Thus, today we celebrate the overcoming of wrong-views. Traditionally, butter-lamps are offered in vast quantities on this day as the light of lamps symbolize wisdom. Today is thus an auspicious day to remind us to let the light of Dharma shine within our own minds and thoughts to overcome and destroy all the wrong-views that we hold. It is further said that the results of all virtuous (and non-virtuous!) actions performed on this day are multiplied ten million times!!

"Great Springtime" by Ko Un

2011-03-12T04:19:00.001-05:00

I'm looking forward to the return of Spring when I get back to North Carolina next week. Maybe plant some but mostly just enjoying what others have planted. Here's a poem by Ko Un (one of my recent favorites) to celebrate Spring.

"Great springtime"
Warm east winds blow,
the earth is melting.
Its sight to open
the eyes of the blind.
Kids are clustering
close like chicks,
underground insects
are wriggling restless too.
Just look!
The fish rising
from deeper water
are using their backs
to break the ice!
How on earth
can heaven keep silent?
The wild goose fathers
are leading their broods
away towards the Sungari River.
Now in this land
wonders are happening.
One great springtime is coming!

Quick update

2011-03-10T08:43:00.000-05:00

Since I last posted, I've been to India and back. More specifically, I visited the activity-center of His Holiness Drigung Kyabgön Chetsang, one of the two heads of Drigung Kagyü lineage for close to 2 weeks. (For those of you who don't know, I'm part of this lineage of Tibetan Buddhism). This was my second visit - the first was over ten years ago. I'll have one or perhaps two postings on the visit in the next couple of weeks. And before those postings, I'll also have a couple of postings on the Chinese New Year celebrations in Penang, Malaysia. (I also go to celebrate Tibetan New Year - Losar - while in India, three "new years" in a year so far!). And a couple of postings on Dharma-activities in Penang as well.

I'll be in Malaysia for the next few days - need to wrap up a few loose ends with my research here - before heading back to the US mid next week. The rest of the extended family will also be traveling from different parts of Malaysia (and Singapore) this weekend for my eldest aunt's 80th birthday. The 80th birthday is an especially significant one for Chinese people. So, more overeating coming up! Stay tuned for near, future postings.

Happy Year of the Wabbit!

2011-02-02T20:47:00.002-05:00

Happy New Year to all family & friends who celebrate the East Asian Lunar New Year!

Oops... err... wrong holiday illustration...

Welcome to the Year of the Metal Rabbit! And apparently, the Vietnamese celebrate this year as the Year of Cat.

Gearing up for the New Year

2011-02-02T09:08:00.001-05:00

The Chinese Lunar New Year - or the Spring Festival (as it is known in China), is the most important time of the year for ethnic Chinese everywhere. It's no different for Chinese Malaysians. In many ways, Chinese Malaysians have kept many of the old traditions that have either been forcibly interrupted (as in China during the so-called Cultural Revolution) or forgotten due to modernization and rapid social-change. But in pockets of the Chinese diaspora - and Penang is one of them - old traditions have persisted even if signs of their transformation and even possibly disappearance are evident. But at least for the time being, much of what I experience as a child in Penang seem to still be around even if my own family have in some ways "simplified" much of these traditions - homes have become smaller (my folks have downsized to apartment-living), the young(-ish, such as my generation) are busy becoming "modern" while the really young are too young to really care for "tradition." It has been more than ten years since I last celebrated Chinese New Year here in Malaysia. I spent the last few days between getting research done (on Chinese Buddhism in Malaysia but that's another story for another forum) and spending time with family, gearing up for the New Year.

Since my folks moved to apartment living (and after the passing of my grandmother), many of the old traditions associated with the New Year has been modified or dropped altogether. Back then, aside from all the food preparations associated with New Year, shopping for new clothes and "spring cleaning," the ritual-program was very robust compared to what's done now. The first ritual actually happens a week before New Year when the Kitchen God is given a small feast before he is sent off to present his annual report on the family to the heavenly bureaucracy. My family observes this on the evening of the 23rd day of the 12th month whereas many others do it on the morning of the 24th. Apparently this has something to do with some ancestor in the family having been officials in the imperial government and their families were supposed to do the send-off on the evening of the 23rd ("官三民四"). The next ritual happens on New Year's eve where the ancestors are honored with a ritual feast in the morning while the living descendants have the reunion dinner later. This is the most important dinner of the year - most family members make a point to be back for it. Then later that evening, at a time deemed auspicious by the astrologers, the Kitchen God and the other family deities are welcomed back with New Year offerings - on some years, it's as early as 10 pm, on other years, it could be 3 am or 4 even. And everyone in the family usually stays up till then. Many families also try to visit 7 temples starting from 10 pm or so - the idea is to pray from the old to the new year at 7 temples/shrines. We're planning on doing this this year.

The first day of New Year begins with all the children in the family wishing the elders a happy and prosperous new year and in return the elders give out red envelopes with cash inside. The rest of the day is spent visiting elders within the extended family and or friends. Lots of New Year delicacies - sweets, cookies, cakes, savories - are eaten and shared. In particular, mandarin oranges are ubiquitous - they symbolize wealth. In Malaysia, the most common greeting for the New Year is "gongxi facai" 恭喜發財 ("May you be prosperous!"). We use to make another ritual-offering to the gods on the evening of the first day - my granny called it, "opening the year" (開年). The second day is pretty much the same as the first - visiting family and friends. Usually, less senior family members are visited on this day and more friends. Everywhere, children (technically anyone who is unmarried no matter how old) receive those red envelopes (with cash) from married couples. And this is also the only time in the year where kids are allowed to gamble with the money they received - nothing big, just a matter of a dollar or less per game, whatever the game. Not uncommonly, an older family member - a parent or an aunt or uncle - acts as house dealer.

The 3rd day - in the old days - is a taboo day. Nobody visits others on this day. These days though, this taboo seems to no longer hold.... Businesses officially reopen on the 5th day - the gods are worshiped and a feast given on that day at business premises. On the evening of the 8th day, the Jade Emperor (the highest deity in the celestial bureaucracy) is worshiped at many homes. The final major ritual day is the 15th day that marks the official end of New Year festivities.

Niangao - a New Year offering of sticky-rice cake.

Lanterns everywhere

New Year decorations - lanterns, paper-cuttings, red envelopes

Mandarin oranges - a must have for New Year

Faces & Foods

2011-02-01T09:19:00.003-05:00

Here's a bunch of random photos I took over the last few days. I guess they are not totally random... they are either faces or foods. Sometimes both.

Arriving in Malaysia

2011-01-30T11:39:00.002-05:00

It's my sabbatical semester - this basically means that I will be off from teaching at Davidson College from mid-December 2010 to mid-August 2011. Instead of teaching, I'm expected to focus on professional development - more specifically, research and publishing (results of research, that is). I've been looking forward to being a student again so to say - read, think, write, get "evaluated" (in this case by my academic peers in the field). So it's good to have this period of more-or-less 8 months to do what I like doing best.

Along this line, the main reason I'm back in Malaysia is two-fold: 1) I need some help unpacking, translating a particular section of the Chinese Buddhist ghost-feeding, universal liberation ritual (the Fang yankou ritual - 放焰口) that I'm writing a book on and 2) I'm starting a new research-project on Chinese Buddhism in contemporary Malaysia as I draw to a close my research on Buddhist ghost-feeding rituals (which is mostly an historically-based project). Of course, it's also good to be able to come be with my family to celebrate the most important festival of the year - the Lunar New Year (or what's known as the Spring Festival in China). It has been more than ten years since I was with my family for this and prior to that it was also a ten year gap. Imagine... celebrating X'mas with your family once every ten years or so!

Anyway, I arrived in Penang, Malaysia on Tuesday morning after spending about 40 hours in-transit. Davidson, NC to the airport in Charlotte, NC, to JFK Airport in New York City, to Frankfurt, to Singapore to Penang. I flew Singapore Airlines - which made the trip way, way more comfortable (See... they use REAL flatware in the meals served in-flight - that's one indicator of the service!).

Once I arrived and got back to my parents' home (I'll stay there a few days before I decide whether I need to check into a hotel!)... the phone rang: lunch meeting in an hour with my dad's best friend and his friends - the friend has agreed to host a dinner for a visiting rinpoché (Tibetan reincarnate spiritual teacher) from Nepal which my old friend Susan arranged for a visit to Malaysia. I was barely able to stay awake during the lunch and socializing/planning for rinpoché's visit. The friends at lunch were all interested in spirituality one way or another. Most of them are affiliated with a syncretic Chinese religious organization known as the Moral Uplifting Society where the main religious activity these days involves channeling various Chinese spirit-deities through "spirit-writing." These spirit-deities are believed to communicate with their devotees on matters both mundane (answering questions like "Should I take this or that job?") and profound ("What is the meaning of life?"). They asked some questions related to Buddhist understandings of "emptiness" and "the ultimate" and so I opened my big mouth... and yadda, yadda, yadda-ed away. My excuse? I needed to talk in order to not fall asleep in the middle of lunching in a restaurant, after being more or less awake for 40 hours.

Wednesday I was the tourguide for Changling Rinpoché - a Nyingma lama in his 30s who was trained by Dilgo Khyentsé Rinpoché. This was the first time for me to meet this rinpoché. My friend Susan - whom I met in London when I was a junior in college, during my "junior year abroad" at School of Oriental & African Studies invited Rinpoche to Malaysia. Then, both Susan and I were briefly "classmates" of Dzongsar Khyentsé Rinpoché - Dzongsar Khyentsé Rinpoché was then planning to obtain a PhD in Buddhist Studies. Aparently, it was Dilgo Khyentsé Rinpoché who felt that it would be beneficial for Dzongsar Khyentsé to get a Western PhD. Now, Susan is a devoted student of Dzongsar Khyentsé Rinpoché's and have been living in Hong Kong with her family. Since Susan is from Malaysia, she was asked to facilitate Changling Rinpoché's first visit to Malaysia. I have not seen Susan for easily 7-8 years and so it was great timing. Susan hasn't changed a bit - looked the day I met her in London back in 1992, except that she's now a wife, a mother of three and running a successful family business in Hong Kong.

