SL Buddhism Discussion Group - Discussion Points

07-07-2009 - “Hardcode Zen” – Brad Warner (Points by Dharma Voyager) – Pass Me the Ecstasy Rainbow, I’m Going to Nirvana on a Stretcher!, Eating a Tangerine is Real Enlightenment, Hardcore Zen, Epilogue

Pass Me the Ecstasy Rainbow, I’m Going to Nirvana on a Stretcher!

The very good reason most Western Buddhist teachers don’t talk much about the druggy days of their youth is because there are always guys around who’ll latch onto any little scrap to justify their own predilection for getting wasted.  Zig Zag Zen contributor Rick Fields tells the story – probably apocryphal – of how Nagarjuna, one of Buddhism’s most brilliant poet-philosophers, told one of his disciples to accept only whatever food could fit on the end of a pin. The disciple came back with a pancake balanced on a pin. Fields tries to use this as evidence that Nagarjuna’s real source of inspiration was magic mushrooms – since, y’know, a mushroom sorta looks a little like a pancake balanced on top of a pin if you think about it hard enough (especially if your thinking about it while tripped out on ‘shrooms). So while I’m personally reluctant to drag those skeletons out of my own closet, the existence of Zig Zag Zen dubious claims of being the first it’s necessary to address what really shouldn’t even be an issue at all.

Buddhism isn’t about anything so diminutive as any of your mental states at all. It’s much deeper than that.

There is no optimal state of consciousness.  Optimal is just an idea, another manifestation of the Great Somewhere Else. Consciousness is just an idea.

The notion that you can take a drug to get enlightened is as sensible as thinking you can take off the weight gained from twenty years of shoveling nothing but Oreos, Pringles, and Big Macs down your gullet by swallowing a few miracle diet pills.  It’s big money for big business, but if you’re eating three meals a day at Mickey D’s you’re gonna be taking up two seats on a 747 regardless of how many pills you pop.

Are the visions you can experience on LSD “real” religious visions? Sure they are.  And as such they are worse than useless. Religious visions and acid experiences are both fantasies, delusions, projections of your own hidden desires.  They have nothing whatsoever to do with the truth, nothing to do with reality.  You learn even less about the true nature of reality from such fantasies than from watching a few hours of cartoons on Saturday morning.

Chasing after fantasies is always a bad idea. Stick with reality.  Reality’s all you’ve got.  But here’s the real secret, the real miracle: It’s enough.

Eating a Tangerine is Real Enlightenment

Why is that? This is a very important question: Why is your lame-ass, ordinary work-a-day life the one you keep coming back to? Why is it you always, always, always, end up right back here no matter how far out or how high up you get?

The fact is, the universe has chosen you as the vehicle thought which to experience the uncanny thrill of cutting up cabbage for dinner, the wonder that is inhaling oxygen and exhaling carbon dioxide, the fabulous spectacle of watching your clothes dry at a coin-op Laundromat where the radio is stuck on an EZ-listening station and an old lady keeps staring at you for no discernable reason.  The universe has demanded that you be you.  Ain’t no avoidin’ it.

But as the day wore on, I began to notice a few things that I’d been too stupid to suss out for the past few weeks.  For one thing, if your experience of enlightenment is real, no one can ever take it from you or deny it.  Enlightenment means manifesting truly what you really are at every moment.  No amount of criticism from anyone can ever take that away anymore than someone’s critical words could somehow magically make your nose disappear. No one can take you away from you.

This kind of thing is a common problem among zazen practitioners.  They have these really cool experiences, or really cutting insights, and then they latch onto them forever, like a pitbull onto a postman’s ass – effectively missing out on the rest of their lives. It’s a game the ego plays: if it can’t keep you believing in it thought all the usual methods, it tosses something that feels just like what you always imagined enlightenment ought to feel like.  Once you start believing in that stuff your ego’s got you right where it wants you. You’ll never be able to look at your day-to-day life honestly again.

But you’ve got to forget all of that stuff and get back to where you are.

It’s a frightening thing to be truly honest with yourself. It means you have no one left to turn to anymore, no one to blame, and to one to look to for salvation. You have to give up any possibility that there will ever be any refuge for you. You have to accept the reality that you are truly and finally on your own.  The best thing you can hope for in life is to meet a teacher who will smash all of your dreams, dash all of your hopes, tear your teddy-bear beliefs out of your arms and fling them over a cliff.

So the question becomes this: How do we know what is true and what is fantasy?

And the answer: Take a look at where you are, at who you are, right here and right now.  That’s it. That’s the truth.

Hardcore Zen

Zen is a philosophy of action.  That means it isn’t just philosophy you read about and think about.  It’s a philosophy you do.  You can’t possibly truly understand Zen Buddhism without practicing zazen.

It’s not enough to read about it.  It’s not even enough to understand it. You have to live it.

The fact is, the great Eastern masters of times gone-by are no different from you.  Their minds were just as hyperactive as yours and their physiological dynamics every bit as complex.  The heights of enlightenment they reached are absolutely accessible to you.  This stuff is tough work for anybody, regardless of where they were born or when.  Cut out just a bit of those empty distractions and see how much time you create.

Zen replaces all objects of belief with one single thing: reality itself.  We believe only in this universe. We don’t believe in the sovereignty of nations.  We don’t believe in money or power or fame.  We don’t believe in our idols. We don’t believe in our positions or our possessions. We don’t believe we can’t be insulted, or that out honor or the honor of our family, our nations or our faith can be offended.  We don’t believe in Buddha.

We just believe in reality. Just this.

Zen is the complete absence of belief.  Zen is the complete lack of authority. Zen tears away every false refuge in which you might hide from the truth and forces you to sit naked before what is real. That’s real refuge.

Reality will announce itself to you in utterly unmistakable ways once you learn to listen. Learning to listen to reality, though, ain’t so easy. You’re so used to shouting reality down, frowning it out completely with your own opinions and views, that you might not even be able to recognize reality’s voice anymore.  It’s a funny thing, though, because reality is the single most glaring obvious thing there is.  As the woman said in those Palmolive commercials, “You’re soaking in it!” Yet we’ve forgotten how to recognize it.

All your life you learned to deal with reality by excluding certain things, dividing things up into categories, differentiating between this and that.  But reality includes all those things we call “wrong.” all those things we call “evil,” all those things we hate because we know in our hearts they are bad things.  We can only know what’s “bad” when we discover it within ourselves and label it as such.  But what happens is that we establish psychological blinders that prevent us from even seeing that what we consider bad is part of our own psychological makeup. To face reality as it is means we must face even the bad things about ourselves, the things we desperately want to believe are not there because we so desperately want to cling to the idea that we are “good.”

And knowing what’s really within us, we must still practice being good. Practicing Buddhism means being aware of what’s here and now. And that ain’t easy.

Epilogue

You can transform your life, and it is imperative that you do it. Because only you can do it. No guru can make your life right.  No Zen master can show you the way. Only you have the power to make this place you’re living in right now a realm so beautiful even God himself couldn’t dream of anything better. And doing this will transform the universe.

It is up to you.

It’s not just your right; it is your duty.

Only you can find the path and only you can walk it.

Your life is yours alone, and to miss your life is the most tragic thing that could happen.

So sit down, shut up, and take a look at it.

06-30-2009 - “Hardcode Zen” – Brad Warner (Points by Dharma Voyager) – That’s Zen Master Know-It-All to you Buddy, No Sex with Cantaloupes, Revenge of the Pod People

No Sex with Cantaloupes

Although receiving the precepts basically amounts to ordination in the Japanese Zen, the precepts themselves are common to all sects of Buddhism, and receiving them essentially amounts to the committing to live and ethical life.  But whatever the style  and what ever the dress requirements, the basics of the ceremony remain the same: The student agrees to abide by what are known as the ten fundamental precepts.  These are:

1. not to kill

2. not to steal

3. not to misuse sexuality (or “not to desire too much” as Nishijima likes to phrase it)

4. not to lie

5. not to cloud the mind with intoxicants

6. not to criticize others

7. not to be proud of yourself and slander others

8. not to covet

9. not to give way to anger

10. not to slander the Three Treasures

There are no matters of “sin” in Buddhism, so unlike breaking one of the Ten Commandments, breaking one of these ten precepts is not considered sinful.  In fact, there may be situations in which breaking one of the precepts is the appropriate thing to do and maintaining it literally would be “wrong.”

Rather than being a set of rules that bust be followed in order to avoid the Wrath of God, the ten precepts are a set of general guidelines describing ten actions that are almost always detrimental to the establishment of good relations among and within human beings. Engaging in any of these activities pretty much ensures that a certain degree off what’s commonly called “bad karma” will follow.

in Zen, we also have another take on the ten fundamental precepts, from a guy called Bodhidharma, the Indian monk who brought Buddhism to China from India several centuries after Gautama Buddha’s death.  He probably actually existed, but probably didn’t do or say all of the things attributed to him.  But as I mentioned, Buddhists really don’t care one way or the other.   Anyhow, Bodhidharma left us a very famous reinterpretation of the ten precepts.  His version go like this (and by the way, the word Dharma below means “the way things are”):

1. Self-nature is mysteriously profound. In the everlasting Dharma, not giving rise to the notion of extinction is called the precept of not taking life.

2. Self-nature is mysteriously profound.  In the Dharma in which nothing can be obtained, not giving rise to the thought of obtaining is called the precept of not stealing.

3. Self-nature is mysteriously profound. In the Dharma in which there is nothing to grasp, not giving rise to attachment is called the precept of not misusing sex.

4. Self-nature is mysteriously profound. In the inexplicable Dharma, not speaking even a single word is called the precept of not telling lies.

5. Self-nature is mysteriously profound. In the intrinsically pure Dharma, not allowing the mind to become dark is called the precept of not dealing in intoxicating liquors.

6. Self-nature is mysteriously profound.In the faultless Dharma, not speaking of others’ faults is called the precept of not criticizing others.

7. Self-nature is mysteriously profound. In the sphere of equal Dharma, not speaking of self and others is called the precept of not being proud of self and slandering others.

8. Self-nature is mysteriously profound. In the all-pervading true Dharma, not clinging to one form is called the precept of not coveting.

9. Self-nature is mysteriously profound. In the Dharma of no-self, not giving rise to the thought of self and others is called the precept of not giving way to anger.

10. Self-nature is mysteriously profound. In the one Dharma, not giving rise to the thought of distinction between sentient beings and Buddhas is called the precept of not speaking falsely of the Three Treasures.

When you’re so committed to the future, it’s real easy to let your life right now turn to shit.

Do what you do as well as you possibly can.  That’s Buddhist morality.

You bring about world peace when you bring about peace within your own body and mind.

Real morality is based on seeing hot the universe actually operates and avoiding doing those things that make ourselves and others miserable.

Your life and the life of everyone else in the universe are one seamless whole. To cause another living being pain isn’t evil – it’s just stupid. Because that being is you.

Reality is here and now.  The universe is where you are at this moment.  The most important action you can possibly take is what you do right now.  Be completely naked. Be absolutely open and the universe will show itself in all of its true glory.  God will stand before you and within you.

Revenge of the Pod People

No one master Zen.  Ever. It’s a lifelong, never-ending continuously unfolding process. Zen master is a horribly misleading term.

Could we dispense with Zen masters? Certainly. Could we dispense with the Dharma Transmission ceremony altogether? Sure. And we could dispense with the word Buddhism too.  Personally, I’d like to get rid of all of them. Ultimately, none of it has anything to do with what matters.

Gautama Buddha was able to see though the facade of religious organizations and must certainly have realized that his simple method of meditation tan a serous risk of being turned into something cheap and shoddy any association with such nonsense.  In face he predicted his own order’s eventual demise.  Yet he went ahead and established an order of monks, and one of nuns, anyhow.  He knew it was the best way to transmit what he had found to future generations. It worked, too – for all the cheap gaudiness that surrounds much of what passes for “Buddhism” today, Buddhism works.  Real Buddhism still makes it through the institutional Buddhist muck, like a flower blooming out of a cow-pie.

Any good Zen teacher will tell you tight up front that the whole Zen Buddhist shebang, from robes to enlightenment to Dharma Transmission, is really a sham, ultimately not important in the least.  And that’s what makes Zen Buddhism different from every other religion. As Johnny Rotten said in MOJO magazine, “It isn’t a rip-off id you tell everybody it’s a rip-off.”  Authority is easily abused.  But authority can do good.  It takes power to make the real changes needed in the world.  A good person who is good at dealing with power can make the world a better place for everyone.

Ultimately it’s always better to make people see how they can heal themselves.  That’s what real Buddhism does.  Real Buddhist Teachers don’t tell you about reality. they teach you to see reality for yourself, right now.

06-16-2009 - “Hardcode Zen” – Brad Warner (Points by Dharma Voyager) – Why Gene Simmons is not a Zen Master, The World of Demons, In My Next Life I Want to Come Back as a Pair of Lucy Liu’s Panties

Why Gene Simmons is not a Zen Master

Anyone who really pursues any activity to the point of becoming so good at it that millions of people want to come watch really must have an understood something fundamentally real, fundamentally true. They must have understood the philosophy of action through action itself. The average religious leader, on the other hand, spends most of his time thinking about stuff.  Thinking about stuff is useful. But life is more than thought.

As I’ve said, Buddhist philosophy does not accept the existence of individual human beings in the way we usually conceive of them.  The prevailing view of individual human beings as discrete units each acting with absolute autonomy is incomplete. It’s a view that takes into account only one tiny part of the big picture and assumes that this is the whole deal.

I think in most cases most people conceive of themselves and of other people … [as] each individual as a unit with clear boundaries.  Each of these units, we believe, is able to act in at least some cases with complete autonomy irrespective of the others.  We consider this so obvious as to be beyond questioning. 

We take it for granted that our perceptions are accurate and our interpretations true.  We believe very strongly, literally beyond doubt, in these personal boundaries. Religions tell us that these boundaries remain intact forever and may tell us that even God has specific boundaries.

Reality is kind of like a sea that has waves on top of it. These small, temporary disturbances on the “surface” of reality are what we call people and things, and that we conceive of them as having some kind of permanent substance or enduring individuality.  We draw boundaries rather arbitrarily and say that the stuff within these boundaries is “me” or “you” …  But the waves can’t really be separated from the ocean of which they are a part.  In this way we can say that even our minds are made of the same stuff ass everything else we encounter.

The difference between the balance achieved by a pro tennis player or a really hot drummer and that attained by a Zen practitioner is that the balance the latter have cultivated through zazen is more universal, more all embracing. Zen people have an easier time retaining the balanced state of body and mind after getting up off the cushion then performers do after they walk offstage … Guitar-playing or painting or what-have-you embraces just one small part of the universe. Zazen embraces everything.

The World of Demons

If you practice zazen sincerely, eventually you’ll encounter demons.  The demons are psychological , but they’re just as scary as the fiery denizens of hell.  Practicing zazen is like taking the lid off a pot of boiling five-alarm chili and turning up the heat at the same time. All the stuff inside your mind wills up and spills over the edges. It can get messy.

All day long, every single day, you repress all kinds of thoughts and urges that appear in your mind.  You have to – that’s part of being a functioning part of society.  All of us have nasty antisocial tendencies. Every last one of us.  … All those evil doers are you. And me too.  They’re every single human bring in the world without exception.  Maybe you don’t have the whatever specific urges the media is telling you are the very worst (you tell yourself you don’t anyway), but you have others and they’re just as nasty and disgusting.  Every human being does.  That’s part of the nature of being human.

The restrictions we place upon ourselves are the price we pay for having a civilization.  There is no other way for civilization to exist.  Yet, we’ve reached a point in out own society where we can start to understand this phenomenon for what it is.  Far from being the dangerous loosening of morals so many warn us about, this kind of thing is actually human society’s awakening to a new sense of “real” morality that is much more powerful than any which could be maintained through the fear of a God whose existences most of us question.

All that suppressed stuff has gotten reshaped, twisted, and remolded by conscious and unconscious processes for decades.  And what’s worse is that you’ve given the name”me” to the process by which you’ve twisted all this crap around in your brain all these years.  You have to recognize that that “me” includes a lot of things that you find really disgusting and awful.  You can’t be truly be balanced until you come to terms with this.  Most people are able to successfully repress the really awful stuff, at least to the point where they won’t actually act it out. But pretending you don’t have such urges doesn’t really solve anything on its root level. It’s just denial of reality.

Your desires are not what you really are. Not even close

Your thoughts aren’t the real you either.  They’re just electrical energy bouncing around in your brain.  If you do lots of zazen you often end up going for longer and longer periods where very few thoughts occur …

Your opinions and preferences are not you either.  A famous Zen poem called “Faith in Mind” begins, “It’s easy to follow the Buddhist Way, just avoid picking and choosing.”  Opinions, preferences, and other such mental crap are just thoughts that have been reinforced so often they’ve become unconscious and nearly unavoidable habits.

Your personality isn’t you either. It’s just a collection of very deeply embedded opinions and preferences. 

It’s very difficult to reach this kind of understanding when it comes to your sense of self.  We’ve been taught implicitly since birth that our “self” is something fundamental and important and real.  But our self-image is nothing other than the sum total of those particular things about universal human nature we’ve chosen to emphasize in our own lives. 

“He pissed me off” isn’t what happened. What  you should say is, “being pissed off caused me to exist.” “You” didn’t exist until there was something for “you” to exist in relationship to, and in this case that something is something to be angry about.  “You” are the reaction called “being pissed off.” “You” is sustained stream of thoughts that reinforces anger, that sees itself as being the same entity to which “he” did something in the past …

Experiencing anger is like sitting in the bathtub frantically thrashing around and throwing handfuls of water into the air while simultaneously wondering why the hell your head and face keeps getting wet.  You’re in a stupor so deep you cannot even see that you’re the one causing the problem. 

 

In my Next Life I want to Come Back as a Pair of Lucy Liu’s Panties

From Dogen’s Shobogenzo:

“According to that non-Buddhist view, there is one spiritual intelligence existing within out body.  When this body dies, however, the spirit casts off the skin and is reborn.  If we learn this view as the Buddha’s Dharma we are even more foolish than the person who grasps a tile or pebble thinking it to be a golden treasure.”

