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We can put it all down. I wonder what would happen, how it would feel, how it would be, if we dropped everything.  Like Japan’s greatest Zen Master, Dogen Zenji, said 800 years ago –  like a stick of incense on the altar that has burned down and still just has the shape of a stick, but it’s just ashes.  And then phhhhht back into the flower pot or incense holder.  Just drop everything.  He says, drop body and mind and then sense beingness – what Kant called ‘ens’ – if we must translate ‘being’.  Drop everything, drop body and mind, speech.  Drop into it.  … What is being without ‘me’ and ‘mine’? It’s like a gold mine.  It’s like a kryptonite mine to the super-ego. Ahhhhhhh.  How sweet it is!
Lama Surya Das ~ Meditation Town Hall – July 10, 2022

May the beleaguered people of Tibet,
All those who are oppressed,
Be eased, be freed,
Be liberated.

May all in this country, the Baltic, the Black Sea area,
Southeast Asia, those who are in developing countries,
The poor and starving, which could be the majority of this world,
The violence, hatred, selfishness, cruelty, meanness, recede
And the Bodhisattva, bodhicitta heart, rise, shine
Like the ever-rising, great Eastern Sun of Awakefulness.
Of Awakening, ever-rising rays, sun, rigpa.
Peace, harmony, shanti.

May it be so.
From our mouths to Buddha’s ears,
As they say.
Emaho!

How fortunate we are!  We get to do this life.  We get to do what we are doing right now.  It’s inherently meaningful, beautiful, and purposeful. Let’s just be aligned with ourself, our body.  Sit up straight. Not over-thinking.  Not looking out the window like kids at school waiting to go out and play. Gaze into the window of emptiness and recognize your true nature. Come home to yourSelf.  Just sitting, just breathing, just being present and awakeful.  Mindful rather than mindless.  Atuned. Aligned.  Come home to ourselves – just being.  We already are! 

What do we have to do to be?  … Just breathe, relax and smile.  Arrive here and now.  Unadulterated, undivided attention is the essence of contemplative practices, as Simone Weil said..  This moment only moment.  Just this much, as my Thai teacher, Ajahn Chah said. Dig it.

During his last teaching time at Sivananda Ashram Yoga Retreat in the Bahamas, Lama Surya Das discussed unity in diversity, and finding the “one” in the “many.” This helps us to see others in ourselves, contributing to a peaceful existence. He also shared stories about renowned spiritual guru Neem Karoli Baba and his first-hand experiences.

“Take a breath. Step off the wheel of samsara, the vicious conditioning, the treadmill.  Stepping off the gerbil wheel.  Breathing, relaxing, smiling.  ….  Let’s find the inner balance, have some ballast in our ship, our great vehicle, our Mahayana.  Ballast in the belly of our ship, in the hull, by letting go and letting be just for now.” ~ Lama Surya Das

“Om Shanti, Shanti, Peace. …It’s good to find refuge, something to rely on, solace, beyond this saha world, so tenuous, so bubbly, so fickle, like a dewdrop. Finding something reliable. In Buddhism we call it ‘taking refuge’, finding a port in the storm of samsara, of confusion and delusion. Something to rely on – the higher power, the inner power.  We have our higher power in Buddhism too – don’t think we don’t – Awareness – with a capital A+. Awareness, cosmic consciousness, beyond mere thoughts. We can find this within.  Just Being.  Peace.  Harmony.  Inclusiveness.  You can find that in Being with a capital B+.  Being is primary – upstream from doing and becoming.  So just sitting, relaxing, being.” ~ Lama Surya Das

“Spirit is sovereign, the Dharma is timeless and boundaryless. … So grateful and fortunate to be able to take refuge, to know there is something more than the sunlight and shadow of the many mountain peaks of the vacillating graph of our outer and worldly life. That there’s a deeper source of refuge, solace, reliance. Refuge means reliable, not relying on the impermanent things of this world, outer things or inner vacillations, the vagaries of experience.  We can be deeper people, live in our spiritual center.  Where is our spiritual center?  (And I don’t mean the address or what town it’s in.)  Can we find alignment?  Can we stop and take a breath? Step off the treadmill of conditioning, staggering forward under the moment, the baggage, as if life is a to-do list. Tune more into being. Can we ever just stop and just Be?  … When I take a breath and drop everything and just Be, that’s taking refuge in the Buddha.”
~ Lama Surya Das, Meditation Town Hall, April 3, 2022

“Who do we think we are, how long ago did we form up that opinion?… Who do we think we are and what are we stuck with? Maybe we could check the ‘screen,’ reboot, and refresh. I’m sure there are some commands on here that could re-enlighten. Look into the Dzogchen tradition – Erik Schmidt has Tulku Urgyen Rinpoche talking about re-enlightenment. Buddha-nature is already perfect and pure from the beginning, but we need to be re-enlightened. Not just wait for enlightenment. Maybe we can notice our frozen-ness, our habits, our dazed-ness – just staring at the ‘screen.’ We’re all like wooly mammoths frozen in attachment and fixation, rather than in the flow. The ever-flowing flow, the Great Flow, the Tao, the Impermanence. Time and Space so relative. Our own perceptions, experience, interpretations, so subjective. Maybe when you think you’re frozen in time, you can reboot, refresh!”
~Excerpt from Lama Surya Das’ Sunday Meditation Town Hall, March 27, 2022