Clearing My Vision

Life is FRAGILE

2006-10-17T06:37:00.000-07:00

You may think that you are able to duplicate your face, your self, your life like a plastic mold. In reality there is never duplication. Everything is fresh and fragile. Please take care of everything.

Taking care of rubber toys, preciously

2006-10-02T05:49:00.000-07:00

This morning I am getting ready to go to a 7 hour class that will last for 20 days...imagine that! Of course that is not so helpful to look out into the future like that...it's like gorging on food or bingeing. I want to hear the moth fluttering against the window as it attempts to free itself...to see the black thin-legged spider on the towel... to smell the cooking apples, to pick up the wet, gummy squeaky toy that Henry drops over and over again asking me to play...

When the mind is full of gorged ideas, or when we binge on the future we are consumed and miss the precious sticky rubber toys that continously roll in front of us. Now and again and again.

The first preliminary: life is precious

The Jackpot: A Human Birth

2006-09-30T07:40:00.000-07:00

The practice of training the mind begins with your attitude. It begins by requesting that you take a look at your posture in your day to day life. In order to train your mind you need a posture of gratitude. To be able to see for yourself how lucky you are and to be able to use all your senses to receive the teachings that surround you. To position yourself in your daily tasks in such a way that you see, touch, taste, hear, smell and know how lucky you are to be born a human being. It's a posture of hitting the jackpot no matter what the circumstances. It's knowing it with every move you make.

Training the Mind

2006-09-29T07:07:00.000-07:00

Will begin again to go through each slogan. This time will write a short paragraph for each one. This practice is slow, deeply going into the heart of this teaching.
To see clearly, taking a look, clearing our vision.

HOW ABOUT?

2006-07-13T13:01:00.000-07:00

The Ox herder pictures?

What would you like to study?

2006-07-10T15:45:00.000-07:00

We finished the run of Training the Mind. Am open to suggestions. Let me know?
Post your suggestions.

The boats of practice are there to help us see.

2006-06-12T09:19:00.000-07:00

When was the last time you saw a free bird?

2006-06-06T06:07:00.000-07:00

Life is precious
Life is fagile
Death is sudden and strikes without warning
Cause and effect are inescapable
Suffering in the cnditoned world is inescapable
Liberation is beneficial
A teacher might be helpful

Waking from the self-centered dream
Dropping them all in one moment
The dream disappears
The mind does not go astray
The myriad Dharmas experience themselves

The fastest sailor in the world

2006-05-29T13:59:00.000-07:00

She sailed around the world in less than 72 days..
she was alone
and there was a team to support her

Discipline

2006-05-23T13:42:00.000-07:00

When we are speeding along with each other we are able to offer some discipline to each other by

accepting those who have gotten out of line
learning in order inspire others
make a little effort for the benefit of others

Generosity - The first point

2006-05-12T14:32:00.000-07:00

Generosity is a seed of virtue. There are ways to cultivate this seed; this virtue.

Here are a few tips.

Every morning when you wake up offer your life to awareness, to the truth and to communion

give up your puny view and your know-it-all view
answer questions; let others know what you are up to
accept invitations to be a guest
don't refuse gifts
share what you know; offer what you have to offer

GENEROSITY

2006-05-02T08:52:00.000-07:00

Are you feeling stuck? Moody? Worn in some way? Fed up? Irritable? Annoyed? Lost?

Try some generosity.
Give something (stuff, fearlessness, true outlooks)
GIVE
See if you can find your generous heart...look for it...if you can't, stay with the misery until it lifts....it will lift...even the worst mood changes...don't go after anything iin particular...just attend.

Heart Opens on the Preliminaries

2006-04-25T06:32:00.000-07:00

Swimming along together in the true sea of reality

Ultimate Open Heart

2006-04-25T06:25:00.000-07:00

Ultimate Bodhicitta....is a BIG Boat where everyone is welcomed. Where you give stuff, fearlessness and dharma...beginningless generosity....

Discipline

2006-04-14T17:14:00.000-07:00

What are you following? Your habits? The well-worn path of the stupid path?

Are you buzzing around in the mundane?

