Nieuwe boeddhistische boeken, een rijke oogst; maar ook wat kaf. En een antwoord op de vraag: wat is verlichting (of: zijn verlichtingen) ?

Er zijn weer heel wat boeken uitgekomen de laatste tijd.
Een selectief overzicht; speciaal voor de boeddhisten die menen dat het beoefenen en het bestuderen van de Dharma heel goed samen kunnen gaan.
Eerst wat Engelstalige en dan authentiek Nederlandse boeken


Arts of Contemplative Care
Pioneering Voices in Buddhist Chaplaincy and Pastoral Work
Uitgever: Wisdom Publications
De komst van dit boek heb ik al een paar keer genoemd, als model en mogelijk (aldus Noah Levine) een standaardwerk voor boeddhistisch geestelijk verzorgers, dus ook voor de VU-opleiding..
Ik kan het opnieuw alleen maar aankondigen.
De verschijningsdatum is volgens de uitgever nu: 23 oktober.
Uit de aankondiging: ‘The Arts of Contemplative Care collects the experiences and reflections of Buddhists for whom care is a form of spiritual practice. These individuals work in the diverse fields of hospital chaplaincy, hospice chaplaincy, prison ministry, military chaplaincy, college chaplaincy, pastoral counseling, pastoral education and Buddhist ministry, as professionals or volunteers.
Preface by Roshi Enkyo O'Hara, and Foreword by Judith Simmer Brown.
Compiled and edited by Cheryl Giles and Willa Miller of Harvard Divinity School.
List of contributors: Daijaku Judith Kinst, Jennifer Block, Wakoh Shannon Hickey, Cheryl Giles, Grace Schireson, Lewis Richmond, Trudi Jinpu Hirsch, Mark Power, Robert Chodo Campbell, Chris Berlin, Koshin Paley Ellison, Mikel Monnett, Dean Sluyter, Margot Neuman, Gary Allen, Terry Conrad, Nealy Zimmermann, Richard Torres, Danny Fisher, Ji Hyang Padma, Thomas Dyer, Tenzin Chodron, Joan Halifax, Penny Alsop, Randy Sunday, Mark Power, Kirsten Deleo, Carlyle Coash, Ginger Brooks, Victoria Howard, Willa Miller, Lin Jensen, Steve Kanji Ruhl, Rebecca O. Johnson, and Sumi Loundon Kim.’


The Numerical Discourses of the Buddha: A Complete Translation of the Anguttara Nikaya
Vertaling (en toelichting): Bhikkhu Bodhi
Uitgever: Wisdom Publication; zie hun pagina hierover waarin ook de ‘Table of Contents’ en een ‘Thematic Guide’ kan worden opgeroepen. En zie Amazon .
Met de vertaling van de Anguttara Nikaya zijn nu bijna alle sutta’s (uit de Pali Canon) vertaald. In het Engels, grotendeels door niemand minder dan Bhikku Bodhi die ook de Samyutta- en de Majjhima-Nikaya heeft vertaald; bij dezelfde uitgever is al eerder Digha Nikaya uitgekomen, vertaald door Maurice Walshe. De heterogene Khuddaka Nikaya is een verhaal apart.
In het Nederlands zijn we met de vertalingen van de Breet en Janssen vijf à tien jaar achter, niet veel voor zo’n klein taalgebied.
Eerlijk gezegd kost het me ook nog wel een paar jaar om al deze vertalingen te lezen.
En deze Anguttara Nikaya (bijna 2.000 pagina’s) heb ik nog niet eens besteld. Niet omdat ik kan wachten op een Nederlandse vertaling ervan, dat zie ik om een aantal redenen niet gebeuren. Geduld ...


The Scientific Buddha: His Short and Happy Life
Donald S. Lopez Jr.
Uitgever: Yale University Press. Ook al 25 september uitgekomen
Ik beperk me tot de ‘description’ van de Amazon-pagina .
"This book tells the story of the Scientific Buddha, "born" in Europe in the 1800s but commonly confused with the Buddha born in India 2,500 years ago. The Scientific Buddha was sent into battle against Christian missionaries, who were proclaiming across Asia that Buddhism was a form of superstition. He proved the missionaries wrong, teaching a dharma that was in harmony with modern science. And his influence continues. Today his teaching of "mindfulness" is heralded as the cure for all manner of maladies, from depression to high blood pressure.
In this potent critique, a well-known chronicler of the West's encounter with Buddhism demonstrates how the Scientific Buddha's teachings deviate in crucial ways from those of the far older Buddha of ancient India. Donald Lopez shows that the Western focus on the Scientific Buddha threatens to bleach Buddhism of its vibrancy, complexity, and power, even as the superficial focus on "mindfulness" turns Buddhism into merely the latest self-help movement. The Scientific Buddha has served his purpose, Lopez argues. It is now time for him to pass into nirvana. This is not to say, however, that the teachings of the ancient Buddha must be dismissed as mere cultural artifacts. They continue to present a potent challenge, even to our modern world.”

Nu ook Rob Hogendoorn gestopt is (althans in Leiden) met zijn proefschrift over de Mind & Life dialogen (zie bv hier ), om z’n creativiteit en onderzoeksvaardigheden vooral te kunnen steken in *Openboeddhisme*, zal ook de Scientific Dalai Lama wel spoedig verleden tijd zijn; Hogendoorn gaat daar ongetwijfekld nog over schrijven.


Bringing Home the Dharma
Awakening Right Where You Are
Jack Kornfield
Uitgever: Shambala, 2011
Kornfield is een van de bekendste Amerikaanse leraren die (onder andere) de vipassana naar het Westen hebben gebracht. Als leraar maar ook als organisator, medeoprichter van het IMS en Spirit Rock.
‘Bringing Home the Dharma’ is z’n meest recente boek. ‘Nieuw’is daarbij betrekkelijk: het boek is een verzameling van eerder door de afgelopen twintig jaar geschreven essays.
Sommige ervan zijn (naar mijn subjectieve indruk) inspirerend, andere braaf, sommige ‘typisch Amerikaans’, andere ook voor de situatie in Nederland zeer bruikbaar.
Eén ervan, voor mij het meest inspirerende heeft als titel ‘Enlightenments’; pagina 258-266. Tot ons geluk is dit uit het blad Inquiring Mind overgenomen artikel ook (legaal) op het internet te vinden.


De gouden karper is uit het net, Verzamelde essays
Nico Tydeman
Uitgever: Asoka
Dit in juni uitgekomen boek heeft al de nodige aandacht gehad; Nico heeft (terecht) een grote vaste schare van lezers.
Hij is een van de weinige Zen-leraren die ook het nodige weten van andere boeddhistische tradities dan Zen(-Boeddhisme), en van Westerse mystici.


Bloei! Werken aan geluk in organisaties
Kees Klomp
Uitgever: Asoka
Volgens de blurb van de uitgever is het: “Een inspirerend boek voor managers, organisatieadviseurs, ondernemers, boeddhisten en duurzaam ondernemers.”
Ik ben geen manager, organisatieadviseur of ondernemer, maar toch is dit boek kennelijk dus ook voor mij bestemd. Waarschijnlijk is dat alleen marketingtaal, de taal van Klomp.
Helaas moet ik de azijnfles toch weer opendraaien. Het fileermes is gelukkig niet nodig, want dit is zelf al gehakt, of een opgewarmde prak om het vegetarisch te houden.
Eigenlijk begrijp ik niets van wat Kees Klomp (aka Karmakees) schrijft, ook in z’n blogs en eerdere artikelen; het is een soort snel springen tussen allerlei concepten uit marketing en (quasi-)boeddhisme. Maar vreemder nog: het zou volgens de bespreking over (of ‘interview met’, zelfs dat is me niet duidelijk) hem in het najaarsnummer van Boeddhamagazine gaan over bedrijven. Nu heb ik in heel wat bedrijven gewerkt (gewoon als werknemer) en ken familieleden en vrienden die dat doen); maar deze ervaringen hebben niets te maken met wat Klomp schrijft.
Hij is ook redacteur in dit boek dat veel korte artikelen van anderen bevat. Ik heb ze niet gelezen, ik ben ook een ekonomisch wezen, ik geef niet zomaar geld uit, maar de uitgever heeft me gratis genoeg pagina’s (hier en klik op ‘inkijken’) laten zien om een indruk te krijgen. Die indruk is: overbodig.
Samenvattend: de titel van dit boek is ‘bloei’, maar er zou net zo goed willekeurig ander woord voor genomen kunnen zijn, bijvoorbeeld knoei of groei of foei of poei of doei.
Om met Karmakees te spreken: doei is het nieuwe bloei.


Leer voelen wat je wilt voelen; Zenvol omgaan met emotie
Rients Ritskes
Uitgever Asoka
Alweer een paar maanden uit. Ritskes schrijft sneller dan God (en ik) lezen kan. Misschien is een volgend boek van hem al weer in aantocht, ik heb –ironisch - al een paar titels aangekondigd : ‘Leer ruiken wat je wilt ruiken' bijvoorbeeld.
Een Twitter-bericht over dit boek van 10 september:
‏@Zen_nl
Alle gevorderden cursussen werken nu met het boek ‘Leer voelen wat je wilt voelen’.
Huiswerk: wat wil je dit half jaar beter leren voelen?
Kassa dus voor de eigenaar van Zen.Nl!
O ja, Ritskes heeft ook een artikel geschreven voor het boek van Klomp. Titel: ‘Het Zen-organisatiegroeimodel ’. Ik neem aan dat het gaat over de groei van zijn organisatie Zen.Nl.


E-books
Asoka geeft sinds enige tijd ook een paar van z’n boek uit als ebook
Met een epub-extension, tenminste het (gratis) ‘De inspirerende wereld van het boeddhisme‘ dat ik heb gedownload. Verder zie ik zes titels, een beginnetje dus; er volgen er vast wel meer, in ieder geval die van Kees Klomp: niets blijft ons bespaard.
Engelstalig zijn er al veel meer, google maar eens de combinatie van de woorden ‘epub’ en ‘buddhism’.



Bijgevoegd
Een door mij ingekorte weergave van ‘Enlightenments’ door Jack Kornfield.
De volledige (Engelse versie): zie het boek Bringing Home the Dharma en hier .

VERLICHTINGEN
De meervoudsvorm is meteen al vreemd in de zin van ongebruikelijk. Er is niet één ‘verlichting’ die men op (het eind van) het boeddhistische pad kan bereiken, er zijn meerdere vormen van verlichtingen, en betekenissen van het woord.
De tekst is een poging tot antwoord op de vraag (van een leerling) ‘Is enlightenment just a myth? ’

