Cattāri Brahmavihārā

Posted by: Michael | 05/31/2019

Mindfulness of Eating

Despite being able to fast for long periods of time (a feat that I’ve had to work myself up to over many years) I’m still struggling with overeating when I break fast. I end up eating a ton of junk because I believe somehow that I deserve it and it won’t make much of a difference since I’m dry fasting for 22 hours out of the day. But, eating this way is simply eating for taste and I can think of no better analogy that that of an insatiable hungry ghost because I never feel quite satisfied at these times.

As a result, I’m gong to give calorie counting and meal planning a go. In essence, if I make the aspiration not to go beyond the limit I’ve set for myself I hope to be able increase my determination and restraint. It also wouldn’t be so bad to lose some pounds but, as I’ve said before, the real prize is cultivating the heart.

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Posted in Aditthana, Buddha, Buddhism, Dhamma, Fasting, Nekkhama, Theravada | Tags: mindfulness of eating, restraint

Posted by: Michael | 05/30/2019

The Rabbi and the Monk

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Posted in Buddha, Buddhism, Dhamma, Theravada | Tags: Hacidism, Judaism, Rabbi

Posted by: Michael | 05/29/2019

The Imperfectability of the Body

As I become more interested and involved in conditioning my physical body it helps to remember that work done here is only useful if it’s in service to the cultivation of the heart and mind. I could lose 15 pounds, get ripped and still have nothing to show for it but a mass of rotting flesh when life leaves this corpse. What’s worse, if exercise and physical training leafs to infatuation and attachment, my destination in the next life may very well be worse than if I had done nothing at all.

384 “The beautiful chariots of kings wear out,

This body too undergoes decay.

But the Dhamma of the good does not decay:

So the good proclaim along with the good.”

-Samyutta Nikaya

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Posted in Buddha, Buddha Vacana, Buddhism, Dhamma, Theravada | Tags: body, exercise, physical training, samyutta nikaya, weight loss

Posted by: Michael | 05/28/2019

True Dharma Practitioners Welcome Trouble by Lama Yeshe

If you’re not tested, you take teaching after teaching and think you’re OK, but when you’re confronted with a difficult situation, it’s possible that you’ll find you’re not OK at all. So that’s why true Dharma practitioners welcome trouble. It gives them a chance to see if what they’ve been studying works or not, a chance to transform suffering into happiness. Otherwise you just go blithely along, completely out of touch with reality, thinking you’re OK when you’re not, because you haven’t actually been practicing Dharma at all.

To put this another way, painful situations are a source of wisdom. How so? First of all, painful situations arise as a result of nonvirtuous karma. When we experience pain we should ask why is this happening to me? How has this come about? That sort of inquiry leads us to understand that it’s the ripening of negative karma we created in the past. That basic understanding can grow into wisdom; the painful experience helps us develop a deeper understanding that is beyond the merely intellectual.

https://www.lamayeshe.com/article/true-dharma-practitioners-welcome-trouble

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Posted in Buddha, Buddhism, Dhamma, Lojong, Tibetan Buddhism | Tags: difficulties, Lama Yeshe, trouble

Posted by: Michael | 05/25/2019

Helping without Hoping

“When you have done a good act and another has received it, why do you look for a third thing besides these, as fools do, either to have the reputation of having done a good act or to obtain a return?”

(Meditations, VII.73)

Despite making the practice of generosity an integral part of my life, I have yet to learn how to give without at least a remainder of self-concern. In fact, this quote by Seneca perfectly captures the sense of a imperfect giving with the image of the gift somehow leaving a sticky residue on the hands that are giving.

We should give as we would receive, cheerfully, quickly, and without hesitation; for there is no grace in a benefit that sticks to the fingers.

Lucius Annaeus Seneca

May I learn to give without stain.

May I learn to help with hope of return.

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Posted in Buddha, Buddhism, Dana, Dhamma, Parami, Stoicism, Theravada | Tags: charity, generosity, giving, Marcus Aurelius, Seneca

Posted by: Michael | 05/24/2019

Choosing Hardship

If you’re worried that I’m turning into some kind of a sadist don’t be — I’ve just developed a fascination with the paradox of salutary hardship. In other words, I’ve been taken with the seemingly counter-intuitive way in which hardship can have an invigorating effect on one’s sense of well-being and spiritual practice. I have to say that fasting for Ramadhan has been the catalyst for this although I have long been acquainted with and inclined towards such lines of thinking although I haven’t always acted upon them. Now, however,, it seems manifestly obvious that hardship and difficulties can supercharge one’s development when embraced and held in the right way. Of course, handled sloppily and with a mind unguarded hardship and problems can easily turn on you like a poisonous serpent being handled without care.