Looking for praise? Avoiding pain? Seeking fame? Protecting your name? Wanting more or less? Hanging onto the familiar? Blaming the other? Blaming yourself?

Disciple of what exactly?

2006-03-23T14:27:00.000-08:00

This shows the relationship of the 10 Grave Precepts to the Poisons

Please take a look.

In the center is Ignorance, Greed, Hate, Delusion
Wheel of Caring

IN? or OUT? You choose the most important one?

2006-02-24T07:56:00.000-08:00

A Single Thread?

Is this Birth? Or is this Death?

2006-02-24T07:47:00.000-08:00

Catching the Moon

2006-02-22T12:25:00.000-08:00

Practice the catch of the moon
Held in the night dawn
It shows you the Way and helps
you be in the place of goodness

The practice is without making it about you
and is satisfied with what arises
it never deceives you
or brings ill-will
it cheers for everyone
is glad and easy
Radiant posing just right
it is tireless and remembers to see
the sublime home of loving in kindness
and kindness in love.
It holds nothing so tight as to blur the Way
it knows to leave and come
Practice holding the moon is free
everywhere
the moon reflects in the day and night
cherishing the moondrops
falling from our hearts
peace be with us
be of good cheer

Moon Catching

2006-02-21T07:38:00.000-08:00

How to Work with Your Thoughts

2006-02-18T14:34:00.000-08:00

Our thoughts can become hard, fixed and seem very real...even thoughts about dharma, bodhi mind, the Way...this drawing helps to remind us to pull the rug out...sometimes the very rug we stand on.

Scribbles by Ansgar Holmberg 2005
By permission

The Middle Way

2006-02-03T08:33:00.000-08:00

The Middle Way is freedom from conceptual thought...take a look at what you are thinking and you'll see where you are pushing or shoving grasping or clinging...and then...

cease all involvement with conceptual thoughts
r. anderson and other great teachers, oh yes, the buddha, the buddha within us all

Training the Mind REVIEW Point 1

2006-01-15T13:33:00.000-08:00

Review of Points 1 Training the Mind

Because we forget...
Practice Point 1 - the fundamentals are where you build your foundation; return to the fundamentals when things get unstable....

Life is precious as a sentient being and gives us the opportunity to awaken
Life is fragile; please take care
Death is sudden and comes without warning; contemplate what you are doing right now; is it how you want to die?
Cause & Effect are inescapable: Practice without the me, my, mine; just see actions and the effects of actions without looking at the result; getting or losing any thing; just this action one after the other
Suffering in the conditioned world is inescapable
Liberation is beneficial. Are you still hanging on to compounded things thinking they'll payoff someday?
A teacher might be helpful: whatever is happening right where you are is your teacher...welcome your teacher with gratitude.

2006-01-10T08:04:00.000-08:00

October Retreat 2005 with Ed Brown

The Four Bodies

2005-12-05T08:51:00.000-08:00

There are four bodies of reality. dharmakaya, samboghakaya, nirmanakaya and svabhavikakaya...Can you see the 4 bodies? Do you know? What do you see? Know?

1.subtle knowing
2.power knowing
3.concrete knowing
4.all in one knowing

Looking for the roots

2005-11-29T05:51:00.000-08:00

Scribbles by ansgar Holmberg, 2005
Examine the nature of unborn awareness

Nothing is pin-downable

2005-11-21T12:42:00.000-08:00

SCRIBBLES by Ansgar Holmberg, 2005

The THREE 3's

2005-11-14T05:26:00.000-08:00

Three objects, three poisons, three seeds of virtue. Here is a practice that we encounter every day. Only you can do it; only I can do it for my self. Take a look how you classify things; like them, dislike them or indifferent; notice the posion that arises with each; attachment, aversion and delusion...then once you see that, once you see how you classify and notice the poison arise ask yourself these two questions:

1. what is the gratification of this habit (like, dislike, indifference)
2. what is the drawback of this habit (attachment, aversion, delusion)

This practice helps you SEE your own situation, your own mind and how it works...can you see?

Virtue

2005-11-06T13:32:00.000-08:00

So the archaic definition seems clear and caring...see for your self.

The power or operative influence inherent in a supernatural or divine being.

