This is the centre panel of my three-panel cardboard travelling altar. In the centre (top) a young Dalai Lama XIV, shortly after arriving in India. On the right, the previous Panchen Lama of Thashilumpo monastery, Shigatse, Tibet, who was allegedly murdered by "Beijing". His reincarnation was abducted as a young boy in the mid-1990s by "Beijing", and replaced by their own Chinese version of Panchen Lama. On the top left, H.H. the 17th Karmapa Lama, shortly after fleeing from Tibet to India. On this picture he is 14 years old. I had the honour of meeting him and being blessed by him in 2000 as part of the first group of people allowed to meet him by the Indian authorities. Since then I have met him several times in his new monastery outside Dharamsala. He is considered the most important lama after H.H. the Dalai Lama, and the missing real Panchen Lama. In the centre, a picture of various Buddhas, given to me by a Tibetan lama whom I ran into at Singapore's International Airport in 2007. Centre left, an image of White Tara, given to me by my dear Chinese friend Chen Hao. Bottom left, a Chinese brush calligraphy of the Chinese version of my Tibetan name Pantau. The coin on the right is a Hong Kong Dollar I received as change at Starbucks at Hong Kong Airport, after being expelled from Mainland China in 2008. Dear fellow sentient beings,
I received an email from a reader with the request as to whether I could explain a little about Buddhism to you American folks. I will try to do so in my very own words. Please note that I am just a simple Dutch girl and far from a Buddhist scholar. Let me start by telling you a little about the Buddha himself and his life (and how my life relates to his). In later posts I will elaborate on his teachings and how I implement them in my worldly life. I intend to start off seriously and try to end as secular as possible because I know that religious stuff can be quite boring, even to me.
Life of Siddhartha Gautama (better known as the Buddha).
Long time ago (when Europeans were still swinging from tree branch to tree branch), there was a guy called Prince Siddhartha Gautama. He was born in the city of Lumbini (near today’s border between Nepal and India) around the year 485 BC. (Just rereading this second sentence the Buddha’s predicament suddenly dawns when people asked him: ‘When were you born?’ He must have answered: ‘Yes indeed, I was born, and I predict I was born 485 years before the Jesus is expected to be.’).
Shortly after his birth, a wise man visited his father, King Śuddhodana. The wise man said that Siddhartha would either become a great king or a holy man, based on whether he saw life outside of the palace walls. Determined to make Siddhartha a king, his father shielded his son from the unpleasant realities of daily life. Years after this, Siddhartha married a woman, with whom he had a son who later became a monk. (So far so good nah?)
At the age of 29, Siddhartha ventured outside the palace complex several times, despite his father’s wishes not to. So as a result, he discovered the suffering of his people through encounters with an old man, a diseased man, a decaying corpse, and an ascetic. These are known among Buddhists as ‘The Four Sights’, one of the first contemplations of Siddhartha. The Four Sights eventually prompted the prince to abandon royal life and take up a spiritual quest to free himself from suffering by living the life of a begging ascetic (an ascetic is a person who doesn’t do the sex and alcohol-thing and walks around in skimpy clothes without shoes or something like that). Siddhartha found companions with similar spiritual goals and teachers who taught him various forms of meditation.
Ascetics practised many forms of self-denial, including severe under-eating. One day, after almost starving to death, Siddhartha concluded that ascetic practices such as fasting, holding one’s breath, and exposure to pain brought little spiritual benefit. He abandoned asceticism, concentrating instead on Awareness of Breathing, thereby discovering what Buddhists call the Middle Way, a path of moderation between the extremes of self-indulgence and self-mortification (take note of this as it is a very important discovery, I must say).
After discovering the Middle Way, he sat under a sacred fig tree, also known as the Bodhi tree, in the Indian town of Bodh Gaya, and vowed not to rise before achieving Enlightenment. At age 35, after many days of meditation, he attained his goal of becoming a Buddha (One who is enlightened). After his spiritual awakening he attracted a band of followers and instituted a monastic order. He spent the rest of his life teaching and travelling throughout the north-eastern part of the Indian subcontinent. He died at the age of 80 (405 BC) in Kushinagar, India, from food poisoning. (Food poisoning? Oy vey, poor fellow!).
Okay, very interesting nah?
So where are the similarities of the Buddha’s life to mine? Here we go:
I was born 2450 years after the Buddha, not to a royal family but to a business family, consisting of a bunch of fallen Catholics (mother and her family, except one cousin who believes he’s the reincarnation of Jesus), and a bunch of atheists with allegedly a bit of Jewish blood (father and his family) in a small town of fine God-fearing Christian farmers in the Netherlands. No wise man ever visited my father at our brick house; instead we had a lot of business people coming over talking money, sales and marketing and other stuff. However, my mother always found me a precocious child, despite my dyslexia and disappointing marks at school, especially in Conduct and Social Etiquette (I assume because I was a brutally honest person who spoke her mind and still does). Mother was so totally xenophobic (still is) that she has never eaten a pizza, let alone travelling among very foreign cultures. There were initial ideas that I would take over Papa’s company, but I, as a child, showed more interest in smoking cigarettes, chatting with my girlfriends, and teenage sex with boys. My mother always hoped I would develop into a good girl with a respectable job and a fine husband, at least before the age of 34. Sorry Mama, but the Lord had other things in store for me, at least after the age of 34.
I ventured outside my parents’ home long before Siddhartha did at 29. I was already cruising at 14 in foreign countries. A wise man told Siddhartha’s father that his son would either become a king or a wise man; likewise, some smart friends of my parents told them I would either become a queen, a princess, a good office worker, a painter, a Barbra Streisand or Bette Midler-impersonator, or a novelist-cum-stand-up-comedian. And yes, I kind of became all of the above at one point in my life, though I only impersonated The Barbra in the confines of my own home standing in front of a mirror with a hairbrush in my hand.
Like Siddhartha, I travelled through India, not at 29 but at 34, despite my mother’s wishes not to do so. So as a result, like Siddhartha, I discovered the suffering of those Indian people through encounters with an old man, a diseased man, a decaying corpse, and an ascetic. Thus I too had the ‘The Four Sights’, one of the first contemplations of Siddhartha. The Four Sights eventually prompted me to abandon my materialistic lifestyle in the West and take up a spiritual quest to free myself from suffering by living the life of an ascetic, and yes, I did a bit of begging in the process as well. I found companions with similar spiritual goals (a bunch of hippies in the Himalayas) and teachers (such as H.H. the Dalai Lama and other lamas) who taught me various forms of meditation among many things.
Now regarding living as an ascetic I can say I did deny myself sex and alcohol for over 4 years, practised many forms of self-denial, including severe under-eating (49 kg in 2002). Like the Buddha, one day, after almost starving to death, I concluded that ascetic practices such as fasting, holding one’s breath, and “exposure to pain” (by just being in India) brought little spiritual benefit. I abandoned asceticism (though I still refrained from sex and alcohol and remained living in India. I did smoke some pot, which is actually acceptable and legal behaviour for holy people in India when trying to get into a trance-like-meditation-state. FYI: I confess that I wrote my bestselling autobiography Pantau in India entirely on cannabis, and, thank you Jesus, when my publisher read it he said that it was my best work so far).
So I concentrated instead on Awareness of Breathing as a Yogini, thereby discovering what Buddhists call the Middle Way (not bad; it really works if you avoid extremes); a path of moderation between the extremes of self-indulgence and self-mortification. I will elaborate on this in future posts.
After discovering the Middle Way, Siddhartha sat under a sacred fig tree, also known as the Bodhi tree in the town of Bodh Gaya, India, whilst I sat under a coconut tree until I realised that coconuts tend to drop from time to time and can fall on your head; causing not enlightenment but severe death or a very bad headache. I practised sitting under a coconut tree not in Bodh Gaya but Varkala and I wasn’t really sitting all the time, but more like in horizontal position in my hammock. I hate sitting. I like to believe that the human body didn’t evolve to do so. We should either walk or lay down.
Siddhartha vowed not to rise before achieving Enlightenment, while I vowed not to get out of my hammock until I would do so. At age 35, after many days of meditation, Siddhartha attained his goal of becoming a Buddha. At 36, I found some form of Enlightenment, because I have become a rather happy girl ever since. Now how to maintain that state of contentment or happiness is an important thing I will scribble more about in future posts.
After Siddhartha’s spiritual awakening he attracted a band of followers and instituted a monastic order. After my awakening I attracted a bunch of fans that enjoyed reading my books and I also founded the Pantau Foundation to help Tibetan children in need.
Siddhartha spent the rest of his life teaching, travelling throughout the north-eastern part of the Indian subcontinent, whilst I spent another 6 years in India doing pretty well spiritually, and then moved to Thailand to (incidentally) both live as a Yogini between sunrise and sunset and, at night, live a more worldly lifestyle. I do tend to teach people the way to happiness in various forms, some of them having a very secular character. I stick to a lifestyle of healthy food, 100 laps in the pool each day and one hour of yoga, as well as sexual intercourse twice daily (if possible and/or available).
