Neat Buddhism
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Neat Buddhism - What Can it Be?
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| Buddhist practices are not for Buddhists alone. |
The mind, when developed and cultivated, brings about happiness. [Anguttara Nikaya 1.30]The focus below is on Buddhist meditation (contemplation), which may be good for you. You may find answers to questions you have not begun to ask yet too.
Is Buddhism a Religion or a Philosophy?
It is a bit of both. It encompasses a kind way of life. It does not have to be just a philosophy at any rate, for it contains teachings of good development, of what should be fit for body and mind and so on. In many circumstances of daily living there is a place for a Buddhist view or two; they may be needed correctives. But even Buddhist views differ from one another, for there are very many schools of thinking in Buddhism too. What matters the most is to get a hold of practical affairs in a deep enough way to profit or get afloat.There is value in development of mind and body and one's surroundings. There can be many factors to take hold of for it. This may form part of your main Buddhist practice, but it is not only fit for or reserved for Buddhists. Far from it. Good teachings tend toward being general teachings – fit for many, that is.
There are many forms of contemplation (meditation) to enjoy. Some of the easy parts are fit for lay persons. Perhaps you have heard of the Satipatthana Vipassana approach to meditation - it should work well toward "observant insights". The method has most of its adherents in South East Asia. Yet there are good chances that you have not heard about all Buddhist methods of practice. There are very many of them, and some are only for insiders, initiates.
Maybe you have come across old sayings that "all" you have to do is meditate in a certain way, as prescribed, and that you do not have to believe anything. The guess is that this is not all you are called to do anyway. Well regulated, balancing meditation is to be integrated in your daily living and accommodations. The faith that is called for, is more like testing out hypotheses than getting rigid and dumb from sticking to hard-headed teachings without reserve. Proper skills ride above faith in these matters of boring into yourself.
By this it is indeed suggested that sound Buddhist practice calls for a certain kind of faith called shradda in Sanskrit and saddha in the Sanskrit-derived Pali language. The faith that Buddha calls for, is not blind faith but provisional. This suggests an amount of fair confidence on your part to try out aspects of Gautama Buddha's teachings (also called Dharma), and study whether and how far these teachings, when practiced adequately, can lead to the good, solid living and rewards you are told of. Buddha's fundamental teachings ought to be understood in a best way; it tends to be individual. [LINK]
Our saddha or trying-out of the best among the basic teachings had rather be cool – or scientific - that is, subject to on-going, critical evaluation of both the stances, teachings, and the quality of our practice and circumstances. For this we should need and develop discernment, bearing in mind that capacities are different.
Buddhistic progress teachings may in part fit an individual and psychodynamic approach. A standard counsel is to focus on what helps and fosters great development and get rid of nuisances on the way, such as really unwelcome qualities, or qualities that cannot serve goodness under the circumstances we are subjected to. They may differ, although some moral basics tend to be fixed, like roots in the soil.
Your path to Awakening is your own. You help yourself to your ability. Teachers help by speaking of things to do and avoid, but eventually you take responsibility, quite like "islands unto yourselves . . . seeking no external refuge" but the Dharma (law or teachings) from inside. Yes, Buddhism teaches there is an utter transcendence, and that Buddha's great teachings are rooted in That.
Some seem to awaken to insights. Insight is a word with several meanings and shades and degrees of meanings too:
- It can mean a flash or series of flashes of intuitive understandings;
- It can signify the mind's ability to witness clearly as events unfold here-and-now. Such observance may be termed a skill that good contemplation may help on and up. Seeing "with fresh eyes" is the platform of it. With practice, this skill can bring the meditator to the threshold of liberating insights. Learning to observe can be tackled and handled through study and training outside delving traditions too. Compare: [LINK]
- Then there is vipassana bhavana, or "Insight Meditation" which is based on an interpretation of old teachings ascribed to Buddha. [MORE]
If There Is no Self, Who Gets Enlightened?
Nowhere in the Pali canon does Buddha declare, without qualification, "There is no self." So you are free to think some thoughts of your own in the matter, if that is interesting to you. What matters is plumbing on, diving on, and going for a better life too, as time and conditions allow. It is part of a way of life that is rooted in one's own convictions, ideally. However, listen very carefully to what Buddha says: It is possible to get Enlightened, and many work hard for it, life after life, too.Who gets Enlightened in such a scenario? And what is Enlightenment supposed to mean? You get enlightened in time: Enlightenment is the great Awakening, the understanding or inward experiencing of much that can be like a closed book to an unenlightened mind.
