Words, Tears, Laughter

Any one that achieves non-duality has already lost it.

It has been my experience that deeper insight brings about greater awareness, not greater indifference.

But, it is like being a parent. When your toddler first learns to run, you must let them go. You cannot hold them, or they will never learn. And, you pray that they don’t fall and hurt themselves. And yet, if they do, you are there to help dry their tears, and remind them that it’s ok; they will be able to run just fine one day soon. To keep trying and not to give up.

And, so it is with what seem to be my own foibles, and the apparent foibles of others. By seeing the clear light of truth that shines through all these activities. In the light and calm of emptiness, the wisdom of the truth is realized in each momentary happenstance. It is in this great Buddha mind that both sorrow and joy are vessels of the Way. And, when you practice with this, you learn that in their own way, each leads to the Truth.

And so, words are the way, tears are the way, laughter is the way.

Up 10 Degrees

I guess that I have a little different perspective on life from you. I am not trying to maintain a faith in the Buddha’s teaching or in the Four Nobel Truths. As far as I am concerned they can all be thrown in the trashcan.

What I am interested in is seeing things the way they truly are: If this confirms the Four Nobel Truths and the Buddha’s teachings, then great, I can joyously honor those teachings for the truth they reveal; But if truth informs me that matters are other than they have been expressed in the dharma, then I will have to go with truth.

Having said that, I must affirm that I have found a high degree of convergence with the way things are and that which the Buddha taught. However, I must add that my findings are not always congruent with some of the widely accepted interpretations of what the Buddha is thought to have meant when he said one thing or another.

Although it might seem to be a wonderful goal to attain freedom from suffering. To me it is so much more meaningful to realize the revelation of truth as it unfolds itself before us. And also with us, as we play our parts in the exploration of this unfathomable presence.

As far as when to leave the vehicle behind. In Zen we have a saying: “First there is a mountain, then there is no mountain, then there is.” (But since you are in a Theravada practice, I guess I’d better explain a little. When you are at that “point”, the vehicle is "just gone". But, when it is appropriate to do so (as in when teaching others), you can always point to it(the vehicle), because then it is seeming to be real. Thus we have the Four Nobel Truths.

The Third Oc

What is ultimately possible (that is, sustained insight) is not the same as intellectual accomplishment (which your acquaintances may be relying on).

However, we must temper our idealistic values with the realities of life on the human sphere. That is, while we all have the possibility of attaining full Buddhahood, alas not all of us are cut out for that quite yet. In other words, these people with their half a loaf (which is better than none) may have gone as far in their development for now as they are ready to go. And that is fine for them: We travel this path one step at a time one foot in front of the other.

A flower does not open until it is ready to accept the full rays of the sun. But, the bud can be as handsome as the bloom. So I try to approach such people with warmth and generosity. Perhaps our “not good enough” is, for them, a momentous achievement. And, I try to honor their “spirit” with the appreciation of the work they are making (looking at the glass half full, rather than the glass half empty you might say).

You are very blessed, to have a life that is ready to take another step into the realization of the Way.

For me, I try to not lose sight of all the times I’ve been a foolish asshole in the past (and probably will be in the future) – it helps to keep things in perspective :-)

The Oc

While I will not be surprised if people consider this commentary to be sheer lunacy, I offer it up at least as another point of view that you might care to consider.


There is a small group of people who “control” the world. Their control is not through political power per se, but through economic power. They are immensely wealthy people, but you will not see their names listed in Fortune 500, they have learned to keep out of the spotlight.

They exercise their method of control through investing is various corporations. They don’t do this directly, but through holding companies and mutual investment groups. But because they are wealthy enough to have a large chunk of investments in so many companies, they are able to influence, indirectly, the course of events in ways that are more favorable to their interests.

For instance, if they want to see a merger between two companies (HP and Compact would be an example) they would have one or more of their holding companies call up the mutual fund managers that they have invested with, and explain that if the managers don’t vote for the merger, then they might be forced to pull their investments out of the fund. Obviously, the managers would vote for the merger rather than lose some very important clients.

