From l to r: Me, Amber, Pete, Elaina and Naomi

This past Saturday, May 2nd 2009, I was lucky enough to have been given the opportunity to join a group of friends and dharma practitioners (Cape Cod Dharma Collective representin’) in a journey. The journey from Cape Cod to Foxborough, MA to witness the teachings of His Holiness the 14th Dalai Lama.

Our day started simply, we met up at the International House Of Pancakes for some breakfast. Due to the fact I own a couple piece of junk cars, one of them out of commission, my wife and children drove me to the meeting spot and joined us for breakfast. My son Colin, the aspiring Buddha to be, dazzled everyone with his “oh wow” every couple minutes, leading us all into this mindframe of amazement and wonder for the day to come.

We hopped into the van and it was a little over an hour drive. There was much talk on the way of how excited we all were, it was everyone’s first time to witness an event of this magnitude. We could hardly contain ourselves, Destination: Dalai Lama!

We arrived early enough and walked toward the stadium. The only “off” thing we encountered all day were the entrance lines, they were “segregated” into lines of “men only” and “women only”. Other than that, everything else was as it should be. The stadium was packed with over 15,000 in attendance. At times you could barely move, but due to the fact everyone was in great spirits noone complained or got angry with a little bump as we passed through. We had enough time to hit the restroom, take a very small walk through all the mini-shops that were setup everywhere (it felt like a small Tibetan village, minus the fact we were in Gillette Stadium). Then it was 9:30am, time for the first talk.

Destination: Dalai Lama

As we sat the place was humming with the bustle of people trying to get to their seats, the excitement was growing by the second. Towards one of the tunnels we noticed some commotion and it seemed like the time had finally come. Everyone in the place stood on their feet and silence encompassed one of the loudest stadiums in the NFL.

His Holiness started his walk toward the throne built by the organizers of the event, The Tibet Association of Boston. He walked up the stage, took a seat and the crowd quietly sat down. Representative Bill Delahunt gave a quick greeting and introduction, which for a politician, was as good as it can get.

The first talk His Holiness gave was a basic introduction to Tibetan Buddhism, with alot of emphasis on the 4 Noble Truths. While I have become semi-comfortable with my interpretation of the truths, somethings became clearer, yet others more profound and well worth more investigation.

After the first talk there was a break of a few hours. Our group got up and decided to see what goodies we could find at the booths that were scattered throughout Gillette. Immediately, I was lost amongst the people and became separated from the people I had come with. I didn’t feel panicked at all, but took a few moments to see if I couldn’t find them again. I was unsuccessful! So I figured I would take this opportunity to meander about and see who I might bump into.

My daughter has a Big Sister through the Big Brothers and Big Sisters Organization, I saw her there. I went on a voyage to find the Wisdom Publications booth, hoping to finally get the chance to meet Joe Evans who works there and someone Ive only gotten to know through the virtual world of the internet. Luckily I found the booth and Joe. (In case you are reading this Joe, it was great to finally meet you, wish we had more time to chat but the place had you really busy, thanks again for the books!) While chatting with Joe I asked if he had seen Rod from The Worst Horse anywhere, he had and would tell him I was out and about. I really oped we would bump into one another, but with nearly 15,000 people I figured the chance was slim.

His Holiness the 14th Dalai Lama speaking at Gillette Stadium

I continued to walk around with no real plan of attack, except to just take it all in. It felt so surreal. 15,000 people and not one of them was angry or yelling, everyone was on the same plane of consciousness. Being a smoker I had a couple breaks and met some great people, who were also hiding from the masses ashamed of the attachment to nicotine that we still hold onto.

As I walked through the crowd there were people handing out photo postcards of His Holiness, they were from the Students For A Free Tibet group. They also had booths setup as well selling merchandise to fund their campaign to raise awareness of the Tibet issue, which I have to say is the most extreme, yet effective way. They are fully engaged on the issue and pull no punches in their style of activism. I noticed that one of the people handing out the cards was none other than the executive director of the organization Lhadon Tethong, I needed to go say hello. I walked up, she offered a card, I showed her I already had one and told her to save it for someone else. I introduced myself as Nathan, a fan of her work. We talked for a few minutes about what she has been doing and I told her how brave she and the others from SFT were. I congratulated and thanked her once more and it was time to finally get some food…

