Infinitive Awarenes and Intimate Awareness practice

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Christopher Robin said, “'What I like doing best is Nothing.'
'How do you do Nothing,' asked Pooh after he had wondered for a long time.
'Well, it's when people call out at you just as you're going off to do it, "What are you going to do, Christopher Robin?" and you say, "Oh, Nothing," and then you go and do it.
It means just going along, listening to all the things you can't hear, and not bothering.'
'Oh!' said Pooh.”   

"Pooh!"
"Yes, Christopher Robin?"
"I'm not going to do Nothing any more."
"Never again?"
"Well not so much. They don't let you."

 “You live in illusion and appearance of things.  There is a reality, but you do not know this.  When you understand this, you will see that you are nothing.  And being nothing, you are everything.  That is all.” –Kalu Rinpoche

We can practice experience that we are nothing, by sitting quietly then silently reflecting upon these questions: 

·        First, silently reflect upon how would you describe yourself?

·        What would it feel like to throw all those labels away? 

·        Who were you before you first had your heart broken? 

·        Who were you when you were when you were just born? 

·        Who are you without the filters of your past experiences?

I was reading a story about a doctor who had a transformative experience delivering a child.  He said that a woman came to the ER in the throes of childbirth, and he shifted into gear to help her have this child.  Initially, he said that he felt like the expert, the one who was going to save her and her baby.  Then, minutes later, the baby came out, and as the doctor suctioned the baby’s mouth so she could breathe, she opened her eyes, and looked up at him.  He said that moment of knowing he was the first person she had ever seen gave him such a sense of awe and wonder.  He realized that he was no longer the expert saving someone, but simply a fellow traveler on this journey of life.

Each of us here are fellow travelers on this journey of life.  We are here in this moment together, sharing this experience, in fact, co-creating this experience. Jack Kornfield goes on to say that emptiness is contagious, by letting go of the filters and illusions, we are encouraging and inspiring others around us.  It is often said that we are not trying to be Buddhists, but rather Buddha, and each of us are capable of being a Buddha, an awakened bundle of energy and inspiration. 

So, together we are creating this experience of emptiness, the luminous void.  Getting comfortable resting in the silence, going beyond the mind chatter that often distracts us and is often responsible of this illusion of a self and a world based in such a limited way by merely our past experiences.  Meditation support the experience of getting comfortable with nothingness—even to begin to see the vastness and spaciousness that is created by doing nothing. 

There is no place to go—here it is right now.  He ends the chapter by relating Isaac Newton’s view of the world:

“To myself, I am only a child playing on the beach, while vast oceans of truth lie undiscovered before me” 

We can practice experiencing each moment with childlike wonder, and with this practice, the vast unknown does not have to be a source of terror, but the potential for awe and wonder.

Guided meditation:  Infinite Awareness and Intimate Awareness Practice
 

Basics of Buddhism - 4 - The Four Boundless Qualities

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"Compassion and love, sympathetic joy and equanimity are not mere luxuries. 

As the source both of inner and external peace, 
they are fundamental to the continued survival of our species."
                                                                -His Holiness the XIV Dalai Lama

The Buddha taught his son, Rahula, to cultivate these four attitudes and actions to find deep peace.  They are called The Four Immeasurables, Boundless Qualities, The Four Sublime States, which are LOVE, COMPASSION, SYMPATHETIC JOY and EQUANIMITY,

The short prayer practice goes like this:

May all beings have happiness and the cause of happiness,

May all beings be free from suffering and the cause of suffering

May all beings have sympathetic joy which is free from suffering

May all beings come to rest in the great equanimity which is beyond attachment or aversion to friend, enemy or stranger.

We start to say this prayer about everyone being happy and peaceful, and sometimes we don’t feel very happy or peaceful ourselves.  Just sit with that reaction.  Feel it completely, then go back to the practice of visualizing feeling loving and kind.  This practice is not to whitewash over longstanding emotions.  RATHER, it is to uproot those old habitual emotions, see them for what they are, and replace them with kinder and more productive ways of viewing the world. 

(From Sharon Salzberg) Brahma-Viharas is a Pali word (original language of the Buddha) meaning “heavenly abode” or “best home.” The Buddha taught that practicing these four qualities leads to the “liberation of the heart which is love.”

• Loving-kindness is both friendship and also gentle, like a gentle rain that falls indiscriminately upon everything. Loving-kindness practice is a steady, unconditional sense of connection that touches all beings without exception, including ourselves. The Buddha first taught it as an antidote to fear.
• Compassion is our caring human response to suffering.  A compassionate heart is non-judgmental and recognizes all suffering—our own and that of others—as deserving of tenderness.  Compassion is combined with wisdom to create right action.
• Sympathetic Joy is the realization that others’ happiness is inseparable from our own. We rejoice in the joy of others and are not threatened by another’s success.
• Equanimity is the spacious stillness of mind that provides the ground for the boundless nature of the other three qualities. This radiant calm enables us to ride the waves of our experience without getting lost in our reactions.

05:32 PM ET

A Buddhist guide to Valentine's Day

Opinion by Janet Nima Taylor, special to CNN

(CNN) - Valentine’s Day can conjure up the whole spectrum of human emotion, from the ecstasy of new love to the intense pain of loneliness.

It seems the day reeks of the expectation that we need a perfect relationship in order to be happy. But what do we really want?

Some of you might know that the Buddha left his wife and young child to pursue enlightenment, so maybe he’s not the best person to give advice about your love life. On the other hand, his teachings on love, relationships and suffering have a lot to say about our harried modern lives.

The Buddha’s first teaching,  known as the Four Noble Truths,  was about the connection between expectations and suffering.

He taught that life includes suffering because we seek happiness in inherently dissatisfying ways. If things are going great, we think they'll never change. (They always do.) If things are going poorly, we think it's because the world has failed us.

In short, we often expect others to make us happy. When they don’t live up to our expectations, we suffer.

While loving another person and being loved are some of life’s greatest joys, it can be painful when you think your happiness is another person’s responsibility. Valentine’s Day feeds suffering when it becomes about expecting anyone else, whether it's your spouse or an attractive stranger on a train, to satisfy your desires.

Instead, Buddhists learn to cultivate positive mental states, regardless of their external circumstances, and February 14 can be the perfect day to practice cultivating happiness and love, regardless of whether your boyfriend just proposed to you or dumped you, or even if you haven’t had a relationship since the Ice Age.

It’s all about letting go of longing and taking charge of our own happiness. Right now, in this moment, imagine what it feels like to experience love and happiness and joy.

You have the power of your imagination to create the experience without anything changing in the external world. When we set our intention to be happy, we no longer require the world to meet any preconceived notion about what we need to be happy.

Quit waiting for the perfect mate or piece of jewelry, and take charge of your own positive experience. An added bonus: When we become happier and more inspired, we attract more happiness all around us.

One last thought: Try radiating love toward everyone (or at least send out some loving kindness), regardless of whether they make you happy.

At the very least it makes you feel better, and it might even get you a date for next Valentine’s Day.

Janet Nima Taylor is an American Buddhist nun based in Kansas City and the author "Buddhism for Non-Buddhists," and "Meditation for Non-Meditators." The views expressed in this column belong to Taylor. 

Basics of Buddhism - 4 - The Three Jewels and Three Components of Meditation

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I got a great question this week, "How does just sitting quietly transform our lives? The answer fits perfectly with our topic this week for the basics.  How do we incorporate these teachings into everyday life?  Here's a recap of what is covered on the podcast:

The Three Jewels:

• Buddha (ROLE MODELS): The Buddha became a role model for his followers to emulate.  Find someone who inspires you and study their lives.
• Dharma (STUDY):  People before us have figure out how to awaken and were kind enough to write or video or talk about how this practice works.  
• Sangha (PRACTICE/SUPPORT):  Joining together with like-minded individuals and committing to practice and support each other on our spiritual journey. 

From The Power of Habit by Charles Duhigg (it's a great book, a little business-y in his approach, but the research is flawless and matches the Buddha's findings). 

Here's how we respond in unskillful ways:

1. Trigger
2. Rationalizing thoughts
3. Unskillful Response
4. Short-term positive payoff (relieving the urge to eat, drink, smoke, etc.)
5. Reinforcement of the habit (back to step 1)

To change our behavior, we can use the practices that the Buddha and his followers used 2500 years ago and are now scientifically validated:

• Prepare through meditation and specific motivation
• Trigger arises
• Create a gap (through breathing or other awareness tools, see below)
• Choose a more skillful response
• Changing our habits initially feels uncomfortable, so create a healthy alternative payoff (cup of tea, walk, read, etc.)
• New habit formed 

Three aspects of meditation:

·   C  Concentration:  This practice trains your mind to concentrate on one object (your thoughts, your sensations, a word or other external item like a candle, etc.). 