God and Persons in Buddhism
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Sitting under a tree, during the night Siddhartha [Buddha-to-be] entered into progressively deeper meditative states. Thus he came to understand - By dawn next morning he had completely awakened and is from now on called "Buddha", which means the Awakened One.The old tale says Buddhism owes God a whole lot - up to all of Buddha's teachings, in fact. And without them, there would be no Buddhism as we know it today.
Buddha understood that his realization was too deep to be fathomed by most beings. But then the Brahma [the Creator] appeared before him and begged him to teach what he had learned for the benefit of those few beings who could understand and profit from his wisdom. Moved by compassion for all those caught up in the round of cyclic existence, Buddha agreed.
Shortly after the meeting with God the Creator and Buddha's granted committment, Buddha delivered his first public sermon in a Deer Park near Varanasi (Benares). In that lecture a core message is that it is highly important to follow a "middle way" and not indulge in extremes, including extreme asceticism. He also shows a beneficient way out of suffering, if it is adhered to comparatively all right.
[Retold from a chapter in Anthology of Scriptures of World Religions, by John Powers and James Fieser, published by McGraw-Hill Publications in 1997. On-line.]
Now, unknown to many in our times, for twelve hundred years in the long history of Buddhism in its homeland India, perhaps one third of the Buddhists believed there really is a pudgala, a Person Inside somehow. Two blending Buddhist schools of thinking are known for this outlook, they are the ancient Sammatiya and Vatsiputriya schools.
The Chinese pilgrim Hsüan-tsang described the Sammatiya school somewhere in the 600s AD as one of the four main Buddhist takes of that time. Further, reports of Chinese Buddhist pilgrims in the 600s AD tell there were a lot of followers along the Ganges valley. The school also flourished in Gujarat, in eastern India, and in Champa, which is central Vietnam in our times. A Tibetan account from the 1500s states that it still flourished up to the end of the 1000s AD.
The root of the teaching of the Inward Person, pudgala, is a saying where Buddha speaks of a "bundle" (components of a being) and of one "who carries the bundle". That is the textual foundation of the very old pudgala teachings, where the pudgala is is a conscious someone who exists and wanders from life to life while other parts of life do not. Thus your Inward "Soul" or spirit is said to transmigrate and live in intermediary realms between death and rebirth too. Still, you are free to believe as you wish in such doctrinal matters, as the Kalama Sutra explains: [LINK]
The Buddhist who adheres to the belief on an Inward Person, can hold on to the practical everyday notion that he is someone. Other Buddhist, who think differently, can have problems with justifying themselves and their thinking, and that is a serious matter. Leaving that issue for now, those Buddhists who believe there is Person within, have traditionally been called Pudgalavadins ("Teachers of the Pudgala"), or Vatsiputriyas. Pudgala teachings of Buddhism appear already in the 200s BC.
The ancient Sammatiya and Vatsiputriya schools were widely spread, and with several subschools. Sammatiya Buddhism holds that the enduring Person (pudgala) within is distinct from both the conditioned and the unconditioned. One may regard it as close to an individual who hosts a personality during a life. Such an Inward Person is said to be greater than the sum of the parts that make up the organism. This view resembles the theory of Atman in Brahmanistic Hinduism, that is, of an ultimate Self. Sammatiyas maintained that a person (pudgala) is basically an Essence.
The faith that an inmost Essence transmigrates is surely easier to accommodate one's thinking to than the stale "there is no Self, but reincarnation is a fact, and many are headed for Enlightenment." Hence there may be room for God in Buddhist thinking too. [Ebu, "Sammatiya"; "Buddhism"]
Many Buddhists today are not aware of the Deep Person teachings in Buddhism. But look at it in the light of some citations:
Teachings of Padma Sambhava (Guru Rinpoche)
The One cannot really be well described [cf. Lik 225]There is no need to fall under the sway of Ignorance [cf. Lik 224]. (4)
One-pointedness is a mental concept. "Existence and non-existence" are also concepts of the mind [cf. Lik 234]. (5)
The Quintessential Deep Mind is at-one with all deep minds [cf. Lik 212]. (6)
One mind embraces the whole Sangsara and Nirvana eternally, ever clear, radiant and not visible [cf. Lik 203]. (7)
[MORE]
Teachings of Walter Y. Evans-Wentz
By attention turned on itself, the mind may eventually be retained within the Hridaya [the central source, "inner heart"] [cf. Lik 230n]Enlightened mind consists of homogenous Sangsara in the present [cf. Lik 222n].
