INSIGHTAotearoa
A newsletter for New Zealand's insight meditation practitioners and communities
98 Riverside Road, Gisborne, 4010 Aotearoa New Zealand
deborah @ insightaotearoa.org | ISSN 1177-5076
Monday 5 April 2010
Kia ora,
IN THIS NEWSLETTER YOU'LL FIND...
1. EDITORIAL: Welcoming Change
2. Meditation and Mental Patterns
3. Martine and Stephen Batchelor in New Zealand
4. Dharma Gathering 2010: A Darling Event
5. POEM: No Separation
6. POEM: Sweet Darkness
7. Questions ... questions ...
8. Sangha News
9. The Last Word: Natural Presence
1. EDITORIAL: Welcoming Change
I am happy to announce INSIGHTAotearoa lives on with a fresh editing team. Christine Dann joins Kanya Stewart to become IA’s new co-editors. Peter Fernando continues with editing support and I will offer transitional support. Welcome to Christine. Welcome to this next phase in the life of INSIGHTAotearoa. Welcome to the ever unfolding dharma of our lives.
This April edition of INSIGHTAotearoa features the article “Meditation and Mental Patterns” by Martine Bachelor followed by booking information for the Martine and Stephen Bachelor Taupo Retreat in November. Our new co-editor, Christine Dann, gives us a peek at the Dharma Gathering that blessed Staveley Camp in January. The Wellington Insight community continues to update its transformation and events. Our poets of the month are Judith Rothstein and David Whyte. Tara Brach brings us the last word about meditation practice and “Natural Presence.”
This is my farewell to all of you. It has been my pleasure and dana to serve as editor. IA has been a big piece of my life for two and a half years. I welcome the change and the letting go.
May you be happy.
Blessings,
Deborah White
Editor
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The secret of health for both mind and body is not to mourn for the past, nor to worry about the future, but to live the present moment wisely and earnestly.
--The Buddha
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2. MEDITATION AND MENTAL PATTERNS
-- by Martine Batchelor
When we meditate, we become aware of our patterns of thinking. We start to see how they affect us, and how they hold us in their grip. As human beings, it is wonderful to be able to think, reflect, imagine, plan and discriminate. These are inherent functions of our mind.
When you meditate, sitting quietly, trying to focus on the breath, sensations or sounds, you start to notice what takes you away from the focus. A thought emerges, and it is so fast and intimate that you do not question it, you are not even aware of it arising. You just think it and act according to what it seems to dictate to you to say, do or feel. When you look at how you think, you start to notice the language in which the thought is expressed inside your head. You are talking to yourself most of the time. There is a constant commentary going on in your head. What shape does it take? How is it expressed? What is the texture of the stream of mind? What do you cultivate that will influence that texture positively or negatively?
Are we using a language in our mind, which is tentative, soft and open or are we using a language which is harsh, strict and compulsive? We will feel differently if in our mind we are saying repeatedly, ‘I must, they must, it has to be, it cannot happen, they should, he never, she always’. The more we use this kind of language internally, the more we will feel tension and rigidity, especially if things do not go according to plan. If instead we were to use more tentative language like ‘I could, he possibly, it might, they sometimes’ we then would encounter reality and circumstances with a more open and creative attitude. We would be open to things going one way, but also happening in a different manner as well.
Experience the difference you feel if you think ‘I must go to see this concert’ to ‘I could go to this concert’. With the first version you will fight and strain so that it must happen at all costs. With the second one you are open to it and will rejoice if it happens but if it does not, it will be fine. We can be so stressed by minor things but if we could bring less grasping to our thinking process, we would better evaluate what is essential and not so essential.
When grasping becomes a predominant pattern, we end up grasping at everything the same way without wise discrimination. Creatively engaging with our mental patterning would enable us to modulate more widely our response to different conditions.
A subtler pattern of thinking is measuring and counting. How do I measure up? How happy, wise, compassionate, clever am I or have I been? It is like when you were children and your parents measured your height; where were you in connection with the decisive benchmark? Were you above it? Then you could feel tall and proud. Or were you below? Then your head would droop as you had not measured up.
What is your mental benchmark for happiness, wisdom and compassion? Often meditators feel bad because they are not mindful enough or wise enough or compassionate enough. Who decides where the benchmark is? Do we need one? The mental benchmark will be abstract and as such unrealistic. We cannot fit a description in a book. We cannot fit an image in our brain. We cannot fit the apparent happiness or compassion of someone else. We can only do the best we can at any given moment and try to learn from our mistakes.
It is important to notice that our mental patterns have different levels of activities. They can be intense, habitual or light. They become intense when something happens that is surprising, shocking, exhilarating or hurtful. This will trigger the obsessive nature of the pattern. Then we feel invaded by the pattern and we cannot think about anything else; it is like an imprisoning loop. We just obsess and the story goes round and round in our mind.
