Sadness

There may be no heavier burden than sadness.  Some days it feels as if the sack we carry just gets heavier and heavier.  When we look into the sack and see what is really in there we find brick upon brick of attachments. While each of those bricks represents people, places, or things that have been deeply important to us, our sadness comes from our hope that each will last forever.  Deep down we know that nothing does, that everything changes and passes on over time.  Yet, we cling to the notion that what we have will last and never fade.  When those things do fade we feel sad, sometimes deeply and profoundly so.  What we must do is let the sadness in; it is a legitimate feeling.  To deny, fight it, or ignore it is not the answer.  It is there and it is real.  The only way to get past it is to embrace it and then let it go.  Treat it like a wild animal.  When we can cage them they become something other than what they are; they lose touch with their true nature.  Set them free and they return to what they are.  And so it is with sadness.  Open the cage and let it go - - - in giving it its freedom you can return to your true nature.  Sadness is a burden that keeps a person caged and away from who they are.  I have and continue to know sadness and am always at the cage door pushing it out into the wild, into freedom.  When I do, I too am free to return to my true nature.  When I do I can then see things as they are:  "just so".

Putting Things Down

How often have you heard someone say, "I feel like a weight has been lifted from my shoulders"?  What they are saying is that they have been carrying something around that has been burdensome, difficult, heavy, maybe even crushing.  Who is it that placed the burden there?  What exactly is it?  When we can see both the what and the who we soon can some to realize that we placed the burden on our shoulders ourselves; no one else has. And, just as we placed it there, we are the only ones who can truly put it down.  Others may help us, but our hands are the ones that have to reach up and put it down.  The same holds true for what it is we carry.  No one made it just for us.  There is no one out there who crafted the burden with us especially in mind.  When we can come to terms with the notion that what we carry and how we carry it is of our own making and our own lifting, then perhaps we can find our way to seeing that we too are the only ones who can put it down, feel the relief, and walk on with a lighter step.  The Buddha teaches us that, "everything is created by mind alone".  In the end, what we carry is created in our minds and it is there, in the unfettered light of being and seeing "just this", that we can begin to lift our burdens and get the relief we seek.

A Bee

The Buddha said, "even as a bee, having taken up nectar from a flower, flies away, not harming its color and fragrance, so may a sage wander through a village".  We should be like the bee as we move through our lives.  We land on places and with people over the course of our years.  As we do, and if we live the Dharma, we should not disturb the color or fragrance of those people or places.  We should do what we can in a compassionate, loving, and kind way to enhance their color and fragrance.  It is not for us to change them, but rather to accept them for and as they are.  Let our practice include an act each day that honors someone near to us, to enhance their life, its color and fragrance.  In so doing, the merit in our life increases and both of our suffering diminishes.

end of times: not for a Buddhist to predict

I haven't posted a news item in awhile and thought this was interesting.  See what happens when a monk predicts the end of the world.  Buddhist Sangha takes a different view than western religions. Click on next item for article.

Buddhist Monk in trouble for predictions

Generosity

The Buddha teaches us that generosity (dana) is one of the fundamentals of our practice.  Being generous means that we give at least in proportion to what we have. We should give of all of our resources, financial, energy, material goods, effort, enthusiasm, you name and it should be shared.  There will be times when it is very hard to part with those things---we will want to preserve and protect them.  It is very hard to part with them because we fear being deprived or vulnerable.  Yet, when we can get past our fears and give freely and without expectation then we move closer to peace, joy, and wisdom.  Make no mistake, it is not always easy, but the benefit to others is where our thoughts should be.  Think of the devastation in Japan or the attacks on civilians in the Middle East.  What have you give to help them?  Is there more or something else you can do?  How about those around you whose needs may not be as great as those in Japan or Libya---have you given freely to them today? Find something to give away today.  Be as generous as you can.

