firecat

I went to the Insight Meditation Center tonight. It's a Vipassana center in Redwood City. On Monday nights they have a 45 minute sitting followed by a 45 minute dharma talk.
http://www.insightmeditationcenter.org/

Tonight's talk by Andrea Fella was about things the Buddha taught about ethical thought and behavior.

Many of the talks at IMC are eventually offered as audio files at http://www.audiodharma.org/

These are some notes about what Andrea said tonight.


The Buddha taught his 7-year-old son the following instructions:

• Before you do something with your body, think about whether it will cause harm to yourself or anyone else. If so, don't do it.
  
• While you are doing something, think about whether it is causing harm to yourself or anyone else. If so, stop doing it.
  
• After you do something, think about whether it caused harm to yourself or anyone else. If so, talk about what happened with a spiritual friend (i.e., a friend who is also a Buddhist) and practice restraint in the future (i.e., don't do it again).

The above instructions also apply to anything you say, and to anything you think.

Trying to follow these instructions will cause you to develop mindfulness, concentration, and compassion. And you will develop skill in avoiding behavior that causes harm.

(I was thinking, while she was talking about these things, about how long it would take me to determine whether an action or speech would cause harm, and how few things I would do or say as a result of trying to follow those guidelines, and I thought to myself, "This must be why people who have been Buddhists a long time end up not doing very much at all." Which isn't universally true, it's more of a stereotype. But anyway, that's what went through my mind, and I was amused by it.)

(I was also thinking about how the instructions remind me of the Wiccan Rede, which I have seen as "an it harm none, do what ye will.")


Andrea went on to talk about the Buddhist Five Precepts:
1. Refrain from taking life.
2. Refrain from taking what is not given.
3. Refrain from sexual misconduct.
4. Refrain from false speech.
5. Refrain from taking intoxicants.

She mentioned that the precepts might remind a person of "Thou shalt not"s, i.e., the 10 Commandments. She said that the Buddhist approach to behavior guidelines is different though—there's not so much emphasis on blindly following the rules or moralizing, but the guidelines are there to help you decide what behavior is skillful (Buddhist jargon), that is, it avoids creating suffering, and what behavior is unskillful (it creates suffering). And that the way to approach the guidelines was from a position of mindfulness. I don't remember her exact words but they were something like: see what happens if you try to follow them.

(I'm not sure that I agree that "blindly following" the Commandments or "moralizing" about them is an inherent part of Jewish or Christian religion, although some people certainly do go there. But I do think that FOLLOW THE RULEZ OR ELSE YOU ARE BAD is a big part of my culture, and maybe it comes from Christianity being a big part of my culture. So I think that it was important for her to draw a distinction between that sort of relationship with rules or commandments or precepts and an approach that focuses on how the precepts can help you avoid contributing to suffering.)

She suggested that if you follow them, you develop more compassion. And she gave an example where she was engaged in a long campaign of attempting to remove invading ants from her kitchen without killing them, and she ended up paying close attention to how one of the ants was behaving, and as a result feeling compassion for the ants. (So, trying to refrain from taking life led to feeling compassion.)

I think it might be a while before I can apply this stuff to ants, but I admire her for her efforts. I really like the "think before/during/after acting" teachings. I still find it difficult to think about the precepts without getting all tangled up in judgementalism.


Andrea talked about another thing: making amends and offering forgiveness. One thing in particular struck me. She said that a traditional Buddhist prayer about forgiveness goes something like "I forgive you freely for any harm you have done me." But some people find themselves unable to say this without engaging in false speech, because they are still deeply hurt by some things that were done to them.

She offers two alternatives for such situations:
"I forgive you, to the extent I am able, for any harm you have done me."

Or if you feel no forgiveness at all yet, you can say you wish to feel forgiveness toward that person at a later point in time.

She suggests that any of these might move a person toward a more open heart.

On Monday, I went with kwamee to IMC for the first time in six or eight weeks. My experience of the sitting was even more chaotic than usual (possibly because I was getting sick; a bad stomach bug hit a few hours later). But there was one clear moment, where I really actually listened to the sound a dry leaf makes rustling on pavement, for the first time ever.

Donald Rothberg was the teacher and he spoke on "Self and Not-Self." (The talk isn't up on the Audio Dharma site yet.) He went about it in a light-hearted way. Going in, I felt like I wasn't particularly confused about this topic—I've experienced in many ways that I don't have an unchanging "self," although I have tendencies and memories and a sense of continuity (or occasionally only a sense that there was continuity that's now been lost) and a sense of individuality or uniqueness. But by the end of the talk, I was confused. Which is probably good. :) Specifically, he seemed to be equating not-self with the state of concentration or flow that some people describe as "losing yourself in" an activity. I'm not sure I think that's the whole story. Maybe I wasn't really understanding what he was saying.

At IMC Gil Fronsdal's talk was about "mindfulness of the body." Some points from the talk:

• Some Buddhists believe that the "awakening" that occurs is an awakening of the body more than of the mind.
• Western cultures separate the body and mind more than Eastern cultures do.
• The body is always in the present and the mind only rarely is.

Some ramblings based on points from the talk: ( Read more... )

In the comments to my first post in this series, some folks wanted a link to the podcast of Gil's talk on the Seven Factors of Awakening. A podcast of that particular talk has not been posted, but if you look on the Audio Dharma web page for Gil he did a talk about it on 10/22/07. Maybe it's similar.

Last summer kwamee introduced me to the Insight Meditation Center in Redwood City, where a sort of Buddhism is practiced. I've been going to their Monday night 45 minute sitting and talk about once a month.

I've had a sort of a rollercoastery few days. Tonight was no exception. For the first 30 minutes of the sitting I was too excited to concentrate. For the last 15 minutes I was half-dozing.

Part of the reason I like Buddhism is that there are a lot of lists. :) The talk was by Gil Fronsdal on the Seven Factors of Awakening.
1. Awareness / Mindfulness
2. Investigation
3. Energy
4. Joy
5. Relaxation / tranquility
6. Concentration
7. Equanimity

The main focus was on equanimity. I've felt that once or twice, I think. It's pretty cool.

I really like this meditation center because it is welcoming in a completely low-key way. And I really like Gil Fronsdal because he has a way of encouraging the consideration of ethical issues and meditation practices without any hints of "you should". I'm pretty allergic to hearing "you should" from other people, and most of the religious/spiritual organizations and people I've known over the years use it more than I can tolerate.