The Mud, The Lotus

Bringing light to issues ofThe Mud, The Lotus

This Monday night, Mick will facilitate.

Many come to the practices of mindfulness and meditation looking for a permanent relief from their suffering. As we take that first courageous moving of body to cushion, and take part in looking inward, we discover that there is no getting rid of thoughts and emotions. There is no getting rid of the outward afflictions and influences either. The end game of enlightenment where all troubles vanish is a mirage. By the time we undertake the practices of mindfulness and meditation and wake up to Inner world and the outer world through mindfulness, it is too late for us. Too late for us to go back to sleep, to late for us to ignore our inner and outer world. 

Herein lies the challenge of living mindfully. We don’t always feelbetter, but we feel better. We feel and recognize more deeply the sunshine and the sorrow in us and around us. Feeling better, can often mean that we feel more deeply our pain.

Thich Nhat Hanh teaches about the mud and the lotus. No Mud, No Lotus. 

“It is possible of course to get stuck in the “mud” of life. It’s easy enough to notice mud all over you at times. The hardest thing to practice is not allowing yourself to be overwhelmed by despair. When you’re overwhelmed by despair, all you can see is suffering everywhere you look. You feel as if the worst thing is happening to you. But we must remember that suffering is a kind of mud that we need in order to generate joy and happiness. Without suffering, there’s no happiness. So we shouldn’t discriminate against the mud. We have to learn how to embrace and cradle our own suffering and the suffering of the world, with a lot of tenderness.” 

― Thích Nhất Hạnh, No Mud, No Lotus: The Art of Transforming Suffering

As mindfulness practitioners it is important to reflect and inquire, “ What do I do when I am feeling covered in mud and overwhelmed by suffering?”  The mud is always there and in getting overwhelmed by the mud we lose sight of the sunshine, the lotus.

The mud, or suffering is a given of existence. The lotus, or happiness is also a given. Mindfulness practice gives us a way to be with both, to hold both simultaneously and in balance. We fluctuate from high to low, sorrow to sunshine, mud to lotus.

This Monday we will have the chance to reflect and share on how you experience and navigate The Mud and The Lotus. I look forward to the time together. 

The Five Mindfulness Trainings

Monday night we will focus on the five mindfulness trainings. After reading all five of them, I will spend time on the first training: to protect life, to decrease violence in oneself, in the family and in society.

This first training makes me think of a conversation I recently had with my partner about guns in America and the second amendment in the U.S. Constitution: the right to bear arms. When the founding fathers wrote this, the U.S. had just gained independence from the U.K. and there was not a national army. The right to bear arms was intended for a citizen’s militia to prevent the U.S. from having a standing army. The founding fathers believed that a free society needed to be able to defend itself. An official army was a threat to freedom. Despite more than 300 years since then, we still hold on to this Amendment as a fundamental right.

Is bearing arms then a fundamental right to protect life? Of course, this is a logic I do not understand. Afterall, now we have a military and law enforcement is paid for with our tax dollars. But our law enforcement is not always treating people fairly. The right to bear arms can also mean survival for a person of color in this country. It can mean ultimate protection from unjust treatment by the police. It is a perverse logic, that of using a weapon to protect a life. It is a logic often justifed in the society that we live in.

The second part of the sentence is really profound: to decrease violence in oneself. How are we violent with ourselves? Is it with actions, thoughts or others means? Are we violent with ourselves when we water the seeds of suffering: anger, fear, frustration, jealousy, sadness? How can we be gentle and kind with ourselves? And when we are kind to ourselves, are we better able to be gentle, kind and compassionate to others? Is being present with ourselves, listening to our body, mind and heart, a way to be non violent with ourselves? Is it harder to practice non-violence on us than on others? And how are the two connected?

Then comes decreasing violence in our families and in our society. Sometimes violence is subtle, passive aggressive, manipulative and persistent. It is a seed that creates suffering. It is not always outright violence with guns and the intent to murder and take life. Though that happens far too often as well. Being mindful and practicing mindfulness enables us to see how we can be passive aggressive and hurtful to others in our close circle and in the wider circle we live in.

Please, think about this mindfulness training and share how you interpret it in our Monday night Sangha. What do you do to practice this training with yourself, your family and the community you live in?

Thank You!

Bea

Power

In the current political climate, I sometimes feel overwhelmed and powerless.  So, in preparing for this Sangha on the President’s Day holiday, which was originally established to honor George Washington but now is viewed as a day to honor and celebrate all of our past and current Presidents – people we often view as very powerful – I became curious about Thich Nhat Hanh’s views on “power.”  

The following is an excerpt from Thay called “The Three Forms of Power”:

Many of us think that if we had a lot of power we could do whatever we wanted, and that this would make us very happy.  Indeed, many of us have some kind of power but because we don’t know how to handle the power, we misuse it and we create suffering for ourselves and for the people around us.  Money is a kind of power.  Fame is a kind of power.  Weapons are a kind of power.  A strong army is a kind of power.  A lot of suffering is caused in the world because people misuse their power.  They do this because they don’t have the power to be themselves.

In the Buddhist tradition, we speak of three powers. These are quite different than the power of fame, wealth, and competition.  These three kinds of power can make a person happy.  If you have these three kinds of power, then the other kinds of power like having money, fame, an army or weapons will never become destructive.

The First Power: Understanding

The first kind of power is the power of understanding.  We should be able to cultivate the power to understand our own suffering and the suffering of others.  This kind of understanding will bring about compassion that will reduce our own suffering.  When you understand, you are no longer angry; you no longer want to punish anyone. Understanding is a great power. It gives rise to compassion.

When you have sufficient understanding, you release all of your fear, anger and despair.  Understanding means understanding the roots of suffering in yourself, in others, and in the world.  We use the energy of mindfulness and concentration to look deeply into the nature of our suffering in order to gain understanding.  In Buddhism, we don’t speak of salvation in terms of grace.  We speak of salvation in terms of understanding. Understanding is like a sword that can cut through the afflictions of anger, fear, and despair.

The Second Power: Love

If you put a handful of salt into a bowl of water and stir it, the water will be too salty to drink.  But if you throw the same amount of salt into an immense river, the handful of salt can’t make the river salty.  The power of love is like the river.  If your heart grows, your heart has room for everyone.  When your heart is full of love, little irritations become like the handful of salt in the river.  They don’t bother you, and you don’t suffer anymore.

The energy of love can free you and also help free the people around you who suffer.  There are two ways to respond to difficulties you have with others.  In the first way, you have the desire to punish the person you believe has made you suffer.  You believe that you are a victim of someone else and you have the tendency to want to punish that person because he or she has dared to make you suffer.  You may feel tempted to retaliate and to punish them. But of course when the other person is punished, he or she suffers and wants to retaliate and punish you back. This is how the situation escalates. Yet, there is another way to respond. You can respond to suffering with the power of love.  When you look deeply, you realize that the person who has made you suffer also suffers very deeply.  He suffers a lot from his wrong perceptions, his anger, or his fear.  He doesn’t know how to handle the suffering in himself. If no one offers love and understanding, he becomes the victim of his own suffering.  If you look deeply with the eyes of love and see this, compassion will be born in your heart.  When compassion is born in your heart, you don’t suffer anymore, and you ease the suffering of others.

The Third Power:  Letting Go

The third power is the power to be able to detach and let go of our afflictions, such as craving, anger, fear, and despair.  When you have the power to cut away all these kinds of afflictions, you become a free person and there is no greater power than that. When you’re free, you can help so many people to suffer less.

We all have the energy of craving within us, but we can cultivate the power of being able to cut through this kind of energy.  We know that the object of our craving has brought us a lot of suffering and has brought other people around us a lot of suffering, too.  Mindfulness, concentration, and understanding, give us the power to overcome our attachment to our afflictions.

In the beginning, you believe that the objects of your craving are essential for your well-being and happiness.  You let your cravings have power over you.  But if you look deeply, you will recognize that these objects of craving are not true conditions for your happiness.  If you can see this, and you can cultivate the powers of love and understanding, then you’ll be truly powerful.

-Thich Nhat Hanh, Work, How to Find Joy and Meaning in Each Hour of the Day

The above is a lot to take in!  If it’s too much all at once, just focus on one of the three forms of power that Thay discusses that resonates most with you right now.  Some things to think about are:  When do I feel most and least powerful?  Have I ever experienced one or more of the three types of power that Thay discusses?  How might I incorporate those forms of power into my own life and relationships?

I look forward to seeing you on Monday night and hearing your thoughts!

Namaste,

Alison 

Exploring Equanimity: A Deeper Look

Last week, Andy helped us explore the topic of equanimity: what does it mean to you and how do you seek to practice this in your life? This week, we will continue with this theme, integrating more of Thay’s teaching and looking deeply at our own experiences with (or without) equanimity.

