2017-02 Shinnyo-en Buddhism Introductory Podcast – Prayer Beads

2017-02 Shinnyo-en Buddhism Introductory Podcast – Prayer Beads

• Beads, Beads, and More Beads
• The Shingon 108-bead Version
• Symbolic Meaning
• Practical Use
• A Circle of Life

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Various kinds of prayer beads

Prayer beads – in some cultures called “worry beads” as having something in the hand to hold, whether another person’s hand, or a string of objects, has always brought a psychological comfort to the holder.

In buddhism, you tend to see them all over the place – people holding them in their hands, a bracelet on the wrist, a string of beads hanging from their forearm, a pile of beads on an altar, someone holding up the beads in front of the altar doing something with them in mid-air. You won’t see them worn around the neck as jewelry, nor tossed around like Mardi Gras bangles. They seem to have another purpose. What could that be?

Shingon Buddhist prayer beads – different styles.

For further purposes of simplicity, the kinds of prayer beads I’ll be referring in this introduction will be the basic bead sets used by the Shingon esoteric sects.  The strand has 108 beads in the circle, divided in two semi-circles by a set of tassels at either end of the loop.  One tassel has an extra bead (often referred to as the Mother bead) on it.  Counting in from that extra beaded tassle, there are 7 beads, followed by a different kind of bead, followed by 14 more beads, and a different bead, then 33 more beads until the other tassel. Each tassel also has 5 beads (not counting the Mother bead) on it, with a single different bead before the fluffy or ball end of the tassel.  They can be made of many different materials, though natural ones are the most preferred (glass, wood, stone, marble, etc.)

There are two basic explanations beyond the “comforting thing to hold” idea for the purpose of the beads. One is symbolic or esoteric, representing the many different things affecting humans. In this version, the 108 beads represent human life problems and struggles.  Zen buddhism has an interesting specificity in their definition by multiplying the six senses (sight, hearing, touch, taste, smell, and mind) by the six physical sources of sense (eyes, ears, body, tongue, nose, and brain.) This results in 36 combinations, half of which are positive, and half negative impressions. Multiplying these 36 by the past, present and future positions in time in which they may occur, leads us to the 108 delusions of attachment (or things we should be apologetic for during our path to enlightenment.)

The other is a more functional or technical explanation – counting. There are many basic actions requiring repeating 3 times (bows, chants, prostrations, etc.) which are easy enough to count by yourself. But getting to 5, 7, 21, 33 or 100 times of anything, can find you spending more energy or thought trying to remember how many you just did, rather than being immersed in the action of what you’re supposed to be doing. That’s when holding the beads in one hand while incrementing one bead each time you do something, makes it easy to physically keep track of how many actions you just performed.  Simple, practical and something that won’t break your concentration or focus.

A final more psychological use is that of representation. The beads represent a reminder to be mindful of the many ways in which we as humans stray from our own paths of peace. We take care to remember that not only do we individually have all of these perceptions that lead us towards polarized emotions, but so does everyone else around us. To remember that each of us has an innate need for peace and tranquility, is to also find ways to cultivate that same awareness in others.
/* That’s it for this session. Thank you for listening. For more information feel free to e-mail me at jlui at jlui dot net, or twitter @jhlui1 With Gassho, James*/

2017-01 Shinnyo Podcast Peace Through Strength

2017-01 Shinnyo Podcast Peace Through Strength

• Contradiction
• A Strong Fence Has Two Sides
• Fear Builds Walls
• The Middle Way

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A dandelion grows through a brick path – Bernhard Kreutzer/Getty Image

There is often confusion about what we think is a stereotype of a buddhist monk – shaven head, wearing robes, poor in material but rich in spirit, etc. And then we hear of monks fighting for rights in Myanmar, Shaolin monks training in martial arts for decades, and armed monks in Thailand and ask ourselves, “Where’s this violent behavior found on the road to Nirvana?”

Back in the 1980’s, one of the common catch-phrases in the aerospace/defense industry brought about during the Cold War years was the concept of “Peace Through Strength.” The idea was that by having or possessing technology or weaponry which instilled fear in your opponent that the entire notion of committing an act of aggression would be dissuaded by the immediate and present fear of losing the confrontation (the premise of Mutually Assured Destruction). Then we further escalated the tension by envisioning “First Strike” capability, wherein upon even the threat of a potential nuclear conflict, we’d simply launch first. But what if we disable their ability to launch, then we’ve truly won? What if they disable our ability to disable them first? This rather nauseating discussion continues even today.

But let’s examine the behavior on a much more local scale, what keeps a potential burglar from entering your home?  An obvious security system?  A strongly locked front door? A loudly barking dog? Think about the situation from the perspective of the thief. Seeking the path of least resistance is common human behavior, even in the most monumental efforts. Each form of deterrence presents a form of resistance – another boulder in the stream. Some thieves may be deterred by strong evidence of defense, and yet others may be actually attracted with the potential of greater rewards hiding behind an iron curtain of protection. Is what’s in Fort Knox perhaps more valuable than something sitting in an open box on the curb?

