Not only did I do it, it was witnessed. I'm in a heap of trouble now. So what did I do that was so alarming, so incredibly horrible?
I welcomed sentient beings into my life.
Whoa!
Listen up folks. Many of us like to recite the Bodhisattva Vow from the Bodhicaryavatara. It really is quite a vow. The first several paragraphs are repeated three times. "Just as the earth, and the other elements, together with space...." Huh? Space...? "Eternally provide sustenance in many ways for countless sentient beings...to the limits of space...." Limits of space!? There are no limits to space that we know of!
That's a whopping lot of beings, some we can't even see!
And then we get to identify with the sugatas of old, the sages that went before. "Just as the sugatas of old...."Oh yes, that's good company. We get to number ourselves among the Guatamas, Tilopas, Naropas, Milarepas, Gampopas, and other great masters of Buddhism, who after all were humans just like us. Folk like them were the ones that wrote these vows after all. That's an ego stroker if ever there was one.
And the goal? To awaken bodhichitta. Yessiree, that great and wonderful enlightened mind, which is what "bodhichitta" means. It's likened to the moon and sun, dispelling the obstructions of our minds, and the kleshas, the shit that resides there. It's like medicine that cures the worlds sickness, it relieves the world's poverty, it provides rest, satisfaction like food, and bliss. And, it conquers death.
Holy dharma Batman! It conquers death?! Potent stuff this enlightened mind, and here I am sitting on my comfy little zazen bench, altar in front of me, with offerings and candles, and assorted statuary and posters and the like, being all Buddhist like and doing my practice which will create for me enlightenment. How cool is that?
A little while later you're downtown, needing to buy some eggs. Here comes a local who lives in the subsidized housing. He always stinks like he smokes 24/7 and doesn't shower, he buys cheap liquor, and goes on his way.
Quick, what's his name?
Or how about the incredibly obese woman, who pulls up in her little scooter because walking would kill her. She goes into the store and buys more shit to make her even heavier, and pays for it with food stamps which your tax money provide for her. She smells too.
Quick, what's her name?
Then we remember the last paragraph of the Bodhisattva vow: "Today, witnessed by all the protectors, I have welcomed sentient beings and sugatas.
Really? Did we?
Oh, we love the sugatas. Being around the teacher is a good thing no doubt, and welcoming him is good karma. And of course, welcoming the pretty ladies and gentlemen, or well off sentient beings that populate the area is worthwhile. I can chat with the Mayor, I'm known by the Fire Chief, I can talk with the police, the coffee shop owners, maybe even a local celebrity writer.
All of that means jack squat if I can't welcome the stinky guy and fat lady as well, and she isn't singing. She might be crying because like most others, we avoid her. We go the other way, we don't lend a helping hand, we don't make eye contact let alone say hello. We don't know their names.
But to welcome sentient beings, to actually have the temerity to say that I vow to be a source of sustenance for sentient beings to the limit of space, well, that includes this smelly guy and the overweight woman. Beings for whom I know nothing about their story, but judge incredibly on the basis of how the cover looks.
Yes, I went and did it. I welcomed sentient beings, right in front of all these protectors, to come and utilize me as a source of sustenance. And here they come.
So what to do when I find that I'm not really allowing myself to be a source of sustenance for all sentient beings? That's the $64,000 question isn't it? How about we make eye contact with them next time we see them, and say hello? Especially if they are locals. Find out what their names are. Next time we see them, maybe use that name. For me that's more appropriate. I'm an emergency responder. So knowing people just makes sense, because I will be there for all kinds of people on their worst day.
If our practice is going to be valid, we need to welcome these sentient beings as well as the ones that stroke our ego. Maybe more so in fact. because there we will find what the true essence of bodhichitta really is.
Then I can say, "Yes I did that."
Monday, May 26, 2008
Wednesday, April 30, 2008
Further Thought On The Being Of Meditation
I looked at an earlier post, and noticed I had referenced my political blog, which is of late rather dormant. Having changed consciousness, I can no longer indulge myself in the ramblings of my ego, and the expense of others, no matter how easy they make it to do so.
To the Being: I noticed this morning that the being of meditation, as I refer to it, has four distinct aspects. The head, the foot, the body, and the essence. For the first time I realized that the essence is what makes the being alive. And that what separates the foot and head is awareness. What I mean by that is that metaphorically, we can get stuck in doing, which is what the feet represent, or thinking, what the head represents. We can also go overboard on what they are in the verse themselves, the renunciations and/or devotion, which as an expression of ego becomes false humility. Aestheticism has been used as an escape device by many for centuries, if not millenia.