The standard thing for me to do right here would be to explain to you all of the ways in which the Buddhist idea of rebirth is completely different from the older Brahmanistic notion of transmigration. According to that theory of transmigration, there is a soul, an atman, that lives inside our bodies like a person renting and apartment.  When the landlord, God kicks the person out for making too much noise or not paying rent on time, the person moves to another building.  We do not know if the soul get’s its security deposit back, but I’m guessing that God pickets it and claims it was spent on cleaning and repairs.  The Buddhist ideal of rebirth , it is said, is a much more subtle view.  There is not soul as such, the standard life goes on to say, but the conditions that created the body and mind you have not will continue after your death and manifest themselves as another form, perhaps another kind of sentient being, usually a human in the future.

When Gautama Buddha was asked about life after death, eternal existence, the origins of the universe, whether space is finite or infinite, and other such imponderables, he said, “The question does not fit the case.” Being les formal, I might phrase the same thing this way: “That’s the wrong question, doofus!”

None the less, I’m gonna give you my take on the whole reincarnation thing.  But it’s what you see for yourself – what you realize for yourself – that really counts. What I say here is just another thing written in another book.

When we die, we die. We Never appear again. Dead, dead, dead, Gone, gone, gone.

But in truth we all die all the time.  Every moment of every day we die.  Where is the person who slid out of your mother’s womb greasy and purply-red and screaming like a banshee all those years ago? Are you that person? You have no memory of that day. It’s a day that was over and done a long, long time ago.

Our understanding of time is just plan wrong – and that misunderstanding leads us to believe that we could reincarnate, that we could live again after we die, that we could go to heaven, hell, or purgatory.  That misunderstanding leads us to believe that it is even possible we might have a soul.  But every one of these ideas is, ultimately, stupid.  They really make no sense at all once we understand what time really is.

Real time is just this moment. That’s all there is.  There’s no room for souls or for reincarnation because in order to have a soul, you need to have a past and in order to be reincarnated you need to have a future.  But as I’ve been saying all along.  You don’t.  Past and future are just ideas.  When there is no past and no future, the question of life after death in any form including reincarnation becomes entirely irrelevant.  This is what Gautama Buddha was talking about when he said, “The question does not fit the case.

We try so hard to preserve the very thing that’s making us miserable.  We cling hard to our pain because we mistakenly think that that pain is who we really are.  We define ourselves by what we don’t like or we define ourselves by what we like.  Either way we missed the truth.  We harbor some inexplicable fear that if we start to enjoy everything about life without picking and choosing we might cease to exist.

06-16-2009 - “Hardcode Zen” – Brad Warner (Points by Dharma Voyager) - If Only…, The Great Heart of Wisdom Sutra,  Don’t Worry it will Come with Enlightenment

If Only

Every single human being in the world at some time thinks that “if only” this or that one of our conditions could be met then we’d be happy. “If only I had a girlfriend / boyfriend / million bucks, then I’d be happy.” Or in the case of the more spiritually minded: “If only I were enlightened” then that would settle everything once and for all.” Think again.

And old Chinese Zen master once said, “From birth to death it’s just like this!”

The Great Heart of Wisdom Sutra

Avalokiteshvara Bodhisattva – Guanyin, Kwan Yin, Kannon, Kanzeon, Chenrezig

Prajna Paramita – Highest Wisdom

Prajna – is intuitive wisdom

Shariputra – one of Gautama Buddha’s most advanced students

Five Skandhas (or heaps) –

[those things] that make up a person … form, feelings, perceptions, impulses toward actions (and the actions themselves), and consciousness.

The denial of the idea of a soul is central to Buddhist understanding. Gautama Buddha was responding to the Indian idea of atman. This idea says that a little piece of God, called the atman, exists within each one of us, and that this atman is eternally separate from the body.  The Judeo-Christian idea of a soul is pretty much the same except that the soul is seen by Jews and Christians as being eternally separate not just from the physical body but from God as well. It can go hang out with God. but can never merge into God as can the atman in the Hindi View.

Gautama Buddha looked carefully and exhaustively and could see no reason to accept the permanent existence of anything that could be called self or soul or atman. This is the basis of the teaching of anatman, “no self” – which has been verified by generation after generation of Buddhist teachers for 2,500 years.

Nothing in the universe is permanent – and the thing we call “self” is no different.

Form is Emptiness –

ultimately points to the as-it-is-ness of things, the state of things as being as they are with out being colored by out views and concepts. Emptiness is not a nihilistic concept of voidness. Emptiness is not meaninglessness. Emptiness is that condition which is free fro our conceptions as well as our perceptions. It’s the world as it is before we come along and start complaining about the stuff we don’t like.

The world we perceive and the thing that perceives the world are one and the same. … “The observer is the observed.”

This book is you, you are this book.  Reality is you, you are reality.

Suffering, Origination,Stopping, The Path – The Four Noble Truths

The Three Worlds – Past, Future, and Present

The past, and the future –even the present – are just inventions by the conscious mind for dealing with reality in an organized way.  They’re symbolic representations. And representations are not reality.

We will never find the past or the future no matter where we look … That five year old in the picture can never be found. In one sense the past exists since the state of our own bodies and mind is the accumulations of past actions. But even this past exists only now.

… memory creates the past. We are actively constructing our own past right now every bit as much as we create our own future … our perceptions of events at the same time they are happening is always flawed every time we revisit those memories. The past exists only in our minds and our minds are easily changeable and so the past itself become malleable as well.

The present moment … Buddhist writings sometimes refer to mind-moments, the conceptually shortest possible division of time.  It’s said that there are sixty-four mind-moments in a finger snap … it is a poetic attempt to illustrate the fleetingness of the present moment.

The mind of the future is unknowable … The future is not here.  Completely Unattainable.

Everything exists in this moment.

Nirvana (cessation or extinction) – not reality and ultimate reality

Annuttara-samyak-sambodhi - (complete, unsurpassed, perfect enlightenment) – having nothing to attain = complete liberation.

Complete liberation sounds like a big deal. And it is. It’s the biggest deal around.  But don’t make too much of it – because it’s also absolutely nothing at all. 

Enlightenment is reality itself. And reality is you – naked, skinny, and phony as all get out. Reality doesn’t know a damned thing. Reality has doubts and insecurities. Reality gets horny and sometimes reality likes to read the funny papers … Reality is the source of every star, every planet, every galaxy; every mote of dust, every klepton, lepton, and slepton.  Reality is the basis of every booger up your nose, every pit stain on your dad’s T-shirts, and every dingleberry on your ass. Reality is this moment.

The Great Transcendent Mantra -

Gate, gate, paragate, parasamgate, Bodhi! Svaha!

“Gone, gone, all the way to the other shore, Hot Damn!”

… a state of joy in response to the state of realization.

“The other shore” is enlightenment, but enlightenment is also shore, where we are right now.

Don’t worry It will come with enlightenment

In the Shobogenzo Dogen says, “Realization doesn’t destroy the individual any more than the reflection of the moon breaks a drop of water. A drop of water can reflect the whole sky.”

06-09-2009 - “Hardcode Zen” – Brad Warner (Points by Dharma Voyager) - Inner Anarchy, Zen and the Art of Making Monster Movies, Small and Stupid Dreams

Inner Anarchy

I ended up with a punk name too, by the way. I was Brad No Sweat, since I was the only one who didn’t work up a sweat on stage. I guess all punk names can’t be cool.   These days, though, I’m just as unlikely to go by No Sweat as by my other fake name, Odo, which I received when I was ordained as a Buddhist priest.  My experience with Terry sorta soured me on the whole “spiritual name” thing, so everyone pretty much called me “Brad” (or in the case of my Japanese friends, Buraddo-san).

When I used to show up with long hair and tie-dyed shirts, guys in mohawks would yell at me to cut my hair – just like the rednecks in pickup trucks did when I walked around like that outside.  What was the difference? None that I could see.

In the early days, punk had a lot in common with Zen. It wasn’t just the fetish for shaved heads and black clothes either.  The attitude of not conforming blindly to society is an important aspect of Buddhist teaching.  One thing that currently endeared me to my current Zen teacher … I expected a Buddhist monk in his late seventies, to be critical [of the new Japanese style.]  But he wasn’t. Instead he said that these trends were representative of a more realistic outlook he believed was emerging in all of humanity.  “They dress the way they want to,” he said, “not because society tells them how to dress. And that is very important.”

Question authority. Question society. Question Reality.  But you have to take it all the way: Question punk authority. Question punk society.  Question your own rules and question your own values.  Question Zen society. Question Zen authority.  Question other people’s views on reality and question your own.

It is typical for a minority social movement to throw away the accepted rules of society.  But they almost always end up just substituting another set of rules for the ones they’ve challenged.

Questioning society’s values is a great and important thing to do.  But that’s easy compared to questioning your own values.  Questioning your own values means really questioning yourself, really looking at who and what you believe in and who you are. 

Who are you?

That is where Buddhism comes into the picture.

Zen and the Art of Making Monster Movies

[Zazen] … was a practice that demanded nothing at all – and everything.  There were no specific demands or instruction on what I was actually supposed to do as I sat there, but that very fact was demanding that I had to make the practice valuable to for myself.  Now, I’ve always been a guy who to be doing something at all times.  I didn’t like vegging out the way lots of people do.  I’d gotten into art and music mainly because I felt I had to product something in order to justify any activity I found enjoyable.  I don’t like to waste time.  Ever.  Zazen gave me a way [to] do nothing while still doing something that seemed some how constructive.

As for me, I’d go through phases of being really hot on practice and sitting at least two forty minute periods every day, then getting frustrated and doing a token five or ten minutes half-assedly before bed.  I rarely went more than a day or two without doing it at all, though.  When ever I stopped, I felt it: my brain wasn’t right.

Small and Stupid Dreams

Stupid dreams as my mine were, I had just realized them all in one bound.  Maybe it was because my dreams were so small that I’d been able to realize them all.  What ever.  I didn’t want to be a rich rock and roller or movie star or director or a nation.  Maybe I’d stumbled onto the secret for eternal happiness: Keep your dreams small and stupid.

All I knew was this was paradise on earth and nothing would ever, ever, ever change that.

Famous last words.

06-02-2009 – “Hardcode Zen” – Brad Warner (Points by Dharma Voyager) – Prologue, Gimme Some Truth, Dorkboy and the Godhead

Prologue

“For the record, I’ll tell you I’m an ordained Buddhist priest who received Shiho, “Dharma Transmission” in an ancient line of Buddhist teachers. This is supposedly the symbolic recognition that I have “attained” the same enlightenment as the Buddha did some 2,500 years ago- but if I were you I wouldn’t put too much stock in that kind of thing.  Guys who’ve received Dharma Transmission are a dime a dozen here in Japan these days, and there are hundreds of them in America and Europe as well. Big Deal”

“None of this makes me inherently worth listening to- as I’m sure you‘ll be quick to agree. Yet truth is truth.  And if words are true, who cares whether the guy who wrote them has Shiho  or Divine Inspiration or the power to fly faster than a speeding bullet?”

“If you get to the end of this book (or to the middle, or to page 27 second paragraph down) and think the book is crap, leave it on the subway and forget about it.  Not problem. But before you do, ask yourself just one thing: “Who are you?”  I’m not talking about you name, your place of birth, or the number of hairs on your butt.  Who the hell are you really? And what really is that thing you so confidently call your life?”

Gimme Some Truth

“It is only when people believe that their beliefs are above questioning, that their beliefs alone are beyond all doubt, that they can be as truly horrible as we all know they can be.  Belief is the force behind every evil mankind has ever done.  You can’t find only one truly evil act in history that was not based on belief – and the stronger their belief, the more evil human begins can be.”

“If you can’t bow down before that putrefying road kill on I-76, you have no business worshiping leather bound tomes and marble icons surrounded by stained glass.”

“Everything is profane. “Saving the planet is a waste of time and preserving the environment is a waste of energy. Flowers stink and birdsong is irritating noise.”

“On the other hand, nothing is scared and nothing is profane.  Not even your sorry ass.  If we hold anything sacred above anything else  - ever – we’re riding along in the fast lane to hell. And by “anything” I mean anything – our family, our friends, our country, our God.”

“Some people think enlightenment is some kind of superficial state without questions or doubts, some kind of absolute faith in your beliefs and the rightness of you perceptions.  That’s not enlightenment. In face, that’s the very worst kind of delusion.  And just so we’re clear from the get-go, let me state for the record that I have not “attained enlightenment.” Never have and never will.  And yet, there is something, and even though this experience doesn’t change anything at all, it changes everything.”

“You can master tantric yogic polyorgasmic Wonder Sex, but you’re still gonna die alone.”

“The last thing Buddha told his followers before he died was this: “Question Authority.” Actually, if you look it up you might see his last words translated as, “Be ye lamps unto yourselves.”  A log of guys who translated this kind of stuff really got into the King James Bible-sounding language.  But the point is, a lamp is something you use to guide yourself in the dark. “Be lamps unto yourselves” means be your own master, be your own lamp.  Don’t believe something because your hero, your teacher, or even the Buddha himself said it.  Look for yourself.  See for yourself, with your own eyes.  “Be lamps unto yourselves.” It’s another way of saying, “Question  Authority.”

“You’ll always find something wrong with whatever you are because it will never quite match your idea of what it “should” be.

You can’ go to paradise. Not now and not after you make your first million. Not after you die. And not if you eat all your peas and are really really good. Not ever. What you call “you” can never enter the gates of heaven, no matter how convictedly you believe.  Heaven and paradise aren’t in your future because you have no future. There is no future for you.  There is no future for anyone. There is no future at all.  The future is an idea.”

“So what’s real Zen and how can a person who doesn’t know much about Buddhism separate the real deal from the books about getting blissed-out and having weird acid-trippy experiences that certain sad, misled folk call enlightenment? …  Use critical thinking.  …  The fact is, it’s hard to find a group of people who misunderstand Buddhism more thoroughly than Buddhist scholars.  And often, the more renowned the scholar the more likely he’s got his head firmly wedged in his ass. Questions what you read and head, question deeply and continually.  …  Questions your own conclusions, your own judgments,and your own answers.  Look at your own beliefs, your own prejudices, and your own opinions – and see them for what they are  …  If you don’t do that the truth can never appear.”

“The truth will not be what you imaged.  It won’t be even close.  And you may wish you hadn’t chased it so long.  But once you find it you will never be able to run away from it again, and you will never be able to hide. You’ll have no choice but to face up to it.

Dork-boy and the Godhead

“Zen doesn’t have a set system of beliefs for you to adopt. One thing that’s always impressed me about Buddhists is that they don’t give a damn about the fact that it’s widely know that many of the words attributed to Buddha were written hundreds of years after his death.  “Who cares?” the devout Buddhists say.  Because it doesn’t matter one way or the other.  The only thing Buddhists believe in is the reality of the world in which we are all living right now.  Buddhism is based on your real life as it is, not on whether or not you believe there’s an old guy with a beard above the clouds who will smite you or and you a harp.”

“Religion doesn’t have a monopoly on truth.  In face, if you’re anything like me religion is one of the last places you’ll look for truth. .. For me music seemed a much more likely candidate.”

 

05-26-2009 - "Zen Mind, Beginner’s Mind" Shunryu Suzuki (Points by Dogen Coldstream), Attachment Non-Attachment, Calmness, Experience not Philosophy, Original Buddhism, Beyond Consciousness, Buddha’s Enlightenment, Epilogue: Zen Mind

Attachment, Non-Attachment

Zazen practice and everyday activity are one thing. We call zazen
everyday life, and everyday life zazen. But usually we think, "Now
zazen is over, and we will go about our everyday activity." But this
is not the right understanding. They are the same thing. We have
nowhere to escape. So in activity there should be calmness, and in
calmness there should be activity. Calmness and activity are not
different.

Usually you criticize yourself for being unfair to your surroundings;
you criticize your unaccepting attitude. But there is a very subtle
difference between the usual way of accepting and our way of accepting
things, although they may seem exactly the same. We have been taught
that there is no gap between nighttime and daytime, no gap between you
and I. This means oneness. But we do not emphasize even oneness. If it
is one, there is no need to emphasize one.

Calmness

When you are doing zazen, you are within the complete calmness of your
mind; you do not feel anything. You just sit. But the calmness of your
sitting will encourage you in your everyday life. So actually you will
find the value of Zen in your everyday life, rather than while you
sit. But this does not mean you should neglect zazen. Even though you
do not feel anything when you sit, if you do not have this zazen
experience, you cannot find anything; you just find weeds, or trees,
or clouds in your daily life; you do not see the moon. That is why
you are always complaining about something. But for Zen students a
weed, which for most people is worthless, is a treasure. With this
attitude, whatever you do, life becomes an art.

Which is more important; to attain enlightenment, or to attain
enlightenment before you attain enlightenment; to make a million
dollars, or to enjoy your life in your effort, little by little, even
though it is impossible to make that million; to be successful, or to
find some meaning in your effort to be successful? If you do not know
the answer, you will not even be able to practice zazen; if you do
know, you will have found the true treasure of life.

Experience, Not Philosophy

Although there are many people in this country who are interested in
Buddhism, few of them are interested in its pure form. Most of them
are interested in studying the teaching or the philosophy of
Buddhism. Comparing it to other religions, they appreciate how
satisfying Buddhism is intellectually. But whether Buddhism is
philosophically deep or good or perfect is not the point. To keep our
practice in its pure form is our purpose. Sometimes I feel there is
something blasphemous in talking about how Buddhism is perfect as a
philosophy or teaching without knowing what it actually is.

Zazen practice is the practice in which we resume our pure way of
life, beyond any gaining idea, and beyond fame and profit. By practice
we just keep our original nature as it is. There is no need to
intellectualize about what our pure original nature is, because it is
beyond our intellectual understanding. And there is no need to
appreciate it, because it is beyondv our appreciation. So just to sit,
without any idea of gain, and with the purest intention, to remain as
quiet as our original nature—this is our practice.

Original Buddhism

Because Buddha was the founder of the teaching, people tentatively
called his teaching "Buddhism," but actually Buddhism is not some
particular teaching. Buddhism, is just Truth, which includes various
truths in it. Zazen practice is the practice which includes the
various activities of life. So actually, we do not emphasize the
sitting posture alone. How to sit is how to act. We study how to act
by sitting, and this is the most basic activity for us. That is why we
practice zazen in this way. Even though we practice zazen, we should
not call ourselves the Zen school. We just practice zazen, taking our
example from Buddha; that is why we practice. Buddha taught us how to
act through our practice; that is why we sit.

Buddha’s teaching is everywhere. Today it is raining. This is Buddha’s
teaching. People think their own way or their own religious
understanding is Buddha’s way, without knowing what they are hearing,
or what they are doing, or where they are. Religion is not any
particular teaching. Religion is everywhere. We have to understand our
teaching in this way. We should forget all about some particular
teaching; we should not ask which is good or bad. There should not be
any particular teaching. Teaching is in each moment, in every
existence. That is the true teaching.

Beyond Consciousness

So to have a firm conviction in the original emptiness of your mind is
the most important thing in your practice. In Buddhist scriptures we
sometimes use vast analogies in an attempt to describe empty
mind. Sometimes we use an astronomically great number, so great it is
beyond counting. This means to give up calculating. If it is so great
that you cannot count it, then you will lose your interest and
eventually give up. This kind of description may also give rise to a
kind of interest in the innumerable number, which will help you to
stop the thinking of your small mind.

The best way to develop Buddhism is to sit in zazen—just to sit, with
a firm conviction in our true nature. This way is much better than to
read books or study the philosophy of Buddhism. Of course it is
necessary to study the philosophy—it will strengthen your
conviction. Buddhist philosophy is so universal and logical that it is
not just the philosophy of Buddhism, but of life itself. The purpose
of Buddhist teaching is to point to life itself existing beyond
consciousness in our pure original mind. All Buddhist practices were
built up to protect this true teaching, not to propagate Buddhism in
some wonderful mystic way. So when we discuss religion, it should be
in the most common and universal way. We should not try to propagate
our way by wonderful philosophical thought. In some ways Buddhism is
rather polemical, with some feeling of controversy in it, because the
Buddhist must protect his way from mystic or magical interpretations
of religion. But philosophical discussion will not be the best way to
understand Buddhism. If you want to be a sincere Buddhist, the best
way is to sit. We are very fortunate to have a place to sit in this
way. I want you to have a firm, wide, imperturbable conviction in your
zazen of just sitting. Just to sit, that is enough.

Buddha’s Enlightenment

What we see or what we hear is just a part, or a limited idea, of what
we actually are. But when we just are—each just existing in his own
way—we are expressing Buddha himself. In other words, when we
practice something such as 2azen, then there is Buddha’s way or Buddha
nature. When we ask what Buddha nature is, it vanishes; but when we
just practice zazen, we have full understanding of it. The only way to
understand Buddha nature is just to practice zazen, just to be here as
we are. So what Buddha meant by Buddha nature was to be there as he
was, beyond the realm of consciousness.

Without trying to be Buddha you are Buddha. This is how we attain
enlightenment. To attain enlightenment is to be always with Buddha. By
repeating the same thing over and over, we will acquire this kind of
understanding. But if you lose this point and take pride in your
attainment or become discouraged because of your idealistic effort,
your practice will confine you by a thick wall. We should not
confine ourselves by a self-built wall. So when zazen time comes, just
to get up, to go and sit with your teacher, and to talk to him and
listen to him, and then go home again—all these procedures are our
practice. In this way, without any idea of attainment, you are always
Buddha, This is true practice of zazen. Then you may understand the
true meaning of Buddha’s first statement, "See Buddha nature in
various beings, and in every one of us."

Epilogue: Zen Mind

05-12-2009 - "Zen Mind, Beginner’s Mind" Shunryu Suzuki (Points by Dogen Coldstream), The Quality of Being, Naturalness, Emptiness, Readiness Mindfulness, Believing in Nothing

The Quality of Being

"Everything is just a flashing into the vast phenomenal world" means
the freedom of our activity and of our being. If you sit in the right
manner, with the right understanding, you attain the freedom of your
being, even though you are just a temporal existence. Within this
moment, this temporal existence does not change, does not move, and is
always independent from other existences. In the next moment another
existence arises; we may change to something else. Strictly speaking,
there is no connection between I myself yesterday and I myself in this
moment; there is no connection whatsoever.

Today I am sitting in Los Altos. Tomorrow morning I shall be in San
Francisco. There is no connection between the " I " in Los Altos and
the " I " in San Francisco. They are quite different beings. Here we
have the freedom of exis- tence . And there is no quality connecting
you and me; when I say "you," there is no "I"; when I say "I," there
is no "you." You are independent, and I am independent; each exists in
a different moment. But… We are actually one and the same being. We
are the same, and yet different… Because we are independent beings,
each one of us is a complete flashing into the vast phenomenal
world. When I am sitting, there is no other person, but this does not
mean I ignore you, I am completely one with every existence in the
phenomenal world. So when I sit, you sit; everything sits with
me… When you sit, everything sits with you. And everything makes up
the quality of your being. I am a part of you. I go into the quality
of your being. So in this practice we have absolute liberation from
everything else. If you understand this secret there is no difference
between Zen practice and your everyday life.

Naturalness

For a plant or stone to be natural is no problem. But for us there is
some problem, indeed a big problem. To be natural is something which
we must work on. When what you do just comes out from nothingness, you
have quite a new feeling. For instance, when you are hungry, to take
some food is naturalness. You feel natural. But when you are expecting
too much, to have some food is not natural. You have no new
feeling. You have no appreciation for it.

This naturalness is very difficult to explain. But if you can just sit
and experience the actuality of nothingness in your practice, there is
no need to explain. If it comes out of nothingness, whatever you do is
natural, and that is true activity. You have the true joy of
practice, the true joy of life in it. Everyone comes out from
nothingness moment after moment. Moment after moment we have true joy
of life. So we say shin ku myo u, "from true emptiness, the wondrous
being appears." Shin is "true"; ku is "emptiness"; myo is "wondrous";
u is "being": from true emptiness, wondrous being.

Emptiness

If you want to understand Buddhism it is necessary for you to forget
all about your preconceived ideas. To begin with, you must give up the
Idea of substantiality or existence. The usual view of life is firmly
rooted in the idea of existence. For most people everything exists;
they think whatever they see and whatever they hear exists… The
Buddhist understanding of life includes both existence and
non-existence… We say that a view of life based on existence alone
is heretical. If you take things too seriously, as if they existed
substantially or permanently, you are called a heretic.

So we say true understanding will come out of emptiness. When you
study Buddhism, you should have a general house cleaning of your
mind. You must take everything out of your room and clean it
thoroughly. If it is necessary, you may bring everything back in
again. You may want many things, so one by one you can bring them
back. But if they are not necessary, there is no need to keep them.

Readiness, Mindfulness

In the Prajna Paramita Sutra the most important point, of course, is
the idea of emptiness. Before we understand the idea of emptiness,
everything seems to exist substantially. But after we realize the
emptiness of things, everything becomes real—not substantial. When we
realize that everything we see is a part of emptiness, we can have no
attachment to any existence; we realize that everything is just a
tentative form and color. Thus we realize the true meaning of each
tentative existence. When we first hear that everything is a tentative
existence, most of us are disappointed; but this disappointment comes
from a wrong view of man and nature. It is because our way of
observing things is deeply rooted in our self-centered ideas that we
are disappointed when we find everything has only a tentative
existence. But when we actually realize this truth, we will have no
suffering.

This sutra says, "Bodhisattva Avalokitesvara observes that everything
is emptiness, thus he forsakes all suffering." It was not after he
realized this truth that he overcame suffering—to realize this fact
is itself to be relieved from suffering. So realization of the truth
is salvation itself. We say, "to realize," but the realization of the
truth is always near at hand. It is not after we practice zazen that
we realize the truth; even before we practice zazen, realization is
there. It is not after we understand the truth that we attain
enlightenment. To realize the truth is to live—to exist here and
now. So it is not a matter of understanding or of practice. It is an
ultimate fact. In this sutra Buddha is referring to the ultimate fact
that we always face moment after moment. This point is very
important. This is Bodhidharma’s zazen. Even before we practice it,
enlightenment is there.

Believing in Nothing

I discovered that it is necessary, absolutely necessary, to believe in
nothing. That is, we have to believe in something which has no form
and no color—something which exists before all forms and colors
appear. This is a very important point. No matter what god or doctrine
you believe in, if you become attached to it, your belief will be
based more or less on a self-centered idea. You strive for a perfect
faith in order to save yourself. But it will take time to attain such
a perfect faith. You will be involved in an idealistic practice. In
constantly seeking to actualize your ideal, you will have no time for
composure. But if you are always prepared for accepting everything we
see as something appearing from nothing, knowing that there is some
reason why a phenomenal existence of such and such form and color
appears, then at that moment you will have perfect composure.

…if we accept ourselves as the embodiment of the truth, or Buddha
nature, we will have no worry. We will think, "Now it is raining, but
we don’t know what will happen in the next moment. By the time we go
out it may be a beautiful day, or a stormy day. Since we don’t know,
let’s appreciate the sound of the rain now." This kind of attitude is
the right attitude. If you understand yourself as a temporal
embodiment of the truth, you will have no difficulty whatsoever. You
will appreciate your surroundings, and you will appreciate yourself as
a wonderful part of Buddha’s great activity, even in the midst of
difficulties. This is our way of life.

04-28-2009 - "Zen Mind, Beginner’s Mind" Shunryu Suzuki (Points by Dogen Coldstream), Communication, Negative and Positive, Nirvana the Waterfall, Traditional Zen Spirit, Transiency

Traditional Zen Spirit

The understanding passed down from Buddha to our time is that
when you start zazen, there is enlightenment even without any
preparation. Whether you practice zazen or not, you have Buddha
nature. Because you have it, there is enlightenment in your
practice. The points we emphasize are not the stage we attain,
but the strong confidence we have in our original nature and the
sincerity of our practice. We should practice Zen with the same
sincerity as Buddha.

When we have the traditional spirit to follow the truth as it
goes, and practice our way without any egoistic idea, then we
will attain enlightenment in its true sense. And when we
understand this point we will make our best effort in each
moment. That is true understanding of Buddhism. So our
understanding of Buddhism is not just an intellectual
understanding. Our understanding at the same time is its own
expression, is the practice itself. Not by reading or
contemplation of philosophy, but only through practice, actual
practice, can we understand what Buddhism is. Constantly, we
should practice 2a.zen, with strong confidence in our true
nature, breaking the chain of karmic activity and finding our
place in the world of actual practice.

Transiency

The basic teaching of Buddhism is the teaching of transiency, or
change. That everything changes is the basic truth for each
existence. No one can deny this truth, and all the teaching of
Buddhism is condensed within it. This is the teaching for all of
us. Wherever we go this teaching is true. This teaching is also
understood as the teaching of selflessness. Because each existence is
in constant change, there is no abiding self. In fact, the self-nature
of each existence is nothing but change itself, the self-nature of all
existence. There is no special, separate self-nature for each
existence. This is also called the teaching of Nirvana.

04-21-2009 - "Zen Mind, Beginner’s Mind" Shunryu Suzuki (Points by Dogen Coldstream), Study Yourself, To Polish a Tile, Constancy, Communication, Negative and Positive, Nirvana the Waterfall

study yourself

The purpose of studying Buddhism is not to study Buddhism, but to
study ourselves. It is impossible to study ourselves without some
teaching. We need some teaching, but just by studying the teaching
alone, it is impossible to know what "I" in myself am. Through the
teaching we may understand our human nature. But the teaching is not
we ourselves; it is some explanation of ourselves. So if you are
attached to the teaching, or to the teacher, that is a big
mistake. The moment you meet a teacher, you should leave the teacher,
and you should be independent. You need a teacher so that you can
become independent. If you are not attached to him, the teacher will
show you the way to yourself. You have a teacher for yourself, not for
the teacher.

Dogen-zenji said, "To study Buddhism is to study ourselves. To study
ourselves is to forget ourselves." When you become attached to a
temporal expression of your true nature, it is necessary to talk
about Buddhism, or else you will think the temporal expression is
it. But this particular expression of it is not it. And yet at the
same time it is it! For a while this is it; for the smallest particle
of time, this is it. But it is not always so: the very next instant it
is not so, thus this is not it. So that you will realize this fact, it
is necessary to study Buddhism. But the purpose of studying Buddhism
is to study ourselves and to forget ourselves. When we forget
ourselves, we actually are the true activity of the big existence, or
reality itself. When we realize this fact, there is no problem
whatsoever in this world, and we can enjoy our life without feeling
any difficulties. The purpose of our practice is to be aware of this
fact.

to polish a tile

Even in zazen you will lose yourself. When you become sleepy, or when
your mind starts to wander about, you lose yourself. When your legs
become painful—"Why are my legs so painful?"—you lose
yourself. Because you lose yourself, your problem will be a problem
for you. If you do not lose yourself, then even though you have
difficulty, there is actually no problem whatsoever. You just sit in
the midst of the problem; when you are a part of the problem, or when
the problem is a part of you, there is no problem, because you are the
problem itself. The problem is you yourself. If this is so, there is
no problem.

The purpose of practice is not to make a tile a jewel. Just continue
sitting; that is practice in its true sense. It is not a matter of
whether or not it is possible to attain Buddhahood, whether or not it
is possible to make a tile a jewel. Just to work and live in this
world with this understanding is the most important point. That is our
practice. That is true zazen. So we say, "When you eat, eat!" You
should eat what is there, you know. Sometimes you do not eat it. Even
though you are eating, your mind is somewhere else. You do not taste
what you have in your mouth. As long as you can eat when you are
eating, you are all right. Do not worry a bit. It means you are you
yourself.

constancy

It is quite usual for us to gather pieces of information from various
sources, thinking in this way to increase our knowledge. Actually,
following this way we end up not knowing anything at all. Our
understanding of Buddhism should not be just gathering many pieces of
information, seeking to gain knowledge. Instead of gathering
knowledge, you should clear your mind. If your mind is clear, true
knowledge is already yours.

And we should not hoard knowledge; we should be free from our
knowledge. If you collect various pieces of knowledge, as a collection
it may be very good, but this is not our way. We should not try to
surprise people by our wonderful treasures. We should not be
interested in something special. If you want to appreciate something
fully, you should forget yourself. You should accept it like lightning
flashing in the utter darkness of the sky.

I have always said that you must be very patient if you want to
understand Buddhism, but I have been seeking for a better word than
patience. The usual translation of the Japanese word nin is
"patience," but perhaps "constancy" is a better word. You must force
yourself to be patient, but in constancy there is no particular effort
involved—there is only the unchanging ability to accept things as they
are.

communication

To understand reality as a direct experience is the reason we practice
zazen, and the reason we study Buddhism. Through the study of
Buddhism, you will understand your human nature, your intellectual
faculty, and the truth present in your human activity. And you can
take this human nature of yours into consideration when you seek to
understand reality. But only by the actual practice of Zen can you
experience reality directly and understand in their true sense the
various statements made by your teacher or by Buddha. In a strict
sense, it is not possible to speak about reality. Nevertheless, if you
are a Zen student, you have to understand it directly through your
master’s words.

Usually when you listen to some statement, you hear it as a kind of
echo of yourself. You are actually listening to your own opinion. If
it agrees with your opinion you may accept it, but if it does not, you
will reject it or you may not even really hear it. That is one danger
when you listen to someone. The other danger is to be caught by the
statement. If you do not understand your master’s statement in its
true sense, you will easily be caught by something which is involved
in your subjective opinion, or by some particular way the statement is
expressed. You will take what he says only as a statement, without
understanding the spirit behind the words. This kind of danger is
always there.

Zen is not some fancy, special art of living. Our teaching is just to
live, always in reality, in its exact sense. To make our effort,
moment after moment, is our way. In an exact sense, the only thing we
actually can study in our life is that on which we are working in each
moment. We cannot even study Buddha’s words. To study Buddha’s words
in their exact sense means to study them through some activity which
you face moment after moment. So we should be concentrated with our
full mind and body on what we do ; and we should be faithful,
subjectively and objectively, to ourselves, and especially to our
feelings.

negative and positive

When we talk about the negative side, the positive side is missing,
and when we talk about the positive side, the negative side is
missing. We cannot speak in a positive and a negative way at the same
time. So we do not know what to say. It is almost impossible to talk
about Buddhism. So not to say anything, just to practice it, is the
best way. Showing one finger or drawing a round circle may be the way,
or simply to bow.

Not to say anything may be very good, but there is no reason why we
should always be silent. Whatever you do, even including not-doing,
that is our practice. That is an expression of big mind. So big mind
is something to express, but it is not something to figure out. Big
mind is something you have, not something to seek for. Big mind is
something to talk about, or to express by our activity, or something
to enjoy. If we do this, in our way of observing precepts there is no
Hinayana way or Mahayana way.

nirvana, the waterfall

Before we were bom we had no feeling; we were one with the
universe. This is called "mind-only," or "essence of mind," or "big
mind," After we are separated by birth from this oneness, as the water
falling from the waterfall is separated by the wind and rocks, then we
have feeling. You have difficulty because you have feeling. You attach
to the feeling you have without knowing just how this kind of feel-
ing is created. When you do not realize that you are one with the
river, or one with the universe, you have fear. Whether it is
separated into drops or not, water is water. Our life and death are
the same thing. When we realize this fact we have no fear of death
anymore, and we have no actual difficulty in our life.

To talk about it this way is quite easy, but to have the actual
feeling is not so easy. But by your practice of zazen you can
cultivate this feeling. When you can sit with your whole body and
mind, and with the oneness of your mind and body under the control of
the universal mind, you can easily attain this kind of right
understanding. Your everyday life will be renewed without being
attached to an old erroneous interpretation of life. When you realize
this fact, you will discover how meaningless your old interpretation
was, and how much useless effort you had been making. You will find
the true meaning of life, and even though you have difficulty falling
upright from the top of the waterfall to the bottom of the mountain,
you will enjoy your life.

