Writings & Meditative Instructions (Hinduism and Buddhism) - DestinationOM.com - Custom Malas

Life's lessons shine on

I felt this was important to post as it is poignant for so many of us on a daily basis. In assistance to a question posed to me by a friend, the answer came:

Life just has a way of working itself out and it is in our best interest to surrender and develop clarity - only in this clarity can we hear the calling and see the signs that are always guiding us in our correct direction.

This very clarity comes from meditation and constant inner introspection of "Who am I?"

Ah.

Ah!

Over the years I have written a lot, but in the last two, rarely.  I enter the space which used to be filled with words, expressions, impressions and some idea of what I felt I was compared to something else but often when I enter into this space there is a profound stillness - a void but not in the sense of absence but in the sense of spaciousness.

I found my singing voice the first winter I arrived at my Guru's ashram and from that day forward I often sing when in her presence and have been blessed with a microphone many times to sing alongside her swamis.

Since that day my writing has bubbled to the surface in rare occasions and when these moments arise the words stream forth in song lyrics! And recently I was able to perform one of these songs for my beloved Guru.

Here is the song that was written. I have a recording but have been asked not to release this very one so I may record it again in the future and release that copy.  This song was written while on the US Tour 2010 in Albuquerque, NM.

The song is called "Ashes of Ego"

ASHES OF EGO
 
There was a time, in my life
Where I thought I knew everything
But there came a time in my life
Where I realized I knew nothing at All.
 
Walking on the banks of the Ganges
Tears streaming down my face
The ashes of Ego falling away
And the pain of past lives fade into flames.
 
Ashes of Ego
Tears purify
Hearts embrace
Amma's feet my sole refuge x2
 
A smile, a glance, a scolding
They all contain so much love
I feel every bit of what I thought I was 
fall away in the depths of Amma's eyes
 
Tears flow at the sound of her voice
As it echoes in my heart,
The reverberations shake me to the core
Her love overflows and the I falls away
 
Ashes of Ego
Tears purify
Hearts embrace
Amma's feet my sole refuge x2
 
Your purifying glance, your warm embrace
Your feet and the path you walk
I feel myself falling away
Absorbed in your love divine
 
I thank you for revealing myself to me
Amma you are my every thing
The boat to carry me across
The rock I rest my weary bones on, 
Amma you are my everything.
 
Ashes of Ego
Tears purify
Hearts embrace
Amma's feet - my sole refuge x2
 
Guitar solo
 
Ashes of Ego
Tears purify
Hearts embrace
Amma's feet - my sole refuge x3

Gaurang B McIntyre 06.2010

I disappears

In the past I had the ability to articulate the more subtle experiences of meditation and the thought process of the mind but upon my last return of two intense months of seva alongside the Guru I had returned to find that nothing was left!  Erased. Gone were all reference points!

For one to explain where one has gone there has to be a point A, and once you get to where you are going you arrive at point B. If there is no original point (point A) than explain how you got to point B!

...see that! The nothingness pervades that without a point of reference.

I am left speechless when someone asks me how my time is at the ashram, how my time is on tour with the Guru. To live in the moment is to surrender the definition of the moments as they pass, it is an endless stream of moments that amount to this very moment and as those pass you are left with the very moment you are in! To be in the moment is to surrender the definition of what has happened and to live in the very moment that becomes the next.   In this stream you begin to glide and the current takes you to the final fusion with spirit (the ocean).

One starts like condensation in the air, accumulating in the clouds and falling down as moisture upon the leaf of a tree; dripping off onto the floor of the forest and seaping into the soil down to the stream, into the river and eventually the ocean.  This natural flow is our life and to surrender to its flow is to allow life to live you, with no resistance the flow to the ocean is rapid!  By resisting, building dams, holding back the water with force will all slow the process.  To stand on the banks of the river is to do a great disservice to yourself and all of humanity because when you surrender to the river its trusted banks and graceful current know its meeting point with the Ocean - surrender and all will be safe.

What a thought! Surrender and all will be safe! but think of the journey of this very moisture in the air and you can get a sense of the journey we are all on!

OM! Gaurang.

Why me?

Often times in struggles people ask "Why me?" and in times of success the question never arises. There is a sense of expectation that your success is deserved but your failure is not.
All too real are the triumphs as are the failures. We are made up of a collection of karmic ties; that if we are able to realize our primordial being and connect to our divine path; then we can work through our lives with the awareness of situations in our lives where karma has to play out.

Karma ripens. There are cases that we all know of that someone made have been a good person all their life and then their life is taken in a short span of time due to some bodily ailment or violence. This is a case of karma ripening, past lives of karmic action ripening and expressing itself on this plain.

If we are able to live on our divine path than the awareness of karmic events will make life a more symbolic journey and the "Why me's" of life will not arise...a simple gesture to the heavens and clear intentions to make it better or learn from the obstacle and express your love for life through the struggle. With right intentions and grace the universe embraces and we flow through karma to the always present light within.

Brian.

The rain soaks into hard earth

We try so hard to hang on to the teachings and "get it," but actually the truth sinks in like rain into very hard earth. The rain is very gentle, and we soften up slowly at our own speed. But when that happens, something has fundamentally changed in us. That hard earth has softened. It doesn't seem to happen by trying to get it or capture it. It happens by letting go; it happens by relaxing your mind, and it happens by the aspiration and the longing to want to communicate with yourself and others. Each of us finds our own way.

--Pema Chodron, Start Where You Are

[T]he Buddha compares his teaching to the rainfall that descends without discrimination on the earth. That this rain causes some seeds to grow into flowers and some into great trees implies no differentiation in the rain but rather is due to the capacities of the seeds that it nurtures. Thus, the teaching of the Buddha is of a single flavor but benefits beings in a variety of ways according to their capacity.
--Donald S. Lopez, Jr., Buddhism in Practice

The OX herder of Zen

I lived in Korea for two years and have travelled much of Asia...what is interesting about north-eastern Asia is the depiction/murals on the sides of temples of the Herder and the Ox. I always knew there was more meaning to it that I knew myself and recently came across a great explanation that I will share here:

It compares the Buddhist practitioner's quest for enlightenment to a herder's search to find his Ox:

1. "seeking the ox": lost in samsara, but pulled toward higher truth.
2. "finding the tracks": listening, studying, seeing the path
3. "first glimpse of the ox": meditation gives the beginnings of prajna (wisdom)
4. "catching the ox": a deeper grasping of the kleshas (greed, delusion, and anger); recognition of the hindrances of selfhood.
5. "taming the ox": beginning to breakthrough satori (enlightenment) experiences.
6. "riding the ox home": complete satori (enlightenment)
7. "ox forgotten, self alone": experiencing the freedom of satori (enlightenment)
8. "both ox and self forgotten": experience of ultimate emptiness, even of tradition itself
9. "returning to the source": seeing the natural world as a sphere of innate enlightenment
10. "entering the market with helping hands": the Bodhisattva ideal as the final vocation after enlightenment.

p79 - Buddhism (Reference Guide) Kevin Trainor - General Editor.

Often times you will see these depictions painted in a clockwise fashion around the outside of a temple.

ORIGINAL DIAMOND SUTRA LIVE!

This is an impressive look at the first "book" EVER printed. Printed in China in 868.
Using Shockwave you can actually scroll through the original text! with guided audio...brought to you by British Library!

http://www.bl.uk/onlinegallery/ttp/ttpbooks.html
click on "The Oldest Printed Book" ... you will be guided to download Shockwave if needed.

ENJOY!

The Legend of Baarlam and Josaphat

An interesting fact that I uncovered while reading "Buddhism: The illustrated Guide" A reference classic by Duncan Baird Publishers: General Editor Kevin Trainor. Interesting! Really a must read guide for all interested in Buddhism!

The Legend of Baarlam and Josaphat (p23)
While it was only in the 19th century that detailed information about the Buddha's life became available to a Western audience, elements of the Buddha's biography formed the basis of a widespread and very popular collection of legends that circulated throughout medieval Europe from the 11th century.
The legends which appear to have made their way into Christian tradition via Arabic sources, concerned as Indian prince named Josaphat who was converted to Christianity by an ascetic sage named Baarlam. The biblical-sounding name Josaphat derives from the Sanskrit Bodhisattva, a term used to refer to the Buddha prior to his enlightenment, and many of the details of Josaphat's life closely parallel episodes from the Buddha's youth, including his closeted early life within his father's palace before a transformative encounter with old age, sickness, death, and an ascetic renunciant. Josaphat and Baarlam were venerated as Christian saints in both the Greek and Roman churches. 19th century scholars uncovered the true origins of the saints' lives when accurate information about the life of the Buddha began to appear in Europe.

The Virtues of Means

The Buddha gave five reasons why a moral person should desire to be possessed of means. Firstly, by his work, diligence and clear-sightedness he could make happy himself, his parents, wife and children, servants and workpeople. Secondly, he could make happy his friends and companions. Thirdly, he would be able to keep his property from the depredations of fire, water, rulers, robbers, enemies and heirs. Fourthly, he would be able to make suitable offerings to his kin, guests, deceased, kings, and devas. Fifthly, he would be able to institute, over a period, offerings to recluses and others who abstain from pride and negligence, who are established in patience and gentleness, and who are engaged in every way in perfecting themselves. At the same time, whether his wealth increases or whether it does not, he should not be disturbed in his mind if he knows that his reasons for trying to amass it were good.

--Hammalawa Saddhatissa, Buddhist Ethics

Doctor Buddha

Buddhism is neither pessimistic nor optimistic. If anything at all, it is realistic, for it takes a realistic view of life and of the world. It looks at things objectively. It does not falsely lull you into living in a fool's paradise, nor does it frighten and agonize you with all kinds of imaginary fears and sins. It tells you exactly and objectively what you are and what the world around you is, and shows you the way to perfect freedom, peace, tranquility and happiness. One physician may gravely exaggerate an illness and give up hope altogether. Another may ignorantly declare that there is no illness and that no treatment is necessary, thus deceiving the patient with false consolation. You may call the first one pessimistic and the second optimistic. Both are equally dangerous. But a third physician diagnoses the symptoms correctly, understands the cause and the nature of the illness, sees clearly that it can be cured and courageously administers a course of treatment, thus saving his patient. The Buddha is like the last physician. He is the wise and scientific doctor for the ills of the world.

--Walpola Rahula, What the Buddha Taught

Enlightenment

The enlightenment of the Buddha was not primarily a religious discovery. It was not a mystical encounter with God or a god. It was not the reception of a divine mission to spread the Truth of God in the world. The Buddha's enlightenment was rather a human being's direct, exact, and comprehensive experience of the final nature and total structure of reality. It was the culmination for all time of the manifest ideals of any tradition of philosophical exploration or scientific investigation. Buddha is not a personal name; it is a title, meaning awakened, enlightened, and evolved. A Buddha's enlightenment is a perfect omniscience. A Buddha's mind is what theists have thought the mind of God would have to be like, totally knowing of every single detail of everything in an infinite universe, totally aware of everything--hence by definition inconceivable, incomprehensible to finite, ignorant, egocentric consciousness.

--Robert A.F. Thurman, Essential Tibetan Buddhism

Lesson on Grasping - GREAT to REFLECT ON.

Let's try an experiment. Pick up a coin. Imagine that it represents the object at which you are grasping. Hold it tightly clutched in your fist and extend your arm, with the palm of your hand facing the ground. Now if you let go or relax your grip, you will lose what you are clinging onto. That's why you hold on. But there's another possibility: You can let go and yet keep hold of it. With your arm still outstretched, turn your hand so that it faces the sky. Release your hand and the coin still rests on your open palm. You let go. And the coin is still yours, even with all this space around it. So there is a way in which we can accept impermanence and still relish life, at one and the same time, without grasping.

-Sogyal Rinpoche, The Tibetan Book of Living and Dying

Near Enemies

The near enemies are qualities that arise in the mind and masquerade as genuine spiritual realization, when in fact they are only an imitation, serving to separate us from true feeling rather than connecting us to it.

The near enemy of loving-kindness is attachment. At first, attachment may feel like love, but as it grows it becomes more clearly the opposite, characterized by clinging, controlling and fear.

The near enemy of compassion is pity, and this also separates us. Pity feels sorry for that poor person over here, as if he were somehow different from us.

The near enemy of sympathetic joy (the joy in the happiness of others) is comparison, which looks to see if we have more of, the same as, or less than another.

The near enemy of equanimity is indifference. True equanimity is balance in the midst of experience, whereas indifference is withdrawal and not caring, based on fear.

If we do not recognize and understand the near enemies, they will deaden our spiritual practice. The compartments they make cannot shield us for long from the pain and unpredictability of life, but they will surely stifle the joy and open connectedness of true relationships.

--Jack Kornfield, in A Path with Heart

The Changing of the seasons

Time and life guide us on our ever moving moments...a breath of warm air enters the body of the one who stands on hot ground, the breath of another floats into a cloud that dissipates for the one standing in snow...
I ...
travel onto warmer times when the cold arrives. But here I stand in the change of season to witness the environment adjust to the cool crisp air of the eastern seaboard of the US. Trees give up their leaves and become dormant...I look onto these trees and vegetation as a sign of the seasons for myself too...here I sit with the changing of the seasons...dressed in layers, I walk with the crisp air...
It is soon time for me to venture to warmer climates, as my yearly exodus ensues...it is a time to appreciate the cooler seasons but to escape before it darkens the spirit.

Off to warmer climates to find the elusive beads to make new malas with. A journey that takes me over seas and shining rivers to the backstreets of small towns, in languages I cannot speak, and people that I have yet to meet that will pave my future...the people themselves live their every day with the notion that I will arrive...but when I sit amongst them, sharing a cup of tea it will be as though we have known each other forever...

Live life with an open heart, love the surroundings, and challenge yourself to rise for "normal everyday"...risk, search, and you shall find that the world and its people wait for you with open arms...the changing of the seasons will remind us all to reflect on our lives, where we have been, and where we want to go.

Namaste.

Wisdom

"Wisdom arises in those moments of silence." To have thoughts in meditation is not necessarily a bad thing...Buddha did not "wake" from his meditation cushion to sit in another room to contemplate and let wisdom arise...wisdom comes in the moments of calm awareness, thoughts float through the space of mind and in the dearest of focus and silence the wisdom soaks into our being...relax and be...true wisdom comes from experience and the heavens, books and scholarly activities can help in our focus and direction but experience of silence is the true essence of wisdom.

- Brian

Turning Point in our Spiritual Lives

It is a great turning point in our spiritual lives when we go from intellectual appreciation of a path to the heartfelt confidence that says, "Yes, it is possible to awaken. I can, too." A tremendous joy accompanies this confidence. When we place our hearts upon the practice, the teachings come alive. That turning point, which transforms an abstract concept of a spiritual path our own personal path, is faith.

--Sharon Salzberg, Tricycle: The Buddhist Review,

Framework for Spiritual life

We all must live with the right intent and focus. Buddha laid out the following to help people in their everyday life become more aware and open.

FOUR NOBLE TRUTHS:
Life is suffering,
Craving is the root of suffering,
Suffering can be overcome and happiness attained,
The Eightfold Path leads to overcoming suffering.

