Burlington Buddhist Sangha

This past Sunday, Margaret revisited the idea of Samadhi, and its role in Buddhist practice. Although Samadhi is often simply translated as concentration, this perhaps does not fully capture the notion. With no intention of exploring Samadhi in the context of Jhanas, we reflected on the role of pleasure in Samadhi. She used excerpts from talks by Ajahn Punnadhammon and Brian Lesage to explore these ideas.

Here are the talks used:

http://dharmaseed.org/teacher/484/talk/33029/ (Brian Lessage, The Art of Samadhi)

http://dharmaseed.org/teacher/8/talk/32947/ (Ajahn Punnadhammo, What is Samadhi?)

Payton led the discussion this past Sunday on the topic of Freedom: Relief vs. Release. The discussion was centered around a talk by Gil Fronsdal, available here:

http://www.audiodharma.org/talks/audio_player/6816.html

Gil brought up the social/philosophical tensions that exist in all our lives and how perhaps the “middle way” isn’t just choosing a place on that spectrum. Just a few:

• individualism vs. conformity
• discipline vs. allowing
• conservative vs. liberal

He also listed the “four prisons” that trap us in these tensions:

• Religious observances
• Opinions
• Self
• Sensual desire

Gil’s suggestion, near the end of the talk, was just to be “thus”, rather than identifying with any one side or the other.

This past Sunday, Mike shared parts of a dharma talk by Sean Feit on the original Buddhist ideas of hiri and ottappa – sometimes translated as Conscience and Concern.

Called “The Guardians of the World”, often these terms are translated as Shame and Moral Dread, which perhaps accounts for how little they are discussed in the West: we have plenty of shame and dread to go around. However, they can also point to a subtle way of reviewing the past and planning the future without being hooked by craving and grasping.

Hiri implies the sense we get when reviewing past actions that were unskillful (hence Conscience). Once seen, we will naturally have Ottappa: we want to avoid the results of those actions (Concern). This leads us to be more able to avoid repeating those actions in the future.

The challenging part of this review and avoidance is not to judge ourselves for unskillful actions and not be terrified of repeating them again. That judgement and terror are themselves unskillful.

Sean Feit’s talk is here: http://imsb.dharmaseed.org/teacher/383/talk/33351/

This Sunday, Joey played a wonderful talk by Norman Fischer. Norman discussed the Tibetan Buddhist practice of using “Lojong” slogans to bring mindfulness to daily life. Mostly the focus in the talk was using the slogans in relation to anger, but also how they are applicable to many other situations.

The talk is here: http://dharmaseed.org/teacher/134/talk/21034/

Joey printed up a list of the four slogans that Norman used in his talk:

In the subsequent discussion we talked about how the first slogan doesn’t mean not to form opinions or develop a hypothesis about why someone exhibits a behavior, but to know such thoughts as a hypotheses and not to get hooked into believing that is who the person is, unchanging.

Rebecca led a active discussion this Sunday based on reading another chapter from Joseph Goldstein’s book, Mindfulness.

The topic was aspects of Right Thought, including how to interpret the Precepts and how that leads to Right Livelihood.

This past Sunday, Sam guided a wonderful discussion on poetry and its attempt to express the inexpressible.

Sam based his talk around a recent retreat workshop that he attended where poetry was the main focus.

Here is a talk that Sam used by Mark Coleman:
http://dharmaseed.org/teacher/115/talk/15436/

Sam also read several poems from “House of Light” by Mary Oliver, which generated a lively discussion.

This Sunday, Wendy led the discussion on the topic of “Unentangled Knowing”, based around a talk by Guy Armstrong. The talk is here:

http://dharmaseed.org/teacher/79/talk/32559/

The discussion centered around the central four links of the Buddha’s conceptual chain of “Dependent Origination”: Sense contact, which leads to Feeling tone, which leads to Craving, which leads to Grasping. Wendy (and Guy) echoed the Buddha’s opinion that the easiest place to work with one’s own experience is in the gap between Feeling tone and Craving. That is, once we notice that an experience is pleasant, unpleasant, or neutral, we can develop some control over getting hooked by that experience and either craving more, pushing it away, or becoming bored or distracted.

Wendy’s wonderful chart showing these four links is here:

This Sunday Michael guided a meditation on the first Foundation of Mindfulness, Mindfulness of the Body. The practice he shared was from the teachings of Bhikkhu Anālayo, a scholar and meditation teacher from Germany. Anālayo compared the Satipatthana Sutta in three of the original traditions of Buddhism and found which parts are common among them. Perhaps surprisingly, the breath meditation with which Western Theravada is so familiar is not present in all three. What is present, however, is the Four Foundations of Mindfulness.

Adam guided our reflections this past Sunday on the Hindrance of Sloth and Torpor. Laziness is only one facet of this complex Hindrance to our lives, meditative and otherwise.  A dharmic analysis of the causes and conditions of Sloth and Torpor can help us meet this hindrance with more skill and greater effectiveness.

I chose this Hindrance because I have had little practice observing this mindfully. Or so I had thought. Also — I tend toward action, and I thought it might be good for me to see how this Hindrance shows up.

Ajahn Brahmavamso states in the Five Hindrances:

“Sloth and torpor is overcome by rousing energy. Energy is always available but few know how to turn on the switch, as it were. Setting a goal, a reasonable goal, is a wise and effective way to generate energy, as is deliberately developing interest in the task at hand. A young child has a natural interest, and consequent energy, because its world is so new. Thus, if one can learn to look at one’s life, or one’s meditation, with a ‘beginner’s mind’ one can see ever new angles and fresh possibilities which keep one distant from sloth and torpor, alive and energetic. Similarly, one can develop delight in whatever one is doing by training one’s perception to see the beautiful in the ordinary, thereby generating the interest which avoids the half-death that is sloth and torpor. […] Sloth and torpor is a common problem which can creep up and smother one slowly. A skilful meditator keeps a sharp look-out for the first signs of sloth and torpor and is thus able to spot its approach and take evasive action before it’s too late. Like coming to a fork in a road, one can take that mental path leading away from sloth and torpor.”

Other remedies for S & T in addition to mindfulness:

This past Sunday, Mike guided our reflections on the oft-confusing topic of Renunciation in our lay culture.

Mike utilized a talk by Leela Sarti, who is a visiting teacher at Gaia House in England, linked below:
http://dharmaseed.org/teacher/364/talk/31696/