Dark Matter, Bright Gods: Buddhist Cosmology as Contemplative Psychology | Ajahn Nisabho

No more
Buddha.
So the word faith
is an interesting one in Buddhism
and it's an imperfect translation
of the word sadd which means to place
the heart
and often we will almost clinically
try to translate it is its most
acceptable
synonym in the English language which is
confidence just a degree of confidence
in these teachings in this path
and yet it can become much more in
people. It can grow into something that
feels like genuine love and I feel like
that is what you touch when you
recollect these great teachers. There's
uh monastics who when they recollected
long porch cha would just uh tears would
be rolling down their face in the middle
of meditation
and it's important to touch that part of
our heart that loves
people can look at uh monastics and
wonder if we've uh given up love but for
me the most pure love I've ever felt was
towards these teachers who I
just felt an luminosity of spirit and
selflessness with
my parents are great too. Um
but
there is a place also for understanding
sadd
as confidence because
uh we had one monk who his father was
not
happy about him becoming a monastic and
said look I just don't like organized
religion and long poor sir po said it's
okay there's nothing organized about
Thai Buddhism Um, it's very organic.
It's a beautiful ecosystem, but it's
very organic. Um,
I say that with utter utter love for
that system and it's the one I grew up
in.
But the other problematic term there is
religion
because Buddhism does not fit into what
we have thought of as religion in the
west for so long.
I have great love for the Abrahamic
faiths and they have great practice in
them and yet a large portion of the
texts in those doctrines are systems of
belief
and often they'll rest on a binary of
belief. Either you accept someone as
your savior or you do not.
I think this is embodied in them being
referred to as the great faiths.
But Buddhism is perhaps better classed
as an education system.
If you look through the polycanon, the
words of the Buddha, the vast majority,
there are belief structures, but the
vast majority of his words are practice.
How do you train your mind to see
clearly, to give up grasping, to become
selfless?
And many of you will know the discourse
where he's sitting in the Saul Grove and
says, "Munks, what is more, the leaves
in my hand?" And he picks up a handful
of leaves. Or the leaves in this forest.
And I think they're feeling pretty sure
about this one. So they say, "Lord, the
leaves in your hand are few. The leaves
in the forest are many."
And he says, "Even so,
what I have experienced through direct
knowledge is like the leaves in this
entire forest. But what I teach is just
this these uh these this one thing and
then he says two things suffering and
the end of suffering but they are kind
of one thing suffering and the end of
suffering
this is what the Buddha gave us
and it's beautiful because um this
handful of leaves there's such restraint
in this being what he handed us through
the ages
where
there is great depth and breadth to
these teachings and
there is elements of cosmology and more.
But the handhold handful of leaves he
passed to us was so focused on how we
bring the heart to peace and stop
hurting ourselves and others.
And so the measure of faith that he asks
of us was that of a working hypothesis.
Can we trust these words enough to try
to try meditating every day? Uh to try
giving up unh wholesome action and see
what happens.
And as far as you want to take that
experiment is up to you.
But there's a gentleness in that. You're
not asked
to believe something wholeheartedly
right off the bat, but rather if you
have inspiration and trust enough to
practice, then
this path will lead you to direct
knowledge.
And yet in that handful of leaves are
things that we traditionally don't think
of in when we try to classify Buddhism
as a psychology or as a philosophy
which have all been terms brought to the
four in the scramble the west has had to
find a way to classify this body of
teachings.
The Buddha does teach about unseen
realms. He talks about rebirth. He talks
about angels.
And yet
in Buddhist thought
the conditions we come into contact with
every day
are dictated by the law of
conditionality. Various conditions
shifting, interacting, giving rise to
the vortex of change
that we encounter through the sense
world and in our own internal
experience.
And this is a chaotic system. And one
feature mathematically of chaotic
systems is what's called scale and
variance.
Where a pattern that plays out on a
small level will often play out on
various scales of uh size and breadth.
