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Usually, to tell someone they are a dreamer, is a bit of a criticism. It somehow means that they don’t have their “feet on the ground.” They may be, in the words of the Everly Brothers, “dreamin’ [their] life away.”

In the case of our spiritual guides, it means that they are great visionaries. As The Monkees would say, they are “daydream believers.”

My own dreams aren’t of that calibre and they appear when I am asleep at night. But they sometimes explain the meaning of a concept that I have not yet fully grasped experientially.

That was the case on April 06’13.  My centre celebrates the 26th passing of Chogyam Trungpa Rinpoche. Among other things, we listen to Talk One of a series of talks entitled How to Manifest Enlightened Society, Boulder, December 26, 1980. Harald Dienes leads the post-talk discussion. He points out a vivid phrase — “glaring light of the Great Eastern Sun” — that Rinpoche used to illustrate the idea that we’d prefer to stay inside our cocoons than come out into open space where we may be exposed.

Listening to my brothers and sisters share opinions and views of this phrase  triggers a memory of a dream I had had on April 05.

Dream

I and a friend are standing on a white beach looking out to the water. I am simultaneously standing beside my friend and can see our backs. I  say “look at how blue the water is.  Look at how yellow the sun is. Look at how red that [don’t remember what the object is] is!” The colours are so vivid.”

Next to that scene (stage left) is the exact same picture – the water, the sun, the white beach and some red object. But the colours are dull, washed out.

Notes

• the colours red, blue, yellow are primary colours = our own primordial wisdom; non-conceptual wisdom; primordial awareness beyond our own projections
• the sun = the mind of basic goodness, complete perfection, arises
• the colours are so vivid = when you actually see a colour, rather than your own concept of the colour, it is vivid, almost in a surreal way
• dull, washed out, pastel = seeing our projections, not the actual objects themselves
• simultaneously standing beside my friend and am also standing behind us so that I can see our backs = there is spaciousness  such that I can both be with my friend and get another (wider) view of the situation
• the two scenes placed side-by-side = coemergent quality, that is, both wisdom and confusion arise simultaneously — which one will we pick at any given time?

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Just before starting the New Year’s Weekthun (a week-long urban meditation retreat) at the Shambhala Meditation Centre of Toronto  lead by Gaylon Ferguson of Shambhala International, I had come to two conclusions:

• My heart friend  is not a friend to me. It’s a one-way street. I’m his friend. He is not mine. How he manifests towards me does not align with my core values, namely, basic human friendliness, concern and support — some of the attributes that are the hallmark of (relative) basic goodness;  and
  

•  While I honour whatever his own truth is at any given time, and understand from where he is coming,  it does not mean that I choose to live with the situation.

So on Day One of the New Year’s Weekthun, I enter the shrineroom in a state of profound sadness. Like James Bond’s martinis, I am shaken, not stirred. Being stirred comes during the weekthun itself.

This sadness, as it turns out, is a perfect starting point for me where Peaceful Abiding and care for others can be practiced. Read the rest of this entry »

(Prologue: I’ve got first-hand experience that a real understanding of the laws of karma can substantially change our lives for the better. I created this weblog to share information and personal experience with others. May it be beneficial!)

Today is January 01, 2013. Many of us will have made, or will be in the process of making, New Year’s resolutions. For example:

• to be more emotionally generous in sharing our feelings and experience
  
• to communicate in a genuine way, i.e. communication that goes beyond ego, that isn’t defensive, e.g. “You’re putting words in my mouth.” “That’s just your projection.”
  
• to appreciate the support that others give us, rather than taking it for granted or thinking that it is somehow our “due”
• to be kinder, less aggressive
• to get fit
• etc. etc. etc.

My New Year’s resolution is NOT to try, or make any effort, to improve myself.

Why?

As long as you’re wanting to be thinner, smarter, more enlightened, less uptight, or whatever it might be, somehow you’re always going to be approaching your problem with the very same logic that created it to begin with: you’re not good enough. That’s why the habitual pattern never unwinds itself when you’re trying to improve, because you go about it in exactly the same habitual style that caused all the pain to start. (source: Pema Chodron: Start Where You Are)

I want to unwind my habitual “self,” not improve it!

Let’s be clear. I’m not taking about the self as who we actually are. I’m using the term “self” here as it pertains to our manufactured self, ego. (Please click here for definition of ego.)

Our usual resolutions revolve around tweaking this manufactured self that we cherish so much.

What’s wrong with being kinder? Nothing. It’s trying to be kinder that presents a problem, as Pema Chodron’s quotation above demonstrates. 

I myself like to use what I call “the royal road” to fulfil my intention.

And that royal road is mindfulness and awareness. (Please click here for definitions of these terms.) By practicing mindfulness and awareness, we aren’t admonishing ourselves with commands like “don’t be unkind”  in an effort to be kind. Instead, we notice again and again and again when we are being unkind.

By practicing small increments of awareness — over and over again — of our thoughts and emotions, a quiet yet powerful revolution takes place: the thoughts, emotions and actions that underlie our habitual patterns (please click here for definition and descriptionof term) of aggression and laziness , for example, are eventually undercut.

Atisha (please click here for more information about this great teacher) summed it up very well: Two activities: one at the beginning, one at the end. (Please click here for more information about the slogans.)

In the morning when you wake up, you reflect on the day ahead and aspire to use it to keep a wide-open heart and mind. At the end of the day, before going to sleep, you think over what you have done. If you fulfilled your aspiration, rejoice in that. If you went against your aspiration, rejoice that you are able to see what you did and are no longer living in ignorance. This way you will be inspired to go forward with increasing clarity, confidence, and compassion in the days that follow.    (Please click here for source of Pema Chodron’s quotation.)

At the same time, we are undercutting our tendency to maintain our karma and create fresh karma.

Not bad! Especially for someone who refuses to “improve.”

Please click here for sources on how to practice mindfulness and awareness.

If you found this post helpful, please share it with a friend. Then consider subscribing to the weblog by clicking on the Subscribe button in the navigation bar and following one of three sets of simple instructions. Thank you.

(Prologue: I’ve got first-hand experience that a real understanding of the laws of karma can substantially change our lives for the better. I created this weblog to share information and personal experience with others. May it be of benefit!)

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Meditation is no longer a strange word. Scientists have done many studies to show the benefits of meditation on our health, both physical and mental.

This post is, however, not directly about the health benefits. It is about the misconceptions around meditation. It is necessary to deal with this because meditation is one of the tools that can help us to change the course of our lives, our karma. And if we are operating on misconceptions, then we cannot make proper use of this valuable tool.

Sakyong Mipham Rinpoche provides the context for this post

“If we follow thoughts back, we can see that they stem from an embedded karmic situation that has gone on for a very long time.”

“The point of buddhism is that we are creating future actions. We can change the course. We are not stuck in our karma.” (Classes 4 and 5)

By meditating, we see how the mind that created our karma is the same mind that can cut the creation and maintenance of that karma.

Before we get into details about how meditation can cut karma and allow us to control our lives, I want to first dispel some common misconceptions: Read the rest of this entry »

We want intimacy. In our culture, that word generally refers to physical intimacy.

Switching gears, we’ve often heard the phrase that “practice makes perfect.”

What’s the connection between intimacy and practice?

Not much. Why? We have learned an ironic truth: that the act of physical intimacy doesn’t necessarily lead to, or even involve, intimacy. (Please click here for past webpost entitled Is Sexual Attraction a Cosmic Joke?)

We also want a heart connection with others based on unconditional acceptance.  In this regard, I remember that my father told me as a young child “don’t wear your heart on your sleeve.”

My father often had good advice. But not in this case. For me, wearing my heart on my sleeve is part of basic goodness! (Please click here for definitions of this term.) It requires a great deal of courage because I am vulnerable when I wear my heart on my sleeve. Because it requires that I don’t intellectualize my emotions. Because it requires that I tell the truth. Because it requires that I dissolve the barriers between me and my heart.

The title of this post is “Intimacy – practice makes perfect.” What’s the connection between intimacy based on the heart and practice? Read the rest of this entry »

(Prologue: I‘ve got first-hand experience that a real understanding of the laws of karma can substantially change our lives for the better. I created this weblog to share information and personal experience with others. May it be beneficial!)

Part of a world-wide “going green” effort is the recycling programmes that many cities have put in place.

This webpost is how we can go further by “greening” our thoughts by recycling them, so to speak.

Following on the last post (dated September 11, 2011 immediately below this one), we learned that genuine spiritual guides and teachers avoid following a thought “down the road” so to speak. They let it go as it arises.

Why do they do this?

Because thoughts lead to volitional action. Which leads to the creation of karma.

How do they do this? By many years of participating in a fitness regime for taming and training the mind — meditation practice.

Meditation practice  provides instructions — labelling and letting go — whereby I can relate to thoughts and the emotions they evoke in a way that does not lead to action. (That’s why it’s said that meditation is one of the few times that we are not accumulating karma.)

