tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-57826403693985956192024-03-15T18:09:44.492-07:00Mindfulness YogaA blog dedicated to the practice of mindful living. Written by Poep Sa (Dharma Teacher) Frank Jude Boccio, it is written in response to the needs of students to deepen their connection with practice and with the teachings of Mindfulness Yoga.Poep Sa Frank Judehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13609272991412471770noreply@blogger.comBlogger86125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5782640369398595619.post-39312314574519869652018-03-30T09:29:00.001-07:002018-03-30T09:30:42.750-07:00Eating Salt<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-size: large;"><i>A long time ago, a fool was invited to a neighbor's house to share a meal. Once the food was served, the fool was displeased because he found the food bland. His neighbor noticed this and immediately sought to remedy the situation by offering the fool some salt. After the fool sprinkled some salt on his food and took a bite, he said to himself, 'The salt has really made the food quite tasty. If such a small amount of salt has had such an effect, just imagine what a lot of salt will do!'</i></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;"><i>To his neighbor's astonishment, the fool pushed his meal to the side and began to eat the salt by itself. Of course, it wasn't long at all before the foolish man had burned his mouth, and instead of being delighted he groaned in pain.</i></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;"><i>---from "A Flock of Fools," a translation by Kazuaki Tanahashi and Peter Levitt of "The One Hundred Parable Sutra"</i></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;">The "morale" of this story given in the book by Tanahashi and Levitt is simply "A person who misconstrues the Way of Understanding* is just like this fool. He hears that by eating and drinking less, the Way may be gained, and so he fasts for seven or even fifteen days. He ends up starving himself in vain and realizes nothing of the Way. Consider carefully and you'll find it is so."</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;">That may be so, but I think there are so many other lessons we can take from this parable. First, we've all heard that sometimes 'less is more' and that it's possible to have 'too much of a good thing.' In fact, we have heard this so many times it's become a cliche and yet we find ourselves often falling into the trap of believing that if a little is good, much more will be better! Hell, it's pretty much the basis of capitalist greed.</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;">Speaking with a friend about this parable yesterday, she remarked on how it can also be seen as what can happen when we cling to some object and fail to see dependent origination: the food alone was bland. When salt was <i>added to the food, </i>the food became tasty. The tastiness arose dependently upon the small amount of salt added to the food, but the fool fixates on the salt and fails to see this. And this failure of understanding is also related to our failure to discern actual causes and conditions that lead to specific experiences, and thus causes us to focus on the wrong things.</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;">*The capitalization of terms such as Way and Understanding is in the original. I shy away from such capitalization as it tends to idealize and reify such terms. </span></div>
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Poep Sa Frank Judehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13609272991412471770noreply@blogger.com11tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5782640369398595619.post-32420900959454200212018-03-05T13:22:00.000-08:002018-03-05T13:22:04.026-08:00Yoking The Mind IS Yoga....<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-size: large;"><i>This mind is like a fish out of
water that thrashes and throws itself about, its thoughts following</i><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"> each of its cravings. Such a mind is
unsteady, attracted here, there, and everywhere. How good to contain it and
know the happiness of freedom.<o:p></o:p></i></span></div>
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<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="font-size: large;">Yet, how unruly still; how subtle the delusion of the haphazard
thoughts. To calm them is the true way of happiness.<o:p></o:p></span></i></div>
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<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="font-size: large;"><br />
Putting a bridle on the wandering mind, single-mindedly the practitioner restrains
her thoughts. She contains their darting waywardness and finds peace.<o:p></o:p></span></i></div>
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<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="font-size: large;">---Dhammapada<o:p></o:p></span></i></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;">With the fetishization and
hyper-valuation of asana (the postural practice of yoga) in the contemporary “yoga
community” it seems many, if not most, practitioners haven’t been told that the
original meaning of yoga; the original <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">practice</i>
of yoga was <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">meditation, </i>often
described as a bridling or yoking of the mind. In fact, the word <i>yoke</i> is a cognate of the Sanskrit <i>yoga</i>, both tracing back to the
Proto-Indo-European word <i>yeug</i> meaning “join.” <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;">Now there have been many yoga
practitioners who have taken this teaching about yoking the mind to go as far
as saying that the best outcome would be to stop all thinking. In fact, many
have translated the second aphorism of <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">The
Yoga-Sutra</i> in just this way: “Yoga is the cessation of the fluctuations of
consciousness.” Even many buddhist yogis see deep states of non-conitive
samadhi as some kind of end-goal and this has led to a pernicious
anti-intellectualism in much popular, contemporary Buddhism and yoga.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;">However, intellectual rigor,
study, and debate were always part of the various yoga traditions and it may be helpful
to remember that “right thinking” is, after-all, the second of the eight limbs
of the noble eightfold path of yoga practice taught by the Buddha.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;">We can take this teaching from
the <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Dhammapada </i>as pointing out that
most of the thoughts that arise throughout our day are indeed of a scattered,
wasteful, conditioned pattern of a mostly not very useful nature. Through
meditation, in particular satipatthana or mindfulness-meditation, we can become
more intimately familiar with our thinking so that we can contain the wasteful
thinking in order to create a more stable and calm mind with which thinking can
become more directed, skillful and creative.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;">It’s not too farfetched to say
that the world is in the shape it is because very few ever get a chance to
actually stop and investigate the nature of the mind. And so, people are mastered by
their thoughts instead of them mastering their thoughts. The first important step
in containing the mind is to first take an honest look at the mind that is
unrestrained and untrained. When we take the time to do this, we can begin to
see how much of the thinking that goes on causes us – and those around us – so much
suffering. Training the mind, we can begin to create the peace in the world we
say we seek.</span><o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-size: large;">All we need is to begin. Sit down comfortably in a suitable space where you won't be interrupted and just rest your attention on your breath. Soon enough, the mind will wander. Gently, free of adding any agitation or self-criticism, bring your attention back to your breath. And do this every time you mind wanders. Seeing how much the mind wanders is the first insight. Later, you can begin an inquiry into what kinds of things your mind wanders to. And all the while, each time you gently guide your attention back to the breath, you are cultivating the yoking skill of concentration.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-size: large;">Why not try it now?</span></div>
Poep Sa Frank Judehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13609272991412471770noreply@blogger.com7tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5782640369398595619.post-63565023697767409062018-02-11T19:19:00.001-08:002018-02-11T19:19:22.551-08:00By Way of the Mind<span style="font-size: large;">"The world is apprehended by way of the mind</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">The world is acted upon by way of the mind</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">And all good things and bad</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">Exist in the world by way of the mind.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">---<i>Samyutta Nikaya</i></span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><i><br /></i></span>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-size: large;">It would be easy to interpret this verse from the <i>Samyutta Nikaya </i>as philosophically idealistic as several schools of buddhism have done, and go as far as saying that the world is simply a projection of the mind. However, it seems that the buddha, like Patanjali, thought there there was indeed a world that exists independently of the mind. However, it also seems that this verse can be seen to be asserting -- somewhat phenomenologically -- that all we can know of the world comes via our sensorium: the perceptions we experience via our senses.</span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-size: large;"><i>The world is apprehended by way of the mind. </i></span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-size: large;">One meaning of this word, "apprehended" is to "catch, capture" or "seize" while the secondary meaning is to "appreciate, recognize, discern, perceive, realize, grasp, understand" and "comprehend." I would argue that while the secondary meaning is most appropriate to this reading, in that we come to recognize, perceive and understand the world via the mind, it is also true that we may "seize" upon our perceptions -- often to our detriment. </span><span style="font-size: large;">But it is clear: it is through the way of the mind that we come to perceive and understand the world.</span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-size: large;"><i>The world is acted upon by way of the mind.</i></span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-size: large;"><i><br /></i></span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-size: large;">If you stop and take a moment while reading this, to look around at your surroundings, you'll see that everything, from the computer you are reading this through (not to mention the internet itself) to the table you are sitting at and the chair you are sitting on originated in the mind of someone who had a vision or inspiration and then made an effort to make it visible and physical. This is simply another way of pointing out that action follows the mind -- whether with conscious volition or unconscious conditioned reactivity, all action is preceded by mental formations.</span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></div>
<span style="font-size: large;"><i>And all good things and bad</i></span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><i>Exist in the world by way of the mind.</i></span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><i><br /></i></span>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-size: large;">And with this sentence there can easily be a more idealistic interpretation to the extent that to an often very great degree it is the mind itself that projects "good" and "bad" upon the world. For instance, two people step out onto their porch on a rainy day. For the farmer who had been praying for rain, it is a good day! For the parent who had promised their child a picnic, it's a bad day. Perception is all that determines the "good" and "bad" of it.</span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-size: large;">BUT, it would be a form of spiritual sickness to take this to the extreme we see often voiced by so-called 'non-dual' practitioners who assert "it's all good" or that "good" and "bad" are always a mental projection. This is getting caught in the 'absolute' while denying the 'relative.' In this world of multiplicity, there is good and bad. </span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-size: large;">However, when we look at much of the cancers that eat away at our society such as racism, sexism, homophobia, classist exploitation, and bigotry of all kinds, along with the headlong rush into climate catastrophe, we are foolish to ignore that these are "bad" in that they cause much societal and individual suffering. But it is also true, in the spirit of this sentence and verse, that such systemic ills do indeed arise by way of the mind. By way of greed, hatred and ignorance.</span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-size: large;">For instance, at the time of the buddha (and for many fundamentalist Hindus today) the caste system is accepted as being simply part of the "natural order" of the cosmos. The buddha saw the suffering of such a system and rejected its validity and justification by pointing out that not all cultures had such a system, and therefore the caste system is a cultural creation (a creation that arose via the mind).</span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-size: large;">Mindfulness meditation offers us the all-too-rare opportunity to see the nature of mind; it's functions and abilities. Mindfulness meditation practiced to its fullness can be a form of metacognition leading to greater clarity regarding the nature of the mind. We can, through practice, change our relation to the mind and use the mind towards the betterment of all life.</span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></div>
Poep Sa Frank Judehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13609272991412471770noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5782640369398595619.post-10702055106821760672018-01-29T07:58:00.002-08:002018-01-29T08:03:56.606-08:00The "Dim-Witted Monk" and Yoga Practice<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-size: 14.0pt;">One
day, a bright and intelligent student of the Buddha asked if he could bring his
younger brother into the sangha. Delighted, the Buddha said, “Of course!”<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-size: 14.0pt;">The
younger brother, however, although kind and gentle, was a bit slow and
“dim-witted.” He just could not understand any of his studies and asked to go
home so that he wouldn’t waste the buddha’s time or let down his brother.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-size: 14.0pt;">“There’s
no need for you to give up” said the Buddha. “You needn’t abandon your working
toward liberation just because you seem to yourself to be slow-witted. You can
drop all the philosophy you’ve been given to study and simply repeat this
mantra that I give you.” So the Buddha gave the younger brother a mantra and
sent him off with encouragement to practice.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-size: 14.0pt;">But
soon the monk was back, this time feeling even more humiliated. “My beloved
teacher, I can not remember the mantra you gave me and so I cannot practice as
instructed.”<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-size: 14.0pt;">The
Buddha kindly and patiently repeated it for him, but twice more the monk came
back having forgotten it each time. So the Buddha gave him a simplified
variation but when this too slipped completely out of his mind, the young monk
could hardly dare to visit the Buddha again.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-size: 14.0pt;">“There’s
an even shorter version,” the Buddha said, smiling. “It’s only two syllables.
See if you can keep this in your mind.”<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-size: 14.0pt;">But…
he could not. Alone in his hut, the young monk broke down and wept. His older
brother found him in this state and was furious, feeling that his own
reputation would now be sullied because of the failure of his brother. He told
the young monk to leave the sangha and return home, and so the boy left and
sadly made his way along the path to the village.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-size: 14.0pt;">As
he made his way through a grove of trees, he met the Buddha practicing walking
meditation. The Buddha smiled and took his hand. Together they walked to a
nearby temple where two old monks were sweeping the floor. The Buddha said to
them, “This young monk will live here with you. Continue sweeping, and as your
brooms move back and forth, say the two-syllable mantra that I will give you
now. Keep at this till I return.”<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-size: 14.0pt;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-size: 14.0pt;">The
young monk sat down and listened to the movement of the brooms to and fro over
the stone floor. He heard the whispered rhythm of the mantra as it was repeated
over and over again. This went on for quite a few weeks, and before the Buddha
returned, the young monk had found complete liberation, and so had the two old
monks.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-size: 14.0pt;">---
<i>Majjhima Nikaya</i><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-size: 14.0pt;">There
are a few reasons I am fond of this story from the Pali Canon. The first is
that it shows both the patience of the Buddha and his compassion and willingness to work at finding something accessible for this ‘dim-witted’ student to practice. I think there is a
fairly sizable demographic of yogis whose animosity to what they see as the
watering-down of yoga to make it accessible is a form of purist elitism that
fails to look at <i>the motivation</i> of those who are creating new twists and
formats. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-size: 14.0pt;">Now,
I too find myself wincing when I find posts about things like “Yoga With Goats,”
which I am sure some reading this probably find lovely and fun. </span><span style="font-size: 18.66666603088379px;">And what do I know, maybe even liberating! </span><span style="font-size: 14pt;">And, while "Nude Yoga" doesn't sound like my bag, I've talked to people who teach and practice it and see a true and dedicated motivation in alignment with yogic values of transcendence. After all, self-transcendence or liberation </span><i style="font-size: 14pt;">is </i><span style="font-size: 14pt;">the whole raison d'être of yoga practice. (Putting aside for the
moment the fact that liberation itself has been variously and often mutually
exclusively conceptualized across yogic history, lineages, and philosophies).</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-size: 14.0pt;">But
still, the point I’m wanting to make is that I find inspiration in the fact
that the Buddha was willing to take so much time, without any hint of losing
patience with this student until he found a practice that worked for this
individual – and apparently the other two elderly monks!<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-size: 14.0pt;">And
that’s the second point: I’ve read recently some articles that wish to nail
down what yoga is and even what asana is to a very narrow and ultimately
sectarian definition, claiming that any postures that are not<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"> </i>seated meditation postures should not be called asana!
Balderdash! Hatha-yogasana <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">are</i>
asanas. They are not preliminary postures preceding ‘real’ asana. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-size: 14.0pt;">Or…
more specifically, they needn’t be seen as such. A ‘stable, easeful’ mind makes
anything we do yoga. Note, I am not saying that “Yoga is whatever we say it is.”
I am saying that what we do can become a yoga practice. This is most emphasized,
perhaps, in the zen buddhist yoga traditions where gardening, cooking, eating,
shitting and sitting are <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">all </i>integrated
as practice. But such a view has it’s roots in the Pali Canon’s <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Satipatthana-sutta </i>where the Buddha gives
the instruction to practice sati while doing any and all of our ‘mundane’ daily
experiences:<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<i>“Again, yogis, when going forward
and returning he acts clearly knowing; when looking ahead and looking back he
acts clearly knowing; when flexing and extending his limbs he acts clearly
knowing; when bending down and standing up he acts clearly knowing; when
wearing his robes and carrying his outer robe and bowl he acts clearly knowing;
when eating, drinking, consuming food, and tasting he acts clearly knowing;
when defecating and urinating he acts clearly knowing; when walking, standing,
sitting, falling asleep, waking up, talking, and keeping silent he acts clearly
knowing.”</i><o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-size: 14.0pt;">When
<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Yoga Journal </i>asked me seven years ago
what my practice consisted of, I included the then new practice of changing
diapers as my daughter had just been born, and I was <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">not </i>being flippant.
My zen training prepared me for seeing the possibility of breaking through to
liberating insight through any non-harming activity. A gatha written by Thich Nhat Hanh for
using the toilet, alluding to the <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Prajnaparamita
Hridaya Sutra </i>states:<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Defiled or immaculate,<o:p></o:p></i></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Increasing or decreasing –<o:p></o:p></i></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">These concepts exist only in our minds.<o:p></o:p></i></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">The reality of interbeing is unsurpassed.<o:p></o:p></i></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
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<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="HTML Address"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="HTML Cite"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="HTML Code"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
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<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
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<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
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<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
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<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
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<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
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<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Normal Table"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="annotation subject"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
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<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Outline List 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
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<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
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<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
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<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
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<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
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<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
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<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
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<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
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<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
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<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
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<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
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<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
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<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="64" Name="Medium Shading 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="65" Name="Medium List 1"/>
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<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="72" Name="Colorful List"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="73" Name="Colorful Grid"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="60" Name="Light Shading Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="61" Name="Light List Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="62" Name="Light Grid Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="63" Name="Medium Shading 1 Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="64" Name="Medium Shading 2 Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="65" Name="Medium List 1 Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" Name="Revision"/>
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<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="30" QFormat="true"
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<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="68" Name="Medium Grid 2 Accent 1"/>
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<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="72" Name="Colorful List Accent 3"/>
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<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="60" Name="Light Shading Accent 4"/>
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<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="48" Name="List Table 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="49" Name="List Table 4"/>
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<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="52"
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Name="List Table 6 Colorful Accent 3"/>
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<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="50" Name="List Table 5 Dark Accent 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="51"
Name="List Table 6 Colorful Accent 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="52"
Name="List Table 7 Colorful Accent 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="46"
Name="List Table 1 Light Accent 6"/>
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<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="48" Name="List Table 3 Accent 6"/>
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<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="52"
Name="List Table 7 Colorful Accent 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Mention"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
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</w:LatentStyles>
</xml><![endif]-->
<!--[if gte mso 10]>
<style>
/* Style Definitions */
table.MsoNormalTable
{mso-style-name:"Table Normal";
mso-tstyle-rowband-size:0;
mso-tstyle-colband-size:0;
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<span style="font-size: 14.0pt;">Yoga
started out as conceptualized as the yoking of the unruly mind. It was so for
the shramanas whose teachings were ultimately written down in the Upanishads.
