Let None Wish Others Harm
The December homework for the CDL (Community Dharma Leader) program has just arrived. The focus this month is on what Sharon Salzberg calls our Four Best Homes…the four Brahma Viharas, also translated as the four Divine Abodes: Metta (Loving Kindness), Karuna (Compassion), Mudita (Joy in the Happiness of Others) and Upekkha (Equanimity).
One of our assignments is to do a formal practice for each of the Brahma Viharas for one week during our sitting practice. That is: each day for a full week, do Metta practice during one entire sitting period. Then move to Compassion, then Joy, then finally Equanimity. As a support for this, the teachers sent the text of the Metta Sutta in its original Pali (the first language used to record the Buddha’s teachings) along with an English translation that’s slightly different from the one I heard the first time I encountered these teachings. I like it a lot. So I offer it here, for your welfare and benefit:
This is what should be done
By one who is skilled in goodness
Having glimpsed the state of perfect peace,
Let them be able, honest and upright,
Gentle in speech, meek and not proud.
Contented and easy to support,
With few duties, and simple in living.
Tranquil their senses, masterful and modest,
without greed for supporters.
Also, let them not do the slightest thing
That the wise would later reprove.
Let them cultivate the thought:
May all be well and secure,
May all beings be happy.
Whatever living creatures there be,
Without exception, weak or strong,
Long, huge or middle-sized,
Or short, minute or bulky,
Whether visible or invisible,
And those living far or near,
The born and those seeking birth,
May all beings be happy.
Let none deceive another
Or despise any being in any state;
Let none wish others harm
In resentment or in hate.
Just as with her own life
A mother shields her child,
Her only child, from hurt
Let all-embracing thoughts
For all beings be yours.
Cultivate a limitless heart of goodwill
For all throughout the cosmos,
In all its height, depth and breath —
Love that is untroubled
And beyond hatred or enmity.
As you stand, walk, sit or lie,
So long as you are awake,
Pursue this awareness with your might:
It is deemed the Divine Abiding — here and
now.
Holding no more to wrong views,
A pure-hearted one, having clarity
Of vision, being freed from all sense desires,
Is not born again into this world.
The Workings of the Mind
Every-other Monday night I play a Dharma Seed talk for any of my dharma buddies who want to come over and listen. (So far, only Thomas has taken me up on the offer, but all are invited! Send me an email here, if you’d like to come.)
Anyway, the talk we listened to last night was given by Winnie Narzarko at the Forest Refuge a few weeks ago. It’s titled: What’s Going on in the Teacher Meetings? I don’t think I’ve ever heard anyone give a whole talk on the intention and the dynamics of those one-on-one “teacher interviews,” which are a standard part of all the longer-than-3-or-4-day meditation retreats I’ve ever been on.
It was a terrific talk, especially for anyone getting ready to go on retreat (which is me!). But even for those who aren’t in that particular situation, I’ll offer this quote, which really caught my attention. Winnie was saying that the teacher/student meeting could be summed up as “a two-person joint dharma inquiry” and that the “main purpose of the meeting from the perspective of practice” is an investigation — done as a joint enterprise — of the workings of the mind, which leads to wisdom and insight.
So here’s the quote:
“Having established mindful connection with experience, the mind begins to notice how it creates suffering and how it can release that suffering.”
Exactly! That, right there in a nutshell, is what the practice is all about.
May It Be So
At yesterday’s Sunday Sangha Sitting Group, Thomas led us in a Metta Meditation (also know as Lovingkindness Meditation). He used a slight variation on the traditional phrases, so I thought it would be good to post them here:
May all beings be safe and feel protected.
May all beings be healthy and strong.
May all beings be happy, just as they are.
May all beings live with ease in the world.
Precious Human Life
It is true that to be born into this world brings with it the inevitable fact of aging, sickness and death. Yet it’s that very fact — and the acceptance of it — that makes the experience so precious.
I am thankful for this precious human life. And for all the precious human beings I share it with…including my father, Daniel, (age 88) and my grand-nephew, Ethan (age 3 months).
May all beings be safe, well, and happy.
Other Matters to Attend to
My mother (who is 86, seen here with my father, 88) is having some health issues, so no proper post for today. Or tomorrow. Or maybe the day after.
Nothing horrible. Just that I need to attend to some things other than dharma posts for a while.
I’ll be back.
Stay tuned.
When You Are Very Busy…
For today:
“Half an hour’s meditation is essential except when you are very busy. Then a full hour is needed.”
— Saint Francis de Sales
It’s All About…..
At Sunday Sangha, I talked about being in the middle of “The Movie of Me” (that mental narration about me and my response to whatever’s going on around me that seems to run endlessly in my head…I don’t like this…I don’t like that…I wish I had…I used to have…why don’t I have…how can I get…how can I get out of…etc etc etc etc).
The idea of that stream of thought being a movie came from something Phillip Moffitt wrote about in Dancing with Life. He suggests challenging the ego’s desire to always be in charge by: Giving Up Being the Star of Your Own Movie.
“The unfolding of events that make up your life is like a movie, is it not? And you interpret every scene or event from the vantage point of being the star of your movie–is it good or bad for you, do you like it or not, and so on. Once you renounce being the star of your own movie, you begin to see the unfolding of each scene and the movie as a whole from multiple perspectives. You don’t forsake your role in the movie, but once you cease making it be all about you, the movie creates less anxiety and you are more able to live from your core values.”
Excellent suggestion.
2015
I Wonder If I Should Help
For today, more from the interview with Jack Kornfield I quoted yesterday.
In Zen, they say there are only two things: you sit and you sweep the garden. And it doesn’t matter how big the garden is. That is, you learn to quiet the mind and open the heart and to remember in that stillness what really matters. Those are the values of the heart and who you are. You discover that who you are is loving-awareness itself, incarnated into this mystery. And as you do, the sense of connection to life shows itself. You don’t even have to cultivate it. As you get quiet, you feel it and you know it. And then you get up from your cushion and you sweep the garden. If people are hungry, you feed them. If people are sick and you have medicine, you offer it, because they’re part of you.
When you hurt your hand, if you’re slicing tomatoes in the kitchen and you accidentally cut yourself, you don’t go, “Oh, that poor hand. I wonder if I should help it. Should I do something about it?” It’s you! It’s part of you. It’s so deeply obvious that you wash it and you put on a Band-Aid or whatever. And as you quiet the mind and open the heart, you begin to realize that the world is you, that you are the world. And so it becomes a spontaneous and beautiful expression of your fundamental Buddha-nature, your fundamental goodness, that you tend the world.
Without mindfulness or compassion training, it’s easy to get overwhelmed and think, “Well, all the problems of the world are too great. I just have to get through the day and try as best I can.” Mindfulness makes it easier to step out of the sense of being overwhelmed. You see with clearly. And you realize: “I can respond in some way. I have some agency and capacity. And I can add my piece.”
And by adding your drop into the river–the river of justice or the river of mutual care or the river of caring for the environment–it nurtures you, and it nurtures the world.
***
(read the full interview here)
Come Back!
“Mr. Duffy lived a short distance from his body.” (James Joyce, Dubliners)
I’ve felt like that. I get completely caught up in the relentless stream of narration that goes on in my head. Whole scenes from the past getting played out again and again…often with changes in the dialogue so I come off sounding better or smarter or more appealing in some way…or scenes where something is happening in the future…often with me sounding so convincing or well-informed or so obviously right in some way that everyone around me can’t help but agree with me…etc etc etc….all staring ME in some past or future situation that has nothing at all to do with the situation I’m actually in!
This is called delusion. It’s repetitive. It’s ridiculous. And it’s not helpful.
So what to do?
Come back to the body.
When I notice the sound track starting up…or more likely, that it’s been going on for a while…I can take a minute to check out where my body is (at my desk, in my house) and what this actually FEELS like right now (there’s tension in my shoulder; the side of my hand feels hot where it’s resting on my laptop).
And then I can choose: do I want to keep playing the sound track to the “Story of Me” or do I want to do something to release some of that tension in my shoulder…and/or maybe it’s time to turn off the laptop!
Great Good Friends
I just want to say how delighted I am to have such great friends. One of whom called me today (as I was on my way to pick up cat food) and without a hint of self-consciousness or any need to explain ourselves to each other, we quite naturally fell into a very rich and very satisfying conversation about things that really matter in both of our lives. (Don’t worry, I pulled over to the side of the road before answering the phone.)
I’ve found that this happens a lot in my life. I had a very supportive conversation at lunch just yesterday with a friend from back when we were both in graduate school (30 years ago!). And a sweet “atta girl” check-in on Skype just last week. Not to mention all the other exchanges I’ve had over the months and years with so many other friends (and family members) who encourage, listen to, and keep connection with me.
I’m so fortunate.
Thank you all, my great good friends.
I love every one of you.