Who or What are we?

From Joseph Goldstein:

"The Buddha described what we call "self" as a collection of aggregates – elements of mind and body – that function interdependently, creating the appearance of woman or man. We then identify with that image or appearance, taking it to be "I" or "mine," imagining it to have some inherent self-existence. For example, we get up in the morning, look in the mirror, recognize the reflection, and think, "Yes, that's me again." We then add all kinds of concepts to this sense of self: I'm a woman or man, I'm a certain age, I'm a happy or unhappy person – the list goes on and on.

When we examine our experience, though, we see that there is not some core being to whom experience refers; rather it is simply "empty phenomena rolling on." It is "empty" in the sense that there is no one behind the arising and changing phenomena to whom they happen. A rainbow is a good example of this. We go outside after a rainstorm and feel that moment of delight if a rainbow appears in the sky. Mostly, we simply enjoy the sight without investigating the real nature of what is happening. But when we look more deeply, it becomes clear that there is no "thing" called "rainbow" apart from the particular conditions of air and moisture and light.

Each one of us is like that rainbow -- an appearance, a magical display, arising out of our various elements of mind and body."

Dharma Talk April, 2009 John Corbaley

Samatha and Vipassana

Janet has spoken several times in the last few months about the mechanics of meditation. She has given some good information about samatha and vipassana, the calm and insight which comes into play during periods of mental practice. As you may know, Janet’s knowledge and skills in this area come from what is known as Vajrayana teaching, the wisdom of Northern Buddhism as it is practiced in Tibet, Northern India, Mongolia, and those places where Tibetan teachers have traveled to spread their knowledge.

 

The knowledge and skills I have gained over the years comes from what is known as Theravada teaching, the wisdom of Southern Buddhism as it is practiced in Burma, Thailand, and Sri Lanka, and other places where teachers from those countries have traveled.

 

There are small nuances of difference between these two schools of teaching. Neither of them is inherently better than the other; the difference between them could be viewed mostly as a difference in perspective more than anything else. Personally, I think getting a divergence of views about teaching matters can be very beneficial, especially when discussing something like meditation. Sometimes learning ‘the one right way’ to do something can be limiting, when clearly there is no one right way which is better for anyone, particularly when it comes to meditation.

 

Today, I wanted to share what I have learned through study and experience about the interaction between the practices of samatha and vipassana, their occurrence and their use in meditative practice. One example I have found helpful I learned from a teacher many years ago. He taught about samatha and vipassana using the simile of a flashlight in his explanation of them.

 

He said imagine that you are in a huge dark cave. You have a small flashlight in your hand, and you turn it on. The beam coming from the flashlight is a column of light which, when you point it here and there, illuminates areas of the cave wall and ceiling. You can see quite clearly a small area where the flashlight is pointing. This is like the concentrated, calm focus of samatha.

 

During the samatha practice using the breath or a mantra, or some other device, the mind becomes concentrated. With repeated practice, some practitioners can achieve a great deal of concentrated focus which is signaled by appearance of a nimmita, a sign, called the acquired sign, a visual image which replaces the breath as its object of focus. The breath becomes silky. Concentration takes on an ease and lightness. This is the calm of samatha. With increased concentration, comes the more subtle counterpart sign which signals the stage of access concentration, called this because it is the entry or access point to the jhanas, the absorption states of more advanced concentration. Where samatha is gradually replaced by vipassana, as the mind shifts focus from an object, concept or sign, to reality itself.

 

Theravada teaching provides very specific instruction on achieving and maintaining this mental focus. The hindrances present themselves: desire, aversion, sloth, worry, and doubt. For each hindrance, a unique strategy is presented which relies on the power of absorption contained in the samatha practice. Sayadaw U Pandita is a renowned Theravada teacher and meditation master. He describes each antidote: for desire, the antidote is one pointedness of concentration.

 

For aversion, the antidote is the rapture and joy which comes along with deep concentration. For sloth, the jhanic factor of vitakka or aim helps open and refresh the mind. For worry, the deep comfort which arises allows the mind to watch both the pleasant and the unpleasant arise and pass away without aversion. For doubt, the jhanic factor of vicaara, or continuous attention--rubbing--allows the mind to maintain focus. 