It was so for the writer of <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">The
Bhagavad-Gita. </i>It was so for the Buddha and it was so for Patanjali. Like
the “dim-witted” monk in the story, if we yoke our mind to the sweeping of our
home’s floors, we are practicing yoga. And we may find ourselves, as my
teacher, Samu Sunim would say, ‘immediately, intimately, spontaneously, and
obviously’ awake! <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 14.0pt;"><i>prajnaparamita svaha!</i></span><br />
<span style="font-size: 14.0pt;"><i><br /></i></span>
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<span style="font-size: 14.0pt;"><i><br /></i></span></div>
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Poep Sa Frank Judehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13609272991412471770noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5782640369398595619.post-14134747888891768442018-01-22T21:16:00.002-08:002018-01-23T15:29:39.729-08:00Yoga & Abuse<div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-size: x-large;">Part One</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;">Recently, riding the rising tide spurred by the #metoo movement, women yoga students have been speaking out about the abuse and harassment they have been facing -- some of them for years. We're by now all aware of the horrendous criminal behavior of <a href="http://time.com/4795788/yoga-guru-bikram-choudhury/" target="_blank">Bikram Choudary</a>, but many of us are just learning of the long-term harassment perpetuated by Astanga Yoga guru, Pattabhi Jois through the revelations of <a href="http://www.decolonizingyoga.com/karen-rain-responds-mary-taylors-post-sexual-misconduct-pattabhi-jois/" target="_blank">Karen Rain</a>. (Please be sure to follow the links in order to read Mary Taylor's anemic response to Karen Rain as well as to view the linked video)</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;">If we've been practicing for any length of time, we're probably familiar with the all-too-many scandals including those around <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/lifestyle/style/scandal-contorts-future-of-john-friend-anusara-yoga/2012/03/28/gIQAeLVThS_story.html?utm_term=.91729fba4aa8" target="_blank">John Friend</a> and <a href="http://www.sfgate.com/bayarea/article/Yoga-guru-in-compromising-position-Celebrity-2836809.php" target="_blank">Rodney Yee</a>. Sadly, these are just two of the western yoga celebrities who have failed to live up to yoga's own ethical guidelines embodied in the Yamas (or the Buddhist yoga equivalent, the Precepts). But it's not been just western teachers, and it's not simply a very recent problem as this <a href="https://theyogalunchbox.co.nz/a-compehrensive-list-of-yoga-scandals-involving-gurus-sex-and-other-inappropriate-behaviour/" target="_blank">comprehensive list </a>shows. And it includes those held up as "<a href="https://www.indiatoday.in/magazine/controversy/story/20140310-embraced-by-scandal-800327-2014-02-28" target="_blank">saints</a>."</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;">I've previously written about abuse in the buddhist community and pointed out that such abuse is -- at heart -- not about sex or money, but ultimately it's an <a href="http://zennaturalism.blogspot.com/2015/01/0-false-18-pt-18-pt-0-0-false-false.html" target="_blank">abuse of power</a>. </span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;">One take-away from all this is that yoga is not something apart from human foibles. There is a long and deep tendency to romanticize yoga, yoga teachers, and yoga practitioners and perhaps this very romanticization is <i>one</i> of the factors behind such atrocious behavior (along with the patriarchal nature of traditional yoga and the contradictory and confused relationship to sexuality in our culture).</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;">And now, Yoga Alliance is wishing to center itself as <a href="https://www.yogaalliance.org/About_Yoga/Article_Archive/Shannon_Roche_Addresses_Sexual_Misconduct" target="_blank">an arbiter of ethics.</a> To be frank, I am no fan of the Yoga Alliance. Over the course of 20 years it has positioned itself as being something it is not. The Yoga Alliance is NOT a certifying or licensing body; it is simply a registry of yoga teachers who can prove they've taken a yoga teacher training that meets Yoga Alliance's woefully dismal standards (200 hours emphasizing postural practice, with barely any depth in terms of the history and philosophy of the vast Yoga Tradition). </span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;">But by clever positioning, they've created a situation where many employers who know no better will only hire a yoga teacher who has registered with Yoga Alliance (perhaps days after completing their 200-hour training) over someone with decades of experience who has not fallen for the money-making scam of the Yoga Alliance. And students looking for a Yoga Teacher Training will often pass by longer, more in-depth trainings offered by seasoned veterans for a 200-hour Yoga Teacher Training mill because it is registered with the Yoga Alliance.</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;">So, with that said, I will say that it is good news to see Yoga Alliance seemingly taking the abuse and harassment in the yoga community seriously. Especially given their historical woeful "responses" to those who have gone to them for support such as <a href="https://yogalivesdotorg.wordpress.com/2017/03/14/the-shadows-of-yoga-spirituality-i-was-raped-by-my-yoga-teacher-in-india/" target="_blank">Cori Wright</a>. Of course, as a registry, they really have no power other than -- as Sharon Roche says -- taking away their "credential." Note that on their website regarding their grievance process it says:</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: small;"><i><span style="font-family: , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Yoga Alliance will respond to each grievance received. We will also take appropriate action(s) to ensure compliance with our Standards, Requirements, Code of Conduct, and Policies.</span><span style="font-family: , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"> </span></i></span></h3>
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<i>Yoga Alliance will address all breaches in our Standards, Requirements, Code of Conduct, or other Policies with the person and/or school. Any information you share will be recorded in the account holder’s file. This information is only accessible to Yoga Alliance and may be used to inform the development of our grievance process in the future.</i></div>
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<span style="font-size: small;"><i><a href="https://www.blogger.com/null" id="grievanceinfo" style="border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; color: #b4341d; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant-alternates: inherit; font-variant-caps: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-variant-ligatures: inherit; font-variant-numeric: inherit; font-variant-position: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"></a></i></span></h3>
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<i>In the interest of protecting students and trainees, we address all breaches in our Standards, Requirements, Code of Conduct, or other Policies with the person and/or school against whom the allegations were submitted. </i></div>
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<i>Yoga Alliance affords all registrants due process. Therefore, we may not be able to provide updates regarding any action(s), conversations, and/or outcomes taken with the person or school. </i></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: large;">This all sounds to me like a lot of blustering. As you can see there is very little other than platitudes and empty phrases being offered here about "appropriate actions" and addressing "all breaches" of their standards, but they don't actually say what such actions are or will be, nor via what channels they will address "all breaches." And then in response to the question: </span></div>
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<i><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: small;"><span style="font-stretch: inherit; line-height: inherit;"><a href="https://www.blogger.com/null" id="yasuspend" style="border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; color: #b4341d; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"></a></span>Will Yoga Alliance revoke or suspend the school or the teacher's account?</span></i></h3>
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<span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: medium;"><i>Yoga Alliance affords all registrants due process. Yoga Alliance may or may not satisfy your intended outcomes and desires if you file a grievance.</i></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: large;">In other words, <i>caveat emptor.</i></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: x-large;">Part Two</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="color: #333333; font-size: large;">So,</span><span style="color: #333333; font-size: x-large;"> </span><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="color: #333333;">unable -- or unwilling -- to look to Yoga Alliance for any guidance, the discussion and actions that must be taken look as they are up to us to take the lead. And, as to be expected, perhaps, when the topic of ethics is raised, there is bound to be much drama, heat, and argumentation. </span></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="color: #333333;">"Aren't the </span></span><span style="color: #333333; font-size: large;">Yamas (or Precepts) enough of a guideline?" ask many practitioners. But the history of abuse should be answer enough that they are not. And while we would all agree that rape is absolutely wrong, rationalizations around some of the adjustments Jois gave, for instance, are still being made by some among the Astanga Yoga lineage. And then the issue of the relationship between teacher and student grows even murkier, with quite a surprising number of teachers saying there is nothing at all wrong with teachers and students becoming sexually or romantically involved and others finding it absolutely a non-negotiable no-no.</span></span></div>
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<span style="color: #333333; font-family: inherit; font-size: large;">The most common argument against yoga teachers becoming sexually involved with their students is the argument based upon the alleged "power </span><span style="color: #333333; font-size: large;">imbalance" between teacher and student. But here's <a href="https://goodmenproject.com/good-feed-blog/does-having-sex-with-your-yoga-student-make-you-a-pervert/" target="_blank">an article</a> written by a women who argues against the idea of any power imbalance. </span></div>
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<span style="color: #333333; font-size: large;">I've been asked if I would think it wrong for a personal trainer and their client to become sexually involved; that in most cases the relationship between a yoga teacher leading a class in postural practice is more similar to that of a personal trainer and their client than between a therapist and their client or that between a dharma teacher and their student. </span></div>
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<span style="color: #333333; font-size: large;">I'm writing this to invite any who may read it to offer your viewpoints, as I am not putting myself out as some final arbiter of ethics. </span><span style="color: #333333; font-size: large;">Attempts by any organization to create a universal code of ethics will continue to meet resistance from those who wish yoga to remain de-centralized. </span><span style="color: #333333; font-size: large;"> Given that, I believe individual studios and local communities must become involved in responding to the abuse that has remained in the shadows for too long, and work to dissolve the current murky situation with clear guidelines made known to all students.</span><br />
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<span style="color: #333333; font-size: large;">I do think that the Yamas or Precepts may serve as a foundation for ethical guidelines, but then I believe studios and individuals may need to formulate their own "Codes of Ethics" that get more specific and go beyond the general categories covered by the Yamas and Precepts as Spirit Rock has done with their "<a href="https://www.spiritrock.org/teacher-code-of-ethics-2016" target="_blank">Teacher Code of Ethics</a>," most notably in their added points on sexual relations.</span><br />
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<span style="color: #333333; font-size: large;">I wish to end this with a short survey of the Five Precepts from the Zen traditions as a way of sparking discussion: </span><span style="color: #333333; font-size: large;"> </span></div>
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<span style="color: #333333; font-size: large;">1. I vow to avoid causing harm; I vow to cultivate reverence for life.</span></div>
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<span style="color: #333333; font-size: large;">This is the first precept I took with Thich That Hanh in 1995. </span><span style="color: #333333; font-size: large;">And how do we avoid causing harm? The buddha recommended that we think ahead about the possible consequences of our actions. And even if we proceed to act because we have not foreseen any possible harmful consequences, we must keep vigilant to see if there are any unforeseen harmful consequences and change course and make amends. We are human; we will mess up, but we must be committed to learn from our unskillful actions.</span><span style="color: #333333; font-size: large;"> How do we cultivate reverence for life? Thay suggests we do so by being as mindful as we can, practicing gratitude to the life we all subsist upon (whether vegan, vegetarian or not), and by eating moderately. </span></div>
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<span style="color: #333333; font-size: large;">2. I vow not to take what is not freely offered; I vow to practice generosity.</span></div>
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<span style="color: #333333; font-size: large;">This second precept reminds us to not steal, which includes not taking credit for anything others have said or done. We also should not steal from ourselves. And generosity, the buddha said, goes to the very heart of yoga: self-transcendence. We all can give of our time, energy or material resources, whether a kind word or smile or volunteering at a non-profit, or donating money to a cause we support. </span></div>
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<span style="color: #333333; font-size: large;">3. I vow not to indulge in exploitative, oppressive sexual relations; I vow to practice consensual sexual responsibility.</span></div>
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<span style="color: #333333; font-size: large;">Whether we are monogamous, polyamorous, or involved in any kink such as BDSM, it isn't the act itself but the heart/mind motivating the act. By definition, consensual sexuality cannot be exploitative or oppressive.</span></div>
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<span style="color: #333333; font-size: large;">4. I vow not to lie, or spread rumors of which I am not certain; I vow to speak the truth at the appropriate time, to the appropriate person, in the appropriate space for the appropriate reason.</span></div>
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<span style="color: #333333; font-size: large;">Right Speech is a powerful yoga practice and perhaps the most difficult. Truth can be wielded as a weapon to harm others, so note the point about checking our motivation for speaking. There may be times when noble silence is the best way to practice right speech. Right speech most notably includes not speaking of things of which we are not sure, which would end the divisive, cancer of gossip.</span></div>
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<span style="color: #333333; font-size: large;">5. I vow not to intoxicate my mind; I vow to maintain clarity of mind.</span></div>
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<span style="color: #333333; font-size: large;">Buddha means "awakened person" so Buddhism could literally be translated as "Awake-ism." Thus, the value of a clear mind cannot be overstated. We often fixate on drugs and alcohol as intoxicants, but we can intoxicate ourselves with gossip, Facebook, television... and even yoga practice if we are using our practice to avoid reality. </span></div>
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Poep Sa Frank Judehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13609272991412471770noreply@blogger.com13tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5782640369398595619.post-10892362230710898632018-01-07T11:45:00.002-08:002018-01-07T11:45:19.300-08:00The Middle Path<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-size: large;">“Let me tell you about the middle
path. Dressing in rough and dirty garments, letting your hair grow matted,
abstaining from eating any meat or fish, does not cleanse the one who is
deluded. Mortifying the flesh through excessive hardship does not lead to a
triumph over the senses. All self-inflicted suffering is useless as long as the
feeling of self is dominant.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-size: large;">You should lose your clinging
involvement with yourself and then eat and drink naturally, according to the
needs of your body. Clinging attachment to your appetites – whether by
deprivation or indulgence – can lead to slavery, but satisfying the needs of
daily life is not wrong. Indeed, to keep a body in good health is skillful, for
it supports the mind in staying strong and clear.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-size: large;">This is the middle path.”<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-size: large;">--- The Buddha from “Discourse
One”<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-size: large;">The Buddha had lived a life of
indulgence before setting off to become a yogin. And then after six years of
extreme austerities, on the verge of collapse, if not death, he decided to
bathe and eat, build up his strength and stamina and eventually broke through
to full awakening. And from the first teachings of what became a 40-year
teaching career, he taught the middle path, and ever since, this moniker has
become synonymous with Buddhism.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg9zf-G3O8rPLapUvC3ZYUP5w7QYuiO2AbyRhNihY2tFUhB0lcMWsEMKJe_GwfrFjA2ey8A_HsdFwcKiA8auZ_8DTJ7X3f-j7F8IhnJkT5cO2c_F2YMd9NLH_97UsralAQ6l2gK-XuAm0EW/s1600/Emaciated+Buddha.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="523" data-original-width="361" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg9zf-G3O8rPLapUvC3ZYUP5w7QYuiO2AbyRhNihY2tFUhB0lcMWsEMKJe_GwfrFjA2ey8A_HsdFwcKiA8auZ_8DTJ7X3f-j7F8IhnJkT5cO2c_F2YMd9NLH_97UsralAQ6l2gK-XuAm0EW/s320/Emaciated+Buddha.png" width="220" /></a></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-size: large;">The Emaciated Buddha after years of extreme <i>tapas</i></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-size: large;">Even to this day, there are
<a href="https://twitter.com/herashish/status/618705216234500096" target="_blank">yogins in India</a> practicing the extreme forms of renunciation, but what the Buddha
is reminding us, whether we abstain from or indulge in our appetites, though it
looks very different, there is the same fixation on the self. And it is this
fixation that traps us in the round of dukkha (dissatisfaction, stress,
suffering, pain).<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-size: large;">In another teaching from later in
his career, he had a student who had been a <a href="https://youtu.be/ep5-cIfUCUM" target="_blank">veena</a> player. The veena is a
lute-like stringed instrument, and the Buddha, consummate teacher that he was,
addressed Sona’s experience as a musician to teach him the middle path of
practice. He must have noticed Sona sitting in meditation either in a
collapsed, overly loose way or in what zen teachers refer to as the “stone Buddha,”
sitting rigidly and overly stridently effortful. The Buddha asked:<br />
<br />
“Sona, what happens when you tighten the strings of the veena?”<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-size: large;">Sona replied, “The pitch
increases.”<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-size: large;">“And if you continue to tighten
the string?” the Buddha asked.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-size: large;">“Then eventually the string will
snap,” replied Sona.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-size: large;">“And what happens when you loosen
the strings?” the Buddha continued.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-size: large;">“The pitch decreases,” Sona
answered.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-size: large;">“And again, if you continue to
loosen the strings?” asked the Buddha.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-size: large;">“Then the string will become so
slack that it won’t make any sound” Sona replied.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-size: large;">“Then how do you make the strings
sound harmoniously? the Buddha responded.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-size: large;">“By making them not too tight and
not too loose” said Sona.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-size: large;">“And that is how you should
practice meditation” the Buddha pointed out.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-size: large;">Now, raised as we are on fairly
tales, many who hear this story assume that once one is not too tight, not too
loose, we live “happily ever after” as if “not too tight, not too loose” was a
permanent state of being. But any string player will tell you, that “not too
tight, not too loose” is always a relationship to circumstances. If you tune in
a room that is 70-degrees F and 30% humidity, and then move into a room that is
85-degrees and 75% humidity, you are going to have to retune! <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-size: large;">We are always having to make
adjustments to ever-changing circumstances. There is no such thing as balance so
much as we are continually balancing. It is a dynamic process and relationship
and to maintain this relationship requires vigilant mindfulness.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-size: large;"><br />
This is important to understand because otherwise the “middle path” may be
misunderstood as equivocal, but it is properly understood as “upright,
centered, and neutral.” The middle path requires us to investigate and
penetrate life’s circumstances with as unbiased an attitude as possible (which
is where a metacognitive aspect comes into mindfulness practice; we need to
learn about and be alert to biases such as the confirmation bias in order to
compensate and correct for it). In order to see clearly so that we can respond
skillfully and wholesomely to life’s ever-changing conditions, we need to
position ourselves in a stable, neutral, upright, unbiased attitude. Those of
you familiar with the definition of yoga-asana may see some similarities here!
From this stable, yet relaxed grounded position, we can investigate our
situation from various angles, analyze what we discover (uncover), understand
clearly (clear comprehension, as the <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">satipatthana
</i>has it) and find a creative and skillful response. In this way, we can
liberate ourselves from our conditioned, biased reactivity and move toward the
skillful response. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-size: large;">The middle path represents the
distinct perspective and way of Buddhist practice more common to humanism than
to other religions. Buddhism lays great emphasis on human thought and action
and their relationship to the environment, society and culture. It is concerned
with the relationship between the changing conditions of the environment,
society and culture and the thoughts and actions of the individual and groups
and the relationship between these thoughts and actions and their consequences.
It is an investigation into causality.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-size: large;">Through this investigation, the Buddha
came to offer two main characteristics of the middle path: the teaching of
Dependent Origination and the Noble Eightfold Path. Dependent Origination shows
the process of causality, how phenomena and situations arise and pass away
based upon myriad causes and conditions. The Noble Eightfold Path shows the way
of practice as a response to Dependent Origination.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></div>
<div style="background: white;">
<span style="font-size: large;"><i><span style="color: black; font-family: "Arial",sans-serif;">"The Tathagatha avoids the two extremes<br />
and talks about the Middle Path.<br />
When this is, that is; with the arising of this, that arises.<br />
Through ignorance volitional actions or karmic formations are conditioned.</span></i><i><span style="color: black; font-family: "Times",serif;"><o:p></o:p></span></i></span></div>
<div style="background: white;">
<span style="font-size: large;"><i><span style="color: black; font-family: "Arial",sans-serif;">Through birth, decay, death, lamentation, pain are
conditioned.<br />
When this is not, that is not; with the ceasing of this, that ceases.<br />
Through the complete cessation of ignorance, volitional activities or karmic
formations cease. <br />
Through the cessation of birth, death, decay, sorrow, cease."</span></i><i><span style="color: black; font-family: "Times",serif;"><o:p></o:p></span></i></span></div>
<div style="background: white;">
<i><span style="color: black; font-family: "Arial",sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: large;">(Samyuktagama, Chapter 12)</span></span></i><i><span style="color: black; font-family: "Times",serif;"><o:p></o:p></span></i></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
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<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="List Number 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="List Number 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="10" QFormat="true" Name="Title"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Closing"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Signature"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="1" SemiHidden="true"
UnhideWhenUsed="true" Name="Default Paragraph Font"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Body Text"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Body Text Indent"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="List Continue"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="List Continue 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="List Continue 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="List Continue 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="List Continue 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Message Header"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="11" QFormat="true" Name="Subtitle"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Salutation"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Date"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Body Text First Indent"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Body Text First Indent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Note Heading"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Body Text 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Body Text 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Body Text Indent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Body Text Indent 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Block Text"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Hyperlink"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="FollowedHyperlink"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="22" QFormat="true" Name="Strong"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="20" QFormat="true" Name="Emphasis"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Document Map"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Plain Text"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="E-mail Signature"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="HTML Top of Form"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="HTML Bottom of Form"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Normal (Web)"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="HTML Acronym"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="HTML Address"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="HTML Cite"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="HTML Code"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="HTML Definition"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="HTML Keyboard"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="HTML Preformatted"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="HTML Sample"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="HTML Typewriter"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="HTML Variable"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Normal Table"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="annotation subject"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="No List"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Outline List 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Outline List 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Outline List 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Table Simple 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Table Simple 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Table Simple 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Table Classic 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Table Classic 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Table Classic 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Table Classic 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Table Colorful 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Table Colorful 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Table Colorful 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Table Columns 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Table Columns 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Table Columns 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Table Columns 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Table Columns 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Table Grid 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Table Grid 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Table Grid 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Table Grid 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Table Grid 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Table Grid 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Table Grid 7"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Table Grid 8"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Table List 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Table List 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Table List 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Table List 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Table List 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Table List 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Table List 7"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Table List 8"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Table 3D effects 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Table 3D effects 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Table 3D effects 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Table Contemporary"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Table Elegant"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Table Professional"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Table Subtle 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Table Subtle 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Table Web 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Table Web 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Table Web 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Balloon Text"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="39" Name="Table Grid"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Table Theme"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Note Level 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Note Level 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Note Level 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Note Level 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Note Level 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Note Level 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Note Level 7"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Note Level 8"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Note Level 9"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" Name="Placeholder Text"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="1" QFormat="true" Name="No Spacing"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="60" Name="Light Shading"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="61" Name="Light List"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="62" Name="Light Grid"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="63" Name="Medium Shading 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="64" Name="Medium Shading 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="65" Name="Medium List 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="66" Name="Medium List 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="67" Name="Medium Grid 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="68" Name="Medium Grid 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="69" Name="Medium Grid 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="70" Name="Dark List"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="71" Name="Colorful Shading"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="72" Name="Colorful List"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="73" Name="Colorful Grid"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="60" Name="Light Shading Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="61" Name="Light List Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="62" Name="Light Grid Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="63" Name="Medium Shading 1 Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="64" Name="Medium Shading 2 Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="65" Name="Medium List 1 Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" Name="Revision"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="34" QFormat="true"
Name="List Paragraph"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="29" QFormat="true" Name="Quote"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="30" QFormat="true"
Name="Intense Quote"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="66" Name="Medium List 2 Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="67" Name="Medium Grid 1 Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="68" Name="Medium Grid 2 Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="69" Name="Medium Grid 3 Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="70" Name="Dark List Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="71" Name="Colorful Shading Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="72" Name="Colorful List Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="73" Name="Colorful Grid Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="60" Name="Light Shading Accent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="61" Name="Light List Accent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="62" Name="Light Grid Accent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="63" Name="Medium Shading 1 Accent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="64" Name="Medium Shading 2 Accent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="65" Name="Medium List 1 Accent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="66" Name="Medium List 2 Accent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="67" Name="Medium Grid 1 Accent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="68" Name="Medium Grid 2 Accent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="69" Name="Medium Grid 3 Accent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="70" Name="Dark List Accent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="71" Name="Colorful Shading Accent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="72" Name="Colorful List Accent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="73" Name="Colorful Grid Accent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="60" Name="Light Shading Accent 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="61" Name="Light List Accent 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="62" Name="Light Grid Accent 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="63" Name="Medium Shading 1 Accent 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="64" Name="Medium Shading 2 Accent 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="65" Name="Medium List 1 Accent 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="66" Name="Medium List 2 Accent 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="67" Name="Medium Grid 1 Accent 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="68" Name="Medium Grid 2 Accent 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="69" Name="Medium Grid 3 Accent 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="70" Name="Dark List Accent 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="71" Name="Colorful Shading Accent 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="72" Name="Colorful List Accent 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="73" Name="Colorful Grid Accent 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="60" Name="Light Shading Accent 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="61" Name="Light List Accent 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="62" Name="Light Grid Accent 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="63" Name="Medium Shading 1 Accent 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="64" Name="Medium Shading 2 Accent 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="65" Name="Medium List 1 Accent 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="66" Name="Medium List 2 Accent 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="67" Name="Medium Grid 1 Accent 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="68" Name="Medium Grid 2 Accent 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="69" Name="Medium Grid 3 Accent 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="70" Name="Dark List Accent 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="71" Name="Colorful Shading Accent 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="72" Name="Colorful List Accent 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="73" Name="Colorful Grid Accent 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="60" Name="Light Shading Accent 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="61" Name="Light List Accent 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="62" Name="Light Grid Accent 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="63" Name="Medium Shading 1 Accent 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="64" Name="Medium Shading 2 Accent 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="65" Name="Medium List 1 Accent 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="66" Name="Medium List 2 Accent 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="67" Name="Medium Grid 1 Accent 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="68" Name="Medium Grid 2 Accent 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="69" Name="Medium Grid 3 Accent 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="70" Name="Dark List Accent 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="71" Name="Colorful Shading Accent 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="72" Name="Colorful List Accent 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="73" Name="Colorful Grid Accent 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="60" Name="Light Shading Accent 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="61" Name="Light List Accent 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="62" Name="Light Grid Accent 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="63" Name="Medium Shading 1 Accent 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="64" Name="Medium Shading 2 Accent 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="65" Name="Medium List 1 Accent 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="66" Name="Medium List 2 Accent 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="67" Name="Medium Grid 1 Accent 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="68" Name="Medium Grid 2 Accent 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="69" Name="Medium Grid 3 Accent 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="70" Name="Dark List Accent 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="71" Name="Colorful Shading Accent 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="72" Name="Colorful List Accent 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="73" Name="Colorful Grid Accent 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="19" QFormat="true"
