Natural Wisdom

Phowa

2012-02-23T13:20:00.005-05:00

While the traditional Tibetan practices for attaining the highest level of awareness while transitioning through death (phowa) are intricate, His Holiness the Dalai Lama and others have developed beautiful deep meditations for the heart's sure release.

This is one of those simple and beautiful meditations: it is adapted from Madeline Ko-In Bastis’ Peaceful Dwelling. We can do this for ourselves, as a way to experience a deep letting- go. We can also practice this with a loved one, as a way of helping them to die consciously. We can do this on behalf of a loved one, envisioning them within this sacred space at the time of their passing, or within our meditation practice at some later time, as a way of coming to closure.

Beginning by connecting with our breath, practicing mindful awareness so that we are centered in the body and clear in the mind. Envisioning ourselves whole and strong, radiant, joyful—in some place which is beautiful and reminds us of the sacred. Above us is the source of love, wisdom, radiance, Buddha nature...whatever name we may give to it.

Whoever needs to forgive us has done so. We are extending forgiveness to whoever there is to forgive-- perhaps through the use of these phrases:

For all the harm I have done to others, knowingly or unknowingly, forgive me.

For all the harm others have done to me, knowingly or unknowingly, I forgive you as much as I can.

For all the harm I have done myself, knowingly or unknowingly, I forgive myself.

Through this we experience a cleansing of the heart- mind.

The source of love-- the one pure and clear thing-- is so touched by this that the light from above radiates into and through us, entering our heart, suffusing through our body, our arms and legs, our toes and fingers...and finally our head.

We are completely filled with light. We have become that light, one with the source of joy, one with Great Love and Compassion.

This practice is dedicated to my Uncle Mark, who passed away yesterday.

John Myerson: Life Arts

2012-02-21T21:49:00.003-05:00

As part of my dissertation research on Buddhist traditional healers, I had the honor of interviewing John Myerson, of Life Arts. John Myerson has been practicing Zen for over forty years: he began with Kapleau Roshi, then practiced with Maureen Stuart Roshi, who encouraged him to teach. John also had the good fortune to meet James Tin Yan So, a master acupuncturist, with whom he then co-founded the New England School of Acupuncture, the first acupuncture school in the country. In addition, John also has a doctorate in Psychology. However, his core modality is energy work.

First of all I am curious how you began this healing work.

I'm not exactly sure, to tell you the truth. Life is a continually evolving thing. I started studying Chinese martial arts when I was fourteen. I just got really into that. In college I began practicing Zen (Japanese Zen) and started studying with Philip Kapleau Roshi. That was probably 1970- 71. I just continued doing that. I was going to go to medical school and eventually decided, after getting into medical school, that I wasn't going to go to medical school. And I met an old Chinese doctor who had just moved here-- James So, who wanted to start a school. So we started the first school in the country, New England School of Acupuncture. I was his apprentice, and that's how I learned about Oriental medicine. And it evolved from there.

Many times people use the word "wholeness" to describe Buddhist concepts of healing. If you were to use that word, what might it mean for your work?

I take a very Buddhist- Taoist approach to things. And so the first thing that comes to mind is looking at the yin- tang symbol. Wholeness is the entire symbol: the whole thing. And then it breaks down into the yin and yang and the ten thousand things. Wholeness is the balance of yin and yang and the ten thousand things at any given time. The key for me is balance, and the continual flow of the energy of the universe in trying to maintain that balance. Because, you know- the balance changes, we change, seasons change, everything changes. So trying to maintain balance can be a difficult process. Illness is when some sort of disruption in the balance of things,

Thank you. In what way does that vision of balance contribute to your healing work?

Well, that is the whole thing: that is what I do with people. In addition to studying Zen and traditional Chinese medicine I got a doctorate in psychology and I studied a lot of shamanic stuff, so my focus is on the mental, spiritual, psychic aspect of healing. I don't work on the physical so much: I work on the subtle realms and for me they affect everything else. It's fine to work the other way round, too-- you can obviously work the physical and back to the subtle but that's what works for me. And so that's what I do.

What are your practices of healing? Whether, if you can describe that philosophically or with as much detail as you like--

A big part of what I do is getting people to recognize what kind of gifts they have in the realm of spirit and then how to use them. And of course, meditation plays a big role in that-- whatever kind of meditation people want to do. I do what I need for whoever is in front of me. It tends to be more esoteric than something physical.

How are your practices of healing related to what you hope clients will experience?

Well to me they are the vehicle to get them there. Basically-- in my opinion, healing takes place when change happens. And in order to make change, especially positive change, you have to make it in what is called a non-ordinary state of consciousness. So the work that I do tries to get people into those places., in whatever way works for them. So with some people it will be direct meditation. Other people do it through singing-- or through music or through painting or through running or through yoga. It doesn't really matter to me what vehicle they use. They are all just a technology, a spiritual technology to get to a place where change can happen. The key is to get to some kind of change.

Sometimes in Buddhism we use the phrase "upaya", skillful means.

Definitely.

How or in what ways do you feel that this connects with your Zen practice?

I would say Zen is the basis of everything that I do. Always was, still is, probably always will be. I'm not very traditional in my Zen because I do lots of other things But I look at them as just another Way to accomplish the whole thing. I myself, in my personal practice, sit between two and four hours a day. And I've done that for over forty years. It is the basis of all my teaching. And I look at shamanic work as just sort of "applied Zen". It is just a more practical way to use it for healing. In my own personal practice I just sit. Without it I would say, there is nothing. That is my practice. I sit by myself. I like the quiet and the stillness of the early morning.

So how does that sitting meditation-- how does that connect with your purposes for the healing, and perhaps your purposes for yourself-- as a healer, or as an instrument of healing?

Well I think a healer-- especially in this context we're talking about-- without healing themselves, without working on themselves- it's not going to work. And for me my Zen practice is the basis for my work on myself: it all comes out of that area. Without that work on yourself, I don't think you can be a healer. I'm not saying that's true for everybody but for me it's very true.

How have you been able to build your skills and knowledges about healing-- across the years-- and how or in what ways does that contribute to your healing practice?

I did acupuncture, studying with Dr. Tso, and we started a school and brought other teachers in, so I sort of ran the school and studied it at the same time. And you take seminars over the years...shamanic work: I apprenticed, the old fashioned way, one- on- one with a shamanic woman from Kenya: that was a five year apprenticeship. My major Zen teacher was Maurine Stuart Roshi at Cambridge Buddhist Association on Sparks Street in Cambridge. And I've sat with other people too, but I would say she was my teacher. But for me the basis of the whole thing is your own personal practice-- I think everything comes out of that. And I think those who are good healers are those who are off on their own. They learn from someone, and take it from there. They develop their own style-- that's because it comes out of their own experience and their own practice. For me that's what's worthwhile. At the same time, it’s evolving. People's practice evolves-- like mine does and everyone else's. It's the expression of your own experience.

In what ways does the client's experience reflect that? Does that also go through an evolution?

It is true. I try to get people to find, what is their way: to find out what their gifts are, how they relate to the universe, how they experience the One., how they do meditation. So, in a teaching group, I may have eight people, and each person will be doing something completely different. That, to me, is the richness of it all. Traditionally, in a shamanic culture, there is no core curriculum: each person, absolutely, did their own thing. You learn from that person or you find a person who resonates with you. And you are encouraged to do-it-yourself: that is the key.

How does that connection between you and your clients happen?

It happens over time, with trust I would say. With opening your heart, and keeping your heart open, and not taking on any of their stuff, when you keep your heart open. If you can keep it open like that then eventually they start responding to that. For some people it happens right away and for some people it takes time. It just depends. But generally I have been very fortunate in being able to connect with people.

Are there moments in your world when your understanding of your work has gone through a significant change or breakthrough?

I think it changes all the time. You know, I think of it as changing moment-by-moment. And to me that is really kind of cool. It's great because my own personal development and practice keeps on changing. I try to practice "beginner's mind" and just keep things as fresh as I can. I try to stay as humble and gentle as I possibly can and things keep on changing. That's reflected in my writings and my work.

Are there ways that you help your clients ground their experience in their lives?

When you've done work with them, do you give them homework, or some other way to anchor this insight, this experience?

