The Buddha’s Begging Bowl

Buddhism, Culture, Diet, Education, ethics, Food, Health, Medicine

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The word ‘diet’ has several different meanings. The Collins Dictionary defines it to be ‘the food and drink one regularly consumes’. An alternative to that is the definition given in A Kind Diet, which states that diet is “a way of living, or thinking, a day’s journey.”

The time we spend on shopping for food, planning our meals, thinking about what it is we like and do not like to eat and what adheres to the medical profession’s recommendations surrounding the subject of diet is indeed considerable. We spend many of our waking hours working out this basic survival function and the money that goes towards keeping this human body of ours in good shape and healthy is enormous. Having thought about that, and briefly looked into some popular diet trends that are heavily advertised on local media, I thought to divert away from the consumerist approach to food for a moment and consider the Buddha’s teaching on non-attachment.

One symbol the Buddha employed as a means to convey his teaching on non-attachment was the use of an alms or begging bowl. Alms are charitable donations of money or goods to the poor or needy, yet the Buddha was neither of these things, so why bother with the use of a begging bowl? The alms bowl is considered to be symbol of the monastic life or life of a renunciate, and an aid to the life of the holy and those interested in seeking the truth. Once made from clay, which broke easily, the bowls were then forged with iron for added durability.

Specifically, the alms bowl refers to the time in the Buddha’s life just before he attained enlightenment, when a young girl, named Sujata offered the Buddha a bowl of milk rice. Although the Buddha was practicing the austerity of eating only a little food at the time, he realized that to achieve the final stages of enlightenment, he would need to partake of the offering of rice from Sujata. After partaking of the meal, one tradition states that the Buddha then threw away the small amount of food left in that bowl to symbolize the Buddha’s complete non-attachment to material possessions. Another legend tells the story that the Buddha threw away the begging bowl itself into the river to symbolize the mind of non-attachment.

The point of all this is to question the validity, or lack thereof, of the attached state of mind itself. The mind of attachment is traditionally explained in Buddhist philosophy to be a mind that exaggerates the good qualities of an object and ignores it’s perhaps less apparent flaws. One apparent flaw in all objects of this world is their impermanent nature. Of the Four Seals of Buddhism, the first is that all compounded phenomena are suffering. The second is that all contaminated objects are impermanent.

What do we mean when we use the word stained or contaminated to describe states of mind and actions?

Stained or contaminated actions are actions, emotions or thoughts polluted by selfish attachment, or by hatred, greed or ignorance. Such actions motivated by these negative states of mind always result in suffering.

When motivated by an attached state of mind, we cling onto material possessions, relationships or even ideas, and fail to recognize the intransigent and impermanent nature of the object. That does not mean to say that we are not in need of food and other such things to ensure our good health. It does indicate however, that having a more open and loving attitude towards other beings is more important. Given the violent nature of our human history and past, the gross lack of regard for the lives of others and destruction of the environment and other species, it is most definitely time to act to lighten our environmental footprint and reduce our grasping towards the status symbols of the wealthy. Instead of spending big bucks on expensive living and chasing the latest fad or diet trend, I suggest that there is much more happiness and satisfaction to be gained and maintained from living a more moderate and simple lifestyle with a focus more upon ensuring a happy state of mind. If we spent more time ensuring our mind itself is in a positive and peaceful state, through the practice of meditation, this would naturally lead to a more balanced and healthy lifestyle which would not only benefit the practitioner, but others on the planet as well.

I will leave you here with a totally different interpretation of the word diet, from one of the founders of Buddhist literature and Mahayana thought. The great Nagarjuna once wrote of the Five Diets being;

The Diet of Concentration

The Course Diet

The Inner Diet

The Diet of Touch and

The Diet of Volition.

The symbol of the Buddha with an alms bowl is an important director of peace, happiness and prosperity to keep in mind as we go about our daily habit of foraging for food, drink and clothing, if in the least to try to minimize our ever-expanding impact on this precious planet.

