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.

paintings

Since starting this series of paintings, landscapes populated with people and critters and places that I would like to visit or build, I am so tickled with it, like building a city in a sandbox. So involved that when there is something not right, or is slightly off or incomplete, it affects me inside…that is if whatever is ‘wrong’ in the painting is not corrected my body responds, physically with odd sensations, Qi sensations. The paintings affect the Qi in my body, like a wind or sun, either too much or too little. The structure of the paintings has to be harmonious for the Qi to be in harmony, good lord what have I stumbled on? 

Is it the painting that reflects me or do I reflect the painting? 

Whichever, I guess it means this is ‘good art,’ my ‘ming’ or an alchemy straight from the heart. It has that freedom that a I recall from long ago, cupped in self acceptance, open to the world.

Osho...

An inside journey is a journey
towards absolute aloneness;
you cannot take anybody there with you.
…Nobody is with you. You are alone,
and you have to understand
that this aloneness is so precious
that you should not lose it.
Osho


Weird thing - this popped up on the computer after I turned it on first thing in the morning after tossing and turning in the wee hours, when the path seems so difficult and friends so absent.


Osho is listening...

Assault prevention class

In my class at Emperor’s College there is an extraordinary man who is offering a free class in assault prevention. I signed up for it. Why is he extraordinary? Because he is a peaceful warrior. It is something I don’t really understand; he has spent so much of his life focused on physical violence, as an athlete, a soldier, a cop, a trainer. But this is where the telling point resides- intention is the karma builder, not action.

Why would a pacifist, a Buddhist Nunk, take such a class? How can this be appropriate? What would the other Sangha members say? Oh my…( I spend way too much time thinking about critics in my imagination) Of course Sensei believes it is reasonable and appropriate. For me it is this discussion that makes it sooo appealing. The very question, of whether it is appropriate or not.

The ordained Sangha live by a discipline established by the Buddha and elaborated by long ago Sangha members into a complex set of guidelines. Most of those guidelines describe how to make the most of this human life so that the practice can best be accomplished.  This includes remaining safe and fit, with the “pure” mind taking priority over body but acknowledging that the body is not separate from or unrelated to the mind. “Pure” means free of hatred, greed and delusion.

A section of the discipline relates to safety in travel. There is a line in some interpretations that says we should not travel unarmed into dangerous territory. Some believe that not going unarmed means not traveling without armed escort even to the point of writing and reciting the guideline that way. Some Sangha members that say it is all right to have others do something you shouldn't as long as your own hands remain clean. For instance they have said and indicated by action that it is ok for them to tell a lay person to uproot plants or have others actually pay for their food and conveniences, as long as they do not do so themselves. That is their prerogative, each of us has the responsibility to decide and act according to our own understanding, it is all right for them.

One of the amazing things about the Buddha Dhamma is that we are required to investigate it for ourselves. This can take a lot of time and introspection. Venerable Sensei is remarkable to me because like the Vajjian monk she adheres to the three trainings, the training in Heightened Mind, Heightened Virtue and Heightened Discernment. I am so grateful that she is my teacher and noble friend, because I too can abide in these three but the others are, especially in this distant place and time, not correct for me.

For me it is the intention behind the act, in this case the challenge of acting to prevent assault without losing compassion, empathy, understanding for an attacker. Years ago there was a popular bumper sticker that read: Mean People Suck. Shortly after that came out there was a follow up one that read: Mean People Are Hurting. I believe that this is true. I believe it is my responsibility to guard and protect myself from causing harm or receiving harm, harm being malice or irritation. That is from the actual guideline regarding not taking life: Do not take a human life in malice or irritation. Many people do not accept this and interpret it as simply do not kill, including even insects. That is their prerogative. Certainly every being that lives (and what does not?) cherishes that life in some fashion.

I see that there is no life without death, that every act we undertake causes some harm but if we acknowledge this and do not intentionally harm with malice or irritation then the world is made so that harm actually benefits and a balance is achieved. It would be wrong for me to allow another to get away with inflicting harm or deleting life in this body/mind without showing them compassion and forgiveness. Preventing assault is the means of doing that. No different than taking antibiotics or restraining an unskillful thought. It is up to each of us to interpret and clarify and explore what is skillful.

It seems that many accept the opinions of others to gain acceptance and even praise. Some of us choose a stance in order to elevate themselves in the eyes of others. I choose the challenge of maintaining compassion in the face of fear, fear of death and mutilation and pain and loss. I choose to look into this before the event that I may prepare in case it should ever happen. Supposedly these things do happen to people every day all over this planet, there are predators and prey everywhere at every level of existence in this realm. I take this opportunity as it presents itself for the second time because the universe is apt to hit me with a stick when I ignore a repeated suggestion. (This is the second time Tom has offered the class.) So it’s not directly Dhamma but I can observe it in the light of Dhamma and follow the promptings of what ever it is that creates the path.

This is a skillful means for me to explore the concepts of life, living and dying by returning the mind to the moment.. Recall the story of the five monks residing in the forest who were killed by attackers. The story is largely about exploring attachment - it brings up the question of whether to give your life for others, of who should die when others live, etc. The great beauty of this story for us in Great Determination Sangha has been Sensei drumming into us the "fact" that there is no skillful way to consider any of these questions – the only skillful means is to practice living in the moment and then should such an even occur be there mindful of that moment and that moment alone. I can tell this is right by the sense of expansion and freedom and even joy it brings. So sometimes it is ok to consider previous discussions, opinions, conflict and ideas and then it is a wonder to release and return to this moment and no concerns.

Venice Beach

latest landscape just for fun

cutest dog in the universe and beyond

lessons from dogs # 999: Lay in the sun when the chance arises, but a lap is great after a long day.