Meditation or Mindfulness

This is a procedure for getting free from your mind’s habitual patterns:

Select an “object of meditation.” This can be any concept or label but for greatest immediate benefit should be rooted in gratitude, kindness or appreciation.

You may repeat a word or phrase  that you find resonance with such as “So kind” or “gentle” or “peace”. Otherwise you may imagine a moment or memory when you felt gratitude, kindness or appreciation and hold that image centered in your heart, your chest.

As you repeat this it becomes automatic and your mind will wander. Be ready when it does and observe what it gets up to. You will begin to separate from the habitual patterns as you are able to observe this and you can establish with clarity that you are not this, you are not trapped in these habits you are simply not used to being aware that they are not you.

This is called one pointed meditation or shamatha. There is a tremendous amount to learn from this process. That treasure chest is yours alone to discover.

Another procedure to help accomplish the same thing is:

Instead of a mentally or emotionally produced and selected object of meditation your focus is on the events of your day. While you engage in whatever you are doing, observe the mind and what it does.

The two procedures work best combined. Do the meditation daily if possible, starting with just a few minutes. This is like preparing the garden bed, it nourishes the soil and reduces the weeds. The Mindfulness can be done at every opportunity, all the time in fact. Most importantly remember to be kind and gentle to yourself in either process.

Over time you will obtain a brief moment in which you are free to make choices that are intentional and authentic to you rather that respond to events on autopilot. This is an extremely valuable gift we can all develop with gentle persistence.

oh good grief...

Jediyana Ordination Winter Solstice 2018

Jedi Master Sensei is seated, music begins

The requestant enters and makes 3 prostrations/bows

music ends

Then JRP says:

“I call on all beings, great and small, past and present and yet to be to witness and support this
commitment and installation of Cleo Kalyana Amazon Wolf into the Jedi way.”

Then Kalyana:

Jedi Master Sensei, I ask you to please restore the Buddha-Dharma-Sangha to the path within and
before me.  I guard this treasure carefully and use it to cultivate Generosity, Compassion,
Wisdom to allay the three poisons. May I never lose the way.

Jedi Master Sensei, I ask you to please restore the Buddha-Dharma-Sangha to the path within and
before me.  I guard this treasure carefully and use it to cultivate Generosity, Compassion,
Wisdom to allay the three poisons. May I never lose the way.

Jedi Master Sensei, I ask you to please restore the Buddha-Dharma-Sangha to the path within and
before me.  I guard this treasure carefully and use it to cultivate Generosity, Compassion,
Wisdom to allay the three poisons. May I never lose the way.

JMS: go and prepare for ordination

(While Kalyana changed JMS gave a short Dhamma talk, thus have I heard: this ordination procedure
is slightly different from yours, Jim, because we have seen how variations in the process have harmed
and hurt others in different traditions, we do not want to go down that road in Jediyana, for us every ritual,
every moment will be fresh and new, given in the spirit that everything changes and honor the intention
rather than the method."

Kalyana: 3 more prostrations

Kalyana:

These are the Training Guidelines/precepts/commitments:
1. I commit to abide by the training guideline not to kill living beings out of malice or irritation
2. I commit to abide by the training guideline not to take what is not given
3. I commit to abide by the training guideline to remain celibate, chaste in body, speech and mind
4. I commit to abide by the training guideline:
to avoid false speech, to avoid harsh speech, to avoid malicious speech,
to avoid idle chatter and gossip
5. I commit to abide by the training guideline to avoid intoxication.
Furthermore: I commit to counteracting the Five Hindrances -  sense desire, ill will, sloth and torpor,
restlessness, skeptical doubt.
I commit to counteracting the Three Poisons - Greed, Anger, Delusion
by cultivating the Three Elixirs- Generosity, Compassion and Wisdom
I acknowledge that I cannot change others so I commit to changing me

The Four Noble Truths and
the Noble Eightfold Path:
1. Dukkha Dukkha
2. Suffering and dissatisfaction are caused by wanting something other than what is.
3. There is a way  for all of us:
4. The Noble Eightfold Path is the way to end suffering and dissatisfaction,

(Heightened Discernment)
Impeccable Understanding and Intention,
(Heightened Virtue)
Impeccable Speech, Action, Livelihood,
(Heightened Mind)
Impeccable Effort, Mindfulness and Meditation "

From/for Jim Rajju Pandu:
"Perception - May I see
Compassion - May I feel
Wisdom - May I know
Mystic - May I be"

There is no clarity without Compassion
There is no creativity without Generosity
There is no freedom without Wisdom
These three elixirs keep me in touch with the Force The Force is the manifestation of Source
I am one with the Force and the Force is with me

Then JMS:

"You are  ordained, a Buddhist monk and a Gray Jedi, do it well."
Welcome Home."

Sangha members speak.

Then JRP says:

I thank all beings great and small, past and present and yet to be for being witness and
support to this commitment and installation of Cleo Kalyana Amazon Wolf into the Jedi way.

Update

Jim Rajju Pandu has been ordained and is flourishing as the first Jediyana nunk. I petitioned Sensei today for full ordination. I tend to take these things way too seriously if that is possible, and it is, so am trying to keep a lid on it. That's part of my practice. More to come.

Historical record

During my time as a nunk I studied with Sensei KC WarEagle and the monks of Great Tree Zen Womens Temple, Ryumonji, Dhammadena and Dhammasukha and Embracing Simplicity monasteries. We founded and built Great Determination Buddhist Hermitage in Stewart, Ohio which we left when I entered school at Emperor's College of Traditional Oriental Medicine.   I was ordained for eight years and like many I found it both a joy and an uphill battle. Rather than continue in that vein I chose to diverge and learn to offer benefit indirectly through the physical application of East Asian Medicine.

it's been almost a year...

wow, so much has happened. Graduated, left California, moved to Maine! Sensei is now Jedi Master Sensei, founder of Jediyana - yes once there were Hinayana, Mahayana, Vajrayana and now there's Jediyana. For me it's a blessed relief from so much tension between the star bellied sneeches and the plain bellied sneeches or whatever Dr Seuss called them. A breath of fresh air, like Sensei herself.

The Dhamma/Dharma - wisdom of the Buddha is found everywhere and just as well in the universe of Starwars as in ancient Asia. The future is no more an illusion than the past, acceptance of historical record is as delusional as it gets, though it is entertaining we cannot rely on it except as it meets our needs for enlightenment so if we choose we can look elsewhere. Our dear Dr. DeeDee tells us how she rewrote her family of origin story into being raised by bears, which has served her very well. We choose something similar with no regrets and great delight. Plus we have movies, : ) Jediyana will pour fourth into the future with our footprints kicking up stardust.

Recover from Delusion

Be here now, do not dwell in thoughts of distant places, do not think of the future - it is unknown, do not think of the past - it is merely a construct, do not compare, do not weigh, simply be, be here now. This moment is all that is, the mental clamor is merely noise. None of us knows anything but our perception in this moment. None of us can predict or recall clearly, we can only be here in this moment - and in this moment we can choose what we feel and what we offer. We can choose to dwell in Compassion, Generosity and Wisdom in this moment, in each moment. Sourced from Compassion, Generosity and Wisdom this moment is fearless, kind and considerate. We are well.

Sensei said her meditation was: "the one who will do the least harm will be elected." None of us can ever know the outcome of any such situation enough to reasonably predict the future. We can only source our own minds and hearts in Generosity Compassion and Wisdom. Be where you are, not where you might be. (Unless where you might be is a dynamic choice of delight and exhilaration.)