Brian Lesage on “Taking Out the Thorn”

By Brian Lesage

The Buddha lived in a deeply troubled world. Kings ruled through violence, armies decimated villages, and slavery threaded daily life. Even those close to the Buddha suffered: his supporter Bimbisara was imprisoned by his own son & starved in his cell; his clan was nearly wiped out by King Viddhudabha; his cousin Devadatta tried to kill him. In this context, the Path took shape: a clear, compassionate way to meet a world on fire without adding more flame.

In the early texts the Buddha speaks of samsara as beginningless: a beginningless wandering, where the tears shed from separation & loss exceed the water in the four great oceans. Anyone attuned to today’s tragedies recognizes the tide. He names that tide, then shows how not to be swept away.

Samsara is often taken to mean the world itself. More precisely, it points to patterns of heart & mind: the habits of greed, aversion, and confusion that recreate suffering. The cycle isn’t only outer; it begins with inner patterns that shape speech & action.

One early discourse pictures the Buddha-to-be witnessing violence & shaking with fear: “creatures flopping around, like fish in water too shallow, so hostile to one another!” He longs for a place unscarred by conflict & cannot find it. Then he notices a thorn lodged deep in the heart, the hidden point that drives us to run in all directions & perpetuate harm. “If that thorn is taken out, one stops running & settles.”

It is a radical response. Instead of fastening on enemies or quick remedies, he turns toward the engine of violence itself.

That thorn has familiar names: greed, hatred, and delusion, and it does not come out with a single tug; it is layered & habitual, resurfacing in thought, speech, and action. The Buddha’s image of the bamboo acrobats, each caring for their own poise so they can truly care for the other, is fitting & precise. Mindfulness is that balance. Guarding one’s steadiness also protects others.

This is not passivity. It is the groundwork for wise action. We pause, feel the tremor of fear or heat of hatred, and soften around it. The emotion may not vanish, but space opens; in it, listening, patience, and clarity return. From that steadiness, engagement becomes medicine rather than contagion.

The civil rights leader Rev. James Lawson modeled this union of action & inner freedom. He trained protesters to endure abuse without retaliating, testing whether nonviolence had reached bone & breath. Those who lost balance weren’t sent into the hottest fires. “We started the public desegregation of the nation, and we did it without hating anybody,” he said. That is what a real revolution sounds like.

When the world’s troubles feel endless, the Dharma offers something essential: a way to stop spinning the wheel. Take out the thorn. Act, yes, but from a heart that knows its currents & trusts the possibility of a freer response. In doing so, we help this troubled world through true, steady, wise compassion.

HEALING & AWAKENING – Prescription: Immersion in Nature

By Marcia Rose

The blessings of Autumn are unfolding here in northern New Mexico as is currently happening in many places around the planet. This time of year, the natural world all around us offers abundant Dharma practice opportunities in ordinary & profound ways.

Here in my garden, the huge & magnificent Chinese lilies whose intense smell was permeating their nearby environment have now all fallen off their sturdy stems. Pea vines, finished producing the sweet pea pods they offered all summer, are withering & turning brown. The prolific peach tree has given up hundreds of peaches to the birds, squirrels & humans fortunate enough to eat & pick them off its laden branches. The air is cooling. I have donned a sweater for the first time in many months.

In this fall season, we see the undeniable workings of Anicca/change/impermanence… the basic unpredictable & uncertain details of its timing and the challenging & beautiful ways that it relentlessly shows up. Bringing a deep interest & opening our heart/mind in the midst of this process is an incredible practice opportunity. The nature of life & death is clearly & obviously revealing itself again & again as we mindfully observe, acknowledge & accept what we are sensing & seeing… letting it all in without resistance, judgment or criticism.

Human cultures & organizational structures wherever we may live, like the structure & cultures underlying all natural life forms… animal and plant, are rooted in the processes of Anicca/change/impermanence. Our bodies, our ideas, likes & dislikes, our emotions… our very life is basically grounded in these same processes that underlie how the natural world shows up & expresses itself. Can you even imagine what it would be like if there were no change? In truth, without Anicca/change/impermanence there would be no life.

Through our practice we can learn to meet this perfectly natural process of change, impermanence & uncertainty with acceptance rather than resistance. Instead of reacting to manifestations of Anicca with anger, fear, aggression, pretending, clinging or hiding, we can learn to respond with clarity in appropriate, helpful, compassionate and wise ways.

