July 2001
Saturday, July 14
Lotus Festival at Echo Park
Every year the City of Los Angeles celebrates its Asian-Pacific
Islander heritage by holding the Lotus Festival at Echo Park Lake.
And every year IBMC participates by rowing in the Dragon Boat Races.
We invite you to participate with us in this fun event by either
being an oarsperson or coming along as a supporter of our crew.
We begin the festival on Saturday, July 14, with Rev. Karuna, Rev.
Shanti and our monks who “Open the Dragon Eyes” in order
to assure the safety of the races. Dr. Thien-An was asked to perform
the ceremony 25 years ago, when the first dragon boat races began,
and we have carried on the tradition every year since then.
The festival features food booths, craft tables, such as spinning
candy dragons, and ethnic arts tables where you can buy Asian crafts.
They also have a flower island and birds of all kinds. This is a
great festival and we urge you all to join us on Saturday. We will
leave the center at 10 am. If you want to join us at the park, you
should be there by 10:30, as we perform the ceremony at 11 am. We
will row in the first race following the ceremony.
We are looking for volunteers to come support our rowing team of
four men and four women. Please call Amrit at our office in case
you are interested. We have newly designed tshirts to wear to mark
the day.
Rev. Kusala offers one day
seminar on Basic Buddhism
Rev. Kusala, Thich Tam Thien, is offering a one day seminar/retreat
on July 21 from 9 am to 5 pm. The seminar will focus on the Four
Noble Truths and Eightfold Path and how to actualize these in your
daily life.
The talks and discussion will be interspersed with periods of sitting
in order to help the students to incorporate them fully into their
being.
If you are interested or want more information, contact Rev. Kusala
directly by leaving a message on his e-Mail... RevKusala@earthlink.net
. He will get back to you as soon as possible.
The fee for the seminar is $25 and includes lunch.Let him know no
later than July 16 that you are planning to attend so that he can
make the necessary arrangements.
Kwan Yin Observances - 7/15
Every year we observe Kwan Yin Day in honor of the great Bodhisattva
of compassion, who has taken the vow to help all beings in difficulty
who call upon her for help. Followng service there will be a vegetarian
potluck in the garden, so bring a dish to share, This year Ven.
Karuna will hold a brief sitting on Sunday, July 15 in Kwan Yin’s
honor from 2 pm until 4 pm. We will study the legends which grew
up around her and practice meditations associated particularly with
her. There is no fee for this sitting period.
On Sunday, the possibility of opening up. And still more opening
appeared. I regarded physical tension in my fingers and toes as
a clinging that impaired my sense of wholeness of things, of people,
as something to be cherished and protected against artificial divisions.
The process was something like thinking, but more like appreciation.
Surrender to wholeness is more like a gain than a loss.
On Monday I was awakened by some very pleasant whole body vibratory
sensation. After a period of this I remembered your remarks about
“makkyo”, realized that I had lost my center in this,
and detached from the feeling. After this I was disturbed by recollections
of a violent TV drama my husband and I had watched earlier in the
evening; became awrare that some of the disturbance was from a punitive
attitude I held toward the offenders in the drama.
On Wednesday addressed the koan “What is my original face?”
Looking deeply into this a sense of my face as subjective arose.
Then my face as objective arose. There was some wavering, then the
two became one. A satisying experience. Later while meditating,
I sent metta to various people. As I came to the Reverend Sakya
Bodhi, a great sense of gratitude toward him arose, and then something
more. It was a sense of identity or something of the sort, as though
he has become parental to me. At any rate I am linked to him despite
the wishes of either of us. Should he ask me today., :Who are you”,
I might reply “You.” This has a strange impersonal quality.
On Saturday some insights about my relation to my parents. Then
contemplation of the topic of choice and that the real and actual
has no element of choice about it. On Monday, Jan. 15, while walking
about, had a realization that some concern I have long carried for
my safety was no longer necessary.
In short, I feel that your visit has given my meditation a new direction
and has been very fruitful. Again I thank you.
Joan C Anderson
Letter from a
Greatful Meditator
Dear Reverend Sakya Bodhi,
Since your visit a week ago Friday, my meditative experience has
taken on a new quality and direction. As you requested I shall try
to write an accouint of it.
First of all, I recollected my responses to you, and saw in them
my effort to present a”self” to you, a “self”
that has studied Buddhism and knows something about it, All this
I saw as futile, and somewhat embarrassing; but still a valuable
insight.
