Daily Dharma - What’s the Biggest Obstacle to Meditation? September 1, 2009
Posted by Philip Ryan in : Meditation , trackbackThere are always obstacles to daily practice. Some are quite obvious: traveling, staying up really late, changing your schedule a lot. For the most part, I’ve found the difficult obstacles to be the ones that come from within, those mental tricks we all use—you know, it’s early, it’s cold, I can’t sit. The biggest obstacle is just the mind. You think you’ve got to get up right away and make some phone calls, or have breakfast, or go do this other thing. Your mind always tries to play these tricks. Things suddenly seem really urgent. For me the solution has been to create a schedule, to find myself some disciplined time, to just get up every day at seven no matter what. I’ve made a habit to get up, brush my teeth, sit—in that order—before I do anything else. And then, of course, after you sit you finish and you say to yourself, “What was so urgent that I felt I couldn’t sit?”
–Dan Rosenberg, from “Making Time to Meditate,” Tricycle, Spring 2001
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My biggest issue is the weekends. I’ve arranged my weekdays to have some quiet time for meditation in the morning, but on the weekends, my “mom hat” seems to stay on the entire time. Hate to set the alarm on the weekend, but I may need to if I can’t figure out when to sit.
wow … absolutely …. my mind is an invalidation machine! …. i’m up at 5:15 every morning precisely to start the coffee and sit before i begin my day …. and still there are those mornings … and still there are those mornings that, especially if i DRINK the coffee before is sit …. the discipline breaks and before i know it, i’m in the shower, feeding the animals, getting ready for work and the quiet time evaporates. …. and it does all start with my mind. thanks so much for sharing your experience too …. ‘mom hats’ just creep up on heads without effort it seems … hang in there …. we’re all right there with you!
A Zen teacher Dogo Barry Graham wrote: *Silent retreats are valuable. But they do not involve silence and they do not involve retreat.” Silence and meditation? I find the idea of obstacles in meditation as a koan. The expectations and attachments that I have to what I think meditation should or should not be are the only obstacles to my meditation. Mind tricks of my attachments to my ideas are far more insidious than momentary distractions or fleeting thoughts. What does this mean? Perhaps the voices, the thoughts racing through my head is the kenji reminiding me to pay attention? Not attention to the voices but to the reminder reminding me. Worrying about my inability to live up to what I think perfection is, is vain. There is no spoon.
*http://dogobarrygraham.blogspot.com/2009/08/no-silence-no-retreat.html
“Dogo” Barry Graham is not a “Zen teacher.” He is a fraud and con artist who desperately wants recognition. The Japanese temple where he was allegedly ordained, and where he claims to have received Dharma Transmission, doesn’t even exist, nor does Ando Yamashiro, his alleged former teacher. This was confirmed in a letter to one of Graham’s former students from the Soto Zen Buddhism International Center, the Japanese Soto-shu’s American affiliate. Once that bombshell dropped, back in March, Graham began claiming to be in Charlotte Joko Beck’s lineage. Unfortunately for Graham, Joko Beck has told her students that she has no plans to authorize any more teachers. Don’t believe Graham’s lies.
My biggest problem is that I have a night job and kids who wake up in the morning and need attention, and I like to meditate first thing.
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Rev “Dogo” Ninsen Barry Graham Sensei… has changed his name on his website… with the removal of Ninsen which happens to be the name of a cross street at a place where he claims to have sat in Glasgow. The name Dogo is a name given to him by Kabutso Malone who asked him not to use that name anymore. You can read all about it the Hoodie Monk website… and lastly he is now trying to rob the dharma from a 93 yr old zen master who has taken kindly to him… on his website for the sitting frogs it seems as though he is claiming a lineage from Ordinary Mind School even though it is public knowledge that Joko Beck isn’t making any more teachers and/or endorsing any more sitting groups… He falls way short of the enlightenment that he has self proclaimed for himself along with his title of Zen Master… don’t believe his lies…
http://gomyo.livejournal.com/39124.html?page=2
These are serious allegations and have appeared in detail on numerous Buddhist blogs without any substantial rebuttal or proof to the otherwise…
Barry can you please respond?
More on Barry Graham:
http://enlightenmentward.wordpress.com/2009/02/09/blogroll-change-and-policy-of-inclusion-for-those-listed-as-teachers-on-this-blog/
http://enlightenmentward.wordpress.com/2009/03/27/why-are-legitimate-religious-credentials-important-and-a-round-up-of-links-to-an-on-going-question/
Even more on Barry Graham:
http://ushiiro-geri.livejournal.com/tag/barry+graham
ps - one can’t help but notice Tricycle’s praise for Barry Graham conspicuously placed on his website… Perhaps it is time to reexamine that and listing his blog on Tricycle’s blogroll…
Dear John. Johnathon, Jaime, and others,
This post by a lay practitioner about what keeps us from meditating, is not the proper place to attack the credentials of a teacher on another blog or accuse him of wrongdoing. There are already other blogs devoted to this as noted in the comments above. You are free to post what you wish as long as it is not defamatory, but please be aware that we maintain the right to delete offensive posts or posts that offer nothing of value to our readers, i.e. spam.
Also please be aware that Tricycle is not in the business of endorsing teachers and that any comments relating to Mr. Graham refer exclusively to the writings on his blog, or an earlier incarnation of it, rather than to his teachings or the conduct of his sangha, with which we are not familiar.
Above all, we ask for civility here, and respect for the great teacher Charlotte Joko Beck, about whom, if you wish, you can read more here in a 1998 interview with Tricycle.
Sincerely,
Philip Ryan
Web Editor
Philip,
Thank you for the clarification.
I would say that these posts “question” whether Barry is qualified as a teacher at all. Tricycle’s listing his blog in which he claims a certain lineage and certain qualifications as a teacher that are unproven and in doubt as well as explicates his own teachings as a “Zen master” does seem to at least provide implicit support if not explicit endorsement. Also as noted previously Barry Graham very prominently displays praise from Tricycle on his website.
Could you please explain what are the criteria used to choose websites for display on the blogroll?
Respectfully,
John
Hi John — Our method is very informal. When people request a link, we usually provide it, unless the blog seems to have nothing to do with Buddhism. We don’t tend to take down links unless requested or the blog shuts down. Our blogs are not exclusively teacher blogs — many are the blogs of laypeople and general seekers.
Dear Philip,
I apologize that this was not the place. My comment was a direct response to the posting by Muttering Madzub, which appeared just above my own, that was promoting Mr. Graham and his blog. I don’t make it a practice to make random comments about Mr. Graham on unrelated blog postings (and I’m a frequent-ish Tricycle commentor who always stays on topic), however I am loathe to see people promoting him as a “Zen teacher.” The flap that occurred last spring between Mr. Graham and his now estranged friends is one on which one could easily maintain neutrality, if one did not know the more specific details behind it. However, the matter of the Soto Zen Buddhism International Center affirming that no such person as Ando Yamashiro - Mr. Graham’s alleged former teacher, preceptor and the person from whom he claims to have received Dharma Transmission - exists within the Japanese Soto-shu is easily verifiable and quite serious.
While I agree that it is unfortunate to bring this subject up on an unrelated blog posting, I do think that it is fair in light of the comment promoting Mr. Graham as a legitimate teacher. People who might read that comment have the right to know that Mr. Graham’s legitimacy has been more than just questioned, it has been outright disputed by an official representative of the religious body with which Mr. Graham claims to be affiliated.
If I were a reader of a blog that dispensed popular medical information, and a commentor on that blog posted a link to a doctor who I knew didn’t actually have a license to practice, I think that I would have a moral obligation to reveal that knowledge. While that analogy may seem overstated - the matter of teaching authorization in Zen can become grey in many cases - the fact is that self-appointed “Zen teachers,” like Mr. Graham, can do a lot of emotional and psychological damage to their would-be “students.” In fact, that’s a danger even when a teacher does have the appropriate authorization. How much moreso, then, when someone has simply decided for themselves that they are enlightened - as Mr. Graham repeatedly claims to be on his own blog - and are ready to teach others.
