Sunday, May 4

A few weekends ago a few members of our sangha celebrated Earth Day by joyfully participating in the Earth Holding Theme Weekend at Deer Park Monastery. Brother Phap Ho gave a talk where he gently invites us to look at our world with open eyes. He encourages us to see that we are not separate from the trees, the rocks and other humans. We have the potential to wake up to our true boddhisattva nature to protect the Earth and nurture the boddhisattva in others. Marge will bring to our sangha some of the highlights from the weekend and will share part of Thay’s Letter to Mother Earth. We will walk peacefully upon Earth, sit together in meditation, and share our aspirations for appreciating this amazing home of ours.

Sunday, April 27

Keith will facilitate this Sunday:

The monastics at Plum Village spent the 3 month winter retreat in the deep practice of understand our mind. Thay wrote a book about it called Understanding Our Mind. All the Dharma talks from the retreat are online at tnhaudio.org. I have enjoyed listening to them all and contemplating the teachings along with the monastics. I'll share some of my insights with you and lead us in a practice designed to awaken us to the nature of our minds and heal and transform our consciousness, our experience of being alive. The Buddha handed us down a very powerful and complete guided meditation practice in the Sutra on the Full Awareness of Breathing, the 16 breathing practices, and we'll use them to understand and transform our minds.

Sunday, April 20

Karen will facilitate about flowers.

Sunday, April 13

We will practice with the week 9 dharma talk of the Ten Gates teachings from Deer Park's Winter 2012-2013 retreat.  Here is the study guide from the talk, which includes these reflection questions:
1) How have you created meaning and purpose in your life?
2) What activities do you find most meaningful? Which ones are
difficult? Why is that do you think?
3) What does it mean to you to be “useful” or “beneficial” to others?

Sunday, April 6

Pete will continue to facilitate "dropping the story" and the Four Establishments of Mindfulness.

"Monks, an uninstructed run-of-the-mill person feels feelings of pleasure, feelings of pain, feelings of neither-pleasure-nor-pain. A well-instructed disciple of the noble ones also feels feelings of pleasure, feelings of pain, feelings of neither-pleasure-nor-pain. So what difference, what distinction, what distinguishing factor is there between the well-instructed disciple of the noble ones and the uninstructed run-of-the-mill person?"

"For us, lord, the teachings have the Blessed One as their root, their guide, & their arbitrator. It would be good if the Blessed One himself would explicate the meaning of this statement. Having heard it from the Blessed One, the monks will remember it."

"In that case, monks, listen & pay close attention. I will speak."

"As you say, lord," the monks responded.

The Blessed One said, "When touched with a feeling of pain, the uninstructed run-of-the-mill person sorrows, grieves, & laments, beats his breast, becomes distraught. So he feels two pains, physical & mental. Just as if they were to shoot a man with an arrow and, right afterward, were to shoot him with another one, so that he would feel the pains of two arrows; in the same way, when touched with a feeling of pain, the uninstructed run-of-the-mill person sorrows, grieves, & laments, beats his breast, becomes distraught. So he feels two pains, physical & mental.

"As he is touched by that painful feeling, he is resistant. Any resistance-obsession with regard to that painful feeling obsesses him. Touched by that painful feeling, he delights in sensual pleasure. Why is that? Because the uninstructed run-of-the-mill person does not discern any escape from painful feeling aside from sensual pleasure. As he is delighting in sensual pleasure, any passion-obsession with regard to that feeling of pleasure obsesses him. He does not discern, as it actually is present, the origination, passing away, allure, drawback, or escape from that feeling. As he does not discern the origination, passing away, allure, drawback, or escape from that feeling, then any ignorance-obsession with regard to that feeling of neither-pleasure-nor-pain obsesses him.

"Sensing a feeling of pleasure, he senses it as though joined with it. Sensing a feeling of pain, he senses it as though joined with it. Sensing a feeling of neither-pleasure-nor-pain, he senses it as though joined with it. This is called an uninstructed run-of-the-mill person joined with birth, aging, & death; with sorrows, lamentations, pains, distresses, & despairs. He is joined, I tell you, with suffering & stress.

"Now, the well-instructed disciple of the noble ones, when touched with a feeling of pain, does not sorrow, grieve, or lament, does not beat his breast or become distraught. So he feels one pain: physical, but not mental. Just as if they were to shoot a man with an arrow and, right afterward, did not shoot him with another one, so that he would feel the pain of only one arrow. In the same way, when touched with a feeling of pain, the well-instructed disciple of the noble ones does not sorrow, grieve, or lament, does not beat his breast or become distraught. He feels one pain: physical, but not mental.

"As he is touched by that painful feeling, he is not resistant. No resistance-obsession with regard to that painful feeling obsesses him. Touched by that painful feeling, he does not delight in sensual pleasure. Why is that? Because the well-instructed disciple of the noble ones discerns an escape from painful feeling aside from sensual pleasure. As he is not delighting in sensual pleasure, no passion-obsession with regard to that feeling of pleasure obsesses him. He discerns, as it actually is present, the origination, passing away, allure, drawback, and escape from that feeling. As he discerns the origination, passing away, allure, drawback, and escape from that feeling, no ignorance-obsession with regard to that feeling of neither-pleasure-nor-pain obsesses him.

"Sensing a feeling of pleasure, he senses it disjoined from it. Sensing a feeling of pain, he senses it disjoined from it. Sensing a feeling of neither-pleasure-nor-pain, he senses it disjoined from it. This is called a well-instructed disciple of the noble ones disjoined from birth, aging, & death; from sorrows, lamentations, pains, distresses, & despairs. He is disjoined, I tell you, from suffering & stress.

"This is the difference, this the distinction, this the distinguishing factor between the well-instructed disciple of the noble ones and the uninstructed run-of-the-mill person."

The discerning person, learned, doesn't sense a (mental) feeling of pleasure or pain: This is the difference in skillfulness between the sage & the person run-of-the-mill. For a learned person who has fathomed the Dharma, clearly seeing this world & the next, desirable things don't charm the mind, undesirable ones bring no resistance. His acceptance & rejection are scattered, gone to their end, do not exist. Knowing the dustless, sorrowless state, he discerns rightly, has gone, beyond becoming, to the Further Shore.

The discerning person, learned,

doesn't sense a (mental) feeling of pleasure or pain:

This is the difference in skillfulness

between the sage & the person run-of-the-mill.

For a learned person

who has fathomed the Dharma,

clearly seeing this world & the next,

desirable things don't charm the mind,

undesirable ones bring no resistance.

His acceptance & rejection are scattered,

gone to their end, do not exist.

Knowing the dustless, sorrowless state,

he discerns rightly, has gone,

beyond becoming, to the Further Shore.