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Post by silver on Sept 3, 2017 12:53:33 GMT -5
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Now the sounds you hear will arise and pass away in the open space of your own mind. Relax in this openness and just listen. Let the sounds that come and go, whether far or near, be like clouds in the vast sky of your own awareness. The play of sounds moves through the sky, appearing and disappearing without resistance.
Problems, possibilities, joys and sorrows come and go like clouds in the clear sky of mind.
As you rest in this open awareness, notice how thoughts and images also arise and vanish like sounds. Let the thoughts and images come and go without struggle or resistance. Pleasant and unpleasant thoughts, pictures, words and feelings move unrestricted in the space of mind. Problems, possibilities, joys and sorrows come and go like clouds in the clear sky of mind.
After a time, let this spacious awareness notice the body. Become aware of how the sensations of breath and body float and change in the same open sky of awareness. The breath breathes itself, it moves like a breeze. The body is not solid. It is felt as areas of hardness and softness, pressure and tingling, warm and cool sensation, all floating in the space of the mind’s awareness.
Let the breath move like a breeze. Rest in this openness. Let sensations float and change. Allow all thoughts and images, feelings and sounds to come and go like clouds in the clear open space of awareness.
Finally, pay attention to the awareness itself. Notice how the open space of awareness is naturally clear, transparent, timeless and without conflict—allowing all things, but not limited by them.
The Buddha said, “O Nobly Born, remember the pure open sky of your own true nature. Return to it. Trust it. It is home.”
May the blessings of these practices awaken your own inner wisdom and inspire your compassion. And through the blessing of your heart may the world find peace.
This meditation is one of a variety of practices offered in Jack Kornfield’s “The Art of Forgiveness, Lovingkindness and Peace (Bantam Books).”
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Post by zendancer on Sept 3, 2017 14:32:19 GMT -5
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Post by silver on Sept 6, 2017 14:49:08 GMT -5
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THE SUFFERING OF NOT GETTING WHAT ONE WANTS
You would like to stay with family and loved ones Forever, but you are certain to leave them.
You would like to keep your beautiful home Forever, but you are certain to leave it behind.
You would like to enjoy happiness, wealth and comfort Forever, but you are certain to lose them.
You would like to keep this excellent human life with its freedoms and advantages Forever, but you are certain to die.
You would like to study Dharma with your wonderful teacher Forever, but you are certain to part.
You would like to be with your good spiritual friends Forever, but you are certain to separate.
O my friends who feel deep disillusionment with samsara, I, the Dharmaless beggar, exhort you:
From today put on the armour of effort, for the time has come To cross to the land of great bliss whence there is no separation.
~ Longchenpa
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Post by silver on Sept 6, 2017 21:09:20 GMT -5
Quote I like from another forum member on another forum.
In Buddhism, Truth is seen as personal and therefore ranges from belief in many gods to One God through to agnosticism and atheism. God is not a central issue in Dharma (Buddhist doctrine) being outside of genuine independent experience or comprehension. Of greater concern is ones actual knowable and redeemable situation. In other words how to improve the current experience for one's self and others without recourse to the fantasy of future lives, heavens, purelands or other escapist delusions for the spiritually fragile.
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Post by silver on Sept 12, 2017 22:42:58 GMT -5
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Meet the Buddhist Lawyer Who Took the UK to Court Over Pollution — and Won
by Haleigh Atwood| August 31, 2017
“The earth is our client,” says lawyer and Zen priest James Thornton. He talks with Haleigh Atwood about how Buddhism can help save the environment.
James Thornton.
In April, Buddhist lawyer James Thornton won an injunction ordering the UK government to publish a clean-air plan for British cities where pollution exceeds legal levels. Thornton is a lawyer and environmental activist whose 10-year-old environmental law organization, ClientEarth, tackles the planet’s biggest issues. The organization’s team of more than 100 people uses litigation to address climate change, biodiversity protection, habitat loss, deforestation, and air pollution.
The UK clean-air injunction has spawned a series of clean-air cases across Europe. And, in July, after ClientEarth fought for years against illegal logging by the Polish government, the European Union issued a logging ban on the Bialowieza forest in Poland, one of the last great primeval forests. The organization is now working on environmental law with the Chinese government.
Thornton began practicing environmental law in 1979, looking for purpose in his mission to save the environment. But as a young lawyer sometimes working 60 cases at once, he started to burn out.
Tired and directionless, Thornton stumbled onto Soto Zen and moved to Los Angeles to study with Maezumi Roshi. Through sitting, Thornton realized that environmental law allowed him to practice Zen’s Bodhisattva Vow — the vow to save all sentient beings. He finally found meaning in his work.
Thornton talked to me from his office in London to discuss ClientEarth, Soto Zen, and the intersection of environmental activism and Buddhist practice.
Haleigh Atwood: Can you tell me about ClientEarth’s mission and the role of environmental lawyers in today’s world?
James Thornton: The way I think about it is that the earth is our client, and the lawyer needs to speak to the client. By studying science we know what the earth needs in terms of protection. Once we’re clear on what science is saying, then we investigate how to turn that into policy. We help write the laws, and then we work on implementing and enforcing the laws. We’ve won a lot of big cases, like against the UK government to clean up the air.
The law gives you a snapshot of what a culture thinks are the important values within it at any one time. By understanding that you gain tremendous leverage to move things in the right direction. I see the process of helping to create and enforce laws as a practice and a way of enlightening the shared mind as a culture.
Some remain unconvinced about climate change, or maybe it’s not such a big priority for them. How much patience and effort goes into convincing people to pay attention to the environment?
By using the courts and getting the UK government to come up with this clean air plan, we’ve already moved it in some direction. Before that, there was no plan. Before that, they were going to violate the law till the end of time, and no one would have held them to account. The plan that was issued is tremendously defective, and now the question is how to use tactics to force them to do it better.
None of this is easy. If you look at it in terms of one’s own practice, it’s like looking at one of the things you’re most reluctant to change and going back to it again and again.
How did you come to practice Buddhism?
Since I was a very young person, I had wanted to know what the meaning of my life was. I originally thought that Catholicism was going to give me that, but in my teenage years, I realized that I was gay. I realized a system that assigns me to hell without my volition is not a system of religion that makes any sense to me. I was left with a great loss, because I had dearly believed in it.
I went on to study philosophy at university to see if it would give me a clear indication of what the meaning of life was. While fascinating, it didn’t do that. Then, I thought human love would. Human love gives you many things, but the relationship I was counting on to give me that broke up. Then, I was a lawyer trying to save the planet and I thought that would be the meaning, and again I found that didn’t actually answer that question. I was really tired and wondered where I would go.
I read Peter Matthiessen’s book, Nine-Headed Dragon River. His teacher’s teacher was Maezumi Roshi in Los Angeles. I started traveling down to do retreats with Maezumi. I took to Zen instantly. This practice was the door to the question of meaning. My life was a life I felt good about, having dedicated myself to saving the environment. The Buddhist vow of saving all sentient beings took on a central place for me. I realized that having already been an environmental lawyer that I was living out a version of that vow.
Does the concept of interbeing—the interconnection of all things—help you maintain focus in your work?
Yes, definitely. You can’t study biology without also understanding interconnection. It really informs everything I do.
I’ll give you a concrete example. The law that determines how people catch fish in the waters of the entire European Union was being updated some years ago. The prior version of it was a really bad system, and the result was that fisheries were on the point of collapse because way too many fish were being caught.
I said to my team, “The way we need to approach this is to start from scratch and think about it as a unified system.” What we want to do is create a system in which they can live together harmoniously. I don’t want us to think we need to prevent bad people from catching good fish. It’s just that we want the fish/people system to be healthy for a very long time. That turned out to be a very fruitful way to think about it. It removed a lot of barriers between us and a lot of people, so we didn’t come across as negative or antagonistic.
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Post by silver on Sept 12, 2017 22:45:04 GMT -5
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You have a team of 100 employees. Are there ways that you integrate Buddhism in the workplace?
From the beginning, I’ve tried to share practices that don’t seem particularly Buddhist to people, because I didn’t want any labels on things. We’ve always used the practice of deep listening. When we’re in meetings we’re listening attentively and without judgment to what our colleagues are saying, which I find is a core Buddhist practice, the purpose of coming to the place where you can think together creatively and cooperatively.
Since I was the founder of the organization, I didn’t want people to think they had to meditate in order to please me in some way. That’s exactly why you wouldn’t want to have people meditate. Then, just last year, groups of people in our three principle offices—London, Brussels, and Warsaw—all approached me asking if I would be willing to share my meditation practice with them. I went to each office and gave an interactive seminar for two hours per day for three days. Over the course of those seminars, I trained over half the staff. There are groups that now meditate in each office.
I saw that you led the First Green Order Retreat this June at the Zen Center of Los Angeles, in which you discussed how Buddhism can help with the environmental crisis.
What I wanted to do was take a deep look at our environmental problems from the perspective of the Four Noble Truths. [The goal was to] have a set of practices to look at your life in connection with the environment, gain positive vision to think about problems creatively, and motivate yourself to do positive action.
The retreat focused on what distinctive contribution Buddhism can make to the global environmental crisis. What conclusion did you come to?
That there’s quite a lot to contribute. Most people who start out as environmentalists are full-time activists with anger as motivation. While anger gives you a lot of energy, the mind of anger isn’t the mind from which positive solutions can emerge. In my view, the best work one can do for the environment is come up with a positive solution and a positive vision. In order to do that, you have to get beyond the mind of anger. Practice is the most effective way to get beyond that angry mind and into the open mind.
The other thing Buddhism can do is nurture activists—environmentalists can take care of themselves so they can take care of the environment. Doing any activist work is frequently a path to burnout. One becomes very dedicated and the work is boundless, so there’s a tendency to go beyond what is healthy for your system. What the practice allows you to do is realize that you need to nurture yourself while you’re taking care of everything else.
Finally, I think practice can put you in the place from which it begins to be possible to create a positive story of where to go in the future. That positive vision will capture everyone’s attention if the story is well told, and then motivate action in that direction.
A positive story is needed right now. The rate at which biodiversity is being harmed and species are going extinct is increasing. How do you work on this stuff on a daily basis without going nuts, burning out, or going into despair? This is where practice comes in. Practice is the perfect answer to despair, and despair is the enemy to protecting the future.
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Post by silver on Sept 26, 2017 18:51:15 GMT -5
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Udakañhi nayanti nettikā; usukārā namayanti tejanaṃ; dāruṃ namayanti tacchakā; attānaṃ damayanti paṇḍitā.
Irrigators regulate the rivers; fletchers straighten the arrow shaft; carpenters shape the wood; the wise control themselves
Dhammapada 6.80
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Post by silver on Oct 7, 2017 13:09:15 GMT -5
The Haunted Dominion of Mind
by Dzigar Kongtrul Rinpoche| October 5, 2017
The haunted dominion of the mind, says Dzigar Kongtrul Rinpoche, in none other than the dominion of self-clinging. If our goal is to free ourselves from the fear and endless insecurities that haunt us, then we must cut through self-clinging by cultivating the view of emptiness.
In old Tibet, practitioners went to charnel grounds, springs, haunted houses, haunted trees, and so on, in order to reveal how deeply their practice had cut to the core of their fears and attachments. The practice of cutting through our deepest attachments and fears to their core is called nyensa chödpa. Nyensa chödpa means “cutting through the haunted dominion of mind.” It is not that I am encouraging you to go to these haunted places to test yourself, but it’s important for all practitioners to understand the view behind nyensa chödpa, because until we are challenged we don’t know how deep our practice can go.
