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)
***
Nina will be leading the discussion next week. She often finds her Dharma in the pages of the New York Times. Stay tuned!
Home Sweet (New) Home
Starting Dec 6, the Sunday Sangha sitting group I attend (and co-lead) will be moving from the space we’ve outgrown (in a nice-but-tiny office in Clayton) to a beautiful — and roomy — yoga studio (Solar Yoga) at 6002 Pershing, 63112 (2 blocks east of Kayak’s Coffee!) We’ll meet every Sunday at our usual time: 11:00 am to 12:30 pm.
I hope to see you there!
What the World Offers
For today:
The Old Poets of China
by Mary Oliver
Wherever I am, the world comes after me.
It offers me its busyness. It does not believe
that I do not want it. Now I understand
why the old poets of China went so far and high
into the mountains, then crept into the pale mist.
2015
Thanks Giving
I had to take my mom for more tests yesterday…which is why there was no post….but I’m back at my desk today, and happily so, since the doc just called and said all the tests have come back normal. So no stroke!
There is MUCH to be thankful for.
Photo: Me with my mom and dad at my niece’s wedding in 2012.
I Profess the Uncertain
Today seems like a good day for this…but I can’t be sure:
I Profess the Uncertain
by Jane Hirshfield
I profess the uncertain
with gratitude
a man with large hands
and large feet
first looks at a pencil
then brings it close to his ear
he listens
the day lives briefly
unscented
shaken with worn-heel glimpses
becomes a shambling palace
with walking fishes
a yellow-roofed kindness
the almost untenable premise
that between counting one and two
nothing is lost
After the Spell was Broken
Last month’s homework for the CDL (Community Dharma Leader) program I’m in was to “write a vignette from your own life that expresses an aspect of…and hopefully, an insight into…one or more of the Four Noble Truths.” Here’s what I wrote:
Once upon a time (when I was in my late 20s), I fell in love with a man who was creative and passionate and sensitive and successful….who took me on fabulous trips and gave me beautiful gifts he made by hand…who loved art and music…and could cook!…but who also, it turns out, had….“issues.” At the time, I didn’t fully understand the situation. I just thought he was afraid of making a commitment.
Commitment, however, was something I very much wanted – so naturally, there was a lot of suffering. I was not practicing meditation at the time. I didn’t know what meditation was and I hadn’t heard of the Dharma. I like to think now that if I had been practicing, I would have seen what was going on and would have gotten “off the wheel” of that particular suffering right away. But I didn’t. And the situation went on – with LOTS of suffering – for 13 years.
If anyone had asked me back then if I understood suffering (First Noble Truth: There is suffering. It is to be understood.), I would have said “YES, of course, I am suffering!!!”
But I didn’t really understand the suffering. The situation was so painful and I was so unable to let myself fully FEEL the pain, that I couldn’t see that I was suffering NOT because I couldn’t get him to make a full-hearted commitment to me, but because I was clinging to a fantasy….to the belief that at some time in the future the relationship WOULD BE happy, satisfying and healthy. (The Second Noble Truth: The cause of suffering is clinging. It is to be let go of.) But I couldn’t let go of my belief in the fantasy relationship because I wouldn’t let myself see – and experience – the relationship I was actually in.
So it went on….(and off and on and off and on)….for 13 years. Until one day, completely by accident, I stumbled upon the fact that several years prior, he had purchased a house (quite a large, palatial house) and had moved there – along with another woman. I was stunned. (Hurt. Angry. Furious. Etc. Etc.)
But it was such a shock that somehow my normal, quite-well-developed habit of denial didn’t get the chance kick in and hide what I was actually experiencing. So I really SAW the relationship I was in….and immediately the fantasy disappeared. I didn’t have to “let go” of it – it was just GONE. And in that moment, even with all the shock and shame and anger and sadness….there was peace. I had not expected it, but it was there. I had seen clearly; the spell was broken; there was peace. (Third Noble Truth: There is an end to suffering. It is to be experience.)
I still had to work through all the grief, pain, humiliation, rage, etc., but that was do-able. I wasn’t stuck any more. The process wasn’t quick. Or easy. But the knot was gone and all those painful, even devastating feelings could come….and go. I wasn’t stuck. I was free.
2015
With Love
OK. My mom’s health is not in crisis mode at the moment…and my sister and I are now established as the point of contact/communication between her (and dad) and the medical establishment…so it looks like the situation is under control and manageable…for the time being.
But I still don’t have the energy for a full post today. Instead, I offer this recent photo, in her honor.
You’re beautiful, Mom.
I love you.
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.
Four Noble Tasks
I’m really loving Stephen Batchelor‘s new book, After Buddhism: Rethinking the Dharma for a Secular Age. (I quickly downloaded it and started reading right after watching a live video broadcast yesterday of him with John Peacock and Marc Akincano Weber announcing the opening of their new Bodhi Institute — in partnership with Christine Feldman — in England.)
I’ve read many of Batchelor’s previous books — Confessions of A Buddhist Atheist and Buddhism Without Beliefs being two of my favorites. So far, the material in this one is not especially new, but the foundation for the secular perspective is much deeper and more carefully articulated here.
I especially like his reframing of the classic Four Noble Truths into the Four Noble Tasks. (Something he’s been talking about for many years, using a variety of different ways to articulate this understanding.)
Here’s my take on these Noble Four:
1. (There is suffering.) The first task is to understand its nature.
2. (The cause of suffering is the thirst for things to be different than they are.) The second task is to let go of it.
3. (There is an end to suffering.) The third task is to experience the peace that comes with letting go.
4. (There is a path that leads to the end of suffering.) The fourth task is to practice an integrated way of life that allows for this letting go.
Here they are in Stephen’s language:
1. Embrace life.
2. Let go of what arises.
3. See its ceasing.
4. Act!
One Power
For today:
A Hand Holds One Power
by Jane Hirshfield
A hand holds one power,
whose exercise requires the hand be empty.