A Finite Resource and an Invaluable Treasure

Time.

None of us have enough of it.  All of us fritter it away.

Do you think the last five years went too fast?  Do you think the next five are going to go slower?

Our life is extremely precious, our mind invaluable.  Can you imagine losing the treasure that is your mind?

The only way to make the most of this treasure is to use our time wisely.

Value mindfulness.
Practice being present.
Stop (some of) the nonsense.

In mindful presence, a world of opportunity naturally arises.  Clarity appears.  Insight dawns.  Kindness radiates.

You can use this precious treasure, this precious life and accomplish something meaningful.

No matter how much time you have left.

Siddhearta.

Go.

Be Kind.

Be Loving.

Be Generous.

Siddhearta.

Photo courtesy Himalayan Art.

Lose the Map

Our spirituality is often a story that we tell ourselves about how we and the world exist.  It calms our fears when we are challenged and disheartened, it gives us hope in times of pain and sorrow.  If our spirituality is a map then we think we have found a good one.  In fact, it is quite comforting that we have this trustworthy map. 

Buddhism has a very well documented map.  The Buddhist map to enlightenment has layer upon layer of detail.  The cartography of this path is unparalleled, giving both the general overlay of the land as well as 3D views.  It is the Google Earth of spiritual maps. 

In its vastness and profound detail we can be lulled into a content torpor, our ego intoxicated by the intricacies of such a supreme vehicle.  We can feel secure going about our habitual mode of existence because we carry this map around, at any moment justifying our location with astute logic and reasoning.  Not only that, but we can describe in quite detail places in which we have never been, never seen with our own eyes. 

The real challenge with actually traveling the path to enlightenment is that at some point you need to throw out the map.  The only common trait among the numerous Buddhas and enlightened masters that have gone before us is that they made their own map based on integrating the teachings with their own mind.  Every situation was different.  There was different terrain, different obstacles and different cultural conditions. 

You can't follow someone else's map to gain awakening.  You need to make your life the map, each and every step. 

So toss out that map you have been hanging onto.  Look around, what is the lay of the land?  Where are you at this very moment? 

Keep your senses open, your mind calm.  Always walk with mindfulness and discipline.  Arm yourself with patience and all the grit you can muster.

Enjoy your hike!

ps. If you need help packing your bags we can help you with that one, the rest is up to you.

Tonglen- The Rising Tide of Bodhicitta

The next stage of Mind Training focuses on the development of relative bodhicitta. 

7. Sending and taking should be practiced alternatively, riding on the breath.

The practice of relative bodhicitta is centered on the practice of Tonglen, or exchanging self and other.  Tonglen is an extremely important and useful meditation technique.  There are many different instructions on how to practice tonglen, but the following is based on the heart advice of my gracious guru, Younge Khachab Rinpoche.  This is an uncommon instruction for the practice of tonglen because it is based on the unique Dzogchen method of resting in the natural state.  If you have not received the instructions for Resting in the Natural State, you should seek them out from a qualified teacher. 

Sitting in a comfortable meditative posture,
Our body is left open, relaxed.
The shoulders, neck and face are relaxed,
The eyes are left open, gently gazing into the space before oneself.
The breath is natural- gentle and uncontrived.
The senses are open, free from fixation,
Let whatever appears be as it is.
Don’t fixate- on feelings, thoughts, sights or sounds.
Just relax and settle, like waves on water.
Slowly, like mud settling out,
The mind will become calm and clear.
Rest in the natural state.

In a state of natural rest, one will discover a vast ocean of equanimity, 

unchanging openness without center or limit, 

perfectly pristine, clearly reflecting all that appears and exists.

Having resolved all grasping and fixation, acceptance and rejection fall away,

there are no waves to disturb oneself from this uncontrived and effortless state of rest.

The mind is calm, clear and expansive. 

Within the spacious sky rises a full moon, the wisdom of bodhicitta, 

simultaneously accomplishing the benefit of oneself and others.  

An infinite display of stars reflects in the ocean, 

all of samsara, the beings of the six realms, are perfectly reflected as ornaments,

self and other are equal, there is no higher or lower, better or worse. 

Due to the presence of these two factors,

non-referential equanimity and the prior intention to attain awakening for the benefit of others,

there is the rising tide of bodhicitta, the vast ocean of the noble heart swells.

Due to this self-arising grace (Tib. rang byung thugs rje),

there is a natural outpouring of love, compassion and joy,

effortlessly accomplishing the wishes of beings and carrying them to the far shore.  

As you breathe out, sharing all your love, happiness, peace and contentment with other beings, spontaneously fulfilling all that is wished for.  

As you breathe in, through great compassion take in all their suffering, pain, anxiety, doubts and insecurity.

With each breath, establishing beings in happiness, freeing them from suffering.

Breathe.  Like a cool ocean breeze, with each breath you sooth the minds of beings, bringing them a moment of comfort and joy.  

Rejoice in their happiness.  

With a mind that never wavers from the state of single pointed rest,

all the waves again dissolve back into the great ocean of equanimity.

Again and again, day and night, this cycle continues.

Without ever wavering from the single intent of bodhicitta, 

you simultaneously accomplish your own and others welfare.  

Dedicate the merit of this practice for the benefit of all beings. 

Dance Standing Still

The ultimate bodhicitta slogans are instructions that are meant to allow one to recognize and cultivate ultimate bodhicitta in meditation.  

2. Regard all dharmas as dreams.

Normally, our reality and day to day affairs seem very concrete.  Our experience feels very real as we are going through it- the whirlwind of our thoughts, surging emotions, feelings of joy and our aches and pains.  We usually don't examine our experience and we just take it for granted.  Life in a nutshell.  

As we move away from our experiences, in the following hours, days and weeks we find it increasingly hard to remember what it was exactly that we were holding onto.  What did that wine and steak taste like again?  What were we arguing about?  What was it that we were so desperate to uphold, reaffirm or prove?  Was it worth all the effort?  

Regarding all dharmas- all experiences, sense objects and activities- as a dream means that we relate to them with less fixation, more openness.  Dream here doesn't mean hazy or unclear.  We can have very lucid dreams, dreams that evoke very real emotions and feelings while we are caught up in them.  The key is that when we awake from a dream we know it was just a dream and that the experience was temporary and fleeting, that it was just something that we were fixating on in our own mind. 

We can experience this sort of insight in our own meditation.  When we take our seat in meditation we become aware of an endless dance of thoughts, sights, sounds and feelings.  Our habitual tendency is to fixate on these phenomena in all their variety, but in meditation we just let them be as they are without following after them.  As we begin to relax into that illusory dance we begin to discover an underlying stillness.

Within the space of meditation, without grasping at the dynamic display that is arising in all its variety, we begin to notice and appreciate this unchanging quality.  Despite movement there is stillness.  It is here that we can look at the next slogan.

3. Examine the nature of unborn awareness.  

When we look at this awareness, we are aware of this unceasing dance of phenomena that is occurring, but since we are not getting caught up in that display we are also aware of this calm stillness.  Look at that.  Where does this come from, where does it go?

When you look at the dance you find there is nothing to hold onto, it is an endless play that can take any form at all and yet never exists as a single thing whatsoever.  When you look at the mind, there are all these things we are aware of, yet there is an underlying stillness that is lucid and alert.  When you look at that mind, you cannot find anything.  There is nothing there to hold onto, mind is unborn, yet there is this awareness that perceives very clearly.  From here we can address the next slogan.

4.  Self-liberate even the antidote.

When we look at the dynamic dance of phenomena, we find that despite the unceasing play there is this unchanging stillness which could be interpreted as nothing ever really happening.  When we look at the mind we find that while it is aware, we cannot find any particular 'thing' that is actually mind. 

The danger here is that we could come to the conclusion of 'Well, what's the point? Nothing matters, nothing ever happens.  Who cares, it doesn't matter what you do'.  This is very tricky, for we risk becoming nihilists- heartless narcissistic bastards.  Don't do that. 

Self-liberate the antidote means not to get caught up in that experience, don't solidify that experience of emptiness.  Don't fixate on that experience of not finding anything that is truly lasting.

5. Rest in the nature of the alaya, the essence.  

In meditation, we seek to move beyond our coarse level of mind and learn to rest in a more subtle level.  There are eight types of consciousnesses- five sense (sight, hearing, olfactory, taste, touch), conceptual consciousness, emotional consciousness and the alaya, or foundational consciousness.

The idea of resting in the alaya is that we are not supposed to get caught up in the dance of the other seven consciousnesses.  We don't want to follow after all the sights, sounds, smells, feelings and thoughts we are experiencing as we sit in meditation.  Learn to rest in a calm, clear, non-discursive awareness.  As we familiarize with this place of natural rest, free from coming and going, we also familiarize ourselves with ultimate bodhicitta.

It is important to understand that the alaya is not ultimate bodhicitta, but it is a much more subtle level of mind where we can begin to appreciate the qualities and characteristics of the nature of the mind.