 

Now, back to the flashlight. You’ve turned it on and pointed it around to illuminate points here and there on the cave wall. You focus on small concentrated areas with the focus of samatha. Now you take the flashlight, and carefully set it down on its base so that it’s pointing straight upward. If you step away a few feet from it, you begin to see, rather than points here and there, the entire cave dimly illuminated. As your eyes adjust, you gradually see more and more of the entire cave. You can appreciate the wholeness of the entire cave, not just parts of it here or there.

 

This is like the perceptual experience of vipassana. You can experience the rising and falling of phenomena in the moment, as mental events arise and pass away. You can experience the transitory nature of all phenomena. The dharma seals of impermanence, dissatisfaction, and egolessness become real as they are applied to your direct experience. This is the insight of vipassana. You will hear discussions about samatha, and vipassana as approaches to meditation. Sometimes you will even come across talk of a comparing nature; is one ‘better’ than the other? More necessary, more advanced? I don’t think any teacher with experience will draw these comparisons. Both are a necessary part of meditation.

 

Some insight meditation teachers favor what is known as a ‘dry vipassana’ approach which skips over samatha practice and goes right for vipassana without giving attention to calm focus. This method may work for some people. Many people, specifically Americans, report that they have difficulty with a concentration practice, and I think this is where the dry vipassana approach came from. Perhaps people were getting stuck in their meditative practice, having problems with samatha, and the teacher, seeing the futility getting stuck, says ‘try this.’ I think this method has value for those practitioners who experience problems with concentration.

 

The skillfulness of the teacher using this approach would be to know when to reintroduce concentration practice after the practitioner gains some skill with insight, and can then go on from there to increase the ability to achieve calm focus. In the long run, I think this is necessary. The Buddha gave a lot of emphasis to concentration practice in his direct instruction to his Bhikkhus. He clearly knew the value of samatha in the pursuit of nibbana. He taught the importance of the jhanas, the absorption states, in developing an appreciation of nibbana. These jhanas, absorptions states, are attainable with the application of samatha, concentration practice. I will close with a quote from the Vinaya Pitaka, in which the Buddha describes his use of the jhanas on the night of his enlightenment:

 

Unflinching vigor I have stirred up, clear mindfulness I have aroused, my body impassible, calm, my mind concentrated and one-pointed…I aloof from the pleasures of the senses, entered into the first jhana…rapturous and joyful. By allaying discursive thought, I entered into the second jhana…By fading out of rapture…and entered into the third jhana…By getting rid of joy and suffering, I entered into the fourth jhana…

 

With the mind thus composed I directed my mind to the knowing and recollection of my former lives, one, two, fifty, a thousand or a hundred thousand, the knowledge I gained in the first watch of the night….in the second I gained knowledge of the deceasing and arising of beings.

 

With the mind thus composed…immovable, I directed my mind to the knowledge of the extinction of outflows…This is suffering, this its arising, this its stopping. I understood as it really is. When this was known to me, my mind was freed from sense pleasures, becoming, speculative view and ignorance. In freedom the knowledge came to be: I am freed; and I comprehended that birth was destroyed.

 

This was the third knowledge attained by me in the third watch of the night; ignorance was dispelled, knowledge arose, darkness was dispelled. light arose even as I abided diligent, ardent, self-resolute. This Brahmin, was my third successful breaking forth, like a chick’s from the egg-shell (Conze, 1995. Buddhist Texts Through the Ages, pp. 60-62).

 

April 26, 2009.  John L. Corbaley, M.S., M.A.

 

 

 

 

Dharma Talk February, 2009 Bamyan

by John Corbaley

In March, 2001, Mullah Mohammed Omar ordered the destruction of colossal 180 foot tall statues of the Buddha which had stood there for 1500 years, and were the largest images of the Buddha in the world. In the face of international condemnation, even from many Islamic countries, over a month of shelling, dynamiting and mining reduced the giant figures to dust.