ENLIGHTENMENTS by Jack Kornfield

... the word enlightenment is used in different ways, and that can be confusing. Is Zen, Tibetan, Hindu or Theravada enlightenment the same? What is the difference between an enlightenment experience and full enlightenment? What do enlightened people look like?
...
APPROACHES TO ENLIGHTENMENT
My teachers, Ajahn Chah in Thailand and Mahasi Sayadaw in Burma, were both considered among the most enlightened masters of Theravada Buddhism. While they both described the goal of practice as free-dom from greed, hatred and delusion, they didn’t agree about how to attain enlightenment, nor how it is experienced. I started my monastic training practicing in community with Ajahn Chah. Then I went to study in a monastery of Mahasi Sayadaw, where the path of liberation focuses entirely on long silent meditation retreats.
In the Mahasi system, you sit and walk for weeks in the retreat context and continuously note the arising of breath, thought, feelings and sensations over and over until the mindfulness is so refined there is nothing but instantaneous arising and passing. You pass through stages of luminosity, joy, fear and the dissolution of all you took to be solid. The mind becomes unmoving, resting in a place of stillness and equanimity, transparent to all experience, thoughts and fears, longings and love. Out of this there comes a dropping away of identity with anything in this world, an opening to the unconditioned beyond mind and body; you enter into the stream of liberation. As taught by Mahasi Sayadaw, this first taste of stream-entry to enlightenment requires purification and strong concentration leading to an experience of cessation that begins to uproot greed, hatred and delusion.
When I returned to practice in Ajahn Chah’s community following more than a year of silent Mahasi retreat, I recounted all of these experiences—dissolving my body into light, profound insights into emptiness, hours of vast stillness and freedom. Ajahn Chah understood and appreciated them from his own deep wisdom. Then he smiled and said, “Well, something else to let go of.” His approach to enlightenment was not based on having any particular meditation experience, no matter how profound. As Ajahn Chah described them, meditative states are not important in themselves. Meditation is a way to quiet the mind so you can practice all day long wherever you are; see when there is grasping or aversion, clinging or suffering; and then let it go. What’s left is enlightenment, always found here and now, a release of identification with the changing conditions of the world, a resting in awareness. This involves a simple yet profound shift of identity from the myriad, ever-changing conditioned states to the unconditioned consciousness—the awareness which knows them all. In Ajahn Chah’s approach, release from entanglement in greed, hatred and delusion does not happen through retreat, concentration and cessation but from this profound shift in identity.
How can we understand these seemingly different approaches to enlightenment? The Buddhist texts contain some of the same contrasting descriptions. In many texts, nirvana is described in the language of negation, and as in the approach taught by Mahasi Sayadaw, enlightenment is presented as the end of suffering through the putting out of the fires of craving, the uprooting of all forms of clinging. The elimination of suffering is practiced by purification and concentration, by confronting the forces of greed and hate and overcoming them. When the Buddha was asked, “Do you teach annihilation? Is nirvana the end of things as we know them?” he responded, “I teach only one form of annihilation: the extinction of greed, the extinction of hatred, the extinction of delusion. This I call nirvana.”
There is in the texts, as well, a more positive way of understanding enlightenment. Here nirvana is described as the highest happiness; as peace, freedom, purity, stillness; and as the unconditioned, the timeless, the undying. In this understanding, as in Ajahn Chah’s approach, liberation comes through a shift of identity—a release from attachment to the changing conditions of the world, a resting in consciousness itself, the deathless.
In this understanding, liberation is a shift of identity from taking anything as “self.” Asked, “How is it that one is not to be seen by the king of death?” the Buddha responded, “For one who takes nothing whatsoever as I or me or mine, such a one is freed from the snares of the king of death.” In just this way, Ajahn Chah instructed us to rest in awareness and not identify with any experience as I or mine.
...
So here we have different visions of enlightenment. On the one hand, we have the liberation from greed, hatred and delusion attained through powerful concentration and purification, emphasized by many masters from Mahasi and Sunlun Sayadaw to Rinzai Zen. On the other hand, we have the shift of identity reflected in the teachings of Ajahn Chah, Buddhadasa, Soto Zen and Dzogchen. And there are many other approaches; if you practice Pure Land Buddhism, which is the most widespread tradition in China, the approach to enlightenment involves devotion and surrender, being carried by the Buddha’s “grace.”
To understand these differences, it is wisest to speak of enlightenment with the plural s—as enlightenments. It’s the same way with God. There are so many forms: Jehovah, Allah, Brahma, Jesus, Kali and so forth. As soon as followers say they know the one true God, conflict arises. Similarly, if you speak of enlightenment as one thing, conflict arises and you miss the truth.
We know that the Buddha taught many different approaches to enlightenment, all as skillful means to release grasping of the limited sense of self and return to the inherent purity of consciousness. Similarly, we will discover that the teachings on enlightened consciousness include many dimensions. When you actually experience consciousness free of identification with changing conditions, liberated from greed and hate, you find it multifaceted, like a mandala or a jewel, a crystal with many sides. Through one facet, the enlightened heart shines as luminous clarity, through another as perfect peace, through another as boundless compassion. Consciousness is timeless, ever-present, completely empty and full of all things. But when a teacher or tradition emphasizes only one of these qualities over the others, it is easy to be confused, as if true enlightenment can be tasted in only one way. Like the particle-and-wave nature of light, enlightenment consciousness is experienced in a myriad of beautiful ways.

