Monkey See, Monkey Do

i just discovered that the shambhala hinayana-mahayana seminary transcripts are not restricted. i guess since the vajrayana and shambhala texts are all so darn secret, i never thought to even look. sure enough, if one goes to shambhalashop.com in the publication section you’ll find the 1974 through 1986 transcripts, plus the voluminous 1999 transcripts. the 2000 transcripts were just finished and published as well.

these would probably be useful to anyone studying beyond the basics of buddhism, as a very readable survey of buddhist principles framed for a western audience.

so the buddhist path in my current view is a very gradual process of either wearing out or reducing an attachment to a sense of a separate self and of things as objective and fixed and solid. those solid things to wear out also includes viewpoints and beliefs.

one of the key obstacles in this pursuit is taking up the buddhist teachings and view them as objective and fixed and solid too. ironic that we would use a teaching designed to cut through solidity and solidify around it. the reason not to do that is because the act of holding them that way is just another defense mechanism that your sense of self uses to stay separate and fixed and real. so if you think you “know” something, one should take that as a warning that you’re probably “stuck” again in a fixed view. this is one aspect of “spiritual materialism”, using spiritual practice to just reinforce your trip or to make it your new, cool and clever trip. in truth the path is about giving up your personal trip.

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Robert Thurman summarizes the Buddhist path in the following way:

We may break the cycle [of habitual struggle] by cultivating critical wisdom through investigation of the reality of self and universe. We may systematically overcome ignorance by seeing through the illusion of being a separate “self” and of the universe being an objective other. We realize that everything is free of any intrinsic status, there is no real self to be trapped, no real universe that traps, and also no real off-world isolated state of freedom. Free of the “self” delusion, we become free of self-concern. Free of self-concern, we become free to interact unselfishly with others. Free to interact unselfishly, we no longer experience interaction as suffering; we become able to experience all things happily.

the ACLU has a clever flash animation about ordering a pizza in John Ashcroft’s view of privacy.

finally got my art hung on the walls of the new place last night, that makes such a huge difference. i was waiting to do that last but i just couldn’t wait any longer.

i thought i did a good job of thinning my possessions a year ago when my friends and i all moved out of our shared home. but as i unpack my office things i’m baffled at how much i still hold onto. how did i get five pairs of scissors?

so i’m making another purge of things while i finish off the unpacking. instead of applying the rule “do i like this or do i dislike this?” for each item or the “might i need this again someday” rule, i’m trying to apply the more aggressive “can i likely live without this?” rule to everything. this weekend could be the final push. alleluia

pema last night talked for awhile about the bodhisattva path and the vow during our ceremony. i hope i can copy the tape from last night, she has some great things to say. one thing that strongly connected for me was her idea of the path as just being “step by step”. she cautioned against burn out, not trying to do too much. but for me it also included the idea that these qualities of ourselves that we’re working with and working on, our defilements, negative emotions, addictions, and other ways we shut down or recoil from the world, these things are the result of years and years of conditioning and reaction to our fear and sadness. and a force of will to be different just isn’t enough.

it takes years and years of slowly practicing to reverse all the conditioning. nothing to be ashamed of there. it’s easy for me to see thoughts arising and compare them against some ideal conceptual view of myself, and then see the difference as painful. but it’s perhaps more helpful to see each thing which arises as an opportunity to reverse the habit or the addiction that has taken a lifetime (or more if you believe in that) to develop. and that’s true of everyone. we’re all in the same boat with respect to this. we want to be a certain way, we can see ourselves conceptually a certain way, and the reality doesn’t match. we wish we could exercise more or eat less or be kinder to people, the specific desire may vary, but the situation is basically the same for you and me and everyone else. but it’s still important work. these negative habits we have on an individual level add up across a nation to bring about war, famine, and all sorts of suffering worldwide. i just don’t have to freak out that i’m not curing my ailments overnight.

took bodhisattva vows yesterday with ani pema. she gave me the name “samten chuwo”. samten (wylie format: bsam gtan) is the fifth paramita, or meditative awareness. but it also implies taking that clear awareness in meditation out into all situations in the world.

i’m still trying to find the exact spelling and meaning of chuwo in tibetan. chu means water. pema translated chuwo as river but that’s usually spelled chubo. i did find chuwo in a piece of translation that was rendered in english as “flow”. the word could also be chumgo which refers to the headwaters of a river. there are many ways to render the tibetan alphabet into roman characters. i may have to just write to pema for clarification.

they say at the time of death the buddhas and bodhisattvas call out your name to give you guidance. but they call out your bodhisattva name. so i should get that right. otherwise they might be yelling out, “samten chumgo, not that door!” and i won’t think they’re talking to me. (snicker)

to commemorate the 35th anniversary of the moon landings, check out these amazing moon landing photos.

then for balance take a moment to read the political satire song by Gil-Scott Heron called Whitey on the Moon.

it does inspire me that we can go to the moon. quite an accomplishment and achievement, though the subtext of the project of super accurate ICBM missiles and space supremacy makes my stomach hurt. but we have the opportunity to apply that same ingenuity and resolve to all sorts of suffering in the world at any time. we’re pretty damn capable.

this saturday i learned a new buddhist practice which is hilarious, you have to try it. one could call it exaggeration practice. here’s the practice:

whenever you catch yourself in a negative or selfish emotion, up the ante for a moment. so if you’re irritated with a person for example, really start ranting. they took the last cup of coffee and didn’t refill the pot. but instead of just stewing in this mild irritation, really get into it and exaggerate: that criminal should never be allowed to drink coffee again, even if it gives them convulsions of withdrawal, and they turn to hard drugs to compensate, someone who commits that offense should be paraded around the office and humiliated by each coworker belittling them and calling them foul names.

this makes me laugh, because it’s so ridiculous. and that’s the point. ego’s game of irritation and negative emotion is founded somewhat on ignorance; on not seeing the bigger picture. so the stewing only works if the view stays fixed. by increasing the volume to the point of absurdity, then ego’s gig is up. the stuck nature of the original irritation is unmasked.

this seems to work for all sorts of things, gossip about people, jealousy, talking about yourself (”i’m the worst brother that ever was. i completely ignore my siblings; i’d be perfectly happy if they dropped off the planet. i just don’t care about them for a single moment. i should go return this birthday present for my brother right now. better yet, i’m just going to keep it for myself!”), or pretty much anything.

i am finding that doing this practice in public turns a few heads. perhaps might be best in private. oh ya, the credit for this practice goes to Shantideva who lived in the 8th century. timeless…

went this weekend to see a visiting Tibetan Lama speak and teach. Chökyi Nyima Rinpoche lives in Nepal for most of the year but comes here to teach briefly each summer. what an adorable person, smilie and friendly and completely unimposing. also shockingly unperturbed by whatever questions or situations arise. but that’s what these rinpoche’s are supposed to be like. so why was i surprised? well to see it in person, to see another human being that processed and unflustered really is shockingly unusual.

but these guru guys and gals are like the olympic athletes of mind training. they’ve spent months on end in silent retreats just training and learning to ‘unstick’ their mind whenever a strong emotion or fantasy or storyline hooks them. and then they dedicate their lives to teaching us how to unstick our minds as well and rest in the natural, ordinary open state of mind. sounds great. i just hope i don’t have to sit in a cave for months on end to achieve that too.