[2012 Spring Week 9 Dharma Talk] Faith and Devotion in Modern Times

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?