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When you wake up in the morning, you need to give thanks to the Lord Buddha, your qualified, authentic, safe, reliable and valid spiritual friend and guide, the enlightened Mahayana Guru for a the safe passage throughout the night.

How do you say, Mary?

Good Morning Buddha Shakyamuni, Your Holiness. Thank you for the good nights sleep and meditation. I really appreciate that today will be a day and tonight will be a night where I constantly create the causes for the fully enlightened state of Buddhahood. Thank you Buddha for saving me from being crushed and ruined by the evil demon of death.

Mary says, Buddha, I need to take refuge in you and escape from all the sufferings that the ignorance of a self causes. Lord Buddha, Your Holiness, please free me and all suffering sentient beings from the defilements of a deluded state of mind. Please Lord Buddha, free me and all sentient beings from the sufferings caused by ignorance, the false view of a transitory collection, the false view of an inherently existent I and mine. Please Lord Buddha, Your Holiness protect my body, speech and mind from the six primary delusions and especially wrong view.

I need to stay practicing bodhicitta motivation and rejoicing in this wonderful opportunity that the precious human rebirth offers and watching carefully my actions of body, speech and mind, with a good heart. Lord Buddha, Your Holiness, please cause me to practice virtue perfectly all day and night.

Coming out like Ellen Degeneres

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So, what’s it like being on anti-psychotic? Gorgeous darling, it’s so relaxing!

Well anyway sweets, I’m a mover and a shaker and I love it.

Apparently, the mental health tribunal and the mental health service have no sense of humour boys, so watch it.

From one professional to the other, what did I have to say about going from a health loving tea-toteling maniac to a swish-buckling whiskey loving honey!

Pity about the flab but hey! no but, no but no but, yeah!

Who needs to walk off the flab? Not me. I might be dead soon.

Let’s just right some wrongs concerning the way to drink whiskey.

If you have a hot clairvoyance, and don’t like sinning or non-virtuous black actions, you concentrate well on wisdom, with mindfulness, alertness and introspection, with conscientiousness, you’re in the clear. Do I keep my vows? Ya, but then lot’s of people don’t like to venture into that area.

Hmmm, so don’t be a dick and lie about things, come clear and learn the clear light mind. It’s heaps better and it overcomes suffering as well.

Why Buddhist mind science is better than the western medical system

Buddhism, Culture, Education, ethics, Health, Human Rights, Medicine

For the past sixteen years I have been medicated for a disease I don’t have. I have been misdiagnosed. I do not have any illness, but I report in for monthly injections for a mental health disorder. My mother and the police and the doctors lied to the public to obtain this diagnosis about me. They said I behaved harmfully. None of the events that have been reported to have taken place concerning me ever even took place.

The first report made by my mother about me took place in 2003. My mother said I threatened her with a knife. I never even had a negative thought to hurt her or anyone else in any way. When I asked my mother why she lied, my mother said it was because she was jealous and she wanted to destroy the communities trust and faith in me as a practicing Buddhist.

I was hospitalised for a month in 2003 and medicated.

In 2013 I was arrested for making a complaint to the police. I was told someone wanted to shoot me. I was advised to ring the police. When the police arrived, they arrested me and lied saying I was being aggressive. All I was looking for was for some help to protect me against potential harm. I was hospitalised, put on a treatment order and medicated.

I went to the gp and specialist for help. I explained to Alan Molloy, a gp that people were lying. I went to my gastroenterologist, Professor Finlay Macrae. I explained that I had been behaving peacefully, but that others were trying to make me look negative. I got no help from the medical community. Instead, they repeated the lies voiced against me. They have lied and slandered my name.

Presently, the medical community have a twenty page report with content of events that never even happened, complaining about conduct I don’t actually engage in and never practiced. Even though I have always told the truth to the medical community, they refuse to honour what has actually occurred and the truth that I speak.

