--- In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, TurquoiseB <no_re...@...> wrote:
>
> --- In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, "jpgillam" <jpgillam@> wrote:
> >
> > --- In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, Vaj wrote:
> > >
> > > On Sep 2, 2009, at 9:45 AM, jpgillam wrote:
> > >
> > > > What does it say that there are no
> > > > Buddhist or zen groups on the list below?
> > >
> > > [snip]
> > >
> > > Hordes of TMers have taken up Buddhist or other kinds of Hindu
> > > meditation.
> >
> > So why are there not scads of Buddhist groups
> > on Doug's list? I don't expect zen zealots to
> > relocate to Fairfield, Iowa, but I would expect
> > a few former TMers who live there to form zen groups.
>
> All snark aside, Patrick, two of the reasons
> you might not see Buddhist "groups" in an
> (let's face it) out-of-the-way, largely
> uninteresting tiny town in Iowa are:
>
> 1) On the whole, Buddhists don't proselytize.
> The overall feeling is that people find their
> Way to Buddhism; it doesn't actively go out and
> try to recruit them.
>
> 2) Again on the whole, there is no mythology
> about the benefits of "group practice." Buddha's
> real contribution to the lore of self discovery
> was "DIY" -- Do It Yourself. You don't *need* a
> group around you to feel good about your spirit-
> ual practice or form of meditation. There is no
> perceived benefit -- to the practitioner or to
> the world -- of doing one's Zazen practice in
> a group as opposed to doing it oneself, alone,
> wherever one happens to be.
That must be why, on Buddhist meditation retreats,
you don't get to meditate in your room but must
come to the meditation hall--the zendo--and meditate
with everybody else, right? And why there are so many
local Buddhist meditation groups at which everyone
meditates together?
The Three Jewels (Refuges)
I go to the Buddha for refuge.
I go to the Dharma for refuge.
I go to the Sangha for refuge.
("Sangha" is the Buddhist community.)
<snip>
> Buddhists just don't think that way. If there were
> a group of 2000 Buddhists living in the same area
> in the Midwest, I doubt that the myth that they
> were somehow "saving the world" via their practice
> would ever come up. Buddhists would think of the
> very *idea* of that as self importance and ego,
> and thus as something to be worked on and removed
> from their consciousness, not strengthened and
> developed further.
Right, Buddhists don't ever think they're "saving
the world."
On Bodhicitta, The Compassionate Heart
of the Enlightened Mind
It is the supreme elixir
That overcomes the sovereignty of death.
It is the inexhaustible treasure
That eliminates poverty in the world.
It is the supreme medicine
That quells the world's disease.
It is the tree that shelters all beings
Wandering and tired on the path of conditioned existence.
It is the universal bridge
That leads to freedom from unhappy states of birth.
It is the dawning moon of the mind
That dispels the torment of disturbing conceptions.
It is the great sun that finally removes the misty ignorance
of the world.
--Shantideva, Bodhisattvacharya Avatara
Bodhisattva Vow
However innumerable sentient beings are,
I vow to save them.
However inexhaustible the defilements are,
I vow to extinguish them.
However immeasurable the dharmas are,
I vow to master them.
However incomparable enlightenment is,
I vow to attain it.