Aside from Susan, Changling Rinpoché was accompanied by an attendant monk, Paljor and two lay students from Hong Kong - Neil and Anna -, Rinpoché's Chinese translator, Sherab (a local Malaysian) and a couple of other Dharma-friends, all delightful types to be around. Changling Rinpoché is a scholar-meditator monk at heart and he has worked quite a bit with Shambhala's translation team (Nalanda Translation). An impressive lama to say the least, he was elected in 1998 at the annual Nyingma Monlam to be the next head of the Northern Treasures (Changter) lineage. He is also current head of a number of centers known as Lotus Speech. I took Changling Rinpoché and group to a couple of heritage sites in old Penang. We didn't do too much beyond that as Rinpoché was scheduled to give a public talk that evening. The following day, we took Rinpoché to Lembah Bujang, an archeological site on the mainland, in the state of Kedah, about an hour's drive from Penang. This area of Kedah was once part of the Langkasuka and Srivijaya kingdoms, kingdoms that patronized both Hinduism and Buddhism. Thus, the ruins of many Hindu and Buddhist temples and monasteries can be found throughout this region. Walking around these ruins (some have been reconstructed to some degree) was interesting - most Malaysians are very ignorant of the ancient Buddhist and Hindu kingdoms that thrived on this land. It doesn't help that the current Muslim-dominated government has little interest in reminding anyone of the ancient past of the Malays.... In their view, what good can there be during such dark and ignorant times when Malays were still idolaters?

Anyway, here are some pictures from Lembah Bujang.

The Heart of Vajrayāna

2010-11-01T10:10:00.000-04:00

In honor of November's tsok-day, I'm reposting this which was first published on this blog two years ago.

(British Museum, May 2008)
At the heart of vajrayāna practice is deity-yoga. While the practice of deity-yoga can be explained and understood from various perspectives and with different emphases, the key-point of deity-yoga is the divine/pure nature of all appearances. "Divine" here does not refer to the state of the celestial beings said to inhabit the various levels of heavenly existence within the cycle of becoming but rather "divine" here refers to the enlightened state, the buddha-state. After all, the Buddha is praised as "deva ti deva" (Sansrit, literally meaning "god beyond gods"). The importance of this divine/pure nature is clearly indicated in many Sarma-style sadhanas that begin with a declaration, an exclamation: oṃ svabhava śuddāh sarva dharmāḥ svabhava śuddho’ham - "oṃ all phenomena are intrinsically pure, I am intrinsically pure." In a different context, but clearly related, the Sixth Patriarch of Chan taught that "Originally buddhanature is clear and pure, How can dust ever gather?" Thus deity-yoga aims at helping us recognize the divine nature of all appearances (i.e. all existence). If we lose sight of this point, then we suffer the risk of drowning in the vast ocean of the infinite explanations, technicalities and techniques that we can learn about deity-yoga.

(British Museum, May 2008)

The Lotus Sutra reminds us that all buddhas appear in the world for the "one great matter" of leading all beings into realizing their buddhanature. Thus, we could say that in fact all the teachings of the buddhas - whether those we classify as hinayāna, mahāyāna or vajrayāna, exoteric or esoteric, gradual or sudden, sutra or tantra, reliant on words and phrases or beyond expressions and expositions - is aimed at revealing this divine nature to us. Some teachings and practices do this directly while others do so indirectly. [The reason this is because of the different capacities of sentient beings rather than buddhas having partialities or acting unfairly!] Of all the myriad methods of leading us into realizing/actualizing buddhanature, deity-yoga is said to be most effective. Vajrayāna is said to be "supreme in having many skillful methods." And chief among these methods is deity-yoga.

Of course, this recognition of the divine nature of all appearances cannot be divorced from the understanding of the empty nature of all appearances. To only emphasize the divinity/purity aspect is to flirt with the error of essentialism/eternalism while to be partial towards the empty aspect of all phenomena is to cling to the mistake of nihilism. [Again, in the Dunhuang edition of the Sixth Patriarch's Platform Sutra, alongside the poem that declares "Originally buddhanature is clear and pure," there's also an alternate version that reads, "Originally not a single thing exists." While this is often cited by scholars a scribal mistake or editorial sloppiness, here I'll read it as two sides of the same point: It's pure/divine and it's empty.] Correct practice of deity-yoga transcends these two extremes. So through deity-yoga, we develop the ability to realize the indivisibility of appearances and emptiness. We come to realize that the nature of mind is both empty, spacious, without limits as well as luminous and lucid, luminous-awareness. So, mind is empty of self, but mind also has the quality of awareness, the ability to know. Buddha is none other than this knowing, this empty-awareness.

(British Museum, May 2008)

Because of their compassion, buddhas manifest many different forms to accomplish the "one great matter." Some forms are ordinary and mundane while others are superlative and transcendent. Although their nature is fundamentally buddha, regardless of the way they appear, for the purposes of deity-yoga, we are advised to rely only on those manifestations that are obviously buddha-like and clearly taught in the authentic teachings of the buddhas. So we are taught to visualize enlightened forms such as Shakyamuni, Manjusri, Avalokiteshvara, Tara, Heruka, Vajrayogini and others. Some peaceful, some wrathful. Some more relate-able than others. Some inviting our curiosities, others seemingly threatening.

(British Museum, May 2008)

And each of these forms have many, many different sādhanas or meditation-manuals of various lengths (ranging from several lines to a few hundred pages) that assist practitioners in generating what is provocatively called "pride of the deity" ("lha'i nga rgyal" in Tibetan). This is not ordinary pride but a "pride" that comes from and grounded in an understanding of our innate buddhanature.

So, instead of deeply believing in our present mistaken notions and conceptions of who we are - that I am a college professor, in my late 30s, rather unremarkable, some days worrying about not being able to accomplish a laundry list of ambitions, other times irresponsibly acting out fantasies - instead of all of this, we adopt deity-yoga. For now, we take a leap of faith and trust that we are buddhas. And so we feel a bit awkward, a bit klutzy going through the sādhanas, imagining ourselves as "one face, four arms. Top two hands holding a lotus and a crystal-māla, bottom two holding a wish-fulfilling jewel." Can I really be Avalokiteshvara? Or have we wandered aimlessly and helplessly in cyclic existence for so long that we find it infinitely easier, more "natural," to believe that we are helpless, hopeless and hapless beings rather than divine buddhas endowed with wisdom, compassion and power?

(British Museum, May 2008)

As I read somewhere recently, it's unfortunately true that there's much in the world today to justify us being pessimists and not much to persuade us to be optimists. But pessimists don't change anything. While not all optimists actually change anything (at least anything of significance), only optimists make a difference. So why not be the ultimate optimist - take that leap of faith and trust that buddhas don't appear in the world to dupe us - and to believe that we are innately buddhas? Give it a try. Practice your deity-yoga.

Whether it's Guanyin.
Or Mary.

(Southwark Cathedral, May 2008)

Gaṇacakra-offering Days

2010-10-27T22:12:00.001-04:00

I'm re-posting here parts of various postings that I have been publishing on the other blog (the "brain-storming" blog for Urban Dharma) related to Gaṇacakra-offering days or in Tibetan, "tsok-days." Tsok-days occur twice a month, on the tenth and twenty-fifth day of the (Tibetan) lunar calendar. According to the tantras, these are days when actual dakas and ḍakinīs are said to gather at the twenty-four holy sites to celebrate the tantric vision of purity-emptiness of all phenomena by bringing all sensual enjoyments onto the path - they feast, sing and dance. These are also days when the inner dakas and ḍakinīs - i.e. masculine and feminine energies - gather in the twenty-four nodes in our inherent vajra-bodies (crown of the head, point in-between eyebrows, throat, palate, calves, knees etc.). As practitioners of deity-yoga (i.e. vajrayana) and especially those who have received any unexcelled yoga tantra empowerment, it is best if we are able to celebrate these bi-monthly tsok-days. In fact, it is a samaya-commitment to celebrate the bi-monthly tsok-days. In celebrating tsok-days, we become in-synced with the gathering ("tsok" literally means "gathering") of actual dakas and ḍakinīs as well as the inner dakas and ḍakinīs. Celebrating tsok is the most effective way to "accumulate the two heaps (of wisdom and skilful-means/compassion)" and "purify the two obscurations."

Although there are many types of Gaṇacakra-offering practices that one could use on tsok-day celebrations, the most common one that I have been using with friends here in North Carolina is the "Shower of Blessings Gaṇacakra-offering" that is done in conjunction with "The Very Brief Gurupūjā of the Great Drikungpa" - a guruyoga practice with the Great Drikungpa, Jikten Sumgön embodying the guru-principle. This practice - "The Very Brief Gurupūjā of the Great Drikungpa" with "Shower of Blessings Gaṇacakra-offering" - will be one of the core practices at Urban Dharma. It'll form the heart of our bi-monthly celebration of experiencing and realizing the tantric vision of purity-emptiness. It will be our bi-monthly entry point to "more fully embody(ing) the entire spectrum of (our) lives." We are temporarily prioritizing these special occasions, these holy days, as doorways to revealing the fundamental purity-emptiness of all phenomena.

Unfortunately many of the Gaṇacakra-offerings that I have attended at other places tend to be a "sugar-fest" - lots of cookies, sugars of all types and "junk-food," and the actual practice is somewhat haphazard, awkward and oscillating between mildly disorderly and sloppy or rigidly somber, in the last few celebrations here in North Carolina we have been very intentional about the whole process - from the preparations of the offerings (shopping, cooking to plating) to setting up the shrine, to the offering and the sharing of the offering. We have carefully gathered "choicest offerings pleasing to the senses": offerings of "compassion" (solids) - mango-nectarines, bananas, home-made (raw-milk) yogurt, Gruyere on sour-dough grilled cheese sandwich, fresh baked bread, vegetarian dumplings, cashews, dried mangoes, apricots, gourmet hor d'oeuvres and cookies, organic pears, Chinese persimmons, seasonal bing cherries and lotus-seed mooncakes and offerings of "wisdom" (liquids) - organic apple juice, passion fruit juice, and handcrafted sodas. Everything was carefully and beautifully arranged and I've decided that I'll only use my collection of antique plates, bowls, cups for tsok-offering (well... maybe once in a while for tea purposes... which I will argue *is* part of tantric experience of purity-emptiness!).

When Urban Dharma has a physical home in downtown Asheville, Gaṇacakra-offering will be one of the main celebrations we will hold. Other aspects of Gaṇacakra-offering will be incorporated as we continue to learn this practice - offerings of "songs of realization" being one of them.

I've included photos from recent celebrations.

Banishing Poverty-Mind, Nov 7 Event in Asheville, NC

2010-10-17T23:27:00.010-04:00

It has been a while, a long while since I posted anything on this blog. Part of the reason is that I have been busy on another blog - or rather, a "blog" that's actually a "brainstorming space" for a small group of Dharma-buddies working on manifesting a Buddhist community center in downtown Asheville, NC. We already have a name for it - "Urban Dharma." While cognizant that this particular name is already taken by a wonderful website on Buddhism in America run by Kusala Bhikshu, we feel that "Urban Dharma" expresses/encapsulates what we are aspiring to do at this new center. The motto that we have adopted for Urban Dharma is "Changing Minds, Transforming Cities."

Urban Dharma is grounded in a specific lineage of Tibetan Buddhism (Drikung Kagyü) but it is not envisioned necessarily as a "Tibetan Buddhist" center. Rather, it's a Buddhist center, a community. A Buddhist center that is committed to the growing of Dharma locally, for Dharma to take roots in our lives here in this corner of the world, in this part of North Carolina, on the soil of the Appalachian mountains. It's an ambitious project, but so is the bodhisattva vow! So, why not?

If all goes as planned, as envisioned, we will open the doors of Urban Dharma early next summer. We will need lots of help, lots of support - directly and indirectly. Financially speaking, we have a long way to go. But spiritually speaking, we are getting there... and this is after all the core of it all. So if you can help, if you want to join in this adventure, in realizing this particular manifestation of the bodhisattva vow, get in touch!

Meanwhile, Urban Dharma is hosting our first event early in November in Asheville, NC - "Banishing Poverty-Mind: Uncovering Inner Richness, Enriching Outer Realms." We're excited about hosting Khenpo Chöphel Rinpoché. Khenpo Rinpoché comes to us from Drikung Thil Monastery (the head-monastery of Drikung Kagyü) in Tibet (and more recently, from Tibetan Meditation Center up in Frederick, MD). Khenpo Rinpoché will be giving a special blessing-initiation of the "wealth-deity" Jambhala.

Jambhala embodies the "perfection of generosity" - the first of the Six Perfections that bodhisattvas cultivate to achieve complete buddhahood. Generosity is thus the true source of wealth and richness. I'll be giving a short teaching prior to Khenpo Rinpoché's blessing-initiation and the teaching will look at what "poverty-mind" is and how this impedes us all forms of wealth and richness - inner, outer, artistic, material! I'll also suggest some Dharma methods for overcoming this poverty-mind.

Details of the event:
Sunday, November 7
10 - 12 noon
Odyssey Community School
90 Zillacao Street,
Asheville, NC

Join us if you are in the area!

Autumn winds

2010-09-10T14:40:00.000-04:00

It's been a while since I last updated this blog. And since I don't have anything "new," I thought I'd pull some past posts up and repost them here. Autumn's not here yet but maybe this will help get it to come sooner.

So here's a couple more autumnal translations...

(From BigBean's photostream on Flickr.com)

秋歌
秋風入窗裡 qiu feng ru chuang li
羅帳起飄颺 luo zhang qi piao yang
仰頭看明月 yang tou kan ming yue
寄情千里光 ji qing qian li guang

Autumn Song
Autumn winds come through the windows,
Curtains rise, and flutter and fly.
Lifting my head to view the lucent moon,
My sentiments are sent with its thousand-mile light.
- folk poem from the Northern-Southern Dynasties period (386-589)

天末懷李白
涼風起天末 liang feng qi tian mo
君子意如何 jun zi yi ru he
鴻雁幾時到 hong yan ji shi dao
江湖秋水多 jiang hu qiu shui duo

文章憎命達 wen zhang zeng ming da
魑魅喜人過 chi mei xi ren guo
應共冤魂語 ying gong yuan hun yu
投詩贈汨羅 tou shi zeng mi luo

(from wildriverway.com)

Cool winds rise from the edge of the skies -
What's on the mind of the gentleman?
When will the wild geese arrive,
As rivers and lakes are now full of autumn's water?

Literary men detest fame and fortune,
While noxious demons delight in human errors.
Better to converse with the aggrieved spirit
By casting a poem into Miluo river.
- by Du Fu 杜甫 (712-770)

Guest post 2: More from Kevin

2010-08-02T13:55:00.003-04:00

Another posting from Kevin L. He wrote this on June 12th (as an email) and entitled this "Barkhor." The Barkhor refers to the mid-length circumambulation circuit in Lhasa. The "Nangkhor" is the shortest circumambulation circuit and it is inside the main gates of the famous Jokhang Chapel. Takes only about 5 minutes to go around it. On the outside of the gates lies the Barkhor which takes about 20 minutes to complete. Finally, the longest circuit is known as the Lingkhor which takes 3-4 hours to complete as it encircles the entire old city of Lhasa. Kevin and I completed the Lingkhor (on two separate days - "cheated" a bit). Anyway, here are words from Kevin.

I mentioned earlier about Tibetans walking and prostrating around holy objects, and I think this has been one of my favorite parts of coming to the other side of the world.

The experience reminds me of something I dubbed the "swimming pool effect." My neighbors, the Olivers, had an above ground swimming pool when I was a young chap. My neighbors Evan and Josh, and some forgotten others, we did what some other brilliant prodigious kids have figured out, when you walk in a circle, in an above ground circular pool, in the same direction, the pool is charged with a fun and powerful current. This is known as the "swimming pool effect" (I made that up).

The effect also happens on land, in rare places, such as Tibet! My favorite place in Lhasa to feel this effect is at the Barkhor. Tibetans have been encircling this 20 minute walking route for hundreds and hundreds of years. Thousands do it everyday and always more than one time around. Some do it for hours or all day. It is charged with a long history of walking in circles. Tibetans that do not even live in Lhasa are expected by religious ideals, to make the journey every so often to Lhasa, and circumambulate around the Barkhor.

The Barkhor looks like a market with Buddhist trinkets on both sides, and on the right side, the Jokhang Chapel is located. The walk is always in a clockwise position, with your right side facing the chapel, and your left is the ever-expanding market.

There is a flow about it, similar to being in a current. It feels like you can let your legs up and you will be swept up in the crowd. Everyone has prayer-beads and prayer-wheels in their hands and they are chanting Om Mani Padme Hum, the mantra of compassion. Some are throwing themselves on the ground, body fully extended, face first on the ground, making their way around the dusty Barkhor: Extended themselves, getting up, walking three steps, extended themselves fully on the ground, face down, getting up again, walking three steps, and again and again. I haven't done that yet.

The rotations of prostrating and walking around the Barkhor is usually done in sets of three. It is a better number to stop on. It is addicting, and I can see how people can do it the whole day, especially with the "swimming pool effect" that happens.

Guest Post: Kevin's words

2010-07-26T12:44:00.003-04:00

Kevin L. - one of the 19 on the recent pilgrimage to Tibet - agreed to share his journal entries/emails on Tibet. The next few postings will probably be contributions from him. Here's something he wrote on July 6th on "Lhasa, Around & Beyond" (interspersed with photos - some of which were taken by Kevin):

A drizzling cold mountain rain outside. People. People everywhere. Slabs of meat for sale, on tables, ready for picking. Buddhist trinkets make up one crazy maze of a market. Voices and city sounds are relentless, continuous, and seemingly choreographed: honking, motoring, hammering, clinking, squealing, voices- all reverberating in conglomeration. It is a complicated form of song.

Darkened people, wrinkled around the eyes and their cheeks, walking, chanting, prostrating, smoothing prayer beads with their leathered fingers. Thousands of Tibetans, circumambulating around holy objects, together, creating a hum with their collective prayers. Incense burns throughout the streets, of juniper and cedar branches.

Chinese presence strong. Guns, uniforms, men, watching from above, parading the grounds, history is happening, right now. Change. A bunch of kids in uniforms, the real victims of the intrusion, away from their family. Tibetans continue their practices, strongly, out in the open, they are watched at every second.

Monasteries: ancient worn rock entrance to butter-candle-lit shrine. Conch shell blown, shaking the world. Prostrating, chanting, and rituals. Outside, wind picks up prayer flags, does not let them down again. Tibetan women under the porch, garments thickly covering them, they are eating tsampa in the shade.

Undoubtedly, we are held up into the air, by these mountains, in the clouds, that create incredible shadows across the moonscape. Sheep and goats scattered greatly across the desert valley, nomad must be close, camouflaged by his chosen shade.

Guanyin Talks at Than Hsiang Temple, Penang

2010-07-23T20:44:00.002-04:00

Yet another shameless self-promotion. But if you are in the area (i.e. Penang) these few days, drop in at the talks. I am particularly excited for Penang Buddhists to meet Prof. Chun-fang Yu.

Tibet Teasers

2010-07-21T23:31:00.009-04:00

I know some of you are waiting to read about, see pictures of, the Tibet pilgrimage. But it'll take a little bit longer for those blog postings to manifest. For now, a few teasers:

Spicy pepper-snacks in Chengdu and ear-cleaning at Wenshu Monastery tea garden.

Billboard at Yumbu Lhakhang promoting fire-prevention.

We gave away many pairs of used eyeglasses in Tibet, eyeglasses that many family and friends helped collect back in the US. For many of the people, it has been decades since they have been able to see this clearly. A much appreciated gift!

We were blessed with an audience with Nyindak Rinpoche, the head lama of Katsel Monastery and probably the most senior rinpoche in the Drigung area. Rinpoche gave us the oral-transmission of Chenrezik and the opening and closing prayers.

