Buddhachannel : le portail du bouddhisme dans le monde

Taking a Zen Approach to Caregiving

Buddhachannel USA — 2013-05-17T14:46:56Z

New York, USA — You try to help your elderly father. Irritated and defensive, he snaps at you instead of going along with your suggestion. And you think “this is so unfair” and feel a rising tide of anger.

How to handle situations like this, which arise often and create so much angst for caregivers?

Jennifer Block finds the answer in what she calls “contemplative caregiving” — the application of Buddhist principles to caregiving and the subject of a year-long course that starts at the San Francisco Zen Center in a few weeks.

This approach aims to cultivate compassion, both for older people and the people they depend on, said Ms. Block, 49, a Buddhist chaplain and the course's lead instructor. She's also the former director of education at the Zen Hospice project in San Francisco and founder of the Beyond Measure School for Contemplative Care, which is helping develop a new, Zen-inspired senior living community in the area.

I caught up with Ms. Block recently, and what follows is an edited transcript of our conversation.

Q. Let's start with your experience. Have you been a caregiver?
A. My experience in caregiving is as a professional providing spiritual care to individuals and families when they are facing and coping with aging and sickness and loss and dying, particularly in hospital and hospice settings.

Q. What kinds of challenges have you witnessed?
A. People are for the most part unprepared for caregiving. They're either untrained or unable to trust their own instincts. They lack confidence as well as knowledge. By confidence, I mean understanding and accepting that we don't know all the answers – what to do, how to fix things.

This past weekend, I was on the phone with a woman who'd brought her mom to live near her in assisted living. The mom had been to the hospital the day before. My conversation with the daughter was about helping her see the truth that her mother needed more care and that was going to change the daughter's responsibilities and her life. And also, her mother was frail, elderly, and coming nearer to death.

Q. That's hard, isn't it?
A. Yes, because we live in a death-denying society. Also, we live in a fast-paced, demanding world that says don't sit still — do something. But people receiving care often need most of all for us to spend time with them. When we do that, their mortality and our grief and our helplessness becomes closer to us and more apparent.

Q. How can contemplative caregiving help?
A. We teach people to cultivate a relationship with aging, sickness and dying. To turn toward it rather than turning away, and to pay close attention. Most people don't want to do this.

A person needs training to face what is difficult in oneself and in others. There are spiritual muscles we need to develop, just like we develop physical muscles in a gym. Also, the mind needs to be trained to be responsive instead of reactive.

Q.What does that mean?
A. Here's an example. Let's say you're trying to help your mother, and she says something off-putting to you like “you've always been terrible at keeping house. It's no wonder you lost my pajamas.”

The first thing is to notice your experience. To become aware of that feeling, almost like being slapped emotionally. To notice your chest tightening.

Then I tell people to take a deep breath. And say something to themselves like “soften” to address that tightness. That's how you can stay facing something uncomfortable rather than turning away.

If I were in this position, I might say something to myself like “hello unhappiness” or “hello suffering” or “hello aging” to tether myself.

The second step would be curiosity about that experience. Like, wow, where do I feel that anger that rose up in me, or that fear? Oh, it's in my chest. I'm going to feel that, stay with it, investigate it.

Q. Why is that important?
A. Because as we investigate something we come to understand it. And, paradoxically, when we pay attention to pain it changes. It softens. It moves. It lessens. It deepens. And we get to know it and learn not to be afraid of it or change it or fix it but just come alongside of it.

Over hours, days, months, years, the mind and heart come to know pain. And the response to pain is compassion — the wish for the alleviation of pain.

Let's go back to what mother said about your housekeeping and the pajamas. Maybe you leave the room for five minutes so you can pay attention to your reaction and remember your training. Then, you can go back in and have a response rather than a reaction. Maybe something like “Mom, I think you're right. I may not be the world's best housekeeper. I'm sorry I lost your pajamas. It seems like you're having a pretty strong response to that, and I'd like to know why it matters so much to you. What's happening with you today?”

Q.Are other skills important?
A. Another skill is to become aware of how much we receive as well as give in caregiving. Caregiving can be really gratifying. It's an expression of our values and identity: the way we want the world to be. So, I try to teach people how this role benefits them. Such as learning what it's like to be old. Or having a close, intimate relationship with an older parent for the first time in decades. It isn't necessarily pleasant or easy. But the alternative is missing someone's final chapter, and that can be a real loss.

Q.What will you do in your course?
A.We'll teach the principles of contemplative care and discuss them. We'll have homework, such as ‘Bring me three examples of someone you were caring for who was caring toward you in return.' That's one way of practicing attention. And people will train in meditation.

We'll also explore our own relationship to aging, sickness, dying and loss. We'll tell our stories: this is the situation I was in, this is where I felt myself shut down, this was the edge of my comfort or knowledge. And we'll teach principles from Buddhism. Equanimity. Compassion. Deep inner connectedness.

Q.What can people do on their own?
A. Mindfulness training is offered in almost every city. That's one of the core components of this approach.

I think every caregiver needs to have their own caregiver — a therapist or a colleague or a friend, someone who is there for them and with whom they can unburden themselves. I think of caregiving as drawing water from a well. We need to make sure that we have whatever nurtures us, whatever supplies that well. And often, that's connecting with others.

Q.Are other groups doing this kind of work?
A. In New York City, the New York Zen Center for Contemplative Care educates the public and professionals about contemplative care. And in New Mexico, the Upaya Zen Center does similar work, much of it centered around death and dying.

People who want to read about this might want to look at a new book of essays, “The Arts of Contemplative Care: Pioneering Voices in Buddhist Chaplaincy and Pastoral Work” (Wisdom Publications, 2012).

Source : www.buddhistchannel.tv

Students search for emotional benefits in Buddhist studies

Buddhachannel Eng. — 2013-05-17T14:40:49Z

Hong Kong, China — It is a known fact that teaching and research constitute the prime tasks of a university. Teaching is, of course, the dissemination of knowledge. Research, on the other hand, is the creation of new knowledge.


Professor Lee Chack-fan

But does knowledge make one wiser or happier? The answer is yes, most of the time, but not always.

It is not difficult to find people with ample knowledge, professional or otherwise, who are often unhappy. This feeling of unhappiness may come from pressure in life, or from the mismatch between expectations and results. Most of us feel happy some of the time, but this is not always sustainable.

Universities are beefing up their humanities programmes, under the name of general or liberal education, in order to broaden the horizons and enhance the emotional intelligence quotient (EQ) of our students. It is hoped that a higher EQ would help them deal with life's pressures, and hence to lead a happier life.

Some people turn to courses on Buddhism to help them to fulfil the same goal. They are generally more interested in the philosophical, rather than the religious, aspects of Buddhism. In other words, they are trying to seek wisdom, rather than just knowledge.

A little over a decade ago, the University of Hong Kong established a Centre of Buddhist Studies and launched a Master of Buddhist Studies programme.

The programme proved popular and has always been oversubscribed. Its alumni include many of the city's high achievers, including senior civil servants, barristers, doctors and business leaders. It also attracted numerous overseas applicants.

The surge in interest in Buddhist studies is, of course, not confined to Hong Kong.

