Ask a Brahmin: Divali (Festival of Lights)?

Wisdom Quarterly: ASK A BRAHMIN with Swami Adrishananda and Yogi Nandhi, Diwali 2012

Diwali: Lakshmi, Goddess of Wealth, on lotus with white elephants symbolizing Ganesha.

     

Kwan Yin, Mt. Emei, Samantabhadra (h20002h)

Wisdom Quarterly: What is Divali or as you say, Deepavali?

Swami Adrishananda: It is a five-day Festival of Lights that begins today, a grand celebration in India. As the days wane, cultures around the world celebrate light. The promise that spring will return after winter, that light and the Sun will triumph over dark and the cold. We are ringing in the good and the bright. Pagans and Christians in Europe deck the halls with boughs of holly, tinsel strips, vigil-candles...

WQ: So it is about renewal and holding hope in our hearts?
  

SA: In practice this pooja (observance) is all about the new, a new heart. Everyone wears new clothes and sings bhajans like on New Year's, "May old acquaintance be forgot..." [Listen: Auld Lang Syne]. Things are forgiven and one looks forward through the darkness in search of new light. Fresh garments, fresh thoughts, it's a new start. This is the meaning.

  

Avalokiteshvara Bodhisattva

WQ: Tapas Yogi Nandhi says "higher consciousness" is taking place. He explains that in the past, masters like Maharishi Mahesh Yogi declared that when a tipping point or critical mass of the population meditate, humanity steps into the threshold of higher awareness, intellect, and peace. We gain stillness of mind (samadhi), the first objective of meditation, and that tranquility allows what he calls "the streaming Source energy."

SA: That is quite true. The eight-limbs of yoga, asht-anga or Raja Yoga, is Patanjali's formulation, like the earlier Buddha Gautama's formulation. Lord Buddha was a Hindu...

  

WQ: Not really, brahmana. There was no "Hinduism" at that time.

SA: His father the king followed the Vedas, India's scriptures, and the customs like Deepavali!

WQ: Those are the customs of the brahmins (temple priests who worship Brahma), not the shramans (spiritual wanderers who seek direct and self-reliant experience of the highest truths). They both aspire to become "noble," not by birth like caste-loving brahmins, but by karma, by their deeds in this life, like caste-rejecting shramans or shamans.
  

SA: But his father the king...

WQ: ...followed what his brahmin advisers and ministers advised, that's true. But he was a kshatriya (warrior caste noble). Many Indians say the Buddha was a Hindu as if there was no difference between Shankara's systematization of the Vedas, Puranas, Vedanta, and Patanjali's yoga sutras and the Buddha's message. But there are many points of difference. Was Mahavira [the founder of Jainism, who lived at the time of the Buddha, many centuries before Shankara) a Hindu?

SA: He is honored by Hindus as well, like Lord Buddha.

WQ: That's wonderful. But both the Buddha and Mahavira and the other "heretics" as well, rejected the Vedas as ultimate authority. It would be like Jesus...

SA: Who?

WQ: Issa.

SA: O, Christ.

WQ: Yes, it would be like Saint Issa rejecting Jewish scripture and writing a New Testament.

SA: They did! Christ was a Hindu.

WQ: Was Moses a Hindu? Well, then, we're all Hindus because India has such an ancient pre-India spiritual tradition. The Buddha didn't come to certify the Vedas or to say they are nonsense. They are very valuable. But that is not his message. The Buddha had something to say beyond that. And Lord Issa had something new to say. The Buddha and Marhavira became shramanas, like shamans. They taught their disciples, male and female, high caste and low caste, the way to attaining spiritual perfection in this life, not by being reborn as brahmins first.

• Buddhism and Jainism are India's two surviving "self-reliant" traditions

SA: So the Buddha observed Divali?

WQ: Probably, everyone in India does. Not formally, Buddhists do not do it as a "Buddhist thing." But the Jains do do it as a Jain thing.

SA: Christ does, and the Christians call it Christmas. Christ lived in India and took that back to Jerusalem.

WQ: But the ancient Jews had a festival of lights, Channukah.

SA: That's Deepavali! Jews lived in India, in Jammu & Kashmir, and according to Swami Abhedananda came to study with the Buddhists.

  In honor of feminine energy Yogi Nandhi honors Narayani, wife of Vishnu

WQ: Why do you call it Deepavali and not Divali?
SA: The same. Dipa is light. This is in honor of Maha Laxmi (Great Lakshmi), the goddess and Lord Vishnu's consort. [Hinduism explains the Buddha as simply having been an incarnation of the triune God Vishnu.]
WQ: What about Radha, the divine feminine?
SA: The same. Laxmi represents Radha also and all the goddesses (devis).

WQ: Tapas Yogi Nandhi quotes Mahatma Gandhi: "The human voice can never reach the distance that is covered by the still small voice of conscience." And he says that still small voice of conscience in unison is very strong, with scientific backing. It enables minds/hearts to meditate, practice Raja or Royal Yoga, Reiki, Tai Chi, karate, labyrinth walking, contemplative practices to help us remember that we are really spiritual having a physical experience.
  

SA: Yes, he's right. All is one, and all traditions say to practice non-harming, ahimsa.

WQ: So it's everyday in every practice, but do you have a special celebration?
SA: Yes, today, in the foothills of the San Gabriel Valley. And I will be chanting Lord Buddha's mantra Gate gate paragate parasamgate bodhi svaha.
WQ: Actually that's not...
SA: Not what?
WQ: ...not a bad idea. We're all ONE on Divali. Avalokiteshvara would be glad to hear it, and there's one personage we can agree on.
SA: Namaste.

Read More

"The Bitter Buddha" (comedy)

Wisdom Quarterly, Eddie Pepitone (The Bitter Buddha) via David Feldman (PLAY SHOW)

Fat happy Budai (speakinggod)

"The Bitter Buddha" is coming to theaters and on-demand in late 2012. Screenings and news can be found at TheBitterBuddha (Facebook) and TheBitterBuddha.com. This documentary is an unfiltered look at Eddie Pepitone, a real "comic's comic." His life is on full display in this comedic portrait of creativity, enlightenment, and rage. 

  

A film by Steven Feinartz. Animated segment: audio courtesy of WTF with the Marc Maron podcast. Original animation by Allen Mezquida.
 
"The Bitter Buddha" takes an unconventional journey through the life of one of America's most original comedic voices.

 

"Want to feel like you've discovered something new? That you're watching a comedian poised to hit critical mass? This is your movie."

- The Chicago Tribune

 

Featuring comedians: Eddie Pepitone, Patton Oswalt, Marc Maron, Sarah Silverman, Zach Galifianakis, Paul Provenza, Sean Conroy, Dana Gould, Todd Barry, Todd Glass, Andy Kindler, BJ Novak, James Adomian, Paul Gilmartin, Paul F. Tompkins, Andy Daly, Jen Kirkman, Jim Earl, Leo Allen, Matt Oswalt, Paul F. Tompkins, Rob Huebel, Scott Aukerman, Todd Barry, and more.

  

LISTEN Fridays or archived for 90 days at KPFK.org

Read More

Judaism: Happy New Year!

S. Mendelson and Dhr. Seven, Wisdom Quarterly
Family Guy's Seth Macfarlane wows national "SNL" audience

It's not easy being Jewish, feeling a lot of animosity because of everything the New Israel does and the residual racism outside of cosmopolitan areas in the country. It's just a cultural identity, not so much a religion for most younger Jews. When we want spirituality, Buddhism looks the most attractive Why would that be?

