Tides of Dharma

It seems to me the qualities of group and individual practice are quite different, and as I've recently been, every month or so, going back and forth between daily practices that are conducted by myself and daily practices with another person, these different qualities have become more apparent, and they seem to complement each other. Group practice emphasizes a certain formality and its merits are a diligence and explicitness regarding the ritual performance, but it necessarily needs the merits of a solitary practice, absorption and concentration, to work as well. Likewise, a solitary practice that is too loose or foggy only benefits from time spent doing practice with others.

It makes me think of something I heard a while back, that some monks would take retreat the second half of the lunar month, when the moon is waning, and engage in the teachings and monastic rituals in the first half while the moon is waxing. To let the Dharma into one's life after all is an unpredictable (and perhaps inconstant?) affair and sometimes, despite everything we do, it isn't there at all. Like a tide receding, or pushing forward, the Dharma seems to come and go in cycles, filling us up with wisdom, insight and morality, and then emptying us later, and leaving us with a practice and shell that seem curious vestiges of some forgotten but quaint meaning.

Likewise, a practice and life develop by alternating time spent with others and time spent alone, going over the basic points of our practice again and again, until we cannot mistake the life-embodied Dharma's absolute certainty.

Smoke Offering for Urban Dharma

Every smoke offering connects me to every place I have ever done a smoke offering, and consequently to every place I have ever practiced the Dharma. And so it's like a community of places, which for their diversity and strength put me in mind of what I strive for being apart of Urban Dharma. I am now reminded of Cabin Hill Dr., in the next second reminded of Ladakh, and then to the woods in PA--all these places and more, whether already saturated with the Dharma or almost completely bare of it, were important places to perform the ritual of smoke offering. It provides a connectivity that I have felt blessed to have.

Now after a late night, thinking about the newest e-mails from Urban Dharma and unable to sleep, I stood on my balcony (more like a ledge) in the already brilliant morning sun to do this offering, in this little part of Taiwan. Burning stuff for invisible beings is certainly not a foreign concept here; you will see most businesses on auspicious days burning paper spirit money in buckets, so that the entire atmosphere is filled with the smell of burning. But my little smoke offering feels quite different--perhaps for the reason I mentioned. I'm all in Asheville, Ladakh, Felton, Chiayi at the same time--how could it be comparable?

But last night I lay in doubt: was October too soon for me to help? How will I get my family to Asheville--and continue to support them? What if I can't do what is being called upon me to do? And so on. ("Veiling forces like mists that envelope mountain peaks and woodbine that overcomes treetops..." I kept hearing from different places and times.) How was I shocked that Urban Dharma was finally happening? Or had I become so comfortable with the idea of it all, being so far away?

In the end, it helped me to think about, again, how Urban Dharma was not something "out there." And it wouldn't be anything more or less than all of our individual parts put together. We have dreamed the final product so many times that it might be hard or confusing to imagine the first steps or to realize that there isn't some plan that someone has mapped out for us to follow. Only that we are being given an opportunity under this name that we all feel apart of, but don't know yet what it can really be. Well we are what it is, and if we do nothing then it will be nothing. I feel slightly embarrassed that I have to reveal my thought process in working out something so obvious.

But evolving from that thought process was something else I wanted to share--an idea, I guess. In this stage where everyone will be doing different parts to get Urban Dharma on its feet, its probably more important than ever to make a concerted effort to support the work that others are doing and to share the work that you are doing yourself--especially if you are needing help. It might feel like, as we're working on different parts, that we are singly responsible for Urban Dharma's success. But the more support we share to others, the more strength I think we'll have ourselves.

So in this attitude, I am tremendously proud and happy to hear of both Hun's good news from Malaysia with Shifu and Brian's work that has already begun--moving to Asheville, visiting TMC for teachings, and all the coordinating he will be doing as Urban Dharma's first full-time staff. From all my work with him, he is the one to do it. For me, today, I can only say I performed a smoke offering, but specifically for Urban Dharma's (that means OUR) coming together and seeing what we can make happen with this amazing opportunity.

