Something in Us Knows
Today feels like a good day for this passage from Jack Kornfield, in After the Ecstasy, the Laundry:
“We don’t know all the reasons that propel us on a spiritual journey, but somehow our life compels us to go. Something in us knows that we are not just here to toil at our work. There is a mysterious pull to remember. What takes us from out of our homes and into [a spiritual quest] can be a combination of events.
“It can be a longing from childhood, or an ‘accidental’ encounter with a spiritual book or figure. Sometimes something in us awakens when we travel to a foreign culture and the exotic world of new rhythms, fragrances, colors, and activity catapults us out of our usual sense of reality. Sometimes it is as simple as walking in the blue-green mountains or hearing choral music so beautiful it seems inspired by the gods. Sometimes it is that mysterious transformation when we attend at the bedside of the dying and a ‘person’ vanishes from existence, leaving only a lifeless sack of flesh awaiting burial.
“A thousand gates open to the spirit. Whether in the brilliance of beauty or the dark woods of confusion and sorrow, a force as sure as gravity brings us back to our heart. It happens to every one of us.”
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Illustration from The Principles of Uncertainty, by Maira Kalman. (click to enlarge)
Text reads: “I am at a loss for words. Everything was not said. Things are bittersweet. Bitter. Sweet. What is this faint vision? This fleeting memory? The furniture is so fragile. And the dust floats so slowly in the sunlight. So sunny. And so precarious.”
The Thing Itself
Our Dharma Book KM Group will be meeting tonight to continue our discussion of Mindfulness: A Practical Guide to Awakening, by Joseph Goldstein. We’ve begun exploring the section on “Mindfulness of Mind,” which includes these instructions from the Satipatthana Sutta:
One knows a lustful mind to be “lustful,” and a mind without lust to be “without lust.” One knows an angry mind to be “angry,” and a mind without anger to be “without anger.” One knows a deluded mind to be “deluded,” and a mind without delusion to be “without delusion;” one knows a contracted mind to be “contracted,’ and a distracted mind to be “distracted.”
Joseph explains, “A clear recognition of what is what–this is lust, this is its absence–then becomes the frame for the deeper direct experience of the mind state itself, free of any words or concepts. Michael Cunningham, in his novel The Hours, write, ‘Everything in the world has its own secret name–a name that cannot be conveyed in language but is simply the sight and feel of the thing itself.’ This is mindfulness sinking into the object and knowing it fully.”
To think of mindfulness as a way to “hear” these secret names……I love that!
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The image above is from a promo for the movie based on Michael Cunningham’s book, The Hours. The text reads: The time to hide is over. The time to regret is gone. The time to live is now. (click to enlarge)
More Reading
I’ve been discussing my concerns about what seems to me to be the inappropriate politicalization of Socially Engaged Buddhism with one of my teachers, Lila Kate Wheeler. As part of this discussion, she sent me a new book by David Loy — A New Buddhist Path: Enlightenment, Evolution and Ethics in the Modern World. (About which Lila is quoted on the flyleaf as saying: “This gripping, important, and ultimately heartening book by David Loy is a wake-up call for Buddhists and everyone else on how to respond to current crises.”)
I have only just started reading the book, but so far (1) I sincerely appreciate its clear, thoughtful, non-New-Age-y tone and (2) I don’t quite understand the dichotomy he sees between accepting the world as it is and working to change what needs to be changed.
He writes: “Will Buddhist temples and Dharma centers adapt to modern life by helping us cope with the stress of surviving in a deteriorating ecological and economic climate? Or will we appreciate Buddhist teachings and practices because they offer a radically different worldview, with an alternative perspective on what’s happing now and what needs to be done? Or do we need both?”
I don’t understand why he thinks that Buddhist temples and Dharma centers are even considering adapting to modern life by simply “helping us cope with the stress of surviving in a deteriorating ecological and economic climate.” Or that there is any question that Buddhist practices “offer a radically different worldview, with an alternative perspective on what’s happing now and what needs to be done.”
Over and over I hear western/modern Dharma teachers going out of their way to explain that acceptance of “things as they have come to be” does not mean passivity, but that instead, the Buddhist teachings are a kind of radical acceptance. Which is the first step in being able to respond in a way that’s actually going to make productive change…no matter what’s happening…and not just for ecological, economic, social or political issues.
So I don’t understand why Loy is calling for a NEW Buddhist path. It seems to me that the one we have is exactly what we need.
I guess I’ll just have to keep reading.
If You Want to Understand…Observe
The Monday night Dharma Book KM Group is in the process of getting rejuvenated (by adding a few new members), so I thought this would be a good time to post a quote from the book we’re reading/discussing: Mindfulness: A Practical Guide to Awakening, by Joseph Goldstein.
