MANTRAS

Through the years . . . now today and always a “presence” appearing in moments “unselected” and moments sought for.

The woods are lovely, dark and deep
But I have promises to keep,
And miles to go before I sleep,
And miles to go before I sleep.

—Robert Frost, “Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening”

Leagues of sky silent lie,
blue and free, calling me.
Where the horizon fair,
binds earth and air.
Cloud ships gaily,
venture daily,
on the silent sea. -  eagle rock (Los Angeles), California, 1931, kindergarten, spring semester. At age four years-ten months

I am Wu Hoo Git! I’m tired of classics! I long for the free air of life!  / Longing for the free air of life, always and forever, no doubt, a given. / A year at UCLA in 1943-44 before induction into the army /  first line spoken as the juvenile, Wu Hoo Git in George C. Hazelton and Benrimo’s “Yellow Jacket” in Royce Hall 170 theatre-in-the-round, in March, 1944.

Oh God, it’s wonderful. I feel as if I have the taste of blood in me mouth, the taste of the blood of me enemies, the taste of the blood of the men who taught me to love their laws and hate life. I that have warm blood and the laugh of a giant!  / playing Denis Dillon in Paul Vincent Carol’s “The White Steed” in Royce Hall 170, never-t0-be forgotten declaration longing for the free air of life,

The blood of me enemies—always would it be so, had been so—men (and/or women) who would teach me to love their laws and hate life. “I that have warm blood and the laugh of a giant. . .” and the never-ceasing desire to celebrate life.

Silent hum of people chanting Nam-Myoho Renge Kyo entering Myohoji Temple, turning to friends, saying, “Ive been here before.”

and

A Group of Immigrants as they fulfill the requirements of entrance into the new country. Consciously accepting the ways of a new stage of experience, in readiness for the opportunities it will present. . . We find ourselves in a period of transition. We have to imitate, yet retain our inner integrity. – rising sign (eastern horizon) at moment of “accepting” object of worship Nichiren Shoshu of America at Myohoji Temple, Etiwanda, California October 24, 1976.

December 5, 1977, Brentwood, California:

an albatross feeding from the hand of a sailor

keynote: The overcoming of fear and its rewards

Persons who radiate perfect harmlessness can call the wildest creatures to them . . . Every living entity plays a role in the world’s ritual if existence . . . the communion of love and compassion can bring together the most disparate lives.

Rudhyar: At this last stage of the fifty-sixth sequence we are presented with a picture extending the ideal of peace and happiness through culture so it now includes all living organisms on this planet. The power of such a culture of harmlessness and compassion generates trust everywhere. / “Original Intent” Promises Made in Past Lives, as “Five Realms of Human Destiny “discovered.”

1982, reading the New York Times Sunday Supplement, September 26, “Beyond Newton and Einstein / on the New Frontier of Physics” by Timothy Ferris, visiting professor at the University of Southern California School of Journalism, the author of  “Galaxies.”

 “These [unified] theories which stand on the very frontier of physics, are most precisely not expressed in words, but as mathematical equations. They imply that all the known forces in nature are manifestations of one basic interaction, and that once, long ago, all were part of a single universal force or process.

Nothingness contains all of being, writes the physicist, Heinz R. Pagels in his book “The Cosmic Code.” “All of physics – everything we hope to know – is waiting in the vacuum to be discovered.”

And this from The Threefold Lotus Sutra, Sutra of Innumerable Meanings, Preaching: “Bodhisattvas, if they want to learn and master the doctrine of Innumerable Meanings, should observe that all laws were originally, will be, and are in themselves void in nature and form; they are neither great nor small, neither appearing nor disappearing, neither fixed nor movable, and neither advancing nor retreating; and they are nondualistic, just emptiness. . .”

discovering hui-neng, “enlightenment here and now” at Rissho Kosei-kai, in early 1990s:

. . . In this enlightened awareness, we can all see the marvelous wonder of our universe, blemishes and all, and find our home and comfort in a cosmos that is magically a part of us, and us a part of it. This interpenetration of the individual in the universe is what the Buddha’s teachings are all about. This is their scope and majesty.

“Inner Worlds, Outer Worlds” “Samadhi” and Samadhi 2” films of Daniel J. Patrick most recent treasure trove of “Mantras”

 and yet, somehow the most “ancient of mantras” in this life seems to say it all.  “Leagues of sky, silent lie, blue and free, calling me. Where the horizon fair binds earth and air. Cloud ships daily venture gaily on the silent sea.”

The adventure continues each day, fueled by living with “The Threefold Lotus Sutra“. . .

“. . .for I have promises to keep and miles to go before I sleep. . . “

The Universe 10 billion years ago,

some five billion years "old"

The Great Life (4)

From documentary “Inner Worlds, Outer Worlds” : The universe is literally like a giant brain. It is constantly thinking, using a type of hidden energy that science is only starting to understand.  Through this universal network unfathomable energy moves, providing for the expansion and growth of the universe.

Nikkyo Niwano continues:

  Shakyamuni Buddha expanded on the rule that events and the functions of the mind are similar through the doctrine of dependent origination, meaning that all phenomena are produced and annihilated by causation. A thing does not take form unless there is an appropriate condition. This truth applies to all existence and phenomena in the universe. . .

  When we look carefully at things around us we find that water, stone, and human beings are produced each according to a certain pattern with its own individual character. Through what power or direction are the conditions generated that produce various things in perfect order from such an amorphous thing as the pure void or  emptiness? When we consider this regularity and order, we cannot help but admitting that some rule exists. It is the rule that causes all things to live. This is indeed the Law taught by the Buddha.

