lotusinthemud

6th living buddhism conference: 'culturally engaged buddhism': may 2011

We are very excited to be announcing the next in this now well established series of Living Buddhism Conferences, this time on the theme “Culturally Engaged Buddhism”. The first round of bookings and organisation will take place between now and 30 September 2010. During this period the main speakers and outline of the programme will be established. Persons booking during this period may avail themselves of a discount and also get first choice of accommodation.

Venue: Narborough, Leicestershire, UK

Dates: May 12 - 15, 2011

buddhist monks sheltered persecuted christians

By ucanews.com special correspondent, Hagi

Catholics visit a secret room in Houonji Buddhist monastery, said to have sheltered persecuted Christians

Japanese Buddhist monks hid persecuted Christians in a secret room in their monastery. They then chanted sutras outside to drown out any incriminating noise, Catholics learnt during a Church program.

Sixty people, led by Father Makoto Onchi of Hagi Catholic Church in Yamaguchi Prefecture, visited the Houonji Buddhist monastery on July 4. The program was part of the church’s annual visit to sites associated with Christian persecution which occurred at various times from the early 1600s.

The monastery had discovered a secret room attached to its main hall, with a tunnel leading out to the fields behind the temple, chief Buddhist monk Venerable Toshiaki Namba told Father Onchi during an interreligious gathering.

The room is believed to have sheltered Christians hiding from religious persecution.

::continue reading here

it's time to stop struggling

A further sign of health is that we don't become undone by fear and trembling, but we take it as a message that it's time to stop struggling and look directly at what's threatening us.

~ Pema Chodron

truly in the present moment

One day the Buddha held up a flower in front of an audience of 1,250 monks and nuns. He did not say anything for quite a long time. The audience was perfectly silent. Everyone seemed to be thinking hard, trying to see the meaning behind the Buddha's gesture. Then, suddenly, the Buddha smiled. He smiled because someone in the audience smiled at him and at the flower. . . . To me the meaning is quite simple. When someone holds up a flower and shows it to you, he wants you to see it. If you keep thinking, you miss the flower. The person who was not thinking, who was just himself, was able to encounter the flower in depth, and he smiled. That is the problem of life. If we are not fully ourselves, truly in the present moment, we miss everything.

~ Thich Nhat Hanh, in Peace Is Every Step

the same nature

After you wake up you probably open the curtains and look outside. You may even like to open the window and feel the cool morning air with the dew still on the grass. But is what you see really "outside"? In fact, it is your own mind. As the sun sends its rays through the window, you are not just yourself. You are also the beautiful view from your window. You are the Dharmakaya. Dharmakaya literally means the body (kaya) of the Buddha's teachings (Dharma), the way of understanding and love. Before passing away, the Buddha told his disciples, "Only my physical body will pass away. My Dharma body will remain with you forever." In Mahayana Buddhism, the word has come to mean "the essence of all that exists." All phenomena - the song of a bird, the warm rays of the sun, a cup of hot tea - are manifestations of the Dharmakaya. We, too, are of the same nature as these wonders of the universe.

~ Thich Nhat Hanh, Present Moment, Wonderful Moment

only to the extent....

Only to the extent that we expose ourselves over and over to annihilation can that which is indestructible in us be found.

~ Pema Chodron

leaving the lotus position - sitting when the body won't bend so easily

Susan Moon on the necessity of alternative meditation postures

By Susan Moon

I SIT IN a chair. Yes, of course, but I mean I sit zazen in a chair. This is a recent development, arising no doubt from a karmic web of causes and conditions, but the primary one is osteoarthritis in my knees.

Everybody knows that a Zen student truly dedicated to the Way sits cross-legged on the floor. Buddha was sitting cross-legged when he was enlightened under the pipal tree 2,600 years ago, and there are millions of Buddha statues to prove it— sitting cross-legged on altars and bookshelves all over the world. Several of them are in my house.

The image of Shakyamuni in seated meditation is the essential icon of Buddhism. And 800 years ago, Eihei Dogen, founder of Soto Zen in Japan, instructed seekers of the way to “sit either in the full lotus or half lotus position.” These are ancient yogic asanas, sacred positions—they come with a warranty. Back in my limber days, I believed that I was bound to get enlightened if I just sat still long enough in half lotus on my black zafu. Now I see how unreasonable it would be if the cross-legged people were the only ones who got to cross over to the other shore.

These days sitting cross-legged causes me intense pain. Everybody knows that not turning away from suffering is at the heart of Zen practice, and this includes not turning away from pain in the knees. Sesshins (long Zen meditation retreats) are an opportunity to learn to sit through pain. When there is pain in the knees, if I can see it as nothing other than pain in the knees, then I will be a happy person with pain in my knees. So I have been taught, during more than 30 years of Zen practice.

Some years ago, when I was still a floor sitter, a fellow practitioner had to move to a chair after knee surgery. (The anecdotal evidence I’ve heard suggests that a remarkably high proportion of Zen practitioners require knee surgery.)

::read more here

sakyadhita uk: international association of buddhist women - july 4th 2010 at sukhavati, amida london

'Calling a Council of Buddhist Women'

Sunday 4th July 10 - 4pm

Acharya Modgala of the Amida Trust and Ani Jinpa Khandro (Beatrice Jutta Gassner), one of the Founder Members of Sakyadhita UK, would like to introduce Sakyadhita and invite you to a 'Council of Buddhist Women' with the aim to explore ways of mutual benefit in working together on an international and national level. Non-buddhist women who are sympathetic friends are also welcome.

'Good Companionship is the Whole of the Spiritual Life' (Buddha)
How does spiritual friendship differ from other forms of relationships – what does it mean, and how can it encourage and support us as daughters of the buddha?

