time to practice

Carol Wilson is one of my favorite dharma teachers. She is good humoured  and remarkabbly aware of what is going on.

http://dharmaseed.org/talks/audio_player/39/16075.html

2012-05-06 cc-seashore

The Quiet Life

Perhaps you will ask, what value is there in that quiet and aloof way of life? The monks would ask the same question of you. What value is there in passing your nights in a nightclub? 

- Sokei-An Shigetsu Sasaki, "The Quiet Life"
Tricycle Daily Dharma April 7, 2012

Peaceful in body, peaceful in speech,
The bhikkhu peaceful and well-concentrated
Who has rejected the world's bait
Is called "one at peace."
-The Buddha, Dhammapada 378

Constant Vigilance

"The crucial point is to maintain constant vigilance over and awareness of our mental state so that, at the moment that afflictive emotions rise up, they will not trigger a chain of deluded thoughts. Thus, we neither let desire overwhelm our mind, nor do we repress it while leaving it intact in a hidden corner of the mind. We simply become free from its alienating power."
   

- Matthieu Ricard, “Working with Desire”

Be Mindful | Stress Reduction & Cognitive Therapy Courses in the UK

Be Mindful | Stress Reduction & Cognitive Therapy Courses in the UK

A no nonsense set of stuff about the how and why of mindfulness

Building Unconditional Openness

"Whether we’re seeking inner peace or global peace or a combination of the two, the way to experience it is to build on the foundation of unconditional openness to all that arises.

Peace isn’t an experience free of challenges, free of rough and smooth—it’s an experience that’s expansive enough to include all that arises without feeling threatened.

- Pema Chodron, "Unlimited Friendliness"

Patience of Cultivation

When you plant seeds in the garden, you don’t dig them up every day to see if they have sprouted yet. You simply water them and clear away the weeds; you know that the seeds will grow in time. 

Similarly, just do your daily practice and cultivate a kind heart. Abandon impatience and instead be content creating the causes for goodness; the results will come when they’re ready.

- Bhikshuni Thubten Chodron, "Meditator's Toolbox"

http://www.tricycle.com/feature/meditators-toolbox

Mindfulness Bell

Mindfulness Bell

Clarify the Waters

 Andrew Olendzki   

"It can be exceedingly difficult to entirely shut off the source of toxic influxes into the mind, especially those that flow in from the deepest reaches of the psyche. This is finally accomplished only by an arahant or a buddha.

Yet there are plenty of ways in which we can stem the flow, working each moment to calm the waters, siphon out the debris, and catch glimpses of what the world looks like when the mind is able to let it all come and go without attachment, appropriation, or interference.

Everything becomes luminous when we clarify the waters and let all things be just what they are."

Green leaf or mobile phone?

I have been remembering stories from my biology teaching days but they are now coloured with  ‘interbeing’. There was and is some amazing life-forms on the planet: they interact in incredibly sophisticated ways  - but ‘intelligent’ is not a good word for them.

We think of intelligence in terms of how we understand ourselves to operate (and that may have very little to do with the ‘real’ reality). That which evolved since the Big Bang had no designer and no planning committee. There are many more extinct species than there are extant ones. There was, is and always will be ‘churn’ - but it is not useful to think of it as intelligent.

Bits of order appear within the chaos and complexity of the cosmos – then they fade away. This is true at cosmic, biological (ecological) and cultural levels. Before long the sun will go out and the solar system will collapse – but this will not be noticed in the immensity of the universe.  If there is to be a future beyond that time then by what means will it be realised? Does it make sense to think of an intelligent witness?

250 million years ago the Age of the Dinosaurs came to an abrupt end (due to asteroids) and made room on the planet for mammals.  2.5 million years ago the first Hominids came into existence as small groups of hunters and gatherers. 3,500 years ago agriculture was developing and the first civilizations were established. 20 years ago personal computers became quite common. Last week there was news of the potential collapse of the global financial system.

Which is the more miraculous – a green leaf or a mobile phone?