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Shery guided our reflections today, drawing on her own experience and on an excerpt from a dharma talk by Tara Brach, titled “Healing into Life and Death, which can be found at http://www.dharmaseed.org/teacher/175/talk/12134/

Since our discussion time was a full one, we did not have a chance to get to the guided meditation at the end of Tara Brach’s talk, but Shery recommends it for those who are interested.  If you click on the link above, you will see that the talk and the meditation can be accessed separately – quite convenient .

Joey led our exploration of women Buddhist poets, from 2500 years ago forward, drawing principally from two in-print anthologies (Women in Praise of the Sacred, ed. Jane Hirschfield; and Voices of Insight, ed Sharon Salzberg) as well as The Therigatha <http://www.accesstoinsight.org/tipitaka/kn/thig/> available on line.  The Therigatha contains 75 poems by early Buddhist nuns, with approaches ranging from  “What bliss — free at last from my shameless husband!”  to

Sleep, little theri, sleep comfortably,       wrapped in the robe that you’ve made,               for your passion is stilled        — like a pot of pickled greens boiled dry.

Poets from 8th century Sri Lanka to medieval Japan and commentaries from Carol Wilson and Sharon Salzburg rounded out the presentation, followed by an engaged discussion, in which, among other things, was mentioned the teachings of the highly revered contemporary Thai lay woman teacher Upasika Kee, whose remarkable teachings are available on line as well as in print.  <http://www.accesstoinsight.org/lib/thai/kee/&gt;

 

Michael guided our reflections today, utilizing a few brief passages from the ancient Sammaditthi Sutta: The Discourse on Right View (in the Buddha’s Middle Length Discourses)  http://www.accesstoinsight.org/tipitaka/mn/mn.009.ntbb.html and a dharma talk by Gil Fronsdal on “The Absence of Mistrust,” in which Gil proposes that Absence of Mistrust might lead to a more profound engagement with life than even the positive virtue of Trust (and so too with other virtues).  For Gil’s talk, and the talk on Trust that preceded it, go to <www. audiodharma.org> and scroll down to those titles (dates were 6/24 and 7/1 of this year).  The central question was, might the negatively stated virtues of non-greed, non-hatred and non-delusion be even more liberating that generosity, good will and wisdom !?

 

Payton guided our reflections today on the Dhammapada, a central book in the Buddhist canon, well characterized in the words of Jack Kornfield, which Payton quoted:

“These teachings are as true now as the moment they were offered from
the Buddha’s own lips. One page, one verse alone, as the power to
change your life. Do not merely read these words but take them in
slowly, savor them. Let them touch your heart’s deepest wisdom. Let
your understanding grow. Seeing what is true, put these words into
practice. Then, as the text says, let the fragrance of your virtue
spread farther than the smell of rosebay and jasmine, farther than
even the winds can blow. Let the practice release your heart from
fear. Let the quieting of your mind and the clear seeing of the truth
release you from confusion and clinging.”

Excerpts from talks by Gil Fronsdal, who recently translated the Dhammapada, highlighted different perspectives from which to engage with it

1. Dhammapada Discussion, Part 1:
http://www.audiodharma.org/talks/audio_player/770.html
2. Dhammapada Discussion, Part 2:
http://www.audiodharma.org/talks/audio_player/771.html

(not included because of time constraints, but worth a listen is Gil’s talk on the Dharma of the Dhammapada   http://www.audiodharma.org/talks/audio_player/1286.html

Further discussion was sparked by comparing Gil’s translation to Ajahn Thanissaro’s, which Nancy had brought along, available in print and also by clicking http://www.accesstoinsight.org/tipitaka/kn/dhp/dhp.intro.than.html

 

 

Margaret guided our further investigation of the crucial concept of No-Self today, drawing on a number of sources.  The most ancient of these sources is the brief Anatta Lakkhana Sutta (The Discourse on the Not-Self Characteristic), from the Samyutta Nikaya, available at http://www.accesstoinsight.org/lib/authors/nanamoli/wheel017.html#s2

The concept was further clarified in excerpts from a recent talk by Joseph Goldstein

https://www.dharma.org/resources/audio#guided

Quotations from Ajahn Thanissaro’s book Self, No-Self, offered below also helped bring further perspective:

Some quotes from Thanissaro bhikkhu (Self, no-self) to frame the discussion:

“Usually when we hear the teaching on not-self, we think that it’s an answer to questions like these:  “Do I have a self?  What am I?  Do I exist?” However the Budhha listed all of these as unskillful questions. Once when he was asked point blank “Is there a self? Is there no self?” he refused to answer.  He said that these questions would get in the way of finding true happiness.  So obviously the teaching on not-self was not meant to answer those questions.  To understand it, we have to find out what questions it was meant to answer.”

“As the Buddha said, he taught two teachings, that were true across the board and without exception.  These two teachings form the framework for everything else he taught.  One was the difference between skillful and unskillful action: actions that lead to long term happiness, and those that lead to long-term suffering.”   ( The other was the four noble truths.)

“So the issue is not “what is my true self ?” , but “what kind of perception of self is skillful, and when is it skillful, what kind of perception of not-self is skilful, and when is it skillful?”

A YouTube 9-minute guided meditation on the Not-Self  by Joseph Goldstein– not used today due to time constraints — is also a real help in meeting this tricky but fruitful topic.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PECB_U4abWE

 

As we began a new series of explorations, Joey guided our reflections today on No Self, drawing from a number of sources.  Kathleen Dowling Singh’s book “The Grace in Dying,” pages 21 & 31-39 offered an overview of our psychological development as a sequence of separations, distinguishing self from other, which takes us away from the primary unity, on which the sense of No Self might draw.  A guided meditation by Tara Brach, drawn from her dharma talk “Being to Being – Loving Beyond the Trance” facilitated further exploration.  That meditation, framed by a talk, can be found at

http://dharmaseed.org/teacher/175/talk/19503/

And Rodney Smith’s talk on “Dissolving Form” used the second skandha, vedana/feeling, to explore the ways in which we project characteristics onto the essentially empty being of the world.

http://dharmaseed.org/teacher/148/talk/15594/

Sam led our session on the Tenth (and final) Perfection – Equanimity, drawing on many sources.

Christina Feldman’s talk on Equanimity from January 2 of this year can be found at

http://dharmaseed.org/teacher/44/talk/18108/

from which were excerpted: 14:38-37:02 and 48:39-end.    Highlights were:  Mustard seed story starting at 22:20, “…you must be a dog” starting at 27: 38, Billy Collins poem “Another Reason I Don’t Keep a Gun in the House”, starting at 29:53, and the Udana sutta:  starting at 59:50.
We closed with a “Guided Equanimity Meditation” by Lila Kate Wheeler,
http://dharmaseed.org/teacher/109/talk/19422/

Also distributed was a “handout” was found on Wikipedia’s entry for “Equanimity”,  ref. no. 4;  from Gil Fronsdal.

And wrapping up the bundle of sources was a poem by Edward Espe Brown in “The Complete Tassajara Cookbook”,  p. 242:

The truth is you’re already a cook.
Nobody teaches you anything,
but you can be touched, you can be awakened.
When you put down the book and start asking,
“What have we here?” You come to your senses.
Though recipes abound, for soups and salads,
bread and entrees, for getting enlightened
and perfecting the moment, still
the unique flavor of Reality
appears in each breath, each bite,
each step, unbound and undirected.
Each thing just as it is,
What do you make of it?

Margaret led our reflections on Metta, not just as a meditative practice, but as a state of mind.  The presentation  drew on excerpts from a dharma talk by Rodney Smith

http://seattleinsight.org/Talks/BrowseTalks/DharmaTalk/tabid/90/TalkID/404/Default.aspx

Also helpful (and funny) was a poem by Tony Hoagland’s book “What Narcissism Means to Me”, reprinted here (and followed by a brief quotation from the Samyutta Nikaya on metta as a state of mind)

Phone call – by Tony Hoagland

Maybe I overdid it
when I called my father an enemy of humanity.
That might have been a little strongly put,
a slight overexaggeration,

an immoderate description of the person
who at the moment, two thousand miles away,
holding the telephone receiver six inches from his ear,
must have regretted paying for my therapy.

What I meant was that my father
was an enemy of my humanity
and what I meant behind that
was that my father was split
into two people, one of them

living deep inside of me
like a bad king, or an incurable disease-
blighting my crops,
striking down my herds,
poisoning my wells – the other
standing in another time zone,
in a kitchen in Wyoming,
with bad knees and white hair sprouting from his ears.

I don’t want to scream forever,
I don’t want to live without proportion
like some kind of infection from the past,

so I have to remember the second father,
the one whose TV dinner is getting cold
while he holds the phone in his left hand
and stares blankly out the window

where just now the sun is going down
and the last fingertips of sunlight
are withdrawing from the hills
they once touched like a child.

(From What Narcissism Means To Me, Greywolf Press, 2003)

From Samyutta Nikaya:

“It is in this way that we must train ourselves: By liberation of the self through love, We will develop love, We will practice it, We will make it both a way and a basis, Take a stand upon it, store it up, and thoroughly set it going.” – the Buddha

Bhikkhu Bodhi’s translation, page 708:

“Therefore, bhikkhus, you should train yourselves thus: ‘We will develop and cultivate the liberation of mind by lovingkindness, make it our vehicle, make it our basis, stabilize it, exercise ourselves in it, and fully perfect it.’ Thus should you train yourselves.”

 

 

Today, Michael guided our reflections, drawing on several sources, including Robert Frost’s poem “West Running Brook, and an excerpt from Gil Fronsdal’s dharma talk on Resolve, which, along with his talks on all the other paramis, can be found at

http://www.audiodharma.org/series/1/talk/1859/