Siddhartha died at the age of 80 (405 BCE) in Kushinagar, India, from food poisoning, whilst I am still alive and kick’n. Interestingly, I have a feeling I might die one day, not in Thailand but in India, and very likely after suffering from malnutrition (I am completely serious about this). If not, I may not wake up out of anaesthesia after a full facelift at 98 in Thailand, or I might get fatally hit by a tuktuk in Bangkok at 56 or die during my sleep after a beautiful life at 92, leaving behind my 3rd husband who will be 72 years my junior.
So far, so good nah?
Soon more on the teachings of the Buddha.
I received an email from a reader with the request as to whether I could explain a little about Buddhism to you American folks. I will try to do so in my very own words. Please note that I am just a simple Dutch girl and far from a Buddhist scholar. Let me start by telling you a little about the Buddha himself and his life (and how my life relates to his). In later posts I will elaborate on his teachings and how I implement them in my worldly life. I intend to start off seriously and try to end as secular as possible because I know that religious stuff can be quite boring, even to me.
Life of Siddhartha Gautama (better known as the Buddha).
Long time ago (when Europeans were still swinging from tree branch to tree branch), there was a guy called Prince Siddhartha Gautama. He was born in the city of Lumbini (near today’s border between Nepal and India) around the year 485 BC. (Just rereading this second sentence the Buddha’s predicament suddenly dawns when people asked him: ‘When were you born?’ He must have answered: ‘Yes indeed, I was born, and I predict I was born 485 years before the Jesus is expected to be.’).
Shortly after his birth, a wise man visited his father, King Śuddhodana. The wise man said that Siddhartha would either become a great king or a holy man, based on whether he saw life outside of the palace walls. Determined to make Siddhartha a king, his father shielded his son from the unpleasant realities of daily life. Years after this, Siddhartha married a woman, with whom he had a son who later became a monk. (So far so good nah?)
At the age of 29, Siddhartha ventured outside the palace complex several times, despite his father’s wishes not to. So as a result, he discovered the suffering of his people through encounters with an old man, a diseased man, a decaying corpse, and an ascetic. These are known among Buddhists as ‘The Four Sights’, one of the first contemplations of Siddhartha. The Four Sights eventually prompted the prince to abandon royal life and take up a spiritual quest to free himself from suffering by living the life of a begging ascetic (an ascetic is a person who doesn’t do the sex and alcohol-thing and walks around in skimpy clothes without shoes or something like that). Siddhartha found companions with similar spiritual goals and teachers who taught him various forms of meditation.
Ascetics practised many forms of self-denial, including severe under-eating. One day, after almost starving to death, Siddhartha concluded that ascetic practices such as fasting, holding one’s breath, and exposure to pain brought little spiritual benefit. He abandoned asceticism, concentrating instead on Awareness of Breathing, thereby discovering what Buddhists call the Middle Way, a path of moderation between the extremes of self-indulgence and self-mortification (take note of this as it is a very important discovery, I must say).
After discovering the Middle Way, he sat under a sacred fig tree, also known as the Bodhi tree, in the Indian town of Bodh Gaya, and vowed not to rise before achieving Enlightenment. At age 35, after many days of meditation, he attained his goal of becoming a Buddha (One who is enlightened). After his spiritual awakening he attracted a band of followers and instituted a monastic order. He spent the rest of his life teaching and travelling throughout the north-eastern part of the Indian subcontinent. He died at the age of 80 (405 BC) in Kushinagar, India, from food poisoning. (Food poisoning? Oy vey, poor fellow!).
Okay, very interesting nah?
So where are the similarities of the Buddha’s life to mine? Here we go:
I was born 2450 years after the Buddha, not to a royal family but to a business family, consisting of a bunch of fallen Catholics (mother and her family, except one cousin who believes he’s the reincarnation of Jesus), and a bunch of atheists with allegedly a bit of Jewish blood (father and his family) in a small town of fine God-fearing Christian farmers in the Netherlands. No wise man ever visited my father at our brick house; instead we had a lot of business people coming over talking money, sales and marketing and other stuff. However, my mother always found me a precocious child, despite my dyslexia and disappointing marks at school, especially in Conduct and Social Etiquette (I assume because I was a brutally honest person who spoke her mind and still does). Mother was so totally xenophobic (still is) that she has never eaten a pizza, let alone travelling among very foreign cultures. There were initial ideas that I would take over Papa’s company, but I, as a child, showed more interest in smoking cigarettes, chatting with my girlfriends, and teenage sex with boys. My mother always hoped I would develop into a good girl with a respectable job and a fine husband, at least before the age of 34. Sorry Mama, but the Lord had other things in store for me, at least after the age of 34.
