Listen to the….
Deep Summer
by Mary Oliver
The mockingbird
opens his throat
among the thorns
for his own reasons
but doesn’t mind
if we pause
to listen
and learn something
for ourselves;
he doesn’t stop,
he nods
his gray head
with the frightfully bright eyes,
he flirts
his supple tail,
he says:
listen, if you would listen.
There’s no end
to good talk,
to passion songs,
to the melodies
that say
this branch,
this tree is mine,
to the wholesome
happiness
of being alive
on a patch
of this green earth
in the deep
pleasures of summer.
What a bird!
Your clocks, he says plainly,
which are always ticking,
do not have to be listened to.
The spirit of his every word.
Having Prepared….
Cat Trauma Update: Last week I posted that there had been an “incident” with my cat Izzy. (Izzy is the grey tabby, seen here with my other cat Stella, in a photo taken about a year-and-a-half ago.) What happened last week is that Stella freaked out for some reason and tried to attack Izzy while I was trying to put her (Izzy) into a cat carrier. I thought everything had returned to normal that evening, but somehow it escalated during the night. I tried letting them “work it out,” which is what the people at the cat shelter told me to do, but things continued to escalate. So then I consulted my vet, who told me to keep Stella confined to a single room until Izzy feels safe in the house again, let them slowly get used to each other through the closed door, then try to see if they can be in each other’s sight again…but with leashes on, so they can be separated immediately if it looks like there’s going to be trouble. All of this, they say, will take MONTHS. (And sometimes, it never works out!)
So now I am sharing my bedroom with Stella (and her litter box, her food and water bowls, her cat toys, etc.) and I’ve moved my computer downstairs to the dining room table so I can be around Izzy during the day, since she’s still too afraid to go upstairs. Neither of them seems to mind the new arrangements, at least not for now. And I’m feeling less stressed. Although I do worry about what will happen when it comes time to re-introduce them.
But I have done the best I could do. And now, it seems, patience is what’s called for. In honor of which I offer this poem:
Winter Trees
by William Carlos Williams
All the complicated details
Of the attiring and
The disattirning are completed.
A liquid moon
Moves gently among
The long branches.
Thus, having prepared their buds
Agains a sure winter
The wise trees
Stand sleeping in the cold.
What’s the Beautiful Thing to Do?
Friends, there is yet another incredibly wonderful talk by Ajahn Sucitto that I just can’t help sharing with you. It’s a talk that was given on the last morning of an 8-day retreat, but it’s not your typical get-ready-to-go-back-into-daily-life talk. It starts like this:
Hopefully, you will all find your own way. Even the Buddha could only point. He couldn’t really take somebody by the hand. So we have to find the hand that will lead us. And actually, the hand that will lead you is sitting right there in you. The task of the teacher is to shake that hand….
This is not something that happens only on retreat. Your Citta [your heart/mind, the hand that will lead you] is there all the time. Solitary meditation alone has it’s benefits but it has its limitations. The life model is Sangha….
Life is very much a mutual environment, but sometimes the mutuality can tend to be exploitative. This can limit us. It hurts us and causes us harm. We can’t really completely meet on a personal level because we are differentiated — we are marked by our own karma — but on a transpersonal level we almost can’t help but meet each other because the Citta is resonant. This means that we are affected by each other. We are moved by each other. We are frightened by each other. We are inspired by each other. We are warmed by each other. We are hurt by each other. We can’t help it.
So it is very important to sense the quality of what is often called “Spiritual Friendship” — Kalayana Mitta. “Mitta” means “associates”, “companions”, “friends”. “Kalayana” means “the true”, the “good”, the “beautiful”.
Do you look for the beautiful? Do you consider: “what’s the beautiful thing to do?”
Kindness is beautiful, isn’t it? It doesn’t always solve things, but it’s beautiful. That’s the way the Citta can operate in the personal world without getting buried or contaminated….
Part of giving is to use one’s deep attention to access the qualities of Citta (that which is calm, that which is grounded, that which is compassionate, that which is discerning)…and to hold that for oneself. But also, because the Citta is transpersonal, this will affect others. Those who can pick it up will pick it up. Most people will pick up some of it. You don’t even really have to explain that much. People will pick it up. And that will really help you to acknowledge your own qualities. As we model it, as we resonate, that will bring these qualities out in each of us…
You just want to wake the person’s Citta to do its own process. Citta needs that sense of support, which is the fundamental quality of Kalyana Mitta. And, in fact, of deep attention. These are actually mirror images of each other. They both represent the same fundamental faculty…
How you can be with another and how you can be with yourself is the same process. Establish the ground so the Citta will come out. Which is does when there’s primary resonance. It comes out when it feels safe, when it feels held, when it feels shared. That’s the fundamental thing. And then we ask: What is needed now? Not what great ideas do I have, but what does this need now. And it might need just that. Because we have fundamental wisdom. We are endowed with the ability to discern, to sense, to assess, to feel the difference between stress and non-stress, between skillful and unskillful….
This is a resonance that is coming up. It’s not a person. It’s a resonance of fear or aversion or resentment or whatever. And there isn’t a person who’s going to fix it either. Remember, you are dealing with Citta, not with persons. Including this person (you). The personal is limited. But Citta is not limited. Or, it doesn’t have to be limited. Citta is measureless. The measureless mind.
***
It goes on, but I think that’s enough for a post. (The above is edited.) Listen to the whole talk. (49 min). It’s worth it. Click here.
How to Enter
Yellow
by Mary Oliver
There is the heaven we enter
through institutional grace
and there are the yellow finches
bathing and singing
in the lowly puddle.
“Protect” Instead of “Defend”
Last night I listened to (another) wonderful talk by Ajahn Sucitto. There was so much great “stuff” in it that I’m probably going to be quoting from it again (and again). For today, let me just share this much with you:
There is the practice of letting go of being a “person” (that is, turning from the personal to the transpersonal) but there’s another skillful practice, which is learning how to BE a person. Because you have to be person in this world of persons. You have to have skin…you have to have boundaries…you have to have a sense of me/mine in a world that operates according to that….
Part of your duty as a person is to look after the Citta (heart)…recognizing that it does need to be protected from unwholesome influences. Notice that I use the word “protect” as distinct from “defend”.
“Protect” means that there’s something really valuable in here (in the heart) that I’m regarding with a sense of respect. “Defend” means there’s something nasty out there that I’m frightened of. Those could both be true, but you don’t want to always be defending because then you’re living in a state of fear. “Protect” means you’re living in a state of self-respect. And love. By “love” I mean the basic quality of the heart that says: Let no harm come to this one; I respect this one; This one is worth protecting.
Love is not a good feeling. Good feeling may happen with it, but love is more of a sense of: I establish safety because this is worth looking after. It’s a sense of cherishing.
In mediation, the encouragements is to acknowledge that there is something there (the Citta) that’s beautiful. And worthy.
On retreat, there is the keeping of the precepts (virtue); there is integrity; there is a sense of resolve and endeavor, of being prepared to bear with pain and difficulty and discomfort; there is the ability to let go of some nice creature comforts. This is worthy of respect. This is Citta — its primal qualities. It is the warmth and the beauty of one’s true home. Keep in touch with that.
***
The above quote is lightly edited for clarity. Click here to listen to the whole talk. (47 min)
Why Do YOU Meditate?
At yesterday’s Sunday Sangha, David read a couple of poems including this one by Wes Nisker, which definitely bears repeating:
Why I Meditate
(After Allen Ginsberg)
by Wes Nisker
I meditate because I suffer. I suffer, therefore, I am. I am, therefore, I meditate.
I meditate because there are so many other things to do.
I meditate because, when I was young, it was all the rage.
I meditate because of Siddhartha Gautama, Bodhidharma, Marco Polo, the British Raj, Carl Jung, Alan Watts, Allen Ginsberg, Alfred E. Newman, et al.
I meditate because evolution gave me a big brain, but it didn’t come with an instruction manual.
I meditate because I have all the information I need.
I meditate because I want to touch deep time, where the history of humanity can be seen as just an evolutionary adjustment period.
I meditate because life is too short, and sitting slows it down.
I meditate because life is too long, and I need an occasional break.
I meditate because I want to experience the world as Rumi does, or Walt Whitman or Mary Oliver.
I meditate because now I know that enlightenment doesn’t exist, so I can relax.
I meditate because of the Dalai Lama’s laugh.
I meditate because there are too many advertisements in my head and I’m erasing all but the very best of them.
I meditate because I have discovered that my mind is a great toy and I like to play with it.
I meditate because I want to remember that I’m perfectly human.
Sometimes I meditate because my heart is breaking.
Sometimes I meditate so that my heart will break.
I meditate because a Vedantic master once told me that in Hindi my name “nisker” means non-doer.
I meditate because I’m growing old and want to become comfortable with emptiness.
I meditate because Robert Thurman calls it an evolutionary sport and I want to be on the home team.
I meditate because I’m composed of a hundred trillion cells, and from time to time, I need to reassure them that we’re all in this together.
I meditate because it’s such a relief to spend time ignoring myself.
I meditate because my country spends more money on weapons than all the other nations in the world combined. If I had more courage, I’d probably immolate myself.
I meditate because I want to discover the fifth Brahma Vihara, the divine abode of Awe and then I’ll go down in history as a great spiritual abbot.
I meditate because I’m building myself a bigger and better perspective and occasionally I need to add a new window.
You Don’t Get Over Anything…
…But You Can Get Through It.
I feel compelled to share yet another wonderful talk by Ajahn Sucitto, this one outlining the fundamental needs of the heart (citta) that allows us to process — rather than deny — the pain and suffering that keeps us trapped.
These needs are:
* Safety — which can be accessed by being grounded in the body
* Harmony — which comes from a relaxed relationship with the body
* Offering — the sense of enrichment that comes from pouring ourselves into something greater
* Pleasure — the feeling of warmth that comes from being fully met
He talks about the two practices, which when cultivated in tandem, meet these needs of the heart:
* Enjoyment through Mindfulness of Breathing
* Cultivation of the Brahma Vihara practices (Loving Kindness, Compassion, Appreciative Joy, Equanimity)
And he talks about the negative patterns of mind, which can be listened to and learned from:
* Desire to Have — a tendency to grasp, which can be transformed into the ability to know and to sense
* Desire to Perform — the need to get good results, which can be acknowledged and allowed to relax
* Sense of Obligation — an overly active work ethic, which can be transformed into loyalty
***
I know I’m always saying it, but this is a truly beautiful talk. Click here to listen. (45 min)
According to How We Act
I’m still getting ready for the “Let’s Talk Dharma” discussion on Karma (which meets tonight at my house!), so I’ll just post a quick quote from Ajahn Sucitto’s really wonderful book on the topic: Kamma and the End of Kamma. (click here for free e-book)
“The past is not dead; its effects carry potential. The future will arise according to how we act on that.”
2016
Not So Skillful
It’s been kind of a traumatic 24 hrs for me cat-wise, so no proper post for today. (Let’s just say I will not be trying to get Izzy into a cat carrier again anytime soon.)
Check back tomorrow.
Halleluiah
Halleluiah
by Mary Oliver
Everyone should be born into this
world happy
and loving everything.
But in truth it rarely works that way.
For myself, I have spent my life clamoring toward it.
Hallelujah, anyway I’m not where I
started!
And have you too been trudging like
that, sometimes
almost forgetting how wondrous the
world is
and how miraculously kind some
people can be?
And have you too decided that
probably nothing important
is ever easy?
Not, say, for the first sixty years.
Halleluiah, I’m sixty now, and even a
little more,
and some days I feel I have wings.