In “The Heart of the Buddha’s Teaching”, Thay describes the Four Immeasurable Minds – love, compassion, joy and equanimity. “They are called “immeasurable” because, if you practice them, they will grow in you every day until they embrace the whole world. You will become happier, and everyone around you will become happier too.”

Turning towards equanimity, specifically, one of its characteristics is the ability to see everyone as equal – not discriminating between ourselves and others. I don’t know about you, but for me, this is particularly difficult when I am in conflict. When you are strongly in disagreement with someone, to what extent can you …“shed all discrimination and prejudice, remove all boundaries between yourself and others? As long as we see ourselves as the one who loves and the other as the one who is loved, as long as we value ourselves more than others or see ourselves as different from others, we do not have true equanimity.

So, what can we do to practice equanimity? Thay is quite specific: “We have to put ourselves into the other person’s skin and become one with him if we want to understand and truly love him. When that happens, there is no “self” and no “other”. 

A summer breeze can be very refreshing; but if we try to put it in a tin can so we can have it entirely for ourselves, the breeze will die. Our beloved is the same. He is like a cloud, a breeze, a flower. If you imprison him in a tin can, he will die. Yet many people do just that. They rob their loved one of his liberty until he can no longer be himself. They live to satisfy themselves and use their loved one to help them fulfill that. That is not loving, it is destroying. You say you love him, but if you do not love his aspirations, his needs, his difficulties, he is in a prison called “love”. True love allows you to preserve your freedom and the freedom of your beloved. That is equanimity.

For love to be true love, it must contain compassion, joy and equanimity. For compassion to be true compassion, it has to have love, joy and equanimity in it. True joy has to contain love, compassion and equanimity. And true equanimity has to have love, compassion and joy in it. This is the interbeing nature of the Four Immeasurable Minds. You can watch Thay describe this in the video. 

While it is tempting to look at global and national events, and tell ourselves that equanimity is impossible, I invite you to start at home: look deeply at your relationships with family and friends. To what extent have you shed discrimination and removed boundaries? To what extent is your love possessive or liberating? If you notice a pattern, practice with that. Put yourself in the other person’s skin and see how that feels.

 Please bring your insights and experiences on Monday night. 

Practicing Equanimity

This Monday, Andy will facilitate. He shares:

I am not sure about you but in recent years the ability to be reached 24/7/365 has led to a number of perfectly fine days being brought to a screeching halt by an incoming email, text or call. Typically the message conveys a low level panic or anxiety that someone was experiencing and which they felt should be “forwarded”.Occasionally, it actually includes something serious and rarely something important and alarming (albeit even in these circumstances calm usually returns quickly). Maybe I was less sensitive to these ‘jolts’ in the past or maybe as I have gotten older they have become more regular, but either way I now recognize them as part of life. 

In the last couple of years as I have returned to a regular practice the term ‘equanimity’ has kept catching my eye. As a central tenet within Buddhism, equanimity (in Pali, upekkha) is one of the Four Immeasurables or four great virtues (along with compassion, loving kindness, and sympathetic joy). Upe means “over,” and kkha means “to look.” You climb the mountain to be able to look over the situation. In western language the term “equanimity” first entered the English language in the 17th century from the Latin “aequanimitas,” which comes from “aequus” (equal) and “animus” (mind). According to the Oxford English Dictionary, it means “calmness and composure, especially in a difficult situation”. I am sure that similar concepts and language exist in most, if not all cultures.  

Thay has spoken about the importance of the practice of equanimity --remaining calm in trying circumstances -- and has described how equanimity can serve as a "balm of clear water to pour on the roots of our afflictions," to use a verse from "The Ceremony for Beginning Anew”, a section of which is included below: 

Please bring the balm of clear water
to pour on the roots of our afflictions.
Please bring the raft of the true teachings
to carry us over the ocean of sorrows.
We vow to live an awakened life,
to learn the path of true happiness, 
and to practice smiling and conscious breathing.
Diligently we live in mindfulness.

What does the term equanimity mean to you and how do you seek to practice this in your life? 

How do you deal with the difficult issues that arise and how does your own practice help?

I hope you will join us on Monday night.

True Happiness: One of the Five Mindfulness Trainings

This Monday, Bea will facilitate.

Tonight’s meditation is about the Five Mindfulness Trainings. We will read all of them together and I will focus on one specifically: True Happiness.

What follows are extracts from a talk that Thay gave on June 23, 2005 in Plum Village. You can find the full transcript of the talk here. Please reflect on how you practice happiness, what makes you happy, and how your happiness affects others.

“Happiness is a practice. We should distinguish between happiness and excitement, and even joy. Many people in the West, especially in North America, think of excitement as happiness. They are thinking of something, or expecting something that they consider to be happiness, and, for them, that is already happiness. But when you are excited you are not really peaceful. True happiness should be based on peace, and in true happiness there is no longer any excitement.

Suppose you are walking in a desert and you are dying of thirst. Suddenly you see an oasis and you know that once you get there, there will be a stream of water and you can drink so you will survive. Although you have not actually seen or drunk the water you feel something: that is excitement, that is hope, that is joy, but not happiness yet. In Buddhist psychology we distinguish clearly between excitement, joy, and happiness. True happiness must be founded on peace. Therefore, if you don’t have peace in yourself you have not experienced true happiness.

Training Yourself to Be Happy 

You have to cultivate happiness; you cannot buy it in the supermarket. It is like playing tennis: you cannot buy the joy of playing tennis in the supermarket. You can buy the ball and the racket, but you cannot buy the joy of playing. In order to experience the joy of tennis you have to learn, to train yourself to play. In the same way, you have to cultivate happiness.

Walking meditation is a wonderful way to train yourself to be happy. You are here, and you look in the distance and see a pine tree. You make the determination that while walking to the pine tree, you will enjoy every step, that every step will provide you with peace and happiness. Peace and happiness that have the power to nourish, to heal, to satisfy.

There are those of us who are capable of going from here to the pine tree in that way, enjoying every step we make. We are not disturbed by anything: not by the past, not by the future; not by projects, not by excitement. Not even by joy, because in joy there is still excitement and not enough peace. And if you are well-trained in walking meditation, with each step you can experience peace, happiness, and fulfillment. You are capable of truly touching the earth with each step. You see that being alive, being established fully in the present moment and taking one step and touching the wonders of life in that step can be a wonder, and you live that wonder every moment of walking. If you have the capacity to walk like that, you are walking in the Kingdom of God or in the Pure Land of the Buddha.

So you may challenge yourself: I will do walking meditation from here to the pine tree. I vow that I will succeed. If you are not free, your steps will not bring you happiness and peace. So cultivating happiness is also cultivating freedom. Freedom from what? Freedom from the things that upset you, that keep you from being peaceful, that prevent you from being fully present in the here and the now.

One nun wrote to Thay that she has a friend visiting Plum Village. Her friend did not take the monastic path; instead she married, and now has a family, a job, a house, a car, and everything she needs for her life. She’s lucky because her husband is a good man; he does not create too many problems. Her job is enjoyable, with a salary above average. Her house is beautiful. She thinks of her relationship as a good one although it is not as she expected; sure, you can never have exactly what you expect.

And yet, she does not feel happy and she is depressed. Intellectually she knows that in terms of comfort, she has everything. Many of us think of happiness in these terms, as having material and emotional comforts. Not many people are as successful as that friend, and she knows that she is fortunate. And yet she is not happy.

We Are Immune to Happiness 

We have the tendency to think of happiness as something we will obtain in the future. We expect happiness. We think that now we don’t have the conditions we think we need to be happy, but that once we have them, happiness will be there. For example, you want to have a diploma because you think that without that diploma you cannot be happy. So you think of the diploma day and night and you do everything to get that diploma because you believe that diploma will bring you happiness. And you forecast that happiness will be there tomorrow, when you get the diploma. There may be joy and satisfaction in the days and weeks that follow the moment you receive your diploma, but you adapt to that new condition very quickly, and in just a few weeks you don’t feel happy anymore. You become used to having a diploma. So that kind of excitement, that kind of happiness is very short-lived. We are immune to happiness; we get used to our happiness, and after a while we don’t feel happy any longer.

People have made studies of poor people who have won lotteries and have become millionaires. The studies found that after two or three months the person returns to the emotional state they were in before winning the lottery. From two to three months. And during the three months there is not exactly happiness; there is a lot of thinking, a lot of excitement, a lot of planning and so on––not exactly happiness. But three months later, he falls back to exactly the same emotional level as he was before winning the lottery. So having a lot of money does not mean you will be happy.

Perhaps you want to marry someone, thinking that if you can’t marry him or her, then you cannot be happy. You believe that happiness will be great after you marry that person. After you marry, you may have a time of happiness, but eventually happiness vanishes. There is no longer any excitement, any joy, and of course, no happiness. What you get is not what you expected. Then perhaps you know that what you have attained will not continue for a long time. Even if you have a good job, you are not sure you can keep it for a long time. You may be laid off, so underneath there is fear and uncertainty. This type of happiness, without peace, has the element of fear and cannot be true happiness. The person you are living with may betray you one day; you cannot be sure that person will be faithful to you for a long time. So fear and uncertainty is present also. To preserve these so-called conditions of happiness you have to be busy all day long. And with these worries, uncertainties, and busyness, you don’t feel happy and you become depressed.

So we learn that happiness is not something we get after we obtain the so-called conditions of happiness: namely, the material and emotional comforts. True happiness does not depend on these comforts; nothing can remove it from you. When we come to a practice center, we are looking to learn how to cultivate true happiness.

Happiness Is Impermanent 

Impermanence means that everything is changing, including the happiness that you are experiencing. The step you are making allows you to get in touch with the Kingdom of God, with the Pure Land of the Buddha, with all the wonders of life that bring happiness. But that happiness is also impermanent. It lasts only for one step; if the next step does not have mindfulness, concentration, and insight, then happiness will die. However, you know that you are capable of making a second step which also generates the three powers of mindfulness, concentration, and insight, so you have the power to make happiness last longer. Happiness is impermanent; we know the law of impermanence, and that is why we know that we can continue to generate the next moment of happiness. Just as when we ride a bicycle, we continue to pedal so that the movement can continue.

Happiness is impermanent but it can be renewed, and that is insight. You are also impermanent and renewable, like your breath, like your steps. You are not something permanent experiencing something impermanent. You are something impermanent experiencing something impermanent. Although it is impermanent, happiness is possible; the same with you. And if happiness can be renewed, so can you; because you in the next moment is the renewal of you. You are always changing, so you are experiencing impermanence in your happiness and in yourself. It’s wonderful to know that happiness can last only one in-breath or one step, because we know that we can renew it in another step or another breath, provided we know the art of generating mindfulness, concentration, and insight.”

See you Monday evening.

Namaste,

Bea

Beginning Anew

This week, Alison will facilitate.

In keeping with the “New Year, New Me” theme of our first Sangha of 2019, I wanted to share the following excerpt from Thich Nhat Hanh’s book Happiness:

To begin anew is to look deeply and honestly at ourselves, our past actions, speech, and thoughts and to create a fresh beginning within ourselves and in our relationships with others.  We practice Beginning Anew to clear our mind and keep our practice fresh.  When a difficulty arises in our relationships and one of us feels resentment or hurt, we know it is time to begin anew.

Beginning Anew helps us develop our kind speech and compassionate listening because it is a practice of recognition and appreciation of the positive elements within our Sangha.  Recognizing others’ positive traits allows us to see our own good qualities as well.  Along with these good traits, we each have areas of weakness, such as talking out of anger or being caught in our misperceptions.  As in a garden, when we “water the flowers” of loving kindness and compassion in each other, we also take energy away from the weeds of anger, jealousy, and misperception.

We can practice Beginning Anew everyday by expressing our appreciation to the people in our community and apologizing right away when we do or say something that hurts them.  We can politely let others know when we have been hurt as well.  The health and happiness of the whole community depends on the harmony, peace, and joy that exists between everyone.

Thay goes on to describe a Beginning Anew practice that is done each week at Plum Village.  The practice has three parts: (1) flower watering, in which one acknowledges the wholesome and wonderful qualities of others, which helps alleviate feelings of anger and resentment; (2) expressing regrets for any action one has taken to hurt someone else; and (3) expressing ways one has been hurt by others.  While the Plum Village practice is directed at the members of that Sangha who share a more extensive experience with each other, I believe that this practice can also be useful in terms of how we address issues outside any particular sangha too.  I look forward to sharing and hearing others’ thoughts on Thay’s message and the Beginning Anew practice.

Namaste,

Alison

How and Why to Stop Running

This week Annie will facilitate.

We will listen to a talk by Thich Nhat Hanh on our habit of running. 

Running after people, places, projects, and things is one of my most ingrained habits. I have been practicing to slow down since the 1990's and it is still a challenge for me sometimes.

Listening to Thay Nhat Hanh, we will be reminded of the way that mindfulness can help us stop running. Wanting to stop is not enough. "The willingness to stop is not stopping yet." We need to have an insight in order to break this habit of running after another moment.

We are not always comfortable in the here and now. We run because we don't believe that happiness is available right now. However, when we are fully present in the here and now, then we are present to being fully alive. And our practice is what helps us to see this. We can recognize what is happening in the present moment and see that what we need is already here. And we can help both our body and mind stop running.

He says, "You don't just meditate with your mind, you meditate with your body.  The first meaning of samatha is stopping. Without stopping you cannot do much."

Once we can stop our running, we can begin to look deeply at what is really happening. We may have painful emotions, wounds, despair, or injustice that needs our attention. This is only possible when we are able to stop. So stopping can help us heal. 

I look forward to seeing you Monday. After listening to the talk, we will have time to share about what we heard and whatever else is on our hearts and minds. Some questions we can consider are: 

• What am I running toward? What am I running from?

• What practices help me arrive in the present moment? 

• What do I find when I stop and look deeply? 

with love,

annie.

New Year, New Me

https://plumvillage.org/news/new-practice-phrases-for-2014/

“It is possible to live happily in the here and now. So many conditions of happiness are available—more than enough for you to be happy right now. You don't have to run into the future in order to get more.”

― Thich Nhat Hanh, Being Peace

As we move into the New Year may we do so with mindfulness and a focus on our heart and soul. The word resolution can often have a heavy tone and negative association.

It may remind us of intentions unmet and regrets. Mindfulness is of course a coming home practice, a practice that helps us to see clearly and see things as they are.

Thich Nhat Hanh reminds us in the above quote that we have so many conditions of happiness, more than enough to be happy right here and now.

Every year in Plum Village for the New Year and Lunar New Year, practice phrases, or couplets like the ones at the top of this page are created. They are considered a poetic gift and reminder to practice mindfulness.  

Rather than say New Year, New Me, I propose that we say New Year, Slightly Better Me. Looking deeply we know that this thing we call “me” is a product of many different influences and conditions. While it is impermanent, it is not likely to change completely overnight. Having a mindfulness practice and being part of a supportive community are great conditions for happiness. In the New Year we can build on this.

In pausing together at this beginning of the year we can come home to our heart to ask what do I really want for myself this year. More importantly, how do I want to feel this year. New year, New me. Our mindfulness practice helps us with New Year, New Me.

The other verse of the couplet is Joy Within, Joy All Around. Continuing with the inquiry on how you want to feel, you can inquire as to what brings you joy? Knowing what brings joy we can choose to water those seeds of joy in us more often this year.

The Zen teacher Suzuki Roshi taught about beginner's mind. He said:

"In the beginner's mind there are many possibilities, but in the expert's there are few."

When we have a beginners mind there is a freshness in practice. We can see the world with an attitude of curiosity from the lens of not knowing. With the beginner's mind we can begin to see the Joy all Around. Mindfulness sees the pull of the old habits and allows us to side step and move in a different direction.  That direction is the direction of beginner's mind, the direction

of realizing all of the conditions we already have for happiness and joy.

I look forward to beginning the New Year together and contemplating and discussing our conditions for happiness and the joy within us and all around.

Mick

2019 Resolutions or Intentions

New Year's resolutions come around annually, if at all. 

Even if we never make one, we all have intentions, however and whenever they may be voiced.

Most new years I do not make a resolution, but once in a while there is a big one.  New Year's eve 1981 while having a blue evening in a neighborhood blues bar I decided to move away from New York City to New Orleans, to end a period of musical experimentation, and to rejoin the long path to becoming a physician—and I did.  Another New Year's in the mid 1990's I set an intention to open my heart by (figuratively) peeling back the crusty covering layers.  This resolution was less outwardly dramatic than the earlier one but was in many ways harder and was much longer to accomplish--in fact, this peeling back is still a work in progress!  Other years, the resolutions have dealt with relationships: one year I vowed to criticize my wife less and to provide more encouragement to my kids.   One year my sister-in-law, inspired by something I said but do not remember exactly, was inspired to resolve to quit smoking and did it!  Perhaps there also were resolutions that never went anywhere, but I do not recall them; and I definitely cannot recall a resolution being harmful, although of course such a scenario is possible, and resolutions should be chosen carefully with consideration of all their effects. 

This year I do not yet know what the resolution will be or if there will be one. The resolutions that seem to work for me are those that build on at least some existing foundation.  Sometimes we have foundations about whose existence we may not even be aware.  So it can be useful to take stock of: to whom and to what we are connected, and on what we stand, sit and lie.   A next step then can be to visualize and project forward where we can then go.  Too much focus on the future can lead to anxiety, but some planning is needed and makes great sense.  Sometimes the plan is just about the next step....

Thich Nhat Hahn's 2014 New Year resolution: "I am determined not to waste my life. I dare to live the life that I want to live. I want that every step I make on this planet to bring joy to me and to other people, and to touch Nirvana and the Kingdom of God with every step."

Thay’s resolution talks about “steps” and so uses elements of walking meditation. Inspired by his resolution, I wonder whether it might help to have my new resolution have a mindful breathing-ready component such as “breathing in I want X, breathing out I am determined to do Y.”  That way it can be regularly reinforced with meditation.

Do you have a resolution (or intention) for this year, or a prior resolution that retains meaning?

What is the foundation for it?

Can mindfulness play a role in the genesis and execution?

On Monday, we can sit together with these questions and whatever else you bring to share on the eve of 2019.

December 17 Completely Lovable

“To be beautiful means to be yourself. You don’t need to be accepted by others. You need to accept yourself.” -- Thich Nhat Hanh

I spent several days on retreat at Upaya Zen Center last month for a program about Love and Death. On the subject of death and forgiveness, one participant shared deeply about the last moments of her partner's life. 

Both she and her partner had experienced abuse and carried trauma in their bodies. So the gift she offered him at his death bed was profound and beautiful. As he was dying and unable to speak, she reminded him that every part of him was completely lovable. The parts that had been abused, the parts that had abused others, the parts that were in pain. 

The woman sharing, who was a true Bodhisattva, told us how she practices this with her own wounded and fragile parts. As she sits in meditation she mentally touches each part of her body and says, "Is this foot lovable? Yes, completely lovable. Is this leg lovable? Yes, completely lovable." And so on.

She got to her mouth, which had been sexually abused as a child, and she asked, "Is this mouth, the one that was abused, is it still lovable?" And she answered to herself, "Yes, completely lovable." 

I found this practice to be moving and extremely healing for my own body, which experienced physical abuse as a child and which I abused with an eating disorder during my youth. Is the finger that I used to purge myself lovable? Yes, completely lovable. Is my mind, with its mean thoughts and bad ideas lovable? Yes, completely lovable.

This practice of Completely Lovable invites our ultimate body to express love for our human body, the one that has experienced so much in our human lifetime. Practicing this, we start to know that our body is completely lovable no matter what it has experienced. And this allows us to walk less encumbered through the world. More free.

This week, after our sitting and walking meditation periods, I will offer us a guided meditation on Completely Lovable, and afterward we will have time to share about our experiences.

I hope to see you there.

with love,

annie

December 10 Mindfulness and Lifestyle Medicine

This Monday, Miles will facilitate.

After finishing my medical training in public health and preventive medicine I became aware I had to apply what I had learned to my own life. I was a husband and father of young children with a demanding job, and I saw my blood pressure periodically spiking to disturbingly high levels.  Stress was an important contributor to this problem.  Even more stress was created when I ruminated intensely on whether I was on the way to repeating patterns within my family history including fatal heart attacks at young ages and severe & chronic anxiety and depression. Wanting to live healthily and also to see my children grow up, and even to see grandchildren someday, I began searching for an effective way to deal with my health challenges.

My training in public health and preventive medicine taught me that the leading causes of death in the United States, including heart disease & stroke, cancer, diabetes, obesity, and chronic lung diseases, are all related to the choices we make in our daily lives. When health care providers and educators teach about “lifestyle medicine” they can focus on six “buckets” or areas of concern: diet, exercise, sleep, social support, stress management and avoiding toxins. Below are some observations from my 25 years of personal experience.

Diet: inspired by a talk at a yoga retreat about 25 years ago I removed meat and poultry from my diet (but retained occasional fish/seafood.) This change was motivated by health concerns, by feelings of compassion for animals, and by memories of dissecting cadavers in gross anatomy class. (It also helped that a yoga teacher pointed out that gorillas are vegetarians and are really strong!) An additional dietary change was cutting way back on butter, cheese and other sources of saturated fat and trans fats (which are only now, 25 years later, being removed from our food supply by the Food and Drug Administration).  It took a couple of decades, but now my wife and adult son are pretty much on the same program—maybe someday my daughters too!

Exercise: For many years I have been exercising, usually for a half hour, six days a week.  If I am anxious about something, exercise helps takes the edge off and maybe even allows time and space for some new insight into coping with the source of stress.  Hiking in the woods, or even just walking on a quiet tree-lined street, is not only enjoyable exercise for me but also an opportunity to “bathe” in nature.  I love the upbeat mood that always follows exercise!

Sleep: Although a good night’s sleep is key to recharging my batteries, sometimes I will awaken in the middle of the night and not easily fall back to sleep due to worry, something I ate, some unresolved issue or who knows why?   When this happens, one natural sleep aid that I like is to lie in bed under the covers and do a gentle version of yogic breathing called ujjayi.  Although there is some technique involved, essentially this is just following regular breathing like we commonly do in meditation.  The last few years, I have also noticed that alcohol (especially red wine) can lead to more sleep interruptions, so the solution for that is clear!

Social support: At the end of my daily yoga practice, I often seal it by dedicating its merits in concentric circles to my wife, children, extended family, friends, neighbors, the “difficult people” and everyone else.   The closer to the center of the circle, the more contact, trust, intimacy and mutual support there is.  For me now, sangha falls into the important friends-neighbors circle. TOMAIL NEWSLETTER

Stress management: Six days a week practice of yoga postures (asana) with meditation/savasana toward the end is a key anchor for my riding out not just the daily stresses but also the big ones like when my sister (who was single, with no parents alive or other siblings) passed away 3 years ago.  No matter what happens I always feel better physically, mentally and spiritually during and after yoga, so the practice simply reinforces itself.  If I miss more than a day, I just don’t feel right.  Sometimes I wonder what would happen if, because of some accident or illness, I could not practice asana.  It is reassuring to know, though, that as long as I am around, at least my breath will be around too and can be followed!

Avoiding toxins:  Although there are numerous serious and important environmental toxins to be concerned about, sometimes the toxins are of our own creation.  A couple of days ago, my wife had a skin biopsy performed by a physician who, a few days later, left a 6PM telephone message asking for a return call to obtain the biopsy results.  Too late to contact the physician the same day, the overnight uncertainty about the results opened the door to me (which I did not have to proceed through) to creating elaborate scenarios centered on devastating disease progression.   This imaginative exercise was, fortunately, restricted to my body-mind-spirit and had some paradoxical benefits (from the swamp’s mud grows the lotus!)  I tried, mostly unsuccessfully, to accept not knowing the biopsy results and to wait with equanimity.  Occasionally, though, I would return to my breath and grow enough compassion to prevent my sharing verbally with my wife the unhelpful catastrophic scenarios I was fabricating.  The next day, the results were obtained and were mainly reassuring.   So, chalk up another time-limited anxiety “hijacking”, with a bit of skillful means embedded in the event that can be built upon!

Monday evening together in our Dharma sharing we may reflect on and share about these three questions:

– What are some of the wholesome lifestyle choices we have made or are making?


– What are some of the less wholesome choices that we are still making?


– In what ways does (or might) mindfulness practice help us make more skillful choices?

You are invited to join us.  Below is the text of Thich Nhat Hanh’s fifth mindfulness training, Nourishment and Healing:

Aware of the suffering caused by unmindful consumption, I am committed to cultivating good health, both physical and mental, for myself, my family, and my society by practicing mindful eating, drinking, and consuming. I will practice looking deeply into how I consume the Four Kinds of Nutriments, namely edible foods, sense impressions, volition, and consciousness. I am determined not to gamble, or to use alcohol, drugs, or any other products which contain toxins, such as certain websites, electronic games, TV programs, films, magazines, books, and conversations. I will practice coming back to the present moment to be in touch with the refreshing, healing and nourishing elements in me and around me, not letting regrets and sorrow drag me back into the past nor letting anxieties, fear, or craving pull me out of the present moment. I am determined not to try to cover up loneliness, anxiety, or other suffering by losing myself in consumption. I will contemplate interbeing and consume in a way that preserves peace, joy, and well-being in my body and consciousness, and in the collective body and consciousness of my family, my society and the Earth.

* thanks to Mitchell Ratner for his catalytic and supportive involvement in some of the above text

December 3 Aspirations for Practice and Coming Home

You have to come to the Buddha with all your suffering. Suffering is the path. By true suffering, you can see the path of enlightenment, the path of compassion, the path of love. According to the teaching of the Buddha, it is by looking deeply into the nature of your sorrow, your pain, of your suffering, that you can discover the way out. If you have not suffered, you can not go to the Buddha. You have no chance to touch peace, to touch love. It is exactly because of the fact that you have suffered, that now you have an opportunity to recognize the path leading to liberation, leading to love, leading to understanding.

