Judith's dharma talks

I'm listening to Judith Ragir's Dharma lectures again. I first listened to them about two to three years ago. It took me about a year to listen to all of them. This time, because I know more about Buddhism, I'm catching more of what she says.

Today, I listened to her lecture on Practicing in all Circumstances from her 7-28-06 lecture.  Her main theme was about pivoting. When you find yourself in a habituated pattern, you pivot to the "now," trusting the teaching. For example, when I get caught up in one of my 1000s of fantasies, I pivot to the "now." I'm either listening to a lecture, typing, washing dishes, sweeping the floor. Whatever I'm doing, Judith says, stay with the "now" and practice realization.

The practice of realization is important. If we stay in the moment we are able to hold the moment in a vast way. It's the truth of impermanence, the ups and owns of life, that we are a grain of sand on the beach. We are one star in a countless number of stars. In this perspective, our storyline becomes smaller. Judith says that is enlightenment.

Pivoting is the practice of returning to the moment and realizing the universal perspective is in each moment. Judith mentions that we are training ourselves with repetition, in the same manner we would train a dog. We do the training moment by moment, in the now.

Each moment is an opportunity to pivot and make changes. Every event when we catch ourselves in an old pattern, we have a opening for pivoting toward change.

What do we do with the moments we don't like? Judith says to work with uncomfortableness. Turn towards the uncomfortable parts of life. Be more interested in awareness and the activity at the moment than building a comfortable nest and being in denial about uncomfortable place.  This is difficult for me when I hear an insult. I feel uncomfortable, even angry, but I'm supposed to pivot to the moment.  Hmmmm.  The Dalai Lama teaches to be compassionate at these moments.  Guess this will take much practice.

She also teaches us to turn compassion toward the fear and emotion. Then those fears become a doorway to enlightenment. It's freeing because we interrupt the storyline and remembering it's only the present moment, not what happened 30 years ago.  The promos is, as I develop my capacity to trust, then I'm able to go through the situation with more ease.

For her, "returning to the moment is a refuge, a release. You can't do it unless you trust that something larger than you is taking care of things."

We are to bring our habituated pattern to the forefront once we notice it. We are to practice pivoting daily. I've been working on this for some time. Right now, I'm releasing all fear.  When I find myself fearful, I trust, have faith, and remember that God is with me. I can bring in all that fear with the black smoke of tonglen, and release it with the image of the moonlight of compassion to myself and to all people who suffer from fear.

Another point Judith makes is it's none of my business how things turn out. That's taking refuge in the Buddha, in the teaching.  That's trusting in a Higher Power, God, Alla,  the Dharma, the Universe, or whatever you choose to call it.


"What you plant in the present moment is what you will receive in the future. It causes you to discern  what is wholesome and what is non-wholesome."
--Judith Ragir

Abide without praising, with the mind inwardly at peace.

May I avoiding both the repulsive and unrepulsive abiding with equanimity, mindful and fully aware.

 At first the eyes ears nose tongue and body cause suffering but then they become the seeing of the miracle of the garden of suchness.

Attitude of Gratitude

 
The Dalai Lama writes in his book The Art of Happiness to be grateful for your enemies. Firstly, whom do we consider as our enemies? According to my computer's dictionary, "an enemy is someone who is actively opposed or hostile to someone or something."  I can take this to mean someone we may love such as my husband or mother.

I know I would have been very upset and confused by these instructions had I gotten them 6 years ago.  When I was going through my bad times of depression and misery, I saw my mother and my husband as my combatants, my adversaries.  No matter how hard I tried to change to fit into the mold in which they wanted to shape me, I couldn't do it without part of me dying.  When I was tired of dying (in truth I was actually ready to literally die), I fought to be on my current path without knowing where I was heading. My true self was battling to become free. My inner spirit no longer wanted to flounder with confusion and pain; it no longer wanted to be stifled; it wanted to be released and respected for who it was. Therefore, I was reborn, but not without conflict from my perceived enemies.

I first heard of "Attitude of Gratitude" in recovery.  Now I hear it in Buddhism.  "Be thankful for your enemies. They are your greatest teachers." The Dalai Lama says to use each "encounter as an opportunity to enhance one's practice of patience and tolerance." I have learned in recovery, too. 