Resting in the alaya we can see the dreamlike nature of all phenomena.   Not getting caught up in the dynamic dance of phenomena, we are able to examine the nature of unborn awareness.  Without clinging to that experience we self-liberate even the antidote, which is the empty nature of awareness.  We rest in lucid clarity, the mind open and expansive.  All of this is something that we are not creating in meditation, it becomes self-evident as we continue to sit with the proper instruction.

6.  In post-meditation, be a child of illusion.

At the end of the meditation session, don't just get up and go about your day.  Carry whatever insight or experience you have from meditation into your daily life.  Let it infuse your relationships, your work, your good times and your bad. 

Regard all situations and activities as dreams.  Don't get caught up in the dance.  We need to participate in the dance, we don't really have a choice here.  We cannot be a wallflower in the dance of life.  But as we dance we can adapt, respond; we can lead or follow; show strength or vulnerability.  We can affect the shape and the form the dance takes, a miraculous display that can appear in any way whatsoever. 

Go dancing, be a child of illusion. 

Training in Bodhicitta

The second point in Mind Training concerns the main practice, which is training in bodhicitta, the mind of enlightenment.  There are two aspects to bodhicitta, ultimate and relative.  

Ultimate bodhicitta is connected with the perfection of generosity.  It has the quality of openness, not holding anything back.  This is the vision of the Mahayana, that we can be open, that we have a boundless store of love and compassion that can be shared with the world around us.  The opposite of ultimate bodhicitta is the mind that fixates on our own self-interest.  It is a mind that closes in on itself, focusing on 'I' and 'mine' with its attendants of anger, attachment, jealousy and arrogance.  

Also connected with ultimate bodhicitta is the principle of emptiness.  Emptiness refers to the true nature of phenomena and the true nature of our own mind.  When we examine the world around us and even our own minds we find that everything is interconnected, that there is no independent self to be found.  Since all phenomena arise dependently, we can say that they are empty of a truly existing, autonomous self.  Saying that phenomena are empty in their nature does not mean that they do not exist at all, but rather determines the way they exist, which is interdependently.  Once we realize the empty nature of the self, then generosity and compassion arise very naturally because we have nothing to hold onto, nothing to lose.  

We can speak of ultimate bodhicitta in terms of openness and emptiness, but on another level we can relate it to our own buddhanature, or tathatagarbha.  

The tathatagarbha, often translated as the seed of awakening, can be identified with the soft spot in our hearts.  No matter how much armor we put on to try and protect ourselves from all the hurt in the world, there is always this tenderness or vulnerability that is exposed.  Everyone, no matter how callous, jaded or cruel, wants happiness and to be free from suffering.  

In the Uttaratantra-shastra:

If buddhanature were not present, there would be no remorse over suffering;

There would be no longing for peace, nor striving and devotion towards its aim.   

 

The tathatagarbha is innate in all beings.  In our meditation, as we sift through the layers of agitation, dullness, irritation, neurosis and projections, we begin to discover our own basic goodness, this naturally present fullness of being.  It is this process of coming home, an abode of natural peace and rest within.  As we recognize this in our own heart and mind, we can see with our own eyes that awakening is possible.  

 

We can also approach the tathatagarbha on a more subtle level.  Tathata in Sanskrit means suchness, meaning the true nature of reality just as it is, the union of appearance and emptiness.  Garbha can be translated as womb.  In this sense tathatagarbha can be interpreted as the womb of suchness, the true nature of reality and the nature of our own mind that gives birth to the world of samsara and nirvana, bondage and liberation.  We never part from this true nature.  However it manifests, whether as happiness or suffering, we can recognize and abide in this innate buddhanature, the nature of mind.  It is the single sphere, which having never existed as anything whatsoever, can manifest in any way at all.  

 

The Tathagatas, those thus gone to suchness, abide always and forever in the womb of suchness, the nature of mind free from coming and going in which they endlessly carry out the benefit of beings.  

 

Of course, all these words may sound nice, but this is something that must be identified in one's own meditation and not merely left as words.  

Relative bodhicitta is how we carry that experience and insight we gain during meditation into our daily life.  It is the practical application of wisdom and compassion.  Having recognized the capacity for awakening in ourselves, how do we bring that onto the path?  How do we let it infuse our life and work?  

Relative bodhicitta is connected with discipline, how to actually carry out the practice.  Discipline refers to how to actually walk, for without discipline it is like trying to walk the path with no legs.  The way the Buddha taught us to tread the path to enlightenment is through the bodhisattva path, exemplified by the six perfections.  