I ventured outside my parents’ home long before Siddhartha did at 29. I was already cruising at 14 in foreign countries. A wise man told Siddhartha’s father that his son would either become a king or a wise man; likewise, some smart friends of my parents told them I would either become a queen, a princess, a good office worker, a painter, a Barbra Streisand or Bette Midler-impersonator, or a novelist-cum-stand-up-comedian. And yes, I kind of became all of the above at one point in my life, though I only impersonated The Barbra in the confines of my own home standing in front of a mirror with a hairbrush in my hand.
Like Siddhartha, I travelled through India, not at 29 but at 34, despite my mother’s wishes not to do so. So as a result, like Siddhartha, I discovered the suffering of those Indian people through encounters with an old man, a diseased man, a decaying corpse, and an ascetic. Thus I too had the ‘The Four Sights’, one of the first contemplations of Siddhartha. The Four Sights eventually prompted me to abandon my materialistic lifestyle in the West and take up a spiritual quest to free myself from suffering by living the life of an ascetic, and yes, I did a bit of begging in the process as well. I found companions with similar spiritual goals (a bunch of hippies in the Himalayas) and teachers (such as H.H. the Dalai Lama and other lamas) who taught me various forms of meditation among many things.
Now regarding living as an ascetic I can say I did deny myself sex and alcohol for over 4 years, practised many forms of self-denial, including severe under-eating (49 kg in 2002). Like the Buddha, one day, after almost starving to death, I concluded that ascetic practices such as fasting, holding one’s breath, and “exposure to pain” (by just being in India) brought little spiritual benefit. I abandoned asceticism (though I still refrained from sex and alcohol and remained living in India. I did smoke some pot, which is actually acceptable and legal behaviour for holy people in India when trying to get into a trance-like-meditation-state. FYI: I confess that I wrote my bestselling autobiography Pantau in India entirely on cannabis, and, thank you Jesus, when my publisher read it he said that it was my best work so far).
So I concentrated instead on Awareness of Breathing as a Yogini, thereby discovering what Buddhists call the Middle Way (not bad; it really works if you avoid extremes); a path of moderation between the extremes of self-indulgence and self-mortification. I will elaborate on this in future posts.
After discovering the Middle Way, Siddhartha sat under a sacred fig tree, also known as the Bodhi tree in the town of Bodh Gaya, India, whilst I sat under a coconut tree until I realised that coconuts tend to drop from time to time and can fall on your head; causing not enlightenment but severe death or a very bad headache. I practised sitting under a coconut tree not in Bodh Gaya but Varkala and I wasn’t really sitting all the time, but more like in horizontal position in my hammock. I hate sitting. I like to believe that the human body didn’t evolve to do so. We should either walk or lay down.
Siddhartha vowed not to rise before achieving Enlightenment, while I vowed not to get out of my hammock until I would do so. At age 35, after many days of meditation, Siddhartha attained his goal of becoming a Buddha. At 36, I found some form of Enlightenment, because I have become a rather happy girl ever since. Now how to maintain that state of contentment or happiness is an important thing I will scribble more about in future posts.
After Siddhartha’s spiritual awakening he attracted a band of followers and instituted a monastic order. After my awakening I attracted a bunch of fans that enjoyed reading my books and I also founded the Pantau Foundation to help Tibetan children in need.
Siddhartha spent the rest of his life teaching, travelling throughout the north-eastern part of the Indian subcontinent, whilst I spent another 6 years in India doing pretty well spiritually, and then moved to Thailand to (incidentally) both live as a Yogini between sunrise and sunset and, at night, live a more worldly lifestyle. I do tend to teach people the way to happiness in various forms, some of them having a very secular character. I stick to a lifestyle of healthy food, 100 laps in the pool each day and one hour of yoga, as well as sexual intercourse twice daily (if possible and/or available).
Siddhartha died at the age of 80 (405 BCE) in Kushinagar, India, from food poisoning, whilst I am still alive and kick’n. Interestingly, I have a feeling I might die one day, not in Thailand but in India, and very likely after suffering from malnutrition (I am completely serious about this). If not, I may not wake up out of anaesthesia after a full facelift at 98 in Thailand, or I might get fatally hit by a tuktuk in Bangkok at 56 or die during my sleep after a beautiful life at 92, leaving behind my 3rd husband who will be 72 years my junior.
So far, so good nah?
Soon more on the teachings of the Buddha.
Posts
The spiritual Middle Way seems most sensible to me.
ReplyDelete