'Sitting in Council' involves sitting in a circle exploring issues that are meaningful and relevant to us. A 'talking object' is passed around, giving each person the opportunity to listen and speak from the heart. In this way we can not only hear the spoken words but that which emerges in the spaces between them, as well as the quiet voice within the stillness of our own hearts. Following from that we can look at ways of working together and supporting each other. There is the aspect of being nourished, but also to gently go beyond our comfort zone in an environment that is safe enough. From sharing our stories we will follow the threads that are emerging – weaving them together creatively. There will also be time for reflection, meditation and chanting. Prior to the AGM

doctor convinced that m.e. is real, after many years of scepticism

From the 'Ask the Doctor' column, Daily Mail, 7 June 2010

By the way... at last I've been convinced that ME is real.

I admit it, I was wrong. For many years, I - like many of my medical colleagues - have blamed ME on psychological or behavioural causes. Then, last month, I attended the 5th World Conference on ME/CFS (myalgic encephalomyelitis/chronic fatigue syndrome).

There I spoke to a number of experts who were emphatic that the evidence shows the condition really does have a viral origin.

This has never previously been clear - before, there had been only hazy circumstantial evidence. There have been two problems really; first, identifying the cases - who does and who does not have ME/CFS?

the most effective treatments for m.e./c.f.s.

by Lourdes Salvador Norwegian scientists surveyed 828 chronic fatigue syndrome patients to find out what treatments were most and least helpful. Rest was rated the most helpful by 97% of participants, followed by pacing at 96%. Pacing is a method of managing energy expenditure by limiting activities to the most essential that can be handled at a comfortable pace.

The easiest way to understand pacing is to imagine starting the day out with a handful of cards and each time energy is expended, a card is lost. When the cards are low, the day is over and sleep is required. Each activity of the day requires a card, including getting dressed, bathing, cooking, and visiting with someone. If too many activities exhaust the supply of cards, a deficit ensues and one nights sleep is not enough to recuperate.

Most of us start the day with unlimited cards. Certainly we have enough to get through until bedtime. For people with chronic fatigue syndrome

, they have few cards to begin with and must pick and choose how they expend their energy so that they don´t run out of cards and collapse. This forces them to prioritize, establish routines, schedule extra rest, and keep activities short. This is known as pacing.

People with chronic fatigue syndrome also engage in shielding, which was rated as highly helpful by 96% of study participants. Shielding involves surrounding oneself in quiet and, in some cases, darkness. People with chronic fatigue syndrome are often sensitive to light and sound, which expends their limited supply of energy by stimulating the central nervous system.

One of the most misconceived treatments recommended by the medical profession is graded exercise therapy, yet 79% of the participants experience deterioration as a result. It stands to reason that with such limited energy to expend, using too much on exercise leaves woefully little, if any, energy for tasks of survival such as fixing meals, eating, paying bills, and bathing.

"Patients´ experience is important in this context," says Bjørkum and colleagues, "Graded training may cause deterioration of the condition in many patients."

Another failed treatment was cognitive behavior therapy, yet this is also widely recommended despite the scientific knowledge that chronic fatigue syndrome

is a serious neurological disorder which can not simply be "thought" away.

::continue reading here

wonderful drawing ebook offer for the next 22 hours

The lovely Michael Nobbs is offering his charming 'Beany 4' as an ebook and, as an introductory offer, it's at the bargain price of $1:00 until 6 pm GMT Tuesday 1st June

::lots more details here

celibacy or relationship: a current issue in the amida community

Dharmavidya writes:

Here in Amida we practise Pureland Buddhism, which could be said to be Buddhism with a human (sometimes very human) face. It is Buddhism for ordinary people. In Japan the vast majority of Pureland priests are married. They conduct the religious life of the community in a similar manner to Protestant clergy in the West. By contrast, Buddhism in the West has developed around the monastic lifestyle and has a rather puritan ideal. Many Western people seem to feel more at home with that kind of austerity even when it is practised by denominations that also practise sexual discrimination, authoritarian organisation and ethnic bias. In Amida we are not so austere. We have both a celibate and a non-celibate track. We revere as founder both Honen Shonin, who was celibate, and Shinran Shonin who was not. To paraphrase Honen, our attitude is that if being in a relationship would impede your practice of nembutsu, then be celibate; if being celibate would impede your practice, then enter a relationship.

many faiths, one truth...the dalai lama

By Tenzin Gyatso
WHEN I was a boy in Tibet, I felt that my own Buddhist religion must be the best — and that other faiths were somehow inferior. Now I see how naïve I was, and how dangerous the extremes of religious intolerance can be today. 

buddhism has made a difference to jonny wilkinson

Jonny Wilkinson: 'I had to be perfect in everyone's eyes. It was so tiring'

He battled for the World Cup – and won. He suffered terrible injuries – and overcame them. But Jonny Wilkinson's toughest fight has been with his own mind

Stephen Moss, The Guardian, Monday 10 May 2010

Jonny Wilkinson. Photograph: Tom Jenkins

It's surprisingly difficult to interview someone who has a black eye and gashes on his nose and neck, especially when you're sitting two feet away from him on a sofa. Jonny Wilkinson, England rugby legend, hasn't been in a fight on the way to the Rosslyn Park rugby ground (we meet in a messy backroom full of balls he has to sign for some unspecified promotional purpose). He got knocked about the night before playing for his new French club Toulon against Connacht, has flown from Ireland to London to spend a day coaching competition winners for his sponsor Volvic, and is heading back to Nice this evening.

