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#2216 - Saturday, July 30, 2005 - Editor: Gloria Lee
FORGIVING
To understand
is to forgive,
even oneself.
- Alexander Chase
More on Dipa Ma
I meant to include this link to her bio in the last issue. Her life is as inspirational as her teachings.
http://www.dharma.org/~amys/bio.html
For Dipa Ma, mindfulness wasn’t something she did, it was who she was-all the time. Dipa Ma made it clear that there is nothing wrong with lapses of mindfulness, with the mind wandering. "It happens to everyone. It is not a permanent problem."
"There is nothing ultimately to cling to in this world," Dipa Ma taught, "but we can make good use of everything in it. Life is not to be rejected. It is here. And as long as it is here and we are here, we can make the best use of it."
Choose one meditation practice and stick with it
"If you want to progress in meditation, stay with one technique."
For those beginning the spiritual journey, Dipa Ma was adamant about commitment to one style of meditation. Don’t give up, and don’t jump around from practice to practice. Find a technique that suits you, and keep going until you find your "edge," the point where difficulties start to arise.
A common mistake many Western spiritual seekers make is to interpret difficulties as a problem with a particular practice. From the vantage point of that uncomfortable edge, some other practice always looks better. "Maybe I should do Tibetan chanting . . . or Sufi dancing." In fact, difficulties usually are a reliable sign that the practice is working.
Take Dipa Ma’s advice to heart. Stick with the practice you’ve chosen through difficulty and doubt, through inspiration and stagnation, through the inevitable ups and downs. If you can stay committed to your practice through the darkest of times, wisdom will dawn.
Practice patience
"Patience is one of the most important virtues for developing mindfulness and concentration."
Patience is forged by constantly meeting the edge. In the most challenging situations, merely showing up, being present, may be all that is possible-and it may be enough.
continues at: http://www.dharma.org/~amys/bio.html
click on "Teachings" at bottom of bio page
"Authentic presence is the result of a gradual,
developmental process
of letting go of ego fixation. It is also the result of an
instantaneous magical process of letting go of fixed mind.
The two
always work together. The abrupt and spontaneous process
that brings
authentic presence is raising windhorse, or lungta, which is
rousing
the energy of basic goodness into a wind of delight and
power."
~Chogyam Trungpa
From the book: Shambhala, The Sacred Path of the Warrior,
published by
Shambhala
~ ~ ~ " 'Peaceful
Abiding' describes the mind as it naturally is. The
word 'peace' tells the whole story. The human mind is by
nature
joyous, calm, and very clear. In shamatha meditation we
aren't
creating a peaceful state - we're letting our mind be as it is to
begin
with. This doesn't mean that we're peacefully ignoring
things. It
means that the mind is able to be in itself without constantly
leaving."
~~Sakyong Mipham
From the book; "Turning the Mind Into an Ally,"
Published by Riverhead
Books
posted by W. Kelly to Daily Dharma
The beginning of freedom is the realization
that you are not the possessing entity - the
thinker. Knowing this enables you to observe
the entity. The moment you start watching the
thinker, a higher level of consciousness becomes
activated.
You then being to realize that there is a vast realm
of intelligence beyond thought, that thought is only
a tiny aspect of that intelligence. You also realize
that all the things that truly matter - beauty, love,
creativity, joy, inner peace - arise from beyond the
mind.
You begin to awaken.
- Eckhart Tolle
posted to Along the Way
Puffin photo by Alan Larus
"Nature, you are deep-deep secret words."
"A great man of leisure
comes along in the quiet night.
Loud sounds of crickets' chirping.
the moon alone, shyly.
Cosmos, quiet.
Pumpkin flowers appear to laugh.
Nature, you are deep-deep secret words.
Look now at the man rowing in the river.
A sound breaks the silence.
A sound from a ditch, low.
A sound from a bamboo flute
makes my heart grieve.
Oh! The other world on this earth!
Oh! Nirvana on this earth: that is my quiet mind.
Also, tomorrow,
And so, too, the day following tomorrow.
It remains the same, moment after moment."
~~Kyunghoon Sunim
posted by W. Kelly to Daily Dharma
He Sees the Truth
O Rama, he sees the
truth who sees the body as a product of deluded understanding and
as the fountain-source of misfortune, and who knows that the body
is not the Self.
He sees the truth
who sees that this body pleasure and pain are experienced on
account of the passage of time and the circumstances in which one
is placed; and that they do not pertain to him.
He sees the truth
who sees that he is the omnipresent infinite consciousness which
encompasses within itself all that takes place everywhere at all
times.
He sees the truth
who knows that the Self, which is as subtle as the millionth part
of the tip of a hair divided a million times, pervades
everything.
He sees the truth
who sees that there is no division at all between the self and
the other, and that the one infinite light of consciousness
exists as the sole reality.
He sees the truth
who sees that the non-dual consciousness which indwells all
beings is omnipotent and omnipresent.
He sees the truth
who is not deluded into thinking that he is the body which is
subject to illness, fear, agitation, old age and death.
He sees the truth
who sees that all things are strung together in the Self as beads
are strung on a thread, and who knows ‘I am not the mind’.
He sees the truth
who sees all beings in the three worlds as his own family,
deserving of his sympathy and protection.
He sees the truth
who knows that the Self alone exists and that there is no
substance in objectivity.
He is unaffected
who knows that pleasure, pain, birth, death, etc., are all the
Self only.
He is firmly
established in the truth who feels: ‘What should I acquire,
what should I renounce, when all this is the one Self?’
Salutations to that
abode of auspiciousness, who is filled with the supreme
realization that the entire universe is truly Brahman alone,
which remains unchanged during all the apparent creation,
existence and dissolution of the universe.
— Vasistha’s Yoga, translated by Swami
Venkatesananda
posted by Michael Bindel to MillionPaths
Here are some more puffin photos from my last trip to the island,
they will leave for the north atlantic any day now.
All on the same day
and the young ones will stay at sea for two or three years.
http://www.ferryfee.com/bluesky/puffins_3.htm
http://www.ferryfee.com/bluesky/curious.htm
posted by Alan Larus