Selected readings from the January 2011 retreat and Victor’s dharma talk on the two truths doctrine.
Link to readings.
...only in deep absorption can the mind, grown pure and silent, merge with the formless truth.
Third Mundaka Upanishad, Chapter I
Join guest Dharma Teacher Barbara Casey, Oregon and resident Dharma Teachers Larry Ward and Peggy Rowe Ward for a memorable day of practice!
Saturday, May 28, 2011
9:00 – 3:00 at 1041 N. College Ave, Claremont
A Mindfulness DAY IN THE TRADITION OF Thich Nhat Hanh
“Our life and death are the same thing. When we realize this fact, we have no fear of death anymore, nor actual difficulty in our life.”
Nirvana.pdf
By Naomi Shihab Nye
Before you know what kindness really is
you must lose things,
feel the future dissolve in a moment
like salt in a weakened broth.
What you held in your hand,
what you counted and carefully saved,
all this must go so you know
how desolate the landscape can be
between the regions of kindness.
How you ride and ride
thinking the bus will never stop,
the passengers eating maize and chicken
will stare out the window forever.Before you learn the tender gravity of kindness,
you must travel where the Indian in a white poncho
lies dead by the side of the road.
You must see how this could be you,
how he too was someone
who journeyed through the night with plans
and the simple breath that kept him alive.Before you know kindness as the deepest thing inside,
you must know sorrow as the other deepest thing.
You must wake up with sorrow.
You must speak to it till your voice
catches the thread of all sorrows
and you see the size of the cloth.Then it is only kindness that makes sense anymore,
only kindness that ties your shoes
and sends you out into the day to mail letters and purchase bread,
only kindness that raises its head
from the crowd of the world to say
It is I you have been looking for,
and then goes with you everywhere
like a shadow or a friend.
A note to introduce Hugo, the unofficial mascot of the Wednesday study group at Mickey’s house. Hugo is a certified Reading Education Assistance Dog, and has a part-time job helping the children at Burbank Elementary School learn to read. It is clear he takes his job very seriously. Here he is staking out the teacher’s spot, “holding the space” for Victor.
If you haven’t already joined the Wednesday dharma study experience, find a week to jump into this practice. Hugo will be there to welcome you.