Ever dream of having a casual conversation with a real-life Zen master? Here's a talk is about life, love, success, and happiness with Korean Zen Buddhist monk Ven. Pomnyun Sunim.
ABOUT: Zen Master Pomnyun is a peace activist, humanitarian assistance expert, and an environmentalist, speaking about four topics and taking questions on all topics.
Just as the Abrahamic faiths keep the "Lord's Day" (which had always been Saturday not Sunday, given the very word Sabbath means "Saturday," like the pagan, pre-Christian, Wiccan, Jewish Shabbat, the holy or rest day for spiritual stuff.
The Buddha could see back in time that this custom was very good and should be continued. He gave it a Buddhist spin -- like previous buddhas, observing the Eight Precepts rather than the ordinary daily Five Precepts, fasting (eating only between dawn and noon), practicing intensive meditation, hearing and studying the Dharma and Discipline, the path to liberation pointed out by the Buddha.
He taught a path-of-practice that includes calm and insight meditation (shamatha, the jhanas, satipatthana, and vipassana). These are the practices of:
The Buddha taught that the fasting day is for "the cleansing of the defiledmind/heart," resulting in inner calm and joy. On this day, Buddhists intensify their practice, deepen their knowledge, and express communal commitment through millennia-old acts of lay-monastic reciprocity. More
Rains Retreat (Vassa) schedule lists weekly Dharma talks and monthly Poya or Lunar Observance Days.
One need not be a wandering ascetic, an austere monastic, a celibate (anagarika), nor a "little nun or monk" (samaneri/samanera) to practice for insight.
It would be nice and could be very helpful to speed things up to fruition, but it is not necessary. That means a normal, ordinary householder (workaday family person with possessions and worldly obligations) can practice what the Buddha taught and advance in this very life. There's no need to wait.
The lunar observance day (Uposatha) is the day to find out. It is observed in Los Angeles at many Theravada Buddhist temples of Southeast Asia. One in particular is the Los Angeles Buddhist Vihara. Instead of practicing weekly, it does so monthly on the full moon day or an approximation of it.
Due to scheduling constraints, September's lunar observance day is being conducted today, Sunday, Sept. 8, 2024, beginning at 8:00 am with a day of scheduled sitting and walking meditations, Dharma talks, lunch, and question and answer periods.
Lunar observances during the three-month Rains Retreat period
We're spiritual seekers in LA looking for Truth
The Rains Retreat continues in Los Angeles, so we trekked over to visit the Mindfulness Meditation Center of the Los Angeles Buddhist Vihara in the suburbs of LA's San Gabriel Valley:
The Center has a vision. It is to bring people to a depth of realization of the Buddha’s path to liberation through direct experience.
Why would anyone be a monk? We should ask.
The Mindfulness Meditation Center – Covina (LABV) is a Sri Lankan Theravada Buddhist spiritual center dedicated to the study and practice of Buddhist teachings (Dharma) and meditation (bhavana) and is committed to the possibility of liberation for all beings from pain, disappointment, and unsatisfactoriness (collectively called dukkha or "suffering").
American Col. Henry Olcott in old Sri Lanka
The Center welcomes diverse populations. It supports and encourages the development of compassionate action towards everyone for a community based on the ideals, teachings, and practices in the tradition of Theravada Buddhism.
The Citadel of Sigiriya atop a massive rock in Sri Lanka, once a Buddhist monastery
Maha Moggallana̞, Sri Lanka
Its mission is to provide practitioners with Buddhist teachings to manifest wisdom and compassion in all aspects of life for the benefit of all beings.
It is a spiritual center and a sanctuary dedicated to the study and practice of mindfulness meditation according to the Theravada Buddhist lineage. It provides Los Angeles and neighboring communities with opportunities to practice meditation, study Buddhist teachings, and apply those teachings in the context of daily life.
August's lunar daylong retreat
There are weekly sitting groups, monthly (lunar observance) daylong retreats, and weekly study courses. Invited guest speakers from other Buddhist centers in the United States and around the world supplement the offerings of dedicated local teachers.
The Center supports and encourages compassionate actions locally and globally to help people who are in need of support materially and spiritually around the globe. mindfulnessmeditationcenter.org
(Official Alan Watts Org) "Why Not Now" is a discussion from Alan Watts' Zen & Meditation collection. In it, he discusses how we need silence -- not mere absence of external sound but of the internal compulsive chattering of words and calculations inside our heads. Only by such silence can we get into firm touch with the real world which our languages, signs, symbols, and mathematics represent (somewhat crudely) but are not. Such silencing of head-chatter is known in the orient as yoga, dhyana (jhana, absorption), zen (chan, seon), or the art of meditation, in which we discover by direct experience who or what we really are -- by feeling rather than verbal definition. The reason is simply that too much chattering, not only in the head, but also in listening to radio, reading newspapers, watching TV, and interminable discussion of our various political, social, legal, philosophical, and psychological hangups has put us far out of touch with the real world, which isn't words. #alanwatts#alanwattsspeech#nonduality
Who is Alan Watts? | alanwatts.org/life-of-alan-watts...“Perhaps the foremost interpreter of Eastern disciplines for the contemporary West, Alan Watts had the rare gift of ‘writing beautifully the un-writable.’ Watts begins with scholarship and intellect and proceeds with art and eloquence to the frontiers of the spirit. A fascinating entry into the deepest ways of knowing.” — Los Angeles Times
AlanWatts.org (Something's Happening with Roy of Hollywood, in memoriam, June 9, 2024, Pacifica Free Speech Radio, kpfk.org); Dhr. Seven, Seth Auberon (eds.), Wisdom Quarterly
Silence + Celebration: A New Year’s Eve Meditation Retreat (Online) Sunday, Dec. 31, 2023: 6:30 pm-12:00 am through SHAMBHALA LOS ANGELES (ONLINE MEETING)
This New Year’s Eve, can we pause, take a breath, make a cup of tea — or glass of vegan eggnog — and celebrate the sadness/joy of our beautiful world and our precious lives?
If anyone aspires to meditate more this coming year — or to learn how to meditate — it's a good time. It's not too late. Everyone is welcome to join this online mini-retreat as we transition from the old to the new.
Come for the entire evening, or for any part of it, to meditate and celebrate with old friends and new ones.
Throughout the evening we will alternate between sitting and walking meditation with a break to watch a video Dharma talk. There will also be a brief “live” talk closer to midnight.
6:30-8:00 pm: Alternating sitting and walking meditation.
Guided group instruction given at the beginning.*
8:00-9:00 pm Video showing of talk followed by Reflection Circles
9:00-12:00 am midnight Alternating sitting and walking meditation
10:00 pm Brief talk sometime after ten
*After initial group meditation instruction, individual instruction is available upon request in break-out rooms at all times during the evening. No prior meditation experience required.
Melissa McKay visits insightLA from Vegas to offer a Dharma talk.
The Beauty Queen Mindfulness is like balancing a dish of precious oil on one's head.
Don't spill my oil or they'll decapitate you!
"Meditators, suppose a large crowd of people comes thronging together saying, 'The beauty queen, the beauty queen!'
"And suppose that the beauty queen is highly accomplished at singing and dancing [like a Lady Gaga], so that an even greater crowd comes thronging saying, 'The beauty queen is singing! The beauty queen is dancing!'
"Then a man comes along, desiring life, shrinking from death, desiring pleasure, and abhorring pain.
"They say to him, 'Now look here, mister: You must take this container filled to the brim with oil and carry it on your head in between the great crowd and the beauty queen. A man with a raised sword will follow right behind you, and wherever you spill even a drop of oil, right there will he cut off your head.'
"Now what do you think, meditators — will that man, neglecting to pay attention to the container of oil, let himself get distracted by something external?"
[The Buddha then explains this example:] "I have given this parable to convey a meaning. The meaning is this: The container filled to the brim with oil stands for mindfulness immersed in the body.
"So train yourselves: 'We will develop mindfulness immersed in the body. We will pursue it, hand it the reins, and take it as a basis, give it a grounding, steady it, consolidate it, and undertake it well.' That is how to train yourselves" (SN 47.20).
I wonder what they talk about inside Buddhist temples. Maybe they'll explain karma.
(Despiadado13x) VIRAL VIDEOS: Best Wins and Fails of the Year, 2015 Part 4, Aug. 16, 2016
Hey, can someone tell me what "karma" is?
In the summer of 1989, Larry Rosenberg -- one of the guiding teachers at the Insight Meditation Society (IMS) in Barre, Massachusetts -- invited Ajahn Suwat Suvaco to lead a two-week retreat the following spring. Ajahn Suwat had been living in the U.S. for several years, founding monasteries for Thai communities in Seattle and Los Angeles, and this was his first opportunity to teach large numbers of Western Buddhists. The retreat was in May, 1990, with approximately 100 attending. Ven. Thanissaro was brought from Thailand to serve as interpreter....
Karma, karma, what is karma? Question: You've spoken of the five topics that should be contemplated every day:
that we're subject to aging,
subject to illness,
subject to death,
subject to separation from the things and people we love, and
that we're the owners of our karma [past actions of body, speech, mind].
This fifth topic is the most difficult of the five to understand. I was wondering if you could explain karma -- and in particular the role of mindfulness at the moment of death.
Ajahn Suwat's answer: Listen carefully. I'm going to explain karma in line with the principles of the Buddha's awakening/enlightenment.
In becoming a buddha [a fully awakened teacher], it was not the case that he had been born only once and had practiced only one lifetime before attaining awakening. He had been developing his goodness, his [ten] perfections, for many lifetimes.
That was how he had been able to build up his wisdom/discernment continually over the course of time to the point where he could awaken to the subtle Dharma so hard for anyone to recollect, so hard for anyone to awaken to.
He had been developing his mindfulness until it was fully powerful, his wisdom/discernment until it was fully powerful, so that he could come to know the truth.
For this reason, our understanding of karma has to depend both on our study and on our practice, training our own minds as the Buddha did so as to gain wisdom/discernment step by step.
When the Buddha spoke about karma after his awakening to the truth, he was referring to action. There's physical karma, that is to say, the actions of the body and verbal karma, the actions of speech, and there's mental karma, the actions of the mind.
All human beings, all living beings, experience good things and bad things, pleasure and pain, as a result of their karma -- their own actions.
What was the Buddha originally saying?
[NOTE: Most of these actions bearing fruit now and ripening were performed long in the past -- in addition to what is being done now -- when "they" were not "themselves" but someone else, in a conventional sense. Of course, in an ultimate sense, they were not anyone, and all that has been going on is an impersonal process, but it gets personalized, and an "eternal self" is imagined as going through all of this endless samsara, the playing of karma in inconceivable complexity].
Karma is something very subtle. When you ask about rebirth and how you'll experience pleasure and pain in future lives, you should first study karma in your present life, your actions in your present life.
Understand your actions in the present life clearly. Once you understand them, once you know the truth of action in the present, then when you train the mind/heart further, you'll gradually come to the end of your doubts.
There's no one who has ever resolved doubts about rebirth simply through reading or hearing the spoken word.
Even among those who've practiced a long time, if their insight/discernment isn't up to the task, they'll still have their same old doubts.
The texts tell us that doubt is ended only with the attainment of the first of the noble paths, the first stage of enlightenment called stream-entry.
Stream-enterers have cut away three defilements: self-identity views [the strong belief that all of this is personal], doubt [about the path to full enlightenment], and attachment to precepts and practices [as a means of attaining enlightenment and final liberation].
When the insight/discernment of the noble [enlightenment] path arises, knowledge of birth and death, rebirth and redeath, arises together with it.
As for our current level of insight/discernment, if we want to know about these things, we need to do the preliminary work [actually practicing the path, not just talking about it, learning it, studying it, or reflecting on it].
We need to study the nature of action [our karma] in the present. So today I won't speak of future lifetimes. I'll teach about the three kinds of action -- physical action, verbal action, and mental action -- in the present.
What's "good"?
“Raising People“ official music video by Dr. Zwig. From his album, Live at the Wiltern Theatre, recorded and produced by Grammy winner David Bianco. Directed by Laban.
These three kinds of action are divided into two sorts, good and bad [skillful and unskillful, pleasant and unpleasant, wished for and unwished for].
Bad actions give rise to suffering [disappointment, unsatisfactoriness, discontent, unfulfillment]. Good actions give rise to good results: happiness, prosperity, mindfulness, and insight/discernment, both in the present and on into future days, future months, future years.
Bad actions are called unskillful karma. The Buddha taught that it is wise to abandon this kind of karma [as it leads to unwelcome, unwished for, unpleasant results when it finally matures].
In the area of physical action, this includes tormenting and killing living beings, whether large or small. This kind of action is unskillful because it lacks goodwill and compassion.
All living beings love their lives. If we kill them it's unskillful because we without compassion, without pity, without regard for their lives.
This is why the Buddha said it is wise not to do it. If we kill other human beings, we get punished now by civil law and [impersonally in the future] by the [mysterious workings of] Dharma [universal or cosmic order, Nature, the lawfulness/impersonal orderliness of things like actions bringing about appropriate results, as like attracts like].More
Bhikkhu Bodhi: What makes a life truly worthwhile?
Ven. Bodhi discusses Dhammapada Verses 110-115, which address the purpose of life from a Buddhist perspective. The verses mention moral restraint, meditation (mental cultivation), unification and coherence of mind (samadhi), insight, and wisdom. They compare a life of 100 years without these to the superiority of a life of one day with them. MP3 download of this talk available at: abhayagiri.org/talks/6887-what-makes-a-life-truly-worthwhile. This talk was offered on March 4, 2018 at Abhayagiri Buddhist Monastery in Northern California.
The Buddha in The Udana ("Verses of Uplift or Inspired Utterances") says of nirvana that it is an ayatana ("realm or sphere"):
"There is a realm where there is neither earth, water, heat, nor air [Four Elements], neither the sphere of infinite space, the sphere of infinite consciousness, the sphere of nothingness, nor the sphere of neither-perception-nor-non-perception [the Four Immaterial Planes corresponding to the Four Immaterial Meditative Absorptions]. There is neither this world nor any other world, neither sun nor moon. This I call neither arising nor passing away, neither standing still nor being born nor dying. There is neither foothold there, nor development, nor any basis. This is the end of [all] suffering."
The Truth
"That which the ignorant take to be truth, that the noble ones, the Aryans [= the enlightened], know to be false.
"That which the Aryans know to be true, that the ignorant regard as false. That which is of an imperishable nature, that is nirvana, and that is the truth known by the Aryans."
THE MEANING OF THIS IS: That which the ignorant take to be truth, to be real, is a "self," an ego entity. And this the Aryans know to be false -- since through their insight they have realized that all phenomena are without a self, that they're all insubstantial [impersonal, selfless = anatta].
And that which the noble ones know to be truth, that is nirvana, and this the ignorant take to be false, an imaginary thing or a vain notion. But the noble ones, the Aryans, have seen nirvana. They've known through direct experience that it is real, the one ultimate reality that's imperishable.
The Permanent
In another sutra the Buddha says, "That which has a perishable nature, that is false. But that which is of a imperishable nature, namely nirvana, that is truth."
And then he says in the same sutra that, "This the supreme noble truth, nirvana, which is of an imperishable nature."
The Unborn
"[Meditators], there is an unborn, an unoriginated, an uncreated, an unconditioned. If there were not this unborn, unoriginated, uncreated, unconditioned, there would be no escape* possible from the world of the born, the originated, the created, the conditioned.
"However, since there is an unborn, unoriginated, uncreated, unconditioned, therefore, escape is possible from the world of the born, the originated, the created, the conditioned."
What is the Purpose of Spiritual Practice? Life is a fascinating journey, filled with discovery, exploration, and awesome experiences fraught with suffering, often unnecessarily.
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Catherine Pawasarat Sensei
Drawn to intensity, to living life to the fullest? To awaken in this very life is the spiritual way to go. It's accessible to anyone with drive and heart.
Catherine Pawasarat Sensei (planetdharma.com) visits from Canada to share an overview of contemporary spiritual landscapes: Which teachings focus on awakening here and now? What does it take? How do we know it works?
Imagine wearing a t-shirt or tattoo that reads “Awakening or Bust!” Yes, it IS possible! Tonight (Thursday, April 25) we'll move, meditate, learn some Dharma, practice loving-kindness, then share experiences over vegan drinks and snacks. FREE if you RSVP
CATHERINE PAWASARAT SENSEI, co-author of Wasteland to Pureland, practiced Ayahuasca plant medicine in the Brazilian Amazon in the '90s then she met her meditation teacher, Doug Duncan, and embraced the spiritual path forged by Canadian-born, Tibetan-recognized Namgyal Rinpoche (Leslie George Dawson aka Ven. Ananda Bodhi). She has studied daily with Duncan for more than 20 years. She is co-founder of the innovative Clear Sky Retreat Center in British Columbia, where they live, work, and practice in conscious community. She lived in Kyoto, Japan, for two decades and is a leading expert on its 1,100-year-old Gion Festival, specializing in its shamanic roots and sustainability.
The New Trungpa and Sakyong-free LA Shambhala; Sheldon S., Crystal Q., Wisdom Quarterly
Dharma Talk for April: Pema Chodron DVD Night
American Buddhist nun Pema Chödrön is widely known for her charming and down-to-earth interpretation of Tibetan Buddhism for Western audiences.
As a beloved Buddhist teacher, author, nun and mother, she has inspired millions of people from around the world who have been touched by her example and message of practicing peace in these turbulent times.
Shambhala is fortunate to be able to screen rarely seen DVDs since one of its members is a close friend of hers.
Pema Chödrön has written several books including The Wisdom of No Escape, Start Where You Are, When Things Fall Apart, The Places that Scare You, No Time to Lose, and Practicing Peace in Times of War.
(Sounds True) Pema Chödrön reveals her journey to the time-tested antidote to suffering.
All are encouraged to attend, regardless of meditation experience or if new to meditation. These evenings feature a short period of meditation with instruction, often from Pema within the context of her talk, discussion, and light refreshments.More
WESTSIDE SHAMBHALA, April 10
3877 Grand View Bl., Mar Vista, 90066
$10-$15 donation gratefully accepted
No reservations/no one turned away for lack of funds
Buddhist Society of Western Australia (April 12, 2010) Straight from teaching a meditation retreat, enlightened British teacher Ajahn Brahmavamso reveals multiple ways of letting go. He offers a teaching on how to train the mind to let go, to put things down, to let it be and therefore be peaceful and happy right here right now. He reflects on why we find it so hard to let go of our hurts and difficulties but how beneficial letting go is for us and others.
The retreat began at 9:00 am with a dozen practitioners in the main hall in Arcadia, next to Pasadena. It was a sunny morning, and an American teacher gave instructions on the purpose of sitting with great posture. Palms turned up (to signify letting go), back straight, nothing rigid, everything soft and easy. It makes sitting longer easier.
The first sit zipped by in an hour. Then there was a talk with simple instructions from the historical Buddha -- the Kalama Sutra (the "F*ck Authority Discourse"), the Parable of the Raft, the Analogy of Imponderable Questions (Malunkyaputta Sutra), HOW to let go, the Parable of the Poisoned Arrow, and humor.
Yoga
We had a break and did yoga stretches followed by energizing breathwork. Then we ate lunch together, self serve as much as we wanted, with mindful eating instructions. The food was of great variety, vegan and nonvegan, provided by donors. We all sat together after the monastics, and more people kept arriving.
At 12:30 we began again, this time with a comfortable sitting posture and a talk on the meditations/absorptions by the enlightened British monk, Ajahn Brahm from Australia. It was a fun and heart opening talk on the immediate benefits of developing concentration by letting go, just as the morning instructions had explained.
Then came the second best part -- lying down for a guided meditation of progressive relaxation, focusing on the breath and energy centers to a Tibetan singing bowl. We went so deep that to come out, we sat up in trance, did a demonstration to show that there is no self (anatta, emptiness, suññata), which is to say, all phenomena are impersonal.
Tea ceremony
Green tea is a great tonic for meditation.
We then did a super-slow walking meditation that sped up and spilled out into the sunshine for walking meditation. We came back to lock in the lessons by sitting perfectly still as the original instructions were repeated, connecting everything we had practiced. Then came the tea ceremony, hot green tea and sesame sweets eaten together in mindful silence bringing together into daily life all we had practiced on the cushion.
It was now 3:00 pm, and we were given a choice. Everyone voted for a field trip. We loaded up into the Mercedes limousine van and were driven to the highest point in Los Angeles to watch the sun set. We stopped at the Native American Cultural Center, Haramokngna, in the Angeles National Forest on Angeles Crest Highway and learned about the original inhabitants of the Los Angeles Basin.
Chemtrails block our view
Then it was onto the Mt. Wilson Observatory for views of all of LA County and chemtrails being laid down right over us. We came back, and the people staying overnight got their room assignments. There was an optional evening chanting many new people attended, we got snacks, and went to bed to start fresh tomorrow.
(LAM) Look up! What in the World Are They Spraying?
ATTEND ALL OR DROP IN FOR ANY PORTION OF THIS RETREAT. Looking for mental recharging and spiritual development over the holidays? This retreat will definitely give participants useful tools for life. We'll enjoy a variety of sitting, standing, and walking meditations, with guidance, Dharma talks, and discussions along the way. Sleep over or come over daily: a limited number of free overnight requests at the center accepted. We'll start each morning with group meditation, 8:30 to 9:30 am, and end each day at 5:30 pm. Vegan and non-vegan lunch options, snacks, and tea provided. FREE, donations accepted, as you wish. First come, first served. Waiting list applies. Get your space now.
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