Real Freedom December 27, 2009
Posted by Philip Ryan in : Buddhism, Daily Dharma , 1 comment so farFreedom means being able to choose how we respond to things. When wisdom is not well developed, it can be easily obscured by the provocations of others. In such cases we may as well be animals or robots. If there is no space between an insulting stimulus and its immediate conditioned response—anger—then we are in fact under the control of others. Mindfulness opens up such a space, and when wisdom is there to fill it one is capable of responding with forbearance. It’s not that anger is repressed; anger never arises in the first place.
-Andrew Olendzki, “Calm in the Face of Anger,” from the Fall 2006 Tricycle. Read the complete article.
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Taking a Risk December 23, 2009
Posted by Philip Ryan in : Buddhism, Daily Dharma , 1 comment so farIn order to practice, we have to surrender, we have to take a risk. Otherwise what we’re doing is standing back in order to judge, in order to feel superior. Often the obstacle is fear: we don’t think we’ll ever succeed. And so we’d rather stand apart and be cynical, to feel protected in that way, not having to try….
We need to be able to utilize the positive energy of wondering, of wanting to know the truth for ourselves and working to do that, and not get lost in cynicism or endless speculation.
- Sharon Salzberg, “Sitting on the Fence,” from the Fall 2001 Tricycle. Read the complete article.
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Finding Nirvana December 21, 2009
Posted by Philip Ryan in : Buddhism, Daily Dharma , 2 commentsWhen we’re idealistic, we—and many practitioners in Asian Buddhist countries as well—imagine that nirvana exists somewhere high in the Himalayas, reserved for monks who have meditated for the whole of their life. My own teachers—and other wonderful masters like Shunryu Suzuki Roshi—emphasize that nirvana is to be found here and now.
In the morning and evening chanting in the forest monastery we recite the Buddha’s words, that the dharma of liberation is ever present, immediate, timeless, to be experienced here and now by all who see wisely. Nirvana appears when we let go, when we live in the reality of the present. Sorrow arises when the mind and heart are caught in greed, hatred, and delusion. Nirvana appears in their absence. Nirvana manifests as ease, as love, as connectedness, as generosity, as clarity, as unshakable freedom. This isn’t watering down nirvana. This is the reality of liberation that we can experience, sometimes in a moment and sometimes in transformative ways that change our entire life.
- Jack Kornfield, “The Wise Heart,” from the Summer 2008 Tricycle. Read the complete article.
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The Wise Heart
Caring for Others December 20, 2009
Posted by Philip Ryan in : Buddhism, Daily Dharma , add a commentThe Buddha has suggested that we are without a mother and father to take care of things for us. Mother Earth, once thought to be all-forgiving and capable of absorbing any abuse we could heap upon her, is not the infinitely benevolent resource we thought she was. As we learn of our own mothers at a certain point of maturity, Mother Earth can and does get worn down by giving and forgiving in the face of our persistent demands. And our Father who is in heaven, though perhaps immensely old and lord over a host of devas (as the Buddhists view him), is nevertheless subject to the laws of karma and is not sufficiently omnipotent to make it all work out for us in the end.
If we do not care for one another, who else will care for us? Who among us has the right to say of another, “He is of no use to us?” For better or worse, whether we like it or not, we are all in this together. Learning how to care for one another is a central part of the path and of the practice.
- Andrew Olendzki, Ph.D., “Medicine for the World,” from the Summer 2008 Tricycle. Read the complete article.
Did you know that you can join a retreat with Sharon Salzberg right now? Tricycle Online Retreats have begun, and we’ve launched with Sharon’s teachings on Lovingkindness. To hear Sharon’s first teaching for free, click here. You can also become a Sustaining Member and have access to Tricycle Online Retreats throughout the year, including teachings, teacher Q&As, and discussions.
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Medicine for the World
The Happiness Revolution December 18, 2009
Posted by Philip Ryan in : Buddhism, Daily Dharma , 1 comment so farTo be truly happy in this world is a revolutionary act because true happiness depends upon a revolution in ourselves. It is radical change of view that liberates us so that we know who we are most deeply and can acknowledge our enormous ability to love. We are liberated by the truth that every single one of us can take the time and pay attention. That is our birthright. Our own happiness can change history, and it does.
- Sharon Salzberg, “Lovingkindness”
Did you know that you can join a retreat with Sharon Salzberg right now? Tricycle Online Retreats have begun, and we’ve launched with Sharon’s teachings on Lovingkindness. To hear Sharon’s first teaching for free, click here. You can also become a Sustaining Member and have access to Tricycle Online Retreats throughout the year, including teachings, teacher Q&As, and discussions.
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Facing Fear December 17, 2009
Posted by Philip Ryan in : Buddhism, Daily Dharma , 3 commentsFear is what happens when reality collides with our personal fiction. Our practice is based on expectations—expectations about who we are, why we are practicing, and what our practice should be. As our hope disintegrates, it may be replaced by fear. Our characteristics, personality, all of our beautiful plans and ideas are like snowflakes about to fall on the hot stone of our meditation practice.
-Lama Tsony, “Facing Fear,” from the Fall 2006 Tricycle. Read the complete article.
Did you know that you can join a retreat with Sharon Salzberg right now? Tricycle Online Retreats have begun, and we’ve launched with Sharon’s teachings on Lovingkindness. To hear Sharon’s first teaching for free, click here. You can also become a Sustaining Member and have access to Tricycle Online Retreats throughout the year, including teachings, teacher Q&As, and discussions.
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A Crossed Wire: Sharon Salzberg in The Huffington Post December 16, 2009
Posted by Philip Ryan in : Insight, Mindfulness, Vipassana , add a commentSharon Salzberg, who is leading Tricycle’s first online retreat, also found the time to pen this piece for the Huffington Post: “A Crossed Wire: A Call for Help.” Here’s a sample:
I had a strange experience the other day. The landline in my NYC sublet had intermittently stopped working, for days on end. No dial tone, or a strange sound of static, or a faint message about a receiver being off the hook (I only have one.) I made many calls to Verizon, had periods of false hope only to see the phone go again, and ended up with the cell phone number of the repairman…
Read the entire piece here.
Just Now
Posted by Philip Ryan in : Buddhism, Daily Dharma , 2 commentsThe mind can do wonderful and unexpected things. Meditators who are having a difficult time achieving a peaceful state of mind sometimes start thinking, “Here we go again, another hour of frustration.” But often something strange happens; although they are anticipating failure, they reach a very peaceful meditative state. My first meditation teacher told me that there is no such thing as a bad meditation. He was right. During the difficult meditations you build up your strength, which creates meditation for peace. We may want to spend much time—months or even years—developing just these first two preliminary stages, because if we can reach this point, we have come a long way indeed in our meditation. In that silent awareness of “just now,” we experience much peace, joy, and consequent wisdom.
-Ajahn Brahm, “Stepping Towards Enlightenment,” from the Fall 2006 Tricycle. Read the complete article.
Zen Healthcare in the 21st Century December 14, 2009
Posted by Philip Ryan in : Buddhism & Health , 2 commentsThe New York Times reported on the much-needed hospital chaplaincy work of monks from the New York Zen Center for Contemplative Care. The piece sheds light on the increasing need for chaplaincy work in hospitals, where resources are stretched very thin and bedside care isn’t what it used to be (if it ever was.)
Wendy Cadge, a sociologist at Brandeis University who is writing a book about hospital chaplaincy called “Paging God,” said data on the value of chaplains was slim.
“But people think chaplains are really helpful around end-of-life issues and increasingly complex ethical decisions,” she said, including organ donations, living wills and do-not-resuscitate orders.
“Chaplains do a lot to help reduce anxieties,” she added. “One study says patients and families who see a chaplain are more satisfied with their care.”
Religious services cannot be paid for with taxpayer money, so hospitals generally pony up themselves. The oerall cost is tiny and the chaplain’s value is well understood. The piece is worth reading in full—it’s short.
Do people really want to be happy? December 12, 2009
Posted by James Shaheen in : Buddhism, Politics, Tricycle , 12 commentsIn his Guardian review of Raj Patel’s The Value of Nothing, a critique of the failures of the free market, political philosopher John Gray doesn’t seem to have much hope for Buddhism as a cure for bubble economies. It’d help, he says, if enough people would give up their wants, but he doubts that’s about to happen any time soon. If, as the Dalai Lama says, everyone is looking for happiness, they might try giving up the endless pursuit of pleasure and find it. But Gray poses a leading question: Do people really want to be happy? He writes:
Oscar Wilde may have been right that people know the price of everything and the value of nothing, a remark [Raj] Patel cites at the start of his book, and which gives him its title. But what is value if it is not price? It is telling that when trying to flesh out a non-market account, Patel turns to religion, in this case Buddhism. The Buddhist tradition gives him what he needs – an understanding of human wellbeing that does not centre round the satisfaction of wants. Like the ancient European Stoic and Epicurean philosophies, Buddhism proposes that happiness lies in shrinking the self – in giving up our wants, rather than forever chasing after them. It is a thought that occurs to many well-off people from time to time, but it is hard to imagine large numbers of people ever acting on it.
Theories of value that focus on curbing desire run up against the demand for self-realisation, which is one of the strongest impulses in modern life. To be sure, the pursuit of self-realisation does not often result in happiness. But is it happiness that most people are pursuing? Or is it stimulus and excitement? In the Himalayan Buddhist kingdom of Bhutan, Patel informs the reader, the introduction of satellite television has been followed by a crime wave. He seems to think this fact somehow strengthens his argument. But what it tells us is that no culture can now resist the dangerous charms of a life spent in insatiable desire.
If you can stomach the above, you might want to read Gray’s Straw Dogs, but if hell-in-a-handbasket worldviews depress you, steer clear. Still, Straw Dogs is pretty brilliant and offers us plenty of food for thought (I’m lazy and picked a quote from Wikipedia, and I’m surprised I don’t remember it; it still packs a punch):
The most pitiless warriors against drugs have always been militant progressives. In China, the most savage attack on drug use occurred when the country was convulsed by a modern western doctrine of universal emancipation- Maoism. It is no accident that the crusade against drugs is led today by a country wedded to the pursuit of happiness- the United States. For the corollary of that improbable quest is a puritan war on pleasure.
Gray is no Suzy Sunshine—reading him can feel like running some sort of anti-humanist gauntlet—but he does remind me that I can grow so comfortable in my beliefs that unchallenged, they become meaningless.