·   A Natural Awareness: This method retrains your experience of “you” and the world by going beyond any conceptual thought.  In its various forms, it strengthens awareness of “aliveness”.  What does it feel like to be alive in this moment?  Strengthening the ability to be aware enables you to experience that “aliveness” beyond the usual “noise” of thoughts, emotions, sensations or situations.  This natural state is non-conceptual.  In its more advanced state, the knowing and the knower are no longer separated.

·   P Positive Imagery: Research shows that practicing positive mental states, like loving-kindness and compassion, enables you to more often and more naturally experience those states in everyday life, just like the athlete who visualizes their successful performance, including every sensation, every emotion, every thought. For this practice, guided meditations can be a helpful tool.  While visualizing and imaging, thoughts may arise that are the exact opposite, like “I’m not lovable.”  While we imagine what it would be like if we are lovable, we can lightly, ever so gently, reflect on these conflicting thoughts.  “Why do I feel unlovable?” See what else arises.  Then, return to imagining the loving or peaceful experience.  In Positive Imagery, we gently balance imagining the positive mental state with reflecting on any conflicting thoughts or emotions that arise.  Early on, it is helpful to be very specific about what positive motivation will inspire you.

Awareness tools:  Here are some practical ideas on how to integrate these methods into each moment of each day:

·   Phone calls:  Each time the phone rings, take one deep aware breath before you answer and one more after you hang up.  How wonderful to have meditation reminder so close at hand!  Be aware of how phone calls impact your thoughts, feelings and sensations.

·   Red lights or standing in line:  Instead of letting irritation arise while you’re driving or waiting in line, imagine using that delay as an opportunity to be aware and breathe deeply, aware of internal sensations, emotions thoughts and externally, aware of the people and circumstances around you.  

·   A wristband:  Wearing something like those simple plastic colored bracelets or even a rubber band can be a visual reminder to take a few deep mindful breaths throughout the day.  My teacher has a red one with the humorous saying on it, “Meditate as fast as you can!”

·   Sticky notes:  Place a sticky note wherever triggers might arise (e.g. the front of the refrigerator to ask, "Am I really hungry?" or "Breathe three times")

·   Motivating pictures/words:  Have your cellphone pop up a picture or words that remind you of why you want to be transformed.  (e.g. pictures of kids--"I want to be a great parent, so I am committed to stop screaming at them...")

 “Every breathing moment of our lives presents us with the possibility of awakening to wisdom or getting mired in fear. Every action, every thought we generate gives us an opportunity to discover our true selves. We alone can choose.”–Ajahn Sumano Bhikkhu with Emily Popp, from Meeting the Monkey Halfway

Basics of Buddhism - 3 - The Eightfold Path

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Based on the translations found in Awakening the Buddha Within, these eight practices are:

1.      Wise View: Seeing things as they truly are, not through the filters of our past experiences.

2.      Wise Intentions: The Buddha emphasized, "As we think, so we become." Changing our intentions changes the way we see and experience the world.

3.      Wise Speech: Speaking in a way that supports us and others on their spiritual path.

4.      Wise Action: Acting in ways that are wise and compassionate.

5.      Wise Livelihood: Working in a way that supports oneself and others on their spiritual journey.

6.      Wise Effort: Having a passion for enlightenment.

7.      Wise Mindfulness: Practicing mindfulness by being fully present in each moment.

8.      Wise Concentration: Practicing meditation to train our minds.

These eight practices are designed to invigorate our daily lives with compassionate awareness, honesty, and curiosity. These practices are usually translated as a “path”, but in the original teachings, they were described more like a wheel with eight spokes or an eight-limbed concurrent process. It's not necessary to start at the first step and end at the last, but rather to incorporate each as the situation arises.

For me, wise implies what is most skillful—in other words, what does the most good and the least harm.

The Eightfold Path can be broken down into three sections: wisdom, ethics, and meditation. Let's look at these three separately.

Wisdom:

The first two steps are part of the wisdom training: wise view and wise intention. We all have a certain view of the world. We may hang on to the view that our parents told us, or we may have come up with our own perspectives through our life experiences. If I were to ask you, "How do you describe the world?" what would you say? What would your parents have said? Is it a scary place? A difficult place? A wonderful place? An unfair place? A beautiful place? We often view the world from our past experiences and the vision that others have ingrained in us.

Wise intention is how we decide what to do. What are your intentions in your life? What do you value? If you could describe your values in three words, what would they be? Now, think about your thoughts, words, and actions this last week. How well did those match your values that you just described? The Buddhist path is designed to help us live our values. The first step is being clear about what we value, then putting those values into practice every day.

Ethics:

Ethics include the next three steps of wise speech, wise livelihood and wise action. 

Wise speech is about being more careful with how we respond with words (internally or verbally, via e-mail or text, etc.). We can learn to create a gap between stimulus and response by asking ourselves these five questions: "Is it true?" "Is it helpful?" "Is it inspiring?" "Is it necessary?" "Is it kind?" They neatly form the acronym THINK. Answering these five questions may cut out about 75 percent of what we say to ourselves and to others!

Wise action is about acting in ways that encourage and inspire. With greater awareness, we create more options for how to respond to any stimulus. Habit and past experience are not the only ways to choose how to act. Wise action can come from a place of reflection and intention for good. What action will ease suffering? What action will create the most good?

Wise livelihood can sometimes be thought of as limited to only a few jobs that really "do" any good. Instead, wise livelihood includes not only what you do to make a living but also how you do it. How do you show up for work? How do you interact with your coworkers? We can practice working in a way that supports ourselves and others on their spiritual journey.

Meditation:

Lastly, we have the meditation training of wise effort, wise mindfulness, and wise concentration.

Wise effort is about having a passion for awakening. It often feels easier to just do what we have been doing, even if it causes us suffering—there is usually some short-term payoff that makes us forget about the pain down the road. Conditioning and habits sometimes lead us in the wrong direction. The practice of wise effort encourages us to reach within and find that passion for happiness and, as the Dalai Lama proclaims, to "never give up!" Dig deep within you to find the power, strength, and inspiration to change—it is in there! We all have it—no one is left out. In the coming weeks, there will be moments when an old way of thinking will arise, a craving to go back to the old ways; it will at times seem far easier to go back than to practice these darn teachings. But! Within each of us is an amazing ability to change. Find that motivation now so you'll have it at your fingertips when the going gets tough.

Wise mindfulness and wise concentration are such a big deal that we'll save those for next time...

Basics of Buddhism - 2 - The Four Noble Truths

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"The Four Noble Truths" was the first teaching given by the Buddha after his enlightenment experience under the Bodhi Tree in what is now Bodh Gaya, in northern India.  But first, let’s explore how he ended up sitting under a tree trying to get enlightened in the first place.  2500 years ago, this young man named Siddhartha Gautama was raised in the lap of luxury—his father was the leader of a small kingdom in Northern India.  The story is told that he was given whatever he wanted—the best clothes, food, women and entertainment.  He lived the first 29 years of his life as a life of excess.  Then, one day he traveled outside the palace walls, and discovered that people were suffering—from accidents, sickness, old age and death.  He realized that he had led a very sheltered life and decided to leave behind the luxury and go forth to find an end to suffering. 

He made friends with a group of men who were living in the forest and practicing a spiritual lifestyle called asceticism.  Ascetics eat very little, have no possessions and sleep on the ground.  They believe that taking away all the comforts of life will lead to enlightenment.  So, Siddhartha went from excess to asceticism in search of the “cure” for suffering.  After six years, he found that he was no closer to enlightenment, but was close to dying.   Isn’t this often the way we view the world?  Hoping for a black and white answer to our own suffering?  He was bathing in the river and almost drowned when he passed out from lack of food.  A woman named Sujata saw this and gave him milk and rice, which he accepted gratefully.  So, if not for that woman, there may never have been a Buddha or Buddhism! (Go Sujata!) At that moment, it’s said that he realized that there must be a middle way, between the extremes, that would end suffering. 

I'll interject a great question from Joseph who added that Siddhartha's experience as an ascetic and learning yoga in those six years prepared him for his awakening, by training his body and mind to become more focused and highly tolerant of uncomfortable experiences.  I'm sure this training was very supportive of his awakening.  Is it truly possible for us, here in the 21st Century, with our flabby focus and avoidance of discomfort, to become enlightened?  Although we might be ready for the spiritual Olympics, I have found that we can create major change in our experience by starting with a program of meditation, focused awareness and positive imagery (more on that next week).  These simple tools can help tone and tighten our focus and ability to tolerate discomfort, enough to transform our perspective quite a lot.  As Joseph added, we can change over time, like water wears down rocks.  

Back to the story of The Buddha--When his friends found him eating, they were disgusted that he had given up asceticism and left him.  He walked a few miles and decided to sit down under a peepal tree, determined to sit until he discovered the “cure” for suffering.  The folklore varies about how long he sat there, but he experienced what we all here experience when we simply sit in silence.  Our minds create a never-ending display of stories and drama and restlessness and boredom and feelings and sensations, trying desperately to distract us.  Siddhartha decided to sit with it all.  When he quit responding to every whim and whisper of his mind and body, he realized he could create a gap between stimulus and response, and that precious gap enabled him to be awakened to the possibilities that life has to offer.

