Dharma and Community

Not much to say, just something to pass along from Chapter 7 of Food for the Heart, the collected teachings of Ajahn Chah, the great master of the Thai Forest tradition. While the talk is directed at the monastics in his monastery in Thailand, it applies to all Dharma communities.

He begins by referring to the importance of the duties in the monastery.

"These duties hold us together as a single group, enabling us to live in harmony and concord. They also give us respect for one another, which in turn benefits the community.

In all communities, from the time of the Buddha to the present, no matter what form they may take, if the residents have no mutual respect, they cannot succeed. Whether the communities are secular or monastic, if they lack mutual respect they will have no solidarity. Negligence will set in and the practice will eventually degenerate.

Our community of Dhamma practitioners has lived here for about twenty-five years now. It is steadily growing, but it could deteriorate. We must understand this point. But if we are all heedful, have mutual respect, and continue to maintain the standards of practice, I feel that our harmony will be firm. Out practice as a group will support the growth of Buddhism for a long time to come."


Urban Dharma NC is a new Buddhist community. To succeed, it will need a lot of work. A lot of duties to be fulfilled, a lot of tasks to be completed. However, this isn't drudgery! It is dharma work, and is at the very root of building this community, and of building trust and respect between the members of this community. On one level, without the nitty-gritty tasks being completed, nothing will come to fruition. But on another level, without those shared duties, that shared time, those shared efforts, that shared Dharma practice; the necessary trust and respect won't develop, and then even if the physical aspects manifest in the most glorious of ways, a stable community will not be built.

Of course, nothing is permanent! But, we have the choice right now, and every moment going forward. We can maintain our practice, grow in our practice, as individuals and as a community, and generate trust and respect with each other. We can decide to create the best conditions we can, to lay the firmest foundation. Then, Urban Dharma can truly support the growth of Buddhism (in Asheville, in America!) for a long time to come.

Buddhism and Sexual Ethics

This is a really good talk by Jose Cabezon on Buddhist Ethics as it relates to sexual conduct. Really good analysis; he comes up with a pretty good argument for rethinking the traditional, more restrictive interpretation on the conduct for lay people, to a less restrictive, and as he argues, actually, more traditional interpretation.

Basically, the more current formulation has restrictions on homosexuality, masturbation, and many forms of heterosexual conduct, as well. He argues that this comes in around the third century with Asanga and Nargajuna, and that, actually, analyzing the Pali and Sanskrit Sutras, that there is no mention of anything beyond basic adultery. Even that definition allows a fairly high degree of flexibility. He continues on, giving more reasons on the reinterpretation, and the audience asks a few good questions at the end.

Anyway, I personally have been thinking about a proper position on this issue for laypeople, and frankly, haven't really found anything I felt fit. He provides and excellent and well researched answer. Very nice.

This is so good!

This video by Dzongsar Kheyntse Rinpoche is so good. Really one of the best descriptions of the student-teacher relationship in Tibetan Buddhism I have heard.

Patience, Again

Tonight, some Dharma flitted across my mind while I was holding William and looking at the soup that Fiona had made me, and knowing that it was growing cold. I felt a certain pang, and aware enough of some level of attachment going on, I remembered the meaning of the lines, from the Patience chapter of The Way of the Bodhisattva, "We must at once cast off / Our mind's attachments / Tender to the fiery flames of hate." William had struggled on his bed and needed to be held, and Fiona had just gotten out of the bathroom and was blow-drying her hair on the couch, so I was pacing back and forth just to calm him down and perhaps put him in the mood for sleeping. So I had the opportunity to think: "so attachment leads to hatred? Really--is that really true?" I couldn't really remember where or how Shantideva particularly links them, so, since I didn't particularly feel like I was angry because the soup was getting cold, I guess I forgot about the whole thing altogether.

Finally Fiona finished blow-drying her hair and got out the box where it lives to put it away. Then she put the hair dryer back on her lap to collect the cord, shirking it back into the original peanut-shaped bunch that the cord has had since its manufacturing. Not once but, since she first did it incorrectly, twice she collected the cord to put a rubber-band about it so that it might fit neatly, and snugly into its original packaging. And there it was: anger. Anger--due to simple inconvenience, of having expectations denied (Fiona would hold William so I could finish my long-delayed dinner). Every capacity of reason tells me that my anger is foolish, unfounded, exactly: insane. So why did it arise? And it did arise, clearly and pointedly, in a way that vague frustration never does. Perhaps if I hadn't "caught" myself, my crazy brain, I certainly wouldn't have continued being angry. In the next second anyway, Fiona took the baby. But that's sort of the scary part: how many times have we been angry and forgotten about it? Most likely, some echo of discontent would linger, giving rise to more chances of anger and/or harsh words in an otherwise peaceful moment, with the consequence of not having any idea, upon the fortune of reflection, why such anger was there. It goes a long way back.

Where does this lead me back to? At that time, I also remembered another part of the chapter:

Some do evil things because of ignorance
Some respond with anger being ignorant.
Which of them is faultless in such acts?
To whom shall error be ascribed?

Although Fiona couldn't be said, in any way, to have been doing evil, I felt pretty close to that second line. Ignorance is strong; attachment and anger are always at elbow's length. As warriors, our imperative is to arm ourselves with the Dharma and, to mix a metaphor, take refuge in it. And yet if you allow me that strained metaphor you might find something dynamic and true about it as well: by seeking refuge and immersing ourselves in the Dharma, the Dharma becomes a powerful weapon.