Summer reading: The Best Buddhist Books of the Year So Far, Part Two
- Summer reading: The Best Buddhist Books of the Year So Far, Part Two
- New from The Under 35 Project: “Throw Out Your Empties”
- His Holiness of Bon Gyalwa Menri Trizin 33rd Visits US
- His Holiness the Dalai Lama Speaks on Community and Well-Being and the Quest for Happiness in Adelaide
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Posted: 21 Jun 2013 08:00 PM PDT
Looking for a great Buddhist book to dive into this summer? Our Book Review editor shares his picks for the Best Buddhist Books of the year — so far.
Second in a series; click here to read. Read More @ Source | ||||||
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Posted: 21 Jun 2013 06:00 PM PDT
 In this new submission to The Under 35 Project, Kieran Cunningham issues a call to identify and eliminate "empties" — those loose, unmindful expressions we use on a daily basis.Words are important. At best, language can only point to experience, evoking an empirically stored simulacrum of it within us. At worst it acts as a filter, reducing the specifics and vital singularity and flavor of the signified or situation to a non-specific, watered-down median of all vaguely similar experiences pooled under the same linguistic denominator since that denominator was first given form. While never fully capable of bridging the gap between itself and experience, signifier and signified, the application of care and mindfulness in our use of language can help to preclude detachment, banality and indifference, making our interactions all the more authentic and meaningful in the process. One of the ways in which care and attention are commonly forsaken is our habitual recourse to a collection of everyday expressions we routinely revert to as a matter of convention and conditioning. I call these expressions "empties." Empties are automated, generic, and most often thoughtless utterings availed of in interactions where the subject matter has in some way caused us to confront that which we employ such dictums to dispel: discomfort. A personal exploration is necessary, of course, to recognize which expressions you might use in this way, but to give an idea of what to look for let's take a few examples I've picked up on from my own exchanges. "That's life." The most hackneyed of the hackneyed. Envision any time you've heard the expression lobbed in at the end of a conversation or – even more tellingly – its middle, and its purpose is only too clear: avoidance. By throwing this blanket of platitude over the situation or event under discussion, we effectively close off to the mystery of said life evoked in it by filing the episode away with the million or so others to which we might apply the same response. How much more appropriate would it be to say nothing, to rest in the disclosure's wake and the resultant change or energy shift and let ourselves feel what's there to be felt? How much better would it be for both parties concerned – speaker and spoken to? Uneasiness abounds in this world where the unknown is elementary and intrinsic to everything we experience, but rather than deny it, how about letting it be? Rather than a source of discomfort or anxiety, acceptance of this fact and opening to the experience of the unknown can instead allow us to tap into the mystery of our existence, which is where the magic happens… "Keep your chin up!" The nub of my abovementioned faux pas. As my friend correctly pointed out at the time, its application in this scenario – if not in all – was bordering on insensitive, but more critically a specimen of advice recommending the indulgence of a form of short-term, provisional suicide. Keeping one's chin up, he said, suggested a sort of stoic, resigned and passive forbearance, a "getting through" with a brave face as opposed to meeting and experiencing a situation in attention – or "showing up" with the openness, willingness and courage of the spiritual warrior, as is advised in many spiritual traditions. My friend assured me he had no wish to do any such thing. He wished to experience the event – painful as it might be – as fully, openly and with as much presence as possible, without passing the buck unto his subconscious to gain interest and revisit him with hefty arrears at a later date. This episode was his life as much as any part, he said, and he aimed to meet it the way he had and would any other: being selective in where he chose to be present was not an option, nor something he expected a friend to advise. "Everything will be ok." Again, another instrument in the armoury of avoidance. 