The slogans on relative bodhicitta are quite simply but also very direct.  They reflect the practicality of the Mahayana path, we should make a lot of effort to recall them in our day especially when we are faced with difficult situations. 

Illuminating Darkness

'May I be a lamp for those who long for light.'
Shantideva

Our world often appears to be shrouded in darkness-
the outer world of crime, social and political intolerance, warnings of apocalypse, and other malevolent forces at work; the inner world of our own fear, doubt, resentment and the proximity of our own death.   

We often run from darkness for fear of being engulfed, lost without a way.  When we see the ruins of darkness before us we avert our eyes, afraid that somehow we too might be its next victim.

A very strange thing happens though if we no longer need to hide from darkness.  If we open ourselves up to darkness it is very hard to find, even if we seek out that space of total darkness- a darkness so black we cannot tell if our eyes are open or closed, so dark you can't even see your own hands in front of you.  It is very hard to find total darkness because light always seems to find a way in.  There is always a tiny crack or pinhole which your eyes pick up on, casting rays of light into the space that you can't avoid even if you try to turn away from it. 

As a matter of fact, the darker it is the more sensitive we are to light.  

Light is all-pervading and surprisingly persistent.  It doesn't need to manipulate or prove itself to exert its influence on the world.  It just needs a tiny pinhole, a tiny crack of opportunity to spread its influence, illuminating the darkness.

Be a light for the world.  You don't need power, wealth or even approval.  You just need to be there, wherever you are.

Siddhearta's Intent

'The present is a freely given canvas'
Annie Dillard

Stumbled upon this on an afternoon walk today, 
Reminded me that every moment is an opportunity to practice art.
Go, be an artist.

Searching for Happiness

People searching, looking about,
Most of them assuredly, without a doubt,
That what they find, be worth its lot,
But time and again, they find its not.

Yet they persist, for reasons unknown,
In pursuit of a happiness that they can own.
Yet all the while, they did not see,
That happiness has eluded thee.

True happiness lies in things unheld,
A moments taste of things beheld,
A world of appearance and possibility,
This life's as full as you let it be.

Restless?

When we sit down to meditate, the first thing we often notice is movement.

Thoughts stirring, our uneven breath, the awkwardness of our body and its sensations.  Comfort and ease seem a long way off. 

Our days are filled with motion, perpetually bombarded with information and stimuli.  Where amongst this infinite display of appearances and possibilities are we to find a moment of rest?

The Buddha taught that the mind rides the breath like a rider on a horse.  The horse is blind and requires the rider to control it, leading it in the right direction.  The rider has no legs of its own, it relies upon the horse for its movement. 

The breath here is synonymous with energy or wind as it is described in the yogic traditions.  If the breath is erratic or uneven, so too is our mind.  If the breath is calm and subtle, so too is our mind. 

We can verify this in our own experience.  Examine your mind when you are feeling anxious.  You will probably find that your heart is racing, your breath has become more shallow and constricted, you feel shaky and uneasy.  Your energy or wind match your mind.  Your mind rides the wind, helplessly carried off into barren lands it would prefer not go. 

The good news is it doesn't have to follow the wind.  If you can control the winds, you control the mind.  When the winds are calm, the mind is calm. 

So how do you control the winds? 

The Tibetan Buddhist tradition has developed a system of breath exercises called Tsa Lung.  Tsa means channels, and lung means wind.  The channels are the highways upon which these winds travel, so they are the meridians upon which chi flow or the nerves upon which our body communicates with itself and its environment.

A preliminary practice for Tsa Lung is the Nine Round Breath that we practice at the beginning of meditation.  The nine round breath balances our winds, stabilizing our energy and facilitating a calm, clear mind.

Even Western medicine with its heretical view of Eastern medicine has verified some of these findings.  Research has shown alternate nostril breathing to effect the central nervous system, with right nostril breathing stimulating the sympathetic nervous system (fight or flight) and left nostril breathing stimulating the parasympathetic nervous system (rest and digest).

But the best research is to watch your own mind.  What is the quality of your mind when you have lots of energy?  When you are anxious?  When you are relaxed?     

Watch your mind. 

Here is a question for you, does mind lead the wind or does wind lead the mind?  Sit for awhile, try to verify your answer from your own experience.  The prize is invaluable.

It's All in Your Head!

You've probably heard this before.  Usually you hear it exactly when you don't need to hear it.

Of course it is all in my head, where else would it be and indeed what place could be more dangerous?  