GATEWAYS TO ENLIGHTENMENT
So what practices lead to these enlightenments? Most centrally, Buddhism uses the liberating practices of mindfulness and lovingkindness. These are supported by the practice of virtue, which frees us from being caught in reactive energies that would cause harm to ourself or others. Added to this are practices of composure, or concentration, where we learn to quiet the mind; and practices of wisdom, which can see clearly how all things arise and pass, how they cannot be possessed. Through these practices come purification and healing and the arising of profound compassion. Gradually, there is a shift of identity from being the person who is caught in suffering, to liberation. Releasing the sense of self and all the changing conditions of the world brings stream-entry, the first stage of enlightenment.
The most common gates to stream-entry in the Theravada tradition are the gateway of impermanence, the gateway of suffering and the gateway of selflessness. When we open through the gateway of impermanence, we see more and more deeply how every experience is born and dies, how every moment is new. In one monastery where I practiced, we were trained to experience how all of life is vibration. Through long hours of refined concentration, we came to sense all the sounds and sights, the breath, the procession of thoughts—everything we took to be ourself—as a field of changing energy. Experience shimmered, dissolving moment by moment. Then we shifted our attention from the vibrations to restin the spacious heart of awareness. I and other, inside and outside—everything dropped away and we came to know the vast stillness beyond all change. This is enlightenment through the gate of impermanence.
Sometimes we enter enlightenment through the gate of suffering. We sit in the fire of human experience, and instead of running from it, we awaken through it. In the Fire Sermon, the Buddha declares, “All is burning. The eye, the nose, the tongue, the body, the mind, the world is burning. With what is it burning? It is burning with the fires of greed, of hatred and of delusion.” Through the gate of suffering we face the fires of desire, hate, war, racism and fear. We open to dissatisfaction, grief and loss. We accept the inherent suffering in life and we are released. We discover that suffering is not “our” pain, it is “the” pain—the pain of the world. A profound dispassion arises, compassion fills the heart, and we find liberation.
...
Sometimes we awaken through the gate of selflessness. The experience of selflessness can happen in the simplest ways. In walking meditation, we notice with every step the unbidden arising of thoughts, feelings, sensations, only to observe them disappear. To whom do they belong? Where do they go? Back into the void, which is where yesterday went, as well as our childhood, Socrates, Genghis Khan and the builders of the pyramids.
As we let go of clinging, we feel the tentative selflessness of things. Sometimes boundaries dissolve, and we can’t separate ourself from the plum tree, the birdsong or the morning traffic. The whole sense of self becomes empty experience arising in consciousness. More and more deeply, we realize the joy of “no self, no problem.” We taste enlightenment through the gate of selflessness and emptiness.
There are many other gates: the gates of compassion, of purity, of surrender, of love. There is also what is called the “gateless gate.” One teacher describes it this way: “I would go for months of retreat training, and nothing spectacular would happen, no great experiences. Yet somehow everything changed. What most transformed me were the endless hours of mindfulness and compassion, giving a caring attention to what I was doing. I discovered how I automatically tighten and grasp, and with that realization I started to let go, to open to an appreciation of whatever was present. I found an ease. I gave up striving. I became less serious, less concerned with myself. My kindness deepened. I experienced a profound freedom, simply the fruit of being present over and over.” This was her gateless gate.

