A REFLECTION

From 09/14/16

I am heartened by a shift I am seeing, in the way we treat illness and affliction. Once it was taboo to talk openly about them. In some cases, people did not even tell their closest relatives and friends that they were suffering from a serious condition like cancer, high blood pressure, heart disease. Even more taboo was any mention of psychological or emotional conditions such as depression or anxiety. It wasn’t considered “polite,” it made us appear vulnerable or broken, and it made people “uncomfortable.” 

People who were afflicted feared being shunned or pitied, dreaded the “help” that wasn’t really help, consoling words that were empty, and “care” that wasn’t really caring. People avoided those with serious conditions because they didn’t know what to say, or what to do. And, after all, it wasn’t their condition. They would inquire politely of a friend or relative, “and how is poor Steven?” So the person with the “problem” was rather isolated, both through self-censorship and through the social norms of what was considered appropriate to talk about. 

But real life is insistent, it is sometimes bloody and naked and raw. 

We have come to a turning where it is now a common practice to share what were once too intimate details about our health and our psyche. There are even websites (thank you, Caring Bridge!) where those details can be widely shared on a regular basis as a person’s healing or dying journey unfolds. 

It may cause some discomfort, but the really amazing thing is how it has connected us at a deeper and more genuine level. Rather than being shunned, those who share with us their struggles allow us to bear witness and offer mindful, energetic, and appropriate care—appamada. And more and more, these folks are seen as resources for learning how to meet our own suffering, and that of those we love, with some grace and presence and curiosity. 

It is painful to witness the suffering of others, it breaks our hearts, but as is often said, it breaks them open. We celebrate the victories of the afflicted, no matter how small, in treatment and ordinary living, and we are present for the dark moments on that path, knowing that between the well and the afflicted there is no true boundary. What a profound offering we receive from those who are willing to be vulnerable in sharing their journey. Our practice is to receive this offering fully and gratefully and to respond wholeheartedly with our Buddha heart and mind. 

This week, two of our sangha members had good news on their path of meeting cancer, one of our sangha members faced a shooting in his own school, one of our sangha members saw his beloved dog killed by a car. Please know that this formless field of benefaction, this container we call sangha, is boundless; it can hold all of that and more. I am so deeply moved that we can share our lives so intimately, bear witness to all that is moving in us, and that we are privileged to offer each other the healing nectar of presence and care. 

SPRING PRACTICE PERIOD: WEEK TWO

From 3/25/2018

Last week we began with the first point, “Train in the Preliminaries.” Now we begin seriously working with the mind training key points and their Lojong slogans. Mind training point two is “Train in Empathy and Compassion.” It has two parts, “Absolute Compassion,” and “Relative Compassion.”

03/25/18 12:35:pm

Dear Sangha-

As we enter the second week of the spring Practice Period at Appamada, I encourage you to continue to deepen your practice and wholehearted exploration of your path of awakening for yourself and for others. This week we take up Point Two of the Seven Points of Mind Training, based on Norman Fischer’s book Training in Compassion. I’ve been inspired, too, by Dzigar Kongtrul’s book on the same subject, The Intelligent Heart: A Guide to the Compassionate Life, in case you would like another source from a contemporary Tibetan teacher. 

Last week we began with the first point, “Train in the Preliminaries.” Now we begin seriously working with the mind training key points and their Lojong slogans. Mind training point two is “Train in Empathy and Compassion.” It has two parts, “Absolute Compassion,” and “Relative Compassion.” Norman Fischer writes: “The technical term for this training in Mahayana Buddhism is the development of bodhicitta, which means, literally, the impulse or desire for spiritual awakening. This doesn’t sound much like compassion or sympathy. Yet implicit in the Mahayana Buddhist understanding of spiritual awakening is the thought that spiritual awakening means awakening to a heartfelt concern for others, since any selfish effort, even with a goal of wisdom or enlightenment for oneself, would never lead to real awakening; it would always lead to more narrowness. Spiritual awakening is exactly dropping the sense of one’s narrow separateness; it is essentially and profoundly altruistic. So cultivating bodhicitta means cultivating true and heartfelt concern for others in a way that is not clingy or arrogant, but is based on the accurate wisdom that none of us is alone, we all need each other and are closely related to each other. 

