Insight and Mindfulness

way of negation

noreply@blogger.com (Mary Rees) — Sun, 14 Feb 2010 15:38:00 +0000

"...once we let go of what we're not, the nature of what is Real becomes apparent... And as that Reality is beyond description, it is not appropriate, and least misleading, to let it remain undescribed. This is the essence of the 'way of negation'..."

p. 27 THE ISLAND, a compilation and commentary on wisdom texts (regarding Nibbana) in the early Buddhist teachings (Pali Canon)by Ajhan Amaro and Ajahn Pasanno

Share a study and exploration of these texts on our Practice Board at http://citta101.com/practice

peace of heart

noreply@blogger.com (Mary Rees) — Sat, 13 Feb 2010 06:52:00 +0000

peace of heart, emotions from Andy Olendzki (3/3)

What does a moment of emotional peace feel like after a period of turmoil? If you’ve just had a big fight with a friend or partner who has stormed out of the room (or perhaps you have stormed out), what does it feel like to have the strife and discord come to a sudden halt? Or perhaps you’ve just watched a movie, or read a book, or had a discussion with someone, that took you on an emotional roller coaster; or maybe you have been sitting with an ailing or dying friend, or come through to the other side of a bout of anxiety, fear, or despair. In any case it is a matter of feeling the contrast between the prior moments of agitation and the current moment of calm. What does it feel like to have something that had been raging with such intensity come to a stop, replaced with an experience of relative peace?

* RIGHT NOW! What emotional states are reverberating in the heart?

peace of mind

noreply@blogger.com (Mary Rees) — Tue, 26 Jan 2010 17:16:00 +0000

practicing peace of mind from Andy Olendzki

What does it feel like to rest the mind after a period of busy activity, of multi-tasking, or of having to shove the mind through a series of words or numbers or stories in order to accomplish some task? If you have just finished some complex project, or something involving a lot of reading or listening or speaking, see what if feels like to relax the mind and let it wander free and easy. Perhaps this involves gazing off out the window, or into the landscape, or at the empty sky; perhaps it is closing the eyes and thinking about nothing whatsoever for a few moments; or maybe you can grab half an hour or an hour to sit in meditation and watch the spinning of the mind gradually spiral down and down into deeper levels of calm and relaxation.

* RIGHT NOW! What mental qualities are presenting themselves to inquiring attention?

peace of body

noreply@blogger.com (Mary Rees) — Sun, 24 Jan 2010 17:47:00 +0000

After our retreat this weekend, I'd like to share some of Andy Olendzki's practice suggestions around the experience of peace.

Andy: "peace is a word that can mean many things in many different contexts, and this is what we can explore in direct experience"

"In each of these cases we are trying to connect directly to the experience of peace, to come to recognize it, to investigate it, and gradually also to cultivate it. By experience we mean not the idea of peace, or thinking about peace, or merely noticing the absence of various forms of turmoil—rather we are pointing to a way of actively exploring the texture of the mind and body in this present moment as it manifests peace."

He proceeds to offer several suggestions. The following is the first on peace in the body, physical peace.

"What does it feel like to sit quietly for some time after a period of heightened physical activity? As you sit quietly after a vigorous workout, a hard day’s work, or some other form of bustling activity, see if you can explore the texture of the peacefulness that descends on the body. Feel the muscles relax; feel the breathing slow down; feel the calm as it settles upon the systems of the mind and body as a tangible state, an experience in itself. Peacefulness is not just the absence of agitation or activity, but is itself a positive quality or state that can be accessed, investigated, and understood viscerally."

"* RIGHT NOW! What sensations are arising and passing away in the body?"

being kind to yourself

noreply@blogger.com (Mary Rees) — Sun, 20 Dec 2009 06:40:00 +0000

"Because of all the ways your brain changes its structure, your experience matters beyond its momentary, subjective impact. It makes enduring changes in the physical tissues of your brain which affect your well-being, functioning, and relationships. Based on science, this is a fundamental reason for being kind to yourself, cultivating wholesome experiences, and taking them in."

