The Heart of Mahayana Buddhism

"To say that you don't know, is the beginning of knowing."   
-- a Chinese proverb


Cultivating the Mind of Love is one of many titles written by Vietnamese Buddhist monk and teacher, Thich Nhat Hanh. Many think many things about practices originating from the East, some are interpreted accurately and some less so. Hanh makes it his endeavor to bring what he calls "engaged Buddhism" to the west. A prolific scholar-translator, writer and teacher, Hanh writes many things in his book. He wants above all to give instruction about Mahayana Buddhism.

Reminding readers that 'the raft is not the shore... we see many waves.... the wave is, at the same time, water..." Hanh continues with his teaching: "The first aspect of Buddhist meditation is samatha (stopping and calming), and the second is vipasyana (insight, looking deeply). If we study Mahayana Buddhism, we will see that vipasyana, looking deeply, is very much at its heart...'

' Its attitude of openness, non-attachment from views, and playfulness serves well as a dharma door to enter the realm of Mahayana Buddhism, helping us to see clearly that all the seeds of Mahayana thought and practice were already present in the early teachings of the Buddha."

The Cross: Jesus the Christ in China*

Chinese author, scholar and sometimes dissident, Liao Yiwu, writes in Chinese about a topic of wide concern today, the growing interest in faith-based living in modern China. His book, God Is Red, gives a fascinating overview of the growth of faith in that land despite, and possibly because of, Communism as practiced there.
He asserts that several generations now, people have been living under enforced a-theism. Religion, especially all organized religion of any time is banned, forbidden and punished for the past 60 years, since the Communist Party came to power in 1950. With the help of a competent translator, his book is now available for readers in the English language, the most widely read language on the planet.

Now with this translation and other books also translated into English, Liao Yiwu is available to the many who read English, even though many of his books are banned in his native China. He writes that interestingly, it may be Communism itself which sparked and inspired the move towards religious practice after a generation of believers was forced into submission by the central government.
By creating an enormous void, today those young, new minds are like one big, blank slate, ready to absorb what has been lacking for a half century. Simple, intellectual patriotism is no substitution for spiritual awareness or practice.
Christianity, for one, has been present within the "middle kingdom" since the 10th century CE or earlier, brought there by early Catholic and Orthodox missionaries.

While he concerns himself principally with the growth of Christianity in modern China, he mentions the parallels existing with indigenous faiths and a bit about the Silk road which brought many ideas into ancient China. Meeting a number of persons practicing their faith in what are called "house churches" Liao Yiwu traces their development and their increase within Chinese society.
He writes a number of short stories and life accounts of those who have chosen to take the 'Way of the Cross'. The account reminds one of the early church fathers who were savagely persecuted by the non-believing Romans.

The author names several other English language books and a film, The Cross: Jesus in China. Other book titles are included in his book, such as: China From the Bottom Up; The History of Christianity in Dali; the writings of poetess Liu Shengshi; The Secret Visit by Xu Yonghai; Redeemed by Fire: The Rise of Popular Christianity in Modern China by Lian Xi.

*The Cross: Jesus in China
For more, follow this link:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p3zK5nVyMN4

Democracy, Communism and Fascism

"The social aspirations of man cannot attain full originality and full value, except in a society which respects man's personal integrity." --Building the Earth by Teilhard de Chardin

Returning to the topic of religion and politics, we turn to the modernist ideas of democracy, communism and fascism. For those who doubt that religion, or even less spirituality, has a place with politics, permit here a simple enumeration: from the earliest religious history, politics demonstrates its part in the religious and spiritual milieu of mankind. As was common in the ancient world, the king or ruler of a tribe or nation had the "divine right" to determine, institute and force religious beliefs upon a population. They did this often, enforcing a state religion.

The Greeks and Romans, along with other Orientals, formed religions and spiritualities which predictably led to establishment of moralities for any of these given cultural groups. This practice continues with the moderns (1200-1800 in the common era), who as Kings and emperors forced their judeo-christian beliefs upon the population; indeed their kingship made them the heads of those faiths. In other words, the king was the state-church, so the church was represented in the body of the king.

It was this against which Machiavelli protested.

The Khalifs of the mid-east, Africa and other places arose to form what is now called Islam. They ruled in places by persuasion and by force; the United States of America was formed in part to protest against the state religion which during the colonial period was constituted by the King of England (King George III and others); today in the 20 and 21st centuries, there have been and will likely continue, governments which attempt to control, even police the population through forced religion.

Indeed we learn of places around the globe where Islam is practiced by regimes in an oppressive manner; the 14th Dalai Lama has been forced from his native Tibet into exile through religious actions taken against the Buddhists whom he leads. It seems the Chinese government wishes to direct and control his faith and others as well. Then there are the Sikhs in India, in opposition to the Hindus. They have, like many others, sought their own lands to live and practice their faith freely. The Jewish faith cannot be overlooked. It is in the arbitrary political formation of the modern state of Israel which has cast conflict upon previously settled territories.

And just now, today, in the United States the cry goes out for the practice of religion, freely or even not at all. The civil religion of the State wishes to suppose that it can most easily supplant the free will of the people and their freely chosen faiths for a legislated, legalistic spirituality and belief system. Today we are mired in conflict regarding forced participation in health care initiatives. The legislation which possibly thwarts the US Constitution, has made its way to the US Supreme court, the highest and final authority, asking to determine if Americans can and do have the liberty to practice their faith freely and the resulting morality they derive from it.

Many in this nation believe that government is dictating their moral stance in regard to health care. Many Americans who do not follow the state instituted Civil Religion represented in the law wish to practice a faith of their own free will and to determine what, if anything this should be; that the civil religion of the American state not be forced upon them.

It is these ideas and others, as such contained within democracy, communism and fascism against which many struggle from the bounds of religion and government.

What About the Soul?

"Humankind are creatures in which spirit and material meet together and are unified in a single whole."-- Ratzinger

The word soul conjures for most things like: immutable, essence, animating, spiritual; also leader, fervor, exemplification or personification. Some say there is no such thing while others say it is as the wind--known by feeling, not by sight.
and while a majority of the world's people may admit themselves to the notion of an afterlife or an idea of reincarnation, what about the soul?

In the west, the soul is given often as a separate entity from the body. However within some of the great religions (great in terms of world wide adherence), be it Judeo-Christian, Muslim or Zoroastrian, some forms of Buddhism and Hinduism and others, there not only is a well developed sense of reincarnation but also of the corresponding soul, which ascends.

In recent times there is increasingly talk about a soul but a clear confusion, even avoidance of what it means. It seems more frequent that people wish to talk around it whenever possible. Ratzinger writes: Some Christian denominations try to persuade that it is actually a Pagan conception and somehow not within the Christian realm. This thinking is indeed at odds with the basics of Christian thought for it involves the splitting of the body from its spirit; in this way there cannot be unity for all manifestations of creation joined with the Creator for which we may take part.  Paraphrased

While the concept of the soul may be present in many, many cultures, within the Christian tradition, it is a part of faith, a part of the way of the Christ. He who has come into the world, has come both in a body and a spirit so that we may know the Creator and our part in the creation. Humankind are creatures in which spirit and material meet together and are unified in a single whole.

And if we are to set aside the notion of soul as some would do, then the body is alone, robbed of its dignity and without exaltation as both a creator and the product of Creation itself. It bears no part in the Creation of the world.
Many times people have fallen to speculation that a body has indeed fallen from its spirit, that the spirit roams about unattached. Indeed in Chinese folklore, for example, these spirits are often referred to as hungry ghosts who roam about looking to attach them self to matter. Many times as a result, the living are abhorrent to enter a cemetery for fear of possible entrapment by these spirits. And for those who say the disembodied soul is an absurdity, perhaps they have not understood the teachings on the matter of faith, as it were.

In at least the Christian tradition, the people of the Lord are known as the Body of the Christ; within this body there is the one Lord, whole and unified.  They are the people of the Christ; believers who cannot be lost as spirits, for theirs is contained within the greater body of this Christ!

Seeing Me, Seeing the Way

"Whether you can see the Buddha or not depends on you, on the state of your being." --Thich Nhat Hanh

Writing in Living Buddha, Living Christ Buddhist monk and teacher Thich Nhat Hanh recalls the adage that says "to encounter a true master is said to be worth a century of studying" of reading, of writing. Because in such a person we encounter a witness, "a living example of enlightenment. How can we encounter Jesus or the Buddha? It depends upon us." Many have looked squarely into the eyes of a Jesus or a Buddha and not seen anything, were not at the moment capable of the experience to see anything. Blessed Mother Teresa of Calcutta founded her works of mercy and charity upon this very point.

She served the poorest of the poor; of her faith-filled conviction, that in touching the broken bodies of the poor, she was touching the body of Christ; it was for Jesus himself, hidden under the distressing disguise of the poorest of the poor. Recognizing the Christ in everyone, she ministered with wholehearted devotion, expressing the delicacy of her love. Thus, in a total gift of herself to God and neighbor,

Mother Teresa found her greatest fulfillment. She wanted to remind all of the value and dignity of each of God's children; thus was Mother Teresa, as she said, "bringing souls to God, and God to souls," always remembering holiness of all; her ministry was devoted to seeing, to seeing the Way.

