Why is it necessary to go to all this effort to learn about meditation? If it is true that the force of Universe is moving all of us in the direction of awakening, why the emphasis on this seemingly artificial “practice”?

The answer is that the “individual” consciousness, associated with a particular body, and the story that develops with it, is subject to many distortions which have accumulated on its journey from beginingless time until now. These distortions have three root causes: intentions and actions arising from hatred; from greed, and from ignorance. Obviously, there are many variations on each of these three themes. If this were not the case, the awakened state would be fully realized, because this transcendence is the fabric upon which our lives are woven. It is only because we carry the screens, blinds and filters created by past unwholesome activity that we are not able to perceive this reality right now.

These negative roots in consciousness create a cycle of difficulties, or hindrances, both in meditation practice and in life. Knowledge and observation of how this cycle feeds upon itself is helpful in understanding how unwholesome patterning repeats itself, thus creating future negative experience. Through this sort of observation we can avoid being blindly caught up in the repetition, and gradually begin to break the chains of habit that perpetuate our suffering.

The first of these hindrances is wanting something to happen, for the meditator this often takes the form of desire for results. If one is happily expectant and open-minded, whatever arises is interesting, even if difficult. When one has ideas about what should be happening, or what one wants to happen, and those ideas do not actually manifest, then the second hindrance makes its presence known: frustration.

The Buddha’s definition of suffering was: not getting what you want (greed), and having too much of what you don’t want (hatred). One could add: being confused about which is which (ignorance)! This wanting/frustration collusion causes the consciousness to freeze, no movement is possible, and this gives rise to the third hindrance, mental and/or physical exhaustion or collapse. Following on this rather dull state of being, as the flow of Universe continues to work away at the blockage, and states of agitation or disturbance, physical and/or mental begin to arise — the fourth hindrance. This restlessness creates the opportunity for the fifth hindrance to manifest — skepticism.

Unlike the curious, questioning, wholesome mind that wonders and speculates and explores, with openness to whatever experiences arise, the skeptical doubter weighs all experience against a pre-determined set of criteria and refuses to put new data or concepts to the test of personal experience. And this feeds directly back into the first hindrance: wanting a particular result or experience. And off we go again . . .

These conditioned, negative states have a terrific hold on us! Their tenacity is the reason the first meditation practices — to develop calm, or tranquillity — centre around training the mind to concentrate on one simple object, such as a colour, a natural form or the breath. We spoke last week of the three-stage development of meditative concentration: effort to stabilize and strengthen, steady and intense focus with secondary sensory inputs unable to distract, and complete absorption, or union, with the object.

This state of absorption has specific stages and can be developed with effort and lots of practice. It is important to cultivate for the simple reason that, while absorption is present, those nasty hindrances are temporarily suspended. One has the sense, when emerging from a state of full absorption into normal, waking consciousness again, that for a time all one’s burdens have been lifted. There is a sense of what it might feel like to live in an awakened state!

The stages of absorption begin with the initial effort to focus on the object, remembering to return to it again and again when distractions interfere. Then involvement deepens so that less will-power is needed — there is a natural-feeling, magnetic attraction to the object. When this state is present, one begins to experience the loosening movements of the energy body, or fine material body that we spoke of last week. These loosenings can be extremely pleasurable, full-body experiences of bliss, can be localized tingling and twitching and can also be rather unpleasant manifestations such as diarrhea or vomiting or itching.

As the fine-material energies begin to circulate more freely, beginning to clear blocks in the system, a feeling of wholeness, or well-being establishes itself in consciousness and one feels extremely calm and balanced. Continued resting in this happy state of equanimity leads to the one-pointed, or unitive experience of full absorption.

The first practices that the Buddha gave to train meditators in the development of absorption were very simple discs, called kasinas in the ancient language. These would be sized by each meditator according to hand measurements (the fingers of one hand expanded, plus the four fingers of the other side-by-side) and created with great care and craft to be as perfect as possible using the natural materials that were available at the time.

The first discs were of different colours: blue, yellow, red and white. Each colour has a range of vibration that affects the human organism, regardless of culture, in a specific way. Cool colours (the blue-green range) tend to soothe and slow down, warm colours (red to yellow) tend to activate or speed up — on the physical, metabolic level. To effect the organism in this direct, visceral way also changes the state of consciousness: blue calms, yellow loosens, red strengthens, white purifies and integrates. Present-day teachers will often begin with a green disc practice for stability — an attribute that was more or less automatic for beings 2,500 years ago who spent most of their lives in forest or jungle, but is greatly lacking for city-conditioned westerners.

