Tricycle Talks: Buddhist Magic and Why We Shouldn’t Cast It Aside

 

Tricycle Talks: Buddhist Magic and Why We Shouldn’t Cast It Aside
With Sam van Schaik 

Divination, enchantment, and healing rituals have a long history in Buddhism—one that’s been largely dismissed and ignored. On the latest episode of Tricycle Talks, historian Sam van Schaik considers what we might learn by reexamining Buddhism’s supernatural heritage.

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Via Daily Dharma: Learn Who You Are

Learning to really notice what goes on in us and sensing who we are at a deeper level brings more space and possibility into our lives.

—David Rome, “Focusing” 

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Via Daily Dharma: The Importance of Joy

Joy creates a spaciousness in the mind that allows us to hold the suffering we experience inside us and around us without becoming overwhelmed, without collapsing into helplessness or despair.

—James Baraz, “Lighten Up!” 

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The Buddha. HD (English Subtitle)

Via Daily Dharma: Understand Your Mind

 Just understand your mind: how it works, how attachment and desire arise, how ignorance arises, where emotions come from. It is sufficient to know the nature of all that; just that gives so much happiness and peace.

—Lama Thubten Yeshe, “Chocolate Cake”

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Via Ram Dass - Love Serve Remember Foundation // Words of Wisdom - January 24, 2021 💌

 

 

I would say that the thrust of my life has been initially about getting free, and then realizing that my freedom is not independent of everybody else. Then I am arriving at that circle where one works on oneself as a gift to other people so that one doesn't create more suffering. I help people as a work on myself and I work on myself to help people.

- Ram Dass -

Is There Life After Death? moderated by John Cleese - 2018 Tom Tom Festival

Via Daily Dharma: Take Refuge in Flexibility

 The Buddhist Way invites us to take refuge in openness and in accepting that to do this we must transcend all rigid identities.

—Fabrice Midal, “Brief Teachings”

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Contrastes

Last night after a shocking series of bizarre and mean emails from my mother,  I was in a funk and upset and sad all day. ((How a 65+ year old man can be nonplussed by a mother is stuff for future postings... But I digress)). Then some rotten stuff from work, all of which set me off in a seriously non-Buddhist way. Ugh... Tests and dhukka!

 

So… when I zoomed into a meeting with folks in Guatemala, I was, to be quite honest, somewhat reticent... The last encuentros with Bahá’ís for me didn’t end well… 

 

I was so surprised last night. 

 

I felt a sense of refuge and well  a bit of “saudades” for the first time in years.

The remembrance service for Bob Porter sponsored by the Bahá'ís de Guatemala was simple, sweet, and lovely. People saying hello for maybe 15 minutes before… and Marcy was a joy! At one point there were over 100 folks from maybe 5 countries!

 

It was the first Bahá’í gathering I went to in over 2 decades. And it felt nice, it felt like home, people were sweet, and it was good to see some old friends. It bought back some good memories and adventures. The Porter family was great, KC even played a song, Kristy and Curt & Sonia shared sweet memories. All of us that are not there in Guatemala expressed our sense of, what we say in Portuguese “Saudades”. 

 

Me, in the early 1980's sporting a badass moustache with Amatu'l-Bahá Rúhíyyih Khánum in Guatemala City

 

What was magic for me, it was the first time in years that I could go to my prayer book and read without a block, a sense of loss, rancor…

So during the service, I dug out my Bahá'í books and found the above picture, which made me smile. Doña Marcy had me drive Khánum around Guate in their teeny tiny suzuki pickup!  

 

To say I miss Bahá’í sangha, the kind like last night, when folks were just pure love and light goes without saying. When I came back to the States, it was rough, I missed community and probably the adrenaline from serving there, my relationship with my son’s mother was upside down, grad school, coming to terms with my sexuality, my son, my work… and I had no community to stand on, to support me. In fact, the Bahá’ís sort of cast me adrift until they eventually threw me out for activism and well love. It took me years to trust anything spiritual, indeed even the thoughts of God and community. To that I am eternally grateful to the Sacramento Buddhist Meditation Group, who pulled me out of my anger hole and set me right.

 

So em fim, I will always be a BaBu = Bahá’í Buddhist, or the Bahá'ís might say, "a friend of the Faith". And will continue to wait on the sidelines for the day they will come to their senses re: inclusion and homophobia. 

 

Visualize a guy, at the Metta bus bus stop, patiently checking his dharma watch, over and over, and over: 

Breathe in. May all the Bahá’ís be happy. Breathe out.

Breathe in. May all the Bahá’ís be healthy. Breathe out.

Breathe in. May all the Bahá’ís be safe. Breathe out.

Breathe in. May all the Bahá’ís be at ease in all the Worlds! 

 

¡Gracias  Don Roberto y Muchas Gracias Team Porter! y un grande gracias a los Guatemaltecos, - may your sweetness, energy and love keep shining!

 

Life is good!

Via Daily Dharma: Go Outside

 Nature teaches us simplicity and contentment, because in its presence we realize we need very little to be happy.

—Mark Coleman, “A Breath of Fresh Air”

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Via Tumblr // Immoral and moral actions

 

Immoral and moral actions ~ Tai Situ Rinpoche  

https://justdharma.com/s/7st2u  

We have to overcome our defilements, and they are fueled by immorality. An action is defined as either "immoral" or "moral" depending on whether it feeds the defilements or not. If it does it is immoral and if it purifies and transforms them it is moral. Things do not become moral or immoral because rules have been made up for convenience. They become one or the other for this simple reason.  

– Tai Situ Rinpoche  from the book "Ground, Path and Fruition" ISBN: 978-1877294358  -  https://amzn.to/16Njb20  

Tai Situ Rinpoche on the web: https://www.palpung.org/  Tai Situ Rinpoche biography: https://www.palpung.org/english/taisitupa/biography.asp

Goodbye Donald Trump

Via Tricycle // Prosecutor, Dharma Teacher

 

Prosecutor, Dharma Teacher
Interview with Tuere Sala by Wendy Biddlecombe Agsar

 

For Tuere Sala, dharma teacher and prosecutor are complementary professions. She explains how practicing dharma has helped her hold the pain of both sides of a legal case.

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Via Daily Dharma: Set the Tone for Your Day

 Like music, intention can influence our mood, thoughts, and feelings—setting an intention in the morning we set the tone for the day.

—Thupten Jinpa, “Two Exercises for Turning Intention into Motivation”

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Katy Perry performs 'Firework' in Joe Biden - Kamala Harris Inauguration...

E.L.O (Electric Light Orchestra) All Over The World

Via Tricycle // Esoteric Theravada

Esoteric Theravada
Interview with Kate Crosby by Matthew Gindin

A new book uncovers a little-known esoteric tradition within Theravada Buddhism that aims to create an “enlightened body” through visionary experiences.

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Via Daily Dharma: Feed Your Contentment

When we meditate, we are training the mind to stop feeding a pain pattern.

—Ruth King, “Soothing the Hot Coals of Rage”

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Via Ram Dass - Love Serve Remember Foundation // Words of Wisdom - January 20, 2021 💌

 

I can do nothing for you but work on myself...you can do nothing for me but work on yourself!

- Ram Dass -