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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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[…] Then we work to remove the internal blocks that 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 […]
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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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[…] in the three-year retreat, I had only two sets of clothes. The aim was the same: to reduce choice so that I could focus attention on meditation practice. Many people deliberately eliminate choice and the need for decisions by adopting set schedules. They conserve energy for important rather than routine decisions (see this article […]
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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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[…] about those kinds of matters. I guess I feel that Buddhism doesn’t have anything to say about anything, really. For me, Buddhism is a path of spiritual practice that is about letting go of identity and experiencing life free from the limitations of the conceptual mind. This shift may well lead to stands on […]
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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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[…] 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 work. By bringing attention to the arbitrary and fluid nature of internal representations, we first see them as […]
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[…] what we are is our human heritage (buddha nature), and all the various spiritual practices, meditation, contemplation on such themes as impermanence, suffering, non-self, compassion, emptiness, koan practice (in Zen), the four immeasurables, taking and sending, etc., are concerned, at least in part, with removing the blocks that prevent that direct knowing or with […]
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[…] is one of the most misunderstood concepts in Buddhism. The misunderstandings are unfortunate because the principle of karma is crucially important for our understanding of why we practice and what happens when we practice. The aim of this article is to correct a number of these misconceptions. The first misconception is the notion that […]
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[…] forget about 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 […]
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[…] mundane aim: to know whatever arises in experience, free from the projections of thought and emotion. Whether through the Theravadan practices of bare attention (mindfulness), the Mahayana practice of awakening to experience (bodhicitta), or the Vajrayana practices of direct awareness (mahamudra, dzogchen), the aim is one and the same: natural knowing that is not […]
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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 you […]
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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 […]
