Dependent Origination Chart

...just saying.

Green Tara

Somebody I follow on Twitter (12-Step Buddhist) is always mentioning "doing Green Tara." Though I knew it wasn't about tea, I couldn't get the image of him sipping green tea out of my head, so I looked it up...

Tara means "star," "planet," or "she who ferries across." She is a bodhisattva embodying compassion in the female form of a young goddess. She is often considered to be such an advanced bodhisattva that she is actually a Buddha.

Tara’s name is said to derive from the verb meaning "to cross" or "to traverse". In Pali the verb tarati means "to get to the other side." This word is cognate with the Latin "trans" (across). The word Tara also literally means "star."

Green Tara (Shyama Tara or Dark Tara) is seated on a white moon-disk. Her green complexion symbolizes the active function of the fully-enlightened being. The moon symbolizes her peacefulness. The moon is resting upon a lotus. The lotus symbolizes her freedom from any defilement, just as the lotus rises out of the mud of the swamp, but the blossom itself is pure and undefiled. In the same way, Green Tara arises in the world but is completely undefiled by the world.

[More here...]

Tibetan Sky Burial....

...and a committee of hungry vultures waiting nearby. This photo is from an amazing collection of pictures by Zhuang Xueben from Tibet in the 1930s. Discovered via (and I keep saying this) one of my favourite blogs, Heading East.

I would not mind being "buried" this way. Better than the commercial North American way.

For Tibet

Palden Lhamo (Skr. Shri Devi tib. dpal ldan lha mo)

Palden Lhamo is of the major protector deities in Tibetan Buddhism and the only female among the powerful group of the Eight Dharma Protectors (skr. Dharmapalas). She is particularly favored by the Gelukpa, for whom she is a special protector of Lhasa and the Dalai Lama.

She is known to appear at a mysterious lake, known as Lhamo Latso, about ninety miles southeast of Lhasa. This lake is renowned for revealing on its surface the reflections of the future.

[From: Nick Dudca's The Buddhist Art of Thangka.]

Subject: They're shooting monks in Burma

A petition from MoveOn to stop the violence in Burma. Please sign it and pass it on to others.
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Subject: They're shooting monks in Burma

Hi,
Have you seen the news? After decades of brutal dictatorship, the people of Burma are rising. In the past few days, hundreds of thousands of peaceful protesters, led by Buddhist monks, have flooded the streets of Rangoon. But yesterday, the military started shooting monks and journalists. This is a true emergency.

Avaaz.org and MoveOn.org have launched a petition demanding Burmese generals negotiate rather than crush the demonstrators. They're focused on getting United Nations Security Council members--particularly China's Hu Jintao--to intervene. Thousands of people from all over the world are adding their names every hour -- will you sign? Click here:

http://pol.moveon.org/burma/?r_by=-8619393-nyoPp1&rc=paste

Pass it on! Thanks!!

Good Morning Burma

Myanmar Forces Fire on Protesters: Further casualties were reported today as government security forces cracked down on protests for a second day, firing shots and tear gas.
-- The New York Times

Burmese Monasteries Raided: Forces intensify crackdown, dispersing demonstrations led by anti-government monks.
-- Washington Post

Some reports said the dead included monks, who are widely revered in Burma, and the emergence of such martyr figures could stoke public anger against the regime and escalate the violence.
--Toronto Star

Witnesses told the AP that five men were arrested and severely beaten Thursday after soldiers fired into a crowd near a bridge across the Pazundaung River on the east side of downtown Rangoon.
--AP

Soldiers fired automatic weapons into a crowd of anti-government protesters Thursday as tens of thousands defied the ruling military junta's crackdown with a 10th straight day of demonstrations.
--San Francisco Examiner

Up to 10,000 Burmese Buddhist monks and civilians have defied police tear gas and live bullets on the ninth day of protests against the military rulers.
--BBC

14 Questions the Buddha Would Not Answer

1. Are the self and the universe eternal?
2. Are the self and universe transient?
3. Are the self and the universe both eternal and transient?
4. Are the self and the universe neither eternal nor transient?
5. Do the self and the universe have a beginning?
6. Do the self and the universe have no beginning?
7. Do the self and the universe have both beginning and no beginning?
8. Do the self and the universe have neither beginning nor no beginning?
9. Does the Blessed One exist after death?
10. Does the Blessed One not exist after death?
11. Does the Blessed One both exist and not exist after death?
12. Does the Blessed One neither exist nor not exist after death?
13. Is the mind the same as the body?
14. Are the mind and body two separate entities?

It's said that the Buddha would not answer these questions because they were simply intellectual diversions and not concerned with the true knowledge that could end suffering and bring enlightenment.

The Buddha compared those who ask such questions to a man wounded by a poisoned arrow. Instead of allowing a doctor to remove the arrow, the injured man insists first on finding out the caste, name, and clan of the man who shot him. He wants to know if he's dark or fair, and whether he lives in a town, village, or city. The injured man is also obsessed with the weapon used to shoot him and must know if it was a longbow or a crossbow and what the bowstring was made of. What kind of wood was the arrow made of, the man asks, and what bird did the feathers come from which lined the shaft?

This comes from the book, The Universe in a Single Atom by the Dalai Lama. I was reading this book in the hospital while Wendy was in labour, almost one year ago now. Our doula, who was otherwise a very wise woman, saw that I was reading and suggested Wendy might be comforted by hearing me read to her from my book. After considering the text, which is filled with this kind of Buddhist philosophical pondering, I declined. With the baby slowly on its way, there was no amount of information in the world that would do much to help Wendy's suffering at that moment.

Medicine Buddha

This one goes out to my Mom, with all best wishes.

We love you!

A+W+A

Atta Kim

If I were in New York, and say my daughter was away at summer camp or something, I would go see this show of the photography of Atta Kim at the International Center of Photography.

An article in the New York Times says, "although Mr. Kim is careful to assert that he is not a practicing Buddhist, core Buddhist concepts shape the new work. One is the notion that change, or transience, is the only concrete reality, and that time as a quantifiable, linear entity is a mirage. All time and no time are the same. A couple making love for an hour is a cloud of luminosity."

(That's the picture at the top. I don't think the lower picture is included in this show, but it's cool anyway.)

(P.S. In case anyone wondered and can't tell from the picture, those are little plastic Buddhas surrounding the little boy on the shore. Just in case you wondered.)