--Thich Nhat Hanh

This Monday Mick will facilitate.

Practicing presence. At a recent class that I am in, we were asked to sit across from a partner and ask them repeating questions, without responding. The first question or inquiry was "What blocks you from being present?"  Each time the partner came to a pause, the question was asked again. This went on for about a minute and a half. The second question was "What supports you to be present?"

Answering a repeating question is an experience of unpeeling the layers of the mind to shine a light on answers that are in plain view and deep below the surface.  "What blocks you from being present?" and "What supports you to be present?" are powerful and helpful companions. The practice of mindfulness is, of course, a coming home practice. Our daily habits, of course, are running to be occupied, distracted and entertained practices. What blocks us from coming home? What brings us home? The umbrella over these questions is around our aspiration to practice and our larger aspirations.

Thich Nhat Hanh writes:

To aspire means to aspire to something. There should be a kind of deep desire that pushes you to go in that direction. That desire makes up the vitality of the person. Each of us needs to have enough vitality, joy, an aspiration, a deep desire. So it is good to sit down and look deeply to recognize the deepest desire in us. Without this, a person is not very much alive. When we speak of an "aspirant", we think of the will that is there in the person. If that person is determined to go in that direction, it is because there is a force that is pushing them. That force is the deepest desire that we can find in us.

People often come to the practice of mindfulness, meditation or Buddhism because of pain, suffering, dis-ease. We bring the pain and sorrow that has been born from our family, environment and life experience. The practices and teachings give us a path, a way to transform our suffering and to experience healing. With the practice of mindfulness and meditation, we can look deeply into our suffering and begin to see the roots and conditions that have led to suffering.

In doing so we become more connected to ourselves, others and the world as we open our hearts to all of the above. To transform, heal, and see clearly, we take the path of the brave warrior in coming home to the present moment, to stillness, to silence.

Reflections on Practice

How has my practice of mindfulness, expanding my capacity for understanding, love, and compassion, helped me to transform my own "ill-being"?

-- E.g. anxiety, anger, fear, depression, regrets, craving, heedlessness, despair, distractedness?

-- What are my specific, past and current, experiences of "ill-being"?

-- What are the challenges in the practice for me at this time?

-- Where do I meet resistance, discomfort, and fear?

Engaging Practice

How do I now use the practice of mindfulness in the context of my family, social life, workplace, and livelihood?

-- How could I do this even more?

From orderofinterbeing.org

Please note that this week is a Newcomers week, our facilitator will be at the  studio at 6:15 pm for a brief overview of the logistics of the evening and mindfulness practice.

November 26 Loving Speech and Deep Listening

This Monday night, Susie will facilitate.  She shares:  

This week we are going to review together the Five Mindfulness Trainings, which are: 

1. Reverence for Life

2. True Happiness

3. True Love

4. Loving Speech and Deep Listening

5. Nourishment and Healing 

I would like to focus our discussion on the fourth training - Loving Speech and Deep Listening.

Aware of the suffering caused by unmindful speech and the inability to listen to others, I am committed to cultivating loving speech and compassionate listening in order to relieve suffering and to promote reconciliation and peace in myself and among other people, ethnic and religious groups, and nations. Knowing that words can create happiness or suffering, I am committed to speaking truthfully using words that inspire confidence, joy, and hope. When anger is manifesting in me, I am determined not to speak. I will practice mindful breathing and walking in order to recognize and to look deeply into my anger. I know that the roots of anger can be found in my wrong perceptions and lack of understanding of the suffering in myself and in the other person. I will speak and listen in a way that can help myself and the other person to transform suffering and see the way out of difficult situations. I am determined not to spread news that I do not know to be certain and not to utter words that can cause division or discord. I will practice Right Diligence to nourish my capacity for understanding, love, joy, and inclusiveness, and gradually transform anger, violence, and fear that lie deep in my consciousness. * * *

Loving speech includes

-       breath,

-       intonation,

-       eye contact,

-       body language,

-       thoughts forming,

-       words,

-       sentences,

-       punctuations.

I know that words matter. At times I notice my speech comes straight from my programmed mind, and I hear the words after they come out that I really didn't mean to utter. It makes me rethink how much I really need to say. I wonder what is my motivation for speaking. Is it ego? Do I desire connection? Is it more comforting to fill the space with sound? Then I take a breath, and ponder the purpose of these utterances, sometimes before they've tripped out or after.

A life coach I was speaking with at a party said he witnesses people minimizing what they are about to say by apologizing or using words like "I guess I just..." or "It's probably me..." and sometimes end a declaration with "...anyways". Saying "I am sorry" when it's the other person's doing.

From Don Miguel Ruiz's classic book of Toltec wisdom, The First Agreement is Be Impeccable with Your Word.

Loving speech begins with how we speak to the self. Our speech is coming from the heart. How kind is our self-talk? Can we forgive self for the imperfections of our human existence? We have anger, frustration, toxic feelings that can be soothed with compassionate encouragement and gentle voice.

We may repeat what we heard our parents say, and we are caught off guard when the words unexpectedly slip out - for better or worse. Most recently, I have been remembering and journaling about the hurtful speech I grew up hearing. It makes me sad for the small child I was, and yet it's very helpful to be aware of it. I am grateful I survived this period in my life, and when I hear those phrases in my head, I practice self-care and re-parenting as much as possible. I get to break the pattern, and replace cruel speech with loving speech.

Begin with self, and say -

"Good Morning My Darling! What did you dream about?"

(I am always the first person up in my house. This is on a card by my bed that I see when I wake up.)

"How can I be my own best friend today?"

(Put this on a post it in your kitchen or bathroom.)

"I am enough!"

(I write this on my hand when I need a reminder.)

When we have enough for ourselves, we can then give to others. What words are you using that are unkind to you or others around you? What words are in you that don't support your true self, and don't support the true nature of the people in your life that you love the most, and the stranger too? Monday, we will come together to support each other in lovingly letting these harmful words go, and make space for the words that resonate with you in this moment.

To me, deep listening means I listen wholeheartedly. I try to practice listening reflectively - repeating the words I am hearing in my mind so I know I am completely aware of what the person in front of me is saying. I try to remember to breathe in while I am listening, and stay present. I listen without preparing a response while the other is speaking to me, without the ego interfering and worrying, without thinking about how I can fix this person or their problems. Of course I don't do all of this all the time - hello!

I have always been on a quest to be more aware. This life takes a lifetime and I will get there as long as it takes. Will you join me? I hope so. See you Monday!

In love and light,

Susie

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

The Five Mindfulness Trainings

The Five Mindfulness Trainings represent the Buddhist vision for a global spirituality and ethic. They are a concrete expression of the Buddha's teachings on the Four Noble Truths and the Noble Eightfold Path, the path of right understanding and true love, leading to healing, transformation, and happiness for ourselves and for the world. To practice the Five Mindfulness Trainings is to cultivate the insight of interbeing, or Right View, which can remove all discrimination, intolerance, anger, fear, and despair. If we live according to the Five Mindfulness Trainings, we are already on the path of a bodhisattva. Knowing we are on that path, we are not lost in confusion about our life in the present or in fears about the future.

Reverence for Life

Aware of the suffering caused by the destruction of life, I am committed to cultivating the insight of interbeing and compassion and learning ways to protect the lives of people, animals, plants, and minerals. I am determined not to kill, not to let others kill, and not to support any act of killing in the world, in my thinking, or in my way of life. Seeing that harmful actions arise from anger, fear, greed, and intolerance, which in turn come from dualistic and discriminative thinking, I will cultivate openness, non-discrimination, and non-attachment to views in order to transform violence, fanaticism, and dogmatism in myself and in the world.

True Happiness

Aware of the suffering caused by exploitation, social injustice, stealing, and oppression, I am committed to practicing generosity in my thinking, speaking, and acting. I am determined not to steal and not to possess anything that should belong to others; and I will share my time, energy, and material resources with those who are in need. I will practice looking deeply to see that the happiness and suffering of others are not separate from my own happiness and suffering; that true happiness is not possible without understanding and compassion; and that running after wealth, fame, power and sensual pleasures can bring much suffering and despair. I am aware that happiness depends on my mental attitude and not on external conditions, and that I can live happily in the present moment simply by remembering that I already have more than enough conditions to be happy. I am committed to practicing Right Livelihood so that I can help reduce the suffering of living beings on Earth and reverse the process of global warming.