Taking a rest while on the circumambulation route at Drigung-til Monastery. We had just walked past the sky-burial grounds where several corpses had just been offered to the vultures.

A group of us were able to gather in the Golden Chapel at Drigung-til Monastery to perform Lama Chopa ("Offering to the Spiritual Master") and Tsok ("Feast-offering") practice in English. Khenpo Choephel's brother who is in-charged of the chapel kindly served as the ritual-master for us and we stumbled through the text. But a great blessing nonetheless!

With Drigung-til leaders in front of the image of Kyobpa Rinpoche known as the "Lord of the Golden Chapel" ("Serkhang Choje"). We were given blessing-cords from the Serkhang Choje (the yellow strips of cloth in one of the monks' hands).

Drigung-til Monastery as seen from the road below.

Terdrom, Drigung Valley.

The famous Kumbum Stupa at Gyantse. On each level of this stupa are smaller chapels with the most amazing images and murals representing the enlightened beings. I'll post some of the pictures that I took of these images later.

Wooden images of part of a set of Eight Great Bodhisattvas at Kumbum, Gyantse.

While circumambulating Tashi Dor at Namtso.

One of the highlights of the pilgrimage was the short but powerful practice we were able to do in one of the Guru Rinpoche caves at Tashi Dor, Namtso. We almost missed this cave (and in fact, some of us did miss it) - I had to call out to our guide, Buchung-la to turn around and go towards this cave. Here, we offered more than a hundred butter-lamps while reciting prayers and mantras and we were joined by the nun who lives there. After the practice, the nun insisted that we sat in her room/cave and enjoyed some blessing-water (boiled warm), bread and sweets.

The living is a passing traveler

2010-07-21T11:11:00.003-04:00

Frankly, I do not remember if I actually translated this or if I got this from somewhere else. I was looking through my list of postings on my Blogspot dashboard and found this post that apparently never went online. So, I'm pulling this up and posting it.

擬古十二首(其九)
- 李白

生者為過客。死者為歸人。
天地一逆旅。同悲萬古塵。
月兔空搗藥。扶桑已成薪。
白骨寂無言。青松豈知春。
前後更嘆息。浮榮安足珍。

Twelve Verses Emulating the Ancients (Number 9)
by Li Bai

The living is a passing traveler,
the dead, a person returned home.
A brief journey between heaven and earth,
nothing but the same old dust of myriad ages.
The moon rabbit threshes the medicine in vain,
as the tree of longevity turns into firewood.
White bones, still and wordless,
will green pines know Spring again?
Sighing and again, front and back,
fleeting glories turning into lasting treasures.

Around Beautiful Island in 4 days

2010-07-21T09:40:00.030-04:00

From Alishan we drove south and headed towards Kaohsiung area - to the head monastery (literally: the main mountain, benshan 本山) of Foguangshan (Buddha Light Mountain). Foguangshan is one of the largest Taiwanese Buddhist organizations today and both Joe and I have spent some time there - Joe several summers back as a participant of the "Humanistic Buddhism Monastic Life Program" run by the Wooden Fish Project (I highly recommend this summer program for all interested college students!) and I've been there a few times for research. In particular, this time around we wanted to go see one of my good friends, Venerable Yifa. She's a senior nun in Foguangshan, the person behind Wooden Fish Project and we have also worked together on several Buddhist Studies conferences in he past.

We arrived mid-afternoon at Foguangshan (after losing our way a little bit right after descending Alishan) and Yifa was already waiting for us. After checking us into two rooms at their Pilgrim's Lodge, Yifa showed us around the main campus of the monastery. We walked around the expansive campus and met with some other monastics of the order - all of them always carrying that smile that seems like a Foguangshan signature. It was significantly way more humid at Foguangshan and we could feel the thickness of the air. Even though the sun wasn't bright, I was sweating profusely just sauntering around the monastic campus. We ate at one of the restaurants in the Foguangshan campus - delectable vegetarian fare matched with refreshing smoothies made with local fruits. After dinner and more catching-up, we walked over to the large outdoor Buddha at Foguangshan. Although I have been to the head monastery several times, this was the my first time to actually walk up to where the large outdoor Buddha is. We called it a night early as we were all exhausted.

The next day, we walked over to see the new part of Foguangshan that is still under construction. This is the "Buddha Memorial Hall" area. It's really more than a "hall" - it has the feel of a palace akin to the Forbidden City in Beijing. This Buddha Memorial Hall area is easily four or five times the size of the current campus of Foguangshan. The main building in this area will house a "tooth-relic" of the historical Buddha (a relic that Foguangshan received from a Tibetan lama years ago) and it is flanked on the both sides by pagodas. When completed (at the end of this year?), this will be quite a sight (it already is, as you can see)!

Thanks to Yifa, we did not have to walk back to the main campus (it was late morning, punishing sun and air you could swim in) - instead, she got one of her fellow-nuns, the guest-master at the Buddha Memorial Hall site to take us back on a golf-cart. Enroute, we stopped at a fruit-vendor shop and was treated by the guest-master nun to freshly cut mangoes and pineapple. Sweetness!

We left Foguangshan in the afternoon, after stuffing ourselves silly at a fantastic vegetarian buffet restaurant in downtown Kaohsiung. As I had been there before years back and remembered really liking it, I shamelessly asked Yifa to take us there for lunch! You will not believe how good vegetarian food can be until you eat at this place - even I can imagine becoming vegetarian for life if such places existed in North Carolina (...and so those of you who know me now understand how good this place is!). Unfortunately, we did not take any pictures while there and thus can't use them to give you a visual culinary tease. I think we were too focussed on the food to do anything else! We basically ate there until the place closed for their in between lunch and dinner break.

From Kaohsiung we drove - or rather, Joe drove (the whole time) - further south to the very tip of Taiwan. Our goal for that day was to get to Taitung (on the south-eastern side of the island) to spend the night there. We stopped a few times along the way - a couple of times to get some local fruits to snack on and once for caffeine and the chance to sit by the beach and enjoy the view a bit. Joe not only did the driving but whenever we stopped he would be the one who would "talk to the locals" in Mandarin - buying fruits, asking for directions from gas-station attendants, ordering food, purchasing coffees. After several hours of driving and getting distracted along the way, we did make it to Taitung that night and checked into a Native owned and run guesthouse. It was basic, cheap and comfortable.
The next morning - Friday - we departed Taitung for Hualien area. The main thing that I was looking forward to in that area was the hot-springs. Of course, along the way, we stopped at sites that Joe had planned for us to see. There are 2 highways available to take to get from Taitung to Hualien - the coastal way which is Highway 11 and the mountain route which is Highway 9. We started by taking Highway 11 and halfway through found a way that cut through the mountains to get on Highway 11 for the second part of our drive. Both routes were simply breathtaking. And being in the car for a long time also gave me the opportunity to catch-up with Joe. We spoke in a combination of English and Mandarin, sometimes silly, sometimes heartfelt. And in the background we had a CD of several Buddhist chants playing... "All negative karma created from the past/ Due to beginningless avarice, aversion and ignorance/ Born from physical, verbal and mental activities/ I now admit them all and repent of them./"

That's Fiona's (Joe's girlfriend) cute little car which she generously let us use for the four days we were driving around the island. It would not have been possible to do all that we did without the car - thanks, Fiona!

We didn't make it all the way to Hualien that day but took a number of detours and saw some neat stuff. We visited a local fishing town, ate roasted duck for lunch (sitting outside someone's house), and visited several caves dedicated to Buddhist, Daoist and Confucian saints and sages, gods and Buddhas. Taiwan is full of temples, shrines, nunneries and monasteries everywhere. We did see some churches (especially in the Taitung coastal area) and some Christian cemeteries. And one thing that we saw again and again, printed on banners, written on lamp-posts, up on billboards, all over Taiwan is the Falun Gong slogan "Fa lun da fa hao" 法輪大法好 (lit. "The Great Method of Falun is Good" or as they themselves translate it: "Falun Dafa is Good"). I don't know about you but frankly, when I see that repeated ad nauseam, I start to wonder why all the defensiveness.... Perhaps something was "lost in translation." I don't know.... Anyway, here is a example of a Falun Gong sign (I found online):

And I digress....

Instead of spending the night in Hualien, we found a great hot-spring guest-house at Rueisuei. This place had two large, public hot and cold spring pools and each room was also provided with an outdoor hot-spring area. Also, Rueisuei was where we had one of the best meals in Taiwan - Hakka cuisine. The next morning, after an early morning walk around the village, followed by a nice traditional congee breakfast and a last soak, we left Rueisuei and headed towards Hualien. At Hualien we got lunch at a famous local dumpling-soup shop - 8 pork-and-shrimp dumplings in a bowl of meat-broth for less than US$2. As we wanted to get to Taipei before it got dark, we did not linger in Hualien. I would have liked to visit the Ciji headquarters but I guess not on this trip.

We did arrive in busy and congested Taipei at a decent time (5-ish). Finding the hotel where I had to check-in for the conference was fairly easy. Since Fiona was waiting to meet up with Joe in Taipei (they were going to stay the night at a friend's house in Taipei) and I had a dinner to attend (the conference organizer had arranged a welcome dinner for conference participants), we soon say our goodbyes (temporarily) but made some preliminary plans to meet up tomorrow evening before they headed back to Chiayi.

Here are a few more pictures taken while in Taiwan. These are mostly photos of temples and temple activities:

Postscript: I was hoping to get to bed earlier that night when we completed the round-the-island journey and Joe delivered me to the hotel in Taipei (since I had to be up early the next day for the first day of the conference) but that did not happen. Instead, I ended up staying up late - anguished and agitated - having to deal with some difficult issues that had been on-going but which I hoped would temporarily subside. But I was (and still am) too hopeful and naive. That night, sadly, wasn't going to be the last time that I had to look at this particular samsara directly and deal with it while on the road. But that's another story, one that perhaps need not be told and won't be. I mention this "end" to the 4 days of great travels in Taiwan with Joe only to once again remind myself that everything is uncertain. Forgetting uncertainty makes us vulnerable to suffering. Not exactly "buddhist" in his orientation but sometimes it's perhaps useful to take my cue from Tony Hoagland, from his poem, "Self-Improvement" which I posted on this blog a few months back:

Often we ask ourselves
to make absolute sense
out of what just happens,
and in this way, what we are practicing

is suffering,
which everybody practices,
but strangely few of us
grow graceful in.