I would say the key, for me, is practice. I think that is one of the harder concepts I have to get across to people. You have to do this every day-- whatever "it" is for people, for you. And I'm not saying everyone meditates, or everyone does-- whatever-- but whatever it is for you, whatever your practice is about, you've got to do it all the time. That is just a personal choice-- and what you are called to do. I am called to practice. And I do it all the time. It's what I love doing. It is what I am called to do. That's all I can say. There's just something in me, or in the universe, that comes through me, and allows me to keep doing that.

And some people will get that and some people won't, and that's just the way it is. It's all-- you know how it is. Once you've had some experience... If you go to some weekend retreat, a workshop and you meditate for fourteen hours a day and you have some awesome meditation experience, then you go home and do nothing-- a week later, you have nothing. If you go home and keep up the practice, then it can deepen for you, and it can open more for you. But it has to continue over time. You will find that those who are really good at the work, and successful at it, practice something.

Yes, yes. I was thinking of that quote from Carl Jung, where he says, "The attainment of wholeness requires one to stake one's whole being. There can be no substitutions, no compromises.

Absolutely. Totally agree with that. It has to be your whole being. And to me, it's my life. So this is what I do.

So when clients come in- they come in with this malady or this predicament-- are there ways in which the work you do with them helps bring them into a greater state of wholeness, a self- recognition?

I think that it's like-- and I'm not comparing myself to a great master-- but it's like when you're in the presence of a great master. There is an emanation that comes from them. All you have to do is to be in their presence. And when you're in that presence, things happen. There is an energetic exchange: a Dharma transmission., mind- to- mind transmission. That's how people are taught. And that's what I try to do with everyone who comes in. I sit. I try to hold the space. I try to connect to them. And when there's a connection, then healing happens, without words. Later we talk, we give it words. But as it is, there's no words. When I think back on my experience with my own Zen Master, just being in her presence was a good experience-- just sitting. Nothing else, nothing special, just being there. And something happens-- something changes, when you keep doing that.

That's the main thing I do with people. Sometimes we'll do acupuncture, or we'll do this, or that, but it's really that gift of presence that is the medium of healing. To me, that is the healing. You get the presence, you get the mind-to-mind transmission, and something changes. That's the way it is. Something changes, and you start the healing process. Every technique you do is just a way to get you to that place

Thank you very much. That was beautiful.

Thirty Lives: the Practice of Tonglen

2012-02-19T21:14:00.001-05:00

This morning, I read a beautiful article in the New York Times. Through the actions of one good samaritan, a chain of thirty successive kidney donations took place: so many lives saved. The donor practices Tibetan Buddhism.

He felt driven to help others when possible. And as he considered the relative risks and benefits of organ donation, particularly to relieve a whole chain of suffering, it just made so much sense. “It causes a shift in the world,” he said.

His inspiration may have come from tonglen practice: “You think of the pain someone’s in, and imagine you take it from them and give them back good.”

Here, and in my teaching, I've spoken about how these practices of compassion and insight create a more peaceful and compassionate world. This is a very solid-- and incredibly inspiring-- example. However, know that this happens all the time. Those subtle, invisible acts of kindness are also, like a stone thrown in water, creating ripples of compassion within us-- and around us. By choosing how to respond to our moment-to-moment life, in the words of cognitive scientist Francisco Verela, we "bring forth a world". It all begins with us, and our basic sanity. Through meditation and clear action, may we create our own shift in the world.

Here is a link to a Dharma Talk by Acharya Pema Chodron, on Tonglen.

Gampo Abbey

Water and Light

2012-02-17T00:24:00.000-05:00

In the morning, watching a hawk above Indian Brook, Broadmoor. In the evening, listening to the Qadim Ensemble's poignantly beautiful Near Eastern music, through our Art and Soul program. A good night for Rumi...

The moon at dawn stooped like a hawk
and took me and flew across the sky.

Traveling inside that light, so close,
my body turned to spirit.

I saw nothing but light.
The secret of revelation came clear
with my ship submerged in that.

As it moved, consciousness rose into being,
and the voice of consciousness
made every foam fleck a new bodying.

Matter receives a signal from the sea it floats in,
but without the sun,
without the majesty of Shams,,
no one would ever see the moon,
or ever dissolve in ocean light

--Rumi, trans. Coleman Barks, The Big Red Book

Opening the Heart to Love

2012-02-14T09:23:00.001-05:00

This piece proves what my teacher told me a long time ago, that monks are actually the truest romantics. It is necessary to be 100% crazy...

What Does It Take To Really Open The Heart To Love?

What is conventional love? What is essential love? What is boundless love? What does it take to really open the heart to love?

So many questions…so let’s focus on this one: what is essential love? It’s an aspiration that all beings, including our selves, find happiness and the causes of happiness. This is not ordinary happiness based on something as unreliable as health, wealth, a beautiful appearance, a good education, a good holiday, a good job, being loved, being held in high esteem or any of the other common circumstances we hope will bring happiness.

Essential love, basic love is the experience of well-being. So we start by finding the experience of well-being that’s not dependent on causes or conditions. We have to really feel well-being in our physical body, our subtle body, our mind and our perception. It has to spread throughout our life. It’s not some kind of romantic intoxication or sentimental attachment; it’s just a simple sense of well-being, an unconditional happiness that abides naturally within us. Once we’re able to identify what it feels like, the seed of wishing happiness for all beings can get the moisture it needs to grow. The heart of compassion starts to awaken through this well-being.

But what keeps this from happening easily in today’s world? Perhaps the obstacles presented by our complex lives often make the subtle body quite disturbed and subject to situations of hope and fear. It’s hard to stay fully open and present under such conditions.

What we can do to help our hearts open to basic love. It seems to me that the Four Applications of Mindfulness can be a powerful tool in that regard.Through them we can train our minds to become more relaxed and remain still. Only then can we really help ourselves. Through this practice our minds reach a state of calmness, stillness and openness, within which the experience of well-being, the basis of genuine love, starts to happen.

In this tradition, mindfulness of the body means our minds just rest within the body, with a sense of mind and body being inseparable. With resting comes awareness that simply knows what is going on in the body without the need to modify anything. Once we’re able to know the body without jumping into thoughts of the past and the future, the mind can rest in the present moment without getting involved in all the thoughts and feelings of hope and fear related to the present moment. It’s said that the body rests on the meditation cushion, and the mind rests on the body.

We observe the mind just by being aware of whatever is happening in the mind and recognizing it as such. Through mindfulness and knowing, our attention is focused directly on the mind, examining the mind’s activity. From where does it arise? Where does it stay? Where does it go when it disappears?

Through the practice of mindfulness, harmony is established between body, energy, consciousness and feelings. This harmony is experienced as calmness in the body and stillness in the mind. It’s the origin of natural well-being, the essence of unconditional love, unhooked from ego’s clinging to likes and dislikes.

Once we’ve experienced well-being and unconditional love, we need to nurture its essence. There’s no use finding this treasure and keeping it to ourselves. The essence of love is a precious seed whose function is to blossom into boundless compassion, great joy and complete equanimity which radiates to all beings. Together, basic love, boundless compassion, great joy and complete equanimity form the “Four Immeasurables”.

Genuine unconditional love and all of the Four Immeasurables start with the first step–the development and experience of well-being within us. So find that well-being that opens the heart. This love is not a thought, not a mood, not an emotion. It’s the kind of love that doesn’t fall into desire, attachment, or lust. It’s a well-being beyond any of these extremes. Once you experience it, simply rest with it for as long as it sustains itself. When thoughts and moods come, welcome them, but don’t change the basic flow. Once well-being flows and can be sustained, it’s possible to experience the active, dynamic energy of all Four Immeasurables needed to benefit ourselves and other beings. That is the essence of love, the precious blossom of the heart.

--Tsoknyi Rinpoche

Tsoknyi Rinpoche will be teaching at Wellesley College Monday, April ninth at 7 pm.

Infinite Circle: Wholeness and the Implicate Order

2012-02-08T18:54:00.000-05:00

Just realized I am not the first Zen teacher to footnote Bohm's groundbreaking book, Wholeness and the Implicate Order. I came across that book at a conference on transformative education. It continues to be cutting edge for me-- and for so many others-- in charting the connections between ancient wisdom traditions and modern physics through the path of nonduality. Bernie Glassman describes Bohm's experiment.

Kai has to do with unifying sameness and difference, and is associated with the image of shaking hands. When we shake hands, are they two or one? They are not one, not two....The point behind the word kai is best described by an experiment done by the physicist David Bohm. He took two cylinders and put one inside the other, so the inner cylinder could move freely. The space between the walls of the two cylinders was transparent. He poured a viscous liquid into the cylinders, then dropped ink onto the liquid. The ink formed globules when immersed, its presence was thus easily discernible.

