First of all, thank you to Joe, for his effective and insistent enthusiasm for building this Dharma community. The patiently insistent reminders have worked: here I am!
I, like Joe suggested, scheduled this time to write a blog post, and to think specifically about Dharma. The graduation season now over (finally!), and with a brief lull before moving-to-Asheville-season (finally!), it seemed the perfect time to think about Dharma, its role in my life, and its role in this personally transitional and significant period. And then, as I opened the UD blog page and Microsoft Word simultaneously, my computer crashed. It was almost immediately funny, after having just looked over blog posts about obstacles, laziness, distractions, etc. No matter, I thought. I still have a Davidson College ITS account for a few weeks- I’ll go to the library (which I’ve grown to know well over the last four years, and never changes) and spend some time on the computers there. Alas! I entered the library to find it gutted, and stood, mouth agape, amidst streams of hard-hatted construction workers as they wasted no time beginning the significant renovations I had forgotten about.
It is easy for us to manufacture obstacles. I would practice, but I don’t have time. I would practice, but I don’t have the right ‘things’. I would practice, but I had planned on doing this practice, and I only have the text for that practice. I would practice by sharing my thoughts and experiences with Dharma, and participate in building the Urban Dharma community, but my computer crashed, and the (sometimes) beloved library is empty and changed. Oh boy! So many obstacles, indeed.
But, as our many teachers, books, experiences, and Sangha remind us, these obstacles are exactly that: manufactured. It is possible for us to practice right now, right here, regardless of circumstances. Hun reminded me the other day that we do not practice by the circumstances we place ourselves in, or construct around us. We practice by our response to the circumstances around us. If we are circumambulating the Jokhang, the holiest temple in Tibet, and habituating our minds to the six defilements…well, that does not seem like effective practice. But even if we are in the worst of circumstances, the least “Buddhist-y” of surroundings, if we are engaging in the six perfections…then, I think, that is practice.
With Urban Dharma, we have an opportunity to create the circumstances conducive to practice. Because, of course, while we ideally can habituate the six perfections regardless of our circumstances, in reality, it is difficult to do this. We are easily distracted, easily influenced by our surroundings. While I repeat the prayers about the preciousness of Dharma, and the value of practice, and of the certainty of the suffering of samsara, that conviction is not as deeply held as it could be. Otherwise, I would be enlightened! I think if we really, entirely, were aware of the certainty of the suffering of samsara, and of the preciousness and truth of Dharma, I do not think I would continue to create negative karma. So, without these perfected convictions, we can easily be swayed by our surroundings.
Therefore, Urban Dharma is the potential to create those surroundings which promote Dharma. Not just circumstantial Buddhism, but real practice, real investigation, real understanding. And, as Joe has pointed out, a huuuuge chunk of that comes from this community. We all have our teachers, we all have our ritual objects, we all have our texts. What Urban Dharma really does and will continue to do is provide a community. It will also introduce others to Dharma, beginning wherever they are, and show them the fundamental ideas, the teachers, the rituals, the meditative practices, and the texts. But especially with this core group, this initial group, Urban Dharma gives us the chance to participate in a community of like-minded people, who can remind each other how to practice Dharma, how to choose the path that brings real happiness. I lose the path so easily when I strike out on my own. I firmly believe that we can each help to keep each other on the path: that is the value of this community.
See (most of you) in Asheville, soon enough!
Brian
Very nice post! Turning the mind is true dharma practice; sitting on the cushion, reciting prayers is simply practice. Important, but not quite yet the real thing. The mind that turns to dharma, even in the face of obstacles, to that I prostrate!
ReplyDeleteAlso enjoyed reading this, and EXACTLY. So much of the Buddhist instruction is oriented directly at the mind; we might, after a while, have this idea that Dharma can be practiced out of context or that perfections can be switched on and off like switches by force of will. But not a lot of consideration for space, context, community... Also, that mind stuff is really hard, and needs a lot of support; if our support is not, say, a monastery on a mountain, perhaps it can be Urban Dharma. I will be interested to hear more your transition into Asheville...with the Dharma.
ReplyDeleteAnd hopefully, Brian, when you share your transition into Asheville (with the Dharma) here on this blog more regularly... it might also plant some seeds for the eventual return to Asheville of some prodigal sons! :-)
ReplyDeleteI find it useful to meditate upon not only our immediate physical/mental/emotional response to less conducive circumstances, but also upon the more fundamental relation we have with the situation that causes us to label it "inadequate" or "distracting". If we can find where that aversion emerges, we can turn our minds and interact with obstacles in a way that makes them catalysts for practice. This, of course, is first strengthened by the confidence we gain in our practice through the Sangha, which is why UD will be so important in this ADD city!
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