| Thought for the day: June 1, 2007 feeling sluggish and dull, and alert and energetic. This applies to vegetarians as well as feeling sluggish and dull, and alert and energetic. This applies to vegetarians as well as non-vegetarians. (For more visit Meditation page and scroll to "Vegetarian Fundamentalism."Fundamentalism." |
| Thought for the day: June 2, 2007 am the Buddha, but you have yet to realize it." am the Buddha, but you have yet to realize it." The sutras teach us that "all living beings have the Buddha nature, and it is only because of false thinking and attachments that they fail to realize it." It is important to understand what this is saying, because if we don't, we will view enlightenment as a sort of add-on that we create, rather than something fundamental to our nature. |
| Thought for the day: June 3, 2007 The sutras say that there are "84,000 dharma doors" to suit the natures of all living beings. This metaphorical number represents the vast variety of Buddhist teachings. When we first begin to practice the dharma it is easy to feel overwhelmed by the vast choice of methods. It is sort of liking walking into a Walmart rather than a small convenience store. Rather than becoming overwhelmed by the choices, concentrate on a simple meditation practice, mindfulness of breathing, for example, or mantra recitation, and stick with it until you get it right. It is important not to jump around from practice to practice; if one starts with the basics there should be no need to. The most basic practice takes years to unfold and develop. A simple practice pursued with sincerity and commitment can lead to profound realization. |
| Thought for the day: June 4, 2007 Yoga asanas (postures) can be just exercise or a form of meditation; it all depends on motivation. When asanas are approached with humility and focus one gains the benefits of physical as well as spiritual growth. Yoga asanas when practiced as a meditation often avoid the pitfalls of seated meditation, such as laziness and torpor. They purify energy channels that enable us to feel more energy in seated meditation, as well as our everyday life. In addition to yoga asanas, pranayama, breathing exercises, are also a great aid, with similar benefits as asanas. These should be practiced with particular care. An excellent book on pranayama is Iyengar's, "Light on Pranayama." His book, "Light on Yoga," is an excellent yoga reference, as well. |
| Thought for the day: June 5, 2007 Avoid what I call the "self proclaimed enlightened ones," those New Age teachers with no lineage or certification. These teachers often say that they are Buddhist or Hindu, but have no formal training in these disciplines. Relying on their own interpretations they go on to teach others and no one benefits. |
| Thought for the day: June 6, 2007 Karma is action; karmic retribution is just the result. Karma ripens immediately or in the future; but it never fails. Sometimes we may wonder why unpleasant things are happening to us, especially when we are living in a good way. But, karma does not dance to our tune and plays itself out in its own, often mysterious ways. If things are not going right in our lives, it is important to understand it may have nothing to do with our present actions or recent actions. It is important to understand this because sometimes it can be discouraging when things go wrong despite every effort to live in a dharmic way. |
| Thought for the day: June 8, 2007 To recite mantras all day long with a mind scattered thinking about this and that has little benefit. The same could be said about all practices. |
| Thought for the day: June 9, 2007 It is tempting to seek out a quiet place for meditation, or to avoid meditation because the place is too noisy. But, from my own experience and what I learned from my Teacher, there is no such thing as a place conducive to meditation. If one's mind is in turmoil, wherever one meditates will be unsuitable; if ones mind is at peace, then anywhere is OK. The same thoughts we have in a noisy apartment will travel with us to a quiet cave. Desire, anger, jealousy, greed and other disturbing emotions do not disappear because the environment changes. The best place for mediation is wherever one happens to be. |
| Thought for the day: June 10, 2007 Some New Age books proclaim the importance of living in the "Now." But, I wonder, what choice do we have? We certainly cannot bring the past forward or the future to us. And as Bob Dylan says, "The present now will later be past," I might add, "the present now will later be future ( as a conditioning factor.") There is no denying that the three periods of time condition one another. Our so called "Now" is what it is because of the totality of past conditions, while our future will be conditioned by the present. The "Now" advocates would like us to step into an idealistic present reality that is somehow disconnected from all that is unpleasant from the past --- an impossible feat. Many of the "Be Hear Now Advocates" of the 60's realized the impossibility of their effort and got serious about acknowledging their past wrong views, renounced drug induced highs, adopting the hard path of meditation, study, and discipline, and cleaned up their past by not doing the same mistakes again. The rest crashed and burned. |
| Thought for the day: June 12, 2007 The Vissudhimagga uses the analogy of a skilled archer to describe the right balance of effort required to practice the dharma properly. If an archer pulls too hard on his bow, his arrow will overshoot the mark; while, if he does not pull hard enough, the arrow will fall short. In our practice of the dharma the right amount of effort is important. If we work too hard, we burn out and become discouraged, not hard enough, and we fall back. A steady, balanced, application of effort is the best way to make gains. |
| Thought for the day: June 13, 2007 I had a friend who often experienced a clear light during meditation which he claimed was caused by the rising of his Kundalini; even though he never had a Master certify the experience. Some years later, I visited an accomplished yogi in India who had been practicing meditation in the cave where I visited him for eighteen years. During the course of our visit he described how the kundalini rises and I mentioned my friend and how he had a similar experience. But, the yogi was having none of it, and looked at me in dismay and said, "There are many lights, Rick!" The point was well taken, for it caused me to realize the importance of not certifying ones own states of mind. Whether my friend experienced the Kundalini or not, I will never know. But, the importance of not interpreting one's own states was made clear to me by the yogi's comment. |
| Thought for the day: June 16, 2007 settling them firmly in the mind and calmly analyzing them to discover where they have settling them firmly in the mind and calmly analyzing them to discover where they have their roots. It does little good to trim weeds, but if you take out their roots they cannot come back again.come back again. |
| Thought for the day: June 17, 2007 Discipline is an important aspect of any spiritual practice; but it should never be practiced for its own sake. Side by side with discipline, a keen interest in the dharma must also be cultivated, as well as meditation skills. The disastrous results of discipling sexual desire, for example, without properly channeling the energy, has been amply demonstrated in modern times by priests of one of the worlds "great" religions. This is not because celibacy itself is a problem, but because sexual desire bottled up is. While some Buddhist and Hindus practice celibacy, these schools teach yogic and meditation techniques that make sure the power sexual energy is properly channeled when adopting the celibate lifestyle. There are many other disciplines that one may adopt to support one's practice. But, do not practice a discipline, unless you can do it without having it backfire on you. |
| Thought for the day: June 19, 2007 It is human nature to seek the easiest way to accomplish a goal; but this very human inclination seldom is of value in our ordinary affairs, let alone spiritual ones. It is far better to assume early on that great effort will be required to reach a spiritual or worldly goal, than to live under the delusion that everything will happen "naturally." The mind by nature will seek the path of least resistance, like water it will flow to the lowest point. No wonder the sutras teach: "go against the flow." |
| Thought for the day: June 21, 2007 Sometimes Buddhists will make statements about not "believing" in God or any form of creator; without a clear understanding of the philosophical implications of such a belief. Not believing in God without understanding why is just as bad as blind faith in God. A person who lives righteously in love and devotion to God, is certainly better off than an arrogant Buddhist denying God without a deep understanding of Buddhism's |
| Thought for the day: June 22, 2007 The Taoist master Chung Tse said: "I don't know about doing things, I just know about leaving things alone." A good deal can be learned from this. Taoism was one of the main belief systems in China before Buddhism's arrival, and readily adapted to Buddhism's more structured approach. The Taoist "non-doing" was not a selective kind of inaction, whereby one simply lets go of one's responsibilities. It is rather a fine tuning of one's awareness to recognize when it is best to stay out of the way. Often we do not allow things time to run their natural course. We are so concerned with the outcome that we eagerly manipulate conditions to unfold as we wish. But, in our ignorance, as we wish, may not be best. Often a little bit of patience will go along way to assure that our dreams come true |
| Thought for the day: June 24, 2007 A good deal can be learned from what goes on between thoughts. When meditating ask yourself, " apart from thoughts, who am I?" Thoughts often relate to and events, but apart from things and events, what is there? When the mind is calmly observed, our thinking is about things, events, self, and others. Just as the gravitational field of various heavenly bodies cause then to orbit around one another, the smaller orbiting around the larger, so too does our everyday thinking orbit around things and events, etc. Basically, we are caught in the gravitational field of our desire mind; the mind of our personal world. Through meditation and analyses we can familiarize ourselves with the realm limited to personal awareness and begin to gradually gain freedom from its attraction. We will begin to see a pattern in our normal thinking and question whether or not it is possible to step outside of the pattern. This very questioning is the inquiry that will gradually undermine the view of ourselves as distinct and separate individuals. |
| Thought for the day: June 25, 2007 The Path to realization is a long one extending over many lifetimes. It is important to appreciate the Path itself and find happiness in walking it. Goal driven practice is sure to end in failure because being anxious about results only gets in the way. Just as we ideally would give a gift without hope for reward or recognition, should |
| Thought for the day: June 26, 2007 "Everything is a test, to see what we will do. If you don't recognize what is before your face, you will have to start anew," Master Hsuan Hua. My teacher often said this to his disciples, and of course it is true that life is full of many challenges, both spiritual ones and conventional ones. Of course, we create the challenges before us by the aspirations we develop. The importance of creating worthwhile aspirations cannot be over emphasized; for it is in this way that we give our lives meaning. Just recognizing a truly meaningful direction in life is difficult enough, achieving it is full of many obstacles |
Tantra is one of the most misunderstood schools of Buddhism and Hinduism. There is nothing at all "sexy" about Tantra. Although the New Age interprets otherwise, Tantra, with few exceptions, is practiced without a partner. While kings contributed to the current delusion by funding temples and art of deities in union, it is important to bear in mind that they were simply using their wealth to give expression to their personal erotic fantasies (often carried out in the royal court.) There is absolutely no scriptural basis for any of it. Those who busy themselves with Tantric seminars often site these bogi depictions to give credence to their capitalistic ambitions, while deluded followers seeking justification to cloak their sexual appetites in religious garb are all too eager to follow them. As simple human beings, not yet free of carnal desires, to imitate the Gods and Goddesses in union, as often depicted in Tantric art, is delusional and distructive.A cursory study of the ancient Tantric texts, makes it clear that such depictions are merely symbolic representationss of the union of positive and negative energies complete within each one of us. These "male" and "female" energies can be balanced within by the practice of Tantra. |
| should be given towards what constitutes the best diet for a practitioner. Many will say that a vegetarian diet is best for dharma practitioners, but there is much more to consider. While it is true that both Hindu and Buddhist scriptures advocate not killing living creatures for our own survival, it is also advocated that food should be taken as medicine and not for entertainment. Greed for fine flavors and excessive eating afflicts vegetarians as much as meat eaters and creates the same obstructions. Too much thought about food reflects a mind that is not doing the work it should be doing, whether the thoughts are about a fine steak or a mango. There are more reasons for being a vegetarian than simply adhering to harmlessness. Aside from not killing, a vegetarian diet is more conducive to the meditative and compassionate frame of mind .Hinduism breaks down food into three categories, satvic, rajistic, and tamusic; (broadly meaning,) pure, agitating, and heavy. Rajistic food agitates the mind and tamusic food makes it heavy. Meat is both. Satvic food is pure and does not contribute to heaviness or disturbing emotions. In addition to eating right, one also must eat with proper mindfulness and a sense of gratitude. A vegetarian who is a guest of someone who offers him a non-vegetarian dish should either not eat or eat with gratitude. The Buddha made it a point to eat what was offered to him and instructed his monks (who begged for their food) to be non-selective when seeking alms. In addition, monks are instructed to eat with mindfulness, either reciting mantras or considering all the aspects of the food they are eating---the work that goes into growing it, transporting it, preparing it, medicinal value, etc. Eating with a scattered mind greatly diminishes the value of our food and it behooves us to adopt the mindfull disipline of the monks while taking our meals. Eat healthy, think healthy, and always be a little hungry. |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |