Thích Quảng Đức

Born in Hội Khánh in 1897, Thích Quảng Đức was a Vietnamese Buddhist monk. Whether or not you know his name, you probably know what he did for religious freedom in Saigon, Vietnam, on the 11th June 1963. Below are three links to a pictures that made me shocked, sad and made me question my own courage when I looked at them properly for the first time.

Image 1

Image 2

Image 3

I don't want to say too much about this, I'll leave you to draw own conclusions from it. This link takes you to his Wikipedia page. I know that's a bit lazy, but you'll get more detailed information if you want it from there.

Thanks for reading, comment below or email me with suggestions or your own thoughts.

Personal Thoughts

I thought I'd finish this week off with a summary of my thoughts in bite-size chunks.

When suffering affects me, I use it to improve.

All beings are equal, and they are all searching for happiness.

Darkness and light are two sides of the same coin.

While I do not rely on others, I do not dismiss others without due reason.

For all intents and purposes, I am you, you are me.

Unless you can say otherwise, and we are equal, why do we gain while others suffer and die?

My thoughts are my own. I do not ask you to believe them, I ask you to respect them.

How can you make peace with others, if you do not find peace within yourself?

Give, without promise, or even hope of reward.

In this expanse of atoms and empty space, thank goodness we have such things we can call friends.

Thanks for reading, email me with any suggestions and comment below.

Anger compels even the greatest people to do acts of cruelty.

The Tibetan Book Of The Dead

Also known as Bardo Thodol, literally translated as liminality liberation, this details Buddhist beliefs about death, the intermediate state, rebirth and enlightenment. Although it is commonly referred as the 'Book', singular, it is more like a collection of smaller texts written by scholars in the past. The version I have borrowed from Central Library in Sheffield contains an introductory commentary by HH The Dalai Lama.

I found it quite interesting in the first couple of chapters, it wasn't talking so much about death, more about spiritual practices that should be done in this lifetime. Things like meditation techniques, and generally things more associated with Zen. After that though, you get into the bulk of it. When reading about the Peaceful and Wrathful Deities, I was surprised to learn how often 'blood filled skulls' are mentioned. I assumed these would be the last things that are associated with a religion following ahimsa (non-violence), but, there you go.

Still haven't finished it yet, it is quite big. So far I have enjoyed reading it and learning more about Buddhist beliefs. I recommend finding a copy, even if, like me, you just borrow it from a library. For me, it was worth the time spent trawling through the lists of deities and their different appearances, characteristics, etc..

Thanks for reading, comment below or email me with any suggestions.

Quotes

I'll be honest, I've had a pretty boring week, so I thought I'd collect some of my favourite quotes.

'Be kind whenever possible. It is always possible.' HH Dalai Lama

'Happiness is not something ready made. It comes from your own actions.' HH Dalai Lama

'If you can, help others; if you cannot do that, at least do not harm them.' HH Dalai Lama

In the practice of tolerance, one's enemy is the best teacher.' HH Dalai Lama

'My religion is very simple. My religion is kindness.' HH Dalai Lama

'Sleep is the best meditation.' HH Dalai Lama

'There is no need for temples, no need for complicated philosophies. My brain and my heart are my temples; my philosophy is kindness.' HH Dalai Lama

'We can never obtain peace in the outer world until we make peace with ourselves.' HH Dalai Lama

'Whether one believes in a religion or not, and whether one believes in rebirth or not, there isn't anyone who doesn't appreciate kindness and compassion.' HH Dalai Lama

'With realization of one's own potential and self-confidence in one's ability, one can build a better world.' HH Dalai Lama

'A jug fills drop by drop.' Buddha

'All wrong-doing arises because of mind. If mind is transformed can wrong-doing remain?' Buddha

'Ambition is like love, impatient both of delays and rivals.' Buddha

'An insincere and evil friend is more to be feared than a wild beast; a wild beast may wound your body, but an evil friend will wound your mind.' Buddha

'Believe nothing, no matter where you read it, or who said it, no matter if I have said it, unless it agrees with your own reason and your own common sense.' Buddha

'Better than a thousand hollow words, is one word that brings peace.' Buddha

'Do not dwell in the past, do not dream of the future, concentrate the mind on the present moment.' Buddha

'Hatred does not cease by hatred, but only by love; this is the eternal rule.' Buddha

'Holding on to anger is like grasping a hot coal with the intent of throwing it at someone else; you are the one who gets burned.' Buddha

'It is a man's own mind, not his enemy or foe, that lures him to evil ways.' Buddha

