Trekking the Mind...

When Effort Comes Naturally

Trekking any spiritual path is a balancing act. As you gain effort and mastery, you also gain ease. That means that while you may work harder, the effort will come more naturally. While you will certainly encounter new distractions—and who does not?—you also have the means to overcome them. Do not be discouraged. There is always a new moment in which to experience living kindness.

–Donald Altman, from Living Kindness (Inner Ocean Publishing)

The Patio of the Mind

If you sweep the patio in November after leaves have fallen, you wouldn't expect it to stay clean forever. The patio is like the mind. Mindfulness meditation practice can feel like sweeping the mind and clearing away the thoughts strewn about making a big mess.

 

 

 

---- Have you swept lately?

The Drum

"Another gift of the drum, in learning to play it and appreciate it, is that it brings you peace. When you play the drum, you take your frustrations out on the drum itself, instead of on people. The energy you put into drumming is the kind of energy that will change your mood. When you are drumming, you really forget yourself, and probably certain aggravations too, things that might trouble the mind. You may even find solutions to problems while you are playing. You may become resigned to certain  things that may otherwise be bothersome. Drumming helps you reestablish your faith in yourself and your abilities. Drumming just does so much for you, especially if you are enjoying what you are playing. You become tuned in to so many positive ideas that you forget the negative. Drumming can be the beginning of a healing process for what is troubling your soul. You can learn to say "Look, things will change if I can just learn to exercise some patience and forebearance."

-- Babatunde Olatunji
from The Beat of My Drum, an autobiography

Babatunde Olatunji

"One of the most enduring gifts for anyone who plays the drums is the realization that drums are powerful instruments for unity, for bringing peopleof all levels, of all cultures, together through their equal contributions. No one person's contribution is greater than anyone else's. The drum is the great equalizer. When you play your part, and I play my part, it means the kind of collaborationt hat allows your light to shine as well as mine, because we both stay in rhythm and the whole effect is powerful."

"The important thing is not to play for anyone's satisfaction but your own. You are the one that has to feel good, to feel happy, to be in a good mood. Then you can inspire others. You have to feel good about yourself first."

--- Babatunde Olatunji
from The Beat of My Drum, his autobiography

Anger

Mastering Our Anger

We need to master our own anger before we can help others do the same. When the flames of anger flare up, we tend to lash out at those who have watered our seeds of anger. It is like finding our house on fire, and instead of putting out the flames, chasing those we think started it. Arguing with others only waters the seeds of anger in us. When anger rises, return to yourself and use the energy of mindfulness to embrace, soothe, and illuminate it. Do not think you will feel better if you can make the other person suffer, too.

–Thich Nhat Hanh, from Teachings on Love (Parallax Press)

Be Happy Now

You Can Be Happy Right Now

Many of us think that happiness is not possible in the present moment. Most of us believe that there are a few more conditions that need to be met before we can be happy. This is why we are sucked into the future and are not capable of being present in the here and now. This is why we step over many of the wonders of life.

–Thich Nhat Hanh, from Be Where You Are (Parallax Press)

Should?

One Reason We Get Angry

The trigger for much of our anger is frustrated expectation. We sometimes invest so much of ourselves in a project that when it doesn't turn out as it should we become irate. All 'shoulds' point to an expectation, a prediction for the future. We might have realized by now that the future is uncertain, unpredictable. Relying too much on an expectation for the future, a 'should', is asking for trouble.

–Ajahn Brahm, from Opening the Door of your Heart (Lothian Books)

Let Go and Keep Your Balance

It is important to realize that to identify oneself as a meditator or a spiritual person or even a Buddhist can be another way to get caught or lose one's true balance. This is like carrying a raft on your head instead of using it for a vehicle to the other shore. The purpose of meditation is not to create a new spiritual identity, nor to become the most meditative person on the block, who tells other people how they should live. To practice is to let go.

--Joseph Goldstein & Jack Kornfield, from Seeking the Heart of Wisdom

Cyrano de Bergerac

To sing, to laugh, to dream,

To walk in my own way and be alone,/Free, with an eye to see things as they are,

A voice that means manhood - to cock my hat/Where I choose - At a word, a Yes, a No,

To fight - or write. To travel any road/Under the sun, under the stars, nor doubt

If fame or fortune lie beyond the bourne -/Never to make a line I have not heard

In my own heart; yet, with all modesty/To say: "My soul, be satisfied with flowers,

With fruit, with weeds even; but gather them/In one garden you may call your own."

So when I win some triumph, by some chance,/Render no share to Caeser.

In a word, I am too proud to be a parasite./And if my nature wants the germ that grows

Towering to heaven like a mountain pine,/Or like the oak sheltering multitudes.

I stand not high it may be – but alone!

One's True Abode

Dwelling in one's true abode, unconcerned with this and that, the river flows tranquilly and the flowers are red.

-Kakuan
Chinese, 12th century

Imagination!

Imagination is more important than knowledge. Knowledge is limited. Imagination encircles the world.

-- Albert Einstein

This makes it sound so easy!

Becoming a buddha

There is a simple way to become a buddha: When you refrain from unwholesome action, are not attached to birth and death, and are compassionate toward all sentient beings, respectful to seniors and kind to juniors, not excluding or desiring anything, with no designing thoughts or worries, you will be called a buddha. Do not seek anything else.
--Zen Master Dogen, Moon in a Dewdrop, edited by Kazuaki Tanahashi

from Everyday Mind, edited by Jean Smith, a Tricycle book

DESTINY

"It is better to live your own destiny imperfectly than to live an imitation of somebody else's life with perfection."

 

Quoted from the Bhagavad Gita in Eat Pray Love.

Near Enemies

Near Enemies

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

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

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

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

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

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

- Jack Kornfield, A Path with Heart

Happiness

The Right to Happiness

Whether people are beautiful and friendly or unattractive and disruptive, ultimately they are human beings, just like oneself. Like oneself, they want happiness and do not want suffering. Furthermore, their right to overcome suffering and be happy is equal to one's own.... When you recognize that all beings are equal in both their desire for happiness and their right to obtain it, you automatically feel empathy and closeness for them. Through accustoming your mind to this sense of universal altruism, you develop a feeling of responsibility for others: the wish to help them actively overcome their problems. Nor is this wish selective; it applies equally to all.

--The Dalai Lama, Compassion and the Individual

You decide...

"What happens to us in life is for God to decide. Whether to be happy or not—that is our choice."

The above is a quote from the novel Enlightenment for Idiots. Here is a review from Tricycle magazine. If you read it, leave a comment!

 

An unplanned pregnancy, a rocky romance, an unsatisfying job, and a milestone birthday: Amanda, the intrepid twenty-nine-year-old heroine of ENLIGHTENMENT FOR IDIOTS (Random House, 2008, $24.00 cloth, 384 pp.), has got a lot on her plate even before a spiritual pilgrimage gets thrown into the mix. When Amanda receives an assignment to write a travel guide for aspiring awakened ones, she finds herself in India, looking for love—and gurus—in all the wrong places. Written by Tricycle contributing editor and yoga teacher Anne Cushman, Enlightenment for Idiots traces, with witty flair, Amanda's encounters with heartbreak, culture shock, yoga, and a kooky traveling companion named Devi Das. The novel's warmhearted spirit is captured in the advice Amanda receives from a friendly waiter: "What happens to us in life is for God to decide. Whether to be happy or not—that is our choice."

Lights Out?

Sometimes our light goes out but is blown again into flame by an encounter with another human being. Each of us owes the deepest thanks to those who have rekindled this inner light.

Albert Schweitzer

Appreciating our troublemakers...

Be Grateful to Everyone

 
Work on taking and sending with these considerations in mind:

In general, all methods for attaining buddhahood rely on sentient beings. Therefore, to the individual who wishes to awaken, sentient beings are as worthy of gratitude as buddhas. Specifically, all sentient beings are worthy of gratitude since there is not one who has not been my parent. In particular, all those who hurt me are worthy of gratitude since they are my companions and helpers for gathering the accumulations of merit and pristine wisdom and for clearing away the obscurations of disturbing emotions and conceptual knowledge.
Do not be angry, not even at a dog or an insect. Strive to give whatever actual help you can. If you cannot help, then think and say:
May this sentient being (or troublemaker) quickly be rid of pain and enjoy happiness. May he come to attain buddhahood.

Arouse bodhicitta:

From now on, all the virtuous acts I do shall be for his welfare.

When a god or a demon troubles you, think:

This trouble now occurs because I, from time without beginning, have made trouble for him. Now I shall give him my flesh and blood in recompense.

Imagine the one who troubles you to be present in front of you and mentally give him your body as you say:

Here, revel in my flesh and blood and whatever else you want.
Meditate with complete conviction that this troublemaker enjoys your flesh and blood, and is filled with pure happiness, and arouse the two kinds of bodhicitta in your mind. Or:

Because I had let mindfulness and other remedies lapse, disturbing emotions arose without my noticing them. Since this troublemaker has now warned me of this, he is certainly an expression of my guru or a buddha. I'm very grateful to him because he has stimulated me to train in bodhicitta.

Or, when illness or suffering comes, think with complete sincerity:

If this hadn't happened, I would have been distracted by materialistic involvements and would not have maintained mindfulness of dharma. Since this has brought dharma to my attention again, it is the guru's or the jewels' activity, and I am very grateful.

To sum up, whoever thinks and acts out of a concern to achieve his or her own well-being is a worldly person; whoever thinks and acts out of a concern to achieve the well-being of others is a dharma person. Langri-tangpa has said:

I open to you as deep a teaching as there is. Pay attention! All faults are our own. All good qualities Are the lords', sentient beings. The point here is: give gain and victory to others, take loss and defeat for ourselves. Other than this, there is nothing to understand.

From The Great Path of Awakening : An Easily Accessible Introduction for Ordinary People by Jamgon Kongtrul, translated by Ken McLeod. Copyright 1993 by Ken McLeod.
Published by arrangement with Shambhala Publications, Inc., Boston.

Eightfold Path

The Eightfold Path of Right Views, Right Thoughts, Right Speech, Right Conduct [Action], Right Livelihood, Right Effort or Lifestyle, Right Recollection [Mindfulness], and Right Meditation [Concentration] was preached by the Buddha to his first five disciples at Benares, and it remains for us the basic guide for our lives as Buddhists. It begins with Right Views and ends with Right Meditation, but each element of the path depends on all others, so really there is no first step and no last step. The key word is right, from words in Sanskrit and Chinese that mean upright, straight, right, correct. Finding what is upright in attitude, thought, speech, action, livelihood, effort, mindfulness, and meditation, and then doing it - this is our life work.

-Robert Aitken, Encouraging Words
from Everyday Mind, edited by Jean Smith, a Tricycle book

What's the Rush?

Most of the time we go through the day, through our activities, our work, our relationships, our conversations, and very rarely do we ground ourselves in an awareness of our bodies. We are lost in our thoughts, our feelings, our emotions, our stories, our plans.

A very simple guide or check on this state of being lost is to pay attention to those times when you feel like you are rushing. Rushing does not have to do with speed. You can rush moving slowly, and you can rush moving quickly. We are rushing when we feel as if we are toppling forward. Our minds run ahead of ourselves; they are out there where we want to get to, instead of being settled back in our bodies. The feeling of rushing is good feedback. Whenever we are not present, right then, in that situation, we should stop and take a few deep breaths. Settle into the body again. Feel yourself sitting. Feel the step of a walk. Be in your body.

The Buddha made a very powerful statement about this: Mindfulness of the body leads to nirvana. Such awareness is not a superficial practice. Mindfulness of the body keeps us present.

-Joseph Goldstein, Transforming the Mind, Healing the World
from Everyday Mind, edited by Jean Smith, a Tricycle book