My friend, Doria Cross, created the Tibetan Calligraphy, which was matted and framed in a classic black frame.  The mala is my oldest and most used and also the first one I ever made myself.  FYI, the thread used is simply dental floss and has lasted 4 years with no problems.

The photo was shot for Project 365.

This is my Day 13 shot for Project 365 on flickr.com.  Here is a larger view.

Enlightenment in Jade and Gold

For the photo nerds out there, I shot it in a dark room with two candles and no flash.

From the a tweet from Tricycle Magazine:

“Solitude is impractical and yet society is fatal.” – Ralph Waldo Emmerson

There’s got to be a middle way. Meditating with others?

I’m working on a project on flickr.com called project 365 where I take a photo every day for 365 days.  This is day 11 and the first spiritual photo I’ve taken.

I’ve been pretty quiet recently.  I’ve been focusing a lot on my photography over at Hobos Landing.  But I WILL be at Podcamp San Antonio 3.0 at the El Tropicano Hotel tomorrow.  I’m really looking forward to it as I have been kind of ‘out of the podcasting groove’ of late and thinking this may be just what the doctor ordered to get me back into some content production.

If you get a chance and are in the area, you should definitely go!

Me, in a conversation earlier on questioning your religious beliefs from childhood:

I worry about people who DON’T question the faith of their childhood…I think we should question everything…then if we come to the conclusion that childhood was right…cool…but I know so many people who raise their kids to never question their religion..to the point some I know would disown them if they did, it’s just wrong, i think.

What do y’all think?

I’ve been told in the past that I tend to be somewhat long winded when I blog.  Well folks, this is gonna be one, so get ready.

I had an idea of what I wanted to cover in the podcast this week.  My thoughts were together and I had planned to record today (Sunday).  I was going to FreeLance Camp San Antonio on Saturday, so I knew it would be a busy weekend, but I felt sure I could get everything accomplished.

Then Friday evening, I got an email from my meditation center that a great friend and teacher at the center was killed Thursday morning in a hit and run accident.  I was floored.  I’ve talked before about how precious life is and that just because someone has terminal cancer doesn’t mean that they will die before we will.  Life is fragile and can be taken at any time for a plethora of reasons.  That being said, sometimes it really sucks to be proven right.

First, let me tell you a little about Kevin.  She was in her early 60s, a former teacher, a wonderful potter, one of the most giving people I have ever met and had one of the most distinctive looks I have ever seen.  She dressed in pinks, purples, lavenders and such.  Her hair was blueish grey and always spikey.  As crazy as it sounds, this was a look that she pulled off with unmatched beauty and grace.

She really threw herself into things she loved and believed in.  She was a past president of the San Antonio Potters Guild.  Her pieces I have seen we just like she was; beautiful, but not in the classical sense.  The glazes, the designs and the shapes were anything but classical or standard, but one look and you could tell it worked.

She had served as the Director Of Shambhala Training at the center for a number of years, a position she held at the time of her passing.  She took the position at the same time I accepted the Director of Communications position and we served together thorough good times and bad for a number of years.

We attended a teacher training weekend several years back to learn and be allowed to teach at the centers.  Even with our past teaching experience we were very nervous.  We had gone through the weekend being in different groups, each leading book discussions and such, but we ended up together for the big finale:  The Talk.  We were all given a list of topics to choose from and then were to prepare and deliver a short (7-15 minute) talk on the topic.  We had jokingly remarked that we were both nervous and had even tried to pump each other up for it a bit.

I don’t remember if Kevin volunteered to go first or if she was just who was selected, but she ended up in the lead off spot.  She took her seat, arranged her notes, introduced herself, took a drink of water and a deep breath and launched into what should have been a good 10 minute talk and she finished in what seemed like about six.  I don’t think she stopped to take a breath!  I was trying to make some eye contact to get her to slow down, but she was hauling serious ass and showed no signs of slowing down.  At the end she took a deep breath, looked around our little circle and asked if there were any questions.  She answered the questions and except for the speed, had done an awsome job.  But the story doesn’t end here.