And this is beautiful because what it
means is the teachings on the states of
birth on the different realms on all
this we can really approach them if we
wish as simileies for the mind as ways
of touching and understanding
the levels of refinement or lack of in
our own hearts.
And for my last talk, I spoke off about
the anapanosati suta, a very detailed
analytical ladder towards calm.
But there's a whole another strata of
language that touches the union
substrate of the psyche through
mythology, image,
and it's really fun. The Buddha said it
was true, but it's also really fun um
ways of looking at our experience. So if
so those of you who know internal family
systems, we have a way more colorful
internal family system in uh Buddhism
filled with davas and demons and all
sorts of things. And it's very useful to
look at the mind in this way.
Just as if we don't perhaps believe in
rebirth, but we can see how every moment
we're born into a new identity, into a
new mode of becoming.
Even so, we take a look at the vista of
human experience and just experience.
The Buddha laid out in the Mahad uh
Sihanandanda Suta Majimanakia 12. He
says,
"The dark realms, the hell realms, the
Niah are a pit of coals. The animal
realm is a cesspit.
The ghost realm, the realm of hungry
pretas, is like a barren tree
scorched by sun such that a person dying
of thirst would find some small measure
of shade. A human rebirth is a lush tree
where one could rest and find shade. And
the heavenly rebirths are divine
mansions, cool. And nibana
for this person wandering, dying of
thirst is a cool pond, an oasis where
one can drink one's fill and rest.
And so to note there that all the other
realms are just rest bits. These are all
impermanent and shifting states of being
or of mind.
And the only end place where one finally
drinks, where one finally finds
satiation is nibana awakening.
There's a commentarial story at the end
of the Buddha's journey towards
enlightenment
where Mara, sort of the Buddhist
embodiment of uh defilement, confronts
the Buddha and he has his hordes with
him and all the divine beings lament.
The Buddha will never achieve the apex
of becoming anymore when confronted with
this adversary. And then the Buddha just
touches the ground and calls it to
witness. And we realize that the Buddha
was never aiming at the apex of
becoming.
This path aims towards a much more
humble and yet transcendent goal of
being with reality truly
and touching something beyond what we
know of as conditioned reality.
So the lowest realms are the near and
these are the hell realms. Joseph
Goldstein we spoke to and he said you
know I was giving these workshops with
these other teachers and everyone was
giving ones on meta and I just decided
to give one of the hell realms and more
people signed up for it than any other
and I thought that was great
but the Buddha does speak about these
and to be fair much of this color that
you'll see is actually from the
commentaries they are isn't the Buddha's
words um much of it is but much of it is
not and yet there is wisdom even in that
just as you would kind of sus out the
wisdom hidden in mythology. So, just to
say as I go through all this, if it
sounds particularly strange, there may
be a chance it wasn't actually the
Buddhist saying this, but it's worth
touching because it's really colorful
and fun and interesting
and uh relevant. It's part of the
handful of leaves.
And the hell realms, as you would
expect, are realms of burning, of uh
frigid cold, of deep suffering. And the
Christians talk about it as beings
curled in on themselves, stuffed
together as tight as mustard seeds in a
jar.
So the sense of being curled in on
oneself
and at the same time completely
claustrophobically crushed.
And it's relevant at the end of the
cycle of dependent origination which
leads to suffering. The Buddha says this
leads to birth, sorrow, lamentation,
pain, grief, and despair.
And many of you will know the quote from
long parunadama which I referenced where
he says that's so unfair. People say you
Buddhists all you talk about is
suffering. And we say no we also talk
about sorrow, lamentation, pain, grief
and despair.
But notice after a time when this word
despair no longer applies to you. There
will come a point on your practice where
that word no longer applies.
Things are still brutal, difficult.
But when you've stopped grabbing hold so
strongly of
a changing world, looking for a solid of
something which is burning,
stopped believing in the narrative of
the external realm so much and become to
find a different refuge internally.
