Archive for September, 2007

I think almost everyone has felt the pain of mediators knee! It can be a terrible pain and also a big hindrance to your meditation. Mediators knee, like tennis elbow is a recurring injury that for many manifests during retreats.

I was remaindered of this trick recently when during a group retreat a friend of mine spoke of having sore knees. He has been meditating for 20+ years and had been silently suffered through the pain, thinking that this was just normal, for all that time. Given that for many people engage in retreat only every 12 months or so, I can understand how it might take 20 years to finally ask for help.

When I first tried this trick I was very surprised just how effective it is! I was amazed that my pain was almost gone over night!

What it is!   I hear you crying. A hot water bottle placed over the knees during breaks between sessions!
It is that simple!

You don’t need to do it each break, maybe you can just place the hot water bottle on your knees at night. Perhaps you need a couple of hot water bottle sessions a day. You be the judge!

The pain is caused by the strain placed on the ligaments in your knees from hours of being stretched into an unfamiliar position. The heat from the hot water bottle helps them to relax. If you suffer from hip problems or back pain try the same method and see what happens.

Either way the your knees will love you for it.

Just recently I spoek with and Ryan Oelke from the Buddhist Geek podcast about his start in Buddhism, his solitary retreat and his foray into podcasting.

1: How, when and why do you get into Buddhism?

I came to Buddhism while I was in undergrad at Missouri Western State College. I don’t quite remember the exact course of events, but I do know that the Dalai Lama’s book, "The Art of Happiness" was pivotal for me. I had never heard the world spoken of in this way, and it all sounded so matter-of-factly. Reading that book really opened the door to contemplative practice, to dive into what lie behind ordinary perceptions. This lead me to visit the Rime Center in Kansas City, Missouri, a non-sectarian Tibetan Buddhist center. I took up meditation practice and have been practicing and studying ever since. My entrance into Buddhism seemed very natural, very familiar in some way.  

2: I read on your bio you did a solitary retreat? Can you tell us a little bit about your experiences on retreat.

Sure thing. I did a solitary retreat at Tsegyalgar in Conway, Mass, a primary center for the Dzogchen Community of Namkah Norbu, my teacher. Solitary retreat is fairly normal in this community and Tsegyalgar has wonderful retreat land and cabins. For me, this was both my longest retreat and first solitary retreat:) I don’t recommend that to the average person! My experience was a tough one, but also good. I think sometimes we imagine retreats and meditation as this wonderful, peaceful, non-stop blissful experience, when in fact much of it is suffering, or at least coming face-to-face, intimately with our suffering. This was my experience. That’s not to see that peace and bliss aren’t also common, but not all the time, and certainly not for me on this retreat. As for my practice, I went into knowing I do one specific practice for three weeks, which kept things simple. I think practitioners should feel 100% confident that they understand the practices they’re undertaking and if possible, have access to a teacher during the retreat, depending on how long they’ll be in retreat. Interestingly enough, my experience resulted in me knowing what to do the next time, and so I’ve been longing to go for another retreat, a do-over, if you will:)

3: How has Buddhism and meditation changed your life?

Great question. Part of me feels stumped in answering this question, which seems kind of odd! I think it’s hard to see how meditation has or has not changed one’s life. Broadly speaking, I think it’s opened up, or cracked a veil covering mundane life and experience. I think this is what the Buddha taught us: a way for us to penetrate a fundamental misperception of ourselves, others, and the world in general, and to pursue this contemplation and investigation to the end. All I can say at this point is that practicing and studying Buddhism has started this process and continues to compel me along the path. As for my relative life, I think minimally, practice provides a powerful foundation from which we can make significant change in our lives and the world, but I believe that has to happen in tandem with other practices.

4: How do you take what you have learned from Buddhism into normal daily life.

Oops, looks like I got ahead of myself:) I partly answered this in my previous questions. As I stated, I think that the line between Buddhist practice and daily life is somewhat gray, which I know some would disagree with. Perhaps I should say it’s complex. Of course, I think the ethical teachings of Buddhism deal directly with life, and in it’s simplest form is actually very helpful, but often it’s not so simple. Much of the ethics are encased in the cultural context from which they emerged, which at the time we could say was quite skillful, but for today’s age requires some updating. I think I try to bring the Buddha’s teachings in a simple, fundamental way: recognize the suffering within myself and others, and act accordingly. The more I am familiar with my own suffering, the more I work through it’s causes, the more I can act compassionately to others.

