Posted by: Michael | 01/07/2016

What Works

At the advice of one of my bhikkhu friends I have up the practice of “buddho” a few weeks ago. Initially I must admit to veining just and out of sorts and almost lost. Suddenly the joy I had taken in meditation work the breath seemed to be absent and I spent my time in meditation often wandering without much concentration.

Recently, however, I began reading the biography of Mae Chee Kaew and listening to Dhamma tales by Thai Forest monks and I was drawn back to the practice. Yesterday I was able to keep the parikamma (meditation word) in mind while walking and in two sessions of seated meditation. The feeling of war that arose when walking to work convinced me that this practice does work for me and is something I should develop. My kalyanamitta bhikkhu only meant the best for me but our codornices is different and what works for him won’t necessarily work for me. I am beginning to see that I need to rely less on teachers when it comes to the nitty gritty of training the heart and trust myself to know what is suitable for me.

Posted by: Michael | 01/06/2016

The Stickiness of Worry

There are a few things going on at work that have been obsessing my mind. Every few minutes I find myself returning to think them over despite the fact that there is nothing I can do to resolve the problem beyond what we are doing already. And, yet, even with this knowledge I allow the mind to keep slipping back.

It has reached such a pitch that even in my sleep I kept returning to it. So much so that I believe I only dreamed in the last fifteen minutes before waking. It is good to see this though. It is good to realize that, in the light of death, this episode will mean little beyond the way in which I handled it.

May I learn the ways of the mind and felt on the truths of death and impermanence to help me slip the chains of becoming.

Posted by: Michael | 01/05/2016

The Unsurpassed Way

5. Unsurpassed is the Lord’s way of teaching the Dhamma concerning one’s proper conduct in virtue.
One should be honest and faithful, without deception, chatter, hinting or belittling, not always ready to add gain to gain, but with the sense-doors guarded, moderate in food, a maker of peace, observant, active and strenuous in effort, a meditator, mindful, with proper conversation, steady-going, resolute and sensible, not hankering after sense pleasures, but mindful and prudent. This is the unsurpassed teaching concerning a person’s proper ethical conduct.
This the Lord fully comprehends and beyond it nothing lies to be further comprehended. And in such matters there is no other recluse or Brahmin who is greater or more enlightened than the Lord concerning ethical conduct.

Digha Nikaya III.107

Shared via Buddha Vacana for Android
http://www.buddhavacana.net

Posted by: Michael | 01/04/2016

Birthdays

In terms of my practice and over-all philosophy of life I’m ambivalent at best about celebrating my own birthday but all in when it comes to celebrating those of others. Some of this has to do with my ideas about how a student of the Dhamma should behave whereas others are a direct result of passing attention to the mind on my birthdays.

The mind is inclined to feel hurt on these days when it is not acknowledged the way it is accustomed to and spends most of the day inwardly lamenting is lot. Self-pity is one of the more abominable stories of mind in my view and it is my most frequent birthday companion.

What to do about it? In our contemporary culture there’s no chance of it going away but I can use the day to give thanks for all the beings who suffer to keep me alive and suffered to give me life.

Posted by: Michael | 01/03/2016

Dream Practice

I have taken up dream practice again as a way to try to work with and understand states of consciousness that I assume will be similar to those one passes through during the death process. In addition, if I were to have an extra six hours a day to devote to Dhamma practice I feel I could make considerable gains.

At present I am at the very beginning and simply working with dream recall. When I have two weeks of recall and dream journaling under my belt I will begin to look at the actual techniques for inducing lucid dreaming. You can find my Lucid Dream Journal here if you’re interested.

Posted by: Michael | 01/02/2016

New Year’s Resolution

May I live this year grounded in compassion and wisdom.

May I move toward the things that scare and disgust me.

May I not act from fear, lust or delusion.

May I spell check before I post.

Posted by: Michael | 01/01/2016

Take this Dhamma as Your Teacher

1. If you have no satisfactory teacher, then take this sure Dhamma and practise it. For the Dhamma is sure, and when rightly undertaken it will be to your welfare and happiness for a long time.

Majjhima Nikaya I.401

Shared via Buddha Vacana for Android
http://www.buddhavacana.net

Posted by: Michael | 12/31/2015

Happy New Year!

365. And the Lord said to Magandiya: “It is like a man born blind who cannot see either colour or shape, the even or the uneven, the stars, the sun or the moon. He might hear someone speaking of the pleasure of a lovely, unstained, pure white cloth, and start searching to get one. But someone might deceive him by giving him a greasy, grimy, coarse robe and by saying: ‘My good man, this is lovely, unstained, pure white cloth.’ He might take it and put it on. Then his friends and relations might get a physician and surgeon to make medicine for him, potions, purgatives, ointments and treatment for his eyes. Because of this he might regain his sight and clarify his vision.
Then the desire and attachment he had for that greasy robe would go, he would no longer consider the man who gave it to him a friend. He might even consider him an enemy, thinking: ‘For a long time I have been defrauded, deceived and cheated by this man.” Even so, if I were to teach you Dhamma, saying: ‘This is that health, this is that Nirvana,’ you might come to know health, you might see Nirvana. With the arising of that vision, the desire and attachment you had for the five clinging aggregates might go.
You might even think: ‘For a long time I have been defrauded, deceived and cheated by the mind, by clinging to body, feeling, perception, mental constructs and consciouness. Conditioned by this clinging there was becoming; conditioned by becoming there was birth; conditioned by birth, old age, dying, grief, sorrow, suffering, lamentation and despair came into being. This is the origin of this whole mass of suffering.”
And Magandiya said to the Lord: “I have confidence that if the good Gotama were to teach me Dhamma, I could rise from my seat no longer blind.”

Majjhima Nikaya I.511

Shared via Buddha Vacana for Android
http://www.buddhavacana.net

Posted by: Michael | 12/30/2015

Sickness, Aging and Death

It seems that, not often than not, the practice is a matter of balancing one’s perceptions. I have be seen white heavily focused on the brahma viharas and hand been struggling with over indulgence in sense pleasures. Having been down this road a number of times before I realized just this morning, after having been assailed by kilesas for a week, that it might be a good idea to bring the perceptions of sickness, aging and death to mind.

Naturally they aren’t a magic charm but each time a thought of sense pleasure arose I would reflect on these perceptions to god effect. Until liberation may we never become enslaved to that which sickens, ages and dies.

Posted by: Michael | 12/29/2015

What do I really want?

This morning as I sat in the train and almost absent mindedly began to wish everyone on the train happiness it struck me that maybe I was busy gong through the motions. So, I paused for a moment and posed the question to myself “what is it the I really want?”

In the brief silence things are bubbling up but the clearest thought was simply that I didn’t want suffering in any of its myriad forms. I pondered that fit a bit and then thought “surely there is something not merely apophatic about my ultimate desires” and it dawned on me that, yes, I also want happiness but one that is blameless and doesn’t cause further suffering. Neatly (perhaps too neatly) I realized that the only happiness that I had ever felt that was blameless and pure cane about whether helping others and wishing them well.

Turns out that I was on the right track after all but I’m thankful for this little exercise undertaken in earnest and with so valuable a result.  Sukhita Hontu!

« Newer Posts - Older Posts »

Categories

Brightening Futures of Zanzibar

Improving Lives through Generosity

Shillelagh Studies

A hub for the music, culture, knowledge, and practice of Irish stick-fighting, past and present.