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Most people probably consider ourselves open-minded, but all of us have hidden biases when it comes to viewing ourselves in relation to others or when viewing others in relation to ourselves. These sorts of mental formations appear only with the right trigger, and sometimes their effects are subtle enough that we are not even aware of their presence. To take a relatively simple example, how do you feel about bowing? Bowing to friends? Bowing to strangers? Bowing to statues? Bowing to those in power? How does this movement land on the mind?

During this week’s Sangha gathering, Payton explored three unwholesome comparisons – judging yourself better than another, judging yourself lesser than another, and judging yourself equal to another – with the aid of a talk by Christina Feldman.

You can listen to Christina’s full talk here: https://dharmaseed.org/talks/2472/

What makes it possible to respond rather than react in the face of a powerful emotion like Anger?  It’s not easy, and doesn’t come just by wishing for the better response.  Eric guided our investigation of reactivity and response, drawing on his own personal experience and practice as well as a dharma talk by Brian LeSage, with implications for our national as well as personal suffering.

Brian LeSage’s talk can be heard here: https://dharmaseed.org/talks/66842/

Below is the guided meditation that Eric read to start our sitting together:

Feel the contact points of your body with the ground, the feet on the floor, the sit bones on the chair or cushion beneath you.  Can you feel a heaviness increase in these points as you inhale, sending the breath deep into the belly.

If it is available, can you gently rock forward on your sit bones so the top of your pelvis tilts forward, allowing your lower spine, the lumbar region, to take its natural curve.  At the same time, try to keep the head balanced  directly above the tailbone, tucking the chin just a bit, as if you were holding a grapefruit between the chin and the chest.  Can you feel a lengthening at the back of the neck?  Notice your shoulders, allowing them to relax away from the ears.  Now, as you inhale can you feel not only the heaviness in the contact points with the ground, but a lifting energy at the crown of the head, allowing you to find just the tiniest bit of extra space between each vertebrae, lengthening the spine, careful not to lose the strength and stability inherent in its curved shape.  

(take a beat)

In this way, we search for right effort, using balance rather than strain to counter gravity. 

(take a beat)

In this position, without judgment, and without trying to change anything, bring your attention to the breath.

5 min

Now, I invite you to recall a situation when anger arose in the mind and body.  Try not to pick the  most severe instance in recent memory, but perhaps a more mundane occurrence, like hearing something you didn’t like on the news, or a housemate leaving a mess, or someone being late for a meeting, or one of the myriad moments of anger caused by having to drive a car.  With intention and interest, allow the story to unfold and notice the emotions and thoughts associated with it.  Particularly, pay attention to what was happening the moment anger arose.  How did you feel about the person or situation that you felt was the proximate cause for anger in that moment?

7min

Try to expand the story beyond emotion and thought into the more fundamental feelings in the physical body at the time and perhaps right before anger arose.  Were you hungry?  Hot?  Tired?  Rushed?  Or perhaps you were quite happy and the anger arose because you were knocked out of your pleasant feeling tone for some reason.

8 min 

As you recall this event,  how is your energy level now?   How is your breath now?  Is it long or short?  Shallow or deep?  Rough or Smooth?   The breath can be just a starting point.  Use the story of anger arising as a tool to provide you with physical sensations to explore anywhere in the body. 

10 min

Where in the body do you feel strong sensations associated with the story.  How do you feel in the Belly?  The Chest?  The Neck?  The Jaw?  Is there pressure?  Vibration?  Tension?  How is the temperature?  In this hopefully safe space we are trying to understand the phenomenology of anger so we can more easily recognize it when it arises unbidden.  

12 min

As we continue the meditation, try to attend more to feeling and less to thought.  But don’t force it.  Simply allow a release of story by slowly bringing more focused attention to feeling tone and energy level.

13 min

If the sensations become too strong or the story too sticky, try to take a wider view.  Bring your attention to the entire breath, lengthening and deepening the inhale and exhale.  Zoom out and take in the entire body : Scanning from head to toe.  You might open your eyes and take in the room or even look out a window at the sky.  If you need to, stand up and take some mindful steps.

15min

Now, I invite you to bring to mind an everyday, simple pleasure.  A sunset.  The smell of your favorite coffee shop,  bakery, or flower.   Running into a good friend while out walking.  A cup of tea.  A puppy or kitten in your lap, wanting nothing more than a little scratch behind the ears.  How does this thought change your breath?  Your bodily sensations?  Can you use this image to engender a feeling of good will, that is, metta, towards this moment?  

17 min

If there is a pleasant sensation, such as a warmth in the chest or belly, or a tingling on the surface of the skin, see if you can sink into it and allow it to expand.  If not, simply bring to mind a pleasant image and an intention to breathe calmly, deeply, and slowly.  And remember an intention does not depend on its fruition.  In this practice, we are not trying to control the results of our intention, but merely noticing them.

19 min

I now invite you to send metta into the world.  Again, the effort here is on the intention, not the result.  I’ll offer a few phrases, or you can use your own, or simply imagine any feeling of good will you can generate spreading out in all directions.  

May this body find peace and ease.

May our loved ones be safe.

May all know the preciousness of this moment.

May we be happy.

In silence now….

Thich Nhat Hanh’s iconic teaching about how we must water the “good” seeds in ourselves and others is exemplified all around us in nature. This is especially true during the height of summer, when gardens are bursting forth, the result of careful planting and tending. This week Ginny explored the work of tending to our own well being and becoming amidst all of the challenges in the world around us, watering the seeds that are inherent in us, but which await our cultivation if they are to flourish. 

Readings:

From Tricycle Magazine spring 2022 Dharma Talk

Trusting the Unknown by Kaira Jewel Lingo

Trusting the Unknown 

Excerpts:

 “… when we are clear and sure about what we are doing, we are less open to the many other possibilities available. But when we let ourselves hang out in the space of not-knowing, there is enormous potential and life could unfold in innumerable ways. So rather than avoid and fear this place of uncertainty, we can embrace it and all its gifts.”

“In a sense, our culture, our society is dissolving. We are collectively entering the chrysalis: structures we have come to rely on and identify with are breaking down, and we don’t know what the next phase will be like. We are in the cocoon. Learning to surrender in our own lives is essential to our collective learning to move through this time of faster and faster change, disruption and breakdown.”

From This Here Flesh by Cole Arthur Riley

p.161-162

 “There are those of us who are such serious people that to be playful feels foolish, and maybe it is. But I think when we give ourselves to play, the scope of our life expands. We become freer in our bodies. We give ourselves to imagination and make-believe. This takes down our defenses and allows us to move and be without expectation of immediate tragedy. After all, it is only in the anticipation of sorrow, that joy seems frivolous. We become so used to bracing for the next devastation, we don’t have time or emotional energy to rejoice.”

______________________________

Jack Kornfield 4.25.22 Tending the Garden of the World, Tending the Garden of the Heart

https://dharmaseed.org/talks/70713/

_____________________________

Gardening at the Dragon’s Gate by Wendy Johnson 

(highly recommend ☺)

p. 261 

“In Buddhist texts, consciousness is said to be a field, a piece of earth on which every kinds of seed is planted. On this field of consciousness are sown the seeds of hope and suffering, the kernel of happiness and sorrow, anger and joy. The quality of our life depends entirely on which seeds we garden and nourish in our consciousness.”

Closing poem

For Beauty 

by John O’Donohue

As stillness in stone to silence is wed,

May solitude foster your truth in word.

As a river flows in ideal sequence,

May your soul reveal where time is presence.

As the moon absolves the dark of distance,

May your style of thought bridge the difference.

As the break of light awakens color,

May the dawn anoint your eyes with wonder.

As spring rain softens the earth with surprise,

May your winter places be kissed by light.

As the ocean dreams to the joy of dance,

May the grace of change bring you elegance.

As clay anchors a tree in light and wind,

May your outer life grow from peace within.

As twilight pervades the belief of night,

May beauty sleep lightly within your heart.

This Sunday, we continued our exploration of emptiness. Emptiness enables the wise heart to respond with fearlessness: without always protecting our own position, we can become deep listeners. Our being can be expansive and inclusive. Jeff shared a talk by Kittisaro “There Are No Footprints In The Sky” from a retreat at Spirit Rock in 2021. The talk touched upon a topic familiar from last week (contemplation of form & emptiness), and then went on to explore how, in the non-dual nature of the reality that Emptiness reveals, everything is sacred.

You can listen to the talk here:

https://dharmaseed.org/talks/68275/

The title of the talk, “There Are No Footprints In The Sky”, references part of the Dhammapada which you can read a discussion of here.