Urban Sangha

I have not posted to this in a very long time because I have been traveling intensely over the last six months. However, I have been developing a lot of thoughts on Urban Dharma and the Dharma in general. Recently, I found myself in a place where I could actually begin - in ever so small a way - my own little practice each morning and evening. While working on a remote farm in Tuscany, surrounded by beauty and provided with ample time to sit with some of the Drikung Dharmakirti texts. Since leaving this bucolic setting, it has, not surprisingly, become infinitely harder. I am back to traveling in funky, vibrant hostels through big cities like Rome, and to super touristy beach locations. No, I don't say any of this to spark jealousy, but to emphasize the point that a center for people to come together and focus on the Dharma is exceedingly critical to maintaing a practice. I agreed with so much of Brian's recent post, and was I begin my own kind of practice, the necessity of a sangha has become ever clearer. It is nearly impossible to begin your day reminding yourself of the Four Thoughts At Turn the Mind after going out to a late night club with a bunch of new friends.
But - this is going to happen! It might happen a lot, especially in a place like Asheville, where there are so many fun things to do, amazing people to meet, and phenomenal food to consume. Knowing the kind of sentiment many people have in Asheville for "alternative" religions (read: alternative to Christianity most likely), people could easily walk into the doors of UD and expect to be enlightened then and there. But we all know that the process of changing your mind is laborious. Literally. It is work. And that is why having a community - a sangha - to reinforce, rejuvenate, and reMIND us about the Dharma is the focus.
So, as we move forward, it will be a great task to think about what exactly the sangha should look like - ought there be secular "courses" in Buddhism or the history of the Buddha. Can there be talking/reading groups in additional to the sittings. I think having tea and conversation evenings is another wonderful way to infuse the Dharma into everyday urban life. Again, as Brian mentioned, many people may think that the center will serve as some magical bubble of enlightenment. But the real work is the creation of an urban sangha where people can exchange ideas and encourage Dharma practices outside of the center. I know I could benefit from a sangha right now, but just as this virtual community provides at least some outlet, so too will UD be creating a larger sangha throughout the city.

What is different about Urban Dharma?

Right now, I am up in Maryland at the Tibetan Meditation Center annual spring retreat.  TMC is an older, well-established Tibetan Buddhist center, located just outside of Frederick, Maryland. They are an impressive organization: they own a large tract of land, have a main building and shrine hall, a large stupa, and events like this two-week long annual spring retreat (involving about five hours of teaching per day, every day), and also four resident Tibetan monastics.

However, Urban Dharma strives to do something different, to take on a different role and fill different needs than a 'traditional' Tibetan Buddhist center like TMC.  In many ways, we do not aim to be a Tibetan Buddhist center in the same sense.  While the teachings we follow and the spiritual masters we look up to fall within the Drikung Kagyu lineage of Tibetan Buddhism, we ultimately aim to practice Dharma, the truth of the Buddha's teachings, and not necessarily to replicate all the aspects of a traditional Tibetan Buddhist center.

One way this difference manifests, I believe, is in our relationship with monastics.  The vows of a monk or a nun are truly noble; they represent a clear awareness of the sufferings of samsara and a distinct and profound decision to turn away from worldly concerns and to focus on living the Buddha's teachings.  They are a powerful instance of sincere re-prioritization, of putting weight behind our common (and often too quickly passing) thoughts about the truth and preciousness of the Dharma.  However, it seems that in traditional Tibetan centers, from my experiences both in Malaysia and the US, the relationship between the laity and the monastics can sometimes be convoluted.  While monastic vows express an intent of focusing on Dharma, ironically, the monastic office can represent a distraction from Dharma for lay people.

It is in Dharma centers that I become most aware of the 'sneakiness' which our self-grasping and ignorance possess.  In these places, where we truly want to hear the Dharma, contemplate the Dharma, take it to heart and apply it in our lives; that is where our 'failures' to do so become most apparent.  It is good that they become clearer! If we do not recognize the negative in our actions, we won't change it.  But it is not as if we are magically transformed into better, more compassionate people when we pass through the doors of a Dharma center.  We are the same people we are in the rest of our lives (though it feeds our egos to sometimes pretend we are not).  Dharma centers represent a chance to improve our actions and our view.  But, it only obscures the problem if we pretend that we are 'realized' when we are in a Dharma center- these are the places where we can and should try to truly see where we are as clearly as possible.  Because unless we are honest about where we stand on the path now, it won't be possible for us to see the next step.

