Tuesday, March 17, 2020
Stressed By Disease?
Several life-threatening diseases like the ongoing COVID-19 coronavirus, lifestyle-related and other cancers, as well as heart conditions, and other communicable diseases that can turn life threatening, are causing more stress than ever before, not only in patients and caregivers but also in people who are well. Apart from being a financial drain on most patients and their families, such illnesses cause acute emotional stress due to the pessimism and fatalism associated with such diseases.
That is why increasingly, in India and in some other countries, patients and their families take refuge in spiritual healing and experience heightened inclination towards prayer and religion. Most doctors in India do not find this strange; some even promote holistic healing as that may help patients deal better with the challenge.
A Noida-based oncologist says, “Spirituality and religion are very personal issues. Doctors and caregivers need to respect patients’ religious and spiritual beliefs and concerns. Faith can be a huge stress buster for all concerned.
The True Cause Of Pain And Suffering
One thing i notice about pain its façade of illusion. Its grim face makes it appear real. But it is not real. There is a duality to pain which distorts the Truth underlying everything. This duality is so entrenched, it has become a fact of life. Wherever pleasure comes, pain is lurking, waiting to cast its ominous shadow. Observe how quickly too much pleasure produces a bitter aftertaste which, if taken to extremes, provokes pain and suffering. Indeed, Sri Aurobindo calls pain and pleasure the “same thing”. They are just “differently reproduced in the sensations and emotions.”
How are they the same thing? Because they both mask the delight of Ananda, the Truth behind all existence. At the root of the malady lies our separation from the soul. We cannot find our essence and so cannot find our soul. The surface keeps pulling us out. We are masked from delight, which gets misinterpreted and rendered into the duality of pleasure and pain. Both states are only twisted from the true state of Oneness and bliss.
Until we find our soul, we will always fall prey to a variety of impacts and forces. The circuitry of our nature needs mastering by something much greater.
Intrusions will always knock on our door, but as long as the surface nature presides, there will be a faulty reception to them and it will lead to pain. The weakness of our consciousness manifesting in our nature is the cause of pain and suffering. The circuitry gets overloaded. Our nature is subject to division which creates “an egoistic and piecemeal instead of a universal reception of contacts by the individual.”
The orientation of our consciousness proves decisive. When turned upward, the Mother says, the pain vanishes. When turned downward, it is felt and even increases. “When one experiments… one sees that the bodily complaint has nothing to do with the pain. “ The difference lies in the “turn of the consciousness”. See for yourself.
This truth applies to all suffering. Psychological suffering is specifically due to “a wrong working of the mind.” Again, the surface circuitry is lacking.
Pain is a “schooling”. How else can we be goaded into climbing the peaks of delight? Each lesson teaches us only to “grow in rapture”. There are three stages to this schooling: “endurance first, next, equality of soul, last, ecstasy.” Pain is a signal that we have to organise ourselves; it is a reminder of our unfinished business. Each of us has to learn from it. It is a harsh lesson and one we normally try to avoid.
If a weed has to be destroyed, it is removed by the roots. The same applies with pain. We acknowledge its existence and try to understand what gives it nourishment. Observation is necessary. The symptoms may vary according to the leanings of the individual nature. But there is always a common factor behind pain: the weakness and falsity of human nature itself. We need to understand our nature and find the courage to stand up to anything that needs to be put right. There is no other way if one wants to become whole. Otherwise, we opt for painkillers. Knowing the cause is the first step to truly eradicating pain.
Inflation & The Universe
There are many different stories about how the world started off. For example, according to the Bushongo people of central Africa, in the beginning there was only darkness, water and the great god Bumba. One day Bumba, in pain from a stomach ache, vomited up the Sun. The Sun dried up some of the water, leaving land. Still in pain, Bumba vomited up the Moon, the stars and then some animals — the leopard, the crocodile, the turtle and finally man.
The first scientific evidence to answer these questions was discovered about a century ago. It was found that other galaxies are moving away from us. The Universe is expanding, galaxies are getting further apart. This means that galaxies were closer together in the past. Nearly 14 billion years ago, the Universe would have been in a very hot and dense state. The moment it started to move apart is called the Big Bang.
The True Cause Of Pain And Suffering
One thing i notice about pain its façade of illusion. Its grim face makes it appear real. But it is not real. There is a duality to pain which distorts the Truth underlying everything. This duality is so entrenched, it has become a fact of life. Wherever pleasure comes, pain is lurking, waiting to cast its ominous shadow. Observe how quickly too much pleasure produces a bitter aftertaste which, if taken to extremes, provokes pain and suffering. Indeed, Sri Aurobindo calls pain and pleasure the “same thing”. They are just “differently reproduced in the sensations and emotions.”
