Rules

"SuttaCentral’s Vinaya coverage now includes:

• Correspondences for Vinaya rules, totally some 14,000 individual instances of rules across 45 texts."

 thank goodness for the Buddha's common sense  and impeccable intention to bring clarity to us. As is recorded in the Vajjiputta Sutta: 

"train in reference to those three trainings: the training in heightened virtue, the training in heightened mind, the training in heightened discernment"

these are the three divisions of the Noble Eightfold Path:

Heightened Discernment: best understanding and best intention

Heightened Virtue: best speech, best action and best livelihood

Heightened Mind: best effort, best mindfulness and best meditation

nothing is left out, nothing is unclear, persist and do your best, never forgetting the Buddha layed out GUIDELINES for our benefit, not rules.

new view at website

futzing around with website created link to this blog, hope you enjoy the new look.

practice

we have a lot of work to do, nunks that is...not just nunks but anyone pursuing a spiritual practice path. What comes to your mind when I put that out there?
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That was space in which to reflect. Did reform come to mind? Did personal discipline? Did the world at large? Did the Sangha?

I was actually just thinking about our practice, the continuous effort of minding the mind, guarding, restraining, taming and training the mind. When disharmony arises observing the turbulence manifested is absorbing and then observing the resumption of calm is also and this is the practice we share at GD.

It is so good to remember this when hindrances jostle to the head of the line. It is a challenge to stay rooted in this effort rather than making plans and responding to conditions and participating in discussions not centered on that effort, after all the discussions can be so close, so almost about the practice. But then a check in with the heart reveals that no, the discussion is just about decorum or deportment or translation or some other artificial construct and its importance fades away. Excitement fades away and Stillness shines forth again. All is well.

This is the avenue of practice we choose at great determination. The Dhamma and the Discipline are ever present, crystalline and vibrant but how are they known? They are tested, weighed and evaluated by utilizing discernment developed in meditation. This makes for a slow and humble approach, a gentle and respectful review of events that is not without humor. Written guidelines are applied with generosity, compassion and wisdom. The hazards of comparing, measuring, and adhering to strict interpretations is recognized and the harm in them assiduously avoided.

Clarification or obfuscation?

Sammuditta writes: 

Could you elaborate on this for me, please? From your blog:

"Lately she likes to say, 'We are all winners in the end.' This is the realization of oneness, we are one and we are now and all is what it is."

Do you mean we are one(Brahman) as in advaita, or do you mean interdependent origination? The former would be one extreme but the latter could still fit into advaya(beyond one/many, existence/nonexistence, self/nonself, etc...).

This was most likely taken out of context but since I haven't been there in awhile I was curious.

Thank you for your time.

Hi, it's been awhile, glad to hear from you. As you know, Sensei is not one to approach the Dhamma from such an academic perspective. Following her practical teachings helps me to alleviate suffering in my own mind and thereby not contribute to others suffering, perhaps even help.

So I mean "One" as in we are all interconnected, inseparable, duality is delusion. So to alleviate others suffering we must alleviate our own. She means there is no need to worry, no benefit in distress, worry and distress focus on the negative and close the door to the positive. How is that not duality? There is the essential paradox, as small minds we create duality to analyze, to discuss, to consider. The problem comes when we get attached to the categorization we applied and believe in its reality. Non duality is Oneness when we drop attachment to good and bad, positive and negative, then the potential is unlimited and our cultivation of the roots of happiness bears fruit. We are not applying just one strategy but several including attending to our own position in time and space.

In applying the teachings we each interpret, evaluate and implement them according to our own natures. Sensei bases the lessons in Dhamma but it is taken as a whole not sectioned out, it would be less effective for her to relate each point she makes to a particular passage. 

Welcome back, I am glad to say this not where a discussion of terms takes place, this is where we breathe generosity compassion and discernment right now and realize that terms like 'Brahman, advaita, and interdependent origination' are windows; here we are trying to open those windows to fresh air. Did I? or did I pull the shade unintentionally? I certainly don't have her discernment yet. I am only acting out of an intention based in cultivation of generosity compassion and wisdom, which I freely admit I could be doing better at. It is a persistent effort, a lot of effort, but it feels good.

global warming

one of our most esteemed colleagues has a widely read blog ( http://sujato.wordpress.com/ )
where lately he discusses global warming at length. Sensei brought it to my attention. The community responding to his blog is quite chatty, intellectual, well educated, wordy. Unlike Great Determination where the focus is more on implementing the practice with our immediate experience. If this sounds judgmental I apologize, we are just notably different which I find interesting, not a bad thing. In fact I am so glad we are different, it is refreshing to have variety in perspectives.