I attended an inaugural reception at Stanford University in the United States last month for the establishment of an endowed chair professorship in Chinese Buddhism.

Paul Harrison, head of the university's Centre of Buddhist Studies, said student interest in Buddhist studies had never been keener. Not that they all want to become monks or nuns, but they are really interested in enhancing their EQ in a highly competitive world.

The same is true at other top international universities such as Harvard, Yale, Princeton, Oxford and Cambridge.

In this connection, one can also see a rising interest in applied Buddhism as compared to purely theoretical studies. For example, at HKU, research studies (including doctoral research) entail such topics of applied Buddhist studies as the impact of meditation on neuroscience, obstetrics, treatment of drug addicts and mental patients, counselling and mediation. Such topics foster collaboration among various faculties and academic units.

Hong Kong has always been a place where East meets West. Today, it is also a meeting point of the three main schools of Buddhism - Theravada, Chinese and Tibetan. Our city has also set a pretty good example for promoting interfaith dialogues and peaceful co-existence among Christianity, Islam, Confucianism, Taoism and Buddhism for many years.

Professor Lee Chack-fan is director of the University of Hong Kong's school of professional and continuing education

By Lee Chack-fan, Sout6h China Morning Post
Source : www.buddhistchannel.tv

Durham Buddhist center teaches learning to let go

Buddhachannel USA — 2013-05-16T10:13:06Z

Durham, NC (USA) — In the Durham Shambhala Center, a dozen men and women sit in silence, with arms and legs balanced and in comfortable positions.


From left, David Uglow, Joy Mickle (foreground), Lindy Chicola, Wendy Farrell and Geoff Sutton meditate together at Durham Shambhala Center on Sunday (April 28). The center is eyeing expansion to accommodate the growing number of participants in recent years. Courtesy of Monica Chen

A member of the center hits a brass bowl, and an hour-long meditation exercise begins. The object of the exercise is to “touch” each thought that comes to one's mind but not to dwell on it, to focus on breathing and just let go.

Every week, members of the center gather to meditate together inside a white house adorned with Buddhist flags in the front near the Old West Durham neighborhood. They also drink tea, socialize, read passages from Buddhist books and share the recent events of their lives – some joyful, some traumatic and sorrowful.

The atmosphere was calm and peaceful on a recent Thursday, and long-time members were ready with smiles for first-timers.

Laura Silvestri, a pianist, began coming to the center seven years ago. She was raised Catholic, and had been a Unitarian Universalist before finally, during her mid-40s, realizing she needed new spiritual tools.

“Meditation is about not shutting down to fear. It's about staying open to the connectivity of life. It has given me tools to deal with adversity,” Silvestri said.

Tom Edds, a software engineer, said meditation has led him to being more mindful with food.

“It creates more spaces in my mind as I make choices. Some patterns I have that are automatic don't have the same grip on me,” he said.

As older generations are aging into mid-life crises and struggling with the loss of family members, and young people are trying to find paths through a prolonged recession, the center is drawing new members with an interest in Buddhism. Many are looking for ways to take the stress out of their lives.

At the Durham center, Silvestri said participation gathered momentum about a year and a half ago. There are currently about 60 members, and the center is talking with investors to raise money for an 800-square-foot addition.

Shambhala was founded in the 1970s in the U.S. by Chögyam Trungpa, a key teacher in the Tibetan Buddhist tradition who had fled Tibet when the Chinese Communist Party took over in 1959. There are now 170 Shambhala centers and groups around the world, according to the Shambhala website.

Shambhala Buddhism, which believes that all people are good, warm and intelligent, teaches meditation as the primary tool for shedding the egotism and fear that come with secular life in order to access this core self.

In Durham, free instruction is provided to first-timers at Thursday open house nights.

Phillip Hartzog, a long-time instructor at the center, gave first-timers a quick lesson.

You begin by sitting on a cushion and sitting with your back straight, in a balanced position. You keep your eyes open to stay engaged with the world, but don't focus on anything in particular. As you meditate, breathing in and breathing out, you become familiar with your thought processes.

No matter how traumatic or how wonderful the thought, don't follow it.

“Our goal is to be present, not to live in our heads,” Hartzog said.

“It's the practice of learning to not let your thoughts take you away,” he said. “For many of us, our thoughts are like that first bus you see when you get out of the airport. It's like we don't care where the bus is going, we just get on. It doesn't have to be like that.”

By Monica Chen, The Durham News
Source : www.buddhistchannel.tv

Gautama Buddha the Unique Psychotherapist

Buddhachannel Canada En. — 2013-05-14T11:16:21Z

Ontario, Canada — Many people interpreting Buddhism see it as one of the numerous philosophies and religions known from antiquity. Certainly Buddhism is a practical philosophy in the sense that prevails today.

This philosophy sets up a system of vast psychotherapy. In that context the Lord Buddha was a unique psychotherapist. In general Psychotherapy means a treatment of emotional, behavioral, personality disorders based primarily upon verbal or nonverbal communication. The Buddha who was an inimitable healer helped a large number of people to overcome stress, emotional problems, and relationship problems through friendly mediation.
Dr Sigmund Freud introduced the Psychoanalytic therapy. Psychoanalytic treatment involves discussing past experiences and how these may have led to present situation and also how these past experiences may be affecting the life now. The understanding gained frees the person to make choices about what happens in the future. Psychoanalysis attempts to get to the root of the problem" by analyzing the transference relationship which develops between the therapist and patient.

Buddha did a complete form of analysis and found the route cause of affliction, then successfully treated the particular psychological ailment and brought complete mental release to the person. In this analysis he went up to past lives. Past life therapy also known as regression or resolution therapy allows individuals to complete traumatic and emotionally stimulated past experiences which on an unconscious level are unresolved.

Today PLT or Past Life Therapy is popular in the Western world and it allows the client to resolve past issues in a therapeutic setting using clinical methods. The most famous Western past life therapist was Edgar Cayce who gave over 14,000 "readings" during a period of 43 years. Edgar Cayce demonstrated the uncanny ability to put himself into some kind of self-induced sleep and he could respond to questions asked by his patients about their illnesses.

Cognitive Therapy based on gaining insight into unconscious emotions and drives mainly focusing on thoughts, assumptions and beliefs. Albert Ellis's Rational Emotive Therapy is an example of Cognitive therapy. Ellis considers strong emotions to result from an interaction between events in the environment and beliefs and expectations.

Buddhist point of view, suffering is not caused by external, traumatic events, but by qualities of mind which shape our perceptions and responses to events. These same words were repeated by the Psychologist Albert Ellis in 1953 when he introduced his action oriented therapeutic approach – Rational Emotive Therapy. According to Ellis not the event that causes psychological distress but the belief held by the client. He further argues that one's emotional distress is actually caused by one's catastrophic thinking in appraising stressful events. Ellis theories that unrealistic appraisals of stress are derived from irrational assumptions.

Psychiatrist Aaron T Beck - the developer of CBT or Cognitive Behavior Therapy emphasized the role of cognitive distortions in depression and anxiety. Cognitive Behavior Therapy (CBT) is one of the major orientations of psychotherapy and represents a unique category of psychological intervention because it derives from cognitive and behavioral psychological models of human behavior.

