Afleveringen
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The mind, hard to control, Flighty--alighting where it wishes-- One does well to tame. The disciplined mind brings happiness. --The Dhammapada verse 35
I realized this morning that, for me, the First PreceptâŠ
I refrain from taking life.
âŠapplies to the monkey mind.
Whatâs the monkey mind? Itâs that aspect of your mind that likes to chatter âbada-bada yada-yadaâ all day. It likes to travel through the branches and vines of your mind, leaping from one to the other while chattering loudly. It says things like:
* I want the bright, shiny thingâŠ
* Donât step on that crack!âŠ
* You forgot somethingâŠ
* Look how fat that person isâŠ
* What a dumb thing he saidâŠ
* She should watch herselfâŠ
* Iâm an idiotâŠ
* Youâre an idiotâŠ
* What going to happen to me?âŠ
* I donât ever want this moment to changeâŠ
Most of the time, it glides along, chattering one thing and then another. Sometimes, it gets stuck on one.
What a pest!
True. But some pests can be trained. The Buddha often spoke of taming the mind. Taming and training a horse or a dog starts with the two of you getting to know each other, gaining trust in each other, and becoming friends, with one of you being dominant. You want that to be you.
Iâll admit to not fully understanding each of the stages the Buddha described in his cycle of Dependent Origination, but somewhere in that process, in the earliest years of human life, the ego dominates the monkey mind, and together, they dominate you. At least, thatâs how I see it.
Developing a practice that includes awareness meditation eventually allows us to get past the monkey mind and make contact with the pure, unclouded mind. The more we do that, the more we can rest in that state and observe the monkey mind with dispassion. From that perspective, itâs almost cuteâlike a puppy stealing our socks.
Becoming dominant over the monkey mind takes time and effort. We learn to recognize when it expresses the egoâs grasping nature, which is pretty much all the time. As dog trainers often say, it begins with training ourselves. When we ignore the monkey mindâs ego-driven chatterâjust let it go without paying much attentionâit will calm and take more direction from our purer, nondual, more compassionate Buddha Nature.
As long as we exist in human form, we wonât obliterate the monkey mind or the ego, but they can become friends along the path. Thatâs what Iâve learned over the past year as my writing became my bodhicittaâmy deep desire to liberate all from needless suffering. If I didnât have any ego at all or any monkey mind thinking of ways to write better and more clearly, and ways to spread the dharma to more people, I would not be motivated to do much.
In this post, I shared advice on the subject that I received from scholar Thupten Jinpa, and in this one, similar advice from a compassionate dharma friend. Itâs a subject Iâve wrestled with.
In the last week or so, as Iâve neared completion of the manuscript for my book in progress, Iâve been awakening before the alarmâmy monkey mind active with ideas about improving it before it becomes final and spreading its (I hope) healing message once itâs published in a few months. I realized this morning 1) how unusual it is for my monkey mind to be so active, 2) how it has been active in the same way lately as I emerge from sleep, and 3) how it is helping me manifest my bodhicitta.
Can I be certain that itâs my tamed and trained mind working with me and not my ego-controlled monkey pulling me toward obsession? Of course, I canât. We can never be 100% sure of anything, but Iâm confident that my book is what I can offer the world, and wanting it to be a true gift is not a bad thing.
From the Pure Land has thousands of readers and subscribers in 40 U.S. states and 24 countries, and the podcast has thousands of listeners in 56 countries.
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Related blog posts at https://melpine.substack.com/p/thupten-jinpa-on-self-and-ego and https://melpine.substack.com/p/ego-bodhicitta-and-the-middle-way
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As I drafted the book The New Middle Way over the last eight months or so, my self-image changed. While my roles as husband, father, friend, student of Buddhism, and myriad other things remained, my identity as a writer, blogger, and editor began to change.
I was now working on the first full-length book to be published under my own name. As I researched, wrote, and edited my work, my confidence grew. Even though I relied heavily on my A.I. research assistant, Perplexity Pro, I began to own a feeling of expertise about my subject matter. As the draft neared completion and I decided to publish independently, I became aware of a new identityâauthor. And publisher, too, since I was going the independent route.
As I look back now, the writing and editing seemed to flow, although it didnât always feel that way. When the manuscript was largely completed, and I began filling in the bits and pieces that go into a published book, I got stuck on the âAbout the Authorâ feature. Itâs conventionally written in the third person in something close to ad-copy language, and Iâm not good at that.
I eventually asked Perplexity Proâs Deep Research feature to examine what it could find online about me and write a bio I could adapt or at least consider. The result gave me a lesson in self and non-self. Hereâs how it began:
Mel Harkrader Pine: A Spiritual Writer's Journey
Mel Harkrader Pine is a seasoned writer, Buddhist practitioner, and spiritual communicator with nearly six decades of experience in clear nonfiction writing. Through his blogs and teachings, he has cultivated a substantial following across the United States and internationally, offering accessible wisdom drawn from his extensive spiritual journey and Buddhist practice.
It was a shock, and it flowed on like that for almost 1,000 words. Granted, all Perplexity knew about me was what it could learn on the internet, and most of that was written byâŠme. If I were more widely known, thereâd be criticisms and negative reviews, but this was how I seemed to Perplexity.
Mission accomplished, as far as the âAbout the Authorâ chapter was concerned. I could use what Perplexity came up with as a start on the ad-copy language I needed. But the shock came from seeing me described that way.
From my perspective, Iâm a guy who gets up in the morning with an aching lower back, stretches to relieve the pain, recites a gatha (Buddhist verse) in his mind, listens to a playlist of mantras, checks his email, does a bit of writing, and then makes coffee. The rest of my day is spent learning, writing, recording, meditating (sometimes on Zoom with others), eating alone or with family members, streaming a video with family members, and perhaps attending an online teaching or retreat.
While Perplexity didnât get anything wrong in that first paragraph, what it described is not the âselfâ I feel like from the inside, and itâs probably not the person my loved ones describe to their new acquaintances.
So, who the hell am I?
Thatâs one of the many ways to understand non-self. The way we perceive ourselves and the ways that others perceive us are countless and subject to change at any moment. Reading myself described by a computer algorithm brought that home to me.
Here are the more traditional ways to understand non-self:
* The self is not a fixed entity but a constantly changing process.
* There is no inherent, independent essence that can be identified as the self.
* What we consider "self" is actually composed of five aggregates (skandhas): form, feeling, perception, mental formations, and consciousness.
* The sense of self arises as a result of causes and conditions. It doesnât exist apart from those.
Maybe we can add a more modern understanding:
* We are not the people our computers think we are.
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Zijn er afleveringen die ontbreken?
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When Dominique Side wrote a series on her Substack, The Softer Gaze, about her recent encounter with cancer and the resulting surgery, I thought that would make a great subject for her second From the Pure Land video interview. An expert on Buddhist philosophy, Dominique is a delight to talk with, as I learned in our first discussion.
I wanted to hear how her decades of Buddhist experience prepared her for illness and other traumas and share some observations on my own. While we were at it, I learned that she has a timely book, A New Way of Seeing, scheduled to come out in August, shortly before the planned September launch of my The New Middle Way. They both aim to help Westerners learn about and benefit from Buddhist teachings. If our books stick to their schedules, youâll have just enough time to read hers before starting mine.
Among the concepts we discussed in the 37-minute video were:
* The need to fully grasp and internalize Buddhist teachings to change one's priorities and approach to suffering, including illness and trauma.
* How it takes years to overcome our ingrained patterns and transcend needless suffering.
* How the understanding of suffering and years of meditating helped Dominique face her cancer diagnosis with equanimity, and without a crippling fear of death.
* The importance of a positive attitude and the need for a holistic approach to healing.
* The failure of medicine to help patients with the long periods needed to recover from illness and trauma.
I hope you find the 37-minute helpful.
From the Pure Land has thousands of readers and subscribers in 40 U.S. states and 24 countries, and the podcast has thousands of listeners in 55 countries.
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In my March 10 interview with Jordan Bates, he mentioned this quotation from Carl Sagan, the brilliant scientist and communicator:
If you wish to make an apple pie from scratch, you must first invent the universe.
Itâs one of the coolest things Iâve ever heard about the interconnectedness of everythingâwhat Buddhism calls dependent origination. I havenât been able to stop thinking about it.
My former teacher, the Vietnamese Zen master Thich Nhat Hanh, often said:
I think the word interbe should be in the dictionary. âTo beâ is to interbe. You cannot just be by yourself alone. You have to interbe with every other thing.
He called the order he founded the Order of Interbeing.
I decided to research other quotations on the subject and share them in this blog post and podcast.
Here are two from Marcus Aurelius (121-180), Roman emperor and Stoic philosopher:
He who sees the present has seen all things.
And:
All things are linked with one another, and this oneness is sacred; there is nothing that is not interconnected with everything else.
From Martin Luther King, Jr.:
We are tied together in the single garment of destiny, caught in an inescapable network of mutuality.
From Japanese Buddhist leader Daisaku Ikeda:
Each form of life supports all others; together, they weave the grand web of life. Thus, there really is no happiness for oneself alone, no suffering that afflicts only others.
I especially like this one from the Indian mystic philosopher Osho, also known as Bhagwan Shree Rajneesh:
No one is superior, no one is inferior, but no one is equal either. People are simply unique, incomparable. You are you, I am I.
Don Miguel Ruiz, a spiritual guide and author, wrote:
When you recover your spiritual nature, you recover the universal laws, the nature that you had before the separation.
Another one I love, from Austrian-Israeli philosopher Martin Buber:
The world is not comprehensible, but it is embraceable: through the embracing of one of its beings.
Finally, I know there are many fake quotes attributed to Albert Einstein, but this one is real. Itâs from a letter he wrote in 1950:
A human being is a part of the whole, called by us âUniverse,â a part limited in time and space. He experiences himself, his thoughts and feelings as something separate from the restâa kind of optical delusion of his consciousness. The striving to free oneself from this delusion is the one issue of true religion. Not to nourish it but to try to overcome it is the way to reach the attainable measure of peace of mind.
