Raymond's Blog

Patriarch Ou-I’s commentary on the Amitabha Sutra: Reflections

Raymond Lam — Sat, 13 Mar 2010 15:40:00 +0000

Patriarch Ou-I is my favourite commentator on the Pure Land canon. His thought is that of a true mystic’s.

“Many sutras teach Pure Land practices of various kinds: contemplating the image of Buddha, contemplating the concept of Buddha, doing prostrations, making offerings, practicing the five forms of repentance and the six forms of mindfulness, and so on. If you consummate any of these practices, and dedicate the merits toward rebirth in the Pure Land, you will be born there. The method of reciting the Buddha-name is the one that is all-inclusive, embracing people of all mentalities and the one that is easiest to practice. This is why the compassionate one, Sakyamuni Buddha, explained it to Shariputra without being asked. Reciting the Buddha-name can be called the number one expedient among all the expedient methods, the supreme complete truth among all the complete truths, the most perfect of all the perfect teachings.”

“Infinite light extends through space in all directions; infinite life extends through time and reaches through past, present, and future. The dimensions of space and time interpenetrating are the body of the universe. This body as a whole is the body and land of Amitabha, and this body as a whole is the name of Amitabha.

Thus, Amitabha is the inherently enlightened True Nature of sentient beings, and reciting the name of Amitabha reveals this enlightenment. Inherent enlightenment and the enlightenment as it is revealed through cultivation and realization are fundamentally not two different aspects, just as sentient beings and Buddhas are not two different things. Thus, if we are in accord with our inherently enlightened true nature for a moment, we are Buddhas for a moment, and if we are in accord with our inherently enlightened true nature moment after moment, we are Buddhas moment after moment.”

“‘Amitabha Buddha attained enlightenment ten eons ago.‘

The life span of Amitabha Buddha is infinite, and here when the sutra just speaks of ten eons, this is just a provisional way of teaching. In fact Amitabha’s time has been endless, and he has urged, is urging, and will urge all the sentient beings of the past, present, and future to quickly seek birth in the Pure Land, share in the infinite life of the Buddhas, and accomplish this all in one lifetime.”

The Trendy Buddha: Skilful means as modern means in propagating Buddhism

Raymond Lam — Sat, 20 Feb 2010 10:32:32 +0000

From:

Weekly Activism: A Mahayana perspective on social, civil, and environmental issues

The Trendy Buddha: Skilful means as modern means in propagating Buddhism

By Raymond Lam

As a religion that can claim to be truly ancient, Buddhism has displayed a remarkable adaptability to different cultures and epochs. Skilful means (upaya) denotes a certain clever and hardy attitude, one that considers the inclinations and conditioning of the Other and strives to cater to it. In the contemporary world, skilful means essentially has come to mean modern techniques of sharing Buddhism. This means utilizing radio broadcasting, publishing works in newspaper and magazines, engaging youth in Dharma ministry and activism, and using the internet as a quality medium of mass communication (as Buddhist Door strives to do). One is reminded of a common Zen analogy that has become almost cliché: the finger that points to the moon is becoming a lightning conduit by assuming the forms of mp3’s, digital artwork, internet blogs, and handphones. This helps modern youngsters to glimpse the light of the moon more easily, but at the same time, it must be acknowledged that these methods can only bring them into the shallows of Buddhism. Ultimately, only the individual can drive herself to go deeper, regardless of how she was introduced to the teachings. The best way to study the ancient religion is still to read the sutras, attend Dharma sermons, and commit to practicing and contemplating morality.

As Chinese across the world wrap up their celebrations for the Year of the Tiger, it is evident that methods of propagating Buddhism on Earth are also become more diverse and adaptable. Two of those methods are highlighted in this column. The first is Buddhist music, expressed through modern singing formats (with accompanying scores) by the Malaysian musician, Imee Ooi (Huang Huiyin). Her chanting, mantras, and dharanis are drawn from all traditions, and she has brought the ancient Pali and Sanskrit devotionals of ancient ages to contemporary Asia. Her music, catered towards a popular audience, nevertheless demonstrates a textual faithfulness to the sutras, mantras, dharanis, and gathas she relies on for inspiration. She also channels her Buddhist devotion into plays and musicals, which have enjoyed significant success in Malaysia and other Asian nations. This first method is a new direction for Buddhist music, one that fulfills the needs of laypeople who wish to engage with the ancient liturgies in a lively and straightforward way.

The second method, belonging to a monk curiously named Kansho Tagai, combines traditional Buddhist sutras with hip-hop, rap, and the beats that captivate young listeners and musicians. Nicknamed MC Happiness, he was galvanized by the accessibility of rap to communicate the Dharma through a more accessible medium instead of publishing translated sutras. While traditionalists will argue that he is more of an entertainer singing about Buddhism rather than a Buddhist preaching through entertainment, Kansho Tagai sees his mastery of the moonwalk as merely another way by which young people – including children – can come to see for themselves how Buddhism has lessons to teach in every aspect of existence. Should his success continue, his method of “modern means” would influence heavily the way young Japanese see Buddhist clergy. In the scenarios of both Imee Ooi and Kansho Tagai, Buddhist activism is unapologetically modern, blending loyalty to the Buddha’s traditions with technological and progressive upaya.