We may be established practitioners; we may be comfortable with our practice and working with our minds; everything could be going smoothly. As my teacher Dilgo Khyentse Rinpoche used to say, “Practice is easy when the sun is on your back and your belly is full.” But when difficult circumstances arise and we are completely shaken from within, when we hit rock bottom, or when something is haunting us and we feel completely vulnerable and exposed to all our neurosis, then it’s a different story.
To see the connectedness or interdependence of all things is to see in a big way. It reduces the artificial separation we create between the self and everything else.
Challenging circumstances expose to us how much we have learned from the buddhadharma, how much we have learned from the tantra, and how much we have learned from our meditation practice and the experience of our mind. But we don’t need to wait for challenging circumstances to uncover our hidden fears and attachments. We don’t need to wait for our bliss bubble to pop, for a dear one to die, or to find out we have a fatal disease. There is plenty of opportunity to practice nyensa chödpa right here in our own minds. There is plenty of opportunity because there is plenty of self-clinging.
The haunted dominion of mind is the dominion of self-clinging. It is the world of self and all the hopes and fears that come with trying to secure it. Our efforts to secure the self give rise to all the negative emotions. If we were not so concerned with cherishing and providing for the self, there would be no reason for attachment. Aggression, too, would have no reason to arise if there were no self to protect. And jealousy, which shows up whenever we think the self is lacking something, would have no impetus to eat away at our inner peace because we would be content with the natural richness and confidence of our own mind. If we had no need to shield all of the embarrassing things about the self that make us so insecure, we would have no cause for arrogance. Finally, if we were not so fixated on the self, we could rely on our innate intelligence rather than let our stupidity escort us through the activities that bring us so much pain time and time again.
So emotions themselves are not the cause of the problem. Yet until we reach down to the very root of our negative emotions, they will be there, standing in line waiting to “save” us from our fundamental insecurities. Unless we let go of grasping to the self with all its egotistical scheming to save itself in the usual manner, we will only continue to enforce a stronger and stronger belief in the solidity of the self. If the aim of practice is to free ourselves from our endless insecurities, then we must cut through self-clinging. Until we do, self-clinging will define our relationship with the world, whether it be the inner world of our own mind or the world outside of us.
From the perspective of the self, the world is either for us or against us. If it is for us, its purpose is to feed our infinite attachments. If it is against us, it is to be rejected and adds to our infinite paranoia. It is either our friend or our enemy, something to lure or reject. The stronger we cling to a self, the stronger grows our belief in a solid, objective world that exists separate from us. The more we see it as solid and separate, the more the world haunts us: we are haunted by what we want from the world and we are haunted by our struggle to protect ourselves from it.
The many problems we see in the world today, and also encounter in our own personal lives, spring from the belief that the enemy or threat is “outside” of us. This split occurs when we forget how deeply connected we are to others and the world around us. This is not to say that mind and the phenomenal world are one and that everything we experience is a mere figment of our imagination. It simply means that what we believe to be a self, and what we believe to be other than self, are inextricably linked, and that, in truth, the self can only exist in relation to other. Seeing them as separate is really the most primitive way of viewing and engaging our lives.
To see the connectedness or interdependence of all things is to see in a big way. It reduces the artificial separation we create between the self and everything else. For instance, when we hold tightly to a self, the natural law of impermanence looms as a threat to our existence. But when we accept that we are part of this natural flow, we begin to see that the entity we cling to as a static, immutable, and independent self is just a continuous stream of experience composed of thoughts, feelings, forms, and perceptions that change from moment to moment. When we accept this, we become part of something much greater—the movement of the entire universe.
What we experience as “our life” results from the interdependent relationship between the “outer” world—the world of color, shape, sound, smell, taste, and touch—and our awareness. We cannot separate awareness—the knower—from that which is known. Is it possible, for instance, to see without a visual object or to hear without a sound? And how can we isolate the content of our thoughts from the information we receive from our environment, our relationships, and the imprints of our sense perceptions? How can we separate our bodies from the elements that it is composed of, or the food we eat to keep us alive, or the causes and conditions that brought our bodies into existence?