To close, hereâs a quote from the Buddha in the Dhammapada as translated by Gil Fronsdal. Itâs not about oneness. Itâs about the value of briefly expressed wisdom:
Better than a thousand meaningless statements Is one meaningful word, Which, having been heard, Brings peace.
***
From the Pure Land has thousands of readers and subscribers in 40 U.S. states and 22 countries, and the podcast has thousands of listeners in 55 countries. Please visit our website at melpine dot substack dot com.
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Since Kenna Day entered my life as my sonâs partner, Iâve enjoyed conversations with her, especially the probing questions she asks and the topics she raises on life, writing, and literature. So, I had the brainstorm of asking her to interview me for a video podcast. She accepted, and we both enjoyed doing it. We hope you enjoy watching or listening to it.
We did have some technical problems. Because I failed to push a button when I should have, the sound of Kennaâs voice had issues until I remembered to push that button. So, after Kennaâs first question, I had to edit out her questions for the first 15 minutes of the interview. Youâll hear her again after that.
We had some video issues, too, so the image freezes once or twice and then permanently at the end.
What did we talk about? Hereâs a summary prepared by a.i. and edited by me:
The conversation primarily focuses on Mel's spiritual journey, particularly his path to Buddhism. Key Points:
* Mel was drawn to Buddhism after experiencing one personal tragedy, his first cousin murdering his parents (Melâs uncle and aunt), and then intensified his spiritual practice after the accidental death of his son Thomas.
* He was initially attracted to Buddhism's emphasis on the present moment. Over time, he deepened his practice, exploring more esoteric and mystical aspects of Buddhism.
* Mel emphasizes uncertainty as a core Buddhist concept. He discusses the importance of "making friends with your mind" and highlights compassion, loving-kindness, and interconnectedness as key principles.
* He believes in personal transformation as a way to create broader societal change.
* Mel is writing a book about Buddhism and his spiritual journey.
* He had stopped all writing for a public audience five or six years ago because he let go of his ego.
* He restarted writing a year ago as a way to manifest bodhicitta (commitment to relieving suffering).
* His book aims to provide guidance for Westerners exploring spiritual paths.
* Personal Background: Born to Jewish immigrant parents shortly after World War II, influenced by family history of holocaust survival, developed early equanimity because of that.
* The interview provides an intimate look at Mel's spiritual evolution, philosophical insights, and motivations for writing his book.
From the Pure Land has thousands of readers and subscribers in 40 U.S. states and 21 countries, and the podcast has thousands of listeners in 55 countries. You can find the website at melpine.substack.com.
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* Whatâs ahead for spirituality in the West?
* What happens to us after we die?
* Is reality real?
* Are stories real?
* What is reality anyway?
* What is Buddhist emptiness?
* What is Direct Heart-Opened Experience?
* Are âmagic mushroomsâ an opening to transcendence?
* Is there a suprapersonal God?
Jordan Bates and I answer those questions and moreâŠ
Just kidding! We donât answer them, but we have fun dancing around them (and more) in this 55-minute video. We hope you have fun watching it.
Jordanâs Substack is Future of Wisdom, and his most recent book is God's Love: Medicine From the Ever Innocent Heart.
And a quick note: Buddhism is non-theistic but not anti-theistic. I donât tend to use the G word, but when others do, I think of it as the interconnectedness of the Buddha's Nature within every being.
Iâve started a thread in Substack Chat on post-religion. Itâs open to all From the Pure Land subscribers.
From the Pure Land has thousands of readers and subscribers in 40 U.S. states and 22 countries, and the podcast has thousands of listeners in 55 countries.
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It was a joy this morning to spend 45 minutes interviewing Tara Mandala Executive Director Cady Allione and Chögé Lisa Erickson about that worldwide organization, which was created by Lama Tsultrim Allione, who traveled to Nepal and India in 1967 hoping to learn to paint mandalas and ended up with that and much more. She was one of the early pioneers in bringing Buddhism to the West.
While Lama Tsultrim is on a solitary retreat, Cady and Lisa spoke with me about Tara Mandala, some of its programs, especially Feeding Your Demons, and its Yana social networking platform, which I find unique and encouraging for Buddhism in the West. Many Buddhist teachers, especially those trained in the East, tend to be cautious about providing space for students to freely share their lives and practices with each other. Oh, and did I mention theyâre mostly men?
If Buddhism is to flourish in the West, it needs more opportunities for students to build communities. Thatâs why I think Yana is a model. Itâs not only for those of us in the West, of course, but thatâs where most of my readers and listeners are.
I could go on about Lama Tsutrim, Tara Mandala, and Yana⊠But Lisa and Cady do a better job than I could hope to, so Iâll stop typing and encourage you to watch or listen to the 45-minute recording. As a prelude or postlude, consider spending six minutes with Lama Tsultrim on the feminine and masculine in Buddhism: https://youtu.be/BdYbSTc7l60
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The essence of my practice is connecting with my pure mind, or my Buddha Nature. Teachers in the Dzogchen and Mahamudra traditions have pointed the way for me. If you are unfamiliar with the terms, thereâs no need to distinguish between these slightly different ways to reach that inherent Buddha Nature. Just find the teacher youâre comfortable with to help guide you.
