Temple of the Immovable (Dampa Zangpo)

The Haja-no-Ontachi, a remarkable sword believed to have been forged during Japan’s Edo period (1603-1868), is housed at the Isonokami Shrine in Nara. Known as the “Demon-Quelling Great Sword,” it measures approximately 15 feet (465 cm) in length and weighs around 165 pounds (75 kg), making it one of the largest swords ever created in Japan.

This was a comment on my FB in reply. For the most part, I do agree. At least they have a concept of the higher, becoming like the higher, and certain moral aspects. Atheism is trash. But one on end or the other would be closer to bliss than denial.

https://www.patreon.com/posts/who-is-fat-70079681 Hotei / Budai isn't the Buddha. Through a cult following, he became associated with a Buddha. Because he represented a double meaning of happiness, wealth, and prosperity, those who were poor looked to him as an embodiment of Maitreya Buddha, who is a rather "messiah" figure (for lack of a better term) for many forms of Buddhism. Because of the popularity of this combined imagery for this monk and Maitreya Buddha it became the a highly common idol for merchants who wished for wealth and prosperity. It is through merchants and commerce that this became the first concept of Buddhism that many Westerners encountered, and thereby the "Fat" buddha was became "Buddha" to many.

While I can not vouch for the rest of the videos on this channel. This video is probably one of the best understandings and overview of Esoteric / Vajrayana Buddhism in Japan which is the branch / practice I am closely an adherent to or pulis of aside from my more recent initiations into Tibetan schools. While this video doesn't cover the Shugendou of which I am most closley a follower of it does lay out overarching basics of East Asian (Japanese and Chinese) Vajrayana, how Buddhist schools aren't fully closed off from one another but instead learn from each other and how the general mystical and philosophical forms work together within the cosmology, practice, and eschatology. Also highlighted are working with divinity and the nature of the divine where one can see how Pagan and Indo-European faiths work well within the cosmology of Buddhism and the Cosmic Buddha / Dharmakāya. This video is a great beginning stepping stone. Though it does require an understanding of basic Buddhism. 🙏🏼 🔥 📿 ☸️ https://youtu.be/5T2se0-_EWc?si=KyuHPd0Xgr9W9w0g

The Lie of “Queer Buddhism” The Buddha and his Saṅgha, contrary to the speculative and dishonest propaganda of many Western “Buddhists” do not condone “LGBTQ”-ideology. The Postmodern pursuit of “Queering Buddhism” has no basis in the Buddha’s original teachings, or authentic and Traditional Buddhism. While the Buddha did acknowledge the existence of “effeminate” or ‘gender-ambiguous’ individuals (Paṇḍakas), he describes their state as “pitiable” and views their predicament as a karmic punishment in the current life. He did not allow such people, including homosexuals, to enter the Saṅgha and forbade Bodhisattvas and Arahants to associate with them. The Buddha himself was decidedly traditionally masculine in conduct, virtue, and personal character. Postmodernist ‘scholars’ of so-called “Queer Buddhism” like Bee Scherer and Ann Gleig willfully abuse and desecrate the Buddha’s teachings to justify their own narcissistic desires and should be recognized as demonic enemies of the Buddha Dhamma.

“Every mythology has grown up in a certain society in a bounded field. Then they come into collision and relationship, and they amalgamate, and you get a more complex mythology. But today there are no boundaries. The only mythology that is valid today is the mythology of the planet –and we don’t have such a mythology. The closest thing I know to a planetary mythology is Buddhism, which sees all beings as Buddha beings. The only problem is to come to the recognition of that. There is nothing to do. The task is only to know what is, and then to act in relation to the brotherhood of all of these beings.” Joseph Campbell (1991), in The Power of Myth, pp. 27-29 Image: Mahāvairocana The Great Cosmic Buddha

ノウマク サンマンダ バザラダン センダ マカロシャダ ソワタヤ ウンタラタ カンマン Nōmaku sanmanda bazaradan senda makaroshada sowataya un tarata kanman Homage to the all-pervading Vajra! Grant me strength and protection, unshakeable and immovable like Fudō Myōō.

When Marpa, the great Tibetan meditation master and teacher of Milarepa, lost his son he wept bitterly. One of his pupils came up to him and asked: ‘Master, why are you weeping? You teach us that death is an illusion.’ And Marpa said: ‘Death is an illusion. And the death of a child is an even greater illusion.’ But what Marpa was able to show his disciple was that while he could understand the truth about the conditioned nature of everything and the emptiness of forms, he could still be a human being. He could feel what he was feeling; he could open to his grief. He could be completely present to feel that loss. And he could weep openly. There is nothing incongruous about feeling our feelings, touching our pain, and, at the same time understanding the truth of the way things are. Pain is pain; grief is grief; loss is loss — we can accept those things. Suffering is what we add onto them when we push away. —Ajahn Medhanandi

Recognizing that everything had to happen just like this is the greatest bliss. Nothing can be forced if it is not meant to be that way. Let new beginnings come through pain; cherish your destiny unfolding.

Kūkai’s Ten Levels of Mind (jūjūshin) present a view of enlightened mind in ten aspects or stages (not to be confused with the ten consciousnesses). Although the Ten Levels have been interpreted in many ways, essentially they represent stages through which the esoteric practitioner passes as delusions are penetrated and ever deeper realms of mind revealed. The levels can also be viewed as descriptions of various Buddhist teachings as they were in Kūkai’s time. The Ten Levels of Mind are as follows: 1. The Unstable, Goatish Mind (ishō teiyō-shin). The unenlightened mind that understands neither good nor evil, cause nor effect. Like a goat filled with lust for sex and food, a person of this mind is driven by instincts. 2. The Foolish, Abstinent Mind (gudō jisai-shin). Here, some karmic cause has stirred the individual’s inherent Buddha-nature so that he begins to restrain himself. This is the mind that strives to be ethical and moral. 3. The Childlike, Fearless Mind (yōdō mui-shin). Wearied with human suffering, the person at this level seeks the peace of dwelling in heaven. This is the mind first awakening to religion. Like a child seeking the comfort of its mother’s embrace, unaware that its mother, too, is subject to sickness, old age, and death, the person at this level seeks to believe in an eternally unchanging god or spiritual doctrine. 4. The Mind of Aggregates-Only Without Self (yuiun muga-shin). The mind at this level sees the self as impermanent, but still thinks that the five aggregates (form, perception, mental activity, will, and consciousness) have real existence. (The early stage of Buddhism known as the shomon-jo, the ‘“‘vehicle of one who hears the voice” of Shakyamuni teaching, by which the individual seeks salvation for himself alone, belongs to this level.) 5. The Mind Free of the Seeds of Karmic Causation (batsu gōinju-shin). By understanding the process of karmic causation, the person on this level has destroyed the ignorance that is the seed of bad karma. This mind, however, like that of the fourth level, lacks compassion for other beings. (To this level belongs the teaching of the erigaku, the self-enlightened person who achieves liberation by understanding causation.) 6. The Compassionate Mahayana Mind (taen daijō-shin). At this level of mind, compassion for all living beings wells forth. Although realizing that objects are void, this mind still considers the self-nature of the storehouse consciousness (which recognizes the objects) to be real. (The doctrine of Consciousness-Only belongs here. This and the following levels describe Mahayana Buddhism.) 7. The Mind Awakened to the Unborn (kakushin fushō-shin). At this level the individual realizes the void nature of both the objects within the mind and the mind itself (the storehouse consciousness). Such realization alone, however, does not reach beyond negation. 8. The Mind of the Single Way of Truth (nyojitsu ichidō-shin). This level of mind understands that the worlds of delusion and enlightenment, the worlds of matter and mind, the human world, and all possible worlds, are contained in a single thought within the individual mind. This is the level of realization that consciousness and its objects form one body, but it does not know that yet other realms transcend it. 9. The Mind of Ultimate No-Self-Nature (goku mujishō-shin). In this, the ultimate realm of exoteric understanding, the mind sees that all things interpenetrate, and that all things contain eternal truth. Still, limited by void and nothingness, this mind does not progress beyond negation. It must yet go beyond the cause to the result, enlightenment. 10. The Secret, Sublime Mind (himitsu shōgon-shin). The mind on this level breaks through its attachment to void and fully realizes its true nature. In this realm of affirmation, the individual experiences the externally self-existing enlightenment of the universal Buddha. This is the creative mind at the source of all things.

All are (一 切) sentient beings, (衆生) all things are (悉有) the Buddha-nature (佛性); the Tathagata (如来) abides constantly (常住), is non-existent (無) yet existent (有), and is change (變易). -- part of Dōgen's interpretation of the Nirvana Sutra

Namoh! https://youtube.com/shorts/kS45CxLzrvc?si=oFtVPPAzb1jSblwW

A short monologue on Buddhism's guidelines regarding eating meat. https://youtu.be/osk4yQnnHlM

Roman von Ungern. One of the best generals during the Russo-Soviet War. He killed communists and traitors brutally. He fought in the great war (first world war) and liberated mongolia from China and developed it with Hospitals, Electricity and Roads. He believed in Buddhism and fought for dharma. Even Lenin and the cheka feared him. He is now in Rai and a hero of Russia and Slavia