You will not see these people as the executives of major corporations, they will be working in the background through “friends” that they might have on the boards of directors, or through policy advisory groups that help determine institutional direction. These people are in it for the long run, they have far ranging plans and are willing to be patient in watching their plans come to fruition. They don’t want to exercise overt power because they know that figureheads eventually become scapegoats. And they don’t want absolute power because they realize that people are much more productive if they have at least the illusion of freedom.

They exercise political control only to the extent that they need to, and only indirectly. Their holding companies fund highly influential think tanks. These think tanks (policy making groups) are called upon by civic leaders to help decide on national agendas. Likewise, the wealthy corporations and groups which help fund the candidate’s elections also have a say in policy decisions. And when the candidate is elected, the people that he or she brings into his administration will naturally include those people from these corporations and groups, or be recommended by them.

These people are not going to call up some leader and tell them that they want such and such done. It is much more indirect than that. The people who work for those in control just make sure that the employees that are hired and eventually promoted up the ranks are the kind of people that think the way that these people would prefer them to think. These employees may not even know who is at the top of the food chain, they are just doing their job; making sure that their business makes the most profit possible for their investors. In other words, the leaders that these people support are going to be the ones that are already leaning their way.

Again, the agenda of these people is to maintain and increase their wealth. And they influence politics when it is convergent with this ideal.

Historically, these are not just some smart business executives that have grabbed a big piece of the pie through some stock deals. Instead these people are from very old families who have had and controlled a great deal of wealth over many centuries. They have always been involved in this kind of influence, but in the past it was more though the “old boy network”. It has been through the advent of the hugely successful system of the stock market that has given them the opportunity for even greater management of world affairs. With so many years of experience, they really know what they are doing: when and how to make their moves and when to stay their hand.

The situation in the Middle East threatens the economic interests of these people. They have substantial investments in the whole oil dependent economy. These investments are not only in the energy companies themselves, but also in automakers and the other vast industries, like shipping, which depend upon oil as the energy source. Lately, their influence in Middle East countries has been growing more tenuous. As Middle East countries swing more to the right in the fundamentalist sense, these people fear a scenario in which fundamentalist (anti-western) forces might gain control of the vast oil reserves of the region. Such control has the potential for the economic destabilization of the western societies, or at the very least severely impacting the profit margins of many of the companies they are invested in.

Their solution to this potential problem is to gain more control over a significant share of the oil resources in the region. That significant resource may be a country called Iraq. Unfortunately it may be really quite simple as far as some are concerned. Remove the current leader’s government and install the appropriate new government, which will be more favorable to western interests. But more importantly, assign the oil leases to western oil producers (out of the hands of the fundamentalist control).

Mind you, it is not that they need the oil in Iraq; there is still plenty of oil around elsewhere. What they need is the guarantee that if the region should shift politically, that the western economies will not be at the mercy of the radicals (and therefore, we would only be able to rely on oil from elsewhere). They will have an assured source of oil in the region as well as a western friendly government that they can count on there. So, all of this is just a strategic chess move on the big game board of the world that these oligarchs are playing. All the speeches about freeing a country from a tyrant and saving westerners from a menace is just window dressing to placate the public.

It is not the case that GW is one of these oligarchs. Nor is not the case that a Mr. Z calls up Geo. Jr. one day and says “I want you to invade a particular country next spring.” This all started years ago when GW was chosen as a political prospect, and coincidentally his views were in league with the overall agenda of these people. The advisors and the Washington think tanks were placed to affirm this strategic move as vital to the nations interests. It’s just been a matter of time till the current military action could be gotten around to.

Initiation, Guided, Trust

This may be a little hard to explain, but let me try. I am being general here in these remarks just to give you an outline of what is going on.

There are many ways to practice, and they all can lead to direct realization. However, some practices are more intrinsic with the nature of the ultimate truth. Emptiness is one of these; it is a practice that you can realize locally and ultimately.

And then, there some practices that are more appropriate only to relevant truths. This accounts for the famous saying about leaving the raft behind once you have crossed the river. It is these later practices that can become “hindrances”, as you put it.

It is the former practices that are the more interesting ones to this discussion. In realizations of highest truth these practices still prevail, but in a strange way they morph into greater understandings, and become subsumed within this greater “framework” of the highest truth. Yet strains of their eminence can still be seen in the greater fabric of truth.

When one realizes one of these eminent truths as a continuous daily reality of their lives, then sitting-meditation becomes irrelevant because that person realizes the truth without that sitting-meditation formality. (We should all be so lucky).

It is not that they have given up sitting because it was a hindrance, but because direct awareness of the truth was a part of their daily lives whether they sat or not. Whether the people that some speak about have really attained this level of awareness, I can’t say.

On a final note, yes such a person could sit in meditation and go even deeper into knowing, however this is not the middle way. It is interesting, I think, to learn about the nature of truth through deep realization, but one can only do this so much.

After you explore a bit and go “there” repeatedly, it gets to be a bit old hat because you’ve learned what it is about. And if you would like to continue in such deep realizations, then I believe that you will be opting out of the physical space-time continuum. Which is certainly all right, its just not life here.

Payables and Receivables

They call me the Kid
An I wana make it clear
I dint come here
Jus to drink the beer

I heard bout the Way
When I was a young lad
Now I practice steady
An you know I’m bad

Some boys fall for money
Some boys fall for sex
Some boys fall for drama
Dem boys all be wrecks

I tried the white powder
I tried the dope
I even tried religion
But da all made me mope

Then I heard a Bubba
He said ya gotta know
Theres notin to this trip
So jus let go

The Dharma is a way
An the Way is a road
A road that you travel
To ease the load

It isn’t very long
It isn’t very short
Whenever you doin it
You goin full court

I heard bout the Way
When I was a young lad
Now I practice steady
An you know I’m bad

A Lamentation

Having participated in similar groups, in the Zen tradition, I have seen both their advantages and disadvantages.

One of the great rewards is that it strengthens both the participant’s practice and their commitment to practice, through mutual expectations and shared group activity (meaning you’re more likely to practice diligently when you’re with a bunch of other people who are also trying likewise).

I think the biggest disadvantage is in the discussion session, because without a clear authority, its just a bunch of people giving their opinions (some less informed, others more informed) but all opinions having equal weight. In other words, there is no authority to say Joe Blow is right and Donald is a bit off track – everyone’s opinion is as valid as the next persons within the context of the discussion, (though not in their understanding of the Dharma unfortunately).

Having said that, I agree that the discussion side of the event is sometimes a strong factor in what draws people to the event. They want to not just sit in meditation, but to talk about the Dharma with someone who can answer their questions. You may find that the 15 min quickly becomes 45 min or more.

Having a priest around can be a mixed blessing. The problem in the Zen community is that understanding is integral with direct experience, and unfortunately just because someone is wearing a robe doesn’t mean they have had direct experience, yet they would be looked up to as an authority (qualified or not). This may not be such a problem in the Theravada tradition where the teaching is a bit more structurally organized.

Perhaps instead of you trying to answer peoples questions about the Dharma you could act more as a clearinghouse – directing people with questions to where (on the web or in books, for instance) that they could find the answers they seek. Perhaps they could share with the group during a following meeting what they’ve learned.

I visited a Tibetan School recently and overheard another visitor chatting with the person manning the front desk. The visitor then asked how to do a particular meditation practice. The person at the desk responded without skipping a beat: she merely said that she wasn’t qualified to teach that practice (end of discussion).

On the other hand, one of the most boring groups I ever attended was at a local Zendo, where the Centers Zen student cut off every question with the phrase “again, this is something that you have to talk to the abbot about.”

The Source of Our Heritage

It seems that as part of our community ages, its members begin to confront the inevitable. The days of worrying about jobs and partners are fewer. And as the body grows less agile, the inevitability of death comes into focus.

But for me, I have to say that it’s been a little different. Early in the 1980’s I began to spontaneous have memories of many of my past lives. Not names and dates, but general locations and time periods and fleeting glimpses of moments in those lives and a general remembrances of the shape and content of each particular life. In a few of these remembrances, I have had some of the most vivid memories of the moment of my death in that particular life.

For instance, I can still picture the look on the drunk truck driver’s face as his truck hit me when I stepped off the curb as a little old retired school teacher in my last life. And a few other death memories come back to me in the sharpest detail from other past lives.

Frankly, through realizing so many lives and so many deaths, I am not afraid of death. But what does temper me is the preciousness of my life. All of the time I have invested in it; the work I have done so that I could continue it and experience this moment. The great commitments and the sacrifices that I have made, I would not care to try to do this again.

Therefore, I would not throw this life away lightly, nor thoughtlessly.

Solo Landing

If you look around your area, you are likely to find two different kinds of Zen gatherings: Meditation groups, and Zen Centers. Meditation groups, or sitting groups, are likely to be quite informal – often just a group of people that like to practice meditation and want to do it with others. They may not have a teacher present at the group, or one member may be shouldering the job as the most knowledgeable person.

They might, in all likelihood, be meeting in one of the member’s living rooms. Zen Centers, on the other hand, are more established institutions where you are likely to encounter ordained members and you are able to take vows yourself. They are more likely to have a teacher who is teaching Zen as their livelihood. And the center is funded through community support.

You are probably going to find that there are two different kinds of Zen traditions that have made it to these US shores: Rinzai and Soto. Rinzai tends to take a more strict approach to the methodology of practice. While, in general, us Soto people tend to be a more libertine crowd. Soto schools are in more abundance, so you are more likely to find those kinds of centers than the Rinzai schools.

Zen Centers in the Soto tradition usually have periods for Zazen, meditation, in the early morning and the late afternoon, most days of the week. And these sittings are usually open to the public. Then, one day of the week, they frequently have a more extensive agenda when sitting is followed by a service (some chanting and bows), and then a Dharma talk, followed by a period of socializing where you can meet and talk with the other members.

These Zen Centers will probably have a day of the week when they hold an orientation for newcomers. (And it is often on the day when the Dharma talk is given.) During the orientation they should give you some basic guidelines and they will show you how to practice meditation.

Even if you already know how to practice meditation, it is worthwhile to take the orientation because you will at least know what the others there are doing. Otherwise, just follow along with what others are doing in the Zendo, the meditation hall, and you will be just fine. Remember, everyone will be more than happy to help you, as you would be to a newcomer when it is your turn help. By the way, I would be surprised if you met any Asians at any of the Centers in the US. So don’t worry about the language barrier. But leave your iPod in your backpack. :-)

Guided

Wandering without a home
No place to go to, no place to leave.
In the mementos of my heart I find meaning
Left again, in the emptiness of the moment.

One Volume, Many Vessels

If you’re planning on offing your self, then you really have nothing to lose by sticking around and seeing what happens in your life. That is, if you’ve given up, then you have nothing else to look forward to. And since you have nothing to gain, you have nothing to lose either by going along for the ride and seeing what happens. And you don’t know for sure either, maybe by sticking around you might learn something immensely important to you – through just experiencing the mess of your life.

Frankly, there are times in my life when I could have written the exact same words that you have posted. But hey, I’m still here. Taking it one day at a time.

Sure there is unbearable pain and sorrow, a wealth of despair and hopelessness. But you need to learn to swim through the muck of life with a light in your heart. In Buddhism we do this through practice: Actively aware of the muck of our lives, exhausted of it, eventually we grow weary of it and let it drop from our cares. (We don’t try to solve the muck, or figure a way out of it.) And in that moment’s emptiness we are renewed by the greater perspective we get from the ever-present reality of truth that transcends all of our little cares.

And in this way we learn, albeit sometimes slowly, that all that muck in our lives is not as overwhelming or important to us. We begin to learn about the source of that muck by watching it arise time and time again. And then we begin to be able to question the premise which that muck is based upon, because we can see it more objectively, not caught so overwhelming in the weight of its grasp.

But all this is from a step-by-step practice (one foot in front of the other, one day to the next), slowly realizing the way things are at the speed that the self can learn and absorb information, and transform its patterns through the process of trial and error.

I guess I didn’t explain correctly about the painting that I posted earlier. It was not an escape, a way to take my mind off my troubles. It was a meditation. That is I used painting as a way to actively engage in the awareness of my troubles, a vehicle for realizing them moment-to-moment fully in the present. I painted as I realized my burdens, “objectifying” them in a sense on the canvas, as we do in our lives.

The joy that you long for in your life in not unattainable, but it is not yours to relish now because you have some work to do in setting yourself straight in your life. Remember that the work you do now will make it possible for you to be open enough for love and joy to enter your life, without your holding obsessively onto it.