A different way of seeing the differences might be comparing a skunk and a domestic cat. When you observe skunks, you might notice they don’t travel very quickly, and are almost casual in their pursuit of food and shelter. The high contrast colors of their fur, and certainly their smell bring an aura of caution and warning to every thing that encounters them..While they have sharp claws and teeth, they rely mostly on intimidation by scent and fluffing out their body and tail fur to make themselves appear bigger, hopefully scaring away a potential predator. Cats by comparison come in a couple of noticeable varieties – those that are quite easily skittish and very wary of approaching anyone or anything, and those that seem to be affectionate to everything and anyone. To a predator, the easy target might be the affectionate kitty, whereas it might avoid entirely going after the skunk.

Is our vision of our perfect existence a world full of skunks, or kittens? Doesn’t it depend a bit on whether you’re a predator, a skunk, or someone seeking companionship?  In the latter case, you might find it much more difficult to make friends with a skunk.  Or not – maybe you’ve lost your sense of smell.

And why would we see “violent” monks? Because we are still human. Yes, even monks. They are still people; people who have fears. Their attachment may be to their faith believing only they can defend properly its teachings or even its existence. Perhaps they are afraid that their example is not sufficient for others to follow. Maybe they believe that by providing a tough exterior it will shield the precious contents from theft or harm.

But re-examine the thief scenario from above – and imagine that you have given up attachment in the sense that you are secure in knowing everything you will ever need to survive and prosper will eventually come back into your life when it is needed. That every challenge you face is an exercise in your ability to adapt to change and apply your creativity and draw upon the strength you have developed by helping others to succeed for themselves. And in this world, we are actually surrounded by both skunks and kittens, and predators, and each plays its own role in everyday life in nature.

The thief who has everything will still always be hungry for more (termed Asuras or hungry spirits). You however, can satiate your desire for more by deciding to view things differently. You can accept that there will always be those that hunger for more. And also accept those who are unbelievably generous. The inner peace will come from wanting nor needing either. Through that peace, you become impenetrable, and thus, strong. Simple concept, but perhaps difficult to achieve.  That’s the many-faceted path of being human.  Try to be thankful for that gift of having a choice.
/* That’s it for this session. Thank you for listening. For more information feel free to e-mail me at jlui at jlui dot net, or twitter @jhlui1 With Gassho, James*/

2016-12 Shinnyo Podcast Regarding Hope

2016-12 Shinnyo Podcast Regarding Hope

• What is Hope?
• Does Hope Go Away?
• Creating Hope
• When Is Hope Lost and Found?

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Where There’s Life, There’s Hope – Courtesy of: http://www.hdnicewallpapers.com/Walls/Big/Thoughts%20and%20Quotes/Beautful_Thought_on_Life_and_Hope_HD_Wallpapers.jpg

If we define hope as wanting, wishing or imagining something that isn’t in our present existence, we could say that hope is an imaginary concept – something that isn’t real.  If we think of hope as a state of consciousness, or the state in which we are visualizing this changed existence, then hope becomes a more tangible idea – something that persists.

The four virtues of enlightenment are expressed as permanence, bliss, self and purity, and in this context, the state of permanence is elusive depending on how we define our concept of hope.  Each of these states is related to embracing the dynamics of change as an ever-present condition. But to also realize that hope becomes ever-present as long as we can imagine a state of improvement beyond where we are today. You give up your imagination, and you can say you gave up hope.

Nature accepts things as they are – whatever happens, happens. People like to change things, like creating clocks to track time instead of watching the sun and moon. We try to move and push our environment around to better suit what we think is easier, more advantageous, or even more efficient.

When facing extreme changes, that’s when humans often resort to despair instead of hope, losing that sense of a better tomorrow. But really, tomorrow is by its own peculiar definition, something that hasn’t happened yet. We may have a less shiny and perfect vision of that which has yet to come, but basically, it still is beyond the present. And until it happens, it’s still not our reality (barring existence in a parallel universe and warpage of time, of course.)

Our reality is how we perceive it. A fish out of water is kind of stressed, and probably certainly not happy about that. But it has relatively little capacity to change its own condition.  We, by comparison, have amazing capability to change our presence, where we are, how we live, and in what manner we decide to co-exist with everything else.  Question is, do you realize that potential?

Hope becomes real as we define and change ourselves, whether that means being content with whatever we have already, or transitioning and developing ourselves to see beyond our self-imposed limitations. In the path of transformation, we materialize our vision or goals into reality.

Looking at the situation in a more pragmatic light might be that we can consider ourselves either “stuck in traffic” or “faced with the opportunity to choose alternate paths to our destination.”  Either way, the traffic is there. It is up to us to figure out how we perceive it and how we deal with it..

My own hope in this case is that you find that hope isn’t something someone else gives you. Hope is what you give to yourself.

I have seen what a laugh can do. It can transform almost unbearable tears into something bearable, even hopeful. –Bob Hope

Read more at: https://www.brainyquote.com/quotes/authors/b/bob_hope.html

/* That’s it for this session. Thank you for listening. For more information feel free to e-mail me at jlui at jlui dot net, or twitter @jhlui1 With Gassho, James*/

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2016-07 July Shinnyo Podcast Getting Enlightenment

2016-07 July Shinnyo Podcast Getting Enlightenment

• Gotta Catch Them All
• Living with Hungry Spirits
• Losing My Marbles
• Alternative Reality
• The New Cycle Awakens

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Courtesy of http://www.videogamesblogger.com/2015/09/19/pokemon-become-real-with-pokemon-go-in-2016-ios-android.htm/pokemon-pride-go

Fear is the path to the dark side. Fear leads to anger. Anger leads to hate. Hate leads to suffering. — Yoda

But there is more.  Suffering leads to desire. Desire leads to attachment.  Attachment leads to attainment. Attainment leads to loss. Loss leads to fear. And the cycle continues.

Augmented Reality has been around awhile, but until the little Nintendo game came up this week that shadows Foursquare’s original check-in GPS technology (leading to 4SQ points, badges and virtual hierarchies of achievement), with the connection to the popular collect-until-infinity game Pokemon, we didn’t see people walking distracted into moving traffic, getting mugged and robbed by wandering where they shouldn’t, nor putting themselves in the beyond-selfie dangerous places.

People’s desire for things they don’t have (yet) was described in the original Buddhist depiction of hungry spirits (jpn. Gakido or skt. Preta-gati) as the realm of existence that one finds a mere level above Hell itself.  (Shinnyo et.al describes ten realms of existence – six lower ones are consumed by desire or earthly limits, and 4 realms of heavenly or getting closer to Nirvana existence.)  The difference between a human and a hungry spirit is that a human has the ability or will to say “no” to desire (the spirit is kind of perpetually suffering from desire unless it transcends.)

But in my depiction of the odd cycle of fear described above, you might see how an incidence of any kind of violence, intentional or not, tends to lead oneself into the cycle, and has a relatively predictable outcome, despite rejecting the original emotion that triggered it. I remember this as a child when some other child took a marble from me (one of those “I know it was there a moment ago – Hey! Give that back! That’s mine!” moments.) While I didn’t fear losing that one marble, within six months I had started carrying around this 5lb (2kg) sack of marbles, which I’m sure provided great strength training, but was eminently impractical, especially for actually playing marble games.  Maybe that was my own little sack of karma.

Marbles back then, human lives now. I was reflecting to my life in the 80’s when our President and his staff dealt with an amazing number of fear factors all during the decade – financial ruin, insider trading, junk bonds, deregulation, AIDS, the Cold War, Iran-Contra, technology boom, Yuppies.  We responded by buying guns, putting on Walkman earphones, and going online. Maybe VR and AR are just a lead-in to realization of the world of Tommy (don’t hear, speak or see… happy, safe and secure)

But there are always those who, for whatever reason, decide to open their eyes, listen carefully, and speak up.  Their fear is transformed into compassion.  Compassion leading to caring. Caring leading to love. Love leading to enrichment. Enrichment leading to embracement. Embracement leading to freedom. Freedom leading to acceptance. And acceptance leading to enlightenment. And thus, a new infinite single-ended cycle begins.

https://youtu.be/g4Q1jZ-LOT0

/* That’s it for this session. Thank you for listening. For more information feel free to e-mail me at jlui at jlui dot net, or twitter @jhlui1 With Gassho, James*/

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2016-06 June Shinnyo Podcast – The Three-Wheel Dharma Bodies

2016-06 June Shinnyo Podcast – The Three-Wheel Dharma Bodies

• Why Three (and not 4 or 12?)
• Intrinsic – The Nirvana Buddha
• Compassionate – Kannon Boddhisattva
• Strict – Mahavairochana Achala

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Let’s explore further the realms of the three areas of Intrinsic, Compassionate and Strict styles of the Shinnyo Teaching (the 3-Wheel Turning Bodies of the Buddha, Kannon Bodhisattva and Mahavairochana Achala.) Throughout the volumes of dharma teaching are a seemingly never-ending list of numerically related lists and figures. Some examples:

• Four Means of Embracement
• Four Immeasurable Minds
• Four Noble Truths
• Four Dependables
• Four Grave Offenses
• Four Virtues
• Four Illusions
• Four (or Eight – depending on which edition you’re reading) Sufferings
• Five Cardinal Sins
• Six Periods of the Buddha’s Life
• Six Paramitas
• Seven Levels of Consciousness
• Eight Tastes
• Eight-fold Noble Path
• Ten Realms of Existence

Yea! – Memorize all those, and you probably still haven’t found enlightenment (but people may be very impressed with your mastery of lists.)  Every teacher comes up with their own way to help remember what you’re supposed to learn. Master Shinjo Ito noticed that the Nirvana Sutra (aka the Mahaparinirvana Sutra) kept reinforcing the basis of buddhism being founded on what are known as the Three Jewels – the Buddha, the Sangha (or community), and the Dharma (or teaching).  Alone, each element exists, but only together do they form the basis for what we know as Buddhism.

Relating back to last month’s podcast about Practice, and the story of the three kinds of practitioners, he also thought about the common threads between each of the myriad sub-schools of Buddhism – each of which had a particular focal point of study (quite parallel to the various sub-sects of Christianity and Catholocism focusing on different saints, or missionaries, or how Shinto groups each have their own particular Kami (or god) as reference for their respective focus.) Within the founding of Shinnyo’s goals was the objective to unify and fuse the esoteric practices commonly found under the compassionate wisdom sects with the elements of the exoteric sects promoting determined practice, and disciplined self-regulation. Translating the three essential Buddhist elements into objective examples to study,we get:

• Buddha => Buddha => Insight/Self
• Sangha => Kannon (aka Guanyin) => Compassion/Ego
• Dharma => Achala (aka Acala, Fudo Myo) => Discipline/Super-Ego

Coming from a psychology background, I tend to translate the religious themes into scientific or concrete-reasoning examples for my own consumption, but nonetheless, I think you may start to see how things fit together in this model. Within every person lies the buddha nature inside, and each person also has free-will, and also moral or ethical boundaries.  And it is the process of both self-examination of these values, and the outward expression (or practice) of these values that form the person we know.