Next I addressed the question “Who am I?” The response
“a human” arose, and along with it the sense of how shallow
such a word is, though of course it meant something. And of course
I am human. But this is not so simple. A doubt arose. Am I really
human? By then I was quite a bit more awake than usual.
In its odinary understanding, “human” applies to a whole
class of creatures. Do I really see myself as one of that whole
class of creatures? Or do I make distinctions and hold reservations?Plainly
I have devoted much of my time to creating and maintaining those
distinctions I have regarded as “me”; and none of this
seems applicable when I try to answer your question “Who are
you?” Whatever I am must also hold for other humans regardless
of race, gender, or ethnicity, or even degree of civilization.
In addition, it arises that if I am not self made, then my human
nature is given, or has arisenof itself apart from any effort of
mine; and it is that nature I am seeking to know. A further intiuition
had to do with the earth and the sense of gravity to which we humans
are oriented -- the earth gives us a place: in some way I cannot
define we are grounded.
The inquiry this far led me to make a clearer distinction between
my authentic self and an ego self of concepts and desires. Meditation
and the cultivation of mindfulness take new meaning here. All this
occurred in the day following your visit, which was a Friday.
On Sunday, the possibility of opening up. And still more opening
appeared. I regarded physical tension in my fingers and toes as
a clinging that impaired my sense of wholeness of things, of people,
as something to be cherished and protected against artificial divisions.
The process was something like thinking, but more like appreciation.
Surrender to wholeness is more like a gain than a loss.
On Monday I was awakened by some very pleasant whole body vibratory
sensation. After a period of this I remembered your remarks about
“makkyo”, realized that I had lost my center in this,
and detached from the feeling. After this I was disturbed by recollections
of a violent TV drama my husband and I had watched earlier in the
evening; became awrare that some of the disturbance was from a punitive
attitude I held toward the offenders in the drama.
On Wednesday addressed the koan “What is my original face?”
Looking deeply into this a sense of my face as subjective arose.
Then my face as objective arose. There was some wavering, then the
two became one. A satisying experience. Later while meditating,
I sent metta to various people. As I came to the Reverend Sakya
Bodhi, a great sense of gratitude toward him arose, and then something
more. It was a sense of identity or something of the sort, as though
he has become parental to me. At any rate I am linked to him despite
the wishes of either of us. Should he ask me today., :Who are you”,
I might reply “You.” This has a strange impersonal quality.
On Saturday some insights about my relation to my parents. Then
contemplation of the topic of choice and that the real and actual
has no element of choice about it. On Monday, Jan. 15, while walking
about, had a realization that some concern I have long carried for
my safety was no longer necessary.
In short, I feel that your visit has given my meditation a new direction
and has been very fruitful. Again I thank you.
Joan C Anderson
July Events
Sunday talks
1/1 The Four Jhanas
11am Rev. Kusala
1/8 The Illusion of Life
11am Ven. Dr. Karuna Dharma
1/15 Voices from Prison
11am Bro. Ksanti Karuna
11/22 Arhat Sariputra
11am Ven. Havanpola Shantu
11/29 What Is Practice?
11am Bro. Jñana Karuna Vajra
Classes at IBMC
College classes are on summer vacation and will resume in September
Wed. Applied Buddhism
7:00 Rev. Kusala
Wed Lotus Sutra & Monks’ Training
7:00 Ven. Dr. Karuna Dharma
Special Events
7/14 Lotus Festival at Echo Park
10:30 am - 7 pm
7/15 Kwan Yin Day observances
12:30 garden luncheon
2-4 meditattion
with Ven. Karuna Dharma
7/21 Seminar on Basic Buddhism
9-5 Kusala Ratna Karuna
Meditation times
Mon, Sun evenings from 5:00-7:00 pm, led by Rev. Sakya Bodhi
Wed evening: 7-9 pm, led by Rev. Kusala
Fri evening: 7:30-9 pm, led by Rev. Kusala
Ven. Havanpola Shanti was awarded his Doctor of Dharna degree
from the College of Buddhist Studies on May 11, 2001. We congratulate
him for his hard work in carrying on Dr. Ratanasara’s vision
of a united American Buddhism.
Emptiness, by Ven. Dr. Karuna Dharma
For many centuries most Western people had thought that the
universe was a permanent thing, put into place by a Creator God,
with the earth at its center. They reasoned that such a complex
system could not come into existence except through the creation
of a superior intelligence. They named that superior intelligence
God and declared his permanence. They believed that humankind reflected
the image of God and contained also an immortal essence, which they
termed soul. So, while things around them might change, they reasoned,
at least they were assured of permanence, an eternal existence after
death if they lived in accordance with God's will.