"The enemy is the necessary condition for practicing patience. Without an enemy's action, there is no possibility for patience or tolerance to arise." What I know is by practicing my recovery program, I learn more compassion toward others; I learn about accepting people for who they are because I can't change them, I can only change myself. As I focus on my own spiritual growth and healing, those around me also seemed to heal to a point. They no longer fight with me as before. Nor do I fight with them.

"So when you come across such a chance for practicing patience and tolerance, you should treat it with gratitude."  With daily practice, I am able to do this more often. When I see times of conflict, I can think of it more often that before as an occasion to see the person with compassion and send to him/her loving kindness.  I am also better at accepting the person for who he or she is.


Attitudes are contagious.  Is yours worth catching?

Look back and be grateful,
    look ahead and be hopeful,
    look around and be helpful.

The Three Lazinesses & The Three Confidences

In reading from The Six Perfections Part 1, I saw that there are The Three Lazinesses which are opponents of perseverance. I am a pretty lazy person. I can sit in front of the TV and do sudoku all night. It doesn't matter what else needs to be done: washing dishes, sweeping, exercising, sewing, ironing, fixing something, whatever.  I would rather just sit on the couch playing sudoku.

The Three Lazinesses are good reminders to help me get up and take action.

1. The Laziness of Putting off Dharma.  I do study the dharma daily. So this isn't a problem for me. I love reading and learning about it. I would like to hone in on one thing rather than all the aspects of it that I'm learning. That is why I'm focusing on the 6 Perfections right now. 

2. The Laziness Arising from Attachment. I'm still attached to some worldly pleasures.  I know I can't take them with me when I cross over. These are things that I realize I will lose at some point and will give up. I'm just not ready to give them all up yet.

3. The Laziness of Discouragement.   I lived most of my life feeling discouraged.  Since being in recovery I found encouragement. I found a support system I never dreamed I would have.  However, once in a while, something will trigger those old feelings of discouragement. I try to be vigilant in watching out for them.  I try to live one moment at a time in hopes to continue on my path of healing, serenity and joy.

The article discusses how discouragement keeps us from living the practices.  I'm not discouraged at all. I'm encouraged as I learn more. If I want enlightenment, I got to do what they did to get it; I gotta learn what they know to get it. I'm not concerned how many lifetimes it will take. As long as I practice one day at a time, I will get there.

Feeling discouraged only results in loss and doesn't bring benefit for gaining liberation.
---The Buddha

***
The Three Confidences

These are the three prides of Confidences which the article suggests we meditate on.

1. The Confidence of Action. "Thinking of achieving the path by ourselves alone without depending on any helper." This is the  pride of thinking we can achieve this on our own. On the other hand, we must not be proud, so it sounds like a fine line to me. Can anyone enlighten me on this?

Liberation depends on oneself—there is no such thing as another helping in this.
--Nagarjuna

2. The Confidence of Capability. "We should practice by thinking, 'I am capable of achieving the purpose of myself and others.'"

3. The Confidence of Delusion.  Here we are to discourage negative thoughts and delusions by avoiding them and not letting them win us over. "If we have this pride then even the great opponents, non-virtuous actions and delusions, cannot hinder us. Therefore, it is necessary to gain such confidence."

By gaining confidence with perseverance, it is difficult to be controlled by great opponents. If the mind is firm, the moral falls are prevented.
---Nagarjuna

New Beginning Cleanse

I signed up for the New Beginning Cleanse and just listened to the replays for the first two talks.  The first was about diet improvements.  The second was about cleansing your fears.  There's lost of good information in both interviews.  There'll be a different interview each night this week.  Hope you can join them or at least listen to the replays. The replays, btw, will only be up for a couple of weeks.

Enjoy! 

Rantings on Enthusiastically Perseverance

Enthusiastic Perseverance/Joyful Effort

Once again I take my info from The Six Perfections Part one of Bodhicitta.com. 

Firstly, what does perseverance mean? I looked it up because I wanted to clarify my definition. Even though English is my native language, I have learned that sometimes a meaning of a certain word is not  precisely as I imagined it to be.

According to my online dictionary, perseverance is "steadfastness in doing something despite difficulty or delay in achieving success." It's also, in theological terms, a "continuance in a state of grace leading finally to a state of glory." This is very interesting to me.

Judith Ragir emphasizes "steadfastness" in some of her lectures.  When I first listened to every one of her lectures, I didn't realize it had to do with one of the Six Perfections.

The meaning of enthusiastic perseverance and joyful effort, according to the article The Six Perfections Part 1, is to be "pleased to perform virtuous actions."