So, it is in this way that I have observed the monastic office, or the 'glamor of the robes', (along with ritual observances, formalities, cultural fetishes, etc) as providing a foothold for that 'sneakiness' of our impressive ability to distract ourselves: from the Dharma, from seeing clearly, from being totally honest with ourselves in the most uncompromising and unapologetic ways.  It is not, of course, monastics, or robes, or rituals, or formalities that are the problem! The problem is in the way we relate to them, and the way we mistake these traditional observances for the reason we have a Dharma center.

The reason for Urban Dharma, for this community, is to practice Dharma.  And to practice Dharma, I believe, is to practice seeing and acting clearly, and honestly, and truthfully.  Therefore, it makes more sense, to me, to emphasize community (our sangha) as a source of support to cut away at our delusions and to see clearly, than to place our emphasis on formalities surrounding the monastic office.  However, we can of course still practice by respecting the noble choices monastics have made; they can be a reminder of the importance of practicing Dharma sincerely and spur us on in our own efforts to cut delusion, rather than acting as a foothold for distraction and an object of fetishization of 'exotic Tibetan Buddhism'.  But, since it is so easy for us to get distracted from the Dharma, from our goal of seeing clearly, I think at Urban Dharma we want to limit these distractions.  We need to continually remind ourself as an organization along with ourselves as Dharma practitioners why Urban Dharma exists: to practice the Dharma, to practice seeing clearer and clearer, to practice seeing reality as it truly is.

Lama Zopa On His Poor Health and Practice

This is an article I got in my e-mail with all the random stuff that FPMT sends me, mostly I only flip through it, but this was really good. I thought you all might like it.

Lama Zopa Rinpoche's Own Update "So I guess you know I didn't take care well, [didn't do] daily exercise, didn't get to do daily walking and so forth, [I was] very weak. So then I think my self-cherishing thought went up, then paralysis happened. The doctors all think it's getting better, [I am] past danger, they all think I will get better soon. "[I] try to think a little bit [that I am] receiving the suffering, experiencing the suffering of all sentient beings, especially from whomever suffers [from high]

By propping his clasped hand on the table in front of him, Lama Zopa Rinpoche is able to keep his hands in the mudra of prostration while he offers his food, May 2011. Photo by Ven. Holy Ansett.

blood pressure, diabetes and paralysis. Also I pray to try to do this. It is an incredible opportunity, when I do that it purifies many, many, many – wow, can you imagine? – many eons of negative karma, wow, wow, so it is the quickest path to enlightenment.

"In the hospital I try to practice. I dedicate past, present, future merits to any people who come into my room or this hospital, or into the hospital before this. That any person who from now on comes into this room, any sick people who come, may they immediately recover from their sickness. Then any person who sits in my bed [in the hospital] from now on, may they immediately recover from their sickness, or if they die, may they never ever be born in the lower realms, may they get reborn in Buddha's pure land. I try to pray like this a few times a day. So wonderful, positive, to bring benefit here, so I try to do what I can.

"Then I realized today, usually I try to do 10,000 OM MANI PADME HUM [mantras per day], I increased this year to 20,000 OM MANI PADME HUM [mantras per day], and I turn the prayer wheel. I try to do three times the very, very, very long mantra, then the middle one, then OM MANI PADME HUM. [Rinpoche lists some of the benefits from reciting these mantras.] When I recite, I turn the prayer wheel, so this hand turns the prayer wheel and this hand [moves the] mala. So today and over the last few days I didn't get this done, so today I tried, but I can't use this hand, I can't turn the prayer wheel. I recite 20,000 mantras and then from time to time I turn the prayer wheel, but I can't do both, not possible. So incredible, with your hands free you can recite and turn a prayer wheel and count mantra, wow, wow, wow, what merits, the cause of enlightenment, with bodhichitta, incredible, unbelievable, unbelievable, with both hands free. So I realized how precious it is if you can use both hands, so precious.

"Then normally I do prostration to my altar, so before I always prostrate with two hands to my Gurus, Buddha, [but now] I can't use both hands, so I realized how fortunate it is if one can prostrate with both hands. With two hands it is so easy to create the cause of enlightenment, so easy to get the highest success in life. I told people you are so fortunate you can do that, I can't do that, so I realize how precious the body is, how you can [use it to be] so precious, so easy to create the cause of enlightenment.

"Thank you very much for the Medicine Buddha pujas, for everybody's prayers and practice.

