Back to School!

The Grand Palace and Golden Temple, Bangkok, Thailand

In Buddhism there are many, many schools.  One school is distinguished from the other schools using three criteria:

Thai Buddhis

First, by the particular Sutra, a lecture traditionally ascribed to Gautama Buddha (also known as Shakyamuni Buddha and Siddhartha), which guides its followers in the particular teachings and practices of the school—the Lotus Sutra is the teaching and practice I follow.
Second, a school is distinguished by the Founding Master of the school, who serves as a model of how the practice of the school is to be carried out.

Third, the school is distinguished over the years by all masters who followed the Founding Master and now show the followers how to follow the teachings and practices of the school for the times in which they live.

Through there are hundreds of schools in Buddhism, they all come under one of three umbrella schools:

Hinayana Buddhism: Literally, the Lessor Vehicle.  In Thailand, over 90% of Thais practice Theravada Buddhism, a school under this umbrella;

The Dali Lama

Mahayana Buddhism: Literally, the Greater Vehicle.  The Dali Lama and Thich Nhat Hanh practice in schools under this umbrella;

Thich Nhat Hanh

Ekayana Buddhism: Literally, the One Vehicle.  The thirteenth century Japanese monk Nichiren practiced under this umbrella.  So do I.

Nichiren

There are, as I said, many, many schools in Buddhism.  So what's a guy or a gal to do when they are looking around for a Buddhist school?  Buddhism is based on human reasoning, so the process is similar to a high school graduate looking for a school.  You do the necessary research, you talk to family and friends, and you decide hich school is for you, casting your lot with the other students there.  Of course you can also start your own Buddhist school, but you probably want to learn at least the basics of Buddhism first.

Giant Demon Guarding the Temple Gates

As you can see by the names given to the three umbrella schools of Buddhism, the concept of a vehicle is very important in Buddhism. A vehicle is a way of getting from here to there.  In Buddhism, Here is here in the world you presently live in, your world, or the unenlightened state of life (unless you are already enlightened). There is the world of enlightenment where you live the enlightened state of life.

Library of Buddhist Writings

The example most often used of a vehicle in Buddhism is the raft that carries you across the river to the shores on the other side. The practice (the raft) brings you across a life of suffering (the river) to Enlightenment (the shores on the other side).  Once you are safely on the shores, you abandon the raft and travel on. You do not carry the raft with you. The raft is a means, not an end.

Happy Rafting

Also in Buddhism, once you have arrived safely at Enlightenment, you abandon the school and travel on, enjoying all the tranquility of an enlightened life. It's graduation day. Baby!  Oh, yes, according to Buddhism, you can become enlightened in this lifetime. You do not have to die first!

The World-Honored One

Take a look at Chapter II of the Lotus Sutra which you will find in Reference Material.  You will meet the following characters:


The World-Honored One
Shariputra
Sravakas
Pratyekabuddhas
Tathagata

·         I greet these characters every morning when I do my Buddhist practice.  They are old friends!  We've known each other for 27 years, even though it seems like only yesterday that we met.  My first reflection will be on The World-honored One.

AT THAT TIME the World-honored One, rising quietly and clearly from contemplation,

Who are you, World-Honored One?

           I am you and you are me....

After years of practicing, that's the answer I get.  The whole world of Buddhism is my life.  That's the message of the Lotus Sutra to me.  I don't know about others, but that's what I get out of years of reflecting on its teachings.

So if I am the World-Honored One, who am I?  I know I am not world famous let alone world-honored....  Ah, I am potentially who he is actually.  My whole life is about actualizing the character of a world honored human being!  When I see how great is my potential as a human being, I am inspired to do the things that I believe world honored people do.  Like Martin Luther King, John F. Kennedy, Mother Theresa, Nelson Mandela.  I reach out to my community and make my most valuable contributions to ease the difficulties of everyday living.

It is not that I want to be world honored. Everything I know about world honored people tells me that their lives are not easy ones.... Ah, so  that’s it!   Life is not easy, and to act as though it were is to live in a dream world.  A spiritual practice based in a dream world is indeed a dangerous practice!

But the Lotus Sutra tells me that the World-honored one rose quietly and clearly from contemplation.  If I want to be the compassionate man for which I have the capacity, I must also be a contemplative man.  Some who know me would not say that I am not a contemplative man.  Perhaps I am not, but that does not mean I don’t get the message.  I am of no value as a human being if I do not contemplate reality and I don’t take compassionate action upon seeing all the suffering around me daily.  How can I contribute to alleviating the pain and sorrow of daily living?  I develop a strong spiritual practice and I share the fruits of that practice with others.  I “rise quietly and clearly” and address Everyman:  Shariputra, a character I will reflect upon in my next posting....

Tactfulness: Chapter II

Almost always, when I read this title, I smile at the word Tactfulness.  How tricky it is to be tactful!  As I make my full intention to be tactful in a given situation, I find myself wondering around on the border between truthfulness and deceitfulness.  A little too much this way and I am being deceptive; but then just a little bit back that way and I am such a truthful person!  In some translations the phrase expedient means is used.  Somehow that sounds to me like the deceptive side of the border.  I’ll stick with my son George’s choice, tactfulness.