In fact there is little consistency in what we consider to be self and what we consider to be other. Sometimes we include our emotions as part of the self. Other times our anger or depression seem to haunt or even threaten us. Our thoughts also seem to define who we are as individuals, but so often they agitate or excite us as if they existed as other. Generally we identify the body with the self, yet when we fall ill we often find ourselves saying, “My stomach is bothering me,” or “My liver is giving me trouble.” If we investigate carefully, we will inevitably conclude that to pinpoint where the self leaves off and the world begins is not really possible. The one thing we can observe is that everything that arises, both what we consider to be the self and what we consider to be other than self, does so through a relationship of interdependence.
All phenomena depend upon other in order to arise, express themselves, and fall away. There is nothing that can be found to exist on its own, independent and separate from everything else. That self and other lack clearly defined boundaries does not then mean that we are thrown into a vague state of not knowing who we are and how to relate to the world, or that we lose our discerning intelligence. It simply means that through loosening the clinging we have to our small, constricted notion of self, we begin to relax into the true nature of all phenomena: the nondual state of emptiness, which transcends both self and other.
Having gone beyond dualistic mind, we can enjoy the “single unit” of our own profound dharmakaya nature. The “singularness” of emptiness is not single as opposed to many. It is a state beyond one or two, subject and object, and the self and the world outside; it is the singular nature of all things. Upon recognizing the nature of emptiness, our own delusion—the false duality of subject and object—cracks apart and dissolves. This relieves us of the heaviness produced by the subtle underlying belief that things have a separate or solid nature. At the same time we apprehend the interconnectedness of everything and this brings a greater vision to our lives.
Cultivating a deep conviction in the view of emptiness is what the practice of nyensa chödpa is all about. Nyensa refers to that which haunts us: clinging to the self and all the fears and delusion this produces. Chödpa means “to cut through.” What is it that cuts through our clinging, fears, and delusion? It is the realization of emptiness, the realization of the truth. When the view of emptiness dawns in our experience, if even only for a moment, self-grasping naturally dissolves. This is when we begin to develop confidence in what is truly possible.
Impressed by the yogi Milarepa’s unwavering confidence in the view of emptiness, the Ogress of the Rock, while attempting to haunt and frighten him, made this famous statement, which illustrates the view of nyensa chödpa very well. She said,
This demon of your own tendencies arises from your mind, if you don’t recognize the [empty] nature of your mind. I’m not going to leave just because you tell me to go. If you don’t realize that your mind is empty there are many more demons besides myself. But if you recognize the [empty] nature of your own mind, adverse circumstances will serve only to sustain you, and even I, Ogress of the Rock, will be at your bidding.
To understand emptiness conceptually is not enough. We need to understand it through direct experience so that when we are shaken from the depth of our being, when the whole mechanism of self-clinging is challenged, we can rest in this view with confidence. When challenging circumstances arise, we cannot just conceptually patch things up with the ideas we have about emptiness. Merely thinking, “Everything is empty,” does little service at such times. It is like walking into a dimly lit room, seeing a rope on the ground, and mistaking it for a snake. We can tell ourselves, “It’s a rope, it’s a rope, it’s a rope,” all we want, but unless we turn on the light and see for ourselves, we will never be convinced it is not a snake, and our fear will remain. When we turn on the light, we can see through direct experience that what we mistook for a snake was actually a rope, and our fear lifts. In the same way, when we realize the empty nature of the self and the world around us, we free ourselves from the clinging and fear that comes with it. It is essential that we have conviction based upon experience—no matter how great or small that experience is.
Without this conviction we may run up against a lot of doubts about our meditation practice when difficult circumstances surface. We may wonder why our meditation isn’t working. If meditation does not serve us in difficult times, what else can we do to rescue ourselves from the horror and fear we have inside? What about all the years of practice we have done? Were we just fooling ourselves? Was our practice ever genuine at all?