From the Preface:
“I first became interested in Buddhism and meditation as a Peace Corps volunteer in Thailand. After returning home and trying to continue the practice on my own, I quickly realized that I needed a teacher. This was in 1967, and at that time there were few Buddhist teachers to be found in the West. So I returned to Asia, first stopping in India to look for someone who could guide my practice. I went to Himalayan hill stations, unfortunately in winter when all the Tibetan teachers had gone south. After visiting different ashrams, I ended up in Bodh Gaya, a small village in Northern India, where Siddhartha Gotama became the Buddha, the Awakened One.
“Anagarika Munindra, my first teacher, had just returned from nine years in Burma and had begun teaching vipassana, or insight meditation. When I first arrived, he said something so simple and direct that I knew I had come to my spiritual home: ‘If you want to understand your mind, sit down and observe it.‘ As he explained the practice, I resonated with this direct looking at the nature of the mind and body, at how suffering is created and how we can be free.
“The simple, although not always easy, practices of vipassana are all rooted in one important discourse of the Buddha: the Satipatthana Sutta. Satipatthana is often translated as ‘the four foundations of mindfulness,’ but another, and perhaps more helpful, translation is ‘the four ways of establishing mindfulness.’ In terms of awareness of the different aspects of our experience, this slight shift of translation has important implications: it gives more emphasis to the process of awareness itself, rather than to the particular objects of our attention.”
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Come, Dharma Friends…..the game’s afoot!
I’m Also Reading….
I’m just about finished reading Karen Armstrong’s excellent (but a bit overwhelming) new book, Fields of Blood: Religion and the History of Violence. I recommend it, especially if you’re of the view that RELIGION is the PROBLEM…or even that RELIGION is the SOLUTION….because the book does a very thorough job of showing that, well, basically it’s a whole lot more complicated than that.
Because the subject of violence (which I tend to want to avoid) became quite fascinating while I was reading, and also because I was starting to get a sense of the evolution of structural/institutional violence, I decided to pick up Steven Pinker’s bestseller from 2011, The Better Angels of Our Nature: Why Violence Has Declined. Which covers much the same territory as Armstrong’s book, but from a broader perspective — and with a more optimistic tone.
Here’s the first paragraph of the preface:
“This book is about what may be the most important thing that has ever happened in human history. Believe it or not–and I know that most people do not–violence has declined over long stretches of time, and today we may be living in the most peaceable era in our species’ existence. The decline, to be sure, has not been smooth; it has not brought violence down to zero; and it is not guaranteed to continue. But it is an unmistakable development, visible on scales from millennia to years, from waging of wars to the spanking of children.”
Hallelujah!
What We Once Named Poison
At the next Sunday Sangha, it will be my turn to bring in a reading for the group to discuss. I’m thinking about bringing the passage below, from After the Ecstasy, the Laundry, by Jack Kornfield:
In Buddhist psychology, this maturing [of the spiritual path] is described through the image of a poisonous tree, which represents the suffering of the world. When we discover that a tree in our midst is poisonous, our first impulse is to try to cut it down–to remove it, so it no longer can be harmful. At this initial stage of practice our language is one of conflict: fear of poison and impurity, and the effort to root out and destroy that which is dangerous.
But as our compassion deepens, we recognize that the tree too is a part of the web of life. Instead of destroying it, we respect even this tree, though we also put a fence around it, warning others of the poison so they will not be harmed. Now our language changes to one of compassion and respect, rather than fear. Our difficulties, inner and outer, are now met with mercy. This is the second stage of practice.
Finally, as our wisdom deepens, we understand that our very problems and poisons are our best teachers. It is said that the wisest beings will come looking for the poisonous tree to use its fruit as medicine to transform the sufferings of the world. The energies of passion and desire, anger and confusion become transformed into the ardor, strength, and clarity that bring awakening. We understand that it is through facing the very sufferings of the world that the deepest freedom and compassion arise. What we one named poison is now recognized as an ally in our practice.
A View is Just a View
I’ve started reading Coming Back to Life, by Joanna Macy, which is part of the homework assignment for our first CDL retreat coming up in April. I know Macy is considered to be a great dharma teacher, specializing in Engaged Buddhism especially as it relates to Climate Change and what she calls Deep Ecology. But her tone — in my opinion — is so strident and political that…even though I basically agree with what she’s saying…I can hardly stand to read it.
Example: In the short time span since the US Supreme Court put George W. Bush in the White House, the changes have been swift, deep and dramatic, giving free rein to economic forces that despoil the Earth and impoverish her people. Now with greater need than ever for public monitoring and outcry, we have become a truth-deprived and fearful populace.
(She’s right about George Bush and the Supreme Court, but really, does that belong in a dharma book!)
Anyway, I was getting more and more irritated (suffering!) with these and other outrageous statements such as:There is a mountain of evidence regarding the 9-11 attacks that was excluded from the 9-11 Commission’s report. It remains unaddressed by the US government, mainstream media and most of US institutions.
Jeeze.
But then, thankfully, I remembered this quote from the Buddha:
After investigation, there is nothing among all the views that such one as I would embrace. Seeing misery in philosophical views without adopting any of them and searching for truth, I discover inner peace. For one who is free from views there are no ties. For one who is delivered by understanding, there are no follies. But those who grasp after views and philosophical options wander about in the world annoying people.
That the Supreme Court should not have “put George W. Bush in the White House” is a view. (One with which I agree, but what good does it do to make an issue of it now?) That there is some mysterious “mountain of evidence regarding the 9-11 attacks” that is being kept from the American people is another view. Which sound like crazy paranoia to me, and which again — in my opinion — has no place in a dharma book.
But of course, this is also a view.
Whether she is “right” or “wrong” to put these things in her book is not the point.
I can have a view — I can agree or disagree or take issue with her views all I want — but I don’t have to get all riled up about it. It’s one thing to have a view about things and quite another to grasp onto that view…and to make myself (and others) miserable in the process.
May I continue to remind myself of this!
Favorite Things
I’m feeling the need for a little Maira Kalman today. This illustration is from My Favorite Things, a book based on the exhibit she curated at the Cooper-Hewitt, National Design Museum in New York.
“Like a shopper in some great, mad department store that housed centuries’ worth of objects, I browsed and inspected their archives for a year or so,” she writes. “The pieces that I chose were based on one thing only — a gasp of delight….
“Photographs of dancers. And of dandies. And dogs. Abraham Lincoln’s pocket watch. Naps. Breaths. Trees. Ingo Maurer’s lamp. Buttons. Lists. These are some of my Favorite Things. Book. Fish. Suit. Time. Mother. Father. Life.
“Everything is a part of Everything. We Live, We Blunder. LOVE UNITES US.”
The Next Journey
I leave tomorrow afternoon for a month-long retreat at Dharmagiri Hermitage in South Africa. I return on Wed, Feb 4, but it may take a while before I’m un-jetlagged and ready to post. So check back on Monday, Feb 9. I should have something posted by then.
In the mean time, I leave you with this quote from Listening to the Heart: A Contemplative Journey to Engaged Buddhism, by Kittisaro and Thanissara, who will be teaching the retreat.
Meditation is the cultivation of a steady mind….When the mind is gathered, collected, and unified, it naturally leads to wisdom, as it sees things realistically, the way they actually are….
Meditation matures us. It enables us to be more realistic and to work with the actualities of life, without being poisoned by the negatively that arises in the face of difficulty….
Ajahn Chah taught, “Do everything with a mind that lets go. Do not expect any praise or reward. If you let go a little, you experience a little peace. If you let go a lot, you experience a lot of peace. If you let go completely, you will know complete peace and freedom. Your struggle with the world will have come to an end.”
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(photo by Hannah Huffman, from Polaroid Notes, published by Chronicle Books)
Waking, Dreaming, Being…Reading
This is an unabashed plug for a remarkable new book, Waking, Dreaming, Being: Self and Consciousness in Neuroscience, Meditation and Philosophy, by Evan Thompson. I stumbled on a review of it in the New York Times late Saturday night and thought WOW!, so I immediately downloaded it onto my iPad and started reading. (Click here for the review.)
The book begins with a Forward by Stephen Batchelor, which is terrific, then a Prologue (The Dalai Lama’s Conjecture), and then an Introduction (which gives an overview of the book and a summary of each of the chapters)…and then it gets down to the fundamental questions of consciousness:
Seeing: What Is Consciousness?
Waking: How Do We Perceive?
Being: What Is Pure Awareness?
Dreaming: Who Am I?
Witnessing: Is This a Dream?
Imagining: Are We Real?
Floating: Where Am I?
Sleeping: Are We Conscious in Deep Sleep?
Dying: What Happens When We Die?
Knowing: Is the Self an Illusion?
I’ve just finished “Waking” (chapter 2) and can’t wait to get started on “Being.” If you’re at all interested in the nature of consciousness, especially as it’s addressed by the intersection of Western Neuroscience and Eastern Philosophy/Religion…this is the book for you!
Enjoy.