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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:

https://dharmaseed.org/talks/17504/

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

https://dharmaseed.org/talks/player/76758.html

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.

We often seek out individual dharma teachers as guides along the path— wise figures on the face of the planet. But what happens when we reverse that perspective and accept the planet itself as dharma teacher?  

We can realize great truths without the use of words simply by walking in a redwood forest, or gazing into the vastness of the Grand Canyon. Equanimity, humility, a vanishing sense of self arise almost immediately, as all encompassing feelings, rather than ideas or thoughts, and we are touched, changed.  

Don guided our explorations of this possibility this week, drawing on a dharma talk by Brian LeSage.

You can listen to Brian’s talk here: https://dharmaseed.org/talks/78651/

In the Dhammapada, the Buddha says: “All conditioned things are impermanent.  When one sees this with wisdom, one turns away from suffering” (v 277).

Jack Kornfeld says: “There is some sense that when you know that things change, and accept it, or you find composure in it … you find yourself in Nirvana.”  

The changing seasons are perhaps a wonderful teacher for how to delight in the present while being acutely aware of  impermanence.

At Sunday’s Sangha Margaret guided our reflections as we explored the close connection between fully accepting impermanence and being in the present with joy and awe.

She played excerpts from the following talks:

 Jake Dartington:     https://dharmaseed.org/talks/44728/

Christina Feldman:  https://dharmaseed.org/talks/4478/

She read the following little verse by William Blake

He who binds to himself a joy
Doth the winged life destroy;
But he who kisses a joy as it flies
Lives in eternity’s sunrise.

The following two poems featured in Christina’s talk:

The poem The Summer Day by Mary Oliver can be found here: https://wordsfortheyear.com/2015/06/21/the-summer-day-by-mary-oliver/

The poem Adios, by Naomi Shihab Nye can be found here:https://wordsfortheyear.com/2018/02/07/adios-by-naomi-shihab-nye/

If you want to hear the music by the Paul Winter consort, it can be found at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AtZhk9fpSb4