EXPRESSIONS OF ENLIGHTENMENT
Whatever our gate to enlightenment, the first real taste, stream-entry, is followed by many more tastes as we learn to stabilize, deepen and embody this wisdom in our own unique life. What does it look like? The facets of enlightenment express themselves marvelously in our teachers. Each manifests enlightenment with his or her own flavors.
...
Mahasi Sayadaw, the Burmese master, expressed enlightenment as emptiness. Watching him on his visits to America, we saw that he rarely laughed or judged. Instead, he exuded a quiet equanimity. Events and conversations would happen around him while he remained still. He was like space—transparent, nobody there. This is enlightenment as emptiness.
For Ajahn Jumnien, a Thai forest master, awakening is not only empty; it’s full. His robe is covered in hundreds of sacred medallions, and he employs dozens of skillful means to teach—guided meditations, sacred chants, mantras, chakra and energy practices, forest medicines, animal stories and shamanic rituals. His Dharma is all-hours, nonstop, full of life and joy. There’s a sense of abundance in him, and happiness just pours out like a fountain. He expresses enlightenment as fullness.
Thich Nhat Hanh expresses enlightenment as mindfulness. When he comes to teach at Spirit Rock, 3,000 people sit meditatively on the hillside and eat their apples mindfully in preparation for his arrival. A bell is rung, and he walks slowly and deliberately up the road—so mindfully that everyone sighs, “Ahhh.” The consciousness of 3,000 people is transformed just seeing this man walk, each step the whole universe. As we watch, we drop into the reality of the eternal present. This is where we awaken. Enlightenment as mindfulness.
The Dalai Lama expresses enlightenment as compassionate blessing. For instance, once at the end of his stay at a San Francisco hotel, he asked the management to bring out all the employees. This meant the people who chop vegetables in the kitchen, who clean the carpets late at night, who make the beds. The big circular driveway filled with all those who made this hotel work but who were usually unrecognized. One by one, he looked at each one with full presence, took each person’s hand, and said, “Thank you,” moving unhurriedly just to make sure that he connected with each one fully. The Dalai Lama personifies enlightenment as compassionate blessing.
Ajahn Chah’s manifestation was the laughter of wisdom. Whether with generals or ministers, farmers or cooks, he would say, “When I see how much people are struggling, I look at them with great sympathy and ask, ‘Are you suffering? Ahhh, you must be very attached. Why not let go?’” His teachings were deep and straight to the point. He’d say, “If you let go a little, you’ll be a little happy. If you let go a lot, you’ll be a lot happy. If you let go completely, you’ll be completely happy.” He saw suffering, its cause, and that freedom is possible in any moment. He expressed enlightenment as wisdom.
When people read these stories, they might ask, “How do they relate to me? I want these enlightenments. How do I get them? What should I do?” The jewel of enlightenment invites us to awaken through many skillful means. Mahasi Sayadaw would say, “To find emptiness, note every single moment until what you think to be the world dissolves, and you will come to know freedom.” Ajahn Chah would say, “Just let go, and become the awareness, be the one who knows.” Dipa Ma would say, “Love no matter what.” Thich Nhat Hanh would say, “Rest in mindfulness, this moment, the eternal present.” Ajahn Jumnien would say, “Be happy for no cause.” Suzuki Roshi would say, “Just be exactly where you are. Instead of waiting for the bus, realize you are on the bus.”
So, is enlightenment a myth? No. It is not far away. It is freedom here and now, to be tasted whenever you open to it. In my role as a teacher, I have the privilege of seeing the blessing of enlightenments awaken in so many meditators who come to Dharma practice and become transformed through its many expressions. As their initial tension and struggle with life, doubt and distress subsides, I watch their bodies ease, their faces soften, their Dharma vision open, their hearts blossom. Some touch what Buddhadasa called “everyday nirvana.” Others come to know a deep purity of mind and to experience a taste of liberation directly.
The Buddha declares, “If it were not possible to free the heart from entanglement, I would not teach you to do so. Just because it is possible to free the heart, there arise the teachings of the Dharma of liberation, offered openhandedly for the welfare of all beings.”
Aim for nothing less.'