Worshipers praying for relief from suffering/dis-satisfaction/dis-ease at the Long Shan Temple in Taipei. May they and may we experience some relief, even if it's fleeting for now.

Tea in Taiwan

2010-07-20T05:13:00.004-04:00

Tea and everything else related to tea was on the top of the list of "things to do" on this last trip to Taiwan - sampling teas, visiting tea plantations, buying tea, checking out good teaware, buying teas (oolong especially). Since Joe was going to have a car to drive us around the island this time, I made sure that he knew that I wanted to visit some tea plantations (which he happily obliged). Although I was hoping to find some nicer (but still affordable) teaware, we didn't get a chance to see any of that - which was fine considering that I was going on to Tibet but 3 weeks and then off to Malaysia for another 2 months; just too much and too fragile to lug around.

The first tea-activity that we did was to go to the tea shop in Chiayi where Joe had bought tea from before - tea that he sent me for my birthday and which I liked a lot - aged oolong. Generally speaking, oolong and most other types of tea (except for pu'er) is better enjoyed fresh. So, the more recently it has been picked, processed and packaged, the better. But certain types of oolong can be aged just like pu'er, the key difference being that aging oolong tea involves re-roasting it every year or so in order to remove the moisture that the tea has absorbed since the last roasting. And in the case of this particular aged oolong that I like, the teamaster has only used longan wood to re-roast the tea. Although botanically different, longan is often compared to lychee. Longan in native to southern China. Interestingly, longan-wood roasted oolong takes on a subtle longan sweetness - at least as far as my taste-buds are concerned.

As with most places selling tea, you get to sit and sample and enjoy the various teas available for sale before you are expected to purchase any. In fact, in some places, there isn't even the slightest hint of any expectations that you will purchase any tea from them - this is when you know the place is owned by a tea-lover more than a tea-seller. We tasted several of the best teas available at the shop in Chiayi and in the end purchased two teas - one of the highest grade available and the other a less expensive but nonetheless a tea having its own distinctive flavor, aroma and texture. Thankfully, Joe agreed to mail the teas back to the US for me so that I don't have to take them with me all over Asia.

Tea leaves are picked and left to wither and oxidize on top of tarps, under the sun. After a few hours, they are transferred to bamboo trays seen in the background and left to further oxidize. The oxidation is what determines whether a tea is classified as "white," "green," "yellow" or "red/black." There is no oxidation for white and green tea. Oolong teas have oxidation levels that vary from one tea-master to another. In some ways, oolongs require the most skilled tea-masters to prepare.

The next day, we took off for the mountains - to Alishan (Mt. Ali). We had heard from the owner of the tea shop that the roads to Alishan are now passable (landslides recently due to heavy downpours). So, up we went and after a few hours of driving we were in tea country. And beautiful and friendly tea country! We stopped at two random tea plantations and invited ourselves in and nozied around, asked questions, took pictures, got in the way and in return, people served us tea, cigarettes, local fruits, betel-nut leaves with areca nuts (sort of like chewing tobacco, you chew this to get a slight buzz...pan in India) and beer. No one tried to sell us anything - one place didn't even have any tea to sell us.

Tea leaves are normally harvested by women as their fingers are generally smaller and their "pick" is gentler. We did see some men picking teas as well but mostly they were women. In this one plantation, we learned that most of their tea-pickers are Vietnamese. Tea-pickers are paid according to the weight of leaves they are able to pick per day. If I remembered correctly, at this plantation they are paid NT$60 per (US$2?) kilogram of tea leaves picked. Or did I remember this right?? Hmm... Anyway, I did remember that it was ridiculously low by US wage standards but "not evil" by Taiwanese standards.... It did make me think of what kind of debates might be going on in Taiwan regarding the issue of foreign workers.

After letting the leaves dry on the bamboo trays for a few hours (depending on how dark the teamaster wants his tea), the leaves are put into this low-heat oven to that churns and turns (for less than 5 minutes each time). At this stage, the leaves really become soft and pliable.

The softened leaves are then put into cloth-bags, tightly packed in and entire bags are placed under a rotating base with an automatic presser on top. This process slowly shapes the tea leaves into tiny rolled-up pellets. This part of the process takes about 15 minutes after which the leaves are again emptied into the low-heat oven and further softened and later returned into the bags to be pressed while rotating. This who sequence goes on for hours and hours. From the time the leaves are brought back from the plantation to the completion of the process takes up to 2 days of continuous work! These guys stay up all night - hence the constant cigarette-smoking and chewing of betelnut and areca.

The first tea-production place we stopped at was a place that produced run-of-the-mill, Chinese-restaurant oolong tea. The place was basic, the staff was chain-smoking and there was a certain earthiness to it all. The guys spoke mostly only Taiwanese and very little Mandarin. There was no fancy tea-retail store front (like the next place we visited). Although they kept inviting us into their worker's hut for some tea, we were too polite to accept and so did not. Instead, they handed out cans of Heineken. One of us (the same person also chewed the betelnut leaf but not enough to get the buzz that makes it addictive) graciously accepted it and politely sipped away the room-temperature beer.

The next plantation we visited was a significantly larger operation and a place that produced higher quality tea. We first sauntered around the rows of tea bushes before finally walking into the retail area. Sheng Le Tea Farm is situated at the 56th kilometer mark on the road leading to Alishan, in the Shihjhou area.

Sheng Le has won many tea awards over the years and is known in the area. The matriarch of the family was named one of the top ten women teamasters of Taiwan. Thus, Sheng Le is a family plantation and it is now managed by the son. Him and his wife entertained us with exquisite teas and local snacks and tea talk. What friendly people! We must have spent more than an hour there, just sitting, sipping and snacking. We were treated their award-winning teas and when he heard that I was interested in aged oolong, out came their best aged oolong. Joe and I ended up getting some of the aged oolong. We got a tour of the facility, walked around the plantation with the owner and family explaining accompanying us. It was especially fun hear Joe speaking in Mandarin and in some cases doing the interpretation!

Shameless Self-promotion?

2010-07-19T10:45:00.003-04:00

The Davidson Journal - Davidson College's quarterly magazine dedicated to telling "the Davidson College story with substance and integrity in order to foster community, inspire pride and loyalty, and increase support for the institution" - has an article on me and my students' research in Malaysia this summer in its latest edition. If you're curious at all, click here to read the on-line version of the article.

Days & Doings in Penang

2010-07-17T00:56:00.009-04:00

I will soon have another posting on Taiwan - tea! Before that, here's a short post on my current going-ons in Penang, Malaysia:

So some of you guys have been asking what I've been occupying myself with over here in Malaysia. Chiefly, I am here to supervise 3 students from Davidson College as they conduct field-research on religion among Chinese Malaysians. Here's part of the abstract:

"This research group of three students and their mentor seeks to place the resurgence of religion across the world – re-enchanting it for many, politicizing it for others, redeeming it for not a few and yet condemning it for some – within the context of the contemporary Chinese Malaysian experience. Each student has worked extensively with Dr. Lye at Davidson. The first student will study the connections and contrasts that Chinese Malaysians see between two deities whose worship is ubiquitous in Chinese Malaysian communities, Tudi Gong and Datuk Kong. The second student will research the increasingly popular ghostly-cult of "Tua-Pek" and "Jee-Pek" (Hokkien for "First Uncle" and "Second Uncle" respectively), using the worship of these underworld-spirits as a way of understanding Chinese Malaysian anxieties in an increasingly Malay-Muslim dominant society of Malaysia. The third student will study the prevalence, patronage, and practice of Tibetan Buddhism in the Chinese Malaysian community in Penang."

With Venerable Boon Keng - a senior Chinese Buddhist master in Penang. Ven. Boon Keng just took us to his hilltop retreat center where about 15 or so monks are living a life of contemplation and simplicity.

So the days and nights have been spent meeting people (and gods, and ghosts), calling contacts, arranging for temple visits, interviews, etc. Of course, there's also a lot of eating - I'll argue that no "understanding" of Penang can be complete if one does not participate in the constant eating that locals engage in here. Often, the most interesting information, data and contacts are obtained in the context of eating. At the same time, I've also been giving talks on Buddhism and meeting with old and new friends for discussions on Buddhism - talks yesterday, today and tomorrow at Buddhist groups and come next weekend, a series of formal lectures on Guanyin at Than Hsiang Temple which is celebrating the 25th anniversary of its social-welfare activities wing.

Prof. Yu is the authority on Guanyin and so her talks are not to be missed!

Here are some other photos taken. I'll write more about Penang after I get down with Taiwan and Tibet posts.

Images & Impressions of Taiwan

2010-07-15T00:29:00.012-04:00

This is the first (I hope) of a few postings that I have been promising for a few weeks now. At the beginning of the summer, way back in May, I was assuming that I will be posting to this blog as the summer days progress, as I wandered around to Taiwan, Tibet and Malaysia. Well, that failed to happen as imagined/hoped due to a few factors. In Tibet, I blame it on the fact that access to Blogspot (and thus updating this blog) was blocked by the Chinese government. The other problem (I learned about myself) is that unless I have a very specific person for whom I am writing for, I easily lapse into laziness and do not spend the time to put experiences/encounters/wanderings/wonderings into words and onto blogs. Also, I have to admit that I was somewhat distracted in Taiwan and Tibet - the tugs and pulls of confusion. Anyway, that's all the excuses and explanations that I can muster up for the recent silence. Now on to (hopefully) more interesting things.

