I've been reflecting on how essential compassion is, both for ourselves and others. How can we honestly reflect on our nature, as a foolish being full of blind passions, without it? I resonate very much with the sentiments in this thoughtful article by Rev Kinrei Bassis.
"When I first heard Rev. Master Jiyu-Kennett speak, the words that resonated with me most were, "Buddhist training begins with compassion for the self." At the time, I really had no understanding what these words meant. Being critical of myself was a central aspect of my personality. I saw this trait as a virtuebeing very aware of my faults would keep me grounded and real, and that it would be impossible to make spiritual progress unless I recognized what I needed to change. What I didn't realize was that being aware of how I need to improve my behavior did not mean I should be critical and upset with myself. My problem was I had no understanding of what it meant to be nonjudgmental.
Cultivating a nonjudgmental way of looking at things is the key to opening our hearts to real compassion. But how does one go about this? What should I do when I see that something is wrong? How should I approach it? What exactly is the compassionate mind rather than the hard judgmental mind?
In the years since I first heard Rev. Master Jiyu-Kennett speak those words, I have since learned that the mind of meditation is to see problems and failures without judgment. Not judging others but also not judging myself. If I make a mess of something, or if I am lazy or angry or proud, I am breaking the Buddhist Precepts. However, being aware of this does not mean I have to judge and criticize myself. There is not something fundamentally wrong with me; there is only a problem with my behavior. And here lies a subtle but important point: There is a vital difference between being aware of the harmful nature of certain patterns of thought and behavior, and having harsh judgment of oneself.
Compassion is really just the opening our hearts to suffering without allowing our judgments to get in the way. If someone is suffering and we judge them, this closes our hearts and fills our mind with harsh opinions. Compassion does not mean we do not see the mistakes others make; it means we have sympathy and understanding for their difficulties, knowing we are not really different from them. We are all born and live in this human realm in which ignorance and delusion strongly influences our lives...
Turning the stream of compassion within is letting go of our opinions and desires so that the same compassion that fills the universe can also be experienced filling our hearts and our lives. Although it seems utterly impossible to believe, we are dreaming we are suffering, dreaming harsh judgments of ourselves and others, and dreaming we are lonely and separate beings. The life of Buddha is the all-embracing life of compassion. That compassion flows through everything, washing away all impurity, and allowing everything to find its true place in the great Mandala of the Buddhas."
By Rev. Kinrei Bassis "Turning the Stream of Compassion Within"
Pureland Buddhism is for people of blind passions. What does this mean? Here's a piece I like quoted by John Paraskevopoulos by the translators involved in the Shin Buddhism Translation Series.
"Blind passion (bonno) is a comprehensive term descriptive of all the forces, conscious and unconscious, that propel the unenlightened person to think, feel, act and speak - whether in happiness or sorrow - in such a way as to cause uneasiness, frustration, torment and pain and sorrow mentally, emotionally, spiritually, and even physically for themselves and others. While Buddhism makes a detailed and subtle analysis of blind passion, employing such terms as craving, anger, delusion, arrogance, doubt and wrong views, fundamentally it is rooted in the fierce, stubborn clinging to the foolish and evil self that constitutes the basis of our existence. When we realize the full implications of this truth about ourselves, we see that the human condition is itself nothing but blind passion. Thus, just to live, or wanting to live, as an unenlightened being is to manifest blind passion at all times, regardless of what we may appear to be. One comes to know this, however, only through the illumination of great compassion. Hence, awakening to one's own nature is called the wisdom of shinjin, and the person who realizes it has already been grasped by the Primal Vow."
The question of form has been very prevalent in my mind at the moment, which has been spinning in circles trying to figure it out! What is the best way to live the Dharma in one's life? It's a big question! I found a beautiful article "Hunger and Gladness" by Sallie Jiko-Tisdale, exploring this dilemna. Here's an extract;
"Imagine a path into a forest. You’ve heard rumors about beautiful and secret places in that forest, along that path. You know it’s a long road, but you set off, full of ideas about what these beautiful, secret places might be like. After a while, with some dismay, you come to a fork. No one mentioned a fork! No one said there were two paths! Left or right? There aren’t any maps; there are no guides standing by with helpful advice. Many people in such a position are paralyzed for a while, with no idea how to proceed. A few people even turn around and leave the forest, for they are so afraid of making the wrong choice, or, ofchoosing itself. Facing such moments, most of us do proceed. We may wonder for a while if we made the right choice, but we quickly stop worrying about it because the path itself captures our attention. Then we come to a meadow, and then a lake, a lovely distant view, a place of small, hidden flowers. What a good choice we made! What a nice path this is, with its beautiful and secret places. After a while, you begin to glimpse other people in the distance. You hear steps, you see a passing shape, not so far away. A person waves to you from across the lake, and you say to yourself, “Hey, that’s the other path! Hey, that’s a nice view! I’d like to see that view. Dang! Maybe I picked the wrong path. Maybe those people, over there, are getting to see a lot more of the secrets than I am.” We are beset by jealousy and fear even as we walk our chosen path.
More time goes by, more time on the path, and after a while, we realize that this path isn’t all easy and nice. There’s a certain amount of slogging, some mud, a few bogs full of mosquitoes. Then, it rains. The trees are scraggly, and the mountain completely disappears from view. Then, we’re sure that the people on the other path are having a lot more fun...