Chapter II of 26 chapters is considered pivotal in the teaching of the lotus, the teaching of the wonderful principle of cause and effect.  Ah, I see it!  I must be tactful in the intentions I create; otherwise, I might get a result I did not intend.  Today we hear much about the law of unintended consequences.  That’s the dark side of what the Lotus Sutra teaches.  I must dedicate much thought and prayer to the consequences I want to see from my intention, as well as the possible unwanted ones, before I actually make that intention, also called determination.  I must always remember that my intentions determine the tendencies my behavior will adopt  in all my future actions.  After all, it is through my actions that I create my own karma.

Be determined!  Be single-minded!  That’s what my practice tells me.  Without determination and single-mindedness, I could never have made it from Natick, Massachusetts, to Chiang Mai, Thailand.  Not at 72!  How grateful I am to my parents and others who helped me become a tactful person.  Just as tactics follow upon strategy in the pursuit of war, so tactfulness follow upon intention and determination in the pursuit of happiness, another word for enlightenment.  A philosophy teacher of mine once said, some years before we actually did it, You can’t get to the moon if you have not first gone there in your mind.  He was teaching us about the function of intentions, strategy, and tactics, a teaching I learn again and again in my daily activities.   I sure have had some very wise people in my life!

Living in a country far away from family and long-time friends, in a place where I neither speak nor understand the language, can’t even read it because it’s a whole other script, if I am not tactful, I can get into a lot of trouble.  I know that among others my sister Patty worries about that.  She knows I am careful, but she probably wonders if I am up to such great challenges here in Thailand.  With my daily Buddhist practice, I am tactful in all things.  Well, once in awhile I haven’t been tactful enough in what I eat or drink!

And that’s why we talk about a spiritual practice.  I must practice it every day, as I did the piano when I was very young….   

Lotus Sutra Wonderful Law

Lotus Sutra Wonderful Law, the title of the Buddhist scripture I base my practice on.  The lotus flower is a beautiful flower.  Now that I live in Thailand, a Buddhist country, I see the Lotus blossom everywhere.  The lotus flower is a top icon in Buddhist iconography.  [For a related view of mine, please see my posting Living with Icons in my blog George in Thailand (http://george-ross.blogspot.com/)]  Icons in Buddhism, as in Christianity the cross), Judaism (the Star of David, Islam (the crescent moon), all religions as well as all institutions and businesses (The Constitution of the United States,the Coke swish) are sacraments (in Catholic terminology): They do in the spiritual world what they signify as doing in the physical world.  Water signifies cleansing, so it it’s perfect for administering the sacrament of baptism in Catholicism, where baptism, sacramentally washes away the effect of original sin.   And what does the lotus signify in Buddhism?  It signifies the simultaneity of cause and effect, as well as our ability to bring good things out of bad things.  How’s that?   Traditionally it is believed that the lotus is the only plant to flower and seed at the same time.  The seed is the cause of the flower and the flower is the cause of the seed, so that the flower is the effect or the seed and the seed is the effect of the flower. The lotus teaches us symbolically that an entity can be both case and effect.  A most profound teaching!

Up until the teaching of the Lotus Sutra, we believed that through our Buddhist practice, we make the good causes the result in our enlightenment.  The Lotus Sutra has us consider the reality of our innate enlightenment is the cause of the good causes we make.  I don't become a buddha; I am a buddha, a buddha who is not manifest in the world until my actions make the Buddha a manifest reality.  This is a teaching similar to the Christian teaching on grace, a free gift from God that enables us to do good things and have good things happen to us through the grace of God.


And the lotus flower, a most beautiful flower, grows out of muddy waters.  It signifies that out of ugliness comes beauty.  The ying and the yang of reality!

So this teaching (sutra) is of a wonderful law, a wonderful, mystic principle:  Once a cause is made, the effect is made at the same time.  I intend to benefit my family, my friends, my lover, my community.  And as soon as I make that intention (cause), the effect (benefit) has already been created.  Is the effect manifested right away?  No.  Look how long parents must wait to see just what they have wrought!

I have learned through my practice of the principle of the simultaneity of cause and effect that the purer I can make my intentions, the greater will be their effect on me, others, and the whole universe.  People today like to say, be careful what you wish for!  There’s much wisdom in that caveat….

Sypathetic Vibrations

Sympathetic vibrations, a term familiar to all musicians, refers to the phenomenon of something vibrating in sympathy with something else vibrating.  We've all had the experience of an annoying sound which seems to come from nowhere.  We keep wondering Where is that terrible sound coming from?  We trace it down and find that it is coming from, for example, a fan.  But the fan is not on and is unplugged.  So how can it sound?  Then we find that there's someone outside using a jackhammer which is sending out its strong vibrations, not only to the operator but also to our fan!  The fan is vibrating in sympathy with the jackhammer, perhaps even feeling sorry for the jackhammer operator!


When I was working on my screen play about my twin and me, I thought of calling it Sympathetic Vibrations.


