Buddhist discussion
Daily Dharma
Recognizing Awareness | June 30, 2014Awareness is always present. We cannot function without it, but we can function without recognizing it.
—Yongey Mingyur Rinpoche, “The Good Shepherd”
Dissolving the Conceptual Attitude | July 1, 2014Through the training of trying to be mindful, one becomes more aware, but to such an extent that it expands further and further, encompassing all situations and all moments, and finally to such an extent that trying to be more mindful and being mindful becomes one identity of just awareness. At which point there is no longer someone being aware of something. That is what is meant by the dissolving of the conceptual attitude.
—Tsoknyi Rinpoche, "As the Clouds Vanish"
Live From Love | July 2, 2014Non-identification means that your sense of who you are is not fused with or defined by any limited set of emotions, sensations, or stories. When identification with the small self is loosened, we begin to intuit and live from the openness and love that express our natural awareness.
—Tara Brach, "Finding True Refuge"
Thinking Like a Mountain | July 7, 2014How do you watch a mountain? Nothing’s going to happen in any time frame that you can consider—except the light changes on it. And so that was my mountain watching. The changing light on the mountain was like the changing thoughts in my mind, just these little shifting shadows, that’s all that it is.
—Gary Snyder, “Thinking Like a Mountain”
Complete Engagement | July 8, 2014Ultimately, from the point of view of the dharma—at least, my understanding of it—cultivating your mind through meditation is also social radicalism. Because if the goal is to produce more people who are manifesting the attributes of enlightenment—namely, wisdom and compassion—then that, by necessity, is a transformation of the social situation as well.
—Richard Reoch, "The Path of Complete Engagement"
Leonard Koan | July 9, 2014Only one thing
made him happy
and now that
it was gone
everything
made him happy.
—Leonard Cohen, "Leonard Koan"
Liberation through Insight | July 10, 2014The whole point of Buddha-dharma is that liberation comes not by believing in the right set of tenets or of dogmatic assertions, or even necessarily by behaving in the right way. It’s insight, it’s wisdom, it’s knowing the nature of reality. It is only truth that will make us free.
—B. Alan Wallace, "What is True Happiness?"
On the Cushion | July 11, 2014Our practice is to meet life exactly as it is and to notice whatever fear, anger, or doubt gets in the way of direct intimate contact with this moment, bringing attention to that as well. Rather than changing something or seeking to get somewhere we imagine we should be, practice is about seeing clearly exactly how things really are and how we relate to them.
—Douglas Phillips, "Q&A with Douglas Phillips"
The Results of Practice | July 14, 2014One becomes an ordinary person, but in an extraordinary way. Your words are still there, your hang-ups may still be there, you still have to deal with all your karmic baggage and so on, but you see it in a totally different light. You’re at peace with yourself, at peace with the world. Not in a complacent sense, but in the sense that you can simply devote yourself to a life of compassion.
—L.F. Habito, “Other Fingers Pointing to the Moon”
A Fruit That Ripens | July 15, 2014Guru, usually translated as 'teacher,' suggests a transition from darkness (gu) to light (ru), meaning 'that which dispels the darkness of ignorance.' One pictures a Hindu holy man with a long beard—charismatic, perhaps tipping toward authoritarian excess. Yet the subtlety of the term, with its Latin cognate gravis (heavy, matured), indicates a process rather than a person, a fruit (enlightenment) that ripens to become sustenance for others.
—Kythe Heller, "Once a Teacher, Always a Student"
Since everything is but an apparition,perfect in being what it is,
having nothing to do with good or bad,
acceptance or rejection,
one may well burst out in laughter.
~ Longchenpa
Always the Potential | July 16, 2014There is always the potential for being truly aware of what’s going on and using that to deepen our understanding. There’s always the potential for opening our eyes and being buddha: awake.
—Pamela Gayle White, “The Pursuit of Happiness”
Bonus Wednesday DharmaRITUALS CONNECT US TO RICHNESS
Ritual is about joining vision and practicality, heaven and earth, samsara and nirvana. When things are properly understood, one’s whole life is like a ritual or a ceremony. This is what’s behind ritual, these formalized things that get carried down in the religions of different cultures.
Ritual, when it’s heartfelt, is like a time capsule. It’s as if thousands of years ago somebody had a clear, unobstructed view of magic, power, and sacredness, and realized that if he went out each morning and greeted the sun in a very stylized way, perhaps by doing a special chant and making offerings and perhaps by bowing, that it connected him to that richness. Therefore he taught his children to do that, and the children taught their children, and so on. So thousands of years later, people are still doing it and connecting with exactly the same feeling.
All the rituals that get handed down are like that. Someone can have an insight, and rather than its being lost, it can stay alive through ritual.
-The Wisdom of No Escape and the Path of Loving-Kindness by Pema Chödrön, pages 77–78
Coming, Going | July 17, 2014Empty-handed I entered the world
Barefoot I leave it.
My coming, my going—
Two simple happenings
That got entangled.
—Kozan Ichikyo, "Coming, Going"
Inspiration from the Inside | July 18, 2014Inspiration must come from within ourselves. If we hope to get inspiration from the outside—as if it was falling from the sky—this is wrong. It should be like water coming out of a source. From where else could we receive it?
—Myongsong Sunim, “What Does Being a Buddhist Mean to You?”
Buddhism for Our Time | July 21, 2014Since we find ourselves living at a time when it is the individual and not the group that is privileged and empowered, we should acknowledge that, like practitioners throughout history, we orient our Buddhisms to the realities we’ve constructed rather than the other way around.
—John Nelson, “Experimental Buddhism”
Mindful of the Dharma | July 22, 2014We can be mindful of the dharma as we go about our lives. Then we notice our imperfections, but rather than becoming frustrated by our inability to rid ourselves of these shortcomings, we notice that our interdependence with all life also brings us kindness and joy, unconditionally.
—Rev. Patricia Kanaya Usuki, "The Great Compassion"
Non-Lying | July 23, 2014Fully facing, getting to know, and actually welcoming the various kinds of liar that I am gives me a taste of not excluding anything; a taste of no inside, no outside. The more I can do this with no outcome or gaining idea in mind, the more truth-speaking and selflessness can naturally arise.
—Roshi Nancy Mujo Baker, "Non-Lying"
Bonus Wednesday dharma:WE DON’T DESERVE RESOLUTION
As human beings, not only do we seek resolution, but we also feel that we deserve resolution. However, not only do we not deserve resolution, we suffer from resolution. We don’t deserve resolution; we deserve something better than that. We deserve our birthright, which is the middle way, an open state of mind that can relax with paradox and ambiguity. To the degree that we’ve been avoiding uncertainty, we’re naturally going to have withdrawal symptoms—withdrawal from always thinking that there’s a problem and that someone, somewhere, needs to fix it.
When Things Fall Apart: Heart Advice for Difficult Times by Pema Chödrön, page 54
Real Devotion | July 24, 2014Real devotion only arises when you have a glimpse of emptiness, some glimpse of the nature of mind. Once you have some very precise insight as to how emptiness helps to alleviate suffering, then devotion is based on a real, embodied experience.
—Kyabgön Phakchok Rinpoche, "Keys to Happiness"
A Place for Desire | July 25, 2014The ultimate aim of my own Buddhist practice is an indestructibly confident and happy state of life through which I can help suffering people. Finding a balanced place for desire in that pursuit helps keep me motivated to do the hard, personal work demanded of a Buddhist practitioner.
—Jamie Liptan, "Chanting for Stuff"
Heart of Mine | July 28, 2014Men ask the way to Cold Mountain
Cold Mountain: there’s no through trail.
In summer, ice doesn’t melt
The rising sun blurs in swirling fog.
How did I make it?
My heart’s not the same as yours.
If your heart was like mine
You’d get it and be right here.
—Han-Shan and Gary Snyder, "Parting Words Summer 2014"
Blowin' in the Wind | July 29, 2014How do we renounce? How do we work with this tendency to block and to freeze and to refuse to take another step toward the unknown? If our edge is like a huge stone wall with a door in it, how do we learn to open the door and step through it again and again, so that life becomes a process of growing up, becoming more and more fearless and flexible, more and more able to play like a raven in the wind?
Pema Chödrön, "Like a Raven in the Wind"
Romantic Love | July 30, 2014In Buddhist practice, we discover that mindful attention can reveal a deeper truth in whatever object we are paying attention to. The same is true in romantic love. When we use our attention to touch and open the deeper truth in a person, we not only catalyze the experience of love, we become love. The source of love is revealed to be within us; we no longer have to go looking for it somewhere outside.
- Nicole Daedone, "Love Becomes Her"
Wednesday Bonus DharmaBODHISATTVAS AND WARRIORS
Bodhichitta exists on two levels. First there is unconditional bodhichitta, an immediate experience that is refreshingly free of concept, opinion, and our usual all-caught-upness. It’s something hugely good that we are not able to pin down even slightly, like knowing at gut level that there’s absolutely nothing to lose. Second there is relative bodhichitta, our ability to keep our hearts and minds open to suffering without shutting down.
Those who train wholeheartedly in awakening unconditional and relative bodhichitta are called bodhisattvas or warriors—not warriors who kill and harm but warriors of nonaggression who hear the cries of the world. These are men and women who are willing to train in the middle of the fire. Training in the middle of the fire can mean that warrior-bodhisattvas enter challenging situations in order to alleviate suffering. It also refers to their willingness to cut through personal reactivity and self-deception, to their dedication to uncovering the basic undistorted energy of bodhichitta. We have many examples of master warriors—people like Mother Teresa and Martin Luther King—who recognized that the greatest harm comes from our own aggressive minds. They devoted their lives to helping others understand this truth. There are also many ordinary people who spend their lives training in opening their hearts and minds in order to help others do the same. Like them, we could learn to relate to ourselves and our world as warriors. We could train in awakening our courage and love.
The Places That Scare You: A Guide to Fearlessness in Difficult Times by Pema Chödrön, pages 5–6
The Body Is the Bodhi Tree | July 31, 2014Buddhism does not espouse any ascetic practice, nor does it hold a doctrine tending to a dualistic conception of existence which makes the flesh the source of evil and the spirit the foundation of everything good. The body as a material phenomenon has its limitations, as a living organism has its impulses, desires, passions, and moods; and there is nothing evil or wicked in it.
- Soyen Shaku, “The Middle Way”
Ignorance is King | August 1, 2014Ignorance is like the king, and clinging attachment and hostility are his ministers. To rid ourselves of the king's minions we must get rid of the king. And so it is of greatest importance to identify ignorance properly.
- Geshe Sonam Rinchen, "Like a Pig In..."
Self Disappears | August 4, 2014When we are freed from the reactive patterns sprung from the boundaries we live by—good and bad; love and hate—we are not the self we were before. And when the boundaries themselves dissolve, self as we understand it disappears.
- Anne C. Klein, “The Four Immeasurables”
Bliss is a By-Product | August 5, 2014There may be bliss with awakening, because it is actually a by-product of awakening, but it is not awakening itself. As long as we are chasing the byproducts of awakening, we will miss the real thing.
- Adyashanti, "Bliss is a By-Product"
The Natural Order of Things | August 6, 2014While we live, we are able to live. When it's time to die, we are able to die. This is the natural order of things, and to the extent that we align ourselves with this, we experience peace even in the midst of distress.
- Meikyo Robert Rosenbaum, "Breathless"
Bonus Wednesday DharmaOUR TRUE NATURE
Our true nature is like a precious jewel: although it may be temporarily buried in mud, it remains completely brilliant and unaffected. We simply have to uncover it.
No Time to Lose: A Timely Guide to the Way of the Bodhisattva by Pema Chödrön, page 248
The Long Road to Sitting Still | August 7, 2014The Buddha, perhaps, taking the Middle Way and always reminding us that even our destination is unfixed and perhaps illusory, is every walker’s special friend. Those who journey with him know that they may not come to knowledge so much as a deepened sense of their own ignorance.
- Pico Iyer, “The Long Road to Sitting Still”
Challenge How We Cling | August 8, 2014When Buddhism says, 'It's an illusion, it's empty,' I think back to when Ignatius said, 'Your self—that's your problem. You have to conquer self, kill the self.' It's that tradition, both in Christianity and in Buddhism, in which we are challenged to let go of what is so comfortable and what we cling to as who we are, if we're going to open ourselves to reality and truth.
-Jerry Brown, “Politics and Prayer”
No One Special to Be | August 11, 2014When we bring awareness to our cherished self-images, such as our need to be special, they begin to lose their power over us. No longer puffing ourselves up or trying to stand out means we’re coming closer to living like a white bird in the snow. That is, we no longer feel the inner compulsion to see ourselves or be seen in a particular way—there is no ulterior agenda.
- Ezra Bayda, “No One Special to Be”
The Antidote is Right Here | August 12, 2014Liberation does not come when you conquer your ego, silence it, or through repression and denial get it to behave 'properly.' Liberation comes when we release our attachment to the habitual conditioned nature and structure of our temporary egos.
- Jun Po Denis Kelly Roshi, “Liberation”
Faith in Buddhism | August 13, 2014It is a great turning point in our spiritual lives when we go from an 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 into our own personal path, is faith.
Sharon Salzberg, “How Important is Faith?”
Bonus Wednesday Dharma:WHAT DO YOU DO WHEN YOU’RE UNHAPPY?
Sit quietly for a few minutes and become mindful of your breath as it goes in and out. Then contemplate what you do when you’re unhappy or dissatisfied and want to feel better. Even make a list if you want to. Then ask yourself: Does it work? Has it ever worked? Does it soothe the pain? Does it escalate the pain? If you’re really honest, you’ll come up with some pretty interesting observations.
Living Beautifully with Uncertainty and Change by Pema Chödrön, page 54
Non-Killing | August 14, 2014From the intrinsic standpoint--one of body, of Buddha-nature--non-killing means that there is nothing being born and nothing dying. The very notions of 'birth' and 'death' are extra. Life does not divide up into things to be killed or not killed; it is just this one body, constantly changing.
- Bernie Glassman, “The First Precept”
The Reality of Freedom | August 15, 2014Instead of creatively realizing their freedom, many choose the unreflective conformism dictated by television, indulgence in mass-consumerism, or numbing their feelings of alienation and anguish with drugs. In theory, freedom may be held in high regard; in practice it is experienced as a dizzying loss of meaning and direction.
Stephen Batchelor, “Buddhism Without Beliefs”
Good at Heart | August 18, 2014As long as we have fire when we need it, water when we need it, warm food on the table, tasty curry, what else do we need? Happiness is to be good at heart.
- Madeline Drexler, “The Happiness Metric”
No Boundaries | August 19, 2014Pain and joy, love of life, and fear of death know no boundaries of us and them. We can all wake up to realize that our happiness depends on the happiness of our neighbors and vice versa, and our real safety is in togetherness, not intractable conflict.
-Stephen Fulder, "Do We Really 'Have No Choice'?"
A Whisper of Psychic Release | August 20, 2014The most fascinating and perhaps most significant of all interfaces is the one that separates yet connects the ridiculous and the sublime. The surprisingly narrow borderline between things holy and things profane, between prayer and laughter, between a Leonardo chalice and Warhol soup can, between the Clear Light and the joke, provides a zone of meaning as exhilarating as it is heretical: a whisper of psychic release so acutely yet weirdly portentous it just might offer a clue to the mystery of being.
-Tom Robbins, "Now Showing: Satori"
Wednesday Bonus Dharma:CONNECTING WITH JOY
The more we connect with a bigger perspective, the more we connect with energetic joy. Exertion is connecting with our appetite for enlightenment. It allows us to act, to give, to work appreciatively with whatever comes our way. If we really knew how unhappy it was making this whole planet that we all try to avoid pain and seek pleasure—how that is making us so miserable and cutting us off from our basic goodness—then we would practice as if our hair were on fire. There wouldn’t be any question of thinking we have a lot of time and we can do this later.
Yet when we begin to practice exertion, we see that sometimes we can do it and sometimes we can’t. The question becomes: How do we connect with inspiration? How do we connect with the spark and joy that’s available in every moment?
Comfortable with Uncertainty: 108 Teachings on Cultivating Fearlessness and Compassion by Pema Chödrön, pages 139–140
When We Trust | August 21, 2014When we trust with our open heart, whatever occurs, at that very moment that it occurs, can be perceived as fresh and unstained by the clouds of hope and fear.
-Dr. Jeremy Hayward, "First Thought"
What We Need | August 22, 2014Restraint means protecting the integrity of our mind so that we’re less likely to depart from our discipline; this way we avoid errors such as greed. So, not only should we not take more than we need but also always practice consideration in making sure that everyone has what they need.
-Venerable Yifa, "Thought for Food"
Catching up on past posts...sorry for the delay.
Derived from Mind | August 25, 2014It is the various mental constructions that we hold, and hold dear, that appear as time and space, extension and duration. These—and all of the material world—derive from consciousness, which ladles out time and space from a timeless, spaceless sea.
-Steve Hagen, "Time and Now"
Give It Away | August 26, 2014Happiness is not happiness unless it is shared. For happiness is the one thing in all the world that comes to us only at the moment we give it, and is likewise increased by being given away.
-Clark Strand, "The Wisdom of Frogs"
We End Liberated | August 27, 2014There is no permanent Hell, there is no permanent Heaven. Therefore, the suffering that we sense during this transition of life is not a permanent condition that we need to be afraid of. It's not where we're going to end up. We end liberated from the suffering either by death, or in life, by waking up to the nature of our situation and not clinging and grasping, screaming and being angry, resentful, irritable or insulted by our existence.
-Allen Ginsberg, "Negative Capability: Kerouac's Buddhist Ethic"
Books mentioned in this topic
In Paradise (other topics)The Places That Scare You: A Guide to Fearlessness in Difficult Times (other topics)
Faith must ripen through uncertainty and doubt. It must open us to something larger than our concepts, for these arise from within the limits of the self. Faith must, in the end, leave room for mystery.
—Andrew Cooper, “The Transcendent Imperative”