Browsing Category "Talks"
9 Jun
2014
Posted in: Poems, Talks
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Please Bring Strange Things

I listened to another great talk last night, this one given by Greg Scharf, in which he offers this strange and beautiful poem as a blessing:

Initiation Song from the Finders Lodge
by Ursal K. Le Guin

Please bring strange things.
Please come bringing new things.
Let very old things come into your hands.
Let what you do not know come into your eyes.
Let desert sand harden your feet.
Let the arches of your feet be the mountains.
Let the paths of your fingertips be your maps
and the ways you go be the lines on your palms.
Let there be deep snow in your in-breathing
and your outbreath be the shining of ice.
May your mouth contain the shapes of strange words.
May you smell food cooking you have not eaten.
May the spring of a foreign river be your navel.
May your soul be at home where there are no houses.
Walk carefully, well loved one.
Walk mindfully, well loved one.
Walk fearlessly, well loved one.
Return with us, return to us,
be always coming home. 

***

(image from Stella’s Tarot)

4 Jun
2014
Posted in: Poems, Talks
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Fancy.

One more poem from Jack Kornfield’s talk (the one I posted about yesterday).

This World
by Mary Oliver

I would like to write a poem about the world that has in it
nothing fancy.
But it seems impossible.
Whatever the subject, the morning sun
glimmers it.
The tulip feels the heat and flaps its petals open and becomes a star.
The ants bore into the peony bud and there is a dark
pinprick well of sweetness.
As for the stones on the beach, forget it.
Each one could be set in gold.
So I tried with my eyes shut, but of course the birds
were singing.
And the aspen trees were shaking the sweetest music
out of their leaves.
And that was followed by, guess what, a momentous and
beautiful silence
as comes to all of us, in little earfuls, if we’re not too
hurried to hear it.
As for spiders, how the dew hangs in their webs
even if they say nothing, or seem to say nothing.
So fancy is the world, who knows, maybe they sing.
So fancy is the world, who knows, maybe the stars sing too,
and the ants, and the peonies, and the warm stones,
so happy to be where they are, on the beach, instead of being
locked up in gold. 

3 Jun
2014
Posted in: Poems, Talks
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Wonderful.

I just listened to a wonderful talk by Jack Kornfield. I mean that literally — it is a talk full of wonder — in which he offers an “Invitation to Mystery”…. to that which the Victorians translated as Enlightenment, but which he prefers to call Awakening, or better yet, Seeing the World with a Sense of Wonder. You can listen to the talk by clicking here. (There’s a minute or so of silence near the beginning of the talk. Don’t worry. Just keep listening.)

Jack tells lots of wonderful stories in this talk, including stories about his time with Ajahn Chah and about his own Awakening experiences — the “breaking of the spell of ordinariness,” as he calls it. He also talks about his divorce and the new relationship he is in. And his past illness, which was quite serious, and not entirely gone. I couldn’t begin to do these stories justice by summarizing them here. You’ll just have to listen to the talk!

As further incentive I offer one of the poems he quotes (although he doesn’t mention the title.) It’s by Bridget Lowry:

In the strange, early evening half-light we sit.
In the cloudiness of our questioning, we sit.
In our madness and our clarity, we sit.
In the midst of too much to do, we sit.
In the warm arms of our shared sorrow, we sit.
In community and in loneliness, we sit.
In sweet exhaustion, we sit.
In the blazing energy of being alive, we sit.

Here with the singing coyotes and the crows,
With each electric bird song
And the rippling breeze and the dry grasses,
Here with the cobwebs and the moon
And the muddy and dusty road upon us…

Us in the sound,
And the sound in us.
Us in the world,
And the world in us. 

22 May
2014
Posted in: Talks
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No Other Thing

“No other thing do I know that brings so much harm and suffering as an undeveloped and uncultivated mind.”

This is the first part of a quote from the Buddha, which opens a beautiful set of meditation instructions given by Thanissara, former nun and current director of Dharmagiri Hermitage and Outreach in South Africa.

Thankfully, the quote goes on:

“And no other thing do I know that brings so much happiness, when cultivated, as the developed mind.” 

So how do we cultivate and develop the mind?

We learn to meditate! Click here to listen to Thanissara’s inspiring instructions. (40 minutes)

***

(illustration by Nomoco)

14 May
2014
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Mindfulness and Creativity

Last night I listened to a fascinating exchange between Ed Catmull, president of Pixar and Disney Studios, and Phillip Moffitt, co-guiding teacher at Spirit Rock and former editor-in-chief of Esquire magazine. (The exchange was a talk given at Sprit Rock last Monday night. I listened on tape.)

I was especially touched by Ed’s story of how, after 20 years of trying to make the first computer animated movie (Toy Story) and finally accomplishing that and having the animation company he founded go public (the epitome of success!), he found himself feeling lost.

He realized that this was because he had accomplished what he’d set out to do, which meant that it was now done, and not something he could do any more. And while there was an exuberance — which lasted about a week or two — and although he was still quite busy…he felt lost. He had a kind of “is that all there is” experience, which eventually led him to meditation (thanks to his wife who signed him up for a 2 week silent retreat), which then led him to doing one-on-one work with Phillip Moffitt and to establishing an on-going meditation practice through Spirit Rock.

On the tape, both he and Phillip talk about what it means to lead a “learning” organization, about the best ways to facilitate creativity, about the importance of intention, and how mindfulness fits into all of this. It’s definitely worth a listen. To download or stream, click here.

9 May
2014
Posted in: Practice, Talks
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Breathing in the Body, the Face, and the Hands

For wonderfully relaxing instructions on breathing in the body (while standing) and breathing in the face/head/throat (while sitting) listen to the last part of Ahjan Sucitto’s Guided Meditation on Standing (given at the recent retreat at IMS in Barre, MA.)

You can listen or download the talk by clicking here. It’s over an hour long, but don’t worry. The first 10 minutes are chanting and the next 20 minutes are silent.

At about the 30 minute mark, Sucitto invites everyone to stand, then gives about 20 minutes of really lovely, soothing instructions for standing and breathing. Then at about the 49 minute mark, he invites everyone to sit down and gives about 15 minutes of exquisitely subtle instructions on breathing in the head/throat/face (while seated).

These end just after the 1 hour mark with instructions to come back into the lower part of the body, especially the spine, the belly and into the hands. (The rest of the tape is more chanting.) His voice is quite soft as he’s guiding, so I suggest using headphones (or earbuds), if possible.

Enjoy!

***

(image: Pina Bausch, by Maira Kalman)

5 May
2014
Posted in: Retreats, Talks
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A Particular Kind of Beauty

As I posted on Friday, Ajahn Sucitto spent quite a lot of time at the retreat talking about beauty. This is not a word I’d often heard on retreat. “Wholesome” — yes. “Noble”, “Beneficial”, “Good” — yes. But “Beautiful” — not so much.

He said: The practice of the path is beauty. “Beauty” meaning admirable, lovely, uplifting. It’s a particular kind of beauty that’s encouraged. Beauty of intention. Beauty of heart. (You can listen to the entire talk here.)

He started the talk in reference to the morning rituals of chanting and lighting candles. “Awakening the wise like the sun awakening the lotus.”

He quoted the suttas, which say that the Buddha’s teachings are: “Beautiful in the beginning, beautiful in the middle, beautiful in the end.”  Then he went on to say: For the faith mind, this is exactly right. Incline toward beauty. Flowers, candles, incense. You don’t need these, specifically, but you do need beauty. And offering. Because this what beauty is. Spiritual beauty is just this–the beauty of offering…..

In in the morning, when you’re not feeling very beautiful at all, just: OK. Let’s get up. Breath it in. Move it around. Freshen it up. Sit down, make an offering. Open to that.

In monasteries, that’s the day. That’s the beginning. It’s not a rule, not on the level of rules. But it’s certainly on a level of loyalty. Where’s one’s faith, if you’re not doing that? What are you here for?

So you rise up….

Our life is continually passing. Could that be beautiful, rather than the fumbling of uncertainties and disappointments… Letting things end beautifully. And the awareness of that–the awareness of being with the beginning of things….persisting in the middle…letting it change, letting it slip away, letting it move on. The kind of intentions that support that — these are truly magnanimous, free from blemish, free from grasping.

Beautiful.  

30 Apr
2014
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Get Rich Quick

On the first morning of the retreat I sat led by Ajahn Sucitto, after the chanting and candle-lighting ceremony (puja) we participated in, he gave a wonderful talk about the meaning — the intention — of these morning rituals. (You can listen to both the chant and the talk that follows here.)

I loved what he said about the happiness and pleasure that can come from lifting up our minds when we make offerings in this way:

In meditation we are learning to find pleasure not so much in the contact we have with objects, but in the quality of attention we bring…the ability to rise up, lift up the mind, with intention….We find pleasure not in contact with an object, but in the mind’s action toward the object…..

Lifting the mind up has a pleasant feeling to it…

There are different kinds of lifting up…but the most common and accessible kind comes from service and generosity….

The pleasure of happiness we can get from having things is one kind of pleasure. But the pleasure we can get from giving, serving, offering makes us feel innately rich. We feel wealthy, endowed, empowered, dignified, filled with self-respect.

The Buddha’s teachings are very pragmatic. It’s not just trying to tell us to be good. It’s actually saying: This is really how you get happy….in a particular way that’s calming and steadying, not just exciting.

***

(image from Q-Cards by zolo.com)

 

9 Apr
2014
Posted in: Talks
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Jack is Back

Jack Kornfield and his partner, Trudy Goodman, led a group to Burma and India this past February, going to many of the same places I did and many others as well…including a private visit with Aung San Suu Kyi. He’s back now and gave a talk at Spirit Rock last Monday night called The Power of Pilgrimage, in which he reflects on the trip but also on the time he has spent with his mother, who is 91 and in hospice care, “just on the edge of leaving,” as he says, “with her eyes on the other world.”

It’s a lovely talk. Sweet. Inspirational. Funny. And very personal. I highly recommend it. (You can listen to it by clicking here.)

7 Apr
2014
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This is What It Means to Meditate

Today I offer for your pleasure, another quote from one of Ajahn Sucitto‘s talks, this one titled Refuge and Presencewhich I’ve been listening to in preparation for sitting a retreat he will lead at IMS (Insight Meditation Society) starting next Sunday. The quote comes about 9 minutes before the end of the talk, which you can listen to by clicking here.

To meditate means to stay with something and drink it in. To stay with something and take it in. Take in the deep meanings, take in the feeling, take in the experience.

Enjoy.

Meditation means to enjoy.

To stay with something and experience the enjoyment of it. The fullness of it.

This is what it means to meditate. 

 

(photo from The Daily Soup Cookbook, by Carla Ruben and Peter Siegel with Robin Vitetta-Miller)