Wisdom books (Ilford, Uk) was run by some very friendly helpful and knowledgeable people on a not-for-profit basis – a pretty rare way of operating these days but particularly meritorious in their enabling and facilitating of dharma study over many years.
They recently ceased trading and i wanted to join with many others in thanking them for what they have done and in hoping that their new lives are healthy, enjoyable, fruitful and as full of dharma as before!
It is my pleasure to edit some of the audio recordings – mainly those made in England – and also the archived material from tape recordings.
The video recordings however, along with many of the audio recordings, are unedited and therefore contain material which given time and facility might otherwise have been removed. It is also possible that there is some material left in the recordings I have edited which may cause, at least, raised eyebrows…not that that is necessarily a ‘bad thing’.
So I think it may be useful to explain some of what i understand about the giving and receiving of this kind of teaching. It is essentially non–dogmatic, arising from the ground itself, for the benefit of those who are listening… at the time the teaching is given.
If you are listening later it is still true dharma and truly beneficial, but it’s different in that its dynamic nature, of teaching relating to and evoked by that particular context, is not apparent.
Within the mix of those who are listening at the time the levels of dharma understanding will vary with their particular lineaments of confusion [i.e. whatever they are bringing to the teaching in the way of bias or tendencies.]
So in talking with people after James has talked…and in the groups that I have facilitated…I have noticed that some people hear something loud and clear as though it was just for them, whilst other people have different foci. Sometimes what is fed back as something he/she said – is definitely not what came out of the mouth – however it’s what the person ‘heard’ and sometimes this is useful…but sometimes the change has been made by the recipient so that it fits in with their current beliefs. Also, adding to the mystery of this process, i know that i have ‘heard’ material which checked out with James… but is not on the recordings.
Whole chunks of teaching can also just slide by if the key to access them is missing or as consequence of distraction …. and often that which is abstracted, and held to, may need the context and the view in order for it to be correctly comprehensible.
At the time the words are spoken they may be an expression of the speakers mood, but moods and feeling and circumstances are always changing. So there could be room in our own conversations for ‘what did you mean by…’ and ‘i understood you to say … is that correct?’…’Is it still how you feel or have things changed?’
My mother used to say “Say what you mean…and mean what you say” …but so often we are unable to clearly express what we mean with words …we would have to go on and on and on…and in trying to refine the particulars of the expression we get further from the heart of the matter… and anyway, what we do say is then interpreted through a conditioned matrix, or filter, in the others ears.
Teachers also can be unreliable, this may be a selfish act…i remember one teacher advising me that it is ‘good to keep them waiting’ adopting a superior position and incorrect…but unreliability may not be an ‘act’ but a fact – a response to situations which are dynamic. At a certain level reliability may be a showing of generosity towards the students need at that time – but at some point questions around the desire for a straight-jacket of reliability based on conventional expectations will arise. ‘You said’ can be met with myriad responses… which do not include ‘i said…. so i must!’…though if being reliable is appropriate that’s also possible!
James once said that a dermatology consultant gave him the simple explanation of the way he worked with patients’ conditions: ” if it’s wet – dry it” ” if it’s dry – wet it”. So sometimes a teacher moves to the left, showing that the right is an empty position, and vice versa. If an opinion is voiced it is just that…an opinion, not a defining truth…and someone who really knows what they are talking about will not turn an opinion into a keystone – a belief on which to rest the apparent weight of existence.
Any ‘truth’ which can be spoken will depend on concepts and is a reflection in relative reality – so its an expression which may be useful – but is never the truth itself.
Certainly great practitioners can see a situation very much more clearly than is usual but at the same time the relative domain is very complex in its interdependencies, its nature is impermanence and when James first started teaching in Macclesfield he sang ‘if you’re looking for someone who’s always right and never wrong – that ain’t me Babe!’… for me that was very refreshing.
In my experience this particular teacher, rather than regurgitating the scriptures… or other’s interpretations of them… is working more with directly manifesting of the dharma into the energetic field. For this reason he can drop ‘bombshells’ to wake/ shake the field, evoke a mood of playfulness, be outrageous… whatever is required by the situation to facilitate the transmission of the dharma. It bounces off rigidity …though rigidity is not apart from it.