'It is better to travel well than to arrive.' Buddha

'Let us rise up and be thankful, for if we didn't learn a lot today, at least we learned a little, and if we didn't learn a little, at least we didn't get sick, and if we got sick, at least we didn't die; so, let us all be thankful.' Buddha

'No one saves us but ourselves. No one can and no one may. We ourselves must walk the path.' Buddha

'On life's journey faith is nourishment, virtuous deeds are a shelter, wisdom is the light by day and right mindfulness is the protection by night. If a man lives a pure life, nothing can destroy him.' Buddha

'Peace comes from within. Do not seek it without.' Buddha

'The tongue like a sharp knife... Kills without drawing blood.' Buddha

'Thousands of candles can be lighted from a single candle, and the life of the candle will not be shortened. Happiness never decreases by being shared.' Buddha

'What we think, we become.' Buddha

'When one has the feeling of dislike for evil, when one feels tranquil, one finds pleasure in listening to good teachings; when one has these feelings and appreciates them, one is free of fear.' Buddha

'You will not be punished for your anger, you will be punished by your anger.' Buddha

'You, yourself, as much as anybody in the entire universe, deserve your love and affection.' Buddha

(Source: brainyquote.com)

Thanks, if you've got this far, for trawling through those quotes, courtesy of 'brainyquote.com'. I hope they influence you for the better. Please comment or email if you wish.

Vegetarianism

I have been vegetarian for 4 days now, and it seems to be going well. I did feel a bit weak doing PE today, but that's to be expected. My protein intake seems to be from eggs and nut-stuffing so far, but I hope that in time my diet will become more varied, and larger.

On a side note, I'll be trying to update every Sunday morning, when possible, but I may post at other times now and again.

One more point: Parinirvana Day! Today is the day we Buddhists celebrate the death of Siddhartha Guatama, aka Buddha. It sounds bad, but Buddhists believe that he was fully enlightened, and was released from the Samsara (cycle of birth, life, death, rebirth). This is a good thing because, in Buddhist philosophy, the Samsara is associated with suffering, and should be the thing that Buddhists try to free themselves from by attaining Nirvana (inner peace, freedom from suffering, and wisdom). Some people do celebrate Parinirvana on the 15th, rather than the 8th, so my apologies to those people. People celebrate by making food, bringing money and clothes to a monastery, and also by thinking on loved ones passed away, and on one's own death and path to enlightenment.

I realise that my last point was the biggest there, but, oh well. Thanks for reading, comment below, and email jazzphilosophybiscuits@googlemail.com.

Life

Yes, I know the title's a bit vague, bear with me. As I often do, I've recently been thinking about life, purpose, etc.. It seems odd to me that, although it appears we have freedom of choice in most matters, which religion we follow, our profession, our friends, we really have much less choice than we think, unless we are very brave.

Take religion. Yes we can choose, depending on what we ultimately believe in, but deny it as you might, indoctrination happens, and it seems to work. If you are brought up in a [insert religion A] community, you will probably believe [religion A]. Even if you are told of, or even research, other religions, you are more likely to stick with [religion A] over [religion B]. This does not, of course, mean that you are stuck with [religion A], we still can choose [religion B], we are just less likely to.

Example two. We would like to think we can choose what to do in life, and we can. But we can sometimes forget the factors that influence the choices we make, intelligence, strength, skill. We might subconsciously lean towards doing a job that we are good at, rather than one we would enjoy or feel happy doing.

While we ultimately do have choice in the majority of the matters in our life, are we discouraged by 'the system' to do the unexpected, to defy convention? From primary school, not meaning to boast, I've been quite intelligent. I've had a bit of a knack for maths and the sciences (probably countered by my appalling English). As such, I'm pretty much expected to follow a certain course. Do well in GCSEs, take A levels, go to university, get a well paying job that I enjoy. All well and good. But though I do enjoy maths and, to a lesser extent, science, I would say, if asked in the street, that my main passion is firstly Buddhism/Theology, secondly jazz, thirdly more intellectual pursuits such as maths. It would be unexpected and, I suspect, frowned upon to, even if it means leaving Britain, going to a Buddhist monastery and become a monk. To tour, playing jazz would seem stupid, a waste of talent even. But because of my upbringing in this environment, that won't happen. The reality is I will probably conform, stick to the norm, not take the risk.

I think it was René Descartes who said there are only two emotions: love and fear (please correct me if it was someone else). Am I going to be stuck to convention because of a fear of rejection, the unknown? Time will tell...

Thanks for reading, please feel free to comment and send suggestions to jazzphilosophybiscuits@googlemail.com.