Monkey Mind/Sloth Mind Become

I hear a lot of people talk about "monkey mind" but have wondered if they really know where the term comes from.  Here it is---the Buddha's words from the Nidanasamyutta 12. VII:

But that which is called 'mind' and 'mentality' and 'consciousness' arises as one thing and ceases as another by day and by night.  Just as a monkey roaming through a forest grabs hold of one branch lets go and grabs another, the lets go and grabs still another, so to that which is called 'mind' and 'mentality' and 'consciousness' arises as one thing and ceases as another by day and by night.


How often does the monkey in our mind swing from one thought to another?  A recent study suggests that we generate a new thought every 1.2 seconds!! That's 50 thoughts a minute, 3000 thoughts an hour, 168,000 thoughts in a 14 hour day, 1,176,000 thoughts a week, 61,152,000 a year---now multiply that by your age.  Now do you see why you are exhausted AND you haven't done anything yet.  Want some rest? Quiet the mind.  How?  As I have been suggesting.  Stop and be still. Make the monkey a sloth.  Five minutes of quieting the mind a day relieves 250 thoughts that day, 1750 a week, 91,000 a year. May not seem like much but it's 91,000 fewer.  Think of the possible relief with each additional five minutes!!  Make the monkey a sloth!

Laying down a burden

There are times in our lives when it seems that we can't carry another load.  Our reserves are spent, we can't summon energy or enthusiasm.  Yet, we somehow seem to get through it.  The devastation in Japan certainly puts our burdens in perspective.  I can't imagine what it must be like to be there right now.  And what do we see from the Japanese?  Order, calm, resilience.  Wonder if that would happen here?  I also wonder if it has to do with their long Buddhist tradition and it's teachings on impermanence.  The Japanese have had centuries of not just the teaching, but the direct experience of it on a national scale.  I sometimes think that we in America don't get the notion of impermanence---we think we and us are immortal. Not so.
So, when you think the burden you carry is about to crush you, think of the Japanese and it might help with your perspective and assist you in carrying your burden.  If you could find a way to get the right perspective and put your burden down, not pick another one, then you can truly live your life as it is, when it is.  Living that way is a mindful life, a life free from the grasping, clinging, and craving that give rise to the burdens in the first place.

Stop so you can go

"To Do List"  "Shopping List"  "Bucket List"  lists, lists, lists.  Have to do this today, this tonight, this tomorrow, this next week.  Answer the phone, check email, twitter, facebook, run here, do this, don't forget about . . ., did I remember to do, what if I forget . . . . . .  This is our contemporary version of what the Buddha called 'muddled mindfulness'.  It's a mindfulness that has no focus, no relief, and no direction.
It is a muddle of anticipation, vigilance, anxiety, and fear.  Where is the peace and calm in it?
On and on it goes.  The mind spins and spins and takes the body with it.  After awhile it all starts to fall apart.  When do we stop?  Really STOP.  Take some time to let it all go just for a little while.  Isn't that what we do with a child when they rev up and spin wildly?  Don't we get them sit down tell them to be quiet and settle down?  Yet, as adults we don't do that.  Instead, we give all the mundane things a false priority.  Resolve, just for one day, to take 10 minutes and truly stop. Stop everything. Let nothing get in the way of stopping.  Just follow your breath and nothing else. Observe just how much "stuff" tries to get in the way.

If we don't learn how to stop we never quite get the hang of go.

The Look

I have been spending a lot of time recently refining my vision, so to speak. As I have worked on this I came across this poem by Zen Master Bassui Tokusho, a fourteenth century monk.  Before I share the poem I wanted to first share with you a phrase he often used: I teach with the voice of silence.  Silence has a very loud voice!
The last words he uttered before he died, and the poem I want to share with you today, may be his most simple and profound teaching.

Look straight ahead.  What's there?
If you see it as it is
You will never err.


May toady be a day of seeing what's there.

Men and Fish

One of my favorite poets and monks is Thomas Merton, a Trappist monk who died accidentally while attending a Buddhist conference in India. This is one of his poems that I have frequently turned to for reflection. For those unfamiliar with the word "Tao", substitute the words "the Way".