Name="Subtle Emphasis"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="21" QFormat="true"
Name="Intense Emphasis"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="31" QFormat="true"
Name="Subtle Reference"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="32" QFormat="true"
Name="Intense Reference"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="33" QFormat="true" Name="Book Title"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="37" SemiHidden="true"
UnhideWhenUsed="true" Name="Bibliography"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="39" SemiHidden="true"
UnhideWhenUsed="true" QFormat="true" Name="TOC Heading"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="41" Name="Plain Table 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="42" Name="Plain Table 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="43" Name="Plain Table 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="44" Name="Plain Table 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="45" Name="Plain Table 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="40" Name="Grid Table Light"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="46" Name="Grid Table 1 Light"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="47" Name="Grid Table 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="48" Name="Grid Table 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="49" Name="Grid Table 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="50" Name="Grid Table 5 Dark"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="51" Name="Grid Table 6 Colorful"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="52" Name="Grid Table 7 Colorful"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="46"
Name="Grid Table 1 Light Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="47" Name="Grid Table 2 Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="48" Name="Grid Table 3 Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="49" Name="Grid Table 4 Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="50" Name="Grid Table 5 Dark Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="51"
Name="Grid Table 6 Colorful Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="52"
Name="Grid Table 7 Colorful Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="46"
Name="Grid Table 1 Light Accent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="47" Name="Grid Table 2 Accent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="48" Name="Grid Table 3 Accent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="49" Name="Grid Table 4 Accent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="50" Name="Grid Table 5 Dark Accent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="51"
Name="Grid Table 6 Colorful Accent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="52"
Name="Grid Table 7 Colorful Accent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="46"
Name="Grid Table 1 Light Accent 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="47" Name="Grid Table 2 Accent 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="48" Name="Grid Table 3 Accent 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="49" Name="Grid Table 4 Accent 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="50" Name="Grid Table 5 Dark Accent 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="51"
Name="Grid Table 6 Colorful Accent 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="52"
Name="Grid Table 7 Colorful Accent 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="46"
Name="Grid Table 1 Light Accent 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="47" Name="Grid Table 2 Accent 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="48" Name="Grid Table 3 Accent 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="49" Name="Grid Table 4 Accent 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="50" Name="Grid Table 5 Dark Accent 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="51"
Name="Grid Table 6 Colorful Accent 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="52"
Name="Grid Table 7 Colorful Accent 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="46"
Name="Grid Table 1 Light Accent 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="47" Name="Grid Table 2 Accent 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="48" Name="Grid Table 3 Accent 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="49" Name="Grid Table 4 Accent 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="50" Name="Grid Table 5 Dark Accent 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="51"
Name="Grid Table 6 Colorful Accent 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="52"
Name="Grid Table 7 Colorful Accent 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="46"
Name="Grid Table 1 Light Accent 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="47" Name="Grid Table 2 Accent 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="48" Name="Grid Table 3 Accent 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="49" Name="Grid Table 4 Accent 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="50" Name="Grid Table 5 Dark Accent 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="51"
Name="Grid Table 6 Colorful Accent 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="52"
Name="Grid Table 7 Colorful Accent 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="46" Name="List Table 1 Light"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="47" Name="List Table 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="48" Name="List Table 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="49" Name="List Table 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="50" Name="List Table 5 Dark"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="51" Name="List Table 6 Colorful"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="52" Name="List Table 7 Colorful"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="46"
Name="List Table 1 Light Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="47" Name="List Table 2 Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="48" Name="List Table 3 Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="49" Name="List Table 4 Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="50" Name="List Table 5 Dark Accent 1"/>
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Poep Sa Frank Judehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13609272991412471770noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5782640369398595619.post-79340886151025397832017-12-20T16:19:00.002-08:002018-02-20T11:17:43.432-08:00"But isn't all yoga mindful?"<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEij2nhnNOwFYf8vIDEyMBVzKn5k8vluCyLvFiNLWRZr2h9nO0aqMZn4AmRaXm7gP91luihtHfUkl61MmkeVvuzpQILCt1x2vuzJmMwI1M7-O67rCiRu6YDfFTHqAe43XVORwNY5zr8tSEIY/s1600/Buddha+3.tiff" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="412" data-original-width="733" height="179" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEij2nhnNOwFYf8vIDEyMBVzKn5k8vluCyLvFiNLWRZr2h9nO0aqMZn4AmRaXm7gP91luihtHfUkl61MmkeVvuzpQILCt1x2vuzJmMwI1M7-O67rCiRu6YDfFTHqAe43XVORwNY5zr8tSEIY/s320/Buddha+3.tiff" width="320" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;">This has been asked of me -- usually rhetorically -- by students over the years more than once. And of course, I agree... all yoga <i>should </i>be practiced mindfully. Sadly, given today's commodified and mainstreamed practice of yoga as a "workout" or exercise regimen, we cannot simply assume that mindfulness is present in all venues.</span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-size: large;">But that aside, there is still a difference between yoga practiced mindfully and Mindfulness Yoga. Especially when what is being described as yoga is actually asana practice.</span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-size: large;">There's an old story about two zen students on retreat wondering if the <i><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/R%C5%8Dshi" target="_blank">roshi</a></i> will allow them to smoke while on retreat. They decide to separately ask the roshi during <i><a href="https://www.thoughtco.com/dokusan-449803" target="_blank">dokusan</a></i>. A bit later, one of the students notices the other one sitting in the garden smoking a cigarette. The student goes up to him and whispers, "Why are you smoking? The roshi told me I couldn't smoke." The smoking student asks, "What did you ask the roshi?" The other student responds, "I asked if I could meditate while smoking." "Well," the smoking student answers, "I asked if I could smoke while meditating."</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-size: large;">Hopefully, anyone engaging in asana practice, if they understand the purpose of yoga, is doing it mindfully. That is to say, as they move into <i><a href="https://www.yogajournal.com/poses/extended-triangle-pose" target="_blank">trikonasana</a></i>, for instance, they are doing so mindfully, paying attention to what and how they are doing the posture. But as you can see, to say one is doing the asana mindfully is putting emphasis on the asana; mindfully is an adjective describing <i>how </i>one is engaged with the posture.</span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-size: large;">With <a href="https://www.amazon.com/Mindfulness-Yoga-Awakened-Union-Breath/dp/0861713354/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1513815126&sr=8-2&keywords=mindfulness+yoga" target="_blank">Mindfulness Yoga</a>, as the proper noun evidences, the emphasis is on the practice and cultivation of mindfulness through the vehicle of the posture. In mindful yoga, one is practicing asana mindfully; in Mindfulness Yoga one is practicing mindfulness in the posture. </span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-size: large;">Further, for me, what I coined Mindfulness Yoga is a form or approach to asana practice (including pranayama) based upon the buddha's instructions given in the <i><a href="http://www.insightmeditationcenter.org/articles/SatipatthanaSutta.pdf" target="_blank">satipatthana-sutta</a> </i>and the <i><a href="https://www.insightmeditationcenter.org/articles/AnapanasatiSutta.pdf" target="_blank">anapanasati-sutta</a>. </i>In Mindfulness Yoga, whether we are practicing slow-movement, restorative, yin or vinyasa-flow, the foundation for practice is the practice of <i>sati, </i>which is the word translated as "mindfulness." </span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;">And to be absolutely clear, with the mainstreaming of "mindfulness," much of the practice of sati has been left behind: mindfulness is <i>not </i>the same as "bare attention." That is to say, it is <i>not merely </i>"paying attention in a particular way: on purpose, in the present moment, and nonjudgmentally," as it is most often described by many contemporary mindfulness teachers.</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;"><i><br /></i></span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-size: large;">Yes, mindfulness includes and is based upon such an orientation to the present moment: we observe what is happening purposefully, and without judgment or reactivity. But that is only to enable us to see clearly -- to have 'clear comprehension' (<i>Sampajanna</i>)</span><span style="font-size: large;"> of the present moment. If we judge or react, we are no longer seeing clearly, but rather through the filter of our reactivity.</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;"><i><br /></i></span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-size: large;"><i>But, </i>we do this in order to then seen clearly the causes and conditions for the present moment in order to discern what and how we should respond. If the present moment is positive and wholesome, (which is a judgement, after all) then we are determined to continue nurturing the causes and conditions that led to the present moment. However, if the present moment sucks, if is is filled with <i>duhkha</i> and unwholesomeness, then we respond in such a way to cut off the causes and conditions and to not repeat them in the future.</span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-size: large;"><i><br /></i></span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-size: large;"><i>Thus, </i>the full practice of mindfulness is not atomistically looking at the present moment, but is doing so while <i>remembering</i> (which is the actual root of the word <i>sati</i>) what led to its arising. The practice of sati is relational, requiring memory and discernment as we move from conditioned reactivity to creative response. If one is living only in the present moment, there is no relationship possible. Relationship requires memory. Ask anyone who has a family member suffering from Alzheimer's if you doubt that.</span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-size: large;">So, with <a href="http://www.tucsonyoga.com/mindfulnessmeditation" target="_blank">Mindfulness Practice as I teach it</a> or in my upcoming retreat at <a href="https://kripalu.org/presenters-programs/mindfulness-yoga-awakened-union-breath-body-and-mind" target="_blank">Kripalu</a>, we follow the various practices outlined in the two suttas I referred to above which includes observing and investigating breathing, the positions and activities of the body, the various parts and elements of the body, and the ultimate state of the body; whether the feelings arising are pleasant, unpleasant or neutral and whether arising physiologically or psychologically; all mental activity; and the fundamental categories of the buddhadharma.</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;"><i><br /></i></span></div>
Poep Sa Frank Judehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13609272991412471770noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5782640369398595619.post-37222270278297094592017-12-07T12:47:00.001-08:002017-12-07T12:47:06.821-08:00Friendship With The Lovely...<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-size: large;">"Ananda said: 'Friendship with what is lovely, association with what is lovely, intimacy with what is lovely -- that is half of the dharma practitioner's life.'</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-size: large;">The buddha replied: "Oh, don't say that, Ananda. It is the whole of the dharma practitioner's life. One so fortunate with what is lovely will develop a skillful way of being, a thinking that no longer grasps at what is illusory, an aim that is concerned and ready, a contemplation that is unentangled and free. Association with what is lovely is the whole of the dharma-practitioner's life.'"</span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-size: large;">--- Samyutta Nikaya</span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-size: large;">I remember that though I had been interested in buddha-dharma for years, and had been practicing (mostly alone, but occasionally I'd sit with one group or another), I refrained from joining any sangha. And when a group of friends and I began to sit together in my apartment in Park Slope, Brooklyn, we jokingly said we were a group of "non-joiners." </span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-size: large;">And yet, over time, despite my skeptical suspicions of group-think, and seeing how easy it was for such cultish dynamics to form, I have also come to see just how necessary "association with the lovely" is. </span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-size: large;">Of course, humans being human, no community could or should expect to be free of tensions, conflict and disharmony. What makes a community a <i>sangha</i> and not just a group of people, is that each participant takes responsibility for their own reactions as well as for speaking up when s/he witnesses a dharma friend saying or doing something that seems harmful and using such conflict and tension for the general purpose of all members of the communities awakening.</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-size: large;">Most importantly, perhaps, is that each participant in a sangha, rather then turning to others when upset with another member of the community, addresses that member directly, whether alone <i>or </i>in the company of another member as witness. And when some offense is brought to a member's attention, that member practices restraint of defensiveness, offers deep listening, and enters into the co-practice of restoration.</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-size: large;">While there is no need to formalize this practice, the "Peace Treaty" created by the Plum Village community offers some guidelines for how sangha members can work with conflict. Of course, there is a caveat: I have seen the teaching of 'right speech' and 'deep listening' used in such a way as to create the tendency toward self-censorship, as well as the marginalization of dissenting opinion. Each and every sangha member must feel they can indeed speak up and out and be heard. The sangha must be willing to be changed by what comes out of any conflict.</span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-size: large;">This indeed is intimacy with the lovely -- though it may not always be pretty!</span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
Poep Sa Frank Judehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13609272991412471770noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5782640369398595619.post-80185191831193233182017-10-22T20:38:00.000-07:002017-10-22T20:38:41.514-07:00What Do We Know?<span style="font-size: large;">"Ananda said to the buddha: 'I think there has never been a teacher as great as you, nor will there ever be one as great in the future!'</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;">The buddha asked Ananda: 'Have you known all the buddhas of the past?'</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;">'No, honored one,' responded Ananda.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;">'But you are able to know all the buddhas of the future, then?' asked the buddha.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;">'No, honored one,' Ananda repeated.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;">'Then I suppose you know <i>my</i> awakened mind completely?' the buddha asked.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;">'No, honored one. I do not even know your mind completely,' Ananda admitted.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;">'Then how can you make such a bold statement as that I am the greatest teacher that ever was or will be? It is much better to talk of what you know than to speculate foolishly,' the buddha told Ananda."</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;">This exchange from the <i>Majjhima Nikaya </i>it a good one to keep in mind when we find ourselves so sure of our perceptions and opinions. We often seem so sure of ourselves when we impute motivations to others; and we can pontificate on the subjects we have very little experience in as if we have the deepest insight into them. This passage reminds us to be a bit more humble in regards to the confidence we hold for our perceptions and opinions.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;">The fourth precept includes this understanding, not to speak of things of which we are not sure, but there are actually very few things of which we <i>are</i> sure! Ananda says he does not know the buddha's mind completely, but truly, there is no one among us who can say we know our own mind completely! Both neuro-science and cognitive science shows us that much of what we do and think we think is guided by the unconscious and pre-conscious mind to which we have no access. We do things and then confabulate reasons. Perhaps only children, who openly admit they do not know why they've done something when asked why<i> </i>they've done it are completely honest. Bodhidharma, when asked by Emperor Wu, "Who are you?" responded "I don't know." </span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;">If we too can remember that we often do not know, perhaps we can stay more intimate with our experience, maintaining an ardent sense of curiosity while holding a relaxed grasp on our perceptions and opinions? But we do love to speculate, don't we? Perhaps this exchange can help us remember to speculate wisely, rather than foolishly assert things to be that we truly have little to no idea about!</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;">"Appropriate thinking" is the second of the 8-limbs of the buddha's eight-fold path. One actual practice to support appropriate thinking is to ask oneself: "Am I sure?" when we find ourselves asserting something as fact. And when we catch ourselves indulging in the idea gossip of speculation, we can stop ourselves and kindly ask ourselves: "What are you doing?" Finally, when we see we've given sway to foolish speculation -- especially as to the motivations of other's behavior, we can say to ourselves, "Hello habit energy!" </span><br />
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<br />Poep Sa Frank Judehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13609272991412471770noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5782640369398595619.post-80858538703017026922015-02-28T18:48:00.002-08:002015-02-28T18:48:19.261-08:00The Four Reminders: Training in the Preliminaries
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<span style="color: #343434; font-family: Times; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Times;">The first slogan of <i>lojong </i>is
itself the first of the Seven Points of Mind Training: <b>“First, train in the
preliminaries.”</b> This is often taken to refer to the foundational practice
of <i>shamatha-vipashyana. </i>Additionally, there are other ways
this may be thought and approached and it is important to do so in order to
stoke our motivation <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">for</i> practice!<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: #343434; font-family: Times; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Times;">The first way one can approach this
slogan is to consider “the preliminaries” as <i>everything difficult </i>that
has happened in your life up to now. The heartbreaks, the disappointments, the
illnesses, the losses and all such past and/or present difficulties are the
preliminaries for you. Whatever nature they may be, we can use them to push
ourselves deeper into both a re-appraisal of our practice and strengthen our resolve
to dig deeper into practice.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: #343434; font-family: Times; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Times;">Now, the difference between just
coping with these difficulties and “training” has to do with how we view and
relate to them. If we are serious about training, we need to <i>own </i>them.
When we take precepts, part of the ceremony is Atonement or, as my teacher,
Samu Sunim would say, “at-one-ment,” where we take responsibility for our <i>karma. </i>This
“responsibility” isn’t to imply that you caused your difficulty (though you may
have) or are to “blame” for it. Even if you are a victim and through no fault
of your own, you are suffering or have suffered, taking responsibility means
owning that it happened, owning it as the present stuff of your life. It’s what
you are going to work with. <b>Training in the preliminaries </b>in
this sense means not wallowing in your troubles, but rather to stop moaning and
feeling self-pity and recognizing that — like it or not — this is your life and
you are the one that must work with it <i>as the very field of
practice. </i><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: #343434; font-family: Times; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Times;">Ways of doing this obviously include
how you take your seat in sitting meditation, steadfastly refusing to spin out
into fantasy, justification, and resentment, but also with therapy or
couseling, journaling, sangha sharing, artistic endeavors and any other forms
of reflective exercise. It’s about creating a pause, taking the backward step
and acknowledging that the old way doesn’t work; that a new way of being in the
world is called for. When I was growing up in NYC, every pizzeria had take-out
boxes that said: “You’ve tried the rest; now try the best.” That’s kind of how
I sometimes feel about this; I’ve tried to ignore or suppress and <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">that </i>didn’t work. Now there’s dharma.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: #343434; font-family: Times; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Times;">A traditional way to deepen one’s
motivation as a way of <b>training in the preliminaries </b>is to reflect
upon four key points sometimes referred to in the Tibetan traditions as four
reminders. I wrote a piece at my other blog, <a href="http://zennaturalism.blogspot.com/2014/02/contemplating-impermanence.html" target="_blank">Zen Naturalism</a>, that was somewhat critical of the way some other teachers approach the practice. As a naturalist, I reject the more transcendental, world-denying aspects of their approach. The following owes much to Norman Fischer's treatment in his book on Lojong, <i><a href="https://vimeo.com/74347362" target="_blank">Training In Compassion</a>.</i><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 24pt; text-align: center;">
<span style="color: #343434; font-family: Times; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Times;"><i><b>The Four Reminders</b></i></span></div>
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<span style="color: #343434; font-family: Times; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Times;">1. <i>The rarity and preciousness of
human life. </i>Human life is understood as the “realm” best suited for
awakening. With seven billion people populating the world, and a projected
increase in up to two billion more this century, human life may not seem so
rare, but we have to consider that each of our bodies has <i>trillions </i>of
life forms living within and upon them! Along with these trillions (multiplied
by seven billion) are the microbial life found on every centimeter of the
planet, all the insects and animals. So, when one considers just how many
living beings there actually are, you can understand how rare it is to be born
human.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: #343434; font-family: Times; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Times;">And to top that all off, how rare and
precious to have evolved to have a mind and consciousness with which we can
experience identity, value, abstract thought and conceptualization, and
aesthetic appreciation! The idea is if we deeply ponder this understanding of
the rarity and preciousness of human life, we will be inspired to do something
truly meaningful with our life: awaken in order to live fully, intimately. This
first reminder can be pleasant and awesome to think about. The second reminder,
well… maybe not so much…<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: #343434; font-family: Times; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Times;">2. <i>The absolute inevitability
of death. </i>The hero of the <i>Mahabharata </i>says that the
most amazing thing in the world is that people, seeing others dying all around
them, think that death has nothing to do with them! Yes, I’m sure all of those
reading this know they are mortal and will in fact die. And, yet if we’re honest,
we’ll have to admit that in the deepest depths of the heart we somehow don’t
really believe it; death just seems so remote. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: #343434; font-family: Times; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Times;">Perhaps the most unnerving thing
about the fact of our death is that we don’t know when it’s going to happen to us!
Again, most of us, if we do contemplate our mortality, imagine ourselves dying
of old age. For years, whenever I contemplated my death, I saw myself as an
old, old, man. Yet, we know and see all-too-much evidence that death happens to
people at every stage of their life. Thousands of children die each day from
starvation alone! After a serious car accident last year that I am lucky to
have survived, I contemplate more fully the reality that I can die at my
current age as well. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: #343434; font-family: Times; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Times;">As we age, time — which is always
experienced subjectively — speeds up. What seems an eternity to a child, a
month, passes so swiftly once we’re thirty, forty, fifty and older, that it
seems we can actually <i>feel </i>time passing! This is
happening <i>now: </i>“time swiftly passes by and opportunity is
lost.” That is why contemplation of time enters into our practice at the
beginning of the day with the Gatha of Awakening and the Gatha of Encouragement
and at the of the day with the Evening Gatha . The inevitability of death and
the swiftness of passing time are the second reminder designed to get us
motivated to live fully awakening lives.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: #343434; font-family: Times; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Times;">3. <i>The awesome and indelible
power of our actions. </i>This is what is meant by the fifth of the Five
Remembrances that ends: “There is no way to escape the consequences of my
actions.” And this goes for all actions of the body, speech, and mind. And
chances are we will never (can never) know the full measure of the consequences
of our actions, though they may have extensive and significant impact on
ourselves and others.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: #343434; font-family: Times; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Times;">It can be eye-opening, humbling, and
perhaps a bit overwhelming to consider that in every moment of our lives, we
actually effect the world in both subtle and not so subtle ways. With this
understanding, we can come to see that we are all collaborators in creating the
world that we and all beings live within <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">and
</i>as. This means: <i>everything matters. </i>There are no trivial,
throwaway moments. This is not a dress rehearsal; it’s the play itself!<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: #343434; font-family: Times; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Times;">Contemplating this reminder, we can
ask ourselves “How am I living? What kind of actions have I been taking and
what kind of actions would I like to take? Am I contributing to the benefit of
the world or am I making things worse through either action or inaction?” If we
truly engage with such questions, we may find ourselves motivated to be more
conscious and awaken through our actions in the world.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: #343434; font-family: Times; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Times;">4. <i>The inescapability of
suffering. </i>Sorrow, pain and suffering are inevitable in every human
life, even the happiest ones. The buddha enumerated the variety of ways we
suffer: We suffer loss, disappointment, disrespect, physical pain, illness, old
age, broken relationships, wanting something so badly and not being able to
have it, not wanting something and finding ourselves stuck with it. And then
there’s the suffering of afflictive emotions such as jealousy, envy, grief,
hatred, confusion, fear, anxiety, and a host of others too numerous to list!
All this suffering is simply a part of life, not an accident or punishment.
Given that this is so, what can we do to cultivate wisdom, compassion and
resilience? Can we see ways to cultivate the conditions that can support us and
prepare our minds and hearts for the pain <i>we are sure to
encounter? </i><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: #343434; font-family: Times; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Times;">It’s not a matter of <i>if </i>but
rather of <i>when </i>life will strike us with something painful, and
the reflection on this certainty is designed to deepen our motivation to
practice in order to prepare for such contingencies. We have insurance on our
cars and hopefully health insurance for our bodies, but what about guarding and
strengthening our hearts and minds in order to not merely cope, but perhaps
flourish even in the full catastrophe we will find ourselves in from time to
time?<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: #343434; font-family: Times; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Times;">These reflections are meant to create
the energy of motivation, causing us to appreciate the seriousness of the human
condition: “Great is the matter of birth and death!” They are meant to motivate
us to live a life of awakening so that we can meet the gift and challenge that
is our life, here and now. This is all <b>training in the
preliminaries, </b>and you can see that we are never to stop practicing
so.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<!--EndFragment-->Poep Sa Frank Judehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13609272991412471770noreply@blogger.com19tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5782640369398595619.post-28241357206042755822014-06-20T00:04:00.001-07:002014-06-20T00:04:06.007-07:00Beginner's Mind? I Don't Think So...
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I’ve long felt contrary around
the famous quote from Suzuki Roshi, “In the beginner’s mind there are many
possibilities but in the expert’s mind there are few.” It sounds snappy, it’s a
great sound-bite and on the surface it seems to be make sense and be true, but
it’s facile, simplistic and most of the time untrue, and when it is true, only
superficially so. Most of the time, beginners don’t know or understand enough
about the topic at hand to actually have much in their mind in terms of
possibilities. Just imagine someone with no understanding of particle physics:
what could they possibly imagine as a possibility if they know nothing? But
experts who do know and understand can imagine things a beginner cannot even
begin to comprehend. Or imagine a beginner approaching her first lesson in
saxophone. She will be lucky if she gets any sound at all, and if she does it
may sound more like a wet fart than anything. She’d be at a loss to imagine the
possibilities (Circular breathing? Voicing? Extended harmonics? Listen to a
performance of Colin Stetson to see the possibilities a virtuoso/expert can
bring forth). <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>And in those cases
where it’s true that a beginner may hold many possibilities, we then have to
ask how many of them are actually possible? How many of them are efficient and
workable?</div>
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Researchers have studied
expertise and found some interesting things. One is that it takes about ten
years of practice to reach expert-level proficiency in any field or activity.
It takes so long because one needs to develop the ability to anticipate
problems, which it turns out, is not the result of simply having knowledge of a
given field, but of <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">structured </i>knowledge.
An example comes from the rarefied world of international tennis competition.
The best ones don’t merely react to what their opponents are serving, but are
capable of anticipating where the ball will go before the opponent even hits
it! This is an acquired intuitive skill, made possible because the brain has
seen enough similar situations, that it can extract patterns and thus predict
where the ball is most likely to go from the anticipated angle of impact on the
opponent’s racket.</div>
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<br /></div>
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Even more telling, Cindy
Hmelo-Silver and Merav Green Pfeffer have investigated the difference between
superficial and structural knowledge in the case of people’s understanding of
aquaria. Children, “naïve” adults (such as myself, having no real interest in
the subject), and two types of experts: biologists with a specialzation in
ecology and aquaria hobbyists were compared. As one would expect, children and
naïve adults evidenced a very simplistic understanding of the workings of an
aquarium, and – tellingly, in light of Suzuki Roshi’s famous quote – often
resorted to one type of causal explanation and failed to appreciate the intricacies
of the system. Experts were greatly appreciative of the systemic functioning of
an aquarium and could describe multiple causal pathways affecting the enclosed
ecosystem.</div>
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Further, what’s really
interesting is that the researchers found that the two types of experts
differed quite dramatically in the kind of knowledge of aquaria they had built.
Biologists explained the functioning of the aquaria as microcosms of natural
ecosystems at an abstract-theoretical level. Hobbyists understood their aquaria
around the practical issues of filtering systems, feeding systems, and anything
that played an active role in keeping the aquarium functioning well and the
fish healthy. Thus, along with evidence that there is a profound difference
between naïve and expert knowledge, there is evidence that there is more than
one way to be an expert! These differences among experts have less to do with
any intrinsic properties of the system (though they do play some role) than the
particular kinds of interest that different individuals have in that system.</div>
<!--EndFragment-->Poep Sa Frank Judehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13609272991412471770noreply@blogger.com13tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5782640369398595619.post-20943687736137649222014-02-28T10:19:00.000-08:002014-02-28T15:33:21.711-08:00Contemplating Impermanence<br />
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<span style="font-size: 14pt;">This is the first time I've posted the same post to both of my blogs. It just seems appropriate....</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 14pt;">There are many passages where “the buddha” encourages the contemplation of the inexorable reality of change: impermanence. One such practice is the contemplation on the decomposition of a corpse while reflecting on the fact that this too will be the fate of your body. Another is called “the five remembrances.” The first three, briefly, are that you, I, and all beings are of the nature to age, experience illness, and die and that there is no way to avoid these realities. The fourth reminds us that everything we treasure and all whom we love are of the nature to change and there is no way to avoid being separated from them. And the fifth states that we are the heirs of our actions and there is no way to avoid the consequences of our actions.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 14pt;">One practice that the Tibetan tradition offers, "the four reminders," also called "the four reversals" as in the four thoughts that turn the mind, are often presented in such a way that the world-denying and escapist metaphysical tenets of some Tibetan Buddhisms become clear. As Andrew Holecek writes in his article on the four reminders in the Winter, 2013 <i>Tricycle</i>: “These contemplations develop revulsion to conditioned appearances, point out the their utter futility, and cause awareness to prefer itself rather than outwardly appearing objects. They turn the mind away from substitute gratifications and direct it toward authentic gratification – which can only be found within.”<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 14pt;">Among other things, this notion that awareness might “prefer itself rather than outwardly appearing objects” posits awareness as yet another subtle atman despite the rejection of atman by “the buddha.” Awareness arises in relation to some phenomena; positing an awareness independent of all causes and conditions is no different than positing a soul/self/atman! I find it striking that so many contemporary buddhists have such a difficult time seeing this! Also, common to some forms of Tibetan Buddhism is an idealism that can become a form of solipsism that seems to be rearing it’s ugly face here in the disparagement of “outwardly appearing objects.” Research on happiness seems to suggest that happiness comes from both within and without and that learning the proper balanced ratio is what is necessary; not to discount one or the other.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 14pt;">That this life only has value in terms of the “afterlife” is made overtly clear when he adds: “Don’t worry so much about social security. Finance your karmic security instead. Invest in your <i>future </i>lives now. Investing so much in this life is like checking into a hotel for a few days and redecorating the room; what’s the point?” This emphasis on “reincarnation” which is only seen in Tibetan Buddhism (yes other forms of buddhism teach rebirth, not the same thing and equally wrong when taken as the rebirth of some atomistic entity, one even as nebulous as a specific ‘stream of consciousness’) is another aspect of this life-denying tendency and is very selfish. Taken literally, this statement equating life to time spent in a hotel, and thus there being no point in redecorating it, could lead one to wonder why we should bother to confront structural forms of oppression, catastrophic climate change, or systemic economic inequities; if this life is no more than a hotel, what’s the point? <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 14pt;">Holecek quotes B. Alan Wallace: “In light of death, our mundane desires are seen for what they are. If our desires are for wealth, luxury, good food, praise, reputation, affection, and acceptance by other people, and so forth are worth nothing in the face of death, then that is precisely their ultimate value.”<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 14pt;">Now, I practice the five remembrances regularly, and emphasize to my students that we should </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 19px;">never forget impermanence. The “gatha of encouragement,” which begins our daily practice, reminds us: “Great is the matter of birth and death. Impermanence permeates us. Be awake each moment. Do not squander your life.” But as a naturalist, this isn’t a practice designed to create revulsion for this life, it isn’t a mere “investment in future lives” (other than the metaphorical “lives” we live throughout this one life that we know exists and the equally important lives of those who will come after, as our actions now will definitely impact them) but it’s a practice to awaken us from our complacency; indeed it can be seen as a fierce compassionate shattering of the placid denial we too easily fall prey to, taking this life for granted. And no mistake, that can be a brutal awakening!</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 14pt;">To me, though I agree desire for "wealth, luxury and praise" hold little value and may derail our attention from what is of real value, it’s sad that Wallace feels affection and the human need for relationship is “ultimately worthless,” literally “worth nothing” just because we all die! It is the fact that we will die, that we will be separated from all we love that makes my time with my loved ones so very precious; so precious that I don’t want to take one moment with them for granted. Ideally. And through this contemplation, who "loved ones" are becomes vast and ever more inclusive. And that’s why constant contemplation and remembrance of impermanence is important and can be so thoroughly a “turning of the mind,” because the default seems to lull me – us – into a kind of somnolent, zombie-like walking through life. Beyond this, I think it’s intellectually and morally dishonest because I somewhat doubt Wallace, and those who teach this life-denying perspective actually live with the full implications of what they are saying.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 14pt;">So yes, contemplate the fact of impermanence in order to live life fully, intimately, to come to see its absolute value in its ephemeral nature. Practice in order to avoid living this precious human life grasping at impermanent objects or experiences, and not ignoring them either, but savoring the good, and working to change what you can that is harmful to yourself and other real living beings who are also precious because also mortal. Don’t waste this life as if it were some dress rehearsal for future lives or some transcendent state of being. Immerse yourself in the world because you really are of it!<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 14pt;">Here’s something I've written about the five remembrances if you’re interested…<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 14pt;">Ignorance, or avidya, is a root cause of suffering, according to Patanjali’s <i>Yoga-Sutra </i>(II.5). But the ignorance Patanjali refers to is less a lack of knowledge than an almost willful ignoring of reality. Today we call it denial. For instance, we may intellectually know that all things change, yet we desperately deny this truth; a denial that leads to anxiety, fear, and confusion.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 14pt;">At a past lecture, I led a group of interfaith seminarians in the contemplation of the five remembrances, "the buddha's" teaching on impermanence, aging, health, change, and death. Afterward, one of the students asked, "Isn't this just negative thinking?" On the contrary, I would argue that the five remembrances is what "the buddha" offers to awaken you from denial, to cultivate an appreciation for living, and to teach you about nonattachment and equanimity.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 14pt;">If you think of it this way, the meditation is not a bleak, depressing list of things you'll lose, but a reminder of the existential situation of the human. When you accept impermanence as more than merely a philosophical concept, you can see the truth of it as it manifests itself in your mind, your body, your environment, and your relationships, and you no longer take anything for granted.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 14pt;">Once you accept the reality of impermanence, you begin to realize that grasping and clinging are suffering, as well as the causes of suffering, and with that realization you can relax and celebrate life. The problem is not that things change, but that you try to live as if they don't.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 14pt;">To work with the five remembrances below, it helps to memorize and repeat them daily. Say them slowly and let the words seep in, without immediately analyzing or interpreting them or your experience; that can and should come later. Just notice your reactions. Let them rest until they shift and pass away—as all things do, being impermanent. Stay with your breath and observe the sensations under all your thinking. You may experience dread at the thought of any or all of these realities. You may experience huge relief as the energy you've spent denying and hiding from the truth is liberated to move freely through your body. Who knows what you'll experience until you try it?<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 14pt;">Some remembrances are easier to accept than others. For me, it was easier to consider that I'm aging and will die, than it was that I have the potential for ill health. I have a strong constitution and am rarely ill; I had believed that if my practice were "good" enough, I wouldn't get sick. So, on those rare days when I was ill, I often reproached myself for being sick and was a pretty cranky person to be around. But with the help of the second remembrance, I've grown more accepting of illness and can now feel a profound sense of ease even while ill so that I don’t needlessly suffer my illness. What this has shown me is that there is indeed a difference between disease and dis-ease.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 14pt;">Another way of practicing the five remembrances in relationship is through hugging meditation. When your partner or children leave for work or school, hug each other for three full breaths, and remind yourself of the fourth remembrance: "All that is dear to me and everyone I love are of the nature to change. There is no way to escape being separated from them." If you're having a disagreement with someone, remind yourself, before getting swept away by heated emotions, of the fifth remembrance: "I am the heir of my actions. I cannot escape the consequences of my actions." None of this means you should be passive or reluctant to advocate your views. Instead the meditation helps you respond more skillfully with awareness rather than simply from conditioned reactivity.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 14pt;">You can also get used to the concept of impermanence by listing things that have changed in your life over the past month or two. Perhaps a difficult posture has become easier, or an easy posture has become challenging. Perhaps a problem with a family member has resolved or grown more complicated. You'll be hard-pressed to find something that hasn't changed! As I post this today, I look back over the month and review my mom’s illness and death; a teaching engagement that took me to Los Angeles; and a political fight to influence Arizona’s governor to veto an immoral, discriminatory bill that the state legislature had passed!<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 14pt;">Again, facing the truth of impermanence shouldn't depress you; it should free you to be fully present. It should help you realize that the peace and ease you seek are available in the midst of changing circumstances. When you really see that all things change, your grasping and clinging fade under the bright light of awareness, like the stains in a white cloth bleached by the sun.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 14pt;">If nonattachment sounds cold and unappealing, you may be mistaking it for indifference. It's the experience of attachment, based on the denial of ceaseless change, that is lifeless. Life without change is a contradiction in terms. When you're attached to something, you want it to stay the same forever. This attempt to "freeze-dry" elements of your life squeezes the vitality out of life. The practice of nonattachment allows you to enjoy life wholeheartedly in its very passing.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 14pt;">Through your attachments you create mental manacles that bind you to the limited view that life is <i>your</i> life, <i>your</i> body, <i>your</i> lover, <i>your</i> family, <i>your</i> possessions. As your insight into impermanence deepens you start to see the truth of "not-self." When you can extend beyond the limits you've created you see that your life is not really "yours" but ultimately simply one manifestation of life.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 14pt;">As “the buddha” tells us: "When one perceives impermanence, the perception of not-self is established. With the perception of not-self, the conceit of 'I' is eliminated, and this is nirvana here and now."<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 14pt;"><u>The Five Remembrances</u></span><span style="font-size: 14pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<i><span style="font-size: 14pt;">I am of the nature to age. There is no way to escape aging.<o:p></o:p></span></i></div>
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<i><span style="font-size: 14pt;">I am of the nature to experience illness. There is no way to escape illness.<o:p></o:p></span></i></div>
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<i><span style="font-size: 14pt;">I am of the nature to die. There is no way to escape death.<o:p></o:p></span></i></div>
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<i><span style="font-size: 14pt;">All that is dear to me, and everyone I love, are of the nature to change. There is no way to escape being separated from them.<o:p></o:p></span></i></div>
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<i><span style="font-size: 14pt;">I am the heir of my actions. I cannot escape the consequences of my actions. My actions are the ground upon which I stand.</span></i><span style="font-size: 14pt;"></span><span style="font-size: 14pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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Poep Sa Frank Judehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13609272991412471770noreply@blogger.com15tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5782640369398595619.post-29296406978966724862013-11-20T18:45:00.002-08:002013-11-20T18:45:34.447-08:00Fourth Foundation
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<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-size: 16.0pt; line-height: 200%; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">Fourth Foundation<o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
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<span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>The Fourth Foundation, "mindfulness of the
dharmas," provides the context of bringing mindfulness to specific mental
qualities, and analyzing experience into categories that constitute core
aspects of the Buddha’s dharma (or teaching). These classifications are not in
themselves the objects of meditation, but are frameworks or points of reference
to be applied during contemplation to whatever experiences arise while
practicing.</div>
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<span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>The <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">dharmas</i>
listed in the <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Satipa</i><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="font-family: Gentium; mso-bidi-font-family: Gentium;">ṭṭ</span>h</i><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: Gentium;">â</span>na Sutta</i> are the five hindrances, five aggregates, six sense-spheres, seven factors of awakening and
the four noble truths. While one can contemplate these <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">dharmas</i> while practicing asanas, I find that for most
practitioners, it’s too easy to fall into abstraction or intellectualization
unless they already have a mature mindfulness practice.</div>
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<span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>More accessible is following the teaching of
the <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: Gentium;">Â</span>n</i><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: Gentium;">â</span>p</i><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: Gentium;">â</span>nasati Sutta</i>
where contemplation of the <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">dharmas</i>
takes the form of bringing mindfulness to the impermanent nature of all
phenomena. Contemplation of impermanence is a dharma gate opening to the
understanding of the interdependent, conditioned, and selfless nature of all
that exists.</div>
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<span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>Asana practice offers a great window into
impermanence. From day to day, the body feels and moves differently each time
we come to practice. We know things change, yet we put so much effort and
energy into trying to live life as if that were not so! This is <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">avidy</i><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: Gentium;">â</span>, </i>“not-seeing” as a kind of
denial. But ignoring or denying the truth of impermanence perpetuates suffering
and misery, and opening to the reality of change liberates that energy.</div>
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<span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>We practice looking into the impermanent nature of all the
earlier objects of meditation, starting with the breath. No two breaths are the
same. Even within one inhalation, there is constant movement and change. There
is no “thing” that is actually the breath that can be grasped and held onto.
Every sensation we experience, no matter whether pleasant, unpleasant or
neutral is impermanent, as is every emotion, thought, or perception. Changeless
life is a sterile concept, yet without mindfulness so many of us live as if
such a life were possible!</div>
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<span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>In <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Genjo
Koan, </i>Zen Master Dogen writes,<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"> </i>“If
you examine myriad things with a confused bodymind, you might suppose that your
mind and nature are permanent. When you practice intimately and return to where
you are, it will be clear that nothing at all has unchanging self.” If “self” is understood as an entity that is autonomous, independent, and
persistent over time, then insight into impermanence leads inevitably to the
clear view that all things lack such an unchanging self. Even the consciousness
of self that we take such pains to protect and bolster is not an autonomous,
independent, persistent thing or entity; it is a process that is in constant
flux, conditioned by everything else that is in constant change. This insight
into “nonself’ (<i>anatta</i>) is what is meant by the term “emptiness” (<i>sh<span style="font-family: Gentium; mso-bidi-font-family: Gentium;">û</span>nyat<span style="mso-bidi-font-family: Gentium;">â</span></i>). Emptiness means that we, and
all phenomena, are empty of an atomistic, independent, autonomous, separately existing, enduring self.</div>
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<span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>Because we are empty of any such self, we are intimately entwined with everything else. Even this language doesn't capture it because it sounds like I may still be talking of entities interdependently exiting with others, but there are no "entities." This is the Buddha’s unique contribution to the yoga tradition: "dependent co-origination." </div>
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The
Buddha said that when we enter through the door of impermanence, we touch
nirvana, here and now. Nirvan<span style="mso-bidi-font-family: Gentium;">â</span>,
meaning “extinction,” is the extinction of our mistaken notions and ideas about reality that leads to reifying identities. The grasping and aversion, our greed, anger and delusion that arise from such reification are extinguished. Also
extinguished is our attachment and bondage to concepts such as birth and death,
existent and non-existent, increasing and decreasing, pure and impure.</div>
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A taste of this
can happen in the time it takes to work with one asana. Maintaining Warrior
Two, unpleasant sensations may arise in our shoulders.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>These sensations lead to aversion, and
grasping after relief. We identify with the unpleasant sensations and think,
“My shoulders are killing me.” Thoughts arise about the teacher having us hold
the posture “too long,” never seeing that “too long” is a relative concept.
Clinging to that belief creates a sense of self; the more we cling the more the sense of self grows constricting.</div>
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<span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>Shifting our attention to the impermanent
nature of experience, we see that there is no-thing personal about any of it.
There is just sensation and the sensation is ever-changing. It is all a
dependent co-originated process, and through practice we see that the same is
true for all feelings, mental formations and consciousness.</div>
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<span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>With this insight comes <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">nirodha</i> (containment). This is the third noble truth of the Buddha,
often used as a synonym for nirvan<span style="mso-bidi-font-family: Gentium;">â</span>
and also Patanjali’s definition of yoga. Practicing asana, we may notice many
opportunities to contain our reactivity. We may experience a pleasant sensation and the arising of a
mental formation. With mindfulness, we see attachment, and based upon an
awareness of impermanence, and the containment of our reactivity the attachment fades away. We then may see a more skillful way to respond to the situation. This is a small, but potentially profound taste of
liberation.</div>
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<span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>Finally comes <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">letting go.</i> But there is also the insight that it is not <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">you</i> that lets go. Throughout practice,
there was still that final vestige of self-consciousness that could take credit
for the insight into impermanence, and cessation. The final thing to let go is
the idea of a separately enduring self. The irony is that this is a letting go of
what was never there!</div>
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<span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>Letting go means to see through all that keeps us (falsely) separated
from reality as it is. The supposed boundary between “self” and “other” is seen as not real. Enlightenment and liberation comes not in turning
away from our human condition, but within it, <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">and</i> as its fulfillment. </div>
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<span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>“To practice the Buddha way is to investigate
the self. To investigate the self is to forget the self. To forget the self is
to be intimate with the myriad things. When intimate with the myriad things, your
bodymind as well as the bodyminds of others drop away. No trace of realization
remains, and this no-trace continues endlessly.”</div>
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Dogen Zengi, <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Genjo
Koan</i></div>
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<!--EndFragment-->Poep Sa Frank Judehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13609272991412471770noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5782640369398595619.post-75806451631711726732013-08-14T17:10:00.002-07:002013-08-14T17:10:43.182-07:00Third Foundation
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<br />
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center; text-indent: 0.35in;">
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 21px; line-height: 42px;"><b><br /></b></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; text-align: justify; text-indent: .35in;">
The <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Dhammapada’s </i>opening lines
point to the importance of mind in creating the lived experience of our world<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">:<o:p></o:p></i></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; text-align: justify; text-indent: .35in;">
<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Our life is shaped by our mind;<o:p></o:p></i></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; text-align: justify; text-indent: .35in;">
<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">all actions are led by mind;
created by mind.<o:p></o:p></i></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; text-align: justify; text-indent: .35in;">
<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Duhkha follows an unskillful
thought<o:p></o:p></i></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; text-align: justify; text-indent: .35in;">
<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">as the wheels of a cart follows the
oxen that draw it.<o:p></o:p></i></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; text-align: justify; text-indent: .35in;">
<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Suhkha follows a skillful thought <o:p></o:p></i></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; text-align: justify; text-indent: .35in;">
<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">as surely as one’s shadow.<o:p></o:p></i></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; text-align: justify; text-indent: .35in;">
The Buddha taught that actions are preceded by volitions that can create
wholesome or unwholesome consequences. This is the teaching of <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">karma;</i> there are consequences to our
actions. The Zen ceremony of atonement (at-onement) reminds us that we are
ultimately the authors of our “fate.” When we are at one with our actions, we
can never think of ourselves as victims. Rather than blaming external
conditions for duhkha, we realize that the ultimate cause of duhkha is found in
the mind – the same place liberation is found.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; text-align: justify; text-indent: .35in;">
In turning attention to the activity of the mind, all psychological
phenomena, the contents and activities of mind are included: emotions,
perceptions, conceptualization, imagination, and discrimination – the <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">citta-samskara</i> or “mental formations.”
Citta or mind is the totality of these ever-changing psychological phenomena,
not a thing, or unchanging subject.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; text-align: justify; text-indent: .35in;">
With mindfulness of the mental formations, the Buddha directs us to
“know” when a mental formation is present and when it is not present.
Mindfulness itself is a mental formation, so we can be aware when mindfulness
is present, as well as when it is not. When not mindful of mental formations,
we believe and identify with them. As soon as we recognize a mental formation <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">as</i> a mental formation, it loses much –
or all – of its power over us. When mindfulness is there, the mental formation
has already been transformed. No longer is there only anger, now there is also
mindfulness of the anger. The situation is changed as soon as we are mindful of
it, no longer lost in forgetfulness, no longer identified as anger.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; text-align: justify; text-indent: .35in;">
While practicing asana, mindfulness of the mental formations provides a
wonderful opportunity to observe and recognize our mental patternings and how
they condition our habitual tendencies. The body is not completely symmetrical.
You may find one side in a posture easier than the other side. Noticing how
quickly the mind categorizes experience into “good” and “bad” can free us from
believing these potentially limiting notions. As an old Zen saying puts it,
“with one thought, heaven and hell are created.”</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; text-align: justify; text-indent: .35in;">
Pain or discomfort often arises during asana practice. Much discomfort is
really just a reaction to novelty, and much pain is the pain of change. Such
pain can provide an opportunity to grow in mindfulness. Truly injurious or
excessive pain should never be ignored, but the truth is, most of the pain that
one experiences in asana practice is merely discomfort and not injurious. With
discomfort, it is fruitful to drop out of your aversive reactivity and bring a
gently embracing quality of mindfulness to the discomfort. When we do this, we
see for ourselves that there really is a difference between pain and suffering
– the misery and mental anguish that we add to the experience because of our
aversion. This is an important insight with real benefit to life off the mat.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; text-align: justify; text-indent: .35in;">
We practice with the discomfort and pain that arises in asana practice so
that we can remain free from suffering throughout our life. Yes, if we feel
discomfort in our shoulders while doing Warrior Two all we need do to relieve
the pain is lower our arms. But if we always do this, what will we do with the
pain that we cannot avoid through such a simple strategy? What if you are
injured in an accident? Or you lose your lover? How will you face your own
sickness, old age and death? Whether emotional or physical, embodiment means
pain is inevitable. Working with mindfulness of the mind means that when the
inevitable losses of life occur, you can just <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">feel </i>the pain and not add suffering as well.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; text-align: justify; text-indent: .35in;">
The Buddha encourages us to notice the mind when liberation or “letting
go” is present. But first, we need to have clarity about what a grasping mind <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">feels</i> like. Yoga is not an ideology,
philosophy or moral code about the “goodness” of letting go and the “badness”
of attachment. Letting go is what happens when the suffering of holding on is <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">felt</i> and recognized.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; text-align: justify; text-indent: .35in;">
The most obvious attachment is to material objects and sensory pleasures,
including possessions, sensual, and sexual sensations. Attachment to particular
“feel good” experiences like the potentially seductive enjoyment of stretching
and moving the body, or the excitement of accomplishment, are some examples, as
is the “yoga buzz” many practitioners seek in their practice. There’s nothing
wrong in enjoying physical pleasure, but if we are dominated by our attachment
to pleasure, we <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">will</i> suffer when it
dissipates.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; text-align: justify; text-indent: .35in;">
Another type of attachment is to opinions, beliefs, views, and theories.
While practicing asana, we may find ourselves attached to ideas about what we
“should” be able to do, what we “should” be feeling, and the correct form of
the asana. We may find ourselves caught in a belief about what we cannot do or
what we will “never be able to do.” Again, ideas and opinions are not the
issue; it’s the degree of our attachment to them that creates suffering. If we
are attached to strong ideas about what we need in order to be happy and free,
the attachment to those very ideas becomes an obstacle to happiness and
freedom. We place ourselves in bondage to our ideas and concepts, missing the
possibility for happiness and freedom here and now.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; text-align: justify; text-indent: .35in;">
There can be attachment to practice itself! The Buddha strongly warned
against getting attached to ritual and traditional practices – secular <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">or</i> religious. It is possible to become
so attached to a particular form of practice that you remain in your comfort
zone, never testing your edges. The form becomes a trap rather than a tool for
liberation. To appreciate and be firm in one’s commitment to a particular
practice is one thing, but if we become overly attached and obsessive with the
form, we can all too easily lose the liberating spirit of the practice. </div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; text-align: justify; text-indent: .35in;">
The most challenging attachment includes everything that we can identify
as “I,” “me,” or “mine.” Even becoming attached to our identity as a yogi can become
a source of duhkha if we develop a holier-than-thou attitude, causing us to see
ourselves as separate and superior to others. </div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; text-align: justify; text-indent: .35in;">
Mindfulness shows how one creates a sense of self through reactivity,
belief patterns, and dramatizing story lines. It happens in the instant a
student marks out “her” spot in the practice room with her mat. The more
attached we are to our stories of self, the more tension and suffering we
create, but it’s not until we really see this for ourselves that any opening
can occur.</div>
<!--EndFragment-->Poep Sa Frank Judehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13609272991412471770noreply@blogger.com6tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5782640369398595619.post-73498712484572239292013-06-30T10:48:00.001-07:002013-06-30T10:48:25.029-07:00Mindfulness Yoga: The Second Foundation
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<br />
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<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-size: 16.0pt; line-height: 200%; mso-bidi-font-size: 10.0pt;">Second
Foundation</span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; text-align: justify; text-indent: 0.35in;">
Practicing “Feelings within the Feelings,” we deepen our <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">intimacy</i> with experience by bringing
mindfulness to feelings – again, not as a disassociated observer, but from
within the feelings themselves. Feelings here are not emotions but the<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>“feeling tone” or “felt sense” of
experience.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; text-align: justify; text-indent: .35in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; text-align: justify; text-indent: .35in;">
To see for yourself what is meant here, take a moment to close your eyes
and just sit, with your hands resting on your lap, palms down. Settle yourself
into the experience, noting how it <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">feels</i>
to sit here – physically and energetically. You may note such <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">feelings </i>as “heavy,” “grounded,”
“stable,” or “dull.” Then, maintaining your attention, turn your palms upward
and note if there’s a change in the <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">feeling
tone. </i>You may find yourself <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">feeling </i>“light,”
“open,” “receptive” or “vulnerable,” among other possible <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">feelings.<o:p></o:p></i></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; text-align: justify; text-indent: .35in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; text-align: justify; text-indent: .35in;">
Such <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">feelings</i> are not emotions.
Feelings are a primal experience that the Buddha points out most generally <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">precedes</i> any reaction or emotion, though emotions can also produce feelings in the body. The
importance of bringing mindfulness to feelings or sensations cannot be
over-estimated. It is at the junction between feeling and reactivity that
mindfulness provides the possibility of freely choosing how to respond to any
given situation.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; text-align: justify; text-indent: .35in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; text-align: justify; text-indent: .35in;">
Feelings are categorized as being <b>pleasant, unpleasant or neutral</b> and of
a <b>physiological or psychological</b> nature. If you bite into a ripe, juicy lemon
the sensations that arise are physiological; if you simply imagine doing so,
the sensations that arise are of a psychological nature. It is interesting to
consider how the body reacts to imagining biting into the lemon similarly to
actually doing so. In all Yogic teaching, thoughts are considered as, or even
more important, then physical action. </div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; text-align: justify; text-indent: .35in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; text-align: justify; text-indent: .35in;">
The Buddha noted that feelings condition our whole world. We spend huge
amounts of energy trying to create and prolong pleasant feelings while pushing
away and trying to avoid unpleasant feelings, and we become confused, bored or
simply “checked out” when experiencing neutral feelings. This grasping,
aversion and ignorance, called the “three poisons,” are the roots of duhkha,
poisoning the experience of life. If mindfulness is not present, feelings
quickly give rise to moods, emotions, perceptions, ideas and whole stories and
identities that cause duhkha for us and for those with whom we interact.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; text-align: justify; text-indent: .35in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; text-align: justify; text-indent: .35in;">
Hatha-yoga practice can either help us grow in awareness and insight, or
create duhkha, depending on whether mindfulness is present or not. For example,
when practicing an asana you enjoy, experiencing the pleasure of a sensuous
stretch, or the psychological pleasure of the “successful” performance of a
challenging posture, if you are not mindful, you will get caught in craving and
clinging, seeking to prolong or repeat the feeling as soon as it wanes (as it
most assuredly will, all phenomena being impermanent). While it is indeed a
pleasure to accomplish a challenging posture, without mindfulness, as the <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Gherandha-Samhita</i> warns, asana practice
becomes an obstacle to liberation because the ego-gratification is clung to,
and identification with ego and the body becomes more rigid and solid. We get
caught in pride and our identity as someone who can do “advanced postures.”
When conditions change (through illness, injury or age) and we can no longer do
what we used to do, we can become discouraged and even suffer despair.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; text-align: justify; text-indent: .35in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; text-align: justify; text-indent: .35in;">
Practicing difficult postures, we may experience unpleasant feelings.
Mindfulness shows us how quickly the mind seeks to push the unpleasant away, to
eliminate it. Such aversion creates tension that is often more painful than the
original sensation. The Buddha referred to this added anguish as “the second
arrow.” The first arrow is the experience of discomfort or pain; the second
arrow is the tension, anguish and unease of our aversion.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; text-align: justify; text-indent: .35in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; text-align: justify; text-indent: .35in;">
Bringing awareness to neutral feelings cultivates greater clarity about
our experience. In fact, most of our experience is neutral, neither pleasant
nor unpleasant. Because this is so, we spend much of our time seeking intensity
of feeling, or falling into boredom. Through greater awareness of the neutral
aspect of experience, we remain present to experience and cultivate greater
ease, enjoying the calm of neutrality.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; text-align: justify; text-indent: .35in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; text-align: justify; text-indent: .35in;">
Zen’s understanding of “pure
practice” is to not add anything extra to the experience other than mindful attention. If we bring
mindfulness to our feelings, we can experience “pure joy” or “pure pleasure,”
untainted by clinging or grasping. But in order to be able to experience pure
pleasure, we must be willing to experience “pure pain” or “pure discomfort,”
free of aversion and resistance. </div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; text-align: justify; text-indent: .35in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; text-align: justify; text-indent: .35in;">
The most pain avoidant people have the least joy in their lives. In
trying to armor ourselves against pain, we numb ourselves to all experience. In
opening ourselves to felt experience, we allow ourselves to live life fully,
not caught in patterned habits of reactivity. Rather than conditionally
reacting to experience, we can choose to respond creatively. The doorway to
this freedom is in bringing mindfulness to our feelings <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">before</i> they condition our reactivity.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; text-align: justify; text-indent: .35in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; text-align: justify; text-indent: .35in;">
Along with practicing mindfulness of feelings while practicing asana or in any of the classic "postures" mentioned by the buddha (sitting, standing, lying down and walking) we can take moments periodically throughout the day to stop and scan our body: what are we feeling as we wait in line at the bank? What feelings are present when we are just sitting down to lunch? There is literally nothing we do that we cannot take a moment for this quick body scan.</div>
<!--EndFragment-->Poep Sa Frank Judehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13609272991412471770noreply@blogger.com7tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5782640369398595619.post-15814229337050771592013-05-30T09:11:00.002-07:002013-05-30T09:11:23.416-07:00Mindfulness Yoga: The First Foundation
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<br />
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<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-size: 16.0pt; line-height: 200%; mso-bidi-font-size: 10.0pt;">First
Foundation</span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; text-align: justify; text-indent: .35in;">
Mindfulness of “the body within the body” is the First Foundation of
Mindfulness. This phrasing reminds us that we are not distant observers of the
body, with awareness located in our heads observing our body as an object, but
rather awareness permeates the whole body, like a sponge saturated with water. </div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; text-align: justify; text-indent: .35in;">
The Buddha’s first instruction is to bring mindfulness to breathing.
We’re encouraged to simply <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">know</i> an
in-breath as an in-breath, an out-breath as an out-breath, free of all
manipulation. We become intimately familiar with the experience of breathing,
noticing the various and varying qualities such as deep or shallow, fast or
slow, rough or smooth, even or uneven, long or short. As mindfulness is a
friendly, non-judgmental, fully accepting kind of attention, we are already
cultivating a transcendence of the pairs of opposites. </div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; text-align: justify; text-indent: .35in;">
Take some time to establish a meditation practice with this simple exercise:</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; text-align: justify; text-indent: .35in;">
<i>Sitting comfortably, eyes slightly open or closed, jaw relaxed with some space between upper and lower teeth, and the tongue relaxed, it's tip just lightly touching above the front teeth. </i></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; text-align: justify; text-indent: .35in;">
<i>Take a few deep breaths, noticing where you experience the movement of the breath. Many people feel it as the rising and falling of the belly or chest; others feel it at the nostril and upper lip as the breath moves in and out. Once you note where you feel the breath's movement, just rest your attention there free from strain -- as a butterfly rests on a flower -- and let the breath be natural.</i></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; text-align: justify; text-indent: .35in;">
<i>Every time you notice that the mind has wandered away from the breath, just bring it back. That's all there is to it. If you'd like, you can use the technique of "noting" where you mentally "whisper" to yourself: "Rising; Falling" if that's what you're feeling or "In; Out" if that's your experience.</i></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; text-align: justify; text-indent: .35in;">
Then, expanding our awareness to include the whole body including its
posture, and movement, we deepen our sense of embodiment. The body and breath
do not get lost in the future or the past, so if attention is fully absorbed in
the body, there is a fully integrated sense of presence. The body and breath
keep us anchored to <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">now. </i>Only when we
become entangled and identified with thinking can we feel distant from life. </div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; text-align: justify; text-indent: .35in;">
<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>When practicing postures, we
stay fully present through mindfulness of the breath. When noticing the mind
leaning away from our experience of an asana, we can remember to come back to
the breath. In this way, the breath becomes the sutra – the thread – upon which
we weave our practice. We see for ourselves how the posture and movement of the
body “conditions” the breath. The qualities of the breath are conditioned by
whether we are in a forward bend, a backbend or a twist. While maintaining a
posture, we will see a change in the breath. We can also see how the breath
conditions the body, affecting both movement and posture. All this points to a
core teaching of the Buddha: as all phenomena are conditioned, there is no real
autonomous “thing” to speak of! We say “breath” or “posture” as if these were
things separate from the flow of experience, but through this practice we see
they are processes caused and conditioned, selfless and constantly changing.</div>
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Bringing attention to the parts of the body, we become cognizant of any
reactivity to the various parts; which parts do we like; which parts do we
dislike? We may feel revulsion contemplating our earwax, bowels or lymph and
prefer to contemplate our hair or our eyes. Yet those eyes free from their
sockets might provoke revulsion and fear; that hair clogged in our shower drain
may seem disgusting. All reactivity is conditioned. </div>
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<i>An exercise based upon the parts of the body has the practitioner systematically bringing attention to various parts of the body, giving equal attention to each part and noticing if there is any reactivity that arises as one does this exercise:</i></div>
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<i>Hair on the head; Eyes; Nose; Ears; lips; teeth; arms; hands; torso; genitalia; legs; feet; brains; heart; lungs; liver; kidneys; bladder; skeleton; circulatory system; lymphatic system; muscles; fatty tissue; blood; mucus; urine; feces etc.</i></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; text-align: justify; text-indent: .35in;">
Another exercise on the First Foundation is the Contemplation on the Five Great Elements (earth, water, fire, air and
space):</div>
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<i>We bring attention to the solidity of the body; its composition of
various elements such as carbon – the very same carbon that gives us coal and
diamonds. The liquid element, manifesting as blood, interstitial fluid, and
other bodily fluids, is not separate from the water flowing in our rivers and
streams. Our bodies generate heat, and we subsist upon the solar energy
captured in the vegetables and flesh of animals we consume. The air we breathe
sustains our life, and all experience arises and passes away in space. </i></div>
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Through
contemplating the elements of the body the yogi begins to understand that life
is not isolated in her own body; that there is no “self” separate from the the
elements. The First Mindfulness Training<a href="http://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=5782640369398595619#_edn1" name="_ednref" style="mso-endnote-id: edn;" title=""><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span style="mso-special-character: footnote;"><!--[if !supportFootnotes]-->[i]<!--[endif]--></span></span></a>
of <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">ahimsa</i> or non-harming reminds us
to protect the lives of people, animals, plants and <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">minerals.</i> As our bodies and our life cannot exist without these
minerals, we begin to see that the distinction between organic and inorganic is
ultimately conceptual – there is no real separation. In protecting the elements
from degradation we protect ourselves. Before you “throw away” your garbage,
ask yourself, “Where is <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">away</i>?”</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; text-align: justify; text-indent: .35in;">
The final practice of the First Foundation is contemplating the
<a href="http://silentmindopenheart.org/docs/cemetery/Death.html#Index">decomposition of the body</a>, the existential truth that this body is of the
nature to die. Looking deeply into the impermanent nature of the body, we are
motivated not to take life for granted, not to lose our life in distraction and
dispersion. For those ready for this practice, the effect of this meditation is
liberating, understandable in light of all the effort we make, the tension and
strain we create, in attempting to deny the only thing we know for certain –
that we will die!</div>
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<br /></div>
<div style="mso-element: endnote-list;">
<!--[if !supportEndnotes]--><br clear="all" />
<hr align="left" size="1" width="33%" />
<!--[endif]-->
<div id="edn" style="mso-element: endnote;">
<div class="MsoEndnoteText">
<a href="http://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=5782640369398595619#_ednref" name="_edn1" style="mso-endnote-id: edn;" title=""><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span style="mso-special-character: footnote;"><!--[if !supportFootnotes]-->[i]<!--[endif]--></span></span></a> <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">For A Future To Be Possible </i>by Thich
Nhat Hanh (Parallax Press: Berkeley, CA, 1993) p. 3</div>
</div>
</div>
<!--EndFragment-->Poep Sa Frank Judehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13609272991412471770noreply@blogger.com21tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5782640369398595619.post-64960716990463739022013-05-14T15:17:00.004-07:002013-05-14T15:18:11.086-07:00Mindfulness Yoga: Hatha-Yoga and the Four Foundations of Mindfulness, Part One<!--[if gte mso 9]><xml>
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<br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 32px;">For the vast majority of practitioners and non-practitioners alike, Yoga
has become reduced to, and synonymous with, the postures and movements of
<i>hatha-yoga</i>. Yet for most of its history, meditation has been an essential
aspect of "authentic" yoga practice. Much of the “work” of meditation involves
how we experience the body; particularly our reactivity to experience. And when
practicing postures, we learn to deal with the mind’s commentary, its leaning
toward the future or the past, grasping after the pleasant and pushing away the
unpleasant -- exactly what we do in meditation!</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; text-align: justify; text-indent: .35in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; text-align: justify; text-indent: .35in;">
The word <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">yoga</i> comes from the
root <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">yuj,</i> meaning to “yoke or to
harness<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">,” </i>and has come to signify
both spiritual endeavor, especially the disciplining of the mind and the
senses, and the state of integration. As such, yoga is the generic name for the
various Indian philosophies and practices Georg Feurstein calls “the
psychospiritual technology specific to the great civilization of India,”<a href="http://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=5782640369398595619#_edn1" name="_ednref" style="mso-endnote-id: edn;" title=""><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span style="mso-special-character: footnote;"><!--[if !supportFootnotes]-->[i]<!--[endif]--></span></span></a>
the purpose of which is to liberate the practitioner from the existential human
situation of <i>duhkha</i>, variously translated as suffering, stress, and dissatisfaction.
Given this context, Buddhism is a <i>bona fide</i> child of the Yoga Tradition
completely yogic in purpose, intent and methodology. The four noble truths and eightfold path offer a complete and coherent model of yogic theory and
practice. Like all authentic yoga, it is <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">moksha-shastra,
</i>a liberation teaching designed to free us from <i>duhkha</i>.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; text-align: justify;">
<span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"></span><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"> </i></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; text-align: justify;">
<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"> Hatha-yoga</i>
refers to the relatively recent form of yogic practice utilizing the familiar
postures (<i>asanas</i>) as well as breathing practices (<i>pranayama</i>). This form of yoga
practice has its roots in the tantric movement that influenced both Hindu and
Buddhist traditions. While the <i>asanas</i> of <i>hatha-yoga</i> are what most westerners
are familiar with as "yoga," such postures were developed rather late in the
history of the yoga tradition. In fact, the contemporary practices of <i>yoga-asana</i> pretty much date back to little over 100 years!</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; text-align: justify;">
<span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"></span> Many Buddhist meditators have been drawn to
<i>hatha-yoga</i> for the ease and strength it can bring to the body, while many
<i>hatha-yogis</i> have turned to Buddhist meditation for the deepening of awareness,
insight and equanimity it can cultivate. While this ‘complementary’ approach
has much to offer, a deeper, more integrated, comprehensive approach is
possible</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; text-align: justify; text-indent: .35in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; text-align: justify; text-indent: .35in;">
In an early discourse, the Buddha is asked if it is possible, by
traveling, to know, see, or to reach the end of the world, where one does not
suffer. He responds that it is not possible to reach such a place of peace by
traveling, “However, I say that without having reached the end of the world
there is no making an end to suffering. It is, friend, in just this fathom-high
body endowed with perception and mind that I make known the world, its arising
and cessation, and the way leading to the cessation of the world.”<a href="http://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=5782640369398595619#_edn2" name="_ednref" style="mso-endnote-id: edn;" title=""><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span style="mso-special-character: footnote;"><!--[if !supportFootnotes]-->[ii]<!--[endif]--></span></span></a><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The Buddha could not have more clearly
stated that it is with the exploration of our bodily experience, where we so
often find discomfort, pain, and suffering, that we can also find peace and
liberation.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; text-align: justify; text-indent: .35in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; text-align: justify; text-indent: .35in;">
The proper and natural posture of the body in sitting meditation is
called <i>asana</i>, defined by the second-century Indian sage Patanjali in the <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Yoga-Sutra</i>, the foundational text of classical yoga, as that posture which is both “stable and easeful,”<a href="http://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=5782640369398595619#_edn3" name="_ednref" style="mso-endnote-id: edn;" title=""><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span style="mso-special-character: footnote;"><!--[if !supportFootnotes]-->[iii]<!--[endif]--></span></span></a>
accompanied by “the relaxation of effort and the revealing of the body and the
infinite universe as indivisible.”<a href="http://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=5782640369398595619#_edn4" name="_ednref" style="mso-endnote-id: edn;" title=""><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span style="mso-special-character: footnote;"><!--[if !supportFootnotes]-->[iv]<!--[endif]--></span></span></a> When this
state is attained, “one is no longer disturbed by the play of opposites.”<a href="http://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=5782640369398595619#_edn5" name="_ednref" style="mso-endnote-id: edn;" title=""><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span style="mso-special-character: footnote;"><!--[if !supportFootnotes]-->[v]<!--[endif]--></span></span></a>
Whenever this state of embodied integration manifests -- whether one is
sitting, walking, cutting carrots or changing diapers -- <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">there</i> is yoga. </div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; text-align: justify; text-indent: .35in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; text-align: justify; text-indent: .35in;">
While the Buddha taught a variety of practices, perhaps it’s his emphasis
on <a href="http://www.mindfulness-yoga.blogspot.com/2012/03/so-what-is-mindfulness.html">mindfulness</a> that has had the greatest impact. The Pali word <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">‘sati’</i> (Sanskrit. <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">smriti), </i>most often translated as mindfulness, is related to the
word for remembering. To ‘re-member’ is to ‘re-collect,’ to bring together all
the seemingly disparate aspects of our experience into an integrated whole. In
this way, remembering is synonymous with the definition of Yoga. Whenever we
see our mind wandering from the intimate, immediate, spontaneous and obvious
experience at hand, we remember to come back -- to just this, right here, right
now, using the breath as the yoke.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; text-align: justify; text-indent: .35in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; text-align: justify; text-indent: .35in;">
In both the <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Anapanasati-Sutta</i>
(Awareness of Breathing), and the <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Satipatthana
Sutta</i> (The Foundation of Mindfulness), the Buddha instructs in observing the breath, gradually extending our awareness to include the whole body. He
says the practitioner should be aware of the movements and positions of the
body, while standing, walking, sitting, or lying down, while bending over, or
stretching one’s limbs and notes that nothing is excluded from mindfulness,
including such activities as eating, drinking, dressing, urinating, and
defecating. No aspect of our lived experience lies outside of practice. This is
not practice as preparation, but practice as vocation.</div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; text-align: justify; text-indent: .35in;">
The applicability of this teaching for practicing <i>hatha-yoga</i> should be obvious. When
we combine awareness of breathing with <i>asana</i> practice, we can observe how
movement and posture affects the breath and how the breath affects the body. We
become aware of habitual patterns of reactivity. For instance, do you hold your
breath when reaching out with your arms into a deep stretch? Do you
unnecessarily tense muscles not involved with the movement you are making? Do
you compare one side of the body with the other? When engaged in repetitive
movements, does your mind wander? In maintaining a posture, can you see the
constant changing phenomena, or do you concretize the experience, reifying the
changing phenomena into a static entity that you then either grasp after or
resist, depending on whether you find it pleasant or unpleasant?</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; text-align: justify; text-indent: .35in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; text-align: justify; text-indent: .35in;">
Following the four foundations of mindfulness, the practice of postures
becomes much more than merely preparatory to meditation. With the four foundations, <i>asana </i>practice becomes a fully integrated mindfulness practice, in
essence no different than sitting or walking meditation. <i>Asana</i> practice need
not be conceptualized as a complement or preliminary to sitting. It’s simply
another way to practice mindfulness. This is the practice of <i>m</i><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">indfulness yoga</i>. The priority here is
the cultivation of mindfulness with <i>asana </i>as the vehicle for such cultivation.
The practice of mindfulness, the Buddha assures us, “gives rise to
understanding and liberation of the mind.”</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; text-align: justify; text-indent: .35in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; text-align: justify; text-indent: .35in;">
The four foundations of mindfulness include body, feelings, mind and <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">dharmas</i>. Each foundation includes a
variety of objects, meditations, and contemplations. When practicing <i>asana</i>, we
can choose to devote our practice to any one of these, or work through them
sequentially.</div>
<div style="mso-element: endnote-list;">
<!--[if !supportEndnotes]--><br clear="all" />
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<!--[endif]-->
<br />
<div id="edn" style="mso-element: endnote;">
<div class="MsoEndnoteText">
<a href="http://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=5782640369398595619#_ednref" name="_edn1" style="mso-endnote-id: edn;" title=""><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span style="mso-special-character: footnote;"><!--[if !supportFootnotes]-->[i]<!--[endif]--></span></span></a> <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">The Yoga Tradition: It’s History,
Literature, Philosophy and Practice </i>by Georg Feuerstein (Hohm Press:
Prescott, AZ, 1998) p. 7</div>
</div>
<div id="edn" style="mso-element: endnote;">
<div class="MsoEndnoteText">
<a href="http://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=5782640369398595619#_ednref" name="_edn2" style="mso-endnote-id: edn;" title=""><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span style="mso-special-character: footnote;"><!--[if !supportFootnotes]-->[ii]<!--[endif]--></span></span></a> <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">The Connected Discourses of the Buddha: A
Translation of the Samyutta Nikaya</i> by Bhikkhu Bodhi (Wisdom Publications:
Somerville, MA, 2000) p. 157 - 158</div>
</div>
<div id="edn" style="mso-element: endnote;">
<div class="MsoEndnoteText">
<a href="http://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=5782640369398595619#_ednref" name="_edn3" style="mso-endnote-id: edn;" title=""><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span style="mso-special-character: footnote;"><!--[if !supportFootnotes]-->[iii]<!--[endif]--></span></span></a> <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">The Yoga-Sutra of Patanjali: A New
Translation and Commentary</i> by Georg Feuerstein (Inner Traditions:
Rochester, NY, 1989) Book 2; Sutra 46</div>
</div>
<div id="edn" style="mso-element: endnote;">
<div class="MsoEndnoteText">
<a href="http://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=5782640369398595619#_ednref" name="_edn4" style="mso-endnote-id: edn;" title=""><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span style="mso-special-character: footnote;"><!--[if !supportFootnotes]-->[iv]<!--[endif]--></span></span></a> <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">The Yoga-Sutra of Patanjali: A New
Translation with Commentary </i>by Chip Hartranft (Shambhala: Boston, MA, 2003)
Book 2; Sutra 47</div>
</div>
<div id="edn" style="mso-element: endnote;">
<div class="MsoEndnoteText">
<a href="http://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=5782640369398595619#_ednref" name="_edn5" style="mso-endnote-id: edn;" title=""><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span style="mso-special-character: footnote;"><!--[if !supportFootnotes]-->[v]<!--[endif]--></span></span></a> <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">ibid., </i>Book 2; Sutra 48</div>
</div>
</div>
<!--EndFragment-->Poep Sa Frank Judehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13609272991412471770noreply@blogger.com62tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5782640369398595619.post-91108089925051103902013-04-10T00:31:00.001-07:002019-01-31T11:11:40.217-08:00Problems!<!--[if gte mso 9]><xml>
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It’s a bit ironic for
practitioners of a form of “spirituality” that emphasizes how life is stressful
(it is the first noble truth after all) to sit around offering a litany of
problems they face in practice! Why should practice be any different from the rest
of life? Problems are inevitable! In fact, they should be seen as <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">inevitable!</i> The problems you <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">will </i>face on this path are precisely the
means that will help you progress along the path! Facing these difficulties in
meditation will give us practice in confronting problems in the rest of our
lives. In time, you will see that the uncomfortable ‘stepping stones’ of the
path are precious jewels! The most important aspect of practice is <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">viriya (P; virya S)</i> or persistence.
Never give up and you can never fail!</div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<iframe allowfullscreen='allowfullscreen' webkitallowfullscreen='webkitallowfullscreen' mozallowfullscreen='mozallowfullscreen' width='320' height='266' src='https://www.youtube.com/embed/QPWVsTb1W4Y?feature=player_embedded' frameborder='0'></iframe></div>
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The first noble truth tells us
that life is stressful and meditation, being a microcosm of life, will present
us with the same challenges we’ll find elsewhere in life. In fact, along with
the difficulties we face in life that will arise while sitting, the very
practice of sitting will bring its own special challenges. So, not only should
we expect problems, we should welcome them! </div>
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<br /></div>
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Only the complete acceptance of
discomfort, pain and stress lead to its amelioration. And to accept <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">duhkha</i> takes courage -- the
determination to look at difficulty head-on, without averting our gaze. Courage
is <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">not </i>fearlessness. In fact, fear is
an essential component of courage. You cannot be courageous unless you can feel
your fear completely. If you are able to stand your ground rather than averting
your gaze or taking flight, that is courage. As <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Richard_Petty">Richard Petty</a>, the greatest
NASCAR driver of all time said: You’d have to be crazy not to be afraid to
climb into a race car and take to the track with 40 other drivers going 240 miles
an hour bumper to bumper! These men and women took the fear they had with them
as they climbed into their chariots and drove with passion and courage.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
If you think about it, the
posture of meditation itself is the posture of courage: in determining to sit
in stillness, we are declaring our willingness to look bravely at whatever our
mind churns up without taking whatever our usual exit strategy might be. If you
reflect for a moment, you’ll have to agree that the experiences that have most
contributed to your personal development have been the trials you’ve faced and
moved through. In retrospect, we understand this. In prospect, we fall into
fear that they will overwhelm us, and yet often it is the fear and anxiety that
is worse than the actual experience. As Mark Twain said, “I have known many
troubles, but most of them never happened.”</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
Think of practice difficulties as
simply aspects of experience that require attention. Many times, there really
is nothing to do and nothing to solve – only something to watch, embrace, and
learn from.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
There are many difficulties that arise in meditation that
are not really any different than those that arise in other aspects of our
life. But, there are also some difficulties that may be specific to practice.
Pain, for most of us, is one of these challenges. Almost everyone has to learn
to deal with the discomfort of sitting: backaches, knee pain, feet that go to
sleep. Some of these discomforts do lessen over time, but others never go away.
One of my favorite sayings of <a href="http://www.dharmanet.org/suzukirway.htm">Suzuki Roshi</a> is something he said to his students
on long retreat: “The problems that you have now you will always have.”<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
So, when you begin to experience
pain in practice, first see what you can do to eliminate it. There is enough
pain in life without you adding more of it with your practice. But when you
find that there are certain discomforts that cannot be removed by changing
external circumstances, mindfulness can show us that they can be mitigated by
practice.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
First, we can learn to see the
difference between pain and suffering. Pain is an unpleasant sensation.
Suffering is a mental and emotional reaction to pain. It may or may not be
associated with the sensation of pain. It is possible to suffer without pain
and equally possible to feel pain without suffering.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
Suffering arises when we resist
pain. We may feel a sense of unfairness, our fear of the pain may lead to
panic. Resistance to pain arises because of the often unstated (and
unconscious) belief that pain shouldn’t happen to us. Such belief is a major
cause of suffering, conditioning anger, fear, anxiety and discouragement.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
One way to work with the
suffering of pain is to re-align ourselves with reality. Believing that pain
shouldn’t happen to us is delusional. With sufficient practice, witnessing of
the pain will lessen suffering and sometimes even lessen the pain, because our
resistance is often what keeps the pain ‘locked in place.’</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
Allow the pain to become the
object of mindfulness. Relax any tension or muscular contraction surrounding
the painful sensation. Practice with ‘curious disinterest.’ Disinterest simply
means you are not attached to any particular outcome or agenda. If you are
paying attention <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">as a strategy </i>to
lessen pain, that grasping for a particular outcome actually works against you.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
Now, in the early stages of
practice, it is absolutely unrealistic to expect that this ‘observational
meditation’ will be easy or clearly beneficial. However, with time and
experience, even the most severe kinds of pain can be ameliorated. Take your
time; when you feel you’ve reached your capacity and begin to lose focus, do
anything else – like changing your position, or scratching that persistent itch
– to alleviate the discomfort, but do so mindfully.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
Other problems specific to
meditation are ‘strange’ phenomena that may arise. Sensations of floating,
expansion and contraction that may be pleasant, unpleasant or neutral may
arise. You may feel like your spinning like a top, or fidgeting uncontrollably.
You may become distracted by images arising internally if your eyes are closed
and strange patterns on the floor (like <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Makyo">faces morphing into weird shapes</a>) if
your eyes are open.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>When any such experience happens,
treat it like anything else that arises: observe and reflect upon your reaction
to it. Drop aversion and grasping and it will fade away soon enough. Just don’t
make a big deal out of it.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
The most tenacious problem while
meditating is difficulty concentrating. This is particularly upsetting since
concentration is such a necessary skill for any form of meditation. Remember
that each time you catch the mind wandering and gently bring it back to the
breath, you <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">are</i> concentrating and
refining mindfulness.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
If lethargy, sleepiness or fatigue is a problem, you may need to eat more moderately before practice or get more
sleep. But keep in mind that just the typical fluctuations of daily life will
impact your level and capacity for concentration. Various counting and labeling
techniques, as well as mantra, and visual gazing strategies are available.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
Doubt and discouragement often
comes up when we are dissatisfied with what we may perceive as our “lack of
success” in meditation. We may feel like giving up completely. First, if you
find this happening, remind yourself that the absolutely only way to fail at
meditation is not to do it! If you take your seat, then no matter what is
happening while sitting, you are doing it! The struggles and so-called
“failures” are all part of the process.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<br />
Second, look at the sense of discouragement itself as an object of mindfulness.
See where it comes from; how it arises and what it feels like. Watch its coming
and going, its wavering degrees of intensity. Discouragement is no different
than any other mental formation: it is impermanent!</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
Sometimes the greatest problem in
meditation practice is just sitting down. Regardless of how you feel about
meditation at a particular moment, just do it anyway! You do not have to like
it! Just do it – no argument, no excuses, no negotiations. As Jack Kornfield
advises: “Just get your ass on the cushion.” Make that your absolute bottom
line (no pun intended). Don’t even begin to think of how long you’re going to
sit or what you’re going to do: just get your butt on the cushion.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
If you can commit to this, you’ll
find that generally, once you’re on the cushion, any aversive feelings you had
to meditating evaporate after a few moments. Once you settle down, you can even
begin to investigate what the aversion was all about. You may find some subtle
fear was under it all that you can now observe with courage!</div>
<!--EndFragment-->Poep Sa Frank Judehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13609272991412471770noreply@blogger.com9tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5782640369398595619.post-12664006893745911752013-01-11T15:09:00.002-08:002013-01-11T15:09:19.901-08:00Big Sky Mind
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<!--StartFragment-->
<br />
<div style="text-align: center;">
<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="font-family: Times-Bold; mso-bidi-font-family: Times-Bold; mso-bidi-font-size: 18.0pt; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold;"><b>There is no place to
seek the mind;</b></span></i></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; tab-stops: 28.0pt 56.0pt 84.0pt 112.0pt 140.0pt 168.0pt 196.0pt 224.0pt 3.5in 280.0pt 308.0pt 336.0pt; text-align: center; text-autospace: none;">
<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="font-family: Times-Bold; mso-bidi-font-family: Times-Bold; mso-bidi-font-size: 18.0pt; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold;"><b>It is like the
footprints of the birds in the sky.</b><o:p></o:p></span></i></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; tab-stops: 28.0pt 56.0pt 84.0pt 112.0pt 140.0pt 168.0pt 196.0pt 224.0pt 3.5in 280.0pt 308.0pt 336.0pt; text-align: center; text-autospace: none;">
<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="font-family: Times-Bold; mso-bidi-font-family: Times-Bold; mso-bidi-font-size: 18.0pt; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>--- Zenrin<o:p></o:p></span></i></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; tab-stops: 28.0pt 56.0pt 84.0pt 112.0pt 140.0pt 168.0pt 196.0pt 224.0pt 3.5in 280.0pt 308.0pt 336.0pt; text-align: center; text-autospace: none;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; tab-stops: 28.0pt 56.0pt 84.0pt 112.0pt 140.0pt 168.0pt 196.0pt 224.0pt 3.5in 280.0pt 308.0pt 336.0pt; text-align: justify; text-autospace: none;">
<span style="font-family: Times-Bold; line-height: 150%; mso-bidi-font-family: Times-Bold; mso-bidi-font-size: 18.0pt; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>Most
meditation practices offer quite specific instructions as to what object to
focus on and what to do regarding the chosen object of meditation. The Buddha
himself offered over 40 objects of meditation, including the breath, various
aspects of the physical body, sensations, mental experience, including emotion
and thoughts, as well as “objects of mind,” where the yogi is instructed to
analyze experience into categories that constitute core aspects of the Buddha’s
teaching such as the Five Hindrances (craving, aversion, dullness,
restlessness, and confusion), or the Seven Factors of Awakening (mindfulness,
inquiry, energy, joy, ease, concentration, and equanimity). These
classifications are not in themselves the objects of meditation, but are points
of reference to be applied during practice to whatever experiences arise.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; tab-stops: 28.0pt 56.0pt 84.0pt 112.0pt 140.0pt 168.0pt 196.0pt 224.0pt 3.5in 280.0pt 308.0pt 336.0pt; text-align: justify; text-autospace: none;">
<span style="font-family: Times-Bold; line-height: 150%; mso-bidi-font-family: Times-Bold; mso-bidi-font-size: 18.0pt; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; tab-stops: 28.0pt 56.0pt 84.0pt 112.0pt 140.0pt 168.0pt 196.0pt 224.0pt 3.5in 280.0pt 308.0pt 336.0pt; text-align: justify; text-autospace: none;">
<span style="font-family: Times-Bold; line-height: 150%; mso-bidi-font-family: Times-Bold; mso-bidi-font-size: 18.0pt; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>But in the
last analysis, the meditative state lies beyond any such practices. Meditation
is ultimately not something we do, but rather a state that arises when all
doing is done with! As I once heard Swami Satchidananda say, “meditation is an
accident, and yoga practices make us accident prone.” But all traditions also
speak of “methodless methods” that are meant to drop us directly into that
meditative state variously called “bare attention,” “silent illumination,”
“just sitting,” “mahamudra,” or simply “choiceless awareness.” Such “practices”
encourage sitting <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">as</i> awareness
itself, not picking or choosing what to focus on, but maintaining an evenness
of attention on whatever arises in the space of awareness. Tilopa, in his “Song
of Mahamudra” writes:<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; tab-stops: 28.0pt 56.0pt 84.0pt 112.0pt 140.0pt 168.0pt 196.0pt 224.0pt 3.5in 280.0pt 308.0pt 336.0pt; text-align: justify; text-autospace: none;">
<span style="font-family: Times-Bold; line-height: 150%; mso-bidi-font-family: Times-Bold; mso-bidi-font-size: 18.0pt; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; tab-stops: 28.0pt 56.0pt 84.0pt 112.0pt 140.0pt 168.0pt 196.0pt 224.0pt 3.5in 280.0pt 308.0pt 336.0pt; text-align: justify; text-autospace: none;">
<span style="font-family: Times-Bold; line-height: 150%; mso-bidi-font-family: Times-Bold; mso-bidi-font-size: 18.0pt; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold;"><i><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>The clouds that wander through the sky<o:p></o:p></span></b></i></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; tab-stops: 28.0pt 56.0pt 84.0pt 112.0pt 140.0pt 168.0pt 196.0pt 224.0pt 3.5in 280.0pt 308.0pt 336.0pt; text-align: justify; text-autospace: none;">
<span style="font-family: Times-Bold; line-height: 150%; mso-bidi-font-family: Times-Bold; mso-bidi-font-size: 18.0pt; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold;"><i><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>Have no roots, no home; nor do the distinctive<o:p></o:p></span></b></i></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; tab-stops: 28.0pt 56.0pt 84.0pt 112.0pt 140.0pt 168.0pt 196.0pt 224.0pt 3.5in 280.0pt 308.0pt 336.0pt; text-align: justify; text-autospace: none;">
<span style="font-family: Times-Bold; line-height: 150%; mso-bidi-font-family: Times-Bold; mso-bidi-font-size: 18.0pt; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold;"><i><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>Thoughts floating through the mind.<o:p></o:p></span></b></i></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; tab-stops: 28.0pt 56.0pt 84.0pt 112.0pt 140.0pt 168.0pt 196.0pt 224.0pt 3.5in 280.0pt 308.0pt 336.0pt; text-align: justify; text-autospace: none;">
<span style="font-family: Times-Bold; line-height: 150%; mso-bidi-font-family: Times-Bold; mso-bidi-font-size: 18.0pt; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold;"><i><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>Once this is seen,<o:p></o:p></span></b></i></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; tab-stops: 28.0pt 56.0pt 84.0pt 112.0pt 140.0pt 168.0pt 196.0pt 224.0pt 3.5in 280.0pt 308.0pt 336.0pt; text-align: justify; text-autospace: none;">
<span style="font-family: Times-Bold; line-height: 150%; mso-bidi-font-family: Times-Bold; mso-bidi-font-size: 18.0pt; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold;"><i><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>Discrimination stops…<o:p></o:p></span></b></i></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; tab-stops: 28.0pt 56.0pt 84.0pt 112.0pt 140.0pt 168.0pt 196.0pt 224.0pt 3.5in 280.0pt 308.0pt 336.0pt; text-align: justify; text-autospace: none;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; tab-stops: 28.0pt 56.0pt 84.0pt 112.0pt 140.0pt 168.0pt 196.0pt 224.0pt 3.5in 280.0pt 308.0pt 336.0pt; text-align: justify; text-autospace: none;">
<span style="font-family: Times-Bold; line-height: 150%; mso-bidi-font-family: Times-Bold; mso-bidi-font-size: 18.0pt; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold;"><i><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>Rest at ease your body.<o:p></o:p></span></b></i></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; tab-stops: 28.0pt 56.0pt 84.0pt 112.0pt 140.0pt 168.0pt 196.0pt 224.0pt 3.5in 280.0pt 308.0pt 336.0pt; text-align: justify; text-autospace: none;">
<span style="font-family: Times-Bold; line-height: 150%; mso-bidi-font-family: Times-Bold; mso-bidi-font-size: 18.0pt; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold;"><i><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>Giving not, nor taking,<o:p></o:p></span></b></i></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; tab-stops: 28.0pt 56.0pt 84.0pt 112.0pt 140.0pt 168.0pt 196.0pt 224.0pt 3.5in 280.0pt 308.0pt 336.0pt; text-align: justify; text-autospace: none;">
<span style="font-family: Times-Bold; line-height: 150%; mso-bidi-font-family: Times-Bold; mso-bidi-font-size: 18.0pt; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold;"><i><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>Put your mind at rest.<o:p></o:p></span></b></i></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; tab-stops: 28.0pt 56.0pt 84.0pt 112.0pt 140.0pt 168.0pt 196.0pt 224.0pt 3.5in 280.0pt 308.0pt 336.0pt; text-align: justify; text-autospace: none;">
<span style="font-family: Times-Bold; line-height: 150%; mso-bidi-font-family: Times-Bold; mso-bidi-font-size: 18.0pt; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold;"><i><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>Mahamudra is like a mind that clings to
nothing.<o:p></o:p></span></b></i></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; tab-stops: 28.0pt 56.0pt 84.0pt 112.0pt 140.0pt 168.0pt 196.0pt 224.0pt 3.5in 280.0pt 308.0pt 336.0pt; text-align: justify; text-autospace: none;">
<span style="font-family: Times-Bold; line-height: 150%; mso-bidi-font-family: Times-Bold; mso-bidi-font-size: 18.0pt; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;"><i><b><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>Thus practicing, in time you will reach
Buddhahood.</b></i><o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Times-Bold; line-height: 150%; mso-bidi-font-family: Times-Bold; mso-bidi-font-size: 18.0pt; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Times-Bold; line-height: 150%; mso-bidi-font-family: Times-Bold; mso-bidi-font-size: 18.0pt; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>Students of
Patanjali’s <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><b>Yoga Sutra</b></i> might be
reminded of what he has to say about asana: “It is a posture that is stable and
easeful, accompanied by the relaxation of effort and the arising of
coalescence, revealing the body and the infinite universe as indivisible. Then
one is no longer disturbed by the play of opposites.” <b>(</b><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><b>The Yoga-Sutra of Patanjali,</b> </i>II: 46 – 48).<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Times-Bold; line-height: 150%; mso-bidi-font-family: Times-Bold; mso-bidi-font-size: 18.0pt; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; tab-stops: 28.0pt 56.0pt 84.0pt 112.0pt 140.0pt 168.0pt 196.0pt 224.0pt 3.5in 280.0pt 308.0pt 336.0pt; text-align: justify; text-autospace: none;">
<span style="font-family: Times-Bold; line-height: 150%; mso-bidi-font-family: Times-Bold; mso-bidi-font-size: 18.0pt; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>But this is
easier said than done. Not for nothing is the mind likened to a drunken monkey!
It is all too easy to become caught in an ever-proliferating chain of thought.
Even when trying to focus on one object, such as your breath or a mantra, a
thought can arise, which leads to another, and another, and yet still <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><b>more</b></i> thoughts until fifteen minutes later,
when the meditation period is over, we wake up from some four-star daydream or
sexual fantasy or a fretful worrying over our unpaid bills!<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Times-Bold; line-height: 150%; mso-bidi-font-family: Times-Bold; mso-bidi-font-size: 18.0pt; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; tab-stops: 28.0pt 56.0pt 84.0pt 112.0pt 140.0pt 168.0pt 196.0pt 224.0pt 3.5in 280.0pt 308.0pt 336.0pt; text-align: justify; text-autospace: none;">
<span style="font-family: Times-Bold; line-height: 150%; mso-bidi-font-family: Times-Bold; mso-bidi-font-size: 18.0pt; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>There is a
distinct, but subtle difference between being aware of a thought and thinking a
thought, and it’s primarily one of “feeling-tone” which is a term referring to
the felt sense (physically and energetically) of experience. A thought you are
aware of with bare attention – with neither grasping nor aversion – feels
light; there is a felt sense of distance between the thought and the awareness
of the thought. With no reactivity to feed it, it arises like a bubble,
awareness merely reflecting it, without it giving rise to another thought, it
eventually “pops” or “self liberates.” When we are caught by thinking, it feels much heavier
and substantial. It has a compulsive quality that pulls you in and takes
control of consciousness. Its very nature is obsessive, leading you into ever
deepening entanglement with its story making.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Times-Bold; line-height: 150%; mso-bidi-font-family: Times-Bold; mso-bidi-font-size: 18.0pt; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; tab-stops: 28.0pt 56.0pt 84.0pt 112.0pt 140.0pt 168.0pt 196.0pt 224.0pt 3.5in 280.0pt 308.0pt 336.0pt; text-align: justify; text-autospace: none;">
<span style="font-family: Times-Bold; line-height: 150%; mso-bidi-font-family: Times-Bold; mso-bidi-font-size: 18.0pt; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>Choiceless
awareness requires mindfulness, which is a mode or perception that is all
accepting, non-reactive, neither clinging nor resisting. It expresses our
willingness to be with our lived experience as it actually is in that moment, and not as we
would like it to be. There is no seeking after another state of being; no
distracting ourselves from whatever is our present situation. In order to
cultivate mindfulness, it is best not to expect anything, avoid straining and
rushing, accept everything that arises and hold onto nothing, avoiding
rumination and comparing, and above all, be gentle!<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Times-Bold; line-height: 150%; mso-bidi-font-family: Times-Bold; mso-bidi-font-size: 18.0pt; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Times-Bold; line-height: 150%; mso-bidi-font-family: Times-Bold; mso-bidi-font-size: 18.0pt; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>Choiceless
awareness rests on our ability to concentrate and reflect. This relates to
Patanjali’s imperative to be stable and relaxed. The following meditation is in
three parts that can each be practiced as independent ‘stand-alone’ practices
or combined in a graduated path towards choiceless awareness. <b><i>Mountain
Meditation</i></b> cultivates stability and is particularly helpful in dealing with
anxiety, restlessness and dullness. <b><i>Lake Meditation</i></b> cultivates the
quality of reflectivity that lessens the reactivity of comparing and judging
mind. And finally <b><i>Big Sky Mind</i></b> opens us to the freedom of choiceless
awareness.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<h3>
<b><u><span style="font-family: Times-Bold; line-height: 150%; mso-bidi-font-family: Times-Bold; mso-bidi-font-size: 18.0pt;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;">Mountain
Meditation:</span></span></u></b></h3>
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<span style="font-family: Times-Bold; line-height: 150%; mso-bidi-font-family: Times-Bold; mso-bidi-font-size: 18.0pt; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;">Create a comfortable, stable, supported seated
posture. If sitting on the floor, make sure you have enough height under your
buttocks so that your knees rest on the floor. If that is not possible, then
bring the floor up to your knees with pillows or blocks so that your legs are
fully supported.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Times-Bold; line-height: 150%; mso-bidi-font-family: Times-Bold; mso-bidi-font-size: 18.0pt; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;">Sit upright, and close your eyes. Let your breath
flow naturally, making no attempt to manipulate it, rest your attention on the
rising and falling of your belly or chest (wherever you most feel the movement
of your breath).<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; tab-stops: 28.0pt 56.0pt 84.0pt 112.0pt 140.0pt 168.0pt 196.0pt 224.0pt 3.5in 280.0pt 308.0pt 336.0pt; text-align: justify; text-autospace: none;">
<span style="font-family: Times-Bold; line-height: 150%; mso-bidi-font-family: Times-Bold; mso-bidi-font-size: 18.0pt; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;">Next, visualize or imagine a majestically tall
mountain. Contemplate for a few minutes how solid and stable the mountain is,
throughout all the changing seasons and in all kinds of weather. At times the
mountain may be clouded over, its peak completely in fog, sometimes the
mountain is assaulted with thunder, lightening, heavy rains. Sometimes it rises
into a clear blue sky, or a sky with just a few white puffy clouds. At times it
is covered in snow, at times with lush foliage, and at other times it is
barren. And yet, throughout it all, there is something that seems to remain stable,
solid, not affected by the changing weather or seasons. It is this stable
quality of “mountainness” that nourishes our concentration and ability to sit
through all the varying experiences that arise while practicing. <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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So, now draw the image of the mountain down into your body and feel your
posture of meditation to be like a mountain. Breathing in, see yourself as a
mountain; breathing out, feeling stable. Some thoughts and emotions are like
thunderous storms, others like a sunny day, your mind can be clouded over or
clear and bright, but through it all, you can still sit solid like a mountain. <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<h3>
<b><u><span style="font-family: Times-Bold; line-height: 150%; mso-bidi-font-family: Times-Bold; mso-bidi-font-size: 18.0pt;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;">Lake
Meditation:</span></span></u></b></h3>
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<span style="font-family: Times-Bold; line-height: 150%; mso-bidi-font-family: Times-Bold; mso-bidi-font-size: 18.0pt; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;">Towards the peak of some mountains in the Himalayas,
there are crystal-clear, turquoise-hued lakes called “sky lakes” because they
are so reflective they reflect perfectly the sky above. Protected by the higher
peaks and trees, the surface of such a lake is smooth and calm. The water is
translucent, allowing you to see into its depths and it is as reflective as a
mirror, so you can see your face and the sky above reflected in its surface.
What you notice about the reflection is that the water reflects only what is
there, neither editing out nor adding in anything. It reflects the dark,
ominous storm clouds as well as the fluffy white clouds equally. When birds fly
overhead, it reflects them without a trace left on the surface once they are
gone from the sky.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Times-Bold; line-height: 150%; mso-bidi-font-family: Times-Bold; mso-bidi-font-size: 18.0pt; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;">Mind, or <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><b>citta</b>,
</i>when the waves or <i><b>vritti</b></i> are
calmed, has this dual quality of the lake to be translucent and reflective.
Once stabilized, we can turn our attention to the mind. Thoughts, feelings and
emotions may arise from the depths of our mind, and we can simply reflect what
arises without adding anything extra by way of judging, or comparing, nor
editing out anything through aversion or denial. Free of grasping and pushing
away, we can simply reflect. In this way, destructive or unwholesome patterns
can be seen so that their power over us is lessened. Attachments are loosened.
Breathing in, see yourself as the water of the Sky Lake; breathing out,
reflecting.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<h3>
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;"><b><u><span style="font-family: Times-Bold; line-height: 150%;">Big Sky Mind</span></u></b><b><span style="font-family: Times-Bold; line-height: 150%;">:<i><o:p></o:p></i></span></b></span></h3>
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<span style="font-family: Times-Bold; line-height: 150%; mso-bidi-font-family: Times-Bold; mso-bidi-font-size: 18.0pt; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;">After awhile, you may wish to turn your
attention from the surface of the lake, towards the sky itself. This is what
the Korean Zen teacher Chinul called “tracing the radiance.” You note that the
sky is boundless, limitless. It contains everything that arises without stain.
Even the horizon is only an apparent perceptual/conceptual boundary that can
never be reached. Even on the cloudiest day, you know that above the clouds the
sky is luminous, all pervading, limitless and free.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Times-Bold; line-height: 150%; mso-bidi-font-family: Times-Bold; mso-bidi-font-size: 18.0pt; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;">Awareness is said to share in these qualities of limitlessness,
luminosity and stainlessness. It is present always, seemingly behind, between and beyond
all the ever-changing phenomena. If you have ever heard yourself say “I’m
confused,” then obviously awareness was also present or how would you have
known?!<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> However, be careful not to take this experience as anything more than metaphorically. "Big Sky Mind" is not some transcendent realm separate from the mind and mental activity; they arise interdependently. This is an understanding forgotten even by many contemporary buddhists who take awareness as some kind of "true nature" which is more a Vedantin idea. The buddha criticized the notion of "pure awareness" by pointing out that awareness is always <b><i>aware of something</i></b>! Our problem is we tend to only identify with the confusion and overlook the clarity of the awareness <i><b>of</b></i> the confusion!</span></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Times-Bold; line-height: 150%; mso-bidi-font-family: Times-Bold; mso-bidi-font-size: 18.0pt; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold;"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Times-Bold; line-height: 150%; mso-bidi-font-family: Times-Bold; mso-bidi-font-size: 18.0pt; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;">As
mind experiences the selfless nature of phenomena, it moves towards freedom. We break through into the realization of what the Buddha called
“not-self.” With the realization of not-self, the conceit of “I,” or what
Patanjali called ‘<i><b>asmita,</b></i>’ is
eliminated and this is nirvana here and now.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<!--EndFragment-->Poep Sa Frank Judehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13609272991412471770noreply@blogger.com6tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5782640369398595619.post-75023457277117412372012-12-29T21:11:00.001-08:002012-12-31T11:19:56.335-08:00Yoga Ph.D. <!--[if gte mso 9]><xml>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;">Carol Horton’s <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Yoga Ph.D.: Integrating the Life of the Mind
and the Wisdom of the Body</i> is one of those books (and delightfully there
are ever more of them being published*) that I’d love to see every student in
every Yoga Teacher Training read and take its message to heart. I believe
it’s <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">that</i> important a contribution to
what may perhaps be the most important question facing the very growth and
existence of Yoga. Though Horton wrote it to find answers to her questions
regarding the origins of yoga, how it “works,” and why it’s become so popular,
the <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">koan</i> facing all practitioners,
and in particular teachers of yoga, that she offers is whether the paradoxes embodied in
contemporary yoga will remain generative or will its very popularity and commercialization
usurp it of its vitality?</span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;">What paradoxes? In Horton’s
words: Contemporary yoga “is a modern invention with ancient roots, a fitness
fad with spiritual sustenance, a $6 billion ‘industry’ with non-material
values;” a weird synthesis “of the utterly pedestrian and magically
transformative.” And while Horton generally seems to have a better opinion of
contemporary mainstream yoga and it’s paradoxes than I do, her own conclusion
seems paradoxical as well. She ends with hope that postmodern yoga will indeed
remain generative, with each successive generation of practitioners and
teachers planting and nurturing new seeds. As she clearly summarizes, the
history of yoga shows that it has always changed to meet the demands of the
times, while somehow retaining something of its ancient roots. I am reminded of
Georg Feurstein’s calling yoga “a living fossil,” in this regard. And I agree that's a <i>good </i>thing.</span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;">Yet, she also admits elsewhere
that she guesses “the already pronounced tendency to turn yoga into yet another
means of commodifying the body” will continue because “the commercial potential
of idealized images of the ‘yoga body’ has simply become too good to pass up.”
Sadly, this commercialized pull undermines the tremendous potential of yoga
practice and theory to create the transformative self-integration possible. And <i>that's </i>a bad thing. Yes folks, it ain't "all good" in yoga or in life!</span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;">Chapter Six, “Self-Commodification,
Teacher Worship, & Spirituality Lite” is worth the price of the book and
should indeed be mandatory reading for yoga teacher trainees. In a “culture”
that tends to hide it’s critical thinking potential in the mud, this chapter
clearly presents the major blind-spots that tend toward undermining yoga’s real
potential and offers the antidote: <i>critical thinking</i>.</span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;">For me, it’s come to the point
where I hesitate to tell people I teach yoga because of what “yoga” has come to
represent in contemporary culture. While Horton asks why American yoga culture
seems to be growing ever more shallowly commercial, morphing from “intimate,
organic, and essentially counter-cultural to corporate, ‘branded,’ and
aggressively mainstream” while at the same time there is <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">something </i>about it that differentiates it from other fitness
regimens and self-help programs, I question if there <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">is </i>anything different in the way most people approach and practice
it. One of the more popular yoga studios here in Tucson, for instance, is popular and as successful as it is because it offers one-hour "workouts" with <i>maybe</i> some one-word "theme" that can loosely be considered "spiritual." </span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;">In Chapter Seven, “Yoga,
Modernity, and the Body,” in a section sub-titled “But Why Does It Work?”
Horton parses out for herself the reasons, and then hypothesizes why yoga
“works” and summarizes: “I believe yoga works so well for me for the same basic
reason it does for so many others: it gives me a connection to my body that I
wouldn’t otherwise have” with its “combination of physical postures, mental
focus, and breath regulation” providing that connection “in an exceptionally
accessible way.” </span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;">As she also explains, the
postural emphasis in contemporary hatha-yoga is rooted in the worldwide
physical culture of the late 19<sup>th</sup> and early 20<sup>th</sup>
centuries, and was conceived as education <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">through
</i>and not merely <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">of</i> the body and,
as Mark Singleton shows in his revelatory <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Yoga
Body,</i> was intended for the cultivation of mind, body and spirit. In my
experience, if I bring mental focus and breath regulation to my weight-lifting,
it is every bit as much <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">yoga</i> as
practicing <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Surya Namaskara. </i>The same
is true of gardening or any other activity. When that understanding is lost,
the practice of “<i>doing yoga</i>” arises and becomes no different than how many of
my fellow weight-lifters approach their lifting.</span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;">Horton knows this too, and admits
that such transformative, self-integration is not unique to yoga practice. What
her book so eloquently argues is that for contemporary yoga to avoid losing its
soul altogether, it <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">must </i>learn to
integrate the life of the mind with the wisdom of the body. If her book is read
by enough people, then perhaps the conversation and self-questioning it could
provoke might just help save post-modern yoga’s “soul.” Curmudgeon that I can
often be, I won’t be holding my breath.</span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;">* among them: Mark Singleton, <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Yoga Body; </i>Carol Horton & Roseanne
Harvey (eds), <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">21<sup>st</sup> Century
Yoga; </i>Matthew Remski, </span><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;">Threads of Yoga</span><o:p></o:p></i></div>
<!--EndFragment-->Poep Sa Frank Judehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13609272991412471770noreply@blogger.com15tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5782640369398595619.post-7162022849153843742012-11-14T21:49:00.000-08:002012-11-14T21:49:06.536-08:00"Misadventures of a Garden State Yogi" A ReviewIt's a sign of yoga's popularity and its assimilation into the popular imagination, that a whole new genre of "yoga memoir" has developed over the last few years. Brian Leaf's contribution, <i>Misadventures of a Garden State Yogi </i>is one of the more enjoyable of the lot.<br />
<br />
As Stephen Cope blurbs about Leaf's book, Brian Leaf "writes in an utterly winning voice -- by turns as neurotic as Woody Allen, as irreverent as Huck Finn, and as serious as Jack Kerouac." The self-effacing neurotic humor is perhaps my favorite aspect of this memoir, so that Leaf's taking himself down a bit (or as the Brits might say, 'taking the piss out' on himself) keeps the whole narrative from becoming a self-righteous, heroic pean to 'self.'<br />
<br />
Leaf comes from the Kripalu tradition, though he's explored other forms of practice from Iyengar to Astanga, and so he stresses the more meditative, mindful self-exploration of that tradition. On the whole, it is a tradition that I have much affinity for. My only two criticisms, and really they are quite minor, are his falling at times into what I take for new-agey 'woo.' However, it never approaches the brain-dead status of so much contemporary yoga that is permeated with the inanities of <i>The Secret </i>or the kind of pontifications of Deepak Chopra. The other minor misgiving is Leaf's attempt to squeeze in more than the weight of this book can fully handle.<br />
<br />
Here, what I am referring to is what amounts to an attempt to work in his interest and practice of Ayurveda. It is clear it is a major part of his practice and he even graduated from my <i>alma mater, </i>The New England Institute of Ayurvedic Medicine, but that subject is so vast that what he can manage to work into his tale comes across as more an 'add-on' than as intrinsic to his practice as I am sure it truly is.<br />
<br />
But again, these quibbles are just that; quibbles. I found Leaf's tale funny, and insightful, and his gentle, friendly voice serves as a real friend along the path. Check it out!Poep Sa Frank Judehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13609272991412471770noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5782640369398595619.post-2454933378483850542012-10-24T11:31:00.004-07:002012-10-24T11:31:59.635-07:00Is Yoga A Religion?<br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;">Is Yoga a Religion?</span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">The following is an essay I wrote for my old <i>Karuna Blog, </i>back in 2006<i> </i>and which then appeared in the Asian journal, <i>Namaskar, </i>and later on the Ashville Yoga Center blog. I've never posted it here, however, and am prompted to do so in response to the question again popping up in reaction to a group of parents in Encinitas suing the School system for teaching yoga in school! If you are not familiar with this story, you can read about it at <a href="http://www.itsallyogababy.com/">It's All Yoga, Baby</a>.</span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><br /></span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">When people ask if yoga is a religion, it first makes sense to ask them what they mean by “religion.” If what they mean is a creed of beliefs and dogma that must be adhered to, according to an established institution – most usually hierarchical and authoritarian – then the short answer is “No.” But if we take a deeper look into the original meaning of the word “religion,” we find that its root is in the Latin word religio which means “to tie or bind back”. It was a word used in horticulture, used to refer to the binding and pruning of branches in order to create a stronger and more aesthetic tree of shrub. </span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><br /></span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">In this sense, we find a similarity with the original meaning of the word “yoga,” which comes from the root yuj, which means to “yoke or to harness.” The English word yoke is actually derived from the Sanskrit, and both connotations of that word apply to the word yoga. It can mean “union,” or “to join together,” and it can also mean “to harness” or “to restrain,” and so by extension it has come to signify spiritual endeavor, especially the disciplining of the mind and the senses. Free of its institutional forms and meanings, the similar meaning of these two words point to the essentially religious purpose of all yoga practice. </span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><br /></span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">Yoga, as such, is the generic name for the various Indian philosophies and practices (disciplines), the purpose of which is to liberate the practitioner from the existential human situation described as duhkha. This is the experience of discontent, dissatisfaction and unease that we feel in subtle and not so subtle ways. Duhkha is often translated as “suffering,” but it was a word used to describe an axle that was not centered in its wheel. It is this sense of being “uncentered” or “imbalanced” in our way of life that is meant by duhkha. Yoga is what Georg Feurstein calls “the psychospiritual technology specific to the great civilization of India.” </span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><br /></span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">Now, out of this greater Yoga Tradition emerged what we may call the three major Yogic religious-cultural complexes of India: Hinduism, Buddhism and Jainism. So, in the give-and-take that is a natural process of history, the teachings of Yoga became suffused with concepts that are shared with these three religious cultures. Yet none of these cultures are “religions” in the way defined in my opening paragraph. That is to say, none of them require adherence to a set creed. Indeed, there are many – even contradictory teachings – that are to be found in any of these three “religions.” Also, none of them are centralized under a totalistic institutional authority.</span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><br /></span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">Perhaps the main sticking point for many practitioners in contemporary non-Indian cultures in accepting Yoga practice are the teachings of karma and reincarnation or rebirth and the many deities that are spoken about. Well, there are Yoga masters throughout history who have rejected these ideas and the notion of deities in Yoga are more akin to the idea of angels or even more abstractly as similar to Jungian archetypes of the collective unconscious. </span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><br /></span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">Basically, all forms of Yoga agree that we as humans have not even begun to tap our fullest potential. All forms of Yoga assert that we are mistaken in identifying ourselves with our body, thoughts and emotions, and posit that we are something much more – boundless, limitless and unconditionally free. Yoga doesn’t expect us nor want us to just accept this idea on faith, but challenges us to test the hypothesis for ourselves by experimenting through asana, meditation, pranayama and other yogic technologies. In this sense, Yoga is a kind of science, where the practitioner is both laboratory and researcher. Rather than accept anything on faith, we are free to allow our personal experience and realization to shape our understanding. </span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><br /></span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">For this reason, Yoga can and in fact has been practiced by people with widely varying philosophies and beliefs. One can practice from the perspective of a believer in God who wishes to devote her life to honoring and surrendering to God, or as an atheistic humanist intent on maximizing his fullest human potential of compassion, joy, and peace. Some believe in a personal God, while others believe in a more impersonal Ultimate Reality, and others have no interest in such metaphysical speculation. Yoga is simply and primarily a tool for exploring the depths of human nature, of diving deep into the mysteries of the mind and of the body.</span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><br /></span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">Whether you identify yourself as a religious or spiritual person, as a Christian, Jew, Muslim, Hindu, Buddhist, an atheist, agnostic or whatever, Yoga can aid all persons in becoming a more peaceful, calm, loving, compassionate, authentic person. The practices of Yoga help to balance the nervous system, support the immune system, strengthen the skeletal and muscular system and help calm the mind. More than that, who can find fault with the yogic recommendations to live a virtuous life dedicating oneself to nonharming, truthfulness, compassion, tolerance, generosity and freedom from greed, anger and ignorance?</span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><br /></span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">Ultimately, through the consistent and dedicated practice of true Yoga – which is essentially meditative – whoever takes up the practice of Yoga will find themselves less conditioned and reactive in their life, and freer and more creative in their response to all their experiences and relationships. And that is the greatest gift of a Yoga practice – liberation from our conditioned patterns of thinking and behavior – freedom!</span></div>
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Poep Sa Frank Judehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13609272991412471770noreply@blogger.com8tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5782640369398595619.post-74730916677642069572012-09-17T17:56:00.000-07:002012-09-17T17:56:37.576-07:00Naikan: The Cultivation of Gratitude for Everyday Gifts
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<b><span style="color: #4688ab; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;">Grounded in Gratitude</span></b></div>
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<span style="color: #535353; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;">This past weekend, our sangha had their quarterly "Day of Mindfulness," a day-long 'urban retreat' that includes various forms of meditation including asana, deep relaxation, sitting and walking. Additionally, we often center our Days of Mindfulness around particular "themes" like "Touching the Earth" and this past weekend: "72 Labors: Cultivating Gratitude and Appreciation for the Everyday Gifts We Receive."</span></div>
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<span style="color: #535353; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;">So I thought I'd share the core practice for this, coming from the contemporary Pure Land Buddhist tradition by sharing this article I wrote for <i>Yoga Journal </i>several years ago.</span></div>
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<span style="color: #535353; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;">Thanks!</span></div>
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<span style="color: #535353; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;">Count your blessings and you'll find
that even an uneventful or "bad" day is filled with precious gifts.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;">By Frank Jude Boccio<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;">At the grocery store, a friend was bowled over by
the simplest act of kindness: A stranger let her step ahead of him in the
checkout line. It was such a little thing, and yet it swelled her heart with
happiness. What she experienced, she ultimately realized, was more than just
gratitude for a chance to check out faster —it was an affirmation of her
connection to a stranger and, therefore, to all beings.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;">On the surface, gratitude appears to arise from a
sense that you're indebted to another person for taking care of you in some
way, but looking deeper, you'll see that the feeling is actually a heightened
awareness of your connection to everything else. Gratitude flows when you break
out of the small, self-centered point of view —with its ferocious expectations
and demands —and appreciate that through the labors and intentions and even the
simple existence of an inconceivably large number of people, weather patterns,
chemical reactions, and the like, you have been given the miracle of your life,
with all the goodness in it today.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;">It is easy, as Roger L'Estrange, the 17th-century
author and pamphleteer, said, to "mistake the gratuitous blessings of
heaven for the fruits of our own industry." The truth is, you are
supported in countless ways through each moment of your life. You awaken on
schedule when your alarm clock beeps &,dash; thanks to the engineers,
designers, assembly workers, salespeople, and others who brought you the clock;
by the power-company workers who manage your electricity supply; and many
others. Your morning <a href="http://www.yogajournal.com/practice/"><b><span style="color: #0b508b; font-family: "Lucida Grande"; mso-bidi-font-family: "Lucida Grande"; text-decoration: none; text-underline: none;">yoga practice</span></b></a>
is the gift of generations of yogis who observed the truth and shared what they
knew; of your local teacher and of her teacher; of the authors of books or
videos you use to practice; of your body (for which you could thank your
parents, the food that helps you maintain your good health, doctors, healers,
and the "you" who cares for that body every day) — the list goes on.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;">When you awaken to the truth of this incredible
interconnectedness, you are spontaneously filled with joy and appreciation. It
is for this reason that one of the most transformative practices you can engage
in is the cultivation of gratitude. <a href="http://www.yogajournal.com/wisdom/2208"><b><span style="color: #0b508b; font-family: "Lucida Grande"; mso-bidi-font-family: "Lucida Grande"; text-decoration: none; text-underline: none;">Patanjali</span></b></a> wrote that <i>santosha</i>
(contentment, or appreciation for what you have) leads to unexcelled joy, while
other yogic texts say that this sense of appreciation is the "supreme
joy" that naturally leads to the realization of the Absolute. Thankfully,
gratitude can be cultivated. It simply takes practice.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<b><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;">Love the Gifts You Get<o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;">If you're like most people, you notice what goes
wrong more often than what goes right. Human beings seem hard-wired to notice
how reality fails to meet some idea of how they think things should be. How
many times a day do you sink into disappointment, frustration, or sadness
because others haven't met your expectations? If you limit your attention to
how life lets you down, you blind yourself to the myriad gifts you receive all
the time.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;">You may, for example, have ideas about the
"ideal" holiday visit with your family: where it will take place, who
will be there, how everyone will act, what you'll eat, what kinds of presents
you'll exchange. But the visit surely won't match that ideal. And that's when
you're likely to act like a child who has his heart set upon a certain toy for
Christmas: As he unwraps one present after another, not finding that one toy,
he grows ever more upset and disappointed. Utterly dejected, the presents he
has received lie unattended.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;">You can end this frustrating situation by mindfully
shifting your attention. Begin by paying attention to the reality of what is
rather than the desires you cling to. For the fact of the matter is, regardless
of how dissimilar your holiday gathering (or any other moment in life) might be
from what you had imagined, there is much to be grateful for.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;">Consider the effort it took for your family members
to get together; the vehicles that brought you all to the same spot —and all
the people who constructed and helped maintain them; the house where you've
gathered; the trees whose limbs burn in the fireplace. Your food, whether
vegetable or animal, was once a living thing and is now providing you with
nourishment. And that food did not just magically appear. Before it was cooked,
it required the energy of the sun, the minerals of the earth, the rain, the
work of farmers, processors, truckers, and retailers —plus the cooks in your
family —to bring it to your table.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;">It is, as the Vietnamese Buddhist monk Thich Nhat
Hanh says, the gift of the whole universe. When you stop and really look, you
see that you are supported continuously in literally countless ways. This is
the highest wisdom of yoga, the truth of interbeing, of no separation.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;">To begin to pay attention to how fully and
completely you are supported, you have to break out of your constricted cage of
Self. Once you have a more balanced view of reality, you are less preoccupied
with what's not meeting your expectations, and more present to what is given. You
grow more appreciative of what you have, and seeing how dependent you are on
others, you grow in generosity, wishing in some small way to repay at least a
part of your debt.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<b><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;">Thanks, Mom!<o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;">To begin cultivating gratitude, it helps to be
aware of some of the most pernicious obstacles to doing so; often it is these
very roadblocks that provide the opportunities for practice. One of the most
obvious obstacles is the failure to notice what you have —a roof over your
head, a family with which to share the holidays. As Joni Mitchell sang,
"You don't know what you've got till it's gone." So, the first thing
you need to do is to start paying attention to what you have!<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;">And here's where expectations can prove to be an
obstacle. You expect your alarm clock and your car to work, your loved ones to
be there for you. Once you come to expect something, you tend not to pay it
attention. You take it for granted. Use your expectations as reminders to
cultivate gratitude.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;">Another big obstacle, and therefore another
opportunity to cultivate gratitude, is the trap of feeling entitled. Gratitude
may not spontaneously arise when the garbage man takes away your trash, since
he's "just doing his job." But the fact is, regardless of his
motivation, you are benefiting from his efforts and can meet them with an
expression of gratitude.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;">One formal practice for cultivating gratitude,
developed in Japan by a practitioner of Pure Land Buddhism, is known as <a href="http://www.yogajournal.com/meditation/2423_1.cfm"><b><span style="color: #0b508b; font-family: "Lucida Grande"; mso-bidi-font-family: "Lucida Grande"; text-decoration: none; text-underline: none;">Naikan</span></b></a>,
which means "looking inside." It's a structured method of
self-reflection that encourages an objective survey of yourself and your
relationship to the world.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;">At its most profound, Naikan is practiced on
retreat with trained counselors. From dawn until night, every day for a week,
you sit and reflect on your mother —what you received from her, what you gave
to her, and what troubles you caused her. You generally spend about two hours
reflecting on your life from birth to age six, and then for each three-year
period after that, meeting with a counselor after each session, until your
whole life has been examined in relation to your mother. You then move on to
your father, siblings, lovers, friends, and others. In such a situation, you
are free to honestly look at how you have lived your life.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;">Naikan can also be done as a daily practice. The
rewards will become immediately evident in the blossoming of a natural, deeply
felt sense of gratitude and appreciation for your life and for all the gifts
you receive daily —gifts that you realize were always there but that went
unnoticed and therefore unappreciated.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;">The practice of Naikan can lead you to the
realization that you are rich indeed, and that you are not only not alone but
are truly supported by the universe! You may even come to see the truth in the
exhortation of the 13th-century mystic Meister Eckhart: "If the only
prayer you said in your whole life was 'thank you,' that would suffice."</span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<b><span style="color: #4688ab; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;">Just Say Thanks<o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
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<span style="color: #535353; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;">Set aside 30 minutes, preferably at
the end of the day, to try this Naikan practice.</span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;">Sitting comfortably, with eyes closed, take a few
moments to bring attention to your breath, mantra, or any other technique that
you normally use to center yourself. When you feel settled, ask yourself this
series of questions:<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<b><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;">What have I received today?<o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;">Be specific and reflect on as many things as you
can recall. It can be something as simple as your partner's smile, the sound of
a bird singing at dawn, the driver who let you merge into the crowded freeway.
