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icarusIt's Christmas! And it's snowing! In Seattle! Big, floofy flakes. I mean, snowballs from the sky.
We've unwrapped the pressies and![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
wildernessguru howled over the "polar bear repellent" and "expedition weight dental floss" (I almost got him "dehydrated water" but I couldn't figure out how to create that convincingly). We're knee-deep in wrapping paper.
Monty was bad last night and yankedwildernessguru's Christmas stocking down. Bad kitty! I had to repack it at 1am. I, uh, was rather unnecessarily upset with him. Of course he's just a kitty. He doesn't know the dangling thing was special (though he was mostly trying to get my attention).
Now I have a chocolate high (chocolate covered cherries, given to WG but it turns out he doesn't like them), and we're both reading.wildernessguru is reading about the Croatian Air Force in his new World Air Power journal -- and man, did I have fun calling Britain and talking to the military analysts at Jane's. Wow, you Brits answer your own phones. Never pick up the American habit of letting everything to go voicemail, okay?
He just showed me a gorgeous photo of Russian SU-27s flying in formation, the Russian Knights. Everyone (apparently) is apparently buying the SU-27 right now, China, India, Chavez of Venesuela ... they're better than the F-15, the F-16, and have this thing called "thrust vectoring" which is somethingwildernessguru is learning more about now: "It means that the main engine can be turned slightly while in flight, improving maneuverability, big time." It's an extremely long-range, large aircraft. Athough he just read that the Chinese wanted one with exended fuel capacity.
I asked how the SU-27 compared to the U.S. F-22 Raptor and he said they're very different so that they really can't be compared. The Raptor is a stealth aircraft, for starters. The SU-27 stands little chance against the Raptor because the SU-27's avionics are based on 1980s technology.
I'm reading the intro to a translation of Chandrakirti's Introduction to the Middle Way, a classic Buddhist text -- and check this out, it has a commentary from the Nyingma master, Jamgon Mipham. Yay! Mipham, my hero, he was a Tibetan master in the late 19th century who put the ancient school on the map.
Interesting note to those interested in Tibetan Buddhist history: First thing you need to know is that Buddhism is an import into Tibet.
There are two main divisions of Tibetan Mahayana Buddhism.
First was the early translation school of the 8th century CE, during the reign of King Songsten Gampo whose Tibetan Empire was a serious thorn in the side of the Chinese T'ang Dynasty. The Tibetans even captured Chang'an, the capital of China, for fifteen days, and the T'ang bought the Tibetans off with marriage alliances. (According to historian Paul Graf, trouble with the Turks and the Tibetans are probably why the T'ang finally decided to leave Korea alone; they found themselves fighting on too many fronts and the Korean Silla had united against the (brief) Chinese occupation.) This represents the Nyingma sect (literally "nying" = old; "ma" = particle that makes the adjective a noun).
Second was the later translation school of the 12th century CE, after Langdharma, a Tibetan Pol Pot who decided the way to uproot the foreign Buddhist religion was to kill, kill, kill the monks and burn all the books. Prior to Langdharma, Buddhism was the official religion of the state but the reality on the ground was a polyglot of various quasi-Buddhist, quasi-Bonpo syncretic animist religions. After Langdharma the sympathy of the Tibetans swung towards Buddhism and a huge effort was made to restore Buddhism to Tibet. Langdharma had been thorough during his roughtly 30-year reign, although a lot of the early translation school monks had fled to Mongolia. All the other Tibetan Buddhist sects, including the one that the Dalai Lama heads, are Sarma schools (literally "sar" = later; = particle that makes the adjective a noun).
Bear in mind that I'm of the early translation school but because of lack of facilities for my school I've been studying with later translation school teachers recently.
So. In Indian Buddhism there were two types of Mahayana. Yogachara ("all phenomena are a reflection of mind") and madhyamika ("all phenomena are empty in ultimate truth, and exist only in relative truth"). Most people think that yogachara and madhyamika argue with each other, and Sarma Tibetan Buddhist schools say that yogachara is an inferior view. I've heard this many times from current Sarma students even though I hadn't heard it from Nyingma teachers. I didn't know why there was a discrepancy.
