Nothing is the way is
appears to be. From Galileo’s birth to
1491 to Y2K to a journey to the east. From
the affects of foreign aid to the implications of a bite of supermarket chicken
to pulling over on the side of the road and welcoming in the hitchhiker. Here I am, nearly 6 months into my first trip
to Asia, having just completed 4 months with the NGO, and recently a week long
intermediary course on Meditation and Mind Training at Kopan Monastery. The lessons of the world revealing illusions,
in regards to people and places, keep getting reinforced. This last week was a
stimulating change of pace that brought together old and new ideas and entered
my life at a perfect time.
Kopan Monastery belongs
to a Mahayana Buddhist tradition, originally from Tibet. It is the same practice of the Dalai
Lama. What distinguishes Mahayana from
other Buddhist sects is that once one reaches enlightenment (awakening one’s
mind to the true nature of Samsara and liberating oneself from suffering), it
becomes your purpose to free all other sentient beings of the same suffering. Buddhism’s
fundamental goals are to develop compassion and wisdom to realize we are all “in
this together” and with a pure motivation, we aim to free each other from the
delusions. We all have an innate Buddha
nature, and it is a simple matter of awakening the mind to realize its full potential.
This is one aspect of
the religion that I especially relate to, that we all have the capacity to grow
into enlightenment. It acknowledges also
the extremely unlikely circumstances that occur to create our perfect human
rebirth. This helps us generate
immense gratitude and compassion, as we are not all so fortunate to be born
with this mind and neocortex layer of our brain. It attempts to perceive the true nature of
reality and analyze what are the components and what is the I and the Mind? Buddhists approaches these questions like a
science experiment: generating a theoretical hypothesis, followed by practical meditation,
and finally reflects on their congruousness with the original thought. And then repeat, several million times. Buddhism is acutely similar in its original belief,
developed by Siddhartha Gotama Buddha 2600 years ago, of how the mind and brain
works to the most recent theories of Quantum Mechanics. And like any religion that provides a strong
foundation for a human being, its aim is to develop the Self to be more apt to
interpret and pursue the road that is now before you.
Buddhism may be
mistaken in the west as a do-nothing, lazy philosophy. Nothing could be further from the truth. It is a disciplined practice to attain wisdom
to view the world from a clearer perspective.
Our classes began at 6:00 am with morning tea and concluded at 9:00 pm
after an evening meditation session. We
engaged in 3 meditations throughout the day totaling between 2 and 3 hours,
participated in discussion groups, and had teachings and meditations led by an
Australian Nun, whose edited and translated many of the texts of Lama Zopa
Rinpoche, a Mexican Dharma Practitioner with a vivid imagination of the dharma,
and a Tibetan Lama whose gentle, humorous, knowing presence in the room was
perhaps the most powerful I’ve ever experienced from a teacher in a short
period of time.
We were taught the basics
of emptiness, death and impermanence, recognizing self-grasping and
self-cherishing, karma, exchanging the self and other, identifying and remedying
different delusions, and studied intensively 8 Verse of Thought
Transformation. A lot of seeds were
planted that with nurturing will gradually grow. It is possible to rewire one’s brain through
the discipline and desire of practicing a task over and over again. It is more tangible and easier to relate to in
the context of training the physical body, though the same philosophy extends
to the mind. Another fact relates to sometimes
we choose what we are interested in learning, and other times we receive
lessons that we did not sign up for. A
simple metaphor could look like this:
Mind training is a
growing awareness and an application of this awareness inside and outside themoment. I recall a Greyhound Bus Ride I took when I
was 18 en route to North Carolina to visit my Aunt. It was my first time traveling solo to the
south and I booked my ticket to the bus station in Henderson, North Carolina,
not realizing the distinction between Henderson and Hendersonville. I was roughly 5 hours and $40 short of my
destination. I became aware that this situation
was ideal conditions to create a frustrated and agitated mind. Instead though, I rerouted my ticket,
informed my aunt I’d be a little late, swallowed the bill, and enjoyed a book, conversation
and the scenery from the window as we drove across the state to Western North
Carolina. If I hadn’t recognized the moment
from a perspective outside of the present emotion, I could have had a miserable
couple of hours, and off to a rough start to what turned out to be a great
trip. I entered in a positive mood and
through a series of events, I found a job opportunity, interview for the
position and accepted all within the week.
