Taking refuge in the Buddha, we learn to transform anger into compassion; Taking refuge in the Dharma, we learn to transform delusion into wisdom; Taking refuge in the Sangha, we learn to transform desire into generosity.
Short Refuge Prayer
Return to in-person meetings! ALL ARE WELCOME
Dear Sangha Members, We vow to go through our meetings in a spirit of togetherness as we review all ideas and consolidate them to reach a harmonious understanding or consensus. We vow to use the methods of loving speech and deep listening in order to bring about the success of this meeting as an offering to the Three Jewels. We vow not to hesitate to share our ideas and insights but also vow not to say anything when the feeling of irritation is present in us. We are resolutely determined not to allow tension to build up in this meeting. If any one of us senses the start of tension, we will stop immediately and practice Beginning Anew right away so as to re-establish an atmosphere of togetherness and harmony. (from Joyfully Together)
The Buddhist Sangha of Bucks County returnс to the Yardley Friends Meetinghouse 12/6/2021.
To protect the health of our members and visitors and their friends and family, we are asking everyone to follow these protocols:
Entering the building: -All visitors are asked to wear a mask to enter, -Please wear a mask while socializing and while moving about the meetinghouse. -To keep our community healthy, if you don’t feel well, please stay home and practice alone.
Second-hour discussions: -Visitors will be asked to wear a mask while sitting in our discussion circle. · Anyone who feels they need to remove their masks are asked to sit more distantly, but still be part of the discussion. -For the remainder of the year, there will be no tea or snacks served during the second hour. Please do feel free to bring your own snack and beverage.
Please note that the executive officers and Board members will evaluate these protocols over the next weeks, and will consider changes when they seem appropriate.
We look forward to seeing you all in person soon!
Community Outreach – Our Sangha continues to work to support our community
Fall Road Clean Up took place Saturday Nov. 6th A warm thanks to all who were able to participate & keep our community-sponsored road tidy!
TASK is leading the fight against hunger, serving 8,000 meals per week at 32 meal sites across the area. Hunger Action Month: Know More
Today, we mark the beginning of October and the end of Hunger Action Month. Throughout September, we focused our efforts on raising awareness about food insecurity and its growing impact on Mercer County. On September 17, Hunger Action Day, we convened a large group of legislators and thought leaders at TASK to discuss the state of food insecurity in New Jersey. While speakers touched on a wide variety of issues, one thing was clear: hunger is complex. There are no simple solutions. We also debuted a new brand new video that tells the story of our efforts to address the hunger crisis and feed TASK patrons — body, mind and soul. As you’ll find in the video, this group does more than just feed those in need. https://youtu.be/5HcbieYt5c8
Caring For Friends, a food bank and senior meals program in Philadelphia, PA.
Caring for Friends volunteers prepare and deliver thousands of meals to homebound seniors throughout the Delaware Valley. The BSBC Board voted to donate $500 which will go a long way in purchasing food and supplies, particularly since Caring for Friends can buy in bulk and receive discounts as a charitable organization. To learn more, please visit: https://caringforfriends.org
Supporting Our Sangha: Dana
The Buddhist Sangha of Bucks County offers our programs, retreats, and weekly meetings through the volunteer efforts of our members. We rely on your weekly donations (dana) to pay our rent and provide various offerings.
We are a 501(c)(3) non-profit. Please, consider supporting us at a level that is most comfortable for you, and know that you can make a contribution by check at any time in-person or online using the Paypal button.
All are welcome, regardless of ability to contribute. May your practice be steadfast, and thank you for being a part of the Buddhist Sangha of Bucks County.
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AROUND THE PERIPHERY of the Mahabodhi Temple in Bodhgaya, India, along a path where pilgrims circumambulate, rose-colored walls of solid stone depict scenes from the Buddha’s life, hand carved in lifelike relief.
My favorite of these is the scene depicting the night before the Buddha’s enlightenment, when he was visited by the maras, projections of his own delusion, desire, and aversion. The scene depicts the Buddha seated peacefully, surrounded by sensual maidens, ferocious beasts, and furious demons threatening him with spears and clarioning for his attention.
I’ve always been struck by the juxtaposition of the swirling vigor and emotion of the maras and the insouciance of the Buddha. How is it possible to remain motionless and peaceful, with eyes lowered and a smile on one’s face, while threats swirl so close at hand?
This scene from the Buddha’s life is a visceral teaching for those of us who meditate. If you sit still and watch your mind, everything that sleeps in your psyche and your memory will come to visit. To meditate will– sooner or later– require us to encounter and deal with every part of the self, and that might not be what we have in mind when we first stumble into a zendo or take our first mindfulness class. In the early days of practice, we seek meditation as a refuge, an island away from trouble, a place where we can escape our outer distractions and inner afflictions.
For a while, for months or years even, practice might seem to work this way. It might come to represent a world apart from our daily life, a kind of sanctuary. But eventually, the moment arrives when you look down at the island of kapok (our meditation cushion, that is) and realize this is not where you get away from your inner demons. It is where you face them.
If meditation is doing its job, space opens within, and in that space every memory and trauma will revisit us, every fear will surface. Our shadow will come out to play. This is not a sign of backsliding. It is a sign the work is beginning.
APPEARANCE
In the Tibetan tradition, there is a well-known pith instruction spoken by the Indian master Tilopa to his disciple Naropa. He said:
The mind is not bound by appearances.
The mind is bound by grasping.
O Naropa, cut through grasping.