I just read that the school of thought brought to Tibet in the 8th century was from Shantirakshita and Karmashilla in the 7th century (both of them had gone to Tibet to teach and help start Buddhism there). They had brought together yogachara and madhyamika into one system. They said that yogachara represents ordinary phenomena ("all phenomena are a reflection of mind") while madhyamika represents ultimate truth ("all phenomena are empty in ultimate truth, and exist only in relative truth"). Since one can only recognize ultimate truth through recognizing the interdependence of relative truth, madhyamika doesn't toss out yogachara, but rather yogachara is a needed step. This was the philosophy expounded in Tibet for 400 years.
In the 12th century, however, when Tibetans reached out to the dwindling Buddhism in India for translations, they translated many more texts on madhyamika than had been previously available. (I'm guessing, too, that Shantirakshita's view didn't gain the widespread acceptance in India that it had in Tibet.) At that point questions arose whether yogachara and madhyamika belonged together in one system or if they actually argued with each other. So the later schools toss aside yogachara as an inferior view.
I hadn't known enough to wonder at the opposition to yogachara to recognize that it was a difference in the schools. But now it makes a great deal more sense.
And, of course, I rather like Shantirakshita's perspective. I've always appreciated inclusiveness. :)
Oh. And now the snow is sticking! Not on the roads but it's frosting all the houses.
I hope you all are having a wonderful time, enjoying family and friends, watching your kids tear into their gifts, catching that warm smile from your husband or gay boyfriend or lesbian lover as you share a moment, a sly smile as you open some of your naughtier treasures. ;) I hope that your pets are happily playing with the wrapping paper and bouncing in the snow, lapping at your faces as you try to gather them in your arms. I hope that your homes are filled with the sights and smells and sounds of Christmas, and that we all take a moment to remember those less fortunate than us and wish them all this and more.
Merry Christmas to you all.
We've unwrapped the pressies and
wildernessguru howled over the "polar bear repellent" and "expedition weight dental floss" (I almost got him "dehydrated water" but I couldn't figure out how to create that convincingly). We're knee-deep in wrapping paper. Monty was bad last night and yanked
wildernessguru's Christmas stocking down. Bad kitty! I had to repack it at 1am. I, uh, was rather unnecessarily upset with him. Of course he's just a kitty. He doesn't know the dangling thing was special (though he was mostly trying to get my attention). Now I have a chocolate high (chocolate covered cherries, given to WG but it turns out he doesn't like them), and we're both reading.
wildernessguru is reading about the Croatian Air Force in his new World Air Power journal -- and man, did I have fun calling Britain and talking to the military analysts at Jane's. Wow, you Brits answer your own phones. Never pick up the American habit of letting everything to go voicemail, okay? He just showed me a gorgeous photo of Russian SU-27s flying in formation, the Russian Knights. Everyone (apparently) is apparently buying the SU-27 right now, China, India, Chavez of Venesuela ... they're better than the F-15, the F-16, and have this thing called "thrust vectoring" which is something
wildernessguru is learning more about now: "It means that the main engine can be turned slightly while in flight, improving maneuverability, big time." It's an extremely long-range, large aircraft. Athough he just read that the Chinese wanted one with exended fuel capacity.I asked how the SU-27 compared to the U.S. F-22 Raptor and he said they're very different so that they really can't be compared. The Raptor is a stealth aircraft, for starters. The SU-27 stands little chance against the Raptor because the SU-27's avionics are based on 1980s technology.
I'm reading the intro to a translation of Chandrakirti's Introduction to the Middle Way, a classic Buddhist text -- and check this out, it has a commentary from the Nyingma master, Jamgon Mipham. Yay! Mipham, my hero, he was a Tibetan master in the late 19th century who put the ancient school on the map.