Our emotions do not have an inherent self-existence, but actually are a
manifestation of the causes and conditions we are surrounded with in our daily
lives. Buddhist philosophy, neuroscience
and cognitive psychology all go into much greater depth. If you’re interested in further reading,
there are many books which I could recommend, but this one here combines
science and Buddhist Philosophy and a fascinating and very accessible text: Joy
of Living by Nyingmar Rinpoche
I write all this to
share about the past experience and try to gain some perspective on it, to encourage
others to train their mind so the world becomes a more positive, approachable
and desirable place, and to reflect on the title of this blog. It certainly seems that throughout a wealth
of experiences, not everything feels right or worthwhile. We may feel regret for actions we have done,
yearn for something else to exist that isn’t what is in front of us, become
baffled by harmful and hateful actions pointed towards us or people we have a
connection to, and shake our head at the injustice in this world. The fact is this goes on every day, in every
part of the world, without exception. We
cannot affect the reality of child labor, domestic abuse, exploitation of the
poor and discriminated, malicious crimes and the like overnight. We can be hopeful that there is a decrease in
these acts in the modern world, though this also does not feel like a
sufficient response. If the world is
covered with thorns, you cannot remove every thorn from this world. You can however equip your feet (or your
mind) for the rough road ahead. If you
approach a stranger or an enemy with compassion and wisdom, you will feel the
difference in the response compared to treating someone with coldness and
hostility. If you train your mind with
wisdom and understanding, possibly the idea of All Pursuits Worthwhile makes a
little more sense. T might help you
cultivate a pure motivation of making yourself, your community and your world a
more positive environment to live in and engage with.
Thank you, as always,
for reading. All the best, and some
prose for the road.
Powers of Meditation
Nothing is the way it
seems until the bubbles settle,
Even after the curds been skimmed,
And the lemon seeds
carefully plucked,
The substance’s
transparency is still inclined to fade
A small leaf detaches
from the mature Oak Branch
From high canopy it undulates to
the grass,
Anticipation rises
affecting the pulsing heart
Unaffected, the leaf lands
where it lands,
Tiny particles of steam
after morning frost
Every weather prediction and
each souvenir
Changes history – Point
of contact, A splash
A smile, a patient’s
return to normalcy
One day you have never
seen a naked woman
The next you scratch your chin
In disbelief of the
lack of timeliness of your driver
All moments share an
inherent feeling
They all exist to be
recalled and forgot
Yet we cannot prevent our motion
From wondering what we
are served next,
Ask Alice: are you the pawn or the hand that moved it?
flash forward in time
like the lightning
bolt who claimed the longest life
though the cloud protested
‘better to give the longest light,
a single ray of light
may affect galaxies’
the star sighed, the
thunder groaned
and the wolf howled,
They all agreed to
perform their very best.
And the lama finally
gave into his itch
The dream felt more
and more real
While the mind traced
its way through the forest
Into a cobweb of
endless trails
Each time its silk
spun across itself
It took itself less
seriously
another layer was shed
the form never stopped
changing
And its true color
revealed
Is it confirmed that
the builder has done his blessings
And did the farmer
truly give more than was taken
And did anyone notice
the nun, with her bowl flipped over
After witnessing the
sunrise skip her part of town
Still, the bird’s shadow
never quit following
No matter how high she
flew
And the empty vessel
accepted
Whatever the creator
wished to put inside
What if you were to
take the brush
Away from the artist,
rendering him
unable to paint
expressions onto the emptiness
And if you spun the
globe Just faster than its average rate,
Would it expedite the process of mankind
Finding the same two truths
Recognizing this life is no different
Than the last,
And the one after,
Same players, Same stage,
We just exchange roles
