LOVE IS THE ULTIMATE

fri., SEPTEMBER 5 / 7-9 p.m. - Taking Refuge in the Sangha of Your Heart -

“Remember who you are, remember where you come from. Every in-breath is a time for waking up. Every out-breath is a time for letting go. Don’t hold back, ‘cause this is it. Return your mind to your body, return your heart to love.” -Brian Kimmel
excerpt from “Return to Love” available at CDBaby.

DEAR FRIENDS,

The greatest threat to America, to humanity may have already been realized. This morning I awoke with an awareness of intense anger and fear. We have been at war, not for just seven or eight years, we have been at war for many millennia, and may be at war for many more millennia to come if we are not aware, awake and clear in our vision of reality…Throughout human history those who have been called to, have walked on the path of kindness, humility, Great Compassion, love, joy and equanimity—not as soldiers, but as peacemakers, as friends to life and all living beings. I encourage every one of you to dismantle the bombs that are in your heart, and that are detonated within your daily life and in your relationships.

Love is the Ultimate. Never let your heart, your body, your mind, your world be filled with anger, hatred, anxiety, or despair—you may already be consumed. You may already have the virus of society embedded in you: Over-consumption, greed, lust for things more than what you need, and a disregard to the lives—human and other—that have been neglected or destroyed in order to provide you your “needs.” We may not have thought for a moment that what we have consumed or are consuming may have injured us, or may have caused harm to us, as an individual, and as a collective society.

Everyday we consume the fear that is in our heart. We fear being separated from our loved ones, we fear war, we fear not being liked, not being loved, and being under-appreciated; we fear bankruptcy, we fear not having enough food to eat and not enough clean water to drink and bathe in, we fear our desires, we fear the planet heating up, and we fear our own destruction. Maybe we can let some of our fear drop away, and begin to let ourselves be consumed with the energy of love. But what does love feel like? What does love contain?

In love, there is no-fear, and non-discrimination. Fear has already been realized, but fear, revenge, nuclear bombs, even a trillion dollars is not the Ultimate—Love is the Ultimate! The next president may not be able to save you unless you can save yourself. We watch movies about heroes, and have memories of wars in which America and the Allies saved a lot of people; we may expect our savior to come again to spare us from the world of hells.

My family may not have made it without the Allies, whom saved my grandmother and her immediate family from starvation, after having been imprisoned, then abandoned by the Japanese Forces in Indonesia during WWII. It was not only the Allies that saved her and my family, it was her love, her compassion for the Japanese Soldiers, whom also had a family to feed and protect that ultimately lead her to safety. She had to look into her heart to forgive, and to release herself from the bombs of anger within her. Her anger was killing her, even several years after the war, she struggled to survive. She had to stop putting her anger on those who imprisoned her, and to release her anger to God.

Millions of lives were destroyed, and taken hostage by the Allies during WWII as well. The big bombs America dropped weren’t just detonated on Japanese soil, on “enemy” territory they were detonated in the hearts of Americans, and on America’s soil too. In our deserts—millions of living beings were instantly destroyed, plants and minerals, and people subject to the poisoning of radiation during the tests of nuclear weapons prior to and post the dropping of the bombs in Nagasaki and Hiroshima. And we are still being poisoned, not just by nuclear fallout of test explosions in our deserts, but by our thoughts, by the conviction that there is something that can be called an enemy, and the thought that we should not be friends with those who cause us harm. Even for some on the peace movement those who cause us harm may include our government. Everyone is worthy of our love and no one should be remiss of our compassion.

You may want to hurt the person who hurt you. You may want to destroy the person or thing you think is the cause of your sorrow, your pain, your anger, and your despair. But looking deeply, your sorrow, your pain, your anger, your despair may be the one causing more harm to you—not the other person or thing.

I asked this morning to be released—for the fear, despair, greed, hatred, jealousy, and the obsession with finding someone or something to blame to be removed from my heart. I asked, “May I continue, with all beings, wholeheartedly, on the path of kindness, humility, generosity, sharing, compassionate listening, and deep looking. May I and all beings never return to the world of darkness, the world of hells, of forgetfulness again; may I be a servant to love, a messenger of light and awareness, life, resilience, and beauty.”

A Buddha, a Bodhisattva isn’t just a ball of light in the sky or phenomena on a heavenly altar somewhere above us, way beyond our reach. A Buddha, a Bodhisattva can be you. You can live in awareness, too. You can live awake and clear. You can open your reality to love, beauty, and never return to the reality you otherwise have known. Your true home is already inside of you. Flip the switch, turn on the light, and the Buddha in your heart can be liberated, born in this dimension within your daily life, and everything you touch, see, feel, taste, hear—everything you come in contact with through your body and mind will be a Buddha-Field.