And was that a chore…

The lines we at least 20-30 people deep, at every food vendor. I sucked it up and got in line, I was really hungry at this point and my feet needed a rest from the constant walking. Once in line others started filing in behind me, and coincidentally the person right behind me was a local shop owner from back on Cape Cod. He is the owner of the Tibetan Mandala, a small shop on Main Street in Hyannis and his family immigrated to the US from Tibet many years ago. I said hello and we chatted a bit, it was good to see him there. The line was not moving… my stomach was starting to complain a bit…

Joe Evans from Wisdom walked by, I nodded as he did. Within a minute Rod found me. It was really great to see him, it had been a long time since we last got together (at a Mastodon show in Boston that he took me too). We chatted a bit about our sites, talked music and just caught up with one another. Again it was great to see him! (If you are reading Rod, next time let’s not let so much time pass before we hang again, k?)

After waiting in line for almost a half an hour I made it to the front, ordered a hamburger and a bottle of water which was way more expensive than you could believe… but anyway, it was nearly time for talk number 2 and I needed to fin my seat.

I found my seat, and my friends that I made the trip with, finally. As before, the crowd hushed as His Holiness entered the stadium from the tunnels and he made his way back to the stage. Before this talk some Tibetan dancers performed for His Holiness, it was absolutely amazing to finally see the dances in person and not on a TV.

The second talk was titled “A Path to Happiness & Peace” and was not as much of a religious teaching as it was a simple talk on how to behave as a moral and compassionate human being. To quote part of the talk His Holiness said “Emotionally, mentally, physically, we are same . . . Everyone have the same right to achieve happy life.” Throughout the talk, His Holiness donned a New England Patriots hat which when he put it on, the crowd broke out into a loud cheer, it was quite amusing.

One of the biggest things I came away with from his teachings was how to practice more patience, which is something I really need to do, especially at home.

The experience has changed me a bit, it has taught me to slow down, to not be so frantic in my life and to realize that yes, we are all the same. I learned the latter not from His Holiness but from the diverse crowd.

There were people from every race, every creed, every religion and of every sexual preference all seeking the same thing, happiness. And, at least for one day, we all found it.

Photos courtesy of Amber

Right effort can be seen as a prerequisite for the other principles of the path. Without effort, which is in itself an act of will, nothing can be achieved, whereas misguided effort distracts the mind from its task, and confusion will be the consequence. Mental energy is the force behind right effort; it can occur in either wholesome or unwholesome states. The same type of energy that fuels desire, envy, aggression, and violence can on the other side fuel self-discipline, honesty, benevolence, and kindness. Right effort is detailed in four types of endeavours that rank in ascending order of perfection: 1. to prevent the arising of unarisen unwholesome states, 2. to abandon unwholesome states that have already arisen, 3. to arouse wholesome states that have not yet arisen, and 4. to maintain and perfect wholesome states already arisen.

The first element of the Eightfold Path is Right Understanding which arises through insights into the first three Noble Truths. If you have these insights, then there is perfect understanding of Dhamma – the understanding that:

‘All that is subject to arising is subject to ceasing.’ It’s as simple as that. You do not have to spend much time reading ‘All that is subject to arising is subject to ceasing’ to understand the words, but it takes quite a while for most of us to really know what the words mean in a profound way rather than just through cerebral understanding.

To use modern colloquial English, insight is really gut knowledge – it’s not just from ideas. It’s no longer, ‘I think I know’, or ‘Oh yes, that seems a reasonable, sensible thing. I agree with that. I like that thought.’ That kind of understanding is still from the brain whereas insight knowledge is profound. It is really known and doubt is no longer a problem.

This deep understanding comes from the previous nine insights. So there is a sequence leading to Right Understanding of things as they are, namely that: All that is subject to arising is subject to ceasing and is not-self. With Right Understanding, you have given up the illusion of a self that is connected to mortal conditions. There is still the body, there are still feelings and thoughts, but they simply are what they are – there is no longer the belief that you are your body or your feelings or your thoughts. The emphasis is on ‘Things are what they are.’ We are not trying to say that things are not anything at all or that they are not what they are. They are exactly what they are and nothing more. But when we are ignorant, when we have not understood these truths, we tend to think things are more than what they are. We believe all kinds of things and we create all kinds of problems around the conditions that we experience.

So much of human anguish and despair comes from the added extra that is born of ignorance in the moment. It is sad to realise how the misery and anguish and despair of humanity is based upon delusion; the despair is empty and meaningless. When you see this, you begin to feel infinite compassion for all beings. How can you hate anyone or bear grudges or condemn anyone who is caught in this bond of ignorance? Everyone is influenced to do the things they do by their wrong views of things.

