Call yourself a Buddhist?

I’ve been thinking a lot about labels lately. As a rule, I don’t like them. And my good friend Motherfunker presents a pretty good case against them in her wonderful post Life of Pi…lau

But I have also been thinking about commitment. And specifically about my commitment to Buddhism.

For well over a year now, I have been going to meditation and dharma classes held by an Order Member from the local Triratna Buddhist Centre. Initially, I had some reservations about the Triratna community (it just takes a quick Google search to find out why ). But my experience of the Order, and of the meditation they teach, and the dharma they transmit has in no way been negative. This week, I had the honour of attending my first ever mitra ceremony, where a very lovely lady M became a mitra. It was a very moving and beautiful ceremony.

So what is a mitra? Basically, in the Triratna Buddhist Order, a ‘mitra’ (the Sanskrit word for friend) is someone who makes the public declaration that they:

1. Consider that they are Buddhists
2. Want to live in accordance with the five ethical precepts; and
3. Believe that the Triratna Buddhist Community is the appropriate spiritual community for them

I have a regular meditation practice. I try to live my life in an ethical way, according to the five precepts. I study and endeavour to understand the dharma. But am I a Buddhist? I suppose I am in as much as I have faith in the Buddha’s teachings and I aspire to enlightenment. In some ways, I want to shout out loud “Yes! I am a Buddhist!” But then, I think, is it just my ego looking for a label?! Is calling yourself a Buddhist a way of trying to define yourself, as though there were some permanent, unchanging self to define? Does it even matter? Would becoming a mitra help me to feel more committed, or would I find it too restrictive?

Ach, I’m no good at this deciding whether to make a commitment lark. Maybe I’ll just wait and see for now

So!

Whenever you feel annoyed, whenever your mind goes bad, just say, “So!” When you feel better, just say, “So!” If you love someone just say, “So!” When you feel you’re getting angy, just say, “So!” Do you understand? You don’t have to go looking into the scriptures. Just “So!” Whatever arises, just tell it, “So!” It saves a lot of time.

Ajahn Chah in Food for the Heart

Book Review – Advice from the Lotus Born

Like a lot of dharma practitioners in the West, most of the books I read and have read are those written by Westerners about Buddhism, rather than being Buddhist scriptures or texts from the East. This book has been an exception that I am very glad to have made.

Advice from the Lotus Born is described as “A Collection of Padmasambhava’s Advice to the Dakini Yeshe Tsogyal amd Other Close Disciples”. I first came across it when my dharma teacher read the class an extract from it  talking about faith.

I produced the above journal page using some of the similes, and wrote about my thoughts in this post.

The style and language is very different to what one might expect from a modern Western dharma book but it really resonates with me. Similes abound, as do exclamation marks! As you can see from the photo showing my copy with plenty of page markers, there were lots of passages that appealed to me, provoked me, interested me.

I think the way I would best describe Padmasambhava’s approach to the dharma is fiercely uncompromising. For example:

To have faith doesn’t mean to whimper; it means to enter the right path out of fear of death and rebirth.  To be diligent doesn’t mean to engage in various restless activities; it means to exert oneself in the means of leaving samsaric existence behind.  To be generous doesn’t merely mean to give with bias and partiality; it means to be profoundly free from attachment to anything whatsoever.

There is nothing wishy-washy about this!!

He goes on to say:

Don’t mistake mere words to be the meaning of the teachings.  Mingle the practice with your own being and attain liberation from samsara right now.

As well as the uncompromising nature of the teachings, I am drawn to the poetic nature of the text.  I do so love a good simile, as I *may* have mentioned before .  The teachings also include songs and I have to include this extract from one which Padmasambhava is said to have sung to the King:

Your Majesty, listen here, take the cross-legged position,

Keep your body straight on the seat and meditate!

Keep your attention thoughtfee and unconfined by mental constructs.

As your focus transcends all types of objects,

Unfixed on any mark of concreteness,

Remain quiet, tranquil and awake!

When you remain like this, the signs of progress naturally appear,

As the clarity of consciousness that neither arises nor ceases

And as awareness utterly free of misconceptions.

This is the awakened state found in yourself,

Not sought elsewhere but self-existing – how wonderful!

How wonderful indeed!!

I recommend this book to lovers of the dharma, and lovers of beautiful prose.