It's the body, awareness, that brings it all together for the foot and head. That daily awareness, that nowness of every moment in all it's mundaneness, it's ordinariness. Nothing seemingly sacred, or WOW! about it. It's just the moment by moment of living with the dish washing, folding laundry, buying groceries, going to work, and doing that work. For example, last night I was in class at Officer Academy. A former district volunteer has re-joined, and he was a former Lieutenant, which is what I am testing for. Technically, he's been in the district much longer, has the officer experience, and so for the most part stands a much better chance of being the next Lieutenant at our station than I do. So I caught myself thinking about the future I cannot predict as if it were a done deal already. The other guy might be trying for captain. He might move. He might a lot of things, and so might I. What I want you to see though, is that this mental predicting and calculating I was doing was brining me down, bumming me out. My emotional state was responding to my mental structures. I felt like this class was a colossal waste of time. All based on speculations of my mind. I wasn't being now, and I knew that it would affect my ability to learn the night's mundane lesson. Being now is my inner purpose, and will reveal my outer purpose, which may not involve the fire district at all. Honestly, it's a bit hard to wrap my head around that thought. My ego doesn't like that notion.
A paradox: this form world we refer to as reality, is quite empty. Not just if we hang our identity on it in what ever shape: a political identification, a religious identification, an identification around an illness, or a hobby, or a vocation. Take me for example. I could say I am a carpenter, a father, a husband, a firefighter/EMT, an event organizer, a writer, a Buddhist, a liberal, and drummer. All of that is nonsense if that is what we think makes us what we are. Another aspect that nature teaches us about reality reinforces this. Look into space tonight. What do you see? Lots and lots of stars. So many we say they outnumber the grains of sand, too many to count, whatever. And then visit the Hubble telescope web site and find out how many more thousands of galaxies have been discovered in the tiniest spots of space by focusing on one little area for 10 days. More stars! More galaxies! But wait a moment. What are those stars existing in, which is so much more vast than the number of stars? That's right: empty space. And what do all the little sub-atomic parts exist in that make up the atoms that make up the molecules that make up the cells that make up the organs that make up the you and me of this world? That's right.
Empty space.
If you removed the empty space from the uncountable atoms that make up our physical reality, we would be incredibly small. Most of this form reality, this physical world we live in, is empty space. And we focus a lot of attention on this physical world, which is the only reality that succumbs to degradation.
So we have a meditation body, complete, and the essence of it all, that life giving force is, well, something I really have yet to figure out. I do know, that it resides in the mind. The consciousness, that luminous reality beyond form. I like the phrase, "...the inseparability of samsara and nirvana."
Say wha? That's right. They are inseparable because they both occur in the same place: our consciousness, or mind. If we remove the obscurations from our mind, we have nirvana. We move from the state of obscuration, samsara, to nirvana. A journey of a thousand lifetimes and we may never take a step out of the home town! Realizing this in itself will be the first step in that journey. And one result of that journey will be significant changes in the physical reality of our lives. Some of this truth is explained in the movies The Secret and What The Bleep Do We Know?
To conclude, being all monkish, and aesthetic, or "humble," are not what we are after. Those become religious, or spiritual identifications, and egoic expressions. Without that ordinary dayness, that body of awareness in the mundane, brings the head and foot together, and adding that essence which sees the emptiness, metaphorically and literally, in the form reality, will bring your meditation being into a higher state.
To the Being: I noticed this morning that the being of meditation, as I refer to it, has four distinct aspects. The head, the foot, the body, and the essence. For the first time I realized that the essence is what makes the being alive. And that what separates the foot and head is awareness. What I mean by that is that metaphorically, we can get stuck in doing, which is what the feet represent, or thinking, what the head represents. We can also go overboard on what they are in the verse themselves, the renunciations and/or devotion, which as an expression of ego becomes false humility. Aestheticism has been used as an escape device by many for centuries, if not millenia.