It is essential here to see that we are not always like this and that this situation was provoked by a specific incident. The power of the reaction is often so strong that the only thing we can do is to create minute spaces in the loop for a few seconds. We do this by throwing the question ‘What is this?’ and then grounding ourselves physically in the moment by being aware of our feet if we are walking or the sensation of our hands on each other if we are sitting. Or we can say to ourselves gently: ‘let it go, let it be for a few seconds’ and then try to imagine that we are resting our whole being on the physical experience of the breath – in-breath, out-breath, in-breath, out-breath.
When nothing has happened particularly, then the mental patterning is habitual – like judging for example. In this case, it is important to see the pattern in action, to notice its effect and to loosen its power. You dissolve the power of the habit by not feeding it, which means that you do not proliferate or identify with the judging. You bring the mind back to its natural function by using one of the tools of awareness, that is you focus on the breath, the sounds or the question to come back to the whole experience of the moment. You can use any method of meditation that seems to help you create more space and openness, and enable you to restore the un-patterned functionality of your mental abilities.
Light mental patterning is natural. A live brain is active, constantly firing and thinking of something. We will have aimless trains of thoughts, weird association of ideas, shopping lists or light planning. These are interesting in so far that due to their lightness, we can play with them more easily and also laugh at them as we recognise certain motifs and see how unnecessary they are. We need to recognise light mental patterning because under certain circumstances we move quickly from light to habitual to intense and we find ourselves in the grip of an obsession, which just started as a faint wisp of thought in the mind.
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2. Martine and Stephen Batchelor’s Taupo Retreat in New Zealand
Bookings are now being taken for Martine and Stephen Batchelor's retreat at Tauhara Centre, Taupo from Monday 8 through Sunday 14 November, 2010. For more details on this retreat visit http://www.abet.net.nz/batchelor-2010/ and to book a place send an email to Ramsey Margolis heuristics @ mac.com. Early registration is advised as all places on this retreat will be taken soon.
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If you stop trying to make yourself into more than you are out of fear you are less than you are, whoever you really are will be a lot lighter and happier, and easier to live with, too.
-- Jon Kabat-Zinn
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4. DHARMA GATHERING 2010: A DARLING EVENT
--by Christine Dann
New Zealand's second Dharma Gathering took place from January 29 to February 5 at Staveley Camp, Canterbury. Although the second Gathering, it was also a first - the first mixed Zen/Insight Gathering.
This was exciting for one of the teachers present, Subhana Barzaghi, who has been teaching and leading groups in both traditions for some twenty years, (read more about Subhana at http://www.subhana.com.au) and it was equally exciting for all the yogis present, whether from Zen or Insight traditions. Complementing Subhana's teachings were Arthur Wells Sensei of the Diamond Sangha (http://www.zendo.org.nz) and Insight teacher Jeremy Logan.
Since Dharma Gatherings are a new thing for Aotearoa, I can't really say what 'typically' happens at them, but a pattern is building up which combines lots of opportunities for silent meditation with learning and creating activities of all kinds. A typical day follows the pattern of exercise and meditation before breakfast, a choice of workshops from mid-morning to lunchtime, a two hour break after lunch to be enjoyed as you please (swimming in Bowyers Creek, walking in the nearby beech forest, and doing coffee at the Staveley Store seemed to be popular choices), more meditation, another workshop choice, and a dharma talk before the evening meal, then another sitting meditation followed by a special group activity before bed time. On the fourth day of the gathering a full day of silent meditation is observed.
The workshops this year were a delightfully eclectic mix, ranging from non-violent communication methods and metta practice through poetry study to 'the life of Sid' (dhartha Gautama, aka the Buddha). A very popular workshop was the Japanese tea ceremony hosted by Leslie and David, where many of us were shown for the first time just how 'form is emptiness' in this complex and gracious way of taking a tiny amount of tea.
The special activities in the evening included inquiry sessions with Subhana, Zen chanting, an experiential engagement with the Noble Eight Fold Path led by Julie Downard, a poetry and song session, and the very funny German film 'Enlightenment Guaranteed' by Doris Dorrie, in which two brothers facing life crises get lost and found in a Japanese city and monastery - in excruciatingly uncomfortable ways. There was also an unscheduled additional special activity, courtesy of Lindsay Lyon's study of the stars. She led us outside one night to watch the International Space Station whizz directly overhead, amazingly big and bright for something 350 km away.
In the break times some people were busy constructing a mandala in the central courtyard, and decorating it with all manner of natural objects, from flowers woven from flax leaves to a dead mouse (thoughtfully provided with first a sheet, then a pillow and finally a sunshade as the days went on). Others were out in the patch of native forest next to the camp, helping me with cutting out the woody weeds beside the tracks - we got them all cleaned up during the week.
Over the course of the Dharma Gathering week a warm community is formed, friendships are made, and some great conversations are had. One feels very privileged to be in such supportive company, walking the same path as people whom might be very different from oneself, and yet who are equally serious about striving for the goals of waking up, and being of benefit to others. I especially enjoyed the Zen and Insight mix, and hope it will happen again.