One is to attain right understanding of mind by stilling of the mundane mind [cf. Lik 214n].
The Great Universe symbolizes Brahman [cf. Lik 230n].
"Mind-chains", "mind-associations", meaning "association of ideas", can change world-conceptions [cf. Lik 231, 231n]. ¤
Unsound beliefs and practices result in increased bondage - W. Y. E.-W. [Lik 205-6n]
What Plato has called the realm of Ideas, Mahayanists call the One Mind, the homogeneous at-one-ment [also called the Primordial Essence]. - W. Y. E.-W. [cf. Lik 216n]. (6)
Normally, the body has to be disciplined for Thatness [Primordial Essence] to be attained or realised - through transcending much and common thinking [cf. Lik 236n]. (7)
Hence, one can "turn homogenous" against many unverified, current beliefs around.
Some More Documentation
You are not required to spend thoughts on subtle things and concepts of nirvana and the hidden depth of the world. Yet, some ideas make far more sense than others, and in Buddhism too there are or have been competing ideas at times - and many shared ideas as well. If you live under the sway of not knowing anything about them, you should try out the gist of Mahayana teachings, instead of speculating. That is, adhere to good, solid teachings that make you proficient. You can probably live with some uncertainty. Besides, thoughts are hardly able to describe what is beyond ordinary thinking. Bad ideas can mar a life though, so the value of proficient thinking - up to some levels - is great too. But within its limits. And little good may come out of doctrinal dispute. Yet many things about the Way, the End of the Way, and your inner aspects need to be told of, and as fairly and frankly as can well be.Watch out for what can develop the mind and health and assist in good conditions for you too. Hence, "Dogen teaches us that Buddhism is just to practice Zazen, and to practice Zazen is Buddhism," says Reverend Gudo Nishijima of Dogen's line. Zazen is Zen sitting, that is sitting, or lying and walking in alert contemplation. Sitting should be preferred to the alternatives, when there is a good choice. [MORE]
The Dogen quotation can be seen in the light of a neat saying by Adi Shankara: "Study of the scriptures is fruitless as long as Brahman [God] has not been experienced. And when Brahman has been experienced, it is useless to read the scriptures." Useless, but not unwelcome, one may add. And the results may at times assist others on the Way. [LINK]
Compare Shankaracharya Brahmananda: "Spiritual teachings . . . cannot throw light on the inner Self, for the Self is Light." [MORE]
To read a little for upliftment should be done, then. Dogen holds that as good too. There is no question that deep study of the best works may bring benefits. But it is easy to get confused: Buddhism has, as you may well understand, many, many schools and sects. Their understanding of very central terms and conceps differ too. For example, in the influential Buddhist work The Heart Sutra, the pivoting term sunyata is commonly translated as 'emptiness'. But it does not have to be that way. In fact, it is not the only understanding of the term "void" in Buddhism:
"Many people are afraid to empty their minds lest they should plunge into the Void. They do not know that their own mind [contains] the Void." [With Huang-po]
Also, according to Dr. Daizetz T. Suzuki (1870-1966), the total self-identity of "I am I" is the state of non-time and is equivalent to the emptiness of Buddhist philosophy.
Reverend Gudo Nishijima of Dogen's Soto Zen line informs that Eihei Dogen [1200-53] says things similar to it:
He denies that sunyata (emptiness), is "nothingness, non-existence, or non-reality." "Sunyata is not non-existence." In Master Dogen's teaching sunyata is not the denial of real existence - it expresses the absence of anything other than real existence." [See Szi, Chapter "Bussho"] [MORE]So you see that "heavy-weight" champions of Buddhism teach that the Void (sunyata) is not really void, and besides, there is one that experiences or perceives the void to talk of it later too. One should not overlook the obvious.
Ancient, fortnightly Call for Purity among Monks
"Let the reverend brethren announce their purity: Whoever have incurred a fault, let him declare it. If no fault have been incurred, it is meet to keep silence. It is by your silence that I shall know whether you are a fault. If there be one, it should be declared by the monk who remembers it and desires to be cleansed from it.I question you, venerable Sirs, "Are you pure in this matter?"
A second time I question you, "Are you pure in this matter?"
A third time I question you, "Are you pure in this matter?"
