Meditation Summary - Sunday, December 30th, 2007

Participants:
Jenny, Helen, Dillon, and Robert.

We began by sitting quietly and practicing awareness of our breath, our bodies, our feelings, and our minds.

We did a few simple stretches and reviewed the basics of posture for meditation.

We did a short meditation following The Full awareness of Breathing. This was followed by a short walking meditation.

I read from An Introduction to Zen Training by Omori Sogen, page 32. The author encourages us to awaken our Bodhisattva longing to save all beings as preparation for meditation.

Our silent meditation followed. We sat for 15 minutes.

We then had a readings from Song of Mind by Xin Ming and translated by Sheng Yen.
This is a very advanced and difficult work. Like the Heart Suttra and the Diamond Suttra it cannot be understood logically. One must transend the ordinary mind used to function in this material world in order to experience the truth of this teaching.

The final reading was from Who ordered this Truckload of Dung by Ajahn Brahm, page 217. The section is titled "When I became enlightened". The author narrates how he had a very intense experience of clarity and enlightenment one night. However the next day at meal time he saw that they were having a delicious pork curry and some rotten fish curry. After taking a large portion of the pork curry for himself the Abbot mixed it in with the rotten fish curry and passed it to him. He became furious and then became aware that now he was not so enlightened.

After the readings we had open discussion. One of the topics was about enlightenment. I shared a view that I had read that there are no enlightened beings only enlightened activity. This is very consistent with the Buddhist belief of impermanence. We are constantly changing. Each moment we are a different person. We are enlightened as long as we are awake and mindful and act in an enlightened manor. Dogen says enlightenment is our practice and our practice is enlightenment. So we must strive diligently to carry our practice into our everyday life, into everything that we say, do, and think.

We concluded with our closing circle:
May the Hearts of all Beings be filled with Loving Kindness.
May the Hearts of all Beings be filled with Compassion.
May the Hearts of all Beings be filled with Joy.
May all Beings live in Equanimity.

May our Practice be Beneficial to All Beings.

Helen offered to do a reading and walking meditation next week.

Robert

Tranquil Waters Blog - A beginning

Hello All. I hope all of you had a peaceful and pleasant holiday. It's so easy to get caught up in the commercialism that is part of the tangle that we live in. Fortunately we have the Four Noble Truths to guide us out of the frustrating and unsatisfactory nature that is part of living with the deluded mind perspective. At our meditation sessions we enjoy the peace of the present moment. We take time to be mindful of our breath, our bodies, our feelings, and our thoughts. Life is beautiful when we stop thinking we will be happy if we have this or that object, if we have a different job, more money, or live in a different place. There is great peace and joy available here and now if we just practice mindfulness.