04-14-2009 - "Zen Mind, Beginner’s Mind" Shunryu Suzuki (Points by Dogen Coldstream), Right Effort, No Trace, God Giving, Mistakes in Practice, Limiting Your Activity

Right Effort

If your practice is good, without being aware of it you will become proud of your practice. That pride is extra. What you do is good, but something more is added to it. So you should get rid of that something which is extra.

If you think you will get something from practicing zazen, already you are involved in impure practice. It is alright to say there is practice, and there is enlightenment, but we should not be caught by the statement. You should not be tainted by it. When you practice zazen, just practice zazen. If enlightenment comes, it just comes. We should not attach to the enlightenment.

…before you take the form of a human being, you are already there, always there… You think before you were born you were not here. But how is it possible for you to appear in this world, when there is no you? Because you are already there, you can appear in the world.

No Trace

There is a saying "To Catch Two Birds With One Stone." That is what people usually try to do. Because they want to catch too many birds, they find it difficult to be concentrated on one activity, and they may end up not catching any birds at all! Of course it is often necessary to think or prepare before we act. But right thinking does not leave any shadow.

In order not to leave any traces, when you do something, you should do it with your whole body and mind; you should be concentrated on what you do. You should do it completely, like a good bonfire. You should not be a smoky fire. You should burn yourself completely. If you do not burn yourself completely, a trace of yourself will be left in what you do. You will have something remaining which is not completely burned out. Zen activity is activity which is completely burned out, with nothing left but ashes. This is the goal of our practice.

When you practice Zen you become one with Zen. There is no you and no zazen. When you bow, there is no Buddha and no you. One complete bowing takes place, that is all. This is Nirvana… Some activity which covers everything is true activity, and the secret of this activity is transmitted from Buddha to us. This is Zen practice, not some teaching taught by Buddha, or soem rules of life set up by him.

God Giving

Every existence in nature, every existence in the human world, every cutural work that we create, is something which was give, or is being given to us, relatively speaking. But as everything is originally one, we are, in actuality, giving out everything. Moment after Moment we are creating something, and this is the joy of our life.

…we should forget, day by day, what we have done; this is true non-attachment. And we should do something new. To do something new, of course we must know out past, and this is all right… But the future is the future, and the past is the past. Now we should work on something new. This is our attitude, and how we should live in this world… So to do something through and through is to resume our true activity of creation. This is why we sit.

Mistakes in Practice

So long as your practice is base on a gaining idea, and you practice zazen in an idealistic way, you will have no time to actually attain your ideal. Moreover, you will be sacrificing the meat of your practice. Because your attainment is always ahead, you will be sacrificing yourself now for some ideal in the future. You will end up with nothing… But even worse than this idealistic attitude is to practice zazen in competition with someone else.

When you are tired of sitting, or when you are disgusted with your practice, you should recognise this as a warning signal. You become discouraged with your practice when it has become idealistic. You have some gaining idea in your practice… It is when your practice is rather greedy that you become discouraged with it.

…Do not give up your practice; continue it, knowing your weakness… Here there is no fixed idea of attainment… Even in wrong practice, when you realize it and continue, there is right practice. Our practice cannot be perfect, but without being discouraged by this, we should continue it. This is the secret of practice.

Limiting Your Activity

You may think that if there is no purpose or no goal in our practice, we will not know what to do. But there is a way… When your mind is wandering about elsewhere, you have no chance to express yourself. But if you limit your activity to what you can do just now, in this moment, then you can express fully your true nature, which is the universal Buddha nature. This is our way.

I think some of you who practice zazen here may believe in some other religion, but I do not mind. Our practice has nothing to do with some particular religion belief. And for you, there is no need to hesitate to practice our way, because it has nothing to do with Christianity, or Shintoism, or Hinduism. Our practice is for everyone… So there is no need to worry about the difference between Buddhism and the religion you may believe in.

…If you understand the secret of our practice, wherever you go, you yourself are "Boss." No matter what the situation, you cannot neglect Buddha, because you yourself are Buddha. Only this Buddha will help you completely.

04-07-2009 - "Zen Mind, Beginner’s Mind" Shunryu Suzuki (Points by Dogen Coldstream), Bowing, Nothing Special, Single-Minded Way, Repetition, Zen and Excitement

Bowing

If you do not have this firm conviction of big mind in your practice, your bowing will be very dualistic. When you are just yourself, you bow to yourself in its true sense, and you are one with everything. Only when you are you yourself can you bow to everything in its true sense… Bowing helps to eliminate our self-centered ideas… It is difficult to get rid of these ideas, and bowing is a very valuable practice.

After you have practiced for a while, you will realize that it is not possibel to make rapid, extraordinary progress. Even though you try very hard, the progress you make is always little by little. It is not like going out in a shower in which you know when you get wet. In a fog, you don’t know you are getting wet, but as you keep walking you get wet little by little… Just to be sincere and make our full effort in each moment is enough.

Nothing Special

Zen practice is the direct expression of our true nature. Of course, whatever we do is an expression of our true nature, but without this practice it is difficult to realize… When you give up, when you no longer want something, or when you do not try to do anyhthing special, then you do something. When there is no gaining idea in what you do, then you do something… But as long as you think you are practicing zazen for the sake of something, that is not true practice.

While you are continuing this practice, week after week, year after year, yhour experience will become deeper and deeper, and your experience will cover everything you do in your everyday life. The most important thing is to forget all gaining ideas, all dualistic ideas… Just remain on your cushion without expecting anything. Then eventually you will resume your own true nature. That is to say, your own true nature resumes itself.

Single-Minded Way

The Bodhisattva’s way is called "The single-minded way"… even if the sun were to rise from the west, the Bodhisattva has only one way. His way in each moment is to express his nature and his sincerity. This is the nature of our Zen practice.

Repetition

… we may find it not so interesting to cook the same thing over and over again every day. It is rather tedious, you may say. If you lose the spirit of repetition it will become quite difficult, but it will not be difficult if you are full of strength and vitality.

We cannot keep still; we have to do something. So if you do something, you should be very observant, and careful, and alert… how this physical body becomes a sage is our main interest. A sage is a sage. Metaphysical explanations of human nature are not the point. Actual practice is repeating over and over again until you find out how to become bread. There is no secret in our way. Just to practice zazen and put ourselves into the oven is our way.

Zen and Excitement

It is necessary for us to keep the constant way. Zen is not some kind of excitement, but concentration on our usual everyday routine… If possible, try to be always calm and joyful and keep yourself from excitement… In the midst of noise and change, your mind will be quiet and stable.

Our unexciting way of practice may appear to be very negative. That is not so. It is a wise and effective way to work on ourselves… I find this point very difficult for people, especially young people, to understand. On the other hand, it may seem as if I am speaking about gradual attainment. This is not so either. In fact, this is the sudden way, because when your practice is calm and ordinary, everyday life itself is enlightenment.

03-31-2009 - "Zen Mind, Beginner’s Mind" Shunryu Suzuki (Points by Dogen Coldstream), Control, Mind Waves, Mind Weeds, The Marrow of Zen, No Dualism.

Control

The reason everything looks beautiful is because it is out of balance, but its background is in perfect harmony. This is how everything exists in the realm of Buddha nature, losing its balance against a background of perfect balance. So if you see things without realizing the background of Buddha nature, everything appears to be in the form of suffering.

If you want to obtain perfect calmness in your zazen, you should not be bothered by the various images you find in your mind. Let them come, let them go. Then they will be under control… How to make this effort is the secret of practice. If you try to calm your mind you will be unable to sit… The only effort that will help is to concentrate on your inhaling and exhaling.

The true purpose is to see things as they are, and to let everything go as it goes. This is to put everything under control in its widest sense. Zen practice is to open up our small mind. So contrating is just an aid to help you realize "big mind", or the mind that is everything.

Mind Waves

If something comes into your mind, let it come in, and let it go out… When you try to stop your thinking, it means you are bothered by it. Do not be bothered by anything. It appears as if something comes from outside your mind, but actually it is only the waves of your mind, and if you are not bothered by the waves, gradually they will become calmer and calmer.

That everything is included within your mind is the essence of mind. Even though wave arise, the essence of your mind is pure… water always ahs waves. Waves are the practice of the water. To speak of water apart from waves, or waves apart from water is delusion. Water and waves are one. Big mind ans small mind are one.

Mind Weeds

"Pulling the weeds we give nourishment to the plant." We pull the weeds and bury them near the plant to give it nourishment… even though you have some waves whiole you are sitting, those waves will help you. You should be grateful for the weeds, because eventually they will enrich your practice.

Strictly speaking, any effort we make is not good for our practice because it creates waves in our mind. It is impossible, however, to obtain absolute calmness in our mind without any effort. We must make some effort, but we must forget ourselves in the effort we make. It is necessary for us… to make an effort up to the last moment, when all effort disappears. You should keep your mind on your breathing until you are not aware of your breathing.

The Marrow of Zen

Almost all of us want to be the best horse… Here, however, there is a misunderstanding of Zen… If you pratcice Zen the right way it does not matter if you are the best horse or the worst one.
When you are determined to practice zazen with the great mind of Buddha, you will find that the worst horse is the most valuable one. In your very imperfections you will find the basis for your firm, way-seeking mind.

Dogen-zenji said "Shoshaku jushaku." Shoshaku jushaku means "to succeed wrong with wrong," or one continuous mistake. A Zen master’s life could be said to be so many years of shoshaku jushaku. This means so many years of single-minded effort.

When you feel disagreeable it is better for you to sit. There is no better way to accept your problem and work on it… The awareness that you are here, right now, is the ultimate fact. This is the point you will realize by zazen practice. In continuous practice, under a succession of agreeable and disagreeable situations, you will realize the marrow of Zen and acquire its true strength.

No Dualism

To stop your mind does not mean to stop the activities of mind. It means your mind pervades your whole body. Your mind follows youre breathing. With your full mind you form the mudra in your hands. With your whole mind you sit with painful legs without being disturbed by them.

When you say "Whatever I do is Buddha nature, so it doesn’t matter what I do, and there is no need to practice zazen," that is already a dualistic understanding of our everyday life… As long as you are concerned about what you do, that is dualistic. If you are not concerned about what you do, you will not say so. When you sti, you will sit. When you eat, you will eat. That is all.

03-24-2009 - "Zen Mind, Beginner’s Mind"  Shunryu Suzuki (Points by Dogen Coldstream), Prologue, Posture, and Breathing.

Forward

If when I die, the moment I am dying, if I suffer that is alright, you know; That is suffering Buddha. No confusion in it. Maybe everyone will struggle because of the physical agaony or spiritual agony, too. But that is alright, that is not a problem.

Prologue

In beginner’s mind there are possibilities, but in the expert’s there are few.

If you discriminate too much, you limit yourself. If you are too demanding or too greedy, your mind is not rich and self-sufficient… When your mind becomes demanding, when you long for something, you will end up violating your own precepts… If you keep your original mind, the precepts will keep themselves.

Posture

These forms are not a means of attaining the right state of mind. To take this posture is itself to have the right state of mind. There is no need to obtain some special state of mind.

The position expresses the oneness of duality: not two and not one. This is the most important teaching… Our body and mind are not two and not one. If you think your body and mind are two, that is wrong; if you think that they are one, that is also wrong. Our body and mind are both two and one.

Buddha… studied many religions, but he was not satisfied with their practices… He was not interested in some metaphysical existance, but in his own body and mind, here and now. And when he found himself, he found that everything that exists has Buddha nature. The state of mind that exists when you sit in the right posture is, itself, enlightenment.

Breathing

If you think "I breathe", the "I" is extra. There is no you to say "I". What we call ‘I’ is just a swinging door which moves when we inhale and when we exhale. It just moves; that is all. When your mind is pure and calm enough to follow this movement, there is nothing: no "I", no world, no mind or body; just a swinging door.

So when you practice zazen, there is no idea of time or space… This moment the swinging door is opening in one direction, and the next moment the swinging door will be opening in the opposite direction… Here there is no idea of time or space. Time and space are one… At one o’clock you will eat your lunch. To eat lunch is itself one o’clock… To someone who actually appreciates our life, they are the same.

03-03-2009 - "The Art of Happiness"  His Holiness The Dalai Lama (Points by Solari Georgia), Chapters 14 & 15

Chapter 14  Dealing with Anxiety and Building Self-Esteem–

As the Dalai Lama has emphasized, cultivating compassion and deepening our connection with others can promote good mental hygiene. As well, the use of mental floss, placing a strand in one ear, pulling it through, out the other ear is an effective method for preventing unwanted hindrance buildup.

"So if I am anxious before giving a talk, I’ll remind myself, the main reason, the aim of giving the lecture, is to be at least some benefit to the people, not for showing off my knowledge. So those points which I know, I’ll explain. The points, which I do not understand properly—then it doesn’t matter, I just say, ‘For me this is difficult’.  There’s no reason to hide or pretend. From that standpoint, with that motivation, I don’t have to worry about appearing foolish. …That sincere motivation acts as an antidote to reduce fear and anxiety."
…"The main thing is motivation—to have the sincere motivation to help.  Then you can do the best you can and don’t have to worry about it."

"When dealing with self-confidence, you need to look at what is the underlying sense of ’self’. I think one can categorize two types. One sense of self or ego, is concerned with only the fulfilment of one’s self-interest. The other type of ego or sense of self is based on the genuine concern for others, and the desire to be of service. In order to fulfill that wish to be of service, one needs a strong sense of self and of self-confidence. This kind of self-confidence is the kind that leads to positive consequences."

"I think that generally being honest with oneself and others about what you are or are not capable of doing can counteract that feeling of lack of self-confidence."

(Self Hatred) "But the fact that it is virtually unheard of within entire cultures, in this case the Tibetan culture, strongly reminds us that this troubling mental state, like all other negative mental states discussed is not an intrinsic part of the human mind."

"For those engaged in Buddhist practice, the antidote to self-hatred, would be to reflect upon the fact that all beings, including oneself, have Buddha Nature–the seed or potential for perfection, full Enlightenment—no matter how poor or weak or deprived one’s present situation may be."

…"So long as we know and maintain an awareness that we have this marvelous gift of human intelligence and a capacity to develop determination and use it in positive ways, in some sense we have this underlying metal health.  An underlying strength that comes from realizing we have this great human potential."

Chapter 15  Basic Spiritual Values–

"I believe that one can cultivate a deep respect for all the different religious traditions. One reason to respect these other traditions is that all these traditions can provide an ethical framework which can govern one’s behavior and have positive effects."

"If you understand spiritual practice in its true sense, then you can use all twenty-four hours of your day for your practice. True spirituality is a mental attitude that you can practice at any time. For example, if you encounter a situation in which you may lose your temper, immediately you are mindful and say, ‘No, that is not the appropriate way.’ That actually is a spiritual practice."

"Although my own experience is very little, one thing I can say for certain is that I feel through Buddhist training, I feel that my mind has become much more calm."

Did you find this book helpful?

02-24-2009 - "The Art of Happiness"  His Holiness The Dalai Lama (Points by Solari Georgia), Chapters 12

Bringing About Change- Chapter 12

"…In discussing an approach to bringing about positive change within oneself, learning is only the first step. There are other factors as well, conviction, determination, action and effort. Learning and education are important because they help one develop conviction of the need to change and help increase one’s commitment, This conviction to change then develops into determination. Next, one transfers determination into action—the strong determination to change enable one to make a sustained effort to implement the actual changes."

"A sense of urgency can be a vital factor in effecting change. It can give us tremendous energy. For instance, in a political movement, if there is a sense of desperation, there can be a tremendous sense of urgency—so much that people will even forget they are hungry, and there is no feeling of tiredness or exhaustion in pursuit of their objectives."

"…In order to generate a sense of urgency to engage in spiritual (Buddhist) practices, the practitioner is reminded of our impermanence, of death. When we talk about impermanence in this context, we are talking in very conventional terms, not about the more subtle aspects of the concept of impermanence….we are reminded that one day, we may no longer be here."

…Even an artificially induced frown of smile tends to induce the corresponding emotions of anger or happiness. This suggests that "just going through the motions" and repeatedly engaging in a positive behavior can eventually bring about genuine internal change.

Three premises for eliminating afflictive emotions or delusions:

(One), such ‘delusions’ are essentially distorted, in that they are rooted in mispercieving the actual reality of the situation. No matter how powerful, deep down, these negative emotions have no valid foundation. They are based on ignorance.

(Two) "This premise is based on the fact that our positive state of mind, can act as an antidote to our negative tendencies and delusory state of mind. …The premise is that as you enhance the capacity of these mental antidotal factors, the greater their force, the more you will be able to reduce the force of of the mental and emotional afflictions."

(Three) "The third premise is that the essential nature of the mind is pure. It is based on the belief that the underlying subtle consciousness is untainted by negative emotions."

"We cannot overcome anger and hatred simply by suppressing them. We need to actively cultivate the antidotes to hatred: patience and tolerance.

"…Hatred is compared to an enemy. This internal enemy, this inner enemy, has no other function than causing us harm. It is our true enemy, our ultimate enemy. It has no other function than simply destroying us, both in the immediate term and the long term."

"The only factor that can give you refuge or protection from the destructive forces of anger and hate, is your practice of tolerance and patience."

"Humility involves having the capacity to take a more confrontational stance, having the capacity to retaliate if you wish, yet deliberately deciding not to do so. That is what I call genuine humility. I think that true tolerance and patience has a component or element of self-discipline and restraint."

"Sometimes, you may encounter situations that require strong countermeasures. I believe however, that you can take a strong stand and even stronger countermeasures out of a feeling of compassion, or a sense of concern for the other, rather than out of anger."

02- 17-2009 - "The Art of Happiness" His Holiness The Dalai Lama (Points by Solari Georgia), Chapters 11

Finding Meaning in Pain and Suffering- Chapter 11

"A tree with strong roots can withstand the most violent storm, but the tree cannot grow roots just as the storm appears on the horizon."