I too am concerned about many things in the news, I read about the environment, people (including animals), science, technology, medicine but most of the time I keep sensei's discussions of Dhamma in mind and shed that light on what I take in. One of the most repeated lessons we work with is be here now. This is not callous, not indifferent, rather it is responsible. I am responsible for my well being which affects those I come into contact with and those they come into contact with and so on. By not becoming focused on the negative I am open to the positive and by cultivating an attitude of gratitude I encourage marvelous experiences to manifest every day and then cultivate awareness of them and celebrate the wonders presenting to my appreciation moment by moment.

This is our response to things like global warming, cruelty, injustice, exploitation, indifference. Perhaps you are familiar with Aikido, where no resistance is offered rather the motion or force presented is facilitated but with a different intention, trajectory and outcome than it originated with. Much the same is the way Sensei guides us in responding to our perceptions with Dhamma. If someone is consistently acting with aggression, unkindness, hostility it is time to practice compassion meditation; if there is a need, a lack, a wish it is time to practice gratitude; if there is sadness, fear, worry it is time to practice acceptance. The way Sensei leads us at Great Determination Sangha to implement the Dhamma is utterly practical.

With global warming and other big picture items it is time to practice trust.  Lately she likes to say, "We are all winners in the end." This is the realization of oneness, we are one and we are now and all is what it is.

Will Power is Committment

soo...Ven complains of having no will power over eating...Me, I struggle with staying aware, staying in touch with the fundamental reasons for taking ordination. Ayya Khema said it takes a spiritual giant to keep at this without the jhanas. I seldom touch the jhanas anymore, spend little time meditating, just a whiff now and then. It is the presence, the mindfulness that keeps me going. Perhaps this is mudita when I wander in appreciation in awe and gratitude and adoration of the diversity, beauty and stunning wonders that I perceive all around me. The etching of the concrete by water leaching out of a clay planter over time produces an image reminiscent of the ghost of a galaxy or a pleasing dissymmetry of color and pattern. A wave of sunshine illuminates colors and brings up the scent of grass.  Birdsong expands the bubble of perception and quiets the mind. Then I know why it is I am doing this. there is so much more to life than the little satisfactions that dampen the body and dull the mind. Times when I do walk as a giant, as a phenomena, as part of this experience. Times when the Qi that houses and nourishes this awareness is expansive and in contact with Qi beyond that which is commonly perceived. There is the moment that makes this right and worthwhile and satisfying beyond words or measure. How on earth can this be difficult to recall or cultivate when it is so powerfully moving? I may be like a moth drawn to the light and find I cannot stay too near but neither can I forsake. There is a quiet anticipation and delight in welcoming each new moment, so that is what keeps me here. And I am so grateful for it, that has nothing to do with ordination, it has been with me since day one, I come by it honestly. My mother calls it being easily amused. Ordination is a declaration that that quality is what is important to me, a declaration that that is what I honor with each breath.

A Buddhist Mystic Practice Model

– wait for the punch line (thanks to  Jim Rajju Pandu)

Volume 13 issue 120 of the Santa Monica Daily Press begins with an article by David Mark Simpson about how kids learn. He quotes UCLA professor Dr. Megan Frank who states that after a year of kindergarten children are actually less able to solve problems than when they started the year. Children are natural problem solvers, we start life with an incredible capacity to learn and create. After having our innate sensibility sand-blasted and buried by mind numbing experiences it is up to each of us individually to dis-cover it again. Maybe this is not so different than the life cycle of a butterfly. It can’t be easy to change from caterpillar to pupa to the supreme harmony that is a butterfly. It isn’t easy to grow in any life.