What does this mean for the modern, progressive Buddhist? The innovations of Imee Ooi and Kansho Tagai underline a desire within many circles of Buddhist schools to meet contemporary voices of need with a creativity made possible by modern equipment and a pluralistic society. A pluralistic, secular society such as the United Kingdom, Canada, or even Hong Kong is capable of fostering open-ended interpretations of Dharma propagation. The most common medium, as many bestseller books and popular blogs have demonstrated, is the interweaving of Buddhist philosophy and practice with three things (these can be further divided into sub-categories which are too numerous to list here):

1. Psychological healing,
2. Personal experiences in the family and the workplace, and:
3. The endeavour towards bettering one’s own life.

The third, an avowedly humanistic aspiration, hails from the European Enlightenment idea of self-advancement, and is not always so easy to reconcile with orthodox Buddhism. It may come as a daunting reminder to many that the Buddha saw the key to ending suffering as destroying the conception of self. There is a fine distinction in Mahayana Buddhism: the karmic suffering caused by the concept of self is the prime concern, while striving to destroy the self is to misunderstand the former idea. Modern works should accord to this fundamental idea of “non-attachment to the self.”

Nevertheless, this does not mean that the striving for Nirvana cannot be expressed in things such as art, music, sculpture, and photography. There are no hard or firm rules to stop the many Buddhist communities around the globe from expressing the Way in creative, popular, or even entertaining ways. In fact, as long as intention remains true the Buddhist aspiration, hip-hop and singing can express a bodhisattva’s compassion and desire to benefit all sentient beings. Despite it being older than many religions such as Christianity and Islam, Buddhism enjoys one of the most advanced and intricate ethical philosophies ever devised. Its systematic inquiry into the mind and morality has given it a unique advantage amongst the world’s extant religions. Upaya, especially the modern upaya of people such as Imee Ooi and MC Happiness, has demonstrated that there are truly eighty-four thousand ways to teach Dharma – perhaps even more. In this sense, Buddhism can now maintain its truly ancient heritage whilst accommodating the modern ways of this world.

Link to Imee Ooi’s website: http://www.immmusic.com/

Full link to article: http://buddhistchannel.tv/index.php?id=44,8902,0,0,1,0

Universal Spiritual Truths

Raymond Lam — Wed, 06 Jan 2010 12:20:37 +0000

I am not a Catholic, but I have read many of Pope Benedict XVI’s works, and read them thoroughly. I have a respect for his depth of thought, clarity in communicating theological ideas, and his unusual combination of scholarly crispness and poetic expression. In some places I do think he grows a little vague and generalizes the opinions of others, and although I disagree with him on many points about religion and ethics, I am a “reader” of Pope Benedict XVI – perhaps more so than any other Christian author except for my favourite Catholic monk: Thomas Merton.

An interesting passage from the Pope is his warning against living as if there was no God, that is, living life disregarding religion as a part of life and not as the ground of life itself. I would agree with this very general assertion since religion tacked on to life is more of a gimmick or an escape from boredom or misery, whilst life lived through authentic, mindful (and not fanatic or close-minded) religion is true life. Here, I would like to bold a sentence that, to me, speaks of the Pope’s implicit affirmation of a Buddhist truth that goes “beyond” God:

‘Theology must go back to being truly “theo-logy,” speaking about and with God. The one necessity (unum necessarium) of man is God. Everything changes, whether God exists or not. Unfortunately, we Christians also often live as if God did not exist (”si Deus non daretur“). We often live according to the slogan: “God does not exist, and if he exists he does not belong”‘ (Moynihan, 2005, p. 88).

Everything changes – no contingent things are permanent or last in themselves. This is the fact that Buddhism takes as a basic doctrine of its philosophy and no matter how one chooses to speak of God, gods, or anything else, one must first acquaint and familiarize oneself with impermanence. Knowing impermanence cultivates courage, open-mindedness, wisdom, and compassion. Impermanence, as envisaged in the Buddhist teachings, is a universal spiritual truth that all spiritual leaders, including the Pope, have no choice but to acknowledge. Does this make spirituality an exercise in futility? Does it render the idea of God powerless? Or does the truth of impermanence point toward something higher, something greater than the travails that we project onto this universe?

Resurrecting Eden: Video on the Near East

Raymond Lam — Tue, 05 Jan 2010 12:36:03 +0000

An engaging and contemporary introduction to the land of Ur and Mesopotamia from 60 Minutes. This serves as a preliminary guide to the people who currently reside in the birthplace of civilization, and the lifestyle they have adhered to since the beginning of true human history and flourishing. It also enlightens us as to the true weapons of mass destruction that Saddam Hussein had: engineering ingenuity and water. With considerable resources, manpower, and a desire to wipe out his own people, he committed one of the greatest environmental crimes of the 20th century by draining over 90% of the marshlands that would have been familiar to Abraham, the father of Judaism, Christianity, and Islam.

New article

Raymond Lam — Thu, 10 Dec 2009 12:21:12 +0000

I have had a new article published. It is titled, “The Role of the Good Friend in the Gandavyuha Sutra.” For those who are familiar with the Avatamsaka Sutra, you will recognize the Gandavyuha Sutra as the thirty-first and final book of the Flower Ornament canon. My article is about the conception of the “good friend” in general Buddhism and in the Gandavyuha specifically. It was published under the 14th Issue of the Bodhi Journal as part of a series on Buddhism and Self-cultivation. If you are interested, the link is here. Simply go down to “Reflections” and click on the article with my name.

What is the Presence?

Raymond Lam — Sat, 31 Oct 2009 05:57:24 +0000

We hope to know and express the Name, and we hope to touch the Presence. For our own liberation, and for the benefit of other sentient beings. But what is it like to know the Name? Can anybody say with confidence that they know exactly what the Presence is whispering to their heart?

The Buddha is always present, everywhere. But how are we to be more aware of it? Let us recall that the mind is the basis for all thoughts, speech, and actions. The Perfection of Wisdom Sutras state that the mind that realizes emptiness is “purely luminous.” And what else is Amitabha, the Name, except Infinite Light? Therefore, the Buddha’s Presence is the energy of the awakened mind within you. As Thich Nhat Hanh writes:

“Whatever has happened, this problem or that event, should not cause you to lose your happiness and peace, because you have the Buddha, the energy of awakening, within you. The Buddha is with you when you smile mindfully. The Buddha is with you when you walk mindfully. The Buddha is with you when you drink tea peacefully. You know you’re capable of drinking your tea that way. You’re capable of walking that way, and you’re capable of breathing that way. Don’t think that the Buddha is abstract. The Buddha is very concrete” (Thich Nhat Hanh, 2007, p. 184).

When you are aware of yourself and your thoughts, speech, and actions, the Buddha’s Presence becomes easier to abide in. And if they are good thoughts, speech, and actions, then you are dwelling in the Name, in the Buddha. All it requires is a cultivation of mindfulness, awareness, and compassion for oneself and for others. It is about facing reality, for reality is Buddha, the Name. But the practice that attunes us to the Name most powerfully is the Buddha-invocation, or to recite “Namo Amitabha Buddha.” For it unites the revealed Name and mindfulness together, awakening the enlightened mind in a single liturgical tradition.

I am back.

Raymond Lam — Tue, 27 Oct 2009 14:32:24 +0000

I have decided to reopen this blog. I won’t be surprised if my former readers don’t come here anymore (it’s been a long time since I updated), but let’s just say I haven’t had a truly good blogging experience ever since I left Buddha Warrior. If I could do it again, I wouldn’t have written about many of my rants and kept it strictly more academic, but my friend once said that it was quite nice to read a more personal perspective on a religious person struggling with his weaknesses and spiritual afflictions. Fair deal. I also hate censorship, so I’ve never deleted any comments except for those that were spam. So I’m opening this place up again. Watch this space.

I have moved my blog again.

Raymond Lam — Sat, 19 Sep 2009 13:24:54 +0000

Rockmelon Pie is no more. My new URL is more closely affiliated with the online Buddhist community: please click here for the link. Take care, all of you :)

Goodbye… actually, not really :P

Raymond Lam — Sun, 31 May 2009 07:19:11 +0000

This is a note to say that my online presence is STILL… well, present. But probably not at Buddha Warrior anymore. I’m doing a fresh start on my new blog, Rockmelon Pie, which is more streamlined and focused on my progress in academics and religion. I still have a very catholic interest in the issues of the world, including media, society, music, etc., but in a way I want to focus on what I love most. UNLESS there is something I feel that MUST be said, I will leave it to better qualified people to do so.

If you were a reader of this blog, please update your links to http://rockmelonpie.wordpress.com.

No need to say goodbye, because I’m just over at another WordPress blog. And unless someone contacts me for the blog address of “buddhawarrior”, I don’t intend to shut down this blog.

Blessings!

Ray

The Progressive Faith Book Group

Raymond Lam — Thu, 07 May 2009 22:20:56 +0000

Beginning Wednesday night, the 10th June, the Progressive Faith Book Group has, as its mission, the breaking down of barriers between people of different faiths and different belief systems. In a respectful environment where understanding and tolerance is the ultimate goal, those books looking at issues in a multi-faith and inclusive way will be the priority of this group.

Do you want to break through the parameters of a narrow interpretation of faith? Do you want to seek common ground, and not demonization? Do you want to join other like-minded individuals in robust discussion and book analysis? Are you not afraid of being challenged in your faith, and seeing how others see and interpret your beliefs?

Then this is the group for you!

DATE: Wednesday 10th June, 2009, and every second Wednesday of the month thereafter.
TIME: 6.30pm to 8.30pm
VENUE: 127 Kennedy Terrace, Paddington

If you are interested please contact:

Emanuele: nexuslets1144@gmail.com
Adrian: adirong@yahoo.com