And when you do realize the higher truth of your existence, then in the joys that you find, you will be able to see that they don’t depend upon the state of such and such a relationship being present. But that they are a natural part of the splendor of the truth as it unfolds within your life.

The Elephant's Graveyard

The journey of the heart may not seem swift or straight, but it is deep and filled with meaning.

In plumbing its depths we are brought face to face with not only our highest aspirations, but with the muddy track of life we tread, as well.

No one else can tell you what is in your heart, at best they can give you some tools for you to look there.

Discovering what lies in your heart is the first step on your journey and it will probably be the last step on your journey as well.

Hope this is helpful.

Dough Mix

First off, I see two things here. One that many people just don’t see is how deeply passionate that we artists can be. We can get a head of emotion brewing in us on an average day that would overwhelm most people. And if we don’t feel this way about our work and what we are doing, our lives, then we feel a big let down. (What’s the point?)

The second thing that I see is that you’re working with the readers digest version of Buddhism. And frankly the simple lessons that you can get from this version will not satisfactorily answer your profound questions. I think that it might be helpful for you to look at it this way: it is not that Buddhism teaches us to have no attachments; it teaches us to not confuse those attachments with our identity, our true self.

The point is that the mercurial stream of life, our thoughts, passions, dreams, and despairs are always coming forth. Revealing the fabric of truth and the presence of our reality. Nirvana is not about ditching our reality for some non-being status, it is about seeing the “source” of all that is. And in that realization, we see the dance of life as it comes forth, knowing it, and in knowing it realize our own truth, our thusness. And in realizing that truth, we live the lives we are here to experience. For this is the truth as it is revealed in the light of this reality. Paint this light, because it is your own profound realization of the truth within you. And then, you not only know yourself, you know the deeper thusness of the greater reality. To have the gift to do this, as you do, is a sacred honor. To live it deeply, and at time without reason, is a great blessing. Honor your troubles for they reveal that which you need to learn.

At times when I am in deep despair and anger, I paint.

Elvis Sightings

It is my impression that the Mahayana forefathers developed the idea of the bodhisattva as a response to a decline of Buddhism. With fewer and fewer people attaining enlightenment (decades after the passing of the Master Teacher), they needed to give practitioners something to shoot for if it seemed to them that it was unlikely that they would attain actual Buddhahood.

With a more easily attainable goal in hand (being a bodhisattva, if you couldn’t become a Buddha, i.e. fully enlightened) it gave practical reasons for people to continue with their practice, and it also gave them a moral framework that they could follow. If they couldn’t live life as a full-fledged Buddha (instinctively knowing what to do), then they could live life with the guidance of the way of the bodhisattva. With a framework of morals filling in where inner guidance lacked.

I don’t think of the eightfold path as being provisional. They are embodiment of the virtues of the Buddha, of the Truth. Rather than being a path to “something”, I see them as a realization of that “something” within the space-time realm.

Ben's Heaven

"At times when I encounter a part of the dominant Western society which clearly goes against the Dharma, I feel a sense of alienation from this society."

Yes, I feel like I’m from another planet sometimes, watching the machinations of some strange civilization. Consider this, however. This society has great faults and also great achievements.

The problems are institutionalized within the society. You can’t point to any one specific thing and say that this is the cause of the problem because everything is so intertwined. Therefore, no one is completely free from quilt. We are all in this together. And we each must do our part to do the right thing as best as we can.

People may be incarnating into this life stream from many different backgrounds and for many different reasons. We don’t come here because this is Heaven; we come here to try to make it a heaven.

Of course because of the wide diversity, everyone has their own view of what heaven is. So we are all learning. Both as individuals and as a whole group. And while I cannot solve another’s problem by giving them my version of heaven (because each person has their own version that they must work with), I can encourage them and perhaps be an example to which they can relate to in their quest for heaven. Thus we proclaim the Dharma.

For me, if I empathize with another’s pain and longing, then I can bring to my view of them compassion and understanding rather than easy condemnation.

And, by the way, the potato and our Constitution are both Native American in origin. And while Native Americans are from the west, I myself, don’t consider them to be classical Western culture.