Meditation - January 20th, 2008

Our Sunday evening meditation was very powerful for me. As Helen said at the end of our session there was a good energy and it has been with me for the past two days now.

Helen, Jenny, and Myself(Robert) participated.

We began with are usual bell gatha, stretching and mindfulness contemplation:
Mindfulness of the breath
Mindfulness of the body
Mindfulness of feelings
Mindfulness of the Mind and objects of Mind
We transformed our minds to joyfulness and happiness


We again contemplated a phone gatha used in last weeks meditation.

Words can travel thousand of miles.
May my words create mutual understanding and love.
May they be as beautiful as gems,
as lovely s flowers.

(pg. 69 – Present Moment, Wonderful Moment: Mindfulness verses for Daily Living).

Walking Meditation

We had a reading on Enlightment from Essential Buddhism by Jack Maguire - pg. 77

He raises three questions:
What does it mean to be enlightened?
How do you achieve it?
How can you tell when it happens?

He then goes on to say that we cannot answer these questions in any logical sense or in any sense that relies on conditions. Buddhism and Zen in particular present us with many paradoxes because to experience the ultimate we need to leave ordinary mind and ordinary thinking. Otherwise we could not take the Four Noble Vows:

Sentient beings are numberless. I vow to save them.
Desires are endless. I vow to put an end to them.
The Dharmas are boundless. I vow to master them.
The Buddha way is unattainable. I vow to attain it.

Yet many of us have had glimpses during meditation of a higher state of energized bliss in which dualism fails to exist. In this state we clearly understand the emptiness of all form. We can understand the purity of the absolute. The terms good and bad don't pertain. Maguire says this state can be described as a state of complete freedom. We go beyond self and we open to a new demension beyond what self experiences. Here is oneness with the absolute.

We had 15 minutes of silent meditation.

We had another reading from Zen and the Art of happiness by Chris Prentiss - pg. 35

Prentiss discusses happiness as an everyday experience. We create happiness with our minds based on the way we see things. He talks about some fans being happy and some unhappy at the end of a sporting event based on which team they favored or the city the team represents, etc.
This is one of the practical benefits of studying Buddhism. We learn to understand our mind and our feelings and once we are aware we gain a higher perspective on things. We no longer need to suffer as victims of external circimstances. We have the ability to take charge of our feelings. In the open discussion I explained how I've taken up the practice of saying internally:
Breathing in I make my self happy.
Breathing out I experience Joy.
Just by being mindful of my breath for a minute or say and contemplating these words changes my emotional state to one of Joy and Happiness. The first time We practiced the Sutra on the Full awareness of Breathing kara remarked how just saying the words changes how we feel.

We concluded with open discussion.

With Loving Kindness,

Robert