Out of the Battle
David H. led the Sunday Sangha Sitting Group yesterday, starting with this reading from Ajahn Chah:
“The heart of the path is SO simple. No need for long explanations. Give up clinging to love and hate, just rest with things as they are. That is all I do in my own practice. Do not try to become anything. Do not make yourself into anything. Do not be a meditator. Do not become enlightened. When you sit, let it be. When you walk, let it be. Grasp at nothing. Resist nothing. Of course, there are dozens of meditation techniques to develop samadhi and many kinds of vipassana. But it all comes back to this–just let it all be. Step over here where it is cool, out of the battle.“
David followed with selection of reading on what Buddhists call ” The Heavenly Messengers,” (i.e. Old Age, Sickness, and Death). He read from Bhikkhu Bodhi’s Meeting the Divine Messengers (click here to read) and from an article in Tricycle magazine titled Taken Away and Given: Encounters in Old Age — which begins:
“It is said that we who live within the mists do not see the shapes of the clouds that are our dwelling place. We do not see the light of the sun, the moon, the stars, nor do we know the vastness of the sky.” (click here to read more)
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Nina will be leading the discussion next week. She often finds her Dharma in the pages of the New York Times. Stay tuned!
Never! Always! Everyone!
Today I want to point you to an excellent blog post by Ajahn Sucitto, titled Sex, Sin and the Inner Tyrant, in which he talks about….well, sex…and the terrible things that result when the “Inner Tyrant….is supported by, or morphs into, the Outer Tyrant of political or religious repression.” (His post was written after teaching a retreat in Ireland, so the grim accounts of the Magdalene Laundries are particularly on his mind.)
On the “Inner Tyrant”:
Take note of the tyrannical voice: “never,” “always,” “the rest of your life,” and “everyone thinks” are standard references. The Tyrant always presents perceptions and impressions as solid truth, and based on that, operates in terms of black-and-white realities, prophesies and judgements. Justice and “what they/I deserve” are common slogans, messages that blaze through the mind with such conviction that we never examine their logic — and how they sour us.
Once infected by the Tyrant, the mind can justify any action; particularly a wrathful response to perceived evil. Hence Crusades, missions, jihads, witch-hunts pogroms, torture and jails. The Tyrant often masquerades as the Just God.
Justice? It’s too often a mask for self-interest and revenge…….
Meditation offers a resolution of the conundrum of passion. All compulsions grab the heart and deprive us of freedom; without meditation, people just use the Tyrant of blame, repression and punishment to ward off the Tyrant of compulsive desire. When we’re thrown between these two forces, we lose self-respect, empathy and clear understanding.
But when we operate in terms of present-moment experience, and a clear and empathic approach to meeting the energies of fear, rage and desire as they happen to us, then there’s a way out of the tyranny. The energy of desire can then be held and correctly channeled not into prophesies or assumptions of what others think or God wills, but into the full fruition of the heart.
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Click here to read the full post on Ajahn Sucitto’s blog.
Back in Action
Ah. After many days of almost continual bed rest, and with the help of an excellent physical therapist, the muscles in my back have released their vise-grip and I am back to “normal” — which of course does not mitigate the inevitable effects of gravity and the inescapable nature of the body to wear out — but still, I’m feeling fine and very happy to be back in action!
And here’s what I have to report:
I have just signed up to participate in an excellent on-line study-and-practice course offered by Kittisaro and Thanissara. (Who often teach at IMS, but they live in South Africa, where they hold a month-long retreat every January, to which I hope to go — I’m on the wait list!)
The course is a go-at-your-own-pace program, organized in 3 modules, each consisting of 12 lessons. And it’s freely offered on a dana basis, which means that there is no cost, just the opportunity to make a donation — if you so choose.
Each lesson consists of 2 recorded talks, 2 (short) contemplative readings, an exercise in contemplative inquiry along with some contemplative exercises, a targeted meditation practice, and suggestions for integrating these practices into daily life. Plus there’s extra material, which consists of recorded chants, dharma talks and/or additional readings.
Here’s an example of the “Integrating Into Daily Life” suggestion from the first lesson is: During the day, take mini pauses of 5-10 minutes. Start with asking “How is it now?” and taking 3-5 long breaths. Then train your attention to steady within the body and breath during that time. You can do this in any posture during any activity.
If you’re interested in checking out the course — and I really hope you do! — click here. You’ll need to request a Username and Password before accessing the course material. But there’s no need to commit to anything…just get the name and password, log on, and take a look!
And if you do decide to take the course, send me an email here. Part of the intention of the program is to foster a community of practitioners, so it would be great to do the course with some buddies!
For Dharma Geeks Only
In one of the talks given to the new group of Dedicated Practitioners (DPP5), Tempel Smith mentions a new website that he has “fallen in love with,” so of course I had to check it out.
It’s called Buddha Vacana (which means Words of the Buddha) and basically it’s a way to get a fuller understanding of some of the key words and phrases from the Early Buddhist texts by using side-by-side comparison of the Pali and English translations. What’s really cool — I’m a Dharma Geek, what can I say — is that when you scroll over the Pali word, an info bubble pops up with all the different ways in which that particular word has been translated.
For example, in an excerpt from the Anapanassati Sutta, the well-known teaching about the practice of mindfulness of breathing, anapanassati is broken down into anapana (breath, respiration) + sati (awareness, attention, mindfulness)… and if you click on “for further details” under the word sati, you get:
“sati: the term has two meaning which, although apparently opposed are actually related:
“(1) awareness, attention, mindfulness, fact of being clearly conscious/vigilant. It is one of the seven bojjhangas, said to be the most important because the other six are to be developed along with it. The standard definition of samma-sati, given for example at SN 45.8, actually consists of the description of the four satipatthanas. Sati is one of the five spiritual indriyas and the five balas. Sati as one of the five balas is defined at AN 5.14.
“(2) memory, recollection. This aspect of sati is actually also covered by the definition given at AN 5.14. These two meanings are related in the sense that an awareness supported by the collectedness of concentration is a necessary condition to get proper perception and understanding of what is happening in the present moment, which enables an easy recollection at a later time of what precisely was happening, of what was said, what was done at a prior moment, even a long time before. In one case sati is defined as per what is happening in the present moment, and in the other as per the qualities that develop in the bhikkhu when he has been endowed with this awareness of the present moment for a long time.”
(Each of the italicized words above are hyperlinked to even more information!)
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So, OK, the site is not for everyone. But for all you Dharma Geeks…this site is AWESOME.