Lord Buddha used numerous kinds of cognitive therapies. In the story of Kisagotami Buddha used a cognitive mode of action to give insight to a young mother who lost her little son. She was devastated with grief. She went to Buddha Carrying the dead body of her son and asked for medicine that would restore her dead son to life. The Buddha told her to get some mustard seeds from a house where there had been no death. Kisagotami went from house to house but she could not find a single house where death had not occurred. She gradually got the insight and the meaning of death. She realized death is a universal phenomenon.

Buddha often used Socratic Method to teach his doctrine. Socrates (470 399 BC) was a Greek philosopher who engaged in questioning of his students in an unending search for truth. He sought to get to the foundations of his students' and colleagues' views by asking continual questions until a contradiction was exposed, thus proving the fallacy of the initial assumption. This became known as the Socratic Method.

When the assassin Angulimala screamed at the Buddha to stop the Buddha turned and told Angulimala that he, the Buddha, had already stopped and Angulimala, to do likewise. These few words made a cognitive revolution inside Angulimala's head. He realized that the Buddha has already stopped means he does not commit any violence so now the time for Angulimala to renounce violence. He threw away his sword and became a monk.

Patachara a young woman developed an acute stress reaction when she witnessed the death of her husband two children and the parents. She came to Buddha weeping and with utter confusion. After she became rational Buddha explained her true meaning of suffering and the nature of impermanence. The story of Patachara reveals an excellent case study of trauma counseling. Trauma counseling should offer practical help that works and should teach skills to manage flashbacks, painful memories and anxiety. Buddha used practically most of the above mentioned avenues to resolve the grief reaction of Patachara.

There are obvious similarities between the Buddha's empathically based attitude and Carl Roger's term empathy. Carl Rogers plays an important historical role in the development of Client Centered Therapy and he was one of the founders of the humanistic psychology movement. Like Carl Rogers Buddha accepted people with unconditional positive regard. Psychologists claim that living an authentic life is impossible without developing empathy. Empathy is a fundamental ability for being able to develop relationships with other people, and thus develop one's personality.

Buddha believed in human freedom. Rogers felt that it was irrelevant whether or not people really had free will. He further says we feel free when choices are available to us. Rogers pointed out that the fully-functioning person acknowledges that feeling of freedom, and takes responsibility for his choices. Buddha doesn't reject the human freedom with complete responsibility for one's action.

Robert Carkhuff -one of the pioneers in Client Centered Therapy studied and worked with Carl Rogers. He published his outstanding book Towards Effective Counseling and Psychotherapy in 1967. Robert Carkhuff introduced seven co conditions such as empathy, respect, concreteness, genuineness, self disclosure, confrontation and immediacy. In psychotherapy immediacy is a vital issue. The story of Rajjumala –a domestic servant who tried to commit suicide following the harassments caused by her mistress was saved by the Buddha. This is a fabulous example of suicide prevention counseling and Robert Carkhuff's seventh co condition "immediacy".

In the Buddha's teaching meditation has a special place. Meditation can be used for personal growth. Buddhist meditation is a process of mental clarification and geared to direct perception. The purpose of Buddhist meditation, therefore is to gain intellectual understanding of the universal truth. Buddhist Vipassana meditation gives realization of impermanence, suffering and non-self. The Mettha (loving-kindness) meditation helps to reduce anger and a perfect way to control aggressive feelings. Generally meditation helps to reduce stress and anxiety. Today many psychotherapeutic centers in the East and the West use meditation as a successful therapeutic mode.

Existential Psychotherapy is a form of psychotherapy which aims at enhancing self knowledge. In Buddha's teaching existentialism is widely described. Buddhism brings up questions about ethics and the nature of our existence. The goals of existential therapy are to enable people to become more truthful with themselves, to widen their perspective on themselves and the world around them , to find clarity on how to proceed in the future while taking lessons from the past and creating something valuable to live for in the present. Also it helps to explore the client's physical, social, psychological and spiritual dimensions.

The story of Mattakundali – a young boy who was terminally ill and suffered without any medical assistance due to his father's greediness died prematurely. After Mattakundali's death his father became extremely sad and used to go to the cemetery everyday and mourn. The meaning of death is revealed in Mattakundali Jathaka in an existential form. Finally Mattakundali's father's grief was resolved. This story can be interpreted as a good example of grief counseling.

Buddha was a unique psychotherapist. His therapeutic methods helped millions of people throughout the centuries. Today the Western world has realized the psychological essence of Buddhism. Many Psychotherapeutic systems in the West derived from Buddha's teaching. Buddha showed empathy and non judgmental acceptance to everyone who came to him. He helped people to gain insight and helped in growth promotion while eliminating troubling and painful emotions. His therapeutic methods are exceptional and can be applied for all time.

By Dr Ruwan M Jayatunge M.D., Sri Lanka Guardian
Source: www.buddhistchannel.tv

Life of Zen: Shaolin Buddhist monk passes down ancient teachings

Buddhachannel Eng. — 2013-05-13T14:41:31Z

Torrance, CA (USA) — Sitting with square shoulders inside the cozy tea garden in his Rolling Hills Estates martial arts studio, Shifu Wang Bo pauses to pour jasmine green tea into two cups, about two inches in diameter.


Shifu Wang Bo, 24, practices Shaolin-style Kung Fu at his martial arts studio. Photos by Esther Kang

“If you see here,” explains the 24-year-old Shaolin Buddhist monk, dressed in a grayish-blue monastic robe, “this first cup of tea that I drink, I only have that cup of tea one time in my life, in that moment.”

This, he says, is called impermanence, or wuchang in Mandarin - one of the three marks of existence in Buddhism.

“Everything we do every day is changing and passing, getting old,” Wang explains.

By taking life moment by moment, he is able to relish each experience - old or new - with the same unfailing sense of novelty. And to fully realize and learn this concept of impermanence, one needs to master the art of discipline, a principle he became familiar with at the early age of three.

Nearly two years ago, Wang, whose students call shifu or master, opened something of an embassy to China's monumental Shaolin Monastery here in the South Bay. Tucked between an animal clinic and a small Japanese steakhouse, Wang's Shaolin Temple is currently home to more than 90 martial arts students, ranging in age from 4 to 78, learning traditional Shaolin-style Kung Fu, Tai Chi and Zen meditation.

Born in a rural village in Shandong Province, China, he recalls his earliest memory, at age 3: practicing Kung Fu with his older brother Wang Hui and his father, who was his first teacher. For five hours a day before and after school, young Wang trained with dedication.

“In the winter it'd be very cold, but we still trained outside,” Wang remembers. “Sometimes my father cried because he didn't want to train us that hard.”

When Wang turned 8, his father sent him and his brother to the Shaolin village on Mount Song in central Henan Province, a six-hour car ride from home. The Shaolin village is home to many martial arts schools. At the heart sits the historic Shaolin Temple, a world-famous Buddhist martial arts monastery built in 495 A.D.

Wang and his brother continued to train, and about a year and a half later, they were accepted into the Shaolin Temple. Wang was handpicked as a disciple by Shifu Shi Yongxin, who now is the abbot, or head, of the Shaolin Temple.