Then when things inevitably shift and
disintegrate, your heart doesn't break
with them.
And notice this as a gift from the
Buddha. You can often miss it. But
notice if that word has stopped applying
as much.
And it's not an easy path there. We have
a story of Ajin Achelo in his first five
years as a monk just
becoming so distraught and running up to
Ajinan my teacher and saying when will
it be any better and Ajinan said in 5
years it'll be a little bit better
but this path is also extremely fast
it's as if we've usually measured our
life on an XY axis of success and
failure and suddenly this path has us
move through the a zaxis Everything
shifts and things can look very similar
on the e outside. But notice how the
white knuckled grip has softened and
your hand has begun to open.
This is a gift from the Buddha from this
path. The lack of despair.
I think very few of us nash our teeth
very often these days. And that's
definitely something you encounter in
the biblical verses.
The next realm up is that of the
animals.
We think of this as such a delightful
realm, but animals are afraid and live
in fear constantly.
Unless you're born in a middle class
household as a dog. There's a Buddhist
joke that dogs are set to be reborn as
humans next lifetime. So, they're really
excited. Cats have just been reborn as
humans, so they're like, "Nah, not that
interested." Um,
but I've also heard it said uh that if
you are very generous but keep bad
virtue, you'll be reborn as a dog in
American household. Thought that was
quite interesting.
But to know that the animal realm is
particularly um it's said to be
conditioned by uh scheming for food.
Notice that. Notice when you uh binge or
consume in that way where you're just
you really feel yourself kind of tapping
into the animal mind state of craving.
Lust has the same feeling. Joseph
Goldstein talks about talking uh asking
a teacher of his about lust. And the
teacher spoke for about 15 minutes and
then his trans in a different language
in Burmese I think. And then the
translator turned to Joseph and said he
says that lust cracks the brain.
to summarize
um
and
just to note this myopic view and
fixation and to know that is you being
tapping into the animal mind state and
to take a step back from that you can
have compassion for those sides of you.
Ainato often talks about looking at your
different mind states as different
breeds of dog. We have our Labradors,
our kind of frightened Chihuahua in the
corner. Um but you don't want to feed
that karma. So when you find yourself
moving into that space, can you
restrain, slow down?
One of our teachers said that the sign
of a life well-lived spiritually is that
when you're with others in a monastery
or anywhere, you act as if you're alone.
And you're when when you're with alone,
you're you act as if you're with as if
you're with others.
You have to hold that correctly, but I
think you get my gist.
The next realm is that of the pretis.
Who's heard of the hungry ghosts? Yes.
So the Buddha spoke about a state
in between
where one is still attached enough to
this body or something obsession
where one becomes a hungry ghost. And
the classic image many of you will have
heard for these are beings with teeny
pin prick mouths and gigantic bellies
that can never be filled.
And there is this aspect of craving,
but I think of it more as fixation.
The mind that is depressed
where we're so comfortable with a kind
of gray closet that we've become
accustomed to that we can rattle around
in it and find some measure of comfort.
This is a hungry ghost mind state.
And to know, you know, one great story I
tell about the hungry ghosts is uh
pretty sure this is just apocryphal, but
I really like it is some monastics
traveling through Thailand and they find
a abandoned house to sleep in. And they
sleep with all their heads lined up, but
all their feet are kind of because
they're different heights out of order.
And there's a hungry ghost in the house
or a ghost. And it gets disturbed by
this. And so it spends the evening kind
of ordering their feet, pushing them so
that all their feet are in order. But
then it sees that all their heads are
out of order now. So it goes around and
pushes all their heads in order. And
then it goes back around and all night.
I don't know if the uh monks woke up
from this. Although I have had a monk
talk about having a ghost pole on his
feet when he was sleeping. So who knows?
Um but uh this obsessive mind state that
goes around and around. This is the prea
mind state.
And there's a very interesting piece of
wisdom hidden in the preas.
