Individuation of Dharma Practice

     “The individuation of dharma practice occurs whenever priority is given to the resolution of a personal existential dilemma over the need to conform to the doctrines of a Buddhist orthodoxy. Individuation is a process of recovering personal authority through freeing ourselves from the constraints of collectively held belief systems. If training with a teacher of a certain school leads to a growing dependency on that tradition and a corresponding loss of personal autonomy, then that allegiance may have to be severed. At the same time, unprecedented exposure to a wide range of Buddhist traditions today makes it difficult to accept each school’s unquestioned assumption of its own superiority. In valuing imagination and diversity, such an individual vision would ultimately empower each practitioner to create his or her own distinctive track within the field of dharma practice.”

     Batchelor S. “Buddhism without beliefs. A contemporary guide to awakening.” Riverhead Books, NY, 1997. www.stephenbatchelor.org

Everyday Ordinary Magic

     Early this morning when I was about to drive to work, I saw a narrow linear band of bright blue in the sky. It was amazing and mysterious. I had no idea what it was, until it seemed that the whole sky started moving. Only then did I realize that the amazing and mysterious linear band of bright blue was not in the sky, but was the sky itself! (and all of the dark stuff was just a huge dark gray cloud.)
     This was very meaningful for me. The gray I had incorrectly assumed to be the dark early morning sky, but was but a cloud. While the amazing apparition was in fact what we normally take for granted, the endless sky!

Summer Night by Kristiina Lehtonen   http://www.kristiinalehtonen.fi/index_en.php

Intertwined Interbeing

     “Our relationships and our beliefs about the world have a direct effect on the deep sensations in our body that link into emotion and perception.” Richard Freeman

       Stone M. The Inner Tradition of Yoga. A Guide to Yoga Philosophy for the Contemporary Practitioner. Shambhala, Boston, 2008.

Photo: srcalva   www.dpreview.com

Openness - Having No Opinions

     To what extent can we drop the past, drop the future, and be completely open to the unfolding mystery of the present moment?
     "Only have no opinions" was one meditation master's single advice to his students. If you get rear-ended hard on the highway, what impact does your opinion or expectation of whiplash injury have on future symptoms? If you're sure you're going to have severe problems, isn't it almost certain to come true? If you're desperately hoping you won't have any problems, isn't there a part of you that thinks you will? Isn't the most accurate AND healthy attitude about how your back will be, quite simply: "I DON'T KNOW?"
     Why pollute the future? Can we learn to flow with the dynamic mysterious complex interactive process that is life?

Sprouts by Kristiina Lehtonen   http://www.kristiinalehtonen.fi/index_en.php

 

Me, alone against the world, or ...

     “When the division between myself and the rest of the world is driven by confusion and turmoil, this sharp differentiation hardens even further. My distinctiveness is frozen into an absolute aloneness. I feel abandoned, trapped in my body.

     Again, I need to stop. I may be able to start thawing this isolation by focusing on the complexity that I am. I may be able to ease the spasm of self-centeredness by realizing that I am not a fixed essence but an interactive cluster of processes.”

     Batchelor S. “Buddhism without beliefs. A contemporary guide to awakening.” Riverhead Books, NY, 1997. www.stephenbatchelor.org

A "bluebell wood", Ireland

 

Leading from behind, like midwives, with open questions, turning phrases ...

     “true friends seek not to coerce us, even gently and reasonably, into believing what we are unsure of. These friends are like midwives, who draw forth what is waiting to be born. Their task is not to make themselves indispensable but redundant.”

       Batchelor S. “Buddhism without beliefs. A contemporary guide to awakening.” Riverhead Books, NY, 1997. www.stephenbatchelor.org

Music of Silence II by Kristiina Lehtonen   http://www.kristiinalehtonen.fi/index_en.php

Confidence in Awakening

     “Self-confidence is not a form of arrogance. It is trust in our capacity to awaken. It is both the courage to face whatever life throws at us without losing equanimity, and the humility to treat every situation we encounter as one from which we can learn.”

       Batchelor S. “Buddhism without beliefs. A contemporary guide to awakening.” Riverhead Books, NY, 1997. www.stephenbatchelor.org

January 1, 2013