"Write a poem in at least two sections about places where you once lived or traveled that made a strong impression on you. Model poem: Hapax: 'Exile: Picture Postcard'"



"Call Me a Fool"

I can't believe I finally found
the key, the door, the trip;
it was all in my mind
                  -Live

Many go searching for fun on remote
islands or in other sights thier eyes have
never seen before, but in these can real
descriptions of maxima be found? i
don't doubt it, 'cause conceptions of high peaks
normally (&a-normally) are formed
in the place to which none need go, for each
Man- & Woman-ifestation lives there.

Me? Well, i'm down for some tropic
island hip hoppin', but damn man,
no solo trip or trek through woods,
down trails and trickling brooks (writing
down books on the bliss that rained when
no "I" longer was) can hope to
inspire as much as a single
Moment watching PBS with...

"Write a sonnet. Model poems: Hapax: 'Explaining an Affinity for Bats' Borrowed Towns: 'Bigfoot' Native Gaurd: 'Southern History' Late Wife: 'Stringed Instrument Collection'"



Time ta do da Dishes

When Flava Puff's sugar melts at my stare,
with a tongue's rise and fall on sweet spun hairs
of rainbow thinness and splendor, i swear
i could sip forever, 'cause her grin's
tastier than V8 fueled by fine blue gin
or bombdigity banana coladas
thinned by polish spring water (some or alota)
but our love, it seems, is just like the wind
and i'm not in this thing to win or lose
but i gotta hit the streets and get bread,
and sum-a my habits might be with booze,
but if those that need me are well fed
then, oH Baby, we'll party party;
and since you're taller, i'll be your shawty.

Life is blest
with an open heart
and tru luv

A Wild West Posse

Ah- What a quest! To capture a moment!
How?

Can an instant be dreamed or drawn?
Or are these words 'damned' to hold naught but past
and future?
What once was is not,
and (hope&fear)'s
projections are not;
tho some may come to be.
What crime has this Now,
that to a cage we
condemn it?

If in this life on a time line we're found,
then:

Each eternal, cosmic Now is
a pearl there strung, showing us that the hourglass
grains we're so oft buried under
can, like White Dwarf Stars on a great galactic necklace, shine forth.
And, as the [bulb:) brightens
the (darkness] surrounding
with one point of light,
[Moments:Time]

Overcast clouds grey the day, sprinkle rain.
Yet, ‘tween the dripping drops of liquid steam
the sun’s breaking rays flash, illuminae;
pour into reverential eyes cast high;

The light fractures in the thin film of oil
surrounding each keratin thread trying
to shade the lensed orb entrusted to it,
the rain bows to the majesty, and cries…

Is it strange that bliss could bring tears the same?
If there’s no source could one still feel the pain?
Many questions like this can rack the brain,
turn ratcheting wheels, make one ask: what’s sane?

But when dark skies become bright, and rain down
Eternity in the moment’s hour break,
there’s no fear nor pain nor grief, for it’s just
Ocean waves risen, tumbling to meet us.

An Ode to Balance

How can there be a now
if there never was a then?
That is unbalanced, it’s like
the yang without the yin.
        --Cee-lo Green

F=G(M*M)/R^2
            --Isaac Newton

Balance is best when beats start bumpin’ in the heart.
    ‘cause that lock & key
  can cause the mind to flee, no more searching
    for more.
   In the past, there’s that which we can say
    we know, but
         oH!
can we in Truth& fact do that? Far too often we play
    run through the jungle like it’s a
    Credence Revival;
    too fast to
    see, caress&be
the knower and known, let alone we.
     Where is One&theOther
    called both? (the Here, Now:-)
    Gaia may try to outweigh us,
but babe, let’s not fuss,
    ‘cause in this single pan we chill,
fluctuating R that our M may rise&fall.
    yasee, G is constant, and F, the wind.
    you bounce i bounce and
   the world tequila sunrises.
    Let’s sky stage spiral star dance,
     and imbue to the whole
    system a dynamic equilibrium;
    Just a bit off center.  .

awH Monkey Balls!

Hello,

Wanna play a game?