Rick Hanson in Buddha's Brain: The Practical Neuroscience of Happiness, Love, and Wisdom pp. 72-73

garden of eden

noreply@blogger.com (Mary Rees) — Thu, 10 Dec 2009 21:57:00 +0000

In the heart of every man and every woman a kind of Garden of Eden endures, where there is no war, no death, where wild animals and deer live together in peace.

Irene Nemirovsky, speaking for the 1941 characters in her novel Suite Francaise.

Reading words of this novel is a poignant experience. The author reflects on human experience as France is being occupied by Germany in WWII. She is writing as events unfold, before the outcomes are known.

We know outcomes, even the outcome for the author. She completes two books of an intended five from within this dramatic time in world history, but in July of 1942 she is arrested, separated from her husband and two small daughters, deported to Auschwitz, moved a couple times, and dead by August 17, 1942.

transforming consciousness

noreply@blogger.com (Mary Rees) — Mon, 07 Dec 2009 05:13:00 +0000

We have the joy and great adventure of learning how to bring the meditative skills of the monasteries and forest monks into our daily lives. We can become our own monasteries, taking refuge in our innate capacity for awakening.

Ten immediate suggestions here for making your life a monastery:

• Consider increasing your daily meditation practice – extending the length of your sitting meditation practice or adding an additional sitting, even a very short one in the middle of the day (an attentive coffee break).

• Choose to make an entire day or half day a time to experiment in intentional practice in all activities, also incorporating traditional practices. Remove distractions for the time period, like electronics.

• Incorporate contemplative reading, sutta or scripture study in your formal practice times or as recreation. Give yourself this little pleasant break from daily routines.

• It is useful periodically to keep a daily log of how you spend your time. You will find you have more time than you think and that the observation alone modifies your behavior. (see below a series of Practice Books to support this process)

• You could tally the number of breaths or pauses in your daily life, even just in one hour. How often do you intentionally turn to your breath? Pause? Or pause, relax, and open?

• Take a few minutes each day, for even just seconds or minutes, to consider what your specific intentions are for clarity of mind, for fostering wholesome qualities, for diminishing what furthers suffering.

• Choose some additional time to be with other beings who manifest the qualities you intend to foster – or who are interested in fostering the same.

• Focus on self-care, as if you are on retreat. Get plenty of sleep. Go to bed early. Get up early. Keep things simple. Eat what is nourishing. Spend extra time on grooming, caring for yourself tenderly.

• Play. Have you heard the ads encouraging children to go outside and play an hour a day? Can you do that for yourself? Move your body. Do a body practice like yoga or dance. Canoe, ski, or just walk. Any movement that is pleasurable for you.

• When struggle or self judgment arises remember that nothing is as substantial as it seems. Do not identify with what is arising as substantially you or substantially true. Everything is in process (bubbles, froth and foam).

NEW PRACTICE BOOKS

Nutshell Publications has just published a six book series of Practice Books to support this process. http://www.nutpub.com/practice.html.

Work with these on your own, in private sessions, as companion practices to reading Being Prayer, or as a review and deepening of instruction offered in a beginning meditation course. Share work with one or more of the books with friends.

real mindfulness

noreply@blogger.com (Mary Rees) — Mon, 30 Nov 2009 20:36:00 +0000

Once sati is established, every moment is pregnant with the potential for awakening.

Analayo in Satipatthana : The Direct Path to Realization, p 252

The real challenge, the place requiring skillful effort, is in establishing sati, establishing sati in formal practice so it can bear fruit in every experience of life.

timelessness

noreply@blogger.com (Mary Rees) — Thu, 22 Oct 2009 12:08:00 +0000

"...thought, as one knows it, generally is in time; it is based on notion of time; thought itself is time; thought itself creates time; when there is no time there is no thought."

Ramesh Grover - reflections on Bohm and Krishnamurti The Ending of Time in Kalachakra Meditations

When you are dwelling in the past or the future - remembering, planning, regretting, fearing - you are not alive in this moment. You are missing this moment, lost in time. Time is a construct. The past does not exist substantially in the present, nor has the future come to be.

Can you choose to be alive right now? Can you choose to be fully open to this moment? To this breath? To sounds and sensations right here, right now?