The intention is not ‘never disturb anyone’… quite the contrary… because it is from our assumptions – into which we have fallen asleep, believing them as truths we can rest in – that a great teacher gives their time and energy to help us awaken.
All the way along the dharma path there are encampments where people feel they have ‘arrived’… ‘these teachings are it – Now I Know! This is how we should be!’ If they are lucky they will hear the whistle of someone who points out the way around the corner that fewer people know of.
So it’s very interesting to look at what exactly it is that we snag or snarl up up around… our own certainties of rights and wrong, good and bad, that which we think is ultimately true, inalienably and enduringly so… then, looking to see whether there isn’t a dharma view which dissolves or transcends this.
The Buddha’s later teachings were perfect for some… others were completely appalled…but thankfully, whatever our level of understanding, there are dharma teachings which, if applied correctly, will certainly increase our capacity to act (or not) from wisdom.
Grace and generosity….
Generosity exhibited by the giver of the chocolate bar …
and grace by the recipient who, despite finding the words ‘you’re homeless aren’t you?’ uncomfortable, and despite not actually wanting a bar of chocolate, nonetheless accepted it… as he could see the giver wanted him to.
He was moved to tears afterwards by the gesture, this surprised him… he didn’t realise that part of him, the ability to be touched and moved, was still functioning.
Not only that but he now feels directly supported, as a Christian, by angels…not all of whom, he now suspects, are male!
Just about to go a job interview, at which he very badly needs to succeed, the confidence boost is very helpful.
So whilst he felt some discomfort in seeing that his poor state was so obvious to others, and also the gift didn’t match his needs… the giver’s intention came from the open heart…and had a beneficial effect for both.
For now…he’s keeping the chocolate bar !
[this links with the earlier post ‘everything you do makes a difference’]
I was talking with a homeless man who had in his hands an envelope… not bad news as it turned out but good, so good he could hardly believe it – that he had been found a place to live in, a place where he could cook and where perhaps his daughter might visit him.
He had recently been very disappointed as a tenancy that had been found for him was withdrawn at the last minute by the landlords – but that place did not have cooking facilities and this new place was much more suitable.
For many years he had been living alone in some woods. His business had collapsed, it was a small business employing nine people, and in the disappointment and sadness with himself and life, he retreated completely.
He told me that two things had brought him to a point where he felt he could engage again with society.
The first was that one day a deer with a fawn at foot walked into the clearing where he lived. It looked about, sniffed the air, and then eat a few leaves before leaving… he felt accepted by the wood and its creatures – he felt he belonged.
The second was when a teenager detached herself from a group of other teenagers walking over a bridge and came and sat down beside him, beside the river, for a few minutes. She said ‘you’re all right (his name), you’re all right!’
Seven words… and her gesture of leaving the familiar to sit briefly with the outsider…no pushing, no judgment, made such a difference.
so all good luck to him… and the teenager…and our homeless bothers and sisters.
After Cathy is an excellent and powerful radio documentary formed of the recordings of the lives of three homeless people compiled fifty years after ‘Cathy Come Home’ shocked the nation (well, some of it!)
“do not take lightly small good deeds…in time they fill giant pot”
Likewise “do not take lightly small misdeeds, believing they can do no harm:even a tiny spark of fire can set alight a mountain hay”
– from The Words of My Perfect Teacher by Patrul Rinpoche…a book which fell into my hands when visiting my mother in Malta many year ago and is an inspiring, comprehensive and very readable explanation of the dharma pathways and pitfalls.
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image:4028mdk09 (via Wikimedia-Commons) / bei Nutzung bitte zusätzlich angeben “aufgenommen im Wildpark Alte Fasanerie Klein-Auheim”, via Wikimedia Commons https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File%3AJuni_2012_Alte_Fasanerie_Sikahirsch-Kuh.JPG
The on-going index to links and titles of the available Macclesfield audios and videos is available on this website in Audios/ Videos section. Its existence may get ‘buried’ so i’m adding a link to it here.
On 11 November the cinema was less than full – in fact only four people had come to watching this extraordinary and impactful film.
http://thelandoftheenlightened.com
The number watching was no indication of its quality – its evocation of the complete madness and irresponsibility of the war in Afghanistan and its enduring legacy, of the energy and resilience of the children and of scenery of great vastness… of harshness and beauty.
International Film Festival Rotterdam (USA, 2016) World Cinema Documentary Special Jury Award: Best Cinematography at Sundance Film Festival
SHORT SYNOPSIS from savage films
A gang of Afghan kids from the Kuchi tribe dig out old Soviet mines and sell the explosives to children working in a lapis lazuli mine. When not dreaming of the time when American troops finally withdraw from their land, another gang of children keeps tight control on the caravans smuggling the blue gemstones through the arid mountains of Pamir.
SYNOPSIS
In this seamless blend of fictional and documentary form, we experience a stunning cinematic journey into the beauty of war-tormented Afghanistan. Shot over seven years on evocative 16mm footage, first-time director Pieter-Jan De Pue paints a whimsical yet haunting look at the condition of Afghanistan left for the next generation. As American soldiers prepare to leave, we follow De Pue deep into this hidden land where young boys form wild gangs to control trade routes, sell explosives from mines left over from war, and climb rusting tanks as playgrounds-making the new rules of war based on the harsh landscape left to them. De Pue’s transportative and wonderfully crafted film confronts the visceral beauty and roughness of survival, serving as a testament to the spirited innovation of childhood and the extreme resilience of a people and country. – Sundance Film Festival
This seems to be available free to download on the internet.
From 2003 James taught in Macclesfield either once or twice a year. Originally when he came up he taught in a little room above pizza express, then in a park building and in a hospital out-building. After that the group of practitioners in Macclesfield had the use of a building which became a buddhist centre…
For about a decade Chris Coppock, who was a major contributor to this, made audio recordings of the talks which James gave… and also made (along with Charles Lomas) some video-recordings.
Thanks to Pedro and Barbara this set of recordings is now available within the complete collection on James’ YouTube channel .
(Videos posted prior to December 2002 are included are still available on the Vimeo collection)
Due to causes and conditions that buddhist centre eventually folded but happily James continued to journey north and teach in different venues, annually, since then.
Over two decades, James took us along in the dharma stream opening up and elucidating different aspects to us. Beginning with little knowledge of the dharma and what it offered we became able to follow and change and grow out of, at least some of, our limiting old ideas about how ‘things’ are.
Some people are using these audio and video teachings as a way to study so to make it easier to see and hear how the talks evolved as we did, I have grouped what’s available in this set of teachings together on this page.
I hope you enjoy the journey as much as i have done!
In this short and sweet video James offers an introductory explanation as to how we become confused… and the freedom of the view of Dzogchen, to which all his videos audios and texts relate.
In the Macclesfield set, we have so far :
1. View of Dzogchen Nov 2003
The beginning: explaining how the dzogchen view fits with the other teachings in buddhism. As you listen you may begin to sense how this right this engagement could be for you. The possibility of …’freedom is our birthright’…is scented in the air.
audio only
2. Focussing and Distraction – Dzogchen practice July 2004
Without realising and activating our capacity to choose whether or not to identify with arising thoughts we have little freedom.
Like preoccupied puppets we are pulled by the strings of internal forces and external triggers which drive us into reactivity.
Practices such as following the flow of the breath on the upper lip help develop a clear attention, and bring the calmness and perspective necessary for a more intentional and pro-active life.
audio only
3. Living with Anxiety and Doubt February 2005
Most of us have a lot of worries and anxiety in our lives. James explains the traditional Nyingmapa understanding of the nature of anxiety, the structures underpinning its development, and shows how meditation can help us cut through the root of that development.
In practicing different meditations, we can offer a more open precise and present attention to the complex circumstances of daily existence. We can then work more easily with everyday moments of anxiety and confusion.
audio only
4. Wisdom and Compassion May 2006
Explaining the two truths: how it appears…the imagined illusion, and how things are…the ultimate truth.