The next category of discs to be studied could be the elements of earth, water, fire and air; the building-blocks of form. Finally, two further practices, bounded space and light, would be added. These are extremely powerful, profound meditations best practiced in a protected, retreat situation under the guidance of an experienced and trusted mentor.

These ten meditations all develop by training the mind to focus, first on the hand-made outer, physical object. When that object can be seen with complete detail and clarity on the inner plane, the concentration is directed unwaveringly to the visualized object. Each of these practices has very specific inner signs that arise in an orderly fashion as concentration develops. The manifestation of these experiences indicates to both teacher and student that the practice is complete.

So, of the 40 practices taught by the Buddha, we have now covered ten! Next week we will go further with our study of tranquility meditations.

May all beings be well and happy! May the energy of our shared exploration benefit the awakening process of all beings!

First of all, I’d like to refresh your memory of the Jungian mandala of the four functions of the human being which we spoke about last week. Do you recall what they are? Sensing, evaluative, intellectual and intuitive.

Now, the fact that you have a physical body is rather obvious to you! And most adults have some sort of understanding that this physical body has an anatomical structure similar to other adult human bodies, but with built-in strengths and weaknesses that are quite individual, conditioned by genetics, accident and opportunity (or lack of opportunity) for development.

What is less obvious is that in addition to this material body, living beings also have a fine material body, sometimes called an energy field, or auric field. This energy body, which pervades the physical body, also extends outside the physical body about 18 to 24 inches. This measurement is for an ordinary person; the energy body of a fully awakened being would be vast in comparison, encompassing an entire city, for example. This energy body has been photographed, somewhat crudely, with Kirlian photography, and can be perceived by most people when they are in an exceptionally calm state, or have had some training in what to look for.

Like the physical body, the fine material body of a human being has an anatomical structure that is basic, and individual distortions, or blocks, that are a product of the many lifetimes of experiences of that streaming of consciousness. The anatomy of the fine material body corresponds more or less to the four functions, beginning with the most dense, or slow moving energy, the sensing body, or physical form; and then decreasing in density through the layering of emotional; mental; and intuitive, or spiritual, bodies.

Running throughout the energy body are pathways or channels through which energy moves. These pathways conjoin at nexus points, or energy centres, the principal ones of which are located at the crown of the head, throat, centre of the torso, navel, and at the base of the spine. Each energy centre is associated with one of the endocrine glands in the physical structure, and activation of the energy centres influences the body through the neuro-endocrine system, and vice versa.

This entire anatomical structure, involving all four functions, is the “local” environment or territory of meditation practice. However, it is important to remember that one’s “individual” reality is always being influenced by the larger environment — the people around you, the political and economic and social conditions of the country you live in, the subtle effects of climate and weather, the movement of planets and the whole, vast, interconnected reality that is Universe itself. We are never separate from all these (and many, many more) influences — some of them carried from the distant past — the vast majority of which we are entirely unconscious of.

Now come back to earth again! When one reads the various meditation texts of all ages, the first discussion in them invariably concerns itself with the cultivation of a virtuous, or ethical life. The reason for this is very simple: certain types of behaviour are proven to cause agitation in consciousness. In order for meditative concentration to stabilize and deepen successfully, the consciousness must become very calm. Agitation created by living in a fashion that causes harm to oneself and/or other beings works against the development of these calm states.

A life based on the principle of non-harming would include refraining from killing, stealing, lying, sensual indulgences of various kinds and using any substances that cause the mind’s perception, analytic and reaction functions to be clouded or distorted. Most religions rely on an array of formal prohibitions to ensure correct behaviour. In Buddhadharma there are various levels of training precepts — a basic three for all who formally commit themselves to working within this framework, five for most lay people, eight for those with the type of ordination which I hold, ten for newly-ordained, celibate, nuns and monks and up to several hundred for those who become fully ordained. These precepts are presented as a study, rather than a list of “thou shalt nots” in order to encourage practitioners to keep trying without guilt, and to deepen their appreciation of the subtleties of action, speech and thought that the training principles address.

To live a wholesome life presupposes an understanding that there is a law of cause and effect — that one’s present experience, pleasant or unpleasant, is a direct result of one’s past wholesome or unwholesome motivation and behaviour. Therefore, it is important that one’s present actions, words and thoughts are thought of as seeds which will (or will not) produce future experience supportive of spiritual development.