As the dust from those explosions spread over the landscape, what the Taliban did not realize was that their act of unskillful violence was only a prelude for renewed attention to Bamiyan, an attention which today supports a thriving enterprise of investigation, research and study into the times, peoples and culture which was responsible for the colossal Bamiyan statues and the monastery caves surrounding them.

In their destruction lay the seeds which would be responsible for a regeneration of interest in the Bamyan site and the thousands of monks who lived and prayed there. Bamiyan had once been the at the center of the silk road trade route and was an important crossroads between mediterranean Europe and Asia. It was a royal capital of the Kushan dynasty which had adopted Buddhism as its state religion. Its art was a combination of Greco-Roman and Asian forms which often depicted the Buddha with a distinctly western Apollo-like face and wavy hair, and elegant draping garments resemblant of classical Greek statuary. Such was the styling of the Buddhas at Bamiyan.

This destruction was transformed into a positive result. The attention of the world is now focused on Bamyan in a hundred productive and constructive ways. Out of the empty rage of destruction has come a new awareness of the importance of Bamiyan.
The shelling created clouds of dust which spread out over the landscape. Each grain of dust settling over the land was a seed of renewal. Archeologists, historians, and artists have returned to the area, bringing international tourist visitors generating new interest and activity.

Art historians studying the fragments of the Buddhas have discovered that these monuments were hundreds of years older than previously thought, placing them closer to the earliest Buddhist practice. Scientists working for UNESCO have discovered paintings done in oils in the caves where the monks lived around the mammoth statues. It had previously been assumed that oil painting was invented in Europe during the renaissance; so these scientists were surprised to find oil paintings done by the artists of Bamiyan dating from the seventh century.

The caves which escaped the Taliban destruction present a rich artistic history. They are described by representatives of the Huntington Archive at Ohio State University like this:
Each of the multitude of caves can be considered a unified composition in which painting and sculpture work together to form a single symbolic configuration with the Buddha at the center, surrounded by painted images of further Buddhas, bodhisattvas and other heavenly beings from Buddhist cosmology….

The wall paintings surround the central figure in concentric circles or vertical rows in the manner of a mandala, a conceptual representation of the Buddhist universe. The ceilings in particular are transformed into a “dome of heaven” through the manipulation of repeated Buddha forms around the central figure.

Together, the wall and ceiling paintings work with the sculpture to create an entire heavenly environment, a symbolic representation of the universe.

Archeologists are looking at restoration options for the mammoth statues. One approach they are considering is called anastylosis, often used for Greek and Roman temples, in which the original pieces are reassembled and held together with a minimum of new material. If you’ve seen pictures of the Parthenon, you’re familiar with this method. Analyzing the rock strata, they have worked out what part of the vast statue most of the pieces came from, many weighing up to 60 tons.

Archeologists returning to the area to salvage the remnants of the destroyed sculptures have also discovered a third enormous reclining Buddha obscured for millennia which will now be uncovered and displayed to the world.

One artist who came to Bamiyan is Hiro Yamagata. He is an artist specializing in laser installations, his newest work utilizes solar and wind energy to project holographic laser light images of the buddhas onto a rockface at Bamiyan in memory of the Buddhas. The lasers will be powered by the renewable energy of windmills and solar panels.

These generators will not only provide employment for the people of Bamiyan during their construction and operation, they will also provide electric power for the entire town. Planned for completion in 2012, his installation will fill the hollows in the rock face with shimmering light-created images of the majestic Buddha figures which once graced the mountain.

Mr. Yamagata comments: “My artistic concept is to create original images of Buddha and project them with the most unique, powerful and cutting edge laser technology of today onto the site where once the ancient Bamiyan Buddhas stood. Thus we will be able to revive the great creative spirit of mankind which produced the Great Buddha of Bamiyan centuries ago.
A collaboration of ancient and new art will become a cultural icon of revived civilization in Afghanistan. By permanently creating an artwork of laser system installation in Bamiyan, we intend to stimulate both the land and the people of Bamiyan.