"I am just experiencing my short comings of self-cherishing mind. According to one view, I lost and it won, that is according to one view. Then according to another view this [sickness] is the best thing to achieve enlightenment, the quickest way to achieve enlightenment.

"Thank you very much. Here I am the most fortunate person."

"This we must perceive and curb our wrath"

Bodhicharyavatara:6.65.4*

I am making my way through the patience chapter (6) of Bodhicharyavatara, and though work makes it impossible for me to attend the lectures live (and I'm making my way through the recordings, for now, rather slowly), I thought there might be some benefit in discussing what I've gone through so far.

I'll start by saying that even though various commentaries will segment parts of the text into more comprehensible parts and under an intelligent framework, trying to make these distinctions on my own has been quite hard, for part seems to blend into part, and sometimes it's easy to forget where the text is going, or where it has come from. At times, I have even wondered, "wait--what is this chapter about?" forgetting the very obvious, when confronting a smaller detail in the verse.

Yet sometimes a line will stand out and speak for itself:

24.1-2"Irritation, likewise, comes
Though never plans to be experienced!"

9.1-4"So come what may, I'll not upset
My cheerful happiness of mind.
Dejection never brings me what I want.
My virtue will be warped and marred by it."

14.1-2"There is nothing that does not grow light
Through habit and familiarity."

I think there is obvious benefit to studying this text and Shantideva's arguments. Sometimes an argument's relevancy is hit or miss (for me!), yet most of the arguments are precise in detail and intuitively graspable (for example when he argues, within the first ten stanzas, that we should avoid anger at all costs if only because of the reason that it destroys all of our happiness.) For no matter how many times we get angry, we never think about the things that Shantideva asks us to think about. Part of the problem is the instinctive "right" that anger brings with it.

Shantideva spends time talking about not being angry at your enemies--but what is surprising to me is how often I feel the spectrum from discontent to anger toward the people I love! And even with powerful, clear arguments that I support, and even when I recognize it at the moment that that anger arises, sometimes the "right" of anger feels more important than applying the dharma. So I think, if we really think about his arguments every day, and see how and when we get angry, we will really see the level of insanity that we are perfectly happy (so-to-say) living with. It makes me think how samsara doesn't stop once we become "buddhists," nor once we begin chanting some new syllables, nor if we even change our schedule a little to accommodate a practice. Samsara still rushes onward. I've enjoyed Shantideva because he brings you, if you let him lead you, to that edge where the insanity of samsara is undeniable. That at least is revulsion and effective in itself.

*For a while I was happily misreading this line as "Thus we must perceive and curb our wrath." With this in mind, I chose it for the title of this blog, for it fittingly, succinctly describes a theme I wanted to touch on: we must recognize wrath, and we must curb it. The actual line is slightly less powerful as a succinct title, for "this" is now the ambiguous place-holder for what we need to "perceive," the information for which proceeds this line (go look it up if you're curious!)

Repost: Here's the "look" I am going for for Urban Dharma

All three are from one of the Kechara centers in Malaysia.

Dharma in the World

Words from Dzongsar Khyentse Rinpoche that are particularly relevant to our vision/understanding at Urban Dharma.

"As a follower of Siddhartha, you don't necessarily have to emulate his every action - you don't have to sneak out while your wife is sleeping."

"As we begin to understand the four views, we don't necessarily discard things; we begin instead to change our attitude towards them, thereby changing their value. Just because you have less than someone else doesn't mean that you are more morally pure or virtuous. In fact, humility itself can be a form of hypocrisy. When we understand the essencelessness and impermanence of the material world, renunciation is no longer a form of self-flagellation."

[Four views: all compounded things are impermanent, all afflicted emotions are painful, all things have no inherent existence, nirvana is peace/beyond concepts.] 

What is the value of Urban Dharma?

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

A short poem I composed and loosely translated

བདེ་བ་མི་བདེ་བ་སིམས་ཚང་ཡིན།

བདག་ཅག་ཚང་མ་སྡུག་བསྔལ་ལ་བསྡད།

འདི་ཡིན་པ་ཡིན་ནའང་བདག་ཅག་གི།

རྣམ་རྟོག་བསྐྱེད་པའི་རྒྱུ་མཚན་ཅི་ཡིན།

All suffering and happiness are nothing but mind,

yet all of us stay trapped in suffering.

Although this is certainly the case,

for what reason do these concepts which bind us arise?