A Gift of Dharma for 2.4.10 February 4, 2010
Posted by Danny Fisher in A Gift of Dharma, Chogyam Trungpa Rinpoche.Tags: Chogyam Trungpa Rinpoche
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Today’s dharma quote is yet another from the Vidyādhara, Chögyam Trungpa Rinpoche(1939-1987), whom I first quoted and wrote a little bio for here. I know I said I would keep the kyping/re-posting of quotes from other sources to an absolute minimum, but this one was too good to pass up. It’s from the chapter “Helping Others” in his book Great Eastern Sun: The Wisdom of Shambhala, page 180, and it comes to us via James Shaheen at the Tricycle Editors’ Blog (via Ocean of Dharma):
When you are trying to help someone, you have to have humor, self-existing humor, and you have to hold the moth in your hand, but not let it go into the flame. That’s what helping others means. Ladies and gentlemen, we have so much responsibility. A long time ago, people helped one another in this way. Now people just talk, talk talk. They read books, they listen to music, but they never actually help anyone. They never use their bare hands to save a person from going crazy. We have that responsibility. Somebody has to do it. It turns out to be us. We’ve got to do it, and we can do it with a smile, not with a long face.
Queer Sangha February 4, 2010
Posted by Danny Fisher in homosexuality.Tags: Lawrence Grecco, Queer Sangha
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Check out the work of our friend Lawrence Grecco and others by clicking the image below:
“Japan’s Rapping Monk” February 4, 2010
Posted by Danny Fisher in Buddhism and music, Japanese Buddhism.Tags: Japan, rapping monk, Reuters
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A.O. Scott Talks about Groundhog Day February 4, 2010
Posted by Danny Fisher in Buddhism and film, arts and entertainment.Tags: A.O. Scott, Bill Murray, Groundhog Day, Harold Ramis, The New York Times
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A Gift of Dharma for 2.3.10 February 4, 2010
Posted by Danny Fisher in A Gift of Dharma.Tags: Jetsun Milarepa
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Today’s quote comes to us from the great Tibetan saint Jetsun Milarepa (1052-1135), whom I previously quoted and wrote a little biography for here. This is it:
Though grief in the Ocean of Samsara
Is preached, and its renunciation is urged,
Few people are really convinced
And renounce it with determination.
Though knowing that life will ever turn to death,
Few feel uneasy, or think that it will end.
Though their life is blessed with good prospects,
Few can practice abstention for a day.
Though the Bliss of Liberation is expounded
And Samsara’s pains are stressed,
Few can really enter the Dharma Gate.
Though the profound Pith-Instructions
Of the Whispered Lineage are given without stint, few
Without fail can practice them.
Though the teaching of Mahamudra is expounded
And the Pointing-out demonstration is exercised,
Few can really understand the Essence of Mind.
To the hermit’s life and the Guru’s wish
One can always aspire, but few
Can put them into practice.
The perfect, skillful path of Naropa
May be shown, without concealment,
But those who can really follow it
Are very few. My dear lad,
You should follow in my footsteps
If in this life you want to do
Something that is worthwhile.
Register Now for the Sacred Awakening Series February 3, 2010
Posted by Danny Fisher in interfaith encounters.Tags: Bhikkhu Bodhi, Dr. A. T. Ariyaratne, Genpo Roshi, Sacred Awakening Series, Tenzin Robert Thurman
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This from our friend the Venerable Bhikkhu Bodhi (a participant in the event):
Dear friends,
I am delighted to invite you to participate with me in the Sacred Awakening Series, a unique teleseminar event featuring 40 spiritual leaders from every major tradition over 40 days – all for free.
Register now
Never before have so many leaders from so many lineages gathered on the phone to offer their secrets to living a sacred life. It promises to be a journey of personal transformation, deep connection, and inspiring examples of service.
I will participate in one of 40 teleseminars during the Series alongside deeply respected leaders such as Marianne Williamson, Robert Thurman, Sadhguru, Bishop John Shelby Spong, Luisah Teish, Rabbi Yehuda Berg, Barbara Marx Hubbard, and Grandmother Agnes Baker Pilgrim (full list below).
You can participate live on as many calls as you like and interact with both the leaders and other participants via a state-of-the-art MaestroConference platform. Or you can just listen to the recordings later.
The series begins February 17th and is completely free.
Find out more
Please do share this invitation with friends and colleagues – all are warmly welcomed to participate. I hope to see you on my call!