Then it was my turn.  Having watched Kevin win the Daytona 500 of talks, all I could think about was keeping my cool and trying to keep it slow.  That was the odd part…if you would have picked one of us to go way too fast, it would definitely have been me.  But I overcompensated and sounded like I was on valium trying to keep calm and slow down.  We both got a kick out of it after it was all over.

When we go back, from training, we began giving short talks and the like which led to our leading some multi-week classes.  I co-led a class on Emptiness and Kevin was a student.  We examined the nature of emptiness by studying the teaching of the Heart Sutra.  After about 4 weeks of study, the final assignment was to take what you understood what was being said in the classic Heart Sutra and re-write the whole thing for the modern world.  Kevin’s was simply wonderful.  One of the most insightful I have seen.  The day after I got the news that she had passed, I remembered what she had written and was fortunate of enough to have actually kept a copy.  Today at her Sukhavati (funeral), we all are given a chance to share fond memories of her and I offered take on the teachings of the Heart Sutra and I now want to share it with you.  First, is the classic version of the Heart Sutra, just for reference:

THE SUTRA OF THE HEART OF TRANSCENDANT KNOWLEDGE

Translated into English by the Nalanda Translation Committee, with reference to several Sanskrit editions

Thus have I heard
Once the Blessed One was dwelling in Rajagrha at Vulture Peak mountain, together with a great gathering of the sangha of monks and a great gathering of the sangha of bodhisattvas. At that time the Blessed One entered the samadhi that expresses the dharma called profound illumination, and at the same time noble Avalokitesvara, the bodhisattva mahasattva, while practicing the profound prajnaparamita, saw in this way: he saw the five skandhas to be empty of nature.

Then, through the power of the Buddha, venerable Sariputra said to noble Avalokitesvara, the bodhisattva mahasattva, “How should a son or daughter of noble family train, who wishes the practice the profound prajnaparamita?”

Addressed in this way, noble Avalokitesvara, the bodhisattva mahasattva said to venerable Sariputra, “O, Sariputra, a son or daughter of noble family who wishes to practice the profound prajnaparamita should see in this way: seeing the five skandhas to be empty of nature. Form is emptiness; emptiness also is form. Emptiness is no other than form; form is no other than emptiness. In the same way, feeling, perception, formation, and consciousness are emptiness. Thus, Sariputra, all dharmas are emptiness. There are no characteristics. There is no birth and no cessation. There is no impurity and no purity. There is no decrease and no increase. Therefore, Sariputra, in emptiness, there is no form, no feeling, no perception, no formation, no consciousness; no eye, no ear, no nose, no tongue, no body, no mind; no appearance, no sound, no smell, no taste, no touch, no dharmas; no eye dhatu up to no mind dhatu, no dhatu of dharmas, no mind consciousness dhatu; no ignorance, no end of ignorance up to no end of old age and death, no end of old age and death; no suffering, no origin of suffering, no cessation of suffering, no path, no wisdom, no attainment, and no nonattainment. Therefore, Sariputra, since the bodhisattvas have no attainment, they abide by means of prajnaparamita. Since there is no obscuration of mind, there is no fear. They transcend falsity and attain complete nirvana. All the buddhas of the three times, by means of prajnaparamita, fully awaken to unsurpassable, true, complete enlightenment. Therefore, the great mantra of prajnaparamita, the mantra of great insight, the unsurpassed mantra, the unequaled mantra, the mantra that calms all suffering, should be known as truth, since there is no deception. The prajnaparamita mantra is said in this way:

OM GATE GATE PARAGATE PARASAMGATE BODHI SVAHA

Thus, Sariputra, the bodhisattva mahasattva should train in the profound prajnaparamita.”

Then the Blessed One arose from that samadhi and praised noble Avalokitesvara, the bodhisattva mahasattva, saying, “Good, good, O son of noble family; thus it is, O son of noble family, thus it is. One should practice the profound prajnaparamita just as you have taught and all the tathagatas will rejoice.”

When the Blessed One has said this, venerable Sariputra and noble Avalokitesvara, the bodhisattva mahasattva, that whole assembly and the world with its gods, humans, asuras, and gandharvas rejoiced and praised the words of the Blessed One.

