tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-67098447000342985842024-03-14T06:26:00.990+00:00Reflections: Ajahn SucittoUnknownnoreply@blogger.comBlogger94125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6709844700034298584.post-53902821035107440422024-01-30T07:11:00.002+00:002024-01-30T07:11:46.143+00:00The Pioneering Spirit<p><span style="font-family: Quattrocento;"><br /></span></p><p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhihEc_Wl8CRFj_YjF8SrQhiJDLNhnGjyy7tW_XInOfAOZshC8fVo2kQGaAphTOn1jO-Saow6ixIC26zKj4iWkcMTRf_Sg5TIvO1jcflZf_sDO8RMNmgKdSZucK9ke2fOGrzYA59VeKz566-d_78SGdCao-LgLBByIYZjEkJsIS3vlqHNIqeEGcJHw6u-0x/s5712/IMG_2404.JPG" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="4284" data-original-width="5712" height="480" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhihEc_Wl8CRFj_YjF8SrQhiJDLNhnGjyy7tW_XInOfAOZshC8fVo2kQGaAphTOn1jO-Saow6ixIC26zKj4iWkcMTRf_Sg5TIvO1jcflZf_sDO8RMNmgKdSZucK9ke2fOGrzYA59VeKz566-d_78SGdCao-LgLBByIYZjEkJsIS3vlqHNIqeEGcJHw6u-0x/w640-h480/IMG_2404.JPG" width="640" /></a></div><span style="font-family: Quattrocento;"><p><span style="font-family: Quattrocento;"><br /></span></p>I’m currently spending a month on self-retreat at the Buddhist Retreat Centre in Ixopo, Kwa-Zulu Natal, South Africa. It’s off the beaten Dhamma track of America, Europe and Asia, but that’s one of the reasons I come here. The Centre occupies about 300 acres of hill in the rural backcountry and is the most beautiful retreat centre I have come across in over 40 years of teaching. One admirable touch is the way that the centre honours the location, with its traditional thatch-roofed 'rondavels', and by offering work to local villagers - as well as through the support it gives to a social welfare organization working with AIDS orphans. </span><p></p><p><span style="font-family: Quattrocento;">I’ve been coming here since 1985 to teach – they need some support, and I’m an 'off the track' kind of person – and since then that mission has grown to include two other centres Dharmagiri and Emoyeni (and there are other places that I don't cover). They're even further off the track. And that makes it interesting. Things are fresh, and for sure there's enough suffering in South Africa to satisfy anyone's need to teach the Dhamma. Crucially, there's also enough faith for people to come, listen and practise.</span></p><p><span style="font-family: Quattrocento;">The quality of faith, as well as the material foundation of Buddha-Dhamma in South Africa, is on account of a few remarkable pioneers. In the case of the BRC, this means Louis van Loon who opened the place in the early 1980s. Louis was born in the Netherlands in 1935, but came out to South Africa after the Second World War on a migration scheme that offered free passage and 50 guilders to people to leave the Netherlands and seek their fortune overseas. Louis established himself as an award-winning architect. In the late 60’s he was working in Sri Lanka and became grievously sick, so sick that he didn’t know whether he was going to make it. Lying on a mattress soaked with his own sweat and in a semi-delirious state, he made a vow that if he could get through this illness, he'd dedicate his life to doing something for the peace and well-being of human beings. A vision arose of a hill rain-swept hill, that’s all. He recovered, returned to South Africa and with this vision in his mind felt he should start looking for property. Based in Durban, he started scanning newspapers for property, and found that there was an old farm going up for sale out in the backcountry. So he jumped in his car, picked up the estate agent and drove out there. It was pouring with rain as they drove up an overgrown and muddy dirt track and stopped at a barbed-wire fence. The estate agent pointed through the windscreen and said 'It's out there.’ Louis got out of the car, peered through the rain and dense mist and heard an inner voice say 'This is it. You've come home.''I’ll take it', he said.</span></p><p><span style="font-family: Quattrocento;">That was 1969. For the next eleven years he put his own money and labour into clearing the land, building huts, a meditation hall, a stupa, accommodation, kitchen and so on to establish a Buddhist retreat centre. In a fundamentalist Calvinist culture, this itself was a leap. Then he started looking round for teachers and invited various monks and teachers .... In 1984, an invitation was made to our sangha, and Ajahn Anando, one of the original group who accompanied Luang Por Sumedho to the UK, was sent. He ended up extending his stay to help Louis sculpt a 5 metre high Buddha-image that now presides over the Centre. I came along in 1985 to install relics in the Buddha's head and consecrate the site. Now the BRC is an established Dhamma-refuge and an accredited wildlife sanctuary – but struggling to make ends meet. The world! While hostility, distraction and consumerism remain popular and rake in millions, it's often the case that Dhamma centres with their incalculable offerings and blessings barely get by .... However, Louis heading into his 89th year, is living his last years in contentment. <i>Sadhu</i>, Louis, <i>anumodana</i>!</span></p><p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgux9P_ifaC3jaukXVkrWX1iEMyvCw1io5JxqkAIOhyxpoGhPVUAXo300Fc-iwOzIgx-jqUUfDJO1eByPEoxDduEiOIhSHcsDT_ZZNJYVGpDik1hHNxv4J7ut29wc5aL4I1fIB8o9U5QKTBZbO01k021eyAaCMVbu5dLaEFhSnqdI5Yr65Fu7kF2LrVt5av/s4032/IMG_2406.JPG" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="3024" data-original-width="4032" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgux9P_ifaC3jaukXVkrWX1iEMyvCw1io5JxqkAIOhyxpoGhPVUAXo300Fc-iwOzIgx-jqUUfDJO1eByPEoxDduEiOIhSHcsDT_ZZNJYVGpDik1hHNxv4J7ut29wc5aL4I1fIB8o9U5QKTBZbO01k021eyAaCMVbu5dLaEFhSnqdI5Yr65Fu7kF2LrVt5av/w320-h200/IMG_2406.JPG" width="320" /></a><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgTQloONN2gkO_we7x8iMNotV_odN186P3n92Js0PRk0NFGGA09plVzs3ifJJmkSxMN5L7QBzSY-kUSUsdekRG46QcLxlo27TqHnENDe9tDclenYwbtBR-B3nGvMuN3Ukx-oMssxA5QLVx-K3n1RD9o-dFjQijs_LKzBb-tHttgiD-8qxTQUulb3XmhpRKG/s4032/IMG_2423.JPG" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="4032" data-original-width="3024" height="254" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgTQloONN2gkO_we7x8iMNotV_odN186P3n92Js0PRk0NFGGA09plVzs3ifJJmkSxMN5L7QBzSY-kUSUsdekRG46QcLxlo27TqHnENDe9tDclenYwbtBR-B3nGvMuN3Ukx-oMssxA5QLVx-K3n1RD9o-dFjQijs_LKzBb-tHttgiD-8qxTQUulb3XmhpRKG/w191-h254/IMG_2423.JPG" width="191" /></a><br /></div></div><br /></div><span style="font-family: Quattrocento;">To take another example: George Sharp was working in London as a commercial artist working in advertising. Stressed. Depressed. Drinking. More depressed. One day sitting in a subway train his eyes looked out the window and saw a poster saying 'Meditation' ... that led him to a small tenement house in Hampstead ( a 'Buddhist Vihara') and a thin man in robes sitting at a desk who looked up and said 'Yes?' George said, ‘I’d like to die please.’ The bhikkhu (his name was Kapilavaddho) said ‘I think we can help you. Come along this evening, I’m giving a talk.’ So George went along to a teaching on dependent origination that mostly went straight over his head – but at the end of it he said to Ven. Kapilavaddho that as far as he could understand it, what the bhikkhu was saying was that this self that’s causing so many problems doesn’t actually exist. ‘Yes’, said Ven. Kapilavaddho,'That’s about it.'</span><p></p><p><span style="font-family: Quattrocento;">Intrigued, George became a committed meditator and supporter, and soon was the Secretary of the Trust that supported the Vihara. Ven. Kapilavaddho was already in his 70s, rather frail, and pretty soon disrobed. But after meditating all night, George came to the resolution that he would somehow dedicate his life to fulfilling what Ven. Kapilavaddho had envisioned: the establishment of a native monastic sangha in Britain. People said it couldn’t be done ... But after a few more auspicious events ( an American bhikkhu called Sumedho happened by, a woodland in West Sussex was donated, and George spent the Trust's funds on purchasing a derelict house on first glance – in the rain as usual) ... And so Cittaviveka, the first forest monastery in the West, was born.</span></p><p><span style="font-family: Quattrocento;">Many pioneers – explorers and inventors – fail; many give and lose their lives. But in terms of the human spirit, it’s the risk-taking jump in the dark with nothing more than wholesome intention and resolve that is kept alive and strengthened. This is how Dhamma was established in the world: the Awakened One, who had not yet even formulated a teaching, picked up his bowl and began a walk through the suffering world that meant offering teachings until his dying breath some 45 years later. Most of us who have Gone Forth, especially into cultures where Buddhism isn't established, draw inspiration from that example and attempt to follow it. </span></p><p><span style="font-family: Quattrocento;"><i>The mindful exert themselves. They are not attached to any home; like swans that abandon the lake, they leave home after home behind. </i>(Dhammapada 91).</span></p><p><span style="font-family: Quattrocento;">As in the example of Louis or George, or a hundred other pioneers of the spirit, the leap of faith is not limited to samanas. It is an aspect of heart that is innate in human beings; and this is why the pioneer, the one Gone Forth, attracts those with a little dust in their eyes. But the Buddha as pioneer, added a further string to his bow: with no office, secretariat, or infrastructure, he established management among a group of anarchic wandering recluses. That is, despite personally moving through the labyrinth of the human mind, despite presenting teachings that would direct a varied range of people to do the same (for over 2,500 years and across the world), he said that his work was not complete until he had encouraged the growth of the 'Four-Fold Assembly' (male and female renunciants and householders) to supervise his Dhamma-Vinaya. Yes, the Dhamma-Vinaya was to be the teacher after the Buddha's passing, but the well-practising community was to be the custodian of the Dhamma-Vinaya.</span></p><p><span style="font-family: Quattrocento;">Management and pioneering don't generally fit together very well. Pioneers are strong, sometimes stubborn, individuals; management requires co-operation and moderation of ideals to fit reality. But the Buddha was, as usual, one-pointed in this respect. After his passing there was to be no leader, no patriarch or king, just collective management. Any sangha was conjoined to meet frequently, begin the meeting in harmony, conduct business in harmony and conclude in harmony. Ethical standards were always the number one priority. Complaints and invitations from the householders, and points of conflict and controversy among the samanas were to be addressed – but measured against the standard of '<i>not abolishing what has been laid down and not creating new rules.' </i>P</span><span style="font-family: Quattrocento;">roposed a</span><span style="font-family: Quattrocento;">daptations that depend on a majority agreement can take a great deal of patience.</span></p><p><span style="font-family: Quattrocento;">However, when one reflects on other ways in which human collectives are managed, this Buddhist standard remains a pioneering example. Management requires authority, authority handles power, and power is a heady drug. In the political arena, a powerful leader may be elected, or it may be one of these staged elections – but basically ... if you want to be a leader you need megabucks and all kinds of connections with a corporate world to fund and support you (who will expect your favour), and it helps if you have a massive ego, and are prepared to tell comforting lies. Much the same can be said for the business world - it's OK to undercut and crush smaller businesses, and deal in products that are detrimental to the environment and even to the people who purchase them. Ethics are not on the agenda. Such management leads to the desert, or even the graveyard, of the human spirit. </span></p><p><span style="font-family: Quattrocento;">Management is powerful. Therefore the authority that accrues to the monastic Sangha is to be carefully oriented around a strong ethical and renunciant core. Inner strength is needed because the teachings attracts human energy, and that exposes the Sangha to worldly pressure. The Buddha numbered kings and merchants among his followers, and they supported monasteries. So, throughout history, wealth and power have washed over the Sangha – and swept away those who have been corrupted by it. Yet without well-established monasteries, how would the teachings have reached the lay community? How would texts been standardised and transmitted? For sure, corruption has occurred, and probably always will where wealth and renown accrue; hence the Buddha's exhortation on proper management details personal responsibility: ‘<i>as long as they do not fall prey to desires which arise in them and lead to rebirth … ; as long as they are devoted to forest lodgings …; as long as they preserve their personal mindfulness... </i>[the Sangha]<i> may be expected to grow and not decline.' </i></span></p><p><span style="font-family: Quattrocento;">Management that prioritizes ethics, cooperation and faith over convenience, progress and gains takes an ongoing pioneering effort. But the spirit finds its way. How the Dhamma community responded to the lockdown phase of the Covid era. How teachers and institutions just started reaching out to offer support, talks, even retreats online, all at no fee. Most, if not all, of them went into financial crisis, some barely made it, some, like BRC, are still trying to get back to financial health. We just get by, and that seems about right.</span></p><p><span style="font-family: Quattrocento;">In my situation at Cittaviveka, I'd heard of online teaching, but felt that this was not for me. How can I teach a screen? If no-one is there, where do I get the signs from the listener that guides what and how to teach? But first the Abbot asked me...and then a devoted upāsikā in Singapore reached out with her Zoom room – and within three days I was online. And haven't looked back. The culmination of a series of online sessions were the global retreats, whereby upāsikās and upāsakas across the planet, mostly having never even met before, joined together to form a support network. This tackled the problem of time differences through a group of volunteers in Singapore and Malaysia offering the room and the technical nous, and a cluster of people up in Ireland and America keeping the whole thing together, even loading recorded talks onto a Google Drive folder so that those who could not be present could tune in when they woke up in their own location. The first of these retreats gathered 540 people into a Dhamma-occasion; three more followed. It was exhausting, heartful and wonderful: great Dhamma practice, great management.</span></p><p><span style="font-family: Quattrocento;">Although the world is more highly managed than ever before, it's remote management and remote service. If you go to Pietermaritzburg, Kwa-Zulu Natal or Pittsburgh, Ohio you see the same franchises, the same shopping malls and the same styles of clothing. Place doesn't count. Looking for a service, one is directed to a website which promises support if you download this and subscribe to that... after which you may well-receive a message such as 'Support not available for this product, a newer model can be purchased here',' or 'No-one is available to receive your call, please try again.' Who knows the conditions under which those goods were produced? How about the pay the workers received? Who knows? The message and reality is that 'No one is <i>here</i>.' Meanwhile state control, and surveillance by parties unknown and unaccountable promise security. But megatons of bombs, missile and drones have not provided that; just an increase in the use of bombs, missiles and drones and the perpetuation of the astounding belief that this strategy is inevitable, necessary and conducive to peace. People take to the streets in protest, but no-one's listening. They're not <i>here</i>..</span></p><p><span style="font-family: Quattrocento;">So in such a cynical, confused and deceitful age, the pioneering spirit means keeping the human spirit alive. It doesn’t mean not having a place to live; it does mean abandoning fixed securities and the longing for certainty that hobbles initiative. It's about being prepared to step out of the socially constructed identity to ask the big questions that mortality and the miracle of being alive present. ‘Where are we going, and how?’</span></p><p><span style="font-family: Quattrocento;">The BRC arranged for a taxi to collect me at Durban airport; there is no public transport. The Zulu driver opened the back door for me to get in, but I chose the front seat. It's his country; I make myself available. He looked life-worn and tired, but after a few minutes of silence, opened the conversation. His name was Prince. As he spelled out in his own earthy terms, things aren't good. A growing number of people are disillusioned with the ANC (the ruling party. 'They're just looking after themselves, not the country. It was better before (in the apartheid era)'. I've heard this before, but it's still difficult to swallow. Recently Durban had no water supply for four days. On highways busy with trucks, we pass by the usual high-density clusters of tin-roofed single story huts. No roads in the settlement, just footpaths. Kids running around, laundry flapping on the fences. Prince asks about me, and I talk about life in the monastery: everything shared, guests come to stay, no fees. No lying, no fighting. 'Come and live here,' says Prince, 'More people should live like you.' </span></p><p><span style="font-family: Quattrocento;">It's all familiar and sad; another pioneering movement that lost its way. We take a back road, then a dirt track and get to the BRC. The Centre has maintained its ethos through apartheid, the bloody conflicts between Inkatha and ANC, and the AIDS epidemic, and is still managing as South African infrastructure and optimism sag under corporate criminality. We climb out of the car and I give Prince a hug; he responds with a big smile. Sometimes it seems that's all one can do. It's good to be <i>here</i>.</span></p><p><span style="font-family: Quattrocento;">*See <a href="http://www.brcixopo.co.za/">Buddhist Retreat Centre</a> for details.</span></p><p><span style="font-family: Quattrocento;"><br /></span></p><p><span style="font-family: Quattrocento;"><br /></span></p><p><span style="font-family: Quattrocento;"><br /></span></p><p><br /></p>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6709844700034298584.post-23357754101580847392023-12-24T12:33:00.006+00:002023-12-25T03:35:22.762+00:00Conquering the Conqueror<p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhem5ZKMrHFtQCgKesazaNDziNWu_BHAV9E60xO4k_KbgbvwE48dN3HVn3jP9GkWWhshy4QxKoiDPUT3SfAwdMq9-YR30Jk05_uU3Tzipt51e8QPAasCTOrePpZZtk1I8UoUV8NSC2n7rIC6WBj_xzacj-9QIM7kQnru2svEg-t-8XGge64B0IohnsVNjGA/s720/victory-column-5548503_960_720.jpeg" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="720" data-original-width="479" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhem5ZKMrHFtQCgKesazaNDziNWu_BHAV9E60xO4k_KbgbvwE48dN3HVn3jP9GkWWhshy4QxKoiDPUT3SfAwdMq9-YR30Jk05_uU3Tzipt51e8QPAasCTOrePpZZtk1I8UoUV8NSC2n7rIC6WBj_xzacj-9QIM7kQnru2svEg-t-8XGge64B0IohnsVNjGA/w266-h400/victory-column-5548503_960_720.jpeg" width="266" /></a></div><div><span style="font-family: Quattrocento;">If you're in the historic centre of Berlin, and you stroll through the beautiful Tiergarten park, you're bound to notice a landmark statue, a golden figure on top of a column called Siegessäule (The Victory Column). The figure is called 'Victory' but local people call her 'Goldelse' – 'Golden Lizzie'. Lizzie was put on her plinth in 1873, to commemorate the series of military victories by the Prussian kingdom that culminated in the Franco-Prussian war of 1870-1. This caused the end of the French Second Empire and unified the German states under Prussian leadership. At that time, this conflict was the most recent in the various wars that had been going on since the tenth century after Charlemagne divided his empire into three. Nowadays we have the Netherlands, Belgium, Luxembourg, Germany and France, but for centuries it was a fluid collage of territories, much like much the rest of Europe, in which shifting borders defined areas of influence and relationships rather than embracing distinct nationalities. </span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhl2Bb6knI6lJ38ICgmxOAXmm65k72JkIsdEbu3obSVFKP08YzCsPvfv90GunVGjKHHpc74O1aUlB8mv_vo5Ym4w_srX3N1qEyzaEPWqHhHhSd2QuSWAcauyS6T4IXumcFbqLtgsej_sP9lpPm5_LevcwFQAqrz6H7_phf_5GejPH2qpTz5GfaARqkfuF-q/s4032/IMG_2148.jpeg" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="3024" data-original-width="4032" height="300" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhl2Bb6knI6lJ38ICgmxOAXmm65k72JkIsdEbu3obSVFKP08YzCsPvfv90GunVGjKHHpc74O1aUlB8mv_vo5Ym4w_srX3N1qEyzaEPWqHhHhSd2QuSWAcauyS6T4IXumcFbqLtgsej_sP9lpPm5_LevcwFQAqrz6H7_phf_5GejPH2qpTz5GfaARqkfuF-q/w400-h300/IMG_2148.jpeg" width="400" /></a><span style="font-family: Quattrocento;"><div style="text-align: left;">If you walk down the straight boulevard from the Victory Column past the Brandenburg Gate along Unter den Linden for about 10 minutes, you'll come across a single story building on the left hand side with Greek Corinthian columns. It's called the Neue Wache, the memorial to the war dead. It's a simple building, consisting of a grey tiled hall, with grey walls and light descending from the ceiling over one black statue – which is the sole item in the room. At first glance, the statue seems to be of a sack, but you quickly realize it is the figure of a seated hooded woman. Look more closely and you see she is cradling a skinny male. It's a statue by Käthe Kollwitz called 'Mother with a Dead Son'. Kollwitz was a committed and outspoken pacifist all her life and she created this statue in 1937/8 in memory of her son – who had died in the First World War. Ostracized by the Nazis, she died a few weeks before the end of the last pan-European conflict, the Second World War. Now the statue has been deliberately placed as a reminder – and the straight line of the boulevard that links it to Golden Lizzie amplifies the message: victory means that one side is crushed, and on that side, the mothers and wives are in mourning and the nation is shattered. </div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;"><div>The victory paradigm is however showered with lustre and glory. In fact history is depicted in terms of its conquering kings and emperors: Alexander the Great, Genghiz Khan, Tamerlane, and, in Europe, by the would-be conquerors of its heartland: Charles V, Louis XIV, Napoleon, Kaiser Wilhelm and Hitler. The scenario played out with one side achieving domination and crushing the other, then a reversal of the process. This went on for centuries with increasing devastation. And then as the conqueror fell and the empires crumbled into dust and pain, ordinary people picked themselves up, raised their kids, fed the chickens and got back to work. The daily history of people the world over. </div><div><br /></div><div>Thankfully it seems that this particular zone of conflict has cooled down – due to the post-war determination to found the EU, soften the borders and increase cooperation. What will it take for the borders of Russia to follow suit? Is it even possible for there to be a more cooperative relationship between Israel, the Palestinian statelets and the Arab world around them? Maybe this could begin with a collective day of mourning... then a day when the women of all sides grieved together... "Mother with Dead Son' presents a more realistic image of war than Golden Lizzie. Through such a mutual acknowledgement of our common pain and fear, the current devastation could have a similar effect as the Second World War and urge a peaceful resolution.</div><div><br /></div><div>This year as always, the dominator model is in full swing. The headline focus is on Ukraine and Gaza, but let's not forget, Yemen, Ethiopia, Sudan and a number of conflicted states in Africa. China is arising as a dominant power, much to the irritation and concern of the current chief dominator, the United States, where a classic dominator candidate for presidency is gaining support, even though he's on trial for a range of criminal offences – including supporting insurrection. Domination, with its simplistic logic, is a popular theme: the strong man will 'fix things', quickly. How? By the use of military and financial power. This is supported by an increasing polarisation of 'us and those outsiders', that relies upon religious, ideological or mythic 'nationalist' views. Resentment and blame for those who have been deemed to be on the 'other side' (even within the nation) are stirred up, and that supports heavy policing and overriding of the constitution, and of course, ethics. It was a strategy popularised by Hitler, but it has not gone out of date. </div><div><br /></div><div>Domination is in fact the thing that needs to be fixed. It's based on an unawakened response to uncertainty and diversity: the ignorant <i>citta</i> reacts by demanding hard and permanent solutions, fixed boundaries, and simple strategies that will defend it against changing conditions that it can never control. Based on the incapacity and insecurity that ignorance brings, the <i>citta</i> projects 'the other' out there as being the source of its own problem. Losing touch with its ability to be fluid, heartful and ethically secure, the <i>citta</i> concocts various distorted messages: 'They'll take over, they'll take your livelihood, rape your women, defile your national identity.' The narratives of resentment and prejudice present some other group as depriving or threatening you. Even when the opposite is true. As an obvious example, throughout the history of what was called 'Christendom' one of the fall-back strategies has been to blame, kill or expel the Jews whose industry and intelligence supported trade and finance, and whose culture formed part of the rich fabric of Europe. The Islamic Ottomans could hardly believe their luck when the medieval Spanish monarchs expelled a Jewish population that had lived in Spain for 700 years – those damnable Turks promptly welcomed the Jews as a means to revive their failing economy. Meanwhile, there is no record of Jews ever presenting a threat to a nation; in general, they have contributed to it. </div><div><br /></div><div>As another example, take Brexit and its slogan 'Take back control': European centres of finance have prospered as London was shot in the foot by this outbreak of British nationalism. (The fact remains that most of the 'national' UK wealth and resources continues to be controlled by non-British entities.) But facts are useless in the face of the blend of insecurity and the lust for supremacy. Hence indigenous people, women, Brussels Eurocrats, negroes, Communists - any identity can be created to justify the fear, insecurity and consequent reactions that are founded on the bedrock assumption that we have to conquer and subjugate to survive. But get this: humanity thrived, thrives and is fulfilled by working together; otherwise, our species would have been exterminated during African prehistory.</div><div><br /></div><div>The case is that, the dominator (and their team) themselves represent a greater threat to their supine population because (Mao or Stalin are supreme examples) they have to dominate everyone – including their erstwhile supporters. The reality of other people being much like me is blocked by the fantasy-projections of the other that the dominator despises or feels threatened by: fantasies born of their own psychological afflictions and trauma. These are self-glorifying, identity providing – and insatiably addictive. In this way domination becomes a drug. You can see that play out in politics (no-one can own any territory, why harden borders and seize more land?) and in financial terms ( when you have $10billion, why do you need more?).</div><div><br /></div><div>Security? How can aggression and inequality create a world free from hostility, fear and resentment? </div><div><br /></div><div>Supremacy? In our attempt to conquer Nature, we mangle the delicate biological mechanisms that maintain life. We exterminate bees with pesticides although we have no way of pollinating plants to produce fruit. Our negligence and stubborn resistance to acting in harmony with the biosphere is generating climate and environmental changes that threaten to heat the planet to a point that profoundly challenges our survival. Supreme arrogance: it's the problem of self-view.</div><div><br /></div><div>So in the long run, domination defeats itself. The empires crumble. So far the Russia-Ukraine conflict has only served to unify the diverse Ukrainian peoples and draw them closer to the European heartland, and to ramp up support for NATO. The Israel-Gaza conflict has isolated Israel, added to the trauma carried by Jews the world over and increased support for the Palestinian people - despite the atrocities committed by Hamas. </div><div><br /></div><div>Is there a solution? </div><div><br /></div><div>'Cultivate; investigate, purify and release the<i> citta</i> from self-view,' has to be the starting point. When you enter your true territory, the domain of heart-consciousness, you get the message. In your intimate territory, control and domination don't work. You can't even control your thoughts and emotions. You don't even own this body. Here there are no hard borders - everything permeates you from the air you breathe to the memories that well up in your mind. You have to co-operate, forgive and allow inner changes that defy your identity. You learn to give up craving for simplistic, 'me and my group' solutions and fixed positons. Instead there can be an acceptance of life’s uncertainties and frustrations rather than feeling threatened by them. As we stop projecting our personal failings and dissatisfactions outward, we see otherness as a basis for increased understanding and even wonder. A love based on the miracle of sharing life gets born, and a relationship based on harmony rather than coercion. </div><div><br /></div><div>The great conquest then is the conquest over self-view. This has always been the teaching and the Way of the supremely awakened ones.</div></div></span><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhl2Bb6knI6lJ38ICgmxOAXmm65k72JkIsdEbu3obSVFKP08YzCsPvfv90GunVGjKHHpc74O1aUlB8mv_vo5Ym4w_srX3N1qEyzaEPWqHhHhSd2QuSWAcauyS6T4IXumcFbqLtgsej_sP9lpPm5_LevcwFQAqrz6H7_phf_5GejPH2qpTz5GfaARqkfuF-q/s4032/IMG_2148.jpeg" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><br /></a></div><p></p>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6709844700034298584.post-40904283744666093482023-09-11T16:01:00.006+00:002023-09-27T13:48:56.214+00:00Questions and Answers: In and Out of the Ego-tunnel<p style="text-align: left;"><br /></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 22.4px; margin: 0cm;"></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEia3orf3uVOrPYT9eMj_X4XW60-nhKS0uKxmtc0CkttNk__C6zgLQTmXL2qxk7HaPYFrFRNKLaVDcizAXyq5ieZ1cF-xXoo3m2hQa1agA2fn8nl9rb4Rf2KG6E0m2ehwH5pNh1q6UE8AgQ7x1JOw5ljrVse_cSU8U1nJueKUoBKDrQyxJ2nzKxy4XrPe-sH/s1600/VImutti%20Buddha%20night.JPEG" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1600" data-original-width="900" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEia3orf3uVOrPYT9eMj_X4XW60-nhKS0uKxmtc0CkttNk__C6zgLQTmXL2qxk7HaPYFrFRNKLaVDcizAXyq5ieZ1cF-xXoo3m2hQa1agA2fn8nl9rb4Rf2KG6E0m2ehwH5pNh1q6UE8AgQ7x1JOw5ljrVse_cSU8U1nJueKUoBKDrQyxJ2nzKxy4XrPe-sH/w217-h400/VImutti%20Buddha%20night.JPEG" width="217" /></a></div><p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 22.4px; margin: 0cm;"><i><span style="background: repeat white; color: #202124; font-size: 11pt; letter-spacing: 0.15pt; line-height: 20.533335px;"><span style="font-family: Quattrocento;">These are questions taken from my Dhamma Tracks page. The responses may back up the ongoing reflections around Dependent Origination.<o:p></o:p></span></span></i></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 22.4px; margin: 0cm;"><span style="background: repeat white; color: #202124; font-size: 11pt; letter-spacing: 0.15pt; line-height: 20.533335px;"><o:p><span style="font-family: Quattrocento;"> </span></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 22.4px; margin: 0cm;"><span style="background: repeat white; color: #202124; font-size: 11pt; letter-spacing: 0.15pt; line-height: 20.533335px;"><span style="font-family: Quattrocento;">*****<o:p></o:p></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 22.4px; margin: 0cm;"><span style="background: repeat white; color: #202124; font-size: 11pt; letter-spacing: 0.15pt; line-height: 20.533335px;"><span><span style="font-family: helvetica;">Why is our experience inextricably linked to our body and its place in the world?</span><span style="font-family: Quattrocento;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 22.4px; margin: 0cm;"><span style="background: repeat white; color: #202124; font-size: 11pt; letter-spacing: 0.15pt; line-height: 20.533335px;"><o:p><span style="font-family: Quattrocento;"> </span></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 22.4px; margin: 0cm;"><span style="background: repeat white; color: #202124; font-size: 11pt; letter-spacing: 0.15pt; line-height: 20.533335px;"><span style="font-family: Quattrocento;">*<o:p></o:p></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 22.4px; margin: 0cm;"><span style="background: repeat white; color: #202124; font-size: 11pt; letter-spacing: 0.15pt; line-height: 20.533335px;"><span style="font-family: Quattrocento;">Well, we’re alive. What does that mean? Animate, sensitive, growing, moving, participating in a context whereby we breathe what’s around us, consume it and are made conscious by it. Consciousness is an intelligence that serves the animate being (me) by reporting on what’s happening around and within it. So our experience has external and internal aspects, it’s <i>viññāṇa</i>, a dualistic awareness that presents experience as a ‘world’ (get to that later) and a ‘self’ experiencing it (better get to that later too). It separates into subject and object. Its program (<i>saṅkhāra</i>) is to maintain the life and coherence of a separate living being. That is – ‘see <i>this </i>so that <i>you</i> know what to <i>do</i> about it’. In the Buddha’s analysis, consciousness is dependent on ‘form’ (<i>rūpa</i>) – that is, something detected by a sense base. Because of the eye, we experience a visible world – if there’s nothing to see, visual consciousness is inert. But what that visible form looks <i>like</i> depends on the kind of consciousness we have – we don’t see what a butterfly sees. Furthermore, mental consciousness adds naming (<i>nāma) – </i> various programs that determine what we attend to and how we respond to form. What is New York like to a Congolese pigmy? And if I walk through a tropical forest with a native person, I just see trees, but she/he ‘sees’ something far more intricate and vivid. So <i>nāma </i>adds a further degree of subjectivity to ‘my world’ – in fact ‘naming’ shapes the ‘me’ bit of any experience. <o:p></o:p></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 22.4px; margin: 0cm;"><span style="background: repeat white; color: #202124; font-size: 11pt; letter-spacing: 0.15pt; line-height: 20.533335px;"><o:p><span style="font-family: Quattrocento;"> </span></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 22.4px; margin: 0cm;"><span style="background: repeat white; color: #202124; font-size: 11pt; letter-spacing: 0.15pt; line-height: 20.533335px;"><span style="font-family: Quattrocento;">Moreover, consciousness itself depends on a sensory form (aka body) as a platform. It seems separate, but actually it’s inextricably linked to name and form, self and world.<o:p></o:p></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 22.4px; margin: 0cm;"><span style="background: repeat white; color: #202124; font-size: 11pt; letter-spacing: 0.15pt; line-height: 20.533335px;"><o:p><span style="font-family: Quattrocento;"> </span></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 22.4px; margin: 0cm;"><span style="background: repeat white; color: #202124; font-size: 11pt; letter-spacing: 0.15pt; line-height: 20.533335px;"><span style="font-family: Quattrocento;">All this weave is further complicated by the fact that consciousness operates through not one but six senses – seeing, hearing, smelling, tasting, touching, and conceiving. That sequence presents an increasing sense of involvement and intimacy, but they all refer to the living body. Seeing places the world at a distance in front of our body, with hearing it’s around us, then we experience being entered (by smell and taste) and wrapped (by skin) and eventually tossed around in and creating a world that extends through time (by mind). These various sensory messages don’t add up to anything cohesive (and we need a coherent reality in order to function) but mind weaves a few aspects of sense-data and subjective impressions into a workable model – complete with preferences, assumptions, and blind-spots, and we are shaped by all this. Thus we ‘become’ (<i>bhava</i>) an individual self, constantly busy weaving and being bound to ‘my world’. But the self that is created has tunnel vision, it forms in the ‘ego-tunnel’ of ‘my world’ with its self-view.<o:p></o:p></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 22.4px; margin: 0cm;"><span style="background: repeat white; color: #202124; font-size: 11pt; letter-spacing: 0.15pt; line-height: 20.533335px;"><o:p><span style="font-family: Quattrocento;"> </span></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 22.4px; margin: 0cm;"><span style="background: repeat white; color: #202124; font-size: 11pt; letter-spacing: 0.15pt; line-height: 20.533335px;"><span style="font-family: Quattrocento;">This tunnel is largely mind-made. Mind-consciousness (<i>mano-viññāṇa</i>) both overrides the bodily sense with its receptivity and responsive energies, and holds the body to be a vehicle, a kind of donkey, or a robot with awkward pains and flushes. Thus mind extricates the ‘me bit’ into an autonomous self that pretends it’s separate from the body and indeed the rest of creation, while dominating and consuming it. Thinking depends on embodied energy, and just as we consume and devastate the planet because we assume we’re not part of it (and yet are affected by that devastation), so we ignorantly consume and devastate our bodily energies. Hence the domination and exploitation paradigm has dire consequences: externally there is climate-crisis, pollution, and bio-extinction – and internally there’s stress, anxiety, depression and mental illness. It’s an inextricable cosmos. We have to be touched by it and handle all of it (internal, external) with respect.<o:p></o:p></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 22.4px; margin: 0cm;"><span style="background: repeat white; color: #202124; font-size: 11pt; letter-spacing: 0.15pt; line-height: 20.533335px;"><o:p><span style="font-family: Quattrocento;"> </span></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 22.4px; margin: 0cm;"><span style="background: repeat white; color: #202124; font-size: 11pt; letter-spacing: 0.15pt; line-height: 20.533335px;"><span style="font-family: Quattrocento;">But … there is a way out of the world –<i> </i>in this very body. (see A.4:45). So be careful of exclusion. The way to where ‘my world’ ceases is through gaining perspective on and dispassion around <i>nāma</i>. You do this by sensing how <i>nāma</i> affects your body, through focusing and stimulating (or suppressing) the somatic energies that act as a basis for consciousness. Huh? For example, what does craving feel like in your body? And how about ill-will? Or gratitude, or joy? Two of these impulses twist you up, two give you openness and ease. Bad and good kamma. Like that, you’re going to feel craving and aversion for the poisons that they are, and work on reducing them. And you’re going to incline towards the good stuff. Your inner body can relax compulsive impulses and widen attention into a more receptive mode; it can step out of the ego-tunnel to the end of ‘my world’. That internal process has external consequences. <o:p></o:p></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 22.4px; margin: 0cm;"><span style="background: repeat white; color: #202124; font-size: 11pt; letter-spacing: 0.15pt; line-height: 20.533335px;"><o:p><span style="font-family: Quattrocento;"> </span></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 22.4px; margin: 0cm;"><span style="background: repeat white; color: #202124; font-size: 11pt; letter-spacing: 0.15pt; line-height: 20.533335px;"><span style="font-family: Quattrocento;">However, let’s avoid getting upset or excited about our internal stuff; it’s just conditioned by consciousness, don’t claim it. Let good and bad move through – and you can do that by tracking these energies in your body. So there’s no need to create an identity. Just be in a shared world with conscience and concern, and tune in to the gift and grace of that.<o:p></o:p></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 22.4px; margin: 0cm;"><span style="background: repeat white; color: #202124; font-size: 11pt; letter-spacing: 0.15pt; line-height: 20.533335px;"><o:p><span style="font-family: Quattrocento;"> </span></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 22.4px; margin: 0cm;"><span style="background: repeat white; color: #202124; font-size: 11pt; letter-spacing: 0.15pt; line-height: 20.533335px;"><span style="font-family: Quattrocento;">*****</span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 22.4px; margin: 0cm;"><span style="background: repeat white; color: #202124; font-size: 11pt; letter-spacing: 0.15pt; line-height: 20.533335px;"><span style="font-family: helvetica;">…some advice on settling the mind, developing <i>samādhi</i>, when breathing meditation (due to chronic illness) is very difficult. I also find breathing meditation makes me more tense and tight! <o:p></o:p></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 22.4px; margin: 0cm;"><span style="background: repeat white; color: #202124; font-size: 11pt; letter-spacing: 0.15pt; line-height: 20.533335px;"><o:p><span style="font-family: helvetica;"> </span></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 22.4px; margin: 0cm;"><span style="background: repeat white; color: #202124; font-size: 11pt; letter-spacing: 0.15pt; line-height: 20.533335px;"><span style="font-family: Quattrocento;">*<o:p></o:p></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 22.4px; margin: 0cm;"><span style="background: repeat white; color: #202124; font-size: 11pt; letter-spacing: 0.15pt; line-height: 20.533335px;"><span style="font-family: Quattrocento;">There are several processes that support true cultivation of heart: goodwill, moral sensitivity, restraint – and mindfulness of body. For what we call ‘meditation’, or the <i>samādhi</i> aspect of cultivation, the Buddha says that mindfulness of body is essential – see my remarks above. To cultivate this fully, we are encouraged to be aware of the body in bodily terms (<i>kaya kaye</i>). In its own terms, the body’s intelligence is one of externally feeling sensations and internally feeling somatic energies (tension, ease, balance, dis-ease and so on). So your job is to get these felt domains settled and comfortable: that’s <i>samādhi</i> practice. In detail it begins by being receptive to whether the body feels safe and settled with what’s around it. And also that its internal somatic presence is not pushed or overridden by the mind’s wishes to daydream, plan or even </span></span><span style="background-color: white; caret-color: rgb(32, 33, 36); color: #202124; font-family: Quattrocento; font-size: 14.666667px; letter-spacing: 0.2px;">get into </span><i style="color: #202124; font-family: Quattrocento; font-size: 11pt; letter-spacing: 0.15pt;">samādhi</i><span style="background-color: white; color: #202124; font-family: Quattrocento; font-size: 11pt; letter-spacing: 0.15pt;">. If you cultivate balance and sensitivity in bodily terms and restrain the mind’s notions, an aspect of breathing will probably come to the fore. Don’t prejudge the meditation; don’t seek the breath, don’t focus on a point where you want the breathing to be; just be receptive to how breathing happens for you, get interested in it and enjoy its life-sustaining presence. </span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 22.4px; margin: 0cm;"><span style="background: repeat white; color: #202124; font-size: 11pt; letter-spacing: 0.15pt; line-height: 20.533335px;"><o:p><span style="font-family: Quattrocento;"> </span></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 22.4px; margin: 0cm;"><span style="background: repeat white; color: #202124; font-size: 11pt; letter-spacing: 0.15pt; line-height: 20.533335px;"><span style="font-family: Quattrocento;">If the breathing doesn’t come to the fore, sustain your mindfulness of the body as a whole unit, bounded by skin – its subtly tingling felt boundary. You can walk, sit, stand or recline with mindfulness of the body. When sustained mindfulness settles, and clears imbalance in the body, it ripens into ease – and this is <i>samādhi.</i><o:p></o:p></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 22.4px; margin: 0cm;"><span style="background: repeat white; color: #202124; font-size: 11pt; letter-spacing: 0.15pt; line-height: 20.533335px;"><o:p><span style="font-family: Quattrocento;"> </span></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 22.4px; margin: 0cm;"><span style="background: repeat white; color: #202124; font-size: 11pt; letter-spacing: 0.15pt; line-height: 20.533335px;"><span style="font-family: Quattrocento;">*****<o:p></o:p></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 22.4px; margin: 0cm;"><span style="background: repeat white; color: #202124; font-size: 11pt; letter-spacing: 0.15pt; line-height: 20.533335px;"><span style="font-family: helvetica;">[In a talk] You say ‘...bring attention to the place where the neck enters the skull.’ Why that place as a platform and prelude to resting in the heart?<o:p></o:p></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 22.4px; margin: 0cm;"><span style="background: repeat white; color: #202124; font-size: 11pt; letter-spacing: 0.15pt; line-height: 20.533335px;"><o:p><span style="font-family: helvetica;"> </span></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 22.4px; margin: 0cm;"><span style="background: repeat white; color: #202124; font-size: 11pt; letter-spacing: 0.15pt; line-height: 20.533335px;"><span style="font-family: Quattrocento;">*<o:p></o:p></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 22.4px; margin: 0cm;"><span style="background: repeat white; color: #202124; font-size: 11pt; letter-spacing: 0.15pt; line-height: 20.533335px;"><span style="font-family: Quattrocento;">This was probably a guided meditation where I was encouraging awareness to immerse the body. I imagine there were quite a few pointers in that talk, so this neck/skull area is not the only point, but it is one of the points where tension arises and the body’s interoceptive sense separates the head from the rest of the body. <o:p></o:p></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 22.4px; margin: 0cm;"><span style="background: repeat white; color: #202124; font-size: 11pt; letter-spacing: 0.15pt; line-height: 20.533335px;"><o:p><span style="font-family: Quattrocento;"> </span></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 22.4px; margin: 0cm;"><span style="background: repeat white; color: #202124; font-size: 11pt; letter-spacing: 0.15pt; line-height: 20.533335px;"><span style="font-family: Quattrocento;">This sense of the head being separate from the rest of the body is normal – most people experience themselves as living somewhere behind the eyes – but this isn’t true. Moreover it creates an imbalance. The head is always looking down on the body, directing it, critiquing it, and assuming control over experiences that are not in its domain – such as breathing (which is a whole-body experience, powered by the abdominal and thoracic tissues). The separation is dependent on a lot of energy being gathered and consumed in the head (face, forehead, jaw). This can result in headaches and neck tension. Tension = too much energy locked up in too small an area.