Shentong and Prasangika Madhyamaka

The vision behind the teachings of my lama is Shentong. He says that, in fact, there's no difference between Shentong and Prasangika Madhyamaka, the insuperable wisdom. About this (equating Shentong to Yogacara) Dudjom Rinpoche says:

"The Madhyamaka of the Prasangika and the Svatantrika is the coarse, outer Madhyamaka. It should indeed be expressed by those who profess well-informed intelligence during debates with extremist outsiders, during the composition of great treatises, and while establishing texts which concern supreme reasoning. However, when the subtle, inner Madhyamaka is experientially cultivated, one should meditate on the nature of Yogacara-Madhyamaka."

Johan Galtung and Ela Gandhi at Big Picture TV

Big Picture TV is an online media channel that streams free video clips of global leaders in sustainability. Browse a growing archive of internationally renowned names including scientists, environmentalists, politicians, journalists, academics and activists.

Johan Galtung is the founder and Director of Transcend, an organization promoting conflict resolution by non-violent means. Professor Galtung is considered a pioneer in peace studies. For over four decades he mediated conflicts in Israel and Palestine, China and Tibet, Peru, Sri Lanka and Burma amongst others. He is the author of the United Nations' manual for peace workers and he continues to advise UN agencies on peace issues. He is Professor of Peace Studies at the University of Hawaii and at other centres of learning.

Galtung’s List
Resolving Conflict – A Move Towards Regionalism
Resolving Conflict - Lessons Learned
Peace Journalism

Ela Gandhi is the granddaughter of Mahatma Gandhi. A world renowned human rights activist in her own right, she is a former member of South Africa's Parliament and is currently Editor of Satyagraha magazine. She is Secretary of the Gandhi Development Trust and is the sister of Arun Gandhi, President of the M.K. Gandhi Institute for Nonviolence.

Gandhi – Lessons from a Legend
Religious Pluralism

Dharma Podcast

Joining the podcasting wave, here is a nice site with some dharma talks.

Enjoy!

If I Die Young - Alberto Caeiro

IF I DIE YOUNG,
Without ever publishing a book,
Without seeing how my poems look in print,
If someone wants to agitate for my cause,
I hope they do not agitate.
If it happens like that, it happens right.

Even if my poems are never printed,
They have their beauty in them, if they are beautiful.
But they can't be beautiful and stay unprinted,
Because the roots may be under the earth
But flowers bloom in the air free and easy to see.
It has to be that way. Nothing can prevent it.

If I die very young, hear this:
I was never anything but a kid playing.
I was a heathen like the sun and the water,
Of that universal religion wich only men doesn't have.
I was happy because I did not ask for anything at all,
Or tried to find anything,
And I didn't think there was any more explanation
Than that the word explanation having no meaning at all.

I didn't want anything but to be in the sun or in the rain -
In the sun when there was sun
And in the rain when it was raining
(And never the opposite),
Feel heat and cold and wind,
And going no farther than that.

One time I fell in love, I thought they would love me,
But I was not loved.
I was not loved for one main reason -
I did not have to be.

I consoled myself by going back to the sun and rain,
And sitting at the door of my hous again.
The fields are not as green for people in love
As for those who are not.
To feel is to be distracted.

Alberto Caeiro

God Is Dead: What Next?

"We have abolished the real world: what world is left? The apparent world perhaps? ... But no! With the real world we have also abolished the apparent world!" - Nietzsche

"According to Nietzsche's view of Buddhism, the Buddha taught his contemporaries how to face up to the stark, cold, meaninglessness of existence, face up to the fact that in this universe human existence has no special place, and remain aloof, untroubled and cheerful." - Robert G. Morrison*

I bet my shoes that this "spiritual existencialism" added to some lighthearted sense of humor might save the world someday, just like Superman! Zaratustra would be humanly, too humanly happy! ;-)

*Robert G. Morrison (Dharmachari Sagaramati) is the author of Nietzsche and Buddhism: A Study in Nihilism and Ironic Affinities, Oxford University Press, 1997

Live With An Open Heart Even If It Hurts

"Closing down in the midst of pain is a denial of a man’s true nature. A superior man is free in feeling and action, even amidst great pain and hurt. If necessary, a man should lie with a hurting heart rather than a closed one. He should learn to stay in the wound of pain and act with spontaneous skill and love even from that place.

