Showing results for five step practice five-step
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[…] retreat. He excoriates the view that the first root downfall means absolute obedience to the guru. He is very explicit: you have to do everything your lama tells you only as it pertains to your spiritual practice. He says that the first root downfall doesn’t apply to how you live and function in the world.
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[…] prevent us from using what we know. An alternative formulation from Buddhism is: “Recognize the problem; develop a practice; continue until the problem is gone.” The first step is to recognize that there is a problem. Then we develop a practice that brings attention to the problem and, particularly, to the patterns that underlie […]
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[…] ended late in the evening. We had daily and weekly rituals and much preparatory work and clean up. We practiced different meditation methods, with set periods for practice, set periods for study, and a set number of days on each method. With so much to do and to learn, there was no free time. […]
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[…] We had just finished that long list of negations and everyone was a bit off balance, having had the rug pulled out from under them four or five different ways. The next lines were, “Because for bodhisattvas there is no attainment, they rest, trusting the perfection of wisdom.” “When he reaches the perfection of […]
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[…] of Buddhism are the product of literally hundreds of years of experience and refinement. It is sometimes difficult to appreciate the many dimensions of even a simple practice. I discuss here one framework for understanding what is important in practice and then apply it to our practice of returning attention to the breath. The […]
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[…] emotional reactions are reactions, and the path of Buddhism is about developing the skill and capacity — through emptiness, compassion, right speech, and so on — to step out of reaction and into response. How we respond in our lives, however, is very much an individual matter and depends on many factors. Many people […]
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[…] comes out of our confusion, how it doesn’t quite fit with the situation. And as we make this effort over and over again, we will find that we begin to speak with attention in exactly the same way that we come to breath with attention in our meditation. This is how we practice right speech.
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[…] the Buddhist point of view the mind-body system with which we identify has the seed of attention within it already. We simply provide conditions for sustained active attention to develop. The practice of meditation is the practice of providing those conditions. This is how we cultivate attention, just as we would a plant or tree.
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[…] rare. In most “relationships” people relate to an idea of the other person, an internal representation that has developed from patterns of perception and interaction. The first step is to dismantle our internal representations and see the person for who he or she is. The practice of equanimity is the key tool for this […]
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[…] natural presence… Many people approach this naively, feeling that a drastic simplification of their life will be sufficient (adoption of a monastic life, living simply in nature, stepping off the fast track, etc.), but we usually bring our baggage with us when we make these moves. The first effort here is to rid ourselves […]
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[…] happening, serve what is true, and accept the results. Brings us into the mystery When we bring our attention to bear in a situation and act, we step into a mystery: the point where we are at the limit of our ability in attention and we don’t know whether we are in pattern or […]
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[…] being Buddhist and focus instead on being human. In particular, I wrote that our responsibility is to use the skills and capabilities we develop through practice to step out of our own reactivity. Then we have the possibility of seeing clearly and and responding appropriately, whatever that may mean in the particular circumstances of […]
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[…] answer a question which will be put to them by the captain of the guard.” Mullah Nasrudin, who had been waiting outside the gates of the city, stepped forward first. The captain spoke: “Where are you going? Tell the truth … the alternative is death by hanging.” “I am going,” said Nasrudin, “to be […]
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[…] can have different views on the question of euthanasia, what are you to do when faced with the decision to kill or not to kill? A three- step practice from Chögyam Trungpa Rinpoche provides a guide: See clearly Know what is Act without hesitation See clearly Cultivate a gesture with compassion. Because compassion puts […]
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[…] to learn or develop. A short list would probably include motivation, skills in meditation and prayer, contemplation, etc. Like music and painting, most of us learn spiritual practice better with someone, rather, than, for instance, by reading a book. When we interact with an actual person, we have to give expression to what we […]
