“Suffering and Possibility” by Norman Fischer

“Upgrading Our Practice” by Tsoknyi Rinpoche

“Greet Each Moment as a Friend” by Sylvia Boorstein

Some of the ideas covered in these readings, as summarized by Melvin McLeod in his Introduction, are

• difficult times are inevitable, but whether we suffer or not depends on how we react to that difficulty
• by facing difficulty with an open heart, we discover insight, love, and courage
• the basic practice is to stop everything we’re doing and just look at what’s happening
• the best way to be happy ourselves is to put others’ happiness first
• the only really solid ground is open ground

Chapter 18: The Four Reminders
The reminders of why to make a continual effort to return to the present moment are:
1) Our precious human birth: Realizing how precious life is becomes one of your most powerful tools. No matter how bad it gets, this feeling of gratitude for your life takes you into any realm.
2) The truth of impermanence: We don’t know if we have 30 more years to live, or 30 days, or 3 minutes; this heightens our sense of gratitude for our life. With mindfulness practice, we can see every little movement and change of the mind and of the body, and sense how amazing that is.
3) The law of karma: It’s important how we live. Every time you are willing to come back just to nowness, you are sowing seeds for your own future, cultivating wakefulness by letting go of habitual ways to do something fresh.
4) The futility of continuing to wander in samsara: The essence of samsara is the tendency to seek pleasure, security and comfort, and avoid pain, groundlessness and discomfort. That’s how we keep ourselves miserable, unhappy, and stuck. Samsara is preferring death to life; but when we break out of its cycle, the walls fall down, the cocoon disappears, and we are totally open to whatever may happen, replacing our preference for death with life.

Chapter 16: Sticking to One Boat
You can hear the Dharma from many different places, but you are uncommitted until you hear it in a particular way that rings true in your heart and you decide to follow it. It’s best to stick to one boat; otherwise, the minute you really begin to hurt, you’ll just leave or look for something else. It’s best to stick with one thing and let it put you through your changes. When you have really connected with the essence of that and are on the journey, everything speaks to you and educates you.

Chapter 15: The Dharma that is Taught and the Dharma that is Experienced
The Dharma that is taught has been transmitted continuously in books and lectures in a pure and fresh way since the time of the Buddha: in many flavors, but the essence has remained the same. It is like a precious jewel brought out into the light and shown to everyone, or like a beautiful golden bell, rung so everyone can hear it. The Dharma that is experienced is not different, though it may feel different. When you hear the teachings, they may resonate in your heart and inspire you, but you may not see what they have to do with your everyday life. But as you continue to study, you will discover that nothing you have heard is separate from your life. Dogen said, “To know yourself or study yourself is to forget yourself, and if you forget yourself then you become enlightened by all things.” That’s all we need: to realize that the Dharma and our lives are the same thing. The Dharma doesn’t tell you what is true or false; it just encourages you to find out for yourself, to use your life to wake you up rather than put you to sleep. If you spend your life trying to find out what awake means and what asleep means, Pema says she thinks you might attain enlightenment.

Chapter 14: Not Preferring Samsara or Nirvana
There are two common forms of neurosis: in the first, we get caught up in worry, fear, and hope over things, activities, relationships, and politics. This is samsara: continually trying to get away from pain by seeking pleasure and going around and around and around in the process. In the second, we get caught up in nirvana: peace and quiet, liberation or freedom. Experiencing clarity or bliss, we want to keep it going forever, resisting and resenting any kind of noise or change. A glimpse of sacred outlook causes some to become completely dissatisfied with ordinary life. The ego can use anything to re-create itself, whether it’s samsara or nirvana. Ultimate perfection must be some complete realization that samsara and nirvana are one, living fully with both, preferring neither, holding both in one’s heart.

Chapter 13: Taking Refuge
When we were infants we were totally dependent on others to take care of us. Whether we feel we weren’t nurtured properly or we feel we were fortunate that we were, in the present moment now we can realize that the ground is to develop loving-kindness for ourselves. In meditation, we create that ground. Taking refuge in the Buddha, the Dharma, and the Sangha does not mean taking consolation in them; rather, it’s an aspiration to leap out of the nest, ready or not, to be an adult with no hand to hold, to take off all our armor, to feel the ground of loving-kindness and respect for yourself even in the midst of the ongoing process of cultivating the openness and good-heartedness that allow us to be less dependent.