Best,
Bhikkhu BodhiP.S. The Sacred Awakening Series gives you personal access to the following inspiring spiritual leaders:
Abdul Aziz-Said, Andrew Harvey, Angeles Arrien, Dr. A. T. Ariyaratne, Ariel Spilsbury, Barbara Marx Hubbard, Bhikkhu Bodhi, Bishop John Shelby Spong, Chunyi Lin, Dattatreya Shiva Baba, Gangaji, Genpo Roshi, Grandmother Agnes Baker Pilgrim, Grandmother Flordemayo, Isha Judd, James O’Dea, Jean Houston, Julia Butterfly Hill, Jyoti, Kali Ma, Kyriacos Markides, Leslie Temple Thurston, Luisah Teish, Marianne Williamson, Matthew Fox, Michael Tamura, Rabbi Lynn Gottlieb, Rabbi Yehuda Berg, Rev. James Trapp, Rev. Michael Dowd, Sadhguru, Saniel Bonder & Linda Groves Bonder, Sequoia Trueblood, Sheikha Ayshegul Ashki, Shiva Rea, Sobunfu Some, Stanislav Grof, Stephen Dinan & Devaa Haley Mitchell, Swamiji Chidananda Saraswati, Tenzin Robert Thurman
Event Co-sponsors: Gaia Community and Gaia SoulMates, Unity, MaestroConference, The Shift Movie, Philosopher’s Notes, Spiritual Cinema Circle, Global Alliance for Transformational Entertainment, Center for Sacred Studies, Integrative Spirituality, Intent, and Intention Media
For more information, visit http://sacredawakeningseries.com.
Behind the Scenes of a CNN Interview with His Holiness the Dalai Lama February 3, 2010
Posted by Danny Fisher in Dalai Lama.Tags: CNN, His Holiness the Dalai Lama
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Somehow I missed this when it first appeared on YouTube several months back, but I enjoyed discovering it today:
More Magazine Profiles Pema Chödrön February 3, 2010
Posted by Danny Fisher in Pema Chödrön.Tags: More Magazine, Pema Chödrön
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Canada’s More Magazine offers a lengthy profile of the much-beloved Tibetan Buddhist nun Acharya Ani Pema Chödrön in a recent issue. Check it out right here. One choice snippet:
Compassion is a necessary foundation, since what she demands is so darn hard: Abandon hope, give up fear, let go of all attachment.
Chödrön’s message is neither new nor novel. The spiritual practices she advocates were developed more than 1,000 years ago in Tibet. Tibetan Buddhism isn’t a prescription for happiness or wealth. It is not a bromide that exalts the power of the will—à la The Secret—but a complex belief system that requires a rigorous dedication to truth, even when that truth is close to unbearable. “Thinking that we can find some lasting pleasure and avoid pain is…a hopeless cycle that goes round and round endlessly and causes us to suffer greatly,” Chödrön writes in her bestselling treatise When Things Fall Apart.
Instead of praying for bad times/things/people to go away, Chödrön counsels leaning into discomfort and following pain—even if the pain is simply looking at your own shortcomings, learning to recognize them without judgment and moving on.
This is the ruthless part. Chödrön’s Buddhism requires one to live with eyes wide open all the time. No fudging, no nudging, no lying to yourself even a tiny bit, not even once in a while. Tibetan monks dedicate their lives to perfecting this stuff; Chödrön’s followers try to do it while also staying on top of the laundry, paying bills and remembering to take the car in for service.
“God and Groundhog Day“ February 3, 2010
Posted by Danny Fisher in Buddhism and film, holidays.Tags: Angela Zito, Danny Rubin, Groundhog Day, NPR, NYU's Center for Religion and Media, The Takeaway
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An addendum to yesterday’s post: NPR’s The Takeaway interviews Groundhog Day screenwriter Danny Rubin and Angela Zito, co-director of NYU’s Center for Religion and Media, about the “variety of religious communities [who] see [the film] as an illustration of the tenets of their particular faiths.” Listen here.
A Gift of Dharma for 2.2.10 February 2, 2010
Posted by Danny Fisher in A Gift of Dharma, Sulak Sivaraksa.Tags: Sulak Sivaraksa
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Today’s quote comes to us from the great Sulak Sivaraksa–Thailand’s preeminent social activist and one of the titans of the modern engaged Buddhist movement–whom I previously quoted and wrote a little biography for in this post. I also posted about his recent On Faith profile earlier today. This is today’s quote:
The concept of interdependent co-arising is at the crux of Buddhist understanding. Nothing is formed in isolation and like the jewel net of Indra, each individual reflects every other living being infinitely many times. An attachment to an atomized sense of self and the self-Other binary is the antithesis of interdependence and an obstacle to achieving the peace of enlightenment. A commitment to nature and a deep respect for all life can help foster a change from an individualized self to a self as interbeing. Thich Naht Hanh, the well-known Vietnamese monk, uses the term interbeing to describe a self made up entirely of non-self elements including conditions and relationships. To acknowledge these non-self elements is to realize how one’s survival and ability to flourish is entirely contingent upon the quality of engagement with other sentient beings.