For those who would like to explore these, and other fundamental ideas of Buddhadharma, I recommend reading a book entitled WHAT THE BUDDHA TAUGHT by Walpole Rahula. Then, if you have questions about the philosophical milieu in which these practices were taught, you can bring them to class.

Last week I mentioned that two main divisions exist. Does anyone recall what they were? Tranquillity, or calming, meditations and insight, or direct experience. We’ll begin by considering the territory of tranquillity practices, with the understanding that the development of calm is essential in order for insight to arise.

Tranquillity meditations involve the development and deepening of states of concentration. Now this word immediately causes many Westerners to show signs of tension — something about how we are conditioned in school, perhaps, that equates concentration with tight muscles, furrowed brows and the appearance of great effort! Meditative concentration has a different quality — more of a relaxing into, absorbing into, the object of concentration, rather like a pussycat settling into a patch of sun for a long, intense, nap. We all have experienced this type of concentration when we are interested in something — a film or book, perhaps, that is so involving we forget who and where we are, becoming completely engrossed in the story. This ability to absorb into objects is trained, through meditation practice, to be used at will (rather than only spontaneously) and with objects conducive to the purification and development of consciousness, rather than those which provide, at best, escapist fantasy.

This quality of concentration begins with a certain application of effort, which strengthens and stabilizes the mind, and develops in steadiness and intensity to the point where the meditator is aware of other sensory inputs, but is not distracted from concentration by them. Finally the experience becomes unitive or holistic — no “meditator”, no “meditation object” — simply a flow of pure conscious experience in which subject and object have merged with Universe.

Next week we’ll speak about the states of absorption further, and begin our exploration of the practices themselves.

May the positive energy of this exploration be shared for the elimination of suffering throughout the universe and the speedy liberation of all beings!

To Overview (3)

What is meditation? It may interest you to know that in the ancient language of the culture where these practices were first developed, there wasn’t a word which exactly translates as “meditation”. This English word is our Western construct; the being who taught the system we are going to study over the next few months, Sakyamuni Buddha, used two words to describe the process: one which means “concentration” and another which means “mental development”. So here is a new idea for you. Meditation exercises involve training the “individual” mind to concentrate on particular objects in very specific ways, in order to strengthen and purify consciousness to the point where it is possible to awaken to, or perceive its union with, transcendent or “universal” consciousness.

To begin at one possible beginning, let’s examine the standard equipment that every human being has. Carl Jung, a Swiss psychoanalyst of the late 19th and early 20th centuries, spoke of the human being as possessing four primary functions: sensing (the body), feeling (evaluation), thinking (intellect) and intuitive (spiritual). These four operate together, in dynamic equilibrium, and provide the human organism with a wide range of data which is assessed and utilized for survival. The sensing function lets data in through the doorways of sight, hearing, smell, taste and touch. The feeling function makes very simple judgments about this data: yes, it’s acceptable, no, it’s not. The intellect provides us with a way to classify and analyze the data and create concepts about it and the intuitive knits the whole together and also acts as doorway for more information, on a more subtle level, to be received.

All of these functions are conditioned — their abilities enhanced or limited — by the experiences we encounter from the moment of conception in the womb, through our birth, and then by the quality of the environment we find ourselves in as children, adolescents and adults. This conditioning process continually creates our sense of “I” or ego, a unique, separate individual with particular talents and wholesome qualities, weaknesses, lacks and unwholesome qualities. Even though we know our bodies, feelings and thoughts were hugely different at earlier stages in our lives than they are now, we persist in thinking of ourselves as somehow possessing a fixed state of consciousness or being.

Meditation arises from the context, in most cultures, that this limited and conditioned ego consciousness is not the whole story. Here language becomes very slippery, and people’s concepts vary enormously as they attempt to describe another type of consciousness which is much vaster than the ego. Words such as God, enlightened, transcendent, universal are used. Meditation systems (and every exoteric religious expression has had its corresponding esoteric, spiritual work) all have the purpose of providing a bridge or connection between the ego mind and the depth mind. Meditation addresses the questions that arise when neither intellectual understanding nor religious faith is sufficient to explain the nature of universe and the place of the individual in it.