So what's sympathetic vibrations got to do with The Lotus Sutra and Me?   My reflections here in this blog always come out from something in my soul that vibrates in sympathy with something I am chanting from the Lotus Sutra.  It's what's often called an Ah-Ha! experience.  I have been chanting the second and sixteenth chapters of the Lotus Sutra since 1984, and still I have those ah-ha moments.  It's like there are moments in reciting the Our Father that suddenly we experience Thy kingdom come as if hearing it for the first time.


Sympathetic Vibrations.  I have learned to never ignore anything read, seen, heard, smelled, tasted, or felt that sets off something that gets my soul vibrating.

What This Blog is Not

It's not an exercise in see-how smart, how holy I-am.
It's not a scholarly work; you'll find not footnotes here!
It's not a list of talking points. You'll have to do your own research for that!
It's not objective .
It's not something to be debated, at least not with me.  As Grocho used to say, I'll deny everything!
It's not even a point of view, not even my point of view.  I know what a point of view is!
It's not terribly careful, but not reckless either.
And it certainly is not an apologia pro vita mea.  Did you know that in the seminary I took a course called Apologetics designed to teach us how to defend the church?  I have no defense for most of what I say here!  Guilty as charged, your Honor!


I do hope you enjoy The Lotus Sutra and Me for what it is.... 

That's Me!

 

As I read the Lotus Sutra, I find myself saying at various turns:

That’s the Buddha!  The Perfect Human Being!  The very model of what it means to be fully human.

But then I think of someone I admire, someone that’s just like the one described in the Lotus Sutra, and in my mind I say to that person:

That’s you!

After having the experience of discovering who the Buddha is, and that there are others just like him, over a period of 27 years, just yesterday I heard myself exclaim:

That’s me!

That’s me!  That’s me fully realized.  What in me is potential, in the Buddha is actual..  The Buddha is a completely actualized, realized human being.  In other words, awake or enlightened.  The Buddha is a metaphor for just how great, potentially or actually, a human being is.  We’re not talking about a god, and certainly we are not talking about God.  Buddhism says nothing about God.  Buddhism is completely absorbed with human life in the here and now.  Buddhism neither affirms nor denies the existence of a supreme, all mighty, omniscient, omnipresent, personal God.  So it’s agnostic?  Not at all.  It only claims to know that which is directly knowable by human beings.  There is no revealed truth in Buddhism.  Life, reality, will reveal itself to those who seek knowledge, understanding, wisdom, happiness, enlightenment.  What is the Buddha?  He’s awake!

That’s you!  All I said above about the Buddha and about human beings can be predicated of you as well as of me!  Yeah, that’s what I have learned over my 27 years of practicing the Lotus Sutra, a Buddhist scripture.

Buddhist scripture, actually any scripture, any holy writing, is a metaphor.  Analytical thinking as applied n the scientific method is simply not capable of analyzing that which cannot be analyzed.  Scientists are analysts. They analyze concrete, tangible, physical reality.  Attempting to analyze what is not analyzable, something you cannot get or see under the microscope, is something scientists leave to philosophers and theologians, and to the bus driver, the barber, and the shoeshine boy!  So am I saying that philosophers and theologians have some sort of magical powers to be able to analyze that which is not analyzable?  Not at all.  Oh, yes, they do analyze what to the scientist is not analyzable, but they use different tools.  Two of the Top Tools in their toolbox are the metaphor (Jesus' parables) and the negative way (Socrates' I only know that I know nothing as opposed to Descartes' I think therefore I am), describing a reality by what it is not.

For my purpose in this blog and in this posting, I will simply say that the dream is the greatest invention of the human spirit.  The dream is a way of us telling ourselves something we need/want to know in the only intelligible language for such a task., the metaphor.  There is much out there about dreams.  I just want to say that I believe, along with Fritz Perls (god father gestalt therapy), that the dreamer is the dream and the dream is the dreamer.  100%!

If I have a dream of me being chased up a tree by a tiger, I am the me, I am the tree, I am the tiger, I am the dream.  I like to imagine it like this (a metaphor!):  When the tree and the tiger wake up, how will they tell this dream?  It’s their dream too!  Akira Kurosawa made a movie called Rashomon that starts off showing us a scene, telling us a story.  Straight forward?  Not at all.  Now we begin hearing the story being told by the various characters we saw at the beginning.  They were all there, just as we were there, yet they all tell a different story, as do we.  That’s the dream.  You and I can have the same dream, theoretically, but relate it to someone quite differently.  So movies are metaphors.  The great movies are great metaphors.  After you see a great movie, and while you are viewing it, you keep saying, Ah Ha!  That’s right!  You recognize a truth in it, perhaps a truth you never recognized before.  But now you know something you didn’t know before, or something you didn’t know you knew.  And that’s the power of the metaphor.

What’s the deepest realization about the Lotus Sutra?  It is that I am everything and everyone in the Lotus Sutra.  It is the story of my life.  Of course I could say the same about the Bible.  In fact, St. Paul once said Now lives not I but Christ Jesus lives in me!

So say I of the Lotus Sutra:  That's me!