POSTPONED: Tibetan Sand Mandala at Clark College, Vancouver

According to the Clark College Website this event has unfortunately be postponed. They say:

Important Update: The monks have not received their visa yet. At this time, their visit has been postponed to an undetermined date and may in fact be cancelled. We certainly hope that they will be able to come and we will update here and at the International Events website if/when they are able to reschedule. (4/29/15 4:26 p.m.)

There is another opportunity to experience the creation (and destruction) of a beautiful sand mandala at Clark College next week (May 4th - 8th). Watching this powerful meditative form is a wonderful experience and we are truly blessed to be able to witness it. If you have seen this before you will know why I am encouraging you all to go and see it. Meditation doesn't only (or even mainly) happen on the cushion!

The details can be seen at the Columbian Newspaper here.

For a taster, here is some video of when the monks did this three years ago:

Meditation and the Art of Beginning Again [AUDIO]

Too often in our meditations we strive towards some self-imposed picture of progress, and in doing so we miss the point of simply sitting and being present in the moment. Clinging to 'results' and 'achievement' in meditation is just as problematic as clinging to material things.

Instead, if we recognize that 'beginning again' is a natural part of our practice then we can calm our minds and stay present. Sharon Salzberg puts it like this:

The moment you realize you’ve been distracted is the magic moment. It’s a chance to be really different, to try a new response. Rather than tell yourself you’re weak or undisciplined, or give up in frustration, simply let go and begin again. In fact, instead of chastising yourself, you might thank yourself for recognizing that you’ve been distracted, and for returning to your breath. This act of beginning again is the essential art of the meditation practice.

So, rather than feeling that you are somehow 'doing it wrong' when you get distracted or wander off, instead recognize that this is the meditation, and gently bring your attention back to the breath.

You can read the full article by Sharon Salzberg here.

This meditation was recorded on Easter Sunday, 2015.

 The full audio, including a 30 minute guided meditation is below.



If the embedded audio player above doesn't work for you, please click here.

Meditation on The Four Foundations of Mindfulness [AUDIO]

Mindfulness as a concept has become very trendy, with self-help gurus proclaiming it as the next big thing in Management Training. Certainly mindfulness as a technique is highly valuable and can have many benefits. I do worry, however, that thinking that mindfulness is all about personal material gain is completely missing the point.

What mindfulness really does for us is open our eyes (and hearts) to the way the world really is, to see beyond the delusions of our ego and to see things as they actually are.

In this meditation we get a brief taster of what it means to practice the Four Foundations of Mindfulness. The Four Foundations were taught by the Buddha as a sure way to attain enlightenment. I would highly recommend before listening to the meditation reading the excerpt from the original teachings in our previous post.

 The full audio, including a 30 minute guided meditation is below.



If the embedded audio player above doesn't work for you, please click here.

Reading: The Four Foundations of Mindfulness (The Satipatthana Sutta)

Over the next few weeks we are going to look at The Four Foundations of Mindfulness. This evening we meditated on Mindfulness of the Body*.

In introducing it I read the following passages from The Satipatthana Sutta. The full sutta can be found here. I highly recommend reading through it all.

“Bhikkhus, this is the direct path for the purification of beings, for the surmounting of sorrow and lamentation, for the disappearance of pain and grief, for the attainment of the true way, for the realisation of Nibbāna—namely, the four foundations of mindfulness.  

“What are the four? Here, bhikkhus, a bhikkhu abides contemplating the body as a body, ardent, fully aware, and mindful, having put away covetousness and grief for the world. He abides contemplating feelings as feelings, ardent, fully aware, and mindful, having put away covetousness and grief for the world. He abides contemplating mind as mind, ardent, fully aware, and mindful, having put away covetousness and grief for the world. He abides contemplating mind-objects as mind-objects, ardent, fully aware, and mindful, having put away covetousness and grief for the world.
[...] 

“Again, bhikkhus, when walking, a bhikkhu understands: ‘I am walking’; when standing, he understands: ‘I am standing’; when sitting, [57] he understands: ‘I am sitting’; when lying down, he understands: ‘I am lying down’; or he understands accordingly however his body is disposed. 7. “In this way he abides contemplating the body as a body internally, externally, and both internally and externally … And he abides independent, not clinging to anything in the world. That too is how a bhikkhu abides contemplating the body as a body.

Passages © Bhikkhu Bodhi, The Middle Length Discourses of the Buddha (Wisdom Publications, 2009)

(*) Unfortunately the audio for the meditation for that evening is not available.

Metta Letter: Happiness

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