Chapter 12: Sending and Taking
This title chapter defines tonglen, the practice of cultivating fearlessness and bodhicitta, or opening the heart. Pema tells of how she had used her shamatha practice to shield herself against hurt and pain. Tonglen requires a lot of courage, but also gives you a lot of courage.  The essence of tonglen practice is that on the in-breath you are willing to feel the pain and suffering of the world; and on the out-breath you connect with joy, well-being, tenderheartedness, and send them out into the world to be experienced by everyone, saying, “Let me give away anything good or true that I ever feel, any sense of humor, any sense of enjoying the sun coming up and going down, any sense of delight in the world at all, so that everybody else may share in this and feel it.”

Chapter 11: Renunciation
The word “renunciation” seems negative, but it can be seen to mean letting go of holding back, or opening up to the teachings of the present moment. Or it can be thought of as a return to our original selves, which are fundamentally good and healthy. So renunciation is seeing clearly how we hold back, pull away, shut down, or close off, and then learning how to open. The journey of renunciation is, first, realizing you’ve come up against your edge, saying no to everything, and then softening, providing an opportunity to develop loving-kindness for yourself, resulting in playfulness – learning to play like a raven in the wind.

Chapter 10: Not Too Tight, Not Too Loose
The “Middle Way” may differ for each of us. Buddhism doesn’t tell you, but rather encourages you to find out for yourself, what is false and what is true. Trungpa Rinpoche gave us nine teachings to help us find the balance between “not too tight and not too loose.” They are resting the mind; continually resting; naively, or literally, resting; thoroughly resting; taming the mind, or a basic attitude of friendliness; pacifying, or dealing with negativity; thoroughly pacifying, about obstacles and antidotes; one-pointedness; and resting evenly.

Chapter 9: Weather and the Four Noble Truths
Instead of resisting the weather-changes of our suffering , we can use the energy of the earthquakes, the hurricanes, the wildness of earth, water, fire, and air to open up to the full experience of our interconnections with all life.

Chapter 8: No Such Thing as a True Story
Each of us creates our world according to what we think and believe in; holding on to beliefs limits our own experience of life. The beliefs or ideas that are not the problem. It is our stubbornness in insisting things be our own way. We choose to be blind, deaf, and dead rather than to see, hear, and be alive.

Chapter 7: Taking a Bigger Perspective
Practice brings us happiness because it gives us this bigger perspective on our whole life: that we are always at the center of the universe within a sacred space — a circle of precision, gentleness,  and mindful loving-kindness. To reiterate: this is our whole life. Everything that comes into this circle comes to teach us what we need to know.

Chapter 6: Joy
Each of us has in our heart a joy that is big, unobstructed, and always accessible to us; by focusing on our suffering and on the unpleasant, unacceptable, embarrassing, and painful things we do, we subtly forget this joy that is always there.

Chapter 5: The Wisdom of No Escape
Both brilliance and suffering are here all the time, interpenetrating each other. We see the beauty and wonder; and amazed, we are caught up in it all. An interesting, smelly, rich, fertile mess of stuff, it’s us: humanness.

Chapter 4: Precision, Gentleness, and Letting Go
The key to feeling more whole and less shut off is to see our limitations or hindrances with precision and gentleness; then, having seen them fully, by letting go and opening further, we begin to find that the world is more vast, refreshing, and fascinating than we realized. This chapter describes a specific meditation technique for working with precision, gentleness and letting go.

Chapter 3: Finding Our Own True Nature
The excellent horse moves before the whip touches its back. The good horse runs at the lightest touch of the whip. The poor horse doesn’t go until it feels pain. The worst horse doesn’t budge until the pain penetrates to the marrow of its bones. It’s best to be the really terrible horse; then we are inspired to try harder to find our own true nature, which is what our practice is about.

Chapter 2: Satisfaction
This body, this mind, these emotions, wherever we are, whatever we are doing, whatever we have is exactly what we need to be fully awake, fully alive, fully human. Satisfaction in this is the ground of loving-kindness.

Chapter 1:  Loving-Kindness
Our meditation practice isn’t about self-improvement or trying to get rid of our egos or our pain or all the other things about ourselves we don’t like.  It is about looking at and accepting ourselves with curiosity and maitri -- loving-kindness.

Q: What is the most important thing we can do to become enlightened?

A: Enlightenment isn’t far away; you don’t have to practice a long time; it’s here and now to some degree. When you drink tea, concentrating on it, seeing it’s something you like to do, and drink it mindfully not absorbed in anger, fear, worries or projects, that’s a kind of enlightenment. “There’s no way to enlightenment. Enlightenment is the way.” Drink your tea, walk, sit, eat your food, wash your clothes in happiness right here and right now.

Q: How can we deal with anger?

A: When anger comes up, know it’s there. “Breathing in, I know anger is in me. Breathing out, I take good care of my anger.” Don’t say or do anything; acting in anger can be very destructive. Breathe and walk mindfully to embrace, recognize, and bring relief to your anger. Other people don’t make us angry; they are secondary causes. We are the main cause because we water the seeds of our own anger. You can transform it when you look deeply and see that it comes from your wrong views and misunderstandings.

Q: Jesus and Martin Luther King Jr. and Gandhi were killed and you were exiled from Vietnam. Why do bad things happen to spiritual people?

A: Gandhi and Dr. King were not angry when they died, but felt compassion toward those who killed them, knowing it was anger, fear, and  misunderstanding that led to those actions.  When people are full of misunderstanding and fear, they can do violent things. In our practices of looking deeply, using loving speech, and listening deeply, we can help remove wrong perceptions, help each other stop being fearful and angry; then understanding and compassion will arise. We can stop war, prevent terrorism, and make peace in these ways, but not with the use of bombs and guns.

Q: We’ve heard about terminally ill people who have prolonged their lives after they started practicing Buddhism and meditation. What is the connection between illness and meditation?

A: Mindful breathing and walking can release tension in both the body and mind. When we don’t let tensions accumulate, the body’s natural capacity to heal itself can begin to work. When an animal gets wounded, generations of ancestors tell it what to do: it lies down and rests quietly for days until it is healed, then can get up and continue. We humans have lost this capacity for resting; we have forgotten how, and need to learn it again. Meditation is very healing, allowing nature to do its work.

Q: Our child is gravely ill. How can we transform our fear?

A: Looking deeply into reality, we can see that when conditions are right something can manifest beautifully. When they are not right, the manifestation can be stopped partway through. If a child doesn’t continue, he or she will seek other ways to come back. Thay tells of a winter in Plum Village when the buds of a Japanese quince tree were frozen and he concluded that there would be no flowers for the Dharma hall. But a week later new buds appeared and he knew there would be flowers after all. Babies are like this. If conditions are not right and a baby withdraws, don’t worry. You won’t lose her; she will come again. This is true with every species. Impermanence is a reality. Wisdom helps us stand firm, knowing that nothing is lost.

Q:What will happen to our consciousness after we die?

A: We’re very much on the surface of things. We can’t see ourselves or others clearly. That’s why our notions of birth and death, being and non-being, are very shallow. Buddhist meditation gives you a deeper perception of what is there. Don’t wait until your beloved dies to look deeply for him or her. Looking deeply, we see a river of cells, a river of feelings, a river of perceptions, mental formations, and consciousness. Consciousness, like the body, is not an unchanging, permanent entity. Both are streams, processes. Seeing a person deeply with eyes of signlessness, you won’t grieve when the outer form is no longer there. When the body disintegrates, your beloved is still there somewhere. Nothing is lost. If we don’t have this form, we have another form. Body, presence, and consciousness overlap and occupy all time and space. If we don’t have the cloud, we have rain; if we don’t have the rain, we have tea. That is the practice.

Q: Many of us activists are dedicated to the cause of peace, but we see so little progress we get discouraged. How do we avoid burnout?

A: The solution is found in the Sangha, from which you receive collective energy and support. Other brothers and sisters will help with the work so you will have some time to restore yourself. You must also have the courage to say no, so you won’t be overwhelmed. If you lose yourself, you cannot profit the world. Along with your compassion, preserving yourself provides you with the opportunity to serve others.

Q: Our planet is threatened by global warming, extinction of species, and pollution in our rivers and oceans. What can we as Buddhists do to help save the Earth?