That real compassion arises from wisdom i.e. from realising the ultimate truth and then helping others realise their true nature.
So getting to know your own mind, letting go of the knot of dualism, and not being distracted is vital…
audio only
5. Lojong – Mind training Dec 2006
audio videos – YouTube vimeo (x3)
6. The Transmission of Flow and the Flow of Transmission June 2007
Considering the nature of lineage, its function and importance…and continuity
James refers to a short text by Saraha, ‘The Treasury of Songs’, which is included in his book ‘Simply Being’.
audio videos-YouTube or vimeo (x3)
7. Clearing the Clutter November 2007
audio video-YouTube or vimeo (x3)
8. Basic Buddhism practiced with a dzogchen view March 2008
audio videos – Youtube or vimeo videos (x3)
How the preliminary practices in Tibetan buddhism can be taken up and made use of within the dzogchen view
9. Refuge is Liberation Nov 2008
Teaching on Garab Dorje’s ‘Three Points’ as the essence of refuge
Using the three statements as a base for exploring dzogchen, view and practice…
the view shifts from fusion… to dualistic intention… to non-dual liberation
10. Love, Compassion, Joy and Equanimity June 2009
– The Four Immeasurables
The deep meaning of the ‘Four Brahmaviharas’, which is found in all schools of buddhism, is expounded here… with the accompanying prayer.
Wishing for all beings to rest in the integration of their natural condition and that the obstacles to this may dissolve.
Then, seeing the equality and insubstantial nature of what our conditioning would denote as ‘good’ and ‘bad’, we practice remaining relaxed and open with whatever occurs.
11. Four Foundations of Mindfulness – a dzogchen perspective Jan 2010
Mindfulness is explored from different perspectives including psychotherapy, theravada and dzogchen. With mindfulness we can become intentionally attentive and careful so we are no longer at the mercy of whatever is happening. From the view of dzogchen we can be in the movement of the world as it changes… and remind ourselves to relax back into integration.
audio videos – YouTube or vimeo
12. Working with Change and Impermanence Nov 2010
Exploring how my behaviour is generated from the belief that I have a fixed internal ‘essence of me’
… and how my belief that there are self-existent ‘things’ in the world keeps me trapped in reactivity.
As we meditate, and thoughts feeling and sensations arise and pass, we experience that change is the basis of our existence.
If we can see that we are change – that who I am is co-created – then we can inhabit our existence freed from the trap of trying live to life on our own terms.
13. The Illusory nature of Experience March 2012
The text of the Heart Sutra, which is the basis for this talk, begins ‘Form is not other than emptiness, emptiness not other than form’.
It continues in is way expounding the true nature of all phenomena, including what we take to be ourselves.
This is so very other than we how habitually imagine it to be and James explains freshly, clearly, and accessibly.
14. Integrating openness and presence Feb 2013
Explaining how wisdom and compassion can be activated in our own existence.
Seeing that the compassion which arises from through understanding the illusory nature of phenomena is not artificial…
that the openness, the radiance, and the arising gesture are integrated.
This talk includes the practice of tong-len
audio only
15. Balancing Relaxation and Effort in Buddhism Feb 2014
We can see how effortfully attempting to stabilise that which is inherently unstable will be exhausting and ineffective.
So, on retiring from that struggle, how do we make the appropriate shifts between agency – the assertion of energy… and plasticity – where we allow ourselves to be moulded by circumstances?
Looking at how space allows us to see clearly…and how, by relaxing into our potential, our potential can be activated into the situation with finesse.
audio only
16. Staying Open to Life as it is Feb 2015
The world impacts us and influences us as it flows into us through our sense organs…
and we influence the world by being part of it, like a stream of many potentials within a bigger river.
Exploring how observing yourself as you are, being kind to yourself and letting yourself reveal yourself… is the way to make life easy…
audio only
17. Buddhism and creativity Feb 2016
Buddhism would say that ethics is the basis for the forms of our experience…
That due to causes and conditions we inhabit a particular vision, a mental construct created from a configuration of many factors.
