INSIGHTAotearoa
A newsletter for New Zealand's insight meditation practitioners and communities
kanya @ insightaotearoa.org | http://www.insightaotearoa.org
Monday June 6, 2011
The theme of this issue is ‘Dharma in Daily Life’
Kia Ora,
In this newsletter you’ll find…
EDITORIAL: Staying Alive on the Road
WISE WORDS: Pema Chodron
REFLECTION I: Curious About Everything, Peter Fernando
POEM: Normal Day, Mary Jean Irion
REFLECTION II: Integrating Practice, Joseph Goldstein & Jack Kornfield
WISE WORDS: Tara Brach
CULTIVATING THE DHARMA GARDEN: Daily Life Dharma in the Garden
POEM: Offerings, Marama Warren
RELFECTION III: Maintaining Mindfulness in Daily Life, Phillip Moffitt
BOOK REVIEW: Dancing With Life
THEMES: For upcoming issues
RESOURCES: for Dharma study and support
THE LAST WORD: Dr. Reggie Ray
>> 0 >>
EDITORIAL: Staying Alive on the Road
When I spent some time in Western Australia earlier in the year, there were road signs on the highways that went something like “wake up – stay alive on the road”. It got me thinking about what a great slogan it could be as a reminder to stay present in daily life.
Speed is a killer of mindfulness. When there is little space for reflection, we get caught up in the drama, easily lost and confused. Often with too much to fit into the day, we move relentlessly from one task to the next. Speed has a momentum which inclines us towards the future, taking us out of the present moment’s experience. Becoming skillful in responding to what comes towards us, maintaining presence and an open heart, rather than reacting and judging, takes effort and attentiveness that we can strengthen in formal practice.
Formal and informal practice go hand in hand. As we learn to stay awake on the cushion, so is our ability to stay awake in our daily life. Both are essential to the work of transforming the conditioned mind, opening to the manifestation of the present moment’s experience just as it is. At this time of year, the shortening of the days as we move into winter is a great time for committing to formal practice. The energy of this time as the light decreases encourages us to go within.
In this issue, Peter Fernando, Jack Kornfield and Phillip Moffit offer wise reflections on how we can integrate the dharma into our daily lives. It’s good to explore and experiment, to find what works best for us as we navigate the demands and challenges of living in this world of conditions.
Kanya Stewart
>> 0 >>
WISE WORDS: Pema Chodron
When you wake up in the morning and out of nowhere comes the heartache of alienation and loneliness, could you use that as a golden opportunity?
Rather than persecuting yourself, or feeling that something terribly wrong is happening, right there in the moment of sadness and longing, could you relax and touch the limitless space of the human heart? Next time you get a chance, experiment with this.
>> 0 >>
REFLECTION I: Curious about Everything
One of the most frequent struggles I hear shared by those of us living in urban environments is around maintaining a continuity of mindfulness – both in terms of times alone, sitting in silence, and also in our encounters with the relationships, responsibilities and roles that make up our lives. Often our experience of presence and peace can be limited to that forty minutes in the meditation group we attend, and perhaps frustratingly absent during the rest of life.
However, if we shift our perspective from one of valuing a special state as the ‘spiritual bit’, and resuming automatic pilot during the ‘other bits’, to one of an interest in awareness and inquiry as a 24/7 activity, life begins to open up in wonderful ways. In fact one of the characteristics of what the Buddha called ‘mindfulness’ is that it is not state dependent. In other words, it is that which knows, holds and relates to the states of mind, heart and body that are continuously arising and ceasing in our experience – rather than being some special ‘place’ apart from it. With this perspective, daily practice seems less like a chore and more of an enticing possibility.
What would it be like if we could take a curious, sensitive and embodied presence into the interactions and activities of daily life? What would it be like to shift our perspective from being a victim on the periphery of forces, drives and habits that seem inevitable, to that of being in the hub of experience as it is arising – free of judgement, and keenly interested in the question: ‘What is this?’ Those are the questions that form the core of daily mindfulness practice. Equipped with this inquiry we can begin to find a centre of awareness and strength even in the midst of apparently turbulent or distracting situations.