There's a story of a generous husband
married to a stingy wife and they both
die. And the generous husband's reborn
as a tree dava, a tree spirit. And the
wife is reborn as a hungry ghost. And
every day she comes shivering, covered
in rags, asking for clothing from him.
And every day he tries to feed her and
give her clothing, but it turns to red
hot metal when it touches her skin.
And then one day a monastic comes and
sits under the tree.
And the tree deva he gives a gift to the
biku and dedicates the goodness of that
gift to his wife.
and she suddenly finds herself
uh with clothing and food sated
and holding this comparison with
humility
because I haven't had someone in my life
overcome with addiction.
But when we have those people in our
lives who are stuck in a hungry ghost
state and that difficult line between
enabling and helping
and how sometimes what we give can turn
into something that burns even more
because it feeds right into the craving.
But what does it mean in those
situations to see if you can kind of
instead dedicate merit, do something
good, invite someone along to do
something wholesome and see if that's
kind of an oblique way to touch the
goodness and invoke it in their hearts.
This is the dedication of merit.
how you interact with a hungry ghost is
you don't spread meta
that can attract them or at least the
commentaries this I think it might be
fine I'm not sure I don't know but but
there's a slightly different intention
with spreading merit doing good and just
saying it's okay let go move on
spreading brightness
you can do this to people in your lives
then we have the titans
the assuras
And these are the counterparts to the
davas, the gods, and they're known for
anger and violence.
But they also really like it. I think
the uh I think the Vikings actually
thought this was heaven in Valhalla.
They made a slight mistake in that one.
But it's not completely their fault
because in the commentaries, and I love
this piece, the Assuras believe that
they're in heaven.
The sir believe they're in heaven too.
And only at once every few hundred years
or thousand years when this tree blooms
in their grove do they realize that
they're actually no longer in heaven
that they've been kicked out of it by
the davas up above the equivalent of the
Olympians. And then the commentaries say
the Assur rush up the sides of this
mountain uh Mount Cinaru basically Mount
Olympus like ants and do battle.
But what does it say about the Assura
mind state that it thinks it's right and
righteous? How intoxicating is
self-righteous anger?
And so to know that
the seductiveness of self-righteousness
is an assura mind state and it burns
and it's based in delusion and it's very
convincing.
Then we have the human realm which is
where we all reside. And what a lucky
realm to be in. And you'll remember this
is the tree with lush foliage
and it's still very difficult. But we
are so blessed. The Buddha compared the
likelihood of coming into a human
rebirth to a turtle, a blind turtle.
Some of you know the simile surfacing
once every few thousand years in the
middle of an ocean. And the chance that
he would put accidentally his head
through a ring of wood the size of your
forearm is the likelihood of making it
to a human rebirth from a lower realm.
We had a monk friend draw a comic of a
little turtle popping its head up and
there's the ring like 5t away and it's
like darn it.
The Buddha said there's eight
inopportune moments and I've quoted this
before.
A Buddha arises in the world, but one is
reborn in a lower realm, the near. And
so does one does not hear the teaching
or get to practice.
This is the first inopportune moment.
A Buddha arises in the world. One is
reborn in a ghost state, in an animal
state, in the realm of longive gods, in
an outlying country where they have not
heard the teaching. And so one does not
hear the teaching and does not practice.
Or one is reborn in the right place. A
Buddha has arisen in the world but one
does not have the faculties to hear or
practice the teaching. This is the next
inopportune moment. One is reborn at the
right time in the right place but one
has wrong view and is not interested in
the teaching. Or one is reborn at the
right time in the right place with right
view and the right faculties
but a tatagata has not arisen in the
world and one does not hear the
teaching. This is the eighth inopportune
moment.
The Buddha said there's one opportune
moment. A tatagata has arisen in the
world. You were born at the right time
in the right place with the correct
faculties with right view and you hear
the teaching.
This is the one opportune moment. And
what a blessing. How rare that we have
touched these teachings and have a
community we can practice them with. Do
not, you are a lucky turtle. Do not
waste your eternal luck. This is very
lucky. The Buddha praised heedfulness
and the word for heedfulness is apamada.
It means literally not drunk.
Sober. We are sobering up.
I've heard it also said that humans have
the mind of a god and the body of an
animal. And this particular mix of
suffering and lucidity is the perfect
alchemy for practice.
The next level up is the davas, the
heavenly beings.
And this is where you begin to touch
truly bright states where we can learn a
great deal about how our hearts should
move and develop as we practice. The das
mean literally radiant ones or playful
ones. When the Buddha describes
different types of wisdom, he says deep
wisdom, play uh laughing wisdom, quick
wisdom, profound wisdom.
And when the Buddha says to recollect
the davas, the angels, he says, "Think
whatever generosity, whatever learning,
whatever wisdom, whatever faith,
whatever virtue those those das have
that I also have in me."
And you begin to see this how the people
around you
shine.
And you can almost see when someone no
longer has a human mind, it's a dva
mind. They say that one who's become a
stream enterer, the Davis speak of them
as if he he were themselves like
themselves.
And one day as a young monk, I went up
to my teacher and I said, "Ajun, I don't
know if you have a direct line to the
Davas, but uh if you could let them know
if they reveal them, if I get to see a
DVA, I will commit to ordaining for
life." Just putting it out there. And he
said, "Look, Nisso, um or look, Kruba,
he called me Nathan. Um, uh, there's
davas all around you. Look around you.
I was like, okay, that's a very wise
answer, but I was really hoping to
actually see a dava. Um, it was a good
answer, though. And just to leave a
crack for those who, you know, aren't
quite sure about this, uh, we did have a
another monk I knew, um, who'd had a
near-death experience and I think come
away with some sensitivities.
And we had a branch monastery together,
and the bodhic tree was barren, and it
had been barren for months.
And we walked past after alms round one
day and he said oh David just came into
that tree. I was like okay don't know
what to say. Okay good. And then the
next day the tree had just blossomed
into into flowers the entire tree. And I
was like huh okay. So just leave a
little crack for who knows.
But there's different realms of David
which can reflect the choirs of angels
in Christianity or the different
refinements of the mind.
And the lowest realm is called the four
great kings. And one aspect of these
Davids is they're very close to losing
it to losing this divine divine kind of
uh feeling.
And there's something that calls is
called this dissolution through
corruption. And the commentaries give a
story. This is commentary but it's
really fun. is one DVA going along in
his chariot and another DVA looks after
him and gets angry and says look at that
fool all puff puffed up with his own
importance and the other DVA looks back
and sees that the other Dave is angry
because the commentaries say it's very
easy to see when people are angry and he
says what does my merit have to do with
you these are the fruits of my own
actions
and if both Davids get angry they both
pop and fall down to human rebirth or
lower. But if either one of them doesn't
get angry, then it saves both.
I really like that story.
And Ajin Kov and I have a deal where
when one of us gets angry, we will
sometimes encourage or we've wanted to
encourage the other to take a picture of
their face so that we see what it looks
like. The Buddha said, "One condition
for beauty is non- anger.
Angry anger makes us ugly.
There's realms that move up. There's the
tittita heaven which is a realm of
loving kindness chiefly
and that transcends roles. The role
above the four great kings is one of the
realm above the four great kings is one
of there's the Olympians there and Saka
the king of the gods which is like Zeus.
It's all about roles and different
things. But then above that is Tusittita
and this is where they say the
bodhicattvas live and it's a place of
love
and I find that so meaningful that to
truly touch that realm of love you have
to transcend the roles and the conflict
and the
nexus of ego that is Saka Zeus that is a
level below and I often map these realms
onto my body and to see to heaven lives
in that small delicate place in the
heart.
And then going even farther up, the
Buddha talks about coming to what he
calls the paranimitasi
davas.
And these are the beings that delight in
the creations of others.
And what these angels have achieved
is whatever they want, it immediately
manifests
in almost a myopic hallucinogenic
um cornucopia of experience.
And it's so ironic because they've
achieved the apex of the sensual realm.
Everything they want is there without
the slightest bit bit of effort.
And yet, what have they been left with
except an existence
equivalent to a kind of sensual zombie?
There's nothing there except constant
satiation of fleeting experience.
And yet there's other lessons hidden in
this realm too.
Because when one begins to get calm and
some of you will have seen this, the
mind can begin to as the conceptual
structures dissolve, the mind can begin
to move into a flow of color and strange
images.
And for me, this is almost like you're
touching this realm.
And to know that in that place
there's also an aspect of surrendering.
These davas don't put forth strong
intention.
and she's running along the side of the
prison looking in and there's a tableau
in each window she sees in some windows
people being tortured horribly in other
windows people partying having a good
time in others a human birth and others
an animal birth and the prison just
keeps going and she wants to stop but
then she realizes if she stops then all
these people following her will get lost
as well will go back as well and so she
realizes she can't stop and the moment
she commits to at the prison ends and
she finds herself in I love this part, a
suburban landscape
and she walks up to this doorway
of this nice house and knocks and an
wife, a nice mother comes out and says,
"Oh, you came from that place. Not many
people make it here from there.
You have to go back now and help
others."
And I've never known totally what to
make of that landscape and that wife or
how or that sorry that mother how we all
interact with that. But to know that the
Buddha pointed to an oasis at the end of
this path that is beyond all becoming.
But in the meantime, the mythology can
add kind of a real relevant way of
relating to these and seeing what state
we're in.
So good luck everyone.
S
there's somebody online too with a
question. Sandra
>> first Sandra online and then please
Christine. Sandra.
>> Hey, Ajan. Um, let me get this.
>> Hey, Sandra. Good to see you.
>> Good to see you. Hi. Um, I have a
question, a couple of questions for you.
Um, kind of lump together. So, you know,
I rescue animals, um, help cats in
particular. And, um, I meet a lot of
cats that are in bad situations that I
can't change. uh that I can't liberate
them from and um it's painful. It's
painful work and I take them with me um
my mind but I can't rescue them all. Um
how can I
two questions are
I sometimes when I see them think is
this their karma their karma that
they're in this situation and and that
you know they're
it's beyond me to do anything about or
and so is that's the first question and
then the other is um it's very painful
work emotionally
that I want to keep doing but there's so
much bitterness and resentment in the
rescue world and I feel myself
uh getting bitter and resentful at
times. How is is there a way to apply
the teachings
so that I can
bring goodness kind of with me into the
rescue world and sustain my efforts.
Thank you, Sandre.
Sandre has the particular distinction of
being the only person to bring multiple
squirrels into our gathering and it was
delightful.
Um
so
in terms of the conditions that beings
find themselves in
likely uh karma yeah karma leads us to
those states
but
where that gets misused is people
thinking and I don't think this is what
you're thinking at all but you know
therefore or kind of letting that be a
doorway to shut compassion off. Um,
and the Buddha acknowledging that in a
human rebirth at least when one
practices, one can cultivate what he
called karma of the path, which is the
karma of the noble eight-fold path. And
that whatever karmic conditions you're
given, if you approach them with right
view and right effort, you can transmute
them into the path. And in a sense, it
can all become bright karma in a sense
or be transmuted into that
But with an animal, it's hard because
yeah, often they don't have the
faculties to practice.
So you can acknowledge the state they're
in
and
um you know take it as a a prod to be
very careful in your own path now that
you have a human rebirth with a chance
to practice of using it very well.
