209 – The World Needs Metta

Posted on October 11, 2012 by

Metta, the practice of loving kindness or friendliness, can be the approach we take whenever the mind is anxious, as it often is when we think about the state of our world. Metta is a skillful antidote to that anxiety, steering the mind towards that which is helpful and positive and away from ill will.

I received the following forwarded email from a friend and find it helpful as I contemplate the coming US presidential election:

Let’s consciously co-create a world filled with values such as peace, kindness, collaboration, and prosperity and see us moving forward with optimism.

1) On the next two Sundays, 10/14 and 10/21, at 11:00 a.m. US EDT, wherever you are, I invite you to synchronize energies with me for at least 5 minutes.  The idea is to be charged by the energy of unconditional love. To do so, connect with your feelings towards your loved ones and then radiate to your home, expand to your city… country…the world, all with an open and hopeful heart.  Then, feel the energies within of love, kindness, collaboration, abundance and peace. Visualize (“imagine”) expanding to your community, the country and beyond until the world radiates the same energy.

2) In addition, I recommend sharing a highly conscious attitude before and during the elections. I will read the prayer below every morning until November 6th. I invite you to join me.

Much love & light,

Oly

Highly Conscious Elections

I breathe in Peace and Optimism.
I awaken the Presence of Peace and Hope within me now.
I call forth the highest outcome for the U.S. Presidential Election in 2012.
I call forth the election of the President of the United States of America to serve the highest evolution of the U.S. and our world.
I am grateful that Truth, Integrity, and Peace are now present and manifesting through the U.S. Presidential Election.
I call forth the reality of Peace, Collaboration, Consciousness, Sustainable Solutions, and the New Earth resonance.
I intend that the President and the Vice President who will serve and create the Highest Good for all peoples of the U.S., all peoples of the world and all of life on our precious planet are now elected — peacefully and easily.
I recognize that I play a role in manifesting Peace and Benevolence each day, each moment.
I dedicate this moment to consciously creating the election of a President and Vice President who support life and serve the highest good of all people.
I am grateful that Truth prevails now, that Peace prevails now.
I am grateful that the highest outcome for the U.S. and the world in this Presidental Election is now manifest.
I create Peace now.
And so it is.

Prayer, written by Oly Schalow based on Nikita Gearing’s 2008 prayer

Notice that the prayer does not ask for a specific result from the election, but instead offers a prayer for wisdom for whoever is elected. It helps remind us that there is a different approach beyond the divisiveness and ill will that election campaigns usually inspire. All spiritual traditions recognize the power of prayer. Our world and our leaders need all the good will we can send.

Posted in Brahmavihara Practice | Leave a comment

208 – Ego and Self

Posted on August 9, 2012 by

From New Buddhist Poetry by T J Dayhuff, posted on Facebook:

Ancients thought a self constrained by ego
to be dwelling in ignorance,
shackled to an identity based on distinction,
rather than the manifold connections to the Large.
Enlightenment was prescribed
not as destruction of the ego
– forsaking all for the beggar’s bowl
but as making it transparent.

We are the thinking monkeys, after all,
and the ego as a tool of survival
has served evolution well
just be vigilant for the illusion of separation . . .”

ponderously I muddle – dodging traffic

as someone gestures rudely when I cut him off.

“Ah, bugger on,” I mutter.

Count to ten, Momma said, way back when,
and I think:

Momma knew.

Posted in Dhamma Matters, Poetry | Leave a comment

207 – May your good fortune increase

Posted on June 20, 2012 by

At our group sit tonight, someone posed the question of how to open the heart towards difficult people with wishes for their success and good fortune.  Mudita is the brahmavihara practice of sympathetic or appreciative joy. (For a definition of mudita, see my post 92 – Appreciative Joy.)

Mudita is about not begrudging or envying the good fortune of others. It is considered the most difficult of the heavenly abodes to practice and the key is to examine our mind states when we do so. Is envy present? Judgment, as in questioning whether the person deserves their good fortune? We are truly practicing mudita when there is no hint of grasping after someone else’s accomplishments. We truly practice mudita when we are able to experience happiness or joy for someone else at the same time  we may be experiencing sadness or tragedy in our own life.