We are not going to get long together, which is frustrating because Wilkinson – England's starriest rugby player in the past decade, but also one of its most injury-prone – is just about the most cerebral, intense, self-questioning sportsman I've ever met; as complex as the choreography of his famous place-kicking routine. He looks like a Californian surfer, and there are times when he talks like one too, trying to explain his philosophy of sport and life.

I had intended a softish opening – "You must be knackered after last night's match" – but immediately, in his gentle, earnest, slightly nasal voice, he is telling me why he could never be a rugby commentator in a sporting afterlife that is now not far away. "I'd be the commentator that TV stations would want rid of straightaway – I would be so non-committal with regard to players' performances."

When I ask him to explain why, the Californian surfer-thinker (he dabbles in Buddhism and reads lots of pop philosophy) starts to emerge. "My view of perfection, which was once totally outcome-based, got me into so much trouble," he says. "I spent so much time trying to influence things that couldn't be changed. But now I've retracted it one step into intention, and that's given me the peace of mind to know I'm doing all I can do. And I am comfortable with that view of what it means to be a perfectionist."

liberation

"Well, does anything mean anything anyway?" Nowadays one gets asked all sorts of questions that betray a cynical or nihilistic attitude. Although this seems to be particularly characteristic of the modern age which many people associate with non-belief, relativism, reductionism and secularism, it is clear that two and a half millennia ago Shakyamuni met with many similar sentiments. People have always been concerned about the meaning of life. Why does anything exist? Why are we alive? What is life, anyway? These questions, if taken in a practical way (i.e. what does this mean for my life?) are the beginning of spirituality. Their solution cannot be accomplished by rationality alone. They require a leap of faith or commitment. This was the central insight of Kierkegaard, Sartre and other existentialist philosophers. Pureland, as I understand it, is an existentialist Buddhism. It strips us of pretension until we stand spiritually naked facing the challenge to actually live and love as the beings that we are in a world such as this one. Buddha's wholehearted way is not about ending all passion, suffering and struggle - paying off one's karmic debt and saying goodbye to the world: if he had done that we should never have heard of him. Rather he went through the world banging a drum for vibrant aliveness, for love, for fellow feeling, for joy, and for the courage to rise above setbacks and difficulties. It is important to live. Buddha means awakened. The first thing is to wake up and become fully alive. When one does so one may make many mistakes, one may have joy and suffering, one might discover one is not such a nice person after all, one might laugh and cry more, one will find out a lot about life. When we let Buddha's light illumine our world it may be like turning over a stone - when the light falls on what was previously in shade all kinds of wiggly creature may dash about. But at least one is alive and as one examines that life one sees that in all its diversity it is really love and we can have faith in that.

On Sunday we shall be having a day retreat at Sukhavati in Finsbury Park (21 Sussex Way) called "Liberation, Passion and Spirituality" to practise together and discuss these ideas further.

::link to original, where you can leave comments

getting to love

Dharmavidya writes:

We have all heard "I think, therefore I am" but what matters is "I am, therefore I must do something". To do something is to commit oneself. Whatever one commits oneself to is an act of love of some kind. The object of one's love may be wholesome or not; the manner in which one acts one's love may be skilful or not; one's capacity of heart and mind may be big or small; but, whatever, love drives our life. Even the most negative seeming things are driven by love ultimately. Hitler loved an ideal of Aryanism. That same love could potentially have been put to much better use. He wanted to accomplish his idea of a perfect world. Every lover is trying to do so - just the ideas of what a perfect world is differ. We all seek our idea of the Pure Land.

re-framing m.e.

Re-framing ME

A chance meeting of art and science has led to a creative collaboration designed to raise the profile of an “invisible illness”.

Juliet Chenery-Robson decided to use photography to make people look at Myalgic Encephalopathy (or ME) in a different light when her 18-year-old daughter Emilia was diagnosed with the illness five years ago.

Despite affecting thousands of people in the UK, ME remains misunderstood by many health professionals, with many still believing it is “all in the mind”.

While looking for more subjects for her exhibition, Juliet was put in touch with Professor Julia Newton, a Clinical Professor at Newcastle University’s Institute of Ageing and Health, who is also a patron of charity ME North East.

Professor Newton’s team leads the way for chronic fatigue research in the UK and is one of the few places in the country focussing on the biological indicators behind illnesses such as ME.

nick clegg's answer about m.e.

Sunday, 03 February 2008 18:42

In a letter to a constituent who lives in Sheffield, Liberal Democrat leader Nick Clegg MP criticises the NICE guidelines on ME/CFS and calls for the setting up of an independent scientific committee to oversee all ME research.

The recently elected party leader shows he is in listening mode – following The ME Association’s recent campaign asking members to write to their MPs backing calls for an adjournment debate on ME/CFS in the House of Commons.

The call for an independent scientific committee echoes one of the recommendations made in November 2006 by the all-party Group for Scientific Research into ME, which under Ian Gibson MP conducted a lengthy inquiry into the state of ME research in the UK.

Although John Bercow MP missed out in the ballot for an adjournment debate in November, The ME Association understands that he will try again soon.

In the letter, Mr Clegg wrote:

Dear Mr xxxxxx

Thank you for your correspondence regarding some of the problems that are currently causing concerns for people with ME/CFS including inadequate research and the recent NICE guidelines on the subject.

Unfortunately, a ballot to secure an adjournment debate on these issues, scheduled for the week commencing November 19, was unsuccessful.

As I’m sure you are aware, one of the main obstacles to the adequate treatment of ME is the lack of knowledge and consensus about the disease. There are many theories as to the causes of the disease but no conclusive proof to fully support any of them. This is why it is vital that more research is done into the causes and progression of this difficult to diagnose condition.

if you have a sense of caring for others...