Mary

lost in emptiness

noreply@blogger.com (Mary Rees) — Thu, 10 Sep 2009 16:34:00 +0000

Many questions come up about non-duality. This passage addresses one problem with embracing the experience or an idea about it too quickly. Non-duality includes a need to be deeply aware of clarity, spaciousness, and stillness but to also know clearly and immediately how to pay attention and navigate skillfully in the world.

The danger is that we hear too much too soon. We think we have understood shunyata, err on the side of the absolute in a nihilistic fashion, and are obscured by concepts. Nagarjuna said, "it is sad to see those who mistakenly believe in material, concrete reality, but far more pitiful are those who believe in emptiness." Those who believe in things can be helped through various kinds of practice, but those who have fallen into the abyss of emptiness find it almost impossible to re-emerge, since there seem to be no handholds, no steps, no gradual progression, and nothing to do.

Nyoshul Khenpo

elements

noreply@blogger.com (Mary Rees) — Sat, 18 Jul 2009 03:03:00 +0000

"All along the vast extent of samsara's journey, we have become ingrained in misconceptions about things all around us, believing mere forms to be facts of life. The truth is that all things, big or small, in the ultimate sense, are a mere heap of elements, a mass of elements, a collection of elements, a lump of elements, and nothing more. The definitive insight is the first light of the Buddha's Teaching, knowledge in comprehending the Dhamma...

Earth has the property of hardness or softness. This property is the earth element, in the ultimate sense.

Water has the property of cohesion or liquidity. This property is the water element, in the ultimate sense.

Fire has the property of heat or cold. This property is the heat element, in the ultimate sense.

Wind has the property of support or motion. This property is the wind element, in the ultimate sense.

The meaning of these four great elements should be digested and learned by heart."

from The Manual of Light by Alan-Kyan
translated by Ledi Sayadaw

Insight, Mindfulness, and God

noreply@blogger.com (Mary Rees) — Thu, 04 Jun 2009 14:21:00 +0000

…the blazing fire, by means of that flame which burns ardently with a gentle breath, offers to the human a white flower, which hangs in that flame as dew hangs on the grass. It’s scent comes to the human’s nostrils, but he does not taste it with his mouth or touch it with his hands. And thus he turns away and falls into the thickest darkness, out of which he cannot pull himself. And that darkness grows and expands more and more in the atmosphere.

Hildegard of Bingen Book Two: The Redeemer and Redemption, Vision One, The Redeemer (from her Scivias as translated by Mother Columba Hart, OSB, and Jane Bishop. Creation and Christ: The Wisdom of Hildegard of Bingen. New York: Paulist Press, 1996: pp 49-50)

In this passage, I particularly love the phrase ‘that flame which burns ardently with a gentle breath.’ That combined with a delicate white flower offered hanging on the flame bring together some apparently impossible images. I see it as an invitation to come into direct contact with the source, with wisdom, with God, if the word God does not limit your openness to further unfolding of God’s self to you.

I understand here an invitation to tasting and living the experience of God, to not getting lost in discussion, philosophizing about God, assuming that with our minds alone we can know God, but instead to fully live the experience. We can easily get lost and out of touch with what is real through the creations of our minds, getting further and further removed from what is true. Reason has its place, but it is a human tendency to get lost in the concepts, removing our selves from our own immediate experience, our open invitation to meet this flower and gentle breath of the flame in any and every waking moment.

Buddhist practices support this understanding and practice of the Christian message. For the Buddhist practice does not speculate about God. It just says, live your life with integrity. Explore and trust your direct experience. Combined with a Christian perspective, if you live your life with integrity, tasting and experientially exploring the fullness of all your ways of knowing, you will meet God face-to-face. You will live God.

love is a river

noreply@blogger.com (Mary Rees) — Sun, 05 Apr 2009 20:42:00 +0000

a road might end at a single house
but it's not love's road

love is a river
drink from it

from a friend, Mary B, quoting Rumi

insight refrain

noreply@blogger.com (Mary Rees) — Mon, 09 Mar 2009 19:19:00 +0000

INSIGHT REFRAIN OF THE SATIPATTHANA SUTTA

This passage is offered repeatedly in the Satiptthana Sutta with slight variation to apply to each segment of the sutta.