5: Tell us about BuddhistGeeks.com. What the goal behind it?

Buddhist Geeks is a project I started with Vince Horn, a close friend and fellow Buddhist. Our main focus is on our podcast, though we have written several articles on the site as well. We recently wrote a statement describing what we’re about, so I figure that would be a good way to describe what we’re about:

Buddhist Geeks: Seriously Buddhist, Seriously Geeky. Combining ancient wisdom with modern technology, Buddhist Geeks aims to catalyze a community of practice committed to awakening.  Discover the emerging face of Western Buddhism.

I think that sums it up nicely. We want everything we do to be tied to awakening, to real practice. We don’t want to "talk dharma" for the sake of flapping our gums or making us feel good. We want people to benefit concretely from our podcast, to be inspired in their practice.
As for the nature of the conversations on Buddhist Geeks, I see them like this: imagine talking with an admirable, inspirational teacher, author, or practitioner, maybe over coffee or tea. At some point in the conversation you hit upon some amazing insights. I think we try to capture that feeling in what we do. We try to be very practical, and yet personable in our interviews, which I think is a distinguishing characteristic.

6: If you could go back in time and change one thing or event, what would it be?

I’ve thought about this question now and then in my life. There have been times in my life when I’ve looked back wanting to change things, particularly those times of intense suffering. However, in the end, those times of suffering have been the catalyst for profound changes, and so I really don’t want to change anything. That being said, I do look back and learn from those experiences and seek to make the present and future better.

Negative emotion, we all have them. So whether your a passive-aggressive who suppresses your anger or a rageaholic that let’s fly at the slightest provocation, anger can be one of the most devastating forces known to humans. In it’s most course form, it is the source of all violence - violence at the domestic, community and international levels. It is the source of ill feeling between work colleagues, family members and even the pain that can occur subtly in our bodies is a result of anger.

Anger has no good qualities, it destroys your relationships, your health and can even be the cause of you losing your life.

Is letting anger out the correct method?
Thanks to modern psychology, it is a commonly held view that we should not suppress anger. Psychologists say that suppressing anger can result in pent up energy, that may explode sometime in the future expressed as rage. While it’s true that suppressing strong emotions such as anger can over a long period have ill effects, letting anger out can have an even greater negative effect and it’s in the short term. Can you honestly think of any occasion when getting angry helped a situation? Sure, it might make you feel better at the time, but later on if you look back at that experience with an open mind, most people would agree that by getting anger they couldn’t articulate what they wanted as succinctly as they would have liked. Angry is that voice in your head that goes over and over the experience, working out smart and witty things you could have said. Now, if in that some situation you were able to calmly and perhaps even with aggression, expressed your views you would have been able to effect a better outcome. Anger and aggression are not equivalents but, that another story.

Also looking at it this from a third person point of view. Have you ever seen someone get into an argument while angry? They look silly don’t they! Anger distorts our perception not to mention distorting our physical appearance. Anger makes everything seem threatening and hostile. I’m sure they’ve heard these words before don’t get anger at me, I’m not the one you should be anger with. Anger can even make the people who are trying to help us seem difficult.

Anger can also have a massive effect on our physiology, in extreme cases it can lead to disease.
Certainly in the short term it changes our appearance - even super-models will look ugly when they are angry!

I will become like a Sponge?
Learning to deal with your emotions is a part of the process of becoming an adult. As children we don’t always understand why we are feeling angry and so forth, and this can lead to frustration. Wanting to eliminate this frustration becomes paramount, and that is why anger seems to be an attractive solution - it’s gratifying in the short term - and we carry this short sightedness through into adulthood. We see anger as a solution because in the short term it makes us feel better just as it did when we were a child. Part of the process of seeing through anger or letting go of anger is to see with wisdom that anger is not a viable solution. We must clearly see and know with certainty that anger is no longer a solution that can effect any positive outcomes in any situation. This does not mean that you should become a passive sponge soaking up everyone else’s anger and negative emotions. It is also not a case of just turning the other cheek! It is possible to engage hostile colleagues or whoever, even with aggression in some cases but, not never with anger.

