Friday, July 24, 2009

Poems from Chinese Buddhis Nuns

Here is a nice book: Daughters of Emptiness--Poems of Chinese Buddhist Nuns, by Beata Grant. It has brief biography from these (often little known) nuns, many having achieved enlightenment or some sort of prominence in their times. The book contains the original Chinese poems as well.

I selected some of the poems below. Suffering from occupational addiction, I had to re-translate some of them, mosly on the airplane between Seattle and San Jose.

Don’t you know that afflictions are wisdom itself
But to cling to afflictions is foolishness
You must recognize when afflictions arise and when they cease
Yet the hawk flies through Silla without anyone noticing
--Bhiksuni (Buddhist nun) Benming

不識煩惱是菩提
若隨煩惱是愚癡
起滅之時須要會
鷂過新羅人不知
--本明尼
The nun Benming lived in the 12th century. Not much was known about her, but her poems impressed several important Chan Masters.


I suddenly find myself upside down on level ground
Picking myself up, I find there is nothing to say!
Should someone ask me what this is all about
Smiling, I’d point to the gentle breeze and the bright moon.
--Bhiksuni Zhenru

平地偶然著顛
起來都無可說
若人更問如何
笑指清風明月
--真如尼
As a young girl, because of her talents, Zhenru was inducted into the inner palace as an attendant to an imperial concubine. The lady was a Buddhist, and gave permission when Zhenru expressed her desire to become a nun. Her poems are highly regarded by the great master Dahui Zonggao.

A Self-Description

I try to characterize myself, but I cannot
I try to make a self-portrait, but failed!
There is such a thing as original face
But how can I show it to anyone!
Alive, lively, unborn
The nostrils still hang over the upper lip.
--Bhiksuni DeYing

自贊
自贊贊不出
自畫畫不成
有箇本來相
如何呈似人
活潑潑 本無生
鼻孔依然搭上唇
--德英
Buddhist nun DeYing came from an elite family; she was also a descendant of an eminent scholar that edited the famous Chan genealogy book Jinde Chuan Deng Lu (Transmission of the Lamp). She became a Dharma heir and taught in many monasteries.

Is she a woman or a man, in reality?
When Guanyin manifests—which is the real person?
Peeling away the skin, down to the bare core prior to any function
I ask you: is this the body of a man or a woman?
--Bhiksuni One-Eyed Vajra

男女何須辨假真
觀音出現果何人
皮囊脫盡渾無用
試問男身是女身
--獨目金鋼

This nun lost eyesight in one eye from studying the Diamond Sutra too intently. She lived a simply lifestyle and gave away everything she owned. When she lectured monks, nuns, and laipeople came to listen, and she converted many to Buddhism.

The vast expanse of dust-world is essentially one-suchness
Whether vertical or horizontal, everything bears the seal of Vairochana
Although the entire wave is made of water, wave is not water;
Although all the water may turn into waves, water is not wave.
--Bhiksuni Zhitong

浩浩塵中體一如
縱極交互印毘盧
全波是水波非水 全水是波水自殊
--智通尼

On this frosty day, clouds and mist congeal,
On the mountain moon, the icy chill glows.
At night I receive a letter from my home,
At dawn I move on without anyone knowing.
--Bhiksuni Fahai

霜天雲霧結
山月冷涵輝
夜接故鄉信
曉行人不知
–法海尼
In the shade of two trees and the hanging green of the cliffs
A light from the ancient lamp shutteres the dark barriers
I too now realize that phenomena are like illusions
And happily grow old among the mist, the rivers, and the stones.
--Bhiksuni Miaozhan

雙樹陰陰落翠岩
一燈千古破幽關
也知諸法皆如幻
甘老煙霞水石間
–妙湛

Monday, July 13, 2009

Zen Center roof painted white

"I see a black roof and I want to paint it white."
(apologies to the Rolling Stones)

This from Michael (Chuna Guan) of the Zen Center:

For the past week, Jian-Xie shifu led a group of volunteers painting
Zen Center’s roof white. This effort is one action of Zen Center’s
overall SunnyZen Green Initiatives.

A pale colored roof would help to contain climate change both by
reflecting more solar radiation into space and by reducing the amount
of energy needed to keep buildings cool by air-conditioning. It also
has the potential of increasing the efficiency of solar panels.

We used a surface thermometer to measure the temperature of two areas,
side by side, of our tar roof. One area is painted white while another
is not. The difference in temperature is about 40F degrees (please see
the posted photos in Files section). Using the rule of thumb that
“1000 square feet would offsets 10 tons of CO2 emission; our action
would offset about 160 tons of CO2 or more. For comparison purposes, a
typical US house emits about 10 tons of CO2 per year. The average
world car emits about 4 tons of CO2 each year. “

There is a winter penalty of a white roof as more heating is needed.
The penalty is about 5 to 15%. There is no specific data for
California, but it would be on the lower end of the scale. “In the
winter, the sun is low and sees mainly the south wall. As long as the
south wall of the building is in dark color” that should compensate
the penalty to great extent.

