White Lotus Society Member's Forum

[Wendy]

I apologize to those of you who have been to Buddhism Basics class before, for repeating much of the beginning of my earlier classes.

As I mention at the beginning of every class, if you are new to Buddhism, the first thing you should know about Buddhism is that it is—above all—practical. It can be practiced in addition to your religious affiliation, or as your religion. The laboratory for Buddhist study is 100% accessible and portable, because it is essentially a study of the nature of our own minds, with the practical goal of living life guided by a peaceful, healthy mind.

The next thing to remember is that Buddhism is an experiential path. Although you may understand what you hear or read, unless you apply the teachings to your life, the results won’t be realized. And as the Buddha said, don’t assume the teachings are right on his words, alone—or any other teacher’s words, alone—you need to try the methods in your own life to see if they work for you. If they do, accept them; if not, reject them. Associated with the experiential concept is the fact that there may be some things you can’t understand or accept immediately, like the concepts of rebirth or karma. That’s fine, but don’t reject them because you can’t understand them immediately or they don’t fit comfortably into your current “worldview.” Investigate them; check them out by observing your own life.

I will finish a two-year Buddhist Lay Ministry Program through the Bright Dawn Institute for American Buddhism this May. Bright Dawn is an open, eclectic Japanese Mahayana program practiced at the Heartland Sangha in Chicago. They practice a non-dualistic, pan-sectarian Buddhism drawn from the original teachings of the Buddha, Jodo Shinshu or Pure Land Buddhism, Zen Buddhism, and engaged Buddhism. The program explicitly endorses the concept of lay spiritual teachers. Bright Dawn proposes that lay persons be encouraged to provide religious teachings and practices rather than just be passive consumers or receivers.

This encouragement can really enhance an individual's spiritual growth. It is said, "If you really want to learn something, teach it." In order to teach and communicate something clearly to others, one's understanding has to be much deeper and more comprehensive than when you are a consumer of teachings, only. So, I encourage you, too, to share what you learn, for that benefit of others.

We are all lay practitioners. What does that mean? It means we’re very, very, VERY busy with our lives: our families, our work, our school— whatever— our lives. Most of us cannot spend hours a day meditating, prostrating, or praying. Yet, there IS the Eightfold Path and, of course, many others in Buddhism. It is a practice that WILL change you— if you do it. And all you have to do is be aware of what you think, what you speak, what you do— everyday, as you do all the other things that keep you busy in your lives.

The Buddha taught 84,000 different practices for different people with different karma, conflicts, and life issues. One is not better than the other, so be thankful and grateful for the opportunity to put the Eightfold Path into practice!

But you have to practice! You have to take the knowledge and the methodology you’ve read or heard and make it your own; you have to act on the lessons. You probably already heard or will hear, in your study of Dharma that, as a practitioner, you are to “hear, think, and meditate.” That is what is required as a practitioner. I think most of us have a habit of hearing, then going to hear something else, and something else again, creating a mental stew of good advice, and precious teachings— with maybe a little thinking thrown in. But what we tend not to do is to meditate on what we’ve heard and take it up as a part of our lives.

So, that is my “pitch” for taking what you learn here tonight, on Sundays, or at any teaching, or through any reading—and meditate on it, apply it, practice it!


Tonight I will talk about the 7th and 8th steps of The Eightfold Path, or Right Mindfulness and Right Concentration. These are the last 2 of the Mental Discipline Teachings. The Eightfold Path is “grouped” in 3 general areas: Wisdom teachings, Morality teachings, and Mental Discipline teachings. Right Effort is the first of 3 Mental Discipline teachings, followed by Right Mindfulness and Right Concentration.

Although, The Eightfold Path is referred to as a “path”, a step-by-step process, it really isn’t linear, as in “first I do this and then I can move to the next step.” It is not a linear list, but a circle: a holistic system designed for the strength of all the components together. So, in the example of right view and right intention, they keep informing each other. It’s not like, “Oh, I’ve got that right view and right intention thing down now, now I can go to right speech.” In your Dharma journeys, you will learn more and more about what right view is, causing you to discard outdated concepts and worldviews, then that will cause you to modify your understanding or view, then your intentions, and—hopefully—discard old habits, negative thinking, speaking, and action.