Indeed! This practice, this zazen, this contemplative way is the way to a virtuous life...the power or operative influence inherent in buddhanature...YES!
Virtuous...operative influence inherent of the divine....it is everywhere...in all beings; in you, in me...in the walls, pebbles and fences...in the baby chicks and aging dogs...there it is virtue...

I once heard Ed tell a story where he went to Suzuki Roshi and complained about the lazy, late, ineffective kitchen staff working with him...Suzuki asked him, "what do you want?" Ed said something about how he wanted a virtuous staff...Suzuki replied, "See virtue!"

And I whisper to my self and all of you, "It's there, everywhere in all beings and things."
Reveal your hidden virtue.

Come out, come out wherever you are

2005-11-02T08:14:00.000-08:00

So...we can sing a little tune like this...and see where we are...see what shows up when we step out from our hiding place and be seen...here we are! Like the bell sitting in silent function...strike us and what is heard?

Don't Worry About Function

2005-11-01T10:16:00.000-08:00

You will do it your way; your function will show your fingerprints...

The Four Immeasurables

2005-11-01T10:13:00.000-08:00

Lovingkindness
Compassion
Sympathetic Joy
Equanimity

The 8 Mundane corrosives

2005-10-28T11:41:00.000-07:00

Pleasure - Pain
Gain - Loss
Fame- Obscurity
Praise - Blame

These are twins that are never separated from one another. If you pursue one the other follows. If you use these as a measurement of how to live your life, life is suffering and miserable. I notice that although they look pretty obvious, they are quite subtle and pernicious. Each one has a tendency to destroy our ability to see clearly; each one is full of self-absorption. We chase these mundane concerns only to get ourselves lost.

Pleasure may come in the form of just wanting something to stop or change or be otherwise; the chasing after pleasure and the removal of pain lifts off the experience of right here; we pursue this over and over again. As I consider my life I see how I want certain things to go away; or certain situations, or certain people, or certain sounds, or smells, or time...I prevent the Way from coming forth when I chase after or run away from what is arising. Staying with what comes doesn't mean holding it, it means staying still in the illumination of what occurs...it doesn't mean resignation either. It is easy, it means not leaning one way or the other, simply staying still in what you are doing...I'd like to give an example.

Currently I am in the middle of a disagreement with someone. They think a whole bunch of stuff and I think a whole bunch of stuff; the content is not important. The experience of the difference is. I experience a certain ancient response to the whole bunch of stuff being said which leads me to want to push the experience away, push the person away. Now it doesn't mean that I will stay in the situation with the person as a vow to stick with it no matter what; the teachings do not ask us to harm anyone, including our self...what it is does mean is that I will stay with my experience without running to make it sweet or to make it go away...but to take a look, see what is there without refutation of the other, without discrediting the other, without dishonoring the other or myself...we include everything without dishonoring it...seeing it as clearly as we are able without going into right or wrong thinking, without going into good or bad labeling, without splitting....just seeing the differences in the middle of the sameness...noting our experience, noting that nothing is not included...what does that mean? Everything is included...we just see it there, feel it, smell it, taste it, touch it...just so. It's all just so and when we see that we don't get so riled up...so staked down into a position...we carry on, keep going...it's hard to do because we want to stake a place in the ground and be right about stuff...we want to be a me that knows what is right and to be a good person....rather than be awake, to know the true nature of this situation, the communion and intimacy of sticky, wet, dry, hard, soft, dark, light, when I am able to drop all the stuff of wanting to run or hide or the pull of any of the mundane concerns I see...just see. And then of course we have to say something...we have to respond...and we just never know what that might be or look like...if I think about it again I find myself quickly tangled in the whole bunch of stuff...this is where we need face to face, nose to nose communion with one another and all things...as Ed would say from Dogen's Cook...let the heart abide in things and things abide in the heart. again and again and again.

Giviing and receiving

2005-10-25T22:55:00.000-07:00

It is very late for me. This cold holds its own and I am up at night with it tight around my throat. It feels like taking more than giving until I am able to settle my mind and then relax. Where is the gift when there is no giver? No receiver?