When Bohm moved the inner cylinder, the inkdrops spread out and dispersed until he could no longer detect their presence. It was as if they had completely disappeared! But when he moved the cylinder back in the other direction, the ink globules reappeared. They had been there all along. Moving the cylinder in one direction made it seem as if the differences had completely disappeared and there was only sameness; moving it in the other direction, the differences reappeared. They had never really disappeared at all.

He did this with a lot of ink spots. Depending on how many times he turned the cylinder backward, he noticed more and more ink spots. They were all there!

Bohm used this experiment as an analogy for what he termed the "unfolding of life". He said that all events-- past, present, future--are right here, right now, but their emergence depends on which way things move. Some events materialize, or unfold, and some don't. But they're basically all there even though we may not actually see them.-- Infinite Circle, Bernard Tetsugen Glassman

Some people in Boston are currently trying to get hold of those cylinders, to see if they can turn the cylinder back to a certain fifteen minutes Sunday night, and materialize the end of a sports event, which unfolded in a distinctly unexpected manner...

Thirteen Indigenous Grandmothers at Wellesley College

2012-02-01T18:32:00.002-05:00

It is with a sense of gratitude and deep joy that we announce the Art and Soul program at Wellesley College will be hosting three of the 13 Indigenous Grandmothers this spring. The Grandmothers will give a talk at Houghton Chapel on Thursday, April nineteenth at seven p.m. The theme of their talk will be Planting Seeds for Seven Generations: Making Change. The Grandmothers will share their cultural treasures and life experience, in support of our community’s exploration of an ethics of wholeness, which can bring about a sustainable future for the generations to come.

Originating from all four corners of the world, these 13 wise women elders and medicine women first came together in 2004 at a peace gathering. They represent a global alliance of prayer, education and healing for our Earth, all her inhabitants and the next seven generations. We are honored to host, as representatives of this Grandmothers’ Council, Grandmothers Rita and Beatrice Long- Visitor Holy Dance of the Lakota tribe and Grandmother Mona Polacca of the Hopi/ Havasupai/Tewa tribe. This event is open to all, as an offering to our circles of community. For more information about this event, contact Ji Hyang at 781.283.2793~

Evolutionary Intelligence

2012-01-30T13:23:00.000-05:00

Musing again on transitions. How many of the classic stories of Enlightenment happen on the road, on the way to some other destination which is, in the final story- telling, not even named. Zen Master Gu Chi's overstay in a mountain hermitage, where through wind and rain, another visitor is borne in, who asks him for one true word...Su T'ung Po, who happens by a waterfall. Someone's head slips off a wooden pillow, someone else wanders by an old man crying for a deer. How incredibly valuable these transitional realms are--

Everything is changing, changing, changing-- yet there is an inner wakefulness, in which we can take refuge.

Just returned back from a month of travel, and resigned my post of chaplain at Babson College today. In order to teach wholeness and balance I need to model it myself: this is one step towards that goal. I am still teaching at Wellesley College, First Parish Needham, and pursuing a phD in Psychology...

Also moving to Davis Square this week. So I am very tangibly aware of the ephemeral nature of all phenomena, and deeply grateful to that grace and inner wakefulness we can envision as a Bodhissatva. Jizo-- whose simple, curious, awake energy is the clearest compass.

I believe in all that has never yet been spoken

2012-01-26T17:51:00.000-05:00

Upon return to Wellesley I find that yes, there are even epiphanies here-- among the succulents in the desert room of the Greenhouse, among the wild grasses at Broadmoor, among our circles of connection, here-- which have been nourished by my community's dedication all winter-- and within my own life.

I believe in all that has never yet been spoken

I want to free what waits within me

so that what no one has dared to wish for

may for once spring clear

without my contriving...

May what I do flow from me like a river

no forcing and no holding back

the way it is with children

then, in these swelling and ebbing currents,

these deepening tides moving out, returning

I will sing you as no one ever has

streaming through widening channels

into the open sea.

--Rainer Maria Rilke, trans. Barrows and Macy

Noe Valley

2012-01-22T08:55:00.000-05:00

As a friend of mine once said, life is too short for anything other than gratitude. So tonight I post these images of Noe Valley, in appreciation for all the beauty San Francisco has offered--

Flowers of the Valley

Noe Valley Farmer's Market

Noe Valley Farmer's Market also features beautiful momos crafted by Curry without Worry, a nonprofit which seeks to feed both body and mind through music and dance, human interaction and the merging of our global community--

One more reason to love this city.

Muir Woods, Mount Tamalpais

2012-01-21T22:56:00.000-05:00

Wild Horses

2012-01-19T15:38:00.000-05:00

One of the greatest gifts of this year: seeing these wild horses, in their singular beauty-- the grace and presence, sensitivity and raw strength of their being. While they knew very much I was there, they did not startle, but kept on with poise and unwavering intention towards their destination. We were in Death Valley, Amargosa Range near Nevada--

Petroglyphs, Marble Canyon

2012-01-19T01:55:00.000-05:00

My journey began with the Inyo Mountains, which I love dearly--

Coso Range, en route to Death Valley

Marble Canyon Petroglyphs-- I found myself asking, what is this?

Healing Across Cultures: Mukund Subramanian

2012-01-14T16:35:00.004-05:00

Institute for Transpersonal Psychology: Journey to Heal Across Cultures

Keynote by Dr. Mukund Subramanian

Ubi Caritas et Amor

Ubi Caritas Deus Ibi Est

Mukund's healing story illustrates that there is no necessary combination of race, language, religion, and culture. Human identity is so complex Mukind was born in Tamil Nada, India, then lived and studied in Japan for 14 years-- and also attended Reed College and Stanford.

Mukund's teacher was Omuro Toyo, who specialized in garlic moxibustion, which is powerful treatment for a wide range of conditions, especially for treating cancer, detoxification, rejuvenating organs, and mind/body based issues. In this treatment garlic is cut into slices, and applied to the body. Moxa is placed on top of the garlic. The moxa is then lit with an incense stick. There is a light massage given before this-- so that heat penetrates more deeply. Scientists working with bioenergetics have discovered that the garlic helps the heat of the moxa penetrate more thoroughly in the infrared spectrum. Mukund often treats clients with a 21 day protocol. This 21 day treatment is a relationship he creates with the patient: it is very intensive. The treatment is a journey to the edge where you feel your vulnerability, the weaknesses emerging from the body-- and it then brings you back from the edge.

Mukund's work began in Japan, in the late 80s, when he worked as a journalist. He attended a festival at Osori- San (Japan's Mount Dread) -- where the dead and living meet. This mountain is owned by the Sotoshu organization, it is a pilgrimage site. During the festival, blind women have seances there. There are shared prayers, and shared sleep on the temple tatami. Omuro lay near Mukund on the tatami, saying, "The ancestors will dance with us tonight." They each continued the practices of prayer and intercession, and then went on their separate ways. Four years, it went like this-- meeting at the sacred mountain, Finally, upon that fourth meeting, Mukund asked Omuro about her work. Their relationship, which had built over four festivals, began in earnest.

Omuro kept a statue of her ancestral deities, including Oshida-sama, a tantric figure, and a stone figure of Kannon. When Mukund asked Omuro a question, she referred him to Kannon- Sama. Try to lift that rock. If it comes up lightly, what you asking is more positive. When you cannot lift it, it is more negative. Sometime he had that experience...

Mukund paid Omuro several visits. In the meantime, he applied to a cultural anthropology program at Stanford. He knew he wanted change. He decided to do fieldwork on that whole world, where the magical was part of the everyday. Mukund and his partner performed traditional Indian dance in Japan, started learning the regional dialect, and started spending time with Omuro.

Mukund commented, "You don't go there, saying you will learn something-- that is too aggressive." He didn't have a conversation about learning the art straight out, but absorbed it through osmosis. Across time the door opened. In Omuro's work the sense of magical and divine was vivid. Sometime, when she was praying for a client the wax of the candle before her rose, bent-- and made the shape of dragon. Through this, the cause and remedy of the client's illness were clear, related to the geomancy of his land.

At one point, when Omuro was diagnosing Mukund, she touched him, and saw the image of the temple in South India connected to his mother's side of family. She described it perfectly, even though she had never been outside her region of Japan. She told Mukund, you need to connect to that deity. In further advice, she told Mukund, My diagnosis comes to me through my prayer...how can I teach it. You need to go through your own process, hone your own practice.

