2016
Rarer, More Difficult, More Beautiful
In anticipation of our first Sampler Retreat: Joy on the Path, I offer:
“Know that joy is rarer, more difficult, and more beautiful than sadness. Once you make this all-important discovery, you must embrace joy as a moral obligation.” — Andre Gide
What a Wonderful World!
Someone — I don’t know who — shoveled my sidewalk.
And not only my sidewalk, but the steps from my house to the sidewalk–two sets–and then a path from the sidewalk to the street where I park my car, plus a little pathway AROUND my car, so I could get into it without getting my shoes and socks full of snow!
I have no idea who it was. I don’t even know when they did it.
My usual way of dealing with snow is to stay inside and wait till it melts. Which I did yesterday until about dinnertime, when I just couldn’t face the left-overs I had in the frig, so I put on my coat and went out to see how bad the streets were. (I live in the city and they don’t plow the snow.)
And lo and behold…..my steps, my sidewalk, and all around my car was shoveled clean and clear.
I was so happy I wanted to run out and kiss whoever had done it. Or at least shake their hand. Or bow to them, or something. But nobody was around. Nobody. I thought about going up and down the street, knocking on everyone’s door, asking if they had done it and saying how wonderful it was. But then I thought that might freak somebody out, since I don’t even know everyone on my block. So I settled for sending texts to the neighbors I knew. (None of them said they had done it!)
So I just want to say: I am thrilled to be living in such a wonderful world where people sometimes do stuff like that.
And I have resolved to do stuff like that too.
Happiness and Unhappiness
I’m feeling the need for a little Jane Hirshfield today.
Late Self-Portrait by Rembrandt
by Jane Hirshfield
The dog, dead for years, keeps coming back in
the dream.
We look at each other there with the old joy.
It was always her gift to bring me into the
present–
Which sleeps, changes, awakens, dresses,
leaves.
Happiness and unhappiness
differ as a bucket hammered from gold differs
from one of pressed tin,
this painting proposes.
Each carries the same water, it says.
“Sampler Retreats”
This morning I sent an email about my latest idea to connect folks here in St. Louis with retreat teachers and practices at Spirit Rock and IMS (Insight Meditation Society). But not everyone is on my mailing list so — with apologies to those who have already gotten the word — I’m re-posting the email here:
Whenever I come back from retreat at Spirit Rock (SR) or IMS (Insight Meditation Society), I’m always filled with gratitude for the opportunity to sit with and learn from teachers who have had so many years of deep, DEEP experience practicing the Dharma. At the “Box Retreat” on Sunday, Sharon Salzberg said that by the time an insight has formed itself into words/thoughts in your mind, it has already changed you….and it’s clear to me that the teachers I’ve sat with at SR/IMS have been profoundly changed in ways that I also want to be changed.
Which is why I keep going on retreats!
I know how fortunate I am to be able to do that. And I know that taking time away from work and/or family is not something everyone is able to do. Not to mention flying halfway across the country, paying the fees, making the arrangements, etc etc etc. But I also know how vital it is to experience the teachings offered in this way and to connect with teachers who embody this level of practice.
Which is why I’m committed to finding ways to bring something of the retreat practice available at SR/IMS to all of us here in St. Louis. It’s why I joined the board of MidAmerica Dharma and am acting as retreat coordinator for 2017. It’s also why I started offering the video-recorded “Box” retreats.
And now I’ve got another idea:
I’m going to try offering “Sampler Retreats.” By which I mean choosing a sampling of recorded talks and guided meditation instructions taken from a selected retreat offered at SR/IMS, and playing them — one each week, for 4 weeks — at my house (in Dogtown), to a small group of people who have signed up in advance and are committed to attending at least 3 of the 4 weeks. We would start each session with sitting meditation and end with group discussion.
Here’s the first “Sampler”:
Joy on the Path: selected talks/instructions from this retreat at IMS (January 9-16, 2016), led by Lila Kate Wheeler (one of my mentors) and Pascal Auclair.
“While silently sitting and walking with meditative presence, and with guidance from the teachers, we will explore the different kinds of spiritual joy: joy in the happiness of others and in their good qualities and good fortune; the joy of blamelessness; and the joy of presence, concentration, insight and liberation!“
Thursday, Feb 4, 7:00 to 9:00 pm: Joy and Gladdening, talk by Lila Kate Wheeler
Thursday, Feb 11, 7:00 to 9:00 pm: Meditation Instructions on Concentration, led by Pascal Auclair
Thursday, Feb 18, 7:00 to 9:00 pm: This Fleeting Life, talk by Lila Kate Wheeler
Thursday, Feb 25, 7:00 to 9:00 pm: Joy on the Path, talk by Pascal Auclair
(There are 11 recorded talks/instructions available from this retreat. Click here for the full set of talks.)
Space at my house is VERY limited. Send me an email here if you would like to reserve a seat and expect to be able to attend at least 3 of the 4 weeks. Also, email me if you are interested in future “Samplers,” but are unable to attend this one.
I hope this works!
May I Offer….
In honor of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. and as a follow-up to yesterday’s “Box Retreat” on the theme of Equanimity, I want to offer these phrases for your reflection and for use in your practice.
Some of these phrases are direct quotes from Rev. Howard Thurman, who deeply influenced Dr. King. Some are inspired by him. Some are more traditional meditation phrases used in Equanimity Practice, similar to the phrases offered by Sharon Salzberg at yesterday’s retreat.
All were taken from a guided meditation led by Lila Kate Wheeler, one of my mentors. To listen to the talk, click here. (16 minutes)
Pick one (or more), sit quietly and let it drop into your mind — like a pebble into a pond — then just breathe:
* May I see the world with quiet eyes.
* May I offer my care and presence without conditions, knowing I may be met with gratitude, anger, or indifference.
* May I find the inner resources to truly be able to give.
* May I offer love, knowing I can’t control the course of life, suffering, or death.
* May I remain in peace and let go of expectations.
* May I offer my efforts and help, knowing it may be of great benefit, some benefit, or maybe even no benefit.
* May I be free from prejudice.
Change Is Hard
Things, they are a changing!
Not easily, I might add. And not without confrontation, frustration, personal hurt…and even organizational trauma! I was on a conference call last night intended to address these issues with some of the leadership at Spirit Rock and IMS; a large number of fellow Community Dharma Leaders-in-Training (one of whom appears in the photo above!); and the Core Faculty of the next Teacher Training Program, some of whom appear above and all of whom recently resigned over issues of institutional power/privilege and, yes, racism! But that’s for another post.
For now, let’s just take a moment to smile as we look at what truly is The New Face of Buddhism. The photo above is the new, fold-out cover of Shambala Sun magazine, now re-named: Lion’s Roar.
We’ve come a long way, Baby.
But oh how far we have to go.
Not Separate
For today, one more quote from the collection offered for our reflection at the Exploring the Nature of Awareness retreat:
“The evolutionary imperative of our times demands we evolve from seeing the world ‘out there,’ separate and alien from us, to directly knowing our intimacy with all things. This is the shift from a dualistic consciousness to an awake awareness that recognized nothing is apart from anything else, or from our deeper nature.” — from Listening to the Heart, by Kittisaro and Thanissara
But Not the Mountain
Today feels like a day for a Jane Hirshfield poem:
Vilnius
For a long time
I keep the guidebooks out on the table.
In the morning, drinking coffee, I see the spires:
St. Petersburg, Vilnius, Vienna.
Choices pondered but not finally taken.
Behind them–sometimes behind thick fog–the mountain.
If you lived higher up on the mountain,
I find myself thinking, what you would see is
more of everything else, but not the mountain.
Want to Be My Sitting Buddy?
Reading and thinking and talking about Dharma stuff is great….but really, the only way to actually “get” it is to practice. Which can be hard…because there always seems to be something else that needs to be done or some other time that seems like it would be better or some little nagging thought that seems so convincing like: gee, wouldn’t it really be better if I just laid down and took a nap!
One thing I’ve found that can help break old thought patterns like these is to have a Sitting Buddy. Or better yet, to have a LOT of Sitting Buddies. Which is why Sitting Groups are so great.
But it also helps to have VIRTUAL Sitting Buddies.
Which you can find by getting the Insight Timer app! (It works on Macs and PCs, iPhones and Androids and Google Play and who knows what else.) There’s a version that’s FREE or, of course, you can go for the Deluxe.
Either way, you can set it up so that you can “see” when your friends are sitting (if they’re using the app), or when they’ve been sitting, and for how long, etc. You can send messages. Or join groups. Listen to guided mediations. Or just see how many people — all over the world — are sitting at the same time you are.
It’s really inspiring. Especially when I see that my friends have been sitting!
If you’ve got the app and want to be one of my Sitting Buddies, just send a request (through the app) to Jan in St. Louis. That’s me!
Hope to be sitting with you soon.
But to What End?
Do “secular” mindfulness programs teach the same mindfulness the Buddha taught?
“What distinguishes the mindfulness of the Buddha from secular mindfulness,” writes Phillip Moffitt, “is that he did not teach it as a standalone skill….
“The Buddha taught that mental suffering arises out of ignorance. By ‘ignorance’ he meant the mind’s misunderstanding of the nature of reality, both mental and physical. For example, if we don’t see clearly the impermanence of things, we believe there is something that can be grasped. The way to free the mind from suffering that comes from grasping is gained by ‘insight’ into what truly is…. Through vipassana practice we have insights about the implications of the constancy of change, the true nature of reality and self, and the empty radiant nature of mind when it is not clouded by desire and aversion.
“But to what end are we cultivating these critical realizations through insight?
“[We do this] in order to be able to choose non-suffering rather than suffering — to be able to think, speak and act in a manner that does not cause suffering for ourselves or others….
“What distinguishes the mindfulness of the Buddha from secular mindfulness is that he did not teach it as a standalone skill. Rather, it is a part of the Eightfold Path that leads to the realization of the Four Noble Truths and the end of mental suffering…
“Mindfulness supports the moment-to-moment intention to not cause harm, to be kind, and to renounce those thoughts and actions that lead to heedlessness. Without wise intention and wise understanding, mindfulness is aimless, and therefore not the Buddha’s mindfulness.“
— from “What Is the Mindfulness of the Buddha?, by Phillip Moffitt, published in the Winter 2016 issue of Spirit Rock News.