Archive | Reflections on Practice

Marcia Rose reflects on the Seamless Circle of Generosity

As we find our presence during this late fall & early winter in relationship to various holidays, the qualities of gratitude & generosity hold a special place & opportunity for each & all of us… in our formal Dharma practices & in our life as our practice.

We usually think of generosity as the practice of giving, though in its fullness it is both giving and receiving… a process which clearly helps to purify & transform the contraction of separateness that is engendered by self-centeredness.

Generosity is a perfectly natural aspect of our humanness & universally recognized as one of our most basic human virtues. We offer/we give, we receive. We cultivate & manifest generosity in a thousand different ways, no matter our culture, our age, no matter who we are within this universal seamless circle of generosity.

The development & deepening of the heart quality of generosity directly inspires & feeds the purification & transformation of clinging, stinginess & hoarding. Our practice of generosity also inspires & feeds the purification & transformation of the fear & attachment that are so closely linked to the uncomfortable energies of greed & resistance.

The Buddha always began his teaching offerings to new groups of people with some words about generosity. One of the things that he often said was, “If beings knew, as I know, the results of sharing gifts, they would not enjoy their gifts without sharing them with others, nor would the taint of stinginess obsess the heart & stay there. Even if it is your last bit of food, you would enjoy its use more by sharing it, if there was anyone to receive it.” And a primary teaching that he offered his Monastic Sangha was, “Thus you must train yourselves: We will be thankful & grateful. Not even the least thing that is done for us shall be forgotten.” The great beauty of a way of life… the practice of the heart… a life of GIVING & RECEIVING.

I especially love this time of year because it lights up this basic essential Buddhist teaching & way of life. As our practice develops & our discerning capacity grows, we begin to more clearly see & know that everything changes hands or just simply dissolves. Is there anything that really has any hard & fast owners? When we touch into this truth, it can be a powerful factor that inclines us towards cultivating our inner wealth… the inner wealth of generosity, mindfulness, patience, loving kindness, joy & equanimity. An inner wealth of generosity is a powerful medicine. It’s an antidote to the anguish & confusion that is generated through the conditioning/training of accumulating, and then fixating on & identifying with our material & mental accumulations.

We can cultivate a life & help to cultivate a culture of mutual flourishing… a life & culture of balance, reciprocity & regeneration. With our Dharma practice we are learning to receive life fully, be kind, grateful & generous. This very life is our path to the deepest ease of a presence of well-being & joy and is intimately connected to the development of a deep generosity of heart.

May this holiday time & the upcoming new year be filled with warmth, kindness, love, gratitude, generosity, joy, and a sense of balance & equanimity for you, for your loved ones & for all beings everywhere.

With love, Marcia Rose
TMH founding & guiding teacher

CLICK HERE to listen to Marcia’s full Dharma talk.

Jean Smith on “Stepping into the river of life”

We can study discourses and sermons, we can read countless books, we can hear hundreds or perhaps even thousands of talks. Although these secondary sources give us many clues about the nature of our world, only direct experience can give us true insight into the most essential aspects of our reality, especially impermanence.

Most of us have heard and conceded the adage that we can’t step in the same river twice, but until we wade into a stream and feel the current swirling around our calves as it urges leaves and twigs past us, we do not really get, at a kinetic level, what this saying means. And we are just like that stream. Each of us is made up of and surrounded by elements that are constantly changing. As Zen teacher Jisho Warner has said, “Impermanence is a great river of phenomena, of beings, things, and events, coming to be and passing away in dependence on each other. This natural order of things includes us, and its laws are our laws. Each of us is an endless moving stream within an endless moving stream.”

For many years I had a home on the Ausable River, in the Adirondack Mountains of Upstate New York, and that river was a wily teacher. I came to understand that being a moving stream in a moving stream does not mean that our lives flow through without changing and being changed. Over the years I watched the river carve the shoreline, carrying sand downstream as it widened meanders, making sandbars in the already broad and shallow areas. I saw the river’s color changed by the shore, where iron-rich clays narrowed the channel. The water rose and fell with rains in the mountains, carried whole trees downstream in the fury of a flood, buckled bridges with crusted ice. But even in the most bitter frozen winterscape, always through the ice I could see the river’s flow.