So what about extending wishes for a difficult person’s continued happiness, joy and success? It is best to practice mudita with people that we know who have real achievements that we are aware of, rather than abstract examples. It is not wisdom to wish success to those whose accomplishments are hurtful or sadistic; however, we can practice compassion (karuna) towards them instead. Some part of a cruel or unwise person craves happiness just as we do. Blinded by their own suffering and ignorance, they commit unspeakable acts against others–we do not condone or approve of their actions but we can connect in a compassionate way with their suffering.

 

 

Posted in Brahmavihara Practice, Dhamma Matters | Leave a comment

206 – Beware of Equanimity. . .

Posted on May 9, 2012 by

. . . when it is really complacency. It’s sometimes difficult to tell them apart, which is why we need to look carefully at all mind states all the time, inside and outside of formal practice. I was reminded of this need to be vigilant as I was reading this month’s Full Moon Insight Journal from the Barre Center for Buddhist Studies. IJ interviews Thanissaro Bhikkhu about the influence the Romantic and Transcendentalist movements had on how we Westerners interpret Buddhism and how we may be straying from what the Buddha actually taught as a result. One of Thanissaro’s points really caught my attention:

If you think that a non-reactive state of mind is in touch with the true nature of things as they are–which is how mindfulness is often portrayed–you’re basically making equanimity your ultimate meditative tool. But as the Buddha said (MN 101), equanimity can handle only some of the causes of suffering. There are many other causes that require the effort of analysis and thought–what he termed “the exertion of fabrication.” If you limit yourself to equanimity, there will be many causes of suffering that will simply hide out, without getting uprooted. And, in fact, equanimity can be an object of clinging. If you don’t see that, you shut the door to total release.

This made an impression on me because I have a tendency towards equanimity when it may not be appropriate. My mother taught me that there is great strength in bearing the conditions of one’s life, an “it is as it is” attitude that is genuinely helpful in curbing reactivity and fostering an ability to be present for one’s experience. But like all mental states, it must be balanced in its application.

When my mother changed  residences some years ago, my brother (who was helping her move) saw what looked like some glassware headed for the trash. He salvaged a piece and took it home. Some years later, Mother was visiting him and asked, “Where did you get my grandmother’s antique butter dish?”  Although she didn’t say so at the time, she has often expressed a wish to me and my husband that she had it back and implied that she resented my brother’s taking it. Recently, she and my brother came to dinner at my house and my husband mentioned the butter dish to my brother. My brother replied, “I didn’t know she wanted it–of course, I’ll bring it with me.”

My mother and the butter dish were re-united and she was thrilled. The reunion would have happened sooner if she could have brought herself to tell my brother what she was really feeling and thinking.

We must beware complacency masquerading as equanimity . Vigilance and unwavering examination of mind states is necessary so that we can see what is actually present and take appropriate action.

Posted in Background on Buddhism, Brahmavihara Practice, Dhamma Matters | Leave a comment

205 – I am of the nature to die

Posted on April 10, 2012 by

Continuing with some thoughts on the Five Remembrances in post 202:

For any concept to truly influence our worldview and how we live, it must go beyond the idea stage and be integrated into our very being. So it is with the Remembrances. We begin by trying to be mindful of them throughout our day, trying on the concepts and (per the Buddha’s instructions), testing them in the laboratory of our own experience. Gradually we see evidence of all five. We also begin to increase our understanding of the subtler aspects, including our aversion and fear.

It can take many years of practice to overcome aversion and fear, particularly to the big D (Death happens to others, not to me). Once I was practicing on retreat with a woman who I’d judge to be in her 70s at the time. She was utterly terrified of dying and her fear and aversion were palpable. In the Buddha’s time, his practice was to send his monks to the charnal grounds to spend time contemplating the dead in various stages of decomposition. In his wisdom, the Buddha understood that feeding aversion only makes it grow from a tiny cloud to a towering thunderhead. He understood well that the best way to overcome fear and aversion is to turn and face it full on. The allegory of Mara’s legions on the night of his awakening speaks to sitting still in the face of horrible and scary sights and sounds and simply being with them–without being overwhelmed by them.

In our culture, it is difficult to find examples of death to contemplate. We know (at least intellectually) that people, pets, and all we cherish changes form and eventually dies or disappears. We don’t like to think about the fact that no matter what we do to keep our bodies young, fit and beautiful, sooner or later, they age and die. We try to preserve bodies through embalming and other methods for….what?….future use? In Tibet, it was considered a final act of compassion to allow ones body to be consumed by other beings…. Interestingly, in Latin cultures among others, the idea of death as a natural continuum of life is more evident and prevalent in their cultural practices than in ours (for an example, see this about eating sugar skulls and the Día de los Muertos – Day of the Dead).