  We do not exist accidentally, but exist and live by means of this Law. As soon as we realize this fact, we become aware of our firm foundation and can set our mind at ease. Far from being capricious, this foundation rests on the Law with which nothing can compare in firmness. This assurance is the source of the great peace of mind that is not agitated by anything. It is the Law that imparts life to all of us. This Law is not something cold, but is full of vigor and vivid with life.

The Great Life (3)

There is one  consciousness, one field, one force that moves through all. This field is not happening around, you it is happening through you and happening as you. – Daniel Schmidt’s “Inner Worlds – Outer Worlds.”

  Our awareness of being caused to live is our true salvation. Our absolute devotion to the truth that imparts life to us . . . the state of religious exaltation in which we feel inexpressible gratitude to and joy in the Law [Niwano embeds this in the supreme practice of followers of the Lotus Sutra, devotion to the “Mysterious Law of the Lotus” – Namu Myoho Renge-Kyo] . . . We do not worship a thing, a person a spirit, or a god existing outside ourselves, but devote ourselves to the Law which causes us to live and unites us with it—this is the purest and supreme faith, the expression of practice of taking refuge in the Law with our entire heart and mind, uttering the sacred title, Namu Myoho Renge-kyo.

  In is natural that understanding of the Law is different in each period, and according to the capacity of each person.  As most people today receive a scientific education, they have a tendency to believe only that which is clearly visible, or only that which has been scientifically proved. They are apt to doubt such concepts as the Law and “that which causes everything to live” as mere ideas produced by religious leaders. But they should think of the composition of all physical substances as elucidated by nuclear physics; all substances in this universe are electrons, protons, neutrons and other subatomic particles, and the differences between various substances are caused by different combinations of the basic particles. . . modern scientists say that these elemental particles are produced by “energy.”

  Energy is generally considered as “the force through which matter functions.” But before matter can function, there must already exist energy which produces matter. . .

  We cannot see energy with our naked eyes, or otherwise discern it as a physical entity. Energy seems at first to be “nothingness.”

  Shakyamuni Buddha, however, taught about matter correctly more than two thousand years ago.  He proclaimed in the Heart Sutra that all phenomena are produced from an equal energy or force: form or matter is identical with emptiness or “void” and void is identical with matter.

The Great Life (2)

“the absolutely quiet stage in which we cling to nothing.”

 What way can we gain such consciousness? Needless to say, the way is to study the teachings of the Buddha repeatedly and to root them firmly in our minds by meditating on them. We must keep firmly in our mind the realization that our lives should be united with the universal life, the Buddha. This indeed is meditation from the religious point of view. Through this kind of meditation, we can purify even the mind of which we cannot be conscious ourselves; that is, our subconscious mind, and we can make our thought and conduct harmonize spontaneously with our surroundings [“free from measuring, comparisons, and free from all becoming—samsara.]
  If our mind and thought are in harmony with our surroundings, sufferings and worries cannot trouble us. This mental state is true peace of mind; it is the stage of “Nirvana is quiescence,” the absolutely quiet stage in which we cling to nothing. This state of mind is not limited to a passive mental peace. Our consciousness of being enlivened by this great universal life gives us great hope and courage. Energy springs from the consciousness so we advance to carry out our daily lives, our work, and our bodhisattva way for the benefit of others in this world.

The Great Life

Strengthened practice in 1984, discovering

Nikkyo Niwano’s “Buddhism for Today”

Chapter 16, The Eternal Life of the Tathagata

The Great Life (1)

What then should we depend upon for our salvation? We must here remember the Buddha’s teaching: “Make the self the light. Make the Law your light,” the words Shakyamuni, before dying, spoke to Ananda, one of his ten great disciples. In response to Ananda’s anxiety, the Buddha taught him as follows: “Ananda, in the future you should make the Law your light and depend on your own self. You must not depend on other people.”

  There is no better teaching than this to sum up the essence of a right religion in a few words. The Buddha first taught, “You can depend on your own self.” If we depend upon other people, we do not know what to do if we are forsaken by them, or they disappear. Therefore the Buddha admonished us to depend upon ourselves and walk the Way through our own efforts
. But on what should we depend in living our lives? The Buddha taught that this is nothing other than the Law, namely, the truth, that we must not depend absolutely on others. Here “others” means “gods,” beings who are considered to be outside ourselves and to be our masters. The Buddha taught emphatically that we must not depend upon such gods but only upon the Law, the truth.

  Indeed, his words carry great weight. A single word of the teaching “Make the self your light, make the Law your light” is more valuable than all the innumerable teachings concerning human life and religion that have been promulgated by the many great men and women of past ages.

  Through this teaching we understand that what we depend on, the Law, exists both within and outside us. It is the truth that permeates the entire universe, not establishing a distinction between outside and inside. Our body is produced by this truth and is caused to live by it. Our mind also is produced by it and caused to work by it. All things, including society, heaven, earth, plants, birds and beasts are produced by this truth and caused to live by it.

  A person who feels the word, “truth,” is somewhat cold and abstract can replace it with the term, “the great life,” which makes everything in this world exist and live. When we are fully aware in the depths of our mind that we are given life by this great life that permeates the universe, we can attain the true mental peace that is not diminished by anything.

Nirvana—Awakening

”Nirvana is this moment seen directly”

(from PBS Documentary, “The Buddha”)

As the morning star appeared, Siddhartha roared like a lion.  “My mind,” he said, “is at peace.” The heavens shook and the Bodhi tree rained down flowers. He had become the Awakened One, the Buddha.

Something new opens up for him, which he calls “nirvana,” which he calls, “awakening.” He said, “At this moment, all beings and I awaken together.” So it was not just him, it was all the universe. “As earth is my witness, seeing this morning star, all things and I awaken together. “

It’s  not like entering a new state. It’s uncovering or surrendering to the reality that has always been there. He realized he’d always been in nirvana, that nirvana was always the case. Your reality itself is nirvana. It’s the unreality, your ignorance that makes you think you’re this self-centered separate being trying to fight off an overwhelming universe, and failing. You are that universe. You’re already enlightened. He’s saying the capacity for enlightenment—that your awake-ness already exists within you.

