INSIGHTAotearoa
A newsletter for New Zealand's insight meditation practitioners and communities
kanya @ insightaotearoa.org | http://www.insightaotearoa.org
Friday February 4th, 2011
The theme of this issue is Impermanence
Kia ora,
In this newsletter you’ll find…
EDITORIAL: Impermanence OR Quaking All Over
VERSE: from the Theragatha
REFLECTION I: The End of the Beginning
POEM: Mary Oliver
BOOK REVIEW: Instinct For Freedom by Alan Clements
VERSE: From the Samyutta Nikaya
CULTIVATING THE DHARMA GARDEN: Impermanence in the Dharma Garden
THEMES: for upcoming issues
RESOURCES: for Dharma study and support
NEW! Locally-produced Stephen Batchelor DVDs/on-line talks
THE LAST WORD: Traleg Kyabgon
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EDITORIAL: Impermanence OR Quaking All Over
When I was jolted awake to the sound and feel of the house rattling and shaking violently in the dark of the dawn on September 4, 2010, my first thought was ‘This is a really big one!’ The shaking felt long and hard, although it was actually less than a minute, and we were not close to the epicentre of the quake. I also found it a bit frightening, despite being pretty sure that we were in no real danger in our old one-story wooden house in the country, with its huge totara piles below and corrugated iron roof above.
For the next day and a half we had to live without electricity for cooking, water-heating, and computer communications and work. We discovered how useful it is to have a phone with a line, and also how long it takes for the back-up electricity in the telephone junction box at the end of the road to stop working. Through the transistor radio we listened to stories of impassable roads, ruined buildings and other damage in Christchurch. When I finally went into town, I saw that the old buildings in the Beckenham shopping centre on the west side of Colombo St were goners.
I have known and used those shops for at least fifty years – and now they are gone forever. Just like the ones on the east side of the street. These were destroyed by ‘developers’ some three years ago, and replaced by ugly gimcrack alternatives set around an impossible parking space. Maybe something equally ugly and inconvenient will replace the earthquake-wrecked shops. But whatever it is – ugly or beautiful, useful or useless, brick or concrete, wood or stone – I can be sure that it won’t last. Any more than my childhood memories of the old buildings will last, for I will be gone one day as well.
Is there anything that lasts forever? Anything that is always satisfying? And any essence of me to hold on to satisfactions forever? The Buddha thought not. Eric Kolvig* expresses these insights into the impermanent and unsatisfactory nature of existence and of the self as follows:
“The truths we learn through deeper and deeper insight are the three universal characteristics of all phenomena: everything is impermanent; everything is unreliable because it’s impermanent; and everything is not self. How do you think you would feel when you profoundly, intuitively, get the fact that you will lose everything: every possession, every relationship, your body, your life, everything? How do you think you would feel when you profoundly get that nothing whatever in the world is ultimately stable or reliable or secure or satisfying? How do you think you would feel when you profoundly get that there is no self to be found anywhere, that no one is experiencing your experience?
For most of us, at first it sucks."
‘It sucks’ was pretty much what I thought when I saw the loss of the Beckenham shops, and of several other treasured buildings in Christchurch, and knew I would never see them whole again. ‘It sucks’ is what I think when a friendship or other love relationship fails, when someone dear to me dies or moves far away, when I lose a treasured possession or a personal ability, and know there is no going back to the good way things used to be. I don’t like impermanence and unreliability, loss and pain – who does? Yet I have to agree with the Buddha that these are indeed the definitive marks of existence. That being the case, the sooner I learn to work with them skilfully, rather than struggle against them fruitlessly, the better my life will go. But please – no more earthquake wake-up calls!
Christine Dann
Eric Kolvig, from “Crazy and Free” in The Oak Tree in the Garden, Journal of the Hidden Valley Zen Centre. Eric is leading a seven day retreat in New Zealand from April 8-15.
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VERSE: from the Theragatha
If your mind becomes firm like a rock and no longer shakes, in a world where everything is shaking, your mind will be your greatest friend and suffering will not come your way.
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REFLECTION I: The End of the Beginning – Alan Clements
In August 1982, as I was discussing with U Pandita my meditation experience, which had now shifted from Vipassana to Metta meditation – the practice of loving-kindness – Mahasi Sayadaw’s attendant rushed into the cottage and told us that Mahasi just collapsed at his desk and was unconscious. Sayadaw U Pandita and I raced to Mahasi’s residence a few doors down. In a few minutes the ambulance arrived and took him to Rangoon General Hopsital, where he was diagnosed as having a massive stroke. Mahasi never regained consciousness and died two days later.
Over the next week, as his body lay in state, it was easy to see the impact this great man had on the lives of so many people. Braving torrential monsoon rains, several hundred thousand people, sometimes four abreast and a mile long, poured into the monastery from all over the country and around the world to pay their final respects to one of the greatest meditation masters of our era.
