Go to Blogger edit html and find these sentences.Now replace these sentences with your own descriptions.This theme is Bloggerized by Lasantha Bandara - Premiumbloggertemplates.com.
Go to Blogger edit html and find these sentences.Now replace these sentences with your own descriptions.This theme is Bloggerized by Lasantha Bandara - Premiumbloggertemplates.com.
Go to Blogger edit html and find these sentences.Now replace these sentences with your own descriptions.This theme is Bloggerized by Lasantha Bandara - Premiumbloggertemplates.com.
Go to Blogger edit html and find these sentences.Now replace these sentences with your own descriptions.This theme is Bloggerized by Lasantha Bandara - Premiumbloggertemplates.com.
Go to Blogger edit html and find these sentences.Now replace these sentences with your own descriptions.This theme is Bloggerized by Lasantha Bandara - Premiumbloggertemplates.com.
E:I know, but I think that memory is a part of the present, and all these fragments and images and information that make up memory are part of who we are now and that what we remember about a person is really a reflection of facets of our own experience, and the very act of remembering is the act of self-discovery.
G: Uh uh. So you're saying you did know Shawn, or...
E: In the sense that he's a part of the world that exists as a reflection of my perception of it.
G: I see, in that sense of it, huh.
You know some day, kid, when you discover yourself... you're going to remember the perception of the memory of the fragments of experience, and you're going to look at the unpaid balance of your student loan and you're gonna ask, 'Why?' Nobody has the answer to that, you know?
Roshi Jeff Albrizze and his wife Amanda have a secret to reveal on or about Doomsday 2012.
What an amazing announcement. Highly impressed doesn't even begin to cover it. Congratulations! I am seriously considering trying to reincarnate this December just so I can have the coolest Hoodoo parents ever! But I guess I'll wait and give some other chap a chance to enter this realm. Looking forward to the baby shower! -Kast
The Zen Center of Los Angeles (ZCLA) has a paper on the four vows comparing different translations, including some of the original language.
Wikipedia also has an excellent article as well on the topic “Bodhisattva vow.”
My final opinion as to what should be chanted has changed every day for the last few days. So I must continue to reflect and research. But I like what I have so far. Zen Master Red Pine made some interesting comments on how he translates his material, when he recently spoke at ZCLA. Combining the meaning with the rhythm and poetry of the words is a big challenge.
"I didn't think we had a choice. I like Jeff's ideas but I want to remain within the Yokoji Zen Mountain Center/ZCLA orthodoxy." -Ron
"For the first vow, I even like this version even more: 'Sentient beings are numberless. I vow to free them.' Free them from my judgments and self righteousness. For desires, do we really want to end our desire for happiness? Or do we want to bring happiness to others? Which desires do we want to want to end and which keep?" -Don
Sisyphus according to Greek legend
"I wasn't aware that all these different centers used different versions of the four vows. Seeing them all (Thank you, Mara!) gives me a different perspective on this issue than I would have had otherwise. AtZCSD we didn't chant any version of the four vows.
"I think of the ZCLA four vows, when I say them, as being sort of an articulation or embodiment of the absurd human condition, in the sense of 'the absurd' being the difference between what one intends (truly, with all one's heart) and what is actually possible. I see them as Sisyphean vows. I'm also used to saying them with the cadence, etc. that we do now and am not all that enthusiastic about having to learn a new way of saying an old, familiar chant.
"But it's fine with me if PasaDharma members who feel strongly about the four vows want to chant a different version of them.
"How about chanting them in Japanese? I'd be fine with that, too. There's something to be said for experiencing the act of chanting (hearing, feeling, forming/creating the sounds, etc.) without being distracted by the content of the chant." -Richard
The Perfect Wording?
As American Buddhists we already change the original words of the Bodhisattva vows from the Zen traditions of China, Japan, and Korea by translating them into modern English. The benefits of understanding -- Martin Luther would agree -- far outweigh what is lost in translation.
Perhaps we should compare translations and find the one that best preserves the meaning of the original wording. That would include their koan/ riddle quality of vowing to attain the apparently unattainable.
Wikipedia has a chart of the original wording used in five languages. ZCLA has notes on the four great vows with the original words and how nine different Zen groups translate them to help us come to a satisfactory interpretation.
1. “Masses [of] creatures, without-bounds, [I/we] vow to save (paramita) [them all].”
None of the translations account for the “without-bounds” state referred to in the original vow which is harming the masses. The translation for “save” comes from the word paramita (a "perfection" developed for the sake of becoming a buddha), meaning “to take over to the other shore.” Using the word “serve” for “save” changes the meaning slightly. Serving people is different from saving them. One can serve people in many different ways, and that may lead to saving them from their “without-bounds” state. “Save” seems like a better pick in words for the original paramita, especially when confronting the without-bounds culture we live in today. “I vow to free them” seems almost as good. The ZCLA site suggests the word “enlighten,” which is perhaps the most specific understanding of the word paramita in the Buddhist context and the only thing that is real salvation. “Enlighten” includes the meanings of both “save” and “free” (liberate). This seems to capture that meaning best:
“Numberless beings are without bounds, I vow to enlighten them.”
