The making of Walk With Me

Via Lionsroar: Now Is the Time to Stand Up: Practicing the Dharma in Uncertain Times, Part 2

An ordained tree in Thailand. Photo by Peter Hershey.

After the election of Donald Trump, Lion’s Roar shared a new teaching by Jack Kornfield, called “Practicing the Dharma Uncertain Times.” Now, Jack follows up with second, more action-oriented installment of post-election guidance and encouragement.

As long as a society holds regular and frequent assemblies, meeting in harmony and mutual respect, can they be expected to prosper and not decline.
As long as a society follows the long held traditions of wisdom, and honors its elders, can they be expected to prosper and not decline.
As long as a society protects the wives and daughters and vulnerable among them, can they be expected to prosper and not decline.
As long as a society cares for the shrines and sacred places of the natural world, can they be expected to prosper and not decline.
—Mahaparinirvana Sutta (a text of Buddha’s last teachings)

Whatever your political perspective, now is the season to stand up for what matters. To stand against hate. To stand for respect. To stand for protection of the vulnerable. To care for the natural world.

Do not believe that meditation and contemplation are the fulfillment of the Buddhist Path. Inner peace, freedom and joy develop only when paired with the outer teachings of virtue, respect and mutual care. The foundation of Dharma is relational, built on generosity, virtue and loving-kindness. 

The Path to human happiness and liberation requires Right Intention, intentions that are free from greed, hatred and cruelty; Right Speech, speech that is true and helpful, not harsh, not vain, slanderous nor abusive; and Right Action, actions that are free from causing harm, killing, stealing and sexual exploitation.

In his life, the Buddha intervened to try to stop wars. He counseled kings and ministers, and guided those around him with teachings of peace and respect. In modern times, Maha Ghosananda of Cambodia joined the United Nations peace process and led years of peace walks of loving-kindness through the war zones and killing fields of Cambodia. Thai abbots have taken their robes and ordained the oldest trees as elders of the forest to protect whole ecosystems from logging. Burmese monks and nuns marched in the streets to protect citizens from the harsh military dictatorship. A.T. Ariyaratne in Sri Lanka enlisted hundreds of thousands in a 500-year peace plan. Vietnamese, Chinese and Tibetan monastics have stood up for peace, justice and compassion, even immolating themselves to stop the harmful actions around them.

Gandhi explains, “Those who say spirituality has nothing to do with politics do not know what spirituality really means.”

This is not about red or blue. It is about standing up for the most basic of human principles, for moral action and the prevention of harm. It is embodying Dharma amidst the troubles of the world.

You are not alone. You have generations of ancestors at your back. You have the blessing of interdependence and community. You have the great trees of the forest as steadfast allies. You have the turning of the seasons and the renewal of life as your music. You have the vast sky of emptiness to hold all things graciously.

With peacefulness and mutual respect, our Buddhist communities can become centers of protection and vision.

You have been training for this for a long time. With practice you have learned to quiet the mind and open the heart. You have learned emptiness and interdependence. Now it is time to step forward, bringing your equanimity and courage, wisdom and compassion to the world. The Bodhisattva shows the way to alleviate suffering amidst it all.

As Zen master Thich Nhat Hanh explains, “When the crowded Vietnamese refugee boats met with storms or pirates, if everyone panicked all would be lost. But if even one person on the boat remained calm and centered, it was enough. It showed the way for everyone to survive.”

Since the election, storms of uncertainty and fear have arisen. It is time to collectively stand up, calm and clear. With peacefulness and mutual respect, our Buddhist communities can become centers of protection and vision.

Protection can take many forms. Protection can be providing sanctuary for those in danger. Protection can be skillfully confronting those whose actions would harm the vulnerable among us. Protection can be standing up for the environment. Protection can be becoming an active ally for those targeted by hate and prejudice.

Vision means carrying the lamp of the Dharma. It means standing up for the truth—no matter what:
“Hatred never ceases by hatred, but by love alone is healed.”

“Greed, Hate and Ignorance create suffering. Generosity, Love and Wisdom bring happiness.”
“Mind is the forerunner. Speak and act with a pure mind and happiness will follow.”
“Plant seeds of goodness, and well-being will grow.”

Now a time of change has come.

We must listen deeply, bear witness, honor everyone, and choose our actions wisely and courageously.

Do not worry if the Right Action is not yet clear to you.

Wait in the unknowing with mindfulness and a clear heart.

Soon the right time will come and you will know to stand up.

I will meet you there.

This piece was originally published on SpiritRock.org.

Today in "There is hope for this planet, yet"

Via Sri Prem Baba

Via Daily Dharma / December 6, 2016: Should We Become Monks?

If you are really practicing all the time, then it makes no difference whether you are monk or not. Being a monk is just a way of helping you do that.

—Matthieu Ricard, "Released from All Bounds"

Via Sri Prem Baba

Via Daily Dharma / December 5, 2016: Finding Your Place on the Path

There is humility in the act of pilgrimage, akin to the act of bowing; you’re surrendering your own path to follow where others have gone before. It puts you in place, in that sense, and your intentions in perspective.

—Pico Iyer, "The Long Road to Sitting Still"

Via Ram Dass

 

 

So what do I do? I do my best, but I give up the fruit of the action. If I don't know what's supposed to happen, it's probably better if I don't get to attached to one particular outcome. I listen to hear what my next step should be. I do my acts in the best way I can. And how it comes out...well, that's just how it comes out. Interesting, nothing more. It's a matter of letting go of expectations.

Via Sri Prem Baba

Via Daily Dharma / December 4, 2016: A Clouded Reality

If we indulge the human propensity to understate, exaggerate, and alter facts for whatever comfort or false security a lie might accord us, we forfeit our capacity to see reality clearly, and see only a world of our own invention.

—Lin Jensen, "Right Lying"

Via Sri Preem Baba

Andreas Vollenweider - The Glass Hall

Via Daily Dharma / December 3, 2016: Breaking Habits

Through repeated meditation practice, we can build awareness of our existing mental habits. With awareness, there is space—allowing us to interrupt habitual response patterns and bring intention to our responses, choosing to form a different association. —Wendy Hasenkamp, "Brain Karma"

Via Ticycle: Turkey, Cranberry Sauce, Death

Zen priests and partners Robert Chodo Campbell and Koshin Paley Ellison talk about the importance of having meaningful conversations about what we want out of our life (and death).

 

By Wendy Joan Biddlecombe

Nov 23, 2016

The third Buddhist Contemplative Care Symposium was held at the Garrison Institute earlier this month, bringing together 170 caregivers and healthcare practitioners for the weekend-long event to discuss ways to make sure patients’ wishes are kept in mind as they navigate the dying process.
Tricycle’s web editor, Wendy Joan Biddlecombe, sat down with conference organizers Robert Chodo Campbell and Koshin Paley Ellison, co-founders of the New York Zen Center for Contemplative Care, which offers the only accredited contemplative-based chaplaincy program in the U.S. Their book, Awake at the Bedside: Contemplative Teachings on Palliative and End-of-Life Care, was released by Wisdom Publications in April and is in its third printing.

Here’s what Chodo and Koshin had to say when asked if the holidays are the appropriate time to have the tough conversations about what we want out of our life (and death): 

Koshin: Now is always a good time for meaningful conversations.

Chodo: Death is always present. It doesn’t stop for the holidays. But I wouldn’t necessarily raise the topic over Thanksgiving dinner or Christmas lunch unless there was someone in our presence transitioning toward death. In that case, then I would want everyone in the room to be open to a conversation. Because why would we be sitting around and bullshitting and not talking about what’s in front of us?
So I don’t think it should be barred from the holidays, but it’s also not something I’d put on the menu in particular: turkey, cranberry sauce, death.

Koshin: One of the things that’s particular about this symposium is that we’re gathering together to share the challenges and joys of being with people in their death process. Most of the people here are not clinicians—75 percent of end-of-life care comes from family members and friends. How do we have the meaningful conversations that make our wishes known, and how do we allow ourselves to really be open to these conversations? Have you told everyone you love that you love them? Are there people in your life who are you most grateful to? Who haven’t you told that you love them or are grateful to them? Are there relationships you would like to repair? What are you waiting for? It’s amazing that we don’t often take these risks because of our own nervousness or distractedness.

Chodo: Speaking of the holidays, a great party or after-dinner game would be to have everyone write down the five most important people in their life.
Koshin: And why.

Chodo: And why. Who is the person you could call at three o’clock in the morning if you really needed something? Most of us don’t have five people. We might get one or two.
Koshin: Who would drop everything to show up for you.

Chodo: And that can be quite shocking: “Wow, I need to tend to my relationships. I need to write more, call more.”

Koshin: Those relationships are like the refuge of sangha. We live in a time where isolation is one of the greatest indicators of morbidity and early death.

Chodo: It could be simply looking around the table and thinking, “Yeah, no, yeah, no. Maybe, yeah, no. Yeah, definitely”—those are the people that are important to me in my life.

Koshin: It’s also who you don’t want to be there. Because when we have very little time, seeing certain people can be too complicated, too charged, too traumatic. It’s important to just be able to know who you don’t want to be there and if you want to address that relationship . . . or not. Our practice is to investigate everything.

Read Robert Chodo Campbell’s essay, “Death is Not an Emergency,” from Awake at the Bedside

Via Sri Prem Baba

Via Daily Dharma / December 2, 2016: Learning to Learn

Don’t follow the old masters’ footsteps,
seek what they sought.
To learn about pine trees, go to the pine tree;
to learn of the bamboo, study bamboo.

—Basho, "Basho as Teacher"

Via Bill Maher Fanpage / FB:

Via Daily Dharma / December 1, 2016: Self-Actualization

To study the way of enlightenment is to study the self. To study the self is to forget the self. To forget the self is to be actualized by myriad things.

—Eihei Dogen Zenji, "Actualizing the Fundamental Point"

Via Ram Dass

 

 

Ramakrishna said, "Only two kinds of people can attain to self-knowledge: those whose minds are not encumbered at all with learning - that is to say, not overcrowded with thoughts borrowed from others - and those who, after studying all the scriptures and sciences, have come to realize that they know nothing."

That last part is when the jnana yoga path is really working, because the "know nothing" is the next step in this trip. You learn and you learn and you learn until you realize that with all you've learned, you don't know anything - and that's the route through. You use your intellectual models to get you going - they're really helpful for that - but you don't cling to the models; you keep letting go of them, letting go of the intellectual structures. Otherwise they get in your way.