I’ll never forget the day his body was burned. At the site of the cremation over a hundred thousand people stood as Sayadaw U Pandita took the microphone and led the gathering in a short Pali chant. I think he quoted the final words of the Buddha, spoken just before his death. “All conditioned things in this world are impermanent. To understand this law is the highest happiness. Strive on friends, with diligence”. I felt no sadness at this time. Only gratitude. This man’s life was a legendary example of harmlessness, compassion and wisdom. His teachings on insight meditation have spread worldwide.
Mahasi Sayadaw provided me with the ground on which my life sits today. Without intensive meditation I would have little understanding of the complex world in my mind and heart. I will be forever honoured to have been his first long-term American Dharma student, as well as that of Sayadaw U Pandita. And although much of my Dharma understanding has expanded from my time in the monastery, the basis of what I share in my retreats today, “World Dharma, natural freedom, and undifferentiated awareness meditation”, contains their insights, and doesn’t reject a thing.
Days after Mahasi Sayadaw’s passing, I was told by the authorities once again to leave the country. Soon thereafter I chose to disrobe as a monk and face my life in the world. My life as a monk had come to an end. I had no idea at the time of the people’s “revolution of the spirit” that had been brewing during those years in the monastery. Little did I know that my next twenty years of involvement with Burma would be incomparably more complex and compelling than any insight gained in meditation. In some mysterious yet real way, I feel that my Dharma life began on the day I disrobed as a monk. This was the end of the beginning.
Alan Clements (2002), Instinct for Freedom, California: New World Library, p.177
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POEM: Snow Geese
Oh, to love what is lovely, and will not last!
What a task
to ask
of anything, or anyone,
yet it is ours,
and not by the century or the year, but by the hours.
One fall day I heard
above me, and above the sting of the wind, a sound
I did not know, and my look shot upward; it was
a flock of snow geese, winging it
faster than the ones we usually see,
and, being the color of snow, catching the sun
so they were, in part at least, golden. I
held my breath
as we do
sometimes
to stop time
when something wonderful
has touched us
as with a match,
which is lit, and bright,
but does not hurt
in the common way,
but delightfully,
as if delight
were the most serious thing
you ever felt.
The geese
flew on,
I have never seen them again.
Maybe I will, someday, somewhere.
Maybe I won’t.
It doesn’t matter.
What matters
is that, when I saw them,
I saw them
as through the veil, secretly, joyfully, clearly.
Mary Oliver
Evidence, and Swan: Poems & Prose Poems, Mary Oliver’s recent books (published in 2010), are available from http://www.bookdepository.com
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BOOK REVIEW: Instinct for Freedom: Finding Liberation Through Living by Alan Clements
“An Instinct for Freedom” is an eloquently expressed and masterfully woven account of one man’s personal and spiritual journey, that travels directly through the heart of humanity. While navigating this tender landscape, Alan Clements leads us on an exploration of the essence of consciousness, the surrender of trust, the truth of our fragility, the horror of our darkness, the intimacy of compassion, the power of our choices, and ultimately, the paradigm of grace that shifts when we make the leap from seeing ourselves as separate to honoring our shared humanity. By simply witnessing ourselves in each other, we come to understand what Clements calls “the inseparability of liberation.” Often summarizing in a few short sentences what takes other authors seemingly entire books to express, Mr. Clements encourages the reader to “examine the role of perception as the architect of reality.” Lead by his example of courage, ruthless self-inquiry, and unabashed candor, we are left with no other meaningful choice but to do so.
I was so deeply challenged and inspired by this book that any words of praise I seek to offer feel almost trite and wanting. Within its pages there contains every element that one would hope for in a great work of fiction. But fiction this is not. This is the recounting of an extraordinary life. Forged with insight, Clements challenges our invested beliefs, shatters the lies that cage our freedom, and then loving reconstructs the truth of our sameness within a unified heart. This heart, pieced back together in seemingly perfect union, may continue to beat as it once did, but will never again be the same.
Bethany Whitling, http://www.amazon.com
For more information on Alan Clements’ work and vision, visit his website at http://www.WorldDharma.com
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VERSE: from the Samyutta Nikaya
What is this world condition? Body is the world condition. And with body and form goes feeling, perception, consciousness, and all the activities throughout the world. The arising of form and the ceasing of form—everything that has been heard, sensed, and known, sought after and reached by the mind—all this is the embodied world, to be penetrated and realized.
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CULTIVATING THE DHARMA GARDEN: Impermanence in the Dharma Garden
We had to harvest a whole tree full of apricots all at once this year, because the birds were starting to peck at them. We ate some fresh, and I made the rest into jam or bottled them. When they were all gone, we still had strawberries and raspberries to eat for breakfast and dessert, but presently I began to think that it must be about time for the peaches on the tree at the back of the stone fruit orchard to be ready. I kept thinking about this, on and off, over the course of a busy week – and kept forgetting to actually go out into the paddock and check.