As we meditate, we experience some tranquillity, a measure of calm in which the mind has slowed down. When we look at something like a flower with a calm mind, we are looking at it as it is. When there is no grasping – nothing to gain or get rid of – then if what we see, hear or experience through the senses is beautiful, it is truly beautiful. We are not criticising it, comparing it, trying to possess or own it; we find delight and joy in the beauty around us because there is no need to make anything out of it. It is exactly what it is.

Beauty reminds us of purity, truth and ultimate beauty. We should not see it as a lure to delude us: ‘These flowers are here just to attract me so I’ll get deluded by them’ – that’s the attitude of the old meditating grump! When we look at a member of the opposite sex with a pure heart, we appreciate the beauty without the desire for some kind of contact or possession. We can delight in the beauty of other people, both men and women, when there is no selfish interest or desire. There is honesty; things are as they are. This is what we mean by liberation or vimutti in Pali. We are liberated from those bonds that distort and corrupt the beauty around us, such as the bodies we have. However, our minds can get so corrupt and negative and depressed and obsessed with things, that we no longer see them as they are. If we don’t have Right Understanding, we see everything through increasingly thick filters and veils.

Right Understanding is to be developed through reflection, using the Buddha’s teaching. The Dhammacakkappavattana Sutta is a very interesting teaching to contemplate and use as a reference for reflection. We can also use other suttas from the tipitaka, such as those dealing with paticcasamuppada (dependent origination). This is a fascinating teaching to reflect upon. If you can contemplate such teachings, you can see very clearly the difference between the way things are as Dhamma and the point where we tend to create delusion out of the way things are. That is why we need to establish full conscious awareness of things as they are. If there is knowledge of the Four Noble Truths, then there is Dhamma.

With Right Understanding, everything is seen as Dhamma; for example: we are sitting here….This is Dhamma. We don’t think of this body and mind as a personality with all its views and opinions and all the conditioned thoughts and reactions that we have acquired through ignorance. We reflect upon this moment now as: ‘This is the way it is. This is Dhamma.’ We bring into the mind the understanding that this physical formation is simply Dhamma. It is not self; it is not personal.

Also, we see the sensitivity of this physical formation as Dhamma rather than taking it personally: ‘I’m sensitive,’ or ‘I’m not sensitive;’ ‘You’re not sensitive to me. Who’s the most sensitive?’….’Why do we feel pain? Why did God create pain; why didn’t he just create pleasure? Why is there so much misery and suffering in the world? It’s unfair. People die and we have to separate from the people we love; the anguish is terrible.’

There is no Dhamma in that, is there? It’s all self-view:

‘Poor me. I don’t like this, I don’t want it to be this way. I want security, happiness, pleasure and all the best of everything. It’s not fair that my parents were not arahants when I came into the world. It’s not fair that they never elect arahants to be Prime Minister of Britain. If everything were fair, they would elect arahants to be Prime Minister!’

I am trying to take this sense of ‘It’s not right, it’s not fair’ to an absurdity in order to point out how we expect God to create everything for us and to make us happy and secure. That is often what people think even if they don’t say so. But when we reflect, we see ‘This is the way it is. Pain is like this and this is what pleasure is like. Consciousness is this way.’ We feel. We breathe. We can aspire.

When we reflect, we contemplate our own humanity as it is. We don’t take it on a personal level any more or blame anyone because things are not exactly as we like or want. It is the way it is and we are the way we are. You might ask why we can’t all be exactly the same – with the same anger, the same greed and the same ignorance; without all the variations and permutations. However, even though you can trace human experience to basic things, each one of us has our own kamma to deal with – our own obsessions and tendencies, which are always different in quality and quantity to those of someone else.

Why can’t we all be exactly equal, have exactly the same of everything and all look alike – one androgynous being? In a world like that, nothing would be unfair, no differences would be allowed, everything would be absolutely perfect and there would be no possibility of inequality. But as we recognise Dhamma, we see that, within the realm of conditions, no two things are identical. They are all quite different, infinitely variable and changing, and the more we try to make conditions conform to our ideas, the more frustrated we get. We try to create each other and a society to fit the ideas we have of how things should be, but we always end up feeling frustrated. With reflection, we realise: ‘This is the way it is,’ this is the way things have to be – they can only be this way.

Now that is not a fatalistic or negative reflection. It is not an attitude of: ‘That’s the way it is and there’s nothing you can do about it.’ It is a very positive response of accepting the flow of life for what it is. Even if it is not what we want, we can accept it and learn from it.

We are conscious, intelligent beings with retentive memory. We have language. Over the past several thousand years, we have developed reason, logic and discriminative intelligence. What we must do is figure out how to use these capacities as tools for realisation of Dhamma rather than as personal acquisitions or personal problems. People who develop their discriminative intelligence often end up turning it upon themselves; they become very self-critical and even begin to hate themselves. This is because our discriminative faculties tend to focus upon what is wrong with everything. That is what discrimination is about: seeing how this is different from that. When you do that to yourself, what do you end up with? Just a whole list of flaws and faults that make you sound absolutely hopeless.

When we are developing Right Understanding, we use our intelligence for reflection and contemplation of things. We also use our mindfulness and wisdom together. So now we are using our ability to discriminate with wisdom (vijja) rather than with ignorance (avijja). This teaching of the Four Noble Truths is to help you to use you intelligence – your ability to contemplate, reflect and think – in a wise way rather than in a self-destructive, greedy or hateful way.

Right Speech
by Thanissaro Bhikkhu (taken from Buddhanet)

As my teacher once said, “If you can’t control your mouth, there’s no way you can hope to control your mind.’ This is why right speech is so important in day-to-day practice.

Right speech, explained in negative terms, means avoiding four types of harmful speech: lies (words spoken with the intent of misrepresenting the truth); divisive speech (spoken with the intent of creating rifts between people); harsh speech (spoken with the intent of hurting another person’s feelings); and idle chatter (spoken with no purposeful intent at all).

Notice the focus on intent: this is where the practice of right speech intersects with the training of the mind. Before you speak, you focus on why you want to speak. This helps get you in touch with all the machinations taking place in the committee of voices running your mind. If you see any unskillful motives lurking behind the committee’s decisions, you veto them. As a result, you become more aware of yourself, more honest with yourself, more firm with yourself. You also save yourself from saying things that you’ll later regret. In this way you strengthen qualities of mind that will be helpful in meditation, at the same time avoiding any potentially painful memories that would get in the way of being attentive to the present moment when the time comes to meditate.

In positive terms, right speech means speaking in ways that are trustworthy, harmonious, comforting, and worth taking to heart. When you make a practice of these positive forms of right speech, your words become a gift to others. In response, other people will start listening more to what you say, and will be more likely to respond in kind. This gives you a sense of the power of your actions: the way you act in the present moment does shape the world of your experience. You don’t need to be a victim of past events.

For many of us, the most difficult part of practicing right speech lies in how we express our sense of humor. Especially here in America, we’re used to getting laughs with exaggeration, sarcasm, group stereotypes, and pure silliness — all classic examples of wrong speech. If people get used to these sorts of careless humor, they stop listening carefully to what we say. In this way, we cheapen our own discourse. Actually, there’s enough irony in the state of the world that we don’t need to exaggerate or be sarcastic. The greatest humorists are the ones who simply make us look directly at the way things are.

Expressing our humor in ways that are truthful, useful, and wise may require thought and effort, but when we master this sort of wit we find that the effort is well spent. We’ve sharpened our own minds and have improved our verbal environment. In this way, even our jokes become part of our practice: an opportunity to develop positive qualities of mind and to offer something of intelligent value to the people around us.

So pay close attention to what you say — and to why you say it. When you do, you’ll discover that an open mouth doesn’t have to be a mistake.

Week 2 is all about “right action” and I found this description online:

Right Action

Right action is also called “right conduct,, and involves how to behave in the physical world from day to day. Some examples of the “rules” are to avoid killing, stealing and sexual misconduct.

These three are obviously serious offences, but for the most part are not an issue for most people in civilized parts of the world.

On the other hand, this subject leads us right into another famous Buddhist “list” called The Five Precepts. We’ll get into these five rules another time, but generally speaking, they fall under the category of “right actions,” but these are more difficult to observe in some cases:

The Five Precepts
1. Refrain from destroying living beings.
2. Refrain from stealing.
3. Refrain from sexual misconduct (adultery, rape, etc.).
4. Refrain from false speech (lying).
5. Refrain from intoxicants, which lead to heedlessness.

The idea behind all this is that improper physical actions leads to an unsound mind, so that in order to have a sound mind and attain Enlightenment, one should act properly with the physical body. In another way of looking at the five precepts, all of these rules involve physical attachments and desires, and as we learned last week with the Noble Truths, desire and attachment is the Buddhists’ “Root of all evil.”

