Workshop Comments & Notes

Here you will find the answers to questions, comments made each week as well as notes and links to various information (like Sutras).

It will be updated each week during the workshop.
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Week Seven
Theme 6: Social Identity

Links For further reading:
Theme six handout
Obama on Race
Buddhism and Politics of Indentity
The Buddha's Appearance


Week Six
Theme 5: Money and the Economy

Links for further reading:
Buddhism and Money: The Repression of Emptiness Today
Toward Buddhist Economics
Buddhism Comes To Main Street

Week Five
Theme 4: Living and Dying

Link for further reading:
Theme 4 handout
Bardo Todol: The Great Liberation Through Hearing in the Intermediate State
Death and Dying in the Theravada Tradition
Buddhism and Medical Ethics

Week Four
Theme 3: Mind and Life

Links for further reading:

Basic Ideas of Yogacara

Eight Consciousnesses, What is and isn't Yogacara

Meditation On Breathing

Maha-satipatthana Sutta

Mind and Life Institute

1. Mind and Body in Buddhism
Body and Mind/ Material and Spiritual: —Form (rupa) and Mind (nama)
Five Aggregations (skandhas/khandas)
Form (rupa)
Sensation (vedana)
Perception (samjna/sanna)
Volition (samskara/ sankhara)
Consciousness (vijnana/vinnana)

2. Concept of “Mind” in Yogacara Buddhism
8 consciousnesses
Eye
Ear
Nose
Tongue
Body
Mano--Mind—6th consciousness
Mana --7th Consciousness
Alaya —8th consciousness/substrate consciousness

3. Meditation—Mental Cultivation
Samatha: Concentration meditation
Method—Anapana Sati: meditation on in-and-out Breathing
Vipassana: Insight meditation
Method on phenomena—Body, Feeling, Mind and Mental Objects
(Four Foundations of Mindfulness)

Quotation from Maha-satipatthana Sutra
Meditation on Breathing—Anapana meditation
"Breathing in long, he discerns that he is breathing in long; or breathing out long, he discerns that he is breathing out long. Or breathing in short, he discerns that he is breathing in short; or breathing out short, he discerns that he is breathing out short. He trains himself to breathe in sensitive to the entire body and to breathe out sensitive to the entire body. He trains himself to breathe in calming bodily fabrication and to breathe out calming bodily fabrication. Just as a skilled turner or his apprentice, when making a long turn, discerns that he is making a long turn, or when making a short turn discerns that he is making a short turn; in the same way the monk, when breathing in long, discerns that he is breathing in long; or breathing out short, he discerns that he is breathing out short... He trains himself to breathe in calming bodily fabrication, and to breathe out calming bodily fabrication.”

Meditation on Body
"Furthermore, when walking, the monk discerns that he is walking. When standing, he discerns that he is standing. When sitting, he discerns that he is sitting. When lying down, he discerns that he is lying down. Or however his body is disposed, that is how he discerns it.”

Meditation on Feeling
"When feeling a painful feeling of the flesh, he discerns that he is feeling a painful feeling of the flesh. When feeling a painful feeling not of the flesh, he discerns that he is feeling a painful feeling not of the flesh. When feeling a pleasant feeling of the flesh, he discerns that he is feeling a pleasant feeling of the flesh. When feeling a pleasant feeling not of the flesh, he discerns that he is feeling a pleasant feeling not of the flesh. When feeling a neither-painful-nor-pleasant feeling of the flesh, he discerns that he is feeling a neither-painful-nor-pleasant feeling of the flesh. When feeling a neither-painful-nor-pleasant feeling not of the flesh, he discerns that he is feeling a neither-painful-nor-pleasant feeling not of the flesh.”

Meditation on Mind
"When the mind is restricted, he discerns that the mind is restricted. When the mind is scattered, he discerns that the mind is scattered. When the mind is enlarged, he discerns that the mind is enlarged. When the mind is not enlarged, he discerns that the mind is not enlarged. When the mind is surpassed, he discerns that the mind is surpassed. When the mind is unsurpassed, he discerns that the mind is unsurpassed. When the mind is concentrated, he discerns that the mind is concentrated. When the mind is not concentrated, he discerns that the mind is not concentrated. When the mind is released, he discerns that the mind is released. When the mind is not released, he discerns that the mind is not released.

Meditation on Mental Objects
"In this way he remains focused internally on mental qualities in & of themselves, or externally on mental qualities in & of themselves, or both internally & externally on mental qualities in & of themselves. Or he remains focused on the phenomenon of origination with regard to mental qualities, on the phenomenon of passing away with regard to mental qualities, or on the phenomenon of origination & passing away with regard to mental qualities. Or his mindfulness that 'There are mental qualities' is maintained to the extent of knowledge & remembrance. And he remains independent, unsustained by (not clinging to) anything in the world. This is how a monk remains focused on mental qualities in & of themselves with reference to the five hindrances.”