And now, here is Kevin’s modern take on this teaching:

Heart Sutra

This is the way I heard it: once Moh Hardin was sitting with a great gathering of the San Antonio Shambhala Center Sangha. At that time, Moh was sitting in meditation. At the same time, noble David Sanor, who was also sitting, saw a gap and he perceived that emptiness means that there is no one thing.

Thus through the power of the Buddha, venerable Lans said to noble David , “How should one proceed along the path?” Addressed in this way, noble David Sanor said, “Oh Lans, one should who wishes to proceed along the path should see that emptiness means that there is no one thing. Form is emptiness, emptiness also is form. Emptiness is no other than form; form is no other than emptiness. Thus, Lans, all dharmas are emptiness, phenomena has no characteristics. There is no beginning and there is no end. There is no clarity and there is no confusion. There is no work, and there is no idleness. Therefore, Lans, in emptiness, there is no joy, no anger, no fear, no relief, no sight, no sound, no smell, no touch, no love, no hate, no cushion, no floor, no DVD, no Ipod, no email, no war, no peace. There is no achievement, there is no failure, no birth and no death. There is no pain, and no relief from the pain. There is no wisdom and there is no stupidity. There is no hinayana, mahayana and no vajrayana. There are no senior students and there are no beginners. There is no goal and there is nothing to achieve. Therefore, Lans, since there is no goal, Bohdisattvas abide by means of prajanparamita. Since there is no deception, there is no longer anything to fear. They transcend delusion and attain enlightenment. All the buddhas of the past, present and future, by means of the practice of prajnaparamita, fully awaken to complete enlightenment. Therefore the great mantra of prajnaparamita, the mantra of great insight, the unsurpassed mantra, the unequalled mantra, the mantra that calms all suffering should be known as the truth, since there is no deception. The prajnaparamita mantra should be said in this way:

Gone, Gone, Gone Beyond, Gone Way Beyond, So be it!

Thus, Lans, you should just get on the cushion and let it all go. Then Moh emerged from his meditation and praised noble David Sanor, saying, “Good, Good, David, that’s just how it is. One should practice profound prajnaparamita and everyone in Halifax will rejoice.”

When Moh had said this, venerable Lans and noble David, along with Vicki, Kevin, Jeannie, Preston, Jeremy, and the world with its Shambhalians rejoiced and praised the words.

It was so wonderful to actually get a teaching from her even after she had passed.

And speaking of teaching, this situation gives me a great chance to give a little insight here.  I think Kevin would have really liked that.  If you listened to the last podcast and read the comments section, you’ll know about the conversation my good friend Jen from the Inside My Head podcast and the Hypernonsense podcast were having.  You see, as we have discussed with several teachings, including the Four Immeasurables, a common thing in Buddhist teachings based on compassion is to apply them first to people we care about, then to people we are indifferent about, and finally, those that we have negative feelings about.  This final step is the most difficult part and I had the experience today.  You see, as I said, Kevin was killed by a hit and run.  I don’t want to get into it too much, but suffice it to say that she was not in a car when she was hit and she was just left there.

At the Sukhavati today, we obviously had practices for Kevin, but we also had practices for the person who struck her.  Acharya Moh Hardin, who just happened to be in town for a regional conference talked about this.  The person who did this is tied up with ego.  He/she was only concerned with what was going on with them, how it would effect them, what would happen to them.  And never thinking about what would happen to Kevin.  Even now, they are probably still thinking of this:  Will I get caught?  How do I stay out of trouble?  What will this do to MY life?

And yet, part of our practice today was to offer positive thoughts to this person.  Not because we want them to feel ok about what they have done, but because we want them to REALIZE what has happened.  We arn’t hoping that they will be relieved from feeling guilty about the event, but that their clinging to ego will be relieved so that they can actaully deal with it properly and sanely.  That being said, working with that feeling was one of the hardest practices I have ever done.

Just because we label ourselves as Buddhists doesn’t mean our feelings towards those that wrong us.  It just means that we have choose to look closely at and work with these feelings.  It’s not uncommon for for various religions to ‘pray for’ those that have wronged them.  Christians do it, Jews, Hindu, etc…  And believe me, it’s difficult no matter what we label ourselves, but we can learn quite a bit about ourselves from working with this practice.

That being said, I will miss Kevin greatly.  Peace be with her.  Om Ami Deva Hri.

This week we continue our ‘Numerical Series’ with part 2 of  The Four Immeasurables:   Love, Compassion, Joy and Equinimity.

May all beings enjoy happiness and the root of happiness.
May they be free from suffering and the root of suffering.
May they not be separated from the great happiness devoid of suffering.
May they dwell in the great equanimity free from passion, aggression and prejudice.

This is a subject often talked about by Pema Chodron and has showed up in a number of her books such as The Places That Scare You, A Noble Heart and From Fear To Fearlessness.

This week we take the Four Immeasurables to the cushion and learn a practice.

A buddy of mine was reading a book at work that compared a great many religions and asked me to glance over the Buddhist section to see what I thought.

“Sure, this could be kinda cool.  I’d love to see what a comparative religion textbook says about Buddhism.”

As I began reading, I discovered what I was reading was not a text book for a comparative religion class, but a book called “Why So Many Gods“, a Nelson Reference book.  Just to give you a taste, here is the amazon.com product description of the book:

Each of the religions is broken down into little sections:

1. Short History
2. Basic Beliefs
3. What They Think
4. Followers are called
5. How one becomes a…
6. What’s the attraction?
7. What’s the goal?
8. How does it look like Christianity?
9. How is it different than Christianity?
10. A quick breakdown box that outlines:
    1. Gods
    2. Figurehead
    3. Afterlife
    4. Worldview
    5. Sacred Texts
    6. Worship services
    7. Rituals/Rites/Sacrements
    8. Did you know?
    9. Geographic Center
    10. Number of followers
11. Important Vocabulary
12. Examples of beliefs in Pop Culture
13. Celebrities
14. “The Trick”

So, I learned some new things about Buddhism that I didn’t know from the “What They Think” section:

• Don’t give into worldly entertainment – like movies or TV
• Don’t wear jewelry or dye your hair
• You can worship idols
• Don’t pray to Buddha because he no longer exists

So I read this and sat there with my mouth hung open for a moment.  Of course, I must admit, this is when I still thought I was reading some new Comparative Religion textbook.  Some of this I can see where someone ill informed and just glancing may have misinterpreted something.  I mean, “You can worship idols”.  We have statues of the Buddha, Kwan Yen, etc… on shrines, but they are definitely not there for worship.   Maybe the “Don’t pray to Buddha because he no longer exists” part could be taken from “Buddha was just a man.  Enlightenment is attainable by all.” vibe we give out.  But I gotta tell ya, the whole dye the hair thing…just never heard of it.

They also broke down Buddhism into the Four basic forms we all know (and I quote here, folks):

• Therevada – the original Buddhism
• Mahayana – popular outside India, mainly in China and Japan
• Zen Buddhism – a branch of meditation that is big in the U.S.  Zen means ‘meditation’ in Japanese
• Tibetan Buddhism – the leader is the Dali Lama

In the “Basic Beliefs” section I learned that our only two basic beliefs, throughout all the different sects of Buddhism, are the Four Noble Truths and the Eightfold Path.  Yes, it’s a big part, but saying this to a Mahayana or Vajrayana Buddhist would be like telling a Christian that there only basic beliefs are the Ten Commandments.  But I digress…

I learned that Buddhism is like Christianity because “we both have good morals, because the Eight Fold Path looks like the Ten Commandments.  Buddhists think lying, adultry, etc… are wrong the same way Christians do.” Hmmm…

The way we are different?  Buddhists don’t believe in God. (OK…I’ll give you that one, in the context being spoken about) and we don’t believe in heaven, hell or sin.  Hmmm…well…not in a Christian sense, but a quick look at wikipedia would have at least given you the 6 realms and karma.  Might have been a worthy note.

Admittedly, they did mention karma in the “Important Vocabulary” section.  They defined it as:

Do a bad thing, get a bad thing done to you. Do a good thing, get a good thing done to you. It might not happen to you ’till later, but it will happen. Your karma “account” determines you existence now and in the next life.

OK…considering how bad so of the rest of it is, this isn’t TOOOO far off.

Another thing I learned was about Buddhist sacred texts:

There’s a lot of them, but maybe you’ve heard of The Sutras? Scriptures are directly transmitted from mind to mind (telepathy) and don’t need words to be explained.

Wow…I don’t think I have ever received a teaching telepathically without a worded explanation. I must be missing out.

I learned that burning incense is an offering to the Buddha and  A koan is a verbal puzzle that leads to enlightenment.

But all this pales to the fact that I learned that Ouzo is like a rosary, used to count recitations of a mantra.  In my neck of the woods, a mala is the Buddhist equivalent of prayer beads, but I thought maybe I missed something here.  I thought Ouzo was a greek alcholic beverage, but maybe I had my terms confused.    Well, after looking on the internet and the Buddhist Books at my disposal, I can’t find anything about Ouzo other than it’s ” an anise-flavored spirit that is widely consumed in Greece.”

Now I can’t go any further without acknowledging Buddhisms “Examples of beliefs in popular culture”:

The Free Tibet Conserts.  They were huge in the 90s.  Also, the move Seven Years iIn Tibet starring hottie Brad Pitt…

That’s it?  They could have at least mentioned 70’s icon Hong Kong Phooey and his Sutra entitled “The Hong Kong Book Of Kung Fu” or the numerous Yoga shows that are on TV right now.  They missed a gold mine.

Now we get to “The Trick”.  This appears to be how you can prove to a person of the religion you are reading that their beliefs are obviously incorrect.  For Buddhism, “The Trick”  deals with rebirth and says:

“If there’s no God, then who brings them back after they are dead?“

So there we have it for Buddhism.  Since this book is aimed at teenagers and is apparently used in homeschooling quite a bit, you would think someone would have checked this stuff before they actually put it in print.  If you are a Buddhist, you probably find this hilarious or insulting.  I went for the former and was almost falling out of my chair by the time I finished.  In fact, I am considering buying the book so I can put it on my coffee table and laugh.   However, If this is your teenager’s only exposure you are being give to world religion, it’s pretty much inexcusable,  But that’s the extent of my scolding.

Now, after I had my laugh, I glanced at the table of contents, just to see what else was in here.  I saw the usual Hinduism, Islam, Shintoism, Agnostic, etc…  I even found Rastafarianism, which was just about as screwed up as Buddhism.  I got to the last section which was the ‘cults’.  Ok folks.  What do you expect to find here. Yea, Wicca and Paganism were there, of course.  These are NOT cults, by the way, but I expected to find them here.  As you can imagine, they were  just as misinterpreted as the Buddhism entry.  Then they had Jehovah’s Witness and Mormons.  This surprised me but since I didn’t know much about either,  my assumptions is they screwed that up too.  Then I ran into Unitarian Universalist…yes, under cults.  Now, I have known many Unitarian’s, led some meditation classes at the UU and if I weren’t a Buddhist, UU is probably the closest I could get to something that made sense.

Just for reference, let me tease you with “The Trick” that’s listed for Unitarian Universalist:

“Ultimately, you become confused because, if truth really is continually changing like they say, how is it truth?  The very definition of truth is constancy. “

They were pretty bad on Unitarian Universalist, at least in my opinion.  Who knows.  Maybe on that one they were right, but I somehow doubt it.  Not being UU, I wouldn’t presume to speak on their behalf, for fear I would screw it up just as bad, but if any UU folks out there have access to this book and want to show me the humor from the UU point of view, I will gladly let you post here, or, if you have your own blog, I will gladly put a great big link to it on Enlighten Up.  Just send me a contact me, message, tweet me etc.

This week we continue our ‘Numerical Series’ by talking about The Four Immeasurables:   Love, Compassion, Joy and Equinimity.  I talk about a little card I keep in top of my wallet that has the words from The Four Immeasurables Practice which says:

May all beings enjoy happiness and the root of happiness.
May they be free from suffering and the root of suffering.
May they not be separated from the great happiness devoid of suffering.
May they dwell in the great equanimity free from passion, aggression and prejudice.

This is a subject often talked about by Pema Chodron and has showed up in a number of her books such as The Places That Scare You, A Noble Heart and From Fear To Fearlessness.

Next this week we talk about the meaning of The Four Immeasurables and next week we’ll learn a meditation practice to go with it.