Exploring this and seeing how meditation brings the spaciousness and flexibility needed to respond easily in interaction with the world.
audio only
18. Dissolving attachment in the openness of being Feb 2017
Dissolving attachment in the openness of being. Dzogchen practice focuses on avoiding hanging on to what we like and pushing away what we don’t like. This is supported by the mindfulness that helps us avoid falling asleep in the process of living. Being undistracted is simply talking with full attention when you are talking, walking with full attention when walking etc.
19. Working with Life and Death March 2018
Many different ideas exist about what happens at death which direct our intentionality in this life.
Here James explores what buddhism has to bring to these ideas and explains the traditional view of what the mind is and also what is consciousness.
Including the nature of the death process and how we might work with that.
20. Balance in Turbulent times Feb 2019
Attempts to withdrawal from the turbulence or to control the mind are actions which increase our sense of separation.
With the Mahayana view we are looking at how our mind is rather than focusing on its impermanent contents.
Through meditation we are seeking to open to that which is stable…an invitation, explanation and practice.
21. Kindness, Fellow Feeling and the Common Weal Feb 2020
Loving kindness, karuna, is the foundational attitude of Buddhism. Kindness sees all life as kind, as kin, as always-already-connected. With this view the barrier between self and other shrinks and we become inclusive in everything we do. This is deepened and supported by the wisdom of seeing our mind as it actually is.
22. Finding Refuge and Spreading Light Jan 2023
Finding enduring refuge in the intrinsic purity of our own mind.
Light + concept = pseudo-entity
In the speed of interactions in the world – will i remember the truth of this?
[from Macclesfield talk 08 Integrating-the-dzogchen-view-with-basic-buddhist-practice/ ]
Any time i tighten or freeze and ‘make something of it’ i know that i’ve got lost in a situation and fused with concepts, with my thoughts or feelings or sensations.
Reminding myself of the truth on a daily basis with the prayer by Rigdzin Godem means that, for at least the time while i’m saying it, that view in the equation above is operational…but that’s only for a few minutes… what about the rest of the twenty four hours???
Re-membering, re-membering (preferable to being surrounded by body parts!)… form is not other than emptiness, form is exactly emptiness…
So, what is it?…this ‘thing’ to which i am averse?… It’s the flower of emptiness…inseparable from its ground.
And who is this one who is tightening up?…also the radiance of the dharmakaya – impermanent and so ungraspable, arising due to causes and conditions which are themselves impermanent…
Maybe a knot in the handkerchief would help!
Maybe… but this is a slow and uncertain way to proceed…where kind of ‘during or after the event’, if i’m lucky, i realise, so there’s a bit of a gap while i assess, remember…. then also there’s remembering that what is arising in me as a response is also empty… and then orientating myself accordingly – according to received wisdom, or that deduced by analysis.
It’s through the opening and dissolving practices in tantra and dzogchen that i can have an on-going certainty regarding the nature of each manifestation, including that which i call ‘me’. Its through these practises that eventually the relaxation of rigidity enables creativity… when responsivity arises directly from spaciousness, from the infinite hospitality.
Observing a cat, seeing ‘itself’ in the mirror for the first time
……a sudden shock, bristling – the hairs of the fur standing on end, eyes widened…
then settling
…relaxing
…disinterested
whilst we might think ‘that’s me who’s in the mirror’ – this cat just checked it out
and then
spent no further time on a reflection.
‘You put your whole self in – you put your whole self in, you put your whole self out, in out – in out, shake it all about… ‘ ‘that’s what it’s all about’.
Maybe this can be a good metaphor for effective practice!… particularly tantra and dzogchen.
Before I went to sleep as a child there were three prayers i used to say out loud. One was ‘MatthewMark Luke andJohn blesssther bed that I lie on… Arrrrrmen’ and I said the words… exactly that, I said the words… like a rhyme.