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Buddhism and Science for Mind and Life in the West
1. Mind and Life Institute: where Buddhism and Mind Science meet, www.mindandlife.org
2. Jon Kabat-Zinn: Mindfulness-based Stress Reduction and Stress Reduction Clinic
See Youtube: Mindfulness with Jon Kabat-Zinn
3. Daniel Goleman: Emotional Intelligence and Social Intelligence
4. Alan Wallace: Toward the First Revolution in the Mind Science (Video) and Contemplative Science: Where Buddhism and Neuroscience Converge
5. Neuroplasticity: Transforming the mind by Changing the Brain
6. Insight Meditation—Jack Kornfield and Joseph Goldstein


Week Three
War and Peace

1. Yifa’s reflect on the NY Religious leaders’ dialogue with the President of Iran Mahmoud Ahmadinejad on September 25, 2008 (from Buddhist View on “Conflict Resolution”)
2. Buddhist response to violence: the story of Prince Virudhaka and the massacre of Sakya tribe
3. Is there anything “Just War” ----Murder with skill in means in Mahayana Buddhism check on Upayakausalya Sutra (大方廣善巧方便經 T12 No. 346 ）

The Story of the Compassionate Ship's Captain

4. Buddhism and War—War in Japan and Violence in Sri Lanka

Reading materials (click each link to read more):
a. Story of Virudhaka Prince
b. Violence in Sri Lanka
c. Buddhism and War

The core teaching will be on suffering and Quotations will be from The Tender Heart. Learn more about the book [HERE]

Dukkha (Pali)
Suffering; of pain, both mental and physical, of change, and endemic to cyclic existance; the first Noble Truth that acknowledges the reality of suffering


Week Two
the Kalama Sutra will be discussed, you can read it [HERE] and read a premise of the sutra [HERE].
An Additional Version of the Kalama Sutra can be read [HERE]

Week Two's handout can be viewed [HERE]

From Wikipedia, "In this sutta, Gautama Buddha passes through the village of Kesaputta and is greeted by the people who live there: the Kalamas. The Kalamas greet the Buddha and ask for advice. According to the Kalamas, many wandering holy men and ascetics pass through the village, expounding their teachings and criticizing others'. The Kalamas ask the Buddha whose teachings they should follow. In response, he delivered a sutta that serves as an entry-point to Buddhist beliefs to those unconvinced by revelatory experiences."

You can also read Bhikku Bodhi's commentary on the Kalama Sutra [HERE]

Week two's core teaching is the "Three Refuges".

To become a Buddhist is to take refuge in the Three Jewels, also called the Three Treasures. The Three Jewels are the Buddha, the Dharma, and the Sangha.The formal ceremony of Ti Samana Gamana (Pali), or "taking the three refuges," is performed in all schools of Buddhism. However, anyone who sincerely wants to follow the Buddha's path may begin that commitment by reciting these lines:I take refuge in the Buddha.I take refuge in the Dharma.I take refuge in the Sangha.The English word refuge refers to a place of shelter and protection from danger. What danger? We seek shelter from the passions that jerk us around, from feeling distressed and broken, from pain and suffering, from the fear of death. We seek shelter from the wheel of samsara, the cycle of death and rebirth.

More information on them can be read [HERE]

Definition of Religion:
The English word religion is in use since the 13th century, loaned from Anglo-French religiun (11th century), ultimately from the Latin religio, "reverence for God or the gods, careful pondering of divine things, piety, the res divinae".[4]
The ultimate origins of Latin religio are obscure. It is usually accepted to derive from ligare "bind, connect"; likely from a prefixed re-ligare, i.e. re (again) + ligare or "to reconnect." This interpretation is favoured by modern scholars such as Tom Harpur and Joseph Campbell, but was made prominent by St. Augustine, following the interpretation of Lactantius. Another possibility is derivation from a reduplicated *le-ligare. A historical interpretation due to Cicero on the other hand connects lego "read", i.e. re (again) + lego in the sense of "choose", "go over again" or "consider carefully".[5] It may also be from Latin religiō, religiōn-, perhaps from religāre, to tie fast.[6]


Week One

An open house was held to discuss the workshop. The various teachings and corresponding texts were explained. Also a brief intro to meditation along with a short sitting completed the evening.

Handout 1: Meditation
A. Three Elements of Meditation
Body Posture
Breathing
Mind/Thought

B. Seven Steps to set-up the Body posture (from the bottom to the top)
1. Feet
2. Hands
3. Back
4. Shoulder
5. Chin/neck
6. Tongue
7. Eyes

C. Technique of Breathing
Key point: Breathing naturally and subtly

D. Mind/Thought
Key point: Keep the awareness


Buddhist term: Indra's Net (from about.com)
Indra's Net is a metaphor taken from the Avatamsaka (Flower Garland) Sutra, an important Mahayana Buddhist sutra.
The sutra describes a vast net that reaches infinitely in all directions, and in the net are an infinite number of jewels. Each individual jewel reflects all of the other jewels, and the reflected jewels also reflect all of the other jewels.
The metaphor illustrates the interpenetration of all phenomena. Everything contains everything else. At the same time, each individual thing is not hindered by or confused with all the other individual things.