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’.

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"

PEACE MEDITATION

A jungle must never be tamed.
If we tame the jungle, we tame our heart.
If our heart is tame, we may never know the truth of who we are.

Four of us met for sitting and walking meditation. We sat informally and practiced walking through the kitchen. The miracle of each step unfolded a mystery. What is this journey of meditation? What 'r' you doing here? Why come to Tuesday Night at all?
It seems all of us want to have peace. We think that peace means fitting in. We think that peace means looking and acting in such a way that doesn't cause anyone to be mad at us, or upset, or causes us to loose control. But what control do we have?

Mind is utterly untamable. Society, government wants us to be tame. That is because the collective has an idea that freedom means controlled, that to be free, is to be manageable. So we live our lives trying to be free in this way, trying to look and act in a way so others can manage us, so that we can manage others.

We are seeking control, but our very core is uncontrolled. How can we control something that is more powerful than us, something that is beyond our perception? Freedom is accepting what is. We go to the mountain, we go to the forest, we go to the ocean to meet our peace. Because in these places, these great places, we are so small, we cannot help but to submit, to converge, to swim in that untamable-ness. Peace, freedom, meditation, zen is not what you think it is. Try again.

Listen PEACE MEDITATION

SANGHA

Two things I keep in mind maintaining Tuesday Nights are My Teacher, Ven. Thich Nhat Hanh; and my aspiration to remove the barrier between self and other. What more can be said? When we come to sangha meetings we are ingesting that support, that love, that kindness, that commitment to learn and grow and foster understanding. Practicing alone we meet the sangha in us. No time can we say we are without sangha, if we truly understand what sangha is.

Lin and I spent a few days at the beach in Sothern California. I was tempted to not come home. I admit to getting angry. I admit to being sad, throwing a tantrum because we had to leave in order to get home in time for our Tuesday meeting. I felt a pull in my heart. I thought of my teacher, of the sixty years Thay has dedicated to building sangha, and of the commitment I've made as an ordained lay member of the Order of Interbeing Thay founded nearly four decades ago. What it means to take refuge in Buddha, in Dharma, in Sangha -- it means never to part from it. It means to come home to ourselves in it again and again, until the barrier, all barriers are removed.

I used to work so hard to practice thinking another round of retreats or sitting meditation would get me to enlightenment. Enlightenment is no destination at all. How can we attain that which is already our nature? Buddha, Dharma, Sangha and Self are one. I see no other looking back at me. I see no other showing me the way to be free. I sit because it is the expression of my sovereignty.

I was happy to be a part of our meeting this Tuesday for sitting and walking meditation. Seven of us met and recited the Five Mindfulness Trainings after chanting the Sutra Opening Verse and the Heart Sutra. We continued into introducing ourselves with one thing we were grateful for and singing as a group, "Happiness is Here and Now."

Looking forward to spending the month in Las Vegas, opening the door every Tuesday Night for Sangha. Plan to spend most of September and October touring around with Thay. Blessings Everyone!

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.