One of the observations that gives rise to such questions, a fact of life that every mature person will have taken in, consciously or unconsciously, is that everything changes. There is nothing that remains static indefinitely anywhere in the universe of observable phenomenon. In some cultures more than in others, great value is placed by the ego mind on establishing a sense of permanence and stability, which is equated with safety. Our culture has developed this priority to such a degree that many people live their whole lives without ever confronting the personal meaning of the fact that they are someday, some unknown day (perhaps tomorrow) going to die. It does not require a huge leap in understanding to see clearly that the tension between the universal quality of change and the cultural value of permanence creates an anxiety, a built-in tension or existential sense of anxiety in people.

Beginning at this point, that all existence shares this fundamentally unsatisfactory state, the Buddha progressed through deep realizations of the causal factor of this state, the cessation factor, and then composed an eight-point process or path which would lead those inclined to the realization of their essential union with transcendent consciousness, with the result that the cause of struggle would be eliminated. All the meditations that he adapted and crafted were for the purpose of bringing people to their own direct experience of these truths.

Now, meditation techniques, regardless of what culture or religious system creates them, can be divided into seven basic categories. There are practices based on breathing, on colour and/or form, on sound, on movement, on points within the body where energy pathways conjoin. There are practices that are devotional in nature, and finally, there is direct experience of the essence of mind, sometimes referred to as insight. The first six of these categories, and all the variety that their combining in different ways can produce, is for the purpose of the establishment and deepening of calm, or tranquillity, in consciousness. The seventh, insight, is a category which stands alone because it depends on the prior development of calm in order to arise.

Formal, disciplined meditation practice is important for individual unfoldment because it helps to stabilize and purify the mind. It also opens doorways to inner sensory experience and helps to remove blocks in the energy of the organism that inhibit clear functioning. But formal practice is most effective for liberation if it takes places within an environment where continual awareness of all the functions of the human being is maintained to the best of one’s ability. Awareness is everything! Some teachers will declare that meditation exercises are merely clever ways of making it interesting for students to pay attention!

The context, or way of life, in which meditation is practiced will determine its effectiveness. Sincere motivation for liberation from suffering, or union with the divine, is of paramount importance. The whole evolutionary push of universe is moving toward awakening, but there are many ways we can collude to slow this process down. The Buddha taught an eight-fold process which provides guidance for those wanting to experience for themselves the great liberation which he experienced. Three of these principles have to do with the quality of our actions, words and how we earn our living; two involve cultivating a complete, truthful knowledge of reality based on direct experience and the purity of intention or motivation to awaken. The final three relate to the training and development of the mind through meditation.

In his lifetime, the Buddha taught 40 different methods of meditation, some suitable for all people in all circumstances, some as specific tools to strengthen a particular quality of consciousness or to antidote some habitual unwholesome tendency. In the 2,500 years since his lifetime, these practices have been used effectively and reliably by many millions of people. Developing with the experience of these practitioners and adapting to different cultural and temporal contexts as the Teaching spread, the number of practices that are called “Buddhist” today number in the thousands — but they all stem from the basic plant which we will begin to study in detail next week.

May the benefit of this work be shared for the speedy liberation of all beings!

To Overview (2)

Two weeks ago we ended with a consideration of the word samma and you were invited to explore the implications of a totality perspective in your daily lives. If you gave this a try, you will know directly how difficult it is. Only when we begin to realize how much we think, speak and act without awareness of totality do we begin to develop as students of the path of liberation. We have to see how much our lives are dominated by partiality. This lovely word can mean two things: preference and incompleteness — really the same, when you stop to consider.

Tonight’s task is very big . . . to give an overview of The Eightfold Noble Path as the foundation for our life as practitioners. So we have to start with the first principle the Buddha taught, also the most difficult: totality view or totality understanding. We’ll spend a lot of time with this principle, because
all the rest flows from it. Samma ditthi means knowing the nature of reality as an awakened being would know it — directly, without concepts. But for us, who dwell so incompletely in the realm of concepts, we can try to use them skillfully, as the Buddha did.

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“Now, here, you see, it takes all the running you can do, to keep in the same place. If you want to get somewhere else, you must run at least twice as fast as that!”– The Red Queen to Alice, in THROUGH THE LOOKING GLASS, by Lewis Carroll

“I, too, use concepts, but I am not fooled thereby.” — Namgyal Rinpoche

I take refuge in the vast intelligence of Universe.
I take refuge in the order and chaos of universal law.
I take refuge in the interconnectedness of all manifestation.