Why would I gladly perform any actions regularly? Because, as the teaching states,  if we have great perseverance and do not get upset, there is nothing we cannot achieve. And, it will bring us to enlightenment.

The more I read about persistence, the words that jump out at me are "understanding hardships" and "obstacles as opportunities for enlightenment." In either one of Dalai Lama's readings or Judith Ragir's lectures, I learned not to hate hardships but to love them, to look at them as the reasons we're are on the path that we are on. 

I can understand this now. I recently became in contact with an old friend. Back in our youth I wanted very much to be his girlfriend. Although we only remained friends, I often wondered what life would have been like if I had been with him instead of my current husband. Would I have been happier? Perhaps because I wouldn't have been bombarded with negativity. That idea could be a fantasy.

What would my spiritual path look like since he's not religious or heavily spiritual?  Not sure. Then I thought of all the things I love which I received through my husband. I would have missed out on the music, Bollywood movies, living in a foreign country and most importantly, my two daughters. 

I also love the path I'm on spiritually. Therefore, even with all the depression I suffered for so long, I see those terrible days as the means to get me where I am today.  Without those challenges/opportunities, I wouldn't have looked for solutions to my depression.  No drugs, no psychiatric treatment, just lots of faith and good friends who guided me.

Would I have been on the same path with the other man?  I don't know.  His personality is completely opposite from my husband.  I will never know what I missed out not being with him. But my current opportunities for spiritual growth in my past, present and future are enormous. So in this moment, I'm happy to have this chance for growth. Even though there is still some problems,  I see them as growing pains which will pass if I put my effort into my spiritual growth. 

A friend of mine recently told me, "In one year from now, things will be different." I don't know if they will be good or bad. But with joyful perseverance and steadfastness, the challenges that are occurring in my life can be overcome.

My serenity is directly proportional to my level of acceptance.

Those who really seek the path to enlightenment dictate terms to their mind. They then proceed with strong determination.--The  Buddha

Teachings of the Dalai Lama

As luck would have it, the lesson I got today from Practicing Spirituality with His Holiness the Dalai Lama is about being patient. He wrote that "there are four  qualities of patience and tolerance" to practice daily.  These come from his book "How to Practice."

• If someone pushes you around, you should be tolerant, patient.
• If someone shows anger to you, you should not respond with anger.
• If someone hits you, you should not strike back.
• If someone embarrasses and insults you, you should not answer back.

In a nutshell: "Develop a strong desire to refrain from harming others either physically or verbally no matter whether you are embarrassed, insulted, reviled, pushed, or hit."

These are not easy for me.  It's a habit for me to often respond with anger when I'm yelled at. I'm working hard not to take things personally when someone pushes me around, embarrasses or insults me.  When these things happen I try to think that the problem is within them; the anger is inside them; they are really feeling subconsciously an issue from their past; or a need isn't being met.  Then I look at my actions to see what I did to trigger that anger or the reason for the insult.

I also think the slogan "Take time to think the thing through" when someone is upset with me also applies.  It gives me the opportunity to examine what is going on, what they are really anger at, what need of theirs isn't getting met, what need of mine isn't getting met, and how best to handle it.

The practice of not responding as suggested by the four qualities listed above are wonderful.  I do think that we also benefit by reexamining our thoughts and perceptions and working to change those, too.

I decided to write the four qualities down and put them where I can easily read them regularly.  Hopefully that will help me along with the other inside work I'm currently doing regarding the six perfections.


"True change is within; leave the outside as it is."

Practicing Patience

I was taught that one way to practice patience is to empathize. If we empathize with the person who wronged us, we can look at them through their eyes with compassion.

Another way to practice is to realize that when we have problems with "enemies or non-living things," most likely it is our karma from past lives that is creating these problems. Therefore, we can look at the problem as karma, accept it and move on. Another way to to practice the patience is thinking about the dharma: understanding the meanings and looking at the teachings deeply through meditation.

Part 2 of the Six Perfections claim that there are three types of patience:

1. Patience when we are harmed by others -- not reacting with anger to those who have harmed us.

2. Patience when we are suffering -- thinking of our suffering coming from our past negative actions or retains. Therefore it's best to accept them and not create more negative karma. Retaliation only creates more suffering for ourselves by way of new bad karma.

3. Patience of keeping concentration -- that is, to continue meditating and concentrating on the dharma without allowing yourself to become distracted.


We are in charge of our attitudes.