“Anxiety, hate, and deluded-desires]” refers to the word klesha(s), which are “mental states that cloud the mind and manifest in unwholesome actions (karma).” The three root kleshas are “greed, hate, and delusion” (or “attachment, aversion, and ignorance”), which lead to many other destructive mental states. The words “delusions,” “desires,” “passions,” “obstacles” come close to the original meaning of the word kleshas. Choosing just one of them leaves out a lot, with the remainder being lost in translation. The Diamond Sangha’s choice of wording seems to be the most comprehensive and closest to the original meaning, without resorting to a long list of the different kleshas. The word “sever,” as in “sever ties,” means “to cut off” and fits better with the rhythm of the chant. As much as we would like to “cut off” a particularly troublesome klesha forever, the best we can often hope for is to sever ties to it. It may yet linger waiting for a chance to arise again:
“Though greed, hatred, and ignorance rise endlessly, I vow to sever them.”
3. “Dharma gates beyond-measure [I/we] vow to learn [them all].”
Using the word “practice” for “learn” does not imply any sense of attempted accomplishment. “Penetration” implies a beginning level of understanding. “Understanding” indicates a higher level of development beyond just trying to actually practicing. Isn’t this what we should be aiming for? The Diamond Sangha’s translation captures the koan possibilities of the vow best, since, if the Dharma is literally fathomless, understanding is impossible.
“Though the Dharma is vast and fathomless, I vow to understand it.”
4. “Buddha Way, nothing-higher, [I/we] vow to accomplish [it]”
“Embody” is a great translation for the word “to become, attain, turn into” (bhavana). Spirit (ephemeral intention) becomes flesh (solid materiality). The Diamond Sangha translation catches the koan-like quality best with attaining the unobtainable.” We realize that the vows are unattainable, but we vow to attain them anyway. Does their adding “fully” to the end make it more meaningful? It is hard to be sure. It throws off the rhythm of the chant a little and takes the punch out of “embody.”
“Though Buddha’s way is beyond attainment, I vow to embody it.”
The life of an American Buddhist practicing, or trying to practice, in the West
So what are we left with?
“Though numberless beings are without bounds, I vow to enlighten them.”
“Though greed, hatred, and delusion arise endlessly, I vow to sever them.”
“Though the Dharma is vast and fathomless, I vow to understand it.”
“Though the Buddha’s way is beyond attainment, I vow to embody it.”
What does everyone think? The rhythm and simplicity of the old vows may fall to the wayside, one might appreciate the depth the Diamond Sangha has added with their translations.
In our fundamental or Theravada Buddhist tradition, we have five essential vows in the Five Precepts:
I vow to abstain from killing.
I vow to abstain from stealing.
I vow to abstain from sexual irresponsibility.
I vow to abstain from deceiving.
I vow to abstain from intoxication occasioning heedlessness.
Without our vows, whatever they may be, we join the “masses of creatures without-bounds.” Of course, as with any translation, ultimately the Buddha was right in extolling the virtues of noble silence. The Sufi poet Rumi famously agreed:
“Silence is the language of God -- All else is poor translation.”
In light of Ramadan, now that Boudicaspeaks [almost as if the Bouddha, rather than Boudica, were speaking] has given you an overview of fasting beyond just no food or drink, I feel the need to discuss something that I strive to do any time of the year:
Remembering GOD or zikr. However, for me the intensification of Remembering God is a different one this year. Many will say that fasting helps do this, but I have found it is all about first silencing the mind, and then intensifying that silence with the hunger. I mean, being hungry and tired surely brings about silence, but I still have yet to reach that truly meditative silence.
No matter what state of spirituality I am in (and I do not believe in stages, but rather highs and lows), zikr reminds me of the source of spiritual refuge in this universe, regardless of what religion people classify themselves under.
Rather than trying to push forward our own views about right and wrong and the way people ought to live, it may just help to simply be silent, both physically and even mentally (and I can relate to mentally with my constantly wandering mind). More
“Out beyond ideas of right and wrong, There is a field. I’ll meet you there.
AUGUST 15th marks India's independence from British oppression. Much like the United States, the "greatest experiment in democracy" (India) liberated itself from United Kingdom colonialism in 1947. Unfortunately, it meant the loss of a great deal of land ceded in the interest of the departing empire. It has kept India fighting with its neighbors (the new Pakistan and East Pakistan, now Bangladesh) ever since. Imperial UK strategists cut India up along religious lines. But ethnic strife has continued to plague the nation as well as its infamous communal violence. Tens of millions of Indian Muslims were given a homeland of sort, but 100 million Muslim remain in India. And Pakistan poses the greatest threat to its sovereignty. With the US military on former Indian land (Gandhara now Afghanistan) as it continues to prosecute the longest war of its short history, the even shorter-lived nation is determined to take sides against its own neighbors squeezing it to give up territory, Pakistan and China. Southern California is privileged to have numerous Independence Day celebrations on weekends throughout the month, particularly in LA's "Little India" (Artesia).
More troops sent to India's strife-torn northeast(AP) Clashes between members of the ethnic Bodo community and Muslim settlers in Assam state have left 42 people dead and 13 others missing, state...
India says Pakistan websites caused migrant panic (Aug. 19) The exodus followed clashes in India's Assam state in recent weeks between ethnic Bodos and Muslim settlers that killed more than 50 people and...
