Commuter Zen #72

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Commuter Zen #72

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(Story of Betinho Massero should have been attributed to Jeff Foster)

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Commuter Zen #64

Lee touched lives. Bows to him.

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The Buddhist tradition offers a system to be used as a path toward liberation from suffering. Of course it takes work and isn’t necessarily easy. But in this talk, Michael McAlister discusses how we can use the Eightfold Path, and even some derivations, to get us more deeply into the work. He uses a traditional Tibetan thanka, featured on the left, as a descriptor and also offers up pointers as any committed practitioner begins to work with each of the components of the path. He goes on to suggest that diligently working with the guidance offered by the Eightfold Path offers us a way to step off of samsara’s wheel, thus entering the open field of awakening.

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Commuter Zen #56

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Buddhist teaching suggests a different route that leads us not away from our pain and suffering but rather directs us through it. Meeting our dissatisfaction fully offers us an alternative view of whatever ailes us. This different view has the potential to shift our perspective in powerful ways.

Stepping into this new perspective is like stepping onto a surfboard for the first time. As many know, being able to surf well takes practice. But knowing that the waves of pain will always be there can motivate us to learn this time-honored spiritual skill. Once learned, practitioners find that while pain may arise in life, it no longer sticks as it once may have. Deep longings supported by certitude and psychological story-telling begin to lose their grip on us as we grow past them. Our relationships change because we change internally; no longer running away from any wave but rather learning how to become better at negotiating our acceptance of every wave’s offering.

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Commuter Zen #50

With this in mind we can begin to meet each and every experience that arises as an opportunity to awaken. Even in the midst of great emotional or physical pain, we see that we are being invited to go deeper. We see that at the center of all darkness an eternal light burns for us, calling us back to our original home. This light is expressed eternally through us, but it’s not usually noticed let alone consciously integrated in our experience.

Meditation, good teaching and good teachers support this profound gift and help it to be realized. Our stillness supports a recognition that we are constantly being asked to return homeward to a heart and mind that are infinite in dimension and scope. Following this path with full commitment helps us and those around us to see that this invitation home is an invitation for each of us to step consciously into an eternal grace.

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Commuter Zen #49

Sitting still regularly supports this realization. As it’s incorporated, it naturally, and spontaneously, begins to loosen whatever it is that might be binding us. This opening allows for us to hold both the manifest with the Unmanifest all at once as we live in the world. From here we can then, all at once, begin to support a conscious coexistence of separation and unity; conventional reality and Ultimate reality; the ego and what’s forever beyond the ego; what’s playing on the stage of mind with what’s in the audience; the many and the one.

Michael describes how this process takes on certain characteristics over time, offering us a simple map of experience and development. We begin with a sense of pleasure, which offers us refuge from what threatens our egos. Over time, this gives way to an eventual resistance to what is going on. The ego sees that meditation actually prevents us from hiding and therefore, at the most primal level, we see that there’s no hiding. If we can stick with our practice at this point, we have the opportunity to open to what is without flinching. This stage of openness supports realization and a deep peace. Finally, integrating this peace, this Big Self awareness, into the habitual moves of our small self allows for us to become an embodied blessing that can truly serve all things.

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Commuter Zen #48

Looking closely at the Eight Awakenings, we see how this process shows us how our desires don’t need to overtake us. We also start to see that we can recognize how much is enough in any situation. We also begin to recognize and appreciate serenity and solitude. Seeing the importance of diligence as we cultivate depth also works in our favor. Mindfulness becomes a key in process as does the practice of meditation. The nourishment of wisdom as we live and refraining from engaging in hollow discussions round out Dogen’s recommendations for how to live the very Freedom we most seek.

Living as a conscious integration of these steps allows for us to embody peace and an awakened perspective.

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Commuter Zen #47

As we make friends with the shadow elements of our internal landscape, we have the opportunity to integrate them into a more whole, a more complete self. Here we begin to consciously meet up with our source, which allows for us to not only begin to sense what is sacred within us but also what is sacred in others. We also begin to see that instead of acting to fill what we perceive as a hole in our hearts by looking outward, we begin to fearlessly look more deeply inward and recognize that we are actually whole. From here we practice looking at all parts of our being, especially the stuff we hate about ourselves, without judgement. The same thing can happen with the parts of ourselves that we wish we had at our disposal. For instance, we project both ugliness and greatness on others when in fact we couldn’t do this unless we can see these projections unconsciously coming from the deep wells within our own beings. When we stop pushing aside the shadow and the light we are afforded an amazing opportunity to bloom, like a lotus, continually.
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When to do what in relationship…

How’s it done? The minute our lives are no longer bound by grasping, we can consciously and spontaneously become radiant expressions of the Infinite. In our bodies this feels like peace and ease. Integrating this peace into this moment in time helps us rewrite the stories of our past and also sets us up for glorious future opportunities. Seeing through the distortions that come from our clinging to our past take us from blame into forgiveness. Seeing through the distortions that come from our clinging to future goals takes us from closure into openness. Merging both forgiveness and openness allows for us to live in awakened ways, thus supporting a conscious and continuous apprehension of the very mystery we’ve always avoided.

Bringing this kind of presence into our love lives shows us how to be in relationship without grasping which invariably yields an awakening to a deeper kind of love.
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The Relationship Hand-puppet Dance

Depending on your preferred translation, the Buddha says, “In this fathom-long body and mind you’ll find the entirety of the Dharma.” Assuming that the Buddha was on to something, this is great news. We have all we need, right here, right now, in this body and mind, for awakening. But in order to uncover this gift, very often we need to give a little extra attention to what’s going on within our bodies as opposed to getting habitually lost within our minds. Meditators often fall into this trap of studying their minds without dropping more deeply into their bodies. But by practicing a simple “checking in” with our feelings and evaluating their various textures, their density and their heat, among other qualities, helps us refine our sense of our internal landscape. Doing this helps not only familiarize us with our inherent majesty, but it helps us reclaim our bodies in powerful, and often beautiful ways, that we then get to share with the world.

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What is mind?

Our invitation is to explore our seeking and, in the process, begin finding peace. Uncovering the peace we all have at our core releases us from our craving, our addictions, and our compulsions, by helping us to see through them. “It’s not,” as Michael says, “that the craving no longer exists, but our relationship to it changes so radically through committed practice that it’s no longer an affliction. Rather it’s seen as something that arises and ceases, like everything else.” This realization offers a place of love and light where we come home to Oneness and we set ourselves up for the Divine Disaster of awakening.

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How does this work reveal light?

This evening’s Dharma talk takes this subject on in a couple of capacities. First, it approaches the ways that the ego can attempt to control the process of awakening. Second, it refers to a recent blog posting where Michael explores the types of relationships we cultivate both within ourselves and with other people. From these two perspectives we learn how to get out of the way of the inherently natural process of an evolutionary awakening.

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Click on the player below, in order to listen to Michael McAlister’s talk.

What would the middle way feel like?

Please come join us some time.