EIGHT FOLD PATH:
Perfect (Right) Understanding; Thought; Speech; Action; Livelihood; Effort; Mindfulness; and Concentration.

FIVE PRECEPTS: (code of morality)
Avoid killing or harming another sentient being.
Avoid stealing
Avoid sexual misconduct (the use of trickery, emotional blackmail, or force)
Avoid lying
Avoid alcohol and other intoxicating drugs.

A life lived in this way is a life with quality, clarity, and purpose. A life free of self obsorbtion and a sense of duty to the world...a life of bringing happiness to others when peace is found in oneself.

Worship the Six Directions

A young man named Sigala used to worship the six cardinal points of the heavens--east, south, west, north, nadir and zenith--in obeying and observing the last advice given him by his dying father. The Buddha told the young man that in the "noble discipline" of his teaching, the six directions were different. According to his "noble discipline" the six directions were: east; parents; south: teachers; west: wife and children; north: friends, relatives and neighbors; nadir: servants, workers and employees; zenith: religious men. "One should worship these six directions," said the Buddha. Here the word "worship" is very significant, for one worships something sacred, something worthy of honor and respect. These six family and social groups mentioned above are treated in Buddhism as sacred, worthy of respect and worship. But how is one to "worship" them? The Buddha says that one could "worship" them only by performing one's duties toward them.

-- Walpola Rahula, in What the Buddha Taught

Changing our lives through action

Right livelihood is not just a philosophical ideal. It is a practical, achievable reality. Finding and maintaining right livelihood does require regular, consistent action, but the steps are clear and the results immediate. Finding your own right livelihood depends primarily on getting in touch with your "beginner's mind." Mindfulness challenges us to stay with things as they are and to change our lives through action that harms no one. Working together, mindfully and compassionately, we can create a community in which all our livelihoods are "right." -- Claude Whitmyer in Mindfulness and Meaningful Work

Boredom, Impatience, and Fear

If we do a little of one kind of practice and a little of another, the work we have done in one often doesn't continue to build as we change to the next. It is as if we were to dig many shallow wells instead of one deep one. In continually moving from one approach to another, we are never forced to face our own boredom, impatience, and fears. We are never brought face to face with ourselves. So we need to choose a way of practice that is deep and ancient and connected with our hearts, and then make a commitment to follow it as long as it takes to transform ourselves. --Jack Kornfield in A Path with Heart

For years I dabbled in this practice and that, trying to find the one that works for me...the above statement has some legitimacy to it but there is also something it lacks...it is important to be open minded, to be open to the search, to be aware of our present state of mind and what we need to assist us in our spiritual practice.   Through my pursuit of various texts and practices I have come to know that Vajrayana is the practice for me and because of my history of pursuit, I am now more focused and dedicated to this...knowing that other paths are not for me.

So search, practice, talk with others, but at each step be focused on what you are wanting to learn...you will know when you find the path that works for you...then remain on that, focused and true...with love we all search for a higher consciousness...to live with love, to help others...to unite the world in an embrace.

The Path to Right Livelihood.

Those of us who start on the path to right livelihood find that our lives are more balanced, simple, clear, and focused. We are no longer strung out in a meaningless cycle of material consumption. The contemporary economy focuses on this cycle of consumption. It doesn't really support our efforts to find meaningful work. Today, work is a means to consume or to pay debt for consumption already indulged in. How many people do you know who really love the work they are doing? How many feel bored and alienated? How many are simply earning the money to spend it on material pleasures? Right livelihood demands that you take responsibility for making your work more meaningful. Good work is dignified. It develops your faculties and serves your community. It is a central human activity.

-- Roger Pritchard, in Claude Whitmyer's Mindfulness and Meaningful Work

Metaphysical Questions - addressed by Buddha

The Buddha always told his disciples not to waste their time and energy in metaphysical speculation. Whenever he was asked a metaphysical question, he remained silent. Instead, he directed his disciples toward practical efforts. Questioned one day about the problem of the infinity of the world, the Buddha said, "Whether the world is finite or infinite, limited or unlimited, the problem of your liberation remains the same." Another time he said, "Suppose a man is struck by a poisoned arrow and the doctor wishes to take out the arrow immediately. Suppose the man does not want the arrow removed until he knows who shot it, his age, his parents, and why he shot it. What would happen? If he were to wait until all these questions have been answered, the man might die first." Life is so short. It must not be spent in endless metaphysical speculation that does not bring us any closer to the truth.

- Thich Nhat Hanh, in Zen Keys

Universally Connected

Years prior, I would work at other jobs and use that money to further what "I really wanted to do"...work was secondary, counting the days to a day off, counting on the pay cheque on a specific date to cover the charge card I has used in preparation for the money that was coming...spinning the wheels beyond the present...easy for us to get carried away with momentum and desires, and "things we want or need", always that unobtainable object of desire that would "just make life that much easier".

The times have come and the fruition of this life is ahead, no longer working pay cheques for a dream but living it...living everyday with the understanding that it all works out and that everything comes at its time, we are not left without when we are present in the moment...divine light and universal love can be tested and always passes with flying astral colours...to put yourself in a position of testing the universe, acting on intuition, believing that it will all work out (without knowing that on the 18th is pay day)...without attachment to a future that is unknown, to be present, to be in the moment...

Live the Eightfold Path and all comes to Light:

In the training of Wisdom: practice Right View ad Right Intention.

In Ethics: practice Right Speech, Right Action, and Right Livelihood.

And in Meditation: practice Right Effort, Right Mindfulness, and Right Concentration.

With love.

Death and Dying

I often have conversations with people when selling malas about death and dying...the topic comes up because of the use of skull beads (generally made of yak bone) in the malas and wrist malas.

"Yuck!", "I don't like these!", "I like this mala except for the skulls.", etc.

Too which I reply..."When one contemplates and reflects on death and dying, then they live their life more fruitfully." If we come to grips that we are going to die and honour that inevitable passing stage then we can wake up to the everyday experience and live our lives with the knowledge, awareness, and acceptance...that yes...this too (this body) will pass.

We must make use of the time here on this planet, because being given a human body is the most honourable position and incarnation to be...the only ones on the planet with the mind and faculties to make judgements and react with right intention...overcoming "animal instincts".

If death is inevitable then why do we deny it? or are afraid to talk of it? ATTACHMENT...the attachment to this world, our interactions, characters in the play (family, friends, acquaintances, strangers, etc)...we WANT to believe we have TIME...TIME for WHAT??? Time to waste on jobs that we don't love? time to hate someone then forgive them then love them again? time to make mistakes and learn? TIME is only now in the moment, to be used for the betterment of all...

LOVE everyone, treat the world with respect, make a difference in someones life, stop taking and give, stop saving for a rainy day for it to may never come...give to someone that needs, volunteer, take time to walk barefoot in the wet grass, call someone you dislike and speak with love and forgiveness, make "enemies" friends...LOVE...for you never know when the time will come for you to pass and move on to another realm to do as you are destined.

let FEAR pass, realize you are going to die, live your life as if you were going to die tomorrow...

when the time comes of your passing, you will want to sit there in a mind of acceptance...fuse into light and know that you lived a life that was meant to be lived and leave behind an example of LOVE not FEAR...wake up! now and realize you are going to die, as I will...and LIVE NOW!

Do not shed a tear when I pass, celebrate what I have offered to others...know that my time in this body has passed and that I did the best I could with the karma and experiences I was born with...

No tears, just LOVE.

- Brian McIntyre

The Path to Right Livelihood.

Those of us who start on the path to right livelihood find that our lives are more balanced, simple, clear, and focused. We are no longer strung out in a meaningless cycle of material consumption. The contemporary economy focuses on this cycle of consumption. It doesn't really support our efforts to find meaningful work. Today, work is a means to consume or to pay debt for consumption already indulged in. How many people do you know who really love the work they are doing? How many feel bored and alienated? How many are simply earning the money to spend it on material pleasures? Right livelihood demands that you take responsibility for making your work more meaningful. Good work is dignified. It develops your faculties and serves your community. It is a central human activity.


-- Roger Pritchard, in Claude Whitmyer's Mindfulness and Meaningful Work

Define Enlightenment

http://www.buddhanet.net/wings_g.htm is a great explanation on The Seven Factors of Awakening and their association with the evolution of the soul.

http://www.buddhanet.net/pdf_file/tree-enlightenment.pdf#search=%22define%20enlightenment%22

A downloadable book at Buddhanet.net to help understand the definition of enlightenment and the understanding of the fundamental beliefs of Buddhist life.

Another excellent book that expounds on the Four Noble Truths and the Eightfold Path is "Awakening the Buddha Within" by Lama Surya Das.

True Nature of Happiness

Lack of understanding of the true nature of happiness, it seems to me, is the principal reason why people inflict sufferings on others. They think either that the other's pain may somehow be a cause of happiness for themselves or that their own happiness is more important, regardless of what pain it may cause. But this is shortsighted: no one truly benefits from causing harm to another sentient being. Whatever immediate advantage is gained at the expense of someone else is shortlived. In the long run, causing others misery and infringing their rights to peace and happiness result in anxiety, fear, and suspicion within oneself. Such feelings undermine the peace of mind and contentment which are the marks of happiness. True happiness comes not from a limited concern for one's own well-being, or that of those one feels close to, but from developing love and compassion for all sentient beings. Here, love means wishing that all sentient beings should find happiness, and compassion means wishing that they should all be free of suffering. The development of this attitude gives rise to a sense of openness and trust that provides the basis for peace.

--The Dalai Lama, from The Dalai Lama: A Policy of Kindness

Precepts are not passive

The basic precepts are not passive. They can actively express a compassionate heart in our life. Not killing can grow into a reverence for life, a protective caring for all sentient beings who share life with us. Not stealing can become the basis for a wise ecology, honoring the limited resources of the earth and actively seeking ways to live and work that share our blessings worldwide. From this spirit can come a life of natural and healing simplicity. Out of not lying we can develop our voice to speak for compassion, understanding, and justice. Out of nonharming sexuality, our most intimate relations can also become expressions of love, joy, and tenderness. Out of not abusing intoxicants or becoming heedless, we can develop a spirit that seeks to live in the most awake and conscious manner in all circumstances. At first, precepts are a practice. Then they become a necessity, and finally they become a joy. When our heart is awakened, they spontaneously illuminate our way in the world.


-Jack Kornfield, in A Path with Heart

(an excellent resources and inspiring words come from www.tricycle.com , you can sign up to these daily Dharma emails, purchase the magazine in print, and various other information)

A river runs through it

Here's a way you can keep from getting lost in your thoughts. See your thoughts go by as if they were autumn leaves floating down a stream. But focus on the stream. The leaves drift by, being moved this way and that by the eddying water. On some there are drops of water that glisten in the sunlight. Let the leaves, the thoughts, float by, but keep your attention on the water itself. Your mind may dwell on a sound, a memory, a plan, or any of a thousand things. When you notice your mind clinging to any of these, these leaves, then gently bring it back to the stream, back to the water flowing. Let the leaves float by. Don't get angry because your attention got caught, for that anger is just another leaf. Don't get frustrated, because your attention will get caught thousands of times. Each time, very gently but firmly bring it back to the flowing water. Now try this meditation for a few minutes. This is the beginning of a quiet mind.

- Journey of Awakening (A Meditator's Guidebook) by Ram Dass.

(photo taken in Suzhou, central western China...called the Venice of the East)

Durga Puja

Durga (other names such as Shakti, Parvati, Ambika, and Kali) is the object of a special worship during the annual Durga Puja celebrated in October. The special worship (puja) lasts nine days. Goddess Durga is worshipped during the first three days, Goddess Lakshmi during the next three days, and Goddess Saraswati during the final three days of the festival.

This order of worship has a special significance. Durga, as the destroyer of evil, is worshipped first so that the devotees can destroy their negative qualities, such as greed, anger, and ego. Next, Lakshmi (goddess of wealth) is worshipped to attain positive qualities, such as purity, self control, love, and kindness. Finally, Saraswati (goddess of learning) is worshipped to attain the highest knowledge. The highest knowledge can be attained only after all negative qualities are destroyed and the mind and intellect are purified.

In Hindu mythology the Goddess Durga is one of the principal forms of the divine spouse of Shiva. Durga Puja is a festival that celebrates her victory over the buffalo demon Mahisasura. According to the mythological story, Mahisasura was so powerful that none of the gods were able to destroy him. The gods, therefore, approached Goddess Durga for help. Each god gave her his best weapons. Equipped with the most powerful weapons, Durga destroyed the pwoerful demon that the gods had been unable to overcome.

- The Hindu Mind

Check out: http://www.durga-puja.org/ for all the details.

State of the World

Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi
Oct 2 1869 - Jan 30 1948

A friend recently emailed me in frustration over the worlds state of affairs, the hatred and famine, the wars and disease...I wrote this as a response and wish to share it with readers.

The ones sensitive to the shifts of the world and the universe we are in feel the time is now, unlike other times in our history to rise as the phoenix above the ashes and live a more enlightened life. In the 60s we came close and then there was the Vietnam war to detract our thoughts, become introverted and hate the world...now that the time has arisen again where the fate of the world is felt in the hearts of many, war reers its ugly face again...the devils of the world try to sway our minds and have us focus on the darkness of the world...we must rise above and embrace those in the darkness and shine bright on their path to help them to a better world...as long as YOU and I and OTHERS stay strong in the light of Sangha we can maintain this intensity and rise above the hatred...as I wear the swastika proudly on my mala everyday, I live to reverse the hatred of the world and redefine that which has become evil...as it is dark so it is light, without darkness there would be no move to light...there is an ebb and flow in this world and we are in the shallows of a great wave, which can wash us out either way...I choose to swim towards the light and the sunrise of a warmer day, as do others that you and I surround ourselves with, LIVE AS AN EXAMPLE! LIVE WITH LIGHT! WALK YOUR TALK! BE PROUD! LOVE! EMBRACE! SEEK HAPPINESS AND BE HAPPY! BE PRESENT! In this way the darkness will fade to light...people just want to be happy, we all seek happiness...even the devil seeks happiness, he wants to feel that he is respected, justified in his beliefs, heard for what he wants, understood...we all want to be happy, it is this pursuit of happiness that becomes the cloud of ignorance and the despair for many...the pursuit...where is happiness? They search, they look to killing others that defy their understanding of what makes a happy world, the choke out the people that sleep on their "private beaches" because they block the view...FEAR BROTHER! Fear that what makes them happy is going to change! The fear that things will change, the grasping, the grip on the illusion!

Darkness clouds happiness when fear is the motivator...fear that you will take what I have, fear that I will lose what is in my possession, fear that the direction I am going in pursuit of happiness could be the wrong one, FEAR! leads to ignorance! leads to people being proud! leads to death and dying, murder and killing to uphold what is REAL and TRUE to the ignorant!

Until we understand the true meaning of impermance, until we understand what it is to be present and alive, until we understand to help you is to help the world is to help me, until we understand that the time has come when we have to forsake our fears and embrace change, embrace death, embrace the fact that our state of mind will be different in a second, embrace the world and step away from tradition and old ways, and life as it was lived, to let go of the illusion and work together.

