“In all my activities may I search my own mind and, as soon as an afflictive emotion arises endangering myself and others, may I firmly face and avert it.”
— Kadampa Geshé Langritangpa’s Eight Verses of Mind Cultivation.
(*I have in mind those irritatingly self-promoting academics of our times who are so incognizant of distinctions between metaphors, similes, analogies, parables, fables, plot lines, irony, etc., that they lump them into that nearly meaningless [because overworked] word “trope,” a word they toss off with an insouciant yawn or a snarl of practiced tedium. We may not be all that sure what real intellect is, but we know this is not it. Their assumption they expect us to share in is that plainly literal expository prose is the only language that does anything for us. It’s as if the poetics discussion had never taken place and wouldn’t make sense to any of us if it did. **We could very well expect a ‘What’s in it for me’ attitude, but what is needed is more like ‘How can we go about this the right way?’ and ‘Has this procedure proven to have a good track record?’)
His Holiness in a Mosque in Leh, Ladakh, 2022 |
The British Library website has this nice page of manuscript illuminations from a Peraldus manuscript, with explanations.I recommend to download at a higher density the illumination of the Christian knight with doves and demons from this page. There are a lot of surviving manuscripts of Peraldus’s works, so many library and university websites have put up complete or partial scans that you can find if you look.
(*This happened at an exhibit in the British Museum at the turn of the 3rd millennium. I was so intrigued by that page of Peraldus I had to purchase the heavy catalog and lug it home, where it can still be found: Frances Carey, ed., The Apocalypse and the Shape of Things to Come, British Museum Press [London 1999]. The Christian Knight may be seen in full color on p. 73. **Klesha therapeutics have featured several times in earlier Tibeto-logic blogs, for instance this one.)
On the “Beastie Boys”:More laughs were to come when Mike D. shared the story behind the band’s name. It’s an acronym for “Boys Entering Anarchistic States Towards Inner Excellence.” And yes, he admitted, “it was a stupid name.”No it wasn’t. That said, am I required to like the music?
PS: Over a decade ago there was a sharp and edgy blog I enjoyed reading called “Buddhist Jihad.” I thought it was lost forever, but you can still get access to it via the Way Back Machine. It isn’t for the irony-challenged. But that’s not you, not if you’re here.
PPS: Oh wait, the original is still up there. You can find it here.
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PPPS (September 14, 2022):
For those who want to see the original Tibetan of the verse from Langritangpa (གླང་རི་ཐང་པ་རྡོ་རྗེ་སེང་གེ, 1054-1123 CE) at the head of this blog, here it is:
སྤྱོད་ལམ་ཀུན་ཏུ་རང་རྒྱུད་ལ། །རྟོག་ཅིང་ཉོན་མོངས་སྐྱེས་མ་ཐག །བདག་གཞན་མ་རུངས་བྱེད་པས་ན། །བཙན་ཐབས་གདོང་ནས་བཟློག་པར་ཤོག །
I’d like to underscore the use of the term btsan-thabs, a key word in this context, that might be literally translated forceful method[s], although in general practice it is most likely to be used for physiological or breath exercises of the yogic kinds. In this particular case, it is about dealing with negative emotional events as they arise within us, and have nothing to do with retaliation against external threats. If you need more convincing, just turn to any Stages of the Path (lam-rim) work, and turn to the section on the six Transcendent Perfections (Phar-phyin drug), then narrow in on the part about forbearance (bzod-pa). Then we can talk back all we want about Buddhists who clearly don’t live up to the ethical standards of aspiring bodhisattvas, and when we do, let’s go back to cultivating forbearance before it gets too late.
Pay attention to who is speaking the following words, a political power broker if there ever was one who accepts the label ‘extremism’ with pride:
“I do not respect the Dalai Lama. He’s a political power broker. The Dalai Lama is not honorable to me.”
But quickly, before we allow this firebrand ultranationalist anti-Muslim (who has meanwhile been tried for sedition and released ahead of time) put us into a defensive or offensive mood or inspire our anger (or even, over the longer term, hatred), let’s go to the chapter I recommended on forbearance. Best would be the latest translation of Gampopa’s 12th-century Stages of the Path text, the one that has lately appeared under the title Ornament of Precious Liberation, but any of the 3 or 4 earlier published translations could be good enough, I think, for this purpose.
Near the beginning of Chapter 14: The Perfection of Forbearance:
... “Anger that has found a niche inside someone lacking forbearance is like the festering wound of a poisoned arrow. The mind thus afflicted knows no joy, no peace, and in the end the person cannot even find rest in sleep. Thus it is said:
“The anger dwelling within someone lacking forbearance will also show on the outside as a violent demeanor. Through this, friends, relatives, and employees all become fed up with the angry person...”
I hope that will be enough to get the idea, but really, go and soak up the whole chapter, I urge you. And pay attention to the fact that forbearance (Pâli khanti) is a much-emphasized virtue in Theravâda Buddhism as well. We shouldn’t let the poor Burmese monk off the hook for the wrong reason.
And rest assured that the universally Buddhist term we translate (regardless of source language), as ‘forbearance’ includes within its definitional boundaries both toleration and patience. Some even render it as ‘long-suffering’ — this rather out-of-date English term is likely to be misinterpreted by our contemporaries. If it were not for that, it could serve just as well.
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PPPPS (September 16, 2022):
His Holiness the 14th Dalai Lama of Tibet has just returned from a tour of Ladakh and Zanskar where He addressed and dialogued with primarily Muslim audiences in Shey, Ladakh, and Padum, Zangskar. You can see and hear them by pressing on the links, I hope. The Shey is in English.