While the forces of our consumer culture tug upon the heart and mind, suggesting that we should be valuing ourselves in terms of performance, achievement and self-image, we can be quietly holding those very energies as they are arising in our own hearts, and not buying into them as absolutely true. At the same time we can connect to our longing for a more intimate and unconditional value in our being, and align our motivations and intentions with this. When our acquaintances or colleagues unconsciously try to pull us into harmful patterns of being, we can quietly maintain our ground, and not take the bait. And rather than hardening our hearts, we can also inquire into and listen for that which can still remain loving and open.
On the direct heart level, we can also witness the arising of the self image we take ourselves to be, in relation to others, and know it as an object in presence, rather than just reacting from the assumption that it is absolutely real. I’m sure we all know that heart-sinking feeling of being pulled into the contraction of that ‘me’, only to later realize: ‘Sucked in!’. I certainly do…
So in our relationships we can come to notice not only the ‘other’ but also the ‘me’ that is manifesting in this moment, and how that is colouring what we take the other to be. This is a very empowering inquiry, which frees the heart from habitual reactivity, and into a presence that is simple, direct and refreshingly open.
While we see our own imperfections, reactions and limitations arise in daily life, we can attune to a steady attitude of kindness and tenderness to these apparent failings and their underlying broken-ness – letting go of what we can, and listening to what we can’t with the patience and the love of a mother to her child.
So rather than tripping ourselves up in guilt and shame, we can allow ourselves to instead be sensitive to the very pain that those self-disparaging habits of heart contraction create, and courageous in our devotion to seeing through and releasing them. Gradually we may find that we actually have the presence of mind to meet our imperfection directly and without blame. From this place, the heart’s energies, urges and drives can flow through our bodily presence, rather than getting stuck in our heads as ‘wrong’.
These are just a few examples of how we can take our heartful inquiry into everyday life. Although the experiences we have can be myriad and diverse, the flavour of authentic mindfulness remains the same – we begin by coming back to a non-judgemental, curious presence, and shift our mode from one of reacting to one of innocent listening.
Of course we also need to maintain a continuity of ‘alone-time’, sitting in meditation or even quiet contemplation, in order to have the resources of inner presence to take into the world of people, activities and roles.
However, in my experience, the degree to which we will be interested, enthusiastic and even excited in being alone in silence depends upon the shift of perspective to one that includes everything in our meditative attention, rather than seeks to get rid of it, or somehow cut it out. As one of my teachers, Ajahn Sucitto once said: “Whatever you exclude from your practice will eventually take you out of it”.
There is great wisdom in those words.
Peter Fernando
>> 0 >>
POEM: Normal Day
Normal day, let me be aware of the treasure you are.
Let me learn from you, savour you, bless you,
before you depart
Let me not pass you by
in the quest of some rare and perfect tomorrow.
Let me hold you while I may,
for it will not always be so.
One day I shall dig my fingers into the earth,
or bury my face in the pillow,
or stretch myself taut,
or raise my hands to the sky,
and want more than all the world:
your return.
Mary Jean Irion
>> 0 >>
REFLECTION II: Integrating Practice
How can we develop and deepen our practice in the midst of our everyday lives? These are important questions. They require that we develop an integrated awareness of all dimensions of our being, making our body, our actions, our feelings and our relationships, our work and our play, all part of our meditation.
Whether we are sitting in formal meditation or living the dharma in action, practice is never a matter of learning formulas or imitating others. Of course it is essential that we honor the fundamental principles of virtue and of training the mind. But we must also be willing to leap into the unknown in each new moment. And that requires courage and simplicity. Don Juan says that only with courage can we withstand the path of knowledge. He describes the world as mysterious, awesome, and unfathomable, and says that we must assume responsibility for being in the marvelous world. Since we will be here for only a short while we must learn to make every act count.
To live our spiritual path fully offers us something beyond merely getting through life on automatic pilot. We can honor and fulfill, even ennoble, our life through the skill of our attention and the power of our heart. But it requires practice and the willingness to extend our awareness over and over again to the new areas of our life.
Though this process is not always easy, it is very simple. It is learning to live in the ever-changing reality of the present moment. A woman who went to Asia many years ago and came back as a master of meditation put it this way as she was washing the lunch dishes: “Isn’t it strange that we prefer the quicksand of something-ness to the firm ground of emptiness?‘ What an extraordinary thing to say! This capacity to be open to the new in each moment without seeking a false sense of security is the true source of strength and freedom in life. It allows us the receive all things, to touch all things, to learn from whatever presents itself. Every single situation of our life can be our teacher, can instruct us and give us the opportunity for growing fuller in our love and more understanding in our wisdom. This makes meditation a lifelong process of opening, growing, investigating, and discovering. If we ask ourselves what is the lesson for us in the situation at hand (however difficult), we will always find value.
Living fully means jumping into the unknown, dying to all our past and future ideals, and being present with things just as they are. This can be frightening, but it is only by such surrender to the moments of truth that we can participate fully in the mystery of our lives. It is a challenge we face again and again in our practice, in our relationships and throughout each day. Meeting it requires courage.
We can see the need for letting go in our formal meditation practice, and it becomes even clearer as we end our sitting periods. When we get up, what can we hold on to? At the end of a period of silent retreat, almost all students know the experience of losing the quiet states that developed so slowly in meditation. We cannot hold on to them. As we enter the business of the marketplace, concentration and tranquility usually dissolve, and even the power of our mindfulness diminishes. The greatest of our spiritual experiences becomes only a memory. When a Western student described to an Asian teacher all of the important experiences of his years of practice, the only response he got was “Oh, something more to let go of.”
Wisdom does not arm us with new knowledge or armor us with spiritual power. If anything, it leaves us more open and vulnerable, to be touched by and in touch with all the things around us. Coming out of a deep inner meditation into a busy world, we often sense this vulnerability. Those who return from long retreats face the unfamiliar and difficult task of integration while feeling this profound sensitivity. At times we get overwhelmed. This process too requires practice, in and out of retreat, in and out of sitting, going back and forth from stillness to action again and again, until the spirit of the stillness pervades the action and the aliveness fills the stillness. Yet vulnerability is not the end of wisdom. Wisdom leads us even deeper, to transparency and balance. While we are vulnerable in our openness, there is still a sense of “me” and “mine”, of fear and hurt. These come from deep and subtle attachments. Although they will not vanish easily, in our practice we can become aware of them and begin to sense an even deeper level of transparency, a possibility of allowing all things to arise and pass with ease.
Naturally that aspect of life which is pain and suffering will not just disappear as we practice. In fact, it will actually become more evident through our awareness. This is true of the outward sufferings of the world, and it is even more true of ourselves. There will be times when our habits will become more fully revealed – as if we are seeing them clearly for the first time. Our fears, our greeds, the aspects of our personality that we reject will wait for us like comfortable old clothes to be put on at the end of a retreat.
It can be quiet discouraging after touching a new level of peace or purity in the heart to see the power of our old habits. But this is just the place for the application of our practice. We are asked to relate with understanding instead of judgment, to see with love and awareness. There is freedom, there is justice to be discovered and to manifest, and we can learn to truly embody these. But it is a process that is learned and takes place as much out of retreat as in meditative silence. It is through encountering and facing our very habits and fears, our confusion and doubts, that we discover how to apply the simplicity and power of mindfulness and let go in all of life.
Joseph Goldstein & Jack Kornfield (1981) “Seeking the Heart of Wisdom”, Boston: Shambala, p.171-173
>> 0 >>
WISE WORDS: Tara Brach
What would it be like if, right in the midst of this busyness, we were to consciously take our hands off the controls? What if we were to intentionally stop our mental computations and our rushing around and, for a minute or two, simply pause and notice our inner experience?
>> 0 >>
CULTIVATING THE DHARMA GARDEN: Daily Life Dharma in the Garden
My house is surrounded by my garden, but I can’t really be said to lead my daily life in the garden, unlike the thousands of other creatures (by name) and millions (by number) who really do spend their whole lives there. Most of these creatures I never see, since they are microscopic organisms which live in the soil and perform all sorts of useful functions there. There are also a lot of invertebrates living in or very close to the soil which are also very small, and rarely seen. Then there are the insects which live on plants, and the insects that live on the insects that live on plants, and the birds that live on plants and insects.
The life of all my garden dwellers revolves around the same utterly fundamental and basic preoccupations as my own – food, water and an optimum environmental ambience. I have no idea how earthworms hydrate themselves, but I do know that (just like humans) if they get too wet or too dry, they die. So I see them moving downwards through the soil when the topsoil is dry, and upwards when the sub-soil is wet, in search of their optimum ambient environment. Similarly, I move out of hot sun and driving rain. Just like everybody else in my garden, I pay a lot of attention to getting enough nourishment for the day. When I am working in the garden I also pay attention to whether everyone else is getting fed what they need in order to be able to feed me.
Last week, for example, I dug over a bed for planting garlic in a month’s time. It already had a lot of worms in it, thanks to earlier feeding of the soil, but since worms are much better at loosening, aerating and fertilising soil than humans with metal tools and bags of synthetic fertiliser, I gave them more to dine on and keep them on the job – a layer of crushed sheep dags, lightly raked in, topped with a layer of pea straw.
I only prepare the garlic bed (in a new place every time) once a year, but I eat garlic almost every day, thanks to the daily life dharma of the earthworm, doing the only thing it knows how to do, and doing it so well. The lesson I take from those humble worms is – whatever you have to do to survive, do it with care, do it well, and make a contribution to a wider whole.
Christine Dann’s ‘Cultivating the Dharma Garden’ columns can also be found on her blog http://ecogardenernz.blogspot.com
>> 0 >>
POEM: Offerings
Tree-ripened fruit to
the satin bower bird.
Scraps
to the compost heap,
wood
to the open fire.
Fresh, fragrant flowers
to the studio shrine.
Dreams
to the shifting moon,
wishes
to falling stars.
Green manure seeds
to the newly dug earth.
Postcards
to distant friends,
stories
through telephones.
Words on the page
to the writer within.
Laughter
with those you love,
time
for the things that count.
These are
my offerings.
Marama Warren
Marama Warren is a New Zealand-born book artist and writer who has been living on the south coast of NSW for the past thirty years.
>> 0 >>
REFLECTION III: Maintaining Mindfulness in Daily Life
Have you ever left a meditation retreat feeling inspired to practice being mindful in your everyday life and within hours done something unskillful and wondered, “What happened to my mindfulness?” More than likely your mindfulness was hijacked by your interpretation of your experience. We all have a tendency to rush to interpretation in our lives, and that can present a challenge to being mindful of our experience.
Instead of staying mindful of whatever is happening in the moment, we immediately begin to interpret our experience and create a story based on past associations and attitudes we have about ourselves and others. However, our interpretation is only our view of our experience; it isn’t the actual experience. As soon as we start to interpret an experience, we’re no longer having the experience, we’re having an experience of our interpretation; therefore, we miss the real experience. This happens in reaction to both the unpleasant and pleasant events of life.
Therefore, a key skill for sustaining mindfulness in daily life is being able to distinguish between our experience and our interpretation of our experience. Experience is simply whatever is happening in the moment — a sound, a taste, a body sensation, an emotion, an interaction, etc. Interpretation is the mind’s reaction to our experience. One way to understand this difference is that when we are directly experiencing a moment of life, we are “within” it; when we are interpreting it, we are “outside” it.
The primary driving force behind our compulsion to interpret is the need to gain control over our experience. There are experiences that are so painful we simply can’t bear them, so we jump to interpretation in order to control them. The mind wants to be anywhere but in the present moment where it perceives pain. As a result, the interpretation replaces our true experience. We also use interpretation to manipulate our experience in order to get what we want. And then there are many experiences in life both large and small that are uncertain and which we can’t do anything about, therefore we add interpretation in order to try to attain some degree of security. But adding interpretation really just prolongs our uneasiness. By interpreting the experience and separating ourselves from it, we may think we are getting control of it, but in truth we’re actually getting stuck in the experience. If we would just get out of the way of the experience and stop trying to get rid of it, it would go away on its own.
Releasing the Compulsion to Interpret
Once you begin to recognize that interpretation is only your view of an experience, it becomes possible for you to begin to release your compulsion to interpret every moment. Ideally, your goal is to create a new habit or “default setting” for responding mindfully rather than reacting unskillfully to all types of experiences.
1. Start by staying with the experience. You can begin to break your habit of automatically interpreting every experience by practicing being mindful of your experience within the experience. So when an unpleasant moment arises, be interested in the direct experience of what happens. You might say to yourself, “I’m just going to be interested in this,” and then watch what happens. Just be in the moment and let the experience form.
2. The next step is to practice being mindful moment-to-moment of the distinction between experience and interpretation. Begin to notice, “Is there a difference between my direct experience of what’s going on and how I’ve interpreted it?” The more you’re able to distinguish experience from interpretation, the more you’ll be able to stay in the moment, the calmer you’ll be, and the more choices you’ll have for responding skillfully to whatever circumstances arise.
3. When you find that you’ve jumped to interpretation, just notice the difference. Then, if it seems natural, shift your attention back to the experience and away from the interpretation. If you can’t, just stay with making the distinction.
© 2011 Phillip Moffitt, http://www.lifebalanceinstitute.com. This article is a gift of the dharma.
>> 0 >>
BOOK REVIEW: Dancing With Life, by Phillip Moffitt
‘Dancing With Life’ is an exploration of the little known Twelve Insights related to the Four Noble Truths of Buddhism. Broken into four “books” or sections, Moffitt explores the process of reflecting upon, then directly experiencing, and then finally into knowing each of the Noble Truths and also discusses how to put that knowledge into play in every day life. There are two ways to approach this text. The first is to simply read the book all the way through, with little more than an intellectual understanding of the insights, and perhaps with some application to day to day life. The other is more in line with the intent of the author, and it means that reading this book will take some time. Each of the sections of the book offers meditations in order to come to a full understanding of the insight, and while actually doing the meditations will slow down how quickly one gets through the book, getting through it isn’t the point of this book; fully understanding the Twelve Insights and the Four Noble Truths and incorporating them into day to day life is the point. Recommended for anyone seeking a deeper understanding of the Truths and how to make them an intimate part of life.
Todd Mayville, http://www.elephantjournal.com
>> 0 >>
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
JULY 2011 – Interconnectedness. Deadline for contribution: Sunday June 26.
AUGUST 2011- Relationships. Deadline for contribution: Sunday July 24.
>> 0 >>
>> 0 >> ''' 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:
† 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.
>> 0 >>
>> 0 >>
RESOURCES: for Dharma study and support
1. NEW! On-line interview: Tragic vision and the first ennobling truth
Suffering, dealing with it, how we engage or avoid it, is not new to Buddhism. How a religion may treat it can be very different from philosophical approaches to suffering.
Australian insight meditation teacher Winton Higgins is interviewed by Ted Meissner in the latest episode of The Secular Buddhist podcast, and their discussion focuses around tragic vision and the first ennobling truth. You can listen to it at http://www.thesecularbuddhist.com/episode_061.php.
Winton Higgins began meditating in 1987, becoming an active supporter of Wat Buddha Dhamma in 1994. A year later, he began leading retreats at the Wat, and since then has led retreats for Blue Gum Sangha and Sydney Insight Meditators.
Following the insight meditation tradition, he is particularly interested in the convergence of dharma practice and progressive western values such as democracy, feminism and social inquiry. His teaching has an affinity with the work of Stephen Batchelor and Jason Siff.
Some of his dharma talks are available as PDF documents at http://www.beaches-sangha.org/Downloads/default.aspx.
2. 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.
3. ‘MINDFULNESS IN PLAIN ENGLISH’
This excellent basic guide to Insight meditation by the Ven Henepola Gunaratana can now be downloaded from www.urbandharma.org/dharma4/mpe.htm
4. 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
5. 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
>> 0 >>
THE LAST WORD: Dr Reggie Ray
When I was in graduate school I worked with a Jungian analyst, June Singer. She used to say, “Work expands to fill all of the available space.” The problem is not the amount of things you have in your life, it’s the attitude. It’s your fear of space. Busyness in the Tibetan tradition is considered the most extreme form of laziness. Because when you are busy you can turn your brain off. You’re on the treadmill. The only intelligence comes in the morning when you make your To Do list and you get rid of all the possible space that could happen in your day. There is intelligence in that: I fill up all the space so I don’t have to actually relate to myself! Once you have made that list, it’s over. There is no more fundamental intelligence operating. So the basic ignorance is not realizing what we are doing by being busy. What we are doing to ourselves, what we are doing to our families, what we are doing to our friends.
>> 0 >>
with metta, Christine Dann, Kanya Stewart – supported by Marianne Adams & Peter Fernando. Thanks to Ron Dubin & Caren Wilton for their technical expertise & support, and to Ilana Becroft and Margo Schiller, who send out the hard copy.