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58 Cards in this Set

  • Front
  • Back
Shinran
o True Pre Land (Jodo Shinshu)
 Ex-disciple of Honen; dreamt the Bodhisattva Kannon told him to marry.
 People must give up self-power (jiriki) and take care good works don’t lead to pride, lack of faith in other-power (tariki): Amida’s saving grace.
 Recitation of nembutsu done in gratitude to Amida, "the arising of the mind of true entrusting (shinjin)”.
o Shinran’s Message
 In the Tannisho, Shinran said: “If even a good man can be reborn in the Pure Land, how much more so a wicked man!” People generally think, however, that if even a wicked man can be reborn in the Pure Land, how much more so a good man! This latter view mayat first sight seem reasonable but it is not in accord with the purpose of the Original Vow and with faith in the Power of Another.”
Bodhidharma
o Legend: When Shakyamuni held up a flower, Mahakashyapa smiled.
o This “special transmission outside the teaching” passed from master to disciple (28 Indian patriarchs) before Bodhidharma brought this “teaching not established on words” to China.
o 1st Chan Patriarch
 516-26 CE: Chan introduced into China by Bodhidharma, South Indian mediation master
 The Chan link to India and the lineage of masters and students: “First Chan Patriarch, 28th Indian Patriarch;”
o Wall Gazing

 “All beings enlightened and ordinary share same nature, dwell steadily in wall-gazing, never confused by written teachings. “
 “wall-gazing” interpreted two ways: to face a wall physically or to mediate like a wall and cultivate a mind that is firm and free from all dualistic concepts.
 “All Buddhas have ignored their bodies for the sake of the Dharma.Now you have cut off your arm, you may have the right disposition.”
o Bodhidharma introduced exercises to improve monks health, increase stamina for meditation.
Linchi
o Eisai (1141-1215) Studied Tendai meditation at Mt. Hiei. studied Zen meditation with Lin chi’s students in China
o the founder of the Linji school of ChánBuddhism during Tang Dynasty China
o According to the Linji yü lü, Linji's methods included shouting and striking, most often using the fly-whisk that was considered a symbol of a Chán master's authority
o When Chinese Chán was brought to Japan it was called Zen. The Japanese Zen sect known as the Rinzai school is a branch of the lineage Linji founded. The smaller Japanese Obaku school came to Japan in the 17th century as a separate Linji lineage and existed in Japan for many years as a culturally Ming Dynasty Chinese Zen within Japan. Later the Obaku school semi-merged into the Rinzai lineage after Hakuin's revival of Rinzai in the 18th century. Today the Rinzai and Obaku schools are closely related. The now-defunct Japanese Fuke school also had close ties to the Rinzai school and claimed affiliation with the Linji lineage.
Dogen
o Dogen (1200-53) left Mt.Hiei:“We all have Buddha-nature but nobody here looks like a Buddha.”
o Studied first with Esai’s disciple, then at Tsao-Tung school in China.
o Soto favors gradual Enlightenment. Criticizes Rinzai emphasis on koans, study of written texts and commentaries.
o Any well-performed activity, farming, cooking, cleaning is practice: “Farm well, concentrated with good intention.”
o Founded Eiheiji monastery
o Self-Power
 “Most people in the world
 say I want to study Buddhism; yet
 the world is degenerate, and man
 inferior. The training Buddhism
 requires is too strenuous for me,
 I will follow the easy way and put off enlightenment until another life--this attitude is wrong, the three ages an expedient. All people inherently have the capacity to awaken to Buddhism. If you practice according to the teachings, you will gain enlightenment.”
 Just sitting”(shikantaza) uncovers Buddha nature
o Awakening
 “To study the Buddha’s way is to study oneself. To study oneself is to forget oneself. To forget oneself is to be enlightened. To be enlightened by all things is the dropping away of one’s mind and body, and the mind and body of others. No trace of Awakening remains, and this no-trace leaves traces endlessly.”
o Equality of men and women in religious practice.
o Although we say that the mountains belong to the country, actually they belong to those who love them
Nichiren
o Fisherman’s son, ex Tendai monk, saw his mission to save Japan through preaching and chanting of nam myoho renge kyo (Homage to the Scripture of the Lotus of the Good Teaching ),criticized Pure Land for a false Buddha and was attacked by Pure Land partisans.
o Nichiren exiled for criticizing ruler, other sects
 He criticized Shingon’s focus on Vairocana, Zen’s focus on the human nature of Shakyamuni, not his divine nature. After trying to overthrow the government and a miraculous escape from execution, he and his followers were exiled.
o Nichiren: this world is the Buddha land
 “ I am now living in a lonely hermitage, but in my heart is the place where Buddhas are immersed in contemplation; they turn the Wheel of Truth upon my tongue….Whoever comes to this place will be purged of all sins.”
o Nichiren’s philosophy
 “When this mind is cleansed, it will surely be like a clear mirror that reflects the essential nature of all phenomena, the truth of reality. So arousing a deep faith, diligently clean your mirror night and day. How should you clean it? Only chanting Namu Myoho renge kyo….If you chant with deep faith in this inner principle, you will certainly attain Buddhahood in this very lifetime.
Tsong Khapa
o At 16 Khapa moved to Central Tibet toTsong be trained in the scholastic tradition; at 25 ordained in Kadam order
o Geluk school founded by Tsongkhapa based on strict Kadam teachings
o Three Stages of the Path
 His Collected Works total over 200 titles
 His Major work: Stages of the Path (Lam rim)
 Three Principal Parts of the Path:
• - Renunciation
• - Development of altruistic intention
• - Generation of wisdom that realizes emptiness
Milarepa
o Marpa asked Milarepa (1040-1123) to build a tower to purify his bad karma ( E = circle, W half-moon, N triangle, S square = mandala of the world’s continents).
o Milarepa and the hunter’s dogs
 Your mind is troubled with anger and evil desires. You are a sinner born with the body of a dog. You pass your days always suffering from the pangs of hunger. There is no end to your pain and suffering. If you cannot catch hold of the mind that is inside you, What benefit do you derive by seizing the bodies of those outside? If you are eager to seize anything, it is your own mind and nothing else! Give up the anger that is in your mind and stay here.
o Milarepa taught Gampopa (1079-1153) who founded first Kagyu monastery.
Santideva
o Shantideva: preliminary actions before making Bodhisattva vows
o Praise and worship of the Buddhas
o Taking refuge, confession of faults
o Rejoicing in the virtue of others
o “With folded hands, I beseech the Buddhas of all directions to shine the lamp of Dharma for all bewildered in misery’s gloom.” (Shantideva, Guide to the Bodhisattva’s Way of Life, II.27, )
o Santideva on Bodhisattva Vows:
 “May I be a protector for those without one, a guide for all travelers on the way. May I be bridge, a boat, and a ship for all those who wish to cross [the water]. “
 “As long as the sky exists and as long as there are sentient beings,may I remain to help relieve them of all their pain.”(Shantideva, Guide to the Bodhisattva’s Way of Life, III.17, X.55 )
o “Meditate on the equality of yourself and others. Everyone experiences pleasure and pain. I ought to care for them as I do myself.
o Since I and others are the same in wanting to be happy, what is so special about me that I seek happiness only for myself?
o Since I and others are the same in wanting to avoid pain, what is so special about me that I protect myself and not anyone else?”
Sylvia Boorstein
o Sylvia Boorstein is a co-founding teacher at Spirit Rock Meditation Center in Woodacre, California, where she leads a popular weekly class on Wednesday mornings. She is also a Senior Teacher at the Insight Meditation Society in Barre, Massachusetts. She lectures nationally on Buddhism and mindfulness; she teaches vipassana and metta meditation. She emphasizes seeing daily life as practice and has a special ability to illustrate how we can be mindful standing in a grocery store checkout line as well as sitting on a meditation cushion.
Jack Kerouac
o A Beat Generation writer
o Wrote Haikus
o Dharma Bums
 “I didn’t give a goddamn about the mythology and all the names and national flavors of Buddhism, but was just interested in the first of Shakyamuni’s four noble truths, All life is suffering. And to a certain extent interested in the third, The suppression of suffering can be achieved.”
Allen Ginsberg
o A Beat Generation writer
o 1953 Allen Ginsberg started attending Suzuki’s seminars, followed by other members of the "Beat Generation" : Jack Kerouac, Gary Snyder.
o Formal Zen Practice identified with monasticism.
o In “Beat Zen”, form was “square”; the romance of emptiness and drug-induced enlightenment states, “hip.”
o Model for Alvah Goldberg in Dharma Bums
o “Notice what you notice. Catch yourself thinking. Observe what’s vivid. Vividness is self-selecting. “
Gary Snyder
o A Beat Generation writer
o The model for Japhy Ryder in Kerouac’s Dharma Bums .
o Translated Han shan’s poetry.
o Spent several years studying Zen in Japan at a Rinzai monastery.
o Founded the Ring of Bones Zendo on San Juan Ridge in California.
Chogyam Trungpa
o 11th Trungpa tulku, Kagyu lineage, fled to India with Dalai Lama in 1959
o 1963 scholarship to study comparative religion at Oxford
o 1967 moved to Scotland, founded the Samye Ling meditation centre, the first Tibetan Buddhist practice centre in the West. Gave up his monastic vows
o 1970s moved to US w. Diana Mukpo, founded 1st North American meditation centre, Tail of the Tiger (now known as Karmê-Chöling) in Barnet, Vermont.
o Founded Naropa university in Boulder, & hired Allen Ginsberg to teach poetry
o 1976: empowered Osel Tenzin (1943-90) as his lineage holder in Kagyu and Nyingma traditions
o Rita Gross on Chogyam Trungpa
 “To be unable to differ from the teacher, or to imitate the teacher’s every behavior is the flip side of requiring the teacher to fulfill one’s own expectations of morality. Both areseriousmisunderstandings of devotion and the absolute bond that holds a student to a teacher in Vajrayana Buddhism.”
o Kagyu monastery founded in 1984 by Trungpa Rinpoche
o Trungpa’s sons
 Oldest son: Sakyong Mipham Rinpoche (b.1962), recognized by Penor Rinpoche--then supreme head of the Nyingma lineage--as the reincarnation of Ju Mipham, 19th -century Tibetan meditation master and scholar.
 In 1990, at the urging of Dilgo Khyentse Rinpoche, Chögyam he returned from a period of practice and study in Nepal to lead Shambhala Meditation Centres
 Gesar Mukpo, b. 1973, at three, identified by Dilgo Khyentse Rinpoche as the reincarnation of the Shechen Kongtrul Rinpoche, one of father's teachers.
 Makes music videos, film Tulku, about 1st western tulkus: “There is no certain path for any of us, other than the path of self-discovery."
Thich Nhat Hanh
o Defined by Thich Nhat Hanh
 Socially Engaged Buddhism involves:
• Social service
• Social activism
• Awareness in daily life
o Entered Rinzai monastery at 16
o early 1960s: founded the Order of Interbeing and School of Youth for Social Services, based on the Buddhist principles of non-violence and compassionate action.
o Exiled from Vietnam in 1966 because of his work for peace.
o Founded Plum village in France, 1982, Buddhist monastery for monks and nuns and a practice center for lay people.
The 14th Dalai Lama
o 14th Dalai Lama, Tenzin Gyatyso
o B. 1935
o “Another favorite occupation of mine as an infant was to pack things in a bag as if I was about to go on a long journey. I'm going to Lhasa, I'm going to Lhasa, I would say. This, coupled with my insistence that I be allowed always to sit at the head of the table, was later said to be an indication that I must have known that I was destined for greater things.”
o Recognized at age 2, brought to Lhasa at 4.
o Enthroned in 1940, begins monastic education.
o 1954 received full ordination as a monk, performed his first Kalachakra initiation.
o 1959 fled to India as Chinese planes bombed Lhasa.
Dzongsar Khyentse Rinpoche
o b.1961 in Bhutan into prominent lineage of Nyingma tulkus
o grandfather Dudjom Rinpoche (1904-87)
o father: Dungtse Rinpoche (1931-2011)
o Brother: Garab Rinpoche
o At 7 recognized as the tulku of Dzogschen master, Jamyang Khyentse Chökyi Lodrö (1893?1959)
o Dzongsar Khyentse Rinpoche studied with teachers from all the four Tibetan Buddhism schools.
o His main guru was H.H. Dilgo Khyentse schools of Tibetan Buddhism
o Studied at the Sakya College, Dehra Dun, India and the London School of Oriental and African Studies
o What makes you a Buddhist
 It’s not the clothes you wear, the ceremonies you perform, or the meditationyou do, says DZONGSAR JAMYANG KHYENTSE. It’s not what you eat,whether you drink, or who you have sex with. It’s whether you agree with the four fundamental discoveries the Buddha made under the Bodhi tree,and if you do, you can call yourself a Buddhist.
• All compounded things are impermanent.
• All emotions are pain.
• All things have no inherent existence.
• Nirvana is beyond concepts.
Sharon Salzburg
o 1975: Jack Kornfield, Joseph Goldstein, Sharon Salzburg formed IMS (Insight meditation Society), after studying vipassana in India, SE Asia.
Jack Kornfield
o 1975: Jack Kornfield, Joseph Goldstein, Sharon Salzburg formed IMS, after studying vipassana in India, SE Asia.
o Kornfield: “We wanted to offer Buddhism without the complications complications of rituals, robes, chanting, and the whole religious tradition.”
D.T. Suzuki
o lay student of Rinzai Zen
o 1920s published Essays in Zen Buddhism.
o 1949 invited by Philip Kapleau to teach in the US, U of Hawaii, later Columbia.
o Started the Zen boom of the 50’s.
o His seminars attended by the “Beat Generation” writers: Jack Kerouac, Allen Ginsburg, Gary Snyder.
o Didn’t discourage his audience with alien rituals and strenuous meditation.