The venerable ones are pure in it; therefore they keep silence. [Vt 1-2, abridged]
Comment
First, it should perhaps be repeated that no one has to become a Buddhist to practice Buddhist meditation, and it is correct (enough) meditation that should be the main focus and effort, according to Buddha. Second, you do not have to become a monk to be a good Buddhist. What is needed is to be yourself, and become a good yourself too. That is what is needed. The focus of inner development, the moral and social practices that go along with it, and the proper perspective toward yourself and your own best interests, have to be taken into account after being perceived. Then go for keeping them alive in your living. You may have perceived that the Faith has been kept alive by many monks and nuns. So it is reasonable to say they do good turns according to that. But the monk's and nun's lifestyle is not required, tells Buddhism, which has been adapted for lay persons too, and by Buddha. The following relates to the ancient fare of monks, and is a comment to the call for purity (above):There is a time to speak and a time to be silent. [British proverb, Dp 218]According to ancient Indian customs that were widespread, monks gathered every fortnight to confess routinely and receive due punishments, including expulsion from the Order, all set to operate by "Hope of gain lessens pain [Ap 369]" in a wide perspective somehow. One can be reasonably sure that Buddha himself came to lay down rules for monastics, and the knowledge of these traditions was held in high esteem, Davids and Oldenberg document [Vt xviii-xx].
The leader of such nightly gatherings had to assume that those who did not confess, were all right, in accord with one side of "Wise men silent, fools talk [Dp 94]".
A source of error is right there, granted that keeping silence could pay off for culprits on the mundane level, or seemlingly, according to such as "Silence does seldom harm [Dp 218]," or "Silence is often the key to success. [Ap 346]". If so, it should be good to "Beware of a silent man and still water [Dp 218]."
Dealing with doubts may set in. What matters is how to operate them. "When in doubt, win the trick [Edmund Hoyle]." For "Silence is not always a sign of wisdom . . . [Ap 33, partial]". In fortnightly gatherings, it should work fine to play by the rules agreed on from the onset, for to stay by one's word is commendable.
Otherwise there is such a thing as privacy, where it is indispensable to be able too decide who to confide in or confess to, what to tell, and how to tell it. So "It is none of your business" is an apt response to some nosy or claiming ones in some settings, but not during a monastic gathering of routine confessions. Buddhist monks and nuns that have agreed to live up to something other than "A human learns how. . . to keep silent late [Ap 317, abr]" and "Secret guilt by silence is betrayed [Ap 270]," are said to benefit from confessing guilts and crimes to all that were gathered.
Another source of error can be found in the hint "Who suffers much is silent [Dp 229]".
In other settings it could be good to stay by something like "Be silent or speak something worth hearing [Ap 290]", or even "If the defendant is silent the jury will think him guilty [Ap 342]". Or why not the Chinese "Silence is of the gods [Dp 217]"? Such majestic proverbs hint at aspects of the "art" of keeping silent.
One is supposed to do some soul-searching. A fortnightly menal review could serve the layperson so long as he or she brings into focus the direction of his or her life and seeks to feel into what seems involved. After such a blessing to one's future trend, it is not impossible that "A fair exterior is a silent recommendation. [Ap 189]", or that "A fool seems like other men as long as he is silent [Ap 220, mod]". Both scenarios seem possible, and many others too. Mind that if you do not enter a convent - most do not - being taciturn may be good for you, quite as Rosalind Fergusson says "One should keep silent when necessary [Dp 217]."
If you enter a convent or New Age community, being taciturn should serve you well too, outside the times for confession. You are not invited to amass or heap problems on yourself. If you still have sexual instincts - many monks and nuns do have them - you should feel free either to drop becoming a monastic, or find a convent where sex is duly appreciated, held in regard as shown in written rules that do not ban sexual activity by legal means.
Now Vajrayana Buddhism recognises there is polarity and how to resolve at least some of it by symbols of sexuality (yab-yum). In Buddhist art of India, Nepal, and Tibet, Yam-yum (Tibetan: "father-mother") shows the male deity in sexual embrace with his female consort, showing a fusion of method or force (female) and wisdom (maleness). In Mahayana Buddhism it became possible to present supreme buddhahood as the union of a male and female pair. In certain Buddhist circles, female divinities were represented by women partners in a special kind of sexual yoga. An actual sexual ritual was certainly performed. The use of sexual union as a symbol of mystical union evolved from Indian Tantric thought, and is basically not intended for general use but for those who have received proper instruction.
