Ask Jaime and Jess... Oh My Buddha!
Seeing HHDL was awesome. He became a real person to me. (The Pope is not real, not yet. And neither is Christ cuz I haven't met him yet either). He smiled, waved, sneezed, blew his nose. Oh and he talked. In Tibetan. Because some of the simulcast translators dont speak English. He wanted to use English but they asked him not to. The translations were hell...
The Japanese was done by a Japanese translator and her Japanese was immaculate... for written Japanese. However it was so hard for Mayu (Japanese with excellent command of her native language) to understand that she actually went and rented a simulcast translator device so she could listen to the English!
But the problem is that the Japanese over the speaker system was so loud that it overpowered the halting, broken, sometimes absent English.I think the Taiwanese was the smoothest as they seemed to do simultaneous translation as HH spoke.
I figure that HH is accustomed to simultaneous translators because he talked and talked and talked (in Tibetan) and then the J-translator would talk for 15-20 minutes along with the drowned-out neo-English translator.
The music was pretty impressive for an hour and the Japanese monks did an amazing chant using about 10 taiko, or Japanese drums. It was very dynamic. The last performer was Sadao Watanabe!!!!! Now if you are a jazz fanatic you will likely know this name as he is a worled-renowned sax player (getting on in age I see). Very good!
The first two hours HH talked about buddhism and with the poor translations we couldnt understand anything other than suffering is suffering until you examine the suffering closely upon which you break down all the components of suffering and you cannot find anything that defines suffering... well watch one of my videos on this trip to get a better feel for what I'm trying to depict. You may understand better.
We went outside for lunch, then back in to the chanting, then the second half of the talk. HH had to use Tibetan again so Jaime and Jess left as it really was killer to understand.
Then there was a 40minute Q&A time. Some strange questions handled extremely diplomatically by HH. And one very fanatical woman with... crazy eyes (if you know what I mean) asking? yelling? her query into the mic so loud that nobody could understand what she was saying so they had trouble explaining it to HH.
The Dalai Lama eats meat!!! Yaaay! Good for him! He became total vegetarian for twp years and developed gall stones. At the orders of his tibetan and western doctors he started eatin meat and got better. He said some sects are strict vegetarian and some in the world eat meat. Neither is right or wrong, they simply are.
I liked that.
Anywhoo... it's over and Mayu and I had a beer and some meat before parting ways. Im at my office station writing thiss on my keitai while taking a coffee break. Its humid. Time to go home, get naked and go hang out on the balcony.
It was a great experience!
I love you!
Cam
P.S. Oh yeah... the main message was violence breeds unhappiness within. Even if the purpose is good, using force will corrupt the purpose and badness and suffering will result. We all need to focus more in our daily lives on love, respect and compassion toward others in order to shift the energy of this world to a more positive, peaceful direction.
Kind of sounds an awful lot similar to my Globalized Love, don't you think? I do! I love, respect and appreciate you!
Glad you had a good time,Mou.
ReplyDeleteThanks for sharing with us.
I can't agree with that last part though...
If i use force to defend myself or my loved ones in the event of an attack, i can't see how that would corrupt any purpose...
Is he saying we should be passive?
Sure... i will run first if i have the chance... but if i'm grabbed or God help any one who was to touch my child.... just sayin.. there'd be some bad karma exacted as i open up a can of whoop-ass on anyone who even thought about it.
That seems to me to be simple law of nature type stuff, so i'm guessing he only meant using force in an aggressive way.
Anywhoo... enjoy your nekky balcony sitting.
loveYouLots!
Jen - When I read what you wrote, it sounds to me like you are making "non-violence" conditional. Would that not mean that in your mind you condone under certain situations the right to use violence? Then wouldn't this mean that violence, in your mind is therefore acceptable (under certain situations)?
ReplyDeleteAs we cannot have dualistic minds, meaning that part of us says it is acceptable, while part of us says it is unacceptable - the mind doesn't work that way - this would then mean that if we condone it during personal aggression against us, then we condone it.
Wouldn't it therefore be better to believe it is unacceptable under all circumstances? And believe it? And if the time should come when we or our children are personally attacked (which if we think about statistics is extremely extremely rare), to just act? Without "premeditation"? In the moment. And do what is appropriate? Whatever "appropriate" may be?
Without this way of thinking, there will always be a seed of "violence is acceptable" within our mind and this will negatively affect the love, respect and appreciation we can share with others, thus diminishing our chances to increase peace in the world.
I love you.
Jen 2 - If you read what I had previously wrote, please read it again as I was in the presence of editing it right when you came back for a visit. The use of "you" came across too personal, when I was using it as a "one". So I changed the tone of it more to how I wanted it to really come across.
ReplyDeleteI think i get what you're saying but if i had nevr considered what the appropriate response might be...ever then in the admittedly rare event of an attack, i would be more vulnerable, not having a clue as to what to do.
ReplyDeleteI don't think that much at all about personal attack and i go out alone at night many times because it is not a fear of mine.I have love for my fellow humans, but i know some of them are capable of bad things.
And one reason it's not a fear of mine, and i can put away such thoughts, is because i KNOW what to do in the event of an attack. I KNOW i can defend myself reasonably well.
If i was simply floating along thinking all was right in the world i would simply freeze or worse be confused and clueless and a "willing" victim.
Expect the best. Be prepared for the worst is how i was taught.Not that i think about "the worst" but now i don't have to think about it, i CAN focus on the positive... cuz i know what to do if i encounter the negative... nahm sain, Boo?
I think it's impossible to not have the duality.
ReplyDeleteIf that's the case than i would have to say that i think violence is acceptable then.
Because there are circumstances when it must be.
Not just personally, but in law enforcement, etc.
I was going to say war, but i really am against war... or at least the wars i've been personal witness to (Vietnam to the present).
I think there is duality in everything. I think it's only natural to be of divided mind about a number of things.
We just struggle to keep them in balance..
Isn't that the background of the Martial Arts?
I had a wonderful time and am so sorry I had to leave early - between the translation and the rather unpleasant affect lunch had on my tummy, I just couldn't stay! I have to say I would've rather had some of Cam's lunch versus what we brought. Woosh.
ReplyDeleteIn any event I definitely did enjoy myself and it was SO great to see Mayu and Cam again. Jess and I had a blast, and we were definitely a bit disappointed by the switch to Tibetan. I think His Holiness really is a fantastic speaker and hearing his words, inflections, and such? Wonderful. It was also amazing to see him as a REAL person who laughs, coughs, commits a few faux pas, even gets fidgety. The Dalai Lama... fidgets! Who knew? I couldn't help but smile a bit, watching him. He seemed centered and determined to get the most out of every moment.
Honestly, I don't think HH is fully against reciprocation, but he is pushing the awareness of what you're doing by reciprocating violence. In the first teaching, one of the early points they made was that ignorance is damaging. Violence without the correct understanding is what HH is challenging.
Here's a bit from an article in The Guardian:
The Dalai Lama has sent a message of support for Armed Forces Day, which is next Saturday. In it, he writes of his admiration for the military. That is perhaps not so surprising. As he explains, there are many parallels between being a monk and being a soldier – the need for discipline, companionship, and inner strength.
But his support will take some of his western admirers by surprise, not least when it comes to his thoughts on non-violence.
Attitudes towards violence in Buddhism are enormously complex. There are some traditions that argue aggression, and killing in particular, is always wrong. But there are others which argue that killing can be good, when executed by a spiritually skilled practitioner who can do so with the right motivation. Tibetan Buddhism falls squarely into the latter tradition, and previous incarnations of the Dalai Lama have been such practitioners. The 13th, for example, modernised the Tibetan army.
What the present Dalai Lama argues, in his message of support, is that violence and non-violence are not always what they seem. "Sweet words" can be violent, he explains, when they intend harm. Conversely, "harsh and tough action" can be non-violent when it aims at the well being of others. In short, violence – "harsh and tough action" – can be attitudinally non-violent.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/andrewbrown/2010/jun/21/dalai-lama-armed-forces-day-message
Thanks, Jaime.
ReplyDeleteThat makes a lot of sense.
I've been thinking a lot about the Martial arts and how the best practitioners discourage violence but tout it's ability to make one fit and prepared while at the same time focuses on self discipline and even meditation to center one's mind.
What i really need to do is get into the study of Bhuddism, which i'd always intended to explore more deeply.
I'm so glad you guys got the chance to see His Holiness.
And each other!
