07 October 2005

Song Upon the Northwind

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I am that Spirit of the Mountains – that one in the wind.
I race over remote summits, careen around craggy ridges,
and leap into a laughing, breakneck glide
down the snowy slopes.
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The climbing can turn heavy, arduous, fearful, and slow.
The weather becomes hostile, and night devours the light.
Sir Alpinist will master himself, slay the dragons of dark,
and traverse whole ranges ... yet still covet the Grail.
‘Tis now the time to break out of this cold bivouac, to defy
the Spirit of Gravity, and move on up to a higher realm.
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Upon the boldest heights, achieving a universe of dawn;
alone and wholly conscious, I am the breath of free motion.
Light in being, ecstatic, dancing, taking to wing and soaring;
I pause – as even winds sometimes do –
on this mountain’s very top;
and I turn my gaze, across the distances, to your summit,
which I’ve always wanted to ascend.
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-Ross Barlow. (1980s).

22 September 2005

Moon Risings & Phases

Below, I have provided links to find the times of Moon-rise or general info on phases. The Moon is an integral part of my aesthetic and religious life, and I want to share this info with anyone who might not be accustomed to watching her mysterious appearances and wanderings across the skies. She is elusive, ephemeral and shy. It is especially difficult to keep track of the Moon’s cycles if you are in a city with its lights and buildings. But you can often sneak a peek if you know when and where to look.
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For over three decades, I have tried to schedule my mountaineering trips and backyard bivouacs on Full Moon phases. (The week of First Quarter through Full is best.) The weather, however, is not so easily scheduled.
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For daily and weekly purposes, this is my primary site for Moon phases and for local weather: WeatherUnderground.
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http://www.wunderground.com
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Just plug in your zip code or city info. There is an astronomy option, which displays times of sunrise, Moon-rise, etc., plus dates of the four phases ahead. E.g., tonight will be clear in my area; the sun is setting at 7:15pm EDT, but the Moon will not rise until 9:04pm EDT. Therefore, if I am hiking to a bivouac after sundown, I should bring a flashlight, as the first couple of hours will be Moonless and dark. But the great Orb of the Night will rise thereafter. I will be sitting, facing east, in a front-row seat.
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Phases of the Moon tables (through 2010). U.S. Naval Observatory (USNO). These do not tell you the time of rise, but the exact time of phase. Make sure you scroll down to the correct year.
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http://aa.usno.navy.mil/data/docs/MoonPhase.html
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USNO Data Services. More astronomical info than I will ever need. Sunrise times, Moon-rise times, etc.
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http://aa.usno.navy.mil/data/
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The four phases of the Moon mark Buddhist observances. Gotama the ascetic became The Buddha under a Full Moon. Taoist and Ch’an imagery in poetry and painting is illuminated by the Moon. The ancient Chinese Mid-Autumn Festival is a Moon observance. Humanity has marked these celestial movements for millennia. I invite you to watch the Moon with me, even if your spot is far distant from mine. Enjoy.
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"Climb high. Watch Moon."
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-Zenwind.

01 September 2005

Pine Tree Wind

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"My old friend lives on East Mountain
Treasuring the beauty of the valleys and hills.
Spring now green, he lies in empty woods,
Still sound asleep under a midday sun.
A pine tree wind dusts his sleeves and coat,
Gurgling brooks clean his heart and ears.
No clamor, no confusion – all I want is
This life pillowed high in emerald mist."
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~ Li Po (Li Bai) Chinese Taoist poet, 8th century ~
~~"At Yuan Tan-Ch’iu’s Mountain Home"~~

Ryokan's Surprise

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"At night, deep in the mountains,
I sit in meditation.
The affairs of men never reach here:
Everything is quiet and empty,
All the incense has been swallowed up by the endless night.
My robe has become a garment of dew.
Unable to sleep I walk out into the woods-
Suddenly, above the highest peak, the full moon appears."
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~Ryokan (1758-1831) Japanese Zen mountain poet

19 August 2005

Shih-Te's Wanderings

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"Partial to pine cliffs and lonely trails,
This old man laughs at himself when he falters.
Even now after all these years,
Trusting the current like an unmoored boat."

~ Shih-Te ~ (Shide)
8th cen.? Chinese poet in Ch’an/Zen/Taoist style.
Friend of Han Shan

16 August 2005

The Buddha is NOT Hotei, the fat laughing monk

It is common to confuse two Buddhist figures who are, in fact, separate characters. The fat laughing monk with the pot belly, is NOT "The Buddha." That is, he is not the same as the founder of Buddhism, Gautama Buddha. Myth asserts that this fat monk, Hotei, will be reborn as the *next* Buddha, an immeasurably long time from now.
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The founder of Buddhism -- 2,500 years ago in India -- was Siddhartha Gautama of the Sakyans. *This* is the historical Buddha. He left a life of riches to be a starving ascetic monk in the forest for six years. He nearly died of undernourishment and realized that this was not fruitful for his quest, so he decided on a Middle Way between starvation and gluttony.
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He then sat in meditation and reached Awakening, thus becoming known as The Buddha, meaning "The Awakened One." He is often identified as the Sakyamuni Buddha ("sage of the Sakyan clan"), because legends say that there were several Buddhas eons before him and one to come in the far distant future.
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For the rest of his life, The Buddha ate just one meal a day. Statues of Gautama Buddha show a figure that is trim and not obese. The controlled smile is usually one of benevolence, equanimity, serenity and wisdom.
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The jolly pot-bellied monk is Hotei. (Japanese: Hotei. Chinese: Pu-Tai Ho-shang.) Hotei is said to have been a monk in a former birth. He is a bodhisattva and will be the next Buddha, named Maitreya, in the far distant future.
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A bodhisattva is a saint, primarily emphasized in Mahayana Buddhism, who has taken a vow to postpone his own entry into the bliss of Nirvana until he has helped ready *all* sentient beings in the world to enter with him. This will take *many* rebirths.
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So, Hotei was believed to be a "Pre-birth" of a future Buddha. He is now residing in a heavenly realm for an extremely long sojourn before someday, eons from now, being reborn as a human again and becoming Maitreya Buddha. As Maitreya, he will lead *all* beings to Awakening. So Hotei laughs, for he knows that all sentient beings will eventually enter the bliss of Nirvana with him.
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Theravada Buddhism, in Southeastern Asia, is more centered on Gautama Buddha and his teachings. The various traditions of Mahayana Buddhism in East Asia honor other Buddhas and bodhisattvas in addition to the historical Buddha, and this is the area where the traditions about Hotei are more widespread.
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Many people today confuse the two characters. Hotei would just laugh out loud about it. The Buddha would smile.
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-Zenwind.

10 August 2005

Beginner's Buddhism

I have been asked by a lot of people for an introduction to Buddhism for those not too familiar with it. Although I have been very much into Buddhism, especially Zen, for 35 years, I still consider myself a real tenderfoot in my understanding of it. But I will give a bare-bones sketch of the main traditions for anyone interested and then provide several links that may help in one’s own research.

A caveat. I am quite a skeptic about most things, so I take many things in Buddhism with a bucket of salt. Much in the traditions are, to me, mythology and unbelievable miracle stories. Beautiful mythology, to be sure, and mythology that is often capable of teaching profound truths. But belief in myths is not of primary importance in Buddhism. The Buddha said that many questions and doctrines "do not tend toward edification" and should, therefore, be put aside so that the important questions can be focused on. He was always looked at as a kind of physician that healed spiritual ills. He said:

"The non-doing of any evil
The performance of what is skillful
The cleansing of one’s own mind.
This is the teaching of the Awakened."
~(Dhammapada, 183)~

Buddhism is actually better thought of as a *family* of religions. Over the last 2,500 years, it has developed into a vast variety of loosely related systems. I will just briefly outline the three big divisions here.

*Theravada* (formerly called "Hinayana") is dominant in Thailand, Burma, Cambodia and Sri Lanka, and its name means "teaching of the elders." Its Pali canon of writings are some of the oldest of composed Buddhist texts. I have been attempting to study this a lot lately, because I am interested in early historical Buddhism as close as possible to the Buddha’s original teachings. My wife, Sudawon, is Thai, and she grew up in the Theravada tradition.

*Mahayana* is a wide tradition of sects that you find in China, Korea, Japan and Vietnam. It includes such different schools as Zen, Pure Land, and many others. Zen is the Buddhist tradition I first got acquainted with, and it defined my practice very early. (Zen is called Ch’an in China, where it originated, and it has some Taoist elements.)

*Vajrayana* (or Tibetan Buddhism) is the school you find in Tibet, Bhutan, and in the areas of Tibetan refugees. This school is very popular in the West and among celebrities. When the Dalai Lama makes a world tour, it is a big event. I do not know much about this tradition.

Some links:

http://accesstoinsight.org
Access to Insight. This site is one of the best for Theravada Buddhism. Click on "What is Theravada Buddhism" for a good intro.

http://www.buddhanet.net
This is BuddhaNet, a site that tries to cover it all, and does a very decent job. At upper left corner of page, find a link to "Buddhist Studies," then to "Basic Buddhist Guide." I have not personally explored this much, but the site has long been known for its integrity.

http://www.saigon.com/~anson
Buddha Sasana by Binh Anson is highly recommended and said to have good intro pages, but I have not explored this well.

http://www.lioncity.net/buddhism
This is E-Sangha. It is a huge, wide-open e-forum for people interested in Buddhism, and I have been spending a lot of time there, both asking and answering questions. Because it is a public forum, there is a lot of uneven quality of posting. Some are very helpful, some not. Try the forum there called "Beginners Buddhism," and look for useful topics among the many listed.

The book, *Buddha*, by Karen Armstrong is very good. (See my brief review of it below.)

Check out the movie, *Little Buddha* with Keanu Reeves as the Buddha. It has two story lines: one following the biography of the Buddha; and the other deals with a 20th century Vajrayana story, with beautiful footage of Bhutan and also of the temple (with the "eyes" on top) in Kathmandu, Nepal that is said to have been built by the daughter of King Asoka.

-Zenwind.

05 August 2005

*Buddha* by Karen Armstrong

I just finished reading *Buddha* by Karen Armstrong, and I really liked it.

From my limited knowledge of the scholarship of Buddhist history, I think Armstrong did a decent job of writing a book for the general public in 187 pages (a Penguin paperback) and still keeping a historian’s objectivity and covering many important topics. I was pleasantly surprised. It should do well informing curious Western readers about the founder of Buddhism, his historical context and his message.

-Zenwind.