At a small gathering with His Holiness the Dalai Lama in Victoria nearly 20 years ago, he was asked to give a talk on Buddha, Dharma and Sangha, the Three Refuges, in some traditions referred to as The Three Jewels. He arrived late by helicopter from Vancouver, was visibly tired (and dare to say it, stressed) after speaking to a large crowd in BC Place Stadium that morning, and he had a very short time with us before he had to helicopter back to Vancouver for an evening reception in his honour.

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One contributing factor is misunderstanding the importance of service, in the context of dharma practice. Like all words, service carries a load of cultural conditioning. We think of it as “performing good deeds” or “helping out” or “doing our part.” Volunteering fits into the same mental category as writing a cheque to a community charity . . . something we do in order to be responsible citizens and which makes us feel good about ourselves.

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Let’s begin with a traditional reflection:

From beginningless time until now, countless unwholesome actions have been performed, knowingly or unknowingly, due to ignorance.
The results of these actions are continuously coming into consciousness now, creating great suffering.
I feel remorse for having been involved in such actions.
They are like poison, and with all my heart, I wish to be free of them.
May I never perform such actions again.

Also from beginningless time, I and all beings, including all the saints and Buddhas of all time, have performed countless wholesome actions.
I rejoice in, and feel my life supported by, this wondrous ocean of positive energy.
May all my actions increase this wholesome force.

May I never give up the realization of total, unformed potential.
May I never reduce myself or any other being to the false understanding of seeing them as a permanent self or object.

Until I am able to abide without clinging in that realization, I will take Refuge — in the Buddha as guide, the Dharma as path, and the Sangha as spiritual companion.

May all my actions be motivated by the wish to decrease the suffering of all beings.

In order to fulfill that wish, I will do as all the Bodhisattvas have done — as much as possible of whatever is necessary.

By the merit gained through this prayer may I awaken speedily for the sake of all beings.

In our culture we are very quick to identify and focus on the negative; we have a sort of pathological approach, intent on “purifying” or “fixing” what we think is wrong or out of balance in ourselves. But that Path can also be described as the augmentation of certain positive qualities which we all possess to some degree.

Of the six he identified, the Buddha taught that there was really only one that mattered — generosity, and that if generosity was perfected, all the others, in an inevitable and developmental process, would be perfected too. Looked at from this point of view, for a meditator aspiring to liberation for the sake of all beings, the relationship to the dana bowl, to the outstretched hand of the street person, to the telephone call from the friend in crisis, is the most important personal relationship there is, save that with the Teacher her, or himself. The opportunity to give is our call to loosen, to let go of some part of ourselves in support of another. It is only through loosening the tight, ego-centered grasping which ties us to fixed views of about our own capacities that allows for the possibility of liberation.

This universe of which we are part is in a state of dynamic unfoldment which we can call flow. To fully realize our state of union with universe, or God, or Buddha-nature, whatever your language is for that concept which goes beyond language and concept, we must cease grasping and clinging to anything. It is very unlikely that a person will come to that state of total letting go, or flow, without a lot of practice. We are conditioned to hold on, to seek stability and permanence when our own senses give us continual evidence that no such states exist. In the face of such illogical behaviour, it is clear that we need to practice non-clinging deliberately and repeatedly, to break down these established habits of mind.

We are also taught that there is no liberation possible without the practice of active compassion for other beings. And how to we express that caring? By giving our time, our money, our kind words, and also what is considered most precious, the Teachings about liberation. We engage in these compassionate acts of giving directly, through our own involvement, and also through supporting the work of those beings and agencies whose reason for being is to act on our behalf for the benefit of all.

If we understand how fundamental an attitude of generosity is to experiencing the reality of flow in our lives, we will make it a discipline to never overlook an opportunity to give. Especially when our lives feel tight and stuck, when there doesn’t seem to be enough of anything to satisfy our many needs, we need to give, and give, and give again to jump-start the flow. It’s easy to be generous when our lives are happy and abundant, but even then we are often so caught up in our narcissistic enjoyments that we forget. Later we learn how quickly states of ease can be lost, and how much effort is needed to re-establish the awareness of flow.

Once this principle of giving is clearly established in the life, and there is a certain amount of movement, it becomes important to consider the question of morality. This refers to how we behave, how we train our resources of body, speech and mind in the aspiration to freedom. In this Teaching, moral behaviour is that which causes no harm to oneself, or any other being. From the Buddha’s teaching and their own years of observation and experience, our predecessors on the Path learned that certain types of activity interfered with developing the calm, clear states of consciousness necessary for the experience of awakening.

