A quote by Henepola Gunaratana, from his book Mindfulness in Plain English,  as included in Everyday Mind, a Tricycle book edited by Jean Smith
 

“Discipline” is a difficult word for most of us. It conjures up images of somebody standing over you with a stick, telling you that you’re wrong. But self-discipline is different. It’s the skill of seeing through the hollow shouting of your own impulses and piercing their secret. They have no power over you. It’s all a show, a deception. Your urges scream and bluster at you; they cajole; they coax; they threaten; but they really carry no stick at all. You give in out of habit. You give in because you never really bother to look beyond the threat. It is all empty back there.

There is only one way to learn this lesson, though. The words on this page won’t do it. But look within and watch the stuff coming up-restlessness, anxiety, impatience, pain-just watch it come up and don’t get involved. Much to your surprise, it will simply go away. It rises, it passes away. As simple as that. There is another word for self-discipline. It is patience.

Just wanted to share this article from

http://www.iol.co.za/index.php?set_id=1&click_id=29&art_id=nw20070731062543843C978189

 Wellington - They say you are what you eat, and growing numbers of vegans are shunning sex with meat-eaters because they see them as “a graveyard for animals”, a New Zealand researcher says. These vegans not only refuse to eat meat or animal products but refuse to have sexual contact with meat-eaters because their bodies are made up of dead animals, the researcher was reported saying in The Press newspaper on Tuesday.

Annie Potts, co-director of the New Zealand Centre of Human and Animal Studies at New Zealand’s Canterbury University, said she coined the term vegansexuals during her research.

She discovered the vegansexuals while interviewing 157 vegetarians and ethical consumers for a study.

“It’s a whole new thing - I have not come across it before,” said Potts.

One vegan said she found non-vegans attractive, but would not want to be physically close to them.

“I would not want to be intimate with someone whose body is literally made up from the bodies of others who have died for their sustenance,” she said.

Laura Taylor forwarded this inspirational to us:

 One evening an old Cherokee told his grandson about a battle that goes on inside people. He said, “My son, the battle is between two “wolves” inside us all..

One is Evil.  It is anger, envy, jealousy, sorrow, regret, greed, arrogance, self-pity, guilt, resentment, inferiority, lies, false pride, superiority, and ego. The other is Good. It is joy, peace, love, hope, serenity, humility, kindness, benevolence,empathy, generosity, truth, compassion and faith.”The grand son thought about it for a minute and then asked his grandfather: “Which wolf wins?”The old Cherokee simply replied, “The one you feed.”

Striving to arouse unarisen wholesome states.

Of course, “striving” has become a dirty word in many forms of Buddhism. Much emphasis is placed on mindfulness and concentration, but very seldom is Right Effort even mentioned. The wolf of “ease” is becoming well fed.

During August and September 2007 Professor J S Krüger will present six public lectures on:

Buddhist philosophy and mysticism

These lectures are presented in collaboration with the Department of Religious Studies and Arabic at Unisa.

Attendance is free.

Anybody interested in the fields of Buddhism and mysticism are welcome.

The topics of the lectures are as follows:

1. ‘all delusion has left me ‘  - Buddhism, philosophy, mysticism
2. ‘the deed is, but not the doer’ - Hinayana Abhidharma
3. ‘emptiness is empty’ - Nagarjuna and the Madhyamika school
4. ‘there is altogether no duality at all’ - Asanga, Vasubandhu and the Yogacara school
5. ‘the golden lion’ - Fa-tsang and the Hua-yen school
6. The momentum of Buddhist metaphysical-mystical thought

For more information,  please contact Prof Kruger by email:

jskruger@mysticism.co.za

In the past month Emoyeni received a total amount of R35,000 from 3 generous donors. Like most Buddhist retreat centres in the west, we walk a precarious financial line, and without the financial support of those that feel an affinity to Emoyeni, the Centre could not exist.

 We would like to thank those three people for showing their appreciation of the work we do here in such a generous way.

The court case of Robert ( see posts  ”Calamity” dated 23 May 2007 and “Update” on 28 May 2007) was held today in the Brits magistrate’s court. He pleaded guilty to both charges of money theft and use of the vehicle without owner’s consent. He was sentenced to a fine of R2000 as well as imprisonment of 18 months, which is suspended for 5 years. The court also ordered him to repay the financial loss of R22 000 which Emoyeni suffered.

 He had been detained in the police holding cells at Brits police station since he handed himself to the police on the 21st of May. Those eight weeks in detention must have been a horrible experience for him, especially as prison fare don’t allow much for vegetarians. We supported him by supplying essential food items on a weekly basis.

 He now faces the challenge of rebuilding his life in a responsible way. Because he has such a friendly disposition and is such a concientious worker, his main task would be to find and work at overcoming the underlying causes for his tendency to loose impulse control and indulge in substance abuse.

 We have replaced the lost bakkie and a donation of R20 000 from a friend of Emoyeni has helped a lot to cushion the impact on our finances.

A quote from “The path of concentration and mindfulness”, an eassy by Thanissaro Bhikkhu:

“Some people are afraid of getting attached to a state of calm, but actually, it’s very important that you get attached here (to the calm achieved through samatha / tranquility practice), so that you begin to settle down and undo your other attachments. Only when this attachment is the only one left, do you begin to work on loosening it up as well.”

What a sensible approach.

This is not a factious question, but a serious one. I have recently had a really bad bout of flu, and I was lying there about to do some visualisations the one day, to try and get my immune system to fight the virus more effectively. Then it occurred to me that perhaps this was an aggressive thing to do. After all, the virus might have been there for a reason. Now I don’t think a virus is quite on a par with a sentient being, but still…

Do viruses have Buddha Nature?

Robert returned to Johannesburg yesterday, and today we took him in to the police.  Unfortunately, it turns out that this is not his first offence, and there is also the problem of  quite serious substance abuse.  But he has certainly done the right thing by turning himself in.  All thoughts and prayers for Robert, please…