Many people when first hearing these methods immediately do one of two things. They agree and think that this practice is about not responding - this just reinforces their door-matt-ish type behavior. The other is to not agree, because for them this would mean they could never stand up for themselves. Both are incorrect! All that is being said here is that anger not your actions are the problem. It is true however that as your anger diminishes you do become more passive but it is in no way because of a weakness rather you find said when confronted by anger or difficult people thinking…ok whatever! Your not affected by their silly childish actions.

Ok hopefully I have convinced you to read further

Seeing through negative emotions
Firstly we need to clearly see the effects of anger by meditating on anger and the direct opposing force of anger - Metta or Loving-kindness. There are some people who don’t like this meditation, they don’t like generating anger but, it’s ok! Generating anger in a controlled environment is permissible. Just as scientist may handle dangerous chemicals when conducting experiments, so we can safely generate minds like anger in order to conduct experiments. We do this by following a meditation I presented a couple of days. The meditation is a guided meditation on the conventional nature of mind, the ultimate nature of mind and then a meditation on generating anger and loving-kindness or in Sanskrit it is called Metta. Read through that post and in particular meditate on the generation of anger and Metta. The stronger you can generate anger, and then loving-kindness, the clearer it will be to you that anger is not a reasonable solution.

Your ability to see through anger is largely brought about by experiencing - preferably through meditation as that experience will would stronger and deeper - the ill effects of anger itself. This is done by meditating on anger and then loving-kindness. By meditating on anger in a controlled environment, we can use a small part of our mind to observe anger and the accompanying minds and feelings it generates.

For those who did not go and read the post on generating anger and metta I will go over the meditation in abbreviated form now. But it would be better if you use the other post as a guide for your meditation.

Anger
Generate anger, let yourself get into an angry state of mind by observing someone who you finding supremely annoying. Someone who is difficult to communicate with, someone that you just don’t like! Then once that mind of anger has arisen, from a corner of your mind, observe the feeling of anger. Is it painful? Observe the impulse aggregate. That agitated impulse to lash out and harm either verbally or physically. Is that constructive? The labeling or perception of anger – this is my enemy! Is this truly valid? Would their mother feel the same? Observe the consciousness aggregate. How anger distorts your view making everything not just the so called enemy seem threatening. Then observe the form aggregate. How anger makes your body harsh, tense and agitated. Take the time to generate each of those states. You should spend at least 5 minutes on this or until you clearly see each point. The longer you can stay on this part the more affect the next section will have.

Now turn your attention to loving-kindness.

Loving-Kindness
Generate the mind of loving-kindness by remembering someone who is very dear to you. Someone who has shown you great kindness, who you care for deeply. Remembering that person, remembering their kindness and all that they mean to you, allow a mind of loving-kindness to develop. Remember the person to the point at which loving-kindness is generated, and then concentrate on just the mind of loving-kindness - moving your object of observation from the person to the mind of loving-kindness itself so that it completely fills your awareness. Then as you experience loving-kindness, look at the components of that experience – the aggregates. The easiest to see is the aggregate of feeling. The wonderful feeling of the mind of loving-kindness. The impulse aggregate of the mind of loving-kindness - the emotion or movement of friendliness. The movement to help not harm. Then the aggregate of discrimination of loving-kindness - the way of labeling or describing loving-kindness - the wish for another’s happiness. What we are feeling now is the experiencing of the wish for another’s happiness. Then observe the consciousness aggregate of loving-kindness - the way loving-kindness effects and influences our view of the world. Then the form aggregate in relation to loving-kindness. Some of you may even be able to identify to endorphins or at least a soft warm feeling through the body.

Then gently release your concentration and finish the meditation.

Once you have mastered that you can move onto more advanced practices like seeing all things as like an illusion.

Anger Meditation dealing with emotions

In 2007 His Holiness the 14th Dalai Lama was a part of an Australian conference called happiness and it’s causes. It brings together clinical psychologists, psychiatrists and Buddhist practitioners. I think this is a wonderful idea having a conference on the causes of happiness is something that really serves the community as a whole well. Don’t you think?

I’ve just applied for a press pass as I hope to go up to Sydney and report on the goings on. There are a couple of well known Buddhists speaking, and in particular I would like to see these two.

Matthieu Ricard
Shechen Monastery, Nepal
Matthieu Ricard is a Buddhist monk at Shechen Monastery in Kathmandu and French interpreter since 1989 for His Holiness the Dalai Lama. He received his PhD in Cellular Genetics at the Institute Pasteur in France, before forsaking his scientific career to concentrate on Tibetan Buddhist studies. He received the French National Order of Merit for his humanitarian work setting up clinics, schools and orphanages in the Himalayan region. Mr. Ricard’s photographs of the spiritual masters, the landscapes and the people of the Himalayas have appeared internationally in books and magazines. The dialogue with his father, Jean-Francois Revel, The Monk and the Philosopher, was a best seller in Europe, and The Quantum and the Lotus reflects his long-standing interest in science and Buddhism. His new book, Happiness: A Guide to Developing Life’s Most Important Skill, explores the meaning and fulfillment of happiness.

Dr. Alan Wallace
President Santa Barbara Institute for Consciousness Studies, USA
Dynamic lecturer, progressive scholar, and one of the most prolific writers and translators of Tibetan Buddhism in the West, B. Alan Wallace, Ph.D., continually seeks innovative ways to integrate Buddhist contemplative practices with Western science to advance the study of the mind. Having devoted fourteen years to training as a Tibetan Buddhist monk, ordained by H. H. the Dalai Lama, Dr. Wallace went on to earn an undergraduate degree in physics and the philosophy of science at Amherst College and a doctorate in religious studies at Stanford. His books include Genuine Happiness: Meditation as the Path to Fulfillment and The Attention Revolution – Unlocking the Power of the Focused Mind.

You can see a full list of speakers for the 2008 conference here.
http://www.happinessanditscauses.com.au/speakerList.stm

I’ve been reading Alan’s book for years and he is particularly interested in the science Buddhist conversation that seems to be getting more and more popular. For me I definitely see the benefit of this conversation as long as we don’t start trying to, as the Dalai Lama says put a Yaks head on a cow’s body. Alan is aware of this potential problem and has started the http://www.sbinstitute.com/ an organization that is not based on one system of thought.

This topic is very close to my heart as we all have a natural and basis aspiration to have more and more happiness. Yet many of us misunderstand the true causes of genuine happiness.

The great 8th Indian saint Shantideva said as much in his classic style of in your face poetry…

Although they do not want suffering, they run to suffering itself.
And although they wish for happiness, they destroy it like an enemy!

Yet, even in the so called modern era  we are no closer to understanding his basic fact! There are still people/countries fighting over oil etc etc. The human race is like a dysfunctional family…we ARE The Simpsons.

I have set aside a category for posts just on this wonderful conference, and I will be blogging about it.

The latest BuddhistGeeks.com podcast was a great show!

I was sooooo happy to hear people talking about the importance of studying Buddhist fundamentals.

Although it is very important to practice meditation, as meditation is the tool used to integrate what one has learned into ones continuum and therefore your daily life. In reality, without study, how can you meditate properly! It can end up being just a new-age reification of the ego. Which is better than no meditation at all of course. But, if someone is serious about the Buddhist path, study is an integral part of that process of transformation.

Throughout Buddhist history study has been an important part of the path. There have been many monasteries such as Nalanda in India where great beings like Nargajuna, Candrakirti, Shantideva, Aryadeva lived and of course the great monasteries of Tibet. If the Pandits of ancient India and the Tibetan lama’s had to study, why do we think we don’t? We can just go straight to practicing Mahamudra or Vajrayana!

In Tibet there is a say…meditation without study is like climbing a mountain with no hands.
Perhaps a modern western equivalent might be…one cannot receive a PHD without first going through grade-school. 

Thanks for the podcast guys keep em coming :) 

Nice little video from HH the Dalai Lama’s last tour to Australia 2007. http://blip.tv/file/381633

I’ve just added a polling widget/plugin on the blog. It’s on the sidebar just under the sponsors box.

The first poll we are conducting is how long have you been a Buddhist?

I will run the poll for a while and then post about the finding with nice little graphs.
If you have any poll questions you think we should run let me know.

Ok what are going waiting for…go vote!

Guided Meditation
Below is a guided meditation that I was first taught by one of my teachers Gen Loden Jampa (we have very similar names)

Breathing Meditation

Begin by settling the mind by focusing it on just the breath.

So we consciously relax away from our involvement in the worlds of the senses. The external world that dominates most of our waking experience.
The world of sights, sounds, smells, tastes and tangible things. The phenomenal world, the material world, the external world.
Instead focus our inner awareness on a single object, the natural rising and falling of the breath.

Allow your awareness to settle, by simply observing the breath. As we breath naturally, watch the ebb and flow of the breath. As we observe the breath we let go of all other thoughts and concerns - all discursive thought. We release ourselves from the past, from thoughts of the past, thoughts of last year, last week, last day, last hour, last instant. Every thought dwelling in the past is a mere memory. We release ourselves from thoughts of the past and allow ourselves to be fully present, simply observing the breath.

And likewise, we release ourselves from thoughts of the future, thoughts of next year, plans of next week, of the next day, of the next instant. All thoughts into the future are mere speculation on what may come to be. We release ourselves from speculation, to be fully present, simply observing the breath.

Allow the mind to completely settle, to relax, as a silent witness watching the breath without discursive thought or comment.

Conventional Nature of Mind

As you watch the breath, have a sense that your awareness is like vast open space free of thought.
An unstructured bare awareness as vast as space, within which flows the movement of the breath - the object of observation. Within the vast space of your awareness, distracting thoughts, sounds or images arise and disappear within that space like a rainbow. A rainbow arises and disperses without ever disturbing space. In this way your mind becomes still. Distracting thoughts don’t carry your attention but arise and disappear without disturbing your space-like awareness.

Now notice that the object of concentration is the breath and that the subject is your still spacious awareness. A vast open awareness free of thought.
Now turn the object of concentration to the subject itself and simply observe the still, clear, spacious mind of bear awareness – the observing subject.

Now with a small part of your awareness analyze this bear awareness - this still consciousness, the unmoving unstructured mind. Does this still, clear, knowing mind have shape or color? Is it form? Is it matter, cells or physical substance? Does it have mass or resistance?

If we examine we find that consciousness itself - the clear knowing bear awareness - is not form, not shape, not color, not mass, nor does it have resistance.
It’s not cells or matter, it have no physical substances. It is simply clear and knowing.

Mind in Relation to Space and Time

And observe the clear knowing nature of mind in relation to space. Does the clear knowing mind have a boundary. Is it bounded by the body or brain? Is bounded by the room? Is there a point in space in which it cannot directly or indirectly know? So we can see that the mind is not bound by any limit of space – up, down or in any direction. It is simply clear and knowing. And again observe the clear knowing nature of mind in relation to time. Does it have a beginning – a point at which awareness started? Does it have an end – a point at which awareness ends? Is there a point in time that it cannot know either past or future? Is it bound by time? And we will see that unlike an individual thought, bear awareness itself has no beginning and no end. No point in time that it cannot know, no boundary within time. This bear awareness, this clear knowing nature of mind, is not bound by space and time.

And observe further and see that the clear knowing nature of mind is not anger – It is not in the nature of anger. It is not attachment. It’s not jealously, pride, anxiety, fear or doubt. It is no negative state. It is not by nature deluded, it is simply clear and knowing.

Ultimate Nature of Mind

And observe again this clear knowing nature of mind, the conventional nature of mind – the knower.
And look to its ultimate nature. Does it ultimately exist? Does it inherently, truly or naturally exists? Is it findable under ultimate analysis? Or is it emptiness of these things – of these modes of existence? And if we look at the clear knowing nature of mind, to find the truly existent clear knowing nature of mind, the inherently existent clear knowing nature of mind. When we look amongst its part – its past moments, its future moments or the present moment of awareness in this stream of consciousness. We see that an inherently existent clear knowing nature of mind is not found. It’s not found in its past moments or it would have ceased. It is not found in its future moments or consciousness would not have arisen. And if we look for the knower in this present moment, in the action of looking the present moment has gone!

This unfindability of the clear knowing nature of mind. The unfindability of the knower is the emptiness of mind – its ultimate mode of existence.
This emptiness is a mere absence, an absence of inherent existence, a permanent phenomena. Meditate on this emptiness single-pointedly.

Then be aware that as we observe emptiness, we in fact observe! That we know that the emptiness of the knower is not the absence of knowing, simply the absence of inherent existence. Then see again in a new light the clear knowing conventional nature of mind. Its conventional existence.

Negative and Positive States of Mind

Both positive and negative states of mind have such an impact of us both in a gross and subtle way, that I thought it best to explain these in their correlations – how they impact on each other.

Buddhism asserts that the person is the conventionally existent self. The sense we have when we say “I will this do”, “I am like this”, in my case I have an image of myself…”I am Clarke, the gentle and sensitive person” this is how I see myself and we all have our sense of self, sense of person. Strictly speaking the person is that which is imputed onto the 5 aggregates. What are the 5 aggregates? The 5 aggregates are simply a way of dividing body and mind.

