January 31 – Gratitude
Dear Friends, As another January draws to a close, I want to thank you for your words of encouragement, your comments and emails, and your dedication to your practice. It’s so much easier to sit on the cushion each day, knowing that many of you are joining me in that practice. A practice of gratitude is a support towards cultivating joy. Jack Kornfield writes, Gratitude is a gracious acknowledgment of all that sustains us, a bow to our blessings, great and small. Gratitude is the confidence in life itself. In it, we feel how the same force that pushes grass through cracks in the sidewalk invigorates our own life. In Tibet, the monks and nuns even offer prayers of gratitude for the suffering they have been given: “Grant that I might have enough suffering to awaken in me the deepest possible compassion and wisdom.” Gratitude does not envy or compare.…
January 30 – Eight steps
Dear Friends, I’m on retreat until Tuesday afternoon, but I’ve queued up some emails to keep you inspired while I’m away. Continuing with Bhante Gunaratana’s discussion in Chapter 13, now on the eightfold path. The eightfold path lists steps we can follow to realize the release from suffering caused by craving. In brief, they are: Skillful understanding – we understand that our actions lead to effects Skillful thinking – we cultivate positive thoughts, like generosity and kindness Skillful speech – we tell the truth and avoid harsh talk or gossip Skillful action – we try to live our lives in a way that won’t harm others or ourselves Skillful livelihood – we conduct ourselves in our work with integrity and honesty Skillful effort – we work to release and prevent unskillful states of mind, and foster and continue skillful states of mind Skillful mindfulness – for example, by having a…
January 29 – Four truths
Dear Friends, I’m on retreat until Tuesday afternoon, but I’ve queued up some emails to keep you inspired while I’m away. Today and tomorrow will be brief… I think there is plenty of material, especially from Friday and Saturday, to keep you engaged! Chapter 13 in The Four Foundations of Mindfulness in Plain English visit the Four Noble Truths and the Eightfold Path. I’ll give a quick summary of the four truths today. The four truths are statements about how life is. You don’t have to take these as dogma – instead, turn your mindfulness to investigate your own experience, and see how they measure up. The first truth acknowledges that there is suffering in life. “Suffering” is a heavy word. Some teachers use “stress” or “dissatisfaction” or words like that. The Pali word is dukkha, and I’ve heard it describes that feeling when you’re riding in a cart where the axle…
January 28 – Equanimity
Dear Friends, I’m on retreat until Tuesday afternoon, but I’ve queued up some emails to keep you inspired while I’m away. The seventh factor of awakening and the fourth quality of the heart are both called “equanimity”. I’m not sure if the two are the same thing. I get the sense that they are, but that we are looking at this quality from two different angles – from the angle of mindfulness/wisdom (equanimity as a factor of awakening), and from the angle of love, compassion, and joy (equanimity as a quality of the heart). When in deep states of concentration, equanimity is a skill to help us keep our focus balanced. Bhante Gunaratana writes, If we find that the mind is sluggish, we intensify our mindfulness and investigation in order to rouse our energy and restore balance. If the mind is overexcited, we focus on increasing our joy, tranquility, and…
January 27 – Seven positive qualities (part 2)
Dear Friends, I’m on retreat until Tuesday afternoon, but I’ve queued up some emails to keep you inspired while I’m away. Yesterday, we looked at the first three of the seven factors: mindfulness, investigation, and energy. Today, we’ll look at the next three: joy, tranquility, and concentration. Joy As our mindfulness deepens, we investigate, and then that rouses energy. When the energy is strong, joy arises. Bhante Gunaratana describes five types of feelings of joy: minor joy – makes our body hair stand on end momentary joy – like lightning flashing moment after moment showering joy – descends on the body and then disappears, like waves breaking on a seashore uplifting joy – lifts the body (perhaps even literally) all-pervading joy – suffuses every part of the body He says this joy is not the same as pleasurable feelings of everyday life. You may have experienced moments like this type…
January 26 – Seven positive qualities