This word “appearance,” abhasa in Sanskrit, is worth considering for its breadth of meaning. We don’t really have a word in English that does it justice, although “appearance” is probably the closest one-word translation.
Its first meaning is “phenomenality.” Abhasa is everything the subjective self experiences. It includes everything that can be seen by our eyes, heard with the ears, smelled, touched, tasted, felt. In that sense, appearance includes everything “out there”– the conditions of our life.
What arises within the mind and heart is also abhasa. It also includes thoughts, beliefs, memories, intuition, past traumas, habits, and emotions– everything we think of as “in here.”
The conditions of your life? Those are abhasa. That person who irritates you at work? She/he is abhasa. That endless train of thought cascading through your mind when you try to meditate? That is abhasa. Chronic illness? Abhasa. Your fears, joys, hopes, and dreams? Those too are abhasa. Anything that you can have, are, or will experience is abhasa.
THE CONDITIONS
One of the gifts of meditation practice is that it provides us with a way to slow down and observe our experience. When we do, so much is revealed. Slowing down provides the leisure to step back
from manipulating and fixing. Instead, we can simply watch abhasa, watch what is happening. When we watch, we gradually begin to notice a profound richness. Many things are happening at once. Sound is happening. The breath is breathing. The light in the room is changing. The heart is beating. Some things seem to be happening outside, and some are happening inside. A symphony of appearance is unfolding.
At first, perhaps all is quiet and all is well. But then eventually there is an itch. Our back aches. The sound of music from the radio is getting in through the window. That music persists. Aversion arises. I could meditate if only the noise would cease.
Now I am sure the noise is why I cannot meditate. It is responsible for my restlessness and irritation. It is at fault. But is it? Can a sound reach inside a mind and make it suffer? Reactivity has a way of making us believe the impossible. It seeks to turn attention away from the true cause and externalize the fault. The absurdity of reactivity’s logic reveals itself when we turn this assumption into a question.
Tilopa urged his disciple Naropa to question blaming our internal state on external conditions. For so long, we have believed that external conditions determine our contentment, and we have thereby given up our power.
To say we are fettered is to say we are limited. When Tilopa said, “The mind is not bound by appearances,” he was saying we are not limited by external conditions. They are not holding us down, at least not in the way we believe them to be. This is a radical statement and it goes against what we may have believed our whole life.
Reactivity thrives in the gap between how things are and how we wish they would be. This is one way to understand grasping: it is energy that externalizes and reaches slightly ahead of the present. When we are living that way, the mind stays rigid and expectorant. It cannot land on what is.
ENTANGLEMENT
Noise is important– whether it be the audible kind or the noise of our own thoughts– because how we are with noise and other changing conditions on our practice is how3 we are with the conditions of our life.
In everyday life, as in meditation, we are completely absorded by these appearances. We are caught up in what is happening. We are bound. some appearances are attractive and interesting. Those we pursue. Some are challenging and make us fell uncomfortable. Those we try to avoid. Some appearances don’t seem either threatening or beneficial. Those we leave alone.
In other words, we are not just witnessing appearances like innocent bystanders. We are caught in a push and pull with them. We are locked in struggle. Tilopa called the push and pull “grasping.” We see grasping at its most tangible in the way we manipulate our environment, trying to keep uncomfortable abhasa away and keep attractive appearances close at hand.
Another way to put this is that we are, for want of a better word, entangled. We are not just stuck to appearances, we are enmeshed in them. Entanglement happens before we make a choice. It leads to a habitual tendency to micromanage experience.
Because this entanglement is almost constant, it is not easily noticed. What we notice so much more is the reactivity that bursts through the surface. Without a gap in the cycle, we do not actually know what it means to be free.. So it is a little hard to see entanglement at first. But you can feel it. You feel entanglement as a pull into the vortex of your opinions, judgments, and beliefs. You feel it as a veil between this mind and the fresh unfolding of your life. You feel it in the body as an energy of grasping and avoiding. Entanglement is visceral.
DISRUPTION
In some respects, entanglement is a matter of belief. We don’t just witness appearances. We believe in them. We attribute to them reality and consistency. We also believe in the self that experiences them.
The Buddha called such belief delusion. We have misunderstood reality — the reality that nothing is solid, separate, fixed or predictable, and that there is no separate self. To see appearances in their true light would be to see them as flow, as ephemeral and unbounded. It requires that we de-center the self.
When Tilopa said, Your mind is bound by grasping,” he assumed this underlying belief that the self and appearances are separate. This belief of separateness is, in the Tibetan traditions, called ignorance, because it is so deep and so old. We might even say primordial ignorance is the parent of grasping. Only when we objectify can we grasp.
Tilopa lays out the path to awakening in just one line: “O Naropa, cut through grasping.” The metaphor of cutting and severing implies that awakening can be sudden, and that it requires disruption of business as usual. A belief can, theoretically, collapse in a moment.
But sudden disruption is not enough,. The vines of grasping have been growing for a long time, at least as long as we have been alive. If you happen to believe in reincarnation, they have been growing wince beginningless time, through endless cycles of birth and death. This grasping is an old habit.
AGRICULTURE OF THE SOUL
Behind my house stand three tall maple trees, surrounding a grand old willow. All of the backyard trees are entwined with English Ivy. The ivy climbs up their trunks. It has been growing for decades, and I know that to free these trees will require care and patience.