Until we find our soul, we will always fall prey to a variety of impacts and forces. The circuitry of our nature needs mastering by something much greater.
The orientation of our consciousness proves decisive. When turned upward, the Mother says, the pain vanishes. When turned downward, it is felt and even increases. “When one experiments… one sees that the bodily complaint has nothing to do with the pain. “ The difference lies in the “turn of the consciousness”. See for yourself.
This truth applies to all suffering. Psychological suffering is specifically due to “a wrong working of the mind.” Again, the surface circuitry is lacking.
If a weed has to be destroyed, it is removed by the roots. The same applies with pain. We acknowledge its existence and try to understand what gives it nourishment. Observation is necessary. The symptoms may vary according to the leanings of the individual nature. But there is always a common factor behind pain: the weakness and falsity of human nature itself. We need to understand our nature and find the courage to stand up to anything that needs to be put right. There is no other way if one wants to become whole. Otherwise, we opt for painkillers. Knowing the cause is the first step to truly eradicating pain.
How are they the same thing? Because they both mask the delight of Ananda, the Truth behind all existence. At the root of the malady lies our separation from the soul. We cannot find our essence and so cannot find our soul. The surface keeps pulling us out. We are masked from delight, which gets misinterpreted and rendered into the duality of pleasure and pain. Both states are only twisted from the true state of Oneness and bliss.
Until we find our soul, we will always fall prey to a variety of impacts and forces. The circuitry of our nature needs mastering by something much greater.
Intrusions will always knock on our door, but as long as the surface nature presides, there will be a faulty reception to them and it will lead to pain. The weakness of our consciousness manifesting in our nature is the cause of pain and suffering. The circuitry gets overloaded. Our nature is subject to division which creates “an egoistic and piecemeal instead of a universal reception of contacts by the individual.”
The orientation of our consciousness proves decisive. When turned upward, the Mother says, the pain vanishes. When turned downward, it is felt and even increases. “When one experiments… one sees that the bodily complaint has nothing to do with the pain. “ The difference lies in the “turn of the consciousness”. See for yourself.
This truth applies to all suffering. Psychological suffering is specifically due to “a wrong working of the mind.” Again, the surface circuitry is lacking.
Pain is a “schooling”. How else can we be goaded into climbing the peaks of delight? Each lesson teaches us only to “grow in rapture”. There are three stages to this schooling: “endurance first, next, equality of soul, last, ecstasy.” Pain is a signal that we have to organise ourselves; it is a reminder of our unfinished business. Each of us has to learn from it. It is a harsh lesson and one we normally try to avoid.
If a weed has to be destroyed, it is removed by the roots. The same applies with pain. We acknowledge its existence and try to understand what gives it nourishment. Observation is necessary. The symptoms may vary according to the leanings of the individual nature. But there is always a common factor behind pain: the weakness and falsity of human nature itself. We need to understand our nature and find the courage to stand up to anything that needs to be put right. There is no other way if one wants to become whole. Otherwise, we opt for painkillers. Knowing the cause is the first step to truly eradicating pain.
James Anderson is coordinating editor of NAMAH, the Journal of Integral Health, published at Puducherry.
