Nothing needs to be done

Nothing needs to be done. 

We live in a culture where it seems like there’s a whole lot of stuff that “needs” to be done, but nothing really NEEDS to be done.  Not inherently.

Yes, there are consequences for every action and every inaction, but it is liberating to realize that we are in fact CHOOSING to do everything we do.  Try this simple exercise.  Think of all the things you do in any given day, from something as simple as kissing a partner or family member good morning, to paying our taxes or going to work. Nothing needs to be done.  We are choosing to do what we do.  And when we wake up to this fact—society isn’t making us do stuff, our parents aren’t making us do stuff, nobody can make us do stuff.  They may encourage, demand, solicit, request, cajole, intimidate, punish or torture, but NOTHING NEEDS TO BE DONE. 

When we realize that we start with a clean slate each moment, we start to realize the importance of choosing more wisely.   It doesn’t mean we wake up tomorrow and do nothing, but it could be a powerful tool for beginning to question why you do what you do.  What is motivating you?  Why do you feel so strongly sometimes that certain things need to be done?  What do you want? …  And how are your choices getting you there?

Cultural influences are an inevitable part of living in any society.  We are pushed and pulled by our family and friends, by the media, and by our very minds, to want to fit in, to be part of something, to not be an outcast.  But, sometimes our culture, our family our friends the media, our very minds are leading us in the wrong direction.  Hypnotizing us into believing that there are certain things that we must do, but upon careful examination, this is simply not true.

This liberating process of waking up to the power of choices hit me so strongly when I was on the pilgrimage in India.

I have read many books, as many of you have, telling the story of Buddha’s life, and as I’ve talked about it, I always downplayed the whole story as “legend has it…”  yeah yeah yeah.  Does it really matter that Buddha lived at a certain time and was said to have had certain encounters?  I kept going back to the basic teachings as the real source of Buddhism.  Who cares what really happened in his life?

But what I experienced when I literally walked on the ground that allegedly Buddha and his first followers walked on, it helped me imagine what it must have been like at the very beginning, when this whole practice of mindfulness and waking up was so new to everyone.  Walking in all those places where, legend has it, he walked, encouraged me to reflect upon what he and his followers must have been experiencing.

Imagine that you are this man named Siddhartha.  You live in a situation where your every need is taken care of.  You are completely cared for and have a cushy life.  But, you find that something is missing.  He couldn’t quite put his finger on it. ..The external luxuries weren’t making him feel whole, satisfied, fulfilled.  So, he simply left behind everything that he had known his whole life.  He left his home, his family, his wife, his newborn son, and went off to find what was missing.   Ever wanted to do that?  Have you ever had that feeling that it is all just too much to deal with?  Now, I’m certainly not advocating walking away from our responsibilities, but by imagining what was happening in the Buddha’s life, I think we can all relate to what he might have been going through.

So, he left, and left behind a mess.  His dad was mad at him for leaving the family business of running the kingdom, his wife must have really been irritated leaving her with a newborn.   And he left with nothing, so he is wandering around in the forest, hanging out with some new friends that he found, and they convinced him to try this new spiritual practice called asceticism.  Asceticisim believes that we should give up all worldly pleasures, even most eating, to have time to solely focus on creating a spiritual experience.  It is a very extreme way of life.

In the jagged hills near Rajgir, I climbed to the top of the crags, and sat in a place where Buddha may have come to reflect on this ascetic practice he followed strictly for six years.  The view was breathtaking, I tried to imagine his thoughts, as hungry as he must have been—what his thoughts might have been.  Haven’t we all struggled at times with a way of life that we think might bring us happiness but it still makes us suffer?

Then, he crossed a river, and through exhaustion, fell on the shore of the other side.  A young girl saw him suffering and gave him milk rice.  Her name was Sujata, and her act of kindness enabled Siddhartha to live.  I crossed the river where it was said that he crossed.  I went to the memorial honoring Sujata and her act of kindness, and I was struck how we all have opportunities to help others in their time of need, not knowing what the long term beneficial effects it might be.

With some more strength, Siddhartha went to Uruvela and sat down under a huge Bodhi tree, this beautiful knotted tree with artistic leaves that are found everywhere in the area.  He committed to just sitting, just breathing, just being, until he understood what was missing in his life. And there he awakened.  Awakened to the fact that there was a way of living that was joyful and happy, that could actually reduce suffering.  Because of his awakening, Uruvela is now known as Bodh Gaya, where a magnificent temple has been erected, and around it, craziness.  Thousands of monks and nuns and people from all over the world come to this place to see, to chant, to meditate, to prostrate, to do whatever they can to try and get that awakening that Siddhartha had in that very spot.

I myself somewhat selfishly wanted to go there for the same reason.  I wanted to be there, to try to experience exactly what he must have experienced, when he gave up thinking that there were things that must be done, and through giving up, discovered this incredible way of living.

Imagine even then, how his life must have changed.  Once he had this awakening, he initially felt that no one would understand, so he kept it to himself, but eventually he felt compelled to say something to try and explain.  So. He went to Sarnath, and in Deer Park, he sat down with his five friends who he had been hanging with before.  They got it, they rejoiced, and then they all started hanging out practicing this new way of living.

