A personal blog by a graying (mostly Anglo with light African-American roots) gay left leaning liberal progressive married college-educated Buddhist Baha'i BBC/NPR-listening Professor Emeritus now following the Dharma in Minas Gerais, Brasil.
Look
at every part of the body in detail. Or look at its elementary
properties. Exactly where are you in any of those things? There’s no you
in there at all.
This month we added 20 more VIDEOS to our growing library of dharma talks. Between now and the end of the year, we will post 20 more videos each month.
On the GBF website. Each
talk has its own page where the audio and video are posted along with a
summary. Here are links directly to those most recently added:
However the seed is
planted, in that way the fruit is gathered. Good things come from doing
good deeds; bad things come from doing bad deeds. (SN 11.10) What is the
purpose of a mirror? For the purpose of reflection. So too social
action is to be done with repeated reflection. (MN 61)
A person is content with any clothing they may get, speaks in praise of
such contentment, and does not try to obtain these things in improper or
unsuitable ways. Not getting these things, one does not worry, and
getting them one makes use of them without being greedy, obsessed, or
infatuated, observing such potential dangers and wisely aware of how to
escape them. (AN 4.28)
Reflection
Just as we
practiced cultivating contentment in regard to food last month, today we
are invited to work with our relationship to clothing. Discontent is a
persistent cause of social discord, and contentment contributes to
people getting along with one another. If we envy what other people have
or yearn for something we don’t have, the seeds of unhappiness are sown
and watered. Such suffering is unnecessary.
Daily Practice
We are not
being asked here to have disdain for fashion, or taste, and it is not
suggested that what we wear does not matter at all. As with so many
other aspects of our lives, we are being invited here to examine the
relationship we have with ordinary things such as the clothing we wear.
It is healthy and helpful to focus more on what we have than on what we
want and to avoid the pitfalls of becoming greedy, obsessed, or
infatuated.
Tomorrow: Abstaining from Intoxication One week from today: Reflecting upon Bodily Action
Share your thoughts and join the conversation on social media #DhammaWheel
The
Buddha, in his radiant enlightenment and benevolence, not only welcomed
everyone onto the path but also proclaimed that each of us—irrespective
of gender, class, or background—holds the innate potential for
enlightenment.
Not-self (anatman),
one of Buddhism’s three marks of existence, tells us that there is no
unchanging, permanent self. No one has a fixed or independent identity.
Rather, each of us is a result of causes and conditions, and what we may
think of as a solid self is constantly changing and interdependent on
these similarly ever-changing causes and conditions. We exist in
relation to everything and everyone around us. From this Buddhist
perspective, we don’t have relationships; we are relationships.
Acknowledging dependence on others may be uncomfortable for some, but as psychoanalyst and Zen teacher Barry Magid says,
by opening up to others and accepting our reliance on them, we open up
to ourselves. Vulnerability invites us to hold space for emotions and
truths, even difficult ones, that arise within us.
Counterintuitive as it may seem, vulnerability, Magid says, is freeing.
“As long as we are afraid of feeling vulnerable, our defenses will kick
in to try to get life under control, to manipulate ourselves or other
people. But instead of either controlling or sequestering our feelings,
we can learn to both contain and feel them fully.”
As meditation teacher and author Tara Brach points out, we are all
vulnerable, and embracing this “shared vulnerability” breaks down
unnecessary walls. Ultimately, it gives rise to compassion.
This week’s Three Teachings welcomes vulnerability in life and practice, with each other and with ourselves.
Psychoanalyst
and Zen teacher Barry Magid discusses the value of vulnerability—of
opening up to each other and our emotions—even though it can,
understandably, put us on edge.
Meditation
teacher, author, and activist Lama Rod Owens says, “Vulnerability is
the development of empathy for ourselves.” Referencing his personal
experience, he explains how vulnerability can lead to compassion.
Meditation
teacher and author Tara Brach reflects on the potential of
unconditional acceptance to lower the walls in our hearts and let the
light shine through.