WE INTER-ARE

Breathing in, I observe the disappearance of desire.
Breathing out, I observe the disappearance of desire.

Everything comes and goes. And yet, there is no coming, no going. We live both in the phenomenal and the absolute. That which never dies is present in the wave, and in the ocean. The ocean is part of the wave. The wave is not separate from the ocean.

When we get caught in the forms of things, we are identified by the phenomenal world. When we get caught in the ocean, we are identified by the absolute, and cannot see the magnificence of all creation. We have to stop our thinking in terms of pairs of opposities, in terms of higher or lower, leftists and rightists, beggars and elitists. The old adage says, "To each his own."

And the Buddha is known to have said, "Be a light unto yourself." We can only see with our own eyes, hear with our own ears, taste with our own tongue...Our experience of life is completely unique. There is a quality of sharing in the way we experience life, however. At the same time we know that not everyone thinks the same way we do (no one really does), so in our relating we have to consider another's point of view in order to get along, in order to live peacefully with that person.

If we are caught in our identity of self, of phenomena, we will not see the beauty of our interconnectedness. If we are caught in our identity as the cosmos, as the absolute, we then will not develop our basic understanding of how to relate to the whole. Our experience needs to be our own in order for it to be real, for us to have the depth and clarity, and wisdom to love.

When we get in touch with our impermanence, the way things won't ever stay the same, can't ever stay the same, we get in touch with our true nature. If we know that what we have been basing our life upon will not last, we open our heart to something greater than what we can ever be alone. Even though we can't ever be ourselves alone.

One poem I've liked from Thay inspired by Thay's teacher, and from the Diamond Sutra:

Defiled or Immaculate, increasing or decreasing, these concepts exist only in our minds. The reality of interbeing is unsurpassed.

I have recited this verse quite often while sitting on the toilet. It has also been useful in other times of meditation as well. There is something so great and powerful in the understanding that comes through meditation, or looking deeply into oneself.

Understanding really isn't reached through thought, through grasping. Understanding comes through letting go. Understanding is the opening of the heart, the blooming of the lotus, the revealing of the Buddha Field within you. When that opening occurs, there is no more anger, no more sadness, no more regret. There is pure love, pure awakening, pure insight into the heart of reality. This understanding is unvanquishable.

Practicing meditation is simple, and needs to be simple. Sometimes we can get caught up in all the fancy words, the fancy techniques, in all the humdrum of the Dharma-World. Buddhist, Hindu, Muslim, Jewish, Christian, doesn't make much difference. Everybody has their own method, and needs to find the way all on their own. Essentially, the moment of birth and death is upon you. Your actions, your thoughts, your emotions resonate with each other. What you will, is yours. But it won't be manifest by force.

Meditation is letting go of what it is that you desire, and making space within yourself, unvailing the space within yourself. We think there is something we can add to our lives by way of demanding change. Change happens, it is our basic nature. Much more than change is our fundamental Truth, our beingness, our wholeness, our oneness. There is nothing really separate from what we are. We inter-are. All life is a part of the cosmos. The cosmos is a part of all life.

HOW TO LIGHTEN UP!

Thay has offered a most wonderful training to help us with the conflicts we face in ourselves and in the world. It is a simple practice that has been handed down from the Buddha. It is the practice of mindful breathing. Whenever you are tired, you are sad from things you hear on the news or read in the paper, whenever you feel stressed in relationships, you feel angry and irritable, you are invited to return to your breathing. The simple practice is:

Breathing in, I know I am breathing in.
Breathing out, I know I am breathing out.

Breathing in, I feel calm.
Breathing out, I feel at ease.

Breathing in, I smile.
Breathing out, I release all worries, tension and anxiety.

I have underestimated the power of this simple practice. You know those times when someone says something or does something and you just want them to shut up, and you feel guilty and ashamed for thinking such things? Or those times when you hear really terrible news, and your energy suddenly drops, you feel depressed and you don't know what to do? These are the times to put into practice this short meditation.

No matter where you are, what you are doing, this will help you return. We don't need another depressed person, another anxious, worried face. We need compassion. Compassion is the courage to be ourselves in any situation, and to meet ourselves, even through trials, with the conviction that love and peace and centeredness is the most important thing. If we lose our peace, our love, our calm, we lose touch with the ultimate and the impermanence of things. And the hells in which we are working to save people from will become our reality. Then we are hungry ghosts in need of recovery, in need of helping arms to rescue us from suffering. All of us can practice this peace, this love. We don't need to suffer to help relieve the suffering in others. Our own freedom from suffering is the best gift we can offer those who are in need. Practice peace, love and equanimity.

WHAT CAN WAIT?

Making an effort to stay sane this summer in Las Vegas? With the heat and the craziness out there it may be no surprise when practitioners from all over the valley, and visitors from afar flock to Tuesday Nights for a bit of peace and relaxation. It may be surprising to you when you come to Tuesday Nights that the facilitator may point you to yourself. That self that is supposedly empty of self. What makes mindfulness meditation feel so good? What makes the joy of returning to the island within so remarkable? What the busyness, the stress, the ambitions of the world cannot show you is that life needs no important things to happen in order to manifest. Life needs a few simple things: The care of the body, the care of the mind and it will continue. Everything else is to occupy, is to fill up the space. With mindfulness meditation space is peace. Space is freedom. Space is the relaxation you were looking for. So come, enjoy. Step out of the rat race. Feel like a human being again, and much, much more.