I hope this helps us all in the next two weeks and that we can each brng something new to the discussion for the next CCDC session!

one of the things we’ve done is decide to practice different aspects of the 8-fold path over the two weeks between meetings. this last week we spoke briefly about “right intention.” this has fit in nicely with another ‘project’ I’ve been working on, the practice of mindful eating. basically, I’ve been (for a number of reasons, I’m sure I’ll go into them in detail at some point) working on thinking about what I eat before I eat it. now, if you’ve never struggled with your weight or food issues, this may seem like a pretty common sense approach. I’ve always had a problem with eating, your average ‘emotional eater.’ so I started this workshop, then decided I was going to incorporate it into an honors project, and here I am mindfully eating.

so. getting to the point.
I think the whole mindful eating thing fits in with right intention in that, since I’ve begun this process, my intention when eating is no longer to numb out or escape something. rather than eating pointlessly to fill some bottomless void, I’ve been practicing eating to nourish my body. what a concept.

it has not been easy. I’m thinking it’s a worthy endeavor though… physically I feel better than I have ever felt. I’ve got so much more energy. my workouts feel more intense. mostly, I’m feeling content, which was what I was seeking in food.

I guess there’s something to be said for that adage, the one about seeking and never being able to find what is right in front of you, and then, when you stop looking, it’s there…

Each week, at the end of the session, someone will reach into the box and pull out a piece of paper. On that paper will either be a word or saying of some sort. The idea is to take that word or saying and incorporate it into our daily practice for the two weeks leading up to the next meeting. We will then discuss the ways we incorporated it during that time and any effect it seemed to have had on our personal lives.

We’ve had some small issues with topics of conversation at the meeting and we think it’d be a valuable tool to at least bring one topic per week to the table. I’ll update this post or make a new one as we start to see how it works.

It’s been over three years now since I started studying and practicing the teachings Buddha left behind, the principles of a moral humanity. I often struggle with some of them, but compassion and understanding has been at the heart of what I try to expel in every encounter with another person, no matter how large a scale that encounter may be.

As you may or may not know, I work for a TV cable provider. My job involves a hands on approach with nearly every customer for the work I do each day. Some day it’s just climbing a pole and connecting or disconnecting lines, but for the most part I am in people’s homes trouble shooting issues or installing/ upgrading new services. Of course for some this may take a person out of their comfort zone being in someone elses home, but I am there to do the job I was asked and have no issues with it.

A few days ago I had a trouble call at a woman’s home and was asked to pre-call before arriving. I called the customer and let her know I was on the way. She seemed like maybe she was having a bad day, she was quite short on the phone. So I already had the idea that the call was not going to be an enjoyable one. I arrived at the woman’s home and was invited in to begin my work.

Before I get ahead of myself, I’ve learned a couple “tricks” that help with each customer. I try to pick up what the person might be like by the decor and surroundings in the home. Whether it be the particular artists paintings that are hung, photos of their family and when I can, I try to look at a book shelf to see what they are reading/ have read. I picked up minor hints that this particular customer might be interested in environmental issues, not the trendy “green” environmental issues, but this woman seemed to be living this way for some decades.

While doing my job I tried to make some light conversation, dropping a hint here and there that I have some of the same interests, have a family (she was a grandmother so I knew family was a safe topic to bring up). It seemed to work and she opened right up, she started recommending books and authors, even mentioned a couple documentaries that I should view.

I spoke to her about a man that I met who is local here on Cape Cod and has been at the forefront of “green” living for sometime. His name is Malcolm Wells and he is known in wide circles as “the father of modern earth-sheltered architecture”. She had not heard of him, but the mere mention of his name and work inspired her enough to write his name down and the title of the book he had written, Recovering America.

To make a long story short, although I thought this was going to be a difficult situation to work, it wasn’t. I was able to do the work that I was requested to do, despite the fact that the customer seemed a little irritable at first. I was able to break through whatever irritation there was and quite possibly, made a friend. Albeit she didn’t seem to excited to have me coming in the house at first, her last words to me as I walked out of her home were, “Nathan I am so glad we got to meet.” That felt pretty good! And you know something, I am glad we met as well.

I learned alot from her that day, mainly that the impressions we get of people may not be the truth. We’ve got to encounter the truth to learn from it.

Many of the members of the group will be posting here. Whether the posts are just about our experiences in the group or situations outside the group that have had positive effects on our practices.

We hope you enjoy this blog and feel free to comment at any time.