Training precepts are taught that increase in number and subtlety depending on one’s depth of commitment. The fundamental ones are: to refrain from taking or harming any life, to refrain from taking that which is not given, to refrain from using any of the senses in an unwholesome manner, to refrain from communicating anything that is not true, and to refrain from eating or drinking anything that causes heedlessness or intoxication and interferes with the clear functioning of consciousness.

These moral restraints ensure that once a certain flow is established in the life, it will be directed in ways that support the attainment of freedom, rather than in creating further karmic difficulties. They are based on the understanding that controlling our actions in a wholesome manner will lead to mastery of the more subtle thought processes and fantasies of mind.

The third perfection is patience. It’s the one no one wants to hear about in this culture, with it’s expectation of instant solutions to problems that are the fruit of lifetimes of unwholesome action. The bottom line is that we must practice, and we must learn to expect nothing. We continue to stimulate the experience of flow through giving, and consciously direct that flow into behaviour which creates positive, rather than negative, results for us in the future. And we don’t make our practice conditional on getting any particular result or experience, because we have no way of knowing what patterning that we are blind to must be freed from distortion. We give up our expectations and practice patience, knowing that if our lives are generous and ethical, we will be moving toward the positive whether we are aware of it or not.

As we let go of hopes and fears, a discovery dawns. It is called energy and it brings a renewed vitality and zest for life and the practice of Dharma. It arises because all the while we were practicing generosity and patience, the blocked energies of past conditioning were being freed. The challenge we face when these energies arise is to focus them on awakening, rather than dissipating them on pleasant pastimes.

And we do that through the perfection of concentration. Even though we have been meditating through this whole process of unfoldment, now we are able to develop our practice of meditation much further. While we were afflicted by stored aggression, attachment and confusion, there was not sufficient calm to apply the mind to long periods of focused work. Now, as the energies are releasing, we can use them to explore the nature and laws of universe, and move into more direct experiences of realization.

These lead to the final perfection, that of wisdom, which is nothing other than the universal mind which sees things as they really are, free of limited views.

This whole process of unfoldment begins with great simplicity — an open hand, informed by a heart aspiring to open and unfold. The universe itself is ultimate generosity — sun and rain pouring down equally on all beings, support for unfoldment eternally, unconditionally present, manifesting in many flavours to stimulate your curiosity. What kind of a bowl are you? One that is open, but leaky, letting the opportunities for unfoldment drain away? One that is firmly turned upside down, so that none of the blessings of universe can be incorporated? Or one that is upright, wide open and overflowing with abundance in all directions?

May all come to realization of that great fulfilment!

I take refuge in the vast intelligence of Universe.
I take refuge in the order and chaos of universal law.
I take refuge in the interconnectedness of all manifestation.

It’s in my mind over these next few weeks to revisit some primal ideas about the Teaching, partly as an exercise for myself, because I find that if I make it a discipline to re-visit certain very basic principles on a regular basis it keeps these ideas very fresh and alive. I have also found that there’s a real desire in many people to have some of these principles expressed in ways that don’t rely so strongly on the ancient language.

I was very fortunate a number of years ago when I was living at the Dharma Centre of Canada in Ontario, to come through Vancouver one summer time, just as His Holiness the Dalai Lama was coming to visit. And a friend of mine who lived in Victoria and who was one of the organizers responsible for bringing HH to BC showed up where I was staying and took me to Victoria to attend a small reception for him. It had a sense of intimacy that’s really missing in BC Place stadium! Now, the Dalai Lama is a busy guy and I think this had been a really, really bad day in the scheduling department and he’d been helicoptered over to Victoria for this very brief thing, before being helicoptered back to Vancouver and then flown somewhere else. As he came in the room it was pretty clear that even the Dalai Lama gets fried! And he was very clear about the fact that he was hassled as he sat down and made himself comfortable and apologized for the fact that he was late and then he asked what the topic was for the address that he was being asked to give to this small group. And the organizers of the group said to him: “Would you please speak about Buddha, Dharma and Sangha?”

