"Unfortunately,
we can easily confuse nonattachment with avoidance of attachment.
Avoidance of attachment, however, is not freedom from attachment. It’s
another form of clinging—clinging to the denial of your human attachment
needs, out of distrust that love is reliable."
|
So it seems that avoiding the chocolate cake in my life is not the answer. Rather, I have to address the root cause of my attachment, which Buddha would refer to as "ignorance", ignorance about the true nature of the chocolate cake and the true nature of myself. And how do we become wise? Not just by reading books, listening to teachings and following blogs (although those things do help) but by meditating. There are heaps of types of meditation and countless meditation teachers out there so we will take a look at meditation in a Buddhist context soon. If you want to start a meditation practice in the meantime, go for it but remember to start small (even 5 minutes will do) and build a regular and consistent practice, then slowly add to the length of time. A good starting practice is breathing meditation to calm the mind. Mindfulness pratice is also great. Here is a link to a great book on how to meditate. I referenced the book a lot when I led meditations in a Dharma Centre in the US. You can even download some guided meditations from the author on the web page. I was also just introduced to Tricycle Magazine's "Meditation Doctor" here. What a great concept!
Okay, now on to something new. I am inspired to focus on the topic of ethics this month because I have signed up for the Plastic Free July Challenge and would like to examine the impact of my actions and behaviours more broadly. Do you think about what, when, where, why and how you eat? We will do so this month as we explore ethics in the Buddhist context.
Buddhist ethics are essentially governed by examining whether an action has potential to be harmful to one's self or to others, and by avoiding actions that might possibly be harmful. Buddha set out the Eightfold Path for ending suffering and attaining enlightenment. In addition, lay Buddhists take vows called the 5 precepts, abstaining from killing, stealing, lying, sexual misconduct and taking intoxicants. Monks and Nuns take hundreds of vows. We will delve deeper into these vows and their meaning in the coming weeks.
In the meantime, here are a couple of interesting links on different topics. I love getting my geek on with Buddhist Geeks. Whether you want to learn about brain science and Buddhism or the similarities between gamers and Bodhisattvas, they have fabulous pod casts and videos to satisfy your curiosity. Check out their website here. This episode is a discussion with one of my favourite teachers, renowned scholar Dr. Jeffrey Hopkins. I am also looking forward to sitting down and watching this full length documentary about a Tibetan Buddhist master and his western born son. Hope you enjoy it too.
Practice: This week let's make a commitment to sit down for a meditation session. If you can do one every day fantastic. If not, do what you can. It is really helpful to set a commitment to yourself and keep it so try for something realistic like 5 or 10 minutes for how many days you think is realistic. Set a timer so you aren't watching the clock. Close your eyes and focus on your breath. You can focus on the feeling of your breath going in and out at the tip of your nose or you can focus on the rise and fall of your chest. Choose either one but stay with your choice for the entire session, don't switch back and forth. Try to stay present in your breath. If you drift away, don't judge, just refocus your attention on the breath and continue. Try it out and let me know how you go!
Have a great week!
Metta,
Dharma Mama
As a long-time (read “frustrated”) environmental activist who has re-cast his activism over the last 13 years in light of my Buddhist vows and practices, I have actually come to see eating as THE most ethically important activity of our time. You see, it is clear to anyone with eyes and ears right now that our political systems are broken beyond repair and in a manner that is mutually exclusive of actually responding to an ecological system that is also broken in ways that are very close to beyond repair (see NYT opinion piece in 7/14 issue by Australian ecologist on choral reefs for a case of beyond repair). Human nature being what it is, it is also totally unrealistic to think that individuals are going to significantly change their driving habits - and for good reason. I don’t intend to stop driving any time soon. But at the same time, there really is something that is not that hard to do, and that if everyone who cared about climate change did, would actually save the world. And that is this -- be more mindful of what you eat. To be more specific, stop or cut way back on your meat consumption, and what meat you do eat, learn where it comes from and how it is produced. Just to prove my point, as a vegetarian I could actually drive a Humvee and still be doing far more to reverse climate change than a meat eater driving that Prius. And while we Buddhists have other moral reasons to stop eating meat, there are actually even better reasons for anyone to at least stop eating red meat, no matter their believe. As a recent 20 year study of over 100,000 people found, eating any amount of red meat significantly increases your chances of premature death, like smoking cigarettes. So anyone who has children and wants one day to be an important part of their grandchildren’s lives would do well to stop eating red meat today, and the planet would rejoice! As Buddhists, I think we have a special obligation to address suffering on the scale that is being perpetrated today, and rather than complain about what our political leaders are not doing, we should be spreading the gospel of vegetarianism far and wide, and encouraging everyone we know to do the same, and to me, this is right ethical conduct of the highest order. But first, be sure to arm yourself with facts. You can find lots of good references on my blog, and I also encourage you to visit Geshe Phelgye’s web site for Universal Compassion.
ReplyDeletehttp://earthivore.tumblr.com/
http://www.universalcompassion.org/
zhiwa
Thanks for your comments Zhiwa! I have referenced your comments and website in the latest post and have introduced our readers to Geshe Phelgye. Thanks for introducing me to him! Best wishes!
ReplyDelete