In times like these we need not get discouraged about our ability to practice. Coupled with open-minded questioning, challenging circumstances can help deepen and clarify the purpose of our path because they expose how far our practice has penetrated to the core of self-clinging. Although these experiences often shock or disturb us, they bring our attention to the immediate experience of clinging and the pain it generates, and we begin to think about letting go.
We may have had the experience of letting go of our clinging and resting in the nature of emptiness many times in the past, but have not yet developed trust or conviction in that experience. We may feel certain in the moment of seeing our ordinary confused perceptions collapse, but unless we trust that experience, it will not affect the momentum of our ordinary confused habits. Quickly we will return to believing in our experience as solid and real. However, if we are able to trust the direct experience of emptiness, we can, through hindsight, bridge that understanding with our present experience. We rely on the recollection of our direct encounter with the view to change the way we ordinarily respond to difficult situations.
On the other hand, even if we do have some conviction, it is not as if because we have let go once—“That’s it!”—we’ve let go completely and we will never cling again. Habitual mind is like a scroll of paper: when you first unroll it, immediately it curls back up. You need to continually flatten it out, and eventually it will stay. Our constant challenge as practitioners, the true focus of our practice, is reducing the attachment we have in the core of our mind.
As we approach the haunted dominion with less fear, we may actually find some intelligence in the experience of being haunted: although we continuously try to secure the self, instinctually we know that we cannot. This instinctual knowledge comes from an innate intelligence that sees the dynamic, ungraspable nature of all things. It observes things arise and fall away, both happiness and suffering and the changes of birth, old age, sickness, and death. When we cling to self and other, our mind feels deeply conflicted and fearful because clinging is at odds with our inner intelligence. Of course, we are not clinging because we want to suffer; we are clinging because we want to avoid suffering. But clinging by its nature causes pain. When we let go of grasping and turn toward our innate intelligence, we begin to experience a sense of ease in our minds and we begin to develop a new relationship with that which ordinarily haunts us.
As practitioners interested in going beyond delusion, we may find ourselves intrigued by the haunted dominion of mind. We may find that, rather than trying to avoid pain, we want to move closer to that which haunts us. Emboldened by the experience of emptiness, we can question the solidity or truth of our fears—maybe things don’t exist as they appear. In fact, each time we see through the haunted dominion of mind—when we see its illusory or empty nature—we experience the taste of true liberation. This is why the great yogis of the past practiced in haunted places such as charnel grounds. Places that provoke the hidden aspects of mind are full of possibilities for liberation. In this way, the haunted dominion—whether it is a charnel ground or the dominion of fear that results from our own self-clinging—serves as the very ground of our realization.
We don’t need to cling to the self to enjoy life. Life is naturally rich and abundant. There is nothing more liberating and enjoyable than experiencing the world around us without grasping. We do not deprive ourselves of experience if we forsake our attachments. Clinging actually inhibits us from enjoying life to its fullest. We consume ourselves trying to arrange the world according to our preferences rather than delighting in the way our experience naturally unfolds.
We can find so much appreciation of life when we are free of the hopes and fears related to self-clinging—even of all the problems we generally try to avoid and dread, such as old age, sickness, and death. The ability to appreciate all aspects of our mind really says something about mind’s magnificent potential. It shows us that the mind is so much greater than the confusions, fears, and unrest that so often haunt us. It show us that our personal suffering and the world of suffering “outside” of us are nothing more than the inner and outer world of our own delusion—samsara.
Nyensa chödpa is cutting through the mind of samsara. What could be much more haunted and fearful than samsara? What could be a greater benefit than getting beyond samsara and our own self-grasping? What could be more meaningful than recognizing that samsara—that which has made us so fearful and shaken—is by nature the nondual nature of emptiness itself? If we do the practice of nyensa chödpa in our everyday life, it is a wonderful way to live this life, and the work we do will measure up in the end.
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Post by silver on Oct 14, 2017 2:12:12 GMT -5
excerpt from J. Kornfield book:
The Temple of Healing
Aging, sickness and death are suffering.
Loss, grief, and despair are suffering.
To lose what you love is suffering.
—Buddha
We all need healing at different times in our lives. Sometimes we need healing for physical illness. At other times, we need to heal the traumas that we’ve suffered and find ways to release the difficulties of the past we carry in our bodies. We need release from the struggles and emotions brought about by our conflicts and the pain we experience from the follies of humanity.
To heal we cannot reject our illness and grief or use anger and aversion to try to get rid of them. Instead, we have to bring a tender, healing energy to all that is sick or torn, what is broken or lost. In the Buddhist prayer of healing, similar to the spirit of Jesus, we recite: “May I be the healing medicine for all who are sick. May I bring healing to myself and others.” We believe that healing is possible and dedicate ourselves to be part of that healing. We become tender and wise with ourselves and those around us, especially when we are experiencing fear and grief ourselves.
Sometimes this is all that healing asks, that we become present. You should never underestimate your power to heal when you step toward difficulty with courage and love, when you touch pain with healing rather than fear. Our healing comes with our own kind attention and through the kind embrace of another. As long as you can, find a passion for the preciousness of life, and bring this care to the healing of your heart and body.
MEDITATION PRACTICE
Sit comfortably and allow your eyes to close. Make sure your seat allows you to be present, awake, grounded, and relaxed. As you sit at ease, feel your connection to the Earth. Center yourself and feel how your breath breathes itself in your body. Then, without trying to change anything, bring a kind attention to what’s comfortable and uncomfortable in your body. Notice if there’s tension, contraction, or pain in certain areas, and ease and relaxation in others. Notice if there’s clutter in your mind or repetitive thoughts. Notice the state of your heart. Does it feel contracted, or soft and open? Is it full of some emotion or feeling, such as fatigue or joy, sadness or irritation? Simply witness whatever is present without judgment. Breathe and let yourself be easy with it all.
After a few minutes, begin to envision or sense in any way you can that you are floating up into the air as if on a magic carpet, up into the clear, blue sky. Take your time. Feel or imagine or sense that you’re floating above the Earth in the stillness of the clear air and luminous sunlight. After a minute or two, allow yourself to gradually descend. Set your intention to descend into a sacred and beautiful Temple of Healing, into a place of great wisdom and healing and love. Let this temple be a surprise. It may be some place you’ve been before or it may be some place you’ve never seen. It may be indoors or out. Come to rest in it. Take as much time as you need to imagine and feel and picture this temple.
Now sense how you feel being in this Temple of Healing. What does the energy of this healing place feel like to you? How does it affect your body and spirit to be present there?
As you sense yourself in this temple and feel how its energy is affecting you, let yourself become aware of the wounds you carry that require healing. Once you have at least one injury clearly in mind, become aware that there is a beautiful altar of healing nearby. Now imagine yourself sitting in front of this altar. After a time, a wise and loving healer who lives at this temple will walk toward you. Let yourself open to, sense, or envision this luminous being as they appear. As this healer approaches you, they will bow lightly to you. Next they will put their gentle, healing hand on the part of your body where you are most deeply wounded. Feel the presence of this healing hand on your injured limb, your pained heart, or your wounded brow. If you wish, you can take your own hand and put it on the location of your deepest wound. Hold the place of your sorrow, your difficulty, or your illness. Touch it as if you were guided by this great healing being. Know that no matter how many times you have buried or resisted this injury or sorrow, how many times you’ve greeted it with fear or aversion, now is the time that you can finally open to it.
As you feel your body opening to this healing touch, explore your sensations. Is the touch warm or cool, hard or soft? Let your awareness be gentle, as if learning the loving touch of Kwan Yin, the goddess of compassion, or Mother Mary, or Jesus. Feel your wounds, fears, and difficulties touched by pure sweetness and openness.
