All About Angulimala

Angulimala: A Murderer's Road to Sainthood

(*This is an excerpt from the full story here.)

Now Angulimala took up his sword and shield and buckled on his bow and quiver and he followed behind the Blessed One.

Then the Blessed One performed such a feat of supernormal power that the bandit Angulimala, going as fast as he could, was unable to catch up with the Blessed One, who was walking at his normal pace. Then he thought: "It is marvelous! Formerly I caught up with even a galloping elephant and seized it; I caught up with even a galloping horse and seized it; I caught up with even a galloping chariot and seized it; I caught up with even a galloping deer and seized it. But yet, though I am going as fast as I can, I am unable to catch up with this monk who is walking at his normal pace." He stopped and called "Stop, monk! Stop, monk!"

"I have stopped, Angulimala. Do you stop, too."

Then the bandit Angulimala thought: "These monks, followers of the Sakya scion, speak truth, assert truth; but though this monk is walking, yet he says 'I have stopped, Angulimala; do you stop, too.' Suppose I question the monk?"

Then he addressed the Blessed One in stanzas thus:

"While you are walking monk, you tell me you have stopped;
But now, when I have stopped, you say I have not stopped.
I ask you now, O monk what is the meaning of it;
How is it you have stopped and I have not?"

(The Blessed One:)

"Angulimala, I have stopped for ever,
Foreswearing violence to every living being;
But you have no restraint towards things that breathe;
So that is why I have stopped and you have not."

When Angulimala heard these words, a second and greater change of heart came over him. He felt as if the current of his suppressed nobler and purer urges had broken through the dam of hardened cruelty that had been built up through habituation in all those last years of his life. Angulimala felt now deeply moved by the appearance and the words of the Buddha.
 

Understory

By Mark Nepo

I’ve been watching stars

rely on the darkness they

resist. And fish struggle with

and against the current. And

hawks glide faster when their

wings don’t move.

Still I keep retelling what

happens till it comes out

the way I want.

We try so hard to be the

main character when it is

our point of view that

keeps us from the truth.

The sun has its story

that no curtain can stop.

It’s true. The only way beyond

the self is through it. The only

way to listen to what can never

be said is to quiet our need

to steer the plot.

When jarred by life, we might

unravel the story we tell ourselves

and discover the story we are in,

the one that keeps telling us.

Don't forget that Kevin Griffin, author of One Breath at a Time and A Burning Desire, will lead the Berkeley Dharma & Recovery Group on Tuesdays, May 1 and May 8. For more info on Kevin, visit www.kevingriffin.net.

Here's an interesting list of 108 Defilements of Buddhism: http://www.virtuescience.com/defilements.html

"Try to recognize that defilements are simply defilements; that they are not ‘your’ defilements. Every time you identify yourself with them or reject them, you are only increasing the strength of the defilements."  --Sayadaw U Tejaniya

A random sampling from the list from above:

ostentatiousness   
grudge   
gambling   
ingratitude
dipsomania   
ambition   
dominance   
faithlessness
manipulation   
stinginess   
pessimism   
hostility
abuse   
debasement   
sexual lust   
sarcasm
humiliation   
jealousy   
gluttony   
unruliness

Hi-Res Image of Earth

This is the new hi-resolution image of Earth I mentioned in the group last night. Read more about it here.

The image, named The Blue Marble 2012 by NASA, is a composite, created using a number of swaths of the Earth’s surface taken on Jan. 4, 2012. It echoes the legendary “Blue Marble” photograph, taken by the crew of the Apollo 17 spacecraft on Dec, 7, 1972. 

And here is the link to NASA's Astronomy Picture of the Day that Bob mentioned.

Half Full or Half Empty?

A Buddhist Approach To Recovery: Turning It Over by Kevin Griffin

Here's a link to Kevin Griffin's article in the Huffington Post about Step 3 again:

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/kevin-griffin/turning-it-over_b_841087.html

And here are a few excerpts that I read last night:

The movement from the powerlessness of Step One to the power of Steps Two and Three is asking us to see how certain aspects of our thinking and actions were self-defeating. Here I want to distinguish between the ego-driven, deluded, selfish, unconsciously reactive, desire-self and the more conscious, aware, objective, compassionate and discriminating self. The former is the one that is powerless, that is addicted, that keeps us on the cycle of samsara, the constant birth and death of ego and the search for satisfaction. The latter can be called the "higher self" and is connected to our higher power -- some would say it is our higher power.

And here:

Turning our will and our lives over is a huge letting go. It means trusting the universe, trusting that if we do the right thing and then let go, things will be okay; trusting that when things aren't going our way, we still need to stay on our path. Suzuki Roshi says "Even if the sun were to rise from the west, the Bodhisattva has only one way." This is the kind of trust and commitment that we need, not just for recovery from addiction, but to find the kind of happiness and peace that makes life truly worth living.