I just came through my birthday weekend (thank you to everyone who sent blessings) and I’m thinking about this enigmatic thing the Buddha said: “I am the eldest in the world.” What he means is that he was the first to awaken fully, like the first chick in a clutch of eggs to break of of their shell. But the …
The very first sutta in the enormous collection known as the Connected Discourses (Saṁyutta Nikāya) has a spirit being come to visit the Buddha and ask him how he “crossed the flood.” The Buddha replies with a beautiful metaphor on the kind of effort needed to progress on the path: “By not halting, friend, and by not straining I crossed …
Welcome to a new year. Have you got your resolutions in order? How soon are you expecting to break them? We must joke about New Year’s resolutions because we either don’t take them seriously, or wish we could but lack the means to do so. If the latter is true, and I thank it is because most people are sincere …
One of the magnificent technologies we humans have specialized in since the beginning of the agricultural revolution is cultivation. People focus on some small piece of the universe, like an arable valley or a nice spot at the bend of a river, and pull resources from far and wide, gathering them into that one spot. Cultivation means concentration, where the …
Talks and meditations from two daylong gatherings in 2019 and 2020 at East Bay Meditation Center in Oakland, offered for adoptees, refugees, fostered, and other folks with early family system rupture. Both days were co-offered with Lev White, but Lev was unable to teach the 2020 one at the last minute, so I taught it alone. This meant that the …
At home in the heart: adoption, early attachment rupture, identity Read More »
Some notes on the difficulties and benefits of home retreat as we develop this new form for intensive contemplative practice in the Covid era. Written as part of the welcome letter to our Summer 2020 home retreat: Living the Dhamma. Home retreat is similar and different from retreat at a center, of course. The schedule and practices are almost identical …
And what is right effort? It’s when a mendicant generates enthusiasm, tries, makes an effort, exerts the mind, and strives so that bad, unskillful qualities don’t arise. They generate enthusiasm, try, make an effort, exert the mind, and strive so that bad, unskillful qualities that have arisen are given up. They generate enthusiasm, try, make an effort, exert the mind, …
“Strive on!” (skillfully). Learning the Dance of Right Effort Read More »
The Pāli word uposatha means “observance,” and refers to the ancient Buddhist tradition of devoting a day to our practice, much like the Christian sabbath, which is a fine translation of the word. The Buddha strongly encouraged lay practitioners to keep the uposatha, as the texts at the bottom of this page indicate. Observing the uposatha day might be as …
We’re grateful to be able to offer our spring 2020 retreat in a full Gift Economy model, with scholarships available for all who need them. More than half of the retreat participants have requested some amount of scholarship support, and it is only through the generosity of the larger community that we are able to fulfill these requests and make …
It’s “Super Tuesday” as I write this, and though I’m mainly worried that the Dems will mess this up and the world will get another 4 years of the current situation, I’m also amazed. Never in my life have two of the leading contenders for president been strong progressives, each with intelligent progressive economic ideas that if enacted would change …
May the forces of delusion
not take hold, nor
weaken my resolve.
(Sharing of Merit)