When the moon shines bright but

hides behind a cloak of clouds, obscured but

still radiant, i seek solace in a somewhat smaller

sphere. Something about projecting to the screen where silly

simians roll about in fantastic floating wall-less labyrinths calms me.

Beyond the surface distraction dwells a secret storehouse of bonus

advantages. As the thumb moves in response to visual stimulus, neurons

fire and connect with each new pixel illuminated. As branching axons and

dendrites meet and exchange packets of curious information, a sense

of inner stillness sweeps over me and my sight seems to grow

until her form fills the shadows and enigmatic patterns in the

large pot of stew brewing beneath these mazes even Jarrod

would give cred to (shortly before breaking into song).

Dance magic, dance (dance magic, Dance)

aH! Who said ya can’t learn from

tele-vision

:-)

there's a saying: 'if you meet the buddha on the road, kill the buddha' or so, but maybe {as a remix}: if you meet the buddha on the road, burn the buddha


:-)

"REL 300

STUDIES IN RELIGION: TANTRIC BUDDHISM

Spring 2009

TuTh 9:30-10:45 am / BH 247

 

Instructor:  Richard Nance

Office: SY 201

Hours: Tu 2:30-4:30 pm

Email: rfnance@indiana.edu

Office phone: 855-6159

 

FIRST ESSAY ASSIGNMENT—DUE FEBRUARY 26 (IN CLASS)

 

In a typed (11 or 12 point font), well-written essay of 4-6 double-spaced pages, please answer one of the following question sets. I suppose that this should go without saying, but I’ll say it anyway: please read over your work carefully before giving it to me. Your finished paper should be as free from spelling and grammatical errors as you’re able to make it; errors in spelling and grammar will impact your grade.

 

While you're welcome (and encouraged) to discuss your thoughts with fellow students, the work of writing this paper falls to each of you alone: the paper you submit must be your own. Once again, let me remind you of the zero-tolerance policy concerning plagiarism in this course. (For more on this policy, please refer to the syllabus.)

 

In your essay, you'll be expected to support substantive claims with evidence and argument, drawing judiciously from the assigned readings. Quoted material must be (a) in quotation marks, and (b) properly cited (i.e., given in a way that allows me to locate the passage you’re citing in the source text you have used—make sure to provide page numbers). Please bear in mind that citing a wealth of textual passages isn’t sufficient to show me that you actually understand the material you choose to cite. In order to do well on this assignment, you'll need to show evidence that you can make sense of this material; simply quoting what others have said doesn’t provide that evidence.

 

The page limit noted above is suggested but not required. If you think that you can clearly and completely answer one of the question sets below in fewer than four pages, you're free to try. You're also free to exceed six pages if you feel that it's necessary. Note, however, that a short paper that offers ungrounded assertions en route to a slapdash conclusion will not be judged successful—nor will an essay that has clearly been padded with useless or irrelevant filler in an attempt to make it appear longer. Remember: the point of this assignment is not to produce a 4-6 page paper, but to produce a seamless, well-written, carefully argued essay that answers a specific set of questions.

 

Please give your finished essay a descriptive title, and note explicitly which question set you've chosen to answer.

 

 

Questions:

1. In our readings for this class, much has been made of the concept of thirst (or craving: Skt. tṛṣṇā, Pali taṇhā).  Using the first supplemental reading as a resource, discuss the idea of thirst/craving as presented in the Dhammacakkappavattanasutta. According to this text, what is thirst? What is the relation between thirst and suffering (duḥkha/dukkha)? Then, consider chapters 2 and 3 of Lama Yeshe's Introduction to Tantra: The Transformation of Desire. Is the picture of desire that Yeshe presents here compatible with the picture of thirst on offer in the Dhammacakkappavattanasutta? Why or why not? And what, if anything, should this compatibility or divergence lead us to conclude about tantric Buddhism?

