Karma

Karma

Just realised that this is my 100th blog. I must have done something very very wrong way back when. Which makes me think of karma and all the various notions and ideas about it.

Karma (again)

The word seems to have infiltrated everyday thought. I often hear someone say, when witnessing some act of which they disapprove, that "karma will get them". Which possibly brings them a degree of satisfaction. Kick someone in the teeth and hey! look out for your teeth in the future. That is how it works. Or does it?

Instant Karma

Consider for a moment that sense of "satisfaction". Buried deep in the Buddhist texts is the teaching that we are our karma. No outside power, force or deity is plotting revenge.

Thinking about it - not always a good thing I admit - it is much like having poor circulation and thus cold extremities. Yet without comparison we might never know and simply go through life none the wiser, thinking ourselves warm. And so, as a thief who has stolen an old ladies purse drinks a beer bought from his ill gotten gains, how deep is his sense of enjoyment? How would he ever know that in fact he is in hell while thinking it a heaven. 

Heaven of Hell?

Thus have I heard:- 

The end of the world can never be reached by walking. However, without having reached the world's end there is no release from suffering.

I declare that it is in this fathom-long body, with its perceptions and thoughts, that there is the world, the origin of the world, the cessation of the world, and the path leading to the cessation of the world      

(Anguttara Nikaya 4:45, Theravada Buddhist Text)

All the sins committed throughout the worlds will fade and disappear together with myself 

(Ikkyu)

In the world of Reality there is no self, there is no other than Self 

(Sengstan)

Be not conformed to this world 

(St Paul)

"Love keeps no record of wrongs" (New Testament)

This whole awful idea of Someone keeping tabs. Yet it seems to me that is exactly what the "self" often is, a way of keeping tabs; the world of judgement, the world of discrimination.

Yet love has no why. 

Love has no why

Related Quote:-

Of James Joyce..... "The initial and  determining act of judgement in his work is the justification of the commonplace......Joyce saw joined what others held separate: the point of view that life is unspeakable and to be exposed, and the point of view that it is ineffable and to be distilled......he denudes man of what we are accustomed to respect, then summons us to sympathise" 

(Richard Ellmann, from the introduction to his biography of James Joyce)

James Joyce

"If Ulysses is unfit to read then life is unfit to live"

(James Joyce)

Election and non-duality

Amazing or not, here we come

Musing, and seeking clarification as I amble along, as I see it the closest that Christianity gets to the Pure Land view of grace is in the teachings of Calvin. He seemed to see the pure utter amazing nature of grace, freely given, not earned in any way. Unfortunately, in the Christian world of duality, we have those elected and those not. Thus we are left with the question:- why are some not elected? The mind, seeking to find an answer, stumbles into the labyrinth of Biblical hermeneutics, looking for clues. Happily, in the Pure Land, where all are elected, we can find rest, merely musing upon why some realise the pure nature of grace while others are still on their journey. 

Faith does not arise

From within oneself

The entrusting heart is itself

Given by the Other Power (Rennyo)

I now approach all this from the Buddhist side, via the insights of zen, of non-discrimination, of touching down in what could be called "faith" prior to any diversification. Judgements are then tinged with mercy, acceptance, with no grasping at a self seeking only to justify itself. 

Whatever, I only write to clarify for myself. In past disputes concerning the nature of faith (shinjin) in the Pure Land, some sought to differentiate. Calculating and probing they distinguished various degrees of faith, various depths, whether some were truly "saving".

Honen

 Honen, an early Pure Lander, was made aware of this and said:- “My shinjin has been given by Amida; so has that of Shinran. Therefore they are one and the same."

Alas, some will continue to assert a degree of choice. Having done so, they will inevitably judge those who have, in their eyes, made no such choice. Self power as opposed to Other Power. Duality. But here in the Pure Land.......

O Saichi, will you tell us of Other Power?

Yes, but there is neither self power nor Other Power

What is, is the graceful acceptance only. 

Anyway, enough for now. having in all probability confused others, I go on my way. Contented.

Related Quote:- 

"The eye with which I see God is the same with which God sees me. My eye and God's eye is one eye, and one sight, and one knowledge, and one love. 

(Meister Eckhart, Christian mystic)

From the Glossary of Pure Land Terms, The Collected Works of Shinran:-

Shinjin

One’s entrusting to Amida’s Primal Vow, which is at the same time the negation of one’s calculative thinking, brought about by Amida’s working.It denotes the central religious experience of Shin Buddhism, and literally means man’s “true, real, and sincere heart and mind” (makoto no kokoro), which is given by Amida Buddha. This heart-mind has basically two aspects: a non-dichotomous identity wherein the heart and mind of Amida and the heart and mind of the practicer are one, and a dichotomous relationship wherein the two are mutually exclusive and in dynamic interaction. Used as an adjective, shin (which is different from the term Shin Buddhism) has the meaning of “true, real, and sincere.” As a verb, it means “to entrust oneself to the Buddha,” an act which is made possible by the working of the true, real, and sincere heart and mind of Amida Buddha. These two meanings are always inseparable. Thus, while shinjin is experienced by human beings, its source, contents, and consummation are to be found not in one but in Buddha.There are two points to be noted concerning the oneness that shinjin signifies. First, it is not a simple identity. According to Shinran, the mind of Amida Buddha is true, real, and sincere, while the minds of foolish beings are empty and transitory. Since “empty means not real and not sincere, transitory means not true” (Notes on ‘Essentials of Faith Alone’), shinjin is a oneness of that which is true and real with its exact opposite: They are one and yet two, they are two and yet one. To express the structure of this oneness philosophically, the mind of the foolish being and the mind of Amida are identical and, at the same time, they stand in an opposition of mutual exclusion and negation, of truth and reality versus emptiness and transience. In religious terms, the oneness of shinjin expresses the working of great compassion (Buddha’s wisdom) taking persons of evil (foolish being possessed of blind passions) into itself, never to abandon them.The second point concerning the oneness of shinjin is that it lies at the heart of Shinran’s Buddhism, for it signifies the attainment of Buddhahood. Shinran’s teaching, then, is not one of salvation through “faith,” for shinjin is not a means to salvation but salvation itself. Its centrality can be seen in Shinran’s emphasis on Other Power, which “means to be free of any form of calculation” (Lamp for the Latter Ages). When one is free of self-power (the self-centered working of one’s intellect and will to achieve enlightenment), this freedom of one’s own heart and mind from self-power is itself Other Power. In other words, Other Power is the Buddha’s power that has become one’s own as shinjin. It is the power of the heart and mind of the person in whom self-power falls away and disappears as oneness with the Buddha’s mind is realised.

In the realisation of shinjin one becomes a foolish being (bombu) for the first time in that one awakens to one’s own true nature, but simultaneously one attains Buddhahood that will be fully realised through the working of jinen honi (i.e. a term for the ultimate reality of Buddhism, expressing suchness, or things-as-they-are, free from the bondage of birth-and-death)  This complex structure of shinjin is expressed in a number of important concepts. For example, since the oneness in shinjin means that persons of shinjin have attained the Buddha’s mind, which is itself Buddhahood that is to be fully realised at the moment karmic bonds are severed at the end of life, Shinran states that they are the equal of Tathagatas. “Equal” does not mean identical, but points also to remaining differences. A Tathagata is completely free of blind passions, but persons of shinjin are not. Nevertheless, the structure of shinjin is such that while they are human beings they are also Tathagata (Buddha), for they live by the Buddha’s mind (Other Power).

Cosmology and non-duality

Popular science

Every so often I dip into what is called a "popular science" book, one that seeks to make the current state of our knowledge of our world explicable to the lay-person. Thus long algebraic equations are excluded in favour of stories of cats and descriptions of games of ping pong on moving trains; all in such a way as to make the bending of space time and quantum leaps matters of common sensibility. Not to mention Black Holes.

They fail of course; and the search remains for a new theory of everything (even though some would say that such a search is ill-conceived) 

Keep it simple.

Seeking - or not?

Back in time it was Isaac Newton who "appeared and made all things light" and it was also Newton who said:- "Truth is ever to be found in simplicity, and not in multiplicity and confusion of things."

Newton, in his search for simplicity, recognised that the very same "force" that caused an apple to drop to earth also caused the moon to orbit the earth - this by seeing that the moon was actually falling too, but in circles. This insight, that the movement of the heavens and movement here below were governed by the very same "force" (gravity) was in fact then revolutionary even though commonplace for us now.

Isaac Newton, with apples

Until then it was the assumed view, inherited from the Greeks, that the heavens were a separate realm where laws totally distinct from those here below were in operation. Everything above was deemed to be immutable and perfect. Up there all moved in circles, a circle being a perfect shape. Yes, the heavens were untouched by human hand or infirmity.

Even the Tibetans loved circles

It seems to me that much human theology could learn from all this. God is often seen as "up above" and distinct from us here below; perfect, a being governed by separate laws. Creator of a world/cosmos distinct from Himself. Duality. 

Perhaps all of us, in our own way, are seeking for a theory of everything; maybe we never find it simply because it has to be - or we assume it would have to be - very much like the ancients understood the heavenly realms. Immutable and perfect. But surely, if this were so, we would just be going around in circles! 

Aristotle - would you trust a man like this?

This seems to be much the same problem as many of those in the past who, accepting without question the authority of Aristotle - or whoever - sought then to write a book on nature. It took a Kepler or a Newton to seek to read what it was that nature had to say. In the Pure Land this would be known as deep listening (to the call of Amida) 

There is much in reality that is counter intuitive. The earth is obviously motionless and at the centre of all creation. Just as we would wish to be and assume ourselves to be. Yet in looking and listening, becoming simple (in the best possible sense) we may well find a "theory of everything."

"We are already one. But we do not know it. What we have to become is what we are" (Thomas Merton)

Getting back to Newton, he once said:- 

I do not know what I may appear to the world but to myself I seem to have been only like a boy playing on the seashore, and diverting myself in now and then finding a smoother pebble or prettier shell than ordinary, whilst the great ocean of truth lay all undiscovered before me. 

These words in a strange way echo those of Bob Dylan from his song "The Ballad of Frankie Lee and Judas Priest", nothing is revealed. They speak of the incomprehensibility of God, in Whom, nevertheless, we live and move and have our being. Infinite compassion, infinite wisdom, infinite potentiality.

Related Quotes:-

"I can calculate the motion of heavenly bodies, but not the madness of people" 

(Isaac Newton)

"I'm gonna start my pickin' right now

Just tell me where you’ll be”
Judas pointed down the road
And said, “Eternity!”
“Eternity?” said Frankie Lee
With a voice as cold as ice
“That’s right,” said Judas Priest, “Eternity
Though you might call it ‘Paradise’”
“I don’t call it anything”
Said Frankie Lee with a smile

(Lines from "The Ballad of Frankie Lee and Judas Priest", Bob Dylan)

 

No working is true working

Taking it easy

Always one to be in favour of the less work the better, the Japanese expression mu-gi o motto gi to su has long piqued my interest. Its English translation is "no working is true working" and given below is the actual definition drawn from the Pure Land Buddhist tradition to explain the apparent paradox:-

Working [gi]:-

The original term gi has several connotations: reason, meaning, justification, principle, etc. Shinran uses gi to denote two opposing realities: (1) the mental, emotional and volitional working of unenlightened persons (self-power) to fathom Amida’s Primal Vow which surpasses conceptual understanding; and (2) the boundless activity of Amida’s Primal Vow (Other Power) which fills the person of blind passions with true wisdom and compassion, translated as “true working.” Thus, the paradoxical phrase, mu-gi o motte gi to su, is rendered “no working is true working” (lit., “no working is working”), implying that where the activities of the ego are no more, the true working of Amida’s compassion manifests itself.

No working is true working

Whatever one thinks of this, I would add that there is within the Pure Land tradition a deep commitment to what could be called self cultivation. Therefore, "no working" , as I see it, is while resting in complete trust to Reality-as-is, we can still pursue a path of becoming a "self" of knowledge, of total interest in the world around us. This not to gain anything, to attain anything, not even to have any particular direction, but simply because love of our world and of all that is and has been a part of our world is of interest; and the "no working" of the Reality-as-is, of what Pure Landers identify as the Vow Mind of infinite Compassion, Wisdom and Potentiality, will in Faith (Shinjin) integrate all things and provide its very own "direction". 

Self Cultivation

An instance of this is this very Blog, which via a Company known as Blookup has morphed into my becoming a producer of books, albeit of one copy of each only! Seeking to see my Blog in print I sought on the Internet for means to do so. Blookup have done the job and this led to the brainwave of turning a Blog into that which could be a unique book on a subject of interest to me - this by downloading the text of poems or whatever and adding images, then having them printed. 

I now have my very own illustrated Dhammapada, a Theravada Buddhist text. My own pictures, drawn from Google Images, have turned this into a cross Buddhist text, an "ecumenical" text, with beautiful illustrations of Chinese (Chan/Zen) Landscapes, Japanese Woodprints and other such things that took my fancy. Also, a 400 page book of the Lyrics of Bob Dylan containing over 80 of his greatest songs/lyrics. I now have a little library, of "Four Quartets" by T. S. Eliot, a "Book of Poems" (all my favorites) , also a "Book of Zen". 

Cover and pages of the Bob Dylan Blook

Another is one devoted purely to Pure Land Buddhism.This work contains much of what has guided me well over the past twenty years of so, containing a Glossary of Pure Land Terms drawn from the Collected Works of Shinran which is, for me, a superb presentation of Amida and all things West! 

Just to add, I am not on commission with Blookup, but I must say that Angelique provides a very fine after sales service.

Angelique (?)

Related Quotes:-

And he said, So is the kingdom of God, as if a man should cast seed into the ground; And should sleep, and rise night and day, and the seed should spring and grow up, he knoweth not how. For the earth bringeth forth fruit of herself; first the blade, then the ear, after that the full corn in the ear. But when the fruit is brought forth, immediately he putteth in the sickle, because the harvest is come.

(St Mark 4:26-29, KJV)

 "I have tried to learn in my writing a monastic lesson I could probably have not learned otherwise: to let go of my idea of myself, to take myself with more than one grain of salt......In religious terms, this is simply a matter of accepting life, and everything in life as a gift, and clinging to none of it, as far as you are able. You give some of it to others, if you can. Yet one should be able to share things with others without bothering too much about how they like it, either, or how they accept it. Assume they will accept it, if they need it. And if they don't need it, why should they accept it? That is their business. Let me accept what is mine and give them all their share, and go my way. All life tends to grow like this, in mystery inscaped with paradox and contradiction, yet centered in its very heart, on the divine mercy.

(Thomas Merton)

Amida Looking Back

At 2:30 - no sounds except sometimes a bullfrog. Some mornings, he says Om - some days he is silent.....The first sounds of the waking birds - "the virgin point" of the dawn, a moment of awe and inexpressible innocence, when the Father in silence opens their eyes and they speak to Him, wondering if it is time to "be"? And He tells them "Yes". Then they one by one wake and begin to sing. First the catbirds and cardinals and some others I do not recognise. Later, song sparrows, wrens.....last of all doves, crows.....With my hair almost on end and the eyes of the soul wide open I am present, without knowing it at all, in this unspeakable Paradise, and I behold this secret, this wide open secret which is there for everyone, free, and no one pays any attention.....Oh paradise of simplicity, self-awareness - and self-forgetfulness - liberty, peace.....

(Thomas Merton again, an extract from his Journals)

 

Productivity

Productivity - or Maya?

How does the word "productivity" stand up to scrutiny in a cosmos where love has no why? Or where the journey itself is home? I was dipping into a book of extracts from the writings of Alan Watts and one quote finally remained with me when all others had slipped into oblivion.

 "Stop measuring days by degree of productivity and start experiencing them by degree of presence."

Presence

Absorbing and reflecting upon these words I find they have great significance. For me, a call for change. 

Perhaps it is the truth that presence is the catalyst of true "productivity"? Not a productivity of explicit calculation, of the mind/self seeking to accumulate more knowledge and experience, this in order to achieve a particular state of being. Rather a presence as a surrender of all such grasping, resting instead in compassion, the wisdom, the potential of Reality-as-is. 

Productivity......or creativity......or transformation

I often find myself returning to the life of the poet John Keats and his insight into what he termed "negative capability" which he himself associated pre-eminently with Shakespeare. 

In one of his letters he wrote:- 

I mean negative capability, that is when man is capable of being in uncertainties, mysteries,  doubts, without any irritable reaching after fact and reason. 

As one biographer of Keats said:- 

"Creative genius, according to Keats, requires people to experience the world as an uncertain place that naturally gives rise to a wide array of perspectives."

In his breast.......(see below)

I'm not so sure about creative genius but hopefully there is also a chance for what Pure Landers know as a "bombu", a foolish being.

In the context of this particular blog it seems significant that a bombu,  as well as being defined as a "spiritual idiot", is also known as one who relies solely upon opening their minds to the Dharma, of listening deeply (to the call of Amida) 

A Bombu

This takes precedence over all else. All flows from this.

To finish, a poem I have always loved, "Keats at Teignmouth" by Charles Causley:-

         By the wild sea-wall I wandered

            Blinded by the salting sun,
        While the sulky Channel thundered
           Like an old Trafalgar gun.

        And I watched the gaudy river
           Under trees of lemon-green,
        Coiling like a scarlet bugle
           Through the valley of the Teign.

        When spring fired her fusilladoes
            Salt-spray, sea-spray on the sill,
        When the budding scarf of April
            Ravelled on the Devon hill.

        Then I saw the crystal poet
            Leaning on the old sea-rail;
        In his breast lay death, the lover,

            In his head, the nightingale

Related Quote:-

Foolish being (Bombu)

A person possessed of blind passions and ignorance. One of the Sanskrit equivalents of foolish being is bala, which has various connotations: immature, silly, stupid, foolish, ignorant. This term, however, is not to be understood in the conventional sense of these words, for it points to a profound religious awakening in which even the so-called intelligent person, when illumined by the Unhindered Light and brought to awareness by the wisdom of shinjin (true trusting/faith), comes to realize himself as a foolish being who is forever motivated by blindly self-centered desires, attached to the fascinations of this evanescent world, and unable to resolve the contradictions of human existence thoroughly. In fact, Shinran says that true wisdom is brought forth only from the heart and mind of the person who has awakened to Amida’s great compassion, and in the light of that compassion realizes himself to be a foolish being.

 (From a Glossary of Pure Land Terms, appendix to "The Collected Works of Shinran")

            

 

Of Quotes and Blogs

A typical quote

As some would know I am always happy with a few quotes. They tend to concentrate the mind, set it off at a tangent from its current grooves - and given many of my own grooves this is not a bad thing all in all. 

Recently I suffered what can only be called a cyber-disaster when my Notebook App disappeared into cyberspace never to be found again. One of my Kindles died on me and took the quotes with it and not even the Cloud could rescue me. The App was incompatible with the latest generation of Kindle. About 40 odd pages of various quotes from two years or so of reading matter became lost to me. 

I must say that there does seem to be progress as far as my life of no calculation is concerned, inasmuch as the tragedy flew by without resort to thoughts of suicide. I downloaded a new Notebook to my new kindle and began again, undaunted.

No shortage of choice

 Anyway, one purpose of these notes and quotes was/is to provide additions to past Blogs. Often, when reading and contemplating I will fall upon a new quote that, at least for me, illuminates the meanderings of a past Blog. I then find the blog and edit it, adding the quote. More often than not they do not so much illuminate or clarify, more that they drift off at a tangent. Not a bad thing at all. Others may think otherwise. Yet I do think that the grooves of our mind can gradually congeal, become part of a persona that is "us". As time passes, we become set in stone. Emptiness, the very heart of compassion, of wisdom, of potentiality, has become lost to us.

I  think of the ending of a poem by Ronald Stuart Thomas, called "Here":- 

It is too late to start

For destinations not of the heart

I must stay here with my hurt

Alas, many seem happy to do so, identifying themselves with "truth", not knowing the hurt at all. 

Well, that is it really, but in order to make this Blog just a little longer, here is the whole poem that I quoted from above, asking what does the short excerpt/quote above add to the poem as a whole - which may seem a funny sort of question. But there you go - there are "quotes" and there is the whole thing.

I am a man now

Pass your hand over my brow. 
You can feel the place where the brains grow. 

I am like a tree, 
From my top boughs I can see 
The footprints that led up to me. 

There is blood in my veins 
That has run clear of the stain 
Contracted in so many loins. 

Why, then, are my hands red 
With the blood of so many dead? 
Is this where I was misled? 

Why are my hands this way 
That they will not do as I say? 
Does no God hear when I pray? 

I have no where to go 
The swift satellites show 
The clock of my whole being is slow, 

It is too late to start 
For destinations not of the heart. 
I must stay here with my hurt.

And so below, a related illustration with quote:-

The ocean with its vastness, its blue green,
Its ships, its rocks, its caves, its hopes, its fears,
Its voice mysterious, which whoso hears
Must think on what will be, and what has been. 

(John Keats, in a poem to his brother George, on first seeing the sea)

The Season of Goodwill

The Season of Goodwill?

Here we are again, that time of the year when we try to think of what to buy for those who in many ways already have everything they need. While the poor go empty away. Still, it is the season of goodwill, and so I wish our friends in Westminster, home of the UK Government, well. Now running around like headless chickens in ever decreasing circles, let us hope and pray that they find time to fill in their expense claims. 

Don't forget the expenses

Moving on, the days are counting down to Brexit, to 29/03/2019 when the UK officially leaves the EU. But as said, those we have elected to be in charge of proceedings, seem otherwise engaged and in fact are soon off for the Christmas recess. But they have found time so far to put 3,500 troops on standby for the Big Day. Difficult to know just what lies ahead. Many scenarios are being thrown out by the media, from the dawn of Utopia to Armageddon.

The countdown to midnight

I shall retire and hide my head in some of my favorite texts from our world of faith. Often I muse upon whether such is to hide my head in the sand or is it to raise it up high. Is it to close to our world's affairs or, in fact, to become more involved? Yet in the Pure Land world of "no calculation" thanks is given and the world keeps turning; and hopefully, unlike in Westminster, not in ever decreasing circles.

Whatever, one such text  is the Sutta Nipata, part of the Theravada (Southern School) canon of scripture. This has always been one of my favorites throughout my journey through Theravada itself, the Mahayana (Northern School) and on to the Pure Land. Hopefully leaving all the infighting between those schools and ways in my wake. 

Leave in-fighting behind

The Sutta Nipata appears to give evidence of a genesis within folk traditions prior to the advent of Buddhism. At least, I think so. My first acquaintance with it was when I read an essay by Nyanaponika Thera, which concentrated upon its opening chapter, the "Chapter of the Snake". This speaks of the various "skins" we shed on our movement through the Buddhist path, or perhaps our sailing upon the raft of the Dharma. I think too of the words of the Dhammapada, of how the various travellers are like swans upon the lake "leaving home after home behind". Lovely images to contemplate, always remembering Basho in his own Journey to the North, who recognised that the journey itself is home. 

Basho's narrow road - mind the end of the bridge

Well, goodwill  or not, this Christmas blog is complete. There was a really beautiful verse from the Sutta Nipata that caught my mind yesterday as I took a break from playing Candy Soda Crush Saga. Here it is:- 

A good sight indeed has arisen today, a good daybreak, a beautiful arising, for we have seen the perfectly Enlightened One, who has crossed the flood.

"Morning has broken like the first morning" - a beautiful arising

 "A good daybreak, a beautiful arising"

Related Quote:-

It's Christmas time, and there's no need to be afraid
At Christmas time, we let in light and banish shade
And in our world of plenty, we can spread a smile of joy

Throw your arms around the world
At Christmas time

But say a prayer and pray for the other ones
At Christmas time, it's hard but while you're having fun
There's a world outside your window, and it's a world of dread and fear
Where a kiss of love can kill you, and there's death in every tear
And the Christmas bells that ring there are the clanging chimes of doom

Well tonight we're reaching out and touching you

(Lines from "Do They Know It's Christmas", Bob Geldof/Midge Ure)