Invoking ecological analogy to illustrate the value of contemplative silence, the Buddha invites us to “know from the rivers” how to navigate the terrain of speech.
Among the forerunners of Transcendentalism, a movement according to which the divine pervades all of humanity and nature alike, 19th century philosopher-poet and woodsman-ecologist Henry David Thoreau left behind a vital contemplative legacy resembling the intensive retreats undertaken by Buddhist meditators.
Then Ven. Ananda went to the Blessed One and on arrival, having bowed down to him, sat to one side. As he was sitting there he said to the Blessed One, “It is said that the world is empty, the world is empty, lord. In what respect is it said that the world is empty?”
“Insofar as it is empty of a self or of anything pertaining to a self: Thus it is said, Ananda, that the world is empty.”
“No witchcraft, no enemy action had silenced the rebirth of new life in this stricken world. The people had done it themselves.” Such words from Silent Spring speak volumes. Anthropogenic climate change has befallen us. How do we rise from the ashes?
Speaking to the impermanent nature of phenomena, Silent Spring tells the tale of an ecosystem set off kilter. While the condition of the climate may seem dismal, there remains much that can be done or abstained from in order to shift the scales and restore symbiotic balance.
“Whatever calamities there are, and whatever sorrows and fears come to the world, they are all the result of attachment to “self.” Why is that attachment mine?
Not having extinguished “self,” one is not able to extinguish sorrow; just as one who has not extinguished a fire is not able to extinguish the burning.
It follows that for the sake of tranquilizing my own sorrow, and for the tranquilizing of the other’s sorrow, I give myself to others and I accept others like myself.”
Bhaiṣajyaguru, formally Bhaiṣajya-guru-vaiḍūrya-prabhā-rāj, Medicine Master and King of Lapis Lazuli Light. the Buddha of healing and medicine in Mahāyāna Buddhism. Commonly referred to as the “Medicine Buddha”, he is described as a doctor who cures suffering using the medicine of his teachings.
We can’t solve the problems that plague us from within the same consciousness that created them. Such consciousness must be radically transformed by dissolving the hierarchy of separation, lest there be irrevocable disintegration into entropy.
In crisis, the need for scalable, sustainable means of dissolving the source of stagnation and loosening the ground of sedimented mindsets is especially urgent. What might an “equalizing” method devised 1300 years ago by an Indian sage offer us?
Zheng Guogu 郑国谷 - Visionary Transformation of an Insight (oil on canvas, 2012)
“The word for bodhicitta in Tibetan is sem kye. This literally means ‘the opening or blossoming of the mind.’ It is the opposite of small mind, of self-preoccupation, self-contraction, and narrowness.“
Citta-bhāvanā, literally “cultivating the mind,” is the bringing-into-being of previously unarisen, perhaps latent qualities such as compassion in the case of bodhicitta, similar to the germination process.
Temptation of Mara. Mogao Cave Mural, Dunhuang. 950.
The Bodhisattvacaryāvatāra charts the bodhisattva’s path of practice—an embodied way of life—not merely one of well-wishing from afar. Through compassion, one is moved to action, drawing near to the flames in order to extinguish them for good.
Invoking fire through simile, Śāntideva seers us with the burning reality that plagues our world, both literally and figuratively. While raging fire spreads across the planet, the heat of violence and conflict seethes and ferments in its midst. What can be done to douse the flames?
“They trembled, trembled all over, trembled all over in all directions; They welled up, welled up all over, welled up all over in all directions; They surged, surged all over, surged all over in all directions; They quaked, quaked all over, quaked all over in all directions; They roared, roared all over, roared all over in all directions; They crashed, crashed all over, crashed all over in all directions.”
In holiday spirit, with both Christmas and Hanukkah upon us, we dive into dreaming in the Christian and Jewish contemplative traditions, from the Bible to the Torah, exploring their implications for the broader religious philosophy of dreams.
While the Buddha dreamt peacefully and awoke with clarity, Descartes concludes his first meditation dreading that he’ll awaken from the dream.
For Descartes, the toilsome wakefulness which follows from a peaceful rest is accompanied not by the light of clarity, but by shadows of even larger philosophical uncertainties looming over him.
“Living wherever, living however, living whenever, each person contains many possible persons. Every day, the ruling system places our worst characteristics at center stage, condemning our best to languish behind the backdrop. The system of power is not in the least eternal. We may be badly made, but we’re not finished, and it’s the adventure of changing reality and changing ourselves that makes our blip in the history of the universe worthwhile…” — (p. 329) Eduardo Galeano (2000) Upside down: A primer for the looking-glass world
Emptiness is the interdependence of all phenomena. In the smallest of particles and seeds are infinite possibilities.
Enter the void. By this, we don’t mean absolute oblivion or total annihilation, but a complete transformation of all one previously knew that will nonetheless prove to be revolutionary.
Śūnyatā, by the Buddha’s definition, is a radical emptiness that transforms beings from the inside out.
