Listening
I’m tired of the cold.
That is true. But it’s not helpful.
So I turn, instead, to poetry:
The Snow Man
by Wallace Stevens
One must have a mind of winter
To regard the frost and the boughs
Of the pine-trees crusted with snow;
And have been cold a long time
To behold the junipers shagged with ice,
The spruces rough in the stand glitter
Of the January sun; and not to think
Of any misery in the sound of the wind,
In the sound of a few leaves,
Which is the sound of the land
Full of the same wind
That is blowing in the same bare place
For the listener, who listens in the snow,
And, nothing himself, beholds
Nothing that is not there and the nothing that is.
Retreat Kitchen
On retreat at Dharmagiri (and at almost every retreat center I’ve ever gone to) the evening meal (often called “tea”) is usually soup and fresh baked bread. Which is perfect, because the noon meal is usually quite filling.
One of my favorite soups at Dharmagiri was Harira (Moroccan Chickpea Soup), which is featured in the cookbook I posted about previously — Retreat: The Joy of Conscious Eating. Since I now am in possession of that book, and was in the mood for something hardy and spicy yesterday evening, I decided to whip up a batch. It was quick and easy — and just as delicious as when I was on retreat!
Harira (Moroccan Chickpea Soup)
serves 4-6
1/4 cup olive oil
2 onions, chopped
1 tsp each cinnamon, coriander, cumin, paprika, turmeric (all ground)
2 stalks celery, chopped
1 clove garlic, chopped
2 tsp fresh ginger, grated
34 oz. canned tomatoes, chopped
1 cup cooked chickpeas
1 cup cooked brown lentils (I used 2 cups chickpeas instead of the chickpea-lentil combination)
1/2 cup rice, rinsed
1 cube veggie stock, dissolved in 750 ml water (I used 1 Tbs Penzey’s Veggie Soup Base dissolved in 3 HOT water)
salt and pepper to taste
1/3 cup cilantro, chopped
1/3 cup parsley
1. Saute onion with spices in the oil until tender. Add the celery, garlic and ginger and stir for another minute.
2. Add the rest of the ingredients, except the cilantro and parsley, and simmer until rice is tender. (about 15-20 minutes)
3. Adjust seasonings and add more water if needed. Stir in cilantro and parsley just before serving and an extra drizzle of olive oil, if desired.
Enjoy!
A View is Just a View
I’ve started reading Coming Back to Life, by Joanna Macy, which is part of the homework assignment for our first CDL retreat coming up in April. I know Macy is considered to be a great dharma teacher, specializing in Engaged Buddhism especially as it relates to Climate Change and what she calls Deep Ecology. But her tone — in my opinion — is so strident and political that…even though I basically agree with what she’s saying…I can hardly stand to read it.
Example: In the short time span since the US Supreme Court put George W. Bush in the White House, the changes have been swift, deep and dramatic, giving free rein to economic forces that despoil the Earth and impoverish her people. Now with greater need than ever for public monitoring and outcry, we have become a truth-deprived and fearful populace.
(She’s right about George Bush and the Supreme Court, but really, does that belong in a dharma book!)
Anyway, I was getting more and more irritated (suffering!) with these and other outrageous statements such as:There is a mountain of evidence regarding the 9-11 attacks that was excluded from the 9-11 Commission’s report. It remains unaddressed by the US government, mainstream media and most of US institutions.
Jeeze.
But then, thankfully, I remembered this quote from the Buddha:
After investigation, there is nothing among all the views that such one as I would embrace. Seeing misery in philosophical views without adopting any of them and searching for truth, I discover inner peace. For one who is free from views there are no ties. For one who is delivered by understanding, there are no follies. But those who grasp after views and philosophical options wander about in the world annoying people.
That the Supreme Court should not have “put George W. Bush in the White House” is a view. (One with which I agree, but what good does it do to make an issue of it now?) That there is some mysterious “mountain of evidence regarding the 9-11 attacks” that is being kept from the American people is another view. Which sound like crazy paranoia to me, and which again — in my opinion — has no place in a dharma book.
But of course, this is also a view.
Whether she is “right” or “wrong” to put these things in her book is not the point.
I can have a view — I can agree or disagree or take issue with her views all I want — but I don’t have to get all riled up about it. It’s one thing to have a view about things and quite another to grasp onto that view…and to make myself (and others) miserable in the process.
May I continue to remind myself of this!
Favorite Things
I’m feeling the need for a little Maira Kalman today. This illustration is from My Favorite Things, a book based on the exhibit she curated at the Cooper-Hewitt, National Design Museum in New York.
“Like a shopper in some great, mad department store that housed centuries’ worth of objects, I browsed and inspected their archives for a year or so,” she writes. “The pieces that I chose were based on one thing only — a gasp of delight….
“Photographs of dancers. And of dandies. And dogs. Abraham Lincoln’s pocket watch. Naps. Breaths. Trees. Ingo Maurer’s lamp. Buttons. Lists. These are some of my Favorite Things. Book. Fish. Suit. Time. Mother. Father. Life.
“Everything is a part of Everything. We Live, We Blunder. LOVE UNITES US.”
Retreat Tea
At every retreat center I’ve ever been to, there’s always a big urn of boiling water and a big selection of teas to choose from — black, green, white, herbal, flavored, etc. At Dharmagiri, they also kept hunks of fresh ginger and whole lemons on a little cutting board by the urn, so you could always make a cup of fresh non-tea tea as well.
In honor of which, I offer this recipe from Retreat: The Joy of Conscious Eating (the cookbook I saw in the Dharmagiri kitchen and ordered as soon as I got home). It’s a medicinal tea for winter ills, featuring ginger and cayenne to improve circulation, garlic and lemon to boost the immune system, and thyme to protect and soothe the respiratory system. Or you could skip the garlic and the cayenne, and just enjoy it for the taste!
Winter Mu-Tea
750 ml water
1/2 cup ginger, washed and sliced
4-5 sprigs thyme
2 garlic cloves, whole
fresh lemons
honey
cayenne pepper
Place ginger, thyme, garlic and water in a saucepan. Bring to a boil and simmer gently for 20 minutes. Strain. Add lemon and honey to taste, plus a pinch of cayenne pepper. Drink hot!
Back to School!
As many of you know, I have been accepted into the 2-year Community Dharma Leader (CDL5) Program at Spirit Rock and I’ve just received my Official Welcome Letter, which gives a demographic overview of the CDL5 “class”:
We have a beautifully diverse community of 101 participants, including 39 Communities of Color and 39 who identify as being from LGBTIQ communities. We have 4 who identify as Gender Non-Comforming/Gender Queer, 66 as women or cis-femail, and 31 as men or cis-male. Participants’ ages range from mid-20’s to mid-70’s.
So this should be interesting!
The letter also includes a roster and to my delight, I recognize 9 of the names — several are dharma friends from Spirit Rock’s DPP4 program — and one is a fellow-attendee at the Dharmagiri retreat I was just at in Africa!
YAY!!!!
Oh, and yes, the letter also includes our first homework assignment, due before we meet at our first retreat this coming April: Read Coming Back to Life, by Joanna Macy and Molly Young Brown (2014 edition) and Satipatthana: The Direct Path to Realization, by Analayo.
Here’s the full Required Reading List:
Coming Back to Life, Joanna Macy and Molly Young Brown (2014 edition)
Satipatthana: The Direct Path to Realization, Analayo
Living Buddhist Masters, Jack Kornfield
Life of the Buddha: According to the Pali Canon, Bikkhu Nanamoli
A Path with Heart: A Guide Through the Perils and Promises of Spiritual Life, Jack Kornfield
Seeking the Heart of Wisdom: The Path of Insight Meditation, Joseph Goldstein
Lovingkindness: The Revolutionary Art of Happiness, Sharon Salzberg
Dharma by Color and Culture: New Voices in Western Buddhism, Hilda Guiterez Baldoquin
And here’s the Recommended Reading List:
Mindfulness: A Practical Guide to Awakening, Joseph Goldstein
Mindfulness in Plain English, Bhante Henepola Gunaratana
In the Buddha’s Words: An Anthology of Discourses from the Pali Canon, Bikkhu Bodhi
Handbook for Mankind, Buddhadasa Bikkhu
Dancing with Life, Phillip Moffitt
The Hidden Lamp: Stories from Twenty-Five Centuries of Awakened Women, Zenshin Florence Kaplow and Reigetsu Susan Moon
A Heart as Wide as the World, Sharon Salzberg
True Refuge: Finding Peace and Freedom in Your Own Awakened Heart, Tara Brach
Dipa Ma, Amy Schmidt
Dharma Punx, Noah Levine
Zen Mind, Beginner’s Mind, Shunryu Suzuki
Great Disciples of the Buddha, Nyanaponika and Hellmuth Kecker
The Awakening of the West: The Encounter of Buddhism and Western Culture, Stephen Batchelor
One City: A Declaration of Interdependence, Ethan Nichtern
***
So here we go!!!!
Pay Attention, Don’t Cling, Be Kind
The Buddha famously said, “I teach one thing and one thing only: Suffering and the end of suffering.” Which sounds like 2 things, but still.
In a recent talk given at the month-long retreat currently being held at Spirit Rock (where participants listen to a dharma talk every single night), Sally Armstrong opened the evening’s session — somewhat apologetically — by saying that really, every dharma talk any of the teachers ever give are all really just variations on the same 3 instructions:
(1) Pay Attention
(2) Don’t Cling
(3) Be Kind
Having listened to thousands of dharma talks over many years….I’d have to agree. But oh how hard it is, just to do those 3 simple things!
Which is why it’s good to keep listening to the talks.
So here are some excellent ones to get you started, all given during this month’s retreat at Spirit Rock:
Finding True Happiness, by Greg Scharf
Extraordinary Seeing: Simplicity, Honesty and Mindfulness, by Carol Wilson
Mindfulness Includes Everything: Including Star Showers, by Sally Armstrong
Easy as 1-2-3!
How Would You Live Then?
I’m in the mood for a little Mary Oliver this morning:
How Would You Live Then?
What if a hundred rose-breasted grosbeaks
flew in circles around your head? What if
the mockingbird came into the house with you and
became your advisor? What if
the bees filled your walls with honey and all
you needed to do was ask them and they would fill
the bowl? What if the brook slid downhill just
past your bedroom window so you could listen
to its slow prayers as you fell asleep? What if
the stars began to shout their names, or to run
this way and that way above the clouds? What if
you painted a picture of a tree, and the leaves
began to rustle, and a bird cheerfully sang
from its painted branches? What if you suddenly saw
that the silver of water was brighter than the silver
of money? What if you finally saw
that the sunflowers, turning toward the sun all day
and every day–who knows how, but they do it–were
more precious, more meaningful than gold?
***
(image by Peter Attie Bochero, from Outsider Art)
OMG!
During the last week of the retreat at Dharmagiri, we focused on traditional Chan practices (Chinese Zen), which include contemplations and recitations of the well-known (but little understood) Heart Sutra with its famous mantra:
gate, gate, paragate, parasamgate, bodhi svaha!
(To hear an incredibly beautiful 2-minute recording of this mantra sung by Thanissara and friends, click here.)
Traditional translations of the mantra go something like this:
Gone,
Gone,
Gone beyond,
Gone far beyond,
What an awakening,
(Untranslatable Exclamation!!!!)
Kittisaro offered this alternative translation, attributed to his friend and fellow former-monk Paul Breiter:
Everything’s changing,
Everything’s changing,
Everything’s always changing,
And there’s nothing you can do about it,
That’s the way it is,
OH MY GOD!!!!!
Kitty-Satva
We did a lot of Compassion practice at the Dharmagiri retreat, which included sending blessings to all beings (especially the wild animals in the area–including the snakes, of which there were many!) and reciting the name of Kuan Yin Bodhisatva (who is the personification of that which listens–and responds–to the cries of the world). We also took part in a Great Compassion Renewal Ceremony in which we did quite a lot of bowing and declared our intention to aspire to a lot of lovely things including, “I will cross all living beings over the sea of suffering.” Which I took to mean that I will cultivate an attitude of compassion for everyone and everything.
Which I am working on.
So with that as my intention…I have adopted 2 cats from our local shelter. Stella and Izzy. They are both about a year old and have lived their whole life at the shelter. Until now!
I’d post photos, but they’re adjusting right now by hiding under the bed and behind the bookcase. (Izzy looks kind of like the cat shown here but with white legs and belly, and Stella is mostly white with black and tan spots.)
Stay tuned. I expect them to be ready for the camera in a could of days.