In ten words or less, right! He smiled, as only he can smile, paused, and with all sign of hassle gone, with complete composure and clarity, he said, “It’s very simple, forget Buddha. Forget Sangha. For you, there is only Dharma. At this stage in your life you don’t have any hope of comprehending Buddha or Sangha and to pretend that you can is just foolishness, it’s just taking energy away. But: you have the Dharma, and if you practice the Dharma as it’s intended to be practiced through one of the many systems that have been articulated by Teachers over the centuries and you practice with diligence in an orderly and sustained way, then some day you will realize come to understand the interconnectedness that is Sangha. And if you continue to practice in the light of this new realization, some day you will see Buddha, you will be Buddha!”

Now I have to say that I think this sort of Teaching is brilliant, that it cuts through so much that gets in the way of how we understand this process. We have Dharma! We are Dharma! Dharma is the order and chaos of universe, and Dharma is the Teaching about realizing these laws and truths, and that we are not separate from their totality at all. And we discover that every being who’s come to some stage of direct experience of these principles has made an attempt to articulate a view of Dharma for other people.

So we benefit from all sorts of systems, lists, meditative formulas, many of them quite different from one another, but all of them arising from the particular vision or realization of one being. Some of them are very clear and useful to many people over a long period of time; others appeal to a narrow segment of human beings who seem to do particularly well with it, while others find it incomprehensible and weird! And it’s one of the great wonders of this work that it can be articulated in new, fresh ways that speak to people exactly where they are.

In the past, in the eastern cultures where Dharma was first taught, much of what was articulated (and later, written) came from beings (primarily male) who were predominately monastic and who spoke to others who were living in the same situation. They were fully supported, they were protected from a lot of the stresses that bedevil our poor selves, (while no doubt having other difficulties that we do not). So when we look at their ways of articulating an orderly process of unfoldment, we are left scratching our heads and wondering “where do I fit into this? How does this express the reality that I’m living?”

For example, the Sixteen Stages of Insight, are really useful if one happens to be in retreat practicing strict, formal meditation on the Four Foundations of Mindfulness for two or three years. It’s not such a useful tool if you’re practicing for a week or a month and it’s an almost-completely-beside-the-point tool for someone who’s getting up every morning, helping a family get out of the house on time, getting to work, taking care of business and maybe having a brief, sleepy dialogue with their meditation cushion before they go to bed!

A number of years ago Namgyal Rinpoche articulated a way of viewing the progression of the spiritual path that speaks more universally. It begins with Prisoner, the realization that you actually are not free. The next stage is Fits and Starts which encompasses all of the explorations which we enter in a dilettantish manner in an attempt to find our way out of our imprisonment.

The third is periods of blankness, or Quietude, when after all frantic searching, the being just stops, shuts up and begins to go inside in a disciplined and sustained fashion to look at what is really going on.

The fourth stage begins with the awareness of how much conditioning is expressed in Bodily Phenomena. One experiences the body going through changes as the screens and filters and blinds that block the physical level, impede clear emotional perspective and cloud mental function begin to break down and purify.

Then one comes to the fifth stage, which is noticing that one has an Effect on the World, on other beings, on animals and plants. With this seeing, compassionate aspiration arises, not only to stop polluting through one’s aversion and selfishness and confusion, but to become one who is a blessing to all manifestation.

As that aspiration develops, the consciousness moves into a state of Non-duality, and the formerly unconscious drive to awaken becomes the central unwavering focus of one’s existence.

When this ripens, there is Liberation, no longer being the blind prisoner of unceasing becoming, but a state of at-one-ment with the dance of universe.

Now that’s Dharma!

We hear a lot today about the need for relief from physical illness or stress, and very often that is what causes an investigation of meditation to begin. Another cause is emotional turmoil of some kind, which eases into a temporary calm or peace during meditation. Both of these categories of motivation result in using meditation to change conditions which are seen to be negative to other conditions which are deemed ‘positive’ or ‘better’.

Another type of meditator is an adventurer — she or he want to explore the nature of the mind itself, to experience the various phenomena which arise in consciousness. They seek to know, and sometimes to love, more deeply and fully.

Whatever your analysis is of the factors which brought you to meditation, it is important to establish before you begin each formal practice session what drives or motivates you. We act, speak, think and feel in response to conditions — some of them external, some internal. Some are conscious and some — the tricky, blind-spot ones — are not. Very often when meditation is taught only as a technique — a remedy for unpleasant experiences, or a doorway to pleasant ones — the instruction overlooks how deeply our conscious and unconscious motivation influences the quality of the practice itself.

