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
SEPTEMBER 2009
IN THIS NEWSLETTER YOU'LL FIND...
1. EDITORIAL: Karma
2. Help Wanted
3. Dharma Practitioner Programme
4. Karma
5. Book Review: Buddha’s Wife
6. Poem: The way
7. Poem: Tree
8. Questions ... questions ...
9. Sangha news
10. The Last Word: Intention and Motivation
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1. EDITORIAL: Karma
Our Gisborne Mindfulness Meditation group recently engaged in a lively discussion inspired by the feature article ‘Harmlessness’ by Peter Fernando from the August edition of INSIGHTAotearoa. To summarize, the article explored the intersection of harmlessness as a quality of the heart, karma, and intention. As our discussion led to karma, we realized that it is a commonly used term that is often misunderstood. Jack Kornfield, in his book The Wise Heart, gives examples of media and advertising use of the word karma: American Express advertises itself as “the official card of good karma” and the New York Times headlined an article about Britney Spears as “Miss Bad Media Karma.” Karma is also misunderstood as a burdensome baggage of life times of unskillful actions whose debt keeps us enslaved.
So, what is Karma? A glossary from A Path With Heart defines karma as "the universal law of cause and effect; the volition behind each action, which produces favorable or unfavorable results in the future.” This September edition of INSIGHTAotearoa explores karma with an article by Gil Fronsdal. This article suggests that choice, creativity, and intention are the seeds of karma. May your intentions and choices be inspired by the spring line up of retreats and dharma featured in this newsletter and offered throughout Aotearoa. A new series of the Dharma Facilitator Programme begins in October. There are retreats at Otaki, Otago, and Te Moata has a new schedule available. The newsletter is seeking a volunteer to post INSIGHTAotearoa monthly.
Whatever a person does, the results will follow him to the furthest reaches.
There is nowhere, not on earth or the sky, that the results of our deeds will not bear fruit.
-- The Dhammapada
Dee Gulliver and Lex Ellis have been generously posting INSIGHTAotearoa for the past 16 months. Thank you both for your gift of dana, dependability, and support. I offer you both my sincere gratitude.
With Metta,
Deborah White
Editor
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The heart is our garden, and along with each action there is an intention that is planted like a seed.
-- Jack Kornfield
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2. HELP WANTED: opportunity for Parami practice; opportunity for generosity
There is an opportunity to practice generosity through the role of sending out the hard copies of the newsletter from next month. It involves primarily your time plus printing, stamps and envelopes. We have been doing this for the past 16 months and have really enjoyed it. It feels like we are making a contribution to the Insight community in Aotearoa/ New Zealand and its means that we always read the newsletter top to bottom!
The role is about one hour per month. There is support from IA for the cost of stamps (19 x 50c) and printing should you need it. If you chose to offer the practice as dana and have access to a printer, the costs are minimal other than stamps, however paying for photocopying is very expensive. Paying for stamps and photocopying is about $45.00 month.
The Buddha said “If beings knew as I know the benefit of generosity, they would not let an opportunity go by without sharing.”
Please let Deborah know as soon as possible if you would like this opportunity.
Dee and Lex
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If you are kind, people may accuse you of selfish, ulterior motives.
Be kind anyway.
If you are successful, you may win some false friends, and some true enemies.
Be successful anyway.
If you are honest and sincere, people may deceive you.
Be honest and sincere anyway.
What you spend years creating, others may tear down overnight.
Create anyway.
If you find serenity and happiness, some may be jealous.
Be happy anyway.
The good you do today will often be forgotten tomorrow.
Do it anyway.
-- Kent M Keith
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3. DHARMA FACILITATORS’ PROGRAMME
Due to popular demand and after discussions with Subhana and Jeremy, Southern Insight has decided to offer a further series of DFPs. There will be three retreats in the series, all taking place at the end of a scheduled meditation retreat or dharma gathering, and participants will be expected to make a commitment to attending all retreats in the series. Once a series has started it will not be possible for new participants to join. There are practice criteria for attending a DFP – please see below. Those who have completed a DFP previously are welcome to attend any session and do not have to attend the whole series.
What is a DFP?
Over the past ten years, Insight teachers across the world have recognized the need for some kind of training for those who are interested in supporting a sangha in their local area, perhaps facilitating a sitting group, or organising retreats. DFPs are offered in the USA, England, Europe, Israel and Australia.
