Dalit movement in India

My ex-untouchable friend in India asked for threads of thoughts on the 5 precepts, he's got to talk to the sangha on an upcoming retreat about that. So here's my riff:

In my life I spun off into perfection of wisdom to justify my misconduct, and I have a healthy respect for how the precepts are good. 

I was telling myself stillness, simplicity and contentment in my second meditation today. I really like how the positive precepts aren't just slapping your hand, they're pointing to something beautiful. 

They're really basic though and the 227 rule vinaya is something that should be considered also, because that's just an application of those 5 rules, for a specific time and place. Triratna is a bit loosey goosey, lets you be married and doesn't have a lineage, it's a lay movement even though Sangharakshita says neither monastic nor lay. All the new movements are the most vibrant, but there are questions about them. IMS is a lay Theravada movement. NKT is a rogue Tibetan movement. Triratna is a new movement that is ecumenical, ekkhayana, inclusive of the one dharma, which is also Goldstein's of IMS' approach. I think these new movements are kind of shepherding people towards the more harsh asceticism of lots of meditation and paired down simplified life, but it's also a bit loosey goosey. 

If you're really serious about the 5 precepts, you are vegan, you can't be like Suella Braverman in England who says she's a mitra in Triratna, and lie in politics. You can't use drugs or sell alcohol, work as a butcher or sell meat, you can't really exploit people for work, which is what most work situations do. Not stealing means you can't be late, you can't take other's time. Sexual misconduct is larger, you can't watch porn because it's an inherently corrupt industry. Really communicating well with people is not easy. There is some real call to greatness with Non-Violent Communication, real insight into yourself and how you try to manipulate people. No drug use is hard for younger people who are still experimenting. Supposedly in the USA they stop experimenting by age 27. It seems like my Iranian friends struggle with marijuana. I don't mind if people want to take hallucinatory mushrooms a few time, but on the spiritual path, you're even winding down coffee and caffeinated teas.

When the Buddha discovered the middle way, he'd been an ascetic where he nearly starved to death, he ate his own shit, didn't sleep for day, did all kinds of crazy things to test the boundaries. When he came to just sitting and not moving, that was almost easy after that. Today's people come to the middle way from a life of indulgence and hedonism. That's a bit different, the middle way is going to feel like asceticism. I think really pushing yourself ethically you will evolve into a vegan, celibate, environmentalist who participates in politics and advocates for the environment and social justice. 

You can only choose to do these things yourself, I don't believe in prescriptive morality, I believe in supporting people's ethical development. I don't think sangha should shame other members who aren't vegan or celibate or politically active. You just rejoice when people are.

Anyway, hope that is helpful.  

Recovery

You can’t dance in public in Iran (Insta). A woman dances for a video recording and the police pull up.

I sat down to meditate at 5 AM, and fire trucks and lots of sirens were going off. They eventually turned them off and then they left. In NYC there are lots of sirens reminding you how fragile life is.

I get a second hour sit at 7:15 AM with my Iranian friends. Today Shams, his battery went out, but we chatted a bit and he thinks Trump is going to win. He's pessimistic about politics. I think Trump is going to lose in a landslide. I hope anyway. 

All names are changed to protect anonymity. 

Sepehr ended up talking to me after the meditation, and he discussed his struggles quitting using marijuana. Amir has talked about his struggles with quitting marijuana. I looked up MA, and found a daily reflections book. I mostly did AA, but I'm going to have to learn a bit about MA. 

I have a Buddhist recovery blog, that I don't write in much because they advertise and I don't get any of the money.

Most people hide recovery because there's so much judgement and shame around it. Lying and hiding helps keep addiction the way it is. 

My story is that I grew up in Wisconsin, which might be the most alcoholic state in the union (recent evidence). If you look at graphic representations of alcoholism in America, Wisconsin stands out as being a problem area, the whole state. 

Someone used to put a keg in the middle of a field, and you'd buy a red cup for $5, and try to drink as much as you could until the police came.

The drinking age was 18 but just before I turned 18, they jacked it up to 19. 

I started going to a bar when I was 16. I didn't get carded there until I was 19, which is funny. There were other bars that were notorious for not carding. Then there was getting friends to buy you booze, or places that let underage people buy booze. 

It wasn't hard, but it was also an adventure. 