When I finally did, there was not one peach left on the tree. Dozens and dozens of the juicy, furry things had been eaten by other juicy, furry things, namely possums. Here and there a peach stone remained attached to a stalk, with the flesh neatly and entirely nibbled away.
The possums are clearly more aware of impermanence than I am. They checked the tree every night, I am sure, and their vigilance paid off. They know that the time of the perfectly-ripened peach is short, and quickly hastens away, and they are waiting ready to help it go. Whereas I am so busy thinking about other things, doing other things, that the reality of impermanence – in peaches and in life – is obscured to me. If I were more aware of it, I would enjoy more tree-ripened peaches, and who knows what other rapidly-pasing good things I might come to appreciate.
Sometimes impermanence seems the saddest thing in life, but of course it is neither good nor bad in itself, it is just how things are. Naturally I cursed the possums for scoffing the peaches – but what good Dharma teachers they turned out to be.
Illustrated copies of Christine’s ‘Cultivating the Dharma Garden’ columns can be found on her blog http://ecogardenernz.blogspot.com
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THEMES: for upcoming issues
Short contributions from readers (original or fully attributed) on the theme of the month are welcomed. Please email them to the Editor – kanya @ insightaotearoa.org
MARCH 2011 – Dharma in Daily Life. Deadline for contributions: Sunday February 20.
APRIL 2011 – The Buddha Smiles. Deadline for contributions: Sunday March 20. (Do you have any stories or poems that illustrate the Dharma in a humorous way? Please send them to us!)
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SANGHA NEWS
SUPPORTING INSIGHTAotearoa
INSIGHTAotearoa goes out in the first week of every month (except January). INSIGHTAotearoa aims to encourage and assist the formation, connection and growth of communities of Insight meditation practitioners around the country, by
- listing current insight meditation events and groups throughout the country, and promoting future events;
- publishing articles and other items of interest;
- sharing news and views from insight meditation groups, teachers and practitioners.
Please help us keep the SANGHA NEWS section of INSIGHTAotearoa up-to-date by sending news and corrections regarding events, sitting group details, etc. to christine @ insightaotearoa.org
INSIGHTAotearoa comes to you without a subscription price because our readers offer dana (donations) to support it. A traditional Buddhist generosity practice, dana received will be used to develop the newsletter, and the community that practises insight meditation. Regular automatic payments are very welcome. You can also post cash or cheques to 13 Wrantage St, Westown, New Plymouth 4310, making cheques payable to INSIGHTAotearoa. Here is the bank account information:
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Branch: Lambton Quay
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From outside New Zealand, the SWIFT code is: ASBBNZ 2A.
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RESOURCES: for Dharma study and support
NEW! Locally-produced Stephen Batchelor DVDs/on-line talks
The November 2010, panel discussion between Buddhist teacher Stephen Batchelor and Christian theologian Lloyd Geering at St Andrews on The Terrace in Wellington is now available as a DVD. A well attended meeting, the DVD includes responses to the questions which were put by a lively audience. The topic of the evening’s discussion was “Can Christianity and Buddhism Remain Relevant in the 21st Century?”. Also available is a DVD of the talk that Stephen Batchelor gave at the National Library in Wellington in December 2004 on the topic of his book Living With The Devil.
Produced by the Wellington Insight Meditation community, each DVD costs $30, including postage. To get one or more DVDs, make a deposit into the WIMC account at Kiwibank 38 9010 0244181 00 with the reference ‘Geering Batchelor DVD’, “Batchelor DVD” or “both DVDs”. At the same time send a message to treasurer @ wimc.org.nz letting treasurer Janice Hill know how much you’ve deposited, which DVDs you want along with your postal address. Alternatively, send a cheque to WIMC, PO Box 6626, Marion Square, Wellington 6141 with a letter stating which DVD you want, and how many copies. OR You can watch both the 2010 panel discussion and the 2004 talk online at http://www.wimc.org.nz.
‘MINDFULNESS IN PLAIN ENGLISH’
This excellent basic guide to Insight meditation by the Ven Henepola Gunaratana can now be downloaded from http://www.urbandharma.org/dharma4/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
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THE LAST WORD: Traleg Kyabgon
We need to reflect on what is worth pursuing and what we should eliminate from our lives. Too often we fail to prioritise our lives, ignoring what transforms our negative emotions into positive ones and energetically pursuing those deluded seductions that make us feel miserable and undermined. Condiitoned existence is ephemeral and transient, offering us on real sense of comfort and security, so unless we do something about our spiritual enrichment now, we’ll only experience further suffering and misfortune. No matter how old you are, you can’t expect your current opportunities to go on forever.
Traleg Kyabgon (2003),The Practice of Logong, Boston: Shambala Publications, p. 22
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with metta, Christine Dann, Kanya Stewart – supported by Peter Fernando & Marianne Adams.