It's the body, awareness, that brings it all together for the foot and head. That daily awareness, that nowness of every moment in all it's mundaneness, it's ordinariness. Nothing seemingly sacred, or WOW! about it. It's just the moment by moment of living with the dish washing, folding laundry, buying groceries, going to work, and doing that work. For example, last night I was in class at Officer Academy. A former district volunteer has re-joined, and he was a former Lieutenant, which is what I am testing for. Technically, he's been in the district much longer, has the officer experience, and so for the most part stands a much better chance of being the next Lieutenant at our station than I do. So I caught myself thinking about the future I cannot predict as if it were a done deal already. The other guy might be trying for captain. He might move. He might a lot of things, and so might I. What I want you to see though, is that this mental predicting and calculating I was doing was brining me down, bumming me out. My emotional state was responding to my mental structures. I felt like this class was a colossal waste of time. All based on speculations of my mind. I wasn't being now, and I knew that it would affect my ability to learn the night's mundane lesson. Being now is my inner purpose, and will reveal my outer purpose, which may not involve the fire district at all. Honestly, it's a bit hard to wrap my head around that thought. My ego doesn't like that notion.
A paradox: this form world we refer to as reality, is quite empty. Not just if we hang our identity on it in what ever shape: a political identification, a religious identification, an identification around an illness, or a hobby, or a vocation. Take me for example. I could say I am a carpenter, a father, a husband, a firefighter/EMT, an event organizer, a writer, a Buddhist, a liberal, and drummer. All of that is nonsense if that is what we think makes us what we are. Another aspect that nature teaches us about reality reinforces this. Look into space tonight. What do you see? Lots and lots of stars. So many we say they outnumber the grains of sand, too many to count, whatever. And then visit the Hubble telescope web site and find out how many more thousands of galaxies have been discovered in the tiniest spots of space by focusing on one little area for 10 days. More stars! More galaxies! But wait a moment. What are those stars existing in, which is so much more vast than the number of stars? That's right: empty space. And what do all the little sub-atomic parts exist in that make up the atoms that make up the molecules that make up the cells that make up the organs that make up the you and me of this world? That's right.
Empty space.
If you removed the empty space from the uncountable atoms that make up our physical reality, we would be incredibly small. Most of this form reality, this physical world we live in, is empty space. And we focus a lot of attention on this physical world, which is the only reality that succumbs to degradation.
So we have a meditation body, complete, and the essence of it all, that life giving force is, well, something I really have yet to figure out. I do know, that it resides in the mind. The consciousness, that luminous reality beyond form. I like the phrase, "...the inseparability of samsara and nirvana."
Say wha? That's right. They are inseparable because they both occur in the same place: our consciousness, or mind. If we remove the obscurations from our mind, we have nirvana. We move from the state of obscuration, samsara, to nirvana. A journey of a thousand lifetimes and we may never take a step out of the home town! Realizing this in itself will be the first step in that journey. And one result of that journey will be significant changes in the physical reality of our lives. Some of this truth is explained in the movies The Secret and What The Bleep Do We Know?
To conclude, being all monkish, and aesthetic, or "humble," are not what we are after. Those become religious, or spiritual identifications, and egoic expressions. Without that ordinary dayness, that body of awareness in the mundane, brings the head and foot together, and adding that essence which sees the emptiness, metaphorically and literally, in the form reality, will bring your meditation being into a higher state.
Saturday, February 2, 2008
Five Poisons Self-Liberated
Part of my daily practice involves certain supplications, which I tend to say out loud. Then when my session for the day draws to a close, I speed read through several pages of stuff that are not incorporated in my practice as of yet. However, they provide a wealth of instruction that over time and constant repetition, are making clear their wisdom. Such it is with the Five Poisons Self- Liberated by Dza Paltrul Rinpoche.
Let me first explain what they are, these five poisons, and then some aspects about them I have observed.
The five poisons are anger, pride, desire, jealousy, and stupidity. All of these poisons are self arisen, which makes me personally responsible for their existence, and being self-liberated, responsible for their non-existence as well. Which is my first observation. The ball is in my court with these five poisons.
Each of these five poisons, these five nouns, have a modifier that goes with it. The modifier accompanying anger is chase. "Do not chase after the object of your anger," the verse states. Note that it doesn't say chasing after anger, but the object of your anger. Be very clear on that.
The modifier accompanying pride is cling. "Do not cling to the object of your pride." Again, note the presence of the object.
The modifier accompanying desire is attach. Not being a student of the Tibetan language, the difference between the two in English is that attach means to join together, to fasten. Cling means to adhere closely to.
The modifier obsess attends to the noun jealousy. Again with the object. Again, we don't look at the object.
And the modifier mistaken escorts the noun stupidity. Once again....
I will comment on three of these poisons for now. Mainly because I have experienced the poisons profoundly throughout my life.
The first one is the anger. I need to look at the angry mind. So when my anger pops up, this is my flag. I can stop, and look at my angry mind. I can identify the object, and realize chasing it is futile. The object is not the problem. Anger is actually clarity-emptiness by nature, or, mirror-like wisdom. In other words, anger is really a polluted version of mirror-like wisdom. And what does a mirror do? See, now you're getting it. It reflects you, doesn't it? And specifically in this case, a part of you you need to see, not just for what we chase, but the wisdom we actually contain, the clarity that is there in us. It takes a bit of practice with this, and the willingness to be humble. Once my mind begins to unravel these delusions that are polluted forms of virtues, or I get glimpses of them, I recite the six syllable mantra, which is OM MA/NI PAD/ME HUM. This will be the antidotal mantra for all the poisons.
The second one is jealousy. The verse calls jealousy the "examining mind." I don't quite get that, I admit. Jealousy as I understand it is a resentment against someone because of their advantage, possessions, and so forth. The thing that makes me understand this is that the examining mind is nothing other than all accomplishing wisdom. All accomplishing? In other words, the nature to accomplish what someone else has accomplished resides in me. The question then is, is that what I really want to accomplish? The capability to accomplish is already within me. The road block is the polluted virtue of jealousy.
The third one is stupidity. Many people might feel this one, especially if they never went on to educational levels beyond high school. "Don't be mistaken about the object of your stupidity." Higher education won't necessarily make you smarter. I have in fact met doctorates that were alcoholics. Their education was doing nothing for them. So, stupidity. Look at the thoughts! Thoughts are awareness-emptiness by nature. Ah, the beginning of intelligence: awareness. If you ever end up in a circle of those who pride themselves on their intelligence and levels of education, you'll notice that they use a vocabulary you don't. But how tough is it to learn words? Not tough at all. Do you want to learn that vocabulary is the question. And, awareness often shows up how people utilize words as something to hide behind, and awareness can cut through that rather easily. So when it comes to discussing issues and the like, it isn't always necessary to know the Ph.D level vocabulary to discuss it. It is far better to be aware of the real nature of the issue, and being able to present it. Thoughts are self-arisen, and self-liberated. Go educate yourself.
That's three of them, and my ruminations about them. As I read over these verses, I finish with an OM MANI PADME HUM, and the constant re-reading of them usually uncovers something new. If you can't find them in Google search, let me know and I'll post them here.
Let me first explain what they are, these five poisons, and then some aspects about them I have observed.
The five poisons are anger, pride, desire, jealousy, and stupidity. All of these poisons are self arisen, which makes me personally responsible for their existence, and being self-liberated, responsible for their non-existence as well. Which is my first observation. The ball is in my court with these five poisons.
Each of these five poisons, these five nouns, have a modifier that goes with it. The modifier accompanying anger is chase. "Do not chase after the object of your anger," the verse states. Note that it doesn't say chasing after anger, but the object of your anger. Be very clear on that.
The modifier accompanying pride is cling. "Do not cling to the object of your pride." Again, note the presence of the object.
The modifier accompanying desire is attach. Not being a student of the Tibetan language, the difference between the two in English is that attach means to join together, to fasten. Cling means to adhere closely to.
The modifier obsess attends to the noun jealousy. Again with the object. Again, we don't look at the object.
And the modifier mistaken escorts the noun stupidity. Once again....
I will comment on three of these poisons for now. Mainly because I have experienced the poisons profoundly throughout my life.
The first one is the anger. I need to look at the angry mind. So when my anger pops up, this is my flag. I can stop, and look at my angry mind. I can identify the object, and realize chasing it is futile. The object is not the problem. Anger is actually clarity-emptiness by nature, or, mirror-like wisdom. In other words, anger is really a polluted version of mirror-like wisdom. And what does a mirror do? See, now you're getting it. It reflects you, doesn't it? And specifically in this case, a part of you you need to see, not just for what we chase, but the wisdom we actually contain, the clarity that is there in us. It takes a bit of practice with this, and the willingness to be humble. Once my mind begins to unravel these delusions that are polluted forms of virtues, or I get glimpses of them, I recite the six syllable mantra, which is OM MA/NI PAD/ME HUM. This will be the antidotal mantra for all the poisons.
The second one is jealousy. The verse calls jealousy the "examining mind." I don't quite get that, I admit. Jealousy as I understand it is a resentment against someone because of their advantage, possessions, and so forth. The thing that makes me understand this is that the examining mind is nothing other than all accomplishing wisdom. All accomplishing? In other words, the nature to accomplish what someone else has accomplished resides in me. The question then is, is that what I really want to accomplish? The capability to accomplish is already within me. The road block is the polluted virtue of jealousy.
The third one is stupidity. Many people might feel this one, especially if they never went on to educational levels beyond high school. "Don't be mistaken about the object of your stupidity." Higher education won't necessarily make you smarter. I have in fact met doctorates that were alcoholics. Their education was doing nothing for them. So, stupidity. Look at the thoughts! Thoughts are awareness-emptiness by nature. Ah, the beginning of intelligence: awareness. If you ever end up in a circle of those who pride themselves on their intelligence and levels of education, you'll notice that they use a vocabulary you don't. But how tough is it to learn words? Not tough at all. Do you want to learn that vocabulary is the question. And, awareness often shows up how people utilize words as something to hide behind, and awareness can cut through that rather easily. So when it comes to discussing issues and the like, it isn't always necessary to know the Ph.D level vocabulary to discuss it. It is far better to be aware of the real nature of the issue, and being able to present it. Thoughts are self-arisen, and self-liberated. Go educate yourself.
That's three of them, and my ruminations about them. As I read over these verses, I finish with an OM MANI PADME HUM, and the constant re-reading of them usually uncovers something new. If you can't find them in Google search, let me know and I'll post them here.
Sunday, January 27, 2008
The Bliss Of Liberation
The other day I was talking with a new co-worker about drugs. I got around to telling some of the story of my old days, when a lid went for $15, and a couple guys could roll a joint and get high. It wasn't the one-toke wonder hybrid stuff of these days where an ounce cost $300.
I told him the story of my attendance at a J. Geils band concert where I had consumed a Quaalude. I recall it was a big monster of a pill, and it took me and three other guys with jackhammers to make it ingestible. Basically, it made me rubber. I could hear just fine, but my muscles didn't want to work. So I flopped over in my seat and literally listened to the show, since I couldn't hold my head up and hence had nothing of a view except the floor. I never bothered with Quaalude again, nor downers in general.
But it got me to thinking about how many guys just around where I live get stoned during lunch. I have to think that they need this disconnect, because supposedly pot is non-addictive. Are they that unable or unhappy in their current states of their lives that they need an artificial state of mind by noon?
And that took me to what an alternative is: the bliss of liberation. So let's look at just what that is.
Obviously, bliss is the outcome of liberation. But liberation from what? Liberation in this case is the liberation from the obscurations of the mind, those ignorance's which keep us from understanding our true nature and the nature of true reality, those ingrained habituation's that keep us suffering. That's what we are liberated from.
In the Short Meditation On The Graduated Path To Enlightenment, found in Kathleen MacDonald's book titled How To Meditate, there is a stanza that makes this same opposition:
"Please grant me blessings to understand
that there is no satisfaction in
enjoying samsaric (the state of non-liberation) pleasures
and that their shortcoming is that they cannot be trusted.
May I (instead) strive intently for the bliss of liberation.
Please bless me to cultivate this wish."
I added the parenthetical statements to clarify.
Moving On! So instead of seeking that buzz, that escape from my own pain and/or feelings, I can strive intently for the bliss of liberation. So how is this accomplished, and just what is this bliss?
If one finishes the above mentioned piece in MacDonald's rather good book, you will find that liberation is accomplished, or at least begun, in the act of sitting meditation, and more formally the beginning of tranquility and insight meditation. Other activities like reading sutras and texts, and then ruminating on their meanings are helpful as well. But without the actual practice of sitting meditation, no liberation or bliss will occur. That's my take on it anyway, for the time being.
And this sitting practice brings results in steps, as one actually responds to what is discovered in meditation. So the bliss that results is relative to the liberation that happens. However, it does happen. But what is it? How do you know if you have it?
First, let's dispel the illusion that it's instant ecstasy, or euphoria. It's rarely instant at all, and hardly ever until it reaches the completion stage is it ecstasy. Rather, to begin with, it's a growing sense of happiness with who you are, and with your life in general. Also it's a sense of contentment. That's an important realization. Being content doesn't mean you don't dream anymore, or have ambition. It's more, at least in my experience, of a letting go of ego satisfaction, of detachment from needing material things and their possible meaning to the value of my life. In other words, I've discovered that all my answers about me are already in me. I don't need anything outside of me to find that, to define me. In fact, my dreams are inside me, my detached ambitions are inside me, and all the answers to what and who I am are inside me. The more I look in, the more I respond to the uncovering of ingrained habituations that trap me, also known as "kleshas," or as Pema Chodron might say, the garbage or shit in my mind, the more I will be liberated, and content, happy, and peaceful.
Interestingly, the etymology of bliss has to do with an old term(P.Gmc) that means "gentle, kind." I consider this a valuable insight. As I uncover klesha in my mind, I have two ways to react. Shame is one, and disgust, and then hiding the klesha under the rug. Pema Chodron's advice has been to make friends with it. Be gentle and kind to it, and that transforms the klesha into virtue. Maybe we could use the analogy of compost, turning garbage into something useful. By that act of being kind to an ugly part of myself, I begin to live in a state of gentleness, of kindness, and perhaps that really is what bliss is all about.
Bliss, this state of contented, happy, gentle, peacefulness is the outcome of an active and responsible practice of sitting meditation. As the text states, it is the adverse of the trusting of the enjoyment of sense pleasures as the source of happiness, which has been compared to drinking salt water.Our option is to exert ourselves with vigor with the intention of achieving this bliss. Then we'll really know what it means to be high.
I told him the story of my attendance at a J. Geils band concert where I had consumed a Quaalude. I recall it was a big monster of a pill, and it took me and three other guys with jackhammers to make it ingestible. Basically, it made me rubber. I could hear just fine, but my muscles didn't want to work. So I flopped over in my seat and literally listened to the show, since I couldn't hold my head up and hence had nothing of a view except the floor. I never bothered with Quaalude again, nor downers in general.
But it got me to thinking about how many guys just around where I live get stoned during lunch. I have to think that they need this disconnect, because supposedly pot is non-addictive. Are they that unable or unhappy in their current states of their lives that they need an artificial state of mind by noon?
And that took me to what an alternative is: the bliss of liberation. So let's look at just what that is.
Obviously, bliss is the outcome of liberation. But liberation from what? Liberation in this case is the liberation from the obscurations of the mind, those ignorance's which keep us from understanding our true nature and the nature of true reality, those ingrained habituation's that keep us suffering. That's what we are liberated from.
In the Short Meditation On The Graduated Path To Enlightenment, found in Kathleen MacDonald's book titled How To Meditate, there is a stanza that makes this same opposition:
"Please grant me blessings to understand
that there is no satisfaction in
enjoying samsaric (the state of non-liberation) pleasures
and that their shortcoming is that they cannot be trusted.
May I (instead) strive intently for the bliss of liberation.
Please bless me to cultivate this wish."
I added the parenthetical statements to clarify.
Moving On! So instead of seeking that buzz, that escape from my own pain and/or feelings, I can strive intently for the bliss of liberation. So how is this accomplished, and just what is this bliss?
If one finishes the above mentioned piece in MacDonald's rather good book, you will find that liberation is accomplished, or at least begun, in the act of sitting meditation, and more formally the beginning of tranquility and insight meditation. Other activities like reading sutras and texts, and then ruminating on their meanings are helpful as well. But without the actual practice of sitting meditation, no liberation or bliss will occur. That's my take on it anyway, for the time being.
And this sitting practice brings results in steps, as one actually responds to what is discovered in meditation. So the bliss that results is relative to the liberation that happens. However, it does happen. But what is it? How do you know if you have it?
First, let's dispel the illusion that it's instant ecstasy, or euphoria. It's rarely instant at all, and hardly ever until it reaches the completion stage is it ecstasy. Rather, to begin with, it's a growing sense of happiness with who you are, and with your life in general. Also it's a sense of contentment. That's an important realization. Being content doesn't mean you don't dream anymore, or have ambition. It's more, at least in my experience, of a letting go of ego satisfaction, of detachment from needing material things and their possible meaning to the value of my life. In other words, I've discovered that all my answers about me are already in me. I don't need anything outside of me to find that, to define me. In fact, my dreams are inside me, my detached ambitions are inside me, and all the answers to what and who I am are inside me. The more I look in, the more I respond to the uncovering of ingrained habituations that trap me, also known as "kleshas," or as Pema Chodron might say, the garbage or shit in my mind, the more I will be liberated, and content, happy, and peaceful.
Interestingly, the etymology of bliss has to do with an old term(P.Gmc) that means "gentle, kind." I consider this a valuable insight. As I uncover klesha in my mind, I have two ways to react. Shame is one, and disgust, and then hiding the klesha under the rug. Pema Chodron's advice has been to make friends with it. Be gentle and kind to it, and that transforms the klesha into virtue. Maybe we could use the analogy of compost, turning garbage into something useful. By that act of being kind to an ugly part of myself, I begin to live in a state of gentleness, of kindness, and perhaps that really is what bliss is all about.
Bliss, this state of contented, happy, gentle, peacefulness is the outcome of an active and responsible practice of sitting meditation. As the text states, it is the adverse of the trusting of the enjoyment of sense pleasures as the source of happiness, which has been compared to drinking salt water.Our option is to exert ourselves with vigor with the intention of achieving this bliss. Then we'll really know what it means to be high.
Friday, January 18, 2008
Wishing
I wonder if Buddhists, at least American Buddhists who likely come into Buddhism having emerged from a religion previously experienced, carry into it a form of asceticism. That form of fake humility that thinks sacrifice is noble. Not that sacrifice isn't, but not all of it is.
I was ruminating this morning, as I am wont to do, on some verses in the Heart Sutra. I ran across this line:
"Wishing: in gladness and safety, may all beings be at ease."
That one word "wishing" say a lot. It means to long for, to desire. Which I think is something that people might tend to think we shouldn't be doing. I'll get to the text in a minute, but i want to focus on this word, because we need to be free in regards to it. We need to allow our desire and longing to be free.
I have been taking in the content of The Secret lately. I have also been reading Wayne Dyer's materials on intention. Both of them require that one desires. Particularly in The Secret, they emphasize worldly possessions as something to be desired. Meaning, we are free to do so. I think that most Buddhists of the American stripe might say that these types of desires would lead one into materialism, and they might, regardless of the religious system or beliefs one holds.
I also make it a habit to read my schools supplication to it's masters. One of those verses says the following:
"Revulsion is the foot of meditation, as is taught.
To this meditator who is not attached to food and wealth,
who cuts the ties to this life,
grant your blessings so I have no desire for honor and gain.
It seems like I have already contradicted myself, but I don't think I have, and I'll tell you why. Note the overall context that the last line appears in. The two important words are "attached," and "ties." That is the crux of the problem when it comes to functioning in the material world, the apparent reality. So the term desire has to be seen in that context of attachment and ties. So does that mean that if there is no attachment or tie, that there is no desire? I don't believe so. How else would one explain the works of various monks like Thich Nhat Hanh, Sogyal Rinpoche, and Trungpa Rinpoche who open retreat centers and other kinds of facilities the world over? What drives their vision? A lack of desire? I don't think so. I think it's an unattached desire.
Think about it, and we'll move on to the rest of our text.
Now the text I have has a colon after the word "wishing." I'm not certain that is in any original text, though i wouldn't bet against that. I have great respect for the accuracy that Buddhists maintain in transmitting their teaching, and translating them from their original languages into English. Even so, what I am trying to point out is this: look at he the first phrase as if the colon wasn't there. "Wishing in gladness and safety...."
That means to me that the wisher needs to be in a state of gladness and safety. Or maybe I should say, that is an option to strongly consider. Why? Because it is obvious if you spend any time pursuing the teaching of the Buddha, that it is apparent that you cannot give something to someone you don't have yourself. Which means that if I want others to be glad and safe, I must see to it that I am that way first, so I can show them how it is done. It brings us back to the old proverb, "Give a man a fish, and he eats a meal. Teach him to fish, and he eats for a lifetime." What is necessary is that I know how to fish to teach another person how to do it. Which returns us to wishing. I need to wish for that gladness and safety, and learn to live in that state.
"...may all beings be at ease." Ah, the fruit of our wishing. This also lets us know if that gladness and safety we think we have is genuine or not. If we aren't at ease, it isn't. The opposite of ease, is of course, dis-ease. No pun intended either. Most Buddhists would affirm that dis-ease in the body came from dis-ease in the mind first. Which is the crux of The Secret. "As a man thinks, so he is." I like the scope of this verse: "all beings."
The rest of the sutra pretty much describes what that means, so i won't elaborate that here. I'll just say that if we want a real exercise in where we are at in our path, just start with your family members and co-workers. Do you want, really long for,and desire, that all your family and colleagues be at ease? or are there some you don't care about either way? Maybe even some you think should pay some form of penalty or suffering for their weird dysfunctions which you and I of course don't share? Well, then obviously we aren't totally in a place of gladness are we? Or safety, because we are harboring to some degree, dis-ease in our mind. Don't be down though, because we all go through this. Realizing this is evidence that the wheel of the dharma is turning inside you. And that is very good.
So let's recap. It's okay to wish. We want to wish free from attachment, which also means detaching from family and co-workers. We should investigate our own gladness and safety, and as we gradually establish ourselves in it, we can then extend that wish to others, with the result that we all are at ease.
I was ruminating this morning, as I am wont to do, on some verses in the Heart Sutra. I ran across this line:
"Wishing: in gladness and safety, may all beings be at ease."
That one word "wishing" say a lot. It means to long for, to desire. Which I think is something that people might tend to think we shouldn't be doing. I'll get to the text in a minute, but i want to focus on this word, because we need to be free in regards to it. We need to allow our desire and longing to be free.
I have been taking in the content of The Secret lately. I have also been reading Wayne Dyer's materials on intention. Both of them require that one desires. Particularly in The Secret, they emphasize worldly possessions as something to be desired. Meaning, we are free to do so. I think that most Buddhists of the American stripe might say that these types of desires would lead one into materialism, and they might, regardless of the religious system or beliefs one holds.
I also make it a habit to read my schools supplication to it's masters. One of those verses says the following:
"Revulsion is the foot of meditation, as is taught.
To this meditator who is not attached to food and wealth,
who cuts the ties to this life,
grant your blessings so I have no desire for honor and gain.
It seems like I have already contradicted myself, but I don't think I have, and I'll tell you why. Note the overall context that the last line appears in. The two important words are "attached," and "ties." That is the crux of the problem when it comes to functioning in the material world, the apparent reality. So the term desire has to be seen in that context of attachment and ties. So does that mean that if there is no attachment or tie, that there is no desire? I don't believe so. How else would one explain the works of various monks like Thich Nhat Hanh, Sogyal Rinpoche, and Trungpa Rinpoche who open retreat centers and other kinds of facilities the world over? What drives their vision? A lack of desire? I don't think so. I think it's an unattached desire.
Think about it, and we'll move on to the rest of our text.
Now the text I have has a colon after the word "wishing." I'm not certain that is in any original text, though i wouldn't bet against that. I have great respect for the accuracy that Buddhists maintain in transmitting their teaching, and translating them from their original languages into English. Even so, what I am trying to point out is this: look at he the first phrase as if the colon wasn't there. "Wishing in gladness and safety...."
That means to me that the wisher needs to be in a state of gladness and safety. Or maybe I should say, that is an option to strongly consider. Why? Because it is obvious if you spend any time pursuing the teaching of the Buddha, that it is apparent that you cannot give something to someone you don't have yourself. Which means that if I want others to be glad and safe, I must see to it that I am that way first, so I can show them how it is done. It brings us back to the old proverb, "Give a man a fish, and he eats a meal. Teach him to fish, and he eats for a lifetime." What is necessary is that I know how to fish to teach another person how to do it. Which returns us to wishing. I need to wish for that gladness and safety, and learn to live in that state.
"...may all beings be at ease." Ah, the fruit of our wishing. This also lets us know if that gladness and safety we think we have is genuine or not. If we aren't at ease, it isn't. The opposite of ease, is of course, dis-ease. No pun intended either. Most Buddhists would affirm that dis-ease in the body came from dis-ease in the mind first. Which is the crux of The Secret. "As a man thinks, so he is." I like the scope of this verse: "all beings."
The rest of the sutra pretty much describes what that means, so i won't elaborate that here. I'll just say that if we want a real exercise in where we are at in our path, just start with your family members and co-workers. Do you want, really long for,and desire, that all your family and colleagues be at ease? or are there some you don't care about either way? Maybe even some you think should pay some form of penalty or suffering for their weird dysfunctions which you and I of course don't share? Well, then obviously we aren't totally in a place of gladness are we? Or safety, because we are harboring to some degree, dis-ease in our mind. Don't be down though, because we all go through this. Realizing this is evidence that the wheel of the dharma is turning inside you. And that is very good.
So let's recap. It's okay to wish. We want to wish free from attachment, which also means detaching from family and co-workers. We should investigate our own gladness and safety, and as we gradually establish ourselves in it, we can then extend that wish to others, with the result that we all are at ease.
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