"In this way, in regard to the body s/he abides contemplating the body internally, or s/he abides contemplating the body externally, or s/he abides contemplating the body both internally and externally.

S/He abides contemplating the nature of arising in the body, or s/he abides contemplating the nature of passing away in the body, or s/he abides contemplating the nature of both arising and passing away in the body.

Mindfulness that 'there is a body' is established in him/her to the extent necessary for bare knowledge and continuous mindfulness.

And s/he abides independent, not clinging to anything in the world. "That is how in regard to the body s/he abides contemplating the body."

Listen to the passage at http://www.citta101.org/audio/insightrefrain.mp3

A contemplative practice to use with this passage http://www.nutpub.com/insightrefrain.html

four noble truths

noreply@blogger.com (Mary Rees) — Thu, 05 Feb 2009 13:40:00 +0000

Now this, monks, is the noble truth of suffering: Birth is suffering, aging is suffering, death is suffering; sorrow, lamentation, pain, distress, and despair are suffering; association with the unbeloved is suffering, separation from the loved is suffering, not getting what is wanted is suffering. In short, the five clinging-aggregates are suffering.

And this, monks, is the noble truth of the origination of suffering: the craving that makes for further becoming — accompanied by passion and delight, relishing now here and now there — that is, craving for sensual pleasure, craving for becoming, craving for non-becoming.

And this, monks, is the noble truth of the cessation of suffering: the remainderless fading and cessation, renunciation, relinquishment, release, and letting go of that very craving.

And this, monks, is the noble truth of the way of practice leading to the cessation of suffering: precisely this Noble Eightfold Path — right view, right intention, right speech, right action, right livelihood, right effort, right mindfulness, right concentration.

emptiness

noreply@blogger.com (Mary Rees) — Fri, 21 Nov 2008 00:50:00 +0000

The Buddha spoke of emptiness as an open space where the idea of being an isolated and permanent self is no longer able to ensnare one. This emptiness is “the abode of a great person,” where one can encounter and respond to the world in a selfless but caring perspective.

A bleak nihilistic void in which meaning and value have been lost is the exact opposite of what the Buddha meant by “emptiness.” For him, an understanding of emptiness transformed a compulsive cycle of fears and cravings into a path of wisdom and care that enhanced inner freedom and empathetic responsiveness. Rather than an absence of meaning and value, emptiness is an absence of what limits and confines one’s capacity to realize what a human life can potentially become.

Stephen Batchelor
Living with the Devil: A Meditation on Good and Evil p. 7

downward mobility

noreply@blogger.com (Mary Rees) — Mon, 06 Oct 2008 14:42:00 +0000

Twenty years ago we were discussing downward mobility as an option for taking responsibilty for our cultural over consumption. We were also aware that if we did not make the choice, sooner or later simpler lifestyles would be imposed on us.

Today the freedom of simplicity may not be a free choice anymore, but a necessity. However, there is no reason it cannot be a happy choice. In fact, the big surprise may be how happy we are when we can say yes to downward mobility!

From my summer reading: Susan Bonne, Living Small in the Big Woods. The Ely Summer Times: 2008, pp.13-14.

In Not so Big House, Sarah Susanka notes that "we long for a sense of shelter and comfort...but tend to use words like 'spacious' and 'expansive' to describe what we think we want." What most of us actually want is a place that feels 'spacious' and 'expansive;' or to put it another way, to feel less cramped by our over-busy lives and too many obligations, possessions, chores, lists.

Paradoxically, living small makes that possible. Less square footage equals less stuff. What isn't owned doesn't have to be maintained, cleaned, or stored, which frees up time and other resources for more fulfilling pursuits, from gardening to travel to playing with the kids.

Less space means a lower (or no) mortagage, lower taxes, and lower utility bills. A smaller footprint also has less impact on the environment, destroys less wildlife, and requires less energy to heat and cool.

wisdom of non-attachment

noreply@blogger.com (Mary Rees) — Mon, 11 Aug 2008 15:01:00 +0000

For what purpose, friends, is the spiritual life lived under the ascetic Gotama [the Buddha]?
It is, friends, for the fading away of lust [clinging] that the holy life is lived...
Excerpt from SN 45:41-1

I added clinging to the passage above because when we read lust we usually think of lust of a sexual nature. But lust or clinging (attachment or grasping) refers here to a more general wanting, any effort to escape the flow of our experience of the present moment.