Mayama- san, a medium on the sacred mountain, had told him, when he asked her about this path, When you are 33 you will have an incredible crisis. If you don't pass that crisis it is the end of your life., so just try to make it through that. Mukund continued to study this healing art, and to work on his phD. In 2001 he had an immense crisis: he was disillusioned with academics, his relationship shifted. He nearly had a nervous breakdown: all of this while he was teaching at Stanford. Fortunately, his family background had given him the gift of a living faith. He had a shrine in his studio with his teacher's photo, Japanese Buddhas and other sacred objects-- he prayed with more intensity and clarity then ever before. Throughout 2002- 2004 he was still in intense crisis. Mukund's ongoing prayer-- his practice of grounding himself in this deepened his sense of intuition.

Finally, in 2004 Mukund returned to Japan. He visited his teacher, who was a little ill, and gave her a treatment. She asked where he learned this: he had treated her with highly precise intuition. Omuro told Mukund he had received this blessing from her ancestral deities: she herself had no idea how this had been transmitted to him. Omuro encouraged Mukund to share this with more people, to expand his horizon of doing this. "If sometime your career is stuck, do more moxa". Mukund went on with his academic vocation, and nearly took a job in East Asian studies-- but at the job talks, he did not refrain from also speaking from his position as a believer-- for many academics, this was too challenging. Half the people in the room loved his talk, the other half were offended. Mukund needed to trust his own process with this. He went on to do healing work as a profession.

There is wisdom in being dedicated to a practice-- in being present and witnessing across time. Through this one is bearing witness to a range of emotions: staying open to everything, unconditionally. Faith does not develop through resting in one's safety zones but through going to unknown territory, and developing a practice that helps you grow in the most difficult times. For one's clients-- the crisis also may be a benefit. Through this crisis they come into contact with intuition- that which needs to be rescued, which is key to their healing and growing. Mukund helps his clients to rescue their own intuition. In the healing arts, humbleness is key. Our happiness is not due to personal success. It is a wider success- a partnership with the universe.

In the cycles of our lives, every now and then we recognize that perhaps years later we are having the same problem we encountered years ago-- or we see ourselves saying the same thing our parent would say. These cycles of repetition and resemblance are a natural part of life. There is a beauty in this as well as real challenge. These cycles of repetition are actually the greatest opportunity to develop an intuitive spiritual practice.

Mukund finds that clients' trauma is held in their bodies. Moxa's healing is, in part, connected to its capacity for inducing dreaming. When Mukund is working with clients they often have vivid dreams which reveal the intial occurrence of a traumatic incident which led to their current situation. In this way, this practice of acupuncture and moxa treatment is very effective mind/body medicine. Moxa heat seems to penetrate many layers of the body/mind, and supports the client's opening to their deepest experience.

Intimacy at the level of the psyche

Mukund asked us, Have you seen someone practice mediumship? Sit, and be present with this. The atmosphere shifts: it is so crisp you can cut it. The client, spirit and medium are working so closely together that there is a profound sense of intimacy in that conversation. These three are sharing emotional and spiritual space, as well as the physical space of the medium's body. There are all kinds of emotions which emerge: tears, anger, what is remembered, what will happen... The energy that held that space together was one of intimacy and faith.

Intimacy and faith are inextricably intertwined. In India, many people choose their own deity and become very intimate with that deity: giving it love, scolding it, everything. There is a vividness in this: the relationship with one's gods is at the human level. Faith also gives rise to human intimacy. At one point, his teacher was so attracted to someone that it took her by surprise. Later, she discovered that he was very ill, and she had been attracted to him because she needed to heal him: her deities made her feel that way. Later on, she became aware of the attraction's true meaning. Love was leading to healing. Is that Omuro's own emotional expression? It is, and it is not. This attraction was another spirit's emotions coming through the emotions of her own body. One needs to ask, what is authenticity, what is intimacy in that context. Sometimes we may need to be playful with boundaries, to cross boundaries.

Trauma is different from violence: violence has a root, but trauma has no source-- there is a happening yet it permeates and persists in between the somatoemotional layers. Heat based therapy gets into those in-between spaces.

Intuition is a way of grounding and aligning from within, intimacy is a grounding and aligning from without: these together are a way of healing across cultures. Healing is enabled by a unique combination of one's humbleness and compassion, intensity of energy and relentless patience. Healing is a creative act, one which requires imagination and the willingness to cross boundaries. Healing is created between the patient and the healer, and in cultures and communities that help us inhabit this space.

Mukund was asked a question about the integrity of appropriating practices which are not culturally one's own. He answered with the words of his teacher-- to develop intuition it is not enough to pray. It is necessary to figure out which deity is most connected to you, precisely. Prayer practice will be of benefit-- evoking the same deity over many years will produce a powerful effect. When integrating traditions, it is important to do it slowly, carefully, humbly. The practice needs to be something you can maintain your integrity in. It is necessary to figure out precisely what your spiritual integrity is-- and to keep beginner's mind.

Answering another question about the correlation between healing and romantic attraction, Mukund noted that the root of many imbalances may be the base chakra. It is possible to work with this to heal other parts of the body. This is in a sense, tantric: using this sexual energy to heal different things. Intimacy and love are at the root of healing, and there are many ways of expressing what love is. His tools are mugwort, garlic, and presence.

Answering another question about prognosis, Mukund replied that sometimes healing is recognizing the likely outcome, and creating space and a plateau so that the client is able to let go-- to pass away without fear, and with even joy.

Los Gatos

2012-01-10T21:05:00.002-05:00

Spotted: hawk, band tailed pigeon, California quail, Western scrub jay, mule deer--

San Francisco Botanic Gardens

2012-01-09T11:36:00.000-05:00

Berkeley Botanic Garden

2012-01-08T01:22:00.000-05:00

Bolinas Bay: Returning

2012-01-06T20:48:00.001-05:00

Coyote

Muir Woods

2012-01-05T21:32:00.001-05:00

The Circle

2012-01-01T14:10:00.000-05:00

A Hopi poem for the new year, as we create the world around us.

There is a circle here ....
There is a web
A network
Strands connecting
Those who share the vision
Who feel the hope
Who sense the mystery
We touch life
We hear the planet’s pulse
We work quietly
Together
And alone
Each task
Each piece
Each a part of wholeness
There is a circle here ....

This poem is a circle: it ends where it begins, with us-- and the moment, clear in front of us.
Avalokitesvara, when practicing deeply, perceived the sound of the world.
In this silence, as we breathe in the New Year, what do we hear?

Optimism

2011-12-27T15:22:00.002-05:00

More and more I have come to admire resilience.
Not the simple resistance of a pillow, whose foam
returns over and over to the same shape, but the sinuous
tenacity of a tree: finding the light newly blocked on one side,
it turns in another. A blind intelligence, true.
But out of such persistence arose turtles, rivers,
mitochondria, figs -- all this resinous, unretractable earth.

~ Jane Hirshfield ~

(Given Sugar, Given Salt)

Re-post: What to Remember When Waking

2011-12-18T22:31:00.000-05:00

This week, I am writing on authenticity and destiny. Reading Hillman's The Soul's Code and Tibetan texts again. At the same time, renewing contact with my own calling, my own "acorn". When invited to contribute some words for a book to be given to a friend's daughter on her twenty-first birthday, I shared this poem: it is a beautiful reminder to find our path with heart.

Now, to that open and lovely white page on the waiting desk...

What to Remember When Waking

In that first hardly noticed moment in which you wake,
coming back to this life from the other
more secret, moveable and frighteningly honest world
where everything began,
there is a small opening into the new day
which closes the moment you begin your plans.

What you can plan is too small for you to live.
What you can live wholeheartedly will make plans enough
for the vitality hidden in your sleep.

To be human is to become visible
while carrying what is hidden as a gift to others.
To remember the other world in this world
is to live in your true inheritance.

You are not a troubled guest on this earth,
you are not an accident amidst other accidents
you were invited from another and greater night
than the one from which you have just emerged.

Now, looking through the slanting light of the morning window
toward the mountain presence of everything that can be
what urgency calls you to your one love?
What shape waits in the seed of you
to grow and spread its branches
against a future sky?

Is it waiting in the fertile sea?
In the trees beyond the house?
In the life you can imagine for yourself?
In the open and lovely white page on the waiting desk?
--David Whyte © 1999 Many Rivers Press

Broadmoor Fawn

2011-12-16T16:38:00.001-05:00

Recently there have been fewer animals on this blog-- due partly to weather and partly to the inexorable psychology reading list. I went out to Broadmoor to return to my senses-- and found a pair of does, browsing in the meadow. I stood still as our eyes met. Finally a fawn leapt past me, through the grass to its mother. As you can see, it has a marvelous dark coat and white tail.

Lake Maspenock

Presence

2011-12-14T14:32:00.000-05:00

The most precious gift we can offer others is our presence. When mindfulness embraces those we love, they will bloom like flowers.
--Thich Nhat Hanh

This season last year, I was part of a panel on sustainability, and spoke of "enough mind." This still point is so essential when our communities are awhirl with both final exams and holiday preparations. For many of us on campus, this is the week we return home to our families. And in another way, we will also be returning home to ourselves, from wherever we've been. If we have exams and papers to complete, as we read this, we may still be in the thick of it.

Know that if this is the case, you can still drop into a quiet room for a few minutes and rest the mind. Whatever we've been, we can come home to here, now, this. That gift of presence is the greatest gift we can offer those we love. So here is some homework for all of us. Spend some time getting reacquainted with yourself, your own ground of being-- appreciating and enjoying what is found there. As you visit family and friends over the holidays source from that place of presence, give your loved ones that singularly beautiful gift. See what happens...

Only Go Straight: cold, clear water of autumn

2011-12-11T18:06:00.000-05:00

Kanyini

2011-12-10T18:07:00.000-05:00

This video, narrated by Aboriginal elder Bob Randall, shifted my awareness of Australia's first peoples in memorable, poignant ways when Bob accompanied the film to Wellesley College a couple years ago. I was amazed to find this film in its entirety on the web. Here it is...

In the World

2011-12-07T23:21:00.000-05:00

In the World

Nirmanakaya is the fully awakened state of being in the world. Its action is like the moon reflecting in a hundred bowls of water. The moon has no desire to reflect, but that is its nature. This state is dealing with the earth with ultimate simplicity. You care for whatever needs your care.

--Chogyam Trungpa Rinpoche

This year I am not at Temenos for Enlightenment Day. I begin the morning, teaching meditation to business school professionals-- which the Buddha, in his compassion, would also have done. For the moment, I find sanctuary among the greenhouse flowers--

We will celebrate tomorrow night...

Salem: Water and Sky

2011-12-04T10:25:00.001-05:00

I went out to Salem, to see the open studio of Carol Dearborn, and share her vision of water and sky--

And discovered Salem itself, the source of so much ordinary magic.

Broadmoor

Anomaly

2011-11-30T23:13:00.000-05:00

The Art and Soul series creates community through the transformative power of the arts and the poetry of our shared stories. A special gift of this program has been the opportunity to lift up some of those threads of narrative that have not always been seen and witnessed within our common culture-- to let the power and beauty within these, be woven into the tapestry of our lives. Tonight we showed the film, Anomaly, which tells the story of multiracial Americans in their own words.

At Wellesley College, over half of our students are minority and/or international students. Many students have multiple belongings: more than one race, culture, or religion. The conversation about intersectionality has many values: it reminds us that definitions of race are socially constructed, returns us to our shared human experience. After all, if we go several generations back, who among us can say with certainty that our blood is not mixed? At the same time, as a great teacher once said, while the appearance of separation is an illusion, the suffering caused by that illusion is real. And so we have these great questions to take up, to live.
What are you?

Rumi: The Real Work

2011-11-25T12:30:00.001-05:00

There is one thing in this world that you must never forget to do. If you forget everything else and not this, there's nothing to worry about; but if you remember everything else and forget this, then you will have done nothing in your life.

It's as if a king has sent you to some country to do a task, and you perform a hundred other services, but not the one he sent you to do. So human beings come to this world to do particular work. That work is the purpose, and each is specific to the person. If you don't do it, it's as though a priceless Indian sword were used to slice rotten meat. It's a golden bowl being used to cook turnips, when one filing from the bowl could buy a hundred suitable pots. It's a knife of the finest tempering nailed into a wall to hang things on.

You say, "But look, I'm using the dagger. It's not lying idle." Do you hear how ludicrous that sounds? For a penny, an iron nail could be bought to serve the purpose. You say, "But I spend my energies on lofty enterprises. I study jurisprudence and philosophy and logic and astronomy and medicine and all the rest." But consider why you do those things. They are all branches of yourself.

Remember the deep root of your being.

--Rumi, trans. Coleman Barks

Invocation

2011-11-24T11:00:00.001-05:00

I deeply honor Thanksgiving for the moment of reflection it gives us to share, collectively.
Here is an invocation for the occasion

Om Namah Shivaya GuraveI offer myself to the one true teacher within and without, the True Self which is always guiding us
Saccidananda MurtayeIn the forms of reality, consciousness and bliss
Nisprapancaya ShantayaEver present, deep abiding peace
Niralambaya TejaseIndependent being, the vital essence of illumination

Uisang's Ocean Seal

2011-11-21T19:16:00.000-05:00

Fourteen people tonight, when the campus is already in the quiet of Thanksgiving-- reading Uisang's Ocean Seal together-- as if looking out from the highest mountain to the infinite, illuminating ocean...

Since Dharma- nature is round and interpenetrating it is without any sign of duality

All Dharmas are unmoving and originally calm

No name, no form

All Distinctions are abolished

It is known through the wisdom of enlightenment, not by any other level.

True nature is extremely profound exceedingly subtle and sublime

It does not attach to self nature

But manifests following conditions

In One is All

In Many is One

One is identical to All

Many is identical to One

In one particle of dust is contained the ten directions

And so it is with all particles of dust

Incalculably long eons

Are identical to a single thought- instant

And a single thought- instant

Is identical to incalculably long eons

The nine times and the ten times are mutually identical

yet are not confused or mixed

But function separately

The moment one begins to aspire with their heart

Instantly perfect enlightenment is attained

Samsara and Nirvana

are always harmonized together

Particular phenomena and universal principle are completely merged without distinction

This is the world of the Bodhissatva Samantabadra and the ten Buddhas

In Buddha's Ocean- Seal Samadhi many unimaginable miracles are produced according to one's wishes

This shower of jewels benefitting all sentient beings

fills all of empty space

All sentient beings receive this wealth according to their capacities

Therefore he who practices contemplation

Returns to the primordial realm

Without stopping ignorance it cannot be obtained

By unconditional expedient means

One attains complete freedom

Returning home you obtain riches

According to your capacity

By means of dharani

An inexhaustible treasure

One adorns the Dharmadhatu

like a real palace of jewels

Finally one reposes in the real world.

The bed of the middle way

That which is originally without motion

Is named Buddha.

--Uisang

Autumn Light

2011-11-16T14:24:00.000-05:00

These images are from the Botanical Gardens-- the leaves' brightness reflecting back to the sky their full measure of stored sunlight, like gleaming stars...

This is Lake Maspenock, in Hopkinton: my new neighbor--
the earth and water gathering their energies back into stillness.

Sacred Geographies

2011-11-14T10:59:00.000-05:00

Many visitors to my blog may be wondering, why there is less writing recently. My doctoral program in Psychology, through Institute for Transpersonal Psychology, receives the lion's share of my writing time. What I write for the program is not as experience- near as I prefer for this space. However, please enjoy this piece on Sacred Geographies, which I have allowed to cross over...

The earliest sacred geography of my life was the Atlantic Ocean, the Peconic Bay. Through those summers at the water’s edge I discovered beauty. I connected to family roots, but also found the family of horseshoe crabs, minnows and plovers. The ocean itself, in its wildness, the grace and fury of its waves—was where I first discovered the power of sacred space.

My first meditation retreat in Korea was at Shin Won Sah, on Kye Ryong San mountain. The mountains of Korea are venerated as sacred beings, as well as enjoyed for their beauty: Korean Buddhism stays close to its indigenous roots. Each mountain has its own San Shin (mountain spirit) which is honored through a shrine.

Walking into the San Shin building, which dates back to the Choson Dynasty, was like walking into a furnace, the room—though unheated, felt warm with presence. Oranges, rice cakes and nori (seaweed) rested on the altar, many candles burned, two women chanted continuously. Behind the altar, a grandfather, accompanied by a tiger, smiled upon the women, the foreigner, even the mouse which was nibbling a rice cake. When the practice was difficult that winter, I would hike around the mountain, and bow at the shrines of all the hermitages.

Several years later, I moved to Mountain Spirit Center: an exquisite place my monk- friend was building in the high desert of California, surrounded by wilderness. As I arrived there, the rain had recently stopped, releasing the fragrant resins of sage and chapparal into the air. My neighbors were the mule deer, jackrabbits, coyote and lizards, sheltered by sandstone and limestone cliffs.— My memories include the red dust which covered everything, the fierce wind—but primary, the magic of finding the place where I sat—knowing that even in this deep solitude, the mountains were practicing with me. And I was becoming part of these mountains.

Lake and Maple

2011-11-13T17:40:00.000-05:00

I want to give myself

utterly

as this maple

that burned and burned

for three days without stinting

and then in two more

dropped off every leaf;

as this lake that,

no matter what comes

to its green-blue depths,

both takes and returns it.

In the still heart that refuses nothing,

the world is twice-born --

two earths wheeling,

two heavens,

two egrets reaching

down into subtraction;

even the fish

for an instant doubled,

before it is gone.

I want the fish.

I want the losing it all

when it rains and I want

the returning transparanence.

I want the place

by the edge-flowers where

the shallow sand is deceptive,

where whatever

steps in must plunge,

and I want that plunging.

I want the ones

who come in secret to drink

only in early darknes,

and I want the ones

who are swallowed.

I want the way

the water sees without eyes,

hears without ears,

shivers without will or fear

at the gentlest touch.

I want the way it

accepts the cold moonlight

and lets it pass,

the way it lets

all of of it pass

without judgment or comment.

There is a lake.

Lalla Ded sang, no larger

than one seed of mustard,

that all things return to.

O heart, if you

will not, cannot, give me the lake,

then give me the song.

~Jane Hirshfield

Gleaning the Gold

2011-11-06T16:59:00.000-05:00

Broadmoor, Lake Waban, the Charles River falls and Elm Bank were all singularly full today-- New Englanders gleaning the last few moments of autumn gold, as the trees engage in one incredibly beautiful dance with the Sun...

Climbing

2011-11-03T19:28:00.001-04:00

I posted this years ago, when writing about my own climbing adventures. Five years later, the rareness and value of my own life continues to pose a great question, keeps me waking at 5:30. It's not an intended action; it's a natural action...

The main subject...is how to be a transmitter of actual light, life light. Practice takes place to shape your whole ability to reflect the light coming through you, and to generate, to re-generate your system so that the light increases its power. Each precept is a remark about hard climbing, maybe climbing down. You don't use the precepts for accomplishing your own personality, or fulfilling your dream of your highest image. You don't use the precepts in that way. The precepts are the reflected light world of one precept, which is Buddha's mind itself, which is the presence of Buddha. Zazen is the first formulation of the accomplishment of Buddha existing...

The more you sense the rareness and value of your own life, the more you realize that how you use it, how you manifest it, is all your responsibility. We face such a big task, so naturally such a person sits down for awhile. It's not an intended action, it is a natural action.
--Kobun Chino Roshi

Gaia's Trick-or-Treat

2011-10-30T11:20:00.000-04:00

Just when the leaves were beginning to change colors, a couple spectacular storms have arrived, with thunder, lightning and...snow.

Inside This Clay Jug

2011-10-20T16:26:00.003-04:00

Another sparkling moment at Art and Soul's This Rhythm is Not Mine, with John deKadt, Bonnie Argo, Lindsay Goodman and Charlie Braun--

Come and Dance with Me

2011-10-20T16:22:00.001-04:00

John de Kadt, Bonnie Argo, Lindsay Goodman and Charlie Braun at Wellesley's Art and Soul, a sparkling moment...

Every Child

Has known God:

Not the God of names,

Not the God of dos

Or the God of don'ts

But the God who only knows four words

And keeps repeating them, saying:

"Come dance with Me."

--Hafiz

This Rhythm is Not Mine

2011-10-19T23:26:00.001-04:00

Tonight Art and Soul enjoyed an extraordinary concert with John deKadt, Bonnie Argo, Charlie Braun, Ramu Pandit and R.N. Goswami. Pandit and Goswami are faculty with Wellesley's Wintersession in India program. John deKadt, Bonnie, and Charlie are skilled in interpreting world rhythms-- which, like the beating of the heart, connect us at the core. Videos to follow...

Every Child

Has known God,

Not the God of names,
not the God of don'ts,
Not the God who ever does anything weird,

But the God who only knows four words
And keeps repeating them, saying:
"Come dance with Me."

--Hafiz

Inside this clay jug
there are canyons and
pine mountains,
and the maker of canyons
and pine mountains!

All seven oceans are inside,
and hundreds of millions of stars.

The acid that tests gold is here,
and the one who judges jewels.

And the music
that comes from the strings
that no one touches,
and the source of all water.

If you want the truth, I will tell you the truth:
Friend, listen: the God whom I love is inside.
--Kabir

Peace Abbey

2011-10-16T18:15:00.001-04:00

The Peace Abbey in Sherborn lifts up all wisdom traditions--

as reservoirs of that highest potential within the human spirit.

As part of their mission, there are several animals living in the pasture, behind the Abbey: several refugees from the slaughterhouses-- and one pony. It was delightful, staying at the Peace Abbey bed and breakfast, to wake to the sound of its neighing. As we opened the blind and peered out, we saw the cow and pony looking up at us.

We saw a huge pig come lumbering out of the barn, heading directly for the cow.
This was so that they could exchange affectionate greetings: Pig and Cow are friends.

Spirals and Steles

2011-10-15T19:51:00.002-04:00

Today we visited just one of the studios open through Natick Artists Open Studios, and happened upon the work of Karin Stanley, a Wellesley alum whose work is prominently displayed in the Multifaith Center. Here are some of her lovely spirals and steles.

Update: just added more of these...

Elm Bank/ Broadmoor

2011-10-14T13:31:00.001-04:00

Elm Bank

Wellesley

Broadmoor

Greenhouses and Gardens

2011-10-11T16:46:00.000-04:00

silver birch trees, Connecticut

cows, Wellesley

meditation: our own bamboo grove and fish pond

Everything is still so green-- I continue to enjoy the cleansing scent of sage, the blossoming flowers...

Commute

2011-10-10T21:36:00.000-04:00

My commute to work is idyllic: along Route 16, walking. A lingering glance at the pasture on Pond Road, then circumambulating Lake Waban.

Yogini

2011-10-08T16:36:00.001-04:00

It has been a few weeks since I have brought my reflective process here-- it is so thoroughly in service of my ph.D work, our Wellesley programs, and the energy work which I am developing proficiency in.

This week I gave a talk at Harvard to a class on Buddhism and Social Change, on Women in Buddhism. Invariably, in these classes I am asked, why I decided to ordain as a nun. That part is very clear, and the story has been told here

My life has changed dramatically since then. I still put practice at the center of the mandala of my life-- though it takes a different form. There is no word for this in common use: Rita Gross suggests yogini.

In Indian and Tibetan Buddhism, yogis and yoginis lived a lifestyle that was neither monastic nor lay. They were more single-mindedly devoted to spiritual discipline and self-development than the average layperson and they abhorred the conventions of society. Though they devoted their lives to spiritual discipline and realization they did not live by monastic codes either....Often their spiritual disciplines were unconventional, neither known about nor approved by the monks of their day.

The model of a practitioner who is neither monk nor lay is relevant and attractive for contemporary Western Buddhists who are...by choice and necessity creating new models of Buddhism. It provides a model for being Buddhist that is quite open ended in its specific details yet demonstrates commitment to spiritual development and to the development of Buddhism in directions which are relevant for the time. It is also the model in which women fared best...

In the contemporary Buddhist world, especially in Western Buddhism, the yogini and the lay meditator may sometimes seem to blur into one model....If the contemporary yogini is different from the lay meditator, it is in the intensity of her quest and the unconventionality of her results...She will test the boundaries of the tradition and her own limits and horizons more recklessly...

They are the restless seers, longing for spiritual wholeness and depth who test and try all the forms to see which ones contain gold, who may even discover a new seam of gold in the wilderness...Working both within and beyond the limits of Buddhism as currently constituted, these feminist yoginis have already made a deep, though unacknowledged, impact on Buddhism. Because of their energy and insight, the auspicious coincidence of Buddhism and feminism in the West is occurring.