In 2015, my mother lied again to defame me. Anne Guest said I tried to run over her caretaker. I never went anywhere near him and had no such thought. I am on a treatment order for behaviour I don’t engage in. I am medicated for a disease I don’t have. The doctors do not care to listen to or honour the truth. This is a travesty of justice and I need legal help.

Can someone qualified in the Australian or international community honour my honest speech and rectify this travesty of justice to come to my aid and defend me? This is not what the medical and legal community should uphold, this set of wrongdoings and group of lies about a very honest, ethical and law abiding citizen.

Further comments about the benefits of His Holiness the Dalai Lama’s system of medicine over western science.

15 May 2020

I went to see Alan Molloy of Eastbound Medical Clinic regarding this problem. I reported all the facts to the case honestly to Alan Molloy. I told him what he had heard about me was nothing but slander and lies. There is actually nothing but one person’s word against me talking to the mental health service, lying and slandering my name and then forcing an arrest. The police have no evidence that the lier spoke anything but a lie. My words are being ignored. Usually the justice system says you are innocent until proven guilty. People were keen to believe that I did something wrong. In practice, in Buddhism, you are a sentient being guilty of ignorance and people sin wildly to get their way. They do not keep their vows of moral conduct and the police care little about the process of justice working correctly. They are not Buddhas. They are ordinary sentient beings guilty of acting ignorantly and dishonestly themselves. They do not check if they have been lied to and the legal system does little to protect the innocent here.

I paid twice to see Alan Molloy. Once reporting that he was being misled by this series of lies and then once to take him in a copy of the psychiatrists report. He, Alan Molloy did nothing to benefit me or to uphold the system of justice. I have a confession from my mother where she admitted to me she was lying to brake up my marriage and also because she was jealous and wanted to diminish people’s confidence in me. Alan is biased. He does not practice equanimity or the Buddhist vow. He has also neglected to practice medical science properly.

Anyway. What to do? I am being medicated and others are sinning against me. One really good solution is to just have a whiskey and diet coke and tell these idiots to go jump off the precipice into the lower realms if they like. They like sinning. They like corruption in medicine and law. Mind science is superior to western science, and when you practice properly and adhere to maintaining your Buddhist vows correctly you can see the corruption in psychiatry and western medicine and law.

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Buddha Mind, Friday 13 August, 2004 (More from A Captain’s Logbook).

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Yesterday Geshe Doga said to Vanessa, “Money enough.” What does this mean? Well, on the positive side, maybe I won’t end up begging on the street, or isn’t this what many Buddhists are doing these days? How are Mahayana Buddhists doing well financially? If you put ethics first, you really need to work with a culture of people who value ethical conduct over materialistic, and selfish, or destructive motivations. Geshe Doga suggested “Computers?” Vanessa thought, OK and what about investigating science even further?

Buddhist science is way more advanced than western ideology (philosophy, psychiatry and psychology). Mind scientists study the mind. Many people don’t even recognise the Hum, the mind, the heart. They, Mahayana Buddhists, study the heart, (meaning, the mind). Now, even though the mind has an interconnection with the brain and the other organs of the body, the mind, is clear and knowing. Psychiatrists study the brain. Buddhists study the body, speech and mind.

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As a mind scientist and philosopher, the study of Lo Rig, Mind and Mental Factors, is essential to working out how to abandon negative states of mind, the six primary delusions and the secondary delusions, (see Alexander Berzin Archives). Buddhists must also focus on how to cultivate Bodhicitta; the bodhicitta motivation, aspiring to and engaging in the deeds of Buddhas and Bodhisattvas, to progress along the path to the cessation of suffering and to eventually attain the cessation of suffering, liberation – (freedom from throwing karma, (meaning action)), and Buddhahood.