Nirvana is this moment seen directly. There is nowhere else than here. The only gate is now. The only doorway is your own body and mind. There’s nowhere to go, there’s nowhere else to be. There’s no destination. It’s not something to aim for in the afterlife. It’s  simply the quality of this moment. / / /

“All existences from the beginning are ever of the  nirvana-nature. . . “ from the Lotus Sutra, ch. 2 Tactfulness.  (The “three-vehicle Law” is to teach the Law for persons of learning—“shrávakas,” for the self-enlightened—“pratyekabuddhas,” and for the compassionate ones—“bodhisattvas.”):

“All existences from the beginning
are ever of the nirvana-nature.
When sons or daughters of the Buddha
have fulfilled their course,
in the world  to come they become buddhas.
Only by my powers of tactfulness
do I manifest the three-vehicle Law.
All the world-honored ones
expound the One-vehicle Way.”

“the One-vehicle Way.” – the “Buddha-vehicle;” in the Lotus Sutra, the vehicle leading to Perfect Enlightenment and buddhahood (distinguished from “Nirvana” which exists “from the beginning”) and transcending both Hinayana (small) and Mahayana (great) teachings. After this absolute One Buddha-vehicle has been revealed, none of the other vehicles is to exist independently; all Buddhism is to depend upon and be unified in it. Only this sutra contains this doctrine and is therefore known as the One-vehicle sutra.

NEXT: “The one consciousness, one field, one force that moves through all.  You are the “U” of the universe. . .” from Daniel Schmidt’s documentary, “Inner Worlds, Outer Worlds.”

An inspiring conclusion on this first day of spring, 2019, 10 pm GMT.

". . . to have a continuous relationship with the enlightened ones and a connection to the teachings that the enlightened ones have shared. By practicing that every day, we should be able to reach enlightenment in a short time. . ."

 

Practice like Your Hair’s on Fire / Gelek Rimpoche / (7)

  Actually, the life we have is not just a gift; it didn’t just happen to you. You have earned this life—this opportunity, this capability and potential for the ultimate achievement of enlightenment. You have earned it because of the great karma you have accumulated. According to the teachings, the basis of that karma is a pure morality.

  Sometimes we ignore the issue of morality, and we just enjoy whatever we are doing. But morality is very important. Even our normal human understanding can tell you how important morality really is. I cannot emphasize this enough. Would you like to be an immoral person? Nobody will say yes, right? Common sense tells us how important morality is. It is morality, with the help of the other six activities—generosity, patience, enthusiasm, concentration, and wisdom—that enabled us to achieve the karma of this wonderful human body and mind. These virtues are the support for the basic morality that has brought us this life.

  We need to recognize the rarity of this life. We need to realize how difficult it is to obtain, and we need to understand that it is unlikely to come again unless we lay the groundwork of perfect morality and the other virtues right now. It is almost too late already.

  But understanding and realizing the preciousness and opportunity of human life won’t come from just hearing about it. We have to meditate on it so that it becomes part of our lives and our way of thinking, influencing our actions and shaping our personality. If we don’t meditate, it remains merely as information. If we meditate and incorporate this knowledge into our lives, then it becomes a quality within us. That is what makes a difference. We need to fulfill our mission while we still have the time and ability. The way to do this is to have a continuous relationship with the enlightened ones and a connection to the teachings that the enlightened ones have shared. By practicing that every day, we should be able to reach enlightenment in a short time. If it takes three minutes, let it be three minutes; if takes three years, let it be three years. But let it not be three lifetimes.

Practice like Your Hair’s on Fire / Gelek Rimpoche / (6)

  A few people might take this [changing priorities, no longer “wasting time”] the wrong way. They can become very rigid about it and say, “Well, that’s it. I’m not going to waste time. I’m not even going to waste a second with useless activities like paying my bills or visiting the doctor.” That can become a neurosis; it is a form of nervousness and fear, rather than a realization of the importance of this life. When you have a realization of life’s importance, you actually become much gentler and calmer and sweeter and develop a better personality, instead of a rigid and twisted one. Realizing the rare and precious opportunity of human life helps make us better human beings.

  When you realize the importance of this life, you become motivated to find the right balance. Right now, most of our priorities are on one side—the material side. That’s what I mean by unbalanced. Sometimes people throw everything on the spiritual side and completely neglect their responsibilities as family members, citizens, students, or whatever their roles might be. That’s not so good either, unless you happen to live in a cave.

  I also want to touch on another aspect of appreciating human life, one that has to do with realizing the difficulty of finding this human life. The Buddha used an example to describe just how rare it is to obtain this human life. He was asked by a king, “How many human beings from the lower suffering realms will be able to come up to the wonderful human life that you talk about?” The Buddha looked around and saw a big mirror. He picked up a handful of peas and threw them at the mirror, and all the peas fell down. Buddha said that the chances of getting a precious human life are even less than the chance of any peas sticking to the mirror.

  And then there is a very famous example in which the Buddha said that if this whole continent became a huge ocean, and within that ocean you had a yoke floating on the waves and a blind tortoise that popped up once every five hundred years, the chances of obtaining precious human birth would be equal to the chances of that blind tortoise emerging with his head poking through the yoke. 