--Buddhism After Patriarchy, Rita Gross

My life is consistent with this path of boundary- crossings. I am a contemporary yogini.

Living Consciously, Dying Consciously

2011-10-07T09:03:00.001-04:00

Remembering that you are going to die is the best way I know to avoid the trap of thinking you have something to lose. You are already naked. There is no reason not to follow your heart.
--Steve Jobs

I have been training in a program: Living Consciously, Dying Consciously, which gives me more resources with which to be fully present to a person who is transitioning--and to teach this skill to others. Much of this work is based on the wisdom traditions, including Buddhism, which have insight into the transition process. I am also volunteering through this organization so as to assist families in experiencing closure, reconciliation and healing through this process.

As Steve Jobs has reminded us, death is our best teacher. When we realize we have only moments to live, we live freely and completely in the here-and-now.

New Format

2011-09-30T00:02:00.001-04:00

With the thunderstorm this evening clearing the barometric pressure, and a positive sense of new beginnings brought on by so many things, I've seen my way through to trying out a new blog format-- something versatile and colorful. I will spend the weekend in a workshop, learning how to teach others to attend to the dying. So much of our relationship to death is reflected in the way we embrace change on a day-to-day basis. Every ending is also the beginning of something else. This is my way of welcoming change-- may it bring new life to you, as well. Namaste--

South Natick to Lake Waban

2011-09-28T19:51:00.000-04:00

Iyeoka: SAY YES

2011-09-23T14:28:00.001-04:00

Iyeoka again brought her beauty, awakened our space, served as our muse-- reminding us of when we live fully immersed, one with our world...when we looked up at a sky and saw that deep blue, and knew we were that.

I believe we have 365 days to change. To change our altitude, our attitudes. To rise. To shine. To re-align. To get right. I believe we have 365 days to journey to be amazing, to uplift from the solitude. So this is my destiny of moments. This is my current anthem, the song speaking from my heart. I want to get there right now, right here on this stage. Lord knows, getting up here isn't always easy. Deliver me from trespassing in a trance. I want to transform as I go. I want to travel as an eagle, wings spread like freedom painted magnificence, catching the wind in unison with spirits parallel to the heavens. For today will mark the resurrection of the road...

Your next moment to shine flies on the horizon.

Iyeoka sang a proverb from Nigeria in her native language, so that it sounded brilliant, then translated it afterwards: she who is being deloused must not get upset, even if her hair is pulled, and related it playfully to her extrication from a relationship. For all of us who are going through the shedding and unmasking process of growth and change, it is a reminder: don't take anything personally.

In Memory of a Life

2011-09-22T14:06:00.001-04:00

God made human beings for inter-dependency and love. What distinguishes us from other species is our intrinsic compassion, our ability to reconcile and forgive. We were not made for vengeance or to kill one another.

To take a life when a life has been taken is vengeance, not justice.

--Bishop Desmond Tutu

Troy Davis was executed last night, the end of a judicial case which had marked racial overtones. For more on this case, see Amnesty International's report here.

Lake Waban Equinox

2011-09-21T18:20:00.002-04:00

peregrine falcon

Charles River, Place of Searching

2011-09-17T18:03:00.005-04:00

For years, coming home has meant crossing the Charles River. On the Red Line, crossing the Longfellow bridge, with sailboats beneath us. By car, crossing the river as it meanders through Cambridge. Now I live close to the Charles River again-- surrounded on three sides as the river winds through Natick, or as the Massachusettt Indians called this land, Place of Searching.

This land carries a history of intercultural dialogue, illumination and pain. The first Indians to practice Christianity formed a village here, to receive the preaching of John Eliot in the early seventeenth century. Their sachem was Chief Waban, whose name survives in the land, Lake Waban. The first Bible printed in the New World was printed in the Massachusett dialect. During King Philip's War, colonists decided that the Praying Indians could not be trusted. They were taken to Deer Island where they were interned, and forbidden to light fires, hunt game or build shelters. Most died there; those who survived to return found their homes and possessions gone.

The land I have moved onto was certainly close enough to be part of that village. I will chant for them. Their spirit lives through the beauty of this earth.

Great Blue Heron

Deer

2011-09-16T21:36:00.000-04:00

This week I have seen many beautiful deer: a few fawns on the Omega main path at dawn, a doe at the Hillhouse clearing. This morning I saw "Bucky", a young deer who was rescued by a local family when very small, and then released into the wild. It reminds me that we all have this innate gentleness, innate trust, innate beauty-- We see this within animals because we can touch this within ourselves.

Omega Four Winds

2011-09-15T23:15:00.002-04:00

Omega: September

2011-09-13T08:06:00.002-04:00

A Zen Teaching Moment

2011-09-11T07:42:00.000-04:00

We have arrived at the tenth anniversary of September eleventh. The energies around this event run very deep within our society. The event can be seen as a Zen koan-- what is an appropriate response?

Often, people have vivid memories of exactly what they were doing when they heard news of the tragedy: I do, as well.

On that morning I was teaching Zen to a room of corporate executives, who had reached the highest echelons of the business world. It was an avant- garde training someone had arranged, so that these executives could experience sparks of creativity by seeing other walks of life. From a Buddhist perspective, we would say these vice presidents belonged to a deva realm-- a world of bliss, power, wealth and long life. In a deva realm, it is so comfortable that there is not as much motivation to look into the self. How could I teach that First Noble Truth of Buddhism-- that suffering is a part of human life? I doubted whether the men and women before me were familiar with this concept. And yet, there it is. I chose my words carefully, and included the essential teaching that we do experience change. We will experience the grief of being separated from those we love, the imbalances of the body. If we have some self- insight, we can use even the painful experiences of life as an opening into insight, an opening of the heart which sees that our grief and the grief of all beings are actually one. This raw, tender place is the awakening of compassion.

Since we were in the Dharma Room, of course no one had cellphones on. It was only as we completed the session around ten a.m. that we discovered the whole world had changed. Throughout that week, these executives also experienced the separation from their loved ones caused by the cancellation of flights and no doubt many other uncertainties. We experienced together our shared humanity.

So, this week, may our hearts and minds together awaken, seeing our essential human condition-- all human beings want happiness. May our loving kindness extend above, across, and below, without any hatred, without any obstruction, without any enmity. This is to attain awakening in this life.

And I am including here, a beautiful teaching by Lama Surya Das which appears in the Washington Post.

Sept. 11, 2001: A Zen teaching moment

By Lama Surya Das

A wise Zen master once gave his meditation students the almost unanswerable koan, or existential riddle: “What is the most important thing?”

September 11, 2001 was such a Zen teaching moment, a fit koan for our time. As Americans sought answers and spiritual solace, church attendance across the country rose notably in the months following this national tragedy. That was a good thing, as questioning is the gateway to wisdom. But, ten years later, have we been asking the right questions? How many of those seekers actually became finders?

On that terrible day, when the buildings and airplanes - and our hearts -- sheared open, we were offered an unprecedented moment of intimacy, of a new, shared vulnerability. Our mutual confusion and grief during those intensely felt days of shock created powerful solidarity and empathy.

We realized how interconnected and interdependent we all are, both at home and abroad. This is how heartbreak can evolve into openheartedness, how we can gain through loss.

Unfortunately, those moments of openness and vulnerability passed all too quickly. America seemed more humiliated than humbled. It was soon apparent that we, as a nation, lost little of our hubris and sense of exclusionism. Instead of identifying more closely with those, globally, who have suffered similarly, we fell once more into old habits: working hard and shopping, hurrying and complaining, competing and arguing in our partisan and self-centered dogmatic ways. As we sought desperately to regain our footing and sense of security, both outer and inner, in this new world, fear and anxiety replaced openness, caring, kindness and curiosity.

As a teacher and mentor, over the decades I’ve learned to recognize extraordinary learning opportunities like 9/11. They leave plenty to build upon, so long as we maintain our clarity and goodhearted aspirations. And 9/11 was a wakeup call, above all.

The world has changed since then, but I’m not sure we have. The word religion originally comes from the idea “to unite”. Yet today, religious beliefs have become a divisive and even belligerent force in our turbulent world. I feel quite certain that this is not what the original founders and prophets, sages and saints intended! I see little evidence that we’ve learned much that is useful about religion and spirituality since 9-11. Many of us have learned a little more about Islam and that the word itself means peace, something many of us long for. But we still have much to learn about tolerance, and how to meaningfully integrate true spirituality into our daily lives.

