Daffodils in full bloom at Eleusis -:- Photo by Annette Tamuly Jung
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“Concerning faith, one must trust that a single utterance of Nembutsu
guarantees Birth in the Buddha Field.
Concerning practice, one must continue the recitation throughout life.”
- Honen Shonin
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ASPIRATION FOR SUKHAVATI
by Khenchen Lama Pelgyeypa Dorjé Rinpoche
བདེ་ཆེན་ཞིང་སྨོན། །
ཨེ་མ་ཧོ། །
é-ma-ho
How wondrous!
བསླུ་མེད་གཏན་གྱི་སྐྱབས་གནས་རིན་པོ་ཆེ། །
lu-mey ten-gyi kyap-nay rin-po-ch’é
To the infallible, eternal and precious Sources of Refuge,
དབྱེར་མེད་སངས་རྒྱས་མགོན་པོ་འོད་དཔག་མེད། །
yer-mey sang-gyay gön-po ö-p’ak-mey
And to the Buddha Amitābha, our Protector, inseparable from them,
གསོལ་བ་འདེབས་སོ་འདི་ཕྱི་བར་དོ་ཡི། །
söl-wa dep-so di-ch’i bar-do yi
I pray: In this and future lives, and in the intermediate state (bardo),
ཕྱི་ནང་གསང་བའི་བར་ཆད་སེལ་བ་དང་། །
ch’i nang sang-wae bar-ch’ay sel-wa dang
Please dispel outer, inner and secret obstacles;
བདེ་ཆེན་ཞིང་དུ་སྐྱེ་བར་ཐུགས་རྗེས་བཟུང་། །
dé-ch’en zhing du kyé-war t’uk-jey zung
And out of your compassion, kindly accept my birth in Sukhāvatī, the Pure Land of Ultimate Bliss.
ཨོཾ་ཨཱ་མི་དྷེ་ཝ་ཨ་ཡུ་སིདྡྷི་ཧཱུྃ་ཧྲཱིཿ
OṂ ĀMIDHEVA AYU SIDDHI HŪṂ HRĪḤ
Acknowledgements:
This prayer was composed in November 2010 by Khenchen Lama Pelgyeypa Dorjé Rinpoche. It was first translated in November 2010, and later edited in February 2022. Translated from the Tibetan by E.R.R. Neiss.
© 2022 by Infinite Light of Compassion: The Pure Land TranslationBUDDHA OF FEELINGS
"You are the only Buddhist teacher that I know who admits to having emotional downs as well as ups'" she said. It may be that my vision of the Dharma is a little different. It is quite common in Buddhism to find teachers who advocate, either directly or by implication, the supression or elimination of the emotional viscissitudes of life, but that is not my way. I believe that Buddhist liberation is the liberation of the whole person, not merely of the supposedly more desirable parts. I hope we can live full and complete lives. If Nature gave us a faculty, it must have some legitimate function. Maybe, one day, one feels sad. Well, that is not so extraordinary - there are many sad things in samsara. Vimalakirti was sick for the woes of the world. That is the Mahayana - to feel the natural response to the reality. Have your feelings. Cry and laugh. Smile and frown. Rejoice and lament. Otherwise you will fall into striking a pose. Half of your being will fall into the shadow and while hidden in that shadow it will make mischief. There is absolutely nothing wrong with living one's life naturally. Namo Amida Bu.
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A CHANCE FOR PEACE? A NEW COLD WAR?
David Brazier:
Many unexpected things can happen in a war. The Russian invasion of Ukraine is not going as well as Russia planned or expected. In modern conventional warfare the advantage somewhat lies with the defender. I visited Sarajevo immediately after the Bosnian civil war. Every building was damaged and many demolished. The seige had lasted three years, but the Serbs never actually managed to take the city. The Americans did take Raqqa in Syria from ISIS, but demolished more than a third of the city in the process. The Russians are besieging cities, but have not yet achieved a major breakthrough. The Ukrainians are not exactly winning, but they are holding ground and both sides are taking heavy casualties. Could this be time for a ceasefire and peace deal? What might it look like?
If Russia kept enough territory in the east to give security to the Donbass and Crimea and agreed to withdraw its forces from all other areas, so that Kviv be spared further bombardment and Ukraine keep Odessa, one can imagine some kind of settlement. The difficulty would be in external relations. Would Ukraine still seek to join NATO? Would the Western world still go on penalising Russia while lavishing aid upon Ukraine? Both seem likely. In fact, last week there seemed to be some hint that a deal something like this was on the cards, but the Americans evidently did not like it. They want Ukraine in NATO and regime change in Russia. So the war must go on in the hope that Russia will be humiliated - which it might be - or bogged down in another endless war (like Afghanistan). However, this means that Russia cannot afford to stop fighting. If the prospective post-war situation is one in which Russia is jeopardised, then there is no incentive for Russia to cease, so the war may drag on and on. Alternatively, the Ukrainians, despite having put up a brave defence, may simply run out of supplies or endurance in the face of continuing Russian devastation.
In many trouble spots around the world situations have become irresolvable because of the influence of distant powers. No doubt Koreans would reunite their country if they were left alone, but China will not permit it if the united country might ally with America, nor America allow it if it might ally with China, so division is perpetuated by people who do not actually live there. Partition continues, both sides bristling with lethal armament out of mutual fear, all in order to satisfy Washington and Beijing.
The biggest danger is that we are drifting into a new Cold War with China, Russia and maybe Iran on one side and America and its allies on the other. The current war may be giving us an example of stalemate and mutual incomprehension and this may now spread to much of the planet. What a sad outcome that would be. Do we really need such pervasive enmity? In this samsaric world, dukkha is inevitable - there are always afflictions - but the challenge is to find a nirodha - a way of genuine peace - that can put us all on a good path together. That involves compromise and a certain humility that accepts that different countries have different systems and different value systems and that such differences should be respected. While some powerful groups are trying to impose their norms upon the whole world there will never be peace. Compromise is possible. Mutual respect could be restored. Otherwise the samsaric wheel just goes on turning, crushing millions of lives to futility.
The world is divided into nation states armed against one another. If global peace did break out, this division would be redundant. If nation states persisted at all, it would be simply for purposes of social administration. The question one asks is: Are humans actually capable ot living without enemies, or is conflict so built in as to be unavoidable?
"today’s global challenges require less polarisation and more cooperation."
Mo Henderson: Your article ‘Human Folly & the Need for Intelligence’ was brilliant David, thank you. I gave it to Peter and he thought so too. I often have a sense of wholehearted truth when I read your work and this was no exception. I believe this is partly knowing in an intellectual sense the present conditions in the world, but also (and probably a big part) sensing beneath my own ignorance the ‘heart of the matter’. It seems so important to be well informed and at the same time to practice living what the Buddha taught and acting with good intention for everyone.
Thank you for sharing in the way that you do and most of all thank you for being ‘you’