Dear Friends, I’m on retreat until Tuesday afternoon, but I’ve queued up some emails to keep you inspired while I’m away. Bhante Gunaratana starts chapter 12 of The Four Foundations of Mindfulness in Plain English with the Gilana Discourse. One of the Buddha’s senior pupils was very ill, so the Buddha went to visit him and asked how he was doing. Mahakassapa said “I am not bearing my illness well. My pain is very great, and it shows no signs of decreasing.” The Buddha then said, I have taught seven factors of enlightenment. When they are carefully developed, they lead to realization and perfect wisdom … What seven? Mindfulness, Investigation into phenomena, Energy, Joy, Tranquility, Concentration, and Equanimity. The story continues: Hearing these words, Kassapa rejoiced… Then and there, Mahakassapa rose from his sickness and his ailment vanished. I read this part of the chapter earlier in the week, when I was…
January 25 – Perception and the breath
Dear Friends, Body, feelings, thoughts, hindrances, aggregates… That’s a lot of things to think about. But it all starts simply. Bhante Gunaratana has this simple reminder about perception of breathing: When you breathe mindfully, you see the arising, existing, and passing away of the form of the breath, or breath-body, immediately as it happens. In the same way, as you breathe in and breathe out, your perceive that feeling, perception, thought, and consciousness are arising, existing, and passing away. When the mind if fully engaged with this “participatory observation,” there is no room in the mind for clinging to the aggregate. I invite you to let all the words settle, and go back to the basics – mindfulness of breathing. Let’s start with a poem from Danna Faulds, from Go In and In: Poems From the Heart of Yoga: Breath of Life I breathe in All That Is – Awareness…
January 20 – Working with mental states
Dear Friends, Joseph Goldstein has said, “For the purpose of meditation, nothing is particularly worth thinking about.” This means thoughts can come and go as they wish, but we don’t need to become involved with them. (Joseph also says, “it’s simple, but it’s not easy.”) Bhante Gunaratana lists five ways to work with mental states, based on the instructions in the discourse on Removal of Distracting Thoughts. Josh Korda of Dharma Punx NYC wrote an adapted translation, which I find easy to read and understand. I found a blog post that summarizes these five as: Replace it Reflect on the disadvantages of the unskillful thought Reject (or ignore) the thought Remove the source of the thought Restrain the thought To elucidate on each of these and to list the simile used for each: Replace it – Cultivate a skillful thought to take the place of the unskillful thought. Like when…
January 18 – Two kinds of thought
Dear Friends, Bhante Gunaratana started chapter 8 with a recounting of the Two Kinds of Thought discourse, where the Buddha described a way we can classify and reflect on thoughts: Suppose I divide my thoughts into two classes. On one side, I set thoughts of sensual desire, ill will, and cruelty. On the other side, I set thoughts of renunciation, loving-friendliness, and compassion. … A thought of sensual desire arose in me. When I considered that this thought leads to my own affliction and the affliction of others, it subsided in me. … Whatever a [meditator] frequently thinks upon, that will become the inclination of his mind. As Joseph mentions in a podcast on right thought, “the more we repeat certain patterns of thoughts, the more probable it is that they will arise again.” He continues, “thoughts condition actions, and different thoughts and motivations in the mind bring about results.”…
January 17 – Luminous is this mind
Dear Friends, We will spend the next few days looking at the third way of establishing mindfulness – mindfulness of mind. In Chapter 8 of The Four Foundations of Mindfulness in Plain English, Bhante Gunaratana first explores the nature of mind and consciousness. First a side-note: “mind” in this context is a translation of the Pali word citta, and it has a broader sense than what we might mean in English. It is sometimes translated as “heart/mind”, as there’s an emotional as well as intellectual element to it. Consciousness is what arises when a sense organ (e.g. ear) meets a sense object (e.g. sound) – then there is basic awareness of hearing. Mind can be considered a sense organ, which meets internal objects, like thoughts and memories, and then mind-consciousness arises. Bhante says, “The mind wants to shine by itself, but its mental contents don’t allow it. They conceal the mind’s luminosity…
