March 16, 2009 Rely on the teacher’s message,
not the personality.
Rely on the meaning,
not just the words.
Rely on the real meaning,
not the provisional one.
Rely on your wisdom mind,
not your ordinary, judgmental mind.
March 14, 2009 Yesterday I was doing some research for "Here Sweetie, Have a Gun for Your Fifth Birthday." I could have said "for your third" or “for your first” birthday, but I decided no one would believe me. The fifth birthday was unbelievable enough.
I’m from the U.S. so I did some more research on children and hunting, this time for the U.S. As we all know, parents taking their young children hunting is hardly just an Australian occurrence. On the state of Vermont website I found the following fee schedule:
A resident or nonresident lifetime fishing, hunting, or combination fishing and hunting license may be obtained from the Fish & Wildlife Department. Fees are as follows:
for children under 1 year old = 5X current adult license price.
for children 1-15 years old = 15X current adult license price.
for adults 16-24 years old = 30X current adult license price.
for adults 25-64 years old = 25X current adult license price.
What on earth are we teaching our children! Apparently in Vermont, a one year-old child can have a license to hunt.
This week in the news is a story of seventeen year-old boy in Germany who shot and killed fifteen schoolchildren and then shot himself. He had taken the gun from his father's collection of sixteen. In Alabama in the US, a man shot dead eleven people: seven family members then three people he didn’t even know, and finally himself.
The very understandable reaction to these tragedies has been shock, anger, grief, and disbelief. How could this happen? The commonly-heard comment after such tragedies is “I never would have thought he would do something like this. He seemed like a pretty avarage kid.”
Maybe in today’s world, where children aged three and five go hunting with their fathers, where babies can get a hunting license, where teenagers play games in which they perfect their skills at killing virtual people, for many people this is the terrible new “normal.”
March 13, 2009 
A few years ago, I was speaking to group of about twenty Australians. We were deep in the heart of a state forest, surrounded by pine trees and listening to the sounds of the breeze rustling through the pine needles and the ever-present birds. I had just concluded a Dharma talk and people were raising questions and discussing what had been said in the talk. It was a safe environment, one in which everyone felt comfortable with one another as most were friends and the strangers had soon felt at ease.
One newcomer raised a question about parents and after my response he replied that he had been abused as a child. After he spoke, another person said she too had been abused. As each person spoke, it was gradually revealed that with the exception of two people, myself and a gentleman from the UK, every person had experienced some form of abuse, neglect, or abandonment as a child.
The gentleman spoke fondly of his mother and of the wonderful meals she had cooked for her children. I remembered forays into the woods like the one we were in with my father who taught me to identify various leaves and who had posted his property with “No hunting” signs. But apparently we were very much in the minority, the two people who had good childhoods. Eighteen others had experienced very different childhoods.
Amazing.
And terribly frightening. And sad.
Since that day, I have had several discussions with this gentleman about the high level of family abuse here. Was it because of the isolation of few people in a large country and the absence of a good support system? Was it related to alcohol and drug abuse? A failure of public education? Is it something built into the culture since the arrival of Europeans and even before as suggested by Carolyn Worth from the Victorian Centres Against Sexual Assault (CASA) Forum in an ABC interview?
On March 11th on the Herald Sun website is an article “More Victorian families taking children hunting.” There is a poll on the page with the question: Should children be encouraged to shoot animals? It’s a simple poll with only two choices: “Yes, it is character building” and “No, it's too brutal.” I checked the latter, clicked submit, and saw the current results.
And was horrified.
Out of a total of total of 15280 votes, 89% (13648 votes) said “Yes.” Only 10% (1632 votes) said “No.”
Almost ninety percent of responders thought it okay to encourage children to shoot animals, that it built character. As the person who emailed me about the poll said, this was probably not an accurate representation of Australians as a whole, but due somewhat to the newspaper’s demographics.
But whether the number is 90% or 50% or whatever, children as young as three years old were going out with their fathers and watching as animals were killed. One person interviewed for the article said “You do get a lot of kids out with their dads as it is a traditional family activity.”
A traditional family activity. That "builds character."
(Picture from the Herald Sun)
March 12, 2009 Quandry: I am very new to meditating and chanting, and have had no formal instruction in either. I've been raised in a protestant tradition, which leaves aside use of items such as malas/rosaries or statues/icons of any kind, as these are seen as temptations toward 'idol worship.' I may be overstating the matter, but because of being raised in this tradition I feel hesitant to introduce the use of a mala into my meditative practice or to bring a statue of the Buddha into my home. I am torn, because I feel a yearning to do these things despite my learned hesitation.
Response: The reader who wrote the above didn't ask a question but rather was posing a not uncommon quandry regarding malas/nianju and images of the Buddhas and bodhisattvas.
It's difficult when one is raised in a belief system that leads to discomfort with some of the practices in another belief systems that one feels drawn to. Perhaps viewing Buddhism as a teaching for ending suffering and for awakening to universal truths, and not as another religion would help a bit.
Buddhists use nianju or malas as a means to focus while chanting or simply to keep track of the number of recitations: sort of an early calculator. Many people like to set a goal for chanting, for example, 100,000 chants of "Amituofo." The longer nianju has 108 beads. Chinese nianju also have ten small counter beads. So in the past, people would use both the main beads and the counter beads to keep track of how many recitations they did.
I have to say that while I tend to be over the top in counting things, I don't use my nianju for this. My main use is when I am in a meeting or with someone who is asking me about something or simply with a group of people all speaking Chinese. ;-) I find using my beads helps me to concentrate while chanting. Having a habit of doing this, my body remembers "I'm moving the beads and chanting, so I should be calming down." So using the beads helps me return to the calmer state of my chanting. For me it's a memory aid.
Apparently, this also worked for my mother. Mom grew up at a time when if you left the house to go out, you needed to put on make-up and a bit of jewelry. One time she was at a very stressful christening. She had a collection of nianju and had slipped one on each arm that morning. She later told me that as the tension during the preparations had increased, she had taken off a nianju and began chanting. As the tension continued to increase, she took off the other one and was chanting with a nianju in each hand! She was used to seeing me chant by this time and being a very practical woman, did the obvious: if one nianju was calming, two had to be even more helpful.
So whether for counting or finding a sense of calm or chanting "peace" or a Buddha's name, ninaju are simply cultivation aids.
The Buddha and bodhisattva images are teaching aids. When I look at the serene image of a Buddha, I remember that if I want that same sense of tranquility and great ease with the world, I need to awaken. I'm not trying to become a deity, I'm simply trying to reach the perfect nature that is already within me. The two Pure Land bodhisattvas remind me that I need to be compassionate and temper it with wisdom. So I need to develop both as they are complementary.
That said, if someone prefers not to have a Buddha or bodhisattva image or is uncomfortable with one, a clear glass of clear water to remind us that we need to have a pure, calm mind will do very well as the sole object during meditation. Or a flower or incense or a candle can be used. Or simple sit in meditation without any cultivation aids.
Start with what feels comfortable. As the comfort level increases, something else can be added if so desired.
March 9, 2009
~ Based on the teachings of Venerable Master Chin Kung