Another metaphor used for our impermanence is standing at the edge of a river and studying the small whirlpools that form then fade away. There is no difference between the river and the whirlpools except the whirlpools’ temporary coherence: existing, changing, not existing.

—-Excerpted from Jean’s book Life Is Spiritual Practice, from Wisdom Publications

The Eightfold Path – A way of Life

There is a story told of a wandering ascetic on a journey in search of the Buddha to receive the teachings on freedom from suffering. Not finding him, he comes to a resting place one evening and stays the night at a lodge. As it happened, the Buddha was staying at the same place but because the ascetic didn’t recognize the Buddha, the next morning he left to continue his search. He missed meeting the Buddha who was right there! This is a compassion evoking story – to be so near, yet so far from the path to freedom.

If the question is: how do I live in the world without suffering? The answer is: by means of the Eightfold Path. It is the path to freedom, and a way of living wisely and compassionately in the world.

Thus we can see this story as being about the Eightfold path, in as much as it too is right here under our noses. But when we don’t know how to look or what to look for, we don’t see it and therefore don’t engage the path, thus perpetuating suffering.

The eight steps on the path are: Wise understanding, wise intention, wise speech, wise action, wise livelihood, wise effort, wise mindfulness and wise concentration.

In a nutshell it is about wisely understanding that our thoughts, actions and speech matter. To live in the world in this way takes not being reactive to the events and circumstances of the world, but repeatedly meeting the moment with mindful discernment. Of course, we do get seduced by the world and make mistakes since we are still learning, but that’s not what’s important – it is the willingness to begin again and again. With time we experience less suffering in our lives and greater compassion for the world we live in, because we see it with eyes of wisdom. This tells us that we really are living the Eightfold path. We could say that we have recognized the Buddha!

Brian Lesage reflects on The Ordinary Becoming Extraordinary

A few mornings ago, I woke up & could fully take into my heart the reality that I am going to die. Usually, this feels like just a thought or idea, but this time, it landed deeply. I was struck by the Buddha’s recommendation to reflect on death daily, and this reflection brought a profound awareness of the poignancy of ordinary experiences—the routines that fill my day.

I noticed the feeling of my breath, the sound of a crow outside, the light breeze, the sensation of getting out of bed, and putting on clothes. Later, it was the warmth of a mug of tea, the sound of my partner’s laughter, taking out the trash, driving, making a meal, and hearing my mother’s voice on the phone. These ordinary experiences suddenly had a richness & depth. The mundane became extraordinary.

These routine activities make up most of our lives. They happen whether we’re joyful or sorrowful, peaceful or troubled, healthy or sick. Yet, it’s so easy to overlook them, to be on autopilot.

This autopilot mode is sometimes necessary, but too much of it can make life flicker by without truly being present. If these ordinary moments constitute most of our lives, I want to be there for them.

In Theravada Buddhism, mindfulness of these routine activities is crucial. The Satipatthana Sutta, a foundational Buddhist text, emphasizes embodied mindfulness in everyday actions—walking, sitting, lying down, standing, reaching, eating, and even sleeping.

Being mindful of these ordinary experiences strengthens our presence in daily life, creating a foundation for deeper mindfulness. But this isn’t easy. Modern living often feels at odds with being fully present. Efficiency & multitasking can impede our ability to be with the ordinary & routine.

Two key components help me stay present in the ordinary. The first is embodied awareness—being fully aware of bodily experiences like standing, sitting, reaching, or even flossing teeth. This awareness roots my experience in the body, rather than in thoughts & ideas. The second is a curiosity about the process of activities, not just the outcome. This shift in focus makes life feel like a dance, a flow of movement, rather than a series of tasks to complete.

These practices disrupt the narrow, habitual ways we relate to life. They allow deeper ways of perceiving & being in the world to emerge. By tuning into the extraordinary in the ordinary, we touch something profound & mysterious that transcends the notion of “I” doing something. This insight into the selfless nature of experience can inform how we live these brief lives of ours.

So, like me, you too will die one day. In light of this, how do you want to relate to the routine, to the ordinary, during this brief life of yours?

For a more complete reflection on this topic you may want to listen
to this Dharma Talk by Brian:
The Ordinary Becoming Extraordinary

Marcia Rose reflects on “Ehi-passika” – come & see

What is it that enables us to move towards ‘being a Buddha?’ What makes one a true heir of the Buddha? A phrase that the Buddha often used – “ehi-passika,” come & see – is an invitation not to come & believe, but to come & see for ourselves what is true. To come & see in this way requires great interest, willingness & courage which includes a growing faith that blossoms out of our own direct experience, interest, willingness & courage to look with humility… directly, deeply, & honestly into the body, the heart & the mind… without relying on what others say is true via what we’ve heard or read. To come & see in this way requires that we don’t settle into the inertia of our habitual perceptions of, our relationships to, or our self-identifications with our inner & outer experience.

Some years ago, I went hiking with a long-time Dharma student friend up into the mountains of the Taos Ski Valley. We chose to hike in silence, walking alone though not far from each other, and to speak together only during rest breaks & lunch. As we took our time making our way up the trail, hiking in this manner provided a deeply connected relationship through each of the sense doors to the surrounding world, to our bodily sensations & movement, and to the various mental states & feelings that come & go in the mind & heart,

As wended our way up through this Rocky Mountain landscape, two young people came running up behind us. They each had a small yellow plastic object in their hand, which they were quite intently holding up & out in front of them. We exchanged cursory hellos and asked them what the yellow plastic object was. We were told it was a GPS. They were in such a hurry, there was no opportunity to ask what a GPS is. This was before GPS became so widely used. My friend knew a little about it & said that it’s a device that tells you where you are. As soon as she said this, we looked at each other with amazement & burst into laughter. As my friend & I were slowly making our way up the mountain that day, we were connecting with & knowing ‘where we were’ again & again in so many ways & on so many levels, that the intermediary of a Global Positioning System seemed absurd.

The qualities of interest, willingness & courage are what keeps our practice alive… from the very beginning & on-going through all the years of our practice. Investigation/discrimination of bodily & mental states is the activity of mindfulness… the discerning aspect of mindfulness. This active aspect of mindfulness is what clearly illuminates the object, lighting up all of our sense door & mental experiences right to their core, showing us both their individual characteristics & their universal essence… their nature/ultimate reality.

LOST by David Wagoner:

Stand still.

The trees ahead and bushes beside you are not lost.

Wherever you are is called Here.

And you must treat it as a powerful stranger.

Must ask permission to know it and be known.

The forest breathes.

Listen. It answers, I have made this place around you.

If you leave it, you may come back again,

Saying ‘Here’.

No two trees are the same to Raven.

No two branches are the same to Wren.

If what a tree, a bush does is lost on you,

You are surely lost. Stand still. The forest knows where you are. You must let it find you.

So again… ‘EHI-PASSIKA’… COME and SEE… come & see for yourself.

Bhikkhu Bodhi reflects on “Pain is my Built-in Buddha”

…I know firsthand that chronic bodily pain can eat deeply into the entrails of the spirit. It can cast dark shadows over the chambers of the heart & pull one down into moods of dejection & despair. I cannot claim to have triumphed over pain, but in the course of our long relationship, I’ve discovered some guidelines that have helped me to endure the experience.

First of all, it is useful to recognize the distinction between physical pain & the mental reaction to it. Although body & mind are closely intertwined, the mind does not have to share the same fate as the body. When the body feels pain, the mind can stand back from it. Instead of allowing itself to be dragged down, the mind can simply observe the pain. Indeed, the mind can even turn the pain around & transform it into a means of inner growth.

The Buddha compares being afflicted with bodily pain to being struck by an arrow. Adding mental pain (aversion, displeasure, depression, or self-pity) to physical pain is like being hit by a second arrow. The wise person stops with the first arrow. Simply by calling the pain by its true name, one can keep it from extending beyond the physical, and thereby stop it from inflicting deep & penetrating wounds upon the spirit.