Machig Labdrön (1055-1149) founded several lineages in the Mahamudra Chöd tradition. Chöd literally means cutting through. As a practice, it refers to cutting through the connection to your demons, especially the ego. Mahamudra refers to the clarity, wisdom, and emptiness of the pure mind, or Buddha Nature.
Machig lived to the age of 93 or 94. The teaching known as her âfinal instructionsâ or âWisdom From an Old Ladyâ expresses, as well as anything else Iâve come across, the mindset and meditation practice that lead one closer to the inherent pure mind. For those whoâd like to listen in meditation to Machigâs words, as translated by Tsem Rinpoche, Iâll read them slowly, leaving periods of silence.
âŠ(M)ind itself has no support, has no object: let it rest in its natural expanse without any fabrication. When the bonds (of negative thoughts) are released, you will be free, there is no doubt. As when gazing into space, all other visual objects disappear, so it is for mind itself. When mind is looking at mind, all discursive thoughts cease and enlightenment is attained. As in the sky all clouds disappear into sky itself: wherever they go, they go nowhere, wherever they are, they are nowhere. This is the same for thoughts in the mind: when the mind looks at mind, the waves of conceptual thought disappear. This body of ours is impermanent, like a feather on a high mountain pass. This mind of ours is empty and clear like the depth of space. Relax in that natural state, free of fabrication. When mind is without any support, that is mahamudra. Becoming familiar with this, blending your mind with it â that is buddhahood. Supreme view is beyond all duality of subject and object. Supreme meditation is without distraction. Supreme activity is action without effort. Supreme fruition is without hope and fear. This old lady has no instructions more profound than this to give you.
May we all find our place of rest in the nature of mind.
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My flow of blog posts has slowed because Iâve been finalizing my book proposal. Iâll have it ready for my chosen publisher by Wednesday. To keep my subscribers and podcast listeners supplied with a steady flow of my words of wisdom, Iâm making todayâs release of a draft book chunk free to all.
My experience in the writing, editing, and publishing universe confirms my belief in impermanence. Everything I plan and write now is tentative. Itâs a long way from final (if anything ever is). Todayâs release is for a book section where Iâll tell my personal spiritual story. Some of the content has appeared in previous From the Pure Land posts.
The From the Pure Land blog has thousands of readers and subscribers in 40 U.S. states and 18 countries, and the podcast has thousands of listeners in 55 countries.
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I had the pleasure today of interviewing Beth Korczynski, director of philanthropy for Tergar International, Yongey Mingyur Rinpocheâs worldwide organization. Tergarâs reach extends worldwide, so itâs accessible to almost anyone at any level of experience in meditation and spiritual practice.
Beth and I discussed:
* Tergarâs culture of openness and transparency. The ethics of transparency.
* The Anytime Anywhere Meditation program, which can help with meditation for people with any religious background. Tergar trains teachers for the program, and you may be able to find one in your area by using this list.
* The Joy of Living program for a wide range of students and the Path of Liberation for those seeking to continue on a Vajrayana (Tibetan) Buddhist track.
* The book and course A Meditatorâs Guide to Buddhism for those wanting more.
* The character and commitment of Mingyur Rinpoche. His efforts to reduce the suffering of all.
You can watch the 53-minute video and a much shorter one from Mingyur Rinpoche at https://melpine.substack.com/p/the-tergar-bus-will-pick-you-up-anywhere. Or go to my website at melpine.substack.com.
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Maybe impermanence works faster in science than in poetry. I learned recently that the initial singularity model for what led to the Big Bang is already outdated. Who knew? It will take a lot longer, though, for poetry about it to be outdated. A case in point is Marie Howeâs poem Singularity, which I mentioned in a previous post and recite in this podcast.
Meanwhile, modern visionaries are combining philosophy with science, especially quantum physics and artificial intelligence, to grope for models of reality. I find the ideas of physicist Federico Faggin, who designed the first microprocessor, and Bernardo Kastrup, who holds PhDs in philosophy and computer engineering, fascinating and almost congruent with Buddhist teachings.
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What about fully claiming that Buddha within you? So many of us think weâre not yet there; we have more work to do before fully realizing our Buddhahood. We go from teacher to teacher, each telling us we fail to grok it because itâs so easy. Maybe thereâs one more book to read, or another thousand hours of meditation practice will get us there.
Iâm not knocking books and meditation practice. The proverbial God knows Iâve read plenty of books and meditated for many hours, but thereâs no âthereâ to get to. Our Buddhahood is already here. Iâm reminded of this quotation from Zen philosopher D.T. Suzukiâs book An Introduction to Zen Buddhism:
Understanding which does not understand, that is Buddha.
I hesitate to use the phraseâŠ
Fake it to make it.