As the very core of your wounds opens to the touch of healing, sense how you’ve closed off from this pain, how you’ve wished it would go away, how you’ve rejected your feelings. Now you are ready to open your heart to experience this pain at last, held by loving attention, with the touch of this luminous being, and by your own hand. Feel the medicine of healing enter you through this touch. Stay with this healing for as long as is helpful. Then shift to any other areas that ask for healing. Take your time.
After this luminous being removes their hand, they have gifts to give you. There is a package of the perfect medicine for you on the altar that this luminous being now places in your hands. This medicine will be in the simple form of a symbol of exactly what you need for healing. Open this gift of medicine and see what is inside the box. If you cannot see it clearly, hold it up to the light. Hold this symbol of the medicine that you need in your hands and become aware of just what it means for you.
Now relax and drink in the blessings of being at this healing temple and in the presence of this luminous and wise being. Finally, imagine that they lean over to you with great compassion and whisper into your ear the healing words you most need to hear. Let yourself hear, imagine, think of, or sense the healing words of this being. Receive their blessings in any way you can. Remember their gift and these words and take them into your heart. Before you leave, if you have any questions for this wise healer, you can ask them and they will answer you. When you feel satisfied, rest in this temple and allow its healing and compassionate spirit to fill your heart and body and mind. Let it touch every part of your being. Stay as long as you wish. When you are ready to leave, imagine you can bow to this healing being with gratitude for everything they’ve given to you. As you depart, know that this temple is inside of you. It is available to return to any time you need it. Remember that you carry all the medicine and healing you will ever need inside your own heart.
This excerpt is taken from the book, “A Lamp in the Darkness”
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Post by silver on Oct 21, 2017 14:07:17 GMT -5
+++v+++
Living in the wilderness, staying peaceful, remaining chaste, eating just one meal a day: why are their faces so bright & serene?
[The Buddha:] They don't sorrow over the past, don't long for the future. They survive on the present. That's why their faces are bright & serene.
From longing for the future, from sorrowing over the past, fools wither away like a green reed cut down.
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Post by silver on Oct 21, 2017 14:14:38 GMT -5
AeIoU
Being unconscious means you’re lost in thought, in the pictures and stories your mind is producing. You have entered the made-up content of your mind and are occupying it as if it were reality itself. Your ego is invested in this content as being real and important, and very likely as a result you are experiencing some kind of emotion (stirred up by the thinking). You have forgotten that all of it is the product of your mind (even if its content appears to be true or important). As a result, you are missing actual reality, what’s happening in the now — including that you are inventing the thoughts. - JAN FRASIER
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Post by Deleted on Oct 21, 2017 15:40:21 GMT -5
AeIoU Being unconscious means you’re lost in thought, in the pictures and stories your mind is producing. You have entered the made-up content of your mind and are occupying it as if it were reality itself. Your ego is invested in this content as being real and important, and very likely as a result you are experiencing some kind of emotion (stirred up by the thinking). You have forgotten that all of it is the product of your mind (even if its content appears to be true or important). As a result, you are missing actual reality, what’s happening in the now — including that you are inventing the thoughts. - JAN FRASIER That's it, yeah. Now, this 'what’s happening in the now'.. is it a feeling state? Is it a way of being? Is it a new ontology? Is it simultaneously precious and ordinary? Is it free from boredom? Can you breath and not make it boring by inventing a new thought?
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Post by silver on Oct 29, 2017 8:41:33 GMT -5
This is from another (Buddhist) forum, in response to a thread discussing suffering and awful things, simply put:
"I try to change what depends on me to change, impact for the better the lives of the sentient beings within my circle of influence, and accept what I cannot change.
Life is what it is and dukkha is ever-present. Resistance engenders second-arrow dukkha. Acceptance empowers us with possibilities."
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Post by silver on Nov 18, 2017 19:37:45 GMT -5
VvvVvvvvvVvvv
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Post by silver on Dec 22, 2017 20:41:12 GMT -5
From another forum in a thread called Buddha and Zen or is it Zen and Buddha?
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