More powerful than any missile or flying unmanned Drone, the positive, creative vibrations Mr. Yamagata is bringing to Afghanistan will transform the landscape, re-invigorate the people and cause wonderful positive change in the hearts and minds of Afghanis who now look upon most foreigners with justified suspicion and fear.

If we seek to follow a Buddhist path, the question becomes what are the lessons we take away from what has occurred at Bamiyan. Most important probably is the lesson of impermanence. The Taliban were only the latest in a series of forces reducing the colossal figures to dust. They only sped up the workings of nature in returning the stone to a natural form.

Even more important though, we might look upon this as a lesson in Karuna, the Pali word for compassion. We watch the video on the internet of the shelling and look for the lesson behind the disturbing images. You know the one. The difficult people in our lives are our greatest teachers. How easy it is to say these words. And when the lesson they are teaching you presents itself, it cuts like a bright light through the fog of delusion.

Mullah Mohammed Omar, The Taliban, Osama bin Laden, and Al Qaida present us with some tall-order lessons in compassion. They mirror back to us our own very human hatred and fear. Their unskillfulness we know too well in our own.
And so we watch the destruction and we can contemplate the nature of the impermanence, unsatisfactoriness, and egolessness of all things.
And compassion is our response. Our compassion, our Karuna, flows out to the mullahs, the terrorists, all of them.

When you think of the word compassion, what images come to your mind? Is it warm and fuzzy? Is it like a delicate flower or soft little puppy? Let me suggest a different image. When we are confronted with the intensity and the power of destructive images like the Buddhas, or like the twin towers on 9/11, it is hard to respond with complete and utter compassion to these difficult people.

Our compassion must be as durable and as pure as a diamond. It must not be a tender, vulnerable thing. Our karuna must be a impervious to doubt as a stone hard gem. It must be strong, and solid, and resolute. In Tibet, the title for an honored lama of great realization is “Rinpoche.” The word means jewel. I think they are described in this way to express how pure, rare, and precious they are. Our Karuna, too, must be pure and hard as precious stone.

And so we respond with Karuna, compassion to all beings on the planet. We demonstrate our pure, strong Karuna and send metta, loving kindness to Osama bin Laden, Mullah Omar, the Taliban and Al Qaida. We send them our thanks for the lesson in Dukkha, the first noble truth, they teach us today. May they and their families be happy and peaceful. May they be healthy and safe.

May we all see with the bright light of realization the pierces the fog of delusion surrounding us. May our pure, diamond-hard compassion conquer all the fear and hatred in the universe.


"Of course I help people, but it's more about not harming people.... I'm doing a fine art piece. That's my purpose - not for human rights, or for supporting religion or a political statement."


http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Buddhas_of_Bamyan

You’re bound to become a buddha if you practice. If water drips long enoughEven rocks wear through. It’s not true thick skulls can’t be pierced; People just imagine their minds are hard. - Shih-wu (1272-1352)

I would like to explore two words to help us look at life in a very different way. These two words are curiosity and non-preference. Curiosity as defined --to look at a situation or a person or a thing with interest without knowledge of the outcome, and non-preference as defined looking at a situation or a person or a thing without a desire for it to be a particular way.

So many times in our lives, we want our lives to be a certain way, and we want situations to unfold with certain outcomes, and when they don’t, we feel disappointed, maybe resentment or even angry. At the same time, we often think of our selves as a solid thing that we need to massage and manage, control and coddle, in order to have a certain life that we think might make us happy. So, for most of us, we already think we know how we want the world to be, and in thinking so, we take away much of the curiosity we could have about life. And curiosity is a critical component to the way that we take in new information, so without it, we keep trying to manage the world with the old information we have gotten in the past, information that may no longer be valid, but we won’t know because we don’t allow new information in. And when information does come in, we often have very specific preferences, like I wish my family would act a certain way towards me, or I wish I had more money, or I hate this job and want another one. When that happens, these preferences cloud our perspective of the outcome as well.

Imagine for a moment that we could deal with the world and our lives in entirely different ways. We could begin by being curious about what this current moment might tell us about what’s going on in our heads and in our lives, and we could delay having a certain preference for a certain outcome in each situation.