In another story Thich Nhat Hanh recounts that there once was a man in such a hurry to see the Buddha that he neglected a woman in dire need whom he encountered along the way. Arriving at the Buddha's monastery, he saw nothing. This tale repeats in the world many times since.

Says Thich Nhat Hanh, " whether you can see the Buddha or not depends upon you, on the state of your being." "I am understanding, I am love." It is not enough to simply feel love, to simply think about love. We, who practice, who seek the way, are called to be that love, to act that love. "Like many great humans, the Buddha had a hallowed [blessed] presence. When we see such persons, we feel peace, love and strength in them, and also in ourselves." Our courage to move forward is summoned.
There is an old Chinese proverb Nhat Hanh quotes: "When a sage is born, the river water becomes clearer and the mountain plants and trees are greener." When in their presence, one feels the ambience, a sense of peace, of light. Even if you did not recognize the sage, your proximity would gain all the greater light; your understanding the greater than by words alone.

Carl Jung Examines Kundalini Yoga

"If some great idea takes hold of us
from outside, we must understand that it takes hold of us only because something in us responds to it,
and goes out to meet it."
--C.S. Jung


In 1932 renowned psychologist Carl Jung, former student of Sigmund Freud, delivered a scholarly paper, now collected into a book, Visions, at a psychoanalysis conference in which he discussed the practice and symbolism of Kundalini Yoga. He also revealed to his listeners a startling correlation in the West between the practice of this type of Yoga, and the experience of a sudden, and perhaps not easily reversible sudden break with the realized world in some individuals.

He describes this break as a psychosis in which the individual believes himself unable to contact with, or function in the everyday world. He is then, psychotic by Western standards, Jung states.

On 16 November 1932 at the same conference, from the transcripts which survive, C.S. Jung says, " the child has grown into a peculiar sort of tree which is human above and snake below... the Kundalini. And below the diaphragm it is all snake... And what is worm below is divine above...'

'In the Chakras, the Kundalini was always separate...We must never forget that the Kundalini system is a specifically Indian production, and we have to deal here with Western material... You know that Kundalini changes on her way up to ajna, the lower part, the part of darkness where the Purusha does not appear, is the black snake; there one is absolutely swallowed up in nature, in emotion, and everything beyond emotion is not perceived because it is not perceptible...."

Jung continues, "So, to a primitive, a man who thinks is most uncanny, a very bad man, a sorcerer full of hatred who will surely poison you... When you have that point of view, you are inside of the monster. When you come through the diaphragm, you are outside of the monster, and then you can see what really held you was that divine being which appeared to you, when looked at from the inside, as a big snake. That is the reason why this being is monstrous....'

"There is an intuitive philosophy taken over from Proclus, the Neo-Platonist, who extolled, 'Where there is time, there is creation.' Thus time and creation are the same...

Jung further discusses in this same lecture the evolution of Gnosis in the Greek world and the development of Christianity. He notes that Saint Paul first was a gnostic before his conversion; the prevailing ideas of both gnosis and the phrenes of Homer. "In those days Christ ranked with Bacchus, or Dionysus. In the case of the phrenes, when the hero is killed, the phrenes leave him by the mouth, or by above, but that which goes to the lower regions is the psyche...'

'It is exactly the same in Chinese philosophy where the shen is the masculine soul that goes [rises] up to the gods; the kuei soul is female; It sinks down to the darkness... you see, the Chinese understood man as consisting of two parts...'

'Now this "kuei soul according to Eastern and Greek tradition is not immortal...it slowly loses its form and vanishes into the lights of the Heavens... The little flame from my breast rushed forth and sought to merge with this figure. What has happened here? Well, a sort of mystic union. "
The ego attempts to merge, or unite with the universal Self.

The ego self shows vivid desire; flame is always vivid desire to merge-- and where would that lead? To a seeming death--or to something new.

Jung concludes, to the Western mind, the overly close parallels of opposite, of black and white, of hot and cold, of far and near, etc. creates a complete state of unconsciousness, a collapse of clarity. In its place, complete confusion, a state much like insanity comes to reign.

Opposing factors coming too close together would render many people in a state of complete disorientation. They lose their values, their sense of rightness and have no idea what is wrong with themselves. They just feel that they simply don't care. In the mind of Kundalini, is the snake darkness? Is it light? Is it male or female? Perhaps it is both. How so? With new consciousness, what then am I? Is my 'self' enlightened, or a self, dis-integrated?

The self may be righted again, says Jung, by dropping deeper into the Chakras system, into the water to quench the fire.
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