The Intrinsic stream is our model or would-like-to-really-be-one-day self.  If everything in the world were perfect, and this were Utopian existence, these are our target elements to existence in a super-happy care-free world.  To really imagine or visualize this stream takes more than imagining a bunch of good luck comes to you; for example, you get a trillion dollars. Is having that being happy?  Or is it the potential to spend it, the happy part?  Or is it obtaining anything you want, the satisfaction you want?  And once you have everything, are you happy yet? Power, money, control, success, respect, admiration, love – what is going to get you to that happy place, and keep you there?  Our example given to us, is to imagine the opposite – never worrying about how much you have or don’t, surrounded by compassion, and being really satisfied with whatever happens to come your way.

As you noticed, compassion is part of our Utopian vision for our self. And it’s a dilemma, that to be cared for by others, you have to care about them, too.  If it’s just a one-way situation, not only does it not sustain over the long-term, but starts to transform into other things – envy, greed, jealousy, and even hatred. You might even see all this one-way caring as false – people are doing it just to get something from you. That’s paranoia, and not part of our happy place at all.

Discipline is not control, nor is it about punishment. Knowing that you have a genuine sense of where you want to be, and that you care that others can help you in creating that reality, now you need to actually pursue it and not just let it fade into the night as a nice dream.  To do that, is the work. But it’s not work if you enjoy what you’re doing. Just like any career formed around something you love to do, it transforms what was mundane, busy and irritating because it just must be done, into something gratifying and even pleasurable. Like building a house you get to live in, you take pride in doing a great job at something when you know what qualities went into creating it.  You don’t do it because you have to, you do it because you want to. Kingdoms are not strong because of the King by themselves. They become transformed because every single member contributes towards making the whole a greater presence of stability, growth, and even respect.  Each person’s discipline to go above and beyond becomes the Sangha, which ultimately satisfies the Self. And since somewhere inside you is a buddha wanting to emerge, the cycle perpetuates itself.

/* That’s it for this session. Thank you for listening. For more information feel free to e-mail me at jlui at jlui dot net, or twitter @jhlui1 With Gassho, James*/

2016-05 May Shinnyo Podcast – Practice

2016-05 May Shinnyo Podcast – Practice

• What is a Practice?
• Why do we Practice (and not Preach?)
• The Story of Buddha and the 3 Monks
• Practice is Not Perfect
• Balance of Time – Working with Karma

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Courtesy of creative-remembering-techniques.com

What is a practice? Pretty much anything you do.  What is not practice? Thinking without action, although philosophically-speaking, inaction is still action, as it results in an outcome whether intended or not.

Practice in this context, is not limited to something specific you’re trying to learn, Philosophically, we could say we’re learning throughout our lives, each and every day, so that’s how our “practice” extends throughout our days, indeed throughout our lives.

But isn’t it good enough to be really loud and speak your thoughts like a broadcast?

Street evangelism 1950’s Brixton, UK

What happens when you hear such a person?  Is it a moment to stop, listen and contemplate carefully what they’re saying?  Or do you mentally try to block out the extreme noise, and make a mental note to avoid that place in the future.  After all, if it works for cheerleading, why wouldn’t it work for all communication?

Cheerleading with megaphone

If you observe the difference in context, you can see or maybe hear, the difference between an audience that wants to hear you (and can’t because you’re very far away,) versus one who is trying to tune you out and being viewed as an irritant rather than a example.

Master Shinjo once related how different types of people react to guidance with a story about Shakyamuni Buddha and his disciple Ananda walking home one night. They came across three monks who had been drinking something that was forbidden for monks at the time. The first monk quickly hid on the side of the road behind the bushes hoping not to be discovered.  The second monk averted his gaze and walked quickly past the Tathagata hoping not to be noticed.  The third monk thought that the money he spent was his own and boldly walked calmly right in front of the Buddha without care.  Master Shinjo’s notes on this encounter mention that the first monk represents readily instructable people who are open to new ideas, the second person might need more specific examples and might question reasoning but are motivated by emotional care and compassion, and the third person might need actual correction and regulation in order to learn a new behavior.  Depending on the person, your words and actions might be absorbed readily like a thirsty sponge, or discarded as so much hearsay and opinion.  For those interested in delving further into this story, next month’s podcast will explore the realms of the three areas of Intrinsic, Compassionate and Strict styles of teaching (the 3-Wheel Turning Bodies of the Buddha, Kannon Bodhisattva and Mahavairochana Achala.)

About 2 years ago, I decided that collecting guitars was not the same as actually playing them and signed up for formal lessons.  A long time had passed since I last had something that needed periodic and continued effort to get past my own mental and physical blocks to mastery, and this instrument had become one of those – the kind of situation where you can play “Stairway to Heaven” until people don’t want to hear you any more, but you can’t pick up a random music score and play it because you’re not familiar with how it goes. It’s very similar to saying, “I’m a very religious person,” and everyone nods their heads and thinks, “yes, and one day we’ll see it by actual example.” In this way, you can be doing or saying something quite clear, honest and with great intent, but without reflection upon the outcome of such actions, there really isn’t any measure for improvement or failure.