Remember, the motivation or attitude of those who gave you something is not the
issue. Maybe you were offered lunch because you showed up at lunchtime, not
because your friend made a personal effort to make you lunch. The fact is, you
were fed, and you can feel <a href="http://www.yogajournal.com/meditation/2424_1.cfm"><b><span style="color: #0b508b; font-family: "Lucida Grande"; mso-bidi-font-family: "Lucida Grande"; text-decoration: none; text-underline: none;">gratitude</span></b></a>
for that. The mere fact that you benefited from someone's actions is all that
is needed to cultivate gratitude.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;">Notice which of these things you did not appreciate
as they happened. Can you recall what was taking your attention when one of
these acts of grace occurred? Were you stuck in problem-solving mode, thinking
of your to-do list, or making judgments?<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;">We often live as if the world owes us. As you
reflect on what you have been given today, you will likely see that, if
anything, you owe the world an insurmountable debt. This insight is more than
merely humbling; you may find yourself feeling a deeper sense of gratitude and
a natural desire to be generous in serving others.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<b><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;">What have I given today?<o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;">Go through the day's events in the same way, but
this time notice what you have given to others. Be as specific and concrete as
possible. As above, your motivation is irrelevant. What did you actually do? It
may have been as simple as feeding your cats, washing the breakfast dishes, or
sending a friend a birthday card. You may find that without great fanfare you
contribute to the well-being of many people and animals —you make a positive
difference to the planet.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<b><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;">What difficulties and troubles did I cause today?<o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 11.0pt; mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;">
<span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;">Again, be specific. Don't overlook the seemingly
insignificant. Your list may include things like "I backed up traffic
while looking for a place to park" or "I chased the cats off the
lounge chair so I could sit there." This question is often the hardest,
but its importance cannot be overstated. It may bring up feelings of remorse,
but its primary purpose is to provide a more realistic view of your life.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;">In general, we are all too aware of how others
cause us inconvenience or difficulty, but rarely do we notice when we are the
source of inconvenience. And if we do, we usually brush it aside as an
accident, not that big a deal, or simply something we didn't mean to do. We cut
ourselves a huge length of slack! But seeing how you cause others difficulty
can deflate your ego while reminding you again of the grace by which you live.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;">These questions provide the framework for
reflecting on all your relationships, including those with family, friends,
co-workers, partners, pets, and even objects. You can reflect on the events of
one day, a specific person over the course of your relationship, or a holiday
visit with family.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-fareast-font-family: Cambria; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-latin;">Remember, what makes this a meditative
practice is that you are not analyzing your motivations or intentions; you are
not interpreting or judging. You are simply shifting your attention from
self-centered thinking to seeing things as they are, and as all yoga traditions
point out, in seeing, there is wisdom and liberation.</span><!--EndFragment-->
Poep Sa Frank Judehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13609272991412471770noreply@blogger.com6tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5782640369398595619.post-56409782083473400922012-08-26T12:31:00.003-07:002012-08-27T14:04:52.277-07:00Georg Feurstein (1947 - 2012)<!--[if gte mso 9]><xml>
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My wife and daughter are just
back from our “sangha family camping trip” down to Patagonia Lake, where we
spent the sweetest weekend possible with some of the most important people in
our life: the <a href="http://www.emptymountainsangha.org/">Empty Mountain Sangha/Tucson Mindfulness Practice Community</a> that
we founded in our living room just over three years ago. The whole time I was
there, thoughts of one of the teachers most influential upon my life were with me
constantly.</div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
Just over a week ago, I got the
message that <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Georg_Feuerstein">Georg Feurstein</a>, perhaps one of the most important yoga scholars
that we have been graced to have among us, was in his last days. And ever since
hearing that, I’ve held him and his wife, Brenda, in my heartmind with love,
gratitude and appreciation. Today, I went online, expecting to find that he had
indeed passed, and apparently he died last night, sometime around when I was
sitting around the fireside with my sangha, thinking of Georg with metta held
in my heart. And though there is so little we can be certain about in life, I
am certain that within my heartmind there will always be this place held sacred
for his memory.</div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
Long before I met Georg, there
had been a meeting of minds and a form of dharma transmission through my deep
devouring of his books; reading and re-reading, writing long marginalia along
his words, beginning a dialogue I know will continue for the rest of my life. I
hasten to add, I did not always agree with what Georg thought, taught, and
believed, and that was not what he ever required of those of us who studied
with him; rather, it was his integrity and deep, strong dedication to the
traditions he studied, wrote and taught about that moved me, and through this,
his challenge to me (to all of us) to deepen our own exploration through deep
personal inquiry. He often said, “enlightenment is a whole brain experience,”
by which he meant, as I now put it, that both the conceptual and
non-conceptual, the rational and the intuitive, the “ah-ha” and the “ahhhh” are
present in awakening consciousness. </div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
I remember in particular when we
were studying Patanjali during the one and only YREC (Yoga Research and
Education Center) yoga teacher training, when many of the students were
perplexed by the philosophical dualism at the heart of Patanjali’s metaphysics,
confused because they had always been taught that yoga was about “union” and
non-duality by their teachers who were in fact teaching from a Vedantin
perspective. Many of the students doubted themselves and their understanding
because “this was Patanjali” and therefore he must be “right.” Georg said, “You
know, you can disagree with Patanjali. You can think he was wrong!” With this "lion’s roar," he was telling all of us not to take the teachings as ‘gospel,’
but to question and think for ourselves.</div>
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Personally, some of my fondest
memories of Georg will be both the late-night conversations we’d hold in the
vestibule of the training hall at Mt. Madonna, where the YREC training took
place during 2002/2003, and the early mornings when Georg would be at the front-center
of the room doing his Tibetan puja, Jagadish, another of the students was in
the back of the room doing his practice, and I (at the time deep into my Korean
Zen training) doing my practice at the front left corner of the room. I’d be
doing prostrations, or chanting with my moktok, Jagadish’s soft Sanskrit
chanting coming from the back of the room, and Georg’s Tibetan bells ringing
softly from the front-center of the room all blending in a sonic celebration of
dharma.</div>
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Actually, other fond memories
from that time include lying in shavasana, being guided by Georg’s stentorian,
German-inflected voice in Yoga Nidra. Or standing outside with the whole group
at sunrise, chanting the Gyatri Mantra. </div>
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It was during the training that I
wrote my book, and Georg was gracious enough to agree to read the manuscript. I
asked him that if he thought it good enough, would he be willing to write a
short forward. After reading it, he said he’d be delighted to write a forward,
and so I excitedly awaited what I thought at best would be a few paragraphs of
endorsement. Instead, what I got when I opened the email attachment he sent me,
was a four page essay that by the end of his second paragraph, when he referred
to me as his “Dharma brother,” had me in tears.</div>
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The YREC training continues to
reverberate not merely in my own life, but in the lives of all of us who were
fortunate to share in the experience. Through the training, I met some men and
women who have truly become family over the years since. Among them, several
men who continue to nourish my appreciation that manhood can mean so much more
than the hyper-masculinist pretensions of so many American men. These men, true
brothers in spirit, Ted Grand, Pierre Desjarins, and Patrick Creelman continue
to help shape contemporary yoga in ways influenced by Georg, each in his own
unique way. And as for sisters, there are too many to name! But each, touched
by Georg’s spirit, enthusiasm and integrity, continue to transmit that same
spirit, in their teaching and in the way they choose to live their lives.</div>
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So, as trite as it may sound,
another thing of which I’m certain, is that Georg’s work will continue to
inspire generations of practitioners to come. Of course, most of that influence
will come through his many amazing books, and the continued work of his wife,
Brenda, through <a href="http://www.traditionalyogastudies.com/">Traditional Yoga Studies</a>. But also, no doubt, his influence
will continue to flow through all those students whose lives he touched. <br />
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Oh, and back to the sangha I founded here in Tucson; after the publication of my book, I began to do a lot of air travel, teaching in various venues throughout the world. It got to the point where I was rarely home for two or three weeks at a time. When my wife and I were living in Eugene, Oregon for 18 months, I never met one person! Georg wrote me a deeply moving, thoughtful email, asking me how it was that so many yoga teachers justified taking a group of privileged Americans to places like Costa Rica for what amounts to "yoga vacations" and the enormous ecological impact of air travel. He asked in the spirit of genuine inquiry, and it made me do some serious thinking. He ended his email by suggesting we teachers might have a greater impact by planting some roots and creating "communities of mindfulness."<br />
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As a result of that email exchange, I cut my air travel by two-thirds, and started the Tucson Mindfulness Practice Community. Three years later, we have 40 people participating in a nine-month study of the Buddhist Precepts, and sharing their time, energy and financial resources with the greater Tucson community. The travel I continue to do is all more deep 'training' based, and Georg came to understand what I perceive as the necessity of face-to-face relationship for the kind of teaching I offer.</div>
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And so, whether or not there are
truly ‘afterlife’ states of existence from which one returns, as Georg
believed, I know without a doubt that there is ultimately no birth and no
death, and that Georg continues in all those who knew him, loved him, were
touched in any way by him. And from my perspective, that’s one rich endowment
indeed that he leaves behind. </div>
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In lieu of flowres and gifts, Georg had requested a scholarship fund be set up to enable incarcerated people the opportunity to participate in the Traditional Yoga Studies distance learning courses. More information about the fund will be posted at the <a href="http://www.traditionalyogastudies.com/">website</a>.</div>
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<!--EndFragment-->Poep Sa Frank Judehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13609272991412471770noreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5782640369398595619.post-59165286723841843052012-05-10T22:34:00.000-07:002012-05-10T22:34:17.978-07:00Whose Body?<br />
We are all familiar with the five senses of sight, hearing, smell, taste, and touch, but depending on how “sense” is defined, and what researcher you are speaking with, humans have at least four more, and as many as up to twenty-one senses. For instance, the common definition of a sense as “any system that consists of a group of sensory cell types that respond to a specific physical phenomenon and that corresponds to a particular group of regions within the brain where the signals are received and interpreted” would lead us to conclude that pressure, pain, temperature and itch are separate senses since they involve specific receptor cells, while others continue to think of these as sub-categories of touch.<br />
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Those of us who practice yoga are all familiar with the following two senses:<br />
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Proprioception: This sense gives you the ability to tell where your body parts are, relative to other body parts. The “close your eyes and touch your nose” test given to suspected drunk-drivers is testing this sense. This sense is used all the time in little ways, such as when you scratch an itch on your foot, but never once look at your foot to see where your hand is relative to your foot.<br />
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Equilibrioception: This is the sense that allows you to keep your balance and sense body movement in terms of acceleration and directional changes as well as for perceiving gravity. The sensory system for this is found in your inner ears and is called the vestibular labyrinthine system. Without it you wouldn’t be able to tell up from down and moving from one location to another without aid would be nearly impossible.<br />
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Another sense, interoception is <i>the awareness of the internal state of one’s body</i>. Interoception informs us of emotions, pain, thirst, hunger, and body temperature. And, just as some of us have more developed or less developed sense of hearing or smell, people vary on how well they receive cues as to these bodily states.<br />
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Many have argued that (photoshopped, airbrushed) images of unusually thin people have contributed to the overwhelming instances of negative body image among women – and now increasingly so among men. In June 2011, the American Medical Association (never accused of being a radically progressive organization) released a statement that urges advertisers to stop the use of digitally altered photos after researchers found links among exposure to mass media, negative body image, and disordered eating.<br />
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Almost half of adolescent girls report being dissatisfied with their appearance, and one out of 20 Americans suffers from a clinical body image disturbance where people are plagued with thoughts about minor or imaginary “flaws” in their appearance.<br />
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That said and understood, the question becomes why is it that with all of us exposed to images of so-called “perfect bodies,” we don’t all suffer serious body image issues? In fact, this is the question that critics have lobbed against those who argue against the negative impact of the media. It should come as no real surprise that myriad factors – including environmental and biological – must arise together to create pathology. One of the potentially biggest biological factors is a deficit in interoception. This finding points to possible ways to treat these ailments and in particular the potential of hatha-yoga – <i>when practiced as a mindfulness practice</i> – to foster a more speedy recovery.<br />
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Interoception – the awareness of our bodily state – arises when receptors throughout the body send signals to the insula, a small area of neural tissue nestled in a deep fold of the brain’s external layer near the ears. Combined with external information, the insula would be that part of the brain that connects the searing sensation experienced when touching a hot stove with the red welt on our hand. It is this integration that forms our body image.<br />
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The greater the influence from interoception over external, visual cues, the better a person’s body image. For instance, a yogini practicing with strong interoception might be focusing on the sound of her breath and the rising and falling of her abdomen with her breath that would cue her to adjust the intensity of her efforts. By paying attention to her body’s functioning and experience, she feels good about it no matter its proportions. A yogini with poorer interoception, however, might be thinking about what others in the class think of her postural performance or whether her butt looks too big in her new stretch yoga pants. Because of the weakness of internal cues to anchor her sense of self, if she is practicing in a mirrored room, she may focus on small visual details reflected in the mirror, potentially diminishing her body image.<br />
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Distorted body image, clinically known as “body dysmorphia,” ranges from the so-common-jokes-are-made-of-it worry about whether these jeans make one’s ass look fat to the delusional misperception of body size seen in anorexia nervosa. Interestingly, people can have the reverse misperception. A 2010 study at the University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center found that almost one in ten obese adults thought their weight was normal.<br />
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When tested, people with lower measures of interoception have increased levels of body dissatisfaction and more instances of disordered eating. Women suffering anorexia, scoring very low levels of interoception, also suffered more from depression and anxiety and significantly higher levels of body dissatisfaction. Studies have found that the insula of women suffering from anorexia tends to be unresponsive, measured by diminished blood flow shown in MRI scans.<br />
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Another fascinating finding is that when healthy women are shown photographs of themselves, there is a burst of activity in the insula, suggesting that the photo enhances a person’s experience of what it is like to be inside her own body, while no such activity results when a women with anorexia is shown photos of themselves. This suggests that women with anorexia lack the ability to link external cues about their appearance to internal knowledge of their body, which is likely to be quite low already. This helps explain how an emaciated women with anorexia can look at her reflection in a mirror and “see” herself as being fat.<br />
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What does this have to do with media? It turns out that deficiencies in interoception may make your body image more vulnerable to other, external visual influences! In one study, it was found that women with anorexia, having lower body awareness, are more easily fooled into <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TCQbygjG0RU">the rubber hand illusion</a>. The researcher on this study, Manos Tsakiris of Royal Holloway, University of London, thinks this implies that media images will have an exaggerated effect on those with little internal awareness. Additionally, those with poor awareness of their internal state also seem to be easily swayed by the opinions of others. Cultivating greater interoceptive awareness could not only improve body image, it seems, but it could strengthen a fragile sense of self and self-worth.<br />
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And, as it might have been expected, numerous studies have found that mindfulness-based cognitive-behavior therapy has attenuated symptoms of disordered eating and body dysmorphic disorder, leading to an enhanced quality of life. Other studies have investigated the practice of yogasana – various forms of hatha-yoga, including vinyasa-flow – and found that as long as practitioners are reminded to focus attention on their breath and the various bodily sensations produced by the practice (basically, <i>Mindfulness Yoga</i>), the practice of yogasana does indeed get people more in tune with their body and their experience of the body. I would suspect that those forms of yogasana practice where students are exhorted to “push” or “ignore the pain,” might actually feed into the pathology by diminishing self-awareness of bodily sensation.<br />
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One study, working with adolescent girls suffering disordered eating, found that they were so out of touch with their body that they had great difficulty balancing on one foot. Through mindfulness practice integrated into their asana practice, they were able to find their balance easily in only eight weeks, while showing great improvement in all areas of eating disorder psychopathology.<br />
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It is helpful to remember that in the buddhist tradition of practice, the first two of the four foundations of mindfulness are the body and feelings. When practicing with the body, the main focus is the breath, and once focus is developed, mindful attention is expanded to include the whole body, it’s posture and movements, while paying attention to how the breath affects the body and how the body affects the breath. The second foundation, <i>feelings</i>, refers <i>not</i> to the emotions, but rather to the actual sensations experienced in, on and throughout the body – as well as the tone whether pleasant, unpleasant or neutral.<br />
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As a new yoga teacher, back in the mid-90s, one of the first awakenings I had was regarding just how out of touch so many of us are with our body! With the advent of the internet, i-phones, i-pads and other technologies, I believe it’s only gotten worse! It now seems to me that many folk live from their eyebrows up! One of the most healing things we can do as yoga teachers and practitioners is to simply become more familiar with the felt experience of the body, and to help foster a safe, open and free space for our students to come home to their body, just as it is, here…now.<br />
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Further Reading:<br />
This blog piece is a distillation of the article:<br />
Inside the Wrong Body. C. Arnold in Scientific American Mind, Vol. 23, Number 2, May/June 2012<br />
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Just a Heartbeat Away from One’s Body: Interoceptive Sensitivity Predicts Malleability of Body-Representations. M. Tsakiris, A. Tajadura-Jimenez and M. Constantini in Proceedings of the Royal Society B, Vol. 278, pages 2470 – 2476; August 22, 2011<br />
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Functional Neuroimaging in Early-Onset Anorexia Nervosa. B. Lask et al. in International Journal of Eating Disorders, Vol. 37, S49 – S51; 2005. Discussion on pages S87 – S89.<br />
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<br /></div>Poep Sa Frank Judehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13609272991412471770noreply@blogger.com11