 

To do well on this essay, you'll need to begin by considering carefully the presentation of thirst/craving in the Dhammacakkappavattanasutta.[1] In your own words, sketch the contours of this presentation; then, turn to consider Lama Yeshe. What, precisely, does Yeshe mean by "desire" as he uses the term in Introduction to Tantra?  What is included in, and excluded from, the concept of desire as Yeshe understands it? Sketch this in as much detail as you can. Then, ask yourself: is the thirst that the Buddha is portrayed as critiquing in the Dhammacakkappavattanasutta the same thing as the desire that Yeshe is discussing in Introduction to Tantra? If it is, then what should we conclude from this? If it is not, then what, precisely, are the differences between these two ideas—and what should we conclude from their divergence?   

 

2. Reginald Ray's Secret of the Vajra World and Ronald Davidson's Indian Esoteric Buddhism offer two very different approaches to discussing tantric Buddhism. Compare and contrast these approaches. What are their main points of emphasis? What issue(s), if any, does each approach brush aside? Does one approach strike you as more well-suited to understanding tantric Buddhism than the other? For what reason? (Is the approach you favor more scholarly? More Buddhist?  Both?)

 

To do well on this question, you'll need to provide a succinct summary of the major features of Ray's and Davidson's approaches, as you understand them. But you'll also need to note which of these features are those that an approach to this material ought to have, and why (in your opinion) such features are important. In thinking about the latter issue, it may prove useful to ask what aspects of an account suffice to distinguish that account as "scholarly" or "Buddhist." (Keep in mind that such aspects may differ: the fact that an approach is scholarly need not imply that it's also Buddhist—unless, of course, the features that make an approach scholarly are precisely those that make it Buddhist.)  

                Can an empty belly and dry throat be the means by which beings realize liberation? The story of Gautama’s awakening viewed in combination with some of his reported teachings might paint a seemingly divided picture of ’enlightenment.’ This division may not be wholly true tho, for Gautama as much as anybody ‘said’ that the extreme austerities he placed upon himself weren’t necessary to rest in the ‘clearing at the end of the path.’ Even so, was not insatiable thirst for realization the path he walked? And did it not end with an empty belly and a thirst he tried to quench in a stream that nearly spelled the end of his form in addition to his suffering?

                The summary of Gautama’s ‘Second Noble Truth’ in The Foundations of Buddhism’s chapter on the Four Truths brings up many pertinent aspects of the discussion, and clarifies the problem’s resolution; it goes “the thirst for repeated existence which, associated with delight and greed, delights in this and that.” Gethin then goes on to say: “[this] thirst… is the principle condition for the arising of suffering” (pg. 69-70). Being the ‘principle condition’ shows causation, but not causality in as much as thirst needs be present for suffering to come about, but thirst doesn’t inherently lead to suffering. It’s when thirst leads to “’grasping’ or ‘attachment,’” and this grasping is clouded by delusions of never-ending pleasure, that dissatisfaction and suffering sprouts. Gethin lays out this delusion as an “assum[ption that the] world [is one] in which things are permanent, unchanging, stable, and reliable;” and as an “assum[ption] that when our craving gets what it wants we will be happy… satisfied” (pg. 73). At the highest levels existence is ‘permanent, unchanging, stable, and reliable,’ and free of ‘greed and aversion’ craving very well may be satisfied with and/or without its desired sense object; Gethin suggests we stay mindful of the reality that “in a world of shifting and unstable conditions, craving of whatever kind will never be able to [always] hold onto the things it craves” (pg. 70). It seems that if one’s ultimate goal is to no longer go on living after death, then cutting the roots of desire would be the best choice. But if one’s quest is to grow to life’s peaks, and aid others along the way, as on the Bodhisattva’s path, then a ‘thirst for repeated existence’ could be very useful. How in truth can one help if one no longer exists in any form? Gethin’s definition of ‘thirst’ may be most easily apprehended through the tenor of more conventionally perceived experiences of ‘thirst,’ as in those arising from physical desiccation. But the summary presented in his essay might be likened to a window through which we can peer into its more esoteric perceptions.  The clause “the thirst for repeated existence” seems to imply an underlying thirst for life itself that acts as a screen upon which our dreams of ‘this and that’ are projected, and that “the ultimately significant thing here is craving and attachment” (pg. 71).

                Llama Yeshe’s exposition seems to be a more reasonable starting point, as “we are in a realm of desire” (pg. 7). And why not utilize this ‘desire,’ instead of fighting it, if it can be used to transcend itself? Yeshe describes tantra as a means “to transform all pleasures into the transcendental experience of deep penetrative awareness” (pg. 17). How can that which might bind free tho? Yeshe says: “instead of viewing pleasure and desire as something to be avoided at all costs, tantra recognizes the powerful energy aroused by our desires to be an indispensable resource for the spiritual path” (pg. 9). He seems to be saying that when superficial desires are transformed into a one pointed attention towards ‘the spiritual path’ the ‘energy aroused’ by them becomes liberating. “However,” Yeshe says, “if we are to derive real value from this path we have to be clear about certain important points. First of all, our motivation… must be as pure as possible” (pg. 14) This is an important aside, for if any practice is solely for ‘I’ ‘Me’ ‘Mine’ it risks being quite the opposite of the desired happiness, instead becoming  a means to downward transcendence into ever deeper realms of suffering. Yeshe doesn’t neglect this potential. In the section of chapter three titled The Source of Dissatisfaction he expresses Gautama’s second truth in a slightly more modern conversational tone saying: “[if] we try to posses whatever attractive object seems most likely to fulfill our desire… we turn the object into an idol, overestimating its attractive qualities until it bears little resemblance to its actual nature.” This tendency to attach then is the axle around which we spiral, and whether it’s to higher or lower realms is a factor of our awareness, focus, and concentration. We need to cultivate concentration to transform the “[intoxication of] pleasurable sensations… [so as to not] lose our awareness of totality and [avoid] sink[ing] into a state of dull stupidity” (pg. 25-26). For “the central point of the tantric approach… [is to use] the same desirous energy that ordinarily propels us from one unsatisfactory situation to another [and transmute it], through the alchemy of tantra, into a transcendental experience of bliss and wisdom.” And then to “[focus] the penetrating brilliance of this blissful wisdom so that it cuts like a laser beam through all false projections of this and that and pierces the very heart of reality” (pg. 25).

                Each can, and invariably does, reach whatever conclusion they will, and that’s no different with the stereoscopic view of ‘desire’ or ‘thirst’ that was the subject of this discussion.  Based on my readings and internal ruminations of both texts, and some previously digested exposure to Buddhist thought, i’m left to conclude that the ‘thirst’ described by Gethin and the ‘desire’ described by Yeshe are ultimately, we might say, non-dual. It seems to me that our quest for the ‘permanent, unchanging, stable, and reliable’ is a quest for the ‘energy aroused’ by our emersion in this ‘realm of desire.’ All the most important points in chapter 3 of The Foundations of Buddhism, such as suffering’s growth from blind grasping based on poorly understood internal ebbs and flows, and many others, are present in chapters 2&3 of Introduction to Tantra. The main distinction is in their calls to action; with Yeshe going beyond the calming of desire for analytical purposes to practical applications of potentially all desire, illustrated by the analogy of the wood born insect on page 25. Both texts stress that, to realize experiences of ever deeper and more expansive ‘bliss and wisdom,’ our attachment best serves when directed towards a spiritual path. This leads me to the conclusion that what needs be cut out at the root^? is not our thirst, but our ‘greed and aversion,’ so that our ‘thirst for repeated existence’ can be of use whether it gives rise to pleasure, un-pleasure, or anti-pleasure.

 

 

 

“So keep it realistic
And always be aware
The truth is crying out
And it's so loud and so clear
But most people won't even hear
Spiritual pollution in the atmosphere
And with so much confusion
Can one be happy here
The gift of Rastafari is for all man to share
But some would rather to be so unfair”

---Damian Marley

 

 

 

 

Bibliography[1]

 

Gethin, Rupert. The Foundations of Buddhism. New York: Oxford UP, 1998.

King, Stephen. The Dark Tower. Simon & Schuster, 2006.

Yeshe, Thubten. Introduction to Tantra the transformation of desire. Boston: Wisdom Publications, 2001.

...birth, life, death;Birth, Life, Death...