Imagine the feedback they must have gotten from other people of the time—“what?  What are you doing?  Are you crazy? Why aren’t you still doing what everyone else is doing?”  They were probably seen as radicals, busting up the system, a threat to the old way of life.  But they did it anyway.

As I walked the paths in Deer Park and sat in the spot in Sravasti where Buddha is said to have lived for 19 years, I imagined the excitement he and his followers must have felt, able to let go of the criticism and stay true to their process.  They were discovering a new way of living and they were supporting each other on this new path.

This story, I discovered, was not some old legend with no meaning.  This story is our story, all of our stories.  This story is as contemporary as consumerism and complacency.  We each have struggled at times to find a way of living that feels joyful, and right for us.  And these practices of the Eightfold Path, the Five Precepts and the Four Boundless Qualities have been proven by others to work, BUT inherent in the teachings is a call to skepticism.  DO NOT TAKE ANYONE’S WORD FOR IT. They only work if you try them for yourself. 

I stood on Vulture’s Peak at sunset and read the Heart Sutra, the essence of the Mahayana teaching.  The words seemed to penetrate me at the deepest level.   When I let go of the dualistic thinking of me versus others, when I expand in to the consciousness of all things, I let go of my individual struggle, which turns out to be just a thought in my mind anyway.  I can then get a glimpse of the bigger picture, I can see a greater meaning, I can feel a deep connection to all beings, who are going through the same process as I am.

And, I realized that I didn’t need to be in some special place to have this experience.  This can be our Bodh Gaya.  These flowers on the altar can be our Bodhi tree.  We are here to support each other.  Imagine the limitations that the Buddha would have felt if it had just been him alone, trying to meditate and try this new way of living.  He needed the support of his sangha, his fellow seekers as much as they needed him.  We are here to love and support each others, BECAUSE to some extent, we are all radicals. We are bucking the current system.  We are committing to no longer worship at the feet of our current culture, to no longer trying to find happiness by rearranging our external circumstances.  We are here making a difference, we are here changing western culture little by little, beginning most importantly with ourselves and what we can do internally and then locally, what we can do right now, in this very moment. 

Nothing needs to be done. 

You choose in this moment and in every moment what you want to do.  You can choose loving-kindness.  You can choose compassion, You can choose sympathetic joy, You can choose equanimity.  Despite of what ANYONE, including your own mind, might tell you, YOU ARE CHOOSING, IN EACH MOMENT.

So, Buddha’s story now strikes me as every person’s story of awakening. 

And in two weeks, On December 9^th, at 6 pm we’ll be in this very room, with the relics of the Buddha and other remarkable Buddhist teachers throughout the last 2500 years.  I am personally asking you to join me on that night, to be here and bring your friends and family who might be willing to come, so that we can all come together to create and support an experience of loving-kindness and compassion.  Imagine this room filled with 300 people solely focused on creating more loving-kindness and compassion in the world, starting here, starting now.  Not waiting until we have enough money or time or resources or less criticism or whatever it is that you might think you need before beginning.  Start now. 

In honor of the upcoming Buddhist Relics Tour, this morning we’ll practice together the Loving-Kindness meditation.  Let Buddha’s story be your motivation for going beyond any personal struggles, beyond any pre-conceived notions of who is lovable, who deserves to be loved.  Go beyond to see that we all deserve to be loved, that we can cultivate the innate love and compassion that is guaranteed to be within each of us, no matter how much someone might cover it up with wrong thinking, no matter what you might have done in the past. 

“Things are not as they seem,

Nor are they otherwise

So you might as well burst out laughing!”

~ Tibetan Dzogchen master Longchenpa, 1308-1369 CE

John Corbaley's dharma talk November 2011 on the upcoming Relics Tour

In three weeks our center is hosting an exhibit from the Maitreya Foundation of a collection of relics of Buddhist masters and venerated teachers. These objects have enjoyed much popularity through the ages and continue to generate the interest of many people today, both the curious and the devoted. Because of this interest level, it may be helpful to learn about how these objects are viewed by Buddhist historical figures, academics and other Buddhist sources. What exactly are these objects and what are we to make of them and the practices surrounding their treatment and veneration? These views range from uncritical acceptance to frank skepticism regarding the source, characteristics and properties of these objects.

The relics, known in Pali as the Sarira, usually refer to bead shaped objects with pearl or crystalline appearance found among the cremated ashes of Buddhist spiritual masters. In the  Tibetan language, they are known as Ringsel. Many believe that these objects have special properties, that they embody the spiritual knowledge, or living essence of the being who was cremated. Many think that the spiritual master deliberately leaves these objects for the benefit of those left behind. It is thought that those who come into close proximity with them can obtain blessings or special auspicious vibrations. Many have reported being overcome with inspiring positive emotions of spiritual transformation in the presence of the Sarira. People have reported healings and visions associated to interaction with these relics

The Sarira are usually kept within small glass containers inside decorative urns. The translucence or beauty of the object is supposed to correlate to the spiritual advancement of the master from whom it came. These objects are supposed to change in color or multiply in number with auspicious conditions. One test of the authenticity of the Sarira is to place them in a  bowl of water. True Sarira are supposed to float on the surface of the water and congregate in groups as if magnetically attracted.

There are pragmatic explanations for the appearance of these objects. One is that these are simply the bladder or kidney stones of the cremated person. There is also evidence that bone can become crystallized when exposed to high temperatures, as during a cremation. Many of the smaller bones of the foot or hand may provide the raw material for these objects.

The Theosophical Movement in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries was the precursor for modern Western Buddhism. An American Theosophist, Paul Carus, is remembered for many things, among them his support for a young Japanese Zen Buddhist scholar, D.T. Suzuki, who was responsible for popularizing Zen in the U.S. Dr. Carus presented a terse view of the relics when an offer of them was made to him to support his work. I quote from his letter to the Sri Lankan monk in response to his offer:

According to my conception of Buddhism, the most sacred relics we have of the Buddha and his saints are the words which they left--the Sutras and all those ideas which can be verified in experience as valuable truths. Words, thoughts and ideas are not material things, they are spiritual…it is not the paper of the book, or the fibres of the manuscript…but the ideas which are conveyed by them. Thus, all the treasures which I regard as holy are spiritual, and not material. The worship of relics, be they bones, hair, teeth, or any other substance of the body of the saint, is a mistake….The soul of Buddha is not in his bones, but in his words, and I regard relic-worship as an incomplete stage of religious development in which devotees have not as yet attained to full philosophical clearness.”

This is a pretty strong, opinionated view. To me, it is redolent with the kind of condescension which we find in many writings of the time regarding a selective acceptance of Eastern religious practices among Westerners. And we still have many in the academic community who would sympathize with this view.

Peter Harvey is professor of Buddhist studies at the University of Sunderland, and one of my teachers. His views are more matter of fact, encompassing of practices in modern Buddhism which recognize a diversity of beliefs and rituals, offered relatively free of judgment. He writes:

In the Theravada tradition, The Buddha, since his death, is beyond contact with the world, and cannot respond to prayer or worship. Nevertheless, something of his power is seen to remain in this world…in the bodily relics....Having been part of the body of an enlightened being, they were considered to have been infused with something of the power-for-goodness of an enlightened mind, and to bring blessings to those who expressed devotion in their vicinity.

The religious heart of a monastery was threefold: a stupa containing relics, ideally of the Buddha or of some acknowledged saint, a Bodhi-tree, a tree like the Buddha gained

awakening under—often growing on a platform, and finally a shrine hall or image            house…all monks would have participated alongside the laity in the various          devotional practices which are associated with the ‘recollections’ and which are   intended to arouse and cultivate religious emotions that are an aspect of ‘calm’   Samatha meditation. Essentially such devotional practices take the form of worship by           means of prostrations, circumambulation, and making offerings of flowers, incense,      and lamps to relics ‘dhatu’ of the Buddha (p. 67-78).

What of the experiences reported by those exposed to these objects? I have no trouble believing reports of profound experiences as a result of visiting a display of these objects. People have always experienced internal changes when exposed to external stimuli, whether this is a piece of great art, hearing a great symphony or opera, or being in the presence of a revered teacher or healer.

The interaction which goes on during these experiences is complicated to say the least. That an object like the Sarira can evoke strong emotional responses should be no surprise. From a cold clinical perspective, we know that exposure to certain stimuli or experiences can trigger the release of powerful hormonal substances within the body which can radically affect our emotions, thinking, and even have healing effects. The release of endorphins can flood the consciousness with profound senses of joy, elation and bliss. These same endorphins in the form of nitric oxide, anandamide, and serotonin are routinely produced by intense meditative states and possess strong healing properties when released within the body.

I approach the arrival of this exhibit and our hosting of it with openness and curiosity. I plan to be an active volunteer for this event, as I hope many of you will as well. I have often been intrigued by discussion about the quality of faith, or trustful confidence, surrounding Buddhist views and practices. People who have faith in the truth of the Buddhist path can find much useful   in the experience of the Relics exhibit. Some may benefit more than others for any of a number of reasons. As I was thinking about this topic,  I found this quote from the Dhammapada. I think it speaks to the general importance of faith to the practice of the Buddhist path, which encompasses a wide scope of individual beliefs and practices.  I think its helpful to consider in the context of  this coming event and all that it entails. It goes like this:

           

            Happy is the arising of Buddhas;

            Happy is the teaching of the true Dharma;

            Happy is the harmony of the Sangha;

            Happy is the practice of those in harmony.

            The merit of worshipping those worthy of worship,

            Be they Buddhas or disciples.

            Who have transcended their obsessive thinking,

            Passed beyond sorrow and grief.

            Gone to peace,

            And who have nothing to fear.

            Can never be calculated by any estimation.

-- John Corbaley, M.S., M.A.