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the 3 refuges

 

The 3 refuges the 3 jewels Tisarana or TRIRATNA (pali)

Intensely practical: The 3 jewels are not just theory (dharma) but also practice (the community/ sangha) and example (the Buddha)

 

The Buddha (yellow jewel)

  • idea of Buddhahood, life of Gautama, (esp Theravada= Buddga is always human)- inspiration/ example/ role model, guide , founder, destiny.
  • Seeing the Buddha as teacher (going for refuge) committing to Buddha
  • Buddhahood- for the sake of all beings (from our current position, we can all be enlightened- the Buddha has shown us the way)

 

I go to the Buddha for refuge (Buddham Saranam gacchami) sarana = refuge

Ie: gain strength (not escape) refresh

 

Dharma (sanskrit) (blue jewel) Dhamma -pali

  • Unmediated TRUTH (as experienced by the enlightened mind)
  • The literal teaching of the Buddha beginning at SARNATH in Northern India (the “first turning of the wheel of Dharma”)
  • All the Buddhist scriptures (Buddha’s life” the pali canon, the Dhammapada, the diamond Sutra, the Tibetan book of the dead etc
  • The practices – “learning to do good; ceasing to do evil; purifying the heart” (Dhammapada)
  • (there are no higher teachings only deeper realisations- Sangharakshita)

 

Sangha (red jewel)

  • spiritual community /personal teachers
  • kayana mitrata (friendship thtat is beautiful)
  • Buddhism is not an abstract creed but a practical path. Its practice lies in people hence the need for the community

The Noble ones (arya Sangha) Bodhisattvas: Avalokitesvara (compassion- often shown with 4/8/1000 arms to help all living beings) Manjusri (wisdom- carries a sword to cut ignorance)

 

These 3 become central principles in life

 

More detail:

The importance of the Buddha:

The life story of the Buddha is a hagiography to guide the community

Theravada: the Buddha is human and his actions an example

“work out your own salvation with diligence”

the Buddha has supernatural powers- abhinnas which we can reach too.

 

Mahayana Buddhism- less interest in the life of Gautama. More about the meaning and activity of the Buddha NOW: the transcendent Buddha with 3 bodies (TRIKAYA)

Semi-spiritual (nirmanakaya)

Heavenly manifestation of the Buddha (sambhogakaya)

Ultimate expression (Dharmakaya)

we can depend on the Buddha as the vehicle of our salvation (he is divine)

In PURE LAND Buddhism the AMIDA Buddha lives in the Buddha universe.

Nembutsu (contemplation of the amida Buddha)

 

This contemplation is the main practice of pure land buddhism

 

Zen and Tibetan Buddhism: we must attain our own Buddha nature

Zen and HUA YEN Buddhism think of many Buddhas and Buddha universes- all interconnected

 

 

The importance of the Dhamma -pali (Dharma- sanskrit)

This can be confusing** It means different things for each branch of Buddhism

The Buddha constantly reminds people that it is the SPIRIT OF THE RULES that count

1) Teaching- sasana later the pali canon

3 sections: each called pitakas (baskets)

vinaya Pitaka= rules for monks (eg: patimokkha- the oral traditions & texts like: kasyapiya, dharmaguptaka, sarvastivada)

sutta pitaka teachings from the life of Gautama

abhidhamma pitaka- philosophical section

 

The teachings led to splinter groups forming in Buddhism right from the start

Eg: His brother DEVETTA criticized Gautama and led his own rival group

Many groups sprang up after the death of Gautama

 

2) Mahayana has a huge collection of texts in Prakit (the original language used by Jains) Sanskrit (the liturgical language of Hinduism), Chinese

 

3) Tibetan Buddhists (VAJRAYANA- “diamond or thunderbolt vehicle”)

use the Kangyur = “translation of word”(108 volume book- the words of the Buddha) and the Tengyur =“translation of text” (225 volumes)

these include stotras (hymns, tantras = esoteric traditions, word often translated as “practice”)

– the Vajrayana tradition uses the Mūlasarvāstivāda Vinaya which has 253 rules for monks and 364 for nuns

 

4) zen:

Lankavatara Sutra, esp in Japan, conversation between Gauntama and Haamati (great wisdom) – the importance of consciousness

vimalakirti sutra, instruction or advice- value of silence

avatamsaka sutra, “flower garland sutra”- idea of many Buddha universes/ realms – power of meditation (books 7-12 emphasise the importance of the 4 noble truths (Dukkha, samudaya, Nirodha, magga) as the basis for enlightenment

lotus sutra, first book to use the term Mahayana/ great vehicle. All beings are potential buddhas

platform sutra, Chinese book (8-13th Century)about perceiving our true nature

koan tradition– dialogue The Zen master knows the meaning of all and every koans because (by definition) he’s enlightened. The Zen student has to meditate with hundreds of koans in order to become enlightened himself. Buddhist Koans are summaries of legends about Buddhist monks in China, created, edited and first written down in 11th century

example of koan: “What is the sound of one hand clapping?

 

bey 3

EDI RAMA

When I was last in Tirana, I tried to make a record of the buildings coloured in what appears to be Dazzle Camouflage by their Mayor, Edi Rama, elected at 36 in 2000. Since 2013, he has been the Socialist Prime Minister and now I believe is taking advice from Alistair Campbell as he seeks re-election and entry to Europe.

EDI Rama by TIM.jpg

The picture below showing the Mayor’s offices was finished a few weeks’ later as I was recovering from a botched Appendectomy in Oxford. I stepped off the plane from Tirana complaining of food-poisoning by BA. Instead, my appendix burst and I had to deal with peritonitis. I went back a couple of times after this I think and there should soon be enough sketches to complete our EDWARD LEAR film about a journey from Istanbul to Albania in 1848. The film will copmpare the views Lear drew with the smae views drawn over the last 15 years. The views of the various sketches will be interrupted by musical numbers based on Lear’s poems and set by David Watson in a style that should recapture the spirit of the 19th Century music hall. Throughout the film, an animated Edward Lear will deliver some sort of commentary… I hope this will end up as the very first fully-animated documentary.

One of the first things Edi Rama did as mayor was to restore the Ethem Bey Mosque which can be glimpsed here. Lear drew at least two views of the Mosque, then surrounded by trees.

Tirana-Skanderbeg square and etham Bey by TIM

woodrow wilson and edi rama by TIM.jpg

 

Standing against racism and prejudice

The Labour MP, Mary Creagh, is quite right to say we should be standing up to racism and prejudice wherever we find it. I entirely agree with her. What she is wrong to do is to imply that this stand is something particularly of the left, or is the preserve of Labour and she cheapens her call by throwing in concerns about the NHS and schooling. She comes out with a strange line, “immigration has become the proxy for a failure to fund public service and a failure to give people a pay rise.” She then says “politicians have a responsibility not to inflame the rhetoric.” I do not know, therefore, what she thinks she is doing with all her own rhetoric but her criticism of UKIP which should have been the main point of her message somehow, as a result, comes across as an afterthought. She is absolutely well-within her rights to point a finger of blame at UKIP’s immigration chief (an oxymoron if ever one could be imagined), John Bickley who said apparently, “if you want a Jehadi for a neighbour, vote labour in the Stoke on Trent by-election”. Outrageous! And- well- Bickley is just wrong, and if the exposure of Paul Nuttall’s repeated indiscretions might once have enlisted sympathy, I trust with the sort of nastiness implicit in Bickley’s alleged advice, it will do so no longer. If he wants to salvage this election, Nuttall must silence Bickley and distance himself publicly from these views, because this is one of those failings that he cannot blame on an assistant. And even if, God forbid, he succeeded in his bid to be elected in Stoke, he will forever be tainted with racism. Bickley’s saying confirms UKIP’s racism.

mary-creagh-by-tim

So, maybe it is time to call it a day. UKIP achieved what it wanted in the referendum and its rebranding under Nuttall shows itself to be abhorrent and wrong. It is time for right-thinking UKIPers to jump ship. Nothing good can come of Nuttall now.

There have been many calls among Conservatives to stand up against racism and prejudice. The conservatives, after all, are the party that has given us not one but two women leaders, the party that pushed through gay-marriage legislation. And I think we have come along way since Andrew Lansley said there was “endemic racism” in the party. I think, incidentally, that he was wrong then, but I know he would be wrong now.

UKIP and arguably the referendum process has certainly unleashed a wave of racism, and has opened up the immigration debate, but I hope that does not mean Conservatives promote or encourage racism and prejudice. I believe we shall find ways to combat this madness.

Sajid Javid, for instance, rather brilliantly spoke of the necessity to eradicate “oblique” prejudice- he urged “every decent Briton of any faith or none to join us all in the battle against extremism and anti-Semitism… the Holocaust did not begin in the gas chambers of Auschwitz and Treblinka. Indiscrimate killing is simply where hatred, left unchecked, reaches its tragic conclusion.”And it was another Conservative, baroness Sayeeda Warsi who despaired that Islamophobia was becoming “socially acceptable.” To recognise a trend is not to endorse it. Indeed, to recognise that we have a problem is the first step we must take together towards solving it!

It is the Labour party that had a recent anti-semitic problem, not the conservatives. It is Corbyn who has attended events with Holocaust deniers. What we have seen is the growth of an “anti-racist” credo which is not the same as nurturing inclusion and tolerance. Rather than positive reinforcement, it provides yet another group for the mob to attack and by lumping things together, it tends to soften the impact of what Bickley has said.

Let’s just repeat it again, because I have said it before in previous posts: UKIP’s current leaders promote racism. It is clear. It is documented and it is wrong.

The Garage is empty

Just as the Prime Minister promises a new future, the past turns up like a soiled doily, that simply refuses to flush away.

Farage returns as a tired revamp of Dracula AD 72, proving as last time that there is no trusting this man whether he promises to resign or not. Is this “Farage the sequel”,”Farage returns”, “Farage 3” or “Farage forever”? No, after Brighton, this is a man whose tag is, “just when you thought it was safe to go back in the water”! And the Farage mouth is again snapping at the anchorman. With this one difference- this is Farage without teeth. He sums up, as ever, the fate of his party.

The toothless, wizened, tired spectre of Farage. The empty shall of a wide-mouthed man. The garage with the door ajar and the sprightly jag gone.

headlights

For me, one of the entertaining aspects of the story is to see Paul Oakden, a man I knew as Farage’s henchman, lording it over the media as the UKIP chairman, desperate to square the circle that is Diane James. Oakden, once physically a pale reflection of Paul Nuttall, has embraced stubble above and below the hairline but he remains the same Oakden. What a long way he has come in such a short time! Only just 18 months ago, he was the man delegated to silence me. He was the man making promises on behalf of his leader that neither he nor Farage have so far honoured. I have long since given up hope that either will keep their word, and I fear I am not the only one.

Has no one told Farage about the boy who cried wolf? Resignation is a card you can play once. It is not a game of snap!

Thank God, then for Boris, who may not now lead the Conservatives, but who certainly put a spoke in the UKIP wheel and left it immobilised. It is a bike with a broken wheel, and today, without a viable saddle. Today, we see one more tumble in the slow-motion crash that has been Boris’s masterstroke! Boris took on the mantle of Farage: He might have feared it was poisoned and that like some Herculean hero, he would go down fighting, but he took that risk and went down in style, eclipsing Farage in every way. I think history will be kind to Boris, because after the current aborted resurrection, Farage, barely human, even after exposing himself in Brighton, leads a pitiful ghost of a party, with little aim, precious value and a heightened reputation for thuggishness and deceit at the highest level.

I joined UKIP because I feared a party led by Farage was one of the biggest dangers to the UK today and I could not sit idly by. I also felt that some of its aims were laudable enough, particularly its fondness for Grammar schools, though I have always been less comfortable with Brexit itself, but the die is now cast. Today, however, we celebrate the collapse of the party that set Brexit in motion. Who wants to lead this mess? Certainly not Diane James. And it is clear the party does not want Suzanne Evans, dumped unceremoniously last year; Stephen Woolfe was tricked out of the ballot only this year and the only sitting MP, a man of great principle, despite his ditching the party that made him electable in the first place, Douglas Carswell is himself as itchy as poisoned ivy. At their conference, fellow UKIPpers kept a safe distance even when he promised loyalty to the new leader. That did not last long! It is only when everyone doubts your allegiance that anyone ever expects you to pledge it.

So, while I might bemoan the loss of her majesty’s loyal opposition in the nonsense peddled by Mr Corbyn and his cronies, there is only one word that comes to mind about UKIP and it is Thatcher’s: “Rejoice!“ Simply rejoice!