"I think earlier we mentioned that within the framework of the Buddhist path, reflecting on suffering has tremendous importance because by realizing the nature of suffering, you will develop a greater resolve to put an end to the causes of suffering and the unwholesome deeds that lead to suffering. And it will increase your enthusiasm for engaging in the wholesome actions and deeds that lead to happiness and joy."

"When engaging in this practice (Tong-Len) it is sometimes helpful to begin by first imagining your own future suffering and, with an attitude of compassion, take your own future suffering upon yourself right now, with the sincere wish of freeing yourself from all future suffering. After you gain some practice in generating a compassionate state of mind towards yourself, you can expand the process to include taking on the suffering of others.

"The needs of the many outweigh the needs of the one."
"…But in everyday life we don’t interact with people en masse. We interact with one person at a time, with a series of individuals….Well that’s true. But, I think that if you could try to consider each individual as truly equal to yourself—no more important, but no less important—I think that would be enough to start with."

Extra Notes

Self-Tonglen

Sit in meditation and consider that the pure aspect of your being–yourself as the embodiment of enlightened compassion–is the aspect of you sitting on your meditation cushion or chair. Directly in front of you is the "ordinary" aspect of you that is suffering; perhaps feeling lonely, fearful, misunderstood, angry, or troubled by a physical illness or grief.

As you gaze toward your ordinary self and become aware of the suffering you’ve been carrying, you feel a deep warmth and tenderness, a sense of friendship and unconditional love. You accept the suffering of this other part of yourself, you understand it. Your awareness of this pain or difficulty opens your heart and generates a fearless wish to release and transform the suffering of the "ordinary" you.

Consider that the suffering of the "ordinary" you takes the form of a dark cloud, and with each in-breath, visualize that you breathe it in. As the dark cloud of suffering enters your being, it disintegrates any final traces of egoistic clinging or fear in your heart, and reveals your bodhicitta–the radiant source of wisdom and compassion at the core of your being–which shines out even more powerfully, like a brilliantly shining sun.

As you exhale, freely give out understanding, joy, unconditional love and peace, in the form of light, to the suffering aspect of you. Continue this giving and receiving with each breath for as long as you like.

As you continue the practice, visualize the "ordinary" aspect of you is gradually relieved of suffering and filled with well-being and joy. Each time you conclude, consider that the practice has been completely effective: the "ordinary" aspect of you is released of all pain and distress and is now radiantly happy and at peace. And, since there is no difference now between these two aspects, dissolve the visualization and remain in meditation.

02- 10-2009 - "The Art of Happiness"  His Holiness The Dalai Lama (Points by Solari Georgia), Chapters 9 and 10

Self-created Suffering- Chapter 9

"So I think to a large extend, whether you suffer depends on how you respond to a given situation.  For example, say that you find out someone is speaking badly of you behind your back. If you react to this knowledge that someone is speaking badly of you, this negativity, with a feeling if hurt and anger, then you, yourself destroy your own peace of mind. your pain is your own personal creation."

"…When this kind of thinking (self-created suffering) becomes a pervasive pattern of relating to the world and extends to every comment made by our family or friends, or even events in society at large, it can become a significant source of misery."

"…Karma should not be understood in terms of a passive, static force but rather should be understood in terms of an active process.  This indicates that there is an important role for the individual agent to play in determining the course of the Karmic process."

…Seemed a bit of a stretch…finding your own contribution to another’s dishonesty.  But there was a general sincerity in his voice as he spoke. which suggested that in fact this was a technique he had used to practical advantage in his personal life to help deal with adversity. But whether we are successful or not, even the honest attempt to search for our own contribution to a problem allows a certain shift of focus."

Sometimes I wonder if the ability to live without indulging in self-destructive guilt is partly cultural. I was told that, in fact, the Tibetan language doesn’t even have an equivalent for the English word "guilt’, although it does have words meaning "remorse" or "repentance" or "regret", with a sense of "rectifying things in the future".

Resistance to change: "One must begin that process by appreciating the impermanent, transient nature of our existence. All things, events, and phenomena are dynamic, changing every moment, nothing remains static….So at any given moment, no matter how pleasant your experience may be, it will not last.This becomes the basis of a category of suffering known in Buddhism as the "suffering of change".

Does the contemplation and understanding of impermanence have any practical application in the everyday lives of non-Buddhists as well?

Shifting Perspective- Chapter 10

"The ability to look at events from different perspectives can be very helpful. Then, practicing this, (the ability to shift perspective) one can use certain experiences, certain tragedies to develop a calmness of mind. One must realize that every phenomena, every event has different aspects. Everything is of a relative nature."

"So even though when you are angry at someone you might feel that person has no positive qualities, the reality is nobody is 100 percent bad. They must have some good qualities if you search hard enough. So the tendency to see someone as completely negative is due to your own perception based on your own mental projection, rather than the true nature of the individual. …"But I think think even if you have discovered a positive angle to a bad situation, that alone is often not enough. You still need to reinforce that idea. So you may need to remind yourself of that positive angle many times, until gradually your feelings change."

"In Buddhism in general, a lot of attention is paid to our attitudes towards our rivals and enemies. This is because hated can be the greatest stumbling block to the development of compassion and happiness. If you can learn to develop patience and tolerance towards your enemies, then everything else becomes much easier. …"In fact, the enemy is the necessary condition for practicing patience….Our friends do not ordinarily test us and provide the opportunity to cultivate patience, only our enemies do this."

Concerning Buddhism in relation to other faiths: "We’ll feel if a person finds a different tradition more suitable, more effective (for them) then that’s good! Then it’s like going to a restaurant–we can all sit down at one table and order different dishes, according to one’s own taste. We might eat different dishes, but nobody argues about it!"

02- 03-2009 - "The Art of Happiness"  His Holiness The Dalai Lama (Points by Solari Georgia), Chapters 7 and 8

The Value and Benefit of Compassion -Chapter 7

"Compassion can be roughly defined in terms of a state of mind that is non-violent, non-harming and non-aggressive. It is a mental attitude based on the wish for others to be free of their suffering and is associated with a sense of commitment, responsibility and respect towards the other."

"genuine…compassion isn’t so much based on the fact that this person or that person is dear to me.  Rather, genuine compassion is
based on the rationale that all human beings have an innate desire to be happy and overcome suffering, just like myself.  And, just
like myself they have the natural right to fulfill this fundamental aspiration."

"…In generating compassion, when you are taking on another’s suffering, you may initially experience a degree of discomfort, a sense of uncomfortableness.  But in the case of compassion, the feeling is much different, underlying the uncomfortable feeling is a very high degree of alertness and termination because you are voluntarily and deliberately, accepting another’s suffering for a higher purpose. There is a feeling of connectedness and commitment, a willingness to reach out to others, a feeling of freshness rather than dullness."

"There are many examples indicating that at some level deep down, ruthless people generally suffer from a kind of unhappiness and discontent, people like Stalin and Hitler.  Such people suffer from a kind of nagging sense of insecurity and fear.  Even when they are sleeping I think that sense of fear remains. …These people lack something that you can find in a more compassionate person, a sense of freedom, a sense of abandonment, so when you sleep you can relax and let go.  Ruthless people never have that experience."

Specific techniques to enhance compassion: "…employ methods to enhance empathy, such as using your imagination, your creativity, to visualize yourself in another’s situation…such as the practice of Tong-Len**, that serves to strengthen compassion."

**Tong-Len is Tibetan for giving and taking’ (or, sending and taking), and it refers to a meditation practice found in Tibetan Buddhism.
In the practice, one visualizes taking onto oneself the suffering of others, and giving one’s own happiness and success to others. As
such it is a training in altruism in its most extreme form. The function of the practice is to:

* reduce selfish attachment
* increase a sense of renunciation
* create positive karma by giving and helping
* develop loving-kindness and bodhicitta (Bodhicitta may be translated as "awakening mind" or "thought of enlightenment".)
* it refers to all of the Six Perfections of giving, ethics, patience, joyous effort, concentration and wisdom, which are the practices of
a Bodhisattva.(see "Bodhi", the cute surfer dude in the movie, Point Break)

H.H. The Dalai Lama, who is said to practise Tonglen every day, has said of the technique: "Whether this meditation really helps
others or not, it gives me peace of mind. Then I can be more effective, and the benefit is immense".  His Holiness offers a translation of
the Eight Verses in his book The Path To Tranquility: Daily Meditations.

"But the main point really…is that people make a sincere effort to develop their capacity for compassion."

Facing Suffering- Chapter 8

Suffering can only be avoided temporarily. But like a disease that’s left untreated, (or perhaps superficially treated with medication that just masks the symptoms, but doesn’t cure the underlying condition) the disease invariably festers and worsens.

"…If you spend some time thinking about old age, death and other unfortunate things, your mind will be more stable when these things happen as you have already been acquainted with these problems and kinds of suffering and have anticipated that they will occur. …It can be useful to prepare yourself ahead of time by familiarizing yourself with the kinds of suffering you might encounter."

"So you can prepare yourself mentally. But you should not forget the fact that this does not alleviate the situation. It may help you mentally cope with it, reduce the fear and so on, but it does not alleviate the problem itself."

"The point that has to be borne in mind is that the reason why reflection on suffering is so important is because there is a possible way out; there is an alternative. There is as possibility of freedom from suffering.By removing the causes of suffering, it is possible to attain a state of Liberation, a state free from suffering. Otherwise, if there is no hope, or no possibility of freedom from suffering, mere reflection on suffering, just becomes morbid thinking, and would be quite negative."

"For those people who do not believe in rebirth, then I think there are some simple ways to help deal with loss. First, they could reflect that if they worried too much, allowing themselves to be overwhelmed by the sense of loss and sorrow, and if they carried on with that feeling of being overwhelmed, not only would it be destructive and harmful to themselves, ruining their health, but also it would not have any benefit to the person that had passed away."
"So I think if you have lost someone who is very dear to you, the proper approach…the best way to keep a memory of that person, the best remembrance, is to see if you can carry on the wishes of that person."

01- 27-2009 - "The Art of Happiness"  His Holiness The Dalai Lama (Points by Solari Georgia), Chapters 5 and 6

A New Model for Intimacy- Chapter 5

When asked, "Do you ever get lonely?"  His Highness says, "No….I think one factor is that I look at any human being from a more positive angle, to look at their more positive aspects. This attitude creates an immediate feeling of affinity, a kid of connectedness."

The Dalai Lama: "My basic belief is that you need to realize the usefulness of compassion…Once you accept the fact that compassion is not something childish or sentimental, once you realize that compassion is something really worthwhile, realize it’s deeper value, then you immediately develop an attraction towards it, a willingness to cultivate it."

"I believe that kind of intimacy (Western type, exemplified by a deep, intimate relationship with one other person) can be seen as something positive. I think if someone is denied that kind of intimacy it can lead to problems…"  "Do you ever feel you missed out on developing a deeper level of intimacy with one person?"  The Dalai Lama says, "No I never felt a lack of intimacy…I felt quite close to my mother, my teachers, my tutors and others. I used to spend time in the kitchen and became quite close to some of the kitchen staff."

If what we seek is happiness, an intimacy is an important ingredient of a happier life, then it clearly makes sense to conduct our lives on the basis of a model of intimacy that includes as many forms of connection with others as possible. The Dalai Lama’s model of intimacy is based on a willingness to open ourselves to many others, to family , friends and even strangers, forming genuine and deep bonds based on our common humanity.

Deepening Our Connection to Others- Chapter 6

"Now in looking at the various means of developing compassion, I think that empathy is an important factor. The ability to appreciate another’s suffering. In fact, traditionally, one of the Buddhist techniques for enhancing compassion involves imagining a situation where there is a sentient being suffering…"

"I think that empathy is important not only as a means of enhancing compassion, but think that generally speaking, when dealing with others on any level, if you’re having some difficulties, it’s extremely helpful to be able to try to put yourself in the other person’s place and see how you would react to the situation."
This technique involves the capacity to temporarily suspend insisting on your own viewpoint but rather to look from the other person’s perspective…"

"First it is helpful to understand and appreciate the background of the people you are dealing with. Also, being more open-minded and honest are useful qualities when it comes to dealing with others."
(The author) I waited but he didn’t say anything more.
"Can you suggest any other methods for improving our relationships?"
The Dalai Lama thought for a moment. "No." He laughed.

"So when we are dealing with relationship problems, the first stage in the process involves deliberately reflecting on the underlying nature and basis of that relationship. I think that if one is seeking to build a truly satisfying relationship, the best way of bringing this about, is to get to know the deeper nature of the person, and relate to him or her on that level, instead of merely on the basis of superficial characteristics." And in this type of relationship, there is a role for genuine compassion.

"I think that leaving aside how the endless pursuit of romantic love may effect our deeper spiritual growth, even from the perspective of a conventional way of life, the idealization of this romantic love can be seen as an extreme."

01- 20-2009 - "The Art of Happiness"  His Holiness The Dalai Lama (Points by Solari Georgia), Chapters 3 and 4

Training the Mind for happiness- Chapter 3
"So the first step in seeking happiness in learning." We first have to learn how negative emotions and behaviors are harmful to us, and how positive emotions are helpful. And we must realize how these negative emotions are not only very bad and harmful to one personally but harmful to society as well.

If you maintain a feeling of compassion, loving kindness, then something automatically opens your inner door. Through that, you can communicate more easily with other people. And that feeling of warmth creates a kind of openness. You’ll find that all human beings are just like you, so you’ll be able to relate to them more easily. That gives you a spirit of friendship.

Within Buddhist practice there are various methods of trying to sustain a calm mind when some disturbing event happens. through repeated practice of these methods we can get to the point where some disturbances may occur but the negative effects on our mind remain on the surface, like the waves that may ripple on the surface of an ocean, but don’t have much effect deep down.

"Bringing about discipline in one’s own mind is the essence of the Buddha’s teaching. " …referring to self-discipline, the discipline that’s applied in order to overcome your negative qualities, not discipline that is externally applied.
Traditionally, it has been considered the responsibility of religion to prescribe what behaviors are wholesome and what are not. However in today’s society, religion has lost it’s prestige and influence to some degree. And at the same time, no alternative, such as secular ethics, has come up to replace it. So there seems to be less attention paid to the need to lead a wholesome way of life.

Reclaiming our innate state of Happiness-Chapter 4

…"Our physical structure seems to be more suited to feelings of love and compassion. We can see how a clam, affectionate, wholesome state of mind has beneficial effects on our health and physical well-being. Conversely, feelings of frustration, fear, agitation and anger can be destructive to our health."

"It is still my firm conviction that human nature is essentially compassionate, gentle. that is the predominant feature of human nature."

"I think it’s important to recognize that if human conflicts are created by misuse of human intelligence, we can also utilize our intelligence to find ways and means to overcome these conflicts. When human intelligence and human goodness or affection are used together, all human actions become constructive."

Once we conclude that the basic nature of humanity is compassionate, rather than aggressive, our relationship to the world around us changes immediately.  Seeing others as basically compassionate instead of hostile  and selfish, helps us relax, trust, live at ease. It makes us happy.

"We weren’t born with the purpose of causing trouble, harming others. For our life to be of value, I think  we must develop basic good human qualities—warmth, kindness, compassion. Then our life becomes more meaningful and more peaceful—and happier."
Excerpt from Wikipedia–Tenzin Gyatso, 14th Dalai Lama of Tibet

01- 06-2009 - "The Art of Happiness"  His Holiness The Dalai Lama (Points by Solari Georgia)

What is the purpose of our lives? What makes our lives meaningful?
"The purpose of our existence is to seek happiness."  It seems common-sense…But isn’t a life based on seeking personal happiness
by nature self-centered, even self indulgent?  Not necessarily. Surveys have shown it is "unhappy" people who tend to be more self-
focused and are often socially withdrawn, brooding, and even antagonistic. Happy people, in contrast, are generally more sociable,
flexible and creative and are able to tolerate life’s daily frustrations more easily than unhappy people

Happiness is determined more by one’s state of mind than by external events. Leaving aside the aspects of the spiritual and religious
aspiration of perfection and enlightenment, for happiness, we seek good health, material facilities or accumulation of wealth and
friendship or companions, a circle of friendship with whom we can relate emotionally and trust. Now all of these factors are in fact a
source of happiness. But in order for a person to be able to fully utilize them toward the goal of being happy, the state of mind is key. It
is crucial.

Having a calm or peaceful state of mind does not mean being totally spaced out or  completely empty.  Peace of mind or a calm state
of mind is rooted in affection and compassion. Furthermore, as long as there is a lack of the inner discipline that brings calmness of
mind, no matter what external facilities or conditions exist, they will never give you the feeling of joy and happiness you are seeking.

So, how can we achieve inner contentment? Two ways. One is to obtain everything we want or desire. The disadvantage to this, is if all
our desires remain unchecked we will eventually run up against something we want, but can’t have. The second more reliable method
is not to have what we want, but rather to want and appreciate what we have.

Happiness versus pleasure.
Ask yourself, "Will it bring me happiness?"
Is seeking pleasure the way to happiness? Pleasure is and can be ephemeral. A fulfillment of the sensual and sensuous. True
happiness relates more to the heart and mind. Happiness that depends on physical pleasure is unstable; one day it’s there, the next
day it may not be.

" World peace must develop from inner peace. Peace is not the absence of violence. Peace is the manifestation of human
compassion."
—The Dalai Lama.

01- 06-2009 - Selected Mp3’s (Points by Danaeah Ballinger):

Adyashanti: http://www.adyashanti.org/index.php?file=listenonline

From, “The Illusion of Self-Image” – mp3

If everything is a single reality, what does that possibly say about you? If there is only one, guess which one you are? And the only thing that has the power to make a human being not perceive that, is the little thoughts in their minds confusing them. Saying no, no, no, no, I’m me, I’m this limited human being with an image, with an idea of myself, with total identification with this particular body…and that’s me.

From, “Stillness” – mp3

So there I was, sitting down to meditate and getting all ready to try to be still, which is the best way not to be still, and this little thought occurred to me, and I thought, “Is it still already? … Is it actually quiet before I try to make it quiet?” And I was shocked. It is!

