Bhumisparsha Mudrā
Bhumisparsha Mudrā | photo of statue, June 23, 2011
Siddhartha resisted every temptation Mara could devise. The lord of desire had one final test. He demanded to know who would testify that Siddhartha was worthy of attaining ultimate wisdom. And his demon army rose up to support him. Siddhartha said nothing. He reached down and touched the ground, and the earth shuddered. Mara’s demons fled.
see also: Bhumisparsha Mudrā update 7/17 -
whats more: Bhumisparsha Mudrā update | Life of Zen
earth touching
This gesture calls upon the earth to witness Shakyamuni Buddha's enlightenment at Bodh Gaya. The right hand reaches toward the ground, palm inward.
मुद्रा
A mudrā (Sanskrit: मुद्रा "seal", "mark", or "gesture") is a symbolic or ritual gesture in Hinduism and Buddhism. While some mudrās involve the entire body, most are performed with the hands and fingers. A mudrā is a spiritual gesture and an energetic seal of authenticity employed in the iconography and spiritual practice of Indian religions and traditions of Dharma and Taoism.
TheBuddhaPBS's Channel - THE BUDDHA: Enlightenment, part 2
Jane Hirshfield, poet: "He sat down under a bodhi tree in the shelter of the natural world in all of its beauty and fullness, and he said I will not move from this place until I have solved my problem."
“Let my skin and sinews and bones dry up, together with all the flesh and blood of my body! I welcome it! But I will not move from this spot until I have attained the supreme and final wisdom."
All at once, Mara, lord of desire, rose to challenge him. With an army of demons he attacked. Siddhartha did not move, and their weapons turned into flowers.
D. Max Moerman, scholar: "Mara is the ruler of this realm of desire, this world that we all live in and what he’s afraid Siddhartha is going to do when he attains enlightenment and becomes the Buddha is conquer that world, that is he’s going to do away with desire. He’s going to wreck the whole game."
Mara did not give up. He sent his three daughters to seduce him. Siddhartha remained still.
Mark Epstein, psychiatrist: "When he faces Mara he faces himself and his own destructive capacity. But he’s not the warrior trying to do battle with those qualities. He has discovered his own capacity for equanimity. He has become like the top of the Great Himalayan Mountains; the weather is passing over him, storms are raging around him, and he sits like the top of the mountain impassive, not in a trance state, you know, totally aware of everything. So he frustrates Mara."
TheBuddhaPBS's Channel - THE BUDDHA: Enlightenment, part 3
Siddhartha resisted every temptation Mara could devise. The lord of desire had one final test. He demanded to know who would testify that Siddhartha was worthy of attaining ultimate wisdom. And his demon army rose up to support him. Siddhartha said nothing. He reached down and touched the ground, and the earth shuddered. Mara’s demons fled.
W.S. Merwin, poet: "The Buddha reaches down, and with his finger, touches the earth. He says, 'The earth is my witness.' He said, 'Mara, you are not the earth. The earth is right here beneath my finger,' and the earth is what we're talking about. Accepting the earth, not owning the earth, not possessing the earth, but the earth just as it is, abused and exploited and despised and rejected and, plowed and mined and shat on and everything else, you know. It's still the earth, and it is, we owe everything to it."
Siddhartha meditated throughout the night, and all his former lives passed before him.
Robert Tenzin Thurman, scholar: "He remembered all his previous lives—infinite number of lives—female and male and every other race and every other being in the vast ocean of life forms. And he remembered all that viscerally so that means his awareness expanded until all the moments of the past were completely present to him."
D. Max Moerman, scholar: "He gains the power to see the process of birth, death, and rebirth that all creatures go through. He’s given this sort of cosmic vision of the workings of the entire universe."
As the morning star appeared, he roared like a lion. "My mind," he said, "is at peace." The heavens shook, and the Bodhi tree rained down flowers. He had become the “awakened one”—the Buddha.
Mark Epstein, psychiatrist: "Something new opens up for him which he calls Nirvana, which he calls Awakening."
Jane Hirshfield, poet: "He said, at this moment all beings and I awaken together. So it was not just him. It was all the universe. He touched the earth. 'As earth is my witness. Seeing this morning star, all things and I awaken together.'"
Thurman: "It’s not like entering a new state; it’s uncovering or surrendering to the reality that has always been there. He realized he’d always been in Nirvana that Nirvana was always the case; your reality itself is Nirvana. It’s the unreality; it’s your ignorance that makes you think you’re this self-centered separate being trying to fight off an overwhelming universe and failing. You are that universe."
Epstein: "You’re already enlightened. He’s saying the capacity for enlightenment, that your awake-ness already exists within you."