In the most recent copy of Tricycle Magazine, there’s a wonderful article about a Korean Zen koan, that simply suggests that we ask, “What is it?” in each moment. Not that there is one right answer, but just ask “What is it” The koan enables us to open up to additional possibilities, to seeing a situation with fresh eyes. “What is it?” In Dzogchen, there is a similar practice called Rushen, that suggests while we are meditating or being mindful, that we stop and ask, “who or what is thinking” “who or what is having this thought” as a way to break up the habitual patterns of our minds thinking that we are this solid being that needs to have things a certain way. John Peacocke says that “Buddhist thinking conceives of the self as a process, NOT a fixed immutable essence.”

So, who are we really? Why do we stick so strongly to our old stories that we are a certain way. Imagine that in fact we are constantly changing, as in fact, our cells are continually renewing themselves so this is in fact true. And if so, we can see the world and ourselves in fresh ways, but ONLY if we are willing to let go of our old stories, that I’m the way I am because of my childhood or because of some terrible accident or trauma. Yes, this are all very important events, but each of us decides in each moment, whether we are going to allow those past events, those past experiences to dictate the way we see the world going forward.

Consider some upcoming event in your own life, one that perhaps you are dreading or craving. Reflect for a moment on why you are dreading or craving that situation—what stories have we already created about the event that might affect our ultimate perception?
Or we could try something new, what if we tried cultivating a perspective of curiosity and non-preference. How would that feel differently? How would that affect the way we act in that particular situation?

The Buddha taught that we can think about the world and ourselves as more like an experiment rather than a pre-destined set of events. None of us would want someone to tell us that our life has to be a certain way, and yet we often tell ourselves that exact thing.

The perspective of non-preference is about being open to the experience of any event or person or thing or emotion in our life, without labels of good or bad or boring. Add to that the perspective of curiosity and you can start to feel the joy that can be found in any situation. Curiosity gives us the motivation to know more, to explore, regardless of any pre-conceived labels.

So, I encourage you this week, as you wake up each morning, to take a few moments to explore how different your experience of your day might be through the eyes of curiosity and non-preference. Play with the way those words affect the way you experience everything in your life. Look for the magic in each moment. It’s there just waiting to be discovered.

A life-time is not what's between,The moments of birth and death.A life-time is one moment,Between my two little breaths. The present, the here, the now,That's all the life I get,I live each moment in full,In kindness, in peace, without regret.
- Chade Meng, One Moment

Concentration versus Pure Awareness

When we begin practicing meditation, most of us start with a basic concentration exercise, like focusing on our breath or a candle or a mantra or some object. All these objects of meditation can work well to help us still our minds by first seeing how our minds get distracted. And this first step in meditation is critical to begin honing our ability to pay more raw attention to what is happening in any given moment. In Sanskrit, this is called Shamatha, and is usually translated as calm abiding. Concentration is an important part in beginning a meditation session.

Cultivating concentration is so important that it’s included as the eighth step on the eightfold path. It is about taming our mind, gently with pure intention of waking up from this distracted slumber that we have created to cope with our busy and sometimes frustrated world. You may have had that feeling at the end of difficult day, the feeling that you just need to shut off your brain for awhile, by watching TV, having a drink, any number of distractions. Yet, if we were to stop and think about it for a second, isn’t it strange that when we are frustrated or angry, we want to give up some of the precious moments of our lives by not being present. Imagine that you find out you will die in three months—most likely we wouldn’t want to waste those precious moments watching TV or numbing out in some way. Well, the truth is that we are all going to die—why not start preparing for it now versus waiting until the last minute? This is an essential Buddhist teaching, starting now to prepare for death and some might add going beyond death, by training our mind.