<o:p></o:p></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 22.4px; margin: 0cm;"><span style="background: repeat white; color: #202124; font-size: 11pt; letter-spacing: 0.15pt; line-height: 20.533335px;"><span style="font-family: Quattrocento;"> <o:p></o:p></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 22.4px; margin: 0cm;"><span style="background: repeat white; color: #202124; font-size: 11pt; letter-spacing: 0.15pt; line-height: 20.533335px;"><span style="font-family: Quattrocento;">Necks are often tilted forward over a work surface and thereby carry the weight of the skull at an angle. So the neck muscles get tight; therefore energy can’t flow through. If energy can’t flow through, it can’t release and refresh. So energy remains bottled up in the head (= excessive thinking). <o:p></o:p></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 22.4px; margin: 0cm;"><span style="background: repeat white; color: #202124; font-size: 11pt; letter-spacing: 0.15pt; line-height: 20.533335px;"><o:p><span style="font-family: Quattrocento;"> </span></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 22.4px; margin: 0cm;"><span style="background: repeat white; color: #202124; font-size: 11pt; letter-spacing: 0.15pt; line-height: 20.533335px;"><span style="font-family: Quattrocento;">If we can spread some soft, receptive awareness around the juncture of the head and skull, this supports a relaxing and a release of an energetic bottleneck. (The body has a few of these: throat, solar plexus, lower abdomen for example.) A wide and sympathetic awareness brings a corresponding energy to bear. I imagine that was the theme of the meditation. It certainly should be.<o:p></o:p></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 22.4px; margin: 0cm;"><span style="background: repeat white; color: #202124; font-size: 11pt; letter-spacing: 0.15pt; line-height: 20.533335px;"><o:p><span style="font-family: Quattrocento;"> </span></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 22.4px; margin: 0cm;"><span style="background: repeat white; color: #202124; font-size: 11pt; letter-spacing: 0.15pt; line-height: 20.533335px;"><span style="font-family: Quattrocento;">*****<o:p></o:p></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 22.4px; margin: 0cm;"><span style="background: repeat white; color: #202124; font-size: 11pt; letter-spacing: 0.15pt; line-height: 20.533335px;"><o:p><span style="font-family: Quattrocento;"> </span></o:p></span><span style="background-color: white; color: #202124; font-family: helvetica; font-size: 11pt; letter-spacing: 0.15pt;">When working with </span><i style="color: #202124; font-family: helvetica; font-size: 11pt; letter-spacing: 0.15pt;">vitakka</i><span style="background-color: white; color: #202124; font-family: helvetica; font-size: 11pt; letter-spacing: 0.15pt;">, a sense of buried "guilt" arises and sometimes the origin is identified and related to past lapse of judgment, wrong view, poor ethical choices that affected not only myself but others. But the problem is now when I interact or relate to others out of this feeling of guilt. It feels anxious, regretful and stifling. Could you elaborate on the Buddha's teachings on guilt?</span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 22.4px; margin: 0cm;"><span style="background: repeat white; color: #202124; font-size: 11pt; letter-spacing: 0.15pt; line-height: 20.533335px;"><o:p><span style="font-family: Quattrocento;"> </span></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 22.4px; margin: 0cm;"><span style="background: repeat white; color: #202124; font-size: 11pt; letter-spacing: 0.15pt; line-height: 20.533335px;"><span style="font-family: Quattrocento;">*<o:p></o:p></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 22.4px; margin: 0cm;"><span style="font-family: Quattrocento;"><span style="background: repeat white; color: #202124; font-size: 11pt; letter-spacing: 0.15pt; line-height: 20.533335px;">The heart (<i>citta</i>) is a receptive experience that is attuned to bringing us into harmony. Harmony occurs when it senses a wholesome rapport internally and externally. This involves ethical sensitivity: my actions and intentions are not oppressing or abusing what’s around me, and they are not oppressing or abusing my heart. However due to ignorance and craving, actions and intentions do go astray and the result is a bruised heart – and I am barely aware of it at first. Reviewing that and how it happened brings the experience of remorse (</span><i><span style="background: repeat white; color: #232629; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 20.533335px;">vippatisāra</span></i><span class="apple-converted-space"><span style="background: repeat white; color: #232629; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 20.533335px;">)</span></span><span style="background: repeat white; color: #202124; font-size: 11pt; letter-spacing: 0.15pt; line-height: 20.533335px;">. This is regarded as healthy – we’re waking up, and learning; so remorse encourages ‘conscience and concern’ (<i>hiri-ottappa</i>) and increased mindfulness. The oppressive quality you call ‘guilt’ comes when there is identification with the unskilful action: one becomes the disease rather than the patient. This is an aspect of the hindrance of worry – </span><i><span style="background: repeat white; color: #232629; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 20.533335px;">udhacca-kukkucca</span></i><span style="background: repeat white; color: #232629; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 20.533335px;">; it’s not skilful remorse. </span><span style="background: repeat white; color: #202124; font-size: 11pt; letter-spacing: 0.15pt; line-height: 20.533335px;"> The foundation for this stuck state is the mechanism called clinging. This bonds the heart to a mental state and supports shaping an identity out of it. ‘Shaping’ means one becomes that state. Hence the heart is trapped in a painful ego-tunnel. <o:p></o:p></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 22.4px; margin: 0cm;"><span style="background: repeat white; color: #202124; font-size: 11pt; letter-spacing: 0.15pt; line-height: 20.533335px;"><o:p><span style="font-family: Quattrocento;"> </span></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 22.4px; margin: 0cm;"><span style="background: repeat white; color: #202124; font-size: 11pt; letter-spacing: 0.15pt; line-height: 20.533335px;"><span style="font-family: Quattrocento;">The long-term project is to not create a tunnel in the first place – to witness skilful states as skilful states, gifts not belongings; and unskilful states as diseases. States arise from causes and conditions, not some solid self. Do you see where states arise from? For many people the origin of their mental content is a blur. Hence one needs the insight wisdom of meditation to get clear about this.<o:p></o:p></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 22.4px; margin: 0cm;"><span style="background: repeat white; color: #202124; font-size: 11pt; letter-spacing: 0.15pt; line-height: 20.533335px;"><o:p><span style="font-family: Quattrocento;"> </span></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 22.4px; margin: 0cm;"><span style="background: repeat white; color: #202124; font-size: 11pt; letter-spacing: 0.15pt; line-height: 20.533335px;"><span style="font-family: Quattrocento;">The more immediate response to remorse is to acknowledge any error, and refrain from actions that you see as contributing to that error. Then to cultivate the healing energies of good will.<o:p></o:p></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 22.4px; margin: 0cm;"><span style="background: repeat white; color: #202124; font-size: 11pt; letter-spacing: 0.15pt; line-height: 20.533335px;"><o:p><span style="font-family: Quattrocento;"> </span></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 22.4px; margin: 0cm;"><span style="background: repeat white; color: #202124; font-size: 11pt; letter-spacing: 0.15pt; line-height: 20.533335px;"><span style="font-family: Quattrocento;">However, it can also be the case that one feels ‘neurotically’ guilty – one experiences guilt based on a personality profile. One’s personality is shaped by relational causes and conditions, and if one’s upbringing and social conditioning is one of feeling unworthy and needing to work hard to win approval, the <i>citta</i> is starved of the good will that should give it a healthy shape. So one feels ‘at fault’ and ‘needing to be better’ in any relationship. In such an ego-tunnel, it’s easy to feel that ‘the fault is mine’ in any scenario, because the sense of ‘I am at fault’ is a shaping condition in one’s personality structure. <o:p></o:p></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 22.4px; margin: 0cm;"><span style="background: repeat white; color: #202124; font-size: 11pt; letter-spacing: 0.15pt; line-height: 20.533335px;"><span style="font-family: Quattrocento;"><br />Here again, the steady and deep practice of good will is needed. Allowing yourself to be as you are is good-will. This doesn’t mean that everything you <i>do </i>is OK, but that you <i>are </i>OK and can learn from errors rather than be burdened by them.<o:p></o:p></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 22.4px; margin: 0cm;"><span style="background: repeat white; color: #202124; font-size: 11pt; letter-spacing: 0.15pt; line-height: 20.533335px;"><o:p><span style="font-family: Quattrocento;"> </span></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 22.4px; margin: 0cm;"><span style="background: repeat white; color: #202124; font-size: 11pt; letter-spacing: 0.15pt; line-height: 20.533335px;"><span style="font-family: Quattrocento;">***** <o:p></o:p></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 22.4px; margin: 0cm;"><span style="background: repeat white; color: #202124; font-size: 11pt; letter-spacing: 0.15pt; line-height: 20.533335px;"><span style="font-family: helvetica;">As I listen to your Dhamma teachings during the rains retreat the message is there is no self. But throughout daily activities it is difficult to remember this… .Is the self the personality, the tangled thread of karma? There remains confusion with giving & receiving Metta. <o:p></o:p></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 22.4px; margin: 0cm;"><span style="background: repeat white; color: #202124; font-size: 11pt; letter-spacing: 0.15pt; line-height: 20.533335px;"><o:p><span style="font-family: helvetica;"> </span></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 22.4px; margin: 0cm;"><span style="background: repeat white; color: #202124; font-size: 11pt; letter-spacing: 0.15pt; line-height: 20.533335px;"><span style="font-family: Quattrocento;">*<o:p></o:p></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 22.4px; margin: 0cm;"><span style="background: repeat white; color: #202124; font-size: 11pt; letter-spacing: 0.15pt; line-height: 20.533335px;"><span style="font-family: Quattrocento;">I’d adjust your comment to say that not-self is not about denying the <i>experience</i> of selfhood (which is necessary for sane and functional life), but about recognising that that experience is of a psycho-somatic weave of perceptions, attitudes, intentions, and introspective images that are formulated in the <i>citta</i>. There is no solid entity there, no-one who is born and dies. But that weave needs to be purified (as it affects your own and others’ well-being); and the process of so doing untangles it. Then it becomes a flexible weave that supports responsibility. <o:p></o:p></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 22.4px; margin: 0cm;"><span style="background: repeat white; color: #202124; font-size: 11pt; letter-spacing: 0.15pt; line-height: 20.533335px;"><o:p><span style="font-family: Quattrocento;"> </span></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 22.4px; margin: 0cm;"><span style="font-family: Quattrocento;"><span style="background: repeat white; color: #202124; font-size: 11pt; letter-spacing: 0.15pt; line-height: 20.533335px;">You’ll even find references to being accomplished with regard to self in the suttas: ‘</span><i><span style="background: repeat rgb(250, 249, 248); color: #222120; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 20.533335px;">one thing is very helpful for the arising of the Noble Eightfold Path. What one thing? Accomplishment in virtue … Accomplishment in desire … Accomplishment in self … Accomplishment in view …<span class="apple-converted-space"> </span>Accomplishment in diligence … Accomplishment in careful attention</span></i><span style="background: repeat rgb(250, 249, 248); color: #222120; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 20.533335px;">’<span class="apple-converted-space"> (S.45: 64-68 and 71). <o:p></o:p></span></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 22.4px; margin: 0cm;"><span style="font-family: Quattrocento;"><span class="apple-converted-space"><span style="background: repeat rgb(250, 249, 248); color: #222120; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 20.533335px;">From this you can understand that your subjective sense needs to be skilfully engaged in order to fulfil the Path. Just don’t take your self personally!</span></span><span style="background: repeat white; color: #202124; font-size: 11pt; letter-spacing: 0.15pt; line-height: 20.533335px;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 22.4px; margin: 0cm;"><span class="apple-converted-space"><span style="background: repeat rgb(250, 249, 248); color: #222120; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 20.533335px;"><o:p><span style="font-family: Quattrocento;"> </span></o:p></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 22.4px; margin: 0cm;"><span class="apple-converted-space"><span style="background: repeat rgb(250, 249, 248); color: #222120; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 20.533335px;"><span style="font-family: Quattrocento;">Giving <i>metta</i> means first of all feeling that quality arise as a heart-energy, not just as a principle. It’s something that your <i>citta </i>can awaken to. Feel touched by the goodwill of others whenever you notice or recollect it. Linger in that and the heart will gladden and start suffusing that energy. You can then bring people or aspects of your ‘self’ to mind. Receiving it first is the key, because that means we open the ego-tunnel to let some light in. Then we experience a mutual world and <i>metta</i> is a natural energy flowing within that. It too is not-self.<o:p></o:p></span></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 22.4px; margin: 0cm;"><span class="apple-converted-space"><span style="background: repeat rgb(250, 249, 248); color: #222120; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 20.533335px;"><span style="font-family: Quattrocento;"><br /></span></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 22.4px; margin: 0cm;"><span class="apple-converted-space"><span style="background: repeat rgb(250, 249, 248); color: #222120; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 20.533335px;"><span style="font-family: Quattrocento;"><br /></span></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 22.4px; margin: 0cm;"></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi6jtkI1HxrwH1WJCtkImFi9toGSpNafYFaihMLfpQBmRvVcNsjtCVaofytQNJ9Vvs8lnTAGh28pRempyKSmVHCUbP73Cn61wyLQabtzunR-vEx8G-edGttO2ZYdUlpyRO7mRc_bsfSHVeV7RBraAEhl8uLePOleRUj6Fk5850DNQSHPTRDse4NokBc9_s5/s3906/Arunalakecrop.JPG" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="2228" data-original-width="3906" height="340" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi6jtkI1HxrwH1WJCtkImFi9toGSpNafYFaihMLfpQBmRvVcNsjtCVaofytQNJ9Vvs8lnTAGh28pRempyKSmVHCUbP73Cn61wyLQabtzunR-vEx8G-edGttO2ZYdUlpyRO7mRc_bsfSHVeV7RBraAEhl8uLePOleRUj6Fk5850DNQSHPTRDse4NokBc9_s5/w658-h340/Arunalakecrop.JPG" width="658" /></a></div><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><p></p>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6709844700034298584.post-68889384122718189792023-06-08T15:14:00.006+00:002023-06-09T12:11:12.599+00:00Where Are You Going?<div class="separator" style="clear: both;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh5oD4XPeXtxqZFhcP1N2FAF6r8Wh2t9Jiy1FOeeenRlCzrUN398W6bOf4_wKKF7S2uPkPL3CENes8m3CLyukWG-Z8kr5O69WjfIfTHBJYEe2jlwtheCa88Sf4RdRH53VUvNpxkt2ckvqdfNsz1hVZCw2JGpw_9CgQR09ec_fbz1bUwOk8xmelVvVfxvA/s1260/Screenshot%202023-06-08%20at%2015.59.00.png" style="display: block; padding: 1em 0px; text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Quattrocento;"><img alt="" border="0" data-original-height="885" data-original-width="1260" height="450" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh5oD4XPeXtxqZFhcP1N2FAF6r8Wh2t9Jiy1FOeeenRlCzrUN398W6bOf4_wKKF7S2uPkPL3CENes8m3CLyukWG-Z8kr5O69WjfIfTHBJYEe2jlwtheCa88Sf4RdRH53VUvNpxkt2ckvqdfNsz1hVZCw2JGpw_9CgQR09ec_fbz1bUwOk8xmelVvVfxvA/w640-h450/Screenshot%202023-06-08%20at%2015.59.00.png" width="640" /></span></a><p class="MsoNormal" style="caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); color: black; line-height: 18.666666px; margin: 15pt 0cm; text-align: start; text-decoration: none;"><span lang="EN-US" style="line-height: 20.533335px;"><span style="font-family: Quattrocento;">This is a section of a map of the London Underground rail network. It will show you how to get from Notting Hill Gate to Holborn along straight lines (with two easy bends) without hindrance. Of course, it’s a fantasy. The actual rail line snakes through the mud, shale and rock underneath the city. But even if you expected to walk between those two points along unobstructed straight streets, you’d be disappointed. The city is a multi-layered tangle of physical constructions that support and shape the centuries’-long process of human interactions; there are no straight lines. But it’s a useful map – millions of people use it to transit through the city every year. They don’t need to know what’s happening on the surface and what they are travelling through; such realities serve no purpose. Instead, attention can be given to the phone or the newspaper or one’s private thoughts as the train rattles on. These apparently do have purpose.<o:p></o:p></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); color: black; line-height: 18.666666px; margin: 15pt 0cm; text-align: start; text-decoration: none;"><span lang="EN-US" style="line-height: 20.533335px;"><span style="font-family: Quattrocento;">Our life on the social web is full of maps. And they define us: take national ones ... government and the psychology of the state profoundly shape our outlook and possibilities. Yet boundaries, governments and psychologies change, states die – Yugoslavia, Savoy, Gandhara, Assyria – and new states spring up – Moldova, Israel, South Sudan. People move around: someone born in Hong Kong may emigrate to Toronto, and become as Canadian as an Inuit woman … but what kind of cultural reality do they share? On a more domestic level, we use time maps called ‘calendars’ in which every day is offered any equal amount of space and consists of hours that all have their own box, defined by straight lines. This is totally unlike lived-in time … which can be dense, speedy, tangled or open. Then there is the occupation map, the ‘To-Do’ list that will neatly configure your duties and spur you into action. No day then need be unconfigured; there’s always some bleeping reminder nudging you through a maze of tasks, promises, and interactions. Thus we become our occupations. Life itself is mapped in decades: you’re thirty – how about your job, relationships, babies? You’re forty – there’s the pressure of managing a career and a burgeoning family. By fifty you’re in midlife crisis, so that in the succeeding years you should be planning for retirement … health insurance plans ... and what you will leave behind? Where did that map take you to?<o:p></o:p></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); color: black; line-height: 18.666666px; margin: 15pt 0cm; text-align: start; text-decoration: none;"><span lang="EN-US" style="line-height: 20.533335px;"><span style="font-family: Quattrocento;">Notice how conventional maps just lead you to another point on the map ... and on … and on. And then you die without having arrived at anywhere that settled or conclusive. Their notions of where we are, what we have to do and what we belong to, are as different from your directly felt reality as the map of the Underground is from the mud and shale and street-life of London. Do you feel you can’t keep up? That you’re failing? ‘<i>Samsāra</i>’ , it’s called. Could it be that the disembodied reality and the samsāric pressure that those maps create affects mental health? So it becomes important to realise who are you – apart from the map that you first create and are then created by.<o:p></o:p></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); color: black; line-height: 18.666666px; margin: 15pt 0cm; text-align: start; text-decoration: none;"><span lang="EN-US" style="line-height: 20.533335px;"><span style="font-family: Quattrocento;">Meditation (or more accurately cultivation (<i>bhavanā</i>) of ‘heart’/<i>citta</i>) has the potential to take you to a true real-life centre. However, meditation techniques may well present maps of stages and a to-do list of duties that are to be undertaken in order to make that progress; and some destinations on that map are held to be a long way off in a journey that may extend for lifetimes. Knowing the nature of maps, a good question to ask then is, ‘Is there a journey? If so, from where to where?’ <i> </i></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); color: black; line-height: 18.666666px; margin: 15pt 0cm; text-align: start; text-decoration: none;"><span lang="EN-US" style="line-height: 20.533335px;"><span style="font-family: Quattrocento;">Feeling a need to inquire into the nature of the journeys, and even of there being a map, it's worthwhile e</span></span><span style="font-family: Quattrocento;">xploring where we’re going – and how. Inquiry is part of cultivation. How then to meditate? You might get the idea of holding your mind on to some point on your body ... it brings you into the present; the act of focusing is an important part of cultivation. However, attention alone is not going to get you out of <i>samsāra</i>. Attention is an action that has results, but it’s such a constant one that we barely acknowledge it as such, let alone make a clear decision about that action and how to place it. Where then does that action begin? Attention normally arises with respect to a sense-field. For example, when seeing, the eyes present a visual field, and because of interest to discern an object there’s a focus on a detail. That’s attention (<i>manasikāra</i>): it’s not created by the eyes, but by the mind, or the mind’s interest. With that act of attention most of the field fades into the background and is ignored, and the focus holds 5% or less of the field and absorbs what occurs in that; if the interest firms up, and becomes decisive, there is a further refinement of focus.</span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; line-height: normal; margin: 0cm;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif;"><a href="about://"><span face="-webkit-standard, serif" style="color: blue;"><o:p></o:p></span></a></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; line-height: 14pt; margin: 15pt 0cm;"><span style="font-family: Quattrocento, serif;"><a href="about://"><span style="color: black; font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; text-decoration: none;"><o:p></o:p></span></a></span></p><div style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh5oD4XPeXtxqZFhcP1N2FAF6r8Wh2t9Jiy1FOeeenRlCzrUN398W6bOf4_wKKF7S2uPkPL3CENes8m3CLyukWG-Z8kr5O69WjfIfTHBJYEe2jlwtheCa88Sf4RdRH53VUvNpxkt2ckvqdfNsz1hVZCw2JGpw_9CgQR09ec_fbz1bUwOk8xmelVvVfxvA/s1260/Screenshot%202023-06-08%20at%2015.59.00.png" style="display: inline; padding: 1em 0px;"></a></div><div style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh5oD4XPeXtxqZFhcP1N2FAF6r8Wh2t9Jiy1FOeeenRlCzrUN398W6bOf4_wKKF7S2uPkPL3CENes8m3CLyukWG-Z8kr5O69WjfIfTHBJYEe2jlwtheCa88Sf4RdRH53VUvNpxkt2ckvqdfNsz1hVZCw2JGpw_9CgQR09ec_fbz1bUwOk8xmelVvVfxvA/s1260/Screenshot%202023-06-08%20at%2015.59.00.png" style="display: inline; padding: 1em 0px;"></a></div><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.666666px; margin: 15pt 0cm; text-align: left;"><span lang="EN-US" style="caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); color: black; line-height: 20.533335px; text-decoration: none;"><span style="font-family: Quattrocento;">This narrowing and restriction of input provides the basis for what we experience. It is an extremely significant act, but it doesn't present an unbiased reality. Architects notice design, burglars notice windows, doors and locks, real-estate agents notice neighbourhoods, traffic, access to shops and services… so what <i>is</i> a house? How would a dog see it? There is a subjective bias that accompanies attention, and that affects what you see (hear, taste, etc.)</span></span><span style="font-family: Quattrocento;">. That is, attention is accompanied by subjectively-tinted interest and a biased receptivity and these together formulate the experience of distinct object arising within a wider field. Furthermore, as with advertising, politics or media in general, the object itself may be loaded with details to incline the mind one way or another. In any case based on the formulated and tinted object, feeling and intention/motivation arise. As the Buddha commented ‘</span><i style="caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); color: black; font-family: Quattrocento; text-decoration: none;">whatever one repeatedly gives attention to becomes the inclination of one’s mind</i><span style="caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); color: black; font-family: Quattrocento; text-decoration: none;">’(M.19). So here is instant kamma: the act of attending does more than select an object, the whole process shapes you; it creates phenomena and immerses you in their reality, just as other maps do. ‘</span><i style="caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); color: black; font-family: Quattrocento; text-decoration: none;">With the arising of attention there is the arising of phenomena.’</i><span style="caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); color: black; font-family: Quattrocento; text-decoration: none;"> (S.47.42) Attention, interests and biases therefore need to be managed with care. Can you focus on these?</span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); color: black; line-height: 18.666666px; margin: 15pt 0cm; text-align: left; text-decoration: none;"><span lang="EN-US" style="line-height: 20.533335px;"><span style="font-family: Quattrocento;">To do this, we have to turn towards another factor: awareness. Awareness (<i>ñāña</i>) is the receptivity of consciousness (<i>viññāna</i>), the openness to receive data. It is based in the ‘heart’ (<i>citta</i>) – whose receptivity is attuned to the input of the sense-fields, or more exactly to the field of the body and </span></span><span style="font-family: Quattrocento;">the mind (</span><i style="font-family: Quattrocento;">manas</i><span style="font-family: Quattrocento;">) – </span><span style="font-family: Quattrocento;">which maps and shapes phenomena out of the other senses</span><span style="font-family: Quattrocento;">. So whatever attention has shaped up into a perception contacts the </span><i style="font-family: Quattrocento;">citta</i><span style="font-family: Quattrocento;">, gives rise to disagreeable or pleasurable feeling, and hence, intention/ motivation/ desire arises. And then the reactive dance around the senses starts. Now what if one deliberately restrained the process of attention so that objects didn’t jump up with their sharp outlines …? This means that instead of getting input from the 5% of a sense-field, you tune in to entire field of the mind. Then your awareness would more fully sense the nature of the interest or intention that was directing the attention. This kind of focus lessens the sharpness of the object definition, but it makes the quality of intention apparent. And by not being absorbed on a detail, you notice the signal that conditions attention in the first place. In other words, you become aware of what interests and motivates you, for good or for bad. This is called 'deep' or 'careful' attention (</span><i style="font-family: Quattrocento;">yoniso manasikāra</i><span style="font-family: Quattrocento;">): it's not so much about what something <i>is</i>, but what it <i>does </i>to you.</span></p><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: Quattrocento;"><span lang="EN-US" style="line-height: 20.533335px;"><span>So this is not about attending to a point. In fact, the Buddha’s teaching on cultivation doesn’t suggest that. Instead, you’re starting place is with intention rather than attention – and which your mindfulness covers: ‘<i>When your virtue is well purified and your view straight, based upon virtue, established upon virtue, you should develop the four establishments of mindfulness … internally and externally ….</i>’ (S.47:3; cf. S.47:15; S.47:47) This means there is an awareness based on noticing cause and effect, and that can track the source, effect and destination of phenomena in terms of </span></span>the internal and external fields of body and mind. ‘Internal’ and ‘external’ refer to the body’s sense of what is within it (its somatic energies) and around it (the sense-world), and to the mind’s establishment of a location internally (its state) and externally (the psychological world). As you keep tuned in to these fields, you’ll recognise where intentions take you – to benevolent or afflicted places in your heart <i>and</i> body – and discover that ‘intention’ is not just an idea, it’s a <i>saṅkhāra</i>, an energy that runs through your nervous system.<b> </b>Notice how joy tends to send a brightening energy to the face and chest, fear cramps the abdomen and rage hardens the face and other soft tissues. This is a pivotal insight. </span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: Quattrocento;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: Quattrocento;">The Buddha-to–be gave an account of investigating three <i>sankhāra</i> in particular that obstructed balance and liberation – ones that supported purposes based on sensuality, cruelty and brutality. Realising that these tracks led to harm for himself and others, he cultivated putting them aside and establishing right purpose (<i>samma-sankappa</i>) – that is non-sensuality, non-cruelty, and harmlessness; a matter of <i>undoing</i>. (see M.19).</span></div><p class="MsoNormal" style="caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); color: black; line-height: 18.666666px; margin: 15pt 0cm; text-align: left; text-decoration: none;"><span lang="EN-US" style="line-height: 20.533335px;"><span style="font-family: Quattrocento;">Considering the obsessive nature of our thoughts and moods, we might well wonder how he 'did' undoing. My suggestion is that you can’t just cut out unskilful thoughts and drives by willpower alone; it takes cultivation. And as the Buddha’s main theme of cultivation was mindfulness of breathing, it seems to me that this process is the key. Reviewing the instructions he gave (M.118), you’ll notice that they mention being aware of the entire body when breathing in/out; acknowledging the somatic/internal bodily energies when breathing in/out, and soothing those energies. Basically, you’re uprooting unskilful energetic pathways. Even more profoundly, through fully comprehending the effect of tracing and releasing the bodily <i>saṅkhāra</i>, there can be the release of the heart, the ending of suffering and stress. This is the main track to getting off the map, the final destination of cultivation.<o:p></o:p></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); color: black; line-height: 18.666666px; margin: 15pt 0cm; text-align: left; text-decoration: none;"><span lang="EN-US" style="line-height: 20.533335px;"><span style="font-family: Quattrocento;">It is by keeping these fields open and mindfully cultivated, that a meditator can continue their practice ‘off the cushion’ in daily life. Actually, it’s more a matter of bringing your daily life training into the internal domain and taking it deeper – so the <i>citta</i> is steadied and able to notice the effect of any intention and attention. Whereas focusing on a predetermined point will tend to restrict awareness of energy, if one’s awareness is attuned to the entire field of the inner body it will be alert to the </span></span><i style="font-family: Quattrocento;">saṅkhārā</i><span style="font-family: Quattrocento;"> that formulate the drives and reflexes of the heart. </span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.666666px; margin: 15pt 0cm; text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: Quattrocento;">This process-path of investigating and purifying purpose/intention consists of uprooting energies and attitudes that contaminate our society and devastate our planet. It erases the divide between ‘internal’/‘on the cushion’/meditation and ‘external’/‘make a living’/occupation. It’s transformational because people suffer not so much from deliberate bad intention, but from not developing deep purpose. Life can be a matter of bouncing off what is thrown at you or trying to stay afloat in what you’re dumped in. But there is a track that can be followed that leads out of this; it is a line well worth following. So can we live with our minds and hearts aimed at a process of sustainable living rather than being tethered to the virtual realities of time and identity? Are you ready and interested to travel through your own intimate life? How can do that except with a rightly trained heart?</span></p>
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Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6709844700034298584.post-56664934035315455042023-02-07T02:50:00.008+00:002023-02-15T23:47:39.103+00:00You're always good enough –in the relational field.<p><span style="font-family: Quattrocento;"></span></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Quattrocento;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhbiTucrWCxfy7ssFFj75Hrur60jCzzxqsZyuWy4ifHK7TqzXDBXMtjzVEcrarqnLTdaFUe2EJ0_ciHIKzbxGbCsT7y-jh90jUdo2Jeg3xqddLpOvq9YrClBxWI9Q_ig_c7IboIHaxc5xWe52vQwfXng0Xzg_qGgt42dLwK52o-TYh0paSDBYtq3-wNqg/s1017/The%20Nature%20of%20the%20Field%2014%20April%2011.png" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="766" data-original-width="1017" height="301" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhbiTucrWCxfy7ssFFj75Hrur60jCzzxqsZyuWy4ifHK7TqzXDBXMtjzVEcrarqnLTdaFUe2EJ0_ciHIKzbxGbCsT7y-jh90jUdo2Jeg3xqddLpOvq9YrClBxWI9Q_ig_c7IboIHaxc5xWe52vQwfXng0Xzg_qGgt42dLwK52o-TYh0paSDBYtq3-wNqg/w536-h301/The%20Nature%20of%20the%20Field%2014%20April%2011.png" width="536" /></a></span></div><span style="font-family: Quattrocento;"><br />It was a normal day in the monastery. At the meal time a group of Sri Lankan donors turned up to offer <i>dana – </i>the daily meal. The group comprised about six adults and four children. One of the adults explained that the group consisted of three generations – grandparents, parents, children; maybe an aunt or two, it wasn’t that clear. Everyone mingled together and helped to offer the food, then we went into the sala, the main meeting/dining hall. They paid their respects to the shrine and to me, with the children – two girls and two boys – coming up to me individually to offer their formal bows. After the meal, they all returned; the adults sat to the back of the small hall and the children came to the front, took some cushions and, plopping themselves down on them, looked at me with cheerful faces. The oldest was a girl who turned out to be eleven; the smallest was a boy who looked about three. I engaged the girl in a conversation about school and her favourite subjects, about which she was quite animated. The other kids were moving a bit and exploring their cushions in a quiet way. </span><p></p>
<p style="font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 12px;"><span style="font-family: Quattrocento;">Suddenly the door opened and a Western woman came in; she sat down, pulled out a piece of paper, and saying ‘I’ve got some questions,’ began asking about the not-self and emptiness and how to get into the not-self. She was talking at high-speed but after a while I managed to engage her in some dialogue, and pretty soon it came down to suffering – which is not unusual when people launch a high-speed monologue. She had this self in her head who was constantly screaming and fighting with her father. Her father was psychologically on her back all the time, had been all her life, telling her that she wasn’t good enough. So I tried to address that as best I could, but her ability to listen wasn’t that high. I’d get started on suggesting that she couldn’t overcome this thing with her reasoning mind otherwise after fifty years she surely would have done so … instead to feel the emotion now and how it felt in her body. But I’d only get started in that before she’d interrupt with more about feeling so trapped and stuck and wanting the whole thing to stop; wanting to be able to not feel anything, to get detached and into emptiness and not care any more. A wrong view on not-self and emptiness. Not that this was the topic; the point that stuck out was how to meet and resolve the suffering.</span></p>
<p style="font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 12px;"><span style="font-family: Quattrocento;"><br /></span></p>
<p style="font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: Quattrocento;">Somewhere in all this, I turned my attention to the Sri Lankan group. The adults were sitting quite relaxed and listening. The children were sitting quite comfortably – well, maybe the little boy was bouncing on his cushion – so I said to them ‘Do you think you’re not good enough?’ They looked at me, clearly not understanding what I was saying. So I addressed the eldest girl, ‘Do you ever think that you’re not good enough?’ and she didn’t have any words, just broadened her smile and wriggled a bit. So I gestured to the parents and grandparents and said to the woman, ‘This is why they don’t get what I’m talking about - because of the parents. This is where it begins.’ The adults weren’t hovering over the children; they were attentive, but letting the children find their own space. The children weren’t running riot but gently animated and responsive. That’s what happens when the topic of being good enough doesn’t take hold. There’s a healthy relational field.</span></p>
<p style="font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 12px;"><span style="font-family: Quattrocento;"><br /></span></p>
<p style="font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: Quattrocento;">We don’t generally see relationships in terms of fields, but as something that happens between two people. This is an aspect of the illusion of being a separate self, a viewpoint based on the observation that when we’re born our bodies become separate from the body that they’ve been forming in. But this appearance is deceptive, because psychologically and emotionally, the newborn is not separate. In fact its sensory-motor system isn’t capable of operating its body; it can’t even hold its own head up. She or he doesn’t yet know what the physical body is: their gaze notices fingers and experiments with moving them to make the connection that ‘this is part of me’. And a lot of the time their eyes are focused on a parent; they need the adult’s help, as well as the smile and the chattering and cooing that the parent offers in order to establish connectivity. Through this sympathetic attention to one who is in a totally open state, there’s a steady atmosphere of emotional warmth that gives them the meaning ‘you belong; without doing anything you’re welcome here’. That meaning, and the responsive interactions that affirm and enrich it, are the relational field. It’s generated by a few people, but the proper development is that as it gets established, it builds our emotional/ psychological body so that we can feel we belong – whether those people are present or not. This atmosphere, this relational field, is therefore not-self; it is the gestation place for our emotional body. </span></p><p style="font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: Quattrocento;"><br /></span></p><p style="font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: Quattrocento;">Why do I say ‘body’? Well, those meanings, feelings and interactions get learned, familiarised and integrated as an ongoing psychological template – that is, an internalised form: ‘this is being here, this is me ’. Just like a body of knowledge, that emotional body moves around with us, and acts as the basis for our self-reference. But that reference is also not-self; it’s a non-verbal condition of being basically OK. </span></p>
<p style="font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 12px;"><span style="font-family: Quattrocento;"><br /></span></p>
<p style="font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: Quattrocento;">To explain the emotional body in Buddhist terms: once we have the six-fold sense consciousness, we have mind consciousness and with that comes the the sensitivities that establish interactive connection. These sensitivities are the ‘aggregates’ of <i>vedana</i> - feeling-tones, <i>sañña</i>, meaning, and <i>sankhara</i> – activated energies that form impulses, reflexes and emotions. These three rise and move from <i>citta, </i>the heart of the conscious process, and direct impulses, speech and action. However it is also through these we’re aware of ourself as the subject in an apparently ‘outside’ world that affects us and receives our response. Thus we belong and have meaning – or not.</span></p>
<p style="font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 12px;"><span style="font-family: Quattrocento;"><br /></span></p>
<p style="font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: Quattrocento;">As feeling, meaning and activation get running, something is interpreted (<i>saññā</i>) as friendly or hostile with agreeable or disagreeable feeling (<i>vedanā</i>). So there is the response (<i>sankhāra</i>) to move towards or to defend. That’s the basic program of the emotional body, and it forms in dependency on the relational context in which it is dwelling. This is primarily the human context. In those early years, it’s going be the parental or familial interaction. In the original social model, there is the extended family of uncles, aunts, grandparents and so forth, that perhaps even extends through a village or a tribe, and it includes all the children in its field of belonging. So this establishes a wide relational field; the interactions are not just between one or two personalities but to a collective ethos. </span><span style="font-family: Quattrocento;">With a wide field, the emotional body is firmly established because it has wide-spreading roots.</span><span style="font-family: Quattrocento;"> </span><span style="font-family: Quattrocento;">This is what it’s like to be a human amongst all the humans; it’s not just based upon the rather fragile person-to-person relationship, where there is a special person who who likes or doesn’t like me, or is having a good or bad day and so on. </span></p>
<p style="font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 12px;"><span style="font-family: Quattrocento;"><br /></span></p>
<p style="font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: Quattrocento;">It's rather like when we plant the seed of a shrub or tree in the earth: those roots will grow out into the soil. Over time, through their micro-organisms, they will cause the soil to adapt to their needs. Now if you take that seed and put it in a plant pot, it will continue to grow, but the soil is pretty much stagnant as it doesn’t have creatures moving around in it. And as the roots grow they’ll be bound by the circumference of the pot. If the plant isn’t repotted in successively bigger pots the roots grow tight, tangled and compressed. And, as it is also pot-bound, the soil can’t adapt. Similarly, the healthiest psychological and emotional growth occurs in a broad relational field of supportive humans. Someone who only has one or two parents to bond to has a rather small pot and so the emotional body is more self obsessive: ‘my emotional welfare is dependent on one or two people, I’d better please them.’ So there’s a lot of introverted questioning about one’s value and being good enough, and a lot of critical self-referencing. The soil doesn’t have much fertility in it, and they might not even know there is any: it’s just a matter of me and you. Then if something is discordant in the relationship, I, the little helpless one, had better change, because the one or two controlling adults aren’t going to. If there’s something wrong, there’s something wrong with<i> me. </i>Even though sometimes, of course, the two adults are having a bad day, or have a drink problem, or are fighting with each other, etc, etc. Or sometimes, their day is spent working to raise the family and they can’t offer the continual presence. The field is depleted, but the little one assumes ‘It’s my fault.’ Accordingly, a wise parent will look to other relatives or a baby-sitter in order to keep feeding the little one’s emotional body.</span></p>
<p style="font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 12px;"><span style="font-family: Quattrocento;"><br /></span></p>
<p style="font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: Quattrocento;">Moreover, when you’re an infant, (and sometimes as an adult) you can’t always get away from discord in the field; you may be stuck in a situation, or with a family member, that’s not responsive. So the system closes, and you numb out around the sense of ‘something wrong with me’. Or you think of something else or otherwise distract. But in their closed state, the aggregates form an inadequate subject (little me) and a hostile person that lives inside me. As with the distressed woman, the problem isn’t actually the hostile person, it’s the relationship with the person that the aggregates form. From that toxic or stagnant soil, a hostile meaning has become a person living in a starved emotional body.</span></p>
<p style="font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 12px;"><span style="font-family: Quattrocento;"><br /></span></p>
<p style="font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: Quattrocento;">So it’s not exactly a loving person that we need, but the healthy relational soil that will feed our emotional bodies. In this context, love isn’t sentiment or romance; it’s the atmosphere of emotional warmth and connectivity that is the sign of a living relational field. So the question is: if that has been, or is, inadequate, how do we find that field and that atmosphere? It’s not something that we can create; we can’t create being seen with sympathy. We may not feel comfortable with being completely open - and we may have learnt that to receive emotional warmth we have to do something. But that doesn’t create a welcome, fertile soil. We have to get our roots to open, even tentatively, in a way that opens their tight ball. Now the pot plant finds it very difficult because it’s never learn to extend its roots. It doesn’t know living soil, it finds the creatures moving through it frightening, it doesn’t know that its roots will cause that soil to adapt. It’s learnt that the soil is dead and so it holds itself closed. So it carries its pot around with it, searching for the one person who would love me. Yet it doesn’t know what that love is, so there is fantasy and projection. </span></p>
<p style="font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 12px;"><span style="font-family: Quattrocento;"><br /></span></p>