The 5 Aggregates

1. Form: The form aggregate is the appearance of the body and the subtle appearance is more to do with the way you project yourself. Subtle form is included in the form aggregate and it is the way you appear of present to others.
2. Feeling: Feeling is divided in good, bad and natural feeling. There are graduations of feeling but, feelings can be categorized as either good, bad or natural.
3. Discrimination or Perception: Is the way that we label things, the way we classify and label things. This is Fred, this is Joe, this is good, this bad, this is mine, our labeling process. It is normally what we would call thinking.
4. Impulse: Is like the energy of mind, the emotional aspect of experience. It is the moving aspect of mind, it is how you are moved or impelled to act.
5. Consciousness: Consciousness can be divided into many different types but for us here today we will us positive and negative minds.

Generally we don’t think of anger as being a consciousness but being more of an emotion. But anger is also a consciousness, it is a way of knowing. So the way of knowing of anger is a distorted view, a distortion of things into unpleasant and threatening. The emotive aspect of anger is the emotion to lash out and harm someone. The feeling will be a bad feeling. The perception will be “this is my real enemy”. And the subtle form will project and have an influence of the gross form and you will end up looking like this…visual…A darkness will come over the face and so forth.

Similarly with the positive emotion for example loving-kindness you will have the consciousness of loving-kindness which is seeing the object in a favorable light. You will have the emotion of loving-kindness, the movement to caring, benefiting and bringing happiness. You will have the feeling of loving-kindness, the undeniably good feeling. You will have the perception of loving-kindness, may this person have happiness. And you will have the form of loving-kindness, which will be a pleasant, relaxed, open type of appearance.

So essentially the aggregates are the agents of experience of the person.

Below is a guided meditation to demonstrate in meditation the effects that anger and loving-kindness on these 5 aggregates.

Anger

Generate anger, let yourself get into an angry state of mind by observing someone who you finding supremely annoying. Someone who is difficult to communicate with, someone that you just don’t like! Then once that mind of anger has arisen, from a corner of your mind, observe the feeling of anger. Is it painful? Observe the impulse aggregate. That agitated impulse to lash out and harm either verbally or physically. Is that constructive? The labeling or perception of anger – this is my enemy! Is this truly valid? Would their mother feel the same? Observe the consciousness aggregate. How anger distorts your view making everything not just the so called enemy seem threatening. Then observe the form aggregate. How anger makes your body harsh, tense and agitated. Take the time to generate each of those states. You should spend at least 5 minutes on this or until you clearly see each point. The longer you can stay on this part the more affect the next section will have.

Now turn your attention to loving-kindness.

Loving-Kindness

Generate the mind of loving-kindness by remembering someone who is very dear to you. Someone who has shown you great kindness, who you care for deeply. Remembering that person, remembering their kindness and all that they mean to you, allow a mind of loving-kindness to develop. Remember the person to the point at which loving-kindness is generated, and then concentrate on just the mind of loving-kindness - moving your object of observation from the person to the mind of loving-kindness itself so that it completely fills your awareness. Then as you experience loving-kindness, look at the components of that experience – the aggregates. The easiest to see is the aggregate of feeling. The wonderful feeling of the mind of loving-kindness. The impulse aggregate of the mind of loving-kindness - the emotion or movement of friendliness. The movement to help not harm. Then the aggregate of discrimination of loving-kindness - the way of labeling or describing loving-kindness - the wish for another’s happiness. What we are feeling now is the experiencing of the wish for another’s happiness. Then observe the consciousness aggregate of loving-kindness - the way loving-kindness effects and influences our view of the world. Then the form aggregate in relation to loving-kindness. Some of you may even be able to identify to endorphins or at least a soft warm feeling through the body.

Then gently release your concentration and finish the meditation.

So it is importance of your meditation generally to understand the agents of experience – the 5 aggregates. Many people when they are told to meditate on loving-kindness by thinking “may all beings have happiness and all causes of happiness” think that thinking that is the meditation on loving-kindness. But, that is only one part of the meditation, the perception aspect of the meditation. Associated with that perception or thought is the good feeling, also the emotional aspect, and also the change to consciousness – the way we view the world around us. And of course the physical change by the release of little magically chemicals called endorphins at the courser level, and at the more subtle level your appearance also changes to something more pleasant. So when we are cultivating minds in meditation, we should cultivate them right through the agents of experience to deepen our experience.

This is a reply to a post made by Danny Fisher recently. Please go and read his post first.
I tried to comment at his blog but, as I do not have a blogger account nor want one my only choice was to reply here.
Danny i think if you are looking for people to post comments on your blog, you need to make it easier for them.

So here is my rather short and ill thought out reply…
I found myself disagreeing with you all the way through your post until the end. Where I did a back flip.

It seems to me that regardless of origins of mindfulness meditation. If it is going to benefit kids then why not have such a program. I believe that meditation can be framed in such a way that it can be presented to a secular audience. I think that is one reason way Buddhism is so popular in the first place. It is a humanist endeavor and is pragmatic in its approach to everyday problems.

However I think you have made a good point then you say I am, of course, fine with meditation being taught in before-or-after-school programs that students, faculty, and staff at public schools could choose to be a part of or not, but I think that making a meditation program part of the school day is problematic.

If the parents or the child do not want to be there mindfulness meditation wont help them anyway. In fact having a disruptive child in a room with other kids trying to meditate would make the whole exercise redundant.

Last night at our Yamantaka class, my teacher Geshe Loden spoke of the practice of the common Illusory body and how one can take this practice into everyday life. The practice is a method of seeing all events as like an illusion in order to not get sucked into these false appearances. The practice originated from Pandit Naropa an 11th century Buddhist mystic.

However this practice is just as important today as it was then, perhaps even more so with so much information being thrown at ordinary people. The Common Illusory Body is common to both the perfection vehicle and Vajrayana. So it is possible to speak about it here.

What is the Common Illusory Body.
It is the practice of seeing all things and events as a mere illusion. Thus diminishing the power of false conventional appearances. What is meant by false conventional appearances. See Beyond Appearances for more on this but, for now let’s just say that false appearances are conventional appearances to the mind of with the factor of inherent existence. That is, we see things as if they have a real, concrete, inherent existence, in and of themselves and NOT dependant on our viewing consciousness or labeling process. Because of this rather simply fault, we get sucked into them and then create action induced by them.

This is how ego engages the world, and how all dysfunctional states of mind are generated. By engaging the world as a mere illusion we are in fact viewing the world more realistically. That does not mean the world is just an illusion, just like a dream. No, you I and the world do exist, just not inherently. Buddhism asserts that the mind is the primary source of all happiness, problems and the natural world – the environment. Change our mind and we change our world.

Common Illusory Body example.
So in order to understand how the practice works lets take an example. Say a colleague accuses you of having a poor work ethic or gets angry and says something indirectly to you that implies you are selfish! You immediately react, or I should say your ignorance/ego immediately reacts and from this point you are engaging that person with a dysfunctional mind - dysfunctional in the sense that it is not working to its greatest capacity because delusion like anger distort the mind of stop it functioning properly. Some people might feel this is normal and justified. Buddhism assert that while it is normal for most people, it is however transformable and by doing so, you actually put yourself into a better position to engage your colleague. Have you ever seen someone get into an argument after they have become angry? Most often they look quite silly even though they feel they are justified in being angry. Even normally caring people do silly things when they are angry.

Having said all that, it can be quite difficult to practice when you are in front of the water cooler! You first needs to training by yourself, then when you find you are in a difficult situation your training will kick in naturally.

How to train in the Common Illusory Body practice
Well here comes the fun part…actually the first time I did this I couldn’t stop laughing because it felt so weird.

1: Go and stand in front of a mirror.
2: Look at the reflection of yourself in the mirror.
3: Start to criticize the reflection and learn to not react to the criticism by seeing it as it really is…mere illusion.
My teacher suggests saying things like…you are ugly, you are stupid, you are a thief and so on.�
4: Now praise yourself. You are the greatest, you are very handsome, you are such as good person…again hear these as mere words.
5: Now ask a friend to criticize you and then praise you, all the while you should remain balanced, seeing these words not as meaningless but relative.

The point is that we are all too often elevated by praise and depressed by criticism, when the reality is that good and bad, ugly and pretty are all relative. So why do we get so upset!

This is a mind training practice, training your mind to remain balanced in the face of adversity.

Good luck and if you do give this a go I would be interested t hear the result and your thoughts.