In the Mula Sutta (Discourse of the Roots, AN 3.69), the Buddha invokes the image of a great, beautiful tree. Growing up and around this grand tree, slowly choking its life, are three vines of attachment,aversion, and ignorance. A gardener, the practitioner, comes along.
The gardener does not just cut. The Buddha describes the process of freeing this tree as careful, protracted, and even loving. I have learned, in my gardening life, that vines are like this. You cannot just uproot your English Ivy. The better strategy is to learn how to work with it over a long period of time.
Trees are appearances and the ivy is the grasping. There is a tree of thought, a tree of emotion, and a tree of conditions. Cutting them down is not a solution. Our thoughts, emotions, and conditions of our life are what make us human.
The task of our practice is to mindfully, gradually, and thoroughly disentangle the grasping. To free the tree of appearances is a long and careful process, requiring self-observation, self-awareness, and skill. This is where meditation comes in.
In meditation, we slow down. We watch the trees. We watch the vines. We learn to discern the difference between what is indigenous and what is invasive. We weed, prune, cultivate, and nurture. Meditation is our agriculture of the soul.
INTIMACY
To disentangle a great tree from an invasive vine, you must become intimate with both. We meditators often make a grave mistake in this regard. We want to become intimate with our states of ease and leave our states of dis-ease behind. We want to embrace states of concentration and leave agitation behind. We want to cut down our trees.
We can be forgiven for this The initial trainings in meditation ask us to return our mind again and again to the breath, or some other non-conceptual focus. On a quest to strengthen mindfulness, we label almost everything but attention as “distraction.” This works for a while, but not forever. Eventually the labeling of experience becomes an “othering” that is yet another form of aversion.
Thoughts and feelings are not aberrations of the human condition, they are natural to us. They are the inner abhasa. To befriend them, we need to develop a non-adversarial relationship to appearances. As long as we feel threatened by our thoughts, or seduced by them, we are entangled.
True “cutting” is to become intimate with whatever is arising. This intimacy is affectionate and loving, but it is not indulgent. Can you love your thoughts? Can you love your anger? Can you love your fear? To mature as a practitioner is to embrace such a path of intimacy.
To stop and watch appearances with equanimity and curiosity is a sea change. However, to become a gracious host of whatever arises takes a radical shift in perspective.
THE DISPLAY OF AWARENESS
There is a second meaning of abhasa: luminosity, or vision. Abhasa are phenomena, but the nature of those phenomena is visionary, luminous, and ephemeral. From a Buddhist phenomenological perspective, these arisings are the play of one’s own consciousness, the light of one’s own awareness.
If you stop for a minute and watch, you can witness this marvelous, spontaneous display that seems to come out of nowhere. The mind is tremendously fertile. It presents a miraculous unfurling of thoughts, feelings, and experiences. Tibetan masters have a name for this: rang tsal, the mind’s natural inherent energy.
In Tibetan meditative traditions, there is a critical relationship between appearances (abhasa) and inherent energy (rang tsal). When we are caught in grasping, it seems as if some of these appearances are coming at us from the outside. Other appearances, the ones that we call thought, feeling, emotion, and perception, seem to be coming at us from within. All of these seem significant for their content. We are distracted by what we see.
But once in a while, we might realize that what we are actually witnessing– when we witness appearances– is the natural energy (rang tsal) of the mind! While the mind’s display changes (our thoughts, feelings, and perceptions change), the bright energy behind the display is an ebbing and flowing that is constant.
Recognizing the splendor of the mind’s energy in this way takes our attention away from the content of appearances. It takes our attention away from the conceptuality (and its subsequent enmeshment). It takes us away from the stories and reduces obsession. This critical turn of attention lifts the veil of delusion.
When we understand these appearances are the light of our own awareness, they are no longer distant. We do not need to crave a self-fulfilling beauty. They are also no longer threatening. These appearances, once the trigger for grasping, transform into our friends. They can even become a cause of freedom and release.
THE HERE AND NOW
We might think the opposite of grasping is detachment, but actually it is intimacy. Intimacy can be approximated with the conceptual mind. We can understand it. We can imagine it. But approximation is not enough. True intimacy, the kind that the Buddha seems to be expressing when he smiles at his demons on the eve of his awakening, is embodied. Embodied intimacy arises from a neurological change in our response to appearances.
Back to the inquiry: how is it possible to remain motionless and peaceful, with eyes lowered and a smile on one’s face, while threats swirl so close at hand? It is possible when one embodies intimacy with abhasa.
At the very end of the Mula Sutta, the Buddha could have been describing what happens next:
“[The practitioner] dwells in ease right in the here and now– feeling unthreatened, placid, unfeverish– and is unbound right in the here and now.”
This connection between the Buddha’s intimacy with the maras and the radical presence of bodhi might hold a simple but profound key for those of us who meditate. It is a breadcrumb on the path of meditation. The most important goals of our practice may not be focus, relaxation, or even tranquility. Intimacy may be the most important goal and outcome of our practice, its most important promise, because the one thing keeping us from radical presence is our struggle with appearances.
Lama Willa Miller, PhD, is a teacher in the Tibetan Buddhist tradition and the founder and spiritual director of Natural Dharma Fellowship in Boston and its retreat center, Wonderwell Mountain Refuge in Springfield, New Hampshire. She is a visiting lecturer on Buddhist ministry at Harvard Divinity School, and is author of Everyday Dharma: Seven Weeks to Finding the Buddha in You; Essence of Ambrosia: A Guide to Buddhist Contemplations; and The Arts of Contemplative Care. She was authorized as a lama (minister within the Tibetan Buddhist tradition) in 1999, following more than six years of silent retreat and intensive study.