Itâs not faking if itâs true. Maybe what Iâm suggesting is faking our level of conviction that itâs true. What if we stop waiting for a sudden flash of enlightenment and spend at least part of every day fully realizing Buddhahood?
Imagine how that would change our world. Weâd see a pure land everywhere we look and hear every sound as a mantra.
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Live your life fully. And use every moment, every opportunity, in a way that is beneficial for oneself and for others. If we live every moment the same, in a positive, peaceful, and kind way, then death is also another momentâthe same. So thereâs no difference. âDzogchen Ponlop Rinpoche, as quoted in Andrew Holecekâs book Preparing to Die: Practical Advice and Spiritual Wisdom from the Tibetan Buddhist Tradition.
This From the Pure Land Post can be listened to on a podcast app or RSS feed. It can be read as a blog post or watched as a vidcast on my website, melpine.substack.com. It's a personal account of my evolution over the past year, the origin of From the Pure Land, and plans for the coming year, including a book project.
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Be careful.
The moment you start talking you create a verbal universe, a universe of words, ideas, concepts and abstractions, interwoven and interdependent, most wonderfully generating, supporting and explaining each other, and yet all without essence or substance, mere creations of the mind.
Words create words, reality is silent.
â Nisargadatta Maharaj
Billions and billions of words have been spoken and written to help guide people toward a state that canât be described in wordsâenlightenment. Billions and billions of words have been spoken and written about upÄdÄnaâthe Pali and Sanskrit word for the clinging and grasping that divert people from reaching enlightenment.
Getting lost in all those words is a prime example of upÄdÄna. Thatâs true wherever we live and whatever our ethnicity, but for those of European ancestry who live in the West, we love our words and either/or logic. We want answers, not questions. We want the truth to be either this or that.
One prayer used in Vajrayana Buddhist practice expresses an aspiration to âprecisely determineâ the meaning of the teachings we practice. Another aspires for âconfusion itself [to dawn] as primordial awareness.â By not choosing between the two, by accepting both aspirations, we gain experientialânot conceptualâlearning and wisdom.
If that last sentence leaves you scratching your head, youâre not alone. It took me more than three decades of meditation and guidance from inspired teachers to begin to gain experiential wisdom. As one of my teachers, Lama Surya Das, has said:
The scarcest human resource is wisdom.
I began writing this post with a different destination in mind, but I realize now that fewer words are better, and this is a good time to begin a period of meditation. So, Iâve turned this into a podcast with guided meditation and periods of silence. In the broadcast industry, they call that dead air, but silence has a beautiful life.
So, please find a comfortable, quiet spot and relax in whatever position you prefer for meditation.
You might close your eyes and find your pure awareness. In a moment, Iâll ring the bell of mindfulness three times. See if you can listen each time from that place of pure awareness, listening until the sound fades...
-----
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Often, in Buddhist texts, the âeight worldly concernsâ make their appearance. This verse, for example, is part of my daily practice:
I will learn to keep all these practices Untainted by thoughts of the eight worldly concerns. May I recognize all things as like illusions, And, without attachment, gain freedom from bondage.
What are the concerns that taint daily life? The Buddha lists them in Lokavipatti Sutta. As translated by áčŹhÄnissaro Bhikkhu, the sutta begins:
Monks, these eight worldly conditions spin after the world, and the world spins after these eight worldly conditions. Which eight? Gain, loss, status, disgrace, censure, praise, pleasure, & pain. These are the eight worldly conditions that spin after the world, and the world spins after these eight worldly conditions.
That passage never struck me as profound until I saw the âconcernsâ translated as âwinds.â Yes, most of us bend to the winds of:
Gain/loss,
status/disgrace,
censure/praise,
pleasure/pain.
With all eight winds, the compass heading is between attachment and aversion to avoid being blown off the path. Walk the path of equanimity.
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We have to learn the art of stoppingâstopping our thinking, our habit energies, our forgetfulness, the strong emotions that rule us. âThich Nhat Hanh (1926-2022)
Thatâs a good subject to talk with your chiropractor about when youâre lying facedown on her adjustment table in an office adjoining a shopping complex as the December holidays approachâthe art of stopping. Itâs what happened to me yesterday.
I had already decided that, because of the hectic season, my next podcast would be a guided meditation listeners could use whenever they find themselves busily bee-ing and forgetting to simply be. Then Doc Misty said she had been thinking about the importance of stopping and found it hard to build even ten minutes a day into her busy schedule for meditation.
So, Iâll have her and people like her in mind as I lead this. I hope itâs useful for those newer to meditation and the more experienced listeners to From the Pure Land.
Before we begin, Iâll say a few words about Thay. Thatâs what his students call the venerable Buddhist monk Thich Nhat Hanh, who died in 2022 at the age of 95. Thatâs the Vietnamese word for âteacher.â It was my privilege to consider Thay my primary teacher for almost three decades and to have attended numerous in-person events with him, including a weeklong retreat in the mountains of Vermont.
If youâre unfamiliar with Thich Nhat Hanh, consider reading his classic book The Miracle of Mindfulness or anorther favorite of mine, Living Buddha, Living Christ.