So, the practice of concentration is critical to start cultivating mindfulness, which grows out of concentration. And it’s important to note that concentration is not mindfulness. Concentration is a tool, like our minds are wild horses that need to first be reined in, and concentration practice has been proven to tame our minds in this way for the good. However, concentration is not the whole of meditation nor is it the goal of meditation. Concentration is only the door through which we walk to get to the place of mindfulness and pure awareness. Concentration gets us through the doorway, so we can leave behind the illusions that we have created in this world and go through the doorway to get beyond them. Going through the doorway of concentration brings us to the practice of mindfulness which is the seventh step in the eightfold path, First the mind is tamed, the illusions are peeled away, then mindfulness and pure awareness can be exposed and cultivated.

There’s a wonderful article this quarter in the Buddhadharma magazine by Andrew Olendzki about the practice of Mindfulness. In it, he describes mindfulness as a heightened attentiveness to objects …in the present moment. So mindfulness is often described as the heightened perception of all objects in any given situation. Mindfulness is leading to insights, or vipassana. Seeing beyond these forms that our minds have created to the impermanence of all things. Mindfulness is about clear seeing, not as our minds need things to be, but just seeing things as they are without judgments or preferences. A good example is when we discuss things with long time friends, spouses or family members. When there is a long history of assumptions and pre-conceived notions, then our current conversations can often have absolutely nothing to do with what is actually being said in the present moment. Pema Chodron says that when you begin to be more present, and you see yourself changing and interacting with others in more positive ways, your family will most likely be the last to recognize it. Why? Because your family, as we all often do to each other, has put you in a box with a certain label on it, and it will take a while for them to take your present action and decide it’s time to look at you in a whole new way. Sometimes they would rather you just stay in your box! But gradually, as you grow spiritually, you often find that you can’t go back to the old way of being, and that’s the benefit of these teachings.

So these practices are designed to enable the layers of our illusions of life to fall away and lay bare the pure essence of being. Eckhart Tolle, in an interview out at Unity Village several weeks ago, described this mindfulness far beyond the stillness we might find on the meditation cushion. Eckhart described the value, of letting go of our obsession with putting the world around us into neat little boxes, and the reward is the discovery of pure awareness in each and every moment, not just while we’re sitting and meditating, but in every moment of every interaction. Eckhart said,

“Underneath the form of the world, is the timeless time, the spirit.” “The mystery of the universe is surrounding you…Being present is experiencing a sense of aliveness of the universe.”

What if the most amazing energy lie just beyond your superficial thoughts? It’s so close, it’s like a birthday gift that we open anew each moment, and never look in the bottom of the package to find the best gift of all. Instead of spending so much time in the past and the future, we could try just hanging out in the present, finding a stillness as we interact with others. For instance, you might recall a past heated argument you had with someone, those times when we feel consumed with the need to have our opinion prevail. Imagine in that moment, stopping. Just stopping all words, stopping all activity. Just for a moment, pull your attention directly into the moment of your pain, of your suffering. Imagine in that moment, just letting go, letting go of our need to be right, of our need to be smarter, to be in control, to have our way. Just letting go of all our pre-conceived notions about how things are supposed to be. By staying present, the wisdom of each situation can be allowed to rise and be exposed. What is the right thing to say? What is the right thing to do? What if a fresh answer could be discovered in that very moment?

Mindfulness helps us recognize that we are not our thoughts, no matter how real they seem. We start with concentration, then move into mindfulness, which leads us to pure awareness. Lama Surya Das, in his book Awakening the Buddha Within, has a great quote by Kalu Rinpoche, who said,

“You are the Buddha. You are the truth. Then why do you not feel it? Why don’t you know it through and through? Because there is a veil in the way, which is attachment to appearances, such as a belief that you are not Buddha, that you are a separate individual, an ego. If you cannot remove this veil all at once, then it must be dissolved gradually.

If you have seen through it totally, even for one glimpse, then you can see through it at any time. Wherever you are, whatever presents itself, however things seem to be; simply refer to that ever-present, spacious openness and clarity.”

So, in this next week, look for opportunities to stop in the middle of whatever you doing, particularly any difficult interactions with another, practice stopping right then and bringing mindfulness to that moment, the moments when it’s most difficult to be present.

As kalu rinpoche encourages us,

. Wherever you are, whatever presents itself, however things seem to be; simply refer to that ever-present, spacious openness and clarity.

AND LET THE MAGIC OF THE UNIVERSE UNFOLD

Blessings,

Janet Taylor

The Four Obstacles

Last Sunday, I shared some thoughts on the Four Obstacles, the obstacles which keep us from recognizing our own true Buddha nature, the Christ spirit that is within each and every one of us here, right now and for all time. I had the privilege of hearing Dzogchen master, Wangdor Rinpoche, speak a few years ago, and he described our Buddha nature as a great treasure in our own home yet we often travel great distances to try and find it. He also emphasizes the universality of Buddha nature. Everyone has the same amount of Buddha nature—everyone. Great spiritual teachers don’t have big ones and sinners have little ones. Men don’t have different sizes than Women. We all have the same Buddha nature, like waves upon the ocean.

So, what is it that keeps us from realizing this incredibly powerful force that is always available, everywhere present? What are the obstacles in our lives that cause us pain and suffering? I’m sure each of us can bring to mind different issues in our own lives that get in the way of living an awakened life.

The teaching of the Four Obstacles is a way to help us recognize and let go of the obstacles in our lives. In Buddhism, they are described as Mara--Mara was the demon that attempted to keep Buddha from his enlightenment as he sat under the bodhi tree. So what are the Maras in our lives?

Wangdor Rinpoche explains these obstacles in his own special way: First, there are the outer obstacles that happen outside of us and cause us suffering. These obstacles could be natural disasters or other people’s actions. Things that come up in our lives that keep us from our practice, that keep us focused externally on overcoming these struggles. In some ways, these obstacles are the most visible, the easiest to see. We can clearly see that we’ve just had a car accident, and recognize the obstacles created from that event. It is easy to understand why our spiritual practice might be hindered by such external events.

The second and third obstacles are somewhat more difficult to see because they are our inner delusions. The second obstacle is the physical and emotional suffering that we all have in our lives. We get sick, we get angry, and these events cloud our ability to remember our true Buddha nature, our true Christ spirit. I’m sure each of you can bring to mind a time when you were physically ill or emotionally stressed, and the feeling accompanying those times would likely be one of frustration and difficulty and may not include being aware of your own divinity.

We have this body and this mind, and they are great tools for our awakening and yet sometimes our mind convinces us that thinking and feeling are the only way to solve a problem. Sometimes life can seem so difficult. Yet, in Buddhist teachings, being born into this world is considered a great gift. We’ve been given this life to wake up. Being born in this world is described as getting a ticket on the fastest train to enlightenment. Yahoo! Imagine that today you held in your hand a ticket that would bring you incredible happiness. Imagine your great fortune to have received this ticket today, at this time in your life. You have it, it’s here in the very moment. Take the ticket and get on the train to living an awakened life. If we can just get a glimpse of the incredible spaciousness and happiness in being full awake in this very moment, perhaps we could begin to see past our own suffering and emotional confusion. Letting go of these delusions of thoughts and feelings; accepting them as is, and moving beyond. This is what it would be to overcome this second type of obstacle we face.

The third obstacle gets trickier to discern. This obstacle is our conditioned responses. It might be a voice in your head holding you back from doing something different. It might be saying, I’m not good enough, I could never do that, I’m afraid—I’d rather just keep coping with my life as I have in the past. Our inner critic has the ability to surgically push just the right buttons that make us forget our ultimate goodness. Even harder to discern are those unconscious responses, the ones we do out of habit that often we don’t even realize why. For instance, some us want to go along to get along. On the surface, this seems quite normal. "I don't want to make a fuss, I don't want to inconvenience others, I just want to have everyone be happy." Maybe we even rationalize what good Buddhists we are to be so concerned with everyone else’s wellbeing. And yet, sometimes underneath that response, is perhaps a part of us not acknowledging when we truly needed something. In the past, If I truly needed some emotional support, I couldn’t ask for it. if I truly needed to express my perspective, I couldn’t always do it. Only after letting the frustration and resentment build up inside me do I finally resentfully blurt out my true needs, many weeks, months, sometimes years after the fact. This mara, this obstacle, is keeping us from staying present with out true reality, our Buddha nature, most importantly, keeping us from allowing and trusting my divine guidance. So, I can accept this reluctance to speak up, and by recognizing it, begin to stay connected to what is truly needed in each situation, which is probably not always the easiest response.