TRUE TEACHING, TRUE TEACHER

Speaking of "I's" and "We's" we don't often realize how much the practice means to us. Sometimes we come to Tuesday Night or other events, and during meditation or the Dharma Lecture we fall asleep, or nod off lazily into a dream-state. Those are the most crucial moments, the places that the teaching is really sinking in, where it really becomes a teaching. There really isn't anything we can share about Dharma. Dharma is what comes out of your own understanding, your own insight, your own awakening. So when you drift off during the talk, it means it's penetrating, it's absorbing directly into the subconscious, into store-conscious, where ego mind will not have the chance to put a label on it, to put another appearance on it, and what has been said is a clear transmission, one mind to another mind, all minds one.

The practice can save your life. Those times we disregard what has been said, or we make light of it by telling jokes, making judgements, or saying, "I've heard that already!" Perhaps this misunderstanding comes from ignorance, of not having a direct experience with the power of mindfulness, concentration and insight. When applied, these teachings, these true teachings will empower you, without even thinking, without even trying. You'll hear my voice, or Thay's voice speaking through you, "Listen, listen. I have arrived. I am home. In the here. In the now. I am solid. I am free. The world is your meditation hall. Your life is the practice."

The cells of your body will chant the Heart Sutra. Sitting by the side of someone you love whom is dying or is sick you feel the solidity of the sangha, and it makes itself available. The sangha body in you will support you, will walk when you cannot walk, will sit when you cannot sit, will smile when you cannot smile, and will tenderly embrace you when you are crying or need of comfort.

We don't know the power of sangha. We don't know the power of the True Teaching. It cannot be taught. It cannot be grasped. It is beyond what we can administer through the senses. And it is alive. It is vital. It is clear, penetrating every cell of our body, enfused in our heart and our consciousness.

It is amazing how many times we struggle to embrace the sangha within us. We don't want to see the support we have in our lives. We want to continue on this path of anger, revenge, resentment, even hatered, jeolousy and fear. We proclaim through our actions, "Waking up is not for me! I'd rather be sleep-walking, sleep-talking, sleep-making love." And we look in despair at our lives, "What is going on? Why can't I be happy? Where has my energy gone?" We don't look at our lives and wonder, "Maybe I'm responsible for my own suffering. Maybe I've contributed a great deal to the suffering on this planet. Maybe there is something I can do better?"

Guilt and shame is a product of delusive-self. It points us to the other, as if the other isn't a part of us. It points to the other as if they can take full responsibility for who we are, what we have said, what we have done. If you have guilt and shame, it is a wonderful teaching. If you want change in your world...change! Be that which you desire, and what you desire will manifest in you.

EMPTINESS IS EVERYTHING

Six last week we talked about the fourth mindfulness training: Loving Speech and Deep Listening. Haven't taken the chance to post the talks...last Tuesdays nor the talk on Saturday. Perhaps we can practice Deep Listening this week...looking forward to meeting with you all. No meeting next Tuesday...four of us will be in New York with Thay for "Sitting Under the Autumn Breeze Retreat." Thanks for the memories!

TODAY'S GARBAGE, TOMORROW'S FOOD

Six this week, sat and walked two sessions facing the wall. Read the Third Mindfulness Training, and talked about sex and sexuality. Tough topic! Most just skim over it, and get into all kinds of troubles because they don't know how to handle it, with kindness, with respect, with reverence. We sorted through and addressed some heavy issues. I attempted to tell the story of where I am with the Third Training. Difficult things to say, to put into words. We talked about the three vital energies and how each apply to well being: Breath Energy, Sexual Energy and Spiritual Energy. We also talked about sexual abuse, and what it means to prevent children and others from being sexually abused. What is sexual abuse? What are we really a victim of?

Breathing in, aware of my in-breath
Breathing out, calm mind and body

Meditation isn't a practice at all. It is doing without purpose. Doing without self. Doing without doing. If there is nothing to do, then what can be done? And who shall do it? Practice means tomorrow. Meditation is today. This moment is "arising only." Don't be fooled by the myriad of colors projecting. BE THERE, AND ONLY THERE!

MINDFUL ANECDOTE

One day at the monastery I was asked to sing a song in front of the Sangha of about two-hundred retreatants. I had never sung in front of the Sangha before. Thay Phap Hai (Who I would ask to be my mentor several months later) called me up in front to sing in the microphone. I whispered to him, "Can you sound the bell so I can calm down?" He looked at me and grinned, "Sorry."

I had to resort to myself. My breathing. My practice. So I stood there patiently. Breathing in a calming breath, and releasing the fire back to its source on the out breath. And I waited for the song to sing itself.

This is the practice. We want always to be the doers. And when we are asked to do something, we don’t feel we have the calm, or the lucidity to perform. So we procrastinate. We deviate from the path thinking that the path is somewhere else, other than within our own means.

Mindfulness is the path. Is the awakening itself. Seek it within you. Seek it outside of you. Seek it, and it will be there. It is always there. Where it comes from? I don’t know. Just use it. Learn with it. Grow with it. Use it to transform your suffering, your anger, your anxiety, your worries, your pain.

How to use it...come to Tuesday Nights!

Lin and I sat for two periods of sitting and walking meditation, then watched a DVD about Thay’s trip to Vietnam called ‘Every Step Is a Prayer’.