The result of effort away from what is true in the moment, whether we do it through grasping, avoiding, or ignoring, is a cause of suffering. Lust is the root of hostilities and violence. Choosing openness to the moment is the most important thing we can do to end suffering in our lives and open to happiness.

Dealing immediatly with these automatic responses is not the same as actions we might want to take. Skillful actions can only arise out of awareness and acceptance of our experience as it is. This is what is true in the moment. It is then skillful to take action when circumstances require it. This is Wisdom.

inexaustable love

noreply@blogger.com (Mary Rees) — Sun, 13 Jul 2008 22:02:00 +0000

How many people live a boring and sterile life in this world,
loveless, looking for love to fill them but never finding it.

Or suffering the bitterness of disappointed love.
Or the anquish of impossible, lost, or forbidden love,
and not finding fulfillment.

Or the sadness of love returned that does not satisfy.

These people could be overwhelmed with love
and their limitless capacity for love, tenderness, and self-surrender
could be filled, if they would only turn inwards
to the inexaustable love that lives and breathes within them.

Ernesto Cardenal

insubstantiality

noreply@blogger.com (Mary Rees) — Sat, 28 Jun 2008 17:59:00 +0000

The body's like a ball of foam,
And feeling is like a bubble;
Perception is like a mirage,
Formations like pithless trees,
And consciousness is like a trick;
-So says the kinsman of the sun.

However one reflects on them,
And carefully investigates:
They are empty and deserted
To one who sees them properly.
...
No essence is discovered here.

S 22:95

Read a comment on this passage in the newsletter - www.citta101.org/newsletter.htm

interpersonal practice

noreply@blogger.com (Mary Rees) — Wed, 18 Jun 2008 17:16:00 +0000

The mind emerges from the activity of the brain, whose structure and function are directy shaped by interpersonal practice.

Daniel Siegel, The Developing Mind, p.1

This critical value of interpersonal practice is the reason we make interaction part of our meditation practice.

mindful vs mindless

noreply@blogger.com (Mary Rees) — Mon, 02 Jun 2008 02:43:00 +0000

A May 27 article in the New York Times describes the enthusiastic application of mindfulness meditation in therapeutic settings and concludes that the real issue in research with meditation, mindfulness [and therefore the validity of research results], “is whether the science will keep pace and help people distinguish the mindful variety [of meditation practice] from the mindless.”

“Mindfulness meditation is easy to describe.” However, grasping its depth, its profundity, and integrating the practice into all life experience (not to mention into therapies), is a gradual process that requires careful attention, committed and long time practice.

Note: This article will be of interest to mental health professionals. Free registration is required to view the entire article at this New York Times address.

another reason to practice

noreply@blogger.com (Mary Rees) — Fri, 14 Mar 2008 04:35:00 +0000

"stepping to right of our left hemisphere"

the awesome experience of a stroke through perceptions and language of neuroanatomist, Jill Bolte Taylor

http://www.ted.com/talks/view/id/229

saying yes to life

noreply@blogger.com (Mary Rees) — Fri, 07 Mar 2008 14:28:00 +0000

Security is mostly a superstition. It does not exist in nature, nor do the children of humankind as a whole experience it. Avoiding danger is no safer in the long run than outright exposure. Life is either a daring adventure or nothing at all.

Helen Keller

a new earth with e tolle

noreply@blogger.com (Mary Rees) — Mon, 03 Mar 2008 00:01:00 +0000

Oprah's webclass with Eckhart Tolle on his book A New Earth begins Monday evening. It is a teaching consistent with Vipassana (Insight and Mindfulness) and with Being Prayer-Transforming Consciousness.

I understand that you need to sign up tonight if you wish to participate. Sessions are available live on Monday nights at 8 pm but also later as downloads.

This is a link to the course or go to Oprah's website to find it yourself