<p style="font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: Quattrocento;">It seems to me that the basic Buddhist practices of generosity and morality (= to others as to myself) are the soil for our roots to grow in. They establish a relational field that isn’t based on personalities but on a common value, the value of mutuality. It empties self-view. Anyone can participate in a human context of welcome acceptance and looking out for each other. As I commented to the woman in distress, you start with giving to something, caring for whatever you feel safe with, even a dog. Continue with <i>sīla</i>, mutual respect and non-harming. Then dwell in the feel of those qualities, absorb them. This is the basis of the love that feeds our roots; we give it, receive it and in it there’s no need to perform, attract anyone or be special. And it affects the soil of our felt environment. It’s open, and boundless; there’s nothing to fear. This is the beginning of that sympathetic awareness that is extended through giving, to conscience and concern, further and further to reach all beings, inner and outer, with goodwill and compassion. And equanimity, of course, because not everyone's available; when their relational field is clogged, equanimity at least keeps yours open. </span></p><div><br /></div>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com10tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6709844700034298584.post-79688843925249375212022-12-22T13:00:00.000+00:002022-12-22T13:00:07.591+00:00Holding it together is a noble skill<p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiO5pEAPITvm79YGFZSS3S7rPmRjtzgwLvAXIMBblgki1RB03MheG2z3a7VeeV8tpVBwK307aL-wr60VVnFw3_EJB_-0OfMGF9k_4tq3Mp88owyKWg7uutp4ANMXDnd472NuN2usOqzEDc47bLsU_lQVyz_NsIFndJxVyRU-Uqvri8ZLaqOHfrFrG44HA/s3302/%20Screenshot%202022-09-19%20at%2012.19.31.jpeg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1699" data-original-width="3302" height="330" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiO5pEAPITvm79YGFZSS3S7rPmRjtzgwLvAXIMBblgki1RB03MheG2z3a7VeeV8tpVBwK307aL-wr60VVnFw3_EJB_-0OfMGF9k_4tq3Mp88owyKWg7uutp4ANMXDnd472NuN2usOqzEDc47bLsU_lQVyz_NsIFndJxVyRU-Uqvri8ZLaqOHfrFrG44HA/w640-h330/%20Screenshot%202022-09-19%20at%2012.19.31.jpeg" width="640" /></a></div><br /><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgE4AKvpxHCSlZxRolxIVii2j63NZ3rEzx8mt0fn0y7z_LWb8HbDMezScKZ2AMYXCDb-gkB9gWsQ_ZpBe6wkb1IhQsS1vk-Xs0BEXwJZ8HlWkqsT0nA9so59cxfkstmaMgi8tPck6GiZLUaEpnMYNv6sPd_Z1FS9uUHBZjNOiufQCsulCuC_2I5rT554Q/s3302/%20Screenshot%202022-09-19%20at%2012.19.31.jpeg" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><br /></a></div><div><span style="font-family: Quattrocento;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="font-family: Quattrocento; font-size: large;"><span> </span>Of all the deaths </span><span style="font-family: Quattrocento;">that this year </span><span style="font-family: Quattrocento;">has</span><span style="font-family: Quattrocento; font-size: medium;"> </span><span style="font-family: Quattrocento;">brought, I found the decease of Queen Elizabeth II to be cause for reflection on what it takes to hold things together. As the Head of State, icon of traditional British-ness, place-marker for history and belonging, she was carrying weight. This was because of what the monarchy represents – its current role is to carry the myth and ethos of a nation through the turbulence of political and economic circumstances. By presiding with calm and a sense of 'all will be well' over the end of Britain's empire and its steady decline as a global power, (even to the point where it is hovering on the brink of fragmentation) she sustained the image of a well-ordered and quietly dignified nation as something that people could at least measure their governments against. By being Head of the Church, even as it loses relevance to most of the people whose Faith she is supposed to be the Defender of, her commitment still gave reference to an inner life of values and virtue. By placing duty ahead of any personal wishes and undertaking innumerable tours of duty with cheerful smile and extended handshake – she was a reminder that leadership is supposed to be about service rather than personal gain and power.</span></div><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.666666px; margin: 15pt 0cm;"><span lang="EN-US" style="line-height: 19.6px;"><span style="font-family: Quattrocento;">The funeral cortege presented her predicament well: her coffin was placed on a gun carriage and surmounted by the Crown. The bare fact, despite the mansions and privilege, was of a person being held in the grip of the State, complete with its military underpinning and regal cap. Whatever the nation, the emblems, we're all in the grip of that power; even though it fails to hold us together, and barely holds itself together.<o:p></o:p></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.666666px; margin: 15pt 0cm;"><span lang="EN-US" style="line-height: 19.6px;"><span style="font-family: Quattrocento;">So it was also impressive that she held herself together personally and ethically in that locked-in role, under the glare of media scrutiny for 70 years. That took patience, equanimity, and, above all, resolve – In Buddhist terms, the woman had some <i>parami</i>.<o:p></o:p></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.666666px; margin: 15pt 0cm;"><span lang="EN-US" style="line-height: 19.6px;"><span style="font-family: Quattrocento;">Holding it together personally takes some skill. And if you expect that look for that to happen in terms professional success and personal drive, take a look at the profile of the great and the mighty: fraud, sex scandals, violent criminality, suicides, sleaze –human minds that have lost touch with values. So it is: unless people have faith in something beyond the material world, something that connects them to the welfare of others, they lose balance and integrity. All outer, no inner.<o:p></o:p></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.666666px; margin: 15pt 0cm;"><span lang="EN-US" style="line-height: 19.6px;"><span style="font-family: Quattrocento;">How to integrate the outer and the inner? As one of the more renowned teachings of the Buddha (<i>Satipatthāna sutta</i> M:10) notes, one practices mindfulness of body, feeling, mind and its programs internally, externally and both together. The standard interpretation of those phrases 'internally, externally' is that it means 'with respect to oneself and to other people'. Which is a good idea, but the idea of watching other people and imagining what they're feeling and what their mind-states are seems impractical, and subject to misinterpretation and projection. Can I really know whether someone is actually feeling pain or bluffing? Can I with clear mindfulness witness someone else's mind as contracted or elevated?<o:p></o:p></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.666666px; margin: 15pt 0cm;"><span lang="EN-US" style="line-height: 19.6px;"><span style="font-family: Quattrocento;">There is another way of understanding this ‘internal/external’. In the the <i>Sedaka sutta</i> (S.47:19) – a sutta within the book of the <i>satipaṭṭhāna</i> teachings (<i>Saṃyutta Nikāya</i> 47) the Buddha uses the analogy of a young acrobat who is balanced on a pole that is being carried by an elder acrobat who himself is balancing on a pole. Pretty scary, eh? So the older acrobat recommends that they look out for each other. To which the younger acrobat's rejoinder is that he should look after himself and she'll look after herself and that will be the wisest way to maintain balance. The Buddha approves of this, adding that this is analogous to each individual developing and cultivating the establishments of mindfulness on body, feeling, heart-mind and its programs. So rather than be mindful of what other people are doing–, establish mindfulness on your own body. For an acrobat that takes an unwavering focus on internal qualities of energy, tension, strain, connectedness, as well as on the external contact with the pole and awareness of the body within its space.<o:p></o:p></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.666666px; margin: 15pt 0cm;"><span lang="EN-US" style="line-height: 19.6px;"><span style="font-family: Quattrocento;">The point is made even more directly in the following sutta, <i>Janapadakalyāṇī Sutta</i> S.47:20. Here it's not about balancing, but a kind of juggling. The analogy is of a man who has to carry a bowl brimming with oil on his head, through a crowd of people while the most beautiful girl in the land dances in front of him. Should he spill a drop of that oil by being distracted, a man walking behind him with drawn sword will cut off his head. Do you think he'd be mindful of anyone else's body but his own: internally – how steady and balanced it is – and externally – how it moves through that crowded space?<o:p></o:p></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.666666px; margin: 15pt 0cm;"><span lang="EN-US" style="line-height: 19.6px;"><span style="font-family: Quattrocento;">After all, if the Buddha meant internal = yourself, external= other people, why didn't he say so?<o:p></o:p></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.666666px; margin: 15pt 0cm;"><span lang="EN-US" style="line-height: 19.6px;"><span style="font-family: Quattrocento;">In the full exposition, you'll also read of mindfulness of the sense-bases internally and externally. I don't see that we're contemplating other people's eyesight. But the internal sense of seeing, that which opens when you focus on the act of seeing rather than on the seen, is one of spacious and subtle luminosity (try it in a darkened room). Auditory consciousness, when attended to, offers the 'sound of silence'; and, most important, the heart-mind of emotionally driven thinking opens to a heartful and receptive awareness.<o:p></o:p></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.666666px; margin: 15pt 0cm;"><span lang="EN-US" style="line-height: 19.6px;"><span style="font-family: Quattrocento;">So to most fundamentally hold us together we have the 'internal’ – the somatic vestibular 'inner' sense that the body has, and through which it maintains balance. And the ‘external’ – as the body's tactile sense through which it knows where it is in the world around it by the pressures, warmth (and so on) of the skin. You could also understand internal as the interoceptive sense (how a body knows each part in relation to the whole) and external as the proprioceptive sense (how it knows how to move through space). Try practising that. That’s what an acrobat does.<o:p></o:p></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.666666px; margin: 15pt 0cm;"><span lang="EN-US" style="line-height: 19.6px;"><span style="font-family: Quattrocento;">Through such mindfulness the body has a presence which is grounded, steady and able to discharge stress. It allows us to remain open without getting shredded. In this way, it supports the internal qualities of the mind. Maintain these, the Buddha says, and Mara, the force of delusion and ignorance will not get you.<o:p></o:p></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.666666px; margin: 15pt 0cm;"><span lang="EN-US" style="line-height: 19.6px;"><span style="font-family: Quattrocento;">However, a mind that extends externally without mindfulness is wide open to those forces. We can lose our bodies, our natural rhythms and our ability to rest and regenerate in that insistent tide of speculation, plans, media, possibilities and urgent to-do-lists. Caught in this tide, we can also lose a vital aspect of our minds: wisdom. Let me explain. The Buddha noted that the process of thinking consists of two functions – conceiving, or bringing an idea to mind (<i>vitakka</i>) and fully sensing and evaluating that which has been brought to mind (<i>vicara</i>). It's rather like the two-fold actions of a hand: the fingers grip something and roll it around in the palm and the palm fully senses and evaluates that thing.<o:p></o:p></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.666666px; margin: 15pt 0cm;"><span lang="EN-US" style="line-height: 19.6px;"><span style="font-family: Quattrocento;">Problem is, this takes time; a second or more of valuable time. And in the high-speed world of technology, such a mature process is a waste of time. The result is attention disorder, automatic behaviour driven by stimulation, and a deficiency in terms of the reflective thinking that will give us a reference to whether an idea is ethically sound, or what the consequences could be of acting on any specific idea. In automatic mode, conscience, concern, perspective and sensitivity are reduced or bypassed. People lose heart, get overwhelmed with uncomfortable thoughts, and obsess. In other words, if our minds are directed outwards, (as 'external' is supposed to mean) this is <i>not</i>necessarily for the welfare of others. If however, our attention is directed internally, we can evaluate, reflect and come into heart. This 'internal' is therefore for the welfare of others. Because if we steady and clarify that internal base, and bring that to bear on how we speak, plan and consider our actions; that is, if we bring the internal and the external together – that will result in skilful behaviour with regard to other creatures.<o:p></o:p></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.666666px; margin: 15pt 0cm;"><span lang="EN-US" style="line-height: 19.6px;"><span style="font-family: Quattrocento;">This is how mindfulness internally/externally can hold body, heart and mind together. Getting into the body, using that to steady the mind ... the beautiful truth is that if one is in balance and stays whole, the mind will settle into clarity and empathy – that's the default when ignorance and stress fall away. Then, as the Buddha also teaches in the <i>Sedaka sutta</i> – one protects oneself by protecting others through the cultivation of patience, harmlessness, kindness, and empathy. These internal qualities emanate from a rightly balanced mind. And that finds its basis in mindfulness of body.<o:p></o:p></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.666666px; margin: 15pt 0cm;"><span lang="EN-US" style="line-height: 19.6px;"><span style="font-family: Quattrocento;">This is because if you bear the whole external body in mind – that is, spread your awareness over the skin boundary – you become more receptive. Skin, unlike the eyes, is not directional, it doesn't aim for anything. It receives, and refers sense-impact to its internal base – as in 'this pin-prick is unpleasant, but it's not pushing me over or a deadly threat, I can remain calm and stable as I deal with this.' A more common and useful application could be 'there is nothing squeezing or obstructing my chest or back, I have space, I am not under pressure, I can remain composed.' By so doing, we can discharge the sense of pressure of time, option paralysis and having so much to do by bringing the heart away from the flashing lights and notions of the external direction and settle it in the groundedness of the body. Steady the mind/heart internally, and, as it settles, awareness opens to the value of skilful action and empathy for others.<o:p></o:p></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.666666px; margin: 15pt 0cm;"><span lang="EN-US" style="line-height: 19.6px;"><span style="font-family: Quattrocento;">So this is how mindfulness internally/externally can hold us together. It has worked for millennia for those who practise it, even as empires and states have come and gone. Meanwhile in terms of the public domain: wouldn't it be good if people actually spoke straight from the heart? Rather than from the screen or the script? Wouldn't it be refreshing if public figures actually spoke truth, ''<i>words that are useful, worth remembering, well-grounded’</i> rather than worn-out slogans and empty promises? That is: get out of your head, your script about who you are and how things should be, and be here, receptive, open and grounded. Give up what's not your priority. Instead regain nobility – without the headlines or the <i>paparazzi</i>.</span><span style="font-family: Cambria, serif; font-size: 10.5pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></p><p></p>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6709844700034298584.post-20677949082563627112022-09-03T15:25:00.001+00:002022-09-03T15:29:05.090+00:00Adjust the frame, review the picture<p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjocHCPwwPFlsl9fQgVtEfB-dDLzDThjlzpylQdtfNb2G0FISp1mNdDsVF1aae1GaYU_K490h_LXovDwo17IFb6o4C4VBTLEx9OY0-Grk-ts3poLQEzQxcTujxCo0qjE4p-A6T5w7HW3Lq84BOOl5Tn_OfBUatgcc1EhJ7LqIGxoD06vjMdLSmetrkdvg/s3865/93C215A3-DCDB-4FA2-9524-C4087146C576_1_201_a.jpeg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="2203" data-original-width="3865" height="364" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjocHCPwwPFlsl9fQgVtEfB-dDLzDThjlzpylQdtfNb2G0FISp1mNdDsVF1aae1GaYU_K490h_LXovDwo17IFb6o4C4VBTLEx9OY0-Grk-ts3poLQEzQxcTujxCo0qjE4p-A6T5w7HW3Lq84BOOl5Tn_OfBUatgcc1EhJ7LqIGxoD06vjMdLSmetrkdvg/w640-h364/93C215A3-DCDB-4FA2-9524-C4087146C576_1_201_a.jpeg" width="640" /></a></div><p style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: Quattrocento;"><br /></span></p><p></p><p style="font-size: 16px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: Quattrocento;">Currently I’m spending the three months of the Rains Retreat at Sunyata Buddhist Centre in Ireland. Sunyata runs retreats, but its committee has also been interested in it becoming a monastery for the last few years …. Several of our teachers, including myself, have taught retreats here and on occasion stop by for visits, and they seem so glad to have a monk in residence … so I had an idea …. I had been planning on spending the Rains in solitude in a cabin in Italian Alps under the supervision of Santacittarama Monastery; however, owing to the post-Brexit business of getting a visa and of thereby not being able to enter the European mainland for a subsequent 120 days, that plan fell through. Anyway, Ireland (so far) still remains relatively open for British people, Sunyata is very welcoming, and I still relished the opportunity to spend time in solitude. It seems good to periodically step out of the community routines in order to explore and review my aims and practices.</span></span></p><p style="font-size: 16px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px 0px 16px; min-height: 19px;"><span style="font-family: Quattrocento;"><span style="font-kerning: none;"></span><br /></span></p><p style="font-size: 16px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px 0px 16px;"><span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: Quattrocento;">I arrived on July 13. For the first week or so I felt lacklustre in terms of energy; I didn’t expect it to be much different. Everyone’s life adapts to the social environment they’re in, and when we shift from that, energy shift with it. As the frame of one’s life shifts, there is disorientation. But that’s what I’m here for – to adjust the frame and review the picture. </span></span></p><p style="font-size: 16px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 19px;"><span style="font-family: Quattrocento;"><span style="font-kerning: none;"></span><br /></span></p><p style="font-size: 16px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: Quattrocento;">My life at Cittaviveka is pretty stress-free in many respects. The community is harmonious, nothing much has asked me except to occasionally give a talk. I have however for many years overseen the grounds: tree-planting, general maintenance of the green life of this precious sanctuary. This has always been one of the main attractions of Cittaviveka; a space that’s shared with other life forms. It gets you to adjust to the rhythms of nature. You witness with a sense of awe and delight the comings and goings of the remnants of wildlife that still remain in southern England. There are, from time to time anyway, probably more deer at Cittaviveka than monks. So, yes, over the last thirty years or so, I’ve planned and overseen the conversion of land that was being used for cattle grazing into copses, wild flower meadows and thickets. When one has access to a situation and the resources, it’s just something that one has to do. It used to be pure joy, but nowadays the sense of that weighs on me: there is increasing urgency to support the survival of planetary life, life that is disappearing by the day. And with climate change, how many of these trees will survive the next 50 years?</span></span></p><p style="font-size: 16px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 19px;"><span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: Quattrocento;"> </span></span></p><p style="font-size: 16px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px 0px 16px;"><span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: Quattrocento;">I was offered a kuti with no duties and I requested one meal a day; the understanding being that we just take it from there and see how it goes. So far, it’s been going very well. I spend my morning in my kuti, and at around 10:30, turn up in the kitchen with my bowl. Food is offered and I give a blessing chant. Sometimes we have a three or four minute conversation in which the most common phrase that I hear is: ‘Do you need anything? Can I offer you anything?’ And my honest and simple reply is: ‘I’m fine thank you, everything is going well.’</span></span></p><p style="font-size: 16px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: Quattrocento;">That big picture of this is grim. In the last decade also, I have been shaping my responses to the ongoing environmental crisis. I wrote a book on the topic.* I’ve been part of the restoration of the monastery’s native woodland of over 160 acres (65 hectares). I’ve installed solar panels to power the monastery. As a sangha, we decided to use our own coppiced firewood from the forest to heat the buildings. Personally, I abstain from eating fish or meat; that’s about as refined and eco-friendly as I can get as an alms-mendicant. More recently I determined to not drink plastic bottled water if I could obtain water from any other means for 24 hours; so far over the last four years I’ve been able to do this. I minimise water usage by showering only once every five or six days; I collect rainwater to flush the toilet; I gave up on using shaving foam as the canisters containing this froth inevitably go into a landfill. Instead I carry I carry a refillable bottle of oil and mix that with hand soap to shave: a small bottle lasts a year, and doesn’t get thrown away. But there’s not much I can do more I can do; flying in order to teach presents a dilemma that I negotiate on a case-by-case basis. If I don’t fly to a retreat, does that mean that 20-30 people fly to where I am? At least I don’t go on vacation.</span></span></p><p style="font-size: 16px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 19px;"><span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: Quattrocento;"> </span></span></p><p style="font-size: 16px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: Quattrocento;">And yet, in terms of that big picture, I doubt whether what I do makes any difference. A recent (humorous) comment was that if you really want to avert global warming, better than go vegan or refrain from driving, is to eat a billionaire! Private jets, fleets of large cars, luxury yachts, big mansions: currently the richest 1% of the population are responsible for more twice as much carbon as the poorest 50% (according to Oxfam). Then there’s military expenditure: fighter jets aren’t that carbon-efficient. Statistics certainly contribute to despond. However my practice is simply to do what I can – because that makes a difference to me. It helps to stay focused, sustain the spirit and not go into despair.</span></span></p><p style="font-size: 16px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 19px;"><span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: Quattrocento;"> </span></span></p><p style="font-size: 16px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: Quattrocento;">So I step back. This is also an opportunity to adjust the frame of my sangha. Locally, at Cittaviveka I am the most senior monk in a situation in which hierarchy can mean a lot. Also, having been here over 35 years, the fact is that I know more about this place than anyone else. Naturally there are projections. So I find myself trying to not be what I think other people might be intimidated by, whilst not being too aloof, available to advise, without appearing as an intrusive know-it-all. In fact I resolve not to express an opinion unless asked to do so. It’s part of community practice. But it’s good to step out of that for a while.</span></span></p><p style="font-size: 16px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 19px;"><span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: Quattrocento;"> </span></span></p><p style="font-size: 16px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: Quattrocento;">And, with Sangha, as with Dhamma practice in general, there is a bigger picture, one of integrity, generosity and service, one that can telescope down to local details and individuals. Every day, we breathe the shared gift of air, along with our aspiration, grief and joy; and we attend the passage of life and death. Most recently George Sharp passed away. He was the Chair of the English Sangha Trust and was the person responsible for inviting Ajahn Sumedho to Britain to establish a monastery. That monastery became Cittaviveka, which he on his own initiative purchased on a handshake – after being told by the owner that the place was derelict. George was a man of intuition and imagination; and he took risks. As he acknowledged, in his own life this wasn’t always such a successful mix. But Cittaviveka – that was his greatest success, and a source of gladness for himself and for the welfare of many. </span></span></p><p style="font-size: 16px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 19px;"><span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: Quattrocento;"> </span></span></p><p style="font-size: 16px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: Quattrocento;">I sense that, after bouts of depression in his earlier days, his heart must have been supported by this. He meditated, recollected and maintained contact with Sangha long after his retirement – until his dying day at the age of 89. Having being informed that he had a fatal aneurysm, and accepted that death was on its way, he woke his son one night to say ‘I think it’s happening.’ His son wanted to call an ambulance, but George, feeling it was too late, held his son’s hand, and consoled him saying, ‘It’s alright, it’s alright…’ as he passed peacefully away.</span></span></p><p style="font-size: 16px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 19px;"><span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: Quattrocento;"> </span></span></p><p style="font-size: 16px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: Quattrocento;">Good Buddhists know how to die well. The last couple of years, supporters whom I’ve seen as inspiring monuments have passed away: Mudita, owner of a Thai restaurant, who had a road-to-Damascus transformation on meeting Luang Por Chah. That was the end of night-clubs and drinking, and the beginning of 40 years of regular practice and providing requisites to monasteries. (She also established The Mudita Trust, which was set up to support poor Thai families so that their daughters didn’t go into prostitution.) Diagnosed with cancer at the age of 84, she declined chemotherapy, with the comment ‘I’ve lived long enough.’ After her death, Tan Nam passed away. He was formerly secretary to the Sangharaja of Cambodia, who left that country with his young family and suitcases just before the Khmer Rouge holocaust. Finding asylum in Britain he held his family together, opened a grocery store, organised events to unify and heal the various factions of the Khmer immigrant diaspora, and presided over the big alms-giving occasions in the monastery. Another great friend, Noy Thompson, recently passed away cheerfully and serenely age of 91, having supported monasteries, worked on and attended retreats, and providing funds to set up The Dharma School in Brighton (now sadly defunct). In this same year, Mae Cham Peng, the Laotian matriarch and a treasure of joy, passed away …. It goes on. </span></span></p><p style="font-size: 16px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 19px;"><span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: Quattrocento;"> </span></span></p><p style="font-size: 16px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: Quattrocento;">Being a monk, I’m with death and dying a lot. Sometimes it’s like monks are a lymphatic system that drains the grief and the stress that manifests around us and within us. But also we are blood vessels, blessed by connecting to and circulating the finest aspects of human behaviour. Can I be clear enough to be that, and not get clogged? Well, to manage and find balance within all this, I practise embodiment. It’s a matter of feeling emotion without explaining it or nullifying it or philosophising about it; to feel the feeling in the body. This means reframing what one considers ‘body’ to be; in spiritual terms it means ‘that connected field that one experiences oneself as arising within and being affected by’ – such as a body of knowledge, a body of people. Most intimately it’s that pulsing and responsive flow of energies that we associate with a physical form. Mindfulness of that means widening awareness to include that flow as it meets the space around and the ground beneath. Then you can let breathing through that body do the work of bringing an aware life into balance. It keeps the person in perspective.</span></span></p><p style="font-size: 16px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 19px;"><span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: Quattrocento;"> </span></span></p><p style="font-size: 16px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: Quattrocento;">I do things other than formal meditation practice while I’m here. Qi gong provides ongoing support; it opens the body so that the breath-energy can flow through and replenish. It helps to shift from mental abstract intelligence to directly felt here and now embodied intelligence. Chanting works in a similar way: you have to use your breathing body carefully to get the sound ‘right’. That reminds me that sammā (‘right’) of the Eightfold Path is very close to sama ‘in tune’. In fact the Chinese translated sammā as zheng – ‘aligned’, ‘fitting’ – which gets closer to how the path of practice works – and feels. Is an action or approach in alignment? Does it lead to or support balance? Then can that sense of harmony within one’s personal ‘body’ extend to harmony, balance within the greater ‘body’ of self and others? This requires a considerable skill and growth in terms of heart. </span></span></p><p style="font-size: 16px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 19px;"><span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: Quattrocento;"> </span></span></p><p style="font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: Quattrocento;">Working on the micro-level of balance, I decided to practise calligraphy. Externally, it’s a way of presenting wise sayings succinctly in a way that does justice to their meaning. It’s perfected by balancing script with empty white space. (For Dhamma sayings, one needs a lot of empty space.) It’s also lightweight and portable – a few nibs, a couple of bottles of ink, paper. Years ago, George Sharp, who was a professional illustrator, noticed some of my sketches and cartoons and gave me a calligraphy pen; and for my own amusement as well as to produce a presentation of the First Sermon that would encourage people to chant it, I ended up producing a series of illuminated manuscripts. Much of that was done amid the grime and fungus-riddled air of Cittaviveka in the early days. For the past 38 years, I’ve done very little in that field. Yet at this time in my life I’d like to do a few things to reset the balance from duty to beauty. So I pick up the pen again.</span></span></p><p style="font-size: 16px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 19px;"><span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: Quattrocento;"> </span></span></p><p style="font-size: 16px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: Quattrocento;">I had particular sayings and texts in mind, and thought I would write three or four of them during the Rains. After reintroducing myself to pen and ink, and realising how out of touch I was, I narrowed that aim down to maybe doing one. After a few days of more practice I thought I could just get one sentence. A few hour-long sessions indicated that – forget the words, I needed to just get the letters right. That went down to practising to get one stroke where the ink, nib, hand, and mind were flowing together seamlessly. Where the mind wasn’t aiming for the next letter. Where the hand wasn’t dragging the nib. And how that depended on posture and relaxed embodiment. To keep the hand light while sustaining a focus that can maintain awareness of the lines with the space between and within each letter. It’s the kind of all-encompassing balance that characterises Dhamma practice. The Buddha likened it to the ‘right’ way to hold a quail: too tight and you crush it, to loose and it flies away. When it is sammā, awareness engages without expectation, faltering, pushing or hanging back. The deeper significance being that as these programs and more constitute my ‘self’, such ‘fitting’ action dissolves the actor. The frame gets wide and open. The picture is: 'Work in progress ….'</span></span></p><p style="font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 16px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 19px;"><br /></p><p style="font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 16px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 19px;">***</p><p style="font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 16px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 19px;">*<i>Buddha-Nature, Human Nature </i>(Amaravati Publications)<i>. </i>Available through the monasteries or for download at <a href="https://forestsangha.org/teachings/books/buddha-nature-human-nature?language=English">Buddha-Nature</a></p>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6709844700034298584.post-91690101908613012222022-05-02T14:21:00.000+00:002022-05-02T14:21:09.820+00:00Practice Notes: Standing Meditation<p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhdxGn0zc72HHFgvlAfY9sHnwvvHzklDakfQbfckbhzHFOPAlU1ahmw6j45gEFtbQSVpa4G_wpTYwo67kZBLitk6T-zfX1EQ57ojbfeS6PanqeCpsL67GLESX-IwWUMuzQWA-uUkAraQkndQeUjTt2klLDaXBzNmTVsywsjC-A2vcTueQkNAWEv2hng2Q/s3888/Practice%20Notes.jpeg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><span style="font-family: Quattrocento;"><img border="0" data-original-height="3888" data-original-width="2592" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhdxGn0zc72HHFgvlAfY9sHnwvvHzklDakfQbfckbhzHFOPAlU1ahmw6j45gEFtbQSVpa4G_wpTYwo67kZBLitk6T-zfX1EQ57ojbfeS6PanqeCpsL67GLESX-IwWUMuzQWA-uUkAraQkndQeUjTt2klLDaXBzNmTVsywsjC-A2vcTueQkNAWEv2hng2Q/s320/Practice%20Notes.jpeg" width="213" /></span></a></div><h4 style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: Quattrocento;"><i style="font-weight: normal;">Here are some extracts from a forthcoming book on standing meditation: On Your Own Two Feet.</i></span></h4><p></p><p><span style="font-family: Quattrocento;"> <b>Establish Ground</b></span></p>
<p style="font-size: 14.7px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px 0px 20px;"><span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: Quattrocento;">With practice, standing can feel balanced, steady and comfortable; then you feel grounded but relaxed. That’s essential when the winds of turmoil and trouble start blowing, but it’s also a quietly pleasant way to get to know yourself in terms of body, heart and mind. This is the aim of meditation. And of all meditation postures, standing gives you the easiest way into a steady state, because it establishes a firm but easeful connection to the ground beneath you.</span></span></p>
<p style="font-size: 14.7px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px 0px 20px;"><span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: Quattrocento;">Here’s how. Stand with the legs apart and coming straight down from the hips, so that the stance approximates to the width of your upper body – your chest, or, if you prefer a wider stand, your shoulders. The exact width isn’t crucial, but the felt sense is that the stance is fully planted. </span></span></p><p style="font-size: 14.7px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px 0px 20px;"><span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: Quattrocento;">Stand like a tree, with t</span></span><span style="font-family: Quattrocento; font-size: 14.7px;">he feet as your roots. Feet are generally encased in footwear, and accustomed to meeting a constantly flat surface; because of this, they lose their flexibility. So your feet might benefit from a couple of minutes of flexing: standing on one leg, flex the toes of the other; standing on both feet, lift your heels off the floor and raise your body with your toes; standing on both feet, lift your toes up and back. You might flex like this a few times. Imagine the toes spreading so that they are like monkey’s feet, or like fingers. The toes should not be carrying weight; your feet are alive and aware. Then, as you feel your way into a stance, tip a little from side to side and back and forth until you find a settled and easeful balance. A balanced and aware stance helps to release tension or gripping in the upper body – particularly in the abdomen.</span><span style="font-family: Quattrocento; font-size: 14.7px;"> </span></p>
<p style="font-size: 14.7px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px 0px 20px;"><span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: Quattrocento;">When you stand, with your aware feet planted on the ground, soften your knees a little, so the legs are slightly bent, just enough that the muscles in the thighs and the calves aren’t locked into position. The standing then feels flexible and alert; it’s as if you could jump at any moment – but you’re relaxed. You might practise bending your knees a little to sense how the ankles take up a supportive role; then bob up and down a little to get familiar with the flexibility of the stance.</span></span></p>
<p style="font-size: 14.7px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px 0px 20px;"><span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: Quattrocento;">Then soften your knees and adjust your focus to include the entire vertical axis of your body, centred on an imagined line extending down your spine and into your feet. Ease your arms away from the sides on your body – just enough to slide your hand between your arm and your ribs. Keeping your eyes open or half-open, release awareness of what you don’t need right now. Like you don’t need holding in your shoulders; relax. You don’t need a face; let it go. Let your fingers be free. Focus on that upright axis and as that becomes clearly felt, steadily extend your awareness out into the body around it – that soft and warm stuff. Keep going slowly with the intention to encompass any tense or uncomfortable places and let warm awareness embrace them. When you get to the edge of your body, extend awareness into the space, the open ‘no-pressure’ envelope immediately around you. Covering the entirety of the body in its space, linger and enjoy.</span></span></p>
<p style="font-size: 14.7px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px 0px 20px;"><span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: Quattrocento;">****</span></span></p>
<p style="font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px 0px 20px;"><span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: Quattrocento;"><b>Release tension</b></span></span></p>
<p style="font-size: 14.7px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px 0px 20px;"><span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: Quattrocento;">To extend the exercise in more detail: tune into the feel of that stance, and, as you get settled into your stance, encourage your upper body to sink just a little, so it feels like it’s nestling into the cradle of the legs and the feet. It’s as if your upper body is like a vase or a bag, settled into the supportive stand of the legs – which are connected to the firm base of the two feet planted on the ground. Fully rest in that support and feel a few easy cycles of breathing in and out.</span></span></p>
<p style="font-size: 14.7px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px 0px 20px;"><span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: Quattrocento;">Ensure that you’re not sagging, or leaning the abdomen forward – so very slightly turn your tailbone under, as if between your legs. Your buttocks will relax, and your belly tuck in. The weight of the upper body will be carried by the legs rather than the lower abdomen. The arch between the legs, the perineum, should feel open.</span></span></p>
<p style="font-size: 14.7px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px 0px 20px;"><span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: Quattrocento;">Your thinking mind will probably chatter and want to get busy, but don't give it much attention. Instead, relax into your belly, and as you breathe out, extend your awareness to the soles of the feet. When the outbreath has completed itself, feel the inhalation come in by itself. As you sense the rising energy of your inhalation, follow the rise by extending awareness up your spine.</span></span></p>
<p style="font-size: 14.7px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px 0px 20px;"><span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: Quattrocento;">Notice how the torso swells and subsides – especially the front, but, to a lesser degree, the back. With your arms hanging freely by your sides, and slightly away from the sides of your body, extend awareness around the sides of your torso, so that you cover the entirety of that swelling and subsiding section of your body.</span></span></p>
<p style="font-size: 14.7px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px 0px 20px;"><span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: Quattrocento;">Tilt the lower point of each shoulder blade into your back so that you remove the shoulder hunch. As you feel your chest open, relax your shoulder blades down your back as if you are slipping out of a coat. You'll become more aware of your spine; it will strengthen and act as the central axis for your upright stance.</span></span></p>
<p style="font-size: 14.7px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px 0px 20px;"><span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: Quattrocento;">Allow a few turns of the breathing cycle to fill out and integrate this upright position. Then extend your awareness down your arms and into your hands. Relax the fingers and focus on the palms, imagining them opening and listening to the space. You may keep your hands open by your sides, or bring them lightly together, with the fingertips touching for greater sensitivity and a sense of containment.</span></span></p>
<p style="font-size: 14.7px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px 0px 20px;"><span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: Quattrocento;">When your hands feel open and alive, slowly draw your awareness up the spine, from the tail on up into the neck and the base of the skull, as if you are carefully tracing the curvy line of the vertebrae with a finger. It’s like the trunk of a tree, with the growing tip supporting the skull.</span></span></p>
<p style="font-size: 14.7px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px 0px 20px;"><span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: Quattrocento;">Get a feel for that support. Imagine that the skull is settling on top of that spinal axis like a ball resting on a fountain of water. While attuned to the rhythmic flow of breathing, relax the neck muscles, the jaw, and the tissues of the forehead, temples and eye-sockets. Keeping your eyes slightly open (releasing tension might make you feel a bit dizzy at first) let the entire ball of the head rest on that aware spine so that the muscles in your neck and face can ease up.</span></span></p>
<p style="font-size: 14.7px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px 0px 20px;"><span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: Quattrocento;">Let some breathing pass through as your body adjusts to this change and begins to enjoy it. Feel the firmness of your spinal axis and extend awareness down from the base of the skull down to the tail bone. It may not be complete; there may be dull patches or blocks in that line. However rather like a river clearing its blockages, this upright axis will clear itself over time as awareness spreads over the entire form. So, steadily extend your awareness until it’s like an envelope covering your entire body in all directions. </span></span></p>
<p style="font-size: 14.7px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px 0px 20px;"><span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: Quattrocento;">Linger in that, letting the breathing flow through the body in its envelope of space. If your body starts to tense up, bob up and down slightly or lightly swing from side to side. Otherwise, as you feel more and more stable, acknowledge and let go of discursive thought and any emotional turbulence.</span></span></p>
<p style="font-size: 14.7px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px 0px 20px;"><span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: Quattrocento;"> ***</span></span></p>
<p style="font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px 0px 20px;"><span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: Quattrocento;"><b>Balance and Wholeness: Upright Body, Upright Mind</b></span></span></p>
<p style="font-size: 14.7px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px 0px 20px;"><span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: Quattrocento;">The mind should be engaged, interested and receptive – while refraining from imperatives or judgements. This can be achieved through softening the focus – that is to get less intense about physical points and be more attuned to a steady and heartful listening. Relying on mental effort alone produces a negative result because that overrides the intelligences of body and heart. In fact, imbalance, tension and constriction in the body are largely due to unskilful mental energy. Non-stop urgency and stress leave their effects in the body’s nervous system; as do their numbing antidotes – escapist entertainment, or passive immersion in whatever a screen is broadcasting. There’s also the imbalance that comes around because of operating only one part of the body while the rest is left inert. For example, sitting for hours in a chair effectively ignores and switches off the flow of energy in the legs and back. Instead, energy gathers and intensifies in the head, neck and shoulders. The result is that breathing is limited, and the coordinated flow of energy through the body is blocked.</span></span></p>
<p style="font-size: 14.7px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px 0px 20px;"><span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: Quattrocento;">Another negative bodily condition occurs through operating in artificial systems’ time rather than in natural embodied time. In the automated world in which we live, energy has to follow clock time, jumps and surges towards notional ends – then is suddenly arrested by the sound of a buzzer or the flash of a light. And if we don’t find the time to return to a grounded and embodied state, the nervous system gets set to a hasty ‘on-off’ way of life. Then we lose touch with the regulating effect of breathing, and how that helps the body to naturally relax and refresh. So, make a note: the energy of emotional/mental activity is based in the body. Get the body into balance first; then meditation follows on quite naturally.</span></span></p>
<p style="font-size: 14.7px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px 0px 20px;"><span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: Quattrocento;">Standing, because it gets you grounded without requiring a high degree of focus, offers easy access to the embodied state, wherein bodily intelligence comes to the fore. With this, your body’s energies return to the more natural flow, and that flow suffuses the fascia tissues that wrap around and connect all parts of the body. It wakes up to being interconnected and balanced.</span></span></p>
<p style="font-size: 14.7px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px 0px 20px;"><span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: Quattrocento;">You may experience imbalance in terms of the left and right sides of your body. One side may have a lot of energy running through it, and the other side considerably less. The contemplative response to this is to first span the entire width of your body with awareness, and holding that wide frame, attune to the breathing. </span></span></p><p style="font-size: 14.7px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px 0px 20px;"><span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: Quattrocento;">This step alone may allow the breath-energy to suffuse the entirety and restore balance. A further step would be to first discern the furthest edge of the strong energy – that is, if you’re strong in the right, how far does that energized area extend? What is its edge? And beyond that edge how is the body? Then: can you detect the left side? Try sweeping your attention from the right side slowly towards the left, expanding your awareness as you cover the edge. Repeat this exercise carefully several times. Then connect the exhalation with the movement of attention: it’s as if you are breathing across your body. Practise also focusing on the left side, and as you breathe in extend your awareness to the right.</span></span></p><p style="font-size: 14.7px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px 0px 20px;"><span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: Quattrocento;">As you deepen the balance and connectivity of your body, the energy that flows along with breathing can spread through the entire bodily form. You can practise this sweeping through any isolated or restricted areas of your body – such as the throat or belly. Remember, don’t demand anything to open or be other than it is; just maintain connective and empathetic awareness. If there is empathy rather than a directive, awareness will meet the energy in an area of the body. Widening and softening will allow discordant energies to release into the wide field of the whole body in their own time. </span></span></p><p style="font-size: 14.7px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px 0px 20px;"><span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: Quattrocento;">As this occurs, the body gets to feel like a single homogenous form that is both soft and strong. No single part is carrying another part; nor are we unconsciously carrying our body around in a state of distracted stress. So as the body comes into unity, be receptive to that and let it moderate your attitudes and intentions. Through attunement to the aware and connected state, ease and goodwill come to the fore. Through accessing energies, awareness can meet, steady and release bodily or emotional conflict, and support positive qualities of body, heart and mind. </span></span></p><p style="font-size: 14.7px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px 0px 20px;"><span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: Quattrocento;">This interconnected balance becomes psychological. Because we have a place to stand, we don’t have to keep creating one via opinions and territory and beliefs. Instead, we gain heart. And that heart-based sensitivity aligns the mind to ethical integrity, goodwill and ease. </span></span></p><p style="font-size: 14.7px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px 0px 20px;"><span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: Quattrocento;">So the upright, open and stable body supports an upright, open and stable mind. Both are necessary and one supports the other. An upright mind is balanced, receptive to self and others and non-obsessive; it is a beautiful flowering of human potential. </span></span><span style="font-family: Quattrocento; font-size: 14.7px;"> </span></p><p style="font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px 0px 20px;"><span style="font-family: Quattrocento;"><b>Bathing in energy</b></span></p>
<p style="font-size: 14.7px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px 0px 20px;"><span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: Quattrocento;">To encourage deep refreshment, sweep your awareness from the crown of your head downwards – as if you’re pouring oil, or something warm and fluid over your head, and letting it run down the front of the body. Feel the softness of the tissues at the front relaxing; relax down your arms and into the palms of your hands.</span></span></p>
<p style="font-size: 14.7px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px 0px 20px;"><span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: Quattrocento;">If you’re feeling unsteady, it’s good to put more emphasis on the back, and sweep down from your shoulders into the soles of the feet. If you’re feeling too tight, bend the knees a little and encourage the abdomen to loosen and be held by the supple legs.</span></span></p>
<p style="font-size: 14.7px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px 0px 20px;"><span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: Quattrocento;">As the entire body consequently wakes up to itself, there is a sense of enjoyment. Simple, calm pleasure. Get used to that; what is your body now?</span></span></p>
<p style="font-size: 14.7px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 17px;"><span style="font-family: Quattrocento;"><span style="font-kerning: none;"></span><br /></span></p>
<p style="font-size: 14.7px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px 0px 20px;"><span style="font-kerning: none;"><span style="font-family: Quattrocento;"> </span></span></p>
<p style="font-size: 14.7px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px 0px 20px;"><span style="font-family: Quattrocento; font-size: 13.3px;"> </span></p><div><span style="font-kerning: none;"><br /></span></div>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6709844700034298584.post-57375663477005287512022-03-22T21:37:00.000+00:002022-03-22T21:37:01.637+00:00No victory, only healing<p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEgkqeQ2fEKM_NznH_CuOv7AX3lXdxe0009IBuOiHAZQ6qFoyZ2PF41M_lgXnzdAJ4Dovbhxtk4TB497PSoB-iXyg-wPSyjVUvknqbGnf5scBxjELNjVSI7VrKVm2o-Ltl52HK-LY_Kc9-RVgGOhJjJGliJtMTPLb8ZLq3pG8JmbEZUgMS_PR6tAonk6Og=s4032" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="3024" data-original-width="4032" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEgkqeQ2fEKM_NznH_CuOv7AX3lXdxe0009IBuOiHAZQ6qFoyZ2PF41M_lgXnzdAJ4Dovbhxtk4TB497PSoB-iXyg-wPSyjVUvknqbGnf5scBxjELNjVSI7VrKVm2o-Ltl52HK-LY_Kc9-RVgGOhJjJGliJtMTPLb8ZLq3pG8JmbEZUgMS_PR6tAonk6Og=s320" width="320" /></a></div><p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-size: 10pt; line-height: 18.66666603088379px; margin: 15pt 0cm;"><span lang="EN-US"></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-size: 10pt; line-height: 18.66666603088379px; margin: 15pt 0cm;"><span lang="EN-US"><span style="font-family: Quattrocento;">In the last couple of weeks, the war in Ukraine has grabbed the headlines, and the hearts of many people. There is the flood of images and stories: of the destruction of cities, and of ragged lines of refugees struggling for safety – and being received with open arms, food, and shelter. European countries have thrown open their borders (with the shameful exception of post-Brexit Britain) and people are moving forward by the thousands with helping hands. This is inspiring. It states the truth of right social order: the people act according to values – and the government facilitates. And the opposite is also true: </span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-size: 10pt; line-height: 18.66666603088379px; margin: 15pt 0cm;"><span style="font-size: 10pt;"><span style="font-family: Quattrocento;">War is not unusual it’s been going on throughout human history; it’s going on in many countries now. And yet terrible long-term conflicts such as in Yemen and Syria seem to pale in regard to the current situation in Europe. No doubt Euro-centricism plays a part, but for those of us living on the continent that initiated two major world wars and endured the nuclear threat of the Cold War, old resonances start echoing.</span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-size: 10pt; line-height: 18.66666603088379px; margin: 15pt 0cm;"><span lang="EN-US"><span style="font-family: Quattrocento;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-size: 10pt; line-height: 18.66666603088379px; margin: 15pt 0cm;"><span lang="EN-US"><span style="font-family: Quattrocento; font-size: 10pt;">All of this is heart-breaking: Ukraine being mutilated, Russia crippled and left to a dictator to play with; the only winners are the arms-manufacturers. And on the wider scale this </span><span style="font-family: Quattrocento;">rift is already having global effects. Borders and divisions are hardening. And what was this what it was all about? The security of the borderlands between Russian Europe and NATO Europe? Two Europes? The borders of ‘Europe’ have changed over the centuries: an acorn taking root in the Polish-Lithuanian Empire might have become a sapling in Poland, blossomed as a mature oak in the Austro-Hungarian Empire, aged in the Soviet Union and died in Ukraine. And during that time, armies might have marched past it to defend the ‘borders’. Borders? What do these lines on a map represent, and what lies behind drawing them?<o:p></o:p></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-size: 10pt; line-height: 18.66666603088379px; margin: 15pt 0cm;"><span lang="EN-US"><span style="font-family: Quattrocento;">For me, boders represent that tense territory where I get patted down or sent into a separate room for questioning (USA) or waved through with hands in anjali (Thailand). They’re nature is fluid …. I expect if you're an asylum seeker, borders are not the same as if you're a billionaire. But in geopolitical terms, borders mean security. They mean that the central power has control and it can tax and reward and otherwise supervise those within its borders. And to a great extent, these fences are more than geographical. Much of global wealth is fenced off and controlled by a minority global elite. Much of the Earth that we inhabit and depend upon has been parcelled up and sold off to international corporations who can exploit and even destroy it while assuring us that this is good for 'the economy' (i.e. shareholders, CEOs and suitable political lever pullers). How and by whom did this contract get written?<o:p></o:p></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-size: 10pt; line-height: 18.66666603088379px; margin: 15pt 0cm;"><span lang="EN-US"><span style="font-family: Quattrocento;">One major author is economic interest. Left to their own devices, human collectives operate in terms of fluid boundaries of inclusivity. Check out your social network. Check out a monastic community. There's a social contract sustained by sharing, interests, loyalties and kinships – like the older social models which constellated around a strong centre and which extended out to a loosely defined periphery (maybe bounded by a geographical barrier). Rather like a galaxy. And there had to be negotiation between the chief and the subjects as to how the whole thing operated. Otherwise, the people abandoned the chief. As the Zulu have it: 'No chief, no tribe; no tribe, no chief.' Is it not natural then that the borderlands would have affiliations to people and cultures on both sides – that there is no hard boundary?<o:p></o:p></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-size: 10pt; line-height: 18.66666603088379px; margin: 15pt 0cm;"><span lang="EN-US"><span style="font-family: Quattrocento;">The major boundary-setter has been trade. When that gives rise to money and credit, it needs economic management. Management stands outside the goods and the trade, and is a business that needs to have a secure structure. To provide that is a major reason for the nation-state. Such management is also profitable, becomes a business in itself – banks, stock exchanges, currency trading: this and more make up the greater portion of the global economy.<o:p></o:p></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-size: 10pt; line-height: 18.66666603088379px; margin: 15pt 0cm;"><span lang="EN-US"><span style="font-family: Quattrocento;">Looked at in this light, it’s no wonder that most of the world outside the ring of the current opposing parties is stepping back from getting involved. Having experienced European mapmaking and domination, what African, South American or Asian wants to get into another European-based battle over much the same? Not that the management even has a geographical base anymore. Today's empires are of the multi-national corporations (whose reserves exceed that of many countries). Most of the resources of the country I live in, Britain, are owned and controlled by non-native parties. Well, I guess everyone's welcome ... within the social contract – and part of that is to make a proportionate contribution to this land, and to the welfare of the people you share it with. There has to be an ethical basis in this, otherwise financial value overrides human values. And if ethics are abandoned, greed sets in.<o:p></o:p></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-size: 10pt; line-height: 18.66666603088379px; margin: 15pt 0cm;"><span lang="EN-US"><span style="font-family: Quattrocento;">Ethics are an aspect of the truth of mutuality – 'to others as to myself' – a sense that balances the individual's behaviour in the light of being part of a whole. This sense is not based upon laws as constructed and written down (and that can always be nullified and changed) but comes from a directly felt acknowledgment and respect of others. From respect, mutuality, kindness, compassion and personal restraint come forth. Whereas the fiat of government doesn't work that well (crime persists and the prisons swell; smart lawyers manage tax evasion for their employees – and governments East, West, North and South break international laws with impunity), personally supervised ethics takes us deep into the heart. Here is the treasure of humanity, of dignity, warm-heartedness and joy. Because not only doesn't it leave any others out – it also doesn't fence off and sell the wealth of the heart it dwells in.<o:p></o:p></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-size: 10pt; line-height: 18.66666603088379px; margin: 15pt 0cm;"><span lang="EN-US"><span style="font-family: Quattrocento;">This heart-mind doesn’t have any boundaries – other than those its attention creates. Check it out: if you give full awareness to your mind, you'll notice a changeable flow of thoughts and emotions, some powerful upswells, some habitual vortices – and attempts to organize and direct them. It's the nation-state as an internal microcosm. But what you won't notice are any fixed boundaries to that continuum. Past, present and projected future can all arise in this inner territory, along with impressions of people ‘out there’ and distant places. Come to think of it, where is the mind located? We might say it's within us, but within what? That idea and any notions of where we are also arise within the mind. To be truthful, the mind doesn't have a location, a boundary or an identity. There's no-one there holding it; instead, the director is self-interest wishing, striving, criticizing and re-iterating the same old stuff. What I call 'myself' comes from this intensity of interest, along with a sense of familiarity: ‘This is me.' But these senses are not an entity, they amount to a tonal colouring, like a highlight; something that assists orientation and direction, for good or bad.<o:p></o:p></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-size: 10pt; line-height: 18.66666603088379px; margin: 15pt 0cm;"><span lang="EN-US"><span style="font-family: Quattrocento;">That tonal colouring, that sense of purpose and value, has to be connected to ethics. Otherwise, it creates delusions whereby the mind gets possessed by insecurity and selfishness. Then anxiety and clinging get established, and that can lead to full-blown paranoia and power mania. These are all forms of ignorance, because owning and controlling and dominating don't bring security and peace of mind. They're defective programs. Take some famous cases: by the time he died, Stalin had brought around the death of more than 30 million of his own people, including many of his loyal lieutenants, and was still paranoid. Mao did much the same in China. Power breeds mutual destruction.<o:p></o:p></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-size: 10pt; line-height: 18.66666603088379px; margin: 15pt 0cm;"><span lang="EN-US"><span style="font-family: Quattrocento;">It's notable that the most the most powerful nations, the ones with the biggest military budgets – the USA, Russia and China – are the most paranoid (as well as being internally conflicted). Belgium, on the other hand, has been ridden over and passed through by invading armies ever since (and before) it began – but it chose to loosen its boundaries and settle into being part of an alliance. At times it even manages to get by without a central government. Yet it is one of the safest and most peaceful countries in the world with a high standard of living, healthcare and education. Its only significant problem is around (you guessed it!) boundary issues between its Flemish and French-speaking communities.<o:p></o:p></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-size: 10pt; line-height: 18.66666603088379px; margin: 15pt 0cm;"><span lang="EN-US"><span style="font-family: Quattrocento;">One wonders to what extent we even need nation-states, but let's not indulge in Utopian visions. The main point is that if the heart-mind is understood, and valued as a source of happiness and stability, then its orientation has to be one of respectful interconnectedness. Because in that there is a firm and personally verifiable location – in ethical clarity and goodwill. On that basis – one that’s not hanging onto ungraspable qualities such as material possessions, territory, and dogma – the mind finds balance.<o:p></o:p></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-size: 10pt; line-height: 18.66666603088379px; margin: 15pt 0cm;"><span lang="EN-US"><span style="font-family: Quattrocento;">And it has to be developed, because one of the eerie things about ignorance is that you don't realize what you’re leaving out. Let’s not forget the fence we create between humans and non-humans. A boundary between humans and our fellow living creatures allows us to kill 70 billion land animals and over trillion marine animals every year without batting an eyelid. (And this doesn’t include innumerable insects whose activities in fertilizing the land we depend upon.) This same fence gives us the right to devastate the forests, oceans, and soils of this planet on which life depends. Our current social and economic models rely upon us doing this. No environmental contract has yet been negotiated wherein the life and rights of other creatures are given attention. They (along with the trash we create and throw ‘away’) are on the other side of the imaginary fence.<o:p></o:p></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-size: 10pt; line-height: 18.66666603088379px; margin: 15pt 0cm;"><span lang="EN-US"><span style="font-family: Quattrocento;">So we have an ignorant political model, an ignorant economic system and an ignorant environmental model. Such a scenario is dry tinder waiting for sparks. Because with the profound disconnectedness that these create, and when there is a loss of mutuality in the social structures, inequality, resentment, poverty, crime and violence arise. We're encouraged to lean on material objects, entertainment and political strongmen to give us some ground – but they can't do that, so we lose heart, and anxiety, depression and psychological disorders increase.<o:p></o:p></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-size: 10pt; line-height: 18.66666603088379px; margin: 15pt 0cm;"><span lang="EN-US"><span style="font-family: Quattrocento;">None of this is comfortable. But we’re not looking at comfortable anymore; we're looking at survival. What does not lead to survival is partisanship: them and us; holding on to positions. That leads to politics, and politics is about polarisation, polarisation is about division, and division breeds fear, conflict and war. So it’s not a matter of who’s right who’s the best and who’s wrong. It’s not a matter of being the wisest or the purest. It’s about disbanding the sense of them and the conceit of better and worse, because with that disbanding is the possibility for respect and compassion and integrity. And if we cultivate this individually, we don’t need the police with armour and tear gas or even the moral policing of religion. We become eager to enquire and cultivate whatever can establish wise and mutual supervision of this human nature. We can enjoy the richness of shared humanity where are cultures could cross-fertilize and expand our hearts and minds. If there is anything supreme it is not a nation, it is not a religion or a political ideology – it is the liberation of the heart from ignorance.</span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-size: 10pt; line-height: 18.66666603088379px; margin: 15pt 0cm;"><span lang="EN-US"><span style="font-family: Quattrocento;"></span></span></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Quattrocento;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEi6AiG74-t1njCX61ERU3k15GYdS17aj2_HEKzwW-9cxcGLBopCvm0WgzmlyadutYSBoqIdN2muPbtvlDAUjGFgNnt7TgtBrD1ePPIndkD09B4XWprqedSupVxXGmsq87HC0x1rHRrr4JbM3qgUSJgkwMOKITCYvmkLaaxRaMKCxA7zz7bqfiayC_RwZQ=s4032" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="4032" data-original-width="3024" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEi6AiG74-t1njCX61ERU3k15GYdS17aj2_HEKzwW-9cxcGLBopCvm0WgzmlyadutYSBoqIdN2muPbtvlDAUjGFgNnt7TgtBrD1ePPIndkD09B4XWprqedSupVxXGmsq87HC0x1rHRrr4JbM3qgUSJgkwMOKITCYvmkLaaxRaMKCxA7zz7bqfiayC_RwZQ=s320" width="240" /></a></span></div><span style="font-family: Quattrocento;"><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-size: 10pt; line-height: 18.66666603088379px; margin: 15pt 0cm;"><span style="font-size: 10pt;">The real victory then is the victory over ignorance. Because with that comes the only chance for deep healing.</span></p></span><p></p>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6709844700034298584.post-55238044346392992412022-02-01T07:33:00.001+00:002022-02-11T12:42:25.069+00:00Welcome to the Pure Land! (In memory of Thich Nhat Hanh)<p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEjgX1K2IDECy1YmubMRnVbNg_p4rquamHvAGZWbQJXUfKFDd3Llu0zHmYq1dN9cJrWjN43lH4i9i2HRlhsXxsyr142Z_RyJx1Rtfodkh4XcPp_wiQgeTtkNl4ehHerapsorCBhYp69otEjgMHUbEsOuH4PrLjX0xWCcRFt5d0QgHeoD1FaqZ5tfKJjALA=s3840" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="2160" data-original-width="3840" height="360" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEjgX1K2IDECy1YmubMRnVbNg_p4rquamHvAGZWbQJXUfKFDd3Llu0zHmYq1dN9cJrWjN43lH4i9i2HRlhsXxsyr142Z_RyJx1Rtfodkh4XcPp_wiQgeTtkNl4ehHerapsorCBhYp69otEjgMHUbEsOuH4PrLjX0xWCcRFt5d0QgHeoD1FaqZ5tfKJjALA=w640-h360" width="640" /></a></div><span style="font-family: Quattrocento;"><i>( A tea-break during forest restoration work at Cittaviveka</i>)</span><p></p><div><div><span style="font-family: Quattrocento;">The recent passing away of Thich Nhat Hanh has caused me to linger in some grateful recognition. Of course, the man's influence in terms of spirituality, psychology and activism, was great, but in terms of my current winter retreat, his example brings to mind the value and ongoing need for aspiration. Aspiration ('<i>May I be..</i>.') provides an uplift that isn't goal-oriented. It channels desire (<i>chanda</i>), into required motivation. With aspiration we can transform the craving for achievement into an affirmation; </span><span style="font-family: Quattrocento;">without aspiration our hearts wither and sink. And Nhat Hanh (his specific name) set a blazing example of aspiration (and commitment) through non-violent activism, his support for refugees, and his Dhamma teachings . It was an example that touched the hearts of many and brought light into the world.</span></div><div><span style="font-family: Quattrocento;"><span lang="EN-US"><br /></span><span lang="EN-US">When I first came across Thich Nhat Hanh, it was via his book '<i>A Guide to Walking Meditation</i>'.* I don't remember much of the text now, but it referred to connecting to the Earth as one walked, and walking slowly with a smile. One was encouraged to be aware of the trees, the sky the Earth and to extend impressions of walking on lotus blossoms ... of relating to the manifest world, enjoying it and generating positive impressions with regard to being in it. To make it the Pure Land.</span></span></div><div><span style="font-family: Quattrocento;"><span lang="EN-US"><br /></span><span lang="EN-US">However, what I found most memorable was the cover. It had a photograph of Nhat Hanh with a smile on his face, walking in a field holding a sunflower aloft in his right hand, like some kind of flag or totem. Flower-power? Yes, it did stir a recollection of the movement of the late 60s, which was the launching pad of my own spiritual quest. It had been tremendously strengthening to realize that there were other people who believed, like me, that harmlessness and loving kindness could heal humanity. That aspiration, shared and lived, created a culture, an environment based on goodwill, sharing and a return to more natural ways. For a while it seems like there was an entire generation following that theme.</span></span></div><div><span style="font-family: Quattrocento;"><span lang="EN-US"><br /></span><span lang="EN-US">As it happened that flower faded in the seventies (despite the aspirations, the movement had no adequate ethical training, and moneyed interests took over), but the aspiration is timeless. And it keeps manifesting in cultures and religions over the world as we attempt to realize and purify our shared environment. Its most striking example in Buddhist terms is in Pure Land Buddhism, which entails committing to, and even visualizing the Pure Land of Amitabha Buddha, complete with its celestial gardens and deities. The aim being to purify the heart and its relationship to what manifests. This Pure Land practice often accompanies the straight sitting in the Ch'an Buddhism that Thich Nhat Hanh had trained in. Bringing forth aspiration must have been part of his training from an early age.</span></span></div><div><span style="font-family: Quattrocento;"><span lang="EN-US"><br /></span><span lang="EN-US">But not for me. The inadequacies of mainstream Christianity removed any celestial realm from my perspectives and aims. So as the flowers faded, I headed East looking for an adequate spiritual training to take me deeper into myself – a pragmatic deepening down rather than a visionary rising up. A doorway to that opened in Thailand in 1975, when I stumbled into a monastery where I was instructed in a version of the Burmese <i>satipaṭṭhāna </i>meditation method. Apart from fixing attention onto the rising and falling of the diaphragm during the breathing process, this also included walking meditation. Such walking was practised by focusing on the feet, specifically on points in the process such as 'lifting', 'moving' , 'lowering' , 'touching' as a foot was <i>very</i> slowly raised off the floor, moved and lowered to the floor again. As with breathing, any phenomenon occurring other than that point was to be noted with a brief verbal label such as 'thinking', 'hearing', (or, with increased practice, 'aversion', 'frustration') before returning to the focal point. Any degree of feeling – 'pleasant' or 'unpleasant'– was also to be dealt with in like manner in order to firm up the focus on the very moment of the sensation occurring. This was said to lead to 'dry insight' a way that avoided the pitfall of lingering in the pleasurable mental quality that might arise as the mind settled down. Not that there was much of that.</span></span></div><div><span style="font-family: Quattrocento;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="font-family: Quattrocento;">As I later discovered, this was different from the early teachings of the Buddha, wherein agreeable and uplifting states were to be thoroughly felt and explored. In his teaching, Nhat Hanh's embellished that, adding aspirations to spread this happiness through the world. Walking peacefully, one would bring peace into the world.</span></div><div><span style="font-family: Quattrocento;"><span lang="EN-US"><br /></span><span lang="EN-US">As for my walking practice, the emphasis was on solitude with no conversation. No gatherings, no shared purpose. Pacing </span></span><span style="font-family: Quattrocento;">inside my 2.5 metres wide kuti, to avoid distractions – and mosquitoes – </span><span style="font-family: Quattrocento;">things did get more quiet. But externally, the environment was a rectangle of cement paths, void of charm with no affirming connection to the world. At one time, in an attempt to present </span><span style="font-family: Quattrocento;">an external image of something inviting and serene, I collected some large rocks and assembled a Zen-style rock garden. The abbot came by a with a few men and ordered it to be dismantled. Dry indeed.</span></div><div><span style="font-family: Quattrocento;"><span lang="EN-US"><br /></span><span lang="EN-US">Returning to Britain in 1978 and joining the small community training under Ajahn Sumedho was a welcome change of environment. Its internal mainspring wasn't one of microscopic attention in meditation, but of intentions of ethics and renunciation. Around that internal axis, behaviour was mediated in terms of relationship to the monastic community, the laity and the tradition. Meditation was geared towards letting go of the obsessive thinking that arose from programs of achievement, sense-desire, and negative self-image. Fortunately it was considered fine and indeed helpful to appreciate natural surroundings, and the chief non-self, Ajahn Sumedho, somehow manifested genial good-humour in the midst of all this sober stuff. And with the daily chanting to bring forth values and commitments, along with a huge amount of togetherness (alms-rounds, the meal, the daily work and the meditation were all communal) a livable aspiration environment grew to encourage an internal flowering.</span></span></div><div><span style="font-family: Quattrocento;"><span lang="EN-US"><br /></span><span lang="EN-US">As that aspiration environment became known as something that lay people could participate in, almost inevitably, and guided by Ajahn Sumedho's compassion, Amaravati, the 'Deathless Realm', arose. It was envisioned both as a centre to support lay people with retreats, and public occasions, and as a vihara for the nuns; bhikkhus were there to help out. Amaravati Buddhist Centre, as it was then called, encompassed interfaith meditation evenings, and offered opportunities for teachers from a range of traditions to teach retreats in its Retreat Centre. Even though we were shivering with cold in unheated rooms, it was a bright if chaotic time.</span></span></div><div><span style="font-family: Quattrocento;"><span lang="EN-US"><br /></span><span lang="EN-US">Thich Nhat Hanh visited Amaravati shortly after his book on walking meditation was being passed around, maybe in 1986 or 1987. By then I knew him to be a peace activist who had committed to non-violence in a country that had been in conflict for over twenty years, a conflict that had escalated to holocaust proportions. He was exiled for his pacifist views, but moved to the USA, where he lectured extensively, </span></span><span style="font-family: Quattrocento;">raised funds for refugee and children; eventually he </span><span style="font-family: Quattrocento;">founded Plum Village in France. Even that brief summary made it obvious that Nhat Hanh had plenty of spine and a strong heart to back up his smile. His expression was more withdrawn and impassive than that of the book cover; his speech was measured but he clearly didn't go along with our cherished Forest Tradition austerities: noting that it was our lunar all-night meditation vigil, he recommended that we take a rest and look after ourselves instead. But when I asked him about maintaining calm and compassion while his sangha were being attacked and even killed, his reply was steady. The practice of non-violence in the midst of conflict and loss made the heart 'like a diamond that no fire can burn.' It looked like he knew that personally. The War must have offered a Dhamma practice like no other.</span></div><div><span style="font-family: Quattrocento;"><span lang="EN-US"><br /></span><span lang="EN-US">Another victim of that war wrote of how Nhat Hanh had saved his life. Returning to the USA after combat in the Vietnam War, Claude Ashin Thomas was psychologically wrecked. Receiving scant sympathy or support in his home country, he had been directed to attend one of Nhat Hanh's talks about peace and reconciliation – and as a result of that, the Vietnamese community in the US offered the funds to send him to Plum Village in France. In the course of a few months, spending time in a community of safety and peace helped him to come to terms with his demons – every night he would be assailed with terror – and eventually determine to take on the life of a monk who led peace pilgrimages over the world.§ That's how important environment is – when you've given up on yourself and run out of road, that's where you can find orientation. Then if you stand up and live out its meaning, you find purpose.</span></span></div><div><span style="font-family: Quattrocento;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: Quattrocento;"><span lang="EN-US"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEgIxSsZTFynQRp_7OvtQMU_DawSkpC24EU0nCkXHoXLYKarwhi4HndqD-vRRerAtj_sIFTR0qEUffcbF7BPzjUxTBy1Xi6OogJbhlaSAyiN1Bm2Nlpb-a9Coxrv0t6mOCuFTOi4vDpYpyyXfxE-izPCb4YAays_DNtU6kDTFKIGFaBe_064l0XNu9bokQ=s4032" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="3024" data-original-width="4032" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEgIxSsZTFynQRp_7OvtQMU_DawSkpC24EU0nCkXHoXLYKarwhi4HndqD-vRRerAtj_sIFTR0qEUffcbF7BPzjUxTBy1Xi6OogJbhlaSAyiN1Bm2Nlpb-a9Coxrv0t6mOCuFTOi4vDpYpyyXfxE-izPCb4YAays_DNtU6kDTFKIGFaBe_064l0XNu9bokQ=s320" width="320" /></a></div><div style="font-family: -webkit-standard;"><span style="font-family: Quattrocento;"><span lang="EN-US">I mention this during our three-month retreat period at Cittaviveka, because although the external setting is pretty idyllic and resonant with images and teachings, still you have to make an effort to internalize the environment. This is because your world depends on what your mind brings in. Which for those not familiar with a retreat isn't always good news, because in this situation, you are deprived of the input that would normally </span></span><span style="font-family: Quattrocento;">provide orientation, and (admittedly changeable) degrees of personal validity and well-being.</span><span style="font-family: Quattrocento;"> This input comes not just through contact (I am affected) but also through interaction (I respond, I am valid) . In normal mainstream life, this interaction is generally fairly brisk, and carries the emotional charge of social contact, work, doing things and getting a result – as measured by an external environment. So the nervous system gets set to externally-based input and response, often at a rapid rate. Then to relax, one turns to music, socializing, jogging, computer games, sport, a hot bath, etc. Then, suitably refreshed, one is ready to go back to another set of external circumstances. It's a precarious balance. </span></div><div style="font-family: -webkit-standard;"><span style="font-family: Quattrocento;"><br /></span></div><div style="font-family: -webkit-standard;"><span style="font-family: Quattrocento;">But on a retreat all of that is gone. One receives the input of a mind that isn't supported by doing and having and making things happen. The land is beautiful, but you don't have to interact with it (although gardening days are offered here, to support interaction). Without interaction, the heart gets disoriented and restless, so it broods and mopes; it gets flooded with memories and uncertainties about the future; it worries about its identity and what others are thinking – and it doesn't know how to relax, clear and reset by engaging with and responding to its strengths and values. Thus it gets stuck in a flood of afflictive mind states that, because they seem permanent, familiar and intimate become 'me' 'myself'.</span></div><div style="font-family: -webkit-standard;"><span style="font-family: Quattrocento;"><span lang="EN-US"><br /></span><span lang="EN-US">This scenario can also unfold outside of retreat. In daily life, if the world you live in doesn't offer relax-reset messages (and with constant media stimulation, there is no 'It's over, you're fine, relax' message) one gets stuck in the residues of what life throws at you. These are especially dire when there is constant pressure to achieve, to make a living and be happy in the midst of ever-present threat and a perilous future. It's worse in the case of someone who grows up adapting to a lack of welcome and safety: the nervous system is set to orange alert and generates performance drives in terms of appearance or activity in order to be acceptable. People get frantic; either that or sink into depression and meaninglessness. Being unable to access a ground of well-being and security in oneself, one doesn't relax and reset; instead one gets stressed, overwhelmed, depressed and reactive.</span></span></div><div style="font-family: -webkit-standard;"><span style="font-family: Quattrocento;"><span lang="EN-US"><br /></span><span lang="EN-US">The turning point is a sign that arouses trust and faith: a person of truth (<i>sappurisa</i>), someone who stands for wisdom and compassion and who says you too can access these. You receive, feel the effect and are encouraged to respond. And the first response is to align to the spiritual Refuge and train in interaction based on simple moral precepts. These aren't laws or commandments, but aspirations: 'I undertake to train in not harming other living creatures' ... ' to train in refraining from misappropriating and manipulating'... 'in refraining from sexual abusiveness and stereotyping ...' 'in refraining from false or injurious speech' ... 'in refraining from intoxicants that blur the mind and promote carelessness'. To emphasize that these are to be contemplated in terms of effects on oneself and others, the Buddha presented them in terms of the environment that they generate. Take the precept to refrain from harmful speech:<br /></span><i><span lang="EN-US">one is [someone] who reunites those who are divided, a promoter of friendships, who enjoys ... rejoices [and] delights in harmony, a speaker of words that promote harmony. Abandoning harsh speech ... one speaks such words as are gentle, pleasing to the ear, and loveable, as go to the heart, are courteous, desired by many and agreeable to many. Abandoning gossip, one abstains from gossip; one speaks at the right time, speaks what is fact, speaks on what is good, speaks on the Way and the Training; at an appropriate time one speaks such words as are worth remembering, well-reasoned, moderate, and beneficial.”</span></i><span lang="EN-US"> (M 27.13)</span></span></div><div style="font-family: -webkit-standard;"><span style="font-family: Quattrocento;"><span lang="EN-US"><br /><o:p></o:p></span><span lang="EN-US">So it's not just that you stop doing bad. It also means that you reach into and affirm something in yourself that feels the value behind these intentions, and how they bring forth the best in your own heart and that of others. You can practise them like this: as you undertake to train in harmlessness, resonate the phrase (perhaps with an image of how your harmlessness affects vulnerable creatures) until you get the sense of the patient strength that can restrain the impulse to lash out, seek revenge, and get rid of creatures and people you dislike. You may find that doing this while standing brings additional firmness and balance to the practice; the meaning gets embodied and felt. </span></span><span style="font-family: Quattrocento;">Linger in that felt meaning until you get a heart-impression, a 'felt sense' of that firm gentle energy; you can even </span><span style="font-family: Quattrocento;">visualize it: </span><span style="font-family: Quattrocento;">heart-energy</span><span style="font-family: Quattrocento;"> has a real and palpable quality.</span><span style="font-family: Quattrocento;"> </span><span style="font-family: Quattrocento;">Over time, if you give mindful attention to this felt quality of harmlessness it gives you orientation, meaning and purpose. You don't have to achieve it; it settles in through lingering and feeling, and it supports you. So you aspire, practise – and when life throws you off course, you return and pick up the thread again. In this way, harmlessness (and the other precepts) generate a lived-in environment of freedom from threat and regret, and endowed with uprightness and ease. Welcome to the Pure Land!†</span></div><div style="font-family: -webkit-standard;"><span style="font-family: Quattrocento;"><span lang="EN-US"><br /></span></span></div><div style="font-family: -webkit-standard;"><span style="font-family: Quattrocento;"><span lang="EN-US">So you may not incline towards visualising lotus blossoms and smiling Buddhas, but with ethical aspiration, mindfully sustained, you gain the capacity to switch off the agitating 'What's the point?' 'I can't calm down' 'What am I supposed to do?' programs and reflexes.</span></span></div><div style="font-family: -webkit-standard;"><span style="font-family: Quattrocento;"><span lang="EN-US"><br /></span><span lang="EN-US">I never saw Nhat Hanh again, and the sweetness of the approach on his books and talks didn't work for me. Diamonds are tough as well as bright, and I would have liked to have heard more of that - and of managing the pressure that creates them. Because looking deeply into a loved one's eyes is never going to work in the Monastic Forest Tradition; and equating the peace of nibbana to the gentle happiness of communing with the natural world doesn't quite ring true. However, for me Nhat Hanh's most important teaching ( and practice ) was on cultivating community. And in this respect, different expressions have value inasmuch as they meet individual ways of sustaining the </span></span><span style="font-family: Quattrocento;">aspiration environment</span><span style="font-family: Quattrocento;">. But the universal bedrock of that environment, in both imaginative and pragmatic terms, is the Precepts. In a world on fire with deceit, environmental abuse and bullying egotistical political leaders, they all serve to support our shared cosmos and enrich the heart. So it is: in my aspiration environment, the great champions of the spirit are still standing upright, steady and extending open hands.</span></div><div style="font-family: -webkit-standard;"><span style="font-family: Quattrocento;"><span lang="EN-US"><br /></span></span></div><div style="font-family: -webkit-standard;"><span style="font-family: Quattrocento;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEiYG3GndRkXx-OCqvohxrrOM-0mkIZ-kf7u0kjtilT8Zurr_AqF-SvMt1Yo2vEK2sz9DrPMKk69IfFHO3vpNFAGuClvq9RkqIX62vEQ8l1RYM5rwdw42CikPsEJ8GqTB22dOGd7SfS7K4TpdAXs0f-_mOx6qSt9-P-wLHOBFGLJ8wnxfo6B24M9Fhh3kQ=s4032" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="4032" data-original-width="3024" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEiYG3GndRkXx-OCqvohxrrOM-0mkIZ-kf7u0kjtilT8Zurr_AqF-SvMt1Yo2vEK2sz9DrPMKk69IfFHO3vpNFAGuClvq9RkqIX62vEQ8l1RYM5rwdw42CikPsEJ8GqTB22dOGd7SfS7K4TpdAXs0f-_mOx6qSt9-P-wLHOBFGLJ8wnxfo6B24M9Fhh3kQ=s320" width="240" /></a></div><br /><div style="text-align: center;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: center;">***</div></span></div><div style="font-family: -webkit-standard;"><span style="font-family: Quattrocento;"><span lang="EN-US"><br /></span></span></div><div style="font-family: -webkit-standard;"><span style="font-family: Quattrocento;"><span lang="EN-US"><div style="font-family: -webkit-standard;"><div><span style="font-family: Quattrocento;"><span lang="EN-US">*Thich Naht Hanh: <i>A Guide to Walking Meditation</i> (Nyack NY 1985, Fellowship Publications)<br /></span><span lang="EN-US">§ See: Claude Anshin Thomas <i>At Hell’s Gate</i> (Boston MA 2004, Shambhala Publications)</span></span></div></div><div style="font-family: -webkit-standard;"><span style="font-family: Quattrocento;">†Thich Nhat Hanh's renderings of these core Buddhist precepts is particularly impressive. See <a href="http://www.abuddhistlibrary.com/Buddhism/G%20-%20TNH/TNH/The%20Five%20Precepts/Five%20Wonderful%20Precepts.htm">http://www.abuddhistlibrary.com/Buddhism/G%20-%20TNH/TNH/The%20Five%20Precepts/Five%20Wonderful%20Precepts.htm</a></span></div></span></span></div></span></span></div></div> <p></p>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6709844700034298584.post-44697508578011934762022-01-02T15:05:00.004+00:002024-02-25T07:34:02.050+00:00Sustaining the Network – Questions and Responses in a Pandemic<p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEgWLQZTzL4MHdRAxnP-iwr0zmSVf-36ztameNl8_TRwhpvh6KFvDnvURymnB0YY2p1_oWOaeopGV1mgY8-hgb2i-4biknhDzfXNty_se7Qa6pjGHOVxuEBYdcqbhqDVlp5ivbZRAdPFQTm2L4qf_G-qNdQ7_YS8S7nnwhucNeyjNffrJvumEOkyZ5OBUA=s4032" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="3024" data-original-width="4032" height="480" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEgWLQZTzL4MHdRAxnP-iwr0zmSVf-36ztameNl8_TRwhpvh6KFvDnvURymnB0YY2p1_oWOaeopGV1mgY8-hgb2i-4biknhDzfXNty_se7Qa6pjGHOVxuEBYdcqbhqDVlp5ivbZRAdPFQTm2L4qf_G-qNdQ7_YS8S7nnwhucNeyjNffrJvumEOkyZ5OBUA=w640-h480" width="640" /></a></div><br /><span style="font-family: Quattrocento;"> <span>(</span><i>Periodically, the monastery checks its supplies and distributes what isn't immediately needed to those in need, primarily homeless people.</i><span>)</span></span><p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 15.333332061767578px; margin: 15pt 0cm;"><span lang="EN-US"><span style="font-family: Quattrocento;">It’s been a while since I wrote. It’s not that there’s nothing to say, but the number of online sessions I’ve been involved with over the past twenty months have an effect on communication. On top of the quantity of talking I do is the one-way nature of it. Cooped up for nearly two years, I’ve been missing a vital piece – the feedback loop that comes with in-person teaching. Consequently talking seems less important, and writing even less so. <o:p></o:p></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 15.333332061767578px; margin: 15pt 0cm;"><span lang="EN-US"><span style="font-family: Quattrocento;">Anyway, as far ongoing reflections: Yes, we had some Covid outbreaks in the monastery (someone came as a guest without testing) but worked with it and came through; and maybe it’s just another of those things to live and die with. There was a Conference on Climate Change … yes, '<i>blah, blah, blah</i>'… but at least it’s on the agenda. A big question is: 'What is a world leader anyway?' They current national leadership model doesn’t seem to be able to lead humanity to a safe and benevolent present, let alone a skilful future. It looks more and more like what’s needed is a moral network to counteract the network of money and political power. And yes, the Dhamma network is in this global sense in its comparative infancy, but producing some marvellous statements of the truth of the spirit in the interactive mode. <o:p></o:p></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 15.333332061767578px; margin: 15pt 0cm;"><span lang="EN-US"><span style="font-family: Quattrocento;">So, over the past few years, I’ve been giving attention to supporting that network. Right now this means responding to the comments and queries I receive through the Dhamma Tracks mail-out that a supporter set up. I only have a superficial understanding of how this mail-out works, but I can review comments. And having read through the first thirty or so, below are the responses that I can make to a few of them.<o:p></o:p></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 15.333332061767578px; margin: 15pt 0cm;"><span lang="EN-US"><span style="font-family: Quattrocento;">**</span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 15.333332061767578px; margin: 15pt 0cm;"><span lang="EN-US"><span style="font-family: Quattrocento;">Someone living with a partner with cancer updates me periodically. They mention visiting the monastery (we’ve remained open to some degree) in the grey weather and receiving welcome and feeling the warmth of the stone of the floor of the meditation Hall as they bowed.<o:p></o:p></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 15.333332061767578px; margin: 15pt 0cm;"><span style="font-family: Quattrocento;"><b><span lang="EN-US">Response</span></b><span lang="EN-US">: Yes, friend, warm ground, and as direct a contact with it as is possible, is a great support. As an aspect of your body, it’s always here.<o:p></o:p></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 15.333332061767578px; margin: 15pt 0cm;"><span lang="EN-US"><span style="font-family: Quattrocento;">There were many comments are expressions of gratitude and love.<o:p></o:p></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 15.333332061767578px; margin: 15pt 0cm;"><span style="font-family: Quattrocento;"><b><span lang="EN-US">Response:</span></b><span lang="EN-US"> Reciprocated. The efforts that people go through to attend a global retreat – getting up in the middle of the night, or staying up through the early hours of the morning to be part of the Dhamma field – are a powerful statement, and it’s a privilege to be part of how that happens.<o:p></o:p></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 15.333332061767578px; margin: 15pt 0cm;"><span lang="EN-US"><span style="font-family: Quattrocento;">Others mention benefits of specific practices that integrate body and heart. These include the transformative effects of the meditation on the energy of breathing that I taught in November, also the symbiosis of breath and love that Willa Thaniya and I presented. <o:p></o:p></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 15.333332061767578px; margin: 0cm;"><span style="font-family: Quattrocento;"><b><span lang="EN-US">Response:</span></b><span lang="EN-US"> She’s in New Zealand, I’m in the UK, and we didn’t work out what to say in advance. The practice taught itself! This retreat took guidance from the reflection that in most non-mechanist cultures, breath and spirit are synonymous. In the Māori understanding ‘love is the breath of life’: the way that breath moves intimately through us and gently extends our energy field into the environment is one of embodied trust and openness. This is one form of love, just as love, that is the extension of good heart, is that which keeps our spirits alive, shared and fluent. The Vedic tradition that the Buddha arose in gave rise to </span><i>prāṇayāma</i><span style="line-height: 18.399999618530273px;"> </span><span lang="EN-US">the yoga of breathing, whereby the energy that breathing readily accesses can be directed through channels in the body to affect systems that we normally can’t adjust. Such as blood pressure, heartbeat, brain function and metabolism. This ‘</span><i>prāṇa</i><span lang="EN-US">’ is ‘<i>pāna</i>’ in the Pali language. The Buddha used it primarily as an energy to counteract the reflex compulsions of harmful ‘formations’ (<i>saṅkhārā</i>), which otherwise spin the heart into reactions and compulsive habits. When those reflexes cease, one result is an open, fluent and benevolent heart.<o:p></o:p></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 15.333332061767578px; margin: 0cm;"><span lang="EN-US"><span style="font-family: Quattrocento;"> </span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 15.333332061767578px; margin: 0cm;"><span style="font-family: Quattrocento;"><span lang="EN-US">**</span><span style="line-height: 18.399999618530273px;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 15.333332061767578px; margin: 15pt 0cm;"><span lang="EN-US"><span style="font-family: Quattrocento;">Others mention the power of chanting to purify the mind.<o:p></o:p></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 15.333332061767578px; margin: 15pt 0cm;"><span style="font-family: Quattrocento;"><b><span lang="EN-US">Response:</span></b><span lang="EN-US"> Yes, of course it’s nearly impossible to synchronise chanting online, but I do encourage being mindful of how the body converts breath into sound, and with what effect. This keeps you attuned to the auditory consciousness, which has a wider field than the other consciousness and uses receptivity. (As opposed to the visual consciousness, which is the ‘hunter’ with an attention span like an arrowhead.) Also the heart receives sound effects at a primary imaginal level of heart/mind: this was our way of experiencing in the womb – where the mother’s heartbeat told us we were safe or not. Soon after birth we received the crooning and burbling of the parents to give us reassuring messages. So sound, particularly the sound of the human voice, goes straight to the heart. Therefore, chanting can be used carefully and with clear intention to give beneficial effects to body, heart and mind.<o:p></o:p></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 15.333332061767578px; margin: 15pt 0cm;"><span lang="EN-US"><span style="font-family: Quattrocento;">** <o:p></o:p></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 15.333332061767578px; margin: 15pt 0cm;"><span lang="EN-US"><span style="font-family: Quattrocento;">There was a comment on attuning to the ‘field of <i>puñña</i>’, as an antidote to the dull and deadening forces of materialism.<o:p></o:p></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 15.333332061767578px; margin: 15pt 0cm;"><span style="font-family: Quattrocento;"><b><span lang="EN-US">Response:</span></b><span lang="EN-US"> <i>Puñña</i>, ‘goodness’, ‘value’ or ‘merit’ is the richness of heart that arises dependent on intentions and actions associated with goodwill and virtue. Acting in terms of <i>puñña </i>establishes skilful paths for the heart to move down; and the effects in the long-term build spiritual resources and repair the damage of indulgence, guilt, and aversion (to name a few). Although the notion can be dismissed as ‘spiritual materialism’ = ‘give donation, get a fortunate rebirth’, there is an effect that comes not through mechanically applied religious conventions but through attuning and extending the heart to the felt energies associated with goodness. Once you give attention, not so much to the thought, but to the embodied and emotional shift that comes with compassion or truthfulness (for example), you’ll get the point. And you’ll notice by comparison the dulling affect that consumer-driven materialism brings, no matter how sleek the packaging. This is the hinge point of renunciation, and it leads to an instinctive turning away from worldly values.<o:p></o:p></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 15.333332061767578px; margin: 15pt 0cm;"><span lang="EN-US"><span style="font-family: Quattrocento;">The commentator also mentioned how sensing the field of <i>puñña</i> overcomes the sense of distance.<o:p></o:p></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 15.333332061767578px; margin: 15pt 0cm;"><span style="font-family: Quattrocento;"><b><span lang="EN-US">Response:</span></b><span lang="EN-US"><span> Yes, what is ‘distance’ as a felt experience? Isn’t it a mood, an emotional boundary, a sense of separation? And while one can feel separated from people living in the same street, one can feel connected to others at a geographical distance. This is because the </span><i>citta</i><span> doesn’t operate in terms of space or time, but in terms of its own energies - contracted or unrestricted, tangled or clear. Accessing the field of </span><i>puñña</i><span>, one accesses clear and increasingly unrestricted energies – the ‘measureless mind’ of the </span><i>brahmavihāra</i><span> is an example of this. In this way, the sense of restriction and isolation ceases.<o:p></o:p></span></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 15.333332061767578px; margin: 15pt 0cm;"><span lang="EN-US"><span style="font-family: Quattrocento;">**<o:p></o:p></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 15.333332061767578px; margin: 15pt 0cm;"><span lang="EN-US"><span style="font-family: Quattrocento;">There was a comment on the benefits of ‘Learning from the Pause’, the blog post of October 2021.<o:p></o:p></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 15.333332061767578px; margin: 15pt 0cm;"><span style="font-family: Quattrocento;"><b><span lang="EN-US">Response</span></b><span lang="EN-US">: The pause phase of breathing – that is the moments where the exhalation subsides before the inhalation picks up, and vice versa – are essential moderators of the breathing and consequently the nervous system and the mind. Once you get this, you see the relevance of pausing between impact and response, between hearing someone and replying to them, or acting on what you’ve heard – particularly if the impact is evocative. And this is of course, what people by and large don’t do!<o:p></o:p></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 15.333332061767578px; margin: 15pt 0cm;"><span lang="EN-US"><span style="font-family: Quattrocento;">** <o:p></o:p></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 15.333332061767578px; margin: 15pt 0cm;"><span lang="EN-US"><span style="font-family: Quattrocento;">Here are responses to a few questions:<o:p></o:p></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 15.333332061767578px; margin: 15pt 0cm;"><span style="font-family: Quattrocento;"><b><span lang="EN-US">Q</span></b><span lang="EN-US">: A question about managing anxiety.<o:p></o:p></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 15.333332061767578px; margin: 15pt 0cm;"><span style="font-family: Quattrocento;"><b><span lang="EN-US">A</span></b><span lang="EN-US">: An awareness of the precarious nature of conditioned existence is natural. To live without that is to be dangerously deluded. However, the healthy system is able to stay alert without activating anxiety – which actually biases and impairs its clarity. I recommend a mindful immersion in the body, an awareness of its nervous energy. If this is carried out and awareness extended to cover the entire body, the nervous system will be able to self-regulate, that is, to moderate alertness, and to discharge any hyper-effects. Anxiety contracts the heart as a defence, but it locks the nervous system so that it can’t relax. So to release anxiety, first put aside any anxiety-forming topics and widen your visual awareness, allowing your seeing and hearing to rove freely, but steadily and calmly. Increasingly extend your attention to encompass the entire body as it stands, making sure you include the soles of the feet. This establishes the ‘upright axis’, a firm centre that extends vertically through the body, and as you sense that, your other senses may settle down to a greater degree. Then extend your awareness to the perimeter of the body and a little into the space immediately around, above and below. This is the ‘natural’ setting for embodied awareness; it provides a safe envelope around the physical form, and as it isn’t contracted, the heart is at ease.<o:p></o:p></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 15.333332061767578px; margin: 15pt 0cm;"><span lang="EN-US"><span style="font-family: Quattrocento;">As you cultivate the less restricted state, allow yourself to enter slightly uncertain territory and cultivate this grounded and safely open state as you move around.<o:p></o:p></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 15.333332061767578px; margin: 15pt 0cm;"><span lang="EN-US"><span style="font-family: Quattrocento;">**<o:p></o:p></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 15.333332061767578px; margin: 15pt 0cm;"><span style="font-family: Quattrocento;"><b><span lang="EN-US">Q:</span></b><span lang="EN-US"> What is the connection or balance between effort, inquiry (<i>yoniso manisikara</i> is the pali term I think) and listening (<i>sati sampajanya</i> is the pali term I think)?<o:p></o:p></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 15.333332061767578px; margin: 15pt 0cm;"><span style="font-family: Quattrocento;"><b><span lang="EN-US">A:</span></b><span lang="EN-US"> All translations are debatable, but <i>yoniso manasikāra</i> is generally understood to be deep or penetrative attention. It is a careful adjustment of attention that directs it to pertinent themes. <i>Sampajañña</i> is the wise knowing that arises from <i>sati</i>, mindfulness. They’re similar, but deep attention helps to set up mindfulness, and can use thinking, whereas <i>sampajañña</i> is an alert attunement to the changing nature of phenomena, how they arise and how they cease.<o:p></o:p></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 15.333332061767578px; margin: 15pt 0cm;"><span lang="EN-US"><span style="font-family: Quattrocento;">** <o:p></o:p></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 15.333332061767578px; margin: 15pt 0cm;"><span style="font-family: Quattrocento;"><b><span lang="EN-US">Q:</span></b><span lang="EN-US"> How to welcome conditioned phenomena totally? The mind feels mistrustful. Hence there is a loss of direction, and a sense of insecurity.<o:p></o:p></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 15.333332061767578px; margin: 15pt 0cm;"><span style="font-family: Quattrocento;"><b><span lang="EN-US">A:</span></b><span lang="EN-US"> Welcoming conditioned phenomena totally is a very high standard. Start with being aware of mistrust and insecurity and stop believing in them or trying to overcome them. These senses have their causes and conditions and need to be heard. Ask in a contemplative way: ‘How does this feel?’ ‘Can I be with that?’ ‘Can I sense how that affects my body? Is there any part of my body that isn’t affected by these?’ When you have established a respectful relationship with these moods, they might subside. And you might also ask ‘What are these trying to do? Where do they want to go? Can I be with them and explore them in a sympathetic way?’<o:p></o:p></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 15.333332061767578px; margin: 15pt 0cm;"><span lang="EN-US"><span style="font-family: Quattrocento;">** <o:p></o:p></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 15.333332061767578px; margin: 15pt 0cm;"><span lang="EN-US"><span style="font-family: Quattrocento;">Well, that's about it for now. I'm trying to spend less time in front of a screen, but I expect to comment from time to time. Meanwhile there's the ongoing practice of sustaining the Dhamma field by digging in and nourishing the heart. Please stay tuned to the field!</span><span style="font-family: Cambria, serif; font-size: 10pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></p>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6709844700034298584.post-75266395610011084352021-10-02T12:18:00.008+00:002021-10-09T10:15:41.041+00:00Learning the Pause<p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-f4njq2Fv2a4/YVdG11rI65I/AAAAAAABIWQ/mGgPrNe1cNo65h9y0RwycGmR-wovySiUQCLcBGAsYHQ/s1500/1DB3A55D-5917-48B0-A437-FFA73C28C120.jpeg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><span style="font-family: trebuchet;"><img border="0" data-original-height="974" data-original-width="1500" height="416" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-f4njq2Fv2a4/YVdG11rI65I/AAAAAAABIWQ/mGgPrNe1cNo65h9y0RwycGmR-wovySiUQCLcBGAsYHQ/w640-h416/1DB3A55D-5917-48B0-A437-FFA73C28C120.jpeg" width="640" /></span></a></div><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.66666603088379px; margin: 15pt 0cm;"><span lang="EN-US" style="line-height: 20.533334732055664px;"><span style="font-family: Quattrocento;">As if with a slow inhalation, the monastery is inching out of lockdown and into increased openness. For the past weeks, the closure had been more intense on account of having four members of the community sick with Covid: although getting sick is a part of life, we felt a responsibility to not pass on our bugs to members of the public. Thankfully, the infected people have all recovered, and we can now allow visitors in to share our space – albeit in a limited way.<o:p></o:p></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.66666603088379px; margin: 15pt 0cm;"><span lang="EN-US" style="line-height: 20.533334732055664px;"><span style="font-family: Quattrocento;">So there has been a blockage in terms of what we expect. It happens quite often: the bus or train is late; the visitor doesn't show up; the machine breaks down – and so on. And when that happens, your mind can do one of a number of things. Firstly, you can get annoyed and blame someone (or blame yourself). Secondly, you can feel depressed and cheated by life. Thirdly, you can wait patiently. And finally, your mind can pause, open and appreciate the space where the will relaxes and it feels good to be conscious with nothing to do and nowhere to go. <o:p></o:p></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.66666603088379px; margin: 15pt 0cm;"><span lang="EN-US" style="line-height: 20.533334732055664px;"><span style="font-family: Quattrocento;">The significant point is that when you can’t get what you want, your underlying tendencies to get exasperated or feel let down come up – and they then interpret the situation as ‘lazy disorganized people’ or ‘no one considers my feelings’. Actually there are generally a number of causes as to why things don’t go my way — the Buddha just called it ‘<i>dukkha</i>’ – but the immediate reaction and interpretation are an indication of tendencies in one’s own mind. So just to pause at that point – reactions are normal, but we can read them, learn what they are, and that they take us into suffering. We don't have to guess at why things aren't going according to plan; and jumping to a conclusion is always a move into the shadows of one's own mind. So, pause. A pause is not a disapproval or a judgement; it’s an opening of attention. And that allows us to respond to our reactions with mindfulness and compassion. Pausing is an essential, deep and accessible practice.<o:p></o:p></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.66666603088379px; margin: 15pt 0cm;"><span lang="EN-US" style="line-height: 20.533334732055664px;"><span style="font-family: Quattrocento;">Can you allow ten seconds for a pause in the midst of what arises? When you take note of instances of people losing their temper or following impulses that lead to harm, even death, it’s obviously important. And it seems easy in theory, but the difficulty, and the learning, is that you have to face your planned drive, as well as meet the reflexes and reactions that arise when you do that: 'What’s the point of pausing?’ ‘Not now’ ‘ I have to get on.’ Pretty convincing, aren't they?<o:p></o:p></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.66666603088379px; margin: 15pt 0cm;"><span lang="EN-US" style="line-height: 20.533334732055664px;"><span style="font-family: Quattrocento;">Meeting and investigating this urge to get on (<i>bhava tanhā) </i>is what meditation training is about. Take mindfulness of breathing: the practice is to follow the exhalation into the pause phase where the abdominal muscles come to rest, as if there is no next inhalation. Then let the inhalation gather, fulfil itself and also come to rest with the upper chest and throat lightly expanded. The pause phase is the crucial bit: it’s when the will lets go. That brings a relaxation at the end of the out-breath, and a bright opening at the end of the inhalation. As you tune into that pause, and trust letting go of the next moment, or of what to do, or even who you are – there is a growing sense of release.<o:p></o:p></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.66666603088379px; margin: 15pt 0cm;"><span lang="EN-US" style="line-height: 20.533334732055664px;"><span style="font-family: Quattrocento;">Monastic life is full of pauses: we wait for things to arrive; wait for everyone to gather before the communal rituals begin; wait for the bell to ring before taking the meal. And in training, one is encouraged not to do anything whilst waiting, not even to talk. It all seems pretty inefficient and frustrating, even disrespectful, at first: a scenario wherein people are late, things aren't happening on time.... But that's a miserable way of looking at it; you can only do that for so long before you recognize that waiting for the expected thing to happen is suffering – and maybe something deeper is possible. Gradually you learn to hold expectations lightly and be prepared to let go of them, rather than wait for the expected thing to happen.<o:p></o:p></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.66666603088379px; margin: 15pt 0cm;"><span lang="EN-US" style="line-height: 20.533334732055664px;"><span style="font-family: Quattrocento;">The difference between waiting and pausing is that the pause deepens beyond being patient. You might support the pause by being mindful of your body standing or sitting, or through reciting a mantra, but a deep pause isn't about picking up even a subtle form of mental activity. It's about the mind opening beyond preoccupation. Then, instead of a tangled energy of remembering, chewing on and restraining one's wishes, there is a restful open energy. Having fully understood that attachment to desire is the root of suffering, the mind goes into a different mode. Rather than wrangle or distract, it relinquishes will power and the need to make things go a certain way. Instead there’s an opening into steady awareness. Maybe dying could be like this.<o:p></o:p></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.66666603088379px; margin: 15pt 0cm;"><span lang="EN-US" style="line-height: 20.533334732055664px;"><span style="font-family: Quattrocento;">Rather than numbing out, this open state allows the topic of one's expectation to go down like the sun – and arise again in a fresh light. One can then pick up the thread of what one was doing or talking about with a fresh mind and a shift in perspective – or one can decide to drop it. There's an opportunity for a transformative choice. Because unless you've deliberately paused and released it, a thread of grievance or passion has just gone into storage – and will arise later. Threads don't drop by themselves when the mind that is holding them moves into the background. But the possibility that the pause offers is to place a topic under an open timeless light; having reviewed it, its basis can be seen and relinquished. And at other times, having let an idea rest in that aware space, new angles and insights into it arise as the mind re-engages.<o:p></o:p></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.66666603088379px; margin: 15pt 0cm;"><span lang="EN-US" style="line-height: 20.533334732055664px;"><span style="font-family: Quattrocento;">There are mundane benefits in pausing. I've noticed this when I teach with someone translating what I say into another language. What seems to work best is if I talk for about three seconds, then pause while that is being translated ... and so on, to and fro, for up to an hour. You might think this is very disjointed and difficult, but bilingual listeners say it's like hearing the teaching in stereo; the translator finds that they don't have to think, they just speak as they're hearing it; and I find it helps to provide the pauses in the mental flow that allow a point to be further expanded, a nuance added, or for the line of thought to be moderated or steered. Yes, maybe rebirth can be like this.<o:p></o:p></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.66666603088379px; margin: 15pt 0cm;"><span lang="EN-US" style="line-height: 20.533334732055664px;"><span style="font-family: Quattrocento;">Recently I discovered that I could pause while writing – writing by hand, that is. My handwriting has deteriorated over the years as it has increasingly been replaced by typing. I do prefer to write letters by hand, because a hand-written note carries irreplaceable character and care; an intimacy and uniqueness that a typed message can't. But it feels disrespectful to write something that the reader has to strain to read. Working with this, I've noticed that a balance has to be struck: there has to be the ongoing flow of thought that is leading the writing, and yet if it runs too fast, the hand that follows it loses some of the dexterity that is required to form the letters. The 'o' squashes up against the next letter, the 's' loses its curves.... However, studying manuals on improving handwriting, I found that too much attention on forming the letters seemed to block the natural flow of thought. What was really needed was to moderate the mind. Working from that perspective, I realized that I could pause at any point in writing a word; the mind would then hover for a vital second to attend more carefully to the lettering without losing the train of thought – and that led to an improvement on all counts. Not every thought has to be completed, let alone expressed. That's a point worth pausing over.<o:p></o:p></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.66666603088379px; margin: 15pt 0cm;"><span lang="EN-US" style="line-height: 20.533334732055664px;"><span style="font-family: Quattrocento;">The pause from thinking or planning also offers the amazing occasion of sharing an open space with others. Another element of monastic life is that you don’t have to talking about this or that in order to be with another person. It's strange but understandable that at first shared silence (rather than shutting down) can feel awkward and almost unbearable as the gestures, repartee and personal topics fall away. Still, in the presence of meditation masters that's what happens. It takes some trust, but opens into shared presence – a quiet and cool form of love.<o:p></o:p></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.66666603088379px; margin: 15pt 0cm;"><span lang="EN-US" style="line-height: 20.533334732055664px;"><span style="font-family: Quattrocento;">Of course, these past 18 months in varying degrees of lockdown have been an intense workout as what has been put aside is much of the fabric of our lives: sangha meetings, festivals enriched by hundreds of ebullient supporters, and travelling to teach and share Dhamma ... with no great change in sight. 'Can you come next month?' 'Who knows?' 'Next year?' 'Not certain.' Yet it's good to pause and review how much one identifies with circumstances and occupations. And to also pause before getting born into disappointment and irritation: instead of getting upset about it, it's good to know how much this life of sharing means. It's a Refuge. Someone who takes that sense of shared presence into their heart is never lost or alone.<o:p></o:p></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.66666603088379px; margin: 15pt 0cm;"><span lang="EN-US" style="line-height: 20.533334732055664px;"><span style="font-family: Quattrocento;"> </span></span></p><span style="font-family: Quattrocento;"> </span><p></p>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6709844700034298584.post-9746477591975857382021-05-14T18:18:00.005+00:002021-05-17T07:30:39.470+00:00Sharing presence online<p><br /></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-ynC-UdULcPg/YJ6bigkWOMI/AAAAAAABIGg/Ak6L-5qJi-wSnBEX0j_EMF_Cjv6k_ysWwCLcBGAsYHQ/s960/IMG_1320.JPG" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="960" data-original-width="840" height="320" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-ynC-UdULcPg/YJ6bigkWOMI/AAAAAAABIGg/Ak6L-5qJi-wSnBEX0j_EMF_Cjv6k_ysWwCLcBGAsYHQ/s320/IMG_1320.JPG" /></a></div><p><i><span style="font-family: Quattrocento;"><span face="Optima-Regular">This is not a painting. It is the most detailed image of a human cell to date, obtained by radiography, nuclear magnetic resonance and cryoelectron microscopy.</span><span face="Optima-Regular"> What it shows it that at the most fundamental organic sense, we are a community of oddballs. </span></span></i></p><span face="Optima-Regular"><span style="font-family: Quattrocento;">[<i>Thanks to </i></span><span style="background-color: white;"><span><span style="font-family: Quattrocento; font-style: italic;">Evan Ingersoll and Gael McGill</span><span style="font-family: PT Serif, serif;"><i>, Harvard Medical School</i>]</span></span></span></span><div><span style="font-family: PT Serif, serif; font-size: medium;"><span style="background-color: white;">****<br /></span></span><p><span style="font-family: Quattrocento;">Like many of you I expect, gazing at screens has become part of my daily life. And for this past year, talking and listening to them (or more accurately to the images that appear on them) has also become an occupation. A button is pushed, a line or cluster of thumbnail faces appear, clicks occur – and away we go. But where? In the internet age, one must always regard the attractive website, the pleasant face and smooth words with circumspection. However, public presentations have always merited caution: deluded mystics and frauds write spiritual literature, demagogues and moneyed interests take over the media. We’re easily taken in by superficial appearance.</span></p><p><span style="font-family: Quattrocento;">You could say that superficiality is unavoidable: if, that is, mind-consciousness is something like a screen and faces of people you have connections with just pop up on it. You look at them, they look at you and at some time switch off, or zone out. Sharing absence. It’s a bleak scenario, one that doesn’t acknowledge the fullness of being embodied: that bodies have intelligence and store past kamma in their nervous systems; and that sharing presence is a powerful act that doesn’t cease when the face disappears. Presence is our natural foundation, and when it’s shared, it's like entering another room in your house. And a sense of that room remains. If you enter it, that is - through deep attention.</span></p><p><span style="font-family: Quattrocento;">Collective intelligence sometimes is and sometimes isn't that wise or deep. Compare the intelligence of mothering, the collective spirit of a sports team, the synchronicity of a band, the creative power of group thinking, the strength of a public demonstration, or the intensity of a riot. Potentially, the most stable shared presence comes through spiritual attunement: the power of a collective presence that is collected, but is not about doing things. Such presence, even with no physical contact and in silence, is different from being on your own. It can anchor you, and also take you into deep inner territory. </span></p><p><span style="font-family: Quattrocento;">In the pre-Covid era, a year or so ago, a friend in South Africa described the effect that even a few seconds with the Dalai Lama had on a group of young men. They weren’t into Buddhism or spirituality, but as he was visiting an educational establishment where they had received awards, they were invited to file past him briefly, meet for the length of time of a handshake and move on. She said there was not one of the young men who weren’t brushing away tears as they left his presence. Imagine then what it must have been like to be in the presence of the Buddha! And how every word he said would have etched itself into your heart and mind. Conveying information has only ever been one aspect of teaching the Dhamma; furthermore, it was always a <i>spoken</i> transmission, uttered in shared presence where the timing, the tones, and the embodied energies could all play their part. Being in the presence of another and having the defensive shields and the personal presentations fall away; just experiencing self-acceptance and the truthfulness of meeting straight from the heart – that’s a spiritual transmission in its own right.</span></p><p><span style="font-family: Quattrocento;">So I must admit that teaching online presents certain difficulties. If I have a teaching style or method, it's one that entails establishing a firm grounded presence with where I’m sitting. This is more tricky when I’m sitting on a stool in order to face the screen and my body isn’t held in the same stability that occurs with the lotus positions. The connection to what's beneath and around me isn’t entirely absent, but it is reduced. I find myself less in flow, and having to think while I’m teaching. A more apparent snag is the reduction in shared presence with the people I’m teaching (or better, guiding); a presence that enriches the sense of rapport and also moderates what and how much I say. There is a fine weave of somatic energies that develop in a group gathering; when people are meditating together, this helps to draw teachings out of me. It also gives me the sense that what I’m transmitting is being received. So I get a feel for where to go in a talk, and what is enough. However in a gathering of over 200 people online, there is little of that. There are also less opportunities for dialogue. So with such minimal ‘real presence’ I find that my awareness is leaning into the screen to reach people, and I’m perhaps talking too much. I can feel that I’m speaking to others, but I don’t get a sense of being heard. It’s odd; like wearing a blindfold.</span></p><p><span style="font-family: Quattrocento;">There are of course the bonuses of online teaching: no travelling, no visas, no airports, border interrogations, carbon guilt and jet lag. And there’s the positive aspect: a glance at the labels underneath the thumbnails presents an occasion wherein people as far apart as Mexico, Oregon, Germany, Singapore, South Africa and Taiwan are linking up. There’s awe at witnessing a teaching trickling into diverse contexts. And for those who participate – how wonderful to be part of a global presence that’s divided by the mere frame of an image; to get a sense of connection to other ordinary people in their living spaces and basements – with the occasional dog or cat wandering through. It is an echo of something we used to take for granted, while making efforts to disguise it with business or some other purpose; the sense of mingling. However, give deep attention to what makes mingling comfortable, when it doesn't, and what it highlights. The sense of safety is crucial. Inattentive mingling is liable to be insensitive to deep issues in the heart.</span></p><p><span style="font-family: Quattrocento;">It’s said that babies and infants need to be physically held in order to develop as proper relational human beings. Failing this, autism or even death may occur. So at what age does that need pass away? Five? Ten? We might assume that as the years trickle by, the need for embodied contact gets replaced by our being wrapped in conversations, or by living with others and exchanging words now and then; or by getting wrapped up in a book or glued to a screen. I think not. Although the distracted life of screens and timetables may take up so much of a person's attention that it does hold them, it's a fragile kind of wrapping – not the deep immersion of somatic presence. Switch off the input for ten minutes and what happens? Chaos or in-depth settling? </span><span style="font-family: Quattrocento;">You can't substitute presence for absence. </span><span style="font-family: Quattrocento;">Humans need immersion in somatic presence. That lingers; that's what Buddhist meditation is (supposed to be) about.</span></p><p><span style="font-family: Quattrocento;">In solitude, there is a need for embodied presence – 'mindfulness immersed in the body' in the Buddha’s language; it takes awareness out of the conceptual and abstract and places it in something that's vitally sentient. The Buddha likened such immersion <i>within</i> (not of) the body to a stake to which one could tether the visual auditory, olfactory, gustatory, tactile and conceptual senses so that they no longer pulled awareness/<i>citta</i> hither and thither. It has a non-conceptual intelligence that stands apart from the buzz and waffle of the thinking mind and the upheavals of the heart, and it’s not personally driven or engineered. It’s the sense of the whole body, settled in its space. Whereas the personal and the emotional and the conceptual can get taken over by embedded anxiety or trauma, the whole body in its space accesses safety, a sense of belonging and non-compulsiveness. This is an essential foundation within which to dwell in and work; so much so that Buddhist training recommends dwelling in the company of a teacher or in a group that's formed around presence. When you're not settled in your own presence, then that of a trustworthy other is a spiritual requisite.</span></p><p><span style="font-family: Quattrocento;">Sharing presence. Despite the oft-repeated exhortations – and the personal inclinations – to seek solitude, in training monasteries the relational sense has be active to operate within the etiquette that moderate group dynamics, seniority and authority. And although the waking day is apparently divided between duties on one hand and meditation on the other, the silent communal meal, and the communal work – stacking firewood, sweeping the monastery – have more than an external, functional purpose. </span><span style="font-family: Quattrocento;">Even in this diluted, everyday, form a shared embodied foundation keeps things sane and related,</span><span style="font-family: Quattrocento;"> even when there’s not a lot of personal contact.</span></p><p><span style="font-family: Quattrocento;">A grounding in trans-personal presence helps supports security in relationship. Topics and circumstance then rest on the non-doing of </span><span style="font-family: Quattrocento;">presence</span><span style="font-family: Quattrocento;"> rather than override it. Matters can be handled from a grounded perspective. Of course, this deep attention is challenged by and goes against the tendency that people get conditioned into: one of immediately launching into business (to be efficient and not ‘waste time’) or personal topics (whether a way to handle these has been established or not). This can be disastrous. So mindful mingling is quite a skill; it has to be learnt. In British monasteries, the opportunities come with quiet tea breaks, or as tidying up after the meal comes to an end – or sometimes while the tidying up is </span><i style="font-family: Quattrocento;">supposed</i><span style="font-family: Quattrocento;"> to be going on. In Thailand, the mingling instinct comes out in more direct ways: monks just turn up from near or far to meet. As the abbot of Wat Pah Pong commented at one of the annual mass sangha gatherings – ‘we meet just to meet’. Unlike business meetings, there’s no agenda. </span><span style="font-family: Quattrocento;">Bowing on entering a room, or when meeting a teacher helps to put a check on compulsiveness. I</span><span style="font-family: Quattrocento;">f a senior teacher is involved, some Dhamma may be expressed. A foot massage may be offered. Otherwise it’s just letting things flow from presence. This can be criticized as time-wasting and idle chit-chat, but something more fundamental is occurring. There's a sense of somatic or psychological co-forming, an energising of relational energies, an affirmation of belonging. Mutually massaging with presence. This supports community harmony, helps awareness to be held less tightly inwards, and allows fixed or afflictive perceptions around self and other to be eased, often more or less wordlessly. Some business then ceases altogether, or doesn’t need much discussion.</span></p><p><span style="font-family: Quattrocento;">Shared presence can be deepened simply by tuning in to one's own somatic presence, getting grounded – and then gently opening to the felt fact of another person. Remember: stay on your own somatic ground, and open your attention from there. Acknowledge, but don't go into visually-based perceptions, but do attend to the voice. This may take a few minutes, but it saves hours of superficial mis-contact, and mistakes. In its own deep truthfulness, the presence of others adds to one's own. And it doesn't entirely pass away with separation. In cases when one has shared presence with others in a fully conscious way, the sense of meeting is like returning home – to that larger house. </span></p><p><span style="font-family: Quattrocento;">Deep attention to one's somatic presence also indicates what to be on guard against. If the other can’t bear silence and negotiation of contact, they’re not coming from an authentic place. And if you can't maintain a disengaged but embodied presence, you'd better get grounded – soon. That's where you're welcome and safe; that's the place to receive teachings. So even with online occasions, it’s good to have pausing and acknowledgement; to enter one’s own presence and see, listen and speak from there. Be aware of the embodied tones and breath-rates. Books, for all their usefulness and portability, can't bring you there. Then again, neither can blogs.</span></p><div><br /></div></div>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6709844700034298584.post-38666294025390394572021-02-26T07:16:00.002+00:002021-03-10T06:22:02.804+00:00Practice Notes: Whole Body Awareness<p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-E6TLiB0irwA/YDdqlk3CUSI/AAAAAAABIAw/Xl_8CnjXYmw6FWVwMT9jx6fuHPKXjLFpACLcBGAsYHQ/s3888/6F68F867-E535-488D-BBED-8DBE6BA0A529.jpeg" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="3888" data-original-width="2592" height="400" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-E6TLiB0irwA/YDdqlk3CUSI/AAAAAAABIAw/Xl_8CnjXYmw6FWVwMT9jx6fuHPKXjLFpACLcBGAsYHQ/w266-h400/6F68F867-E535-488D-BBED-8DBE6BA0A529.jpeg" width="266" /></a></div><p></p><div><span style="font-family: Quattrocento;">Why meditate? What‘s the point? Nibbāna? Ultimate Truth? Maybe more directly it’s for peace of mind, and to resolve some emotional or psychological issues. So... better steady the mind. And to do that, focus on something steady, like breathing or walking ....</span></div><div><span style="font-family: Quattrocento;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="font-family: Quattrocento;">But when you practise with the body what comes to the fore is physical discomfort. With a good exercise system and using cushions and other supports, you can probably get around that. Then there are the buzzy thoughts, but they can be quelled by mindfulness immersed in the body. More problematic then is the obstacle to that immersion. This is a conglomerate of afflictive moods and a corresponding somatic imbalance. These are embedded in the body’s energetic field/nervous system, and aren’t due to current circumstances. For sure, we may have the adequately-honed blaming capacity that focuses on how that insensitive person’s presence, or the temperature in the room, or that memory (and so on) is ruining my meditation, and making me restless, tense or irritable. But why, even after eight hours’ sleep do I still feel tired, even depressed? Actually all emotion is related to this somatic sense that in daily life gets stressed and exhausted by urgency, stimulation and lack of proper care. It also carries the results of previous actions and formative experiences that have occurred to you. In the Pali Canon it’s called ‘bodily formation’, <i>kāyasaṇkhārā</i>, and getting this clear is a major step in Dhamma practice.</span></div><div><span style="font-family: Quattrocento;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="font-family: Quattrocento;">This somatic sense is a bodily sensitivity that’s not about physical contact; it’s the sensitivity that is attuned to perceptions - felt interpretations of the world. By means of this, the body senses that it’s in danger, or can relax and feel uplifted. Emotions arise as the mind scans that. Famously, the psychologist William James noted that if attacked by a bear, we run first and get frightened later. I wouldn't recommend finding a bear, but when you're re-united with an old friend, or receive a loved visitor when you're sick, or win at a performance, or get wrongly accused – nothing touches your body, but there’s a somatic flush. This is not a minor detail, it’s how we soft-skinned clawless creatures survived, and can survive in the wilderness, and how we bond. It’s tells us immediately what moves us - but it doesn’t always sense things clearly (maybe the bear is a man wearing a costume). This is because it is attuned to perceptions, which are always mental interpretations of experience. The first point of meditation is to clean out the dullness, tension and spin that perceptions of past events and behaviour have left as in your system.</span></div><div><span style="font-family: Quattrocento;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="font-family: Quattrocento;">But although this is an important point, it's not arrived at through focusing on a point in your body. It’s about accessing and settling whole body awareness. Think it through. This teaching came from forest-dwellers. Now say you’re in the wilderness: you’d better be alert; but don’t focus on any single point in any of the sense fields. Focus too intently on a sight and you might trip over a root or not detect the odour of a tiger on the wind. Get absorbed in what your feet are feeling, and you might get spiders' webs in your face. Start planning the trip, wondering how long it will take and whether you should or can do this – and you'll get completely lost. No, to get through the wilderness, indeed to survive, you have to have an overall awareness, grounded in your body in the here and now. Your thinking has to be minimal, non-obsessive but ready to report on what’s needed; you notice sights and sounds, but you don’t follow them carelessly. You notice bodily discomfort, or whether you’re tired or weak or excited – but you handle that information pragmatically and don’t cloud your mind with complaining and worrying. In fact you steward your reactions and emotions: ‘No point judging and accusing, stay focused on what can be done right now.’ ‘Do I have the strength to deal with that, or should I go another way?’, ‘Am I getting fearful and careless? Then take a few long calm breaths.’ Note the last, it's not about advice; it’s a matter of using a bodily process to steady an embodied process. And it’s something we do instinctively: breathing in and out is the governor of <i>kāyasaṇkhārā</i>; that’s why it’s such a crucial meditation practice.</span></div><div><span style="font-family: Quattrocento;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="font-family: Quattrocento;">Well, although the trees have been chopped down (and so on) we're still in the wilderness – the external geo-political and societal jungle, and its related internal tangle. Could whole body awareness and its intelligence be refined in meditation, when we’re in the jungle of our memories, perceptions and reactivity? Because this is how <i>citta</i> arises: rather than thinking in abstract, it's the intelligence that processes the relationship between the vulnerable body and the world that opens directly around it.</span></div><div><span style="font-family: Quattrocento;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="font-family: Quattrocento;">For forest-dwelling contemplatives this <i>citta</i> intelligence, is the important thing. Because it’s relational, it can be attuned to provide moral guidance. It can also be liberated. It’s a different aspect of mind from the concept-wielding, non-relational <i>manas</i>. For us literate types, whose intelligence is focused on concepts, pages, screens and symbols, and whose way of assimilating information occurs through racing the eyes across a page of squiggles and figures and rapidly translating them into meanings, <i>manas</i> is the leader. It doesn’t tune into the body and that sensitivity. In the imbalanced scenario of hyperactive thinking, promises, planning and general media deluge, as body gets lost, so does heart – and truth. This is convenient in some respects – you can get on with your work and not care what’s happening around or even within you – but that working mind is dangerous. This is what the effective servant of a totalitarian corporation or a government uses. This is how people work themselves to breakdown. Somatic imbalance leads to social and personal imbalance.</span></div><div><span style="font-family: Quattrocento;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="font-family: Quattrocento;">In brief then, direct practice means accessing that somatic sense and supervising it with <i>citta</i>, so that it eases out of stress, lethargy and passion. The entry to this is to refer to the whole body as you breathe; by so doing <i>citta</i> encourages the somatic sense to open and allow the breathing to discharge tension and constriction, and provide refreshment (<i>pīti</i>). Focusing on a single point won’t do that. If you do that, the likelihood is that you miss aspects of the whole field ( the tightness of the residues of anxiety in your belly for example). In fact, if you care to look, you won’t find anywhere in the Buddhist discourses when you are advised to place your attention on a point in your body. No tip of the nose breathing, no point in your foot walking, no tightening up to concentrate. (Sure, you can scroll through the parts of your body conceptually ‘hair, spleen, fluid in the joints...etc’ but that’s a <i>conceptual</i> scan, not a direct <i>citta</i> sensing - you can’t sense directly whether you even have a spleen).</span></div><div><span style="font-family: Quattrocento;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="font-family: Quattrocento;">But if concentration is needed, and it certainly would be more comfortable if my mind wasn’t leaping into fantasies and anxieties, how does that happen? Right effort, right mindfulness... Yes, and they are moderated by applying them to the whole body; this negates the constricting effect of wrong effort. Constricting may be so normal that you don’t notice it, or you think that that’s what goes along with right effort. This is because of something that modern literate types are associated with that people of the forest weren't: the presence (or absence) of a paid job. Through this you may have become so accustomed to tightening up into ‘got to do this, got to get there, as quickly as possible...’ mode that you don't even notice that you're losing heart. You may take it for granted that when you're working, your own body, as well as other people, has to fit your strategy or be ignored or shut out. You may have unconsciously made meditation into work (=something serious with regular hours, definite rules, goals and assessments). Your mind can find notions and even teachings to support that. But you can also realise that following that means losing your whole body, which gets reduced to a few bands of pressure around your head. Maybe you think that’s good, and that's what concentration is. But none of that is there in the suttas. What they say are things like ‘<i>thoroughly sensitive to the entire body...breathe in...breathe out</i>’(M.118)*, and ‘<i>it is natural that the mind of one feeling pleasure is concentrated</i>’ (A.10:2). The teachings on mindfulness of breathing point out that steering to that whole body is the way to calm the bodily formation (aka gain somatic balance),experience refreshment and ease and get concentrated.</span></div><div><span style="font-family: Quattrocento;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="font-family: Quattrocento;">In practising this, the conceptual mind can point to the whole body as readily as to a small point; moreover the rhythmic flow, interconnectedness and internal sympathy of the body as a whole are much better at encouraging the heartfulness of <i>citta</i>. What most people need these days isn’t another work project, but goodwill, encouragement, patience – and a body. As the Buddha puts it as ...’<i>memories and intentions based on the household life are abandoned; with their abandoning his mind [citta] becomes steadied internally, quieted, brought to singleness, [ekodhibhutam] and concentrated. That is how a bhikkhu develops mindfulness of body.</i>'(M.119:21) And ‘<i>In one whose body is tranquil and who feels pleasure, the mind becomes concentrated.</i>’ And '<i>So I steadied my mind internally, quieted it, brought it to singleness, and concentrated it. Why is that? So that my mind should not be strained.' </i>(M.19:8) When the heart gets settled, it <i>is</i> concentrated. Because meditative concentration isn’t on an object. You won’t find any sutta that relates <i>samādhi</i> to focusing like that; instead the teaching is that when the <i>citta</i> settles into itself, it is concentrated. Happy, settled, peaceful - and cleared of hindrances. Then your seeing and knowing isn’t fogged over.</span></div><div><span style="font-family: Quattrocento;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="font-family: Quattrocento;">So how do you work towards that end? How to get through the chattering ‘must do’ mind, the sagging or fidgety body, the ‘get me out of here’ heart? First pick up some self-caring (‘Come on, we’ve got to get through this wilderness, let’s go carefully..’) and some aspiration (‘This is the territory that the Buddha moved through’). Pick up some heart and set it upright. That will probably bring your spine upright. Then get comfortable enough in your body, enough to support steadily expanding your awareness so that the experience is one of being open but sheltered. The Buddha referred to sitting under the canopy of a tree, but you might imagine standing in a shower or floating in the ocean. The sense is that you experience the body as entirety within safe space.</span></div><div><span style="font-family: Quattrocento;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="font-family: Quattrocento;">Then tune into the fact and the experience of breathing – the rhythmic swell of it – and feel the upper body being regularly massaged by that. This can trigger agitation and a sense of not wanting to be touched – the somatic sense may need some heart gestures of safety and trust – but as you get to relax any of that, the body begins to slowly release its contractions and numb places and feel more whole and at ease. If you keep widening your awareness incrementally, a quiet and vibrant energy gets felt in your arms, legs, face and feet.</span></div><div><span style="font-family: Quattrocento;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="font-family: Quattrocento;">Once you get the sense of the whole body in its space, you can apply the awareness (<i>citta</i> again) that it opens to great effect because of ‘somatic sympathy’ – what the body senses, the <i>citta</i> picks up and takes in. This is the principle of absorption (<i>jhāna</i>). You can initiate this process through including your hands and feet in embodied awareness. Notice that if you relax your palms and linger in that effect while including the soles of the feet in your awareness, they will relax too. You don’t have to move your awareness in line with the breath-rhythm – as with ‘inhale into left foot, exhale out of left foot ... inhale into right foot’ and so on – you can linger in one happy/open/ relaxed part for a while as breathing goes on, until you feel that area of the body respond. You might imagine having a small ball in each palm or sole that steadily receives and inflates/subsides with the breath. When clenching or numbness has gone and the area feels full and rich, you can bring other parts of your body into that focus. After a while you can imagine the ball is in the centre of your body and as you breathe, it expands and subsides through palms and soles simultaneously. This effect can spread to cover the entire body; and accordingly the somatic energy is experienced as a smooth and steady field. To summarise: if you open your <i>citta</i> into the comfortable energies in your body, it will dwell in and absorb into them: the uncomfortable areas fade into the background or get resolved by having healthy energy move through them. And as the body settles, the <i>citta</i> feels pleasure and settles. That’s <i>samādhi</i>.</span></div><div><span style="font-family: Quattrocento;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="font-family: Quattrocento;">On that last point, if you feel restrictions in your body, don’t go into them, but place awareness over them. It is helpful to steadily widen your awareness when doing this. For example, with a tight chest, widen across it to include the small cavities where the arms join the trunk and then extend down through the hands. For the abdomen, widen out through the grooves where the legs join the trunk. Imagining small ‘breathing balls’ in these arm-chest cavities and leg-abdomen grooves can be useful. This process is one whereby calm and healthy energy suffuses the entire body and gradually removes the blocks (with their corresponding emotions). </span></div><div><span style="font-family: Quattrocento;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="font-family: Quattrocento;">Without getting too busy, and if things are going well with such practices, you might refine your attention to moving breath energy along a line that proceeds from the forehead over the crown, down through the epiglottis, heart, navel and the end-point of the breathing a little below the navel. These anatomical references are only pointers: the heart area may include the central upper torso between breast-bone and the back. The navel and lower area may widen to include the entire base of the body. Trace sensitively, lingering on any numb or agitated points and let awareness breathe into them. However whatever method you use to fully experience the whole body, when that is fulfilled, awareness becomes very solid and there isn’t room for hindrances to get in. You can even walk around in that fully embodied state. The Buddha commented that ‘<i>when I am in such a state [jhāna] if I walk back and forth, on that occasion my walking is celestial</i>. (A.3:63)</span></div><div><span style="font-family: Quattrocento;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="font-family: Quattrocento;">As with a waterproof, stuff rolls off a fully cleared and embodied awareness. But unlike when being in a waterproof, you get to understand what supports hindrances, what releases them, and what it’s like when they’re not there. Because a confused <i>kāyasaṇkhārā</i> results from and aggravates confused mental and ethical perspectives: '</span><span style="font-family: Quattrocento;"><i>some person generates afflictive kāyasaṇkhārā, afflictive verbal [vaci]saṇkhārā, and afflictive mental [citta]saṇkhārā. In consequence, one is reborn in an afflictive world. When one is reborn in an afflictive world, afflictive contacts touch one. Being touched by afflictive contacts, one feels afflictive feelings, exclusively painful</i> (A.3:23). When you take ‘world’ to mean your daily life context, you get the point.</span></div><div><span style="font-family: Quattrocento;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="font-family: Quattrocento;">So you might take on board the suggestion that a reason why you can’t concentrate, and why you feel fidgety and prickly is because your somatic state has become imbalanced. And the cause of that is a conceptually or sensually driven energy and focus. The problem isn’t that you can’t get one-pointed, it’s more a consequence of getting to the wrong point too often. Meditation on other hand begins with arriving at a wholeness that you can get to fairly easily - in your body.</span></div><div><span style="font-family: Quattrocento;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="font-family: Quattrocento;">* All quotes from the Pali Canon are taken, with gratitude, from Bhikkhu Bodhi's versions, as published by Wisdom Publications, Somerville MA02144, USA (wisdompubs.org)</span></div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div><div> </div>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6709844700034298584.post-49669002625593448122021-01-21T15:56:00.003+00:002021-01-27T20:02:31.863+00:00 Sacred Heart, Sacred Cosmos<p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-j-c1tYUe66o/YAiBvbtiVII/AAAAAAABH7o/9gV8HWcm6BgkJ3BfUS49o6y_arnTG_VCwCLcBGAsYHQ/s2048/AB9FA37D-A4C4-4312-AFB7-7AA871794451.heic" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><span style="font-family: Quattrocento;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1536" data-original-width="2048" height="300" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-j-c1tYUe66o/YAiBvbtiVII/AAAAAAABH7o/9gV8HWcm6BgkJ3BfUS49o6y_arnTG_VCwCLcBGAsYHQ/w400-h300/AB9FA37D-A4C4-4312-AFB7-7AA871794451.heic" width="400" /></span></a></div><span style="font-family: Quattrocento;"><br />A vase of bright flowers sits on my altar, beneath the Buddha-image. It arrived a few days ago through the mail, with no accompanying letter. The flowers and the gesture are message enough. On the other side of my room is a pile of letters and cards; it's a bit of a mess, and I keep meaning to tidy it up. But every time I look into that stack, I read notes sent from here and there and places I've never heard of, let alone visited ... and they offer me a glimpse into other people's lives. They speak of gratitude, of confusion and pain dispelled, or of clarity and inspiration gained as a result of listening to my elaborations on the Buddha's Dhamma, but above all, they share, they impart presence. So it's not easy to dump that in a bin. Today a pair of woollen socks arrived, on another day it was a parcel of tea (and so on): the same response for the same reason. What goes to the heart, brings forth the heart; it's simple and beautiful. </span><p></p><p><span style="font-family: Quattrocento;">My response has to be to chant blessings, mantras and protective invocations (<i>parittā</i>). Sometimes there's a name or a face or a collage of impressions that I bear in mind as I chant; a way of inclining that blessing to particular people or events. But even when a thank-you is signed, it serves as a handle to something larger: 'Lee' or 'Suki' are localised living entrances to the great heart. Made poignant by the world-tossed nature of the person through which that heart finds voice, its ability to manifest is timeless and indomitable. And its language is universal. So I chant the blessing in like manner - wherever, to whoever, alive, dead or yet to be born. And I use the ancient tones and phonemes of Pali, a language made sacred by being constructed to carry the Buddha’s teachings - a language that is not mine, and that has poured through the throats and lips of multitudes with the aim to expound the Way of Truth. </span></p><p><span style="font-family: Quattrocento;">With such utterance, meaning isn’t deduced, it enters; chanting is a whole body experience – you feel it. First comes the gathering in the belly, and the swell of the chest and the awakening of the throat; then the soft cavity of the mouth shapes and sends the sound forth as the bones of the head resonate and the pulses in the skin tingle. This is embodied devotion. The listening deepens, comes alive. Sounds, tones and mind spread out within the heart-field of benevolent causes and effects, the 'sacred Cosmos'. Yes, there’s a domain we can evoke and enter – no visa required, no security checks – and as it supports us, we support it. From its innumerable and mysterious causes and conditions, benevolent influences have come into my life just as they have guided the lives of others; and so awareness must be extended beyond me and time and incident into the domain of love and integrity and self-surrender that is the source of our lived-in truth. We are fragile, we are resilient; we are separated, we're connected. In the language of the heart these are not contradictions. The sense is of embracing the entirety of our humanity. </span></p><p><span style="font-family: Quattrocento;">To touch into that heart-quality and strengthen it, as crisis after crisis floods our world is at least as necessary as connecting via the phone, walking in green places or doing pilates. Because even giving cursory attention to the current scenario of the violent fragmentation of societies, the desecration of nature and the strangulation of truth gives rise to a kind of vertigo. And as what seemed to be our shared ground shakes, it’s easy to slip into a bleakness where resonance and meaning fall away. But don’t be deceived by circumstance – this has always been possible. We’re on a pilgrimage wherein the gates to that abyss are always open, just as the assault on virtue and value has always been there. In the pre-rational age, its forces were configured as ghouls and demons and yakkhas not as dark networks, corrupt leaders and their slogan-slinging agents. Nowadays political slogans – 'Stop the Steal', 'Take Back Control' - become mantras that repeated time and time again evoke paranoia, division and violence. Thus the dark Cosmos arises. But at <i>any</i> time in measurable history, if you soften the focus on the statistics and the personalities, you become aware of that same field of defilement, evil, and confused and sick hearts – and understand from where and how that dark Cosmos unfolds. It is these roots that we have to suffuse and clean with goodwill, truthfulness, sharing, and selflessness. Whereas minds can state, argue and condemn – and be met by counteractions, legalities and politics – it is only the heart that can suffuse. And there's no counter to that.</span></p><p><span style="font-family: Quattrocento;">The forest ajahns made no mistake in this respect. When out in the wilderness, they would take refuge and chant <i>parittā</i> on a daily basis in order to generate a field of blessed energy within which to dwell. Then conduct themselves in accordance with the rules of that field of virtue and value (aka <i>puñña</i>) through observance of morality, respect of other natural and supernatural creatures, and a turning away from worldly ways. This field of heart energy is a normal, though ignored, aspect of how consciousness works; it is detectable by devices, by people (who may detect the particularly powerful field of a holy person as an aura) and by animals. (See Anna Breytenbach’s work on animal communication .) It may be an aspect of the morphic field that biologist Rupert Sheldrake proposes as holding the intelligence of living creatures. But to get to the point, this offers solid ground.</span></p><p><span style="font-family: Quattrocento;">Tuning into the intelligence of the heart is necessary to make a way through dense forests inhabited by wild animals, spirits and outlaws, without a map: just chant the <i>Metta Sutta</i>, settle in, resolve and follow the attentive heart. On setting up a temporary residence in a cave that could be visited by a bear, cobra or restless spirit, you’d better open to the place, ask permission of any spirit or creature who might frequent it, share merit and establish truthful alignment to the Triple Gem. On meeting outlaws, keep your heart cool and present your virtue. Above all, you should know for sure: the Cosmos is multi-faceted with many locales. And only a superficial review would say that dangerous places no longer exist; nowadays they're located on the internet, next to your online shopping page; or in those halls and corridors where power corrupts and eventually buries the heart. To ward off the slide into the defeat that renders aspiration impotent, the advice has to be the same. </span></p><p><span style="font-family: Quattrocento;">This is how you survive. A fellow-bhikkhu was hospitalised for an extensive period with impaired brain capacity due to blood clots. Memory – the presenter of name, place, and identity – was fragmentary, and would disappear for periods of time. At one time, in one of those ‘out of any world’ episodes, he could feel the confused and dark forces of all the troubled beings who’d sickened in that hospital, or of whatever is attracted to those at death’s door. They were gathered around and pressing in. Fortunately, although he couldn’t remember who or what he was, he did have the <i>parittā</i> established and managed to silently intone them. As in one of those medieval accounts – maybe they were right?- a bright tone arose and steadily spread through his being until the darkness cleared. After surviving in heart, his physical condition steadily improved; now he’s back in community. </span></p><p><span style="font-family: Quattrocento;">So I’m increasing my level of daily recitation – in private. (In the monastery, chanting in public has been whittled down to a breathy murmur as a a Covid precaution). The tip to do so came in the form of a <i>māla</i>, a string of 'prayer beads’, that arrived as a gift from a friend in Wales I’d seen on only a few occasions in the last three decades. An accompanying note recollected a mantra that I’d given her at Amaravati in the 1980s when life was very busy, uncertain and intense. Since that time, she’d suffered from a nerve malfunction that switched off synapses in her limbs for periods of time - virtual paralysis accompanied by intense pain. She and her husband moved to Wales seeking seclusion in order to place their lives more single-mindedly in the Triple Gem. Arthritis set in - her hands were like knotted bamboo. At times she took medication, but to avoid side-effects, that couldn’t be a continual strategy. The core advice from the physician was to never give up. She persevered, struggled, exercised, shared Dhamma with friends, meditated, and chanted. Over the years I visited a few times, eventually noticing to my delight that her hands had slowly regained flexibility, and she could now play the piano, paint, and draw. And some time around the last winter solstice, when darkness is the norm, she made me a <i>māla</i>, carefully threaded the skein of beads - and sent it as a gift. How could I not keep chanting, opening to whatever arises, when this is the field that it connects to?</span></p><p><table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right; margin-left: 1em; text-align: center;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-hqhQvJY1PBo/YAiD6az9KUI/AAAAAAABH78/5YbQeaMeVckmkCNvaptOcq3jsHB2Rcp_wCLcBGAsYHQ/s2048/947A10B2-4036-416C-A1FA-5FDB2DEB12C7.jpeg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1536" data-original-width="2048" height="197" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-hqhQvJY1PBo/YAiD6az9KUI/AAAAAAABH78/5YbQeaMeVckmkCNvaptOcq3jsHB2Rcp_wCLcBGAsYHQ/w177-h197/947A10B2-4036-416C-A1FA-5FDB2DEB12C7.jpeg" width="177" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><br /></td></tr></tbody></table></p>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6709844700034298584.post-36945870027080395952020-12-01T17:25:00.003+00:002021-07-25T08:02:02.367+00:00Living the Dhamma is harmony<p><br /></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.66666603088379px; margin: 15pt 0cm;"></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-cfxoDnAsyZw/X8Z7xmNS7YI/AAAAAAABHaE/Bo7b3vfDb_MTCgDn3iGXeaLfLRdhI8rfACLcBGAsYHQ/s2048/DSC03270.jpeg" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1392" data-original-width="2048" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-cfxoDnAsyZw/X8Z7xmNS7YI/AAAAAAABHaE/Bo7b3vfDb_MTCgDn3iGXeaLfLRdhI8rfACLcBGAsYHQ/s320/DSC03270.jpeg" width="320" /></a></div><span lang="EN-US" style="line-height: 26.133333206176758px;"><span style="font-family: Quattrocento;">Have you learnt anything on account of the Covid pandemic? Maybe that hitherto unquestioned socio-economic norms (regular job, enjoying an evening out, travelling) are constructions, are more fragile than they claim to be, and aren’t something you can rely upon. But it might also be the case that your free time has increased and you've exercised more, or meditated more – my dentist remarked that dental health had improved as people now had time to properly clean their teeth! And maybe you’ve experienced something resourceful and generous about human beings.<o:p></o:p></span></span><p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.66666603088379px; margin: 15pt 0cm;"><span lang="EN-US" style="line-height: 26.133333206176758px;"><span style="font-family: Quattrocento;">As I've commented before, life in the so-called ‘real world’ has been looking distinctly unrealistic these days. With the trend towards ‘alternative facts’ we have been experiencing a virus that some dismissed as unreal and many even a hoax even as the numbers of the dead has been rising into the millions. Money that governments previously squatted on and haggled over has been dished out in all directions (including of course a few backpockets). But with alternative facts, conspiracy theories and political spin, what the future holds is anybody's guess. The American elections (if you weren't prevented from voting) presented a scenario of disturbing polarisation and reduced middle ground – all that everyone could agree upon was that things aren't right in the society; there's hardship, inequality, profound mistrust – and real or threatened violence between fellow-citizens. And in that regard the United States is not an isolated case; it's just more vocal and gun-toting than most. It seems to me that the social model that was launched in 17th century Europe (and was exported in a distilled form to the New World) is cracking up under its own imbalance.<o:p></o:p></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.66666603088379px; margin: 15pt 0cm;"><span lang="EN-US" style="line-height: 26.133333206176758px;"><span style="font-family: Quattrocento;">The launch of this model was heralded by the Lord Chancellor of England, Francis Bacon, who in 1623 wrote glowingly of the 'scientific' revolution, by means of which Nature can be ‘forced out of her natural state and squeezed and moulded’, and ‘tortured’ until she ‘takes orders from man ...’ (<i>De Augmentis Scientiarium</i>). It was a statement of the domination paradigm and what it could offer. In 1723, the English clergyman William Derham made the point even more bluntly: ‘We can, if need be, ransack the whole globe, penetrate into the bowels of the earth ... to acquire wealth.’<o:p></o:p></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.66666603088379px; margin: 15pt 0cm;"><span lang="EN-US" style="line-height: 26.133333206176758px;"><span style="font-family: Quattrocento;">Once the domination-exploitation genie was out of the bottle and backed by weapons and credit and effective logistics, it presented great gifts to its supporters. The planet has been ransacked ever since. And once one accepts the logic of Cosmos – that the energies and actions that we follow go within and without and in all directions – then the domination of the biosphere was echoed by domination strategies in the human world (colonialism, genocide and slavery), and by exploitation drives within the individual that push people's bodies and minds to breaking point in order to succeed in the market place. Anxiety, eating disorders and depression blossom in the cracks. Yet, in the trance that the mass induction into this model brings around, we tend to assume that this is reality and that it will bring ‘us’ (that is, ‘my group’) to a better and more comfortable life.<o:p></o:p></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.66666603088379px; margin: 15pt 0cm;"><span lang="EN-US" style="line-height: 26.133333206176758px;"><span style="font-family: Quattrocento;">However, despite its promises and rewards, the resultant social model has supported government by a largely remote elite, resources handled by a mega-corporations for whom we work and on whose goods we spend the wages they give us, the disappearance of the commons in terms of common unowned land, village halls and neighbourhoods, and the continuing reduction in habitat for non-humans. In America the domination by the European settlers met with ineffective resistance from the native people (crushed and consigned to the wastelands), and that trajectory has continued as the moral right to attack or undermine any country it chooses to. In Europe, domination was contended between the Great Powers – until that led to wars that devastated all of them. On account of which there has been an, at times reluctant, recognition that maybe co-operation is essential.<o:p></o:p></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.66666603088379px; margin: 15pt 0cm;"><span lang="EN-US" style="line-height: 26.133333206176758px;"><span style="font-family: Quattrocento;">But that takes some doing. Because the model is based on the needs of my group; and that will always bring competition and rivalry. And yet ... the shared climate crisis; and yet, the shared virus ... and isn't it often the case that crisis cracks the old normal and brings out the unbreakable, resilient heart-centered?human. The fact is, that ‘all <i>sankhārā</i> (constructed phenomena) are subject to breakdown’ (the Buddha's last words) – and our mundane reality is a heap of these <i>sankhārā</i> – ‘so fare on with diligent attention.’ Accordingly people are beginning to turn away from the breakdown model. There are good signs: citizen's Assemblies (see involve.org.uk); local grassroots movements; neighbours helping each other; increased interest in Dhamma and spiritual teachings; care for the environment and wildlife returning. Modest beginnings of a reset?<o:p></o:p></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.66666603088379px; margin: 15pt 0cm;"><span lang="EN-US" style="line-height: 26.133333206176758px;"><span style="font-family: Quattrocento;">It’s also good to review what Dhamma (aka the Cosmic Order) practice is about, as the extension of contemplative truth into the relational and social domains. In meditation you find the mark of truth – that all phenomena are changeable, that awareness can step back and feel whole and balanced, that goodwill and compassion arise naturally, especially as a response to the truth of the transient, fragile, and at times pain-inducing nature of what we face and touch and are met with every day. And that the <i>citta</i> can develop strength and warmth through that. That offers an indication, and an invitation, to extend cultivation of mind and heart into relationship – the essence of the Buddha's Vinaya teachings. <o:p></o:p></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.66666603088379px; margin: 15pt 0cm;"><span lang="EN-US" style="line-height: 26.133333206176758px;"><span style="font-family: Quattrocento;">In Vedic culture, ‘Vinaya’ meant something like 'self-effacement', a reverence of the Cosmos that encouraged personal restraint and humility. As a development from that, the Buddha's Vinaya is the teaching on social harmony, within the fourfold assembly (monks, nuns, laywomen, laymen) and towards the biosphere in general. When you get that, and you recognise how essential this training is for any relationship, you get some ideas as to a reset that is line with contemplative truth.<o:p></o:p></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.66666603088379px; margin: 15pt 0cm;"><span lang="EN-US" style="line-height: 26.133333206176758px;"><span style="font-family: Quattrocento;">A set of principles on relational harmony that appears several times in the Pali Canon (at A.4:32; A.4;256; A.8:24; A.9:5) comprises <i>dāna, piyavācā, atthacariyā</i> and <i>samānattatā</i>. Here's a brief explanation. <i>Dāna</i>: giving, sharing – resources, hospitality, health support, and Dhamma/wise advice. <i>Piyavācā</i>: gentle, ‘affectionate’ speech; speech that comes from the pure heart and respects the one whom one is addressing. <i>Atthacāriyā</i>: Meaningful action, service; an endeavour that serves the whole. 'One who doesn't serve, lives miserably' to paraphrase the Buddha – who subsequently spent his awakened life in Dhamma service. <i>Samānattata</i>: impartiality; to myself as to others; being a friend through the good and the bad times; seeing all one's honest and valid actions as worthy – whether they are acknowledged, praised or not. Following these, one's heart never loses balance; one retains one's centre while extending it, rather than lose it in the worldly winds of praise and blame, gain and loss, renown and ignominy, happiness and unhappiness.<o:p></o:p></span></span></p><div style="text-align: left;"><span lang="EN-US" style="line-height: 26.133333206176758px;"><span style="font-family: Quattrocento;">It's a motif that appears several times in the discourses , and like many Dhamma motifs one can expand and extend its meaning to fit the scenario that you’re practising in. And you can check out the results by reviewing your heart and mind in meditation. Moreover these principles remind us of the true norm, one that the advantaged percentage of the world forgets. No, a roof over the head is not a universal norm – there are plenty of homeless people. Access to food is not a universal norm; neither is just and responsible government. Even where these still exist, we should not take them for granted; they can and do disappear. What we all always have is <i>citta</i> – mind, heart, awareness – and to not neglect it in the trance of social advantage and its conveniences, but to care for, clarify and extend it has to be what life on the human plane is about. It is only through this cultivation that we can enter a Cosmos that centres on harmony.</span></span></div>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6709844700034298584.post-63954642472127404142020-10-28T15:10:00.003+00:002023-09-27T17:38:12.516+00:00Living in the real world<p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /><span style="display: inline; font-family: verdana; font-size: large;"></span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-mRuq0Fb_DPE/X5RamLh7p6I/AAAAAAABGlM/-RE4PVLt3i8XuqSgh-7bX1wwP3gBBkS5ACLcBGAsYHQ/s2048/DSCF3520.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1536" data-original-width="2048" height="469" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-mRuq0Fb_DPE/X5RamLh7p6I/AAAAAAABGlM/-RE4PVLt3i8XuqSgh-7bX1wwP3gBBkS5ACLcBGAsYHQ/w640-h469/DSCF3520.jpg" width="640" /></a></div><br /> <div><span style="font-family: Quattrocento;"><span lang="EN-US">So what's been happening? Having been offered a three-month retreat, I emerged to find ... much the same; or a development along familiar lines. Estrangement - and connection: on one hand, the secular political field presents increasing polarisation and separation; and on the other the field of human goodness has extended via many neighbourhood concern groups, an increase in virtual gatherings and a softening of the boundaries of time and place and class. In my case, I've been adjusting to the pandemic situation with an increase in online activity. A supporter (<i>upāsikā</i>) in Singapore has invited and hosted global online sessions whereby I've had 300 people 'in' my kuti, from all over the world and in different time zones. It's part of an unplanned development whereby talks get edited by an <i>upāsaka</i> in Thailand, classified in California and uploaded onto the Internet. A small group of American <i>upāsikās</i> assembles a bi-monthly mail-out that lets people know where I'm at and offers a sample of Dhamma material. In the same vein we had an International (Sangha) Elders Gathering recently which drew monks and nuns from all over – ranging between one picking up a satellite signal from under a tarp on a hill in Thailand, to the urban settings of Britain, to monasteries in Europe, North America, Brazil, Australia and New Zealand. Although such meetings lack the regenerative effect of shared somatic presence, just to see all those faces on a screen after a couple of months of solitary practice was a source of joy.</span></span></div><div><span style="font-family: Quattrocento;"><span lang="EN-US"><br /></span><span lang="EN-US">People sometimes ask me how to practise Dhamma in the real world; but Dhamma <i>is</i> the real world. It works; it holds together in a sustaining way through connecting to human goodness and truth; it’ s consistent; it supports life. By contrast, much of what poses as the ‘real’ world has been the opposite for quite a while, and now that's becoming more clear. Any system that extracts so much from human and natural well-being in order to keep running – to the point where homelessness, unemployment, inequality, and pollution increase; to the extent whereby mental health and harmony decreases and the natural regenerative Earth is pushed towards breakdown – can't sustain the wholeness that is the mark of the 'real'. Just take a look at the human landscape alone: fractured societies; governments in armed conflict with their citizens. From Portland to Minsk to Bangkok and Hong Kong, armed police in military-style uniforms face off against protesters in jeans and T shirts, waving placards; tear-gas, water cannons, shouted slogans ... The cries for justice and the loss of empathy speak a truth about the loss of the real.</span></span></div><div><span style="font-family: Quattrocento;"><span lang="EN-US"><br /></span><span lang="EN-US">The challenge of being a separate individual within a collective environment has always called for empathy –‘let's share’ - and justice – ‘we operate under the same rule and protocol.’ The normal range of empathy occurs within small groups, in face-to-face dialogue, in response to crisis, or in travelling and meeting those 'others' in their native lands. But for the huge daily-life span of the nation-state, empathy is difficult. So we refer to coolly 'objective' justice. (Which is a nice idea.) Without development however, both of these fall short. Empathy becomes sentimental and conflict averse – so we can't work through the gritty personal bits of why we disagree, confuse and disappoint each other. Justice falls prey to a legal system angled by professionals (who may have their vested interests, one of which is to make money out of adjudication) and vulnerable to political manipulation. But how else to manage a complex society?</span></span></div><div><span style="font-family: Quattrocento;"><span lang="EN-US"><br /></span><span lang="EN-US">The disarmingly simple approach of the Buddha is to encourage cultivation of the heart/spirit (<i>citta</i>). As a directed practice this begins with three wholesome and life-nourishing intentions laid down by the Buddha as <i>sammā-sankappa</i>: to not seek gratification through sense-contact, to not violate, and to not be callous. The standard understanding of these encourages the development of renunciation, kindness and compassion. But you could expand that a little to: centring on and clarifying the <i>citta</i>, checking the will to dominate, and cultivating empathy. The three fit together, with the slightly uncomfortable sounding ‘renunciation’ at the head of the list – because until one has shifted one's source of happiness, of identity and of orientation from the world that is defined by the shifting appearance of sense-data to the cultivated field of the <i>citta</i>, then instincts of aggression and the withdrawal of concern for others follow suit. Yes, if we really are limited to being stuck inside a bag of skin bombarded by sense-contact, then it would make some sense, at least in the short-term, to set up a massive consumer-accumulation program and defend one's own with all one's might. And some people do attempt that – hence the gross inequality and conflict prevalent in the world. Life gets to be all about ‘me’ and ‘mine’. But how real is that? The mind justifies the self-centred outflow as a path to rightly-earned happiness; its aggression becomes defence and standing up for what’s right; and when 'mine' becomes 'right', instead of mutually-attuned awareness, empathy shrinks and outflows increase. There's a lot of inequality, domination and exploitation caused by believing in this wrong 'right'.</span></span></div><div><span style="font-family: Quattrocento;"><span lang="EN-US"><br /></span><span lang="EN-US">The advice is to put a check on the ‘right’ that supports the outflow we call the 'real world'. And this is because as the Buddha put it, such a check is for one's welfare, for that of others and leads to liberation. And further: because '<i>I saw in unwholesome states danger, degradation, and defilement, and in wholesome states the blessing of renunciation, the aspect of cleansing.' </i>(M.19) So... one works on letting go of a foundation of 'mine' not out of righteousness, or puritanical zealotry but because of experiencing harmonious, ‘whole view’ states as a consequent blessing. And as renunciation ripens into self-relinquishment, one finds happiness in giving, serving, extending goodwill, in skilful speech – and in solitary meditation.</span></span></div><div><span style="font-family: Quattrocento;"><span lang="EN-US"><br /></span><span lang="EN-US">The last source can be the trickiest – there's no-one to give to, to look after and support, no great cause to be set on fire with. So you don't get uplift from those sources. You're here with your body, mind and heart – or at least bits of them. And the bits that most commonly make themselves known are the unhappy, nagging or compulsively stupid bits; the stuff you wish would go away, the stuff you've tried to cure, the stuff you wish you weren’t. It's all as real as the 'real' world, because it's the hangover of that outflow; the performance attitudes, personal anxieties and unresolved energies are in the very air we breathe (or choke on); our personalities get built on them. So most of us begin to meditate with our heads in that air; it keeps one busy at getting somewhere.</span></span></div><div><span style="font-family: Quattrocento;"><span lang="EN-US"><br /></span><span lang="EN-US">Admittedly there's solace in that. My first three years of meditation, from day one on onwards, were spent in solitude in a small hut, living on one meal a day. Conversation wasn't allowed, there were no communal events to go to, nothing to do except watch the rising and falling of the abdomen and note sensations and thoughts arising at the point of mental or physical contact, and let them pass. Hardly gripping stuff – but it was the big project, and so I threw myself into it with the youthful fervour of one who reads of stages and breakthroughs. But when I paused for a break ... and the sounds of people outside the monastery socialising came drifting over the wall, the sense of isolation wafted in. And when my father died, the sense of loss. Duly noted – but the rising and falling of the abdomen began to seem to be a distraction from that sense of isolation, rather than the other way around. (After all, meeting that sense of separation from the loved is the Buddha's first noble truth.) And when I found myself getting pleased by the company of cockroaches, the bit that 'doing meditation' overlooked made itself clearly felt.</span></span></div><div><span style="font-family: Quattrocento;"><span lang="EN-US"><br /></span><span lang="EN-US">So how do you meet estrangement? It's of course a penetrating question to pose during lockdown, but it's more prevalent than either of these scenarios. When on retreat, I can easily be in my box all day with barely any contact – but that’s a chosen situation that I can move out of. More telling is the sense of estrangement in daily life – as when being with people without meeting them; or living under a system that doesn't make sense; or recognizing the difference in realities, the prevalence of propaganda and deceit and not knowing where there is solid common ground. It comes with the mis-orientation of the real world. My sense and practice then is to not fill up the gap or gloss over it, to not pass through it, but to rise to meet that groundless space. If the heart can open in equanimity towards that, there's also an opening to compassion, joy and a deep appreciation of the gift that each human being carries. We’re both alone and on the same blank page at the same time.</span></span></div><div><span style="font-family: Quattrocento;"><span lang="EN-US"><br /></span><span lang="EN-US"><table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-so4ZnmhDOho/X5mJchd35MI/AAAAAAABGr0/IDlRlxurIxEhh_1IwPhGLAPzmh_lDYOzACLcBGAsYHQ/s6000/DSC_0596.jpeg" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="4000" data-original-width="6000" height="263" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-so4ZnmhDOho/X5mJchd35MI/AAAAAAABGr0/IDlRlxurIxEhh_1IwPhGLAPzmh_lDYOzACLcBGAsYHQ/w390-h263/DSC_0596.jpeg" width="390" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Pre-Covid meeting<br /></td></tr></tbody></table>Apart from using the touchstone of community (which however spread out and virtual that may be, is an economic, and psychological necessity), my subsequent meditative practice is about opening to that uncertainty. It’s also about moderating doing; doing what it takes to maintain ground and mindfulness, what it takes to avoid compulsively engaging with (or repressing) mental states, and to neither give up on, or plan for, enlightenment. In brief it's about establishing a base and means to retrieve the lost bits and realise wholeness of <i>citta</i>. Then 'right' as '<i>sammā</i>' arises – meaning 'fitting', 'in accord with Truth', 'well-set', 'balanced', 'in harmony with the Cosmos'. As in the world view of pre-mechanised cultures, the Cosmos includes the spiritual, the social, the natural and the supernatural – and it's guided by Dhamma. From that balance the Path arises – to configure Right Livelihood as a way of sustaining one's life in the interactive world. Aspire to do what you love. It's not easy; it has to be realized.</span></span></div><div><span style="font-family: Quattrocento;"><span lang="EN-US"><br /></span></span></div><div><span style="font-family: Quattrocento;"><span lang="EN-US">The foundation for that is to live in accord with a morality, and more than that, an awareness that is based on 'to others, as to myself'. As the Buddha did throughout his life, you work out the details of protocols based on that, from meeting situations from a place of balance rather than of personal definition or ideology. You don't need an identity to do that; in fact it gets in the way. But when you get the right 'right' then empathy meets justice – and the world comes alive.</span></span></div>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6709844700034298584.post-64844946741849511272020-05-08T04:44:00.000+00:002020-05-08T04:46:32.466+00:00Lockdown means open up<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">For many of us, it's been a month or more of lockdown. And new openings. Volunteers offering help, free-will gifts from businesses, flinty-hearted ministers whisking credit out of previously empty hats. Screen-shy samanas such as myself have climbed over their techno-fear and produced online Dhamma sessions. (Lay teachers and Dhamma centres, more savvy about this way of operating, are now offering online retreats.) Quite an opening. I wonder if any of this can be sustained.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">It would be wonderful if in the future, 'government' could be an activity, shared among a broad range of responsible people, rather than a power-attuned elite. It was notable how the more the governing bodies were led by 'strongman' figureheads, the less agile and flexible they were and still are (compare Germany's record against that of the UK, US or Brazil). I wonder if our societies might reset to increased local governance and a more consensus-oriented rule.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">Some economic laws have also been seen as unreliable. Decades of operating according to fiscal standards rather than addressing the commonwealth through a balanced distribution of resources and increased social cohesion depleted our ability to look after each other when businesses closed down. It would be a salvation if the current economic model, based on consumption of the Earth's dwindling resources, could be reset. We didn't need to fly, use oil as much as we were led to believe. Unfortunately, it could be the case that in the interests of the consumer economy, the selling of the next generation's future will again be seen as normal, inevitable, and even our right. But there may be a broader recognition of the economy of giving and sharing – materials, services, healing, and wisdom. We look after each other: it's always been the safest and most crash-resistant socio-economic model.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">What is more likely is that the value of mental/spiritual and relational well-being has become evident: on one hand the rate of domestic violence increased; on the other hand, so did the neighbourliness. So with that comes an incentive to cultivate the heart. And the Dhamma teaching has extended into people's homes. I hope that for many, this has been an opportunity for clear thinking, meditation, and a review of priorities. To notice what and who you can rely upon when things go upside down. Even more worthy of note is that things – no, <i>all </i>conditioned things (even my well-intended Zoom sessions) – <i>do</i> break down. In accord with the Buddha's last utterance: '<i>whatever is conditioned is subject to decay, practise with diligence</i>'. So the myth of invulnerability, of being beyond Nature is foolish, and it was through hanging on to that that leaders of nations made failed or flustered responses. On the other hand, working in accordance with Nature, and acknowledging our vulnerability can make us more sensitive, flexible, and compassionate. For these reasons, co-operative dependence and vulnerability epitomised the lifestyle chosen by the Buddha and the great disciples.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">Life at the time of the Buddha was risky in a manifest way: here you might see someone dying, here a worm-infested corpse. Brutal kings ruled, meting out savage punishment to those suspected of crimes. There was no state welfare; famines and little medicine; and thieves and brigands lurked in the wilderness, living off travellers who ventured onto the unpoliced roads. And yet, in the face of all this, some people went forth from the modest shelter of town life to live in those wildernesses, dependent on such offerings as might be made at a nearby village. Some went forth deranged by grief by the loss of a son; some with a spiritual aspiration that burned with such intensity that the life of the body was worth the gamble. To realize 'the Deathless', these few headed very fully into vulnerability – because with less shelter, there could be fewer ways of turning away from the naked truth of birth and death. It was not a suicidal wish, but one based on the understanding that through meeting how things fundamentally are, in a way as free from human contrivance as possible, a breakthrough could come around. But for that, one had to 'go forth': to move where there's nowhere else to go.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">An understandable response to being apparently locked into a fragile and mortal existence, might be terror and depression. But the awakening memo is: it is risk, not security, that brings us together – individually and socially – in the richest way. It reminds us of where we really are, and asks heart and mind to bring forth their strength. Then with skilled attention, guidance and persistence, the contraction around holding on can be relaxed; the tendency to fear can be rolled back, and a heart so opened and revealed can rise up. With the shift to deep attention that this brings about, one can view the conditioned process as it is – and not as me, mine, a fixed or personal reality. That's a vital change of view. Just flip the pages of anyone's life book; get beneath the story line, and what do you notice? Changeability, the unpredictable, the unforeseen (good and bad): to recall that brings forth faith – be open and alert. A human life is also marked by an ongoing quest to find fulfilment – which hasn't <i>quite</i> arrived (and maybe isn't even near). Seeing that brings attention back to the present: what do you really want, and where will that be found? It's never in that ongoing flow of continuity that the Buddha called 'becoming' (<i>bhava</i>). What about if the mind stepped out of that, into the immediate openness of an awareness that isn't craving or dreading becoming anything? When you even review that tide of 'now I'm this and I should be <i>that</i>, and I might get <i>there</i>' you realize that this goes on irrespective of circumstance and identity. So there's nothing intrinsically personal about this book, and you don't have to throw it away and get a better one. The advice is to study it from a different viewpoint: it's written in personal handwriting, but bear in mind and take it to heart, that the marks of change/risk/unpredictability (<i>anicca</i>), of incompleteness and the unresolved (<i>dukkha</i>), and of impersonality (<i>anatta</i>) are universal marks. Through bearing these in mind, there can be a breakthrough to the unconditioned, the secure, the sorrowless, the place of peace. One can step out of the book.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">As to how to get that point ... Motivation (<i>chanda</i>) and resilience (<i>viriya</i>) are part of it. And also faith: you stopped, or were stopped – perhaps in crisis or in inspiration – and something, or someone came your way. Attention was opened and made alert. So that, either through your own deep attention or the voice of another, you poked one eye out of the conditioned rolling on. With that eye you can see the danger of conditioned existence, and you look to building resources. And among the cluster of factors that you gather is mindfulness: which in the suttas is not a meditation technique, but an ongoing cultivation of 'bearing in mind an essential meaning'– <i>whatever</i> that may be. Most universally, the meaning is encapsulated in right view: there are skilful qualities, there are unskilful qualities and through non-clinging, there is liberation. Skilful qualities rise out of greed, aversion and delusion and attune to the essential openness of awareness. This will give you the right kind of strength – not the brittle shell of the strongman, but the strength of a deep tap root that's merging into the ground.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US"><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">Seeing conditioned reality as something to rise out of doesn’t mean that you stop generating skilful conditions and warding off afflictive ones. The Buddha himself spent all his awakened life building a platform of teachings, as well weaving the mutually-dependent mesh of household and gone-forth disciples. These conditioned structures, because they arose dependent on the truth of the good heart and the awakened mind, have persisted for the welfare of gods and humans long after his demise. So it's a matter of what conditions you bring forth and where. Constructing more advanced ways of dominating nature or each other is a mission of doom. But the 'gods' of climate, of social meaning and ethical balance under whose influence our collectives form, could certainly benefit from reconstruction. To this end, meeting how things most fundamentally are can bring forth our ethical sensitivity, wisdom and compassion. It's through these that the great Way has always been established.</span></span></div>
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Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6709844700034298584.post-85468804831605245802020-03-25T13:29:00.003+00:002020-04-05T06:40:28.858+00:00Spreading karunavirus<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-tpgZOKR9nhk/Xno6I1NHsBI/AAAAAAABFxk/Upt5u34Reo8sTGCeUusYAYOX56UoRqS9ACLcBGAsYHQ/s1600/A5D62DD9-A2C5-4FE1-AC69-4F5663FBECFE.heic" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1200" data-original-width="1600" height="240" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-tpgZOKR9nhk/Xno6I1NHsBI/AAAAAAABFxk/Upt5u34Reo8sTGCeUusYAYOX56UoRqS9ACLcBGAsYHQ/s320/A5D62DD9-A2C5-4FE1-AC69-4F5663FBECFE.heic" width="320" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><i>UPDATE APRIL 5. Currently many monasteries and Dhamma Centres are offering teachings via their websites or Zoom. Check in online for details.</i></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">So, the world has changed, we're in lock-down, and Dhamma practice continues with heightened focus. Covid-19 just marched in.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">I just got back to Cittaviveka from a retreat in the Netherlands; one of the last creatures on Noah's New Ark after my train was cancelled, a flight to replace it was cancelled and another flight promptly arranged by the tireless, unflappable, and matter-of-fact compassionate retreat manager. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;"> As the retreat contained people from New Zealand, Australia, Israel, Germany, Austria, Switzerland, Denmark, the Netherlands, Finland, the UK, Ireland and the USA, there was quite a lot of rearranging to do. The teachers themselves (from four different countries on this planet) met briefly each day, to look at the new unknowns, return to the concerns of the retreat and its yogis, and open to what seemed best – for now. A sound Dhamma focus. And this was what we brought back to our students; creating up to four days of practice to facilitate moving out into the new world. </span><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">So there had to be time to sit in silence as a group, grounding the agitation and anxiety with embodiment, and the encouragement to expand mindfulness around that. Also there was the invitation to feed back on what arose from that process. 'Compassion' (<i>karuṇā) </i>was the universal theme. Concern for others arose, particularly of course friends and relatives back 'home'; gratitude was expressed – for having the container of the retreat and the companionship in Dhamma; and in the silence and the restraint, there was a sense of the enormity of what all humans are involved with now. This is the response from balanced and trained awareness. Other signs are not so positive.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">As I mentioned in my September blog (<a href="http://sucitto.blogspot.com/2019/09/systems-breakdown-what-next.html)">http://sucitto.blogspot.com/2019/09/systems-breakdown-what-next.html</a> </span><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">'Systems Breakdown')</span><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">, when customary structures weaken or collapse, there are a number of responses that occur. And this is what we're seeing now. </span><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">'Fighting over toilet paper' is a laughable reaction; 'buying guns and bullets' is more frightening. Will food supplies last? When people panic, wild reactions set in built around self-preservation. More common </span><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">is the loss of reasoned assessment – we imagine that the system or our nation can manage, this will all blow over and then it's back to normal. I doubt it. O</span><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">ur governments are making up strategies as the situation develops (or trivialising it), but this situation could go on for the rest of the year, and its ramifications last much longer. </span><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">People are dying and will continue to needlessly die where there has been a long-term absence of socially, universally accessible welfare and health services. That has to change. Travel will have to become even more security conscious. Will we travel less? Will governments maintain their power of security when the police get sick? Can even the military cope with the civil unrest of millions of people? That social unrest, especially in the USA where nearly 90 percent of the people possess firearms, is another disturbing consequence.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">As I noted, more positive signs are already arising in terms of the movement towards compassion and sharing. To quote again from that September blog: 'An act of faith is definitely called for, along with sense-restraint and compassion.' Well, in Britain, the restraint with regard to theatres, pubs, restaurants, shopping and socialising, was first suggested and then enforced. When the known becomes the unknown, an act of faith can only arise with mindfulness: 'Here we are now, the future always was uncertain, we always were going to get sick and die and be separated from the loved; best stay grounded and open to what arises in awareness.' But when proliferating emotions and thoughts are checked by that practice, self-oriented panic gets replaced with concern for others. People come forth with good heart. Members of Cittaviveka’s international resident community have taken it upon themselves to make the perilous journey home to look after their ageing relatives. As far as the monastery itself goes, we have removed our 'required requisites' list, thinking that it's better if people donate food to those in greater need. Throughout </span><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">Britain, people have been volunteering at a rate of three per second to act as assistance workers to support the National Health Service (more than 400,000 in one day alone.)</span><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;"> </span><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">In the wider world, medics have come out of retirement; hotels opened their doors for relief accommodation; drinks manufacturers used their alcohol to produce free sanitary gel. Virtual gatherings were already happening the day before I left the retreat, and now online Dhamma programs are getting rolled out. (See your local and national Dhamma centres.) And as for the economy, for whose welfare we were receiving austerity budgets – that has had to break its rules. Money always was just a promise – isn’t it time to make it into the promise to support our human welfare? Can there be a discussion around that, rather than a decision made by a few? Maybe rather than return to business as usual, we'll have to make the economy (from the Greek 'house management') fit the ecology (='house knowledge’). It might be good to really get to know what our house is before we manage it.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">On that note, the last comment I have to make is to reiterate another phrase: 'Maybe Nature, internal as well as environmental, is calling us out of our selfishness.' Let's bear in mind where coronavirus came from. Not to stop at 'China'; but to point out that covid-19, along with HIV, Ebola, SARS and MERS, is a virus that has mutated from a pathogen that infects wild animals (and that they can cope with). When humans plunder the fragments of wilderness that are left and kill the few animals that remain (only <b>four percent</b> of all land mammals are still wild) these pathogens transmute and transfer to people. With lethal effect. Isn't it time to learn something? Not just to create a new vaccine (until the next virus mutates and floods the population), but to call a halt to the needless and suicidal destruction of the biosphere. It seems that the wildfires, hurricanes and floods didn't hit hard enough; but now a grim heavenly messenger is driving the point home. We're creatures of this Earth: if we can't offer support, we have to at least respect each other's right to live. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">And yes, now is the time to meditate. The skill is </span><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">to not deny fear, but </span><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">to steady a</span><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">wareness in the body, then encourage it to grow bigger than the fear. From this </span><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">the heart of compassion gains ground.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;"><b>Some tips:</b><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">Sit steady and upright and establish your awareness in the presence of your body. Not in a particular spot, but in the living presence of being here. </span><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">Shift attention away from agitated or tense areas of your body. </span><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">Being with the tide of your breathing might make this more comfortable.</span></div>
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<a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-YW31CNArt9E/XnpAUh49qpI/AAAAAAABFx4/4tNXuyR9V7oGfDUN-1C37q50uT4Edv8qACLcBGAsYHQ/s1600/IMG_1260.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1600" data-original-width="1200" height="200" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-YW31CNArt9E/XnpAUh49qpI/AAAAAAABFx4/4tNXuyR9V7oGfDUN-1C37q50uT4Edv8qACLcBGAsYHQ/s200/IMG_1260.jpg" width="150" /></a><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">Draw awareness into whatever seems to be the centre of your body then,</span><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;"> as things stabilise, relax whatever is around that centre. Extend your awareness to edges of areas that are tense and agitated, as if you are gently applying warmth to frozen tissues. Stay with this until your entire body feels balanced and at ease.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">Feel to the edge of your body and sense the space around that. </span><br />
<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">No pressure. Open. Feel wrapped by that space.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">Bring to mind that the body is vulnerable and feel protective towards it. This is not defence – which operates in terms of fear of </span><br />
<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">the other and what might be, but protection – which gathers around what is valuable and loveable.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">Bring to mind other people, in their laughter, intelligence and sorrow, and extend that protective sense to them. Let the extent of ‘other people’ widen to include more. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">Bring to mind other creatures, in their living contexts – fish leaping and flowing through fresh water; land animals foraging, resourceful and alert; birds swooping through the skies. See them as intrinsically valuable and marvellous. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">Bring to mind the resilient plant life that feeds and shelters creatures and fertilises the Earth. See this too as intrinsically valuable and marvellous.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">Consider any action that you can undertake to respect, protect or support others.<o:p></o:p></span><br />
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Unknownnoreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6709844700034298584.post-74695937594380402162020-01-31T15:51:00.002+00:002023-06-10T18:06:31.148+00:00The Presence of Absence: living with an empty space<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjxaVaURIeG6SQy1JZhmL0TG-2vNYY_ptgp1D-P1Oo2yVbwZrrOHWnIyOd9KkYhKFf1HJ_HH_Zlv8JFZ8DJYoAMLC49hbX7mIPXT4bXR1KHsBBg555Il3TmzS_nEEA6AlLNDoU_6ZzUIg3Z4zyLbHyyIFsqkTw2Jzf-j-GYobDhhV_VraiNPpBlBeviWQ/s3772/IMG_1111.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="2749" data-original-width="3772" height="291" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjxaVaURIeG6SQy1JZhmL0TG-2vNYY_ptgp1D-P1Oo2yVbwZrrOHWnIyOd9KkYhKFf1HJ_HH_Zlv8JFZ8DJYoAMLC49hbX7mIPXT4bXR1KHsBBg555Il3TmzS_nEEA6AlLNDoU_6ZzUIg3Z4zyLbHyyIFsqkTw2Jzf-j-GYobDhhV_VraiNPpBlBeviWQ/w400-h291/IMG_1111.jpg" width="400" /></a></div><br />Life at Cittaviveka over the past year or two has gone through some changes for me personally. It's understandable, since I'm no longer the abbot and have gradually segued into something, or some role, called Guiding Elder. It's a gracious, if nebulous, title. It began with the understanding that although I can pass comment, I no longer have a decisive say in what goes on. This in a way is a relief, because the realization that people aren't necessarily going to follow my views did allow me to express them more freely. After a while, it has more become the case that a good amount of day-to-day management isn't even referred to me; along with this, I have been able to move out of views and opinions to a greater degree. This is partly because of my age: passing year seventy, there is the deepening realization that the world and the monastery and the tradition will roll along (or not) when I'm gone, so why get snagged on the details? Why bother to formulate an opinion when others can, and will have to put energy into sustaining it? Death approaches, do the real business. Indeed, as the new abbot settles in, his encouragement is for me to define for myself what my business is. 'Come and go, and run your routines as you like.'</span></div>
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">This is strangely disconcerting. I have no clear idea of </span><i style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;">what </i><span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">I like. In fact, I don't even have a convincing sense of what I </span><i style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;">am.</i><span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif"> I generally operate in terms of how to fit into a situation, or what works best for the group. So, being given free rein in terms of the monastic community, one consequence is that my mind expands to include the far wider field of Dhamma practitioners – and then try to fit in with or attend to </span><i style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;">their</i><span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif"> needs. Such attention easily leads me into taking on too many engagements and (my body tells me) too much travelling. Meanwhile, I look with a mixture of incomprehension and envy at how some monks can find time to go for long walks, even tours, or happily spend time 'at home' in their monasteries, receiving guests after the meal, tidying up here and there, and just giving an occasional talk now and then. But when I consider it, that's closer to the model that we see in the discourses. So, for myself, a shift of view seems to be needed. </span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US"><span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">In a way, the shift is staring me in the face: when I consider the question, ' What do you want to do?', I find a blank space at the end of it. So, why not follow that sign? Maybe being blank for a while is the appropriate option. Indeed: Absence is a revered presence in spiritual life.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US"><span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">Strangely enough, my seating position in the line of bhikkhus in the Dhamma Hall is now up front and central, but not at the head of the line. Although I am over twenty years senior to him, the abbot sits 'up' the line from me. To explain: in terms of Vinaya the line-up proceeds in order of seniority, to the minute; the more senior you are, the closer you sit to the head of the line. This shows people who to follow. However, the role of the abbot is to show and inform people as to what to follow. Thus, when it comes to public occasions where the Cittaviveka abbot needs to lead, he sits in that 'top of the line' position – which is now off slightly to one side, in order to accommodate the GE (me) in a respectful way in the centre. As for myself, although I'm now in the centre, I sit in silence, a blank presence who follows the abbot's lead. This actually works well. It's quite a relief for me, as when I'm teaching, I am in the spotlight, and this can amplify the significance of even casual non-Dhamma expressions in a way in which I'm unaware – and yet responsible. So, it's great to be nothing much; quiet yet attentive, and on the lookout for what the abbot might need. This helps me because it limits the range of my concern: which is now to support the situation by just being present. I comment if asked, and, unless something is constantly being missed, don't comment if not asked. (Incidentally, I think he's doing really well.)<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US"><span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">This non-centrality feels quite natural. Even when I was abbot, I'd place my seat to one side of the Buddha-image, so that people would have an unimpeded view of this object of recollection and devotion. What it signified to myself was that I was following the Buddha's lead. (Although he never said anything and had me guessing from time to time.) A question that sat like a mantra in my mind for several years, was: 'What would the Buddha do with this?' or, 'What would Ajahn Sumedho/Ajahn Chah say about this?' And I'd try to put my inclinations to one side. But when I review this now, <i>that</i> was still <i>my</i> inclination. And moreover, looking for an answer in me <i>saying</i> or <i>doing</i> something was my habitual focus. I could try too hard, and not let the situation speak. Things might have been better if I had just let my mind go blank and see what unfolded by itself. After all, it's never the case that nothing happens – so why force it? Can I trust my present Absence?<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US"><span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">Such questions, or something like them, are good ones for us to bear in mind. Maintain awareness of a revered but invisible being sitting next to you, and at decisive moments, pause and float the question: 'What would he or she say? What would they feel if I did this? Or didn't do that?' The note of caution to sound is that such a being should be a friend, not a tyrant, and they should address you, not your query. They might well say: ‘Relax, the answer’s not here yet.’ And such a one would allow you to make the small mistakes of forgetting an appointment or a name, or coming out with a remark that touched the wrong spot. To these they’d comment, if comment were needed: 'How does that feel, when you review it?' 'Is there something to learn from that?' Such errors are anyway easier to correct than the big mistake of taking it all personally.</span></span><br />
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<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">Having less of a function here does also allow me more scope to turn around. Behind me, the Buddha, the real Guiding Elder, is sitting upright but relaxed, with open eyes and mild smile. That's what he's modelled year after year. In words: 'Touch in with silence, don't fill all the gaps.' Get it? Full stop, period, end of.</span></div>
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Unknownnoreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6709844700034298584.post-46597012248512707962019-12-26T19:31:00.002+00:002020-01-03T09:05:51.902+00:00Only connect - the wise angel.<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">Being requested – by someone called Angel- I’m writing an article. It's not often that the angels make such requests. So. Just to connect.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">Only connect: it’s a useful memo for meeting the stickier pieces of mind, or body, that arise in meditation. That is, rather than think about the problem and why you have it, and what you should do to get rid of it, the first piece of advice is to connect to how it feels, a careful process which has three aspects: Recognize, Accept and Refer. First, <b>recognize</b>: instead of a creating a long story about me and her and how things should be, turn your attention to the impact the event is having on you. You try to recognize the tone of the thought - say as 'irritated' or 'prickly' or 'weighed down'. That simplifies matters and gets you out of your head and into your heart. Then: <b>accept</b> the presence of a quality that you don't like and shouldn't have – but do have! That relaxes the grip on the issue as well as the self who is struggling with it. This does leave you with some emotional turbulence – but you <b>refer</b> that to your body. As in: 'How is my body feeling with this?' 'Where is this in my body right now?' or even 'Where is my body now?' ( No, not your address, but are you conscious of your body as it feels, rather than thinking about it, or yourself.) </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">With these steps, you put aside the strategy of solving and understanding – all that is psycho-code for aversion and getting rid of and is based on the view that these phenomena are me and mine, and that me and mine can fix them. And that's not so, otherwise you would have done so by now. Instead connect - only spread a patient and sympathetic awareness over the stress, only connect the mental to the embodied aspect; only feel the feeling directly as a feeling... and then? ... No; relax the time horizon. Then 'Inquire'. Ask 'What is needed right here, in this embodied condition?' And wait, and feel. Only connect; the hidden angel of heart will do the rest. Its nature is to arrive at harmony – if we let it.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">That goes for the body too; if you can refer to its intelligence. For example,in the practice of Qi Gong, one relaxes muscle, grounds body on its carefully-aligned bones, and thereby allow the connective tissue to open. This is where the vitality that informs the body interconnects. Therefore tension unlocks, vitality steadily improves. And ease comes to the fore. 'Use only 70% effort'is the watchword. To high-pressure 'performance' people, I might say 'Use 50%'. Just hold the form, connect to the whole body – balanced energy ensues. The body's nature is to arrive at harmony.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">On other levels, harmony arrives, if at all, via less assured routes. Living in accord with the way things are while digesting items of world news, bits of sangha business, meetings with visitors guests, the sick and the dying, steering through email traffic, working on publications and maintaining a steady application to meditation has been, let's say, an ample task. With this body having now reached seventy years, it is often the case that I sense: 'This heap of occupations doesn't fit. Where is the grounding structure, and the connective tissue? What's my place and how much do I engage in?’</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">Meanwhile even a light scan of global issues brings in awareness of the discord in many societies. Economic factors and inequality, spark fears over immigration, nationalism rises up. Into this unsettled basis, politicians use slogans and the politics of rage to gain power; leaders dupe and divide their citizens, and drive the non-conformists or the impoverished to the wall; the anger returns in the shape of attacks on servants of the state and any opposing group. When family members and neighbours find themselves on either side of the 'Trump divide' or the 'Brexit split', the disconnect is of the kind that populist rhetoric can only make worse.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">Likewise the Earth. One wouldn't think that it would require a mystic to tell us that we don't own the Earth: our bodies depend on its nourishment and pass away into it. It's more the case that it owns us. But the domination-exploitation mind-set disconnects – and grabs. So, the power group (economical and political) does little about, or actively supports, the exploitation, abuse and destruction of land, water and air. And hence all life is threatened. To connect to this criminality is to feel the mind quail under the blow of the statistics and the grim photographs (Australia and California on fire, whale carcasses bloated with plastic, etc., etc.). And what cuts even deeper is the loss of the truth of something vital about humanity: that we are beings blessed with the potential for love, morality and wisdom. What demon seduces us to abandon this for money and power? </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">So for healing ... such hope as I have for society and the world in general rests in local community action and trans-national co-operative movements. Meanwhile, personally, the heart's duty is to connect to it all; to refer to the embodied sense and give up on reasons, analysis and critiques. Drifting through levels of despond, eventually I land on the 'measureless states' (of good will, compassion, appreciation and equanimity). It's not an easy descent, travelling as it does through the sense of impotence. But that's where the angels of the heart rise to withstand the pressure. Only they can check despair, cynicism and aversion from taking over. And when the good heart directly senses this 'host of Mara', it pushes back and gradually expands. There seems to be no other qualities than the measureless states that can keep the heart intact at an engaged level. Especially in the increasing number of hours in which, energy fading after another retreat or meeting or project, I am obliged to sit and do nothing anyway until my vitality picks up. Then these measureless states offer a response that connects to it all – including myself. When I can't do anything 'useful', it is possible to linger in grateful appreciation of what this Earth and this life has offered me so far. There is compassion for what we are losing, and also a blessing for the courage, integrity and vigour of what keeps us afloat. The details of how younger people will meet the challenges remain in the bud, but it seems we're coming to the end of the world as I thought I knew it, and a new wave has to rise up. The ‘dominate and exploit as much as you like’ dream has turned into a nightmare. So I need to get grounded rather than panic, to touch into an equanimity which is far from indifference. It's not that the heart is uncaring, but also there's awareness that conditions are like this, now. As for the future – who knows?</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">In fact, having abandoned the future as it is mapped out by statistics as being impossible to operate within, my mind finds deep appreciation of the range and resilience of true life. Nature, as it manifests in the deep intelligence of trees that bind soil, light, air, insects, birds and other creatures into a regenerating web, has always been a marvel to me. So if much of it is to disappear into dust and dead water over the next fifty years, it becomes even more important to protect and support the life-forms in my local patch. Many cultures and religions, from shamanical to contemplative to creative, are being reduced by the march of materialism and pulp media, so that most ancient indigenous wisdom has been or will inevitably be, ploughed under by the mainstream. So it is a privilege to have touched into a few. Moreover, if our intelligence is to be made abstract by technology, so that communication is through devices, Twitterized propaganda and distorted media, if we’ve arrived at a state whereby we need satellite connection to navigate a journey of a few miles, it is time to value the direct intelligence that was the basis of the Buddha's wisdom and teachings – and which arose in face-to-face presence and the tonal inflexions and effects of voice. People of the land such as he used to wander guided by the careful reading of land, perspectives, sun and stars. We used to belong here; life embraced and poured through and informed us in so many ways. Such a miracle. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">I can reflect that I have responded to this state of affairs. I have produced no children – and that's a contribution towards the population problem as well as a heap of consumer issues from plastic to dairy food and whatever else gets extracted from the Earth to sustain and service one human being. I refrain from consuming meat and fish, and, as best as I can as a recipient of alms-food, limit my intake of dairy produce. I don't drink water that comes in plastic bottles, and I ask those who attend my retreats to bring non-disposable flasks and rely on tap water; for a similar reason I use fountain pens rather than throw-away plastic ball-points. I use a solar panel and battery pack (and carry them with me when I travel) to power devices. I conserve water by a) collecting rain water in rain barrels to flush my toilet,b)taking a shower only once every five or six days, and c) washing clothes infrequently (the mercy of brown clothing). I've encouraged and supervised the planting of thousands of trees. On the negative side, my long-haul flights do cause me considerable soul-searching, (and curb the potential for self-righteousness) but I fly to teach when rail is impractical. I have talked this over with others who all say that the benefit that my presence brings outweighs the negative effect of my occupying one seat on a jumbo airliner; it's also the case that if I don't travel, then it's likely that twenty or more people will fly over to see me. But I'm considering limiting long-distance flights to one per year. Finally, since the Vipassana Teachers' Conference in 2013 asked that teachers respond to the climate emergency, I make environmental awareness a part of my Dhamma presentation, and have written a book on the topic (Buddha-Nature, Human Nature c/o fsbooks.org/. ) I encourage you to look into and attune your own responses. (You might like to read "No Impact Man" by Colin Beavan for some ideas - and humorous anecdotes) However, within the scenario of being a forest monk (one who lives on the margins of the wilderness and doesn't engage with social affairs), I seem to be doing about as much as I can do right now.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">Meanwhile, in a world which gives no time to linger, I value every moment of direct truthful contact with my fellow human beings –while acknowledging that not everyone has the occasion or the interest to participate in it. This also keeps me equanimous and modest in my expectations. The Buddha counselled that if one can find even one true companion, to find strength in that; I have found many – here and there and in episodes to be sure – but in my awareness I can still be inspired by meetings from long ago. Faces and phrases well up in the pool of <i>citta</i> and give encouragement; I share my life and ongoing actions with them. And with the realisation of the resource that a trained awareness offers.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">So the dismay at the deadening of the human spirit must be balanced by referring to the potential of its wellspring <span style="font-size: 15px;">– </span>so that we have the energy to keep it alive and active. Meditation in general and the measureless states in particular offer that. ‘<i>There is nothing that can be of such benefit as a well-trained citta’ </i>to paraphrase the Buddha.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">Goodwill, compassion, glad appreciation and equanimity are inflexions of awakened love. It has taken time and inquiry to find out what that word 'love' really means. Perhaps it always does: most of us have to work through having fun, being sentimental or getting flushed and heated with passion – along with their accompanying downturns. The all-embracing quality of the measureless states however, is based not on these but on acceptance. This connection to the heart, the recognition and reference to empathic awareness, is essential for true growth, let alone awakening. Yet it's not that common: some people have rarely received the respect and appreciation of them just being how they are. The society as represented by the popular media certainly doesn't know what that kind of love is. But to me, the real love is not about anyone deserving it, or being perfect, or even helpful. It's just that if the heart stops grabbing, or being seized by, images of self and others, of what it wants and rejects, it opens into a fluent warmth. It's a natural thing – if we linger, recognize and deeply connect.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">I was travelling on a train in Britain recently and got into a conversation with a woman who had been participating in an Extinction Rebellion (climate emergency) demonstration in London recently. We didn’t discuss the issue that XR was/is addressing, but she lit up on speaking of how it provide an occasion for joyful fellowship. This is what a co-operative and peaceful gathering can create – and its meaning extended beyond a few days to be an awakening to a sense of community based on diversity, inclusion and voluntary response from the heart. Within a nation that is increasingly divided, this a sign of hope. And in a world on fire, there are many such signs.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">I've sat up late to write this. Outside where I am now, the traffic of Bangkok rushes and clatters; it is night and people are zooming past each other in their metal boxes, adding to the pollution of the air as they do so. City life; that’s how it is – for now. May we arrive at wiser ways and more harmonious times. May all be well.</span><br />
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Unknownnoreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6709844700034298584.post-56013072102300360812019-09-08T20:08:00.000+00:002020-03-24T09:33:23.466+00:00Systems Breakdown: What Next?<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">Whoops! Back in 4,200 BCE when this 20 metre high granite pillar ('Le Grand Menhir' in what is now Locmariaquer, Brittany) toppled over, it must have caused quite a stir. It had been sitting tall and strong for about 300 years – that’s longer than Germany, Italy, Greece, Belgium and a host of others have been nation-states – then the shift happened. Maybe it was an earth tremor, or a team of terrorists or...? What is apparent though is that systems and structures break down. Sometimes suddenly. They take work, and belief and power to establish, they come to define us – and then: Goodbye Ottoman Empire, goodbye Yugoslavia, goodbye USSR: who’s next? American post-war hegemony, and its claim to set the standards for the 'free world', is an outdated notion. 'United Kingdom'– is not so in the spirit and maybe not much longer in the letter. Even the ideal of the European Union has lost some of its gloss as its economic programs bite into social welfare and as local sentiment chafes against pan-European standardisation. Christendom has gone, how about NATO (currently being shaken by the USA) or the international banking system (after all it did go belly-up in 2008)? <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">As for what's next; the collapse of a holding structure sucks power seekers into the resultant vacuum. See the Middle East and the Balkans. The USSR got grabbed by opportunist entrepreneurs, and the resultant political elite spasms with attempts to revive the Russian Empire. The status quo all seems so solid – until it brings around its own breakdown. The neo-liberal economic revolution of the 1980s that replaced post-war social welfare programs with privatisation seems so much in charge of the human world. But what you may not take into account is that money itself is no longer backed by anything solid (Nixon disengaged the dollar from gold in 1973, so that the underpinning of global finance is a set of floating exchange rates) – wealth is balanced on nothing more substantial than agreements. (And what has been agreed can be disagreed.) So as people wake up to the consequently increasing unequal distribution of wealth and the virtual serfdom that they are obliged to operate under, unrest grows. Far right militarism, and left-wing protests. What agreements? What next?<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">On a more positive note, new ideas spring up to be tested. Finland (and districts of Ontario) have decided to offer unconditional basic income: to just give people what they need to live, irrespective of work. Another think tank – Autonomy – argues that in order to avoid more than 2C of global warming, the working week will have to be reduced to nine hours. Less commuting, fewer goods, less resources used. Sounds interesting – if with all that spare time, people take up meditation rather than social delinquency. But the ideas from Autonomy refer to 'global warming', and that is just one aspect of another systemic crisis – the 'eco-crisis'. The eco-crisis includes the substantial reduction in the insect population (hence pollination and fruit production, as well as health of the soil are threatened). On top of this there is the poisoning of water and air through the chemicals that are used to kill the insects. And let's not forget, much as I'd like to, that these chemicals are still only a fraction of the total chemical assault on Nature. Note the deluge of plastic trashing our water and invading our bodies, note fuel-based air pollution damaging city-dwellers' lungs. The environmental damage caused by the meat and dairy industries? There are a few books' worth of arguments and statistics behind all these aspects; I'm not interested in adding more to that point. Just to acknowledge the results: with the Arctic tundra burning and the Antarctic ice sheets melting, with species extinction and desertification, with Pacific islands threatened by the rising level of the oceans and the Amazon forest shrinking fast, one thing that occurs is that people get alarmed and start pushing for change. What next?<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">The fact that a considerable amount of pushing has had to take place to draw attention to the loss of this self-sustaining and inhabitable planet (from which many species have already disappeared) speaks of another, more fundamental loss: the erosion of truth. Concerns about climate change, first broached by James Hansen to the US Congress in 1988, were not just ignored, but actively discredited (by fossil fuel companies) and are still dismissed to this day. Truth has long been understood to be more of a visitor in the political arena than a resident, but one more recent and striking development has been that when leaders of government in the US and the UK are found to be lying, a sense of shame has been replaced by bluster, and by counter-attacks on the fake media. 'Democratic' ( admittedly failing) structures are giving way to simple slogan-waving strong-men – who gain support by offering simple populist 'solutions.' As for media: as the internet provides news that changes by the minute, it also lessens the opportunity for a reasoned assessment of truth. Reasoned assessment (an aspect of wisdom) disappears altogether: it's getting to be that we can't talk to those of opposing views; we just trade polemics. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">Religion should surely provide an answer. But through time it becomes interlocked with culture and that gets nationalistic. Back in 1948, TS Eliot, in his 'Notes towards the Definition of Culture' wrote that 'the culture of Europe could not survive the complete disappearance of the Christian faith... If Christianity goes, the whole of our culture goes.' Well, if 'our culture' means the mixture of fundamentalist attitudes and sexual scandals around and within the Church, and with the predominance of secular materialism, there's not much hope for 'our (= Eliot's) culture'. Without going into the Anglican perspectives of the great poet, I'd like to suggest a more broad-based culture might work. 'Sharing, morality and being of modest needs', the graduated instruction that the Buddha gave to beginners, could provide a commonly acceptable standard – especially if we included the rest of the animate world as that which we should extend our sharing and morality to. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">So, could the welfare of the human and creaturely environment become a common multi-faith denominator (almost any faith being better than none)? Back in the late 1980s, the common cause of environmental concern did bring religious leaders together at Assisi and then Canterbury, and supportive declarations on the environment have been made by leaders and spokesmen of all major religions. However, since then we've also witnessed acts of violence undertaken by fundamentalist movements in Islam, Hinduism, and Buddhism, all based upon a strong desire to protect or solidify their sense of (national) identity. It may be that although most people 'belong' to a religion, most are not engaged in the quest for truth, wisdom or the divine. Religion for most seems to be a way of giving personal or national identity more backing, not for reducing the sense of self. And a united front and common commitment to wisdom, in theory and in practice, can't come around without a good amount of letting go of one’s individual, even national, viewpoint. <o:p></o:p></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">Like many others I struggle with the sense of despond at all this. As a Buddhist, I can use such reflections: 'This is the way it is. The world is like this, all is changing, let go and work on your path to nibbāna'. But it loses its resonance when I am asked: 'I've got used to dealing with the anger and the fear that all this [political, economic, environmental domination] brings up – what do I do with the grief?' It takes me a while to respond, generally along the lines of finding one's inner refuge and opening the heart. Surely then, another aspect of the way it is, is that: 'Heart is like this, there are values dear to the noble ones, live those with wakefulness.' An act of faith is definitely called for, along with sense-restraint and compassion – but what action arises from that?<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">Take note: As the fixed structures crack, as the established mind-sets founder, something in humans wakes up. Dharma practitioners organise protests and eco-ventures. Children go on strike. Massed gatherings peacefully block the city streets. Organisations whose one aim is the protection of the environment attract millions – having more members in Britain at least than to any political party. Here, the cause of the environment even unites a population fractured by views on Brexit. Technology starts whirring and shifting to low-impact solutions. Billions of trees are planted. All this is transnational and trans-religious. Maybe Nature, internal as well as environmental, is calling us out of our selfishness. As with the Buddha's last words: 'Systems break down, strive on with diligence (<i>vayadhammā sankhārā appamadena sampādetha</i>)'. Systems break down, whereas truth, although often obscured, doesn't. What will it give rise to next?<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6709844700034298584.post-2822586629871541642019-03-11T15:45:00.001+00:002019-04-13T03:58:51.386+00:00Mind the Matter: the Path to the Deathless<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">I'm currently staying in a yurt on an animal sanctuary-cum-farm next to Cittaviveka, in the company of an abandoned donkey, a few ponies, three lamas, ducks, geese, and dogs. It's the winter retreat. It all makes so much sense: time to return to the body, through being in nature and meeting it rather than dominating it, overriding it or sealing oneself off from it. Body huddles, carefully swathed in fleece and wool, and mindfully scurries between shelters. But you have to get out there; swing your arms to chop wood, collect what you've chopped into a wheelbarrow or sack and drag it to your lair the way some carnivore would haul in its dead prey. The mind gets clean and sharp: no time or space to complain, worry or plan the next year. This is the animate condition. And it becomes 'we': winter makes other creatures your fellows in coping – squirrels dart here and there between brief squabbling contests; small birds hastily scour for seeds and hammer bird feeders with their beaks; geese and ducks organize their hierarchies; ponies and the donkey resiliently tough it out, their hides matted with rain.</span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US"><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">This is retreat, forest style. Embodied, participatory. Often it's about dealing with what arises as winter eats into the buildings, mice nibble into the insulation – or the bedding (who can blame them?). Drains clog with leaves and debris and have to be scraped out. But embodiment covers a wide territory; from the coarse sensory (such as this) to the fine energetic domains that we enter with qi gong; to breath meditation in which the realms we call 'body; and 'mind' merge in the harmony of samādhi. But at any level, embodiment unseats the dislocated 'up in my head' self with its complexities, strategies and virtual reality; hence its cultivation integrates us. This is not so esoteric: body and mind have to merge whenever we engage with life – it takes bodily, emotional, and cognitive intelligence to dress the wound of a screaming, struggling child – with no time to speculate on the shoulds and shouldn'ts. But shouldn't this be the case with meditation?<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US"><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">Well 'disembodied spirituality' is the problem. The plausible notion is that one could extract a pure spirit from the mess of materiality: plausible because surely that’s what liberation is all about, isn’t it? Get out of the death-bound physical existence? Well, kind of, but not quite. According to the Buddha anyway, it is possible to elevate to more refined immaterial spheres and heavenly realms, but that isn’t what his liberation was about. Having sat himself at the root of a tree and directed his attention to in- and out-breathing, he found that in this living body lies the way to awakening. And he taught along those lines in no uncertain terms: the Numerical Discourses alone present fifty-two consecutive suttas in which in greater and lesser details the Buddha gives voice to the same message: '<i>Bhikkhus, they have not realized the deathless who have not realized mindfulness directed to the body</i>' (Book of the Ones) Hmm. It seems that there’s something about this body that goes beyond.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US"><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">Much depends on what we sense body as being. Bear in mind that in the West we inherit three disembodying (or de-animating) influences; that of Plato and Idealism; that of Augustinian Christianity and the sinful flesh; and that of Descartes, for whom the only intelligences were those of the thinking mind and of God. This view holds that only that which mind can conceive of and measure is real; if you can’t measure it with your devices, it isn’t true. And most of creation is senseless matter. As 'matter' itself derives from the common Indo-European word for mother, and nature is to do with the gift of birth, you can sense the rejection and sublimation of what is often referred to as the feminine, but I’ll call the embodied, the animate. Animate intelligence responds; it places the mind in a living and shared context, rather than in an abstract virtual reality; it's the intelligence of relational sensitivity rather than control and domination; intelligence that doesn’t expect or give value to linear structures and procedure, but operates in terms of currents, flows and probabilities. Even when this intelligence is expressed in abstract terms – as it is with Quantum Mechanics and Chaos Theory – it replaces the notional fixity of space-time measurements in order to meet reality as it happens. And as it happens, reality allows no separate observer, no independent bits, no stable neutral ground to measure from, and no fixed conclusion. It's not mathematically provable. But as Einstein commented: '<i>As far as the laws of mathematics refer to reality, they are not certain, and as far as they are certain, they do not refer to reality.</i>'*<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US"><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">The guiding principle of mathematics is that things will remain solid and definite; that one can break them down to smaller discrete entities and also stick them together. You can stand apart, divide, add and measure. Therefore the most essential is the smallest building brick; that brick must be the ultimate foundation of reality. And it doesn't respond, won't get back at you. So breaking animate reality into pieces is what we do: this supports reductionist logic, abstract principles, smashing atoms and so on to the atom bomb. According to this view, Earth – a self-regulating system that includes all life – is a collection of inert materials that we can feed off, creatures that we can eliminate and convenient places where we can dump stuff somewhere called ‘away’. And we do much the same with our ourselves ... while still assuming that we can be separate from the broken mess that results from all that. Because there's a demonic promise in abstracting oneself from animate reality: that of unlimited power with minimal responsibility. Despite the evidence of the damage we do to ourselves and the rest of animate existence by buying into this notion, there is a seductive attraction in the idea of being supreme and above the rest.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US"><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">The assumption that reality is something we can step out of and measure makes our very existence a riddle. Are we an ultimate consciousness that is separate from but involved with flesh (the 'Descender' view)? Or is that we are the latest development whereby the prehistoric slime of a two billion years ago has shifted its DNA into a configuration that produced human intelligence? (The ‘Ascender’ view). </span></span><br />
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<span lang="EN-US"><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">The Descenders are rather reluctant with regard to animate existence, keep it at bay and would like to get out of it as soon as possible. That was the strategy that the unawakened Gotama attempted and rejected prior to his awakening. Basically, he found that you can suppress and sublimate and refine the sensate experience but there’s nowhere to ‘get out’ to. The deathless isn't a definable quality 'out there'.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US"><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">Meanwhile, from the ‘Ascenders’ point of view, sure, we can trace how floods of compassion activate areas of the brain: but does that mean that this mass of cerebral tofu produces mind? Or is it more like the TV set, which presents teams of men playing football on its screen; i.e. an animate system glowing with signals that it receives form some out of body source? No. it's just that intelligence animates. And animate systems, all of them, are intelligent. Trees can communicate and support their fellows, bees can do arithmetic, whales vocalize. So the co-dependent arising of consciousness and form is the fitting Buddhist model. To this is added the coda that the 'cessation' of consciousness can be cultivated. And <i>that</i> is liberation, awakening and so on.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US"><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">But first, back to the body: '<i>In this fathom-long body endowed with perception and mind, I make known the world, the origin of the world, the cessation of the world, and the way leading to the cessation of the world</i>.' (S.2:26) So what in the direct experience of mindfulness is this body? What is it in itself - not as a something that I see or think about or imagine I'm living in? What if I don’t divide it into a head in which I live and the rest of the body underneath 'me'? What if I recognise that the sensations that my body experiences come and go, and rather than being any one of them, ‘body in itself’ is receptive to them? In other words, isn't it the case that the foundation of all bodily experience is not dumb matter, but sensitivity, responsiveness – that is, 'mind'. But this is not mind as the measurer (<i>mano</i>) but as the animate intelligence of <i>citta</i>. As that intelligence experiences both sensations and the refined embodied energies of <i>jhāna</i> ( in which there is '<i>not one pore of one's entire body that isn't saturated, drenched and permeated with pleasure</i>') it's not disembodied.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US"><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">Yet when the Buddha speaks of '<i>those who dwell touching the deathless element with the body'</i> (A 6:46) he's not referring to fingers and toes. There's something more fundamental. So what is the most constant bodily sense, the one you wake up with or that arises as you put down the book or switch off the screen? It's that of being here... within some undetermined boundary. Without experience being sensed by that animated and contextualising field of awareness, you’re not in your body. This animated embodied field adopts the changing forms of consciousness. So, most of the time, your face probably feels larger than your chest – but it lacks a scalp, and the back of the skull. The rest of the back is probably quite faint, and has much less definition than your front; in fact less sensation than occurs in one hand. While you’re reading, the lips aren’t apparent – but raise a cup and direct it to your mouth and they become huge. A thorn in your thumb makes that tiny point bigger than your torso. So your felt body is a different creature than the visual or notional one; and it can change... When you get angry, it tightens, when you’re sleepy, it’s as if your head is a bag of sopping wet feathers... When you practise qi gong, the head integrates into the entire body and the form is more spacious. With mindfulness of breathing, breath-energy can suffuse the entire body and dissolve it into a soft unified field that absorbs quietens and gladdens the mind. The felt body has many forms, but they arise dependent on the workings of consciousness: contact, feeling, attention, and mental interpretation. Not without those.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US"><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">So it's not the case that the animate body arises within awareness – but the experience of form, of feeling, of ‘mental’ reactions and of visual, tactile and metal consciousness does. These '<i>khandha</i>' arise within an animate field that always remains beyond perception – because it is the subject, not any kind of object. Neither is it the case that awareness arises within the body – that would assume a state whereby there could be a body that notices awareness arising: but a non-conscious awareness is clearly impossible. What becomes clear is that you can't reduce the body-mind model to a single knowable reality; instead reality knows 'you' as you arise out of the mesh of consciousness and its machinations. These objects - form, feeling, perception, impulse, and consciousness in terms of eye, ear, nose, tongue, body and mind – come and go and change. And because of <i>that</i> the animate field can know there is a Path: mental content - the residues of kamma, as well as craving, delusion and ignorance are to be cleared within the embodied domain. Right: just as every event and engaged-with phenomenon leave traces in the animate field, the clearing of these can be accomplished right there.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US"><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">How is this? Well, if one’s attention could rest on the subtle energies of breathing in and out, steered there in a careful and sensitive way so that there was a pleasant abiding – then a lot of worry, irritation and craving wouldn’t have any foundation. And if that process cleared the stiffness, numbness and inner stress that accrues from living in a distorted disembodied way, there wouldn’t be much of a foundation for a heavy painful body, and attention wouldn’t be busy dealing with sensations and restlessness. Following that direction would lead to a steady vibrant sense of being here. Sure, on account of the content of consciousness, this may not easy – but can you base your awareness on just being present? Then locate the sense of a skin boundary arising <i>within </i>your awareness? That's not the <i>edge </i>of your awareness, it's just another subtle phenomenon within awareness. Can you practise relaxing that, and any other boundaries and measurements that you've adopted? Not by cutting off anything real, but by relinquishing the need, instinct and assumptions that keep your boundaries running. This is what is meant by cessation: the de-activation of consciousness. '<i>That base should be understood, where the mind </i>(mano)<i> ceases and perception of mental phenomena fades away</i>.' (S.35:117) In embodied awareness there's a foundation for that.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US"><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">But you might say, 'I still have to wash the dishes and feed the dog.' True enough. The question is: 'Who does all that? How much of a solid grip do they have on your life? Would you style yourself as "Suki/Brett(etc) the Dishwasher: that is my true self."? What occurs is the weaving of form, feeling, perception, impulses – of consciousness in brief. And when the experience of form, feeling, and the rest of it are no longer a source of agitation, fascination, or turmoil; when none of that grips the <i>citta</i>, when there is de-activation rather than further creation, why speak of body or mind or self as realities? In the terse language of Buddhist wisdom: with increasing detachment, dispassion and relinquishment, consciousness ceases. I</span></span><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">n such as case wouldn’t ‘unconditioned’ be more accurate?</span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US"><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">So mind the matter. Coarse or refined. It carries the Path to sane responsibility and restraint that consummates in the deathless. In this animate field, the foundation for the dislocated self – onlooking, judging, worrying, planning, comparing itself with others, hanging on to petty gains and clinging for dear life – need not arise. '<i>This is deathlessness, that is, sensitive intelligence (</i>citta<i>) with no fixed basis</i>.' (M.206:73)</span></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US"><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;"> (* Fritjof Capra: <i>The Tao of Physics</i> P72 [Shambhala Publications 1975])</span></span></div>
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Unknownnoreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6709844700034298584.post-56050532240059003112019-02-02T14:16:00.002+00:002019-02-03T06:46:20.568+00:00Save Your World<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;"><i>(Lily and discarded tyre: South Harris, Scotland)</i></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">I recently received a message from a Dhamma-practitioner who has attended many of my retreat. She mentioned that on account of an anecdote I’d shared about the remarkable Sister Abegail of Kwa-Zulu Natal (that’s in South Africa) she was sending a donation to Kulugile, Sr. Abegail’s orphanage. I met Sr. Abegail in 2015 when I was teaching in the area; she was then eighty years old and had recently returned from America after receiving an award from the Dalai Lama as one of the ‘unsung heroes of compassion’. For the greater part of her life she had with formidable resolve worked her way out of village life to a higher education, and into nursing and ordination. Often single-handedly (she would have said with God’s help) she had nursed orphans – including settling many of them into her own home – and set up care facilities in response to the AIDs epidemic that has ravaged the local population. The anecdote that I shared came out of our conversation: she’d been notified of a baby that had found in a trash bin and left for dead. True enough, the little one showed no signs of life – but with an ‘I’m not so sure…’ Abegail strapped the baby to her chest and carried and nursed it night and day. Sure enough, after a while she could detect a heartbeat… The little girl is now growing up. *<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">I think the point I was making was about not giving up on yourself or others no matter how bleak it gets; that compassion is the quality that willingly draws close to suffering and embraces it. It’s a quality that in its purest form isn’t even asking that things get better. In this way, it is boundless and free of harshness, indifference, and sorrow. Compassion is one of the ways the heart extends its precious resource of goodwill. And the experience of the great heart is world-saving – even when it’s the experience of the great heart of others. One’s perspective on suffering changes, and the sense of impotence shifts. For myself, even hearing of such acts of compassion lifts the spirit with another of those world-savers, <i>mudita</i>– the rejoicing in the goodness of human beings. The weight of hopelessness drops. For me there was also the bonus of recognizing that my recounting of the story had linked Sr. Abigail’s action to people in a different continent – one of whom at least had responded with support for the orphanage. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">Amidst the reports of governments all over the world failing to meet the needs of their nations, unable to address the prevailing inequality of wealth, and lacking the skill to act in cooperative ways to address the global environmental crisis, accounts of actions undertaken by individuals offer some cheer. Maybe individual initiative is the easiest and most universal way forward. For many years, we have believed that systems and large organisations – World Economic Forum, IMF, etc., etc. – would address the big issues. This was surely the intention behind their foundation. But what happens when the systems themselves are seen as part of the problem, a branch of the global economy that prioritizes financial growth over environmental concern? How much trust can one have in the geo-political set up that support wars to gain political (and economic) influence? Frustration rises. Note the gathering tide of dissent in the streets, and the new ‘populism’ that moves, violently on occasion, against the global ethos and its governing elite. And yet, to strike a more positive note, people outside the conventional systems are also attempting remedial action. Greta Thunberg, the teenage Swedish girl who spends one day per week sitting in protest against the lack of environmental action outside the national parliament, is an obvious example. Obvious because her simple directness presents some stunning soundbites; and her action is so courageous.* Whilst the official delegates travelled to the World Economic Forum in Davos by private jets and stayed in hotels, Greta took a 32-hour train journey to get there, and camped on the mountain. Who best models environmental concern? Who can then speak with real authority? Accordingly youngsters attending school over Europe have followed Greta’s example. But wherever you look, grass-roots action and local initiatives are on the upswing. Perhaps it’s always this way: the most relevant action of the time arises not from the established system, but outside the entangled processes that it has inevitably built up. An individual decides they’re going to do something and, against all odds, if they act in purity, they attract support. At least I like to think so, and that as that such intention forms Avaaz, or 350.org, or Greenpeace, or Earthjustice (and so on), action gathers momentum. My thinking this way is partly because I don’t see where else the impetus can arise from (witness the gridlocks and quagmire of the current US and UK political scene), and partly because it reminds me that authority really lies in our own minds and hearts. Every other source is a convenient but disempowering myth. Blindly following systems we get marched and speeded into their drive, while our own living system goes into inertia. The net result is personal impotence. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">Thus the Buddha broke free and headed into the unknown and the perilous for his great awakening. As did many of his disciples. But as the Sangha was systematised and gained government support, its edge got blunted. Thus we now have national sanghas, overseen by government and adding cultural and iconic support (though not providing ethical example) to the status quo. Of course there are advantages in terms of administration, and on occasion the government supervision has been to ensure that monastic corruptions get weeded out. And yet … all systems require our valuable energies and obedience, attract power, get cluttered with laws and protocols – and they limit individual initiative. They need to be reviewed. Otherwise we take the resultant stasis for granted… the small indulgences drift it … and those of weak resolve fall away from taking personal responsibility. If a sangha can’t ensure its own purity, it’s because the Dhamma and the training has been overlooked in favour of worldly values. Then we’re no longer following the Buddha. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">Finding a balance between managing a place as a Refuge and sanctuary and keeping one’s edge a challenging practice. At Cittaviveka we used to do our own building and electrical work; now we’re not allowed to. Such work has to be done by professional contractors (who have to be checked, counterchecked and monitored). We have to establish and maintain the health and safety standards established by law – and yet our ‘job’ is primarily to offer training and resources for those who wish to go forth as monks and nuns. These aspirants come with their own problems and issues; and they will all be going through the upheavals that leaving home, partner, social position, entertainment and personal autonomy bring up. In brief, not every samana is in prime condition to undertake management. But all of them are living ethically and intent on consuming less: robes are patched, rooms are sparsely furnished, kutis just have a wood stove, a shrine, a rain barrel and a raised platform on which to sleep. Even more important, no one wants it any other way. And through the inspiration that the goodness of the life brings, volunteers offer service and a human community comes alive. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">Having researched and written about environmental matters (a book, <i>Buddha-Nature, Human Nature, </i>should appear by November), it bothers me at times that we aren’t doing more. Sure we have installed solar panels, draw water from our well and derive heat from wood coppiced in our forest. We have no TVs, one washing machine (only used for sheets and towels – clothes are done by hand), one second-hand car (decades old). Lighting dims around 7:30 p.m. when the community enters meditation and only lights up again at 6:15 a.m. And yet… </span><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">the plastic concerns me. We have to live on what is offered. We have a sign pointing out the environmental harm caused by plastic; occasionally I mention it in talks. Donors still bring bottles of water. But even if it is recycled – how much energy does it take to recycle plastic? And what did it take to produce the stuff in the first place?</span><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;"> </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">There is a war on. The planet is being attacked. Beyond the bombing and devastation, there are the steady invasive forces of consumerism, pollution, and squandering of irreplaceable resources – aka greed, hatred and delusion. What gets me most is the sheer needless acts of ignorance – the empty cans in the river, the lights left blazing in displays day and night, the drinkable water used to wash cars and flush lavatories and the culture of disposability. Where is the ‘away’ where we throw things? Where do all materials come from? And who cleans and pays the Earth? But as the Dhamma war is a war against war, it can’t be conducted as a righteous crusade. Instead the strategy is to cut off the enemy's supplies. Personally, I keep inquiring as to how within my own reach I can push back against ignorance; and questioning assumptions about lifestyle. Accordingly I determined to not drink water from plastic bottles – if I can get water elsewhere within 24 hours. I kept that vow in India (drank tap water, boiled, reasoning that I’d had dysentery in India twice before and it didn’t kill me); I require people attending my retreats to not bring any bottled water. One winter I turned my heating down to 13 C (55F), and used candles rather than electric lighting. I have a portable solar panel that I use to power a battery for devices; I don’t eat meat, or fish, and avoid dairy when possible; I only flush the toilet a few times a day, only shower once or twice a week, wash clothes infrequently (mostly just the layer next to the skin). I don’t use paper tissues (handkerchiefs for one end, water for the other). <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">And yet I fly to various parts of the planet (accompanied by a few hundred others) dumping tons of CO<sup>2 </sup>into the atmosphere as I do so. Well, the plane does. I reason that I only fly on invitation to teach the Dhamma, but it’s still doesn’t sit easily, with me, so I cram as much teaching as I can into every trip (that’s how I met Sr. Abegail). I also recognize that my personal contribution to the welfare of the environment can only be iconic; if I refrained from all forms of consumption, the net result in terms of the planet would still be infinitesimal. But exemplifying some degree of renunciation and willingness to serve as an unpaid volunteer is something that may carry as much of a message as anything I say. Meanwhile to get the nourishment to sustain renunciation, goodwill, compassion and appreciative joy are of immeasurable value. As well as sustaining equanimity with regards to results. After all, people like me have been counselling refraining from the destruction of life, stealing, sexual misconduct, harmful speech, and intoxicants for millennia. All this abuse still goes on. But to give up working against it would be to give up on Dhamma, and on humanity. The Buddha didn’t.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">Maybe at best I can inspire a few others to do what they can, and to do better than me. Meanwhile, I’m doing what I can to take responsibility; the bottom line is that it keeps me alive in the heart. Shortly after I received the message about Sr. Abegail, we were asked to</span><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;"> chant on behalf of a teenage suicide (internet trolling). It reminds me </span><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">that </span><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">u</span><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">nless we rescue our human resource, we don’t have a place or a reason to live. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">* Sr. Abegail has written an autobiography: <i>Empty Hands. </i>Published by Penguin, it's available through commercial outlets.</span></div>
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Unknownnoreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6709844700034298584.post-75016750278844832192018-12-17T13:19:00.002+00:002018-12-17T13:19:45.296+00:00The power: to bless or abuse<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<a href="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-KuHWbFEYydE/XBegmksOaJI/AAAAAAAA7Yk/158klB4hTgQdxpQRIJcgdinboMZgta8vwCLcBGAs/s1600/DSC_0031%2Bcopy.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1067" data-original-width="1600" height="425" src="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-KuHWbFEYydE/XBegmksOaJI/AAAAAAAA7Yk/158klB4hTgQdxpQRIJcgdinboMZgta8vwCLcBGAs/s640/DSC_0031%2Bcopy.jpg" width="640" /></a></div>
(<i>sīma stone at Wat Pah Nanachat, N.E. Thailand</i>)<br />
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<span lang="EN-US" style="line-height: 20.533334732055664px;"><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">Spiritual power carries an effective potential for good or for bad. First the good: the work and example of spiritual masters, great teachers and leaders who often single handedly went against the tide is a beacon of light in the human ocean. In this case, I think of Ajahn Chah and Ajahn Sumedho because I associated with them, but I hope you have your own, because the world is a tough place without that light.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US" style="line-height: 20.533334732055664px;"><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">But it can get even tougher when the guiding light has been seen to cast deep shadows: witness the recent upheavals at Shambhala and Rigpa where the holders of truth for their global communities have been removed on account of their abusive sexual and physical activities. Grim and very sad – but not unusual. Gurus, prelates and even presidents are seen, rightly or not, as bearers of qualities that enable them to support the collective. How they are seen depends not just on a rational assessment but on the energy of their presence, verbal delivery or deportment – an immaterial 'substance' called 'charisma' - ‘grace’. On account of this, followers grant effective power to the leader. It’s quite a transference; human collectives orient themselves around it. In fact it's difficult for a collective to arise, as a body that can move beyond individual self-interest, without the charismatic embodiment of the greater good. And although the source of that goodness may be couched in terms of a national myth, or a god, or a god-given destiny, the terrestrial agent of that good embodies that through their personal charisma: kings and queens are sacred. Yet, given the fallible nature of all human beings, and considering the damage caused by charismatic leaders of spiritual communities (let alone of political institutions), along with the resultant loss of faith, meaning and orientation for millions of people, this is a major issue. Its ramifications extend beyond the flaws of particular individuals.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US" style="line-height: 20.533334732055664px;"><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">The Buddha was evidently richly endowed, and thus a source of charisma and authority. His five former ascetic associates, having just made a pact to not acknowledge him, found themselves involuntarily rising up and offering him a seat and homage as soon as he, then newly-awakened, came into their presence. 'Bhagava' they and multitudes of disciples called him - 'the Blessed One, the one rich in grace' – and the honorific had been passed down to seers and sages in India ever since. The Buddha lived up to that on account of his authentic realization and through passing on a wealth of teachings. But, sidestepping a purely personal attainment, he referred to himself in the third person, as Tathāgatā - 'the One who has gone into Truth', the Transcendent One. His insistence was that he had rightly seen the Dhamma, the Way leading to liberation, and that Way was the proper focus to attend to. However the teacher-disciple relationship was a vital part of that Way. So for those who had committed to his Dhamma and yet were deviating from it, his instructions took on the qualities of command:<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><i><span lang="EN-US" style="line-height: 20.533334732055664px;">... for a faithful disciple ... it is proper that he conduct himself thus: 'The Blessed One in the Teacher, I am a disciple; the Blessed One knows, I do not know.'... 'Willingly, let only my skin, sinews, and bones remain, and let the flesh and blood dry up on my body, but my energy shall not be relaxed so long as I have not attained what can be attained ...' </span></i><span lang="EN-US" style="line-height: 20.533334732055664px;">(M.70:27)<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US" style="line-height: 20.533334732055664px;"><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">It's a different tune from the 'trust your own wisdom' trope that gets spun out of the Kālāma sutta. In the teaching quoted above the innate wisdom that the listeners were missing out on was the understanding that they hadn't completed the Way, and hence should listen to someone who had – and through whom they had taken up discipleship.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US" style="line-height: 20.533334732055664px;"><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">Yet although the Buddha was authoritarian at times, he never abused his power. Wanting no part of material gain, he is also recollected as 'vijjācaranasampanno'– perfected in understanding and conduct. Creating codes of moral and relational integrity –'Vinaya'– was a major part of his life's work. Vinaya covers protocols around gaining, possessing and sharing material requisites, around topics such as relationships between householders and samanas (especially with reference to sexuality) and between teachers and disciples. Accordingly, the Sangha still sees the Buddha and the teachings he laid down as the highest authority, followed in descending order by the entire Sangha as a spiritual entity, then by a group of elders, and for local and circumstantial matters, a single elder. In practical terms, this arrangement weighs against the abuse of charismatic power – the highest levels of authority are either dead or absent, and thus incapable of abusing anyone. And every genuine Buddhist teacher <i>should</i>defer to the Buddha's ethical standards.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US" style="line-height: 20.533334732055664px;"><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">They should also understand power. To summarize: power as authority is based on the past, on being the bearer of the knowledge or grace that has issued from the source; power as influence is based on personal charisma in the present; and the power to command is the use of any of these to influence the future. A wise follower should therefore check the validity of the authority, internalize the charismatic effect, and thereby take personal responsibility with regard to following the command. The hinge point then is how charisma is referred to and used. Because in spiritual matters, when faced with either scripture or legal structure on one hand, and relationship to someone's radiant presence on the other, most people will follow the living being.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US" style="line-height: 20.533334732055664px;"><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">For sure. Dead texts aren't going to respond, sympathize, cheer or advise. And the nature of the heart-mind is such that spiritual practice brings forth its potency in terms of '<i>indriya</i>' - spiritual faculties that open as faith (<i>saddhā</i>), application energy (<i>viriya</i>), mindfulness (<i>sati</i>) unification (<i>samādhi</i>) and discernment (<i>paññā</i>), until they ripen into <i>bala</i>, strengths. The effect is palpable: one feature of his awakened disciples of the Buddha that was remarked upon was that their faculties were clear and bright, and they conducted themselves as if rejoicing, with minds as sensitive and agile as the wild deer. When such people spoke words that went to the heart and resonated with truth, the effect was bound to be awesome. Just as they did, all teachers and exemplars need to cultivate personal restraint, modesty and awareness of influence.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US" style="line-height: 20.533334732055664px;"><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">Vinaya helps with this in ethical and judicial ways. As an obvious example, a bhikkhu or bhikkhuni can only speak a few words of Dhamma to a member of the opposite sex unless they are in a public place or accompanied by another male or female respectively. But still, minor inclinations, such as around choice of food can get translated into imperatives by devotees. ('<i>Bhante has to have marmalade on his toast</i>!') More important is to put boundaries around what a teacher can influence – which means that others have to grow into responsibility. Thus any abbot or senior nun in our monasteries has to work within the structures supervised by the Wat Pah Pong sangha, by the local group of elders and by the lay trusts and committees that manage the monasteries, as well as in accordance with their community. Hardly free-license. But still, occupying a leadership position is one factor through which charisma can arise – whether one wishes for it or is even aware of this happening. Personally speaking, since I resigned from abbotship, I incline to taking a back seat. But still, as a teacher, although from my point of view, I muddle along with a wish to serve and the energy of commitment, from another's viewpoint I may seem to be intruding and taking over. Some people are grateful and express that; while to others, these followers seem to be attached and jockeying for access to the Master.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US" style="line-height: 20.533334732055664px;"><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">Living with Ajahn Sumedho for over a decade gave me a precious view of how these forms of influence and power arise and with what care they need to be managed. He effortlessly carried a huge sense of presence, just by sitting still. It was a natural result of his own mental depth and stillness. When addressing people, he spoke from his own conviction a Dhamma that went to the heart; this, coupled with the authority that any speaker is given had profound effects. He manifested concern for people's welfare along with good humour and an accessible manner. Especially in the bleak pioneering days when the community was young and fragile, his ease and unstoppable vitality held things together. All these have been priceless blessings – made even more remarkable given the apparent austerity of the monastic background and the dry approach of Theravada scriptures that are his source. (It's not a jubilant or <i>bhakti</i>- soaked lineage.) In brief, I don't think that it would be an over-estimation to say that at least nine monastic communities, and thousands of lay people's practice, have been largely founded on Luang Por Sumedho's teaching, example and sheer presence.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US" style="line-height: 20.533334732055664px;"><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">But then there's the management. In terms of the daily life of the community, Luang Por never concerned himself with the details of work, but focused on the meditations, the pujas and the protocols. Working out details was never his forte. Consequently, over a couple of decades, there was a careful, slow and at times faltering separation between him as director of 'spiritual' affairs and overseer of management; faltering because some decisions – such as who enters the community, and how to train newcomers; or whether to create a new monastery and who was to be its senior incumbent – cross these boundaries. And at times people found it easier to circumvent the management and go directly to the spiritual director – who would give a go-ahead without considering all the details. So the development of a painstaking and non-charismatic power base, out of necessity, through discussions, trials and a range of views was at times a taxing matter. To question and even disagree with the spiritual director's opinion, and with those of one's fellow samanas, without losing faith or harmony is a delicate and educational process. It was a matter of basing decision-making on Vinaya principles of consensus, respect for elders and for the tradition – even when neither the business at hand, nor the opinions of others, nor the actions of some elders nor even aspects of the tradition were interesting or agreeable. But this is what makes management a spiritual practice. To work with the tedious, the opinionated, the quirky and the antiquated brings forth skills and strengths that few people get to realize. And it is through such patience, dispassion and relinquishment that there is growth in terms of liberation and a cooperative community. It's a process that brings deep and resilient awareness into how we operate; and that's more precious than having a fixed management plan, or even one talented individual. This Dhamma-Vinaya is the Refuge, the resource and the guide when the Teacher passes away; properly lived, it is capable of handling the world of success and failure, acclaim and disrepute.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US" style="line-height: 20.533334732055664px;"><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">Yes, success and accomplishment need to be managed; otherwise there is the grandiosity and inflation of unbridled charisma. That energy arises out of what happens between people anyway: when heart-minds are in resonance, energy transfers and there is a corresponding glow – the 'love' effect. It's an energy that can arise at the sight of gone-forth people living a life focused on liberation; the sight of samanas is heart-warming. We also naturally feel grateful to those who help us. And when Dhamma is shared, the heart-mind can light up with a steady radiance – for good reason.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><i><span lang="EN-US" style="line-height: 20.533334732055664px;">When … a noble disciple listens to the Dhamma with eager ears, attending to it as a matter of vital concern, directing his whole mind to it, on that occasion the five hindrances are not present...[and] the seven factors of enlightenment go to fulfilment...</span></i><span lang="EN-US" style="line-height: 20.533334732055664px;">(S.46:38)<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US" style="line-height: 20.533334732055664px;"><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">All the more reason then, to internalize the potency that has been thus aroused. Accordingly the Buddha questioned Visākhā, the devout matriarch of Savatthi, when she asked to make offerings to the Sangha: <i>'What benefits do you see for yourself ...?' </i>Notice her impeccable reply:<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><i><span lang="EN-US" style="line-height: 20.533334732055664px;">'When I remember it, I shall be glad. When I am glad, I shall be happy. When my mind is happy, my body will be tranquil. When my body is tranquil, I shall feel pleasure. When I feel pleasure, my mind will become concentrated. That will maintain the spiritual faculties in me and also the strengths </span></i><span lang="EN-US" style="line-height: 20.533334732055664px;"><i>and also the enlightenment factors</i>.' (Vinaya, Mahavagga, 8)<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US" style="line-height: 20.533334732055664px;"><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">Wisely managed, inspiration and gratitude result in liberation.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US" style="line-height: 20.533334732055664px;"><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">But don't take any of it personally. So the duty of the teacher, lay or in robes, is to recognize that their position and Dhamma will give them power – whether they wish for it or not. Thus my advice to disciples: check as to whether a teacher is in touch with a source outside his/her own mind; whether they operate within conventions that are widely held to be virtuous; and whether they are accountable to a group of peers or elders. And to teachers: ward off titles and empowerments; while occupying the teacher's seat, pay homage to the source of those teachings; and finally when one has completed a teaching, get off that sacred seat and walk away.</span></span></div>
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