The whole trajectory of his life changed when he discovered that GAP.   It is said that he walked around for weeks in bliss, no longer held hostage by his thoughts, emotions and sensations.  The Buddha had discovered that we can pro-actively manage our experience of life by creating a gap between stimulus and response, by going beyond conditioned reactions and old ways of experiencing ourselves and the world around us.

He went and found his five ascetic friends so he could teach them what he had discovered.   They could see that something tremendous had happened to him, so they sat down and listened. Siddhartha, who then became known as the Buddha, meaning “The Awakened One”, began to teach, and his first talk was called, “The Four Noble Truths”.

•        There is suffering in life.

•        There is suffering because we seek to satisfy ourselves in inherently unsatisfying ways.

•        The possibility of liberation from suffering exists for everyone.

•        The way to free ourselves is to practice the Eightfold Path that results in enlightened living.

The first Truth is that life includes suffering.  The word in Pali, the original language used to write down the teachings, was dukkha. Dukkha can be translates in three ways:  suffering, insecurity or just feeling unsatisfied.  The Buddha realized that most of us live life with some sense that things, or we, are just not quite right.  Sometimes, this feeling lingers in the background, or sometimes it slaps us in the face.  We might a passing sense of pleasure, by achieving a goal, or feeling successful for a bit, then we often go right back to feeling that there is something more to be done, that something is missing.  Our culture encourages this sense of “never enough”, encourages doing over being.  In fact, “doing” can be confused as the thing the only thing that gives us value as a person.

The Buddha also recognized that there is unavoidable pain in life--we get old, we get sick, we die.  Those that we love get old, get sick, and die. This is the reality of living, and we often suffer because of it.  The First Noble Truth is to face this reality honestly. Buddhism is sometimes misunderstood as having a very negative perspective on life.  I offer the exact opposite perspective.  Buddhist practices encourage us to face the facts!  Be honest!  And out of that honesty, comes a starting place for real joy, real happiness. 

Another misconception about Buddhism is that we are trying to trying to STOP our thoughts or emotions.   Many of us may have probably tried denying our true thoughts and emotions in order to avoid being hurt.  Sometimes, this method seems to work for awhile.  But in the long run, we lose the most precious gift of life—being fully and completely engaged in living. 

We are encouraged to get to know ourselves in a deeply honest and compassionate way, to become aware of what we are thinking, feeling and sensing.  The Buddhist concept of “non-attachment” is to realize that thoughts, emotions and sensations are NOT who we truly are. But FIRST, we learn to SEE them more clearly in order to transform our response to them.  Compassionate awareness and honesty are key ingredients to the Buddhist path. 

THE SECOND NOBLE TRUTH IS that life includes suffering because we seek to satisfy ourselves in ways that are inherently unsatisfying.  We keep trying to rearrange our external world and respond with clinging, aversion or ignorance to our thoughts and emotions, hoping to create a sense of happiness.  It might work for a short while, but never for the long term.  THESE METHODS ARE INHERENTLY UNSATISFYING and also a whole lot of work.  It takes so much energy to constantly be trying to rearrange things and people and places to make them make us happy. 

Here’s the good news:  The Third Noble Truth is that the possibility of liberation from difficulties exists for everyone.  We each have within us the incredible potential to be happy, to have a deep sense well-being REGARDLESS OF OUR EXTERNAL CIRCUMSTANCES OR WHATEVER MIGHT BE OUR RANDOM THOUGHTS AND EMOTIONS.  This realization is what catapulted the Buddha into a radically different life.  This is what caused people to flock around him to listen to his every word, to follow him wherever he went.  He taught to anyone who would listen:  kings and paupers, men and women, anyone who might have a glimpse that his teachings might true.  He was egalitarian at a time when solely supporting your tribe was seen as the safest bet for safety.  He threw out the idea that some people were better than others.  He realized that we all have this great potential within us.

The Fourth Noble Truth became the Eightfold Path, eight ways to see and experience yourself and the world differently to create this inner happiness and peace.  For today, we’ll stop here, and talk in more depth about the Eightfold Path next week.  For now, we can delight in this realization that we can change the way we see ourselves and the world by first getting fully honest with ourselves.

The question we can ask ourselves this week is:  What is it in my life right now that is causing me a sense of suffering, insecurity or dissatisfaction?  What makes this moment feel like something is quite right or not enough?