I was very moved by the story in one of the scriptures of the pigeon who felt so desperate to help in the face of a forest fire which was consuming every living thing…… but was powerless to do anything but fly to and fro with a beak full of water from a nearby river… and then died, exhausted. The beak-fulls of water did not put the fire out yet good consequences did ensue… so maybe these little somethings…? So, later in life, in saying different prayers on a daily basis I started gradually to put more meaning, more intention, more energy and concentration into my hopes and requests.
Although I knew that ‘energy follows intention’ as I spent more time in this neck of the woods, with prayers being the best that I could offer into the desperate and difficult situations in the world, and spending more time doing this, I felt the need to ask whether or not it really made any difference. I could see that it made a difference to me as, over time, it changed my appreciation and orientation yet I was dubious as to how much difference, if any, it made outside of that.
The answer came in the form of a question ‘Can you get someone to turn their head around and look at you if you stare at the back of their head?’…. my answer was ‘probably yes, if they are not deeply involved in something else.’
Really this was deepening my comprehension that however we are, whatever we do, has an impact – it might not be visible but nevertheless it does. I had previously explored this with people who say ‘ what’s the point, why bother, what I do doesn’t make any difference?’
Over the years of doing the Rigdzin Puja, often as if it were a piece of pleasant homework, sometimes just ticking the box – ‘task completed’– I finally had a lightbulb moment… seeing that if ‘I’ was doing it – even with my good intentions – it wasn’t being done, or being used, effectively as it should. For a long time I was going…ah yes, white light…now red light…and so on, turning the pages…but without any feeling of a change it was just words. I had to allow myself to become an engaged participant in the activity, to allow the activity to flow through me, to become the activity, for it to be possible for any effect to occur. That also implied changing priorities, giving enough time and space to the practice and engaging ideally at time when i was fresh rather than half-asleep!
Ah well, it takes as long as it takes…
……Put my little self in, take my little self out
in-out, in-out, shake it all about (it will dissolve if I shake it enough),
Get my big self out, let my little self in…
…the whole self i’m in… oh! the hokey cokey…
With practise the tune changes…… in out, in out > out-in-out, out-in-out…not so catchy!
The teachings have a rather different origin from say “Teach yourself Buddhism”…(the first dharma book i bought…and one i didn’t finish – dry bones)…and it takes time and is worthwhile to let the perfume sink into every pore..
I was talking with someone a while ago and mentioned the haiku by Kobayashi Issa “slowly, slowly, the snail climbs Mount Fuji”…he felt so sorry for the snail!
…an alternate rendition “O snail! Climb Mt. Fuji… but slowly, slowly” …maybe gives a better sense of the way
As the practice says…and as the Irish say in a beautiful way… ‘Take your time’
When I started with a little group in Tiverton some years ago James suggested that I could ‘take along pens knives scissors chopsticks and so on’… or words to that effect.
Sometimes, in order not to interrupt the flow, I trust that things will become clearer in time or through engagement… if I asked him anything by way of clarification I think the answer probably was ‘you have to hold them differently’…err… yes…and???
As I put together an assortment of articles to take with me I had a glimmering of that to which he was alluding. That everything, everyone, with whom we engage – if the engagement is to be the most attuned or appropriate – requires a unique response, specific to their presentation that time.
I could give you many examples of my not getting that right…however I think this one, which doesn’t involve people, is a good illustration –
I was in charity shop a little while back and when i went to pick up a painted wooden duck, very similar in appearance to one i once owned … there was an explosion….it was very surprising …bits of stuff went all over the place.
Luckily I managed to catch a little vase in my skirt before it hit the ground and amazingly the other bits and pieces which I had knocked over were unbroken.
I’m not usually clumsy so what had gone wrong?
Well, it was just that I had picked up the wooden duck, which looked so much like one I had owned some years ago, as though it was the exactly the same. However whilst this duck looked like it was made of wood ( I was not wearing my glasses!) it was in fact pottery – quite a different weight – and, moreover, the head and neck came apart from the body… they formed a lid to a pot… and it that was what I lifted up. I had gauged the amount of energy needed and the trajectory completely wrong and the spare energy scattered everywhere.
