sitting monkey is place where
david evans
writes about meditation, buddhism, and related topics.
recently the new york times’ frugal traveller visited one of my favorite meditation centers in colorado, shambhala maintain center.
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Ooo! I’ve been waiting for this for two years. But today dzongsar khyentse rinpoche’s commentary on buddha-nature, the mahayana uttaratantra shastra, was released for free as a pdf download on his web site. you just have to make the request on the site, and they email the link to download it.
i really enjoy and return often to his other two free commentaries, on ngondro and on the madhyamakavatara, and this third offering has been in the editing for some time. can’t wait to have the time to read through it. he’s hilarious, brilliant, and translates these esoteric buddhist texts into english extremely well.
just back from helping at a weekend retreat with pema chodron, in marin. she was on fire, amazing set of teachings. mostly they were on the notion of shenpa - the emotional hook that propels one into emotional reaction or trains of thought - and interrupting or transmuting that process into something more useful.
the weekend was titled ‘practicing peace in a time of war’, and started mostly on the subject on personal aggression and anger. this is in accord with what the unesco building in paris has engraved “Since wars begin in the human mind, it is in the human mind that the defenses of peace must be constructed“.
by mid saturday, we were discussing a vajrayana concept of transmutation of emotion. but then on sunday the weekend mostly turned to discussion of bias, prejudice, and racism. this was spontaneous in a way, the result of reaction and feedback by participants. and it was quite powerful for participants, to bring these buddhist teachings down to something immediately relevant to them - more so than the war in iraq i believe.
this weekend i’m staffing a large meditation program, the topic is “practicing peace in times of war”. led by ani pema chodron, her recently released book with the same title
War and peace start in the hearts of individuals. Strangely enough, even though all beings would like to live in peace, our method for obtaining peace over the generations seems not to be very effective: we seek peace and happiness by going to war. This can occur at the level of our domestic situation, in our relationships with those close to us. Maybe we come home from work and we’re tired and we just want some peace; but at home all hell is breaking loose for one reason or another, and so we start yelling at people. What is our motivation? We want some happiness and ease and peace, but what we do is get even more worked up and we get everyone else worked up too. This is a familiar scenario in our homes, in our workplaces, in our communities, even when we’re just driving our cars. We’re just driving along and someone cuts in front of us and then what? Well, we don’t like it, so we roll down the window and scream at them.
War begins when we harden our hearts, and we harden them easily - in minor ways and then in quite serious, major ways, such as hatred and prejudice - whenever we feel uncomfortable. It’s so sad, really, because our motivation in hardening our hearts is to find some kind of ease, some kind of freedom from the distress that we’re feeling.
Someone once gave me a poem with a line in it that offers a good definition of peace: “Softening what is rigid in our hearts.” We can talk about ending war and we can march for ending war, we can do everything in our power, but war is never going to end as long as our hearts are hardened against each other.
What happens is a chain reaction, and I’d be surprised if you don’t know what I’m talking about. Something occurs - it can be as small as a mosquito buzzing - and you tighten. If it’s more than a mosquito - or maybe a mosquito is enough for you - something starts to shut down in you, and the next thing you know, imperceptibly the chain reaction of misery begins: we begin to fan the grievance with our thoughts. These thoughts become the fuel that ignites war. War could be that you smash that little teensy-weensy mosquito. But I’m also talking about war within the family, war at the office, war on the streets, and also war between nations, war in the world.
as far as i can tell, everything is the result of that chain reaction…
after my summer meditation retreat, where i mostly didn’t meditate but instead studied philosophical texts about meditation, i’m coming to some opinion that analytical meditation is mostly an investigation of cognitive bias.
there are different kinds of meditation. some forms simply cultivate focus and clarity. others cultivate self-awareness and others are a form of contemplation. most people start meditating with a form that cultivates focus and clarity, before trying the rest. that way the focus and clarity cultivated will empower the later contemplations and analysis into the nature of mind. but at the end of the day, i’m starting to suspect the point of all this work is to uncover errors in cognition and correct them: specifically the cognition errors that result in unnecessary suffering.
perhaps ‘bias’ is not strong enough, though. error in cognition might be closer to the mark.
just read an interesting nyt article about williams syndrome, a genetic disorder with features similar to autism. one notable difference is an interest in social engagement and a complete lack of fear of social interactions, but with an inability to judge the engagement of others. that sounds like a painful combination: the desire to connect but the inability to understand non-verbal queues helpful to connecting.
growing up as a fairly nerdy young man, i wonder what genetic component might have to play in my brain development. when i was really young, about five, i was completely fearless in social interactions and loved to talk to everyone. my mom would bring me to her graduate school lab, and i would walk from office to office checking in with everyone there. i wish i had continued to cultivate those cocktail skills, because later life turned much more awkward. i was nerdy. hyperfocused. lacked social grace. i hung out with the other kids in the chess club basically. i’ve been compensating for that in my adult years, but i’m still relatively shy with strangers.
interestingly though, i’m finding my meditation practice is making a huge difference in that regard. the more i practice meditation, the easier it is for me to talk to strangers, to strike up a new conversation. it feels like the practice softens me in some way, which then translates to more gentleness and relaxation when speaking to a stranger, mixed with a slight disinterestedness (nod to Kant) about the outcome… that the outcome doesn’t entirely reflect upon me but is mostly about the other person’s circumstances. also, that softness becomes a light caring and warmth, an appreciation for each stranger in their uniqueness.
popular buddhist author and nun pema chodron wrote that overcoming all fear was one of her primary motivations for pursuing a meditation practice. it says in the prajnaparamita sutra that one who understands wisdom overcomes all fear. in this case, they’re referring to the wisdom that knows the nature of all things, in particular the mind, since the mind is how we experience external phenomenon. in other words, to have deep insight into the nature of mind and it’s machinations releases one from all fear. and meditation is one such process by which one cultivates wisdom into the nature of one’s mind. sounds good, sign me up.
now i’m not saying i envy the williams syndrome symptoms directly, or that meditation renders you without awareness of threats, it’s just that the threats are kept in perspective and don’t unnecessarily capture our attention. we don’t lose sight of the bigger picture, because we see how the mind tends to hyperfocus on emotion and are no longer fooled by it. i’m sure an enlightened being would have no problem getting out of the way of a speeding bus, it just wouldn’t ruin their day.