A: The alive, abundant, beautiful Earth is a Pure Land, a true paradise, but we don’t know how to cherish and preserve her. That’s why we need the Buddha. He is not a god. He has awakened, and knows what’s going on. He is us. So practicing the Dharma helps us wake up to this beautiful planet that needs our protection. With collective awakening, things can move quickly, so everything we do should be aimed at bringing about collective awakening.

Q: Suppose I work in an industry that produces toxic poisons or that sells a harmful product or that causes conflict between people. How do I reconcile helping others while working in such a field? Should I quit my job?

A: Thay tells the story of an apparently wealthy man who came to visit him, troubled about his job designing nuclear warheads. He asked if he should quit his job. After considering the question, Thay told him he should continue his job, but mindfully. Despite the nature of his work, the man was doing it conscientiously, and if he were to quit a less mindful person might take the job and make matters worse. People with demanding jobs and all of us can be practitioners and Dharma teachers. A lawyer, for example, can practice looking deeply with compassion and help her clients do the same so that they may be healed and transformed. She must protect and speak for her client, from her heart; and she can help her client understand the opposing point of view. In court she can water the seeds of understanding and compassion in everyone, including the judge. Others there will observe and appreciate her practice.

We’re not fully enlightened yet, so we need the Five Mindfulness Trainings to help us make progress along our path. We don’t have to practice them perfectly. It’s good enough to know we are making steps in the right direction. If you have a job that goes against the spirit of the Five Mindfulness Trainings, you should look for the opportunity to get out of that situation into work that doesn’t harm humans and nature. The important thing is not to compromise when you’re determined to practice right livelihood.

Q: One of the most frequently used terms in Buddhist teachings is “listening deeply.” What does it mean to listen deeply?

A: Looking deeply means using mindfulness to become deeply aware of an object of concentration. This involves not just the eyes, but the ears as well for deep listening. We can also look deeply without using the eyes or ears, as when concentrating on our breathing. “When mindfulness is there in our mind consciousness, it does the work of looking deeply.” You can’t use your intellect to touch the root of impermanence, but must touch it in a deep way. This is the basis of vipashyana, insight meditation.

Q: How can we look deeply into our fear of death?

A: Looking deeply into our fear, we see the desire for permanence. Anger, fear, and despair come from wrong perceptions about being and non being. Looking deeply, we can see that these do not apply to reality. Nothing can die. Life is a process of constant change. A cloud can’t die; it can change into rain, snow, or ice, but it cannot become nothing. “Once you accept that with joy, there is no fear. That is the practice of looking deeply.”

Q: My parents are fundamentalist Christians. They don’t understand Buddhism and they say my wife and children and I are going to hell because we don’t accept their God. How can I communicate with them?

A: Viewing God as capable of violence and punishment rather than forgiveness and tolerance is a wrong view of God, a distortion. Those who believe there are enemies of God that have to be destroyed don’t realize that their way of seeing things amounts to intolerance and a desire to punish. “For God, there is no enemy.” Some fundamentalists can change their views if we deal with them with mutual understanding, loving speech, and patience. We should not condemn or attack, but help them realize their God is a little bit too small. To be a Buddhist is to try to protect the life, integrity, and safety of adults, children, and all living things; to practice generosity; to refrain from sexual misconduct; to practice deep listening and loving speech; to refuse to consume all the toxins readily available in society – the Five Mindfulness Trainings.

Q: How can we ensure that our home lives remain peaceful even when the world outside is not?

A: Thay recommends establishing a “breathing room,” “meditation room,” or “island of peace” in the home. If a room is not available, a small corner will be sufficient. Not a lot is needed; just a few cushions, a bell, and a flower. Any member of the family, including children, can take refuge here when he or she does not feel safe, strong, or stable. You will feel “a territory of peace within” immediately upon stepping into this space. When parents quarrel, a child might take refuge there, and seeing this, the parents may stop quarreling. When a partner is angry, she can go there and practice mindful breathing and listening to the bell. Her practice may inspire her child or the couple. If all the family sits there together first thing in the morning, last thing in the evening, or during times of trouble, they may find refuge, peace, and understanding together, improving family relations.

Q: I’ve been caring for my elderly parents for several years. I love them, but it’s a financial and physical burden, and I’m finding it more and more difficult. What can I do?

A: The essential practice is to look deeply to find understanding and to make love the foundation of our action and care. With love and gratitude at the foundation of our action, we will not feel tired or in despair. Sit and talk with your parents to find mutual understanding, and so everyone will know their limits. The situation will change, and become more pleasant. Taking care of our parents is taking care of ourselves.

Q: How can I forgive people who have hurt me, without condoning them or absolving them  of responsibility for their behavior?

A: Healing occurs when we generate energy of compassion and understanding. In the Buddha’s teaching, energy also comes from the vow, the determination, to help. If we are a victim, we can look around and see that others are suffering just like us; our compassion arises and we vow to protect and help those who have not yet seen the way to transformation. With these energies, we can “follow the path of Samantabhadra, the bodhisattva of great vows, to protect and heal others.”

Q. Whenever I’m doing one thing, my mind wanders ahead to the next thing or back to the last thing. What can I do to stop always thinking about the path not taken?

A. With concentration, mindfulness, and a one-pointed mind, “you have to be one hundred percent in the here and now.” Thay provides several examples: When crossing a bridge, you don’t think about the next bridge, but only the one you’re crossing right now. You can think about the next bridge later. The lawyer or doctor must concentrate on the client or patient before him right now, not thinking about those who will come later.

Q. I tend to idealize other people, and I get disappointed when they don’t live up to my expectations. What can I do?

A. Looking at a tree, you can appreciate what it has to offer: shade, beauty, and oxygen, remembering that you and the tree are interconnected. You can look at a human being in the same way, acknowledging your interconnection and appreciating what he or she has to offer without exaggerating.  Seeing things this way, we suffer less. If you see the Buddha as a god or creator, you harm both yourself and the Buddha. Practicing mindfulness, you can simply recognize things just as they are: the Buddha, the blue sky, your breath.

Q. I can’t imagine living without my camera or my cell phone. Is it wrong to be attached to these conveniences?

A. Mindfulness helps us see the pleasure in owning things without exaggerating that pleasure.  It’s wonderful to have a camera, but mindfulness helps us be at peace, seeing that it is also wonderful not having a camera. We want to keep things we value for a long time, and share them with others, but we want to upgrade to the newest version of the thing, throwing away the one we have. Manufacturers produce more and more, and we pollute the world with our castoffs. And in order to keep up, we have to work all the time, leaving no time for love or for developing sisterhood and brotherhood.  A simpler style of life that doesn’t make us believe we have to consume all the time can bring us much happiness.

To practice Right Livelihood is to earn a living without violating your ideals of love and compassion or any of the Five Mindfulness Trainings. Your livelihood can be an expression of your deepest self, or a source of suffering. Our vocation should be beneficial, or at least minimally harmful, to people, animals, plants, and the earth. We should be awake to all the consequences of our vocation, and if our work involves harming life, we should try to find another job. Many modern industries are harmful – even food production. Without the use of chemicals, it may be difficult for farmers to compete commercially. Working for companies that pollute the water or air, make weapons, or profit from people’s superstitions is not Right Livelihood.

Composers, writers, painters, and performers affect the collective consciousness; each artist needs to practice mindfulness so those who touch his or her work practice right attention. A young man who wanted to learn to draw lotus flowers went to a master, who invited him to sit by the lotus pond. He watched the flowers bloom and close; he watched them wilt, and watched the petals fall into the water, and then looked at the stamen. After ten days the master gave him a brush. Though his style was childish, his painting was beautiful because he had become the lotus.

Right Livelihood is our collective karma, and we can observe the interrelatedness of things. A schoolteacher may resist the suggestion to stop teaching and become a butcher, considering killing animals wrong livelihood. But if people didn’t eat meat, there’d be no need for butchers. And the teacher provides education for the butcher’s children. Right Livelihood is a collective matter; each person affects everyone else. The farmer who inherits his farm from his ancestors also inherits his ancestors’ habit energies. Though his intentions in caring properly for his animals are good, whenever he slaughters a cow it leaves an impression on his consciousness which will return to him later. Practicing mindfully, his insight will deepen and the way out of his situation will present itself.

Millions of people work in the arms industry, selling weapons to countries where food, not guns, is needed. Responsibility for this lies with all of us. We need to create jobs that allow everyone to avoid profiting from the weapons industry. Be grateful if your profession helps you realize your ideal of compassion. In the workplace,

• Do we breathe before answering the phone or making a call?
• Do we smile when we take care of others?
• Do we walk mindfully between meetings?
• Do we practice Right Speech?
• Do we practice deep relaxation after work?
• Do we encourage others to have jobs in the direction of peace and happiness?

Large donations made in church do not recompense for wrong livelihood; those receiving such donations should help the donor transform.

Right Livelihood is more than how we earn a paycheck. We may not be able to achieve it 100%, but we can go in the direction of compassion, reducing suffering in ourselves and in the world.

***

Each element of the Eightfold Path is contained in all the others, and each contains the Noble Truths. Practicing the Eightfold Path, we have the courage to face our suffering directly rather than run from it. It is not possible to practice one element without practicing all the others. This is the nature of interbeing, and is true for all the Buddha’s teachings.

The practice of Right Concentration is to cultivate a one-pointed mind. Chinese characters for concentration mean “maintaining evenness” or “the abode of true mind.” There are two kinds of concentration, active and selective. In active concentration, we welcome whatever comes, dwelling in the present moment with a clear mind, like a calm lake. In selective concentration, we choose an object and hold onto it, abandoning everything else.

We don’t use concentration to run away from suffering, but to make ourselves deeply present. This way, concentration comes naturally and gives rise to insight. Right Concentration leads to happiness, greater quality of life, and beauty. Concentration used to run away from suffering is not Right Concentration. We may need to escape our problems just for relief, but eventually we have to come back to face them. To be concentrated, we should be mindful; mindfulness brings concentration. When you are deeply concentrated, you are absorbed in, become the moment, lifted above sensual desires and craving, lighter and happier.

There are nine levels of meditative concentration: the Four Dhyanas – concentrations on the form realm, where joy, happiness, peace, and equanimity grow. The next five are on the formless realm, where you can see deeply into reality: the impermanent, nonself, and interbeing nature of the world. “Earth, water, air, fire, space, time, nothingness, and perceptions inter-are. Nothing can be by itself alone.”

• The object of the fifth level of concentration is limitless space, composed of non-space elements.
• The object of the sixth level is limitless consciousness, which we grow to see is also earth, water, air, fire, and space.
• The object of the seventh level is nothingness, where we see the intimate interconnections between people and between things, and go beyond outward appearances to “signlessness.”
• The eighth level is that of neither perception nor non-perception. We recognize our perceptions are at least partly erroneous and want to be in direct touch with reality.
• The ninth level is called cessation, of ignorance in our feelings and perceptions. It is a search for a place of non-suffering.

When practiced well, the ninth level of concentration shines light on reality and transforms ignorance. We see that others’ lives are as precious as our own because we see there is no discrimination between self and other. Perception and feelings are still there, but they are now free from ignorance.

Practicing the Concentration on Impermanence, see your beloved as impermanent and do your best to make him happy today. If you think he is permanent, you may think he will never improve. Practicing the Concentration on Nonself, touch the nature of interbeing in everything. Practicing the Concentration on Nirvana, you can touch the ultimate dimension and establish yourself in no-birth and no-death. There are hundreds of other concentrations, but these three are enough for our whole life; in fact, they are one. We have to live in the historical and ultimate dimensions at the same time, living deeply our life as a wave so we can touch the substance of water in us.

If you heard on the radio that the public was invited to join the Buddha for meditation on the Vulture Peak, all the seats on all the planes to India would be booked. Even if you got a ticket, there would be so many people, it still might not be possible for you to practice meditation with the Buddha, so why go? Do you want to go just so you can say you were there? People rush to the next  place, take a picture, then rush home so they can show their friends they were there. They were not able to be there in the here and now. They were not there, and that’s not the Buddha in the picture.

Don’t run around looking for photo opportunities. Instead, practice at home, and hold the hand of the Buddha while you walk. You have the reality; the person with the picture has only a sign. Walk, eat, drink, look at the morning star deeply; you can touch the ultimate dimension and walk with the Buddha.