Without hardship how could I practice patience? Without hardship how would my resolve be tested? Without hardship what would the meaning of sila (morality) be?

May we use our difficulties to our advantage and snatch the anti-venom of compassion and wisdom from their venomous maws.

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Posted in Buddha, Buddhism, Dhamma, Theravada | Tags: difficulties, hardships, sadism

Posted by: Michael | 05/23/2019

Stretching My Limits

As imperfect as I am I still intend to make of my life something of use to others and myself in an ultimate sense. Yes, feeding others and assisting then materially are important but clearing the morass from my heart and learning to embody the Dhamma is a goal work which I can find no fault. Both now and in the future, the Dhamma and vinaya are wholesome and worthwhile but it’s the getting there that’s been a problem for me.

I find that when I’m tired and stressed I more easily lose the thread and have a tendency to snap. So, what if instead of trying to create the perfect conditions to practice I decided to make things difficult in purpose? It certainly seems that the body needs constant stress for its health and maybe training the mind is no different.

I’ve been working on a regular routine of daily physical exercise goals along with contemplative practices that I also try to perform every day. I have been doing things that don’t work and adding things as they seem fit. Much of my practice boils down to giving up sense pleasures like food and sexual activity and, now, trying to limit sleep so that I can find a way to be unperturbed in a controlled situation. When I find I can’t take it I can quit for a day or a few hours and it won’t mean a thing and it will prepare me for those times when escape is not an option.

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Posted in Buddha, Buddhism, Dhamma, Fasting, Theravada | Tags: exercise, suffering

Posted by: Michael | 05/23/2019

Regarding the World

“So too, bhikkhus, whatever ascetics and brahmins in the past … in the future … at present regard that in the world with a pleasant and agreeable nature as permanent, as happiness, as self, as healthy, as secure: they are nurturing craving. In nurturing craving … they are not freed from suffering, I say.

What would the Tolles and Sadhgurus of the world make of this utterance? What about the New Age hucksters selling their wares in the aprisionado marketplace? The Dhamma goes against the stream which is why it gets such short shrift (in its pure form) from secularists and sophists alike.

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Posted in Buddha, Buddha Vacana, Buddhism, Dhamma, Theravada | Tags: dispassion, enchantment, fear, love, samvega

Posted by: Michael | 05/19/2019

Insult Pacifism

“It is the part of a great mind to despise wrongs done to it; the most contemptuous form of revenge is not to deem one’s adversary worth taking vengeance upon. Many have taken small injuries much more seriously to heart than they need, by revenging them: that man is great and noble who like a large wild animal hears unmoved the tiny curs that bark at him.”

De Ira Seneca

I was referred to a post by William Irvine recently where he discusses how he has learned to practice what he calls insult pacifism as a result of applying Stoic principles and philosophies to his life. Naturally, as someone who has made of their a life a project of purification, the ideas he proposes are very attractive. Unfortunately for me, although I find much inspiration from Stoic philosophers both modern and ancient, there is a dearth of information about which, if any, techniques one should use to put these into practice.

As a result, I’ve simply come to the conclusion that Stoic philosophy is great food for the discursive mind (ad therefore very useful indeed) but that the practice of patient endurance (i.e., insult pacifism) relies on the development of contentment, equanimity and a host of other qualities of the heart best developed through the ariya atthangika magga (Eightfold Noble Path). Still, for those who can’t commit to the Buddhadhamma for any number of reasons, leading one’s life according to the philosophy of the Stoics would certainly not result in an opportunity wasted.

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Posted in Buddha, Buddhism, Dhamma, Stoicism | Tags: De Ira, insult pacifism, insults, Seneca, William B Irvine

Posted by: Michael | 05/17/2019

Emergency Metta Practice

It should come as no surprise to anyone who reads this blog or, perhaps, anyone born into this human realm, that I’ve found myself embroiled in yet another bitter argument. Well, it’s honestly a lot more asymmetrical but I still have to deal with the ill-will it’s bringing up inside.

Regardless, suffice it to say that there is now a person who I would rather avoid and who definitely doesn’t elicit warm and fuzzy feelings. As a result I’m doing everything I can to pacify my heart and clear away any hatred and resentment. The first step in doing so send to me to be nothing short of emergency metta practice.

Using my trusty mala I do a round for the person who had angered me and then switch to someone it’s easy to feel metta for. Rinse and repeat. Clearly it’s not ideal but, to extend the metaphor, formal meditation would be like undergoing surgery in the hospital whereas this type of practice is akin to triage in the field. May I bandage my heart with skill ands may the medicine of metta heal these wounds.

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Posted in Buddha, Buddhism, Dhamma, Formal Meditation, Metta, Theravada | Tags: anger, arguments, marriage, resentment