There are many Tantric treatises. One of them puts a manifestation of the Buddha Akshobhya in the centre of the universe; he is embracing his consort Visvamatri (Mother of All, Mother of the Universe). Buddhist Tantras are traced to the 600s or earlier, says Encyclopaedia Britannica. [Ebu "Tantra", "yab-yum" etc].
In conclusion, finding a setting that suits you could work well.
Music on TV and Otherwise
You are supposed to do what is beneficial to you. Modulate elements (bits) of your lifestyle accordingly. As in the Church, Buddhists hold an array of different views and practices about music too - what forms could be beneficial, to whom, and what are not. You have to judge yourself.In a Theravada Buddhist order the novice too is required to abstain from dancing, singing, music, and seeing spectacles; from garlands, scents, unguents, ornaments, high beds; and accepting gold or silver. These words from a swami-order allied monk come to mind: "The life of a monk is not easy." It was so made.
Those who make a living by theatres and empty shows may not like you for living up to such counsel. But a householder too is told to refrain from "dancing, singing, sleeping by day, sauntering at unseemly hours, evil companions, avarice", for these are among the causes of ruin to a man, says Buddha. Add "watching soap series and much output from the worsening entertainment industry on TV" as you please.
"Does It Matter?"
There are some things in life that may call for an "indifferent" stance: For example, in Christian theology, the opinion that certain doctrines or practices in morals or religion are matters of indifference; they are neither commanded nor forbidden in the Book. Accordingly, in the "midfield" between teachings and practices you say 'yes' and 'no' to, there may be a large group of ideas and practices. And some of them could be good for you. For example, Bernard Russell does not find one word in the Bible in praise of intelligence - let it be his problem. You, on the other hand, should use your talents for gain. That is the biblical teachings. It is illustrated in the parable of a servant who did not make his talents become fruitful - that was not good for him. Your good sides include more than wit, intelligence, humor and other facets of life that some mystics "doctrinate" about without full understanding. One should at times rise to see that it may be their fault. Besides, conditions long ago may differ in some important ways from conditions now. And who will tell what the future is going to be?Buddha teaches that each persons if basically free to try out what is for their good and stick to it. Patent efforts lie in that. Those who try out things that are not good for them, may become base or dead, so it is best to go for those things that work well - and in the long run too, hopefully. It is like the Epicurean philosophy, that the valuable thing is to last, by considerate living that keeps joy of life and filters out what is not good enough. Go for it; Buddha teaches just that thing in his Kalama Sutta, a landmark teaching from about 2500 years ago. We will not counsel anyone to try out things that work for his or her harm, and not believe blindly and blindingly in what is handed over by any tradition either.
A balance needs to be struck. Then you can adjust by the best from the old and the probably best from the new as fits. It may not be easy even though you eke out fine principles for the work. Buddha further teaches that faith in his teachings is fit. That teaching is for his followers, after all. However, there are very, very many words put in the mouth of Buddha in Buddhist scriptures. He could not have found the time to speak all of them, it has been pointed out. This should make you treat Buddhist texts and alleged words of Buddha with some caution too. In other words, your trust in Buddha words and Buddhist practices needs your discernment too.
Blind faith is not all, and blind faith may be stupid, which is bad. Buddha advocates, instead, fit and firm practice, and that you avoid the company of fools. Those with blind, harmful, and endangering faith in something are called fools to avoid and not adjust to. That is the basic idea.
Now as for what is not regulated by scriptures - ask which scriptures - you are advocated to inspect very well before testing things yourself. Study what good folks will tell you, for good study helps, like information beforehand. Those who built Titanic did not have all the needed information when they felt cocksure that the ship could not sink. Just accept very gently with yourself that there are many things you do not know of - add 'yet' if you like - and always try to keep a little 'room' or space in your mind for the yet undiscovered, not reckoned with - or "something unexpected". That could help you too, also in designing your dream home. Find space for a little more space than you think you will need for the next few decades, and you may eventually live happier and save yourself much rebuilding effort and money. Many fall short in just that. The teaching of making more room for something yet underestimated, undervalued, or unfound, or novelties in life, can be good for you.
