Links and Resources

Some resources you might enjoy: James Baraz, who has taught with us at some IMCW retreats over the years, has an article in the Huffington Post reacting to the recent incident in Arizona.

Brainwave science continues to clarify what we can do with the a trained mind.  Now the toy companies are getting into it.  Here on Amazon you can buy something to teach you how to use the Force.

(Thanks, Nar.)

From the Seattle Times, on meditation as mind training.

(Thanks, Doug.)

From Newsweek on how you can build a better brain.

(Thanks, Mel.)

A Song for all Beings (video)

Back Online

Ah, impermanence.  We know everything changes, but when I clicked 'upgrade' on my wordpress administrative panel without backing up the files, little did I know that everything I'd put on this blog in the last two years would disappear.  My Web Savior was surfing in Hawaii for the week and on her return, after many hours of rebuilding, hacking, uploading and cajoling, we're back online. You'll notice the youtube links aren't functioning.  The widget for youtube didn't make the upgrade yet.  It will either magically appear one day or I'll go back through and redo the links.  In the meantime, if you're really curious about any of the videos, you can copy the information between the brackets and paste it in your browser.

If you've got a wordpress blog, I highly recommend you back things up regularly.  This whole event has helped inspire me to re-do all my back up systems.

The Passing of Time

I'm just back from a week in Maine with family.  My mother barely made it through yet another health crisis.  I wasn't sure she'd be alive when I got up there, but one morning she sat up, asked for some water, had a big lunch and is now stabilized, but pretty dramatically set back both cognitively and physically.  She's in hospice care, much to the relief of my father, brother and his family, who have struggled to support her. Everyone loses parents.  When I remember the teaching of Tonglen and remember "Other people feel this too," it has a way of relaxing my heart.

And as the saying goes, "Every front has a back."  Reconnecting with family has been wonderful.  There is a richness available in every moment as we each find our place of internal balance.

On my last visit before hopping a flight back, my mother looked at me and asked what I did for a living.  It was interesting to hear myself briefly introduce myself to her, to tell her I taught meditation and lived in Washington, DC.  She suddenly remembered I had a wife, asked about her, and then was gone.

It's like that, I guess.  We form a narrative, then the narrative fades and there is space again.

Living This Life Fully

Yoga and Buddhism have made their way around the planet, taking on the qualities and traits of each culture where they have landed.  Mirka Knaster has done an beautiful job of bringing the teachings of one of the most important guides in the west through her book, Living This Life Fully: Stories and Teachings of Munindra. Munindra greatly influenced the foremost Buddhist teachers in the west.

Living This Life Fully is organized into sixteen chapters, each one focusing on a quality essential for awakening. It is based on interviews with Munindra before his death in 2003, some of his early dharma talks, interviews with almost 200 people around the world who shared poignant and humorous remembrances, and other materials.

You can read excerpts here and read more about Mirka's work here.

Proceeds from the sale of the book will be donated to establish a scholarship fund at Barre Center for Buddhist Studies in memory of Munindra.

What Are You?

This last Saturday about 85 hardy souls gathered to inquire into the question, “What Am I?” This practice is not for the feint of heart.

It’s maddening.

But in a good way.

Inquiry is a technique for turning the mind to that which can only be experienced.

Ramana Maharshi, the great sage of inquiry, claimed constant inquiry into two questions can reveal one’s true nature.

Who am ?

What do I really want?

These are cathartic questions.  The mind grasps for linear, logical answers.  If you can stay in the process it can feel like you are unpeeling an onion.

The challenge is to keep going.  That’s where the brilliance of the dyad process comes in.  Your partner gives you the following instructions:

“Please tell me what you are.”

You then, with all sincerity, bring your attention to the question, sense what arises and try to get across to your partner as best as you can what you feel and notice.

Oftentimes your words can sound like utter nonsense, filled with circular, vague meanderings.  The point of focus is not getting the answer right, but in directing your attention to the point of inquiry with true sincerity.

Your partner is a mirror. They are not smiling or nodding or encouraging or frowning or looking away, but listening as best as they can with open, non-judgmental attention.

The mutual listening is what can deepen the inquiry and help to stay present through the inevitable confusion and frustration. Their effort and words can oftentimes contribute to your own exploration.  It helps you keep going.

There’s a phrase in yoga that says, “Where the attention goes, the energy flows.”

By focusing again and again on this question, we are training the mind to open it’s frame of reference.

Some have asked, “Why do we use ‘what’ am I rather than ‘who’ am I?”

Any question can be used, but I’ve found the inquiry “Who am ?” to imply there’s some personality in there I am trying to uncover.

“What am I?” has a way of more thoroughly deconstructing the false sense of self.

There is a story about the Buddha on this topic.  He was reportedly stopped on the road and someone demanded an answer.

“Is there or is there not a self?,” this person demanded.

The Buddha allegedly responded, “I will not say there is a self.  I will not say there is not a self.  I will say that I can’t find one.”

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Some comments from MrLovingKindness you might enjoy.

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Suggested Reading

There is a lot being published these days in the realm of mindfulness: Wired Magaine, on the brain and consciousness.

A DC Crime study and the reduction of violent crime in relationship to Transcendental Meditation.

The Wall Street Journal.  Thank you. No Thank You. Grateful people are happier ...

A very cool interactive graphic on where you are in the universe.

New York Times.  Avatars and Healing

(Thanks, everyone!)

The Coots are back for the winter.  They must have showed up yesterday afternoon.  They'll be here through Spring.

Two Coots.  Way cute.

A Heron hunting just below the dam.

Morning light bouncing off the river.  (Not retouched in any way, but taken with a 300mm lens.)