In India twenty-six centuries ago, Siddhartha Gautama, the Buddha,when
he turned the Wheel of Dharma and began to teach, presented a philosophy
which differed significantly from the current belief systems of
India by presenting a profound spiritual path, which had at its
very core a denial of both a Creator/sustainer God and atman or
soul. Instead, the Buddha proclaimed that the truths of the universe
are three: anitya,a nicca, (impermanence with its constant change-ability)
duhkha, dukkha (unsatisfactoriness or suffering, as many Westerners
mistranslate the term) and anatman, anatta (lack of a soul).
These three chartacteristics apply to all things, all phenomena,
and are frequently called the three characteristics of all being.
The one great law of the universe is change. There is no permanence
anywhere. Even those things which appear to be permanent and unchanging
also are in a constant state of change. The mountains appear to
be permanent and unchanging, but their very existence is the result
of tectonic forces within the crust and mantle of the earth. Volcanoes,
inactive for many centuries come alive and new ones pop into existence.
Earthquakes build mountain ranges. Ocean becomes land and land becomes
ocean. These changes never cease. All matter itself is alive with
constant change. Its very nature is a mass of constantly moving
energy. Rocks may appear to be inert objects, but in actuality,
their very structure is one of constant movement.
In his enlightenment experience the Buddha witnessed the arising
and disappearing of entire universe systems. He saw very clearly
that all things are impermanent, that they arise, mature and pass
away. He recognized that all things are comprised of conditioned
states and that there is no permanent essence to anything. He also
realized that the arising and disappearing of states of existence
occurred because of various conditions. Should any condition change,
the object changed or disappeared. The constant creation and modifications
that occur are seen as the natural result of the influence of all
beings that live within that sphere. We, then, along with all other
beings, create our own world. This is sometimes called collective
karma or collective action. There is no beginning or end to this
process which continues endlessly, because of desire and aversion,
which are followed by craving and clinging and produce the constant
re-enactment of bringing into existence all manner of things, physical,
mental and emotional.
The Buddha taught that all conditioned things are impermanent and
constantly changing and that they have no permanent essence. He
explained that while we may think of ourselves as single objects
of existence, in fact humans are made up of a collection of five
conditioned, impermanent states: body (rupa), sense contacts and
sensations (vedana), perceptions and conceptions, (samjña),
volitional actions and karmic tendencies, (samskaras) and basic
consciousness (vijñana). These collections (skandhas) of
things are the true nature of the person and they are constantly
changing. The body grows old, becomes ill and dies. Sense contacts
lead to perception and conception, and these are constantly changing.
Our karmic activities never cease and underlying all these is the
basal consciousness, which at death also disappears with all of
the other skandhas.
Things do not exist because they have an innate quality to them.
Rather, they come into existence because they have no innate quality.
They are created out of our own desires. Because there is no fixed
quality to anything, anything can be “created” or come
into existence. Each creation carries within it its seeds of destruction,
because the conditions which brought it into existence cannot continue
ad infinitum. So there is the endless round of the process of production
and extinction, fueled by desire, which arises from a profound ignorance
of the conditionality of things, of what causes our own suffering.
This ignorance comes from a basic misun-derstanding of the nature
of all things. The mistaken and fabricated notion of an ego creates
within us a need to make permanent those things which we desire.
Since we desire more than anything immortality, we create the notion
on an immortal self or soul. This belief in an immortal soul is
viewed as the cause of the endless round of our unsatisfactory existences.
The Buddha explained that we should not become too attached to our
bodies and their sensual experiences and thoughts that arise from
them, because the attachment to our bodies and to life causes us
great dukkha, suffering and misery. As mentioned earlier, He taught
that each human being is a collection of five conditions called
skandhas. These are body-form (rupa), sensations and perceptions
(vedana), conceptions or thought (samjña) and basal consciousness
(vijñana). All five of these are necessary for a sentient
being to exist. These clearly are all conditional. Sense contact
brings us sense experiences which we then term as desirable or undesirable.
From this judgment arises the desire to re-experience similar sensual
experiences, which leads directly to attachment. This attachment
then leads to a great thirst or craving for the experience. Soon
we are entrapped in the need to continue such experiences, for we
feel we need or want them. But all experience is very momentary.
Hardly have we grasped onto one, when it disappears and a new attraction
grabs our minds. Soon we are enmeshed in a great, complex web of
desire, all of which is very transitory, and thus unsatisfactory.
When the preson dies, these five skandhas break apart and disappear.
Since Buddhism teaches that rebitrth occurs unless full complete
enlightenment has been reached, what is it then that is reborn?
Hinduism posits that it is the atman, the soul, that tiny bit of
Brahma which is searching to become reunited with its maker, an
unchanging entirty that reincarnates, taking on another bodily form.
Buddhism does not agree. The Buddha taught in his second sermon
that atman is an illusion, that a fundamental law of the universe
in anatman, no soul.
What Buddhism does see as causing rebirth is the constantly changing
energy or process, that ends only when the fuel, one’s basic
ignorance and attachment to “self” , is ended. The psycho-physical
organism which has died without attaining Nirvana still clings tenaciously
to life in the mistaken notion that he/she has a separate, permanent
self. This self, the ego, carries a heavy load of perpetual habit
energy (samskaras), all centered around self-involvement, self-love,
or even self-hate. This basic ignorance, enmeshed in the idea of
a permanent self, encumbered with a packet of strong habit energies,
and fueled by a tremendous desire for existence, propels the basal
consciousness of the being, which is now latent and inactive, forward
into rebirth, which is the natural consequence of the person’s
own craving. The rebirth process is the result of the basic ignorance
and habit energy forces, not the result of the reincarnation of
the soul, and it is this continuity that creates the illusion of
a soul. Remember, think of yourself and all things not as things
but as processes. This will help in your understanding. Buddhists
differ from theistic based religions by perceiving of all phenomena
as processes rather than things.
The Buddha stated that for us to become free from the constant round
of rebirth and suffering, we would need to realize the changing
nature of things in its true perspective, so that we could free
ourselves from the need for certain experiences, attachment to self
and to the illusion of permanence.
One of the major causes of dukkha is our puny attempts to make impermanent
things permanent. We want to amass and hold on to things which please
our ego concepts. We strive to hold on to youth, to wealth, to fame,
to romance. All of these experiences are fleeting. They arise, mature
and disintegrate. It is not change itself which causes the greatest
pain, it is our resistance to this change that causes the real dukkha.
The Buddha again and again explained: "Impermanent indeed are
all conditioned things; they are of the nature of arising and passing
away. Having come into being, they cease to exist. Hence their pacification
is tranquillity."
He urged his disciples to truly understand the ultimate nature of
all things, that is their impermanence. He had his disciples meditate
upon the disintegration of things, including their own bodies, in
order to try to break their inordinate clinging to objects of all
kinds: physical, vocal or mental.
Once the individual truly sees that things cannot be grasped for
more than a few moments, then these unhealthy attachments and aversions
can be given up and the practitioner can be freed from the enslavement
he has produced for himself.
Whern a being becomes enlightened the karmic bonds are broken. The
person no longer acts out of self interest. He/she is no longer
plagued by ignorance, delusion or passions. Instead, all action
is free from desire and aversion and does not create karmic consequences.
The self which had been erroneously fabricated has ceased to exist.
Upon the death of a fully enlightened one, since there is no delusion,
no desire for life, no habit energy which drives one’s behavior,
one then enters parinirvana, the state of supreme bliss, the Dharmakaya.
There is no longer any separate separation, no separate identity.
Now, it is the concepts of anitya, impermanence, and anatman, non-soul
which lie at the base of the Mahayana concept of emptiness. Once
you understand these two concepts, you are ready to understand sunyata
or emptiness.
I prefer to use the term sunyata, since its English equvalents,
emptiness or the void, are easily mixed up with the concept of nothingness,
which is then thought of as the absence of somethingness. Sunyata,
called Mu in Japanese has little to do with the phenomenalogical
existence of somethingness/nothingness.
Sunyata goes far beyond those distinctions. It does not stand in
the middle between isness/not isness or both isness and not isness
or even neither isness nor not isness. Sunyata stands above all
these concepts.
We say everything has the nature of sunyata. It is because of this
idea, that phenomena and absolute truth are the same thing seen
from different angles. Therefore when we chant the Heart Sutra,
we deny the existence of all things, all those things fundamental
to Buddhist understanding, even pratityasamutpada that explains
how we develop karma and rebirth and even the Four Noble Truths.
At the same time we say that because the Bodhisattva realizes this,
there is no fear and there is dwelling in Nirvana. Because all Buddhas
understand this, they attain complete perfect enlightenment. It
appears to be opposing itself, does it not? The only way to understand
the sutra is to have a profound understanding of sunyata.
Maha Prajña Paramita Heart Sutra
Avalokites’vara Bodhisattva when practicing deeply the Prajña
Paramita clearly saw that all five skandhas are empty and passed
beyond all suffering.
S’ariputra, form does not differ from emptiness. Emptiness
does not differ from form. Form then is emptiness. Emptiness then
is form. Sensation, perception, volition and consciousness are also
like this.
S’ariputra, all dharmas are marked with emptiness: not born
and not dying, not stained and not pure, not gaining and not losing.
Therefore within emptiness there is no form, no sensation, perception,
volition or consciousness. No eye, ear, nose, tongue, body or mind;
no form, sound, smell, taste, touch or dharmas; no realm of sight
“til we come to no realm of consciousness; no ignorance and
no ending of ignorance ‘til we come to no old age and death
and no ending of old age and death. No suffering, origination, extinction
or path. No wisdom and no attainment with nothing to attain.
Because the Bodhisattva follows Prajña Paramita, the mind
has no hindrance. Having no hindrance there is no fear and far from
all fantasy there is dwelling in Nirvana. Because all Buddhas of
the three times follow Prajña Paramita, they gain complete
perfect enlightenment.
Therfore know that the Prajña Paramita is the great holy
mantram, the great bright mantram, the wisdom mantram, the unequalled
mantram, which can destroy all suffering--truly real and not false.
So he gave the Prajña Paramita mantram which goes:
Gate, Gate, Para Gate, Para Sam Gate, Bodhi Swaha. (Gone, gone,
gone beyond, gone far beyond, wisdom, hail.)
Brief Analysis of the Heart Sutra
The Heart Sutra ( Prajñaparamita Hridaya Sutra) is
extremely short, written in 100 Chinese characters, and holds the
essence of the Prajnaparamita sutra; therefore it is greatly
loved by all Mahayana schools of Buddhism and chanted daily in all
Zen temples around the world.
The sutra begins with the Bodhisattva Avalokites’vara in deep
meditation. Avalokites’vara means The Lord Who Looks Down on
the earth and indicates that he listens for the cries of the world,
at which point he helps any sentient being who calls upon him for
help. Great Bodhisattvas such as Avalokites’vara can appear
in any form to do their work. In China the people came to greatly
love him in his female form and equated him with an important princess
who was well known for her gentleness and kindness, and Kuan Yin
came into existence. So, Avalokites’vara and Kuan
Yin (spelled also Kwan Yin in Chinese; Quan Te Am
in Vietnamese; Kannon or Kanzeon in Japanese; and Kwan
Am in Korean) are the same Bodhisattva. Avalokites’vara
stands for compassion and is considered to be fully enlightened
him/herself without entering Nirvana because of the vow to save
all living beings.
So, Avalokites’vara is engaged in deep meditation when he comes
to a realiization. He realized that all dharmas are empty and passed
beyond all suffering. What does that mean? We must realize that
emptiness is not the opposite of fullness. What it means is that
all things have no permanent essence, That their very nature is
one of emptiness. Things come into existence because they have no
fixed characteristics. Change one small thing and they become something
else. Therefore, the basic nature of all things is emptiness. On
the ultimate level they do not truly exist. On the phenomenalogical
level they do have existence, temporary to be sure. These two things
are not different, They are the same thing looked at from two different
angles. It is like realizing that the table, the rock, all sentient
beings including ourselves, have a certain shape and characteristics
which we label so that other people can understand what we are talking
about. But on a deeper level, they do not exist. While we feel their
hardness, from physics we know they are primarily space; swirling
atoms, made up of smaller parts, which then combine to make molecules
and larger substances. So, on one level we do exist; on another
we are made up of swirling atoms lost in space. In fact, we are
all a part of the larger whole and have no more substance than anything
when looked at under an electronic microsope.
Avalokites’vara realized that all things are empty and cannot
be explained. He realized that our five skandhas which make
up our existence are also empty. The five skandhas are collections:
the first is rupa or physical form, which is comprised of four parts:
hardness such as bone and fibre, as well as soft tissue; wetness
as seen in our bodily fluids; air as seen in our breathing and transference
of things in our blood stream; and heat, which comes about as our
calories become transforned into energy. The other four are mental.
Sariputra, the disciple being addressed in this sutra, was Lord
Sakyamuni Buddha’s most intelligent and learned disciple, an
indication that this sutra will be profound and not easily understood.
Basically, all sutras are addressed to particular people in response
to a question that was asked.
Then Avalolites’vara goes on to say that emptiness and these
skandhas are the same. In fact, all dharmas (things) are
marked with emptiness. They are not born nor do they die; they are
neither stained nor pure; they neither gain nor lose. These are
the big opposites by which we judge eveything. Yet Avalokites’vara
says they do not exist. If everything is empty, it does not become
born, and if it is not born it cannot die. Our births and deaths
just have the appearance of birth and death. We do not truly die.
Our forms just become different. For instance, when our bodies decay
or are burned the ashes or rotting flesh feeds nature and grasses
grow. So, we have not truly died. Our bodies truly take on different
forms. How can a table be born? It was manufactured, but where does
the form begin and end? Without the craftsman and his tools and
the people who made the tools, without the tree which grew because
of sun and rain and a bird or insect which carried the seed to fertile
soil, without the lumberman who sawed down the tree and formed it
into planks, without their ancestors which produced them, the table
would not exist. What is the table’s nature? When can we say
that the table came into existence as a separate thing? We and all
things are the same. We cannot seperate ourselves from anything
and everyone is part of us.
Therefore, within emptiness there is no form, or other skandhas.
There are no sense organs or their sense objects. In fact, nothing
truly ezists: from no realm of sight, through the other sense realms
up to no realm of consciousness. At this point he has negated the
existence of the skandhas and all their parts.
In Theravada Buddhism the skandhas are taken very seriously
because that is where we develop our karma. If we want to save ourselves
from the endless realm of births and deaths and rebirths we need
to free ourselves from these influences, to gain mastery of them.
But here Avalokites’vara says they do not exist. There is not
even purity or impurity.
It then goes on to deny the existence of one of the three teachings
upon which Buddhism rests: pratityasamutpada, when it says
no ignoranceand no ending of ignorance and so on until we come to
no old age and death and no ending of old age and death. What is
left out are the ten stages between ignorance (avidya) and
death (Jara marana). These, as you know, are past karmic
habit patterns (samskara), consciousness (vijñana),
mind and matter (nama-rupa), six senses spheres (salayatana),
sense contact (sparsa), sensations (vedana), craving
(trsna), grasping (upadana), becoming (bhava),
birth (jati). Now it has denied the existence of pratityasamutpada
(the formula that explains how we develop our karmic habit patterns).
It next attacks the four noble truths with “No suffering, origination,
extinction or path.” What impudence to deny Lord Buddha’s
teachings! At this point all Buddhist theories have been denied.
The sutra appears to do an about face when it continues with “Because
the Bodhisattva follows Prajña paramita, the mind has no
hindrance. Having no hindrance there is no fear and far from all
fantasy there is dwelling in Nirvana.” It continues with “Because
all Buddhas of the three times follow Prajña paramita, they
gain complete perfect enlightenment.”
Of course, we all know that when we start to practice meditation
a tree is a tree, a mountain a mountain and a stream a stream. After
a while our perception changes and we realize that they are not
what they appear to be. At that point when we see everything as
empty, we are half way around the circle. Once we complete the cycle
we see again that a tree is a tree, a mountain is a mountain and
a stream is a stream. But such a different perception.
It is because of this understanding that the Bodhisattva has no
fear and is far from all fantasy. The Buddhas gain complete enlightenment.
We must realize completely that sunyata or emptiness is both
its phenomenalogical aspect as well as its absolute level. Of course,
on the absolute level none of this exists. But still we live our
lives on the phenomenalogical level. Therefore, we keep on creating
karma. It is when we truly always live in emptiness that we no longer
create karma and live in enlightenment instead.
IBMC web page is found at:
InternationalBuddhistMeditationCtr.org
You can email us at:
IBMC@InternationalBuddhistMeditationCtr.
Rev. Karuna’s email address is: Karunadh@earthlink.net
Karuna’s web page is:
www. home.earthlink.net/~karunadh
Rev. Kusala’s email: Kusala@kusala.org
Rev. Kusala’s web page: www.kusala.org
Rev. Shanti’s email: Hshanti@earthlink.net
Rev. Prabuddhi’s email: Prabuddhi@yahoo.com
Rev. Vajra’s email: Madmonk88@aol.com
Bro. Sunya’s email: Sunya2@Earthlink.net
Bro. Ksanti and Bro.Sraddha’s email:
VictorTom@aol.com