As I teach in various parts of the world and observe what is going on with people, it seems that the ones who are making the sort of steady effort that produces an on-going sense of clarity and groudedness and centredness have a very clear sense of how they relate to these questions of motivation, or aspiration. They also seem to understand how unconscious motivation can sabotage what they are consciously on about and are actively, continuously probing to re-program consciousness to a continuum recollection of where we actually find refuge, and what motivations actually fuel spiritual progress.

The first contemplation that should be done before meditation begins is “Why am I doing this? What do I want?” It is helpful to know — even if sometimes the answers may appear less than noble! At least then we have an opportunity to redefine our aspiration, to align it with universal principles which provide the maximum support to the effort we are making.

What are these universal principles? First and foremost, there is the concept that consciousness is the very fabric of all manifestation, pervading all of the universe, including yourself. The characteristics of that universal consciousness (before conditioning obscures and distorts them) are spaciousness, luminosity and awareness. People call this consciousness God or Buddha-nature. I like to use the word Universe.

The second principle is that this universal consciousness is reliable, that what arises from it obeys certain laws which are consistent whether one is observing the smallest particles or the vastness of space. These laws, or universal truths, can be experienced as direct insights by human beings who have prepared themselves by a disciplined and sustained approach to purification of the obscurations and distortions. Over the course of human history methodic systems have been taught by those who have had such direct experiences. Some of these teachings, and the realizations which arise from them, have been passed down, conceptually and experientially, from teacher to student without interruption from the person who had the original experience of transcendence. We have access today to these same lines of direct transmission.

The third principle is that our struggle to learn and to grow is supported by Universe. However isolated we may feel, we are part of a vast, interconnected web of consciousness — some of which manifests in form, and is therefore perceivable to our physical senses; some of which exists as vibrations or force fields of energy which we are capable of experiencing directly if we train our latent capacities of consciousness. If we are fortunate, and our motivation over lifetimes has been wholesome and sincere, we may meet “real-time” teachers and teachings which will provide us with the tools we need to explore the various laws of universe and come to our own direct experience of the spacious, luminous, aware consciousness which sustains our existence. We may experience the synergy of communities of like-minded people who share these higher aspirations.

These three principles — Universe, Law, and Interconnectedness — are sometimes referred to as refuge — a safe, reliable conceptual platform from which we can investigate with confidence. We can enhance our practice of meditation — no matter what our personal motivation is — by pondering these three principles again and again as concepts, by aspiring through our meditation practice to come to a direct realization or knowing of these truths for ourselves.

Now, if we are honest, we have to admit that in our fear, uncertainty and confusion, as we attempt to find refuge from our physical, emotional and mental distress in all sorts of ways that offer temporary relief, but we find that in the long term, none of them work. We go for refuge to our families, our lovers, our friends. We take refuge in our money, our homes, our insurance policies. We take refuge in television, paperback novels, comfort food, alcoholic drinks and drugs of various kinds. We take refuge in our all-too fragile and impermanent bodies. We take refuge in sentimentality, and project our unresolved needs and frustrations on other people, not to mention our pets. We take refuge in our beliefs and concepts about ourselves and reality — often without examining whether or not they are reliable and true.

Until we are willing to stop clinging to these refuges which offer only the most partial and transient protection, our meditation practice will not produce the healing or learning that we seek. It will be limited in power. We will remain as “entry-level” meditators, and our practice will have much the same quality as taking an aspirin when we have a headache — temporary relief from suffering, but ultimately not a “cure” or remedy for the suffering itself.

Our lives are produced by universe in a miraculous process that has been unfolding and evolving for billions of years. Our bodies contain material that participated in the birth and death of stars, that formed minerals, plants and vastly different kinds of sentient life. We breathe one another in and out, moment by moment — plants producing oxygen, human producing carbon dioxide — feeding one another. We recycle Napoleon’s breath, Cleopatra’s cells. Dust from space rains down on earth; we breathe it in, we become stars. planets, other kinds of sentient beings.

We have evolved a neuro-chemistry that is extremely sensitive to changing conditions and gives rise to a wide range of emotional or energetic responses which act as “carrier waves” of physical and verbal and mental communication. This allows for extremely complex and subtle exchanges and synthesis of data. It also gives right to the potential for great confusion or, as Teilhard de Chardin reflected, the possibility of liberation. We, alone among the inhabitants of our world, have the impulse to reflect on our experience and ask questions about it. What built this intelligence? What is it for? Are we using it to potential?

Thank you all very much for what you have brought to this sharing. May we all have a week rich with a deeper understanding of where our refuge lies. May you be well and happy!