The next Dharma Gathering is scheduled for January 2012. I hope to see you there!
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The unbounded happiness of the Buddha was founded on the clear seeing and compassion running through his life in all circumstances.
-- Sharon Salzberg
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5. POEM: No Separation
--by Judith Rothstein
The storms of illusions
create wave after wave,
powerfully impacting all around.
A constant pushing at the ocean's edge,
believing that's the point where land meets sea.
Yet deep beneath the water's surface
there's a stillness, an absolute calm.
Upon the ever present, expansive ocean's floor,
the water rests on the sand and they meet fully.
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6. POEM: Sweet Darkness
--by David Whyte
When your eyes are tired
the world is tired also.
When your vision has gone
no part of the world can find you.
Time to go into the dark
where the night has eyes
to recognize its own.
There you can be sure
you are not beyond love.
The dark will be your womb
tonight.
The night will give you a horizon
further than you can see.
You must learn one thing:
the world was made to be free in.
Give up all the other worlds
except the one to which you belong.
Sometimes it takes darkness and the sweet
confinement of your aloneness
to learn
anything or anyone
that does not bring you alive
is too small for you.
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7. QUESTIONS ... QUESTIONS ...
Do you have a question about your practice or about Buddhism in general? Send it in, and we will put it before a teacher. If it can be answered easily, it will be in a future INSIGHTAotearoa. Send your question to deborah @ insightaotearoa.org or by post to Newsletter, 98 Riverside Road, Gisborne 4010.
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8. SANGHA NEWS
This newsletter comes to you without a subscription price because our readers offer dana to support it. A traditional Buddhist generosity practice, dana received will be used to develop the newsletter, and the community that practices insight meditation. Regular automatic payments are very welcome. You can also post cash or cheques to 98 Riverside Road, Gisborne 4010, making cheques payable to INSIGHTAotearoa. Here is the bank account information:
Account name: INSIGHTAotearoa
Bank: ASB Bank
Branch: Lambton Quay
Account number: 12-3140-0285603-00
From outside New Zealand, the SWIFT code is: ASBBNZ 2A.
Mindfulness in Plain English can now be downloaded from http://www.urbandharma.org/udharma4/mpe.htm
Aotearoa Buddhist Education Trust
A charitable trust which raises funds to bring insight meditation teachers to New Zealand. To find out more visit http://www.abet.net.nz
Insight meditation in Aotearoa on the web
http://www.insightmeditation.org.nz – information on New Zealand's insight meditation practitioners and communities
http://www.insightaotearoa.org – the website for this newsletter
http://www.southern.insightmeditation.org.nz – Christchurch sangha Southern Insight's website
INSIGHTAotearoa goes out on the first of the month listing insight meditation events during the month to follow throughout the country as well as containing article of interest, encouraging and assisting the formation and growth of communities of meditation practitioners around the country. If you'd like to write for INSIGHTAotearoa or there's an insight meditation event you'd like included, contact Deborah: deborah @ insightaotearoa.org | 06 863 0020 begin_of_the_skype_highlighting 06 863 0020 end_of_the_skype_highlighting begin_of_the_skype_highlighting 06 863 0020 end_of_the_skype_highlighting begin_of_the_skype_highlighting 06 863 0020 end_of_the_skype_highlighting begin_of_the_skype_highlighting 06 863 0020 end_of_the_skype_highlighting begin_of_the_skype_highlighting 06 863 0020 end_of_the_skype_highlighting | 021 238 5347.
This issue is going out by email to 390 people and to 15 by post.
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9. THE LAST WORD: Natural Presence
Meditation is commonly described as a training of mental attention that awakens us beyond the conditioned mind and habitual thinking, and reveals the nature of reality. The process and the fruit of meditation practice is understood as Natural Presence. Presence is a mindful, clear recognition of what is happening—here, now—and the open, allowing space that includes all experience. There are many supportive strategies (called “skillful means”) that create a conducive atmosphere for the deepening of presence. The art of practice is employing these strategies with curiosity, kindness and a light touch. The wisdom of practice is remembering that Natural Presence is always and already here. It is the loving awareness that is our essence.
--- Tara Brach
Tara Brach's short booklet "How to Meditate, a guide to formal sitting practice" is available for download as a PDF on the Library page of the community's website at
http://www.insightmeditation.org.nz
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Thank you for taking the time to read this. If you would like to remove yourself from the INSIGHTAotearoa mailing list you can unsubscribe via the website: http://www.insightaotearoa.org. If you've received this from a friend and would like to be on the email mailing list, subscribe via the website: http://www.insightaotearoa.org. Write to Newsletter, 98 Riverside Road, Gisborne 4010 if you would like to receive this by post.
With Metta,
Deborah White, Kanya Stewart, Christine Dann, and Peter Fernando