Covid 19 and Sangha Response

These painful 9 months have brought Sangha into an intense dilemma. We are first responders, many of us are chaplains, counselors, and social service providers in the course of our daily duties. However, Covid 19 changed some rules. Health policies and Sangha’s personal health risks make it more likely that they stay away from laity, limit contact with devotees and it has placed them and their temples in harms way.

We have a duty to protect ourselves so we may live a long life as Sangha and improve our chances to teach Buddha dharma. We care about people so much that we often sacrifice our time, money and health in order to meet their needs. Unfortunately, during Covid 19 time we cannot be so physically caring for others. While Covid 19 is around we can stay in extended retreat, studying Buddha dharma, preparing translations, taking good care of ourselves.

Please care about yourself during these times, wear a mask, protective PPE and social distance when caring for the ill and the dying.

May your life be long and fruitful, may you encounter Buddha dharma in many lifetimes and may you be diligent in this life to live according to our Vinaya.

Answering questions in Messenger: A Modern Sangha Western Chinese Bhikshuni

Buddhist Laity: Can you tell me why chanting is good to do?

Master: It helps you to balance your emotions. Then you can correct your thinking.

Buddhist Laity: Yes, I felt really calm with chanting today. So why do we dedicate the merit?

Master: So we keep our perspective and open opportunity for real assistance when needed.

We (You) give the assistance. Btw in those dedications in Chinese there is no “we”; it’s in command form implied “I”. Western translations that use “we or ours” are misinterpreting the original intent. It’s from the Christian perspective to use “we”; a common style in Christian liturgy.

Buddhist Laity: I’ve always dedicated merit but never asked why. Weird eh?
Master: Hardly anyone asks and very few have an answer for that question.
The whole service in temples is in command form “I” implied in non-English languages like Sanskrit, Pali, and Chinese. In English bits and pieces use plural and distorts the meaning.

Buddhist Laity: That’s interesting.

Master: Yep, that’s from my experience as translator.

Buddhist Laity: So it is an individual accountability rather than the collective?

Master: No. It’s individual practice with a group. Self-growth is most important focus and not accountability to a group or a leader. Group is for mutual support. So you don’t feel alone.

Some laity get their 5 precept robes in a knot when you can’t keep up or you are late but really that’s their issue not yours.

Chanting the sutras in the services links us to the ancient practice of “chanting sutras” that Sangha has done since Buddha passed. Sangha (meaning Bhikshuni, Bhikshu) still chant sutras.

Buddhist Laity: Thank you very much. I need to write this in a notebook. I think I need to start reviewing.

Sangha Write & Speak with Certainty

If Sangha write or speak like they don’t have a perspective then how are they to show they have an understanding of Buddha dharma?

I write and speak definitely with a very clear view because I know if I do not then present generations will not be heard in the future as well.

If we all parrot famous masters then we all will not pass on the great teachings of Buddha as we live them, as they are taught in sutras and by the great masters who lived, live, and to come.

I’ve translated enough commentaries to know the style sutras are written is perceived by Western elites as complex, poetic, commanding, authoritative with some references given by famous great masters in the past who were ancient or contemporaries of theirs.

We are the the masters of our time, we must write or speak Dharma with certainty.

Academics limit content, paraphrase, interject their non-Buddhist ideologies and biases into their translations, commentaries and teachings in Buddhism.  Yet they do not practice it, nor believe in any part of it.  So how does this make them the best source for your Buddhist study?  How does a profession based on guesswork (hypothesis are guesses), obscurification of:  history, facts, and sources be at all a reputable source?

Sangha have struggled to achieve their education in Western based institutions facing this reality of extreme prejudice in what academics consider Buddha dharma and what is actually Buddha dharma.  Academics will censure Sangha to preserve their personal views Buddha, Dharma and Sangha.

Sangha have to concede the truth in order to receive their university education, even in Buddhist studies: of the content in the Tripitaka, the actual methods of Buddhist practices, even our traditions are not given respect.

I’ve been told educators in Religious Studies, Psychology, nonpracticing Buddhist scholars that it is OK for them to take and profit from Buddha Dharma including my translations to make themselves money or give themselves authority or fame so they get more money.   Academia repression should be cut out of our minds when we write or speak for they do not know the life we live or legacy we carry as Sangha, they do not believe or practices the virtues or precepts of Sangha.  Apologetic styles, historical-critical contrasts, debates, etc are not to shape our voices as Samgha.  We must speak, write and act in certainty when we teach from the Tripitaka, that will continue our legacy as Buddha’s descendant masters.

Most of Academia does not follow present or the vast centuries of Sangha scholars (bhikshu and bhikshuni who study Tripitaka contents and translate them); a vast majority cannot translate and rely on their student’s dissertations or a very tiny pool of scholars who do translate.  So they hypothesize instead and rely on media which is heavily skewed to commercialized contents.

If Academia can reform itself and invite or hire more Sangha who are qualified to teach (must be qualified through scholarship not through MA or PhD by other Sangha) then there is hope they can learn from us without just riding our backs trying to get to the bank.

Ven. Hongyang, Bhikshuni, Calm Clarity, Ames, Iowa

Ven. Hongyang’s memoir

If we are accepted as a disciple of another Sangha member from them we may get more names for that master to use to call us. Please note that students of a master are not in the same category as disciple. It is possible for a master to have many students but few will have even one or more disciples. The disciples are earlier fully ordained as Sangha and the lineage holder in that master’s line, the students are not.

Floating Clouds, Folded Palms ~ A Bhikshuni life in Iowa

Excerpt from my memoir: Floating Clouds, Folded Palms

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I have also the development of my temple to consider as I have decided to have a small temple and not seek to grow bigger and expand to more sites. I hope to inspire resident Sangha here and elsewhere to do the same. You must protect yourself first while you are on the Path. Solid foundations can decay if you keep ignoring them they fall in disrepair. The problems in Sanghas in the West are confounded with desires for larger, expensive, and prettier. Ambition is a symptom of greed and dissatisfaction; it should not be a part of a Sangha’s strategy to propagate Buddha dharma. I don’t want my Sangha to be bothered with such distractions.