Faking It

This is kind of a continuation on the theme of fakeness…

I recently came across Bodhipaksa’s blog “bodhi tree swaying” and in particular his series on fake Buddha quotes.    With the preponderance of quotation sites online, it is easy enough to grab a “Buddha” quote to fit what you want to say…but are they genuine quotes of the Buddha?  One I have used in particular in the past is “If we could see the miracle of a single flower clearly, our whole life would change“.   I love this quote; I find it inspiring and I believe that others do too.  But after reading a few of Bodhipaksa’s posts on fake Buddha quotes, I suspected that it might not be authentic.   It turns out I was right!  Bodhipaska writes:

 

It’s from page 112 of Jack Kornfield’s “Buddha’s Little Instruction Book,” in which Jack “distilled and adapted an ancient teaching for the needs of contemporary life.” This is a common pattern: if a book is called “The Teaching of Buddha” or “Buddha’s Little Instruction Book” then people jump to the conclusion that any quote from it is the teaching of the Buddha or one of the Buddha’s instructions. It’s not the fault of the author, of course…

 

So the quote is fake.  I do vow to be more mindful in attributing quotes, and checking sources.  But in some ways, I think, does it matter?  If the phrase is one which is in line with the Buddha’s teachings, and is helpful to people treading the path, how important is it that the quote be “authentic”?  I would be interested to hear others’ thoughts on this.

I have also been skimming through The Life of Milarepa (I will read it properly soon ) and came across this:

Showing others the path

When you don’t know the way

Harms yourself and others

This has become jumbled up in my self doubts of yesterday.  Though I don’t think I am trying to show others the path, but only to share thoughts that I have found helpful and others may do too.  I think if we took this Milarepa quote too literally, then there would be very few dharma teachers, and that could hardly be a good thing!  But it is certainly something to chew on.

But – hey – flowers are wonderful, in the eyes of Jack Kornfield and many others, so today I am going to share a few from my garden.  A miracle, every one of them. Enjoy

The Time to Wake Up is Now

Rodney Smith, in his ego-shattering book, “Stepping Out of Self-Deception” notes three ways that lay Buddhism is inhibited. The first is the belief that monasticism and long retreats are the only way to realise one’s true nature. The second is misunderstanding the teachings of the long-enduring mind so that we believe that awakening can only arrive after a long, protracted practice history. The third, Smith says, is investing the sacred only within particular practices and conditions.

Reflecting on these, I created this journal page:

The time to wake up is now

What am I waiting for?

I don’t need to join a monastery or go off on year-long retreats.
I don’t need the perfect meditation cushion, a Tibetan singing bowl, Japanese incense, a beautifully carved wooden Buddha (nice as these may be!)
I can stop dividing my life into the sacred and “the rest”. Instead I can recognise that any moment can be a spiritual moment.
It doesn’t have to take years and years of diligent practice (unless I convince myself it does).

The question is: Do I want this or not?

I don’t need to wait for the future to be fulfilled.

The time to wake up is NOW! What am I waiting for?

Cause & Effect

Continuing on the Four Reminders exercises (see my thoughts on impermance here), this week I have been reflecting on karma, or as Vajragupta puts it “actions have consequences”. As usual, I found it helpful to journal my thoughts:

Cause & Effect

All actions have consequences. No exceptions.
Every moment is a karma making moment. No exceptions.
The things that I do, say or even just think have consequences. No exceptions.
All my actions are significant because, at the very least, they affect the kind of person I become.
No exceptions.

Knowing this, I can try to act in ways that are kind & loving.
Every single moment is a karma-making moment. That means every single moment is an opportunity to make a difference.
It matters.
It all matters.

I am the owner of my karma.
I inherit my karma.
I am born of my karma.
I live supported by my karma.
Whatever karma I create, whether good or evil, that I shall inherit.

(The Buddha, Anguttara Nikaya V.57 – Upajjhatthana Sutta )

My karma is the only thing I truly own. I can take nothing else with me. Everything else is just borrowed.

The (extremely ropey) sketch of a starfish is to remind me of a story that Vajragupta mentions in his book about a man who is walking along a beach on which thousands of starfish had been washed up by a storm.  He starts throwing the starfish back in the water, one by one.  Someone came along and asked him why he was bothering when there were so many starfish stranded.  “Well,” says the man, carrying on throwing the fish, “It makes a difference to this one…and this one…and this one…”  A great story to remember when you start to feel that your individual actions make no difference.  They do.

Ever since writing the last line in my journal about everything else just being borrowed, I can’t get this Streets song out of my head – check it out if you’ve never heard it:

I came to this world with nothing
and I leave with nothing but love
everything else is just borrowed

Beautiful song.

By the way, for a great article on karma, I recommend checking out Mike’s post “Karma for Dummies“.

Next reminder for contemplation:  suffering.  Watch this space.

Reflecting on Impermanence

 

I am reading Vajragupta’s book “Buddhism: Tools for Living Your Life“. Whilst maybe not ground breaking stuff, the book clearly explains Buddhist ideas with practical exercises for you to undertake. One of the exercises is a set of reflections from the Tibetan Buddhist tradition, known as the “four thoughts that turn the mind towards the Buddhist teaching” or simply the “four reminders”. The first reminder is that “life is a precious opportunity”. This reminder is something I already try to reflect on daily – by keeping a daily journal of “good things” and with art journalling such as my “Joy” page (blogged about here).

The second reminder is the truth of impermanence, and this is something I have been trying to reflect on this last week or two. My first thoughts of impermanence immediately turned to the biggies – old age, sickness, death. This is reflected in the left hand side of my “Reflections on Impermanence” journal page. The picture is of a Great Auk, which was the last bird to become extinct here in the UK.

I was mentally approaching impermanence as being something that was always, by default, a problem – a negative. But then I came across a piece of writing by Lin Jensen in “Together Under One Roof” and this really struck a chord with me. Jensen points out that change can lead to “all sorts of consequences including those of sheer delight”. He talks of life being a collective term for the movement of the universe:

“Even solid rock, in its apparent impenetrable fixity, gradually disperses towards delight. If it did not, there’d be no soil, no flower, no pollinating insect, no grazing or browsing animal or bird or human. Whatever delight you and I have ever experienced is the gift of broken rock.

We do well to remember that and pay homage to the forces of impermanence.”

These words inspired the second page of my journal page:

My reflections on impermanence are now taking on a lot more joyfulness. To take delight in the gift of the broken rock. How wonderful!

On Faith and Similes

I’ve been thinking a lot about faith just lately. I have a (mostly) daily meditation practice; attend a weekly dharma and meditation class; and more and more try to live my life in a mindful way. There is still a little part of me that holds back from calling myself a Buddhist though. Not doubt in the teachings of the Buddha per se, but difficulty with seeing how the religious aspects of faith fit in with the Buddha’s teaching. The Buddha said:

“Do not believe in anything simply because you have heard it. Do not believe in anything simply because it is spoken and rumoured by many. Do not believe in anything simply because it is found written in your religious books. Do not believe in anything merely on the authority of your teachers and elders. Do not believe in traditions because they have been handed down for many generations. But after observation and analysis, when you find that anything agrees with reason and is conducive to the good and benefit of one and all, then accept it and live up to it.”

Of the Buddha’s teachings that I know, that I can experience for myself, that I understand – there is nothing so far that doesn’t agree with reason or that isn’t conducive to the good and benefit of one and all. And so, I guess, in a way, I can say I have faith in the Buddha’s teaching.

I created this art journal page after my dharma teacher read us a passage from “Advice from the Lotus-Born“. In the passage, the Bodhisattva Padmasambhava gives advice to his follower Tsogyal. The passage is quite beautiful, and full of wonderfully evocative similes (who doesn’t love a good simile?). I have included a few on my journal page. After reeling off scores of these “faith is like…” similes, Padmasambhava finishes by saying “Once faith has dawned from deep within you, all virtuous qualities arrive in a mountainous heap!” which makes me smile every time I read it

This art journal page uses crayon wax resist with watercolour paints and stamping with acrylic paint.  The words are written on watercolour-painted pages and collaged in place.

On Flowers, Impermanence and Hope

Here in the UK, it has rained most days for the last four weeks. So this morning, when there was a window of sunny opportunity, I dashed out into the garden to photograph what flowers I could find that were still blooming:

Those flowers may still be looking fresh, but many of the familiar early spring flowers such as pansies, daffodils and tulips were definitely past their best. Like this red tulip for example:

Not so long back this stood tall, upright and majestic with beautiful, glossy, tight blooms.

Flowers have many lessons to teach us. One of the most important, perhaps, is to remind us of the impermanent nature of the world. As Heraclitus put it:

“Everything flows and nothing abides,
everything gives way and nothing stays fixed.”

But flowers are also a lesson in hope and patience. Here a tray of seeds sown by Gman last week, with seedlings popping up their hopeful little heads into the world:

In a few week’s time, these will have grown into the gorgeous gold and orange blooms of Marigolds.

A Different Kind of Balance Sheet

This journal page was prompted by something in a book I am reading at the moment. The book is Ayya Khema’s “Being Nobody Going Nowhere“. When talking about lovingkindness, the author suggests making a balance sheet at the end of the day. On one side of the sheet is: “How often have I felt lovingness towards another person today?” and on the other side: “How often have I felt anger, hurt, resentment, rejection, fear, anxiety, today when confronting other people?” This can be written or can be just in the mind.

Just undertaking this exercise for a few days has made me realise just how tipped my balance is and sadly, not on the side of lovingness. It has made me very aware of all the times in a day I respond, not with lovingness, but with irritation, indfifference, or resentment. It has made me realise that I have a lot to learn and a long way to go.

I am inspired by Ayya Khema’s writing though, and her assurance that lovingkindness is a skill that can be learned. She emphasises that acting in a loving way is never a weakness. For example, if you treat someone in a loving way and they respond by “taking advantage” of you (a real fear that a lot of people have, I think) then she says that it is their bad karma and asks  “How you can you lose the love that you carry round in your own heart? If somebody takes advantage of you, it is another instance of learning whether your heart has already been trained”. She goes on to say that “The weakness that one may be afraid of showing is a fallacy because love gives strength not weakness. A person who has nothing but loving feelings feels safe and secure, totally at ease because nothing can sway them.” Ayya Khema inspires me to keep trying to perfect the skill of lovingness.

How do you keep your heart open and loving?  Who inspires you?  How does your balance sheet look at the end of the day?  I would love to hear from you