Imagine failing at a major project, lying to your woman and getting caught, or overhearing her joke about your shortcomings in bed. How do you react with your body, breath and eyes? Notice if you react to a person or situation that hurts you by withdrawing, hiding or closing in on yourself. Notice if there are times when you find it difficult to look into someone’s eyes, or times you’re your chest and solar plexus become tense and contracted. These are signs of an unskillful reaction to hurt. Contracted and closed in on yourself, you are unable to act. You are trapped in your own self-protective tension, no longer a free man.

The superior man practices opening during these times of automatic closure. Open the front of your body so your chest and solar plexus are not tense. Sit or stand up straight and full, opening the front of your body, softening your chest and belly, wide and free. Breathe down through your chest and solar plexus, deep into your belly. Look directly into the eyes of whomever you are with, feeling your own pain as well as feeling the other person. Only when the front of your body is relaxed and opened, your breathe full and deep, and your gaze unguarded and directly connected with another person’s eyes, can your fullest intelligence manifest spontaneously in the situation. To act as a superior man, a samurai of relationship, you must feel the entire situation with your whole body. A closed body is unable to sense subtle cues and signals, and therefore unable to act with mastery in the situation."

From The Way of the Superior Man, by David Deida.

Feel the love generation!

As a music addicted (and a world-jazz-rock-guitar-player-wannabe) I would have a lot to talk about music. And I was just thinking about posting something on it when I listened to a radio hit called "Love Generation" by Gary Pine and Bob Sinclar, whom I`ve never heard before.

So, here I am, forgetting for a while some of my heroes like Joe Pass, Hendrix, John McLaughlin, Dylan, Egberto Gismonti, Miles, etc, to wonder about this love generation thing! Well, well, well, the fact is that I just loved it!

I think there is something simply beautiful in this kind of music, something captivating and inspiring. Maybe because everybody still dreams in secret about better days to come, about some promised land full of beauty so far across the sea, that paradise we leave in some very distant past, just like Bob Marley used to sing a lot. Sometimes these simple songs seem to catch us like a trap for this "lost paradise neurosis". At that moment we could even close our eyes, smile beautifully, sing together and also eventually drop a little tear ;-)

Love Generation
Bob Sinclair/Gary Pine

Why must our children play in the streets
Broken hearts and faded dreams
Listen up to everyone that you meet
Don't you worry, it could be so sweet
Just look to the rainbow you will see,
The sun will shine till eternity
I've got so much love in my heart
No one can tear it apart

Feel the love generation
Come on, come on, come on
Feel the love generation
Don't worry about a thing, gonna be all right

It's all love you know, it's all love from I and I to everyone
Don't you worry, we got the love yeah
There's no need to cry yeah
Don't you worry, we got the love yeah
Gotta live that love, you know what I'm talking about
Don't get hooked up on what you see cause the greatest thing is spirituality
Share that love, share that love, share that hope, share them dreams

Feel the love generation
Come on, come on, come on
Feel the love generation
Don't worry about a thing, gonna be all right

"Have a good time in your life until we meet again!" ;-)

Don't Vacillate

"You should not vacillate in your enthusiasm for practice. If you sometimes practice and sometimes do not, that will not give birth to certainty in the dharma. Therefore, don't think too much. Just concentrate one-pointedly on mind training."

From Training the Mind & Cultivating Loving-Kindness by Chogyam Trungpa , copyright 1993 by Diana Mukpo. Published by arrangement with Shambhala Publications, Inc., Boston.

Whichever of the Two Occurs, Be Patient

"If you become utterly destitute and are suffering greatly, consider your previous karma. Without being resentful or depressed, take up all the sufferings and evil of others and work hard at ways to clear away evil actions and obscurations. If you find yourself very happy and comfortable, surrounded by great wealth and servants, don't succumb to carelessness or indifference. Use the wealth for virtuous projects, use your power constructively, and pray for all sentient beings to have the same comfort and happiness. In short, whichever occurs, happiness or suffering, be patient."

From The Great Path of Awakening: An Easily Accessible Introduction for Ordinary People by Jamgon Kongtrul, translated by Ken McLeod. Copyright 1993 by Ken McLeod. Published by arrangement with Shambhala Publications, Inc., Boston.

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David Deida - The Way of the Superior Man

"Most men make the error of thinking that one day it will be done. They think, “If I can work enough, then one day I could rest.” Or, “One day my woman will understand something and then she will stop complain- ing.” Or, “I’m only doing this now so that one day I can do what I really want with my life.” The masculine error is to think that eventually things will be different in some fundamental way. They won’t. It never ends. As long as life continues, the creative challenge is to tussle, play, and make love with the present moment while giving your unique gift."

--David Deida