Buddhism Now
We have a choice, by Corrado Pensa
Calligraphy by Tangen Harada Roshi
As a result of impermanence our lives go from unpleasant situations to pleasant situations to neutral ones, on and on—sometimes on a small scale, sometimes in a dramatic way. The point is, we have a choice. Every difficult or unpleasant situation can be used as further training for our aversion, anger and hatred or as training in our dharma practise. Any pleasant situation can be used to further our training in attachment, fantasising and possessiveness or to kindle attention and exercise our capacity to open up and let go. Neutral situations can be used as further training for our boredom and confusion or as training for the practice, as another way of learning and relearning how to kindle the flame of attention. This means that within this painful situation, we have a choice which is very promising in terms of freedom.
The more we practise, the more we become aware of this choice. As a matter of fact, one of the first important fruits of the practice is to start remembering that there is such a possibility. I am not talking about applying it, I am talking just of remembering the possibility. For example, we may be in a situation where there is a fleeting moment of thinking to ourselves, ‘Halt! I could be mindful in this situation, couldn’t I?’ Then we proceed in total, unconditional forgetfulness. But we had that flash. And this is something new. This is something that did not happen before. It is like a new energy which stirs within us. It has taken us years of practice to get to this point; it literally might take years before we occasionally remember to practise in everyday life.
Trust in your awareness, by Ajahn Sumedho
Now, the word ‘ignorance’ as used in Pali means ‘not knowing the Four Noble Truths with their three aspects and twelve insights’ (that is the formula of the Four Noble Truths). And the path is in terms of being eightfold (the Eightfold Path). But the Eightfold Path is really just awareness. Awareness is the path, and the eight parts are more or less positions for reflection rather than actual steps on an actual path. It is not a matter of taking this whole conception of a path too literally, thinking that one step leads to the next ― first you do this and then you do that. Taken in personal terms, you might start wondering, ‘Do I have right view? Is my speech really right speech all the time?’ And then maybe thinking, ‘Oh, I’m not on the path! I said something the other day I shouldn’t have said.’ If you start thinking about yourself in that way, you just get confused. My advice is not to make a problem of yourself. Give up making a problem about yourself, or how good or bad you are, or what you should or shouldn’t be. Learn to trust in your awareness more, and affirm that; recognize it and consciously think, ‘This is the awareness ― listening ― relaxed attention.’ Then you will feel the connection. It is a natural state that sustains itself. It isn’t up to you to create it. It isn’t dependent on conditions to support it. It is here and now whatever is happening.
Every moment we recognize awareness ― and really trust and learn to appreciate it ― joy comes, compassion comes, and love. But it isn’t personal; it isn’t based on liking, preferences, or kammic attachments. The dhamma is not the destruction of conditioned phenomena, but the container of it. All possibilities of conditioned phenomena arise and cease in the dhamma; and there is nothing that can bind us once we see that, because the reality of the dhamma is seen rather than the forms that arise and cease. Mindfulness reflections are skilful means the Buddha developed for investigating experience, for breaking down the illusions we hold, for breaking through the ignorance we grasp at, for freeing ourselves from form, the limited and the unsatisfactory. Rather than teaching too many techniques now, or giving too much structure, I prefer to encourage people just to trust themselves with mindfulness and awareness. Often meditation is taught with this sense that one has to get something or get rid of something. But that only increases the existing idea of ‘I am somebody who has to become something that I am not, and has to get rid of my bad traits, my faults, my defilements.’ If we never see through that, it will be a hopeless task. The best we will ever do under those circumstances is maybe modify our habit-tendencies, make ourselves nicer people and be happier in the world ― and that isn’t to be despised, either ― but the point of the Buddha’s teaching is liberation.
Read more articles by Ajahn Sumedho
The first time I came to Korea in 1975, the first nun I talked to was Myoljin Sunim. Two years later we spent a memorable three-month retreat together. Fifteen years after that I was directed to a small temple in the outskirts of Seoul to meet a highly respected, veteran nun meditator, and there she was again — Myoljin Sunim! We were overjoyed at meeting once more after so long.
Martine Batchelor
Good will, loving-kindness, friendliness, a friendly feeling, metta. How do you practise metta? You start by trying to understand the value of your own life; you must see how much you love yourself. The dearest thing for every individual in the world is their own life. Therefore, first of all, feel the love for yourself. I do not mean carnal appetite when I use this word ‘love’; I mean good will and benevolence. You must hope for the welfare of your own life.
Jôkô Shibata lives alone in a suburb of Komoro, a town in northern Japan, known as the Japan Alps. He moved to Komoro over twenty-five years ago in order to be with his teacher, the late Yokoyama Sodô Roshi, otherwise known as ‘the grass flute Zen master’. Jôkô is of average height and build, wears horn rimmed glasses and samue (work clothes worn by Zen Buddhist monks). He welcomes me into his home with a reserve that drops away quickly as we get to know each other.
Tibetan “singing nun” arrives in exile after second period of imprisonment
Palden Choedron, one of a group of 14 courageous Tibetan women who became known as the “singing nuns” after they smuggled out a recording of patriotic and religious songs from their prison cells, has arrived in exile in Dharamsala, India. After her release from an eight-year sentence in Drapchi prison, Palden Choedron attempted to escape from Tibet but was caught and served three years in a “reform through labour” camp before her second, successful escape from Tibet and arrival in India on September 1.
Nirvana has become a mystery which no one pays any attention to, and the subject has become sterilised in the Buddhist scriptures, only to be mentioned at times without understanding. The truth is, however, that without nirvana, Buddhism cannot exist. If we are not interested in nirvana, then we are not interested in Buddhism. I believe that the time has come to pay attention to nirvana and to match the practice with the meaning of it as the supreme ennobling virtue, or the highest objective of living things.
Buddhism Now digital is a online Buddhist magazine, giving advice on how to practise Buddhism.