“You have to have certain skills and you have to pass certain tests,” Wang says, describing the extremely selective nature of the temple, “and most importantly, you have to have a special connection with Buddha.”

Thereafter began his 11-year residency in the monastery. “Life at the Shaolin Temple is very different from where we are today,” he begins, letting out his signature, close-lipped chuckle. “No matter what happens, what day, there is no special day because today is the most important day. Whatever's the past is the past.”

For 11 years, he followed the same daily routine with several hundred other monks at the temple: wake up at 5:30 a.m., attend chanting for two hours, eat breakfast at 7:30 a.m., study break for 20 minutes, followed by a two-hour Kung Fu training session. Post lunch at 11 a.m. came an hour-long break, followed by a study session of the Diamond Sutra and another two-hour Kung Fu training session. Then after dinner at 5:30 p.m., Heart Sutra chanting for an hour, meditation and bedtime at 10 p.m.

“Discipline first,” he says, “then learn Buddhism. Then you understand what life is. Then you understand what impermanence is. If a person doesn't have discipline they cannot do anything.”

Those five to six hours of daily Kung Fu training turned into 10 or more hours when Wang began training for competitions. Wang, who holds several first place and world champion titles, unexpectedly becomes sullen in tone when this topic comes up.

“I've been to many competitions. I won many times and lost many times,” he says matter-of-factly. He explains that competition was just a part of his experience in Kung Fu, a mere activity and nothing more. “It was not something that encouraged my life. Being in competition gave me a lot of ego at the time. I was not happy and was struggling.”

What did enrich his life was partaking in the world tour of “The Wheel of Life,” a series of Kung Fu, drama and Tai Chi performed by the Shaolin monks. For three years, Wang performed throughout Europe, Australia, Canada and the United States.

Serving as a spiritual ambassador for both China and the Shaolin Temple, Wang has met his share of prominent political figures, including Queen Elizabeth, for whom he performed in 2011, and Russian President Vladimir Putin, with whom he shared lunch in 2007.

“It's not really political - it's a cultural exchange,” Wang explains. “Culture has no boundaries, especially if it's something positive. No one will refuse love. You bring something positive; whether they take it or not, that's their choice.”

It's the same reason why he is here today. In 2008, Wang moved to Huntington Beach, where some friends lived, and began teaching classes in community centers, parks and schools. A dedicated following emerged, which prompted Wang to open his Shaolin Temple in the summer of 2011. In addition to teaching five hour-long classes a day, Wang trains his three instructors and manages the studio as its sole owner.

Damon Webber, a longtime Kung Fu practitioner who teaches beginning Tai Chi classes, explains that Wang's wealth of knowledge and wisdom, in addition to his jaw-dropping prowess in Kung Fu, makes him invaluable. “He's what we've been waiting for, in a sense,” he says, “for a teacher to come down from Shaolin.”

Wang has yet to visit the temple grounds back in China since opening his studio. He adds with a chuckle that he'll return as soon as he's not too busy.

“The temple is a place of purity, a pure land,” Wang explains. “What we learn in the temple is the heart. You move the heart to another place. You come to a busy place and still keep a peaceful heart. That's what Buddhism is. You learn, then you pass that knowledge to more people.”

By Esther Kang, Easy Reader News
Source : http://buddhistchannel.tv

May 31 - June 8 : Vipassana Insight (In the classical format of the Burmese Mahasi lineage)

Buddhachannel Eng. — 2013-05-13T13:03:34Z

Date: Friday, May 31, 2013 - Saturday, June 8, 2013

Vipassana is the goal of the Satipatthãna method of mental cultivation. Vipassana means to achieve spontaneous insight into the truth of impermanence, suffering, and the insubstantial nature of all corporeal and mental phenomena. This is done by developing mindfulness (continuity of observation) and awareness (penetrating into the meaning of what is observed). The true nature of being is thus revealed which produces purification, liberation, and inner freedom, which is the platform for transcendence. Daily meditations during the retreat will follow the traditional Mahasi pattern of alternating every hour between walking meditations and sitting meditations. As part of the Mahasi format, everyone in the retreat will have a formal 3-minute meditation interview every day with Lama Lodro.

Daily Schedule for Vipassana Insight Retreat (Except Wednesdays)

1st Friday
Please arrive between 3 and 8pm.
6:30pm Light supper
9:30pm: Retreat starts with Lama Lodro's Introduction/Orientation

Saturday, Sunday, Monday, Thursday, Friday, 2nd Saturday
9-10am: Breakfast (group prep and cleanup)
10-11am: Walking Meditation
11am-12pm: Sitting Meditation
12-2pm: Lunch (group prep and cleanup), free-time
2-3pm: Walking Meditation
3-4pm: Sitting Meditation
4-5pm: Walking Meditation
5-6pm: Sitting Meditation
6-8pm: Dinner (group prep meal and cleanup)
8:00-8:30pm: Meditation Interviews
8:30pm-9am: Personal time

Course Fees and Registration Information

By donation to the Dharma Centre.

For more information : www.dharmacentre.org

Buddha's words of Wisdom (one)

Buddhachannel Eng. — 2013-05-13T12:55:02Z

Who is one's own best friend, and who is own's own worst enemy? Those whose thoughts, speech and actions are evil. they are their own worst enemy, Even if they were to say:'We don't care about ourselves,' nevertheless they would be their own best friend. And why? Because that which one would do to a friend, they do to themselves.

Greed, hatred and delusion are unskillful. Whatever the greedy, hating or deluded person does with body, speech or mind- that is unskillful, also. Whatever one overwhelmed by greed, hatred or delusion, with mind uncontrolled, does to another, unjustly causing him suffering through punishment, imprisonment, fine, abuse, banishment, or on the grounds that 'might is right'-all that is unskillful, too.

Four things lead to worldly progress: achievement in alertness, in caution , in good friendship and achievement in balanced livelihood. And what is achievement in alertness? Concerning this, in whatever way one earns a living, whether by farming, trading cattle rearing, archery, service to the kind or by some craft, in that one becomes deft and tireless, gifted with an inquiring turn of mind into ways and means, and able to arrange and carry out the job.

And what is achievement in caution? Concerning this, whatever one earns by work and effort, collected bu strength of arm and sweat of brow in a just and lawful manner, one husbands, watched and guards so that kings do not seize it, thieves don not steal it, fire or water do not destroy it, and unwanted heirs do not remove it.

And what is good friendship? Concerning this, in whatever village or town one lives, one associates with, converses with, discusses things with people either young or old, who are cultured, full of faith, full of virtue, full of charity adn full of wisdom. One acts in accordance with the faith of the faithful, the virtue of the virtuous, the charity of ht charitable and the wisdom of the wise.

And what is balanced livelihood? Concerning this, one knows both his income and expenditure and lives neither extravagantly nor miserly, knowing that income after expenditure will stand at so much and that expenses will not exceed income. Just as a goldsmith or his apprentice knows, on holding the scales, that so much have dipped down and so much has titted up, one knows income and expenditure, If one with small income were to lead an extravagant life there would be those who would say: ' He will die like a beggar.' There are four channels through which the wealth one has collected is lost: debauchery, drunkenness, gambling and friendship with evil doers. Imagine there were a great tank of water with four inlets and outlets, and a man were to close the inlets but keep the outlets open. If there were no rain we could expect the water to decrease.In the same way, these are the four channels through which wealth is lost. There are these four channels through which the wealth one has collected is preserved" avoidance of debauchery, drunkenness, gamblig and friendship with four inlets and outlets and a man were to keep the inlets open and close the outlets. If he did this and there were good rainfall we could expect the water to increase. In the same way, there are these four channels through which wealth is preserved.