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When Things Fall Apart: Heart Advice for Difficult Times -by Pema Chodron
How can we live our lives when everything seems to fall apart – when we are continually overcome by fear, anxiety and pain? The answer, Pema Chodron suggests, might be just the opposite of what you expect. . . . Pema shows that moving toward painful situations and becoming intimate with them can open up our hearts in ways we never before imagined. (from the book jacket)
The Buddhist Sangha of Bucks County, met as a fourfold sangha and discussed this book at via zoom from 8-9pm after our sitting practice. The following are reflections for each week complied by James Reis, who with Jeannie led our discussions. The chapters are small, about 5-10 pages each. The book is available online and at the library.
Excerpts Discussed Monday June 22 :
Ch 1: On Intimacy with Fear:
Fear is a
natural reaction to moving closer to the truth
We cannot
be present and run our story lines at the same time
Anyone who
stands at the edge of the unknown, fully in the present without a reference
point, experiences groundlessness.
That’s when our understanding goes deeper, when we find that the present
moment is a pretty vulnerable place and that this can be completely unnerving
and completely tender at the same time.
I once
asked a Zen master Kobun Chino Roshi how he related to fear and he said, ‘I
agree, I agree’
Ch 2: On When Things Fall Apart:
What
happened to me when I got to the abbey was that everything fell apart. All the ways I shield myself, all the ways I
delude myself, all the ways I maintain my well-polished self-image – all of it
fell apart. No matter how hard I tried,
I couldn’t manipulate the situation.
When
things are shaky and nothing is working, we might realize that we are on the
verge of something. We might realize
that this is a very vulnerable and tender place, and that tenderness can go
either way.
The test
for each of us is to stay on the brink and not concretize.
…. The
only time we every know what’s really going on is when the rug’s been pulled
out from under us.
Life is a
good teacher and a good friend.
To stay
with the shakiness, the broken heart, with a rumbling stomach, with a feeling
of hopelessness and wanting to get revenge, that is the path to true awakening.
Ch 3: On This Very Moment is the Perfect Teacher:
Those events and people in our lives who trigger our unresolved issues could be regarded as good news.
All addictions stem from this moment when we meet our edge and we just can’t stand it.
Reaching our limit is like finding a doorway to sanity.
The first thing that happens in meditation is that we start to see what’s happening. Even though we still run away and we still indulge, we see what we’re doing clearly. To the degree that we’re willing to see our indulging and our repressing clearly, they begin to wear themselves out.
We continue to make friends with our hopes and fears again and again.
Excerpts Discussed Monday June 29
Ch 4: On Relax as it is:
…not to speak of ‘concentrating’ on the out-breath but to use more fluid language. So we would tell students to ‘touch the out-breath and let it go’ or to ‘have a light and gentle attention on the out-breath’
If we connect with something blissful or inspiring, we might think we’ve finally got it and try to stay where there’s peace and harmony and nothing to fear…
Just how willing are we to lighten up and loosen our grip. How honest do we want to be with ourselves
Ch 5: On It’s Never Too Late:
I get many letters from ‘the worst person in the world’.
What makes Maitri (Metta, Loving-Kindness) such a different approach is that we are not trying to solve a problem.
When we buy into disapproval, we are practicing disapproval
In the midst of the worst scenario (about ourselves), open space is always there
Cutting our expectations for a cure is a gift we give ourselves
There’s so much resentment and resistance to life. In all nations, it’s like a plague that’s gotten out of control and is poisoning the atmosphere of the world.
Ch 6: On Not Causing Harm:
By waiting, we begin to connect with fundamental restlessness as well as
fundamental spaciousness
The ground of not causing harm is mindfulness, a sense of clear seeing with
respect and compassion for what it is we see.
Refraining has something to do with giving up entertainment mentality….
We see that there’s something between the arising of the craving, or the
aggression or the loneliness or whatever it might be, and the action we take
as a result.
There has to be some kind of respect for the jitters
We don’t waste the gift of speech in expressing our neurosis
To be completely here, without anxiety about imperfection
Excerpts Discussed Monday July 6
Ch 7: On Hopelessness and Death:
Without giving up hope that there’s somewhere
better to be, that there’s someone better to be, we will never relax with where
we are or who we are.
Believing in a solid, separate self, continuing
to seek pleasure and avoid pain, thinking that there is someone ‘out there’ to
blame for our pain, one has to get totally fed up with these ways of thinking
The first noble truth of the Buddha is that when
we feel suffering, it doesn’t mean that something is wrong. What a relief
Hope and fear is a feeling with two sides, (and
so the are…) hopelessness and confidence.
On renunciation:
The real thing we renounce is the tenacious hope that we could be saved
from being who we are.
All anxiety, all dissatisfaction, all the
reasons for hoping that our experience could be different are rooted in the
fear of death.
Ch 8: On Eight Worldly Dharmas:
We might feel that somehow we should try to
eradicate the feelings of pleasure and pain, loss and gain, praise and blame,
fame and disgrace. A more practical
approach would be to get to know them.
We carry around a subjective reality that is
continually triggering our emotional reactions.
When we become more insightful and compassionate
about how we ourselves get hooked, we spontaneously feel more tenderness for
the human race.
Ch 9: On Six Kinds of Loneliness:
… To have a non-threatening relationship with
loneliness.
