"In America and Europe, everyone is very active. But if you become too active, you lose the essence of Buddhism. You only have the Buddhist labels. One must cultivate peace to be compassionate. Without this, what you do, even as an 'engaged Buddhist' is just a lot of activity with no good purpose."
- Sulak Sivaraksa, “In Exile from Siam”
Friday, May 21, 2010
You have to do it yourself
"Others’ words can’t measure your practice, and you don’t realize the dharma because of what others say. I mean the real dharma. The teachings others can give you are to show you the path, but that isn’t real knowledge. When people genuinely meet the dharma, they realize it directly within themselves. So the Buddha said that he is merely the one who shows the way. In teaching us, he is not accomplishing the way for us. It is not so easy as that. It’s like someone who sells us a plow to till the fields. He isn’t going to do the plowing for us. We have to do that ourselves. Don’t wait for the salesman to do it. Once he’s made the sale, he takes the money and splits. That’s his part.That’s how it is in practice. The Buddha shows the way. He’s not the one who does it for us. Don’t expect the salesman to till your field. If we understand the path in this way, it’s a little more comfortable for us, and we will do it ourselves. Then there will be fruition."
The outer world in all its variety and our inner world of thoughts and emotions are not as they seem. All phenomena appear to exist objectively, but their true mode of existence is like a dream: apparent yet insubstantial. The experience of emptiness is not found outside of the world of ordinary appearance, as many people mistakenly assume. In truth, we experience emptiness when the mind is free of grasping at appearance.
-Dzigar Kongtrul Rinpoche, "The Theater of Reflection"
"The pillar of skillful speech is to speak honestly, which means that we should even avoid telling little white lies. We need to be aware of dishonesty in the forms of exaggerating, minimizing, and self-aggrandizing. These forms of unskillful speech often arise from a fear that what we are is not good enough––and that is never true. Honesty begins at home, so the practice of skillful speech begins with being honest with ourselves."
When a candle is lit in a dark room, it illuminates the room to some extent, but its power is limited. But if you use the same candle to light another candle, the total brightness increases. If you continue to do this, you can fill the room with brilliant illumination. The idea of transferring merit to others is like this. If we keep our own light selfishly hidden, it will only provide a limited amount of illumination. But when we share our light with others, we do not diminish our own light. Rather, we increase the amount of light available to all. Therefore, when others light our candle, we issue forth light. When out of gratitude we use our candle to light other people’s candles, the whole room gets brighter. This is why we transfer merit to others. This kind of light is continuous and inexhaustible.
'Equanimity, one of the most sublime emotions of Buddhist practice, is the ground for wisdom and freedom and the protector of compassion and love. While some may think of equanimity as dry neutrality or cool aloofness, mature equanimity produces a radiance and warmth of being. The Buddha described a mind filled with equanimity as “abundant, exalted, immeasurable, without hostility, and without ill-will.”'
'“Meditate on those with whom you are closely connected,” a Tibetan heart-mind training text says. Often our family is the most intense field of projection: we mistake wife, husband, child for our own narrow, accustomed thoughts of them, and for that reason, family can provoke great suffering. But family can act as the richest vehicle for spiritual practice. Spousal abuse, child abuse, elder abuse: when in bondage to suffering thoughts of self and others, family arises as curse. But when we learn to sense the emptiness of our thought habit, and through that our natural reverence and care for others, family arises as profound blessing.'
I don't think I've ever heard a better explanation of myself - horse #4. There is no Question at all. I bet there are many ways I can use this analogy for teaching... connected with EN's xeroxed world analogy - that experiencing things first person rather than second or third person is the only way we learn, and also the only way we are able to speak honesty and authentically about anything. Experience is essential.
"The Buddha's compassion is the basis for the parable of the four horses that he preached when he resided at the Kalandaka Grove. The first horse, he explained, runs swiftly the instant he sees the shadow of a whip. The next horse will run fast the moment his skin feels the whip. The third horse runs when the whip cuts into his flesh. The slowest horse will run only after repeated lashings.
The scripture uses the parable of the four horses in order to describe four kinds of people on the path of Buddhism. The first kind awakens and moves forward on the path of the Four Noble Truths the instant they hear about the sufferings caused by old age, illness, and death. The second kind moves when they actually see sufferings with their own eyes. The third kind is not affected by the sufferings of others, but when a family member experiences sufferings, they move forward on the path. And the fourth kind is not distressed at all by seeing old age, illness, and death in others or even among family members, but they are pushed forward on the path when they personally experience these sufferings.
The sympathy of the Buddha identifies with the slowest horse, this last group of people that includes most of us."
"While we still have our 'self ' intact, that’s the one we love best. We won’t find anybody who will love us as much as we do ourselves. Yet, because of our ego delusion, we believe that there must be somebody like that somewhere. In reality, we should look at this search in a different way. We shouldn’t try to find somebody who will help us to support our self-delusion but rather someone who will help us to get rid of it. That can be the Buddha and his teachings, because such is the essence of the dhamma."
- Ayya Khema, "No Satisfaction," Tricycle Fall 2007
"[W]e have not even to risk the adventure alone, for the heroes of all time have gone before us. The labyrinth is thoroughly known. We have only to follow the thread of the hero path, and where we had thought to find an abomination, we shall find a god. And where we had thought to slay another, we shall slay ourselves. Where we had thought to travel outward, we will come to the center of our own existence. And where we had thought to be alone, we will be with all the world."
-- Joseph Campbell, The Power of Myth, 1988, p.123
Wednesday, January 6, 2010
“If being a woman is an inspiration, use it. If it is an obstacle, try not to be bothered.” – Khandro Rinpoche.
Tuesday, January 5, 2010
"I would rather be ashes than dust! I would rather my sparks should burn out in a blaze than it should be stifled by dry-rot. I would rather be as a superb meteor, every atom of me in magnificent glow, than asleep and permanent as a planet.
The proper function of a person is to live, not to exist. I shall not waste my days trying to prolong them. I shall use my time."
"Our actions matter and can bend history in the direction of justice." - President Obama
War came with the first man - what is a 'just war' - last result? Self defense? Civilians spared from violence? Use of 'little force'? WWII saw more civilians killed than army. What does that say? Was it a 'just' war?
Woodrow Wilson received the NPP for architecting the League of Nations which was voted down. But America did lead the world into figuring out how to prevent wars... Marshall Plan, UN.
Wars between countries have given away to wars within countries - ethnic conflicts, failed states, secessionist movements (but what is this really an indication of? - citizens jockeying for their individual rights - the right to self governance? isn't this a good thing?) - trapped civilians in unending chaos. Refugees, children scarred, civilians lives torn asunder.
'Just' War vs. 'Just' Peace - is it possible to eradicate armed conflict in our lifetimes? If not, then what are we doing?
"Violence never brings permanent peace. It solves no social problem, it only brings new and more complicated ones." - MLK Jr. in his NPP acceptance speech.
NV not as passive or naive. Cannot stand idle "evil does exist," There are limits to reason. There is a deep ambivalence to military action.
(has democracy taken hold in the Balkans?)
"No matter how justified, war promises human tragedy."
"War is an expression of human folley. War is never itself glorious, we much never trumpet it as such."
All nations much adhere to standards governing use of force.
Three ways that we can build a 'just' and 'lasting' peace:
1. Develop alternatives to violence that are tough enough to actually change behavior. The words of the international community must mean something. Those that break the rules must be held accountable. Accountability only when the world stands together as one. Example - seeking a world without nuclear weapons.
2. Nature of the peace we seek: Peace is not nearly the absence of visible conflict, only a just peace based on the inherent rights and dignity of every individual that can truly be lasting. Human rights need to be protected or peace is a hollow promise. (are these foreign to local cultures? or stages of development?) Is this just a campaign to impose our values on cultures from around the world? The suppression of identity can lead to violence. We've never fought a war with another democracy. Hm. They are our closest friends. This must be coupled with painstaking diplomacy. Condemnation without discussion will only move forward with the status quo. Example - Nixon and Mao. But taking the long view, look at how China is doing today. maybe it worked. Human rights and dignity advanced over time.
3. Economic security and opportunity - true peace is not just freedom from fear, but freedom from want. (can we do away with want?) Addressing climate change - more conflict will come if we can't balance this issue. It's not just environmental activists and scientists.
None of this will work without understanding basic human needs and similarities of those. Fear of loss of identity leads to conflict. No holy war can be a just war.
Okay, so powerful speech. I particularly like that, as a leader, Obama is moving away from morally justified nonviolence and toward justification of human rights for all at any cost. This is a messy situation. I think there is particular possibility in his first point - standards of alternatives to violence. Putting something like that together on an international scale, and then actually holding folks accountable for that sounds great. Practical application? We shall see. I would have also liked to hear more about his plan for economic stability and opportunity - I immediately think of competition. I think the US may suffer from a superiority complex and as competition in the global economy increases (rather than being controlled by the US) freak-outs are going to happen.
Seems to me that Obama is committed to the "long view" of diplomacy, policy, and procedure. "Long view" meaning not just 30 or 40 years, but generations. I think it is difficult for the citizens of the world to look beyond the next three years and whether they like Obama or not better than Bush. I think THAT's the paradigm shift that needs to be ushered along... 'long view' does not mean this decade. Is there any hope in shifting that perspective? Even in our own lives?
How are the different levels of conflict connected? - International, national, ethnic, state, interpersonal, intrapersonal, moral dilemmas... where's the root? How do we sort this out?
"As a culture we swing from being afraid of anger to romanticizing it. I try to see anger for what it is, in myself, and neither fear it nor idealize it. We might romanticize the idea of being in touch with our anger, but in fact we don’t really enjoy the effects of anger. If we are lost in perpetual guilt, which is anger at ourselves, we don’t celebrate that. If we see someone hurting someone else, abusing them, beating them up, or screaming at them, we don’t rejoice in it; we don’t say, 'Oh, wonderful, they’re in touch with their anger!'
There is great potential for us to find a middle path with anger through mindfulness, not adding to our brutal self-judgments because of it, and not acting it out in ways that ultimately leave us isolated and regretful."
- Sharon Salzberg, "The Deluding Force," from the Summer 1998 Tricycle.
"Fear is what happens when reality collides with our personal fiction. Our practice is based on expectations—expectations about who we are, why we are practicing, and what our practice should be. As our hope disintegrates, it may be replaced by fear. Our characteristics, personality, all of our beautiful plans and ideas are like snowflakes about to fall on the hot stone of our meditation practice."
-Lama Tsony, "Facing Fear," from the Fall 2006 Tricycle.
"At each point in our lives, we are at a crossroads. We are the fruit of our past and we are the architects of our future. When we ask, “Why did this happen to me?” it is because of our limited view. If we throw a stone up in the air and forget about it, when it falls down on our heads, we shouldn’t complain, although we usually do. We have this notion that what happens to us is somehow independent of our own actions. We can ask, why did this happen? but the more important question is, what we are going to do about it?
If you want to know your past, look at your present circumstances. If you want to know your future, look at what is in your mind. If we know that our fate is in our hands, then the quality of our actions becomes a central issue. The whole point of karma is to recognize how our actions determine our future, so that we can begin to act properly. It’s not just a cosmological or philosophical matter. It’s entirely practical. The main point is not to get in trouble again."
“Once a journey is designed, equipped, and put in process, a new factor enters and takes over. A trip, a safari, an exploration, is an entity, different from all other journeys. It has personality, temperament, individuality, uniqueness. A journey is a person in itself; no two are alike. And all plans, safeguards, policing and coercion are fruitless. We find after years of struggle that we do not take a trip; a trip takes us. Tour masters, schedules, reservations, brass-bound and inevitable, dash themselves to wreckage on the personality of the trip. Only when this is recognized can the blown-in-the-glass bum relax and go along with it. Only then do the frustrations fall away. In this a journey is like marriage. The certain way to be wrong is to think you control it. I feel better now, having said this, although only those who have experienced it will understand.”
John Steinbeck, Travels with Charley
(This is from Beau - he read it at the final puja today. He usually paraphrases the part about 'blown-in-the-glass bum' - and today he added academic directors to the list in the seventh sentence.)
Sometimes these are good - sometimes they make me think of who gets to travel, and how much of a luxury travel is, and how the people who are quoted saying these things are thinking about expanding their homogeneous surroundings because they live in a culture that has been homogenized so they have to go out and seek Exotic things in order to make themselves feel special, just like everyone else.
Of course, me included. I like saying, in response to where do you life, "I live in Nepal." It makes me feel special. and then I get to pay attention to that.
