Skip to main content

One difference between EBT and Mahayana: Ability to attract financial support and interest

 

I got an newsletter recently from Vipassana Research recently (known for Goenka 10 day courses internationally), they had a drive to raise money to fund operations, and they were happy to announce they met their goal of something like 120k$ USA dollars for the year.


When beginners to Buddhism ask me for recommendations, I usually send them over to Dhammatalks.org to read B. Thanissaro's works. I have a hard time getting them to spend 5-10 minutes to read even a short essay.


Meanwhile, here is Japanese Buddhist Priest Kossan doing a cover of a rock song, with 14000 followers on youtube, almost 200,000 views.



Metallica / Enter Sandman (Buddhist monk cover) / Kossan

192,819 views•Dec 4, 2020


Buddhist Priest / Rev. KOSSAN

13.9K subscribers


Some interesting comments from the youtube page:


* Never thought I'd see metallica open for Nirvana...

(For those who don't get the joke, 'nirvana' is a famous rock band, 'metallica' is the band that composed the song being performed, and the two bands were different genres of rock that would stylistically not collaborate or endorse each other)


* When you decide to become a monk and shave your head but later in life figure out that your inner self has long hair and loves metal more than Buddha.


* FYI, instead of the children's bedtime prayer (now I lay me down to sleep...), he's chanting the sutras called "Shigu Seigan Mon: The Four Bodhisattva Vows, that made me sit back and laugh:-) Great Buddhist preacher!


* I love it that the performance ends with a 5 min meditation


This r/Buddhism reddit discussion thread has link to the video:

https://www.reddit.com/r/Buddhism/comments/ldz7i3/metallica_enter_sandman_buddhist_monk_cover/





Comments

  1. BSRK AdityaMarch 1, 2021 at 1:07 AM

    Are these people (who have a hard time reading B.Thanissaro's works) native English speakers? This matters.

    If you detect that they are those who have a hard time reading essays, recommend (well-selected) Jataka's instead. The ideal Jataka should cover the key terms, and put them in a narrative.

    Also, chanting. They might like that too.

    ReplyDelete

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Lucid24.org: What's new?

Link to lucid24.org home page :    4👑☸   Remember, you may have to click the refresh button on your web browser navigation bar at to get updated website. 2024 9-17 Lots of new stuff in the last 2 and a half years.  Too many to list. Main one justifying new blog entry, is redesign of home page. Before, it was designed to please me, super dense with everything in one master control panel. I've redesigned it to be friendly to newbies and everyone really. Clear structure, more use of space.  At someone's request, I added a lucid24.org google site search at top of home page. 2022 4-14 Major update to lucid24.org, easy navigation of suttas, quicklink: the ramifications 4-2 new feature lucid24.org sutta quick link 3-28 A new translation of SN 38.16, and first jhāna is a lot easier than you think 🔗📝notes related to Jhāna force and J.A.S.I. effect AN 9.36, MN 64, MN 111: How does Ajahn Brahm and Sujato's "Jhāna" work here? 3-13 Added to EBPedia J.A.S.I. ('Jazzy...
3 comments
Read more

AN 9.36, MN 64, MN 111: How does Ajahn Brahm and Sujato's "Jhāna" work here?

What these 3 suttas have in common, AN 9.36, MN 64, MN 111, is the very interesting feature of explicitly describing doing vipassana, while one is in the jhāna and the first 3 formless attainments. LBT (late buddhist text) apologists, as well as Sujato, Brahm, claim that the suttas describe a jhāna where one enters a disembodied, frozen state, where vipassana is impossible until one emerges from that 'jhāna'.  Since Sujato translated all the suttas, let's take a look at what he translated, and how it supports his interpretation of 'jhāna'.  AN 9.36: Jhānasutta—Bhikkhu Sujato (suttacentral.net) ‘The first absorption is a basis for ending the defilements.’ ‘Paṭhamampāhaṁ,   bhikkhave,   jhānaṁ   nissāya   āsavānaṁ   khayaṁ   vadāmī’ti,   iti   kho   panetaṁ   vuttaṁ. That’s what I said, but why did I say it? Kiñcetaṁ   paṭicca   vuttaṁ? Take a mendicant who, q uite secluded from sensual pleasures, secluded from unskill...
Post a Comment
Read more

Pāḷi and Sanskrit definition of Viveka

  'Viveka', Sanskrit dictionary Primary meaning is ‘discrimination’. Other meanings:  (1) true knowledge,  (2) discretion,  (3) right judgement,  (4) the faculty of distinguishing and classifying things according to their real properties’. Wikipedia (sanskrit dictionary entry 'viveka') Viveka (Sanskrit: विवेक, romanized: viveka) is a Sanskrit and Pali term translated into English as discernment or discrimination.[1] According to Rao and Paranjpe, viveka can be explained more fully as: Sense of discrimination; wisdom; discrimination between the real and the unreal, between the self and the non-self, between the permanent and the impermanent; discriminative inquiry; right intuitive discrimination; ever present discrimination between the transient and the permanent.[2]: 348  The Vivekachudamani is an eighth-century Sanskrit poem in dialogue form that addresses the development of viveka. Within the Vedanta tradition, there is also a concept of vichara which is one t...
Post a Comment
Read more