So it is with people. If we are confident that we know how the other is prior to meeting them, or if we meet them without sufficient spaciousness to have a sense of how they actually are ( because we are already full of our own ideas about how they are, or what we have to get across to them) or if we just have our own constant ‘ way of being’ – take it or leave it this is me! – then the possibility of a beneficial congruence is remote…. and the risk of explosions much greater!
Instead we have to keep looking, take nothing for granted, put our memories aside, and have the confidence to be tentative…trusting that we can regain our balance after a faux pas or mis-step/ mistake… and also play a different tune if that’s what the situation requires.
All of which requires a good degree of openness. Intentionally practising doing it differently will, in my experience only take you so far… it’s the on-going practice of openness which will naturally lead to that ‘fresh cooking’ in the moment… of/as which James speaks
This P.S. arose as a solution to a practical –?what is fitting – problem and might just be useful-
I have a fridge and from time to time the drain hole bungs up and the bottom fills with water. The instructions suggest inserting a little plastic gadget (sometimes supplied) or a straw into the hole. This has worked before but this time no luck!
I didn’t want to call out an engineer to dismantle the drain from the back but, looking on the internet for another solution, i got to see the shape of the drain – its straight for a little bit [the gadget/straw solution works for blockages in this section] but then it then curves away downwards.
I wondered… What would have sufficient strength to clear the blockage…be the right width to fit inside the drain…after insertion- maintain a curve in the right direction so that it would enter the curved part…and be soft enough not to damage the drain ?
…a little while later i caught myself looking at the open plastic ring with the tab – the one that you pull to get the top off a plastic milk carton – as it lay on the side waiting to go into the bin…
Perfect!
The recordings are at last ready to listen to…you can click the link in the title below.
There have been quite a few provocations for those of us involved with this set of recordings. Even at the end there’s a little smiley one…I had suggested saying ‘audio-edited by w.c.’ as it perhaps looks less like wc–toilet …but….. never mind! ; ) hope you enjoy them.
Take it easy: equanimity in the face of provocation. East Sussex, 2016
Fly
At one time, little fly, you had the freedom of the space
but then your body nudged against a tiny sticky filament
and in your struggle to get free
your wings and body were stuck fast
” Fly in a net ”
and yet……..
no spider came as answer to your calls
to turn you into means for its existence
and so, unwrapped, flying again became a possibility.
Why don’t you move?
you are not dead!
using a lens and dampened brush
so gently, wash away the unseen residue, the glue,
and be a fly, and fly and be….
each moment freed, spontaneously.
The little net of the ‘ego thought’ catches the passing, fleeting thought… the beginning of the forming of a shape…of solidification and reification “Open… release…. begin again”…
The heart/mind not being different,
this is an excerpt i liked from Embracing Each Moment: A Guide to the Awakened Life
written by Anam Thubten, pages 132–133.
The Spiritual Olympics
We don’t have to try to surrender. That sounds too effortful. Then we will have a surrender competition. There is going to be a spiritual marathon, a spiritual Olympics, how about that? Indeed, there is a spiritual Olympics. It is not officially announced. Many people are working really hard trying to be the best meditator, the best ascetic, the most enlightened. So don’t try to surrender with your personal will or deliberate effort. It sounds like too much work, trying to surrender to everything. Instead, go inside. That is all you need to do sometimes. Go inside and let yourself be in touch with your heart. You know how to be in touch with your heart. Your heart is waiting to be recognized. This is why the Tibetan masters often said there are many forms or levels of meditation. The highest level is what they call effortless meditation. When they teach how to meditate, especially the masters from the Nyingma tradition, they always say, “Don’t do anything.” Rest in the present moment. Relax in the natural state of your mind, because if you can relax, rest in the natural state of your own mind, then you will be in touch with your own heart, with your original heart, with your innocent heart, and then surrender is very easy because all of your heart wants it.
In the childrens’ game of ‘Pin the tail on the donkey’ the winner is the one who, whilst blindfolded, manages to pin a pretend tail onto a drawing of a donkey… closest to the anatomically correct position.
