dharmamum

Sorry for the lack of content

Amy and Stella — Wed, 07 Mar 2007 15:46:53 +0000

I apologize. Life sometimes sweeps you away in other directions and you cannot focus on what you think you should.

I have continued to attend Monday night meditations with the local Shambhala group, but have not extended my practice otherwise. My goal for this week has been to find twenty minutes each day to sit and meditate; to extend my practice out into the rest of my week.

I continue to read The Path of the Warrior by Chogyam Trungpa. An interesting read. I particularly relate to the chapter on keeping yourself and your surroundings in order to invite drala into your life. Self-discipline has always been something I struggle with, and I am sure I will continue this struggle as I meander down this path.

the Buddha says…

Amy and Stella — Fri, 26 Jan 2007 03:44:05 +0000

When asked to summarize his teachings, the Buddha said…

“Nothing should be clung to as I, me or mine.”

Buddhism and Children

Amy and Stella — Thu, 25 Jan 2007 17:49:12 +0000

I have found very few links or websites that talk about how to present buddhism to your children and how to be a buddhist parent. If there is such a thing. I have specific questions about meditating with children and explaining basic concepts to them through stories. How young is to young to sit? Are there childrens books out there designed for this purpose? Any ideas or links or suggestions from more experienced practitioners would be appreciated. THX.

thoughts

Amy and Stella — Wed, 17 Jan 2007 21:23:51 +0000

As a novice meditation practitioner, when I sit, my mind is flooded with thoughts. According to the instruction I received last night at the Shambhala meeting, in Shambhala, when you realize you are thinking, you are simply to label it “thinking” and bring your mind back to the breath. Maybe it is my ego placing more importance on my thinking than is due, or perhaps it is my Western desire to psychologize and question the causes of these thoughts, but I can’t help but think that by stepping back and watching the thoughts as they slide in and out of my consciousness I may be able to learn something. To be looked into.

a lovely poem

Amy and Stella — Wed, 17 Jan 2007 21:10:49 +0000

courtesy of gregor @ entering the path

I read this poem and it seems to talk about happiness. There is no true happiness in the outside, in things, in other people. True happiness is inside of us, and needs to be discovered there.

anger and impatience

Amy and Stella — Wed, 17 Jan 2007 06:27:50 +0000

Tonight I had a sudden and irrational outburst of anger with one of my children and then, a few hours later, experienced extreme frustration and impatience with my infant son. Let me tell you what happened and then perhaps make an attempt at some inner work.

Anger
We sat down as a family to watch American Idol. I particularly enjoy watching the first few episodes, the ones with the cross-country auditions. (I can examine why I enjoy watching public humiliation another time, now it is something else I am thinking about) My son was squirmy and noisy and my eldest daughter was climbing all over me. I was finding it extremely difficult to pay attention to the show with all of the commotion in the living room. Suddenly, I felt the anger swell in my and I yelled at my daughter to leave me alone and stop climbing on me. As soon as the words left my lips, I knew I had hurt her. She was just trying to be close to me and my words must have felt like a rejection to her. I felt horrible. But why the anger?

Attachment to sensory pleasure and the false happiness it brings
Television makes me feel good. It brings me great pleasure to sit and relax and have a laugh. To tune out the days worries and stresses and focus in on someone/something else. I obviously have a great attachment to it and my children were acting in a manner which prevented me from and interfered with my gaining pleasure from it. And so, without thinking, my anger boiled over. I think anger is the heavyweight delusion in my mind, and it is quick to come to the surface.

Impatience
Much the same story as anger, only swap the computer for the television and a touchy daughter for a non-sleeping, fussy infant son. This time I recognized the foolishness of my impatience and why I was feeling that way. As soon as I was aware of it, it left. hmmmmm.

I guess the trick is to catch myself in these delusions in order to correct them and see them for what they are.

I would write more, but I need to go to bed now.

First Time Out

Amy and Stella — Mon, 15 Jan 2007 19:48:11 +0000

:: Local Shambhala Association Meeting

My evening went like this: show up to the location advertised in the paper only to find that I am the seond person to arrive, after the organizer/timekeeper. Not such a bad thing, I was able to introduce myself and get a sense of what to expect from the evening. Once a few more people arrived, we sat down to begin meditation practice. I was given a few short instructions about posture and what I was to do with the thoughts that arose during meditation and we began.

We sat for twenty minutes. I was surprised at how quickly the time passed. Maybe this is a sign that I am getting a little better at meditation. My mind still flew off in hundreds of directions and I struggled to reign it in. I tried counting the exhalation only to find that my thoughts would slip away during the inhalations. Finally I tried thinking the word “the” on the inhalation and “breath” on the exhalation. I imagine this must have much the same effect as counting and so can’t be that harmful to the practice.

After the sitting, we moved to a table where we had tea and cookies. Collectively, we read a chapter from a book called Shambala: The Sacred Path of the Warrior. The chapter we read was called Letting Go, and in it I found many interesting themes. After completing the chapter, we had a brief discussion about what we had just read and then our meeting was adjourned.

I enjoyed the meditation practice portion of the evening but feel I need to discover more about Shambhala. What is it? How does it relate to Buddhism? What concepts are carried through the two? Why do the words “cheer up” appear so often in the text we read? Work to be done.