Interesting note to those interested in Tibetan Buddhist history: First thing you need to know is that Buddhism is an import into Tibet.
There are two main divisions of Tibetan Mahayana Buddhism.
First was the early translation school of the 8th century CE, during the reign of King Songsten Gampo whose Tibetan Empire was a serious thorn in the side of the Chinese T'ang Dynasty. The Tibetans even captured Chang'an, the capital of China, for fifteen days, and the T'ang bought the Tibetans off with marriage alliances. (According to historian Paul Graf, trouble with the Turks and the Tibetans are probably why the T'ang finally decided to leave Korea alone; they found themselves fighting on too many fronts and the Korean Silla had united against the (brief) Chinese occupation.) This represents the Nyingma sect (literally "nying" = old; "ma" = particle that makes the adjective a noun).
Second was the later translation school of the 12th century CE, after Langdharma, a Tibetan Pol Pot who decided the way to uproot the foreign Buddhist religion was to kill, kill, kill the monks and burn all the books. Prior to Langdharma, Buddhism was the official religion of the state but the reality on the ground was a polyglot of various quasi-Buddhist, quasi-Bonpo syncretic animist religions. After Langdharma the sympathy of the Tibetans swung towards Buddhism and a huge effort was made to restore Buddhism to Tibet. Langdharma had been thorough during his roughtly 30-year reign, although a lot of the early translation school monks had fled to Mongolia. All the other Tibetan Buddhist sects, including the one that the Dalai Lama heads, are Sarma schools (literally "sar" = later; = particle that makes the adjective a noun).
Bear in mind that I'm of the early translation school but because of lack of facilities for my school I've been studying with later translation school teachers recently.
So. In Indian Buddhism there were two types of Mahayana. Yogachara ("all phenomena are a reflection of mind") and madhyamika ("all phenomena are empty in ultimate truth, and exist only in relative truth"). Most people think that yogachara and madhyamika argue with each other, and Sarma Tibetan Buddhist schools say that yogachara is an inferior view. I've heard this many times from current Sarma students even though I hadn't heard it from Nyingma teachers. I didn't know why there was a discrepancy.
I just read that the school of thought brought to Tibet in the 8th century was from Shantirakshita and Karmashilla in the 7th century (both of them had gone to Tibet to teach and help start Buddhism there). They had brought together yogachara and madhyamika into one system. They said that yogachara represents ordinary phenomena ("all phenomena are a reflection of mind") while madhyamika represents ultimate truth ("all phenomena are empty in ultimate truth, and exist only in relative truth"). Since one can only recognize ultimate truth through recognizing the interdependence of relative truth, madhyamika doesn't toss out yogachara, but rather yogachara is a needed step. This was the philosophy expounded in Tibet for 400 years.
In the 12th century, however, when Tibetans reached out to the dwindling Buddhism in India for translations, they translated many more texts on madhyamika than had been previously available. (I'm guessing, too, that Shantirakshita's view didn't gain the widespread acceptance in India that it had in Tibet.) At that point questions arose whether yogachara and madhyamika belonged together in one system or if they actually argued with each other. So the later schools toss aside yogachara as an inferior view.
I hadn't known enough to wonder at the opposition to yogachara to recognize that it was a difference in the schools. But now it makes a great deal more sense.
And, of course, I rather like Shantirakshita's perspective. I've always appreciated inclusiveness. :)
Oh. And now the snow is sticking! Not on the roads but it's frosting all the houses.
I hope you all are having a wonderful time, enjoying family and friends, watching your kids tear into their gifts, catching that warm smile from your husband or gay boyfriend or lesbian lover as you share a moment, a sly smile as you open some of your naughtier treasures. ;) I hope that your pets are happily playing with the wrapping paper and bouncing in the snow, lapping at your faces as you try to gather them in your arms. I hope that your homes are filled with the sights and smells and sounds of Christmas, and that we all take a moment to remember those less fortunate than us and wish them all this and more.
Merry Christmas to you all.