One supposes that there's something in the genetic memory or implicit cultural awareness of there being Jews in Himalayan India where Jesus and other Jewish travelers went due to there being a large trading settlement there (see Holger Kersten). The similarities between Mahayana Buddhism, Judaism, and Christianity are stunning -- a messiah (Maitreya), one GOD (impersonal Brahman) that encompasses all the gods (personal heavenly/space visitors) who get worshipped separately as if they were One but with different names and attributes. 

What is there to say about Rosh Hashanah? Nothing other than to point out how far the Gentiles have taken Jewish lore and practice and made it completely other in the name of one mushroom figure. Happy New Year.

• THE SACRED MUSHROOM AND THE CROSS

Pro-Israel and pro-peace, is it possible? J Street thinks so.

Read More

Jesus, Buddha, Krishna, Lao Tzu Teachings

Dhr. Seven, Amber Dorrian, Wisdom Quarterly; Richard Hooper (The Parallel Sayings)  

What do Jesus, Buddha, Krishna, and Lao Tzu have in common?

A new book by Richard Hooper points out stunning parallels in the teachings of four mystical traditions -- Buddhist, Christian, Taoist, and Hindu. Moreover, a final chapter attempts to debunk Wisdom Quarterly's pet theory that Jesus (St. Issa) was a diversely educated Buddhist as the BBC, Swami Abhedananda, Nicolas Notovitch, Elizabeth Clare Prophet, and Levi H. Dowling have held for many years.

Then there are the lost sutras

Hooper contends Jesus/Issa could not have been a Tibetan lama because there were not yet any "lamas" in the lamasery now known as Hemis Gompa, and there wasn't even a Tibetan Buddhism (Vajrayana). Of course, he fails to consider the work of Holger Kersten and Elmar R. Gruber in establishing a Jewish settlements/trading posts as far away as Kashmir, India -- relatively close to Ladakh, India/Tibet (the site of the ancient Hemis Lamasery). Why would the Hemis abbot deny Notovitch's story? Might he want to protect the written records once stored in his temple complex from prying Christian hands? (Of course, if the eminent Orientalist Max Muller denies the existence of any such records because they are not described in the Kanjur and Tanjur, then that is solid evidence to contend with). Whatever drew Jesus/Issa there is likely what still draws Jews from all over the world, who go in search of mysticism and spiritual teachers and experience beyond book learning. Hooper dismisses it all without nuance; it is simply a preposterous "hoax" on the face of it.

  

Illustration of Jesus/Issa in Ladakh, India/Tibet (Elizabeth.C. Prophet)

Of course, what is today Tibet would have been India at that time (a Himalayan corridor still in dispute as variously independently, Chinese, Pakistani, Indian, or CIA-administered territory. And although Buddhist monks in the area may not have called themselves lamas, Red Hats, Black Hats, or Rinpoches, messiahs, Maitreya, or even bodhisattvas, that does not mean they were not Buddhists practicing what would eventually come to be called "Tibetan Buddhism," an exotic branch of Mahayana, which is so strikingly similar to Christianity that it seems preposterous to think they did not influence one another in their development over the past two millenia (particularly as the corporate Catholic Church appropriated the best of what it could find in all mystical traditions in areas it followed as Christian soldiers looted riches any and everywhere it could find them). Aside from this abrupt conclusion, Hooper has created a wonder book of parallel saying from non-obvious sources. Christians may not be pleased, but every student of comparative traditions will be delighted. And it's a short read. Recommended.

  

(Mystical) Book Club Selection

Deborah Arca (Patheos.com Book Club, May 15, 2012)

Can you tell [Patheos] a little about how this book came about?

Author Richard Hooper

Between my second and third year of college I had what the psychologist Abraham Maslow would call a “peak experience.” It resulted in a decision to study for the ministry, so I changed my college major to the Philosophy of Religion because it seemed sensible that a Christian minister should know at least something about other world religions. Surprisingly, when I entered seminary two years later I discovered that I was the only person there who thought such knowledge was important.
   