Shunryu Suzuki/Suzuki Roshi
o Son of a Soto Zen priest, entered a monastery at 11.
o Came to SF in 1959 as priest for the Japanese-American community.
o Founded SF Zen Center, Green Gulch farm and Tassajara Mt. Monastery
o Zen mind, beginner's mind (a collection of his lectures)
o Jakusho Kwon was ordained by Shunryu Suzuki roshi in 1970
o Soto Zen roshi, disciple of Shunryu Suzuki Roshi
o Tassajara Zen Mountain Center was the First Zen training center in the US, established by Suzuki Roshi in 1966
o Suzuki Roshi on Zazen
 All we should do is just do something as it comes. Do something! Whatever it is, we should do it even if it is not-doing something. We should live in the moment. So when we sit, we concentrate on our breathing, and we become like a swinging door, and we do something we should do, something we must do . This is zen practice. So when you practice zazen, your mind should be concentrated on your breathing.
Phillip Kapleau
o D.T. Suzuki in 1949 invited by Philip Kapleau to teach in the US, U of Hawaii, later Columbia.
o “Square Zen”
 1912-2004
 Wrote Three pillars of Zen, about his study in Japan in the 50’s under Yasutani Roshi at a Rinzai Zen monastery.“But how do we do zazen? “ we asked. “We’ve never meditated before.” “Meditate any way you wish, only don’t talk.”
 First American to be recognized as a Zen master, founded the Rochester Zen center.
o On Zen in the West
 Koan training is too hard
 stick: goad for sinking energy,pressure cooker atmosphere enables students to discover their real capacity.
 Zen masters: too much power.
 Roshi’s aim: not to control students but to make them strong enough to control their own lives. A roshi stands in the place of Buddha. He/she manifests the Buddha-nature innate in all.
John Daido Loori
o Real Celibacy
 There is a real practice of celibacy. Just like true zazen, it is not about suppression or denial. It has to do with transmutation of sexual energy. When you feel it in your heart it is love. When you feel it in your genitalia it is sex.”
Maurine Stuart
o Ordained in 1977 as a Rinzai priest, led Cambridge Buddhist Association
o US residential centers set up like Japanese male hierarchies, only immature people need this protective shadow.
o Used shoulder massage, not the ‘encouragement’ stick
o Americanized Zen: rejecting harsh training practices.
o Maurine Stuart “Wherever teachers are misusing students for the sake of sex--women have to stand up and say no. For me sex is not an available teaching method.”
o Encounter Dialog
 One day Maureen Stuart was having tea with friends at her home in Cambridge when the telephone rang.
 "Do Buddhas wear toe nail polish?" a seven year old caller wanted to know.
 "Are you wearing toe-nail polish?” the Roshi responded.
 “YES! “ shouted the little girl and hung up.
Thomas Merton
o A Trappist monk of the Abbey of Gethsemani, Kentucky, he was a poet,social activist, and student of comparative religion. In 1949, he was ordained to the priesthood and given the name Father Louis
o Merton wrote more than 70 books, mostly on spirituality, social justice and a quiet pacifism, as well as scores of essays and reviews, including his best-selling autobiography
o He pioneered dialogue with prominent Asian spiritual figures, including the Dalai Lama, the Japanese writer D.T. Suzuki, and the Vietnamese monk Thich Nhat Hanh. Merton has also been the subject of several biographies
Joan Halifax
o Halifax: Buddhism supports hospice care rather than euthanasia
Jon Kabat Zinn
o Mindfulness in the Hospital
 1979 pioneered the use of mindfulness meditation at U of MA hospital as a method of stress reduction, pain management.
 “What’s a better place to teach Buddhadharma than in the hospital?The best places are the places that function as duhkha magnets in society because Buddhist meditative practices have something to say about duhkha and using it for healing and transformation.”
Fleet Maull
o Prison Dharma Network
 Fleet Maull in 1987 founded Prison Dharma Network (PDN) National nonsectarian support network for Buddhist prisoners, volunteers and prison staff. PDN support prisoners in the practice and study of Buddhist Teachings as ideal vehicles for self-rehabilitation and personal transformation.
 In 1991 he founded National Prison Hospice Association.
Geshe Michael Roach
o Graduated with honors from Princeton, spent two decades studying at monasteries in US (NJ monastery founded by Geshe Wangyal) and at Sera manstery in india .Ordained a monk in his early 30s and 1st American to receive Geshe degree, teaches Buddhism at Asian Classics Institute in Phoenix.
o 1981 Returned to US helped found Andin International Diamond Corporation annual sales of over $100 million, donated his profits to international aid projects (company later bought by Warren Buffet) . Wrote The Diamond Cutter, book about achieving business and personal success through generosity. Founded Enlightened Enlightened Institute.
o 2004, Roach and Christie McNally established Diamond Mountain a Buddhist retreat center and seminary in Arizona.
Roshi Norman Fisher
o Soto Zen roshi, disciple of Shunryu Suzuki Roshi
o Co-abbot (1995-2000) & senior teacher there at San Francisco Zen Center
o Zen poet, mentored by Beat Generation poets, especially Phil Whalen and Gary Snyder
o Involved in interfaith meetings, teaches meditation at SF’s Beth Sholom synagogue
o On the board of the Zen Hospice Project
o Spiritual director of the Everyday Zen Foundation, dedicated to adapting Zen to Western culture, e.g. offers workshops for business people entitled "Company Time,” several times a year at Green Gulch Farm.
o Americanized Zen: US born students succeeding their Japanese teachers
Jizo
o “We sit in silence, sewing a bib for one of the compassionate figures on the altar (Jizo, Mary with Jesus). Each person acknowledges a particular life and death, offers incense, places the bib on one of figures, and bows. We chant the Heart sutra, give unborn beingsdharma names and say good-bye to them. “
o Jizō works to ease the suffering and shorten the sentence of those serving time in hell, to deliver the faithful into Amida's western paradise (where inhabitants are no longer trapped in the six states of desire and karmic rebirth), and to answer the prayers of the living for health, success, children, and all manner of mundane petitions. In modern Japan, Jizō is a savior par excellence, a friend to all, never frightening even to children, and his/her many manifestations
o Jizō embodies supreme spiritual optimism, compassion, and universal salvation, all hallmarks of Mahayana Buddhism
Avalokiteshvara/GuanYin
o 6 Syllable Mantra
 Om mani padme hum
 refers to Avalokiteshvara with a jewel in one hand (or clasped with both hands) and lotus in the other
 Each syllable projects compassion to beings in each of six realms.
o “Hearer of Cries”
 Lotus Sutra chapter 24: Guanyin saves people from danger (swords, fire, water, demons, danger of childbirth ).
 Most popular translation by Kumarajiva, translated 405-406 CE
o (“Lord who looks down with compassion”).
Amitabha/Amida
o Buddha
o Pure Land Buddhism (Ching-Tu)- Popular Appeal, no education required
o Pure Land Sutra. These texts describe the origins and nature of the Western Pure Land in which the Buddha Amitabha resides. They list the forty-eight vows made by Amitabha as a bodhisattva by which he undertook to build a Pure Land where beings are able to practise the Dharma without difficulty or distraction. The sutras state that beings can be reborn there by pure conduct and by practices such as thinking continuously of Amitabha, praising him, recounting his virtues, and chanting his name.
o Bodhisattva Dharmakara visualized a Buddha land with no bad rebirths, no female births. After his vows fulfilled, he becomes Amitabha (“Infinite Light" ) Buddha.
Hsi Lai Temple
o Coming to West Temple
o Humanistic Buddhism
 Founder: Master Hsin Yun: " Hui Neng, the Sixth Patriarch of Chan Buddhism said, "The Dharma is to be found in this world and not in another.”
 Fo Kuang Shan’s Humanistic Buddhism: live fully in this human world and practice Buddhism at the same time.
Plum Village
o Thich Nhat Hanh founded Plum village in France, 1982, Buddhist monastery for monks and nunsand a practice center for lay people.
San Francisco Zen Center
o Roshi Norman Fischer was Co-abbot (1995-2000) & senior teacher there at San Francisco Zen Center
Spirit Rock Center
o The purpose of Spirit Rock is to help each individual find within himself or herself peace, compassion, and wisdom, through the practice of mindfulness and insight meditation (vipassana), and to support the individual in taking those qualities into the world.
o We see Spirit Rock as a living mandala (a circle) whose central inspiration is the dharma, the deepest truth of life, beyond words and concepts. The outer expressions of the mandala are both reflections of the dharma and paths leading back to the dharma. The outer expressions, which are interdependent and support one another, include our programs and trainings in retreats, wise relationship, study, hermitage, service, and spiritual practices, in the world.
Naropa Institute
o Buddhist Inspired
o Located in Boulder, Colorado
o Many Religious Studies focused areas
Zen Mountain Monastery
o AMM: National Prison Sangha
 Zen Mountain Monastery Prison Program began in 1984 with a NY State prisoner's request.
 ZMM’s activities include weekly visits to several prisons by senior monastics and lay students who lead prison sanghas in meditation, liturgy, and dharma talks. Periodic intensive meditation retreats are also led by volunteers.
 Correspondence program volunteers assist inmates with their questions arising from their spiritual practice, 1000 letters a year.
 ZMM’s Zen Environmental Studies Institute conducts workshops, training and research on the environment. Green Dragon Society: law suits against development in Catskills.
 Earth Sangha: environmental action based on nonviolence, tolerance, self-awareness, and compassion, works to restore native plant communities in DC area, clean up Potomac.
Buddhist Churches of America
o On Abortion
 “Abortion, the taking of a human life, is fundamentally wrong. The life of the fetus is precious and must be protected. It is the woman carrying the fetus, and no one else who must make this most difficult decision and live with it for the rest of her life. As Buddhists, we can only encourage her to make a decision that is both thoughtful and compassionate. “
o Pure Land temples (now Buddhist Churches of America established in the West (Honolulu, LA, SF) in late 19th c. to meet religious, cultural, educational and social needs of Asian immigrants.
o 1944: Name changed to Buddhist Churches of America: “look and feel of the congregations became distinctly Protestant.”
o Crisis
 Aging Japanese clergy. Japanese priests face cultural, linguistic, Economic difficulties (low pay, long hours, less prestige) in the US.
 Japanese-American youth not interested in careers in “Funeral Buddhism.”
 Solution: Lay people taking on clergy’s roles, new activities for youth
Soka Gakkai International/SGI-UVA
o a lay religious movement within Nichiren Buddhism, a branch of Mahayana Buddhism derived from the teachings of the thirteenth-century Japanese monk, Nichiren Daishōnin. It is regarded as one of the largest so called Shinshūkyō.
o Soka Gakkai International (SGI) is a lay Buddhist movement linking more than 12 million people around the world. SGI members integrate their Buddhist practice into their daily lives, following theLotus Sutra based teachings of Nichiren, a 13th-century Japanese Buddhist priest.
o Sokagakkai largest and most racially diverse US Buddhist organization
o Victory over violence: youth-sponsored initiative to help identify and counteract the root causes of violence in their lives, and in their communities.
Four Seals
o The four seals are like tea, while all other means to actualize these truths—practices, rituals, traditions, and cultural trappings—are like a cup. The challenge is not to get carried away by the cup. You can change the cup, but the tea remains pure.
o 1. All compounded things are impermanent.
o 2. All stained emotions are painful.
o 3. All phenomena are empty.
o 4. Nirvana is peace.
Four Main Schools of Tibetan Buddhism
o Nyingma
 Old School
 Dzongsar was b.1961 in Bhutan into prominent lineage of Nyingma tulkus
 Padmasambha founded Nyingma
 oldest of the four major schools of Tibetan Buddhism, derived from 1st dissemination (8th-9th cent)
 Nyingma are unified by Padmasambhava as their founder
 unique Tantric canon not accepted by the “new schools”
 Revitalized by ongoing revelations to tertons (“treasure-finders”), physical texts in caves or “mind terma” appearing directly within the mindstreams of tertons.
 Nyingma Dzogs chen master, founded monasteries in Tibet and Bhutan
 In Treasury of Words and Meanings he explains Samantabhadra’s enlightenment as beginning with a vase holding a Buddha-embryo that opens, awareness flows out into space in a series of lights, Buddhas, and pure lands.
 Visionary practice re-enacts Samantabhadra’s enlightenment, an opportunity to recognize awareness for what it is, see pure awareness is contained in the heart-area of the subtle body.
 Yogic techniques used to make awareness manifest
o Sakya
 41st Sakya Trizin
 Hereditary Khon lineage
• Drokmi (992-1072) brought back from India Tantric teachings, including oral teachings from the siddha Virupa.
• Virupa’s teachings passed on to Drokmi’s disciple, Khon Gonchok Gyelpo (1034-1102), who built the first monastery, at hub major trade routes in S& C Tibet, place Atisa predicted would site of great monastery.
• Lineage teachings passed down in Khon family
 Sakya Teachers
• Sakya Trizin, 41st patriarch of Khon lineage, considered an emanation of Manjushri and Padmasambhava.
• Lam Dre (Path and Fruit) gradual path:1st part explains the Sutras, 2nd part explains the HevajraTantra
• Main point: inseparability of samsara and nirvana. Nirvana is a transformation of samsara; no abandoning of samsara to achieve nirvana, as the mind is the root of samsara and nirvana. Realizing this inseparability is the key to attaining enlightenment.
• Jetsun Kushok Chimey Luding Rinpoche, Sakya Trizin's older sister, the third woman in Sakya history to have transmitted the Lam Dre, an emanation of Vajrayogini.
o Kagyu
 17th Karmapa, Ugyn Trinley Dorje
 Kagyu lineage: Indian teachers
• A Dakini urges Naropa to leave Nalanda monastery, to seek Tilopa as a guru.
• Tilopa tests his fitness for the teachings, emphasis on strict obedience to teacher.
• “Your body deserves to be broken, since you believe in an I.”
 Kagyu: Tibetan lineage teachers
• Marpa (1012-97) studied with Naropa, returned to Tibet and practiced with his wife Dagmema.
• Marpa asked Milarepa (1040-1123) to build a tower to purify his bad karma ( E = circle, W half-moon, N triangle, S square = mandala of the world’s continents).
 Karma Kagyu: Gampopa, the 1st Karmapa
• Milarepa taught Gampopa (1079-1153) who founded first Kagyu monastery.
• Tshurpu: first monastery to adopt succession by reincarnated teachers (tulku).
• Dakinis gave the 1st Karmapa a black hat made from their hair.
o Gelug
 14th Dalai Lama, Tenzin Gyatyso
• Kadampa School- His vision of path model for development of monastic orders (Sakya, Gelug)
• Gelugpa School and the Dalai Lamas
o 1st: Tsongkhapa’s nephew, Gendun Druba, recognized after his death
o 3rd: Sonam Gyatso (1543-88), given the title Dalai (“Ocean of Wisdom”) Lama by Mongol khan, recognized as incarnation of Tsonglhapa’s nephew and of bodhisattva Avalokiteshvara.
o 5th: Losang Gyatso (1617-82) made ruler over Tibet by Mongols, first Tibetan ruler with both religious and political power. After Manchu dynasty came to power in 1644, he visited Beijing, established for Geluks a priest/patron relationship that endured until 1951.
Five Mindfulness Trainings
o 1.Aware of the suffering caused by the
o destruction of life, I am committed to
o cultivating compassion
o 2. Aware of the suffering caused by exploitation, I will practice generosity.
o 3. Aware of the suffering caused by sexual misconduct, I am committed to cultivating responsibility.
o 4. Aware of the suffering caused by
o unmindful speech and the inability to listen to others, I am committed to cultivating
o loving speech and deep listening.
o 5. Aware of the suffering caused by unmindful consumption, I am determined to cultivate good health.
Five Precepts
o 1. not to take life;
o 2. not to take what's not given
o 3. no sexual misconduct
o 4. no false speech
o 5. no intoxicants
Skillful means
o The bodhisattva is the ship captain called Great Compassion.
o He thought, “It is better that I go to a bad rebirth. After killing five hundred bodhisattvas, this man will remain in Avīci hell for five hundred eons.”
o The ship captain generated great compassion, benefited both the merchants and the thief, and killed that thief with a spear.
Types of meditation
o Samatha
 Calming Meditation
• One pointed, deep concentration
• ‘Laser’, very focused
• Right Concentration
• Four Contemplations
o Love/Kindness
o Compassion
o Sympathetic joy
o Equamminity
o Right Mindfulness insightfulness of body
o Six Rememberances
 meditation on impure substances within the body
 viewing food as something repugnant and unclean -- with regard to where it comes from, how it's prepared, how it's mixed together when it's chewed, and where it stays in the stomach and intestines.
 Seeing a woman’s body as “a bag of bones”
 Trained and relaxed mind is the prerequisite for insight meditation through which one attains full enlightenment.
• 1st Stage: Stabilizing the Mind
o understanding the 1st and 2nd truths, pervasiveness of duhkha and its causes
o understanding the painful nature of samsara, leads to disenchantment with world and motivation for liberation
• 2nd stage: Continuous Stabilizing
o The monk fixes his mind on the breath. The rope and hook are needed to bind and tie the elephant.
o Mindfulness and and watchfulness to bring the object of meditation close.
o The hook drives the elephant in the right direction.
• 3rd Stage: Habitual Stabilization
o The rope represents the power of mindfulness; elephant (=mind) turned towards monk (= meditator)
o The meditator distinguishes the subtler forms of distraction. The rabbit represents the presence in the mind of passivity, a distraction that weakens the mind.
• 4th Stage: Near Stabilization
o Dark and white colors show that distraction has diminished.
o The rope on the elephant's neck loosens, because the mind is controlled.
o The elephant, monkey, and rabbit look back, showing that the mind has recognized mental distractions and turns back to the object of contemplation.
• 5th Stage: Habituation
o Subtle distractions grow stronger, the hook (= power of diligence/perseverance) must be used.
o Another monkey eating from a tree and not on the path = no other thoughts now interfere with concentration.
• 6th Stage: Pacifying
o The distraction of five senses and subtle distractions gone. Mind stopped from wandering.
o Firm concentration arises, no hook and rope needed.
• 7th Stage: Thorough Pacification
o Meditator calms the mind.
o The monk is behind the elephant and allows the mind to 'rest' naturally. It concentrates on its own.
o The monkey under completee control now sits behind the monk. The rabbit disappears. Slight traces of black shows that very subtle scattering of mind may persist.
• 8th Stage: Becoming One-pointed
o As the concentration progresses, so does the clarity of the object concentrated upon. The mind can now remain continually in absorption on the object of concentration
o The monk doesn't need to look at the elephant; it just comes and obeys. The monkey disappears and the elephant becomes completely white..
• 9th Stage: Meditative Concentration
o The monk meditates; his mind and the object become one.
o The path has ended and the elephant is at rest.
• Beyond the 9th Stage
o The monk is shown flying alone= experience bliss.
o Riding the elephant = attainment of Calm
o With sword of insight, the monk returns triumphantly along the rainbow. Sword destroys karma and ignorance, the roots for involuntary rebirth in samsara.
o Union of calm (samatha) and insight (vipasyana) takes emptiness (sunyata) as the object of contemplation.
o Contemplation of emptiness = knowledge of the knowledge of the ultimate reality of all phenomena.
o Metta
 (loving kindness) meditation
• Four immeasurable Contemplations/ Sublime States
o 1. meditation on love/loving kindness (metta)
o 2. compassion
o 3. sympathetic joy
o 4. equanimity
 Metta Sutta:
• “May all beings be happy and secure; may their minds be contented…Just as a mother would protect her only child even at the risk of her own life, even so let one cultivate a boundless heart toward all beings.”
o Vipassana
 Insight Meditation
 Analytical
 Mindfulness on the body: “just as a bhikkhu sees a body thrown on to the cemetery reduced to bones rotten and become dust…so he applies this perception to his own body.”
 Mindfulness on feelings. e.g. pleasant/unpleasant: “a bhikkhu when experiencing a pleasant feeling knows: ‘I experience a pleasant feeling’.”
 Mindfulness on mental states/mind: “a bhikkhu knows the mind with lust as being with lust.”
 Mindfulness on intellectual topics, e.g. four noble truths, five hindrances, “This is the only way, bhikkhus, for the purification of beings, for the overcoming of sorrow and lamentation, …for thre attainment of Nibbana, namely the four Foundations of Mindfulness.
Interbeing
o early 1960s: Thich Nhat Hanh founded the Order of Interbeing and School of Youth for Social Services, based on the Buddhist principles of non-violence and compassionate action.
Socially Engaged Buddhism
o Defined by Thich Nhat Hanh
o Socially Engaged Buddhism involves:
 Social service
 Social activism
 Awareness in daily life
Square Zen
o Phillip Kapleau: “Square Zen”
 1912-2004
 Wrote Three pillars of Zen, about his study in Japan in the 50’s under Yasutani Roshi at a Rinzai Zen monastery. “But how do we do zazen? “ we asked. “We’ve never meditated before.” “Meditate any way you wish,only don’t talk.”
o “a quest for the right spiritual experience, for a satori which will receive the stamp of approval and established authority. There will even be certificates to hang on the wall.”
Beat Zen
o there must be no effort, no discipline, no artificial striving to attain satori or to be anything but what one is. [He describe its self-defensive underside.] But for square Zen there can be no true satori without years of meditation-practice under the stern supervision of a qualified master.
Namu-amida-butsu (nembutsu)
o Pure Land Buddhism relies on the other power of Amida Buddha and the single practice of the nembutsu: Namo Amida butsu
Geryston Mandala
o Bernie Glassman, Zen abbot and
o founder of Greyston Mandala,
o includes;
o the Greyston Bakery, a profitable $5 million food production business,
o the Greyston Family Inn, creating permanent housing for formerly homeless and low-income families
o Greyston Health Services, providing housing and medical services for people with HIV/AIDS.
Peacemaker Order
o an organization of socially engaged Buddhists. It was founded by roshi Bernie Glassman and his wife Sandra Jishu Holmes in 1996, as a means of continuing the work begun with the Greyston Foundation in 1980 of expanding Zen practice into larger spheres of influence such as social services, business andecology but with a greater emphasis on peace work. Zen Peacemakers is a school within the White Plum Asanga lineage of Taizan Maezumi
Zazen
o The practice is sitting meditation
Satori
o a sudden awakening.
Rinzai Zen
o The goal is satori, a sudden awakening.
o The practice is sitting meditation (zazen), and meditation on koans, solved not with head but with the gut, belly.
o Student: What is the meaning of Bodhidharma coming from the west?
o Eisai kicked him in the guts and the student rolled on the ground laughing.
Soto Zen
o Soto favors gradual Enlightenment. Criticizes Rinzai emphasis on koans, study of written texts and commentaries.
o Any well-performed activity, farming, cooking, cleaning is practice: “Farm well, concentrated with good intention.”
o Founded Eiheiji monastery
Tulku
o about 1st western tulkus: “There is no certain path for any of us, other than the path of self-discovery."
o a particular high-ranking lama (e.g., the Dalai Lama, the Panchen Lama, the Karmapa) who can choose the manner of his (or her) rebirth