'Ok' occupies a very narrow sliver on the spectrum of all prospective eventualities. Everything will be as it is, no more, no less. To attach any adjective to it is to make it something other than precisely what it is, or at least to hope it will be. How good does it feel to do this? To say "this is nice," when "this" is not? To present "ok" or "great" or "happy" to ourselves as the most and perhaps only desirable outcome or objective is to effectively state an intent to ignore all else, to train our eyes, minds and hearts on a point on the map and forsake the terrain we are walking, to sanction or endorse one small fragment of human experience to the exclusion of all others. "Whatever." A personal bête noir: the verbal equivalent of turning the other cheek; man's equivalent of the wind sparing its energies only for that which offers least resistance or most pleasure and foregoing any terrain where past experiences have proven less than perfectly agreeable. While ostensibly implying a sort of desirable and healthy "letting go," in effect it lets go of nothing but merely brushes it under the carpet. "I love you." A bit of a wild-card here. Are you saying it because you mean it, or just to fill the gap, the silence? Say it too many times and its denotation, its value, wanes, just like any other thing, material or otherwise, subject to such overuse and genericism. What's more, if given to divvying out the term ad nauseum, when you really do want to say it with intent, the likelihood is it won't serve the moment in which the sentiment beckoning its expression arises so powerfully. How much more intimate and connecting might it be to let the silence be and the same sentiment communicate itself otherwise, without words? Group-Speak Empties Certain inherited forms of group-speak or zeitgeist fashionables can be more infectious and unnoticed than items in our own, personal repertories of inattentive speech. In certain groupings – social, professional, familiar – we are apt to fall carelessly and unthinkingly into certain roles and speech patterns, adopting the vernacular idiosyncrasies of the adopted role or our company at the time and leaving authenticity, candidness and individuality at the door. Below I have noted some such expressions I've been guilty of in the past or hear on a regular basis in the workplace or from friends and family. "Almost the weekend!" A poisonous phrase if ever there was one. Any expression giving voice to a wish for time to be gone is ultimately one expressing a wish to be relieved of the burden of one's own life, if only for a fixed period of time. Imagine what effect this has one's psyche and that of others subjected to it. Collectively it informs a mind-set subscribed to by perhaps millions, all lamenting ownership of the only life they have from the hours between Monday at 9am to Friday at 5pm. The first of the Kagyu tradition's "Four Reflections" is a valuable memento mori or, rather, memento vivi to turn to when such sentiments arise: 'This precious birth, free and well-favored, is so difficult to obtain. May I not waste it but make good use of it.' "Bloody Monday!" A day like any other. You've got as many hours of it as you have the others. See above. "Shit weather." Rain isn't shit. Rain is rain. Stop lying to yourself and let the rain be rain. "Life's never easy!" Ever made a cup of tea? Gone to the loo? Life is neither easy or not easy, it's what it is, in every moment. The overlay and appetite for complexity and commotion of our conceptual, thinking mind is all that complicates things. One Zen master, when asked exactly what Zen is, offered the following words of wisdom which if followed can provide a sound antidote to such unnecessary strife-making: "Zen is doing one thing at a time. When I eat, I eat. When I sleep, I sleep." When you eat, eat. When you sleep, sleep. When you walk, walk. When you speak, speak. From these few personal examples it is easy to see that the foremost factors in eliciting our empties are laziness and avoidance. To deploy them is to toss a very vague and wide-reaching filter over something very specific and real to cover the sharp edges, dowse the flame of feeling or to get a period in before the direction of the moment or conversation produce any more unease. In each case, what a more appropriate response might be depends very much on the context, but I'd be happy to bet the situation – rather than the speaker's own agenda or wish to avoid discomfort – would be best served by none whatsoever. Beyond maintaining silence, there are several other tools useful for developing attention in speech and eradicating laziness or avoidance. Firstly, bring awareness to when and how you use your empties and how they serve you. That which they repress is sure to contain a rich source of material to work with in meditation. What are the expressions you find yourself using inordinately in certain circumstances or in the presence of certain others? Simply recognizing them and the purpose they serve is the first step to stopping flicking the 'off' button any time a conversation should breach the margins of our comfort zone or threaten to expose us to a bit of feeling. Secondly, make an effort to take at least one good breath between the end of your company's sentence and your reply. If possible, take