Just as much as every day we are sedentary, we lose some 1% of our muscle mass per year after 50, the same goes with both our minds, and our efforts to practice. Like that slowly leaking balloon that looks really great floating around, but it’s ever so slowly losing its helium and eventually grounds itself as a deflated rubber raisin, when we don’t do something each day to offset our little sack of karma, it too gets slowly heavier and heavier through natural entropy. To keep our momentum going and that sack staying as light as it can be, it takes daily efforts, and renewed exertion to offset the gentle though persistent waves of sediment that slowly build up over time, and eventually can solidify into much harder to break stone.  This is an example of the same person transitioning between starting out like the first monk described above, and later developing into the third monk even without intent to do so.

/* That’s it for this session. Thank you for listening. For more information feel free to e-mail me at jlui at jlui dot net, or twitter @jhlui1 With Gassho, James*/

2016-01 Shinnyo Podcast Divine Protection and Luck

2016-01 Shinnyo Podcast Divine Protection and Luck

• A Heap of Good Fortune For Some
• Bullets and Bracelets Against the Bad and Wicked
• Being Fed to Death
• The Lesser Trodden Path

https://nationalsafety.files.wordpress.com/2012/12/electrical-work-funny-safety-fails.jpg?w=587

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Ever noticed when some people seem to live a charmed life? Not referring to being lucky, or fortunate success-wise, but more towards how some people haven’t had a lot of bad things happen to them. Accidents are few and far between, or never broken a bone, or became really ill. Some are winning every contest they enter, and seem to go through life with an ever-present ray of sunshine falling upon them, never casting a shadow.

Every accident I’ve ever had came from my own action or inaction. I was either unaware of my surroundings because of distraction or focus on something else, or thought I could do something that would get me there faster or presumed someone else was responsible for an action (whether avoiding me because I was there, or was otherwise responsible for predicting what I was about to do.)

I’ve driven always as though I’m invisible, because for all practical purposes, people have the most accidents when something predicted doesn’t happen (the person isn’t supposed to be there; the fan I tripped on wasn’t supposed to in my path; the food I’m eating wasn’t supposed to be spoiled, though it tasted oddly metallic, etc.)

One of the puzzling observations I’ve made has to do with how some people have many people in their lives that are in some way negatively influential, or critical, or even just chronically unhappy with life.  While I don’t have any definitive idea where that comes from, I know that for myself, those kinds of people simply aren’t naturally attracted to me.  I do encounter plenty of people who have ideas for improvement, or ways to do things better or more effectively in my daily life, but none who see the world as impossible to solve, or are faced with challenges beyond their capacity to cope. Much of that could be attributed to my belief that I can’t really do anything in someone else’s life other than show a different way of handling things. But it’s ultimately still their choice to make a difference for themselves. Whether that forms its own kind of invisible force-field against being surrounded by naysayers and prophets of doom, is up to pure speculation, but it is what it is.

Many years ago, I subscribed to the concept of rescuer mentality, developing sort of a Pygmalion attitude about relationships, which in turn attracted many people of similar belief. You became attractive both to those seeking refuge from circumstance and wanting a hand-up to a better life, as well as those who sought to rescue those in need. By itself this would seem to be an amicable relationship, seeing that those wanting support are matched with those seeking to provide it. But I think you can also see the co-dependency aspect of this situation – how the hungry never learn to satiate their own hunger, and the providers never fulfill the illusion of creating independence. Instead of a symbiotic relationship of mutual support, it becomes a parasitic relationship with each party needing the other to continue unfulfilled, lest the relationship (and the emotional satisfaction derived from it) collapse.  The tensions of the need becomes the energy fueling the connections.

To this very day, I still find an innate sense of wanting to rescue, but with a realization that people are not stray dogs and cats, you do what you can to provide an example of self-sufficiency and ability, and do your best to embrace whatever life deals you. There’s a subtle but real difference between when one of those stray animals wanders into your life, looking for solace, versus the ones you go out and trap and domesticate.  Similarly, you can be a great teacher and inspire people to learn, or just talk a lot about great things, and never pay attention that your audience isn’t really listening or learning.

While it makes no sense to try and draw direct relationships between bad luck and how one behaves in life, it may be worth noticing that the little rumbles and ripples from broken promises, and living a life of incongruity is often accompanied with a certain over-abundance of misfortune and misfeasance.   Or if screaming at the top of your lungs that life isn’t fair and the world needs to treat you better hasn’t worked, maybe it’s time to instead invite a few faeries of good fortune and the leprechauns of luck into your life by trying the nicer road. Bad times are challenging, but not a curse, and at the time you encounter them, you do have the muster to overcome them. But if you insist on encouraging the worst by spouting your bravado, I’m pretty sure it will prove to be an entertaining event at the very least. Enjoy the lesser trodden path of life; it often comes filled with surprises and unforeseen opportunities.