This stillness and quiet had nothing to do with my mind being still and quiet. Stillness was still whether the mind was still or not…we always think that the noise is the most true thing. If noise, like the noise I am generating now by speaking to you was the most true thing…why does it die as soon as my mouth stops moving? …there’s ninety-nine percent silence and one percent noise. So being still is really the movement of acknowledging stillness. “Be still.” It’s not a demand…it’s an invitation to take a look for yourself.

From, “Life Without a Story” – mp3

The unconditioned state of consciousness is easy to miss, because there is no content to it…but there it is, it’s just listening, it’s just watching. It’s not commenting…there is no commentator, no interpreter of the moment. And that’s the first taste of our true nature…The “me” does not like that state…[it thinks]… “What am I going to believe in? What about my point of view?”

From,
Emptiness Dancing, Open Gate Publishing, Los Gatos, CA, 2004, SSBN 0-9717036-4-7

There can be a gap of quietness between thoughts, and if you are very present in that gap, you stop acting out your familiar identity. As soon as identity jumps into the gap, you don’t feel present anymore. Being nobody is usually so baffling to the mind that it starts filling that gap very quickly…But to fill it up with a somebody is meaningless. If you really want to know what you are, just experience the gap, experience the openness, and let it bloom inside. There is no better way to find out what you are. (p. 9)

There is a wonderful parable from the Bible that says it is easier for a camel to pass through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to get into heaven. Trying to hold on to your identities, even if they are the most spiritual, most holy of identities, is like trying to shove a camel through the eye of a needle. They are too big, too coarse, too untrue. But there’s one thing that can get through the eye of the smallest needle. Space, your own nothingness, can get right through into heaven. None of us can take one shred of a self-centered identity with us. (p.10)

There are many stories or spiritual myths that…portray this coming back to our own true nature as a battleground, as if there is something about you that doesn’t want to return to itself. Whether it is called ego, or the me, or the mind…spiritual people can buy into this myth…that there has to be some struggle. When you are really quiet you can see that this is total nonsense. You can see that the thought arose in the mind out of emptiness, and only if you accepted it as true could it start a battle. But you see clearly that it isn’t really true: it’s just the spontaneous arising of a thought. (p. 73)

12- 30-2008 - “Self and Selflessness” by Joseph Goldstein (Points by Danaeah Ballinger):

http://www.dharmaseed.org/teacher/96/talk/4110/

One aspect of the teaching…challenges our entire world view. It made the Buddha’s enlightenment…an extraordinary event in all the cultures of awakening around the world. This is the deep understanding and realization of selflessness, the realization of the inherent insubstantiality of all phenomena. It is this teaching of selflessness which is the great liberating jewel of all the Buddhist teachings.

As our awareness becomes stronger and more stable we find that the self is not what we thought it to be. We see that the body is not self, thoughts are not self, emotions are not self, and on the most subtle level, we see that even awareness is not self. We begin to see…that the deeply rooted and often felt sense of self is a concept…a fabrication of our minds. This was captured very pithily by…Lichtenstein, who said: “The sense of a separate self is only a shadow cast by grammar.” When we realize this, even for short moments, it is both a great surprise and a great relief.

When there is perception without mindfulness…which is our usual way of being in the world…we are living in the world of concepts. Then we are staying just on the surface appearance of things. We give a name or a concept to what arises and then our experience becomes limited by that concept. That’s looking more at the frame than the picture.

How much of your day was lost in thoughts of past and future?…what’s in the frame of the concept, “past?”…certain thoughts…arising in the present moment; reflections, memories, remembrances…but through a mental gymnastic, we throw the concept behind us, as if the past is a reality “back there.” And we do the same thing with the future. The future is a concept…When we don’t see into the conceptual nature of time, past and future are a huge burden…when all that is happening is there’s a thought in the mind.

As soon as we create some idea about ourselves, it’s like we are in prison…it’s like pouring ourselves into a mold and then wondering why we feel constrained in our lives.

Concepts become limiting even about things that seem more fundamental, that we might not even think of as concepts; age, gender, race…Does race have any substantiality when we’re looking at our minds? How old is your breath? What does age mean when we’re on that level of moment to moment experience? Is the pain in your knee male or female?

The deepest conditioning and habit of mind, and the root source of so much of the suffering in our lives, is our attachment to the concept of “self.” “Self” itself is a mental construct, the idea that there is someone behind experience to whom it is all happening…We become attached to…the idea of self because we usually are satisfied with superficial impressions…we get up in the morning, look in the mirror, recognize a certain appearance, and then create a concept designating what we see…but then we don’t look more deeply, and we’re satisfied with that.

How much of our concept of “self” comes from a superficial perception of the body?…How attached would we be if we could see it with x-ray vision? Would we look at our liver and say, “that’s me?”

The strong sense of self happens not only because we’re identified with the body, but also because we are lost in thought or emotion, with all the internal stories we tell about ourselves or the world. Earlier in the retreat I mentioned the teaching that “the thought of your mother is not your mother, it’s a thought”…but just notice how easily thought can condition an emotion. What just happened? It was just a thought arising in the mind. All these thoughts and emotions don’t belong to anyone.

These thoughts have no substantial reality at all, except the reality we give them…if we haven’t seen the selfless nature of thought, we are tormented by them. But if we do see the empty nature of thoughts, they become like a wisp of air…there’s not much there. It’s the same with emotion, though emotion is more complex…there is no “I” no “self” behind them. Love loves, fear fears, joy joys.

We could say all the experiences we have all day long create an appearance of “self” because there is a pattern…but it’s like seeing a picture in a mosaic. The picture doesn’t exist other than as an appearance arising out of the pattern of elements. On the most subtle level, the appearance of self arises when we identify with consciousness…with the sense of an observer, standing back from our experience…through growing wisdom, we see that consciousness itself is dependant on conditions.

12-16-2008 - A Path With Heart (chapters 21, 22 and 23) - Points by Danaeah Ballinger

Chapters 21: “Spiritual Maturity”

To mature spiritually is to let go of rigid and idealistic ways of being and discover a flexibility and joy in our life. As spiritual maturity develops, it brings kindness to the heart. Ease and compassion become our natural movement. The Taoist Lao Tzu celebrated this spirit when he wrote: “She who is centered in the Tao can go where she wishes without danger. She perceives the universal harmony, even amid great pain, because she has found peace in her heart.”

For many of us…spiritual work…includes right relationships, right livelihood, right speech, and the ethical dimensions of the spiritual life. This work has required the end of compartmentalization, and an understanding that whatever we seek to push into the shadow or avoid must eventually be included in our spiritual life, that nothing can be left behind. Spirituality has become more about who we are than what ideal we pursue. Spirituality has shifted from going to India or Tibet or Machu Picchu to coming home.

Chapter 22: “The Great Song”

Whenever we try to fix on a pa
rticular state, maintain an image, or hold on to an experience, our personal life, our professional life, and our spiritual life will suffer. Suzuki Roshi summed up all of the teachings of Buddhism in three simple words, “Not always so.”

What patterns and stories have been given to us in this life? What “individual” form have we taken this time? What are the myths and stories we have inherited, and what stories have we continued to follow in the face of the mystery? … The circumstances of our life bring us certain motifs, tasks to fulfill, difficulties we must face, and lessons to learn. We turn these into our story, our song. As we listen deeply we can hear what part we have chosen, how we have created our identity in the face of the mystery. Yet we must ask: Is this who we are?

The second part of the great story of awakening is not about loss or pain but about finding the harmony of our own song within the great song…In awakening to this harmony, we discover a treasure hidden in each difficulty. Hidden in the inevitable impermanence and loss of life, its very instability, is the enormous power of creativity. In the process of change, there arises an abundance of new forms, new births, new possibilities, new expressions of art, music, and life-forms by the millions. It is only because everything is changing that such bountiful and boundless creativity exists.

The hidden treasure in the sufferings, sorrows, and pains of the world is compassion itself. Compassion is the heart’s response to sorrow. We share in the beauty of life and in the ocean of tears. The sorrow of life is part of each of our hearts and part of what connects us to one another.

The difference between one who is awakened and one who is not is simply a question of whether or not the person grasps at a limited story. So the Buddha said, “Those who are unawakened grasp their thoughts and feelings, their body, their perceptions and consciousness, and take them as solid, separate from the rest. Those who are awakened have the same thoughts and feelings, perceptions, body, and consciousness, but they are not grasped, not held, not taken as oneself.

Chapter 23: “Enlightenment is Intimacy With All Things”

If we investigate what keeps us from intimacy, what keeps us from love, we will discover it is always an expectation, a hope, a thought, or a fantasy. It is the same expectation that keeps us from awakening. Awakening is not far away; it is nearer than near. As it says in the Buddhist texts, “Awakening is not something newly discovered; it has always existed. There is no need to seek or follow the advice of others. Learn to listen to that voice within yourself just here and now…Do not doubt the possibilities because of the simplicity of these teachings. If you can’t find the truth right where you are, where else do you think you will find it?”

12-9-2008 - A Path With Heart (chapters 19 and 20) - Points by Danaeah Ballinger

Chapters 19: “Karma: The Heart is Our Garden”

Karma means that nothing arises by itself. Every experience is conditioned by that which precedes it. Thus our life is a series of interrelated patterns. The Buddhists say that understanding this is enough to live wisely in the world.

In Buddhist psychology, the karmic conditioning of our personality is categorized according to three basic unconscious forces and automatic tendencies of our mind. There are the desire types, hose most frequent states of mind are associated with grasping, with wanting, not having enough. There are aversion types, whose most common state of mind is to push away the world through judgment, dislike, aversion, and hatred. Then there are the confused types, whose most fundamental states are lethargy, delusion, and disconnection, not knowing what to do about things.

Our task is to learn about this very body and mind and awaken in the midst of it. Understanding the play of karma is one aspect of awakening. If we are not aware, our life will simply follow the pattern of our past habits over and over. But if we can awaken, we can make conscious choices in how we respond to the circumstances of our life…we may or may not be able to change our outer circumstances, but with awareness we can always change our inner attitude…

What brings the karmic result from the patterns of our actions is not our action alone. As we intend and then act, we create karma: so another key to understanding the creation of karma is becoming aware of intention. The heart is our garden, and along with each action there is an intention that is planted like a seed. The result of the patterns of our karma is the fruit of these seeds.

The development of awareness in meditation allows us to become mindful enough or conscious enough to recognize our heart and intentions as we go through the day. We can be aware of our different states of fear, wanting, confusion, jealousy, and anger. We can know when forgiveness or love or generosity is connected with our actions. When we know what state is in our heart, we can begin to have a choice about the patterns or conditions we will follow, the kind of karma that we create.

When asked to explain the law of karma in the simplest way, Ruth Denison, a well-known vipassana [insight meditation] teacher, put it this way: “Karma means you don’t get away with nothing.”

Chapter 20: “Expanding our Circle: An Undivided Heart”

The laws that govern wise relationships in politics, marriage, or business are the same as in inner life. Each of these areas requires a capacity for commitment and constancy, for taking the one seat. In each of these relationships we will encounter the familiar demons and temptations, and again we will be called upon to name them and dance with our difficulties.

When the heart is undivided, whatever we encounter is our practice. There is no difference between sitting in meditation in dedicated silence or acting in every realm. They are like breathing in and breathing out, two inseparable aspects of our life. The Zen tradition says this explicitly when it states: In spiritual practice there are only two things: you sit and you sweep the garden. And it doesn’t matter how big the garden is.

12-2-2008 - A Path With Heart (chapters 15 and 17) - Points by Danaeah Ballinger

Chapters 15: “Generosity, Codependence, and Compassion”

An act of generosity opens our body, heart, and spirit and brings us closer to freedom. Each act of generosity is a recognition of our interdependence, and expression of our Buddha nature. But for most of us, generosity is a quality that must be developed. We have to respect that it will grow gradually; otherwise our spirituality can become idealistic and imitative, acting out the image of generosity before it has become genuine.

…our capacity for manifesting true generosity will often be limited by an incomplete development of the healthy self…Great generosity springs naturally out of a sense of health and wholeness of our being…The question that we must face in our practice is how can we know when our actions are compassionate and when they are codependent…The roots of codependence were described in [chapter 14] when we spoke of inner wounds, low self-esteem, and unworthiness. Codependence also arises when we discount our own intuitions and emotions (because of low self-esteem) or out of fear of the disapproval of others.

Setting boundaries and limits, shifting from a dependent and entangling love to one based on mutual respect, learning to give while honoring one’s own needs, all of these can entail a profound growth in self-esteem and self-awareness that parallels the healthy development of self.

In his instructions on mindfulness the Buddha
recommended that we give careful attention to the states of the heart that prompt our actions. It is too idealistic to expect that we will always just want to do good; we must listen to know when the heart is attached, to know when the heart is afraid, to know when the heart is dependant. By listening deeply, we can begin to sort out dependence from love. Similarly, we can distinguish when the heart is open, when we are free of attachment, when mutual respect and caring is present. Based on this, our acts can be wise and compassionate.

The ground for compassion is established by first practicing sensitivity toward ourselves. True compassion arises from a healthy sense of self, from an awareness of who we are that honors our own capacities and fears, our own feelings and integrity, along with those of others. It is never based on fear or pity but is a deep supportive response of the heart based on the dignity, integrity, and well being of every single creature. It is a spontaneous response to the suffering and pain we encounter. It is our feeling of mutual resonance and natural connectedness in the face of the universal experience of pain and loss.

Chapter 17: “Psychotherapy and Meditation”

What does Western psychotherapy do that traditional spiritual practice and meditation doesn’t? We have seen how frequently students in the West encounter the deep wounds that result from the breakdown of the Western family system, the traumas of childhood, and the confusion of modern society. Psychotherapy addresses in directed and powerful ways the need for healing, the reclamation and creation of a healthy sense of self, the dissolution of fears and compartments, and the search for a creative, loving, and full way to live in the world.

All too often the mistaken belief that enough sincere practice of prayer or meditation is all that is needed to transform their lives has prevented teachers and students from making use of the helpful teachings of Western psychology. In an unfortunate way, many students of Eastern and Western spirituality have been led to believe that if they experience difficulties, it is simply because they haven’t practiced long enough or somehow have not been practicing according to the teachings. A second erroneous belief is that good students should be capable of facing the whole spiritual path by themselves and that to turn to an outsider for assistance is an indication of weakness or failure.

When we have not completed the basic developmental tasks of our emotional lives or are still quite unconscious in relation to our parents and families, we will find that we are unable to deepen in our spiritual practice. Without dealing with these issues, we will not be able to concentrate during meditation, or we will find ourselves unable to bring what we have learned in meditation into our interaction with others.

11-25-2008 - A Path With Heart (chapters 12 and 13) - Points by Danaeah Ballinger

Chapters 12: “Accepting the Cycles of Spiritual Life”

…recapturing a spontaneous unbroken trust in what we know and feel, is central to finding our spiritual ground in later practice.

The great cycles of our life wash over us, presenting us with challenges and difficult rites of passage much bigger than our ideas of where we are going. Midlife crisis, threats of divorce, personal illness, sickness of our children, money problems, or just running yet again into our own insecurity or unfulfilled ambitions can seem like difficult yet mundane parts of life to get over with so we can become peaceful and do our spiritual practice. But when we bring to them attention and respect, each of those tasks has a spiritual lesson in them.

If we have ideas about how our practice should unfold, these will often get in the way, preventing us from honoring the phase that is actually with us…Practice cannot follow our ideals; it can only follow the laws of life. In a naïve way we might imagine our hearts can stay open like a giant sunflower filled with loving-kindness, compassion, and connection day after day in an unchanging way, but our hearts and feelings have their rhythms and cycles too. Our heart breathes like the rest of us, and sometimes it opens and sometimes it closes like the blossoms of a flower that closes its petals on cool evenings.

Chapter 13: “No Boundaries to the Sacred”

Sometimes…the language and metaphors of spirituality lack…wholeness and reinforce our own compartments and misunderstandings of what is spiritual and what is not. We hear about transcending our ego, or seek to attain divine states and purity, beyond desire, beyond the body; we are taught that enlightenment is found through renunciation; we believe it is somewhere beyond or outside ourselves. The notion of attaining a pure and divine abode fits unfortunately well with whatever neurotic, fearful, or idealistic tendencies we may have.

Where is liberation to be found? The Buddha taught that both human suffering and human enlightenment are found in our own fathom-long body with its senses and mind. If not here and now, where else will we find it? …We have only now, only this single eternal moment opening and unfolding before us day and night. To see this truth is to realize that the sacred and secular cannot be divided. Even the most transcendent visions of spirituality must shine through the here and now and be brought to life in how we walk, eat, an love one another.

There is a specific teaching in the Buddhist tradition that can help us understand how the compartmentalization and separation that operates in us is repeated in spiritual life. It is called the Near Enemies. The near enemies are qualities that arise in the mind and masquerade as genuine spiritual realization, when in fact they are only an imitation…

…The near enemy of loving-kindness is attachment.

…The near enemy of compassion is pity, and this…separates us. Pity feels sorry for “that poor person over there,” as if he were somehow different from us…

…The near enemy of sympathetic joy(…in the happiness of others) is comparison, which looks to see if we have more of, the same as, or less than another.

…Then near enemy of equanimity is indifference.

Spiritual practice will not save us from suffering and confusion, it only allows us to understand that avoidance of pain does not help. Only by honoring our true situation can our practice show us a way through it.

Zen master Suzuki Roshi called his students together as he lay dying of cancer and said:

If when I die, the moment I am dying, if I suffer that is all right, you know; that is suffering Buddha. No confusion in it. Maybe everyone will struggle because of the physical agony or spiritual agony too. But that is all right, that is not a problem. We should be grateful to have a limited body…like mine, like yours. If you had a limitless life it would be a real problem for you.

11-18-2008 - A Path With Heart (chapters 8 and 10, 9 optional ) - Points by Danaeah Ballinger

Chapters 8: “Difficult Problems and Insistent Visitors”

Once we can name the demons as they come and go, our heart can hold them more lightly. Without judgment we become what Ram Dass calls a “connoisseur of our neuroses.”…With more careful attention we will sense that each demon and hindrance is an emotional or spiritual contraction, and that each is generated out of fear. It is this contraction and grasping that the Buddha described as the source of all human suffering.

When any experience of body, heart, or mind keeps repeating in consciousness, it is a signal that this visitor is asking for a deeper and fuller attention. While the general rule in meditation is to stay open to the flow of whatever arises, when we encounter an insistent visitor, we must recognize that this is its way of asking us to give it more attention, to understand it more clearly. This process involves investigation, acceptance, understanding, and forgiveness.

Note: Kornfield describes the step by step process of investigation, acceptance, understanding, and forgiveness in detail in this article on the Spirit Rock website:

http://www.spiritrock.com/download/July07SUN.JackKornfield.pdf

Expanding the Field of Attention requires that we become aware of another dimension of the insistent visitor and not just notice its predominant face. This is because invariably we are stuck on a different level from the obvious one we have been noticing and naming. Release will only take place when we can shift from that which is obvious to one of the other levels of awareness.

…in Buddhist psychology, bringing consciousness to feelings is critical for awakening. In a teaching called the Cycle of the Arising of Conditions, the Buddha explains how humans become entangled. It is the place of feeling that binds or frees us. When pleasant feelings arise and we automatically grasp them, or when unpleasant feelings arise and we try to avoid them, we set up a chain reaction of entanglement and suffering. This perpetuates the body of fear. However, if we learn to be aware of feelings without grasping or aversion, then they can move through us like changing weather, and we can be free to feel them and move on like the wind.

…the fourth principle for working with insistent visitors [is] called Opening Through the Center. The patterns of holding in our body and mind are like knots of energy that have bodily contractions, emotions, memories, and images all intertwined. In this practice we carefully direct our awareness to each level of a knot, feeling into the very center of the pattern. In doing so, we can release our identification with it and discover a fundamental openness and well-being beyond the contraction.

Note: he describes trying to put awareness in the center of the bodily sensations, feelings and images, to try to get to the heart of each one and drop deeper, to the next level. He gives a personal example. Has anyone practiced this method? Does it sound workable?

What humankind longs for cannot be found in the realm of the contracted states, the wanting mind, and the struggles of our small self. Instead, spiritual practice offers us a profound shift of identity. With awareness we can learn to release ourselves from the needy, fearful, or compulsive identities to discover a wholeness and well-being, a sense of freedom, and a natural flow of our being.

Chapter 10: Expanding and Dissolving the Self: Dark Night and Rebirth

In the Zen tradition, altered states and all visionary experiences are referred to as makyo, or illusion. The highest heavens and the lowest hells are transitory, like the seasons and the positions of the stars. No matter what yogic attainment might come to us in these states, it is temporary and does not bring us freedom in all the realms of life.

Since the old man looked very wise, the monk was moved to ask him, “Say, old man, do you know anything of this enlightenment?” The old man, who was really the Bodhisattva Manjusri – said to appear to people when they are ready for enlightenment – let go of his bundle and it dropped to the ground. As in all good Zen stories, in that moment the monk was enlightened. “You mean it’s that simple; just to let go and not grasp at anything?” Then the newly enlightened monk looked back at the old man and asked, “So now what?” In answer, the old man reached down and picked up the bundle again and walked off toward town.

11-11-2008 - A Path With Heart (chapters 11 and 14 ) - Points by Danaeah Ballinger

Chapters 11: “Searching for the Buddha: A Lamp Unto Ourselves”

I asked her to consider carefully what she actually knew herself. If she put aside the Tibetan teachings, the Sufi teachings, the Christian mystical teachings and looked in her own being and heart, what did she already know that was so certain that even if Jesus and the Buddha were to sit in the same room and say, “No, it’s not,” she could look them straight in the eye and say, “Yes it is.”

When we are faced with a variety of spiritual teachings and practice, we must keep a genuine sense of inquiry: What is the effect of this teaching and practice on myself and others? How is this working? What is my relationship to it? Am I getting caught, frightened, lost in confusion? Am I being led to greater kindness and greater understanding, to greater peace or freedom? …In his last words, the Buddha said we must be a lamp unto ourselves, we must find our own true way.

What images do we hold of ourselves, of our spiritual life, of others? Are all these images and ideas who we really are? Is this our true nature? Liberation comes not as a process of self-improvement, of perfecting the body or personality. Instead, in living a spiritual life, we are challenged to discover another way of seeing, rather than seeing with our usual images, ideals and hopes. We learn to see with the heart, which loves, rather than with the mind, which compares and defines.

Chapter 14: “No Self or True Self?”

Emptiness does not mean that things don’t exist, nor does “no self” mean that we don’t exist. Emptiness refers to the underlying nonseparation of life and the fertile ground of energy that gives rise to all forms of life. Our world and sense of self is a play of patterns. Any identity we can grasp is transient, tentative. This is difficult to understand from words such as selflessness or emptiness of self. In fact, my own teacher Achaan Chah said, “If you try to understand it intellectually, your head will probably explode.”

In teaching, the Buddha never spoke of humans as persons existing in some fixed or static way. Instead, he described us as a collection of five changing processes: the processes of the physical body, of feelings, of perceptions, of responses, and of the flow of consciousness that experiences them all. Our sense of self arises whenever we grasp at our identify with these patterns. The process of identification, of selecting patterns to call “I,” “me,” “myself,” is subtle and usually hidden from our awareness.

We can identify with our body, feelings, or thoughts; we can identify with images, patterns, roles, and archetypes. Thus in our culture, we might fix and identify with the role of being a woman or man, a parent or a child. We might take our family history, or genetics, and our heredity to be who we are… Yet, these are not our true identity. One master with whom I studied used to laugh at how easily and commonly we would grasp at new identities. As for himself, he would say, “I am none of that. I am not this body, so I was never born and will never die. I am nothing and I am everything. Your identities make all your problems. Discover what is beyond them…”

Achaan Chah…one evening in his monastery…said, “You know, all this teaching about ‘no self’ is not true.” He went on, “Of course, all the teachings about ‘self’ are not true either,” and he laughed. Then he explained that each of these sets of words, self and no self, are only concepts or ideas that we use in a very crude approximation, pointing to the mystery of a process that is neither self nor no self.

In awakening our Buddha nature, we find that there is one further aspect of self to understand, the need to honor our personal destiny. This discovery is an essential task, especially for those of us in the West. In traditional Buddhist stories, it is taught that an individual might make a great vow to fulfill over the ages, to become the chief attendant to a Buddha or to become a yogi of unsurpassed psychic powers or a bodhisattva of limitless compassion. The intention of many lifetimes creates a specific character and destiny for each of us according to our karma.

11-4-2008 -
A Path With Heart (chapters 6 - 7 ) - Points by Danaeah Ballinger

Chapters 6: “Turning Straw Into Gold”

When difficulties arise, we project our frustration onto them as if it were the rain, the children, the world outside that was the source of our discomfort. We imagine that we can change the world and then be happy. But it is not by moving the rocks that we find happiness and awakening, but by transforming our relationship to them.

…freedom is born of our capacity to work with any energy or difficulty that arises. It’s the freedom to enter wisely into all the realms of this world, beautiful and painful realms, realms of war and realms of peace. We can find such freedom not in some other place or some other time but here and now in this very life. Nor do we have to wait for moments of extreme difficulty to experience the freedom. It is, in fact, better cultivated day by day as we live.

In each and every aspect of life, the chance to turn the straw we find into gold is there in our hearts. All that is asked is our respectful attention, our willingness to learn from difficulty. Instead of fighting, when we see with eyes of wisdom, difficulties can become our good fortune.

When our body is sick, instead of fighting the disease, we can listen to the information it has to tell us and use it to heal. When our children whine or complain, instead of shutting them out, we can listen to what is their deeper need. When we have difficulty with some aspect of our lover or partner, we might inquire how we treat that part in ourselves. Difficulties or weaknesses often lead to the very thing we need to learn.

Often from our seeming weaknesses we can learn a new way. The things we do well, where we have developed our greatest self-confidence, can become habitual, bringing a sense of false security. They are not where our spiritual life will best open…The place where we can most directly open to the mystery of life is in what we don’t do well, in the places of our struggles and vulnerability. These places always require surrender and letting go. When we let ourselves be vulnerable, new things can be born in us. In risking the unknown we gain a sense of life itself. And most remarkably, that which we have sought is often just here, buried under the problem and he weakness itself.

Chapter 7: “Naming the Demons”

Whether difficulties or pleasures, the naming of our experiences is the first step in bringing them to a wakeful conscious attention…In developing the naming practice, stay focused on your breathing unless a stronger experience arises to interrupt your attention. Then include this stronger experience in the meditation, feeling it fully, and naming it softly for as long as it persists – “hearing, hearing, hearing” or “sad, sad, sad.” When it passes, return to naming the breath until another strong experience arises. Keep the meditation simple, focusing on one thing at a time…You must practice very softly, giving ninety-five percent of your energy to sensing each experience, and five percent to a soft name in the background.

For the voice of wanting, what is here now is never enough…When we look, we see that wanting creates tension, that it is actually painful. We see how it arises out of our sense of longing and incompleteness, a feeling that we are separate and not whole. Observing more closely we notice that it is also fleeting, without essence…The process of such unskillful desire is endless, because peace comes not from fulfilling our wants but from the moment when dissatisfaction ends.

We become angry either when we are hurt and in pain or when we are afraid. Almost always the roots of anger are in one of two difficult states, which arise just before the anger appears. Pay attention to your own life and see if this is true. The next time anger and irritation spring up, see if just before they arose you felt fear or hurt. If you pay attention to the fear or pain first, does the anger even appear?

Anger shows us precisely where we are stuck, where our limits are, where we cling to beliefs and fears. Aversion is like a warning signal that lights up an says, “Attached, attached.”

As we go deeper in our spiritual life we find the capacity to acknowledge and touch the hardest places in ourselves. All around us, we encounter the forces of greed, fear, prejudice, hatred, and ignorance. Those of us who seek liberation and wisdom are compelled to discover the nature of these forces in our own heart and mind; we will experience how we get caught in them, but eventually we will find freedom in relation to these basic and primary energies.

10-28-2008 - A Path With Heart (chapters 3 -5 ) - Points by Danaeah Ballinger

Chapters 3: “Take the One Seat”

If we do a little of one kind of practice and a little of another, the work we have done in one often doesn’t continue to build as we change to the next. It is as if we were to dig many shallow wells instead of one deep one. In continually moving from one approach to another, we are never forced to face our own boredom, impatience, and fears. We are never brought face to face with ourselves. So we need to choose a way of practice that is deep and ancient and connected with our hearts, and then make a commitment to follow it as long as it takes to transform ourselves.

Whatever practice we have chosen we must use in this fashion. As we take the one seat we discover our capacity to be unafraid and awake in the midst of all life. We may fear that our heart is not capable of weathering the storms of anger or grief or terror that have been stored up for so long. We may have a fear of accepting all of life, what Zorba the Greek called, “the Whole Catastrophe.” But to take the one seat is to discover that we are unshakable. We discover that we can face life fully, with all its suffering and joy, that our heart is great enough to encompass it all.

Chapter 4: “Necessary Healing”

Another kind of healing takes place when we begin to bring the power of awareness and loving attention to each area of our life with the systematic practice of mindfulness. The Buddha spoke of cultivating awareness in four fundamental aspects of life that he called the Four Foundations of Mindfulness. These areas of mindfulness are: awareness of the body and senses, awareness of the heart and feelings, awareness of the mind and thoughts, and awareness of the principles that govern life. (In Sanskrit these principles are called the dharma, or the universal laws).

The development of awareness in these four areas is the basis for all of the Buddhist practices of insight and awakening.

This dualistic nature of thought is a root of our suffering. Whenever we think of ourselves as separate, fear and attachment arise and we grow constricted, defensive, ambitious, and territorial. To protect the separate self, we push certain things away, while to bolster it we hold on to other things and identify with them.

The mind seems to have a will of its own no matter how much we wish to direct it. So, for a deeper healing of the conflicts of the mind, we need to let go of our identification with them. To heal we must learn to step back from all the stories of the mind, for the conflicts and opinions of our thoughts never end. As the Buddha said, “People with opinions just go around bothering one another.”

Chapter 5: “Training the Puppy: Mindfulness of Breathing”

…meditation is very much like training puppy. You put the puppy down and say, “Stay.” Does the puppy listen? It gets up and it runs away. You sit the puppy back down again. “Stay.” And the puppy runs away over and over again. Sometimes the puppy jumps up, runs over, and pees in the corner or makes some other mess. Our minds are much the same as the puppy, only they create even bigger messes. In training the mind or the puppy, we have to start over and over again.

The focusing of attention on the breath is perhaps the most universal of the many
hundreds of meditation subjects used worldwide. Steadying attention on the movement of the life-breath is central to yoga, to Buddhist and Hindu practices, to Sufi, Christian and Jewish traditions. While other meditation subjects are also beneficial, and each has its unique qualities, we will continue to elaborate on the practice of breath meditation as an illustration for developing any of these practices. Breathing meditation can quiet the mind, open the body, and develop a great power of concentration. The breath is available to us at any time of the day and in any circumstance. When we have learned to use it, the breath becomes a support for awareness throughout life.

10-21-2008 - A Path With Heart - Points by Danaeah Ballinger

Introduction: “A Beginning”

I had hoped for special effects from the meditation – happiness, special states of rapture, extraordinary experiences. But that was not primarily what my teacher offered. He offered a way of life, a lifelong path of awakening, attention, surrender, and commitment. He offered a happiness that was not dependent on any of the changing conditions of the world but came out of one’s own difficult and conscious inner transformation. In joining the monastery, I had hoped to leave behind the pain of my family life and the difficulties of the world, but of course they followed me. It took many years for me to realize that these difficulties were part of my practice.

I could do loving-kindness meditations for a thousand beings elsewhere but had terrible trouble relating intimately to one person here and now. I had used the strength of my mind in meditation to suppress painful feelings, and all too often I didn’t even recognize that I was angry, sad, grieving, or frustrated until a long time later. The roots of my unhappiness in relationships had not been examined. I had very few skills for dealing with my feelings or for engaging on an emotional level or for living wisely with my friends and loved ones.

To open deeply, as genuine spiritual life requires, we need tremendous courage and strength, a kind of warrior spirit. But the place for this warrior strength is in the heart. We need energy, commitment, and courage not to run from our life nor to cover it over with any philosophy – material or spiritual. We need a warrior’s heart that lets us face our lives directly, our pains and limitations, our joys and possibilities. This courage allows us to include every aspect of life in our spiritual practice; our bodies, our families, our society, politics, the earth’s ecology, art, education. Only then can spirituality be truly integrated into our lives.

Question:

What is the difference between “escape,” or running away, and “refuge?” Buddhists of all schools take refuge in “the Buddha, the dharma, and the sangha.” How is that desirable when escapism is not?

Chapter Two, “Did I Love Well?”

“How do you think one gets to be a Nobel laureate? Wanting love, that’s how. Wanting it so bad one works all the time and ends up a Nobel laureate. It’s a consolation prize.” - George Wald, Nobel laureate.

In the end, spiritual life is not a process of seeking or gaining some extraordinary condition or special powers. In fact, such seeking can take us away from ourselves. If we are not careful, we can easily find the great failures of our modern society – its ambition, materialism, and individual isolation – repeated in our spiritual life.

In beginning a spiritual journey, we have to stay much closer to home, to focus directly on what is right here in front of us, to make sure that our path is connected with our deepest love.

Letting go is a central theme in spiritual practice, as we see the preciousness and brevity of life. When letting go is called for, if we have not learned to do so, we suffer greatly, and when we get to the end of our life, we may have what is called a crash course. Sooner or later we have to learn to let go and allow the changing mystery of life to move through us without our fearing it, without holding and grasping.

To love fully and live well requires us to recognize finally that we do not possess or own anything – our homes, our cars, our loved ones, not even our own body. Spiritual joy and wisdom do not come through possession but rather through our capacity to open, to love more fully, and to move and be free in life.

This is not a lesson to be put off. One great teacher explained it this way: “The trouble with you is that you think you have time.”

Question:

(for ongoing reflection): What is my deepest love?

Chapter Three, “Stopping the War”

The unawakened mind tends to make war against the way things are. To follow a path with heart, we must understand the whole process of making war, within ourselves and without, how it begins and how it ends. War’s roots are in ignorance. Without understanding, we can easily become frightened by life’s fleeting changes, the inevitable losses, disappointments, the insecurity of our aging and death. Misunderstanding leads us to fight against life, running from pain or grasping at security and pleasures that by their nature can never be truly satisfying.

When we let ourselves feel the fear, the discontent, the difficulties we have always avoided, our heart softens. Just as it is a courageous act to face all the difficulties from which we have always run, it is also an act of compassion. According to Buddhist scriptures, compassion is the “quivering of the pure heart” when we have allowed ourselves to be touched by the pain of life. The knowledge that we can do this and survive helps us to awaken the greatness of heart. With greatness of hear, we can sustain a presence in the midst of life’s suffering, in the midst of life’s fleeting impermanence.

Discussion Question:

The practice described at the end of chapter two, “A meditation on stopping the war within,” is a first exercise in Vipassana, or Insight Meditation, bringing concentration and mindfulness to our own physical, emotional and mental processes:

…cast your attention over all the battles that still exist in your life…Gently, with openness, allow each of these experiences to be present. Simply notice each of them in turn with interest and kind attention. In each area of struggle, let your body, heart and mind be soft. Open to whatever you experience without fighting. Let it be present just as it is.

Has anyone worked with this practice? What were the results? How can this sort of practice end our war with life as it is?

10-14-2008 - Concentration Part III - Points by Dogen Coldstream

Three ways of becoming concentrated: By accident. By an act of Intention. By turning the attention to that which prevents us from becoming concentrated, and concentrate on that.

Mindfulness of the breathing has a number of functions: 1. To become concentrated so we can see clearly what is happening in the present. 2. We get to see how difficult it is to become concentrated. A reality check about how scattered the mind really is.

The 5 hindrances are the five most common things that prevent us from being concentrated. By allowing our concentration to fall on these distractions, we gain wisdom and understanding of how our minds work, and to see clearly into the delusion that these desires bring us happiness.

Real experience and intimacy of the world doesn’t happen through our thoughts about the objects in the world, but at the sense contact with the world.

The forces of desire, hate, and delusion are beginningless. You can’t analyze your way out of the hindrances. You must see them clearly enough to develop a new relationship with them, not resisting them, or getting caught up in them.

Part of the function of meditation is that it dawns slowly over time that there is a deeper kind of satisfaction in not having an objectifying relationship with the world.

As important as concentration, is compassion. The
awakening of self-compassion is a key point of the practice.

How does concentration practice relate to mindfulness practice?

We always begin where we are at right now. How are you feeling right now? What do you notice in the present moment? What is the most obvious thing? Are you anxious? Tense? Relaxed? Worried? Bring together your mind, body and intention to that. What does it feel like in body? What is your intention? Be present for it with all your being. Investigate it. Look more deeply. Get to know it better. What is it? What is your relationship to it?

One way of understanding the goal of Buddhist practice, is to develop an all-pervasive trust, where the heart and the mind no longer contract in relationship to any experience that we or the world can present us. Where we are no long in conflict with any experience.

The movement of developing concentration for mindfulness practice is to start by just being really honest with what is happening for you, and not try to be someplace else. Once you can really be there, then you get closer and closer to that experience until you really understand intimately that it doesn’t make any sense to be attached or to resist that experience.

10-07-2008 - Concentration Part II - Points by Dogen Coldstream

Doing concentration practice lets you know how present you really are in your mindfulness practice. There are some people who are very good at bringing their attention to the present moment, but they can’t sustain that attention.

What we’re trying to do in mindfulness practice is to sustain our ability to have an awareness of life, of ourselves, where are experience of our life and ourselves is not mediated through our thoughts.

What is so powerful about mindfulness practice, is that it slowly helps us to shift our attention from living in thoughts, to having a center of attention in a direct awareness of what’s going on.

If you have an opportunity, choose to get off the track of thinking, and instead take the track of pure present awareness of what’s going on. And then try to stay on that track.

But if you haven’t spent some time studying your thinking, getting to know it better, then it’s very hard to get off that track. And if you don’t know that there is a wonderful and precious alternative to always thinking, you might think: why bother? And you might think that the alternative to thinking is pale and boring in comparison.

Practical things that people can do if they really are getting lost in their thoughts too much, do something dramatic: Go for a run. Take a cold shower. Take a nap. Look for the underlying motivation of the thinking. Talk it out with a friend. Meditate and count the breath

The five hindrances: Sensual desire, ill-will, sloth and torpor, restlessness and anxiety, and doubt. The Buddha enumerated these five hindrances as the most significant obstacles to developing concentration.

Part of what we need to do in mindfulness practice is to become expert, to be able to recognize their scent before they actually appear. It is important not to regard them as enemies, but to become experts at them. We get to know them so well that they lose their power over us.

9-30-2008 - Concentration Part I - Points by Dogen Coldstream

What is concentration?

Concentration is the unification of body and mind. It is the bringing together of all aspects of our conscious and volitional experience to bear on one subject of attention.

There is a difference between the act of concentration, and the concentrated state. Like falling asleep, you can’t make yourself fall asleep, you can just create the conditions for sleep.

The concentrated state is related to calmness, tranquility, being at ease.

Concentration involves a continuity of attention through time.

The opposite of concentration is distracted mind. Distracted mind is more likely to become fatigued or bored.

Why is it important or useful to develop concentration?

It provides a steadiness of attention to stay present. It allows us to understand the deeper aspects of what we are paying attention to. The greater the concentration, the greater the ability to look more deeply. The greater the ability to reflect with the discursive mind in useful and creative ways.

The unification that occurs with states of concentration heals the fragmentation that so many of us feel. If you are numb to parts of your body, you are fragmented from yourself. If you are unwilling to look at certain memories or unwilling to look at certain feelings then you are shut off from part of yourself and that shuttoffness is a from of fragmentation. To be obsessed about certain things at the expense of being in touch with the holistic sense of who we are is to end up being fragmented. To be critical of ourselves is a state of fragmentation, because part of use is in conflict with another part.

The concentrated state brings with it a feeling of well being and contentment, and various levels of joy. This is a very helpful alternative for people who have, for example, feelings of unworthiness, or feelings of anxiety, or feelings of distress.

Concentration replaces self-preoccupation.

Ways of becoming concentrated

Being interested in the object you are paying attention to, or give up our interest in other distracting things.

Have a tremendous amount of compassion for oneself.

Understand how to included everything as part of the practice. There is no distraction, it is part of the practice.

Pay attention to the quality of the mind: keep it soft.

Become very familiar with the five hindrances: Sense desire, ill-will, sloth and torpor, restlessness and anxiety, and doubt. These are the five most powerful forces that keep the mind from becoming concentrated.

One good way to start is meditating by counting your breath.

Supports for concentration:

Develop a stillness of body. Don’t adjust your body while meditating

Take a bath before you meditate

Meditate in a clean room

Wear clean clothes

Cultivate a simplicity of being: Don’t multitask

9-23-2008 - Buddhism without Beliefs (Ch 14 -16) Points by Renwick Tomsen

FREEDOM
We are our own jailers. We keep ourselves unfree by clinging, out of confusion and fear, to a self that exists independently to all conditions. Instead of accepting and understanding things as they are, we seek independence from them in the fiction of an isolated selfhood. Ironically, this alienated self-centeredness is then confused with individual freedom.

The freedom of awakening is a relative freedom from the constraints of self-centered confusion and turmoil, from the craving for a fixed identity, from the compulsion to contrive a perfect situation, from identification with preconceived opinions, and from the anguish that originates in such attachments…To undermine the fixated, frozen view of things that traps us in cycles of craving and anguish, we need to cultivate awareness of the freedom present in each moment of experience.

IMAGINATION
Great works of art in all cultures succeed in capturing within the constraints of their form both the pathos of anguish and a vision of its resolution…Such works achieve their resolution not through consoling or romantic images whereby anguish is transcended. They accept anguish without being overwhelmed by it. They reveal anguish as that which gives beauty its dignity and depth.

The ennobling truths are not just challenges to act with wisdom and compassion but challenges to act with creativity and aesthetic awareness. Our words, our deeds, our very presence in the world, create and leave impressions in the minds of others just as a writer makes impressions with his pen on paper, the painter with his brush on canvas, the potter with his fingers in clay.

CULTURE
A culture of awakening cannot exist independently of the specific social, religious, artistic, and ethnic cultures in which it is embedded. It emerges out of
creative interactions with these cultures without either rejecting or being absorbed by them. It will inevitably assume certain features of contemporary culture, perhaps inspiring and revitalizing some dimensions of it, while also maintaining a critical perspective…It cannot occur without being rooted in a coherent and vital sense of community, for a matrix of friendships is the very soil in which dharma practice is cultivated.

The democratic and agnostic imperatives of the secular world demand not another Buddhist Church, but an individuated community, where creative imagination and social engagement are valued as highly as philosophic reflection and meditative attainment. An agnostic Buddhist vision of a culture of awakening will inevitably challenge many of the time-honored roles of religious Buddhism…Instead of a mystical religious movement ruled by autocratic leaders, it would foresee a deep agnostic, secular culture founded on friendships and governed by collaboration.

9-9-2008 - Buddhism without Beliefs (Ch 10 -13) Points by Renwick Tomsen

9-2-2008 - Buddhism without Beliefs (Ch 5 -9) Points by Renwick Tomsen

REBIRTH
Where does this leave us? It may seem that there are two options: either to believe in rebirth or not. But there is a third alternative: to acknowledge, in all honesty, I do not know. We neither have to adopt the literal versions of rebirth presented by religious tradition nor fall in to the extreme of regarding death as annihilation. Regardless of what we believe, our actions will reverberate beyond our deaths…To cling to the idea of rebirth can deaden questioning.

RESOLVE
The problem is not that we lack resolve, but that it so often turns out to be misplaced. The meaning-laden feelings do not last. We resolve to become wealthy and famous, only to discover in the end that such things are incapable of providing that permanent well-being we initially projected onto them.

Resolve is activated by self-confidence…If we see ourselves as insignificant, always in the shadows of others, then the slightest hardship will seem daunting. We will always be drawn to those who insist that awakening is a distant goal, accessible only to a privileged few. Conversely, if we see ourselves as superior to others, then while outwardly disdainful of hardship, we are tormented by humiliation when it defeats us.
INTEGRITY
How often do we refrain from acting, out of fear of how our actions might be received? To let such a moment slip away can be agonizing. To combat such fear requires the courage to live in a less self-centered and more compassionate way…When the door of hesitation is unlocked, we enter a dynamic, fluid world, which challenges us to act and act again.

When we are faced with the unprecedented and unrepeatable complexities of this moment, the question is not "What is the right thing to do?" but "What is the compassionate thing to do?" The question can be approached with integrity but not with certainty.
FRIENDSHIP
We are participatory beings who inhabit a participatory reality, seeking relationships that enhance our sense of what it means to be alive…a true friend is someone whom we can trust to refine our understanding of what it means to live, who can guide us when we’re lost and help us find the way along a path, who can assuage our anguish through the reassurance of his or her presence.

8-26-2008 - Buddhism without Beliefs (Ch 1 -4) Points by Renwick Tomsen

Four ennobling truths: those of anguish, its origins, its cessation, and the path leading to its cessation. Anguish, he says, is to be understood, its origins to be let go of, its cessation to be realized, and the path to be cultivated.

Anguish maintains its power only as long as we allow it to intimidate us…To understand a worry is to know it calmly and clearly for what it is: transient, contingent, and devoid of intrinsic identity. Whereas to misunderstand it is to freeze it into something fixed, separate, and independent…The challenge of the first truth is to act before habitual reactions incapacitate us.

Just as the presence of anguish is an opportunity for understanding, so the presence of the self-centered craving that underlies it is an opportunity for
letting go…Whenever such feelings arise, the habitual reaction is either to indulge them or to deny them…letting go begins with understanding: a calm and clear acceptance of what is happening…Instead of forcibly freeing ourselves from it, notice how its very nature is to free itself.

Dharma practice at this moment has relinquished the last traces of belief; it is founded on authentic vision born from experience. It no longer requires the support of moralistic rules and religious ritual; it is grounded in integrity and creative autonomy. In revealing life in all its vulnerability, it becomes the doorway to compassion.

Cessation of craving is like a momentary gap in the clouds. The sun shines brilliantly for a few moments, only to be covered again. We find ourselves back in the humbling fog of anguish, craving, habit, restlessness, distraction. But with a difference: now we know where this track goes.

The actions that accompany the four truths describe the trajectory of dharma practice…this trajectory is no linear sequence of "stages" through with we "progress." We do not leave behind and earlier stage in order to advance to the next rung of some hierarchy. All four activities are part of a single continuum of action…As soon as understanding is isolated from letting go, it degrades into mere intellectuality. As soon as letting go is isolated from understanding, it declines into spiritual posturing.

8-19-2008 - Audio File Selection and Points by Renwick Tomsen

The Self

Audio file from the Internet - URL :

http://www.dharmapodcast.org/the-self/

(In response to the Buddha being asked if there is such a thing as the self or is there no self) If…there is a self, then he would very likely have fallen into a view of eternalism. In other words, it would have reinforced his idea that there is some kind of personal essence. A true self. In many respects probably like the kind of self spoken of in the Brahmanic traditions. A self which is beyond the body and the mind and is somehow co-eternal with God. Deep, deep within ourselves somewhere. Our true nature. Our essence…If…there is no self, then he would have slipped into the opposite era or extreme, that of nihilism. That there is just nothing, that there is no one there. There is no identity, no person.

The self is something that is nurtured. In other words, you and I do not have to be the way we think we are. We are not stuck in this narrow ego identity, but rather we are a field of possibilities that is open to transformation or change.

By comparing ourselves to an arrow (the construction of), the Buddha seems to be suggesting that we can reconfigure our lives, we can put together the different elements of who we are. Which might for example be our intelligence, our emotional life, our physical existence, our relationships with others, our values. All the things we think of as elements of ourselves. And these can be reconfigured into something that is more streamlined, directed, straight to the point rather than being fragmented,…of somehow of being out of sync.

The process of the practice therefore is the process of integration. The self is something that can be cultivated. The self is also something that can be integrated. Brought together into a coherent whole. So rather than being split between different facets of ourselves that may not sit terribly happily together, we learn to bring all of our different skills and our aspects into a kind of harmonious whole. So get a different set of metaphors all of which point to a self as something that is not just a given, but something that can be transformed. That can be worked up and be developed and evolved. It is a process it is not a state.

Rather than thinking that Buddhism is somehow trying to get rid of the self, I would argue that in fact the Buddha’s vision was one in which he saw his practice as a constant differentiation of our own identity. We are not this fixed thing, but we can become through our different activities. And again not just exclusively meditation, it’s not just something that goes on in the private depths of ourselves. But, we are fashioned through our actions.

Now all of this is congruent with the idea of no self, but we have to be careful as to what that means. It doesn’t mean that there is no self. In fact it is a mistranslation to translate it as no self. It is rather more not self to be terribly precise. But, the self that is being questioned here is this notion that we have some kind of essential unchanging eternal identity. In other words the concept of self that prevailed in the Brahmanic and Upanashadic culture of the Buddha’s time. So the Buddha is rejecting that and he is pointing to how, because we are not some essential self, therefore we are able to become a self…He has therefore a dynamic conception of self, not a static conception of self.

The only real refuge that you have, the only real illumination that you have is the extent to which the dharma has been integrated into yourself…when you are in a crisis situation you can’t rely upon the Buddha, you can’t rely upon the other people, in the end you can only rely on your self. Your self though being qualified as your self as cultivated, fashioned, configured through your practice.

Sometimes, because we see that individualism has gone berserk and extreme, we think of Buddhism as somehow solving that problem by just getting rid of the individual. Negation of self. I think that is going too far. I think the human individual has now to see him or herself in the light of these extraordinary web of relationships which enable us humans or other forms of life to exist at all. To recognize the fragility of those relations and to thereby conceive ourselves not so arrogantly as this sole and detached ego, but rather as one creature with a very temporary life span and how our actions are affecting negatively and possibly, but that I think alarmingly in many ways now the very survival of life on earth.

8-12-2008 - Break

8-5-2008 - Break

7-29-2008 - Audio File Selection and Points by Renwick Tomsen

A Banquet of Consequences : Karma

Audio file from the Internet - URL :

http://www.dharmapodcast.org/podpress_trac/web/75/0/DP080305c.mp3

In the conventional antiquated view of karma there is a subject that is causing things. Well, that is completely anti-thetical to Buddhism. I choose this…There is a subject operating a self that is operating, but when we look really deeply and unpack our experience,…there are a phenomenal number of factors that are producing what is this thing that is saying I choose. So the trap of I choose is to think that I choose. And once you think you really choose you move out of a systems perspective…You’re in the experience of ignorance.

"What’s fate?"
"An endless succession of intertwined events, each influencing the other."

It’s essential that we look deeper than just the blaming, this is because that is.

But there is something important also in terms of justice, about accountability and how do we intervene into a system, to actually break the karmic patterns.

Karma means action. It does not mean cause and effect…. Action takes place in a universe that is infinitely related…This continuum of interconnectedness in process influencing each other…However from the Buddhists perspective karma has actually dropped into another domain, which is the domain of volition or intention. What you are conscious about in your body, your speech, or your mind that influences your actions.

The job of the practitioner is to actually bring attention to those habitual patterns that decay our attentional stability, our attentionable balance.

7-22-2008 - Audio File Selection and Points by
Renwick Tomsen

Not Taking Intoxicants : Fifth Precept

Audio file from Internet - URL : http://www.dharmapodcast.org/podpress_trac/web/81/0/dp080422.mp3

Aware of the suffering caused by unmindful consumption, I vow to cultivate good health, both physical and mental, for myself, my family, and my society by practicing mindful eating, drinking, and consuming. I vow to ingest only items that preserve peace, well-being, and joy in my body, in my consciousness, and in the collective body and consciousness of my family and society. I am determined not to use alcohol or any other intoxicant or to ingest foods or other items that contain toxins, such as certain TV programs, magazines, books, films, and conversations. I am aware that to damage my body or my consciousness with these poisons is to betray my ancestors, my parents, my society, and future generations. I will work to transform violence, fear, anger, and confusion in myself and in society by practicing a diet for myself and for society. I understand that a proper diet is crucial for self-transformation and for the transformation of society.

It is any kind of dissatisfaction with this present moment just as it is. That dissatisfaction is a toxin. So any time you are out of the present moment. Where you are dreaming, just longing for some other kind of moment. That is a toxin.

How many of us have been caught in a conversation where someone is saying something really unwholesome about someone else, and we feel caught in it? And we don’t realize that we’re actually, by even listening to it, not intervening, we’re ingesting a toxin while we’re also assisting in the intoxication of another through their own speech. How often have we really understood speech as a nourishment or speech as a toxin?

It’s honoring our consciousness. It’s not just honoring our liver. It’s honoring our mind, our good heart. And to understand that we are actually much more sensitive beings than we think we are. In that it is really essential that we are careful what we put into our minds.

It’s really calling us to look deeply into the truth of the situation. Not just in terms of our little bitty personal experience, but in terms of deep responsibility out there in the world, and to see the train of consequences of cause and effect that are present in terms of the choices that we make.

What are the experiences that we have which toxify our wisdom and capacity that make it possible for us to be wise?

Stay present for things just as they are. Not to toxify it with judgment, but to look deeply into the roots. The attachment to the self.

It is very important for us to see when our identity begins to be threatened through inward looking. To watch the ego send an army of cravers out. An army of consumers. "No," says my ego. You are trying to unpack me, trying to dissolve me. Let me just consume some more.

Not giving or taking intoxicants is not to engage in the practice of influencing others.