Wednesday, January 4, 2012
Blossoming in Silence
"The emergence and blossoming of understanding, love and intelligence has nothing to do with any tradition, no matter how ancient or impressive - it has nothing to do with time. It happens completely on its own when a human being questions, wonders, listens and looks without getting stuck in fear, pleasure and pain. When self concern is quiet, in abeyance, heaven and earth are open. The mystery, the essence of life is not separate from the silent openness of simple listening." Toni Packer
Tuesday, January 3, 2012
Reality of practice
"We come to practice because there are aspects of our mind that we don't know how to come to terms with. ... anger ... sexuality ... anxiety. It can be anything we haven't come to terms with in our lives. But in our sitting, we find out that we have to face exactly those things that we don't want to face. Joko (Beck) used to say that it usually took several years for people to see what practice was really about, and then most of them would quit. They would go off and find some way of pursuing their idealized fantasy of the spiritual life, rather than admit that practice inevitably means sitting with our ordinary mind.
Joko always talked about sitting as building a bigger container, and what was contained was primarily emotion. She wanted the container to hold all the painful, messy, inconvenient things that we usually come to practice to get away from. We sit still with what we came to avoid. Although the pain we may be most immediately aware of is the pain in our knees, everything we avoid is a form of pain, and all are ultimately grounded in the pain of embodied impermanence."
Joko always talked about sitting as building a bigger container, and what was contained was primarily emotion. She wanted the container to hold all the painful, messy, inconvenient things that we usually come to practice to get away from. We sit still with what we came to avoid. Although the pain we may be most immediately aware of is the pain in our knees, everything we avoid is a form of pain, and all are ultimately grounded in the pain of embodied impermanence."
Magid B. Ending the pursuit of happiness - a Zen guide. Wisdom Publications, Boston, 2008.
Monday, January 2, 2012
How does it feel?
"I find this to be a helpful reflection and one that we can test for ourselves: when we behave in ways that are ugly, selfish, cruel, or greedy, what does that feel like? At those times we are less than human; we are out of harmony with life; we feel bad about ourselves. There is an imbalance in the system. The heart can't open in the midst of this chaos.
We can also see for ourselves what happens when we behave in kind and skillful ways. What does that feel like? We feel good about ourselves, and there's a sense of harmony with all things. The heart is open and receptive to the whole panoply of life. We still may be ignorant in many ways, and still prone to all kinds of suffering, but to have this basic sensitivity and nobility of conduct is synonymous with true humanity."
Amaro Bikkhu "Small boat, great mountain." 2003
www.amaravati.org/downloads/pdf/SmallBoat.pdf
www.amaravati.org/downloads/pdf/SmallBoat.pdf
From stillness and silence, again and again
"Wisdom can develop only in a mind that is continually reoriented and grounded in truth and selflessness."
Amaro Bikkhu "Small boat, great mountain." 2003
www.amaravati.org/downloads/pdf/SmallBoat.pdf
www.amaravati.org/downloads/pdf/SmallBoat.pdf
Sunday, January 1, 2012
Liking without clinging
"One day a group of attractive young women came to (the monastery) ... from the local nursing college ... Ajahn Chah gave them a Dharma talk and chatted with their teachers, professors, and so on. Ajahn Sumedho sat next to him for the several hours that this session went on. Sitting in the company of several dozen attractive young women at such close quarters was not something that happened often to the young Bhikku Sumedho.
... after the party from the college had gone, Ajahn Chah turned around and asked, 'So, Sumedho, how do you feel? What did that do to your mind?' ... And Ajahn Sumedho said ... 'I like, but I don't want.' Ajahn Chah was very pleased with this response. In fact, he was so impressed by it, that at every Dharma talk for the next two or three weeks, he referred to it, 'This is the essential practice of the Dharma. There is the acknowledgement that this is attractive, this is beautiful, but then there is also the choice: Do I really want it? Do I have to possess it? Do I need to chase after it? No, I don't have to. Without fear, repression, or aversion, there is a turning away.'"
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