Hirshfield: "Nirvana is this moment seen directly. There is no where else than here. The only gate is now. The only doorway is your own body and mind. There’s nowhere to go. There’s nothing else to be. There’s no destination. It’s not something to aim for in the afterlife. It’s simply the quality of this moment."
Merwin: "Just this, just this, this room where we are. Pay attention to that. Pay attention to who's there, pay attention to what isn't known there, pay attention to what is known there, pay attention to what everyone is thinking and feeling, what you're doing there, and pay attention. Pay attention."
Young Urban Zen - City Center - San Francisco Zen Center
"Young Urban Zen is a new group under the auspices of the San Francisco Zen Center, with a particular focus on those between 25 and 35. We’ll be meeting Monday nights to meditate together, discuss our experience of Zen practice, and find out what makes it worthwhile for us. The group is built on the notion that, if you’re going to study yourself, then it’s a good idea to engage with other people who are doing the same."
• Young Urban Zen Facebook page
Peace Through Inner Peace - His Holiness the Dalai Lama, public talk
His Holiness the Dalai Lama's public talk given at the University of Minnesota in Minneapolis, Minnesota, USA, on May 8, 2011. Prior to his talk, the University of Minnesota presented an honorary Doctor of Humane Letters degree to His Holiness. (www.dalailama.com)
YouTube - Peace Through Inner Peace - University of Minnesota
Video courtesy of the Tibetan American Foundation of Minnesota and the University of Minnesota.
Where science meets Buddhism: emptiness, interconnectivity and the nature of reality
- Buddha Weekly: "'There is a large discrepancy between how we perceive reality and how reality actually exists.' So begins this rather interesting video on the common thread of emptiness, interconnectivity and the nature of reality between Buddhism and Science. Science and Buddhism do often appear to be aligned and non-contradictory, especially given [that] Einstein['s] wrote, in The Human Side, 'If there is any religion that could cope with modern scientific needs it would be Buddhism.'"
Buddha Weekly | Where science meets Buddhism: emptiness, interconnectivity and the nature of reality
more
Tricycle: What makes Buddhism revolutionary?"
Captain Karma vs. The One-Percenters: An Interview with Noah Levine
"This month at the Tricycle Book Club we are discussing Noah Levine's new book, The Heart of the Revolution. Last week, I was very happy to get an opportunity to sit and talk with Noah...
The Ino's Blog: Study Hall - Shobogenzo
June 13, 2011
"In this way, you let go of yourself for the sake of dharma without knowing how many thousands of times you do so. You seek dharma for the sake of yourself without knowing in how many billions of eons you do so. This is the vital activity of following a teacher. This is the activity of practicing yourself and following yourself...
To speak of dharma and practice for others is to hear dharma, to clarify dharma, and to realize dharma, birth after birth. If you have a sincere heart in speaking of dharma to others in this birth, your attaining dharma is easy. Or, if you assist and support others hearing dharma, your study of dharma receives a wholesome effect. You receive the effect in your body and in your mind...
This being so, if you hear a phrase from someone in a far-eastern region, speak it for another in a far-western region. Endeavor in hearing and speaking equally with a single self. Practice and realize an east self and a west self.
Rejoice, hope for, and have the aspiration for bringing buddha ancestors' dharma, the ancestral way, closer to your body and mind. Extend this practice from one hour to one day, then to one year and to one lifetime. Make buddha ancestors' dharma the essential spirit and play with it. This is to live your life meaningfully".
from 'Self-Realization Samadhi' ('Jisho Zammai') ~ Dōgen Zenji
right-mindfulness & breath-mindfulness
Buddha-Bhumisparsha_Mudra-5x7.jpg
work in progress
For final versions see: Bhumisparsha Mudrā update | Life of Zen
Satipatthana
Satipaṭṭhāna is a way of implementing the right mindfulness (sammā-sati) and, less directly, the right concentration (sammā-samādhi) parts of the Noble Eightfold Path. Satipaṭṭhāna meditation develops the mental factors of vipassana (insight) and samatha (calm). Satipaṭṭhāna is practiced most often in the context of Theravada Buddhism although the principles are also practiced in most traditions of Buddhism which emphasize meditation such as the Sōtō Zen tradition.
Anapanasati Sutta
The Ānāpānasati Sutta (Pāli) or Ānāpānasmṛti Sūtra (Sanskrit), 'Breath-Mindfulness Discourse,' is a discourse that details the Buddha's instruction on using the breath (anapana) as a focus for meditation.
see also
• Bhumisparsha Mudrā update | Life of Zen
• whats more: Workshop at the Zen Center with Issho Fujita
• Master of the Shakuhachi & about Zen & Buddhism
• more buddhist art -
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Just out of curiosity, have you ever considered Jainism?
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