Today’s Practice: Offering Incense

I offer this incense to all Buddhas and Bodhisattvas throughout space and time; may it be fragrant as the earth herself, reflecting our careful efforts, our wholehearted awareness and the fruit of understanding slowly ripening. May we and all beings be companions of Buddhas and Bodhisattvas; may we awaken from forgetfulness and realize our true home

TRUE LOVE

Goddesses in the house this Tuesday. Six and one made seven, plus two newly groomed cats. Walking downstairs to meet the Tuesday-nighters I never know what to expect. The mystery is exciting! It keeps me on my toes. And that's the practice...that's life. How can we ever know what to expect? When is there ever a time of certainty? True power is living in the moment, staying present with what is available in the here and now. And this is also love. When we love someone or something we are willing to go all the way with them, we are willing to stay as they are fading, and meet them in their continuation. Love does not make a distinction between self and other. That is an important practice-to remove our notions of self and other. When we are able to touch our interconnectedness, our oneness with all life--that is true power. That is true love. That is truly living. We are never absent from life, and we have the motivation, the assurance in our practice, in our way of being, in our way of walking and surrendering to life. We had a few questions at the end. And a version of the "Lord's Prayer" sung by Sister Beverlee. So beautiful! So precious. Life is truly a miracle. Thank you all for making this journey a pleasure and a joy.

Listen to "TRUE LOVE"

OPENING THE HEART OF COMPASSION

Three of us participated in our wonderful sangha events this Tuesday. We sat and walked together in mindfulness, and were guided during the second half through the practice anapanasati, Full Awareness of Breathing. We continued into chanting Sutra Opening Verse, Heart Sutra, and took turns mindfully reading The Store of Precious Virtues Discourse: Practice of the Highest Understanding. We concluded with a talk on the sixteen exercises of Full Awareness of Breathing and Stillness Meditation.

Listen to Opening the Heart of Compassion

ENVIRONMNETS FOR PEACE

This week seven people attended, some regulars, two new people and one not so regular anymore. We did our two sessions of sitting and walking followed by a sutra service including the recitation of the Discourse on the Lotus of the Wonderful Dharma: Universal Door Chapter. We each took turns reading four or five paragraphs it was sweet and wonderful. I lead a guided meditation on aspirations and gave a short talk in which I did not record on aspirations. About practicing from the heart, allowing the energy of the mind to drain like butter down your arms. To soften the mind, soften the body, soften the aspiration in the heart. An aspiration is like a key that opens the door of our consciousness, and with assurance, with obstacles removed we walk inside. How wonderful to have a sangha to practice with, to encourage this practice. Mindfulness is a searchlight that illumines the dark places in us, and in our lives, so that we can see more clearly, to unearth the root causes of our fear, anxiety, worry and strife. Practice from the heart.

CALMING THE WAR INSIDE

Have you noticed your in-breath and out-breath today? Tuesday goers met this Tuesday for two rounds of sitting and walking meditation. We recited the Heart Sutra and read the Sutra on the Eight Realizations of the Great Beings. Four of us attended: Bev, Lin, Tom and Me, and Mar joined us for the last half. I gave a Dharma Talk about "Zen and the Sacred Fire." My commitment is to allow at least two hours of contemplative practice a day. The value of spiritual practice, and of developing the spiritual life is becoming more and more apparent. The military is now recruiting at our local theaters...I don't want to be the next soldier to die in Iraq, or anywhere in the world, but I already am.

Most of us are inflicted with the wounds of this war, and all wars, but do not know it. It is not only costing the lives of living beings on the battlefield in the Middle East, but also the battlefield in our body and mind. I see war all over the place, the movies we watch, the T.V. programs, billboards, relationships, magazines, books...the energy we have spent on war is great, far surpassing the budget of the U.S. Defense Department, it is wearing down our spirit. If you are caught in anxiety, in fear, in worries, in anger, in jealousy, in despair, take a look, you may have the mark of war in you. I would like to be of the first generation of my family to not be threatened with having to fight a war outside. That possibility is waning everyday the war in Iraq and elsewhere progresses. I've just begun to touch the war inside. For so long I have been avoiding it. And how it has controlled me, made me victim to it, has trampled my peace, my love, my happiness.

Make little distinction between the war outside and the war inside, both mirror each other, both feed each other. Peace is available, but to have peace, we cannot close our eyes to the countless victims of this war. Inside and Outside do not make a difference. Fight the war inside. Cultivate Love, Happiness, Deep Looking. Look until you cry. Look until you face the demons inside eye to eye. Look until you see that you are not alone in this work of love, and that just one time of looking, can save the lives of countless beings. Pray for peace by living peace, by becoming the message and the messenger.

If you would like to join me in the commitment to practice, we can do this through our blog or through making more times to practice together and support each other as a sangha. Feel free to e-mail times you will be able to commit to practice peace. This is time for you. You clear off your schedule to meditate and pray. Your prayer may be a prayer of action as long as it brings you joy, and as long as it cultivates love. I recommend at least an hour of meditation and prayer everyday. It is not unusual to not fit spiritual practice into your daily life. It is true that our life can be our practice. But the pressures of our world seem overwhelming. And we need a time to listen to ourselves. The noises are great in our head. It is the voice of the heart we often neglect, and that is not the voice we hear usually at our neighborhood shopping center, or in our place of employment. This is a dedication to listen.

E-mail me with a time you can set aside everyday, it can vary from day to day as long as you have made yourself wholeheartedly available. Then start practicing. Don't wait for a gathering, the sangha is in you, and you can receive our support whenever you need it. I will keep a log and check-in personally with you as much as I can. Feel free to post a comment about your practice on this blog as well. All you have to do is press the little comment link below the posting. It will take you to a page that gives you an option 'Post a Comment'.

Here's the link to the talk I gave...I hope it works!
http://www.briankimmel.com/audio/-HOUSE_OF_LOVE-2.m3u