Ultimately, if we truly want to grow in our purification practice, we have to come to terms with the recollection, “I am of the nature to die. Death is unavoidable.” To do that, we have to go beyond concept to an appreciation of aging and death as part of the natural order of things. Instead of avoidance and fear, we welcome them because they make us viscerally understand how precious a birth is and that we have only a limited amount of time to be here in this form.

One of my teachers talks all the time about “practicing as though your hair were on fire.” I didn’t understand this at first and I am still working with this concept in practice. What it suggests is the urgency to make the best use of our time here, particularly in working with subtle defilements like aversions that are deeply buried–it takes time for them to reveal themselves so they can be known. As they rise to awareness and we meet them, with practice, over time, they dissipate like smoke. What eventually replaces the aversion and the anxiety is a sense of ease, a relaxation, a lightness that comes every time we evolve beyond fear to deep acceptance.

Acceptance is not just puny agreement; it means a profound shift in ones state of being. The bedrock of who you think you are shakes and shifts and the tectonic plates move. You learn, for real, that there is nothing solid to attach to–even your “Self.” And there is no solid “I” that says “I’m ok with that.” Although you are…..

 

Posted in Dhamma Discussion, Dhamma Matters, Five Recollections, Practice, Vipassana | Leave a comment

204 – The Importance of Form

Posted on April 1, 2012 by

Over the years, I’ve encountered many fellow practitioners who are very concerned with “proper sitting form.” When I first began formal practice, I also was concerned about achieving a respectable lotus or half lotus position, believing that this was the ideal posture for sitting. This view reflects a misunderstanding of the teachings, particularly the Buddha’s instructions for mindfulness meditation given in the Satipatthana Sutta.

First, the Buddha specifies four postures for meditation: sitting, standing, walking or lying down. We largely ignore two of these in the West. Second, new practitioners wrongly interpret”doing” meditation properly by emphasizing the trappings, the form, rather than the substance of the Buddha’s teaching. I was recently reading some teachings from Ajahn Maha Boowa, one of the great Thai forest masters who passed away in January 2011. He said that it is not the posture you take that is important, but rather the “quality of your attention.”

Formal practice, in any of the four postures, teaches us to develop not just mindfulness, but mindfulness with discernment. It provides the vehicle for us to learn how to be mindful throughout our day with whatever phenomena are arising. It helps us to meet, with discernment, the circumstances of our lives.

Form is important, in that it provides the container for practice. Too often, though, we use our inability to establish “perfect” conditions for practice as an excuse not to practice. “It’s too noisy….too quiet….too many distractions….my back hurts….I’m too ill…..” How many of us have made these excuses without realizing that we can bring attention to whatever is happening (illness, boredom, noise, quiet, aching muscles, etc.)?

I’ve found it helpful to remind myself: “My life IS my practice. Whatever is happening right NOW is my practice. What quality of attention can I bring to this moment?”

Posted in Dhamma Matters, Practice, Teachers | Leave a comment

203 – Transcendent Joy

Posted on March 26, 2012 by

i am spring delirious
besotted with the scent of hyacinth outside my front door
enamored of flowering trees
amazed at new leaves not visible yesterday
i am in love with spring

what joy to have this early warm spell
to be in the garden
to celebrate a new round of life!

Joy, happiness, delight, enjoyment — these are a natural part of the human condition and the Buddha made it clear that we are not to ignore or repudiate them. We can understand that these mental formations are impermanent and that we can derive no lasting satisfaction from them–still taking pleasure in them while they are present.

Today, for example, is overcast, windy and chilly–more typical of March in Illinois than the 80 and 70 degree weather we’ve had recently. I can attach to yesterday’s warm weather or I can choose to enjoy different activities and pursuits today.

Working with mindfulness, we see the subtle attachments the mind generates and employ skillful means to uproot them. Is the mind attached to yesterday’s pleasant experience? Is it attached to pushing away unpleasant experience? If so, this is a suffering state caused by craving experience to be different than it is.

Transcendent joy is a fruit of mindfulness practice. Seeing the inherent nature of things, we can feel happiness even on a cloudy day. We know that the sun is shining, even when we do not see it.

Posted in Dhamma Matters, General, Practice | Leave a comment