E-Dharma

Five facts that one should reflect on often

2010-06-10T07:17:00.012+03:00

I have noticed that most people, myself included, tend to live oblivious of some simple truths that, if held closer to our everyday consciousness, would have a strong impact on the way we live our lives.

Please take a few moments to consider the following:

There are these five facts that one should reflect on often, whether one is a woman or a man, lay or ordained. Which five?

"I am subject to aging, have not gone beyond aging." This is the first fact that one should reflect on often...

"I am subject to illness, have not gone beyond illness"...

"I am subject to death, have not gone beyond death"...

"I will grow different, separate from all that is dear and appealing to me"...

"I am the owner of my actions (kamma), heir to my actions, born of my actions, related through my actions, and have my actions as my arbitrator. Whatever I do, for good or for evil, to that will I fall heir"...

These are the five facts that one should reflect on often, whether one is a woman or a man, lay or ordained.

Now, based on what line of reasoning should one often reflect... that "I am subject to aging, have not gone beyond aging"? There are beings who are intoxicated with a [typical] youth's intoxication with youth. Because of that intoxication with youth, they conduct themselves in a bad way in body... in speech... and in mind. But when they often reflect on that fact, that youth's intoxication with youth will either be entirely abandoned or grow weaker...

Now, based on what line of reasoning should one often reflect... that "I am subject to illness, have not gone beyond illness"? There are beings who are intoxicated with a [typical] healthy person's intoxication with health. Because of that intoxication with health, they conduct themselves in a bad way in body... in speech... and in mind. But when they often reflect on that fact, that healthy person's intoxication with health will either be entirely abandoned or grow weaker...

Now, based on what line of reasoning should one often reflect... that "I am subject to death, have not gone beyond death"? There are beings who are intoxicated with a [typical] living person's intoxication with life. Because of that intoxication with life, they conduct themselves in a bad way in body... in speech... and in mind. But when they often reflect on that fact, that living person's intoxication with life will either be entirely abandoned or grow weaker...

Now, based on what line of reasoning should one often reflect... that "I will grow different, separate from all that is dear and appealing to me"? There are beings who feel desire and passion for the things they find dear and appealing. Because of that passion, they conduct themselves in a bad way in body... in speech... and in mind. But when they often reflect on that fact, that desire and passion for the things they find dear and appealing will either be entirely abandoned or grow weaker...

Now, based on what line of reasoning should one often reflect... that "I am the owner of my actions(kamma), heir to my actions, born of my actions, related through my actions, and have my actions as my arbitrator. Whatever I do, for good or for evil, to that will I fall heir"? There are beings who conduct themselves in a bad way in body... in speech... and in mind. But when they often reflect on that fact, that bad conduct in body, speech, and mind will either be entirely abandoned or grow weaker...

Now, a disciple of the noble ones considers this: "I am not the only one subject to aging, who has not gone beyond aging. To the extent that there are beings — past and future, passing away and re-arising — all beings are subject to aging, have not gone beyond aging." When he/she often reflects on this, the [factors of the] path take birth. He/she sticks with that path, develops it, cultivates it. As he/she sticks with that path, develops it and cultivates it, the fetters are abandoned, the obsessions destroyed.

Further, a disciple of the noble ones considers this: "I am not the only one subject to illness, who has not gone beyond illness"... "I am not the only one subject to death, who has not gone beyond death"... "I am not the only one who will grow different, separate from all that is dear and appealing to me"...

A disciple of the noble ones considers this: "I am not the only one who is owner of my actions, heir to my actions, born of my actions, related through my actions, who has my actions as my arbitrator; who — whatever I do, for good or for evil, to that will I fall heir. To the extent that there are beings — past and future, passing away and re-arising — all beings are the owner of their actions, heir to their actions, born of their actions, related through their actions, and have their actions as their arbitrator. Whatever they do, for good or for evil, to that will they fall heir." When he/she often reflects on this, the [factors of the] path take birth. He/she sticks with that path, develops it, cultivates it. As he/she sticks with that path, develops it and cultivates it, the fetters are abandoned, the obsessions destroyed.

From: "Beyond Coping: III. Heedfulness", by Thanissaro Bhikkhu. Access to Insight, May 26, 2010, http://www.accesstoinsight.org/lib/study/aids/heedfulness.html

I have even added a counter to my iGoogle page, to remind myself of how many years are left until I arrive to my average life expectancy.

Extremely grounding.

A relationship with yourself?

2008-09-23T19:35:00.014+03:00

In The Power of Now, Eckhart Tolle offers dozens of opportunities to the alert reader, to dis-identify with the mind and jump into the realm of consciousness.

His different attempts - answers to questions that were posed to him -, manage to pierce the shield of mind surrounding consensual perceptions, and give the reader a glimpse of a deeper and truer state of being.

Still, each of us may respond in different degrees to those attempts. Personally, I have found the following fragment specially efficient in pointing at a state of consciousness free from mind:

But do you need to have a relationship with yourself at all? When you have a relationship with yourself, you have split yourself into two: "I" and "myself", subject and object. That mind-created duality is the root cause of all unnecessary complexity, of all problems and conflict in your life. In the state of enlightenment, you are yourself - "you" and "yourself" merge into one. You do not judge yourself, you do not feel sorry for yourself, you are not proud of yourself, you do not love yourself, you do not hate yourself, and so on. The split caused by self-reflected consciousness is healed, its curse removed. There is no "self" that you need to protect, defend, or feed anymore. When you are enlightened, there is one relationship that you no longer have: the relationship with yourself. Once you have given that up, all your other relationships will be love relationships.

Living on the Edge

2008-03-19T12:04:00.011+02:00

From At Home in the Muddy Water, by Ezra Bayda

On the first day of a four-day meditation retreat, a student went in to see the Zen master with whom he'd been studying for many years. Sitting at the teacher's feet, he asked, "Can you tell me how I'm doing in my practice?" The Zen master thought for a minute, then said, "Open your mouth.” The student opened his mouth, and the teacher peered in and said, "OK, now bend your head down.” The student bent his head down, and the Zen master looked into his hair, then said, "OK, now open your eyes really wide.” The student opened his eyes, and the Zen master glared into them and said, "You're doing fine.” Then he rang his bell.

Because the teacher rang his bell, the student had to leave. The next day, he returned, quite perplexed by what had happened the day before. "I asked you how I was doing in my practice yesterday," he said, "and you made me open my mouth, bend my head, and open my eyes. What did all that have to do with my practice?" The Zen master bowed his head in thought. Then he said, "You know, you're not really doing very well in your practice, and the truth is, I am not sure you are ever going to make it.” Again he rang his bell.

The student walked out. You can imagine how confused and angry he felt. The next day he went back, still fuming, and said, "What do you mean, I'm not going to make it in practice? Do you know that I sit in meditation for an hour every day? Sometimes I sit twice a day. I come to every retreat. I have really deep experiences. What do you mean I'm not going to make it?" The master just sat there, apparently thinking. Then he said, "Well, maybe I made a mistake. Perhaps you're doing pretty well after all.” And again he rang his bell.

On the last day of the retreat, the student went back to see his teacher, utterly exhausted. He felt distraught and confused, but he was no longer fighting it. He said to the master, "I just wanted to know how I was doing in my practice.” This time, the teacher looked at him and with no hesitation, in a very kind voice, said, "If you really want to know how you're doing in your practice, just look at all of your reactions over the last few days. Just look at your life.”

It's important to have a daily meditation practice, to have a developing ability to see thoughts clearly, and to reside in our bodily experience. But having deep experiences during meditation is not enough. If we want to know how we're doing in our practice, we have to examine our life. Unless we begin to connect it with the rest of our life, our practice - however strong, calm, or enjoyable - ultimately will not be satisfying.

The reason it won't be satisfying is that we're ignoring one of the three basic pillars of practice. The first pillar is a daily sitting practice, in which we slowly develop both the strength and the willingness to do what we've spent our whole lives avoiding: reside in the physical reality of the present moment. The second pillar is the more intensive training offered in retreats, which pushes us in a way that we rarely push ourselves at home. There is no substitute for the learning we can do at retreats - where our illusions are dismantled and the real value of perseverance becomes evident. The third pillar is practicing with the messy, unromantic, ordinary ups and downs of daily life. This pillar is essential to a genuine practice. Without it, we will never truly be satisfied.

However, understanding the connection between practice and the rest of our life means addressing many different concerns. For instance, how are you practicing in your relationships - with your spouse, your children, your parents, the people at work? How many resentments do you still hold on to? Do the same people as ever in your life trigger anger, contempt, or other believed judgments? To what extent can you say, "I'm sorry," and really mean it? When a problem arises, can you say yes to practicing with it, even when you hate what's happening? And when criticism comes at you, are you willing to work with your reactions when they arise, instead of justifying them?

The answers to questions like these give us the measure of our practice. This measure is nothing magical or mysterious. It's simply the increasing ability to know what our life is, as well as the growing understanding that to practice with our life means to practice with everything we meet. Practice isn't just about sitting on a cushion trying to feel calm.

It is not at all uncommon for students to ask their teachers to measure their practice for them. The question itself, if we're not aware of what we're really asking, is already one small measure of where we are. Asking "How am I doing in my practice?" is like asking "Am I OK?" or "Am I acceptable the way I am?"

A friend recently told me she learned three things about herself in assessing her practice: She was addicted to her thinking, she was attached to her emotions, and she didn't want to stay in the present moment for more than a few seconds at a time. This might sound like familiar bad news, but is there really any problem with this? At least there's awareness of where she's stuck. What is unfortunate is believing our judgments and discouraging thoughts about what we see - "I'm a bad student," "I'll never really change," and so on.

We all want to change, to make our lives better. What we don't realize is that most transformative changes are slow and almost imperceptible; we continue to believe that our lives should be significantly different after practicing for only a few years. But it's not as if we go in to see a teacher, full of our fears, and come out fearless! Nor can we go to a retreat full of confusion, have a deep experience, and then remain permanently clear. We would like to see dramatic changes, but this isn't how practice works. Sometimes we don't even notice the ways it erodes our habitual protective strategies, until one day we find ourselves in a situation that had always made us anxious ! or angry or uptight, and we notice that the anxiety, the anger, or the closed-down quality is gone.

To practice with difficulties, we must leave the mental world and enter the heart of our experience. This means residing in the physical experience of the anxiety and confusion itself, instead of spinning off into thoughts. How does it actually feel to be confused? What is the texture of the experience? Staying with the bodily reality of the present moment offers us the possibility to see our life with a sense of clarity that we could never realize through thinking alone. How long will it take? No one can say. But practicing like this is a good example of going to our edge and working directly with where we're stuck.

One example is working with fear. What do you do with your fears when they arise? Do you usually vacillate between trying to stomp them out and trying to avoid the fearful situation? Most of us do. But when we come to our edge - and what is fear if not the clearest indicator that we're at our edge - we can take the small practice step of choosing to go against our habitual reactions to fear. This is not done with the intention of modifying our behavior by stomping out our fear. Instead, we take the moment to observe and experience as fully as possible what our fear really is. The next time fear arises, see if you can really feel the energy of fear in the body, without doing anything to change it or get rid of it.

Instead of regarding our edge as an enemy, a place to be avoided, we can realize that our edge is actually our path. From this place, we can take a step closer toward what is. But we can do this only one step at a time, persevering through all the ups and downs of our lives. We may sense danger; we might even feel as if death is upon us. However, we don't have to leap in headfirst, going for all or nothing. We can simply take a small step, supported by the knowledge that everyone feels fear in stepping beyond the illusion of comfort.

The real measure of practice is whether, little by little, we can find our edge, that place where we're closed down in fear, and allow ourselves to experience it. This takes courage, but courage isn't about becoming fearless. Courage is the willingness to experience our fears. And as we experience our fears, courage grows. Noticing our edge and trying to meet it also allows us to develop compassion, not just for ourselves but for the whole human drama. Then, with an increasing sense of lightness and curiosity, we can keep moving toward a more open and genuine life.

Love and Attachment

2007-11-14T12:11:00.002+02:00

by Goenka, from: Questions and Answers, Attachment

You spoke about non-attachment to things. What about persons?

Yes, persons also. You have true love for the person, compassionate love for this person, this is totally different. But when you have attachment, then you don't have love, you only love yourself, because you expect something -material, emotional etc - from this person. With whomever you have attachment, you are expecting something in return. When you start truly loving this person, then you only give, a one-way traffic. You don't expect anything in return, then the attachment goes. The tension goes. You are so happy.

Precepts, Principles, Rules

2007-01-15T18:12:00.000+02:00

by Osho

Why do you seek precepts and principles? You may not have observed why. It is because with precepts you need not be alert. Suppose I make a precept out of non-violence and then I stick to it, or I make it a precept to be truthful and I stick to it. Then it becomes a habit and there is no need to be alert. I cannot speak lies because a habit, a principle, will always create a barrier. Society depends on principles, on inculcating and educating the children with principles. Then they become incapable, really, of being otherwise. If a person becomes incapable, he is dead.

Your truth can be alive only if it comes through alertness, not through precepts and principles. Each moment, you have to be alert in order to be true. Truth is not a principle; it is something born out of your alertness. Non-violence is not a principle; if you are mindful, you cannot be violent. But, that is difficult. You have to transform yourself.

It is easy to live according to principles, rules and regulations. Then you need not worry about being more alert and aware; you can follow the principles. Then you are just like a railway train running on the tracks. Those tracks are your principles. You are not afraid because you cannot miss the path. Really, you don't have any path; you have just iron rails on which your train is running. You will reach the destination, you need not be afraid. You will be asleep and the train will reach it. It is running on dead paths.

But, practice says that life is not like that, it is more like a river. It is not running on iron rails. The path has not even been charted before. As the river flows, the path is created. The river will reach the sea, and this is how life should be. Life is like a river. There is no pre-charted way; there are no maps to be given to you which are to be followed. Just be alive and alert, and then, wherever life leads, you go with full confidence in it. Trust in the life force. Allow it to lead you towards the sea.

Just be alert, that is all. While life leads you towards the sea, just be alert so that you don't miss anything. If you are alert, this life will be bliss. The very movement of the river is bliss in itself. Passing through the valleys, through the rocks, falling down from the hills, moving into the unknown is itself bliss.

The river is not simply going to meet the sea, it is "growing" to be the sea, and this is possible only through rich experience, alert experiences, moving, trusting. This is the human search. Of course, it is dangerous. If rivers could be run through predetermined paths, there would be less danger, fewer errors. But the whole beauty of aliveness would be lost.

So don't be a follower of precepts. Just be a creator of more and more awareness. The principles will happen to you, but you will never feel enclosed in them.

True Meditation

2007-01-12T03:47:00.000+02:00

by Krishnamurti

Man, throughout history, has been seeking in so many ways something beyond ordinary life. He has done everything possible -- fasted, tortured himself, accepted the authority of others -- engaged in every form of neurotic behavior. Man wants to find something that is both rational and has depth, a full meaning; and he has always, from ancient days, sought it out. You must have observed all this in different ways. Life seems to lack beauty, so we want romantic, mystical legends. Though we may even worship them, all the structures man has built, psychologically as well as physically, have nothing to do with reality.

You have probably heard the word "meditation" or read something about it or you may have followed some guru who tells you what to do. I wish you had never heard that word; then your mind would be fresh to enquire. Some people have been to India but I don't know why they go there. Truth isn't there; there is romance, but romance is not truth. Truth is where you are; it is not in some foreign country. Truth is what you are doing, how you are behaving, not in shaving your head or in those stupid things man has done.

Meditation is not for the immature. The immature can play with it, as they do now, sitting cross-legged, breathing in a certain way, standing on their heads, in order to experience something original. But, using any system, you can never come upon that which is eternal, timeless. There is no short cut to all this. One has to work hard; one has to become very aware of what one is doing, what one is thinking, without any distortion.

You cannot empty the mind of the activity of the self by any method or by saying, "Tell me what to do." Therefore, if you are really interested in this, you have to find out for yourself your own activity of the self -- the statements, the gestures, the habits, the deceptions, the guilt that you cultivate and hold on to as though they were some precious things, instead of throwing them all away -- all the activities of the self. And that demands awareness.

Now, what is being aware? Awareness implies observation in which there is no choice at all, just observing without interpretation, translation or distortion. And that will not take place so long as there is an observer who is trying to be aware. You have heard that statement. You think, "What am I to do? How am I to be aware without the observer?" You want an activity. You are more concerned with action than with listening to the statement. If you listen to it completely, then you are breathing the perfume, the truth of it. And the truth acts, not the "me" who is struggling to act rightly. Have you got it?

You have to find out everything for yourself; nobody can tell you. What has been said in the past may be true, but, if you are serious, you have to find out what it means for yourself. Then, it is your truth and it is a living truth. You, yourself, in your freedom, have to see what is truth, what is false, and how to live a life in which there is no strife whatever. The whole of this is meditation.

For meditation, you must take a plunge into the water, not knowing how to swim. And, the beauty of meditation is that you never know where you are, where you are going, what the end is. You can do it all day, in the office, with the family, when you say to somebody, "I love you," when you are considering your children. But then, you educate them to become soldiers, to worship the flag, to kill -- to enter into this trap of the modern world. Watching all that, realizing your share in it -- all that is part of meditation. And when you so meditate, you will find in it an extraordinary beauty, you will act rightly at every moment. And, if you do not act rightly at a given moment, it does not matter -- you will pick it up again, you will not waste time in regret.

Meditation is the quality of the mind that is completely attentive -- and silent. Otherwise, you cannot observe, otherwise you cannot listen. When there is no movement of any kind in the mind, when it is naturally still, then there is only observation in silence, not an observer observing. In that quietness, you may see the nature of attachment, you may find out if there is something really sacred, or nothing at all.

If you set out to meditate, it will not be meditation; if you cultivate humility, it ceases to be. Meditation is the breeze that comes in when you leave the window open. But, if you deliberately keep the window open, deliberately invite the breeze to come in, it will never appear. Meditation is not a means to an end; it is both the means and the end.

To understand oneself, there must be observation and that can only take place now. Observation can only take place in the very doing of it -- when you are angry, when you are greedy, when you are in bliss -- to observe it as it is. Which means not to judge it, not to condemn it, but to watch it and let it flower and disappear. Do you understand the beauty of it? The very observation, with no observer in the background, brings about a change. In doing this, one becomes a light to oneself.

A State of Mindfulness

2006-11-15T09:30:00.000+02:00

(from Mindfulness in Plain English, H.Gunaratana, Chapter 15, Meditation In Everyday Life)

A state of mindfulness is a state of mental readiness. The mind is not burdened with preoccupations or bound in worries. Whatever comes up can be dealt with instantly. When you are truly mindful, your nervous system has a freshness and resiliency which fosters insight. A problem arises and you simply deal with it, quickly, efficiently, and with a minimum of fuss. You don't stand there in a dither, and you don't run off to a quiet corner so you can sit down and meditate about it. You simply deal with it. And in those rare circumstances when no solution seems possible, you don't worry about that. You just go on to the next thing that needs your attention. Your intuition becomes a very practical faculty.

Mindfulness as Purposeful Awareness

2006-11-10T07:19:00.000+02:00

Can conceptual distinctions help our practice?

I believe they can, as long as we don't take them as fixed truths but as guidelines to clarify and sharpen aspects of the practice.

Today I found this article which seems to me useful:

First of all, mindfulness involves paying attention "on purpose". Mindfulness involves a conscious direction of our awareness. We sometimes (me included) talk about "mindfulness" and "awareness" as if they were interchangeable terms, but that's not a good habit to get into. I may be aware I'm irritable, but that wouldn't mean I was being mindful of my irritability. In order to be mindful I have to be purposefully aware of myself, not just vaguely and habitually aware. Knowing that you are eating is not the same as eating mindfully.

Let's take that example of eating and look at it a bit further. When we are purposefully aware of eating, we are consciously being aware of the process of eating. We're deliberately noticing the sensations and our responses to those sensations. We're noticing our mind wandering, and when it does wander we purposefully bring our attention back. When we're eating unmindfully we may in theory be aware of what we're doing, but we're probably thinking about a hundred and one other things at the same time, and we may also be watching TV, talking, or reading -- or even all three! So a very small part of our awareness is absorbed with eating, and we may be only barely aware of the physical sensations and even less aware of our thoughts and emotions.

Because we're only dimly aware of our thoughts, they wander in an unrestricted way. There's no conscious attempt to bring our attention back to our eating. There's no purposefulness.

This purposefulness is a very important part of mindfulness. Having the purpose of staying with our experience, whether that's the breath, or a particular emotion, or something as simple as eating, means that we are actively shaping the mind. Left to itself the mind wanders through all kinds of thoughts -- including thoughts expressing anger, craving, depression, revenge, self-pity, etc. As we indulge in these kinds of thoughts we reinforce those emotions in our hearts and cause ourselves to suffer. By purposefully directing our awareness away from such thoughts and towards some "anchor" we decrease their effect on our lives and we create instead a space of freedom where calmness and contentment can grow.

The Life of the Buddha

2006-11-09T08:29:00.006+02:00

A BBC/Discovery Channel co-production, this docunarrative film describes the life of Siddharta Gautama, the process by which he arrived at the fundamentals of Buddhism, the archeological findings confirming the traditional account of his life; and gives a glimpse of Buddhism today, featuring among others the Dalai Lama.

A good quality production, worthy of watching.

50 minutes. Enjoy it!

Meditation in Daily Life

2006-11-08T07:14:00.000+02:00

(from Being Peace, by Thich Nhat Hanh)

How can we bring meditation out of the meditation hall and into the kitchen and the office? How can the sitting influence the non-sitting time? If a doctor gives you an injection, not only your arm but your whole body benefits from it. If you practice one hour of sitting a day, that hour should benefit all twenty-four hours. One smile, one breath, should benefit the whole day.

Do you practice breathing between phone calls? Do you practice smiling while cutting carrots? Do you practice relaxation after hours of hard work? These questions are very practical. If you know how to apply Buddhism to dinner time, leisure time, sleeping time, I think Buddhism will become engaged in your daily life.