Look at the unusual case solved by physicians because they watched the TV show ‘House.’ We learn through entertainment, games, storytelling. People have been telling stories and making up games to play for millennia, even millions of years. This is how a mystic learns and teaches, without force, without a pedestal or an agenda but with free inquiry. Follow your bliss, allow happiness to be the guide, stop chasing the butterfly and it comes to sit on your shoulder. Developing intuition, gentle persistence and sustained application in meditation and off the cushion is the key to teaching or leading self and others along the way.

So many people in so many different walks of life, not just Buddhists, tout submitting to discipline and ritual as necessary for the eradication of self that quells attachment to desires. The trouble with this is that the number one function of body - mind is to survive and it will sacrifice curiosity, compassion, and generosity and choose denial over discernment in order to survive. When these get burnt or buried the loss is bitter and the reaction toxic. This is why we must be ever so gentle, mindful of the playful inquisitive and happy nature of original mind. When we sit down to meditate the first thing to do after assuring that the body is not going to distract us it to let the kids out to play. That means that just like kids spilling out onto a playground at recess the mind must allow thoughts to roam free, with minimal supervision. The Buddha found the way to enlightenment, entering the Jhannas as a child sitting at ease under the mayapple tree while waiting and watching as his father did what he did. We recreate the essence of the circumstances in our own way when we walk the true path. This purifies the emotions, straining out the three poisons (anger, greed, delusion.) This approach to meditation should follow us off the cushion and into daily life 24/7. Kindness must begin with ourselves or we will never see how unkindness to ourselves spills out onto others. This is the Ripple Effect, a quantum field phenomena, provable in physics as we know it today. It can be verified but not quantified because we have no way of measuring what is effected, our body mind is too limited to be aware of what is around us unless we become enlightened and then perhaps…However we can accept that coming from the roots of happiness (generosity, compassion and discernment) the outcome will be beneficial.

So that is the way of the Mystic. It is organic and all natural, pleasant and delightful. Conflict can arise if we fail to follow the middle way and get attached to rites and regulation. The Buddha taught about the many Hindrances that obscure the path of practice and the remedies to address each one so we are not on our own figuring these out. For the Mystic knowledge is a minefield and the sweeper is discernment developed in meditation. This is from the Buddha Dhamma, it is not new, not untested, nevertheless the Buddha also taught us to question and try the recommendations for ourselves to find out what is right for us at this moment, in this place and time, for ourselves not others. We cannot find another’s path or techniques and must rely on the understanding that each of us has Buddha nature and will grow best independently interdependent.

The present day model of residing in monastic communities year round is less conducive to the Mystic path of practice. In the Buddha’s lifetime, and we presume for long afterward, the ordained Sangha dispersed across the countryside for most of the year. Reconvening when the weather was bad to avoid causing difficulty for the lay Sangha and themselves. This is a practical approach to the practice. Control and responsibility is centered in the individual. Hierarchy and leadership developed from humility and accountability, which has not always been respected by since then. Corruption is part of the human condition or how else could we aspire to nobility?

This method of learning through trying different approaches, seeing what doesn’t work and applying what actually works or satisfies one person at one moment in one place, is being rediscovered today by science as so many other aspects of the Buddha Dhamma are. The key to achievement is flexibility, being willing to change with the variables. Sometimes this means setting aside what was once accepted and effective for some at a different time and location and sometimes this means resuming practices that worked well in different times or locations. Always we are guided by the basic principles that form the foundation for practice, the Four Noble Truths.

Now for the punch line: three guys are building a bridge, they are halfway across the span and sit down together for lunch. The first pulls out a baloney sandwich and says “I am so sick of baloney, if I have baloney in my lunchbox again tomorrow I am going to jump off this bridge.” The second one pulls out a baloney sandwich too and says, “Me too, if I get this again tomorrow I am jumping off too.” The third one pulls out the same thing and agrees it would be the last straw for him too. The next day when the lunch whistle blows, the three sit down together at the center of the bridge, dangling their feet over the water below. The first guy pulls out a sub sandwich and says, “Now that’s more like it!” and starts to eat. The second guy pulls out a cheeseburger and says, “Oh yeah, my favorite!” The third guy pulls out a baloney sandwich, looks at it miserably and jumps off the bridge. The other two look at each other and one says, “ I feel sorry for him.” The other one nods and says “I really feel sorry for him, he packs his own lunch you know.”

That’s how it is for all of us, we pack our own lunch.