The Dalai Lama Talks to the Thais (and Some White Guy Watches it on Youtube)

I perhaps should reiterate my larger goal in posting my personal experience with Dharma in this otherwise public forum, for I do think the benefits of having not one but many of us regularly contributing some tid-bit or essay on our connection with Buddhism would be great. After all, we are bound more strongly by the Dharma than any other attribute or affiliation—and right now we are spread over states and continents. It is a pity not to share what should be shared and what will only make us more coherent and comprehensive as a group. As of now, I’m not sure what anyone knows about anything (I don’t say that as a challenge, but in simple honesty; although I know how heavily most of you are involved with the Dharma, I have only rarely, through some collaborative projects involving Urban Dharma, gotten to hear anyone talk about why Dharma was important to them, and what they wanted others to get from it). So I imagine this blog has the potential to become such a forum to develop not only our sense of a Dharma community but also our own personal ability to express Dharma-related ideas.

If you think this Dharma sharing is a good idea and want to contribute, I would suggest making a schedule (and a promise) for yourself to do so. Contribute once every week, or every other week. To contribute something. I think it is very hard to wait to be inspired to write something. Rather make it a scheduled goal to do so, then, all week, your mind will be anxious to catch upon something to write about. Then you’ll have something to share, and you might also have caught something you would have otherwise missed.

Lastly, I would suggest trying to avoid, if it arises, a false humility that Dharma is something too pure and you shouldn’t mar it by putting it into your own words. I think it’s our responsibility to really counteract this idea. Dharma is not an abstract ocean of truth; it’s our everyday collision with obstacles and our fumbling attempts to solve them. For us, now, Dharma is going to mundane, no matter if it’s how we write about it--it’s already probably how we think about it.

So what I was going to post in the first place:

Link to video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xl9ycLV7IKA&feature=youtu.be

I have had time recently to go over my “Buddhist” inbox in g-mail to re-look at some things that flew by me the weeks leading up to Baby William’s birth, a period also including my sister’s visit to Taiwan. (I had originally wanted to post something about that as well, but, you know, obstacles…in any case, while she was here, we sort of did the, what, “initiative rites” of becoming a Buddhist, like buying a mala, smelling incense, and becoming familiar with some deities through a regular practice, things that I definitely remember going through though not at the time realizing they were necessarily going to repeat with my role changed; but most sincerely, I wanted to write how valuable the time with my sister was for my own practice, at that time, to have someone constantly by my side especially for meditation practices; sharing with another person is quite grounding!) One thing that I pulled up in g-mail was the approximately two hour Youtube video of His Holiness the Dalai Lama talking to a room of Thai Buddhists.

It’s a fairly small setting and, though the questions are read off pieces of paper, it seems fairly informal. How often are you invited to a two hour question and answer with the Dali Lama? But the best thing about getting your Dharma from Youtube (besides not having to worry about if you should ask a question or not) is that you can watch sections several times over to gain a deeper appreciation for the movement of the rational or the details of a specific consideration. Besides being a deeply profound, non-mysterious, discussion about Buddhist values and motivation, the video also affords many opportunities to laugh along with His Holiness, which I must confess, I found myself doing so much that Fiona began giving me more and more quizical looks across the room as though disbelieving I was still watching the same Buddhist video. All of that is to say, upfront, that I really hope you check it out when you have the time. If, either up to now or by the end of the post, your urge to view this has been satiated by my words in anyway, then I would regret that I wrote too much. That is to say, what follows are my reflections upon seeing the video; they certainly do not substitute as summation.

What I felt like I could learn from His Holiness the Dalai Lama was both the sincerity and breadth of the fundamental practice of compassion which he advocates and his non-mysterious rational approach, such as, through western scientific methods and experiments proving the human benefit of compassion. Perhaps from anyone else I might not have taken that news as profound or even revolutionary because, of course, the whole premise of Mahayana practice is built upon the transformative aspects of compassion, and in the texts, it doesn’t very often turn up as a surprise that it actually is. Luckily then, there are still some that have taken Buddha up on his requirement to “test his teaching.”

This comes at the same time I am, and many of us are, reading Bodhicharyavatara, where the benefits of cultivating bodhichitta are quite clearly explained. It will, “take our impure flesh and make of it the body of a Buddha,” “consume great sins like a fire,” “protect us like a hero even through we walk through great perils,” “continuously bare fruit,” “even in diversity bring forth positive effects,” and so on (these previous are all paraphrased but can all be found in the first chapter). If these pronouncements are a little too unbelievable to you now in your practice (they seem fantastical to me), perhaps we haven’t done enough of the most basic investigation, like above—what the Dali Lama seems intent to bringing us back to—the clear, tangible benefits that a practice based in compassion (not even necessarily Buddhist) has been scientifically proven to have on the calmness of mind, personal happiness, and even physical health and wellbeing. If we can accept that as our medicine, then the rest, the proud pronouncements made by Shantideva, can be felt with more devotion and certainty. The more we study Buddhism and test it to clear, impartial standards the more clarity and faith we can eventually have and the more powerful our practice will be.

So this I really found helpful, and otherwise I really enjoyed his teaching (not only because I laughed a lot but because it was instructive) and hope that you get to watch this if you get a chance. I would also like to hear—because he covers quite a lot in these two hours—what you got from the teaching as well, perhaps in a comment below.

All Compounded Obstacles are Impermanent

The last couple of days I have been watching a teaching by HH the 17th Gyalwa Karmapa on the Four Seals of Dharma as seen on Youtube, and thought to formalize my hearing, I would do well to post something, if only in the end to get used to some of the ideas myself, and deepen my relationship with them. A lot of what I have been trying to get used to, as a practitioner involved with UD, is to find what ways I can talk about the Dharma that are clear and useful, so this post is also an attempt to continue that enterprise.

One thing that struck me in his discussion of the first seal, i.e. all compounded things are impermanent, is his short discussion of obstacles that get in our way of practicing the Dharma. The usual ones we think about, finances, shelter, health, he acknowledges are only the common obstacles (I paraphrase). They are not necessarily unique to anyone. Rather the most critical obstacles are the shape and attitude of our mind, the various subtle displays of emotion that keep us from practicing regularly or sincerely. In fact, when we feel obstructed by outward physical things like these, we should remind ourselves that they are directly the consequence of a more fundamental obstruction of the mind that has allowed them to thus arise.

Here, I'm beginning less to paraphrase what he said than to discuss what it meant to me. (In any case, rather than read me paraphrase, one ought rather to watch the video oneself!) For the past several weeks, I have been increasingly conscious of the first of the Four Thoughts that Turn the Mind: "For this lifetime I have obtained a body of evident leisure and endowment which has been extremely difficult to find and will easily be lost..." My practice, on the brink of becoming a father, seemed (as all unstable compounded phenomena are) threatened in the face of change. And so I was extra conscious of keeping precious the time I did have for practicing the Dharma even if only for that day. However, if I bring H.H. Gyalwa Karmapa's discussion to bear upon my this, I find that this really isn't the concern. In this life (unstable/changing/impermanent), we will always be faced with the possibility of something taking over or compromising our relationship with the Dharma. Instead, if we take care of our minds, then we will always have "the leisure" for our practice.

I was very inspired by this talk and hope to finish the last nine parts, covering the next three seals. (Three more postings?--maybe!)

For a link to the YouTube video click here.

Urban Dharma NC Inc!

A joyful belated newsflash- Urban Dharma NC, Inc., received its incorporation papers this past February. This means we are registered as a corporation with the state of North Carolina, and is the first step on the path to full status as a 501(c)3 tax-exempt organization. The next steps involve establishing clear organizational structures and then filing paperwork with the IRS on the federal level.

The next steps will begin in a couple of weeks. Right now, I am studying for senior exams and engaged in all the other end-of-college commitments. However, as soon as graduation happens (May 15th!), I am focused on Urban Dharma and coordinating a successful organization that will support the seeds of Dharma in Asheville and in our own lives. So, look forward to updates about the nonprofit path, along with organizational developments as they occur. Very soon, we will be needing all the support, expertise, and time people can give, in order to determine how Urban Dharma will run, and then (the most fun part) to run it.

I am excited to be getting to Asheville soon, to working with all of you, and to being a part of getting this organization, whose mission we believe in, off the ground (and keeping it there!)


In the Dharma,

-Brian