If you have a sense of caring for others, you will manifest a kind of inner strength in spite of your own difficulties and problems. With this strength, your own problems will seem less significant and bothersome to you. By going beyond your own problems and taking care of others, you gain inner strength, self-confidence, courage, and a greater sense of calm.

~ His Holiness the Dalai Lama

pema chödrön: meditate for the benefit of others

support

Close your eyes, relaxing and allowing your breath to settle. After a few minutes, gently move your attention to your sense of touch. Feel the solidity of the bed or chair beneath you. Feel how supported you are by this piece of furniture, by the floor beneath it and, through the building, the earth below you.

Bring to mind the wood that the chair/bed and floor are constructed from. Think of the tree, planted so long ago, by design or by nature. And the sun and rain and fertile earth that fed the tree. Watch it growing in your mind's eye. How many years do you think it was growing for?

::continue reading

via lotusinthemud.typepad.com

an illusion that causes suffering

When the Buddha confronted the question of identity on the night of his enlightenment, he came to the radical discovery that we do not exist as separate beings. He saw into the human tendency to identify with a limited sense of existence and discovered that this belief in an individual small self is a root illusion that causes suffering and removes us from the freedom and mystery of life. He described this as interdependent arising, the cyclical process of consciousness creating identity by entering form, responding to contact of the senses, then attaching to certain forms, feelings, desires, images, and actions to create a sense of self. In teaching, the Buddha never spoke of humans as persons existing in some fixed or static way. Instead, he described us as a collection of five changing processes: the processes of the physical body, of feelings, of perceptions, of responses, and of the flow of consciousness that experiences them all. Our sense of self arises whenever we grasp at or identify with these patterns. The process of identification, of selecting patterns to call "I," "me," "myself," is subtle and usually hidden from our awareness.

~ Jack Kornfield, A Path with Heart

the choice

The Great Way is obvious to all my friends. They point it out quite rapidly on request, sometimes without request. Their words are painful because they threaten my character. I have to choose between the Great Way and me. An easy choice on paper - a hard one in fact.

~ Robert Aitken, Encouraging Words

basic goodness

Ego could be defined as whatever covers up basic goodness. From an experiential point of view, what is ego covering up? It's covering up our experience of just being here, just fully being where we are, so that we can relate with the immediacy of our experience. Egolessness is a state of mind that has complete confidence in the sacredness of the world. It is unconditional well being, unconditional joy that includes all the different qualities of our experience.

~ Pema Chodron

'stillpoint' and 'one breath at a time'

Here are two websites for those with chronic illness who are interested in Buddhism and meditation.

'stillpoint' in the new home for material that was previously on another website of the same name and includes a large amount of resources. The stillpoint community, which has existed for a number of years, was originally for people in the U.K. who have M.E./C.F.S. It has now expanded to include people who have other chronic illnesses and who live in other parts of the world. There is an email group, Breathing Space, for keeping in touch with others. There is also a stillpoint group on the Friends of Amida Buddhist social network.

'one breath at a time' is regularly updated with short Buddhist meditations for those who are unable to practice for long.

the blessings of hearing

What sounds do you particularly like? Why? When and where have you heard them? Is it the nature of the sound that you like or something about the context? Now sit with your eyes closed and listen - what can you hear? Can you hear any sounds that come from inside you? What can you hear that originates from outside you? What do you think is making those sounds? Which of the sounds that you can hear now do you particularly like and why? Now continue sitting, listening to the pleasurable sounds - first putting your attention on the feelings of pleasure and then move your attention out so that it rests gently on the object from which the sound is coming - keep it there for a few minutes. Feel gratitude for your ability to hear.

via lotusinthemud.typepad.com

what can you see that attracts you?

Spend some time lying or sitting quietly. Look around your room, through the window or outdoors, if that is where you are. Find an object that you like, that attracts you in some way. Look at it carefully. Describe it to yourself (shape, colour, size, texture etc.). What are the qualities that you find attractive in the object? How does it make you feel? Put your awareness on the sensations of pleasure within you. Now continue looking at the object, with gentle attention on those qualities that you find attractive.You can repeat this at another time with another object.

via lotusinthemud.typepad.com

'this is getting old'

“This Is Getting Old,” by Susan Moon

Susan Moon is one of Buddhism’s funniest writers. In this new book, Bodhipaksa finds, she’s also one of Buddhism’s most honest, moving, and beautiful writers.

Title: This is Getting Old
Author: Susan Moon
Publisher: Shambhala
ISBN: 978-1-59030-776-2
Available from: Shambhala and Amazon.com.

My first encounter with Susan Moon’s writings was The Life and Letters of Tofu Roshi, which fondly parodied the language, idiom, and culture of the Zen tradition in which Moon practices. It’s the best Buddhist humor writing I’ve come across. That was in 1980, which is 30 years ago, now. That’s a long time. Realizing that makes me feel old, which is appropriate since Moon’s latest book is subtitled “Zen Thoughts of Aging With Humor and Dignity.”

This is a book about aging, but it’s not at all depressing. Susan Moon is a very funny lady. She has a chapter about her family’s history of retinal detachment that includes the following line about contact lenses: “They required at least as much daily care as a small pet–a canary or hamster–without providing any companionship.” I can imagine those words coming from the lips of David Sedaris. Even the title of the book is a lovely, playful double-entendre. This is aging. This is what getting old’s like. And it’s getting old. I especially loved the opening to the final chapter, “This Vast Life”:

“Every morning, I vow to be grateful for the precious gift of human birth. It’s a big gift, and it includes a lot of stuff I never particularly wanted for my birthday. Some of the things in the package I wish I could exchange for a different size or color.”

Moon herself would say she’s a very funny “old lady,” although I don’t tend to think of late-60s as being old these days. Still, she’s 30 years older than when she wrote Tofu Roshi, and she describes in meticulous detail the kinds of changes that have taken place in her body and mind since then — hair graying, bones thinning, memory failing — and that’s a lot to deal with. Moon has almost two decades on me, but I’m already starting to experience my body as aging. From that point of view, This Is Getting Old is a good reminder, to people who aren’t yet old, of what’s in store for them.

The Buddha said that in his youth he was “intoxicated with youth,” and don’t we all, in our younger days, see old age as something that will never happen to us — not because we plan to die young, but because we think of old age as a personality defect, or we think of elderly people as having always been that way. Perhaps Moon’s book will find itself mainly in the hands of “boomers,” but that would be a shame. Anyone interested in Buddhism, whose key teaching is impermanence, would appreciate this up-close portrait of what’s in store.

::continue reading here

dharmavidya: the republic of sukhavati

Amida: training, practice, vision and engagement - Dharmavidya writes:

We have been discussing the foundations of critical and socially engaged Buddhism. This has been partly a new look at the principles set out in my book The New Buddhism and partly a review of how practice has evolved within the Amida sangha over the past fourteen years. These discussions will continue. In this blog post I would like to record some things that came out of last weekend's discussion.

The Amida sangha has a distinctive approach to Buddhist practice and training. I wrote about practice and training in another recent post. Practice refers to the expression of love, compassion, sympathy and equanimity through wise actions and skilful means. In our case, this is often taken to indicate collective rather than individual action. It is not so much that we train people in order that they individually will later use what they have learnt in order to be errant bodhisattvas following a path of their own as that we collectively shall engage in actions to resist affliction, assist the afflicted and demonstrate an alternative.

In our socially engaged work it has often been our approach to co-operate with other groups. The other groups may be such that our alliance with them is limited to one or two points of agreement, but even such alliances can bear fruit. Sometimes we also form relationships with groups that we have a lot in common with or that are guided by people who have a close affinity for the Amida approach. Our experience of working in partnership has generally been that it does not lead to the actualisation of what any of the partners originally envisaged, but it does always lead to something valuable, including a good deal of learning by all involved and, frequently, completely new developments that nobody could have foreseen.

The Amida approach is not that of importing and extending an Asian way of doing things. Rather it is about applying basic Buddhist principles of ethics, faith and wisdom in a diversity of ways in society. The results are various. We do not replicate projects or services. We respond to particular concrete situations and develop something appropriate. Whatever has already been developed is seen as a potential spring board for something new. Thus the India project has gone through numberous transformations and will no doubt go through more in the future. If we were to start a second project in India, however, there is no reason why it should necessarily look anything like the existing one. It would be a new response to a new situation. For sure we would use what we have learnt from work in a wide range of settings, but there is no sense of having a final formula.

Amida: training, practice, vision and engagement - Dharmavidya writes:

We have been discussing the foundations of critical and socially engaged Buddhism. This has been partly a new look at the principles set out in my book The New Buddhism and partly a review of how practice has evolved within the Amida sangha over the past fourteen years. These discussions will continue. In this blog post I would like to record some things that came out of last weekend's discussion.

The Amida sangha has a distinctive approach to Buddhist practice and training. I wrote about practice and training in another recent post. Practice refers to the expression of love, compassion, sympathy and equanimity through wise actions and skilful means. In our case, this is often taken to indicate collective rather than individual action. It is not so much that we train people in order that they individually will later use what they have learnt in order to be errant bodhisattvas following a path of their own as that we collectively shall engage in actions to resist affliction, assist the afflicted and demonstrate an alternative.

In our socially engaged work it has often been our approach to co-operate with other groups. The other groups may be such that our alliance with them is limited to one or two points of agreement, but even such alliances can bear fruit. Sometimes we also form relationships with groups that we have a lot in common with or that are guided by people who have a close affinity for the Amida approach. Our experience of working in partnership has generally been that it does not lead to the actualisation of what any of the partners originally envisaged, but it does always lead to something valuable, including a good deal of learning by all involved and, frequently, completely new developments that nobody could have foreseen.

The Amida approach is not that of importing and extending an Asian way of doing things. Rather it is about applying basic Buddhist principles of ethics, faith and wisdom in a diversity of ways in society. The results are various. We do not replicate projects or services. We respond to particular concrete situations and develop something appropriate. Whatever has already been developed is seen as a potential spring board for something new. Thus the India project has gone through numberous transformations and will no doubt go through more in the future. If we were to start a second project in India, however, there is no reason why it should necessarily look anything like the existing one. It would be a new response to a new situation. For sure we would use what we have learnt from work in a wide range of settings, but there is no sense of having a final formula.

kindness - naomi shihab nye

 

Kindness

 

Before you know what kindness really is
you must lose things,
feel the future dissolve in a moment
like salt in a weakened broth.
What you held in your hand,
what you counted and carefully saved,
all this must go so you know
how desolate the landscape can be
between the regions of kindness.
How you ride and ride
thinking the bus will never stop,
the passengers eating maize and chicken
will stare out the window forever.

 

Before you learn the tender gravity of kindness,
you must travel where the Indian in a white poncho
lies dead by the side of the road.
You must see how this could be you,
how he too was someone
who journeyed through the night with plans
and the simple breath that kept him alive.

 

Before you know kindness as the deepest thing inside,
you must know sorrow as the other deepest thing. 
You must wake up with sorrow.
You must speak to it till your voice
catches the thread of all sorrows
and you see the size of the cloth.

 

Then it is only kindness that makes sense anymore,
only kindness that ties your shoes
and sends you out into the day to mail letters and purchase bread,
only kindness that raises its head
from the crowd of the world to say
it is I you have been looking for,
and then goes with you every where
like a shadow or a friend.

 

~ Naomi Shihab Nye ~

 

(Words From Under the Words: Selected Poems)

 

for my daughter....

::link

some of my iphone apps

Contacting others

Facebook

TweetDeck for Twitter (or I hear Tweetie is good - I use Tweetie on my PowerBook)

Skype

BeejiveIM (instant messaging)

Productivity/Time management/Weather/Finding info/Travel

Things (to-do lists) which will sync with Things on your Apple laptop/desktop - you may be able to use it on a PC too

Simplenote which syncs with several other apps on computer - I use JustNote

Dropbox...and get this for your computer - can put documents ‘in the cloud’ so you can access them anywhere

Occasions (for birthdays etc)

Alarm Clock

CoPilot UK as a satnav - not cheap but better than TomTom

AroundMe for coffeeshops, banks, hospitals, parking, supermarkets etc

TubeMap

Google

iWiki

Fizz Weather

Radio/News

RadioBox

TVGuide

Guardian

Quick News

Huff Post

YouTube

Music

Moodagent...will decide on the mood of any music you play on the ipod app and sellect other music of same type from your ipod to make an automatic playlist

USTREAM recorder, Viewer and Broadcaster

AudioBoo

Buddhist

Oxford dictionary of Buddhism

Buddha Box

Dhammapada

Mahayana

Pretty and/or Fun

iBonsai

Emergence

Galactica

GoSkimming

Bejeweled 2
Chuzzle

Bookworm

Trism

Bubblewrap

Others

iFirstAid

Convertbot

IKEA UK

seminar on social engagement - talk by prasada

practice and training

Some notes from a Dharma talk given by Dharmavidya at Amida Newcastle:

Tuesday evening I gave a Dharma talk and answered questions at the Amida Sanctuary in Newcastle. In this talk I referred to practice and training. Practice is the expression of love, compassion, joy and equanimity. It is the outward manifestation of our faith. Training is our attempt to deal with the tendencies within ourselves that block practice. When we look carefully we see that these always involves some failure of faith - perhaps based on fear, anxiety, greed, conceit, or the resurgence of some old habit pattern. Failure of faith means loss of nerve. All this raises the question of the relationship between personal effort and faith. The Buddhist way certainly makes demands upon us at the same time as advocating letting go. It tells us to "stand against the stream", but also to "accept everything". This seems contradictory to the uninitiated.

The Other Power teaching tells us that we do not have the power to realise enlightenment on our own or by simply actualising our own potency, but this does not mean that there is nothing to do in our life. It is like a relationship. one cannot have a relationship on one's own - it takes two - but the relationship when found does make demands. Practice and training are the same. It is neither something that is entirely within one's own power nor something that does all the work for one.

When we reflect upon our life we find that we have already been loved in some degree somehow. That is a basis for faith. Practice starts from gratitude. As we try to express our gratitude we run into obstacles. Love also entails disappointments. If these defeat us we fall spiritually. If we rise to them we find new possibilities of faith open up. A spiritual life can be a continual ascent or a series of setbacks. Actually these are the same thing looked at from different angles. If we become too preoccupied with training, we fall into a self-power attitude and all is spoilt - like trying to run a relationship without reference to the other partner. If we neglect training, however, we tend to just go round the same old circles again and again. Training means to learn from mistakes. The more we see how we are helped the easier it is to learn. the more we learn the more conscious we become of how we are helped.

::comment here

one breath at a time - awareness of breathing

one breath at a time - awareness of breathing

a very simple loving-kindness meditation

a very simple loving-kindness meditation

dalai lama: the tradition and the cult

::link Dalai Lama, an epithet used for the first time in 1578 by the Mongol ruler Altan Khan for Sonam Gyatso, the Third Dalai Lama, or the third in the bodhisattva reincarnation line later identified as the Dalai Lama lineage, is a combination of two terms, ‘Lama’ meaning a Buddhist monk, and ‘Dalai’, ocean-like profound, wide and deep, that is, the monk having ocean-like breadth and depth of knowledge. ‘Dalai’ was actually the Mongolian equivalent of ‘Gyatso’, a Tibetan term that emerged in use as an epithet during the lifetime of the second Dalai Lama, Gendun Gyatso, as the distinction of the Lamas in reincarnation lineage of the Bodhisattva Avalokiteshvara. ‘Gyatso’ had the same meaning as ‘Dalai’. King Altan Khan, a descendant of the known Mongol ruler Kublai Khan, a follower of Tibetan Buddhism in early thirteenth century, was tired of bloodshed and warfare and wished to have peace on his soil. He invited Sonam Gyatso, the best known Buddhist monk of his time, to his court and wished that by his teachings he led his blood-thirsty subjects to the path of peace, love and humanity. Influenced by Sonam Gyatso’s profound knowledge and spiritual energy king Altan Khan honoured him with ‘Dalai Lama’ as his epithet. Then onwards, though the term ‘Gyatso’ was retained as before to comprise the later half of the name in the Dalai Lama lineage but it was the epithet ‘Dalai Lama’ that gave the lineage its unique distinction ever since. The epithet was used not only for Sonam Gyatso and his eleven subsequent reincarnations but also for the two preceding ones – Gendun Drubpa and Gendun Gyatso, posthumously. CONTINUATION OF LIFE, BODHISATTVA, DALAI LAMA AND TIBETAN PREFERENCES Not merely that the Dalai Lama is the highest office of the present day Buddhism, it is also one of its three most significant institutions, the other two being the Buddha and the Bodhisattva, that emerged in Buddhism over centuries. Enlightenment is the attribute of them all, even of the Dalai Lama who, possessed of oceanic breadth and depth of knowledge, attains the same state of enlightenment as a bodhisattva. However, while the Buddha defined the state of utter spiritual perfection leading to ‘nirvana’ – final extinction, a bodhisattva, in his role as a teacher seeking accomplishment of his two-fold objective, the worldly and the transcendental, keeps on postponing attainment of this state of utter spiritual perfection and his own liberation in preference to a controlled or chosen birth or rebirth. In Tibetan Buddhism, or rather in entire Tibetan tradition, irrespective of this or that branch or school, rebirth and continuation of one’s deeds or perfection level that one attains in one birth into the next is a universally accepted principle. Obviously with humanitarian, social and political compulsions conditioning its life, Tibet developed a natural preference for bodhisattva cult. Its reason was obvious. A bodhisattva by a will to reincarnate as many times as required and by his ability to postpone his own liberation at his will could better help Tibet in resolving its spiritual as well as social and political problems – political instability, infighting, enmity among others. This Tibetan preference for the bodhisattva cult had early, perhaps pre-historic, roots. Apart that Tibet was till sixteenth century a land divided into innumerable ruling segments and as many tribes and stood in dire need of some power that brought them under one umbrella, its mythical past too has identical connotations. As popular Tibetan myths have it, Tibet was initially the habitation of unruly beasts. Then Bodhisattva Avalokiteshvara emanated in a thousand animal-reincarnations and mixed with various extant animal groups. Through these emanated forms he taught them peace and harmony and when external conditions were suitable, took birth as a monkey. He encountered a horrible looking female ascetic, an emanation of the Goddess Tara. They mated and gave birth to the ever first human beings, all different from each other in body-colours, nature and everything. They were the progenitors of original six tribes of Tibet. Soon their number multiplied and now there were eighteen tribes, which number further expanded and Tibet finally had hundreds of tribes inhabiting it. Soon, out of the will to govern there evolved as numerous ruling seats fragmenting this terrace of the earth into small political entities, each engaged in designs to expand, conquer and defeat.

three steps to genuine compassion by pema chödrön

Three steps to genuine compassion
By Pema Chödrön

I’ve often heard the Dalai Lama say that having compassion for oneself is the basis for developing compassion for others. Chögyam Trungpa also taught this when he spoke about how to genuinely help others—how to work for the benefit of others without the interference of our own agendas. He presented this as a three-step process. Step one is maitri, a Sanskrit word meaning lovingkindness toward all beings. Here, however, as Chögyam Trungpa used the term, it means unlimited friendliness toward ourselves, with the clear implication that this leads naturally to unlimited friendliness toward others. Maitri also has the meaning of trusting oneself—trusting that we have what it takes to know ourselves thoroughly and completely without feeling hopeless, without turning against ourselves because of what we see.

Step two in the journey toward genuinely helping others is communication from the heart. To the degree that we trust ourselves, we have no need to close down on others. They can evoke strong emotions in us, but still we don’t withdraw. Based on this ability to stay open, we arrive at step three, the difficult-to-come-by fruition: the ability to put others before ourselves and help them without expecting anything in return.

When we build a house, we start by creating a stable foundation. Just so, when we wish to benefit others, we start by developing warmth or friendship for ourselves. It’s common, however, for people to have a distorted view of this friendliness and warmth. We’ll say, for instance, that we need to take care of ourselves, but how many of us really know how to do this? When clinging to security and comfort, and warding off pain, become the focus of our lives, we don’t end up feeling cared for and we certainly don’t feel motivated to extend ourselves to others. We end up feeling more threatened or irritable, more unable to relax.

I’ve known many people who have spent years exercising daily, getting massages, doing yoga, faithfully following one food or vitamin regimen after another, pursuing spiritual teachers and different styles of meditation, all in the name of taking care of themselves. Then something bad happens to them, and all those years don’t seem to have added up to the inner strength and kindness for themselves that they need in order to relate with what’s happening. And they don’t add up to being able to help other people or the environment. When taking care of ourselves is all about me, it never gets at the unshakable tenderness and confidence that we’ll need when everything falls apart. When we start to develop maitri for ourselves— unconditional acceptance of ourselves—then we’re really taking care of ourselves in a way that pays off. We feel more at home with our own bodies and minds and more at home in the world. As our kindness for ourselves grows, so does our kindness for other people.

::continue reading

how not to hurry

“Nature does not hurry, yet everything is accomplished.” ~ Lao Tzu

Post written by Leo Babauta. Follow on Twitter. Consider the above quote from Lao Tzu, (perhaps mythical) father of Taoism: how can it be true?

Is it possible to never hurry, but to get everything done?

It seems contradictory to our modern world, where everything is a rush, where we try to cram as much into every minute of the day as possible, where if we are not busy, we feel unproductive and lazy.

In fact, often we compete by trying to show how busy we are. I have a thousand projects to do! Oh yeah? I have 10,000! The winner is the person who has the most insane schedule, who rushes from one thing to the next with the energy of a hummingbird, because obviously that means he’s the most successful and important.

Right?

::read more

cool loneliness

Cool loneliness allows us to look honestly and without aggression at our own minds. We can gradually drop our ideals of who we think we ought to be, or who we think we want to be, or who we think other people think we want to be or ought to be. We give it up and just look directly with compassion and humor at who we are. Then loneliness is no threat and heartache, no punishment.

~ Pema Chodron

what's at the centre of your life?

Notes by Prasada Caroline Brazier, Buddhist Psychology teacher, author and founder member of the Amida Order, for a talk to young people:

These are some preparatory notes I have made for Los Angeles 2 Feb 2010. I may or may not use these themes, but they help me warm up to possible topics.

What do you put at the centre of your life?

When I was in my teens, my friend Janet and I used to walk home from school together. It took about half an hour, and on the way we used to talk about life and about how we made sense of things. We'd talk about how we got on with other girls in our class. We talked about how we often found ourselves feeling unconfident in comparison with how we saw others to be. In particular we noticed that it was difficult to hold onto our own views when we talked to other people. What we noticed was that whenever we talked to someone else, even if their views were radically different from our own,we frequently felt persuaded by their logic and lost sight of our original reasoning. In fact whatever the other person said seemed to make sense if they were sincere about what they were saying. As a result, we both felt we didn't have much control over what we thought. We felt we were too easily influenced.

Perhaps we were particularly suggestible, but I think in fact most of us, if we are willing to listen to others, and understand where they are coming from, will be likely to start to see things through the other person's eyes. The more we associate with another person or group, the more we become like them in thought. Of course for teenagers this is particularly pronounced, as views are still forming, but it is true for all of us to a degree. In fact, as we get older and gain more control over our circumstances we tend to circumvent to process by choosing to be with people of similar views.

When Janet and I talked about this problem, we realised that there was one solution. We couldn't control the way that we were influenced by others, but we could make sure we chose to be influenced by people of whom we basically thought well of. We called this theory the Bates-Milbank theory of influence. (My surname then was Bates, hers Milbank). Choosing your mind state can be harder than choosing whom you associate with

In fact our theory was not so different from Buddhist ideas of mental formation. First of all, Buddhism talks in terms of conditioning. The mind is conditioned by what it gives attention to. We listen to something, watch something, do something, and that puts us into a certain mind state. So when you look at a film, if it is a romantic film it might make you feel warm hearted or sexy, if you look at an adventure, you may feel energised and excited. If you watch a comedy you might feel relaxed and perhaps a bit silly. People are often concerned that too many violent films make people violent. Of course none of these instances is the whole story. In reality our reactions are conditioned by other factors as well. Just as I am sure Janet and I would not, in fact, have taken up shop-lifting or drugs just because someone told us it was a good idea. We weren't that stupid. But at the same time we do all absorb and incorporate things from those we meet and things we are exposed to without even realising it. People who watch a lot of violence on film or television do become immune to it, at least to a degree.

the symbolic lotus

 Unlike the water lilies that grow in the lake a few blocks from where I live, the lotus rises above the water on stems, some reaching as high as eight feet.  A lotus flower can, in addition, be up to ten inches in diameter.  It is truly a beautiful flower to behold which exhibits a great deal of diversity.  

Of this flower’s religious importance, we can say that the lotus symbolizes, generally, the manifestation or flowering (bodha) of purity from beginningless impurity or nescience.  But there are still other symbolic meanings besides this.  Citing from the book Mudra by E. Dale Saunders, the lotus is said to reproduce itself from its own matrix; not from soil.  Because of this, the lotus naturally becomes the “symbol of spontaneous generation (svayambhû).”  Svayambhu is used in the Lotus Sutra where it is translated as “self-born” which actually describes pure Mind.  In Kern's translation of the Lotus Sutra, i.e., The Saddharma-Pundarika, svayambhû appears in this passage:

“So am I the father of the world (lokapitâ); the Self-born (svayambhûh), the Healer, the Protector of all creatures.  Knowing them to be perverted, infatuated, and ignorant I teach them final rest, myself not being at rest.”

From the previous meanings of lotus, when seeing a statue of the Buddha sitting on a lotus dais we can interpret this as the awakening of Mind to itself such that it realizes its eternal, self-existent (savyambhû) nature which, in fact, is the very substance of the universe.

Still another meaning, the lotus is a symbol of compassion (karuna) which is connected with Avalokiteshvara (C., Kuan-yin).  

::continue reading here

 Unlike the water lilies that grow in the lake a few blocks from where I live, the lotus rises above the water on stems, some reaching as high as eight feet.  A lotus flower can, in addition, be up to ten inches in diameter.  It is truly a beautiful flower to behold which exhibits a great deal of diversity.  

Of this flower’s religious importance, we can say that the lotus symbolizes, generally, the manifestation or flowering (bodha) of purity from beginningless impurity or nescience.  But there are still other symbolic meanings besides this.  Citing from the book Mudra by E. Dale Saunders, the lotus is said to reproduce itself from its own matrix; not from soil.  Because of this, the lotus naturally becomes the “symbol of spontaneous generation (svayambhû).”  Svayambhu is used in the Lotus Sutra where it is translated as “self-born” which actually describes pure Mind.  In Kern's translation of the Lotus Sutra, i.e., The Saddharma-Pundarika, svayambhû appears in this passage:

“So am I the father of the world (lokapitâ); the Self-born (svayambhûh), the Healer, the Protector of all creatures.  Knowing them to be perverted, infatuated, and ignorant I teach them final rest, myself not being at rest.”

From the previous meanings of lotus, when seeing a statue of the Buddha sitting on a lotus dais we can interpret this as the awakening of Mind to itself such that it realizes its eternal, self-existent (savyambhû) nature which, in fact, is the very substance of the universe.

Still another meaning, the lotus is a symbol of compassion (karuna) which is connected with Avalokiteshvara (C., Kuan-yin).  

::continue reading here