The DFP is a programme designed for experienced practitioners of the Dharma to deepen their understanding, share experiences with others, explore central Buddhist texts and develop leadership and facilitation skills for the benefit of the wider community.
If you’ve had five years of committed contact with the Dharma, you are eligible to join the Dharma Facilitators’ Programme. These requirements are a little flexible, so if you are uncertain please make contact and we can talk about whether it would be suitable for you.
The programme aims to
We will share our experiences and understanding of the Dharma both from the standpoint of practice and ultimate ways of seeing into the nature of things. We will look into our strengths and discover what areas we need to develop. We will examine the place of formal meditation (the use of method and technique) whether on retreats or at home, and the place of formless Dharma in daily life, integrating the Dharma into whatever field of work or activity we may be engaged in.
We need to know in advance who would be interested in entering into the DFP, so if you are thinking of attending, please make contact with Julie:
email: angulijulie @ gmail.com | phone: 03 348 1462
Participants from the last DFP Retreat write:
What a retreat! I’m finding the whole depth of it is still resonating with me – it’s really beautiful. I just feel so grateful, for the teachings, for the process of the DFP and I thought Subhana was absolutely superb, allowing, but gently steering us. We are very, very fortunate with Subhana. And also Jeremy and I, we go back a long way, and his and my relationship gets better and better, and I really respect what he’s bringing as a teacher to our meeting. I think he’s just amazing.
It was very impressive and I enjoyed being involved with it. Just little things, I remember doing the men’s song, people’s really wonderful warmth, it all just flowed from one activity to another. he whole environment of safety and lovingness - what an extraordinary opportunity. And being involved with everyone’s presentations was really lovely. I went with some expectation that I was going to take some risks, to volunteer for everything that was on offer. And I did, and I felt that was really great, I feel like celebrating about that - I put myself out and it was really worthwhile to do that. That incredible depth that we settled into, the intimacy, the courage of everyone to let all the stuff go, to drop it off and to bask in the love of everybody. It was so respectful, it was safe, it was really inspiring. The things that we learnt were absolute jewels for my work as a counselor. It was just one great retreat. Ramon
I found myself thinking that this has been one of the best things I have done, and why is this? Coming together as a group over time allowed a trust in one another to grow and out of this process I experienced moments of deeply nourishing heart connection with the sangha. The highlights included the dharma presentations, which became a showcase for some of the hidden (or not so hidden!) talents of sangha members, and having the opportunity to 'bear witness' to other’s courage and hear how the dharma touches peoples lives. All in all it was a time for community and creativity, which was supportive and inspiring. I will be back for more… Sarah
Thank you all for the fabulous weekend of deep work, insight, camaraderie, and fun. I came prepared for it to be the final meeting, but the awakening to the finality of our gatherings hit me a few days later. 2010 seems so far away. I really cherish being part of the DFP and being together with everyone. Thank you for being such a meaningful part of my life. I'll miss Christchurch also. Thank you for your good work. In Gratitude, Deborah
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4. KARMA
-- by Gil Fronsdal
Central to Buddhist spiritual practice is a deep appreciation of the present moment and the possibilities that exist in the present for waking up and being free of suffering. The present is the only place our creativity exists. The Buddhist notion of karma is closely tied to that creativity.
The concept of karma is not some idea about past lives; nor is it a law of predetermination. If you believe that your happiness is predetermined, it leaves no space for you to affect your happiness and your suffering. Spiritual practice includes choice. The Buddha stressed that if you have too strict an idea of karma there is no room for choice.
The Buddha said, "What I call karma is intention." In other words, the teaching of karma is about the intentional choices we make in the present. The present moment is to be appreciated mindfully and relaxed into, as we do in meditation. But it is also where we choose how to step forward into the next moment. The more clearly we see the choice, the greater the freedom and creativity we have in making it.
The present moment is partly the result of our choices in the past and partly the result of our choices unfolding in the present. Our experience of the next moment, the next day, the next decade, is shaped by the choices we make in relationship to where we find ourselves right now. Intended acts of body, speech and mind have consequences; taking these consequences into account offers important guidance in our choices for action.
But these consequences are not fixed or mechanical. Intended actions tend toward certain consequences. After all, the interactive field of causality is immense. Sometimes the consequences of our intended actions are submerged in the wide ocean of cause and effect. But, even so, the world tends to respond in a certain way if we act with intentions of greed, hatred or delusion. It tends to respond very differently if we act with motivations of friendliness, generosity, and kindness.
While consequences in the external world may be varied, the inner consequences of our actions are often much clearer, offering us reliable feedback on our choices. For example, we can experience the results of our intentions - karmic consequences -don't reinforce them, they quiet down and no longer direct our lives.
The world of suffering and freedom has a lot to do with how we choose to respond to what is given to us, to the present moment itself. What is given may not be to our liking. But, even so, through mindfulness practice we can awaken to the creative potential of choice in how we respond. To choose to respond with aversion, anger, fear, or clinging continues the creation of suffering. To respond with more attention, or without reference to our egoistic attachments, interrupts the cycles of suffering. Creative freedom is not possible if choice is rooted in egoism.
So the world of karma is the world of intention, and the world of intention belongs to the world of right now. Nowhere else. With what intention do you meet this moment? What is your intention for how you do your work, or drive, carry on a conversation, or do someone a favor? If you tend to your intentions with love and care, as you would a garden, your intentions will flower beautifully and bear fruit in your life.
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Karma means you don’t get away with nothin’.
-- Ruth Denison
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5. BOOK REVIEW: Buddha’s Wife by Gabriel Constans
-- by Christine Zilius Mason
California author Gabriel Constans has been a Buddhist for nearly 40 years, yet he realized he knew little about Siddhartha's personal life. When he learned that Siddhartha Buddha had left his wife Yasodhara and their 2-day-old son, he was curious to find out what happened to the family after Siddhartha departed from his father's palace in the middle of the night. The result is Constans' fascinating new novel, Buddha's Wife, a fictionalized account of Yasodhara's search for compassion and enlightenment throughout her life.
Constans has noted that much has been written about Buddha but very little about Yasodhara. "I wanted to create a story that gave her and other women connected to Siddhartha a point of view," he said. He has succeeded in vividly re-creating the life of Yasodhara and also portraying the interconnected lives of her friends and family members.
When Yasodhara entered an arranged marriage with Siddhartha, she did not realize that his study of the Upanishads made him fear desire and love; he believed that desire and love only caused suffering. He thought it better to have compassion for all rather than to love and be involved with one.
However, his beliefs were compromised when he entered a relationship with another woman at the sanctuary where he sought enlightenment.
Yasodhara believed that "fully engaging in and enjoying the pleasures of the senses, both good and bad, is the heart of compassion and love." When she followed Siddhartha to the sanctuary, she discovered that her husband was unfaithful and that many other men were able to stay with their wives even while pursuing a religious vocation.
Although Yasodhara was devastated by her husband's abandonment, she eventually came to adopt some of his religious beliefs.
The story also follows Siddhartha's son Rahula, who moved to Sri Lanka and was able to forgive his father only after his death, when Rahula returned to India to see his dying mother.
Although women were not supposed to be capable of enlightenment, Yasodhara was able to achieve "something akin to grace or enlightenment" and something possibly even more worthy than enlightenment -- compassion.
Constans is a freelance journalist and has written for numerous magazines, newspapers and journals in North America, Europe, Asia and Africa. He has 12 books published in the U.S.
Robert D. Reed Publishers, POB 1992, Bandon, OR 97411 Email: 4bobreed @ msn.com | Website: http://www.rdrpublishers.com Phone: (541) 347-9882 | Fax: (541) 347-9883
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Buddhist Global Relief:
http://www.buddhistglobalrelief.org/main.html
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6. POEM: The way
-- by Parrill Stribling
On the way to Cold Mountain
I discovered a dimple near my wife’s knee,
and momentarily forgot the search
discovering presently that
HEY
Cold Mountain was here
around me.
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7. POEM: Tree
-- by Jane Hirshfield
It is foolish
To let a young redwood
Grow next to a house.
Even in this
One lifetime,
You will have to choose.
That great calm being,
this clutter of soup pots and books-
Already the first branch-tips brush at the window.
Softly, calmly, immensity taps at your life.
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8. 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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9. SANGHA NEWS
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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:
http://www.urbandharma.org/udharma4/mpe.htm
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10. THE LAST WORD: Intention and Motivation
Intention and motivation, the roots of karma, are absolutely central to Buddhist psychology. In leading the Tibetan people over years of exile and political struggle, the Dalai Lama says that while he may make mistakes, the one thing he can rely on is his sincere motivation. The most effective way to direct our karma is to clarify our motivation and set an intention.
-- Jack Kornfield
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With Metta,
Deborah White, Kanya Stewart, and Peter Fernando