Seems

2005-10-20T05:27:00.000-07:00

That intimacy might be a part of this....can I really show-up with my full face with every thing...letting my heart really open to what arrives and goes? Loving and kind isn't a pretend thing; it's the real thing.

2005-10-11T03:44:00.000-07:00

What is lovingkindness?

So far....

2005-10-09T04:07:00.000-07:00

Here is an overview of the wings of enlightenment from Training the Mind.

The Foundation
Life as a human being is precious
Life is fragile-
Death is sudden
Cause & Effect are inescapable
Suffering in the conditioned world is inescapable
Liberation is beneficial
A teacher might be helpful

The Two Wings of Your Life

Wisdom & Compassion – The Ultimate and the relative awakened heart

Wisdom
· Generosity – Stuff, fearlessness, truth
Regard all dharmas as dreams; regard thoughts as a dream
Examine the nature of unborn awareness; the sound of the bell
Self-liberate the antidote; who is asking?
Rest in the nature of alaya; under the sky

TRANSITION

Be a child of illusion: the conventional illusion

Do you see that everything is buddhanature?
Do you see the 8 mundane concerns corrode the true nature of your life?
Do you see that you decontextualize when you are upset?

System of measurement creates your life; go to the 4 immeasurables
Lovingkindness, compassion, sympathetic joy, equanimity

Compassion & Lovingkindness
· Discipline – Boat to compassion/ Cultivating Skillful Means
· Practice: 4 retreats a year/zazen, study, service, what
· Skillful Means- non giver, non receiver, non gift

Return to this over and over again. Looking at the foundation, the two wings...seeing your life.

Generosity, the boat to the ocean of freedom

2005-10-04T11:07:00.000-07:00

Giving is the boat to vastness; to suchness.
Giving stuff.
Giving fearlessness.
Giving the true nature of reality.
Giving is a practice of wisdom.
It requires a quiet mind.
It requires seeing no you, no me.
It requires letting go of referents.
No giver, no receiver, no gift.
Of course you can reverse this...
Hoarding is the boat to a mudpuddle; to constricted living.
Hoarding stuff.
Hoarding courage.
Hoarding the truth.
Hoarding is a practice of ignorance.
It requires self-centeredness.
It requires remembering everything against everyone.
Just me, me, me.

Look at your own experience

2005-10-04T05:49:00.000-07:00

This is the heart of the slogan practice. It is to take each slogan as a little flash of light into your own experience. Where are you? What are ya up to in this moment? With complete honesty shining the light into your own doings and comings and goings....like a little pocket light showing the way...carry it with you. Wisdom and compassion are too big for me; but a little flashlight on how I feed the dogs, how I answer the phone, what happens when I listen to someone, or take a shower, or go for a walk. Honest, sincere reflection...breathing in and out, giving and receiving...

Sky Mind

2005-09-15T06:58:00.000-07:00

The slogan is Rest in the nature of Alaya. This seems a bit difficult to understand but with some contemplation it becomes clearer. I forget it, though. It seems to be pointing me towards a place of no reference; it's spacious place where I do not hold any idea or image about any thing in particular and await for the light to reflect....not my light, not anything to do with me...it's the place of DON'T KNOW...just seeing, just seeing. The sky is the reminder...the moon's light, the sun's light...just little pointers...of course the pebbles, the rugs, the chairs, the ceiling, the stones, the dogs, the trees...they are reminders as well but harder for me to see...all echoing "REST." RELAX in the nature of the fundamental.

2005-09-10T15:34:00.000-07:00

Spider Fear

2005-09-04T14:59:00.000-07:00

Black Tara

2005-08-24T06:37:00.000-07:00

The light is brighter than the sun. The light is not mine or yours or ours.

The Light is not our light or your light or my light

2005-08-24T06:32:00.000-07:00

I recently am memorizing the phrase, "Do not suppose that what you realize becomes your knowledge or is grasped by your consciousness." A very helpful reminder to realize the light is not me or mine or yours or ours...it is ungraspable, unowned, not up to me to cook up or spark...it is there right in the middle of the muddy waters of every day tasks and thought and feelings. This is ggenerosity....ever-present light...

Liz

2005-08-03T07:44:00.000-07:00

We reflect what we see.

Awareness

2005-08-03T07:38:00.000-07:00

Sometimes we forget what we are doing? We forget what this situation is? I forget. I forget and stop seeing the true nature of this realm. I think and start believing my thoughts. I get into my wishes and fears and tumble into the ditch. Then I get back up and take another look. And brush the dirt off, clear my vision again and sigh alitte. Yes, I see. I see the law of impermanence. I see the suffering arising from grasping and pushing. I see the benefits of liberation. I see the preciousness of seeing. I see the actions of cause and effect. What are you aware of? What do you see?

Cause & effect are inescapable

2005-07-20T14:40:00.000-07:00

Do we know what causes one thing and not another?

It seems we are mostly uncertain and have many guesses about lots of things.

Yesterday while I was sitting, my dogs, Buck and Henry caught a squirrel. I heard the rush, the shuffle and the screams of a bystander squirrel. I saw Buck holding the squirrel in his mouth and screamed for him to drop it. He shook it. I got up as quickly as I could with a fractured bone and hobbled out to stop the attack. By the time I reached them the squirrel was crippled and bleeding and certain to die. We all are of this nature to die, it is the when and how that is uncertain. I was then able to get the dogs away from the squirrel long enough for it to die without more violence. It reached it paws many times in the air and struggled for breath. And then was still. This death was sudden and struck without warning.

By the time I realized what happened I also realized I couldn't put any weight on my foot. Later in the evening an x-ray showed a new fracture, longer and worse than the first. CAUSE AND EFFECT ARE INESCAPABLE. But what exactly is the cause? My hobbling out to stop Buck? Years of what? Genetics? I don't know.

The pose or posture of cause and effect is care. Just care. Care, no matter what. Care. It leaves everything else in the dust. Care, without a particular goal. Care, without anything added or subtracted. Evaluating the cause & effect is limited.

These four preliminaries are to help us be a true human being, unconditionally. We take the pose of the moment...life is fragile, death is sudden, cause and effect are inescapable...what is it looking like right now? My newly casted leg is up on the side of the desk as I write this on the computer. The phone rings and I turn to attend to it. The dog bumps my leg for a rub on his head. The door opens upstairs and I heare, "whaer are you?"

2005-07-20T08:09:00.000-07:00

Death is Sudden, LIfe is Fragile, Liberation is Beneficial

2005-07-16T04:21:00.000-07:00

What is this attitude?

Attitude

2005-07-16T04:01:00.000-07:00

The word attitude originally comes from the Arts of Design. It means to strike a pose or posture. Strike a pose or posture suggests we practice the pose just so...so right...with little alterations here and there...subtle shifts and then hold it so a painting can be done or a photo taken or an "attitude" given...the Training the Mind practice is a practice of posture, of posing, of striking a pose just so...and the method is practicing with the slogans. The first four preliminaries set the foundation for the pose, for the work of art of every day living. My attitude, your attitude.

Here again are the four foundations to strike a pose...

1. Life is precious and especially so as a human being who is able to hear the dharma
2. Death is sudden and strikes with out warning
3. Cause and effect are insecapable
4. Suffering in the conditioned world is inescapable

So...what does that pose look like? What is your attitude? Practice with these preliminaries and strike a pose.

I consider the attiude to be "LUCKY!" What does that look like? Sound like? Taste like? Feel like? Smell like?

What is your attitude?

Intention and motivation

2005-07-13T07:39:00.000-07:00

What is practice for you? Is it a way for you to gain more pleasure? More stuff? More praise? More good reputation? Is it to avoid pain, avoid shame, avoid a bad reputation, avoid shame, avoid obscurity? Look deeply into this? What is your practice about?

Comments on Plastic Mind

2005-07-09T10:57:00.000-07:00

I have been thinking about plastic and how the deeper it is buried in a
landfill, where air and water and sun cannot get to it, the longer it
takes to break down. So too, my long buried hurtful thoughts and
actions and words cannot break down until they are revealed, accepted,
and cared about. Sometimes they work themselves to the surface and
there they are, waiting for my attention. Ugh, but great too.
Ansgar

Where to begin?

2005-07-08T07:54:00.000-07:00

If you are new to this blog and want to follow along with the teachings, please click on this link and start there. Otherwise just wander around as you wish.

http://clearingmyvision.blogspot.com/2005/06/how-to-begin-training-mind.html

How Do We Remember to Include Plastic?

2005-07-05T05:38:00.000-07:00

It is harder for me to see the plastic life, the made-up stuff that is hard, and an attempt to be permanent. Plastic almost is...permanent. How do I include the pastic lives? The plastic thoughts? The plastic feelings? Without like or dislike? How do I see through the attempts to make stuff into the artificial plastic...I do it. I get hard. I get too far to one side or another...hardening the mind into something that looks like permanent life. How do I include that? Just let it soften. See it for what it is....an attempt to grasp the world and make it into a shape I want.

Not plastic, not no plastic

2005-07-04T07:24:00.000-07:00

It seems the very fragility of things make them valuable. Plastic is often considered durable but rather worthless...without much value. Yet, even plastic is included...even plastic is fragile. It burns, cracks, breaks, dulls...it too is perishable.

Life is fragile

2005-07-01T17:55:00.000-07:00

Several years ago I studied the Japanese tea ceremony...which is a lifelong practice for some. It is precise, generous and mindful. It requires discipline. Freshness is required. Seeing every thing as fresh...as the hot water cooks over the heat, the tea bowl is cleaned and seasonal flower arrangements set as an offering...freshness that reminds me that life, all of it, is fragile. One of the definitions of the word fragile is perishable...every thing conditioned is perishable...This knowing is not a belief or a tenet but a reality...this body, mind, these words, this breath...perishable. What do I do with that sight? It helps me be care full...watch full...seeing the flowering of the conditioned. Fresh. As I contemplate this freshness I consider it like washing a used dish, or worn clothes, or an unswept floor...it requires washing and sweeping the delusions...the thoughts and wishes of permanence, self-centeredness...freshly swept, freshly washed, freshly cut flowers.

2005-07-01T17:53:00.000-07:00

Flowering

The Nature of Suffering

2005-07-01T07:08:00.000-07:00

In order to clear my mind I need to be able to see the suffering that is there. What is this suffering? If I ask myself, "what is the nature of my suffering?" I begin to see clearer. I begin to see everything as either sticky with my shoving or pushing or freely as it is. It just is this way. Everything that happens happens to awaken the world. We keep wanting the world to be different; to be permanent, to be self-fulfilling, to be what we want. This desire is at the root of the suffering. What is the nature of suffering? What is the nature of what happens right now. My leg is in a cast, my back aches...everything falls apart. It's funny. There is nothing to hold onto...nothing to make life into something permanent. Money doesn't do it, war doesn't do it, stuff doesn't do it, love doesn't do it, food doesn't do it...my broken bone is a teacher. My aching back is a teacher. My body is not separate from the falling apart, from change, from deterioration. Nothing is. Life is precious. LIfe is fragile. Death is sudden and strikes without warning.

2005-06-29T07:14:00.000-07:00

The Way of Compassion is free in delusion

Delusion as the Main Obstacle to Clear Vision

2005-06-29T07:04:00.000-07:00

I see the barriers, the barricades, the storminess of delusions as the blindness across clear vision. The delusion of the self as something special, as something separate as something permanent.
Delusion is my problem. Delusion is the demon. Delsuion is the ignorance. Delusion is the sickness of the mind. The mind itself is clear and goes beyond the sickness of yes and no, of like and dislike, of enenmy and friend.
The senses grab and cling to particular things deluded by the shine or glimmer or dullness. The Mind remains undefiled by the tricky sense doors of grasping and pushing and pulling. Anytime I think a thought and grab it as real I am caught by the thought of how it should be or how I want it to be.

The Pebbles

2005-06-27T06:16:00.000-07:00

She sat there fingering the stones.
One...two, three, four and more.
Like little live beings rolling them in her cupped hand.
She sat there and told me,
"The stones have a great story to tell."
"What is that?" I asked.
"They once were mountains. To come down from the mountain is rough.
It breaks even the strongest. But here they are...precious, little ones."
I saw the mountain sitting in the palm of her hand.

How to begin training the mind.

2005-06-27T05:53:00.000-07:00

If you'd like to use this site to help you in your practice, here are some suggestions. This site is based on the teachings of Atisha.

1. Please purchase the book, Training the Mind, by Trungpa Rimpoche.
2. Start with the preliminaries.
3. Memorize them.
4. Keep a journal of your heart work.
5. I suggest you write your own version of the slogans from your own experience and heart. I will from time to time add other suggestions.
6. You are welcome to add your comments to this blog, if you like.
7. I will help you in any way that I am able.
8. Keep going.
9. Go to the post on June 20th in June Archives for some further suggestions on the preliminaries.

2005-06-23T06:47:00.000-07:00

Coming and going.

Life is precious

2005-06-23T06:44:00.000-07:00

In the front of my day these words lead me. Wherever the foot falls is the path. There is nothing but possibilities. There is no need to worry. The Path is right here.

2005-06-23T06:43:00.000-07:00

The Path

Life is precious

2005-06-21T05:26:00.000-07:00

This one takes time. I read today in Kongtrul's book to see others with "non-referential compassion." That is very helpful. I notice I need to see how I refer to something in the past when I approach someone. I remember some incident, or some feeling arises, or thoughts and it colors this moment. The freshness is tainted by the past. Or if I want something from the person then it is also tainted. This wanting comes from the future; something hasn't happened yet but I want something particular to happen and then the moment is no longer fresh. The work is to notice this fog from the past and the future and see through it; drop it, clear it up. Am I up to this work? The small self really isn't up to it; but if I am able to see what the small self stirs up and let that settle then I am able to open up, clear away the view. Am I able to see LIFE IS PRECIOUS? How do I know, life is precious? My self interest is very high, and strong and continues to keep me tangled. I keep my self tangled by believing the small self.

This morning I noticed the ceramic dog bowl; the deep color of blue and the shine of the light on the surface. I noticed this as I picked it up from the floor to wash it. Takling care of this bowl is life, picking the bowl up to wash it is practice.

Today, this afternoon my neighbor is having a memorial service for her mother. I continue to contemplate this death as a change of form. In some ways it is like making tea. The cold water becomes hot, the dry tea becomes wet, the cup becomes full, I drink the hot tea and the cup is empty....the hot water is no longer seen, the tea vanishes...inside of this form which is also changing. Continuously. Is the tea anymore precious than the plain water? Or the hot water more precious than the empty cup? In this fast, modern time it is very hard to see. Very hard to have clear vision.

I continue to clear my vision. Bowing to clear my vision, chanting to clear my vision, walking to clear my vision.

Clearing My Vision

2005-06-20T08:31:00.000-07:00

Clearing My Vision is a compilation of instructions on Atisha's 12 century training on awakening the heart to be generous and the mind to be clear of hindrances. The training includes the slogan's of Atisha, commentary, pictures and practices. This is both a personal practice journal as well as a set of encouragements and practices for those who want to clear their vision and awaken their heart.

Step One: The first step is to memorize the preliminaries.

Preliminaries:

Life is precious. This teaching refers to the awareness of seeing life as precious. Perhaps you know this, perhaps you do not know this...the question to ask is "how do you know life is precious?" Is it a belief or a clear vision of reality?

I do not always see that life is precious. Sometimes I am so concerned about some petty thing that I am unable to see this clearly. Sometimes I am focused on my own self to such a degree that I am unable to notice much of anything else. I ask myself, when do I see life as precious? How do I know that life is precious? There is a sense of transitoriness that comes along with this view. I see the passing and fleeting of life. I see some type of luck; something beyond ordinary thought. Life is value; worthwhile. When I say this I hear more questions. What makes life worthwhile? When I ask this question I see that I want to add something to life; a price tag. I want to say life is precious because....and add something to it. Rather than just see life is precious. Do I see life is precious? I am looking.

The Atisha teaching is fully, life is precious as a human being because humans have the opportunity to study the dharma. They add a reason why life is precious which presupposes that there is value in being humand and studying the dharma. I don't want to add anything. It seems it narrows the reality to add a particularity to the slogan. Life is precious. Life is worthwhile. Nothing extra, nothing missing.