The whole text is originated from the Buddha's Words of Wisdom.

Meditating on Emptiness — teaching by Lama Zopa Rinpoche

Buddhachannel Belgique — 2013-05-13T12:52:25Z

Once again, bring your attention away from hallucination to the realities of life, the nature of which is impermanence and death. This frees our mind from delusion and karma so that we can not only bring to an end the entire round of suffering, the cycle of death and rebirth, but also eradicate even the subtle errors of mind, thereby attaining enlightenment for the sake of all sentient beings.

All causative phenomena — our life, our body, our mind, our self, our possessions, our relatives and friends, all other people — are changing, not only day by day, minute by minute and second by second, but every tiny moment. They do not last for a fraction of a second. Because they are under the control of causes and conditions, they are in a state of constant decay and can cease at any time.

This is the nature of our life. If we can remain aware of this, we will prevent our mind from coming under the control of the delusions — the disturbing emotional minds that hurt us and other sentient beings, prevent us from transforming our mind and gaining realizations of the path to enlightenment, and stop us from seeing the ultimate nature of all phenomena. First we stop delusions from manifesting, and then, by actualizing the remedial path, we eradicate even the imprints that they have left on our mental continuum.

By destroying the seeds of delusion, we attain nirvana, ultimate liberation from the six realms of suffering and its cause, freedom from the circling aggregates, which are samsara itself. These are the benefits of mindfulness of impermanence. We free ourselves of disturbing thoughts, immediately experience peace and satisfaction, free ourselves from samsara, and eventually attain enlightenment and enlighten all sentient beings. Contemplate all this.

Now meditate on emptiness, the actual nature of all phenomena. Think how your I, actions, objects, and in fact all phenomena — everything that is called "such and such" and "this and that" — are just names. Names have to come from the mind; they don't exist from their own side. Names are labels applied by the mind. However, it is not just that phenomena are labelled by the mind — they are merely labelled by the mind. In other words, all phenomena — I, action, object, everything — are merely labelled by the mind, in relation to their base. Think about this.

How things exist

Now I'm going to elaborate a little on the subject of emptiness. The way in which everything exists is by being merely labelled by the mind. But that does not mean that everything the mind labels actually exists. Even though everything exists by being merely labelled by the mind, that doesn't mean that if your mind labels something it automatically brings it into existence.

For example, say I cut up a huge pile of newspapers into little pieces and my mind labels each one "a billion dollars" — that doesn't make each piece of paper worth a billion dollars. Even though my mind has merely labelled those pieces of paper "a billion dollars," that doesn't mean each one has become a billion dollars. If it were possible for that to happen, we wouldn't have to vote in presidential elections. We wouldn't have to put all that effort into raising funds, campaigning, spending all that money, holding inquiries, to elect the president. All you'd have to do would be to label yourself, "I'm the American president," and you'd become president.

If things coming into existence were only up to the mind labelling them, if that's all it took, then that's what would happen. Whenever you wanted to be president, all you'd have to do would be to have your mind label yourself president and you'd be president. In that way, everybody could become president. Maybe there'd be nobody left who wasn't president. A magician could hypnotize you into believing that he'd given you a bag full of money, and you might carry it home, believing you were rich, but later, when you opened it up, there'd be nothing there but cut up pieces of newspaper. That's one way of showing that it doesn't exist — for your own mind to discover that it's not true.

Later, when you're not under the influence of hypnosis, you realize that it was an illusion, that the money you saw didn't exist. Everything was there for your mind — the appearance of money and your mind labelling it money — but it wasn't money. Another way of showing that it does not exist is for other people not to see the money. Because of the illusion created by hypnosis, money appears to your mind, but other people, whose minds are not under the illusion, don't see it. Therefore, it takes more than appearance and labelling by mind for something to exist.

Dreams are another example of something where your own mind can discover that appearance and labelling by mind are insufficient to bring something into existence. For instance, one night you might have a dream in which you became king, got married in a huge wedding ceremony, lived in a luxurious jewelled palace and had many children. While you are dreaming, the appearance of all this and your mind merely labelling it are both there, but when you wake up you again realize it wasn't true. You're not king, there's no palace, no wealth, no princes and princesses — nothing. You don't have any of that.

A valid base

For things to exist, mere labelling by mind is not enough. There has to be a valid base. Not just any base — a valid base. Therefore, I cannot label my bell "car." This object can receive the label "bell," but not "car" or "airplane." It receives the label "bell' by virtue of the way the valid base functions. Mere labelling by mind is not enough — there has to be a valid base. In the case of a bell, the base has to have a certain shape and perform the function of ringing. This is what validates it.

Furthermore, the valid base that is merely labelled "bell" by the mind should not be harmed by another's valid mind. What's a valid mind? A mind that perceives things correctly, that is not under the influence of disease, drugs, mantras or hypnotic spells, which might cause it to see sense objects in an illusory way. Next, the object we claim to exist should not be harmed by a fully enlightened being's mind. A buddha's mind is completely unmistaken, completely purified, free from hallucination.

All existent phenomena are the object of the omniscient mind; it sees whatever exists. If the omniscient mind does not see the bell, the bell does not exist. Finally, for the bell that is merely labelled by the mind to exist, it should not receive harm from the wisdom realizing emptiness, ultimate nature. If the bell, which is merely imputed by the mind, is harmed by the wisdom realizing emptiness, it does not exist. Thus, there are three kinds of mind that can harm, or invalidate, the existence of what appears to be, for example, a bell: another person's valid conventional mind; an omniscient mind; and the wisdom realizing emptiness.

Now, regarding this valid base, this phenomenon that has the function of ringing and possesses this particular shape, our mind creates the label, "bell." This, then, is the real bell, the bell that we use, the one that is merely imputed by our mind, the valid base that is labelled "bell" by our mind.

The worst ignorance

So what is the bell that does not exist? When our mind perceives the bell, it does not see a bell that is merely labelled by the mind. It sees something slightly beyond that, ever so slightly more than that. It sees something as existing from the side of the bell, something existing from its own side, from the side of the object. If you concentrate, if you analyze carefully how the bell exists, that it is merely labelled by the mind, you can see that there's nothing coming from the side of the bell.

When you look deeply into the meaning of "merely labelled by the mind," you can see that nothing exists from the side of the object. When you concentrate on this, you can see how its existence comes only from your mind. But the way the bell appears to us, the way we believe it exists, is slightly beyond its reality, slightly more than its actual mode of existence, which is being merely labelled by the mind. That's where the hallucination begins. Starting from there, the rest of the way it appears is a total hallucination.

