Burlington Buddhist Sangha

The older we become, the more past selves we leave behind. The process of “becoming” is endless; we are different people in different contexts but also at different times. What happens to those other beings? Do they cease to exist when we become someone new, or do they remain stacked deep underground in the caverns of our minds, waiting for the right moment to come back to life?

This week, Payton explored the theme of identity in Buddhist thought and the way that who we think we are changes day by day, moment by moment. And more importantly, where those selves might live now.

Payton began by reading an excerpt from the abstract of a paper for the British Journal for the History of Philosophy by Andrea Sangiacomo, a faculty member of the University of Groningen,

The discourses are concerned with how existence is used to support and consolidate a certain attitude of ownership, appropriation, and entitlement over contents of experience, in virtue of which one can claim that this or that is ‘mine’. The problem with this move is that it seems to require a degree of stability that is at odds with the fundamental uncertainty (anicca) of all conditioned realities. Existence is used to somehow cover up uncertainty, and thus allow for a semblance of genuine ownership and possession, while in fact possession and ownership are just deluded views doomed to be contradicted by the structural uncertainty of actual experience.

We then listened to excerpts from two talks on the topic of “becoming”,

Jose Reissig, To Study the Self: https://dharmaseed.org/talks/12713/

Gregory Kramer, Bhava, Becoming: https://dharmaseed.org/talks/25379/

Also mentioned during our discussion was the author David Hinton.

Steve guided our reflections this Sunday. Here is what he has to say:

The Buddha dharma is rich with lists. The Four Noble Truths. The Five Skandhas. The Five Remembrances. The Noble Eightfold Path.
Long lists. Short lists. One list after another and lists within lists within lists.

Last week Sam encouraged us to consider the Five Remembrances:

• I am of the nature to grow old. There is no way to escape growing old.
• I am of the nature to have ill health. …
• I am of the nature to die. …
• All that is dear to me and everyone I love are of the nature to change. …
• My actions are my only true belongings.

This week I would like to share a short but deep teaching from Thay on the Noble Eightfold Path:

• Right View
• Right Resolve (Thought), 
• Right Speech
• Right Action
• Right Livelihood
• Right Effort
• Right Mindfulness
• Right Concentration.

Thay’s teaching picks up on some of the ideas we were discussing last week; in particular, the Fifth Remembrance.

But all these lists speak to the most profound insight, that of the Heart Sutra, the Insight that Brings us to the Other Shore, the Insight that Destroys All Lists: The Five Skandhas are empty.

You’ve traveled up ten thousand steps in search of the Dharma.
So many long days in the archives, copying, copying.
The gravity of the Tang and the profundity of the Sung
make heavy baggage.
Here! I’ve picked you a bunch of wildflowers.
Their meaning is the same
but they’re much easier to carry.

Hsu Yun – https://www.poetry-chaikhana.com/Poets/Y/YunHsu/index.html

We then heard part of this talk: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pC23kc4bq8U

In a recent sangha conversation, one of the Buddha’s starkest reflections came up. After the three familiar reminders of the universality of sickness, old age and death, he adds:

“Everything I love and hold dear, I will be separated from.”  

Then the sequence closes with this final reflection:

“I am the owner of my actions, heir to my actions, born of my actions, related through my actions: Whatever I do, for good or for evil, to that will I fall heir.”

There is considerable food for investigation here, and Ellen, who guided our explorations this Sunday, offered a guided meditation drawn from a talk by dharma teacher James Baraz.

You can listen to the talk here:

https://dharmaseed.org/talks/player/71092.html

A core teaching,  briefly touched upon by Christina Feldman a few weeks ago, is how the self arises (and passes away) moment by moment and how understanding this leads to liberating insight.  With Sam’s guidance, this week we continued on this theme, with excerpts of dharma talks by Christina Feldman and Joseph Goldstein. 

Links to the talks are as follows:
Christina Feldman’s talk: https://dharmaseed.org/talks/43791

Joseph Goldstein’s talk: https://dharmaseed.org/talks/48725

Sam also read this excerpt from the Tempest:

https://youtu.be/KFNTAsC8qQ0 Tempest excerpt by David Threlfall

What does it mean to say that renunciation lies at the core of Buddhist practice in the quality of our relationship to living experience? How are peace, happiness and fulfillment to be found through renunciation, letting go, or non-grasping? This Sunday, Jane presented a talk given by Orin Jay Sofer at a month-long retreat held at Spirit Rock Insight Meditation Center in March of 2019.

You can listen to the talk here:

https://dharmaseed.org/talks/55422/

Distraction – a fresh approach – was our topic this past Sunday as we met for our monthly in-person gathering. Michel guided our reflections, drawing upon on the Non-Dual tradition exemplified by John Astin’s teachings and guided meditations for a fresh and revealing perspective to the question of the meaning and value of distraction in meditation and ordinary living.

Patience is one of the ten paramis, or perfections of character. Patience is also something lacking in our society. Symptoms of impatience include same day delivery on everything and the expectation that everybody will instantly reply to our messages. Patience is a powerful antidote to negative emotions, including anger.

Jeff facilitated this week’s exploration of patience. We listend to a recent talk from Jill Shepherd titled, “The parami of patience” which was given as part of a series of talks on the ten paramis. Patience is a quality that is undervalued in mainstream society with its emphasis on instant gratification, but in the Buddha’s teachings, it’s seen as the foremost of all the paramis. Fortunately, it’s something that we can be trained in, initially by recognizing where we’re impatient, then making the effort to orient to steadiness and non-resistance.

You can listen to Jill’s talk here: https://dharmaseed.org/talks/77350/

NOTES:

Patience is a topic near and dear to my heart. Patience, or lack thereof, was one of my entry points onto the Buddhist path. One the first Buddhist books that I read was “Healing Anger” by The Dalai Lama. The subtitle reads as follows: the power of patience from a Buddhist perspective. By developing patience I was able to lessen my own suffering and the suffering I contributed to those around me.

As with most spiritual growth, patience is tested and developed during difficulties. It is easy to be patient when everything is going smoothly. Difficult people and difficult situations are where patience becomes more important and also more challenging. The practice of sitting mediation is part of the training in patience, but we need to also choose patience in other situations.

A few quotes about patience:

Patience is the calm acceptance that things can happen in a different order than the one you have in mind.

Patience is not the ability to wait, but the ability to keep a good attitude while waiting.

Patience entails cultivating skillful courageousness, mindfulness, and tolerance.

If you are patient in one moment of anger, you will escape 100 days of sorrow.

Three types of patience

• patience with difficult people

• patience with hardships on the path

• patience with the ups and downs of life

Patience is one of the ten paramis, and is often linked to others, such as energy. This reminds us that we need to develop a breadth of skills and also a depth of each skill.

In the beauty and poignancy of spring we can become deeply aware of the beauty of the changes around us. Can we take in this beauty in a way that helps us accept the natural changes of our mind-body and the mind-bodies around us as another deeply beautiful process? One that could bring us to a place of peace and understanding? What habits might prevent us from doing this? What lovely qualities would support this aspiration?

Christina Feldman defines Dukkha as vulnerability and also as a moment of standing at a crossroads. We can choose to follow our habits and find ourselves again and again in a familiar place of distress or we can choose to follow a path that “is actually concerned with cultivating the lovely…”  One of these “lovely qualities” is joy (Piti), such as joy in the beauty of nature and its changes. 

Darryl guided our reflections this Sunday as we listened to and discussed excerpts from two Christina Feldman talks (including words from Chris Cullen).

You can listen to the talks here:

https://dharmaseed.org/talks/77491/

https://dharmaseed.org/talks/68237/

In the Buddha’s opinion, the practice of gratitude and generosity, while not always easy, is “beautiful in the beginning, beautiful in the middle, and beautiful in the end.” The variety of forms that gratitude takes can be remarkable.  Giving to a charity or to a person on the street may be what first come to mind.  But what about relating clearly to the present moment – giving it our full attention, and suddenly seeing it (and everyone in it) quite differently.  Letting go of a firmly held idea can be a powerful form of generosity to the larger situation.  

This week, Eveline guided our discussion of the ways in which practicing any form of generosity brings the mind into a happy, open, receptive place from which to begin again, refreshed.  A talk by Jaya Rudgard, who teaches at IMS and Spirit Rock, served as a further source of insights for our discussion.

A link to the talk is forthcoming.

Meditation offers us many benefits, and at the top of the list are Wisdom and Energy.  Wisdom may come in small increments or spectacular insights.  But in either case it requires sustained energy.  Wisdom may reveal to us that energy is finite and fluctuant, and needs to be shepherded carefully and cultivated with patience and sensitivity to our changing situation and sensitivity.  Don guided our reflections in this month’s in-person sit using a talk by Jill Shepard.

You can listen to Jill’s talk here:

https://dharmaseed.org/talks/77232/