Practice like Your Hair’s on Fire / Gelek Rimpoche / (5)

Consider the Buddha, who had a human life just like ours. There was nothing extraordinary in his life, except that he happened to be an Indian prince. From the point of view of the capability of human life, his opportunity was no different than ours is now. Everyone has the same potential. Not only that, but we are fortunate enough in this life to have access to the teachings and the shared experience of the Buddha. It is a message that has survived in a living tradition. And we also have many other non-Buddhist traditions that teach us the value and potential of our human lives and what we can achieve if we put our minds to it. As well, we have a sangha that is with us on this journey, and we have spiritual teachers who can give us the teachings and also offer their own example. In fact, within this life we have everything we need to achieve freedom and perfection.

  Once we realize the importance of life, we begin to let go of our attachment to wasting time. Things we once viewed with great urgency gradually seem less important. We begin to make choices that help our spiritual development rather than hinder it. We rearrange our priorities, and the push and pull of busyness begins to lose its hold on us. We no longer want to waste time. That is the sign that we have begun to understand the value of our lives.

Practice like Your Hair’s on Fire / Gelek Rimpoche / (4)

In old Tibet, we had to keep reminding ourselves that human beings can do anything. These days we don’t have to, because science clearly shows us what human beings are capable of. Human beings alone are responsible for tremendous scientific achievements, not the ghosts and samsaric gods. Those achievements are because of the extraordinary capabilities of our human minds. We really have brilliant minds. As human beings, we all have tremendous capacity. But if we don’t utilize it, then it remains weak.

  If you have a car and you leave it sitting outside for two years, it won’t work when you try to start it. You can push it and bang it, but nothing works. Then you have to tow it to a garage and pay a mechanic a fortune to fix it, if you’re lucky. Otherwise you have to send it to the junkyard, and it’s wasted. If we don’t use the capacity of our minds, that’s what we can expect. If we make the effort to develop ourselves, our capacity will be limitless. That is the example that the Buddha and all the other enlightened beings have provided for us.

  In short, our human life, with the limitless capacity of our minds, is capable of producing any result we wish. If your goal is to get rich, your human life is capable of producing it. If you want to become famous, your life is capable of doing it. Hollywood is full of such people. It’s the same with anything else you choose to do. Whether you are satisfied with the results or not is a different story, but human life is capable of delivering the goods. If you want to be fully enlightened, if your ultimate spiritual goal is to achieve enlightenment, then this life is capable of delivering that as well. From our point of view we may fail, but it won’t be because our human life lacked the capacity for total enlightenment. It’ll be because we didn’t take advantage of it.

Practice like Your Hair’s on Fire

Gelek Rimpoche

(3)

[see (2) concluding par.]. . . But we also need to make our spiritual work a priority. If we can balance that, we are intelligent and capable. If we cannot, we are just the opposite. . .

  But to do that, we have to convince ourselves that this life is important. It shouldn’t take too much convincing, since we already have some sense that our life is precious. We recognize this when our life is threatened, but on a day-to-day basis we tend to take our precious human life for granted. For the most part, we keep ourselves busy meeting one urgent requirement after another, and that makes us think we’re managing. But the truth is, we don’t want to think about changing our priorities. We think we’ll squeak by with some spiritual development at the last minute.

  For those who do have a regular practice, how many leave it until the very last thing at night or rush through it like some chore you have to finish? That’s what most people do. But the Buddha told us that unless we reflect on the rarity of this human life and how easily it can be lost, and also think about how capable we can be if we apply ourselves, we will never be able to utilize the richness of this life.

  By richness, I’m not speaking about wealth but about opportunity. Our most important opportunity is that we are human beings. We may think the samsaric gods and spirits are able to do much more than us. Forget it. They are equally miserable, even more than us sometimes.

Practice like Your Hair’s on Fire

Gelek Rimpoche

(2)

  Why haven’t we been able to achieve that yet? Why haven’t we fulfilled our mission? Because we don’t yet realize how important this life is. We don’t realize the limitless capacity of our human body and mind, and how difficult it is to find. We don’t have a sense of urgency because we don’t realize how easily this human life can be lost. Instead, we keep ourselves busy chasing after happiness and running away from suffering, life after life.

  Many of us complain, “I have no time.” I like to call that a good, fancy, stylish excuse. Everybody likes to say, “I’m too busy,” because everybody would like to seem important. It is a great excuse that offers several benefits: you can avoid what you don’t want to do; it gives you a showbiz idea of being important; and all the important people do it, so you can include yourself with them.

  I refer to that as busy laziness. We experience this kind of laziness because we have a problem recognizing our real priorities. Even if we have time, we put the most important thing in our life—our spiritual development—on the back burner. Our laziness is well suited to these upside-down priorities. The sense of urgency becomes a monetary issue for us, because we live in an age where we have to pay our bills for every little thing we need. If we don’t pay our bills then not only will the bill collectors chase us, but even our electricity and water will eventually be shut off.

  As spiritual practitioners, we need to balance our priorities. This means being able to balance the needs of this particular life with our long-term spiritual goals. Of course we have to manage our bills and make sure we have a place to live and food to eat. And we have to meet our responsibilities to our friends and family. But we also need to make our spiritual work a priority. If we can balance that, we are intelligent and capable. If we cannot, we are just the opposite.

“Having a continuous relationship with the enlightened ones.” Herewith another look at the value of meditating with the teachings of the Buddha in The Threefold Lotus Sutra.

“We need to fulfill our mission while we still have the time and ability. The way to do this is to have a continuous relationship with the enlightened ones and a connection to the teachings that the enlightened ones have shared. By practicing that every day, we should be able to reach enlightenment in a short time. If it takes three minutes, let it be three minutes; if takes three years, let it be three years. But let it not be three lifetimes.  – from “Practice Like Your Hair’s on Fire” by Gelek Rimpoche.

Presenting now the complete essay in several installments.

Practice like Your Hair’s on Fire

Gelek Rimpoche

(1)

  All sentient beings, including myself, have gone through continuous ups and downs, life after life, experiencing the sufferings of samsara. The reason we keep having all of these problems is because we haven’t managed to fulfill our life’s mission.

  What is our mission? In the most basic sense, we all have a desire for peace and happiness, and we all wish to be free from pain and suffering. But though we may experience happiness here and there, it is not the kind of happiness that has never known suffering. In fact, for most of us it is the kind of happiness that is based on suffering.

  We put a lot of effort into having material comforts, and on top of that we want mental and spiritual comfort. But even when we think we are working for spiritual benefit, if we dig deeply we may find that it is simply attachment—the attachment of bringing ourselves to a state of material or spiritual or emotional comfort.

  The kind of comfort most of us seek is a kind of stopgap comfort. We haven’t really addressed the root of suffering or developed the true cause of happiness. Once we realize that, and reflect and meditate on it, we can begin to see the true nature of suffering and the cessation of suffering. From there, one can make the decision to seek true peace, nirvana, which means freeing ourselves and others once and for all from suffering and its causes.

  Whatever caused the universe to form out of the big bang—how and why it happened resulting in the emergence of humankind; whatever theoretical scientists advance to explain the nature of the original primal force, more than a few would agree the process was inevitable. The teachings of the Buddha are the cause for the grand revolution and evolution of thought—inevitable, and majestic. Nothing can stop it, except humanity itself interfering with the natural flow toward the harmonious and productive advance of civilization and humankind.

  The Buddha’s teachings reveal the purpose and intent of the Buddha and and only through an awareness of our interconnection will the original intent of the Buddha will humankind’s purpose be fulfilled. Chaotic conditions reported to us these days may cause us to throw up our hands in despair but the truth is inescapable. To quote the woman physicist played by Liv Ullmann in Bernt Capra’s film, Mind Walk, “Like it or  not, we are all part of one inseparable web of relationships.”

  Hui-neng’s Enlightenment, Here and now: “If some of us achieve a glimpse of our true nature, our original faces before our birth, we might then be equipped to participate in our day and age with renewed effect. In doing so, we might assist in reviving vigor and hope in a troubled world. This was the Buddha's intention; this is our duty, here and now.”

  The Threefold Lotus Sutra as the primary source for daily, morning meditation, as experience has shown, is a method for one to become more aware, more compassionate linking us with the life of the Buddha, the supreme example of how we should live our lives “with a mindfulness thinking as the Buddha,” with the complete Threefold Lotus Sutra each week, each day of the week, walking the path with the Buddha through all of The Threefold Lotus Sutra, producing moments which reconnect one inexorably to a celebration of life with others, as we continue to seek “association with the wise.”

Enlightenment Here and Now – Hui-neng

  No matter how the universal force or pattern of cosmic process may be defined by physicists, the universe does exist and humanity did emerge from this process after billions of years. “Mahayana (great vehicle) Buddhism sees all existence as supremely sacred. It needs no other-worldly validation of this sanctity—no God on High; and, most important of all, it sees the plain and mundane things of daily existence—when viewed from the right perspective—as sanctified as the loftiest ideals. In short, in this enlightened awareness we can all see the marvelous wonder of our universe, blemishes and all, and find our home and comfort in a cosmos that is magically a part of us, and us a part of it. This interpenetration of the individual in the universe is what Buddhism is really all about. This is Buddhism’s scope and majesty.”

  These words are not mine, but are found in “Hui-neng’s Enlightenment – Here and Now,” an article in the July, 1982 “Dharma World,” a publication of Rissho Kosei-kai. Rissho Kosei-kai may be translated as “a place of meeting to investigate the truth.” As expressed by Nikkyo Niwano, co-founder of Rissho Kosei-kai, with Mrs. Myoko Naganuma, on March 5, 1938, the translation becomes “Establishing teaching of the true Law (the Lotus Sutra) in the world through mutual exchange of thought among people of faith, the principle of spiritual unity among different human beings; with the objective of perfecting their personalities and attainment of buddhahood.”

  Niwano in Buddhism for Today further connects us with scientific thinking while simultaneously establishing Buddhism as—not a philosophical system only—but as one of the most profound religious practices in today’s world. “Evolution culminating in humankind was caused by the urge to live. Life had mind through which it desired to live from the time before it existed on earth. Such a will exists in everything in the universe and exists in us today. . . . Mind existing in the origin of life must surely exist in humankind. Humans are formed by combinations of particles. Looking more deeply, living beings are an accumulation of energy.”

  Like it or not, we are all part of one inseparable web of relationships

Ten Billion Years Ago

Is there something which is unchanging and eternal?

  Buddhism asks, “Is there something which is unchanging and eternal?” The Lotus Sutra defines this “something” as life itself, the desire to live originating from primordial energy at the beginning of time—the great life-force of the universe causing everything to exist and live. Primordial energy did not create the universe—the unchanging and eternal life-force caused the universe to come into existence. The Buddha is not god or creator, but first, as the appearing Buddha—the “enlightened one of Shakya clan who would declare in the Lotus Sutra’s chapter 16, that he was, as we all are, one substance with “Original Buddha”—nothing other than the all pervading great life-force which caused everything to come into existence from the moment of the “big bang,” eventually leading to the emergence of humankind.

  Timothy Ferris in his New York Times article, “Beyond Newton and Einstein,” points out that “new theories of physics imply that all the known forces in nature are manifestations of one basic interaction and that once, long ago, all were part of a single universal force or process.” Physicist Fritjof Capra, as he introduces discoveries in quantum physics in his book The Turning Point,” reminds us that as quantum physics came into play, “the universe is no longer seen as a machine  made up of a multitude of objects but has to be pictured as one indivisible, dynamic whole whose parts essentially are interrelated and can be understood only as patterns of a cosmic process.”

1989 – Discovering Nikkyo Niwano

It’s indeed surprising that the work of Nikkyo Niwano has not been recognized more extensively in the west. Still largely unknown, or seemingly ignored among followers of Buddha-thought (as is the Lotus Sutra); notably with the exception of members of Rissho Kosei-kai. Had I not stumbled upon Niwano’s writings in 1982, it’s safe to say I would not be practicing today (or at least attempting to practice) the teachings of the Buddha. Scientific principles and theory are significantly in his “Modern Interpretation of The Threefold Lotus Sutra.”

  With each new advance in theoretical science, physicists and cosmologists inform us that since the beginning of time, nothing in the universe today, including you and me, could have come into existence had not certain conditions caused it: matter created from primordial energy forming patterns of relationship, matter predominating over anti-matter, elemental particles reaching out to interconnect to form webs of relationship—the list goes on. Reaching back to the first second in which the universe began to form out of the “big bang”—and note, creating time in the process—fundamental elements which make up all life in the universe, resulted from these and other related conditions.

  Buddha-thought presents a remarkably similar view. The central doctrine of the Buddha’s teachings, the Law of Causation, states that all phenomena in the universe are produced by causation. Thus, all things are interrelated. From Niwano’s Buddhism for Today:

“Shakyamuni Buddha did not regard this universe as God’s creation or his conquest, but as resulting from the relation of cause and effect by which all phenomena are produced. . . . all things exist in relationship with one another and are interdependent.

  All things and forms in the universe, how we view ourselves as human beings, are produced from one void that can neither be seen with the eyes nor felt with the hands. There is a great invisible life-force of the universe, the working of which produces all things from the void, and all things are produced by virtue of the necessity of their existence. Humanity is no exception. We ourselves are brought into being in the forms we take by virtue of the necessity to live in this world. Thinking this way, we are bound to feel the worth of being alive as human beings, the wonder of having been brought into this world.

Next:  Niwano asks the question – is there something that is unchanging and eternal?

How and why many of us continued, aspiring to attain the Mind of the Buddha—Perfect Enlightenment. This is not the same as “Nirvana.” As the Buddha says in the Lotus Sutra, “All existences from the beginning are ever of the nirvana nature.” One cannot reach Perfect Enlightenment as the Buddha did under the Bodhi tree unless, along the path, one recognizes this true nirvana nature. Following are some of the words that inspired many of us to continue on this path, free of debilitating attachments, quiescence—Perfect Enlightenment—the Buddha’s intent: “Ever making this my thought, how shall I cause all the living to enter the Way supreme and speedily accomplish their Enlightenment?”

Science jump-starts practice

  In 1982-83 the process of learning and study jump-started by the Timothy Ferris article in the Sunday New York Times Magazine, “Beyond Newton and Einstein” and from his PBS special, “Creation of the Universe,” luring me into a world of cosmology and quantum physics. Cosmologists study the history of the universe; quantum physicists, the very small, seeking a theory of a grand, unified force field derived from primordial energy, resulting in the formation of all matter in the universe. Following this in 1983, further insights from Stephen Hawking’s A Brief History of Time; Timothy Ferris’s Coming of Age in the Milky Way; Fritjof Capra’s The Turning Point. Further significant writings over the years to the present day, not surprisingly resonate with the teachings of the Buddha.

  When particle physicists began to explore the inner workings of atoms which make up everything in the universe, quantum mechanics and theories of relativity opened up “two very different paths for physicists to pursue, leading to, as Fritjof Capra says in The Turning Point, “the Buddha or the Bomb, and it is up to each of us to decide which path to take.”

  These explorations led physicists to conceptions of the universe as an interconnected web of relationships—webs of energy we call matter—and to the conclusion that these “cosmic webs of energy” are intrinsically dynamic and can be understood only in terms of movement, action and interaction.

  Timothy Ferris reminds us in Coming of Age in the Milky Way that quantum physicists discovered in their observations that what is perceived in experiments depend on the point of view of the observer, and this “tore down walls, reuniting mind with the wider universe . . . we do not see things in themselves, but only aspects of things. What we see in an electron path . . . is not an electron, and what we see in the sky are not stars.”  (One is reminded here of the central lesson of “The Magic City” – Chapter 7 of the Lotus Sutra – to see beyond appearances.)

  Just as the Buddha taught: things, phenomena, are what we choose to call them, in reality, not really what they are; that the true aspect is the one law, namely, nonform. These insights emerged from the most significant of all, discovering in 1985 the writings of Nikkyo Niwano, co-founder of Rissho Kosei-kai, a Buddhist layperson group numbering several million throughout the world. Niwano, tireless worker for world peace, devoted his life to the Lotus Sutra. He called himself a “Lifetime Beginner,” the title of his autobiography. His Guide to the Threefold Lotus Sutra and Buddhism for Today, a modern interpretation of the Threefold Lotus Sutra and his other writings, insured my own “lifetime” dedication to the sutra, and to the Buddha’s teachings.

Meditations 2/21/19

  From The New York Times article: “According to the Standard Model, the Higgs boson is the only manifestation of an invisible force field, a cosmic molasses that permeates space and imbues elementary particles with mass.  Particles wading through the field gain heft the way a bill going through Congress attracts riders and amendments, becoming ever more ponderous. [The possibility exists that other force fields – bosons – will be discovered.  “String theorists” believe this is so.]

  “Without the Higgs field, as it is known, or something like it, all elementary forms of matter would zoom around at the speed of light, flowing through our hands like moonlight.  There would be neither atoms nor life.” //

  Perhaps now we are given a new perspective on the inspired declaration of Nikkyo Niwano (which had a profound affect on my practice when I first stumbled upon it): We are caused to live by the great life-force of the universe. Caused to live simply because symmetry was broken—the symmetry that is, of all elementary forms of matter broken up by force field(s)  that gives them mass. Energy becomes matter—becomes us. We exist. Sitting in front of the Mandala and proclaiming once again devotion to the “Mysterious Law of the Lotus” I am returning to the symmetry found at the very beginning of time. Today, here and now, another opportunity presents itself to begin again—accepting the miracle of existence.

