All Considering » Buddhism

Giving yourself permission to rejoice in what’s good…

Katinka - Spirituality — Sun, 25 Dec 2011 13:39:08 +0000

In the Discovering Buddhism program it’s often repeated that we should regret our bad actions, words and thoughts, but that we can also rejoice in what’s good.

Rejoicing is not a part of our Western Culture, especially Dutch culture. The Dutch are very good at complaining, my mom even suspects that this is one of the reasons why the Dutch are so happy: they get the negative out of their system.

However that may be, it is a bit weird that it’s so easier to focus on what’s bad, than on what’s good. I’m sure that’s partly because the good doesn’t need fixing, so why spend energy on it?

On the other hand: one sure way of ruining relationships is to focus only on the bad. A naughty child will usually do a chore as well as a ‘good’ child and in being productive they will feel good about themselves and behave (usually only a bit) better in class. A child that thinks that it can only do things wrong will never try and rectify the situation or try and please the teacher or parent.

From a karmic perspective rejoicing really is the opposite of miserliness. If we’re able to rejoice in the good that someone like Oprah Winfrey does, we won’t have as much energy left over to envy her. It’s pretty obvious that it’s a better use of our energy to do the first than the second.

In fact, rejoicing is said to be the lazy man’s route to good karma: you don’t have to meditate all day to get merit, you can just rejoice in someone else’s meditation practice. You don’t have to give to charity yourself, you can just rejoice in how well other people are doing.

You’ll find though that this is not easy: rejoicing in something someone else is doing well that you might have done is very hard. Instead you’ll find yourself resenting that person, which is your psychological defense mechanism against feeling guilty that you’re NOT doing that.

In that sense it’s much easier to just rejoice in Oprah’s good works and good intentions: she does things with her money most of us simply aren’t able to do. We don’t have her wealth, nor her connections, so we don’t have to feel guilty for not joining in.

Still, even in that case it’s apparently not self-evident that we rejoice. When I was in the Chicago area a few years ago I was told that in fact many people did NOT like Oprah or admire her. Perhaps it had something to do with people realizing the folly of making a show like hers: I met some people who knew people who’d been on it. They’d shared just how puffed up everything was, how they’d been forced to tell their story in a way that was out of proportion to how it really was.

Partly that’s simply how the media work: they tell a story and when any of us make the headlines we become part of the story they wish to tell. It’s only the really PR savvy celebrity who manages to make sure the media tell those aspects of the story that they WANT to have told. And even in that case it’s about making sure it’s a story that the media CAN tell their audience. I think the Dalai Lama succeeds pretty well at that, for instance.

Let us rejoice at that!

Similarly in Tibetan Buddhism we have permission to rejoice in the things we do well. Did you just give some money to charity? Good – rejoice! You don’t have to be proud, you don’t have to puff yourself up thinking you’re so great, but you don’t have to pull yourself down either. Just rejoice in having done something positive.

Though this post is not written on Christmas Day I’m publishing it on that day, for the few of you who aren’t spending this day with family.

Perhaps because it is Christmas Day we can share things we rejoice at. It can be personal things, or people we admire, or things in our lives we’re thankful for…

Best Buddhist Blogs

Katinka - Spirituality — Mon, 17 Oct 2011 13:47:25 +0000

I’ve done a list of best spiritual blogs several times. Now that I’m a Buddhist officially, it’s time to find out what the best Buddhist blogs of today are.

My criteria:

Last post in Oct. 2011
Something interesting to say
Controversy is good
Scholarly underpinning is good
Personal stories are good
Poetry: boring (sorry people)

So here we go in somewhat random order:

One of the best blogs about Buddhism: both thoughtful, personal at times and well-educated is the Buddhism blog at About.com by Barbara O’Brien. Her whole blog is worth reading, but one recent post that stood out for me was the one in which she discusses the recent statement by the Dalai Lama that the next Dalai Lama will be an ‘emanation’, not a ‘reincarnation’. The comments are well worth reading as well.

Another great Buddhist blog is a group blog by young Buddhists at the ID Project. The authors include Lodro Rinzler who writes the column ‘what would Sid’ do. Sid is short for ‘Siddharta’, aka Buddha, of course. Those posts are highly practical. For instance: should you call your ex?

Sweetcake Enso is a Zen Buddhist blog that is a breath of fresh air if, like me, you crave authors with a bit of historical perspective.
The latest post is interesting for instance, not merely because it’s a thoughtful look into the Zen discussion of ‘emptiness‘, but also because it goes into the Western terminology usually used to discuss it. We find mention of Dogen, Nagarjuna and ethics.

Bookbird is a personal look into the life of a Buddhist struggling from day-to-day. Heartrendingly real at times, as when she shares: “Something in me was weeping. Huge, ungoverned sounds were forced out. I choked on them as they arrived. I could bite my tongue out and they would still come. I was shouting into the air, I was screaming, I was crying. My face in the cold air was wet and raw.“

On Nothing to Attain you’ll find more personal inspiration from a woman on the Buddhist path. I loved her discussion of confidence (and humility) as well as her story about how to check ourselves in our ups and our downs.

Existential Buddhist is another blog on which the paradoxes of Western Buddhism get faced: how do we deal with the dogmatic side of Buddhism which our teachers can’t leave behind, but which are for us totally unacceptable? Well, first off, by realizing that it’s ok that Buddhism changes, like everything else.

From the context it becomes clear that Sujato’s Blog is a Theravada Buddhist blog. It’s activist on supporting raped nuns for instance. That’s great of course (not the rapes, but that the nuns get support, obviously) but the main reason I feature the blog here is the recent discussion of whether the Buddha’s views are permanent.

Truth is within is another Theravada blog, Thai Buddhist in fact. It too will help readers avoid idealizing Buddhism: the latest post is about monks raping children and how people hush it up. Obviously neither this monk, nor I, are trying to suggest that all monks do this. Just that monks are people too, and some of them cross the line and society needs to check them as they would anybody else who abuses kids (or sexuality in general). Yuttadhammo also offers advice on meditation though.

Buddhist Geeks is on the other end of the spectrum: modernist to a fault. In fact I’ve doubted whether to list them here at all. However, their post about the limitations of learning Buddhism online does deserve to be shared.

American Buddhist Perspectives is a scholarly blog written mostly from a Tibetan Buddhist perspective. It will keep you up to date on developments in Buddhist academia, like a recent conference on Buddhist Ethics.

One effect of how popular Buddhism is in the West these days is that ethnically Asian Buddhists living in the US feel marginalized. One of them writes a blog called Angry Asian Buddhist. See this lovely collection of youtube videos of young Western Asian Buddhists for instance.

The Buddhist Blog is the first one to come up in any Google search for ‘Buddhist Blog’ (great title). Does it deserve to? Well, I don’t think it’s the best Buddhist blog on the block, but it does merit a mention here. About making mistakes: ‘So, it’s o.k. to shit your pants from time to time–spiritually speaking, of course. Shit, itself, isn’t bad either. To paraphrase my teacher Thich Nhat Hanh, without shit, we wouldn’t have roses!! Our mistakes, fertilize the seeds of our good intentions to grow roses of happiness and peace. The key is to not blame yourself for doing something that human’s can’t help but do–make mistakes. This world itself is imperfect and flawed, so how could we not make mistakes? You are trying, and trying is a pro-active action. A lot of people are too afraid to try, so go easy on yourself.’

I don’t know how it happened, but the busy Tricycle blog ends up rather late on my list. It’s well written, but perhaps a bit tame. However, the recent post by Thanissaro Bhikkhu on the context of Buddha’s teachings is well worth reading, as is anything he writes.

Dhamma musings is a Theravada Buddhist blog. I do wish he’d adapt his paragraphs to online reading. I loved the post about alternative precepts and commandments.

Moonpointer takes being critical to the next level. However, he usually has a point. Read for instance his ‘Is Buddhism a Path to God’? (the answer is obviously: NO, Buddhism is not a path to God).

Buddha’s advice to lay people is currently on a series of explaining the Mangala Suttra. Read for instance this post in which she explains dealing with intoxicants (yes, that includes alcohol).

Robin’s Karma is a Tibetan Buddhist blog. Read this touching story of a teen girl who went to a lecture on death because her mother is dying.

Buddha Space is apparently one of the blog authors that got sent a preview copy of ‘The Buddha walks into a bar‘. The review there is far less positive than mine will be. See for instance my quoting Lodro Rinzler in this post. Still G has a point: Lodro is rather lax on the sexual restraint that traditional Buddhism has always favored. I mean, can one really justify a one night stand in a Buddhist context? On the other hand, if you read Lodro well, he does suggest that few people would be able to be as loving and detached as necessary to have a one night stand in such a way that it harms neither party.

Speculative Non-Buddhism is another must read for the academically interested Buddhist, despite the title. Read ‘Fanged Dialogue‘ for instance.

Dangerous Harvests shares the psychological backflip he had to make when he found a woman yelling at him at a social service event.

Last but not least (I think) is my own blog on Pema Chodron. I did a review on The Places that Scare You this month.

Well, that’s it folks! Do share any Buddhist blogs you feel are worth reading in the comments.

Becoming awake for others: Bodhicitta or the Bodhisattva Motivation

Katinka - Spirituality — Tue, 04 Oct 2011 13:01:22 +0000

It’s time to blog about what they call in Tibetan Buddhism the ‘large scope’ in the Lam Rim.

On one level this scope is the only one which we, as Westerners can relate to: it’s all about universal and impartial love. We can think of Christ, Nelson Mandela, Mahatma Gandhi, Mother Teresa and the Dalai Lama etc. as Bodhisattvas: people who lived not just for themselves, but for the alleviation of the suffering of all of humanity, or at least that part of that they could reach.

Less dramatic examples include foster parents who are in it to really help children, those teachers that manage to do more than merely survive, volunteers in churches and community centers who devote hours to making sure vulnerable children and the elderly get more than the mere basics.

All that is, when the motivation is pure and unselfish, a form of ‘bodhicitta’*, literally the spirit of enlightenment. That is, according to some Buddhist teachers.

My teachers however, in the Gelugpa tradition of Tibetan Buddhism, stress that this is merely the start. Sure, it’s an important start but real bodhicitta is about more than just universal love, it’s about the spontaneous resolve to do something about the suffering of all sentient beings – and forever too. In order to help all those sentient beings we can only do one thing, according to Buddhism in general: we have to help them out of samsara: the cycle of rebirth.

Not that any form of Buddhism claims that this is at all easy: even a Buddha can’t create enlightenment for us. We have to take his hand as he pulls us out of the water, as it were. Similarly: when we do become Buddha’s ourselves, we can’t magically release all beings. Instead we have to wait for the moment they’re ready to be helped.

So what a Bodhisattva** vows, out of the spirit of bodhicitta, is to help all those beings reach Awakening. However, a Bodhisattva is well aware that he or she cannot do that unless she becomes a Buddha herself. So the resolve becomes a bit more complex:
‘I vow to dedicate myself to becoming a Buddha, in order to help all sentient beings out of the cycle of reincarnation’. (Other formulations of the Bodhisattva vow)

All this is rather a lot to take on of course, and in order to really practice it a Bodhisattva will practice more particularly the 6 perfections:

1. DANA, the key of charity and love immortal.
2. SHILA, the key of Harmony in word and act, the key that counterbalances the cause and the effect, and leaves no further room for Karmic action.
3. KSHANTI, patience sweet, that nought can ruffle.
[4. VIRAGA, indifference to pleasure and to pain, illusion conquered, truth alone perceived.]
5. VIRYA, the dauntless energy that fights its way to the supernal TRUTH, out of the mire of lies terrestrial.
6. DHYANA, whose golden gate once opened leads the Narjol* toward the realm of Sat eternal and its ceaseless contemplation.
[*A saint, an adept.]
7. PRAJNA, the key to which makes of a man a god, creating him a Bodhisattva, son of the Dhyanis.
(H.P. Blavatsky, Voice of the Silence, Fragment III)

The formulation here is by Blavatsky in her meditative work ‘The Voice of the Silence’.

Unfortunately I don’t (yet) have permission to quote from the material we got during our Lam Rim weeks at the FPMT, so instead I’ll put it in my own words, based mostly on a Dutch book on the Lam Rim (#):

Generosity
Moral Self-Discipline
Patience
Enthusiastic Perseverance
Meditative Absorption
Wisdom (aka the spontaneous understanding of Emptiness)

The first four are very practical of course: we can practice patience, generosity, moral self-discipline and perseverance (enthusiastically or not) in our work, in our dealings with the shopping lady, in how we respond to beggars etc. Trying to practice these can transform our lives. What if patience did replace anger? What if generosity did replace envy? What if we responded to every moral temptation (for once I’m NOT talking about chocolate) with restraint? What if we never gave up on anything worth doing? What if we even managed to stay happy as we persevered?

The point here isn’t to beat yourself up every time you fail. The word to stress here is practicing generosity etc. Even noticing when you’re not being generous and not making excuses for yourself is already a form of practicing generosity. The same goes for every one of the other perfections.

Meditative absorption and a realization of Emptiness (that doesn’t forget about karma) are both formulated in such idealistic terms that it takes a monk or nun to reach the first, and perhaps even the second. Since I’m not a nun, nor very practiced in meditation, I’ll leave those to others to explain.

Am I right: is it easier to relate to this highest scope motivation than to the medium and lower scope? How do you feel about practicing the 6 perfections (especially the first 4) in your own life?

Terminology as explained by Pema Chodron in The Places that Scare You.
* Bodhicitta = “Bodhichitta exists on two levels. First there is unconditional bodhichitta, an immediate experience that is refreshingly free of concept, opinion, and our usual all-caught-upness. It’s something hugely good that we are not able to pin down even slightly, like knowing at gut level that there’s absolutely nothing to lose. Second there is relative bodhichitta, our ability to keep our hearts and minds open to suffering without shutting down.” (The Places that Scare You: A Guide to Fearlessness in Difficult Times (Shambhala Classics), p. 6)

**Bodhisattva = “Few of us are satisfied with retreating from the world and just working on ourselves. We want our training to manifest and to be of benefit. The bodhisattva-warrior, therefore, makes a vow to wake up not just for himself but for the welfare of all beings.” (The Places that Scare You: A Guide to Fearlessness in Difficult Times (Shambhala Classics), p. 122)

Other sources
# Lam Rim: Boeddha’s Weg naar de Verlichting, Geshe Konchog Lhundup, p. 179

No more reincarnation… intermediate scope motivation in Mahayana Buddhism

Katinka - Spirituality — Mon, 19 Sep 2011 14:00:37 +0000

The Path to Enlightenment, the Lam Rim in Tibetan Buddhism, is divided in three ‘stages’ or three motivations. I started out my explaining the Beginners Motivation. It is, as Lodro Rinzler says in his upcoming ‘The Buddha Walks into a Bar: A Guide to Life for a New Generation‘:

a process of getting your act together. (p. 19 in the advanced readers edition)

There is of course nothing wrong with getting your act together. If meditation makes you less likely to lash out at a colleague, get out of debt or better able to sit with your aging grandmother in her Alzheimer caused fog, the Buddhist path is helping you and still that might be ‘beginners motivation’ or ‘small scope’.

The intermediate scope goes a step further. It not only takes reincarnation for granted, but concludes from there that it’s rather tiring to keep on going back to being born, being ill, dealing with annoyances, falling in and out of love, losing people and ultimately dying.

Logical isn’t it? The idea of reincarnation may appeal to us: it gives us plenty of time to get our act together. It makes it easy to postpone doing anything serious about ‘becoming enlightened’. For many people it may simply mean getting to enjoy life again and again – all under the assumption that our next life will be as good as our present life is (that’s where the small scope comes in: making sure that next life IS at least as good as our present life).

But according to Buddhism our next life is actually not likely to be as good as our present life. We got to be a human being, quite a luxury according to Buddhist teachers, and now we’re wasting our time trying to get rich, get laid and getting angry at our colleagues. That’s all my own words, obviously.

And that anger, that greed, that desire will bite us in the ass, because karma takes our motive into account big time.

If you let that idea sink in and really take it seriously, you start to see that it’s all rather uncertain: why would I WANT to go through all that again? Sure, life may have some good things about it, but dealing with the negative stuff is also a big part of life. Do we really want those things happening again and again?

For people who really realize this truth, they make the intermediate scope their primary motivation for Buddhist practice: they really don’t want to have another rebirth ever again. This is the traditional path of the Arhat, the Buddhist saint of Theravada and Hinayana fame.
Next up in the Lam Rim is the Highest Scope (and specifically Mahayana) motivation: the Bodhisattva motivation or Bodhicitta, the mind of Englightenment.

Does that mean anything to any of you? Working on personal development to avoid being reborn?

My Buddhism for today, why I choose only ONE lineage…

Katinka - Spirituality — Thu, 08 Sep 2011 13:51:19 +0000

As I’ve noted before, on my Dutch blog people respond very critically. This is often annoying, but they also sometimes ask great questions.

The question asked in this case was: doesn’t your present path contradict your earlier assertion that we need to balance certainty and uncertainty?

The answer is – as it often is – yes and no.

Yes, this year I was planning to take it easy, find my place in the spiritual market place. Instead I fell for the first tradition I came accross. It’s not much of a coincidence though: Gelugpa Buddhism is the one tradition I have known for years was most likely to be the Buddhist tradition I’d feel at home in if I were to ever become a practical Buddhist. And Buddhism in turn is the one religion I’ve always felt most at home with.

I tried out Nyingma Buddhism for about 45 minutes last Saturday and though there was nothing I could find wrong with them, I felt like I was cheating on my boyfriend or something (not that I have one of those). So I left. The fact is, however much I may not have wanted to commit, I’m the type of person that does in fact commit. Just like I’m not looking for a superficial flirt, I’m not the kind of person to just pick and choose from any spiritual tradition either.

After all, I spent 17 years in the Theosophical Society, never even considering trying anything else. I only left (well not quite yet, but emotionally I did) when that path really no longer worked for me.

Buddhism works for me. I’m not ashamed to say that it simply makes me feel good. It’s also a great relief to find a tradition in which instead of being learned out, I’m an absolute beginner. No chance of being ‘finished’ with this tradition even till the end of this lifetime.

I do have some issues with the tradition. The teachers are mostly traditional Tibetans. The result is in many details not exactly fitted to the Western mind, nor to my own. However, I’d rather study in a tradition that sticks as close to the tradition as possible than in one that tries to adapt to the Western spirit too quickly. I can do my own adapting well enough. When the tradition gets on my nerves too much, there’s always Lama Yeshe…

Of course the ideal teacher is just like Lama Yeshe: thoroughly grounded in his tradition, yet so like the Buddha in teaching skills that he or she can adapt what they teach to the hearers very specifically. However, I can hardly blame these teachers if they’re not like that every single minute of the day.

Ultimately it’s about emotion: this feels right and there’s no use being unfaithful to my own sense of what’s right.

While I’m talking emotion… Spiritual growth is to a large extent about cleaning up the emotions. Purifying, letting go… in practice it’s quite tiring. Committing to a tradition means committing to a specific set of people, learning the traditions, meditations and rituals of that tradition. Anyone who tries to combine several traditions will have to split their emotional energy between those traditions. The result is less energy can go into either.

There are probably people for whom that is still the best path. They feel there’s something so vital missing from one tradition that they need to find it somewhere else. Or they have already made an emotional tie in one tradition, comparable to mine with theosophy, are ready for something new, but are not ready to let go of the previous tradition.

I am not about to judge what people end up doing. I’m just saying: for me it works to pick just this one lineage. If that makes me inconsistent, so be it. All I do on here is share my thoughts on my path, I never promised consistency.

Tibetan Buddhism and Lam Rim

Katinka - Spirituality — Wed, 07 Sep 2011 13:19:35 +0000

I was on a Tibetan Buddhist (FPMT) retreat for half of August, so what I was able to share with you all since then was mostly inspired by that tradition. I wrote one book review: When the chocolate runs out, Lama Yeshe. I’ve become a big Lama Yeshe fan, in fact.

For All Considering I wrote three posts inspired by the Lam Rim:

On Katinka Hesselink Net I put up one page devoted to the Lam Rim, which includes videos of Robert Thurman, the famous Buddhologist / Buddhist. Whatever I write about the Lam Rim in future will be linked on that page. For now it’s mostly what wikipedia has to say about the subject, though I did rewrite a line or two.

Gratitude meditation – thanking our teachers

Katinka - Spirituality — Tue, 06 Sep 2011 13:33:51 +0000

I’ve written about gratitude before, but I think the topic merits a revisit.

For one thing: in our culture we’re taught, by psychologists, to face up to the negative things our parents and teachers did to us as we grew up. Facing up to our emotions, including the negative, is a good thing no doubt. However, it does leave one with a bad taste in the mouth.

Gratitude meditation counters this. After all, for most of us, however much we may have quarreled with them, our parents were a positive in our lives. Like our teacher reminded us during the Lam Rim: babies are very difficult creatures to take care of. They wake you all hours of the night, they require constant care and attention.

We were such a baby once upon a time, and our parents took care of us. The least we can do in return is be grateful.

Similarly our teachers had to put up with a lot. Having been a high school teacher myself for a few years has given me a whole new appreciation of this fact. Teachers are jugglers of teenage emotion, trying to impart information while also managing the social processes in the class room. Anyone who survives that (never mind doing it well) is a champion in my book.

I don’t think our culture appreciates teachers enough.

Our own teachers deserve even more gratitude: they were there during our tantrums, when we refused to learn, when the material just could not get in, when we did learn, when we did make progress… They were there day after day, feeding us tidbits to absorb, showing us how to live…

Part of the daily Lam Rim meditation is a visualization of all our teachers. It starts with Buddha in the center and all our other teachers around him. If you’re a Christian you can of course put Jesus in the center. I don’t think I’ll be able to do that meditation in full just yet, but I did find it wholesome – just now, in the middle of the night – to contemplate all my teachers (or the ones I can recall) and thank them for their trouble.

In the Lam Rim instructions it says that to forget even one teacher in this meditation is a major hindrance on the path. Be that as it may, as a spiritual purification it’s probably most important to at least remember the teachers we may have meditated negatively on: the teachers we had issues with.

For instance, my second grade teacher, her name is etched in my memory though I’ll keep her anonymous here… She taught us multiplication tables, as second grade teachers do. Unfortunately, though I was generally not one of her worst students, memorizing those multiplication tables didn’t come easy to me at all. And instead of accepting that as it was, she kept on harping me about it. I’m sure she thought I was lazy. The result was that we quarreled all that year. It left me with a frustration about not being able to memorize things well for the rest of my learning life. We all have a weakest point in our learning process and mine is my memory.

That’s just the way it is and I won’t bore you with how it affected me. After all, I did finish two college degrees and there really isn’t much to complain of when it comes to my brain power. I mean, objectively, compared to other people. Subjectively is another matter, as it often is.

I was again faced with my memory limitations trying to memorize the Tibetan Buddhist rituals that were part of our Lam Rim course. The fact is that the people there didn’t make an issue of whether I was able to follow along with every chant. But for me, with that teacher still in my system, it was a confrontation. I was reminded of her again, and I do think I worked through it deeply this time.

You can imagine that bringing myself to feel grateful to this teacher is a step. But I can: she must have taught me loads that year. Reading, the basics of multiplication, geography, history… Having to deal with the feisty stubborn girl I was can’t have been easy.

As a teacher myself I know just how impossible it can be to try to be fair to every individual student. Sure – it’s a duty, but unfortunately it’s also impossible. Or rather: it was impossible for me. How can I blame her for something I couldn’t manage when I tried?

Of course I also have good teachers to recall. In fact, in general, school was a pleasant experience for me.

In the Lam Rim it’s said that the teacher (the guru) is the basis for all good qualities. Rationally I think that is going a bit too far. However, it is true when I think about it, that a LOT of my good qualities go back to good teachers. Whether it’s my parents (professional teachers themselves), scouting leaders or teachers proper: there is a lot I learned from people who cared. In fact, I can’t think of one positive quality of mine that does NOT trace back to someone whose words or attitude made sense to me at some point.

On the other side of the coin is of course the ability to listen and hear such words of wisdom, but while the Lam Rim reminds us of that, it makes a less inspiring topic for meditation. And contemplating just how well we were able to learn, doesn’t help one develop either humbleness or gratitude. Remembering the trouble others went to, so we were able to learn those things DOES help one develop these spiritual qualities.

I’m going through the Lam Rim not in the very specific order in which it is taught, but in the order in which I’m processing all I’ve learned over those two weeks. You’ll have to forgive me and find a real lam rim teacher to get the whole thing from start to finish if you are inspired by this series.

Beginners motivation in Mahayana Buddhism

Katinka - Spirituality — Wed, 31 Aug 2011 18:25:16 +0000

I’ve decided to translate what I learned over the past two weeks at an FPMT Lam Rim retreat into blog posts by simply explaining to you all my understanding of some basic concepts from those teachings. I am of course merely a beginner on this path, so please take this as no more than what it is: a few hints on where your path might go.

We studied the Middle Length Lam Rim by Lama Tsong Khapa, which isn’t yet out in an official translation yet, as far as I know. There is the Lam Rim Chenmo – The Great Treatise on the Stages of the Path to Enlightenment, in three volumes, also by Tsong Khapa: the long Lam Rim. There is also a short Lam Rim by the same author (which I can’t find on Amazon), and other lam rim texts by other authors.
Be warned: the Lam Rim Chenmo was illegible to me a few years ago. I think most people will need help understanding it even in translation.

Anyhow, back on topic…

In the stages on the path to enlightenment there are three motivations listed – a fourth is implicit (perhaps explicit in more elaborate dealings with the topic than I had). The fourth is the one that most of us are familiar with: a worldly attitude, looking for pleasure and happiness in this world. Though I have something of a Bodhisattva motivation in my system, my basic motivation to go on this retreat was simply that I was dissatisfied with my life, I wanted to be happier and find my way back to my spiritual side, find some peace of mind, a spiritual path to follow.

The beginners motivation, also called ‘the small scope’ goes beyond that worldly motivation. It’s the first step on the spiritual path, from the Buddhist perspective: it assumes a belief in karma and reincarnation and the consequent wish to at least get a decent rebirth as a fortunate human being. After all: who wants to be reincarnated as an animal or into the suffering of war, starvation etc?

This beginners motivation is actually quite selfish, even if legitimate in a Buddhist context: it’s the ‘first take care of myself’ attitude. It may be healthy emotionally, but it’s hardly satisfying.

We would all like to skip right through to the highest motivation, the large scope, which is Bodhicitta: the wish to gain enlightenment to be able to help all sentient beings get released from Samsara. Our teacher, Geshe Sonam Gyaltsen, started out by saying that everybody needs to do the practices associated with the small scope – even the highest lamas. However, he later made it clear we need to set our motivation as high as is natural for us: don’t set your motivation at individual liberation or merely a good rebirth if your motivation is already basically unselfish.

The issue seems to be about the difference between practice and motivation: start at the beginning when it comes to practice, while the motivation should be as pure as possible to you from the start.

This makes sense: as I started out saying, it’s quite possible to have a thread of compassion for all sentient beings and yet have doubts about reincarnation and karma. I certainly have both in my system. Your practice should reflect that reality.

So what should you meditate on when it comes to the beginners motivation?

You should contemplate dying, the suffering of hell beings, obsessed spirits and animals. You should also contemplate karma. The result of these thoughts should be that the wish for a good rebirth is as real as possible to you. After all: you don’t want to end up a hell being, or an obsessed spirit, or an animal who can’t walk the spiritual path.

These are all what’s called ‘analytic’ meditations: meditation on a topic, instead of merely focusing on the breath and emptying the mind. In Gelugpa Tibetan Buddhism analytic meditation and concentration meditation (as the latter is called) are seen as complementary.

In writing this post I used an overview on the Lam rim on one sheet of paper (in Dutch). I don’t know where this is available online. The shortest Lam Rim overview on Amazon seems to be this one: Lam Rim Outlines: Beginners Meditation Guide

I almost forgot – but one of the basic aspects of this first stage on the Buddhist path is taking refuge: relying on the Buddha, his teachings and the spiritual community of enlightened beings on your path. If you want you can take the Buddha to be your own Buddha Nature.

Between drowsiness and distraction: meditation and certainty

Katinka - Spirituality — Mon, 29 Aug 2011 13:37:45 +0000

I was on an intense FPMT Lam Rim retreat for the past two weeks. One of the things they teach is meditation: meditation techniques as well as pitfalls.

On all levels of meditation one of the pitfalls is not finding a middle ground between drowsiness and distraction.

Both are recognizable at our level: nearly falling asleep during morning meditation, or that wandering mind that focuses on a lot of seemingly important issues.

There is a connection between these two extremes and another spiritual continuum: uncertainty and certainty. I wrote about that recently and on my Dutch blog many of the responses were of the ‘don’t be a ninny’ type. Thank you all for your more generous and kind take on my post.

I’m convinced that on the spiritual path it’s essential to avoid two extremes:

Too much uncertainty and skepticism: it’s paralyzing.
Too much certainty and arrogance: all movement is gone (we’re not Buddha yet, are we?)

We need a ground to stand on: security, certainty. We also need the freedom of the open air – and that includes uncertainty, because all kinds of things can happen.

It’s like that with a spiritual teacher as well, perhaps. He or she is essential on the spiritual path, because they see our blind spots. On the other hand we can’t leave our decisions up to them, because it’s our own life, our own karma, our own responsibility.

Extremes are so much easier than that ever shifting middle ground. It is much easier to stick to uncertainty and stay eternally skeptical, than to take that plunge and choose a spiritual path. At the same time it’s rather hard to stay true to yourself, once you’re on that path. Once chosen you still have to keep checking up with yourself: does this match who I am? Hard to know what your strong points are, but still keep track of weaknesses. Difficult to face our limitations and yet keep going.

But that is the path – denying such issues is ignoring what IS.

Getting back to meditation extremes: meditation strengthens what is, so we were warned against meditating on drowsiness… Isn’t that a neat idea? Makes a great excuse to quit meditating early.

Shunryu Suzuki Zen Mind, Beginner’s Mind give away

Katinka - Spirituality — Tue, 14 Dec 2010 13:15:57 +0000

Apparently, by Shambhala’s mysterious standards, last months contest went well, so they’ve arranged for another one. I don’t think we should get used to this, but let’s enjoy the privilege while we can.

There’s a 40 year anniversary edition out of the spiritual classic: Zen Mind, Beginner’s Mindby Shunryu Suzuki (here’s my review). Not to be mistaken for the Buddhist scholar D.T. Suzuki.

I had actually never read the book, so Shambhala made sure I got a copy. I wonder if I’ll ever get used to that privilege?

Anyhow, it’s a classic and it’s probably true, as said in one of the introductions, that the hundreds of amazon reviews are a better testimony than anything I could say. However, I will try when I’ve finished reading it.

Before I do so however, let’s get to the give away. I have several questions for you all. You have to answer the first one, for obvious reasons, and at least one other.

do you want to get a gift copy of zen mind beginners mind?
if you’ve read the book, what’s your favorite quote ?
what do you think is the relationship between zen and emotion?
if you haven’t read the book, why do you want to?

One condition to the give away I did not mention last time: you have to answer on my blog, not through email. While I will occasionally go to the trouble of posting comments made through email on the blog, it does create extra work for me, which I don’t appreciate and will certainly not be rewarding with the gift of a free book. I do have more to do than I have time for.

Like last time, you don’t need to give me your address. Just leave a valid email address as you fill in the comment form. I will send that email address to the Shambhala people and they’ll take it from there.

All Considering » Buddhism

Giving yourself permission to rejoice in what’s good…

Related Posts

Best Buddhist Blogs

Related Posts

Becoming awake for others: Bodhicitta or the Bodhisattva Motivation

Related Posts

No more reincarnation… intermediate scope motivation in Mahayana Buddhism

Related Posts

My Buddhism for today, why I choose only ONE lineage…

Related Posts

Tibetan Buddhism and Lam Rim

Related Posts

Gratitude meditation – thanking our teachers

Related Posts

Beginners motivation in Mahayana Buddhism

Related Posts

Between drowsiness and distraction: meditation and certainty

Related Posts

Shunryu Suzuki Zen Mind, Beginner’s Mind give away

Related Posts