If we look at the stories that make up most of our mental chatter, we come to see that even if they seem to range broadly, they are mostly in fact about ourselves, and actually help to create and the sense of self. This phenomenon, called mana papanca (mental proliferation around the sense of self), and is the subject of a talk by Christina Feldman, excerpts of which was be offered for discussion as Sam guided our reflections at this week’s sangha.
A link to the talk is forthcoming.
We reflected this week on the instructions that the Buddha gave to Bahiya about what is sometimes called bare attention, or sometimes mindfulness: “In the seen, let there be just the seen, in the heard let there be just the heard”, and so on. These ostensibly simple instructions are at the heart of the practice, and worth aspiring to implement, although doing that is not quite so simple. Margaret guided our reflections, drawing on the teachings of Sally Armstrong and others to explore this theme.
You can listen to Sally’s talk here:
https://dharmaseed.org/talks/player/73215.html
You can read a translation of the teaching to Bahiya here:
https://www.accesstoinsight.org/tipitaka/kn/ud/ud.1.10.than.html
Also read was this excerpt from the Malunkyaputta Sutta:
When we study a natural phenomenon or a discipline, we usually seek to accumulate knowledge, hoping to find wisdom that will help us to grasp the situation clearly. With meditation, the approach may sometimes be reversed: we may seek to shed old ways of seeing, and genuinely attempt to not-know. Eric guided our reflections this Sunday, with the help of excerpts from Stephen Batchelor’s bringing to light his work in Korean Zen, and guiding us into the heart of Not-Knowing, freshly asking of whatever we may encounter, “What is this?”
You can listen to Stephen’s talk here:
Darryl guided our reflections on the Surprise of Impermanence this Sunday, drawing on excerpts from a talk by Carol Wilson, and using a musical recording to explore our shifting response to impermanence itself.
Carol’s talk can be found here:
https://dharmaseed.org/talks/73270/
You can listen to the music that was shared from Plum Village at this link:
https://web.plumvillage.app/item/cello-and-shruti-box-piece-4
Darryl also read an excerpt from a poem called “Teijitsu’s Awakening” which is available here.
During the discussion, Eric shared a talk by neuroscientist Anil Seth, which you can find here. Darryl referred to the Mind and Life podcast which you can find at their website.
Surrounded by bad news, in media’s algorithmic echo chambers — how can we find and nurture the joy that is our birthright? The practice of Mudita gives us countless opportunities to savor happiness as we celebrate the good fortune of others. And such cheering information is available if we seek it out. Lorilee framed our discussion this week after we heard Brian LeSage’s recent dharma talk “Expanding Joy”.
You can listen to Brian’s talk here:
Michael, drawing on the teaching of British dharma teacher Martin Aylward, centered the discussion this Sunday on the evolution of our relation to the dharma as our lives unfold. As we observe how our own practice has changed over time, we might come to see how it resonates with different phases of the life of Siddhartha as he came to awaken to his own Buddha nature. This is not to make us out as good little Buddhas, but rather to point out that the shifts and comings and goings of our own lives can be illuminated by the about-faces that characterized the far from straight unfolding of the life of the bodhisattva.
We may begin our spiritual explorations quite tentatively, dipping a toe in, experimenting with this or that technique early on, seeking ease and comfort—even escape. But at some point in our lives, we may find ourselves longing to lean into a more disciplined practice, perhaps an echo of the maturing Siddhartha’s about-face from a life or luxury and comfort to a stricter, more ascetic and disciplined focus. Perhaps like him we learned a good deal from this tightening up: it can be very energizing, but also, in time, exhausting, as dedication to a distant goal saps away energy for a fulfilling life in the actual present.
At one particularly strenuous point in his evolution, the Bodhisattva remembered a day from his early teens in which he was present at a great agricultural festival with his father, a scene filled with the labor of those who tilled the earth and the stresses experienced by the ruling family, of which he was member and heir. Yet amid all this strain, he managed to sideline himself, finding a quiet place in the shade of a rose-apple tree, where he relaxed profoundly, and effortlessly took in the beauty of the shifting light and shadows of the breeze-blown leaves, and the relief of not being at the center of things.
This restoration and renewal he experienced allowed him to remain fresh, easily energetic and committed through the long night leading up to his awakening . . . after which . . . after which, he did not burst forth into the world ready to promote new ideas and insights, but rather took an extended time—days and weeks—to look into the subtleties and implications of what he had come to understand about the world and himself. Before turning to speak of this, to move beyond what can be spoken about change and suffering and identity, he entered and dwelt in an understanding that allowed him to move through life with grace and generosity.
In the end, we, like him, can find an underlying direction in a life filled with switchbacks, seeming inconsistencies and contradictions. We can discover a mind that is by its nature inherently free, and deeply wed to the whole of life, with all its joys and sorrows; capacious, steady, tender, forgiving and grounded in life as it is, rather than how we once imagined it might turn out to be, if we only followed a straight and narrow path which seemed to present itself early on.
The basic disposition of human beings is to avoid unpleasant or painful feelings, and to seek more and more pleasant feelings, believing that doing so provides lasting happiness. Vedana, or feeling tone, arises in the moment of each sense contact and is experienced in one of three ways: as pleasant, unpleasant, or neutral. Each of the ways is in the nature of a bare feeling with no associated emotional tones. However, based on the pleasant or unpleasant aspects of sense experience we form likes and dislikes. And based on the neutral aspects we form ‘overlooks’, the tendency to not even see people or things or events that don’t excite our passions.
This week Stephanie shared a talk by Carol Wilson in which she describes the vedana and the gratification and danger and escape from getting entranced by them.
You can listen to Carol’s talk here:
This week, Don guided our reflections on the relations (more complex that we might think) between meditative stillness and the way our mind usually operates: “Monkey Mind”, always looking for the next pleasure or trying to get away from the latest problem. We discussed the concept of samādhi as the Buddha meant it in his discourses. This is typically translated as “concentration”, but that implies success through force of will. In a talk by Marc Weber, we learned that samādhi is not so much something we do, but the result of practicing to bring the mind together, to collect all its wild experiences into a unified whole.
You can listen to Marc’s talk here:
https://dharmaseed.org/talks/74618/
Also brought up during the discussion was this video about an antarctic explorer retracing his path back from the south pole and joyfully discovering the supplies he had left for himself weeks earlier.
It’s no mystery that life is filled with unpredictable things. From the mundane issues of household objects breaking to the complex and life-changing issues of ill-health and injustice, we are bombarded by problems that need fixing. Depending on our mindset, we may find ourselves drawn to fixing every problem we encounter (Craving!), running away or ignoring those problems (Aversion!), or not being aware of the problems in the first place (Delusion!). When our strategies fail to produce the desired result, and more unpredictable events occur, we suffer. But the very idea that we can fix, avoid, or ignore all our problems is itself an illusion. This week, Payton talked about the illusion of control and what we might be able to do instead.
Payton played a talk by James Baraz which you can listen to here:
Does the Dhamma call us and guide us to a kind of action, or does it free us to act more spontaneously with whatever arises? Drawing on a talk in which Gil Fronsdal explores this distinction with subtlety and insight, Ellen guided our reflections on this question and its implications for each of us, as we pass through the shifting stages of our lives.
You can listen to Gil’s talk here:
