Dear all,
Today, April 8, is the Flower Festival, celebrating the Buddha’s birthday, also a super full moon day. The full moon symbolizes full brightness and totality. The Buddha was awakened to the Dharma of Dependent Origination, i.e., all are dependently originated in related relativity. He recommended that we “mentally orient from the root” (yoniso manasikāra, lit. from womb, mental orientation). We must think fundamentally and comprehensively to solve our problems – pandemics, etc.
The COVID-19 pandemic has revealed the inadaptability and inability of the present civilization, of all nations, systems of capitalism, materialism, and militarism (money, matter, might), though their heads are still concerned with money, etc. Money buys power, etc., dictating men, etc., negating natural sciences, as in the global problematique, like global warming, pandemic, etc. The Buddha foresaw the destruction of the world due to this, especially the Triple Poisons.
He recommended the two refuges of the Dharma and the self, a comprehensive strategy and fundamental tactics. The Dharma is nature (beings/way: truth/ethic) and the self is individual being. All living beings originate and cease in the Dharma, but have inherited and induce karma, whose survival instinct becomes the Triple Poisons. So, we must cultivate the Triple Learnings in the Dharma to convert the Triple Poisons. Human selves and systems must follow the Dharma to function free and fully.
The strategy of a paradigm shift is to shift from an artificial unidirectional pyramidal civilization to a natural cyclical life Indra-net culture, cultivating selves and systems – human and natural – in the wholly wholesome way world in holy truth, beauty, and goodness. The tactics of self-cultivation is living in the holy way of the Eightfold Great Person’s Awakening. This is the Bodhisattva way of Mitra, Maitreya, et al., living in friendship with all dharmas in the Dharma.
April 8, 2020 C.E. Dharma note
Note 1. The Triple Poisons (ti-dosa/tri-doṣa) are desire (raga/rāga), divisiveness (dosa/dveṣa), and delusion (moha/moha) of a separate self).
- The Triple Learnings (tisso sikkhā/triṣāṇi śikṣāṇi) are morality (sīla/śīla), concentration (samādhi), and prognosis (paňňā/prajňā).
- Eightfold Awareness/Awakening of Great Persons (Mahā-purisa-vitakka/-bodhi/mahā-puruṣa-vitarka/-bodhi): little desire (appiccha/appicchā), contentment (santuṭṭha/santuṣṭa), seclusion (pavivitta/pravivitta), striving (viriya/vīrya), mindfulness (sati/smṛti), concentration (samāhita), prognosis (paňňā/prajňā), no speculation (appapaňca/aprapaňca).
４．The Bodhisattva way is to vow and live “to save others first and the self last.”
親愛なる皆さん
今日四月八日はブッダの生誕を祝う「花祭り」であり、またスーパームーンの満月の日でもあります。満月は完全な明るさと全体性を象徴染ます。ブッダは、相依相対の中に一切が因縁生起するという、縁起の法に目覚めました。彼は私達に「正理思惟せよ」(yoniso manasikāra, 原意は「母胎ー本源ーから心せよ」)と言いました。全人類的疫病などの問題を解くために私達は根本的かつ包括的に考えなければなりません。
コロナウィルスCOVID-19は、現在の文明、特に国家、資本主義、物質主義、そして軍国主義（金・物・力）の体系の不適応と無能力を披歴しました、未だにその首長達は金などに拘っていますが。地球温暖化や全人類的疫病などの地球問題群に見られるように、金は権力等を買い、人間等を支配し、自然科学を否定しています。ブッダはこれによる、特に三毒による、世界の破滅を予見していました。
彼は法洲と自洲、包括的戦略と根本的戦術を推薦しました。法は本性/自然（存在/方法：真理/倫理)であり、自とは個的存在です。一切の生き物は法の中に生起し消滅しますが、業を相続して業を生みますが、その生存本能は三毒となるのです。だから、私達は法において三学を修養して三毒を転換しなければなりません。人間の個我と体系は自由に完全に機能するには法に従わなければなりません。
枠組転換の戦略は聖（全体健全）なる真善美に於いて全体健全な方法・世界において、自己と体系ー人間と自然ーを修養・耕作して、人工的一方向的金字塔文明を自然的循環的命帝網文化への転換です。自己修養の戦術は八大人覚の聖なる道を生きることです。これはミトラ、ミロク等の法に於いて諸法（諸現象）と共に友として生きる菩薩道です。
2020共通年4月8日 法記
註 1. 三毒 (ti-dosa/tri-doṣa) は貪欲 (raga/rāga), 瞋恚 (dosa/dveṣa), 及び（自己分別の）無知 (moha/moha) （貪瞋痴と省略）.
- 三学 (tisso sikkhā/triṣāṇi śikṣāṇi) は戒律 (sīla/śīla), 禅定 (samādhi：三昧と音訳), 及び智慧 (paňňā/prajňā)（戒定慧と省略）.
- 八大人覚（Mahā-purisa-vitakka/-bodhi/mahā-puruṣa-vitarka/-bodhi)は小欲 (appiccha/appiccha), 知足（santuṭṭha/santuṣṭa）、離俗（pavivitta/pravivitta), 精進 (viriya/vīrya), 専念 (sati/smṛti), 禅定 (samāhita), 智慧 (paňňā/prajňā), 不戯論（不虚妄・不妄想・不煩悩・不乱心・不心転・不投機）(appapaňca/aprapaňca).
４．菩薩道とは 「自未得度先度他（自ら済度を得る前に先ず他を済度する）」と誓 願し生きること。
The following picture was taken and sent
by Garyo, Arizona.
下の写真はアリゾナにいる雅了
が撮り送ってくれたものです。
下の写真は下田の大塚卿之さんが撮影し
MLにコメントをつけて送ってくれたものです
(少し時間をおいての二枚：時間順）：
「人類は新型コロナウイルスに苦しめられていますが、
The following picture was taken and sent
by Mr. Noriyuki Otsuka, Shimoda, Japan
with his comment
(two with a little while interval chronologically):
“Even though humankind is tortured by corona virus,
the celestial bodies show their regular operations,
showing the super moon, as if they encourage humankind.
Please appreciate the picture of brighter
super-load moon just now taken from my window.”
The following picture was posted in the St. Louis Post Dispatch
taken by David Carson on April 7, 2020
The above quoted newspaper featured the super full moon pics.
from all around the world (including the following):
Nashville, Tennessee
A supermoon rises behind a statue of the Roman god Mercury mounted on top of a hotel tower, Tuesday, April 7, 2020, in Nashville, Tenn. (AP Photo/Mark Humphrey)