Jaime - You should have seen how he handled the Q&A after. Ever the statesman, he was able to reply to every question without coming across as taking one side, or another. It was really good.
ReplyDeleteFor example:
Q: You have been coming to japan for the past 50 years. Have you seen any changes in the Japanese people? And if so, can you give some examples?
A: You, the Japanese people are the best to note any changes that may have occurred. I am just a visitor to your beautiful country and therefore cannot begin to see what those of you growing up and living in this country can see.
How is that for giving a beautiful reply, without saying something that one party or another could take as being positive or negative?! I loved that!
Another woman asked (in English) how she can deal with the pain, suffering, anger that she feels even though she is not supposed to focus on those things as they talk about in Buddhism.
His advice? That takes years and years and years. Like a baby cannot grow into an adult in one night, how you grow from what you feel now and what you may feel in the future is a long, slow process that takes years and years. If you think back and recall how you thought about something 10 or 15 years ago, what you thought then is probably different from what you think now. You HAVE grown. We ALL grow. We just may not realize it. So don't worry too much about it, and let yourself grow through time.
Perfect!
I'm sorry, Jaime, that you had gurgly guts. But it was great to see you! That was, after all the MAIN purpose of this outing!
Mayu said thanks again for the sunflower seeds, and stuff (she got coffee too), and she really enjoyed seeing you again.
It was a fantastic experience, and to see HH fidget, proves that he is a human bean!
It was definitely one of the highlights of the day to see you guys :o)
ReplyDeleteAnd you need to swing by base at some point, to see our little slice of Americana. Surely HH would say that's spreading happiness, right?
Yanno, I think he sees things in a fantastic way ... kind of broader strokes but still seeing the finer details? His place in the world and how he sees that is wholly different from anything I've really experienced or considered before. Very, very cool.
ReplyDeleteJen - I was going to mention something about your comment about "martial arts". That is an english term that is applied. I don't like that term for the Japanese budo because "martial" means war, and wars are for killing, so martial arts are the "arts of killing". Although "bushido" is "the way of the warrior" and the warrior is a soldier, and a soldier's job is to kill, so bushido also can be meant as "the way of killing", it encompasses so much more. However, in the old days, the bushi, or warrior class, were trained in the "way of peace" as well. In bushido we have tea ceremony, calligraphy, flower arranging, and more. These are not ways of killing, but they are philosophies and practices that lead to inner harmony and peace. I can't say that some of the other "martial arts" out there develop that mind or not, as I don't know, but "martial" has a "war" connotation connected to it. I know that is just playing with words, perhaps, but as strange as it may seem, it makes a difference. Bushido and everything behind it is based deeply upon buddhism.
ReplyDeleteJaime - I will. But now I must go eat.
Fill your tummy and enjoy!!! I'm, uh, gonna go and take it easy for a bit tonite. Maybe sit outside and enjoy the cool, pitter pattering rain. Feels wonderful.
ReplyDeleteI hear you,Cam and will think of it and try to use the term Bushido though it will have little understanding here in the West.
ReplyDeleteSo few know that term for it and i doubt they even make the connection of the word Martial meaning war.
I do consider myself a warrior in many ways, on many levels, so i like the term Bushido as being of warrior's mind.
Thanks!
I am SO ENVIOUS CAM... I wish and hope and hope that he will one day make his way here to my area. I would love to listen to his wisdom and Q&A live. He is a real man just like you and I are... but he is filled with knowledge and much closer to understanding the way things are and should be for us than I. Some treat him more as a God but who he really is is our teacher. Here to teach us understanding of the way things are and should be.
ReplyDeleteWe were designed to eat meat... we know this. We have canines.... some choose not to because its cruel, and I agree to this. It IS cruel often how some choose to raise our food. But there are starting to be more alternatives so hopefully with some time this can change. I eat meat, and eggs of course but now try to seek out Grass/ Pastured meats, and free range eggs that allow the animals not only a better quality of life, but also a far better nutritious, the way nature intended food supply.
I ADORE The HHDL! I love his little visor hat, and his smile... and his twinkle in his eye. Your fortunate to have listened to him live Cam.
And to shared such a moment. When you spoke of the Buddhist Monks chanting, it brings me right back to our shared experience at the temple. Remember? It was one of those amazing moments... that I could literally feel myself coming into balance. Now I understand that as my chakra's aligning and my soul being re balanced.