There are six ways of describing this kind of
cool loneliness. They are less desire,
contentment, avoiding unnecessary activity, complete discipline, not wandering
in the world of desire, and not seeking security from one’s discursive
thoughts.
Contentment:
When we have nothing, we have nothing to lose.
Complete discipline means that at every
opportunity, we’re willing to come back, just gently come back to the present
moment.
Not seeking security from one’s discursive
thoughts: The rug’s been pulled, the jig is up, there is no way to get
out! …. We do not expect security from
our own internal chatter.
Excerpts For Monday July 13 (Chapters 10, 11 and 12)
Ch 10: On Curious About Existence:
Find out for yourself about peace and whether or
not it’s true that our fundamental situation is joyful.
People have no respect for impermanence. We take
no delight in it; in fact we despair of it.
We regard it as pain.
Impermanence is a principle of harmony
Pain is not a punishment, pleasure is not a
reward.
Wakefulness naturally radiates out when we are
not so concerned with ourselves.
Egolessness is a state of mind that has complete
confidence in the sacredness of the world.
Ch 11: On Non-aggression and the four Maras:
What we habitually regard as obstacles are not
really our enemies, but are our friends.
Nothing ever really goes away until it has
taught us what we need to know.
Human beings habitually become confused and lose
touch with their wisdom mind.
We run like crazy to try to become comfortable
Our whole world falls apart and we are given
this great opportunity, but we…. Want to get ourselves back, even our anger
resentment fear and bewilderment.
We knock on every door asking people to sign
petitions until there is a whole army of people who agree with us that
everything is wrong.
When we talk about a good life, from the
samsaric point of view, we mean that we have finally gotten it together.
Ch12: On Growing Up:
The wisdom of what we might call neurosis and
the wisdom of unconditioned truth; can only be found in our experience.
Within that container of discipline (ie;
meditation), why do we have to be so harsh?
When we begin to just try and accept ourselves,
the ancient burden of self importance lightens up considerably.
Excerpts For Monday July 20 (Chapters 13, 14 and 15)
Ch 13: On Widening the Circle of Compassion:
Only in an open space where we’re not all caught
up in our own version of reality can we see and hear and feel who others really
are, which allows us to be with them and communicate with them properly.
Roshi Bernie Glassman . . . said he doesn’t really do this work to help
others; he does it because he feels that moving into the areas of society that
he had rejected is the same as working with the parts of himself that he had
rejected.
We habitually erect a barrier called blame that
keeps us from communicating genuinely with others, and we fortify it with our
concepts of who’s right and who’s wrong.
It is a very common, ancient,
well-perfected device for trying to feel better.
Compassion and emptiness don’t mean much until
we start cultivating our innate ability simply to be there with pain and an
open heart and the willingness not to instantly try to get ground under our
feet.
We make ourselves right or wrong. This middle way involves not hanging on to
our version so tightly. It involves
keeping our hearts and minds open long enough to entertain the idea that when we
make things ‘wrong’ (or ‘right’), we do it out of a desire to obtain some kind
of ground or security. Could we see,
hear or feel people as they really are?
How are we ever going to change anything? How is there going to be less aggression in
the universe rather than more? We can
then bring it down to a more personal level: how do I learn to communicate with
somebody who is hurting me? How do I
learn to speak to someone so that some change actually occurs, ….. so that some
space opens up….?
Ch 14: On The Love That Will Not Die:
This kinship with the suffering of others, this
inability to continue to regard it from afar, is the discovery of our soft
spot, the discovery of bodhichitta, …. A Sanskrit word that means ‘noble or
awakened heart.’
Stephen Levine tells the story of a woman who
was dying and feeling overwhelming pain and bitterness… she unexpectedly began
to experience the pain of others in agony, a starving mother in Ethiopia, a
runaway teenager dying of an overdose in a dirty flat, a man crushed by a
landslide and dying alone by the banks of a river. She said that she understood that it wasn’t
her pain; it was the pain of all beings. It wasn’t just her life, it was life
itself.
When we protect ourselves so we don’t feel pain,
that protection becomes like armor; armor that imprisons the softness of the
heart.
Because bodhichitta gives us no ground, it cuts
through concepts and ideals. It does not
take gearing up or struggling to achieve.
When strategies are not yet formed and we feel uncertain about which way
to turn, in those moments of vulnerability, bodhicitta is always there.
Ch 15:On Going Against The Grain:
Tonglen practice is a method for connecting with
suffering – our own and that which is all around us, everywhere we go. It is a method for overcoming our fear of
suffering and for dissolving the tightness of our hearts.
We begin the practice by taking on the suffering
of a person whom we know to be hurting and wish to help. ….this practice does
go against the grain of wanting things on our own terms, wanting everything to
work out for ourselves.
Tonglen reverses the usual logic of avoiding
suffering and seeking pleasure.
First, rest your mind briefly, for a second or
two, in a state of openness or stillness.
Second, work with texture. Breathe in a feeling of hot, dark and heavy,
a sense of claustrophobia, and breathe out a feeling of cool, bright and light.
Third, work with a personal situation, any
painful situation that’s real to you.
Finally, make the taking in and sending out
bigger. Breathe in their pain and send them relief.
Excerpts For Monday July 27, 2020
Ch 16: On Servants of Peace (the six paramitas or perfections or transcendent actions):
When we are training in the art of peace, we are
not given any promises that, because of our noble intentions, everything will
be okay. Instead, we are encouraged to
simply look deeply at joy and sorrow, at laughing and crying, at hoping and
fearing, at all that lives and dies. We
learn that what truly heals is gratitude and tenderness.
Prajna is the wisdom that cuts through the
immense suffering that comes from seeking to protect our own territory.
If we think they are about achieving a standard
of perfection, then we’ll feel defeated before we even begin. It is more accurate to express the paramitas
as a journey of exploration….
When we are able to be there without saying ‘I
certainly agree with this’ or ‘I definitely don’t agree with that’, but just be
here very directly, then we find fundamental richness everywhere.
The real transformation comes when we let go of
our attachment and give away what we think we can’t.
What we discipline is not our ‘badness’ or our
‘wrongness’. What we discipline is any
form of potential escape from reality.
Patience is the antidote to anger, a way to
learn to love and care for whatever we meet on the path. By patience, we do not mean enduring, grin
and bear it. In any situation, instead of reacting suddenly, we could chew on
it, smell it, look at it, and open ourselves to seeing what’s there.
Exertion is touching in to our appetite for
enlightenment. If we all knew how
unhappy it was making this whole planet that we all try to avoid pain and seek
pleasure, how that was making us so miserable and cutting us off from our basic
heart and our basic intelligence, then we would practice meditation as if our
hair were on fire.
Our birthright…. Is the wisdom with which we
were born, the vast unfolding display of primordial richness….
When we work with generosity, we see our
nostalgia for wanting to hold on. When
we work with discipline, we see our nostalgia for wanting to zone out and not
relate at all. When we work with
patience, we discover our longing for speed.
Practicing exertion, we realize our laziness. With meditation, we see our endless
discursiveness.
Ch 17: On Opinions:
One of the best practices for everyday living
when we don’t have much time for meditation is to notice our opinions. …. This is an extremely
helpful practice because we have a lot of opinions and we tend to take them as
truth.
I’m talking about noticing opinions as a simple
way of beginning to pay attention to what we think and how much energy comes
along with that. We can rightly say that
the thinning of the ozone layer is a scientific fact; it’s not simply an
opinion. But if the way we work with
trying not to further harm the ozone layer is to solidify our opinion against
those we feel are at fault, then nothing ever changes; negativity begets
negativity.
Although we are going in a direction… to help
reduce suffering, we have to realize that part of that helping is keeping our
clarity of mind, keeping our hearts and minds open.
Ch 18: On Secret Oral Instructions:
You may have noticed… that there is frequently
an irritating, if not depressing, discrepancy between our ideals and good
intentions and how we act when we are confronted with the nitty-gritty details
of life.
‘Bus story’
How do we mix our intentions to be alert and
gentle in meditation with the reality that we sit down and immediately fall
asleep?….For the practitioner, this is an exceedingly important place.
Ch 19: On Three Methods for Working with Chaos (No more struggle, Using poison as Medicine, and Choicelessness):
Through practice we realize that we don’t have
to obscure the joy and openness that is present in every moment of existence.
When we sit down to meditate, whatever arises in
our minds we look at directly, call it ‘thinking’ and go back to the simplicity
and immediacy of the breath. Whatever or
whoever arises, train again and again in looking at it and seeing it for what
it is without calling it names, without hurling rocks, without averting our
eyes.
The three poisons are passion (this includes
craving or addiction), aggression, and ignorance (which includes denial or the
tendency to shut down or close out). …..
they can become seeds of compassion and openness.
We are told from childhood that something is
wrong with us, with the world, and with everything that comes along; it’s not
perfect, it has rough edges, it has a bitter taste, it’s too loud, too soft,
too sharp, too wishy washy. We cultivate
a sense of trying to make things better because something is bad here,
something is a mistake here, something is a problem here.
We can regard ourselves as already awake; we can
regard our world as already sacred.
Ch 20: On The Trick of Choicelessness:
From the point of view of the teachings,
thinking that we have ample time to do things later is the greatest myth, the
greatest hangup, and the greatest poison.
There is no better time than right now, there is
no higher state of consciousness than this one.
Looking for alternatives is the only thing that
keeps us from realizing that we’re already in a sacred world.
If we don’t think there’s a better, more
inspiring, less irritating, or less disturbing sound, sounds become vivid and
transparent.
Ch 21: On Reversing the Wheel of Samsara:
Usually we feel that there’s a large problem and we have to fix it. The instruction is to stop. Do something unfamiliar. Do anything besides rushing off in the same old direction, up to the same old tricks.
I stopped following through with my habitual plan.
That’s what Dharma is all about; turning all our habits around, reversing the process of how we make everything solid….
My experience is that by practicing without ‘shoulds’, we gradually discover our wakefulness and our confidence.
Every act counts. Every thought counts too. This is all the path we have.
Excerpts For Monday August 10 2020
Ch 22: On The Path is the Goal:
Now is the time.
What does it take to use the life we already have in order to make us
wiser rather than more stuck?
The source of wisdom is whatever is happening to
us right at this very instant.
…we think that the reason we’re on the path is
to get rid of this painful feeling.
(“When I get to LA I won’t feel this way anymore.”) At that level of wanting to get rid of our
feeling we naively cultivate a subtle aggression against ourselves.
…what seems undesirable in our lives doesn’t
have to put us to sleep.
AFTERWORD: – Instead
of continuing to close down and defend our own territory, we can learn to relax
with the true nature of reality, which is uncertain and unpredictable. This is the only way to transform the world
from a place of escalating aggression to a place of awakening.
It is what leads to cessation. The eightfold path can be divided into three sections: understanding, ethics and morality, and meditative practice.
Understanding or Wisdom
Wise View
Wise Intention
Ethics or Morality
Wise Speech
Wise Action
Wise Livelihood
Meditative Practice
Wise Effort
Wise Mindfulness
Wise Concentration or Gatheredness
Each limb of the path supports the other limbs; they feed into each other.
The path is to be developed as a whole. There is much more to practice than what we do on the cushion.
The metaphor of path can be aspirational. However, there are other, non-sequential ways of understanding the practice.
The path is integrated. All aspects are to be developed: it is not a linear progression.
Following the path is an inquiry into what is “appropriate,” not necessarily what is “right.”
Akincano on The Intention to Inquire
This quality of inquiry is such a big topic in early Buddhism. There are so many, many words that speak of forms of questioning, inquiring into, examining, investigating, reflecting on, probing into. There are so many, many words in the Pāli language that suggest that we very carefully touch into a particular terrain of our experience. So, one way of using the four truths would be a very simple grid.
I could ask:
First truth
What hurts right now? What am I feeling discontented about? What is not good right now?
Second truth
Does it rest on something? Do I understand the origin of this discontent, its precursor? Do I understand the condition on which this rests?
Third truth
Can I let go of the reason, cause, or condition that leads to what I am dissatisfied with? Can I let go of it a little bit? Do I want to let go of it?
Fourth truth
What does this situation offer my practice? Maybe this is not a moment of stillness. Maybe it is a moment to enunciate my values and intentions. Maybe it is a moment in which I clarify my understanding. Maybe this is a moment in which I can practice effort. Maybe this is a moment in which I can strengthen mindfulness.
So I can use various path factors and connect them with a practice that is both intention and inquiry. One of the key terms for such enquiry is something Buddhist traditions call yoniso manasikara: radical inquiry.
This means taking things from the root, probing into the origin of things and applying the fullness of your mind to phenomena so that you may understand more of it, hold more of it, and possibly bring some release into it.
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Incense Offering In gratitude we offer this incense to all the Buddhas and Bodhisattvas throughout space and time.
May it be as fragrant as earth herself, reflecting our careful efforts, our wholehearted awareness, and the fruit of understanding slowly ripening.
May we and all beings be companions of Buddhas and Bodhisattvas . May we awaken from forgetfulness and realize our true home .
Homage to the Buddha Namo tassa, bhagavato, arahato, samma sambuddhasa Namo tassa, bhagavato, arahato, samma sambuddhasa Namo tassa, bhagavato, arahato, samma sambuddhasa Homage to Him, the Exalted One, the Worthy One, The supremely Enlightened One Homage to Him, the Exalted One, the Worthy One, The supremely Enlightened One Homage to Him, the Exalted One, the Worthy One, The supremely Enlightened One
The Three Refuges I take refuge in the Buddha, the one who shows me the way in this life . I take refuge in the Dharma, the way of understanding and of love . I take refuge in the Sangha, the community that lives in harmony and awareness. (Bell) Dwelling in the refuge of the Buddha, I clearly see the path of light and beauty in this world. Dwelling in the refuge of the Dharma, I learn to open many doors on the path of transformation. Dwelling in the refuge of the Sangha, shining light that supports me, I keep my practice free of obstruction. (Bell) Taking refuge in the Buddha in myself, I aspire to help all people recognize their own awakened nature, realizing the mind of love. Taking refuge in the Dharma in myself, I aspire to help all people fully master the ways of practice and walk together on the path of liberation. Taking refuge in the Sangha in myself, I aspire to help all people build fourfold communities, to embrace all beings and support their transformation. (Two Bells) The Four Immeasurables (Repeat 3 times) May all mother sentient beings, boundless as the sky, have happiness and the causes of happiness. May they be liberated from suffering and the causes of suffering. May they never be separated from the happiness that is free from sorrow. May they rest in equanimity, free from attachment and aversion.
Shantideva’s Dedication Prayer May all beings everywhere Plagued by sufferings of body and mind, Obtain an ocean of happiness and joy By virtue of my merits.
May no living creature suffer, Commit evil or ever fall ill.
May no one be afraid or belittled, With a mind weighed down by depression.
May the blind see forms And the deaf hear sounds.
May those whose bodies are worn with toil Be restored on finding repose.
May the naked find clothing The hungry find food
May the thirsty find water And delicious drinks.
May the poor find wealth, Those weak with sorrow find joy;
May the hopeless find hope, Constant happiness and prosperity.
May there be timely rains And bountiful harvests;
May all the medicines be effective And wholesome prayers bear fruit.
May all who are sick and ill Quickly be freed from their ailments. Whatever diseases there are in the world, May they never occur again.
May the frightened cease to be afraid And those bound be freed; May the powerless find power And the people think of benefiting each other.
For as long as space remains, For as long as sentient beings remain, Until then may I too remain To dispel the miseries of the world.
Choices We are what we think. All that we are arises with our thoughts. With our thoughts we make the world. Speak or act with an impure mind and trouble will follow you, As the wheel follows the ox that draws the cart. We are what we think. All that we are arises with our thoughts. With our thoughts we make the world. Speak or act with a pure mind and happiness will follow you, As your shadow, unshakable. How can a troubled mind understand the way? Your worst enemy cannot harm you as much as your own thoughts, unguarded. But once mastered, no one can help you as much, Not even your father or your mother.
Four Bodhisattva Vows (chant 3 times) All beings without number I vow to liberate Endless blind passions I vow to uproot Dharma gates beyond measure I vow to pass through The great way of Buddha I vow to attain Sharing the Merit Beginning anew, practicing the way of awareness gives rise to benefits without limit . We vow to share the fruits with all beings . We vow to offer tribute to parents, teachers and friends, and numerous beings who give guidance and support along the path. Evening Gatha Let me respectfully remind you, life and death are of supreme importance. Time swiftly passes by, and opportunity is lost. Each of us should strive to awaken: Awaken! Take heed; do not squander your life.
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Note: Most of the links use Zoom – is an online video conferencing platform. You can download the Zoom application for Windows or Mac for free, or you can access Zoom via their free apps for iOS (iPhone, iPad) and Android. You can set up a free personal account on Zoom if you want, but it isn’t necessary to use the software. You can find more help on getting started in the Zoom Help Center online
11:00am – 12:30 pm (PDT)Chan Meditation Centertogether online, while building camaraderie, diligence and having fun. Explore the journey of self-mastery through Chan Meditation.
Helpful resources and meditations on Rebecca’s website – she also offers occasional zoom meditation and dharma talks live on zoom. Free guided meditation + Dharma Talks – contact her for more info.
Other Online material in support of practice during the COVID-19 outbreak:
Lion’s Roar Magazine has published a number of articles on how to practice in a pandemic.
As we embark in this New Year, May your weeks be filled with peace, love, happiness and joy. Here’s to a wonderful and joyous new year!
The next four weeks we will be sharing a recorded video and meditation series offered freely through Barre Center for Buddhist studies in our 8-9pm discussion period.
Bhikkhu Analayo presents a practical approach to the diverse challenges of climate change that is grounded in the teachings of early Buddhism.
Did you attend our New Years Retreat? Did you attend any of our Monday night meditations or discussions?
We would like to hear from you about your experience with us – contact us
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12/31/2019 – On this last evening of the year, you are invited to join the BSBC community for a rare and lovely opportunity to engage in extended meditation practice with our sangha. The retreat will be from 8 pm to 12 am. Everyone is welcome to come for the whole or part of the evening.
The retreat will include guided meditation instructions, chanting, alternating sitting movement and walking meditation periods, and a time for sharing poems, readings and reflections.
Sangha member and long-time practitioner Jeanne Reis will lead the retreat with BSBC founder James Reis who will travel from Boston MA.
If you aren’t able to arrive at 8 pm, you may either time your arrival to coincide with a walking session or enter quietly if the group is sitting. If a sitting is in progress, choose a spot in the back of the hall, then feel free move to a preferred spot during the next walking session. There will be chanting sessions at the beginning and end of the evening; chanting sheets will be provided.
You may bring a favorite poem, reading, and snack to share at teatime, if you wish.
The theme this year will be Memories and Reflections: Holding time with Lovingkindness. Suggested donation is $20 to cover the cost of reserving the meetinghouse
Stephen has dedicated his life to the practice of understanding the mind, reducing suffering and had created a systematic training method for practicing and developing the Satipatthana path to full maturity within daily life. http://www.meditationintheshire.com.au/
* We will also have his book available
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Join us for and evening and full day urban retreat : how to love yourself and others in challenging times with Lama Gursam
Suggested donation $40 Fri eve/Sat all day Or $20 Fri eve; $25 Sat day
Love is the wish that we and others should be happy. Love wishes for the benefit of self and others without any expectations. That is the academic definition of the term. All beings, human and non-human, young and old, have a natural desire for happiness. Everyone deserves happiness and no one deserves suffering. So love is most basic and important.
Love has to start with oneself. Love for oneself is most important for the beginning practitioner. It is very important to love oneself. In the tantric practice one cannot have a bad opinion of oneself, one must view oneself and others as deities. Therefore, loving oneself is very important. Loving oneself has to be practiced to recognize who we are. We all have the buddha nature. Everyone has the qualities of a buddha: love, compassion, joy, and equanimity. All these great qualities are within oneself. Therefore, we have buddha nature and can love oneself. When we recognize our own buddha nature we recognize everyone has these qualities. The only difference is that some recognize these qualities and some do not.
At practice time we start first with whomever has shown love to us. This can be our parents, friends, grand parents, or adopted parents. We have to recognize and remember who loves us. That is very important for the beginning meditation. It has to start with recognizing the love others have given us. We have to remember their kindness again and again. We don’t have to remember the negative feelings, but should remember the kindness that others have shown us. From remembering this some warm feeling will develop. So a feeling rises of love toward that person. We will wish that they be happy and that we can help them. That rises naturally in the heart. That is very important at practice time. Then slowly the feeling must extend to others, not just for oneself and the one who has loved us. Since others have the same desire for happiness that we do, our love must pervade to others. That doesn’t mean our love decreases for those who have loved us. Our love only increases as it spreads to others.
Lama teaches in English, and always tries to focus on the practical application of the Dharma in everyday life.
Lama Gursam went to monastery at a very young age, received teachings as a monastic, and studied and practiced as a monastic. Then Lama Gursam went to study in Tibetan University Sarnath, Varanasi, India to get both bachelors and masters degrees in Buddhist Philosophy, History, and languages. Upon graduation he received a special award for scholastic achievement from His Holiness the Dalai Lama.