Can you think of habitual patterns in your life that keep you from seeing and acting from your Buddha Nature? Are there conditioned responses in your life that cause you to be separated from the divine spirit that exists within you always?

And lastly, the fourth obstacle is called the innermost obstacle, the most difficult to discern. This fourth obstacle is the misinformation that we are separate beings, that there is this clear separation between who I think I am, and everyone and everything else. Most of us hold onto this mental construct so tightly, it seems absurd to question it. Yet science is now proving that there is an energy underlying all beings and things. We have done ourselves and all others a disservice by creating this separation in our lives, between us and them, likes and dislikes, friends and enemies. We think that we are separate from those around us. For a moment, stop and be aware of how separate you feel from the people in your life. Be aware of how our minds make us think this physical and mental separation is so real. And yet imagine for the moment, that it’s just an illusion. Beyond the separation that our mind creates is the true reality—the truth that we are all connected and in fact, our buddha nature is merely a wave in the great ocean of buddha nature.

While our minds play tricks on us and make us think we’re separate, science is proving that this separation isn’t true. For instance, empirical data now exists that confirms the power of prayer. How can prayer by one individual for another individual work, if not for the fact that we are all connected in some way?

So, we have these four Maras, these four obstacles. First the outer obstacles of events and activities, Second and third, the inner obstacles of physical/emotional and our conditioned responses, and lastly the innermost obstacle--the delusion of separation. It’s no wonder we all seem to struggle with waking up!

How can we possibly overcome these obstacles? What complicated process must we follow to dissolve this struggles and live enlightened lives?

Well, here’s the really good news. The answer is quite simple.

I was reading an article about the Dalai Lama’s brother recently, and after giving a speech, several people ask him questions about various issues in their lives. To each, he gave the same answer, “Start with acceptance.” This simple practice serves us well because no matter where we are stuck—whether we’ve just had a car wreck or we’re struggling with feeling connected to others—the antidote is the same.

Imagine that everything you need is available to you in this present moment. Wangdor Rinpoche also reminds us to not be seduced by all the fancy spiritual practices and techniques that one can take on to find enlightenment. Yes, they are sometimes helpful, BUT there is no substitute for just being fully aware in the present moment, beyond our thoughts and emotions, beyond our conditioned responses, beyond our sense of separation, lies the simple answer. It is only in this present moment that you will find your buddha nature, that you will find the Christ Spirit that exists within you, that you will find God.

In each moment, you have a fresh opportunity to wake up. If you messed up the last moment and weren’t fully awake, there’s another moment just around the corner, fresh and new, ready to be experienced fully. You don’t have to wait until you turn a certain age, or until you get a new job, or until you change relationships or make more moeny. You have everything you need right now, and now, and now, to wake up, by accepting what is, and discovering the truth, and beginning to live your life in the awakened state, if even for a glimpse of time.

Life is not a test where you can copy off your neighbor. There are no right answers that work for everyone in every moment. Only by being present can you gain divine guidance on what is right FOR YOU at this moment right now.

When you allow yourself to be fully present, you begin to see the true nature of your own mind, you begin to see clearly the obstacles that you have placed in your path, and most importantly, you begin to create a space for your buddha nature, your Christ Spirit, to be experienced, to be the driving force in how you live your life. That’s it—to allow your Buddha Nature to be the driving force in how you live your life.

There’s no special equipment needed, no place to go, nothing to do. No matter what obstacles arise, just accept and be present, and you will find the door to the most amazing gift of all, your own buddha nature. This week, explore being present, not just on the cushion as you meditate, but allow yourself to be present in some of those other moments throughout the day, particularly when you become aware of what seems like an obstacle in your life. Accept and experience the delightful gift of innate buddha nature.