The way it appears, the way we believe it to exist — as something slightly beyond that which is merely labelled by the mind — is our biggest hallucination, the biggest suffering in the lives of us sentient beings. That's what keeps us continually circling in samsara, dying and being reborn, dying and being reborn, experiencing the same beginningless problems again and again. There's no beginning to our experience of samsaric suffering and so far it has not ended. Why do we still suffer? Because we have not yet realized emptiness, the ultimate nature of phenomena — that things are empty, that things exist merely in name.

We have not discovered reality; we have not discovered the wisdom that cuts the root of all delusion and karma, the true cause of suffering, the cause of samsara. We have not eradicated ignorance, the unknowing mind. We have continually been creating ignorance, the root of samsara. Instead of meditating on emptiness, practicing mindfulness, we have been making our mind more and more ignorant. That's why we continue to suffer. So, what is this bell (or any other object you care to look at)? It is nothing other than that which is merely labelled by the mind.

But our minds are so replete with negative imprints left by past ignorance, the simultaneously born concept of inherent existence, that even though things exist as merely labelled by the mind, we hold on to them as if they exist from their own side. We apprehend them as inherently existent, as not merely imputed by the mind. Therefore, this bell is merely labelled by the mind. But because of the negative imprints left on our mental continuum by past ignorance, the concept of inherent existence, the apprehension and belief that phenomena exist from their own side, as soon as our mind creates the label "bell," as soon as it merely imputes "bell" on the base, the negative imprints left on our mental continuum project the hallucination that it exists from its own side.

It's like when you take a roll of film to be developed — the images from the negative are projected onto special paper, mixed with chemicals, and a picture appears to make the photograph — or like putting a film into a projector and beaming the images it contains onto a screen. Whatever the object — a bell, your I — the moment it's labelled by the mind, the negative imprints project upon it the adornment of inherent existence. The thing is that we're unaware, or we forget, that what we're seeing is merely imputed by our mind. Basically, there are three things in the evolution of all this. First of all, as a start, our mind merely labels the object.

Second, the negative imprints left by previous concepts of inherent existence project the appearance of inherent existence that the object we're looking at now exists from its own side, that there's a real bell there — not a bell from our mind, but a bell from the side of the bell. This is a totally, totally wrong idea — a complete hallucination projected onto the bell. Third, we allow our mind to believe that this is one hundred percent true.

We allow our mind to hold on to this, to grasp this, as completely, one hundred percent true — that there's a real bell over there, that that's the reality. This is ignorance. At that moment, we are making our mind ignorant, unknowing. We are making our mind ignorant as to the actual nature of the bell, which in reality is totally empty from its own side. What exists is merely labelled by the mind. The bell, which is totally empty from its own side, exists merely in name. Being unaware of this is an example of how we make our mind ignorant.

Hallucination

Just as this applies to the example of the bell, so is it true for all other phenomena. Starting from our I, the way we see ourselves, everything we perceive is as hallucinated as our view of the bell. Our view is completely wrong and so too is the belief that we hold on to. Starting with the subject, I, whatever we perceive in the course of a twenty-four hour day does not exist the way in which we believe. Think of everything we see during the course of one day; all the objects of form with which our eye sense comes into contact — shapes and colors, billions and billions of things wherever we look.

No matter which of these billions of objects we observe, we see each one in just the same way as I described our view of the bell. Just as we don't see the bell as merely labelled by the mind, similarly, we don't see anything else we look at in its true nature, as merely labelled by the mind and totally empty from its own side. Even though, were we to analyze the bell's mode of existence logically, scientifically, we would understand the way in which it exists, that's not how we see it. The bell we see is something else altogether.

In the same way, we misperceive every other object of form that appears to our eye consciousness. When we go into a supermarket or department store where even one section contains thousands of objects, we don't see even one of them in the way it exists. We're in a totally different world from the one that actually exists; our world is something else completely. What we see does not exist in the supermarket or the department store. In reality, what we see exists nowhere. Everything we see is cloaked in hallucination. We go into a store and our mind labels things "this, this, this, this, this," but a layer of inherent existence completely covers all these objects merely labelled by mind.

To us they appear as not merely labelled by mind, as existing from their own side — an appearance that is totally non-existent, a complete hallucination. This hallucination encases the entire world of form, a world that exists merely in name. It's the same with sound. Before I was talking about forms, visual objects of the sense of eye. But we perceive much more than that. We have four other senses — hearing, smell, taste and touch. Thus, sounds also exist merely in name and not from their own side.

But again, we hallucinate with every sound we hear, believing it to be inherently existent, when it's exactly the opposite. Every object of every sense exists merely in name, as a valid base merely labelled by the mind. But as long as we don't develop the wisdom realizing emptiness, we'll never see sense objects in their nature, the way they exist. Instead, we cloak these merely labelled sense objects in the hallucination of existence from their own side and hang to that as true, allow our mind to believe in our own hallucination that there really is something there.

Because we do not practice mindfulness meditation on emptiness, or dependent arising — mindfulness on the hallucination that it is a hallucination — we constantly make our mind more and more ignorant. For example, when we dreaming, we can practice mindfulness that this is but a dream. Similarly, during the day, we can practice mindfulness that what we're seeing is but a hallucination.

If we do this, we're not meditating on something that exists as a hallucination — we're meditating that a hallucination is a hallucination. As a result, what comes into our heart is an understanding of emptiness, the ultimate nature of the circle of three — I, action and object. By doing this, we stop making our mind increasingly ignorant. We stop constantly creating the basis for emotional thoughts, delusions, attachment — those unnecessary minds that bring no benefit, only harm, and motivate karma that becomes the cause of samsara and all its realms of suffering.

What is the mind? What's true for the physical senses, as above, is also true for the mind, the perceiver, itself. The mind is a phenomenon too. What is the mind? It is a phenomenon that is not body, not substantial, has no form, no shape, no color, but, like a mirror, can clearly reflect objects. Objects appear to the mind and the mind can perceive these objects. As long as a mirror is not dirty, it will reflect whatever object comes before it clearly.

Similarly, since the mind is unobstructed by substance, form, objects can appear to it. The phenomenon that is mind perceives objects. So, that is the base. In relation to that phenomenon, our thought creates, merely imputes, the label "mind," and that's how the mind exists. The mind also exists merely in name; what we call mind has been merely labelled by thought. It's like when a person is given a name. Mine is Zopa. Actually, it's Thubten Zopa, and it was given to me by my abbot. According to tradition, when an abbot ordains new monks, he gives them his first name.

My abbot's first name was Thubten, and then he added the Zopa. With his mind, he labelled me "Zopa." You received your name in a similar way. Whether you named yourself or it was given to you by your parents, your name is a mind-created label. In the same way, then, what's called mind is also a name. We think there's a real mind — a real mind existing from there. That's how it appears to us and, without a shadow of doubt, we believe one hundred percent in this appearance.

But if we analyze this phenomenon called mind, it's no different from the name given to you by your parents, which was created by their mind. What you call mind has been merely labelled by your thought in relation to its base, that formless phenomenon that has neither shape nor color, whose nature is clear and that has the ability to perceive objects. That is the base and "mind" is the label. They're two distinct phenomena, not one. They're not separate, but they're different. That's what we have to realize — that these two phenomena are different.

This is what we have to discover through meditation. By doing this we can begin to free ourselves from the hallucination that is the root of all suffering. This is how we start to liberate ourselves from samsara.

Schools of Buddhist philosophy and the object of refutation

I started this discussion by saying how everything exists as merely labelled by mind, and then went on to clarify that simply labelling things is not enough to bring them into existence, that just because something is merely labelled, it exists. Then I went on to mention the three things required for something to exist: a valid base, not receiving harm from another's valid mind, and not receiving harm from the wisdom realizing emptiness.

Now, going back to the bell. As I mentioned before, the way the bell appears to us and the way in which we believe it to exist are slightly beyond the way it actually exists, which is in mere name, as merely labelled by the mind. This difference is a very subtle hallucination that, in Buddhist philosophical teachings, is called the "object to be refuted," or the "object of refutation." There are four schools of Buddhist philosophy — Vaibashika (che-tra-mra-wa), Sautrantika (do-de-pa), Cittamatra (sem-tsam) and Madhyamika (u-ma-pa).

The fourth of these is the Middle Way school and is divided into two: Svatantrika (rang-gyu-pa) and Prasangika (thal-gyur-wa). According to the Prasangika school, the object of refutation (or negation, gag-cha) is an extremely subtle object that is ever so slightly more than — a little over and above — what is merely labelled by the mind. The object of refutation is what appears to us; it is that in which we believe. In order to attain liberation from the entire round of suffering and its cause, we need to cut its very root, the fundamental ignorance that keeps us in it.

Of the many kinds of ignorance, which is the specific one that we have to eradicate? It is not the concept that believes the bell to exist the way it appears, which is what the texts usually describe as the root of samsara — except that in the case of the root of samsara, we should be talking about the I, not the bell that I've been using as an example here. When the I appears to us, we believe that there is something slightly over and above what is merely labelled by the mind and that this is how the I exists. Then we believe that this is one hundred percent true and let our mind hold on to that.

It is this specific, particular ignorance that is the root of all delusion, karma and suffering. This very one. It's not just any type of ignorance — it's this one. As well as this kind of ignorance, there's the one described by the second Madhyamika school, the Svatantrika — the hallucination on the I, the object to be refuted according to their view. I'm just mentioning this so that you'll have an idea of how trapped our minds are, how many different levels of ignorance we experience, how many kinds of hallucination there are. The hallucination on the I that the Svatantrikas describe is grosser than the one the Prasangikas explain.

Then there's the Cittamatrins' version, where they say that the I exists from its own side without depending on mental imprints, without the mind as creator. They describe a seventh level of consciousness — normally we talk about just six — that is called the basis of samsara and nirvana. So they say that the I exists totally from its own side without depending on imprints left on this seventh level of consciousness and describe it as a self-entity.

According to Hindu philosophy, the I, which they call atman, is permanent. While the self is actually impermanent, they believe it to be permanent. Therefore, there's a lot of discussion in Buddhist texts refuting this view, explaining that while the self may appear to us to be permanent, in fact it changes moment by moment due to causes and conditions and is therefore impermanent. If you look at your I right now, you'll see that it appears to be permanent, whereas you know that in reality it is impermanent in nature. Other views hold, for example, that while the I is dependent upon parts, there is the appearance and the belief that it exists alone, not dependent upon parts, or that while the I is dependent upon causes and conditions, there is the appearance and the belief that it exists with its own freedom, without depending on causes and conditions.

These gross hallucinations are described and posited as the object of refutation by the first Buddhist school, the Vaibashika. This school has eighteen divisions, each with its own variant view. Then there's the hallucination that even though the I exists dependent upon the group and continuity of the aggregates, it appears to us as a self-entity existing without depending on the group and continuity of the aggregates. So these are some of the positions held by the Vaibashika and the Sautrantika, the lower Buddhist schools. How has it come about that there are these four schools of Buddhist philosophy? It's due to the different ways of explaining what the I is. In reality, emptiness is just one, not many.

There is only one emptiness that directly cuts the root of samsara. This is the emptiness taught by the Prasangika-Madhyamika school, whose view of emptiness is the unmistaken, pure one and the only one that can cut the specific ignorance that I mentioned before. However, not everybody has the karma to accept this, to understand this, to realize this. Sentient beings have different levels of mind. Therefore, the all-knowing, kind, compassionate Buddha taught varying levels of philosophy to guide sentient beings' minds gradually up to the level where they could realize the Prasangika view of emptiness.

One could start with the gross explanations of emptiness taught by the lower schools and gradually progress up to the most subtle, the Prasangika. That's how the four schools came into being. The lower schools were steps to the higher ones, leading ultimately to the Prasangika. So even though the views of these various schools seem to contradict each other, actually they're a method for gradually developing through study and meditation the Prasangika view.

How to meditate on emptiness

In case you are interested in practicing meditation on emptiness, I'm going to explain a couple of simple but quite helpful techniques for doing so. The first technique is one that I often mention during meditation courses — walking meditation on emptiness. This is a kind of mindfulness meditation but it's much more profound than the usual mindfulness of walking where you simply maintain awareness of "I'm walking" and so forth.

If you can practice that kind of mindfulness of walking — "I'm walking" — you can also practice mindfulness of stealing while robbing a bank or picking somebody's pocket — "I'm stealing." Actually, if you are stealing, it's probably not such a bad idea to be mindful — otherwise you might get caught! Mindfulness meditation should be more than just watching what you are doing. What you really need to watch is your motivation.

If you don't watch your mind, you don't know what's motivating your actions. What you should be doing is detecting negative motivation, the cause of suffering, and changing it into positive. You should be applying your meditation like a medicine to the eradication of harmful thoughts, the delusions — the disturbing emotions that harm yourself and others. You need to eradicate these and make your mind healthy and your attitude beneficial, just as the Buddha explained in the verse I quoted before:

Do not engage in any harmful actions.

Perform only those that are good....

Abandon non-virtue, the cause of suffering, and practice virtue, the cause of happiness. Transform negative motivation into positive so that your actions will become virtuous. In this way you will not waste your life but make it meaningful. At least you won't be harming yourself or others. The way to practice more meaningful mindfulness is this. For example, when you're sitting or when you're walking, ask yourself the question, "What am I doing?" Then your mind will answer, "I'm sitting," "I'm walking," "I'm eating," depending on what it is that you're doing. "I'm cooking," "I'm talking."

Whatever you are doing, you can meditate on emptiness. One way in which you can do this is to reply to the answer "I'm walking" with another question: "Why do I say 'I'm walking'?" Then you analyze; you look for the reason. What you find is, "The only reason I say this is that my aggregate of body, the base I label "I," is walking." Your body is walking — just because of that, your mind labels and believes "I'm walking."

After you've done that, check how your I appears to you at that moment. Is it the same as before or has there been a change? Usually you'll find that it's not the same, that there's been a definite change. Suddenly, the old view of a real I in your body, appearing from that side, the I you have always believed to be there in your body, has vanished, become non-existent. And that's the truth. It's not a false view. The old I was the false one.

When you do not meditate, do not analyze, the I that appears to you and in which you believe — the I that seems to be on these aggregates, in this body — is the false one. In philosophical texts, we refer to that I as inherently existent or existing by nature. In Western psychological terms, we call it the "emotional I." The emotional I — the one that you believe is in your body or on your aggregates — is totally non-existent. That is what you have to discover — that it's empty. You have to discover that it is totally non-existent, totally empty. If you can realize that — that there's not even the slightest atom of an I there — and feel as if you yourself have become totally non-existent, you have entered the Middle Way.

At that time, when you realize emptiness, you gain full conviction, or definite understanding, that you can attain liberation, you can cease all suffering and its cause. Remain in the state of your discovery of the absence of the emotional I. Keep your mind in the emptiness of that. When your mind gets distracted, again ask yourself the question, "What am I doing?" Then, when your mind replies, ask again, "Why do I say 'I'm doing... '? There's no reason other than...," whatever it is. If the answer is, "I'm meditating," ask yourself, "Why do I say 'I'm meditating'?" There's no reason other than the fact that the base, the aggregates of mind, are transforming into virtue (which is what meditation really means). Then check again to see what effect this has had on your I. Has there been a change or not?

Doing this meditation again and again helps you see the false I more and more clearly. The more clearly you see the false I, the emotional I, the I that doesn't exist, the more clearly you see, the better you recognize, emptiness — the better idea of emptiness you get. The second technique for meditating on emptiness is one that takes you back to your childhood, to the time before you had learned the alphabet. Imagine yourself before you knew your ABCs.

You're sitting in the classroom and your teacher draws a letter on the blackboard for the first time. You, the child, have no idea what it is, what those lines represent. Although the teacher draws an A, you have no appearance of A. Even though you see the lines on the blackboard, A does not appear to you. You see the lines but you don't see them as A. That's because your mind hasn't labelled those lines as A and believed in that. Remember, labelling is not enough — in order for there to be appearance, you have to believe in it as well. At this point in your life, your mind has not yet labelled that configuration and believed, "This is an A." Then your teacher tells you, "This is an A," and your mind — believing what your teacher has said, in relation to that base, those lines on the blackboard — creates the label A, merely imputes it on the base, and believes in it. Only then do you have the appearance of the letter A. After that, then you see that this is an A.

The point to understand here is that first there's that arrangement of lines, which is the base. What is it that makes your mind decide upon the particular label A? You don't label any old configuration A — it has to be this particular pattern. That's why your mind chooses to label it A — it sees the appropriate pattern. That is the base; the base to be labelled A. So you can see that the base, that particular pattern, and the label are different. This is the point I'm trying to make. The pattern is the base and the A is the label. These are two different phenomena, not one. They appear as one — without analysis, to your mind they appear as one. It looks as if the A is on top of the base, that pattern. It looks like that. If you do not analyze, it appears as if the A were right there, on that pattern, as if the A were there on that base.

So, the pattern is the base and the A is the label. Now you need to concentrate on the conclusion. Before your mind creates the label A, you see the base, that particular pattern, first. That's what causes you to apply the label A. From this it's clear that the base is not the A. If it were, you should see the A at the very first moment you saw the base, but that isn't what happens. It doesn't happen no matter what phenomenon you see. First you see the base; then you apply the label. Your mind creates the label after seeing the base. Taking a pillar, for example — the specific base that holds things up, that performs that particular function — seeing that base first causes your mind to choose the label "pillar." Then you see the pillar. You don't see it from the very beginning. If you saw the base but your mind didn't label it, you wouldn't see the pillar.

Similarly, you see the A later. That means that the pattern and the A are not one. The pattern is not A — it is the base to be labelled A. This is the point to understand. The difference between the two. This is one line of reasoning. A second line of reasoning goes as follows. Look for the A. On that pattern, where is the A? Look at the upstroke (/). You don't find the A there. Look at the downstroke (\). It's not there either. Nor is the A on the crossbar (-).

Even when the three lines are assembled into the configuration A, that's not the A because that's the base to be labelled. Only after seeing it do you label it A. So the three lines together are not the A either. So when you see that three-line pattern on a blackboard, there's no A on the pattern, but there's an A on the blackboard, and the only reason you can say that is that the pattern is on the blackboard. Similarly, when you look out your window and see a car go by, analyze what happens. First of all, before anything appears, you don't label "car" because you haven't seen anything.

There's no reason for you to label, "There goes a car." When a car does go by, you don't label it "car" the very moment you see it because for your mind to choose that particular label, "car," you have to see something first, as we've been saying. What causes your mind to create the label? There has to be a prior reason. You have to see something before you create the label. What you see is the base — the phenomenon that has the appropriate shape and performs the function of going here and there, transporting people and so forth — you have to see that first.

The label "car" comes after that. First you see the base; then you see the car. You see the car after you have applied the label. Therefore, it is a hallucination. Whatever you see go by — a person, a cat, a dog, a motorcycle — it works the same way. Under normal circumstances, when we do not analyze what we see, when a car goes by it looks as if either the base itself is the car or there's a car on that base, and that that's what's going by. This is a complete hallucination. There's no car there, just as there's no A on that configuration of three lines.

The car exists but it's not there. It's the same thing with the A. When we look at the A and do not analyze, do not meditate, it looks as if the A is there, on that pattern. That too is a complete hallucination. That is the object to be refuted — the A that is there not merely imputed by the mind. An A that if you look for it can be found. That's the object of refutation; that's what we have to realize is empty. And that emptiness is the ultimate nature of the A.

The reason that seeing an A on the base is a false view is that if you try to find precisely where on each of the three lines it is (/\-), you can't find it. And when you look for it on the three lines assembled (A), you can't find it there either. Each piece is not A. Nor is the assembled pattern, because that is the base to be labelled A.

By analyzing in this way, you can recognize your everyday hallucinations, your false view, and understand what you have to realize as empty. What emptiness means. Analysis makes it clear. Practicing mindfulness of this, meditating on this, helps you to control your emotional mind. It becomes almost impossible for emotional thoughts, such as attachment and anger, to arise.

That means you stop motivating karma, the cause of samsara, the cause of the lower realms. Thus it becomes incredible protection, a great source of happiness and peace, and the cause of liberation and enlightenment for yourself and all other sentient beings. By developing this wisdom and practicing bodhicitta, you yourself can attain enlightenment and lead all other sentient beings to enlightenment as well.

Therefore, if you really want to practice Dharma, meditate, and see some development in your life, if you want to clarify and deepen your understanding of emptiness and bring yourself closer to realizing it, these techniques might help, even though they don't utilize philosophical concepts, the four-point analysis and so forth. By practicing these techniques, you can see more clearly how the mind is not I, which is what many people think. Many things become clear.

by Lama Zopa Rinpoche from VIRTUE & REALITY

Soto Zen Temple, Noto Peninsula Japan

Buddhachannel Eng. — 2013-05-13T07:15:00Z

Youkouji Temple was first constructed in 1312. Soto Zen is a sect of Buddhism. Zen means meditation. Noto is located at the north west of Honshu facing the Sea of Japan.

Buddhist tours - 7 places

Buddhachannel Eng. — 2013-05-13T06:26:00Z

There are around 16 Buddhist pilgrimage sites, among which 4 deserve a special mention for their religious importance. Embarking on Buddhist tours will make you have an idea of the origin and growth of the religion in the country.

- Flashome