That retreat in Vermont was held at the Ascutney Mountain Resort in the skiing off-season. The retreat organizers rented the place and hired a local catering firm to supply vegetarian meals. The caterers were given one unusual instruction. At every meal, the bell of mindfulness would be rung once or twice.
Thayâs students know what the sound of the bell means. When they hear it, they are asked to stop whatever they are doing (as long as they can do so safely), listen to the beautiful sound as it fades, focus on their breathing, and return fully to their âtrue home.â So the catering servers and kitchen staff were asked to do the same. At each meal, as the bell sounded, they would stop along with the rest of us. Sometimes, theyâd stop in midstride holding a tray of food or empty plates.
At the retreatâs final meal, as we thanked the catering employees, they told us how much they enjoyed this new practice of stopping. So, I invite you now to find a comfortable, quiet spot to stop and breathe when you hear the sound of the bell. You might think:
Listen. Listen. This beautiful sound brings me back to my true home.
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Many of us have mixed emotions about special daysâthose days designated for us all to feel and act in a certain way. The goal of From the Pure Land is to spur and encourage you on whatever path feels right for you. In that spirit, to explore aspects of generosity, I thought Iâd present the ideas of Australian moral philosopher Peter Singer from a pro and con standpointâfood for thought on Giving Tuesday Eve.
You may be familiar with Singer because of his best-known book and his website, both called The Life You Can Save. The website is particularly useful because it helps identify what, according to Singerâs criteria, are the worldâs most effective charities.
It was around ten years ago when Singerâs website helped me choose GiveDirectly as a regular recipient for my charitable spending, which continues to this day. Its mind-bogglingly simple philosophy is that the lowest overhead and highest effectiveness can be obtained by simply giving poor people money and following up on effectiveness. I highly recommend it and encourage you to check it out.
Singer has made significant contributions to the field of ethics, particularly in the areas of animal rights, effective altruism, and utilitarianism. His work has sparked both admiration and controversy. Hereâs how Jack Maden, Founder and Director of Philosophy Break, sums up the questions raised by the thought experiment Singer often uses:
"Whose responsibility is it to improve society? Do we each have a moral duty to help those we donât know? And, if so, how far does that duty go?"
The thought experiment in brief:
Your walk to work takes you past a knee-deep pond, and on this day, you see a toddler splashing in it. Then you realize her arms are flailing, and sheâs in danger of drowning. You see no one else around. The child must have wandered there on her own. You know you can easily wade in and save the toddler, but then your new shoes would be ruined, your suit would need cleaning, and the aftermath would make you late for work. What should you do?
The answer, in this case, is obvious. But then, Maden explains:
"Having established this, Singer then asks us to consider the fact that, actually, there are children dying of preventable causes around the world every single day.
"In poverty-stricken areas of the globe, for instance, children lack access to life-saving medicines or vaccinations that cost just tens of dollars to administer.
"If weâre willing to sacrifice our clothes to save the life of a child drowning in front of us, then surely weâd be willing to sacrifice a few spare dollars to save children elsewhere from preventable deaths.
"The question Singer then puts to us is: well, why donât we? Why arenât we all routinely giving as much as we can to help save childrenâs lives?"
Overall, Singerâs utilitarian philosophy would guide our actions and our spending toward increasing happiness and reducing suffering for all beings worldwide. It makes no difference to Singer whether the child in danger of dying is about to drown in a pond in your neighborhood or about to starve to death on the other side of the globe. And, for Singer, âall beingsâ definitely includes animals. Singerâs views make sense from a Buddhist perspective, but then thereâs that non-Buddhist aphorism about the Devil (Mara?) being in the details.
Singer, for example, finds euthanasia permissible in some circumstances for severely disabled infants. Moreover, some critics find flaws in applying Singerâs ethics in everyday life.
In a Philosophy Now article titled Peter Singer Says You Are a Bad Person, Howard Darmstadter, an adjunct professor of philosophy and law, says:
"Singerâs ethical theory has become controversial because it has led him to views on abortion and euthanasia that many find abhorrent. However, for most of us, issues about abortion and euthanasia seldom arise, whereas eating and spending are daily events. But even in areas involving animals or charitable giving, Singerâs principles have awkward consequences. Consider: if all pleasure or suffering counts equally, then (as his argument goes), the pleasure or suffering of your own children should have no special place in your calculations. So if you live in Ohio and are deciding whether to spend $200,000 to send your daughter east to Princeton for four years, or instead spend $80,000 to send her down the road to Ohio State, while giving the other $120,000 to save the lives of hundreds of African childrenâwell, Hello, Columbus (Ohio)! (The Life You Can Save, p.138)"
Hereâs another quotation from Darmstadter:
"Finally, that child in the pool. Everyone knows what you should do. But suppose that later that day you encounter a second drowning child. Again, we would want you to take the plunge. But a third? A fiftieth? Suppose you encountered a hundred such children every day. Perhaps at some point youâll think âWhy does this all fall on me?â and walk on by, pretending you donât hear the childâs screams. Or perhaps youâll just spend more time away from pools."
