Author: Payton Swick

Each day the world’s news offers us new provocations to distress. Relentlessly.  

It’s so easy to be knocked off balance, and sometimes hard to find our way back. A kind of fixed rigidity can tempt us, as can the conviction that we could fix the situation, if only the world would listen. But these are paths that lead us into thickets of views, even further from balance. 

Darryl, drawing on a talk by Rebecca Bradshaw, guided our reflections on a kind of discernment that can allow us to find the natural balance within, from which we can act skillfully and without distress.

You can listen to Rebecca’s talk here: https://dharmaseed.org/talks/89301/

Being in nature seems always, since our beginnings, to have been profoundly relaxing and regenerating.  When we look into this, do we
feel we are spectators, standing just outside nature, looking at it?  Or are we an aspect of nature, aware of itself?  

And what about the experience of the body? Am I located in my head, aware of the rest of me below?  Or is the body self-aware?  

The more we explore these questions experientially, the more we may come to see our body as a dimension of nature, which may not exactly answer the questions, but can deepen them.

Using an excerpt from a talk by Tara Brach, Jackie led us in exploring these questions in our own experience.

A link to the talk is here: https://dharmaseed.org/talks/player/86325.html

When was the last time you listened to the sound of the wind in the trees? How about watching the gentle movements of a leaf or a pine needle? When our senses meet an experience, a complex chain of events occurs nearly instantly including the “feeling tone” of pleasant, unpleasant, or neutral and leading all the way to thoughts and reactions. This is going on constantly, without cease. There’s no way we can be consciously aware of all of these events, these micro-judgments that color every moment of our lives, but we do pay attention to some of them. What do we pay attention to? An important question in meditative practice. But perhaps even more important is the question: what do we not notice? This week, Payton guided the Sangha’s investigation of what experiences we allow to filter into our conscious awareness and what other experiences there are.

Payton played a talk by Nathan Glyde which you can listen to here:

https://dharmaseed.org/talks/89615/

To begin to practice the dharma is a huge, significant step – and some of us can date the time of our beginning.  What we don’t usually mark with anniversaries is the ways in which we discover to deepen and strengthen our practice, though this is what keeps us going year after year, and what  truly transforms our lives.

Drawing on a dharma talk by Jill Shepherd, Don guided our exploration this week of maintaining and deepening our practice at various stages —as beginners looking for a recipe satisfying enough to keep us returning to the  cushion, as longer term  students who want to move beyond methods that have come to seem mechanical, to meditators with years and decades of experience who are rewarded by finding greater subtleties in practice—or by seeing how practice and daily life can work together to transform one another.  Sharing off-the-cushion time with sangha can contribute to one’s depth of practice in many ways, as the Buddha recommended.  

And then there is the question of finding an appropriate teacher, if that would seem helpful at certain stages.  Where to find them? How to connect? & Finding a meaningful relationship are key questions when the time comes for some one-to-one guidance.

A link to the talk is below:

https://dharmaseed.org/talks/85347/

Ever seeking to keep practitioners on the path, The Buddha offered to his followers in ancient times, and to us today, Five Recollections. Calling these to mind every day can keep us alert to the difference practice can make.

Three may seem obvious, one shocking, and the last deeply reaffirming. This week, Sam guided our reflections, with excerpts from Dharma Teacher Devin Berry.

The recollections are:

I am of the nature to grow old, I cannot avoid aging;

I am of the nature to become ill, I cannot avoid illness;

I am of the nature to die, I cannot avoid death;

All that is mine, dear and delightful, will change and vanish;

I am the owner of my actions, heir to my actions, born of my actions, related to my actions, and live dependent on my actions.

You can listen to Devin’s talk here:

https://dharmaseed.org/talks/89317/

In Pali, the language of the Buddhist scriptures, Dhamma means both the teaching of the Buddha and the laws of Nature. And from the beginning, those training in the Dhamma were encouraged to spend significant time in out of doors. 

Today too, immersing ourselves in Nature, we encounter vast treasures of teachings and inspiration that regenerate us. Drawing excerpts from talks by Buddhist teachers Mark Coleman and Michele McDonald, as well as lessons learned from her own little monarch butterfly garden, Lorilee shared with us this week ways in which we can open ourselves up to experiencing nature, without and within.

https://dharmaseed.org/talks/41161/
Rest and Courage by Michele McDonald

https://dharmaseed.org/talks/89241/
Being the Earth – Rapture, Rupture, Regeneration by Mark Coleman

The world feels especially noisy right now, so let’s investigate sacred sound. Trina guided us this week in looking at how chanting and mantra are used in many spiritual practices, including Buddhism, and why it might be better than you think. Trina writes:

I was unable to find a tidy 30-minute talk about this, so I read excerpts from books, articles and websites. I also played numerous snippets of audio, and we ended with five minutes of chanting together.

Below are links to some of the resources I cited and excerpted.

From Tricycle website: “Meditating with your voice: Chanting”
https://tricycle.org/beginners/buddhism/meditating-with-your-voice-chanting/

A sampling of chants from various spiritual traditions:
Ancient Mystic Hebrew Chants
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SsCElDgov2M

Traditional Sufi Chant
https://youtu.be/hVDKxYpnOrI

Gregorian Chant
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B3T8V-IM4Xk

Hindu Kirtan
https://youtu.be/ld_h9KtyP3s

Kundalini Yoga Chant
https://youtu.be/YQrs9zlOW1U

Tibetan Buddhist Throat Singing
https://youtu.be/QfkI5QiHMfM

Theravadan Buddhist Monks Chanting in Pali
https://youtu.be/1xaSSpffYiI

Bhikkhu Dhammasami (2016). “The Practice of Chanting in Buddhism”
https://buddhismnetwork.com/2016/12/11/the-practice-of-chanting-in-buddhism/

Tricycle website: “What is a mantra?”
https://tricycle.org/beginners/buddhism/what-is-a-mantra/

“What chanting a mantra can do for you.” (Do you need to know meaning?) Sadhguru
https://youtu.be/vd9j8uo6OSY

Theravadan monk Ven. Nick Keomahavong introduces chanting and offers tips for how to do it.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wV5YuJhArY0&t=721s

Monks chanting “Om Mani Padme Hum” (our sangha chanted along for five minutes)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0trNro_-dY8

In recent times, different branches of Buddhism have been reinvigorated by the ideas and practices of ancient and modern non-dualism. In the process, Advaita Vedanta has entered often-fruitful conversations with Buddhists. 

Michael guided our reflections this week as we explored several ways in which Buddhists augment their practice in light of non-dual perspectives.

In a world seething with chaos, rage, and suffering, what is our position in the world?  We have shared our feelings of grief, despair, frustration, helplessness, anger.  We have asked, what should we do?  What must we do?  How can we sit on our cushions in a world on fire?  The urge to fight back is powerful.  But this is not the way of the bodhisattva.  We are called to embody the peace that the world needs.  To open ourselves to receive the three gems, to attain liberation, to embody true compassion, to be of benefit to all beings, to realize our Buddha nature, we must soften into mindful, gentle awareness.  

This Sunday we meditated together, and sat with a talk by Jack Kornfield titled, “A Peaceful Heart in a Time of War and the Legacy of Thich Nat Hanh.”  Led by Steve, we then talked about what to do when Mara comes along.

You can listen to the full talk here: https://dharmaseed.org/talks/69770/

Ellen was struck a few months back by how many of us had lost parents and loved ones and were grieving. And then during last week’s gathering, one of the pervasive feelings in this political moment is grief. It is so important to make room for, to welcome and work with grief.

During this week’s Sangha gathering, Ellen shared two shorter talks, one by Gil Fronsdal on the elements of grief and one by Matthew Brensilver titled Grief and Love. The talks were followed by a guided self compassion meditation based on the work of Kristin Neff.

Links to the talks are forthcoming.