Osho - Strange Consequences

2006-11-07T05:38:00.002+02:00

A little laughter with Osho:

On Love

2006-11-06T06:47:00.000+02:00

Practice: As Simple as 1, 2, 3, by Thich Nhat Hanh

Maitri [metta] is translated as loving kindness, the first element of true love. You love, not because that person is your son, your daughter or your wife. You love, not because he is of the same religious belief as you. You love because that person needs to be loved. That's all. You love without conditions whatsoever. It means unconditional love. You love in order to bring relief to that person, to transform the suffering in that person, to offer joy to her, to offer happiness to her because she needs that. You don't ask for anything in return. You love him because he needs your love. That's all.

Remember:

1. There is only one important time and that is now. The present moment is the only time in which we have power.

2. The most important person is always the person you are with, who is next to you, for who knows if you will have dealings with any other person in the future?

3. The most important thing to do is to make the person at your side happy, for that alone is the pursuit of life.

We talk about social service, service to humanity, helping to bring peace to the world, but often we forget that, first of all, it is the people around us that we must live for. First, help your wife or husband, your child, your parent, your co-worker, your sangha member, your neighbor. Can you make them happy?

Dealing with Anger

2006-11-05T03:40:00.000+02:00

(from Being Peace, by Thich Nhat Hanh)

In Buddhism, we do not consider anger, hatred, greed as enemies we have to fight. If we fight anger, we fight ourselves. Dealing with anger in that way would be like transforming yourself into a battlefield; doing violence to yourself. If you cannot be compassionate to yourself, you will not be able to be compassionate to others. We cannot destroy the energy; we can only convert it into more constructive energies, such as forgiveness and understanding. That is the work of meditation.

Look into your headache

2006-11-03T00:43:00.000+02:00

After seeing Thay's video from yesterday, the mechanism underlying this technique to deal with physical pain, taken from the Orange Book by Osho, can be immediately grasped.

Next time you have a headache try a small meditative technique, just experimentally - then you can go on to bigger diseases and bigger symptoms.

...Sit silently and watch it, look into it - not as if you are looking at an enemy, no. If you are looking at it as your enemy, you will not be able to look rightly. You will avoid - nobody looks at the enemy directly; one avoids, one tends to avoid. Look at it as your friend. It is your friend; it is in your service. It is saying, "Something is wrong - look into it." Just sit silently and look into the headache with no idea of stopping it, with no desire that it should disappear, no conflict, no fight, no antagonism. Just look into it, into what it is.

Watch, so if there is some inner message, the headache can give it to you. It has a coded message. And if you look silently you will be surprised. If you look silently three things will happen. First: the more you look into it, the more severe it will become. And then you will be a little puzzled: "How is it going to help if it is becoming more severe?" It is becoming more severe because you have been avoiding it. It was there but you were avoiding it; you were already repressing it. When you look into it, repression disappears. The headache will come to its natural severity. Then you are hearing it with unplugged ears, no wool around your ears.

First thing: it will become severe. If it is becoming severe, you can be satisfied that you are looking rightly. If it does not become severe, then you are not looking yet; you are still avoiding. Look into it - it becomes severe. That is the first indication that, yes, it is in your vision.

The second thing will be that it will become more pin-pointed, it will not be spread over a bigger space. First you were thinking, "It is my whole head aching." Now you will see it is not the whole head, it is just a small spot. That is also an indication that you are gazing more deeply into it. The spread feeling of the ache is a trick - that is a way to avoid it. If it is in one point then it will be more severe. So you create an illusion that it is the whole head which is aching. Spread all over the head, then it is not so intense at any point. These are tricks that we go on playing.

Look into it and the second step will be that it comes to be smaller and smaller and smaller. And a moment comes when it is just the very point of a needle - very sharp, immensely sharp, very painful. You have never seen such a pain in the head. But very much confined to a small spot. Go on looking into it.

And then the third and more important thing happens. If you go on looking at this point when it is very severe and confined and concentrated at one point, you will see many times that it disappears. When your gaze is perfect it will disappear. And when it disappears you will have the glimpse of where it is coming from - what the cause is. When the effect disappears you will see the cause. It will happen many times. Again it will be there. Your gaze is no more that alert, that concentrated, that attentive - it will come back. Whenever your gaze is really there, it will disappear; and when it disappears, hidden behind it is the cause. And you will be surprised: your mind is ready to reveal what the cause is.

And there can be a thousand and one causes. The same alarm is given because the alarm system is simple. There are not many alarm systems in your body. For different causes the same alarm is given. You may have been angry lately and you have not expressed it. Suddenly, like a revelation, it will be standing there. You will see all your anger that you have been carrying, carrying... like pus inside you. Now this is too much, and that anger wants to be released. It needs a catharsis. Cathart! - and immediately you will see the heachache has disappeared. And there was no need for the aspro, no need for any treatment.

Mindfulness, Well Being and Social Change - a Dharma Talk by Thich Nhat Hanh

2006-11-02T04:24:00.005+02:00

Social changes at the base - March 27, 2004

In this video Thich Nhat Hanh explains, graphically and very clearly, the psychological mechanism by which we can ventilate and gradually weaken negative feelings and mental formations in our store consciousness, strengthening hand in hand the seeds of mindfulness and well being. These in turn will help to bring joy and solidity to action for social change.

The video is 90 minutes long and it is worth every one of them. It has been kindly uploaded to Google Video by Deer Park Monastery.

Buddha, Dharma, Sangha

2006-11-01T06:53:00.000+02:00

(from Being Peace, by Thich Nhat Hanh)

In Buddhism, there are three gems: Buddha, the awakened one; Dharma, the way of understanding and loving; and Sangha, the community that lives in harmony and awareness. If we look closely, the Three Gems are actually one. In each of them, the other two are already there.

The root-word "buddh" means to wake up, to know, to understand; and he or she who wakes up and understands is called a Buddha. It is as simple as that. The capacity to wake up, to understand, and to love is called Buddha nature. Someone who is awake, who knows, who understands, is called a Buddha.

Buddha is in every one of us. We can become awake, understanding, and also loving.

The second gem is Dharma. Dharma is what the Buddha taught. It is the way of understanding and love -- how to understand, how to love, how to make understanding and love into real things.

"Dharmakaya" means the teaching of the Buddha, the way to realize understanding and love. Anything that can help you wake up has Buddha nature. People who are awake see the manifestation of the Dharma in everything. A pebble, a bamboo tree, the cry of a baby, anything can be the voice of the Dharma calling.
One aspect of Dharmakaya is not talking, not teaching - just being. Therefore, the oak tree is preaching the Dharma.

The Sangha is the community that lives in harmony and awareness. When you are with your family and you practice smiling, breathing, recognizing the Buddha body in yourself and your children, then your family becomes a Sangha.

A friend, our own children, our own brother and sister, our house, the trees in our backyard, all of them can be part of our Sangha.

Non-duality

2006-10-31T04:22:00.000+02:00

(from Being Peace, by Thich Nhat Hanh)

Non-duality is the key word for Buddhist meditation. The Buddha said that in order to understand, you have to be one with what you understand. A human being is like a television set with millions of channels. If we turn the Buddha on, we are the Buddha. If we turn sorrow on, we are sorrow. If we turn a smile on, we really are the smile. We cannot let just one channel dominate us. We have the seed of everything in us, and we have to seize the situation in our hand, to recover our own sovereignty.

Being in Touch with Oneself

2006-10-30T16:49:00.000+02:00

(from Being Peace, by Thich Nhat Hanh)

Being in touch with oneself is the meaning of meditation, to be aware of what is going on in your body, in your feelings, in your mind. Practicing meditation is to be aware of each feeling. If you practice awareness, you suddenly become very rich, very happy. Practicing happiness is available. Please help yourself to it.

Calming, Smiling, Present Moment

2006-10-29T00:31:00.000+02:00

(from Being Peace, by Thich Nhat Hanh)

Smiling is very important. It means that we are ourselves, that we have sovereignty over ourselves, that we are not drowned in forgetfulness. If we are not able to smile, then the world will not have peace. It is with our capacity of smiling, breathing, and being peace that we can make peace.

You can feel very happy while practicing breathing and smiling. The conditions are available. You can do it at home. You can do it in a park, along the riverside, anywhere.

Breathing in, I calm body and mind.
Breathing out, I smile.
Dwelling in the present moment
I know this is the only moment.

Calming, Smiling,
Present moment, Only moment.

Thich Nhat Hanh's Spiritwalk, Summer 2005

2006-10-27T09:27:00.001+02:00

By April 2005, the Canadian Buddhist Community was actively involved in several and far reaching projects, ranging from addressing local economical problems to support an orphanage in Sri Lanka and those affected by the Tsunami.

In their board, however, the Mindfulness Community Retreat scheduled for May 19th-23rd that year took the bold fonts. Why? Because as they wrote: "This retreat will help prepare us for Venerable Thich Nhat Hanh's Canadian visit".

Thay was indeed there in the summer of 2005. La Toan Vinh registered his visit and composed this video, so that we can all enjoy Thay's smile.

Meditation as Peace Work

2006-10-26T23:51:00.000+02:00

(from Being Peace, by Thich Nhat Hanh)

Meditation is to be aware of what is going on -- in our bodies, in our feelings, in our minds, and in the world. Practicing meditation is to be aware, to smile, to breathe. In fact, to meditate well, we have to smile a lot. If, in our daily life, we can smile, if we can be peaceful and happy, not only we, but everyone will profit from it. This is the most basic kind of peace work.

Peace work means, first of all, being peace. Meditation is meditation for all of us. We rely on each other. Our children are relying on us in order for them to have a future.

To Suffer is not Enough

2006-10-25T00:44:00.001+02:00

(from Being Peace, by Thich Nhat Hanh)

Life is filled with suffering, but it is also filled with many wonders, like the blue sky, the sunshine, the eyes of a baby. To suffer is not enough. We must also be in touch with the wonders of life. They are within us and all around us. Wherever we are, any time, we have the capacity to enjoy the sunshine, the presence of each other, even the sensation of our breathing.

Starting by Ourselves

2006-10-24T14:37:00.001+02:00

(from Being Peace, by Thich Nhat Hanh)

If we are peaceful, if we are happy, we can blossom like a flower. And, everyone in our family, our entire society, will benefit from our peace.

Mind and No-Mind in the Arts

2006-10-23T14:29:00.000+02:00

When not in a personal, face to face situation, masters try to convey their teachings through words. This is a very natural thing as words are the most common communication channel for human beings.

Even so, words, unless the listener already knows their reference, remain elusive very often.

Pictures might transmit a broader range of symbolical meaning.

A few days ago I was struck by the difference of feelings and sensations two different pictures aroused in me.

The first one, you surely know, is a photography of Le Pénseur by Rodin. The second one, a depiction of the Buddha. I ignore its source and was unable to find it on internet again (may be you know it and can complete this piece of information, though for the purposes of this post it is not essential).

Just a few leading questions you might want to use when looking at these pictures:

Is the person portrayed busy or vacant? Full or empty? In which measure is he aware of his surroundings? What physical sensations each of these images arouses in you? Heaviness? Lightness? Mental noise? Mental calm? Here-now? Elsewhere? Mind? No-mind?

Le Pénseur by Rodin:

A Buddha depiction:

Introduction to the Path of Yoga, Part II - "Yoga is the Cessation of Mind"

2006-10-22T18:35:00.000+02:00

(by Osho)

1.2: "Yoga is the cessation of mind."

What is mind? Ordinarily we think that it is something inside the head. Patanjali doesn't agree. Mind is just an activity. You are walking and then you sit down. While you are sitting, no one can ask, "Where have you put your walking? Where has the walking gone?" You will laugh and say, "Walking is not something substantial. It is just activity." Mind is also activity, but because of the word "mind", it appears that something substantial is there. It is better to call it "minding" -- just like walking. Mind means "minding," mind means thinking. It is an activity.

Again and again I have been quoting Bodhidharma . . . . He went to China and saw the emperor. The emperor said, "My mind is very uneasy, very disturbed. You are a great sage. Tell me what I should do to put my mind at peace." Bodhidharma said, "First, bring your mind to me." The emperor said, "What do you mean? You talk nonsense. When I am here my mind is here, and it is not something which can be somewhere else. It is in me." Bodhidharma said, "Okay. So, the mind is within you. Now close your eyes and find out where it is. When you find out where it is, then show me. I will put it at peace." So the emperor closed his eyes and looked and looked. The more he looked, the more he became aware that there is no mind, that mind is an activity. The moment he realized that, the absurdity of his quest became exposed to him: "If it is not something, nothing can be done about it. If it is an activity, then don't do the activity; that's all. If it is like walking, don't walk." He opened his eyes. He bowed down to Bodhidharma and said, "There is no mind to be found." Bodhidharma said, "Then I have put it at peace."

The very looking is anti-mind, because a look is not a thinking. And if you look intensely, your whole energy becomes a look.

Yoga is the cessation of mind. This is Patanjali's definition: when there is no mind, you are in Yoga; when there is mind, you are not in Yoga. So you may do all the postures but if the mind goes on functioning, if you go on thinking, you are not in Yoga. The basic thing to be understood is: when the activity of thinking is not there. . . then you are there. When thoughts have disappeared -- they are just like clouds -- when they have disappeared, your being, just like the sky, is uncovered. It has always been there -- only covered with clouds, covered with thoughts.

Now in the West there is much appeal for Zen -- a Japanese method of Yoga. The whole training of Zen is how to be, simply, without thinking. Try it! When I say try it, it will look contradictory, because if you try, the very trying, the effort, is coming from the mind. You can sit in a posture and you can try some chanting, a mantra, or you can just try to sit silently, not to think. But then "not to think" becomes the thinking. Then you go on saying, "I am not to think, stop thinking". But, this is all thinking.

When Patanjali says no-mind, cessation of mind, he means complete cessation. He will not allow you to make a mantra. He will say, "Simply stop!" But you will ask, "How? How can you simply stop?" The mind continues. Even if you sit, the mind continues. Patanjali says, "Then just look. Let mind do whatever it is doing. You just look. You don't interfere. You just be a witness. You just be an onlooker, not concerned -- as if the mind doesn't belong to you, as if it is not your business, not your concern. Just look and let the mind flow." If you don't cooperate, if you just look, unconcerned -- Buddha's word is upeksha, indifference, equanimity: looking without any concern -- the mind will flow for a while and it will stop by itself. When the momentum is lost, when the energy has flowed, the mind will stop. When the mind stops, you are in Yoga. You have attained the discipline.

Introduction to the Path of Yoga, Part I - "The Discipline of Yoga"

2006-10-21T18:11:00.000+02:00

(by Osho)

Yoga is an inward turning. It is a total about-turn. When you are not moving into the future, not moving towards the past, then you start moving within yourself, you are present here and now. This moment is indicated by the first sutra of Patanjali:

1.1: "Now, the discipline of Yoga."

This "now" may not have come for you. Then I may go on talking about Yoga but you will not listen. You can listen only if the moment is present in you. Then you can enter Yoga. And then this entry will not be an entering into a mental, speculative phenomenon. This entry will be an entry into a discipline. The word "discipline" is beautiful. It comes from the same root as the word "disciple." "Discipline" means the capacity to be, to know and to learn.

All the Yoga postures are not really concerned with the body, they are concerned with the capacity to be. Patanjali says if you can sit silently without moving your body for a few hours, you are growing in the capacity to be. Why do you move? You cannot sit without moving even for a few seconds: your body starts moving, somewhere you feel itching, the legs go dead, many things start happening -- these are just excuses for you to move.

If you can remain in one posture, the body will become a slave; it will follow you. And, if the body is not moving, your mind cannot move, because mind and body are not two things. They are two poles of one phenomenon. You are not body and mind, you are bodymind. The mind is the subtlest part of the body. Or you can say the reverse, that body is the grossest part of the mind. So, whatever happens in the body happens in the mind and whatever happens in the mind happens in the body. If the body is non-moving, the mind is non-moving -- you are centered.

When you are centered, when you know what it means to be, then you can learn because then you will be humble. No false ego will cling to you because, once centered, you know all egos are false. Then you can surrender. Then you can bow down. Then a disciple is born. To become a disciple is a great achievement. Only through being centered will you become empty and the guru, the teacher, can come and reach you. Communication becomes possible. The teacher is not going to do anything. He is simply there, available. He flows like a river. If you are empty like a vessel, ready, open, he will flow in you.

Ego and Desires

2006-10-20T13:03:00.000+02:00

(by unknown)

The Buddha says there is nothing to be desired, desires are futile. Just imagine, if there is no desire within you, what will you be? If all desires go, you simply disappear. Not that you will not exist -- you will exist, but as an emptiness; no one is there, just a nothingness. Your ego is nothing but desires; there are millions of them, they make you. If you go on pulling out desires one by one, a moment will come when there is no desire left. You have disappeared, just vacant space remains.

Unless you are completely gone, silence cannot descend on you. You cannot be silent because you are the problem; you cannot be peaceful because you are the struggle. When you are not, silence will be there, peace will be there, bliss will be there. The emptiness itself is bliss.

Zen Practice and the Ego

2006-10-19T12:49:00.000+02:00

(by unknown)

When people approach Zen practice, they often don't know what it truly is. People come, think they can sit and do meditation and somehow arrive at a state where they can escape their problems and troubles, escape the complications of the world. They are going to become concentrated, wiser, happier, healthier. Almost everyone has something that impels him to seek a way to end suffering, a way to happiness. So people sit on their cushions, come to the meditation hall when it's convenient, and after meditation go home, go back to daily life. But, true Zen is not to follow your own desires, not to follow your own dreams, your thoughts, your ambition, not to look for status, wealth, power, position or career.

Our practice has been here for countless years, countless lives. If you think you're going to improve the practice, change it, if you think you know a better way -- this is the ego speaking, the ego-self. Mushotoku, without desire -- this is the way of true Zen. It is not following your own personal wishes, not following your own agenda (some goal, object or something to gain). Nor is it running away from something you fear or want to lose. When we follow the bodhisattva way, we harmonize with our surroundings. We don't have fixed ideas in our mind about what's good, what's bad, what's godly, what's evil. Forgetting ourselves, we respond to the situation we're in each moment.

This may seem like a strange attitude for many people. "Living a selfless life, that's good for saints, special people. But for me, oh, I'm not a saint. I cannot just be selfless in this world! What's going to happen to me? What about my future? What about my old age? Retirement? How am I going to live?" This is the mind. Always the brain is thinking, calculating, protecting, arguing, always looking for something. Instead of looking right in front of us, we look everywhere else. Instead of living right here and now, we want to plan for some mythical future. But when we practice, truly concentrate on our practice, we can forget ourselves. We can forget our ego, our desires, our fixed ideas of how to live, how to act, how to be, forget all these ideas, thoughts and attachments, and help the other.

"Why should I always help the other? Why can't I be helped?" Try it. Help yourself. And then, come back to the practice. That's why you're practicing in the first place: you've been helping yourself, not understanding the dharma, not understanding what life is. But if we repeat the practice, make the effort over and over again, then bit by bit our lives can blossom, become deep and broad. Give up your fixed ideas and come to true life. Don't run away and don't run after. Remain here and now, where we find our strength, our liberation.

The Ego and the Absolute

2006-10-18T09:45:00.000+02:00

(by unknown)

So long as you identify with the ego, you cannot transcend it. It is only when we take the enormous risk of not looking into it, of leaving the ego completely alone, that we will finally be able to see it for what it really is. It takes tremendous courage to do this. You have to leave it completely alone. There's no other way to achieve the liberating result. It's an all-or-nothing game and most people don't want to play because the stakes are just too high. We are speaking about a leap into another dimension that reveals a perspective that is absolute. Within that perspective, the ego just does not exist. If you want to know what that perspective is, you have to be willing to leave this one behind. The ego will never do this; its own survival depends upon clinging to the unquestioned conviction that it is important.

The ego always pleads for time. Its refrain, in the face of the call from the Absolute is, "I'm not ready yet, I need more time". But, the Absolute never hears the ego's pleas. Its ceaseless refrain is: "Every moment that you hesitate, you're keeping yourself from me". Its constant demand is always, "Now!" and the ego insists, yet again, "No, I'm not ready". This is the spiritual drama that has played itself out between man and God for thousands of years -- between the individual sense of self and the call of the Absolute.

Relationships and The Sense of "Me"

2006-10-17T09:51:00.000+02:00

(by unknown)

It is in our relationships with one another, that our buttons get pushed most easily and that we come up against the sense of "me" and "my territory" and "my way" being violated or thwarted. Relationships provide tremendous opportunities to look into what is at the root of all this hurt and conflict that human beings experience. What is it we are defending? For me, it seems as if my very life is somehow threatened when someone questions or seems to be defying "my way". When I look into it, I see that it isn't so much the particular opinion or way of doing things that I'm fighting for, it's that sense of "me".

Can we look and see if this "me" is really here? Let us listen to the stories we tell ourselves and each other, and notice how a single thought can generate feelings of depression, elation, anxiety or bliss. This is immense work, to sit with all the feelings, to explore, listen, discover what's here. Not once and for all, but this moment. And this moment. And this moment. This work is to see the awesome power of our habitual reflexive tendencies, and to discover that in this moment, in open listening, they do not have to continue.

Disengaging from the Ego

2006-10-16T23:12:00.000+02:00

(by unknown)

In the beginning, just try for a few moments to live without any 'I'. You are digging a hole in the earth in the garden; just dig the hole, just become the digging, and forget that "I" am doing it. Let the doer evaporate. You will perspire in the sun, and there will be no doer, and the digging will continue. And you will be surprised how divine life is if the ego can disappear even for a single moment. Taking a shower, just let the water fall on you, but don't be there as an 'I'. Relax, forget the 'I', and you will be surprised. The shower is not only cooling your body, it cools your innermost core too.

If you search, you will find so many moments in ordinary life every day when the ego can be put aside. And the joy is so great that once you have tasted it you can do it again and again. And slowly, slowly you become capable of putting it aside, unless it is absolutely necessary. And then that day of blessing also comes when you know it is not necessary at all. You say the final goodbye to it. That is your real being. Not to be is to be for the first time.