Week 2

Challenges

The major challenge at a behavioral level for this practice is not only to keep the five days of practice (as a minimum) but to incorporate taking refuge in your daily life. At random intervals, when you are alone through the day, read the refuge prayer, sub-vocalizing it. You just need to do it once, but three times is the sweet spot.

Remember, you don’t need to actually say it, but you need to form the words with your tongue.

Insights

Today, we’re going to focus on that word that gets bandied about: suffering.

“Existence is Suffering!”

You have read or heard somewhere that Buddhism deals with suffering, right? That is the focus of the teaching.

Well… not quite.

We often have in Buddhism a translation problem. And that is because, to paraphrase Edward Said, the Orient for many people was not a place but a career. So, if you were, say, a Dharma translator in the west, you would… spice things up. Make them more dramatic, so people would flock to the eastern wisdom only you can translate.

That’s how we ended up with the Schopenhauer-Freud duet of “Nirvana means suicide” idea. Or how we came to feel that most Buddhist are fixated on suffering.

The word often translated as “suffering” is the Pali voice dukkha. This is the negation of sukha which means “pleasure”. The best etymology that I have found of both has to do with the axle in drawn chariots, which were an important vehicle for the early Indians: it means “good fit” with sukha and its negation, “bad fit” for dukkha.

So, we have “ease,” or “pleasure,” vs “dis-ease,” or “dis-pleasure.”

So, we could already go from “existence is suffering” to “existence is displeasure”. That’s a lot less dramatic, innit?

But that’s just a quote from the Dhammacakka Sutta. The Buddha (and Sariputta, later on) explain that the problem is on negating the existence of dis-pleasure. What the Buddha means, paraphrased, is: There’s no perfect pleasure in our Samsaric existence, but always there is dis-pleasure, even if it is subtly.

So, by de-escalating the “SUFFERING, ALL IS SUFFERING” problem of the translation, which makes it seem that we’re living in the middle of a warzone, we arrive to an insight by the Buddha: This life has nothing that can fully satisfy us. Keep that fully in mind; it’s important to recognize that there are things that can make us happy, but not completely.

Yogas

Once a day, either at the beginning of your day or at the end, you will recite this prayer to connect with the Eight lineages. This is a necromancer’s work: petitioning dead teachers to bring you knowledge, power, and blessings. You will keep the framing prayers of refuge, bodhicitta and dedication for the practice.

The Seed of Faith: A Prayer to The Sublime Masters

NAMO GURU BHYA

Peaceful space of the Dharmadhatu in which

Abandonment and realization are complete

Greatly blissful Samboghakaya, gloriously blazing with marks and signs

The dance of emanations which tame those who are to be trained

To the ocean of the Trikaya of the Liberated Guides, I pray.

Lord of Shakyas, the Fourth lamp of this fortunate eon,

Unconquerable Manjugosha and Lord of Secrets

Powerful Avalokiteshvara, Lake Born Vajra, with the rest,

To the Victors and their heirs, I pray.

Sixteen Elders, Seven Patriarchs,

Six Ornaments, Three Masters, Eight Vidyādharas,

Together with the eighty-four lords of yoga with the rest,

To all the accomplished ones and Pandits of the Noble Land, I pray.

Nyingmapas, revealing and opening the way in the Snow Lands,

Sakyapas, who expounded on all of the teachings

Kadampas, source of millions of holders of the teachings།

To these spiritual guides and their lineages, I pray.

Kagyüpas, unrivaled in their direct path to accomplishment,

Butön and Dolpopa, Lord of the profound and vast Tantra classes

And Tsongkhapa, sun of Dharma and Mañjughoṣa himself—

To these holders of the teachings and their students, I pray.

Of Valid Cognition, Vinaya, Abhidharma, and Prajñāpāramitā

Of the Middle Way, Pacification and Severance, and other lineages

Of the exposition and accomplishment of learning and realization

And to all the great holders of the teachings, I pray.

Above all, to the supreme embodiment of all the wisdom

Possessed by every guru in the line of lineage masters,

From the Supreme Guide down to those in this time,

To my very own Root Guru, I pray.

Through the power of praying like this with unwavering devotion,

May there arise understanding of Karma and Samsara

Without attachment to bliss and peace,

With love, compassion and two-fold Bodhicitta,

May I take up the conduct of the Bodhisattvas, the Victors heirs.

May I abide in the perfection of study, contemplation and meditation

With my mind ripened through empowerment, keeping pure Samaya,

And may I accomplish the Union of the Wisdom

Of the two stages of training and no-more-learning!

Practices

Concentration meditation: embodied breathing

Let’s start now with the meditations themselves. As always, you do the refuge and bodhicitta. Then you settle in your meditation position and notice your body. Focus on keeping the back straight.

Now, for the next five minutes, I want you to keep your awareness on your breath. But the breath as it moves the body: how it makes your chest puff, your shoulders rise, etc.

Try to keep your awareness filled with this sensation. When a sensation related to the breath loses its attraction, move to another. Keep circling through how the breath moves the body until the five minutes are up, then move into Insight meditation.

Insight meditation: perfect happiness

Having understood the idea of pleasure & dis-pleasure that we discussed before, I want you to search for a moment of your life when you weren’t a baby, and you felt perfect happiness. I mean complete happiness: happiness so great that even knowing that moment would end didn’t sadden you. Happiness so pure you don’t even want, desire or need to experience it again; once is enough and from that moment, everything is perfect.

You won’t find it. Moments of joy? Sure. Happy episodes? Yes. But is everything perfect from that moment on? Not likely. Spend five minutes at least here.

Keep at it for the (at minimum) five days of practice. Try to approach distinct moments in each session. See if you can find perfect happiness in your experience.

So, to recap

This week’s practice boils down to:

·        Using the refuge,etc to start and end sessions

·        Focusing on embodied breathing

·        Analyzing happiness in Samsara

·        Once per day, taking refuge beyond the session of practice

·        Once per day, saying the lineage prayer. We can combine this with the standalone refuge session.

And I’ll see you next week!

Keep grinding at it, one level at a time

Lesson Summary

This week's challenges focus on incorporating the refuge prayer in daily life, understanding the concept of suffering in Buddhism, and reciting a prayer to connect with the Eight lineages. Here are the key points:

• Behavioral challenge: Incorporate taking refuge prayer in daily life
• Insight: The translation problem of "suffering" in Buddhism
• Yogas: Recitation of the prayer to connect with the Eight lineages

The practices outlined for the week include concentration meditation on embodied breathing and insight meditation on perfect happiness. Here's a breakdown of the meditation practices:

• Concentration meditation: Focus on the breath and body sensations for five minutes
• Insight meditation: Search for moments of perfect happiness in life for at least five minutes

Summing up, this week's practice involves using refuge prayers, focusing on embodied breathing, analyzing happiness in Samsara, reciting the lineage prayer, and incorporating refuge beyond the practice session. Keep consistent with the practice for progress!