The adventure ends when you're legal, but there's still an air of adventure. I would drink on weekends. That's called binge drinking. It wasn't until much later that I began to drink every day. So many years down the road, in my late 40's my girlfriend asks me to quit. 

I was working in child welfare, and I would ask some fathers to quit drinking for the family, and they never would. So when my girlfriend asked me to quit, I had to go into recovery. That was 2015, 9 years ago. 

I got almost a year, and then I went California sober, I smoked weed, and that became a problem. I have struggled with relapse for about 8 years. I have some time now, and my last lapse was only a puff. I really cut down quite a lot, despite relapses, and I've been fairly sober for about a year, but strict time, including a puff, I have 3 months. 

My higher power is the three jewels, the Buddha, the Dharma and the Sangha. 

I wrote a book about applying the Christian 12 steps to Buddhism. I've read lots of recovery books. I even used to counsel people before I went into recovery. So I'm quite happy to support Sepehr and Amir who are in the contemplation stage of recovery, wanting to quit, but not really fully committed to quitting.

I feel like I'm going to keep sober the rest of my life, but I do want to try a Greek retsina because I read it taste most like the ancient wine they discovered in Iran. I had some beers at my cousin's wedding, until my mother said, "So you're not an alcoholic any more?" I didn't really enjoy that wedding the way I enjoyed the party the night before. Thing is you can drink a little and it's OK. But then a few years later you're back to the bad place, all the time, it's a slow progression with someone like me. I can control it for quite a while. I just don't want to try that game any more, I really seek sobriety. 

I don't want this to be a recovery blog, but recovery and addiction is an issue with these young Iranians I'm friends with. 

I'm not sure how openly you can talk about these things in Iran so of course I've changed all the names. 

In friendship you meet people where they are. 

Sunday

Shams doesn't light incense or candles. I like incense and candles because it's like conditioning, when I smell incense, I sort of feel a little bit of the power of my meditations. I don't have a good sense of smell, and when I meditate a lot I smell better, I think meditation helps me to integrate my senses better. 

Sometimes I wake up and meditate with Shams. Sometimes I wake up much earlier and I get an hour sit in before I do an hour sit with him!

"In the Bhagavad-Gita the question is asked, "Of all the world's wonders, which is the most wonderful?" The answer, "That no man, though he sees others dying all around him, believes that he himself will die.""

From The Experience of Insight p. 128

I feel like I ward off anything that is Hinduism, like some sort of weird Christian sect, vigilant about belief, but I could loosen up a little bit and be open to more influences. 

You do have to watch out. I read this on r/Buddhism

"That is Adrian Cirlea, a controversial cult leader who pretends to be a Buddhist priest.

He enrolled to study Jodo Shinshu as a priest, but disagreed with Shin’s view that Amida Buddha embraces all. He thinks certain people, like people with disabilities, gay people, trans people, women, etc are inferior and cannot learn dharma correctly. So he left his studies, stole materials from his tutors, and fled to found his own cult away from Shin authority.

He has no qualifications to teach. And he’s very vocal on his radical adharmic takes, from saying LGBTQ people will be rejected from Amida’s Pure Land, to supporting Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and parroting antisemitic tropes about Jews controlling the world.

He wears robes in that picture. But he is not a reverend or a Buddhist priest. He should be avoided for his severe distortion of the Buddhist teachings and especially for using the Pure Land dharma to spread hate."

"To clarify also, when we say “broken off” from Jodo Shinshu, he stole materials from his tutors and fled to found his own cult away from Shin authority.

He has no qualifications to teach. And he’s very vocal on his radical adharmic takes, from saying LGBTQ people will be rejected from Amida’s Pure Land, to supporting Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and parroting antisemitic tropes about Jews controlling the world.

He wears robes in that picture. But he is not a reverend or a Buddhist priest. He should be avoided for his severe distortion of the Buddhist teachings and especially for using the Pure Land dharma to spread hate."

Shams has encouraged me, and I've read it in Goldstein, to take a vow not to move for an hour sit. I'm quite the wiggler and move, especially since I get panic attacks and hyperventilate when I feel claustrophobic when I don't move a little. I've taken to telling myself to relax, relax towards the end of a meditation. 

I have a fond memory of Bodhipaksha touching my shoulder and saying, "Don't Move!" He has a glorious website called Wildmind.

I had a sad day when we didn't meet for meditation. On my sad day of mysterious reasons, I played a bunch of a chess, and lost all the games. I think depression has a negative intellectual impact. I'm ashamed I let negative thoughts sneak in.

Don't launch any more missiles

Shams, Sepehr and Amir showed up today but Amir and Sepehr disappear during the hour long meditation. 

I was meditating on karuna, compassion. Seeing my own suffering, Shams' suffering, neutral and my ex who I'm in discord with. Then I equalize compassion to all of them, locate the feeling in me and beam it out into the infinite universe. 

I'm for humanity, I don't like anyone dying. Iran launches missiles at Israel, and Israel launches missiles at Iran last night. Here's a timeline. The two countries need to learn how to wage peace. 

If you really really really look at suffering, you don't want others to have it. And you don't do things to cause it. I'm sure there is justifications for launching missiles. It's just flawed reasoning. There is such a thing as a just war, Fighting against Hitler is now seen as a just war. It's hard to say don't try and fight Hitler, let him keep existing, let him keep on killing the Jews. 

Hordes of Jewish families descend on the park on Friday night, while my daughter is playing and some of the teenage Jewish girls swore at my daughter. They called her a blond bitch. My daughter was trying to engage with them, and they wanted a younger kid to go away. I gave them the stink eye and asked my daughter to move away from them. My daughter was very upset by it, but she was also strangely drawn to it. 

I don't think impolite behavior from one person ruins the whole people. I love the Jewish people, my stepfather is secular Jewish, I live next to a Jewish neighborhood and I've had a lot of Jewish friends throughout my life, including in Madison Wisconsin where I grew up.

The teenage girls smashed their cups and left the litter on the ground. Monday morning they clean up the park from over the weekend when it's exclusively Jewish families littering up the park. 

At my park on time I asked the Rabbi if he would clean up all the cups his camp had littered, and at first he denounced me, and then later he came back to me and apologized, and said he would. He told the teenage kid supposedly watching the kids, but watching their phones, to clean up and they threw about 3 cups away and then went back to scrolling and ignoring the kids. 

Ireland just recently recovered from the potato famine, population wise. Jewish people are going to recover from the Holocaust pretty soon, if they haven't already. I knew a woman who had 12 children. Large families lead to overwhelmed parents, and littering neglected children who act out. Can I blame them for seeing a threat to their people? 

One time at my mother-in-laws a fellow came up to me in the hall. I realized eventually he was asking me to come in and turn on his air conditioner, I was his Shabbos goy.

I know Iran leaders see America as a threat and enemy, and I know some Americans see Iran as a threat and an enemy, allied with Russia, though right wing people in America favor Russia over Ukraine. My friends are not political, they don't really identify with the current government, but they have to be careful. They live in the country where journalists are often imprisoned (Guardian), artists are imprisoned (source). 

I just hope my friends are OK.

To me it's a failure of representation in both Gaza, Israel and Iran. These leaders should be ashamed of themselves. 

Some links to discussion of existence in Iran

Reddit

This might be too personal

I was talking to Shams this morning. We went 39 days meditating every morning (here in the USA for me, afternoon in Iran) and then we missed a day. I was talking about how meditating on Avalokita made me ashamed at how selfish I am. That's totally taking it the wrong way, you start with self compassion, but yesterday I had this weird undertow of negativity. He said compassion for yourself is to focus on your own wounds and hurt, and have sympathy for that. That somehow broke through something and he suggested Tara Brach. I've listened to her book Radical Acceptance falling asleep and really like her. 

I was talking about an undertow, where a current pulls you out to sea and away from shore. Yesterday I had a really peculiar experience of negativity, it was really hard for me. I think I see the world more clearly after accepting some hard truths, but wow, it was a really painful day for me. 

After he talked about the list of characteristics of the Dhyanas that is online. I just found Kamalashila's writing on it, which I have to reread.

He talks about Ram Dass, he's more syncretic than I am, willing to listen to non-Buddhists. I got into Joseph Goldstein because of him, and I'm reading his first book right now. 

Goldstein

Goldstein Quote

Goldstein Quote

I've also been studying Iran.

Iran Current Events

Learning about Iran

Iranian films

Iran and Israel

Hafez

Another link Shams sent me:

Hsin Hsin Ming