True Love

Aware of the suffering caused by sexual misconduct, I am committed to cultivating responsibility and learning ways to protect the safety and integrity of individuals, couples, families, and society. Knowing that sexual desire is not love, and that sexual activity motivated by craving always harms myself as well as others, I am determined not to engage in sexual relations without true love and a deep, long-term commitment made known to my family and friends. I will do everything in my power to protect children from sexual abuse and to prevent couples and families from being broken by sexual misconduct. Seeing that body and mind are one, I am committed to learning appropriate ways to take care of my sexual energy and cultivating loving kindness, compassion, joy and inclusiveness - which are the four basic elements of true love - for my greater happiness and the greater happiness of others. Practicing true love, we know that we will continue beautifully into the future.

Loving Speech and Deep Listening

Aware of the suffering caused by unmindful speech and the inability to listen to others, I am committed to cultivating loving speech and compassionate listening in order to relieve suffering and to promote reconciliation and peace in myself and among other people, ethnic and religious groups, and nations. Knowing that words can create happiness or suffering, I am committed to speaking truthfully using words that inspire confidence, joy, and hope. When anger is manifesting in me, I am determined not to speak. I will practice mindful breathing and walking in order to recognize and to look deeply into my anger. I know that the roots of anger can be found in my wrong perceptions and lack of understanding of the suffering in myself and in the other person. I will speak and listen in a way that can help myself and the other person to transform suffering and see the way out of difficult situations. I am determined not to spread news that I do not know to be certain and not to utter words that can cause division or discord. I will practice Right Diligence to nourish my capacity for understanding, love, joy, and inclusiveness, and gradually transform anger, violence, and fear that lie deep in my consciousness.

Nourishment and Healing

Aware of the suffering caused by unmindful consumption, I am committed to cultivating good health, both physical and mental, for myself, my family, and my society by practicing mindful eating, drinking, and consuming. I will practice looking deeply into how I consume the Four Kinds of Nutriments, namely edible foods, sense impressions, volition, and consciousness. I am determined not to gamble, or to use alcohol, drugs, or any other products which contain toxins, such as certain websites, electronic games, TV programs, films, magazines, books, and conversations. I will practice coming back to the present moment to be in touch with the refreshing, healing and nourishing elements in me and around me, not letting regrets and sorrow drag me back into the past nor letting anxieties, fear, or craving pull me out of the present moment. I am determined not to try to cover up loneliness, anxiety, or other suffering by losing myself in consumption. I will contemplate interbeing and consume in a way that preserves peace, joy, and well-being in my body and consciousness, and in the collective body and consciousness of my family, my society and the Earth.

November 19 Which of the Six Realms do you hang out in?

This Monday night, Mary will facilitate.  She shares:  

I have wanted to share for some time my notes from a retreat given by Pema Chodron and her long-time assistant, Tim Olmstead. They brought to everyday life the ancient Tibetan Buddhist teachings on the Six Realms. Rather than a traditional description of the six possible places of reincarnation after death, they focus on how these teachings can help us to be free now.

We often hear that the ground of our being, our basic nature is basic goodness. I wonder why I don't feel like that every day, every moment. The Six Realms are a paradigm that describes when we lose contact with this natural state of being. And when we get disconnected with our true nature, we get stuck in a realm.

"The Six Realms are our styles of being stuck-and when we become interested with open curiosity, when we turn the lights on our lives, we understand the realm(s) in which we habitually operate. Most people favor one or two realms as their 'go-to' realms. The 'carrot' is our imagination of what life could be like to be free from the prison of these realms --- that's why we have heros like Buddha, Christ and so many others. They provide us the evidence that it is possible.

1. Hell realm: "you're against me" in opposition to everything; heat; fight; angry, enraged mind; hatred; can't distinguish if it's really happening or if it's your state of mind.

2. Hungry Ghost realm: "there is never enough" or "I am never enough"; insatiability; deficiency; impoverished mind; even when there is enough, it's never satisfying.

3. Animal realm: "just trying to get by"; head down; determined; survival mode; a fear of being eaten.

4. Human realm: "if only I had"; if only, if only I had ... more friends, more time, more money, better looks, better spouse, better job, better house.

5. Jealous realm: "I am the best" or "that's just how it is and I'm right"; competitiveness; jealousy; one-up-man.

6. God realm: "luxury of obliviousness"; accompanied by a certain amount of wealth as have everything you need; bliss meditation; when things go wrong, check into a spa.

We bring intentionality to our awareness anytime we knowingly and intentionally bring our awareness to something. There are 3 types of awareness: Normal awareness; intentionally bringing our awareness/attention to something; and pure awareness/calm abiding/shamata when the knowingness no longer needs to have an object.

There is a difference between being lost in emotions versus being present to them; being used by our emotions versus using them. The skill we work to develop in this practice is the ability to hold and embrace our circumstance with awareness. Like all skills, this takes time to develop. Run in, run away, pull out, jump back in-do it in short, small bites. In order to open it out, to empty the realm, we need to open up the doors of the prison of that realm. This gesture of being willing to embrace our experience with that curiosity-just like a mother embraces her child-that is what heals, what empties the realm. Along the way, we learn how far we can go, in small bites; it's a process of coming closer. In order to empty the realm, we have to know it completely and intimately.

"The beauty of a relationship to things is that a relationship crafts intimacy and intimacy creates understanding and understanding creates love."

From Anais Nin

This attitude of warmth, understanding and love is healing. Awareness is the panacea. We learn to talk to ourselves like we'd want a friend to talk to us-with warmth, with empathy.

When we really understand ourselves, we automatically become interested in others' selves. Through this doorway, we connect to other people, to the world-- it develops our empathy, curiosity and warmth that melt the realm. Without meditation, we don't become familiar with this quality of awareness.

Space is the metaphor for our basic nature. Nothing can harm space.

It's because we are who we are and realize that we have all this stuff that we are even motivated to work to become enlightened-to be free from what imprisons us. You benefit people through what you thought was your weakest, most broken, part. It cuts through your denial, your pride, your ignorance-it opens us up and connects us to others-it's our humanness. It becomes your skill, your way to help others. These become doorways to our freedom.

What ultimately starts to soften things is accepting yourself the way you are. Brain science tells us that our emotions last only 90 seconds if we don't feed and reinforce them with the narrative. Meditation is a method to let the story line go. Feel what you feel without the narrative. "

Tonight after walking meditation, we will practice the process of emptying realms together during the second sitting period.

I look forward to seeing and sharing with you on Monday night!

Bowing to the light within you,

Mary

November 12 Bitter and Blissful Awakenings

On Monday, Marie will facilitate.  She shares:  

This week, we will reflect on how our consciousness and/or our lives have changed since we first started to practice.  I began thinking about this last month whilst on retreat with Rinpoche Anam Thubten.  He gave a Dharma talk on the three stages of spiritual practice and described that, in the last stage, one recognizes and transforms the five poisons (hatred, pride, greed, jealousy and ignorance).  He shared that, in his experience, "bitter awakenings" have been more important, more transformational, than blissful awakenings.  When one sees that one is deluded - hooked on an inner poison - one can recognize this, look deeply into this experience and find freedom.   In "No Self, No Problem", he writes: 

When we come to the spiritual path, we have to... be certain that we are not adding another illusion on top of the illusions we already have.  When we look into our consciousness we see that we have many illusions.

What is our main illusion?  The illusion is that I am real.  I am truly existent.  This final illusion is the one we want to hold on to.

There are stages we go through on the path of dissolution and sometimes the first stage is a bit painful.  Sometimes it has a bitter taste because it is painful to lose what we are attached to...  Did you ever experience going through your old clothes, pictures and paperwork and find that you have a lot of things that are totally useless?  They are useless, yet when we have to make the radical choice to throw them away it is painful because we have great memories attached to them.  We wore that tee shirt when we fell in love...  For these reasons, dissolving illusions can sometimes be very painful...  

What is transcendent wisdom?  It is a direct momentary process of dissolving all illusion right now in this very moment.  It is dissolving the illusion of pain, sorrow and hatred.  It is dissolving the illusion of self...

It is good to lose everything sometimes.  It is good to get out of the straight jacket and get free from everything that has been imprisoning us throughout many lifetimes.  It is truly liberating to lose all of our cherished illusions, including the illusion of self.  Giving up all mental exertion, especially the mental exertion we use to sustain the illusion of "I", the illusory separation between the self and the other.  When we give up this effort, then suddenly all illusions just go away.  We really don't have to do anything.  It's all about stopping.  We simply stop perpetuating and holding on to illusions.  The illusions don't have their own life force.  They are ready to dissolve in each and every moment.  It's just a matter of tie.  When we wholeheartedly decide to no longer sustain the illusions, they collapse.

