Beyond the degree of attention we normally give in mindfulness meditation lies the terrain of deeper absorption: the jhanas.
Although these states are described in the sutras, they often seem to be exotic and distant. Don shared with us this past week a step-by-step instruction video by Ajahn Brahm on cultivating the jhana state in our own practice.
A link to the video is forthcoming.
Loss. It is part of our lives and naturally part of the teachings of the Buddha. We are encouraged to reflect on a daily basis that we will be separated from all that we hold dear. One pair of the “worldly winds” which tug us in opposing directions is “gain and loss”.
We lose small material things, which can be low in monetary value but very special to us. We lose mental states, such as deep collectedness, which may be difficult to reestablish. And sometimes we lose the people closest to us.
Jeff guided our reflections this week, sharing a Dhamma talk titled “Opening to Loss” given by Brian Lesage at a retreat earlier in November. Brian explores the range of loss in our lives, bringing to bear several poems about loss as well as Buddhist stories and dhammic perspectives on loss.
You can listen to Brian’s talk here: https://dharmaseed.org/talks/81002/
When we experience loss we often think, “it was not supposed to happen like this.”
One of five daily reflections has been translated as follows: Everything that is dear and delightful to me shall change and vanish. We can interpret this as meaning that when we die, we will lose everything, which may be easier to accept in an intellectual sense. In reality, we experience loss to varying degrees throughout our lives, often when we are not prepared. We are surprised by something because we did not expect it, and then we do not want to experience the results. Hence the pain of loss.
Ananda’s reaction to loss includes a lack of clarity about the Buddha’s teachings. We can have difficulty with our practice after loss, to the point of stepping away from our routine practice.
From Mary Oliver’s poem: “It’s not the weight you carry, but how you carry it. Books, bricks, grief: it’s all in the way you embrace it, balance it, carry it when you cannot and would not put it down.”
The tapestry of grief can be complicated: deep pain, poignancy, bittersweetness, joyfulness, gratitude, relief.
Our practice can include setting aside the content and fully feeling the undulations and the reverberations in the body. We can fully feel emotion with capacity.
Things can become precious after they are lost.
Finally we also heard the poem Museé des Beaux Arts, which you can read here. It references the painting Landscape with The Fall of Icarus.
This week Sam guided our discussion on liberation from suffering through non-clinging. This is, of course, a fundamental teaching of the Buddha, filled with many nuances, and can be the basis for a variety of approaches to practice, as excerpts from talks by several dharma teachers will make clear.
MN37: [The Buddha was asked, by Sakka, the ruler of the gods, how is a bikkhu liberated by the destruction of craving]. When a bhikhu has heard that nothing is worth adhering to, he directly knows everything; having directly know everything, he fully understands everything; having fully understood everything, whatever feeling he feels, whether pleasant or painful or neither, he abides contemplating impermanence in those feelings, contemplating fading away, contemplating cessation, contemplating relinquishment Contemplating thus, he does not cling to anything in the world. When he does not cling, he is not agitated. When he is not agitated, he personally attains Nibbana.
Here’s the talks that Sam played:
https://dharmaseed.org/talks/player/70820.html
Jack Kornfield 2022-05-16 53:39 The Most Basic Truths: Gateways to Freedom | Monday Night Talk
https://dharmaseed.org/talks/player/48848.html
Carol Wilson 2018-02-18 57:43 Liberation through Non-Clinging: Undaunted Courage (Retreat at Spirit Rock)
https://dharmaseed.org/talks/player/42637.html
Joseph Goldstein 1999-02-17 62:19 Liberation Through Non-clinging
In our culture, we have “stand your ground” laws that cultivate fear and separation. How do we stand our ground in the dharma?
One of the best-known stories in the Buddhist tradition is the story of the Buddha, at the moment of his enlightenment, repudiating Mara by touching the earth. Surprisingly, the story is found nowhere in the early canon. And yet so many statues and images of the buddha across many cultures depict the Buddha demonstrating the “earth-touching” gesture. This week, Steve brought forward a consideration and short scholarly exploration of the origins of this fascinating iconography.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wAdalN_se68
We then embarked on a mini-retreat with Kittisaro and Thanissara, founders of the Sacred Mountain Sangha in California and co-authors of the book, Listening to the Heart, a Contemplative Journey to Engaged Buddhism. You can listen to this talk (and the subsequent chants) below:
As much as we might be inspired by the four Brahma Viharas, it is very useful to have ways to bring qualities such as these into the tough spots in our daily lives. Offering guidance on qualities that help us bring it all home, the Buddha spelled out the Five Spiritual Faculties: Confidence, Energy, Mindfulness, Collected Focus, and Wise Discernment. These Skillful Means are of deep and abiding use when we encounter what might seem like insurmountable disturbances, ranging from ceaseless agitation of our unquiet minds to despair for our multi-crisis world.
This week Darryl guided our reflections on using these Faculties to meet our most intractable distractions and reactions. A talk by Brian LeSage and a brief reflection by Martin Aylward framed our discussion.
The talks are as follows:
1. Martin Aylward
https://dharmaseed.org/talks/player/59137.html
2. Brian LeSage
The Buddha named our Mental Formations (Pali: Sankhara) as one of the Five Aggregates that structure our lives. In the talk this Sunday, Dharma Teacher Andrea Fella showed how there can be great benefit in identifying the types of mental formations unique to each of us at any point in time, allowing for increased awareness, insight, and agency in our life experience.
Mental Formations are “The Engine of Creation of our Lives,” since “whatever one frequently ponders becomes the inclination of the mind.” Thanks to Andrea F. for being this week’s facilitator and bringing this important topic to our Sangha.
You can listen to the talk here: https://dharmaseed.org/talks/50783/
Tara Brach’s deep and skillful combining of the Dharma with psychology has made her a go-to source of perspective and counsel for many serious practitioners. In our sangha, Jackie was particularly struck and helped by a particular talk by Tara on her ‘signature theme’ – Radical Acceptance.
A link to Tara’s talk is forthcoming.
Ron guided our reflections this Sunday, drawing on a talk by Andrew Olendski, who begins his talk with this question:
During the time of Buddha there were many experiencing enlightenment. Why not in our contemporary world? There are many, many dedicated practitioners and scholars yet we can point to no one that has reached nirvana.
The answer may be found in his definition that “What we take to be the world is a virtual construction of the human mind and body woven together of consciousness arising and falling away in an ongoing stream.”
A link to the talk is forthcoming.
This Sunday was our last in-person meeting at the Lojong Space, the physical home for our sangha for many years.
Appropriately, Eric, who will lead this last meeting, chose the topic of Impermanence as the theme for meditation and discussion.
Eric writes,
As I was listening to this talk I was contemplating how associative our minds are. Similar salient events are grouped in our lives. Endings are grouped. So even a small ending, especially an unexpected one, can bring up emotions related to larger ones, like leaving a job, moving, a child leaving home, or the big one: death of a loved one. And since all phenomena are ending all of the time, these big events in our lives are always with us, maybe obviously, or maybe just below the surface, conditioning our experience. In this talk Jitendriya relates how anicca is not only a cause of dukkha, but also our way through it, a way to clearly see the source of it.
You can listen to the talk here: https://dharmaseed.org/talks/71649/
It may seem at times hard to believe that we each have an unlimited reservoir of joy available at all times. But we touch into it spontaneously — during a sunset, seeing a newborn child, hearing a favorite song or catching a wonderful aroma. Lorilee guided our session this Sunday, drawing on and sharing the teachings of Native Tibetan Buddhist teacher Anam Thubten, who brings his lifelong amazement of the richness of our human experience to his teaching.
Tapping into joy is a powerful antidote to stress and reactivity. Indeed, the loss/change/groundlessness we might feel today could be the very doorway into the joy that heals us.
At the time of writing, Anam Thubten’s teaching is available on the Dharmata site at https://www.dharmata.org/teachings/ but may be replaced by the time you read this. Their archives are for members only.