Pain can be regarded as a teacher—a stern one that can also be eloquent. My head pain has often felt like a built-in buddha who constantly reminds me of the first noble truth…

The experience of chronic pain has enabled me to understand how inseparable pain is from the human condition. This is something that we in America, habituated as we are to comfort & convenience, tend to forget. Chronic pain has helped me to empathize with the billions living daily with the gnawing pain of hunger; with the millions of women walking miles each day to fetch water for their families; with those in Third World countries who lie on beds in poorly equipped, understaffed hospitals, staring blankly at the wall…

The most powerful tool I’ve found for mitigating pain’s impact is a short meditative formula repeated many times in the Buddha’s discourses: “Whatever feelings there may be—past, present, or future—all feeling is not mine, not I, not my self.” Benefiting from this technique does not require deep samadhi or a breakthrough to profound insight. Even using this formula during periods of reflective contemplation helps to create a distance between oneself & one’s experience of pain.

Such contemplation deprives the pain of its power to create nodes of personal identification within the mind, and thus builds equanimity & fortitude. Although the technique takes time & effort, when the three terms of contemplation—“not mine, not I, not my self”—gain momentum, pain loses its sting & cracks opens the door to the end of pain, the door to ultimate freedom.

Venerable Bhikkhu Bodhi, an American Buddhist monk who received novice ordination in Sri Lanka in 1972 & full ordination in 1973, lives & teaches at Chuang Yen Monastery in New York State. He is a prolific translator from the Pali Canon, the most ancient collection of Buddhist scriptures & is founder of the organization Buddhist Global Relief, which funds projects to fight hunger & to empower women across the world. This piece was excerpted from an article in a 2016 issue of Lion’s Roar magazine.

READ ARTICLE IN FULL

‘Garden Bathing’ in Harmony with the ‘Way of Things’

My yearly endeavor of Spring, Summer & Fall gardening was not possible last year. I was very sick… sick enough to be in hospital for a month & then sent home in hospice. As it all evolved, I ‘graduated from hospice above ground, which is very unusual,” as one of my doctors said. This year, my 84^th, I am back to growing much of my food & tending the extensive flower gardens that grace this piece of northern New Mexico ground I have the honor of living on.

As I go about the daily process of carefully, kindly & mindfully tending & harvesting vegetables & flowers, I intimately touch into the clear mirror of the ‘way of things.’ I am reminded that planting, tending & harvesting plants is an act & process of unconditional love, calling for me to be in an ongoing relationship to life & in harmony with this ‘way of things.’

As I work, I mindfully observe the constant & never-ending changes of a tomato plant… from seed to plant to fruit & back to seed, acknowledging that some seeds never develop into form. I appreciate the variation of each rose blossom in response to the conditions that it is blooming in… and the daffodil’s brief flowering & quick withering. I see & absorb the strong response of each plant to rainfall, or a plant’s response to not receiving the water it needs.

I am aware of intimately touching into the understanding that not only does each & every plant in the garden go through the process of birth, change & perishing… every animate & inanimate form of life displays & goes through this inevitable process. As each of us life forms move through this totally natural process, we are also in the midst of an intimate & intricate interdependent relationship with all other life forms, both near & far. My teacher, the garden, clearly displays & reflects this. I recognize again & again that this is also my human reality, if I’m willing to let this truth in.

“The entire cosmos is a cooperative. The sun, the moon & the stars live together as a cooperative. The same is true for humans & animals, trees & soil. Our bodily parts function as a cooperative. When we realize that the world is a mutual interdependent, cooperative enterprise, then we can build a noble, even heavenly environment.” —Buddhadassa Bhikku

I clearly note my joy & appreciation of the bright yellow color & exquisite form of a daffodil, and then recognize within days that it’s on its way out. I recall my own experience a year ago – on the verge of my own possible death – of a clear & deep feeling of letting go… not giving up… but just simply letting go because it appeared to be time for this. There was also a clear deep knowing & acknowledgment that trying to cling on would produce contraction & be painful. Flowers ‘know’ intrinsically when this time arrives. Most of us humans need to learn this through years of practice.

Today I sat outside in the rain under the roof of the small porch behind my house… openhearted, in love & fully present to all that was visibly being rained on, and to the many birds that were eating, singing & appeared in their own way to be enjoying the gentle rain that was moisturizing everything. Today was an experience of ‘garden bathing’ at its best… feeling intrinsically deeply grateful for & joyfully intertwined in the amazing abundance of life forms appearing all around me.

‘Bathing in the way of things’ can bring us a sense of harmony & deep ease when we are truly able to let it all in.

Spring morning crickets
singing their heart out
and into mine.

“Satipatthana in a Tangerine”

An engaging way to teach a course in beginning mindfulness is to hand each new yogi a tangerine when they arrive. They’ll sit down & gingerly hold the fruit as if it’s too hot, occasionally taking discreet glances at it to make sure it really is a tangerine, wondering what it’s for. They soon learn: It’s the object of a guided 30-minute mindfulness meditation. Even experienced yogis graced with Beginner’s Mind find this meditation unexpectedly intriguing. Briefly, this is the guidance:

*Hear & follow the meditation instructions.

*Lightly juggle the tangerine so your fingers can sense its firmness & weight.

*Look at the colors to see which are clear orange or mottled.

*Run your fingers over all of the fruit to feel where it is smooth or bumpy or creased.

*Smell the outside of the tangerine. Does this bring up memories such as the “smell of Christmas” or fruit in a holiday stocking?

*Bite the tangerine, smell & taste the inside & outside of the skin. Is either one pleasant or unpleasant? Do you want more tastes or none at all? Peel the tangerine.

*Break off a fruit section & put it in your mouth but don’t chew it. How do your taste buds react to the taste? Do you want more?

*Chew, swallow, and slowly finish eating the tangerine mindfully.

When the meditation is over, new students usually make comments like “Where did you find these tangerines?” or “This is the best tangerine I’ve ever tasted.” Their remarks are the perfect opening for the teacher to say, “Every aspect of your life can be just as delicious if you live it as mindfully as you ate this tangerine.” These students have just taken advantage of their amazing sense doors, sense discriminations of pleasant or unpleasant, and desire or aversion to eating more. They’ve probably also had short memories of holidays or picnics.

Unbeknownst to them, they have also had a short, guided tour of the Satipatthana Sutta, perhaps the Buddha’s most studied discourse because of its comprehensiveness in teaching the objects that are the best for cultivating mindfulness through meditation: the body, feeling tones of pleasant-impermanent-unpleasant, the mind, and Dhammas (teachings of the Buddha).

Why start new yogis here or invite experienced meditators to immerse themselves in the experience? Because every step of this meditation opens us to the absolutely amazing body we inhabit. After hundreds of millions of years, we beings have evolved exceptional color vision, hearing ability that would challenge the finest sound studios, tenderness of touch. We can perceive & identify through our senses most elements of the world around us, and usually know if we like or don’t like what we see, hear, taste, touch, and smell. And we can think about & experience emotional responses to this perceived world.

With the intention to cultivate mindfulness, we’re not merely setting off on a path of touchy-feely pleasures. As we meditate mindfully, we are directly & in the present moment exposed to the shifts of physical & mental sensations. These experiences condition our mind to wisdom: the ability to discern what is real. Even in the smallest increments, we are moving toward a wiser, kinder, more contented life.

To learn more about the Satipatthana Sutta, CLICK HERE
to read Thanissaro Bhikkhu’s description & excellent translation.

Jean Smith has practiced Buddhist meditation in the Vipassana-Insight Meditation tradition since 1986 & has led sanghas in New York City, the Adirondack Mountains & online from Taos NM. She has published nine books on Buddhism, including The Beginner’s Guide to Insight Meditation (with Arinna Weisman) & Life is Spiritual Practice (the Paramis). Jean serves on the board of The Mountain Hermitage.

Sylvia Boorstein on “I’m Not O.K., You’re Not O.K. — and That’s O.K.”

The clue is, Are you O.K.?

None of us is. The Buddha explained that as the truth of suffering. Having been born, we are all subject to the pain of loss, of grief, of sadness or even plain disappointment. Life is difficult. Even our joys, in their temporality, remind us of impermanence. Like the French poet Villon, we lament, wistfully, “Where are the snows of yesteryear?” We know that all the yesteryears are gone.

Psychologists would also reassure us of the appropriateness of our “non-O.K.-ness.” Each of us carries the gifts of our heritage, our family and our culture, as well as its wounds. It can’t be otherwise. A psychologist friend of mind once said, “If you wanted it perfect, you came to the wrong planet.” I am imagining this understanding, tacit or spoken, as the cornerstone of all healing relationships.

“Are you O.K.?”

“No. Not really. How about you?”

“Not me, either. But I’m O.K. to talk about it. It makes the journey less lonely. Let’s talk.”

And, we can talk to ourselves kindly. I tell mindfulness practitioners to listen to the tone their inner voice uses to comment on their experience. I ask them to consider whether, if they had a friend who spoke that way, they would keep that friend. The moment in which people discover they are not holding themselves in compassion, not speaking kindly, is often startling and always sad. That awareness is sometimes enough to cause the critic’s voice to soften, and the soother’s voice to be heard.

Excerpted from article in July 2012 issue Lion’s Roar.
CLICK to read in full.

Sylvia Boorstein, PhD, has been teaching Dharma & mindfulness meditation since 1985. She is a founding teacher of Spirit Rock Meditation Center, a psychotherapist, wife, mother & grandmother. She is particularly interested in emphasizing daily life as mindfulness practice & including informed citizenship & social activism as integral to spiritual maturation.

Sayadaw U Pandita on “Five Benefits of Walking Meditation”

The Buddha described five additional, specific benefits of walking meditation. The first is that one who does walking meditation will have the stamina to go on long journeys. This was important in the Buddha’s time, when bhikkhus & bhikkhunis, monks and nuns, had no form of transportation other than their feet & legs. You who are meditating today can consider yourselves to be bhikkhus, and can think of this benefit simply as physical strengthening.

The second benefit is that walking meditation brings stamina for the practice of meditation itself. During walking meditation a double effort is needed. In addition to the ordinary, mechanical effort needed to lift the foot, there is also the mental effort to be aware of the movement — and this is the factor of right effort from the Noble Eightfold Path. If this double effort continues through the movements of lifting, pushing & placing, it strengthens the capacity for that strong, consistent mental effort all yogis know is crucial to vipassana practice.

Thirdly, according to the Buddha, a balance between sitting & walking contributes to good health, which in turn speeds progress in practice. Obviously it is difficult to meditate when we are sick. Too much sitting can cause many physical ailments. But the shift of posture & the movements of walking revive the muscles & stimulate circulation, helping prevent illness.

The fourth benefit is that walking meditation assists digestion. Improper digestion produces a lot of discomfort & is thus a hindrance to practice. Walking keeps the bowels clear, minimizing sloth & torpor. After a meal & before sitting, one should do a good walking meditation to forestall drowsiness. Walking as soon as one gets up in the morning is also a good way to establish mindfulness & to avoid a nodding head in the first sitting of the day.

Last, but not least of the benefits of walking is that it builds durable concentration. As the mind works to focus on each section of the movement during a walking session, concentration becomes continuous. Every step builds the foundation for the sitting that follows, helping the mind stay with the object from moment to moment – eventually to reveal the true nature of reality at the deepest level. This is why I use the simile of a car battery. If a car is never driven, its battery runs down. A yogi who never does walking meditation will have a difficult time getting any where when he or she sits down on the cushion. But one who is diligent in walking will automatically carry strong mindfulness & firm concentration into sitting meditation.

I hope that all of you will be successful in completely carrying out this practice. May you be pure in your precepts, cultivating them in speech & action thus creating the conditions for developing samadhi & wisdom.

May you follow these meditation instructions carefully, noting each moment’s experience with deep, accurate & precise mindfulness, so that you will penetrate into the true nature of reality. May you see how mind & matter constitute all experiences, how these two are interrelated by cause & effect, how all experiences are characterized by impermanence, unsatisfactoriness & absence of self so that you may eventually realize nibbana – the unconditioned state that uproots mental defilements – here & now.

Excerpted from the book In This Very Life: Liberation Teachings of the Buddha
by Sayadaw U Pandita

The Venerable Sayadaw U Pandita died on April 16, 2016. One of the foremost masters of Vipassana, he trained in the Theravada Buddhist tradition of Myanmar & was successor to the late Mahasi Sayadaw. This eminent Dharma master was a key influence on many of the Insight Meditation Society’s teachers & played an important role in IMS’s history.

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