three. Next, bring attention to your own voice as you speak. Listen as though it is not your own and you are a third party eavesdropping on your dialogue. Identifying and eliminating empties may only be a small facet of practicing right speech, but doing so can have a substantial effect on the dynamic of spoken interactions and, concurrently, relationships as a whole. While I can't guarantee it will make relationships 'ok' or any other of those other very vague and distracting adjectives-to-aspire-to – though in my own experience authenticity and avoidance of avoidance have certainly had a beneficial effect – both what is received and what is offered in communication can only become more genuine, meaningful and satisfying as a result, whilst also providing an opening to rich material to work with within oneself. Describing himself, Kieran Cunningham writes: "I'm a thirty-one year old forester based in the Scottish Highlands. I have been a Buddhist practitioner on and off since the age of fifteen and studied for a PhD in Philosophy (on Nagarjuna's 'Writings on the Middle Way') at the University of Lisbon but didn't make the transition to a more pragmatic and experiential approach to practice until more recently."Read More @ Source | ||||||
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Posted: 21 Jun 2013 01:00 PM PDT
We are very honored that His Holiness of Bon Menri Trizin 33rd, Abbot of Menri Monastery in India and world leader of Bon, is in the United States now visiting Bon centers around the country. Bon Shen Ling, the Tibetan Bon Education Fund, is organizing and sponsoring His Holiness' 2013 visit and will host His Holiness' teaching of the Ah Khrid Dzogchen text this month in Connecticut as well as an Empowerment and Public Blessing in New York City in August. For full details on these events as well as His Holiness' complete visit calendar, we welcome you to visit www.bonshenling.org
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Posted: 21 Jun 2013 12:00 PM PDT
Adelaide, Australia, 21 June 2013 - As the Winter Solstice dawned over Adelaide today, the sky was dark with benign rain. His Holiness the Dalai Lama was received on arrival at Adelaide Town Hall by Senator Sarah Hanson-Young and Bob Brown, who escorted him to a private meeting the focus of which was a 'Discussion on Compassion.' He responded to this welcome:
"I'm very happy to be here once more in this beautiful city to meet again with old friends. I first met Bob Brown in Hobart in 1992, before he went to Tibet in 1997. As some of you know, I have three commitments: as a human being, one of the 7 billion human beings, I try to share with others the idea that the real source of happiness is within us. I'm also a Buddhist dedicated to promoting religious harmony. Thirdly, although I have now completely retired from political responsibility and have voluntarily brought the Dalai Lamas' historic involvement in Tibet's political affairs to an end, I remain committed to preserving Tibetan Buddhist and Tibetan culture."
The meeting discussed compassion and how it affects questions to do with indigenous peoples, immigrants, refugees and education. When His Holiness was asked his advice for politicians who possess neither wisdom nor compassion he suggested that retired politicians like Bob Brown could advise their younger successors, claiming that he lacked the capacity to do so.
He was escorted into the Town Hall auditorium by the Lord Mayor Stephen Yarwood and Senators Nick Xenophon and Sarah Hanson-Young. The Adelaide Symphony Orchestra played on the platform. Tribute was paid to the Kaurna people whose traditional lands include the area around Adelaide. Senator Hanson-Young formally welcomed His Holiness: "Thank you for coming to our beautiful city to brighten this rainy day." The Lord Mayor then invited him to speak about 'Community and Well-Being.' "Of course, we human beings as social animals have a sense of community. Some scientists b! elieve that all social animals have a sense of compassion for each other, not out of piety, but from a need to survive. Sometimes we develop a false idea that because we have money and power we don't need others' support. But if we think this way, we'll eventually find ourselves isolated and alone. "A sense of community is in fact essential because we have to work together. We need to adopt a more holistic view that takes others into account. Adelaide with all its trees is a beautiful city, its future depends on Australia, Australia depends on Asia and Asia on the rest of the world. What really brings people together is trust, which leads to friendship and cooperation. This is why religious traditions stress the need for love and to complement it tolerance and forgiveness. To meet our own interests we need to be concerned about others. Because we live in a multi-cultural, multi-religious world we need to cultivate the kind of religious harmony we find flourishing in India."
In the Chinese rendering of the formal title of the People's Republic of China is a word that refers to unity, to being united. The Chinese flag bears five stars to indicate the peoples who make up China. But in order to build a united country the key factor is equality among the participant peoples. In India there are many different peoples with their own different languages who willingly contribute to the union. The problem in China is that it does not implement the rights that exist in the constitution. When a party secretary asserted that the fount of Tibet's sense of separatism is its Buddhist traditions, Tibetans were offended. His Holiness suggested that if Tibetans were shown respect and given material help they would be happy. They could take care of their environment and keep their rivers clean, which would be in the interest of millions across Asia, including many Chinese. At present censorship and disinformation are rife in China. Economically China has already joined the world community, so the free world has a responsibility to encourage China to enter the democratic mainstream too. Both former Prime Minister Wen Jiabao and human rights activist Liu Xiaobo have spoken of the need for political reform. The free world should support these points of view. Senator Nick Xenophon asked His Holiness if he thought he would see Tibet again and he answered that most Tibetans in exile believe that they will one day return to Tibet. He mentioned that the slogan of the Hu Jintao era was harmony, but in ten years he failed to achieve it, not because it is ! not an admirable goal, but because the use of force is the wrong method to fulfil it. The building of harmony requires respect and trust; the use of force only elicits fear. His Holiness assured his listeners of the growing support that Chinese intellectuals and others offer the Middle Way Approach. As more and more Chinese become acquainted with outside world, foreigners interact with China and information improves, change is bound to come. His Holiness answered a number of questions from the floor, reiterating that every one of the 7 billion human beings alive today has to take the future of humanity into account. Modern education doesn't have much place for inner values, which has shaped the societies we live in. The solution seems to be to introduce ethics into modern education.
"Keep up your inner strength. Don't give in to anger, which stokes violence and can be self-destructive. Compassion for others in this context can be very powerful. This is what I advise Tibetans: keep up your optimism, determination and will-power." In a discussion of vegetarianism His Holiness expressed an admiration for the practice, but explained how his health had failed when he adopted it strictly himself. He acknowledged that it is unrealistic to expect everyone to give up meat, but suggested it is reasonable to encourage people to eat less. He reported that the common kitchens of the great Tibetan monasteries and other institutions have been entirely vegetarian for about fifteen years. To His Holiness's and the audience's great amusement, Nick Xenophon came forward to offer him a traditional Australian Akubra hat to protect him from the sun, rain and bright light. He put it on at once. The Mayor, calling on people's sense of community, urged everyone to tell three people one thing they had learned today and to ask each of those people to tell three more. He asked them to do it again over the coming weekend. During the break for lunch, His Holiness met with members of the Tibetan, Bhutanese and Mongolian communities. He talked to them about their shared spiritual heritage, Tibetan Buddhist culture, with its common written language. He encouraged them to view the scriptures in terms of science, philosophy and religion and to study them accordingly. When he arrived at the Adelaide Convention Centre, a group of Aboriginal boys were performing a dance which he came on stage early to watch. Bob Brown gave a fulsome introduction welcoming to the beautiful city of Adelaide His Holiness the 14th Dalai Lama. "I'm very happy to be here and to have this opportunity to speak to you, His Holiness said. "Wherever I go I carry the ancient Indian message of non-violence and peace, and on the basis of them, inter-religious harmony. These are ideas that the most populated democratic country in the world, India, has given birth to. Although it is undertaking substantial modernisation, India retains these ideas today.
He said that modern secular education lacks a sense of ethics. Religious and family values are in decline, so we should fill the gap by teaching secular ethics. He said that he and friends are investigating how they might best be introduced into the modern education system. As he came to the end of his talk, Dorinda Hafner, who was moderating the event before an audience of more than 5000, put a series of questions to him touching on such issues as happiness, forgiveness and the after-life. To finish with she asked a question of her own, telling His Holiness that she believes we create our own happiness and asking him what he thought. "For me, happiness is a sense of satisfaction, which brings with it a sense of fullness and completeness. Thank you."  Read More @ Source |