As we have discussed, the structure of a circle as a symbol for the Eightfold Path is probably best understood by thinking of the Wheel of Dharma, or Dharmachakra. Dharmachakra, the wheel of transformation, is used by all Buddhist traditions as a symbol of the path presented by the Buddha in his teachings, or Dharma

The Dharma Wheel is comprised of hub, rim, and, generally, eight spokes. The hub is a symbolic representation of moral discipline or ethics, which provides the support needed to stabilize the mind. It’s easy to understand how morality is necessary before a stable meditation practice can be established. If you were lying, stealing, or cheating, your mind would be in a constant state of agitation, making it difficult to establish the proper ground for meditation—or even calm reflection.
The rim represents mindfulness—what we are talking about tonight, enabled by moral discipline, that, in turn, contains and holds together the eight spokes, or Eightfold Path of practice. This also illustrates what we refer to as the three trainings: ethics or morality, meditation, and wisdom + love—which are common to all Dharma teachings. By applying this structure to your life, as a unified whole, you can transform yourself from a suffering being to one who is liberated from suffering. The eight spokes of the wheel, or the Eightfold Path, are:

1. Right View

2. Right Intention

3. Right Speech

4. Right Action

5. Right Livelihood

6. Right Effort

7. Right Mindfulness

8. Right Concentration

The first two are grouped under the wisdom category, the next three under ethics or morality, and the last three as meditation or mental discipline. Contemplating these eight practices you can see that without the first, right view, the rest would be difficult to accomplish. How can you possibly know what right intention, or right speech, right action, or right effort is, if you don’t have the correct view to begin with? Right view yields right intention, right speech, and right action. Yet, they each support the others, as spokes on a wheel.

There is an underlying wholeness of the path taught by The Buddha. The Eightfold Path is a kind of spiritual organism. As you practice, the organic wholeness becomes easier to understand. At first all the lists, numbers, steps, etc. seem like all these commandments to memorize and adhere to—that is until you reflect, meditate, and practice—then the fundamental interdependence begins to slowly come into focus.

So, in the beginning there is thought. The seed from which all else germinates. In spiritual practice, the view we hold of the world is certain to dictate the course of our actions. In Buddhism, the path of right view or right idea begins with a basic understanding of the spiritual laws of existence. The Four Noble Truths:

1) To be alive—and not enlightened—is to experience dissatisfaction. This is sometimes referred to as unenlightened life is suffering. Yet, as we’ve discussed in past sessions, the word “dukkha” is commonly translated as suffering, but a more accurate translation is “unsatisfactory” or “difficult.”

2) This dissatisfaction is borne of attachment, craving, or grasping. If you like something, someone, or some experience you want to grab it, possess it, keep it forever—without anything changing. Of course, we know rationally, that can’t happen. Lama Yeshe said “attachment is where the mind sticks” … and this stems from an ignorance about the nature of reality, which is change and impermanence, and the nature of what really makes you happy.

3) This habit of craving and grasping—the unhealthy stickiness of the mind—can be stopped. And our dissatisfaction or suffering over not getting what we want, or getting what we don’t want, and about things changing, when we want them to stay the same, can be extinguished. The facts that things change and are impermenent won’t change, but our dissatisfaction or suffering over it will. But change is energy, like today’s winds illustrate—energy created from the clash and change of temperature—and that energy can be channeled in our lives for good or bad, for happiness or dissatisfaction.

4) The way we can extinguish this and not experience dissatisfaction is through practicing the Eightfold Path.

The Buddha didn’t awaken to the fact and teach that life is unsatisfactory, only. He taught what causes that unsatisfactoriness, that we can rid ourselves of the unsatisfactoriness—because he did—and he taught us how to do it.

Of course suffering is an experience all living things share, because the nature of life is finite and when we experience the limits of our finiteness, we experience suffering. Sickness, old age, and death visit every being born in this world. But they do not inherently carry with them a measured level of suffering. Each person, according to their own karma, experiences a different level of discomfort when confronted with their own mortality, discomfort, or dissatisfaction.

Two people may break their legs or suffer an illness, with an identical level of physical pain and discomfort involved. One person may accept it gracefully and find ways to experience it, live it fully—make the best of it. Another will suffer a psychological hell of their own making, and their experience of this hell is much worse than the pain and discomfort of the injury or illness.

The essential difference in experience of two people sharing an identical misfortune is due to the excessive desire of one, versus the acceptance of the other. The source of their problems lie not in their experience, but in the view they hold of the world that made that experience a hell. That is living out of touch with reality.

This is what renunciation means. As I’ve mentioned before, renunciation in Tibetan means “authentic becoming.” It does not necessarily mean living in isolation from the world, but a renouncing of the delusions that keep one from becoming one’s authentic self. It means giving up clinging to the appearance of things as something, someone “out there” happening to you. It means, instead of grasping tightly to the things that will only cause us suffering, and clinging deserately to things as we would like them to be, we accept or surrender to things exactly as they are.

To be authentic you must have a conscious awareness of the reality of one’s situation. And the reality of things as they are. And you must have an active—not passive---acceptance of thing as they are—as “suchness”—a term describing things as they actually are. This is, in essence right understanding, the first of the Eightfold Path. Someone who has this understanding completely is enlightened, is a Buddha.

The word Tathagata, that you will see in readings at this center and in most Buddhist centers. Tatha means thus in Sanskrit and Pali, and Buddhist thought takes this to refer to what is called reality as-it-is. This reality is also referred to as thusness or suchness; indicating simply that it (reality) is what it is. A Buddha or Arhat is defined as someone who 'knows and sees reality as-it-is'. Gata is the past passive participle of the verbal root gam (going, traveling). So gata adds the verbal prefix, which gives the meaning “come, arrival, gone-unto”. Thus in this interpretation Tathagata means literally either, “The one who has gone to suchness” or, "The one who has arrived at suchness".

Understanding and accepting reality is the beginning of enlightened activity. In order to pursue a goal, we must have a grasp of what the conditions are that will shape the direction of our efforts. The Buddha defined them for us. His interest was not in presenting a philosophical or religious system, but in laying out a road map, so that we might find our own way. His teaching was an expression of his own experience, rather than a philosophical agenda handed down to him from tradition. The power of this teaching arises directly from its unconditioned freedom. This freedom can only be obtained, when we have the courage to pioneer into the self with our eyes open.

According to Buddhist teachings, the fundamental Reality of the Universe, the Buddha Mind, is none other than our own original nature. This nature is hidden from us through our desires and attachments, which are habits of lifetimes. This is the ignorance that blocks our authentic becoming. We have an attachment to an illusive, dream self that keeps us from seeing our true nature. We are literally unable to see the forest for all of the trees, and yet there is no forest other than these trees.

The result of practicing the Eightfold path is to begin to see each tree or thing for what it is, a perfect expression of time and space. All of life becomes merged in mutual identity at this subtle level of understanding. This is the result of a change of perspective that allows a perception of reality as a dynamic whole, rather than a set of discrete structures in a linear causal relationship.

The Buddhist term "mutual interpenetration" or “interdependence” recognizes this dynamic interplay. Every aspect of the forest is affecting and being affected by all other aspects simultaneously. The evidence of this reality is recognized in many disciplines from ecology to particle physics. The essential point, from a Buddhist perspective, is that our own being is also sharing in this interpenetration. There is no inherent reality of self outside of this interpenetration; no permanent soul, mind, or spirit that is not one with this eternal interchange.

So what is mindfulness and concentration?

Mindfulness is to keep something IN mind—or to be aware—awareness. Concentration is a direction of thought and effort toward a goal, or single focus.

The important thing about concentration, and its relationship to mindfulness, in our conversation tonight is asking what directs the thought—what the goal is, what the focus is on. Any being can concentrate, just watch a cat or a hawk focusing on their prey for hours on end. Right concentration is different because it is unified by intention, right intention, which was step 2 on the Eightfold Path.

When we concentrate with that intention and right effort, which is step six on the eightfold path, then big things can happen. The more recent studies of neurotheology (which is a study of the identification of the biological basis of the religious experience—studying whether our minds create God or God created our minds to apprehend God)—scientists discovered that Tibetan Buddhists and Franciscan nuns seemed to cease the activity of the a certain lobe in the top/back of the brain during meditation and prayer. This particular region of the brain determines how we understand our body’s position in space and where self ends and non-self begins. So, it seems meditation and prayer dissolve the sense of separateness and, therefore, heightens our sense of interconnection.

This only hints at the modifying effect, or change, that can take place when you meditate or pray. This is the intention we should hold when we practice mindfulness: To eliminate our sense of separation from others and from life as it is.

Next comes the practice: HOW do we do it?

There is a story about the Buddha and a philosopher. The philosopher asked the Buddha to explain his practices toward the goal of enlightenment. The Buddha answered by: “We walk, we site, we bathe, we eat.” The philosopher responded much like we would respond: “Well, everyone does that. How is that special.” The Buddha answered, “We know we are walking, sitting, bathing or eating. Others don’t.”

Now, any of you who have tried meditation or tried to keep your mind on a single task – or keep your mind OFF a subject—knows how hard it is to direct thought anywhere. How many of you have driven home from work, reached your parking spot or driveway, and not have the foggiest remembrance of the ride home. Scary, huh?

It just proves that we don’t know—aren’t mindful or aware of what were doing, what were thinking, or what’s going on around us. That truly is the key to Buddhist practice. If someone were to ask me what I thought the most important thing to know about Buddhism is that it teaches you the importance of and joy in being aware of what is.

Mindfulness, or awareness, is concerned with reality. It is clear seeing of what really is. I think this goes a long way to de-mystifying Buddhism—but also maybe taking away the mystique romance for some. The Buddha did not teach enlightenment as an escape and meditation as the vehicle to transport your escape to another world. Nope, the Buddha taught that enlightenment—which means: shining a light on or to make clear—he taught that enlightenment is truly seeing and being in the life you are in.

So mindfulness is really the starting point to Buddhist practice, because it teaches us to be aware of what “what is” is! The pioneer teacher Joel Goldstein calls mindfulness the central practice of the Dharma and the critical first ingredient in the Buddha’s recipe for enlightenment.

The Buddha taught the principles of mindfulness in the “four foundations” from the Pali Canon in both the Middle Length Discourses of the Buddha and in The Long Discourses of The Buddha (which also includes the explanation of the Four noble Truths).

The four foundations he explains like this: