“It is important to sit with the clear intention to be present. At the same time, we need to let go of expectations. In a very real sense, what happens when we sit is none of our business. The practice is to accept whatever arises instead of trying to control our experience. What we can control is our wise effort to be present with what is.”

- Narayan Liebenson Grady from “The Refuge of Sitting”
Read more at Tricycle.com

For many people who desire to learn meditation, it’s a struggle. Having a community of fellow practicioners can be essential, which is why sitting groups like the Meditation Circle of Charleston can be helpful. Yet it’s also highly helpful in this interconnected day and age to have regular support and reminders a click away. Which is why we encourage any beginning meditators or folks trying to revive and revitalize their sitting practice to join the online community around the Buddhist magazine Tricycle.

The month of February is Meditation Month at Tricycle.com, so we pass on the e-mail note we got in today’s e-mailbox and encourage you to consider signing up and bolstering your practice. You can do so at Tricycle.com — you can join for free but joining for $25 gets you access to all the premium offerings on the website and $30 gets you the print magazine at your home, too. And, no, we are not being slipped free meditation cushions to thump for Tricycle. The online site has been a help to both Thad and I and may be an aid to your own practice. | Douglas

A Message to All members of the Tricycle Community:

People often say to us, “I’d like to meditate, but I don’t know where to start.” We’ve heard this from college students, business people, passengers on the subway, and family members. Usually, we might offer some words of wisdom, such as the old meditator’s saw: Start where you are. Good advice, to be sure, but perhaps a bit too cryptic for a beginner looking for specifics. That’s why this month’s theme on tricycle.com is establishing and maintaining a meditation practice. With this quarter’s e-book, Tricycle Teachings: Meditation, we offer you heart advice and practical tips that will help you to stick with your practice. It’s not meant for hermits and yogis, but for lay people like us who aspire to apply Buddhist wisdom in their busy everyday lives. For the beginner, this e-book will help explain what meditation is about and why you should bother to try it at all (there are more benefits than you might guess!). Experienced meditators will appreciate the depth and nuance of the various techniques and traditions presented here.

In addition to the meditation e-book, we have meditation and yoga teacher Jill Satterfield leading an online retreat (“Meditation in Motion”), Zen teacher Brad Warner taking questions as the “Meditation Doctor,” as well as guided meditations from Tricycle’s wisdom collection and retreat archives.

“Getting to Know the Breath” is the ongoing theme for 2012 we’ll be considering in the weekly 6 p.m. Tuesday gatherings of the Meditation Circle of Charleston at the Unitarian Universalist Congregation building in Charleston, W.Va. In past weeks. Thad and I have mentioned some of the core teachings of the Buddha on breath-centered meditation. We are not qualified to teach suttas, but we’re all qualified to absorb and discuss them as they relate to our ongoing lay meditation practice.

To that end, we encourage Circle members and others to take a dip into the Buddha’s direct teachings on meditation instruction in the following suttas (We’re borrowing these links and their descriptions with our thanks from the Washington D.C. Buddhist Studies Group).

• MN 10 Satipatthana Sutta: Establishing Mindfulness aka The Foundations of Mindfulness, The Frames of Reference. or
• DN 22 Mahasatipatthana Sutta: Is approximately identical with a fuller description of the Four Noble Truths.
• MN 118 Anapanasati Sutta: Mindfulness of Breathing.

One day the world looks so beautiful; the next day it looks terrible. How can you say that? Scientifically, it’s impossible that the world can change so radically. It’s your mind that causes these appearances. This is not religious dogma; your up and down is not religious dogma. I’m not talking about religion; I’m talking about the way you lead your daily life, which is what sends you up and down. Other people and your environment don’t change radically; it’s your mind. I hope you understand that. Similarly, one person thinks that the world is beautiful and people are wonderful and kind, while another thinks that everything and everyone is horrible. Who is right? How do you explain that scientifically? It’s just their individual mind’s projection on the sense world. You think, “Today is like this; tomorrow is like that; this man is like this; that woman is like that.” But where is that absolutely fixed, forever-beautiful woman? Who is that absolutely forever-handsome man? They are nonexistent-they are simply creations of your own mind …

No matter which of the many world religions we consider, their interpretation of God or Buddha and so forth is simply words and mind; these two alone. Therefore, words don’t matter so much. What you have to realize is that everything-good and bad, every philosophy and doctrine-comes from mind. The mind is very powerful. Therefore, it requires firm guidance. A powerful jet plane needs a good pilot; the pilot of your mind should be the wisdom that understands its nature. In that way, you can direct your powerful mental energy to benefit your life instead of letting it run about uncontrollably like a mad elephant, destroying yourself and others. | READ ON

“There is nothing that cannot be tossed into the bonfire of awareness.” ~ Rick Bass

“The ways of proclaiming The Mind all vary, But the same heavenly truth can be seen in each and every one.”

~ Ikkyu (1394-1481)
Courtesy of the invaluable dailyzen.com

P.S: Ikkyu was quite a character and an inflential one in Zen

For Whom is This Dhamma?

1. This Dhamma is for one who wants little, not for one who wants too much.
2. This Dhamma is for one who is contented, not for one who is discontented.
3. This Dhamma is for one who loves seclusion, not for one who loves society.
4. This Dhamma is for one who is energetic, not for one who is lazy.
5. This Dhamma is for one who is mindful, not for one who is unmindful.
6. This Dhamma is for one who is composed, not for one who is restless.
7. This Dhamma is for one who is wise, not for one who is unwise.
8. This Dhamma is for one who delights in freedom form impediments, not for one who delights in impediments.

(Anguttara Nikaya, Chapter VIII)

“Meditation is never one thing; you’ll experience moments of peace, moments of sadness, moments of joy, moments of anger, moments of sleepiness. The terrain changes constantly, but we tend to solidify it around the negative: “This painful experience is going to last the rest of my life.” The tendency to fixate on the negative is something we can approach mindfully; we can notice it, name it, observe it, test it, and dispel it, using the skills we learn in practice.”

~ Sharon Salzberg, “Sticking with It”

“We need to talk about a balance. Frankly, I think Asian monastics probably spend too much time sitting in meditation looking inward, and not enough time outdoors. They have to go out, as Shakyamuni did, and find out how people are living in society. But in the West, it’s the opposite problem. People spend all their time in the outer world. They’ve been successful in business, in their professional lives, but they have no relief from the stress of their lives. They need to sit down and settle the body and mind, instead of always running around feeling agitated inside.”

- Samu Sunim
“Buddha in the Market: An Interview with Korean Zen Master Samu Sunim”
Read the entire article in the Tricycle Wisdom Collection

“The nightingale singing among the flowers warbles Marvelous Law; all the birds that soar in the sky and even the frogs croaking in the water never cease chanting the Dharma. The clang of the evening bell echoes impermanence of everything; and the sound of the bell at daybreak reverberates with the message of appearance and disappearance of all elements. Flower petals flying and leaves falling before the wind disclose the perpetual changeability of karmic fortunes. There is not a single thing that does not embody the Dharma.”

~ Shosan (1579-1655)
quote from the invaluable dailyzen.com