Fall is the perfect time to make a resolve to go deeper in our practice, as we explore opening to, observing & accepting Anicca… in the world around us & within our own body, heart & mind. Orienting & rooting our Autumn meditation practice in the world of nature, especially during these challenging times, helps to reduce stress & anxiety, offering moments of quiet presence, calm & healing.

As a prolific gardener & one who spends as much time out-of-doors as possible, I love the lessons this time of year offers me. In its natural & simple way, it profoundly helps to put everything into perspective.

With love, Marcia

 

Joannna Macy on “Healing Begins with Gratitude”

By Other Teachers & Folks We Value

We have received an inestimable gift. To be alive in this beautiful, self-organizing universe—to participate in the dance of life with senses to perceive it, lungs that breathe it, organs that draw nourishment from it—is a wonder beyond words. It is an extraordinary privilege to be accorded a human life, with self-reflexive consciousness that brings awareness of our own actions & the ability to make choices. It lets us choose to take part in the healing of our world.

Gratitude for the gift of life is the primary wellspring of all religions, the hallmark of the mystic, the source of all true art. Yet we so easily take this gift for granted. That is why so many spiritual traditions begin with thanksgiving, to remind us that for all our woes & worries, our existence itself is an unearned benefaction, which we could never of ourselves create….

That our world is in crisis—to the point where survival of conscious life on Earth is in question—in no way diminishes the value of this gift; on the contrary. To us is granted the privilege of being on hand: to take part, if we choose, in the Great Turning to a just & sustainable society. We can let life work through us, enlisting all our strength, wisdom, and courage, so that life itself can continue.

There is so much to be done, and the time is so short. We can proceed, of course, out of grim & angry desperation. But the tasks proceed more easily & productively with a measure of thankfulness for life; it links us to our deeper powers & lets us rest in them. Many of us are braced, psychically & physically, against the signals of distress that continually barrage us in the news, on our streets, in our environment. As if to reduce their impact on us, we contract like a turtle into its shell. But we can choose to turn to the breath, the body, the senses—for they help us to relax & open to wider currents of knowing & feeling.

The great open secret of gratitude is that it is not dependent on external circumstance. It’s like a setting or channel that we can switch to at any moment, no matter what’s going on around us. It helps us connect to our basic right to be here, like the breath does. It’s a stance of the soul. In systems theory, each part contains the whole. Gratitude is the kernel that can flower into everything we need to know.

Excerpted from article in Lion’s Roar, November 2021
Joanna Macy was a scholar of Buddhism, systems thinking & deep ecology. As the root teacher of the Work That Reconnects, Macy created a ground-breaking framework for personal & social change that brings a new way of seeing the world as our larger body.

Annie Nugent on “Aspiration”

By Annie Nugent

Some time before the Buddha was about to die, he gave his disciples a word of encouragement and  advice.  He said this – and I’m putting it into my own words:  “Freedom from suffering is available to you if you practice by the proper means of mindfulness, but not without having the aspiration to  learn, and that will bring  freedom.”

Like any undertaking in the world, it is helpful to know why we are doing it. For example, if we exercise we know what our purpose is – to get fit. That is our aspiration. 

Similarly with our dharma practice. Aspiration is the wholesome wish to free ourselves from suffering by diminishing the unwholesome and strengthening the wholesome qualities of mind. This is our purpose in the dharma.

 The downfall comes when we misunderstand this word “aspiration” to mean striving and grasping  for happiness. This is not aspiration, but the unwholesome aspect of craving, the very source of suffering.  Notice the tightness and contractedness in the body when there is craving and how open hearted, light and uplifted the body feels when there is genuine aspiration.

 Many of us live busy lives out in the world. We have families, jobs, homes to tend and sometimes we can begin to feel that we have lost touch with the dharma or that we “should” be doing something else to realize our aspiration. Right here we can remind ourselves that our job is to do what the  teachings require of us, working with mindfulness in this moment. Anything more than sincerely doing the practice is a hindrance to it’s unfolding. The wondering when, if, how soon and what else we can do to speed up the process  – this is all worry and agitation.

So we put it down, relax and simply do the practice right here; there isn’t anywhere else to do it. When we have this deep aspiration for freedom we find the willingness to bring mindfulness to all situations, using what life has offered us as a path to awakening – to stretch and train the heart not to  react, but to slowly come to understand what our human existence is all about.

Kristina Baré on “The Four Noble Truths Meeting the Complex World”

By Kristina Baré

In a world facing deep unrest, the Buddha’s Four Noble Truths offer both clarity and compassion. As taught in the discourse on “Setting in Motion the Wheel of the Dhamma” (SN 56.11):

(1) There is dukkha—the unsatisfactoriness and suffering of life.
(2) Its cause is craving.
(3) Dukkha ceases when we release craving.
(4) There is a path to the cultivation of wisdom that allows for release—the Noble Eightfold Path.

Dukkha includes obvious pain, but also the deeper unease that comes from resisting change, loss, and uncertainty. Pain is part of life, but suffering arises in how we meet it. When we feel anger, fear, or despair in response to the world, wisdom invites us to gently inquire, “What am I resisting? What am I holding on to?” The Second and Third Truths guide us to explore how clinging fuels reactivity—and how letting go opens space for equanimity. Yet, this is not cold detached equanimity, but an inner balance that guides caring action. The Fourth Truth guides how to respond: with wise view, ethical action, and a heart grounded in deep care. When the heart is in a place of greater release, it can respond with wisdom and compassion rather than react with fear and anger. This is good for the world and for ourselves.

On Meeting the Challenges of Our Time…

By Marcia Rose

How can we move out of what might be our usual way of doing things & into new territory? Not to escape what may seem or feel like a catastrophe looming around us… looming around the world… but to more fully & clearly meet what is occurring.

In order to be helpful & effective, we need to develop flexibility of mind & heart, an easy relationship with the unexpected & unknown, and an energetic, robust willingness to engage with life as we find it. I think most importantly, we need a really BIG VIEW.

In our day-to-day life & even in monastic life, our practice isn’t about getting ‘free from the world’… but rather it’s about BEING FREE IN THE WORLD.

So what does this mean… being free in the world? In order to be wholeheartedly part of this world… I mean HERE WE ARE… can we willingly fall into, step into, move & sit with this beautiful, tender, mysterious, challenging, frightened, explosive world just as it is…? Every moment, every circumstance, every experience, every relationship is another chance to experience things as they are, rather than as we wish or fear them to be. Can we put down our despair & also our hope… can we begin, so to say, from no fixed position… simply be fully present for what becomes possible when we do this?

METTA, GRATITUDE AND MUDITA PRACTICES are important, necessary & potent treasures… just what is needed now by each of us to help propel us towards living a more fully present, connected, free, useful & happy life.

With Metta practice, we begin with the attitude of loving, honoring & respecting ourselves. This allows our heart-mind to more clearly see/sense/know if we are motivated by feelings of caring for & cherishing ourselves, or by a sense of struggle & strain. A basic aspect of our Metta practice is not to seek for love, but to seek & find all the barriers within ourselves that we have built against it… to ‘see through’ these barriers & to let them dissolve.

With Gratitude practice our ‘task’, so to say, is to spend a bit of time at the beginning and/or at the end of each day bringing to our heart/mind ANYTHING… tiny or large… that we are grateful for. We allow the energy of gratitude to flow & expand through our whole body & heart/mind… not fixating on anything but rather creating a reservoir of gladness that brings a wholesome, healthy balance to the difficult challenges that we are sensing, experiencing & navigating.

With Mudita practice/Joy For/Joy With we begin to more clearly see & know how our habitual judgement & comparison sets us apart/separate from others. So, we begin Mudita practice by rejoicing in ourselves as a means of generating the respect, love, confidence, joy & sense of well-being that is essential & natural to the awakening heart/mind. And then we slowly & gently, with a heart/mind steeped in metta, begin to connect with a ‘true’ sense of joy for/joy with the success, joy, happiness & beauty of others. Mudita practice eventually moves the heart/mind towards being light, pliable, open, generous & relaxed.

METTA, GRATITUDE AND MUDITA PRACTICES are truly treasures that can propel us towards living with a BIG VIEW… more fully present, connected, effective, free and happy in the midst of the challenges of our times.

Jean Smith reflects on Generosity First…

By Jean Smith

When fifth-century monk-scholars shaped a list of the heart-mind characteristics of the Bodhisattva’s path to buddhahood, these Paramis, or “Perfections,” began with generosity. The sequence was a reflection of the way the Buddha offered his teachings: the Buddha’s first talk in a new community was usually about generosity. Probably the Buddha began with generosity partly because he recognized that it is and has been so widely accepted as one of the most basic human virtues by so many cultures. But there was a more important reason: Generosity is a foundational building block of spiritual development and his most important teachings.

In an unfamiliar village, he regularly used a particular sequence of teachings: he began with a talk about generosity, then spoke about morality, then about karma, then about the benefits of renunciation. When he felt that his listeners had understood all these teachings, only then did he give his first talk on suffering, its cause, and its end, the Four Noble Truths. He would explain that a universal condition of life is dissatisfaction– stress or suffering whose cause is clinging or attachment. Therefore, the end of suffering is nonclinging or nonattachment, and the path to liberation begins with generosity, the natural antidote to greed or clinging. The great value of generosity would become clear to the newcomers.

Clinging or attachment cannot exist at the same time as true generosity. By cultivating generosity, we can bring an end to clinging, an end to attachment, to stinginess, to greed to material things — even to our most cherished ideas and sense of self.

In the Buddha’s teachings, one strong cluster focuses on the way we can cultivate generosity: (1) By relinquishing external or material things to benefit others; (2) by giving others the gift of freedom from fear; and (3) by giving others the Dharma.

Through this practice may our hearts be open to give and to receive with ease and joy.

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) (from which this piece is excerpted). Jean serves on the board of The Mountain Hermitage. She is shown in in the photo riding her beloved golden palomino horse Cody at the age of 86.

Christiane Wolf on “Becoming Curious About Experience”

By Other Teachers & Folks We Value

Nobody likes being stressed or being in pain. Our natural response is to push the stress or the pain away, either consciously or unconsciously. This can be helpful in the short term but it’s not a long term solution. 

Mindfulness practice invites us to pause and pay attention to what is happening in the present moment. There are basically only two components of the present moment: The experience and our reaction to that experience. Mindfulness lets us observe what is happening, but mindfulness in itself is not enough. There is another quality that is almost equal in importance, namely curiosity. 

Usually we are not curious about our experience and definitely not about our reactions. We can observe something in our experience and be filled with judgment and hostility. We just want the experience to be different as we believe that this would take care of the reaction, too. If my kid would stop throwing a tantrum, if my colleague would stop being so negative, if I could get rid of that headache…

So what would happen if you would instead get curious about your reaction about the experience? If you would ask yourself instead: “What IS this?” and to do so with an open mind, not knowing the answer and not needing the answer to be a certain way. 

Curiosity in mindfulness practice is not about coming up with ideas and thoughts and theories. Curiosity in this context, is happening in a different way. More like a field scientist gathering data. You start to see more clearly: When this happens, it leads to that. For example, when my kid starts screaming and throws herself on the floor then tightness arises in my chest, there is anxiety, and helplessness and frustration. Out of that, the urge to raise my voice, to do something to get this to stop is increasing. How interesting! If I am able to actually be aware of this process mindfully and with curiosity then the miracle of choice opens up. I can choose the response that is the most in alignment with my values, for example to not yell at my kids. Victor Frankl is quoted to have said that between the stimulus and the response there is a space. And in that space lies our freedom to choose. It can free us from the habit loop, from reacting on autopilot. 

Curiosity propels us out of autopilot and the judging mind and opens the field for new discovery and learning. The next time your find yourself not liking what’s going on in the present moment consider becoming curious about it and let the question “What IS this?” change your world.

Christiane Wolf, MD, PhD is a senior Vipassana meditation teacher at Insight LA. A physician turned mindfulness & compassion teacher, she trains teachers & teaches Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction (MBSR) & Mindful Self-Compassion to groups & individuals in the US & across Europe, as well as leading meditation retreats.

Sayadaw Vivekananda reflects on Patience….

By Sayadaw Vivekananda

Patience is a blessing to human beings and is the best moral practice.
–The Buddha (Mangala Sutta; Dhp. v. 184)

Patience leads to Nibbana
— Burmese saying

Patience is required in performing acts of generosity, in observing precepts, and in the field of mental development (bhavana).   In meditation when we observe a pain that is gradually intensifying we tend to get annoyed.  This annoyance may easily turn into irritation & restlessness.   We start fidgeting, we change our posture.  We might even ask ourselves: Why do we have to sit still in meditation & observe this pain?  This seems like a futile exercise.  With this we have just missed a wonderful opportunity to gain intuitive wisdom.  If we were to observe that same pain with some patience we could learn many things from it, such as seeing its inherent quality, its fascinating changes, and even its eventual dissolution.  When we are remembering some undesirable event of the past we may want to push it away & rather not observe it.  Once again, wisdom cannot arise.  Here, too, patience will make a big difference.  When we accept & observe the undesirable event of the past as an object of observation we get to know it, what it feels like in the mind, and eventually we might even come to terms with it.

Satipatthana mediation could be described as a process of developing ever greater levels of patience.  At the outset of our meditation journey we easily get impatient with undesirable, and times even desirable objects.  As the meditation practice is full of challenges this will give us ample opportunity to grow more & more patient.  After being very diligent for quite some time, on occasion our meditation practice may collapse.  At such a point again we need patience with the situation & just accept what has happened & start all over again.  Sooner or later, in the presence of mindfulness & patience, we are bound to succeed & gain nibbana.  Hence, the Burmese saying “Patience leads to Nibbana” very much applies to the meditation practice.

The patience gained from intensive or regular meditation at home will come in good stead in our daily life when we have to deal with the imperfections of ourselves & others.  Others’ speech may be timely or untimely, true or untrue, gentle or harsh, connected with good or with harm, spoken with a mind of loving-kindness or with inner hate.  Whatever others might be saying, we need to abide in patience, compassion, and loving-kindness.

In the context of the Abhidhamma patience & other positive mental qualities like loving-kindness, gentleness, and amity are various aspects of the mental state of non-hatred (adosa).  The commentary to the Cariyapitaka defines patience as follows: It has the characteristic of acceptance; its function is to endure the desirable & the undesirable; its manifestation is tolerance or non-opposition; seeing things as they really are is its proximate cause.  In the texts patience is much extolled as a blessing to human beings & as the best moral practice (Mangala Sutta; Dhp. v.184).

The Great Blessings of Our Precious Human Existence

By Marcia Rose

There’s an ancient teaching that I’ve heard many times over the years. Every time I’ve heard it & every time I’ve shared this teaching with others, I find something new, some aspect that re-inspires…some facet of fresh new beauty appears.

Each of you reading this article are in this moment experiencing the gift, protection & the grace…the great blessing of having obtained a precious human existence. It’s rare, this precious human existence…& especially rare from the standpoint of the Dhamma. Those who have a precious human existence with all the conditions, opportunities & blessings in place to have connected with & to be able to practice the Dhamma are as rare as daytime stars. Just being in a human body is actually a remarkably rare occurrence in light of the amazing variety & numbers of all the various life forms that inhabit this planet. Shariputta, one of the Buddha’s chief disciples, once asked the Buddha about the difference in numbers between humans & other living beings. The Buddha compared this to the dust on his fingernail versus the dirt of the whole earth.

It is great good fortune to have a human body. Our human body is the basis for practicing the Dhamma, the basis for crossing over the ocean of samsara to the side of liberation…crossing over to awakening out the sleep of confusion, sorrow & distress.

An ancient metaphor tells us that if all the world were water & a golden ring 2 feet in diameter was cast out upon this watery world to be blown about by the winds, a blind turtle surfacing once every 100 yrs. would put its neck through this ring more easily than it is for one to obtain a precious human existence. And yet here we are…what good Karma!

Cultivating the appropriately right motivation in relation to our Dhamma practice is strongly aided & supported by rejoicing in the fact that we have obtained a precious human birth & have decided to pursue the causes of happiness & not the causes of suffering. The great East Indian teacher Nisargadtha speaks about this as “being selfish in the right way”. Rejoicing in the fact that one is alive & connected to the Dhamma is truly a blessing that lightens the heart & helps to set a tone for practice that is one of the primary factors necessary for liberation…the heart/mind/ of joy.

The range of our precious human existence & capacity is varied & wide. Amidst all of the inevitable challenges & difficulties in our lives, along with all of the ordinary everyday pleasures & enjoyable experiences that we experience, as we all know, there can be more of one or the other during various periods along the way. Overall for most of us there is a mix & a balance as our lives unfold.

Early one morning years ago when I was in Benaris India, I heard someone singing beautiful BAJANS/devotional spiritual songs on a street corner. I looked around & found the singer… a young man with a very bright & beautiful face & a small deformed & twisted, but clean & fresh body. He was sitting on the ground singing his heart out. As I stood & listened, my heart was moved to meet his exquisite heartfelt expression. Every morning for the next few days I went to be with him… to listen & to receive the teachings & the energy of love, faith & devotion through the beauty of his voice & his being.

There is the possibility of deep strength & beauty of heart & mind within the great blessing of our precious human existence.

CLICK HERE to listen to Marcia’s full Dharma talk

FROM JANANESE ZEN POET NANAO SAKAKI:

“If you have time to chatter – read books
If you have time to read – walk into the mountain, desert, and ocean.
If you have time to walk – sing songs and dance.
If you have time to dance – sit quietly, you happy lucky idiot.”