I wish it wasn't in my head.  I wish it was in a little box that I could hide away in a storage closet or smash with a giant freakin' sledgehammer.  Man, would I like to smash that box.

So its all in my head- what am I supposed to do about it?  Even better, how do I get this damn thing out of my head?

What we are dealing with is the conceptual consciousness that we discussed in the practice of calm abiding. 

Our culture really values the individual expressions of the self.  Facebook, YouTube and Twitter provide a perfect platform so that we can broadcast ourselves to the world, sharing every amazing thought and story with all of our friends, family and strangers.  As much as we fixate on our own thoughts, opinions and ideals; we are not our thoughts, opinions and ideals.  These are simply projections of our self into the world around us and they constitute bondage whether we are riding a euphoric high or stuck in that damn box. 

Our thoughts do have value, we can use rational analysis and investigation to come to a correct understanding of reality.  We need to use thoughts and words to share and relate our experience to other people and share knowledge.  But thoughts have a limit, what we are trying to discover in the practice of calm abiding is beyond speech, thought or expression.

So we need to loosen our fixation to this aspect of our minds.  Thoughts will continue to arise, but they become like the tracks of a bird flying through the sky, clearly apparent but vanishing without a trace. 

The only way we are going to arrive at this state is to learn to rest in the natural state- the vast, open expanse of limpid clarity that is beyond speech, thought or expression- your fundamental ground. 

Discovering Your Fundamental Ground

Do not prolong the past.
Do not beckon the future.
Rest in cognitive lucidity free from concepts.

The first step to the practice of calm abiding, or shamatha, is to tame or pacify the mind.

In our current state we have this mind that never sits still.  We are constantly replaying past events and interactions, needlessly caught up in future plans and speculation.  Whenever we do find a moment of freedom in our busy and stressful life, usually the first thing we do is turn on the TV or hop on the internet and mindlessly get caught up in a moments entertainment.  

It is a strange thing, but we are often so caught up in action and doing, that when we choose to rest or meditate we find a lot of anxiousness.  We spend so much of our time caught up in our heads that when we sit down to meditate we have a steady stream of thoughts and plans pulling us off into some far off dreamscape.  

When we sit in meditation we need to drop the baggage and armor that we have been carrying through the day.  We need to embrace an open presence that doesn't turn away from the rawness of the present moment.  

So the first step is to calm this monkey mind, this mind that is compelled to jump from one object to the next in its unceasing restlessness.  In this regard it is important to understand how the mind works.  The Buddha's teachings break down the mind, or what we normally consider mind, into eight different aspects.

Five sense consciousnesses- eye, ear, nose, mouth and touch
Conceptual consciousness- responsible for the infinite variety of thoughts, opinions and value judgements
Afflicted consciousness- our habitual tendencies, neuroses, predominant mental states like anger, jealousy and lust
Basis-of-all consciousness- the foundational stream consciousness, the subtle consciousness that carries through our whole life, and connects life to life.

The five sense consciousnesses simply experience their subject matter, they do not interpret, judge, express delight or contempt for whatever is appearing.  That is what the sixth, conceptual consciousness excels in.  It is this consciousness, this reactionary and fixated aspect of our minds that we are trying to calm and pacify.  

We have several methods that we can use to accomplish this task of calming the mind.  The two that we taught in the meditation class were:

1) Resting with a conceptual focus (the white thigle in the palm of the hands)
2) Resting in the natural state without a conceptual focus

The purpose of both techniques is to develop a state of natural rest.  This is not a state that is a lifeless and dull nothingness.  Rather it is an open, calm lucidity like that of a perfectly pristine ocean during the daytime.  To rest in that state of cognitive lucidity free from concepts, that is how we approach the practice of meditation and calm abiding.  

That is how we grasp the mind that previously has not been grasped.  That is the start of the journey, and the destination has never been too far away.  

Weekly challenge:  Start meditating, today.  Set aside five minutes of your day to establishing your ground.  Simply rest in the present moment for a few minutes each day, and you will find that the practice naturally develops on its own.  You will find that in the wake of your previous thoughts and emotions, there is an open clarity that is beyond description.  

 

Random Acts of Loving-Kindness

In celebration of Generosity Day I would like to invite everyone to engage in random acts of loving-kindness.

3 Simple Steps
1. Act out random acts of generosity towards your friends, loved ones and strangers.
2. Rejoice in the act, feel free to share it using the #generosityday hashtag or post on www.facebook.com/generosityday
3. Share this message with your friends and family.

May you bring generosity to the world around you.
May you encounter happiness around every corner.
May you find love in all those you meet.

Happy Generosity Day!