Fishes are born in water
Men are born in Tao
If fishes, born in water,
Seek the deep shadow
Of pond and pool,
All their needs 
Are satisfied.
If man, born in Tao,
Sinks into the deep shadow
Of non-action
To forget aggression and concern,
He lacks nothing
His life is secure.


Moral: "All the fish needs is to get lost water.  All man needs is to get lost in Tao.

Compassion

I'm always looking for brief quotes that, in a very few words, capture the essence of the Buddha's teachings. I came across this one yesterday:

Compassion: a cultivated interest in suffering.


"Cultivated"---if you think of this in terms of how a farmer tends his fields.  He/she nurtures the soil, provides water, tills the space between the rows, protects against frost and disease.  The singular focus is on the health and production of the crop.  Sure, he/she is interested in the field, but more than that, they nurture and protect; a super-interest, if you will.  And so it should be for all of us in the field of suffering. We must do what we can, when can, with a super-interest, to alleviate suffering. Our own and others.  And, like the farmer, we will face bad weather and unexpected challenges, but just as the farmer is undeterred, so must we.

AH!

The owner of the cherry orchard
becomes compost
for the trees

From Japanese Death Poems

Penetrating What Is

In his poem, Faith in MInd, Master Sheng-yen gives us a short verses that we should carry with us and take out when we are wondering what to do:

Cut of talking and thinking
And there is nowhere you cannot penetrate


Ah, again how hard to follow!  Not talking and thinking!?!?  In our modern age of relentless talking and thinking about everything!!  Lindsay Lohan's necklace!  Charlie Sheen's craziness!!  Talk, talk, talk, talk.  Where is the silence when we can see things as they are?  Can you make your own silence and be still in it for awhile?  What will there be?

Zen and Pain Management

There is a fascinating study just released by the University of Montreal on the effects of meditation, and in particular Zen, on pain.  The link is here.  Take the time to read this. You will find it 'enlightening'!

Click on this link:

Montreal Study on Zen and Pain

Cleaning Out The Closet

You know how you feel when the day comes (usually in the Spring) when you open your closet and say to yourself, "I need to get rid of some of this stuff!  Do I really need all of these things?"  It's pretty easy to do if it is your closet. You take a deep breath, get a couple of bags and dig in. You keep going until the closet looks less cluttered.  You have a sense of having actually done something about the closet after thinking about it for so long.  How about your life?  I don't mean to be Forest Gumpy, but what if you looked at life the way you look at the closet?  What if you got rid of all the stuff you didn't need? Maybe, just maybe, when your cleaned out some of the life clutter you may find that things like frustration, anger, judgment, disappointment, dissatisfaction are cleared out as well.  Remember that the Buddha teaches that the roots of our "clutter" are anger, greed, and delusion.  Maybe it's time to start thinking about some Spring cleaning of the closets that are our lives.  Maybe, just maybe, we will suffer a little less in the process.

Being Angry

 A person whom I know quite well emailed me yesterday about a family matter that had her depressed and angry at the same time. Her anger was focused on another person's behavior and her depression rested in her feelings of being neglected and treated unfairly.  She was having a great deal of difficulty letting go of her feelings.  I tried to get her to realize that the anger and depression, at least in these circumstances, where choices she was making.  We talked about how much energy she was expending on something she had no control over.  And there is the lesson for all of us---when we bring our energy to those things beyond our control, to those things that bring us to a place of anger or ill-will, we are losing touch with our true nature, our true mind.  When we choose to move away from these feelings and towards our true nature, our Buddha nature, we move closer to compassion and loving kindness.  It's a hard thing to do.  For my friend, it is very difficult for her to find compassion and loving kindness for those whom she feels such anger. But, if she could make that choice instead of the ones she now makes, all that wasted energy will move in a different direction---the direction of her true nature.  And for the rest of us, the lesson is to always work on making the choice that is our true nature---one of compassion and loving kindness.