57. One who would rightly use thea words “noble way of life, sublime state, the Tathagata’s way of life” would do so to describe the intent concentration on in-and-out breathing.
Samyutta Nikaya 326
Posted by: Michael | 02/27/2014
Buddha Vacana – More on Anapanasati
Posted in Dhamma | Tags: Anapanasati, samyutta nikaya
Posted by: Michael | 02/25/2014
What Mindfulness is Not
Given that I consider the act of reflecting here on a daily basis as part of my practice it strikes m?e as rather odd and quite revealing that I have gone two, whole days without making a post. Where was I? Well, truth be told, I have been sucked into work and not with good results.
Last night on a lonely R train platform my heart raced as my mind spun uselessly around itself thinking about work. The suffering was intense but I was at least prescient enough to see it for what it was (i.e., dukkha) and used my mala to repeat phrases of compassion for myself even if feeling it was nearly impossible.
Times have been rough but maintaining my practice and connection to the Teachings is more important than anything else I can think of. So, why aren’t I acting like it?
Posted in Buddha, Buddhism, Daily Practice, Dhamma, Dukkha, Parenting, Practice at Work, Theravada | Tags: daily life practice, Dhamma, Dukkha, suffering
Posted by: Michael | 02/21/2014
Assembly Practice
I have been so caught up with efficiently using my time and trying to squeeze every last ounce of productivity out of my waking hours that I only half-knowingly turned my practice into just one more thing to be produced.
It may not be immediately obvious why this is a problem, I know it wasn’t to me at first, but viewing life and practice in this way has lead me to focus solely on the perception of each moment as if it were yet another cog in the assembly line of experience. And, through lack of introspection and delusion I have come to the implicit view that no moment is special or particularly important leading me to live in a half-idealized world that is always only provisional to some future one.
This morning, after the meditation timer went off I decided to finish my round on the mala and I saw, for the first time, just how much suffering I cause myself by boxing myself in to schedules and goals. I’m not quite ready to give those up entirely but I am looking to incline my mind and heart that way. Sukhitaa hontu!
Posted in Dhamma | Tags: Dukkha, efficiency, meditation, practice, productivity
Posted by: Michael | 02/21/2014
Buddha Vacana ~ Sharing verses for Feb 20, 2014
51. “Is it possible, Lord, to see the visible results of generosity?”
And the Lord said: “Yes, it is possible to see the visible results of generosity.
The giver, the generous one, is liked and dear to many. This is a visible result of generosity.
The good and wise follow him. This is a visible result of generosity.
A good reputation concerning him spreads about. This also is a visible result of generosity.
Again, in whatever company he enters, be it nobles, Brahmins, householders or recluses, he enters with confidence and is untroubled. This is a visible result of giving.
And finally, the giver, the generous one, after death is reborn in heaven. This is a result to be seen hereafter.
Anguttara Nikaya III.38
Posted by: Michael | 02/18/2014
Guerrilla Practice
Well, I feel as if I have chosen poorly again. I have a lot of side work which has caused me to spend what time I had this morning writing rather than meditating. Unfortunately, it seems that my resolution to meditate was promptly forgotten once the pressure got too high. So, what to do now? How to make the best of it?
What immediately ccomes to mind is to recite the refuges and precepts innwardly and imagine mysdelf prostrating before the Buddha. Then, using my mala to put the mind on metta. Finally, trying to stay with the breath either silently or with “bud-dho” through the day. I don’t know quite why but I often feel that all has been lost if I fail to hit any step in the ritual of morning meditation and if that doesn’t qualify as attachment to rites and rituals than I don’t know what does.
The biggest obstacle I am facing now are my own expectations. I am so attached to the idea of the practice being just so that I am thrown off course by any deviation. May I work with care, compassion and gentleness to overcome my own expectations and cultivate the path in whatever way I can.
Posted in Dhamma | Tags: Buddha, daily life practice, Dhamma, Sangha
Posted by: Michael | 02/17/2014
Slippage
Over the course of the last six months I have seen my practice slip in a number of ways with some being more blatant while others have been more subtle. I have noticed that, for some time now, I have not been bowing as frequently before the Buddharupa before or after formal practice and, although this came upon me slowly and did not stir me to act until now, I feel that it must have had real and far-reaching effects.
I had always wondered about the efficacy of this particular ritual and took it more or less on faith that it had a good reason. Even now I am unable to decisively say that bowing leads to this or does that but I have noticed a slackening in my dedication which seems to be concurrent with my failure to consistently make obeisance. So, I am taking it up again as a true practice and bringing my resistance, my inertia into awareness before bowing to the Buddha and then to the Triple Gem. Namo buddhaya.
Posted by: Michael | 02/16/2014
Train Rides
On the LIRR back from a night with the in-laws and heading for home. A general feeling of tiredness and fatigue has overcome me and I am seriously thinking about skipping tonight’s meditation session.
My mind has been so preoccupied with work that it has become harder to turn the mind to the Dhamma although I recently was shocked to find out that a friend of a friend is in the hospital undergoing chemo. She’s basically the same age and there’s no reason why it couldn’t happen to me or a loved one. The sense of immediacy, of the proximity death and illness has been unnerving but I am grateful for it as it keeps me honest and committed. May she be free of pain and suffering and swiftly recover from her illness.
Posted by: Michael | 02/15/2014
Buddha Vacana ~ Breath Meditation
46. This intent concentration on in-and-out breathing, if cultivated and developed, is something peaceful and excellent, something perfect in itself and a pleasant way of living also.
Not only that, it dispels evil thoughts that have arisen and makes them vanish in a moment.
It is just as when, in the last month of the hot season, the dust and dirt fly up and suddenly a great rain lays it and makes it settle in a moment.
Samyutta Nikaya V.321
Shared via Buddha Vacana for Android
http://www.buddhavacana.net
Posted in Anapanasati, Buddha, Buddhism, Dhamma, Formal Meditation, Theravada | Tags: Anapanasati, breath meditation
Posted by: Michael | 02/13/2014
The Unending Cold
One of my teachers likes to use the way we react to the weather as a teaching tool and to show us how we add onto the suffering by developing aversion to an unpleasant feeling. And, although I appreciate this teaching on dukkha and vedana I feel that it has gone slightly over my head for I am not finding the release through seeing I had hoped for. But, then again, I am holding on so tightly to the idea of comfort and pushing away the cold so much that there it is not too surprising that insight has not yet arise. How could it in the midst of greed and hatred?
Posted by: Michael | 02/10/2014
Imagination
Last night, after the Dhamma talk, there was a discussion about the breath technique the group practices. Although the details got pretty technical there was one major thing I took away from it and it was simply that we need to use our imaginative faculties during meditation. Because we need to fabricate certain attitudes we need to be willing to imagine what ease might feel like or what the texture of a cleansing breath might be. Rather than being a dry exercise doing something that we imagine is bare attention practice (where, in fact, wse are simply pushing our active role out of our field of awareness) it seems that the right practice is much more creatie than I ever imagined. Granted, it is no less hard but it has surely changed my idea of the practice.
Posted in Buddha, Buddhism, Dhamma, Formal Meditation, Theravada | Tags: creativity, fabricatiion, meditation
Categories
- Abhaya-cariya
- Abyapajjo homi
- Aditthana
- Anatta
- Anicca
- Anigho homi
- asubha
- bhavana
- Bodhisattvayana
- brahmacariya
- Buddha
- Buddha Vacana
- Buddhism
- Cheerfulness
- Confession of Fault
- Daily Practice
- Dana
- Devata
- Dhamma
- Dream Yoga | Lucid Dreaming
- Dukkha
- Family Life
- Fasting
- Forgiveness
- Formal Meditation
- Gratitude
- Islam
- Karuna
- Khanti
- Kwan Se Um
- Lojong
- mahayana
- Maranasati
- Maranassati
- maranānussati
- martial arts
- Meditation Word
- Metta
- Mudita
- Nekkhama
- pañña
- Parami
- Parisa Abhaya Dana
- Practice at Work
- Pure Land
- religio romana
- Restlessness and Remorse
- samadhi
- Samma Ajivo
- samma sankappo
- Samma Sāti
- samma vayamo
- Sammā Vācā
- Sangha
- Sensual Desire
- Seon
- Sila
- Stoicism
- Taṇhā
- Theravada
- Tibetan Buddhism
- Tisarana
- Upekkha
- Upekkha
- Uposatha
- Video
- Vipassana
- Zen
Cattāri Brahmavihārā 