To sum up parts of the accommodation strategy: "If it matters for good, you may do it. If it matters in that you or somebody else risk anything of value, refrain." This attitude is akin to an educational standard you set up to help your little children by: "Don't do it if it harms yourself, happy and fair others, and proper things of value." The question in the heading should serve as a help to behaving properly, but not always adequately. There is more that goes into life than prohibitions and punishments. One does well to encourage positive outlets and truths, and a little leeway, and some open room for the little extras as they come. Those things matter too. What is agreed on and allowed also plays a great part in life.
You could come to wonder if singing while taking a shower is OK, or doing some quick dance steps in your kitchen. The question is "Does it matter?" If it does not matter, it should not be much dangerous. So one needed, extra question for the discerning lay person is "Does it matter?" It matters to adhere to the spirit of Buddha's teachings, and maybe not always to all the letter of what has been handed over. Not if that letter is questionable in the first place, is hashed over, and wont to kills good and higher outlets of our nature.
Temple Dancing in Buddhism
That leads us into belly dance and similar outlets. Most things may be more complicated than what meets the eye of the beginner. The setting has to follow suit too. For example, moving your body by belly dancing or other outlets could be very, very good for you. But if the setting drags you down, you had better refrain. It is the same with tanning without bikini on. In your private garden it could be fit, and in some other settings too. It depends also on what or who you honour by letting your breasts into the open. The teaching is: It should help to consider, and as long as you are not a corpse in mind, you have a say yourself. Let it be a pretty valuable and welcome say, then.Temple dancing is OK in India, at any rate, as a great art. And the apostle Paul says the body is the real temple, just as the proverb tries to get through: "A temple of bones [a living, OK body and soul] is better than a temple of stones]." Dancing is a very ancient activity and one of the primal arts. Bees dance too. Dancing is the centre of all religious festivals in Bhutan and is used to depict the tales and legends of Buddhist history and mythology. In Korea, Buddhist monks danced, sang, and performed rituals. There is dancing in Japanese ceremonies too. There is also dancing and singing on the major Buddhist festival, All Souls Day, in China and Japan. And in the largest sect of Buddhism in Japan, music, dance, and drama are been important forms of expression. But Buddha teaches that his close followers (they are monks and nuns) instead value self-effort along his Way. [Ebu "bharata-natya" [MORE FOR HOUSEHOLDERS]
What Is Your Long-term Burden or Privilege instead of Modern Following?
What will you choose? "Does it matter?" It seems that a host of Buddhists throughout history concluded that dancing does matter, and for good, probably. Not all of them, but many. You may co-decide your Way, if you do not find one all by yourself, and what outlets benefit you at first, in the "midfield" area, and in the long run. Good things and teachings are excellent in the beginning, in the middle, and in the end, says Buddha. It is valuable counsel.A Buddhist council was held at Vaishali (in the Bihar state) a little more than a century after Buddha's death. It was called to settle a dispute about the relaxed rules of discipline followed by the monks of Vaishali. What became a matter of dispute was the storing of salt, among other things. Disagreements led to the first schism of ancient Buddhism, and the "mahasangha, "great order of monks" and the Theravadins split up. The Great Order spread to southern India too. Its texts were written in Prakrit. The school was a precursor of Mahayana ("Greater Vehicle") Buddhism, widely adhered to in China, Korea, Japan, and Tibet as in its Indian "home culture".
Mahayana Buddhism emerged in about the first century AD from the ancient Buddhist schools as a more liberal and innovative interpretation of the Buddha's teachings, while the Buddhist conservatives or today are known as Theravadins of Sri Lanka, Burma, Thailand, Laos, and Cambodia. In Japan, Mahayana Buddhism has a significant modern following in Zen Buddhism, Nichiren Buddhism, and Tendai.
The Mahayana scriptures were composed mainly in Sanskrit. Where original Sanskrit versions seem to be lost, there are translations of some of them, for example in Tibetan and Chinese.
Buddhism and Balalaikas
Can you play the Russian instrument called balalaika? It is of the lute family, and its three strings are plucked with the fingers. Hindu goddesses may or may not be represented as playing on vinas. A vina is a stringed instrument too. One version of it has two resonating gourds. One gourd rests on the left shoulder and the other gourd restson the right knee or hip. Another version of the vina is a lute with a long neck.Can you, as a Buddhist, play the balalaika? Most Buddhist probably cannot, technically speaking. Are they allowed to do it? Well . . . Playing the balalaika or other musical instruments is not included in the Buddhist rules for householders - it is attending vain, pompous or macabre shows and performances that a parent has a right to think and say "think twice" to, as long as the youngsters and lobsters in his or her charge, are inexperienced and may be abused in several ways. Some hurts are subtle. Some harm is subtle, and experience is a costly teacher, maybe too expensive. One should mind the sincere efforts of elders to protect and care for tender lobsters and other young ones. Yes, one should mind the sincere efforts of elders to protect and care for young ones, and progress along such a vein as Buddha lays bare in the Kalama Sutta, where he says such as:
- Do not believe something just because it has been passed along and retold for many generations.
