Update on what's happening in France
Monday, 16. July 2007, 07:49:46
Dharmavidya and Prasada have arrived and so has the good weather. The summer teaching has been altered to meet the needs of the people here and also to those who have requested shorter Dharma talks. These talks will be much shorter in length and will weave in questions from participants here this summer. For those of you who weren't aware, Dharmavidya had to delay coming to France due to being slightly concussed and very tired. For those of you who knew about his condition here is a quick update. He is still very tired and is spending much of his time catching up on much needed sleep. Prasada, who just caught a pretty nasty head cold, drove the entire way to France in this condition and so naturally is also spending much of her time asleep. For them, part of this summer teaching program is to stay horizontal and sleep. A mantra that always comes to mind whenever someone is poorly is 'our body is our friend and its suffering is our teacher.' They are in many ways extraordinary and the amount that they can do is remarkable. The two of them this year, have travelled to Hawaii and back, to Japan, given teachings in the UK and abroad, attended and presented papers at several conferences, run three different training programs that have an attendance and correspondence element to them, developed and launched the Amida Kai and Research Institute, published books, bought a new house and moved into it and have seen to all the everyday aspects of running an organisation as well as Buddhist training community. I haven't written it in any specific order just jotted their activities down as they came to mind and I've probably forgotten alot of other things but one can see that they've been pretty much on the go and they still have a full program lined up ahead of them before the year is out.
Amida's power, strength and energy is limitless. They seem to be able to draw on this limitless source and if not for the fact that our physical abilities are limited they would probably keep going the way they have been, replicating the Pure Land wherever they are. We are refugees of the Pure Land and like many refugees living in an alien world we too are trying and replicate our true home in a foreign country.
Yesterday, the 14th of July, Bastille day, is a very important day in France's social history. Dharmavidya incorporated this theme into his first Dharma talk. In fact, there were several aspects themes that came out of using the storming of the Bastille as an example of Buddhist practice; other power vs. self power, sudden enlightenment and gradual cultivation, the invidious choices we face in life, and the importance of sen-chaku (selection) as indicated by Honen Shonen. In brief, we can cultivate good and useful skills to help us handle and cope with many things in life but we can only do so much. Like the prisoners locked up in the Bastille, where everyone knew no-one ever got out alive, the feeling of being liberated came when 'other' people liberated them. This is the basic idea in Buddhism, 'other power' will liberate us. At the same time, we recognize that we can't save or create something without killing or destroying something. Canons and other violent means were used to liberate those locked away and people chose to do so. As humans we are constantly faced with invidious choices. Honen's teaching and message was to ordinary people. He was realistic and down to earth and helped people to choose the lesser of two evils. For example, if you can replace an addiction with a lesser one, say heroine with vodka then do so, if you can replace vodka with chocolates then do so. In Buddhist practice he selected the Nembutsu as the core practice and the others as auxiliary. The wonderful thing about the Nembutsu is that you can do this anywhere anytime and it's very simple. Namo Amida Bu.
Today's talk was on Buddhist Theology or rather it was an introduction to theology and why it's important for Buddhists to start thinking about it. He'll probably talk about Buddhist Theology tomorrow. I'll try my best to summarize this but must admit that most of it just went over my head and so this will be a kind of Pooh Bear summary. Theology is a term that is misleading and often when one thinks of it they automatically think of God. However, that is a narrow definition and he gave other examples of words with the root 'theos' that have been liberated from that aspect, like theory and enthusiasm. When people use these terms they don't think of God anymore and yet it derives from theos. Similarly, theology is about clarifying ones position, explicating one's religious position logically. It is also very different from religious philosophy, which I won't explain now but can say that the two of them go well hand in hand. As philosophical ideas are created, theologians can try them out and then based on their experience they can say where the holes or problems are and that is grist for the mill for philosophers. He talked about the historical development of Buddhism in the West and suggested that we are entering a phase in which Buddhist Theology will play an important role. He introduced the term 'apologetic' which means to present a theory that is adapted to the questions of the day. Each generation will have certain issues, questions that need addressing and when one preaches one is using an apologetic approach. It is different from dogmatic where dogmas don't adapt to the questions of the day. The apologetic approach bridges the dogmas with the popular culture.
Nagarjuna was probably the most brilliant critical philosopher who was able to take alot of the arguments found in Buddhism and demolish them. He is known for his ability to deconstruct and show how a theory doesn't meet its own criteria, or falls in on itself or taken to a ridiculous extreme becomes completely absurd. And how there are things that we take for granted, certain axioms that we use in order to explain things that we take to be true even though they are not logically sound nor observed empirically. Most of our positioning statements are dogmas and he suggested that we play a game to see what is a dogmatic statement, apologetic statement, ideal or orthodox position and critical inquiry. The purpose of this game is to identify which dogmas we are holding onto and which ones contradict each other, and to eliminate a dogma will incur a change.
This ability is very much in the realm of secondary faculties and these faculties are shaped by our core practice of reciting the Nembutsu. These two plus the auxiliary practices which include pretty much all religious practices are what comprise a religious life. This path is definitely a religion of the heart and of the mind.
Amida's power, strength and energy is limitless. They seem to be able to draw on this limitless source and if not for the fact that our physical abilities are limited they would probably keep going the way they have been, replicating the Pure Land wherever they are. We are refugees of the Pure Land and like many refugees living in an alien world we too are trying and replicate our true home in a foreign country.
Yesterday, the 14th of July, Bastille day, is a very important day in France's social history. Dharmavidya incorporated this theme into his first Dharma talk. In fact, there were several aspects themes that came out of using the storming of the Bastille as an example of Buddhist practice; other power vs. self power, sudden enlightenment and gradual cultivation, the invidious choices we face in life, and the importance of sen-chaku (selection) as indicated by Honen Shonen. In brief, we can cultivate good and useful skills to help us handle and cope with many things in life but we can only do so much. Like the prisoners locked up in the Bastille, where everyone knew no-one ever got out alive, the feeling of being liberated came when 'other' people liberated them. This is the basic idea in Buddhism, 'other power' will liberate us. At the same time, we recognize that we can't save or create something without killing or destroying something. Canons and other violent means were used to liberate those locked away and people chose to do so. As humans we are constantly faced with invidious choices. Honen's teaching and message was to ordinary people. He was realistic and down to earth and helped people to choose the lesser of two evils. For example, if you can replace an addiction with a lesser one, say heroine with vodka then do so, if you can replace vodka with chocolates then do so. In Buddhist practice he selected the Nembutsu as the core practice and the others as auxiliary. The wonderful thing about the Nembutsu is that you can do this anywhere anytime and it's very simple. Namo Amida Bu.
Today's talk was on Buddhist Theology or rather it was an introduction to theology and why it's important for Buddhists to start thinking about it. He'll probably talk about Buddhist Theology tomorrow. I'll try my best to summarize this but must admit that most of it just went over my head and so this will be a kind of Pooh Bear summary. Theology is a term that is misleading and often when one thinks of it they automatically think of God. However, that is a narrow definition and he gave other examples of words with the root 'theos' that have been liberated from that aspect, like theory and enthusiasm. When people use these terms they don't think of God anymore and yet it derives from theos. Similarly, theology is about clarifying ones position, explicating one's religious position logically. It is also very different from religious philosophy, which I won't explain now but can say that the two of them go well hand in hand. As philosophical ideas are created, theologians can try them out and then based on their experience they can say where the holes or problems are and that is grist for the mill for philosophers. He talked about the historical development of Buddhism in the West and suggested that we are entering a phase in which Buddhist Theology will play an important role. He introduced the term 'apologetic' which means to present a theory that is adapted to the questions of the day. Each generation will have certain issues, questions that need addressing and when one preaches one is using an apologetic approach. It is different from dogmatic where dogmas don't adapt to the questions of the day. The apologetic approach bridges the dogmas with the popular culture.
Nagarjuna was probably the most brilliant critical philosopher who was able to take alot of the arguments found in Buddhism and demolish them. He is known for his ability to deconstruct and show how a theory doesn't meet its own criteria, or falls in on itself or taken to a ridiculous extreme becomes completely absurd. And how there are things that we take for granted, certain axioms that we use in order to explain things that we take to be true even though they are not logically sound nor observed empirically. Most of our positioning statements are dogmas and he suggested that we play a game to see what is a dogmatic statement, apologetic statement, ideal or orthodox position and critical inquiry. The purpose of this game is to identify which dogmas we are holding onto and which ones contradict each other, and to eliminate a dogma will incur a change.
This ability is very much in the realm of secondary faculties and these faculties are shaped by our core practice of reciting the Nembutsu. These two plus the auxiliary practices which include pretty much all religious practices are what comprise a religious life. This path is definitely a religion of the heart and of the mind.
WIDGETIZE