Commentary on the Simpsons – The problems with ordinary appearance and self grasping

In this episode, we look at how Bart is just so distraught because Homer and wifey wifey have decided to go out to some sort of gala event, and they have decided that Lisa is to babysit the children. So, Bart is just outraged and ready to play up. What’s the problem Bart? Samsara is just so annoying! Here we see the bane of meeting with what you do not want and being separated from what you like. The bane of moving from high to low over and over without choice. What’s up Bart’s nostril? Well, I’d say, wrong view.

So what exactly is wrong view, and how does it create sin and negativity, black seeds and negative instinct within the mind? Wrong view imputes inherent existence, it thinks, I inherently exist and so do you, etc. However, that is incorrect. All phenomena lack inherent existence, whilst cause and effect and dependent arising are unfailing. So, the person, the five aggregates are empty of inherent existence. The selflessness of person is that you understand, see and realise the emptiness of the self of person. The selflessness of phenomena is that you don’t grasp at things as being inherently existent in any way at all, you see the emptiness of all phenomena. Even emptiness is empty of inherent existence.

Bart looks at Lisa like she’s the problem in his life and Lisa is looking all good and ready to boss Bart around. What hell! The thing is Lisa is still suffering and also imputing wrong view, so Bart thinks, Lisa, you are no help and just go away and leave me in peace please. The ignorance of a self of person and phenomena is to blame for the misery portrayed and discussed in The Simpsons.

How is ignorance the cause of the weather problems, the environmental problems, and the bushfire crisis?

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It is very good that Australians and people overseas are spending up big to support the Australian bushfire appeal. I love to rejoice when beings practice virtue. Virtue is the cause of happiness, good health, but let’s just break down a few things here.

The media have obviously seen the disaster, but is anyone watching what is going on with the flow of funding here? Firstly, poor Scott Morrison is currently facing a beating from the public. Why? His government generously offered $2 billion in aid for the bushfire crisis. The media have no mentioned the actual cost of the crisis to the country just this year have they? Australian’s are so ungratefully hurling abuse at Scott and even if he did make a mistake going to Hawaii, the hatred is negative and unnecessary. If we look a little deeper at the ignorance that is actually causing the suffering, why don’t the media state that it is beings negative karma and delusions that are actually responsible for all this loss and environmental fury.

The ignorance of a self of persons and phenomena is the cause of suffering. It is the cause of cyclic existence. It is not the government of Australia that is necessarily doing the wrong thing here, but the fault of the electorate. Why aren’t the media praising the government for it’s interest and support? $2 billion in aid is significant. Secondly, people have their own insurance policies, and $1 billion in claims have already been lodged, so that is helping to cover the costs. The finance and environment ministers are obviously watching the cost to the community, but how much aid is actually required on top of the fact that insurance would be already paying for some of this problem. Did the bushfire crisis cost $2 billion to the country or more. What is the need for extra money in aid?

Australians aren’t yet free of samsara, and they need to take responsibility for their own mind and actions. Buddhists know that ultimately we are to blame for the suffering we experience. It is caused by sinful behaviour and delusions, and a lack of ethics, concentration and wisdom. Beings in all six realms of samsara need to recognise the need to understand and realise the emptiness of the self of persons and of phenomena. All phenomena lack inherent existence, whilst cause and effect and dependent arising are unfailing.

So there’s been well over $100 million raised in bushfire appeal fundraising efforts. Andrew Forrest kindly donated $70 million, another person donated something like $30 million. And there have been significant efforts from others too. Are people hurling too much money to this one crisis, after the government definitely got behind the Australian’s and offered generous support?

Are Australian’s going to resettle in bushfire prone regions or are they going to seriously question the value of accepting these donations, whilst not attending to the likelihood that this weather problem is not going away unless proper conduct and virtue are adopted and negativity in the heart is abandoned. Don’t people need to move out of bushfire prone areas and settle elsewhere? If the people of the world cover the cost of this crisis, how are Australians’ acting to avoid the same problem next summer or sometime again in the future?

Mind. What is it?

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Buddhists alone understand what the mind is. In Australia, this multi-cultural society that we live in, in India, what is that without the Tibetan Buddhist and His Holiness, the Fourteenth Dalai Lama of Tibet? Britain, what are you doing? Well, Her Royal Highness the Queen Elisabeth of England is religious, right? Queen Elisabeth has an understanding of the path to Buddhahood, yes or no?

What is this democracy we live in? Is it run by the pig, the chicken and the snake? Or do Buddhas and Bodhisattvas rule the world?

The Australian Government has come up with this foul act, the mental health act, yet it does not acknowledge what the mind actually is and how it functions. The mind, indeed all phenomena are empty of inherent existence, whilst cause and effect and dependent arising are unfailing. So psychiatrists are non-Buddhist. They do not accept the ultimate achievement of the Buddha. The Lord Buddha conquered suffering and it’s cause and the Lord Buddha and his lineage of Lamas perfected virtue or the qualities of the body, speech and mind.

I am going to sit here and discourse on why you shouldn’t let the animal rule. Western scientists think they can be called doctors without having actually realised the enlightened state of mind. This is where they are unheroic. They input an inherently existent self of person and of phenomena. They have ego. They are still partially, if not fully governed by the unruly state of mind of the three poisons; attachment, aversion/hatred/anger and ignorance/wrong view.

The mind is the hum at the heart. The ah is at the throat and should be enlightened speech. The body is the om at the crown. We have three channels. The right, the left and the central channel. Only Buddhists with a precious human rebirth can understand the speech and discourse of the Lord Buddha, the turning of the wheel of the doctrine. The right channel is white, the left channel is red and the central channel is blue. The mind has six chakras. The secret place, the stomach, the heart, the throat, the forehead and the crown. The mind rides the subtle wind which should reside in the central channel. All appearances to the mind and the six senses come from this mind.

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Why choose Buddhism over Anglicanism?

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Vanessa went to school training as a private school student in Anglicanism, in Melbourne, Australia. Vanessa studied the Bible when she was just young, memorizing verses to read at recital. We received religious instruction and in many ways, Her Royal Highness, Queen Elisabeth is a very good teacher and guide.

Vanessa used to win gold in the recital and when Vanessa was about eight years of age, and the junior private school she attended asked her to read at Saint Pauls Cathedral in Melbourne for the end of year Christmas prayer and blessing. The Head Mistress praised me and said Vanessa did very well.

Vanessa felt very privileged to attend a private Anglican School. Vanessa used to sit quietly at lunch however, aghast at the bitchiness of other students. Vanessa’s father, Graeme, worked in the poorer suburbs of Melbourne to the north, delivering medicine to the newly settled Australian immigrant community. In Toorak, no-one really appreciated how a Brighton boy, who topped his years in medicine at Melbourne University, could suffer or maybe even bear doing that job. What snobs and narrow minded atheists humans can be.

Sadly, as my father worked a seven day week, over the years the stress became too much. In Vanessa’s later years she realised it was because her family, so keen on the worldly viewpoint, and even atheism, never dedicated time for rest and relaxation in a meditative understanding of the Lord or his word.

As a senior school student, Vanessa was to prepare for a career as either a doctor or lawyer. It was just expected of us to achieve those sort of results, having realised our parents worked hard to give us a good start in life. Appearances, however, are deceptive, and many wealthy families that Vanessa knew in the 1980’s, were in the throws of experiencing the demolition of getting blown apart by acrimonious argument and bitter divorce. Vanessa used to wonder what role did God play in all of this? What was the cause of so much unhappiness, suffering, uncertainty and upheaval?

Vanessa thought to herself, pondering and contemplating, should Vanessa commit to the vows of an Anglican, whilst many wealthly families were experiencing so much hatred, anger, unhappiness and failure? Vanessa looked at Lord Jesus, up there on the cross, being crucified, taking on the suffering of others, and subduing the poor and the wretched, and asked, what is wrong with life, with my life, so fragile and uncertain?

Vanessa was taken on a pilgrimage through Sri Lanka when she was thirteen years of age, visiting several big Buddhas and a cutting grown large into a tree, from the original Bodhi tree in Bodhgaya, India. Maybe this left some sort of blessing or impression, because Vanessa thought, God isn’t really answering her questions concerning suffering and it’s cause. Vanessa determined to become a Buddha for the sake of all living beings, to solve life’s biggest questions and work out the to cessate the ignorance of a self, which is most surely the cause to all sin, negativity, delusion and non-virtue. Vanessa thought, only by achieving enlightenment, can one really solve, and cessate suffering and it’s cause. Vanessa thought, I need to tread and traverse the path to the cessation of suffering and purify my delusions and negative karma and to accomplish the perfection of virtue in order to attain enlightenment for the benefit of all sentient beings. That, to transcend suffering, the suffering of suffering, the suffering of change and all pervasive suffering; that, is a meaningful goal and the meaning of life, and that is how I want to work to overcome the misery of the human condition and all six suffering realms.

Contemplative

The saddest reality in my life is I did not know at the age of sixteen how to find a teacher in Buddhism, that is safe, reliable, valid and wise Guru. As I was living in Melbourne, Australia, Queen Elisabeth taught the Melbourne Girls Grammar School students British history, not the history of Asia, and in my early years, I was not fortunate enough to hear of Buddhim or the culture of Tibet. I basically knew nothing of Tibet, or the horrid invasion by the Chinese communists of this peaceful land, that occurred due to corruption in the Buddhist culture. As horrid as the Chinese communists are and of course how shocking the genocide, we didn’t hear of His Holiness, the Fourteenth Dalai Lama of Tibet, Tenzin Gyatso, until I endured a long seven and suffering years from the age of 17 to 23 years of age. Such was the non-virtue in the culture and of course due to my poor karma.

Twenty seven years on and many stories later, I have no regrets having made my decision to accomplish Buddhahood and find a safe, reliable and valid qualified and authentic spiritual guide. This guiding and teaching by the power of good example, His Holiness and his retinue do very well. I love Queen Elisabeth also. We are all spiritual practitioners with some good to offer. I oppose sectarianism and wrong view. It would be nice to accomplish a better understanding of what proper religious practice can achieve for oneself and one’s life.

That is what I am here to promote and teach.

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Request for new pillows

Buddhism, Culture, Education, ethics, Happiness, Health, Philosophy, Wisdom

Vanessa has been meditating on the emptiness of a self now and the bodhicitta motivation for over twenty years. For the past twenty years, this meditation has been conducted in silent retreat. Vanessa is in need of some new pillows for her residence. So we are sending out a request to the public for funding. Vanessa always recommends using a firm pillow, to give proper support to the neck, head and back.

Giving to support authentic dharma practice creates great merit. By thinking, may I too overcome the causes to samsara, cyclic existence, may this act of giving and love serve to create the cause for my own release from the miserable cycle of suffering. You can begin by taking refuge and generating bodhicitta, reciting the following prayer three times.

I go for refuge until I’m enlightened to the Buddha, Dharma, and Sangha

From the virtuous merit I create from the practice of giving and other perfections

May I attain the state of a Buddha for the sake of all sentient beings.

To conquer the three poisonous states of mind of attachment, hatred and the ignorance of a self of persons and of phenomena, you need to train in the three scopes of the path to Buddhahood. Obviously training in the six perfections is best, setting the bodhi mind as the motivation for aspiring to and engaging in the path to Buddhahood. Vanessa works long hours, and does quite a bit of community service. Please support this dharma project by clicking on the PayPal link below.

Request for new pillows

Give kindly and generously to this dharma project. All help is greatly appreciated. Create merit today and support authentic Buddhist dharma practice.

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To complete, dedicate the merit by reciting:

May I quickly become Lord Buddha and lead each and every sentient being to his enlightened realm because of these merits

May the precious bodhi mind not yet born arise and grow

May that born have no decline, but increase for evermore.