TO EMBRACE

TO LOVE

TO LEAVE IGNORANCE BEHIND, to be happy and realize that happiness arises during service to others!

DON'T BE AFRAID, LOVE! All else washes away, the blood of the past washes away in forgiveness, the death of yesterday washes away in understanding impermance, hatred washes away when we realize that everyone wants to be happy...LOVE brings HAPPINESS!

Believe that the hatred of the world today is empowering the love in many people, we will RISE ABOVE that hatred and embrace the killers and tell them they are beautiful...look into their eyes and tell them they too can be loved...beyond ignorance, be Gandhi!

Meditators Mind

One sits in meditation and feels the tug of the mind, ideas form into concepts...the rollercoaster of thoughts begin as a thought arises, then additional thoughts connect to this one until we realize that what we are trying to do is STOP this...

Picture the mind as a pyramid of concepts...to stand on the ground is to know that only this moment exists, as the thought pattern builds more blocks are added, further and further until the pyramid is complete and we can see over the trees of the jungle to what appears to be a new site to build another thought...pyramids of thoughts collapse and are rebuilt as the ebb and flow of the mind compels us onto other "ideals" and forms and concepts...

To release the mind is to see the thoughts that control and to understand them only to be thoughts, to know that nothing stays the same, to know that the next breath is a new day...this to will pass.

The Ego Mind will never entirely leave (the basis of who WE THINK we are) but the awareness and understanding that the Ego Mind is powerful and to understand how to overcome its influence is a return to the Natural Mind...the Mind that lives in unity with the universe, the Mind that sees thought patterns but does not define itself by them...

Fear is in the eye of the Mind that sees permanence...Fear of the changing of thoughts and ideals, of I and mine...Knowledge destroys fear, the knowing of our every changing existence is to know that the Natural Mind flows...resistance is futile and only brings wounds and suffering.

To embrace impermance and to know that good and bad, this to will pass...is a moto of the Meditators Mind...to not grasp to forms and concepts, yet see them for what they are, a thought...

Reality is a concept of thought patterns, what is reality? when we think we are awake? A "dream" during sleep can be just as real...are you waking from a dream or into a greater dream...to embrace the dreams as every changing, shaping your "reality" to reflect your thoughts...embrace with love, fear falls aside, and the meditators mind no longer contemplates the concept of reality, but lives with the understanding that all will pass...live a life of love, in whatever dream you are living.

Flesh and Spirit

The Buddhist challenge to conventional Western notions of spirituality illuminates the way we set flesh and spirit at war with each other. In Buddhism there is no original sin. Although noticing how we express our sexuality can certainly lead to an awareness of right conduct, the flesh is not regarded as representing a corruption or punishment of any kind, nor as an obstacle to the attainment of enlightenment. The root of human suffering is not sin, but our confusion about ego. We suffer because we believe in the existence of an individual self. This belief splits the world into "I" and "other."

--Stephen Butterfield, Tricycle: The Buddhist Review, Vol. I, #4

Simple Attention

The secret of beginning a life of deep awareness and sensitivity lies in our willingness to pay attention. Our growth as conscious, awake human beings is marked not so much by grand gestures and visible renunciations as by extending loving attention to the minutest particulars of our lives. Every relationship, every thought, every gesture is blessed with meaning through the wholehearted attention we bring to it. In the complexities of our minds and lives we easily forget the power of attention, yet without attention we live only on the surface of existence. It is just simple attention that allows us truly to listen to the song of a bird, to see deeply the glory of an autumn leaf, to touch the heart of another and be touched. We need to be fully present in order to love a single thing wholeheartedly. We need to be fully awake in this moment if we are to receive and respond to the learning inherent in it.


--Christina Feldman and Jack Kornfield, in Stories of the Spirit, Stories of the Heart
from Everyday Mind, edited by Jean Smith, a Tricycle book

You can sign up to Tricycle.com and get emails like this on a daily basis...a beautiful thing to be a part of and I want to share this beautifully written piece with everybody. Namaste...live with the understanding that embrace is needed to help everybody rise above the ashes like a phoenix from the ignorance of this world...work together for a brighter community, one person at a time.

Ocean of Mind - Muddy waters

There is a famous saying: "If the mind is not contrived, it is spontaneously blissful, just as water, when not agitated, is by nature transparent and clear." I often compare the mind in meditation to a jar of muddy water: The more we leave the water without interfering or stirring it, the more the particles of dirt will sink to the bottom, letting the natural clarity of the water shine through. The very nature of the mind is such that if you only leave it in its unaltered and natural state, it will find its true nature, which is bliss and clarity. So take care not to impose anything on the mind, or to tax it. When you meditate there should be no effort to control, and no attempt to be peaceful. Don't be overly solemn or feel that you are taking part in some special ritual; let go even of the idea that you are meditating. Let your body remain as it is, and your breath as you find it. Think of yourself as the sky, holding the whole universe.

--Sogyal Rinpoche, in The Tibetan Book of Living and Dying

Time spent in the state of reflecting, a state where the mind is still...a vision of the ocean on a placid day...where a stone skips on the surface disturbing the water, ripples settle as though it never happened...peace unto those who embody a state of mind that replaces waves with the knowledge that stillness is below and it will again be above.

- Brian McIntyre...walk well in Buddha nature.

Publishing a book in the coming weeks!

I have been travelling since 1999 and over the years have compiled a volume of journals and ramblings from life gone by. I am literally sitting with all the books/journals at my feet and have decided on publishing the first volume of writings.

The book will be displayed as both a text form, photos, and direct scanning of journal notes...it will lay the path of my life to present day...a life as a mala maker.

The title is still up for discussion and final decisions will be made within the next two weeks before print. This book will be available for sale online, keep up to date on the site here to find out about its release.

Namaste, to all that walk the path; may the ones with light shine onto the darkness of others...let's help all of us get there. The Bodhisattva Way.

Rudraksha. Origins and Meaning.

This is the rudraksha tree that I found in Nepal and harvested a few beads from...later I was able to find a few in Pokhara and although the season was over I was able to collect a bunch on the roof of a bathroom where many had landed and others had not ventured to collect.

The rudraksha is a seed of a berry and is considered the "Tears of Lord Shiva" ... RUDRA is another name for Shiva while AKSHA means eyes but in actual translation it is meant to be his tears.

The rudraksha is made of anywhere from 1 "face" to 21"faces" and I will elaborate in future posts. There is an extensive amount of writing to do on this topic :) and as I feel up to it I will write more about it.

You can always contact me for a more defined description of these beads. The five faced Rudraksha is THE ONLY ONE to be used in making malas...its healing properties are an increased blood flow and balanced flow to the heart...these have protective qualities.

The wearer of Rudraksha is not meant to drink alcohol, do drugs, swear, lie, eat meat, or involve themselves in sexual intercourse. If one wishes to act it these ways it is advised to remove the rudraksha from the neck. Adverse affects will arise if people wish to wear their rudraksha in the act of the above mentioned.

Each face has different healing properties and different results to the person that possesses them.

In future writings I will talk about the meaning and properties of each face.

This is the rudraksha tree that I found in Nepal and harvested a few beads from...later I was able to find a few in Pokhara and although the season was over I was able to collect a bunch on the roof of a bathroom where many had landed and others had not ventured to collect.

The rudraksha is a seed of a berry and is considered the "Tears of Lord Shiva" ... RUDRA is another name for Shiva while AKSHA means eyes but in actual translation it is meant to be his tears.

The rudraksha is made of anywhere from 1 "face" to 21"faces" and I will elaborate in future posts. There is an extensive amount of writing to do on this topic :) and as I feel up to it I will write more about it.

You can always contact me for a more defined description of these beads. The five faced Rudraksha is THE ONLY ONE to be used in making malas...its healing properties are an increased blood flow and balanced flow to the heart...these have protective qualities.

The wearer of Rudraksha is not meant to drink alcohol, do drugs, swear, lie, eat meat, or involve themselves in sexual intercourse. If one wishes to act it these ways it is advised to remove the rudraksha from the neck. Adverse affects will arise if people wish to wear their rudraksha in the act of the above mentioned.

Each face has different healing properties and different results to the person that possesses them.

In future writings I will talk about the meaning and properties of each face.

Guru-Disciple Relationship

People ask, isn't it possible to attain spiritual perfection without a guru?

An interesting answer is given by Bansi Pandit to elaborate on the guru worship. He says to attain spiritual progress without a guru is theoretically possible, but practically very difficult. In this age of kaliyuga  where material thoughts have established a strong hold on the individual, the guidance of a spiritual master is highly recommended by scriptures in order for an individual to attain self-realization. In Sanskrit, the syllable gu means "darkness or ignorance" and ru means "dispeller or remover." A guru gives initiation (diksha) to a pupil and guides the pupil on his or her spiritual path.

If the disciple is compared to a traveller, where self-realization is analogous to one's final destination, the guru can be called the traveller's guide, who provides a detailed road map leading to the destination, as well as other helpful instructions. The guru may walk side-by-side with the traveller to guide his journey, but a guru cannot life the traveller on his own shoulders and simply deliver him or her to the final destination. Thus, the guru's role is limited to providing a correct road map and the necessary instructions.

Guru-Disciple Relationship

A true guru is a God-realized master who guides his (her) disciple on the spiritual path. The function of a true guru is two-fold: he explains the scriptures and guides the disciple on the spiritual path; second, the guru teaches by setting an example with the daily acts of his own life. Sometimes by words and sometimes in silence, a true guru purifies the spirit of the disciple. According to Hind view, a desciple who obeys his guru in humility and in reverence attains self-knowledge.

In Hindu religion, a guru-disciple relationship is the highest and most sacred relationship in life. The Katha Upanishads declares: "To many it is not given to hear of the Self (God within). Many, though they hear of it, do not understand it. Wonderful is he who speaks of it. Intelligent is he who learns it. Blessed is he who, taught by a good teacher (guru), is able to understand it..."

People ask, isn't it possible to attain spiritual perfection without a guru?

An interesting answer is given by Bansi Pandit to elaborate on the guru worship. He says to attain spiritual progress without a guru is theoretically possible, but practically very difficult. In this age of kaliyuga  where material thoughts have established a strong hold on the individual, the guidance of a spiritual master is highly recommended by scriptures in order for an individual to attain self-realization. In Sanskrit, the syllable gu means "darkness or ignorance" and ru means "dispeller or remover." A guru gives initiation (diksha) to a pupil and guides the pupil on his or her spiritual path.

If the disciple is compared to a traveller, where self-realization is analogous to one's final destination, the guru can be called the traveller's guide, who provides a detailed road map leading to the destination, as well as other helpful instructions. The guru may walk side-by-side with the traveller to guide his journey, but a guru cannot life the traveller on his own shoulders and simply deliver him or her to the final destination. Thus, the guru's role is limited to providing a correct road map and the necessary instructions.

Guru-Disciple Relationship

A true guru is a God-realized master who guides his (her) disciple on the spiritual path. The function of a true guru is two-fold: he explains the scriptures and guides the disciple on the spiritual path; second, the guru teaches by setting an example with the daily acts of his own life. Sometimes by words and sometimes in silence, a true guru purifies the spirit of the disciple. According to Hind view, a desciple who obeys his guru in humility and in reverence attains self-knowledge.

In Hindu religion, a guru-disciple relationship is the highest and most sacred relationship in life. The Katha Upanishads declares: "To many it is not given to hear of the Self (God within). Many, though they hear of it, do not understand it. Wonderful is he who speaks of it. Intelligent is he who learns it. Blessed is he who, taught by a good teacher (guru), is able to understand it..."

Guru Bead? Why a Skull?

What is this centre bead? I am often asked. The guru bead has many positions of importance...when chanting and meditating we use malas to keep count of our recitations. I practice a form of Tibetan Buddhism called Vajrayana and am meant to recite specific mantras 10,000 times before I continue on with other instructions and teachings...a sort of "right of passage" one could say...so we keep count and track of the recitations...so at the point of getting to the guru bead one must stop, and turn around to continue counting in the opposite direction...why? well...when one meets the guru bead he must remember the guru-disciple relationship and strive for a closer bond and union. A guru bead also reflects the awareness that one must have in every aspect of life, a moment to reflect on the importance of your chanting, a time to reflect on your intentions and motive for sitting in meditation. A reverence of the guru...you approach and return to counting.

Why a skull bead? Some people look at the malas with a certain curiousity when they see a swastika or a skull...I have explained the swastika in another post but the skull is meant to have the meditator reflect on death and impermanence and know that death is a fact and the closer that we can relate to death and embrace it the sooner we can start living with love and compassion and realizing that in this cyclic existence death will come when it is time...live life and embrace death.

Buddha's Birthday

On the 8th day of the 4th month on the Chinese Calendar marks the day that Buddha was born...just a month and a half ago, I was there...the location of his birth...he was born under a sal tree in modern day Nepal; which at the time was northern India...in a place called Lumbini.

Queen Maya Devi brought Buddha into the world some distance from her palace, she was the queen of the Sakyu Clan and Buddha was to be the future king of the clan. (But days later the queen would die from complications of the birth and Buddha was to be brought up by her sister, who named him Siddharta Guatama). The most interesting thing about Siddharta's birth was that he was born with the ability to speak and told his mother that he was born again, and this was the last time...he had returned to pursue the truth and end the suffering of cyclic existence.

Siddharta was born into princehood, a life of being sheltered with the greatest of pleasures and every desire filled...whatever wish he had was filled. His father was very concerned about the future of his son, it was said that the Buddha would either be a great king or a wandering saint who would set the world free. Buddha Shakyamuni was to be shadowed by the kings men...but one day (and said to be over a series of months) the vail of ignorance would lift from the eyes of Buddha...he would see four occurences that would turn him to a life of a wandering saddhu.

He saw a man tending to his ill mother (Sickness), he saw a body wrapped in a white shroud with a procession of mourners (death), he saw a withered old man that would shock him...he was always sheltered from aging and dying, and he saw the trancing eyes of a wondering saddhu. Buddha was convinced that THIS was the answer to the suffering of humanity...pursue a greater understanding of life and save people from living in the murky waters of illusion, to see beyond what we believe is real and understand our ultimate divinity and connectedness to all through love and compassion for humanity.

Below are the most common chants that we use prior to meditation and to pay respect to the Buddha's life and continued influences:

Download 2buddhabhivadana_salutation_to_the_buddha.mp3 - Homage to Him. The Blessed One. The Exalted One. The Fully Enlightened One. (repeat three times)

Download 3trisarana_the_three_refuges.mp3 - I go to the Buddha as my refuge, I go to the Dhamma as my refuge, I go to the Sangha as my refuge. For the second time, I go to the Buddha as my refuge. For the second time, I go to the Dhamma as my refuge. For the second time, I go to the Sangha as my refuge. For the third time, I go to the Buddha as my refuge. For the third time, I go to the Dhamma as my refuge. For the third time, I go to the Sangha as my refuge.

Note that the Dhamma is all the teachings of the Buddha and the Sangha is your supportive network of friends, family and meditators that support you as you support them in the pursuit of enlightenment for the betterment of all, through love and compassion.

Download 4panca_sila_the_five_precept.mp3 - FIVE PRECEPTS: I undertake to observe the precept to abstain from destroying living beings. I undertake to observe the precept to abstain from taking things not given. I undertake to observe the precept to abstain from sexual misconduct. I undertake to observe the precept to abstain from false speech. I undertake to observe the precept to abstain from liquor causing intoxication and heedlessness.

With love and compassion. Namo!

On the 8th day of the 4th month on the Chinese Calendar marks the day that Buddha was born...just a month and a half ago, I was there...the location of his birth...he was born under a sal tree in modern day Nepal; which at the time was northern India...in a place called Lumbini.

Queen Maya Devi brought Buddha into the world some distance from her palace, she was the queen of the Sakyu Clan and Buddha was to be the future king of the clan. (But days later the queen would die from complications of the birth and Buddha was to be brought up by her sister, who named him Siddharta Guatama). The most interesting thing about Siddharta's birth was that he was born with the ability to speak and told his mother that he was born again, and this was the last time...he had returned to pursue the truth and end the suffering of cyclic existence.

Siddharta was born into princehood, a life of being sheltered with the greatest of pleasures and every desire filled...whatever wish he had was filled. His father was very concerned about the future of his son, it was said that the Buddha would either be a great king or a wandering saint who would set the world free. Buddha Shakyamuni was to be shadowed by the kings men...but one day (and said to be over a series of months) the vail of ignorance would lift from the eyes of Buddha...he would see four occurences that would turn him to a life of a wandering saddhu.

He saw a man tending to his ill mother (Sickness), he saw a body wrapped in a white shroud with a procession of mourners (death), he saw a withered old man that would shock him...he was always sheltered from aging and dying, and he saw the trancing eyes of a wondering saddhu. Buddha was convinced that THIS was the answer to the suffering of humanity...pursue a greater understanding of life and save people from living in the murky waters of illusion, to see beyond what we believe is real and understand our ultimate divinity and connectedness to all through love and compassion for humanity.

Below are the most common chants that we use prior to meditation and to pay respect to the Buddha's life and continued influences:

Download 2buddhabhivadana_salutation_to_the_buddha.mp3 - Homage to Him. The Blessed One. The Exalted One. The Fully Enlightened One. (repeat three times)

Download 3trisarana_the_three_refuges.mp3 - I go to the Buddha as my refuge, I go to the Dhamma as my refuge, I go to the Sangha as my refuge. For the second time, I go to the Buddha as my refuge. For the second time, I go to the Dhamma as my refuge. For the second time, I go to the Sangha as my refuge. For the third time, I go to the Buddha as my refuge. For the third time, I go to the Dhamma as my refuge. For the third time, I go to the Sangha as my refuge.

Note that the Dhamma is all the teachings of the Buddha and the Sangha is your supportive network of friends, family and meditators that support you as you support them in the pursuit of enlightenment for the betterment of all, through love and compassion.

Download 4panca_sila_the_five_precept.mp3 - FIVE PRECEPTS: I undertake to observe the precept to abstain from destroying living beings. I undertake to observe the precept to abstain from taking things not given. I undertake to observe the precept to abstain from sexual misconduct. I undertake to observe the precept to abstain from false speech. I undertake to observe the precept to abstain from liquor causing intoxication and heedlessness.

With love and compassion. Namo!

OM MANI PADME HUNG explained

Often pronounced by the Chinese as Om Mani Pedme Hung...and actually the Hung in both ways is lost in translation, it is actually hoo-ng. Tibetans can be seen walking the streets with mala in hand reciting this mantra, Om Mani Padme Hung means "The jewel is within." A constant reminder that the alleviation of suffering is within us to overcome, we are the answer to our struggles, master the mind and embody the spirit...with a focus on this we may purify all facets of our being...body, speech, and mind.

Counting or Fingering on a Mala

There are two schools of thought when it comes to the hand positioning of counting...there is the most common way with the mala over your index finger, then there is the other with your mala over the middle finger.

I was taught to use to mala over the middle finger because the index is considered the ego...and to involve the ego in your recitations would be fruitless. The thumb is the master.

When the index finger (ego) bows to the master (thumb) it is in the shape of the "perfect" symbol or "okay" ... the two fingers make a circle and the other three are spead out. The other form of us saying okay is the "thumbs up"...the recognition of the master.

In counting you go up one side of the bead to the point where your thumb meets the first knuckle, then you proceed down the other side until the tip of your thumb meets the end of the bead that meets the thread and the next bead...mantras are to be recited in a fashion that is rhythmic and thus the fingering of your mala will become rhythmic as well.

A great mantra to use for a beginner learning to focus on the breathe is the hum-sa or so-hum mantra (Phonetic translation in Hindi is so-Ham and Ham-sah meaning I am He, He is I...In this mantra "I" refers to atman and "He" refers to Brahman. Thus the mantra affirms that the atman and Brahman are one and the same; an individual is the atman wrapped up in a physical body).

As you rise up the bead you inhale while saying HUM (this is taking in the sadness and darkness of the world) and proceeding down the bead you exhale saying SA (releasing love, light, and blessings to all). In introductory practices of loving-kindness you first learn to focus on yourself, then project to a loved one, then to your entire family, then to someone your dislike, then to your town, city, community, country, globe, universe...until you are able to feel your love and kindness glow with intensity and intention.

SO-HUM

There are two schools of thought when it comes to the hand positioning of counting...there is the most common way with the mala over your index finger, then there is the other with your mala over the middle finger.

I was taught to use to mala over the middle finger because the index is considered the ego...and to involve the ego in your recitations would be fruitless. The thumb is the master.

When the index finger (ego) bows to the master (thumb) it is in the shape of the "perfect" symbol or "okay" ... the two fingers make a circle and the other three are spead out. The other form of us saying okay is the "thumbs up"...the recognition of the master.

In counting you go up one side of the bead to the point where your thumb meets the first knuckle, then you proceed down the other side until the tip of your thumb meets the end of the bead that meets the thread and the next bead...mantras are to be recited in a fashion that is rhythmic and thus the fingering of your mala will become rhythmic as well.

A great mantra to use for a beginner learning to focus on the breathe is the hum-sa or so-hum mantra (Phonetic translation in Hindi is so-Ham and Ham-sah meaning I am He, He is I...In this mantra "I" refers to atman and "He" refers to Brahman. Thus the mantra affirms that the atman and Brahman are one and the same; an individual is the atman wrapped up in a physical body).

As you rise up the bead you inhale while saying HUM (this is taking in the sadness and darkness of the world) and proceeding down the bead you exhale saying SA (releasing love, light, and blessings to all). In introductory practices of loving-kindness you first learn to focus on yourself, then project to a loved one, then to your entire family, then to someone your dislike, then to your town, city, community, country, globe, universe...until you are able to feel your love and kindness glow with intensity and intention.

SO-HUM

Ocean of Words

A Mind Like a Pure, Flowing River

Recognizing the power of our minds means that even as unfortunate or terrible things happen to us, we can receive them in a more spacious and ultimately more enlightened way. The Buddha taught his students to develop a power of love so strong that the mind becomes like space that cannot be tainted. If someone throws paint, it is not the air that will change color. Space will not hold the paint; it will not grasp it in any way. Only the walls, the barriers to space, can be affected by the paint. The Buddha taught his students to develop a power of love so strong that their minds become like a pure, flowing river that cannot be burned. No matter what kind of material is thrown into it, it will not burn. Many experiences--good, bad, and indifferent--are thrown into the flowing river of our lives, but we are not burned, owing to the power of the love in our hearts.

-- Sharon Salzberg, in Lovingkindness

Love, but only if...

The near-enemy of love is attachment. Attachment masquerades as love. It says, "I will love you if you will love me back." It is a kind of "businessman's" love. So we think, "I will love this person as long as he doesn't change. I will love that thing if it will be the way I want it." But this isn't love at all--it is attachment. There is a big difference between love, which allows and honors and appreciates, and attachment, which grasps and demands and aims to possess. When attachment becomes confused with love, it actually separates us from another person. We feel we need this other person in order to be happy. This quality of attachment also leads us to offer love only toward certain people, excluding others.

--Joseph Goldstein, in Seeking the Heart of Wisdom

Stop Running!

The person that desires to have only pleasure and refuses pain expends an enormous amount of energy resisting life--and at the same time misses out enormously. He or she is on a self-defeating mission in any case, for just as we evade certain forms of suffering we inevitably fall victim to others. Underlying our glitzy modern consumer culture there is a deep spiritual undernourishment and malaise that manifests all kinds of symptoms: nervous disorders, loneliness, alienation, purposelessness. . . So blanking out, running away, burying our heads in sand or videotape will take us nowhere in the long run. If we really want to solve our problems--and the world's problems, for they stem from the same roots--we must open up and accept the reality of suffering with full awareness, as it strikes us, physically, emotionally, mentally, spiritually, in the here-now. Then, strange as it may seem, we reap vast rewards. For suffering has its positive side. From it we derive the experience of depth, of the fullness of our humanity. This puts us fully in touch with other people and the rest of the Universe.

John Snelling, in Elements of Buddhism

Freeing the Energy of Compassion

Wisdom replaces ignorance in our minds when we realize that happiness does not lie in the accumulation of more and more pleasant feelings, that gratifying craving does not bring us a feeling of wholeness or completeness. It simply leads to more craving and more aversion. When we realize in our own experience that happiness comes not from reaching out but from letting go, not from seeking pleasurable experience but from opening in the moment to what is true, this transformation of understanding then frees the energy of compassion within us. Our minds are no longer bound up in pushing away pain or holding on to pleasure. Compassion becomes the natural response of an open heart.
To embrace a life in this worldly existence we must accept what comes to us and what is taken away...money and possessions can make the existence more comfortable, but like a castle made of sand; if we are to grip our possessions too tight; it all disappears and the fortune is taken from us. A life of good intentions and compassion for what one has and does not have, is a life that is fruitful in more ways than simply on a monetary level.

Love, Live, and Embrace with Compassion.

Don't Just do something, Sit there!

Sitting is essentially a simplified space. Our daily life is in constant movement: lots of things going on, lots of people talking, lots of events taking place. In the middle of that, it's very difficult to sense that we are in our life. When we simplify the situation, when we take away the externals and remove ourselves from the ringing phone, the television, the people who visit us, the dog who needs a walk, we get a chance--which is absolutely the most valuable thing there is--to face ourselves.

Meditation is not about some state, but about the meditator. It's not about some activity or about fixing something. It's about ourselves. If we don't simplify the situation the chance of taking a good look at ourselves is very small--because what we tend to look at isn't ourselves but everything else.

To sit in silence is the essence of existence, a time for us to look internally and reflect on our lives...a time to bring the whirling day in samsara to a slower pace.

Don't just do something, sit there.

Life - Teacher

There is only one teacher. What is that teacher? Life itself. And of course each one of us is a manifestation of life; we couldn't be anything else. Now life happens to be both a severe and an endlessly kind teacher. It's the only authority that you need to trust. And this teacher, this authority, is everywhere. You don't have to go to some special place to find this incomparable teacher, you don't have to have some especially quiet or ideal situation.

Life itself is the teacher of all who are willing to listen and learn. I am asked often about my travels and how I can manage to travel and live as I do...I constantly remind people that we are all graced with a birth and a guide or multiples of guides that work with us in this life to make it more fruitful. Call it intuition, call it a guide, but whatever you call it...you must listen and let this take you through life. I would not be here right now if I was not connected to the path I should be walking.

Life is a journey to be made with feet touching the earth, ears gracing the heavenly sounds, eyes to express the soul, and hands to raise up to the heavens and egknowledge your blessed existence...live life and make a difference.

Love and Fear

Life is lived with love and fear. Through developing stages of our lives we progress and digress between these two. Fear arises and the need to control the situation is paramount...we protect ourselves from what the fear is and create power struggles, a lack of fun and joy, pain, and distance while eroding our self-esteem and becoming tense, unhappy, unloved, and imprisoned in our fears.

The solution to life and living is LOVE...embrace thy neighbour with the intent to learn. Be open to being affected by others...in knowing the truth of oneself and others... LOVE is the aim to resolve conflict, deepen intimacy, and feel fun and joy through presonal freedom and a sense of peacefulness.

We need more LOVE in these times of this world, love and kindness are the keys to a more fulfilled life...for a time to egknowledge others and embrace the differences through learning.

Fear leads to alienation and a loss of focus on the goal to enlightenment and true self-knowing...to LOVE is to LEARN. Rise above the ashes as a phoenix and let LOVE lead the way to the glory of today.

Dhammapada - Sayings of the Buddha

Thus have I heard.

33. The mind is wavering and restless, difficult to guard and restrain: let the wise man straighten his mind as a maker of arrows makes his arrows straight.

34. Like a fish which is thrown on dry land, taken from his home in the waters, the mind strives and struggles to get free from the power of Death.

35. The mind is fickle and flighty, it flies after fancies wherever it likes: it is difficult indeed to restrain. But it is a great good to control the mind; a mind self-controlled is a source of great joy.


-- the Buddha, in the Dhammapada

Everyday Zen

Intelligent practice always deals with just one thing: the fear at the base of human existence, the fear that I am not.

And of course I am not, but the last thing I want to know is that.

I am impermanence itself in a rapidly changing human form that appears solid. I fear to see what I am: an ever-changing energy field...

So good practice is about fear. Fear takes the form of constantly thinking, speculating, analyzing, fantasizing. With all that activity we create a cloud cover to keep ourselves safe in make-believe practice. True practice is not safe; it's anything but safe. But we don't like that, so we obsess with our feverish efforts to achieve our version of the personal dream. Such obessive practice is itself just another cloud between ourselves and reality.

The only thing that matters is seeing with an impersonal searchlight: seeing things as they are. When the personal barrier drops away, why do we have to call it anything? We just live our lives. And when we die, we just die. No problem anywhere.

-- Charlotte Joko Beck, in Everyday Zen. visit www.tricycle.com

Mahabodhi Temple - Bodhgaya, India

This writing was recently entered into a CBC contest and I thought it would be nice to share with everyone here.

Mahabodhi Temple – Bodhgaya, India.

Approaching the town is like a passing through time, the pastures give rise to a waterway that once was. Buddha would have came down from the cave he was meditating in for six years, just in the distance it can be seen…a white temple marks its location.

Bodhgaya is a collection of buildings with a monolithic temple as the “core” of this town and the heart of the world…the location where Buddha obtained enlightenment under the bodhi tree.

Time is immemorial, it stands still, a testament to prayers and mantras that have been chanted and stored in its every crevice…a veil of universal proportions consumes your every thought, until it is only you and the love of prayer reverberating your being. Time is nothing; the only indication is the movement of the sun and the change of hues and shafts of light that illuminate various parts of the temple grounds.

The realization cannot be missed by any; we sit here, one and all…in divine oneness.

The temple pulses, the tree drops its leaves to offer pieces of itself for worship…devotees scurry about picking every last leaf off the ground Others sit eagerly watching a branch, hoping to dart out and catch a leaf before it hits the ground.

Honour, love, respect, compassion, and devotion. The Buddha watches on. I am home.

Compassion and the Individual

Whether people are beautiful and friendly or unattractive and disruptive, ultimately they are human beings, just like oneself. Like oneself, they want happiness and do not want suffering. Furthermore, their right to overcome suffering and be happy is equal to one's own. ...When you recognize that all beings are equal in both their desire for happiness and their right to obtain it, you automatically feel empathy and closeness for them.

Through accustoming your mind to this sense of universal altruism, you develop a feeling of responsibility for others: the wish to help them actively overcome their problems. Nor is this wish selective; it applies equally to all. - The Dalai Lama

The 5 elements.

Earth, Wind, Fire, Water, and Consciousness (Mind).

All elements arise in ones meditative practice at varying intensities and at varying advancements of the meditative experience.

EARTH: a stiffness arises in the meditative posture...form is not to exist, pain is perceived to arise, the awareness that the mind defines the pain and posture as the existence and embodiment of "I". Commonly discomfort is said to be the deterrent of many that wish to meditate longer...length is not important, but the quality of the time spent in meditation DOES matter...saying this though; it is important to not stop at the MOMENT that the pain arises...realize the pain, focus, understand the chaotic mind as a key to overcoming the pain, embrace the Natural Mind and see the pain fade.

WIND: meditators may experience swaying and rocking, convulsions...depending on the dominant element of the meditator they may find that one of these elements is more pronounced. Do not be alarmed, try to find centre and return to stability...but do not stop the meditation in a panic that this rocking, twitching, swaying is wrong. It is perfectly normal.

FIRE: the pain in the body turns to fire, numbing of limbs and toes, the fire leads some meditators into a change of posture and extreme discomfort...all elements are a direct relation to the mind and whether it is at ease or in "story telling mode"...when the mind becomes active in preoccupations (ie. what will I eat for dinner after this? what time is my favorite show on? what time is it? oh, I forgot to pay that bill? so on and so on) it reacts by enlivening an element and to force you out of posture and realization of the Natural Mind.

WATER: crying, sweating, runny nose, complete "liquid flush" of the body are common for many meditators...especially ones with strong water signs...the flushing of the system in this way is said to be the shakti (life force) of the body acting in a purifying manner, forcing impurities out through this method. I call tears "the ashes of ego" ... in tears we are able to purify and relieve more of the ego that tries to define us and occupy the minutes, hours, days, and lives that we live...to cry is to embrace the beauty in everything and the understanding that our lives are to be lived for others, and in return lived together in embrace with love.

Natural Mind vs Ego Mind

The battle is waged over the Natural Mind (the sublime light mind, embraced in the infinite emptiness, the unabiding, the absence of time and space, the utter void of any reasoning, the awareness of this moment unlike all others, the same as all others, now) VS. The Ego Mind...the definitive, ever categorizing, analyzing, pretending, story-telling, consumed, false...but true to those who believe that this is who they are.

For one to get beyond the illusion is to embrace the moment as it is, ever-present; sublime, there is nothing to be done, nothing missing, no pre-concieved ideals, no you, no me, no identity, no pretention.

To embrace this emptiness is to understand the non-duality of all forms, light IS dark, yin IS yang, male IS female, form IS emptiness, and emptiness IS form.

Vietnamese Chanting

There is a great source on the internet organized by followers of the Theravada school of Buddhism called www.buddhanet.net and has been a priceless resource for me over the last couple of years. Please donate to this and other organizations that help spread the Dharma. With love and compassion we can heal the world...it is true, it is not cliche...it is not something to be said to warm the hearts of others...it is the truth...we CAN make the world see the love in all...with respect and dignity, through the light of compassion; we embrace the essence of existence and know to that we can work together as one.

Below are downloadable links to two Vietnamese chants that I have used for some time now and often play to set the stage for my mala work...a truly loving form that the waves of these chants take as you open your heart and let the natural mind free.

Download vietchant01.mp3

Download vietchant02.mp3

Heaven and Hell

A visit to Heaven and Hell

I once heard a story about a visit to heaven and hell. In both places the visitor saw many people seated at a table on which many delicious foods were laid out. In both places chopsticks over a meter long were tied to their right hands, while their left hands were tied to their chairs.

In hell, however much they stretched out their arms, the chopsticks were too long for them to get food into their mouths. They grew impatient and got their hands and chopsticks tangled with one another's. The delicacies were scattered here and there.

In heaven, on the other hand, people happily used the long chopsticks to pick out someone else's favorite food and feed it to him, and in turn they were being fed by others. They all enjoyed their meal in harmony.

--Shundo Aoyama, Zen Seeds

** I am often asked the belief of heaven and hell and what the worst thing that a being can be reincarnated as...it is the "Hungry Ghost", nothing more is needed to explain the anguish.

The act of Giving and the Cultivation of Loving-Kindness

A single act of giving has a value beyond what we can imagine. So much of the spiritual path is expressed and realized in giving: love, compassion, sympathetic joy, equanimity; letting go of grasping, aversion, and delusion. To give is powerful. That is why the Buddha said that if we knew as he did, the power of giving, we would not let a single meal pass without sharing some of it.

Sharing food is a metaphor for all giving. When we offer someone food, we are not just giving that person something to eat; we are giving far more. We give strength, health, beauty, clarity of mind, and even life, because none of those things would be possible without food. So when we feed another, this is what we are offering: the substance of life itself.
--Sharon Salzberg

How to become a Buddhist.

If one desires to become a Buddhist, there is no initiation ceremony (or baptism) which one has to undergo....If one understands the Buddha's teaching, and if one is convinced that his teaching is the right Path and if one tries to follow it, then one is a Buddhist.

But according to the unbroken age-old tradition in Buddhist countries, one is considered a Buddhist if one takes the Buddha, the Dhamma (the Teaching) and the Sangha (the community of Buddhists)--generally called "the Triple-Gem"--as one's refuges, and undertakes to observe the Five Precepts--the minimum moral obligations of a lay Buddhist:

(1) not to destroy life, (2) not to steal, (3) not to commit adultery, (4) not to tell lies, (5) not to take intoxicating drinks....

There are no external rites or ceremonies which a Buddhist has to perform. Buddhism is a way of life, and what is essential is following the Noble Eightfold Path.

--Walpola Rahula in What the Buddha Taught from Everyday Mind.

Three Turnings of the Dharma Wheel

(Photo taken at Sarnath, India...the location of Buddhas first sermon and the First Turn or Cycle of the Dharma Wheel) I am often asked about the Yanas (or Vehicles/Paths) of Buddhism, more often though when talking about Buddhism with people, even fellow practicing Buddhists, they are unaware of the meaning or even that there is a difference in the paths chosen. Here I will talk of the Three Vehicles or Paths (yanas) that a practioner can follow on his/her path to acheiving enlightenment.

The First Turning of the Dharma Wheel (known as the Traditional Way of the Elders, called Theravada, and inaccurately sometimes referred to as Hinayana) includes the Four Noble Truths, the Eightfold Path, the Three Marks or Characteristics of Existence (impermanence, not-self, and suffering), and interdependent co-origination (how everything comes about through cause and effect). This often is described as the Way of individual liberation, purification, and highly positive behaviour. It is known as the Arhant's (or saint's) Way. This Theravadin Way stresses insight, purification, morality, restraint, nonharming, renunciation, and simplicity. Ancient scriptures say that on this path one will reach liberation within seven lifetimes after the initial enlightenment experience.

The Second Turning or Cycle of the Dharma Wheel (known as Mahayana) emphasizes sunyata, which means infinite emptiness and radiant openness. This is the heroic Bodhisattva's way of universal enlightenment; this path emphasizes the union of wisdom and compassion and unselfish attitudes. The Mahayana stresses compassion, the wisdom of emptiness, openness, altruism, and fearless courage. This path can culminate in full enlightenment within a few lifetimes.

The Third Turning or Cycle of the Dharma Wheel (known as Vajrayana) emphasizes innate Buddha-nature - spontaneous, fertile, and luminous. It elucidates non-dual tantra, unveiling the utter inseperability of nirvana and samsara, the sacred and the mundane, or heaven and earth. The Vajrayana stresses transformation, energy, empowerment, and dynamic skillful means. In this path, enlightenment has often been achieved within a single lifetime.

Historically the Southern schools in Ceylon (Sri Lanka), Burma (Myanmar), Thailand, Laos, and Cambodia stressed the classical Hinayana and Theravada; the Northern schools in Nepal, Sikkim, Tibet, Mongolia, Korea, China, and Japan emphasized the Mahayana and Tantric Vajrayana.

According to various lineages of Tibet, a secret Fourth Turning or Cycle of the Dharma Wheel is taught. This is the consummate and ultimate Buddhist teaching known in Tibet as Dzogchen (pronounced Zol-Chin). Considered the most direct non-dual approach to awakening the Buddha within, Dzogchen stresses non-duality, ecstatic spontaneity, and the natural great perfection of things just the way they are. Dzogchen masters teach that one can achieve enlightenment in this very lifetime, even in as few as three to seven years through assidious practice.

Interestingly enough, as the turning progresses the path to enlightenment is shorter...here it has to be said that also from Hinayana through to Dzogchen...at first it is easy to teach but hard for the student to realize, to Dzogchen that is hard to teach but once realized easy to embrace. For people interested in Buddhism they will become drawn to a path that feels right for them...this is not a competition to see who gets there first, taking a Dzogchen path is not favoured over Hinayana or Theravada...PLUS! very important! These paths are SERIOUS, if practiced incorrectly it is said that a person can to damage to past karmas and end this life in lower realms.

I have met many people that have been drawn into Buddhism with their first serious experience being Vipassana (insight meditation) but through a Theravadin school (most popular). Aspects of the meditation retreat are different depending on what Yana is related to the school...the end goal is different for different yanas, and the way to get their is also. I urge people to explore the Yanas if interested in Buddhism to find a clearer path for oneself. The Yana for you will be obvious when found. Enjoy the journey!

Whatever we do

With the proper understanding of transformation, whatever we do, twenty-four hours a day, can bring us closer to our goal of totality and self-fulfillment. All our actions; walking, eating, and even urinating!can be brought into our spiritual path. Even our sleep, which is usually spent in the darkness of unconsciousness or in the chaos of dreams, can be turned into the clear-light experience of subtle, penetrating wisdom. ---- Lama Thubten Yeshe in Introduction to Tantra.

The act of sitting meditation is a window into the light but is not the ONLY method of embodying grace...our daily lives have countless opportunities for us to share and be open to knowledge...sitting meditation helps the practitioner understand themselves and their purpose, with this understanding one can go out into the world and make every minute part of the spiritual path.

Dharma and the Dollar

Awakening entails economic pursuits that foster self-respect and self-reliance and that serve to integrate, rather than disperse, the energies of the local community. From the perspective of the Dharma, economic goals include not only production and profit, but also their human and environmental impact. The conservation of material resources, their humane use, and their equitable distribution are taken as preeminent concerns.
--Joanna Macy in Mindfulness and Meaningful Work by Claude Whitmyer (from Tricycle.com)

There is a way to make money with a heart, it stems from your intentions regarding the money you make...what will you do with this money? who ELSE will benefit? what can you do in your community to disperse the funds?  Modern day success is all too often the pursuit of the almighty dollar and a detachment to those around us...if you are making money than you are blessed with a vehicle of change (if used properly). Let's continue to feed a positive machine and do with money what is needed...to be a service to others and to enable people in poor situations to rise above the difficulties.

A new breed of business is happening, a time when we are more aware of the harms and benefits of this world...let's work together to make a better place. With love.

Think of Non-Thinking

From Tricycle.com Daily Dharma.

When you have a problem, think about it. Then think about it some more. And then think about it still more and after you've thought all you can think about it, then think non-thinking. When you touch the origin of thinking, this is non-thinking. Our practice is neither about thinking nor non-thinking. Let go of your cherished opinions and cultivate the mind of "not knowing" and the True Dharma will appear.


--Gerry Shishin Wick in The Book of Equanimity
from More Daily Wisdom, edited by Josh Bartok, Wisdom Publications.

The Four Noble Truths and Walking the Eightfold Path

How joyful to look upon the Awakened and to keep company with the wise.  Follow then the shining ones, the wise, the awakened, the loving, for they know how to work and forbear.  But if you cannot find friend or master to go with you, travel on alone - like a king who has given away his kingdom, like an elephant in the forest. -- From the Dhammapada (Sayings of the Buddha).

The Four Noble Truths are the core of the Buddhist Dharma. A brief explanation is as follows: The First Noble Truth: life is difficult, Second: Life is difficult because of attachment, because we crave satisfaction in ways that are inherently dissatisfying. Third: The possibility of liberation from difficulties exists for everyone. Fourth: The way to realize this liberation and enlightenment is by leading a compassionate life of virtue, wisdom, and meditation. These three spiritual trainings comprise the teachings of the Eighfold Path to Enlightenment.

EIGHTFOLD PATH: is divided into three parts (wisdom training, ethics training, and meditation training).

WISDOM TRAINING:

Step 1: Right View

Step 2: Right Intentions

ETHICS TRAINING:

Step 3: Right Speech

Step 4: Right Action

Step 5: Right Livelihood

MEDITATION TRAINING:

Step 6: Right Effort

Step 7: Right Mindfulness

Step 8: Right Concentration

Tricycle's Daily Dharma

Tricycle's Daily Dharma: May 14, 2006

"Exactly As I Am"

The Buddhist path is designed to reveal deeper levels of reality. We live in a pluralistic society. We live in a racist society, a homophobic and sexist society; in addition, Buddhists of every color, each gender, and all sexual orientations embrace the sectarian prejudices that developed in Asia. We live in a society that is pleading for us to put our shoulders to the wheel.

We are also, each and every one of us, whole and perfect as is, interrelated, essentially non-separated, and equal. This, too, must be realized. If we forsake the inside for the outside, it is not just Buddhism that is diminished but the horizons for true social transformation as well.

Tricycle.com is a quarterly magazine that focuses on the Buddhist community and aspects of study as well as global issues affecting the world. I recommend reading an issue or two or subscribing in some fashion.

Shanti.

The significance of the Lotus Flower

The lotus flower symbolizes spiritual knowledge and power. The lotus grows out of mud, unfolds into a beautiful flower, lives in water all the time but is never wetted by it. This conveys the idea that a spiritual aspirant, while living in the world, should remain unaffected by the worldly attractions and should work towards spiritual unfoldment.

Recognizing the power of our minds means that even as unfortunate or terrible things happen to us, we can receive them in a more spacious and ultimately more enlightened way. The Buddha taught his students to develop a power of love so strong that the mind becomes like space that cannot be tainted. If someone throws paint, it is not the air that will change color. Space will not hold the paint; it will not grasp it in any way. Only the walls, the barriers to space, can be affected by the paint. The Buddha taught his students to develop a power of love so strong that their minds become like a pure, flowing river that cannot be burned. No matter what kind of material is thrown into it, it will not burn. Many experiences--good, bad, and indifferent--are thrown into the flowing river of our lives, but we are not burned, owing to the power of the love in our hearts.

-- Sharon Salzberg, in Lovingkindness

The near-enemy of love is attachment. Attachment masquerades as love. It says, "I will love you if you will love me back." It is a kind of "businessman's" love. So we think, "I will love this person as long as he doesn't change. I will love that thing if it will be the way I want it." But this isn't love at all--it is attachment. There is a big difference between love, which allows and honors and appreciates, and attachment, which grasps and demands and aims to possess. When attachment becomes confused with love, it actually separates us from another person. We feel we need this other person in order to be happy. This quality of attachment also leads us to offer love only toward certain people, excluding others.

--Joseph Goldstein, in Seeking the Heart of Wisdom

The person that desires to have only pleasure and refuses pain expends an enormous amount of energy resisting life--and at the same time misses out enormously. He or she is on a self-defeating mission in any case, for just as we evade certain forms of suffering we inevitably fall victim to others. Underlying our glitzy modern consumer culture there is a deep spiritual undernourishment and malaise that manifests all kinds of symptoms: nervous disorders, loneliness, alienation, purposelessness. . . So blanking out, running away, burying our heads in sand or videotape will take us nowhere in the long run. If we really want to solve our problems--and the world's problems, for they stem from the same roots--we must open up and accept the reality of suffering with full awareness, as it strikes us, physically, emotionally, mentally, spiritually, in the here-now. Then, strange as it may seem, we reap vast rewards. For suffering has its positive side. From it we derive the experience of depth, of the fullness of our humanity. This puts us fully in touch with other people and the rest of the Universe.

John Snelling, in Elements of Buddhism

Wisdom replaces ignorance in our minds when we realize that happiness does not lie in the accumulation of more and more pleasant feelings, that gratifying craving does not bring us a feeling of wholeness or completeness. It simply leads to more craving and more aversion. When we realize in our own experience that happiness comes not from reaching out but from letting go, not from seeking pleasurable experience but from opening in the moment to what is true, this transformation of understanding then frees the energy of compassion within us. Our minds are no longer bound up in pushing away pain or holding on to pleasure. Compassion becomes the natural response of an open heart.
To embrace a life in this worldly existence we must accept what comes to us and what is taken away...money and possessions can make the existence more comfortable, but like a castle made of sand; if we are to grip our possessions too tight; it all disappears and the fortune is taken from us. A life of good intentions and compassion for what one has and does not have, is a life that is fruitful in more ways than simply on a monetary level.

Love, Live, and Embrace with Compassion.

Sitting is essentially a simplified space. Our daily life is in constant movement: lots of things going on, lots of people talking, lots of events taking place. In the middle of that, it's very difficult to sense that we are in our life. When we simplify the situation, when we take away the externals and remove ourselves from the ringing phone, the television, the people who visit us, the dog who needs a walk, we get a chance--which is absolutely the most valuable thing there is--to face ourselves.

Meditation is not about some state, but about the meditator. It's not about some activity or about fixing something. It's about ourselves. If we don't simplify the situation the chance of taking a good look at ourselves is very small--because what we tend to look at isn't ourselves but everything else.

To sit in silence is the essence of existence, a time for us to look internally and reflect on our lives...a time to bring the whirling day in samsara to a slower pace.

Don't just do something, sit there.

There is only one teacher. What is that teacher? Life itself. And of course each one of us is a manifestation of life; we couldn't be anything else. Now life happens to be both a severe and an endlessly kind teacher. It's the only authority that you need to trust. And this teacher, this authority, is everywhere. You don't have to go to some special place to find this incomparable teacher, you don't have to have some especially quiet or ideal situation.

Life itself is the teacher of all who are willing to listen and learn. I am asked often about my travels and how I can manage to travel and live as I do...I constantly remind people that we are all graced with a birth and a guide or multiples of guides that work with us in this life to make it more fruitful. Call it intuition, call it a guide, but whatever you call it...you must listen and let this take you through life. I would not be here right now if I was not connected to the path I should be walking.

Life is a journey to be made with feet touching the earth, ears gracing the heavenly sounds, eyes to express the soul, and hands to raise up to the heavens and egknowledge your blessed existence...live life and make a difference.

Life is lived with love and fear. Through developing stages of our lives we progress and digress between these two. Fear arises and the need to control the situation is paramount...we protect ourselves from what the fear is and create power struggles, a lack of fun and joy, pain, and distance while eroding our self-esteem and becoming tense, unhappy, unloved, and imprisoned in our fears.

The solution to life and living is LOVE...embrace thy neighbour with the intent to learn. Be open to being affected by others...in knowing the truth of oneself and others... LOVE is the aim to resolve conflict, deepen intimacy, and feel fun and joy through presonal freedom and a sense of peacefulness.

We need more LOVE in these times of this world, love and kindness are the keys to a more fulfilled life...for a time to egknowledge others and embrace the differences through learning.

Fear leads to alienation and a loss of focus on the goal to enlightenment and true self-knowing...to LOVE is to LEARN. Rise above the ashes as a phoenix and let LOVE lead the way to the glory of today.

Thus have I heard.

33. The mind is wavering and restless, difficult to guard and restrain: let the wise man straighten his mind as a maker of arrows makes his arrows straight.

34. Like a fish which is thrown on dry land, taken from his home in the waters, the mind strives and struggles to get free from the power of Death.

35. The mind is fickle and flighty, it flies after fancies wherever it likes: it is difficult indeed to restrain. But it is a great good to control the mind; a mind self-controlled is a source of great joy.


-- the Buddha, in the Dhammapada

Intelligent practice always deals with just one thing: the fear at the base of human existence, the fear that I am not.

And of course I am not, but the last thing I want to know is that.

I am impermanence itself in a rapidly changing human form that appears solid. I fear to see what I am: an ever-changing energy field...

So good practice is about fear. Fear takes the form of constantly thinking, speculating, analyzing, fantasizing. With all that activity we create a cloud cover to keep ourselves safe in make-believe practice. True practice is not safe; it's anything but safe. But we don't like that, so we obsess with our feverish efforts to achieve our version of the personal dream. Such obessive practice is itself just another cloud between ourselves and reality.

The only thing that matters is seeing with an impersonal searchlight: seeing things as they are. When the personal barrier drops away, why do we have to call it anything? We just live our lives. And when we die, we just die. No problem anywhere.

-- Charlotte Joko Beck, in Everyday Zen. visit www.tricycle.com

This writing was recently entered into a CBC contest and I thought it would be nice to share with everyone here.

Mahabodhi Temple – Bodhgaya, India.

Approaching the town is like a passing through time, the pastures give rise to a waterway that once was. Buddha would have came down from the cave he was meditating in for six years, just in the distance it can be seen…a white temple marks its location.

Bodhgaya is a collection of buildings with a monolithic temple as the “core” of this town and the heart of the world…the location where Buddha obtained enlightenment under the bodhi tree.

Time is immemorial, it stands still, a testament to prayers and mantras that have been chanted and stored in its every crevice…a veil of universal proportions consumes your every thought, until it is only you and the love of prayer reverberating your being. Time is nothing; the only indication is the movement of the sun and the change of hues and shafts of light that illuminate various parts of the temple grounds.

The realization cannot be missed by any; we sit here, one and all…in divine oneness.

The temple pulses, the tree drops its leaves to offer pieces of itself for worship…devotees scurry about picking every last leaf off the ground Others sit eagerly watching a branch, hoping to dart out and catch a leaf before it hits the ground.

Honour, love, respect, compassion, and devotion. The Buddha watches on. I am home.

Whether people are beautiful and friendly or unattractive and disruptive, ultimately they are human beings, just like oneself. Like oneself, they want happiness and do not want suffering. Furthermore, their right to overcome suffering and be happy is equal to one's own. ...When you recognize that all beings are equal in both their desire for happiness and their right to obtain it, you automatically feel empathy and closeness for them.

Through accustoming your mind to this sense of universal altruism, you develop a feeling of responsibility for others: the wish to help them actively overcome their problems. Nor is this wish selective; it applies equally to all. - The Dalai Lama

Earth, Wind, Fire, Water, and Consciousness (Mind).

All elements arise in ones meditative practice at varying intensities and at varying advancements of the meditative experience.

EARTH: a stiffness arises in the meditative posture...form is not to exist, pain is perceived to arise, the awareness that the mind defines the pain and posture as the existence and embodiment of "I". Commonly discomfort is said to be the deterrent of many that wish to meditate longer...length is not important, but the quality of the time spent in meditation DOES matter...saying this though; it is important to not stop at the MOMENT that the pain arises...realize the pain, focus, understand the chaotic mind as a key to overcoming the pain, embrace the Natural Mind and see the pain fade.

WIND: meditators may experience swaying and rocking, convulsions...depending on the dominant element of the meditator they may find that one of these elements is more pronounced. Do not be alarmed, try to find centre and return to stability...but do not stop the meditation in a panic that this rocking, twitching, swaying is wrong. It is perfectly normal.

FIRE: the pain in the body turns to fire, numbing of limbs and toes, the fire leads some meditators into a change of posture and extreme discomfort...all elements are a direct relation to the mind and whether it is at ease or in "story telling mode"...when the mind becomes active in preoccupations (ie. what will I eat for dinner after this? what time is my favorite show on? what time is it? oh, I forgot to pay that bill? so on and so on) it reacts by enlivening an element and to force you out of posture and realization of the Natural Mind.

WATER: crying, sweating, runny nose, complete "liquid flush" of the body are common for many meditators...especially ones with strong water signs...the flushing of the system in this way is said to be the shakti (life force) of the body acting in a purifying manner, forcing impurities out through this method. I call tears "the ashes of ego" ... in tears we are able to purify and relieve more of the ego that tries to define us and occupy the minutes, hours, days, and lives that we live...to cry is to embrace the beauty in everything and the understanding that our lives are to be lived for others, and in return lived together in embrace with love.

The battle is waged over the Natural Mind (the sublime light mind, embraced in the infinite emptiness, the unabiding, the absence of time and space, the utter void of any reasoning, the awareness of this moment unlike all others, the same as all others, now) VS. The Ego Mind...the definitive, ever categorizing, analyzing, pretending, story-telling, consumed, false...but true to those who believe that this is who they are.

For one to get beyond the illusion is to embrace the moment as it is, ever-present; sublime, there is nothing to be done, nothing missing, no pre-concieved ideals, no you, no me, no identity, no pretention.

To embrace this emptiness is to understand the non-duality of all forms, light IS dark, yin IS yang, male IS female, form IS emptiness, and emptiness IS form.

There is a great source on the internet organized by followers of the Theravada school of Buddhism called www.buddhanet.net and has been a priceless resource for me over the last couple of years. Please donate to this and other organizations that help spread the Dharma. With love and compassion we can heal the world...it is true, it is not cliche...it is not something to be said to warm the hearts of others...it is the truth...we CAN make the world see the love in all...with respect and dignity, through the light of compassion; we embrace the essence of existence and know to that we can work together as one.

Below are downloadable links to two Vietnamese chants that I have used for some time now and often play to set the stage for my mala work...a truly loving form that the waves of these chants take as you open your heart and let the natural mind free.

Download vietchant01.mp3

Download vietchant02.mp3

A visit to Heaven and Hell

I once heard a story about a visit to heaven and hell. In both places the visitor saw many people seated at a table on which many delicious foods were laid out. In both places chopsticks over a meter long were tied to their right hands, while their left hands were tied to their chairs.

In hell, however much they stretched out their arms, the chopsticks were too long for them to get food into their mouths. They grew impatient and got their hands and chopsticks tangled with one another's. The delicacies were scattered here and there.

In heaven, on the other hand, people happily used the long chopsticks to pick out someone else's favorite food and feed it to him, and in turn they were being fed by others. They all enjoyed their meal in harmony.

--Shundo Aoyama, Zen Seeds

** I am often asked the belief of heaven and hell and what the worst thing that a being can be reincarnated as...it is the "Hungry Ghost", nothing more is needed to explain the anguish.

A single act of giving has a value beyond what we can imagine. So much of the spiritual path is expressed and realized in giving: love, compassion, sympathetic joy, equanimity; letting go of grasping, aversion, and delusion. To give is powerful. That is why the Buddha said that if we knew as he did, the power of giving, we would not let a single meal pass without sharing some of it.

Sharing food is a metaphor for all giving. When we offer someone food, we are not just giving that person something to eat; we are giving far more. We give strength, health, beauty, clarity of mind, and even life, because none of those things would be possible without food. So when we feed another, this is what we are offering: the substance of life itself.
--Sharon Salzberg

If one desires to become a Buddhist, there is no initiation ceremony (or baptism) which one has to undergo....If one understands the Buddha's teaching, and if one is convinced that his teaching is the right Path and if one tries to follow it, then one is a Buddhist.

But according to the unbroken age-old tradition in Buddhist countries, one is considered a Buddhist if one takes the Buddha, the Dhamma (the Teaching) and the Sangha (the community of Buddhists)--generally called "the Triple-Gem"--as one's refuges, and undertakes to observe the Five Precepts--the minimum moral obligations of a lay Buddhist:

(1) not to destroy life, (2) not to steal, (3) not to commit adultery, (4) not to tell lies, (5) not to take intoxicating drinks....

There are no external rites or ceremonies which a Buddhist has to perform. Buddhism is a way of life, and what is essential is following the Noble Eightfold Path.

--Walpola Rahula in What the Buddha Taught from Everyday Mind.

(Photo taken at Sarnath, India...the location of Buddhas first sermon and the First Turn or Cycle of the Dharma Wheel) I am often asked about the Yanas (or Vehicles/Paths) of Buddhism, more often though when talking about Buddhism with people, even fellow practicing Buddhists, they are unaware of the meaning or even that there is a difference in the paths chosen. Here I will talk of the Three Vehicles or Paths (yanas) that a practioner can follow on his/her path to acheiving enlightenment.

The First Turning of the Dharma Wheel (known as the Traditional Way of the Elders, called Theravada, and inaccurately sometimes referred to as Hinayana) includes the Four Noble Truths, the Eightfold Path, the Three Marks or Characteristics of Existence (impermanence, not-self, and suffering), and interdependent co-origination (how everything comes about through cause and effect). This often is described as the Way of individual liberation, purification, and highly positive behaviour. It is known as the Arhant's (or saint's) Way. This Theravadin Way stresses insight, purification, morality, restraint, nonharming, renunciation, and simplicity. Ancient scriptures say that on this path one will reach liberation within seven lifetimes after the initial enlightenment experience.

The Second Turning or Cycle of the Dharma Wheel (known as Mahayana) emphasizes sunyata, which means infinite emptiness and radiant openness. This is the heroic Bodhisattva's way of universal enlightenment; this path emphasizes the union of wisdom and compassion and unselfish attitudes. The Mahayana stresses compassion, the wisdom of emptiness, openness, altruism, and fearless courage. This path can culminate in full enlightenment within a few lifetimes.

The Third Turning or Cycle of the Dharma Wheel (known as Vajrayana) emphasizes innate Buddha-nature - spontaneous, fertile, and luminous. It elucidates non-dual tantra, unveiling the utter inseperability of nirvana and samsara, the sacred and the mundane, or heaven and earth. The Vajrayana stresses transformation, energy, empowerment, and dynamic skillful means. In this path, enlightenment has often been achieved within a single lifetime.

Historically the Southern schools in Ceylon (Sri Lanka), Burma (Myanmar), Thailand, Laos, and Cambodia stressed the classical Hinayana and Theravada; the Northern schools in Nepal, Sikkim, Tibet, Mongolia, Korea, China, and Japan emphasized the Mahayana and Tantric Vajrayana.

According to various lineages of Tibet, a secret Fourth Turning or Cycle of the Dharma Wheel is taught. This is the consummate and ultimate Buddhist teaching known in Tibet as Dzogchen (pronounced Zol-Chin). Considered the most direct non-dual approach to awakening the Buddha within, Dzogchen stresses non-duality, ecstatic spontaneity, and the natural great perfection of things just the way they are. Dzogchen masters teach that one can achieve enlightenment in this very lifetime, even in as few as three to seven years through assidious practice.

Interestingly enough, as the turning progresses the path to enlightenment is shorter...here it has to be said that also from Hinayana through to Dzogchen...at first it is easy to teach but hard for the student to realize, to Dzogchen that is hard to teach but once realized easy to embrace. For people interested in Buddhism they will become drawn to a path that feels right for them...this is not a competition to see who gets there first, taking a Dzogchen path is not favoured over Hinayana or Theravada...PLUS! very important! These paths are SERIOUS, if practiced incorrectly it is said that a person can to damage to past karmas and end this life in lower realms.

I have met many people that have been drawn into Buddhism with their first serious experience being Vipassana (insight meditation) but through a Theravadin school (most popular). Aspects of the meditation retreat are different depending on what Yana is related to the school...the end goal is different for different yanas, and the way to get their is also. I urge people to explore the Yanas if interested in Buddhism to find a clearer path for oneself. The Yana for you will be obvious when found. Enjoy the journey!

With the proper understanding of transformation, whatever we do, twenty-four hours a day, can bring us closer to our goal of totality and self-fulfillment. All our actions; walking, eating, and even urinating!can be brought into our spiritual path. Even our sleep, which is usually spent in the darkness of unconsciousness or in the chaos of dreams, can be turned into the clear-light experience of subtle, penetrating wisdom. ---- Lama Thubten Yeshe in Introduction to Tantra.

The act of sitting meditation is a window into the light but is not the ONLY method of embodying grace...our daily lives have countless opportunities for us to share and be open to knowledge...sitting meditation helps the practitioner understand themselves and their purpose, with this understanding one can go out into the world and make every minute part of the spiritual path.

Awakening entails economic pursuits that foster self-respect and self-reliance and that serve to integrate, rather than disperse, the energies of the local community. From the perspective of the Dharma, economic goals include not only production and profit, but also their human and environmental impact. The conservation of material resources, their humane use, and their equitable distribution are taken as preeminent concerns.
--Joanna Macy in Mindfulness and Meaningful Work by Claude Whitmyer (from Tricycle.com)

There is a way to make money with a heart, it stems from your intentions regarding the money you make...what will you do with this money? who ELSE will benefit? what can you do in your community to disperse the funds?  Modern day success is all too often the pursuit of the almighty dollar and a detachment to those around us...if you are making money than you are blessed with a vehicle of change (if used properly). Let's continue to feed a positive machine and do with money what is needed...to be a service to others and to enable people in poor situations to rise above the difficulties.

A new breed of business is happening, a time when we are more aware of the harms and benefits of this world...let's work together to make a better place. With love.

From Tricycle.com Daily Dharma.

When you have a problem, think about it. Then think about it some more. And then think about it still more and after you've thought all you can think about it, then think non-thinking. When you touch the origin of thinking, this is non-thinking. Our practice is neither about thinking nor non-thinking. Let go of your cherished opinions and cultivate the mind of "not knowing" and the True Dharma will appear.


--Gerry Shishin Wick in The Book of Equanimity
from More Daily Wisdom, edited by Josh Bartok, Wisdom Publications.

How joyful to look upon the Awakened and to keep company with the wise.  Follow then the shining ones, the wise, the awakened, the loving, for they know how to work and forbear.  But if you cannot find friend or master to go with you, travel on alone - like a king who has given away his kingdom, like an elephant in the forest. -- From the Dhammapada (Sayings of the Buddha).

The Four Noble Truths are the core of the Buddhist Dharma. A brief explanation is as follows: The First Noble Truth: life is difficult, Second: Life is difficult because of attachment, because we crave satisfaction in ways that are inherently dissatisfying. Third: The possibility of liberation from difficulties exists for everyone. Fourth: The way to realize this liberation and enlightenment is by leading a compassionate life of virtue, wisdom, and meditation. These three spiritual trainings comprise the teachings of the Eighfold Path to Enlightenment.

EIGHTFOLD PATH: is divided into three parts (wisdom training, ethics training, and meditation training).

WISDOM TRAINING:

Step 1: Right View

Step 2: Right Intentions

ETHICS TRAINING:

Step 3: Right Speech

Step 4: Right Action

Step 5: Right Livelihood

MEDITATION TRAINING:

Step 6: Right Effort

Step 7: Right Mindfulness

Step 8: Right Concentration

Tricycle's Daily Dharma: May 14, 2006

"Exactly As I Am"

The Buddhist path is designed to reveal deeper levels of reality. We live in a pluralistic society. We live in a racist society, a homophobic and sexist society; in addition, Buddhists of every color, each gender, and all sexual orientations embrace the sectarian prejudices that developed in Asia. We live in a society that is pleading for us to put our shoulders to the wheel.

We are also, each and every one of us, whole and perfect as is, interrelated, essentially non-separated, and equal. This, too, must be realized. If we forsake the inside for the outside, it is not just Buddhism that is diminished but the horizons for true social transformation as well.

Tricycle.com is a quarterly magazine that focuses on the Buddhist community and aspects of study as well as global issues affecting the world. I recommend reading an issue or two or subscribing in some fashion.

Shanti.

The lotus flower symbolizes spiritual knowledge and power. The lotus grows out of mud, unfolds into a beautiful flower, lives in water all the time but is never wetted by it. This conveys the idea that a spiritual aspirant, while living in the world, should remain unaffected by the worldly attractions and should work towards spiritual unfoldment.

A Mind Like a Pure, Flowing River

Recognizing the power of our minds means that even as unfortunate or terrible things happen to us, we can receive them in a more spacious and ultimately more enlightened way. The Buddha taught his students to develop a power of love so strong that the mind becomes like space that cannot be tainted. If someone throws paint, it is not the air that will change color. Space will not hold the paint; it will not grasp it in any way. Only the walls, the barriers to space, can be affected by the paint. The Buddha taught his students to develop a power of love so strong that their minds become like a pure, flowing river that cannot be burned. No matter what kind of material is thrown into it, it will not burn. Many experiences--good, bad, and indifferent--are thrown into the flowing river of our lives, but we are not burned, owing to the power of the love in our hearts.

-- Sharon Salzberg, in Lovingkindness

The near-enemy of love is attachment. Attachment masquerades as love. It says, "I will love you if you will love me back." It is a kind of "businessman's" love. So we think, "I will love this person as long as he doesn't change. I will love that thing if it will be the way I want it." But this isn't love at all--it is attachment. There is a big difference between love, which allows and honors and appreciates, and attachment, which grasps and demands and aims to possess. When attachment becomes confused with love, it actually separates us from another person. We feel we need this other person in order to be happy. This quality of attachment also leads us to offer love only toward certain people, excluding others.

--Joseph Goldstein, in Seeking the Heart of Wisdom

Stop Running!

The person that desires to have only pleasure and refuses pain expends an enormous amount of energy resisting life--and at the same time misses out enormously. He or she is on a self-defeating mission in any case, for just as we evade certain forms of suffering we inevitably fall victim to others. Underlying our glitzy modern consumer culture there is a deep spiritual undernourishment and malaise that manifests all kinds of symptoms: nervous disorders, loneliness, alienation, purposelessness. . . So blanking out, running away, burying our heads in sand or videotape will take us nowhere in the long run. If we really want to solve our problems--and the world's problems, for they stem from the same roots--we must open up and accept the reality of suffering with full awareness, as it strikes us, physically, emotionally, mentally, spiritually, in the here-now. Then, strange as it may seem, we reap vast rewards. For suffering has its positive side. From it we derive the experience of depth, of the fullness of our humanity. This puts us fully in touch with other people and the rest of the Universe.

John Snelling, in Elements of Buddhism

Freeing the Energy of Compassion

Wisdom replaces ignorance in our minds when we realize that happiness does not lie in the accumulation of more and more pleasant feelings, that gratifying craving does not bring us a feeling of wholeness or completeness. It simply leads to more craving and more aversion. When we realize in our own experience that happiness comes not from reaching out but from letting go, not from seeking pleasurable experience but from opening in the moment to what is true, this transformation of understanding then frees the energy of compassion within us. Our minds are no longer bound up in pushing away pain or holding on to pleasure. Compassion becomes the natural response of an open heart.
To embrace a life in this worldly existence we must accept what comes to us and what is taken away...money and possessions can make the existence more comfortable, but like a castle made of sand; if we are to grip our possessions too tight; it all disappears and the fortune is taken from us. A life of good intentions and compassion for what one has and does not have, is a life that is fruitful in more ways than simply on a monetary level.

Love, Live, and Embrace with Compassion.

Don't Just do something, Sit there!

Sitting is essentially a simplified space. Our daily life is in constant movement: lots of things going on, lots of people talking, lots of events taking place. In the middle of that, it's very difficult to sense that we are in our life. When we simplify the situation, when we take away the externals and remove ourselves from the ringing phone, the television, the people who visit us, the dog who needs a walk, we get a chance--which is absolutely the most valuable thing there is--to face ourselves.

Meditation is not about some state, but about the meditator. It's not about some activity or about fixing something. It's about ourselves. If we don't simplify the situation the chance of taking a good look at ourselves is very small--because what we tend to look at isn't ourselves but everything else.

To sit in silence is the essence of existence, a time for us to look internally and reflect on our lives...a time to bring the whirling day in samsara to a slower pace.

Don't just do something, sit there.

Life - Teacher

There is only one teacher. What is that teacher? Life itself. And of course each one of us is a manifestation of life; we couldn't be anything else. Now life happens to be both a severe and an endlessly kind teacher. It's the only authority that you need to trust. And this teacher, this authority, is everywhere. You don't have to go to some special place to find this incomparable teacher, you don't have to have some especially quiet or ideal situation.

Life itself is the teacher of all who are willing to listen and learn. I am asked often about my travels and how I can manage to travel and live as I do...I constantly remind people that we are all graced with a birth and a guide or multiples of guides that work with us in this life to make it more fruitful. Call it intuition, call it a guide, but whatever you call it...you must listen and let this take you through life. I would not be here right now if I was not connected to the path I should be walking.

Life is a journey to be made with feet touching the earth, ears gracing the heavenly sounds, eyes to express the soul, and hands to raise up to the heavens and egknowledge your blessed existence...live life and make a difference.

Love and Fear

Life is lived with love and fear. Through developing stages of our lives we progress and digress between these two. Fear arises and the need to control the situation is paramount...we protect ourselves from what the fear is and create power struggles, a lack of fun and joy, pain, and distance while eroding our self-esteem and becoming tense, unhappy, unloved, and imprisoned in our fears.

The solution to life and living is LOVE...embrace thy neighbour with the intent to learn. Be open to being affected by others...in knowing the truth of oneself and others... LOVE is the aim to resolve conflict, deepen intimacy, and feel fun and joy through presonal freedom and a sense of peacefulness.

We need more LOVE in these times of this world, love and kindness are the keys to a more fulfilled life...for a time to egknowledge others and embrace the differences through learning.

Fear leads to alienation and a loss of focus on the goal to enlightenment and true self-knowing...to LOVE is to LEARN. Rise above the ashes as a phoenix and let LOVE lead the way to the glory of today.

Dhammapada - Sayings of the Buddha

Thus have I heard.

33. The mind is wavering and restless, difficult to guard and restrain: let the wise man straighten his mind as a maker of arrows makes his arrows straight.

34. Like a fish which is thrown on dry land, taken from his home in the waters, the mind strives and struggles to get free from the power of Death.

35. The mind is fickle and flighty, it flies after fancies wherever it likes: it is difficult indeed to restrain. But it is a great good to control the mind; a mind self-controlled is a source of great joy.


-- the Buddha, in the Dhammapada

Everyday Zen

Intelligent practice always deals with just one thing: the fear at the base of human existence, the fear that I am not.

And of course I am not, but the last thing I want to know is that.

I am impermanence itself in a rapidly changing human form that appears solid. I fear to see what I am: an ever-changing energy field...

So good practice is about fear. Fear takes the form of constantly thinking, speculating, analyzing, fantasizing. With all that activity we create a cloud cover to keep ourselves safe in make-believe practice. True practice is not safe; it's anything but safe. But we don't like that, so we obsess with our feverish efforts to achieve our version of the personal dream. Such obessive practice is itself just another cloud between ourselves and reality.

The only thing that matters is seeing with an impersonal searchlight: seeing things as they are. When the personal barrier drops away, why do we have to call it anything? We just live our lives. And when we die, we just die. No problem anywhere.

-- Charlotte Joko Beck, in Everyday Zen. visit www.tricycle.com

Mahabodhi Temple - Bodhgaya, India

This writing was recently entered into a CBC contest and I thought it would be nice to share with everyone here.

Mahabodhi Temple – Bodhgaya, India.

Approaching the town is like a passing through time, the pastures give rise to a waterway that once was. Buddha would have came down from the cave he was meditating in for six years, just in the distance it can be seen…a white temple marks its location.

Bodhgaya is a collection of buildings with a monolithic temple as the “core” of this town and the heart of the world…the location where Buddha obtained enlightenment under the bodhi tree.

Time is immemorial, it stands still, a testament to prayers and mantras that have been chanted and stored in its every crevice…a veil of universal proportions consumes your every thought, until it is only you and the love of prayer reverberating your being. Time is nothing; the only indication is the movement of the sun and the change of hues and shafts of light that illuminate various parts of the temple grounds.

The realization cannot be missed by any; we sit here, one and all…in divine oneness.

The temple pulses, the tree drops its leaves to offer pieces of itself for worship…devotees scurry about picking every last leaf off the ground Others sit eagerly watching a branch, hoping to dart out and catch a leaf before it hits the ground.

Honour, love, respect, compassion, and devotion. The Buddha watches on. I am home.

Compassion and the Individual

Whether people are beautiful and friendly or unattractive and disruptive, ultimately they are human beings, just like oneself. Like oneself, they want happiness and do not want suffering. Furthermore, their right to overcome suffering and be happy is equal to one's own. ...When you recognize that all beings are equal in both their desire for happiness and their right to obtain it, you automatically feel empathy and closeness for them.

Through accustoming your mind to this sense of universal altruism, you develop a feeling of responsibility for others: the wish to help them actively overcome their problems. Nor is this wish selective; it applies equally to all. - The Dalai Lama

The 5 elements.

Earth, Wind, Fire, Water, and Consciousness (Mind).

All elements arise in ones meditative practice at varying intensities and at varying advancements of the meditative experience.

EARTH: a stiffness arises in the meditative posture...form is not to exist, pain is perceived to arise, the awareness that the mind defines the pain and posture as the existence and embodiment of "I". Commonly discomfort is said to be the deterrent of many that wish to meditate longer...length is not important, but the quality of the time spent in meditation DOES matter...saying this though; it is important to not stop at the MOMENT that the pain arises...realize the pain, focus, understand the chaotic mind as a key to overcoming the pain, embrace the Natural Mind and see the pain fade.