- Do not believe something just because it is cited in a text.
- Do not be led by preconceived ideas.
- When you yourselves directly know, "This is [these things are] unwholesome, this is blameworthy, this is condemned or censured by the wise, these things when accepted and practised lead to poverty and harm and suffering," then you should give them up.
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| Aiming for wealth. |
These things are relevant to consider - even at length - in a Buddhist life - in any life:
- What Buddha says in the most authoritative suttas (discourses). Due to what was involved in the traditional handing-over, allow yourself some leeway by adhering well to what gist you find attractive and are grateful for at least - for example, "Let us rise up and be thankful, for if we didn't learn a lot today, at least we learned a little, and if we didn't learn a little, at least we didn't get sick, and if we got sick, at least we didn't die; so, let us all be thankful. [Buddha]"
- Yourself, your own, ongoing life. Being a good Buddhist is being yourself well enough. Buddha is credited with saying something vitally important: "You can search throughout the entire universe for someone who is more deserving of your love and affection than you are yourself, and that person will not be found: You yourself, as much as anybody in the entire universe deserve your love and affection. [Buddha]"
- A fit tradition to conform to. It is not one of duping. The congenial fellowship is included, and the good books of it. Buddha warns you here too: "Do not believe something merely because it has become a traditional practice — Do not believe something solely on the grounds of logical reasoning — Do not believe something merely because it accords with your philosophy — Do not believe something, thinking, "This is what our teacher says"." Assess such things, Buddha says in the Kalama Sutta (linke above). You should not overlook your own culture, but try to get the best out of it before it is too late. Buddha himself illustrates the way to deal with conformity and a wide array of teachings. The best is many a time what you can stay with, having a heart (compassion is included).
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Literature
Ap: Mieder, Wolfgang (main ed.), Stewart A. Kingsbury, and Kelsie E. Harder: A Dictionary of American Proverbs. (Paperback) New York: Oxford University Press, 1996.
Ebu: Encyclopaedia Britannica. Encyclopaedia Britannica 2008 Ultimate Reference Suite DVD. London: Encyclopaedia Britannica, 2008.
Dog: Masunaga, Reiho tr: A Primer of Soto Zen. A Translation of Dogen's Shobogenzo Zuimonki. University Press. Honolulu, 1975.
Dp: Fergusson, Rosalind. The Penguin Dictionary of Proverbs. Harmondsworth: Penguin, 1983.
Lik: Evans-Wentz, Walter Yeeling, ed. The Tibetan Book of the Great Liberation or the Method of Realizing Nirvana through Knowing the Mind. London: Oxford University Press, 1968.
Paz: Fromm, Erich: Psychoanalysis and Zen Buddhism. Unwin. London, 1986
Prz: Chang, Garma: The Practice of Zen. Perennial/Harper. New York, 1970.
Shz: Cleary, Thomas, tr.: Shobogenzo: Zen Essays by Dogen. University of Hawaii Press. Honolulu, 1986
Szd: Nishijima, Gudo Wafo and Cross, Chodo, trs.: Master Dogen's Shobogenzo. Book 1. Woking, Surrey (UK), 1994.
Szi: Nishijima, Gudo Wafo and Cross, Chodo, trs.: Master Dogen's Shobogenzo. Book 2. Windbell Publications. London, 1996.
Szm: Nishijima, Gudo Wafo and Cross, Chodo, trs.: Master Dogen's Shobogenzo. Book 3. Windbell Publications. London, 1997.
Szp: Nishijima, Gudo Wafo and Cross, Chodo, trs.: Master Dogen's Shobogenzo. Book 4. Windbell Publications. London, 1999.
Vt: Vinaya Texts. Trs T. W. Rhys Davids and Hermann Oldenberg. Vol. I: The Patimokkha. The Mahavagga I-IV. Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1881. On-line. www.sacred-texts.com/bud/sbe13/index.htm
Zeb: Suzuki, Shunryu: Zen Mind, Beginner's Mind. Weatherhill. New York, 1971.
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