Now, if we were inflatable donkeys…of the kind children might ride in a swimming pool (well i’m sure you’ve seen Loch Ness Monsters in that setting…so donkeys are a possibility…
….aha, found one… the incredible creativity of the mind!…)
we’d rightly be very wary around pins…for fear of deflation …. sssss….
In our felt separation – there’s me and there’s you
and we donkeys can make such a hullabaloo
…swapping tails with each other
we say ‘How d’ye do’ but….
we can be quite wary (while holding our pin)
with the thought that ‘the other’
might stick theirs right in…
………………………………..our posterior!
In being not donkeys,
the tails are just tales…
and we don’t have that feeling that
we could be nailed.
And, in being (not donkeys)
we don’t fear the pin…
as there isn’t a rump
for the pin to stick in
Just being is us, but it cannot be done
if we spend our time fearing a pain in the bum!
This came after a chat about the behaviours that we do with a friend who is about to be 90…happy birthday Gwen!
I
said it would only take a week or so of free time to get the recordings ready… and this is true, but sometimes there’s more to it than that….
Emerson recordings update 22nd Aug…nearly complete. There have been lots of difficulties in getting hold of the final part of the good recording which Gaynor made…i’ve tried improving mine but the result’s not great… so thankfully a friend who is a sound engineer is going to have a bash today…so…. ready shortly!
The first week back different people i had not seen for years got in touch or visited. Last week I was away at the Buddhafield festival, which had the theme “Courageous Compassion” and gave a talk in a little tent on the need for wisdom – the wisdom of emptiness or openness – as the basis for the arising of sustainable compassion.
If you are interested here’s the gist of what the talk was based around.
Dualistic, false–relative, compassion… where I am going to act compassionately towards you – where I, you, and the action are all three seen as entitative – is a big step up from ‘I just care about me and mine’ but it maintains the sense of separation, of solidity, even superiority … and, because of its effortful nature, transient effect, and the desire (and often frustrated desire!) involved it can be exhausting. Jumping in to help a drowning man is great if you can swim and are strong enough to get him safely out without getting yourself into the same predicament…knowing the variable nature of your capacity and working within that is essential at this point.
So different dharma teachings gesture to the way through this via another approach to suffering.
If we take the bodhisattva vow, as in Mahayana Buddhism, then the intention is to ‘develop’ the mind of the buddha. Understanding that the compassion that goes with this intention involves a wish to attain enlightenment in order to benefit all ‘others’… to bring them happiness and freedom from suffering in the short term and enlightenment in the longer term…whilst accepting that this longer term may indeed be very, very long!
It seems likely that in the sustained and concentrated effort of altruistically attempting to attain the perfections of generosity, morality, vigour, patience, concentration and wisdom of a bodhisattva, somehow the custard–like skin of self-referential thoughts holding us in a particular shape thins to the point where there is an understanding of non-duality in the relative sense and perhaps the realisation of prajna as revealed in the Heart Sutra shines through. At this point compassion is fearless rather than courageous.
The view of Tantra is that of (an initially intentional) transformation of all that is manifesting by viewing it through the lens of the pure relative. Compassion then, as the liberation of all sentient beings, is that of not taking them prisoner, and relating to them as entities in the first place!
The encouragement is to practice until we have integrated the view. I think it was Gampopa who said to his students who wanted to bring their retreat to a premature conclusion in order to go and be helpful… ” Do you think there will be nobody left in need of your help down in the valley if you wait until completion of your practice?”
After the initial introduction, the practice of dzogchen is that of absolute compassion arising spontaneously… not being impulsively or thoughtfully contrived but arising naturally from the ground nature, freshly in each moment. So rather than using different strengths of detergent to eventually clean the window, or looking through a different window, its a matter of … throwing the window wide open!
If we overheat or get stuck in the practice of relative compassion we may not get to ask…What is the nature of this self, this other, these thoughts, this mind?… it is the answer to this that the buddha was seeking… and found and, in deep dharma, taught.
Of the different levels of compassion arising from the different views – false relative, pure relative and absolute… these are explained by Patrul Rinpoche in Chapter 7 in the book Simply Being by James Low.
Chapter 3 on the development of bodhicitta is also recommended.
