Dedication for the Ill and Deceased

Question: How can I develop a short but effective daily practice that will allow my Pure Land prayers to be of more benefit to the ill? How do I make dedications afterwards to benefit those already dead?

Response: The most basic practice is to chant "Amituofo" and then dedicate the merits from the practice to all beings. The dedication is as follows:

May the merits and virtues accrued from this work
adorn the Buddha’s Pure Land,
repay the Four Kindnesses above,
and relieve the sufferings of those
in the Three Paths below.

May those who see or hear of this
bring forth the Bodhi mind,
and at the end of this life,
be born together
in the Land of Ultimate Bliss.

With the line "relieve the suffering of those in the Three Paths below" we are dedicating the merits to all who suffer in the Desire Realm, the Form Realm, and the Formless Realm. So by saying this line, we are dedicating our merits to all who are ill.

Personally, after this dedication, I add my mother's and father's names saying "May my mother, Evelyn Bolender, and my father, Milton Bolender, be reborn as soon as possible into the Western Pure Land to end suffering and attain happiness." At our centers, the names of the deceased and the relationship to the deceased are written on paper plaques (paiwei) and placed on a special offering table. Those who are not Pure Land Buddhists could simply say the names, the relationship, and the wish that the deceased end suffering and attain happiness.

For those who wish to do a more comprehensive chanting session, an example of a session is on page 48-49 of In One Lifetime: Pure Land Buddhism.  You can obtain a pdf file of the book by clicking on the title. If you wish a hard copy of the book, please contact the Amitabha Buddhist Society of USA or the Amitabha Buddhist Library in Chicago.

A Choice I Make Every Day

 

The following is an email I received from a woman who has now been practicing Pure Land Buddhism for a year. With her permission, I would like to share it with you.

This is my one year anniversary story of being a part of an Amitabha Buddhist society. One day a friend saw an article about the society in a local magazine. She asked me if I would be interested in attending. I said “of course”, I would love to try something like that. Well, I have not been the same since. My first day, I was overwhelmingly greeted with acceptance and joy. I had someone stand next to me sounding out the correct way to pronounce; I was excited.

In the one year’s time of chanting weekly, I was challenged to meet my fear, my anxiety, and my frustration, by chanting “Amitabha”. Many challenges occurred and many obstacles came, and I continued to chant “Amitabha”. In December I took my vow and studied very hard. I read many books and I continued to chant. All the fear, anxiety, and frustration I once felt no longer hold a death grip on me. My heart is full of joy and gratitude. I understand to just chant “Amitabha” works. Over time I figured out I had to practice at home by myself and teach myself to chant "Amitabha" on a regular basis. 

It is a choice I make every day.

Practice on the Meditation Cushion and Throughout the Day

Question: It seems that I never have the time to do my Buddhist practice. I work, look after my young children, try to help my parents, feel it is important to spend time with my husband, and on and on the list goes. I feel guilty about not having the time for practice but don't have free time like monks and nuns. What should I do?

Response: It seems that everyone I speak with has more to do than time to do it in. People often think that as monastics, we have lots of time to sit under a tree in meditation because we have little else to do. But in today's world, monastics have constant deadlines to meet and much work to do. So I do understand your feeling that everyday life can feel overwhelming and the time to practice is very difficult to find.

Somehow, we are unable to find time for what feels more like a responsibility but usually find the time to do what we want to. We always seem to be able to find the time to talk on the phone with friends, watch television, or read that new best-seller.

I find the best time for formal practice is in the morning—before I turn on the computer and begin work. At least mentally, and ideally physically, put your meditation cushion between your bedroom and the kitchen (or in my case, my workspace). Stop off and spend some time along the way.

Also, practice is not just sitting on that cushion. Practice is being patient when your child spills something. Practice is not getting angry with a co-worker who didn’t meet their deadline causing you to have to work even harder. Practice is not snapping back at someone who was rude, but trying to understand why they became upset in the first place.

Practice is taking the teachings and using them to become a more thoughtful, happier person by sitting on the cushion, if just for ten or fifteen minutes, and carrying the resultant sense of calm with you the rest of the day.  

It Takes Us Many Times To "Get it"

 

A few years ago I was reading a review of a new book by Thich Nhat Hanh on Amazon. I was thinking of buying the book and thought I’d just check the first few reviews to get a better idea of what it was about.

The first reviewer wrote that the master repeats his ideas. A second, perhaps more experienced, reviewer commented that the master repeats ideas because we haven’t gotten them yet.

So repetition is necessary since it does take us many times to "get it."

Over the past eleven months, I have periodically happened to think of my mother’s last few days and of what she went through and said. Although she maintained her sense of humor amazingly well, there were a few times when her words caused me such intense sadness that I had to consciously put them away as I chanted "Amituofo."

We can accept, logically and emotionally, that our suffering is a part of our living. But watching someone we love suffer is different. It hurts. We want to end their suffering, but are helpless.

Last week I was preparing for a class by reading a book Ven. K. Sri Dhammananda’s book How to Live Without Fear & Worry. He was writing of suffering, something I often speak and write about. Suddenly, something shifted within me. And it was okay. The words I had read and spoken so often became an experience, and everything settled. I truly "got it."

So if you wonder why the masters keep repeating the same ideas, it’s okay. They know what they’re doing. They know that it takes us many times to "get it."

"Carbon Crisis"

These days, after I complete work on my blog, I reward myself by going to With Robe and Bowl in hopes of a new entry. Bhikkhu Abhipanya has created a blog that is as beautifully innovative as his writing is honest.

To help more people benefit from a recent entry, I would like to share it with you.

As I walk down a country road to the small village in which I go for alms each morning, I’m met with a sight which, for me, encapsulates nicely the mentality behind our relationship with our planet: garbaaaage (said like a chain smoking Frenchman) … and plenty of it. From little plastic bags (the bane of my almsrounds) to snack packets and juice cartons, all the way down to beer bottles (the smashed and splintered variety, of course) and the occasional electrical appliance (although these are usually quickly picked up and sold by scrap merchants) – it’s almost as if the lush and verdant edges of the road, covered in beautiful, leafy green weeds of every shape and size, gently try to hide this mess away from my prying eyes, with their myriad vines and delicate blossoms. It’s all about using and abusing here … and such a shame it is too …

 This month’s National Geographic includes a rather sobering and yet not entirely unhopeful article, ‘The Climate Crisis’ with a two page spread of ‘How to Cut Emissions’ – after reading it one comes to the rather frank conclusion that unless there is some kind of lightning bolt from the sky and people actually start to realise the depth and seriousness of the problem … we’re screwed… and so are our kids … and their kids … (well, ok, I know I don’t have any –  but you get the idea). We need drastic change – and it needs to come now. 

 The problem itself is so complex and so delicate that encapsulating it in a simple blog post like this would be impossible - but just to put things in perspective - the amount of crap we’re putting up into the atmosphere these days is reckoned at 8 billion metric tonnes per year (and that’s just the carbon!). Think of what one tonne of carbon looks like … a big, big black cube … ok … now times that by 8 billion and try to visualise what we’re doing to ourselves. The US belches out one quarter of the world’s carbon emissions (that’s one quarter, in case you missed that), although both China and India are catching up rather quickly, what with their huge populations and fast growing economies. And although there doesn’t seem to be any real shouting down of the fact that there really is a crisis, it seems that the only people actually taking any initiatives at the moment are the Europeans and Japanese (although certain individual cities and states within the US have also begun curbing emissions themselves), and even they aren’t reaching the modest quotas that they are setting for themselves.

 ”Everyone involved knows what the basic outlines of a deal that could avert catastrophe would look like: rapid, sustained, and dramatic cuts in emissions by the technologically advanced countries, coupled with large-scale technology transfer to China, India and the rest of the developing world so that they can power up their emerging economies without burning up their coal. Everyone knows the big questions, too: Are such rapid cuts even possible? Do we have the political will to make them and to extend them overseas?”

- “The Carbon Crisis” - National Geographic October 2007

 All in all the outlook is rather bleak – and while hope remains to at least slow and reduce the effects of the scarring of our little blue and green orb we’re already looking at serious changes taking place, which we now have no means of stopping - primarily that of warming, serious warming, which thus means serious melting. More or less every last glacial fortress in the world is beginning or already showing signs (in many cases, pretty large scale signs) of melting. More meltwater means higher sea levels – yada yada yada … you know the rest. It won’t be long before cities like London, New York, Shanghai and Bangkok will be pulling off very convincing impersonations of Venice. There’s a lot more to ice than simply rising sea levels but in any case, none of it is good.

 However, there areplans and the people we pay to think for us are doing their jobs well – not the case, unfortunately, with those we pay to act and pass resolutions for us. One of these rather ambitious yet realistic plans was thought up by some Princeton chaps (notably Stephen Pacala and Robert Socolow) three years ago and is known as the ‘stabilization wedges’. It involves 15 ‘wedges’ in which each wedge is made up of cuts to emissions which can feasibly bring down our current levels further and further, in the hopes that we can at least hold where we are and stop it getting any worse. The three possible paths outlined in this plan are:

1. Either we carry on at our current rate and in the next 50 years bring our emissions up to 800 ppm (parts per million) – 16 billion tons per year –  warming the planet by another 9° F (it may not look like it, but that’s a huge amount).

2. We hold as we are at 8 billion tons per year (525 ppm), which itself would require the successful application of 8 of these wedges.

3. We reduce things down as far as we can go in 50 years (450ppm) and then wait for further technological advances to begin cutting even further back in the future. This would require the successful application of all 15 wedges plus implementation of new technology as and when it comes.

 Each of these wedges are going to require significant and global efforts and the effecting of initiatives such as: the stopping of all deforestation, reducing individual car mileage and improving fuel economy, investing in nuclear power and low carbon fuels, biofuels etc, subsidisation of solar panelling and increasing wind generated power to 25 times what it is now … to name but a few.

 Realistically, these changes are huge and need unilateral support from governments across all continents pulled along by strong and clear examples from the leading nations of the world. We’ll be needing to fight for it together, as a coherent (albeit rather dis-functional) human family, and that coherency needs to include you and I too …  

 Well, is there anything we can do, to reduce, as they say, our own personal carbon footprints? Why yes there is, and I’m glad you asked! And although we’re all going to need to start doing them as an international community, they can still make a change in where we’re going - needless to say (but I’ll say it anyway) it’s a much better plan than doing nothing at all …

Although this is a global crisis and will affect us all, whatever beliefs and opinions we hold, as Buddhists, as cultivators of wholesomeness, let’s be at the forefront of it all … remember, setting examples for others to follow often leads to change. I’m sure we can be confident that wise and peace-loving peoples from all faiths and philosophies will be thinking similarly.

How you can help  

The Alliance for Climate Protection

 … and if you ain’t an eco-friendly Buddhist yet … well … then ya should be, so get helping!

Hip, Hip, Hooray for Sir Ricardo! ’Virgin to test Biofuels on their Planes‘ 

Air travel is a significantly contributing factor leading to climate change and yet is something which would be almost impossible to do without in this day and age - as such, this kind of initiative is especially worthwhile.