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10/10/10 Global Work Party
Happy 10/10/10 everybody! From everything we're hearing, today might be the largest day of protest the planet has ever seen. People are working toward climate crisis solutions at thousands of events going on today in 188 countries. Learn more at 350.org. Image: Back issues of Tricycle magazine form "350." Scientists say that 350 parts per million CO2 in the atmosphere is the safe limit for humanity. More » -
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Chogyam Trungpa Rinpoche on Form
Today's Daily Dharma, Form is that which is before we project our concepts onto it. It is the original state of "what is here," the colorful, vivid, impressive, dramatic, aesthetic qualities that exist in every situation. Form could be a maple leaf falling from a tree and landing on a mountain river; it could be full moonlight, a gutter in the street or a garbage pile. These things are "what is," and they are all in one sense the same: they are all forms, they are all objects, they are just what is. Evaluations regarding them are only created later in our minds. If we really look at these things as they are, they are just forms. So form is empty. But empty of what? More » -
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Inner Freedom
Today’s Daily Dharma, If we lack inner freedom, any intense sensory experience can generate strong attachments that entangle us. On the other hand, if we know how to perfectly maintain our inner freedom, we can experience all sensations within the pristine simplicity of the present moment, in a state of well-being that is free from grasping and expectation. When desire is particularly intense and is experienced as an affliction, we begin by using antidotes. Two diametrically opposed mental states cannot arise at the same time toward the same object. For example, we cannot wish to harm and benefit another person at the same instant, just as we cannot shake someone's hand and give him a punch in the same gesture. The more we generate inner freedom from attachment, the less "room" there will be for craving in our mental landscape. More » -
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Researchers Point to Three Major Categories of Meditation
In her recent article on the Huffington Post, writer Jeanne Ball discusses the findings of various scientific studies on meditation. Of the many interesting points in the piece, she notes an "emerging paradigm" in which researchers, through measuring the electrical activity in the brains of subjects as they engage in different meditative techniques, have identified three major categories of meditation. The three categories are "controlled focus", "open monitoring", and "automatic self-transcending." *Controlled focus: Classic examples of concentration or controlled focus are found in the revered traditions of Zen, Tibetan Buddhism, Qiqong, Yoga and Vedanta, though many methods involve attempts to control or direct the mind. Attention is focused on an object of meditation--such as one's breath, an idea or image, or an emotion. More » -
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Thoughts on Buddhism and Prayer
I remember being very young and being given my first prayer wheel. I wasn't given any explanation or instruction aside from that it "had blessings in it" and that I was supposed to spin it clockwise. I don't recall ever spinning the wheel for anything in particular, but I do remember spinning it like crazy, over and over, for years, "just because." Then, in about first grade, as I had been learning more and more from my classmates about this magical all-powerful fellow in the sky named God, who frankly, sounded a bit far-fetched to me, I was inevitably asked if I prayed. My mind flashed to my countless hours with my prayer wheel, and for a second it seemed as if I had stumbled on to some common ground with my young Christian friends. I blurted out "Yes! I pray all the time!" Then, however, I was asked, "Who do you pray to?" More » -
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See Beyond "Black and White"
Today's Daily Dharma, The causes of any conflict lie in strong attachment to certain views, and the core of Buddha’s teaching is of great help here. All phenomena, in addition to being transient, arise and disappear according to a complex set of conditions. When we apply this truth to conflict, we give up the simplistic, black-and-white picture through which conflict is usually described and perpetuated. More »
