Be soft in your practice. Think of the method as a fine silvery stream, not a raging waterfall. Follow the stream, have faith in its course. It will go its own way, meandering here, trickling there. It will find the grooves, the cracks, the crevices. Just follow it. Never let it out of your sight. It will take you.

- Sheng-yen | quote courtesy of Daily Zen

I love the bamboo tree:
It staves off heat and cold,
Cultivates unbending fidelity;
Empties its mind every day.
In the moonlight it plays with its shadow
And sends clean words before the wind.
When it wears snow on its head,
Grace fills the deep forest.

- Jinkag Haesim (1178-1234)
from Daily Zen

Bhavana Society Temple | 2010

Good friends, my teaching
Of the Dharma takes
Meditation and wisdom
As its basis.
Never under any
Circumstances say that
Meditation and wisdom
Are different;
They are one unity,
Not two things.
Meditation itself is the
Substance of wisdom;
Wisdom itself is the
Function of meditation

- Hui-neng
from DailyZen.com

I met Ayya Khema in the 1980s when I was living in Sri Lanka. She was then a Buddhist nun. She had set up a community on an island in a lake in the South of Sri Lanka. She was born a Jew in Germany. She married and had children but eventually converted to Buddhism and became a nun. She spent the last 18 years of her life teaching in Sri Lanka, Australia and Germany. She published quite a number of books and this is the fullest one. In it we hear a Buddhist teacher explaining the path of meditation in a very accessible way. Ayya Khema was a meditator par excellence.

For instance, she speaks in one chapter about four fundamental principles of Buddhism: freedom from greed, freedom from hatred, right mindfulness and right concentration. Greed and hatred are the poisons which create suffering according to Buddhism. And right mindfulness and right concentration lie at the heart of Buddhist meditation.

She also speaks about such things as loving kindness. One of the things that impressed me when I met her was the way she led meditations on loving kindness and I have used some of her meditations myself when I have taught. It is a practice whereby one radiates loving kindness to those one likes  to our family and friends – but also to those we don’t like, to the oppressors and the people who have hurt us. Such practices are at the heart of Buddhism and she speaks movingly about them.

His Holiness Swami Vidyadhishananda comes to the area for several appearances.

The Himalayan monk Swami Vidyadhishananda returns to the Charleston-Huntington area for a series of talks, appearances and workshops on spirituality, philosophical thought and wellness as part of a nationwide U.S. tour. The monk gave several packed appearances in Charleston a few years ago.

Described as “a philosopher monk of the Vedanta tradition,” he has trained in the Himalayan mountains and has been awarded one of the highest honors in India’s university system, the degree of Mahamahopadhyay (Great Ordained Teacher) for his work in Sanskrit philosophies. He is the head monk of the non-profit Self-Enquiry Life Fellowship. Area appearances include:

June 23: “Extant Philosophical Thought on Evolution: A Discourse on Philosophy.” At 7 p.m., the Clay Center, Charleston. Admission $15. Call 304-561-3570 or e-mail info@theclaycenter.org. Click here to view event flyer (.pdf file).

June 24: “Well-being Rooted in Clarity of Perception.” At 7 p.m., Joan C. Edwards Performing Arts Center, Marshall University, Huntington. Free. Call 606-316-3476 or e-mail schlenker@marshall.edu.

June 26 and 27: Two-day “Wellness Workshop,” Bellefonte Pavilion, Our Lady Bellefonte Hospital, Ashland, Ky. A structured workshop on Himalayan techniques of  living in balance and harmony which includes vegetarian Ayurvedic lunch and snacks. Cost is $150 students and senior citizens, $250 adults. To register, visit www.swamahiman.org or call 606-326-1230. Click here to view event flyer (.pdf file).

July 9: “Mind-Stuff Inside the Heart.” At 7:30 p.m,, Tamarack, Beckley. Sponsored by  South Asia Cultural Society. Free, Call 304-255-0293 or e-mail bembalkar@verizon.net.

For more information on the monk’s tour, call 304-993-8866 or e-mail: self.charleston@gmail.com.

Bhavana Society Temple Buddha | May 2010 | High View, W.Va. |

Thad Settle found this article from a May 2010 edition of Tricycle stimulating and thought-provoking.

Faith in Awakening

Are faith and empiricism compatible? For Thanissaro Bhikkhu, they are inseparable components of an authentic Buddhist practice.

THE BUDDHA NEVER PLACED unconditional demands on anyone’s faith. For people from a culture where the dominant religions do make such demands, this is one of Buddhism’s most attractive features. It’s especially appealing to those who—in reaction to the demands of organized religion—embrace the view of scientific empiricism that nothing deserves our trust unless it can be measured against physical data. In this light, the Buddha’s famous instructions to the Kalamas are often read as an invitation to believe, or not, whatever we like.

Don’t go by reports, by legends, by traditions, by scripture, by logical conjecture, by inference, by analogies, by agreement through pondering views, by probability, or by the thought, “This contemplative is our teacher.” When you know for yourselves that “these mental qualities are skillful; these mental qualities are blameless; these mental qualities are praised by the wise; these mental qualities, when adopted and carried out, lead to welfare and to happiness”—then you should enter and remain in them. (Anguttara Nikaya 3.65)

Pointing to this passage, many modern writers have gone so far as to say that faith has no place in the Buddhist tradition, that the proper Buddhist attitude is one of skepticism. But even though the Buddha recommends tolerance and a healthy skepticism toward matters of faith, he also notes a conditional imperative: if you sincerely want to put an end to suffering (that’s the condition) you should take certain things on faith, as working hypotheses, and then test them by following his path of practice. The advice to the Kalamas, in fact, contains the crucial caveat that you must take into account what wise people value.

This caveat gives balance to the Buddha’s advice: just as you shouldn’t give unreserved trust to outside authority, you can’t give unreserved trust to your own logic and feelings if they go against experience and the genuine wisdom of others. As other early discourses make clear, wise people can be recognized by their words and behavior as measured against standards set by the Buddha and his awakened disciples. The proper attitude toward those who meet these standards is faith:

For a disciple who has conviction in the Teacher’s message and lives to penetrate it, what accords with the Dhamma is this: “The Blessed One is the Teacher, I am a disciple. He is the one who knows, not I.” (Majjhima Nikaya 70)

Repeatedly the Buddha stated that faith in a teacher is what leads you to learn from that teacher. Faith in the Buddha’s own awakening is a requisite strength for anyone else who wants to attain awakening. As it fosters persistence, mindfulness, concentration, and discernment, this faith can take you all the way to the deathless … | Read On

I’ve always been leery of e-cards sent via e-mail notices as they have often been used as virus vehicles. But I trust Tricycle, the long-running Buddhist magazine. Even more so, their lovely Buddhist-inspired e-card images (drawn from the Rubin Musem of Art)  can also be downloaded as wallpaper for your desktop or mobile phone. Check out the images in the Tricycle Gallery here.

~ post by Douglas

“Try to be mindful, and let things take their natural course. Then your mind will become still in any surroundings, like a clear forest pool. All kinds of wonderful, rare animals will come to drink at the pool, and you will clearly see the nature of all things. You will see many strange and wonderful things come and go, but you will be still.”

~ Achaan Chah

PS: Even afflicted with the illness that would confine him to a bed for ten years and later kill him, Achaan Chah used the stuff of daily life as a teaching. From the Wikipedia entry on his life:

“By the early 1980s, Ajahn Chah’s health was in decline due to diabetes. He was taken to Bangkok for surgery to relieve paralysis caused by the diabetes, but it was to little effect. Ajahn Chah used his ill health as a teaching point, emphasizing that it was “a living example of the impermanence of all things…(and) reminded people to endeavor to find a true refuge within themselves, since he would not be able to teach for very much longer”^[4]. Ajahn Chah would remain bedridden and ultimately unable to speak for ten years, until his death on January 16, 1992 at the age of 73^[7] …”

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LISTEN | Guided Meditation | Bhante Sujato | Part 2
The Meditation Circle has been listening to a series of talks on meditation by the Australian monk Bhante Sujato. of Santi Forest Monastery in Bundanoon, Sydney in Australia. The talks are on the practice of metta or loving-kindness meditation, as taught by a monk in Bangkok with whom Bhante Sujato has studied. In this guided meditation, he leads a 30-minute meditation on the basics of working with the attention as you first begin to sit.

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LISTEN | Meditation Introduction | Bhante Sujato | Part 1
Along the way of introducing this metta meditation practice, Bhante Sujato undertakes an illuminating survey of the different kinds and methods of Buddhist meditation. The talk heard here is a shortened version taken from a rains retreat — I edited the talk down a bit to fit into manageable size for listening to at the Meditation Circle. I encourage you to seek out this and other talks by this very interesting Western monk who trained with Ajahn Brahm and who had a colorful past as a performer.
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