I don’t mean to say it’s not OK for a lay person to lead a little sitting group with friends, but to claim ordination and teaching authority from lineage that doesn’t even exist is worrisome - worrisome enough that I felt the need to point it out as a fair counterbalance to the endorsement above.
This is the last I’ll say about it. Indeed, I hadn’t intended to comment beyond what was already said, but I felt you deserved a clarification in response to your concern.
Thank you, Jaime, your concerns are understood and well laid out in your latest comment. The tone of this thread had taken such a turn from the initial post, however, that when it was called to my attention I was compelled to respond.
Unfortunately, one comment had to be removed from this thread because it used offensive language and provided no ground for its vitriolic accusations, and such things have no place here.
LATER: One further note regarding this matter, and other controversies of this sort. It would be edifying to our readers if sources or citations were provided, for example, links to Mr. Graham’s claim or claims to be enlightened, and to his claim to have been ordained by the Sotoshu. In the absence of specific citations we have only rumors.
-Philip Ryan
Web Editor
Enlightenment Ward made an extensive list of examples with citations from Mr. Graham’s blog which can still be seen at:
http://enlightenmentward.wordpress.com/2009/02/09/blogroll-change-and-policy-of-inclusion-for-those-listed-as-teachers-on-this-blog/
Coincidentally soon after this posting Mr. Graham deleted and purged his blog and started a new one…
One has to wonder…
Regardless his claims of Dharma transmission have been repeatedly challenged and never answered…
References to the assetions I made above are as follows:
Mr. Graham continues to claim that he received Dharma Transmission from an “Ando Yamashiro Roshi.” For now, that claim can be found on his own Web site, though his pattern has been to delete things like this once they’ve been pointed out: http://sittingfrogsangha.org/teacher.html
The communication I mentioned from the Soto Zen Buddhism International Center can be viewed in many places, inlcuding here:
http://ushiiro-geri.livejournal.com/tag/soto+zen+buddhism+international+center
This was published by James Atkerson, a former student of Graham’s who felt that something was off about his “teacher.” Rather than taking Mr. Atkerson’s word for it, though, anyone who is concerned about this matter could just as easily request the same information from the SZBIC in San Francisco, which is an official arm of the Japanese Soto-shu here in the U.S.
Thank you very much for the references, Jaime and John.
Phillip, I invite you and all your readers to peruse the
archive of information regarding Barry Graham.
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/Barry_Graham_Investigation_Archive/
I believe you will find all the substantiated evidence that anyone could provide.
I live in Prescott and sit with Ordinary Mind School. While Joko was giving a talk on one of her riddles… the conversation breifly turned to Barry Graham. One of her students asked, “is Barry a Student of yours.” She replied “no”. Than another student of hers informed that Barry claims to be a student of hers on his website. She replied, “he shouldn’t be doing that.” Than she launced off into talking about her cat (she loves metaphor) and how it likes to climb up on her bed and wrap itself around her head. She said there is nothing she can do about it because she doesn’t have the strength to push the cat away. And before she went back to the subject at hand she said, “she was through with breaking people down.” I hope Barry reads this and really does have enough love for Joko like he claims on his website to quit promoting himself by using her name.
I thought we were talking about obstacles in meditation not Dogo Barry Graham.? Interesting how the obstacles show up. The stick is working overtime!
Mind tricks of my attachments to my ideas are far more insidious than momentary distractions or fleeting thoughts.
Samsara at work.
Buddhist Vows by Joko Beck
Caught in the self-centered dream, only suffering.
Holding to self-centered thoughts, exactly the dream.
Each moment, life as it is, the only teacher.
Being just this moment, compassion’s way.
Peace!
Dear Johnathon Smith,
I had hoped to make clear that this forum is not the proper place to discuss the controversy regarding Barry Graham. Your claim regarding Charlotte Joko Beck is unsubstantiated. In the absence of an actual statement from the Ordinary Mind School, we are forced to regard your comment as hearsay and rumor to which we can pay, ahem, no mind.
Please refrain from comments regarding this topic in this thread going forward.