And the Buddha gave four brahma vihares
um you know abodess of love and kindness
and added equinimity because you're
right if there is a situation where you
can't help them in the traditional ways
then sometimes your one choice is to
step back into equinimity and
acknowledge that beings
you can't help all beings in every way
at every time beings are subject to
their karma and our interview with Roshi
Joan Halifax really spoke about how she
had to learn to center into her feet and
hold her center steady in the midst of
all the things pulling on her compassion
and that this was her role. Part of our
role
and I'd say that also applies for
operating in the rescue world or in any
domain of compassion action is Ajin
Omoro compares it to sharpening a knife.
If we're always alone and never
interacting, it's like our angle of the
blade on the wet stone is far too
shallow. It doesn't get any sharper. But
if we're really leaning into the world
too much such that we can't maintain a
wholesome state of mind, then it's like
the angle's too sharp and it'll blunt
the blade. You have to find a way of
interacting with those realms where
you're getting enough refuge practice
time alone. Um where you can approach
them genuinely with not h out having
your heart deeply affected and maintain
mindfulness and hold it as practice. And
if you're unable to do that, then I
really think as a practitioner, it's
probably right for you to pull back from
that or help in other ways. Often
there's skillful other means or other
realms you can help with that won't drag
at your heart in that way or different
ways of working with animal rescue where
you're not touched into those
environments in quite the same way. But
yeah, Sandra, like for me, there's a
distinction between when I know I'm
working with something and when some
pattern has begun to take up residence
in me. And you don't want that. That
means you're beginning to feed the
pattern rather than letting it play out
and dissolve.
So, did that help, Sandre at all?
>> I'd say rescuing squirrels from your
backyard is definitely a a go if you can
keep that up, too.
>> Thank you.
>> Yeah,
>> thank you.
>> Yeah, thank you.
Maybe one more. I'm sorry we didn't I
didn't leave much time today.
Um thank you for that uh discussion on
um the bava chakra. I studied that from
a couple different perspectives and um
like Alan Watts and then my teacher
who's like Nanduel Shvatandra and
another thing and so I think I just
understood this so tell me if I'm wrong
so the system the Bava chakra is like
the three poisons right then the the
realms and the 12 links of dependent
origination and each one of those is a
system within itself right so at the
smallest it's the three poisons which is
grass grasping you know aversion well
ignorance and then right and then Buddha
is outside of it so you pick one of
those systems is that
is that fair to say
>> yeah who knows this image that that is
being referenced here it's um it's a
you'll see it on Tibetan mandelas often
it's like there's Yama the lord of time
or kala I believe actually holding this
wheel of 12 links and different realms
and then at the center there's the three
defilements which drive it all greed
hatred and delusion represented by a
snake, a pig, and something else. I
forgot. Chicken, maybe, rooster, greed,
I believe.
Yeah, the Buddha gave many different
systems for looking at these things. But
for me, it's one of the things that
really brings forth faith is seeing the
coherence and how they overlay. And the
teachings are holographic. You know,
each one often will hold the others
within it. Um, and then yeah, the Buddha
saying all, you know, when they depict
these images, you'll often see a monk
kind of flying over each one. he'll fly
be flying over the hell realms or the
heaven. And I've always loved that like
no matter what realm we're in, if we
look up or touch and mindfulness,
you know, there there is refuge there.
No matter how bad things are are, it can
be used as part of the path. Um,
and
we had a community member who uh put in
a there was a lottery at our Unitarian
church for a spirit reading and she was
the one person who put in a bid. So, she
got it and she went to the spirit reader
and the spirit reader spent like 15
minutes trying to figure out her spirit
guide. And after a while, she's like, "I
give up. Are you Buddhist?"
And uh and she said, "Yeah, yeah." And
the person said, "Look, you know, most
people have like one or two or three
spirit guides, but the Buddha, the
Buddhists just have Buddha. I really
love that." So, yeah.
Okay, we do have to wrap up. Um, if
people have other questions, uh, we'll
have other sessions for more questions
or any Wednesday evening. Um, we have
time on Zoom for that.