January 15 – Harmful and beneficial feelings
Dear Friends, Welcome to the beginning of our third week together! As you recommit to your intention for practice, here are some helpful words just posted on Tara Brach’s Facebook page: It is helpful to start your meditation with a reflection on what matters to you. Some meditation students bring to mind an all-encompassing aspiration, while others focus on a particular intention for the sitting or the day. For instance, you might connect with your aspiration for loving fully or decide to embrace whatever difficult emotions arise during your practice. You might aspire to the truth— to really see what is happening and what is real— or you might have the particular intention to recognize and let go of thoughts. When you begin by asking your heart what matters, you are already on the path to presence. This week, we’ll continue exploring feeling, and then move into mind states. Chapter…
January 13 – How feelings arise
Dear Friends, I’ll start with this quote, often attributed to Viktor Frankl: Between stimulus and response lies a space. In that space lie our freedom and power to choose a response. In our response lies our growth and our happiness. Yesterday, I invited you to turn your attention to the “flavor” of an experience – to notice whether an experience is pleasant, unpleasant, or neither. Today, we’ll follow along this to notice what often happens when things are pleasant, or unpleasant, or neutral. Last spring, Jeanne offered a daylong retreat on a teaching called Dependent Origination, which traces how things can be conditioned by what comes before. In Jeanne’s retreat, we focused on the middle links in the chain, which Bhante Gunaratana also reviews in chapter 6 of The Four Foundations of Mindfulness in Plain English. As an example, consider a simple act of seeing. Light hits an object, and bounces…
January 10 – Learn to live well
Dear Friends, As we pay attention to our breath, we can start to notice that each breath has a beginning, middle, and end. As we pay attention to sensations in the body, we can also notice how they too have a beginning, middle, and end. Thoughts, emotions, difficulties, pleasantness – have a beginning, middle, and end. Your favorite tea mug, your job, even the sun. Bhante Gunaratana reminds us, “everything that exists has three moments: a rising moment, a living or peaking moment, and a moment of cessation.” And so to with life… And rather than that being some kind of bummer, I find that remembering this helps me get less fussed about the “small stuff” and opens my heart to greater compassion and caring. Here’s a reflection that I try to recall each day: The Five Remembrances I am of the nature to grow old. There is no way to escape…
January 8 – The ruby inside
Dear Friends, A poem by Kabir: The small ruby everyone wants has fallen out on the road. Some think it is east of us, others west of us. Some say, “among primitive earth rocks,” others, “in the deep waters.” Kabir’s instinct told him it was inside, and what it was worth, And he wrapped it up carefully in his heart cloth. Kabir suggests that the treasure we seek is inside, so part of our practice is paying attention to the body. In The Four Foundations of Mindfulness in Plain English, Bhante Gunaratana starts chapter 4 by reviewing the contemplation of body parts. The body is an amazing thing. National Geographic has a neat reference on The Human Body. The traditional meditation practice on body parts contemplates 32 parts. The Insight Meditation South Bay has a description of this practice. They write that “This traditional way of investigating the body supports the development of…
January 6 – Clear comprehension in daily life
Dear Friends, Gil Fronsdal’s translation of the opening two stanzas of the first verse of the Dhammapada is: All experience is preceded by mind, Led by mind, Made by mind. Speak or act with a corrupted mind, And suffering follows As the wagon wheel follows the hoof of the ox. All experience is preceded by mind, Led by mind, Made by mind. Speak or act with a peaceful mind, And happiness follows Like a never-departing shadow. I’m sure we’d rather have happiness rather than suffering as the result of our speech and actions. The activities of body and mind are the laboratory, and we investigate our experience to determine what leads to suffering, and what leads to happiness. This requires us to be mindful, with clear comprehension, when we act or speak. As discussed yesterday, clear comprehension means we recognize our motivation for an action, know its suitability, stay within…