But how about in everyday life? How can we recycle thoughts back into primordial energy? I’ve developed an exercise that helps me deal with the thought as soon as it arises in my everyday life. In my city our recycling programme involves three bins — green, blue and grey —  for a variety of items, e.g. garbage, paper, glass, and food etc. etc. etc.

There’s now a fourth “bin.” The city didn’t provide it. I created it. It’s virtual. It’s for thoughts. As soon as I can see the thought — either as it arises, or, more likely (at my early stage of development), when it is full blown — I “put” the thought in the thought recycling bin where it is transformed back into pure energy from which it arose. You can create your own virtual thought recycling bin. Mine is just vast space, like the sky.

The idea of “recycling” thoughts follows the second law of thermodynamics. Put very simply, it says that energy (in whatever form it has taken) returns to its original state as soon as the form decays. In terms of thoughts, the energy of a thought is released when we let go of that thought. If we grasp, attach and fixate on the thought, the opposite happens. We get caught up in a karmic chain reaction. It is described here.

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It’s 06h15. I’m listening, as I do everyday, to the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation, Radio One, and hear about the website that encourages people to sit at their computers and do nothing for two minutes. You cannot touch your mouse or keyboard. You get a Pass or Fail grade.

It is almost impossible to meet the challenge. We tend to go AWOL. Even for two minutes!

We’ve neglected mental fitness. We’ve been brought up on a diet of action, doing, going. We’ll get physically fit. But we don’t make time to practice fitness for the mind where we could actually meet our own minds directly and reclaim them.

Try the challenge! When you get a Pass grade, I’ll meet you here.

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It is now January 01, 2011. Many of us will have made or will be in the process of making New Year’s resolutions!

• to listen to others rather than trying to dominate the conversation
• to be kinder, less aggressive
• to get fit
• to spend more time with family
• etc. etc. etc.

My New Year’s resolution is to NOT make any effort around “self-improvement.”

Why?

As long as you’re wanting to be thinner, smarter, more enlightened, less uptight, or whatever it might be , somehow you’re always going to be approaching your problem with the very same logic that created it to begin with: you’re not good enough. That’s why the habitual pattern never unwinds itself when you’re trying to improve, because you go about it in exactly the same habitual style that caused all the pain to start. (source: Pema Chodron: Start Where You Are)

I want to unwind my habitual “self,” not improve it!

Read the rest of this entry »

(Prologue: I’ve got first-hand experience that a real understanding of the laws of karma can substantially change our lives for the better. I created this weblog to share information and personal experience with others. May it be beneficial!)

When I wake up, I often experience depression. It’s different from chronic depression or even “daily-variety” depression.

Why?

I have been sleeping.

So?

My defences are down. It’s not so easy to get back into my comfort zone. Ego is threatened.

Why?

Because it’s about to come face-to-face with the truth, namely, that it is not solid and has no permanent self-existence that is independent from the causes and conditions of daily life.

I’ve found an antidote!

When I wake up and am experiencing depression, I remind myself to call it “discomfort” rather than “depression.”

This is not some word game. It believe the word “discomfort” is more accurate than “depression.”

After applying the label “discomfort,” I then do a very short exercise to connect in with the energy of awakened mind and set my intention for the day.

We can appreciate depression as being like a wobbly staircase. When you put your foot on the first step, you wonder whether it’s going to hold you. You might fall. But as you take further steps, you realize that it’s going to carry you upstairs.

We learn to reject the terror of morning depression and to step into morning basic goodness, right on the spot.

From Ocean of Dharma: The Everyday Wisdom of Chogyam Trungpa. # 77.
Originally condensed from Great Eastern Sun: The Wisdom of Shambhala, pages 30-31.

If you found this post helpful, please share it with a friend. Then consider subscribing to the weblog by clicking on the Subscribe button in the navigation bar and following one of three sets of simple instructions. Thank you.

(Prologue: I’ve got first-hand experience that a real understanding of the laws of karma can substantially change our lives for the better. I created this weblog to share information and personal experience with others. May it be beneficial!)

How often have we heard “It’s the thought that counts”?

For example, if we couldn’t get someone the expensive gift that we would like to have given them, we can comfort ourselves with the belief that “it’s the thought that counts!”

That’s the use of the word “thought “as in “intention.”

But believing this phrase It’s the thought that counts is also how we can get ourselves into trouble.

If you have no interest in a thought, it has no power.
You oxygenate them with your beliefs and interests – Mooji

How? Read the rest of this entry »