At the beginning of this talk, I said that some people are paralyzed by the fork in the road and some retreat. But these are choices, too. You have to choose. Each of us is stuck with the fact of being alive. Teachers are like trail guides, people who have walked it before. But most of the time, these trail guides do a lot less than we want them to do. The guide says, “Watch out for that rock — I just tripped on it.” The guide says, “Hey, it looks like it’s going to rain.” The rest is up to you.
We come back, then, to the great dilemma: “Oh my god, I’m missing something!” I’ve been saying in various ways that I’m not, you’re not, no one is missing anything. But of course, we all are, because we are all missing “the other path.” We only get one at a time. Every life is “missing” every other life. Learning the lessons and receiving the gifts of my particular life, I miss all the lessons and gifts of a hundred thousand lives. You can never see what you’ve missed. You can never see what has gone behind, what might have been. There is grief in this, but no recourse. The key to “I’m missing something” is to know that it is true. I am missing something, and I have to accept that and know at the same time that I am not — I cannot be —missing something essential. I know, I know, deep in my heart, that the only difference in our paths is the point of view. No point of view is complete. No point of view contains everything that can be seen. In the end, no path is harder or easier or longer or shorter. The Buddha Way stands open wide.
I feel myself bobbing and flowing in the froth of life’s river, filled with a sense of beauty and fullness and richness in this river. This froth of air and water gets worked into a meringue of wet light everywhere, and this is true, no matter which path I’m on, no matter where or who I am."
http://www.prairiewindzen.org/prairiewind/Winter05/winter05.pdf
Well, it's been well over a month since I returned from Amida France. Time flies with the swiftness of an arrow. I feel that I am some kind of time vortex. I have a list of things that I keep meaning to do and then all of a sudden, it's days/weeks later! I'm learning to live with loose ends, I'm realising that it's just not possible to have everything all tied up nice and neatly.
I had a great time up in Newcastle, catching up with old friends. Thank you to Rachel and Michael for putting me up and to Claire too. It was great to see everyone, Lucy, Jacqui, Matty, Dawn and Ste. And the Amida Newcastle group as well, Sujatin and Colin. I had a great time catching up with my family in Liverpool, very sweet.
Life in The Buddhist House is going very nicely. I'm part of the outreach team organising book promotion activities for Dharmavidya and Prasada. Prasada will be visiting Reading 27th to 30th May and giving teachings. She will be giving a talk to Reading Inter Faith Group on the Nature of Faith in Pureland Buddhism and how it relates to other Faiths on the 30th May at the Friends Meeting House at 7.30. Other events to be confirmed.
Sandy has been staying with us and left for Oxford this morning to support Joan Court, who's doing a hunger strike in Oxford. Sandy is supporting Joan and the Vervet Monkey Foundation
It's been a while... Too long really since I last visited my neglected blog. I'm back and have lots to tell from the past month. I'm in the UK now, back at The Buddhist House in Narborough and am catching up with the forthcoming book events for the launch of Dharmavidya's and Prasada's new books: The Other Buddhism; Who Loves Dies Well.
Life at Amida France has been filled with practical tasks over the last couple of months. At the beginning of January, Modgala and Leo were exploring different plans together on how to develop Amida France. There are so many possibilities here. Leo and myself began a carpentry project in the upstairs of the eucerie in early January to create a warm, welcoming community space. We have been placing wooden slats over the beams to create a wooden ceiling. The old wooden beams are all different shapes and sizes and are rather warped so it has been necessary to cut each slat individually to fit. We have learned what the term patience means by doing this job! Now, at the end of February, we continue to work on the project. We have almost finished the main slatting part of the job, we still have the finishing touches to complete; putting wooden strips on the end of each section to ensure an even finish, filling the holes in the wood, varnishing and painting the stone walls in the eucerie.
Modgala has been busy running Amida France over the last couple of months and looking after myself, Leo and guests. She has done lots of re-organisation and making the best use of space. She has created a very cosy library upstairs which is an excellent addition to the centre. Modgala has not been in the best of health over the last couple of months. She has been in a lot of pain with her kidneys and back. She has been resting and is hopefully on the road to recovery.
Now that we are nearly at the end of February, we have been doing lots of digging and adding manure to get the ground ready for planting vegetables in the next couple of months. We are gathering and chopping wood to keep the wood burning stoves going. We have had a number of warm, balmy days here in France and spring seems to be just around the corner. The daffodils are ready to bloom and the purple lilacs are springing up everywhere in the forests we walk through every morning when we do walking meditation.
I've just recently returned from Paris, I spent a few days there with my mum. It was so lovely to spend time with her in this beautiful, vibrant city. We stayed in a very nice, inexpensive hotel, called Pavillon Opera Lafayette http://www.hotel-pavillon-opera-lafayette-paris.federal-hotel.com/page_en_1.html,
It was very close to the transport links and had very helpful staff. We visited the Sacre Coeur, Notre Dame Cathedral and the Charles Pomidou centre which had a huge Modern Art exhibition.
We had the pleasure of Liz's beautiful singing, trumpet, guitar and keyboard playing here at Amida France. Liz's music is a mixture of soul, jazz, funk, dance and rock. She rocks!
You can contact Liz at Lizprice@yahoo.com