WIND: meditators may experience swaying and rocking, convulsions...depending on the dominant element of the meditator they may find that one of these elements is more pronounced. Do not be alarmed, try to find centre and return to stability...but do not stop the meditation in a panic that this rocking, twitching, swaying is wrong. It is perfectly normal.

FIRE: the pain in the body turns to fire, numbing of limbs and toes, the fire leads some meditators into a change of posture and extreme discomfort...all elements are a direct relation to the mind and whether it is at ease or in "story telling mode"...when the mind becomes active in preoccupations (ie. what will I eat for dinner after this? what time is my favorite show on? what time is it? oh, I forgot to pay that bill? so on and so on) it reacts by enlivening an element and to force you out of posture and realization of the Natural Mind.

WATER: crying, sweating, runny nose, complete "liquid flush" of the body are common for many meditators...especially ones with strong water signs...the flushing of the system in this way is said to be the shakti (life force) of the body acting in a purifying manner, forcing impurities out through this method. I call tears "the ashes of ego" ... in tears we are able to purify and relieve more of the ego that tries to define us and occupy the minutes, hours, days, and lives that we live...to cry is to embrace the beauty in everything and the understanding that our lives are to be lived for others, and in return lived together in embrace with love.

Natural Mind vs Ego Mind

The battle is waged over the Natural Mind (the sublime light mind, embraced in the infinite emptiness, the unabiding, the absence of time and space, the utter void of any reasoning, the awareness of this moment unlike all others, the same as all others, now) VS. The Ego Mind...the definitive, ever categorizing, analyzing, pretending, story-telling, consumed, false...but true to those who believe that this is who they are.

For one to get beyond the illusion is to embrace the moment as it is, ever-present; sublime, there is nothing to be done, nothing missing, no pre-concieved ideals, no you, no me, no identity, no pretention.

To embrace this emptiness is to understand the non-duality of all forms, light IS dark, yin IS yang, male IS female, form IS emptiness, and emptiness IS form.

Vietnamese Chanting

There is a great source on the internet organized by followers of the Theravada school of Buddhism called www.buddhanet.net and has been a priceless resource for me over the last couple of years. Please donate to this and other organizations that help spread the Dharma. With love and compassion we can heal the world...it is true, it is not cliche...it is not something to be said to warm the hearts of others...it is the truth...we CAN make the world see the love in all...with respect and dignity, through the light of compassion; we embrace the essence of existence and know to that we can work together as one.

Below are downloadable links to two Vietnamese chants that I have used for some time now and often play to set the stage for my mala work...a truly loving form that the waves of these chants take as you open your heart and let the natural mind free.

Download vietchant01.mp3

Download vietchant02.mp3

Heaven and Hell

A visit to Heaven and Hell

I once heard a story about a visit to heaven and hell. In both places the visitor saw many people seated at a table on which many delicious foods were laid out. In both places chopsticks over a meter long were tied to their right hands, while their left hands were tied to their chairs.

In hell, however much they stretched out their arms, the chopsticks were too long for them to get food into their mouths. They grew impatient and got their hands and chopsticks tangled with one another's. The delicacies were scattered here and there.

In heaven, on the other hand, people happily used the long chopsticks to pick out someone else's favorite food and feed it to him, and in turn they were being fed by others. They all enjoyed their meal in harmony.

--Shundo Aoyama, Zen Seeds

** I am often asked the belief of heaven and hell and what the worst thing that a being can be reincarnated as...it is the "Hungry Ghost", nothing more is needed to explain the anguish.

The act of Giving and the Cultivation of Loving-Kindness

A single act of giving has a value beyond what we can imagine. So much of the spiritual path is expressed and realized in giving: love, compassion, sympathetic joy, equanimity; letting go of grasping, aversion, and delusion. To give is powerful. That is why the Buddha said that if we knew as he did, the power of giving, we would not let a single meal pass without sharing some of it.

Sharing food is a metaphor for all giving. When we offer someone food, we are not just giving that person something to eat; we are giving far more. We give strength, health, beauty, clarity of mind, and even life, because none of those things would be possible without food. So when we feed another, this is what we are offering: the substance of life itself.
--Sharon Salzberg

How to become a Buddhist.

If one desires to become a Buddhist, there is no initiation ceremony (or baptism) which one has to undergo....If one understands the Buddha's teaching, and if one is convinced that his teaching is the right Path and if one tries to follow it, then one is a Buddhist.

But according to the unbroken age-old tradition in Buddhist countries, one is considered a Buddhist if one takes the Buddha, the Dhamma (the Teaching) and the Sangha (the community of Buddhists)--generally called "the Triple-Gem"--as one's refuges, and undertakes to observe the Five Precepts--the minimum moral obligations of a lay Buddhist:

(1) not to destroy life, (2) not to steal, (3) not to commit adultery, (4) not to tell lies, (5) not to take intoxicating drinks....

There are no external rites or ceremonies which a Buddhist has to perform. Buddhism is a way of life, and what is essential is following the Noble Eightfold Path.

--Walpola Rahula in What the Buddha Taught from Everyday Mind.

Three Turnings of the Dharma Wheel

(Photo taken at Sarnath, India...the location of Buddhas first sermon and the First Turn or Cycle of the Dharma Wheel) I am often asked about the Yanas (or Vehicles/Paths) of Buddhism, more often though when talking about Buddhism with people, even fellow practicing Buddhists, they are unaware of the meaning or even that there is a difference in the paths chosen. Here I will talk of the Three Vehicles or Paths (yanas) that a practioner can follow on his/her path to acheiving enlightenment.

The First Turning of the Dharma Wheel (known as the Traditional Way of the Elders, called Theravada, and inaccurately sometimes referred to as Hinayana) includes the Four Noble Truths, the Eightfold Path, the Three Marks or Characteristics of Existence (impermanence, not-self, and suffering), and interdependent co-origination (how everything comes about through cause and effect). This often is described as the Way of individual liberation, purification, and highly positive behaviour. It is known as the Arhant's (or saint's) Way. This Theravadin Way stresses insight, purification, morality, restraint, nonharming, renunciation, and simplicity. Ancient scriptures say that on this path one will reach liberation within seven lifetimes after the initial enlightenment experience.

The Second Turning or Cycle of the Dharma Wheel (known as Mahayana) emphasizes sunyata, which means infinite emptiness and radiant openness. This is the heroic Bodhisattva's way of universal enlightenment; this path emphasizes the union of wisdom and compassion and unselfish attitudes. The Mahayana stresses compassion, the wisdom of emptiness, openness, altruism, and fearless courage. This path can culminate in full enlightenment within a few lifetimes.

The Third Turning or Cycle of the Dharma Wheel (known as Vajrayana) emphasizes innate Buddha-nature - spontaneous, fertile, and luminous. It elucidates non-dual tantra, unveiling the utter inseperability of nirvana and samsara, the sacred and the mundane, or heaven and earth. The Vajrayana stresses transformation, energy, empowerment, and dynamic skillful means. In this path, enlightenment has often been achieved within a single lifetime.

Historically the Southern schools in Ceylon (Sri Lanka), Burma (Myanmar), Thailand, Laos, and Cambodia stressed the classical Hinayana and Theravada; the Northern schools in Nepal, Sikkim, Tibet, Mongolia, Korea, China, and Japan emphasized the Mahayana and Tantric Vajrayana.

According to various lineages of Tibet, a secret Fourth Turning or Cycle of the Dharma Wheel is taught. This is the consummate and ultimate Buddhist teaching known in Tibet as Dzogchen (pronounced Zol-Chin). Considered the most direct non-dual approach to awakening the Buddha within, Dzogchen stresses non-duality, ecstatic spontaneity, and the natural great perfection of things just the way they are. Dzogchen masters teach that one can achieve enlightenment in this very lifetime, even in as few as three to seven years through assidious practice.

Interestingly enough, as the turning progresses the path to enlightenment is shorter...here it has to be said that also from Hinayana through to Dzogchen...at first it is easy to teach but hard for the student to realize, to Dzogchen that is hard to teach but once realized easy to embrace. For people interested in Buddhism they will become drawn to a path that feels right for them...this is not a competition to see who gets there first, taking a Dzogchen path is not favoured over Hinayana or Theravada...PLUS! very important! These paths are SERIOUS, if practiced incorrectly it is said that a person can to damage to past karmas and end this life in lower realms.

I have met many people that have been drawn into Buddhism with their first serious experience being Vipassana (insight meditation) but through a Theravadin school (most popular). Aspects of the meditation retreat are different depending on what Yana is related to the school...the end goal is different for different yanas, and the way to get their is also. I urge people to explore the Yanas if interested in Buddhism to find a clearer path for oneself. The Yana for you will be obvious when found. Enjoy the journey!

Whatever we do

With the proper understanding of transformation, whatever we do, twenty-four hours a day, can bring us closer to our goal of totality and self-fulfillment. All our actions; walking, eating, and even urinating!can be brought into our spiritual path. Even our sleep, which is usually spent in the darkness of unconsciousness or in the chaos of dreams, can be turned into the clear-light experience of subtle, penetrating wisdom. ---- Lama Thubten Yeshe in Introduction to Tantra.

The act of sitting meditation is a window into the light but is not the ONLY method of embodying grace...our daily lives have countless opportunities for us to share and be open to knowledge...sitting meditation helps the practitioner understand themselves and their purpose, with this understanding one can go out into the world and make every minute part of the spiritual path.

Dharma and the Dollar

Awakening entails economic pursuits that foster self-respect and self-reliance and that serve to integrate, rather than disperse, the energies of the local community. From the perspective of the Dharma, economic goals include not only production and profit, but also their human and environmental impact. The conservation of material resources, their humane use, and their equitable distribution are taken as preeminent concerns.
--Joanna Macy in Mindfulness and Meaningful Work by Claude Whitmyer (from Tricycle.com)

There is a way to make money with a heart, it stems from your intentions regarding the money you make...what will you do with this money? who ELSE will benefit? what can you do in your community to disperse the funds?  Modern day success is all too often the pursuit of the almighty dollar and a detachment to those around us...if you are making money than you are blessed with a vehicle of change (if used properly). Let's continue to feed a positive machine and do with money what is needed...to be a service to others and to enable people in poor situations to rise above the difficulties.

A new breed of business is happening, a time when we are more aware of the harms and benefits of this world...let's work together to make a better place. With love.

Think of Non-Thinking

From Tricycle.com Daily Dharma.

When you have a problem, think about it. Then think about it some more. And then think about it still more and after you've thought all you can think about it, then think non-thinking. When you touch the origin of thinking, this is non-thinking. Our practice is neither about thinking nor non-thinking. Let go of your cherished opinions and cultivate the mind of "not knowing" and the True Dharma will appear.


--Gerry Shishin Wick in The Book of Equanimity
from More Daily Wisdom, edited by Josh Bartok, Wisdom Publications.

The Four Noble Truths and Walking the Eightfold Path

How joyful to look upon the Awakened and to keep company with the wise.  Follow then the shining ones, the wise, the awakened, the loving, for they know how to work and forbear.  But if you cannot find friend or master to go with you, travel on alone - like a king who has given away his kingdom, like an elephant in the forest. -- From the Dhammapada (Sayings of the Buddha).

The Four Noble Truths are the core of the Buddhist Dharma. A brief explanation is as follows: The First Noble Truth: life is difficult, Second: Life is difficult because of attachment, because we crave satisfaction in ways that are inherently dissatisfying. Third: The possibility of liberation from difficulties exists for everyone. Fourth: The way to realize this liberation and enlightenment is by leading a compassionate life of virtue, wisdom, and meditation. These three spiritual trainings comprise the teachings of the Eighfold Path to Enlightenment.

EIGHTFOLD PATH: is divided into three parts (wisdom training, ethics training, and meditation training).

WISDOM TRAINING:

Step 1: Right View

Step 2: Right Intentions

ETHICS TRAINING:

Step 3: Right Speech

Step 4: Right Action

Step 5: Right Livelihood

MEDITATION TRAINING:

Step 6: Right Effort

Step 7: Right Mindfulness

Step 8: Right Concentration

Tricycle's Daily Dharma

Tricycle's Daily Dharma: May 14, 2006

"Exactly As I Am"

The Buddhist path is designed to reveal deeper levels of reality. We live in a pluralistic society. We live in a racist society, a homophobic and sexist society; in addition, Buddhists of every color, each gender, and all sexual orientations embrace the sectarian prejudices that developed in Asia. We live in a society that is pleading for us to put our shoulders to the wheel.

We are also, each and every one of us, whole and perfect as is, interrelated, essentially non-separated, and equal. This, too, must be realized. If we forsake the inside for the outside, it is not just Buddhism that is diminished but the horizons for true social transformation as well.

Tricycle.com is a quarterly magazine that focuses on the Buddhist community and aspects of study as well as global issues affecting the world. I recommend reading an issue or two or subscribing in some fashion.

Shanti.

The significance of the Lotus Flower

The lotus flower symbolizes spiritual knowledge and power. The lotus grows out of mud, unfolds into a beautiful flower, lives in water all the time but is never wetted by it. This conveys the idea that a spiritual aspirant, while living in the world, should remain unaffected by the worldly attractions and should work towards spiritual unfoldment.

Dalai Lama Speaks

"The key concepts that define the goals of the Dalai Lama Center are; one, the promotion of human values; and two, the promotion of a sense of oneness within humanity. These two ideas serve to promote peace among different communities within one nation, within one world. And they will be particularly useful in shaping the long-term goals of the Dalai Lama Center for Peace and Education in Vancouver, Canada." - His Holiness the Dalai Lama (quote taken from back of the cover shown - this was purchased after the show on September 9th...the LIVE AUDIO of the Dalai Lama - a beautiful recording!)

Graced to be a part of his seminars during the weekend of September 8 and 9...he spoke the first day of "Educating the Heart"...the essence of which was that children must learn from a young age or empathy, compassion, and working together for a better world...gone are the days of selfishness and bullying in the playgrounds of the future! A more compassionate youth leads to a more compassionate adult community and in turn a more compassionate system that governments, countries, and the world can work with.

The following day on September 9th I was blessed to join the masses in seeing the Dalai Lama become an honorary Canadian Citizen! With this he spoke of the new Dalai Lama Center www.dalailamacenter.org that will be built in Vancouver...the only Center in the world that will carry the name of His Holiness the 14th Dalai Lama!

In his talk on "Cultivating Happiness" he spoke of a world of happiness based on scientific results...regardless of religion, philosophy, or people that chose to be atheist...none of that matters; what matters is the understanding that we all just want to be happy! and to achieve this happiness we must work together! for a better world. Through scientific research and results The Dalai Lama will prove that certain actions will create a calm mind, beyond religion and semantics the science will prove ways in which people can act to be better people...proving that a calm mind is the foundation for peace, health, and a more unified world...with scientific results they will be able to develop step-by-step guides on generating a better world of people...more compassionate, caring people...caring for themselves and the world together.

A beautiful future lies ahead!

Namaste...walk well, live well, embrace and be happy.