Until recently, American wealth, power and prestige - providing us with a false sense of progress and security --grew by leaps and bounds. Meanwhile, countless others in foreign lands suffered from terrorism as hideous as our experience of 9/11. The Dalai Lama has dubbed this recent period “a century of bloodshed” while calling repeatedly for “a new century and era of dialogue.” Worldwide, others still face genocide and ethnic cleansing, war, poverty, hunger, epidemics, and environmental degradation.

We need to keep our hearts open, not only to one another, but to those far away from us, those who practice different faiths. This is the Diamond Rule.

Since September 11th, we’ve also learned that vast numbers of people adhering to other religions face their own internal struggles between extreme and moderate believers. They, too, struggle with modernity, science, reason and faith, and have their own brands of courage, and faith. We still know very little about other peoples and their beliefs - and 9/11 showed us the costs of that ignorance. Nor has our marginal newfound interest in global religion and cultures genuinely refined and deepened our grasp of the essence of transformative spirituality inherent in them all. We have not yet learned to turn the spotlight, the searchlight, inward, to help redress the imbalances caused in us, individually and collectively, by our extreme materialism, relentless outward orientation and lack of genuine self-knowledge.

Extraordinary learning opportunities like 9-11 aren’t always appreciated for their lessons. But we have plenty to build upon if we remember that original clarity of ten years ago, that extraordinary initial burst of empathy, cooperation, resilience, and our shared hopes for peace.

I believe we need to see the light, the divine, the buddhaness in everyone and everything, day-to-day and moment-to-moment.

We must ask ourselves what kind of people we really want to be. What sort of world will we create and leave for our children and the generations to follow? One important lesson of 9-11: it’s now or never. This is our time, our moment, to remember this timeless verity and act upon it.

How to extract meaning from memory? What is worth enshrining and memorializing in monument, verse and song? We Americans, hell-bent on deciding what to do, often forget why we do it, although intention is crucial. As global citizens we can and must choose to live mindfully and consider the implications and origins of all our actions: words, thoughts and deeds. It’s easy to mistake mere action for meaningful purpose and an authentic commitment to changing our ways. It is essential for our well-being and others that we forgive and remember, become better listeners, and learn the lessons.

Let’s use this weekend’s many memorial services as opportunities to awaken and open ourselves, to deepen and re-connect with one another, to reunite, to re-empower ourselves -- and our good hearts.

“You must be the change you wish to see in the world.”-Mohandas Gandhi

Inner Temple

2011-09-08T16:34:00.003-04:00

Nowhere, Beloved, will the world exist but within us.
Our lives are constant transformations. The external
grows ever smaller. Where a solid house once stood,
now a mental image takes its place,
almost as if it were all in the imagination.
Our era has created vast reservoirs of power,
as formless as the currents of energy they transmit.
Temples are no longer known. In our hearts
these can be secretly saved. Where one survives—
a Thing once prayed to, worshipped, knelt before—
its true nature seems already to have passed
into the Invisible. Many no longer take it for real,
and do not seize the chance to build it
inwardly, and yet more vividly, with all its pillars and statues.

Rilke, Seventh Duino Elegy

Having returned from my great travels in California, the vision of my phD clear in mind's eye-- it is time now to build foundations for the inner temple: to reconcile the realities of the world into a harmony of the soul--

So here is an incredibly beautiful chant for this rainy afternoon, to benefit the Gulf restoration. Enjoy!

Bolinas Bay, Point Reyes

2011-09-03T20:36:00.001-04:00

What Do You Love

2011-09-03T01:36:00.000-04:00

A few days in San Francisco-- and I came across this fence, on which people write what they love, using luggage tags....

Reading the tags offered a window into my own heart-- the vital energy of what I love sparks my path of service, insight and creative awakening.

So, what do I love:

Bay area gardens, which are lovely in all seasons.

Pasta Gina, in Noe Valley: fresh porcini and potato ravioli, fresh marinara sauce, and dark chocolate cake....

Vegan Sukiyaki, at Cha-Ya, Mission District

Muir Woods

2011-09-02T00:58:00.000-04:00

Los Gatos: Bear Creek Redwoods

2011-09-01T10:48:00.000-04:00

Stan Grof at Institute for Transpersonal Psychology

2011-08-29T15:54:00.003-04:00

Revisions in Psychological Theory Required to Accommodate Findings of Modern Consciousness Research

1. Nature of Consciousness and its Relationship to Matter

Give up the idea that consciousness is produced by the brain. We have evidence of a correlation of consciousness with the brain, but that that is different from proof of causation. It is as if we supposed that the images on a TV screen are produced by the physical hardware of the box. There is research, which is proof that consciousness can do things that the brain positively cannot do. For instance, the research on NDE (near death experiences). We can trace the neuro and chemical changes in the brain which are based on sensory experience-- but what is it that is able to make of these neurochemical changes, a sense of consciousness? The traditional neuropsychology approach can be likened to the story of Mullah Nazradin, who went looking for his keys by a lamppost. Of those who helped, no one was able to find the keys. Someone asked him, "Are you sure you lost the keys here?" He replied, "No, I lost them out in the field, but the light is better over here".

2.Architecture of Emotional and Psychosomatic Disorders

Right now all our understanding of the roots of emotional and psychosomatic disorders is based on post natal biography as well as the contents of the unconscious which can be ascribed to post natal biography. The biological process of birth can be tracked energetically, it is recorded in the psyche. We know scientifically there is an awareness and sensitivity inside the womb. There is also general agreement that the period just after birth is extremely significant. Why would the 15-20 hours of birth-potentially life threatening situation, not be noticed? The reason traditionally given is that the neurons are not yet fully myelinized. Yet we know that nursing and post-birth contact is important. This is a powerful repression of the difficulty of birth within our collective awareness. We do not need a fully operational cortex to have memory: even fish are seen to have memory.

Therefore, for psychology to accurately trace the roots of emotional and psychosomatic disorders we would need to add two major domains to unconscious: the perinatal and transpersonal. Transpersonal awareness opens into experiences of synchronicity, collective consciousness, awareness of other times and places sometimes with a sense of personal remembering (deja vu/ deja vecu), archetypal realms. mystical experiences: these are all normal functions of the psyche, not psychotic.

In traditional psychology, if the problem is not physiological it is traced to postnatal biography. Yes, there is this, but it does not stop there. The roots of a situation may be traced through perinatal, and beyond this to the transpersonal, perhaps even a past life. To clear an energetic imprint you need to go to all those levels-- and have the context that supports going there. This is evidenced by the number of people who have gone through analysis, who often have complete understanding of their issues yet there is not a difference in their achievement of freedom from these patterns.

3. Strategy of Psychotherapy and Self-Exploration

For Jung the psyche was not inside of the skull. Since his discovery of synchronicity-- this playful interaction of psyche and world- he saw that the psyche is cosmic, the anima mundi. We are continually participating in the cosmic matrix. This is confirmed within psychedelic research.

What we can do is to create a supportive environment for the psyche's own work. Jung saw this, through alchemy, as the hermetic vessel in which transformation happens. We can offer a method through which the ego communicates with the higher aspect of the psyche and healing happens as a dialectic exchange through symbolic language. The therapist is creating space-- the communication which happens is guided from within, by the Self. The therapist needs to have enough humility to let it happen. As in Les Miserables: there is one aspect greater than the ocean, which is the heavens. there is one aspect greater than the heavens, which is the soul...

With certain practices, the process itself chooses the material that needs to be worked on that day: material which has high emotional charge and is also available on that day. The therapist is engaged in spiritual midwifery.

4. Role of Spirituality in Human Life

Through these practices you will connect with numinosity: a quality different from everyday life. A sense of sacredness comes in. Even working with positivistic scientists, Marxists, Grof found that at that level the numinous enters, regardless of beliefs. This experience is not dependent on religion or belief. This underlying spiritual experience of the psyche is the basis of all religion.

Los Gatos

2011-08-28T01:17:00.002-04:00

Los Gatos, the cats, is named after the cougars which are native to the area. Walking through deep redwood forest, I heard owls call. In the chapparal, a covey of quail rose into the sky. At night, the sky is covered with stars.

Point Reyes

2011-08-25T22:44:00.000-04:00

pastoral lands, Point Reyes

Chimney Rock

Sea Lions, Drakes Estero

Coreopsis

Stinson Beach