Ken Mcleod, the founder of Unfettered Mind, is known to be one of the more innovative teachers today and is known for his ability to explain difficult and subtle teachings and to bridge the gap between contemporary life and traditional approaches to spiritual practice. He first began the talk with a meditation, asking us to focus our minds not only on our breathes but noticing when our minds wandered and to bring it back, just like a pen sitting on a table, it'll eventually roll off but all we need to do is recognize that and bring the pen right back onto the table. The point is to stop, (emphasis on stop) and then bring your mind back to your breath.
Ken introduced the ideas of faith, belief, and devotion to us and explained the differences between each. Faith is the willingness to be open to all the possibilities around us. In many other religions, they need faith to have belief but that is not always the case in Buddhism. Taking refuge in the three jewels is having faith in the three jewels. Prayer and meditation are methods of taking refuge in the three jewels. Devotion is not always handing over your whole life to one being, but rather recognizing the awe in your life and being inspired from it.
Bringing everything back to meditation, we were asked why do we study Buddhism? Then after answering asked Why? And continued this answering and questioning until you can't come up with an answer anymore. At that moment in time, what do you feel? What do you feel in your heart? And then to recognize and remember what this feeling so that the next time you meditate, recall this feeling first. The heart and mind are a direct translation of one another is many languages for a reason. Many only focus on the mind but it is also important to remember that the heart is a significant part of meditation. What you feel is very important. So the next time you meditate, ask yourselves, Why?
Tuesday, May 29, 2012
Thursday, May 17, 2012
[2012 Spring Week 7 Dharma Talk] Living a Good Buddhist Life
On the 17th, our speaker was Venerable Guo Xing, a PhD. student at the UCLA center of Buddhist studies. She spoke on the theme of "Living a Good Buddhist Life" to the students, grad students, and UCLA workers gathered that night.
Given the large scope of the idea, Venerable Guo Xing decided to focus mainly on two concepts of Buddhism she believed tied will into the concept. The first was the five precepts-- five suggestions made by the Buddha to lay people (as she mentioned later, Venerables have about 250 more precepts, while nuns have as many as 349) in order to live a good life. According to her, the best way to understand them was not as a series of laws (as in the case of the Ten Commandments, for example), but in the framework of increasing compassion to other beings.
These are:
Avoid Killing: This applies to all living beings, not just humans. This may, according to one's beliefs, include indirect killing such as eating meet. She gave us an example of why we should be compassionate to all beings, as follows. When we are cut, we feel pain. We know therefore, from own pain and from the bodily actions of those we harm, that they too are in pain. Therefore, a compassionate being should not kill others.
Avoid Stealing. This again calls upon the idea that we would be unhappy to lose what we have, therefore we should avoid taking what is not ours.
Avoid Lying. In addition to the question of compassion, Venerable Guo Xing posited that the worst kind of lie, as far as Buddhist scripture goes, is claiming that one is the Buddha or that one is enlightened, lest one lead others astray from the path to true enlightenment.
Avoid Sexual Misconduct. This is again related to the concept of not hurting your loved ones.
Avoid Drugs and Alcohol. This is meant more as a precaution against committing the other acts. When one is under the influence, they are more likely to commit those sins.
She also framed "good Buddhist life" in the context of wisdom, the building of one's own Karma. According to her, in addition to both the cause and effect, there is also the importance of condition. We create our conditions through the effect of our previous actions. Therefore, we should try to make good actions to improve our environment. For example, when she does her laundry, Venerable Guo Xing makes sure to clean the laundry room around her. By making the area cleaner, she makes the room better for her and those around her.
Claiming the two concepts of compassion (helping others) and wisdom (improving yourself) as two wings, Reverend Guo Xing captured some of the ideas we discussed in the previous few weeks into a simple yet deep lesson on what it means to live a good life. We finished our meeting with a group discussion and a relaxing round of meditation. Thank you to everyone for coming and enjoying a[]d wonderful lesson on a highly applicable subject.
Given the large scope of the idea, Venerable Guo Xing decided to focus mainly on two concepts of Buddhism she believed tied will into the concept. The first was the five precepts-- five suggestions made by the Buddha to lay people (as she mentioned later, Venerables have about 250 more precepts, while nuns have as many as 349) in order to live a good life. According to her, the best way to understand them was not as a series of laws (as in the case of the Ten Commandments, for example), but in the framework of increasing compassion to other beings.
These are:
Avoid Killing: This applies to all living beings, not just humans. This may, according to one's beliefs, include indirect killing such as eating meet. She gave us an example of why we should be compassionate to all beings, as follows. When we are cut, we feel pain. We know therefore, from own pain and from the bodily actions of those we harm, that they too are in pain. Therefore, a compassionate being should not kill others.
Avoid Stealing. This again calls upon the idea that we would be unhappy to lose what we have, therefore we should avoid taking what is not ours.
Avoid Lying. In addition to the question of compassion, Venerable Guo Xing posited that the worst kind of lie, as far as Buddhist scripture goes, is claiming that one is the Buddha or that one is enlightened, lest one lead others astray from the path to true enlightenment.
Avoid Sexual Misconduct. This is again related to the concept of not hurting your loved ones.
Avoid Drugs and Alcohol. This is meant more as a precaution against committing the other acts. When one is under the influence, they are more likely to commit those sins.
She also framed "good Buddhist life" in the context of wisdom, the building of one's own Karma. According to her, in addition to both the cause and effect, there is also the importance of condition. We create our conditions through the effect of our previous actions. Therefore, we should try to make good actions to improve our environment. For example, when she does her laundry, Venerable Guo Xing makes sure to clean the laundry room around her. By making the area cleaner, she makes the room better for her and those around her.
Claiming the two concepts of compassion (helping others) and wisdom (improving yourself) as two wings, Reverend Guo Xing captured some of the ideas we discussed in the previous few weeks into a simple yet deep lesson on what it means to live a good life. We finished our meeting with a group discussion and a relaxing round of meditation. Thank you to everyone for coming and enjoying a[]d wonderful lesson on a highly applicable subject.
Wednesday, May 2, 2012
[2012 Sprin gWeek 5 Dharma Talk] Discussions on impermanence, attachments, happiness, and death.
Unfortunately, our speaker, Rev. Kusula, wasn’t able to make it this week. We hope to see him again soon; he always leads amazing Talks. However, true to UBA spirit, we adapted and we changed our format for this week. With the addition of tasty nachos, we held a group discussion on the subject of impermanence and on other general topics about Buddhism.
Simply, impermanence is the idea that things in this life are impermanent; nothing lasts forever. Therefore, it is important to live in the present moment. For instance, we agreed that relationships will inevitably end (for whatever reason) and it is important to cherish the time you have with someone. It is also important not to put anyone on a high pedestal; people are not stagnant and people are constantly changing.
This led to a discussion of attachments. If everything is bound to end, then is there a point to attachments to objects or to people? Many of our members agreed with the symbol of an open hand. Our interaction with forms of attachments should be like having our hand open, palm facing upwards. We allow things to land on your hand, but we also allow them to leave; we do not firmly grasp or try to trap anything. We should be able to live in contentment when we are without attachments. We should be able to let things come and go.
Furthermore, we agreed that there seems to be different levels of attachments. While it is true that desires cause suffering, certain desires are worth that burden. Attachments, formed from the right intentions, are not necessarily negative and are worth having. Take friends and family as examples of good attachments!
We also delved into questions of happiness and death. We discussed the distinction between instantaneous happiness and lasting happiness. Although somewhat tricky to answer, we agreed that happiness is not permanent, but that should not deter us from finding joy in life. We briefly talked about death as well. We all realized that life is impermanent. Therefore, because death is inevitable, we must live life fully and compassionately.
Yep, we went through many topics! But our discussion was so interesting; everyone had such personal and intriguing interpretations of impermanence and Buddhism in general. In fact, it was crazy how much time had gone by! Although it has passed, it was so wonderful to have such an intimate group of amazing people, all sharing in a moment of blissful contentment!
Simply, impermanence is the idea that things in this life are impermanent; nothing lasts forever. Therefore, it is important to live in the present moment. For instance, we agreed that relationships will inevitably end (for whatever reason) and it is important to cherish the time you have with someone. It is also important not to put anyone on a high pedestal; people are not stagnant and people are constantly changing.
This led to a discussion of attachments. If everything is bound to end, then is there a point to attachments to objects or to people? Many of our members agreed with the symbol of an open hand. Our interaction with forms of attachments should be like having our hand open, palm facing upwards. We allow things to land on your hand, but we also allow them to leave; we do not firmly grasp or try to trap anything. We should be able to live in contentment when we are without attachments. We should be able to let things come and go.
Furthermore, we agreed that there seems to be different levels of attachments. While it is true that desires cause suffering, certain desires are worth that burden. Attachments, formed from the right intentions, are not necessarily negative and are worth having. Take friends and family as examples of good attachments!
We also delved into questions of happiness and death. We discussed the distinction between instantaneous happiness and lasting happiness. Although somewhat tricky to answer, we agreed that happiness is not permanent, but that should not deter us from finding joy in life. We briefly talked about death as well. We all realized that life is impermanent. Therefore, because death is inevitable, we must live life fully and compassionately.
Yep, we went through many topics! But our discussion was so interesting; everyone had such personal and intriguing interpretations of impermanence and Buddhism in general. In fact, it was crazy how much time had gone by! Although it has passed, it was so wonderful to have such an intimate group of amazing people, all sharing in a moment of blissful contentment!
Subscribe to:
Comments (Atom)