My summer started with a week-long visit to Taiwan. I was invited to present a paper on modern Chinese Buddhist education at the Third International Conference on Contemporary Chinese Buddhism and Thoughts of Master Sheng Yen hosted by the Sheng Yen Education Foundation. I gave a paper on "Nuns, Zhaigus 齋姑 and Educators in Nanyang: Puti xueyuan 菩提學院 and Chinese Buddhist Modernity in British Malaya." [Email me if you are interested in the paper - it will motivate me to make the changes I need to make sooner rather than later.] It was a wonderful conference - met up with old friends, made new ones and learned a great deal about contemporary issues in among Buddhists in Taiwan. Although I witnessed only a little bit of the late Venerable Master Sheng Yen's legacy I was very impressed - especially by the intellectual openness, honesty and curiosity of the late Master's disciples. I hope they continue in this direction.

I arrived in Taiwan several days before the start of the conference so that I could spend a few days with Joe. The last time I saw Joe was about a year ago in 2009 when I attended the Second World Buddhist Forum. At that point, Joe was just finishing up his first year as an English teacher in Chiayi, Taiwan. It was a very brief visit and so this time around we made plans so that we could go around the entire island. Joe did research, made plans, placed reservations, asked people, borrowed car, bought maps, sourced tea so that when I arrived, we were good to go. By the time the week was over, I had gone around the entire island of Taiwan. Taiwan is indeed "Formosa" (from Portuguese, Ilha Formosa, "Beautiful Island"). I have developed a liking for it and hope to see more of it, perhaps spend some extended time there.

Anyway, instead of writing a long blog for the whole week I spent in Taiwan, I'll break it up into several posts. For the remainder of this blog, I'll post a few random photos found among the hundreds taken while in Taiwan - with some commentary and caption here and there. Enjoy them while I get myself motivated and focussed enough to write the rest.

A typical week night in Chiayi where Joe lives. People are outside, eating, strolling, dancing, exercising, buying, selling, watching, gawking, and of course, taking pictures.

For reasons unknown to me, and not explained to me either even after asking about it to a few locals, a more-than-usual selling of trinkets occurs as the "Twin Fifth Festival" (fifth day of the fifth month of the Chinese lunar calendar) approached. I only associate sticky-rice dumplings and dragon-boat races with this festival but apparently in Taiwan, it's time to get Sponge Bob-inpired tchotchke.

Food-stalls selling an assortment of duck body-parts (heads and necks, feet, wings, giblets) and an equally diverse selection of tofu types braised in soy-sauce, sugar and spices (usually cloves, cinnamon, and star anise). Each time I come to Taiwan I am tempted to get some of this (given my obsession with duck meat....) but for mysterious reasons, I never do (I think it is because I cannot figure out the logistics involved in eating this kind of food while walking and strolling in the night markets). Maybe on my next visit.

Pickled tropical fruits. This and other food-stalls are one of the main reasons why the night-markets are packed with people no matter what night of the week it may be. And, with all the constant eating going on on this island, one can barely find an obese person.

My impression of Taiwan is that it's a pretty safe place but this sign on the floor of a subway station seems to suggest otherwise. A a man, I am aware that I do take for granted such things. Or maybe they just like female passengers all standing on the same spot when it's night time. Stranger reasons have been offered on seemingly simple sights.

Parks are often equipped with exercise equipment and they are always occupied - apparently popular among foreigners as well.

Yes, that is a giant rooster staring at the monastery and Guanyin.... Leave a comment, will ya?

Aphorisms from Don Paterson

2010-06-25T01:31:00.005-04:00

From his new book, Best Thought, Worst Thought:

The worst thing about thinking nothing of yourself is that you assume that your behavior has no consequence. This makes you much more dangerous than the egomaniac, who at least spends all his time calculating for his own effect.

Almost everything in the room will survive you. To the room, you are already a ghost, a pathetic soft thing, coming and going.

Always an error to make someone profess what they will not volunteer - especially in love, where spontaneity of its declaration is all the language ever holds of it.

Hell is an enforced solitude, heaven a voluntary one.

Words from A Friend

2010-06-22T11:33:00.004-04:00

A heart-friend recently sent me the following verses from Bodhicaryavatara. I'm taking them to heart.

Cultivating diligence as just described,
In concentration I will place my mind.
For those whose minds are slack and wandering
Are caught between the fangs of afflictions.

In solitude, the mind and body
Are not troubled by distraction.
Therefore leave this worldly life
And totally abandon mental wandering.

Because of loved ones and desire for gain,
We fail to turn away from worldly things.
These, then, are the first things to renounce.
The prudent should conduct themselves like this.

Penetrative insight joined with calm abiding
Utterly eradicates afflicted states.
Knowing this, first search for calm abiding,
Found by people who are happy to be free from worldly ties.

p.s. I will start posting about this summer's travels soon.

In Malaysia!

2010-06-20T21:55:00.004-04:00

China blocked both Blogspot and Facebook and so I was not able to update either for the past month. But now that I am in Malaysia - at my folks, in Penang - access to both are back.

Things are well, I'll be updating this blog soon - back-tracking to Taiwan and Tibet. This Saturday is my mom's 70th birthday bash - a guest list of over 120! I'll have something on that updated here as well. The banquet will be a typical ten-to-twelve course Chinese dinner. So stay tuned (if there's anyone out there!).

Another poet to obsess over?

2010-05-05T12:15:00.005-04:00

Just finished reading a feature of Don Paterson in the April 19 issue of The New Yorker and decided to find out more about his works. Immediately upon arriving at his, official website I was greeted by this piece:

The Air

What is this dark and silent caravan
that being nowhere, neither comes nor goes;
that being never, has no hour or span;
of which we can say only that it flows?
How was it that this empty datastream,
this cache of dead light could so lose its way
it wandered back to feed on its own dream?
How did that dream grow to the waking day?
What is the sound that fades up from the hiss,
like a glass some random downdraught had set ringing,
now full of its only note, its lonely call,
drawing on its song to keep it singing?
When will the air stop breathing? Will it all
come to nothing, if nothing came to this?

So, I'm sold. I have ordered a couple of his books. Good for summer wanderings and wonderings....

Gesture of thanks to all the birthday greetings

2010-04-26T15:40:00.004-04:00

Most of you who come to this blog probably came via my Facebook wall where I alert folks of my most recent posting on Blogspot. And so, if you are here from there, this is a gesture of thanks for all the birthday greetings (How *did* people keep track of birthdays before Facebook??).

I came across this poem by Paul Goodman while reading Tony Hoagland's collection of essays, Real Sofistikashun, that was published recently. Paul Goodman himself was a not only a poet but also an activist, sociologist and intellectual and co-founder of Gestalt Therapy - which I learned, of course - from Wikipedia. Click those last two links if you want to learn more about Goodman but here's the poem. Enjoy!

Birthday Cake

Now isn't it time
when the candles on the icing
are one two too many
too many to blow out
too many to count too many
isn't it time to give up this ritual?

although the fiery crown
fluttering on the chocolate
and through the darkened room advancing
is still the most loveliest sight
among our savage folk
that have few festivals.

But the thicket is too hot and thick
and isn't it time, isn't it time
when the fires are too many
to eat the fire and not the cake
and drip the fires from my teeth
as once I had my hot hot youth.

Hoagland on Suffering

2010-04-24T08:53:00.003-04:00

"Often we ask ourselves
to make absolute sense
out of what just happens,
and in this way, what we are practicing

is suffering,
which everybody practices,
but strangely few of us
grow graceful in."

Recently, I've been obsessively reading Tony Hoagland (and hoisting his poems on everyone and anyone who happen to chance upon me when I have one of Hoagland's books in hand). Back in January, I posted here another poem by him - "The Social Life of Water." If you have not read his poems, give them a try. The excerpt above is from "Self Improvement," from his book, Donkey Gospel.

Here's the entire poem (Be warned: sexual references!):

*Self Improvement*

Just before she flew off like a swan
to her wealthy parents' summer home,
Bruce's college girlfriend asked him
to improve his expertise at oral sex,
and offered hims some technical advice:

Use nothing but his tonguetip
to flick the light switch in his room
on and off a hundred times a day
until he grew fluent at the nuances
of force and latitude.

Imagine him at practice every evening,
more inspired than he ever was at algebra,
beads of sweat sprouting on his brow,
thinking, thiry-seven, thirty eight,
seeing, in the tunnel vision of his mind's eye,
the quadratic equation of her climax
yield to the logic
of his simple math.

Maybe he unscrewed
the bulb from his apartment ceiling
so that passerby would not believe
a giant firefly was pulsing
its electric abdomen in 13B.

Maybe, as he stood
two inches from the wall,
in darkness, fogging the old plaster
with his breath, he visualized the future
as a mansion standing on the shore
that he was rowing to
with his tongue's exhausted oar.

Of course, the girlfriend dumped him:
met someone, après-ski, who,
using nothing but his nose
could identify the vintage of a Cabernet.

Sometimes we are asked
to get good at something we have
no talent for,
or we excel at something we will never
have the opportunity to prove.

Often we ask ourselves
to make absolute sense
out of what just happens,
and in this way, what we are practicing

is suffering,
which everybody practices,
but strangely few of us
grow graceful in.

The climaxes of suffering are complex,
costly, beautiful, but secret.
Bruce never played the light switch again.

So the avenues we walk down,
full of bodies wearing faces,
are full of hidden talent:
enough to make pianos moan,
sidewalks split,
streetlights deliriously flicker.

Some new views of the living room

2010-04-21T15:09:00.003-04:00

Found these random pictures of the new arrangement in my living room here in Davidson. Look out for a posting soon on the "North Carolina BBQ Tour" that I did recently with some folks here. It continues in the "tradition" of the "BBQs of South Carolina" roadtrip that I did with Kevin last summer.

In Anticipation of Summer Travels

2010-04-21T12:18:00.004-04:00

I ordered Bashō's Journey (by David Landis Barnhill) in anticipation for this summer's wanderings and wonderings. Most of you who care to read my ramblings here probably already know something, or a lot, about Bashō (1644-1694). But if you don't, Bashō was a famous Japanese poet who led a life of constant travels (his most famous writing being the travel journal, The Narrow Road to the Deep North or Oku no hosomichi) and wrote from his experiences on the road. His haikus are much loved ("Fleas, lice,/ a horse peeing/ near my pillow." is one favorite) and have been translated into English many times over.

The following is an excerpt from Bashō's Journey that speaks of the "aesthetic spirit" of "following the Creative" and "to be a companion to the turning of the four seasons." Here, Bashō teaches us what it means to see the world as a poet does, as a traveler does. In fact, how to open up our six senses and truly experience the world:

"Among the hundred bones and nine orifices there is something. For now let's call it "gauze in the wind." Surely we can say it's thin, torn easily by a breeze. It grew fond of mad poetry long ago and eventually became its life work. At times, it has wearied of the venture and thought of quitting; at times it has pressed forward, boasting of victories. Battling thus back and forth, it has never been at rest. For a while it yearned for worldly success, but poetry thwarted that; for a while it thought of enlightening its foolishness, but poetry broke that off. Finally, wihtout talent or skill, it simply follows along this one line.

Saigyō's waka, Sōgyi's renga, Sesshū's painting, Rikyū's tea ceremony - one thread runs through the artistic Ways. And this aesthetic spirit is to follow the Creative, to be a companion of the four seasons. Nothing one sees is not a flower, nothing one imagines is not a moon. If what is seen is not a flower, one is like a barbarian; if what is imagined is not a flower, one is like a beast. Depart from the barbarian, break from the beast, follow the Creative, return to the Creative."

The National Geographic published a feature on Bashō and the route he took that inspired The Narrow Road to the Deep North in the February 2008 issue. You can read it online at this link.

I've been reading Bashō's Journey and thoroughly enjoying it. It'll probably be one of a handful of books that I'll be taking with me for the 3 months that I will be wandering around this summer (in Taiwan, Tibet and Malaysia).

-be- "Reunion" Event

2010-04-11T22:02:00.013-04:00

It's been a while since I've updated this blog - not for lag of things to blog about (and not that what I blog about it really that interesting to anyone, more an exercise in vanity than anything really). But some pictures were taken two occasions recently and so, why not, especially since I'm looking for some distraction from drudgery (you can go ahead and guess what the drudgery might be....). So here I am, with the t.v. on in front of me, with a small pot of pu-erh tea brewing, with my mind trying to be present in different places....

A couple of weekends back -be- (the Warren Wilson buddhist group) alumni hosted a half-day retreat for the Warren Wilson community. I was reminded of what I missed the most about my life at Warren Wilson College. The program went from 1:30 into the evening. In the afternoon we focussed on the theory and practice of buddhist meditation - I parroted what I have learned about what meditation "is not" and "is" for a while before handing the program over to Kevin who led us in the actual sittings.

I liked the sittings especially since I did not have to be the person leading them - not to have to worry about when to ring the bell, if it's getting too long for people. Or not long enough. All that usual chatter, done. About 20 people were there - not all at the same time. But a pleasant, intimate group.

The sittings were followed by some delectable delights - baked goods from Emily and Jim - and tea. And then it was on to cooking and setting-up for the evening's Mindfulness Meal. I had half of what we were going to eat that evening pre-prepared but still... with more than 20 people eating, and with a ritualized meal, we used up the 2 hours scheduled to get everything done.

We all sat down at 6 pm, we chanted and contemplated:

"Innumerable labors have brought us this food,
We should know how it comes to us.
Receiving this offering, we should consider
Whether our virtue and practice deserve it.
We recognize greed as an obstacle to freedom of mind.
In order to sustain our lives,
We partake of this food as medicine.
To attain the Buddha Way,
We now accept this food off'ring."

Food was served, food was enjoyed. As nourishment, as medicine. Silently, serenely. Or seemingly.

We had seconds, we were served tea. And we offered a portion to the hungry-spirits:
"All you hungry-spirits,
All you tortured ghosts:
Now we give you this Dharma-food,
May it fill the ten directions
And satisfy hunger in all dark realms."

Davidson College Lunar New Year Celebrations

2010-02-22T20:17:00.003-05:00

Lion dance at the student center.

Fireworks!

We crashed a wedding in Ladakh!

2010-02-17T22:59:00.003-05:00

Video by Dav Robertson

Pictures found in my camera

2010-02-17T18:04:00.014-05:00

A somewhat random sample of what was downloaded from my camera today:

Persimmons pudding

Mani Drupchen at TMC

Lunar New Year - Year of Iron Tiger

"The Social Life of Water" by Tony Hoagland

2010-01-25T13:28:00.004-05:00

First published in The Sun Magazine.

"The Social Life of Water"

All water is a part of other water.
Cloud talks to lake; mist
speaks quietly to creek.

Lake says something back to cloud,
and cloud listens.
No water is lonely water.

All water is a part of other water.
River rushes to reunite with ocean;
Tree drinks rain and sweats out dew;
Dew takes elevator into cloud;
Cloud marries puddle;
puddle

has long conversation with lake about fiord;
Fog sneaks up and murmurs insinuations to swamp;
Swamp makes needs known to marshland;

Thunderstorm throws itself on estuary;
Waterspout laughs at joke of frog pond.
All water understands.

All water understands.
Reservoir gathers information
for database of watershed;
Brook translates lake to waterfall;
Tide wrinkles its green forehead and then breaks through.
All water understands.

But you, you stand on the shore
of blue Lake Kieve in the evening
and listen, grieving
as something stirs and turns within you.

Not knowing why you linger in the dark.
Not able even to guess
from what you are excluded.

***
While most other times I feel like Hoagland's water - I flow, I understand, I connect - this piece also captured a feeling, a nagging that I sometimes have, sometimes quite palpably.

"Not knowing why you linger in the dark./ Not able even to guess/ from what you are excluded." Perhaps, a quite universal feeling of both belonging and longing, a suspension between a serenity of aloneness and a sadness of loneliness.

"A Dog Has Died" by Pablo Neruda

2010-01-16T23:16:00.009-05:00

I was recently introduced to the poems of the Chilean poet, Pablo Neruda (1904-1973) via the New Yorker article about Michael and Matthew Dickman (twins) - two young, upcoming American poets whose work I am learning to like. Although I have not yet developed the same kind of appreciation for Neruda (who apparently inspired the Dickman twins), this piece he wrote resonated with me - not only because the dog in this piece reminds me so much of Duncan, but I also recognize the narrator...

"A Dog Has Died"

My dog has died.
I buried him in the garden
next to a rusted old machine.

Some day I'll join him right there,
but now he's gone with his shaggy coat,
his bad manners and his cold nose,
and I, the materialist, who never believed
in any promised heaven in the sky
for any human being,
I believe in a heaven I'll never enter.
Yes, I believe in a heaven for all dogdom
where my dog waits for my arrival
waving his fan-like tail in friendship.

Ai, I'll not speak of sadness here on earth,
of having lost a companion
who was never servile.
His friendship for me, like that of a porcupine
withholding its authority,
was the friendship of a star, aloof,
with no more intimacy than was called for,
with no exaggerations:
he never climbed all over my clothes
filling me full of his hair or his mange,
he never rubbed up against my knee
like other dogs obsessed with sex.

No, my dog used to gaze at me,
paying me the attention I need,
the attention required
to make a vain person like me understand
that, being a dog, he was wasting time,
but, with those eyes so much purer than mine,
he'd keep on gazing at me
with a look that reserved for me alone
all his sweet and shaggy life,
always near me, never troubling me,
and asking nothing.

Ai, how many times have I envied his tail
as we walked together on the shores of the sea
in the lonely winter of Isla Negra
where the wintering birds filled the sky
and my hairy dog was jumping about
full of the voltage of the sea's movement:
my wandering dog, sniffing away
with his golden tail held high,
face to face with the ocean's spray.

Joyful, joyful, joyful,
as only dogs know how to be happy
with only the autonomy
of their shameless spirit.

There are no good-byes for my dog who has died,
and we don't now and never did lie to each other.

So now he's gone and I buried him,
and that's all there is to it.

Translated, from the Spanish, by Alfred Yankauer

Duncan died at Raven Ridge Farm, Marshall, North Carolina on a quiet Thursday afternoon, August 20, 2009. He was with friends. He is missed.

"There is only this..."

2009-12-03T22:30:00.006-05:00

When the great Chinese Zen master Ta-mei was dying, his students asked him for a final helpful word. "When it comes, don't try to avoid it; when it goes, don't go running after it," said Ta-mei. Just then, a squirrel chattered on the roof. "There is only this, there is nothing else." he said, and then he died.
- How to Raise an Ox

Today, my Chan/Zen course met for the last time this semester. We have been reading How to Raise an Ox, a book by Francis Cook on the teachings of Zen Master Dōgen 道元禅師 (1200-1253). I have read this book at least a couple of times a year since I was first introduced to this book (which was when I was a graduate tutor for Prof. Paul Groner's Zen Buddhism course at University of Virginia) and yet each time I read it, it moves me.

"This worldly care, I cannot yet lay aside."

2009-11-30T16:42:00.005-05:00

I'm posting, not so much a translation of a Tang-dynasty poem but, a "response" to a Tang-period poem (since I have taken too many liberties to call it a translation). But the original piece was composed by Chen Zi'ang (661-702) in response to a poem written for him by a Buddhist monk. I'm including the Chinese original for those of you who read Chinese.

皎皎白林秋，微微翠山靜。
禪居感物變，獨坐開軒屏。
風泉夜聲雜，月露宵光冷。
多謝忘機人，塵憂未能整。

And my "response":

Clear and white this colorless forest autumn -
The subtle and mysterious quiet of blue mountains.
Cloistered in meditation, I sense change;
Lifting the veranda screen, here alone I sit.

Night sounds mingle with distant breezes,
As moon dews cool midnight lights.
Baring myself before your unscheming mind -
"This worldly care, I cannot yet lay aside."

W. H. Auden

2009-11-19T22:01:00.000-05:00

Defenseless under the night
Our world in stupor lies;
Yet, dotted everywhere,
Ironic points of light
Flash out wherever the Just
Exchange their messages:
May I, composed like them
Of Eros and of dust,
Beleaguered by the same
Negation and despair,
Show an affirming flame.