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/* For more information and discussion feel free to e-mail me at jlui at jlui dot net, or twitter @jhlui1; With Gassho _()_, James*/

 

2015-September Shinnyo Podcast Pain and Suffering

2015-September Shinnyo Podcast Pain and Suffering

• We Really Hate Pain
• Leading the Horse to Water that It Won’t or Can’t Drink
• Taking off the Bandage
• Rain Flows Downstream

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You Cannot Find Peace By Avoiding Life — Virginia Woolf

When we first enter this world, we learn the harsh feeling that pain delivers. As parents, we spend lifetimes trying to keep our children from experiencing as much as we felt when we were growing up. As aged people, we spend on pharmaceuticals and every contraption imaginable to avoid having to suffer from it.  And our own imaginations create our hopes of next world existence in places free from pain – heaven, nirvana, the after-life.

We even will often leave ourselves in relationships that are painful simply because we want to avoid the additional pain of having to end it – because in some sense, it may feel worse (mostly from sense of guilt) to end the relationship, rather than endure and continue. This particular point is often seen as one of those “double-edged swords” with what seems to be negative outcome no matter which path you choose. Remember that guilt becomes a trigger for our own negative behavior, as well, as it is triggered from our emotional wish to try and relieve the pain and suffering of others. But also remember the premise that others can only change themselves, just as we can only change ourselves.

Through that same idea, we cannot end the suffering of someone else, even if we are causing it, because we can only remove ourself as a source of pain. Even if you go away, their pain they feel may continue. You cannot achieve a goal of making another person’s world free of suffering. They have to be able to create and sustain that for themselves.

We are even taught that suffering trains us to be tougher, or more resilient. (e.g. “Man up!” or “Tough it out!”) While love may work through the premise, that “All love flows through your own love for you,” pain follows a similar path. When you put yourself through a painful life, it actually tends to transmit the same to others. Ever had an emotional reaction to seeing an senior war veteran, realizing what that person had gone through and still emerged alive? Was that feeling joy and elation? Or was it empathy for their pain?

‘90210’ Cast Volunteers With Habitat For Humanity

This is why Shinnyo talks about your attitude when performing voluntary service is really important. If you view contributing your time and efforts as a burden, or a task you’d rather avoid, others will not see the positive nature of our efforts – they feel the pain instead. In doing our work, any work, if we do not retain the joy and happiness related to why we are doing it, we actually can produce a counter-productive result. Instead of more people being encouraged to “follow our lead” and help-out, we end up giving people the idea “Wow, I’m really thankful I don’t have to do what they’re doing.”

Physicians of all sorts learn the concept behind expediency in trauma treatment leading to faster recovery (and ideally, less pain sustained.) The pain of pulling a bad tooth endures less than suffering from the infection. But I think the verdict is still undecided on removing bandages from a healing wound. Some say, doing it quick has a momentary shock of pain, but it’s over quickly. Others find removing it slowly and deliberately causes less incremental pain, though it takes longer to subside. Either way, leaving it in-place doesn’t end the suffering, it merely avoids it, but perpetuates the pain’s eventual emergence.

The difficult thing is that emotional pain can extend long beyond the physical cause. That’s because emotions are triggered from inside your mind, and not a splinter you can just remove. I think it’s this kind of pain that often binds us to inaction – why we stay in bad relationships, or even perpetuate ones that we know aren’t good for either person, but it seems preferable to having to experience the actual pain of breakup and dissolution. Or maybe we even try to convince ourselves that somehow the pain will end if we just suffer through it, even though we’re causing it (which is why emotional pain isn’t a bandage you can simply remove.)  From a physiology standpoint, emotional pain is biochemical – which means until you change the chemistry that creates the trigger, the psychological experience will endure.

Even a person with advanced dementia and Alzheimer’s can still feel emotional pain. And all the sedatives and tranquilizers you can take, won’t change the biochemistry that is causing the sensation; they just mask your momentary awareness of it. Only actual change in mind (setting forth the right thoughts), body (cessation of the bad behavior), and soul (this is the motivational part of why you are listening, or reading this – it is your Self you are changing) can heal an emotional wound.

When you feel life’s burdens seem to be never-ending, part of the feeling may also be the result of what we consider karma or the product of previous generations. That is not to say, the blame is from your ancestors – each generation is given the opportunity to address that burden and each generation can address it, or pass it on to the next.  You have the capacity to transform burdens into life’s challenges and your opportunity to overcome them, or be overwhelmed by them.

http://www.justpo.st/channel/chasing+money+to+the+grave

There’s an old illustration of a thief who has a strong attachment to money. Succeeding generations of their spiritual downstream also maintain a similar attachment, whether in the opposite direction (they loath and refuse to accumulate it), or reinforcing it (by hoarding or collecting it.) The attachment becomes a never-ending hunger that cannot be satiated either way. That is where the concept of embracement of life’s events becomes empowering. Shinnyo (oneness with truth) says life never delivers you a challenge you are not ready to accept. How you deal with it determines so many things downstream from your choices. Whether called the Butterfly Effect, or leave it unnamed, this is the actual power you have to affect the world around you.

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/* For more information and discussion feel free to e-mail me at jlui at jlui dot net, or twitter @jhlui1; With Gassho _()_, James*/

2015-August Shinnyo Podcast Mirrors and Seeing You

2015-August Shinnyo Podcast Mirrors and Seeing You

• Paradise, Almost.
• Embracement and Nothingness
• Waking up and Making Some Coffee (not just thinking about it)

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http://www.npr.org/sections/pictureshow/2012/08/07/157743116/does-the-mirror-reflect-how-you-feel

What do you see when you look in a mirror? Do you look at your hair, face, expressions, youth, aging, acne, whiskers, grey hairs, lines, dirt, oil, makeup, hemlines, shiny shoes… What do you see?

A mirror [ ˈmirər ] – a reflective surface, typically of glass coated with a metal amalgam, that reflects a clear image.

But what do you “see” in that image? Do you see your beauty? Your flaws? Do you see only what you want to see? Do you see what others see? Do you hesitate to look in a mirror?

A mirror does not judge, it merely reflects. Light and dark. Whatever is there, is there, or not. A mirror that is slightly askew, that is, seen indirectly at an angle, shows you something not directly in front of you. It can show around a corner, or something off to your side. Or a view from above or below. The light or shadows are a reflection in opposition, meaning you’re actually seeing the reverse of what is really there (unless adjusted by an optical reversing lens or otherwise image-processed.)

https://emmybella.wordpress.com/images-in-plane-mirrors/

Seeing your self (or Self, metaphysically-speaking) is often considered a first step towards what is expressed in many different words: enlightenment, heaven, Nirvana, truth, Shinnyo, happiness, contentment, harmony, and even peace. Regardless of how you perceive everything and everybody around you, if your own self-image isn’t clear, or acceptable to you, then it reflects on and changes how you interact with everything and everybody else.

This concept of reflection is what we can also witness in how other people (and animals) communicate and interact with us.  The words someone uses to talk with you, especially individually, are intended for your ears to hear (or eyes to see, or to touch). They aren’t really good or bad, or supportive or critical, until you interpret their meaning. Otherwise, they are just words. This is the same as when you like or dislike what you see in a mirror. It’s pretty amazing how much actual power you have over what and how you feel as you perceive the world around you.

Similarly, if you can develop your sense of how others see things, learning how to step into other’s shoes and walk in their footsteps, so to speak, you begin to see why Shinnyo refers to everyone else becoming mirrors of you. The way they act and treat you is not so much a consequence of their specific intent in one way or another, but a reaction to what you represent to them.

My friendly facilitators Steve Snyder and Michael Benner, now over at TheAgelessWisdom with whom I spent many days, weeks, hours and years in my college years learning from and with, always used to say, “Your own Love flows through your own love for You.” This translated into something like, you can’t really give what you don’t have. If you look in the mirror and accept what you see, others will, too. It’s when you can’t or won’t accept what’s there, that others become confused and don’t know what you’re really about. And if you fabricate something else about that reflection, it becomes really difficult for others to see things the same way.

Animals in their purity of absorbing the world around them, often are the clearest mirror to your own behavior. And, similarly, so are newborn babies. They perceive the world as it is. They learn from what has happened to them in the past. And that often forms the basis for how they perceive something new. When an animal has only known a world of kindness, it doesn’t really know what aggression or meanness means. Trainers often point out that you can say whatever words you want, but it’s the intent, emotion and feeling that the animals are reacting to, and learning.  That’s also why it’s crucial to do as you say, and say as you do. People learn from what you do, and not so much what you say. Mirrors show what you are, and not what you say you are.

“Be gentle, love life, and take care of each other.” — Michael Benner

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/* For more information and discussion feel free to e-mail me at jlui at jlui dot net, or twitter @jhlui1; With Gassho _()_, James*/

2015-July Shinnyo Podcast One on One Communications

2015-July Shinnyo Podcast One on One Communications

• …as I have heard.
• Differences Between Group and Individual Listening
• Tailoring the Message to the Recipient

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Each of the various sutras (sacred writings) related to buddhism ends with a common phrase, “…as I have heard.”  (technically, “Thus, I have heard..” begins the phrases in Sanskrit, and we translate the grammatical structure in-reverse for English – and that’s more than you wanted to know about why there’s a difference.) Going back to the beginnings when Siddhartha was walking around talking with people about what was on his mind, many people couldn’t read written text (education being something only for the wealthy, and having a few thousand different dialects didn’t make it any easier), and so, he spoke. He also noticed something interesting about speaking with people – people listen and hear differently from each other.

http://shanghaiist.com/2015/08/05/bbc-documentary-chinese-teaching-style-british-schools.php

There’s a BBC2 programme called “Are Our Kids Tough Enough? Chinese School” that is studying the differences between UK students, and those in China, relating to how and why they learn, and the struggles of attempting to teach students that are from very different social backgrounds. One of the many take-aways in the program relates to classroom management, wherein there are classroom monitors (elected by their peers) who are designated to act not only as supervisory extensions for the instructor, but also become role models for the others by demonstrating desired behavior.

The observed difference for a teacher attempting to mass educate a large group in a standardized way, without that group being very consistent and homogenous in focus and intent, becomes very chaotic.  By comparison, speaking with a smaller focused group, or even one on one, becomes much simpler for the speaker to adjust the content and manner of speaking, or even vocabulary, so that the instruction doesn’t get lost.

Similarly, when the students are given a physically engaging task to accomplish, that requires both focus and determination, they are as a population, able to achieve their individual goals at their own pace, some needing assistance from facilitators, and others determining their own path to success.

When students at Shinnyo-en attend dharma school (kind of a 5-year Masters program in Buddhist theology), the attending students are all focused on the same objectives and attending for pretty much the same reasons. In these situations, it is fairly simple to develop a standardized way to communicate a complex topic because the audience is consistent.

By contrast, when you encounter individuals asking a question, or seeking guidance, you will tend to shape your style and manner of communication to most effectively reach your goal of the other person understanding what you are trying to say.  There is also a difference in the way you speak with someone close to you, with whom you share a common connection, versus what you say to a stranger, with a corresponding difference in objective (for example, to a stranger about to misstep, you might say, “Be careful!” and go about your business; but if that same person is your child or parent, your intent and purpose become not only insistent, but also highly protective.)

This is also the difference between this podcast, going out to a random population, versus how and what I would say to an individual.  The content here is general information presented in a very common form, which some may or may not understand. But for those who reach out and ask individually for clarification, or when a familiar person encounters a situation needing similar advice, the information herein becomes tailored to the unique needs of that individual, restated in whatever ways are needed to make the message clear and understandable.

That’s the power of one on one conversation, at least so far as I have heard (and experienced it.)

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/* For more information and discussion feel free to e-mail me at jlui at jlui dot net, or twitter @jhlui1; With Gassho _()_, James*/

Smartphone Tablet Art Controller App – WiFi Digital Photo Frames Managed by Template

Simple concept – we’ve bought those digital photo frames that can take various memory cards and flash drives to display our photos. And some of them have become WiFi enabled so you can load pictures from your favorite online cloud storage (i.e. Photobucket, Flickr, Snapfish, etc.)

But what about an app to manage such frames all around your house (or office, or college, or whereever?)

Start with a basic photo library app that can build normal collections and folders, but extend the functionality to allow multiple digital photo frames (or even Smart TV’s with WiFi photo RSS feed capability) to be loaded on-demand with your choice of photos on-demand.

Use WiFi compatible SD cards like these to provide the basic connectivity, but assign each device (which usually end up with a local IP address) as a controllable frame within the collection application (e.g. Frame 1 (living room), Frame 2 (kitchen), Frame 3 through 5 (hallway), etc.) Now assign those IP’s to a template “gallery” for the App to manage the content and placement.

Simple uses might be: changing all the digital frames in your house to display your best children’s photos during Mother or Father’s Day.  Load historical photos during national holidays. Celebrate a big birthday with a rolling series of funny or serious This is Your Life photos, all being loaded and timed automatically to change at pre-determined intervals.

More advanced use might be professional gallery management, so you can provide previews of gallery forthcoming openings by using inexpensive 11×14 digital frames to give guests an idea of what’s coming next.  Or artists might even end up programming the templates as interactive media showcases or exhibitions unto themselves.

The smartphone or tablet component (or any touchscreen capability)

Set of touchscreen smartphones

makes it easier to drag and drop photos to specific frames in the template – imagine the application having a basic floorplan of your house with the various digital frames in placeholder positions, so you could drag and drop photos into them as collection sets.  And save them.  And load them instantly.

@jhlui1 #DreamBig #ChangeTheWorld

Multi-path Multiplexed Network Protocol (TCP/IP over MMNP) Redundant Connections

Because connectivity is becoming less a convenience and more often a necessity, if not a criticality, there will be a built-in demand for 24×7 connectivity to/from data sources and targets.

In professional audio, wireless mics used to be a particular problematic technology – while allowing free-roaming around the stage, they were subject to drop-outs and interference from multiple sources, causing unacceptable interruptions in the audio signal quality of a performance. The manufacturers got together and created multi-channel multiplexing allowing transmission of the same signal over multiple channels simultaneously, so that if one channel were interrupted, the other(s) could continue unimpeded and guarantee interruption-free signals.

Now we need the same thing applied to network technology – in particular, the ever-expanding Internet.  Conventional Transmission Control Protocol/Internet Protocol (TCP/IP) addresses single source and single destination routing.  Each packet of data has sender and receiver information with it, plus a few extra bytes for redundancy and integrity checking, so that the receiver is guaranteed that it receives what was originally sent.

The problem occurs when that primary network connection is lost.  The protcol calls for re-transmit requests and allows for re-tries, but effectively once a connection goes down, it is up to the application to decide how to deal with the disconnection.

The answer may be the same as applied to those wireless microphones.  Imagine two router-connected devices, for example a computer and it’s internet DSL box.  Usually only one wire connects the two and if the wire is broken, lost, disconnected, the transmission halts abruptly.

Now imagine having 2 or 4 Cat-5 cables between the devices, along with a network-layer appliance that takes the original TCP/IP packet from the sender and adds rider packets with it to include a path number (i.e. cable-1 to cable-4), plus a timing packet (similar to SMPTE code) that allows the receiver appliance to ensure packets received out-of-order due to latency in different paths, are re-assembled back in the sequential order as they were transmitted.

Then run these time-stamped and route-encoded duplicate packets through a standard compression and encryption algorithm to negate the effects of the added time and channel packet overhead.

[Addendum: 22-MAY-2015] Think of this time+route concept similar to how BitTorrent operates.  There are already companies working on channel aggregation appliances, but usually for combining bandwidth.  This approach is focused on the signal continuity aspect of the channel communication.

Reverse the process at the receiving end, and repeat the algorithm for the reverse-data path.

Transmitter] — [data+time+channelID] — [compression/decompression ] => (multiple connection routes) => [resequencer] — [Receiver

Time for some creative geniuses to make this happen, yesterday.  Banks need it. Companies need it. Even the communication carriers need this.

@jhlui1 #DreamBig #ChangeTheWorld