California has an ordinance, since 2005, that requires all flat roofs
on new commercial buildings to be white. This ordinance is the brain
child of Dr. Art Rosenfeld, a member of the California Energy
Commission. In 2008, Dr Rosenfeld and two colleagues from the Lawrence
Berkeley National Laboratory in California, Hashem Akbari and Surabi
Menon, calculated that changing surface colors in 100 of the world’s
largest cities could save the equivalent of 44 billion tons of carbon
dioxide — about as much as global carbon emissions are expected to
rise by over the next decade.

Dr, Rosenfeld’s research result influenced Steven Chu, the Nobel prize-
winning physicist appointed by President Obama as Energy Secretary. On
May 26th of 2009, Dr, Chu announced a global initiative to change the
color of roofs, roads and pavements in containing global warming.

Please see following links for more information:
http://www.loe.org/shows/segments.htm?programID=09-P13-00007&segmentID=7
A link to an interview with California energy commissioner Arthur
Rosenfeld on the reasons to paint our roof white. It also commented on
the CO2 emission and economy of this action.

http://www.loe.org/images/090213/White%20Roofs%20Cool%20the%20World.pdf
A non-technical summary of this action.

http://www.loe.org/images/090213/Global%20cooling.pdf
A technical summary of this action.

Friday, July 10, 2009

十宗綱要-三論宗2

2009-07-07 & 08

三論宗第二講:
  • 三論宗所依經論(課文第二節)
  • 中論第一品:「不生亦不滅」之「不生」義,以穀之不生為例。今穀由上一代穀組成,上一代穀亦含上二代穀,故今穀實包含了過去無數代穀,綿延不斷,無有「生」期。不生亦不滅,前穀亦無有滅期。
感謝幾位居士的費心的整理,提供如下的三論全文。
學員應看完「三論宗」的課文,並試著理解中論第一品中「八不中道」的說明。

另外,這是學員收集的「三論宗」資料:

Tuesday, July 7, 2009

Go Vegetarian 1 Day A Week

We are encouraging people everywhere to pledge "Go Vegetarian 1 Day A Week".

Director of IPCC, the United Nations Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, has stated that the meat and dairy industry contributes 18% of all the greenhouse gases that causes global warming. In comparison, all the air, land, and water traffic produces 13%. (IPCC shared the Noble Peace Prize with Al Gore in 2007.)

If everyone make a slight change in our diet, we can make a real difference to our world.

Be kind to your body. Be kind to the animals. Be kind to our planet.
Go Vegetarian 1 Day A Week (more than 1 day is even better, of course).

Show your support by pledging (joining) the Facebook group we created.

Ask your family, friends, boss, coworkers to pledge.

If you're not on Facebook, please make your pledge by signing up at the Zen Center of Sunnyvale or Buddha Jewel Monastery.

Currently, we already have over 200 people signed up from all over the world. Our goal: 100,000 people. This will effect a change of lifestyle for human beings.


Some facts taken from the book "The Food On Your Plate" (references to these data can be found in the book):

The more than 2.5 billion pigs and cattle excrete more than 80 metric tons (176 billion pounds) of waste nitrogen annually; by comparison, the entire human population produces 30 million tons. (Nitrous oxide has 296 times the effect on global warming than CO2).

The EPA says that the 3 trillion pounds of waste from factory animals is a greater source of pollution our our rivers and lakes than ALL OTHER industrial sources combined.

Animals on factory farms in the U.S. produce 87,000 pounds of waste EVERY SECOND, which 130 times more than the entire population of the United States. This equivalent to about 5 tons of animal waste for each person in the U.S.

A typical pig factory farm generates as much wast as a city of 50,000 people.


Cornell University research has calculated that it takes 13,000 gallons of water to produce a single pound of beef. Other researches found that it takes 2,600 gallons of water to produce a single serving of steak.

Producing 2 pounds of animal protein requires about ten times more water than producing 2 pounds of grain protein.

EPA: chemical and animal waste runoff from factory farms is responsible for 173,000 miles of polluted rivers and streams.

Our water sources are also disappearing fast. 17 trillion gallons of water were used for irrigation annually to produce feed for U.S. livestock.

New York Times: "As the world's appetite for meat increases, countries across the globe are bulldozing huge swaths of land to make more room for animals and the crops to feed them. From tropical rain forests in Brazil to ancient pine forests in China, entire ecosystems are being destroyed to fuel our addiction to meat."

Wednesday, July 1, 2009

十宗綱要-三論宗1

2009-06-30 & 07-01

今天開始三論宗,中國佛教特有的宗派,建立在印度佛教般若及中觀的研究。
本課介紹了課本內三論宗的歷史源流,並開始看了一段中論第一品,「八不中道」。

「中論」第一品 pdf

請大家有興趣者可查查以下資料:
  1. 龍樹傳
  2. 提婆傳
  3. 僧肇傳
  4. 吉藏傳
  5. 中論全文
  6. 中觀頌全文
  7. 百論全文
  8. 十二門論全文
若做 5-8 時希望發心將文字格式整理整齊。