Dzigar Kongtrul explains relative and absolute bodhicitta this way: Relative bodhicitta, which arises out of love and compassion, is the aspiration to attain enlightenment for the benefit of all sentient beings. Absolute bodhicitta is the direct insight into the empty nature of all phenomena. Though I have yet to come across a better term in English, the word emptiness has its drawbacks. It can frighten or disturb people and lead them to confuse Buddhism with nihilism. So it’s important to state at the outset that emptiness doesn’t refer to a void or a black hole. It is not the same as nonexistence. To say that a person or thing is “empty” simply means that it doesn’t exist in the intrinsic way we think it does. When we say phenomena are empty, we mean that we can’t grasp them or pin them down. It doesn’t mean that they don’t function or appear to our senses. 
He adds, The absolute bodhicitta slogans give a step-by-step method for understanding emptiness at increasingly subtle levels. 

Here are the absolute bodhicitta slogans, from Dzigar Kongtrul (you may want to compare these to the same slogans in Fischer):
    2.    Consider all phenomena as a dream.
    3.    Examine the nature of unborn awareness.
    4.    The antidote itself is liberated.
    5.    Rest in the nature of the alaya (the enlightened nature that all beings with a mind possess).
    6.    In post-meditation, be a child of illusion.
Here are the relative bodhicitta slogans:
    7.    Practice giving and taking alternately. Mount both upon the breath.
    8.    Three objects, three poisons, and three roots of virtue.
    9.    In all conduct train with maxims.
    10.    Begin the sequence of taking with oneself.

Curious about what these slogans can possibly mean, and how you can use them in your practice and everyday life? That would be a great thing to inquire about, with your practice period buddy, with the teachers, and through engaging with the book. But this is the central point of the entire seven point mind training in compassion, so please take some time to reflect on it. Next week we will take up the third Mind Training Point, 
“Transform Bad Circumstances into the Path,” or as Kongtrul puts it: “Transforming Adversity into the Path of Enlightenment.” 

Stay tuned!

RIGHT USE OF POWER TEACHER TRAINING AT SAN FRANCISCO ZEN CENTER

From 10/18/2018

Dear Sangha-

Yesterday was the last day of the Right Use of Power Teacher Training at San Francisco Zen Center. Twenty-one people from all levels of the organization completed this training and they are now planning ways to incorporate it across the organization. Below you can see our class photo in the beautiful SFZC dining room, with Linda Galijan, President of SFZC, her husband Greg Fain, and David Zimmerman, incoming abbot in the front row along with Cedar Barstow and me. Not shown in the photo, because he had to leave a bit earlier, is our own Appamada sangha member John Cooley, now training at Green Gulch.

It was wonderful to be leading this training with Cedar, the founder of Right Use of Power, and a good friend, especially with such wholehearted, caring, and attentive participants.  We ended with certificates and a short closing service that had come to me in zazen a few weeks ago. I thought folks in the sangha might be interested in what we chanted together. I think it should sound pretty familiar!

RIGHT USE OF POWER CLOSING SERVICE

Introduction by leader:

We have all been harmed by misuse of power, and we have all caused harm.
Let us be clear and truthful in facing this reality.

Repentances

All harm I have caused throughout time and space,
From beginningless misuse of power
Borne by my body, speech, and mind,
I now fully avow.

All harm we have caused throughout time and space,
From beginningless misuse of power
Borne by our collective body, speech, and mind,
We now fully avow.

All harm that has been caused throughout time and space,
From beginningless misuse of power
Borne by our structures and systems,
We now fully avow.

Refuges

In the past, I took refuge in personal power;*
In the past, I took refuge in role power;
In the past, I took refuge in status power.

For the present I take refuge in clear awareness;
For the present I take refuge in learning and growing;
For the present I take refuge in connection and care.

Facing the future, I seek refuge in the boundless light of wisdom;
Facing the future, I seek refuge in the open heart of compassion;
Facing the future, I seek refuge in the community of all being.

Vows

Beings are vulnerable, I vow to use my power with care;
Delusions are inevitable, I vow to seek and use feedback;
Missteps and harm are unavoidable, I vow to work wholeheartedly toward repair;
Practice gates are everywhere, I vow to enter them.

The right use of power is wise, skillful, and kind, I vow to walk this path.

*note that when we take refuge in personal power, it might be our own, or someone else’s, for example when we revere some leader, or when people do not use their power, which we feel is itself a misuse of power