Two Questions for Buddhists

If I ever felt compelled to “choose” a religion or spiritual path–to “call myself something”–I would choose Buddhism, with aspirations (actually, I already have the aspirations) to become a bodhisattva.  It seems to me (and I’ve said this here before, no doubt) that no one follows the teachings of Jesus more closely than a Buddhist who sees compassion as the ultimate good.

But I have two no-doubt very basic and oft-asked questions for people who understand Buddhism better than I do, and I thought that I might get some useful answers if I just posted them here.  Here they are:

(1) I guess I have a natural tendency toward ahimsa; I literally will not swat a mosquito or a flea, even if it’s in the process of biting me.  It’s not even really a decision I make–I just can’t do it.

However, I have run into problems with this.  The last place I lived in had mice–LOTS of mice, as we lived on the ground floor and it was an old building built like a sieve.  At one point we also had mosquitoes in the house–a lot of mosquitoes, which somehow survived and thrived inside through a New Jersey winter.  It was truly bizarre, but I still had a huge problem with bringing in an exterminator, or spraying pesticides.  Still, it obviously wasn’t healthy.

So my question would be this: what would a truly committed Buddhist have done?  Where does one draw the line?  Is there really a point at which my own comfort comes before the right of another creature to exist?  It’s a very serious question, although I suppose there will be those who laugh at it.

(2) Buddhist teaching (like Jesus’ teaching) suggests that we have unconditional compassion for all, without judgement, and with the sense that the most difficult people in our lives should be appreciated as our greatest teachers.

Elsewhere, though, it’s suggested that we avoid the company of those who might not be “good influences” on us.  How is this reconciled?  If I know someone who may possibly benefit from my help, or may simply be lonely or in need, but that person disturbs me to the point where it makes it difficult for me to meditate and live in a way that will benefit my own spiritual development, what do I do?  My guess is that it has something to do with figuring out what it is in ME that’s causing the problem and allowing the person to have what seems to be an ill effect on me, but I’d like to hear others’ responses.

Both questions have been bothering me for quite some time, so any guidance will be greatly appreciated (of course, you don’t have to be a Buddhist to answer!).

Thanks.

Prayer for Bin Laden

This morning I read on CNN that a parishioner at the Holy Name of Jesus Catholic Church in West Palm Beach asked that a prayer be offered for Osama Bin Laden at an upcoming service, and that Father Gavin Badway agreed to offer it.  Every morning I read the news online, and in most cases it just leaves me sad and/or angry.  This news, however, gave me a sense of quiet happiness.

I wrote a letter of support to Father Badway this morning, and I thought I’d also share it here.  I’m well aware that all of the reactions to Father Badway’s decision, and to this letter, won’t exactly be positive, but so be it.

Here it is:

Dear Father Badway,

I just read on CNN that you have accepted a parishioner’s request for a prayer for Osama Bin Laden at your Church, and I wanted to write and express my support for what you’re doing.

Although I am not a Catholic (I was raised as one) nor a Christian, I am a devoted believer in the teachings of Jesus, and in any spiritual teachings that also place emphasis on love, compassion, tolerance, and forgiveness (to some, I know, that might sound like foggy, heretical, “New Age” thinking, but my understanding and beliefs are very clear!).  So often, I hear Jesus’ ideals being spoken about, but practiced only at the convenience of those who claim to espouse them.  All too often, intolerance and hatred trump Jesus’ message of unconditional love for God and one’s neighbor.

I should also say that I was within view of the Twin Towers on 9/11, and I was a first-hand witness to the way in which that horrible day unfolded.  I could see people jumping to their deaths, and I watched people walking in a daze for months, unable to comprehend the losses.  I thank God that I didn’t lose anyone I knew personally on that day, but in the months that followed it felt as if we all knew each other.  What happened on 9/11 was absolutely evil, and will have an effect on all of us for a very long time.

But there is horrifying evil perpetrated every day, perhaps to a lesser degree in terms of its effects, in every country, and in almost every heart.  There is racism, and abuse, and violence, and intolerance, and groundless cruelty–so much so that it can seem to obscure the acts of love committed every day, and everywhere, as well.  Jesus certainly alluded to that when he said, “Let he who is without sin cast the first stone.”

What you and that one parishioner are doing, Father, is an act of love, and one that would give Jesus great joy, I believe.  It certainly gives me a sense that there is still love in this crazy world to help offset the evil, and people who are willing to stand up for those things in the face of great hostility.  Words are usually meaningless; it’s only by truly and without conditions living by Jesus’ example that we can change things.

I do believe that Osama Bin Laden may now be given–as we all will–the opportunity to clearly see the great evil that he has done, and perhaps to start the long task of trying to make amends.  In the meantime, thank you for giving all of us a chance to look into our own hearts and try to shed some light into the darkness that may be there and dispel it. You will no doubt be having a tough time in the near future.  I just wanted to let you know that you do have some support.

I hope that if there are others out there who share my sentiments on this, they will also lend support to Father Badway (he can be contacted through the Church’s website).  I’m sure that he will need it.

Quran-Burning/”24 Hours”

Yesterday I wrote that I thought that the words I heard in the middle of the night a few nights ago–”Moslem Clouds of Iniquity…24 Hours”–might have to do with a Florida pastor’s foolish and utterly reprehensible burning of a Quran, and the subsequent murders (reprehensible as well) of UN workers in Afghanistan yesterday.  As I mentioned, I thought that the “clouds” might have something to do (in a figurative sense, obviously) with the clouds of smoke from the burning, and the “iniquity” on both sides.

But I still wasn’t sure about what the “24 hours” meant; the killings in Afghanistan came probably 36-48 hours after I heard the words in the night.

If you read the “About Me” page on this blog you’ll know that I often hear words and phrases that turn out to be Hebrew (at first, my brain seems to “translate” them into things that often sound like nonsensical sentences in English).  It finally occurred to me yesterday that that might be the case with “24 hours,” so I went on the lexicon and figured out that the phrase might actually be something like, “Tavin tephar avar OR owr” (the “v’s would be pronounced as “w’s”; and I’m thinking that my brain must have added in an “s” at the end of the sentence).

That would mean something about either claws blinding (someone) or putting someone’s eyes out, or claw marks in skin.

Based on past experiences, I have my own ideas regarding the “claws”, but perhaps something else will come out of all of this that will shed light on it.

Or I could be completely wrong…

“Clouds of Moslem Iniquity,” cont’d.

Going back to what I heard the night before last about, “Clouds of Moslem Iniquity…24 hours” (see earlier posts) I just read that UN workers in Afghanistan were attacked today (so far, at least 12 were killed, and 24 injured) in retaliation for the burning of a Quran by a pastor down here in Florida (I was thinking in terms of clouds of smoke from the burning itself leading to what happened).

Leaving aside the other stuff I thought I heard about rain, etc., I wonder if that’s what I was being told about (it was more than 24 hours after I heard the sentence, but maybe that had another meaning–and the earthly concept of “time” isn’t one of his strong points!).  I also wonder if similar responses are coming…a chain reaction.

There is no justification whatsoever for the attacks and the taking of lives (especially the lives of people who had nothing to do with the burning), but there is definitely “iniquity” on both sides.  I wonder about Christians who so easily talk about Old Testament ”vengeance” and “righteousness,” etc., but seem to have censored out Jesus’ very simple teachings about love from the Gospels, and from their hearts and minds.

My Beautiful Pasture

I heard a lot again last night in English and what was apparently Hebrew, but the only phrase in Hebrew that I was able to translate this morning with some degree of certainty sounded in the middle of the night (or very early this morning) like, “nigh name.”

I think the first word is a form of “na’ah” (pasture/abode) that would make it “my pasture/abode” (with an “iy” sound at the end).  “Na’iym” means, “pleasant/sweet/beautiful”–”My beautiful pasture.”

As far as all the chatter about “dark clouds” and “Moslems” and “24 hours” and “rain” and “anguish,”  etc., are concerned, I still don’t know what, if anything, that was all about.  When I woke up just before dawn there were enormous thunderstorms going on, but that was just a reminder, and not related, I’m sure.  I did have a strange dream last night about being in some kind of vessel (a boat on a river by a city, maybe?) that was being tossed all around to the point where I was flipped all the way over.  Then there was something about some kind of deal involving, I think, airplanes; those who wanted to get in on the deal were required to at least enter the continent of Africa, if only for a short time.  Go figure…

No doubt I should leave all of that stuff alone, and go back to trying to practice the things I’ve been asked to practice…

More on “Clouds of Iniquity”

Heh–as my son’s father likes to say  when faced with something like a ridiculous but unavoidable situation.  I’ve done this before (seem my OTHER other blog, http://dreamsandpremonitions.wordpress.com), and I wasn’t comfortable doing it then, either.  But this is one of those rather insistent things.  If I’m wrong, I look like a fool (something that should no longer concern me, but…).  If I’m right, it’s terrible.

A few posts back (“Clouds of Iniquity”), I wrote about a dire-sounding sentence I heard in the middle of the night last (“Moslem clouds of iniquity…24 hours”).  I also wrote recently about something I heard in Hebrew some time last week (I think–it all starts to blend together when I hear so much in so little time), about a “dark cloud descending” (and possibly something about rain) and something I heard shortly thereafter:  “all over the world.”

Lately my afternoon naps have been even more productive than ever inthe communication department; I almost always hear at least one thing, clearly.  As I started to fall asleep today I was asking about what I’d heard last night.

As I was waking up I was aware that something was being said, but I only heard the tail-end of it: “…and there’s nothing I can do about it.”  I waited to try to hear more, but by then I was too awake.  So I closed my eyes and tried it the old-fashioned way (the way we communicated a while back).

When I see (as opposed to hear) words these days, they’re usually pretty fuzzy.  But I saw what looked like, “Elosag earmus.”

I went to the lexicon and looked it up.  The closest I could find was:

El’uwzay=a name meaning “God is my strength” (perhaps I thought I saw a “g”, but it was actually a “y”–the last letters of words are always the most unclear)

iyr=anguish, or city/town, or “watchful angel” in Aramaic

muwts=squeezer/extortioner/oppressor; muwtsaq (perhaps, again, I missed the last couple of letters) ALSO means, “anguish.” (“Mowtsa” means, “fountain/place of going forth/source”; as I realized that just now I remembered that one of the things I heard last night was the word, “biyna,” which also means “fountain.”)

So–”God is my strength” (if that’s right), anguish, city/town, fountain, oppressor…there are many ways to put all of that together, but it does seem to hang together somehow.

LATER

Heh, again.  I really don’t like to focus on this damned “prediction” stuff, but, as has happened in the past (again, see the “Dreams and Premonitions” blog), more keeps coming up, and it’s all got the same themes/images.

Just now I heard tapping in my ear, and I closed my eyes and looked and saw what seemed to be, “gas masaba” (keep in mind my theory that not everyone pronounced “sh” as “sh”–that some could just pronounce the “s”).

Of course I had to check:

ga’ash=to shake/quake

gasham=to rain (geshem is the noun “rain”)

ma’atsebah=place of pain or grief/terror; atsab (from which the former is taken) means “to hurt/cause pain.”

My guess would be “gasham atsab” or something like that–rain that causes pain.  It could, of course, be just about the radiation in Japan, but then I don’t know where “Moslem” and “24 hours” would fit into that.

Or it could be nothing, in’sh’allah.

“Change a Lot”, Revisited

In my recent post, “‘Jesus Christ,’”, Yesu, Abiyah,” I mentioned that I wasn’t sure about the words I heard that sounded like, “change a lot.”  In Hebrew, there doesn’t seem to be a “ch” sound as in “change”.  But, in thinking about it later, I remembered that I’ve often heard the sound when hearing Aramaic being spoken (as in a recording I heard of the Lord’s Prayer in Galilean Aramaic, in which the word for “your kingdom” is pronounced “malchutuk,” with the usual “ch” sound that we’re used to in English).  (I also heard it in a documentary about Jesus that I recently watched.)

So I was thinking about what I heard last night about seeing “with compassionate eyes” and having “God’s grace.”  On a hunch, I looked up the word for “grace,” and found “chen.”  It’s listed as a Hebrew word, but someone who spoke Aramaic (it may be the same word in Aramaic; I’m not sure) might pronounce it as “chain,” if I’m right.

Then I looked up “chalat,” which means, “to pick up/catch.”  (The second word may also still be “shalat,” which means to have power/mastery.”  So “change a lot” could mean either “pick up grace” or “have mastery of grace.”

So he really was explaining to me last night what he’d meant a day or so earlier–”to see with compassionate eyes is to gain God’s grace” was at least a part of it.  A big part.

“Subject and Source,” Revisited

Last June I posted this on my other blog:

Two or three nights ago I heard this: “Subject (is the) same as the Source.”  I capitalized “Source” when I wrote it on the notepad I keep next to my bed, so it seems that I immediately understood it to mean something specific, even though I was half-asleep when I wrote it.

I’ve wanted to post the follow-up to that for a while, but I’m just getting around to it now.

Three or four months after hearing what I heard about “Subject and Source,” I’d moved down to Florida from up north, and I’d pretty much forgotten that I’d heard it.  One day as I was out driving somewhere with the radio on, scanning stations for a good song, I was “passing through” the area of the dial on which most of the Christian stations are situated.

Something made me stop at one of them (highly unusual for me).  Someone was giving a sermon; he was saying something about “Jesus Christ” being the “source of the revelation.”  He said it a couple of times, and then went on to say, “He is also the…”

At that point, kind of as a joke with myself (as I’d just remembered the “Subject/Source” thing as I listened), I blurted out, “SUBJECT!”

And that’s what he said–”Jesus is also the subject of the revelation”–meaning, I take it, the revelation of God as embodied by him.

I just laughed–clearly it was no coincidence; he was showing off (and making his point) yet again, in a big way.

To make things even better, the station got all staticky and started to faway right after that.  Clearly, he’d said what he’d needed to say (it just took him three or four months to get to it ).

Eyes of Compassion (Again)

Recently on my other blog, http://shamayin.com, I posted this:

…a few days back…As I was waking up or falling asleep (I can’t remember which it was at this point), I heard, “Ayin my house.”

I wrote it down and fell asleep for a little while longer, and then looked it up on the Hebrew lexicon when I woke up.  I came up with:

ayin=eye(s)

ma’ai=compassionate

chazah/chowzay=to see/seer/vision

I think that it must mean something like, “See with compassionate eyes.”

Last night was kind of a crazy night; I heard things all night (see my previous post, for example) in English and in what I think was Hebrew (I still have some things to look up).  At one point I heard (and I am paraphrasing a bit with the last part of it as it got a little fuzzy at the end), “To see with compassionate eyes is to have God’s grace.”

Apparently, in that case, my original translation of what sounded like, “Ayin my house,” was correct (imagine that! ).  But I think that it was also a further explanation of what was meant by what I wrote about in my earlier post here–”‘Jesus’, Yesu, Abiyah.”  “To see” may have been his pronunciation of “tuwshiyah” (wisdom/sound knowledge), but perhaps it was also reminding me of what he’d said earlier, and expanding on it.

In any case, I got the gist of it…

“Clouds of Iniquity”

I want to be VERY careful here–I want to make it absolutely clear that I have nothing whatsoever against Moslems (I lived with one for three years, and visited his wonderful family in Egypt for two months, for one thing).  I do NOT believe that “all Moslems are terrorists”, and I certainly am not of the mind that all terrorists are Moslem–not even close.  I hate the fact that Moslems have always been the targets of jokes and animosity in this country (even before 9/11); it seems to me at this point that they can be discriminated against almost with impunity, and that sickens me.

That said, I heard something so startling, and so clear (in English!) last night that I thought I should record it.  It was, “Moslem clouds of iniquity…24 hours.”  (It did make me think of something I posted recently on my other blog, http://shamayin.wordpress.com, about how I heard something in Hebrew that seemed to be about a “dark cloud descending.”  At the time–particularly as I subsequently heard the words, “all over the world,” I thought that it might be about what’s happening in Japan.)

In all likelihood it meant nothing whatsoever, or something different from what it may sound like, or it was meant as a kind of distraction (those kinds of things still happen, but not much these days).  I’m still not even sure that I should post this.