During the discussion, a quote by Democritus was shared:

[Democritus says:] By convention sweet is sweet, by convention bitter is bitter, by convention hot is hot, by convention cold is cold, by convention color is color. But in reality there are atoms and the void. That is, the objects of sense are supposed to be real and it is customary to regard them as such, but in truth they are not. Only the atoms and the void are real.

Books mentioned during the discussion:

Seeing that Frees by Rob Burbea

Heartwood of the Bodhi Tree by Buddhadasa

The Heart Sutra, with its proclamation that Form and Emptiness are identical, is among the most famous, widely read and frequently chanted of Buddhist texts. Over the centuries, practitioners have found it both puzzling and inspiring. Steve guided our reflections on this powerful Sutra this Sunday, drawing on excerpts from a talk by Gil Fronsdal and a recent commentary by Thich Nhat Hanh to help frame our discussion.

You can listen to Gil’s talk here:

https://www.audiodharma.org/talks/10

Thich Nhat Hanh’s translation and commentary is available here:

New Heart Sutra translation by Thich Nhat Hanh

Carrying into everyday life the wisdom of retreat or of an intensive period of meditation and study at home can be a challenge. Yet we can shape our experience in ways that preserve insights gained. Just back from an extended stay in Europe, Eveline shared with us parts of a talk given by Nathan Glyde in Finland addressing this very question.

Instead of just finding that we are having a hard time adapting to ordinary life, Nathan uses the framework of the Hindrances to examine our distractions, and focuses on the Paramis as time tested guides to bring us back to the path.

You can listen to Nathan’s full talk here: https://dharmaseed.org/talks/71147/

We are familiar with the central role of craving (Pali: tanha) in the dharma. The Buddha discussed three distinct kinds of craving. The first kind is the craving for sensual pleasure; the second is the “craving for existence”, or “craving to become” (bhava-tanha); the third kind is the craving for non-existence. At the Sangha this Sunday we undertook a more fine-grained analysis of the second kind of craving, “bhava-tanha“, and its impact on our lives and practice.

The literal translation of “tanha“, is “thirst”, and this translation points more clearly to the kind of craving in question here. Ajahn Sucitto comments,

Craving to be something is not a decision, it’s a reflex… So the result of craving to be solid and ongoing, to be a being that has a past and a future, together with the current wish to resolve the past and future, are combined to establish each individual’s present world as complex and unsteady. This thirst to be something keeps us reaching out for what isn’t here. And so we lose the inner balance that allows us to discern a here-and-now fulfillment in ourselves.

https://www.wisdomlib.org/definition/bhavatanha

We listened to the last part of a talk by Joseph Goldstein to scaffold our discussion. You can listen to the talk here:

https://dharmaseed.org/talks/54647/

Finally, Margaret read two quotes from the Dhammapada as translated by Gil Fronsdal,

“The craving of a person who lives negligently 
Spreads like a creeping vine.
Such a person leaps ever onward, 
Like a monkey seeking fruit in the forest.”

“Those attached to passion
Are caught in river [of their own making]
Like a spider caught in its own web.
But having cut even this, the wise set forth,,
Free from longing, abandoning all suffering.
Let go of the past, let go of the future,
Let go of the present.
Gone beyond becoming,
With the mind released in every way,
You do not again undergo birth and old age.”

How can we most effectively explore life’s existential questions using Buddhist meditation and mindfulness practices? Will pursuit of greater knowledge and certainty about Buddhist teachings lead to more profoundly meaningful living? Jane guided our reflections this Sunday, with particular reference to revered dharma teacher Stephen Batchelor (author of Confessions of a Buddhist Atheist), who offers another approach, grounded in the capacity of physical experience to open the mind to creativity, imagination and wonder. 

A link to Stephen’s talk is below:

https://dharmaseed.org/talks/34643/

In his talk, Batchelor begins by quoting from what was in time to become a famous letter Keats wrote to his brothers positing a human capacity of the imagination which he names “Negative Capability,” which we might describe as the artist’s ability to erase his/her own personal ego, in order to give place to a multitude of imagined human possibilities. John Keats coined this term in a letter to his brothers George and Thomas (December 21, 1817). He wrote:

several things dove tailed in my mind, and at once it struck me what quality went to form a Man of Achievement, especially in Literature, and which Shakespeare possessed so enormously—I mean Negative Capability, that is when man is capable of being in uncertainties, Mysteries, doubts, without any irritable reaching after fact and reason.

The displacement of the poet’s protean self into another existence was for Keats a key feature of the artistic imagination.  He attended William Hazlitt’s Lectures on the English Poets (1818) and was spurred further to his own thinking by Hazlitt’s groundbreaking idea that Shakespeare was “the least of an egotist that it was possible to be” and “nothing in himself,” that he embodied “all that others were, or that they could become,” that he “had in himself the germs of every faculty and feeling,” and he “had only to think of anything in order to become that thing, with all the circumstances belonging to it.”  Keats took to heart the ideal of “disinterestedness,” of Shakespeare’s essential selflessness, his capacity for anonymous shift-shaping.  In a letter to Richard Woodhouse (October 27, 1818), he describes the selfless receptivity he considers necessary for the deepest poetry.  He exults in the poetic capacity for total immersion, for empathic release, for entering completely into whatever is being described:

As to the poetical Character itself . . . it is not itself—it has no self—it is everything and nothing—It has no character—it enjoys light and shade; it lives in gusto, be it foul or fair, high or low, rich or poor, mean or elevated —It has as much delight in conceiving an Iago as an Imogen.  What shocks the virtuous Philosopher, delights the chameleon Poet . . . A Poet is the most unpoetical of any thing in existence; because he has no Identity—he is continually in for—and filling some other Body—The Sun, The Moon, The Sea, and Men and Women who are creatures of impulse are poetical and have about them an unchangeable attribute—the poet has none; no identity—he is certainly the most unpoetical of all God’s creatures.

Metta — loving kindness or friendliness — is a foundational theme  in Early Buddhism and from the beginning has been understood as essential to a balanced practice.  In addition to cultivating the heart, metta has always also been framed as an excellent way to develop deeper samadhi, unity of mind. This week, Sam guided our reflections, drawing on talks by several different dharma teachers to shape our discussion.

Sam read from the original text, the Metta Sutta, of which you can find many translations here:

http://www.leighb.com/mettasuttas.htm

Here’s the version Sam read:

He who is skilled in good, and wishes to attain that state of Peace, should act thus:
he should be able, upright, perfectly upright, amenable to corrections, gentle and humble. 

He should be contented, easy to support,
unbusy, simple in livelihood,
with senses controlled, discreet,
not impudent, and not greedily attached to families. 

He would not commit any slight misdeeds that other wise men might find fault in him. May all beings be well and safe,
may their hearts rejoice. 

Whatever beings there are —
weak or strong, long or short,
big, medium-sized or small, subtle or gross, 

Those visible or invisible,
residing near or far, those that have come to be or have yet to come, (without exceptions)
may all beings be joyful. 

Let one not deceive nor despise another person, anywhere at all.
In anger and ill-will,
let him not wish any harm to another. 

Just as a mother would protect her
only child with her own life,
even so, let him cultivate boundless thoughts of loving kindness towards all beings. 

Let him cultivate boundless thoughts
of loving kindness towards the whole world — above, below and all around,
unobstructed, free from hatred and enmity. 

Whether standing, walking, seated
or lying down, as long as he is awake, he should develop this mindfulness. This they say, is the divine abiding here. 

Not erroneous with views,
endowed with virtues and insight,
with sensual desires abandoned,
he would come no more to be conceived in a womb. 

Sam also read a passage from The Tassajara Cookbook p.347 (by Edward Espe Brown),  a story about offering food to a statue of the Buddha.   

The sangha then listened to a Pali chant here:

https://dharmaseed.org/talks/player/70463.html

Finally, we heard excerpts from the following two talks:

https://dharmaseed.org/talks/player/42724.html

https://dharmaseed.org/talks/audio_player/44/15696.html

The times we are living in seem far more uncertain than many of us have previously experienced.  Yet the Buddha’s teaching is that uncertainty is the norm, and that we can learn how to meet it with skill and an open heart.  This week, Ron guided our reflections on uncertainty and its relation to our capacity to remain fully present.  As an aid to discussion we heard from Tara Brach, who explores letting go and beginner’s mind as pathways to discovering timeless presence in the midst of inevitable change.

Tara’s talk is available here: