Eight remedial techniques.

The eight remedies are antidotes to the five flaws of meditation. 

Antidote to laziness

1.     Faith

Faith means to study and develop conviction in the teachings. This faith is based on reason and logic and our own experience of the Dharma.

2.     Intention

Intentions lead to mental actions, which eventually become habits. Be clear, be specific.

3.     Effort

Effort is the greatest predictor of progress in your practice. If it is difficult to develop a joyful effort towards practice, reexamine your faith and intention.

4.     Pliancy

Pliancy means that our mind and body become adaptable and dexterous. We become open to change, ready to change. Pliancy is like making friends with a horse and learning to ride it, at some point the horse becomes workable.

Antidote to forgetting the instructions

5.     Mindfulness

Mindfulness is strong and focused, it recalls our intention and the object of our meditation.

Antidote to dullness and agitation

6.     Vigilance

Vigilant awareness is sharp and clear. Vigilance is able to access the quality of our meditation, be aware of our mind, and notice problems as they start to come up. It notices agitation and dullness and can allow us to tighten up our mindfulness before we lose our focus.

Antidote to under-application

7.     Attention

Attention means that we recognize and respond to fault arising in our meditation. Vigilant awareness might notice dullness starting to creep into our meditation, but if we fail to pay attention that subtle dullness might turn into a lose of clarity or even gross dullness.

Antidote to over-application

8.     Equanimity

Equanimity is the mind resting naturally, free from agitation and dullness. It is a mind that is calm, clear and vibrant; like a calm lake during the daytime.

Complexity, simplified.

There are three aspects to a simple spiritual practice:

A spiritual friend.
A mind of faith, diligence and wisdom.
Art.

Your spiritual friend doesn't need to be a guru.  They should be someone who inspires you, someone you trust.  They are compassionate and kind, with a gentle heart and an open mind.  They don't need to have a fancy title, but they should be someone you admire and hold in esteem. 

A mind of faith is one that has an admiration for, longing towards, and trust in what is authentic and true.  With this as our compass, we diligently, day after day, month after month, devote ourselves to our practice.  The result of this pursuit what what is authentic and true is wisdom.  Seeing things as they are, we make connections, see implications.  We gain certainty and eliminate doubts. 

Our practice must be shared, so art completes the practice.  Generosity as art, sharing kind words and deeds.  We extend our love and respect to others.  We listen, hear their pain, understand their problems.  Dignity is a gift worth sharing for those who long for it. 

These three aspects form the bedrock for a strong spiritual practice.  They simplify the complexity of the path.  

Feeling stuck.

Disbelief is a refusal or unwillingness to accept something as true. 

Disbelief is categorized as one of the fifty-one negative mental states in the Abhidharmakosa. It is a negative mental state because disbelief supports torpor.  It engenders laziness or lethargy.  It supports feeling stagnant or stuck, not knowing what to do.

Many of us are faced with times of uncertainty.  Part of that uncertainty is an unwillingness to accept our current situation, a refusal to look at what is actually going on.  That unwillingness to accept our reality makes us feel stuck and powerless, but it is not actually the situation that makes us powerless but our orientation to it.

Our mental state- one of unwillingness or refusal to acknowledge what is going on- prevents us from actually acting.  It prevents us from moving forward, from taking a step.  It holds us back because in order to dance we need to have a partner, and I refuse to dance with this one.

So getting unstuck is an act of faith.  Not because we need to believe the reality of our situation, but because we can still seek out what is authentic and true despite the gravity of the current circumstances.  

Our biggest challenge is determining which holds more weight in our lives, faith or disbelief. Without faith we are sure to be stuck in troubled waters indeed.

I still have faith.

Faith. It's a bit of a touchy word in our culture. It has a lot of baggage. We often look down on faith as a sort of weakness or oddity.

But what is faith?

Mipham Rinpoche says that faith is an admiration for, longing towards, and trust in what is authentic and true. It is a support for determination.

What does faith mean to you?

You could have blind faith. You could believe in a blue cow that grants all of your wishes.  You could have great admiration and trust in that cow.  You could really strive to make sure that it was happy so that he would send down his bounty. (him or a her?)  

That would be a true determination of faith based on your perception of what was authentic and true. I think that this is the type of faith that many of us are wary of, simply because it doesn't make any sense. It doesn't hold up to the facts, to reality. It bears no semblance to our experience and everything else that we hold to be true.  

So if you are one that acts out of reason and logic, does faith play no role in your life?  Can you have faith and still rely on science and philosophy? 

Yes.  An emphatic yes. 

We can have great admiration for what is true and authentic based on reason and logic.  In fact, reason and logic can reaffirm our faith, deepen it. 

We can generate great longing for searching out and discovering what is authentic and true based on reason and logic. We can be scientists and skeptics, philosophers and debaters and still have faith.  The act of searching and analyzing and dissecting can be facets of our faith.

And we can trust in the reason and logic that we have used to come to our conclusions, and to look deeper still. 

The search for what is authentic and true demands faith.  It requires it, because faith supports determination and we need to be determined in our quest for what is authentic and true in order to reach our destination.

I am a man of faith.  Are you?

Let's Talk Wine

Not many people know this but Washington is a veritable treasury of excellent wines.  You may have heard a few things about the region if you live outside of the Pacific NW, maybe you even tasted one of the mass distributed wines which don't really portray the depth and richness the region has to offer.  Most likely though, you have been missing out on these great and accessible wines.

Let's start with amazing.

There are five main AVA's in Washington, each further divided into smaller AVA's that demonstrate unique characteristics and produce prestigious wines.  More and more we are seeing terroir specific vineyards that produce the highest caliber wines, each displaying a depth and subtlety that differentiates it from other vineyards in the same region.  You have top rated vineyards like Cailloux, Champous, Ciel du Cheval, In the Rocks and Red Mountain which each produce amazing wines that lead to endless exploration, fascination and delight.  There are world class vintners like Quilceda Creek, Figgins Estate and Owen Roe producing cabernet.  Merlot by Long Shadows and Leonetti.  Syrah is really the break out star in Washington, with ingenious producers like Cayuse, Gramercy Cellars, Reynvaan and Rotie Cellars.  That is just the tip of the iceberg, time and time again their are accessible, vivid and distinct Rhone varietals, Bordeaux blends and Riesling after Riesling that will knock your socks off. 

And you can actually get most of these wines as opposed to similar quality California wines which have steep price tags, long waiting lists and seem to be more interested in their name and money.

Washington is forging a new frontier.  You have to taste these wines to experience it yourself.

This is an example of inspirational faith.

There is something about this story that might stir you, hook your attention and curiosity.  You may experience feelings of joy, hope or desire.  It might bring you to laughter, maybe even tears.  It inspires you. 

Yearning faith.

The next step is where you say, 'I want to do that'.  'I can do that'.  This is faith based on learning, contemplating and putting effort into your practice.  This is where you actually taste some of the wines and develop a first impression.

Confident faith.

This is based on your own experience.  You've tasted the wine, know its subtle aromas and flavors.  You know its mouthfeel.  You can distinguish the different regions and vintages, you've examined the unique characteristics of specific terroir.  You know both the immediate and lasting impressions.   Your practice can still go deeper, more subtle and profound, but you have developed certainty within your domain.

The Buddha taught that only confident faith is trustworthy.

In inspirational faith there is no knowledge, experience or conviction.  In yearning faith there is some knowledge and experience but no conviction, allowing doubt to creep in.  It is only in confident faith that we possess knowledge, experience and conviction.

It is this type of faith that we should develop, which means that we need to do the work.

You should come here, we can go wine tasting.