Sunday, March 8, 2020
The Buddha's body was then cremated and the remains,
The main narrative of the Buddha's last days, death and the events following his death is contained in the Mahaparinibbana Sutta (DN 16) and its various parallels in Sanskrit, Chinese, and Tibetan.[230] According to Analayo, these include the Chinese Dirgha Agama 2, "Sanskrit fragments of the Mahaparinirvanasutra", and "three discourses preserved as individual translations in Chinese".[231]
The Mahaparinibbana sutta depicts the Buddha's last year as a time of war. It begins with Ajatasattu's decision to make war on the Vajjian federation, leading him to send a minister to ask the Buddha for advice.[232] The Buddha responds by saying that the Vajjians can be expected to prosper as long as they do seven things, and he then applies these seven principles to the Buddhist Sangha, showing that he is concerned about its future welfare. The Buddha says that the Sangha will prosper as long as they "hold regular and frequent assemblies, meet in harmony, do not change the rules of training, honor their superiors who were ordained before them, do not fall prey to worldly desires, remain devoted to forest hermitages, and preserve their personal mindfulness." He then gives further lists of important virtues to be upheld by the Sangha. [233]
The early texts also depict how the Buddha's two chief disciples, Sariputta and Moggallana, died just before the Buddha's death.[234] The Mahaparinibbana depicts the Buddha as experiencing illness during the last months of his life but initially recovering. It also depicts him as stating that he cannot promote anyone to be his successor. When Ānanda requested this, the Mahaparinibbana records his response as follows:[235]
The precise contents of the Buddha's final meal are not clear, due to variant scriptural traditions and ambiguity over the translation of certain significant terms. The Theravada tradition generally believes that the Buddha was offered some kind of pork, while the Mahayana tradition believes that the Buddha consumed some sort of truffle or other mushroom. These may reflect the different traditional views on Buddhist vegetarianism and the precepts for monks and nuns.[239] Modern scholars also disagree on this topic, arguing both for pig's flesh or some kind of plant or mushroom that pigs like to eat.[note 13] Whatever the case, none of the sources which mention the last meal attribute the Buddha's sickness to the meal itself.[240]
As per the Mahaparinibbana sutta, after the meal with Cunda, the Buddha and his companions continued traveling until he was too weak to continue and had to stop at Kushinagar, where Ānanda had a resting place prepared in a grove of Sala trees.[241][242] After announcing to the sangha at large that he would soon be passing away to final Nirvana, the Buddha ordained one last novice into the order personally, his name was Subhadda.[241] He then repeated his final instructions to the sangha, which was that the Dhamma and Vinaya was to be their teacher after his death. Then he asked if anyone had any doubts about the teaching, but nobody did.[243] The Buddha's final words are reported to have been: "All saṅkhāras decay. Strive for the goal with diligence (appamāda)" (Pali: 'vayadhammā saṅkhārā appamādena sampādethā').[244][245]
He then entered his final meditation and died, reaching what is known as parinirvana (final nirvana, the end of rebirth and suffering achieved after the death of the body). The Mahaparinibbana reports that in his final meditation he entered the four dhyanas consecutively, then the four immaterial attainments and finally the meditative dwelling known as nirodha-samāpatti, before returning to the fourth dhyana right at the moment of death.[246][247]
Posthumous events
According to the Mahaparinibbana sutta, the Mallians of Kushinagar spent the days following the Buddha's death honoring his body with flowers, music and scents.[248] The sangha waited until the eminent elder Mahākassapa arrived to pay his respects before cremating the body.[249]
The Buddha's body was then cremated and the remains, including his bones, were kept as relics and they were distributed among various north Indian kingdoms like Magadha, Shakya and Koliya.[250] These relics were placed in monuments or mounds called stupas, a common funerary practice at the time. Centuries later they would be exhumed and enshrined by Ashoka into many new stupas around the Mauryan realm.[251][252] Many supernatural legends surround the history of alleged relics as they accompanied the spread of Buddhism and gave legitimacy to rulers.
According to various Buddhist sources, the First Buddhist Council was held shortly after the Buddha's death to collect, recite and memorize the teachings. Mahākassapa was chosen by the sangha to be the chairman of the council. However, the historicity of the traditional accounts of the first council is disputed by modern scholars.
New era of Gautam Budhha
The sources which present a full and complete picture of the life of Siddhārtha Gautama are a variety of different, and sometimes conflicting, traditional biographies. These include the Buddhacarita, Lalitavistara Sūtra, Mahāvastu, and the Nidānakathā.[87] Of these, the Buddhacarita[88][89][90] is the earliest full biography, an epic poem written by the poet Aśvaghoṣa in the first century CE.[91] The Lalitavistara Sūtra is the next oldest biography, a Mahāyāna/Sarvāstivāda biography dating to the 3rd century CE.[92] The Mahāvastu from the Mahāsāṃghika Lokottaravāda tradition is another major biography, composed incrementally until perhaps the 4th century CE.[92] The Dharmaguptaka biography of the Buddha is the most exhaustive, and is entitled the Abhiniṣkramaṇa Sūtra,[93] and various Chinese translations of this date between the 3rd and 6th century CE. The Nidānakathā is from the Theravada tradition in Sri Lanka and was composed in the 5th century by Buddhaghoṣa.[94]
The earlier canonical sources include the Ariyapariyesana Sutta (MN 26), the Mahāparinibbāṇa Sutta (DN 16), the Mahāsaccaka-sutta (MN 36), the Mahapadana Sutta (DN 14), and the Achariyabhuta Sutta (MN 123), which include selective accounts that may be older, but are not full biographies. The Jātaka tales retell previous lives of Gautama as a bodhisattva, and the first collection of these can be dated among the earliest Buddhist texts.[95] The Mahāpadāna Sutta and Achariyabhuta Sutta both recount miraculous events surrounding Gautama's birth, such as the bodhisattva's descent from the Tuṣita Heaven into his mother's womb.
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