-- W. H. Auden

On this Cold Night

2009-11-16T19:36:00.005-05:00

涼冷三秋夜，安閒一老翁。
臥遲燈滅後，睡美雨聲中。
灰宿溫瓶火，香添暖被籠。
曉晴寒未起，霜葉滿階紅。

On this cold night in the third autumn month,

A solitary old man, tranquil and leisurely.

Laying down late after the lamp’s burnt out,

Pleasantly he sleeps with the sound of rain.

As ash lay resting in the stove still warm from the fire,

Its fragrance increases the warmth of quilt and covers.

At dawn, clear but cold, he stirs not –

Frosted leaves at their crimson fullness.

- Bai juyi (772-846)

Potato Bread & "Siu Yoke"

2009-11-02T12:20:00.010-05:00

This past Sunday was dreary outside... wet, dark and the first full day of no-more-daylight-savings. So what better to do than to crank up the oven and bake some comfort food! After receiving my first lesson in breadmaking from Lateef a couple of weekends back, I decided to give it a try on my own. With much trepidation (I tend to mess up rather easily when it comes to baking stuff in the oven) but at the same time confidence that Teef was a good teacher, I prepared the "sponge" needed for the bread on the night before (which was Halloween). In a bold move, I decided that rather than making plain bread, I'll venture into potato bread (and there were a few potatoes that desperately needed attention). The bread turned out pretty good - good enough that I'm sharing a couple of loaves with some colleagues. So here are the pics:

After seeming success with bread, I decided to make some "Siu Yoke" (Cantonese for "roasted meat") - roasted pork belly. I did some grocery shopping at a couple of Asian stores in Charlotte on Saturday and bought a couple of pounds of pork belly meat. With pork belly, I usually either make "Tau Eu Bak" (Hokkien for "soy-sauce meat") - braising the meat for a few hours with garlic, cinnamon, soy-sauce, thick soy-sauce, sugar, star-anise and cloves or Siu Yoke. Since the oven is already warm, Siu Yoke was what I ended up making. It turned out ok... nicely fragrant with spices but needing a heavier dash of salt. Next time, it'll be perfect!

Experiments with Breads

2009-10-18T20:03:00.007-04:00

Lateef came to visit this weekend. And maybe because he likes making bread, and maybe because I recently had a strange dream about being given a sourdough starter that has been passed down for "four generations" in the same family... my thoughts turn to bread-making! We made two types of bread: Indian fried bread - poori - to eat with the two vegetarian curries I made for the weekend and a regular yeasted bread.

Here are some pictures for your eyes to feast on:

Rolling out the poori dough. These are SO easy to make.

Best part is to see how large they will puff up.

Kala channa ("black chickpeas") curry in front.

Raven Ridge Mountain Sang-Offering

2009-10-18T11:25:00.010-04:00

Last Sunday, after teaching "Sunday School" at Davidson College Presbyterian Church I started driving up to Asheville/Marshall, NC. Monday and Tuesday was the 2-day "Fall Break" here at Davidson College and so I was able to go up on a Sunday and not have to rush back to Davidson for Monday classes. I was scheduled to speak at two classes on that Monday at Warren Wilson but mostly, I drove up to meet with a small group of friends to perform a sang-offering - a purificatory-ritual in Tibetan Buddhism involving the burning of juniper, cedar and other incense - at Raven Ridge Farm.

Sang is meant both as an offering of sweet-smells to the enlightened deities as well as a cleansing of spiritual pollution or dirt that has accumulated and "infected" the local deities and beings (i.e. including us, the humans). This pollution (dripa) is the result of negative karma such as the committing of the ten non-virtues, lapses in the maintenance of vows of training. Pollution is also believed to accrue when inauspicious signs or omens appear, certain alignments of the stars and planets, accidental or violent deaths, digging and upsetting of the soil, mourning, cutting of trees and degradation of land and pollution of water. Some of these actions or occurrences have clear moral-ethical implications, some don't. Some are clearly avoidable and best avoided, others are matters mostly beyond our direct control. One way or another, pollution is the result and by performing the sang-offering, it is believed that such pollution (dripa) can be cleansed, sanctified - which is what "sang" literally means.

The Thursday prior to the sang-offering at Raven Ridge Farm marked the 49th day of Duncan's (Mr. Dog) sudden and accidental death at the farm. So a handful of friends drove over from Asheville to rendezvous with me and Kevin at the farm out in Marshall. It was a beautiful afternoon - the drive was uneventful in a nice way. I got there before the others and was greeted by Kevin and the two new calves that the dairy-moms Dana and Willa recently gave birth to. The calves - Zoey and Margaret (named after Kevin and Andy's grandmothers) - were a couple of weeks old and so, so, very cute.

(Margaret is the calf that looks like a fawn)

From among the various sang-offerings texts that were available to us, we selected to offer the famous "Mountain Sang-Offering" (Riwo Sangcho), a terma discovered by Lhatsun Namkha Jikme. The style of the text is very much Dzokchen-based, a tradition that we as a group are not very familiar with. But given the right context and conditions, it is good to expand our Dharma knowledge and practice. Also, given the title of the text, it's appropriate for a practice we were performing on a mountain ridge. This is also the sang text that we used the most during the pilgrimage to Ladakh two summers ago.

The farm was looking real good - a lot of work had gone in recently and the guys are clearly making very good progress. Hens were pecking away with a few roosters strutting around. And the ducks were lazily sunbathing by the pond. The lower fenced-in garden where corn and pumpkin and squash used to grow is almost empty now - ears of crimson corn are hanging in the milk-parlor area drying. So people don't just buy these from the store to create the Fall ambiance for their suburb homes huh? Fancy that! The potatoes that were growing in the upper garden have also been harvested and now in their place are winter crops - wheat and barley, I think? Of all the Fall/Winter yields to look forward to, I'm most excited about the duck-eggs....

And indeed, Duncan has the nicest spot on the whole land. He is now "returning" in the form of a (potentially) gnarly, Black Dragon, Japanese cedar that Kevin and I planted right next to Duncan's body. Kevin selected and gifted Mr. Dog that spot. From that spot, the entire land and beyond can be seen and kept under Duncan's "regal gaze." We gathered right next to the spot and offered our sang there. Up on that ridge looking out into the open space it was easy to "relax in the expanse of reality" and let our self-awareness appear spontaneously and magically as Guru Rinpoché - "the fierce and potent master of awareness, Skull-garland Lotus Lord." And thus we also emanated countless Guru Rinpoché's by intoning oṃ āḥ hūṃ vajra guru padma siddhi hūṃ...

For the basic fire and coals we used blocks of very fragrant, cedar wood harvested from the land. To that we added juniper from different places in Tibet, dwarf rhododendron (very fragrant, grows in the higher elevation in Tibet, no not poisonous like our rhodo... these in particular were from Tsurphu), agarwood/aloeswood from Malaysia, Indian sandalwood, white sage, white artemisia, frankincense, benzoin, osha root (potent!) and barley flour and corn meal. And sprinkles of beer and water here and there, now and then. And some clippings of fresh cedar foliage from the Black Dragon Duncan cedar tree.

"Let these flames fill the entire universe and every minute particle of flame
Becomes an inexhaustible cloud of offerings like Samantabhadra's
Pervading throughout all the buddha-realms!
May these flames, offering-rays of five-colored lights of wisdom,
Pervade throughout the six classes of beings, down to the Avichi Hells,
The three realms of samsara be liberated into the rainbow body,
And all sentient beings awaken into the heart of enlightenment!"

We finished sang around 4pm so that Chris could hurry on back into town as she was going to be interviewed by a local radio station about her recent book (click here to check out her website). The rest of us stayed a little for some tasty sweet tea that Kevin made and of course, for more time and photo ops with the calves.

p.s. calves, puppies and babies all smell the same, in a good way. I think.

(The girls sauntering over to greet Geoffrey's mom who just arrived from Massachusetts)

Hun's Wanderings & Wonderings

Notable Signage Seen in Foreign Lands

"The Word"

Year of the Dragon

A Youtube on Momo

Winter Journey

Photos from Urban Dharma

Have some tea!

Absence of new postings

Tārā Article: Historical Survey of the Hindu Tārā (continuing)

Tārā Article: Historical Survey of the Hindu Tārā

The Killing of bin Laden

"Tārā - A Study of Buddhist-Hindu Cross Fertilizations," (pt. 3)

Hello, Mr. President!

"Tārā - A Study of Buddhist-Hindu Cross Fertilizations," (pt. 2)

"Tārā - A Study of Buddhist-Hindu Cross Fertilizations"

Then the Glorious Holder of the Vajra...

Did I mention...

Status update 4.14.2011

pages accumulatinglife depletingeverything's just as they should be

Another "mystery" solved

My daily schedule for the next few months - I hope!

Chanced Upon: Abhidharma-kośa Study Blog

Chotrul Düchen - Festival of Miracles

"Great Springtime" by Ko Un

Quick update

Happy Year of the Wabbit!

Gearing up for the New Year

Faces & Foods

Arriving in Malaysia

The Heart of Vajrayāna

Gaṇacakra-offering Days

Banishing Poverty-Mind, Nov 7 Event in Asheville, NC

Autumn winds

Guest post 2: More from Kevin

Guest Post: Kevin's words

Guanyin Talks at Than Hsiang Temple, Penang

Tibet Teasers

The living is a passing traveler

Around Beautiful Island in 4 days

Tea in Taiwan

Shameless Self-promotion?

Days & Doings in Penang

Images & Impressions of Taiwan

Aphorisms from Don Paterson

Words from A Friend

In Malaysia!

Another poet to obsess over?

Gesture of thanks to all the birthday greetings

Hoagland on Suffering

Some new views of the living room

In Anticipation of Summer Travels

-be- "Reunion" Event

Davidson College Lunar New Year Celebrations

We crashed a wedding in Ladakh!

Pictures found in my camera

"The Social Life of Water" by Tony Hoagland

"A Dog Has Died" by Pablo Neruda

"There is only this..."

"This worldly care, I cannot yet lay aside."

W. H. Auden

On this Cold Night

Potato Bread & "Siu Yoke"

Experiments with Breads

Raven Ridge Mountain Sang-Offering

pages accumulating
life depleting
everything's just as they should be