In any event when I started studying the teachings of Hinduism, Buddhism, and Taoism for the first time, I began to notice similarities between what Jesus taught and what was generally taught in Eastern philosophy. A few years later I started studying the Gnostic Gospels and was astounded by the similarities between the words of Krishna in the Bhagavad-Gita and the words of the risen Christ in Gnostic-Christian literature.
  

Your book compares the parallel teachings of four world religions, but why didn’t you include Judaism and Islam?

I realized from the beginning that a lot of people would ask this question, so I added a second subtitle to the cover of this book: “The common teachings of four mystical traditions.” More

Read More

Noah Levine teaches Against the (Dharma)?

Seth Auberon and Ashley Wells, Wisdom Quarterly

He's a Dharma punk and not dumb, so how does he know so little about the Buddha?

In a devastating blow to Buddhist history, author and "Against the Stream" founder Noah Levine turned the Buddha's life into an unrecognizable mishmash of revisionist thought, doubt and outlandish speculation. At one point he had Siddhartha tying stones to his privates, all the while laughing and engendering laughter from an eager American audience. The constant refrain was, "We just don't know. These things weren't written down. There was a lot of mythologizing..." Therefore we can throw anything into the story we like and it'll be just as true/doubtful as all the rest of it? Levine's heart was obviously in the right place.

(LINK) BBC documentary: "The Life of the Buddha"

   

Maybe its less Buddhism than recovery and punk

But one would have to guess -- based solely on his bumbling through the life story -- that he only recently became acquainted with Buddhism as a sacred tradition of the East. The Buddha's life, certainly much informed by mythological elements prevalent in ancient India, is retold to inspire our own path: We live luxuriously, we suffer, we assume that the only antidote to suffering is hedonism, then one day occurs to us that this has never worked. So we try something else. We go on a quest. We question convention. We go have a look for ourselves. And inasmuch as we question or reject society, we look inward for answers: What is true? What can I know to be true? How can I bring suffering to an end, not just for myself, but for all beings who suffer?

• See Noah Levine continue Wednesdays live in Hollywood

Siddhartha did not set off on this quest only once; he (reappearing in various transient forms, not as the same being but not altogether another) spent many lives developing the perfections. These enabled him to become a master physician for what ails living beings, a superlative teacher able to communicate that subtle and profound discovery of what's been going wrong in our own search for a way out, a samma-sam-buddha or "right and fully awakened one." Levine is not alone in sowing doubt and, possibly inadvertently, ridiculing the "less important" Buddhist teachings, such as its venerable history and origins.
  
Former Buddhist monk and continuing British iconoclast Stephen Batchelor, author of Confessions of a Buddhist Atheist, seems to have profoundly influenced Levine's view of not only Buddhist history but its theology (yes, it has one in spite of being a non-theistic tradition) and cosmology as well. There's more than a little of fellow punk and Zen Master Brad Warner in Levine's approach as well.
   

(ABC News) Stephen Batchelor talks about his confessions with ABC

To hear Levine tell it, Buddhism doesn't know its zafu from its zabuton and is ass-backwards on everything but its core insight (vipassana) teachings. With teachers like Jack Kornfield and his own father, Buddhist author Stephen Levine, that comes as a surprise. One would imagine his time in prison gave him time to reflect, grow hungry for answers, and then satisfy that hunger through books, monastics, and comparative religion professors.

 

Is Levine opinionated? It would not seem so, for when local meditator Sherry asked him to define "atheist," he suddenly had no personal opinion and turned the question on her like a reticent therapist.

  

Wisdom Quarterly would retell the story of the Buddha's life just for Levine's benefit. But any child with a picture book and even Keanu Reeves can get the highlights right.
  

   
It is difficult to see how one can have a sense of the Buddha's teaching, the Dharma, without a basic understanding of what the historical Buddha went through to arrive at the breakthrough that gave rise to the dispensation and the mythological elements that got added.

• FULL INTERVIEW: Stephen Batchelor's Confessions of a Buddhist Atheist

Read More