Here concluding the meditation “The Miracle of Existence” – at Ancestral Well blog (in reverse order)

Meditations 2/20/19

Accepting the Miracle of Existence

As to the Higgs boson, or “Higgs force field,” the event is an inspiration.  All those men and women, Peter Higgs among them, who never gave up  believing this boson exists, even though some called them bonkers.  “Here at the Aspen Center for Physics, a retreat for scientists, bleary-eyed physi­cists drank Champagne in the wee hours as word arrived via Webcast from CERN. It was a scene duplicated in Melbourne, Australia, where physicists had gathered for a major conference, as well as in Los Angeles, Chicago, Princeton, New York, London and beyond – everywhere that members of a curious species have dedicated their lives and fortunes to the search for their origins in a dark universe.” [emphasis added]

  As to practice of the teachings of the Buddha, we ourselves perhaps qualify as members of this “curious species.” Returning each morning to the deserted home of our potential enlightenment is to discover the “blazing fireplace of reality.” This morning’s experience with Sunday contempla­tions and celebration of The Threefold Lotus Sutra, was pre­ceded by a rereading of “Physi­cists Find Elusive Particle Seen as Key to Universe” in The New York Times (quoted above).  Attempted practice of the Buddha’s teachings over the years has been, and very early on, informed by reading in quantum physics and other related matters. There are simply too many insights to be gained relative to the practice of the teachings of the Buddha to be ignored. Many of these “links” are quite extra­ordinary.

  And so it is that we arrive this morning at the meditation center, recognizing above all that the Buddha’s teachings extol the sanctity and miracle of life itself. The isness of existence, if you will.  No longer concerned with what if I do this or that? But simply accepting what is­—the miracle of existence and the potential for enlightenment accessible to all. We begin here and now in each moment of time.

Meditations

“Even if I should lose my life, fall into hell and receive innumerable sufferings, I should never slander the Righteous Law of the buddhas. . .” The Sutra of Meditation on the Bodhisattva Universal Virtue.

  Forty-two years now and counting, and asking the question, from the outset of practice of the Lotus Sutra, commencing in the autumn of 1976, have I ever once turned away from, doubted, or given up on the teachings of the Buddha, or on any of the “Righteous Laws of the enlightened ones, the buddhas”? Yes, there’ve been times when consistency has faltered, the Mandala which proclaims devotion to the Lotus Sutra tucked away and not at the center of meditation; perhaps some days altogether not meditating on the sutra for one reason or another. (Happily, commencing in the year 2000, continuing with  consistent daily devotion to the teachings of the Buddha in the Threefold Lotus Sutra, except for a few weeks in hospital for one reason or another, yet always with the English translation of the Threefold Lotus Sutra at my bedside.)

  It can be stated unequivocally, never once doubting, questioning, or turning away from “the Righteous Law” – from the teachings of the Buddha.  As Nikkyo Niwano puts it:  “We do not worship a thing, a spirit, or a god existing outside ourselves, but devote ourselves to the Law which causes us to live, and unites us with it.”

  Also to note: in the myriad writings read from the great teachers, from scientists and others which have been essayed, mostly through the blog, Ancestral Well—all are consistent with and supportive of the teachings of the Buddha and the Lotus Sutra, the One Vehicle Sutra which embodies all those teachings.

  Herewith are presented, quotes from some of those meditations and essays.

The Deliberate Oaks

Reading “The Deliberate Oaks” from the New York Times Op-Ed page (November, 1968) – “The oaks are deliberate trees, slow to leaf out in the spring, slow of growth, slow to color in the fall, and even reluctant to shed their outworn leaves which sometimes cling to the branches until new leaves burst from the buds in the spring.” Reading this, I’m reminded how much it bugged me as I tossed sticks for proud male poodle, Daiquiri, in Central Park, oak leaves clung to the branches all through winter. Be gone! I commanded, Away with you! This is not as I expect. This is not how it should be.

  A lot of things bugged me.  Expectations, anticipations – living life in terms of what I wanted, how I wanted things to be. Expecting others to behave in a certain way. It got me into a lot of trouble – including trouble with my own mindfulness. Tensions – you bet!

  It’s taken a long time to release the ego from these desires of expectation – and perhaps some still linger like the oak leaves – but Buddhist contemplation in the last ten years or so (and a lot of other conciliatory teachings resonating with the practice of the Buddha’s teachings) has helped to disperse these debilitating desires. “Oh, Lord of my own ego, you do not exist, you are pure illusion. The earth is my witness.”

  The freedom to be – now – to perceive – to know that we are all caused to live by the great life-force of the universe. Yet still the leaves cling to the oak trees – and to California sycamores – “challenging the rush of time.” How precious to be free enough to participate fully in the rush of time!

“Your head is right where it should be, stop turning to the outside.” Lin Chi, 2005 Zen Calendar.

From Chapter 5, “The Parable of the Herbs” – the Lotus Sutra:

To give peace to all creatures I appear in the world,
and for the hosts of the living
preach the Law pure as sweet dew,
the one and only Law of emancipation and nirvana.
With one transcendent voice I proclaim this meaning,
constantly taking the Great-vehicle as my subject.
I look upon all everywhere with equal eyes,
without distinction of persons, or mind of love or hate.
I have no predilections nor limitations or partiality;
ever to all I preach the Law equally. . .

Recognition and Transformation

Saturn in the cycle of human experience and development, represents “outer limits” beyond which we’ve been told by stultifying traditions, we shall not venture. In this context, Saturn represents, in the individual human cycle, recognition of limitations—but this means supplicating ourselves to the delusion that there are limitations. The reality is, there are no limita­tions.

  When Saturn is found at 23° Libra, as it was when this post was written, in Dane Rudhyar’s Astrological Mandala we find “Chanticleer’s Voice Heralds Sunrise” – a creative and joyous response to life’s processes. . . “At the ego level, chanticleer may feel that he makes the sun rise; but someday he will learn through painful experiences that to create is only to reveal what is.  The vivid recognition of the as yet-unknown in the known” – Saturn’s transcending “purpose” in the human cycle, if you will.

  Rudhyar continues: “What is at stake here is the individual’s capacity for a response to life’s renewals – cyclic, predictable, yet always new, always creative.”  Beyond this in our solar family lies Uranus, messenger from the galaxy, challenge to transformation.

  Fritjof Capra in “The Turning Point” – Living organisms have an inherent potential for reaching out beyond themselves to create new structures and new patterns of behavior. . . Evolution is an ongoing and open adventure that continually creates its own purpose in a process whose outcome is inherently unpredictable. Metaphorically speaking, Uranus challenges Saturn’s limitations which would put a damper on reaching beyond our recognized selves, to create our own purpose and new forms of living.

Blue Lotus

Changing perceptions

no longer victims of our perceptions:

recognizing the energy-based reality

revealed in Quantum Physics.

  . . . consider the consequences of world changes that were brought about by civilization’s last paradigm upheaval.  This occurred around 1925 when physi­cists left behind the dated concept of a Newtonian material-based universe and recognized the energy-based reality revealed in Quantum Physics.

  Well, brace yourselves! for we are in for a wild ride.  Frantic research in cell biology has finally acknowledged the mechanisms by which perception controls behavior, selects genes, and can even lead to a rewriting of the genome.  Rather than being the victim of our genes we have been the victim of our perceptions. . .  We are on the verge of a most radical and most wonderful upheaval of human civiliza­tion. . .

  As we become more conscious and rely less on automated subconscious programs, we become the masters of our fates rather the victims of our programs.  Conscious awareness can actively transform the character of our lives into ones filled with love, health, and prosperity by its ability to rewrite limiting perceptions and beliefs.

– article written by Bruce H. Lipton, Ph.D. © 2003:  “Mind Over Genes: Nature and Nurture 

Revisited.

  Nothing could be more defining of the Buddha’s teachings and certainly encourages us to contemplate those teachings.  Meditating with Buddha-thought, following the path proclaimed by the Buddha, leads to trans­formation of our perceptions.  We remember who we really are, manifesting the great perfection and knowing that one of the most basic of the Buddha’s teachings is that we do not exist in isolation, motivating us to celebrate the wonders of existence.

  To deny ourselves these perceptions is to diminish ourselves.  The failure of civilization, in general, proceeds from disregarding this scientific verity and Buddhist doctrine:  that we are not separate from one another.  We and the whole “organism” of life—the earth and all that evolves with the earth—live in intercon­necting patterns and are interdependent.  Opening our hearts and minds to the clear light of the real, the ultimate in which we perceive that all things have a transcen­dental being and discovering the fundamental unity and interconnection of ourselves with all existence and becoming aware of our ability to transform ourselves according to circumstances—in the moment—responding to others free of ego and separate­ness.  “Now is the very time,” proclaims the Buddha in Chapter 2 of the Lotus Sutra.

  The ultimate goal of practice, no matter what path is followed, is to discover the essential unity pervading all differences and particulars of the world; to discover the great perfection (the buddha-nature) in ourselves and others.  As we follow the path of the Buddha, it is required that we abandon self-righteousness which causes us to lose feelings of kinship with people.  There is no greater heresy than the dark path of ego isolation.  We learn through practice to reach out spon­tane­ously to relationships, feeling the unity of ourselves with all life in the universe, no longer influenced by changes or circum­stances; to extinguish false discrimi­­na­tions, considering all things equally, unmoved by whatever hap­pens.

  Beginning each day in the world of The Threefold Lotus Sutra is to embrace all the Buddha’s teachings and leads to even more “new begin­nings”—to a discovery of  more intuitive methods of spiritual training, promising “enlighten­ment here and now,” as Zen Patriarch Hui-neng suggests in his Platform Sutra.  We are promised moments of deep understand­ing, feelings of compassion as we reach toward realizing our “original faces before birth”—that we are caused to live by the great life-force of the universe.  We are liberated, free of ego and conditioning, infused with all experience in moments of spontaneous awakening occurring at the root of consciousness.  We are linked with the entire manifold world.

  These moments of awareness are not stopping points.  They are fresh starts toward experiencing life at higher levels of consciousness and compassionate understand­ing.  The realm of becoming in the phenomenal world (samsara), unites every moment of being (nirvana) with the living process of becoming (samsara).  We are no longer separate from the world; our perceptions are clarified.  We are part of one insepar­able web of relationships, sponta­neously awaking to ever more inclusive realiza­tions of our humanity.  The dynamics of practicing this is found in Nikkyo Niwano’s Shakyamuni Buddha, A Narrative Biography, as he dares to define the “final profound truth” of our practice:

  What is the final, profound truth?  In brief, it is the finding of the infinite life of humankind within the eternal life-force of the universe.

  The true nature of humankind, in its union with the eternal life-force of the universe, is called the buddha-nature.  The Lotus Sutra teaches that all beings possess the buddha-nature  (or potential for enlightenment) equally, that we should respect this potential in one another and encourage one another to develop and fulfill this potential, and that the noblest form of Buddhist practice is the way of the bodhisattvas who devote themselves to attaining enlighten­ment not only for themselves but for all sentient beings.