Darmstadterâs point is that our feelings about one drowning child we can save canât be compared with our attitude toward all children in mortal peril.
My views loosely align with those of Peter Singer. The goal of what I do is to reduce overall suffering, but I tread a Middle Way between all beings and the beings I know and love. I feel loving-kindness for all beings but do sometimes give priority to humans over termites and to my spouse over all women who are recovering from surgery. On the other hand, I encouraged my sons to go to state colleges.
Charitable living is not an either/or state of being. I welcome any thoughts youâd like to share in the comments below or by email to [email protected].
Blog at melpine.substack.com
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I find it curious that every year, Americans slaughter 50 million turkeys to express their gratitude. âBhante Gunaratana
I chose that quotation not because I believe everyone should abstain from eating turkey but rather to question how we express gratitude. This blog post and podcast are intended to raise questions for contemplation. Answersâif there are such thingsâare up to the individual.
The idea for this post came when I was meditating in one room, and my wife listened to a dharma talk in another. The bits that filtered into my consciousness had to do with gratitudeâof course. It was four days before the U.S. holiday of Thanksgiving.
My inclination, as a contrarian, was to buck the trend. But what could be wrong with gratitude? Countless Buddhist teachers suggest incorporating it into our practice. For one example, in an essay by teacher Jonathan Borella about making mindful gratitude part of oneâs daily practice, he writes:
Evolutionary psychology describes an adaptation called the Zargonic effect, which predisposes the human mind to notice whatâs wrong more easily than what is right. It might have served our ancestors well who had to survive in the wild and build a society from the ground up. But for people like us who have time and space and safety to come and sit in meditation together and not have to worry about anything (at least for the moment), an unmindfulness of this habit tends to lead us to worry about things when there is nothing to worry about.
So a mindful practice of cultivating gratitude can help to correct for this habit and bring our mind back to center where there is peace and a more holistic and balanced view of the way things actually are.
Part of my daily practice is reflecting on these words:
Seeing its many wonderful qualities, I rejoice and delight in this human life.
Contemplating those words dailyâas well as other parts of my practiceâhas led me to a state of constant joy and gratitude for my life as it is, warts and all. Itâs my baseline. If one of those warts distracts me from the baseline, I quickly remember that I love it, too. This is known as âone tasteâ in Buddhismâto accept everything that comes oneâs way without trying to separate the wanted from the unwanted.
Hereâs the well-known quote from the Third Chinese Patriarch of Zen:
The Great Way is not difficult for those who have no preferences.
Having no preferences at all is a lot to ask. Instead, consider recognizing that preferences are just that. Theyâre unrelated to the satisfaction you feel or donât feel with your life.
Weâre getting closer now to my grumpiness about gratitudeâor, more accurately, some ways that thankfulness is expressed. I feel gratitude for being alive in human form in the world as I perceive it. Thanks to the Buddha, the dharma, the sangha, and my individual teachers, I maintain a daily practice that reminds me I live in a pure land. Thatâs a lot to be thankful for. Gratitude is an essential part of my being.
If you donât have a practice that is leading or has led you to constant joy and gratitude, consider beginning one with a daily component of cultivating gratitude and appreciation for what is.
Where I suggest caution is gratitude that is intertwined with ego and preferencesâthankfulness for one thing over another. I had a blessed moment yesterday of listening to music played and sung by a group of friends and listened to by others in this circle of friendship. I found myself meditating and contemplating love and friendship. I wasnât thankful for this particular group of friends (as much as I love them) or this particular genre of music (as much as I appreciate it). I was grateful for friendship and how the music drew us together.
As Thanksgiving approaches for those of us in the United States, I suggest caution about feeling and expressing gratitude for Aunt Maryâs apple pie (as opposed to Uncle Charlieâs pumpkin), feeling pride in how many compliments you got for your stuffing or how many compliments you gave to others, rating the quality of the blessing or the eloquence of one toast over another. Be thankful for it all.
Consider refraining from putting your loved ones on the spot to name something theyâre grateful for. The result will be embarrassment for the shy ones and temptations to show off for others.
These may seem like small quibbles, and they are. Consider them goads to evaluate how the small things in life influence your spiritual growth.
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When I launched From the Pure Land as a blog almost six months ago, I was comfortable writing but not public speaking. My mild cognitive impairment (MCI) resulted in too many pauses for me to grasp and say the word I was looking for, and sometimes, the word I spoke was not the one I intended.
As it turned out, the more I exercised my writing neuronic connections, the more the speaking connections improved. I still speak slowly and make mistakes, but I felt ready to start podcasting, which is easy to add to Substack blogging. So I record and release some of the From the Pure Land blog posts as podcasts as well.
My goal in it all is to spread the teachings and practices that have helped me live in a pure land of joy and compassion. The podcasts help me reach more people. They have been listened to in 36 countries, and weâre approaching our first 1,000 downloads. Whatâs especially exciting about that is the opportunity to include some meditations.
The current edition is aimed at the listeners. Itâs a guided meditation on what has been called the Supreme Contemplationâfour thoughts that turn the mind away from worldly concerns and toward spiritual practices, away from suffering and toward peace and loving equanimity. Itâs an important component of Tibetan Buddhism and a key part of my daily practice.