If we close our eyes for a few moments and pay attention to our mind, we see that somebody is working very hard.  Their main work, their full time employment, is to come up with concepts, ideas and story lines about the past, present and future with one clear goal: sustaining illusory reality.  This full time employee is called "ego".  It's story line is "I'm good. I'm bad.  I don't have enough. Somebody hurt me.  I'm too old.  I'm too young and so forth.  All these are concepts produced by ego...

However, when we decide wholeheartedly to no longer sustain illusions all of this collapse.  It takes a lot of energy to keep producing the story lines to feed the nonexistent, illusory reality. Suddenly, when we stop producing concepts and ideas, when we stop feeding that illusory reality, when we stop associating with the ego, it is very simple.  The moment we stop associating with ego it just immediately ceases right there.  And in that moment, we fall in love with the truth.  

What has been your experience?  If you reflect back on how you were before you started practicing relative to how you are now, what has changed?  Can you identify the source of these changes - in terms of insights or transformation?  To what extent have your awakenings been bitter or blissful, and what are the implications for your practice going forward?

I look forward to us sharing our experiences on Monday night.

Warmly,Marie  

November 5 The Life and Teachings of the Buddha - Shantum Seth

This week Annie will invite the bell for dharma teacher Shantum Seth who will speak to us about the life and teachings of the Buddha. Shantum's full bio is below.  You can listen to him talk about his Buddhist journey here.

Shantum leads tours of the Buddhist sites in India and Nepal and was the teacher of Annie's trip to India in 2016. Shantum has been a student of Thich Nhật Hanh for several decades and has been a friend of Annie's for many years. You will definitely enjoy his talk!
After our meditation period, Shantum will talk, and then we will have some time to ask him questions and share about our practice.* 
More about Shantum:Shantum Seth is a teacher, social development worker and a man of peace with Indian roots and a world experience not easily found in one person.

He is an ordained teacher (Dharmacharya) in the Zen lineage of the Venerable Thich Nhat Hanh, and the foremost guide to the sites associated with the Buddha. He has been leading highly acclaimed pilgrimages 'In the Footsteps of the Buddha' and other amazing journeys of discovery throughout India and parts of South Asia since 1988. His tours have been featured in The New York Times and on the BBC/PBS's "Story of India" (www.buddhapath.com).

He advises the Government of India's Ministry of Tourism and Culture and was instrumental in initiating the Endogenous Tourism program for the United Nations Development Program where he worked for 15 years. He has used his considerable experience to contribute to a number of books, including "Walking with the Buddha," "Planting Seeds..., Sharing Mindfulness with Children," and "Volunteers against Conflict."

Shantum has been in demand as a guest speaker at many forums including to the Young President's Organization, the UNDP executive board, the Chicago Council for Global Affairs, the Confederation of Indian Industries and at a number of museums and universities East and West.

He is actively involved in the non-profit trust Ahimsa, which is pioneering work on 'Mindfulness in Education' and setting up a centre for this purpose in the foothills of the Himalayas (www.ahimsatrust.org). While at the University of East Anglia in England, studying Development Studies, he titled his thesis 'Ahimsa Shoes', basing it on Gandhian economics. 

An itinerant traveler himself, he has visited more than 50 countries and has lived in England, the USA and France. He now lives with his wife, two daughters and parents in the suburbs of Delhi, India.

In many ways Shantum is an exciting window to today's India. He helps the world understand, interpret and value a multi-faceted civilization and its people.

*Although this is the first Monday of the month, there will be no newcomer's orientation this week. If you are new, feel free to join us at 7 pm and we will welcome you and let you know what to expect.

October 29 True Happiness

This Monday, Camille will facilitate.  She shares:

Dear Friends,

This evening we will read together the Five Mindfulness Trainings (see below). These trainings, translated for modern times by Thich Nhat Hanh, are ways to practice mindfulness with compassion and understanding. While they are trainings -if practiced regularly, Thay says they can "help us be more calm and concentrated and bring more insight and enlightenment".

I would like to focus on the Second Mindfulness Training this evening - True Happiness. This training talks about taking an active role in social justice, generosity towards others, and reducing suffering in myself and others, recognizing that my happiness and the happiness of others is not separate. For me this training is both a challenge and a blessing.

When I listen to the news or read books about the suffering of others, or when I experience personal suffering, I can often retreat and huddle in a corner not wanting to believe or accept what is true. My flight response begins as an easy way out but all too soon becomes painful. It often takes lots of time, energy, meditation, and breathing to coax myself into the realization that this is just adding to the suffering. Sometimes I am able to practice metta or loving kindness toward myself and begin to feel healing take place, and sometimes even confident and energized enough to think I can save the world. At that time when we are able to practice self compassion is when we are then able to spread joy and happiness to others.  

In Thay's book "For A Future To Be Possible; Commentaries on the Five Mindfulness Trainings", he says, "even with metta as a source of energy in ourselves, we still need to learn to look deeply in order to find ways to express it. We do it as individuals, and we learn ways to do it as a nation. To promote the well-being of people, animals, plants and minerals, we have to come together as a community and examine our situation, exercising our intelligence and our ability to look deeply so that we can discover appropriate ways to express our metta in the midst of real problems".  

I hope to continue to find more ways to practice generosity and mette and serve those in need. I invite you to consider this practice and think about how it might manifest itself in your daily life.

I look forward to seeing you and sharing deeply on Monday night.

With love, Camille

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The Five Mindfulness Trainings
The Five Mindfulness Trainings represent the Buddhist vision for a global spirituality and ethic. They are a concrete expression of the Buddha's teachings on the Four Noble Truths and the Noble Eightfold Path, the path of right understanding and true love, leading to healing, transformation, and happiness for ourselves and for the world. To practice the Five Mindfulness Trainings is to cultivate the insight of interbeing, or Right View, which can remove all discrimination, intolerance, anger, fear, and despair. If we live according to the Five Mindfulness Trainings, we are already on the path of a bodhisattva. Knowing we are on that path, we are not lost in confusion about our life in the present or in fears about the future.
Reverence For LifeAware of the suffering caused by the destruction of life, I am committed to cultivating the insight of interbeing and compassion and learning ways to protect the lives of people, animals, plants, and minerals. I am determined not to kill, not to let others kill, and not to support any act of killing in the world, in my thinking, or in my way of life. Seeing that harmful actions arise from anger, fear, greed, and intolerance, which in turn come from dualistic and discriminative thinking, I will cultivate openness, non-discrimination, and non-attachment to views in order to transform violence, fanaticism, and dogmatism in myself and in the world.
True HappinessAware of the suffering caused by exploitation, social injustice, stealing, and oppression, I am committed to practicing generosity in my thinking, speaking, and acting. I am determined not to steal and not to possess anything that should belong to others; and I will share my time, energy, and material resources with those who are in need. I will practice looking deeply to see that the happiness and suffering of others are not separate from my own happiness and suffering; that true happiness is not possible without understanding and compassion; and that running after wealth, fame, power and sensual pleasures can bring much suffering and despair. I am aware that happiness depends on my mental attitude and not on external conditions, and that I can live happily in the present moment simply by remembering that I already have more than enough conditions to be happy. I am committed to practicing Right Livelihood so that I can help reduce the suffering of living beings on Earth and stop contributing to climate change.
True LoveAware of the suffering caused by sexual misconduct, I am committed to cultivating responsibility and learning ways to protect the safety and integrity of individuals, couples, families, and society. Knowing that sexual desire is not love, and that sexual activity motivated by craving always harms myself as well as others, I am determined not to engage in sexual relations without true love and a deep, long-term commitment made known to my family and friends. I will do everything in my power to protect children from sexual abuse and to prevent couples and families from being broken by sexual misconduct. Seeing that body and mind are one, I am committed to learning appropriate ways to take care of my sexual energy and cultivating loving kindness, compassion, joy and inclusiveness - which are the four basic elements of true love - for my greater happiness and the greater happiness of others. Practicing true love, we know that we will continue beautifully into the future.
Loving Speech and Deep ListeningAware of the suffering caused by unmindful speech and the inability to listen to others, I am committed to cultivating loving speech and compassionate listening in order to relieve suffering and to promote reconciliation and peace in myself and among other people, ethnic and religious groups, and nations. Knowing that words can create happiness or suffering, I am committed to speaking truthfully using words that inspire confidence, joy, and hope. When anger is manifesting in me, I am determined not to speak. I will practice mindful breathing and walking in order to recognize and to look deeply into my anger. I know that the roots of anger can be found in my wrong perceptions and lack of understanding of the suffering in myself and in the other person. I will speak and listen in a way that can help myself and the other person to transform suffering and see the way out of difficult situations. I am determined not to spread news that I do not know to be certain and not to utter words that can cause division or discord. I will practice Right Diligence to nourish my capacity for understanding, love, joy, and inclusiveness, and gradually transform anger, violence, and fear that lie deep in my consciousness.
Nourishment and HealingAware of the suffering caused by unmindful consumption, I am committed to cultivating good health, both physical and mental, for myself, my family, and my society by practicing mindful eating, drinking, and consuming. I will practice looking deeply into how I consume the Four Kinds of Nutriments, namely edible foods, sense impressions, volition, and consciousness. I am determined not to gamble, or to use alcohol, drugs, or any other products which contain toxins, such as certain websites, electronic games, TV programs, films, magazines, books, and conversations. I will practice coming back to the present moment to be in touch with the refreshing, healing and nourishing elements in me and around me, not letting regrets and sorrow drag me back into the past nor letting anxieties, fear, or craving pull me out of the present moment. I am determined not to try to cover up loneliness, anxiety, or other suffering by losing myself in consumption. I will contemplate interbeing and consume in a way that preserves peace, joy, and well-being in my body and consciousness, and in the collective body and consciousness of my family, my society and the Earth.