For a fuller discussion of the four thoughts, hereâs a link to a teaching by Alexander Berzin and one to an article called The Supreme Contemplation by Andrew Holecek in the Winter 2013 edition of Tricycle.
The four thoughts are:
* The preciousness of human life.
* Impermanence and death.
* Karma or the way causes and conditions always have a result.
* The way our minds create so much of our suffering.
If youâre reading this as a blog post, consider clicking the arrow above and joining me and the podcast listeners in a meditation. You can also click on the tab that says âTranscript.â
From the Pure Land has thousands of readers and hundreds of subscribers in 32 U.S. states and 14 countries. The podcast has listeners in 36 countries. Consider:
* If you are not already a subscriber, please become one. Free and paid subscribers receive the same content, but subscribing for $5 a month or $50 a year helps support my mission to reduce the worldâs suffering.
* Make a one-time gift of any amount.
* Share this post with a friend.
* Listen and subscribe to the From the Pure Land podcasts via your favorite app or by clicking here.
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Just as the ocean has a gradual shelf, a gradual slope, a gradual inclination, with a sudden drop-off only after a long stretch; in the same way this Dhamma and Vinaya has a gradual training, a gradual performance, a gradual practice, with a penetration to gnosis only after a long stretch. âFrom the Uposatha Sutta translated by Thanissaro Bhikkhu
The quotation above will serve as the entry point for our second From the Pure Land Back to Basics post. The first one also came after a period when I had wandered into political and social issues.
Returning to the quote, the translator uses the Pali words dhamma and vinaya. In Sanskrit, dhamma becomes dharma, which we English speakers often use. Letâs focus first on those words.
Dharma has many meanings, but as used here, it refers to the body of teachings from the Buddha. Vinaya, in Pali and Sanskrit, is the set of rules and precepts used by fully ordained monks and nuns, but it can also mean âdiscipline.â In this sutta, the Buddha is addressing his monks, using the ocean as a teaching aid to explain eight âamazing and astounding qualitiesâ common to both the ocean and the journey to gnosis, or enlightenment.
The quotation above is from the first of the eight, emphasizing that the route is gradual. Learning the dharma and diligently practicing as taught is, the Buddha said, an âamazing and astoundingâ process that leads gradually to gnosis. The Buddha is telling his students not to expect quick and sudden enlightenment but rather to enjoy the journey, âwith a sudden drop-off only after a long stretch.â
I spent several years in the 1980s as an avid recreational scuba diver. I had Advanced Open Water and Night Diving certifications and made over 200 dives. I glided over reefs that were 30 or 40 feet deep, sometimes following them to, say, 60-foot depth and eventually to a drop-off of hundreds or thousands of feet. That drop-off is called a wall. Occasionally, Iâd make a single dive alongside a wall to my limit of 120 feet.
Every inch of those dives was âamazing and astounding.â Now, hereâs the thing: The Buddha roamed and lived nowhere near an ocean and probably had never in his earthly life seen one. Scuba gear would not be invented for more than another 2,000 years. Yet he used that perfect analogy.
What I hear the Buddha saying is that the journey itself is beautiful. Many Western students get hung up on the idea of enlightenment as a goal.
Did my meditation this morning get me closer to enlightenment?
My answer to that would be:
Not if thatâs how you think of it.
Meditation and other practices taught in Buddhism are ways of livingâskillful means of lessening the worldâs suffering. They do lead to enlightenmentâgnosisâbut thinking about that as the goal distorts the process.
So, what is meant by the doctrine and discipline?
Hereâs my informal summation of the doctrineâwhat the Buddha taught:
We all have painful episodes in our lives, but we can eliminate the second arrow of suffering by working with our minds to restrain our ego, craving, aversion, fear of the future, and ignorance that blinds us to the interconnectedness of all beings. The Eightfold Path was the Buddhaâs first guide to retraining our minds.
All beings have an innate Buddha Nature that can be manifested by practicing the dharma. Thatâs the eventual gnosis that can be reached âafter a long stretchâ of practice.
Again, informally, hereâs my take on the discipline:
The basic five precepts for laypersons are not to take life, not to take what is not offered, not to indulge in sex or other sensual pleasures in a way that causes harm to oneself or others, not to lie or gossip, and not to indulge in intoxicants that cloud the mind. These precepts are guides, not absolutes.
Beyond these, I like to refer to the PÄramitÄs or Perfections. These vary in number and terminology, but in essence, they are generosity, ethical conduct, patient forbearance, joyful effort, renunciation of worldly distractions, nondual wisdom, loving kindness (goodwill), and equanimity.
The role of meditation or contemplation is woven throughout the doctrine and discipline. Thatâs because the path is an experiential one that depends on more than words and concepts. It must be lived. Iâm reminded again of scuba diving. Gliding underwater in scuba gear, one can hear nothing but the sound of the air coming from the tanks and going out the regulator. There are no words, just the bliss of being in a joyful pure land.
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