Link to Plum Village website.

October 22 Creativity and Buddhism

This Monday, Bea will facilitate.  She shares:

This week I have been thinking a lot about the creative process to reconnect with the self and to feel grounded. Is there a connection between creativity and Buddhism? In these complex times that we live in, can creativity be a means to a more peaceful existence or a way to let go of our frustrations and emotions? Can art offer us a safe space to express ourselves? We know that Thich Nhat Hanh is a poet so how is Buddhism enhancing his personal creativity? After I did some research online, I realized that many artists - be they writers, singers, musicians or painters-speak openly about their spiritual practice and how that is intimately connected to their creative work. Here is an interesting piece I came across by Aleksandra Kumorek, a writer, director and lecturer in Berlin. The Source is The Mindfulness Bell, a journal on the art of mindful living. It was published in the Spring of 2014 and it mentions one of our teachers here, in our community... before our Monday night practice, think about your own creative process and how your practice relates to it? How do your nurture that space within yourself?

The Heart of Creativity

The work of artists, creative practitioners, and those working in the media has an impact on the collective consciousness. But which seeds are being watered? What would it look like to live and work according to Buddhist ethics? How can we be part of a wholesome, supportive community of creative practitioners?

"Together we are one," reads a calligraphy by Thich Nhat Hanh. This statement became the motto of the first retreat organized by the Mindful Artists Network, which took place at Findhorn, Scotland, in June 2013. Fourteen dancers, musicians, actors, writers, and visual artists from Germany, Great Britain, and Canada came together at the Victorian retreat center, Newbold House, in order to meditate, dance, celebrate, and practice creativity. Under the spiritual guidance of Sister Jewel (Dharma teacher in the tradition of Thich Nhat Hanh) and Sister Hai Nghiem, and with co-facilitation by the network founders Susanne Olbrich and me, this newly formed "tribe" spent a weekend enjoying the magical Scottish midnight sun.

In the opening ceremony, everyone placed an object or image on the "altar of creativity"--something that represented each person's connection to his or her individual creative source. It was an act of consciously joining the great stream of our ancestors, inspirations, and influences. This marked the beginning of an intense weekend of shared joys and tears, dances and performances, deep reflection, and heartfelt laughter.

In addition to sitting and walking meditations, the focus was on creative practice. Sister Jewel introduced the InterPlay method and dance meditation, which helped us connect deeply with ourselves and with each other. In the large, walled garden of Newbold House, groups created mandalas from natural materials and then gave impromptu performances. In small groups, we reflected on ethics and the Five Mindfulness Trainings.

An informal tea ceremony provided a frame for participants to present their own creative work: music, dance, painting, sculpture, performance, movies, photography, and poetry. One of the particularly memorable artists was a most uncommon "Zen" master: a clown who works with terminally ill children in hospitals and who made us laugh that night.

By the time we parted Sunday afternoon, we'd grown into a loving community that had brought Thich Nhat Hanh's statement to life: Together we are one, indeed. We couldn't resolve the world's problems during this weekend, and living our lives lovingly and mindfully will continue to be a challenge for each one of us. We know we must not allow the seeds of greed, stress, and competition, which are so dominant in our society, to be watered. We must remain true to our way of compassion and non-harming in everyday work. But we know that we no longer walk this path alone."

See you Monday evening.

Namaste,

Bea

October 15 Past, Present, Forward...

On Monday Night, Mick will facilitate our sitting.  He shares:

This past Thursday October 12 was the 92nd birthday/continuation day of Thich Nhat Hanh, aka Thay. On this day I was moved to reflect on Thay's teachings and life and how they have impacted my life. Thay's teachings and reminders have been a guiding source in my life for over 20 years.

Driving to work on Thursday and listening to one of his talks I felt refreshed and energized in experiencing that just like the breath and the body, the teachings are something that are always there for us whenever we are ready to step out of the mind and into the present moment. We always have the capacity to pause, to stop and breathe and take care of ourselves. One of the greatest fruits of the practice for me over the years has been the practice of learning to be with strong or challenging feelings.

Thay teaches that the strong feelings are impermanent and that we can find a shelter from the storm. He writes:

When a feeling of sadness, despair, or anger arises, we should stop what we are doing in order to go home to ourselves and take care. We can sit or lie down and begin to practice mindful breathing. The daily practice of breathing can be very helpful. A strong emotion is like a storm, and when a storm is about to arrive, we should prepare so we can cope with it. We should not dwell on the level of our head and our thinking but bring all our attention down to the level of our abdomen. We may practice mindful breathing and become aware of the rise and fall of our abdomen. Breathing in, rising; breathing out, falling. Rising, falling. We stop all the thinking because thinking can make the emotion stronger.

(Planting Seeds: Teaching Mindfulness to Children, by Thich Nhat Hanh. pp 183-184)

The simple, yet powerful practice of mindful breathing can help us to be stable in midst of turmoil. Even if the emotions do not go away, we can notice and observe the nature of the feeling and how it is moving through our mind and body.

Thay teaches that we are like the tree in a storm:

The mind is the top of the tree, so don't dwell there; bring your mind down to the trunk. The abdomen is the trunk, so stick to it, practice mindful, deep breathing, and after that the emotion will pass. When you have survived one emotion, you know that next time a strong emotion arises, you will survive again. But don't wait for the next strong emotion to practice. It is important that you practice deep, mindful breathing every day.

(Planting Seeds: Teaching Mindfulness to Children, by Thich Nhat Hanh. pp 183-184)

On Thay's Continuation Day I reflected on how the practice of mindfulness has shaped my life in the past, and the present. I also thought about how I want to continue to live and practice and share Thay's teachings. Being with strong feelings is just one of the teachings/practices that stood out for me.

In coming together on Monday we can share on this practice and also take time to reflect and share on how Thay's teachings have influenced you in the past, the present and how you would like to continue into the future.

Please find the link for the full article with an update on Thay's health.

Also, you can go here to find the text for Planting Seeds: Practicing Mindfulness with Children by Thich Nhat Hanh, the source of all the quotes and belly breathing below.

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Belly BreathingWhen a feeling of sadness, despair, or anger arises, we should stop what we are doing in order to go home to ourselves and take care. We can sit or lie down and begin to practice mindful breathing. The daily practice of breathing can be very helpful. A strong emotion is like a storm, and when a storm is about to arrive, we should prepare so we can cope with it. We should not dwell on the level of our head and our thinking but bring all our attention down to the level of our abdomen. We may practice mindful breathing and become aware of the rise and fall of our abdomen. Breathing in, rising; breathing out, falling. Rising, falling. We stop all the thinking because thinking can make the emotion stronger.We should be aware that an emotion is only an emotion; it arrives, stays for some time, and then passes, just like a storm. We should not die just because of one emotion. We should remind young people about this. We are much more than our emotions, and we can take care of them whether we are feeling anger or despair. We don't think anymore, we just focus 100 percent of our attention on the rise and fall of the abdomen and in that moment we are safe. Our emotion may last five or ten minutes but if we continue to breathe in and out, we will be safe, because mindfulness is protecting us. Mindfulness is the Buddha in us, helping us practice belly breathing...We are like a tree during a storm. If you look at the top of a tree, you may have the impression that the tree can be blown away or that the branches can be broken anytime, but if you direct your attention to the trunk of the tree and become aware that the tree is deeply rooted in the soil, then you see the solidity of the tree. The mind is the top of the tree, so don't dwell there; bring your mind down to the trunk. The abdomen is the trunk, so stick to it, practice mindful, deep breathing, and after that the emotion will pass. When you have survived one emotion, you know that next time a strong emotion arises, you will survive again. But don't wait for the next strong emotion to practice. It is important that you practice deep, mindful breathing every day.- Thich Nhat Hanh